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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/16327-8.txt b/16327-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..00b2c3b --- /dev/null +++ b/16327-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,17307 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of At Home And Abroad, by Margaret Fuller Ossoli + +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: At Home And Abroad + Or, Things And Thoughts In America and Europe + +Author: Margaret Fuller Ossoli + +Editor: Arthur B. Fuller + +Release Date: July 18, 2005 [EBook #16327] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AT HOME AND ABROAD *** + + + + +Produced by Alison Hadwin and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +AT HOME AND ABROAD; +OR, +THINGS AND THOUGHTS +IN +AMERICA AND EUROPE. + + +BY +MARGARET FULLER OSSOLI, + +Author of "Woman in the Nineteenth Century," "Art, Literature, +and the Drama," "Life without and Life Within," etc. + +Edited by Her Brother, +ARTHUR B. FULLER. + +NEW AND COMPLETE EDITION. + +NEW YORK; +THE TRIBUNE ASSOCIATION. +134 Nassau Street +1869 + +Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, by +ARTHUR B. FULLER, +In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of +Massachusetts. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +There are at least three classes of persons who travel in our own land +and abroad. The first and largest in number consists of those +who, "having eyes, see not, and ears, hear not," anything which is +profitable to be remembered. Crossing lake and ocean, passing over +the broad prairies of the New World or the classic fields of the Old, +though they look on the virgin soil sown thickly with flowers by +the hand of God, or on scenes memorable in man's history, they gaze +heedlessly, and when they return home can but tell us what they ate +and drank, and where slept,--no more; for this and matters of like +import are all for which they have cared in their wanderings. + +Those composing the second class travel more intelligently. They +visit scrupulously all places which are noted either as the homes of +literature, the abodes of Art, or made classic by the pens of ancient +genius. Accurately do they mark the distance of one famed city from +another, the size and general appearance of each; they see as many as +possible of celebrated pictures and works of art, and mark carefully +dimensions, age, and all details concerning them. Men, too, whom the +world regards as great men, whether because of wisdom, poesy, warlike +achievements, or of wealth and station, they seek to take by the +hand and in some degree to know; at least to note their appearance, +demeanor, and mode of life. Writers belonging to this class of +travellers are not to be undervalued; returning home, they can give +much useful information, and tell much which all wish to hear and +know, though, as their narratives are chiefly circumstantial, and +every year circumstances change, such recitals lessen constantly in +value. + +But there is a third class of those who journey, who see indeed the +outward, and observe it well. They, too, seek localities where Art and +Genius dwell, or have painted on canvas or sculptured in marble their +memorials; they become acquainted with the people, both famed and +obscure, of the lands which they visit and in which for a time they +abide; their hearts throb as they stand on places where great deeds +have been done, with whose dust perhaps is mingled the sacred ashes +of men who fell in the warfare for truth and freedom,--a warfare begun +early in the world's history, and not yet ended. But they do much +_more_ than this. There is, though in a different sense from what +ancient Pagans fancied, a genius or guardian spirit of each scene, +each stream and lake and country, and this spirit is ever speaking, +but in a tone which only the attent ear of the noble and gifted +can hear, and in a language which such minds and hearts only can +understand. With vision which needs no miracle to make it prophetic, +they see the destinies which nations are all-unconsciously shaping +for themselves, and note the deep meaning of passing events which only +make others wonder. Beneath the mask of mere externals, their eyes +discern the character of those whom they meet, and, refusing to accept +popular judgment in place of truth, they see often the real relation +which men bear to their race and age, and observe the facts by which +to determine whether such men are great only because of circumstances, +or by the irresistible power of their own minds. When such narrate +their journeyings, we have what is valuable not for a few years only, +but, because of its philosophic and suggestive spirit, what must +always be useful. + +The reader of the following pages, it is believed, will decide that +Margaret Fuller deserves to rank with the latter class of travellers, +while not neglectful of those details which it is well to learn and +remember. + +Twelve years ago she journeyed, in company with several friends, on +the Lakes, and through some of the Western States. Returning, she +published a volume describing this journey, which seems worthy of +republication. It seems so because it rather gives an idea of Western +scenery and character, than enters into guide-book statements which +would be all erroneous now. + +Beside this, it is much a record of thoughts as well as things, and +those thoughts have lost none of their significance now. It gives us +also knowledge of Indian character, and impressions respecting that +much injured and fast vanishing race, which justice to them makes it +desirable should be remembered. The friends of Madame Ossoli will be +glad to make permanent this additional proof of her sympathy with all +the oppressed, no matter whether that oppression find embodiment in +the Indian or the African, the American or the European. + +The second part of the present volume gives my sister's impressions +and observations during her European journey and residence in Italy. +This is done through letters, which originally appeared in the New +York Tribune but have never before been gathered into book form. There +may be a degree of incompleteness, sometimes perhaps inaccuracy, in +these letters, which are inseparable attendants upon letter-writing +during a journey or amid exciting and warlike scenes. None can lament +more than I that their writer lives not to revise them. Some errors, +too, were doubtless made in the original printing of these letters, +owing to her handwriting not being easily read by those who were not +familiar with it, and very probably some such errors may have escaped +my notice in the revision, especially as many emendations must be +conjectural, the original manuscript not now existing. + +There is one fact, however, which gives this part of the volume a high +value. Madame Ossoli was in Rome during the most eventful period of +its modern history. She was almost the only American who remained +there during the Italian Revolution, and the siege of the city. Her +marriage with the Marquis Ossoli, who was Captain of the Civic Guard +and active in the republican councils and army, and her own ardent +love of freedom, and sacrifices for it, brought her into immediate +acquaintance with the leaders in the revolutionary army, and made +her cognizant of their plans, their motives, and their characters. +Unsuccessful for a time as has been that struggle for freedom, it was +yet a noble one, and its true history should be known in this country +and in all lands, that justice may be done to those who sacrificed +much, some even life, in behalf of liberty. Her peculiar fitness to +write the history of this struggle is well expressed by Mr. Greeley, +in his Introduction to one of her volumes recently published.[A] "Of +Italy's last struggle for liberty and light," he says, "she might +not merely say, with the Grattan of Ireland's kindred effort, half a +century earlier, 'I stood by its cradle; I followed its hearse.' +She might fairly claim to have been a portion of its incitement, its +animation, its informing soul. She bore more than a woman's part in +its conflicts and its perils; and the bombs of that ruthless army +which a false and traitorous government impelled against the ramparts +of Republican Rome, could have stilled no voice more eloquent in its +exposures, no heart more lofty in its defiance, of the villany which +so wantonly drowned in blood the hopes, while crushing the dearest +rights, of a people, than those of Margaret Fuller." + +[Footnote A: Introduction to Papers on Literature and Art, p. 8.] + +Inadequate, indeed, are these letters as a memorial and vindication of +that struggle, in comparison with the history which Madame Ossoli had +written, and which perished with her; but well do they deserve to be +preserved, as the record of a clear-minded and true-hearted eyewitness +of, and participator in, this effort to establish a new and better +Roman Republic. In one respect they have an interest higher than +would the history. They were written during the struggle, and show the +fluctuations of hope and despondency-which animated those most deeply +interested. I have thought it right to leave unchanged all expressions +of her opinion and feeling, even when it is evident from the letters +themselves that these were gradually somewhat modified by ensuing +events. Especially did this change occur in regard to the Pope, whom +she at first regarded, in common with all lovers of freedom in this +and other lands, with a hopefulness which was doomed to a cruel +disappointment. She was, however, never for a moment deceived as to +his character. His heart she believed kindly and good; his intellect, +of a low order; his views as to reform, narrow, intending only what is +partial, temporary, and alleviating, never a permanent, vital reform, +which should remove the cause of the ills on account of which his +people groaned. Really to elevate and free Italy, it was necessary to +remove the yoke of ecclesiastical and political thraldom; to do this +formed no part of his plans,--from his very nature he was incapable +of so great a purpose. The expression in her letters of this opinion, +when most people hoped better things, was at first censured, as doing +injustice to Pius IX.; but alas! events proved the impulses of his +heart to be in subjection to the prejudices of his mind, and that mind +to be weaker than even she had deemed it, with views as narrow as she +had feared. + +The third part of this volume contains some letters to friends, which +were never written for the public eye, but are necessary to complete, +as far as can now be done, the narrative of her residence abroad. Some +few of these have already appeared in her "Memoirs," a work I cannot +too warmly recommend to those who would know my sister's character. +Many more of her letters may be there found, equally worthy of +perusal, but not so necessary to complete the history of events in +Italy. + +The fourth part contains the details of that shipwreck which caused +mourning not only in the hearts of her kindred, but of the many +who knew and loved her. These, with some poems commemorative of her +character and eventful death, form a sad but fitting close to a book +which records her European journeyings, and her voyage to a home which +proved to be not in this land, where were waiting warm hearts to bid +her welcome, but one in a land yet freer, better than this, where she +can be no less loved by the angels, by our Saviour, and the Infinite +Father. After the copy for this volume had been sent to the press, +it was found necessary to omit some portions of the work in the +republication, as too much matter had been furnished for a volume of +reasonable size. The Editor made these omissions with much reluctance, +but the desire to bring a record of Madame Ossoli's journeyings within +the compass of one volume outweighed that reluctance. He believes the +omissions have been made in such a way as not materially to diminish +its value, especially as most which has been omitted will find place +in another volume he hopes soon to issue, containing a portion of the +miscellaneous writings of Madame Ossoli. + +All of these omissions that are important occur in the Summer on the +Lakes, it being thought better to omit from a portion of the work +which had previously been before the public in book form. The +episodical nature of that work, too, enabled the Editor to make +omissions without in any way marring its unity. These omissions, when +other than mere verbal ones, consist of extracts from books which she +read in relation to the Indians; an account of and translation from +the Seeress of Prevorst, a German work which had not then, but has +since, been translated into English, and republished in this country; +a few extracts from letters and poems sent to her by friends while she +was in the West, one of which poems has been since published elsewhere +by its author; and the story of Marianna, (a great portion of which +may be found in my sister's "Memoirs,") and also Lines to Edith, a +short poem. Marianna and Lines to Edith will probably be republished +in another volume. From the letters of Madame Ossoli in Parts II. and +III. no omissions have been made other than verbal, or when pertaining +to trifling incidents, having only a temporary interest. Nothing in +any portion of the book recording my sister's own observations or +opinions has been omitted or changed. The reader, too, will notice +that nothing affecting the unity of the narrative is here wanting, the +volume even gaining in that respect by the omission of extracts from +other writers, and of a story and short poem not connected in any +regard with Western life. + +In conclusion, the Editor would express the sincere hope that this +volume may not only be of general interest, but inspire its readers +with an increased love of republican institutions, and an earnest +purpose to seek the removal of every national wrong which hinders +our beloved country from being a perfect example and hearty helper +of other nations in their struggles for liberty. May it do something, +also, to remove misapprehension of the motives, character, and action +of those noble patriots of Italy, who strove, though for a time +vainly, to make their country free, and to deepen the sympathy which +every true American should feel with faithful men everywhere, who by +art are seeking to refine, by philanthropic exertion to elevate, by +the diffusion of truth to enlighten, or by self-sacrifice and earnest +effort to free, their fellow-men. + +A.B.F. + +Boston, March 1, 1856. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + PART I. + SUMMER ON THE LAKES 1 + + + PART II. + THINGS AND THOUGHTS IN EUROPE 117 + + + PART III. + LETTERS FROM ABROAD TO FRIENDS AT HOME 423 + + + PART IV. + HOMEWARD VOYAGE, AND MEMORIALS 441 + + + + +PART I + +SUMMER ON THE LAKES. + + Summer days of busy leisure, + Long summer days of dear-bought pleasure, + You have done your teaching well; + Had the scholar means to tell + How grew the vine of bitter-sweet, + What made the path for truant feet, + Winter nights would quickly pass, + Gazing on the magic glass + O'er which the new-world shadows pass. + But, in fault of wizard spell, + Moderns their tale can only tell + In dull words, with a poor reed + Breaking at each time of need. + Yet those to whom a hint suffices + Mottoes find for all devices, + See the knights behind their shields, + Through dried grasses, blooming fields. + + * * * * * + + Some dried grass-tufts from the wide flowery field, + A muscle-shell from the lone fairy shore, + Some antlers from tall woods which never more + To the wild deer a safe retreat can yield, + An eagle's feather which adorned a Brave, + Well-nigh the last of his despairing band,-- + For such slight gifts wilt thou extend thy hand + When weary hours a brief refreshment crave? + I give you what I can, not what I would + If my small drinking-cup would hold a flood, + As Scandinavia sung those must contain + With which, the giants gods may entertain; + In our dwarf day we drain few drops, and soon must thirst again. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +NIAGARA. + + +Niagara, June 10, 1843. + +Since you are to share with me such foot-notes as may be made on the +pages of my life during this summer's wanderings, I should not be +quite silent as to this magnificent prologue to the, as yet, unknown +drama. Yet I, like others, have little to say, where the spectacle is, +for once, great enough to fill the whole life, and supersede thought, +giving us only its own presence. "It is good to be here," is the best, +as the simplest, expression that occurs to the mind. + +We have been here eight days, and I am quite willing to go away. So +great a sight soon satisfies, making us content with itself, and with +what is less than itself. Our desires, once realized, haunt us again +less readily. Having "lived one day," we would depart, and become +worthy to live another. + +We have not been fortunate in weather, for there cannot be too much, +or too warm sunlight for this scene, and the skies have been lowering, +with cold, unkind winds. My nerves, too much braced up by such an +atmosphere, do not well bear the continual stress of sight and sound. +For here there is no escape from the weight of a perpetual creation; +all other forms and motions come and go, the tide rises and recedes, +the wind, at its mightiest, moves in gales and gusts, but here is +really an incessant, an indefatigable motion. Awake or asleep, there +is no escape, still this rushing round you and through you. It is +in this way I have most felt the grandeur,--somewhat eternal, if not +infinite. + +At times a secondary music rises; the cataract seems to seize its own +rhythm and sing it over again, so that the ear and soul are roused by +a double vibration. This is some effect of the wind, causing echoes +to the thundering anthem. It is very sublime, giving the effect of a +spiritual repetition through all the spheres. + +When I first came, I felt nothing but a quiet satisfaction. I found +that drawings, the panorama, &c. had given me a clear notion of the +position and proportions of all objects here; I knew where to look for +everything, and everything looked as I thought it would. + +Long ago, I was looking from a hill-side with a friend at one of +the finest sunsets that ever enriched, this world. A little cowboy, +trudging along, wondered what we could be gazing at. After spying +about some time, he found it could only be the sunset, and looking, +too, a moment, he said approvingly, "That sun looks well enough"; a +speech worthy of Shakespeare's Cloten, or the infant Mercury, up to +everything from the cradle, as you please to take it. + +Even such a familiarity, worthy of Jonathan, our national hero, in +a prince's palace, or "stumping," as he boasts to have done, "up the +Vatican stairs, into the Pope's presence, in my old boots," I felt +here; it looks really _well enough_, I felt, and was inclined, as you +suggested, to give my approbation as to the one object in the world +that would not disappoint. + +But all great expression, which, on a superficial survey, seems so +easy as well as so simple, furnishes, after a while, to the faithful +observer, its own standard by which to appreciate it. Daily these +proportions widened and towered more and more upon my sight, and I +got, at last, a proper foreground for these sublime distances. Before +coming away, I think I really saw the full wonder of the scene. After +a while it so drew me into itself as to inspire an undefined dread, +such as I never knew before, such as may be felt when death is about +to usher us into a new existence. The perpetual trampling of the +waters seized my senses. I felt that no other sound, however near, +could be heard, and would start and look behind me for a foe. I +realized the identity of that mood of nature in which these waters +were poured down with such absorbing force, with that in which the +Indian was shaped on the same soil. For continually upon my mind came, +unsought and unwelcome, images, such as never haunted it before, of +naked savages stealing behind me with uplifted tomahawks; again and +again this illusion recurred, and even after I had thought it over, +and tried to shake it off, I could not help starting and looking +behind me. + +As picture, the falls can only be seen from the British side. There +they are seen in their veils, and at sufficient distance to appreciate +the magical effects of these, and the light and shade. From the boat, +as you cross, the effects and contrasts are more melodramatic. On the +road back from the whirlpool, we saw them as a reduced picture with +delight. But what I liked best was to sit on Table Rock, close to +the great fall. There all power of observing details, all separate +consciousness, was quite lost. + +Once, just as I had seated myself there, a man came to take his first +look. He walked close up to the fall, and, after looking at it a +moment, with an air as if thinking how he could best appropriate it to +his own use, he spat into it. + +This trait seemed wholly worthy of an age whose love of _utility_ is +such that the Prince Puckler Muskau suggests the probability of +men coming to put the bodies of their dead parents in the fields to +fertilize them, and of a country such as Dickens has described; but +these will not, I hope, be seen on the historic page to be truly the +age or truly the America. A little leaven is leavening the whole mass +for other bread. + +The whirlpool I like very much. It is seen to advantage after the +great falls; it is so sternly solemn. The river cannot look more +imperturbable, almost sullen in its marble green, than it does just +below the great fall; but the slight circles that mark the hidden +vortex seem to whisper mysteries the thundering voice above could not +proclaim,--a meaning as untold as ever. + +It is fearful, too, to know, as you look, that whatever has been +swallowed by the cataract is like to rise suddenly to light here, +whether uprooted tree, or body of man or bird. + +The rapids enchanted me far beyond what I expected; they are so swift +that they cease to seem so; you can think only of their beauty. The +fountain beyond the Moss Islands I discovered for myself, and thought +it for some time an accidental beauty which it would not do to +leave, lest I might never see it again. After I found it permanent, +I returned many times to watch the play of its crest. In the little +waterfall beyond, Nature seems, as she often does, to have made a +study for some larger design. She delights in this,--a sketch within +a sketch, a dream within a dream. Wherever we see it, the lines of +the great buttress in the fragment of stone, the hues of the +waterfall copied in the flowers that star its bordering mosses, we +are delighted; for all the lineaments become fluent, and we mould the +scene in congenial thought with its genius. + +People complain of the buildings at Niagara, and fear to see it +further deformed. I cannot sympathize with such an apprehension: the +spectacle is capable of swallowing up all such objects; they are not +seen in the great whole, more than an earthworm in a wide field. + +The beautiful wood on Goat Island is full of flowers; many of the +fairest love to do homage here. The Wake-robin and May-apple are in +bloom now; the former, white, pink, green, purple, copying the rainbow +of the fall, and fit to make a garland for its presiding deity when he +walks the land, for they are of imperial size, and shaped like stones +for a diadem. Of the May-apple, I did not raise one green tent without +finding a flower beneath. + +And now farewell. Niagara. I have seen thee, and I think all who come +here must in some sort see thee; thou art not to be got rid of as +easily as the stars. I will be here again beneath some flooding July +moon and sun. Owing to the absence of light, I have seen the rainbow +only two or three times by day; the lunar bow not at all. However, the +imperial presence needs not its crown, though illustrated by it. + +General Porter and Jack Downing were not unsuitable figures here. The +former heroically planted the bridges by which we cross to Goat Island +and the Wake-robin-crowned genius has punished his temerity with +deafness, which must, I think, have come upon him when he sunk the +first stone in the rapids. Jack seemed an acute and entertaining +representative of Jonathan, come to look at his great water-privilege. +He told us all about the Americanisms of the spectacle; that is to +say, the battles that have been fought here. It seems strange that +men could fight in such a place; but no temple can still the personal +griefs and strifes in the breasts of its visitors. + +No less strange is the fact that, in this neighborhood, an eagle +should be chained for a plaything. When a child, I used often to stand +at a window from which I could see an eagle chained in the balcony of +a museum. The people used to poke at it with sticks, and my childish +heart would swell with indignation as I saw their insults, and the +mien with which they were borne by the monarch-bird. Its eye was dull, +and its plumage soiled and shabby, yet, in its form and attitude, +all the king was visible, though sorrowful and dethroned. I never +saw another of the family till, when passing through the Notch of the +White Mountains, at that moment glowing before us in all the panoply +of sunset, the driver shouted, "Look there!" and following with our +eyes his upward-pointing finger, we saw, soaring slow in majestic +poise above the highest summit, the bird of Jove. It was a glorious +sight, yet I know not that I felt more on seeing the bird in all its +natural freedom and royalty, than when, imprisoned and insulted, +he had filled my early thoughts with the Byronic "silent rages" of +misanthropy. + +Now, again, I saw him a captive, and addressed by the vulgar with the +language they seem to find most appropriate to such occasions,--that +of thrusts and blows. Silently, his head averted, he ignored their +existence, as Plotinus or Sophocles might that of a modern reviewer. +Probably he listened to the voice of the cataract, and felt that +congenial powers flowed free, and was consoled, though his own wing +was broken. + +The story of the Recluse of Niagara interested me a little. It is +wonderful that men do not oftener attach their lives to localities +of great beauty,--that, when once deeply penetrated, they will let +themselves so easily be borne away by the general stream of things, +to live anywhere and anyhow. But there is something ludicrous in being +the hermit of a show-place, unlike St. Francis in his mountain-bed, +where none but the stars and rising sun ever saw him. + +There is also a "guide to the falls," who wears his title labelled on +his hat; otherwise, indeed, one might as soon think of asking for a +gentleman usher to point out the moon. Yet why should we wonder at +such, when we have Commentaries on Shakespeare, and Harmonies of the +Gospels? + +And now you have the little all I have to write. Can it interest you? +To one who has enjoyed the full life of any scene, of any hour, what +thoughts can be recorded about it seem like the commas and semicolons +in the paragraph,--mere stops. Yet I suppose it is not so to the +absent. At least, I have read things written about Niagara, music, and +the like, that interested _me_. Once I was moved by Mr. Greenwood's +remark, that he could not realize this marvel till, opening his eyes +the next morning after he had seen it, his doubt as to the possibility +of its being still there taught him what he had experienced. I +remember this now with pleasure, though, or because, it is exactly the +opposite to what I myself felt. For all greatness affects different +minds, each in "its own particular kind," and the variations of +testimony mark the truth of feeling.[A] + +[Footnote A: "Somewhat avails, in one regard, the mere sight of beauty +without the union of feeling therewith. Carried away in memory, it +hangs there in the lonely hall as a picture, and may some time do its +message. I trust it may be so in my case, for I _saw_ every object far +more clearly than if I had been moved and filled with the presence, +and my recollections are equally distinct and vivid." Extracted from +Manuscript Notes of this Journey left by Margaret Fuller.--ED.] + +I will here add a brief narrative of the experience of another, as +being much better than anything I could write, because more simple and +individual. + +"Now that I have left this 'Earth-wonder,' and the emotions it +excited are past, it seems not so much like profanation to analyze +my feelings, to recall minutely and accurately the effect of this +manifestation of the Eternal. But one should go to such a scene +prepared to yield entirely to its influences, to forget one's little +self and one's little mind. To see a miserable worm creep to the brink +of this falling world of waters, and watch the trembling of its +own petty bosom, and fancy that this is made alone to act upon him +excites--derision? No,--pity." + +As I rode up to the neighborhood of the falls, a solemn awe +imperceptibly stole over me, and the deep sound of the ever-hurrying +rapids prepared my mind for the lofty emotions to be experienced. When +I reached the hotel, I felt a strange indifference about seeing the +aspiration of my life's hopes. I lounged about the rooms, read the +stage-bills upon the walls, looked over the register, and, finding the +name of an acquaintance, sent to see if he was still there. What this +hesitation arose from, I know not; perhaps it was a feeling of my +unworthiness to enter this temple which nature has erected to its God. + +At last, slowly and thoughtfully I walked down to the bridge leading +to Goat Island, and when I stood upon this frail support, and saw +a quarter of a mile of tumbling, rushing rapids, and heard their +everlasting roar, my emotions overpowered me, a choking sensation rose +to my throat, a thrill rushed through my veins, "my blood ran rippling +to my fingers' ends." This was the climax of the effect which the +falls produced upon me,--neither the American nor the British fall +moved me as did these rapids. For the magnificence, the sublimity of +the latter, I was prepared by descriptions and by paintings. When I +arrived in sight of them I merely felt, "Ah, yes! here is the fall, +just as I have seen it in a picture." When I arrived at the Terrapin +Bridge, I expected to be overwhelmed, to retire trembling from this +giddy eminence, and gaze with unlimited wonder and awe upon the +immense mass rolling on and on; but, somehow or other, I thought only +of comparing the effect on my mind with what I had read and heard. +I looked for a short time, and then, with almost a feeling of +disappointment, turned to go to the other points of view, to see if I +was not mistaken in not feeling any surpassing emotion at this sight. +But from the foot of Biddle's Stairs, and the middle of the river, and +from below the Table Rock, it was still "barren, barren all." + +Provoked with my stupidity in feeling most moved in the wrong place, +I turned away to the hotel, determined to set off for Buffalo that +afternoon. But the stage did not go, and, after nightfall, as there +was a splendid moon, I went down to the bridge, and leaned over the +parapet, where the boiling rapids came down in their might. It was +grand, and it was also gorgeous; the yellow rays of the moon made +the broken waves appear like auburn tresses twining around the black +rocks. But they did not inspire me as before. I felt a foreboding of a +mightier emotion to rise up and swallow all others, and I passed on to +the Terrapin Bridge. Everything was changed, the misty apparition had +taken off its many-colored crown which it had worn by day, and a bow +of silvery white spanned its summit. The moonlight gave a poetical +indefiniteness to the distant parts of the waters, and while the +rapids were glancing in her beams, the river below the falls was black +as night, save where the reflection of the sky gave it the appearance +of a shield of blued steel. No gaping tourists loitered, eyeing with +their glasses, or sketching on cards the hoary locks of the ancient +river-god. All tended to harmonize with the natural grandeur of the +scene. I gazed long. I saw how here mutability and unchangeableness +were united. I surveyed the conspiring waters rushing against the +rocky ledge to overthrow it at one mad plunge, till, like toppling +ambition, o'er-leaping themselves, they fall on t' other side, +expanding into foam ere they reach the deep channel where they creep +submissively away. + +Then arose in my breast a genuine admiration, and a humble adoration +of the Being who was the architect of this and of all. Happy were the +first discoverers of Niagara, those who could come unawares upon this +view and upon that, whose feelings were entirely their own. With what +gusto does Father Hennepin describe "this great downfall of water," +"this vast and prodigious cadence of water, which falls down after a +surprising and astonishing manner, insomuch that the universe does not +afford its parallel. 'Tis true Italy and Swedeland boast of some such +things, but we may well say that they be sorry patterns when compared +with this of which we do now speak." + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE LAKES.--CHICAGO.--GENEVA.--A THUNDER-STORM.--PAPAW GROVE. + + +SCENE, STEAMBOAT.--_About to leave Buffalo.--Baggage coming on +board.--Passengers bustling for their berths.--Little boys persecuting +everybody with their newspapers and pamphlets.--J., S., and M. huddled +up in a forlorn corner, behind a large trunk.--A heavy rain falling._ + +_M._ Water, water everywhere. After Niagara one would like a dry strip +of existence. And at any rate it is quite enough for me to have it +under foot without having it overhead in this way. + +_J._ Ah, do not abuse the gentle element. It is hardly possible to +have too much of it, and indeed, if I were obliged to choose amid the +four, it would be the one in which I could bear confinement best. + +_S._ You would make a pretty Undine, to be sure! + +_J._ Nay. I only offered myself as a Triton, a boisterous Triton of +the sounding shell. You, M., I suppose, would be a salamander, rather. + +_M._ No! that is too equivocal a position, whether in modern +mythology, or Hoffman's tales. I should choose to be a gnome. + +_J._ That choice savors of the pride that apes humility. + +_M._ By no means; the gnomes are the most important of all the +elemental tribes. Is it not they who make the money? + +_J._ And are accordingly a dark, mean, scoffing ---- + +_M._ You talk as if you had always lived in that wild, unprofitable +element you are so fond of, where all things glitter, and nothing is +gold; all show and no substance. My people work in the secret, and +their works praise them in the open light; they remain in the dark +because only there such marvels could be bred. You call them mean. +They do not spend their energies on their own growth, or their own +play, but to feed the veins of Mother Earth with permanent splendors, +very different from what she shows on the surface. + +Think of passing a life, not merely in heaping together, but _making_ +gold. Of all dreams, that of the alchemist is the most poetical, for +he looked at the finest symbol. "Gold," says one of our friends, "is +the hidden light of the earth, it crowns the mineral, as wine the +vegetable order, being the last expression of vital energy." + +_J._ Have you paid for your passage? + +_J._ Yes! and in gold, not in shells or pebbles. + +_J._ No really wise gnome would scoff at the water, the beautiful +water. "The spirit of man is like the water." + +_S._ And like the air and fire, no less. + +_J._ Yes, but not like the earth, this low-minded creature's chosen, +dwelling. + +_M._ The earth is spirit made fruitful,--life. And its heartbeats are +told in gold and wine. + +_J._ Oh! it is shocking to hear such sentiments in these times. I +thought that Bacchic energy of yours was long since repressed. + +_M._ No! I have only learned to mix water with my wine, and stamp upon +my gold the heads of kings, or the hieroglyphics of worship. But since +I have learnt to mix with water, let's hear what you have to say in +praise of your favorite. + +_J._ From water Venus was born, what more would you have? It is the +mother of Beauty, the girdle of earth, and the marriage of nations. + +_S._ Without any of that high-flown poetry, it is enough, I think, +that it is the great artist, turning all objects that approach it to +picture. + +_J._ True, no object that touches it, whether it be the cart that +ploughs the wave for sea-weed, or the boat or plank that rides upon +it, but is brought at once from the demesne of coarse utilities into +that of picture. All trades, all callings, become picturesque by the +water's side, or on the water. The soil, the slovenliness, is washed +out of every calling by its touch. All river-crafts, sea-crafts, are +picturesque, are poetical. Their very slang is poetry. + +_M._ The reasons for that are complex. + +_J._ The reason is, that there can be no plodding, groping words and +motions on my water as there are on your earth. There is no time, +no chance for them where all moves so rapidly, though so smoothly; +everything connected with water must be like itself, forcible, but +clear. That is why sea-slang is so poetical; there is a word for +everything and every act, and a thing and an act for every word. +Seamen must speak quick and bold, but also with utmost precision. +They cannot reef and brace other than in a Homeric dialect,-- +therefore--(Steamboat bell rings.) But I must say a quick good-by. + +_M._ What, going, going back to earth after all this talk upon the +other side. Well, that is nowise Homeric, but truly modern. + +J. is borne off without time for any reply, but a laugh--at himself, +of course. + +S. and M. retire to their state-rooms to forget the wet, the chill, +and steamboat smell, in their just-bought new world of novels. + +Next day, when we stopped at Cleveland, the storm was just clearing +up; ascending the bluff, we had one of the finest views of the lake +that could have been wished. The varying depths of these lakes give to +their surface a great variety of coloring, and beneath this wild sky +and changeful light, the waters presented a kaleidoscopic variety +of hues, rich, but mournful. I admire these bluffs of red, crumbling +earth. Here land and water meet under very different auspices from +those of the rock-bound coast to which I have been accustomed. There +they meet tenderly to challenge, and proudly to refuse, though, not in +fact repel. But here they meet to mingle, are always rushing together, +and changing places; a new creation takes place beneath the eye. + +The weather grew gradually clearer, but not bright; yet we could see +the shore and appreciate the extent of these noble waters. + +Coming up the river St. Clair, we saw Indians for the first time. +They were camped out on the bank. It was twilight, and their blanketed +forms, in listless groups or stealing along the bank, with a lounge +and a stride so different in its wildness from the rudeness of the +white settler, gave me the first feeling that I really approached the +West. + +The people on the boat were almost all New-Englanders, seeking their +fortunes. They had brought with them their habits of calculation, +their cautious manners, their love of polemics. It grieved me to hear +these immigrants, who were to be the fathers of a new race, all, from +the old man down to the little girl, talking, not of what they should +do, but of what they should get in the new scene. It was to them a +prospect, not of the unfolding nobler energies, but of more ease and +larger accumulation. It wearied me, too, to hear Trinity and Unity +discussed in the poor, narrow, doctrinal way on these free waters; but +that will soon cease; there is not time for this clash of opinions in +the West, where the clash of material interests is so noisy. They will +need the spirit of religion more than ever to guide them, but will +find less time than before for its doctrine. This change was to me, +who am tired of the war of words on these subjects, and believe it +only sows the wind to reap the whirlwind, refreshing, but I argue +nothing from it; there is nothing real in the freedom of thought at +the West,--it is from the position of men's lives, not the state +of their minds. So soon as they have time, unless they grow better +meanwhile, they will cavil and criticise, and judge other men by their +own standard, and outrage the law of love every way, just as they do +with us. + +We reached Mackinaw the evening of the third day, but, to my great +disappointment, it was too late and too rainy to go ashore. The beauty +of the island, though seen under the most unfavorable circumstances, +did not disappoint my expectations.[A] But I shall see it to more +purpose on my return. + +[Footnote A: "Mackinaw, that long desired, sight, was dimly discerned +under a thick fog, yet it soothed and cheered me. All looked mellow +there; man seemed to have worked in harmony with Nature instead of +rudely invading her, as in most Western towns. It seemed possible, on +that spot, to lead a life of serenity and cheerfulness. Some richly +dressed Indians came down to show themselves. Their dresses were of +blue broadcloth, with splendid leggings and knee-ties. On their heads +were crimson scarfs adorned with beads and falling on one shoulder, +their hair long and looking cleanly. Near were one or two wild figures +clad in the common white blankets." Manuscript Notes.--ED.] + +As the day has passed dully, a cold rain preventing us from keeping +out in the air, my thoughts have been dwelling on a story told when we +were off Detroit, this morning, by a fellow-passenger, and whose moral +beauty touched me profoundly. + +"Some years ago," said Mrs. L., "my father and mother stopped to +dine at Detroit. A short time before dinner my father met in the hall +Captain P., a friend of his youthful days. He had loved P. extremely, +as did many who knew him, and had not been surprised to hear of the +distinction and popular esteem which his wide knowledge, talents, and +noble temper commanded, as he went onward in the world. P. was every +way fitted to succeed; his aims were high, but not too high for his +powers, suggested by an instinct of his own capacities, not by an +ideal standard drawn from culture. Though steadfast in his course, it +was not to overrun others; his wise self-possession was no less for +them than himself. He was thoroughly the gentleman, gentle because +manly, and was a striking instance that, where there is strength +for sincere courtesy, there is no need of other adaptation to the +character of others, to make one's way freely and gracefully through +the crowd. + +"My father was delighted to see him, and after a short parley in the +hall, 'We will dine together,' he cried, 'then we shall have time to +tell all our stories.' + +"P. hesitated a moment, then said, 'My wife is with me.' + +"'And mine with me,' said my father; 'that's well; they, too, will +have an opportunity of getting acquainted, and can entertain one +another, if they get tired of our college stories.' + +"P. acquiesced, with a grave bow, and shortly after they all met in +the dining-room. My father was much surprised at the appearance of +Mrs. P. He had heard that his friend married abroad, but nothing +further, and he was not prepared to see the calm, dignified P. with +a woman on his arm, still handsome, indeed, but whose coarse and +imperious expression showed as low habits of mind as her exaggerated +dress and gesture did of education. Nor could there be a greater +contrast to my mother, who, though understanding her claims and place +with the certainty of a lady, was soft and retiring in an uncommon +degree. + +"However, there was no time to wonder or fancy; they sat down, and +P. engaged in conversation, without much vivacity, but with his usual +ease. The first quarter of an hour passed well enough. But soon it was +observable that Mrs. P. was drinking glass after glass of wine, to an +extent few gentlemen did, even then, and soon that she was actually +excited by it. Before this, her manner had been brusque, if not +contemptuous, towards her new acquaintance; now it became, towards +my mother especially, quite rude. Presently she took up some slight +remark made by my mother, which, though, it did not naturally mean +anything of the sort, could be twisted into some reflection upon +England, and made it a handle, first of vulgar sarcasm, and then, upon +my mother's defending herself with some surprise and gentle dignity, +hurled upon her a volley of abuse, beyond Billingsgate. + +"My mother, confounded by scenes and ideas presented to her mind +equally new and painful, sat trembling; she knew not what to do; tears +rushed into her eyes. My father, no less distressed, yet unwilling +to outrage the feelings of his friend by doing or saying what his +indignation prompted, turned an appealing look on P. + +"Never, as he often said, was the painful expression of that sight +effaced from his mind. It haunted his dreams and disturbed his waking +thoughts. P. sat with his head bent forward, and his eyes cast down, +pale, but calm, with a fixed expression, not merely of patient woe, +but of patient shame, which it would not have been thought possible +for that noble countenance to wear. 'Yet,' said my father, 'it became +him. At other times he was handsome, but then beautiful, though of a +beauty saddened and abashed. For a spiritual light borrowed from the +worldly perfection of his mien that illustration by contrast, which +the penitence of the Magdalen does from the glowing earthliness of her +charms.' + +"Seeing that he preserved silence, while Mrs. P. grew still more +exasperated, my father rose and led his wife to her own room. Half +an hour had passed, in painful and wondering surmises, when a gentle +knock was heard at the door, and P. entered equipped for a journey. +'We are just going,' he said, and holding out his hand, but without +looking at them, 'Forgive.' + +"They each took his hand, and silently pressed it; then he went +without a word more. + +"Some time passed, and they heard now and then of P., as he passed +from one army station to another, with his uncongenial companion, +who became, it was said, constantly more degraded. Whoever mentioned +having seen them wondered at the chance which had yoked him to such +a woman, but yet more at the silent fortitude with which he bore it. +Many blamed him for enduring it, apparently without efforts to check +her; others answered that he had probably made such at an earlier +period, and, finding them unavailing, had resigned himself to despair, +and was too delicate to meet the scandal that, with such resistance as +such a woman could offer, must attend a formal separation. + +"But my father, who was not in such haste to come to conclusions, and +substitute some plausible explanation for the truth, found something +in the look of P. at that trying moment to which, none of these +explanations offered a key. There was in it, he felt, a fortitude, +but not the fortitude of the hero; a religious submission, above the +penitent, if not enkindled with the enthusiasm, of the martyr. + +"I have said that my father was not one of those who are ready to +substitute specious explanations for truth, and those who are thus +abstinent rarely lay their hand, on a thread without making it a clew. +Such a man, like the dexterous weaver, lets not one color go till Ire +finds that which matches it in the pattern,--he keeps on weaving, but +chooses his shades; and my father found at last what he wanted to make +out the pattern for himself. He met a lady who had been intimate +with both himself and P. in early days, and, finding she had seen the +latter abroad, asked if she knew the circumstances of the marriage. + +"'The circumstances of the act which sealed the misery of our friend, +I know,' she said, 'though as much in the dark as any one about the +motives that led to it. + +"'We were quite intimate with P. in London, and he was our most +delightful companion. He was then in the full flower of the varied +accomplishments which set off his fine manners and dignified +character, joined, towards those he loved, with a certain soft +willingness which gives the desirable chivalry to a man. None was more +clear of choice where his personal affections were not touched, +but where they were, it cost him pain to say no, on the slightest +occasion. I have thought this must have had some connection with the +mystery of his misfortunes. + +"'One day he called on me, and, without any preface, asked if I +would be present next day at his marriage. I was so surprised, and so +unpleasantly surprised, that I did not at first answer a word. We had +been on terms so familiar, that I thought I knew all about him, yet +had never dreamed of his having an attachment; and, though I had never +inquired on the subject, yet this reserve where perfect openness had +been supposed, and really, on my side, existed, seemed to me a kind of +treachery. Then it is never pleasant to know that a heart on which we +have some claim is to be given to another. We cannot tell how it will +affect our own relations with a person; it may strengthen or it may +swallow up other affections; the crisis is hazardous, and our first +thought, on such an occasion, is too often for ourselves,--at least +mine was. Seeing me silent, he repeated his question. "To whom," said +I, "are you to be married?" "That," he replied, "I cannot tell you." +He was a moment silent, then continued, with an impassive look of cold +self-possession, that affected me with strange sadness: "The name of +the person you will hear, of course, at the time, but more I cannot +tell you. I need, however, the presence, not only of legal, but of +respectable and friendly witnesses. I have hoped you and your husband +would, do me this kindness. Will you?" Something in his manner made it +impossible to refuse. I answered, before I knew I was going to speak, +"We will," and he left me. + +"'I will not weary you with telling how I harassed myself and my +husband, who was, however, scarce less interested, with doubts and +conjectures. Suffice it that, next morning, P. came and took us in a +carriage to a distant church. We had just entered the porch, when a +cart, such as fruit and vegetables are brought to market in, drove +up, containing an elderly woman and a young girl. P. assisted them to +alight, and advanced with the girl to the altar. + +"'The girl was neatly dressed and quite handsome, yet something in her +expression displeased me the moment I looked upon her. Meanwhile, +the ceremony was going on, and, at its close, P. introduced us to the +bride, and we all went to the door. "Good by, Fanny," said the elderly +woman. The new-made Mrs. P. replied without any token of affection or +emotion. The woman got into the cart and drove away. + +"'From that time I saw but little of P. or his wife. I took our mutual +friends to see her, and they were civil to her for his sake. Curiosity +was very much excited, but entirely baffled; no one, of course, dared +speak to P. on the subject, and no other means could be found of +solving the riddle. + +"'He treated his wife with grave and kind politeness, but it was +always obvious that they had nothing in common between them. Her +manners and tastes were not at that time gross, but her character +showed itself hard and material. She was fond of riding, and spent +much time so. Her style in this, and in dress, seemed the opposite of +P.'s; but he indulged all her wishes, while, for himself, he plunged +into his own pursuits. + +"'For a time he seemed, if not happy, not positively unhappy; but, +after a few years, Mrs. P. fell into the habit of drinking, and then +such scenes as you witnessed grew frequent. I have often heard of +them, and always that P. sat, as you describe him, his head bowed down +and perfectly silent all through, whatever might be done or whoever +be present, and always his aspect has inspired such sympathy that no +person has questioned him or resented her insults, but merely got out +of the way as soon as possible.' + +"'Hard and long penance,' said my father, after some minutes musing, +'for an hour of passion, probably for his only error.' + +"'Is that your explanation?' said the lady. 'O, improbable! P. might +err, but not be led beyond himself.' + +"I know that his cool, gray eye and calm complexion seemed to say +so, but a different story is told by the lip that could tremble, and +showed what flashes might pierce those deep blue heavens; and when +these over-intellectual beings do swerve aside, it is to fall down a +precipice, for their narrow path lies over such. But he was not one +to sin without making a brave atonement, and that it had become a holy +one, was written on that downcast brow." + +The fourth day on these waters, the weather was milder and brighter, +so that we could now see them to some purpose. At night the moon was +clear, and, for the first time, from, the upper deck I saw one of the +great steamboats come majestically up. It was glowing with lights, +looking many-eyed and sagacious; in its heavy motion it seemed a +dowager queen, and this motion, with its solemn pulse, and determined +sweep, becomes these smooth waters, especially at night, as much as +the dip of the sail-ship the long billows of the ocean. + +But it was not so soon that I learned to appreciate the lake scenery; +it was only after a daily and careless familiarity that I entered into +its beauty, for Nature always refuses to be seen by being stared at. +Like Bonaparte, she discharges her face of all expression when she +catches the eye of impertinent curiosity fixed on her. But he who has +gone to sleep in childish ease on her lap, or leaned an aching brow +upon her breast, seeking there comfort with full trust as from a +mother, will see all a mother's beauty in the look she bends upon him. +Later, I felt that I had really seen these regions, and shall speak of +them again. + +In the afternoon we went on shore at the Manitou Islands, where the +boat stops to wood. No one lives here except wood-cutters for the +steamboats. I had thought of such a position, from its mixture of +profound solitude with service to the great world, as possessing an +ideal beauty. I think so still, even after seeing the wood-cutters and +their slovenly huts. + +In times of slower growth, man did not enter a situation without a +certain preparation or adaptedness to it. He drew from it, if not to +the poetical extent, at least in some proportion, its moral and its +meaning. The wood-cutter did not cut down so many trees a day, that +the Hamadryads had not time to make their plaints heard; the shepherd +tended his sheep, and did no jobs or chores the while; the idyl had a +chance to grow up, and modulate his oaten pipe. But now the poet +must be at the whole expense of the poetry in describing one of these +positions; the worker is a true Midas to the gold he makes. The poet +must describe, as the painter sketches Irish peasant-girls and Danish +fishwives, adding the beauty, and leaving out the dirt. + +I come to the West prepared for the distaste I must experience at its +mushroom growth. I know that, where "go ahead" is tire only motto, the +village cannot grow into the gentle proportions that successive +lives and the gradations of experience involuntarily give. In older +countries the house of the son grew from that of the father, as +naturally as new joints on a bough, and the cathedral crowned the +whole as naturally as the leafy summit the tree. This cannot be here. +The march of peaceful is scarce less wanton than that of warlike +invasion. The old landmarks are broken down, and the land, for a +season, bears none, except of the rudeness of conquest and the needs +of the day, whose bivouac-fires blacken the sweetest forest glades. I +have come prepared to see all this, to dislike it, but not with stupid +narrowness to distrust or defame. On the contrary, while I will not be +so obliging as to confound ugliness with beauty, discord with harmony, +and laud and be contented with all I meet, when it conflicts with my +best desires and tastes, I trust by reverent faith to woo the mighty +meaning of the scene, perhaps to foresee the law by which a new order, +a new poetry, is to be evoked from this chaos, and with a curiosity +as ardent, but not so selfish, as that of Macbeth, to call up the +apparitions of future kings from the strange ingredients of the +witch's caldron. Thus I will not grieve that all the noble trees are +gone already from this island to feed this caldron, but believe +it will have Medea's virtue, and reproduce them in the form of new +intellectual growths, since centuries cannot again adorn the land with +such as have been removed. + +On this most beautiful beach of smooth white pebbles, interspersed +with agates and cornelians for those who know how to find them, we +stepped, not like the Indian, with some humble offering, which, if no +better than an arrow-head or a little parched corn, would, he judged, +please the Manitou, who looks only at the spirit in which it is +offered. Our visit was so far for a religious purpose that one of our +party went to inquire the fate of some Unitarian tracts left among +the wood-cutters a year or two before. But the old Manitou, though, +daunted like his children by the approach of the fire-ships, which he +probably considered demons of a new dynasty, he had suffered his +woods to be felled to feed their pride, had been less patient of an +encroachment which did not to him seem so authorized by the law of the +strongest, and had scattered those leaves as carelessly as the others +of that year. + +But S. and I, like other emigrants, went, not to give, but to get, +to rifle the wood of flowers for the service of the fire-ship. We +returned with a rich booty, among which was the _Uva-ursi_, whose +leaves the Indians smoke, with the _Kinnikinnik_, and which had then +just put forth its highly finished little blossoms, as pretty as those +of the blueberry. + +Passing along still further, I thought it would be well if the crowds +assembled to stare from the various landings were still confined to +the _Kinnikinnik_, for almost all had tobacco written on their faces, +their cheeks rounded with plugs, their eyes dull with its fumes. We +reached Chicago on the evening of the sixth day, having been out five +days and a half, a rather longer passage than usual at a favorable +season of the year. + + +Chicago, June 20. + +There can be no two places in the world more completely thoroughfares +than this place and Buffalo. They are the two correspondent valves +that open and shut all the time, as the life-blood rushes from east to +west, and back again from west to east. + +Since it is their office thus to be the doors, and let in and out, it +would be unfair to expect from them much character of their own. To +make the best provisions for the transmission of produce is their +office, and the people who live there are such as are suited for +this,--active, complaisant, inventive, business people. There are no +provisions for the student or idler; to know what the place can give, +you should be at work with the rest; the mere traveller will not find +it profitable to loiter there as I did. + +Since circumstances made it necessary for me so to do, I read all the +books I could find about the new region, which now began, to become +real to me. Especially I read all the books about the Indians,--a +paltry collection truly, yet which furnished material for many +thoughts. The most narrow-minded and awkward recital still bears some +lineaments of the great features of this nature, and the races of men +that illustrated them. + +Catlin's book is far the best. I was afterwards assured by those +acquainted with the regions he describes, that he is not to be +depended on for the accuracy of his facts, and indeed it is obvious, +without the aid of such assertions, that he sometimes yields to the +temptation of making out a story. They admitted, however, what from +my feelings I was sure of, that he is true to the spirit of the scene, +and that a far better view can be got from him than from any source +at present existing, of the Indian tribes of the Far West, and of the +country where their inheritance lay. + +Murray's Travels I read, and was charmed by their accuracy and clear, +broad tone. He is the only Englishman that seems to have traversed +these regions as man simply, not as John Bull. He deserves to belong +to an aristocracy, for he showed his title to it more when left +without a guide in the wilderness, than he can at the court of +Victoria. He has; himself, no poetic force at description, but it is +easy to make images from his hints. Yet we believe the Indian cannot +be locked at truly except by a poetic eye. The Pawnees, no doubt, are +such as he describes them, filthy in their habits, and treacherous in +their character, but some would have seen, and seen truly, more beauty +and dignity than he does with all his manliness and fairness of mind. +However, his one fine old man is enough to redeem the rest, and is +perhaps tire relic of a better day, a Phocion among the Pawnees. + +Schoolcraft's Algic Researches is a valuable book, though a worse +use could hardly have been made of such fine material. Had the +mythological or hunting stories of the Indians been written down +exactly as they were received from the lips of the narrators, the +collection could not have been surpassed in interest? both for +the wild charm they carry with them, and the light they throw on a +peculiar modification of life and mind. As it is, though the incidents +have an air of originality and pertinence to the occasion, that gives +us confidence that they have not been altered, the phraseology in +which they were expressed has been entirely set aside, and the flimsy +graces, common to the style of annuals and souvenirs, substituted for +the Spartan brevity and sinewy grasp of Indian speech. We can +just guess what might have been there, as we can detect the fine +proportions of the Brave whom the bad taste of some white patron has +arranged in frock-coat, hat, and pantaloons. + +The few stories Mrs. Jameson wrote out, though to these also a +sentimental air has been given, offend much less in that way than is +common in this book. What would we not give for a completely faithful +version of some among them! Yet, with all these drawbacks, we cannot +doubt from internal evidence that they truly ascribe to the Indian +a delicacy of sentiment and of fancy that justifies Cooper in such +inventions as his Uncas. It is a white man's view of a savage hero, +who would be far finer in his natural proportions; still, through a +masquerade figure, it implies the truth. + +Irving's books I also read, some for the first, some for the second +time, with increased interest, now that I was to meet such people as +he received his materials from. Though the books are pleasing from, +their grace and luminous arrangement, yet, with the exception of the +Tour to the Prairies, they have a stereotype, second-hand air. They +lack the breath, the glow, the charming minute traits of living +presence. His scenery is only fit to be glanced at from, dioramic +distance; his Indians are academic figures only. He would have made +the best of pictures, if he could have used his own eyes for studies +and sketches; as it is, his success is wonderful, but inadequate. + +McKenney's Tour to the Lakes is the dullest of books, yet faithful and +quiet, and gives some facts not to be met with everywhere. + +I also read a collection of Indian anecdotes and speeches, the worst +compiled and arranged book possible, yet not without clews of some +value. All these books I read in anticipation of a canoe-voyage +on Lake Superior as far as the Pictured Rocks, and, though I was +afterwards compelled to give up this project, they aided me in judging +of what I subsequently saw and heard of the Indians. + +In Chicago I first saw the beautiful prairie-flowers. They were in +their glory the first ten days we were there,-- + + "The golden and the flame-like flowers." + +The flame-like flower I was taught afterwards, by an Indian girl, to +call "Wickapee"; and she told me, too, that its splendors had a useful +side, for it was used by the Indians as a remedy for an illness to +which they were subject. + +Beside these brilliant flowers, which gemmed and gilt the grass in a +sunny afternoon's drive near the blue lake, between the low oak-wood +and the narrow beach, stimulated, whether sensuously by the optic +nerve, unused to so much gold and crimson with such tender green, or +symbolically through some meaning dimly seen in the flowers, I enjoyed +a sort of fairy-land exultation never felt before, and the first drive +amid the flowers gave me anticipation of the beauty of the prairies. + +At first, the prairie seemed to speak of the very desolation of +dulness. After sweeping over the vast monotony of the lakes to come to +this monotony of land, with all around a limitless horizon,--to walk, +and walk, and run, but never climb, oh! it was too dreary for any but +a Hollander to bear. How the eye greeted the approach of a sail, or +the smoke of a steamboat; it seemed that anything so animated must +come from a better land, where mountains gave religion to the scene. + +The only thing I liked at first to do was to trace with slow and +unexpecting step the narrow margin of the lake. Sometimes a heavy +swell gave it expression; at others, only its varied coloring, which +I found more admirable every day, and which gave it an air of mirage +instead of the vastness of ocean. Then there was a grandeur in the +feeling that I might continue that walk, if I had any seven-leagued +mode of conveyance to save fatigue, for hundreds of miles without an +obstacle and without a change. + +But after I had ridden out, and seen the flowers, and observed the +sun set with that calmness seen only in the prairies, and tire cattle +winding slowly to their homes in the "island groves,"--most peaceful +of sights,--I began to love, because I began to know tire scene, and +shrank no longer from "the encircling vastness." + +It is always thus with the new form of life; we must learn to look +at it by its own standard. At first, no doubt, my accustomed eye kept +saying, if the mind did not, What! no distant mountains? What! no +valleys? But after a while I would ascend the roof of the house where +we lived, and pass many hours, needing no sight but the moon reigning +in the heavens, or starlight falling upon the lake, till all the +lights were out in the island grove of men beneath my feet, and felt +nearer heaven that there was nothing but this lovely, still reception +on the earth; no towering mountains, no deep tree-shadows, nothing but +plain earth and water bathed in light. + +Sunset, as seen from that place, presented most generally, low-lying, +flaky clouds, of the softest serenity. + +One night a star "shot madly from, its sphere," and it had a fair +chance to be seen, but that serenity could not be astonished. + +Yes! it was a peculiar beauty, that of those sunsets and moonlights on +the levels of Chicago, which Chamouny or the Trosachs could not make +me forget.[A] + +[Footnote A: "From the prairie near Chicago had I seen, some days +before, the sun set with that calmness observed only on the prairies. +I know not what it says, but something quite different from sunset +at sea. There is no motion except of waving grasses,--the cattle move +slowly homeward in the distance. That _home!_ where is it? It seems as +If there was no home, and no need of one, and there is room enough to +wander on for ever."--Manuscript Notes.] + +Notwithstanding all the attractions I thus found out by degrees on the +flat shores of the lake, I was delighted when I found myself really on +my way into the country for an excursion of two or three weeks. We set +forth in a strong wagon, almost as large, and with the look of those +used elsewhere for transporting caravans of wild beasts, loaded with +everything we might want, in case nobody would give it to us,--for +buying and selling were no longer to be counted on,--with, a pair of +strong horses, able and willing to force their way through mud-holes +and amid stumps, and a guide, equally admirable as marshal and +companion, who knew by heart the country and its history, both natural +and artificial, and whose clear hunter's eye needed, neither road nor +goal to guide it to all the spots where beauty best loves to dwell. + +Add to this the finest weather, and such country as I had never seen, +even in my dreams, although these dreams had been haunted by wishes +for just such a one, and you may judge whether years of dulness might +not, by these bright days, be redeemed, and a sweetness be shed over +all thoughts of the West. + +The first day brought us through woods rich in the moccason-flower +and lupine, and plains whose soft expanse was continually touched with +expression by the slow moving clouds which + + "Sweep over with their shadows, and beneath + The surface rolls and fluctuates to the eye; + Dark hollows seem to glide along and chase + The sunny ridges," + +to the banks of the Fox River, a sweet and graceful stream. We +readied Geneva just in time to escape being drenched by a violent +thunder-shower, whose rise and disappearance threw expression into all +the features of the scene. + +Geneva reminds me of a New England village, as indeed there, and +in the neighborhood, are many New-Englanders of an excellent stamp, +generous, intelligent, discreet, and seeking to win from life its true +values. Such are much wanted, and seem like points of light among the +swarms of settlers, whose aims are sordid, whose habits thoughtless +and slovenly.[A] + +[Footnote A: "We passed a portion of one day with Mr. and Mrs. ----, +young, healthy, and, thank Heaven, _gay_ people. In the general +dulness that broods over this land where so little genius flows, +and care, business, and fashionable frivolity are equally dull, +unspeakable is the relief of some flashes of vivacity, some sparkles +of wit. Of course it is hard enough for those, most natively disposed +that way, to strike fire. I would willingly be the tinder to promote +the cheering blaze."--Manuscript Notes.] + +With great pleasure we heard, with his attentive and affectionate +congregation, the Unitarian clergyman, Mr. Conant, and afterward +visited him in his house, where almost everything bore traces of his +own handiwork or that of his father. He is just such a teacher as is +wanted in this region, familiar enough, with the habits of those he +addresses to come home to their experience and their wants; earnest +and enlightened enough to draw the important inferences from the life +of every day.[B] + +[Footnote B: "Let any who think men do not need or want the church, +hear these people talk about it as if it were the only indispensable +thing, and see what I saw in Chicago. An elderly lady from +Philadelphia, who had been visiting her sons in the West, arrived +there about one o'clock on a hot Sunday noon. She rang the bell and +requested a room immediately, as she wanted to get ready for afternoon +service. Some delay occurring, she expressed great regret, as she had +ridden all night for the sake of attending church. She went to +church, neither having dined nor taken any repose after her +journey."--Manuscript Notes.] + +A day or two we remained here, and passed some happy hours in the +woods that fringe the stream, where the gentlemen found a rich booty +of fish. + +Next day, travelling along the river's banks, was an uninterrupted +pleasure. We closed our drive in the afternoon at the house of an +English gentleman, who has gratified, as few men do, the common wish +to pass the evening of an active day amid the quiet influences of +country life. He showed us a bookcase filled with books about this +country; these he had collected for years, and become so familiar with +the localities, that, on coming here at last, he sought and found, at +once, the very spot he wanted, and where he is as content as he hoped +to be, thus realizing Wordsworth's description of the wise man, who +"sees what he foresaw." + +A wood surrounds the house, through which paths are cut in every +direction. It is, for this new country, a large and handsome dwelling; +but round it are its barns and farm-yard, with cattle and poultry. +These, however, in the framework of wood, have a very picturesque and +pleasing effect. There is that mixture of culture and rudeness in the +aspect of things which gives a feeling of freedom, not of confusion. + +I wish, it were possible to give some idea of this scene, as viewed +by the earliest freshness of dewy dawn. This habitation of man seemed +like a nest in the grass, so thoroughly were the buildings and all +the objects of human care harmonized with, what was natural. The tall +trees bent and whispered all around, as if to hail with, sheltering +love the men who had come to dwell among them. + +The young ladies were musicians, and spoke French fluently, having +been educated in a convent. Here in the prairie, they had learned to +take care of the milk-room, and kill the rattlesnakes that assailed +their poultry-yard. Beneath the shade of heavy curtains you looked out +from the high and large windows to see Norwegian peasants at work in +their national dress. In the wood grew, not only the flowers I had +before seen, and wealth of tall, wild roses, but the splendid blue +spiderwort, that ornament of our gardens. Beautiful children strayed +there, who were soon to leave these civilized regions for some really +wild and western place, a post in the buffalo country. Their no less +beautiful mother was of Welsh descent, and the eldest child bore +the name of Gwynthleon. Perhaps there she will meet with some young +descendants of Madoc, to be her friends; at any rate, her looks may +retain that sweet, wild beauty, that is soon made to vanish from eyes +which look too much on shops and streets, and the vulgarities of city +"parties." + +Next day we crossed the river. We ladies crossed on a little +foot-bridge, from which we could look down the stream, and see the +wagon pass over at the ford. A black thunder-cloud was coming up; the +sky and waters heavy with expectation. The motion of the wagon, with +its white cover, and the laboring horses, gave just the due interest +to the picture, because it seemed, as if they would not have time to +cross before the storm came on. However, they did get across, and we +were a mile or two on our way before the violent shower obliged us to +take refuge in a solitary house upon the prairie. In this country it +is as pleasant to stop as to go on, to lose your way as to find +it, for the variety in the population gives you a chance for fresh +entertainment in every hut, and the luxuriant beauty makes every path +attractive. In this house we found a family "quite above the common," +but, I grieve to say, not above false pride, for the father, ashamed +of being caught barefoot, told us a story of a man, one of the richest +men, he said, in one of the Eastern cities, who went barefoot, from +choice and taste. + +Near the door grew a Provence rose, then in blossom. Other families we +saw had brought with them and planted the locust. It was pleasant +to see their old home loves, brought into connection with their new +splendors. Wherever there were traces of this tenderness of feeling, +only too rare among Americans, other things bore signs also of +prosperity and intelligence, as if the ordering mind of man had some +idea of home beyond a mere shelter beneath which to eat and sleep. + +No heaven need wear a lovelier aspect than earth did this afternoon, +after the clearing up of the shower. We traversed the blooming plain, +unmarked by any road, only the friendly track of wheels which bent, +not broke, the grass. Our stations were not from town to town, but +from grove to grove. These groves first floated like blue islands +in the distance. As we drew nearer, they seemed fair parks, and the +little log-houses on the edge, with their curling smokes, harmonized +beautifully with them. + +One of these groves, Ross's Grove, we reached just at sunset, It was +of the noblest trees I saw during this journey, for generally the +trees were not large or lofty, but only of fair proportions. Here they +were large enough to form with their clear stems pillars for grand +cathedral aisles. There was space enough for crimson light to stream +through upon the floor of water which the shower had left. As we +slowly plashed through, I thought I was never in a better place for +vespers. + +That night we rested, or rather tarried, at a grove some miles beyond, +and there partook of the miseries, so often jocosely portrayed, of +bedchambers for twelve, a milk dish for universal hand-basin, and +expectations that you would use and lend your "hankercher" for a +towel. But this was the only night, thanks to the hospitality of +private families, that we passed thus; and it was well that we had +this bit of experience, else might we have pronounced all Trollopian +records of the kind to be inventions of pure malice. + +With us was a young lady who showed herself to have been bathed in +the Britannic fluid, wittily described by a late French writer, by +the impossibility she experienced of accommodating herself to the +indecorums of the scene. We ladies were to sleep in the bar-room, from +which its drinking visitors could be ejected only at a late hour. The +outer door had no fastening to prevent their return. However, our host +kindly requested we would call him, if they did, as he had "conquered +them for us," and would do so again. We had also rather hard couches +(mine was the supper-table); but we Yankees, born to rove, were +altogether too much fatigued to stand upon trifles, and slept as +sweetly as we would in the "bigly bower" of any baroness. But I think +England sat up all night, wrapped in her blanket-shawl, and with a +neat lace cap upon her head,--so that she would have looked perfectly +the lady, if any one had come in,--shuddering and listening. I know +that she was very ill next day, in requital. She watched, as her +parent country watches the seas, that nobody may do wrong in any case, +and deserved to have met some interruption, she was so well prepared. +However, there was none, other than from the nearness of some twenty +sets of powerful lungs, which would not leave the night to a deathly +stillness. In this house we had, if not good beds, yet good tea, good +bread, and wild strawberries, and were entertained with most free +communications of opinion and history from our hosts. Neither shall +any of us have a right to say again that we cannot find any who may +be willing to hear all we may have to say. "A's fish that comes to the +net," should be painted on the sign at Papaw Grove. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +ROCK RIVER.--OREGON.--ANCIENT INDIAN VILLAGE.--GANYMEDE TO +HIS EAGLE.--WESTERN FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATION.--WOMEN IN THE +WEST.--KISHWAUKIE.--BELVIDERE.--FAREWELL. + + +In the afternoon of this day we reached the Rock River, in whose +neighborhood we proposed to make some stay, and crossed at Dixon's +Ferry. + +This beautiful stream flows full and wide over a bed of rocks, +traversing a distance of near two hundred miles, to reach the +Mississippi. Great part of the country along its banks is the finest +region of Illinois, and the scene of some of the latest romance of +Indian warfare. To these beautiful regions Black Hawk returned with +his band "to pass the summer," when he drew upon himself the warfare +in which he was finally vanquished. No wonder he could not resist the +longing, unwise though its indulgence might be, to return in summer to +this home of beauty. + +Of Illinois, in general, it has often been remarked, that it bears the +character of country which has been inhabited by a nation skilled +like the English in all the ornamental arts of life, especially in +landscape-gardening. The villas and castles seem to have been burnt, +the enclosures taken down, but the velvet lawns, the flower-gardens, +the stately parks, scattered at graceful intervals by the decorous +hand of art, the frequent deer, and the peaceful herd of cattle that +make picture of the plain, all suggest more of the masterly mind +of man, than the prodigal, but careless, motherly love of Nature. +Especially is this true of the Rock River country. The river flows +sometimes through these parks and lawns, then betwixt high bluffs, +whose grassy ridges are covered with fine trees, or broken with +crumbling stone, that easily assumes the forms of buttress, arch, and +clustered columns. Along the face of such crumbling rocks, swallows' +nests are clustered, thick as cities, and eagles and deer do not +disdain their summits. One morning, out in the boat along the base of +these rocks, it was amusing, and affecting too, to see these swallows +put their heads out to look at us. There was something very hospitable +about it, as if man had never shown himself a tyrant near them. What +a morning that was! Every sight is worth twice as much by the early +morning light. We borrow something of the spirit of the hour to look +upon them. + +The first place where we stopped was one of singular beauty, a beauty +of soft, luxuriant wildness. It was on the bend of the river, a place +chosen by an Irish gentleman, whose absenteeship seems of the wisest +kind, since, for a sum which would have been but a drop of water to +the thirsty fever of his native land, he commands a residence +which has all that is desirable, in its independence, its beautiful +retirement, and means of benefit to others. + +His park, his deer-chase, he found already prepared; he had only to +make an avenue through it. This brought us to the house by a drive, +which in the heat of noon seemed long, though afterwards, in the cool +of morning and evening, delightful. This is, for that part of the +world, a large and commodious dwelling. Near it stands the log-cabin +where its master lived while it was building, a very ornamental +accessory. + +In front of the house was a lawn, adorned by the most graceful trees. +A few of these had been taken out to give a full view of the river, +gliding through banks such as I have described. On this bend the bank +is high and bold, so from, the house or the lawn the view was very +rich and commanding. But if you descended a ravine at the side to the +water's edge, you found there a long walk on the narrow shore, with +a wall above of the richest hanging wood, in which they said the deer +lay hid. I never saw one but often fancied that I heard them rustling, +at daybreak, by these bright, clear waters, stretching out in such +smiling promise where no sound broke the deep and blissful seclusion, +unless now and then this rustling, or the splash of some fish a little +gayer than the others; it seemed not necessary to have any better +heaven, or fuller expression of love and freedom, than in the mood of +Nature here. + +Then, leaving the bank, you would walk far and yet farther through +long, grassy paths, full of the most brilliant, also the most delicate +flowers. The brilliant are more common on the prairie, but both kinds +loved this place. + +Amid the grass of the lawn, with a profusion of wild strawberries, we +greeted also a familiar love, the Scottish harebell, the gentlest and +most touching form of the flower-world. + +The master of the house was absent, but with a kindness beyond thanks +had offered us a resting-place there. Here we were taken care of by +a deputy, who would, for his youth, have been assigned the place of +a page in former times, but in the young West, it seems, he was old +enough for a steward. Whatever be called his function, he did the +honors of the place so much in harmony with it, as to leave the guests +free to imagine themselves in Elysium. And the three days passed here +were days of unalloyed, spotless happiness. + +There was a peculiar charm in coming here, where the choice of +location, and the unobtrusive good taste of all the arrangements, +showed such intelligent appreciation of the spirit of the scene, after +seeing so many dwellings of the new settlers, which showed plainly +that they had no thought beyond satisfying the grossest material +wants. Sometimes they looked attractive, these little brown houses, +the natural architecture of the country, in the edge of the timber. +But almost always, when you came near the slovenliness of the +dwelling, and the rude way in which objects around it were treated, +when so little care would have presented a charming whole, were +very repulsive. Seeing the traces of the Indians, who chose the most +beautiful sites for their dwellings, and whose habits do not break +in on that aspect of Nature under which they were born, we feel as if +they were the rightful lords of a beauty they forbore to deform. But +most of these settlers do not see it at all; it breathes, it speaks +in vain to those who are rushing into its sphere. Their progress is +Gothic, not Roman, and their mode of cultivation will, in the course +of twenty, perhaps ten years, obliterate the natural expression of the +country. + +This is inevitable, fatal; we must not complain, but look forward to +a good result. Still, in travelling through this country, I could not +but be struck with the force of a symbol. Wherever the hog comes, +the rattlesnake disappears; the omnivorous traveller, safe in its +stupidity, willingly and easily makes a meal of the most dangerous of +reptiles, and one which the Indian looks on with a mystic awe. Even so +the white settler pursues the Indian, and is victor in the chase. But +I shall say more upon the subject by and by. + +While we were here, we had one grand thunder-storm, which added new +glory to the scene. + +One beautiful feature was the return of the pigeons every afternoon +to their home. At this time they would come sweeping across the lawn, +positively in clouds, and with a swiftness and softness of winged +motion more beautiful than anything of the kind I ever knew. Had +I been a musician, such as Mendelssohn, I felt that I could have +improvised a music quite peculiar, from the sound they made, which +should have indicated all the beauty over which their wings bore them. +I will here insert a few lines left at this house on parting, which +feebly indicate some of the features. + + THE WESTERN EDEN. + + Familiar to the childish mind were tales + Of rock-girt isles amid a desert sea, + Where unexpected stretch the flowery vales + To soothe the shipwrecked sailor's misery. + Fainting, he lay upon a sandy shore, + And fancied that all hope of life was o'er; + But let him patient climb the frowning wall, + Within, the orange glows beneath the palm-tree tall, + And all that Eden boasted waits his call. + + Almost these tales seem realized to-day, + When the long dulness of the sultry way, + Where "independent" settlers' careless cheer + Made us indeed feel we were "strangers" here, + Is cheered by sudden sight of this fair spot, + On which "improvement" yet has made no blot, + But Nature all-astonished stands, to find + Her plan protected by the human mind. + + Blest be the kindly genius of the scene; + The river, bending in unbroken grace, + The stately thickets, with their pathways green, + Fair, lonely trees, each in its fittest place; + Those thickets haunted by the deer and fawn; + Those cloudlike flights of birds across the lawn! + The gentlest breezes here delight to blow, + And sun and shower and star are emulous to deck the show. + + Wondering, as Crusoe, we survey the land; + Happier than Crusoe we, a friendly band. + Blest be the hand that reared this friendly home, + The heart and mind of him to whom we owe + Hours of pure peace such as few mortals know; + May he find such, should he be led to roam,-- + Be tended by such ministering sprites,-- + Enjoy such gayly childish days, such hopeful nights! + And yet, amid the goods to mortals given, + To give those goods again is most like heaven. + +Hazelwood, Rock River, June 30, 1843. + + +The only really rustic feature was of the many coops of poultry near +the house, which I understood it to be one of the chief pleasures of +the master to feed. + +Leaving this place, we proceeded a day's journey along the beautiful +stream, to a little town named Oregon. We called at a cabin, from +whose door looked out one of those faces which, once seen, are never +forgotten; young, yet touched with many traces of feeling, not only +possible, but endured; spirited, too, like the gleam of a finely +tempered blade. It was a face that suggested a history, and many +histories, but whose scene would have been in courts and camps. At +this moment their circles are dull for want of that life which, is +waning unexcited in this solitary recess. + +The master of the house proposed to show us a "short cut," by which +we might, to especial advantage, pursue our journey. This proved to be +almost perpendicular down a hill, studded with young trees and stumps. +From these he proposed, with a hospitality of service worthy an +Oriental, to free our wheels whenever they should get entangled, +also to be himself the drag, to prevent our too rapid descent. Such +generosity deserved trust; however, we women could not be persuaded to +render it. We got out and admired, from afar, the process. Left by our +guide and prop, we found ourselves in a wide field, where, by playful +quips and turns, an endless "creek," seemed to divert itself with our +attempts to cross it. Failing in this, the next best was to whirl +down a steep bank, which feat our charioteer performed with an air +not unlike that of Rhesus, had he but been as suitably furnished with +chariot and steeds! + +At last, after wasting some two or three hours on the "short cut," +we got out by following an Indian trail,--Black Hawk's! How fair +the scene through which it led! How could they let themselves be +conquered, with such a country to fight for! + +Afterwards, in the wide prairie, we saw a lively picture of +nonchalance (to speak in the fashion of clear Ireland). There, in the +wide sunny field, with neither tree nor umbrella above his head, sat +a pedler, with his pack, waiting apparently for customers. He was not +disappointed. We bought what hold, in regard to the human world, +as unmarked, as mysterious, and as important an existence, as the +infusoria to the natural, to wit, pins. This incident would have +delighted those modern sages, who, in imitation of the sitting +philosophers of ancient Ind, prefer silence to speech, waiting to +going, and scornfully smile, in answer to the motions of earnest life, + + "Of itself will nothing come, + That ye must still be seeking?" + +However, it seemed to me to-day, as formerly on these sublime +occasions, obvious that nothing would, come, unless something would +go; now, if we had been as sublimely still as the pedler, his pins +would have tarried in the pack, and his pockets sustained an aching +void of pence. + +Passing through one of the fine, park-like woods, almost clear from +underbrush and carpeted with thick grasses and flowers, we met (for it +was Sunday) a little congregation just returning from their service, +which had been performed in a rude house in its midst. It had a sweet +and peaceful air, as if such words and thoughts were very dear to +them. The parents had with them, all their little children; but we saw +no old people; that charm was wanting which exists in such scenes in +older settlements, of seeing the silver bent in reverence beside the +flaxen head. + +At Oregon, the beauty of the scene was of even a more sumptuous +character than at our former "stopping-place." Here swelled the river +in its boldest course, interspersed by halcyon isles on which Nature +had lavished all her prodigality in tree, vine, and flower, banked +by noble bluffs, three Hundred feet high, their sharp ridges as +exquisitely definite as the edge of a shell; their summits adorned +with those same beautiful trees, and with buttresses of rich rock, +crested with old hemlocks, which wore a touching and antique grace +amid, the softer and more luxuriant vegetation. Lofty natural mounds +rose amidst the rest, with the same lovely and sweeping outline, +showing everywhere the plastic power of water,--water, mother of +beauty,--which, by its sweet and eager flow, had left such lineaments +as human genius never dreamt of. + +Not far from the river was a high crag, called the Pine Rock, which +looks out, as our guide observed, like a helmet above the brow of the +country. It seems as if the water left here and there a vestige of +forms and materials that preceded its course, just to set off its new +and richer designs. + +The aspect of this country was to me enchanting, beyond any I have +ever seen, from its fulness of expression, its bold and impassioned +sweetness. Here the flood of emotion has passed over and marked +everywhere its course by a smile. The fragments of rock touch it with +a wildness and liberality which give just the needed relief. I should +never be tired here, though I have elsewhere seen country of more +secret and alluring charms, better calculated to stimulate and +suggest. Here the eye and heart are filled. + +How happy the Indians must have been here! It is not long since they +were driven away, and the ground, above and below, is full of their +traces. + + "The earth is full of men." + +You have only to turn up the sod to find arrowheads and Indian +pottery. On an island, belonging to our host, and nearly opposite his +house, they loved to stay, and, no doubt, enjoyed its lavish beauty +as much as the myriad wild pigeons that now haunt its flower-filled +shades. Here are still the marks of their tomahawks, the troughs in +which they prepared their corn, their caches. + +A little way down the river is the site of an ancient Indian village, +with its regularly arranged mounds. As usual, they had chosen with the +finest taste. When we went there, it was one of those soft, shadowy +afternoons when Nature seems ready to weep, not from grief, but from +an overfull heart. Two prattling, lovely little girls, and an African +boy, with glittering eye and ready grin, made our party gay; but +all were still as we entered the little inlet and trod those flowery +paths. They may blacken Indian life as they will, talk of its dirt, +its brutality, I will ever believe that the men who chose that +dwelling-place were able to feel emotions of noble happiness as they +returned to it, and so were the women that received them. Neither were +the children sad or dull, who lived so familiarly with the deer +and the birds, and swam that clear wave in the shadow of the Seven +Sisters. The whole scene suggested to me a Greek splendor, a Greek +sweetness, and I can believe that an Indian brave, accustomed to +ramble in such paths, and be bathed by such sunbeams, might be +mistaken for Apollo, as Apollo was for him by West. Two of the boldest +bluffs are called the Deer's Walk, (not because deer do _not_ walk +there,) and the Eagle's Nest. The latter I visited one glorious +morning; it was that of the fourth of July, and certainly I think I +had never felt so happy that I was born in America. Woe to all country +folks that never saw this spot, never swept an enraptured gaze over +the prospect that stretched beneath. I do believe Rome and Florence +are suburbs compared to this capital of Nature's art. + +The bluff was decked with great bunches of a scarlet variety of the +milkweed, like cut coral, and all starred with a mysterious-looking +dark flower, whose cup rose lonely on a tall stem. This had, for +two or three days, disputed the ground with the lupine and phlox. My +companions disliked, I liked it. + +Here I thought of, or rather saw, what the Greek expresses under the +form of Jove's darling, Ganymede, and the following stanzas took form. + + GANYMEDE TO HIS EAGLE. + + SUGGESTED BY A WORK OF THORWALDSEN'S. + + Composed on the height called the Eagle's Nest, Oregon, Rock River, + July 4th, 1843. + + Upon the rocky mountain stood the boy, + A goblet of pure water in his hand; + His face and form spoke him one made for joy, + A willing servant to sweet love's command, + But a strange pain was written on his brow, + And thrilled throughout his silver accents now. + + "My bird," he cries, "my destined brother friend, + O whither fleets to-day thy wayward flight? + Hast thou forgotten that I here attend, + From the full noon until this sad twilight? + A hundred times, at least, from the clear spring, + Since the fall noon o'er hill and valley glowed, + I've filled the vase which our Olympian king + Upon my care for thy sole use bestowed; + That, at the moment when thou shouldst descend, + A pure refreshment might thy thirst attend. + + "Hast thou forgotten earth, forgotten me, + Thy fellow-bondsman in a royal cause, + Who, from the sadness of infinity, + Only with thee can know that peaceful pause + In which we catch the flowing strain of love, + Which binds our dim fates to the throne of Jove? + + "Before I saw thee, I was like the May, + Longing for summer that must mar its bloom, + Or like the morning star that calls the day, + Whose glories to its promise are the tomb; + And as the eager fountain rises higher + To throw itself more strongly back to earth, + Still, as more sweet and full rose my desire, + More fondly it reverted to its birth, + For what the rosebud seeks tells not the rose, + The meaning that the boy foretold the man cannot disclose. + + "I was all Spring, for in my being dwelt + Eternal youth, where flowers are the fruit; + Full feeling was the thought of what was felt, + Its music was the meaning of the lute; + But heaven and earth such life will still deny, + For earth, divorced from heaven, still asks the question _Why?_ + + "Upon the highest mountains my young feet + Ached, that no pinions from their lightness grew, + My starlike eyes the stars would fondly greet, + Yet win no greeting from the circling blue; + Fair, self-subsistent each in its own sphere, + They had no care that there was none for me; + Alike to them that I was far or near, + Alike to them time and eternity. + + "But from the violet of lower air + Sometimes an answer to my wishing came; + Those lightning-births my nature seemed to share, + They told the secrets of its fiery frame, + The sudden messengers of hate and love, + The thunderbolts that arm the hand of Jove, + And strike sometimes the sacred spire, and strike the sacred grove. + + "Come in a moment, in a moment gone, + They answered me, then left me still more lone; + They told me that the thought which ruled the world + As yet no sail upon its course had furled, + That the creation was but just begun, + New leaves still leaving from the primal one, + But spoke not of the goal to which _my_ rapid wheels would run. + + "Still, still my eyes, though tearfully, I strained + To the far future which my heart contained, + And no dull doubt my proper hope profaned. + + "At last, O bliss! thy living form I spied, + Then a mere speck upon a distant sky; + Yet my keen glance discerned its noble pride, + And the full answer of that sun-filled eye; + I knew it was the wing that must upbear + My earthlier form into the realms of air. + + "Thou knowest how we gained that beauteous height, + Where dwells the monarch, of the sons of light; + Thou knowest he declared us two to be + The chosen servants of his ministry, + Thou as his messenger, a sacred sign + Of conquest, or, with omen more benign, + To give its due weight to the righteous cause, + To express the verdict of Olympian laws. + + "And I to wait upon the lonely spring, + Which slakes the thirst of bards to whom 't is given + The destined dues of hopes divine to sing, + And weave the needed chain to bind to heaven. + Only from such could be obtained a draught + For him who in his early home from Jove's own cup has quaffed + + "To wait, to wait, but not to wait too long. + Till heavy grows the burden of a song; + O bird! too long hast thou been gone to-day, + My feet are weary of their frequent way, + The spell that opes the spring my tongue no more can say. + + "If soon thou com'st not, night will fall around, + My head with a sad slumber will be bound, + And the pure draught be spilt upon the ground. + + "Remember that I am not yet divine, + Long years of service to the fatal Nine + Are yet to make a Delphian vigor mine. + + "O, make them not too hard, thou bird of Jove! + Answer the stripling's hope, confirm his love, + Receive the service in which he delights, + And bear him often to the serene heights, + Where hands that were so prompt in serving thee + Shall be allowed the highest ministry, + And Rapture live with bright Fidelity." + + +The afternoon was spent in a very different manner. The family whose +guests we were possessed a gay and graceful hospitality that gave +zest to each moment. They possessed that rare politeness which, while +fertile in pleasant expedients to vary the enjoyment of a friend, +leaves him perfectly free the moment he wishes to be so. With such +hosts, pleasure may be combined with repose. They lived on the bank +opposite the town, and, as their house was full, we slept in the +town, and passed three days with them, passing to and fro morning and +evening in their boats. To one of these, called the Fairy, in which a +sweet little daughter of the house moved about lighter than any Scotch +Ellen ever sung, I should indite a poem, if I had not been guilty of +rhyme on this very page. At morning this boating was very pleasant; at +evening, I confess, I was generally too tired with the excitements of +the day to think it so. + +The house--a double log-cabin--was, to my eye, the model of a Western +villa. Nature had laid out before it grounds which could not be +improved. Within, female taste had veiled every rudeness, availed +itself of every sylvan grace. + +In this charming abode what laughter, what sweet thoughts, what +pleasing fancies, did we not enjoy! May such never desert those who +reared it, and made us so kindly welcome to all its pleasures! + +Fragments of city life were dexterously crumbled into the dish +prepared for general entertainment. Ice-creams followed the dinner, +which was drawn by the gentlemen from the river, and music and +fireworks wound up the evening of days spent on the Eagle's Nest. Now +they had prepared a little fleet to pass over to the Fourth of July +celebration, which some queer drumming and fifing, from, the opposite +bank, had announced to be "on hand." + +We found the free and independent citizens there collected beneath the +trees, among whom many a round Irish visage dimpled at the usual puffs +of "Ameriky." + +The orator was a New-Englander, and the speech smacked loudly +of Boston, but was received with much applause and followed by a +plentiful dinner, provided by and for the Sovereign People, to which +Hail Columbia served as grace. + +Returning, the gay flotilla cheered the little flag which the children +had raised from a log-cabin, prettier than any president ever saw, +and drank the health of our country and all mankind, with a clear +conscience. + +Dance and song wound up the day. I know not when the mere local +habitation has seemed to me to afford so fair a chance of happiness as +this. To a person of unspoiled tastes, the beauty alone would afford +stimulus enough. But with it would be naturally associated all kinds +of wild sports, experiments, and the studies of natural history. In +these regards, the poet, the sportsman, the naturalist, would alike +rejoice in this wide range of untouched loveliness. + +Then, with a very little money, a ducal estate may be purchased, and +by a very little more, and moderate labor, a family be maintained upon +it with raiment, food, and shelter. The luxurious and minute comforts +of a city life are not yet to be had without effort disproportionate +to their value. But, where there is so great a counterpoise, cannot +these be given up once for all? If the houses are imperfectly built, +they can afford immense fires and plenty of covering; if they are +small, who cares,--with, such fields to roam in? in winter, it may be +borne; in summer, is of no consequence. With plenty of fish, and game, +and wheat, can they not dispense with a baker to bring "muffins hot" +every morning to the door for their breakfast? + +A man need not here take a small slice from the landscape, and fence +it in from the obtrusions of an uncongenial neighbor, and there cut +down his fancies to miniature improvements which a chicken could run +over in ten minutes. He may have water and wood and land enough, to +dread no incursions on his prospect from some chance Vandal that may +enter his neighborhood. He need not painfully economize and manage +how he may use it all; he can afford to leave some of it wild, and to +carry out his own plans without obliterating those of Nature. + +Here, whole families might live together, if they would. The sons +might return from their pilgrimages to settle near the parent hearth; +the daughters might find room near their mother. Those painful +separations, which already desecrate and desolate the Atlantic coast, +are not enforced here by the stern need of seeking bread; and where +they are voluntary, it is no matter. To me, too, used to the feelings +which haunt a society of struggling men, it was delightful to look +upon a scene where Nature still wore her motherly smile, and seemed to +promise room, not only for those favored or cursed with the qualities +best adapting for the strifes of competition, but for the delicate, +the thoughtful, even the indolent or eccentric. She did not say, Fight +or starve; nor even, Work or cease to exist; but, merely showing that +the apple was a finer fruit than the wild crab, gave both room to grow +in the garden. + +A pleasant society is formed of the families who live along the banks +of this stream upon farms. They are from various parts of the world, +and have much to communicate to one another. Many have cultivated +minds and refined manners, all a varied experience, while they have +in common the interests of a new country and a new life. They must +traverse some space to get at one another, but the journey is through +scenes that make it a separate pleasure. They must bear inconveniences +to stay in one another's houses; but these, to the well-disposed, are +only a source of amusement and adventure. + +The great drawback upon the lives of these settlers, at present, is +the unfitness of the women for their new lot. It has generally been +the choice of the men, and the women follow, as women will, doing +their best for affection's sake, but too often in heartsickness and +weariness. Beside, it frequently not being a choice or conviction of +their own minds that it is best to be here, their part is the hardest, +and they are least fitted for it. The men can find assistance in +field labor, and recreation with the gun and fishing-rod. Their bodily +strength is greater, and enables them to bear and enjoy both these +forms of life. + +The women can rarely find any aid in domestic labor. All its various +and careful tasks must often be performed, sick, or well, by the +mother and daughters, to whom a city education has imparted neither +the strength nor skill now demanded. + +The wives of the poorer settlers, having more hard work to do than +before, very frequently become slatterns; but the ladies, accustomed +to a refined neatness, feel that they cannot degrade themselves by +its absence, and struggle under every disadvantage to keep up the +necessary routine of small arrangements. + +With all these disadvantages for work, their resources for pleasure +are fewer. When they can leave the housework, they have not learnt to +ride, to drive, to row, alone. Their culture has too generally been +that given to women to make them "the ornaments of society." They can +dance, but not draw; talk French, but know nothing of the language +of flowers; neither in childhood were allowed to cultivate them, +lest they should tan their complexions. Accustomed to the pavement +of Broadway, they dare not tread the wild-wood paths for fear of +rattlesnakes! + +Seeing much of this joylessness, and inaptitude, both of body and +mind, for a lot which would be full of blessings for those prepared +for it, we could not but look with deep interest on the little girls, +and hope they would grow up with the strength of body, dexterity, +simple tastes, and resources that would fit them to enjoy and refine +the Western farmer's life. + +But they have a great deal to war with in the habits of thought +acquired by their mothers from their own early life. Everywhere +the fatal spirit of imitation, of reference to European standards, +penetrates, and threatens to blight whatever of original growth might +adorn the soil. + +If the little girls grow up strong, resolute, able to exert their +faculties, their mothers mourn over their want of fashionable +delicacy. Are they gay, enterprising, ready to fly about in the +various ways that teach them so much, these ladies lament that "they +cannot go to school, where they might learn to be quiet." They lament +the want of "education" for their daughters, as if the thousand +needs which call out their young energies, and the language of nature +around, yielded no education. + +Their grand ambition for their children is to send them to school in +some Eastern city, the measure most likely to make them useless and +unhappy at home. I earnestly hope that, erelong, the existence of good +schools near themselves, planned by persons of sufficient thought to +meet the wants of the place and time, instead of copying New York +or Boston, will correct this mania. Instruction the children want +to enable them to profit by the great natural advantages of their +position; but methods copied from the education of some English Lady +Augusta are as ill suited to the daughter of an Illinois farmer, as +satin shoes to climb the Indian mounds. An elegance she would diffuse +around her, if her mind were opened to appreciate elegance; it might +be of a kind new, original, enchanting, as different from that of +the city belle as that of the prairie torch-flower from the shop-worn +article that touches the cheek of that lady within her bonnet. + +To a girl really skilled to make home beautiful and comfortable, with +bodily strength to enjoy plenty of exercise, the woods, the streams, a +few studies, music, and the sincere and familiar intercourse, far +more easily to be met with here than elsewhere, would afford happiness +enough. Her eyes would not grow dim, nor her cheeks sunken, in the +absence of parties, morning visits, and milliners' shops. + +As to music, I wish I could see in such places the guitar rather than +the piano, and good vocal more than instrumental music. + +The piano many carry with them, because it is the fashionable +instrument in the Eastern cities. Even there, it is so merely from +the habit of imitating Europe, for not one in a thousand is willing to +give the labor requisite to insure any valuable use of the instrument. + +But out here, where the ladies have so much less leisure, it is still +less desirable. Add to this, they never know how to tune their own +instruments, and as persons seldom visit them who can do so, these +pianos are constantly out of tune, and would spoil the ear of one who +began by having any. + +The guitar, or some portable instrument which requires less practice, +and could be kept in tune by themselves, would be far more desirable +for most of these ladies. It would give all they want as a household +companion to fill up the gaps of life with a pleasant stimulus +or solace, and be sufficient accompaniment to the voice in social +meetings. + +Singing in parts is the most delightful family amusement, and those +who are constantly together can learn to sing in perfect accord. All +the practice it needs, after some good elementary instruction, is +such as meetings by summer twilight and evening firelight naturally +suggest. And as music is a universal language, we cannot but think a +fine Italian duet would be as much at home in the log cabin as one of +Mrs. Gore's novels. + +The 6th of July we left this beautiful place. It was one of those +rich days of bright sunlight, varied by the purple shadows of large, +sweeping clouds. Many a backward look we cast, and left the heart +behind. + +Our journey to-day was no less delightful than before, still all new, +boundless, limitless. Kinmont says, that limits are sacred; that the +Greeks were in the right to worship a god of limits. I say, that what +is limitless is alone divine, that there was neither wall nor road in +Eden, that those who walked, there lost and found their way just as +we did, and that all the gain from the Fall was that we had a wagon to +ride in. I do not think, either, that even the horses doubted whether +this last was any advantage. + +Everywhere the rattlesnake-weed grows in profusion. The antidote +survives the bane. Soon the coarser plantain, the "white man's +footstep," shall take its place. + +We saw also the compass-plant, and the Western tea-plant. Of some of +the brightest flowers an Indian girl afterwards told me the medicinal +virtues. I doubt not those students of the soil knew a use to every +fair emblem, on which we could only look to admire its hues and shape. + +After noon we were ferried by a girl (unfortunately not of the most +picturesque appearance) across the Kishwaukie, the most graceful +of streams, and on whose bosom rested many full-blown +water-lilies,--twice as large as any of ours. I was told that, _en +revanche_, they were scentless, but I still regret that I could not +get at one of them to try. Query, did the lilied fragrance which, +in the miraculous times, accompanied visions of saints and angels, +proceed from water or garden lilies? + +Kishwaukie is, according to tradition, the scene of a famous battle, +and its many grassy mounds contain the bones of the valiant. On these +waved thickly the mysterious purple flower, of which I have spoken +before. I think it springs from the blood of the Indians, as the +hyacinth did from that of Apollo's darling. + +The ladies of our host's family at Oregon, when they first went, +there, after all the pains and plagues of building and settling, found +their first pastime in opening one of these mounds, in which they +found, I think, three of the departed, seated, in the Indian fashion. + +One of these same ladies, as she was making bread one winter morning, +saw from the window a deer directly before the house. She ran out, +with her hands covered with dough, calling the others, and they caught +him bodily before he had time to escape. + +Here (at Kiskwaukie) we received a visit from a ragged and barefooted, +but bright-eyed gentleman, who seemed to be the intellectual loafer, +the walking Will's coffee-house, of the place. He told us many +charming snake-stories; among others, of himself having seen seventeen +young ones re-enter the mother snake, on the approach of a visitor. + +This night we reached Belvidere, a flourishing town in Boon County, +where was the tomb, now despoiled, of Big Thunder. In this later day +we felt happy to find a really good hotel. + +From this place, by two days of very leisurely and devious journeying, +we reached Chicago, and thus ended a journey, which one at least of +the party might have wished unending. + +I have not been particularly anxious to give the geography of the +scene, inasmuch as it seemed to me no route, nor series of stations, +but a garden interspersed with cottages, groves, and flowery lawns, +through which a stately river ran. I had no guide-book, kept no diary, +do not know how many miles we travelled each day, nor how many in all. +What I got from the journey was the poetic impression of the country +at large; it is all I have aimed to communicate. + +The narrative might have been made much more interesting, as life was +at the time, by many piquant anecdotes and tales drawn from private +life. But here courtesy restrains the pen, for I know those who +received the stranger with such frank kindness would feel ill requited +by its becoming the means of fixing many spy-glasses, even though the +scrutiny might be one of admiring interest, upon their private homes. + +For many of these anecdotes, too, I was indebted to a friend, whose +property they more lawfully are. This friend was one of those rare +beings who are equally at home in nature and with man. He knew a +tale of all that ran and swam and flew, or only grew, possessing +that extensive familiarity with things which shows equal sweetness +of sympathy and playful penetration. Most refreshing to me was his +unstudied lore, the unwritten poetry which common life presents to a +strong and gentle mind. It was a great contrast to the subtilties of +analysis, the philosophic strainings of which I had seen too much. But +I will not attempt to transplant it. May it profit others as it did me +in the region where it was born, where it belongs. + +The evening of our return to Chicago, the sunset was of a splendor and +calmness beyond any we saw at the West. The twilight that succeeded +was equally beautiful; soft, pathetic, but just so calm. When +afterwards I learned this was the evening of Allston's death, it +seemed to me as if this glorious pageant was not without connection +with that event; at least, it inspired similar emotions,--a heavenly +gate closing a path adorned with shows well worthy Paradise. + + +FAREWELL TO ROCK RIVER VALLEY. + + Farewell, ye soft and sumptuous solitudes! + Ye fairy distances, ye lordly woods, + Haunted, by paths like those that Poussin knew, + When after his all gazers' eyes he drew; + I go,--and if I never more may steep + An eager heart in your enchantments deep, + Yet ever to itself that heart may say, + Be not exacting; them hast lived one day,-- + Hast looked on that which matches with thy mood, + Impassioned sweetness of full being's flood, + Where nothing checked the bold yet gentle wave, + Where naught repelled the lavish love that gave. + A tender blessing lingers o'er the scene, + Like some young mother's thought, fond, yet serene, + And through its life new-born our lives have been. + Once more farewell,--a sad, a sweet farewell; + And, if I never must behold you more, + In other worlds I will not cease to tell + The rosary I here have numbered o'er; + And bright-haired Hope will lend a gladdened ear, + And Love will free him from the grasp of Fear, + And Gorgon critics, while the tale they hear, + Shall dew their stony glances with a tear, + If I but catch one echo from your spell:-- + And so farewell,--a grateful, sad farewell! + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +A SHORT CHAPTER.--CHICAGO AGAIN.--MORRIS BIRKBECK. + + +Chicago had become interesting to me now, that I knew it as the +portal to so fair a scene. I had become interested in the land, in +the people, and looked sorrowfully on the lake on which I must soon +embark, to leave behind what I had just begun to enjoy. + +Now was the time to see the lake. The July moon was near its full, and +night after night it rose in a cloudless sky above this majestic sea. +The heat was excessive, so that there was no enjoyment of life, except +in the night; but then the air was of that delicious temperature +worthy of orange-groves. However, they were not wanted;--nothing was, +as that full light fell on the faintly rippling waters, which then +seemed, boundless. + +The most picturesque objects to be seen from Chicago on the inland +side were the lines of Hoosier wagons. These rude farmers, the large +first product of the soil, travel leisurely along, sleeping in their +wagons by night, eating only what they bring with them. In the town +they observe the same plan, and trouble no luxurious hotel for board +and lodging. Here they look like foreign peasantry, and contrast well +with the many Germans, Dutch, and Irish. In the country it is very +pretty to see them prepared to "camp out" at night, their horses +taken out of harness, and they lounging under the trees, enjoying the +evening meal. + +On the lake-side it is fine to see the great boats come panting in +from their rapid and marvellous journey. Especially at night the +motion of their lights is very majestic. + +When the favorite boats, the Great Western and Illinois, are going +out, the town is thronged with, people from the South and farther +West, to go in them. These moonlight nights I would hear the French +rippling and fluttering familiarly amid the rude ups and downs of the +Hoosier dialect. + +At the hotel table were daily to be seen new faces, and new stories +to be learned. And any one who has a large acquaintance may be pretty +sure of meeting some of them here in the course of a few days. + +At Chicago I read again Philip Van Artevelde, and certain passages +in it will always be in my mind associated with the deep sound of the +lake, as heard in the night. I used to read a short time at night, and +then open the blind to look out. The moon would be full upon the lake, +and the calm breath, pure light, and the deep voice harmonized well +with the thought of the Flemish hero. When will this country have such +a man? It is what she needs; no thin Idealist, no coarse Realist, but +a man whose eye reads the heavens, while his feet step firmly on the +ground, and his hands are strong and dexterous for the use of human +implements. A man religious, virtuous, and--sagacious; a man of +universal sympathies, but self-possessed; a man who knows the region +of emotion, though he is not its slave; a man to whom this world is +no mere spectacle, or fleeting shadow, not a great, solemn game, to be +played with, good heed, for its stakes are of eternal value, yet who, +if his own play be true, heeds not what he loses by the falsehood of +others;--a man who hives from the past, yet knows that its honey can +but moderately avail him; whose comprehensive eye scans the present, +neither infatuated by its golden lures, nor chilled by its many +ventures; who possesses prescience, as the wise man must, but not +so far as to be driven mad to-day by the gift which discerns +to-morrow;--when there is such a man for America, the thought which +urges her on will be expressed. + + * * * * * + +Now that I am about to leave Illinois, feelings of regret and +admiration come over me, as in parting with a friend whom, we have +not had the good sense to prize and study, while hours of association, +never perhaps to return, were granted. I have fixed my attention +almost exclusively on the picturesque beauty of this region; it was +so new, so inspiring. But I ought to have been more interested in the +housekeeping of this magnificent State, in the education she is giving +her children, in their prospects. + +Illinois is, at present, a by-word of reproach among the nations, +for the careless, prodigal course by which, in early youth, she has +endangered her honor. But you cannot look about you there, without +seeing that there are resources abundant to retrieve, and soon to +retrieve, far greater errors, if they are only directed with wisdom. + +Would that the simple maxim, that honesty is the best policy, might be +laid to heart; that a sense of the true aim of life might elevate +the tone of politics and trade till public and private honor became +identical; that the Western man, in that crowded and exciting life +which, develops his faculties so fully for to-day, might not forget +that better part which could not be taken from him; that the Western +woman might take that interest and acquire that light for the +education of the children, for which she alone has leisure! + +This is indeed the great problem of the place and time. If the next +generation be well prepared for their work, ambitious of good and +skilful to achieve it, the children of the present settlers may be +leaven enough for the mass constantly increasing by immigration. And +how much is this needed, where those rude foreigners can so little +understand the best interests of the land they seek for bread and +shelter! It would be a happiness to aid in this good work, and +interweave the white and golden threads into the fate of Illinois. It +would be a work worthy the devotion of any mind. + +In the little that I saw was a large proportion of intelligence, +activity, and kind feeling; but, if there was much serious laying to +heart of the true purposes of life, it did not appear in the tone of +conversation. + +Having before me the Illinois Guide-Book, I find there mentioned, as +a "visionary," one of the men I should think of as able to be a truly +valuable settler in a new and great country,--Morris Birkbeck, of +England. Since my return, I have read his journey to, and letters +from, Illinois. I see nothing promised there that will not surely +belong to the man who knows how to seek for it. + +Mr. Birkbeck was an enlightened, philanthropist, the rather that he +did not wish to sacrifice himself to his fellow-men, but to benefit +them with all he had, and was, and wished. He thought all the +creatures of a divine love ought to be happy and ought to be good, and +that his own soul and his own life were not less precious than those +of others; indeed, that to keep these healthy was his only means of a +healthy influence. + +But his aims were altogether generous. Freedom, the liberty of law, +not license; not indolence, work for himself and children and all +men, but under genial and poetic influences;--these were his aims. How +different from those of the new settlers in general! And into his +mind so long ago shone steadily the two thoughts, now so prevalent in +thinking and aspiring minds, of "Resist not evil," and "Every man his +own priest, and the heart the only true church." + +He has lost credit for sagacity from accidental circumstances. It +does not appear that his position was ill chosen, or his means +disproportioned to his ends, had he been sustained by funds from +England, as he had a right to expect. But through the profligacy of a +near relative, commissioned to collect these dues, he was disappointed +of them, and his paper protested and credit destroyed in our cities, +before he became aware of his danger. + +Still, though more slowly and with more difficulty, he might have +succeeded in his designs. The English farmer might have made the +English settlement a model for good methods and good aims to all that +region, had not death prematurely cut short his plans. + +I have wished to say these few words, because the veneration with +which I have been inspired for his character by those who knew him +well, makes me impatient of this careless blame being passed from +mouth to mouth and book to book. Success is no test of a man's +endeavor, and Illinois will yet, I hope, regard this man, who knew so +well what _ought_ to be, as one of her true patriarchs, the Abraham of +a promised land. + +He was one too much before his time to be soon valued; but the time +is growing up to him, and will understand his mild philanthropy, and +clear, large views. + +I subjoin the account of his death, given me by a friend, as +expressing, in fair picture, the character of the man. + +"Mr. Birkbeck was returning from the seat of government, whither he +had been on public business, and was accompanied by his son Bradford, +a youth of sixteen or eighteen. It was necessary to cross a ford, +which was rendered difficult by the swelling of the stream. Mr. B.'s +horse was unwilling to plunge into the water, so his son offered to +go first, and he followed. Bradford's horse had just gained footing on +the opposite shore, when he looked back and perceived his father was +dismounted, struggling in the water, and carried down by the current. + +"Mr. Birkbeck could not swim; Bradford could; so he dismounted, and +plunged into the stream to save his father. He got to him before +he sunk, held him up above water, and told him to take hold of his +collar, and he would swim ashore with him. Mr. B. did so, and Bradford +exerted all his strength to stem the current and reach the shore at a +point where they could land; but, encumbered by his own clothing and +his father's weight, he made no progress; when Mr. B. perceived this, +he, with his characteristic calmness and resolution, gave up his hold +of his son, and, motioning to him to save himself, resigned himself to +his fate. His son reached the shore, but was too much overwhelmed +by his loss to leave it. He was found by some travellers, many hours +after, seated on the margin of the stream, with his face in his hands, +stupefied with grief. + +"The body was found, and on the countenance was the sweetest smile; +and Bradford said, 'Just so he smiled, upon me when he let go and +pushed me away from him.'" + +Many men can choose the right and best on a great occasion, but not +many can, with such ready and serene decision, lay aside even +life, when that is right and best. This little narrative touched my +imagination in very early youth, and often has come up, in lonely +vision, that face, serenely smiling above the current which bore him +away to another realm of being. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THOUGHTS AND SCENES IN WISCONSIN.--SOCIETY IN MILWAUKIE.--INDIAN +ANECDOTE.--SEERESS OF PREVORST.--MILWAUKIE. + + +A territory, not yet a State;[A] still nearer the acorn than we were. + +[Footnote A: Wisconsin was not admitted into the Union as a State till +1847, after this volume was written.--ED.] + +It was very pleasant coming up. These large and elegant boats are so +well arranged that every excursion may be a party of pleasure. There +are many fair shows to see on the lake and its shores, almost always +new and agreeable persons on board, pretty children playing about, +ladies singing (and if not very well, there is room, to keep out of +the way). You may see a great deal here of Life, in the London sense, +if you know a few people; or if you do not, and have the tact to look +about you without seeming to stare. + +We came to Milwaukie, where we were to pass a fortnight or more. + +This place is most beautifully situated. A little river, with romantic +banks, passes up through the town. The bank of the lake is here a +bold bluff, eighty feet in height. From its summit is enjoyed a noble +outlook on the lake. A little narrow path winds along the edge of the +lake below. I liked this walk much,--above me this high wall of rich +earth, garlanded on its crest with trees, the long ripples of the lake +coming up to my feet. Here, standing in the shadow, I could appreciate +better its magnificent changes of color, which are the chief beauties +of the lake-waters; but these are indescribable. + +It was fine to ascend into the lighthouse, above this bluff, and +thence watch the thunder-clouds which so frequently rose over the +lake, or the great boats coming in. Approaching the Milwaukie pier, +they made a bend, and seemed to do obeisance in the heavy style +of some dowager duchess entering a circle she wishes to treat with +especial respect. + +These boats come in and out every day, and still afford a cause for +general excitement. The people swarm, down to greet them, to receive +and send away their packages and letters. To me they seemed such +mighty messengers, to give, by their noble motion, such an idea of the +power and fulness of life, that they were worthy to carry despatches +from king to king. It must be very pleasant for those who have an +active share in carrying on the affairs of this great and growing +world to see them approach, and pleasant to such as have dearly loved +friends at the next station. To those who have neither business nor +friends, it sometimes gives a desolating sense of insignificance. + +The town promises to be, some time, a fine one, as it is so well +situated; and they have good building material,--a yellow brick, very +pleasing to the eye. It seems to grow before you, and has indeed but +just emerged from the thickets of oak and wild-roses. A few steps +will take you into the thickets, and certainly I never saw so many +wild-roses, or of so beautiful a red. Of such a color were the first +red ones the world ever saw, when, says the legend, Venus flying to +the assistance of Adonis, the rose-bushes kept catching her to make +her stay, and the drops of blood the thorns drew from her feet, as +she tore herself a way, fell on the white roses, and turned them this +beautiful red. + +One day, walking along the river's bank in search of a waterfall to be +seen from one ravine, we heard tones from a band of music, and saw a +gay troop shooting at a mark, on the opposite bank. Between every shot +the band played; the effect was very pretty. + +On this walk we found two of the oldest and most gnarled hemlocks that +ever afforded study for a painter. They were the only ones we saw; +they seemed the veterans of a former race. + +At Milwaukie, as at Chicago, are many pleasant people, drawn together +from all parts of the world. A resident here would find great piquancy +in the associations,--those he met having such dissimilar histories +and topics. And several persons I saw, evidently transplanted from the +most refined circles to be met in this country. There are lures enough +in the West for people of all kinds;--the enthusiast and the cunning +man; the naturalist, and the lover who needs to be rich for the sake +of her he loves. + +The torrent of immigration swells very strongly towards this place. +During the fine weather, the poor refugees arrive daily, in their +national dresses, all travel-soiled and worn. The night they pass in +rude shantees, in a particular quarter of the town, then walk off into +the country,--the mothers carrying their infants, the fathers leading +the little children by the hand, seeking a home where their hands may +maintain them. + +One morning we set off in their track, and travelled a day's +journey into this country,--fair, yet not, in that part which I saw, +comparable, in my eyes, to the Rock River region. Rich fields, proper +for grain, alternate with oak openings, as they are called; bold, +various, and beautiful were the features of the scene, but I saw +not those majestic sweeps, those boundless distances, those heavenly +fields; it was not the same world. + +Neither did we travel in the same delightful manner. We were now in a +nice carriage, which must not go off the road, for fear of breakage, +with a regular coachman, whose chief care was not to tire his horses, +and who had no taste for entering fields in pursuit of wild-flowers, +or tempting some strange wood-path, in search of whatever might +befall. It was pleasant, but almost as tame as New England. + +But charming indeed was the place where we stopped. It was in the +vicinity of a chain of lakes, and on the bank of the loveliest +little stream, called, the Bark River, which, flowed in rapid amber +brightness, through fields, and dells, and stately knolls, of most +poetic beauty. + +The little log-cabin where we slept, with its flower-garden in front, +disturbed the scene no more than a stray lock on the fair cheek. +The hospitality of that house I may well call princely; it was the +boundless hospitality of the heart, which, if it has no Aladdin's lamp +to create a palace for the guest, does him still higher service by the +freedom of its bounty to the very last drop of its powers. + +Sweet were the sunsets seen in the valley of this stream, though, +here, and, I grieve to say, no less near the Rock River, the fiend, +who has every liberty to tempt the happy in this world, appeared in +the shape of mosquitos, and allowed us no bodily to enjoy our mental +peace. + +One day we ladies gave, under the guidance of our host, to visiting +all the beauties of the adjacent lakes,--Nomabbin, Silver, and Pine +Lakes. On the shore of Nomabbin had formerly been one of the finest +Indian villages. Our host said, that once, as he was lying there +beneath the bank, he saw a tall Indian standing at gaze on the knoll. +He lay a long time, curious to see how long the figure would maintain +its statue-like absorption. But at last his patience yielded, and, +in moving, he made a slight noise. The Indian saw him, gave a wild, +snorting sound of indignation and pain, and strode away. + +What feelings must consume their hearts at such moments! I scarcely +see how they can forbear to shoot the white man where he stands. + +But the power of fate is with, the white man, and the Indian feels it. +This same gentleman told of his travelling through the wilderness with +an Indian guide. He had with him a bottle of spirit which he meant to +give him in small quantities, but the Indian, once excited, wanted +the whole at once. "I would not," said Mr. ----, "give it him, for I +thought, if he got really drunk, there was an end to his services as +a guide. But he persisted, and at last tried to take it from me. I +was not armed; he was, and twice as strong as I. But I knew an Indian +could not resist the look of a white man, and I fixed my eye steadily +on his. He bore it for a moment, then his eye fell; he let go the +bottle. I took his gun and threw it to a distance. After a few +moments' pause, I told him to go and fetch it, and left it in his +hands. From that moment he was quite obedient, even servile, all the +rest of the way." + +This gentleman, though in other respects of most kindly and liberal +heart, showed the aversion that the white man soon learns to feel for +the Indian on whom he encroaches,--the aversion of the injurer for him +he has degraded. After telling the anecdote of his seeing the Indian +gazing at the seat of his former home, + + "A thing for human feelings the most trying," + +and which, one would think, would have awakened soft compassion-- +almost remorse--in the present owner of that fair hill, which +contained for the exile the bones of his dead, the ashes of his +hopes, he observed: "They cannot be prevented from straggling back +here to their old haunts. I wish they could. They ought not to be +permitted to drive away _our_ game." OUR game,--just heavens! + +The same gentleman showed, on a slight occasion, the true spirit of a +sportsman, or perhaps I might say of Man, when engaged in any kind +of chase. Showing us some antlers, he said: "This one belonged to a +majestic creature. But this other was the beauty. I had been lying a +long time at watch, when at last I heard them come crackling along. I +lifted my head cautiously, as they burst through the trees. The first +was a magnificent fellow; but then I saw coming one, the prettiest, +the most graceful I ever beheld,--there was something so soft and +beseeching in its look. I chose him at once, took aim, and shot him +dead. You see the antlers are not very large; it was young, but the +prettiest creature!" + +In the course of this morning's drive, we visited the gentlemen on +their fishing party. They hailed us gayly, and rowed ashore to show us +what fine booty they had. No disappointment there, no dull work. + +On the beautiful point of land from which we first saw them lived a +contented woman, the only one I heard of out there. She was English, +and said she had seen so much suffering in her own country, that the +hardships of this seemed as nothing to her. But the others--even our +sweet and gentle hostess--found their labors disproportioned to their +strength, if not to their patience; and, while their husbands and +brothers enjoyed the country in hunting or fishing, they found +themselves confined to a comfortless and laborious in-door life. But +it need not be so long. + +This afternoon, driving about on the banks of these lakes, we found +the scene all of one kind of loveliness; wide, graceful woods, and +then these fine sheets of water, with, fine points of land jutting out +boldly into them. It was lovely, but not striking or peculiar. + +All woods suggest pictures. The European forest, with its long glades +and green, sunny dells, naturally suggested the figures of armed +knight on his proud steed, or maiden, decked in gold and pearl, +pricking along them on a snow-white palfrey; the green dells, of weary +Palmer sleeping there beside the spring with his head upon his wallet. +Our minds, familiar with such, figures, people with them the New +England woods, wherever the sunlight falls down a longer than usual +cart-track, wherever a cleared spot has lain still enough for the +trees to look friendly, with their exposed sides cultivated by the +light, and the grass to look velvet warm, and be embroidered with +flowers. These Western woods suggest a different kind of ballad. The +Indian legends have often an air of the wildest solitude, as has the +one Mr. Lowell has put into verse in his late volume. But I did not +see those wild woods; only such as suggest to me little romances of +love and sorrow, like this:-- + +GUNHILDA. + + A maiden sat beneath the tree, + Tear-bedewed her pale cheeks be, + And she sigheth heavily. + + From forth the wood into the light + A hunter strides, with carol light, + And a glance so bold and bright. + + He careless stopped and eyed the maid; + "Why weepest thou?" he gently said; + "I love thee well; be not afraid." + + He takes her hand, and leads her on; + She should have waited there alone, + For he was not her chosen one. + + He leans her head upon his breast, + She knew 't was not her home of rest, + But ah! she had been sore distrest. + + The sacred stars looked sadly down; + The parting moon appeared to frown, + To see thus dimmed the diamond crown. + + Then from the thicket starts a deer, + The huntsman, seizing on his spear, + Cries, "Maiden, wait thou for me here." + + She sees him vanish into night, + She starts from sleep in deep affright, + For it was not her own true knight. + + Though but in dream Gunhilda failed. + Though but a fancied ill assailed, + Though she but fancied fault bewailed,-- + + Yet thought of day makes dream of night: + She is not worthy of the knight, + The inmost altar burns not bright. + + If loneliness thou canst not bear, + Cannot the dragon's venom dare, + Of the pure meed thou shouldst despair. + + Now sadder that lone maiden sighs, + Far bitterer tears profane her eyes, + Crushed, in the dust her heart's flower lies. + +On the bank of Silver Lake we saw an Indian encampment. A shower +threatened us, but we resolved to try if we could not visit it before +it came on. We crossed a wide field on foot, and found the Indians +amid the trees on a shelving bank; just as we reached them, the rain +began to fall in torrents, with frequent thunderclaps, and we had +to take refuge in their lodges. These were very small, being for +temporary use, and we crowded the occupants much, among whom were +several sick, on the damp ground, or with only a ragged mat between +them and it. But they showed all the gentle courtesy which, marks +their demeanor towards the stranger, who stands in any need; though it +was obvious that the visit, which inconvenienced them, could only +have been caused by the most impertinent curiosity, they made us as +comfortable as their extreme poverty permitted. They seemed to think +we would not like to touch them; a sick girl in the lodge where I was, +persisted in moving so as to give me the dry place; a woman, with the +sweet melancholy eye of the race, kept off the children and wet dogs +from even the hem of my garment. + +Without, their fires smouldered, and black kettles, hung over them on +sticks, smoked, and seethed in the rain. An old, theatrical-looking +Indian stood with arms folded, looking up to the heavens, from +which the rain clashed and the thunder reverberated; his air was +French-Roman; that is, more Romanesque than Roman. The Indian ponies, +much excited, kept careering through the wood, around the encampment, +and now and then, halting suddenly, would thrust in their intelligent, +though amazed faces, as if to ask their masters when this awful pother +would cease, and then, after a moment, rush and trample off again. + +At last we got away, well wetted, but with a picturesque scene for +memory. At a house where we stopped to get dry, they told us that +this wandering band (of Pottawattamies), who had returned, on a visit, +either from homesickness, or need of relief, were extremely destitute. +The women had been there to see if they could barter for food their +head-bands, with which they club their hair behind into a form not +unlike a Grecian knot. They seemed, indeed, to have neither food, +utensils, clothes, nor bedding; nothing but the ground, the sky, and +their own strength. Little wonder if they drove off the game! + +Part of the same band I had seen in Milwaukee, on a begging dance. +The effect of this was wild and grotesque. They wore much paint and +feather head-dresses. "Indians without paint are poor coots," said a +gentleman who had been a great deal with, and really liked, them; +and I like the effect of the paint on them; it reminds of the gay +fantasies of nature. With them in Milwaukie was a chief, the finest +Indian figure I saw, more than six feet in height, erect, and of a +sullen, but grand gait and gesture. He wore a deep-red blanket, which +fell in large folds from his shoulders to his feet, did not join in +the dance, but slowly strode about through the streets, a fine +sight, not a French-Roman, but a real Roman. He looked unhappy, +but listlessly unhappy, as if he felt it was of no use to strive or +resist. + +While in the neighborhood of these lakes, we visited also a foreign +settlement of great interest. Here were minds, it seemed, to +"comprehend the trust" of their new life; and, if they can only stand +true to them, will derive and bestow great benefits therefrom. + +But sad and sickening to the enthusiast who comes to these shores, +hoping the tranquil enjoyment of intellectual blessings, and the +pure happiness of mutual love, must be a part of the scene that he +encounters at first. He has escaped from the heartlessness of courts, +to encounter the vulgarity of the mob; he has secured solitude, but +it is a lonely, a deserted solitude. Amid the abundance of nature, +he cannot, from petty, but insuperable obstacles, procure, for a long +time, comforts or a home. + +But let him come sufficiently armed with patience to learn the new +spells which the new dragons require, (and this can only be done +on the spot,) he will not finally be disappointed of the promised +treasure; the mob will resolve itself into men, yet crude, but of good +dispositions, and capable of good character; the solitude will become +sufficiently enlivened, and home grow up at last from the rich sod. + +In this transition state we found one of these homes. As we +approached, it seemed the very Eden which earth might still afford to +a pair willing to give up the hackneyed pleasures of the world for a +better and more intimate communion with one another and with beauty: +the wild road led through wide, beautiful woods, to the wilder and +more beautiful shores of the finest lake we saw. On its waters, +glittering in the morning sun, a few Indians were paddling to and fro +in their light canoes. On one of those fair knolls I have so often +mentioned stood the cottage, beneath trees which stooped as if +they yet felt brotherhood with its roof-tree. Flowers waved, birds +fluttered round, all had the sweetness of a happy seclusion; all +invited to cry to those who inhabited it, All hail, ye happy ones! + +But on entrance to those evidently rich in personal beauty, talents, +love, and courage, the aspect of things was rather sad. Sickness had +been with them, death, care, and labor; these had not yet blighted +them, but had turned their gay smiles grave. It seemed that hope and +joy had given place to resolution. How much, too, was there in them, +worthless in this place, which would have been so valuable +elsewhere! Refined graces, cultivated powers, shine in vain before +field-laborers, as laborers are in this present world; you might as +well cultivate heliotropes to present to an ox. Oxen and heliotropes +are both good, but not for one another. + +With them were some of the old means of enjoyment, the books, +the pencil, the guitar; but where the wash-tub and the axe are so +constantly in requisition, there is not much time and pliancy of hand +for these. + +In the inner room, the master of the house was seated; he had been +sitting there long, for he had injured his foot on ship-board, and his +farming had to be done by proxy. His beautiful young wife was his +only attendant and nurse, as well as a farm, housekeeper. How well +she performed hard and unaccustomed duties, the objects of her care +showed; everything that belonged to the house was rude, but neatly +arranged. The invalid, confined to an uneasy wooden chair, (they had +not been able to induce any one to bring them an easy-chair from the +town,) looked as neat and elegant as if he had been dressed by the +valet of a duke. He was of Northern blood, with clear, full blue eyes, +calm features, a tempering of the soldier, scholar, and man of the +world, in his aspect. Either various intercourses had given him that +thoroughbred look never seen in Americans, or it was inherited from +a race who had known all these disciplines. He formed a great but +pleasing contrast to his wife, whose glowing complexion and dark +yellow eye bespoke an origin in some climate more familiar with the +sun. He looked as if he could sit there a great while patiently, +and live on his own mind, biding his time; she, as if she could bear +anything for affection's sake, but would feel the weight of each +moment as it passed. + +Seeing the album full of drawings and verses, which bespoke the circle +of elegant and affectionate intercourse they had left behind, we could +not but see that the young wife sometimes must need a sister, the +husband a companion, and both must often miss that electricity which +sparkles from the chain of congenial minds. + +For mankind, a position is desirable in some degree proportioned to +education. Mr. Birkbeck was bred a farmer, but these were nurslings +of the court and city; they may persevere, for an affectionate courage +shone in their eyes, and, if so, become true lords of the soil, and +informing geniuses to those around; then, perhaps, they will feel that +they have not paid too clear for the tormented independence of the new +settler's life. But, generally, damask roses will not thrive in the +wood, and a ruder growth, if healthy and pure, we wish rather to see +there. + +I feel about these foreigners very differently from what I do about +Americans. American men and women are inexcusable if they do not bring +up children so as to be fit for vicissitudes; the meaning of our star +is, that here all men being free and equal, every man should be fitted +for freedom and an independence by his own resources wherever the +changeful wave of our mighty stream may take him. But the star of +Europe brought a different horoscope, and to mix destinies breaks the +thread of both. The Arabian horse will not plough well, nor can the +plough-horse be rode to play the jereed. Yet a man is a man wherever +he goes, and something precious cannot fail to be gained by one who +knows how to abide by a resolution of any kind, and pay the cost +without a murmur. + +Returning, the fine carriage at last fulfilled its threat of breaking +down. We took refuge in a farm-house. Here was a pleasant scene,--a +rich and beautiful estate, several happy families, who had removed +together, and formed a natural community, ready to help and enliven +one another. They were farmers at home, in Western New York, and both +men and women knew how to work. Yet even here the women did not like +the change, but they were willing, "as it might be best for the young +folks." Their hospitality was great: the houseful of women and pretty +children seemed all of one mind. + +Returning to Milwaukie much fatigued, I entertained myself: for a +day or two with reading. The book I had brought with me was in strong +contrast with, the life around, me. Very strange was this vision of +an exalted and sensitive existence, which seemed to invade the next +sphere, in contrast with the spontaneous, instinctive life, so healthy +and so near the ground I had been surveying. This was the German book +entitled:-- + +"The Seeress of Prevorst.--Revelations concerning the Inward Life of +Man, and the Projection of a World of Spirits into ours, communicated +by Justinus Kerner." + +This book, published in Germany some twelve years since, and which +called forth there plenteous dews of admiration, as plenteous +hail-storms of jeers and scorns, I never saw mentioned in any English +publication till some year or two since. Then a playful, but not +sarcastic account of it, in the Dublin Magazine, so far excited my +curiosity, that I procured the book, intending to read it so soon as I +should have some leisure days, such as this journey has afforded. + +Dr. Kerner, its author, is a man of distinction in his native land, +both as a physician and a thinker, though always on the side of +reverence, marvel, and mysticism. He was known to me only through two +or three little poems of his in Catholic legends, which I much admired +for the fine sense they showed of the beauty of symbols. + +He here gives a biography, mental and physical, of one of the +most remarkable cases of high nervous excitement that the age, +so interested in such, yet affords, with all its phenomena of +clairvoyance and susceptibility of magnetic influences. As to my own +mental positron on these subjects, it may be briefly expressed by +a dialogue between several persons who honor me with a portion of +friendly confidence and criticism, and myself, personified as _Free +Hope_. The others may be styled _Old Church_, _Good Sense_, and +_Self-Poise_. + + +DIALOGUE. + +_Good Sense._ I wonder you can take any interest in such observations +or experiments. Don't you see how almost impossible it is to make them +with any exactness, how entirely impossible to know anything about +them unless made by yourself, when the least leaven of credulity, +excited fancy, to say nothing of willing or careless imposture, +spoils the whole loaf? Beside, allowing the possibility of some clear +glimpses into a higher state of being, what do we want of it now? All +around us lies what we neither understand nor use. Our capacities, our +instincts for this our present sphere, are but half developed. Let +us confine ourselves to that till the lesson be learned; let us be +completely natural, before we trouble ourselves with the supernatural. +I never see any of these things but I long to get away and lie under +a green tree, and let the wind blow on me. There is marvel and charm +enough in that for me. + +_Free Hope._ And for me also. Nothing is truer than the Wordsworthian +creed, on which Carlyle lays such stress, that we need only look +on the miracle of every day, to sate ourselves with thought and +admiration every day. But how are our faculties sharpened to do it? +Precisely by apprehending the infinite results of every day. + +Who sees the meaning of the flower uprooted in the ploughed field? The +ploughman who does not look beyond its boundaries and does not raise +his eyes from the ground? No,--but the poet who sees that field in its +relations with the universe, and looks oftener to the sky than on the +ground. Only the dreamer shall understand realities, though, in truth, +his dreaming must be not out of proportion to his waking! + +The mind, roused powerfully by this existence, stretches of itself +into what the French sage calls the "aromal state." From the hope thus +gleaned it forms the hypothesis, under whose banner it collects its +facts. + +Long before these slight attempts were made to establish, as a science +what is at present called animal magnetism, always, in fact, men were +occupied more or less with this vital principle,--principle of +flux and influx,--dynamic of our mental mechanics,--human phase of +electricity. Poetic observation was pure, there was no quackery in its +free course, as there is so often in this wilful tampering with the +hidden springs of life, for it is tampering unless done in a patient +spirit and with severe truth; yet it may be, by the rude or greedy +miners, some good ore is unearthed. And some there are who work in +the true temper, patient and accurate in trial, not rushing to +conclusions, feeling there is a mystery, not eager to call it by name +till they can know it as a reality: such may learn, such may teach. + +Subject to the sudden revelations, the breaks in habitual existence, +caused by the aspect of death, the touch of love, the flood of music, +I never lived, that I remember, what you call a common natural day. +All my days are touched by the supernatural, for I feel the pressure +of hidden causes, and the presence, sometimes the communion, of unseen +powers. It needs not that I should ask the clairvoyant whether "a +spirit-world projects into ours." As to the specific evidence, I would +not tarnish my mind by hasty reception. The mind is not, I know, a +highway, but a temple, and its doors should not be carelessly left +open. Yet it were sin, if indolence or coldness excluded what had a +claim to enter; and I doubt whether, in the eyes of pure intelligence, +an ill-grounded hasty rejection be not a greater sign of weakness than +an ill-grounded and hasty faith. + +I will quote, as my best plea, the saying of a man old in years, but +not in heart, and whose long life has been distinguished by that +clear adaptation of means to ends which gives the credit of practical +wisdom. He wrote to his child, "I have lived too long, and seen too +much, to be _in_ credulous." Noble the thought, no less so its frank +expression, instead of saws of caution, mean advices, and other modern +instances. Such was the romance of Socrates when he bade his disciples +"sacrifice a cock to Æsculapius." + +_Old Church._ You are always so quick-witted and voluble, Free Hope, +you don't get time to see how often you err, and even, perhaps, sin +and blaspheme. The Author of all has intended to confine our knowledge +within certain boundaries, has given us a short span of time for +a certain probation, for which our faculties are adapted. By wild +speculation and intemperate curiosity we violate His will, and incur +dangerous, perhaps fatal, consequences. We waste our powers, and, +becoming morbid and visionary, are unfitted to obey positive precepts, +and perform positive duties. + +_Free Hope._ I do not see how it is possible to go further beyond the +results of a limited human experience than those do who pretend to +settle the origin and nature of sin, the final destiny of souls, and +the whole plan of the Causal Spirit with regard to them. I think those +who take your view have not examined themselves, and do not know the +ground on which they stand. + +I acknowledge no limit, set up by man's opinion, as to the capacities +of man. "Care is taken," I see it, "that the trees grow not up into +heaven"; but, to me it seems, the more vigorously they aspire, the +better. Only let it be a vigorous, not a partial or sickly aspiration. +Let not the tree forget its root. + +So long as the child insists on knowing where its dead parent is, so +long as bright eyes weep at mysterious pressures, too heavy for the +life, so long as that impulse is constantly arising which made the +Roman emperor address his soul in a strain of such touching softness, +vanishing from, the thought, as the column of smoke from the eye, I +know of no inquiry which the impulse of man suggests that is forbidden +to the resolution of man to pursue. In every inquiry, unless sustained +by a pure and reverent spirit, he gropes in the dark, or falls +headlong. + +_Self-Poise._ All this may be very true, but what is the use of all +this straining? Far-sought is dear-bought. When we know that all is in +each, and that the ordinary contains the extraordinary, why should we +play the baby, and insist upon having the moon for a toy when a tin +dish will do as well? Our deep ignorance is a chasm that we can only +fill up by degrees, but the commonest rubbish will help us as well +as shred silk. The god Brahma, while on earth, was set to fill up a +valley, but he had only a basket given him in which to fetch earth for +this purpose; so is it with us all. No leaps, no starts, will avail +us; by patient crystallization alone, the equal temper of wisdom is +attainable. Sit at home, and the spirit-world will look in at your +window with moonlit eyes; run out to find it, and rainbow and golden +cup will have vanished, and left you the beggarly child you were. The +better part of wisdom is a sublime prudence, a pure and patient truth, +that will receive nothing it is not sure it can permanently lay to +heart. Of our study, there should be in proportion two thirds of +rejection to one of acceptance. And, amid the manifold infatuations +and illusions of this world of emotion, a being capable of clear +intelligence can do no better service than to hold himself upright, +avoid nonsense, and do what chores lie in his way, acknowledging every +moment that primal truth, which no fact exhibits, nor, if pressed by +too warm a hope, will even indicate. I think, indeed, it is part of +our lesson to give a formal consent to what is farcical, and to +pick up our living and our virtue amid what is so ridiculous, hardly +deigning a smile, and certainly not vexed. The work is done through +all, if not by every one. + +_Free Hope._ Thou art greatly wise, my friend, and ever respected by +me, yet I find not in your theory or your scope room enough for the +lyric inspirations or the mysterious whispers of life. To me it +seems that it is madder never to abandon one's self, than often to be +infatuated; better to be wounded, a captive, and a slave, than always +to walk in armor. As to magnetism, that is only a matter of fancy. You +sometimes need just such a field in which to wander vagrant, and if it +bear a higher name, yet it may be that, in last result, the trance of +Pythagoras might be classed with the more infantine transports of the +Seeress of Prevorst. + +What is done interests me more than what is thought and supposed. +Every fact is impure, but every fact contains in it the juices of +life. Every fact is a clod, from which may grow an amaranth or a palm. + +Climb you the snowy peaks whence come the streams, where the +atmosphere is rare, where you can see the sky nearer, from which you +can get a commanding view of the landscape? I see great disadvantages +as well as advantages in this dignified position. I had rather walk +myself through all kinds of places, even at the risk of being robbed +in the forest, half drowned at the ford, and covered with dust in the +street. + +I would beat with the living heart of the world, and understand all +the moods, even the fancies or fantasies, of nature. I dare to +trust to the interpreting spirit to bring me out all right at +last,--establish truth through error. + +Whether this be the best way is of no consequence, if it be the one +individual character points out. + + For one, like me, it would be vain + From glittering heights the eyes to strain; + I the truth can only know, + Tested by life's most fiery glow. + Seeds of thought will never thrive, + Till dews of love shall bid them live. + +Let me stand in my age with all its waters flowing round me. If +they sometimes subdue, they must finally upbear me, for I seek the +universal,--and that must be the best. + +The Spirit, no doubt, leads in every movement of my time: if I seek +the How, I shall find it, as well as if I busied myself more with the +Why. + +Whatever is, is right, if only men are steadily bent to make it so, by +comprehending and fulfilling its design. + +May not I have an office, too, in my hospitality and ready sympathy? +If I sometimes entertain guests who cannot pay with gold coin, +with "fair rose nobles," that is better than to lose the chance of +entertaining angels unawares. + +You, my three friends, are held, in heart-honor, by me. You, +especially, Good Sense, because where you do not go yourself, you do +not object to another's going, if he will. You are really liberal. +You, Old Church, are of use, by keeping unforgot the effigies of old +religion, and reviving the tone of pure Spenserian sentiment, which +this time is apt to stifle in its childish haste. But you are very +faulty in censuring and wishing to limit others by your own +standard. You, Self-Poise, fill a priestly office. Could but a larger +intelligence of the vocations of others, and a tender sympathy with +their individual natures, be added, had you more of love, or more of +apprehensive genius, (for either would give you the needed expansion +and delicacy,) you would command my entire reverence. As it is, I must +at times deny and oppose you, and so must others, for you tend, by +your influence, to exclude us from our full, free life. We must +be content when you censure, and rejoiced when you approve; always +admonished to good by your whole being, and sometimes by your +judgment. + + * * * * * + +Do not blame me that I have written so much suggested by the German +seeress, while you were looking for news of the West. Here on the +pier, I see disembarking the Germans, the Norwegians, the Swedes, the +Swiss. Who knows how much of old legendary lore, of modern wonder, +they have already planted amid the Wisconsin forests? Soon, their +tales of the origin of things, and the Providence which rules them, +will be so mingled with those of the Indian, that the very oak-tree +will not know them apart,--will not know whether itself be a Runic, a +Druid, or a Winnebago oak. + +Some seeds of all growths that have ever been known in this world +might, no doubt, already be found in these Western wilds, if we had +the power to call them to life. + +I saw, in the newspaper, that the American Tract Society boasted of +their agent's having exchanged, at a Western cabin door, tracts for +the "Devil on Two Sticks," and then burnt that more entertaining than +edifying volume. No wonder, though, they study it there. Could one +but have the gift of reading the dreams dreamed by men of such various +birth, various history, various mind, it would afford much, more +extensive amusement than did the chambers of one Spanish city! + +Could I but have flown at night through such mental experiences, +instead of being shut up in my little bedroom at the Milwaukie +boarding-house, this chapter would have been worth reading. As it is, +let us hasten to a close. + +Had I been rich in money, I might have built a house, or set up in +business, during my fortnight's stay at Milwaukie, matters move on +there at so rapid a rate. But being only rich in curiosity, I was +obliged to walk the streets and pick up what I could in casual +intercourse. When I left the street, indeed, and walked on the bluffs, +or sat beside the lake in their shadow, my mind was rich in dreams +congenial to the scene, some time to be realized, though not by me. + +A boat was left, keel up, half on the sand, half in the water, swaying +with each swell of the lake. It gave a picturesque grace to that part +of the shore, as the only image of inaction,--only object of a pensive +character to be seen. Near this I sat, to dream my dreams and watch +the colors of the lake, changing hourly, till the sun sank. These +hours yielded impulses, wove webs, such as life will not again afford. + +Returning to the boarding-house, which was also a boarding-school, we +were sure to be greeted by gay laughter. + +This school was conducted by two girls of nineteen and seventeen +years; their pupils were nearly as old as themselves. The relation +seemed very pleasant between them; the only superiority--that of +superior knowledge--was sufficient to maintain authority,--all the +authority that was needed to keep daily life in good order. + +In the West, people are not respected merely because they are old in +years; people there have not time to keep up appearances in that way; +when persons cease to have a real advantage in wisdom, knowledge, +or enterprise, they must stand back, and let those who are oldest in +character "go ahead," however few years they may count. There are no +banks of established respectability in which to bury the talent there; +no napkin of precedent in which to wrap it. What cannot be made to +pass current, is not esteemed coin of the realm. + +To the windows of this house, where the daughter of a famous "Indian +fighter," i.e. fighter against the Indians, was learning French, and +the piano, came wild, tawny figures, offering for sale their baskets +of berries. The boys now, instead of brandishing the tomahawk, tame +their hands to pick raspberries. + +Here the evenings were much lightened by the gay chat of one of the +party, who with the excellent practical sense of mature experience, +and the kindest heart, united a _naïveté_ and innocence such as I +never saw in any other who had walked so long life's tangled path. +Like a child, she was everywhere at home, and, like a child, received +and bestowed entertainment from all places, all persons. I thanked her +for making me laugh, as did the sick and poor, whom she was sure to +find out in her briefest sojourn in any place, for more substantial +aid. Happy are those who never grieve, and so often aid and enliven +their fellow-men! + +This scene, however, I was not sorry to exchange for the much +celebrated beauties of the island of Mackinaw. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +MACKINAW.--INDIANS.--INDIAN WOMEN.--EVERETT'S RECEPTION OF +CHIEFS.--UNFITNESS OF INDIAN MISSIONARIES.--OUR DUTIES TOWARD THIS +RACE. + + +Late at night we reached this island of Mackinaw, so famous for its +beauty, and to which I proposed a visit of some length. It was the +last week in August, at which, time a large representation from the +Chippewa and Ottawa tribes are here to receive their annual payments +from the American government. As their habits make travelling easy and +inexpensive to them, neither being obliged to wait for steamboats, or +write to see whether hotels are full, they come hither by thousands, +and those thousands in families, secure of accommodation on the beach, +and food from the lake, to make a long holiday out of the occasion. +There were near two thousand encamped on the island already, and more +arriving every day. + +As our boat came in, the captain had some rockets let off. This +greatly excited the Indians, and their yells and wild cries resounded +along the shore. Except for the momentary flash of the rockets, it +was perfectly dark, and my sensations as I walked with a stranger to a +strange hotel, through the midst of these shrieking savages, and heard +the pants and snorts of the departing steamer, which carried, away +all my companions, were somewhat of the dismal sort; though it was +pleasant, too, in the way that everything strange is; everything that +breaks in upon the routine that so easily incrusts us. + +I had reason to expect a room to myself at the hotel, but found +none, and was obliged to take up my rest in the common parlor and +eating-room, a circumstance which insured my being an early riser. + +With the first rosy streak, I was out among my Indian neighbors, whose +lodges honeycombed the beautiful beach, that curved away in long, fair +outline on either side the house. They were already on the alert, the +children creeping out from beneath the blanket door of the lodge, the +women pounding corn in their rude mortars, the young men playing on +their pipes. I had been much amused, when the strain proper to the +Winnebago courting flute was played to me on another instrument, at +any one fancying it a melody; but now, when I heard the notes in +their true tone and time, I thought it not unworthy comparison, in +its graceful sequence, and the light flourish at the close, with the +sweetest bird-song; and this, like the bird-song, is only practised +to allure a mate. The Indian, become a citizen and a husband, no more +thinks of playing the flute, than one of the "settled-down" members of +our society would, of choosing the "purple light of love" as dye-stuff +for a surtout. + +Mackinaw has been fully described by able pens, and I can only add my +tribute to the exceeding beauty of the spot and its position. It is +charming to be on an island so small that you can sail round it in an +afternoon, yet large enough to admit of long, secluded walks through +its gentle groves. You can go round it in your boat; or, on foot, you +can tread its narrow beach, resting, at times, beneath the lofty walls +of stone, richly wooded, which rise from it in various architectural +forms. In this stone, caves are continually forming, from the action +of the atmosphere; one of these is quite deep, and a rocky fragment +left at its mouth, wreathed with little creeping plants, looks, as you +sit within, like a ruined pillar. + +The arched rock surprised me, much as I had heard of it, from, the +perfection of the arch. It is perfect, whether you look up through it +from the lake, or down through it to the transparent waters. We both +ascended and descended--no very easy matter--the steep and crumbling +path, and rested at the summit, beneath the trees, and at the foot, +upon the cool, mossy stones beside the lapsing wave. Nature has +carefully decorated all this architecture with shrubs that take root +within the crevices, and small creeping vines. These natural ruins may +vie for beautiful effect with the remains of European grandeur, and +have, beside, a charm as of a playful mood in Nature. + +The sugar-loaf rock is a fragment in the same kind as the pine rock +we saw in Illinois. It has the same air of a helmet, as seen from an +eminence at the side, which you descend by a long and steep path. The +rock itself may be ascended by the bold and agile: half-way up is a +niche, to which those who are neither can climb by a ladder. A very +handsome young officer and lady who were with us did so, and then, +facing round, stood there side by side, looking in the niche, if +not like saints or angels wrought by pious hands in stone, as +romantically, if not as holily, worthy the gazer's eye. + +The woods which adorn the central ridge of the island are very full +in foliage, and, in August, showed the tender green and pliant leaf +of June elsewhere. They are rich in beautiful mosses and the wild +raspberry. + +From Fort Holmes, the old fort, we had the most commanding view of the +lake and straits, opposite shores, and fair islets. Mackinaw itself is +best seen from the water. Its peculiar shape is supposed to have been +the origin of its name, Michilimackinac, which means the Great Turtle. +One person whom I saw wished to establish another etymology, which he +fancied to be more refined; but, I doubt not, this is the true one, +both because the shape might suggest such a name, and the existence +of an island of such form in this commanding position would seem +a significant fact to the Indians. For Henry gives the details of +peculiar worship paid to the Great Turtle, and the oracles received +from this extraordinary Apollo of the Indian Delphos. + +It is crowned, most picturesquely, by the white fort, with its gay +flag. From this, on one side, stretches the town. How pleasing a +sight, after the raw, crude, staring assemblage of houses everywhere +else to be met in this country, is an old French town, mellow in +its coloring, and with the harmonious effect of a slow growth, which +assimilates, naturally, with objects round it! The people in its +streets, Indian, French, half-breeds, and others, walked with a +leisure step, as of those who live a life of taste and inclination, +rather than of the hard press of business, as in American towns +elsewhere. + +On the other side, along the fair, curving beach, below the white +houses scattered on the declivity, clustered the Indian lodges, with +their amber-brown matting, so soft and bright of hue, in the late +afternoon sun. The first afternoon I was there, looking down from +a near height, I felt that I never wished to see a more fascinating +picture. It was an hour of the deepest serenity; bright blue and gold, +with rich shadows. Every moment the sunlight fell more mellow. +The Indians were grouped and scattered among the lodges; the women +preparing food, in the kettle or frying-pan, over the many small +fires; the children, half naked, wild as little goblins, were playing +both in and out of the water. Here and there lounged a young girl, +with a baby at her back, whose bright eyes glanced, as if born into a +world of courage and of joy, instead of ignominious servitude and slow +decay. Some girls were cutting wood, a little way from me, talking and +laughing, in the low musical tone, so charming in the Indian women. +Many bark canoes were upturned upon the beach, and, by that light, of +almost the same amber as the lodges; others coming in, their square +sails set, and with almost arrowy speed, though heavily laden with +dusky forms, and all the apparatus of their household. Here and there +a sail-boat glided by, with a different but scarce less pleasing +motion. + +It was a scene of ideal loveliness, and these wild forms adorned it, +as looking so at home in it. All seemed happy, and they were happy +that day, for they had no fire-water to madden them, as it was Sunday, +and the shops were shut. + +From my window, at the boarding-house, my eye was constantly attracted +by these picturesque groups. I was never tired of seeing the canoes +come in, and the new arrivals set up their temporary dwellings. The +women ran to set up the tent-poles, and spread the mats on the ground. +The men brought the chests, kettles, &c.; the mats were then laid on +the outside, the cedar-boughs strewed on the ground, the blanket hung +up for a door, and all was completed in less than twenty minutes. Then +they began to prepare the night meal, and to learn of their neighbors +the news of the day. + +The habit of preparing food out of doors gave all the gypsy charm and +variety to their conduct. Continually I wanted Sir Walter Scott to +have been there. If such romantic sketches were suggested to him, by +the sight of a few gypsies, not a group near one of these fires but +would have furnished him material for a separate canvas. I was so +taken up with the spirit of the scene, that I could not follow out +the stories suggested by these weather-beaten, sullen, but eloquent +figures. + +They talked a great deal, and with much, variety of gesture, so that I +often had a good guess at the meaning of their discourse. I saw +that, whatever the Indian may be among the whites, he is anything but +taciturn with his own people; and he often would declaim, or narrate +at length. Indeed, it is obvious, if only from the fables taken from +their stores by Mr. Schoolcraft, that these tribes possess great power +that way. + +I liked very much, to walk or sit among them. With, the women I held +much communication by signs. They are almost invariably coarse and +ugly, with the exception of their eyes, with a peculiarly awkward +gait, and forms bent by burdens. This gait, so different from the +steady and noble step of the men, marks the inferior position +they occupy. I had heard much eloquent contradiction of this. Mrs. +Schoolcraft had maintained to a friend, that they were in fact as +nearly on a par with their husbands as the white woman with hers. +"Although," said she, "on account of inevitable causes, the Indian +woman is subjected to many hardships of a peculiar nature, yet her +position, compared with that of the man, is higher and freer than that +of the white woman. Why will people look only on one side? They either +exalt the red man into a demigod, or degrade him into a beast. They +say that he compels his wife to do all the drudgery, while he does +nothing but hunt and amuse himself; forgetting that upon his activity +and power of endurance as a hunter depends the support of his +family; that this is labor of the most fatiguing kind, and that it is +absolutely necessary that he should keep his frame unbent by burdens +and unworn by toil, that he may be able to obtain the means of +subsistence. I have witnessed scenes of conjugal and parental love +in the Indian's wigwam, from, which I have often, often thought the +educated white man, proud of his superior civilization, might learn a +useful lesson. When he returns from hunting, worn out with, fatigue, +having tasted nothing since dawn, his wife, if she is a good wife, +will take off his moccasons and replace them with dry ones, and will +prepare his game for their repast, while his children will climb upon +him, and he will caress them, with all the tenderness of a woman; and +in the evening the Indian wigwam is the scene of the purest domestic +pleasures. The father will relate, for the amusement of the wife and +for the instruction of the children, all the events of the day's hunt, +while they will treasure up every word that falls, and thus learn +the theory of the art whose practice is to be the occupation of their +lives." + +Mrs. Grant speaks thus of the position of woman amid the Mohawk +Indians:-- + +"Lady Mary Montague says, that the court of Vienna was the paradise of +old women, and that there is no other place in the world where a woman +past fifty excites the least interest. Had her travels extended to +the interior of North America, she would have seen another instance of +this inversion of the common mode of thinking. Here a woman never was +of consequence, till sire had a son old enough to fight the battles of +his country. From, that date she held a superior rank in society; was +allowed to live at ease, and even called to consultations on national +affairs. In savage and warlike countries, the reign of beauty is very +short, and its influence comparatively limited. The girls in childhood +had a very pleasing appearance; but excepting their fine hair, +eyes, and teeth, every external grace was soon banished by perpetual +drudgery, carrying burdens too heavy to be borne, and other slavish +employments, considered beneath the dignity of the men. These walked +before, erect and graceful, decked with ornaments which set off to +advantage the symmetry of their well-formed persons, while the poor +women followed, meanly attired, bent under the weight of the children +and the utensils, which they carried everywhere with, them, and +disfigured and degraded by ceaseless toils. They were very early +married, for a Mohawk had no other servant but his wife; and whenever +he commenced hunter, it was requisite he should have some one to carry +his load, cook his kettle, make his moccasons, and, above all, produce +the young warriors who were to succeed him in the honors of the chase +and of the tomahawk. Wherever man is a mere hunter, woman is a mere +slave. It is domestic intercourse that softens man, and elevates +woman; and of that there can be but little, where the employments +and amusements are not in common. The ancient Caledonians honored the +fair; but then it is to be observed, they were fair huntresses, +and moved in the light of their beauty to the hill of roes; and the +culinary toils were entirely left to the rougher sex. When the young +warrior made his appearance, it softened the cares of his mother, who +well knew that, when he grew up, every deficiency in tenderness to his +wife would be made up in superabundant duty and affection to her. If +it were possible to carry filial veneration to excess, it was done +here; for all other charities were absorbed in it. I wonder this +system of depressing the sex in their early years, to exalt them, +when all their juvenile attractions are flown, and when mind alone +can distinguish them, has not occurred to our modern reformers. +The Mohawks took good care not to admit their women to share their +prerogatives, till they approved themselves good wives and mothers." + +The observations of women upon the position of woman are always more +valuable than those of men; but, of these two, Mrs. Grant's seem +much, nearer the truth than Mrs. Schoolcraft's, because, though her +opportunities for observation did not bring her so close, she looked +more at both sides to find the truth. + +Carver, in his travels among the Winnebagoes, describes two queens, +one nominally so, like Queen Victoria; the other invested with a +genuine royalty, springing from her own conduct. + +In the great town of the Winnebagoes, he found a queen presiding over +the tribe, instead of a sachem. He adds, that, in some tribes, the +descent is given to the female line in preference to the male, that +is, a sister's son will succeed to the authority, rather than a +brother's son. The position of this Winnebago queen reminded me +forcibly of Queen Victoria's. + +"She sat in the council, but only asked a few questions, or gave some +trifling directions in matters relative to the state, for women are +never allowed to sit in their councils, except they happen to be +invested with the supreme authority, and then it is not customary for +them to make any formal speeches, as the chiefs do. She was a very +ancient woman, small in stature, and not much distinguished by +her dress from several young women that attended her. These, her +attendants, seemed greatly pleased whenever I showed any tokens +of respect to their queen, especially when I saluted her, which I +frequently did to acquire her favor." + +The other was a woman, who, being taken captive, found means to kill +her captor, and make her escape; and the tribe were so struck with +admiration at the courage and calmness she displayed on the occasion, +as to make her chieftainess in her own light. + +Notwithstanding the homage paid to women, and the consequence allowed +them in some cases, it is impossible to look upon the Indian women +without feeling that they _do_ occupy a lower place than women among +the nations of European civilization. The habits of drudgery expressed +in their form and gesture, the soft and wild but melancholy expression +of their eye, reminded me of the tribe mentioned by Mackenzie, where +the women destroy their female children, whenever they have a good +opportunity; and of the eloquent reproaches addressed by the Paraguay +woman to her mother, that she had not, in the same way, saved her from +the anguish and weariness of her lot. + +More weariness than anguish, no doubt, falls to the lot of most of +these women. They inherit submission, and the minds of the generality +accommodate themselves more or less to any posture. Perhaps they +suffer less than their white sisters, who have more aspiration and +refinement, with little power of self-sustenance. But their place is +certainly lower, and their share of the human inheritance less. + +Their decorum and delicacy are striking, and show that, when these are +native to the mind, no habits of life make any difference. Their whole +gesture is timid, yet self-possessed. They used to crowd round me, to +inspect little things I had to show them, but never press near; on the +contrary, would reprove and keep off the children. Anything they took +from my hand was held with care, then shut or folded, and returned +with an air of lady-like precision. They would not stare, however +curious they might be, but cast sidelong glances. + +A locket that I wore was an object of untiring interest; they seemed +to regard it as a talisman. My little sun-shade was still more +fascinating to them; apparently they had never before seen one. For an +umbrella they entertained profound regard, probably looking upon it as +the most luxurious superfluity a person can possess, and therefore a +badge of great wealth. I used to see an old squaw, whose sullied +skin and coarse, tanned locks told that she had braved sun and storm, +without a doubt or care, for sixty years at least, sitting gravely at +the door of her lodge, with an old green umbrella over her head, happy +for hours together in the dignified shade. For her happiness pomp +came not, as it so often does, too late; she received it with grateful +enjoyment. + +One day, as I was seated on one of the canoes, a woman came and sat +beside me, with her baby in its cradle set up at her feet. She asked +me by a gesture to let her take my sun-shade, and then to show her how +to open it. Then she put it into her baby's hand, and held it over +its head, looking at me the while with a sweet, mischievous laugh, as +much, as to say, "You carry a thing that is only fit for a baby." Her +pantomime was very pretty. She, like the other women, had a glance, +and shy, sweet expression in the eye; the men have a steady gaze. + +That noblest and loveliest of modern Preux, Lord Edward Fitzgerald, +who came through Buffalo to Detroit and Mackinaw, with Brant, and was +adopted into the Bear tribe by the name of Eghnidal, was struck in +the same way by the delicacy of manners in women. He says: +"Notwithstanding the life they lead, which would make most women rough +and masculine, they are as soft, meek, and modest as the best brought +up girls in England. Somewhat coquettish too! Imagine the manners of +Mimi in a poor _squaw_, that has been carrying packs in the woods all +her life." + +McKenney mentions that the young wife, during the short bloom of her +beauty, is an object of homage and tenderness to her husband. One +Indian woman, the Flying Pigeon, a beautiful and excellent person, of +whom he gives some particulars, is an instance of the power uncommon +characters will always exert of breaking down the barriers custom has +erected round them. She captivated by her charms, and inspired her +husband and son with, reverence for her character. The simple praise +with which the husband indicates the religion, the judgment, and the +generosity he saw in her, are as satisfying as Count Zinzendorf's more +labored eulogium on his "noble consort." The conduct of her son, +when, many years after her death, he saw her picture at Washington, is +unspeakably affecting. Catlin gives anecdotes of the grief of a +chief for the loss of a daughter, and the princely gifts he offers +in exchange for her portrait, worthy not merely of European, but of +Troubadour sentiment. It is also evident that, as Mrs. Schoolcraft +says, the women have great power at home. It can never be otherwise, +men being dependent upon them for the comfort of their lives. Just +so among ourselves, wives who are neither esteemed nor loved by their +husbands have great power over their conduct by the friction of +every day, and over the formation of their opinions by the daily +opportunities so close a relation affords of perverting testimony +and instilling doubts. But these sentiments should not come in brief +flashes, but burn as a steady flame; then there would be more women +worthy to inspire them. This power is good for nothing, unless the +woman be wise to use it aright. Has the Indian, has the white woman, +as noble a feeling of life and its uses, as religious a self-respect, +as worthy a field of thought and action, as man? If not, the white +woman, the Indian woman, occupies a position inferior to that of man. +It is not so much a question of power, as of privilege. + +The men of these subjugated tribes, now accustomed to drunkenness and +every way degraded, bear but a faint impress of the lost grandeur of +the race. They are no longer strong, tall, or finely proportioned. +Yet, as you see them stealing along a height, or striding boldly +forward, they remind you of what _was_ majestic in the red man. + +On the shores of Lake Superior, it is said, if you visit them at +home, you may still see a remnant of the noble blood. The Pillagers +(Pilleurs), a band celebrated by the old travellers, are still +existent there. + + "Still some, 'the eagles of their tribe,' may rush." + +I have spoken of the hatred felt by the white man for the Indian: with +white women it seems to amount to disgust, to loathing. How I could +endure the dirt, the peculiar smell, of the Indians, and their +dwellings, was a great marvel in the eyes of my lady acquaintance; +indeed, I wonder why they did not quite give me up, as they certainly +looked on me with great distaste for it. "Get you gone, you Indian +dog," was the felt, if not the breathed, expression towards the +hapless owners of the soil;--all their claims, all their sorrows quite +forgot, in abhorrence of their dirt, their tawny skins, and the vices +the whites have taught them. + +A person who had seen them during great part of a life expressed his +prejudices to me with such violence, that I was no longer surprised +that the Indian children threw sticks at him, as he passed. A lady +said: "Do what you will for them, they will be ungrateful. The savage +cannot be washed out of them. Bring up an Indian child, and see if you +can attach it to you." The next moment, she expressed, in the presence +of one of those children whom she was bringing up, loathing at the +odor left by one of her people, and one of the most respected, as +he passed through the room. When the child is grown, she will be +considered basely ungrateful not to love the lady, as she certainly +will not; and this will be cited as an instance of the impossibility +of attaching the Indian. + +Whether the Indian could, by any efforts of love and intelligence +from, the white man, have been civilized and made a valuable +ingredient in the new state, I will not say; but this we are sure +of,--the French Catholics, at least, did not harm them, nor disturb +their minds merely to corrupt them. The French, they loved. But the +stern Presbyterian, with his dogmas and his task-work, the city circle +and the college, with their niggard concessions and unfeeling stare, +have never tried the experiment. It has not been tried. Our people and +our government have sinned alike against the first-born of the +soil, and if they are the fated agents of a new era, they have done +nothing,--have invoked no god to keep them sinless while they do the +hest of fate. + +Worst of all is it, when they invoke the holy power only to mask their +iniquity; when the felon trader, who, all the week, has been besotting +and degrading the Indian with rum mixed with red pepper, and damaged +tobacco, kneels with him on Sunday before a common altar, to tell +the rosary which recalls the thought of Him crucified for love of +suffering men, and to listen to sermons in praise of "purity"!! + +"My savage friends," cries the old, fat priest, "you must, above all +things, aim at _purity_." + +Oh! my heart swelled when I saw them in a Christian church. Better +their own dog-feasts and bloody rites than such mockery of that other +faith. + +"The dog," said an Indian, "was once a spirit; he has fallen for his +sin, and was given by the Great Spirit, in this shape, to man, as his +most intelligent companion. Therefore we sacrifice it in highest honor +to our friends in this world,--to our protecting geniuses in another." + +There was religion in that thought. The white man sacrifices his own +brother, and to Mammon, yet he turns in loathing from, the dog-feast. + +"You say," said the Indian of the South to the missionary, "that +Christianity is pleasing to God. How can that be?--Those men at +Savannah are Christians." + +Yes! slave-drivers and Indian traders are called Christians, and the +Indian is to be deemed less like the Son of Mary than they! Wonderful +is the deceit of man's heart! + +I have not, on seeing something of them in their own haunts, found +reason to change the sentiments expressed in the following lines, when +a deputation of the Sacs and Foxes visited Boston in 1837, and were, +by one person at least, received in a dignified and courteous manner. + + +GOVERNOR EVERETT RECEIVING THE INDIAN CHIEFS, + +NOVEMBER, 1837. + + Who says that Poesy is on the wane, + And that the Muses tune their lyres in vain? + 'Mid all the treasures of romantic story, + When thought was fresh and fancy in her glory, + Has ever Art found out a richer theme, + More dark a shadow, or more soft a gleam, + Than fall upon the scene, sketched carelessly, + In the newspaper column of to-day? + + American romance is somewhat stale. + Talk of the hatchet, and the faces pale, + Wampum and calumets and forests dreary, + Once so attractive, now begins to weary. + Uncas and Magawisca please us still, + Unreal, yet idealized with skill; + But every poetaster, scribbling witling, + From the majestic oak his stylus whittling, + Has helped to tire us, and to make us fear + The monotone in which so much we hear + Of "stoics of the wood," and "men without a tear." + + Yet Nature, ever buoyant, ever young, + If let alone, will sing as erst she sung; + The course of circumstance gives back again + The Picturesque, erewhile pursued in vain; + Shows us the fount of Romance is not wasted,-- + The lights and shades of contrast not exhausted. + + Shorn of his strength, the Samson now must sue + For fragments from the feast his fathers gave; + The Indian dare not claim what is his due, + But as a boon his heritage must crave; + His stately form shall soon be seen no more + Through all his father's land, the Atlantic shore; + Beneath the sun, to _us_ so kind, _they_ melt, + More heavily each day our rule is felt. + The tale is old,--we do as mortals must: + Might makes right here, but God and Time are just. + + Though, near the drama hastens to its close, + On this last scene awhile your eyes repose; + The polished Greek and Scythian meet again, + The ancient life is lived by modern men; + The savage through our busy cities walks, + He in his untouched, grandeur silent stalks. + Unmoved by all our gayeties and shows, + Wonder nor shame can touch him as he goes; + He gazes on the marvels we have wrought, + But knows the models from whence all was brought; + In God's first temples he has stood so oft, + And listened to the natural organ-loft, + Has watched the eagle's flight, the muttering thunder heard. + Art cannot move him to a wondering word. + Perhaps he sees that all this luxury + Brings less food to the mind than to the eye; + Perhaps a simple sentiment has brought + More to him than your arts had ever taught. + What are the petty triumphs _Art_ has given, + To eyes familiar with the naked heaven? + + All has been seen,--dock, railroad, and canal, + Fort, market, bridge, college, and arsenal, + Asylum, hospital, and cotton-mill, + The theatre, the lighthouse, and the jail. + The Braves each novelty, reflecting, saw, + And now and then growled out the earnest "_Yaw_." + And now the time is come, 'tis understood, + When, having seen and thought so much, a _talk_ may do some good. + + A well-dressed mob have thronged the sight to greet, + And motley figures throng the spacious street; + Majestical and calm through all they stride, + Wearing the blanket with a monarch's pride; + The gazers stare and shrug, but can't deny + Their noble forms and blameless symmetry. + If the Great Spirit their _morale_ has slighted, + And wigwam smoke their mental culture blighted, + Yet the _physique_, at least, perfection reaches, + In wilds where neither Combe nor Spurzheim teaches; + Where whispering trees invite man to the chase, + And bounding deer allure him to the race. + + Would thou hadst seen it! That dark, stately band, + Whose ancestors enjoyed all this fair land, + Whence they, by force or fraud, were made to flee, + Are brought, the white man's victory to see. + Can kind emotions in their proud hearts glow, + As through these realms, now decked by Art, they go? + The church, the school, the railroad, and the mart,-- + Can these a pleasure to their minds impart? + All once was theirs,--earth, ocean, forest, sky,-- + How can they joy in what now meets the eye? + Not yet Religion has unlocked the soul, + Nor Each has learned to glory in the Whole! + + Must they not think, so strange and sad their lot, + That they by the Great Spirit are forgot? + From the far border to which they are driven, + They might look up in trust to the clear heaven; + But _here_,--what tales doth every object tell + Where Massasoit sleeps, where Philip fell! + + We take our turn, and the Philosopher + Sees through the clouds a hand which cannot err + An unimproving race, with all their graces + And all their vices, must resign their places; + And Human Culture rolls its onward flood + Over the broad plains steeped in Indian blood + Such thoughts steady our faith; yet there will rise + Some natural tears into the calmest eyes,-- + Which gaze where forest princes haughty go, + Made for a gaping crowd a raree-show. + + But _this_ a scene seems where, in courtesy, + The pale face with the forest prince could vie, + For one presided, who, for tact and grace, + In any age had held an honored place,-- + In Beauty's own dear day had shone a polished Phidian vase! + + Oft have I listened to his accents bland, + And owned the magic of his silvery voice, + In all the graces which life's arts demand, + Delighted by the justness of his choice. + Not his the stream of lavish, fervid thought,-- + The rhetoric by passion's magic wrought; + Not his the massive style, the lion port, + Which with the granite class of mind assort; + But, in a range of excellence his own, + With all the charms to soft persuasion known, + Amid our busy people we admire him,--"elegant and lone." + + He scarce needs words: so exquisite the skill + Which modulates the tones to do his will, + That the mere sound enough would charm the ear, + And lap in its Elysium all who hear. + The intellectual paleness of his cheek, + The heavy eyelids and slow, tranquil smile, + The well-cut lips from which the graces speak, + Pit him alike to win or to beguile; + Then those words so well chosen, fit, though few, + Their linked sweetness as our thoughts pursue, + We deem them spoken pearls, or radiant diamond dew. + + And never yet did I admire the power + Which makes so lustrous every threadbare theme,-- + Which won for La Fayette one other hour, + And e'en on July Fourth could cast a gleam,-- + As now, when I behold him play the host, + With all the dignity which red men boast,-- + With all the courtesy the whites have lost; + Assume the very hue of savage mind, + Yet in rude accents show the thought refined; + Assume the _naïveté_ of infant age, + And in such prattle seem still more a sage; + The golden mean with tact unerring seized, + A courtly critic shone, a simple savage pleased. + The stoic of the woods his skill confessed, + As all the father answered in his breast; + To the sure mark the silver arrow sped, + The "man without a tear" a tear has shed; + And them hadst wept, hadst thou been there, to see + How true one sentiment must ever be, + In court or camp, the city or the wild,-- + To rouse the father's heart, you need but name his child. + +The speech of Governor Everett on that occasion was admirable; as I +think, the happiest attempt ever made to meet the Indian in his own +way, and catch the tone of his mind. It was said, in the newspapers, +that Keokuck did actually shed tears when addressed as a father. If he +did not with his eyes, he well might in his heart. + +Not often have they been addressed with such intelligence and tact. +The few who have not approached them with sordid rapacity, but from +love to them, as men having souls to be redeemed, have most frequently +been persons intellectually too narrow, too straitly bound in sects +or opinions, to throw themselves into the character or position of +the Indians, or impart to them anything they can make available. The +Christ shown them by these missionaries is to them but a new and more +powerful Manito; the signs of the new religion, but the fetiches that +have aided the conquerors. + +Here I will copy some remarks made by a discerning observer, on the +methods used by the missionaries, and their natural results. + +"Mr. ---- and myself had a very interesting conversation, upon the +subject of the Indians, their character, capabilities, &c. After ten +years' experience among them, he was forced to acknowledge that the +results of the missionary efforts had produced nothing calculated to +encourage. He thought that there was an intrinsic disability in them +to rise above, or go beyond, the sphere in which they had so long +moved. He said, that even those Indians who had been converted, and +who had adopted the habits of civilization, were very little improved +in their real character; they were as selfish, as deceitful, and +as indolent, as those who were still heathens. They had repaid the +kindnesses of the missionaries with the basest ingratitude, killing +their cattle and swine, and robbing them of their harvests, which, +they wantonly destroyed. He had abandoned the idea of effecting any +general good to the Indians. He had conscientious scruples as to +promoting an enterprise so hopeless as that of missions among +the Indians, by sending accounts to the East that might induce +philanthropic individuals to contribute to their support. In fact, the +whole experience of his intercourse with them seemed to have convinced +him of the irremediable degradation of the race. Their fortitude +under suffering he considered the result of physical and mental +insensibility; their courage, a mere animal excitement, which they +found it necessary to inflame, before daring to meet a foe. They have +no constancy of purpose; and are, in fact, but little superior to the +brutes in point of moral development. It is not astonishing, that one +looking upon the Indian character from Mr. ----'s point of view should +entertain such sentiments. The object of his intercourse with them +was, to make them apprehend the mysteries of a theology, which, to the +most enlightened, is an abstruse, metaphysical study; and it is not +singular they should prefer their pagan superstitions, which address +themselves more directly to the senses. Failing in the attempt to +Christianize before civilizing them, he inferred that in the intrinsic +degradation of their faculties the obstacle was to be found." + +Thus the missionary vainly attempts, by once or twice holding up the +cross, to turn deer and tigers into lambs; vainly attempts to convince +the red man that a heavenly mandate takes from him his broad lands. He +bows his head, but does not at heart acquiesce. He cannot. It is not +true; and if it were, the descent of blood through the same channels, +for centuries, has formed habits of thought not so easily to be +disturbed. + +Amalgamation would afford the only true and profound means of +civilization. But nature seems, like all else, to declare that this +race is fated to perish. Those of mixed blood fade early, and are not +generally a fine race. They lose what is best in either type, +rather than enhance the value of each, by mingling. There are +exceptions,--one or two such I know of,--but this, it is said, is the +general rule. + +A traveller observes, that the white settlers who live in the woods +soon become sallow, lanky, and dejected; the atmosphere of the trees +does not agree with Caucasian lungs; and it is, perhaps, in part an +instinct of this which causes the hatred of the new settlers towards +trees. The Indian breathed the atmosphere of the forests freely; he +loved their shade. As they are effaced from the land, he fleets too; a +part of the same manifestation, which cannot linger behind its proper +era. + +The Chippewas have lately petitioned the State of Michigan, that they +may be admitted as citizens; but this would be vain, unless they could +be admitted, as brothers, to the heart of the white man. And while +the latter feels that conviction of superiority which enabled our +Wisconsin friend to throw away the gun, and send the Indian to +fetch it, he needs to be very good, and very wise, not to abuse his +position. But the white man, as yet, is a half-tamed pirate, and +avails himself as much as ever of the maxim, "Might makes right." All +that civilization does for the generality is to cover up this with a +veil of subtle evasions and chicane, and here and there to rouse the +individual mind to appeal to Heaven against it. + +I have no hope of liberalizing the missionary, of humanizing the +sharks of trade, of infusing the conscientious drop into the flinty +bosom of policy, of saving the Indian from immediate degradation and +speedy death. The whole sermon may be preached from the text, "Needs +be that offences must come, yet woe onto them by whom they come." +Yet, ere they depart, I wish there might be some masterly attempt to +reproduce, in art or literature, what is proper to them,--a kind of +beauty and grandeur which few of the every-day crowd have hearts to +feel, yet which ought to leave in the world its monuments, to inspire +the thought of genius through all ages. Nothing in this kind has been +done masterly; since it was Clevengers's ambition, 't is pity he had +not opportunity to try fully his powers. We hope some other mind may +be bent upon it, ere too late. At present the only lively impress +of their passage through the world is to be found in such books as +Catlin's, and some stories told by the old travellers. + +Let me here give another brief tale of the power exerted by the +white man over the savage in a trying case; but in this case it was +righteous, was moral power. + +"We were looking over McKenney's Tour to the Lakes, and, on observing +the picture of Key-way-no-wut, or the Going Cloud, Mr. B. observed, +'Ah, that is the fellow I came near having a fight with'; and he +detailed at length the circumstances. This Indian was a very desperate +character, and of whom, all the Leech Lake band stood in fear. He +would shoot down any Indian who offended him, without the least +hesitation, and had become quite the bully of that part of the tribe. +The trader at Leech Lake warned Mr. B. to beware of him, and said that +he once, when he (the trader) refused to give up to him his stock of +wild-rice, went and got his gun and tomahawk, and shook the tomahawk +over his head, saying, '_Now_, give me your wild-rice.' The trader +complied with his exaction, but not so did Mr. B. in the adventure +which I am about to relate. Key-way-no-wut came frequently to him with +furs, wishing him to give for them, cotton-cloth, sugar, flour, &c. +Mr. B. explained to him that he could not trade for furs, as he was +sent there as a teacher, and that it would be like putting his hand +into the fire to do so, as the traders would inform against him, and +he would be sent out of the country. At the same time, he _gave_ +him the articles which he wished. Key-way-no-wut found this a very +convenient way of getting what he wanted, and followed up this sort +of game, until, at last, it became insupportable. One day the Indian +brought a very large otter-skin, and said, 'I want to get for this +ten pounds of sugar, and some flour and cloth,' adding, 'I am not like +other Indians, _I_ want to pay for what I get.' Mr. B. found that he +must either be robbed of all he had by submitting to these exactions, +or take a stand at once. He thought, however, he would try to avoid a +scrape, and told his customer he had not so much sugar to spare. 'Give +me, then,' said he, 'what you can spare'; and Mr. B., thinking to make +him back out, told him he would, give him five pounds of sugar for his +skin. 'Take it,' said the Indian. He left the skin, telling Mr. B. to +take good care of it. Mr. B. took it at once to the trader's store, +and related the circumstance, congratulating himself that he had got +rid of the Indian's exactions. But in about a month Key-way-no-wut +appeared, bringing some dirty Indian sugar, and said, 'I have brought +back the sugar that I borrowed of you, and I want my otter-skin back.' +Mr. B. told him, 'I _bought_ an otter-skin of you, but if you will +return the other articles you have got for it, perhaps I can get it +for you.' 'Where is the skin?' said he very quickly; 'what have you +done with it?' Mr. B. replied it was in the trader's store, where he +(the Indian) could not get it. At this information he was furious, +laid his hands on his knife and tomahawk, and commanded Mr. B. to +bring it at once. Mr. B. found this was the crisis, where he must take +a stand or be 'rode over rough-shod' by this man. His wife, who was +present was much alarmed, and begged he would get the skin for the +Indian, but he told her that 'either he or the Indian would soon be +master of his house, and if she was afraid to see it decided which +was to be so, she had better retire,' He turned to Key-way-no-wut, and +addressed him in a stern voice as follows: 'I will _not_ give you the +skin. How often have you come to my house, and I have shared with you +what I had. I gave you tobacco when you were well, and medicine when +you were sick, and you never went away from my wigwam with your hands +empty. And this is the way you return my treatment to you. I had +thought you were a man and a chief, but you are not, you are nothing +but an old woman. Leave this house, and never enter it again.' Mr. B. +said he expected the Indian would attempt his life when he said this, +but that he had placed himself in a position so that he could defend +himself, and looked straight into the Indian's eye, and, like other +wild beasts, he quailed before the glance of mental and moral courage. +He calmed down at once, and soon began to make apologies. Mr. B. then +told him kindly, but firmly, that, if he wished to walk in the same +path with him, he must walk as straight as the crack on the floor +before them; adding, that he would not walk with anybody who would +jostle him by walking so crooked as he had done. He was perfectly +tamed, and Mr. B. said he never had any more trouble with him." + +The conviction here livingly enforced of the superiority on the side +of the white man, was thus expressed by the Indian orator at Mackinaw +while we were there. After the customary compliments about sun, dew, +&c., "This," said he, "is the difference between the white and the +red man; the white man looks to the future and paves the way for +posterity. The red man never thought of this." This is a statement +uncommonly refined for an Indian; but one of the gentlemen present, +who understood the Chippewa, vouched for it as a literal rendering of +his phrases; and he did indeed touch the vital point of difference. +But the Indian, if he understands, cannot make use of his +intelligence. The fate of his people is against it, and Pontiac and +Philip have no more chance than Julian in the times of old. + +The Indian is steady to that simple creed which forms the basis of all +his mythology; that there is a God and a life beyond this; a right and +wrong which each man can see, betwixt which each man should choose; +that good brings with it its reward, and vice its punishment. His +moral code, if not as refined as that of civilized nations, is +clear and noble in the stress laid upon truth and fidelity. And all +unprejudiced observers bear testimony, that the Indians, until broken +from their old anchorage by intercourse with the whites,--who offer +them, instead, a religion of which they furnish neither interpretation +nor example,--were singularly virtuous, if virtue be allowed to +consist in a man's acting up to his own ideas of right. + +My friend, who joined me at Mackinaw, happened, on the homeward +journey, to see a little Chinese girl, who had been sent over by one +of the missionaries, and observed that, in features, complexion, and +gesture, she was a counterpart to the little Indian girls she had just +seen playing about on the lake shore. + +The parentage of these tribes is still an interesting subject of +speculation, though, if they be not created for this region, they have +become so assimilated to it as to retain little trace of any other. To +me it seems most probable, that a peculiar race was bestowed on each +region,[A] as the lion on one latitude and the white bear on another. +As man has two natures,--one, like that of the plants and animals, +adapted to the uses and enjoyments of this planet, another which +presages and demands a higher sphere,--he is constantly breaking +bounds, in proportion as the mental gets the better of the mere +instinctive existence. As yet, he loses in harmony of being what he +gains in height and extension; the civilized man is a larger mind, but +a more imperfect nature, than the savage. + +[Footnote A: Professor Agassiz has recently published some able +scientific papers tending to enforce this theory.--ED.] + +We hope there will be a national institute, containing all the remains +of the Indians, all that has been preserved by official intercourse at +Washington, Catlin's collection, and a picture-gallery as complete +as can be made, with a collection of skulls from all parts of the +country. To this should be joined the scanty library that exists on +the subject. + +A little pamphlet, giving an account of the massacre at Chicago, has +lately; been published, which I wish much I had seen while there, as +it would have imparted an interest to spots otherwise barren. It is +written with animation, and in an excellent style, telling just what +we want to hear, and no more. The traits given of Indian generosity +are as characteristic as those of Indian cruelty. A lady, who was +saved by a friendly chief holding her under the waters of the lake, at +the moment the balls endangered her, received also, in the heat of the +conflict, a reviving draught from a squaw, who saw she was exhausted; +and as she lay down, a mat was hung up between her and the scene of +butchery, so that she was protected from the sight, though she could +not be from sounds full of horror. + +I have not wished to write sentimentally about the Indians, however +moved by the thought of their wrongs and speedy extinction. I know +that the Europeans who took possession of this country felt themselves +justified by their superior civilization and religious ideas. Had they +been truly civilized or Christianized, the conflicts which sprang +from the collision of the two races might have been avoided; but this +cannot be expected in movements made by masses of men. The mass has +never yet been humanized, though the age may develop a human thought. +Since those conflicts and differences did arise, the hatred which +sprang from terror and suffering, on the European side, has naturally +warped the whites still further from justice. + +The Indian, brandishing the scalps of his wife and friends, drinking +their blood, and eating their hearts, is by him viewed as a fiend, +though, at a distant day, he will no doubt be considered as having +acted the Roman or Carthaginian part of heroic and patriotic +self-defence, according to the standard of right and motives +prescribed by his religious faith and education. Looked at by his +own standard, he is virtuous when he most injures his enemy, and the +white, if he be really the superior in enlargement of thought, ought +to cast aside his inherited prejudices enough to see this, to look on +him in pity and brotherly good-will, and do all he can to mitigate the +doom of those who survive his past injuries. + +In McKenney's book is proposed a project for organizing the Indians +under a patriarchal government; but it does not look feasible, even +on paper. Could their own intelligent men be left to act unimpeded +in their behalf, they would do far better for them than the white +thinker, with all his general knowledge. But we dare not hope +the designs of such will not always be frustrated by barbarous +selfishness, as they were in Georgia. _There_ was a chance of seeing +what might have been done, now lost for ever. + +Yet let every man look to himself how far this blood shall be required +at his hands. Let the missionary, instead of preaching to the Indian, +preach to the trader who ruins him, of the dreadful account which will +be demanded of the followers of Cain, in a sphere where the accents +of purity and love come on the ear more decisively than in ours. Let +every legislator take the subject to heart, and, if he cannot undo the +effects of past sin, try for that clear view and right sense that may +save us from sinning still more deeply. And let every man and every +woman, in their private dealings with the subjugated race, avoid all +share in embittering, by insult or unfeeling prejudice, the captivity +of Israel. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +SAULT ST. MARIE.--ST. JOSEPH'S ISLAND.--THE LAND OF +MUSIC.--RAPIDS.--HOMEWARD.--GENERAL HULL.--THE BOOK TO THE READER. + + +Nine days I passed alone at Mackinaw, except for occasional visits +from kind and agreeable residents at the fort, and Mr. and Mrs. A. Mr. +A., long engaged in the fur-trade, is gratefully remembered by many +travellers. From Mrs. A., also, I received kind attentions, paid in +the vivacious and graceful manner of her nation. + +The society at the boarding-house entertained, being of a kind +entirely new to me. There were many traders from the remote stations, +such as La Pointe, Arbre Croche,--men who had become half wild and +wholly rude by living in the wild; but good-humored, observing, and +with a store of knowledge to impart, of the kind proper to their +place. + +There were two little girls here, that were pleasant companions for +me. One gay, frank, impetuous, but sweet and winning. She was an +American, fair, and with bright brown hair. The other, a little French +Canadian, used to join me in my walks, silently take my hand, and +sit at my feet when I stopped in beautiful places. She seemed to +understand without a word; and I never shall forget her little figure, +with its light, but pensive motion, and her delicate, grave features, +with the pale, clear complexion and soft eye. She was motherless, and +much left alone by her father and brothers, who were boatmen. The two +little girls were as pretty representatives of Allegro and Penseroso +as one would wish to see. + +I had been wishing that a boat would come in to take me to the Sault +St. Marie, and several times started to the window at night in hopes +that the pant and dusky-red light crossing the waters belonged to such +an one; but they were always boats for Chicago or Buffalo, till, on +the 28th of August, Allegro, who shared my plans and wishes, rushed +in to tell me that the General Scott had come; and in this little +steamer, accordingly, I set off the next morning. + +I was the only lady, and attended in the cabin by a Dutch girl and +an Indian woman. They both spoke English fluently, and entertained me +much by accounts of their different experiences. + +The Dutch girl told me of a dance among the common people at +Amsterdam, called the shepherd's dance. The two leaders are dressed +as shepherd and shepherdess; they invent to the music all kinds of +movements, descriptive of things that may happen in the field, and the +rest are obliged to follow. I have never heard of any dance which gave +such free play to the fancy as this. French dances merely describe +the polite movements of society; Spanish and Neapolitan, love; the +beautiful Mazurkas, &c. are war-like or expressive of wild scenery. +But in this one is great room both for fun and fancy. + +The Indian was married, when young, by her parents, to a man she did +not love. He became dissipated, and did not maintain her. She left +him, taking with her their child, for whom and herself she earns a +subsistence by going as chambermaid in these boats. Now and then, she +said, her husband called on her, and asked if he might live with her +again; but she always answered, No. Here she was far freer than she +would have been in civilized life. I was pleased by the nonchalance of +this woman, and the perfectly national manner she had preserved after +so many years of contact with all kinds of people. + +The two women, when I left the boat, made me presents of Indian work, +such as travellers value, and the manner of the two was characteristic +of their different nations. The Indian brought me hers, when I was +alone, looked bashfully down when she gave it, and made an almost +sentimental little speech. The Dutch girl brought hers in public, and, +bridling her short chin with a self-complacent air, observed she had +_bought_ it for me. But the feeling of affectionate regard was the +same in the minds of both. + +Island after island we passed, all fairly shaped and clustering in a +friendly way, but with little variety of vegetation. In the afternoon +the weather became foggy, and we could not proceed after dark. That +was as dull an evening as ever fell. + +The next morning the fog still lay heavy, but the captain took me out +in his boat on an exploring expedition, and we found the remains of +the old English fort on Point St. Joseph's. All around was so wholly +unmarked by anything but stress of wind and weather, the shores of +these islands and their woods so like one another, wild and lonely, +but nowhere rich and majestic, that there was some charm, in the +remains of the garden, the remains even of chimneys and a pier. They +gave feature to the scene. + +Here I gathered many flowers, but they were the same as at Mackinaw. + +The captain, though he had been on this trip hundreds of times, had +never seen this spot, and never would but for this fog, and his desire +to entertain me. He presented a striking instance how men, for the +sake of getting a living, forget to live. It is just the same in the +most romantic as the most dull and vulgar places. Men get the harness +on so fast, that they can never shake it off, unless they guard +against this danger from the very first. In Chicago, how many men live +who never find time to see the prairies, or learn anything unconnected +with the business of the day, or about the country they are living in! + +So this captain, a man of strong sense and good eyesight, rarely found +time to go off the track or look about him on it. He lamented, too, +that there had been no call which, induced him to develop his powers +of expression, so that he might communicate what he had seen for the +enjoyment or instruction of others. + +This is a common fault among the active men, the truly living, who +could tell what life is. It should not be so. Literature should not be +left to the mere literati,--eloquence to the mere orator; every Cæsar +should be able to write his own commentary. We want a more equal, more +thorough, more harmonious development, and there is nothing to hinder +the men of this country from it, except their own supineness, or +sordid views. + +When the weather did clear, our course up the river was delightful. +Long stretched before us the island of St. Joseph's, with its fair +woods of sugar-maple. A gentleman on board, who belongs to the Fort +at the Sault, said their pastime was to come in the season of making +sugar, and pass some time on this island,--the days at work, and the +evening in dancing and other amusements. Work of this kind done in the +open air, where everything is temporary, and every utensil prepared +on the spot, gives life a truly festive air. At such times, there is +labor and no care,--energy with gayety, gayety of the heart. + +I think with the same pleasure of the Italian vintage, the Scotch +harvest-home, with its evening dance in the barn, the Russian +cabbage-feast even, and our huskings and hop-gatherings. The +hop-gatherings, where the groups of men and girls are pulling down and +filling baskets with the gay festoons, present as graceful pictures as +the Italian vintage. + +How pleasant is the course along a new river, the sight of new shores! +like a life, would but life flow as fast, and upbear us with as full a +stream. I hoped we should come in sight of the rapids by daylight; but +the beautiful sunset was quite gone, and only a young moon trembling +over the scene, when we came within hearing of them. + +I sat up long to hear them merely. It was a thoughtful hour. These +two days, the 29th and 30th of August, are memorable in my life; +the latter is the birthday of a near friend. I pass them alone, +approaching Lake Superior; but I shall not enter into that truly +wild and free region; shall not have the canoe voyage, whose daily +adventure, with the camping out at night beneath the stars, would have +given an interlude of such value to my existence. I shall not see the +Pictured Rocks, their chapels and urns. It did not depend on me; it +never has, whether such things shall be done or not. + +My friends! may they see, and do, and be more; especially those who +have before them a greater number of birthdays, and a more healthy and +unfettered existence! + +I should like to hear some notes of earthly music to-night. By the +faint moonshine I can hardly see the banks; how they look I have no +guess, except that there are trees, and, now and then, a light lets me +know there are homes, with their various interests. I should like to +hear some strains of the flute from beneath those trees, just to break +the sound of the rapids. + + THE LAND OF MUSIC. + + When no gentle eyebeam charms; + No fond hope the bosom warms; + Of thinking the lone mind is tired,-- + Naught seems bright to be desired. + + Music, be thy sails unfurled; + Bear me to thy better world; + O'er a cold and weltering sea, + Blow thy breezes warm and free. + + By sad sighs they ne'er were chilled, + By sceptic spell were never stilled. + Take me to that far-off shore, + Where lovers meet to part no more. + There doubt and fear and sin are o'er; + The star of love shall set no more. + +With the first light of dawn I was up and out, and then was glad I had +not seen all the night before, it came upon me with such power in its +dewy freshness. O, they are beautiful indeed, these rapids! The grace +is so much more obvious than the power. I went up through the old +Chippewa burying-ground to their head, and sat down on a large stone +to look. A little way off was one of the home-lodges, unlike in shape +to the temporary ones at Mackinaw, but these have been described by +Mrs. Jameson. Women, too, I saw coming home from the woods, stooping +under great loads of cedar-boughs, that were strapped upon their +backs. But in many European countries women carry great loads, even of +wood, upon their backs. I used to hear the girls singing and laughing +as they were cutting down boughs at Mackinaw; this part of their +employment, though laborious, gives them the pleasure of being a great +deal in the free woods. + +I had ordered a canoe to take me down the rapids, and presently I saw +it coming, with the two Indian canoe-men in pink calico shirts, moving +it about with their long poles, with a grace and dexterity worthy +fairy-land. Now and then they cast the scoop-net;--all looked just as +I had fancied, only far prettier. + +When they came to me, they spread a mat in the middle of the canoe; I +sat down, and in less than four minutes we had descended the rapids, +a distance of more than three quarters of a mile. I was somewhat +disappointed in this being no more of an exploit than I found it. +Having heard such expressions used as of "darting," or "shooting +down," these rapids, I had fancied there was a wall of rock somewhere, +where descent would somehow be accomplished, and that there would come +some one gasp of terror and delight, some sensation entirely new to +me; but I found myself in smooth water, before I had time to feel +anything but the buoyant pleasure of being carried so lightly through +this surf amid the breakers. Now and then the Indians spoke to +one another in a vehement jabber, which, however, had no tone that +expressed other than pleasant excitement. It is, no doubt, an act of +wonderful dexterity to steer amid these jagged rocks, when one +rude touch would tear a hole in the birch canoe; but these men are +evidently so used to doing it, and so adroit, that the silliest person +could not feel afraid. I should like to have come down twenty times, +that I might have had leisure to realize the pleasure. But the fog +which had detained us on the way shortened the boat's stay at the +Sault, and I wanted my time to walk about. + +While coming down the rapids, the Indians caught a white-fish for my +breakfast; and certainly it was the best of breakfasts. The +white-fish I found quite another thing caught on the spot, and cooked +immediately, from what I had found it at Chicago or Mackinaw. Before, +I had had the bad taste to prefer the trout, despite the solemn and +eloquent remonstrances of the _habitués_, to whom the superiority of +white-fish seemed a cardinal point of faith. + +I am here reminded that I have omitted that indispensable part of a +travelling journal, the account of what we found to eat. I cannot hope +to make up, by one bold stroke, all my omissions of daily record; +but that I may show myself not destitute of the common feelings of +humanity, I will observe that he whose affections turn in summer +towards vegetables should not come to this region, till the subject +of diet be better understood; that of fruit, too, there is little yet, +even at the best hotel tables; that the prairie chickens require +no praise from me, and that the trout and white-fish are worthy the +transparency of the lake waters. + +In this brief mention I by no means intend to give myself an air of +superiority to the subject. If a dinner in the Illinois woods, on dry +bread and drier meat, with water from the stream that flowed hard by, +pleased me best of all, yet, at one time, when living at a house where +nothing was prepared for the table fit to touch, and even the bread +could not be partaken of without a headache in consequence, I learnt +to understand and sympathize with the anxious tone in which fathers +of families, about to take their innocent children into some scene of +wild beauty, ask first of all, "Is there a good, table?" I shall ask +just so in future. Only those whom the Powers have furnished with +small travelling cases of ambrosia can take exercise all day, and be +happy without even bread morning or night. + +Our voyage back was all pleasure. It was the fairest day. I saw the +river, the islands, the clouds, to the greatest advantage. + +On board was an old man, an Illinois farmer, whom I found a most +agreeable companion. He had just been with his son, and eleven other +young men, on an exploring expedition to the shores of Lake Superior. +He was the only old man of the party, but he had enjoyed most of any +the journey. He had been the counsellor and playmate, too, of the +young ones. He was one of those parents--why so rare?--who understand +and live a new life in that of their children, instead of wasting time +and young happiness in trying to make them conform to an object and +standard of their own. The character and history of each child may +be a new and poetic experience to the parent, if he will let it. +Our farmer was domestic, judicious, solid; the son, inventive, +enterprising, superficial, full of follies, full of resources, always +liable to failure, sure to rise above it. The father conformed to, and +learnt from, a character he could not change, and won the sweet from +the bitter. + +His account of his life at home, and of his late adventures among the +Indians, was very amusing, but I want talent to write it down, and I +have not heard the slang of these people intimately enough. There is a +good book about Indiana, called the New Purchase, written by a person +who knows the people of the country well enough to describe them in +their own way. It is not witty, but penetrating, valuable for its +practical wisdom and good-humored fun. + +There were many sportsman-stories told, too, by those from Illinois +and Wisconsin. I do not retain any of these well enough, nor any that +I heard earlier, to write them down, though they always interested me +from bringing wild natural scenes before the mind. It is pleasant +for the sportsman to be in countries so alive with game; yet it is so +plenty that one would think shooting pigeons or grouse would seem +more like slaughter, than the excitement of skill to a good sportsman. +Hunting the deer is full of adventure, and needs only a Scrope to +describe it to invest the Western woods with _historic_ associations. + +How pleasant it was to sit and hear rough men tell pieces out of their +own common lives, in place of the frippery talk of some fine circle +with its conventional sentiment, and timid, second-hand criticism. +Free blew the wind, and boldly flowed the stream, named for Mary +mother mild. + +A fine thunder-shower came on in the afternoon. It cleared at sunset, +just as we came in sight of beautiful Mackinaw, over which, a rainbow +bent in promise of peace. + +I have always wondered, in reading travels, at the childish joy +travellers felt at meeting people they knew, and their sense of +loneliness when they did not, in places where there was everything new +to occupy the attention. So childish, I thought, always to be longing +for the new in the old, and the old in the new. Yet just such sadness +I felt, when I looked on the island glittering in the sunset, canopied +by the rainbow, and thought no friend would welcome me there; just +such childish joy I felt to see unexpectedly on the landing the face +of one whom I called friend. + +The remaining two or three days were delightfully spent, in walking or +boating, or sitting at the window to see the Indians go. This was not +quite so pleasant as their coming in, though accomplished with +the same rapidity; a family not taking half an hour to prepare for +departure, and the departing canoe a beautiful object. But they left +behind, on all the shore, the blemishes of their stay,--old rags, +dried boughs, fragments of food, the marks of their fires. Nature +likes to cover up and gloss over spots and scars, but it would take +her some time to restore that beach to the state it was in before they +came. + +S. and I had a mind for a canoe excursion, and we asked one of the +traders to engage us two good Indians, that would not only take us +out, but be sure and bring us back, as we could not hold converse +with them. Two others offered their aid, beside the chief's son, +a fine-looking youth of about sixteen, richly dressed in blue +broadcloth, scarlet sash and leggins, with a scarf of brighter red +than the rest, tied around his head, its ends falling gracefully +on one shoulder. They thought it, apparently, fine amusement to +be attending two white women; they carried us into the path of +the steamboat, which was going out, and paddled with all their +force,--rather too fast, indeed, for there was something of a swell on +the lake, and they sometimes threw water into the canoe. However, it +flew over the waves, light as a seagull. They would say, "Pull away," +and "Ver' warm," and, after these words, would laugh gayly. They +enjoyed the hour, I believe, as much as we. + +The house where we lived belonged to the widow of a French trader, an +Indian by birth, and wearing the dress of her country She spoke +French fluently, and was very ladylike in her manners. She is a great +character among them. They were all the time coming to pay her homage, +or to get her aid and advice; for she is, I am told, a shrewd woman of +business. My companion carried about her sketch-book with her, and +the Indians were interested when they saw her using her pencil, though +less so than about the sun-shade. This lady of the tribe wanted to +borrow the sketches of the beach, with its lodges and wild groups, "to +show to the _savages_" she said. + +Of the practical ability of the Indian women, a good specimen is given +by McKenney, in an amusing story of one who went to Washington, and +acted her part there in the "first circles," with a tact and sustained +dissimulation worthy of Cagliostro. She seemed to have a thorough +love of intrigue for its own sake, and much dramatic talent. Like the +chiefs of her nation, when on an expedition among the foe, whether for +revenge or profit, no impulses of vanity or way-side seductions +had power to turn her aside from carrying out her plan as she had +originally projected it. + +Although I have little to tell, I feel that I have learnt a great deal +of the Indians, from observing them even in this broken and degraded +condition. There is a language of eye and motion which cannot be put +into words, and which teaches what words never can. I feel acquainted +with the soul of this race; I read its nobler thought in their defaced +figures. There _was_ a greatness, unique and precious, which he who +does not feel will never duly appreciate the majesty of nature in this +American continent. + +I have mentioned that the Indian orator, who addressed the agents on +this occasion, said, the difference between the white man and the red +man is this: "The white man no sooner came here, than he thought of +preparing the way for his posterity; the red man never thought of +this." I was assured this was exactly his phrase; and it defines the +true difference. We get the better because we do + + "Look before and after." + +But, from, the same cause, we + + "Pine for what is not." + +The red man, when happy, was thoroughly happy; when good, was simply +good. He needed the medal, to let him know that he _was_ good. + +These evenings we were happy, looking over the old-fashioned garden, +over the beach, over the waters and pretty island opposite, beneath +the growing moon. We did not stay to see it full at Mackinaw; at two +o'clock one night, or rather morning, the Great Western came snorting +in, and we must go; and Mackinaw, and all the Northwest summer, is now +to me no more than picture and dream:-- + + "A dream within a dream." + +These last days at Mackinaw have been pleasanter than the "lonesome" +nine, for I have recovered the companion with whom I set out from the +East,--one who sees all, prizes all, enjoys much, interrupts never. + +At Detroit we stopped for half a day. This place is famous in our +history, and the unjust anger at its surrender is still expressed +by almost every one who passes there. I had always shared the common +feeling on this subject; for the indignation at a disgrace to our arms +that seemed so unnecessary has been handed down from father to child, +and few of us have taken the pains to ascertain where the blame +lay. But now, upon the spot, having read all the testimony, I felt +convinced that it should rest solely with the government, which, by +neglecting to sustain General Hull, as he had a right to expect they +would, compelled him to take this step, or sacrifice many lives, and +of the defenceless inhabitants, not of soldiers, to the cruelty of a +savage foe, for the sake of his reputation. + +I am a woman, and unlearned in such affairs; but, to a person +with common sense and good eyesight, it is clear, when viewing +the location, that, under the circumstances, he had no prospect of +successful defence, and that to attempt it would have been an act of +vanity, not valor. + +I feel that I am not biassed in this judgment by my personal +relations, for I have always heard both sides, and though my feelings +had been moved by the picture of the old man sitting in the midst +of his children, to a retired and despoiled old age, after a life +of honor and happy intercourse with the public, yet tranquil, always +secure that justice must be done at last, I supposed, like others, +that he deceived himself, and deserved to pay the penalty for failure +to the responsibility he had undertaken. Now, on the spot, I change, +and believe the country at large must, erelong, change from this +opinion. And I wish to add my testimony, however trifling its weight, +before it be drowned in the voice of general assent, that I may do +some justice to the feelings which possess me here and now. + +A noble boat, the Wisconsin, was to be launched this afternoon; the +whole town was out in many-colored array, the band playing. Our boat +swept round to a good position, and all was ready but--the Wisconsin, +which could not be made to stir. This was quite a disappointment. It +would have been an imposing sight. + +In the boat many signs admonished that we were floating eastward. A +shabbily-dressed phrenologist laid his hand on every head which would +bend, with half-conceited, half-sheepish expression, to the trial of +his skill. Knots of people gathered here and there to discuss points +of theology. A bereaved lover was seeking religious consolation +in--Butler's Analogy, which he had purchased for that purpose. +However, he did not turn over many pages before his attention was +drawn aside by the gay glances of certain damsels that came on board +at Detroit, and, though Butler might afterwards be seen sticking +from his pocket, it had not weight to impede him from many a feat of +lightness and liveliness. I doubt if it went with him from the boat. +Some there were, even, discussing the doctrines of Fourier. It seemed +pity they were not going to, rather than from, the rich and free +country where it would be so much easier than with us to try the great +experiment of voluntary association, and show beyond a doubt that "an +ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," a maxim of the "wisdom +of nations" which has proved of little practical efficacy as yet. + +Better to stop before landing at Buffalo, while I have yet the +advantage over some of my readers. + + + + +THE BOOK TO THE READER, + +WHO OPENS, AS AMERICAN READERS OFTEN DO,--AT THE END. + + To see your cousin in her country home, + If at the time of blackberries you come, + "Welcome, my friends," she cries with ready glee, + "The fruit is ripened, and the paths are free. + But, madam, you will tear that handsome gown; + The little boy be sure to tumble down; + And, in the thickets where they ripen best, + The matted ivy, too, its bower has drest. + And then the thorns your hands are sure to rend, + Unless with heavy gloves you will defend; + Amid most thorns the sweetest roses blow, + Amid most thorns the sweetest berries grow." + + If, undeterred, you to the fields must go, + You tear your dresses and you scratch your hands; + But, in the places where the berries grow, + A sweeter fruit the ready sense commands, + Of wild, gay feelings, fancies springing sweet,-- + Of bird-like pleasures, fluttering and fleet. + + Another year, you cannot go yourself, + To win the berries from the thickets wild, + And housewife skill, instead, has filled the shelf + With blackberry jam, "by best receipts compiled,-- + Not made with country sugar, for too strong + The flavors that to maple-juice belong; + But foreign sugar, nicely mixed 'to suit + The taste,' spoils not the fragrance of the fruit." + + "'Tis pretty good," half-tasting, you reply, + "I scarce should know it from fresh blackberry. + But the best pleasure such a fruit can yield + Is to be gathered in the open field; + If only as an article of food, + Cherry or crab-apple is quite as good; + And, for occasions of festivity, + West India sweetmeats you had better buy." + + Thus, such a dish of homely sweets as these + In neither way may chance the taste to please. + + Yet try a little with the evening-bread; + Bring a good needle for the spool of thread; + Take fact with fiction, silver with the lead, + And, at the mint, you can get gold instead; + In fine, read me, even as you would be read. + + + + +PART II. + +THINGS AND THOUGHTS IN EUROPE. + + + + +LETTER I. + +PASSAGE IN THE CAMBRIA.--LORD AND LADY FALKLAND.--CAPTAIN +JUDKINS.--LIVERPOOL.--MANCHESTER.--MECHANICS' INSTITUTE.--"THE +DIAL."--PEACE AND WAR.--THE WORKING-MEN OF ENGLAND.--THEIR TRIBUTE TO +SIR ROBERT PEEL.--THE ROYAL INSTITUTE.--STATUES.--CHESTER.--BATHING. + + +Ambleside, Westmoreland, 23d August, 1846. + +I take the first interval of rest and stillness to be filled up by +some lines for the Tribune. Only three weeks have passed since leaving +New York, but I have already had nine days of wonder in England, and, +having learned a good deal, suppose I may have something to tell. + +Long before receiving this, you know that we were fortunate in the +shortest voyage ever made across the Atlantic,[A]--only ten days +and sixteen hours from Boston to Liverpool. The weather and all +circumstances were propitious; and, if some of us were weak of head +enough to suffer from the smell and jar of the machinery, or other +ills by which the sea is wont to avenge itself on the arrogance of +its vanquishers, we found no pity. The stewardess observed that she +thought "any one tempted God Almighty who complained on a voyage where +they did not even have to put guards to the dishes"! + +[Footnote A: True at the time these Letters were written.--ED.] + +As many contradictory counsels were given us with regard to going in +one of the steamers in preference to a sailing vessel, I will mention +here, for the benefit of those who have not yet tried one, that he +must be fastidious indeed who could complain of the Cambria. The +advantage of a quick passage and certainty as to the time of arrival, +would, with us, have outweighed many ills; but, apart from this, we +found more space than we expected and as much as we needed for a +very tolerable degree of convenience in our sleeping-rooms, better +ventilation than Americans in general can be persuaded to accept, +general cleanliness, and good attendance. In the evening, when the +wind was favorable, and the sails set, so that the vessel looked like +a great winged creature darting across the apparently measureless +expanse, the effect was very grand, but ah! for such a spectacle one +pays too dear; I far prefer looking out upon "the blue and foaming +sea" from a firm green shore. + +Our ship's company numbered several pleasant members, and that desire +prevailed in each to contribute to the satisfaction of all, which, if +carried out through the voyage of life, would make this earth as happy +as it is a lovely abode. At Halifax we took in the Governor of Nova +Scotia, returning from his very unpopular administration. His lady was +with, him, a daughter of William the Fourth and the celebrated Mrs. +Jordan. The English on board, and the Americans, following their lead, +as usual, seemed to attach much importance to her left-handed alliance +with one of the dullest families that ever sat upon a throne, (and +that is a bold word, too,) none to her descent from one whom Nature +had endowed with her most splendid regalia,--genius that fascinated +the attention of all kinds and classes of men, grace and winning +qualities that no heart could resist. Was the cestus buried with her, +that no sense of its pre-eminent value lingered, as far as I could +perceive, in the thoughts of any except myself? + +We had a foretaste of the delights of living under an aristocratical +government at the Custom-House, where our baggage was detained, and +we waiting for it weary hours, because of the preference given to +the mass of household stuff carried back by this same Lord and Lady +Falkland. + +Captain Judkins of the Cambria, an able and prompt commander, is the +man who insisted upon Douglass being admitted to equal rights upon his +deck with the insolent slave-holders, and assumed a tone toward their +assumptions, which, if the Northern States had had the firmness, good +sense, and honor to use, would have had the same effect, and put +our country in a very different position from that she occupies at +present. He mentioned with pride that he understood the New York +Herald called him "the Nigger Captain," and seemed as willing to +accept the distinction as Colonel McKenney is to wear as his last +title that of "the Indian's friend." + +At the first sight of the famous Liverpool Docks, extending miles on +each side of our landing, we felt ourselves in a slower, solider, and +not on that account less truly active, state of things than at home. +That impression is confirmed. There is not as we travel that rushing, +tearing, and swearing, that snatching of baggage, that prodigality of +shoe-leather and lungs, which attend the course of the traveller in +the United States; but we do not lose our "goods," we do not miss our +car. The dinner, if ordered in time, is cooked properly, and served +punctually, and at the end of the day more that is permanent seems to +have come of it than on the full-drive system. But more of this, and +with a better grace, at a later day. + +The day after our arrival we went to Manchester. There we went over +the magnificent warehouse of ---- Phillips, in itself a Bazaar ample +to furnish provision for all the wants and fancies of thousands. In +the evening we went to the Mechanics' Institute, and saw the boys +and young men in their classes. I have since visited the Mechanics' +Institute at Liverpool, where more than seventeen hundred pupils are +received, and with more thorough educational arrangements; but the +excellent spirit, the desire for growth in wisdom and enlightened +benevolence, is the same in both. For a very small fee, the mechanic, +clerk, or apprentice, and the women of their families, can receive +various good and well-arranged instruction, not only in common +branches of an English education, but in mathematics, composition, +the French and German, languages, the practice and theory of the Fine +Arts, and they are ardent in availing themselves of instruction in +the higher branches. I found large classes, not only in architectural +drawing, which may be supposed to be followed with a view to +professional objects, but landscape also, and as large in German as +in French. They can attend many good lectures and concerts without +additional charge, for a due place is here assigned to music as to its +influence on the whole mind. The large and well-furnished libraries +are in constant requisition, and the books in most constant demand +are not those of amusement, but of a solid and permanent interest and +value. Only for the last year in Manchester, and for two in Liverpool, +have these advantages been extended to girls; but now that part of +the subject is looked upon as it ought to be, and begins to be treated +more and more as it must and will be wherever true civilization is +making its way. One of the handsomest houses in Liverpool has been +purchased for the girls' school, and room and good arrangement been +afforded for their work and their play. Among other things they are +taught, as they ought to be in all American schools, to cut out and +make dresses. + +I had the pleasure of seeing quotations made from our Boston "Dial," +in the address in which the Director of the Liverpool Institute, a +very benevolent and intelligent man, explained to his disciples and +others its objects, and which concludes thus:-- + +"But this subject of self-improvement is inexhaustible. If traced to +its results in action, it is, in fact, 'The Whole Duty of Man.' What +of detail it involves and implies, I know that you will, each and all, +think out for yourselves. Beautifully has it been said: 'Is not the +difference between spiritual and material things just this,--that in +the one case we must watch details, in the other, keep alive the high +resolve, and the details will take care of themselves? Keep the sacred +central fire burning, and throughout the system, in each of its acts, +will be warmth and glow enough.'[A] + +[Footnote A: The Dial, Vol. I. p. 188, October, 1840, "Musings of a +Recluse."] + +"For myself, if I be asked what my purpose is in relation to you, I +would briefly reply, It is that I may help, be it ever so feebly, to +train up a race of young men, who shall escape vice by rising above +it; who shall love truth because it is truth, not because it brings +them wealth or honor; who shall regard life as a solemn thing, +involving too weighty responsibilities to be wasted in idle or +frivolous pursuits; who shall recognize in their daily labors, not +merely a tribute to the "hard necessity of daily bread," but a field +for the development of their better nature by the discharge of duty; +who shall judge in all things for themselves, bowing the knee to no +sectarian or party watchwords of any kind; and who, while they think +for themselves, shall feel for others, and regard their talents, their +attainments, their opportunities, their possessions, as blessings held +in trust for the good of their fellow-men." + +I found that The Dial had been read with earnest interest by some of +the best minds in these especially practical regions, that it had been +welcomed as a representative of some sincere and honorable life in +America, and thought the fittest to be quoted under this motto:-- + + "What are noble deeds but noble thoughts realized?" + +Among other signs of the times we bought Bradshaw's Railway Guide, +and, opening it, found extracts from the writings of our countrymen, +Elihu Burritt and Charles Sumner, on the subject of Peace, occupying +a leading place in the "Collect," for the month, of this little +hand-book, more likely, in an era like ours, to influence the conduct +of the day than would an illuminated breviary. Now that peace is +secured for the present between our two countries, the spirit is +not forgotten that quelled the storm. Greeted on every side with +expressions of feeling about the blessings of peace, the madness and +wickedness of war, that would be deemed romantic in our darker land, +I have answered to the speakers, "But you are mightily pleased, and +illuminate for your victories in China and Ireland, do you not?" and +they, unprovoked by the taunt, would mildly reply, "_We_ do not, but +it is too true that a large part of the nation fail to bring home +the true nature and bearing of those events, and apply principle to +conduct with as much justice as they do in the case of a nation nearer +to them by kindred and position. But we are sure that feeling is +growing purer on the subject day by day, and that there will soon be a +large majority against war on any occasion or for any object." + +I heard a most interesting letter read from a tradesman in one of the +country towns, whose daughters are self-elected instructors of the +people in the way of cutting out from books and pamphlets fragments on +the great subjects of the day, which they send about in packages, or +paste on walls and doors. He said that one such passage, pasted on a +door, he had seen read with eager interest by hundreds to whom such +thoughts were, probably, quite new, and with some of whom it could +scarcely fail to be as a little seed of a large harvest. Another good +omen I found in written tracts by Joseph Barker, a working-man of the +town of Wortley, published through his own printing-press. + +How great, how imperious the need of such men, of such deeds, we felt +more than ever, while compelled to turn a deaf ear to the squalid and +shameless beggars of Liverpool, or talking by night in the streets of +Manchester to the girls from the Mills, who were strolling bareheaded, +with coarse, rude, and reckless air, through the streets, or seeing +through the windows of the gin-palaces the women seated drinking, too +dull to carouse. The homes of England! their sweetness is melting into +fable; only the new Spirit in its holiest power can restore to those +homes their boasted security of "each man's castle," for Woman, the +warder, is driven into the street, and has let fall the keys in her +sad plight. Yet darkest hour of night is nearest dawn, and there seems +reason to believe that + + "There's a good time coming." + +Blest be those who aid, who doubt not that + + "Smallest helps, if rightly given, + Make the impulse stronger; + 'Twill be strong enough one day." + +Other things we saw in Liverpool,--the Royal Institute, with the +statue of Roscoe by Chantrey, and in its collection from the works +of the early Italian artists, and otherwise, bearing traces of that +liberality and culture by which the man, happy enough to possess them, +and at the same time engaged with his fellow-citizens in practical +life, can do so much more to enlighten and form them, than prince or +noble possibly can with far larger pecuniary means. We saw the statue +of Huskisson in the Cemetery. It is fine as a portrait statue, but +as a work of art wants firmness and grandeur. I say it is fine as a +portrait statue, though we were told it is not like the original; but +it is a good conception of an individuality which might exist, if it +does not yet. It is by Gibson, who received his early education in +Liverpool. I saw there, too, the body of an infant borne to the grave +by women; for it is a beautiful custom, here, that those who have +fulfilled all other tender offices to the little being should hold to +it the same relation to the very last. + +From Liverpool we went to Chester, one of the oldest cities in +England, a Roman station once, and abode of the "Twentieth Legion," +"the Victorious." Tiles bearing this inscription, heads of Jupiter, +and other marks of their occupation, have, not long ago, been detected +beneath the sod. The town also bears the marks of Welsh invasion and +domestic struggles. The shape of a cross in which it is laid out, its +walls and towers, its four arched gateways, its ramparts and ruined, +towers, mantled with ivy, its old houses with Biblical inscriptions, +its cathedral,--in which tall trees have grown up amid the arches, a +fresh garden-plot, with flowers, bright green and red, taken place +of the altar, and a crowd of revelling swallows supplanted the sallow +choirs of a former priesthood,--present a _tout-ensemble_ highly +romantic in itself, and charming, indeed, to Transatlantic eyes. Yet +not to all eyes would it have had charms, for one American traveller, +our companion on the voyage, gravely assured us that we should find +the "castles and that sort of thing all humbug," and that, if we +wished to enjoy them, it would "be best to sit at home and read some +_handsome_ work on the subject." + +At the hotel in Liverpool and that in Manchester I had found no bath, +and asking for one at Chester, the chambermaid said, with earnest +good-will, that "they had none, but she thought she could get me +a note from her master to the Infirmary (!!) if I would go there." +Luckily I did not generalize quite as rapidly as travellers in America +usually do, and put in the note-book,--"_Mem._: None but the sick ever +bathe in England"; for in the next establishment we tried, I found +the plentiful provision for a clean and healthy day, which I had read +would be met _everywhere_ in this country. + +All else I must defer to my next, as the mail is soon to close. + + + + +LETTER II. + +CHESTER.--ITS MUSEUM.--TRAVELLING COMPANIONS.--A BENGALESE.-- +WESTMORELAND.--AMBLESIDE.--COBDEN AND BRIGHT.--A SCOTCH +LADY.--WORDSWORTH.--HIS FLOWERS.--MISS MARTINEAU. + + +Ambleside. Westmoreland, 27th August, 1846. + +I forgot to mention, in writing of Chester, an object which gave me +pleasure. I mentioned, that the wall which enclosed the old town was +two miles in circumference; far beyond this stretches the modern +part of Chester, and the old gateways now overarch the middle of long +streets. This wall is now a walk for the inhabitants, commanding a +wide prospect, and three persons could walk abreast on its smooth +flags. We passed one of its old picturesque towers, from whose top +Charles the First, poor, weak, unhappy king, looked down and saw his +troops defeated by the Parliamentary army on the adjacent plain. A +little farther on, one of these picturesque towers is turned to the +use of a Museum, whose stock, though scanty, I examined with singular +pleasure, for it had been made up by truly filial contributions +from, all who had derived benefit from Chester, from the Marquis +of Westminster--whose magnificent abode, Eton Hall, lies not far +off--down to the merchant's clerk, who had furnished it in his leisure +hours with a geological chart, the soldier and sailor, who sent back +shells, insects, and petrifactions from their distant wanderings, and +a boy of thirteen, who had made, in wood, a model of its cathedral, +and even furnished it with a bell to ring out the evening chimes. Many +women had been busy in filling these magazines for the instruction +and the pleasure of their fellow-townsmen. Lady ----, the wife of the +captain of the garrison, grateful for the gratuitous admission of the +soldiers once a month,--a privilege of which the keeper of the Museum +(a woman also, who took an intelligent pleasure in her task) assured +me that they were eager to avail themselves,--had given a fine +collection of butterflies, and a ship. An untiring diligence had +been shown in adding whatever might stimulate or gratify imperfectly +educated minds. I like to see women perceive that there are other +ways of doing good besides making clothes for the poor or teaching +Sunday-school; these are well, if well directed, but there are many +other ways, some as sure and surer, and which benefit the giver no +less than the receiver. + +I was waked from sleep at the Chester Inn by a loud dispute between +the chambermaid and an unhappy elderly gentleman, who insisted that he +had engaged the room in which I was, had returned to sleep in it, +and consequently must do so. To her assurances that the lady was long +since in possession, he was deaf; but the lock, fortunately for me, +proved a stronger defence. With all a chambermaid's morality, the +maiden boasted to me, "He said he had engaged 44, and would not +believe me when I assured him it was 46; indeed, how could he? I did +not believe myself." To my assurance that, if I had known the room, +was his, I should not have wished for it, but preferred taking a +worse, I found her a polite but incredulous listener. + +Passing from Liverpool to Lancaster by railroad, that convenient but +most unprofitable and stupid way of travelling, we there took the +canal-boat to Kendal, and passed pleasantly through a country of that +soft, that refined and cultivated loveliness, which, however much +we have heard of it, finds the American eye--accustomed to so much +wildness, so much rudeness, such a corrosive action of man upon +nature--wholly unprepared. I feel all the time as if in a sweet dream, +and dread to be presently awakened by some rude jar or glare; but none +comes, and here in Westmoreland--but wait a moment, before we speak of +that. + +In the canal-boat we found two well-bred English gentlemen, and two +well-informed German gentlemen, with whom we had some agreeable talk. +With one of the former was a beautiful youth, about eighteen, whom I +supposed, at the first glance, to be a type of that pure East-Indian +race whose beauty I had never seen represented before except in +pictures; and he made a picture, from which I could scarcely take my +eyes a moment, and from it could as ill endure to part. He was dressed +in a broadcloth robe richly embroidered, leaving his throat and the +upper part of his neck bare, except that he wore a heavy gold chain. +A rich shawl was thrown gracefully around him; the sleeves of his robe +were loose, with white sleeves below. He wore a black satin cap. The +whole effect of this dress was very fine yet simple, setting off to +the utmost advantage the distinguished beauty of his features, in +which there was a mingling of national pride, voluptuous sweetness in +that unconscious state of reverie when it affects us as it does in the +flower, and intelligence in its newly awakened purity. As he turned +his head, his profile was like one I used to have of Love asleep, +while Psyche leans over him with the lamp; but his front face, +with the full, summery look of the eye, was unlike that. He was a +Bengalese, living in England for his education, as several others are +at present. He spoke English well, and conversed on several subjects, +literary and political, with grace, fluency, and delicacy of thought. + +Passing from Kendal to Ambleside, we found a charming abode furnished +us by the care of a friend in one of the stone cottages of this +region, almost the only one _not_ ivy-wreathed, but commanding a +beautiful view of the mountains, and truly an English home in its +neatness, quiet, and delicate, noiseless attention to the wants of all +within its walls. Here we have passed eight happy days, varied by +many drives, boating excursions on Grasmere and Winandermere, and the +society of several agreeable persons. As the Lake district at this +season draws together all kinds of people, and a great variety beside +come from, all quarters to inhabit the charming dwellings that +adorn its hill-sides and shores, I met and saw a good deal of the +representatives of various classes, at once. I found here two landed +proprietors from other parts of England, both "travelled English," +one owning a property in Greece, where he frequently resides, +both warmly engaged in Reform measures, anti-Corn-Law, +anti-Capital-Punishment,--one of them an earnest student of Emerson's +Essays. Both of them had wives, who kept pace with their projects and +their thoughts, active and intelligent women, true ladies, skilful in +drawing and music; all the better wives for the development of every +power. One of them told me, with a glow of pride, that it was not long +since her husband had been "cut" by all his neighbors among the gentry +for the part he took against the Corn Laws; but, she added, he was now +a favorite with them all. Verily, faith will remove mountains, if +only you do join with it any fair portion of the dove and serpent +attributes. + +I found here, too, a wealthy manufacturer, who had written many +valuable pamphlets on popular subjects. He said: "Now that the +progress of public opinion was beginning to make the Church and the +Army narrower fields for the younger sons of 'noble' families, they +sometimes wish to enter into trade; but, beside the aversion which had +been instilled into them for many centuries, they had rarely patience +and energy for the apprenticeship requisite to give the needed +knowledge of the world and habits of labor." Of Cobden he said: "He +is inferior in acquirements to very many of his class, as he is +self-educated and had everything to learn after he was grown up; +but in clear insight there is none like him." A man of very little +education, whom I met a day or two after in the stage-coach, observed +to me: "Bright is far the more eloquent of the two, but Cobden is +more felt, just _because_ his speeches are so plain, so merely +matter-of-fact and to the point." + +We became acquainted also with Dr. Gregory, Professor of Chemistry +at Edinburgh, a very enlightened and benevolent man, who in many ways +both instructed and benefited us. He is the friend of Liebig, and one +of his chief representatives here. + +We also met a fine specimen of the noble, intelligent Scotchwoman, +such as Walter Scott and Burns knew how to prize. Seventy-six years +have passed over her head, only to prove in her the truth of my +theory, that we need never grow old. She was "brought up" in the +animated and intellectual circle of Edinburgh, in youth an apt +disciple, in her prime a bright ornament of that society. She had been +an only child, a cherished wife, an adored mother, unspoiled by love +in any of these relations, because that love was founded on knowledge. +In childhood she had warmly sympathized in the spirit that animated +the American Revolution, and Washington had been her hero; later, the +interest of her husband in every struggle for freedom had cherished +her own; she had known in the course of her long life many eminent +men, knew minutely the history of efforts in that direction, and +sympathized now in the triumph of the people over the Corn Laws, as +she had in the American victories, with as much ardor as when a girl, +though with a wiser mind. Her eye was full of light, her manner and +gesture of dignity; her voice rich, sonorous, and finely modulated; +her tide of talk marked by candor, justice, and showing in every +sentence her ripe experience and her noble, genial nature. Dear to +memory will be the sight of her in the beautiful seclusion of her home +among the mountains, a picturesque, flower-wreathed dwelling, where +affection, tranquillity, and wisdom were the gods of the hearth, to +whom was offered no vain oblation. Grant us more such women, Time! +Grant to men the power to reverence, to seek for such! + +Our visit to Mr. Wordsworth was very pleasant. He also is seventy-six, +but his is a florid, fair old age. He walked with us to all his +haunts about the house. Its situation is beautiful, and the "Rydalian +Laurels" are magnificent. Still I saw abodes among the hills that +I should have preferred for Wordsworth, more wild and still, more +romantic; the fresh and lovely Rydal Mount seems merely the retirement +of a gentleman, rather than the haunt of a poet. He showed his +benignity of disposition in several little things, especially in +his attentions to a young boy we had with us. This boy had left the +Circus, exhibiting its feats of horsemanship in Ambleside "for that +day only," at his own desire to see Wordsworth, and I feared he would +be disappointed, as I know I should have been at his age, if, when +called to see a poet, I had found no Apollo, flaming with youthful +glory, laurel-crowned and lyre in hand, but, instead, a reverend old +man clothed in black, and walking with cautious step along the level +garden-path; however, he was not disappointed, but seemed in timid +reverence to recognize the spirit that had dictated "Laodamia" and +"Dion,"--and Wordsworth, in his turn, seemed to feel and prize a +congenial nature in this child. + +Taking us into the house, he showed us the picture of his sister, +repeating with much expression some lines of hers, and those so famous +of his about her, beginning, "Five years," &c.; also his own picture, +by Inman, of whom he spoke with esteem. + +Mr. Wordsworth is fond of the hollyhock, a partiality scarcely +deserved by the flower, but which marks the simplicity of his +tastes. He had made a long avenue of them of all colors, from the +crimson-brown to rose, straw-color, and white, and pleased himself +with having made proselytes to a liking for them among his neighbors. + +I never have seen such magnificent fuchsias as at Ambleside, and there +was one to be seen in every cottage-yard. They are no longer here +under the shelter of the green-house, as with us, and as they used to +be in England. The plant, from its grace and finished elegance, being +a great favorite of mine, I should like to see it as frequently and of +as luxuriant a growth at home, and asked their mode of culture, which +I here mark down, for the benefit of all who may be interested. Make +a bed of bog-earth and sand, put down slips of the fuchsia, and give +them a great deal of water,--this is all they need. People have them +out here in winter, but perhaps they would not bear the cold of our +Januaries. + +Mr. Wordsworth spoke with, more liberality than we expected of the +recent measures about the Corn Laws, saying that "the principle was +certainly right, though as to whether existing interests had been as +carefully attended to as was just, he was not prepared to say." His +neighbors were pleased to hear of his speaking thus mildly, and hailed +it as a sign that he was opening his mind to more light on these +subjects. They lament that his habits of seclusion keep him much +ignorant of the real wants of England and the world. Living in this +region, which is cultivated by small proprietors, where there is +little poverty, vice, or misery, he hears not the voice which cries so +loudly from other parts of England, and will not be stilled by sweet +poetic suasion or philosophy, for it is the cry of men in the jaws of +destruction. + +It was pleasant to find the reverence inspired by this great and pure +mind warmest nearest home. Our landlady, in heaping praises upon him, +added, constantly, "And Mrs. Wordsworth, too." "Do the people here," +said I, "value Mr. Wordsworth most because he is a celebrated writer?" +"Truly, madam," said she, "I think it is because he is so kind a +neighbor." + + "True to the kindred points of Heaven and Home." + +Dr. Arnold, too,--who lived, as his family still live, here,--diffused +the same ennobling and animating spirit among those who knew him in +private, as through the sphere of his public labors. + +Miss Martineau has here a charming residence; it has been finished +only a few months, but all about it is in unexpectedly fair order, and +promises much beauty after a year or two of growth. Here we found her +restored to full health and activity, looking, indeed, far better than +she did when in the United States. It was pleasant to see her in this +home, presented to her by the gratitude of England for her course of +energetic and benevolent effort, and adorned by tributes of affection +and esteem from many quarters. From the testimony of those who were +with her in and since her illness, her recovery would seem to be of +as magical quickness and sure progress as has been represented. At +the house of Miss Martineau I saw Milman, the author, I must not say +poet,--a specimen of the polished, scholarly man of the world. + +We passed one most delightful day in a visit to Langdale,--the scene +of "The Excursion,"--and to Dungeon-Ghyll Force. I am finishing my +letter at Carlisle on my way to Scotland, and will give a slight +sketch of that excursion, and one which occupied another day, from +Keswick to Buttermere and Crummock Water, in my next. + + + + +LETTER III. + +WESTMORELAND.--LANGDALE.--DUNGEON-GHYLL FORCE.--KESWICK.--CARLISLE.-- +BRANXHOLM.--SCOTT.--BURNS. + + +Edinburgh, 20th September, 1846. + +I have too long delayed writing up my journal.--Many interesting +observations slip from recollection if one waits so many days: +yet, while travelling, it is almost impossible to find an hour when +something of value to be seen will not be lost while writing. + +I said, in closing my last, that I would write a little more about +Westmoreland; but so much, has happened since, that I must now dismiss +that region with all possible brevity. + +The first day of which I wished to speak was passed in visiting +Langdale, the scene of Wordsworth's "Excursion." Our party of eight +went in two of the vehicles called cars or droskas,--open carriages, +each drawn by one horse. They are rather fatiguing to ride in, but +good to see from. In steep and stony places all alight, and the driver +leads the horse: so many of these there are, that we were four or +five hours in going ten miles, including the pauses when we wished to +_look_. + +The scenes through which we passed are, indeed, of the most wild and +noble character. The wildness is not savage, but very calm. Without +recurring to details, I recognized the tone and atmosphere of that +noble poem, which was to me, at a feverish period in my life, as pure +waters, free breezes, and cold blue sky, bringing a sense of eternity +that gave an aspect of composure to the rudest volcanic wrecks of +time. + +We dined at a farm-house of the vale, with its stone floors, old +carved cabinet (the pride of a house of this sort), and ready +provision of oaten cakes. We then ascended a near hill to the +waterfall called Dungeon-Ghyll Force, also a subject touched by +Wordsworth's Muse. You wind along a path for a long time, hearing the +sound of the falling water, but do not see it till, descending by a +ladder the side of the ravine, you come to its very foot. You find +yourself then in a deep chasm, bridged over by a narrow arch of rock; +the water falls at the farther end in a narrow column. Looking up, you +see the sky through a fissure so narrow as to make it look very pure +and distant. One of our party, passing in, stood some time at the foot +of the waterfall, and added much to its effect, as his height gave a +measure by which to appreciate that of surrounding objects, and his +look, by that light so pale and statuesque, seemed to inform the place +with the presence of its genius. + +Our circuit homeward from this grand scene led us through some +lovely places, and to an outlook upon the most beautiful part of +Westmoreland. Passing over to Keswick we saw Derwentwater, and near it +the Fall of Lodore. It was from Keswick that we made the excursion +of a day through Borrowdale to Buttermere and Crummock Water, which +I meant to speak of, but find it impossible at this moment. The mind +does not now furnish congenial colors with which to represent the +vision of that day: it must still wait in the mind and bide its time, +again to emerge to outer air. + +At Keswick we went to see a model of the Lake country which gives an +excellent idea of the relative positions of all objects. Its maker had +given six years to the necessary surveys and drawings. He said that +he had first become acquainted with the country from his taste for +fishing, but had learned to love its beauty, till the thought arose of +making this model; that while engaged in it, he visited almost every +spot amid the hills, and commonly saw both sunrise and sunset upon +them; that he was happy all the time, but almost too happy when he saw +one section of his model coming out quite right, and felt sure at last +that he should be quite successful in representing to others the home +of his thoughts. I looked upon him as indeed an enviable man, to have +a profession so congenial with his feelings, in which he had been so +naturally led to do what would be useful and pleasant for others. + +Passing from Keswick through a pleasant and cultivated country, we +paused at "fair Carlisle," not voluntarily, but because we could not +get the means of proceeding farther that day. So, as it was one in +which + + "The sun shone fair on Carlisle wall," + +we visited its Cathedral and Castle, and trod, for the first time, in +some of the footsteps of the unfortunate Queen of Scots. + +Passing next day the Border, we found the mosses all drained, and +the very existence of sometime moss-troopers would have seemed +problematical, but for the remains of Gilnockie,--the tower of Johnnie +Armstrong, so pathetically recalled in one of the finest of the +Scottish ballads. Its size, as well as that of other keeps, towers, +and castles, whose ruins are reverentially preserved in Scotland, +gives a lively sense of the time when population was so scanty, and +individual manhood grew to such force. Ten men in Gilnockie were +stronger then in proportion to the whole, and probably had in them +more of intelligence, resource, and genuine manly power, than ten +regiments now of red-coats drilled to act out manoeuvres they do not +understand, and use artillery which needs of them no more than the +match to go off and do its hideous message. + +Farther on we saw Branxholm, and the water in crossing which the +Goblin Page was obliged to resume his proper shape and fly, crying, +"Lost, lost, lost!" Verily these things seem more like home than one's +own nursery, whose toys and furniture could not in actual presence +engage the thoughts like these pictures, made familiar as household +words by the most generous, kindly genius that ever blessed this +earth. + +On the coach with us was a gentleman coming from London to make his +yearly visit to the neighborhood of Burns, in which he was born. "I +can now," said he, "go but once a year; when a boy, I never let a week +pass without visiting the house of Burns." He afterward observed, as +every step woke us to fresh recollections of Walter Scott, that Scott, +with all his vast range of talent, knowledge, and activity, was a poet +of the past only, and in his inmost heart wedded to the habits of a +feudal aristocracy, while Burns is the poet of the present and the +future, the man of the people, and throughout a genuine man. This is +true enough; but for my part I cannot endure a comparison which by a +breath of coolness depreciates either. Both were wanted; each +acted the important part assigned him by destiny with a wonderful +thoroughness and completeness. Scott breathed the breath just fleeting +from the forms of ancient Scottish heroism and poesy into new,--he +made for us the bridge by which we have gone into the old Ossianic +hall and caught the meaning just as it was about to pass from us for +ever. Burns is full of the noble, genuine democracy which seeks not +to destroy royalty, but to make all men kings, as he himself was, in +nature and in action. They belong to the same world; they are pillars +of the same church, though they uphold its starry roof from opposite +sides. Burns was much the rarer man; precisely because he had most of +common nature on a grand scale; his humor, his passion, his sweetness, +are all his own; they need no picturesque or romantic accessories to +give them due relief: looked at by all lights they are the same. Since +Adam, there has been none that approached nearer fitness to stand +up before God and angels in the naked majesty of manhood than Robert +Burns;--but there was a serpent in his field also! Yet but for his +fault we could never have seen brought out the brave and patriotic +modesty with which he owned it. Shame on him who could bear to think +of fault in this rich jewel, unless reminded by such confession. + +We passed Abbotsford without stopping, intending to go there on our +return. Last year five hundred Americans inscribed their names in its +porter's book. A raw-boned Scotsman, who gathered his weary length +into our coach on his return from a pilgrimage thither, did us the +favor to inform us that "Sir Walter was a vara intelligent mon," and +the guide-book mentions "the American Washington" as "a worthy old +patriot." Lord safe us, cummers, what news be there! + +This letter, meant to go by the Great Britain, many interruptions +force me to close, unflavored by one whiff from the smoke of Auld +Reekie. More and better matter shall my next contain, for here and +in the Highlands I have passed three not unproductive weeks, of which +more anon. + + + + +LETTER IV. + +EDINBURGH, OLD AND NEW.--SCOTT AND BURNS.--DR. ANDREW COMBE.--AMERICAN +RE-PUBLISHING.--THE BOOKSELLING TRADE.--THE MESSRS. CHAMBERS.--DE +QUINCEY THE OPIUM-EATER.--DR. CHALMERS. + + +Edinburgh, September 22d, 1846. + +The beautiful and stately aspect of this city has been the theme of +admiration so general that I can only echo it. We have seen it to the +greatest advantage both from Calton Hill and Arthur's Seat, and our +lodgings in Princess Street allow us a fine view of the Castle, always +impressive, but peculiarly so in the moonlit evenings of our first +week here, when a veil of mist added to its apparent size, and at the +same time gave it the air with which Martin, in his illustrations +of "Paradise Lost," has invested the palace which "rose like an +exhalation." + +On this our second visit, after an absence of near a fortnight in the +Highlands, we are at a hotel nearly facing the new monument to Scott, +and the tallest buildings of the Old Town. From my windows I see +the famous Kirk, the spot where the old Tolbooth was, and can almost +distinguish that where Porteous was done to death, and other objects +described in the most dramatic part of "The Heart of Mid-Lothian." In +one of these tall houses Hume wrote part of his History of England, +and on this spot still nearer was the home of Allan Ramsay. A thousand +other interesting and pregnant associations present themselves every +time I look out of the window. + +In the open square between us and the Old Town is to be the terminus +of the railroad, but as the building will be masked with trees, it +is thought it will not mar the beauty of the place; yet Scott could +hardly have looked without regret upon an object that marks so +distinctly the conquest of the New over the Old, and, appropriately +enough, his statue has its back turned that way. The effect of the +monument to Scott is pleasing, though without strict unity of thought +or original beauty of design. The statue is too much hid within the +monument, and wants that majesty of repose in the attitude and drapery +which a sitting figure should have, and which might well accompany the +massive head of Scott. Still the monument is an ornament and an honor +to the city. This is now the fourth that has been erected within two +years to commemorate the triumphs of genius. Monuments that have risen +from the same idea, and in such quick succession, to Schiller, to +Goethe, to Beethoven, and to Scott, signalize the character of the new +era still more happily than does the railroad coming up almost to the +foot of Edinburgh Castle. + +The statue of Burns has been removed from the monument erected in his +honor, to one of the public libraries, as being there more accessible +to the public. It is, however, entirely unworthy its subject, giving +the idea of a smaller and younger person, while we think of Burns +as of a man in the prime of manhood, one who not only promised, but +_was_, and with a sunny glow and breadth, of character of which this +stone effigy presents no sign. + +A Scottish gentleman told me the following story, which would afford +the finest subject for a painter capable of representing the glowing +eye and natural kingliness of Burns, in contrast to the poor, mean +puppets he reproved. + +Burns, still only in the dawn of his celebrity, was invited to dine +with one of the neighboring so-called gentry (unhappily quite void +of true gentle blood). On arriving he found his plate set in the +servants' room!! After dinner he was invited into a room where guests +were assembled, and, a chair being placed for him at the lower end of +the board, a glass of wine was offered, and he was requested to sing +one of his songs for the entertainment of the company. He drank off +the wine, and thundered forth in reply his grand song, "For a' that +and a' that," with which it will do no harm to refresh the memories +of our readers, for we doubt there may be, even in Republican America, +those who need the reproof as much, and with far less excuse, than had +that Scottish company. + + "Is there, for honest poverty, + That hangs his head, and a' that? + The coward slave, we pass him by, + We dare be poor for a' that! + For a' that, and a' that, + Our toils obscure, and a' that, + The rank is but the guinea's stamp, + The man's the gowd for a' that. + + "What tho' on hamely fare we dine, + Wear hoddin gray, and a' that; + Gie fools their silks, and knaves their wine, + A man's a man for a' that! + For a' that, and a' that, + Their tinsel show, and a' that, + The honest man, though, e'er sae poor + Is king o' men for a' that. + + "Ye see yon birkie, ca'd a lord, + Wha struts, and stares, and a' that; + Tho' hundreds worship at his word, + He's but a coof for a' that; + For a' that, and a' that, + His ribbon, star, and a' that, + The man of independent mind, + He looks and laughs at a' that. + + "A prince can make a belted knight, + A marquis, duke, and a' that; + But an honest man's aboon his might + Guid faith, he maunna fa' that! + For a' that, and a' that, + Their dignities, and a' that, + The pith o' sense and pride o' worth + Are higher ranks than a' that. + + "Then let us pray that, come it may, + As come it will for a' that, + That sense and worth, o'er a' the earth, + May bear the gree, and a' that; + For a' that, and a' that, + It's coming yet for a' that, + That man to man, the wide warld o'er, + Shall brothers be for a' that." + +And, having finished this prophecy and prayer, Nature's nobleman left +his churlish entertainers to hide their diminished heads in the home +they had disgraced. + +We have seen all the stock lions. The Regalia people still crowd +to see, though the old natural feelings from which they so long lay +hidden seem almost extinct. Scotland grows English day by day. The +libraries of the Advocates, Writers to the Signet, &c., are fine +establishments. The University and schools are now in vacation; we are +compelled by unwise postponement of our journey to see both Edinburgh +and London at the worst possible season. We should have been here in +April, there in June. There is always enough to see, but now we find +a majority of the most interesting persons absent, and a stagnation in +the intellectual movements of the place. + +We had, however, the good fortune to find Dr. Andrew Combe, who, +though a great invalid, was able and disposed for conversation at +this time. I was impressed with great and affectionate respect by +the benign and even temper of his mind, his extensive and accurate +knowledge, accompanied, as such should naturally be, by a large +and intelligent liberality. Of our country he spoke very wisely and +hopefully, though among other stories with which we, as Americans, are +put to the blush here, there is none worse than that of the conduct of +some of our publishers toward him. One of these stories I had heard +in New York, but supposed it to be exaggerated till I had it from the +best authority. It is of one of our leading houses who were publishing +on their own account and had stereotyped one of his works from an +early edition. When this work had passed through other editions and +he had for years been busy in reforming and amending it, he applied +to this house to republish from the later and better edition. They +refused. In vain he urged that it was not only for his own reputation +as an author that he was anxious, but for the good of the great +country through which writings on such, important subjects were to be +circulated, that they might have the benefit of his labors and best +knowledge. Such arguments on the stupid and mercenary tempers of those +addressed fell harmless as on a buffalo's hide might a gold-tipped +arrow. The book, they thought, answered THEIR purpose sufficiently, +for IT SELLS. Other purpose for a book they knew none. And as to the +natural rights of an author over the fruits of his mind, the distilled +essence of a life consumed in the severities of mental labor, they had +never heard of such a thing. His work was in the market, and he had +no more to do with it, that they could see, than the silkworm with the +lining of one of their coats. + +Mr. Greeley, the more I look at this subject, the more I must +maintain, in opposition to your views, that the publisher cannot, if +a mere tradesman, be a man of honor. It is impossible in the nature of +things. He _must_ have some idea of the nature and value of literary +labor, or he is wholly unfit to deal with its products. He cannot +get along by occasional recourse to paid critics or readers; he must +himself have some idea what he is about. One partner, at least, in +the firm, must be a man of culture. All must understand enough to +appreciate their position, and know that he who, for his sordid aims, +circulates poisonous trash amid a great and growing people, and +makes it almost impossible for those whom Heaven has appointed as its +instructors to do their office, are the worst of traitors, and to be +condemned at the bar of nations under a sentence no less severe than +false statesmen and false priests. This matter should and must be +looked to more conscientiously. + +Dr. Combe, repelled by all this indifference to conscience and natural +equity in the firm who had taken possession of his work, applied to +others. But here he found himself at once opposed by the invisible +barrier that makes this sort of tyranny so strong and so pernicious. +"It was the understanding among the trade that they were not to +interfere with one another; indeed, they could have no chance," &c., +&c. When at last he did get the work republished in another part of +the country less favorable for his purposes, the bargain made as to +the pecuniary part of the transaction was in various ways so evaded, +that, up to this time, he has received no compensation from that +widely-circulated work, except a lock of Spurzheim's hair!! + +I was pleased to hear the true view expressed by one of the Messrs. +Chambers. These brothers have worked their way up to wealth and +influence by daily labor and many steps. One of them is more the +business man, the other the literary curator of their Journal. Of this +Journal they issue regularly eighty thousand copies, and it is +doing an excellent work, by awakening among the people a desire for +knowledge, and, to a considerable extent, furnishing them with good +materials. I went over their fine establishment, where I found more +than a hundred and fifty persons, in good part women, employed, all +in well-aired, well-lighted rooms, seemingly healthy and content. +Connected with the establishment is a Savings Bank, and evening +instruction in writing, singing, and arithmetic. There was also a +reading-room, and the same valuable and liberal provision we had +found attached to some of the Manchester warehouses. Such accessories +dignify and gladden all kinds of labor, and show somewhat of the true +spirit of human brotherhood in the employer. Mr. Chambers said he +trusted they should never look on publishing _chiefly_ as _business_, +or a lucrative and respectable employment, but as the means of mental +and moral benefit to their countrymen. To one so wearied and disgusted +as I have been by vulgar and base avowals on such subjects, it was +very refreshing to hear this from the lips of a successful publisher. + +Dr. Combe spoke with high praise of Mr. Hurlbart's book, "Human Rights +and their Political Guaranties," which was published at the Tribune +office. He observed that it was the work of a real thinker, and +extremely well written. It is to be republished here. Dr. Combe said +that it must make its way slowly, as it could interest those only who +were willing to read thoughtfully; but its success was sure at last. + +He also spoke with, great interest and respect of Mrs. Farnham, +of whose character and the influence she has exerted on the female +prisoners at Sing Sing he had heard some account. + +A person of a quite different character and celebrity is De Quincey, +the English Opium-Eater, and who lately has delighted us again with +the papers in Blackwood headed "Suspiria de Profundis." I had the +satisfaction, not easily attainable now, of seeing him for some hours, +and in the mood of conversation. As one belonging to the Wordsworth, +and Coleridge constellation, (he too is now seventy-six years of age,) +the thoughts and knowledge of Mr. De Quincey lie in the past; and +oftentimes he spoke of matters now become trite to one of a later +culture. But to all that fell from his lips, his eloquence, subtile +and forcible as the wind, full and gently falling as the evening dew, +lent a peculiar charm. He is an admirable narrator, not rapid, but +gliding along like a rivulet through a green meadow, giving and taking +a thousand little beauties not absolutely required to give his story +due relief, but each, in itself, a separate boon. + +I admired, too, his urbanity, so opposite to the rapid, slang, +Vivian-Greyish style current in the literary conversation of the +day. "Sixty years since," men had time to do things better and more +gracefully than now. + +With Dr. Chalmers we passed a couple of hours. He is old now, but +still full of vigor and fire. We had an opportunity of hearing a +fine burst of indignant eloquence from him. "I shall blush to my very +bones," said he, "if the _Chaarrch_"--(sound these two _rr_'s with +as much burr as possible and you will get at an idea of his mode of +pronouncing that unweariable word)--"if the Chaarrch yields to the +storm." He alluded to the outcry now raised against the Free Church by +the Abolitionists, whose motto is, "Send back the money," i.e. money +taken from the American slaveholders. Dr. Chalmers felt that, if they +did not yield from conviction, they must not to assault. His manner +of speaking on this subject gave me an idea of the nature of his +eloquence. He seldom preaches now. + +A fine picture was presented by the opposition of figure and +lineaments between a young Indian, son of the celebrated Dwarkanauth +Tagore, who happened to be there that morning, and Dr. Chalmers, as +they were conversing together. The swarthy, half-timid, yet elegant +face and form of the Indian made a fine contrast with the florid, +portly, yet intellectually luminous appearance of the Doctor; half +shepherd, half orator, he looked a Shepherd King opposed to some +Arabian story-teller. + +I saw others in Edinburgh of a later date who haply gave more valuable +as well as fresher revelations of the spirit, and whose names may be +by and by more celebrated than those I have cited; but for the present +this must suffice. It would take a week, if I wrote half I saw or +thought in Edinburgh, and I must close for to-day. + + + + +LETTER V. + +PERTH.--TRAVELLING BY COACH.--LOCH LEVEN.--QUEEN MARY.--LOCH +KATRINE.--THE TROSACHS.--ROWARDENNAN.--A NIGHT ON BEN LOMOND.--SCOTCH +PEASANTRY. + + +Birmingham, September 30th, 1846. + +I was obliged to stop writing at Edinburgh before the better half +of my tale was told, and must now begin there again, to speak of an +excursion into the Highlands, which occupied about a fortnight. + +We left Edinburgh, by coach for Perth, and arrived there about three +in the afternoon. I have reason to be very glad that I visit this +island before the reign of the stage-coach is quite over. I have been +constantly on the top of the coach, even one day of drenching rain, +and enjoy it highly. Nothing can be more inspiring than this swift, +steady progress over such smooth roads, and placed so high as to +overlook the country freely, with the lively flourish of the horn +preluding every pause. Travelling by railroad is, in my opinion, the +most stupid process on earth; it is sleep without the refreshment of +sleep, for the noise of the train makes it impossible either to read, +talk, or sleep to advantage. But here the advantages are immense; you +can fly through this dull trance from one beautiful place to another, +and stay at each during the time that would otherwise be spent on +the road. Already the artists, who are obliged to find their home +in London, rejoice that all England is thrown open to them for +sketching-ground, since they can now avail themselves of a day's +leisure at a great distance, and with choice of position, whereas +formerly they were obliged to confine themselves to a few "green, and +bowery" spots in the neighborhood of the metropolis. But while in the +car, it is to me that worst of purgatories, the purgatory of dulness. + +Well, on the coach we went to Perth, and passed through Kinross, and +saw Loch Leven, and the island where Queen Mary passed those sorrowful +months, before her romantic escape under care of the Douglas. As this +unhappy, lovely woman stands for a type in history, death, time, and +distance do not destroy her attractive power. Like Cleopatra, she has +still her adorers; nay, some are born to her in each new generation of +men. Lately she has for her chevalier the Russian Prince Labanoff, who +has spent fourteen years in studying upon all that related to her, +and thinks now that he can make out a story and a picture about the +mysteries of her short reign, which shall satisfy the desire of her +lovers to find her as pure and just as she was charming. I have only +seen of his array of evidence so much, as may be found in the pages of +Chambers's Journal, but that much does not disturb the original view I +have taken of the case; which is, that from a princess educated +under the Medici and Guise influence, engaged in the meshes of secret +intrigue to favor the Roman Catholic faith, her tacit acquiescence, +at least, in the murder of Darnley, after all his injurious conduct +toward her, was just what was to be expected. From a poor, beautiful +young woman, longing to enjoy life, exposed both by her position +and her natural fascinations to the utmost bewilderment of flattery, +whether prompted by interest or passion, her other acts of folly are +most natural, and let all who feel inclined harshly to condemn her +remember to + + "Gently scan your brother man, + Still gentler sister woman." + +Surely, in all the stern pages of life's account-book there is none on +which a more terrible price is exacted for every precious endowment. +Her rank and reign only made her powerless to do good, and exposed her +to danger; her talents only served to irritate her foes and disappoint +her friends. This most charming of women was the destruction of her +lovers: married three times, she had never any happiness as a wife, +but in both the connections of her choice found that she had either +never possessed or could not retain, even for a few weeks, the love of +the men she had chosen, so that Darnley was willing to risk her life +and that of his unborn child to wreak his wrath upon Rizzio, and after +a few weeks with Bothwell she was heard "calling aloud for a knife to +kill herself with." A mother twice, and of a son and daughter, +both the children were brought forth in loneliness and sorrow, and +separated from her early, her son educated to hate her, her +daughter at once immured in a convent. Add the eighteen years of her +imprisonment, and the fact that this foolish, prodigal world, when +there was in it one woman fitted by her grace and loveliness to charm +all eyes and enliven all fancies, suffered her to be shut up to water +with her tears her dull embroidery during all the full rose-blossom of +her life, and you will hardly get beyond this story for a tragedy, not +noble, but pallid and forlorn. + +Such were the bootless, best thoughts I had while looking at the dull +blood-stain and blocked-up secret stair of Holyrood, at the ruins of +Loch Leven castle, and afterward at Abbotsford, where the picture +of Queen Mary's head, as it lay on the pillow when severed from the +block, hung opposite to a fine caricature of "Queen Elizabeth dancing +high and disposedly." In this last the face is like a mask, so +frightful is the expression of cold craft, irritated, vanity, and the +malice of a lonely breast in contrast with the attitude and elaborate +frippery of the dress. The ambassador looks on dismayed; the little +page can scarcely control the laughter which swells his boyish cheeks. +Such can win the world which, better hearts (and such Mary's was, even +if it had a large black speck in it) are most like to lose. + +That was a most lovely day on which we entered Perth, and saw in full +sunshine its beautiful meadows, among them the North-Inch, the famous +battle-ground commemorated in "The Fair Maid of Perth," adorned with +graceful trees like those of the New England country towns. In the +afternoon we visited the modern Kinfauns, the stately home of Lord +Grey. The drive to it is most beautiful, on the one side the Park, +with noble heights that skirt it, on the other through a belt of trees +was seen the river and the sweep of that fair and cultivated country. +The house is a fine one, and furnished with taste, the library large, +and some good works in marble. Among the family pictures one +arrested my attention,--the face of a girl full of the most pathetic +sensibility, and with no restraint of convention upon its ardent, +gentle expression. She died young. + +Returning, we were saddened, as almost always on leaving any such +place, by seeing such swarms of dirty women and dirtier children at +the doors of the cottages almost close by the gate of the avenue. To +the horrors and sorrows of the streets in such places as Liverpool, +Glasgow, and, above all, London, one has to grow insensible or die +daily; but here in the sweet, fresh, green country, where there seems +to be room for everybody, it is impossible to forget the frightful +inequalities between the lot of man and man, or believe that God can +smile upon a state of things such as we find existent here. Can any +man who has seen these things dare blame the Associationists for their +attempt to find prevention against such misery and wickedness in our +land? Rather will not every man of tolerable intelligence and good +feeling commend, say rather revere, every earnest attempt in that +direction, nor dare interfere with any, unless he has a better to +offer in its place? + +Next morning we passed on to Crieff, in whose neighborhood we visited +Drummond Castle, the abode, or rather one of the abodes, of Lord +Willoughby D'Eresby. It has a noble park, through which you pass by +an avenue of two miles long. The old keep is still ascended to get +the fine view of the surrounding country; and during Queen Victoria's +visit, her Guards were quartered there. But what took my fancy most +was the old-fashioned garden, full of old shrubs and new flowers, with +its formal parterres in the shape of the family arms, and its clipped +yew and box trees. It was fresh from a shower, and now glittering and +fragrant in bright sunshine. + +This afternoon we pursued our way, passing through the plantations +of Ochtertyre, a far more charming place to my taste than Drummond +Castle, freer and more various in its features. Five or six of these +fine places lie in the neighborhood of Crieff, and the traveller may +give two or three days to visiting them with a rich reward of delight. +But we were pressing on to be with the lakes and mountains rather, and +that night brought us to St. Fillan's, where we saw the moon shining +on Loch Earn. + +All this region, and that of Loch Katrine and the Trosachs, which +we reached next day, Scott has described exactly in "The Lady of +the Lake"; nor is it possible to appreciate that poem, without going +thither, neither to describe the scene better than he has done after +you have seen it. I was somewhat disappointed in the pass of the +Trosachs itself; it is very grand, but the grand part lasts so +little while. The opening view of Loch Katrine, however, surpassed, +expectation. It was late in the afternoon when we launched our little +boat there for Ellen's isle. + +The boatmen recite, though not _con molto espressione_, the parts of +the poem which describe these localities. Observing that they spoke of +the personages, too, with the same air of confidence, we asked if they +were sure that all this really happened. They replied, "Certainly; it +had been told from father to son through so many generations." Such +is the power of genius to interpolate what it will into the regular +log-book of Time's voyage. + +Leaving Loch Katrine the following day, we entered Rob Roy's country, +and saw on the way the house where Helen MacGregor was born, and Rob +Roy's sword, which is shown in a house by the way-side. + +We came in a row-boat up Loch Katrine, though both on that and Loch +Lomond you _may_ go in a hateful little steamer with a squeaking +fiddle to play Rob Roy MacGregor O. I walked almost all the way +through the pass from Loch Katrine to Loch Lomond; it was a distance +of six miles; but you feel as if you could walk sixty in that pure, +exhilarating air. At Inversnaid we took boat again to go down Loch +Lomond to the little inn of Rowardennan, from which the ascent is made +of Ben Lomond, the greatest elevation in these parts. The boatmen +are fine, athletic men; one of those with us this evening, a handsome +young man of two or three and twenty, sang to us some Gaelic songs. +The first, a very wild and plaintive air, was the expostulation of a +girl whose lover has deserted her and married another. It seems he is +ashamed, and will not even look at her when they meet upon the road. +She implores him, if he has not forgotten all that scene of bygone +love, at least to lift up his eyes and give her one friendly glance. +The sad _crooning_ burden of the stanzas in which she repeats this +request was very touching. When the boatman had finished, he hung his +head and seemed ashamed of feeling the song too much; then, when we +asked for another, he said he would sing another about a girl that was +happy. This one was in three parts. First, a tuneful address from a +maiden to her absent lover; second, his reply, assuring her of his +fidelity and tenderness; third, a strain which expresses their joy +when reunited. I thought this boatman had sympathies which would +prevent his tormenting any poor women, and perhaps make some one +happy, and this was a pleasant thought, since probably in the +Highlands, as elsewhere, + + "Maidens lend an ear too oft + To the careless wooer; + Maidens' hearts are _always soft_; + Would that men's were truer!" + +I don't know that I quote the words correctly, but that is the sum and +substance of a masculine report on these matters. + +The first day at Rowardennan not being propitious for ascending the +mountain, we went down the lake to sup, and got very tired in various +ways, so that we rose very late next morning. Their we found a day +of ten thousand for our purpose; but unhappily a large party had come +with the sun and engaged all the horses, so that, if we went, it must +be on foot. This was something of an enterprise for me, as the ascent +is four miles, and toward the summit quite fatiguing; however, in the +pride of newly gained health and strength, I was ready, and set forth +with Mr. S. alone. We took no guide,--and the people of the house did +not advise it, as they ought. They told us afterward they thought the +day was so clear that there was no probability of danger, and they +were afraid of seeming mercenary about it. It was, however, wrong, as +they knew what we did not, that even the shepherds, if a mist comes +on, can be lost in these hills; that a party of gentlemen were so a +few weeks before, and only by accident found their way to a house on +the other side; and that a child which had been lost was not found for +five days, long after its death. We, however, nothing doubting, set +forth, ascending slowly, and often stopping to enjoy the points of +view, which are many, for Ben Lomond consists of a congeries of hills, +above which towers the true Ben, or highest peak, as the head of a +many-limbed body. + +On reaching the peak, the night was one of beauty and grandeur such as +imagination never painted. You see around you no plain ground, but on +every side constellations or groups of hills exquisitely dressed in +the soft purple of the heather, amid which gleam the lakes, like eyes +that tell the secrets of the earth and drink in those of the heavens. +Peak beyond peak caught from the shifting light all the colors of the +prism, and on the farthest, angel companies seemed hovering in their +glorious white robes. + +Words are idle on such subjects; what can I say, but that it was a +noble vision, that satisfied the eye and stirred the imagination in +all its secret pulses? Had that been, as afterward seemed likely, +the last act of my life, there could not have been a finer decoration +painted on the curtain which was to drop upon it. + +About four o'clock we began our descent. Near the summit the traces of +the path are not distinct, and I said to Mr. S., after a while, that +we had lost it. He said, he thought that was of no consequence, we +could find oar way down. I thought however it was, as the ground was +full of springs that were bridged over in the pathway. He accordingly +went to look for it, and I stood still because so tired that I did not +like to waste any labor. Soon he called to me that he had found it, +and I followed in the direction where he seemed to be. But I mistook, +overshot it, and saw him no more. In about ten minutes I became +alarmed, and called him many times. It seems he on his side did the +same, but the brow of some hill was between us, and we neither saw nor +heard one another. + +I then thought I would make the best of my way down, and I should +find him upon my arrival. But in doing so I found the justice of my +apprehension about the springs, as, so soon as I got to the foot of +the hills, I would sink up to my knees in bog, and have to go up the +hills again, seeking better crossing-places. Thus I lost much time; +nevertheless, in the twilight I saw at last the lake and the inn of +Rowardennan on its shore. + +Between me and it lay direct a high heathery hill, which I afterward +found is called "The Tongue," because hemmed in on three sides by a +watercourse. It looked as if, could I only get to the bottom of that, +I should be on comparatively level ground. I then attempted to descend +in the watercourse, but, finding that impracticable, climbed on the +hill again and let myself down by the heather, for it was very steep +and full of deep holes. With great fatigue I got to the bottom, but +when about to cross the watercourse there, it looked so deep in the +dim twilight that I felt afraid. I got down as far as I could by the +root of a tree, and threw down a stone; it sounded very hollow, and +made me afraid to jump. The shepherds told me afterward, if I had, I +should probably have killed myself, it was so deep and the bed of the +torrent full of sharp stones. + +I then tried to ascend the hill again, for there was no other way to +get off it, but soon sunk down utterly exhausted. When able to get up +again and look about me, it was completely dark. I saw far below me +a light, that looked about as big as a pin's head, which I knew to be +from the inn at Rowardennan, but heard no sound except the rush of the +waterfall, and the sighing of the night-wind. + +For the first few minutes after I perceived I had got to my night's +lodging, such as it was, the prospect seemed appalling. I was very +lightly clad,--my feet and dress were very wet,--I had only a little +shawl to throw round me, and a cold autumn wind had already come, and +the night-mist was to fall on me, all fevered and exhausted as I was. +I thought I should not live through the night, or, if I did, live +always a miserable invalid. There was no chance to keep myself warm by +walking, for, now it was dark, it would be too dangerous to stir. + +My only chance, however, lay in motion, and my only help in myself, +and so convinced was I of this, that I did keep in motion the whole +of that long night, imprisoned as I was on such a little perch of that +great mountain. _How_ long it seemed under such circumstances only +those can guess who may have been similarly circumstanced. The mental +experience of the time, most precious and profound,--for it was indeed +a season lonely, dangerous, and helpless enough for the birth of +thoughts beyond what the common sunlight will ever call to being,--may +be told in another place and time. + +For about two hours I saw the stars, and very cheery and companionable +they looked; but then the mist fell, and I saw nothing more, except +such apparitions as visited Ossian on the hill-side when he went out +by night and struck the bosky shield and called to him the spirits of +the heroes and the white-armed maids with their blue eyes of grief. To +me, too, came those visionary shapes; floating slowly and gracefully, +their white robes would unfurl from the great body of mist in which +they had been engaged, and come upon me with a kiss pervasively cold +as that of death. What they might have told me, who knows, if I +had but resigned myself more passively to that cold, spirit-like +breathing! + +At last the moon rose. I could not see her, but the silver light +filled the mist. Then I knew it was two o'clock, and that, having +weathered out so much of the night, I might the rest; and the hours +hardly seemed long to me more. + +It may give an idea of the extent of the mountain to say that, though +I called every now and then with all my force, in case by chance some +aid might be near, and though no less than twenty men with their dogs +were looking for me, I never heard a sound except the rush of the +waterfall and the sighing of the night-wind, and once or twice the +startling of the grouse in the heather. It was sublime indeed,--a +never-to-be-forgotten presentation of stern, serene realities. + +At last came the signs of day, the gradual clearing and breaking up; +some faint sounds, from I know not what. The little flies, too, arose +from their bed amid the purple heather, and bit me; truly they were +very welcome to do so. But what was my disappointment to find the mist +so thick, that I could see neither lake nor inn, nor anything to guide +me. I had to go by guess, and, as it happened, my Yankee method served +me well. I ascended the hill, crossed the torrent in the waterfall, +first drinking some of the water, which was as good at that time as +ambrosia. I crossed in that place because the waterfall made steps, +as it were, to the next hill; to be sure they were covered with water, +but I was already entirely wet with the mist, so that it did not +matter. I then kept on scrambling, as it happened, in the right +direction, till, about seven, some of the shepherds found me. The +moment they came, all my feverish strength departed, though, if +unaided, I dare say it would have kept me up during the day; and they +carried me home, where my arrival relieved my friends of distress +far greater than I had undergone, for I had had my grand solitude, my +Ossianic visions, and the pleasure of sustaining myself while they +had only doubt amounting to anguish and a fruitless search through the +night. + +Entirely contrary to my expectations, I only suffered for this a few +days, and was able to take a parting look at my prison, as I went +down the lake, with feelings of complacency. It was a majestic-looking +hill, that Tongue, with the deep ravines on either side, and the +richest robe of heather I have seen anywhere. + +Mr. S. gave all the men who were looking for me a dinner in the barn, +and he and Mrs. S. ministered to them, and they talked of Burns, +really the national writer, and known by them, apparently, as none +other is, and of hair-breadth escapes by flood and fell. Afterwards +they were all brought up to see me, and it was pleasing indeed to +observe the good breeding and good, feeling with which they deported +themselves on the occasion. Indeed, this adventure created quite an +intimate feeling between us and the people there. I had been much +pleased, with them before, in attending one of their dances, on +account of the genuine independence and politeness of their conduct. +They were willing and pleased to dance their Highland flings and +strathspeys for our amusement, and did it as naturally and as freely +as they would have offered the stranger the best chair. + +All the rest must wait a while. I cannot economize time to keep up +my record in any proportion with what happens, nor can I get out of +Scotland on this page, as I had intended, without utterly slighting +many gifts and graces. + + + + +LETTER VI. + +INVERARY.--THE ARGYLE FAMILY.--DUMBARTON.--SUNSET ON THE +CLYDE.--GLASGOW.--DIRT AND INTELLECT.--STIRLING.--"THE SCOTTISH +CHIEFS."--STIRLING CASTLE.--THE TOURNAMENT GROUND.--EDINBURGH.--JAMES +SIMPSON.--INFANT SCHOOLS.--FREE BATHS.--MELROSE.--ABBOTSFORD.--WALTER +SCOTT.--DRYBURGH ABBEY.--SCOTT'S TOMB. + + +Paris, November, 1846. + +I am very sorry to leave such a wide gap between my letters, but I was +inevitably prevented from finishing one that was begun for the steamer +of the 4th of November. I then hoped to prepare one after my arrival +here in time for the Hibernia, but a severe cold, caught on the way, +unfitted me for writing. It is now necessary to retrace my steps a +long way, or lose sight of several things it has seemed desirable to +mention to friends in America, though I shall make out my narrative +more briefly than if nearer the time of action. + +If I mistake not, my last closed just as I was looking back on the +hill where I had passed the night in all the miserable chill and amid +the ghostly apparitions of a Scotch mist, but which looked in the +morning truly beautiful, and (had I not known it too well to be +deceived) alluring, in its mantle of rich pink heath, the tallest and +most full of blossoms we anywhere saw, and with, the waterfall making +music by its side, and sparkling in the morning sun. + +Passing from Tarbet, we entered the grand and beautiful pass of +Glencoe,--sublime with purple shadows with bright lights between, and +in one place showing an exquisitely silent and lonely little lake. +The wildness of the scene was heightened by the black Highland cattle +feeding here and there. They looked much at home, too, in the park at +Inverary, where I saw them next day. In Inverary I was disappointed. +I found, indeed, the position of every object the same as indicated +in the "Legend of Montrose," but the expression of the whole seemed +unlike what I had fancied. The present abode of the Argyle family is +a modern structure, and boasts very few vestiges of the old romantic +history attached to the name. The park and look-out upon the lake are +beautiful, but except from the brief pleasure derived from these, the +old cross from Iona that stands in the market-place, and the drone of +the bagpipe which lulled me to sleep at night playing some melancholy +air, there was nothing to make me feel that it was "a far cry to +Lochawe," but, on the contrary, I seemed in the very midst of the +prosaic, the civilized world. + +Leaving Inverary, we left that day the Highlands too, passing through. +Hell Glen, a very wild and grand defile. Taking boat then on Loch +Levy, we passed down the Clyde, stopping an hour or two on our way at +Dumbarton. Nature herself foresaw the era of picture when she made and +placed this rock: there is every preparation for the artist's stealing +a little piece from her treasures to hang on the walls of a room. Here +I saw the sword of "Wallace wight," shown by a son of the nineteenth +century, who said that this hero lived about fifty years ago, and who +did not know the height of this rock, in a cranny of which he lived, +or at least ate and slept and "donned his clothes." From the top of +the rock I saw sunset on the beautiful Clyde, animated that day by an +endless procession of steamers, little skiffs, and boats. In one of +the former, the Cardiff Castle, we embarked as the last light of day +was fading, and that evening found ourselves in Glasgow. + +I understand there is an intellectual society of high merit in +Glasgow, but we were there only a few hours, and did not see any one. +Certainly the place, as it may be judged of merely from the general +aspect of the population and such objects as may be seen in the +streets, more resembles an _Inferno_ than any other we have yet +visited. The people are more crowded together, and the stamp of +squalid, stolid misery and degradation more obvious and appalling. +The English and Scotch do not take kindly to poverty, like those of +sunnier climes; it makes them fierce or stupid, and, life presenting +no other cheap pleasure, they take refuge in drinking. + +I saw here in Glasgow persons, especially women, dressed in dirty, +wretched tatters, worse than none, and with an expression of listless, +unexpecting woe upon their faces, far more tragic than the inscription +over the gate of Dante's _Inferno_. To one species of misery suffered +here to the last extent, I shall advert in speaking of London. + +But from all these sorrowful tokens I by no means inferred the +falsehood of the information, that here was to be found a circle +rich in intellect and in aspiration. The manufacturing and commercial +towns, burning focuses of grief and vice, are also the centres of +intellectual life, as in forcing-beds the rarest flowers and fruits +are developed by use of impure and repulsive materials. Where evil +comes to an extreme, Heaven seems busy in providing means for the +remedy. Glaring throughout Scotland and England is the necessity for +the devoutest application of intellect and love to the cure of ills +that cry aloud, and, without such application, erelong help _must_ be +sought by other means than words. Yet there is every reason to hope +that those who ought to help are seriously, though, slowly, becoming +alive to the imperative nature of this duty; so we must not cease +to hope, even in the streets of Glasgow, and the gin-palaces of +Manchester, and the dreariest recesses of London. + +From Glasgow we passed to Stirling, like Dumbarton endeared to the +mind which cherishes the memory of its childhood more by association +with Miss Porter's Scottish Chiefs, than with "Snowdon's knight and +Scotland's king." We reached the town too late to see the castle +before the next morning, and I took up at the inn "The Scottish +Chiefs," in which I had not read a word since ten or twelve years old. +We are in the habit now of laughing when this book is named, as if it +were a representative of what is most absurdly stilted or bombastic, +but now, in reading, my maturer mind was differently impressed from +what I expected, and the infatuation with which childhood and early +youth regard this book and its companion, "Thaddeus of Warsaw," was +justified. The characters and dialogue are, indeed, out of nature, but +the sentiment that animates them is pure, true, and no less healthy +than noble. Here is bad drawing, bad drama, but good music, to which +the unspoiled heart will always echo, even when the intellect has +learned to demand a better organ for its communication. + +The castle of Stirling is as rich as any place in romantic +associations. We were shown its dungeons and its Court of Lions, +where, says tradition, wild animals, kept in the grated cells +adjacent, were brought out on festival occasions to furnish +entertainment for the court. So, while lords and ladies gay danced and +sang above, prisoners pined and wild beasts starved below. This, at +first blush, looks like a very barbarous state of things, but, on +reflection, one does not find that we have outgrown it in our present +so-called state of refined civilization, only the present way of +expressing the same facts is a little different. Still lords and +ladies dance and sing, unknowing or uncaring that the laborers who +minister to their luxuries starve or are turned into wild beasts. Man +need not boast his condition, methinks, till he can weave his costly +tapestry without the side that is kept under looking thus sadly. + +The tournament ground is still kept green and in beautiful order, near +Stirling castle, as a memento of the olden time, and as we passed +away down the beautiful Firth, a turn of the river gave us a very +advantageous view of it. So gay it looked, so festive in the bright +sunshine, one almost seemed to see the graceful forms of knight and +noble pricking their good steeds to the encounter, or the stalwart +Douglas, vindicating his claim to be indeed a chief by conquest in the +rougher sports of the yeomanry. + +Passing along the Firth to Edinburgh, we again passed two or three +days in that beautiful city, which I could not be content to leave +so imperfectly seen, if I had not some hope of revisiting it when the +bright lights that adorn it are concentred there. In summer almost +every one is absent. I was very fortunate to see as many interesting +persons as I did. On this second visit I saw James Simpson, a +well-known philanthropist, and leader in the cause of popular +education. Infant schools have been an especial care of his, and +America as well as Scotland has received the benefit of his thoughts +on this subject. His last good work has been to induce the erection +of public baths in Edinburgh, and the working people of that place, +already deeply in his debt for the lectures he has been unwearied +in delivering for their benefit, have signified their gratitude by +presenting him with a beautiful model of a fountain in silver as an +ornament to his study. Never was there a place where such a measure +would be more important; if cleanliness be akin to godliness, +Edinburgh stands at great disadvantage in her devotions. The impure +air, the terrific dirt which surround the working people, must make +all progress in higher culture impossible; and I saw nothing which +seemed to me so likely to have results of incalculable good, as this +practical measure of the Simpsons in support of the precept, + + "Wash and be clean every whit." + +We returned into England by the way of Melrose, not content to leave +Scotland without making our pilgrimage to Abbotsford. The universal +feeling, however, has made this pilgrimage so common that there +is nothing left for me to say; yet, though I had read a hundred +descriptions, everything seemed new as I went over this epitome of +the mind and life of Scott. As what constitutes the great man is more +commonly some extraordinary combination and balance of qualities, than +the highest development of any one, so you cannot but here be struck +anew by the singular combination in Scott's mind of love for the +picturesque and romantic with the plainest common sense,--a delight +in heroic excess with the prudential habit of order. Here the most +pleasing order pervades emblems of what men commonly esteem disorder +and excess. + +Amid the exquisite beauty of the ruins of Dryburgh, I saw with regret +that Scott's body rests in almost the only spot that is not green, and +cannot well be made so, for the light does not reach it. That is not +a fit couch for him who dressed so many dim and time-worn relics with +living green. + +Always cheerful and beneficent, Scott seemed to the common eye in like +measure prosperous and happy, up to the last years, and the chair in +which, under the pressure of the sorrows which led to his death, he +was propped up to write when brain and eye and hand refused their +aid, the product remaining only as a guide to the speculator as to the +workings of the mind in case of insanity or approaching imbecility, +would by most persons be viewed as the only saddening relic of his +career. Yet when I recall some passages in the Lady of the Lake, and +the Address to his Harp, I cannot doubt that Scott had the full share +of bitter in his cup, and feel the tender hope that we do about other +gentle and generous guardians and benefactors of our youth, that in a +nobler career they are now fulfilling still higher duties with serener +mind. Doubtless too they are trusting in us that we will try to fill +their places with kindly deeds, ardent thoughts, nor leave the world, +in their absence, + + "A dim, vast vale of tears, + Vacant and desolate." + + + + +LETTER VII. + +NEWCASTLE.--DESCENT INTO A COAL-MINE.--YORK WITH ITS MINSTER.-- +SHEFFIELD.--CHATSWORTH.--WARWICK CASTLE.--LEAMINGTON AND +STRATFORD.--SHAKESPEARE.--BIRMINGHAM.--GEORGE DAWSON.--JAMES +MARTINEAU.--W.J. FOX.--W.H. CHARMING AND THEODORE PARKER.--LONDON +AND PARIS. + + +Paris, 1846. + +We crossed the moorland in a heavy rain, and reached Newcastle late +at night. Next day we descended into a coal-mine; it was quite an odd +sensation to be taken off one's feet and dropped down into darkness +by the bucket. The stables under ground had a pleasant Gil-Blas air, +though the poor horses cannot like it much; generally they see the +light of day no more after they have once been let down into these +gloomy recesses, but pass their days in dragging cars along the rails +of the narrow passages, and their nights in eating hay and dreaming +of grass!! When we went down, we meant to go along the gallery to the +place where the miners were then at work, but found this was a walk +of a mile and a half, and, beside the weariness of picking one's steps +slowly along by the light of a tallow candle, too wet and dirty an +enterprise to be undertaken by way of amusement; so, after proceeding +half a mile or so, we begged to be restored to our accustomed level, +and reached it with minds slightly edified and face and hands much +blackened. + +Passing thence we saw York with its Minster, that dream of beauty +realized. From, its roof I saw two rainbows, overarching that lovely +country. Through its aisles I heard grand music pealing. But how +sorrowfully bare is the interior of such a cathedral, despoiled of the +statues, the paintings, and the garlands that belong to the Catholic +religion! The eye aches for them. Such a church is ruined by +Protestantism; its admirable exterior seems that of a sepulchre; there +is no correspondent life within. + +Within the citadel, a tower half ruined and ivy-clad, is life that +has been growing up while the exterior bulwarks of the old feudal time +crumbled to ruin. George Fox, while a prisoner at York for obedience +to the dictates of his conscience, planted here a walnut, and the tall +tree that grew from it still "bears testimony" to his living presence +on that spot. The tree is old, but still bears nuts; one of them was +taken away by my companions, and may perhaps be the parent of a tree +somewhere in America, that shall shade those who inherit the spirit, +if they do not attach importance to the etiquettes, of Quakerism. + +In Sheffield I saw the sooty servitors tending their furnaces. I saw +them, also on Saturday night, after their work was done, going to +receive its poor wages, looking pallid and dull, as if they had spent +on tempering the steel that vital force that should have tempered +themselves to manhood. + +We saw, also, Chatsworth, with its park and mock wilderness, and +immense conservatory, and really splendid fountains and wealth of +marbles. It is a fine expression of modern luxury and splendor, but +did not interest me; I found little there of true beauty or grandeur. + +Warwick Castle is a place entirely to my mind, a real representative +of the English aristocracy in the day of its nobler life. The grandeur +of the pile itself, and its beauty of position, introduce you fitly +to the noble company with which the genius of Vandyke has peopled +its walls. But a short time was allowed to look upon these nobles, +warriors, statesmen, and ladies, who gaze upon us in turn with such a +majesty of historic association, yet was I very well satisfied. It +is not difficult to see men through the eyes of Vandyke. His way of +viewing character seems superficial, though commanding; he sees the +man in his action on the crowd, not in his hidden life; he does not, +like some painters, amaze and engross us by his revelations as to the +secret springs of conduct. I know not by what hallucination I forebore +to look at the picture I most desired to see,--that of Lucy, Countess +of Carlisle. I was looking at something else, and when the fat, +pompous butler announced her, I did not recognize her name from his +mouth. Afterward it flashed across me, that I had really been standing +before her and forgotten to look. But repentance was too late; I had +passed the castle gate to return no more. + +Pretty Leamington and Stratford are hackneyed ground. Of the latter +I only observed what, if I knew, I had forgotten, that the room where +Shakespeare was born has been an object of devotion only for forty +years. England has learned much of her appreciation of Shakespeare +from the Germans. In the days of innocence, I fondly supposed that +every one who could understand English, and was not a cannibal, adored +Shakespeare and read him on Sundays always for an hour or more, and on +week days a considerable portion of the time. But I have lived to know +some hundreds of persons in my native land, without finding ten who +had any direct acquaintance with their greatest benefactor, and I dare +say in England as large an experience would not end more honorably +to its subjects. So vast a treasure is left untouched, while men are +complaining of being poor, because they have not toothpicks exactly to +their mind. + +At Stratford I handled, too, the poker used to such good purpose by +Geoffrey Crayon. The muse had fled, the fire was out, and the poker +rusty, yet a pleasant influence lingered even in that cold little +room, and seemed to lend a transient glow to the poker under the +influence of sympathy. + +In Birmingham I heard two discourses from one of the rising lights of +England, George Dawson, a young man of whom I had earlier heard much +in praise. He is a friend of the people, in the sense of brotherhood, +not of a social convenience or patronage; in literature catholic; in +matters of religion antisectarian, seeking truth in aspiration and +love. He is eloquent, with good method in his discourse, fire and +dignity when wanted, with a frequent homeliness in enforcement and +illustration which offends the etiquettes of England, but fits him the +better for the class he has to address. His powers are uncommon and +unfettered in their play; his aim is worthy. He is fulfilling and will +fulfil an important task as an educator of the people, if all be +not marred by a taint of self-love and arrogance now obvious in his +discourse. This taint is not surprising in one so young, who has +done so much, and in order to do it has been compelled to great +self-confidence and light heed of the authority of other minds, and +who is surrounded almost exclusively by admirers; neither is it, +at present, a large speck; it may be quite purged from him by the +influence of nobler motives and the rise of his ideal standard; but, +on the other hand, should it spread, all must be vitiated. Let us hope +the best, for he is one that could ill be spared from the band who +have taken up the cause of Progress in England. + +In this connection I may as well speak of James Martineau, whom I +heard in Liverpool, and W.J. Fox, whom I heard in London. + +Mr. Martineau looks like the over-intellectual, the partially +developed man, and his speech confirms this impression. He is +sometimes conservative, sometimes reformer, not in the sense of +eclecticism, but because his powers and views do not find a true +harmony. On the conservative side he is scholarly, acute,--on the +other, pathetic, pictorial, generous. He is no prophet and no sage, +yet a man full of fine affections and thoughts, always suggestive, +sometimes satisfactory; he is well adapted to the wants of that class, +a large one in the present day, who love the new wine, but do not feel +that they can afford to throw away _all_ their old bottles. + +Mr. Fox is the reverse of all this: he is homogeneous in his materials +and harmonious in the results he produces. He has great persuasive +power; it is the persuasive power of a mind warmly engaged in seeking +truth for itself. He sometimes carries homeward convictions with great +energy, driving in the thought as with golden nails. A glow of kindly +human sympathy enlivens his argument, and the whole presents thought +in a well-proportioned, animated body. But I am told he is far +superior in speech on political or social problems, than on such as I +heard him discuss. + +I was reminded, in hearing all three, of men similarly engaged in our +country, W.H. Charming and Theodore Parker. None of them compare +in the symmetrical arrangement of extempore discourse, or in pure +eloquence and communication of spiritual beauty, with Charming, nor in +fulness and sustained flow with Parker, but, in power of practical and +homely adaptation of their thought to common wants, they are superior +to the former, and all have more variety, finer perceptions, and are +more powerful in single passages, than Parker. + +And now my pen has run to 1st October, and still I have such +notabilities as fell to my lot to observe while in London, and these +that are thronging upon me here in Paris to record for you. I am sadly +in arrears, but 't is comfort to think that such meats as I have to +serve up are as good cold as hot. At any rate, it is just impossible +to do any better, and I shall comfort myself, as often before, with +the triplet which I heard in childhood from a sage (if only sages wear +wigs!):-- + + "As said the great Prince Fernando, + What _can_ a man do, + More than he can do?" + + + + +LETTER VIII. + +RECOLLECTIONS OF LONDON.--THE ENGLISH GENTLEMAN.--LONDON CLIMATE.--OUT +OF SEASON.--LUXURY AND MISERY.--A DIFFICULT PROBLEM.--TERRORS +OF POVERTY.--JOANNA BAILLIE AND MADAME ROLAND.--HAMPSTEAD.--MISS +BERRY.--FEMALE ARTISTS.--MARGARET GILLIES.--THE PEOPLE'S +JOURNAL.--THE TIMES.--THE HOWITTS.--SOUTH WOOD SMITH.--HOUSES FOR THE +POOR.--SKELETON OF JEREMY BENTHAM.--COOPER THE POET.--THOM. + + +Paris, December, 1846. + +I sit down here in Paris to narrate some recollections of London. +The distance in space and time is not great, yet I seem in wholly a +different world. Here in the region of wax-lights, mirrors, bright +wood fires, shrugs, vivacious ejaculations, wreathed smiles, and +adroit courtesies, it is hard to remember John Bull, with his +coal-smoke, hands in pockets, except when extended for ungracious +demand of the perpetual half-crown, or to pay for the all but +perpetual mug of beer. John, seen on that side, is certainly the most +churlish of clowns, and the most clownish of churls. But then +there are so many other sides! When a gentleman, he is so truly the +gentleman, when a man, so truly the man of honor! His graces, when he +has any, grow up from his inmost heart. + +Not that he is free from humbug; on the contrary, he is prone to the +most solemn humbug, generally of the philanthrophic or otherwise moral +kind. But he is always awkward beneath the mask, and can never impose +upon anybody--but himself. Nature meant him to be noble, generous, +sincere, and has furnished him with no faculties to make himself +agreeable in any other way or mode of being. 'Tis not so with your +Frenchman, who can cheat you pleasantly, and move with grace in the +devious and slippery path. You would be almost sorry to see him quite +disinterested and straightforward, so much of agreeable talent and +naughty wit would thus lie hid for want of use. But John, O John, we +must admire, esteem, or be disgusted with thee. + +As to climate, there is not much to choose at this time of year. In +London, for six weeks, we never saw the sun for coal-smoke and fog. In +Paris we have not been blessed with its cheering rays above three or +four days in the same length of time, and are, beside, tormented with +an oily and tenacious mud beneath the feet, which makes it almost +impossible to walk. This year, indeed, is an uncommonly severe one at +Paris; but then, if they have their share of dark, cold days, it must +be admitted that they do all they can to enliven them. + +But to dwell first on London,--London, in itself a world. We arrived +at a time which the well-bred Englishman considers as no time at +all,--quite out of "the season," when Parliament is in session, and +London thronged with the equipages of her aristocracy, her titled +wealthy nobles. I was listened to with a smile of contempt when I +declared that the stock shows of London would yield me amusement and +employment more than sufficient for the time I had to stay. But +I found that, with my way of viewing things, it would be to me an +inexhaustible studio, and that, if life were only long enough, I would +live there for years obscure in some corner, from which I could issue +forth day by day to watch unobserved the vast stream of life, or to +decipher the hieroglyphics which ages have been inscribing on the +walls of this vast palace (I may not call it a temple), which human +effort has reared for means, not yet used efficaciously, of human +culture. + +And though I wish to return to London in "the season," when that city +is an adequate representative of the state of things in England, I +am glad I did not at first see all that pomp and parade of wealth and +luxury in contrast with the misery, squalid, agonizing, ruffianly, +which stares one in the face in every street of London, and hoots at +the gates of her palaces more ominous a note than ever was that of owl +or raven in the portentous times when empires and races have crumbled +and fallen from inward decay. + +It is impossible, however, to take a near view of the treasures +created by English genius, accumulated by English industry, without a +prayer, daily more fervent, that the needful changes in the condition +of this people may be effected by peaceful revolution, which shall +destroy nothing except the shocking inhumanity of exclusiveness, +which now prevents their being used, for the benefit of all. May their +present possessors look to it in time! A few already are earnest in +a good spirit. For myself, much as I pitied the poor, abandoned, +hopeless wretches that swarm in the roads and streets of England, I +pity far more the English noble, with this difficult problem before +him, and such need of a speedy solution. Sad is his life, if a +conscientious man; sadder still, if not. Poverty in England has +terrors of which I never dreamed at home. I felt that it would be +terrible to be poor there, but far more so to be the possessor of that +for which so many thousands are perishing. And the middle class, too, +cannot here enjoy that serenity which the sages have described as +naturally their peculiar blessing. Too close, too dark throng the +evils they cannot obviate, the sorrows they cannot relieve. To a man +of good heart, each day must bring purgatory which he knows not how to +bear, yet to which he fears to become insensible. + +From these clouds of the Present, it is pleasant to turn the thoughts +to some objects which have cast a light upon the Past, and which, by +the virtue of their very nature, prescribe hope for the Future. I have +mentioned with satisfaction seeing some persons who illustrated +the past dynasty in the progress of thought here: Wordsworth, Dr. +Chalmers, De Quincey, Andrew Combe. With a still higher pleasure, +because to one of my own sex, whom I have honored almost above any, +I went to pay my court to Joanna Baillie. I found on her brow, not +indeed a coronal of gold, but a serenity and strength undimmed and +unbroken by the weight of more than fourscore years, or by the scanty +appreciation which her thoughts have received. + +I prize Joanna Baillie and Madame Roland as the best specimens which +have been hitherto offered of women of a Roman strength and singleness +of mind, adorned by the various culture and capable of the various +action opened to them by the progress of the Christian Idea. They are +not sentimental; they do not sigh and write of withered flowers of +fond affection, and woman's heart born to be misunderstood by the +object or objects of her fond, inevitable choice. Love (the passion), +when spoken of at all by them, seems a thing noble, religious, worthy +to be felt. They do not write of it always; they did not think of it +always; they saw other things in this great, rich, suffering world. In +superior delicacy of touch, they show the woman, but the hand is firm; +nor was all their speech, one continued utterance of mere personal +experience. It contained things which are good, intellectually, +universally. + +I regret that the writings of Joanna Baillie are not more known in +the United States. The Plays on the Passions are faulty in their +plan,--all attempts at comic, even at truly dramatic effect, fail; but +there are masterly sketches of character, vigorous expressions of wise +thought, deep, fervent ejaculations of an aspiring soul! + +We found her in her little calm retreat at Hampstead, surrounded by +marks of love and reverence from distinguished and excellent friends. +Near her was the sister, older than herself, yet still sprightly and +full of active kindness, whose character and their mutual relation she +has, in one of her last poems, indicated with such a happy mixture of +sagacity, humor, and tender pathos, and with so absolute a truth of +outline. Although no autograph collector, I asked for theirs, and when +the elder gave hers as "sister to Joanna Baillie," it drew a tear from +my eye,--a good tear, a genuine pearl,--fit homage to that fairest +product of the soul of man, humble, disinterested tenderness. + +Hampstead has still a good deal of romantic beauty. I was told it was +the favorite sketching-ground of London artists, till the railroads +gave them easy means of spending a few hours to advantage farther +off. But, indeed, there is a wonderful deal of natural beauty lying in +untouched sweetness near London. Near one of our cities it would all +have been grabbed up the first thing. But we, too, are beginning to +grow wiser. + +At Richmond I went to see another lady of more than threescore years' +celebrity, more than fourscore in age, Miss Berry the friend of Horace +Walpole, and for her charms of manner and conversation long and still +a reigning power. She has still the vivacity, the careless nature, or +refined art, that made her please so much in earlier days,--still is +girlish, and gracefully so. Verily, with her was no sign of labor or +sorrow. + +From the older turning to the young, I must speak with pleasure +of several girls I know in London, who are devoting themselves to +painting as a profession. They have really wise and worthy views of +the artist's avocation; if they remain true to them, they will enjoy +a free, serene existence, unprofaned by undue care or sentimental +sorrow. Among these, Margaret Gillies has attained some celebrity; +she may be known to some in America by engravings in the "People's +Journal" from her pictures; but, if I remember right, these are +coarse things, and give no just notion of her pictures, which are +distinguished for elegance and refinement; a little mannerized, but +she is improving in that respect. + +The "People's Journal" comes nearer being a fair sign of the times +than any other publication of England, apparently, if we except Punch. +As for the Times, on which you all use your scissors so industriously, +it is managed with vast ability, no doubt, but the blood would tingle +many a time to the fingers' ends of the body politic, before that +solemn organ which claims to represent the heart would dare to beat in +unison. Still it would require all the wise management of the Times, +or wisdom enough to do without it, and a wide range and diversity of +talent, indeed, almost sweeping the circle, to make a People's Journal +for England. The present is only a bud of the future flower. + +Mary and William Howitt are its main support. I saw them several times +at their cheerful and elegant home. In Mary Howitt I found the same +engaging traits of character we are led to expect from her books +for children. Her husband is full of the same agreeable information, +communicated in the same lively yet precise manner we find in his +books; it was like talking with old friends, except that now the +eloquence of the eye was added. At their house I became acquainted +with Dr. Southwood Smith, the well-known philanthropist. He is at +present engaged on the construction of good tenements calculated to +improve the condition of the working people. His plans look promising, +and should they succeed, you shall have a detailed account of them. On +visiting him, we saw an object which I had often heard celebrated, +and had thought would be revolting, but found, on the contrary, an +agreeable sight; this is the skeleton of Jeremy Bentham. It was at +Bentham's request that the skeleton, dressed in the same dress he +habitually wore, stuffed out to an exact resemblance of life, and with +a portrait mark in wax, the best I ever saw, sits there, as assistant +to Dr. Smith in the entertainment of his guests and companion of his +studies. The figure leans a little forward, resting the hands on a, +stout stick which Bentham always carried, and had named "Dapple"; +the attitude is quite easy, the expression of the whole quite mild, +winning, yet highly individual. It is a pleasing mark of that unity +of aim and tendency to be expected throughout the life of such a mind, +that Bentham, while quite a young man, had made a will, in which, to +oppose in the most convincing manner the prejudice against dissection +of the human subject, he had given his body after death to be used in +service of the cause of science. "I have not yet been able," said the +will, "to do much service to my fellow-men by my life, but perhaps I +may in this manner by my death." Many years after, reading a pamphlet +by Dr. Smith on the same subject, he was much pleased with it, +became his friend, and bequeathed his body to his care and use, with +directions that the skeleton should finally be disposed of in the way +I have described. + +The countenance of Dr. Smith has an expression of expansive, sweet, +almost childlike goodness. Miss Gillies has made a charming picture of +him, with a favorite little granddaughter nestling in his arms. + +Another marked figure that I encountered on this great showboard was +Cooper, the author of "The Purgatory of Luicides," a very remarkable +poem, of which, had there been leisure before my departure, I should +have made a review, and given copious extracts in the Tribune. Cooper +is as strong a man, and probably a milder one, than when in the prison +where that poem was written. The earnestness in seeking freedom +and happiness for all men, which drew upon him that penalty, seems +unabated; he is a very significant type of the new era, and also an +agent in bringing it near. One of the poets of the people, also, I +saw,--the sweetest singer of them all,--Thom. "A Chieftain unknown +to the Queen" is again exacting a cruel tribute from him. I wish much +that some of those of New York who have taken an interest in him would +provide there a nook in which he might find refuge and solace for the +evening of his days, to sing or to work as likes him best, and where +he could bring up two fine boys to happier prospects than the parent +land will afford them. Could and would America but take from other +lands more of the talent, as well as the bone and sinew, she would be +rich. + +But the stroke of the clock warns me to stop now, and begin to-morrow +with fresher eye and hand on some interesting topics. My sketches are +slight; still they cannot be made without time, and I find none to be +had in this Europe except late at night. I believe it is what all the +inhabitants use, but I am too sleepy a genius to carry the practice +far. + + + + +LETTER IX. + +WRITING AT NIGHT.--LONDON.--NATIONAL GALLERY.--MURILLO.--THE FLOWER +GIRL.--NURSERY-MAIDS AND WORKING-MEN.--HAMPTON COURT.--ZOÖLOGICAL +GARDENS.--KING OF ANIMALS.--ENGLISH PIETY.--EAGLES.--SIR JOHN SOANE'S +MUSEUM.--KEW GARDENS.--THE GREAT CACTUS.--THE REFORM CLUB HOUSE.--MEN +COOKS.--ORDERLY KITCHEN.--A GILPIN EXCURSION.--THE BELL AT EDMONTON.-- +OMNIBUS.--CHEAPSIDE.--ENGLISH SLOWNESS.--FREILIGRATH.--ARCADIA.-- +ITALIAN SCHOOL.--MAZZINI.--ITALY.--ITALIAN REFUGEES.--CORREGGIO.-- +HOPE OF ITALIANS.--ADDRESSES.--SUPPER.--CARLYLE, HIS APPEARANCE, +CONVERSATION, &C. + + +Again I must begin to write late in the evening. I am told it is the +custom of the literati in these large cities to work in the night. It +is easy to see that it must be almost impossible to do otherwise; yet +not only is the practice very bad for the health, and one that brings +on premature old age, but I cannot think this night-work will prove as +firm in texture and as fair of hue as what is done by sunlight. Give +me a lonely chamber, a window from which through the foliage you can +catch glimpses of a beautiful prospect, and the mind finds itself +tuned to action. + +But London, London! I have yet some brief notes to make on London. We +had scarcely any sunlight by which to see pictures, and I postponed +all visits to private collections, except one, in the hope of being in +England next time in the long summer days. In the National Gallery I +saw little except the Murillos; they were so beautiful, that with me, +who had no true conception of his kind of genius before, they took +away the desire to look into anything else at the same time. They +did not affect me much either, except with a sense of content in this +genius, so rich and full and strong. It was a cup of sunny wine that +refreshed but brought no intoxicating visions. There is something +very noble in the genius of Spain, there is such an intensity and +singleness; it seems to me it has not half shown itself, and must have +an important part to play yet in the drama of this planet. + +At the Dulwich Gallery I saw the Flower Girl of Murillo, an enchanting +picture, the memory of which must always + + "Cast a light upon the day, + A light that will not pass away, + A sweet forewarning." + +Who can despair when he thinks of a form like that, so full of life +and bliss! Nature, that made such human forms to match the butterfly +and the bee on June mornings when the lime-trees are in blossom, has +surely enough of happiness in store to satisfy us all, somewhere, some +time. + +It was pleasant, indeed, to see the treasures of those galleries, of +the British Museum, and of so charming a place as Hampton Court, +open to everybody. In the National Gallery one finds a throng of +nursery-maids, and men just come from their work; true, they make a +great deal of noise thronging to and fro on the uncarpeted floors +in their thick boots, and noise from which, when penetrated by +the atmosphere of Art, men in the thickest boots would know how to +refrain; still I felt that the sight of such objects must be gradually +doing them a great deal of good. The British Museum would, in itself, +be an education for a man who should go there once a week, and think +and read at his leisure moments about what he saw. + +Hampton Court I saw in the gloom, and rain, and my chief recollections +are of the magnificent yew-trees beneath whose shelter--the work +of ages--I took refuge from the pelting shower. The expectations +cherished from childhood about the Cartoons were all baffled; there +was no light by which they could be seen. But I must hope to visit +Hampton Court again in the time of roses. + +The Zoölogical Gardens are another pleasure of the million, since, +although something is paid there, it is so little that almost all can +afford it. To me, it is a vast pleasure to see animals where they can +show out their habits or instincts, and to see them assembled from, +all climates and countries, amid verdure and with room enough, as they +are here, is a true poem. They have a fine lion, the first I ever saw +that realized the idea we have of the king of the animal world; but +the groan and roar of this one were equally royal. The eagles were +fine, but rather disgraced themselves. It is a trait of English piety, +which would, no doubt, find its defenders among ourselves, not to feed +the animals on Sunday, that their keepers may have rest; at least +this was the explanation given us by one of these men of the state of +ravenous hunger in which we found them on the Monday. I half hope +he was jesting with us. Certain it is that the eagles were wild with +famine, and even the grandest of them, who had eyed us at first as if +we were not fit to live in the same zone with him, when the meat came +round, after a short struggle to maintain his dignity, joined in wild +shriek and scramble with the rest. + +Sir John Soane's Museum I visited, containing the sarcophagus +described by Dr. Waagen, Hogarth's pictures, a fine Canaletto, and +a manuscript of Tasso. It fills the house once the residence of his +body, still of his mind. It is not a mind with which I have sympathy; +I found there no law of harmony, and it annoyed me to see things all +jumbled together as if in an old curiosity-shop. Nevertheless it was a +generous bequest, and much may perhaps be found there of value to him +who takes time to seek. + +The Gardens at Kew delighted me, thereabouts all was so green, and +still one could indulge at leisure in the humorous and fantastic +associations that cluster around the name of Kew, like the curls of +a "big wig" round the serene and sleepy face of its wearer. Here are +fourteen green-houses: in one you find all the palms; in another, +the productions of the regions of snow; in another, those squibs and +humorsome utterances of Nature, the cactuses,--ay! there I saw the +great-grandfather of all the cactuses, a hoary, solemn plant, declared +to be a thousand years old, disdaining to say if it is not really +much, older; in yet another, the most exquisitely minute plants, +delicate as the tracery of frostwork, too delicate for the bowers of +fairies, such at least as visit the gross brains of earthly poets. + +The Reform Club was the only one of those splendid establishments that +I visited. Certainly the force of comfort can no farther go, nor can +anything be better contrived to make dressing, eating, news-getting, +and even sleeping (for there are bedrooms as well as dressing-rooms +for those who will), as comfortable as can be imagined. Yet to me this +palace of so many "single gentlemen rolled into one" seemed _stupidly_ +comfortable, in the absence of that elegant arrangement and vivacious +atmosphere which only women can inspire. In the kitchen, indeed, I +met them, and on that account it seemed the pleasantest part of the +building,--though even there they are but the servants of servants. +There reigned supreme a genius in his way, who has published a work +on Cookery, and around him his pupils,--young men who pay a handsome +yearly fee for novitiate under his instruction. I was not sorry, +however, to see men predominant in the cooking department, as I hope +to see that and washing transferred to their care in the progress of +things, since they are "the stronger sex." + +The arrangements of this kitchen were very fine, combining great +convenience with neatness, and even elegance. Fourier himself might +have taken pleasure in them. Thence we passed into the private +apartments of the artist, and found them full of pictures by his wife, +an artist in another walk. One or two of them had been engraved. _She_ +was an Englishwoman. + +A whimsical little excursion we made on occasion of the anniversary of +the wedding-day of two of my friends. They had often enjoyed reading +the account of John Gilpin's in America, and now thought that, as they +were in England and near enough, they would celebrate theirs also at +"the Bell at Edmonton." I accompanied them with "a little foot-page," +to eke out the train, pretty and graceful and playful enough for +the train of a princess. But our excursion turned out somewhat of a +failure, in an opposite way to Gilpin's. Whereas he went too fast, we +went too slow. First we took coach and went through Cheapside to take +omnibus at (strange misnomer!) the Flower-Pot. But Gilpin could never +have had his race through Cheapside as it is in its present crowded +state; we were obliged to proceed at a funeral pace. We missed the +omnibus, and when we took the next one it went with the slowness of a +"family horse" in the old chaise of a New England deacon, and, after +all, only took us half-way. At the half-way house a carriage was to +be sought. The lady who let it, and all her grooms, were to be allowed +time to recover from their consternation at so unusual a move as +strangers taking a carriage to dine at the little inn at Edmonton, now +a mere alehouse, before we could be allowed to proceed. The English +stand lost in amaze at "Yankee notions," with their quick come and +go, and it is impossible to make them "go ahead" in the zigzag +chain-lightning path, unless you push them. A rather old part of the +plan had been a pilgrimage to the grave of Lamb, with a collateral +view to the rural beauties of Edmonton, but night had fallen on all +such hopes two hours at least before we reached the Bell. _There_, +indeed, we found them somewhat more alert to comprehend our wishes; +they laughed when we spoke of Gilpin, showed us a print of the race +and the window where Mrs. Gilpin must have stood,--balcony, alas! +there was none; allowed us to make our own fire, and provided us a +wedding dinner of tough meat and stale bread. Nevertheless we danced, +dined, paid (I believe), and celebrated the wedding quite to our +satisfaction, though in the space of half an hour, as we knew +friends were even at that moment expecting us to _tea_ at some miles' +distance. But it is always pleasant in this world of routine to act +out a freak. "Such a one," said an English gentleman, "one of _us_ +would rarely have dreamed of, much, less acted." "Why, was it not +pleasant?" "Oh, _very_! but _so_ out of the way!" + +Returning, we passed the house where Freiligrath finds a temporary +home, earning the bread, of himself and his family in a commercial +house. England houses the exile, but not without house-tax, +window-tax, and head-tax. Where is the Arcadia that dares invite +all genius to her arms, and change her golden wheat for their green +laurels and immortal flowers? Arcadia?--would the name were America! + +And now returns naturally to my mind one of the most interesting +things I have seen here or elsewhere,--the school for poor Italian +boys, sustained and taught by a few of their exiled compatriots, and +especially by the mind and efforts of Mazzini. The name of Joseph +Mazzini is well known to those among us who take an interest in the +cause of human freedom, who, not content with the peace and ease +bought for themselves by the devotion and sacrifices of their fathers, +look with anxious interest on the suffering nations who are preparing +for a similar struggle. Those who are not, like the brutes that +perish, content with the enjoyment of mere national advantages, +indifferent to the idea they represent, cannot forget that the human +family is one, + + "And beats with one great heart." + +They know that there can be no genuine happiness, no salvation for +any, unless the same can be secured for all. + +To this universal interest in all nations and places where man, +understanding his inheritance, strives to throw off an arbitrary rule +and establish a state of things where he shall be governed as becomes +a man, by his own conscience and intelligence,--where he may speak +the truth as it rises in his mind, and indulge his natural emotions +in purity,--is added an especial interest in Italy, the mother of +our language and our laws, our greatest benefactress in the gifts +of genius, the garden of the world, in which our best thoughts have +delighted to expatiate, but over whose bowers now hangs a perpetual +veil of sadness, and whose noblest plants are doomed to removal,--for, +if they cannot bear their ripe and perfect fruit in another climate, +they are not permitted to lift their heads to heaven in their own. + +Some of these generous refugees our country has received kindly, if +not with a fervent kindness; and the word _Correggio_ is still in +my ears as I heard it spoken in New York by one whose heart long +oppression could not paralyze. _Speranza_ some of the Italian youth +now inscribe on their banners, encouraged by some traits of apparent +promise in the new Pope. However, their only true hope is in +themselves, in their own courage, and in that wisdom winch may only be +learned through many disappointments as to how to employ it so that it +may destroy tyranny, not themselves. + +Mazzini, one of these noble refugees, is not only one of the heroic, +the courageous, and the faithful,--Italy boasts many such,--but he is +also one of the wise;--one of those who, disappointed in the outward +results of their undertakings, can yet "bate no jot of heart and +hope," but _must_ "steer right onward "; for it was no superficial +enthusiasm, no impatient energies, that impelled him, but an +understanding of what _must_ be the designs of Heaven with regard to +man, since God is Love, is Justice. He is one who can live fervently, +but steadily, gently, every day, every hour, as well as on great, +occasions, cheered by the light of hope; for, with Schiller, he is +sure that "those who live for their faith shall behold it living." +He is one of those same beings who, measuring all things by the ideal +standard, have yet no time to mourn over failure or imperfection; +there is too much to be done to obviate it. + +Thus Mazzini, excluded from publication in his native language, has +acquired the mastery both of French and English, and through his +expressions in either shine the thoughts which animated his earlier +effort with mild and steady radiance. The misfortunes of his country +have only widened the sphere of his instructions, and made him an +exponent of the better era to Europe at large. Those who wish to form +an idea of his mind could not do better than to read his sketches of +the Italian Martyrs in the "People's Journal." They will find there, +on one of the most difficult occasions, an ardent friend speaking of +his martyred friends with, the purity of impulse, warmth of sympathy, +largeness and steadiness of view, and fineness of discrimination which +must belong to a legislator for a CHRISTIAN commonwealth. + +But though I have read these expressions with great delight, this +school was one to me still more forcible of the same ideas. Here these +poor boys, picked up from the streets, are redeemed from bondage and +gross ignorance by the most patient and constant devotion of time and +effort. What love and sincerity this demands from minds capable of +great thoughts, large plans, and rapid progress, only their peers can +comprehend, yet exceeding great shall he the reward; and as among +the fishermen, and poor people of Judæa were picked up those who have +become to modern Europe a leaven that leavens the whole mass, so may +these poor Italian boys yet become more efficacious as missionaries +to their people than would an Orphic poet at this period. These youths +have very commonly good faces, and eyes from which that Italian +fire that has done so much to warm the world glows out. We saw the +distribution of prizes to the school, heard addresses from Mazzini, +Pistracci, Mariotti (once a resident in our country), and an English +gentleman who takes a great interest in the work, and then adjourned +to an adjacent room, where a supper was provided for the boys and +other guests, among whom we saw some of the exiled Poles. The whole +evening gave a true and deep pleasure, though tinged with sadness. We +saw a planting of the kingdom of Heaven, though now no larger than a +grain of mustard-seed, and though perhaps none of those who watch the +spot may live to see the birds singing in its branches. + +I have not yet spoken of one of _our_ benefactors, Mr. Carlyle, whom I +saw several times. I approached him with more reverence after a little +experience of England and Scotland had taught me to appreciate the +strength and height of that wall of shams and conventions which he +more than any man, or thousand men,--indeed, he almost alone,--has +begun to throw down. Wherever there was fresh thought, generous hope, +the thought of Carlyle has begun the work. He has torn off the veils +from hideous facts; he has burnt away foolish illusions; he has +awakened thousands to know what it is to be a man,--that we must live, +and not merely pretend to others that we live. He has touched the +rocks and they have given forth musical answer; little more was +wanting to begin to construct the city. + +But that little was wanting, and the work of construction is left to +those that come after him: nay, all attempts of the kind he is the +readiest to deride, fearing new shams worse than the old, unable to +trust the general action of a thought, and finding no heroic man, no +natural king, to represent it and challenge his confidence. + +Accustomed to the infinite wit and exuberant richness of his writings, +his talk is still an amazement and a splendor scarcely to be faced +with steady eyes. He does not converse,--only harangues. It is the +usual misfortune of such marked men (happily not one invariable or +inevitable) that they cannot allow other minds room to breathe and +show themselves in their atmosphere, and thus miss the refreshment +and instruction, which the greatest never cease to need from the +experience of the humblest. Carlyle allows no one a chance, but +bears down all opposition, not only by his wit and onset of words, +resistless in their sharpness as so many bayonets, but by actual +physical superiority, raising his voice and rushing on his opponent +with a torrent of sound. This is not the least from unwillingness to +allow freedom to others; on the contrary, no man would more enjoy +a manly resistance to his thought; but it is the impulse of a mind +accustomed to follow out its own impulse as the hawk its prey, and +which knows not how to stop in the chase. Carlyle, indeed, is arrogant +and overbearing, but in his arrogance there is no littleness or +self-love: it is the heroic arrogance of some old Scandinavian +conqueror,--it is his nature and the untamable impulse that has given +him power to crush the dragons. You do not love him, perhaps, nor +revere, and perhaps, also, he would only laugh at you if you did; but +you like him heartily, and like to see him the powerful smith, the +Siegfried, melting all the old iron in his furnace till it glows to a +sunset red, and burns you if you senselessly go too near. He seemed to +me quite isolated, lonely as the desert; yet never was man more fitted +to prize a man, could he find one to match his mood. He finds such, +but only in the past. He sings rather than talks. He pours upon you a +kind of satirical, heroical, critical poem, with regular cadences, and +generally catching up near the beginning some singular epithet, which, +serves as a _refrain_ when his song is full, or with which as with a +knitting-needle he catches up the stitches if he has chanced now +and then to let fall a row. For the higher kinds of poetry he has no +sense, and his talk on that subject is delightfully and gorgeously +absurd; he sometimes stops a minute to laugh at it himself, then +begins anew with fresh vigor; for all the spirits he is driving before +him seem to him as Fata Morganas, ugly masks, in fact, if he can but +make them turn about, but he laughs that they seem to others such +dainty Ariels. He puts out his chin sometimes till it looks like the +beak of a bird, and his eyes flash bright instinctive meanings like +Jove's bird; yet he is not calm and grand enough for the eagle: he +is more like the falcon, and yet not of gentle blood enough for that +either. He is not exactly like anything but himself, and therefore you +cannot see him without the most hearty refreshment and good-will, for +he is original, rich, and strong enough to afford a thousand, faults; +one expects some wild land in a rich kingdom. His talk, like his +books, is full of pictures, his critical strokes masterly; allow for +his point of view, and his survey is admirable. He is a large subject; +I cannot speak more or wiselier of him now, nor needs it; his works +are true, to blame and praise him, the Siegfried of England, great and +powerful, if not quite invulnerable, and of a might rather to destroy +evil than legislate for good. At all events, he seems to be what +Destiny intended, and represents fully a certain side; so we make no +remonstrance as to his being and proceeding for himself, though we +sometimes must for us. + +I had meant some remarks on some fine pictures, and the little I saw +of the theatre in England; but these topics must wait till my next, +where they may connect themselves naturally enough with what I have to +say of Paris. + + + + +LETTER X. + +MORE OF LONDON.--THE MODEL PRISON AT PENTONVILLE.--BATHING +ESTABLISHMENT FOR THE POOR.--ALSO ONE FOR WASHING CLOTHES.--THE +CRÈCHES OF PARIS, FOR POOR PEOPLE'S CHILDREN.--OLD DRURY +IN LONDON.--SADLER'S WELLS.--ENGLISH AND FRENCH ACTING COMPARED.-- +MADEMOISELLE RACHEL.--FRENCH TRAGEDY.--ROSE CHENY.--DUMAS.--GUIZOT.-- +THE PRESENTATION AT COURT OF THE YOUNG DUCHESS.--BALL AT THE +TUILERIES.--AMERICAN AND FRENCH WOMEN.--LEVERRIER.--THE SORBONNE.-- +ARAGO.--DISCUSSIONS ON SUICIDE AND THE CRUSADES.--RÉMUSAT.--THE +ACADEMY.--LA MENNAIS.--BÉRANGER.--REFLECTIONS. + + +Paris. + +When I wrote last I could not finish with London, and there remain +yet two or three things I wish to speak of before passing to my +impressions of this wonder-full Paris. + +I visited the model prison at Pentonville; but though in some +respects an improvement upon others I have seen,--though there was the +appearance of great neatness and order in the arrangements of life, +kindness and good judgment in the discipline of the prisoners,--yet +there was also an air of bleak forlornness about the place, and it +fell far short of what my mind demands of such abodes considered as +redemption schools. But as the subject of prisons is now engaging the +attention of many of the wisest and best, and the tendency is in what +seems to me the true direction, I need not trouble myself to make +prude and hasty suggestions; it is a subject to which persons who +would be of use should give the earnest devotion of calm and leisurely +thought. + +The same day I went to see an establishment which gave me unmixed +pleasure; it is a bathing establishment put at a very low rate to +enable the poor to avoid one of thee worst miseries of their lot, and +which yet promises _to pay_. Joined with this is an establishment for +washing clothes, where the poor can go and hire, for almost nothing, +good tubs, water ready heated, the use of an apparatus for rinsing, +drying, and ironing, all so admirably arranged that a poor woman +can in three hours get through an amount of washing and ironing +that would, under ordinary circumstances, occupy three or four days. +Especially the drying closets I contemplated with great satisfaction, +and hope to see in our own country the same arrangements throughout +the cities, and even in the towns and villages. Hanging out the +clothes is a great exposure for women, even when they have a good +place for it; but when, as is so common in cities, they must dry them +in the house, how much they suffer! In New York, I know, those poor +women who take in washing endure a great deal of trouble and toil from +this cause; I have suffered myself from being obliged to send +back what had cost them so much toil, because it had been, perhaps +inevitably, soiled in the drying or ironing, or filled with the smell +of their miscellaneous cooking. In London it is much worse. An eminent +physician told me he knew of two children whom he considered to have +died because their mother, having but one room to live in, was obliged +to wash and dry clothes close to their bed when they were ill. The +poor people in London naturally do without washing all they can, and +beneath that perpetual fall of soot the result may be guessed. All but +the very poor in England put out their washing, and this custom ought +to be universal in civilized countries, as it can be done much better +and quicker by a few regular laundresses than by many families, +and "the washing day" is so malignant a foe to the peace and joy of +households that it ought to be effaced from the calendar. But as long +as we are so miserable as to have any very poor people in this world, +_they_ cannot put out their washing, because they cannot earn enough +money to pay for it, and, preliminary to something better, washing +establishments like this of London are desirable. + +One arrangement that they have here in Paris will be a good one, even +when we cease to have any very poor people, and, please Heaven, also +to have any very rich. These are the _Crèches_,--houses where poor +women leave their children to be nursed during the day while they are +at work. + +I must mention that the superintendent of the washing establishment +observed, with a legitimate triumph, that it had been built without +giving a single dinner or printing a single puff,--an extraordinary +thing, indeed, for England! + +To turn to something a little gayer,--the embroidery on this tattered +coat of civilized life,--I went into only two theatres; one the Old +Drury, once the scene of great glories, now of execrable music and +more execrable acting. If anything can be invented more excruciating +than an English opera, such as was the fashion at the time I was in +London, I am sure no sin of mine deserves the punishment of bearing +it. + +At the Sadler's Wells theatre I saw a play which I had much admired in +reading it, but found still better in actual representation; indeed, +it seems to me there can be no better acting play: this is "The +Patrician's Daughter," by J.W. Marston. The movement is rapid, yet +clear and free; the dialogue natural, dignified, and flowing; the +characters marked with few, but distinct strokes. Where the tone +of discourse rises with manly sentiment or passion, the audience +applauded with bursts of generous feeling that gave me great pleasure, +for this play is one that, in its scope and meaning, marks the new era +in England; it is full of an experience which is inevitable to a man +of talent there, and is harbinger of the day when the noblest commoner +shall be the only noble possible in England. + +But how different all this acting to what I find in France! Here the +theatre is living; you see something really good, and good throughout. +Not one touch of that stage strut and vulgar bombast of tone, which +the English actor fancies indispensable to scenic illusion, is +tolerated here. For the first time in my life I saw something +represented in a style uniformly good, and should have found +sufficient proof, if I had needed any, that all men will prefer what +is good to what is bad, if only a fair opportunity for choice +be allowed. When I came here, my first thought was to go and see +Mademoiselle Rachel. I was sure that in her I should find a true +genius, absolutely the diamond, and so it proved. I went to see her +seven or eight times, always in parts that required great force of +soul and purity of taste even to conceive them, and only once had +reason to find fault with her. On one single occasion I saw her +violate the harmony of the character to produce effect at a particular +moment; but almost invariably I found her a true artist, worthy +Greece, and worthy at many moments to have her conceptions +immortalized in marble. + +Her range even in high tragedy is limited. She can only express the +darker passions, and grief in its most desolate aspects. Nature has +not gifted her with those softer and more flowery attributes that lend +to pathos its utmost tenderness. She does not melt to tears, or calm +or elevate the heart by the presence of that tragic beauty that needs +all the assaults of Fate to make it show its immortal sweetness. Her +noblest aspect is when sometimes she expresses truth in some severe +shape, and rises, simple and austere, above the mixed elements around +her. On the dark side, she is very great in hatred and revenge. I +admired her more in Phedre than in any other part in which I saw her. +The guilty love inspired by the hatred of a goddess was expressed in +all its symptoms with a force and terrible naturalness that almost +suffocated the beholder. After she had taken the poison, the +exhaustion and paralysis of the system, the sad, cold, calm submission +to Fate, were still more grand. + +I had heard so much about the power of her eye in one fixed look, and +the expression she could concentrate in a single word, that the utmost +results could only satisfy my expectations. It is, indeed, something +magnificent to see the dark cloud give out such sparks, each one fit +to deal a separate death; but it was not that I admired most in her: +it was the grandeur, truth, and depth of her conception of each part, +and the sustained purity with which she represented it. + +For the rest, I shall write somewhere a detailed _critique_ upon the +parts in which I saw her. It is she who has made me acquainted with +the true way of viewing French tragedy. I had no idea of its powers +and symmetry till now, and have received from the revelation high +pleasure and a crowd of thoughts. + +The French language from her lips is a divine dialect; it is stripped +of its national and personal peculiarities, and becomes what any +language must, moulded by such a genius, the pure music of the heart +and soul. I never could remember her tone in speaking any word; it +was too perfect; you had received the thought quite direct. Yet, had +I never heard her speak a word, my mind would, be filled by her +attitudes. Nothing more graceful can be conceived, nor could the +genius of sculpture surpass her management of the antique drapery. + +She has no beauty except in the intellectual severity of her outline, +and bears marks of age which will grow stronger every year, and make +her ugly before long. Still it will be a _grandiose_, gypsy, or rather +Sibylline ugliness, well adapted to the expression of some tragic +parts. Only it seems as if she could not live long; she expends force +enough upon a part to furnish out a dozen common lives. + +Though the French tragedy is well acted throughout, yet unhappily +there is no male actor now with a spark of fire, and these men seem +the meanest pigmies by the side of Rachel;--so on the scene, beside +the tragedy intended by the author, you see also that common tragedy, +a woman of genius who throws away her precious heart, lives and dies +for one unworthy of her. In parts this effect is productive of too +much pain. I saw Rachel one night with her brother and sister. The +sister imitated her so closely that you could not help seeing she +had a manner, and an imitable manner. Her brother was in the play her +lover,--a wretched automaton, and presenting the most unhappy family +likeness to herself. Since then I have hardly cared to go and see her. +We could wish with geniuses, as with the Phoenix, to see only one of +the family at a time. + +In the pathetic or sentimental drama Paris boasts another young +actress, nearly as distinguished in that walk as Rachel in hers. +This is Rose Cheny, whom we saw in her ninety-eighth personation of +Clarissa Harlowe, and afterward in Genevieve and the _Protégé sans +le Savoir_,--a little piece written expressly for her by Scribe. +The "Miss Clarisse" of the French drama is a feeble and partial +reproduction of the heroine of Richardson; indeed, the original in all +its force of intellect and character would have been too much for +the charming Rose Cheny, but to the purity and lovely tenderness of +Clarissa she does full justice. In the other characters she was +the true French girl, full of grace and a mixture of _naïveté_ and +cunning, sentiment and frivolity, that is winning and _piquant_, if +not satisfying. Only grief seems very strange to those bright eyes; we +do not find that they can weep much and bear the light of day, and the +inhaling of charcoal seems near at hand to their brightest pleasures. + +At the other little theatres you see excellent acting, and a sparkle +of wit unknown to the world out of France. The little pieces in which +all the leading topics of the day are reviewed are full of drolleries +that make you laugh at each instant. _Poudre-Colon_ is the only one of +these I have seen; in this, among other jokes, Dumas, in the character +of Monte-Christo and in a costume half Oriental, half juggler, is made +to pass the other theatres in review while seeking candidates for his +new one. + +Dumas appeared in court yesterday, and defended his own cause against +the editors who sue him for evading some of his engagements. I was +very desirous to hear him speak, and went there in what I was assured +would be very good season; but a French audience, who knew the ground +better, had slipped in before me, and I returned, as has been too +often the case with me in Paris, having seen nothing but endless +staircases, dreary vestibules, and _gens d'armes_. The hospitality of +_le grande nation_ to the stranger is, in many respects, admirable. +Galleries, libraries, cabinets of coins, museums, are opened in the +most liberal manner to the stranger, warmed, lighted, ay, and guarded, +for him almost all days in the week; treasures of the past are at his +service; but when anything is happening in the present, the French run +quicker, glide in more adroitly, and get possession of the ground. I +find it not the most easy matter to get to places even where there is +nothing going on, there is so much tiresome fuss of getting _billets_ +from one and another to be gone through; but when something is +happening it is still worse. I missed hearing M. Guizot in his speech +on the Montpensier marriage, which would have given a very good idea +of his manner, and which, like this defence of M. Dumas, was a skilful +piece of work as regards evasion of the truth. The good feeling toward +England which had been fostered with so much care and toil seems to +have been entirely dissipated by the mutual recriminations about this +marriage, and the old dislike flames up more fiercely for having been +hid awhile beneath the ashes. I saw the little Duchess, the innocent +or ignorant cause of all this disturbance, when presented at court. +She went round the circle on the arm of the Queen. Though only +fourteen, she looks twenty, but has something fresh, engaging, and +girlish about her. I fancy it will soon be rubbed out under the drill +of the royal household. + +I attended not only at the presentation, but at the ball given at +the Tuileries directly after. These are fine shows, as the suite +of apartments is very handsome, brilliantly lighted, and the French +ladies surpass all others in the art of dress; indeed, it gave me +much, pleasure to see them. Certainly there are many ugly ones, but +they are so well dressed, and have such an air of graceful vivacity, +that the general effect was that of a flower-garden. As often happens, +several American women were among the most distinguished for positive +beauty; one from Philadelphia, who is by many persons considered +the prettiest ornament of the dress circle at the Italian Opera, was +especially marked by the attention of the king. However, these ladies, +even if here a long time, do not attain the air and manner of French +women; the magnetic atmosphere that envelops them is less brilliant +and exhilarating in its attractions. + +It was pleasant to my eye, which has always been so wearied in +our country by the sombre masses of men that overcloud our public +assemblies, to see them now in so great variety of costume, color, and +decoration. + +Among the crowd wandered Leverrier, in the costume of Academician, +looking as if he had lost, not found, his planet. French _savants_ are +more generally men of the world, and even men of fashion, than those +of other climates; but, in his case, he seemed not to find it easy to +exchange the music of the spheres for the music of fiddles. + +Speaking of Leverrier leads to another of my disappointments. I went +to the Sorbonne to hear him lecture, nothing dreaming that the old +pedantic and theological character of those halls was strictly kept up +in these days of light. An old guardian of the inner temple, seeing +me approach, had his speech all ready, and, manning the entrance, said +with a disdainful air, before we had time to utter a word, "Monsieur +may enter if he pleases, but Madame must remain here" (i.e. in +the court-yard). After some exclamations of surprise, I found an +alternative in the Hotel de Clugny, where I passed an hour very +delightfully while waiting for my companion. The rich remains of other +centuries are there so arranged that they can be seen to the best +advantage; many of the works in ivory, china, and carved wood are +truly splendid or exquisite. I saw a dagger with jewelled hilt which +talked whole poems to my mind. In the various "Adorations of the +Magi," I found constantly one of the wise men black, and with the +marked African lineaments. Before I had half finished, my companion +came and wished me at least to visit the lecture-rooms of the +Sorbonne, now that the talk, too good for female ears, was over. +But the guardian again interfered to deny me entrance. "You can go, +Madame," said he, "to the College of France; you can go to this and +t'other place, but you cannot enter here." "What, sir," said I, "is +it your institution alone that remains in a state of barbarism?" "Que +voulez vous, Madame?" he replied, and, as he spoke, his little +dog began to bark at me,--"Que voulez vous, Madame? c'est la +regle,"--"What would you have, Madam? IT IS THE RULE,"--a reply which +makes me laugh even now, as I think how the satirical wits of former +days might have used it against the bulwarks of learned dulness. + +I was more fortunate in hearing Arago, and he justified all my +expectations. Clear, rapid, full and equal, his discourse is worthy +its celebrity, and I felt repaid for the four hours one is obliged to +spend in going, in waiting, and in hearing; for the lecture begins at +half past one, and you must be there before twelve to get a seat, so +constant and animated is his popularity. + +I have attended, with some interest, two discussions at the +Athenée,--one on Suicide, the other on the Crusades. They are amateur +affairs, where, as always at such times, one hears much, nonsense and +vanity, much making of phrases and sentimental grimace; but there was +one excellent speaker, adroit and rapid as only a Frenchman could be. +With admirable readiness, skill, and rhetorical polish, he examined +the arguments of all the others, and built upon their failures +a triumph for himself. His management of the language, too, +was masterly, and French is the best of languages for such a +purpose,--clear, flexible, full of sparkling points and quick, +picturesque turns, with a subtile blandness that makes the dart tickle +while it wounds. Truly he pleased the fancy, filled the ear, and +carried us pleasantly along over the smooth, swift waters; but then +came from the crowd a gentleman, not one of the appointed orators +of the evening, but who had really something in his heart to say,--a +grave, dark man, with Spanish eyes, and the simple dignity of honor +and earnestness in all his gesture and manner. He said in few and +unadorned words his say, and the sense of a real presence filled the +room, and those charms of rhetoric faded, as vanish the beauties of +soap-bubbles from the eyes of astonished childhood. + +I was present on one good occasion at the Academy the day that M. +Rémusat was received there in the place of Royer-Collard. I looked +down from one of the tribunes upon the flower of the celebrities of +France, that is to say, of the celebrities which are authentic, _comme +il faut_. Among them were many marked faces, many fine heads; but +in reading the works of poets we always fancy them about the age of +Apollo himself, and I found with pain some of my favorites quite old, +and very unlike the company on Parnassus as represented by Raphael. +Some, however, were venerable, even noble, to behold. Indeed, the +literary dynasty of France is growing old, and here, as in England +and Germany, there seems likely to occur a serious gap before the +inauguration of another, if indeed another is coming. + +However, it was an imposing sight; there are men of real distinction +now in the Academy, and Molière would have a fair chance if he +were proposed to-day. Among the audience I saw many ladies of fine +expression and manner, as well as one or two _precieuses ridicules_, a +race which is never quite extinct. + +M. Rémusat, as is the custom on these occasions, painted the portrait +of his predecessor; the discourse was brilliant and discriminating +in the details, but the orator seemed to me to neglect drawing some +obvious inferences which would have given a better point of view for +his subject. + +A _séance_ to me much more impressive find interesting was one which +borrowed nothing from dress, decorations, or the presence of titled +pomp. I went to call on La Mennais, to whom I had a letter, I found +him in a little study; his secretary was writing in a larger room +through which I passed. With him was a somewhat citizen-looking, +but vivacious, elderly man, whom I was at first sorry to see, +having wished for half an hour's undisturbed visit to the apostle of +Democracy. But how quickly were those feelings displaced by joy when +he named to me the great national lyrist of France, the unequalled +Béranger. I had not expected to see him at all, for he is not one to +be seen in any show place; he lives in the hearts of the people, and +needs no homage from their eyes. I was very happy in that little study +in presence of these two men, whose influence has been so great, so +real. To me Béranger has been much; his wit, his pathos, his exquisite +lyric grace, have made the most delicate strings vibrate, and I can +feel, as well as see, what he is in his nation and his place. I have +not personally received anything from La Mennais, as, born under other +circumstances, mental facts which he, once the pupil of Rome, has +learned by passing through severe ordeals, are at the basis of all +my thoughts. But I see well what he has been and is to Europe, and of +what great force of nature and spirit. He seems suffering and pale, +but in his eyes is the light of the future. + +These are men who need no flourish of trumpets to announce their +coming,--no band of martial music upon their steps,--no obsequious +nobles in their train. They are the true kings, the theocratic kings, +the judges in Israel. The hearts of men make music at their approach; +the mind of the age is the historian of their passage; and only men of +destiny like themselves shall be permitted to write their eulogies, or +fill their vacant seats. + +Wherever there is a genius like his own, a germ of the finest fruit +still hidden beneath the soil, the "_Chante pauvre petit_" of Béranger +shall strike, like a sunbeam, and give it force to emerge, and +wherever there is the true Crusade,--for the spirit, not the tomb of +Christ,--shall be felt an echo of the "_Que tes armes soient benis +jeune soldat_" of La Mennais. + + + + +LETTER XI. + +FRANCE AND HER ARTISTIC EXCELLENCE.--THE PICTURES OF HORACE +VERNET.--DE LA ROCHE.--LEOPOLD ROBERT.--CONTRAST BETWEEN THE FRENCH +AND ENGLISH SCHOOLS OF ART.--THE GENERAL APPRECIATION OF TURNER'S +PICTURES.--BOTANICAL MODELS IN WAX.--MUSIC.--THE OPERA.--DUPREZ.-- +LABLACHE.--RONCONI.--GRISI.--PERSIANA.--"SEMIRAMIDE" AS PERFORMED BY +THE NEW YORK AND PARIS OPERAS.--MARIO.--COLETTI.--GARDINI.-- +"DON GIOVANNI."--THE WRITER'S TRIAL OF THE "LETHEON."--ITS EFFECTS. + + +It needs not to speak in this cursory manner of the treasures of Art, +pictures, sculptures, engravings, and the other riches which France +lays open so freely to the stranger in her Musées. Any examination +worth writing of such objects, or account of the thoughts they +inspire, demands a place by itself, and an ample field in which to +expatiate. The American, first introduced to some good pictures by the +truly great geniuses of the religious period in Art, must, if capable +at all of mental approximation to the life therein embodied, be too +deeply affected, too full of thoughts, to be in haste to say anything, +and for me, I bide my time. + +No such great crisis, however, is to be apprehended from acquaintance +with the productions of the modern French school. They are, indeed, +full of talent and of vigor, but also melodramatic and exaggerated to +a degree that seems to give the nightmare passage through the fresh +and cheerful day. They sound no depth of soul, and are marked with the +signet of a degenerate age. + +Thus speak I generally. To the pictures of Horace Vernet one cannot +but turn a gracious eye, they are so faithful a transcript of the life +which circulates around us in the present state of things, and we +are willing to see his nobles and generals mounted on such excellent +horses. De la Roche gives me pleasure; there is in his pictures a +simple and natural poesy; he is a man who has in his own heart a well +of good water, whence he draws for himself when the streams are mixed +with strange soil and bear offensive marks of the bloody battles of +life. + +The pictures of Leopold Robert I find charming. They are full of vigor +and nobleness; they express a nature where all is rich, young, and on +a large scale. Those that I have seen are so happily expressive of the +thoughts and perceptions of early manhood, I can hardly regret he +did not live to enter on another stage of life, the impression now +received is so single. + +The effort of the French school in Art, as also its main tendency in +literature, seems to be to turn the mind inside out, in the coarsest +acceptation of such a phrase. Art can only be truly Art by presenting +an adequate outward symbol of some fact in the interior life. But then +it _is_ a symbol that Art seeks to present, and not the fact itself. +These French painters seem to have no idea of this; they have not +studied the method of Nature. With the true artist, as with Nature +herself, the more full the representation, the more profound and +enchanting is the sense of mystery. We look and look, as on a flower +of which we cannot scrutinize the secret life, yet b; looking seem +constantly drawn nearer to the soul that causes and governs that life. +But in the French pictures suffering is represented by streams of +blood,--wickedness by the most ghastly contortions. + +I saw a movement in the opposite direction in England; it was in +Turner's pictures of the later period. It is well known that Turner, +so long an idol of the English public, paints now in a manner which +has caused the liveliest dissensions in the world of connoisseurs. +There are two parties, one of which maintains, not only that the +pictures of the late period are not good, but that they are not +pictures at all,--that it is impossible to make out the design, or +find what Turner is aiming at by those strange blotches of color. +The other party declare that these pictures are not only good, but +divine,--that whoever looks upon them in the true manner will not fail +to find there somewhat ineffably and transcendently admirable,--the +soul of Art. Books have been written to defend this side of the +question. + +I had become much interested about this matter, as the fervor of +feeling on either side seemed to denote that there was something real +and vital going on, and, while time would not permit my visiting other +private collections in London and its neighborhood, I insisted on +taking it for one of Turner's pictures. It was at the house of one of +his devoutest disciples, who has arranged everything in the rooms to +harmonize with them. There were a great many of the earlier period; +these seemed to me charming, but superficial, views of Nature. They +were of a character that he who runs may read,--obvious, simple, +graceful. The later pictures were quite a different matter; +mysterious-looking things,--hieroglyphics of picture, rather than +picture itself. Sometimes you saw a range of red dots, which, after +long looking, dawned on you as the roofs of houses,--shining streaks +turned out to be most alluring rivulets, if traced with patience and +a devout eye. Above all, they charmed the eye and the thought. Still, +these pictures, it seems to me, cannot be considered fine works of +Art, more than the mystical writing common to a certain class of minds +in the United States can be called good writing. A great work of Art +demands a great thought, or a thought of beauty adequately expressed. +Neither in Art nor literature more than in life can an ordinary +thought be made interesting because well dressed. But in a transition +state, whether of Art or literature, deeper thoughts are imperfectly +expressed, because they cannot yet be held and treated masterly. +This seems to be the case with Turner. He has got beyond the English +gentleman's conventional view of Nature, which implies a _little_ +sentiment and a _very_ cultivated taste; he has become awake to what +is elemental, normal, in Nature,--such, for instance, as one sees in +the working of water on the sea-shore. He tries to represent these +primitive forms. In the drawings of Piranesi, in the pictures of +Rembrandt, one sees this grand language exhibited more truly. It is +not picture, but certain primitive and leading effects of light and +shadow, or lines and contours, that captivate the attention. I saw a +picture of Rembrandt's at the Louvre, whose subject I do not know +and have never cared to inquire. I cannot analyze the group, but I +understand and feel the thought it embodies. At something similar +Turner seems aiming; an aim so opposed to the practical and outward +tendency of the English mind, that, as a matter of course, the +majority find themselves mystified, and thereby angered, but for the +same reason answering to so deep and seldom satisfied a want in the +minds of the minority, as to secure the most ardent sympathy where any +at all can be elicited. + +Upon this topic of the primitive forms and operations of nature, I am +reminded of something interesting I was looking at yesterday. These +are botanical models in wax, with microscopic dissections, by an +artist from Florence, a pupil of Calamajo, the Director of the +Wax-Model Museum there. I saw collections of ten different genera, +embracing from fifty to sixty species, of Fungi, Mosses, and Lichens, +detected and displayed in all the beautiful secrets of their lives; +many of them, as observed by Dr. Leveillé of Paris. The artist told me +that a fisherman, introduced to such acquaintance with the marvels +of love and beauty which we trample under foot or burn in the chimney +each careless day, exclaimed, "'Tis the good God who protects us +on the sea that made all these"; and a similar recognition, a +correspondent feeling, will not be easily evaded by the most callous +observer. This artist has supplied many of these models to the +magnificent collection of the _Jardin des Plantes_, to Edinburgh, and +to Bologna, and would furnish them, to our museums at a much cheaper +rate than they can elsewhere be obtained. I wish the Universities of +Cambridge, New York, and other leading institutions of our country, +might avail themselves of the opportunity. + +In Paris I have not been very fortunate in hearing the best music. +At the different Opera-Houses, the orchestra is always good, but the +vocalization, though far superior to what I have heard at home, +falls so far short of my ideas and hopes that--except to the Italian +Opera--I have not been often. The _Opera Comique_ I visited only +once; it was tolerably well, and no more, and, for myself, I find the +tolerable intolerable in music. At the Grand Opera I heard _Robert le +Diable_ and _Guillaume Tell_ almost with ennui; the decorations and +dresses are magnificent, the instrumental performance good, but not +one fine singer to fill these fine parts. Duprez has had a great +reputation, and probably has sung better In former days; still he +has a vulgar mind, and can never have had any merit as an artist. At +present I find him unbearable. He forces his voice, sings in the most +coarse, showy style, and aims at producing effects without regard to +the harmony of his part; fat and vulgar, he still takes the part of +the lover and young chevalier; to my sorrow I saw him in Ravenswood, +and he has well-nigh disenchanted for me the Bride of Lammermoor. + +The Italian Opera is here as well sustained, I believe, as anywhere in +the world at present; all about it is certainly quite good, but alas! +nothing excellent, nothing admirable. Yet no! I must not say nothing: +Lablache is excellent,--voice, intonation, manner of song, action. +Ronconi I found good in the Doctor of "_L'Elisire d'Amore_". For the +higher parts Grisi, though now much too large for some of her parts, +and without a particle of poetic grace or dignity, has certainly +beauty of feature, and from nature a fine voice. But I find her +conception of her parts equally coarse and shallow. Her love is the +love of a peasant; her anger, though having the Italian picturesque +richness and vigor, is the anger of an Italian fishwife, entirely +unlike anything in the same rank elsewhere; her despair is that of a +person with the toothache, or who has drawn a blank in the lottery. +The first time I saw her was in _Norma_; then the beauty of her +outline, which becomes really enchanting as she recalls the first +emotions of love, the force and gush of her song, filled my ear, and +charmed the senses, so that I was pleased, and did not perceive her +great defects; but with each time of seeing her I liked her less, and +now I do not like her at all. + +Persiani is more generally a favorite here; she is indeed skilful +both as an actress and in the management of her voice, but I find +her expression meretricious, her singing mechanical. Neither of these +women is equal to Pico in natural force, if she had but the same +advantages of culture and environment. In hearing _Semiramide_ here, +I first learned to appreciate the degree of talent with which it +was cast in New York. Grisi indeed is a far better Semiramis than +Borghese, but the best parts of the opera lost all their charm from +the inferiority of Brambilla, who took Pico's place. Mario has a +charming voice, grace and tenderness; he fills very well the part of +the young, chivalric lover, but he has no range of power. Coletti is +a very good singer; he has not from Nature a fine voice or personal +beauty; but he has talent, good taste, and often surpasses the +expectation he has inspired. Gardini, the new singer, I have only +heard once, and that was in a lovesick-shepherd part; he showed +delicacy, tenderness, and tact. In fine, among all these male singers +there is much to please, but little to charm; and for the women, they +never fail absolutely to fill their parts, but no ray of the Muse has +fallen on them. + +_Don Giovanni_ conferred on me a benefit, of which certainly its great +author never dreamed. I shall relate it,--first begging pardon of +Mozart, and assuring him I had no thought of turning his music to +the account of a "vulgar utility." It was quite by accident. After +suffering several days very much with the toothache, I resolved to get +rid of the cause of sorrow by the aid of ether; not sorry, either, to +try its efficacy, after all the marvellous stories I had heard. +The first time I inhaled it, I did not for several seconds feel the +effect, and was just thinking, "Alas! this has not power to soothe +nerves so irritable as mine," when suddenly I wandered off, I +don't know where, but it was a sensation like wandering in long +garden-walks, and through many alleys of trees,--many impressions, but +all pleasant and serene. The moment the tube was removed, I started +into consciousness, and put my hand to my cheek; but, sad! the +throbbing tooth was still there. The dentist said I had not seemed to +him insensible. He then gave me the ether in a stronger dose, and this +time I quitted the body instantly, and cannot remember any detail of +what I saw and did; but the impression was as in the Oriental tale, +where the man has his head in the water an instant only, but in his +vision a thousand years seem to have passed. I experienced that same +sense of an immense length of time and succession of impressions; +even, now, the moment my mind was in that state seems to me a far +longer period in time than my life on earth does as I look back upon +it. Suddenly I seemed to see the old dentist, as I had for the +moment before I inhaled the gas, amid his plants, in his nightcap +and dressing-gown; in the twilight the figure had somewhat of a +Faust-like, magical air, and he seemed to say, "_C'est inutile._" +Again I started up, fancying that once more he had not dared to +extract the tooth, but it was gone. What is worth, noticing is the +mental translation I made of his words, which, my ear must have +caught, for my companion tells me he said, "_C'est le moment_," a +phrase of just as many syllables, but conveying just the opposite +sense. + +Ah! I how I wished then, that you had settled, there in the United +States, who really brought this means of evading a portion of the +misery of life into use. But as it was, I remained at a loss whom to +apostrophize with my benedictions, whether Dr. Jackson, Morton, or +Wells, and somebody thus was robbed of his clue;--neither does Europe +know to whom to address her medals. + +However, there is no evading the heavier part of these miseries. You +avoid the moment of suffering, and escape the effort of screwing up +your courage for one of these moments, but not the jar to the whole +system. I found the effect of having taken the ether bad for me. I +seemed to taste it all the time, and neuralgic pain continued; this +lasted three days. For the evening of the third, I had taken a ticket +to _Don Giovanni_, and could not bear to give up this opera, which I +had always been longing to hear; still I was in much suffering, and, +as it was the sixth day I had been so, much weakened. However, I went, +expecting to be obliged to come out; but the music soothed the +nerves at once. I hardly suffered at all during the opera; however, I +supposed the pain would return as soon as I came out; but no! it left +me from that time. Ah! if physicians only understood the influence +of the mind over the body, instead of treating, as they so often do, +their patients like machines, and according to precedent! But I must +pause here for to-day. + + + + +LETTER XII. + +ADIEU TO PARIS.--ITS SCENES.--THE PROCESSION OF THE FAT +OX.--DESTITUTION OF THE POORER CLASSES.--NEED OF A REFORM.--THE +DOCTRINES OF FOURIER MAKING PROGRESS.--REVIEW OF FOURIER'S LIFE AND +CHARACTER.--THE PARISIAN PRESS ON THE SPANISH MARRIAGE.--GUIZOT'S +POLICY.--NAPOLEON.--THE MANUSCRIPTS OF ROUSSEAU IN THE CHAMBER +OF DEPUTIES.--HIS CHARACTER.--SPEECH OF M. BERRYER IN THE +CHAMBER.--AMERICAN AND FRENCH ORATORY.--THE AFFAIR OF CRACOW.--DULL +SPEAKERS IN THE CHAMBER.--FRENCH VIVACITY.--AMUSING SCENE.--GUIZOT +SPEAKING.--INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE OF BOOKS.--THE EVENING SCHOOL OF THE +_FRÈRES CHRETIENS_.--THE GREAT GOOD ACCOMPLISHED BY THEM.--SUGGESTIONS +FOR THE LIKE IN AMERICA.--THE INSTITUTION OF THE DEACONESSES.--THE +NEW YORK "HOME."--SCHOOL FOR IDIOTS NEAR PARIS.--THE RECLAMATION OF +IDIOTS. + + +I bade adieu to Paris on the 25th of February, just as we had had +one fine day. It was the only one of really delightful weather, from +morning till night, that I had to enjoy all the while I was at Paris, +from the 13th of November till the 25th of February. Let no one abuse +our climate; even in winter it is delightful, compared to the Parisian +winter of mud and mist. + +This one day brought out the Parisian world in its gayest colors. I +never saw anything more animated or prettier, of the kind, than +the promenade that day in the _Champs Elysées_. Such crowds of gay +equipages, with _cavaliers_ and their _amazons_ flying through their +midst on handsome and swift horses! On the promenade, what groups of +passably pretty ladies, with excessively pretty bonnets, announcing in +their hues of light green, peach-blossom, and primrose the approach +of spring, and charming children, for French children are charming! I +cannot speak with equal approbation of the files of men sauntering +arm in arm. One sees few fine-looking men in Paris: the air, +half-military, half-dandy, of self-esteem and _savoir-faire_, is not +particularly interesting; nor are the glassy stare and fumes of bad +cigars exactly what one most desires to encounter, when the heart +is opened by the breath of spring zephyrs and the hope of buds and +blossoms. + +But a French crowd is always gay, full of quick turns and drolleries; +most amusing when most petulant, it represents what is so agreeable +in the character of the nation. We have now seen it on two good +occasions, the festivities of the new year, and just after we came was +the procession of the _Fat Ox_, described, if I mistake not, by Eugene +Sue. An immense crowd thronged the streets this year to see it, +but few figures and little invention followed the emblem of plenty; +indeed, few among the people could have had the heart for such a sham, +knowing how the poorer classes have suffered from hunger this winter. +All signs of this are kept out of sight in Paris. A pamphlet, called +"The Voice of Famine," stating facts, though in the tone of vulgar +and exaggerated declamation, unhappily common to productions on the +radical side, was suppressed almost as soon as published; but the fact +cannot be suppressed, that the people in the provinces have suffered +most terribly amid the vaunted prosperity of France. + +While Louis Philippe lives, the gases, compressed by his strong grasp, +may not burst up to light; but the need of some radical measures of +reform is not less strongly felt in France than elsewhere, and the +time will come before long when such will be imperatively demanded. +The doctrines of Fourier are making considerable progress, and +wherever they spread, the necessity of some practical application of +the precepts of Christ, in lieu of the mummeries of a worn-out ritual, +cannot fail to be felt. The more I see of the terrible ills which +infest the body politic of Europe, the more indignation I feel at +the selfishness or stupidity of those in my own country who oppose +an examination of these subjects,--such as is animated by the hope of +prevention. The mind of Fourier was, in many respects, uncongenial to +mine. Educated in an age of gross materialism, he was tainted by its +faults. In attempts to reorganize society, he commits the error of +making soul the result of health of body, instead of body the clothing +of soul; but his heart was that of a genuine lover of his kind, of a +philanthropist in the sense of Jesus,--his views were large and noble. +His life was one of devout study on these subjects, and I should +pity the person who, after the briefest sojourn in Manchester and +Lyons,--the most superficial acquaintance with the population of +London and Paris,--could seek to hinder a study of his thoughts, or +be wanting in reverence for his purposes. But always, always, the +unthinking mob has found stones on the highway to throw at the +prophets. + +Amid so many great causes for thought and anxiety, how childish has +seemed the endless gossip of the Parisian press on the subject of +the Spanish marriage,--how melancholy the flimsy falsehoods of M. +Guizot,--more melancholy the avowal so naïvely made, amid those +falsehoods, that to his mind expediency is the best policy! This is +the policy, said he, that has made France so prosperous. Indeed, the +success is correspondent with the means, though in quite another sense +than that he meant. + +I went to the _Hotel des Invalides_, supposing I should be admitted +to the spot where repose the ashes of Napoleon, for though I love not +pilgrimages to sepulchres, and prefer paying my homage to the living +spirit rather than to the dust it once animated, I should have +liked to muse a moment beside his urn; but as yet the visitor is +not admitted there. In the library, however, one sees the picture of +Napoleon crossing the Alps, opposite to that of the present King of +the French. Just as they are, these should serve as frontispieces to +two chapters of history. In the first, the seed was sown in a field of +blood indeed, yet was it the seed of all that is vital in the present +period. By Napoleon the career was really laid open to talent, and all +that is really great in France now consists in the possibility that +talent finds of struggling to the light. + +Paris is a great intellectual centre, and there is a Chamber of +Deputies to represent the people, very different from the poor, +limited Assembly politically so called. Their tribune is that of +literature, and one needs not to beg tickets to mingle with the +audience. To the actually so-called Chamber of Deputies I was indebted +for two pleasures. First and greatest, a sight of the manuscripts +of Rousseau treasured in their Library. I saw them and touched +them,--those manuscripts just as he has celebrated them, written on +the fine white paper, tied with ribbon. Yellow and faded age has +made them, yet at their touch I seemed to feel the fire of youth, +immortally glowing, more and more expansive, with which his soul has +pervaded this century. He was the precursor of all we most prize. +True, his blood was mixed with madness, and the course of his actual +life made some detours through villanous places, but his spirit was +intimate with the fundamental truths of human nature, and fraught with +prophecy. There is none who has given birth to more life for this age; +his gifts are yet untold; they are too present with us; but he who +thinks really must often think with Rousseau, and learn of him even +more and more: such is the method of genius, to ripen fruit for the +crowd of those rays of whose heat they complain. + +The second pleasure was in the speech of M. Berryer, when the Chamber +was discussing the Address to the King. Those of Thiers and Guizot +had been, so far, more interesting, as they stood for more that was +important; but M. Berryer is the most eloquent speaker of the House. +His oratory is, indeed, very good; not logical, but plausible, full +and rapid, with occasional bursts of flame and showers of sparks, +though indeed no stone of size and weight enough to crush any man was +thrown out of the crater. Although the oratory of our country is +very inferior to what might be expected from the perfect freedom +and powerful motive for development of genius in this province, it +presents several examples of persons superior in both force and scope, +and equal in polish, to M. Berryer. + +Nothing can be more pitiful than the manner in which the infamous +affair of Cracow is treated on all hands. There is not even the +affectation of noble feeling about it. La Mennais and his coadjutors +published in _La Reforme_ an honorable and manly protest, which the +public rushed to devour the moment it was out of the press;--and no +wonder! for it was the only crumb of comfort offered to those who have +the nobleness to hope that the confederation of nations may yet be +conducted on the basis of divine justice and human right. Most men who +touched the subject apparently weary of feigning, appeared in their +genuine colors of the calmest, most complacent selfishness. As +described by Körner in the prayer of such a man:-- + + "O God, save me, + My wife, child, and hearth, + Then my harvest also; + Then will I bless thee, + Though thy lightning scorch to blackness + All the rest of human kind." + +A sentiment which finds its paraphrase in the following vulgate of our +land:-- + + "O Lord, save me, + My wife, child, and brother Sammy, + Us four, _and no more_." + +The latter clause, indeed, is not quite frankly avowed as yet by +politicians. + +It is very amusing to be in the Chamber of Deputies when some dull +person is speaking. The French have a truly Greek vivacity; they +cannot endure to be bored. Though their conduct is not very dignified, +I should like a corps of the same kind of sharp-shooters in our +legislative assemblies when honorable gentlemen are addressing their +constituents and not the assembly, repeating in lengthy, windy, clumsy +paragraphs what has been the truism of the newspaper press for +months previous, wickedly wasting the time that was given us to learn +something for ourselves, and help our fellow-creatures. In the French +Chamber, if a man who has nothing to say ascends the tribune, the +audience-room is filled with the noise as of myriad beehives; the +President rises on his feet, and passes the whole time of the speech +in taking the most violent exercise, stretching himself to look +imposing, ringing his bell every two minutes, shouting to the +representatives of the nation to be decorous and attentive. In vain: +the more he rings, the more they won't be still. I saw an orator in +this situation, fighting against the desires of the audience, as only +a Frenchman could,--certainly a man of any other nation would have +died of embarrassment rather,--screaming out his sentences, stretching +out both arms with an air of injured dignity, panting, growing red in +the face; but the hubbub of voices never stopped an instant. At last +he pretended to be exhausted, stopped, and took out his snuff-box. +Instantly there was a calm. He seized the occasion, and shouted out a +sentence; but it was the only one he was able to make heard. They +were not to be trapped so a second time. When any one is speaking that +commands interest, as Berryer did, the effect of this vivacity is very +pleasing, the murmur of feeling that rushes over the assembly is so +quick and electric,--light, too, as the ripple on the lake. I heard +Guizot speak one day for a short time. His manner is very deficient +in dignity,--has not even the dignity of station; you see the man of +cultivated intellect, but without inward strength; nor is even his +panoply of proof. + +I saw in the Library of the Deputies some books intended to be sent +to our country through M. Vattemare. The French have shown great +readiness and generosity with regard to his project, and I earnestly +hope that our country, if it accept these tokens of good-will, will +show both energy and judgment in making a return. I do not speak from +myself alone, but from others whose opinion is entitled to the highest +respect, when I say it is not by sending a great quantity of documents +of merely local interest, that would be esteemed lumber in our garrets +at home, that you pay respect to a nation able to look beyond, the +binding of a book. If anything is to be sent, let persons of ability +be deputed to make a selection honorable to us and of value to +the French. They would like documents from our Congress,--what is +important as to commerce and manufactures; they would also like much +what can throw light on the history and character of our aborigines. +This project of international exchange could not be carried on to any +permanent advantage without accredited agents on either side, but in +its present shape it wears an aspect of good feeling that is valuable, +and may give a very desirable impulse to thought and knowledge. +M. Vattemare has given himself to the plan with indefatigable +perseverance, and I hope our country will not be backward to accord +him that furtherance he has known how to conquer from his countrymen. + +To his complaisance I was indebted for opportunity of a leisurely +survey of the _Imprimeri Royale_, which gave me several suggestions +I shall impart at a more favorable time, and of the operations of the +Mint also. It was at his request that the Librarian of the Chamber +showed me the manuscripts of Rousseau, which are not always seen by +the traveller. He also introduced me to one of the evening schools of +the _Frères Chretiens_, where I saw, with pleasure, how much can be +done for the working classes only by evening lessons. In reading and +writing, adults had made surprising progress, and still more so in +drawing. I saw with the highest pleasure, excellent copies of good +models, made by hard-handed porters and errand-boys with their brass +badges on their breasts. The benefits of such an accomplishment are, +in my eyes, of the highest value, giving them, by insensible degrees, +their part in the glories of art and science, and in the tranquil +refinements of home. Visions rose in my mind of all that might be done +in our country by associations of men and women who have received the +benefits of literary culture, giving such evening lessons throughout +our cities and villages. Should I ever return, I shall propose to +some of the like-minded an association for such a purpose, and try the +experiment of one of these schools of Christian brothers, with the vow +of disinterestedness, but without the robe and the subdued priestly +manner, which even in these men, some of whom seemed to me truly good, +I could not away with. + +I visited also a Protestant institution, called that of the +Deaconesses, which pleased me in some respects. Beside the regular +_Crèche_, they take the sick children of the poor, and nurse them till +they are well. They have also a refuge like that of the Home which, +the ladies of New York have provided, through which members of +the most unjustly treated class of society may return to peace and +usefulness. There are institutions of the kind in Paris, but too +formal,--and the treatment shows ignorance of human nature. I see +nothing that shows so enlightened a spirit as the Home, a little germ +of good which I hope flourishes and finds active aid in the community. +I have collected many facts with regard to this suffering class of +women, both in England and in France. I have seen them under the thin +veil of gayety, and in the horrible tatters of utter degradation. I +have seen the feelings of men with regard to their condition, and the +general heartlessness in women of more favored and protected lives, +which I can only ascribe to utter ignorance of the facts. If a +proclamation of some of these can remove it, I hope to make such a one +in the hour of riper judgment, and after a more extensive survey. + +Sad as are many features of the time, we have at least the +satisfaction of feeling that if something true can be revealed, if +something wise and kind shall be perseveringly tried, it stands a +chance of nearer success than ever before; for much light has been let +in at the windows of the world, and many dark nooks have been touched +by a consoling ray. The influence of such a ray I felt in visiting +the School for Idiots, near Paris,--idiots, so called long time by +the impatience of the crowd; yet there are really none such, but only +beings so below the average standard, so partially organized, that it +is difficult for them to learn or to sustain themselves. I wept the +whole time I was in this place a shower of sweet and bitter tears; of +joy at what had been done, of grief for all that I and others possess +and cannot impart to these little ones. But patience, and the Father +of All will give them all yet. A good angel these of Paris have in +their master. I have seen no man that seemed to me more worthy of +envy, if one could envy happiness so pure and tender. He is a man +of seven or eight and twenty, who formerly came there only to give +lessons in writing, but became so interested in his charge that he +came at last to live among them and to serve them. They sing the hymns +he writes for them, and as I saw his fine countenance looking in +love on those distorted and opaque vases of humanity, where he had +succeeded in waking up a faint flame, I thought his heart could never +fail to be well warmed and buoyant. They sang well, both in parts and +in chorus, went through gymnastic exercises with order and pleasure, +then stood in a circle and kept time, while several danced extremely +well. One little fellow, with whom the difficulty seemed to be that +an excess of nervous sensibility paralyzed instead of exciting the +powers, recited poems with a touching, childish grace and perfect +memory. They write well, draw well, make shoes, and do carpenter's +work. One of the cases most interesting to the metaphysician is that +of a boy, brought there about two years and a half ago, at the age of +thirteen, in a state of brutality, and of ferocious brutality. I read +the physician's report of him at that period. He discovered no ray of +decency or reason; entirely beneath the animals in the exercise of the +senses, he discovered a restless fury beyond that of beasts of prey, +breaking and throwing down whatever came in his way; was a voracious +glutton, and every way grossly sensual. Many trials and vast patience +were necessary before an inlet could be obtained to his mind; then it +was through the means of mathematics. He delights in the figures, can +draw and name them all, detects them by the touch when blindfolded. +Each, mental effort of the kind he still follows up with an imbecile +chuckle, as indeed his face and whole manner are still that of an +idiot; but he has been raised from his sensual state, and can now +discriminate and name colors and perfumes which before were all alike +to him. He is partially redeemed; earlier, no doubt, far more might +have been done for him, but the degree of success is an earnest which +must encourage to perseverance in the most seemingly hopeless cases. I +thought sorrowfully of the persons of this class whom I have known +in our country, who might have been so raised and solaced by similar +care. I hope ample provision may erelong be made for these Pariahs of +the human race; every case of the kind brings its blessings with it, +and observation on these subjects would be as rich in suggestion for +the thought, as such acts of love are balmy for the heart. + + + + +LETTER XIII. + +MUSIC IN PARIS.--CHOPIN AND THE CHEVALIER NEUKOMM.--ADIEU TO PARIS.--A +MIDNIGHT DRIVE IN A DILIGENCE.--LYONS AND ITS WEAVERS.--THEIR MANNER +OF LIFE.--A YOUNG WIFE.--THE WEAVERS' CHILDREN.--THE BANKS OF +THE RHONE.--DREARY WEATHER FOR SOUTHERN FRANCE.--THE OLD ROMAN +AMPHITHEATRE AT ARLES.--THE WOMEN OF ARLES.--MARSEILLES.--PASSAGE +TO GENOA.--ITALY.--GENOA AND NAPLES.--BAIÆ.--VESUVIUS.--THE ITALIAN +CHARACTER AT HOME.--PASSAGE FROM LEGHORN IN A SMALL STEAMER.--NARROW +ESCAPE.--A CONFUSION OF LANGUAGES.--DEGRADATION OF THE NEAPOLITANS. + + +Naples. + +In my last days at Paris I was fortunate in hearing some delightful +music. A friend of Chopin's took me to see him, and I had the +pleasure, which the delicacy of Iris health makes a rare one for the +public, of hearing him play. All the impressions I had received from +hearing his music imperfectly performed were justified, for it has +marked traits, which can be veiled, but not travestied; but to feel +it as it merits, one must hear himself; only a person as exquisitely +organized as he can adequately express these subtile secrets of the +creative spirit. + +It was with, a very different sort of pleasure that I listened to the +Chevalier Neukomm, the celebrated composer of "David," which has +been so popular in our country. I heard him improvise on the _orgue +expressif_, and afterward on a great organ which has just been built +here by Cavaille for the cathedral of Ajaccio. Full, sustained, +ardent, yet exact, the stream, of his thought bears with it the +attention of hearers of all characters, as his character, full of +_bonhommie_, open, friendly, animated, and sagacious, would seem to +have something to present for the affection and esteem of all kinds of +men. + +Chopin is the minstrel, Neukomm the orator of music: we want them +both,--the mysterious whispers and the resolute pleadings from the +better world, which calls us not to slumber here, but press daily +onward to claim our heritage. + +Paris! I was sad to leave thee, thou wonderful focus, where ignorance +ceases to be a pain, because there we find such means daily to lessen +it. It is the only school where I ever found abundance of teachers who +could bear being examined by the pupil in their special branches. I +must go to this school more before I again cross the Atlantic, where +often for years I have carried about some trifling question without +finding the person who could answer it. Really deep questions we must +all answer for ourselves; the more the pity, then, that we get not +quickly through with a crowd of details, where the experience of +others might accelerate our progress. + +Leaving by _diligence_, we pursued our way from twelve o'clock on +Thursday till twelve at night on Friday, thus having a large share of +magnificent moonlight upon the unknown fields we were traversing. At +Chalons we took boat and reached Lyons betimes that afternoon. So +soon as refreshed, we sallied out to visit some of the garrets of the +weavers. As we were making inquiries about these, a sweet little girl +who heard us offered to be our guide. She led us by a weary, winding +way, whose pavement was much easier for her feet in their wooden +_sabots_ than for ours in Paris shoes, to the top of a hill, from +which we saw for the first time "the blue and arrowy Rhone." Entering +the light buildings on this high hill, I found each chamber +tenanted by a family of weavers,--all weavers; wife, husband, sons, +daughters,--from nine years old upward,--each was helping. On one side +were the looms; nearer the door the cooking apparatus; the beds were +shelves near the ceiling: they climbed up to them on ladders. My sweet +little girl turned out to be a wife of six or seven years' standing, +with two rather sickly-looking children; she seemed to have the +greatest comfort that is possible amid the perplexities of a hard and +anxious lot, to judge by the proud and affectionate manner in which +she always said "_mon mari_," and by the courteous gentleness of his +manner toward her. She seemed, indeed, to be one of those persons on +whom "the Graces have smiled in their cradle," and to whom a natural +loveliness of character makes the world as easy as it can be made +while the evil spirit is still so busy choking the wheat with tares. +I admired her graceful manner of introducing us into those dark little +rooms, and she was affectionately received by all her acquaintance. +But alas! that voice, by nature of such bird-like vivacity, repeated +again and again, "Ah! we are all very unhappy now." "Do you sing +together, or go to evening schools?" "We have not the heart. When we +have a piece of work, we do not stir till it is finished, and then we +run to try and get another; but often we have to wait idle for weeks. +It grows worse and worse, and they say it is not likely to be any +better. We can think of nothing, but whether we shall be able to pay +our rent. Ah! the workpeople are very unhappy now." This poor, lovely +little girl, at an age when the merchant's daughters of Boston and New +York are just gaining their first experiences of "society," knew to +a farthing the price of every article of food and clothing that is +wanted by such a household. Her thought by day and her dream by night +was, whether she should long be able to procure a scanty supply of +these, and Nature had gifted her with precisely those qualities, +which, unembarrassed by care, would have made her and all she loved +really happy; and she was fortunate now, compared with many of her sex +in Lyons,--of whom a gentleman who knows the class well said: "When +their work fails, they have no resource except in the sale of their +persons. There are but these two ways open to them, weaving or +prostitution, to gain their bread." And there are those who dare to +say that such a state of things is _well enough_, and what Providence +intended for man,--who call those who have hearts to suffer at the +sight, energy and zeal to seek its remedy, visionaries and fanatics! +To themselves be woe, who have eyes and see not, ears and hear not, +the convulsions and sobs of injured Humanity! + +My little friend told me she had nursed both her children,--though +almost all of her class are obliged to put their children out +to nurse; "but," said she, "they are brought back so little, so +miserable, that I resolved, if possible, to keep mine with me." Next +day in the steamboat I read a pamphlet by a physician of Lyons in +which he recommends the establishment of _Crèches_, not merely like +those of Paris, to keep the children by day, but to provide wet-nurses +for them. Thus, by the infants receiving nourishment from more healthy +persons, and who under the supervision of directors would treat them +well, he hopes to counteract the tendency to degenerate in this race +of sedentary workers, and to save the mothers from too heavy a burden +of care and labor, without breaking the bond between them and their +children, whom, under such circumstances, they could visit often, and +see them taken care of as they, brought up to know nothing except how +to weave, cannot take care of them. Here, again, how is one reminded +of Fourier's observations and plans, still more enforced by the recent +developments at Manchester as to the habit of feeding children on +opium, which has grown out of the position of things there. + +Descending next day to Avignon, I had the mortification of finding the +banks of the Rhone still sheeted with white, and there waded through +melting snow to Laura's tomb. We did not see Mr. Dickens's Tower and +Goblin,--it was too late in the day,--but we saw a snowball fight +between two bands of the military in the castle yard that was gay +enough to make a goblin laugh. And next day on to Arles, still +snow,--snow and cutting blasts in the South of France, where everybody +had promised us bird-songs and blossoms to console us for the +dreary winter of Paris. At Arles, indeed, I saw the little saxifrage +blossoming on the steps of the Amphitheatre, and fruit-trees in flower +amid the tombs. Here for the first time I saw the great handwriting of +the Romans in its proper medium of stone, and I was content. It looked +us grand and solid as I expected, as if life in those days was thought +worth the having, the enjoying, and the using. The sunlight was warm +this day; it lay deliciously still and calm upon the ruins. One old +woman sat knitting where twenty-five thousand persons once gazed down +in fierce excitement on the fights of men and lions. Coming back, we +were refreshed all through the streets by the sight of the women of +Arles. They answered to their reputation for beauty; tall, erect, and +noble, with high and dignified features, and a full, earnest gaze of +the eye, they looked as if the Eagle still waved its wings over their +city. Even the very old women still have a degree of beauty, because +when the colors are all faded, and the skin wrinkled, the face +retains this dignity of outline. The men do not share in these +characteristics; some priestess, well beloved of the powers of old +religion, must have called down an especial blessing on her sex in +this town. + +Hence to Marseilles,--where is little for the traveller to see, except +the mixture of Oriental blood in the crowd of the streets. Thence +by steamer to Genoa. Of this transit, he who has been on the +Mediterranean in a stiff breeze well understands I can have nothing to +say, except "I suffered." It was all one dull, tormented dream to me, +and, I believe, to most of the ship's company,--a dream too of thirty +hours' duration, instead of the promised sixteen. + +The excessive beauty of Genoa is well known, and the impression upon +the eye alone was correspondent with what I expected; but, alas! the +weather was still so cold I could not realize that I had actually +touched those shores to which I had looked forward all my life, where +it seemed that the heart would expand, and the whole nature be turned +to delight. Seen by a cutting wind, the marble palaces, the gardens, +the magnificent water-view of Genoa, failed to charm,--"I _saw, not +felt_, how beautiful they were." Only at Naples have I found _my_ +Italy, and here not till after a week's waiting,--not till I began +to believe that all I had heard in praise of the climate of Italy +was fable, and that there is really no spring anywhere except in the +imagination of poets. For the first week was an exact copy of the +miseries of a New England spring; a bright sun came for an hour or two +in the morning, just to coax you forth without your cloak, and then +came up a villanous, horrible wind, exactly like the worst east wind +of Boston, breaking the heart, racking the brain, and turning hope and +fancy to an irrevocable green and yellow hue, in lieu of their native +rose. + +However, here at Naples I _have_ at last found _my_ Italy; I have +passed through the Grotto of Pausilippo, visited Cuma, Baiæ, and +Capri, ascended Vesuvius, and found all familiar, except the sense of +enchantment, of sweet exhilaration, this scene conveys. + + "Behold how brightly breaks the morning!" + +and yet all new, as if never yet described, for Nature here, most +prolific and exuberant in her gifts, has touched them all with a charm +unhackneyed, unhackneyable, which the boots of English dandies cannot +trample out, nor the raptures of sentimental tourists daub or fade. +Baiæ had still a hid divinity for me, Vesuvius a fresh baptism of +fire, and Sorrento--O Sorrento was beyond picture, beyond poesy, for +the greatest Artist had been at work there in a temper beyond the +reach of human art. + +Beyond this, reader, my old friend and valued acquaintance on other +themes, I shall tell you nothing of Naples, for it is a thing apart +in the journey of life, and, if represented at all, should be so in a +fairer form than offers itself at present. Now the actual life here is +over, I am going to Rome, and expect to see that fane of thought the +last day of this week. + +At Genoa and Leghorn, I saw for the first time Italians in their +homes. Very attractive I found them, charming women, refined men, +eloquent and courteous. If the cold wind hid Italy, it could not the +Italians. A little group of faces, each so full of character, dignity, +and, what is so rare in an American face, the capacity for pure, +exalting passion, will live ever in my memory,--the fulfilment of a +hope! + +We started from Leghorn in an English boat, highly recommended, and as +little deserving of such praise as many another bepuffed article. +In the middle of a fine, clear night, she was run into by the mail +steamer, which all on deck clearly saw coming upon her, for no reason +that could be ascertained, except that the man at the wheel said _he_ +had turned the right way, and it never seemed to occur to him that +he could change when he found the other steamer had taken the same +direction. To be sure, the other steamer was equally careless, but as +a change on our part would have prevented an accident that narrowly +missed sending us all to the bottom, it hardly seemed worth while to +persist, for the sake of convicting them of error. + +Neither the Captain nor any of his people spoke French, and we had +been much amused before by the chambermaid acting out the old story of +"Will you lend me the loan of a gridiron?" A Polish lady was on board, +with a French waiting-maid, who understood no word of English. The +daughter of John Bull would speak to the lady in English, and, when +she found it of no use, would say imperiously to the _suivante_, "Go +and ask your mistress what she will have for breakfast." And now when +I went on deck there was a parley between the two steamers, which the +Captain was obliged to manage by such interpreters as he could +find; it was a long and confused business. It ended at last in the +Neapolitan steamer taking us in tow for an inglorious return to +Leghorn. When she had decided upon this she swept round, her lights +glancing like sagacious eyes, to take us. The sea was calm as a lake, +the sky full of stars; she made a long detour, with her black hull, +her smoke and lights, which look so pretty at night, then came round +to us like the bend of an arm embracing. It was a pretty picture, +worth the stop and the fright,--perhaps the loss of twenty-four hours, +though I did not think so at the time. + +At Leghorn we changed the boat, and, retracing our steps, came now at +last to Naples,--to this priest-ridden, misgoverned, full of dirty, +degraded men and women, yet still most lovely Naples,--of which the +most I can say is that the divine aspect of nature _can_ make you +forget the situation of man in this region, which was surely intended +for him as a princely child, angelic in virtue, genius, and beauty, +and not as a begging, vermin-haunted, image kissing Lazzarone. + + + + +LETTER XIV. + +ITALY.--MISFORTUNE OF TRAVELLERS.--ENGLISH TRAVELLERS.-- +COCKNEYISM.--MACDONALD THE SCULPTOR.--BRITISH ARISTOCRACY.-- +TENERANI.--WOLFF'S DIANA AND SEASONS.--GOTT.--CRAWFORD.--OVERBECK +THE PAINTER.--AMERICAN PAINTERS IN ROME.--TERRY.--GRANCH.--HICKS.-- +REMAINS OF THE ANTIQUE.--ITALIAN PAINTERS.--DOMENICHIMO AND +TITIAN.--FRESCOS OF RAPHAEL.--MICHEL ANGELO.--THE COLOSSEUM.--HOLY +WEEK.--ST. PETER'S.--PIUS IX. AND HIS MEASURES.--POPULAR +ENTHUSIASM.--PUBLIC DINNER AT THE BATHS OF TITUS.--AUSTRIAN +JEALOUSY.--THE "CONTEMPORANEO." + + +Rome, May, 1847. + +There is very little that I can like to write about Italy. Italy is +beautiful, worthy to be loved and embraced, not talked about. Yet I +remember well that, when afar, I liked to read what was written about +her; now, all thought of it is very tedious. + +The traveller passing along the beaten track, vetturinoed from inn +to inn, ciceroned from gallery to gallery, thrown, through indolence, +want of tact, or ignorance of the language, too much into the +society of his compatriots, sees the least possible of the country; +fortunately, it is impossible to avoid seeing a great deal. The great +features of the part pursue and fill the eye. + +Yet I find that it is quite out of the question to know Italy; to say +anything of her that is full and sweet, so as to convey any idea of +her spirit, without long residence, and residence in the districts +untouched by the scorch and dust of foreign invasion (the invasion +of the _dilettanti_ I mean), and without an intimacy of feeling, an +abandonment to the spirit of the place, impossible to most Americans. +They retain too much, of their English blood; and the travelling +English, as a class, seem to me the most unseeing of all possible +animals. There are exceptions; for instance, the perceptions and +pictures of Browning seem as delicate and just here on the spot as +they did at a distance; but, take them as a class, they have the +vulgar familiarity of Mrs. Trollope without her vivacity, the +cockneyism of Dickens without his graphic power and love of the +odd corners of human nature. I admired the English at home in +their island; I admired their honor, truth, practical intelligence, +persistent power. But they do not look well in Italy; they are not the +figures for this landscape. I am indignant at the contempt they have +presumed to express for the faults of our semi-barbarous state. What +is the vulgarity expressed in our tobacco-chewing, and way of eating +eggs, compared to that which elbows the Greek marbles, guide-book in +hand,--chatters and sneers through the Miserere of the Sistine Chapel, +beneath the very glance of Michel Angelo's Sibyls,--praises +St. Peter's as "_nice_"--talks of "_managing_" the Colosseum by +moonlight,--and snatches "_bits_" for a "_sketch_" from the sublime +silence of the Campagna. + +Yet I was again reconciled with them, the other day, in visiting +the studio of Macdonald. There I found a complete gallery of the +aristocracy of England; for each lord and lady who visits Rome +considers it a part of the ceremony to sit to him for a bust. And what +a fine race! how worthy the marble! what heads of orators, +statesmen, gentlemen! of women chaste, grave, resolute, and tender! +Unfortunately, they do not look as well in flesh and blood; then +they show the habitual coldness of their temperament, the habitual +subservience to frivolous conventionalities. They need some great +occasion, some exciting crisis, in order to make them look as free and +dignified as these busts; yet is the beauty there, though, imprisoned, +and clouded, and such a crisis would show us more then one Boadicea, +more than one Alfred. Tenerani has just completed a statue which is +highly-spoken of; it is called the Angel of the Resurrection. I was +not so fortunate as to find it in his studio. In that of Wolff I saw a +Diana, ordered by the Emperor of Russia. It is modern and sentimental; +as different from, the antique Diana as the trance of a novel-read +young lady of our day from the thrill with which the ancient shepherds +deprecated the magic pervasions of Hecate, but very beautiful and +exquisitely wrought. He has also lately finished the Four Seasons, +represented as children. Of these, Winter is graceful and charming. + +Among the sculptors I delayed longest in the work-rooms of Gott. +I found his groups of young figures connected with animals very +refreshing after the grander attempts of the present time. They seem +real growths of his habitual mind,--fruits of Nature, full of joy and +freedom. His spaniels and other frisky poppets would please Apollo far +better than most of the marble nymphs and muses of the present day. + +Our Crawford has just finished a bust of Mrs. Crawford, which is +extremely beautiful, full of grace and innocent sweetness. All its +accessaries are charming,--the wreaths, the arrangement of drapery, +the stuff of which the robe is made. I hope it will be much seen on +its arrival in New York. He has also an Herodias in the clay, which is +individual in expression, and the figure of distinguished elegance. +I liked the designs of Crawford better than those of Gibson, who is +estimated as highest in the profession now. + +Among the studios of the European painters I have visited only that of +Overbeck. It is well known in the United States what his pictures are. +I have much to say at a more favorable time of what they represented +to me. He himself looks as if he had just stepped out of one of +them,--a lay monk, with a pious eye and habitual morality of thought +which limits every gesture. + +Painting is not largely represented here by American artists at +present. Terry has two pleasing pictures on the easel: one is a +costume picture of Italian life, such as I saw it myself, enchanted +beyond my hopes, on coming to Naples on a day of grand festival in +honor of Santa Agatha. Cranch sends soon to America a picture of the +Campagna, such as I saw it on my first entrance into Rome, all light +and calmness; Hicks, a charming half-length of an Italian girl, +holding a mandolin: it will be sure to please. His pictures are full +of life, and give the promise of some real achievement in Art. + +Of the fragments of the great time, I have now seen nearly all that +are treasured up here: I have, however, as yet nothing of consequence +to say of them. I find that others have often given good hints as to +how they _look_; and as to what they _are_, it can only be known by +approximating to the state of soul out of which they grew. They should +not be described, but reproduced. They are many and precious, yet is +there not so much of high excellence as I had expected: they will not +float the heart on a boundless sea of feeling, like the starry night +on our Western prairies. Yet I love much to see the galleries of +marbles, even when there are not many separately admirable, amid the +cypresses and ilexes of Roman villas; and a picture that is good at +all looks very good in one of these old palaces. + +The Italian painters whom I have learned most to appreciate, since +I came abroad, are Domenichino and Titian. Of others one may learn +something by copies and engravings: but not of these. The portraits +of Titian look upon me from the walls things new and strange. They are +portraits of men such as I have not known. In his picture, absurdly +called _Sacred and Profane Love_, in the Borghese Palace, one of the +figures has developed my powers of gazing to an extent unknown before. + +Domenichino seems very unequal in his pictures; but when he is grand +and free, the energy of his genius perfectly satisfies. The frescos +of Caracci and his scholars in the Farnese Palace have been to me a +source of the purest pleasure, and I do not remember to have heard of +them. I loved Guercino much before I came here, but I have looked +too much at his pictures and begin to grow sick of them; he is a very +limited genius. Leonardo I cannot yet like at all, but I suppose the +pictures are good for some people to look at; they show a wonderful +deal of study and thought. That is not what I can best appreciate in +a work of art. I hate to see the marks of them. I want a simple +and direct expression of soul. For the rest, the ordinary cant of +connoisseur-ship on these matters seems in Italy even more detestable +than elsewhere. + +I have not yet so sufficiently recovered from my pain at finding the +frescos of Raphael in such a state, as to be able to look at them, +happily. I had heard of their condition, but could not realize it. +However, I have gained nothing by seeing his pictures in oil, which +are well preserved. I find I had before the full impression of his +genius. Michel Angelo's frescos, in like manner, I seem to have +seen as far as I can. But it is not the same with the sculptures: my +thought had not risen to the height of the Moses. It is the only thing +in Europe, so far, which has entirely outgone my hopes. Michel Angelo +was my demigod before; but I find no offering worthy to cast at the +feet of his Moses. I like much, too, his Christ. It is a refreshing +contrast with all the other representations of the same subject. +I like it even as contrasted with Raphael's Christ of the +Transfiguration, or that of the cartoon of _Feed my Lambs_. + +I have heard owls hoot in the Colosseum by moonlight, and they spoke +more to the purpose than I ever heard any other voice upon that +subject. I have seen all the pomps and shows of Holy Week in the +church of St. Peter, and found them less imposing than an habitual +acquaintance with the place, with processions of monks and nuns +stealing in now and then, or the swell of vespers from some side +chapel. I have ascended the dome, and seen thence Rome and its +Campagna, its villas with, their cypresses and pines serenely sad as +is nothing else in the world, and the fountains of the Vatican garden +gushing hard by. I have been in the Subterranean to see a poor little +boy introduced, much to his surprise, to the bosom of the Church; +and then I have seen by torch-light the stone popes where they lie on +their tombs, and the old mosaics, and virgins with gilt caps. It is +all rich, and full,--very impressive in its way. St. Peter's must be +to each one a separate poem. + +The ceremonies of the Church, have been numerous and splendid during +our stay here; and they borrow unusual interest from the love and +expectation inspired by the present Pontiff. He is a man of noble +and good aspect, who, it is easy to see, has set his heart upon doing +something solid for the benefit of man. But pensively, too, must +one feel how hampered and inadequate are the means at his command +to accomplish these ends. The Italians do not feel it, but deliver +themselves, with all the vivacity of their temperament, to perpetual +hurras, vivas, rockets, and torch-light processions. I often think how +grave and sad must the Pope feel, as he sits alone and hears all this +noise of expectation. + +A week or two ago the Cardinal Secretary published a circular inviting +the departments to measures which would give the people a sort of +representative council. Nothing could seem more limited than this +improvement, but it was a great measure for Rome. At night the Corso +in which, we live was illuminated, and many thousands passed through +it in a torch-bearing procession. I saw them first assembled in the +Piazza del Popolo, forming around its fountain a great circle of fire. +Then, as a river of fire, they streamed slowly through the Corso, on +their way to the Quirinal to thank the Pope, upbearing a banner on +which the edict was printed. The stream, of fire advanced slowly, with +a perpetual surge-like sound of voices; the torches flashed on the +animated Italian faces. I have never seen anything finer. Ascending +the Quirinal they made it a mount of light. Bengal fires were thrown +up, which cast their red and white light on the noble Greek figures of +men and horses that reign over it. The Pope appeared on his balcony; +the crowd shouted three vivas; he extended his arms; the crowd fell on +their knees and received his benediction; he retired, and the torches +were extinguished, and the multitude dispersed in an instant. + +The same week came the natal day of Rome. A great dinner was given at +the Baths of Titus, in the open air. The company was on the grass in +the area; the music at one end; boxes filled with the handsome Roman +women occupied the other sides. It was a new thing here, this popular +dinner, and the Romans greeted it in an intoxication of hope and +pleasure. Sterbini, author of "The Vestal," presided: many others, +like him, long time exiled and restored to their country by the +present Pope, were at the tables. The Colosseum, and triumphal arches +were in sight; an effigy of the Roman wolf with her royal nursling +was erected on high; the guests, with shouts and music, congratulated +themselves on the possession, in Pius IX., of a new and nobler founder +for another state. Among the speeches that of the Marquis d'Azeglio, +a man of literary note in Italy, and son-in-law of Manzoni, contained +this passage (he was sketching the past history of Italy):-- + +"The crown passed to the head of a German monarch; but he wore it not +to the benefit, but the injury, of Christianity,--of the world. The +Emperor Henry was a tyrant who wearied out the patience of God. God +said to Rome, 'I give you the Emperor Henry'; and from these hills +that surround us, Hildebrand, Pope Gregory VII., raised his austere +and potent voice to say to the Emperor, 'God did not give you Italy +that you might destroy her,' and Italy, Germany, Europe, saw her +butcher prostrated at the feet of Gregory in penitence. Italy, +Germany, Europe, had then kindled in the heart the first spark of +liberty." + +The narrative of the dinner passed the censor, and was published: the +Ambassador of Austria read it, and found, with a modesty and candor +truly admirable, that this passage was meant to allude to his Emperor. +He must take his passports, if such home thrusts are to be made. And +so the paper was seized, and the account of the dinner only told from, +mouth to mouth, from those who had already read it. Also the idea of a +dinner for the Pope's fête-day is abandoned, lest something too frank +should again be said; and they tell me here, with a laugh, "I fancy +you have assisted at the first and last popular dinner." Thus we may +see that the liberty of Rome does not yet advance with seven-leagued +boots; and the new Romulus will need to be prepared for deeds at least +as bold as his predecessor, if he is to open a new order of things. + +I cannot well wind up my gossip on this subject better than by +translating a passage from the programme of the _Contemporaneo_, which +represents the hope of Rome at this moment. It is conducted by men of +well-known talent. + +"The _Contemporaneo_ (Contemporary) is a journal of progress, but +tempered, as the good and wise think best, in conformity with the +will of our best of princes, and the wants and expectations of the +public.... + +"Through discussion it desires to prepare minds to receive reforms so +soon and far as they are favored by the law of _opportunity_. + +"Every attempt which is made contrary to this social law must fail. It +is vain to hope fruits from a tree out of season, and equally in vain +to introduce the best measures into a country not prepared to receive +them." + +And so on. I intended to have translated in full the programme, +but time fails, and the law of opportunity does not favor, as my +"opportunity" leaves for London this afternoon. I have given enough to +mark the purport of the whole. It will easily be seen that it was +not from the platform assumed by the _Contemporaneo_ that Lycurgus +legislated, or Socrates taught,--that the Christian religion was +propagated, or the Church, was reformed by Luther. The opportunity +that the martyrs found here in the Colosseum, from whose blood grew +up this great tree of Papacy, was not of the kind waited for by these +moderate progressists. Nevertheless, they may be good schoolmasters +for Italy, and are not to be disdained in these piping times of peace. + +More anon, of old and new, from Tuscany. + + + + +LETTER XV. + +ITALY.--FRUITS AND FLOWERS ON THE ROUTE FROM FLORENCE TO ROME.--THE +PLAIN OF UMBRIA.--ASSISI.--THE SAINTS.--TUITION IN SCHOOLS.--PIUS +IX.--THE ETRURIAN TOMB.--PERUGIA AND ITS STORES OF EARLY +ART.--PORTRAITS OF RAPHAEL.--FLORENCE.--THE GRAND DUKE AND HIS +POLICY.--THE LIBERTY OF THE PRESS AND ITS INFLUENCE.--THE AMERICAN +SCULPTORS.--GREENOUGH AND HIS NEW WORKS.--POWERS.--HIS STATUE OF +CALHOUN.--REVIEW OF HIS ENDEAVORS.--THE FESTIVALS OF ST. JOHN AT +FLORENCE.--BOLOGNA.--FEMALE PROFESSORS IN ITS UNIVERSITY.--MATILDA +TAMBRONI AND OTHERS.--MILAN AND HER FEMALE MATHEMATICIAN.--THE STATE +OF WOMAN IN ITALY.--RAVENNA AND BYRON.--VENICE.--THE ADDA.--MILAN AND +ITS NEIGHBORHOOD, AND MANZONI.--EXCITEMENTS.--NATIONAL AFFAIRS. + + +Milan, August 9, 1847. + +Since leaving Rome, I have not been able to steal a moment from +the rich and varied objects before me to write about them. I will, +therefore, take a brief retrospect of the ground. + +I passed from Florence to Rome by the Perugia route, and saw for the +first time the Italian vineyards. The grapes hung in little clusters. +When I return, they will be full of light and life, but the fields +will not be so enchantingly fresh, nor so enamelled with flowers. + +The profusion of red poppies, which dance on every wall and glitter +throughout the grass, is a great ornament to the landscape. In full +sunlight their vermilion is most beautiful. Well might Ceres gather +_such_ poppies to mingle with her wheat. + +We climbed the hill to Assisi, and my ears thrilled as with many old +remembered melodies, when an old peasant, in sonorous phrase, bade +me look out and see the plain of Umbria. I looked back and saw +the carriage toiling up the steep path, drawn by a pair of those +light-colored oxen Shelley so much admired. I stood near the spot +where Goethe met with a little adventure, which he has described with +even more than his usual delicate humor. Who can ever be alone for a +moment in Italy? Every stone has a voice, every grain of dust seems +instinct with spirit from the Past, every step recalls some line, some +legend of long-neglected lore. + +Assisi was exceedingly charming to me. So still!--all temporal noise +and bustle seem hushed down yet by the presence of the saint. So +clean!--the rains of heaven wash down all impurities into the valley. +I must confess that, elsewhere, I have shared the feelings of Dickens +toward St. Francis and St. Sebastian, as the "Mounseer Tonsons" of +Catholic art. St. Sebastian I have not been so tired of, for the +beauty and youth of the figure make the monotony with which the +subject of his martyrdom is treated somewhat less wearisome. But St. +Francis is so sad, and so ecstatic, and so brown, so entirely the +monk,--and St. Clara so entirely the nun! I have been very sorry for +her that he was able to draw her from the human to the heavenly life; +she seems so sad and so worn out by the effort. But here at Assisi, +one cannot help being penetrated by the spirit that flowed from that +life. Here is the room where his father shut up the boy to punish his +early severity of devotion. Here is the picture which represents him +despoiled of all outward things, even his garments,--devoting himself, +body and soul, to the service of God in the way he believed most +acceptable. Here is the underground chapel, where rest those weary +bones, saluted by the tears of so many weary pilgrims who have come +hither to seek strength from his example. Here are the churches above, +full of the works of earlier art, animated by the contagion of a great +example. It is impossible not to bow the head, and feel how mighty an +influence flows from a single soul, sincere in its service of truth, +in whatever form that truth comes to it. + +A troop of neat, pretty school-girls attended us about, going with +us into the little chapels adorned with pictures which open at every +corner of the streets, smiling on us at a respectful distance. Some of +them were fourteen or fifteen years old. I found reading, writing, and +sewing were all they learned at their school; the first, indeed, they +knew well enough, if they could ever get books to use it on. Tranquil +as Assisi was, on every wall was read _Viva Pio IX.!_ and we found the +guides and workmen in the shop full of a vague hope from him. The old +love which has made so rich this aerial cradle of St. Francis glows +warm as ever in the breasts of men; still, as ever, they long for +hero-worship, and shout aloud at the least appearance of an object. + +The church at the foot of the hill, Santa Maria degli Angeli, seems +tawdry after Assisi. It also is full of records of St. Francis, his +pains and his triumphs. Here, too, on a little chapel, is the famous +picture by Overbeck; too exact a copy, but how different in effect +from the early art we had just seen above! Harmonious but frigid, +grave but dull; childhood is beautiful, but not when continued, or +rather transplanted, into the period where we look for passion, varied +means, and manly force. + +Before reaching Perugia, I visited an Etrurian tomb, which is a little +way off the road; it is said to be one of the finest in Etruria. The +hill-side is full of them, but excavations are expensive, and not +frequent. The effect of this one was beyond my expectations; in it +were several female figures, very dignified and calm, as the dim +lamp-light fell on them by turns. The expression of these figures +shows that the position of woman in these states was noble. Their +eagles' nests cherished well the female eagle who kept watch in the +eyrie. + +Perugia too is on a noble hill. What a daily excitement such a view, +taken at every step! life is worth ten times as much in a city so +situated. Perugia is full, overflowing, with the treasures of early +art. I saw them so rapidly it seems now as if in a trance, yet +certainly with a profit, a manifold gain, such as Mahomet thought he +gained from his five minutes' visits to other spheres. Here are two +portraits of Raphael as a youth: it is touching to see what effect +this angel had upon all that surrounded him from the very first. + +Florence! I was there a month, and in a sense saw Florence: that is to +say, I took an inventory of what is to be seen there, and not without +great intellectual profit. There is too much that is really admirable +in art,--the nature of its growth lies before you too clearly to be +evaded. Of such things more elsewhere. + +I do not like Florence as I do cities more purely Italian. The natural +character is ironed out here, and done up in a French pattern; yet +there is no French vivacity, nor Italian either. The Grand Duke--more +and more agitated by the position in which he finds himself between +the influence of the Pope and that of Austria--keeps imploring and +commanding his people to keep still, and they _are_ still and glum +as death. This is all on the outside; within, Tuscany burns. Private +culture has not been in vain, and there is, in a large circle, mental +preparation for a very different state of things from the present, +with an ardent desire to diffuse the same amid the people at large. +The sovereign has been obliged for the present to give more liberty to +the press, and there is an immediate rush of thought to the new vent; +if it is kept open a few months, the effect on the body of the people +cannot fail to be great. I intended to have translated some passages +from the programme of the _Patria_, one of the papers newly started +at Florence, but time fails. One of the articles in the same number by +Lambruschini, on the duties of the clergy at this juncture, contains +views as liberal as can be found in print anywhere in the world. More +of these things when I return to Rome in the autumn, when I hope to +find a little leisure to think over what I have seen, and, if found +worthy, to put the result in writing. + +I visited the studios of our sculptors; Greenough has in clay a David +which promises high beauty and nobleness, a bass-relief, full of grace +and tender expression; he is also modelling a head of Napoleon, and +justly enthusiastic in the study. His great group I did not see in +such a state as to be secure of my impression. The face of the Pioneer +is very fine, the form of the woman graceful and expressive; but I was +not satisfied with the Indian. I shall see it more as a whole on my +return to Florence. + +As to the Eve and the Greek Slave, I could only join with the rest of +the world in admiration of their beauty and the fine feeling of nature +which they exhibit. The statue of Calhoun is full of power, simple, +and majestic in attitude and expression. In busts Powers seems to +me unrivalled; still, he ought not to spend his best years on an +employment which cannot satisfy his ambition nor develop his powers. +If our country loves herself, she will order from him some great work +before the prime of his genius has been frittered away, and his best +years spent on lesser things. + +I saw at Florence the festivals of St. John, but they are poor affairs +to one who has seen the Neapolitan and Roman people on such occasions. + +Passing from Florence, I came to Bologna,--learned Bologna; indeed an +Italian city, full of expression, of physiognomy, so to speak. A woman +should love Bologna, for there has the spark of intellect in woman +been cherished with reverent care. Not in former ages only, but in +this, Bologna raised a woman who was worthy to the dignities of its +University, and in their Certosa they proudly show the monument to +Matilda Tambroni, late Greek Professor there. Her letters, preserved +by her friends, are said to form a very valuable collection. In their +anatomical hall is the bust of a woman, Professor of Anatomy. In Art +they have had Properzia di Rossi, Elizabetta Sirani, Lavinia Fontana, +and delight to give their works a conspicuous place. + +In other cities the men alone have their _Casino dei Nobili_, where +they give balls, _conversazioni_, and similar entertainments. Here +women have one, and are the soul of society. + +In Milan, also, I see in the Ambrosian Library the bust of a female +mathematician. These things make me feel that, if the state of woman +in Italy is so depressed, yet a good-will toward a better is not +wholly wanting. Still more significant is the reverence to the Madonna +and innumerable female saints, who, if, like St. Teresa, they had +intellect as well as piety, became counsellors no less than comforters +to the spirit of men. + +Ravenna, too, I saw, and its old Christian art, the Pineta, where +Byron loved to ride, and the paltry apartments where, cheered by a new +affection, in which was more of tender friendship than of passion, he +found himself less wretched than at beautiful Venice or stately Genoa. + +All the details of this visit to Ravenna are pretty. I shall write +them out some time. Of Padua, too, the little to be said should be +said in detail. + +Of Venice and its enchanted life I could not speak; it should only +be echoed back in music. There only I began to feel in its fulness +Venetian Art. It can only be seen in its own atmosphere. Never had I +the least idea of what is to be seen at Venice. It seems to me as if +no one ever yet had seen it,--so entirely wanting is any expression +of what I felt myself. Venice! on this subject I shall not write much +till time, place, and mode agree to make it fit. + +Venice, where all is past, is a fit asylum for the dynasties of the +Past. The Duchesse de Berri owns one of the finest palaces on the +Grand Canal; the Duc de Bordeaux rents another; Mademoiselle Taglioni +has bought the famous Casa d'Oro, and it is under repair. Thanks to +the fashion which has made Venice a refuge of this kind, the palaces, +rarely inhabited by the representatives of their ancient names, are +valuable property, and the noble structures will not be suffered +to lapse into the sea, above which they rose so proudly. +The restorations, too, are made with excellent taste and +judgment,--nothing is spoiled. Three of these fine palaces are now +hotels, so that the transient visitor can enjoy from their balconies +all the wondrous shows of the Venetian night and day as much as any +of their former possessors did. I was at the Europa, formerly the +Giustiniani Palace, with better air than those on the Grand Canal, and +a more unobstructed view than Danieli's. + +Madame de Berri gave an entertainment on the birthnight of her son, +and the old Duchesse d'Angoulême came from Vienna to attend it. 'T +was a scene of fairy-land, the palace full of light, so that from the +canal could be seen even the pictures on the walls. Landing from the +gondolas, the elegantly dressed ladies and gentlemen seemed to rise +from the water; we also saw them glide up the great stair, rustling +their plumes, and in the reception-rooms make and receive the +customary grimaces. A fine band stationed on the opposite side of the +canal played the while, and a flotilla of gondolas lingered there to +listen. I, too, amid, the mob, a pleasant position in Venice alone, +thought of the Stuarts, Bourbons, Bonapartes, here in Italy, and +offered up a prayer that other names, when the possessors have power +without the heart to use it for the emancipation of mankind, might he +added to the list, and other princes, more rich in blood than brain, +might come to enjoy a perpetual _villeggiatura_ in Italy. It did not +seem to me a cruel wish. The show of greatness will satisfy every +legitimate desire of such minds. A gentle punishment for the +distributors of _letters de cachet_ and Spielberg dungeons to their +fellow-men. + +Having passed more than a fortnight at Venice, I have come here, +stopping at Vicenza, Verona, Mantua, Lago di Garda, Brescia. +Certainly I have learned more than ever in any previous ten days of my +existence, and have formed an idea what is needed for the study of Art +and its history in these regions. To be sure, I shall never have time +to follow it up, but it is a delight to look up those glorious vistas, +even when there is no hope of entering them. + +A violent shower obliged me to stop on the way. It was late at night, +and I was nearly asleep, when, roused by the sound of bubbling waters, +I started up and asked, "Is that the Adda?" and it was. So deep is +the impression made by a simple natural recital, like that of Renzo's +wanderings in the _Promessi Sposi_, that the memory of his hearing the +Adda in this way occurred to me at once, and the Adda seemed familiar +as if I had been a native of this region. + +As the Scottish lakes seem the domain of Walter Scott, so does Milan +and its neighborhood in the mind of a foreigner belong to Manzoni. I +have seen him since, the gentle lord of this wide domain; his hair is +white, but his eyes still beam as when he first saw the apparitions of +truth, simple tenderness, and piety which he has so admirably recorded +for our benefit. Those around lament that the fastidiousness of his +taste prevents his completing and publishing more, and that thus +a treasury of rare knowledge and refined thought will pass from +us without our reaping the benefit. We, indeed, have no title to +complain, what we do possess from his hand is so excellent. + +At this moment there is great excitement in Italy. A supposed spy +of Austria has been assassinated at Ferrara, and Austrian troops are +marched there. It is pretended that a conspiracy has been discovered +in Rome; the consequent disturbances have been put down. The National +Guard is forming. All things seem to announce that some important +change is inevitable here, but what? Neither Radicals nor Moderates +dare predict with confidence, and I am yet too much a stranger +to speak with assurance of impressions I have received. But it is +impossible not to hope. + + + + +LETTER XVI. + +REVIEW OF PAST AND PRESENT.--THE MERITS OF ITALIAN +LITERATURE.--MANZONI.--ITALIAN DIALECTS.--MILAN, THE MILANESE, AND +THE SIMPLICITY OF THEIR LANGUAGE.--THE NORTH OF ITALY, AND A TOUR TO +SWITZERLAND.--ITALIAN LAKES.--MAGGIORE, COMO, AND LUGANO.--LAGO DI +GARDA.--THE BOATMEN OF THE LAKES AND THE GONDOLIERS.--LADY FRANKLIN, +WIDOW OF THE NAVIGATOR.--RETURN TO AND FESTIVALS AT MILAN.--THE +ARCHBISHOP.--AUSTRIAN RULE AND AUSTRIAN POLICY.--THE FUTURE HOPES OF +ITALY.--A GLANCE AT PAVIA, FLORENCE, PARMA, AND BOLOGNA, AND THE WORKS +OF THE MASTERS. + + +Rome, October, 1847. + +I think my last letter was from Milan, and written after I had seen +Manzoni. This was to me a great pleasure. I have now seen the most +important representatives who survive of the last epoch in thought. +Our age has still its demonstrations to make, its heroes and poets to +crown. + +Although the modern Italian literature is not poor, as many persons at +a distance suppose, but, on the contrary, surprisingly rich in tokens +of talent, if we consider the circumstances under which it struggles +to exist, yet very few writers have or deserve a European or American +reputation. Where a whole country is so kept down, her best minds +cannot take the lead in the progress of the age; they have too much to +suffer, too much to explain. But among the few who, through depth of +spiritual experience and the beauty of form in which it is expressed, +belong not only to Italy, but to the world, Manzoni takes a high +rank. The passive virtues he teaches are no longer what is wanted; the +manners he paints with so delicate a fidelity are beginning to change; +but the spirit of his works,--the tender piety, the sensibility to the +meaning of every humblest form of life, the delicate humor and satire +so free from disdain,--these are immortal. + +Young Italy rejects Manzoni, though not irreverently; Young Italy +prizes his works, but feels that the doctrine of "Pray and wait" is +not for her at this moment,--that she needs a more fervent hope, a +more active faith. She is right. + +It is well known that the traveller, if he knows the Italian language +as written in books, the standard Tuscan, still finds himself a +stranger in many parts of Italy, unable to comprehend the dialects, +with their lively abbreviations and witty slang. That of Venice I had +understood somewhat, and could enter into the drollery and _naïveté_ +of the gondoliers, who, as a class, have an unusual share of +character. But the Milanese I could not at first understand at all. +Their language seemed to me detestably harsh, and their gestures +unmeaning. But after a friend, who possesses that large and ready +sympathy easier found in Italy than anywhere else, had translated for +me verbatim into French some of the poems written in the Milanese, +and then read them aloud in the original, I comprehended the peculiar +inflection of voice and idiom in the people, and was charmed with it, +as one is with the instinctive wit and wisdom of children. + +There is very little to see at Milan, compared with any other Italian +city; and this was very fortunate for me, allowing an interval +of repose in the house, which I cannot take when there is so much +without, tempting me to incessant observation and study. I went +through, the North of Italy with a constantly increasing fervor of +interest. When I had thought of Italy, it was always of the South, of +the Roman States, of Tuscany. But now I became deeply interested in +the history, the institutions, the art of the North. The fragments +of the past mark the progress of its waves so clearly, I learned to +understand, to prize them every day more, to know how to make use of +the books about them. I shall have much to say on these subjects some +day. + +Leaving Milan, I went on the Lago Maggiore, and afterward into +Switzerland. Of this tour I shall not speak here; it was a beautiful +little romance by itself, and infinitely refreshing to be so near +nature in these grand and simple forms, after so much exciting thought +of Art and Man. The day passed in the St. Bernardin, with its lofty +peaks and changing lights upon the distant snows,--its holy, exquisite +valleys and waterfalls, its stories of eagles and chamois, was the +greatest refreshment I ever experienced: it was bracing as a cold bath +after the heat of a crowd amid which one has listened to some most +eloquent oration. + +Returning from Switzerland, I passed a fortnight on the Lake of +Como, and afterward visited Lugano. There is no exaggeration in the +enthusiastic feeling with which artists and poets have viewed these +Italian lakes. Their beauties are peculiar, enchanting, innumerable. +The Titan of Richter, the Wanderjahre of Goethe, the Elena of Taylor, +the pictures of Turner, had not prepared me for the visions of beauty +that daily entranced the eyes and heart in those regions. To our +country Nature has been most bounteous; but we have nothing in the +same kind that can compare with these lakes, as seen under the Italian +heaven. As to those persons who have pretended to discover that the +effects of light and atmosphere were no finer than they found in our +own lake scenery, I can only say that they must be exceedingly obtuse +in organization,--a defect not uncommon among Americans. + +Nature seems to have labored to express her full heart in as many +ways as possible, when she made these lakes, moulded and planted their +shores. Lago Maggiore is grand, resplendent in Its beauty; the view of +the Alps gives a sort of lyric exaltation to the scene. Lago di Garda +is so soft and fair,--so glittering sweet on one side, the ruins of +ancient palaces rise so softly with the beauties of that shore; but +at the other end, amid the Tyrol, it is sublime, calm, concentrated +in its meaning. Como cannot be better described in general than in the +words of Taylor: + + "Softly sublime, profusely fair." + +Lugano is more savage, more free in its beauty. I was on it in a +high gale; there was a little clanger, just enough to exhilarate; its +waters were wild, and clouds blowing across the neighboring peaks. I +like very much the boatmen on these lakes; they have strong and prompt +character. Of simple features, they are more honest and manly than +Italian men are found in the thoroughfares; their talk is not so witty +as that of the Venetian gondoliers, but picturesque, and what the +French call _incisive_. Very touching were some of their histories, as +they told them to me while pausing sometimes on the lake. + +On this lake, also, I met Lady Franklin, wife of the celebrated +navigator. She has been in the United States, and showed equal +penetration and candor in remarks on what she had seen there. She gave +me interesting particulars as to the state of things in Van Diemen's +Land, where she passed seven years when her husband was in authority +there. + +I returned to Milan for the great feast of the Madonna, 8th September, +and those made for the Archbishop's entry, which took place the same +week. These excited as much feeling as the Milanese can have a chance +to display, this Archbishop being much nearer tire public heart than +his predecessor, who was a poor servant of Austria. + +The Austrian rule is always equally hated, and time, instead of +melting away differences, only makes them more glaring. The Austrian +race have no faculties that can ever enable them to understand the +Italian character; their policy, so well contrived to palsy and +repress for a time, cannot kill, and there is always a force at work +underneath which shall yet, and I think now before long, shake off +the incubus. The Italian nobility have always kept the invader at a +distance; they have not been at all seduced or corrupted by the lures +of pleasure or power, but have shown a passive patriotism highly +honorable to them. In the middle class ferments much thought, and +there is a capacity for effort; in the present system it cannot show +itself, but it is there; thought ferments, and will yet produce a +wine that shall set the Lombard veins on fire when the time for action +shall arrive. The lower classes of the population are in a dull state +indeed. The censorship of the press prevents all easy, natural ways of +instructing them; there are no public meetings, no free access to them +by more instructed and aspiring minds. The Austrian policy is to allow +them a degree of material well-being, and though so much wealth is +drained from, the country for the service of the foreigners, jet +enough must remain on these rich plains comfortably to feed and clothe +the inhabitants. Yet the great moral influence of the Pope's action, +though obstructed in their case, does reach and rouse them, and they, +too, felt the thrill of indignation at the occupation of Ferrara. The +base conduct of the police toward the people, when, at Milan, some +youths were resolute to sing tire hymn in honor of Pius IX., when the +feasts for the Archbishop afforded so legitimate an occasion, roused +all the people to unwonted feeling. The nobles protested, and Austria +had not courage to persist as usual. She could not sustain her police, +who rushed upon a defenceless crowd, that had no share in what excited +their displeasure, except by sympathy, and, driving them like sheep, +wounded them _in the backs_. Austria feels that there is now no +sympathy for her in these matters; that it is not the interest of the +world to sustain her. Her policy is, indeed, too thoroughly organized +to change except by revolution; its scope is to serve, first, a +reigning family instead of the people; second, with the people to +seek a physical in preference to an intellectual good; and, third, +to prefer a seeming outward peace to an inward life. This policy may +change its opposition from the tyrannical to the insidious; it can +know no other change. Yet do I meet persons who call themselves +Americans,--miserable, thoughtless Esaus, unworthy their high +birthright,--who think that a mess of pottage can satisfy the wants of +man, and that the Viennese listening to Strauss's waltzes, the Lombard +peasant supping full of his polenta, is _happy enough_. Alas: I have +the more reason to be ashamed of my countrymen that it is not among +the poor, who have so much, toil that there is little time to think, +but those who are rich, who travel,--in body that is, they do not +travel in mind. Absorbed at home by the lust of gain, the love of +show, abroad they see only the equipages, the fine clothes, the +food,--they have no heart for the idea, for the destiny of our own +great nation: how can they feel the spirit that is struggling now in +this and others of Europe? + +But of the hopes of Italy I will write more fully in another letter, +and state what I have seen, what felt, what thought. I went from +Milan, to Pavia, and saw its magnificent Certosa, I passed several +hours in examining its riches, especially the sculptures of its +façade, full of force and spirit. I then went to Florence by Parma +and Bologna. In Parma, though ill, I went to see all the works of the +masters. A wonderful beauty it is that informs them,--not that which +is the chosen food of my soul, yet a noble beauty, and which did its +message to me also. Those works are failing; it will not be useless to +describe them in a book. Beside these pictures, I saw nothing in Parma +and Modena; these states are obliged to hold their breath while their +poor, ignorant sovereigns skulk in corners, hoping to hide from the +coming storm. Of all this more in my next. + + + + +LETTER XVII. + +FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF ROME IN THE SPRING.--THE POPE.--ROME AS +A CAPITAL.--TUSCANY.--THE LIBERTY OF THE PRESS THERE JUST +ESTABLISHED.--THE ENLIGHTENED MINDS AND AVAILABLE INSTRUCTORS OF +TUSCANY.--ITALIAN ESTIMATION OF PIUS IX., AND THE INFLUENCE, +PRESENT AND FUTURE, OF HIS LABORS.--FOREIGN INTRUSION THE CURSE OF +ITALY.--IRRUPTION OF THE AUSTRIANS INTO ITALY, AND ITS EFFECTS.--LOUIS +PHILIPPE'S APOSTASY TURNED TO THE ADVANTAGE OF FREEDOM.--THE GREAT +FÊTE AT FLORENCE IN HONOR OF THE GRANT OF A NATIONAL GUARD.--THE +AMERICAN SCULPTORS, GREENOUGH, CRAWFORD, AND THEIR PARTICIPATION IN +THE FÊTE.--AMERICANS GENERALLY IN ITALY.--HYMNS IN FLORENCE IN HONOR +OF PIUS IX.--HAPPY AUGURY TO BE DRAWN FROM THE WISE DOCILITY OF THE +PEOPLE.--AN EXPRESSION OF SYMPATHY FROM AMERICA TOWARD ITALY EARNESTLY +HOPED FOR. + + +Rome, October 18, 1847. + +In the spring, when I came to Rome, the people were in the +intoxication of joy at the first serious measures of reform taken +by the Pope. I saw with pleasure their childlike joy and trust. With +equal pleasure I saw the Pope, who has not in his expression the signs +of intellectual greatness so much as of nobleness and tenderness of +heart, of large and liberal sympathies. Heart had spoken to heart +between the prince and the people; it was beautiful to see the +immediate good influence exerted by human feeling and generous +designs, on the part of a ruler. He had wished to be a father, and +the Italians, with that readiness of genius that characterizes them, +entered at once into the relation; they, the Roman people, stigmatized +by prejudice as so crafty and ferocious, showed themselves children, +eager to learn, quick to obey, happy to confide. + +Still doubts were always present whether all this joy was not +premature. The task undertaken by the Pope seemed to present +insuperable difficulties. It is never easy to put new wine into old +bottles, and our age is one where all things tend to a great crisis; +not merely to revolution, but to radical reform. From the people +themselves the help must come, and not from princes; in the new state +of things, there will be none but natural princes, great men. From the +aspirations of the general heart, from the teachings of conscience +in individuals, and not from an old ivy-covered church long since +undermined, corroded by time and gnawed by vermin, the help must come. +Rome, to resume her glory, must cease to be an ecclesiastical capital; +must renounce all this gorgeous mummery, whose poetry, whose picture, +charms no one more than myself, but whose meaning is all of the past, +and finds no echo in the future. Although I sympathized warmly with +the warm love of the people, the adulation of leading writers, who +were so willing to take all from the hand of the prince, of the +Church, as a gift and a bounty, instead of implying steadily that it +was the right of the people, was very repulsive to me. The moderate +party, like all who, in a transition state, manage affairs with a +constant eye to prudence, lacks dignity always in its expositions; it +is disagreeable and depressing to read them. + +Passing into Tuscany, I found the liberty of the press just +established, and a superior preparation to make use of it. The _Alba_, +the _Patria_, were begun, and have been continued with equal judgment +and spirit. Their aim is to educate the youth, to educate the +lower people; they see that this is to be done by promoting thought +fearlessly, yet urge temperance in action, while the time is yet so +difficult, and many of its signs dubious. They aim at breaking down +those barriers between the different states of Italy, relics of a +barbarous state of polity, artificially kept up by the craft of her +foes. While anxious not to break down what is really native to the +Italian character,--defences and differences that give individual +genius a chance to grow and the fruits of each region to ripen in +their natural way,--they aim at a harmony of spirit as to measures +of education and for the affairs of business, without which Italy can +never, as one nation, present a front strong enough to resist foreign +robbery, and for want of which so much time and talent are wasted +here, and internal development almost wholly checked. + +There is in Tuscany a large corps of enlightened minds, well prepared +to be the instructors, the elder brothers and guardians, of the lower +people, and whose hearts burn to fulfil that noble office. Before, it +had been almost impossible to them, for the reasons I have named in +speaking of Lombardy; but during these last four months that the way +has been opened by the freedom of the press, and establishment of the +National Guard,--so valuable, first of all, as giving occasion for +public meetings and free interchange of thought between the different +classes,--it is surprising how much light they have been able to +diffuse. + +A Bolognese, to whom I observed, "How can you be so full of trust when +all your hopes depend, not on the recognition of principles and wants +throughout the people, but on the life of one mortal man?" replied: +"Ah! but you don't consider that his life gives us a chance to effect +that recognition. If Pius IX. be spared to us five years, it will +be impossible for his successors ever to take a backward course. Our +nation is of a genius so vivacious,--we are unhappy, but not stupid, +we Italians,--we can learn as much in two months as other nations in +twenty years." This seemed to me no brag when I returned to Tuscany +and saw the great development and diffusion of thought that had taken +place during my brief absence. The Grand Duke, a well-intentioned, +though dull man, had dared, to declare himself "_an_ ITALIAN _prince_" +and the heart of Tuscany had bounded with hope. It is now deeply as +justly felt that _the_ curse of Italy is foreign intrusion; that +if she could dispense with foreign aid, and be free from foreign +aggression, she would find the elements of salvation within herself. +All her efforts tend that way, to re-establish the natural position of +things; may Heaven grant them success! For myself, I believe they will +attain it. I see more reason for hope, as I know more of the people. +Their rash and baffled struggles have taught them prudence; they are +wanted in the civilized world as a peculiar influence; their leaders +are thinking men, their cause is righteous. I believe that Italy will +revive to new life, and probably a greater, one more truly rich and +glorious, than at either epoch of her former greatness. + +During the period of my absence, the Austrians had entered Ferrara. +It is well that they hazarded this step, for it showed them the +difficulties in acting against a prince of the Church who is at the +same time a friend to the people. The position was new, and they were +probably surprised at the result,--surprised at the firmness of the +Pope, surprised at the indignation, tempered by calm resolve, on the +part of the Italians. Louis Philippe's mean apostasy has this +time turned to the advantage of freedom. He renounced the good +understanding with England which it had been one of the leading +features of his policy to maintain, in the hope of aggrandizing and +enriching his family (not France, he did not care for France); he did +not know that he was paving the way for Italian freedom. England now +is led to play a part a little nearer her pretensions as the guardian +of progress than she often comes, and the ghost of La Fayette looks +down, not unappeased, to see the "Constitutional King" decried by the +subjects he has cheated and lulled so craftily. The king of Sardinia +is a worthless man, in whom nobody puts any trust so far as regards +his heart or honor; but the stress of things seems likely to keep him +on the right side. The little sovereigns blustered at first, then ran +away affrighted when they found there was really a spirit risen +at last within the charmed circle,--a spirit likely to defy, to +transcend, the spells of haggard premiers and imbecile monarchs. + +I arrived in Florence, unhappily, too late for the great fête of the +12th of September, in honor of the grant of a National Guard. But +I wept at the mere recital of the events of that day, which, if it +should lead to no important results, must still be hallowed for ever +in the memory of Italy, for the great and beautiful emotions that +flooded the hearts of her children. The National Guard is hailed with +no undue joy by Italians, as the earnest of progress, the first step +toward truly national institutions and a representation of the people. +Gratitude has done its natural work in their hearts; it has made +them better. Some days before the fête were passed in reconciling +all strifes, composing all differences between cities, districts, and +individuals. They wished to drop all petty, all local differences, to +wash away all stains, to bathe and prepare for a new great covenant of +brotherly love, where each should act for the good of all. On that day +they all embraced in sign of this,--strangers, foes, all exchanged the +kiss of faith and love; they exchanged banners, as a token that they +would fight for, would animate, one another. All was done in that +beautiful poetic manner peculiar to this artist people; but it was the +spirit, so great and tender, that melts my heart to think of. It was +the spirit of true religion,--such, my Country! as, welling freshly +from some great hearts in thy early hours, won for thee all of value +that thou canst call thy own, whose groundwork is the assertion, still +sublime though thou hast not been true to it, that all men have equal +rights, and that these are _birth_-rights, derived from God alone. + +I rejoice to say that the Americans took their share on this occasion, +and that Greenough--one of the few Americans who, living in Italy, +takes the pains to know whether it is alive or dead, who penetrates +beyond the cheats of tradesmen and the cunning of a mob corrupted +by centuries of slavery, to know the real mind, the vital blood, of +Italy--took a leading part. I am sorry to say that a large portion of +my countrymen here take the same slothful and prejudiced view as the +English, and, after many years' sojourn, betray entire ignorance of +Italian literature and Italian life, beyond what is attainable in a +month's passage through the thoroughfares. However, they did show, +this time, a becoming spirit, and erected the American eagle where +its cry ought to be heard from afar,--where a nation is striving +for independent existence, and a government representing the people. +Crawford here in Rome has had the just feeling to join the Guard, and +it is a real sacrifice for an artist to spend time on the exercises; +but it well becomes the sculptor of Orpheus,--of him who had such +faith, such music of divine thought, that he made the stones move, +turned the beasts from their accustomed haunts, and shamed hell itself +into sympathy with the grief of love. I do not deny that such a spirit +is wanted here in Italy; it is everywhere, if anything great, anything +permanent, is to be done. In reference to what I have said of many +Americans in Italy, I will only add, that they talk about the corrupt +and degenerate state of Italy as they do about that of our slaves at +home. They come ready trained to that mode of reasoning which affirms +that, because men are degraded by bad institutions, they are not fit +for better. + +As to the English, some of them are full of generous, intelligent +sympathy;--indeed what is more solidly, more wisely good than the +right sort of Englishmen!--but others are like a gentleman I travelled +with the other day, a man of intelligence and refinement too as to the +details of life and outside culture, who observed, that he did not +see what the Italians wanted of a National Guard, unless to wear these +little caps. He was a man who had passed five years in Italy, but +always covered with that non-conductor called by a witty French writer +"the Britannic fluid." + +Very sweet to my ear was the continual hymn in the streets of +Florence, in honor of Pius IX. It is the Roman hymn, and none of the +new ones written in Tuscany have been able to take its place. The +people thank the Grand Duke when he does them good, but they know well +from whose mind that good originates, and all their love is for the +Pope. Time presses, or I would fain describe in detail the troupe of +laborers of the lower class, marching home at night, keeping step as +if they were in the National Guard, filling the air, and cheering the +melancholy moon, by the patriotic hymns sung with the mellow tone and +in the perfect time which belong to Italians. I would describe the +extempore concerts in the streets, the rejoicings at the theatres, +where the addresses of liberal souls to the people, through that best +vehicle, the drama, may now be heard. But I am tired; what I have to +write would fill volumes, and my letter must go. I will only add +some words upon the happy augury I draw from the wise docility of the +people. With what readiness they listened to wise counsel, and the +hopes of the Pope that they would give no advantage to his enemies, at +a time when they were so fevered by the knowledge that conspiracy +was at work in their midst! That was a time of trial. On all these +occasions of popular excitement their conduct is like music, in such +order, and with such union of the melody of feeling with discretion +where to stop; but what is wonderful is that they acted in the same +manner on that difficult occasion. The influence of the Pope here is +without bounds; he can always calm the crowd at once. But in Tuscany, +where they have no such idol, they listened in the same way on a very +trying occasion. The first announcement of the regulation for the +Tuscan National Guard terribly disappointed the people; they felt that +the Grand Duke, after suffering them to demonstrate such trust and joy +on the feast of the 12th, did not really trust, on his side; that he +meant to limit them all he could. They felt baffled, cheated; hence +young men in anger tore down at once the symbols of satisfaction and +respect; but the leading men went among the people, begged them to be +calm, and wait till a deputation had seen the Grand Duke. The people, +listening at once to men who, they were sure, had at heart their best +good, waited; the Grand Duke became convinced, and all ended without +disturbance. If they continue to act thus, their hopes cannot be +baffled. Certainly I, for one, do not think that the present road will +suffice to lead Italy to her goal. But it _is_ an onward, upward road, +and the people learn as they advance. Now they can seek and think +fearless of prisons and bayonets, a healthy circulation of blood +begins, and the heart frees itself from disease. + +I earnestly hope for some expression of sympathy from my country +toward Italy. Take a good chance and do something; you have shown much +good feeling toward the Old World in its physical difficulties,--you +ought to do still more in its spiritual endeavor. This cause is +OURS, above all others; we ought to show that we feel it to be so. At +present there is no likelihood of war, but in case of it I trust the +United States would not fail in some noble token of sympathy toward +this country. The soul of our nation need not wait for its government; +these things are better done by individuals. I believe some in the +United States will pay attention to these words of mine, will feel +that I am not a person to be kindled by a childish, sentimental +enthusiasm, but that I must be sure I have seen something of Italy +before speaking as I do. I have been here only seven months, but my +means of observation have been uncommon. I have been ardently desirous +to judge fairly, and had no prejudices to prevent; beside, I was not +ignorant of the history and literature of Italy, and had some common +ground on which to stand with, its inhabitants, and hear what they +have to say. In many ways Italy is of kin to us; she is the country +of Columbus, of Amerigo, of Cabot. It would please me much to see a +cannon here bought by the contributions of Americans, at whose head +should stand the name of Cabot, to be used by the Guard for salutes +on festive occasions, if they should be so happy as to have no +more serious need. In Tuscany they are casting one to be called the +"Gioberti," from a writer who has given a great impulse to the present +movement. I should like the gift of America to be called the AMERIGO, +the COLUMBO, or the WASHINGTON. Please think of this, some of my +friends, who still care for the eagle, the Fourth of July, and the old +cries of hope and honor. See if there are any objections that I do not +think of, and do something if it is well and brotherly. Ah! America, +with all thy rich boons, thou hast a heavy account to render for the +talent given; see in every way that thou be not found wanting. + + + + +LETTER XVIII. + +REFLECTIONS FOR THE NEW YEAR.--AMERICANS IN EUROPE.--FRANCE, ENGLAND, +POLAND, ITALY, RUSSIA, AUSTRIA,--THEIR POLICY.--EUROPE TOILS AND +STRUGGLES.--ALL THINGS BODE A NEW OUTBREAK.--THE EAGLE OF +AMERICA STOOPS TO EARTH, AND SHARES THE CHARACTER OF THE +VULTURE.--ABOLITION.--THE YOUTH OF THE LAND.--ANTICIPATIONS OF THEIR +USEFULNESS. + + +This letter will reach the United States about the 1st of January; and +it may not be impertinent to offer a few New-Year's reflections. Every +new year, indeed, confirms the old thoughts, but also presents them +under some new aspects. + +The American in Europe, if a thinking mind, can only become more +American. In some respects it is a great pleasure to be here. Although +we have an independent political existence, bur position toward +Europe, as to literature and the arts, is still that of a colony, and +one feels the same joy here that is experienced by the colonist in +returning to the parent home. What was but picture to us becomes +reality; remote allusions and derivations trouble no more: we see the +pattern of the stuff, and understand the whole tapestry. There is +a gradual clearing up on many points, and many baseless notions and +crude fancies are dropped. Even the post-haste passage of the business +American through the great cities, escorted by cheating couriers +and ignorant _valets de place_, unable to hold intercourse with the +natives of the country, and passing all his leisure hours with his +countrymen, who know no more than himself, clears his mind of some +mistakes,--lifts some mists from his horizon. + +There are three species. First, the servile American,--a being utterly +shallow, thoughtless, worthless. He comes abroad to spend his money +and indulge his tastes. His object in Europe is to have fashionable +clothes, good foreign cookery, to know some titled persons, and +furnish himself with coffee-house gossip, by retailing which +among those less travelled and as uninformed as himself he can win +importance at home. I look with unspeakable contempt on this class,--a +class which has all the thoughtlessness and partiality of the +exclusive classes in Europe, without any of their refinement, or the +chivalric feeling which still sparkles among them here and there. +However, though these willing serfs in a free age do some little hurt, +and cause some annoyance at present, they cannot continue long; our +country is fated to a grand, independent existence, and, as its laws +develop, these parasites of a bygone period must wither and drop away. + +Then there is the conceited American, instinctively bristling and +proud of--he knows not what. He does not see, not he, that the history +of Humanity for many centuries is likely to have produced results it +requires some training, some devotion, to appreciate and profit by. +With his great clumsy hands, only fitted to work on a steam-engine, +he seizes the old Cremona violin, makes it shriek with anguish, in his +grasp, and then declares he thought it was all humbug before he came, +and now he knows it; that there is not really any music in these old +things; that the frogs in one of our swamps make much finer, for they +are young and alive. To him the etiquettes of courts and camps, the +ritual of the Church, seem simply silly,--and no wonder, profoundly +ignorant as he is of their origin and meaning. Just so the legends +which are the subjects of pictures, the profound myths which are +represented in the antique marbles, amaze and revolt him; as, indeed, +such things need to be judged of by another standard than that of the +Connecticut Blue-Laws. He criticises severely pictures, feeling quite +sure that his natural senses are better means of judgment than the +rules of connoisseurs,--not feeling that, to see such objects, mental +vision as well as fleshly eyes are needed and that something is aimed +at in Art beyond the imitation of the commonest forms of Nature. This +is Jonathan in the sprawling state, the booby truant, not yet aspiring +enough to be a good school-boy. Yet in his folly there is meaning; +add thought and culture to his independence, and he will be a man of +might: he is not a creature without hope, like the thick-skinned dandy +of the class first specified. + +The artistes form a class by themselves. Yet among them, though +seeking special aims by special means, may also be found the +lineaments of these two classes, as well as of the third, of which I +am now to speak. + +This is that of the thinking American,--a man who, recognizing the +immense advantage of being born to a new world and on a virgin soil, +yet does not wish one seed from the past to be lost. He is anxious +to gather and carry back with him every plant that will bear a new +climate and new culture. Some will dwindle; others will attain a bloom +and stature unknown before. He wishes to gather them clean, free from +noxious insects, and to give them a fair trial in his new world. And +that he may know the conditions under which he may best place them in +that new world, he does not neglect to study their history in this. + +The history of our planet in some moments seems so painfully mean +and little,--such terrible bafflings and failures to compensate some +brilliant successes,--such a crushing of the mass of men beneath, the +feet of a few, and these, too, often the least worthy,--such a small +drop of honey to each cup of gall, and, in many cases, so mingled that +it is never one moment in life purely tasted,--above all, so little +achieved for Humanity as a whole, such tides of war and pestilence +intervening to blot out the traces of each triumph,--that no wonder +if the strongest soul sometimes pauses aghast; no wonder if the many +indolently console themselves with gross joys and frivolous prizes. +Yes! those men _are_ worthy of admiration who can carry this cross +faithfully through fifty years; it is a great while for all the +agonies that beset a lover of good, a lover of men; it makes a soul +worthy of a speedier ascent, a more productive ministry in the next +sphere. Blessed are they who ever keep that portion of pure, generous +love with which they began life! How blessed those who have deepened +the fountains, and have enough to spare for the thirst of others! Some +such there are; and, feeling that, with all the excuses for failure, +still only the sight of those who triumph, gives a meaning to life or +makes its pangs endurable, we must arise and follow. + +Eighteen hundred years of this Christian culture in these European +kingdoms, a great theme never lost sight of, a mighty idea, an +adorable history to which the hearts of men invariably cling, yet are +genuine results rare as grains of gold in the river's sandy bed! Where +is the genuine democracy to which the rights of all men are holy? +where the child-like wisdom learning all through life more and more +of the will of God? where the aversion to falsehood, in all its myriad +disguises of cant, vanity, covetousness, so clear to be read in all +the history of Jesus of Nazareth? Modern Europe is the sequel to that +history, and see this hollow England, with its monstrous wealth and +cruel poverty, its conventional life, and low, practical aims! see +this poor France, so full of talent, so adroit, yet so shallow and +glossy still, which could not escape from a false position with all +its baptism of blood! see that lost Poland, and this Italy bound down +by treacherous hands in all the force of genius! see Russia with its +brutal Czar and innumerable slaves! see Austria and its royalty that +represents nothing, and its people, who, as people, are and have +nothing! If we consider the amount of truth that has really been +spoken out in the world, and the love that has beat in private +hearts,--how genius has decked each spring-time with such splendid +flowers, conveying each one enough of instruction in its life of +harmonious energy, and how continually, unquenchably, the spark of +faith has striven to burst into flame and light up the universe,--the +public failure seems amazing, seems monstrous. + +Still Europe toils and struggles with her idea, and, at this moment, +all things bode and declare a new outbreak of the fire, to destroy old +palaces of crime! May it fertilize also many vineyards! Here at this +moment a successor of St. Peter, after the lapse of near two thousand +years, is called "Utopian" by a part of this Europe, because he +strives to get some food to the mouths of the _leaner_ of his flock. +A wonderful state of things, and which leaves as the best argument +against despair, that men do not, _cannot_ despair amid such dark +experiences. And thou, my Country! wilt thou not be more true? does no +greater success await thee? All things have so conspired to teach, to +aid! A new world, a new chance, with oceans to wall in the new thought +against interference from the old!--treasures of all kinds, gold, +silver, corn, marble, to provide for every physical need! A noble, +constant, starlike soul, an Italian, led the way to thy shores, and, +in the first days, the strong, the pure, those too brave, too sincere, +for the life of the Old World, hastened to people them. A generous +struggle then shook off what was foreign, and gave the nation a +glorious start for a worthy goal. Men rocked the cradle of its hopes, +great, firm, disinterested, men, who saw, who wrote, as the basis +of all that was to be done, a statement of the rights, the _inborn_ +rights of men, which, if fully interpreted and acted upon, leaves +nothing to be desired. + +Yet, O Eagle! whose early flight showed this clear sight of the sun, +how often dost thou near the ground, how show the vulture in these +later days! Thou wert to be the advance-guard of humanity, the herald +of all progress; how often hast thou betrayed this high commission! +Fain would the tongue in clear, triumphant accents draw example from +thy story, to encourage the hearts of those who almost faint and die +beneath the old oppressions. But we must stammer and blush when we +speak of many things. I take pride here, that I can really say the +liberty of the press works well, and that checks and balances are +found naturally which suffice to its government. I can say that the +minds of our people are alert, and that talent has a free chance to +rise. This is much. But dare I further say that political ambition is +not as darkly sullied as in other countries? Dare I say that men of +most influence in political life are those who represent most virtue, +or even intellectual power? Is it easy to find names in that career of +which I can speak with enthusiasm? Must I not confess to a boundless +lust of gain in my country? Must I not concede the weakest vanity, +which bristles and blusters at each foolish taunt of the foreign +press, and admit that the men who make these undignified rejoinders +seek and find popularity so? Can I help admitting that there is as yet +no antidote cordially adopted, which will defend even that great, rich +country against the evils that have grown out of the commercial system +in the Old World? Can I say our social laws are generally better, or +show a nobler insight into the wants of man and woman? I do, indeed, +say what I believe, that voluntary association for improvement in +these particulars will be the grand means for my nation to grow, and +give a nobler harmony to the coming age. But it is only of a small +minority that I can say they as yet seriously take to heart these +things; that they earnestly meditate on what is wanted for their +country, for mankind,--for our cause is indeed, the cause of all +mankind at present. Could we succeed, really succeed, combine a deep +religious love with practical development, the achievements of genius +with the happiness of the multitude, we might believe man had now +reached a commanding point in his ascent, and would stumble and faint +no more. Then there is this horrible cancer of slavery, and the wicked +war that has grown out of it. How dare I speak of these things here? +I listen to the same arguments against the emancipation of Italy, that +are used against the emancipation of our blacks; the same arguments +in favor of the spoliation of Poland, as for the conquest of Mexico. +I find the cause of tyranny and wrong everywhere the same,--and lo! my +country! the darkest offender, because with the least excuse; forsworn +to the high calling with which she was called; no champion of the +rights of men, but a robber and a jailer; the scourge hid behind her +banner; her eyes fixed, not on the stars, but on the possessions of +other men. + +How it pleases me here to think of the Abolitionists! I could never +endure to be with them at home, they were so tedious, often so narrow, +always so rabid and exaggerated in their tone. But, after all, they +had a high motive, something eternal in their desire and life; and if +it was not the only thing worth thinking of, it was really something +worth living and dying for, to free a great nation from such a +terrible blot, such a threatening plague. God strengthen them, and +make them wise to achieve their purpose! + +I please myself, too, with remembering some ardent souls among the +American youth, who I trust will yet expand, and help to give soul to +the huge, over-fed, too hastily grown-up body. May they be constant! +"Were man but constant, he were perfect," it has been said; and it is +true that he who could be constant to those moments in which he has +been truly human, not brutal, not mechanical, is on the sure path to +his perfection, and to effectual service of the universe. + +It is to the youth that hope addresses itself; to those who yet burn +with aspiration, who are not hardened in their sins. But I dare not +expect too much of them. I am not very old; yet of those who, in +life's morning, I saw touched by the light of a high hope, many have +seceded. Some have become voluptuaries; some, mere family men, who +think it quite life enough to win bread for half a dozen people, +and treat them, decently; others are lost through indolence and +vacillation. Yet some remain constant; + + "I have witnessed many a shipwreck, + Yet still beat noble hearts." + +I have found many among the youth of England, of France, of Italy, +also, full of high desire; but will they have courage and purity to +fight the battle through in the sacred, the immortal band? Of some +of them I believe it, and await the proof. If a few succeed amid the +trial, we have not lived and loved in vain. + +To these, the heart and hope of my country, a happy new year! I do +not know what I have written; I have merely yielded to my feelings +in thinking of America; but something of true love must be in these +lines. Receive them kindly, my friends; it is, of itself, some merit +for printed words to be sincere. + + + + +LETTER XIX. + +THE CLIMATE OF ITALY.--REVIEW OF FIRST IMPRESSIONS.--ROME IN ITS +VARIOUS ASPECTS.--THE POPE.--CEMETERY OF SANTO SPIRITO.--CEREMONIES AT +THE CHAPELS.--THE WOMEN OF ITALY.--FESTIVAL OF ST. CARLO BORROMEO.--AN +INCIDENT IN THE CHAPEL.--ENGLISH RESIDENTS IN THE SEVEN-HILLED +CITY.--MRS. TROLLOPE A RESIDENT OF FLORENCE.--THE POPE AS HE +COMMUNICATES WITH HIS PEOPLE.--THE POSITION OF AFFAIRS.--LESSER +POTENTATES.--THE INAUGURATION OF THE NEW COUNCIL.--THE CEREMONIES +THERETO APPERTAINING.--THE AMERICAN FLAG IN ROME.--A BALL.--A FEAST, +AND ITS REVERSE.--THE FUNERAL OF A COUNCILLOR. + + +Rome, December 17, 1847. + +This 17th day of December I rise to see the floods of sunlight +blessing us, as they have almost every day since I returned to +Rome,--two months and more,--with scarce three or four days of rainy +weather. I still see the fresh roses and grapes each morning on my +table, though both these I expect to give up at Christmas. + +This autumn is _something like_, as my countrymen say at home. Like +_what_, they do not say; so I always supposed they meant like their +ideal standard. Certainly this weather corresponds with mine; and +I begin to believe the climate of Italy is really what it has been +represented. Shivering here last spring in an air no better than the +cruel cast wind of Puritan Boston, I thought all the praises lavished +on + + "Italia, O Italia!" + +would turn out to be figments of the brain; and that even Byron, +usually accurate beyond the conception of plodding pedants, had +deceived us when he says, you have the happiness in Italy to + + "See the sun set, sure he'll rise to-morrow," + +and not, according to a view which exercises a withering influence on +the enthusiasm of youth in my native land, be forced to regard each +pleasant day as a _weather-breeder_. + +How delightful, too, is the contrast between this time and the spring +in another respect! Then I was here, like travellers in general, +expecting to be driven away in a short time. Like others, I went +through the painful process of sight-seeing, so unnatural everywhere, +so counter to the healthful methods and true life of the mind. You +rise in the morning knowing there are a great number of objects worth +knowing, which you may never have the chance to see again. You go +every day, in all moods, under all circumstances; feeling, probably, +in seeing them, the inadequacy of your preparation for understanding +or duly receiving them. This consciousness would be most valuable if +one had time to think and study, being the natural way in which the +mind is lured to cure its defects; but you have no time; you are +always wearied, body and mind, confused, dissipated, sad. The objects +are of commanding beauty or full of suggestion, but there is no quiet +to let that beauty breathe its life into the soul; no time to follow +up these suggestions, and plant for the proper harvest. Many persons +run about Rome for nine days, and then go away; they might as well +expect to appreciate the Venus by throwing a stone at it, as hope +really to see Rome in this time. I stayed in Rome nine weeks, and came +away unhappy as he who, having been taken in the visions of the night +through some wondrous realm, wakes unable to recall anything but the +hues and outlines of the pageant; the real knowledge, the recreative +power induced by familiar love, the assimilation of its soul and +substance,--all the true value of such a revelation,--is wanting; and +he remains a poor Tantalus, hungrier than before he had tasted this +spiritual food. + +No; Rome is not a nine-days wonder; and those who try to make it such +lose the ideal Rome (if they ever had it), without gaining any notion +of the real. To those who travel, as they do everything else, only +because others do, I do not speak; they are nothing. Nobody counts in +the estimate of the human race who has not a character. + +For one, I now really live in Rome, and I begin to see and feel the +real Rome. She reveals herself day by day; she tells me some of her +life. Now I never go out to see a sight, but I walk every day; and +here I cannot miss of some object of consummate interest to end a +walk. In the evenings, which are long now, I am at leisure to follow +up the inquiries suggested by the day. + +As one becomes familiar, Ancient and Modern Rome, at first so +painfully and discordantly jumbled together, are drawn apart to the +mental vision. One sees where objects and limits anciently wore; the +superstructures vanish, and you recognize the local habitation of so +many thoughts. When this begins to happen, one feels first truly +at ease in Rome. Then the old kings, the consuls and tribunes, the +emperors, drunk with blood and gold, the warriors of eagle sight and +remorseless beak, return for us, and the togated procession finds +room to sweep across the scene; the seven hills tower, the innumerable +temples glitter, and the Via Sacra swarms with triumphal life once +more. + +Ah! how joyful to see once more _this_ Rome, instead of the pitiful, +peddling, Anglicized Rome, first viewed in unutterable dismay from the +_coupé_ of the vettura,--a Rome all full of taverns, lodging-houses, +cheating chambermaids, vilest _valets de place_, and fleas! A Niobe +of nations indeed! Ah! why, secretly the heart blasphemed, did the sun +omit to kill her too, when all the glorious race which wore her crown +fell beneath his ray? Thank Heaven, it is possible to wash away all +this dirt, and come at the marble yet. + +Their the later Papal Rome: it requires much acquaintance, much +thought, much reference to books, for the child of Protestant +Republican America to see where belong the legends illustrated by rite +and picture, the sense of all the rich tapestry, where it has a united +and poetic meaning, where it is broken by some accident of history. +For all these things--a senseless mass of juggleries to the uninformed +eye--are really growths of the human spirit struggling to develop its +life, and full of instruction for those who learn to understand them. + +Then Modern Rome,--still ecclesiastical, still darkened and damp in +the shadow of the Vatican, but where bright hopes gleam now amid the +ashes! Never was a people who have had more to corrupt them,--bloody +tyranny, and incubus of priestcraft, the invasions, first of +Goths, then of trampling emperors and kings, then of sight-seeing +foreigners,--everything to turn them from a sincere, hopeful, fruitful +life; and they are much corrupted, but still a fine race. I cannot +look merely with a pictorial eye on the lounge of the Roman dandy, the +bold, Juno gait of the Roman Contadina. I love them,--dandies and all? +I believe the natural expression of these fine forms will animate them +yet. Certainly there never was a people that showed a better heart +than they do in this day of love, of purely moral influence. It makes +me very happy to be for once in a place ruled by a father's love, and +where the pervasive glow of one good, generous heart is felt in every +pulse of every day. + +I have seen the Pope several times since my return, and it is a real +pleasure to see him in the thoroughfares, where his passage is always +greeted as that of _the_ living soul. + +The first week of November there is much praying for the dead here in +the chapels of the cemeteries. I went to Santo Spirito. This cemetery +stands high, and all the way up the slope was lined with beggars +petitioning for alms, in every attitude find tone, (I mean tone that +belongs to the professional beggar's gamut, for that is peculiar,) +and under every pretext imaginable, from the quite legless elderly +gentleman to the ragged ruffian with the roguish twinkle in his eye, +who has merely a slight stiffness in one arm and one leg. I could +not help laughing, it was such a show,--greatly to the alarm of my +attendant, who declared they would kill me, if ever they caught me +alone; but I was not afraid. I am sure the endless falsehood in which +such creatures live must make them very cowardly. We entered the +cemetery; it was a sweet, tranquil place, lined with cypresses, and +soft sunshine lying on the stone coverings where repose the houses of +clay in which once dwelt joyous Roman hearts,--for the hearts here do +take pleasure in life. There were several chapels; in one boys were +chanting, in others people on their knees silently praying for the +dead. In another was one of the groups in wax exhibited in such +chapels through the first week of November. It represented St. Carlo +Borromeo as a beautiful young man in a long scarlet robe, pure and +brilliant as was the blood of the martyrs, relieving the poor who were +grouped around him,--old people and children, the halt, the maimed, +the blind; he had called them all into the feast of love. The chapel +was lighted and draped so as to give very good effect to this group; +the spectators were mainly children and young girls, listening with +ardent eyes, while their parents or the nuns explained to them the +group, or told some story of the saint. It was a pretty scene, only +marred by the presence of a villanous-looking man, who ever and anon +shook the poor's box. I cannot understand the bad taste of choosing +him, when there were _frati_ and priests enough of expression less +unprepossessing. + +I next entered a court-yard, where the stations, or different periods +in the Passion of Jesus, are painted on the wall. Kneeling before +these were many persons: here a Franciscan, in his brown robe and +cord; there a pregnant woman, uttering, doubtless, some tender +aspiration for the welfare of the yet unborn dear one; there some +boys, with gay yet reverent air; while all the while these fresh young +voices were heard chanting. It was a beautiful moment, and despite the +wax saint, the ill-favored friar, the professional mendicants, and +my own removal, wide as pole from pole, from the positron of mind +indicated by these forms, their spirit touched me, and. I prayed too; +prayed for the distant, every way distant,--for those who seem to have +forgotten me, and with me all we had in common; prayed for the dead in +spirit, if not in body; prayed for myself, that I might never walk the +earth + + "The tomb of my dead self"; + +and prayed in general for all unspoiled and loving hearts,--no less +for all who suffer and find yet no helper. + +Going out, I took my road by the cross which marks the brow of the +hill. Up the ascent still wound the crowd of devotees, and still the +beggars beset them. Amid that crowd, how many lovely, warm-hearted +women! The women of Italy are intellectually in a low place, +_but_--they are unaffected; you can see what Heaven meant them to be, +and I believe they will be yet the mothers of a great and generous +race. Before me lay Rome,--how exquisitely tranquil in the sunset! +Never was an aspect that for serene grandeur could vie with that of +Rome at sunset. + +Next day was the feast of the Milanese saint, whose life has been made +known to some Americans by Manzoni, when speaking in his popular novel +of the cousin of St. Carlo, Federigo Borromeo. The Pope came in state +to the church of St. Carlo, in the Corso. The show was magnificent; +the church is not very large, and was almost filled with Papal court +and guards, in all their splendid harmonies of color. An Italian child +was next me, a little girl of four or five years, whom her mother +had brought to see the Pope. As in the intervals of gazing the child +smiled and made signs to me, I nodded in return, and asked her name. +"Virginia," said she; "and how is the Signora named?" "Margherita," +"My name," she rejoined, "is Virginia Gentili." I laughed, but did not +follow up the cunning, graceful lead,--still I chatted and played with +her now and then. At last, she said to her mother, "La Signora e molto +cara," ("The Signora is very dear," or, to use the English equivalent, +_a darling_,) "show her my two sisters." So the mother, herself a +fine-looking woman, introduced two handsome young ladies, and with the +family I was in a moment pleasantly intimate for the hour. + +Before me sat three young English ladies, the pretty daughters of +a noble Earl; their manners were a strange contrast to this Italian +graciousness, best expressed by their constant use of the pronoun +_that_. "_See that man!_" (i.e. some high dignitary of the Church,) +"Look at that dress!" dropped constantly from their lips. Ah! without +being a Catholic, one may well wish Rome was not dependent on English +sight-seers, who violate her ceremonies with acts that bespeak their +thoughts full of wooden shoes and warming-pans. Can anything be +more sadly expressive of times out of joint than the fact that Mrs. +Trollope is a resident in Italy? Yes! she is fixed permanently in +Florence, as I am told, pensioned at the rate of two thousand pounds +a year to trail her slime over the fruit of Italy. She is here in Rome +this winter, and, after having violated the virgin beauty of America, +will have for many a year her chance to sully the imperial matron of +the civilized world. What must the English public be, if it wishes to +pay two thousand pounds a year to get Italy Trollopified? + +But to turn to a pleasanter subject. When the Pope entered, borne in +his chair of state amid the pomp of his tiara and his white and gold +robes, he looked to me thin, or, as the Italians murmur anxiously +at times, _consumato_, or wasted. But during the ceremony he seemed +absorbed in his devotions, and at the end I think he had become +exhilarated by thinking of St. Carlo, who was such another over the +human race as himself, and his face wore a bright glow of faith. As he +blessed the people, he raised his eyes to Heaven, with a gesture quite +natural: it was the spontaneous act of a soul which felt that moment +more than usual its relation with things above it, and sure of support +from a higher Power. I saw him to still greater advantage a little +while after, when, riding on the Campagna with a young gentleman who +had been ill, we met the Pope on foot, taking exercise. He often quits +his carriage at the gates and walks in this way. He walked rapidly, +robed in a simple white drapery, two young priests in spotless purple +on either side; they gave silver to the poor who knelt beside the way, +while the beloved Father gave his benediction. My companion knelt; +he is not a Catholic, but he felt that "this blessing would do him +no harm." The Pope saw at once he was ill, and gave him a mark of +interest, with that expression of melting love, the true, the only +charity, which assures all who look on him that, were his power equal +to his will, no living thing would ever suffer more. This expression +the artists try in vain to catch; all busts and engravings of him are +caricatures; it is a magnetic sweetness, a lambent light that plays +over his features, and of which only great genius or a soul tender as +his own would form an adequate image. + +The Italians have one term of praise peculiarly characteristic of +their highly endowed nature. They say of such and such, _Ha una +phisonomia simpatica_,--"He has a sympathetic expression"; and this is +praise enough. This may be pre-eminently said of that of Pius IX. _He_ +looks, indeed, as if nothing human could be foreign to him. Such alone +are the genuine kings of men. + +He has shown undoubted wisdom, clear-sightedness, bravery, and +firmness; but it is, above all, his generous human heart that gives +him his power over this people. His is a face to shame the selfish, +redeem the sceptic, alarm the wicked, and cheer to new effort the +weary and heavy-laden. What form the issues of his life may take is +yet uncertain; in my belief, they are such as he does not think of; +but they cannot fail to be for good. For my part, I shall always +rejoice to have been here in his time. The working of his influence +confirms my theories, and it is a positive treasure to me to have seen +him. I have never been presented, not wishing to approach, so real a +presence in the path of mere etiquette; I am quite content to see +him standing amid the crowd, while the band plays the music he has +inspired. + + "Sons of Rome, awake!" + +Yes, awake, and let no police-officer put you again to sleep in +prison, as has happened to those who were called by the Marseillaise. + +Affairs look well. The king of Sardinia has at last, though with +evident distrust and heartlessness, entered the upward path in a +way that makes it difficult to return. The Duke of Modena, the +most senseless of all these ancient gentlemen, after publishing a +declaration, which made him more ridiculous than would the bitterest +pasquinade penned by another, that he would fight to the death against +reform, finds himself obliged to lend an ear as to the league for +the customs; and if he joins that, other measures follow of course. +Austria trembles; and, in fine, cannot sustain the point of Ferrara. +The king of Naples, after having shed much blood, for which he has a +terrible account to render, (ah! how many sad, fair romances are to +tell already about the Calabrian difficulties!) still finds the spirit +fomenting in his people; he cannot put it down. The dragon's teeth are +sown, and the Lazzaroni may be men yet! The Swiss affairs have taken +the right direction, and good will ensue, if other powers act with +decent honesty, and think of healing the wounds of Switzerland, rather +than merely of tying her down, so that she cannot annoy them. + +In Rome, here, the new Council is inaugurated, and elections have +given tolerable satisfaction. Already, struggles ended in other places +begin to be renewed here, as to gas-lights, introduction of machinery, +&c. We shall see at the end of the winter how they have gone on. At +any rate, the wants of the people are in some measure represented; and +already the conduct of those who have taken to themselves so large a +portion of the loaves and fishes on the very platform supposed to be +selected by Jesus for a general feeding of his sheep, begins to be +the subject of spoken as well as whispered animadversion. Torlonia is +assailed in his bank, Campana amid his urns or his Monte di Picti; but +these assaults have yet to be verified. + +On the day when the Council was to be inaugurated, great preparations +were made by representatives of other parts of Italy, and also of +foreign nations friendly to the cause of progress. It was considered +to represent the same fact as the feast of the 12th of September in +Tuscany,--the dawn of an epoch when the people shall find their wants +and aspirations represented and guarded. The Americans showed a warm +interest; the gentlemen subscribing to buy a flag, the United States +having none before in Rome, and the ladies meeting to make it. The +same distinguished individual, indeed, who at Florence made a speech +to prevent "the American eagle being taken out on so trifling an +occasion," with similar perspicuity and superiority of view, on the +present occasion, was anxious to prevent "rash demonstrations, which +might embroil the United States with Austria"; but the rash youth +here present rushed on, ignorant how to value his Nestorian +prudence,--fancying, hot-headed simpletons, that the cause of Freedom +was the cause of America, and her eagle at home wherever the sun shed +a warmer ray, and there was reason to hope a happier life for man. So +they hurried to buy their silk, red, white, and blue, and inquired of +recent arrivals how many States there are this winter in the Union, in +order to making the proper number of stars. A magnificent spread-eagle +was procured, not without difficulty, as this, once the eyrie of the +king of birds, is now a rookery rather, full of black, ominous fowl, +ready to eat the harvest sown by industrious hands. This eagle, having +previously spread its wings over a piece of furniture where its back +was sustained by the wall, was somewhat deficient in a part of its +anatomy. But we flattered ourselves he should be held so high that no +Roman eye, if disposed, could carp and criticise. When lo! just as the +banner was ready to unfold its young glories in the home of Horace, +Virgil, and Tacitus, an ordinance appeared prohibiting the display of +any but the Roman ensign. + +This ordinance was, it is said, caused by representations made to the +Pope that the Oscurantists, ever on the watch to do mischief, meant to +make this the occasion of disturbance,--as it is their policy to seek +to create irritation here; that the Neapolitan and Lombardo-Venetian +flags would appear draped with black, and thus the signal be given for +tumult. I cannot help thinking these fears were groundless; that the +people, on their guard, would have indignantly crushed at once any +of these malignant efforts. However that may be, no one can ever be +really displeased with any measure of the Pope, knowing his excellent +intentions. But the limitation of the festival deprived it of the +noble character of the brotherhood of nations and an ideal aim, worn +by that of Tuscany. The Romans, drilled and disappointed, greeted +their Councillors with but little enthusiasm. The procession, too, was +but a poor affair for Rome. Twenty-four carriages had been lent by +the princes and nobles, at the request of the city, to convey the +Councillors. I found something symbolical in this. Thus will they be +obliged to furnish from their old grandeur the vehicles of the new +ideas. Each deputy was followed by his target and banner. When +the deputy for Ferrara passed, many garlands were thrown upon his +carriage. There has been deep respect and sympathy felt for the +citizens of Ferrara, they have conducted so well under their late +trying circumstances. They contained themselves, knowing that the +least indiscretion would give a handle for aggression to the enemies +of the good cause. But the daily occasions of irritation must have +been innumerable, and they have shown much power of wise and dignified +self-government. + +After the procession passed, I attempted to go on foot from the Café +Novo, in the Corso, to St. Peter's, to see the decorations of the +streets, but it was impossible. In that dense, but most vivacious, +various, and good-humored crowd, with all best will on their part +to aid the foreigner, it was impossible to advance. So I saw +only themselves; but that was a great pleasure. There is so much +individuality of character here, that it is a great entertainment to +be in a crowd. + +In the evening, there was a ball given at the Argentina. Lord Minto +was there; Prince Corsini, now Senator; the Torlonias, in uniform of +the Civic Guard,--Princess Torlonia in a sash of their colors, given +her by the Civic Guard, which she waved often in answer to their +greetings. But the beautiful show of the evening was the Trasteverini +dancing the Saltarello in their most brilliant costume. I saw them +thus to much greater advantage than ever before. Several were nobly +handsome, and danced admirably; it was really like Pinelli. + +The Saltarello enchants me; in this is really the Italian wine, +the Italian sun. The first time, I saw it danced one night very +unexpectedly near the Colosseum; it carried me quite beyond myself, +so that I most unamiably insisted on staying, while the friends in my +company, not heated by enthusiasm like me, were shivering and perhaps +catching cold from the damp night-air. I fear they remember it against +me; nevertheless I cherish the memory of the moments wickedly stolen +at their expense, for it is only the first time seeing such a thing +that you enjoy a peculiar delight. But since, I love to see and study +it much. + +The Pope, in receiving the Councillors, made a speech,--such as the +king of Prussia intrenched himself in on a similar occasion, only much +better and shorter,--implying that he meant only to improve, not to +_reform_, and should keep things _in statu quo_, safe locked with +the keys of St. Peter. This little speech was made, no doubt, more to +reassure czars, emperors, and kings, than from the promptings of the +spirit. But the fact of its necessity, as well as the inferior freedom +and spirit of the Roman journals to those of Tuscany, seems to say +that the pontifical government, though from the accident of this one +man's accession it has taken the initiative to better times, yet +may not, after a while, from its very nature, be able to keep in the +vanguard. + +A sad contrast to the feast of this day was presented by the same +persons, a fortnight after, following the body of Silvani, one of +the Councillors, who died suddenly. The Councillors, the different +societies of Rome, a corps _frati_ bearing tapers, the Civic Guard +with drums slowly beating, the same state carriages with their +liveried attendants all slowly, sadly moving, with torches and +banners, drooped along the Corso in the dark night. A single horseman, +with his long white plume and torch reversed, governed the procession; +it was the Prince Aldobrandini. The whole had that grand effect so +easily given by this artist people, who seize instantly the natural +poetry of an occasion, and with unanimous tact hasten to represent it. +More and much anon. + + + + +LETTER XX. + +ROME.--BAD WEATHER.--ST. CECILIA.--THE PEOPLE'S PROCESSIONS.--TAKING +THE VEIL.--FESTIVITIES.--POLITICAL AGITATION.--NOBLES.--MARIA +LOUISA.--GUICCIOLI.--PARMA.--ADDRESS TO THE NEW SOVEREIGN.--THE NEW +YORK MEETING FOR ITALY.--ADDRESS TO THE POPE. + + +Rome, December 30, 1847. + +I could not, in my last, content myself with praising the glorious +weather. I wrote in the last day of it. Since, we have had a fortnight +of rain falling incessantly, and whole days and nights of torrents +such as are peculiar to the "clearing-up" shower in our country. + +Under these circumstances, I have found my lodging in the Corso not +only has its dark side, but is all dark, and that one in the Piazza di +Spagne would have been better for me in this respect; there on these +days, the only ones when I wish to stay at home and write and study, I +should have had the light. Now, if I consulted the good of my eyes, I +should have the lamp lit on first rising in the morning. + +"Every sweet must have its bitter," and the exchange from the +brilliance of the Italian heaven to weeks and months of rain, and such +black cloud, is unspeakably dejecting. For myself, at the end of this +fortnight without exercise or light, and in such a damp atmosphere, +I find myself without strength, without appetite, almost without +spirits. The life of the German scholar who studies fifteen hours out +of the twenty-four, or that of the Spielberg prisoner who could live +through ten, fifteen, twenty years of dark prison with, only half an +hour's exercise in the day, is to me a mystery. How can the brain, the +nerves, ever support it? We are made to keep in motion, to drink the +air and light; to me these are needed to make life supportable, the +physical state is so difficult and full of pains at any rate. + +I am sorry for those who have arrived just at this time hoping +to enjoy the Christmas festivities. Everything was spoiled by the +weather. I went at half past ten to San Luigi Francese, a church +adorned with some of Domenichino's finest frescos on the life and +death of St. Cecilia. + +This name leads me to a little digression. In a letter to Mr. +Phillips, the dear friend of our revered Dr. Charming, I asked him if +he remembered what recumbent statue it was of which Dr. Charming was +wont to speak as of a sight that impressed him more than anything else +in Rome. He said, indeed, his mood, and the unexpectedness in seeing +this gentle, saintly figure lying there as if death had just struck +her down, had no doubt much influence upon him; but still he believed +the work had a peculiar holiness in its expression. I recognized at +once the theme of his description (the name he himself had forgotten) +as I entered the other evening the lonely church of St. Cecilia in +Trastevere. As in his case, it was twilight: one or two nuns were at +their devotions, and there lay the figure in its grave-clothes, with +an air so gentle, so holy, as if she had only ceased to pray as the +hand of the murderer struck her down. Her gentle limbs seemed instinct +still with soft, sweet life; the expression was not of the heroine, +the martyr, so much as of the tender, angelic woman. I could well +understand the deep impression made upon his mind. The expression of +the frescos of Domenichino is not inharmonious with the suggestions of +this statue. + +Finding the Mass was not to begin for some time, I set out for the +Quirinal to see the Pope return from that noble church, Santa Maria +Maggiore, where he officiated this night. I reached the mount just +as he was returning. A few torches gleamed before his door; perhaps a +hundred people were gathered together round the fountain. Last year an +immense multitude waited for him there to express their affection in +one grand good-night; the change was occasioned partly by the weather, +partly by other causes, of which I shall speak by and by. Just as he +returned, the moon looked palely out from amid the wet clouds, and +shone upon the fountain, and the noble figures above it, and the +long white cloaks of the Guardia Nobile who followed his carriage +on horseback; darker objects could scarcely be seen, except by the +flickering light of the torches, much blown by the wind. I then +returned to San Luigi. The effect of the night service there was very +fine; those details which often have such a glaring, mean look by day +are lost sight of in the night, and the unity of impression from the +service is much more undisturbed. The music, too, descriptive of that +era which promised peace on earth, good-will to men, was very sweet, +and the _pastorale_ particularly soothed the heart amid the crowd, and +pompous ceremonial. But here, too, the sweet had its bitter, in the +vulgar vanity of the leader of the orchestra, a trait too common in +such, who, not content with marking the time for the musicians, made +his stick heard in the remotest nook of the church; so that what would +have been sweet music, and flowed in upon the soul, was vulgarized to +make you remember the performers and their machines. + +On Monday the leaders of the Guardia Civica paid their respects to +the Pope, who, in receiving them, expressed his constantly increasing +satisfaction in having given this institution to his people. The same +evening there was a procession with torches to the Quirinal, to pay +the homage due to the day (Feast of St. John, and name-day of the +Pope, _Giovanni Maria Mastai_); but all the way the rain continually +threatened to extinguish the torches, and the Pope could give but a +hasty salute under an umbrella, when the heavens were again opened, +and such a cataract of water descended, as drove both man and beast to +seek the nearest shelter. + +On Sunday, I went to see a nun take the veil. She was a person of high +family; a princess gave her away, and the Cardinal Ferreti, Secretary +of State, officiated. It was a much less effective ceremony than I +expected from the descriptions of travellers and romance-writers. +There was no moment of throwing on the black veil; no peal of music; +no salute of cannon. The nun, an elegantly dressed woman of five or +six and twenty,--pretty enough, but whose quite worldly air gave the +idea that it was one of those arrangements made because no suitable +establishment could otherwise be given her,--came forward, knelt, and +prayed; her confessor, in that strained, unnatural whine too common +among preachers of all churches and all countries, praised himself for +having induced her to enter on a path which would lead her fettered +steps "from palm to palm, from triumph to triumph," Poor thing! she +looked as if the domestic olives and poppies were all she wanted; and +lacking these, tares and wormwood must be her portion. She was then +taken behind a grating, her hair cut, and her clothes exchanged for +the nun's vestments; the black-robed sisters who worked upon her +looking like crows or ravens at their ominous feasts. All the while, +the music played, first sweet and thoughtful, then triumphant strains. +The effect on my mind was revolting and painful to the last degree. +Were monastic seclusion always voluntary, and could it be ended +whenever the mind required a change back from seclusion to common +life, I should have nothing to say against it; there are positions of +the mind which it suits exactly, and even characters that might choose +it all through life; certainly, to the broken-hearted it presents a +shelter that Protestant communities do not provide. But where it +is enforced or repented of, no hell could be worse; nor can a more +terrible responsibility be incurred than by him who has persuaded a +novice that the snares of the world are less dangerous than the demons +of solitude. + +Festivities in Italy have been of great importance, since, for a +century or two back, the thought, the feeling, the genius of the +people have had more chance to expand, to express themselves, there +than anywhere else. Now, if the march of reform goes forward, this +will not be so; there will be also speeches made freely on public +occasions, without having the life pressed out of them by the +censorship. Now we hover betwixt the old and the new; when the many +reasons for the new prevail, I hope what is poetical in the old will +not be lost. The ceremonies of New Year are before me; but as I shall +have to send this letter on New-Year's day, I cannot describe them. +The Romans begin now to talk of the mad gayeties of Carnival, and the +Opera is open. They have begun with "Attila," as, indeed, there +is little hope of hearing in Italy other music than Verdi's. Great +applause waited on the following words:-- + +"EZIO (THE ROMAN LEADER). + + "E gittata la mia sorte, + Pronto sono ad ogni guerra, + S' io cardò, cadrè da forte, + E il mio nome resterà. + + "Non vedrò l'amata terra + Svener lenta e farri a brano, + Sopra l'ultimo Romano + Tutta Italia piangerà." + + "My lot is fixed, and I stand ready for every conflict. If + I must fall, I shall fall as a brave man, and my fame will + survive. I shall not see my beloved country fall to pieces and + slowly perish, and over the last Roman all Italy will weep." + +And at lines of which the following is a translation:-- + + "O brave man, whose mighty power can raise thy country from + such dire distress; from the immortal hills, radiant with + glory, let the shades of our ancestors arise; oh! only one + day, one instant, arise to look upon us!" + +It was an Italian who sung this strain, though, singularly enough, +here in the heart of Italy, so long reputed the home of music, three +principal parts were filled by persons bearing the foreign names of +Ivanoff, Mitrovich, and Nissren. + +Naples continues in a state of great excitement, which now pervades +the upper classes, as several young men of noble families have been +arrested; among them, one young man much beloved, son of Prince +Terella, and who, it is said, was certainly not present on the +occasion for which he was arrested, and that the measure was taken +because he was known to sympathize strongly with the liberal movement. +The nobility very generally have not feared to go to the house of his +father to express their displeasure at the arrest and interest in +the young man. The ministry, it is said, are now persuaded of the +necessity of a change of measures. The king alone remains inflexible +in his stupidity. + +The stars of Bonaparte and Byron show again a conjunction, by the +almost simultaneous announcement of changes in the lot of women with +whom they were so intimately connected;--the Archduchess of Parma, +Maria Louisa, is dead; the Countess Guiccioli is married. The Countess +I have seen several times; she still looks young, and retains the +charms which by the contemporaries of Byron she is reputed to have +had; they never were of a very high order; her best expression is that +of a good heart. I always supposed that Byron, weary and sick of the +world such as he had known it, became attached to her for her good +disposition, and sincere, warm tenderness for him; the sight of her, +and the testimony of a near relative, confirmed this impression. This +friend of hers added, that she had tried very hard to remain devoted +to the memory of Byron, but was quite unequal to the part, being one +of those affectionate natures that must have some one near with whom +to be occupied; and now, it seems, she has resigned herself publicly +to abandon her romance. However, I fancy the manes of Byron remain +undisturbed. + +We all know the worthless character of Maria Louisa, the indifference +she showed to a husband who, if he was not her own choice, yet would +have been endeared to almost any woman, as one fallen from an immense +height into immense misfortune, and as the father of her child. No +voice from her penetrated to cheer his exile: the unhappiness +of Josephine was well avenged. And that child, the poor Duke of +Reichstadt, of a character so interesting, and with obvious elements +of greatness, withering beneath the mean, cold influence of his +grandfather,--what did Maria Louisa do for him,--she, appointed by +Nature to be his inspiring genius, his protecting angel? I felt for +her a most sad and profound contempt last summer, as I passed through +her oppressed dominion, a little sphere, in which, if she could not +save it from the usual effects of the Austrian rule, she might have +done so much private, womanly good,--might have been a genial heart +to warm it,--and where she had let so much ill be done. A journal +announces her death in these words: "The Archduchess is dead; a woman +who _might_ have occupied one of the noblest positions in the history +of the age";--and there makes expressive pause. + +Parma, passing from bad to worse, falls into the hands of the Duke of +Modena; and the people and magistracy have made an address to their +new ruler. The address has received many thousand signatures, and +seems quite sincere, except in the assumption of good-will in the Duke +of Modena; and this is merely an insincerity of etiquette. + + + + +LETTER XXI. + +THE POPE'S RECEPTION OF THE NEW OFFICERS.--THEY KISS HIS +FOOT.--VESPERS AT THE GESÙ.--A POOR YOUTH IN ROME SEEKING A +PATRON.--RUMORS OF DISTURBANCES.--THEIR CAUSE.--REPRESENTATIONS TO THE +POPE.--HIS CONDUCT IN THE AFFAIR.--AN ITALIAN CONSUL FOR THE UNITED +STATES.--CATHOLICISM.--THE POPULARITY OF THE POPE.--HIS DEPOSITION OF +A CENSOR.--THE POLICY OF THE POPE IN HIS DOMESTIC NOT EQUAL TO THAT +OF HIS PUBLIC LIFE.--HIS OPPOSITION TO PROTESTANT REFORM.--LETTER FROM +JOSEPH MAZZINI TO THE PONTIFF.--REFLECTIONS ON IT. + + +Rome, January 10, 1848. + +In the first morning of this New Year I sent off a letter which must +then be mailed, in order to reach the steamer of the 16th. So far am +I from home, that even steam does not come nigh to annihilate the +distance. + +This afternoon I went to the Quirinal Palace to see the Pope receive +the new municipal officers. He was to-day in his robes of white and +gold, with his usual corps of attendants in pure red and white, or +violet and white. The new officers were in black velvet dresses, with +broad white collars. They took the oaths of office, and then actually +kissed his foot. I had supposed this was never really done, but only +a very low obeisance made; the act seemed to me disgustingly abject. +A Heavenly Father does not want his children at his feet, but in his +arms, on a level with his heart. + +After this was over the Pope went to the Gesù, a very rich church, +belonging to the Jesuits, to officiate at Vespers, and we followed. +The music was beautiful, and the effect of the church, with its +richly-painted dome and altar-piece in a blaze of light, while the +assembly were in a sort of brown darkness, was very fine. + +A number of Americans there, new arrivals, kept requesting in the +midst of the music to know when _it_ would begin. "Why, this is _it_," +some one at last had the patience to answer; "you are hearing Vespers +now." "What," they replied, "is there no oration, no speech!" So +deeply rooted in the American mind is the idea that a sermon is the +only real worship! + +This church, is indelibly stamped on my mind. Coming to Rome this +time, I saw in the diligence a young man, whom his uncle, a priest of +the convent that owns this church, had sent for, intending to provide +him employment here. Some slight circumstances tested the character +of this young man, and showed it what I have ever found it, singularly +honorable and conscientious. He was led to show me his papers, among +which was a letter from a youth whom, with that true benevolence only +possible to the poor, because only they _can_ make great sacrifices, +he had so benefited as to make an entire change in his prospects for +life. Himself a poor orphan, with nothing but a tolerable education +at an orphan asylum, and a friend of his dead parents to find him +employment on leaving it, he had felt for this young man, poorer and +more uninstructed than himself, had taught him at his leisure to read +and write, had then collected from, friends, and given himself, +till he had gathered together sixty francs, procuring also for +his _protégé_ a letter from monks, who were friends of his, to the +convents on the road, so that wherever there was one, the poor youth +had lodging and food gratis. Thus armed, he set forth on foot for +Rome; Piacenza, their native place, affording little hope even of +gaining bread, in the present distressed state of that dominion. The +letter was to say that he had arrived, and been so fortunate as to +find employment immediately in the studio of Benzoni, the sculptor. + +The poor patron's eyes sparkled as I read the letter. "How happy he +is!" said he. "And does he not spell and write well? I was his only +master." + +But the good do not inherit the earth, and, less fortunate than his +_protégé_, Germano on his arrival found his uncle ill of the Roman +fever. He came to see me, much agitated. "Can it be, Signorina," says +he, "that God, who has taken my father and mother, will also take +from me the only protector I have left, and just as I arrive in this +strange place, too?" After a few days he seemed more tranquil, and +told me that, though he had felt as if it would console him and divert +his mind to go to some places of entertainment, he had forborne and +applied the money to have masses said for his uncle. "I feel," he +said, "as if God would help me." Alas! at that moment the uncle was +dying. Poor Germano came next day with a receipt for masses said for +the soul of the departed, (his simple faith in these being apparently +indestructible,) and amid his tears he said: "The Fathers were so +unkind, they were hardly willing to hear me speak a word; they were so +afraid I should be a burden to them, I shall never go there again. But +the most cruel thing was, I offered them a scudo (dollar) to say six +masses for the soul of my poor uncle; they said they would only say +five, and must have seven baiocchi (cents) more for that." + +A few days after, I happened to go into their church, and found it +thronged, while a preacher, panting, sweating, leaning half out of +the pulpit, was exhorting his hearers to "imitate Christ." With +unspeakable disgust I gazed on this false shepherd of those who had +just so failed in their duty to a poor stray lamb, Their church is so +rich in ornaments, the seven baiocchi were hardly needed to burnish +it. Their altar-piece is a very imposing composition, by an artist +of Rome, still in the prime of his powers. Capalti. It represents the +Circumcision, with the cross and six waiting angels in the background; +Joseph, who holds the child, the priest, and all the figures in the +foreground, seem intent upon the barbarous rite, except Mary the +mother; her mind seems to rush forward into the future, and understand +the destiny of her child; she sees the cross,--she sees the angels, +too. + +Now I have mentioned a picture, let me say a word or two about Art and +artists, by way of parenthesis in this letter so much occupied, with +political affairs. We laugh a little here at some words that come from +your city on the subject of Art. + +We hear that the landscapes painted here show a want of familiarity +with Nature; artists need to return to America and see her again. But, +friends, Nature wears a different face in Italy from what she does in +America. Do you not want to see her Italian face? it is very glorious! +We thought it was the aim of Art to reproduce all forms of Nature, and +that you would not be sorry to have transcripts of what you have not +always round you. American Art is not necessarily a reproduction of +American Nature. + +Hicks has made a charming picture of familiar life, which those who +cannot believe in Italian daylight would not tolerate. I am not sure +that all eyes are made in the same manner, for I have known those who +declare they see nothing remarkable in these skies, these hues; and +always complain when they are reproduced in picture. I have yet seen +no picture by Cropsey on an Italian subject, but his sketches from +Scotch scenes are most poetical and just presentations of those lakes, +those mountains, with their mourning veils. He is an artist of great +promise. Cranch has made a picture for Mr. Ogden Haggerty of a fine +mountain-hold of old Colonna story. I wish he would write a ballad +about it too; there is plenty of material. + +But to return to the Jesuits. One swallow does not make a summer, nor +am I--who have seen so much hard-heartedness and barbarous greed of +gain in all classes of men--so foolish as to attach undue importance +to the demand, by those who have dared to appropriate peculiarly to +themselves the sacred name of Jesus, from a poor orphan, and for the +soul of one of their own order, of "seven baiocchi more." But I have +always been satisfied, from the very nature of their institutions, +that the current prejudice against them must be correct. These +institutions are calculated to harden the heart, and destroy entirely +that truth which is the conservative principle in character. Their +influence is and must be always against the free progress of humanity. +The more I see of its working, the more I feel how pernicious it is, +and were I a European, to no object should I lend myself with more +ardor, than to the extirpation of this cancer. True, disband the +Jesuits, there would still remain Jesuitical men, but singly they +would have infinitely less power to work mischief. + +The influence of the Oscurantist foe has shown itself more and more +plainly in Rome, during the last four or five weeks. A false miracle +is devised: the Madonna del Popolo, (who has her handsome house very +near me,) has cured, a paralytic youth, (who, in fact, was never +diseased,) and, appearing to him in a vision, takes occasion to +criticise severely the measures of the Pope. Rumors of tumult in +one quarter are circulated, to excite it in another. Inflammatory +handbills are put up in the night. But the Romans thus far resist all +intrigues of the foe to excite them to bad conduct. + +On New-Year's day, however, success was near. The people, as usual, +asked permission of the Governor to go to the Quirinal and receive the +benediction of the Pope. This was denied, and not, as it might truly +have been, because the Pope was unwell, but in the most ungracious, +irritating manner possible, by saying, "He is tired of these things: +he is afraid of disturbance." Then, the people being naturally +excited and angry, the Governor sent word to the Pope that there was +excitement, without letting him know why, and had the guards doubled +on the posts. The most absurd rumors were circulated among the people +that the cannon of St. Angelo were to be pointed on them, &c. But +they, with that singular discretion which they show now, instead +of rising, as their enemies had hoped, went to ask counsel of their +lately appointed Senator, Corsini. He went to the Pope, found him ill, +entirely ignorant of what was going on, and much distressed when he +heard it. He declared that the people should be satisfied, and, +since they had not been allowed to come to him, he would go to them. +Accordingly, the next day, though rainy and of a searching cold like +that of a Scotch mist, we had all our windows thrown open, and the red +and yellow tapestries hung out. He passed through the principal parts +of the city, the people throwing themselves on their knees and crying +out, "O Holy Father, don't desert us! don't forget us! don't listen +to our enemies!" The Pope wept often, and replied, "Fear nothing, +my people, my heart is yours." At last, seeing how ill he was, they +begged him to go in, and he returned to the Quirinal; the present +Tribune of the People, as far as rule in the heart is concerned, +Ciceronacchio, following his carriage. I shall give some account of +this man in another letter. + +For the moment, the difficulties are healed, as they will be whenever +the Pope directly shows himself to the people. Then his generous, +affectionate heart will always act, and act on them, dissipating the +clouds which others have been toiling to darken. + +In speaking of the intrigues of these emissaries of the power of +darkness, I will mention that there is a report here that they are +trying to get an Italian Consul for the United States, and one in the +employment of the Jesuits. This rumor seems ridiculous; yet it is true +that Dr. Beecher's panic about Catholic influence in the United +States is not quite unfounded, and that there is considerable hope +of establishing a new dominion there. I hope the United States will +appoint no Italian, no Catholic, to a consulship. The representative +of the United States should be American; our national character +and interests are peculiar, and cannot be fitly represented by a +foreigner, unless, like Mr. Ombrossi of Florence, he has passed part +of his youth in the United States. It would, indeed, be well if our +government paid attention to qualification for the office in the +candidate, and not to pretensions founded on partisan service; +appointing only men of probity, who would not stain the national +honor in the sight of Europe. It would be wise also not to select men +entirely ignorant of foreign manners, customs, ways of thinking, or +even of any language in which to communicate with foreign society, +making the country ridiculous by all sorts of blunders; but 't were +pity if a sufficient number of Americans could not be found, who are +honest, have some knowledge of Europe and gentlemanly tact, and are +able at least to speak French. + +To return to the Pope, although the shadow that has fallen on his +popularity is in a great measure the work of his enemies, yet there is +real cause for it too. His conduct in deposing for a time one of the +Censors, about the banners of the 15th of December, his speech to the +Council the same day, his extreme displeasure at the sympathy of a +few persons with the triumph of the Swiss Diet, because it was a +Protestant triumph, and, above all, his speech to the Consistory, so +deplorably weak in thought and absolute in manner, show a man less +strong against domestic than foreign foes, instigated by a generous, +humane heart to advance, but fettered by the prejudices of education, +and terribly afraid to be or seem to be less the Pope of Rome, in +becoming a reform prince, and father to the fatherless. I insert a +passage of this speech, which seems to say that, whenever there shall +be collision between the priest and the reformer, the priest shall +triumph:-- + +"Another subject there is which profoundly afflicts and harasses our +mind. It is not certainly unknown to you, Venerable Brethren, that +many enemies of Catholic truth have, in our times especially, directed +their efforts by the desire to place certain monstrous offsprings +of opinion on a par with the doctrine of Christ, or to blend them +therewith, seeking to propagate more and more that impious system of +_indifference_ toward all religion whatever. + +"And lately some have been found, dreadful to narrate! who have +offered such an insult to our name and Apostolic dignity, as +slanderously to represent us participators in their folly, and +favorers of that most iniquitous system above named. These have been +pleased to infer from, the counsels (certainly not foreign to +the sanctity of the Catholic religion) which, in certain affairs +pertaining to the civil exercise of the Pontific sway, we had benignly +embraced for the increase of public prosperity and good, and also from +the pardon bestowed in clemency upon certain persons subject to that +sway, in the very beginning of our Pontificate, that we had such +benevolent sentiments toward every description of persons as to +believe that not only the sons of the Church, but others also, +remaining aliens from Catholic unity, are alike in the way of +salvation, and may attain eternal life. Words are wanting to us, from +horror, to repel this new and atrocious calumny against us. It is true +that with intimate affection of heart we love all mankind, but not +otherwise than in the charity of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ, who +came to seek and to save that which had perished, who wisheth that all +men should be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth, and who sent +his disciples through the whole world to preach the Gospel to every +creature, declaring that those who should believe and be baptized +should be saved, but those who should not believe, should be +condemned. Let those therefore who seek salvation come to the pillar +and support of the Truth, which is the Church,--let them come, that +is, to the true Church of Christ, which possesses in its bishops +and the supreme head of all, the Roman Pontiff, a never-interrupted +succession of Apostolic authority, and which for nothing has ever been +more zealous than to preach, and with all care preserve and defend, +the doctrine announced as the mandate of Christ by his Apostles; which +Church afterward increased, from the time of the Apostles, in the +midst of every species of difficulties, and flourished throughout the +whole world, radiant in the splendor of miracles, amplified by the +blood of martyrs, ennobled by the virtues of confessors and virgins, +corroborated by the testimony and most sapient writings of the +fathers,--as it still flourishes throughout all lands, refulgent in +perfect unity of the sacraments, of faith, and of holy discipline. +We who, though unworthy, preside in this supreme chair of the Apostle +Peter, in which Christ our Lord placed the foundation of his Church, +have at no time abstained, from any cares or toils to bring, through +the grace of Christ himself, those who are in ignorance and error to +this sole way of truth and salvation. Let those, whoever they be, +that are adverse, remember that heaven and earth shall pass away, but +nothing can ever perish of the words of Christ, nor be changed in the +doctrine which the Catholic Church received, to guard, defend, and +publish, from him. + +"Next to this we cannot but speak to you, Venerable Brethren, of the +bitterness of sorrow by which we were affected, on seeing that a few +days since, in this our fair city, the fortress and centre of the +Catholic religion, it proved possible to find some--very few indeed +and well-nigh frantic men--who, laying aside the very sense of +humanity, and to the extreme disgust and indignation of other citizens +of this town, were not withheld, by horror from triumphing openly and +publicly over the most lamentable intestine war lately excited among +the Helvetic people; which truly fatal war we sorrow over from the +depths of our heart, as well considering the blood shed by that +nation, the slaughter of brothers, the atrocious, daily recurring, and +fatal discords, hatreds, and dissensions (which usually redound among +nations in consequence especially of civil wars), as the detriment +which we learn the Catholic religion has suffered, and fear it may yet +suffer, in consequence of this, and, finally, the deplorable acts of +sacrilege committed in the first conflict, which our soul shrinks from +narrating." + +It is probably on account of these fears of Pius IX. lest he should +be a called a Protestant Pope, that the Roman journals thus far, in +translating the American Address to the Pope, have not dared to add +any comment. + +But if the heart, the instincts, of this good man have been beyond his +thinking powers, that only shows him the providential agent to work +out aims beyond his ken. A wave has been set in motion, which cannot +stop till it casts up its freight upon the shore, and if Pius IX. does +not suffer himself to be surrounded by dignitaries, and see the signs +of the times through the eyes of others,--if he does not suffer the +knowledge he had of general society as a simple prelate to become +incrusted by the ignorance habitual to princes,--he cannot fail long +to be a most important agent in fashioning a new and better era for +this beautiful injured land. + +I will now give another document, which may be considered as +representing the view of what is now passing taken by the democratic +party called "Young Italy." Should it in any other way have reached +the United States, yet it will not come amiss to have it translated +for the Tribune, as many of your readers may not otherwise have a +chance of seeing this noble document, one of the milestones in the +march of thought. It is a letter to the Most High Pontiff, Pius IX., +from Joseph Mazzini. + + +"London, 8th September, 1847. + +"MOST HOLY FATHER,--Permit an Italian, who has studied your every step +for some months back with much hopefulness, to address to you, in the +midst of the applauses, often far too servile and unworthy of you, +which, resound near you, some free and profoundly sincere words. Take +to read them some moments from your infinite cares. From a simple +individual animated by holy intentions may come, sometimes, a great +counsel; and I write to you with so much love, with so much emotion of +my whole soul, with so much faith in the destiny of my country, which +may be revived by your means, that my thoughts ought to speak truth. + +"And first, it is needful, Most Holy Father, that I should say to +you somewhat of myself. My name has probably reached your ears, +but accompanied by all the calumnies, by all the errors, by all the +foolish conjectures, which the police, by system, and many men of my +party through want of knowledge or poverty of intellect, have heaped +upon it. I am not a subverter, nor a communist, nor a man of blood, +nor a hater, nor intolerant, nor exclusive adorer of a system, or of +a form imagined by my mind. I adore God, and an idea which seems to me +of God,--Italy an angel of moral unity and of progressive civilization +for the nations of Europe. Here and everywhere I have written the best +I know how against the vices of materialism, of egotism, of reaction, +and against the destructive tendencies which contaminate many of +our party. If the people should rise in violent attack against the +selfishness and bad government of their rulers, I, while rendering +homage to the right of the people, shall be among the first to prevent +the excesses and the vengeance which long slavery has prepared. I +believe profoundly in a religious principle, supreme above all social +ordinances; in a divine order, which we ought to seek to realize here +on earth; in a law, in a providential design, which we all ought, +according to our powers, to study and to promote. I believe in the +inspiration of my immortal soul, in the teaching of Humanity, which +shouts to me, through the deeds and words of all its saints, incessant +progress for all through, the work of all my brothers toward a common +moral amelioration, toward the fulfilment of the Divine Law. And in +the great history of Humanity I have studied the history of Italy, and +have found there Rome twice directress of the world,--first through +the Emperors, later through the Popes. I have found there, that +every manifestation of Italian life has also been a manifestation of +European life; and that always when Italy fell, the moral unity +of Europe began to fall apart in analysis, in doubt, in anarchy. +I believe in yet another manifestation of the Italian idea; and I +believe that another European world ought to be revealed from the +Eternal City, that had the Capitol, and has the Vatican. And this +faith has not abandoned me ever, through years, poverty, and griefs +which God alone knows. In these few words lies all my being, all +the secret of my life. I may err in the intellect, but the heart has +always remained pure. I have never lied through fear or hope, and I +speak to you as I should speak to God beyond the sepulchre. + +"I believe you good. There is no man this day, I will not say in +Italy, but in all Europe, more powerful than you; you then have, most +Holy Father, vast duties. God measures these according to the means +which he has granted to his creatures. + +"Europe is in a tremendous crisis of doubts and desires. Through the +work of time, accelerated by your predecessors of the hierarchy of the +Church, faith is dead, Catholicism is lost in despotism; Protestantism +is lost in anarchy. Look around you; you will find superstitious and +hypocrites, but not believers. The intellect travels in a void. The +bad adore calculation, physical good; the good pray and hope; nobody +_believes_. Kings, governments, the ruling classes, combat for a power +usurped, illegitimate, since it does not represent the worship of +truth, nor disposition to sacrifice one's self for the good of all; +the people combat because they suffer, because they would fain take +their turn to enjoy; nobody fights for duty, nobody because the war +against evil and falsehood is a holy war, the crusade of God. We have +no more a heaven; hence we have no more a society. + +"Do not deceive yourself, Most Holy Father; this is the present state +of Europe. + +"But humanity cannot exist without a heaven. The idea of society is +only a consequence of the idea of religion. We shall have then, sooner +or later, religion and heaven. We shall have these not in the kings +and the privileged classes,--their very condition excludes love, +the soul of all religions,--but in the people. The spirit from God +descends on many gathered together in his name. The people have +suffered for ages on the cross, and God will bless them with a faith. + +"You can, Most Holy Father, hasten that moment. I will not tell you +my individual opinions on the religious development which is to come; +these are of little importance. But I will say to you, that, whatever +be the destiny of the creeds now existing, you can put yourself at the +head of this development. If God wills that such creeds should +revive, you can make them revive; if God wills that they should be +transformed, that, leaving the foot of the cross, dogma and worship +should be purified by rising a step nearer God, the Father and +Educator of the world, you can put yourself between the two epochs, +and guide the world to the conquest and the practice of religious +truth, extirpating a hateful egotism, a barren negation. + +"God preserve me from tempting you with ambition; that would be +profanation. I call you, in the name of the power which God has +granted you, and has not granted without a reason, to fulfil the good, +the regenerating European work. I call you, after so many ages of +doubt and corruption, to be apostle of Eternal Truth. I call you to +make yourself the 'servant of all,' to sacrifice yourself, if needful, +so that 'the will of God may be done on the earth as it is in heaven'; +to hold yourself ready to glorify God in victory, or to repeat with +resignation, if you must fail, the words of Gregory VII.: 'I die in +exile, because I have loved justice and hated iniquity.' + +"But for this, to fulfil the mission which God confides to you, two +things are needful,--to be a believer, and to unify Italy. Without the +first, you will fall in the middle of the way, abandoned by God and by +men; without the second, you will not have the lever with which only +you can effect great, holy, and durable things. + +"Be a believer; abhor to be king, politician, statesman. Make no +compromise with error; do not contaminate yourself with diplomacy, +make no compact with fear, with expediency, with the false doctrines +of a _legality_, which is merely a falsehood invented when faith +failed. Take no counsel except from God, from the inspirations of your +own heart, and from the imperious necessity of rebuilding a temple to +truth, to justice, to faith. Self-collected, in enthusiasm of love for +humanity, and apart from every human regard, ask of God that he will +teach you the way; then enter upon it, with the faith of a conqueror +on your brow, with the irrevocable decision of the martyr in your +heart; look neither to the right hand nor the left, but straight +before you, and up to heaven. Of every object that meets you on the +way, ask of yourself: 'Is this just or unjust, true or false, law of +man or law of God?' Proclaim aloud the result of your examination, and +act accordingly. Do not say to yourself: 'If I speak and work in such +a way, the princes of the earth will disagree; the ambassadors will +present notes and protests!' What are the quarrels of selfishness in +princes, or their notes, before a syllable of the eternal Evangelists +of God? They have had importance till now, because, though phantoms, +they had nothing to oppose them but phantoms; oppose to them the +reality of a man who sees the Divine view, unknown to them, of human +affairs, of an immortal soul conscious of a high mission, and these +will vanish before you as vapors accumulated in darkness before the +sun which rises in the east. Do not let yourself be affrighted by +intrigues; the creature who fulfils a duty belongs not to men, but to +God. God will protect you; God will spread around you such a halo +of love, that neither the perfidy of men irreparably lost, nor +the suggestions of hell, can break through it. Give to the world a +spectacle new, unique: you will have results new, not to be foreseen +by human calculation. Announce an era; declare that Humanity is +sacred, and a daughter of God; that all who violate her rights to +progress, to association, are on the way of error; that in God is the +source of every government; that those who are best by intellect and +heart, by genius and virtue, must be the guides of the people. +Bless those who suffer and combat; blame, reprove, those who cause +suffering, without regard to the name they bear, the rank that invests +them. The people will adore in you the best interpreter of the +Divine design, and your conscience will give you rest, strength, and +ineffable comfort. + +"Unify Italy, your country. For this you have no need to work, but +to bless Him who works through you and in your name. Gather round you +those who best represent the national party. Do not beg alliances with +princes. Continue to seek the alliance of our own people; say, 'The +unity of Italy ought to be a fact of the nineteenth century,' and it +will suffice; we shall work for you. Leave our pens free; leave free +the circulation of ideas in what regards this point, vital for us, +of the national unity. Treat the Austrian government, even when it no +longer menaces your territory, with the reserve of one who knows that +it governs by usurpation in Italy and elsewhere; combat it with words +of a just man, wherever it contrives oppressions and violations of +the rights of others out of Italy. Require, in the name of the God of +Peace, the Jesuits allied with Austria in Switzerland to withdraw from +that country, where their presence prepares an inevitable and speedy +effusion of the blood of the citizens. Give a word of sympathy which +shall become public to the first Pole of Galicia who comes into your +presence. Show us, in fine, by some fact, that you intend not only to +improve the physical condition of your own few subjects, but that +you embrace in your love the twenty-four millions of Italians, your +brothers; that you believe them called by God to unite in family unity +under one and the same compact; that you would bless the national +banner, wherever it should be raised by pure and incontaminate hands; +and leave the rest to us. We will cause to rise around you a nation +over whose free and popular development you, living, shall preside. +We will found a government unique in Europe, which shall destroy the +absurd divorce between spiritual and temporal power, and in which you +shall be chosen to represent the principle of which the men chosen by +the nation will make the application. We shall know how to translate +into a potent fact the instinct which palpitates through all Italy. +We will excite for you active support among the nations of Europe; we +will find you friends even in the ranks of Austria; we alone, because +we alone have unity of design, believe in the truth of our principle, +and have never betrayed it. Do not fear excesses from the people once +entered upon this way; the people only commit excesses when left to +their own impulses without any guide whom they respect. Do not pause +before the idea of becoming a cause of war. War exists, everywhere, +open or latent, but near breaking out, inevitable; nor can human +power prevent it. Nor do I, it must be said frankly, Most Holy +Father, address to you these words because I doubt in the least of our +destiny, or because I believe you the sole, the indispensable means +of the enterprise. The unity of Italy is a work of God,--a part of +the design of Providence and of all, even of those who show themselves +most satisfied with local improvements, and who, less sincere than +I, wish to make them means of attaining their own aims. It will be +fulfilled, with you or without you. But I address you, because I +believe you worthy to take the initiative in a work so vast; because +your putting yourself at the head of it would much abridge the road +and diminish the dangers, the injury, the blood; because with you +the conflict would assume a religious aspect, and be freed from many +dangers of reaction and civil errors; because might be attained at +once under your banner a political result and a vast moral result; +because the revival of Italy under the ægis of a religious idea, of +a standard, not of rights, but of duties, would leave behind all the +revolutions of other countries, and place her immediately at the head +of European progress; because it is in your power to cause that God +and the people, terms too often fatally disjoined, should meet at once +in beautiful and holy harmony, to direct the fate of nations. + +"If I could be near you, I would invoke from God power to convince +you, by gesture, by accent, by tears; now I can only confide to the +paper the cold corpse, as it were, of my thought; nor can I ever have +the certainty that you have read, and meditated a moment what I write. +But I feel an imperious necessity of fulfilling this duty toward Italy +and you, and, whatsoever you may think of it, I shall find myself more +in peace with my conscience for having thus addressed you. + +"Believe, Most Holy Father, in the feelings of veneration and of high +hope which professes for you your most devoted + +"JOSEPH MAZZINI." + + +Whatever may be the impression of the reader as to the ideas and +propositions contained in this document,[A] I think he cannot fail to +be struck with its simple nobleness, its fervent truth. + +[Footnote A: This letter was printed in Paris to be circulated in +Italy. A prefatory note signed by a friend of Mazzini's, states that +the original was known to have reached the hands of the Pope. The hope +is expressed that the publication of this letter, though without the +authority of its writer, will yet not displease him, as those who are +deceived as to his plans and motives will thus learn his true purposes +and feelings, and the letter will one day aid the historian who seeks +to know what were the opinions and hopes of the entire people of +Italy.--ED.] + +A thousand petty interruptions have prevented my completing this +letter, till, now the hour of closing the mail for the steamer is so +near, I shall not have time to look over it, either to see what I have +written or make slight corrections. However, I suppose it represents +the feelings of the last few days, and shows that, without having lost +any of my confidence in the Italian movement, the office of the Pope +in promoting it has shown narrower limits, and sooner than I had +expected. + +This does not at all weaken my personal feeling toward this excellent +man, whose heart I have seen in his face, and can never doubt. It was +necessary to be a great thinker, a great genius, to compete with the +difficulties of his position. I never supposed he was that; I am +only disappointed that his good heart has not carried him on a little +farther. With regard to the reception of the American address, it +is only the Roman press that is so timid; the private expressions of +pleasure have been very warm; the Italians say, "The Americans are +indeed our brothers." It remains to be seen, when Pius IX. receives +it, whether the man, the reforming prince, or the Pope is uppermost at +that moment. + + + + +LETTER XXII. + +THE CEREMONIES SUCCEEDING EPIPHANY.--THE DEATH OF TORLONIA, AND ITS +PREDISPOSING CAUSES.--FUNERAL HONORS.--A STRIKING CONTRAST IN THE +DECEASE OF THE CARDINAL PRINCE MASSIMO.--THE POPE AND HIS OFFICERS +OF STATE.--THE CARDINAL BOFONDI.--SYMPATHETIC EXCITEMENTS THROUGH +ITALY.--SICILY IN FULL INSURRECTION.--THE KING OF SICILY, PRINCE +METTERNICH, AND LOUIS PHILIPPE.--A RUMOR AS TO THE PARENTAGE OF THE +KING OF THE FRENCH.--ROME: AVE MARIA.--LIFE IN THE ETERNAL CITY.--THE +BAMBINO.--CATHOLICISM: ITS GIFTS AND ITS WORKINGS.--THE CHURCH OF ARA +COELI.--EXHIBITION OF THE BAMBINO.--BYGONE SUPERSTITION AND LIVING +REALITY.--THE SOUL OF CATHOLICISM HAS FLED.--REFLECTIONS.--EXHIBITION +BY THE COLLEGE OF THE PROPAGANDA.--EXERCISES IN ALL LANGUAGES.-- +DISTURBANCES AND THEIR CAUSES.--THOUGHTS.--BLESSING ANIMALS.--ACCOUNTS +FROM PAVIA.--AUSTRIA.--THE KING OF NAPLES.--RUMORS FROM OTHER PARTS OF +EUROPE.--FRANCE.--GUIZOT.--APPEARANCES AND APPREHENSIONS. + + +Rome, January, 1848. + +I think I closed my last letter, without having had time to speak of +the ceremonies that precede and follow Epiphany. This month, no day, +scarcely an hour, has passed unmarked by some showy spectacle or some +exciting piece of news. + +On the last day of the year died Don Carlo Torlonia, brother of the +banker, a man greatly beloved and regretted. The public felt this +event the more that its proximate cause was an attack made upon his +brother's house by Paradisi, now imprisoned in the Castle of St. +Angelo, pending a law process for proof of his accusations. Don +Carlo had been ill before, and the painful agitation caused by these +circumstances decided his fate. The public had been by no means +displeased at this inquiry into the conduct of Don Alessandro +Torlonia, believing that his assumed munificence is, in this case, +literally a robbery of Peter to pay Paul, and that all he gives +to Rome is taken from Rome. But I sympathized no less with the +affectionate indignation of his brother, too good a man to be made the +confidant of wrong, or have eyes for it, if such exist. + +Thus, in the poetical justice which does not fail to be done in the +prose narrative of life, while men hastened, the moment a cry was +raised against Don Alessandro, to echo it back with all kinds of +imputations both on himself and his employees, every man held his +breath, and many wept, when the mortal remains of Don Carlo passed; +feeling that in him was lost a benefactor, a brother, a simple, just +man. + +Don Carlo was a Knight of Malta; yet with him the celibate life had +not hardened the heart, but only left it free on all sides to general +love. Not less than half a dozen pompous funerals were given in his +honor, by his relatives, the brotherhoods to which he belonged, and +the battalion of the Civic Guard of which he was commander-in-chief. +But in his own house the body lay in no other state than that of a +simple Franciscan, the order to which he first belonged, and whose vow +he had kept through half a century, by giving all he had for the good +of others. He lay on the ground in the plain dark robe and cowl, no +unfit subject for a modern picture of little angels descending to +shower lilies on a good man's corpse. The long files of armed men, +the rich coaches, and liveried retinues of the princes, were little +observed, in comparison with more than a hundred orphan girls whom his +liberality had sustained, and who followed the bier in mourning robes +and long white veils, spirit-like, in the dark night. The trumpet's +wail, and soft, melancholy music from the bands, broke at times the +roll of the muffled drum; the hymns of the Church were chanted, and +volleys of musketry discharged, in honor of the departed; but much +more musical was the whisper in which the crowd, as passed his mortal +frame, told anecdotes of his good deeds. + +I do not know when I have passed more consolatory moments than in the +streets one evening during this pomp and picturesque show,--for once +not empty of all meaning as to the present time, recognizing that +good which remains in the human being, ineradicable by all ill, and +promises that our poor, injured nature shall rise, and bloom again, +from present corruption to immortal purity. If Don Carlo had been a +thinker,--a man of strong intellect,--he might have devised means of +using his money to more radical advantage than simply to give it in +alms; he had only a kind human heart, but from that heart distilled a +balm which made all men bless it, happy in finding cause to bless. + +As in the moral little books with which our nurseries are entertained, +followed another death in violent contrast. One of those whom the new +arrangements deprived of power and the means of unjust gain was the +Cardinal Prince Massimo, a man a little younger than Don Carlo, +but who had passed his forty years in a very different manner. +He remonstrated; the Pope was firm, and, at last, is said to have +answered with sharp reproof for the past. The Cardinal contained +himself in the audience, but, going out, literally suffocated with the +rage he had suppressed. The bad blood his bad heart had been so +long making rushed to his head, and he died on his return home. +Men laughed, and proposed that all the widows he had deprived of a +maintenance should combine to follow _his_ bier. It was said boys +hissed as that bier passed. Now, a splendid suit of lace being for +sale in a shop of the Corso, everybody says: "Have you been to look +at the lace of Cardinal Massimo, who died of rage, because he could +no longer devour the public goods?" And this is the last echo of _his_ +requiem. + +The Pope is anxious to have at least well-intentioned men in places of +power. Men of much ability, it would seem, are not to be had. His last +prime minister was a man said to have energy, good dispositions, but +no thinking power. The Cardinal Bofondi, whom he has taken now, is +said to be a man of scarce any ability; there being few among the +new Councillors the public can name as fitted for important trust. +In consolation, we must remember that the Chancellor Oxenstiern found +nothing more worthy of remark to show his son, than by how little +wisdom the world could be governed. We must hope these men of straw +will serve as thatch to keep out the rain, and not be exposed to the +assaults of a devouring flame. + +Yet that hour may not be distant. The disturbances of the 1st of +January here were answered by similar excitements in Leghorn and +Genoa, produced by the same hidden and malignant foe. At the same +time, the Austrian government in Milan organized an attempt to rouse +the people to revolt, with a view to arrests, and other measures +calculated to stifle the spirit of independence they know to be latent +there. In this iniquitous attempt they murdered eighty persons; yet +the citizens, on their guard, refused them the desired means of +ruin, and they were forced to retractions as impudently vile as their +attempts had been. The Viceroy proclaimed that "he hoped the people +would confide in him as he did in them"; and no doubt they will. At +Leghorn and Genoa, the wiles of the foe were baffled by the wisdom of +the popular leaders, as I trust they always will be; but it is needful +daily to expect these nets laid in the path of the unwary. + +Sicily is in full insurrection; and it is reported Naples, but this +is not sure. There was a report, day before yesterday, that the poor, +stupid king was already here, and had taken cheap chambers at the +Hotel d'Allemagne, as, indeed, it is said he has always a turn for +economy, when he cannot live at the expense of his suffering people. +Day before yesterday, every carriage that the people saw with a +stupid-looking man in it they did not know, they looked to see if it +was not the royal runaway. But it was their wish was father to that +thought, and it has not as yet taken body as fact. In like manner they +report this week the death of Prince Metternich; but I believe it +is not sure he is dead yet, only dying. With him passes one great +embodiment of ill to Europe. As for Louis Philippe, he seems reserved +to give the world daily more signal proofs of his base apostasy to the +cause that placed him on the throne, and that heartless selfishness, +of which his face alone bears witness to any one that has a mind to +read it. How the French nation could look upon that face, while yet +flushed with the hopes of the Three Days, and put him on the throne +as representative of those hopes, I cannot conceive. There is a story +current in Italy, that he is really the child of a man first a barber, +afterwards a police-officer, and was substituted at nurse for the true +heir of Orleans; and the vulgarity of form in his body of limbs, power +of endurance, greed of gain, and hard, cunning intellect, so unlike +all traits of the weak, but more "genteel" Bourbon race, might well +lend plausibility to such a fable. + +But to return to Rome, where I hear the Ave Maria just ringing. By the +way, nobody pauses, nobody thinks, nobody prays. + + "Ave Maria! 't is the hour of prayer, + Ave Maria! 't is the hour of love," &c., + +is but a figment of the poet's fancy. + +To return to Rome: what a Rome! the fortieth day of rain, and damp, +and abominable reeking odors, such as blessed cities swept by the +sea-breeze--bitter sometimes, yet indeed a friend--never know. It has +been dark all day, though the lamp has only been lit half an hour. The +music of the day has been, first the atrocious _arias_, which last in +the Corso till near noon, though certainly less in virulence on rainy +days. Then came the wicked organ-grinder, who, apart from the horror +of the noise, grinds exactly the same obsolete abominations as at +home or in England,--the Copenhagen Waltz, "Home, sweet home," and all +that! The cruel chance that both an English my-lady and a Councillor +from one of the provinces live opposite, keeps him constantly before +my window, hoping baiocchi. Within, the three pet dogs of my landlady, +bereft of their walk, unable to employ their miserable legs and eyes, +exercise themselves by a continual barking, which is answered by all +the dogs in the neighborhood. An urchin returning from the laundress, +delighted with the symphony, lays down his white bundle in the gutter, +seats himself on the curb-stone, and attempts an imitation of the +music of cats as a tribute to the concert. The door-bell rings. _Chi +è?_ "Who is it?" cries the handmaid, with unweariable senselessness, +as if any one would answer, _Rogue_, or _Enemy_, instead of the +traditionary _Amico_, _Friend_. Can it be, perchance, a letter, news +of home, or some of the many friends who have neglected so long +to write, or some ray of hope to break the clouds of the difficult +Future? Far from it. Enter a man poisoning me at once with the smell +of the worst possible cigars, not to be driven out, insisting I shall +look upon frightful, ill-cut cameos, and worse-designed mosaics, +made by some friend of his, who works in a chamber and will sell _so_ +cheap. Man of ill-odors and meanest smile! I am no Countess to be +fooled by you. For dogs they were not even--dog-cheap. + +A faint and misty gleam of sun greeted the day on which there was the +feast to the Bambino, the most venerated doll of Rome. This is the +famous image of the infant Jesus, reputed to be made of wood from +a tree of Palestine, and which, being taken away from its present +abode,--the church of Ara Coeli,--returned by itself, making the bells +ring as it sought admittance at the door. It is this which is carried +in extreme cases to the bedside of the sick. It has received more +splendid gifts than any other idol. An orphan by my side, now +struggling with difficulties, showed me on its breast a splendid +jewel, which a doting grandmother thought more likely to benefit her +soul if given to the Bambino, than if turned into money to give her +grandchildren education and prospects in life. The same old lady +left her vineyard, not to these children, but to her confessor, a +well-endowed Monsignor, who occasionally asks this youth, his +godson, to dinner! Children so placed are not quite such devotees to +Catholicism as the new proselytes of America;--they are not so much +patted on the head, and things do not show to them under quite the +same silver veil. + +The church of Ara Coeli is on or near the site of the temple of +Capitoline Jove, which certainly saw nothing more idolatrous than +these ceremonies. For about a week the Bambino is exhibited in an +illuminated chapel, in the arms of a splendidly dressed Madonna doll. +Behind, a transparency represents the shepherds, by moonlight, at the +time the birth was announced, and, above, God the Father, with many +angels hailing the event. A pretty part of this exhibition, which I +was not so fortunate as to hit upon, though I went twice on purpose, +is the children making little speeches in honor of the occasion. +Many readers will remember some account of this in Andersen's +"Improvvisatore." + +The last time I went was the grand feast in honor of the Bambino. The +church was entirely full, mostly with Contadini and the poorer people, +absorbed in their devotions: one man near me never raised his head +or stirred from his knees to see anything; he seemed in an anguish of +prayer, either from repentance or anxiety. I wished I could have +hoped the ugly little doll could do Mm any good. The noble stair +which descends from the great door of this church to the foot of the +Capitol,--a stair made from fragments of the old imperial time,--was +flooded with people; the street below was a rapid river also, whose +waves were men. The ceremonies began with splendid music from the +organ, pealing sweetly long and repeated invocations. As if answering +to this call, the world came in, many dignitaries, the Conservatori, +(I think conservatives are the same everywhere, official or no,) and +did homage to the image; then men in white and gold, with the candles +they are so fond here of burning by daylight, as if the poorest +artificial were better than the greatest natural light, uplifted high +above themselves the baby, with its gilded robes and crown, and made +twice the tour of the church, passing twice the column labelled "From +the Home of Augustus," while the band played--what?--the Hymn to Pius +IX. and "Sons of Rome, awake!" Never was a crueller comment upon the +irreconcilableness of these two things. Rome seeks to reconcile reform +and priestcraft. + +But her eyes are shut, that they see not. O awake indeed, Romans! and +you will see that the Christ who is to save men is no wooden dingy +effigy of bygone superstitions, but such as Art has seen him in your +better mood,--a Child, living, full of love, prophetic of a boundless +future,--a Man acquainted with all sorrows that rend the heart of +all, and ever loving man with sympathy and faith death could not +quench,--_that_ Christ lives and may be sought; burn your doll of +wood. + +How any one can remain a Catholic--I mean who has ever been aroused to +think, and is not biassed by the partialities of childish years--after +seeing Catholicism here in Italy, I cannot conceive. There was once a +soul in the religion while the blood of its martyrs was yet fresh +upon the ground, but that soul was always too much encumbered with +the remains of pagan habits and customs: that soul is now quite fled +elsewhere, and in the splendid catafalco, watched by so many white +and red-robed snuff-taking, sly-eyed men, would they let it be opened, +nothing would be found but bones! + +Then the College for propagating all this, the most venerable +Propaganda, has given its exhibition in honor of the Magi, wise men of +the East who came to Christ. I was there one day. In conformity with +the general spirit of Rome,--strangely inconsistent in a country where +the Madonna is far more frequently and devoutly worshipped than God or +Christ, in a city where at least as many female saints and martyrs are +venerated as male,--there was no good place for women to sit. All +the good seats were for the men in the area below, but in the gallery +windows, and from the organ-loft, a few women were allowed to peep +at what was going on. I was one of these exceptional characters. The +exercises were in all the different languages under the sun. It would +have been exceedingly interesting to hear them, one after the +other, each in its peculiar cadence and inflection, but much of the +individual expression was taken away by that general false academic +tone which is sure to pervade such exhibitions where young men speak +who have as yet nothing to say. It would have been different, indeed, +if we could have heard natives of all those countries, who were +animated by real feelings, real wants. Still it was interesting, +particularly the language and music of Kurdistan, and the full-grown +beauty of the Greek after the ruder dialects. Among those who appeared +to the best advantage were several blacks, and the majesty of the +Latin hexameters was confided to a full-blooded Guinea negro, who +acquitted himself better than any other I heard. I observed, too, the +perfectly gentlemanly appearance of these young men, and that they +had nothing of that Cuffy swagger by which those freed from a servile +state try to cover a painful consciousness of their position in our +country. Their air was self-possessed, quiet and free beyond that of +most of the whites. + + +January 22, 2 o'clock, P.M. + +Pour, pour, pour again, dark as night,--many people coming in to see +me because they don't know what to do with themselves. I am very glad +to see them for the same reason; this atmosphere is so heavy, I seem +to carry the weight of the world on my head and feel unfitted for +every exertion. As to eating, that is a bygone thing; wine, coffee, +meat, I have resigned; vegetables are few and hard to have, except +horrible cabbage, in which the Romans delight. A little rice still +remains, which I take with pleasure, remembering it growing in the +rich fields of Lombardy, so green and full of glorious light. That +light fell still more beautiful on the tall plantations of hemp, but +it is dangerous just at present to think of what is made from hemp. + +This week all the animals are being blessed,[A] and they get a +gratuitous baptism, too, the while. The lambs one morning were taken +out to the church of St. Agnes for this purpose. The little companion +of my travels, if he sees this letter, will remember how often we saw +her with her lamb in pictures. The horses are being blessed by St. +Antonio, and under his harmonizing influence are afterward driven +through the city, twelve and even twenty in hand. They are harnessed +into light wagons, and men run beside them to guard against accident, +in case the good influence of the Saint should fail. + +[Footnote A: One of Rome's singular customs.--ED.] + +This morning came the details of infamous attempts by the Austrian +police to exasperate the students of Pavia. The way is to send persons +to smoke cigars in forbidden places, who insult those who are obliged +to tell them to desist. These traps seem particularly shocking when +laid for fiery and sensitive young men. They succeeded: the students +were lured, into combat, and a number left dead and wounded on both +sides. The University is shut up; the inhabitants of Pavia and Milan +have put on mourning; even at the theatre they wear it. The Milanese +will not walk in that quarter where the blood of their fellow-citizens +has been so wantonly shed. They have demanded a legal investigation of +the conduct of the officials. + +At Piacenza similar attempts have been made to excite the Italians, by +smoking in their faces, and crying, "Long live the Emperor!" It is a +worthy homage to pay to the Austrian crown,--this offering of cigars +and blood. + + "O this offence is rank; it smells to Heaven." + +This morning authentic news is received from Naples. The king, when +assured by his own brother that Sicily was in a state of irresistible +revolt, and that even the women quelled the troops,--showering on them +stones, furniture, boiling oil, such means of warfare as the household +may easily furnish to a thoughtful matron,--had, first, a stroke of +apoplexy, from, which the loss of a good deal of bad blood relieved +him. His mind apparently having become clearer thereby, he has offered +his subjects an amnesty and terms of reform, which, it is hoped, will +arrive before his troops have begun to bombard the cities in obedience +to earlier orders. + +Comes also to-day the news that the French Chamber of Peers propose +an Address to the King, echoing back all the falsehoods of his speech, +including those upon reform, and the enormous one that "the peace of +Europe is now assured"; but that some members have worthily opposed +this address, and spoken truth in an honorable manner. + +Also, that the infamous sacrifice of the poor little queen of Spain +puts on more tragic colors; that it is pretended she has epilepsy, and +she is to be made to renounce the throne, which, indeed, has been a +terrific curse to her. And Heaven and Earth have looked calmly on, +while the king of France has managed all this with the most unnatural +of mothers. + + +January 27. + +This morning comes the plan of the Address of the Chamber of Deputies +to the King: it contains some passages that are keenest satire upon +him, as also some remarks which have been made, some words of truth +spoken in the Chamber of Peers, that must have given him some twinges +of nervous shame as he read. M. Guizot's speech on the affairs of +Switzerland shows his usual shabbiness and falsehood. Surely never +prime minister stood in so mean a position as he: one like Metternich +seems noble and manly in comparison; for if there is a cruel, +atheistical, treacherous policy, there needs not at least continual +evasion to avoid declaring in words what is so glaringly manifest in +fact. + +There is news that the revolution has now broken out in Naples; that +neither Sicilians nor Neapolitans will trust the king, but demand +his abdication; and that his bad demon, Coclo, has fled, carrying two +hundred thousand ducats of gold. But in particulars this news is not +yet sure, though, no doubt, there is truth, at the bottom. + +Aggressions on the part of the Austrians continue in the North. The +advocates Tommaso and Manin (a light thus reflected on the name of the +last Doge), having dared to declare formally the necessity of reform, +are thrown into prison. Every day the cloud swells, and the next +fortnight is likely to bring important tidings. + + + + +LETTER XXIII. + +UNPLEASANTNESS OF A ROMAN WINTER.--PROGRESS OF EVENTS IN EUROPE, +AND THEIR EFFECT UPON ITALY.--THE CARNIVAL.--RAIN INTERRUPTS +THE GAYETY.--REJOICINGS FOR THE REVOLUTIONS OF FRANCE AND +AUSTRIA.--TRANSPORTS OF THE PEOPLE.--OBLATIONS TO THE CAUSE OF +LIBERTY.--CASTLE FUSANO.--THE WEATHER, GLADSOMENESS OF NATURE, AND THE +PLEASURE OF THOUGHT. + + +Rome, March 29, 1848. + +It is long since I have written. My health entirely gave way beneath +the Roman winter. The rain was constant, commonly falling in torrents +from the 16th of December to the 19th of March. Nothing could surpass +the dirt, the gloom, the desolation, of Rome. Let no one fancy he has +seen her who comes here only in the winter. It is an immense mistake +to do so. I cannot sufficiently rejoice that I did not first see Italy +in the winter. + +The climate of Rome at this time of extreme damp I have found equally +exasperating and weakening. I have had constant nervous headache +without strength to bear it, nightly fever, want of appetite. Some +constitutions bear it better, but the complaint of weakness and +extreme dejection of spirits is general among foreigners in the wet +season. The English say they become acclimated in two or three years, +and cease to suffer, though never so strong as at home. + +Now this long dark dream--to me the most idle and most suffering +season of my life--seems past. The Italian heavens wear again their +deep blue; the sun shines gloriously; the melancholy lustres are +stealing again over the Campagna, and hundreds of larks sing unwearied +above its ruins. + +Nature seems in sympathy with the great events that are +transpiring,--with the emotions which are swelling the hearts of +men. The morning sun is greeted by the trumpets of the Roman legions +marching out once more, now not to oppress but to defend. The stars +look down on their jubilees over the good news which nightly reaches +them from their brothers of Lombardy. This week has been one of +nobler, sweeter feeling, of a better hope and faith, than Rome in her +greatest days ever knew. How much has happened since I wrote! First, +the victorious resistance of Sicily and the revolution of Naples. +This has led us yet only to half-measures, but even these have been of +great use to the progress of Italy. The Neapolitans will probably have +to get rid at last of the stupid crowned head who is at present their +puppet; but their bearing with him has led to the wiser sovereigns +granting these constitutions, which, if eventually inadequate to the +wants of Italy, will be so useful, are so needed, to educate her to +seek better, completer forms of administration. + +In the midst of all this serious work came the play of Carnival, in +which there was much less interest felt than usual, but enough to +dazzle and captivate a stranger. One thing, however, has been omitted +in the description of the Roman Carnival; i.e. that it rains every +day. Almost every day came on violent rain, just as the tide of gay +masks was fairly engaged in the Corso. This would have been well worth +bearing once or twice, for the sake of seeing the admirable good +humor of this people. Those who had laid out all their savings in the +gayest, thinnest dresses, on carriages and chairs for the Corso, found +themselves suddenly drenched, their finery spoiled, and obliged to +ride and sit shivering all the afternoon. But they never murmured, +never scolded, never stopped throwing their flowers. Their strength of +constitution is wonderful. While I, in my shawl and boa, was coughing +at the open window from the moment I inhaled the wet sepulchral air, +the servant-girls of the house had taken off their woollen gowns, and, +arrayed in white muslins and roses, sat in the drenched street +beneath the drenching rain, quite happy, and have suffered nothing in +consequence. + +The Romans renounced the _Moccoletti_, ostensibly as an expression of +sympathy for the sufferings of the Milanese, but really because, at +that time, there was great disturbance about the Jesuits, and the +government feared that difficulties would arise in the excitement of +the evening. But, since, we have had this entertainment in honor +of the revolutions of France and Austria, and nothing could be more +beautiful. The fun usually consists in all the people blowing one +another's lights out. We had not this; all the little tapers were +left to blaze, and the long Corso swarmed with tall fire-flies. Lights +crept out over the surface of all the houses, and such merry little +twinkling lights, laughing and flickering with each slightest movement +of those who held them! Up and down the Corso they twinkled, they +swarmed, they streamed, while a surge of gay triumphant sound ebbed +and flowed beneath that glittering surface. Here and there danced men +carrying aloft _moccoli_, and clanking chains, emblem of the tyrannic +power now vanquished by the people;--the people, sweet and noble, who, +in the intoxication of their joy, were guilty of no rude or unkindly +word or act, and who, no signal being given as usual for the +termination of their diversion, closed, of their own accord and with +one consent, singing the hymns for Pio, by nine o'clock, and +retired peacefully to their homes, to dream of hopes they yet scarce +understand. + +This happened last week. The news of the dethronement of Louis +Philippe reached us just after the close of the Carnival. It was just +a year from my leaving Paris. I did not think, as I looked with such +disgust on the empire of sham he had established in France, and saw +the soul of the people imprisoned and held fast as in an iron vice, +that it would burst its chains so soon. Whatever be the result, France +has done gloriously; she has declared that she will not be satisfied +with pretexts while there are facts in the world,--that to stop her +march is a vain attempt, though the onward path be dangerous and +difficult. It is vain to cry, Peace! peace! when there is no peace. +The news from France, in these days, sounds ominous, though still +vague. It would appear that the political is being merged in the +social struggle: it is well. Whatever blood is to be shed, whatever +altars cast down, those tremendous problems MUST be solved, whatever +be the cost! That cost cannot fail to break many a bank, many a heart, +in Europe, before the good can bud again out of a mighty corruption. +To you, people of America, it may perhaps be given to look on and +learn in time for a preventive wisdom. You may learn the real meaning +of the words FRATERNITY, EQUALITY: you may, despite the apes of the +past who strive to tutor you, learn the needs of a true democracy. You +may in time learn to reverence, learn to guard, the true aristocracy +of a nation, the only really nobles,--the LABORING CLASSES. + +And Metternich, too, is crushed; the seed of the woman has had his +foot on the serpent. I have seen the Austrian arms dragged through +the streets of Rome and burned in the Piazza del Popolo. The Italians +embraced one another, and cried, _Miracolo! Providenza!_ the modern +Tribune Ciceronacchio fed the flame with faggots; Adam Mickiewicz, the +great poet of Poland, long exiled from his country or the hopes of a +country, looked on, while Polish women, exiled too, or who perhaps, +like one nun who is here, had been daily scourged by the orders of a +tyrant, brought little pieces that had been scattered in the street +and threw them into the flames,--an offering received by the Italians +with loud plaudits. It was a transport of the people, who found no way +to vent their joy, but the symbol, the poesy, natural to the Italian +mind. The ever-too-wise "upper classes" regret it, and the Germans +choose to resent it as an insult to Germany; but it was nothing of +the kind; the insult was to the prisons of Spielberg, to those who +commanded the massacres of Milan,--a base tyranny little congenial to +the native German heart, as the true Germans of Germany are at this +moment showing by their resolves, by their struggles. + +When the double-headed eagle was pulled down from above the lofty +portal of the Palazzo di Venezia, the people placed there in its stead +one of white and gold, inscribed with the name ALTA ITALIA, and quick +upon the emblem followed the news that Milan was fighting against her +tyrants,--that Venice had driven them out and freed from their prisons +the courageous Protestants in favor of truth, Tommaso and Manin,--that +Manin, descendant of the last Doge, had raised the republican banner +on the Place St. Mark,--and that Modena, that Parma, were driving out +the unfeeling and imbecile creatures who had mocked Heaven and man by +the pretence of government there. + +With indescribable rapture these tidings were received in Rome. Men +were seen dancing, women weeping with joy along the street. The youth +rushed to enroll themselves in regiments to go to the frontier. In the +Colosseum their names were received. Father Gavazzi, a truly patriotic +monk, gave them the cross to carry on a new, a better, because +defensive, crusade. Sterbini, long exiled, addressed them. He said: +"Romans, do you wish to go; do you wish to go with all your hearts? +If so, you _may_, and those who do not wish to go themselves may give +money. To those who will go, the government gives bread and fifteen +baiocchi a day." The people cried: "We wish to go, but we do not wish +so much; the government is very poor; we can live on a paul a day." +The princes answered by giving, one sixty thousand, others twenty, +fifteen, ten thousand dollars. The people responded by giving at +the benches which are opened in the piazzas literally everything; +street-pedlers gave the gains of each day; women gave every +ornament,--from the splendid necklace and bracelet down to the poorest +bit of coral; servant-girls gave five pauls, two pauls, even half a +paul, if they had no more. A man all in rags gave two pauls. "It +is," said he, "all I have." "Then," said Torlonia, "take from me this +dollar." The man of rags thanked him warmly, and handed that also to +the bench, which refused to receive it. "No! _that_ must stay with +you," shouted all present. These are the people whom the traveller +accuses of being unable to rise above selfish considerations;--a +nation rich and glorious by nature, capable, like all nations, all +men, of being degraded by slavery, capable, as are few nations, few +men, of kindling into pure flame at the touch of a ray from the Sun of +Truth, of Life. + +The two or three days that followed, the troops were marching about by +detachments, followed always by the people, to the Ponte Molle, often +farther. The women wept; for the habits of the Romans are so domestic, +that it seemed a great thing to have their sons and lovers gone even +for a few months. The English--or at least those of the illiberal, +bristling nature too often met here, which casts out its porcupine +quills against everything like enthusiasm (of the more generous Saxon +blood I know some noble examples)--laughed at all this. They have said +that this people would not fight; when the Sicilians, men and women, +did so nobly, they said: "O, the Sicilians are quite unlike the +Italians; you will see, when the struggle comes on in Lombardy, they +cannot resist the Austrian force a moment." I said: "That force is +only physical; do not you think a sentiment can sustain them?" They +replied: "All stuff and poetry; it will fade the moment their blood +flows." When the news came that the Milanese, men and women, fight as +the Sicilians did, they said: "Well, the Lombards are a better race, +but these Romans are good for nothing. It is a farce for a Roman to +try to walk even; they never walk a mile; they will not be able to +support the first day's march of thirty miles, and not have their +usual _minéstra_ to eat either." Now the troops were not willing to +wait for the government to make the necessary arrangements for their +march, so at the first night's station--Monterosi--they did _not_ find +food or bedding; yet the second night, at Civita Castellana, they were +so well alive as to remain dancing and vivaing Pio Nono in the piazza +till after midnight. No, Gentlemen, soul is not quite nothing, if +matter be a clog upon its transports. + +The Americans show a better, warmer feeling than they did; the meeting +in New York was of use in instructing the Americans abroad! The dinner +given here on Washington's birthday was marked by fine expressions of +sentiment, and a display of talent unusual on such occasions. There +was a poem from Mr. Story of Boston, which gave great pleasure; a +speech by Mr. Hillard, said to be very good, and one by Rev. Mr. Hedge +of Bangor, exceedingly admired for the felicity of thought and image, +and the finished beauty of style. + +Next week we shall have more news, and I shall try to write and +mention also some interesting things want of time obliges me to omit +in this letter. + + +April 1. + +Yesterday I passed at Ostia and Castle Fusano. A million birds sang; +the woods teemed with blossoms; the sod grew green hourly over the +graves of the mighty Past; the surf rushed in on a fair shore; the +Tiber majestically retreated to carry inland her share from the +treasures of the deep; the sea-breezes burnt my face, but revived my +heart. I felt the calm of thought, the sublime hopes of the future, +nature, man,--so great, though so little,--so dear, though incomplete. +Returning to Rome, I find the news pronounced official, that the +viceroy Ranieri has capitulated at Verona; that Italy is free, +independent, and one. I trust this will prove no April-foolery, no +premature news; it seems too good, too speedy a realization of hope, +to have come on earth, and can only be answered in the words of the +proclamation made yesterday by Pius IX.:-- + +"The events which these two months past have seen rush after one +another in rapid succession, are no human work. Woe to him who, in +this wind, which shakes and tears up alike the lofty cedars and humble +shrubs, hears not the voice of God! Woe to human pride, if to the +fault or merit of any man whatsoever it refer these wonderful changes, +instead of adoring the mysterious designs of Providence." + + + + +LETTER XXIV. + +AFFAIRS IN ITALY.--THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT OF MILAN.--ADDRESS TO +THE GERMAN NATION.--BROTHERHOOD, AND THE INDEPENDENCE OF ITALY.--THE +PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT TO THE NATIONS SUBJECT TO THE RULE OF THE +HOUSE OF AUSTRIA.--REFLECTIONS ON THESE MOVEMENTS.--LAMARTINE.-- +BERANGER.--MICKIEWICZ IN FLORENCE: ENTHUSIASTIC RECEPTION: STYLED +THE DANTE OF POLAND: HIS ADDRESS BEFORE THE FLORENTINES.--EXILES +RETURNING.--MAZZINI.--THE POSITION OF PIUS IX.--HIS DERELICTION FROM +THE CAUSE OF FREEDOM AND OF PROGRESS.--THE AFFAIR OF THE JESUITS.-- +HIS COURSE IN VARIOUS MATTERS.--LANGUAGE OF THE PEOPLE.--THE WORK +BEGUN BY NAPOLEON VIRTUALLY FINISHED.--THE LOSS OF PIUS IX. FOR THE +MOMENT A GREAT ONE.--THE RESPONSIBILITY OF EVENTS LYING WHOLLY WITH +THE PEOPLE.--HOPES AND PROSPECTS OF THE FUTURE. + + +Rome, April 19, 1848. + +In closing my last, I hoped to have some decisive intelligence +to impart by this time, as to the fortunes of Italy. But though +everything, so far, turns in her favor, there has been no decisive +battle, no final stroke. It pleases me much, as the news comes from +day to day, that I passed so leisurely last summer over that part of +Lombardy now occupied by the opposing forces, that I have in my mind +the faces both of the Lombard and Austrian leaders. A number of the +present members of the Provisional Government of Milan I knew while +there; they are men of twenty-eight and thirty, much more advanced in +thought than the Moderates of Rome, Naples, Tuscany, who are too much +fettered with a bygone state of things, and not on a par in thought, +knowledge, preparation for the great future, with the rest of the +civilized world at this moment. The papers that emanate from the +Milanese government are far superior in tone to any that have been +uttered by the other states. Their protest in favor of their rights, +their addresses to the Germans at large and the countries under the +dominion of Austria, are full of nobleness and thoughts sufficiently +great for the use of the coming age. These addresses I translate, +thinking they may not in other form reach America. + + +"THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT OF MILAN TO THE GERMAN NATION. + +"We hail you as brothers, valiant, learned, generous Germans! + +"This salutation from a people just risen after a terrible struggle to +self-consciousness and to the exercise of its rights, ought deeply to +move your magnanimous hearts. + +"We deem ourselves worthy to utter that great word Brotherhood, which +effaces among nations the traditions of all ancient hate, and we +proffer it over the new-made graves of our fellow-citizens, who have +fought and died to give us the right to proffer it without fear or +shame. + +"We call brothers men of all nations who believe and hope in the +improvement of the human family, and seek the occasion to further it; +but you, especially, we call brothers, you Germans, with whom, we have +in common so many noble sympathies,--the love of the arts and higher +studies, the delight of noble contemplation,--with whom also we have +much correspondence in our civil destinies. + +"With you are of first importance the interests of the great country, +Germany,--with us, those of the great country, Italy. + +"We were induced to rise in arms against Austria, (we mean, not +the people, but the government of Austria,) not only by the need of +redeeming ourselves from the shame and grief of thirty-one years of +the most abject despotism, but by a deliberate resolve to take our +place upon the plane of nations, to unite with our brothers of the +Peninsula, and take rank with them under the great banner raised by +Pius IX., on which is written, THE INDEPENDENCE OF ITALY. + +"Can you blame us, independent Germans? In blaming us, you would +sink beneath your history, beneath your most honored and recent +declarations. + +"We have chased the Austrian from our soil; we shall give ourselves +no repose till we have chased him from all parts of Italy. No this +enterprise we are all sworn; for this fights our army enrolled in +every part of the Peninsula,--an array of brothers led by the king of +Sardinia, who prides himself on being the sword of Italy. + +"And the Austrian is not more our enemy than yours. + +"The Austrian--we speak still of the government, and not of the +people--has always denied and contradicted the interests of the whole +German nation, at the head of an assemblage of races differing in +language, in customs, in institutions. When it was in his power to +have corrected the errors of time and a dynastic policy, by assuming +the high mission of uniting them by great moral interests, he +preferred to arm one against the other, and to corrupt them all. + +"Fearing every noble instinct, hostile to every grand idea, devoted +to the material interests of an oligarchy of princes spoiled by a +senseless education, of ministers who had sold their consciences, of +speculators who subjected and sacrificed everything to gold, the only +aim of such a government was to sow division everywhere. What wonder +if everywhere in Italy, as in Germany, it reaps harvests of hate and +ignominy. Yes, of hate! To this the Austrian has condemned us, to know +hate and its deep sorrows. But we are absolved in the sight of God, +and by the insults which have been heaped upon us for so many years, +the unwearied efforts to debase us, the destruction of our villages, +the cold-blooded slaughter of our aged people, our priests, our women, +our children. And you,--you shall be the first to absolve us, you, +virtuous among the Germans, who certainly have shared our indignation +when a venal and lying press accused us of being enemies to your great +and generous nation, and we could not answer, and were constrained to +devour in silence the shame of an accusation which wounded us to the +heart. + +"We honor you, Germans! we pant to give you glorious evidence of this. +And, as a prelude to the friendly relations we hope to form with your +governments, we seek to alleviate as much as possible the pains of +captivity to some officers and soldiers belonging to various states of +the Germanic Confederation, who fought in the Austrian army. These +we wish to send back to you, and are occupied by seeking the means to +effect this purpose. We honor you so much, that we believe you capable +of preferring to the bonds of race and language the sacred titles of +misfortune and of right. + +"Ah! answer to our appeal, valiant, wise, and generous Germans! Clasp +the hand, which we offer you with the heart of a brother and friend; +hasten to disavow every appearance of complicity with a government +which the massacres of Galicia and Lombardy have blotted from the list +of civilized and Christian governments. It would be a beautiful thing +for you to give this example, which will be new in history and worthy +of these miraculous times,--the example of a strong and generous +people casting aside other sympathies, other interests, to answer +the invitation of a regenerate people, to cheer it in its new career, +obedient to the great principles of justice, of humanity, of civil and +Christian brotherhood." + + +"THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT OF MILAN TO THE NATIONS SUBJECT TO THE +RULE OF THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. + +"From your lands have come three armies which have brought war into +ours; your speech is spoken by those hostile bands who come to us with +fire and sword; nevertheless we come to you as to brothers. + +"The war which calls for our resistance is not your war; you are not +our enemies: you are only instruments in the hand of our foe, and this +foe, brothers, is common to us all. + +"Before God, before men, solemnly we declare it,--our only enemy is +the government of Austria. + +"And that government which for so many years has labored to cancel, in +the races it has subdued, every vestige of nationality, which takes +no heed of their wants or prayers, bent only on serving miserable +interests and more miserable pride, fomenting always antipathies +conformably with the ancient maxim of tyrants, _Divide and +govern_,--this government has constituted itself the adversary of +every generous thought, the ally and patron of all ignoble causes, +the government declared by the whole civilized world paymaster of the +executioners of Galicia. + +"This government, after having pertinaciously resisted the legal +expression of moderate desires,--after having defied with ludicrous +hauteur the opinion of Europe, has found itself in its metropolis +too weak to resist an insurrection of students, and has yielded,--has +yielded, making an assignment on time, and throwing to you, brothers, +as an alms-gift to the importunate beggar, the promise of institutions +which, in these days, are held essential conditions of life for a +civilized nation. + +"But you have not confided in this promise; for the youth of Vienna, +which feels the inspiring breath of this miraculous time, is impelled +on the path of progress; and therefore the Austrian government, +uncertain of itself and of your dispositions, took its old part of +standing still to wait for events, in the hope of turning them to its +own profit. + +"In the midst of this it received the news of our glorious revolution, +and it thought to have found in this the best way to escape from +its embarrassment. First it concealed that news; then made it known +piecemeal, and disfigured by hypocrisy and hatred. We were a handful +of rebels thirsting for German blood. We make a war of stilettos, we +wish the destruction of all Germany. But for us answers the admiration +of all Italy, of all Europe, even the evidence of your own people whom +we are constrained to hold prisoners or hostages, who will unanimously +avow that we have shown heroic courage in the fight, heroic moderation +in victory. + +"Yes! we have risen as one man against the Austrian government, to +become again a nation, to make common cause with our Italian brothers, +and the arms which we have assumed for so great an object we shall not +lay down till we have attained it. Assailed by a brutal executor of +brutal orders, we have combated in a just war; betrayed, a price +set on our heads, wounded in the most vital parts, we have not +transgressed the bounds of legitimate defence. The murders, the +depredations of the hostile band, irritated against us by most wicked +arts, have excited our horror, but never a reprisal. The soldier, his +arms once laid down, was for us only an unfortunate. + +"But behold how the Austrian government provokes you against us, and +bids you come against us as a crusade! A crusade! The parody would be +ludicrous if it were not so cruel. A crusade against a people which, +in the name of Christ, under a banner blessed by the Vicar of Christ, +and revered by all the nations, fights to secure its indefeasible +rights. + +"Oh! if you form against us this crusade,--we have already shown +the world what a people can do to reconquer its liberty, its +independence,--we will show, also, what it can do to preserve +them. If, almost unarmed, we have put to flight an army inured to +war,--surely, brothers, that army wanted faith in the cause for which +it fought,--can we fear that our courage will grow faint after our +triumph, and when aided by all our brothers of Italy? Let the Austrian +government send against us its threatened battalions, they will find +in our breasts a barrier more insuperable than the Alps. Everything +will be a weapon to us; from every villa, from every field, from every +hedge, will issue defenders of the national cause; women and children +will fight like men; men will centuple their strength, their courage; +and we will all perish amid the ruins of our city, before receiving +foreign rule into this land which at last we call ours. + +"But this must not be. You, our brothers, must not permit it to be; +your honor, your interests, do not permit it. Will you fight in a +cause which you must feel to be absurd and wicked? You sink to the +condition of hirelings, and do you not believe that the Austrian +government, should it conquer us and Italy, would turn against you the +arms you had furnished for the conquest? Do you not believe it would +act as after the struggle with Napoleon? And are you not terrified by +the idea of finding yourself in conflict with all civilized Europe, +and constrained to receive, to feast as your ally, the Autocrat of +Russia, that perpetual terror to the improvement and independence of +Europe? It is not possible for the house of Lorraine to forget its +traditions; it is not possible that it should resign itself to live +tranquil in the atmosphere of Liberty. You can only constrain it by +sustaining yourself, with the Germanic and Slavonian nationalities, +and with this Italy, which longs only to see the nations harmonize +with that resolve which she has finally taken, that she may never more +be torn in pieces. + +"Think of us, brothers. This is for you and for us a question of life +and of death; it is a question on which depends, perhaps, the peace of +Europe. + +"For ourselves, we have already weighed the chances of the struggle, +and subordinated them all to this final resolution, that we will be +free and independent, with our brothers of Italy. + +"We hope that our words will induce you to calm counsels; if not, you +will find us on the field of battle generous and loyal enemies, as now +we profess ourselves your generous and loyal brothers. + + (Signed,) + + "CASATI, _President_, + DURINI, + STRIGELLI, + BERETTA, + GRAPPI, + TURRONI, + REZZONICO, + CARBONERA, + BORROMEO, + P. LITTA, + GIULINI, + GUERRIERI, + PORRO, + MORRONI, + AB. ANELLI, + CORRENTI, _Sec.-Gen._" + +These are the names of men whose hearts glow with that generous ardor, +the noble product of difficult times. Into their hearts flows wisdom +from on high,--thoughts great, magnanimous, brotherly. They may not +all remain true to this high vocation, but, at any rate, they will +have lived a period of true life. I knew some of these men when in +Lombardy; of old aristocratic families, with all the refinement of +inheritance and education, they are thoroughly pervaded by principles +of a genuine democracy of brotherhood and justice. In the flower +of their age, they have before them a long career of the noblest +usefulness, if this era follows up its present promise, and they are +faithful to their present creed, and ready to improve and extend it. + +Every day produces these remarkable documents. So many years as we +have been suffocated and poisoned by the atmosphere of falsehood in +official papers, how refreshing is the tone of noble sentiment in +Lamartine! What a real wisdom and pure dignity in the letter +of Béranger! _He_ was always absolutely true,--an oasis in the +pestilential desert of Humbug; but the present time allowed him a fine +occasion. + +The Poles have also made noble manifestations. Their great poet, Adam +Mickiewicz, has been here to enroll the Italian Poles, publish the +declaration of faith in which they hope to re-enter and re-establish +their country, and receive the Pope's benediction on their banner. In +their declaration of faith are found these three articles:-- + +"Every one of the nation a citizen,--every citizen equal in rights and +before authorities. + +"To the Jew, our elder brother, respect, brotherhood, aid on the way +to his eternal and terrestrial good, entire equality in political and +civil rights. + +"To the companion of life, woman, citizenship, entire equality of +rights." + +This last expression of just thought the Poles ought to initiate, for +what other nation has had such truly heroic women? Women indeed,--not +children, servants, or playthings. + +Mickiewicz, with the squadron that accompanied him from Rome, was +received with the greatest enthusiasm at Florence. Deputations from +the clubs and journals went to his hotel and escorted him to the +Piazza del Gran Dúca, where, amid an immense concourse of people, some +good speeches were made. A Florentine, with a generous forgetfulness +of national vanity, addressed him as the Dante of Poland, who, more +fortunate than the great bard and seer of Italy, was likely to return +to his country to reap the harvest of the seed he had sown. + +"O Dante of Poland! who, like our Alighieri, hast received from +Heaven sovereign genius, divine song, but from earth sufferings and +exile,--more happy than our Alighieri, thou hast reacquired a country; +already thou art meditating on the sacred harp the patriotic hymn of +restoration and of victory. The pilgrims of Poland have become the +warriors of their nation. Long live Poland, and the brotherhood of +nations!" + +When this address was finished, the great poet appeared on the balcony +to answer. The people received him with a tumult of applause, followed +by a profound silence, as they anxiously awaited his voice. Those +who are acquainted with the powerful eloquence, the magnetism, of +Mickiewicz as an orator, will not be surprised at the effect produced +by this speech, though delivered in a foreign language. It is the +force of truth, the great vitality of his presence, that loads his +words with such electric power. He spoke as follows:-- + +"People of Tuscany! Friends! Brothers! We receive your shouts of +sympathy in the name of Poland; not for us, but for our country. Our +country, though distant, claims from you this sympathy by its long +martyrdom. The glory of Poland, its only glory, truly Christian, is +to have suffered more than all the nations. In other countries the +goodness, the generosity of heart, of some sovereigns protected the +people; as yours has enjoyed the dawn of the era now coming, under the +protection of your excellent prince. [Viva Leopold II.!] But conquered +Poland, slave and victim, of sovereigns who were her sworn enemies and +executioners,--Poland, abandoned by the governments and the nations, +lay in agony on her solitary Golgotha. She was believed slain, dead, +burred. 'We have slain her,' shouted the despots; 'she is dead!' +[No, no! long live Poland!] 'The dead cannot rise again,' replied +the diplomatists; 'we may now be tranquil.' [A universal shudder of +feeling in the crowd.] There came a moment in which the world doubted +of the mercy and justice of the Omnipotent. There was a moment in +which the nations thought that the earth might be for ever abandoned +by God, and condemned to the rule of the demon, its ancient lord. The +nations forgot that Jesus Christ came down from heaven to give liberty +and peace to the earth. The nations had forgotten all this. But God +is just. The voice of Pius IX. roused Italy. [Long live Pius IX.!] The +people of Paris have driven out the great traitor against the cause +of the nations. [Bravo! Viva the people of Paris!] Very soon will be +heard the voice of Poland. Poland will rise again! [Yes, yes! +Poland will rise again!] Poland will call to life all the Slavonic +races,--the Croats, the Dalmatians, the Bohemians, the Moravians, +the Illyrians. These will form the bulwark against the tyrant of the +North. [Great applause.] They will close for ever the way against the +barbarians of the North,--destroyers of liberty and of civilization. +Poland is called to do more yet: Poland, as crucified nation, is risen +again, and called to serve her sister nations. The will of God +is, that Christianity should become in Poland, and through Poland +elsewhere, no more a dead letter of the law, but the living law of +states and civil associations;--[Great applause;]--that Christianity +should be manifested by acts, the sacrifices of generosity and +liberality. This Christianity is not new to you, Florentines; your +ancient republic knew and has acted upon it: it is time that the same +spirit should make to itself a larger sphere. The will of God is that +the nations should act towards one another as neighbors,--as brothers. +[A tumult of applause.] And you, Tuscans, have to-day done an act of +Christian brotherhood. Receiving thus foreign, unknown pilgrims, who +go to defy the greatest powers of the earth, you have in us saluted +only what is in us of spiritual and immortal,--our faith and our +patriotism. [Applause.] We thank you; and we will now go into the +church to thank God." + +"All the people then followed the Poles to the church of Santa Cróce, +where was sung the _Benedictus Dominus_, and amid the memorials of the +greatness of Italy collected in that temple was forged more strongly +the chain of sympathy and of union between two nations, sisters in +misfortune and in glory." + +This speech and its reception, literally translated from the journal +of the day, show how pleasant it is on great occasions to be brought +in contact with this people, so full of natural eloquence and of +lively sensibility to what is great and beautiful. + +It is a glorious time too for the exiles who return, and reap even a +momentary fruit of their long sorrows. Mazzini has been able to return +from his seventeen years' exile, during which there was no hour, night +or day, that the thought of Italy was banished from his heart,--no +possible effort that he did not make to achieve the emancipation of +his people, and with it the progress of mankind. He returns, like +Wordsworth's great man, "to see what he foresaw." He will see his +predictions accomplishing yet for a long time, for Mazzini has a +mind far in advance of his times in general, and his nation in +particular,--a mind that will be best revered and understood when +the "illustrious Gioberti" shall be remembered as a pompous verbose +charlatan, with just talent enough to catch the echo from the +advancing wave of his day, but without any true sight of the wants of +man at this epoch. And yet Mazzini sees not all: he aims at political +emancipation; but he sees not, perhaps would deny, the bearing of some +events, which even now begin to work their way. Of this, more anon; +but not to-day, nor in the small print of the Tribune. Suffice it to +say, I allude to that of which the cry of Communism, the systems of +Fourier, &c., are but forerunners. Mazzini sees much already,--at +Milan, where he is, he has probably this day received the intelligence +of the accomplishment of his foresight, implied in his letter to the +Pope, which angered Italy by what was thought its tone of irreverence +and doubt, some six months since. + +To-day is the 7th of May, for I had thrown aside this letter, begun +the 19th of April, from a sense that there was something coming that +would supersede what was then to say. This something has appeared in a +form that will cause deep sadness to good hearts everywhere. Good and +loving hearts, that long for a human form which they can revere, +will be unprepared and for a time must suffer much from the final +dereliction of Pius IX. to the cause of freedom, progress, and of the +war. He was a fair image, and men went nigh to idolize it; this +they can do no more, though they may be able to find excuse for +his feebleness, love his good heart no less than before, and draw +instruction from the causes that have produced his failure, more +valuable than his success would have been. + +Pius IX., no one can doubt who has looked on him, has a good and pure +heart; but it needed also, not only a strong, but a great mind, + + "To _comprehend his trust_, and to the same + Keep faithful, with a singleness of aim." + +A highly esteemed friend in the United States wrote to express +distaste to some observations in a letter of mine to the Tribune on +first seeing the Pontiff a year ago, observing, "To say that he had +not the expression of great intellect was _uncalled for_" Alas! +far from it; it was an observation that rose inevitably on knowing +something of the task before Pius IX., and the hopes he had excited. +The problem he had to solve was one of such difficulty, that only +one of those minds, the rare product of ages for the redemption of +mankind, could be equal to its solution. The question that inevitably +rose on seeing him was, "Is he such a one?" The answer was immediately +negative. But at the same time, he had such an aspect of true +benevolence and piety, that a hope arose that Heaven would act through +him, and impel him to measures wise beyond his knowledge. + +This hope was confirmed by the calmness he showed at the time of the +conspiracy of July, and the occupation of Ferrara by the Austrians. +Tales were told of simple wisdom, of instinct, which he obeyed in +opposition to the counsels of all his Cardinals. Everything went on +well for a time. + +But tokens of indubitable weakness were shown by the Pope in early +acts of the winter, in the removal of a censor at the suggestion of +others, in his speech, to the Consistory, in his answer to the first +address of the Council. In these he declared that, when there was +conflict between the priest and the man, he always meant to be the +priest; and that he preferred the wisdom of the past to that of the +future. + +Still, times went on bending his predeterminations to the call of the +moment. He _acted_ wiselier than he intended; as, for instance, three +weeks after declaring he would not give a constitution to his people, +he gave it,--a sop to Cerberus, indeed,--a poor vamped-up thing that +will by and by have to give place to something more legitimate, but +which served its purpose at the time as declaration of rights for the +people. When the news of the revolution of Vienna arrived, the Pope +himself cried _Viva Pio Nono!_ and this ebullition of truth in one so +humble, though opposed to his formal declarations, was received by his +people with that immediate assent which truth commands. + +The revolution of Lombardy followed. The troops of the line were sent +thither; the volunteers rushed to accompany them. In the streets of +Rome was read the proclamation of Charles Albert, in which he styles +himself the servant of Italy and of Pius IX. The priests preached the +war, and justly, as a crusade; the Pope blessed their banners. Nobody +dreamed, or had cause to dream, that these movements had not his +full sympathy; and his name was in every form invoked as the chosen +instrument of God to inspire Italy to throw off the oppressive yoke of +the foreigner, and recover her rights in the civilized world. + +At the same time, however, the Pope was seen to act with great +blindness in the affair of the Jesuits. The other states of Italy +drove them out by main force, resolved not to have in the midst of +the war a foe and spy in the camp. Rome wished to do the same, but the +Pope rose in their defence. He talked as if they were assailed as a +_religious_ body, when he could not fail, like everybody else, to be +aware that they were dreaded and hated solely as agents of despotism. +He demanded that they should be assailed only by legal means, when +none such were available. The end was in half-measures, always the +worst possible. He would not entirely yield, and the people would +not at all. The Order was ostensibly dissolved; but great part of +the Jesuits really remain here in disguise, a constant source of +irritation and mischief, which, if still greater difficulties had +not arisen, would of itself have created enough. Meanwhile, in the +earnestness of the clergy about the pretended loss of the head of St. +Andrew, in the ceremonies of the holy week, which at this juncture +excited no real interest, was much matter for thought to the calm +observer as to the restlessness of the new wine, the old bottles being +heard to crack on every side, and hour by hour. + +Thus affairs went on from day to day,--the Pope kissing the foot of +the brazen Jupiter and blessing palms of straw at St. Peter's; +the _Circolo Romano_ erecting itself into a kind of Jacobin Club, +dictating programmes for an Italian Diet-General, and choosing +committees to provide for the expenses of the war; the Civic Guard +arresting people who tried to make mobs as if famishing, and, being +searched, were found well provided both with arms and money; the +ministry at their wits' end, with their trunks packed up ready to +be off at a moment's warning,--when the report, it is not yet known +whether true or false, that one of the Roman Civic Guard, a well-known +artist engaged in the war of Lombardy, had been taken and hung by the +Austrians as a brigand, roused the people to a sense of the position +of their friends, and they went to the Pope to demand that he should +take a decisive stand, and declare war against the Austrians. + +The Pope summoned, a consistory; the people waited anxiously, for +expressions of his were reported, as if the troops ought not to have +thought of leaving the frontier, while every man, woman, and child +in Rome knew, and every letter and bulletin declared, that all their +thought was to render active aid to the cause of Italian independence. +This anxious doubt, however, had not prepared at all for the excess to +which they were to be disappointed. + +The speech of the Pope declared, that he had never any thought of +the great results which had followed his actions; that he had only +intended local reforms, such as had previously been suggested by the +potentates of Europe; that he regretted the _mis_use which had been +made of his name; and wound up by lamenting over the war,--dear to +every Italian heart as the best and holiest cause in which for ages +they had been called to embark their hopes,--as if it was something +offensive to the spirit of religion, and which he would fain see +hushed up, and its motives smoothed out and ironed over. + +A momentary stupefaction followed this astounding performance, +succeeded by a passion of indignation, in which the words _traitor_ +and _imbecile_ were associated with the name that had been so dear to +his people. This again yielded to a settled grief: they felt that he +was betrayed, but no traitor; timid and weak, but still a sovereign +whom they had adored, and a man who had brought them much good, which +could not be quite destroyed by his wishing to disown it. Even of +this fact they had no time to stop and think; the necessity was too +imminent of obviating the worst consequences of this ill; and the +first thought was to prevent the news leaving Rome, to dishearten the +provinces and army, before they had tried to persuade the Pontiff to +wiser resolves, or, if this could not be, to supersede his power. + +I cannot repress my admiration at the gentleness, clearness, and good +sense with which the Roman people acted under these most difficult +circumstances. It was astonishing to see the clear understanding which +animated the crowd, as one man, and the decision with which they acted +to effect their purpose. Wonderfully has this people been developed +within a year! + +The Pope, besieged by deputations, who mildly but firmly showed him +that, if he persisted, the temporal power must be placed in other +hands, his ears filled with reports of Cardinals, "such venerable +persons," as he pathetically styles them, would not yield in spirit, +though compelled to in act. After two days' struggle, he was obliged +to place the power in the hands of the persons most opposed to him, +and nominally acquiesce in their proceedings, while in his second +proclamation, very touching from the sweetness of its tone, he shows a +fixed misunderstanding of the cause at issue, which leaves no hope of +his ever again being more than a name or an effigy in their affairs. + +His people were much affected, and entirely laid aside their anger, +but they would not be blinded as to the truth. While gladly returning +to their accustomed habits of affectionate homage toward the Pontiff, +their unanimous sense and resolve is thus expressed in an able +pamphlet of the day, such as in every respect would have been deemed +impossible to the Rome of 1847:-- + +"From the last allocution of Pius result two facts of extreme +gravity;--the entire separation between the spiritual and temporal +power, and the express refusal of the Pontiff to be chief of an +Italian Republic. But far from drawing hence reason for discouragement +and grief, who looks well at the destiny of Italy may bless +Providence, which breaks or changes the instrument when the work +is completed, and by secret and inscrutable ways conducts us to the +fulfilment of our desires and of our hopes. + +"If Pius IX. refuses, the Italian people does not therefore draw back. +Nothing remains to the free people of Italy, except to unite in one +constitutional kingdom, founded on the largest basis; and if the chief +who, by our assemblies, shall be called to the highest honor, either +declines or does not answer worthily, the people will take care of +itself. + +"Italians! down with all emblems of private and partial interests. +Let us unite under one single banner, the tricolor, and if he who has +carried it bravely thus far lets it fall from his hand, we will take +it one from the other, twenty-four millions of us, and, till the last +of us shall have perished under the banner of our redemption, the +stranger shall not return into Italy. + +"Viva Italy! viva the Italian people!"[A] + +[Footnote A: Close of "A Comment by Pio Angelo Fierortino on the +Allocution of Pius IX. spoken in the Secret Consistory of 29th April, +1848," dated Italy, 30th April, 1st year of the Redemption of Italy.] + +These events make indeed a crisis. The work begun by Napoleon is +finished. There will never more be really a Pope, but only the effigy +or simulacrum of one. + +The loss of Pius IX. is for the moment a great one. His name had real +moral weight,--was a trumpet appeal to sentiment. It is not the same +with any man that is left. There is not one that can be truly a leader +in the Roman dominion, not one who has even great intellectual weight. + +The responsibility of events now lies wholly with the people, and +that wave of thought which has begun to pervade them. Sovereigns and +statesmen will go where they are carried; it is probable power will be +changed continually from, hand to hand, and government become, to all +intents and purposes, representative. Italy needs now quite to throw +aside her stupid king of Naples, who hangs like a dead weight on her +movements. The king of Sardinia and the Grand Duke of Tuscany will be +trusted while they keep their present course; but who can feel sure +of any sovereign, now that Louis Philippe has shown himself so mad +and Pius IX. so blind? It seems as if fate was at work to bewilder +and cast down the dignities of the world and democratize society at a +blow. + +In Rome there is now no anchor except the good sense of the people. +It seems impossible that collision should not arise between him who +retains the name but not the place of sovereign, and the provisional +government which calls itself a ministry. The Count Mamiani, its new +head, is a man of reputation as a writer, but untried as yet as a +leader or a statesman. Should agitations arise, the Pope can no longer +calm them by one of his fatherly looks. + +All lies in the future; and our best hope must be that the Power which +has begun so great a work will find due means to end it, and make the +year 1850 a year of true jubilee to Italy; a year not merely of pomps +and tributes, but of recognized rights and intelligent joys; a year of +real peace,--peace, founded not on compromise and the lying etiquettes +of diplomacy, but on truth and justice. + +Then this sad disappointment in Pius IX. may be forgotten, or, while +all that was lovely and generous in his life is prized and reverenced, +deep instruction may be drawn from his errors as to the inevitable +dangers of a priestly or a princely environment, and a higher +knowledge may elevate a nobler commonwealth than the world has yet +known. + +Hoping this era, I remain at present here. Should my hopes be dashed +to the ground, it will not change my faith, but the struggle for its +manifestation is to me of vital interest. My friends write to urge my +return; they talk of our country as the land of the future. It is so, +but that spirit which made it all it is of value in my eyes, which +gave all of hope with which I can sympathize for that future, is +more alive here at present than in America. My country is at present +spoiled by prosperity, stupid with the lust of gain, soiled by crime +in its willing perpetuation of slavery, shamed by an unjust war, noble +sentiment much forgotten even by individuals, the aims of politicians +selfish or petty, the literature frivolous and venal. In Europe, amid +the teachings of adversity, a nobler spirit is struggling,--a spirit +which cheers and animates mine. I hear earnest words of pure faith and +love. I see deeds of brotherhood. This is what makes _my_ America. I +do not deeply distrust my country. She is not dead, but in my time she +sleepeth, and the spirit of our fathers flames no more, but lies hid +beneath the ashes. It will not be so long; bodies cannot live when the +soul gets too overgrown with gluttony and falsehood. But it is not the +making a President out of the Mexican war that would make me wish to +come back. Here things are before my eyes worth recording, and, if I +cannot help this work, I would gladly be its historian. + + +May 13. + +Returning from a little tour in the Alban Mount, where everything +looks so glorious this glorious spring, I find a temporary quiet. The +Pope's brothers have come to sympathize with him; the crowd sighs over +what he has done, presents him with great bouquets of flowers, and +reads anxiously the news from the north and the proclamations of the +new ministry. Meanwhile the nightingales sing; every tree and plant +is in flower, and the sun and moon shine as if paradise were already +re-established on earth. I go to one of the villas to dream it is so, +beneath the pale light of the stars. + + + + +LETTER XXV. + +REVIEW OF THE COURSE OF PIUS IX.--MAMIANI.--THE PEOPLE'S DISAPPOINTED +HOPES.--THE MONUMENTS IN MILAN, NAPLES, ETC.--THE KING OF NAPLES AND +HIS TROOPS.--CALAMITIES OF THE WAR.--THE ITALIAN PEOPLE.--CHARLES +ALBERT.--DEDUCTIONS.--SUMMER AMONG THE MOUNTAINS OF ITALY. + + +Rome, December 2, 1848. + +I have not written for six months, and within that time what changes +have taken place on this side "the great water,"--changes of how +great dramatic interest historically,--of bearing infinitely important +ideally! Easy is the descent in ill. + +I wrote last when Pius IX. had taken the first stride on the downward +road. He had proclaimed himself the foe of further reform measures, +when he implied that Italian independence was not important in his +eyes, when he abandoned the crowd of heroic youth who had gone to the +field with his benediction, to some of whom his own hand had given +crosses. All the Popes, his predecessors, had meddled with, most +frequently instigated, war; now came one who must carry out, +literally, the doctrines of the Prince of Peace, when the war was +not for wrong, or the aggrandizement of individuals, but to +redeem national, to redeem human, rights from the grasp of foreign +oppression. + +I said some cried "traitor," some "imbecile," some wept, but In the +minds of all, I believe, at that time, grief was predominant. They +could no longer depend on him they had thought their best friend. They +had lost their father. + +Meanwhile his people would not submit to the inaction he urged. They +saw it was not only ruinous to themselves, but base and treacherous +to the rest of Italy. They said to the Pope, "This cannot be; you +must follow up the pledges you have given, or, if you will not act to +redeem them, you must have a ministry that will." The Pope, after he +had once declared to the contrary, ought to have persisted. He should +have said, "I cannot thus belie myself, I cannot put my name to acts I +have just declared to be against my conscience." + +The ministers of the people ought to have seen that the position they +assumed was utterly untenable; that they could not advance with an +enemy in the background cutting off all supplies. But some patriotism +and some vanity exhilarated them, and, the Pope having weakly yielded, +they unwisely began their impossible task. Mamiani, their chief, I +esteem a man, under all circumstances, unequal to such a position,--a +man of rhetoric merely. But no man could have acted, unless the +Pope had resigned his temporal power, the Cardinals been put under +sufficient check, and the Jesuits and emissaries of Austria driven +from their lurking-places. + +A sad scene began. The Pope,--shut up more and more in his palace, the +crowd of selfish and insidious advisers darkening round, enslaved by +a confessor,--he who might have been the liberator of suffering Europe +permitted the most infamous treacheries to be practised in his name. +Private letters were written to the foreign powers, denying the +acts he outwardly sanctioned; the hopes of the people were evaded +or dallied with; the Chamber of Deputies permitted to talk and pass +measures which they never could get funds to put into execution; +legions to form and manoeuvre, but never to have the arms and +clothing they needed. Again and again the people went to the Pope for +satisfaction. They got only--benediction. + +Thus plotted and thus worked the scarlet men of sin, playing the hopes +of Italy off and on, while _their_ hope was of the miserable defeat +consummated by a still worse traitor at Milan on the 6th of August. +But, indeed, what could be expected from the "Sword of Pius IX.," when +Pius IX. himself had thus failed in his high vocation. The king of +Naples bombarded his city, and set on the Lazzaroni to rob and murder +the subjects he had deluded by his pretended gift of the Constitution. +Pius proclaimed that he longed to embrace _all_ the princes of Italy. +He talked of peace, when all knew for a great part of the Italians +there was no longer hope of peace, except in the sepulchre, or +freedom. + +The taunting manifestos of Welden are a sufficient comment on the +conduct of the Pope. "As the government of his Holiness is too weak +to control his subjects,"--"As, singularly enough, a great number of +Romans are found, fighting against us, contrary to the _expressed_ +will of their prince,"--such were the excuses for invasions of the +Pontifical dominions, and the robbery and insult by which they were +accompanied. Such invasions, it was said, made his Holiness very +indignant; he remonstrated against these; but we find no word of +remonstrance against the tyranny of the king of Naples,--no word +of sympathy for the victims of Lombardy, the sufferings of Verona, +Vicenza, Padua, Mantua, Venice. + +In the affairs of Europe there are continued signs of the plan of the +retrograde party to effect similar demonstrations in different places +at the same hour. The 15th of May was one of these marked days. +On that day the king of Naples made use of the insurrection he had +contrived to excite, to massacre his people, and find an excuse for +recalling his troops from Lombardy. The same day a similar crisis was +hoped in Rome from the declarations of the Pope, but that did not work +at the moment exactly as the foes of enfranchisement hoped. + +However, the wounds were cruel enough. The Roman volunteers received +the astounding news that they were not to expect protection or +countenance from their prince; all the army stood aghast, that they +were no longer to fight in the name of Pio. It had been so dear, +so sweet, to love and really reverence the head of their Church, +so inspiring to find their religion for once in accordance with the +aspirations of the soul! They were to be deprived, too, of the aid of +the disciplined Neapolitan troops and their artillery, on which they +had counted. How cunningly all this was contrived to cause dissension +and dismay may easily be seen. + +The Neapolitan General Pepe nobly refused to obey, and called on the +troops to remain with him. They wavered; but they are a pampered army, +personally much attached to the king, who pays them well and indulges +them at the expense of his people, that they may be his support +against that people when in a throe of nature it rises and striven +for its rights. For the same reason, the sentiment of patriotism was +little diffused among them in comparison with the other troops. And +the alternative presented was one in which it required a very clear +sense of higher duty to act against habit. Generally, after wavering +awhile, they obeyed and returned. The Roman States, which had received +them with so many testimonials of affection and honor, on their +retreat were not slack to show a correspondent aversion and contempt. +The towns would not suffer their passage; the hamlets were unwilling +to serve them even with fire and water. They were filled at once with +shame and rage; one officer killed himself, unable to bear it; in the +unreflecting minds of the soldiers, hate sprung up for the rest of +Italy, and especially Rome, which will make them admirable tools of +tyranny in case of civil war. + +This was the first great calamity of the war. But apart from the +treachery of the king of Naples and the dereliction of the Pope, +it was impossible it should end thoroughly well. The people were +in earnest, and have shown themselves so; brave, and able to bear +privation. No one should dare, after the proofs of the summer, to +reiterate the taunt, so unfriendly frequent on foreign lips at the +beginning of the contest, that the Italian can boast, shout, and fling +garlands, but not _act_. The Italian always showed himself noble and +brave, even in foreign service, and is doubly so in the cause of his +country. But efficient heads were wanting. The princes were not in +earnest; they were looking at expediency. The Grand Duke, timid and +prudent, wanted to do what was safest for Tuscany; his ministry, +"_Moderate_" and prudent, would have liked to win a great prize at +small risk. They went no farther than the people pulled them. The king +of Sardinia had taken the first bold step, and the idea that treachery +on his part was premeditated cannot be sustained; it arises from the +extraordinary aspect of his measures, and the knowledge that he is not +incapable of treachery, as he proved in early youth. But now it was +only his selfishness that worked to the same results. He fought and +planned, not for Italy, but the house of Savoy, which his Balbis and +Giobertis had so long been prophesying was to reign supreme in the +new great era of Italy. These prophecies he more than half believed, +because they chimed with his ambitious wishes; but he had not soul +enough to realize them; he trusted only in his disciplined troops; +he had not nobleness enough to believe he might rely at all on +the sentiment of the people. For his troops he dared not have good +generals; conscious of meanness and timidity, he shrank from the +approach of able and earnest men; he was inly afraid they would, +in helping Italy, take her and themselves out of his guardianship. +Antonini was insulted, Garibaldi rejected; other experienced leaders, +who had rushed to Italy at the first trumpet-sound, could never +get employment from him. As to his generalship, it was entirely +inadequate, even if he had made use of the first favorable moments. +But his first thought was not to strike a blow at the Austrians before +they recovered from the discomfiture of Milan, but to use the panic +and need of his assistance to induce Lombardy and Venice to annex +themselves to his kingdom. He did not even wish seriously to get the +better till this was done, and when this was done, it was too late. +The Austrian army was recruited, the generals had recovered their +spirits, and were burning to retrieve and avenge their past defeat. +The conduct of Charles Albert had been shamefully evasive in the first +months. The account given by Franzini, when challenged in the Chamber +of Deputies at Turin, might be summed up thus: "Why, gentlemen, +what would you have? Every one knows that the army is in excellent +condition, and eager for action. They are often reviewed, hear +speeches, and sometimes get medals. We take places always, if it is +not difficult. I myself was present once when the troops advanced; our +men behaved gallantly, and had the advantage in the first skirmish; +but afterward the enemy pointed on us artillery from the heights, and, +naturally, we retired. But as to supposing that his Majesty Charles +Albert is indifferent to the success of Italy in the war, that is +absurd. He is 'the Sword of Italy'; he is the most magnanimous of +princes; he is seriously occupied about the war; many a day I have +been called into his tent to talk it over, before he was up in the +morning!" + +Sad was it that the heroic Milan, the heroic Venice, the heroic +Sicily, should lean on such a reed as this, and by hurried acts, +equally unworthy as unwise, sully the glory of their shields. Some +names, indeed, stand, out quite free from this blame. Mazzini, who +kept up a combat against folly and cowardice, day by day and hour by +hour, with almost supernatural strength, warned the people constantly +of the evils which their advisers were drawing upon them. He was heard +then only by a few, but in this "Italia del Popolo" may be found many +prophecies exactly fulfilled, as those of "the golden-haired love of +Phoebus" during the struggles of Ilium. He himself, in the last sad +days of Milan, compared his lot to that of Cassandra. At all events, +his hands are pure from that ill. What could be done to arouse +Lombardy he did, but the "Moderate" party unable to wean themselves +from old habits, the pupils of the wordy Gioberti thought there could +be no safety unless under the mantle of a prince. They did not foresee +that he would run away, and throw that mantle on the ground. + +Tommaso and Manin also were clear in their aversion to these measures; +and with them, as with all who were resolute in principle at that +time, a great influence has followed. + +It is said Charles Albert feels bitterly the imputations on his +courage, and says they are most ungrateful, since he has exposed the +lives of himself and his sons in the combat. Indeed, there ought to +be made a distinction between personal and mental courage. The former +Charles Albert may possess, may have too much of what this still +aristocratic world calls "the feelings of a gentleman" to shun +exposing himself to a chance shot now and then. An entire want of +mental courage he has shown. The battle, decisive against him, was +made so by his giving up the moment fortune turned against him. It is +shameful to hear so many say this result was inevitable, just because +the material advantages were in favor of the Austrians. Pray, was +never a battle won against material odds? It is precisely such that a +good leader, a noble man, may expect to win. Were the Austrians driven +out of Milan because the Milanese had that advantage? The Austrians +would again, have suffered repulse from them, but for the baseness of +this man, on whom they had been cajoled into relying,--a baseness that +deserves the pillory; and on a pillory will the "Magnanimous," as he +was meanly called in face of the crimes of his youth and the timid +selfishness of his middle age, stand in the sight of posterity. He +made use of his power only to betray Milan; he took from the citizens +all means of defence, and then gave them up to the spoiler; he +promised to defend them "to the last drop of his blood," and sold +them the next minute; even the paltry terms he made, he has not seen +maintained. Had the people slain him in their rage, he well deserved +it at their hands; and all his conduct since show how righteous would +have been that sudden verdict of passion. + +Of all this great drama I have much to write, but elsewhere, in a more +full form, and where I can duly sketch the portraits of actors little +known in America. The materials are over-rich. I have bought my right +in them by much sympathetic suffering; yet, amid the blood and tears +of Italy, 'tis joy to see some glorious new births. The Italians are +getting cured of mean adulation and hasty boasts; they are learning +to prize and seek realities; the effigies of straw are getting knocked +down, and living, growing men take their places. Italy is being +educated for the future, her leaders are learning that the time is +past for trust in princes and precedents,--that there is no hope +except in truth and God; her lower people are learning to shout less +and think more. + +Though my thoughts have been much with the public in this struggle for +life, I have been away from it during the summer months, in the quiet +valleys, on the lonely mountains. There, personally undisturbed, I +have seen the glorious Italian summer wax and wane,--the summer of +Southern Italy, which I did not see last year. On the mountains it was +not too hot for me, and I enjoyed the great luxuriance of vegetation. +I had the advantage of having visited the scene of the war minutely +last summer, so that, in mind, I could follow every step of the +campaign, while around me were the glorious relics of old times,--the +crumbling theatre or temple of the Roman day, the bird's-nest village +of the Middle Ages, on whose purple height shone the sun and moon of +Italy in changeless lustre. It was great pleasure to me to watch the +gradual growth and change of the seasons, so different from ours. +Last year I had not leisure for this quiet acquaintance. Now I saw the +fields first dressed in their carpets of green, enamelled richly with +the red poppy and blue corn-flower,--in that sunshine how resplendent! +Then swelled the fig, the grape, the olive, the almond; and my food +was of these products of this rich clime. For near three months I had +grapes every day; the last four weeks, enough daily for two persons +for a cent! Exquisite salad for two persons' dinner and supper cost +but a cent, and all other products of the region were in the same +proportion. One who keeps still in Italy, and lives as the people do, +may really have much simple luxury for very little money; though both +travel, and, to the inexperienced foreigner, life in the cities, are +expensive. + + + + +LETTER XXVI. + +THOUGHTS OF THE ITALIAN RACE, THE SEASONS, AND ROME.--CHANGES.--THE +DEATH OF THE MINISTER ROSSI.--THE CHURCH OF SAN LUIGI DEL +FRANCESI.--ST. CECILIA AND THE DOMENICHINO CHAPEL.--THE PIAZZA DEL +POPOLO.--THE TROOPS: PREPARATORY MOVEMENTS TOWARD THE QUIRINAL.--THE +DEMONSTRATION ON THE PALACE.--THE CHURCH: ITS POSITION AND AIMS.--THE +POPE'S FLIGHT, &C.--SOCIAL LIFE.--DON TIRLONE.--THE NEW YEAR. + + +Rome, December 2, 1848. + +Not till I saw the snow on the mountains grow rosy in the autumn +sunset did I turn my steps again toward Rome. I was very ready to +return. After three or four years of constant excitement, this six +months of seclusion had been welcome; but now I felt the need of +meeting other eyes beside those, so bright and so shallow, of the +Italian peasant. Indeed, I left what was most precious, but which +I could not take with me;[A] still it was a compensation that I was +again to see Rome,--Rome, that almost killed me with her cold breath +of last winter, yet still with that cold breath whispered a tale of +import so divine. Rome so beautiful, so great! her presence stupefies, +and one has to withdraw to prize the treasures she has given. City +of the soul! yes, it is _that_; the very dust magnetizes you, and +thousand spells have been chaining you in every careless, every +murmuring moment. Yes! Rome, however seen, thou must be still adored; +and every hour of absence or presence must deepen love with one who +has known what it is to repose in thy arms. + +[Footnote A: Her child, who was born in Rieti, September 5, 1848, and +was necessarily left in that town during the difficulties and siege of +Rome.--ED.] + +Repose! for whatever be the revolutions, tumults, panics, hopes, of +the present day, still the temper of life here is repose. The great +past enfolds us, and the emotions of the moment cannot here greatly +disturb that impression. From the wild shout and throng of the +streets the setting sun recalls us as it rests on a hundred domes and +temples,--rests on the Campagna, whose grass is rooted in departed +human greatness. Burial-place so full of spirit that death itself +seems no longer cold! O let me rest here, too! Hest here seems +possible; meseems myriad lives still linger here, awaiting some one +great summons. + +The rivers had burst their bounds, and beneath the moon the fields +round Rome lay one sheet of silver. Entering the gate while the +baggage was under examination, I walked to the entrance of a villa. +Far stretched its overarching shrubberies, its deep green bowers; two +statues, with foot advanced and uplifted finger, seemed to greet me; +it was near the scene of great revels, great splendors in the old +time; there lay the gardens of Sallust, where were combined palace, +theatre, library, bath, and villa. Strange things have happened since, +the most attractive part of which--the secret heart--lies buried or +has fled to animate other forms; for of that part historians have +rarely given a hint more than they do now of the truest life of our +day, which refuses to be embodied, by the pen, craving forms more +mutable, more eloquent than the pen can give. + +I found Rome empty of foreigners. Most of the English have fled in +affright,--the Germans and French are wanted at home,--the Czar has +recalled many of his younger subjects; he does not like the schooling +they get here. That large part of the population, which lives by the +visits of foreigners was suffering very much,--trade, industry, for +every reason, stagnant. The people were every moment becoming more +exasperated by the impudent measures of the Minister Rossi, and their +mortification at seeing Rome represented and betrayed by a foreigner. +And what foreigner? A pupil of Guizot and Louis Philippe. The news of +the bombardment and storm of Vienna had just reached Rome. Zucchi, +the Minister of War, at once left the city to put down over-free +manifestations in the provinces, and impede the entrance of the troops +of the patriot chief, Garibaldi, into Bologna. From the provinces came +soldiery, called by Rossi to keep order at the opening of the Chamber +of Deputies. He reviewed them in the face of the Civic Guard; the +press began to be restrained; men were arbitrarily seized and sent +out of the kingdom. The public indignation rose to its height; the cup +overflowed. + +The 15th was a beautiful day, and I had gone out for a long walk. +Returning at night, the old Padrona met me with her usual smile a +little clouded. "Do you know," said she, "that the Minister Rossi has +been killed?" No Roman said _murdered_. + +"Killed?" + +"Yes,--with a thrust in the back. A wicked man, surely; but is that +the way to punish even the wicked?" + +"I cannot," observed a philosopher, "sympathize under any +circumstances with so immoral a deed; but surely the manner of doing +it was great." + +The people at large were not so refined in their comments as either +the Padrona or the philosopher; but soldiers and populace alike ran up +and down, singing, "Blessed the hand that rids the earth of a tyrant." + +Certainly, the manner _was_ "great." + +The Chamber was awaiting the entrance of Rossi. Had he lived to enter, +he would have found the Assembly, without a single exception, ranged +upon the Opposition benches. His carriage approached, attended by a +howling, hissing multitude. He smiled, affected unconcern, but must +have felt relieved when his horses entered the courtyard gate of +the _Cancelleria_. He did not know he was entering the place of his +execution. The horses stopped; he alighted in the midst of a crowd; it +jostled him, as if for the purpose of insult; he turned abruptly, +and received as he did so the fatal blow. It was dealt by a resolute, +perhaps experienced, hand; he fell and spoke no word more. + +The crowd, as if all previously acquainted with the plan, as no doubt +most of them were, issued quietly from the gate, and passed through +the outside crowd,--its members, among whom was he who dealt the blow, +dispersing in all directions. For two or three minutes this outside +crowd did not know that anything special had happened. When they did, +the news was at the moment received in silence. The soldiers in whom +Rossi had trusted, whom he had hoped to flatter and bribe, stood at +their posts and said not a word. Neither they nor any one asked, "Who +did this? Where is he gone?" The sense of the people certainly was +that it was an act of summary justice on an offender whom the laws +could not reach, but they felt it to be indecent to shout or exult on +the spot where he was breathing his last. Rome, so long supposed the +capital of Christendom, certainly took a very pagan view of this act, +and the piece represented on the occasion at the theatres was "The +Death of Nero." + +The next morning I went to the Church of St. Andrea della Valle, where +was to be performed a funeral service, with fine music, in honor of +the victims of Vienna; for this they do here for the victims of every +place,--"victims of Milan," "victims of Paris," "victims of Naples," +and now "victims of Vienna." But to-day I found the church closed, the +service put off,--Rome was thinking about her own victims. + +I passed into the Ripetta, and entered the Church of San Luigi dei +Francesi. The Republican flag was flying at the door; the young +sacristan said the fine musical service, which this church gave +formerly on St. Philip's day in honor of Louis Philippe, would now +be transferred to the Republican anniversary, the 25th of February. I +looked at the monument Chateaubriand erected when here, to a poor girl +who died, last of her family, having seen all the others perish +round her. I entered the Domenichino Chapel, and gazed anew on the +magnificent representations of the Life and Death of St. Cecilia. She +and St. Agnes are my favorite saints. I love to think of those angel +visits which her husband knew by the fragrance of roses and lilies +left behind in the apartment. I love to think of his visit to the +Catacombs, and all that followed. In one of the pictures St. Cecilia, +as she stretches out her arms toward the suffering multitude, seems +as if an immortal fount of purest love sprung from her heart. It gives +very strongly the idea of an inexhaustible love,--the only love that +is much worth thinking about. + +Leaving the church, I passed along toward the Piazza del Popolo. +"Yellow Tiber rose," but not high enough to cause "distress," as he +does when in a swelling mood. I heard the drums beating, and, entering +the Piazza, I found the troops of the line already assembled, and +the Civic Guard marching in by platoons, each battalion saluted as it +entered by trumpets and a fine strain from the band of the Carbineers. + +I climbed the Pincian to see better. There is no place so fine for +anything of this kind as the Piazza del Popolo, it is so full of +light, so fair and grand, the obelisk and fountain make so fine a +centre to all kinds of groups. + +The object of the present meeting was for the Civic Guard and troops +of the line to give pledges of sympathy preparatory to going to the +Quirinal to demand a change of ministry and of measures. The flag of +the Union was placed in front of the obelisk; all present saluted it; +some officials made addresses; the trumpets sounded, and all moved +toward the Quirinal. + +Nothing could be gentler than the disposition of those composing the +crowd. They were resolved to be played with no longer, but no +threat was uttered or thought. They believed that the court would be +convinced by the fate of Rossi that the retrograde movement it had +attempted was impracticable. They knew the retrograde party were +panic-struck, and hoped to use the occasion to free the Pope from its +meshes. All felt that Pius IX. had fallen irrevocably from his high +place as the friend of progress and father of Italy; but still he was +personally beloved, and still his name, so often shouted in hope and +joy, had not quite lost its _prestige_. + +I returned to the house, which is very near the Quirinal. On one +side I could see the palace and gardens of the Pope, on the other the +Piazza Barberini and street of the Four Fountains. Presently I saw the +carriage of Prince Barberini drive hurriedly into his court-yard gate, +the footman signing to close it, a discharge of fire-arms was heard, +and the drums of the Civic Guard beat to arms. + +The Padrona ran up and down, crying with every round of shot, "Jesu +Maria, they are killing the Pope! O poor Holy Father!--Tito, Tito," +(out of the window to her husband,) "what _is_ the matter?" + +The lord of creation disdained to reply. + +"O Signora! pray, pray, ask Tito what is the matter?" + +I did so. + +"I don't know, Signora; nobody knows." + +"Why don't you go on the Mount and see?" + +"It would be an imprudence, Signora; nobody will go." + +I was just thinking to go myself, when I saw a poor man borne by, +badly wounded, and heard that the Swiss were firing on the people. +Their doing so was the cause of whatever violence there was, and it +was not much. + +The people had assembled, as usual, at the Quirinal, only with more +form and solemnity than usual. They had taken with them several of the +Chamber of Deputies, and they sent an embassy, headed by Galetti, who +had been in the late ministry, to state their wishes. They received +a peremptory negative. They then insisted on seeing the Pope, and +pressed on the palace. The Swiss became alarmed, and fired from the +windows and from the roof. They did this, it is said, without orders; +but who could, at the time, suppose that? If it had been planned to +exasperate the people to blood, what more could have been done? As it +was, very little was shed; but the Pope, no doubt, felt great panic. +He heard the report of fire-arms,--heard that they tried to burn +a door of the palace. I would lay my life that he could have shown +himself without the slightest danger; nay, that the habitual respect +for his presence would have prevailed, and hushed all tumult. He did +not think so, and, to still it, once more degraded himself and injured +his people, by making promises he did not mean to keep. + +He protests now against those promises as extorted by violence,--a +strange plea indeed for the representative of St. Peter! + +Rome is all full of the effigies of those over whom violence had no +power. There was an early Pope about to be thrown into the Tiber; +violence had no power to make him say what he did not mean. Delicate +girls, men in the prime of hope and pride of power,--they were all +alike about that. They could die in boiling oil, roasted on coals, or +cut to pieces; but they could not say what they did not mean. These +formed the true Church; it was these who had power to disseminate +the religion of him, the Prince of Peace, who died a bloody death of +torture between sinners, because he never could say what he did not +mean. + +A little church, outside the gate of St. Sebastian commemorates the +following affecting tradition of the Church. Peter, alarmed at the +persecution of the Christians, had gone forth to fly, when in this +spot he saw a bright figure in his path, and recognized his Master +travelling toward Rome. "Lord," he said, "whither goest thou?" "I +go," replied Jesus, "to die with my people." Peter comprehended the +reproof. He felt that he must not a fourth time deny his Master, +yet hope for salvation. He returned to Rome to offer his life in +attestation of his faith. + +The Roman Catholic Church has risen a monument to the memory of +such facts. And has the present head of that Church quite failed to +understand their monition? + +Not all the Popes have so failed, though the majority have been +intriguing, ambitious men of the world. But even the mob of Rome--and +in Rome there _is_ a true mob of unheeding cabbage-sellers, who never +had a thought before beyond contriving how to satisfy their animal +instincts for the day--said, on hearing the protest, "There was +another Pius, not long since, who talked in a very different style. +When the French threatened him, he said, 'You may do with me as you +see fit, but I cannot consent to act against my convictions.'" + +In fact, the only dignified course for the Pope to pursue was to +resign his temporal power. He could no longer hold it on his own +terms; but to it he clung; and the counsellors around him were men to +wish him to regard _that_ as the first of duties. When the question +was of waging war for the independence of Italy, they regarded him +solely as the head of the Church; but when the demand was to satisfy +the wants of his people, and ecclesiastical goods were threatened with +taxes, then he was the prince of the state, bound to maintain all the +selfish prerogatives of bygone days for the benefit of his successors. +Poor Pope! how has his mind been torn to pieces in these later days! +It moves compassion. There can be no doubt that all his natural +impulses are generous and kind, and in a more private station he would +have died beloved and honored; but to this he was unequal; he has +suffered bad men to surround him, and by their misrepresentations and +insidious suggestions at last entirely to cloud his mind. I believe he +really thinks now the Progress movement tends to anarchy, blood, and +all that looked worst in the first French revolution. However that may +be, I cannot forgive him some of the circumstances of this flight. To +fly to Naples; to throw himself in the arms of the bombarding monarch, +blessing him and thanking his soldiery for preserving that part of +Italy from anarchy; to protest that all his promises at Rome were null +and void, when he thought himself in safety to choose a commission for +governing in his absence, composed of men of princely blood, but as to +character so null that everybody laughed, and said he chose those +who could best be spared if they were killed; (but they all ran away +directly;) when Rome was thus left without any government, to refuse +to see any deputation, even the Senator of Rome, whom he had so gladly +sanctioned,--these are the acts either of a fool or a foe. They are +not his acts, to be sure, but he is responsible; he lets them stand as +such in the face of the world, and weeps and prays for their success. + +No more of him! His day is over. He has been made, it seems +unconsciously, an instrument of good his regrets cannot destroy. Nor +can he be made so important an instrument of ill. These acts have not +had the effect the foes of freedom hoped. Rome remained quite cool and +composed; all felt that they had not demanded more than was their duty +to demand, and were willing to accept what might follow. In a few +days all began to say: "Well, who would have thought it? The Pope, the +Cardinals, the Princes are gone, and Rome is perfectly tranquil, and +one does not miss anything, except that there are not so many rich +carriages and liveries." + +The Pope may regret too late that he ever gave the people a chance +to make this reflection. Yet the best fruits of the movement may +not ripen for a long time. It is a movement which requires radical +measures, clear-sighted, resolute men: these last, as yet, do not show +themselves in Rome. The new Tuscan ministry has three men of superior +force in various ways,--Montanelli, Guerazzi, D'Aguila; such are not +as yet to be found in Rome. + +But should she fall this time,--and she must either advance with +decision and force, or fall, since to stand still is impossible,--the +people have learned much; ignorance and servility of thought are +lessened,--the way is paving for final triumph. + +And my country, what does she? You have chosen a new President from +a Slave State, representative of the Mexican war. But he seems to be +honest, a man that can be esteemed, and is one really known to +the people, which is a step upward, after having sunk last time to +choosing a mere tool of party. + +Pray send here a good Ambassador,--one that has experience of foreign +life, that he may act with good judgment, and, if possible, a man +that has knowledge and views which extend beyond the cause of party +politics in the United States,--a man of unity in principles, but +capable of understanding variety in forms. And send a man capable +of prizing the luxury of living in, or knowing Rome; the office of +Ambassador is one that should not be thrown away on a person who +cannot prize or use it. Another century, and I might ask to be made +Ambassador myself, ('tis true, like other Ambassadors, I would employ +clerks to do the most of the duty,) but woman's day has not come yet. +They hold their clubs in Paris, but even George Sand will not act +with women as they are. They say she pleads they are too mean, too +treacherous. She should not abandon them for that, which is not +nature, but misfortune. How much I shall have to say on that subject +if I live, which I desire not, for I am very tired of the battle with +giant wrongs, and would like to have some one younger and stronger +arise to say what ought to be said, still more to do what ought to be +done. Enough! if I felt these things in privileged America, the cries +of mothers and wives beaten at night by sons and husbands for their +diversion after drinking, as I have repeatedly heard them these past +months,--the excuse for falsehood, "I _dare not_ tell my husband, he +would be ready to kill me,"--have sharpened my perception as to the +ills of woman's condition and the remedies that must be applied. Had +I but genius, had I but energy, to tell what I know as it ought to be +told! God grant them me, or some other more worthy woman, I pray. + +_Don Tirlone_, the _Punch_ of Rome, has just come in. This number +represents the fortress of Gaëta. Outside hangs a cage containing +a parrot (_pappagallo_), the plump body of the bird surmounted by a +noble large head with benign face and Papal head-dress. He sits on +the perch now with folded wings, but the cage door, in likeness of a +portico, shows there is convenience to come forth for the purposes +of benediction, when wanted. Outside, the king of Naples, dressed +as Harlequin, plays the organ for instruction of the bird (unhappy +penitent, doomed to penance), and, grinning with sharp teeth, +observes: "He speaks in my way now." In the background a young +Republican holds ready the match for a barrel of gunpowder, but looks +at his watch, waiting the moment to ignite it. + +A happy New Year to my country! may she be worthy of the privileges +she possesses, while others are lavishing their blood to win +them,--that is all that need be wished for her at present. + + + + +LETTER XXVII. + +ROME.--THE CARNIVAL: THE MOCCOLETTI.--THE ROMAN CHARACTER.--THE +POPE'S FLIGHT.--THE ASSEMBLY.--THE PEOPLE.--THE POPE'S MISTAKE.--HIS +MANIFESTO: ITS TONE AND EFFECT.--DESTRUCTION OF THE TEMPORAL DOMINION +OF THE CHURCH. + + +Rome, Evening of Feb. 20, 1849. + +It is said you cannot thoroughly know any place till you have both +summered and wintered in it; but more than one summer and winter of +experience seems to be needed for Rome. How I fretted last winter, +during the three months' rain, and sepulchral chill, and far worse +than sepulchral odors, which accompanied it! I thought it was the +invariable Roman winter, and that I should never be able to stay here +during another; so took my room only by the month, thinking to fly so +soon as the rain set in. And lo! it has never rained at all; but there +has been glorious sun and moon, unstained by cloud, always; and these +last days have been as warm as May,--the days of the Carnival, for I +have just come in from seeing the _Moccoletti_. + +The Republican Carnival has not been as splendid as the Papal, the +absence of dukes and princes being felt in the way of coaches and +rich dresses; there are also fewer foreigners than usual, many having +feared to assist at this most peaceful of revolutions. But if +less splendid, it was not less gay; the costumes were many and +fanciful,--flowers, smiles, and fun abundant. + +This is the first time of my seeing the true _Moccoletti_; last year, +in one of the first triumphs of democracy, they did not blow oat the +lights, thus turning it into an illumination. The effect of the swarms +of lights, little and large, thus in motion all over the fronts of +the houses, and up and down the Corso, was exceedingly pretty and +fairy-like; but that did not make up for the loss of that wild, +innocent gayety of which this people alone is capable after childhood, +and which never shines out so much as on this occasion. It is +astonishing the variety of tones, the lively satire and taunt of which +the words _Senza moccolo_, _senza mo_, are susceptible from +their tongues. The scene is the best burlesque on the life of the +"respectable" world that can be imagined. A ragamuffin with a little +piece of candle, not even lighted, thrusts it in your face with an air +of far greater superiority than he can wear who, dressed in gold and +velvet, erect in his carriage, holds aloft his light on a tall pole. +In vain his security; while he looks down on the crowd to taunt the +wretches _senza mo_, a weak female hand from a chamber window blots +out his pretensions by one flirt of an old handkerchief. + +Many handsome women, otherwise dressed in white, wore the red liberty +cap, and the noble though somewhat coarse Roman outline beneath this +brilliant red, by the changeful glow of million lights, made a fine +effect. Men looked too vulgar in the liberty cap. + +How I mourn that my little companion E. never saw these things, that +would have given him such store of enchanting reminiscences for all +his after years! I miss him always on such occasions; formerly it was +through him that I enjoyed them. He had the child's heart, had +the susceptible fancy, and, naturally, a fine discerning sense for +whatever is individual or peculiar. + +I missed him much at the Fair of St. Eustachio. This, like the +Carnival, was last year entirely spoiled by constant rain. I never +saw it at all before. It comes in the first days, or rather nights, of +January. All the quarter of St. Eustachio is turned into one toy-shop; +the stalls are set out in the street and brightly lighted, up. These +are full of cheap toys,--prices varying from half a cent up to twenty +cents. The dolls, which are dressed as husband and wife, or sometimes +grouped in families, are the most grotesque rag-babies that can +be imagined. Among the toys are great quantities of whistles, tin +trumpets, and little tambourines; of these every man, woman, and +child has bought one, and is using it to make a noise. This extempore +concert begins about ten o'clock, and lasts till midnight; the +delight of the numerous children that form part of the orchestra, the +good-humored familiarity without the least touch of rudeness in the +crowd, the lively effect of the light upon the toys, and the jumping, +shouting figures that, exhibit them, make this the pleasantest +Saturnalia. Had you only been there, E., to guide me by the hand, +blowing the trumpet for both, and spying out a hundred queer things in +nooks that entirely escape me! + +The Roman still plays amid his serious affairs, and very serious have +they been this past winter. The Roman legions went out singing and +dancing to fight in Lombardy, and they fought no less bravely for +that. + +When I wrote last, the Pope had fled, guided, he says, "by the hand +of Providence,"--Italy deems by the hand of Austria,--to Gaëta. He +had already soiled his white robes, and defamed himself for ever, +by heaping benedictions on the king of Naples and the bands of +mercenaries whom he employs to murder his subjects on the least sign +of restlessness in their most painful position. Most cowardly had been +the conduct of his making promises he never meant to keep, stealing +away by night in the coach of a foreign diplomatist, protesting that +what he had done was null because he had acted under fear,--as if +such a protest could avail to one who boasts himself representative +of Christ and his Apostles, guardian of the legacy of the martyrs! He +selected a band of most incapable men to face the danger he had feared +for himself; most of these followed his example and fled. Rome sought +an interview with him, to see if reconciliation were possible; he +refused to receive her messengers. His wicked advisers calculated upon +great confusion and distress as inevitable on the occasion; but, +for once, the hope of the bad heart was doomed to immediate +disappointment. Rome coolly said, "If you desert me,--if you will not +hear me,--I must act for myself." She threw herself into the arms of +a few men who had courage and calmness for this crisis; they bade her +think upon what was to be done, meanwhile avoiding every excess that +could give a color to calumny and revenge. The people, with admirable +good sense, comprehended and followed up this advice. Never was Rome +so truly tranquil, so nearly free from gross ill, as this winter. A +few words of brotherly admonition have been more powerful than all the +spies, dungeons, and scaffolds of Gregory. + +"The hand of the Omnipotent works for us," observed an old man whom I +saw in the street selling cigars the evening before the opening of the +Constitutional Assembly. He was struck by the radiant beauty of the +night. The old people observe that there never has been such a winter +as this which follows the establishment by the French of a republic. + +May the omens speed well! A host of enemies without are ready to levy +war against this long-suffering people, to rivet anew their chains. +Still there is now an obvious tide throughout Europe toward a better +order of things, and a wave of it may bear Italy onward to the shore. + +The revolution, like all genuine ones, has been instinctive, its +results unexpected and surprising to the greater part of those who +achieved them. The waters, which had flowed so secretly beneath the +crust of habit that many never heard their murmur, unless in dreams, +have suddenly burst to light in full and beautiful jets; all rush to +drink the pure and living draught. + +As in the time of Jesus, the multitude had been long enslaved beneath +a cumbrous ritual, their minds designedly darkened by those who +should have enlightened them, brutified, corrupted, amid monstrous +contradictions and abuses; yet the moment they hear a word +correspondent to the original nature, "Yes, it is true," they cry. "It +is spoken with, authority. Yes, it ought to be so. Priests ought to +be better and wiser than other men; if they were, they would not need +pomp and temporal power to command respect. Yes, it is true; we ought +not to lie; we should not try to impose upon one another. We ought +rather to prefer that our children should work honestly for their +bread, than get it by cheating, begging, or the prostitution of their +mothers. It would be better to act worthily and kindly, probably would +please God more than the kissing of relics. We have long darkly felt +that these things were so; _now_ we know it." + +The unreality of relation between the people and the hierarchy was +obvious instantly upon the flight of Pius. He made an immense mistake +then, and he made it because neither he nor his Cardinals were aware +of the unreality. They did not know that, great as is the force of +habit, truth _only_ is imperishable. The people had abhorred Gregory, +had adored Pius, upon whom they looked as a saviour, as a liberator; +finding themselves deceived, a mourning-veil had overshadowed their +love. Still, had Pius remained here, and had courage to show himself +on agitating occasions, his position as the Pope, before whom they had +been bred to bow, his aspect, which had once seemed to them full of +blessing and promise, like that of an angel, would have still retained +power. Probably the temporal dominion of the Papacy would not have +been broken up. He fled; the people felt contempt for his want of +force and truth. He wrote to reproach them with ingratitude; they were +indignant. What had they to be grateful for? A constitution to which +he had not kept true an instant; the institution of the National +Guard, which he had begun to neutralize; benedictions, followed by +such actions as the desertion of the poor volunteers in the war for +Italian independence? Still, the people were not quite alienated +from Pius. They felt sure that his heart was, in substance, good +and kindly, though the habits of the priest and the arts of his +counsellors had led him so egregiously to falsify its dictates and +forget the vocation with which he had been called. Many hoped he would +see his mistake, and return to be at one with the people. Among the +more ignorant, there was a superstitious notion that he would return +in the night of the 5th of January. There were many bets that he would +be found in the palace of the Quirinal the morning of the 6th. All +these lingering feelings were finally extinguished by the advice of +excommunication. As this may not have readied America, I subjoin a +translation. Here I was obliged to make use of a manuscript copy; +all the printed ones were at once destroyed. It is probably the last +document of the kind the world will see. + + +MANIFESTO OF PIUS IX. + +"To OUR MOST BELOVED SUBJECTS:-- + +"From this pacific abode to which it has pleased Divine Providence to +conduct us, and whence we can freely manifest our sentiments and our +will, we have waited for testimonies of remorse from our misguided +children for the sacrileges and misdeeds committed against persons +attached to our service,--among whom some have been slain, others +outraged in the most barbarous manner,--as well as for those against +our residence and our person. But we have seen nothing except a +sterile invitation to return to our capital, unaccompanied by a +word of condemnation for those crimes or the least guaranty for our +security against the frauds and violences of that same company of +furious men which still tyrannizes with a barbarous despotism over +Rome and the States of the Church. We also waited, expecting that +the protests and orders we have uttered would recall to the duties of +fidelity and subjection those who have despised and trampled upon them +in the very capital of our States. But, instead of this, a new and +more monstrous act of undisguised felony and of actual rebellion by +them audaciously committed, has filled the measure of our affliction, +and excited at the same time our just indignation, as it will +afflict the Church Universal. We speak of that act, in every +respect detestable, by which, it has been pretended to initiate the +convocation of a so-called General National Assembly of the Roman +States, by a decree of the 29th of last December, in order to +establish new political forms for the Pontifical dominion. Adding +thus iniquity to iniquity, the authors and favorers of the demagogical +anarchy strive to destroy the temporal authority of the Roman Pontiff +over the dominions of Holy Church,--however irrefragably established +through the most ancient and solid rights, and venerated, recognized, +and sustained by all the nations,--pretending and making others +believe that his sovereign power can be subject to controversy or +depend on the caprices of the factious. We shall spare our dignity +the humiliation of dwelling on all that is monstrous contained in that +act, abominable through the absurdity of its origin no less than the +illegality of its form and the impiety of its scope; but it appertains +to the apostolic authority, with which, however unworthy, we are +invested, and to the responsibility which binds us by the most sacred +oaths in the sight of the Omnipotent, not only to protest in the most +energetic and efficacious manner against that same act, but to condemn +it in the face of the universe as an enormous and sacrilegious crime +against our independence and sovereignty, meriting the chastisements +threatened by divine and human laws. We are persuaded that, on +receiving the impudent invitation, you were full of holy indignation, +and will have rejected far from you this guilty and shameful +provocation. Notwithstanding, that none of you may say he has been +deluded by fallacious seductions, and by the preachers of subversive +doctrines, or ignorant of what is contriving by the foes of all order, +all law, all right, true liberty, and your happiness, we to-day again +raise and utter abroad our voice, so that you may be more certain of +the absoluteness with which we prohibit men, of whatever class and +condition, from taking any part in the meetings which those persons +may dare to call, for the nomination of individuals to be sent to +the condemned Assembly. At the same time we recall to you how this +absolute prohibition is sanctioned by the decrees of our predecessors +and of the Councils, especially of the Sacred Council-General of +Trent, Sect. XXII. Chap. 11, in which the Church has fulminated many +times her censures, and especially the greater excommunication, as +incurred without fail by any declaration of whomsoever daring to +become guilty of whatsoever attempt against the temporal sovereignty +of the Supreme Pontiff, this we declare to have been already unhappily +incurred by all those who have given aid to the above-named act, and +others preceding, intended to prejudice the same sovereignty, and in +other modes and under false pretexts have, perturbed, violated, +and usurped our authority. Yet, though we feel ourselves obliged by +conscience to guard the sacred deposit of the patrimony of the Spouse +of Jesus Christ, confided to our care, by using the sword of severity +given to us for that purpose, we cannot therefore forget that we are +on earth the representative of Him who in exercise of his justice does +not forget mercy. Raising, therefore, our hands to Heaven, while we +to it recommend a cause which is indeed more Heaven's than ours, and +while anew we declare ourselves ready, with the aid of its powerful +grace, to drink even to the dregs, for the defence and glory of the +Catholic Church, the cup of persecution which He first wished to drink +for the salvation of the same, we shall not desist from supplicating +Him benignly to hear the fervent prayers which day and night we +unceasingly offer for the salvation of the misguided. No day certainly +could be more joyful for us, than that in which it shall be granted to +see return into the fold of the Lord our sons from whom now we derive +so much bitterness and so great tribulations. The hope of enjoying +soon the happiness of such a day is strengthened in us by the +reflection, that universal are the prayers which, united to ours, +ascend to the throne of Divine Mercy from the lips and the heart of +the faithful throughout the Catholic world, urging it continually to +change the hearts of sinners, and reconduct them into the paths of +truth and of justice. + +"Gaëta, January 6, 1849." + + +The silliness, bigotry, and ungenerous tone of this manifesto excited +a simultaneous movement in the population. The procession which +carried it, mumbling chants, for deposit in places provided for lowest +uses, and then, taking from, the doors of the hatters' shops the +cardinals' hats, threw them into the Tiber, was a real and general +expression of popular disgust. From that hour the power of the scarlet +hierarchy fell to rise no more. No authority can survive a universal +movement of derision. From that hour tongues and pens were loosed, the +leaven of Machiavellism, which still polluted the productions of the +more liberal, disappeared, and people talked as they felt, just as +those of us who do not choose to be slaves are accustomed to do in +America. + +"Jesus," cried an orator, "bade them feed his lambs. If they have done +so, it has been to rob their fleece and drink their blood." + +"Why," said another, "have we been so long deaf to the saying, that +the temporal dominion of the Church was like a thorn in the wound of +Italy, which shall never be healed till that thorn is extracted?" + +And then, without passion, all felt that the temporal dominion was in +fact finished of itself, and that it only remained to organize another +form of government. + + + + +LETTER XXVIII. + +GIOBERTI, MAMIANI, AND MAZZINI.--FORMATION OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL +ASSEMBLY.--THE RIGHT OF SUFFRAGE.--A PROCESSION.--PROCLAMATION OF +THE REPUBLIC.--RESULTS.--DECREE OF THE ASSEMBLY.--AMERICANS IN +ROME: DIFFERENCE OF IMPRESSIONS.--FLIGHT OF THE GRAND DUKE OF +TUSCANY.--CHARLES ALBERT.--PRESENT STATE OF ROME.--REFLECTIONS AND +CONCLUSIONS.--LATEST INTELLIGENCE. + + +Rome, Evening of Feb. 20, 1849. + +The League between the Italian States, and the Diet which was to +establish it, had been the thought of Gioberti, but had found the +instrument at Rome in Mamiani. The deputies were to be named by +princes or parliaments, their mandate to be limited by the existing +institutions of the several states; measures of mutual security and +some modifications in the way of reform would be the utmost that could +be hoped from this Diet. The scope of this party did not go beyond +more vigorous prosecution of the war for independence, and the +establishment of good, institutions for the several principalities on +a basis of assimilation. + +Mazzini, the great radical thinker of Italy, was, on the contrary, +persuaded that unity, not union, was necessary to this country. He +had taken for his motto, GOD AND THE PEOPLE, and believed in no +other powers. He wished an Italian Constitutional Assembly, selected +directly by the people, and furnished with an unlimited mandate to +decide what form was now required by the needs of the Peninsula. His +own wishes, certainly, aimed at a republic; but the decision remained +with the representatives of the people. + +The thought of Gioberti had been at first the popular one, as he, +in fact, was the seer of the so-called Moderate party. For myself, I +always looked upon him as entirely a charlatan, who covered his want +of all real force by the thickest embroidered mantle of words. Still, +for a time, he corresponded with the wants of the Italian mind. He +assailed the Jesuits, and was of real use by embodying the distrust +and aversion that brooded in the minds of men against these most +insidious and inveterate foes of liberty and progress. This triumph, +at least, he may boast: that sect has been obliged to yield; its +extinction seems impossible, of such life-giving power was the fiery +will of Loyola. In the Primate he had embodied the lingering hope of +the Catholic Church; Pius IX. had answered to the appeal, had answered +only to show its futility. He had run through Italy as courier for +Charles Albert, when the so falsely styled Magnanimous entered, +pretending to save her from the stranger, really hoping to take her +for himself. His own cowardice and treachery neutralized the hope, and +Charles Albert, abject in his disgrace, took a retrograde ministry. +This the country would not suffer, and obliged him after a while +to reassume at least the position of the previous year, by taking +Gioberti for his premier. But it soon became evident that the ministry +of Charles Albert was in the same position as had been that of Pius +IX. The hand was powerless when the head was indisposed. Meantime the +name of Mazzini had echoed through Tuscany from the revered lips +of Montanelli; it reached the Roman States, and though at first +propagated by foreign impulse, yet, as soon as understood, was +welcomed as congenial. Montanelli had nobly said, addressing Florence: +"We could not regret that the realization of this project should take +place in a sister city, still more illustrious than ours." The Romans +took him at his word; the Constitutional Assembly for the Roman States +was elected with a double mandate, that the deputies might sit in the +Constitutional Assembly for all Italy whenever the other provinces +could send theirs. They were elected by universal suffrage. Those who +listened to Jesuits and Moderates predicted that the project would +fail of itself. The people were too ignorant to make use of the +liberty of suffrage. + +But ravens now-a-days are not the true prophetic birds. The Roman +eagle recommences her flight, and it is from its direction only that +the high-priest may draw his augury. The people are certainly as +ignorant as centuries of the worst government, the neglect of popular +education, the enslavement of speech and the press, could make them; +yet they have an instinct to recognize measures that are good for +them. A few weeks' schooling at some popular meetings, the clubs, the +conversations of the National Guards in their quarters or on patrol, +were sufficient to concert measures so well, that the people voted in +larger proportion than at contested elections in our country, and made +a very good choice. + +The opening of the Constitutional Assembly gave occasion for a fine +procession. All the troops in Rome defiled from the Campidoglio; +among them many bear the marks of suffering from the Lombard war. The +banners of Sicily, Venice, and Bologna waved proudly; that of Naples +was veiled with crape. I was in a balcony in the Piazza di Venezia; +the Palazzo di Venezia, that sternest feudal pile, so long the +head-quarters of Austrian machinations, seemed to frown, as the bands +each in passing struck up the _Marseillaise_. The nephew of Napoleon +and Garibaldi, the hero of Montevideo, walked together, as deputies. +The deputies, a grave band, mostly advocates or other professional +men, walked without other badge of distinction than the tricolored +scarf. I remembered the entrance of the deputies to the Council only +fourteen months ago, in the magnificent carriages lent by the princes +for the occasion; they too were mostly nobles, and their liveried +attendants followed, carrying their scutcheons. Princes and +councillors have both fled or sunk into nothingness; in those +councillors was no counsel. Will it be found in the present? Let us +hope so! What we see to-day has much more the air of reality than all +that parade of scutcheons, or the pomp of dress and retinue with which +the Ecclesiastical Court was wont to amuse the people. + +A few days after followed the proclamation of a Republic. An immense +crowd of people surrounded the Palazzo della Cancelleria, within whose +court-yard Rossi fell, while the debate was going on within. At one +o'clock in the morning of the 9th of February, a Republic was resolved +upon, and the crowd rushed away to ring all the bells. + +Early next morning I rose and went forth to observe the Republic. +Over the Quirinal I went, through the Forum, to the Capitol. There was +nothing to be seen except the magnificent calm emperor, the tamers +of horses, the fountain, the trophies, the lions, as usual; among the +marbles, for living figures, a few dirty, bold women, and Murillo boys +in the sun just as usual. I passed into the Corso; there were men in +the liberty cap,--of course the lowest and vilest had been the first +to assume it; all the horrible beggars persecuting as impudently as +usual. I met some English; all their comfort was, "It would not last +a month." "They hoped to see all these fellows shot yet." The English +clergyman, more mild and legal, only hopes to see them (i.e. the +ministry, deputies, &c.) _hung_. + +Mr. Carlyle would be delighted with his countrymen. They are entirely +ready and anxious to see a Cromwell for Italy. They, too, think, when +the people starve, "It is no matter what happens in the back parlor." +What signifies that, if there is "order" in the front? How dare the +people make a noise to disturb us yawning at billiards! + +I met an American. He "had no confidence in the Republic." Why? +Because he "had no confidence in the people." Why? Because "they were +not like _our_ people." Ah! Jonathan and John,--excuse me, but I +must say the Italian has a decided advantage over you in the power of +quickly feeling generous sympathy, as well as some other things which +I have not time now to particularize. I have memoranda from you both +in my note-book. + +At last the procession mounts the Campidoglio. It is all dressed with +banners. The tricolor surmounts the palace of the senator; the senator +himself has fled. The deputies mount the steps, and one of them reads, +in a clear, friendly voice, the following words:-- + + +"FUNDAMENTAL DECREE OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL ASSEMBLY OF ROME. + +"ART. I.--The Papacy has fallen in fact and in right from the temporal +government of the Roman State. + +"ART. II.--The Roman Pontiff shall have all the necessary guaranties +for independence in the exercise of his spiritual power. + +"ART. III.--The form of government of the Roman State shall be a pure +democracy, and will take the glorious name of Roman Republic. + +"ART. IV.--The Roman Republic shall have with the rest of Italy the +relations exacted by a common nationality." + +Between each of these expressive sentences the speaker paused; the +great bell of the Capitol gave forth its solemn melodies; the cannon +answered; while the crowd shouted, _Viva la Republica! Viva Italia!_ + + +The imposing grandeur of the spectacle to me gave new force to the +emotion that already swelled my heart; my nerves thrilled, and I +longed to see in some answering glance a spark of Rienzi, a little of +that soul which made my country what she is. The American at my side +remained impassive. Receiving all his birthright from a triumph of +democracy, he was quite indifferent to this manifestation on this +consecrated spot. Passing the winter in Rome to study art, he was +insensible to the artistic beauty of the scene,--insensible to this +new life of that spirit from which all the forms he gazes at +in galleries emanated. He "did not see the use of these popular +demonstrations." + +Again I must mention a remark of his, as a specimen of the ignorance +in which Americans usually remain during their flighty visits to these +scenes, where they associate only with one another. And I do it the +rather as this seemed a really thoughtful, intelligent man; no vain, +vulgar trifler. He said, "The people seem only to be looking on; they +take no part." + +What people? said I. + +"Why, these around us; there is no other people." + +There are a few beggars, errand-boys, and nurse-maids. + +"The others are only soldiers." + +Soldiers! The Civic Guard! all the decent men in Rome. + +Thus it is that the American, on many points, becomes more ignorant +for coming abroad, because he attaches some value to his crude +impressions and frequent blunders. It is not thus that any seed-corn +can be gathered from foreign gardens. Without modest scrutiny, patient +study, and observation, he spends his money and goes home, with a +new coat perhaps, but a mind befooled rather than instructed. It +is necessary to speak the languages of these countries, and know +personally some of their inhabitants, in order to form any accurate +impressions. + +The flight of the Grand Duke of Tuscany followed. In imitation of +his great exemplar, he promised and smiled to the last, deceiving +Montanelli, the pure and sincere, at the very moment he was about to +enter his carriage, into the belief that he persevered in his assent +to the liberal movement. His position was certainly very difficult, +but he might have left it like a gentleman, like a man of honor. 'T +was pity to destroy so lightly the good opinion the Tuscans had of +him. Now Tuscany meditates union with Rome. + +Meanwhile, Charles Albert is filled with alarm. He is indeed betwixt +two fires. Gioberti has published one of his prolix, weak addresses, +in which, he says, that in the beginning of every revolution one must +fix a limit beyond which he will not go; that, for himself, he has +done it,--others are passing beyond his mark, and he will not go any +farther. Of the want of thought, of insight into historic and all +other truths, which distinguishes the "illustrious Gioberti," this +assumption is a specimen. But it makes no difference; he and his +prince must go, sooner or later, if the movement continues, nor is +there any prospect of its being stayed unless by foreign intervention. +This the Pope has not yet, it is believed, solicited, but there is +little reason to hope he will be spared that crowning disgrace. He +has already consented to the incitement of civil war. Should an +intervention be solicited, all depends on France. Will she basely +forfeit every pledge and every duty, to say nothing of her true +interest? It seems that her President stands doubtful, intending to +do what is for _his_ particular interest; but if his interest proves +opposed to the republican principle, will France suffer herself again +to be hoodwinked and enslaved? It is impossible to know, she has +already shown such devotion to the mere prestige of a name. + +On England no dependence can be placed. She is guided by no great +idea; her Parliamentary leaders sneer at sentimental policy, and the +"jargon" of ideas. She will act, as always, for her own interest; and +the interest of her present government is becoming more and more the +crushing of the democratic tendency. They are obliged to do it at +home, both in the back and the front parlor; it would not be decent +as yet to have a Spielberg just at home for obstreperous patriots, but +England has so many ships, it is just as easy to transport them to +a safe distance. Then the Church of England, so long an enemy to the +Church of Rome, feels a decided interest with it on the subject of +temporal possessions. The rich English traveller, fearing to see the +Prince Borghese stripped of one of his palaces for a hospital or +some such low use, thinks of his own twenty-mile park and the crowded +village of beggars at its gate, and muses: "I hope to see them all +shot yet, these rascally republicans." + +How I wish my country would show some noble sympathy when an +experience so like her own is going on. Politically she cannot +interfere; but formerly, when Greece and Poland were struggling, they +were at least aided by private contributions. Italy, naturally so +rich, but long racked and impoverished by her oppressors, greatly +needs money to arm and clothe her troops. Some token of sympathy, too, +from America would be so welcome to her now. If there were a circle of +persons inclined to trust such to me, I might venture to promise the +trust should be used to the advantage of Italy. It would make me proud +to have my country show a religious faith in the progress of ideas, +and make some small sacrifice of its own great resources in aid of a +sister cause, now. + +But I must close this letter, which it would be easy to swell to a +volume from the materials in my mind. One or two traits of the hour I +must note. Mazzarelli, chief of the present ministry, was a prelate, +and named spontaneously by the Pope before his flight. He has +shown entire and frank intrepidity. He has laid aside the title of +Monsignor, and appears before the world as a layman. + +Nothing can be more tranquil than has been the state of Rome all +winter. Every wile has been used by the Oscurantists to excite the +people, but their confidence in their leaders could not be broken. +A little mutiny in the troops, stimulated by letters from their old +leaders, was quelled in a moment. The day after the proclamation of +the Republic, some zealous ignoramuses insulted the carriages that +appeared with servants in livery. The ministry published a grave +admonition, that democracy meant liberty, not license, and that he +who infringed upon an innocent freedom of action in others must +be declared traitor to his country. Every act of the kind ceased +instantly. An intimation that it was better not to throw large comfits +or oranges during the Carnival, as injuries have thus been sometimes +caused, was obeyed with equal docility. + +On Sunday last, placards affixed in the high places summoned the city +to invest Giuseppe Mazzini with the rights of a Roman citizen. I have +not yet heard the result. The Pope made Rossi a Roman citizen; he was +suffered to retain that title only one day. It was given him on the +14th of November, he died the 15th. Mazzini enters Rome at any rate, +for the first time in his life, as deputy to the Constitutional +Assembly; it would be a noble poetic justice, if he could enter also +as a Roman citizen. + + +February 24. + +The Austrians have invaded Ferrara, taken $200,000 and six hostages, +and retired. This step is, no doubt, intended to determine whether +France will resent the insult, or whether she will betray Italy. It +shows also the assurance of the Austrian that the Pope will approve +of an armed intervention. Probably before I write again these matters +will reach some decided crisis. + + + + +LETTER XXIX. + +THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.--CHARLES ALBERT A TRAITOR.--FALL OF +GIOBERTI.--MAZZINI.--HIS CHARACTER.--HIS ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE.--HIS +ORATORY.--AMERICAN ARTISTS.--BROWN, TERRY, AND FREEMAN.--HICKS AND +HIS PICTURES.--CROPSEY AND CRANCH CONTRASTED.--AMERICAN +LANDSCAPE PAINTINGS.--SCULPTORS.--STORY'S "FISHER BOY."--MOZIER'S +"POCAHONTAS."--GREENOUGH'S GROUP.--POWERS'S "SLAVE."--THE +EQUESTRIAN STATUE OF WASHINGTON.--CRAWFORD'S DESIGN.--TRIALS OF THE +ARTIST.--AMERICAN PATRONS OF ART.--EXPENSES OF ARTIST LIFE.--A GERMAN +SCULPTOR.--OVERBECK AND HIS PAINTINGS.--FESTIVAL OF FRIED RICE.--AN +AVE MARIA. + + +Rome, March 20, 1849. + +The Roman Republic moves on better than could have been expected. +There are great difficulties about money, necessarily, as the +government, so beset with trials and dangers, cannot command +confidence in that respect. The solid coin has crept out of +the country or lies hid, and in the use of paper there are the +corresponding inconveniences. But the poor, always the chief sufferers +from such a state of things, are wonderfully patient, and I doubt not +that the new form, if Italy could be left to itself, would be settled +for the advantage of all. Tuscany would soon be united with Rome, and +to the Republic of Central Italy, no longer broken asunder by petty +restrictions and sacrificed to the interests of a few persons, would +come that prosperity natural to a region so favored by nature. + +Could Italy be left alone! But treacherous, selfish men at home strive +to betray, and foes threaten her from without on every side. Even +France, her natural ally, promises to prove foolishly and basely +faithless. The dereliction from principle of her government seems +certain, and thus far the nation, despite the remonstrance of a few +worthy men, gives no sign of effective protest. There would be little +hope for Italy, were not the thrones of her foes in a tottering state, +their action liable at every moment to be distracted by domestic +difficulties. The Austrian government seems as destitute of support +from the nation as is possible for a government to be, and the army is +no longer what it was, being made up so largely of new recruits. The +Croats are uncertain in their adhesion, the war in Hungary likely to +give them much to do; and if the Russian is called in, the rest of +Europe becomes hostile. All these circumstances give Italy a chance +she otherwise could not have; she is in great measure unfurnished with +arms and money; her king in the South is a bloody, angry, well-armed +foe; her king in the North, a proved traitor. Charles Albert has now +declared, war because he could not do otherwise; but his sympathies +are in fact all against liberty; the splendid lure that he might +become king of Italy glitters no more; the Republicans are in the +ascendant, and he may well doubt, should the stranger be driven out, +whether Piedmont could escape the contagion. Now, his people insisting +on war, he has the air of making it with a good grace; but should he +be worsted, probably he will know some loophole by which to steal out. +The rat will get out and leave the lion in the trap. + +The "illustrious Gioberti" has fallen,--fallen for ever from his high +scaffold of words. His demerits were too unmistakable for rhetoric to +hide. That he sympathized with the Pope rather than the Roman people, +and could not endure to see him stripped of his temporal power, no +one could blame in the author of the _Primato_. That he refused the +Italian General Assembly, if it was to be based on the so-called +Montanelli system instead of his own, might be conviction, or it might +be littleness and vanity. But that he privily planned, without even +adherence of the council of ministers, an armed intervention of the +Piedmontese troops in Tuscany, thus willing to cause civil war, and, +at this great moment, to see Italian blood shed by Italian hands, was +treachery. I think, indeed, he has been probably made the scape-goat +in that affair; that Charles Albert planned the measure, and, finding +himself unable to carry it out, in consequence of the vigilance and +indignant opposition of the Chamber of Deputies, was somewhat consoled +by making it an occasion to victimize the "Illustrious," whom four +weeks before the people had forced him to accept as his minister. + +Now the name of Gioberti is erased from the corners of the streets to +which it was affixed a year ago; he is stripped of all his honorary +degrees, and proclaimed an unworthy son of the country. Mazzini is +the idol of the people. "Soon to be hunted out," sneered the sceptical +American. Possibly yes; for no man is secure of his palm till the +fight is over. The civic wreath may be knocked from his head a hundred +times in the ardor of the contest. No matter, if he can always keep +the forehead pure and lofty, as will Mazzini. + +In thinking of Mazzini, I always remember Petrarch's invocation to +Rienzi. Mazzini comes at a riper period in the world's history, with +the same energy of soul, but of purer temper and more enlarged views +to answer them. + +I do not know whether I mentioned a kind of poetical correspondence +about Mazzini and Rossi. Rossi was also an exile for liberal +principles, but he did not value his birthright; he alienated it, and +as a French citizen became peer of France and representative of Louis +Philippe in Italy. When, with the fatuity of those whom the gods +have doomed to perish, Pius IX. took the representative of the fallen +Guizot policy for his minister, he made him a Roman citizen. He was +proclaimed such on the 14th of November. On the 15th he perished, +before he could enter the parliament he had called. He fell at the +door of the Cancelleria when it was sitting. + +Mazzini, in his exile, remained absolutely devoted to his native +country. Because, though feeling as few can that the interests of +humanity in all nations are identical, he felt also that, born of a +race so suffering, so much needing devotion and energy, his first +duty was to that. The only powers he acknowledged were _God and the +People_, the special scope of his acts the unity and independence of +Italy. Rome was the theme of his thoughts, but, very early exiled, +he had never seen that home to which all the orphans of the soul +so naturally turn. Now he entered it as a Roman citizen, elected +representative of the people by universal suffrage. His motto, _Dio +e Popolo_, is put upon the coin with the Roman eagle; unhappily this +first-issued coin is of brass, or else of silver, with much alloy. +_Dii, avertite omen_, and may peaceful days turn it all to pure gold! + +On his first entrance to the house, Mazzini, received with fervent +applause and summoned, to take his place beside the President, spoke +as follows:-- + +"It is from me, colleagues, that should come these tokens of applause, +these tokens of affection, because the little good I have not done, +but tried to do, has come to me from Rome. Rome was always a sort of +talisman for me; a youth, I studied the history of Italy, and found, +while all the other nations were born, grew up, played their part in +the world, then fell to reappear no more in the same power, a single +city was privileged by God to die only to rise again greater than +before, to fulfil a mission greater than the first. I saw the Rome +of the Empire extend her conquests from the confines of Africa to the +confines of Asia. I saw Rome perish, crushed by the barbarians, by +those whom even yet the world, calls barbarians. I saw her rise +again, after having chased away these same barbarians, reviving in +its sepulchre the germ of Civilization. I saw her rise more great +for conquest, not with arms, but with words,--rise in the name of the +Popes to repeat her grand mission. I said in my heart, the city which +alone in the world has had two grand lives, one greater than the +other, will have a third. After the Rome which wrought by conquest of +arms, the Rome which wrought by conquest of words, must come a third +which shall work by virtue of example. After the Rome of the Emperors, +after the Rome of the Popes, will come the Rome of the People. The +Rome of the People is arisen; do not salute with applauses, but let +us rejoice together! I cannot promise anything for myself, except +concurrence in all you shall do for the good of Rome, of Italy, of +mankind. Perhaps we shall have to pass through great crises; perhaps +we shall have to fight a sacred battle against the only enemy that +threatens us,--Austria. We will fight it, and we will conquer. I hope, +please God, that foreigners may not be able to say any more that which +so many of them repeat to-day, speaking of our affairs,--that the +light which, comes from Rome is only an _ignis fatuus_ wandering among +the tombs. The world shall see that it is a starry light, eternal, +pure, and resplendent as those we look up to in the heavens!" + +On a later day he spoke more fully of the difficulties that threaten +at home the young republic, and said:-- + +"Let us not hear of Right, of Left, of Centre; these terms express +the three powers in a constitutional monarchy; for us they have +no meaning; the only divisions for us are of Republicans or +non-Republicans,--or of sincere men and temporizing men. Let us not +hear so much of the Republicans of to-day and of yesterday; I am a +Republican of twenty years' standing. Entertaining such hopes for +Italy, when many excellent, many sincere men held them as Utopian, +shall I denounce these men because they are now convinced of their +practicability?" + +This last I quote from memory. In hearing the gentle tone of +remonstrance with those of more petty mind, or influenced by the +passions of the partisan, I was forcibly reminded of the parable by +Jesus, of the vineyard and the discontent of the laborers that those +who came at the eleventh hour "received also a penny." Mazzini also is +content that all should fare alike as brethren, if only they will come +into the vineyard. He is not an orator, but the simple conversational +tone of his address is in refreshing contrast with the boyish rhetoric +and academic swell common to Italian speakers in the present unfledged +state. As they have freer use of the power of debate, they will +become more simple and manly. The speech of Mazzini is laden with +thought,--it goes straight to the mark by the shortest path, and moves +without effort, from the irresistible impression of deep conviction +and fidelity in the speaker. Mazzini is a man of genius, an elevated +thinker; but the most powerful and first impression from his presence +must always be of the religion of his soul, of his _virtue_, both in +the modern and antique sense of that word. + +If clearness of right, if energy, if indefatigable perseverance, can +steer the ship through this dangerous pass, it will be done. He said, +"We will conquer"; whether Rome will, this time, is not to me certain, +but such men as Mazzini conquer always,--conquer in defeat. Yet Heaven +grant that no more blood, no more corruption of priestly government, +be for Italy. It could only be for once more, for the strength, of her +present impulse would not fail to triumph at last; but even one more +trial seems too intolerably much, when I think of the holocaust of the +broken hearts, baffled lives, that must attend it. + +But enough of politics for the present; this letter goes by private +hand, and, as news, will be superseded before it can arrive. + +Let me rather take the opportunity to say some things that I have let +lie by, while writing of political events. Especially of our artists I +wish to say something. I know many of thorn, if not all, and see with +pleasure our young country so fairly represented. + +Among the painters I saw of Brown only two or three pictures at the +exhibition in Florence; they were coarse, flashy things. I was told +he could do better; but a man who indulges himself with such, coarse +sale-work cannot surely do well at any time. + +The merits of Terry and Freeman are not my merits; they are beside +both favorites in our country, and have a sufficient number of +pictures there for every one to judge. I am no connoisseur as regards +the technical merits of paintings; it is only poetic invention, or a +tender feeling of nature, which captivates me. + +Terry loves grace, and consciously works from the model. The result is +a pleasing transposition of the hues of this clime. But the design of +the picture is never original, nor is it laden with any message from, +the heart. Of Freeman I know less; as the two or three pictures of his +that I have seen never interested me. I have not visited his studio. + +Of Hicks I think very highly. He is a man of ideas, an original +observer, and with a poetic heart. His system of coloring is derived +from a thoughtful study, not a mere imitation of nature, and shows +the fineness of his organization. Struggling unaided to pursue the +expensive studies of his art, he has had only a small studio, and +received only orders for little cabinet pictures. Could, he carry out +adequately his ideas, in him would be found the treasure of genius. He +has made the drawings for a large picture of many figures; the design +is original and noble, the grouping highly effective. Could he paint +this picture, I believe it would be a real boon to the lovers of art, +the lovers of truth. I hope very much that, when he returns to the +United States, some competent patron of art--one of the few who have +mind as well as purse--will see the drawings and order the picture. +Otherwise he cannot paint it, as the expenses attendant on models +for so many figures, &c. are great, and the time demanded could not +otherwise be taken from the claims of the day. + +Among landscape painters Cropsey and Cranch have the true artist +spirit. In faculties, each has what the other wants. Cropsey is a +reverent and careful student of nature in detail; it is no pedantry, +but a true love he has, and his pictures are full of little, gentle +signs of intimacy. They please and touch; but yet in poetic feeling +of the heart of nature he is not equal to Cranch, who produces +fine effects by means more superficial, and, on examination, less +satisfactory. Each might take somewhat from the other to advantage, +could he do it without diminishing his own original dower. Both are +artists of high promise, and deserve to be loved and cherished by +a country which may, without presumption, hope to carry landscape +painting to a pitch of excellence unreached before. For the historical +painter, the position with us is, for many reasons, not favorable; +but there is no bar in the way of the landscape painter, and fate, +bestowing such a prodigality of subject, seems to give us a hint not +to be mistaken. I think the love of landscape painting is genuine in +our nation, and as it is a branch of art where achievement has been +comparatively low, we may not unreasonably suppose it has been left +for us. I trust it will be undertaken in the highest spirit. Nature, +it seems to me, reveals herself more freely in our land; she is true, +virgin, and confiding,--she smiles upon the vision of a true Endymion. +I hope to see, not only copies upon canvas of our magnificent scenes, +but a transfusion of the spirit which is their divinity. + +Then why should the American landscape painter come to Italy? cry +many. I think, myself, he ought not to stay here very long. Yet a few +years' study is precious, for here Nature herself has worked with man, +as if she wanted to help him in the composition of pictures. The ruins +of Italy, in their varied relations with vegetation and the heavens, +make speeches from every stone for instruction of the artist; the +greatest variety here is found with the greatest harmony. To know how +this union may be accomplished is a main secret of art, and though the +coloring is not the same, yet he who has the key to its mysteries of +beauty is the more initiated to the same in other climates, and +will easily attune afresh his more instructed eye and mind to the +contemplation of that which moulded his childhood. + +I may observe of the two artists I have named, that Cranch has entered +more into the spirit of Italian landscape, while Cropsey is still more +distinguished on subjects such as he first loved. He seemed to find +the Scotch lake and mountain scenery very congenial; his sketches and +pictures taken from a short residence there are impressive. Perhaps a +melancholy or tender subject suits him best; something rich, bold, and +mellow is more adapted to call out the genius of Cranch. + +Among the sculptors new names rise up, to show that this is decidedly +a province for hope in America. I look upon this as the natural talent +of an American, and have no doubt that glories will be displayed by +our sculptors unknown to classic art. The facts of our history, ideal +and social, will be grand and of new import; it is perfectly natural +to the American to mould in clay and carve in stone. The permanence of +material and solid, relief in the forms correspond to the positiveness +of his nature better than the mere ephemeral and even tricky methods +of the painter,--to his need of motion and action, better than +the chambered scribbling of the poet. He will thus record his best +experiences, and these records will adorn the noble structures that +must naturally arise for the public uses of our society. + +It is particularly gratifying to see men that might amass far more +money and attain more temporary power in other things, despise those +lower lures, too powerful in our country, and aim only at excellence +in the expression of thought. Among these I may mention Story and +Mozier. Story has made in Florence the model for a statue of his +father. This I have not seen, but two statuettes that he modelled +here from the "Fisher" of Goethe pleased me extremely. The languid, +meditative reverie of the boy, the morbid tenderness of his nature, is +most happily expressed in the first, as is the fascinated surrender to +the siren murmur of tire flood in the second. He has taken the moment + + "Half drew she him; half sank he in," &c. + +I hope some one will give him an order to make them in marble. Mozier +seemed to have an immediate success. The fidelity and spirit of his +portrait-busts could be appreciated by every one; for an ideal head of +Pocahontas, too, he had at once orders for many copies. It was not +an Indian head, but, in the union of sweetness and strength with a +princelike, childlike dignity, very happily expressive of his idea of +her character. I think he has modelled a Rebecca at the Well, but this +I did not see. + +These have already a firm hold on the affections of our people; every +American who comes to Italy visits their studios, and speaks of them +with pride, as indeed they well may, in comparing them with artists of +other nations. It will not be long before you see Greenough's group; +it is in spirit a pendant to Cooper's novels. I confess I wish he +had availed himself of the opportunity to immortalize the real noble +Indian in marble. This is only the man of the woods,--no Metamora, no +Uncas. But the group should be very instructive to our people. + +You seem as crazy about Powers's Greek Slave as the Florentines were +about Cimabue's Madonnas, in which we still see the spark of genius, +but not fanned to its full flame. If your enthusiasm be as genuine as +that of the lively Florentines, we will not quarrel with it; but I +am afraid a great part is drawing-room rapture and newspaper echo. +Genuine enthusiasm, however crude the state of mind from which it +springs, always elevates, always educates; but in the same proportion +talking and writing for effect stultifies and debases. I shall not +judge the adorers of the Greek Slave, but only observe, that they have +not kept in reserve any higher admiration for works even now extant, +which are, in comparison with that statue, what that statue is +compared with any weeping marble on a common monument. + +I consider the Slave as a form of simple and sweet beauty, but that +neither as an ideal expression nor a specimen of plastic power is it +transcendent. Powers stands far higher in his busts than in any ideal +statue. His conception of what is individual in character is clear +and just, his power of execution almost unrivalled; but he has had a +lifetime of discipline for the bust, while his studies on the human +body are comparatively limited; nor is his treatment of it free and +masterly. To me, his conception of subject is not striking: I do not +consider him rich in artistic thought. + +He, no less than Greenough and Crawford, would feel it a rich reward +for many labors, and a happy climax to their honors, to make an +equestrian statue of Washington for our country. I wish they might all +do it, as each would show a different kind of excellence. To present +the man on horseback, the wise centaur, the tamer of horses, may well +be deemed a high achievement of modern, as it was of ancient art. The +study of the anatomy and action of the horse, so rich in suggestions, +is naturally most desirable to the artist; happy he who, obliged +by the brevity of life and the limitations of fortune, to make his +studies conform to his "orders," finds himself justified by a national +behest in entering on this department. + +At home one gets callous about the character of Washington, from a +long experience of Fourth of July bombast in his praise. But seeing +the struggles of other nations, and the deficiencies of the leaders +who try to sustain them, the heart is again stimulated, and puts forth +buds of praise. One appreciates the wonderful combination of events +and influences that gave our independence so healthy a birth, and the +almost miraculous merits of the men who tended its first motions. In +the combination of excellences needed at such a period with the purity +and modesty which dignify the private man in the humblest station, +Washington as yet stands alone. No country has ever had such a good +future; no other is so happy as to have a pattern of spotless worth +which will remain in her latest day venerable as now. + +Surely, then, that form should be immortalized in material solid as +its fame; and, happily for the artist, that form was of natural beauty +and dignity, and he who places him on horseback simply represents his +habitual existence. Everything concurs to make an equestrian statue of +Washington desirable. + +The dignified way to manage that affair would be to have a committee +chosen of impartial judges, men who would look only to the merits of +the work and the interests of the country, unbiassed by any personal +interest in favor of some one artist. It is said it is impossible to +find such a committee, but I cannot believe it. Let there be put aside +the mean squabbles and jealousies, the vulgar pushing of unworthy +friends, with which, unhappily, the artist's career seems more rife +than any other, and a fair concurrence established; let each artist +offer his design for an equestrian statue of Washington, and let the +best have the preference. + +Mr. Crawford has made a design which he takes with him to America, and +which, I hope, will be generally seen. He has represented Washington +in his actual dress; a figure of Fame, winged, presents the laurel and +civic wreath; his gesture declines them; he seems to say, "For me the +deed is enough,--I need no badge, no outward, token in reward." + +This group has no insipid, allegorical air, as might be supposed; and +its composition is very graceful, simple, and harmonious. The costume +is very happily managed. The angel figure is draped, and with, the +liberty-cap, which, as a badge both of ancient and modern times, seems +to connect the two figures, and in an artistic point of view balances +well the cocked hat; there is a similar harmony between the angel's +wings and the extremities of the horse. The action of the winged +figure induces a natural and spirited action of the horse and rider. I +thought of Goethe's remark, that a fine work of art will always have, +at a distance, where its details cannot be discerned, a beautiful +effect, as of architectural ornament, and that this excellence the +groups of Raphael share with the antique. He would have been pleased +with the beautiful balance of forms in this group, with the freedom +with which light and air play in and out, the management of the whole +being clear and satisfactory at the first glance. But one should go +into a great number of studies, as you can in Rome or Florence, and +see the abundance of heavy and inharmonious designs to appreciate the +merits of this; anything really good seems so simple and so a matter +of course to the unpractised observer. + +Some say the Americans will not want a group, but just the fact; the +portrait of Washington riding straight onward, like Marcus Aurelius, +or making an address, or lifting his sword. I do not know about +that,--it is a matter of feeling. This winged figure not only gives +a poetic sense to the group, but a natural support and occasion for +action to the horse and rider. Uncle Sam must send Major Downing to +look at it, and then, if he wants other designs, let him establish +a concurrence, as I have said, and choose what is best. I am not +particularly attached to Mr. Greenough, Mr. Powers, or Mr. Crawford. I +admire various excellences in the works of each, and should be glad +if each received an order for an equestrian statue. Nor is there any +reason why they should not. There is money enough in the country, and +the more good things there are for the people to see freely in open +daylight, the better. That makes artists germinate. + +I love the artists, though I cannot speak of their works in a way to +content their friends, or even themselves, often. Who can, that has a +standard of excellence in the mind, and a delicate conscience in +the use of words? My highest tribute is meagre of superlatives in +comparison with the hackneyed puffs with which artists submit to +be besmeared. Submit? alas! often they court them, rather. I do not +expect any kindness from my contemporaries. I know that what is to +me justice and honor is to them only a hateful coldness. Still I +love them, I wish for their good, I feel deeply for their sufferings, +annoyances, privations, and would lessen them if I could. I have +thought it might perhaps be of use to publish some account of the +expenses of the artist. There is a general impression, that the artist +lives very cheaply in Italy. This is a mistake. Italy, compared +with America, is not so very cheap, except for those who have iron +constitutions to endure bad food, eaten in bad air, damp and dirty +lodgings. The expenses, even in Florence, of a simple but clean and +wholesome life, are little less than in New York. The great difference +is for people that are rich. An Englishman of rank and fortune does +not need the same amount of luxury as at home, to be on a footing with +the nobles of Italy. The Broadway merchant would find his display of +mahogany and carpets thrown away in a country where a higher kind of +ornament is the only one available. But poor people, who can, at any +rate, buy only the necessaries of life, will find them in the Italian +cities, where all sellers live by cheating foreigners, very little +cheaper than in America. + +The patrons of Art in America, ignorant of these facts, and not +knowing the great expenses which attend the study of Art and the +production of its wonders, are often guilty of most undesigned +cruelty, and do things which it would grieve their hearts to have +done, if they only knew the facts. They have read essays on the uses +of adversity in developing genius, and they are not sufficiently +afraid to administer a dose of adversity beyond what the forces of +the patient can bear. Laudanum in drops is useful as a medicine, but a +cupful kills downright. + +Beside this romantic idea about letting artists suffer to develop +their genius, the American Mæcenas is not sufficiently aware of +the expenses attendant on producing the work he wants. He does not +consider that the painter, the sculptor, must be paid for the time +he spends in designing and moulding, no less than in painting and +carving; that he must have his bread and sleeping-house, his workhouse +or studio, his marbles and colors,--the sculptor his workmen; so that +if the price be paid he asks, a modest and delicate man very commonly +receives _no_ guerdon for his thought,--the real essence of the +work,--except the luxury of seeing it embodied, which he could not +otherwise have afforded, The American Mæcenas often pushes the price +down, not from want of generosity, but from a habit of making what are +called good bargains,--i.e. bargains for one's own advantage at the +expense of a poorer brother. Those who call these good do not believe +that + + "Mankind is one, + And beats with one great heart." + +They have not read the life of Jesus Christ. + +Then the American Mæcenas sometimes, after ordering a work, has been +known to change his mind when the statue is already modelled. It is +the American who does these things, because an American, who either +from taste or vanity buys a picture, is often quite uneducated as to +the arts, and cannot understand why a little picture or figure costs +so much money. The Englishman or Frenchman, of a suitable position to +seek these adornments for his house, usually understands better than +the visitor of Powers who, on hearing the price of the Proserpine, +wonderingly asked, "Isn't statuary riz lately?" Queen Victoria of +England, and her Albert, it is said, use their royal privilege to get +works of art at a price below their value; but their subjects would be +ashamed to do so. + +To supply means of judging to the American merchant (full of kindness +and honorable sympathy as beneath the crust he so often is) who wants +pictures and statues, not merely from ostentation, but as means of +delight and improvement to himself and his friends, who has a soul to +respect the genius and desire the happiness of the artist, and who, +if he errs, does so from ignorance of the circumstances, I give the +following memorandum, made at my desire by an artist, my neighbor:-- + +"The rent of a suitable studio for modelling in clay and executing +statues in marble may be estimated at $200 a year. + +"The best journeyman carver in marble at Rome receives $60 a month. +Models are paid $1 a day. + +"The cost of marble varies according to the size of the block, being +generally sold by the cubic palm, a square of nine inches English. +As a general guide regarding the prices established among the higher +sculptors of Rome, I may mention that for a statue of life-size the +demand is from $1,000 to $5,000, varying according to the composition +of the figure and the number of accessories. + +"It is a common belief in the United States, that a student of Art can +live in Italy and pursue his studies on an income of $300 or $400 a +year. This is a lamentable error; the Russian government allows its +pensioners $700, which is scarcely sufficient. $1,000 per annum should +be placed at the disposal of every young artist leaving our country +for Europe." + +Let it be remembered, in addition to considerations inevitable +from this memorandum, that an artist may after years and months of +uncheered and difficult toil, after he has gone through the earlier +stages of an education, find it too largely based, and of aim too +high, to finish in this world. + +The Prussian artist here on my left hand learned not only his art, +but reading and writing, after he was thirty. A farmer's son, he was +allowed no freedom to learn anything till the death of the head of +the house left him a beggar, but set him free; he walked to Berlin, +distant several hundred miles, attracted by his first works some +attention, and received some assistance in money, earned more by +invention of a ploughshare, walked to Rome, struggled through every +privation, and has now a reputation which has secured him the means of +putting his thoughts into marble. True, at forty-nine years of age he +is still severely poor; he cannot marry, because he cannot maintain a +family; but he is cheerful, because he can work in his own way, trusts +with childlike reliance in God, and is still sustained by the vigorous +health he won laboring in his father's fields. Not every man +could continue to work, circumstanced as he is, at the end of the +half-century. For him the only sad thing in my mind is that his works +are not worth working, though of merit in composition and execution, +yet ideally a product of the galvanized piety of the German school, +more mutton-like than lamb-like to my unchurched eyes. + +You are likely to have a work to look at in the United States by the +great master of that school, Overbeck; Mr. Perkins of Boston, who +knows how to spend his money with equal generosity and discretion, +having bought his "Wise and Foolish Virgins." It will be precious to +the country from great artistic merits. As to the spirit, "blessed are +the poor in spirit." That kind of severity is, perhaps has become, the +nature of Overbeck. He seems like a monk, but a really pious and pure +one. This spirit is not what I seek; I deem it too narrow for our +day, but being deeply sincere in him, its expression is at times also +deeply touching. Barabbas borne in triumph, and the child Jesus, +who, playing with his father's tools, has made himself a cross, are +subjects best adapted for expression of this spirit. + +I have written too carelessly,--much writing hath made me mad of late. +Forgive if the "style be not neat, terse, and sparkling," if there be +naught of the "thrilling," if the sentences seem not "written with a +diamond pen," like all else that is published in America. Some time I +must try to do better. For this time + + "Forgive my faults; forgive my virtues too." + + +March 21. + +Day before yesterday was the Feast of St. Joseph. He is supposed to +have acquired a fondness for fried rice-cakes during his residence +in Egypt. Many are eaten in the open street, in arbors made for the +occasion. One was made beneath my window, on Piazza Barberini. All the +day and evening men, cleanly dressed in white aprons and liberty +caps, quite new, of fine, red cloth, were frying cakes for crowds of +laughing, gesticulating customers. It rained a little, and they held +an umbrella over the frying-pan, but not over themselves. The arbor +is still there, and little children are playing in and out of it; one +still lesser runs in its leading-strings, followed by the bold, gay +nurse, to the brink of the fountain, after its orange which has +rolled before it. Tenerani's workmen are coming out of his studio, +the priests are coming home from Ponte Pio, the Contadini beginning +to play at _moro_, for the setting sun has just lit up the magnificent +range of windows in the Palazzo Barberini, and then faded tenderly, +sadly away, and the mellow bells have chimed the Ave Maria. Rome looks +as Roman, that is to say as tranquil, as ever, despite the trouble +that tugs at her heart-strings. There is a report that Mazzini is to +be made Dictator, as Manin is in Venice, for a short time, so as to +provide hastily and energetically for the war. Ave Maria Sanissima! +when thou didst gaze on thy babe with such infinite hope, thou didst +not dream that, so many ages after, blood would be shed and curses +uttered in his name. Madonna Addolorata! hadst thou not hoped peace +and good-will would spring from his bloody woes, couldst thou have +borne those hours at the foot of the cross. O Stella! woman's heart of +love, send yet a ray of pure light on this troubled deep? + + + + +LETTER XXX. + +THE STRUGGLE IN ROME.--POSITION OF THE FRENCH.--THE +AUSTRIANS.--FEELING OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE.--THE FRENCH TROOPS.--EFFECTS +OF WAR.--HOSPITALS.--THE PRINCESS BELGIOIOSO.--POSITION OF MR. CASS AS +ENVOY.--DIFFICULTIES AND SUGGESTIONS.--AMERICA AND ROME.--REFLECTIONS +ON THE ETERNAL CITY.--THE FRENCH: THE PEOPLE. + + +Rome, May 27, 1849. + +I have suspended writing in the expectation of some decisive event; +but none such comes yet. The French, entangled in a web of falsehood, +abashed by a defeat that Oudinot has vainly tried to gloss over, the +expedition disowned by all honorable men at home, disappointed at +Gaëta, not daring to go the length Papal infatuation demands, know not +what to do. The Neapolitans have been decidedly driven back into their +own borders, the last time in a most shameful rout, their king flying +in front. We have heard for several days that the Austrians were +advancing, but they come not. They also, it is probable, meet with +unexpected embarrassments. They find that the sincere movement of the +Italian people is very unlike that of troops commanded by princes +and generals who never wished to conquer and were always waiting to +betray. Then their troubles at home are constantly increasing, and, +should the Russian intervention quell these to-day, it is only to +raise a storm far more terrible to-morrow. + +The struggle is now fairly, thoroughly commenced between the principle +of democracy and the old powers, no longer legitimate. That struggle +may last fifty years, and the earth be watered with the blood and +tears of more than one generation, but the result is sure. All Europe, +including Great Britain, where the most bitter resistance of all will +be made, is to be under republican government in the next century. + + "God moves in a mysterious way." + +Every struggle made by the old tyrannies, all their Jesuitical +deceptions, their rapacity, their imprisonments and executions of the +most generous men, only sow more dragon's teeth; the crop shoots up +daily more and more plenteous. + +When I first arrived in Italy, the vast majority of this people had no +wish beyond limited monarchies, constitutional governments. They still +respected the famous names of the nobility; they despised the priests, +but were still fondly attached to the dogmas and ritual of the Roman +Catholic Church. It required King Bomba, the triple treachery +of Charles Albert, Pius IX., and the "illustrious Gioberti," the +naturally kind-hearted, but, from the necessity of his position, +cowardly and false Leopold of Tuscany, the vagabond "serene" +meannesses of Parma and Modena, the "fatherly" Radetzsky, and, +finally, the imbecile Louis Bonaparte, "would-be Emperor of France," +to convince this people that no transition is possible between the +old and the new. _The work is done_; the revolution in Italy is now +radical, nor can it stop till Italy becomes independent and united as +a republic. Protestant she already is, and though the memory of saints +and martyrs may continue to be revered, the ideal of woman to be +adored under the name of Mary, yet Christ will now begin to be a +little thought of; _his_ idea has always been kept carefully out of +sight under the old _régime_; all the worship being for the Madonna +and saints, who were to be well paid for interceding for sinners;--an +example which might make men cease to be such, was no way coveted. Now +the New Testament has been translated into Italian; copies are already +dispersed far and wide; men calling themselves Christians will no +longer be left entirely ignorant of the precepts and life of Jesus. + +The people of Rome have burnt the Cardinals' carriages. They took the +confessionals out of the churches, and made mock confessions in the +piazzas, the scope of which was, "I have sinned, father, so and so." +"Well, my son, how much will you _pay_ to the Church for absolution?" +Afterward the people thought of burning the confessionals, or using +them for barricades; but at the request of the Triumvirate they +desisted, and even put them back into the churches. But it was from no +reaction of feeling that they stopped short, only from respect for +the government. The "Tartuffe" of Molière has been translated into +Italian, and was last night performed with great applause at the +Valle. Can all this be forgotten? Never! Should guns and bayonets +replace the Pope on the throne, he will find its foundations, once +deep as modern civilization, now so undermined that it falls with the +least awkward movement. + +But I cannot believe he will be replaced there. France alone could +consummate that crime,--that, for her, most cruel, most infamous +treason. The elections in France will decide. In three or four days +we shall know whether the French nation at large be guilty or +no,--whether it be the will of the nation to aid or strive to ruin a +government founded on precisely the same basis as their own. + +I do not dare to trust that people. The peasant is yet very ignorant. +The suffering workman is frightened as he thinks of the punishments +that ensued on the insurrections of May and June. The man of property +is full of horror at the brotherly scope of Socialism. The aristocrat +dreams of the guillotine always when he hears men speak of the people. +The influence of the Jesuits is still immense in France. Both in +France and England the grossest falsehoods have been circulated with +unwearied diligence about the state of things in Italy. An amusing +specimen of what is still done in this line I find just now in a +foreign journal, where it says there are red flags on all the houses +of Rome; meaning to imply that the Romans are athirst for blood. Now, +the fact is, that these flags are put up at the entrance of those +streets where there is no barricade, as a signal to coachmen and +horsemen that they can pass freely. There is one on the house where +I am, in which is no person but myself, who thirst for peace, and the +Padrone, who thirsts for money. + +Meanwhile the French troops are encamped at a little distance from +Rome. Some attempts at fair and equal treaty when their desire to +occupy Rome was firmly resisted, Oudinot describes in his despatches +as a readiness for _submission_. Having tried in vain to gain this +point, he has sent to France for fresh orders. These will be decided +by the turn the election takes. Meanwhile the French troops are much +exposed to the Roman force where they are. Should the Austrians come +up, what will they do? Will they shamelessly fraternize with the +French, after pretending and proclaiming that they came here as a +check upon their aggressions? Will they oppose them in defence of +Rome, with which they are at war? + +Ah! the way of falsehood, the way of treachery,--how dark, how full of +pitfalls and traps! Heaven defend from it all who are not yet engaged +therein! + +War near at hand seems to me even more dreadful than I had fancied +it. True, it tries men's souls, lays bare selfishness in undeniable +deformity. Here it has produced much fruit of noble sentiment, noble +act; but still it breeds vice too, drunkenness, mental dissipation, +tears asunder the tenderest ties, lavishes the productions of Earth, +for which her starving poor stretch out their hands in vain, in the +most unprofitable manner. And the ruin that ensues, how terrible! Let +those who have ever passed happy days in Rome grieve to hear that +the beautiful plantations of Villa Borghese--that chief delight and +refreshment of citizens, foreigners, and little children--are laid +low, as far as the obelisk. The fountain, singing alone amid the +fallen groves, cannot be seen and heard without tears; it seems like +some innocent infant calling and crowing amid dead bodies on a field +which battle has strewn with the bodies of those who once cherished +it. The plantations of Villa Salvage on the Tiber, also, the beautiful +trees on the way from St. John Lateran to La Maria Maggiore, the trees +of the Forum, are fallen. Rome is shorn of the locks which lent grace +to her venerable brow. She looks desolate, profaned. I feel what I +never expected to,--as if I might by and by be willing to leave Rome. + +Then I have, for the first time, seen what wounded men suffer. The +night of the 30th of April I passed in the hospital, and saw the +terrible agonies of those dying or who needed amputation, felt their +mental pains and longing for the loved ones who were away; for many of +these were Lombards, who had come from the field of Novarra to fight +with a fairer chance,--many were students of the University, who had +enlisted and thrown themselves into the front of the engagement. The +impudent falsehoods of the French general's despatches are incredible. +The French were never decoyed on in any way. They were received with +every possible mark of hostility. They were defeated in open field, +the Garibaldi legion rushing out to meet them; and though they +suffered much from the walls, they sustained themselves nowhere. They +never put up a white flag till they wished to surrender. The vanity +that strives to cover over these facts is unworthy of men. The only +excuse for the imprudent conduct of the expedition is that they were +deceived, not by the Romans here, but by the priests of Gaëta, leading +them to expect action in their favor within the walls. These priests +themselves were deluded by their hopes and old habits of mind. The +troops did not fight well, and General Oudinot abandoned his wounded +without proper care. All this says nothing against French valor, +proved by ages of glory, beyond the doubt of their worst foes. They +were demoralized because they fought in so bad a cause, and there was +no sincere ardor or clear hope in any breast. + +But to return to the hospitals: these were put in order, and have been +kept so, by the Princess Belgioioso. The princess was born of one +of the noblest families of the Milanese, a descendant of the great +Trivalzio, and inherited a large fortune. Very early she compromised +it in liberal movements, and, on their failure, was obliged to fly to +Paris, where for a time she maintained herself by writing, and I +think by painting also. A princess so placed naturally excited great +interest, and she drew around her a little court of celebrated men. +After recovering her fortune, she still lived in Paris, distinguished +for her talents and munificence, both toward literary men and her +exiled countrymen. Later, on her estate, called Locate, between Pavia +and Milan, she had made experiments in the Socialist direction with +fine judgment and success. Association for education, for labor, for +transaction of household affairs, had been carried on for several +years; she had spared no devotion of time and money to this object, +loved, and was much beloved by, those objects of her care, and said +she hoped to die there. All is now despoiled and broken up, though it +may be hoped that some seeds of peaceful reform have been sown which +will spring to light when least expected. The princess returned to +Italy in 1847-8, full of hope in Pius IX and Charles Albert. She +showed her usual energy and truly princely heart, sustaining, at her +own expense, a company of soldiers and a journal up to the last sad +betrayal of Milan, August 6th. These days undeceived all the people, +but few of the noblesse; she was one of the few with mind strong +enough to understand the lesson, and is now warmly interested in the +republican movement. From Milan she went to France, but, finding +it impossible to effect anything serious there in behalf of Italy, +returned, and has been in Rome about two months. Since leaving +Milan she receives no income, her possessions being in the grasp of +Radetzky, and cannot know when, if ever, she will again. But as +she worked so largely and well with money, so can she without. She +published an invitation to the Roman women to make lint and bandages, +and offer their services to the wounded; she put the hospitals in +order; in the central one, Trinita de Pellegrini, once the abode where +the pilgrims were received during holy week, and where foreigners +were entertained by seeing their feet washed by the noble dames and +dignitaries of Rome, she has remained day and night since the 30th of +April, when the wounded were first there. Some money she procured at +first by going through Rome, accompanied by two other ladies veiled, +to beg it. Afterward the voluntary contributions were generous; among +the rest, I am proud to say, the Americans in Rome gave $250, of which +a handsome portion came from Mr. Brown, the Consul. + +I value this mark of sympathy more because of the irritation and +surprise occasioned here by the position of Mr. Cass, the Envoy. It is +most unfortunate that we should have an envoy here for the first +time, just to offend and disappoint the Romans. When all the other +ambassadors are at Gaëta, ours is in Rome, as if by his presence to +discountenance the republican government, which he does not recognize. +Mr. Cass, it seems, is required by his instructions not to recognize +the government till sure it can be sustained. Now it seems to me that +the only dignified ground for our government, the only legitimate +ground for any republican government, is to recognize for any nation +the government chosen by itself. The suffrage had been correct here, +and the proportion of votes to the whole population was much larger, +it was said by Americans here, than it is in our own country at the +time of contested elections. It had elected an Assembly; that Assembly +had appointed, to meet the exigencies of this time, the Triumvirate. +If any misrepresentations have induced America to believe, as France +affects to have believed, that so large a vote could have been +obtained by moral intimidation, the present unanimity of the +population in resisting such immense odds, and the enthusiasm of their +every expression in favor of the present government, puts the matter +beyond a doubt. The Roman people claims once more to have a national +existence. It declines further serfdom to an ecclesiastical court. +It claims liberty of conscience, of action, and of thought. Should it +fall from its present position, it will not be from, internal dissent, +but from foreign oppression. + +Since this is the case, surely our country, if no other, is bound to +recognize the present government _so long as it can sustain itself_. +This position is that to which we have a right: being such, it is no +matter how it is viewed by others. But I dare assert it is the only +respectable one for our country, in the eyes of the Emperor of Russia +himself. + +The first, best occasion is past, when Mr. Cass might, had he been +empowered to act as Mr. Rush did in France, have morally strengthened +the staggering republic, which would have found sympathy where alone +it is of permanent value, on the basis of principle. Had it been in +vain, what then? America would have acted honorably; as to our being +compromised thereby with the Papal government, that fear is idle. Pope +and Cardinals have great hopes from America; the giant influence there +is kept up with the greatest care; the number of Catholic writers +in the United States, too, carefully counted. Had our republican +government acknowledged this republican government, the Papal +Camarilla would have respected us more, but not loved us less; for +have we not the loaves and fishes to give, as well as the precious +souls to be saved? Ah! here, indeed, America might go straightforward +with all needful impunity. Bishop Hughes himself need not be +anxious. That first, best occasion has passed, and the unrecognized, +unrecognizing Envoy has given offence, and not comfort, by a presence +that seemed constantly to say, I do not think you can sustain +yourselves. It has wounded both the heart and the pride of Rome. Some +of the lowest people have asked me, "Is it not true that your country +had a war to become free?" "Yes." "Then why do they not feel for us?" + +Yet even now it is not too late. If America would only hail +triumphant, though she could not sustain injured Rome, that would +be something. "Can you suppose Rome will triumph," you say, "without +money, and against so potent a league of foes?" I am not sure, but +I hope, for I believe something in the heart of a people when fairly +awakened. I have also a lurking confidence in what our fathers spoke +of so constantly, a providential order of things, by which brute force +and selfish enterprise are sometimes set at naught by aid which seems +to descend from a higher sphere. Even old pagans believed in that, +you know; and I was born in America, Christianized by the +Puritans,--America, freed by eight years' patient suffering, poverty, +and struggle,--America, so cheered in dark days by one spark of +sympathy from a foreign shore,--America, first "recognized" by +Lafayette. I saw him when traversing our country, then great, rich, +and free. Millions of men who owed in part their happiness to what, no +doubt, was once sneered at as romantic sympathy, threw garlands in his +path. It is natural that I should have some faith. + +Send, dear America! to thy ambassadors a talisman precious beyond all +that boasted gold of California. Let it loose his tongue to cry, "Long +live the Republic, and may God bless the cause of the people, the +brotherhood of nations and of men,--equality of rights for all." _Viva +America!_ + +Hail to my country! May she live a free, a glorious, a loving +life, and not perish, like the old dominions, from, the leprosy of +selfishness. + + +Evening. + +I am alone in the ghostly silence of a great house, not long since +full of gay faces and echoing with gay voices, now deserted by every +one but me,--for almost all foreigners are gone now, driven by force +either of the summer heats or the foe. I hear all the Spaniards are +going now,--that twenty-one have taken passports to-day; why that is, +I do not know. + +I shall not go till the last moment; my only fear is of France. I +cannot think in any case there would be found men willing to damn +themselves to latest posterity by bombarding Rome. Other cities they +may treat thus, careless of destroying the innocent and helpless, the +babe and old grandsire who cannot war against them. But Rome, precious +inheritance of mankind,--will they run the risk of marring her shrined +treasures? Would they dare do it? + +Two of the balls that struck St. Peter's have been sent to Pius IX. by +his children, who find themselves so much less "beloved" than were the +Austrians. + +These two days, days of solemn festivity in the calends of the Church, +have been duly kept, and the population looks cheerful as it swarms +through the streets. The order of Rome, thronged as it is with troops, +is amazing. I go from one end to the other, and amid the poorest and +most barbarous of the population, (barbarously ignorant, I mean,) +alone and on foot. My friends send out their little children alone +with their nurses. The amount of crime is almost nothing to what it +was. The Roman, no longer pent in ignorance and crouching beneath +espionage, no longer stabs in the dark. His energies have true vent; +his better feelings are roused; he has thrown aside the stiletto. The +power here is indeed miraculous, since no doubt still lurk within the +walls many who are eager to incite brawls, if only to give an excuse +for slander. + +To-day I suppose twelve thousand Austrians marched into Florence. +The Florentines have humbled and disgraced themselves in vain. They +recalled the Grand Duke to ward off the entrance of the Austrians, but +in vain went the deputation to Gaëta--in an American steamer! Leopold +was afraid to come till his dear cousins of Austria had put everything +in perfect order; then the Austrians entered to take Leghorn, but the +Florentines still kept on imploring them not to come there; Florence +was as subdued, as good as possible, already:--they have had the +answer they deserved. Now they crown their work by giving over +Guerazzi and Petracci to be tried by an Austrian court-martial. Truly +the cup of shame brims over. + +I have been out on the balcony to look over the city. All sleeps with +that peculiar air of serene majesty known to this city only;--this +city that has grown, not out of the necessities of commerce nor the +luxuries of wealth, but first out of heroism, then out of faith. +Swelling domes, roofs softly tinted with yellow moss! what deep +meaning, what deep repose, in your faintly seen outline! + +The young moon climbs among clouds,--the clouds of a departing +thunderstorm. Tender, smiling moon! can it be that thy full orb may +look down on a smoking, smouldering Rome, and see her best blood run +along the stones, without one nation in the world to defend, one to +aid,--scarce one to cry out a tardy "Shame"? We will wait, whisper the +nations, and see if they can bear it. Rack them well to see if they +are brave. _If they can do without us_, we will help them. Is it thus +ye would be served in your turn? Beware! + + + + +LETTER XXXI. + +THE FRENCH TREASON AT ROME.--OUDINOT.--LESSEPS.--LETTER OF THE +TRIUMVIRATE.--REPLY OF LESSEPS.--COURSE OF OUDINOT.--THE WOUNDED +ITALIANS.--GARIBALDI.--ITALIAN YOUNG MEN.--MILITARY FUNERAL.--HAVOC OF +THE SIEGE.--COURAGE OF MAZZINI.--FALSENESS OF THE LONDON TIMES. + + +Rome, June 10, 1849. + +What shall I write of Rome in these sad but glorious days? Plain facts +are the best; for my feelings I could not find fit words. + +When I last wrote, the French were playing the second act of their +farce. + +In the first, the French government affected to consult the Assembly. +The Assembly, or a majority of the Assembly, affected to believe the +pretext it gave, and voted funds for twelve thousand men to go to +Civita Vecchia. Arriving there, Oudinot proclaimed that he had come +as a friend and brother. He was received as such. Immediately he took +possession of the town, disarmed the Roman troops, and published a +manifesto in direct opposition to his first declaration. + +He sends to Rome that he is coming there as a friend; receives the +answer that he is not wanted and cannot be trusted. This answer he +chooses to consider as coming from a minority, and advances on Rome. +The pretended majority on which he counts never shows itself by +a single movement within the walls. He makes an assault, and is +defeated. On this subject his despatches to his government are full +of falsehoods that would disgrace the lowest pickpocket,--falsehoods +which it is impossible he should not know to be such. + +The Assembly passed a vote of blame. M. Louis Bonaparte writes a +letter of compliment and assurance that this course of violence shall +be sustained. In conformity with this promise twelve thousand more +troops are sent. This time it is not thought necessary to consult the +Assembly. Let us view the + +SECOND ACT. + +Now appears in Rome M. Ferdinand Lesseps, Envoy, &c. of the French +government. He declares himself clothed with full powers to treat +with Rome. He cannot conceal his surprise at all he sees there, at +the ability with which preparations have been made for defence, at the +patriotic enthusiasm which pervades the population. Nevertheless, in +beginning his game of treaty-making, he is not ashamed to insist on +the French occupying the city. Again and again repulsed, he again and +again returns to the charge on this point. And here I shall translate +the letter addressed to him by the Triumvirate, both because of its +perfect candor of statement, and to give an idea of the sweet and +noble temper in which these treacherous aggressions have been met. + + +LETTER OF THE TRIUMVIRS TO MONSIEUR LESSEPS. + +"May 25, 1849. + +"We have had the honor, Monsieur, to furnish you, in our note of the +16th, with some information as to the unanimous consent which was +given to the formation of the government of the Roman Republic. +We to-day would speak to you of the actual question, such as it is +debated in fact, if not by right, between the French government and +ours. You will allow us to do it with the frankness demanded by the +urgency of the situation, as well as the sympathy which ought to +govern all relations between France and Italy. Our diplomacy is the +truth, and the character given to your mission is a guaranty that the +best possible interpretation will be given to what we shall say to +you. + +"With your permission, we return for an instant to the cause of the +present situation of affairs. + +"In consequence of conferences and arrangements which took place +without the government of the Roman Republic ever being called on +to take part, it was some time since decided by the Catholic +Powers,--1st. That a modification should take place in the government +and institutions of the Roman States; 2d. That this modification +should have for basis the return of Pius IX., not as Pope, for to that +no obstacle is interposed by us, but as temporal sovereign; 3d. +That if, to attain that aim, a continuous intervention was judged +necessary, that intervention should take place. + +"We are willing to admit, that while for some of the contracting +governments the only motive was the hope of a general restoration and +absolute return to the treaties of 1815, the French government +was drawn into this agreement only in consequence of erroneous +information, tending systematically to depict the Roman States as +given up to anarchy and governed by terror exercised in the name of an +audacious minority. We know also, that, in the modification proposed, +the French government intended to represent an influence more or less +liberal, opposed to the absolutist programme of Austria and of +Naples. It does none the less remain true, that under the Apostolic or +constitutional form, with or without liberal guaranties to the Roman +people, the dominant thought in all the negotiations to which we +allude has been some sort of return toward the past, a compromise +between the Roman people and Pius IX. considered as temporal prince. + +"We cannot dissemble to ourselves, Monsieur, that the French +expedition has been planned and executed under the inspiration of this +thought. Its object was, on one side, to throw the sword of France +into the balance of negotiations which were to be opened at Rome; +on the other, to guarantee the Roman people from the excess of +retrograde, but always on condition that it should submit to +constitutional monarchy in favor of the Holy Father. This is assured +to us partly from information which we believe we possess as to the +concert with Austria; from the proclamations of General Oudinot; from +the formal declarations made by successive envoys to the Triumvirate; +from the silence obstinately maintained whenever we have sought to +approach the political question and obtain a formal declaration of the +fact proved in our note of the 16th, that the institutions by +which the Roman people are governed at this time are the free and +spontaneous expression of the wish of the people inviolable when +legally ascertained. For the rest, the vote of the French Assembly +sustains implicitly the fact that we affirm. + +"In such a situation, under the menace of an inadmissible compromise, +and of negotiations which the state of our people no way provoked, our +part, Monsieur, could not be doubtful. To resist,--we owed this to +our country, to France, to all Europe. We ought, in fulfilment of a +mandate loyally given, loyally accepted, maintain to our country the +inviolability, so far as that was possible to us, of its territory, +and of the institutions decreed by all the powers, by all the +elements, of the state. We ought to conquer the time needed for appeal +from France ill informed to France better informed, to save the sister +republic the disgrace and the remorse which must be hers if, rashly +led on by bad suggestions from without, she became, before she was +aware, accomplice in an act of violence to which we can find no +parallel without going back to the partition of Poland in 1772. We +owed it to Europe to maintain, as far as we could, the fundamental +principles of all international life, the independence of each people +in all that concerns its internal administration. We say it without +pride,--for if it is with enthusiasm that we resist the attempts of +the Neapolitan monarchy and of Austria, our eternal enemy, it is with +profound grief that we are ourselves constrained to contend with the +arms of France,--we believe in following this line of conduct we +have deserved well, not only of our country, but of all the people of +Europe, even of France herself. + +"We come to the actual question. You know, Monsieur, the events which +have followed the French intervention. Our territory has been invaded +by the king of Naples. + +"Four thousand Spaniards were to embark on the 17th for invasion of +this country. The Austrians, having surmounted the heroic resistance +of Bologna, have advanced into Romagna, and are now marching on +Ancona. + +"We have beaten and driven out of our territory the forces of the king +of Naples. We believe we should do the same by the Austrian forces, if +the attitude of the French here did not fetter our action. + +"We are sorry to say it, but France must be informed that the +expedition of Civita Vecchia, said to be planned for our protection, +costs us very dear. Of all the interventions with which it is hoped to +overwhelm us, that of the French has been the most perilous. Against +the soldiers of Austria and the king of Naples we can fight, for +God protects a good cause. But we _do not wish to fight_ against +the French. We are toward them in a state, not of war, but of simple +defence. But this position, the only one we wish to take wherever +we meet France, has for us all the inconveniences without any of the +favorable chances of war. + +"The French expedition has, from the first, forced us to concentrate +our troops, thus leaving our frontier open to Austrian invasion, and +Bologna and the cities of Romagna unsustained. The Austrians have +profited by this. After eight days of heroic resistance by the +population, Bologna was forced to yield. We had bought in France arms +for our defence. Of these ten thousand muskets have been detained +between Marseilles and Civita Vecchia. These are in your hands. Thus +with a single blow you deprive us of ten thousand soldiers. In every +armed man is a soldier against the Austrians. + +"Your forces are disposed around our walls as if for a siege. They +remain there without avowed aim or programme. They have forced us to +keep the city in a state of defence which weighs upon our finances. +They force us to keep here a body of troops who might be saving our +cities from the occupation and ravages of the Austrians. They hinder +our going from place to place, our provisioning the city, our sending +couriers. They keep minds in a state of excitement and distrust which +might, if our population were less good and devoted, lead to sinister +results. They do _not_ engender anarchy nor reaction, for both are +impossible at Rome; but they sow the seed of irritation against +France, and it is a misfortune for us who were accustomed to love and +hope in her. + +"We are besieged, Monsieur, besieged by France, in the name of a +protective mission, while some leagues off the king of Naples, flying, +carries off our hostages, and the Austrian slays our brothers. + +"You have presented propositions. Those propositions have been +declared inadmissible by the Assembly. To-day you add a fourth to +the three already rejected. This says that France will protect from +foreign invasion all that part of our territory that may be occupied +by her troops. You must yourself feel that this changes nothing in our +position. + +"The parts of the territory occupied by your troops are in fact +protected; but if only for the present, to what are they reduced? and +if it is for the future, have we no other way to protect our territory +than by giving it up entirely to you? + +"The real intent of your demands is not stated. It is the occupation +of Rome. This demand has constantly stood first in your list of +propositions. Now we have had the honor to say to you, Monsieur, that +is impossible. The people will never consent to it. If the occupation +of Rome has for its aim only to protect it, the people thank you, +but tell you at the same time, that, able to defend Rome by their +own forces, they would be dishonored even in your eyes by declaring +themselves insufficient, and needing the aid of some regiments of +French soldiers. If the occupation has otherwise a political object, +which God forbid, the people, who have given themselves freely +these institutions, cannot suffer it. Rome is their capital, their +palladium, their sacred city. They know very well, that, apart from +their principles, apart from their honor, there is civil war at the +end of such an occupation. They are filled with distrust by your +persistence. They foresee, the troops being once admitted, changes in +men and in actions which would be fatal to their liberty. They know +that, in presence of foreign bayonets, the independence of their +Assembly, of their government, would be a vain word. They have always +Civita Vecchia before their eyes. + +"On this point be sure their will is irrevocable. They will be +massacred from barricade to barricade, before they will surrender. +Can the soldiers of France wish to massacre a brother people whom they +came to protect, because they do not wish to surrender to them their +capital? + +"There are for France only three parts to take in the Roman States. +She ought to declare herself for us, against us, or neutral. To +declare herself for us would be to recognize our republic, and fight +side by side with us against the Austrians. To declare against us is +to crush without motive the liberty, the national life, of a friendly +people, and fight side by side with the Austrians. France _cannot_ do +that. She _will not_ risk a European war to depress us, her ally. Let +her, then, rest neutral in this conflict between us and our enemies. +Only yesterday we hoped more from her, but to-day we demand but this. + +"The occupation of Civita Vecchia is a fact accomplished; let it go. +France thinks that, in the present state of things, she ought not to +remain distant from the field of battle. She thinks that, vanquishers +or vanquished, we may have need of her moderative action and of her +protection. We do not think so; but we will not react against her. Let +her keep Civita Vecchia. Let her even extend her encampments, if the +numbers of her troops require it, in the healthy regions of Civita +Vecchia and Viterbo. Let her then wait the issue of the combats about +to take place. All facilities will be offered her, every proof of +frank and cordial sympathy given; her officers can visit Rome, her +soldiers have all the solace possible. But let her neutrality be +sincere and without concealed plans. Let her declare herself in +explicit terms. Let her leave us free to use all our forces. Let her +restore our arms. Let her not by her cruisers drive back from our +ports the men who come to our aid from other parts of Italy. Let +her, above all, withdraw from before our walls, and cause even the +appearance of hostility to cease between two nations who, later, +undoubtedly are destined to unite in the same international faith, as +now they have adopted the same form of government." + + +In his answer, Lesseps appears moved by this statement, and +particularly expresses himself thus:-- + +"One point appears above all to occupy you; it is the thought that +we wish forcibly to impose upon you the obligation of receiving us as +friends. _Friendship and violence are incompatible._ Thus it would +be _inconsistent_ on our part to begin by firing our cannon upon you, +since we are your natural protectors. _Such a contradiction enters +neither into my intentions, nor those of the government of the French +republic, nor of our army and its honorable chief._" + +These words were written at the head-quarters of Oudinot, and +of course seen and approved by him. At the same time, in private +conversation, "the honorable chief" could swear he would occupy Rome +by "one means or another." A few days after, Lesseps consented to +conditions such as the Romans would tolerate. He no longer insisted on +occupying Rome, but would content himself with good positions in the +country. Oudinot protested that the Plenipotentiary had "exceeded his +powers,"--that he should not obey,--that the armistice was at an end, +and he should attack Rome on Monday. It was then Friday. He proposed +to leave these two days for the few foreigners that remained to +get out of town. M. Lesseps went off to Paris, in great seeming +indignation, to get _his_ treaty ratified. Of course we could not +hear from him for eight or ten days. Meanwhile, the _honorable_ chief, +alike in all his conduct, attacked on Sunday instead of Monday. The +attack began before sunrise, and lasted all day. I saw it from my +window, which, though distant, commands the gate of St. Pancrazio. Why +the whole force was bent on that part, I do not know. If they could +take it, the town would be cannonaded, and the barricades useless; but +it is the same with the Pincian Gate. Small-parties made feints in two +other directions, but they were at once repelled. The French fought +with great bravery, and this time it is said with beautiful skill and +order, sheltering themselves in their advance by movable barricades. +The Italians fought like lions, and no inch of ground was gained by +the assailants. The loss of the French is said to be very great: it +could not be otherwise. Six or seven hundred Italians are dead or +wounded. Among them are many officers, those of Garibaldi especially, +who are much exposed by their daring bravery, and whose red tunic +makes them the natural mark of the enemy. It seems to me great folly +to wear such a dress amid the dark uniforms; but Garibaldi has always +done it. He has now been wounded twice here and seventeen times in +Ancona. + +All this week I have been much at the hospitals where are these noble +sufferers. They are full of enthusiasm; this time was no treason, no +Vicenza, no Novara, no Milan. They had not been given up by wicked +chiefs at the moment they were shedding their blood, and they had +conquered. All were only anxious to get out again and be at their +posts. They seemed to feel that those who died so gloriously were +fortunate; perhaps they were, for if Rome is obliged to yield,--and +how can she stand always unaided against the four powers?--where shall +these noble youths fly? They are the flower of the Italian youth; +especially among the Lombards are some of the finest young men I have +ever seen. If Rome falls, if Venice falls, there is no spot of Italian +earth where they can abide more, and certainly no Italian will wish +to take refuge in France. Truly you said, M. Lesseps, "Violence and +friendship are incompatible." + +A military funeral of the officer Ramerino was sadly picturesque and +affecting. The white-robed priests went before the body singing, while +his brothers in arms bore the lighted tapers. His horse followed, +saddled and bridled. The horse hung his head and stepped dejectedly; +he felt there was something strange and gloomy going on,--felt that +his master was laid low. Ramerino left a wife and children. A great +proportion of those who run those risks are, happily, alone. Parents +weep, but will not suffer long; their grief is not like that of widows +and children. + +Since the 3d we have only cannonade and skirmishes. The French are at +their trenches, but cannot advance much; they are too much molested +from the walls. The Romans have made one very successful sortie. The +French availed themselves of a violent thunderstorm, when the +walls were left more thinly guarded, to try to scale them, but were +immediately driven back. It was thought by many that they never would +be willing to throw bombs and shells into Rome, but they do whenever +they can. That generous hope and faith in them as republicans and +brothers, which put the best construction on their actions, and +believed in their truth as far as possible, is now destroyed. The +government is false, and the people do not resist; the general is +false, and the soldiers obey. + +Meanwhile, frightful sacrifices are being made by Rome. All her +glorious oaks, all her gardens of delight, her casinos, full of the +monuments of genius and taste, are perishing in the defence. The +houses, the trees which had been spared at the gate of St. Pancrazio, +all afforded shelter to the foe, and caused so much loss of life, +that the Romans have now fully acquiesced in destruction agonizing to +witness. Villa Borghese is finally laid waste, the villa of Raphael +has perished, the trees are all cut down at Villa Albani, and the +house, that most beautiful ornament of Rome, must, I suppose, go too. +The stately marble forms are already driven from their place in that +portico where Winckelmann sat and talked with such delight. Villa +Salvage is burnt, with all its fine frescos, and that bank of the +Tiber shorn of its lovely plantations. + +Rome will never recover the cruel ravage of these days, perhaps +only just begun. I had often thought of living a few months near St. +Peter's, that I might go as much as I liked to the church and the +museum, have Villa Pamfili and Monte Mario within the compass of +a walk. It is not easy to find lodgings there, as it is a quarter +foreigners never inhabit; but, walking about to see what pleasant +places there were, I had fixed my eye on a clean, simple house near +Ponte St. Angelo. It bore on a tablet that it was the property of +Angela ----; its little balconies with their old wooden rails, full +of flowers in humble earthen vases, the many bird-cages, the air of +domestic quiet and comfort, marked it as the home of some vestal or +widow, some lone woman whose heart was centred in the ordinary and +simplest pleasures of a home. I saw also she was one having the most +limited income, and I thought, "She will not refuse to let me a room +for a few months, as I shall be as quiet as herself, and sympathize +about the flowers and birds." Now the Villa Pamfili is all laid waste. +The French encamp on Monte Mario; what they have done there is not +known yet. The cannonade reverberates all day under the dome of St. +Peter's, and the house of poor Angela is levelled with the ground. I +hope her birds and the white peacocks of the Vatican gardens are in +safety;--but who cares for gentle, harmless creatures now? + +I have been often interrupted while writing this letter, and suppose +it is confused as well as incomplete. I hope my next may tell of +something decisive one way or the other. News is not yet come from +Lesseps, but the conduct of Oudinot and the formation of the new +French ministry give reason to hope no good. Many seem resolved to +force back Pius IX. among his bleeding flock, into the city ruined +by him, where he cannot remain, and if he come, all this struggle and +sorrow is to be borne over again. Mazzini stands firm as a rock. I +know not whether he hopes for a successful issue, but he _believes_ in +a God bound to protect men who do what they deem their duty. Yet how +long, O Lord, shall the few trample on the many? + +I am surprised to see the air of perfect good faith with which +articles from the London Times, upon the revolutionary movements, +are copied into our papers. There exists not in Europe a paper more +violently opposed to the cause of freedom than the Times, and neither +its leaders nor its foreign correspondence are to be depended upon. +It is said to receive money from Austria. I know not whether this +be true, or whether it be merely subservient to the aristocratical +feeling of England, which is far more opposed to republican movements +than is that of Russia; for in England fear embitters hate. It is +droll to remember our reading in the class-book. + + "Ay, down to the dust with them, slaves as they are";-- + +to think how bitter the English were on the Italians who succumbed, +and see how they hate those who resist. And their cowardice here in +Italy is ludicrous. It is they who run away at the least intimation +of danger,--it is they who invent all the "fe, fo, fum" stories about +Italy,--it is they who write to the Times and elsewhere that they dare +not for their lives stay in Rome, where I, a woman, walk everywhere +alone, and all the little children do the same, with their nurses. +More of this anon. + + + + +LETTER XXXII. + +PROGRESS OF THE TRAGEDY.--PIUS IX. DISAVOWS LIBERALISM.--OUDINOT, +AND THE ROMAN AUTHORITIES.--SHAME OF FRANCE.--DEVASTATION OF +THE CITY.--COURAGE OF THE PEOPLE.--BOMBS EXTINGUISHED.--A CRISIS +APPROACHING. + + +Rome, June 21, 1849. + +It is now two weeks since the first attack of Oudinot, and as yet we +hear nothing decisive from Paris. I know not yet what news may have +come last night, but by the morning's mail we did not even receive +notice that Lesseps had arrived in Paris. + +Whether Lesseps was consciously the servant of all these base +intrigues, time will show. His conduct was boyish and foolish, if it +was not treacherous. The only object seemed to be to create panic, to +agitate, to take possession of Rome somehow, though what to do with +it, if they could get it, the French government would hardly know. + +Pius IX., in his allocution of the 29th of April last, has explained +himself fully. He has disavowed every liberal act which ever seemed +to emanate from him, with the exception of the amnesty. He has +shamelessly recalled his refusal to let Austrian blood be shed, while +Roman flows daily at his request. He has implicitly declared that his +future government, could he return, would be absolute despotism,--has +dispelled the last lingering illusion of those still anxious to +apologize for him as only a prisoner now in the hands of the Cardinals +and the king of Naples. The last frail link is broken that bound to +him the people of Rome, and could the French restore him, they must +frankly avow themselves, abandon entirely and fully the position they +took in February, 1848, and declare themselves the allies of Austria +and of Russia. + +Meanwhile they persevere in the Jesuitical policy that has already +disgraced and is to ruin them. After a week of vain assaults, Oudinot +sent to Rome the following letter, which I translate, as well as the +answers it elicited. + + +LETTER OF GENERAL OUDINOT, + +_Intended for the Roman Constituent Assembly, the Triumvirate, the +Generalissimo, and the Commander-in-Chief of the National Guard._ + +"General,--The events of war have, as you know, conducted the French +army to the gates of Rome. + +"Should the entrance into the city remain closed against us, I should +see myself constrained to employ immediately all the means of action +that France has placed in my hands. + +"Before having recourse to such terrible necessity, I think it my +duty to make a last appeal to a people who cannot have toward France +sentiments of hostility. + +"The Roman army wishes, no doubt, equally with myself, to spare bloody +ruin to the capital of the Christian world. + +"With this conviction, I pray you, Signore General, to give the +enclosed proclamation the most speedy publicity. If, twelve hours +after this despatch shall have been delivered to you, an answer +corresponding to the honor and the intentions of France shall not have +reached me, I shall be constrained to give the forcible attack. + +"Accept, &c. + +"Villa Pamfili, 12 June, 1849, 5 P.M." + + +He was in fact at Villa Santucci, much farther out, but could not be +content without falsifying his date as well as all his statements. + + +"PROCLAMATION. + +"Inhabitants of Rome,--We did not come to bring you war. We came +to sustain among you order, with liberty. The intentions of our +government have been misunderstood. The labors of the siege +have conducted us under your walls. Till now we have wished only +occasionally to answer the fire of your batteries. We approach these +last moments, when the necessities of war burst out in terrible +calamities. Spare them to a city fall of so many glorious memories. + +"If you persist in repelling us, on you alone will fall the +responsibility of irreparable disasters." + + +The following are the answers of the various functionaries to whom +this letter was sent:-- + + +ANSWER OF THE ASSEMBLY. + +"General,--The Roman Constitutional Assembly informs you, in reply to +your despatch of yesterday, that, having concluded a convention from +the 31st of May, 1849, with M. de Lesseps, Minister Plenipotentiary of +the French Republic, a convention which we confirmed soon after your +protest, it must consider that convention obligatory for both parties, +and indeed a safeguard of the rights of nations, until it has been +ratified or declined by the government of France. Therefore the +Assembly must regard as a violation of that convention every hostile +act of the French army since the above-named 31st of May, and all +others that shall take place before the resolution of your government +can be made known, and before the expiration of the time agreed upon +for the armistice. You demand, General, an answer correspondent to the +intentions and power of France. Nothing could be more conformable with +the intentions and power of France than to cease a flagrant violation +of the rights of nations. + +"Whatever may be the results of such violation, the people of Rome are +not responsible for them. Rome is strong in its right, and decided +to maintain tire conventions which attach it to your nation; only it +finds itself constrained by the necessity of self-defence to repel +unjust aggressions. + +"Accept, &c., for the Assembly, + +"The President, GALLETTI. + +"Secretaries, FABRETTI, PANNACCHI, COCCHI." + + +"ANSWER OF THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE NATIONAL GUARD. + +"General,--The treaty, of which we await the ratification, assures +this tranquil city from every disaster. + +"The National Guard, destined to maintain order, has the duty of +seconding the resolutions of the government; willingly and zealously +it fulfils this duty, not caring for annoyance and fatigue. + +"The National Guard showed very lately, when it escorted the prisoners +sent back to you, its sympathy for France, but it shows also on every +occasion a supreme regard for its own dignity, for the honor of Rome. + +"Any misfortune to the capital of the Catholic world, to the +monumental city, must be attributed not to the pacific citizens +constrained to defend themselves, but solely to its aggressors. + +"Accept, &c. + +"STURBINETTI, + +_General of the National Guard, Representative of the People_". + + +ANSWER OF THE GENERALISSIMO. + +"Citizen General,--A fatality leads to conflict between the armies +of two republics, whom a better destiny would have invited to combat +against their common enemy; for the enemies of the one cannot fail to +be also enemies of the other. + +"We are not deceived, and shall combat by every means in our power +whoever assails our institutions, for only the brave are worthy to +stand before the French soldiers. + +"Reflecting that there is a state of life worse than death, if the war +you wage should put us in that state, it will be better to close our +eyes for ever than to see the interminable oppressions of oar country. + +"I wish you well, and desire fraternity. + +"ROSSELLI." + + +ANSWER OF THE TRIUMVIRATE. + +"We have the honor to transmit to you the answer of the Assembly. + +"We never break our promises. We have promised to defend, in execution +of orders from the Assembly and people of Rome, the banner of the +Republic, the honor of the country, and the sanctity of the capital of +the Christian world; this promise we shall maintain. + +"Accept, &c. + +"The Triumvirs, + + ARMELLINI. + MAZZINI. + SAFFI." + + +Observe the miserable evasion of this missive of Oudinot: "The fortune +of war has conducted us." What war? He pretended to come as a friend, +a protector; is enraged only because, after his deceits at Civita +Vecchia, Rome will not trust him within her walls. For this he daily +sacrifices hundreds of lives. "The Roman people cannot be hostile to +the French?" No, indeed; they were not disposed to be so. They had +been stirred to emulation by the example of France. They had warmly +hoped in her as their true ally. It required all that Oudinot has done +to turn their faith to contempt and aversion. + +Cowardly man! He knows now that he comes upon a city which wished to +receive him only as a friend, and he cries, "With my cannon, with my +bombs, I will compel you to let me betray you." + +The conduct of France--infamous enough before--looks tenfold blacker +now that, while the so-called Plenipotentiary is absent with the +treaty to be ratified, her army daily assails Rome,--assails in vain. +After receiving these answers to his letter and proclamation, Oudinot +turned all the force of his cannonade to make a breach, and +began, what no one, even in these days, has believed possible, the +bombardment of Rome. + +Yes! the French, who pretend to be the advanced guard of civilization, +are bombarding Rome. They dare take the risk of destroying the richest +bequests made to man by the great Past. Nay, they seem to do it in an +especially barbarous manner. It was thought they would avoid, as much +as possible, the hospitals for the wounded, marked to their view +by the black banner, and the places where are the most precious +monuments; but several bombs have fallen on the chief hospital, and +the Capitol evidently is especially aimed at. They made a breach in +the wall, but it was immediately filled up with a barricade, and all +the week they have been repulsed in every attempt they made to gain +ground, though with considerable loss of life on our side; on theirs +it must be great, but how great we cannot know. + +Ponte Molle, the scene of Raphael's fresco of a battle, in the +Vatican, saw again a fierce struggle last Friday. More than fifty were +brought wounded into Rome. + +But wounds and assaults only fire more and more the courage of her +defenders. They feel the justice of their cause, and the peculiar +iniquity of this aggression. In proportion as there seems little aid +to be hoped from man, they seem to claim it from God. The noblest +sentiments are heard from every lip, and, thus far, their acts amply +correspond. + +On the eve of the bombardment one or two officers went round with +a fine band. It played on the piazzas the Marseillaise and Roman +marches; and when the people were thus assembled, they were told +of the proclamation, and asked how they felt. Many shouted loudly, +_Guerra! Viva la Republica Romana!_ Afterward, bands of young men went +round singing the chorus, + + "Vogliamo sempre quella, + Vogliamo Liberta." + +("We want always one thing; we want liberty.") Guitars played, and +some danced. When the bombs began to come, one of the Trasteverini, +those noble images of the old Roman race, redeemed her claim to that +descent by seizing a bomb and extinguishing the match. She received a +medal and a reward in money. A soldier did the same thing at Palazza +Spada, where is the statue of Pompey, at whose base great Cæsar fell. +He was promoted. Immediately the people were seized with emulation; +armed with pans of wet clay, they ran wherever the bombs fell, to +extinguish them. Women collect the balls from the hostile cannon, and +carry them to ours. As thus very little injury has been done to life, +the people cry, "Madonna protects us against the bombs; she wills not +that Rome should be destroyed." + +Meanwhile many poor people are driven from their homes, and provisions +are growing very dear. The heats are now terrible for us, and must be +far more so for the French. It is said a vast number are ill of fever; +indeed, it cannot be otherwise. Oudinot himself has it, and perhaps +this is one explanation of the mixture of violence and weakness in his +actions. + +He must be deeply ashamed at the poor result of his bad acts,--that at +the end of two weeks and so much bravado, he has done nothing to Rome, +unless intercept provisions, kill some of her brave youth, and +injure churches, which should be sacred to him as to us. St. Maria +Trastevere, that ancient church, so full of precious remains, and +which had an air of mild repose more beautiful than almost any other, +is said to have suffered particularly. + +As to the men who die, I share the impassioned sorrow of the +Triumvirs. "O Frenchmen!" they wrote, "could you know what men you +destroy! _They_ are no mercenaries, like those who fill your ranks, +but the flower of the Italian youth, and the noblest among the aged. +When you shall know of what minds you have robbed the world, how ought +you to repent and mourn!" + +This is especially true of the Emigrant and Garibaldi legions. The +misfortunes of Northern and Southern Italy, the conscription which +compels to the service of tyranny those who remain, has driven from +the kingdom of Naples and from Lombardy all the brave and noble youth. +Many are in Venice or Rome, the forlorn hope of Italy. Radetzky, +every day more cruel, now impresses aged men and the fathers of large +families. He carries them with him in chains, determined, if he cannot +have good troops to send into Hungary, at least to revenge himself on +the unhappy Lombards. + +Many of these young men, students from Pisa, Pavia, Padua, and the +Roman University, lie wounded in the hospitals, for naturally they +rushed first to the combat. One kissed an arm which was cut off; +another preserves pieces of bone which were painfully extracted from +his wound, as relics of the best days of his life. The older men, many +of whom have been saddened by exile and disappointment, less glowing, +are not less resolved. A spirit burns noble as ever animated the most +precious deeds we treasure from the heroic age. I suffer to see these +temples of the soul thus broken, to see the fever-weary days and +painful operations undergone by these noble men, these true priests of +a higher hope; but I would not, for much, have missed seeing it +all. The memory of it will console amid the spectacles of meanness, +selfishness, and faithlessness which life may yet have in store for +the pilgrim. + + +June 23. + +Matters verge to a crisis. The French government sustains Oudinot and +disclaims Lesseps. Harmonious throughout, shameless in falsehood, it +seems Oudinot knew that tire mission of Lesseps was at an end, when +he availed himself of his pacific promises to occupy Monte Mario. +When the Romans were anxious at seeing French troops move in that +direction, Lesseps said it was only done to occupy them, and conjured +the Romans to avoid all collision which might prevent his success +with the treaty. The sham treaty was concluded on the 30th of May, a +detachment of French having occupied Monte Mario on the night of the +29th. Oudinot flies into a rage and refuses to sign; M. Lesseps goes +off to Paris; meanwhile, the brave Oudinot attacks on the 3d of June, +after writing to the French Consul that Ire should not till the 4th, +to leave time for the foreigners remaining to retire. He attacked in +the night, possessing himself of Villa Pamfili, as he had of Monte +Mario, by treachery and surprise. + +Meanwhile, M. Lesseps arrives in Paris, to find himself seemingly or +really in great disgrace with the would-be Emperor and his cabinet. To +give reason for this, M. Drouyn de Lhuys, who had publicly declared +to the Assembly that M. Lesseps had no instructions except from the +report of the sitting of the 7th of May, shamefully publishes a +letter of special instructions, hemming him in on every side, which M. +Lesseps, the "Plenipotentiary," dares not disown. + +What are we to think of a great nation, whose leading men are such +barefaced liars? M. Guizot finds his creed faithfully followed up. + +The liberal party in France does what it can to wash its hands of this +offence, but it seems weak, and unlikely to render effectual service +at this crisis. Venice, Rome, Ancona, are the last strong-holds of +hope, and they cannot stand for ever thus unsustained. Night before +last, a tremendous cannonade left no moment to sleep, even had the +anxious hearts of mothers and wives been able to crave it. At morning +a little detachment of French had entered by the breach of St. +Pancrazio, and intrenched itself in a vineyard. Another has possession +of Villa Poniatowski, close to the Porta del Popolo, and attacks +and alarms are hourly to be expected. I long to see the final one, +dreadful as that hour may be, since now there seems no hope from +delay. Men are daily slain, and this state of suspense is agonizing. + +In the evening 'tis pretty, though terrible, to see the bombs, fiery +meteors, springing from the horizon line upon their bright path, to do +their wicked message. 'T would not be so bad, methinks, to die by one +of these, as wait to have every drop of pure blood, every childlike +radiant hope, drained and driven from the heart by the betrayals of +nations and of individuals, till at last the sickened eyes refuse more +to open to that light which shines daily on such pits of iniquity. + + + + +LETTER XXXIII. + +SIEGE OF ROME.--HEAT.--NIGHT ATTACKS.--THE BOMBARDMENT.--THE +NIGHT BREACH.--DEFECTION.--ENTRY OF THE FRENCH.--SLAUGHTER OF +THE ROMANS.--THE HOSPITALS.--DESTRUCTION BY BOMBS.--CESSATION OF +RESISTANCE.--OUDINOT'S STUBBORNNESS.--GARIBALDI'S TROOPS.--THEIR +MUSTER ON THE SCENE OF RIENZI'S TRIUMPH.--GARIBALDI.--HIS +DEPARTURE.--"RESPECTABLE" OPINION.--THE PROTECTORS UNMASKED.--COLD +RECEPTION.--A PRIEST ASSASSINATED.--MARTIAL LAW DECLARED.--REPUBLICAN +EDUCATION.--DISAPPEARANCE OF FRENCH SOLDIERS.--CLEARING THE +HOSPITALS.--PRIESTLY BASENESS.--INSULT TO THE AMERICAN CONSUL.--HIS +PROTEST AND DEPARTURE.--DISARMING THE NATIONAL GUARD.--POSITION OF MR. +CASS.--PETTY OPPRESSION.--EXPULSION OF FOREIGNERS.--EFFECT OF +FRENCH PRESENCE.--ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE.--VISIT TO THE SCENE OF +STRIFE.--AMERICAN SYMPATHY FOR LIBERTY IN EUROPE. + + +Rome, July 6, 1849. + +If I mistake not, I closed my last letter just as the news arrived +here that the attempt of the democratic party in France to resist the +infamous proceedings of the government had failed, and thus Rome, as +far as human calculation went, had not a hope for her liberties left. +An inland city cannot long sustain a siege when there is no hope of +aid. Then followed the news of the surrender of Ancona, and Rome +found herself alone; for, though Venice continued to hold out, all +communication was cut off. + +The Republican troops, almost to a man, left Ancona, but a long march +separated them from Rome. + +The extreme heat of these days was far more fatal to the Romans than +to their assailants, for as fast as the French troops sickened, their +place was taken by fresh arrivals. Ours also not only sustained the +exhausting service by day, but were harassed at night by attacks, +feigned or real. These commonly began about eleven or twelve o'clock +at night, just when all who meant to rest were fairly asleep. I can +imagine the harassing effect upon the troops, from what I feel in +my sheltered pavilion, in consequence of not knowing a quiet night's +sleep for a month. + +The bombardment became constantly more serious. The house where I live +was filled as early as the 20th with persons obliged to fly from the +Piazza di Gesu, where the fiery rain fell thickest. The night of the +21st-22d, we were all alarmed about two o'clock, A.M. by a tremendous +cannonade. It was the moment when the breach was finally made by which +the French entered. They rushed in, and I grieve to say, that, by the +only instance of defection known in the course of the siege, those +companies of the regiment Union which had in charge a position on +that point yielded to panic and abandoned it. The French immediately +entered and intrenched themselves. That was the fatal hour for the +city. Every day afterward, though obstinately resisted, the enemy +gained, till at last, their cannon being well placed, the city was +entirely commanded from the Janiculum, and all thought of further +resistance was idle. + +It was true policy to avoid a street-fight, in which the Italian, +an unpractised soldier, but full of feeling and sustained from the +houses, would have been a match even for their disciplined troops. +After the 22d of June, the slaughter of the Romans became every day +more fearful. Their defences were knocked down by the heavy cannon +of the French, and, entirely exposed in their valorous onsets, +great numbers perished on the spot. Those who were brought into the +hospitals were generally grievously wounded, very commonly subjects +for amputation. My heart bled daily more and more at these sights, and +I could not feel much for myself, though now the balls and bombs began +to fall round me also. The night of the 28th the effect was truly +fearful, as they whizzed and burst near me. As many as thirty fell +upon or near the Hotel de Russie, where Mr. Cass has his temporary +abode. The roof of the studio in the pavilion, tenanted by Mr. +Stermer, well known to the visitors of Rome for his highly-finished +cabinet pictures, was torn to pieces. I sat alone in my much exposed +apartment, thinking, "If one strikes me, I only hope it will kill +me at once, and that God will transport my soul to some sphere where +virtue and love are not tyrannized over by egotism and brute force, +as in this." However, that night passed; the next, we had reason to +expect a still more fiery salute toward the Pincian, as here alone +remained three or four pieces of cannon which could be used. But on +the morning of the 30th, in a contest at the foot of the Janiculum, +the line, old Papal troops, naturally not in earnest like the free +corps, refused to fight against odds so terrible. The heroic Marina +fell, with hundreds of his devoted Lombards. Garibaldi saw his best +officers perish, and himself went in the afternoon to say to the +Assembly that further resistance was unavailing. + +The Assembly sent to Oudinot, but he refused any conditions,--refused +even to guarantee a safe departure to Garibaldi, his brave foe. +Notwithstanding, a great number of men left the other regiments +to follow the leader whose courage had captivated them, and whose +superiority over difficulties commanded their entire confidence. +Toward the evening of Monday, the 2d of July, it was known that the +French were preparing to cross the river and take possession of all +the city. I went into the Corso with some friends; it was filled with +citizens and military. The carriage was stopped by the crowd near the +Doria palace; the lancers of Garibaldi galloped along in full career. +I longed for Sir Walter Scott to be on earth again, and see them; all +are light, athletic, resolute figures, many of the forms of the finest +manly beauty of the South, all sparkling with its genius and ennobled +by the resolute spirit, ready to dare, to do, to die. We followed +them to the piazza of St. John Lateran. Never have I seen a sight +so beautiful, so romantic, and so sad. Whoever knows Rome knows the +peculiar solemn grandeur of that piazza, scene of the first triumph of +Rienzi, and whence may be seen the magnificence of the "mother of all +churches," the baptistery with its porphyry columns, the Santa Scala +with its glittering mosaics of the early ages, the obelisk standing +fairest of any of those most imposing monuments of Rome, the view +through the gates of the Campagna, on that side so richly strewn with +ruins. The sun was setting, the crescent moon rising, the flower of +the Italian youth were marshalling in that solemn place. They had been +driven from every other spot where they had offered their hearts as +bulwarks of Italian independence; in this last strong-hold they had +sacrificed hecatombs of their best and bravest in that cause; they +must now go or remain prisoners and slaves. _Where_ go, they knew not; +for except distant Hungary there is not now a spot which would receive +them, or where they can act as honor commands. They had all put on +the beautiful dress of the Garibaldi legion, the tunic of bright red +cloth, the Greek cap, or else round hat with Puritan plume. Their long +hair was blown back from resolute faces; all looked full of courage. +They had counted the cost before they entered on this perilous +struggle; they had weighed life and all its material advantages +against liberty, and made their election; they turned not back, nor +flinched, at this bitter crisis. I saw the wounded, all that could go, +laden upon their baggage cars; some were already pale and fainting, +still they wished to go. I saw many youths, born to rich inheritance, +carrying in a handkerchief all their worldly goods. The women were +ready; their eyes too were resolved, if sad. The wife of Garibaldi +followed him on horseback. He himself was distinguished by the white +tunic; his look was entirely that of a hero of the Middle Ages,--his +face still young, for the excitements of his life, though so many, +have all been youthful, and there is no fatigue upon his brow or +cheek. Fall or stand, one sees in him a man engaged in the career for +which he is adapted by nature. He went upon the parapet, and looked +upon the road with a spy-glass, and, no obstruction being in sight, he +turned his face for a moment back upon Rome, then led the way through +the gate. Hard was the heart, stony and seared the eye, that had no +tear for that moment. Go, fated, gallant band! and if God care not +indeed for men as for the sparrows, most of ye go forth to perish. And +Rome, anew the Niobe! Must she lose also these beautiful and brave, +that promised her regeneration, and would have given it, but for the +perfidy, the overpowering force, of the foreign intervention? + +I know that many "respectable" gentlemen would be surprised to hear me +speak in this way. Gentlemen who perform their "duties to society" by +buying for themselves handsome clothes and furniture with the interest +of their money, speak of Garibaldi and his men as "brigands" and +"vagabonds." Such are they, doubtless, in the same sense as Jesus, +Moses, and Eneas were. To me, men who can throw so lightly aside the +ease of wealth, the joys of affection, for the sake of what they deem +honor, in whatsoever form, are the "respectable." No doubt there are +in these bands a number of men of lawless minds, and who follow this +banner only because there is for them no other path. But the +greater part are the noble youths who have fled from the Austrian +conscription, or fly now from the renewal of the Papal suffocation, +darkened by French protection. + +As for the protectors, they entirely threw aside the mask, as it was +always supposed they would, the moment they had possession of Rome. I +do not know whether they were really so bewildered by their priestly +counsellors as to imagine they would be well received in a city which +they had bombarded, and where twelve hundred men were lying wounded +by their assault. To say nothing of the justice or injustice of the +matter, it could not be supposed that the Roman people, if it had any +sense of dignity, would welcome them. I did not appear in the street, +as I would not give any countenance to such a wrong; but an English +lady, my friend, told me they seemed to look expectingly for the +strong party of friends they had always pretended to have within the +walls. The French officers looked up to the windows for ladies, and, +she being the only one they saw, saluted her. She made no reply. They +then passed into the Corso. Many were assembled, the softer +Romans being unable to control a curiosity the Milanese would have +disclaimed, but preserving an icy silence. In an evil hour, a foolish +priest dared to break it by the cry of _Viva Pio Nono!_ The populace, +roused to fury, rushed on him with their knives. He was much wounded; +one or two others were killed in the rush. The people howled then, and +hissed at the French, who, advancing their bayonets, and clearing the +way before them, fortified themselves in the piazzas. Next day the +French troops were marched to and fro through Rome, to inspire awe in +the people; but it has only created a disgust amounting to loathing, +to see that, with such an imposing force, and in great part fresh, the +French were not ashamed to use bombs also, and kill women and children +in their beds. Oudinot then, seeing the feeling of the people, and +finding they pursued as a spy any man who so much as showed the way +to his soldiers,--that the Italians went out of the cafés if Frenchmen +entered,--in short, that the people regarded him and his followers in +the same light as the Austrians,--has declared martial law in Rome; +the press is stifled; everybody is to be in the house at half past +nine o'clock in the evening, and whoever in any way insults his men, +or puts any obstacle in their way, is to be shot. + +The fruits of all this will be the same as elsewhere; temporary +repression will sow the seeds of perpetual resistance; and never +was Rome in so fair a way to be educated for a republican form of +government as now. + +Especially could nothing be more irritating to an Italian population, +in the month of July, than to drive them to their homes at half past +nine. After the insupportable heat of the day, their only enjoyment +and refreshment are found in evening walks, and chats together as they +sit before their cafés, or in groups outside some friendly door. Now +they must hurry home when the drum beats at nine o'clock. They are +forbidden to stand or sit in groups, and this by their bombarding +_protector!_ Comment is unnecessary. + +French soldiers are daily missing; of some it is known that they have +been killed by the Trasteverini for daring to make court to their +women. Of more than a hundred and fifty, it is only known that they +cannot he found; and in two days of French "order" more acts +of violence have been committed, than in two months under the +Triumvirate. + +The French have taken up their quarters in the court-yards of the +Quirinal and Venetian palaces, which are full of the wounded, many +of whom have been driven well-nigh mad, and their burning wounds +exasperated, by the sound of the drums and trumpets,--the constant +sense of an insulting presence. The wounded have been warned to leave +the Quirinal at the end of eight days, though there are many who +cannot be moved from bed to bed without causing them great anguish +and peril; nor is it known that any other place has been provided as a +hospital for them. At the Palazzo di Venezia the French have searched +for three emigrants whom they wished to imprison, even in the +apartments where the wounded were lying, running their bayonets into +the mattresses. They have taken for themselves beds given by the +Romans to the hospital,--not public property, but private gift. The +hospital of Santo Spirito was a governmental establishment, and, in +using a part of it for the wounded, its director had been retained, +because he had the reputation of being honest and not illiberal. But +as soon as the French entered, he, with true priestly baseness, sent +away the women nurses, saying he had no longer money to pay them, +transported the wounded into a miserable, airless basement, that had +before been used as a granary, and appropriated the good apartments to +the use of the French! + + +July 8. + +The report of this morning is that the French yesterday violated the +domicile of our Consul, Mr. Brown, pretending to search for persons +hidden there; that Mr. Brown, banner in one hand and sword in the +other, repelled the assault, and fairly drove them down stairs; that +then he made them an appropriate speech, though in a mixed language of +English, French, and Italian; that the crowd vehemently applauded Mr. +Brown, who already was much liked for the warm sympathy he had shown +the Romans in their aspirations and their distresses; and that he then +donned his uniform, and went to Oudinot to make his protest. How this +was received I know not, but understand Mr. Brown departed with his +family yesterday evening. Will America look as coldly on the insult to +herself, as she has on the struggle of this injured people? + +To-day an edict is out to disarm the National Guard. The generous +"protectors" wish to take all the trouble upon themselves. Rome is +full of them; at every step are met groups in the uniform of France, +with faces bronzed in the African war, and so stultified by a life +without enthusiasm and without thought, that I do not believe +Napoleon would recognize them as French soldiers. The effect of their +appearance compared with that of the Italian free corps is that of +body as compared with spirit. It is easy to see how they could be used +to purposes so contrary to the legitimate policy of France, for they +do not look more intellectual, more fitted to have opinions of their +own, than the Austrian soldiery. + + +July 10. + +The plot thickens. The exact facts with regard to the invasion of Mr. +Brown's house I have not been able to ascertain. I suppose they will +be published, as Oudinot has promised to satisfy Mr. Cass. I must +add, in reference to what I wrote some time ago of the position of our +Envoy here, that the kind and sympathetic course of Mr. Cass toward +the Republicans in these troubles, his very gentlemanly and courteous +bearing, have from the minds of most removed all unpleasant feelings. +They see that his position was very peculiar,--sent to the Papal +government, finding here the Republican, and just at that moment +violently assailed. Unless he had extraordinary powers, he naturally +felt obliged to communicate further with our government before +acknowledging this. I shall always regret, however, that he did +not stand free to occupy the high position that belonged to the +representative of the United States at that moment, and peculiarly +because it was by a republic that the Roman Republic was betrayed. + +But, as I say, the plot thickens. Yesterday three families were +carried to prison because a boy crowed like a cock at the French +soldiery from the windows of the house they occupied. Another, because +a man pursued took refuge in their court-yard. At the same time, the +city being mostly disarmed, came the edict to take down the insignia +of the Republic, "emblems of anarchy." But worst of all they have done +is an edict commanding all foreigners who had been in the service of +the Republican government to leave Rome within twenty-four hours. This +is the most infamous thing done yet, as it drives to desperation those +who stayed because they had so many to go with and no place to go +to, or because their relatives lie wounded here: no others wished to +remain in Rome under present circumstances. + +I am sick of breathing the same air with men capable of a part so +utterly cruel and false. As soon as I can, I shall take refuge in the +mountains, if it be possible to find an obscure nook unpervaded by +these convulsions. Let not my friends be surprised if they do not hear +from me for some time. I may not feel like writing. I have seen too +much sorrow, and, alas! without power to aid. It makes me sick to see +the palaces and streets of Rome full of these infamous foreigners, and +to note the already changed aspect of her population. The men of Rome +had begun, filled with new hopes, to develop unknown energy,--they +walked quick, their eyes sparkled, they delighted in duty, in +responsibility; in a year of such life their effeminacy would have +been vanquished. Now, dejectedly, unemployed, they lounge along the +streets, feeling that all the implements of labor, all the ensigns of +hope, have been snatched from them. Their hands fall slack, their eyes +rove aimless, the beggars begin to swarm again, and the black ravens +who delight in the night of ignorance, the slumber of sloth, as the +only sureties for their rule, emerge daily more and more frequent from +their hiding-places. + +The following Address has been circulated from hand to hand. + + +"TO THE PEOPLE OF ROME. + +"Misfortune, brothers, has fallen upon us anew. But it is trial of +brief duration,--it is the stone of the sepulchre which we shall throw +away after three days, rising victorious and renewed, an immortal +nation. For with us are God and Justice,--God and Justice, who cannot +die, but always triumph, while kings and popes, once dead, revive no +more. + +"As you have been great in the combat, be so in the days of +sorrow,--great in your conduct as citizens, by generous disdain, by +sublime silence. Silence is the weapon we have now to use against the +Cossacks of France and the priests, their masters. + +"In the streets do not look at them; do not answer if they address +you. + +"In the cafés, in the eating-houses, if they enter, rise and go out. + +"Let your windows remain closed as they pass. + +"Never attend their feasts, their parades. + +"Regard the harmony of their musical bands as tones of slavery, and, +when you hear them, fly. + +"Let the liberticide soldier be condemned to isolation; let him atone +in solitude and contempt for having served priests and kings. + +"And you, Roman women, masterpiece of God's work! deign no look, no +smile, to those satellites of an abhorred Pope! Cursed be she who, +before the odious satellites of Austria, forgets that she is Italian! +Her name shall be published for the execration of all her people! And +even the courtesans! let them show love for their country, and thus +regain the dignity of citizens! + +"And our word of order, our cry of reunion and emancipation, be now +and ever, VIVA LA REPUBLICA! + +"This incessant cry, which not even French slaves can dispute, +shall prepare us to administer the bequest of our martyrs, shall be +consoling dew to the immaculate and holy bones that repose, sublime +holocaust of faith and of love, near our walls, and make doubly divine +the Eternal City. In this cry we shall find ourselves always brothers, +and we shall conquer. Viva Rome, the capital of Italy! Viva the Italy +of the people! Viva the Roman Republic! + +"A ROMAN. + +"Rome, July 4, 1849." + + +Yes; July 4th, the day so joyously celebrated in our land, is that of +the entrance of the French into Rome! + +I know not whether the Romans will follow out this programme with +constancy, as the sterner Milanese have done. If they can, it will +draw upon them endless persecutions, countless exactions, but at once +educate and prove them worthy of a nobler life. + +Yesterday I went over the scene of conflict. It was fearful even to +_see_ the Casinos Quattro Venti and Vascello, where the French and +Romans had been several days so near one another, all shattered to +pieces, with fragments of rich stucco and painting still sticking to +rafters between the great holes made by the cannonade, and think +that men had stayed and fought in them when only a mass of ruins. +The French, indeed, were entirely sheltered the last days; to my +unpractised eyes, the extent and thoroughness of their works seemed +miraculous, and gave me the first clear idea of the incompetency of +the Italians to resist organized armies. I saw their commanders had +not even known enough of the art of war to understand how the French +were conducting the siege. It is true, their resources were at any +rate inadequate to resistance; only continual sorties would have +arrested the progress of the foe, and to make them and man the wall +their forces were inadequate. I was struck more than ever by the +heroic valor of _our_ people,--let me so call them now as ever; for +go where I may, a large part of my heart will ever remain in Italy. +I hope her children will always acknowledge me as a sister, though +I drew not my first breath here. A Contadini showed me where +thirty-seven braves are buried beneath a heap of wall that fell upon +them in the shock of one cannonade. A marble nymph, with broken arm, +looked sadly that way from her sun-dried fountain; some roses were +blooming still, some red oleanders, amid the ruin. The sun was casting +its last light on the mountains on the tranquil, sad Campagna, +that sees one leaf more turned in the book of woe. This was in the +Vascello. I then entered the French ground, all mapped and hollowed +like a honeycomb. A pair of skeleton legs protruded from a bank of one +barricade; lower, a dog had scratched away its light covering of +earth from the body of a man, and discovered it lying face upward all +dressed; the dog stood gazing on it with an air of stupid amazement. +I thought at that moment, recalling some letters received: "O men and +women of America, spared these frightful sights, these sudden wrecks +of every hope, what angel of heaven do you suppose has time to listen +to your tales of morbid woe? If any find leisure to work for men +to-day, think you not they have enough to do to care for the victims +here?" + +I see you have meetings, where you speak of the Italians, the +Hungarians. I pray you _do something_; let it not end in a mere cry of +sentiment. That is better than to sneer at all that is liberal, +like the English,--than to talk of the holy victims of patriotism as +"anarchists" and "brigands"; but it is not enough. It ought not +to content your consciences. Do you owe no tithe to Heaven for the +privileges it has showered on you, for whose achievement so many +here suffer and perish daily? Deserve to retain them, by helping +your fellow-men to acquire them. Our government must abstain from +interference, but private action is practicable, is due. For Italy, +it is in this moment too late; but all that helps Hungary helps her +also,--helps all who wish the freedom of men from an hereditary yoke +now become intolerable. Send money, send cheer,--acknowledge as the +legitimate leaders and rulers those men who represent the people, +who understand their wants, who are ready to die or to live for their +good. Kossuth I know not, but his people recognize him; Manin I know +not, but with what firm nobleness, what perserving virtue, he has +acted for Venice! Mazzini I know, the man and his acts, great, pure, +and constant,--a man to whom only the next age can do justice, as +it reaps the harvest of the seed he has sown in this. Friends, +countrymen, and lovers of virtue, lovers of freedom, lovers of truth! +be on the alert; rest not supine in your easier lives, but remember + + "Mankind is one, + And beats with one great heart." + + + + +PART III. + +LETTERS FROM ABROAD TO FRIENDS AT HOME. + + + + +LETTERS. + +FROM A LETTER TO ---- ----. + + +Bellagio, Lake of Como, August, 1847. + +You do not deceive yourself surely about religion, in so far as that +there is a deep meaning in those pangs of our fate which, if we live +by faith, will become our most precious possession. "Live for thy +faith and thou shalt yet behold it living," is with me, as it hath +been, a maxim. + +Wherever I turn, I see still the same dark clouds, with occasional +gleams of light. In this Europe how much suffocated life!--a sort of +woe much less seen with us. I know many of the noble exiles, pining +for their natural sphere; many of them seek in Jesus the guide and +friend, as you do. For me, it is my nature to wish to go straight to +the Creative Spirit, and I can fully appreciate what you say of the +need of our happiness depending on no human being. Can you really have +attained such wisdom? Your letter seemed to me very modest and pure, +and I trust in Heaven all may be solid. + +I am everywhere well received, and high and low take pleasure in +smoothing my path. I love much the Italians. The lower classes have +the vices induced by long subjection to tyranny; but also a winning +sweetness, a ready and discriminating love for the beautiful, and a +delicacy in the sympathies, the absence of which always made me +sick in our own country. Here, at least, one does not suffer from +obtuseness or indifference. They take pleasure, too, in acts of +kindness; they are bountiful, but it is useless to hope the least +honor in affairs of business. I cannot persuade those who serve me, +however attached, that they should not deceive me, and plunder me. +They think that is part of their duty towards a foreigner. This is +troublesome no less than disagreeable; it is absolutely necessary to +be always on the watch against being cheated. + + * * * * * + +EXTRACT FROM A LETTER. + +One loses sight of all dabbling and pretension when seated at the feet +of dead Rome,--Rome so grand and beautiful upon her bier. Art is dead +here; the few sparkles that sometimes break through the embers cannot +make a flame; but the relics of the past are great enough, over-great; +we should do nothing but sit, and weep, and worship. + +In Rome, one has all the free feeling of the country; the city is so +interwoven with vineyards and gardens, such delightful walks in the +villas, such ceaseless music of the fountains, and from every high +point the Campagna and Tiber seem so near. + +Full of enchantment has been my summer, passed wholly among Italians, +in places where no foreigner goes, amid the snowy peaks, in the +exquisite valleys of the Abruzzi. I have seen a thousand landscapes, +any one of which might employ the thoughts of the painter for years. +Not without reason the people dream that, at the death of a saint, +columns of light are seen to hover on those mountains. They take, at +sunset, the same rose-hues as the Alps. The torrents are magnificent. +I knew some noblemen, with baronial castles nestled in the hills and +slopes, rich in the artistic treasures of centuries. They liked me, +and showed me the hidden beauties of Roman remains. + + * * * * * + +Rome, April, 1848. + +The gods themselves walk on earth, here in the Italian spring. Day +after day of sunny weather lights up the flowery woods and Arcadian +glades. The fountains, hateful during the endless rains, charm again. +At Castle Turano I found heaths, as large as our pear-trees, in full +flower. Such wealth of beauty is irresistible, but ah! the drama of my +life is very strange: the ship plunges deeper as it rises higher. You +would be amazed, could you know how different is my present phase of +life from that in which you knew me; but you would love me no less; it +is tire same planet that shows such different climes. + + * * * * * + +TO HER MOTHER. + +Rome, November 16, 1848. + +I am again in Rome, situated for the first time entirely to my mind. +I have only one room, but large; and everything about the bed +so gracefully and adroitly disposed that it makes a beautiful +parlor,--and of course I pay much less. I have the sun all day, and +an excellent chimney. It is very high, and has pure air and the most +beautiful view all around imaginable. Add, that I am with the dearest, +delightful old couple one can imagine,--quick, prompt, and kind, +sensible and contented. Having no children, they like to regard me and +the Prussian sculptor, my neighbor, as such; yet are too delicate and +too busy ever to intrude. In the attic dwells a priest, who insists on +making my fire when Antonia is away. To be sure, he pays himself for +his trouble by asking a great many questions.... + +You cannot conceive the enchantment of this place. So much I suffered +here last January and February, I thought myself a little weaned; but +returning, my heart swelled even to tears with the cry of the poet, + + "O Rome, _my_ country, city of the soul!" + +Those have not lived who have not seen Rome. Warned, however, by the +last winter, I dared not rent my lodgings for the year. I hope I am +acclimated. I have been through what is called the grape-cure, much +more charming, certainly, than the water-cure. At present I am very +well, but, alas! because I have gone to bed early, and done very +little. I do not know if I can maintain any labor. As to my life, I +think it is not the will of Heaven it should terminate very soon. I +have had another strange escape. + +I had taken passage in the diligence to come to Rome; two rivers were +to be passed, the Turano and the Tiber, but passed by good bridges, +and a road excellent when not broken unexpectedly by torrents from +the mountains. The diligence sets out between three and four in +the morning, long before light. The director sent me word that +the Marchioness Crispoldi had taken for herself and family a coach +extraordinary, which would start two hours later, and that I could +have a place in that if I liked; so I accepted. The weather had been +beautiful, but on the eve of the day fixed for my departure, the wind +rose, and the rain fell in torrents. I observed that the river, which +passed my window, was much swollen, and rushed with great violence. In +the night I heard its voice still stronger, and felt glad I had not to +set out in the dark. I rose at twilight and was expecting my carriage, +and wondering at its delay, when I heard that the great diligence, +several miles below, had been seized by a torrent; the horses were +up to their necks in water, before any one dreamed of danger. The +postilion called on all the saints, and threw himself into the water. +Tire door of the diligence could not be opened, and tire passengers +forced themselves, one after another, into the cold water; it was dark +too. Had I been there, I had fared ill. A pair of strong men were ill +after it, though all escaped with life. + +For several days there was no going to Rome; but at last we set forth +in two great diligences, with all the horses of the route. For many +miles the mountains and ravines were covered with snow; I seemed to +have returned to my own country and climate. Few miles were passed +before the conductor injured his leg under the wheel, and I had the +pain of seeing him suffer all the way, while "Blood of Jesus!" and +"Souls in Purgatory!" was the mildest beginning of an answer to the +jeers of the postilions upon his paleness. We stopped at a miserable +osteria, in whose cellar we found a magnificent relic of Cyclopean +architecture,--as indeed in Italy one is paid at every step for +discomfort and danger, by some precious subject of thought. We +proceeded very slowly, and reached just at night a solitary little +inn which marks the site of the ancient home of the Sabine virgins, +snatched away to become the mothers of Rome. We were there saluted +with, the news that the Tiber also had overflowed its banks, and it +was very doubtful if we could pass. But what else to do? There were no +accommodations in the house for thirty people, or even for three; and +to sleep in the carriages, in that wet air of the marshes, was a more +certain danger than to attempt the passage. So we set forth; the moon, +almost at the full, smiling sadly on the ancient grandeurs half draped +in mist, and anon drawing over her face a thin white veil. As we +approached the Tiber, the towers and domes of Rome could be seen, +like a cloud lying low on the horizon. The road and the meadows, alike +under water, Jay between us and it, one sheet of silver. The horses +entered; they behaved nobly. We proceeded, every moment uncertain if +the water would not become deep; but the scene was beautiful, and I +enjoyed it highly. I have never yet felt afraid, when really in the +presence of danger, though sometimes in its apprehension. + +At last we entered the gate; the diligence stopping to be examined, I +walked to the gate of Villa Ludovisi, and saw its rich shrubberies of +myrtle, so pale and eloquent in the moonlight.... + +My dear friend, Madame Arconati, has shown me generous love; a +Contadina, whom I have known this summer, hardly less. Every Sunday +she came in her holiday dress, a beautiful corset of red silk, richly +embroidered, rich petticoat, nice shoes and stockings, and handsome +coral necklace, on one arm an immense basket of grapes, on the other +a pair of live chickens to be eaten by me for her sake ("_per amore +mio_"), and wanted no present, no reward: it was, as she said, "for +the honor and pleasure of her acquaintance." The old father of the +family never met me but he took off his hat, and said, "Madame, it +is to me a consolation to see you." Are there not sweet flowers of +affection in life, glorious moments, great thoughts? Why must they be +so dearly paid for? + +Many Americans have shown me great and thoughtful kindness and none +more so than William Story and his wife. They are now in Florence, but +may return. I do not know whether I shall stay here or not: I shall be +guided much by the state of my health. + +All is quieted now in Rome. Late at night the Pope had to yield, but +not till the door of his palace was half burned, and his confessor +killed. This man, Parma, provoked his fate by firing on the people +from a window. It seems the Pope never gave order to fire; his guard +acted from a sudden impulse of their own. The new ministry chosen are +little inclined to accept. It is almost impossible for any one to act, +unless the Pope is stripped of his temporal power, and the hour +for that is not yet quite ripe; though they talk more and more of +proclaiming the Republic, and even of calling to Rome my friend +Mazzini. + +If I came home at this moment, I should feel as if forced to leave my +own house, my own people, and the hour which I had always longed for. +If I do come in this way, all I can promise is to plague other people +as little as possible. My own plans and desires will be postponed to +another world. + +Do not feel anxious about me. Some higher Power leads me through +strange, dark, thorny paths, broken at times by glades opening down +into prospects of sunny beauty, into which I am not permitted to +enter. If God disposes for us, it is not for nothing. This I can say: +my heart is in some respects better, it is kinder, and more humble. +Also, my mental acquisitions have certainly been great, however +inadequate to my desires. + + * * * * * + +TO HER BROTHER, K.F. FULLER. + +Rome, January 19, 1849. + +MY DEAR RICHARD,--With my window open, looking out upon St. Peter's, +and the glorious Italian sun pouring in, I was just thinking of you; I +was just thinking how I wished you were here, that we might walk forth +and talk together under the influence of these magnificent objects. I +was thinking of the proclamation of the Constitutional Assembly here, +a measure carried by courageous youth in the face of age, sustained by +the prejudices of many years, the ignorance of the people, and all the +wealth of the country; yet courageous youth faces not only these, but +the most threatening aspect of foreign powers, and dares a future of +blood and exile to achieve privileges which are our American common +birthright. I thought of the great interests which may in our country +be sustained without obstacle by every able man,--interests of +humanity, interests of God. + +I thought of the new prospects of wealth opened to our countrymen by +the acquisition of New Mexico and California,--the vast prospects of +our country every way, so that it is itself a vast blessing to be born +an American; and I thought how impossible it is that one like you, +of so strong and generous a nature, should, if he can but patiently +persevere, be defrauded of a rich, manifold, powerful life. + + +Thursday eve, January 25. + +This has been a most beautiful day, and I have taken a long walk out +of town. How much I should like sometimes to walk with you again! I +went to the church of St. Lorenzo, one of the most ancient in Rome, +rich in early mosaics, also with spoils from the temples, marbles, +ancient sarcophagi with fine bassirilievi, and magnificent columns. +There is a little of everything, but the medley is harmonized by the +action of time, and the sensation induced is that of repose. It has +the public cemetery, and there lie the bones of many poor; the rich +and noble lie in lead coffins in the church vaults of Rome, but St. +Lorenzo loved the poor. When his tormentors insisted on knowing where +he had hid his riches,--"There," he said, pointing to the crowd of +wretches who hovered near his bed, compelled to see the tyrants of the +earth hew down the tree that had nourished and sheltered them. + +Amid the crowd of inexpressive epitaphs, one touched me, erected by +a son to his father. "He was," says the son, "an angel of prosperity, +seeking our good in distant countries with unremitting toll and pain. +We owe him all. For his death it is my only consolation that in life I +never left his side." + +Returning, I passed the Pretorian Camp, the Campus Salisetus, where +vestals that had broken their vows were buried alive in the city +whose founder was born from a similar event. Such are the usual, the +frightful inconsistencies of mankind. + +From my windows I see the Barberini palace; in its chambers are the +pictures of the Cenci, and the Galatea, so beautifully described by +Goethe; in the gardens are the remains of the tomb of Servius Tullius. + +Yesterday as I went forth I saw the house where Keats lived in Rome, +and where he died; I saw the Casino of Raphael. Returning, I passed +the villa where Goethe lived when in Rome: afterwards, the houses of +Claude and Poussin. + +Ah what human companionship here! how everything speaks! I live myself +in the apartment described in Andersen's "Improvvisatore," which get +you, and read a scene of the childhood of Antonio. I have the room, I +suppose, indicated as being occupied by the Danish sculptor. + + * * * * * + +TO THE SAME. + +Rome, March 17, 1849. + +I take occasion to enclose this seal, as a little birthday present, +for I think you will be twenty-five in May. I have used it a great +deal; the design is graceful and expressive,--the stone of some little +value. + +I live with the severest economy consistent with my health. I could +not live for less anywhere. I have renounced much, have suffered more. +I trust I shall not find it impossible to accomplish, at least one +of my designs. This is, to see the end of the political struggle +in Italy, and write its history. I think it will come to its crisis +within, this year. But to complete my work as I have begun, I must +watch it to the end. + +This work, if I can accomplish it, will be a worthy chapter in the +history of the world; and if written with the spirit which breathes +through me, and with sufficient energy and calmness to execute well +the details, would be what the motto on my ring indicates,--"_a +possession for ever, for man_." + +It ought to be profitable to me pecuniarily; but in these respects +Fate runs so uniformly counter to me, that I dare not expect ever to +be free from perplexity and uncongenial labor. Still, these will never +more be so hard to me, if I shall have done something good, which may +survive my troubled existence. Yet it would be like the rest, if by +ill health, want of means, or being driven prematurely from the field +of observation, this hope also should be blighted. I am prepared to +have it so. Only my efforts tend to the accomplishment of my object; +and should they not be baffled, you will not see me before the summer +of 1850. + +Meantime, let the future be what it may, I live as well as I can in +the present. + +Farewell, my dear Richard; that you may lead a peaceful, aspiring, and +generous life was ever, and must ever be, the prayer from the soul of +your sister + +MARGARET. + + * * * * * + +UNDAUNTED ROME. + +Rome, May 6, 1849. + +I write you from barricaded Rome. The "Mother of Nations" is now at +bay against them all. Rome was suffering before. The misfortunes of +other regions of Italy, the defeat at Novara, preconcerted in hope +to strike the last blow at Italian independence, the surrender and +painful condition of Genoa, the money-difficulties,--insuperable +unless the government could secure confidence abroad as well as at +home,--prevented her people from finding that foothold for which they +were ready. + +The vacillations of France agitated them; still they could not +seriously believe she would ever act the part she has. We must say +France, because, though many honorable men have washed their hands +of all share in the perfidy, the Assembly voted funds to sustain the +expedition to Civita Vecchia; and the nation, the army, have remained +quiescent. No one was, no one could be, deceived as to the scope of +this expedition. It was intended to restore the Pope to the temporal +sovereignty, from which the people, by the use of suffrage, had +deposed him. No doubt the French, in case of success, proposed to +temper the triumph of Austria and Naples, and stipulate for conditions +that might soothe the Romans and make their act less odious. They were +probably deceived, also, by the representations of Gaëta, and believed +that a large party, which had been intimidated by the republicans, +would declare in favor of the Pope when they found themselves likely +to be sustained. But this last pretext can in noway avail them. They +landed at Civita Vecchia, and no one declared for the Pope. They +marched on Rome. Placards were affixed within the walls by hands +unknown, calling upon the Papal party to rise within the town. Not a +soul stirred. The French had no excuse left for pretending to believe +that the present government was not entirely acceptable to the people. +Notwithstanding, they assail the gates; they fire upon St. Peter's, +and their balls pierce the Vatican. They were repulsed, as they +deserved, retired in quick and shameful defeat, as surely the brave +French soldiery could not, if they had not been demoralized by the +sense of what an infamous course they were pursuing. + +France, eager to destroy the last hope of Italian +emancipation,--France, the alguazil of Austria, the soldiers of +republican France, firing upon republican Rome! If there be angel +as well as demon powers that interfere in the affairs of men, those +bullets could scarcely fail to be turned back against their own +breasts. Yet Roman blood has flowed also; I saw how it stained +the walls of the Vatican Gardens on the 30th of April--the first +anniversary of the appearance of Pius IX.'s too famous encyclic +letter. Shall he, shall any Pope, ever again walk peacefully in these +gardens? It seems impossible! The temporal sovereignty of the Popes +is virtually destroyed by their shameless, merciless measures taken +to restore it. The spiritual dominion ultimately falls, too, into +irrevocable ruin. What may be the issue at this moment, we cannot +guess. The French have retired to Civita Vecchia, but whether to +reëmbark or to await reinforcements, we know not. The Neapolitan force +has halted within a few miles of the walls; it is not large, and they +are undoubtedly surprised at the discomfiture of the French. Perhaps +they wait for the Austrians, but we do not yet hear that these have +entered the Romagna. Meanwhile, Rome is strongly barricaded, and, +though she cannot stand always against a world in arms, she means at +least to do so as long as possible. Mazzini is at her head; she has +now a guide "who understands his faith," and all there is of a noble +spirit will show itself. We all feel very sad, because the idea of +bombs, barbarously thrown in, and street-fights in Rome, is peculiarly +dreadful. Apart from all the blood and anguish inevitable at such +times, the glories of Art may perish, and mankind be forever despoiled +of the most beautiful inheritance. Yet I would defend Rome to the last +moment. She must not be false to the higher hope that has dawned upon +her. She must not fall back again into servility and corruption. + +And no one is willing. The interference of the French has roused the +weakest to resistance. "From the Austrians, from the Neapolitans," +they cried, "we expected this; but from the French--it is too +infamous; it cannot be borne;" and they all ran to arms and fought +nobly. + +The Americans here are not in a pleasant situation. Mr. Cass, the +Chargé of the United States, stays here without recognizing the +government. Of course, he holds no position at the present moment +that can enable him to act for us. Beside, it gives us pain that our +country, whose policy it justly is to avoid armed interference with +the affairs of Europe, should not use a moral influence. Rome has, as +we did, thrown off a government no longer tolerable; she has made +use of the suffrage to form another; she stands on the same basis as +ourselves. Mr. Rush did us great honor by his ready recognition of a +principle as represented by the French Provisional Government; had +Mr. Cass been empowered to do the same, our country would have acted +nobly, and all that is most truly American in America would have +spoken to sustain the sickened hopes of European democracy. But of +this more when I write next. Who knows what I may have to tell another +week? + + * * * * * + +TO HER BROTHER, R.B. FULLER. + +Rome, May 22, 1849. + +I do not write to Eugene yet, because around me is such excitement I +cannot settle my mind enough to write a letter good for anything. The +Neapolitans have been driven back; but the French, seem to be amusing +us with a pretence of treaties, while waiting for the Austrians to +come up. The Austrians cannot, I suppose, be more than three days' +march from us. I feel but little about myself. Such thoughts are +merged in indignation, and in the fears I have that Rome may be +bombarded. It seems incredible that any nation should be willing to +incur the infamy of such an act,--an act that may rob posterity of a +most precious part of its inheritance;--only so many incredible things +have happened of late. I am with William Story, his wife and uncle. +Very kind friends they have been in this strait. They are going away, +so soon as they can find horses,--going into Germany. I remain alone +in the house, under our flag, almost the only American except the +Consul and Ambassador. But Mr. Cass, the Envoy, has offered to do +anything for me, and I feel at liberty to call on him if I please. + +But enough of this. Let us implore of fate another good meeting, +full and free, whether long or short. Love to dearest mother, Arthur, +Ellen, Lloyd. Say to all, that, should any accident possible to these +troubled times transfer me to another scene of existence, they need +not regret it. There must be better worlds than this, where innocent +blood is not ruthlessly shed, where treason does not so easily +triumph, where the greatest and best are not crucified. I do not say +this in apprehension, but in case of accident, you might be glad to +keep this last word from your sister + +MARGARET. + + * * * * * + +TO R.W. EMERSON. + +Rome, June 10, 1849. + +I received your letter amid the round of cannonade and musketry. It +was a terrible battle fought here from the first to the last light of +day. I could see all its progress from my balcony. The Italians fought +like lions. It is a truly heroic spirit that animates them. They make +a stand here for honor and their rights, with little ground for hope +that they can resist, now they are betrayed by France. + +Since the 30th of April, I go almost daily to the hospitals, and +though I have suffered, for I had no idea before how terrible gun-shot +wounds and wound-fevers are, yet I have taken pleasure, and great +pleasure, in being with the men. There is scarcely one who is not +moved by a noble spirit. Many, especially among the Lombards, are the +flower of the Italian youth. When they begin to get better, I carry +them books and flowers; they read, and we talk. + +The palace of the Pope, on the Quirinal, is now used for +convalescents. In those beautiful gardens I walk with them, one with +his sling, another with his crutch. The gardener plays off all his +water-works for the defenders of the country, and gathers flowers for +me, their friend. + +A day or two since, we sat in the Pope's little pavilion, where he +used to give private audience. The sun was going gloriously down over +Monte Mario, where gleamed the white tents of the French light-horse +among the trees. The cannonade was heard at intervals. Two bright-eyed +boys sat at our feet, and gathered up eagerly every word said by the +heroes of the day. It was a beautiful hour, stolen from the midst of +ruin and sorrow, and tales were told as full of grace and pathos as in +the gardens of Boccaccio, only in a very different spirit,--with noble +hope for man, and reverence for woman. + +The young ladies of the family, very young girls, were filled with +enthusiasm for the suffering, wounded patriots, and they wished to +go to the hospital, to give their services. Excepting the three +superintendents, none but married ladies were permitted to serve +there, but their services were accepted. Their governess then wished +to go too, and, as she could speak several languages, she was admitted +to the rooms of the wounded soldiers, to interpret for them, as the +nurses knew nothing but Italian, and many of these poor men were +suffering because they could not make their wishes known. Some are +French, some Germans, many Poles. Indeed, I am afraid it is too true +that there were comparatively few Romans among them. This young lady +passed several nights there. + +Should I never return, and sometimes I despair of doing so, it seems +so far off,--so difficult, I am caught in such a net of ties here,--if +ever you know of my life here, I think you will only wonder at the +constancy with which I have sustained myself,--the degree of profit to +which, amid great difficulties, I have put the time,--at least in the +way of observation. Meanwhile, love me all you can. Let me feel that, +amid the fearful agitations of the world, there are pure hands, with +healthful, even pulse, stretched out toward me, if I claim their +grasp. + +I feel profoundly for Mazzini. At moments I am tempted to say, "Cursed +with every granted prayer,"--so cunning is the demon. Mazzini has +become the inspiring soul of his people. He saw Rome, to which all his +hopes through life tended, for the first time as a Roman citizen, and +to become in a few days its ruler. He has animated, he sustains her to +a glorious effort, which, if it fails this time, will not in the age. +His country will be free. Yet to me it would be so dreadful to cause +all this bloodshed,--to dig the graves of such martyrs! + +Then, Rome is being destroyed; her glorious oaks,--her villas, +haunts of sacred beauty, that seemed the possession of the world for +ever,--the villa of Raphael, the villa of Albani, home of Winckelmann +and the best expression of the ideal of modern Rome, and so many other +sanctuaries of beauty,--all must perish, lest a foe should level his +musket from their shelter. I could not, could not! + +I know not, dear friend, whether I shall ever get home across that +great ocean, but here in Rome I shall no longer wish to live. + +O Rome, _my_ country! could I imagine that the triumph of what I held +dear was to heap such desolation on thy head! + +Speaking of the republic, you say, "Do you not wish Italy had a great +man?" Mazzini is a great man. In mind, a great, poetic statesman; in +heart, a lover; in action, decisive and full of resource as Cæsar. +Dearly I love Mazzini. He came in, just as I had finished the first +letter to you. His soft, radiant look makes melancholy music in my +soul; it consecrates my present life, that, like the Magdalen, I may, +at the important hour, shed all the consecrated ointment on his head. +There is one, Mazzini, who understands thee well,--who knew thee no +less when an object of popular fear than now of idolatry,--and who, if +the pen be not held too feebly, will help posterity to know thee too! + + * * * * * + +TO HER SISTER, MRS. E.K. CHANNING. + +Rome, June 19, 1849. + +As was Eve, at first, I suppose every mother is delighted by the birth +of a man-child. There is a hope that he will conquer more ill, and +effect more good, than is expected from girls. This prejudice in favor +of man does not seem to be destroyed by his shortcomings for ages. +Still, each mother hopes to find in hers an Emanuel. I should like +very much to see your children, but hardly realize I ever shall. +The journey home seems so long, so difficult, so expensive. I should +really like to lie down here, and sleep my way into another sphere of +existence, if I could take with me one or two that love and need me, +and was sure of a good haven for them on that other side. + +The world seems to go so strangely wrong! The bad side triumphs; the +blood and tears of the generous flow in vain. I assist at many saddest +scenes, and suffer for those whom I knew not before. Those whom I knew +and loved,--who, if they had triumphed, would have opened for me an +easier, broader, higher-mounting road,--are everyday more and more +involved in earthly ruin. Eternity is with us, but there is much +darkness and bitterness in this portion of it. A baleful star rose on +my birth, and its hostility, I fear, will never be disarmed while I +walk below. + + * * * * * + +TO W.H. CHANNING. + +July, 1849. + +I cannot tell you what I endured in leaving Rome, abandoning the +wounded soldiers,--knowing that there is no provision made for them, +when they rise from the beds where they have been thrown by a noble +courage, and have suffered with a noble patience. Some of the poorer +men, who rise bereft even of the right arm,--one having lost both the +right arm and the right leg,--I could have provided for with a small +sum. Could I have sold my hair, or blood from my arm, I would have +done it. Had any of the rich Americans remained in Rome, they would +have given it to me; they helped nobly at first, in the service of the +hospitals, when there was far less need; but they had all gone. What +would I have given could I but have spoken to one of the Lawrences, +or the Phillipses! They could and would have saved this misery. These +poor men are left helpless in the power of a mean and vindictive foe. +You felt so oppressed in the Slave States; imagine what I felt at +seeing all the noblest youth, all the genius of this dear land, again +enslaved! + + * * * * * + +TO HER MOTHER. + +Florence, February 6, 1850. + +Dearest Mother,--After receiving your letter of October, I answered +immediately; but as Richard mentions, in one dated December 4th, that +you have not heard, I am afraid, by some post-office mistake, it went +into the mail-bag of some sail-ship, instead of steamer, so you were +very long without hearing. I regret it the more, as I wanted so much +to respond fully to your letter,--so lovely, so generous, and which, +of all your acts of love, was perhaps the one most needed by me, and +which has touched me the most deeply. + +I gave you in that a flattering picture of our life. And those +pleasant days lasted till the middle of December; but then came on +a cold unknown to Italy, and which has lasted ever since. As the +apartments were not prepared for such weather, we suffered a good +deal. Besides, both Ossoli and myself were taken ill at New-Year's +time, and were not quite well again, all January: now we are quite +well. The weather begins to soften, though still cloudy, damp, and +chilly, so that poor baby can go out very little; on that account he +does not grow so fast, and gets troublesome by evening, as he tires +of being shut up in two or three little rooms, where he has examined +every object hundreds of times. He is always pointing to the door. He +suffers much with chilblains, as do other children here; however, he +is, with that exception, in the best health, and is a great part of +the time very gay, laughing and dancing in the nurse-maid's arms, and +trying to sing and drum, in imitation of the bands, which play a great +deal in the Piazza. + +Nothing special has happened to me. The uninhabitableness of the +rooms where I had expected to write, and the need of using our little +dining-room, the only one in which is a stove, for dressing baby, +taking care of him, eating, and receiving visits and messages, have +prevented my writing for six or seven weeks past. In the evening, when +baby went to bed, about eight, I began to have time, but was generally +too tired to do anything but read. The four hours, however, from nine +till one, beside the bright little fire, have been very pleasant. I +have thought of you a great deal, remembering how you suffer from cold +in the winter, and hope you are in a warm, comfortable house, have +pleasant books to read, and some pleasant friends to see. One does not +want many; only a few bright faces to look in now and then, and help +thaw the ice with little rills of genial conversation. I have fewer of +these than at Rome,--but still several. + * * * * * +Horace Sumner, youngest son of father's friend, Mr. Charles P. Sumner, +lives near us, and comes every evening to read a little while with +Ossoli. He has solid good in his heart and mind. We have a true regard +for him, and he has shown true and steadfast sympathy for us; when I +am ill or in a hurry, he helps me like a brother. Ossoli and Sumner +exchange some instruction in English and Italian. + + * * * * * + +My sister's last letter from Europe is full of solemnity, and +evidences her clear conviction of the perils of the voyage across the +treacherous ocean. It is a leave-taking, dearly cherished now by the +mother to whom it was addressed, the kindred of whom she speaks, and +by those other kindred,--those who in spirit felt near to and loved +her. It is as follows:-- + +Florence, May 14, 1850. + +"Dear Mother,--I will believe I shall be welcome with my +treasures,--my husband and child. For me, I long so much to see you! +Should anything hinder our meeting upon earth, think of your daughter, +as one who always wished, at least, to do her duty, and who always +cherished you, according as her mind opened to discover excellence. + +"Give dear love, too, to my brothers; and first to my eldest, faithful +friend, Eugene; a sister's love to Ellen; love to my kind good aunts, +and to my dear cousin E. God bless them! + +"I hope we shall be able to pass some time together yet, in this +world. But if God decrees otherwise,--here and HEREAFTER, my dearest +mother, + +"Your loving child, + +"MARGARET." + + + + +PART IV. + +HOMEWARD VOYAGE, AND MEMORIALS. + + +It seems proper that some account of the sad close of Madame Ossoli's +earthly journeyings should be embodied in this volume recording her +travels. But a brother's hand trembles even now and _cannot_ write it. +Noble, heroic, unselfish, _Christian_ was that death, even as had been +her life; but its outward circumstances were too painful for my pen +to describe. Nor needs it,--for a scene like that must have impressed +itself indelibly on those who witnessed it, and accurate and vivid +have been their narratives. The Memoirs of my sister contain a most +faithful description; but as they are accessible to all, and I trust +will be read by all who have read this volume, I have chosen rather +to give the accounts somewhat condensed which appeared in the New +York Tribune at the time of the calamity. The first is from the pen of +Bayard Taylor, who visited the scene on the day succeeding the wreck, +and describes the appearance of the shore and the remains of the +vessel. This is followed by the narrative of Mrs. Hasty, wife of the +captain, herself a participant in the scene, and so overwhelmed by +grief at her husband's loss, and that of friends she had learned so +much to value, that she has since faded from this life. A true and +noble woman, her account deserves to be remembered. The third article +is from the pen of Horace Greeley, my sister's ever-valued friend. +Several poems, suggested by this scene, written by those in the Old +World and New who loved and honored Madame Ossoli, are also inserted +here. The respect they testify for the departed is soothing to the +hearts of kindred, and to the many who love and cherish the memory of +Margaret Fuller.--ED. + + + + +LETTER OF BAYARD TAYLOR + + +Fire Island, Tuesday, July 23. + +To the Editors of the Tribune:-- + +I reached the house of Mr. Smith Oakes, about one mile from the spot +where the Elizabeth was wrecked, at three o'clock this morning. The +boat in which I set out last night from Babylon, to cross the bay, was +seven hours making the passage. On landing among the sand-hills, Mr. +Oakes admitted me into his house, and gave me a place of rest for the +remaining two or three hours of the night. + +This morning I visited the wreck, traversed the beach for some extent +on both sides, and collected all the particulars that are now likely +to be obtained, relative to the closing scenes of this terrible +disaster. The sand is strewn for a distance of three or four miles +with fragments of planks, spars, boxes, and the merchandise with which +the vessel was laden. With the exception of a piece of her broadside, +which floated to the shore intact, all the timbers have been so +chopped and broken by the sea, that scarcely a stick of ten feet in +length can be found. In front of the wreck these fragments are piled +up along high-water mark to the height of several feet, while farther +in among the sand-hills are scattered casks of almonds stove in, +and their contents mixed with the sand, sacks of juniper-berries, +oil-flasks, &c. About half the hull remains under water, not more than +fifty yards from the shore. The spars and rigging belonging to the +foremast, with part of the mast itself, are still attached to the +ruins, surging over them at every swell. Mr. Jonathan Smith, the agent +of the underwriters, intended to have the surf-boat launched this +morning, for the purpose of cutting away the rigging and ascertaining +how the wreck lies; but the sea is still too high. + +From what I can learn, the loss of the Elizabeth is mainly to be +attributed to the inexperience of the mate, Mr. H.P. Bangs, who acted +as captain after leaving Gibraltar. By his own statement, he supposed +he was somewhere between Cape May and Barnegat, on Thursday evening. +The vessel was consequently running northward, and struck head on. +At the second thump, a hole was broken in her side, the seas poured +through and over her, and she began going to pieces. This happened at +ten minutes before four o'clock. The passengers were roused from +their sleep by the shock, and hurried out of the cabin in their +night-clothes, to take refuge on the forecastle, which was the least +exposed part of the vessel. They succeeded with great difficulty; Mrs. +Hasty, the widow of the late captain, fell into a hatchway, from which +she was dragged by a sailor who seized her by the hair. + +The swells increased continually, and the danger of the vessel giving +way induced several of the sailors to commit themselves to the waves. +Previous to this they divested themselves of their clothes, which they +tied to pieces of plank and sent ashore. These were immediately +seized upon by the beach pirates, and never afterward recovered. +The carpenter cut loose some planks and spars, and upon one of these +Madame Ossoli was advised to trust herself, the captain promising to +go in advance, with her boy. She refused, saying that she had no wish +to live without the child, and would not, at that hour, give the care +of it to another. Mrs. Hasty then took hold of a plank, in company +with the second mate, Mr. Davis, through whose assistance she landed +safely, though terribly bruised by the floating timber. The captain +clung to a hatch, and was washed ashore insensible, where he was +resuscitated by the efforts of Mr. Oakes and several others, who were +by this time collected on the beach. Most of the men were entirely +destitute of clothing, and some, who were exhausted and ready to let +go their hold, were saved by the islanders, who went into the surf +with lines about their waists, and caught them. + +The young Italian girl, Celesta Pardena, who was bound for New York, +where she had already lived in the family of Henry Peters Gray, the +artist, was at first greatly alarmed, and uttered the most piercing +screams. By the exertions of the Ossolis she was quieted, and +apparently resigned to her fate. The passengers reconciled themselves +to the idea of death. At the proposal of the Marquis Ossoli some time +was spent in prayer, after which all sat down calmly to await the +parting of the vessel. The Marchioness Ossoli was entreated by the +sailors to leave the vessel, or at least to trust her child to them, +but she steadily refused. + +Early in the morning some men had been sent to the lighthouse for the +life-boat which is kept there. Although this is but two miles distant, +the boat did not arrive till about one o'clock, by which time the gale +had so increased, and the swells were so high and terrific, that it +was impossible to make any use of it. A mortar was also brought for +the purpose of firing a line over the vessel, to stretch a hawser +between it and the shore. The mortar was stationed on the lee of +a hillock, about a hundred and fifty rods from the wreck, that the +powder might be kept dry. It was fired five times, but failed to +carry a line more than half the necessary distance. Just before the +forecastle sunk, the remaining sailors determined to leave. + +The steward, with whom the child had always been a great favorite, +took it, almost by main force, and plunged with it into the sea; +neither reached the shore alive. The Marquis Ossoli was soon +afterwards washed away, but his wife remained in ignorance of his +fate. The cook, who was the last person that reached the shore alive, +said that the last words he heard her speak were: "I see nothing but +death before me,--I shall never reach the shore." It was between two +and three o'clock in the afternoon, and after lingering for about ten +hours, exposed to the mountainous surf that swept over the vessel, +with the contemplation of death constantly forced upon her mind, she +was finally overwhelmed as the foremast fell. It is supposed that her +body and that of her husband are still buried under the ruins of the +vessel. Mr. Horace Sumner, who jumped overboard early in the morning, +was never seen afterwards. + +The dead bodies that were washed on shore were terribly bruised and +mangled. That of the young Italian girl was enclosed in a rough box, +and buried in the sand, together with those of the sailors. Mrs. Hasty +had by this time found a place of shelter at Mr. Oakes's house, and +at her request the body of the boy, Angelo Eugene Ossoli, was carried +thither, and kept for a day previous to interment. The sailors, who +had all formed a strong attachment to him during the voyage, wept like +children when they saw him. There was some difficulty in finding a +coffin when the time of burial came, whereupon they took one of their +chests, knocked out the tills, laid the body carefully inside, locked +and nailed down the lid. He was buried in a little nook between two of +the sand-hills, some distance from the sea. + +The same afternoon a trunk belonging to the Marchioness Ossoli came +to shore, and was fortunately secured before the pirates had an +opportunity of purloining it. Mrs. Hasty informs me that it contained +several large packages of manuscripts, which she dried carefully by +the fire. I have therefore a strong hope that the work on Italy will +be entirely recovered. In a pile of soaked papers near the door, +I found files of the _Democratie Pacifique_ and _Il Nazionale_ of +Florence, as well as several of Mazzini's pamphlets, which I have +preserved. + +An attempt will probably be made to-morrow to reach the wreck with the +surf-boat. Judging from its position and the known depth of the water, +I should think the recovery, not only of the bodies, if they are still +remaining there, but also of Powers's statue and the blocks of rough +Carrara, quite practicable, if there should be a sufficiency of still +weather. There are about a hundred and fifty tons of marble under the +ruins. The paintings, belonging to Mr. Aspinwall, which were washed +ashore in boxes, and might have been saved had any one been on the +spot to care for them, are for the most part utterly destroyed. Those +which were least injured by the sea-water were cut from the frames +and carried off by the pirates; the frames were broken in pieces, +and scattered along the beach. This morning I found several shreds of +canvas, evidently more than a century old, half buried in the sand. +All the silk, Leghorn braid, hats, wool, oil, almonds, and other +articles contained in the vessel, were carried off as soon as they +came to land. On Sunday there were nearly a thousand persons here, +from all parts of the coast between Rockaway and Montauk, and +more than half of them were engaged in secreting and carrying off +everything that seemed to be of value. + +The two bodies found yesterday were those of sailors. All have now +come to land but those of the Ossolis and Horace Sumner. If not found +in the wreck, they will be cast ashore to the westward of this, as the +current has set in that direction since the gale. + +Yours, &c. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE WRECK OF THE ELIZABETH. + + +From a conversation with Mrs. Hasty, widow of the captain of the +ill-fated Elizabeth, we gather the following particulars of her voyage +and its melancholy termination. + +We have already stated that Captain Hasty was prostrated, eight days +after leaving Leghorn, by a disease which was regarded and treated as +fever, but which ultimately exhibited itself as small-pox of the most +malignant type. He died of it just as the vessel reached Gibraltar, +and his remains were committed to the deep. After a short detention +in quarantine, the Elizabeth resumed her voyage on the 8th ultimo, +and was long baffled by adverse winds. Two days from Gibraltar, the +terrible disease which had proved fatal to the captain attacked the +child of the Ossolis, a beautiful boy of two years, and for many days +his recovery was regarded as hopeless. His eyes were completely closed +for five days, his head deprived of all shape, and his whole person +covered with pustules; yet, through the devoted attention of his +parents and their friends, he survived, and at length gradually +recovered. Only a few scars and red spots remained on his face and +body, and these were disappearing, to the great joy of his mother, who +felt solicitous that his rare beauty should not be marred at his first +meeting with those she loved, and especially her mother. + +At length, after a month of slow progress, the wind shifted, and blew +strongly from the southwest for several days, sweeping them rapidly +on their course, until, on Thursday evening last, they knew that they +were near the end of their voyage. Their trunks were brought up and +repacked, in anticipation of a speedy arrival in port. Meantime, the +breeze gradually swelled to a gale, which became decided about nine +o'clock on that evening. But their ship was new and strong, and +all retired to rest as usual. They were running west, and supposed +themselves about sixty miles farther south than they actually were. +By their reckoning, they would be just off the harbor of New York next +morning. About half past two o'clock, Mr. Bangs, the mate in command, +took soundings, and reported twenty-one fathoms. He said that depth +insured their safety till daylight, and turned in again. Of course, +all was thick around the vessel, and the storm howling fiercely. One +hour afterward, the ship struck with great violence, and in a moment +was fast aground. She was a stout brig of 531 tons, five years old, +heavily laden with marble, &c., and drawing seventeen feet water. Had +she been light, she might have floated over the bar into twenty feet +water, and all on board could have been saved. She struck rather +sidewise than bows on, canted on her side and stuck fast, the mad +waves making a clear sweep over her, pouring down into the cabin +through the skylight, which was destroyed. One side of the cabin +was immediately and permanently under water, the other frequently +drenched. The passengers, who were all up in a moment, chose the most +sheltered positions, and there remained, calm, earnest, and resigned +to any fate, for a long three hours. No land was yet visible; they +knew not where they were, but they knew that their chance of surviving +was small indeed. When the coast was first visible through the driving +storm in the gray light of morning, the sand-hills were mistaken for +rocks, which made the prospect still more dismal. The young Ossoli +cried a little with discomfort and fright, but was soon hushed to +sleep. Our friend Margaret had two life-preservers, but one of them +proved unfit for use. All the boats had been smashed in pieces or torn +away soon after the vessel struck; and it would have been madness to +launch them in the dark, if it had been possible to launch them at +all, with the waves charging over the wreck every moment. A sailor, +soon after light, took Madame Ossoli's serviceable life-preserver +and swam ashore with it, in quest of aid for those left on board, and +arrived safe, but of course could not return his means of deliverance. + +By 7 A.M. it became evident that the cabin must soon go to pieces, and +indeed it was scarcely tenantable then. The crew were collected in +the forecastle, which was stronger and less exposed, the vessel having +settled by the stem, and the sailors had been repeatedly ordered to go +aft and help the passengers forward, but the peril was so great that +none obeyed. At length the second mate, Davis, went himself, +and accompanied the Italian girl, Celesta Pardena, safely to the +forecastle, though with great difficulty. Madame Ossoli went next, and +had a narrow escape from being washed away, but got over. Her child +was placed in a bag tied around a sailor's neck, and thus carried +safely. Marquis Ossoli and the rest followed, each convoyed by the +mate or one of the sailors. + +All being collected in the forecastle, it was evident that their +position was still most perilous, and that the ship could not much +longer hold together. The women were urged to try first the experiment +of taking each a plank and committing themselves to the waves. Madame +Ossoli refused thus to be separated from her husband and child. She +had from the first expressed a willingness to live or die with them, +but not to live without them. Mrs. Hasty was the first to try the +plank, and, though the struggle was for some time a doubtful one, did +finally reach the shore, utterly exhausted. There was a strong current +setting to the westward, so that, though the wreck lay but a quarter +of a mile from the shore, she landed three fourths of a mile distant. +No other woman, and no passenger, survives, though several of the +crew came ashore after she did, in a similar manner. The last who came +reports that the child had been washed away from the man who held it +before the ship broke up, that Ossoli had in like manner been washed +from the foremast, to which he was clinging; but, in the horror of the +moment, Margaret never learned that those she so clung to had preceded +her to the spirit land. Those who remained of the crew had just +persuaded her to trust herself to a plank, in the belief that Ossoli +and their child had already started for the shore, when just as she +was stepping down, a great wave broke over the vessel and swept her +into the boiling deep. She never rose again. The ship broke up soon +after (about 10 A.M. Mrs. Hasty says, instead of the later hour +previously reported); but both mates and most of the crew got on +one fragment or another. It was supposed that those of them who were +drowned were struck by floating spars or planks, and thus stunned or +disabled so as to preclude all chance of their rescue. + +We do not know at the time of this writing whether the manuscript of +our friend's work on Italy and her late struggles has been saved. We +fear it has not been. One of her trunks is known to have been saved; +but, though it contained a good many papers, Mrs. Hasty believes that +this was not among them. The author had thrown her whole soul into +this work, had enjoyed the fullest opportunities for observation, was +herself a partaker in the gallant though unsuccessful struggle which +has redeemed the name of Rome from the long rust of sloth, servility, +and cowardice, was the intimate friend and compatriot of the +Republican leaders, and better fitted than any one else to refute the +calumnies and falsehoods with which their names have been blackened by +the champions of aristocratic "order" throughout the civilized world. +We cannot forego the hope that her work on Italy has been saved, or +will yet be recovered. + + * * * * * + +The following is a complete list of the persons lost by the wreck of +the ship Elizabeth:-- + + Giovanni, Marquis Ossoli. + Margaret Fuller Ossoli. + Their child, Eugene Angelo Ossoli. + Celesta Pardena, of Rome. + Horace Sumner, of Boston. + George Sanford, seaman (Swede). + Henry Westervelt, seaman (Swede). + George Bates, steward. + + * * * * * + + + + +DEATH OF MARGARET FULLER. + + +A great soul has passed from this mortal stage of being by the death +of MARGARET FULLER, by marriage Marchioness Ossoli, who, with her +husband and child, Mr. Horace Sumner of Boston,[A] and others, was +drowned in the wreck of the brig Elizabeth from Leghorn for this +port, on the south shore of Long Island, near Fire Island, on Friday +afternoon last. No passenger survives to tell the story of that night +of horrors, whose fury appalled many of our snugly sheltered citizens +reposing securely in their beds. We can adequately realize what it +must have been to voyagers approaching our coast from the Old World, +on vessels helplessly exposed to the rage of that wild southwestern +gale, and seeing in the long and anxiously expected land of their +youth and their love only an aggravation of their perils, a death-blow +to their hopes, an assurance of their temporal doom! + +[Footnote A: Horace Sumner, one of the victims of the lamentable wreck +of the Elizabeth, was the youngest son of the late Hon. Charles P. +Sumner, of Boston, for many years Sheriff of Suffolk County, and the +brother of George Sumner, Esq., the distinguished American writer, now +resident at Paris, and of Hon. Charles Sumner of Boston, who is well +known for his legal and literary eminence throughout the country. He +was about twenty-four years of age, and had been abroad for nearly a +year, travelling in the South of Europe for the benefit of his health. +The past winter was spent by him chiefly in Florence, where he was on +terms of familiar intimacy with the Marquis and Marchioness Ossoli, +and was induced to take passage in the same vessel with them for his +return to his native land. He was a young man of singular modesty of +deportment, of an original turn of mind, and greatly endeared to his +friends by the sweetness of his disposition and the purity of his +character.] + +Margaret Fuller was the daughter of Hon. Timothy Fuller, a lawyer +of Boston, but nearly all his life a resident of Cambridge, and a +Representative of the Middlessex District in Congress from 1817 to +1825. Mr. Fuller, upon his retirement from Congress, purchased a farm +at some distance from Boston, and abandoned law for agriculture, soon +after which he died. His widow and six children still survive. + +Margaret, if we mistake not, was the first-born, and from a very early +age evinced the possession of remarkable intellectual powers. Her +father regarded her with a proud admiration, and was from childhood +her chief instructor, guide, companion, and friend. He committed the +too common error of stimulating her intellect to an assiduity and +persistency of effort which severely taxed and ultimately injured her +physical powers.[A] At eight years of age he was accustomed to require +of her the composition of a number of Latin verses per day, while +her studies in philosophy, history, general science, and current +literature were in after years extensive and profound. After her +father's death, she applied herself to teaching as a vocation, first +in Boston, then in Providence, and afterward in Boston again, where +her "Conversations" were for several seasons attended by classes of +women, some of them married, and including many from the best families +of the "American Athens." + +[Footnote A: I think this opinion somewhat erroneous, for reasons +which I have already given in the edition recently published of Woman +in the Nineteenth Century. The reader is referred to page 352 of +that work, and also to page 38, where I believe my sister personified +herself under the name of Miranda, and stated clearly and justly the +relation which, existed between her father and herself.--ED.] + +In the autumn of 1844, she accepted an invitation to take part in the +conduct of the Tribune, with especial reference to the department +of Reviews and Criticism on current Literature, Art, Music, &c.; a +position which she filled for nearly two years,--how eminently, +our readers well know. Her reviews of Longfellow's Poems, Wesley's +Memoirs, Poe's Poems, Bailey's "Festus," Douglas's Life, &c. must yet +be remembered by many. She had previously found "fit audience, though +few," for a series of remarkable papers on "The Great Musicians," +"Lord Herbert of Cherbury," "Woman," &c., &c., in "The Dial," a +quarterly of remarkable breadth and vigor, of which she was at first +co-editor with Ralph Waldo Emerson, but which was afterward edited by +him only, though she continued a contributor to its pages. In 1843, +she accompanied some friends on a tour via Niagara, Detroit, and +Mackinac to Chicago, and across the prairies of Illinois, and her +resulting volume, entitled "Summer on the Lakes," is one of the best +works in this department ever issued from the American press. It +was too good to be widely and instantly popular. Her "Woman in the +Nineteenth Century"--an extension of her essay in the Dial--was +published by us early in 1845, and a moderate edition sold. The next +year, a selection from her "Papers on Literature and Art" was issued +by Wiley and Putnam, in two fair volumes of their "Library of American +Books." We believe the original edition was nearly or quite exhausted, +but a second has not been called for, while books nowise comparable +to it for strength or worth have run through half a dozen editions.[A] +These "Papers" embody some of her best contributions to the Dial, the +Tribune, and perhaps one or two which had not appeared in either. + +[Footnote A: A second edition has since been published.--ED.] + +In the summer of 1845, Miss Fuller accompanied the family of a devoted +friend to Europe, visiting England, Scotland, France, and passing +through Italy to Rome, where they spent the ensuing winter. She +accompanied her friends next spring to the North of Italy, and there +stopped, spending most of the summer at Florence, and returning at +the approach of winter to Rome, where she was soon after married to +Giovanni, Marquis Ossoli, who had made her acquaintance during her +first winter in the Eternal City. They have since resided in the +Roman States until the last summer, after the surrender of Rome to the +French army of assassins of liberty, when they deemed it expedient +to migrate to Florence, both having taken an active part in the +Republican movement which resulted so disastrously,--nay, of which the +ultimate result is yet to be witnessed. Thence in June they departed +and set sail at Leghorn for this port, in the Philadelphia brig +Elizabeth, which was doomed to encounter a succession of disasters. +They had not been many days at sea when the captain was prostrated by +a disease which ultimately exhibited itself as confluent small-pox +of the most malignant type, and terminated his life soon after they +touched at Gibraltar, after a sickness of intense agony and loathsome +horror. The vessel was detained some days in quarantine by reason of +this affliction, but finally set sail again on the 8th ultimo, just in +season to bring her on our coast on the fearful night between Thursday +and Friday last, when darkness, rain, and a terrific gale from the +southwest (the most dangerous quarter possible), conspired to hurl +her into the very jaws of destruction. It is said, but we know not how +truly, that the mate in command since the captain's death mistook +the Fire Island light for that on the Highlands of Neversink, and so +fatally miscalculated his course; but it is hardly probable that any +other than a first-class, fully manned ship could have worked off +that coast under such a gale, blowing him directly toward the roaring +breakers. She struck during the night, and before the next evening +the Elizabeth was a mass of drifting sticks and planks, while her +passengers and part of her crew were buried in the boiling surges. +Alas that our gifted friend, and those nearest to and most loved by +her, should have been among them! + +We trust a new, compact, and cheap edition or selection, of Margaret +Fuller's writings will soon be given to the public, prefaced by a +Memoir. It were a shame to us if one so radiantly lofty in intellect, +so devoted to human liberty and well-being, so ready to dare and to +endure for the upraising of her sex and her race, should perish from +among us, and leave no memento less imperfect and casual than those we +now have. We trust the more immediate relatives of our departed friend +will lose no time in selecting the fittest person to prepare a Memoir, +with a selection from her writings, for the press.[A] America has +produced no woman who in mental endowments and acquirements has +surpassed Margaret Fuller, and it will be a public misfortune if her +thoughts are not promptly and acceptably embodied. + +[Footnote A: The reader is aware that such a Memoir has since been +published, and that several of her works have been republished +likewise. I trust soon to publish a volume of Madame Ossoli's +Miscellaneous Writings.--ED.] + + * * * * * + + + + +MARGARET FULLER OSSOLI + +BY C.P. CRANCH. + + + O still, sweet summer days! O moonlight nights! + After so drear a storm how can ye shine? + O smiling world of many-hued delights, + How canst thou 'round our sad hearts still entwine + The accustomed wreaths of pleasure? How, O Day, + Wakest thou so full of beauty? Twilight deep, + How diest thou so tranquilly away? + And how, O Night, bring'st thou the sphere of sleep? + For she is gone from us,--gone, lost for ever,-- + In the wild billows swallowed up and lost,-- + Gone, full of love, life, hope, and high endeavor, + Just when we would have welcomed her the most. + + Was it for this, O woman, true and pure! + That life through shade and light had formed thy mind + To feel, imagine, reason, and endure,-- + To soar for truth, to labor for mankind? + Was it for this sad end thou didst bear thy part + In deeds and words for struggling Italy,-- + Devoting thy large mind and larger heart + That Rome in later days might yet be free? + And, from that home driven out by tyranny, + Didst turn to see thy fatherland once more, + Bearing affection's dearest ties with thee; + And as the vessel bore thee to our shore, + And hope rose to fulfilment,--on the deck, + When friends seemed almost beckoning unto thee: + O God! the fearful storm,--the splitting wreck,-- + The drowning billows of the dreary sea! + + O, many a heart was stricken dumb with grief! + We who had known thee here,--had met thee there + Where Rome threw golden light on every leaf + Life's volume turned in that enchanted air,-- + O friend! how we recall the Italian days + Amid the Cæsar's ruined palace halls,-- + The Coliseum, and the frescoed blaze + Of proud St. Peter's dome,--the Sistine walls,-- + The lone Campagna and the village green,-- + The Vatican,--the music and dim light + Of gorgeous temples,--statues, pictures, seen + With thee: those sunny days return so bright, + Now thou art gone! Thou hast a fairer world + Than that bright clime. The dreams that filled thee here + Now find divine completion, and, unfurled + Thy spirit-wings, find out their own high sphere. + + Farewell! thought-gifted, noble-hearted one! + We, who have known thee, know thou art not lost; + The star that set in storms still shines upon + The o'ershadowing cloud, and, when we sorrow most, + In the blue spaces of God's firmament + Beams out with purer light than we have known. + Above the tempest and the wild lament + Of those who weep the radiance that is flown. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE DEATH OF MARGARET FULLER OSSOLI. + +BY MARY C. AMES. + + + O Italy! amid thy scenes of blood, + She acted long a woman's noble part! + Soothing the dying of thy sons, proud Rome! + Till thou wert bowed, O city of her heart! + When thou hadst fallen, joy no longer flowed + In the rich sunlight of thy heaven; + And from thy glorious domes and shrines of art, + No quickening impulse to her life was given. + + From the deep shadow of thy cypress hills, + From the soft beauty of thy classic plains, + The noble-hearted, with, her treasures, turned + To the far land where Freedom proudly reigns. + After the rocking of long years of storms, + Her weary spirit looked and longed for rest; + Pictures of home, of loved and kindred forms, + Rose warm and life-like in her aching breast. + + But the wild ocean rolled before her home; + And, listening long unto its fearful moan, + She thought of myriads who had found their rest + Down in its caverns, silent, deep, and lone. + Then rose the prayer within her heart of hearts, + With the dark phantoms of a coming grief, + That "_Nino_, Ossoli, and I may go + _Together_;--that the anguish may be brief." + + The bark spread out her pennons proud and free, + The sunbeams frolicked with the wanton waves; + Smiled through the long, long days the summer sea, + And sung sweet requiems o'er her sunken graves. + E'en then the shadow of the fearful King + Hung deep and darkening o'er the fated bark; + Suffering and death and anguish reigned, ere came + Hope's weary dove back to the longing ark. + + This was the morning to the night of woe; + When the grim Ocean, in his fiercest wrath, + Held fearful contest with the god of storms, + Who lashed the waves with death upon his path. + O night of agony! O awful morn, + That oped on such a scene thy sullen eyes! + The shattered ship,--those wrecked and broken hearts, + Who only prayed, "_Together let us die_." + + Was this thy greeting longed for, Margaret, + In the high, noontide of thy lofty pride? + The welcome sighed for, in thine hours of grief, + When pride had fled and hope in thee had died? + Twelve hours' communion with the Terror-King! + No wandering hope to give the heart relief! + And yet thy prayer was heard,--the cold waves wrapt + Those forms "together," and the woe was "brief." + + Thus closed thy day in darkness and in tears; + Thus waned a life, alas! too full of pain; + But O thou noble woman! thy brief life, + Though full of sorrows, was not lived in vain. + No more a pilgrim o'er a weary waste, + With light ineffable thy mind is crowned; + Heaven's richest lore is thine own heritage; + All height is gained, thy "kingdom" now is found. + + * * * * * + + + + +TO THE MEMORY OF MARGARET FULLER. + +BY E. OAKES SMITH. + + + We hailed thee, Margaret, from the sea, + We hailed thee o'er the wave, + And little thought, in greeting thee, + Thy home would be a grave. + + We blest thee in thy laurel crown, + And in the myrtle's sheen,-- + Rejoiced thy noble worth to own, + Still joy, our tears between. + + We hoped that many a happy year + Would bless thy coming feet; + And thy bright fame grow brighter here, + By Fatherland made sweet. + + Gone, gone! with all thy glorious thought,-- + Gone with thy waking life,-- + With the green chaplet Fame had wrought,-- + The joy of Mother, Wife. + + Oh! who shall dare thy harp to take, + And pour upon the air + The clear, calm music, that should wake + The heart to love and prayer! + + The lip, all eloquent, is stilled + And silent with its trust,-- + The heart, with Woman's greatness filled, + Must crumble to the dust: + + But from thy _great heart_ we will take + New courage for the strife; + From petty ills our bondage break, + And labor with new life. + + Wake up, in darkness though it be, + To better truth and light; + Patient in toil, as we saw thee, + In searching for the light; + + And mindless of the scorn it brings, + For 't is in desert land + That angels come with sheltering wings + To lead us by the hand. + + Courageous one! thou art not lost, + Though sleeping in the wave; + Upon its chainless billows tost, + For thee is fitting grave. + + * * * * * + + + + +SLEEP SWEETLY, GENTLE CHILD.[A] + + + [The only child of the Marchioness Ossoli, well known + as Margaret Fuller, is buried in the Valley Cemetery, at + Manchester, N.H. There is always a vase of flowers placed near + the grave, and a marble slab, with a cross and lily sculptured + upon it, bears this inscription: "In Memory of Angelo Eugene + Philip Ossoli, who was born at Rieti, in Italy, 5th September, + 1848, and perished by shipwreck off Fire Island, with both his + parents, Giovanni Angelo and Margaret Fuller Ossoli, on the + 19th of July, 1850."] + + Sleep sweetly, gentle child! though to this sleep + The cold winds rocked thee, on the ocean's breast, + And strange, wild murmurs o'er the dark, blue deep + Were the last sounds that lulled thee to thy rest, + And while the moaning waves above thee rolled, + The hearts that loved thee best grew still and cold. + + Sleep sweetly, gentle child! though the loved tone + That twice twelve months had hushed thee to repose + Could give no answer to the tearful moan + That faintly from thy sea-moss pillow rose. + That night the arms that closely folded thee + Were the wet weeds that floated in the sea. + + Sleep sweetly, gentle child! the cold, blue wave + Hath pitied the sad sighs the wild winds bore, + And from the wreck it held _one_ treasure gave + To the fond watchers weeping on the shore;-- + Now the sweet vale shall guard its precious trust, + While mourning hearts weep o'er thy silent dust. + + Sleep sweetly, gentle child! love's tears are shed + Upon the garlands of fair Northern flowers + That fond hearts strew above thy lowly bed, + Through all our summer's glad and pleasant hours: + For thy sake, and for hers who sleeps beneath the wave, + Kind hands bring flowers to fade upon thy grave. + + Sleep sweetly, gentle child! the warm wind sighs + Amid the dark pines through this quiet dell, + And waves the light flower-shade that lies + Upon the white-leaved lily's sculptured bell;-- + The "Valley's" flowers are fair, the turf is green;-- + Sleep sweetly here, wept-for Eugene! + + Sleep sweetly, gentle child! this peaceful rest + Hath early given thee to a home above, + Safe from all sin and tears, for, ever blest + To sing sweet praises of redeeming love.-- + The love that took thee to that world of bliss + Ere thou hadst learned the sighs and griefs of this. + +JULIET. + +Laurel Brook, N.H., September, 1851. + +[Footnote A: These lines are beautiful and full of sweet sympathy. The +home of the mother and brother of Margaret Fuller being now removed +from Manchester to Boston, the remains of the little child, too dear +to remain distant from us, have been removed to Mount Auburn. The +same marble slab is there with, its inscription, and the lines deserve +insertion here.--ED.] + + * * * * * + + + + +ON THE DEATH OF MARGARET FULLER. + +BY G.P.R. JAMES. + + + High hopes and bright thine early path bedecked, + And aspirations beautiful though wild,-- + A heart too strong, a powerful will unchecked, + A dream that earth-things could be undefiled. + + But soon, around thee, grew a golden chain, + That bound the woman to more human things, + And taught with joy--and, it may be, with pain-- + That there are limits e'en to Spirit's wings. + + Husband and child,--the loving and beloved,-- + Won, from the vast of thought, a mortal part, + The impassioned wife and mother, yielding, proved + Mind has itself a master--in the heart. + + In distant lands enhaloed by, old fame + Thou found'st the only chain thy spirit knew, + But captive ledst thy captors, from the shame + Of ancient freedom, to the pride of new. + + And loved hearts clung around thee on the deck, + Welling with sunny hopes 'neath sunny skies: + The wide horizon round thee had no speck,-- + E'en Doubt herself could see no cloud arise. + + Thy loved ones clung around thee, when the sail + O'er wide Atlantic billows onward bore + Thy freight of joys, and the expanding gale + Pressed the glad bark toward thy native shore. + + The loved ones clung around thee still, when all + Was darkness, tempest, terror, and dismay,-- + More closely clung around thee, when the pall + Of Fate was falling o'er the mortal clay. + + With them to live,--with them, with them to die, + Sublime of human love intense and fine!-- + Was thy last prayer unto the Deity; + And it was granted thee by Love Divine. + + In the same billow,--in the same dark grave,-- + Mother, and child, and husband, find their rest. + The dream is ended; and the solemn wave + Gives back the gifted to her country's breast. + + * * * * * + + + + +ON THE DEATH OF MARQUIS OSSOLI AND HIS WIFE, MARGARET FULLER. + +BY WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR. + + + Over his millions Death has lawful power, + But over thee, brave Ossoli! none, none! + After a long struggle, in a fight + Worthy of Italy to youth restored, + Thou, far from home, art sunk beneath the surge + Of the Atlantic; on its shore; in reach + Of help; in trust of refuge; sunk with all + Precious on earth to thee,--a child, a wife! + Proud as thou wert of her, America + Is prouder, showing to her sons how high + Swells woman's courage in a virtuous breast. + + She would not leave behind her those she loved: + Such solitary safety might become + Others,--not her; not her who stood beside + The pallet of the wounded, when the worst + Of France and Perfidy assailed the walls + Of unsuspicious Rome. Rest, glorious soul, + Renowned for strength of genius, Margaret! + Rest with the twain too dear! My words are few, + And shortly none will hear my failing voice, + But the same language with more full appeal + Shall hail thee. Many are the sons of song + Whom thou hast heard upon thy native plains, + Worthy to sing of thee; the hour is come; + Take we our seats and let the dirge begin. + + * * * * * + + + + +MONUMENT TO THE OSSOLI FAMILY. + +[FROM THE NEW YORK TRIBUNE.] + + +The family of Margaret Fuller Ossoli have just erected to her memory, +and that of her husband and child, a marble monument in Mount Auburn +cemetery, in Massachusetts. It is located on Pyrola Path, in a +beautiful part of the grounds, and has near it some noble oaks, while +the hand of affection has planted many a flower. The body of Margaret +Fuller rests in the ocean, but her memory abides in many hearts. She +needs no monumental stone, but human affection loves thus to do honor +to the departed. + +The following is the inscription on the monument:-- + + Erected + In Memory of + + MARGARET FULLER OSSOLI, + Born in Cambridge, Mass., May 23, 1810. + + By birth, a Citizen of New England; by adoption, a Citizen of Rome; by genius, + belonging to the World. In youth, an insatiate Student, seeking the + highest culture; in riper years, Teacher, Writer, Critic of + Literature and Art; in maturer age, Companion and Helper + of many earnest Reformers in America + and Europe. + + And + + In Memory of her Husband, + GIOVANNI ANGELO, MARQUIS OSSOLI. + + He gave up rank, station, and home for the Roman Republic, + and for his Wife and Child. + + And + + In Memory of that Child, + ANGELO EUGENE PHILIP OSSOLI, + + Born in Rieti, Italy, Sept. 5, 1848, + Whose dust reposes at the foot of this stone. + They passed from life together by shipwreck, + July 19, 1850. + + United in life by mutual love, labors, and trials, the merciful Father + took them together, and + In death they were not divided. + + + +THE END. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's At Home And Abroad, by Margaret Fuller Ossoli + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AT HOME AND ABROAD *** + +***** This file should be named 16327-8.txt or 16327-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/3/2/16327/ + +Produced by Alison Hadwin 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: At Home And Abroad + Or, Things And Thoughts In America and Europe + +Author: Margaret Fuller Ossoli + +Editor: Arthur B. Fuller + +Release Date: July 18, 2005 [EBook #16327] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AT HOME AND ABROAD *** + + + + +Produced by Alison Hadwin and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + <h1>AT HOME AND ABROAD;</h1> + + <h5>OR,</h5> + + <h1>THINGS AND THOUGHTS</h1> + + <h5>IN</h5> + + <h2>AMERICA AND EUROPE.</h2> + + <h5>BY</h5> + + <h2>MARGARET FULLER OSSOLI</h2> + <h5>AUTHOR OF "WOMAN IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY," "ART, LITERATURE, + AND THE DRAMA," "LIFE WITHOUT AND LIFE WITHIN," ETC.</h5> + <p> </p> + <p class="center">Edited by her Brother</p> + <h4>ARTHUR B. FULLER.</h4> + <p> </p> + <h4>NEW AND COMPLETE EDITION.</h4> + + <h3>NEW YORK;<br /> + THE TRIBUNE ASSOCIATION.<br /> + 134 Nassau Street<br /> + 1869</h3> + + <p class="center">Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, by<br /> + ARTHUR B. FULLER,<br /> + In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.</p> + <hr /> + <p> </p> + <p> </p> + + <h2>PREFACE.</h2> + + <p>There are at least three classes of persons who travel in our + own land and abroad. The first and largest in number consists of + those who, "having eyes, see not, and ears, hear not," anything + which is profitable to be remembered. Crossing lake and ocean, + passing over the broad prairies of the New World or the classic + fields of the Old, though they look on the virgin soil sown + thickly with flowers by the hand of God, or on scenes memorable + in man's history, they gaze heedlessly, and when they return home + can but tell us what they ate and drank, and where + slept,—no more; for this and matters of like import are all + for which they have cared in their wanderings.</p> + + <p>Those composing the second class travel more intelligently. + They visit scrupulously all places which are noted either as the + homes of literature, the abodes of Art, or made classic by the + pens of ancient genius. Accurately do they mark the distance of + one famed city from another, the size and general appearance of + each; they see as many as possible of celebrated pictures and + works of art, and mark carefully dimensions, age, and all details + concerning them. Men, too, whom the world regards as great men, + whether because of wisdom, poesy, warlike <span class= + "pagenum"><a name="pageiv" id="pageiv"></a>[pg iv]</span> + achievements, or of wealth and station, they seek to take by the + hand and in some degree to know; at least to note their + appearance, demeanor, and mode of life. Writers belonging to this + class of travellers are not to be undervalued; returning home, + they can give much useful information, and tell much which all + wish to hear and know, though, as their narratives are chiefly + circumstantial, and every year circumstances change, such + recitals lessen constantly in value.</p> + + <p>But there is a third class of those who journey, who see + indeed the outward, and observe it well. They, too, seek + localities where Art and Genius dwell, or have painted on canvas + or sculptured in marble their memorials; they become acquainted + with the people, both famed and obscure, of the lands which they + visit and in which for a time they abide; their hearts throb as + they stand on places where great deeds have been done, with whose + dust perhaps is mingled the sacred ashes of men who fell in the + warfare for truth and freedom,—a warfare begun early in the + world's history, and not yet ended. But they do much <i>more</i> + than this. There is, though in a different sense from what + ancient Pagans fancied, a genius or guardian spirit of each + scene, each stream and lake and country, and this spirit is ever + speaking, but in a tone which only the attent ear of the noble + and gifted can hear, and in a language which such minds and + hearts only can understand. With vision which needs no miracle to + make it prophetic, they see the destinies which nations are + all-unconsciously shaping for themselves, and note the deep + meaning of passing events which only make others wonder. Beneath + the mask of mere externals, their eyes discern the character of + those whom they meet, and, refusing to accept popular judgment in + <span class="pagenum"><a name="pagev" id="pagev"></a>[pg + v]</span> place of truth, they see often the real relation which + men bear to their race and age, and observe the facts by which to + determine whether such men are great only because of + circumstances, or by the irresistible power of their own minds. + When such narrate their journeyings, we have what is valuable not + for a few years only, but, because of its philosophic and + suggestive spirit, what must always be useful.</p> + + <p>The reader of the following pages, it is believed, will decide + that Margaret Fuller deserves to rank with the latter class of + travellers, while not neglectful of those details which it is + well to learn and remember.</p> + + <p>Twelve years ago she journeyed, in company with several + friends, on the Lakes, and through some of the Western States. + Returning, she published a volume describing this journey, which + seems worthy of republication. It seems so because it rather + gives an idea of Western scenery and character, than enters into + guide-book statements which would be all erroneous now.</p> + + <p>Beside this, it is much a record of thoughts as well as + things, and those thoughts have lost none of their significance + now. It gives us also knowledge of Indian character, and + impressions respecting that much injured and fast vanishing race, + which justice to them makes it desirable should be remembered. + The friends of Madame Ossoli will be glad to make permanent this + additional proof of her sympathy with all the oppressed, no + matter whether that oppression find embodiment in the Indian or + the African, the American or the European.</p> + + <p>The second part of the present volume gives my sister's + impressions and observations during her European journey and + residence in Italy. This is done through letters, which + originally appeared in the New York Tribune <span class= + "pagenum"><a name="pagevi" id="pagevi"></a>[pg vi]</span> but + have never before been gathered into book form. There may be a + degree of incompleteness, sometimes perhaps inaccuracy, in these + letters, which are inseparable attendants upon letter-writing + during a journey or amid exciting and warlike scenes. None can + lament more than I that their writer lives not to revise them. + Some errors, too, were doubtless made in the original printing of + these letters, owing to her handwriting not being easily read by + those who were not familiar with it, and very probably some such + errors may have escaped my notice in the revision, especially as + many emendations must be conjectural, the original manuscript not + now existing.</p> + + <p>There is one fact, however, which gives this part of the + volume a high value. Madame Ossoli was in Rome during the most + eventful period of its modern history. She was almost the only + American who remained there during the Italian Revolution, and + the siege of the city. Her marriage with the Marquis Ossoli, who + was Captain of the Civic Guard and active in the republican + councils and army, and her own ardent love of freedom, and + sacrifices for it, brought her into immediate acquaintance with + the leaders in the revolutionary army, and made her cognizant of + their plans, their motives, and their characters. Unsuccessful + for a time as has been that struggle for freedom, it was yet a + noble one, and its true history should be known in this country + and in all lands, that justice may be done to those who + sacrificed much, some even life, in behalf of liberty. Her + peculiar fitness to write the history of this struggle is well + expressed by Mr. Greeley, in his Introduction to one of her + volumes recently published.<a id="footnotetaga" name= + "footnotetaga"></a><a href="#footnotea"><sup>A</sup></a> "Of + Italy's last struggle for liberty and light," <span class= + "pagenum"><a name="pagevii" id="pagevii"></a>[pg vii]</span> he + says, "she might not merely say, with the Grattan of Ireland's + kindred effort, half a century earlier, 'I stood by its cradle; I + followed its hearse.' She might fairly claim to have been a + portion of its incitement, its animation, its informing soul. She + bore more than a woman's part in its conflicts and its perils; + and the bombs of that ruthless army which a false and traitorous + government impelled against the ramparts of Republican Rome, + could have stilled no voice more eloquent in its exposures, no + heart more lofty in its defiance, of the villany which so + wantonly drowned in blood the hopes, while crushing the dearest + rights, of a people, than those of Margaret Fuller."</p> + + <p>Inadequate, indeed, are these letters as a memorial and + vindication of that struggle, in comparison with the history + which Madame Ossoli had written, and which perished with her; but + well do they deserve to be preserved, as the record of a + clear-minded and true-hearted eyewitness of, and participator in, + this effort to establish a new and better Roman Republic. In one + respect they have an interest higher than would the history. They + were written during the struggle, and show the fluctuations of + hope and despondency-which animated those most deeply interested. + I have thought it right to leave unchanged all expressions of her + opinion and feeling, even when it is evident from the letters + themselves that these were gradually somewhat modified by ensuing + events. Especially did this change occur in regard to the Pope, + whom she at first regarded, in common with all lovers of freedom + in this and other lands, with a hopefulness which was doomed to a + cruel disappointment. She was, however, never for a moment + deceived as to his character. His heart she believed kindly and + good; his intellect, of a low order; his views as to reform, + narrow, intending <span class="pagenum"><a name="pageviii" id= + "pageviii"></a>[pg viii]</span> only what is partial, temporary, + and alleviating, never a permanent, vital reform, which should + remove the cause of the ills on account of which his people + groaned. Really to elevate and free Italy, it was necessary to + remove the yoke of ecclesiastical and political thraldom; to do + this formed no part of his plans,—from his very nature he + was incapable of so great a purpose. The expression in her + letters of this opinion, when most people hoped better things, + was at first censured, as doing injustice to Pius IX.; but alas! + events proved the impulses of his heart to be in subjection to + the prejudices of his mind, and that mind to be weaker than even + she had deemed it, with views as narrow as she had feared.</p> + + <p>The third part of this volume contains some letters to + friends, which were never written for the public eye, but are + necessary to complete, as far as can now be done, the narrative + of her residence abroad. Some few of these have already appeared + in her "Memoirs," a work I cannot too warmly recommend to those + who would know my sister's character. Many more of her letters + may be there found, equally worthy of perusal, but not so + necessary to complete the history of events in Italy.</p> + + <p>The fourth part contains the details of that shipwreck which + caused mourning not only in the hearts of her kindred, but of the + many who knew and loved her. These, with some poems commemorative + of her character and eventful death, form a sad but fitting close + to a book which records her European journeyings, and her voyage + to a home which proved to be not in this land, where were waiting + warm hearts to bid her welcome, but one in a land yet freer, + better than this, where she can be no less loved by the angels, + by our Saviour, and the Infinite Father. <span class= + "pagenum"><a name="pageix" id="pageix"></a>[pg ix]</span> After + the copy for this volume had been sent to the press, it was found + necessary to omit some portions of the work in the republication, + as too much matter had been furnished for a volume of reasonable + size. The Editor made these omissions with much reluctance, but + the desire to bring a record of Madame Ossoli's journeyings + within the compass of one volume outweighed that reluctance. He + believes the omissions have been made in such a way as not + materially to diminish its value, especially as most which has + been omitted will find place in another volume he hopes soon to + issue, containing a portion of the miscellaneous writings of + Madame Ossoli.</p> + + <p>All of these omissions that are important occur in the Summer + on the Lakes, it being thought better to omit from a portion of + the work which had previously been before the public in book + form. The episodical nature of that work, too, enabled the Editor + to make omissions without in any way marring its unity. These + omissions, when other than mere verbal ones, consist of extracts + from books which she read in relation to the Indians; an account + of and translation from the Seeress of Prevorst, a German work + which had not then, but has since, been translated into English, + and republished in this country; a few extracts from letters and + poems sent to her by friends while she was in the West, one of + which poems has been since published elsewhere by its author; and + the story of Marianna, (a great portion of which may be found in + my sister's "Memoirs,") and also Lines to Edith, a short poem. + Marianna and Lines to Edith will probably be republished in + another volume. From the letters of Madame Ossoli in Parts II. + and III. no omissions have been made other than verbal, or when + pertaining to trifling incidents, <span class="pagenum"><a name= + "pagex" id="pagex"></a>[pg x]</span> having only a temporary + interest. Nothing in any portion of the book recording my + sister's own observations or opinions has been omitted or + changed. The reader, too, will notice that nothing affecting the + unity of the narrative is here wanting, the volume even gaining + in that respect by the omission of extracts from other writers, + and of a story and short poem not connected in any regard with + Western life.</p> + + <p>In conclusion, the Editor would express the sincere hope that + this volume may not only be of general interest, but inspire its + readers with an increased love of republican institutions, and an + earnest purpose to seek the removal of every national wrong which + hinders our beloved country from being a perfect example and + hearty helper of other nations in their struggles for liberty. + May it do something, also, to remove misapprehension of the + motives, character, and action of those noble patriots of Italy, + who strove, though for a time vainly, to make their country free, + and to deepen the sympathy which every true American should feel + with faithful men everywhere, who by art are seeking to refine, + by philanthropic exertion to elevate, by the diffusion of truth + to enlighten, or by self-sacrifice and earnest effort to free, + their fellow-men.</p> + + <p class="author">A.B.F.</p> + + <p>Boston, March 1, 1856.</p> + + <blockquote class="footnote"> + <a id="footnotea" name="footnotea"></a><b>Footnote A:</b> + <a href="#footnotetaga">(return)</a> + + <p>Introduction to Papers on Literature and Art, p. 8.</p> + </blockquote><br /> + <br /> + + <h2>CONTENTS.</h2> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>PART I.</p> + + <p>SUMMER ON THE LAKES <a href="#page1">1</a></p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"></div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>PART II.</p> + + <p>THINGS AND THOUGHTS IN EUROPE <a href= + "#page117">117</a></p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"></div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>PART III.</p> + + <p>LETTERS FROM ABROAD TO FRIENDS AT HOME <a href= + "#page423">423</a></p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"></div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>PART IV.</p> + + <p>HOMEWARD VOYAGE, AND MEMORIALS <a href= + "#page443">443</a></p> + </div> + </div> + + <p><i>[Transcriber's note: page number of Part IV. corrected from + page 441.]</i></p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page1" id= + "page1"></a>[pg 1]</span> + <p> </p> + <h2>PART I</h2> + + <h2>SUMMER ON THE LAKES.</h2><span class="pagenum"><a name= + "page2" id="page2"></a>[pg 2]</span> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>Summer days of busy leisure,</p> + + <p>Long summer days of dear-bought pleasure,</p> + + <p>You have done your teaching well;</p> + + <p>Had the scholar means to tell</p> + + <p>How grew the vine of bitter-sweet,</p> + + <p>What made the path for truant feet,</p> + + <p>Winter nights would quickly pass,</p> + + <p>Gazing on the magic glass</p> + + <p>O'er which the new-world shadows pass.</p> + + <p>But, in fault of wizard spell,</p> + + <p>Moderns their tale can only tell</p> + + <p>In dull words, with a poor reed</p> + + <p>Breaking at each time of need.</p> + + <p>Yet those to whom a hint suffices</p> + + <p>Mottoes find for all devices,</p> + + <p>See the knights behind their shields,</p> + + <p>Through dried grasses, blooming fields.</p> + </div> + </div> + <hr class="short" /> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>Some dried grass-tufts from the wide flowery field,</p> + + <p>A muscle-shell from the lone fairy shore,</p> + + <p>Some antlers from tall woods which never more</p> + + <p>To the wild deer a safe retreat can yield,</p> + + <p>An eagle's feather which adorned a Brave,</p> + + <p>Well-nigh the last of his despairing band,—</p> + + <p>For such slight gifts wilt thou extend thy hand</p> + + <p>When weary hours a brief refreshment crave?</p> + + <p>I give you what I can, not what I would</p> + + <p>If my small drinking-cup would hold a flood,</p> + + <p>As Scandinavia sung those must contain</p> + + <p>With which, the giants gods may entertain;</p> + + <p>In our dwarf day we drain few drops, and soon must thirst + again.</p> + </div> + </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="page3" id="page3"></a>[pg + 3]</span> + <p> </p> + <h3>CHAPTER I.</h3> + + <h4>NIAGARA.</h4> + + <p class="author">Niagara, June 10, 1843.</p> + + <p>Since you are to share with me such foot-notes as may be made + on the pages of my life during this summer's wanderings, I should + not be quite silent as to this magnificent prologue to the, as + yet, unknown drama. Yet I, like others, have little to say, where + the spectacle is, for once, great enough to fill the whole life, + and supersede thought, giving us only its own presence. "It is + good to be here," is the best, as the simplest, expression that + occurs to the mind.</p> + + <p>We have been here eight days, and I am quite willing to go + away. So great a sight soon satisfies, making us content with + itself, and with what is less than itself. Our desires, once + realized, haunt us again less readily. Having "lived one day," we + would depart, and become worthy to live another.</p> + + <p>We have not been fortunate in weather, for there cannot be too + much, or too warm sunlight for this scene, and the skies have + been lowering, with cold, unkind winds. My nerves, too much + braced up by such an atmosphere, do not well bear the continual + stress of sight and sound. For here there is no escape from the + weight of a perpetual creation; all other forms and motions come + and go, the tide rises and recedes, the wind, at its mightiest, + moves in gales and gusts, but here is really an incessant, an + indefatigable motion. Awake or asleep, there is no escape, still + this rushing round you and through you. It is in this way I have + most felt the grandeur,—somewhat eternal, if not + infinite.</p> + + <p>At times a secondary music rises; the cataract seems to seize + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page4" id="page4"></a>[pg + 4]</span> its own rhythm and sing it over again, so that the ear + and soul are roused by a double vibration. This is some effect of + the wind, causing echoes to the thundering anthem. It is very + sublime, giving the effect of a spiritual repetition through all + the spheres.</p> + + <p>When I first came, I felt nothing but a quiet satisfaction. I + found that drawings, the panorama, &c. had given me a clear + notion of the position and proportions of all objects here; I + knew where to look for everything, and everything looked as I + thought it would.</p> + + <p>Long ago, I was looking from a hill-side with a friend at one + of the finest sunsets that ever enriched, this world. A little + cowboy, trudging along, wondered what we could be gazing at. + After spying about some time, he found it could only be the + sunset, and looking, too, a moment, he said approvingly, "That + sun looks well enough"; a speech worthy of Shakespeare's Cloten, + or the infant Mercury, up to everything from the cradle, as you + please to take it.</p> + + <p>Even such a familiarity, worthy of Jonathan, our national + hero, in a prince's palace, or "stumping," as he boasts to have + done, "up the Vatican stairs, into the Pope's presence, in my old + boots," I felt here; it looks really <i>well enough</i>, I felt, + and was inclined, as you suggested, to give my approbation as to + the one object in the world that would not disappoint.</p> + + <p>But all great expression, which, on a superficial survey, + seems so easy as well as so simple, furnishes, after a while, to + the faithful observer, its own standard by which to appreciate + it. Daily these proportions widened and towered more and more + upon my sight, and I got, at last, a proper foreground for these + sublime distances. Before coming away, I think I really saw the + full wonder of the scene. After a while it so drew me into itself + as to inspire an undefined dread, such as I never knew before, + such as may be felt when death is about to usher us into a new + existence. The perpetual trampling of the waters seized my + senses. I felt that no other sound, however near, could be heard, + and would start and look behind me for a foe. I realized the + identity of that mood of nature in which these waters were poured + down with <span class="pagenum"><a name="page5" id= + "page5"></a>[pg 5]</span> such absorbing force, with that in + which the Indian was shaped on the same soil. For continually + upon my mind came, unsought and unwelcome, images, such as never + haunted it before, of naked savages stealing behind me with + uplifted tomahawks; again and again this illusion recurred, and + even after I had thought it over, and tried to shake it off, I + could not help starting and looking behind me.</p> + + <p>As picture, the falls can only be seen from the British side. + There they are seen in their veils, and at sufficient distance to + appreciate the magical effects of these, and the light and shade. + From the boat, as you cross, the effects and contrasts are more + melodramatic. On the road back from the whirlpool, we saw them as + a reduced picture with delight. But what I liked best was to sit + on Table Rock, close to the great fall. There all power of + observing details, all separate consciousness, was quite + lost.</p> + + <p>Once, just as I had seated myself there, a man came to take + his first look. He walked close up to the fall, and, after + looking at it a moment, with an air as if thinking how he could + best appropriate it to his own use, he spat into it.</p> + + <p>This trait seemed wholly worthy of an age whose love of + <i>utility</i> is such that the Prince Puckler Muskau suggests + the probability of men coming to put the bodies of their dead + parents in the fields to fertilize them, and of a country such as + Dickens has described; but these will not, I hope, be seen on the + historic page to be truly the age or truly the America. A little + leaven is leavening the whole mass for other bread.</p> + + <p>The whirlpool I like very much. It is seen to advantage after + the great falls; it is so sternly solemn. The river cannot look + more imperturbable, almost sullen in its marble green, than it + does just below the great fall; but the slight circles that mark + the hidden vortex seem to whisper mysteries the thundering voice + above could not proclaim,—a meaning as untold as ever.</p> + + <p>It is fearful, too, to know, as you look, that whatever has + been swallowed by the cataract is like to rise suddenly to light + here, whether uprooted tree, or body of man or + bird.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page6" id="page6"></a>[pg + 6]</span> + + <p>The rapids enchanted me far beyond what I expected; they are + so swift that they cease to seem so; you can think only of their + beauty. The fountain beyond the Moss Islands I discovered for + myself, and thought it for some time an accidental beauty which + it would not do to leave, lest I might never see it again. After + I found it permanent, I returned many times to watch the play of + its crest. In the little waterfall beyond, Nature seems, as she + often does, to have made a study for some larger design. She + delights in this,—a sketch within a sketch, a dream within + a dream. Wherever we see it, the lines of the great buttress in + the fragment of stone, the hues of the waterfall copied in the + flowers that star its bordering mosses, we are delighted; for all + the lineaments become fluent, and we mould the scene in congenial + thought with its genius.</p> + + <p>People complain of the buildings at Niagara, and fear to see + it further deformed. I cannot sympathize with such an + apprehension: the spectacle is capable of swallowing up all such + objects; they are not seen in the great whole, more than an + earthworm in a wide field.</p> + + <p>The beautiful wood on Goat Island is full of flowers; many of + the fairest love to do homage here. The Wake-robin and May-apple + are in bloom now; the former, white, pink, green, purple, copying + the rainbow of the fall, and fit to make a garland for its + presiding deity when he walks the land, for they are of imperial + size, and shaped like stones for a diadem. Of the May-apple, I + did not raise one green tent without finding a flower + beneath.</p> + + <p>And now farewell. Niagara. I have seen thee, and I think all + who come here must in some sort see thee; thou art not to be got + rid of as easily as the stars. I will be here again beneath some + flooding July moon and sun. Owing to the absence of light, I have + seen the rainbow only two or three times by day; the lunar bow + not at all. However, the imperial presence needs not its crown, + though illustrated by it.</p> + + <p>General Porter and Jack Downing were not unsuitable figures + here. The former heroically planted the bridges by which we cross + to Goat Island and the Wake-robin-crowned genius has <span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page7" id="page7"></a>[pg 7]</span> punished + his temerity with deafness, which must, I think, have come upon + him when he sunk the first stone in the rapids. Jack seemed an + acute and entertaining representative of Jonathan, come to look + at his great water-privilege. He told us all about the + Americanisms of the spectacle; that is to say, the battles that + have been fought here. It seems strange that men could fight in + such a place; but no temple can still the personal griefs and + strifes in the breasts of its visitors.</p> + + <p>No less strange is the fact that, in this neighborhood, an + eagle should be chained for a plaything. When a child, I used + often to stand at a window from which I could see an eagle + chained in the balcony of a museum. The people used to poke at it + with sticks, and my childish heart would swell with indignation + as I saw their insults, and the mien with which they were borne + by the monarch-bird. Its eye was dull, and its plumage soiled and + shabby, yet, in its form and attitude, all the king was visible, + though sorrowful and dethroned. I never saw another of the family + till, when passing through the Notch of the White Mountains, at + that moment glowing before us in all the panoply of sunset, the + driver shouted, "Look there!" and following with our eyes his + upward-pointing finger, we saw, soaring slow in majestic poise + above the highest summit, the bird of Jove. It was a glorious + sight, yet I know not that I felt more on seeing the bird in all + its natural freedom and royalty, than when, imprisoned and + insulted, he had filled my early thoughts with the Byronic + "silent rages" of misanthropy.</p> + + <p>Now, again, I saw him a captive, and addressed by the vulgar + with the language they seem to find most appropriate to such + occasions,—that of thrusts and blows. Silently, his head + averted, he ignored their existence, as Plotinus or Sophocles + might that of a modern reviewer. Probably he listened to the + voice of the cataract, and felt that congenial powers flowed + free, and was consoled, though his own wing was broken.</p> + + <p>The story of the Recluse of Niagara interested me a little. It + is wonderful that men do not oftener attach their lives to + localities of great beauty,—that, when once deeply + penetrated, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page8" id= + "page8"></a>[pg 8]</span> they will let themselves so easily be + borne away by the general stream of things, to live anywhere and + anyhow. But there is something ludicrous in being the hermit of a + show-place, unlike St. Francis in his mountain-bed, where none + but the stars and rising sun ever saw him.</p> + + <p>There is also a "guide to the falls," who wears his title + labelled on his hat; otherwise, indeed, one might as soon think + of asking for a gentleman usher to point out the moon. Yet why + should we wonder at such, when we have Commentaries on + Shakespeare, and Harmonies of the Gospels?</p> + + <p>And now you have the little all I have to write. Can it + interest you? To one who has enjoyed the full life of any scene, + of any hour, what thoughts can be recorded about it seem like the + commas and semicolons in the paragraph,—mere stops. Yet I + suppose it is not so to the absent. At least, I have read things + written about Niagara, music, and the like, that interested + <i>me</i>. Once I was moved by Mr. Greenwood's remark, that he + could not realize this marvel till, opening his eyes the next + morning after he had seen it, his doubt as to the possibility of + its being still there taught him what he had experienced. I + remember this now with pleasure, though, or because, it is + exactly the opposite to what I myself felt. For all greatness + affects different minds, each in "its own particular kind," and + the variations of testimony mark the truth of feeling.<a id= + "footnotetagb" name="footnotetagb"></a><a href= + "#footnoteb"><sup>B</sup></a></p> + + <p>I will here add a brief narrative of the experience of + another, as being much better than anything I could write, + because more simple and individual.</p> + + <p>"Now that I have left this 'Earth-wonder,' and the emotions it + excited are past, it seems not so much like profanation to + analyze my feelings, to recall minutely and accurately the effect + of this manifestation of the Eternal. But one should go to such a + scene <span class="pagenum"><a name="page9" id="page9"></a>[pg + 9]</span> prepared to yield entirely to its influences, to forget + one's little self and one's little mind. To see a miserable worm + creep to the brink of this falling world of waters, and watch the + trembling of its own petty bosom, and fancy that this is made + alone to act upon him excites—derision? + No,—pity."</p> + + <p>As I rode up to the neighborhood of the falls, a solemn awe + imperceptibly stole over me, and the deep sound of the + ever-hurrying rapids prepared my mind for the lofty emotions to + be experienced. When I reached the hotel, I felt a strange + indifference about seeing the aspiration of my life's hopes. I + lounged about the rooms, read the stage-bills upon the walls, + looked over the register, and, finding the name of an + acquaintance, sent to see if he was still there. What this + hesitation arose from, I know not; perhaps it was a feeling of my + unworthiness to enter this temple which nature has erected to its + God.</p> + + <p>At last, slowly and thoughtfully I walked down to the bridge + leading to Goat Island, and when I stood upon this frail support, + and saw a quarter of a mile of tumbling, rushing rapids, and + heard their everlasting roar, my emotions overpowered me, a + choking sensation rose to my throat, a thrill rushed through my + veins, "my blood ran rippling to my fingers' ends." This was the + climax of the effect which the falls produced upon + me,—neither the American nor the British fall moved me as + did these rapids. For the magnificence, the sublimity of the + latter, I was prepared by descriptions and by paintings. When I + arrived in sight of them I merely felt, "Ah, yes! here is the + fall, just as I have seen it in a picture." When I arrived at the + Terrapin Bridge, I expected to be overwhelmed, to retire + trembling from this giddy eminence, and gaze with unlimited + wonder and awe upon the immense mass rolling on and on; but, + somehow or other, I thought only of comparing the effect on my + mind with what I had read and heard. I looked for a short time, + and then, with almost a feeling of disappointment, turned to go + to the other points of view, to see if I was not mistaken in not + feeling any surpassing emotion at this sight. But from the foot + of Biddle's Stairs, and the middle of the river, and from below + the Table Rock, it was still "barren, barren + all."</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page10" id= + "page10"></a>[pg 10]</span> + + <p>Provoked with my stupidity in feeling most moved in the wrong + place, I turned away to the hotel, determined to set off for + Buffalo that afternoon. But the stage did not go, and, after + nightfall, as there was a splendid moon, I went down to the + bridge, and leaned over the parapet, where the boiling rapids + came down in their might. It was grand, and it was also gorgeous; + the yellow rays of the moon made the broken waves appear like + auburn tresses twining around the black rocks. But they did not + inspire me as before. I felt a foreboding of a mightier emotion + to rise up and swallow all others, and I passed on to the + Terrapin Bridge. Everything was changed, the misty apparition had + taken off its many-colored crown which it had worn by day, and a + bow of silvery white spanned its summit. The moonlight gave a + poetical indefiniteness to the distant parts of the waters, and + while the rapids were glancing in her beams, the river below the + falls was black as night, save where the reflection of the sky + gave it the appearance of a shield of blued steel. No gaping + tourists loitered, eyeing with their glasses, or sketching on + cards the hoary locks of the ancient river-god. All tended to + harmonize with the natural grandeur of the scene. I gazed long. I + saw how here mutability and unchangeableness were united. I + surveyed the conspiring waters rushing against the rocky ledge to + overthrow it at one mad plunge, till, like toppling ambition, + o'er-leaping themselves, they fall on t' other side, expanding + into foam ere they reach the deep channel where they creep + submissively away.</p> + + <p>Then arose in my breast a genuine admiration, and a humble + adoration of the Being who was the architect of this and of all. + Happy were the first discoverers of Niagara, those who could come + unawares upon this view and upon that, whose feelings were + entirely their own. With what gusto does Father Hennepin describe + "this great downfall of water," "this vast and prodigious cadence + of water, which falls down after a surprising and astonishing + manner, insomuch that the universe does not afford its parallel. + 'T is true Italy and Swedeland boast of some such things, but we + may well say that they be sorry patterns when compared with this + of which we do now speak."</p> + + <blockquote class="footnote"> + <a id="footnoteb" name="footnoteb"></a><b>Footnote B:</b> + <a href="#footnotetagb">(return)</a> + + <p>"Somewhat avails, in one regard, the mere sight of beauty + without the union of feeling therewith. Carried away in memory, + it hangs there in the lonely hall as a picture, and may some + time do its message. I trust it may be so in my case, for I + <i>saw</i> every object far more clearly than if I had been + moved and filled with the presence, and my recollections are + equally distinct and vivid." Extracted from Manuscript Notes of + this Journey left by Margaret Fuller.—ED.</p> + </blockquote><span class="pagenum"><a name="page11" id= + "page11"></a>[pg 11]</span> + <p> </p> + <h3>CHAPTER II.</h3> + + <h4>THE LAKES.—CHICAGO.—GENEVA.—A + THUNDER-STORM.—PAPAW GROVE.</h4> + + <p>SCENE, STEAMBOAT.—<i>About to leave + Buffalo.—Baggage coming on board.—Passengers bustling + for their berths.—Little boys persecuting everybody with + their newspapers and pamphlets.—J., S., and M. huddled up + in a forlorn corner, behind a large trunk.—A heavy rain + falling.</i></p> + + <p><i>M.</i> Water, water everywhere. After Niagara one would + like a dry strip of existence. And at any rate it is quite enough + for me to have it under foot without having it overhead in this + way.</p> + + <p><i>J.</i> Ah, do not abuse the gentle element. It is hardly + possible to have too much of it, and indeed, if I were obliged to + choose amid the four, it would be the one in which I could bear + confinement best.</p> + + <p><i>S.</i> You would make a pretty Undine, to be sure!</p> + + <p><i>J.</i> Nay. I only offered myself as a Triton, a boisterous + Triton of the sounding shell. You, M., I suppose, would be a + salamander, rather.</p> + + <p><i>M.</i> No! that is too equivocal a position, whether in + modern mythology, or Hoffman's tales. I should choose to be a + gnome.</p> + + <p><i>J.</i> That choice savors of the pride that apes + humility.</p> + + <p><i>M.</i> By no means; the gnomes are the most important of + all the elemental tribes. Is it not they who make the money?</p> + + <p><i>J.</i> And are accordingly a dark, mean, scoffing + ——</p> + + <p><i>M.</i> You talk as if you had always lived in that wild, + unprofitable element you are so fond of, where all things + glitter, and nothing is gold; all show and no substance. My + people work in the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page12" id= + "page12"></a>[pg 12]</span> secret, and their works praise them + in the open light; they remain in the dark because only there + such marvels could be bred. You call them mean. They do not spend + their energies on their own growth, or their own play, but to + feed the veins of Mother Earth with permanent splendors, very + different from what she shows on the surface.</p> + + <p>Think of passing a life, not merely in heaping together, but + <i>making</i> gold. Of all dreams, that of the alchemist is the + most poetical, for he looked at the finest symbol. "Gold," says + one of our friends, "is the hidden light of the earth, it crowns + the mineral, as wine the vegetable order, being the last + expression of vital energy."</p> + + <p><i>J.</i> Have you paid for your passage?</p> + + <p><i>J.</i> Yes! and in gold, not in shells or pebbles.</p> + + <p><i>J.</i> No really wise gnome would scoff at the water, the + beautiful water. "The spirit of man is like the water."</p> + + <p><i>S.</i> And like the air and fire, no less.</p> + + <p><i>J.</i> Yes, but not like the earth, this low-minded + creature's chosen, dwelling.</p> + + <p><i>M.</i> The earth is spirit made fruitful,—life. And + its heartbeats are told in gold and wine.</p> + + <p><i>J.</i> Oh! it is shocking to hear such sentiments in these + times. I thought that Bacchic energy of yours was long since + repressed.</p> + + <p><i>M.</i> No! I have only learned to mix water with my wine, + and stamp upon my gold the heads of kings, or the hieroglyphics + of worship. But since I have learnt to mix with water, let's hear + what you have to say in praise of your favorite.</p> + + <p><i>J.</i> From water Venus was born, what more would you have? + It is the mother of Beauty, the girdle of earth, and the marriage + of nations.</p> + + <p><i>S.</i> Without any of that high-flown poetry, it is enough, + I think, that it is the great artist, turning all objects that + approach it to picture.</p> + + <p><i>J.</i> True, no object that touches it, whether it be the + cart that ploughs the wave for sea-weed, or the boat or plank + that rides upon it, but is brought at once from the demesne of + coarse utilities <span class="pagenum"><a name="page13" id= + "page13"></a>[pg 13]</span> into that of picture. All trades, all + callings, become picturesque by the water's side, or on the + water. The soil, the slovenliness, is washed out of every calling + by its touch. All river-crafts, sea-crafts, are picturesque, are + poetical. Their very slang is poetry.</p> + + <p><i>M.</i> The reasons for that are complex.</p> + + <p><i>J.</i> The reason is, that there can be no plodding, + groping words and motions on my water as there are on your earth. + There is no time, no chance for them where all moves so rapidly, + though so smoothly; everything connected with water must be like + itself, forcible, but clear. That is why sea-slang is so + poetical; there is a word for everything and every act, and a + thing and an act for every word. Seamen must speak quick and + bold, but also with utmost precision. They cannot reef and brace + other than in a Homeric dialect,—therefore—(Steamboat + bell rings.) But I must say a quick good-by.</p> + + <p><i>M.</i> What, going, going back to earth after all this talk + upon the other side. Well, that is nowise Homeric, but truly + modern.</p> + + <p>J. is borne off without time for any reply, but a + laugh—at himself, of course.</p> + + <p>S. and M. retire to their state-rooms to forget the wet, the + chill, and steamboat smell, in their just-bought new world of + novels.</p> + + <p>Next day, when we stopped at Cleveland, the storm was just + clearing up; ascending the bluff, we had one of the finest views + of the lake that could have been wished. The varying depths of + these lakes give to their surface a great variety of coloring, + and beneath this wild sky and changeful light, the waters + presented a kaleidoscopic variety of hues, rich, but mournful. I + admire these bluffs of red, crumbling earth. Here land and water + meet under very different auspices from those of the rock-bound + coast to which I have been accustomed. There they meet tenderly + to challenge, and proudly to refuse, though, not in fact repel. + But here they meet to mingle, are always rushing together, and + changing places; a new creation takes place beneath the eye.</p> + + <p>The weather grew gradually clearer, but not bright; yet we + could see the shore and appreciate the extent of these noble + waters.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page14" id= + "page14"></a>[pg 14]</span> + + <p>Coming up the river St. Clair, we saw Indians for the first + time. They were camped out on the bank. It was twilight, and + their blanketed forms, in listless groups or stealing along the + bank, with a lounge and a stride so different in its wildness + from the rudeness of the white settler, gave me the first feeling + that I really approached the West.</p> + + <p>The people on the boat were almost all New-Englanders, seeking + their fortunes. They had brought with them their habits of + calculation, their cautious manners, their love of polemics. It + grieved me to hear these immigrants, who were to be the fathers + of a new race, all, from the old man down to the little girl, + talking, not of what they should do, but of what they should get + in the new scene. It was to them a prospect, not of the unfolding + nobler energies, but of more ease and larger accumulation. It + wearied me, too, to hear Trinity and Unity discussed in the poor, + narrow, doctrinal way on these free waters; but that will soon + cease; there is not time for this clash of opinions in the West, + where the clash of material interests is so noisy. They will need + the spirit of religion more than ever to guide them, but will + find less time than before for its doctrine. This change was to + me, who am tired of the war of words on these subjects, and + believe it only sows the wind to reap the whirlwind, refreshing, + but I argue nothing from it; there is nothing real in the freedom + of thought at the West,—it is from the position of men's + lives, not the state of their minds. So soon as they have time, + unless they grow better meanwhile, they will cavil and criticise, + and judge other men by their own standard, and outrage the law of + love every way, just as they do with us.</p> + + <p>We reached Mackinaw the evening of the third day, but, to my + great disappointment, it was too late and too rainy to go ashore. + The beauty of the island, though seen under the most unfavorable + circumstances, did not disappoint my expectations.<a id= + "footnotetagc" name="footnotetagc"></a><a href= + "#footnotec"><sup>C</sup></a> But I shall see it to more purpose + on my return.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page15" id= + "page15"></a>[pg 15]</span> + + <p>As the day has passed dully, a cold rain preventing us from + keeping out in the air, my thoughts have been dwelling on a story + told when we were off Detroit, this morning, by a + fellow-passenger, and whose moral beauty touched me + profoundly.</p> + + <p>"Some years ago," said Mrs. L., "my father and mother stopped + to dine at Detroit. A short time before dinner my father met in + the hall Captain P., a friend of his youthful days. He had loved + P. extremely, as did many who knew him, and had not been + surprised to hear of the distinction and popular esteem which his + wide knowledge, talents, and noble temper commanded, as he went + onward in the world. P. was every way fitted to succeed; his aims + were high, but not too high for his powers, suggested by an + instinct of his own capacities, not by an ideal standard drawn + from culture. Though steadfast in his course, it was not to + overrun others; his wise self-possession was no less for them + than himself. He was thoroughly the gentleman, gentle because + manly, and was a striking instance that, where there is strength + for sincere courtesy, there is no need of other adaptation to the + character of others, to make one's way freely and gracefully + through the crowd.</p> + + <p>"My father was delighted to see him, and after a short parley + in the hall, 'We will dine together,' he cried, 'then we shall + have time to tell all our stories.'</p> + + <p>"P. hesitated a moment, then said, 'My wife is with me.'</p> + + <p>"'And mine with me,' said my father; 'that's well; they, too, + will have an opportunity of getting acquainted, and can entertain + one another, if they get tired of our college stories.'</p> + + <p>"P. acquiesced, with a grave bow, and shortly after they all + met in the dining-room. My father was much surprised at the + appearance of Mrs. P. He had heard that his friend married + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page16" id="page16"></a>[pg + 16]</span> abroad, but nothing further, and he was not prepared + to see the calm, dignified P. with a woman on his arm, still + handsome, indeed, but whose coarse and imperious expression + showed as low habits of mind as her exaggerated dress and gesture + did of education. Nor could there be a greater contrast to my + mother, who, though understanding her claims and place with the + certainty of a lady, was soft and retiring in an uncommon + degree.</p> + + <p>"However, there was no time to wonder or fancy; they sat down, + and P. engaged in conversation, without much vivacity, but with + his usual ease. The first quarter of an hour passed well enough. + But soon it was observable that Mrs. P. was drinking glass after + glass of wine, to an extent few gentlemen did, even then, and + soon that she was actually excited by it. Before this, her manner + had been brusque, if not contemptuous, towards her new + acquaintance; now it became, towards my mother especially, quite + rude. Presently she took up some slight remark made by my mother, + which, though, it did not naturally mean anything of the sort, + could be twisted into some reflection upon England, and made it a + handle, first of vulgar sarcasm, and then, upon my mother's + defending herself with some surprise and gentle dignity, hurled + upon her a volley of abuse, beyond Billingsgate.</p> + + <p>"My mother, confounded by scenes and ideas presented to her + mind equally new and painful, sat trembling; she knew not what to + do; tears rushed into her eyes. My father, no less distressed, + yet unwilling to outrage the feelings of his friend by doing or + saying what his indignation prompted, turned an appealing look on + P.</p> + + <p>"Never, as he often said, was the painful expression of that + sight effaced from his mind. It haunted his dreams and disturbed + his waking thoughts. P. sat with his head bent forward, and his + eyes cast down, pale, but calm, with a fixed expression, not + merely of patient woe, but of patient shame, which it would not + have been thought possible for that noble countenance to wear. + 'Yet,' said my father, 'it became him. At other times he was + handsome, but then beautiful, though of a beauty saddened and + abashed. For a spiritual light borrowed from the worldly + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page17" id="page17"></a>[pg + 17]</span> perfection of his mien that illustration by contrast, + which the penitence of the Magdalen does from the glowing + earthliness of her charms.'</p> + + <p>"Seeing that he preserved silence, while Mrs. P. grew still + more exasperated, my father rose and led his wife to her own + room. Half an hour had passed, in painful and wondering surmises, + when a gentle knock was heard at the door, and P. entered + equipped for a journey. 'We are just going,' he said, and holding + out his hand, but without looking at them, 'Forgive.'</p> + + <p>"They each took his hand, and silently pressed it; then he + went without a word more.</p> + + <p>"Some time passed, and they heard now and then of P., as he + passed from one army station to another, with his uncongenial + companion, who became, it was said, constantly more degraded. + Whoever mentioned having seen them wondered at the chance which + had yoked him to such a woman, but yet more at the silent + fortitude with which he bore it. Many blamed him for enduring it, + apparently without efforts to check her; others answered that he + had probably made such at an earlier period, and, finding them + unavailing, had resigned himself to despair, and was too delicate + to meet the scandal that, with such resistance as such a woman + could offer, must attend a formal separation.</p> + + <p>"But my father, who was not in such haste to come to + conclusions, and substitute some plausible explanation for the + truth, found something in the look of P. at that trying moment to + which, none of these explanations offered a key. There was in it, + he felt, a fortitude, but not the fortitude of the hero; a + religious submission, above the penitent, if not enkindled with + the enthusiasm, of the martyr.</p> + + <p>"I have said that my father was not one of those who are ready + to substitute specious explanations for truth, and those who are + thus abstinent rarely lay their hand, on a thread without making + it a clew. Such a man, like the dexterous weaver, lets not one + color go till Ire finds that which matches it in the + pattern,—he keeps on weaving, but chooses his shades; and + my father found at last what he wanted to make out the pattern + for himself. He met <span class="pagenum"><a name="page18" id= + "page18"></a>[pg 18]</span> a lady who had been intimate with + both himself and P. in early days, and, finding she had seen the + latter abroad, asked if she knew the circumstances of the + marriage.</p> + + <p>"'The circumstances of the act which sealed the misery of our + friend, I know,' she said, 'though as much in the dark as any one + about the motives that led to it.</p> + + <p>"'We were quite intimate with P. in London, and he was our + most delightful companion. He was then in the full flower of the + varied accomplishments which set off his fine manners and + dignified character, joined, towards those he loved, with a + certain soft willingness which gives the desirable chivalry to a + man. None was more clear of choice where his personal affections + were not touched, but where they were, it cost him pain to say + no, on the slightest occasion. I have thought this must have had + some connection with the mystery of his misfortunes.</p> + + <p>"'One day he called on me, and, without any preface, asked if + I would be present next day at his marriage. I was so surprised, + and so unpleasantly surprised, that I did not at first answer a + word. We had been on terms so familiar, that I thought I knew all + about him, yet had never dreamed of his having an attachment; + and, though I had never inquired on the subject, yet this reserve + where perfect openness had been supposed, and really, on my side, + existed, seemed to me a kind of treachery. Then it is never + pleasant to know that a heart on which we have some claim is to + be given to another. We cannot tell how it will affect our own + relations with a person; it may strengthen or it may swallow up + other affections; the crisis is hazardous, and our first thought, + on such an occasion, is too often for ourselves,—at least + mine was. Seeing me silent, he repeated his question. "To whom," + said I, "are you to be married?" "That," he replied, "I cannot + tell you." He was a moment silent, then continued, with an + impassive look of cold self-possession, that affected me with + strange sadness: "The name of the person you will hear, of + course, at the time, but more I cannot tell you. I need, however, + the presence, not only of legal, but of respectable and friendly + witnesses. I have hoped you and your husband <span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page19" id="page19"></a>[pg 19]</span> would, + do me this kindness. Will you?" Something in his manner made it + impossible to refuse. I answered, before I knew I was going to + speak, "We will," and he left me.</p> + + <p>"'I will not weary you with telling how I harassed myself and + my husband, who was, however, scarce less interested, with doubts + and conjectures. Suffice it that, next morning, P. came and took + us in a carriage to a distant church. We had just entered the + porch, when a cart, such as fruit and vegetables are brought to + market in, drove up, containing an elderly woman and a young + girl. P. assisted them to alight, and advanced with the girl to + the altar.</p> + + <p>"'The girl was neatly dressed and quite handsome, yet + something in her expression displeased me the moment I looked + upon her. Meanwhile, the ceremony was going on, and, at its + close, P. introduced us to the bride, and we all went to the + door. "Good by, Fanny," said the elderly woman. The new-made Mrs. + P. replied without any token of affection or emotion. The woman + got into the cart and drove away.</p> + + <p>"'From that time I saw but little of P. or his wife. I took + our mutual friends to see her, and they were civil to her for his + sake. Curiosity was very much excited, but entirely baffled; no + one, of course, dared speak to P. on the subject, and no other + means could be found of solving the riddle.</p> + + <p>"'He treated his wife with grave and kind politeness, but it + was always obvious that they had nothing in common between them. + Her manners and tastes were not at that time gross, but her + character showed itself hard and material. She was fond of + riding, and spent much time so. Her style in this, and in dress, + seemed the opposite of P.'s; but he indulged all her wishes, + while, for himself, he plunged into his own pursuits.</p> + + <p>"'For a time he seemed, if not happy, not positively unhappy; + but, after a few years, Mrs. P. fell into the habit of drinking, + and then such scenes as you witnessed grew frequent. I have often + heard of them, and always that P. sat, as you describe him, his + head bowed down and perfectly silent all through, whatever might + be done or whoever be present, and always his aspect has inspired + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page20" id="page20"></a>[pg + 20]</span> such sympathy that no person has questioned him or + resented her insults, but merely got out of the way as soon as + possible.'</p> + + <p>"'Hard and long penance,' said my father, after some minutes + musing, 'for an hour of passion, probably for his only + error.'</p> + + <p>"'Is that your explanation?' said the lady. 'O, improbable! P. + might err, but not be led beyond himself.'</p> + + <p>"I know that his cool, gray eye and calm complexion seemed to + say so, but a different story is told by the lip that could + tremble, and showed what flashes might pierce those deep blue + heavens; and when these over-intellectual beings do swerve aside, + it is to fall down a precipice, for their narrow path lies over + such. But he was not one to sin without making a brave atonement, + and that it had become a holy one, was written on that downcast + brow."</p> + + <p>The fourth day on these waters, the weather was milder and + brighter, so that we could now see them to some purpose. At night + the moon was clear, and, for the first time, from, the upper deck + I saw one of the great steamboats come majestically up. It was + glowing with lights, looking many-eyed and sagacious; in its + heavy motion it seemed a dowager queen, and this motion, with its + solemn pulse, and determined sweep, becomes these smooth waters, + especially at night, as much as the dip of the sail-ship the long + billows of the ocean.</p> + + <p>But it was not so soon that I learned to appreciate the lake + scenery; it was only after a daily and careless familiarity that + I entered into its beauty, for Nature always refuses to be seen + by being stared at. Like Bonaparte, she discharges her face of + all expression when she catches the eye of impertinent curiosity + fixed on her. But he who has gone to sleep in childish ease on + her lap, or leaned an aching brow upon her breast, seeking there + comfort with full trust as from a mother, will see all a mother's + beauty in the look she bends upon him. Later, I felt that I had + really seen these regions, and shall speak of them again.</p> + + <p>In the afternoon we went on shore at the Manitou Islands, + where the boat stops to wood. No one lives here except + wood-cutters for the steamboats. I had thought of such a + position, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page21" id= + "page21"></a>[pg 21]</span> from its mixture of profound solitude + with service to the great world, as possessing an ideal beauty. I + think so still, even after seeing the wood-cutters and their + slovenly huts.</p> + + <p>In times of slower growth, man did not enter a situation + without a certain preparation or adaptedness to it. He drew from + it, if not to the poetical extent, at least in some proportion, + its moral and its meaning. The wood-cutter did not cut down so + many trees a day, that the Hamadryads had not time to make their + plaints heard; the shepherd tended his sheep, and did no jobs or + chores the while; the idyl had a chance to grow up, and modulate + his oaten pipe. But now the poet must be at the whole expense of + the poetry in describing one of these positions; the worker is a + true Midas to the gold he makes. The poet must describe, as the + painter sketches Irish peasant-girls and Danish fishwives, adding + the beauty, and leaving out the dirt.</p> + + <p>I come to the West prepared for the distaste I must experience + at its mushroom growth. I know that, where "go ahead" is tire + only motto, the village cannot grow into the gentle proportions + that successive lives and the gradations of experience + involuntarily give. In older countries the house of the son grew + from that of the father, as naturally as new joints on a bough, + and the cathedral crowned the whole as naturally as the leafy + summit the tree. This cannot be here. The march of peaceful is + scarce less wanton than that of warlike invasion. The old + landmarks are broken down, and the land, for a season, bears + none, except of the rudeness of conquest and the needs of the + day, whose bivouac-fires blacken the sweetest forest glades. I + have come prepared to see all this, to dislike it, but not with + stupid narrowness to distrust or defame. On the contrary, while I + will not be so obliging as to confound ugliness with beauty, + discord with harmony, and laud and be contented with all I meet, + when it conflicts with my best desires and tastes, I trust by + reverent faith to woo the mighty meaning of the scene, perhaps to + foresee the law by which a new order, a new poetry, is to be + evoked from this chaos, and with a curiosity as ardent, but not + so selfish, as that of Macbeth, to call up the apparitions of + future kings from the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page22" id= + "page22"></a>[pg 22]</span> strange ingredients of the witch's + caldron. Thus I will not grieve that all the noble trees are gone + already from this island to feed this caldron, but believe it + will have Medea's virtue, and reproduce them in the form of new + intellectual growths, since centuries cannot again adorn the land + with such as have been removed.</p> + + <p>On this most beautiful beach of smooth white pebbles, + interspersed with agates and cornelians for those who know how to + find them, we stepped, not like the Indian, with some humble + offering, which, if no better than an arrow-head or a little + parched corn, would, he judged, please the Manitou, who looks + only at the spirit in which it is offered. Our visit was so far + for a religious purpose that one of our party went to inquire the + fate of some Unitarian tracts left among the wood-cutters a year + or two before. But the old Manitou, though, daunted like his + children by the approach of the fire-ships, which he probably + considered demons of a new dynasty, he had suffered his woods to + be felled to feed their pride, had been less patient of an + encroachment which did not to him seem so authorized by the law + of the strongest, and had scattered those leaves as carelessly as + the others of that year.</p> + + <p>But S. and I, like other emigrants, went, not to give, but to + get, to rifle the wood of flowers for the service of the + fire-ship. We returned with a rich booty, among which was the + <i>Uva-ursi</i>, whose leaves the Indians smoke, with the + <i>Kinnikinnik</i>, and which had then just put forth its highly + finished little blossoms, as pretty as those of the + blueberry.</p> + + <p>Passing along still further, I thought it would be well if the + crowds assembled to stare from the various landings were still + confined to the <i>Kinnikinnik</i>, for almost all had tobacco + written on their faces, their cheeks rounded with plugs, their + eyes dull with its fumes. We reached Chicago on the evening of + the sixth day, having been out five days and a half, a rather + longer passage than usual at a favorable season of the year.</p> + + <p class="author">Chicago, June 20.</p> + + <p>There can be no two places in the world more completely + thoroughfares than this place and Buffalo. They are the two + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page23" id="page23"></a>[pg + 23]</span> correspondent valves that open and shut all the time, + as the life-blood rushes from east to west, and back again from + west to east.</p> + + <p>Since it is their office thus to be the doors, and let in and + out, it would be unfair to expect from them much character of + their own. To make the best provisions for the transmission of + produce is their office, and the people who live there are such + as are suited for this,—active, complaisant, inventive, + business people. There are no provisions for the student or + idler; to know what the place can give, you should be at work + with the rest; the mere traveller will not find it profitable to + loiter there as I did.</p> + + <p>Since circumstances made it necessary for me so to do, I read + all the books I could find about the new region, which now began, + to become real to me. Especially I read all the books about the + Indians,—a paltry collection truly, yet which furnished + material for many thoughts. The most narrow-minded and awkward + recital still bears some lineaments of the great features of this + nature, and the races of men that illustrated them.</p> + + <p>Catlin's book is far the best. I was afterwards assured by + those acquainted with the regions he describes, that he is not to + be depended on for the accuracy of his facts, and indeed it is + obvious, without the aid of such assertions, that he sometimes + yields to the temptation of making out a story. They admitted, + however, what from my feelings I was sure of, that he is true to + the spirit of the scene, and that a far better view can be got + from him than from any source at present existing, of the Indian + tribes of the Far West, and of the country where their + inheritance lay.</p> + + <p>Murray's Travels I read, and was charmed by their accuracy and + clear, broad tone. He is the only Englishman that seems to have + traversed these regions as man simply, not as John Bull. He + deserves to belong to an aristocracy, for he showed his title to + it more when left without a guide in the wilderness, than he can + at the court of Victoria. He has; himself, no poetic force at + description, but it is easy to make images from his hints. Yet we + believe the Indian cannot be locked at truly except by a poetic + eye. The Pawnees, no doubt, are such as he describes them, filthy + in their habits, and treacherous in their character, but some + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page24" id="page24"></a>[pg + 24]</span> would have seen, and seen truly, more beauty and + dignity than he does with all his manliness and fairness of mind. + However, his one fine old man is enough to redeem the rest, and + is perhaps tire relic of a better day, a Phocion among the + Pawnees.</p> + + <p>Schoolcraft's Algic Researches is a valuable book, though a + worse use could hardly have been made of such fine material. Had + the mythological or hunting stories of the Indians been written + down exactly as they were received from the lips of the + narrators, the collection could not have been surpassed in + interest? both for the wild charm they carry with them, and the + light they throw on a peculiar modification of life and mind. As + it is, though the incidents have an air of originality and + pertinence to the occasion, that gives us confidence that they + have not been altered, the phraseology in which they were + expressed has been entirely set aside, and the flimsy graces, + common to the style of annuals and souvenirs, substituted for the + Spartan brevity and sinewy grasp of Indian speech. We can just + guess what might have been there, as we can detect the fine + proportions of the Brave whom the bad taste of some white patron + has arranged in frock-coat, hat, and pantaloons.</p> + + <p>The few stories Mrs. Jameson wrote out, though to these also a + sentimental air has been given, offend much less in that way than + is common in this book. What would we not give for a completely + faithful version of some among them! Yet, with all these + drawbacks, we cannot doubt from internal evidence that they truly + ascribe to the Indian a delicacy of sentiment and of fancy that + justifies Cooper in such inventions as his Uncas. It is a white + man's view of a savage hero, who would be far finer in his + natural proportions; still, through a masquerade figure, it + implies the truth.</p> + + <p>Irving's books I also read, some for the first, some for the + second time, with increased interest, now that I was to meet such + people as he received his materials from. Though the books are + pleasing from, their grace and luminous arrangement, yet, with + the exception of the Tour to the Prairies, they have a + stereotype, second-hand air. They lack the breath, the glow, the + charming minute <span class="pagenum"><a name="page25" id= + "page25"></a>[pg 25]</span> traits of living presence. His + scenery is only fit to be glanced at from, dioramic distance; his + Indians are academic figures only. He would have made the best of + pictures, if he could have used his own eyes for studies and + sketches; as it is, his success is wonderful, but inadequate.</p> + + <p>McKenney's Tour to the Lakes is the dullest of books, yet + faithful and quiet, and gives some facts not to be met with + everywhere.</p> + + <p>I also read a collection of Indian anecdotes and speeches, the + worst compiled and arranged book possible, yet not without clews + of some value. All these books I read in anticipation of a + canoe-voyage on Lake Superior as far as the Pictured Rocks, and, + though I was afterwards compelled to give up this project, they + aided me in judging of what I subsequently saw and heard of the + Indians.</p> + + <p>In Chicago I first saw the beautiful prairie-flowers. They + were in their glory the first ten days we were there,—</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"The golden and the flame-like flowers."</p> + </div> + </div> + + <p>The flame-like flower I was taught afterwards, by an Indian + girl, to call "Wickapee"; and she told me, too, that its + splendors had a useful side, for it was used by the Indians as a + remedy for an illness to which they were subject.</p> + + <p>Beside these brilliant flowers, which gemmed and gilt the + grass in a sunny afternoon's drive near the blue lake, between + the low oak-wood and the narrow beach, stimulated, whether + sensuously by the optic nerve, unused to so much gold and crimson + with such tender green, or symbolically through some meaning + dimly seen in the flowers, I enjoyed a sort of fairy-land + exultation never felt before, and the first drive amid the + flowers gave me anticipation of the beauty of the prairies.</p> + + <p>At first, the prairie seemed to speak of the very desolation + of dulness. After sweeping over the vast monotony of the lakes to + come to this monotony of land, with all around a limitless + horizon,—to walk, and walk, and run, but never climb, oh! + it was too dreary for any but a Hollander to bear. How the eye + greeted <span class="pagenum"><a name="page26" id= + "page26"></a>[pg 26]</span> the approach of a sail, or the smoke + of a steamboat; it seemed that anything so animated must come + from a better land, where mountains gave religion to the + scene.</p> + + <p>The only thing I liked at first to do was to trace with slow + and unexpecting step the narrow margin of the lake. Sometimes a + heavy swell gave it expression; at others, only its varied + coloring, which I found more admirable every day, and which gave + it an air of mirage instead of the vastness of ocean. Then there + was a grandeur in the feeling that I might continue that walk, if + I had any seven-leagued mode of conveyance to save fatigue, for + hundreds of miles without an obstacle and without a change.</p> + + <p>But after I had ridden out, and seen the flowers, and observed + the sun set with that calmness seen only in the prairies, and + tire cattle winding slowly to their homes in the "island + groves,"—most peaceful of sights,—I began to love, + because I began to know tire scene, and shrank no longer from + "the encircling vastness."</p> + + <p>It is always thus with the new form of life; we must learn to + look at it by its own standard. At first, no doubt, my accustomed + eye kept saying, if the mind did not, What! no distant mountains? + What! no valleys? But after a while I would ascend the roof of + the house where we lived, and pass many hours, needing no sight + but the moon reigning in the heavens, or starlight falling upon + the lake, till all the lights were out in the island grove of men + beneath my feet, and felt nearer heaven that there was nothing + but this lovely, still reception on the earth; no towering + mountains, no deep tree-shadows, nothing but plain earth and + water bathed in light.</p> + + <p>Sunset, as seen from that place, presented most generally, + low-lying, flaky clouds, of the softest serenity.</p> + + <p>One night a star "shot madly from, its sphere," and it had a + fair chance to be seen, but that serenity could not be + astonished.</p> + + <p>Yes! it was a peculiar beauty, that of those sunsets and + moonlights on the levels of Chicago, which Chamouny or the + Trosachs could not make me forget.<a id="footnotetagd" name= + "footnotetagd"></a><a href= + "#footnoted"><sup>D</sup></a></p><span class="pagenum"><a name= + "page27" id="page27"></a>[pg 27]</span> + + <p>Notwithstanding all the attractions I thus found out by + degrees on the flat shores of the lake, I was delighted when I + found myself really on my way into the country for an excursion + of two or three weeks. We set forth in a strong wagon, almost as + large, and with the look of those used elsewhere for transporting + caravans of wild beasts, loaded with everything we might want, in + case nobody would give it to us,—for buying and selling + were no longer to be counted on,—with, a pair of strong + horses, able and willing to force their way through mud-holes and + amid stumps, and a guide, equally admirable as marshal and + companion, who knew by heart the country and its history, both + natural and artificial, and whose clear hunter's eye needed, + neither road nor goal to guide it to all the spots where beauty + best loves to dwell.</p> + + <p>Add to this the finest weather, and such country as I had + never seen, even in my dreams, although these dreams had been + haunted by wishes for just such a one, and you may judge whether + years of dulness might not, by these bright days, be redeemed, + and a sweetness be shed over all thoughts of the West.</p> + + <p>The first day brought us through woods rich in the + moccason-flower and lupine, and plains whose soft expanse was + continually touched with expression by the slow moving clouds + which</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"Sweep over with their shadows, and beneath</p> + + <p>The surface rolls and fluctuates to the eye;</p> + + <p>Dark hollows seem to glide along and chase</p> + + <p class="i8">The sunny ridges,"</p> + </div> + </div> + + <p>to the banks of the Fox River, a sweet and graceful stream. We + readied Geneva just in time to escape being drenched by a violent + thunder-shower, whose rise and disappearance threw expression + into all the features of the scene.</p> + + <p>Geneva reminds me of a New England village, as indeed there, + and in the neighborhood, are many New-Englanders of an + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page28" id="page28"></a>[pg + 28]</span> excellent stamp, generous, intelligent, discreet, and + seeking to win from life its true values. Such are much wanted, + and seem like points of light among the swarms of settlers, whose + aims are sordid, whose habits thoughtless and slovenly.<a id= + "footnotetage" name="footnotetage"></a><a href= + "#footnotee"><sup>E</sup></a></p> + + <p>With great pleasure we heard, with his attentive and + affectionate congregation, the Unitarian clergyman, Mr. Conant, + and afterward visited him in his house, where almost everything + bore traces of his own handiwork or that of his father. He is + just such a teacher as is wanted in this region, familiar enough, + with the habits of those he addresses to come home to their + experience and their wants; earnest and enlightened enough to + draw the important inferences from the life of every day.<a id= + "footnotetagf" name="footnotetagf"></a><a href= + "#footnotef"><sup>F</sup></a></p> + + <p>A day or two we remained here, and passed some happy hours in + the woods that fringe the stream, where the gentlemen found a + rich booty of fish.</p> + + <p>Next day, travelling along the river's banks, was an + uninterrupted pleasure. We closed our drive in the afternoon at + the house of an English gentleman, who has gratified, as few men + do, the common wish to pass the evening of an active day amid the + quiet influences of country life. He showed us a bookcase filled + with books about this country; these he had collected for years, + and become so familiar with the localities, that, on coming here + at last, he sought and found, at once, the very spot he wanted, + and <span class="pagenum"><a name="page29" id="page29"></a>[pg + 29]</span> where he is as content as he hoped to be, thus + realizing Wordsworth's description of the wise man, who "sees + what he foresaw."</p> + + <p>A wood surrounds the house, through which paths are cut in + every direction. It is, for this new country, a large and + handsome dwelling; but round it are its barns and farm-yard, with + cattle and poultry. These, however, in the framework of wood, + have a very picturesque and pleasing effect. There is that + mixture of culture and rudeness in the aspect of things which + gives a feeling of freedom, not of confusion.</p> + + <p>I wish, it were possible to give some idea of this scene, as + viewed by the earliest freshness of dewy dawn. This habitation of + man seemed like a nest in the grass, so thoroughly were the + buildings and all the objects of human care harmonized with, what + was natural. The tall trees bent and whispered all around, as if + to hail with, sheltering love the men who had come to dwell among + them.</p> + + <p>The young ladies were musicians, and spoke French fluently, + having been educated in a convent. Here in the prairie, they had + learned to take care of the milk-room, and kill the rattlesnakes + that assailed their poultry-yard. Beneath the shade of heavy + curtains you looked out from the high and large windows to see + Norwegian peasants at work in their national dress. In the wood + grew, not only the flowers I had before seen, and wealth of tall, + wild roses, but the splendid blue spiderwort, that ornament of + our gardens. Beautiful children strayed there, who were soon to + leave these civilized regions for some really wild and western + place, a post in the buffalo country. Their no less beautiful + mother was of Welsh descent, and the eldest child bore the name + of Gwynthleon. Perhaps there she will meet with some young + descendants of Madoc, to be her friends; at any rate, her looks + may retain that sweet, wild beauty, that is soon made to vanish + from eyes which look too much on shops and streets, and the + vulgarities of city "parties."</p> + + <p>Next day we crossed the river. We ladies crossed on a little + foot-bridge, from which we could look down the stream, and see + the wagon pass over at the ford. A black thunder-cloud was coming + up; the sky and waters heavy with expectation. The <span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page30" id="page30"></a>[pg 30]</span> motion + of the wagon, with its white cover, and the laboring horses, gave + just the due interest to the picture, because it seemed, as if + they would not have time to cross before the storm came on. + However, they did get across, and we were a mile or two on our + way before the violent shower obliged us to take refuge in a + solitary house upon the prairie. In this country it is as + pleasant to stop as to go on, to lose your way as to find it, for + the variety in the population gives you a chance for fresh + entertainment in every hut, and the luxuriant beauty makes every + path attractive. In this house we found a family "quite above the + common," but, I grieve to say, not above false pride, for the + father, ashamed of being caught barefoot, told us a story of a + man, one of the richest men, he said, in one of the Eastern + cities, who went barefoot, from choice and taste.</p> + + <p>Near the door grew a Provence rose, then in blossom. Other + families we saw had brought with them and planted the locust. It + was pleasant to see their old home loves, brought into connection + with their new splendors. Wherever there were traces of this + tenderness of feeling, only too rare among Americans, other + things bore signs also of prosperity and intelligence, as if the + ordering mind of man had some idea of home beyond a mere shelter + beneath which to eat and sleep.</p> + + <p>No heaven need wear a lovelier aspect than earth did this + afternoon, after the clearing up of the shower. We traversed the + blooming plain, unmarked by any road, only the friendly track of + wheels which bent, not broke, the grass. Our stations were not + from town to town, but from grove to grove. These groves first + floated like blue islands in the distance. As we drew nearer, + they seemed fair parks, and the little log-houses on the edge, + with their curling smokes, harmonized beautifully with them.</p> + + <p>One of these groves, Ross's Grove, we reached just at sunset, + It was of the noblest trees I saw during this journey, for + generally the trees were not large or lofty, but only of fair + proportions. Here they were large enough to form with their clear + stems pillars for grand cathedral aisles. There was space enough + for crimson light to stream through upon the floor of water which + the shower had left. As we slowly plashed through, I thought I + was never in a better place for vespers.</p><span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page31" id="page31"></a>[pg 31]</span> + + <p>That night we rested, or rather tarried, at a grove some miles + beyond, and there partook of the miseries, so often jocosely + portrayed, of bedchambers for twelve, a milk dish for universal + hand-basin, and expectations that you would use and lend your + "hankercher" for a towel. But this was the only night, thanks to + the hospitality of private families, that we passed thus; and it + was well that we had this bit of experience, else might we have + pronounced all Trollopian records of the kind to be inventions of + pure malice.</p> + + <p>With us was a young lady who showed herself to have been + bathed in the Britannic fluid, wittily described by a late French + writer, by the impossibility she experienced of accommodating + herself to the indecorums of the scene. We ladies were to sleep + in the bar-room, from which its drinking visitors could be + ejected only at a late hour. The outer door had no fastening to + prevent their return. However, our host kindly requested we would + call him, if they did, as he had "conquered them for us," and + would do so again. We had also rather hard couches (mine was the + supper-table); but we Yankees, born to rove, were altogether too + much fatigued to stand upon trifles, and slept as sweetly as we + would in the "bigly bower" of any baroness. But I think England + sat up all night, wrapped in her blanket-shawl, and with a neat + lace cap upon her head,—so that she would have looked + perfectly the lady, if any one had come in,—shuddering and + listening. I know that she was very ill next day, in requital. + She watched, as her parent country watches the seas, that nobody + may do wrong in any case, and deserved to have met some + interruption, she was so well prepared. However, there was none, + other than from the nearness of some twenty sets of powerful + lungs, which would not leave the night to a deathly stillness. In + this house we had, if not good beds, yet good tea, good bread, + and wild strawberries, and were entertained with most free + communications of opinion and history from our hosts. Neither + shall any of us have a right to say again that we cannot find any + who may be willing to hear all we may have to say. "A's fish that + comes to the net," should be painted on the sign at Papaw + Grove.</p> + + <blockquote class="footnote"> + <a id="footnotec" name="footnotec"></a><b>Footnote C:</b> + <a href="#footnotetagc">(return)</a> + + <p>"Mackinaw, that long desired, sight, was dimly discerned + under a thick fog, yet it soothed and cheered me. All looked + mellow there; man seemed to have worked in harmony with Nature + instead of rudely invading her, as in most Western towns. It + seemed possible, on that spot, to lead a life of serenity and + cheerfulness. Some richly dressed Indians came down to show + themselves. Their dresses were of blue broadcloth, with + splendid leggings and knee-ties. On their heads were crimson + scarfs adorned with beads and falling on one shoulder, their + hair long and looking cleanly. Near were one or two wild + figures clad in the common white blankets." Manuscript + Notes.—ED.</p> + </blockquote> + + <blockquote class="footnote"> + <a id="footnoted" name="footnoted"></a><b>Footnote D:</b> + <a href="#footnotetagd">(return)</a> + + <p>"From the prairie near Chicago had I seen, some days before, + the sun set with that calmness observed only on the prairies. I + know not what it says, but something quite different from + sunset at sea. There is no motion except of waving + grasses,—the cattle move slowly homeward in the distance. + That <i>home!</i> where is it? It seems as If there was no + home, and no need of one, and there is room enough to wander on + for ever."—Manuscript Notes.</p> + </blockquote> + + <blockquote class="footnote"> + <a id="footnotee" name="footnotee"></a><b>Footnote E:</b> + <a href="#footnotetage">(return)</a> + + <p>"We passed a portion of one day with Mr. and Mrs. + ——, young, healthy, and, thank Heaven, <i>gay</i> + people. In the general dulness that broods over this land where + so little genius flows, and care, business, and fashionable + frivolity are equally dull, unspeakable is the relief of some + flashes of vivacity, some sparkles of wit. Of course it is hard + enough for those, most natively disposed that way, to strike + fire. I would willingly be the tinder to promote the cheering + blaze."—Manuscript Notes.</p> + </blockquote> + + <blockquote class="footnote"> + <a id="footnotef" name="footnotef"></a><b>Footnote F:</b> + <a href="#footnotetagf">(return)</a> + + <p>"Let any who think men do not need or want the church, hear + these people talk about it as if it were the only indispensable + thing, and see what I saw in Chicago. An elderly lady from + Philadelphia, who had been visiting her sons in the West, + arrived there about one o'clock on a hot Sunday noon. She rang + the bell and requested a room immediately, as she wanted to get + ready for afternoon service. Some delay occurring, she + expressed great regret, as she had ridden all night for the + sake of attending church. She went to church, neither having + dined nor taken any repose after her journey."—Manuscript + Notes.</p> + </blockquote><span class="pagenum"><a name="page32" id= + "page32"></a>[pg 32]</span> + <p> </p> + <h3>CHAPTER III.</h3> + + <h4>ROCK RIVER.—OREGON.—ANCIENT INDIAN + VILLAGE.—GANYMEDE TO HIS EAGLE.—WESTERN FOURTH OF + JULY CELEBRATION.—WOMEN IN THE + WEST.—KISHWAUKIE.—BELVIDERE.—FAREWELL.</h4> + + <p>In the afternoon of this day we reached the Rock River, in + whose neighborhood we proposed to make some stay, and crossed at + Dixon's Ferry.</p> + + <p>This beautiful stream flows full and wide over a bed of rocks, + traversing a distance of near two hundred miles, to reach the + Mississippi. Great part of the country along its banks is the + finest region of Illinois, and the scene of some of the latest + romance of Indian warfare. To these beautiful regions Black Hawk + returned with his band "to pass the summer," when he drew upon + himself the warfare in which he was finally vanquished. No wonder + he could not resist the longing, unwise though its indulgence + might be, to return in summer to this home of beauty.</p> + + <p>Of Illinois, in general, it has often been remarked, that it + bears the character of country which has been inhabited by a + nation skilled like the English in all the ornamental arts of + life, especially in landscape-gardening. The villas and castles + seem to have been burnt, the enclosures taken down, but the + velvet lawns, the flower-gardens, the stately parks, scattered at + graceful intervals by the decorous hand of art, the frequent + deer, and the peaceful herd of cattle that make picture of the + plain, all suggest more of the masterly mind of man, than the + prodigal, but careless, motherly love of Nature. Especially is + this true of the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page33" id= + "page33"></a>[pg 33]</span> Rock River country. The river flows + sometimes through these parks and lawns, then betwixt high + bluffs, whose grassy ridges are covered with fine trees, or + broken with crumbling stone, that easily assumes the forms of + buttress, arch, and clustered columns. Along the face of such + crumbling rocks, swallows' nests are clustered, thick as cities, + and eagles and deer do not disdain their summits. One morning, + out in the boat along the base of these rocks, it was amusing, + and affecting too, to see these swallows put their heads out to + look at us. There was something very hospitable about it, as if + man had never shown himself a tyrant near them. What a morning + that was! Every sight is worth twice as much by the early morning + light. We borrow something of the spirit of the hour to look upon + them.</p> + + <p>The first place where we stopped was one of singular beauty, a + beauty of soft, luxuriant wildness. It was on the bend of the + river, a place chosen by an Irish gentleman, whose absenteeship + seems of the wisest kind, since, for a sum which would have been + but a drop of water to the thirsty fever of his native land, he + commands a residence which has all that is desirable, in its + independence, its beautiful retirement, and means of benefit to + others.</p> + + <p>His park, his deer-chase, he found already prepared; he had + only to make an avenue through it. This brought us to the house + by a drive, which in the heat of noon seemed long, though + afterwards, in the cool of morning and evening, delightful. This + is, for that part of the world, a large and commodious dwelling. + Near it stands the log-cabin where its master lived while it was + building, a very ornamental accessory.</p> + + <p>In front of the house was a lawn, adorned by the most graceful + trees. A few of these had been taken out to give a full view of + the river, gliding through banks such as I have described. On + this bend the bank is high and bold, so from, the house or the + lawn the view was very rich and commanding. But if you descended + a ravine at the side to the water's edge, you found there a long + walk on the narrow shore, with a wall above of the richest + hanging wood, in which they said the deer lay hid. I never saw + one but often fancied that I heard them rustling, at daybreak, by + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page34" id="page34"></a>[pg + 34]</span> these bright, clear waters, stretching out in such + smiling promise where no sound broke the deep and blissful + seclusion, unless now and then this rustling, or the splash of + some fish a little gayer than the others; it seemed not necessary + to have any better heaven, or fuller expression of love and + freedom, than in the mood of Nature here.</p> + + <p>Then, leaving the bank, you would walk far and yet farther + through long, grassy paths, full of the most brilliant, also the + most delicate flowers. The brilliant are more common on the + prairie, but both kinds loved this place.</p> + + <p>Amid the grass of the lawn, with a profusion of wild + strawberries, we greeted also a familiar love, the Scottish + harebell, the gentlest and most touching form of the + flower-world.</p> + + <p>The master of the house was absent, but with a kindness beyond + thanks had offered us a resting-place there. Here we were taken + care of by a deputy, who would, for his youth, have been assigned + the place of a page in former times, but in the young West, it + seems, he was old enough for a steward. Whatever be called his + function, he did the honors of the place so much in harmony with + it, as to leave the guests free to imagine themselves in Elysium. + And the three days passed here were days of unalloyed, spotless + happiness.</p> + + <p>There was a peculiar charm in coming here, where the choice of + location, and the unobtrusive good taste of all the arrangements, + showed such intelligent appreciation of the spirit of the scene, + after seeing so many dwellings of the new settlers, which showed + plainly that they had no thought beyond satisfying the grossest + material wants. Sometimes they looked attractive, these little + brown houses, the natural architecture of the country, in the + edge of the timber. But almost always, when you came near the + slovenliness of the dwelling, and the rude way in which objects + around it were treated, when so little care would have presented + a charming whole, were very repulsive. Seeing the traces of the + Indians, who chose the most beautiful sites for their dwellings, + and whose habits do not break in on that aspect of Nature under + which they were born, we feel as if they were the <span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page35" id="page35"></a>[pg 35]</span> + rightful lords of a beauty they forbore to deform. But most of + these settlers do not see it at all; it breathes, it speaks in + vain to those who are rushing into its sphere. Their progress is + Gothic, not Roman, and their mode of cultivation will, in the + course of twenty, perhaps ten years, obliterate the natural + expression of the country.</p> + + <p>This is inevitable, fatal; we must not complain, but look + forward to a good result. Still, in travelling through this + country, I could not but be struck with the force of a symbol. + Wherever the hog comes, the rattlesnake disappears; the + omnivorous traveller, safe in its stupidity, willingly and easily + makes a meal of the most dangerous of reptiles, and one which the + Indian looks on with a mystic awe. Even so the white settler + pursues the Indian, and is victor in the chase. But I shall say + more upon the subject by and by.</p> + + <p>While we were here, we had one grand thunder-storm, which + added new glory to the scene.</p> + + <p>One beautiful feature was the return of the pigeons every + afternoon to their home. At this time they would come sweeping + across the lawn, positively in clouds, and with a swiftness and + softness of winged motion more beautiful than anything of the + kind I ever knew. Had I been a musician, such as Mendelssohn, I + felt that I could have improvised a music quite peculiar, from + the sound they made, which should have indicated all the beauty + over which their wings bore them. I will here insert a few lines + left at this house on parting, which feebly indicate some of the + features.</p> + + + <h4>THE WESTERN EDEN</h4>. + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>Familiar to the childish mind were tales</p> + + <p class="i2">Of rock-girt isles amid a desert sea,</p> + + <p>Where unexpected stretch the flowery vales</p> + + <p class="i2">To soothe the shipwrecked sailor's misery.</p> + + <p>Fainting, he lay upon a sandy shore,</p> + + <p>And fancied that all hope of life was o'er;</p> + + <p>But let him patient climb the frowning wall,</p> + + <p>Within, the orange glows beneath the palm-tree tall,</p> + + <p>And all that Eden boasted waits his call.</p><span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page36" id="page36"></a>[pg 36]</span> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>Almost these tales seem realized to-day,</p> + + <p>When the long dulness of the sultry way,</p> + + <p>Where "independent" settlers' careless cheer</p> + + <p>Made us indeed feel we were "strangers" here,</p> + + <p>Is cheered by sudden sight of this fair spot,</p> + + <p>On which "improvement" yet has made no blot,</p> + + <p>But Nature all-astonished stands, to find</p> + + <p>Her plan protected by the human mind.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>Blest be the kindly genius of the scene;</p> + + <p class="i2">The river, bending in unbroken grace,</p> + + <p>The stately thickets, with their pathways green,</p> + + <p class="i2">Fair, lonely trees, each in its fittest + place;</p> + + <p>Those thickets haunted by the deer and fawn;</p> + + <p>Those cloudlike flights of birds across the lawn!</p> + + <p>The gentlest breezes here delight to blow,</p> + + <p>And sun and shower and star are emulous to deck the + show.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>Wondering, as Crusoe, we survey the land;</p> + + <p>Happier than Crusoe we, a friendly band.</p> + + <p>Blest be the hand that reared this friendly home,</p> + + <p>The heart and mind of him to whom we owe</p> + + <p>Hours of pure peace such as few mortals know;</p> + + <p>May he find such, should he be led to roam,—</p> + + <p>Be tended by such ministering sprites,—</p> + + <p>Enjoy such gayly childish days, such hopeful nights!</p> + + <p>And yet, amid the goods to mortals given,</p> + + <p>To give those goods again is most like heaven.</p> + </div> + </div> + + <p>Hazelwood, Rock River, June 30, 1843.</p> + + <p>The only really rustic feature was of the many coops of + poultry near the house, which I understood it to be one of the + chief pleasures of the master to feed.</p> + + <p>Leaving this place, we proceeded a day's journey along the + beautiful stream, to a little town named Oregon. We called at a + cabin, from whose door looked out one of those faces which, once + seen, are never forgotten; young, yet touched with many traces of + feeling, not only possible, but endured; spirited, too, like the + gleam of a finely tempered blade. It was a face that suggested + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page37" id="page37"></a>[pg + 37]</span> a history, and many histories, but whose scene would + have been in courts and camps. At this moment their circles are + dull for want of that life which, is waning unexcited in this + solitary recess.</p> + + <p>The master of the house proposed to show us a "short cut," by + which we might, to especial advantage, pursue our journey. This + proved to be almost perpendicular down a hill, studded with young + trees and stumps. From these he proposed, with a hospitality of + service worthy an Oriental, to free our wheels whenever they + should get entangled, also to be himself the drag, to prevent our + too rapid descent. Such generosity deserved trust; however, we + women could not be persuaded to render it. We got out and + admired, from afar, the process. Left by our guide and prop, we + found ourselves in a wide field, where, by playful quips and + turns, an endless "creek," seemed to divert itself with our + attempts to cross it. Failing in this, the next best was to whirl + down a steep bank, which feat our charioteer performed with an + air not unlike that of Rhesus, had he but been as suitably + furnished with chariot and steeds!</p> + + <p>At last, after wasting some two or three hours on the "short + cut," we got out by following an Indian trail,—Black + Hawk's! How fair the scene through which it led! How could they + let themselves be conquered, with such a country to fight + for!</p> + + <p>Afterwards, in the wide prairie, we saw a lively picture of + nonchalance (to speak in the fashion of clear Ireland). There, in + the wide sunny field, with neither tree nor umbrella above his + head, sat a pedler, with his pack, waiting apparently for + customers. He was not disappointed. We bought what hold, in + regard to the human world, as unmarked, as mysterious, and as + important an existence, as the infusoria to the natural, to wit, + pins. This incident would have delighted those modern sages, who, + in imitation of the sitting philosophers of ancient Ind, prefer + silence to speech, waiting to going, and scornfully smile, in + answer to the motions of earnest life,</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"Of itself will nothing come,</p> + + <p>That ye must still be seeking?"</p> + </div> + </div> + + <p>However, it seemed to me to-day, as formerly on these sublime + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page38" id="page38"></a>[pg + 38]</span> occasions, obvious that nothing would, come, unless + something would go; now, if we had been as sublimely still as the + pedler, his pins would have tarried in the pack, and his pockets + sustained an aching void of pence.</p> + + <p>Passing through one of the fine, park-like woods, almost clear + from underbrush and carpeted with thick grasses and flowers, we + met (for it was Sunday) a little congregation just returning from + their service, which had been performed in a rude house in its + midst. It had a sweet and peaceful air, as if such words and + thoughts were very dear to them. The parents had with them, all + their little children; but we saw no old people; that charm was + wanting which exists in such scenes in older settlements, of + seeing the silver bent in reverence beside the flaxen head.</p> + + <p>At Oregon, the beauty of the scene was of even a more + sumptuous character than at our former "stopping-place." Here + swelled the river in its boldest course, interspersed by halcyon + isles on which Nature had lavished all her prodigality in tree, + vine, and flower, banked by noble bluffs, three Hundred feet + high, their sharp ridges as exquisitely definite as the edge of a + shell; their summits adorned with those same beautiful trees, and + with buttresses of rich rock, crested with old hemlocks, which + wore a touching and antique grace amid, the softer and more + luxuriant vegetation. Lofty natural mounds rose amidst the rest, + with the same lovely and sweeping outline, showing everywhere the + plastic power of water,—water, mother of + beauty,—which, by its sweet and eager flow, had left such + lineaments as human genius never dreamt of.</p> + + <p>Not far from the river was a high crag, called the Pine Rock, + which looks out, as our guide observed, like a helmet above the + brow of the country. It seems as if the water left here and there + a vestige of forms and materials that preceded its course, just + to set off its new and richer designs.</p> + + <p>The aspect of this country was to me enchanting, beyond any I + have ever seen, from its fulness of expression, its bold and + impassioned sweetness. Here the flood of emotion has passed over + and marked everywhere its course by a smile. The fragments of + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page39" id="page39"></a>[pg + 39]</span> rock touch it with a wildness and liberality which + give just the needed relief. I should never be tired here, though + I have elsewhere seen country of more secret and alluring charms, + better calculated to stimulate and suggest. Here the eye and + heart are filled.</p> + + <p>How happy the Indians must have been here! It is not long + since they were driven away, and the ground, above and below, is + full of their traces.</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"The earth is full of men."</p> + </div> + </div> + + <p>You have only to turn up the sod to find arrowheads and Indian + pottery. On an island, belonging to our host, and nearly opposite + his house, they loved to stay, and, no doubt, enjoyed its lavish + beauty as much as the myriad wild pigeons that now haunt its + flower-filled shades. Here are still the marks of their + tomahawks, the troughs in which they prepared their corn, their + caches.</p> + + <p>A little way down the river is the site of an ancient Indian + village, with its regularly arranged mounds. As usual, they had + chosen with the finest taste. When we went there, it was one of + those soft, shadowy afternoons when Nature seems ready to weep, + not from grief, but from an overfull heart. Two prattling, lovely + little girls, and an African boy, with glittering eye and ready + grin, made our party gay; but all were still as we entered the + little inlet and trod those flowery paths. They may blacken + Indian life as they will, talk of its dirt, its brutality, I will + ever believe that the men who chose that dwelling-place were able + to feel emotions of noble happiness as they returned to it, and + so were the women that received them. Neither were the children + sad or dull, who lived so familiarly with the deer and the birds, + and swam that clear wave in the shadow of the Seven Sisters. The + whole scene suggested to me a Greek splendor, a Greek sweetness, + and I can believe that an Indian brave, accustomed to ramble in + such paths, and be bathed by such sunbeams, might be mistaken for + Apollo, as Apollo was for him by West. Two of the boldest bluffs + are called the Deer's Walk, (not because deer do <i>not</i> walk + there,) and the Eagle's Nest. The latter I visited <span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page40" id="page40"></a>[pg 40]</span> one + glorious morning; it was that of the fourth of July, and + certainly I think I had never felt so happy that I was born in + America. Woe to all country folks that never saw this spot, never + swept an enraptured gaze over the prospect that stretched + beneath. I do believe Rome and Florence are suburbs compared to + this capital of Nature's art.</p> + + <p>The bluff was decked with great bunches of a scarlet variety + of the milkweed, like cut coral, and all starred with a + mysterious-looking dark flower, whose cup rose lonely on a tall + stem. This had, for two or three days, disputed the ground with + the lupine and phlox. My companions disliked, I liked it.</p> + + <p>Here I thought of, or rather saw, what the Greek expresses + under the form of Jove's darling, Ganymede, and the following + stanzas took form.</p> + + + <h4>GANYMEDE TO HIS EAGLE.</h4> + + <p class="center">SUGGESTED BY A WORK OF THORWALDSEN'S.</p> + + <p class="note center">Composed on the height called the Eagle's Nest, Oregon, + Rock River, July 4th, 1843.</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>Upon the rocky mountain stood the boy,</p> + + <p class="i2">A goblet of pure water in his hand;</p> + + <p>His face and form spoke him one made for joy,</p> + + <p class="i2">A willing servant to sweet love's command,</p> + + <p>But a strange pain was written on his brow,</p> + + <p class="i2">And thrilled throughout his silver accents + now.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"My bird," he cries, "my destined brother friend,</p> + + <p class="i2">O whither fleets to-day thy wayward flight?</p> + + <p>Hast thou forgotten that I here attend,</p> + + <p class="i2">From the full noon until this sad twilight?</p> + + <p>A hundred times, at least, from the clear spring,</p> + + <p class="i2">Since the fall noon o'er hill and valley + glowed,</p> + + <p>I've filled the vase which our Olympian king</p> + + <p class="i2">Upon my care for thy sole use bestowed;</p> + + <p>That, at the moment when thou shouldst descend,</p> + + <p>A pure refreshment might thy thirst + attend.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page41" id= + "page41"></a>[pg 41]</span> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"Hast thou forgotten earth, forgotten me,</p> + + <p class="i2">Thy fellow-bondsman in a royal cause,</p> + + <p>Who, from the sadness of infinity,</p> + + <p class="i2">Only with thee can know that peaceful pause</p> + + <p>In which we catch the flowing strain of love,</p> + + <p class="i2">Which binds our dim fates to the throne of + Jove?</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"Before I saw thee, I was like the May,</p> + + <p class="i2">Longing for summer that must mar its bloom,</p> + + <p>Or like the morning star that calls the day,</p> + + <p class="i2">Whose glories to its promise are the tomb;</p> + + <p>And as the eager fountain rises higher</p> + + <p class="i2">To throw itself more strongly back to + earth,</p> + + <p>Still, as more sweet and full rose my desire,</p> + + <p class="i2">More fondly it reverted to its birth,</p> + + <p>For what the rosebud seeks tells not the rose,</p> + + <p>The meaning that the boy foretold the man cannot + disclose.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"I was all Spring, for in my being dwelt</p> + + <p class="i2">Eternal youth, where flowers are the fruit;</p> + + <p>Full feeling was the thought of what was felt,</p> + + <p class="i2">Its music was the meaning of the lute;</p> + + <p>But heaven and earth such life will still deny,</p> + + <p>For earth, divorced from heaven, still asks the question + <i>Why?</i></p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"Upon the highest mountains my young feet</p> + + <p class="i2">Ached, that no pinions from their lightness + grew,</p> + + <p>My starlike eyes the stars would fondly greet,</p> + + <p class="i2">Yet win no greeting from the circling blue;</p> + + <p>Fair, self-subsistent each in its own sphere,</p> + + <p class="i2">They had no care that there was none for + me;</p> + + <p>Alike to them that I was far or near,</p> + + <p class="i2">Alike to them time and eternity.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"But from the violet of lower air</p> + + <p class="i2">Sometimes an answer to my wishing came;</p> + + <p>Those lightning-births my nature seemed to share,</p> + + <p class="i2">They told the secrets of its fiery frame,</p> + + <p>The sudden messengers of hate and love,</p> + + <p>The thunderbolts that arm the hand of Jove,</p> + + <p>And strike sometimes the sacred spire, and strike the + sacred grove.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page42" id= + "page42"></a>[pg 42]</span> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"Come in a moment, in a moment gone,</p> + + <p>They answered me, then left me still more lone;</p> + + <p>They told me that the thought which ruled the world</p> + + <p>As yet no sail upon its course had furled,</p> + + <p>That the creation was but just begun,</p> + + <p>New leaves still leaving from the primal one,</p> + + <p>But spoke not of the goal to which <i>my</i> rapid wheels + would run.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"Still, still my eyes, though tearfully, I strained</p> + + <p>To the far future which my heart contained,</p> + + <p>And no dull doubt my proper hope profaned.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"At last, O bliss! thy living form I spied,</p> + + <p class="i2">Then a mere speck upon a distant sky;</p> + + <p>Yet my keen glance discerned its noble pride,</p> + + <p class="i2">And the full answer of that sun-filled eye;</p> + + <p>I knew it was the wing that must upbear</p> + + <p class="i2">My earthlier form into the realms of air.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"Thou knowest how we gained that beauteous height,</p> + + <p>Where dwells the monarch, of the sons of light;</p> + + <p>Thou knowest he declared us two to be</p> + + <p>The chosen servants of his ministry,</p> + + <p>Thou as his messenger, a sacred sign</p> + + <p>Of conquest, or, with omen more benign,</p> + + <p>To give its due weight to the righteous cause,</p> + + <p>To express the verdict of Olympian laws.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"And I to wait upon the lonely spring,</p> + + <p class="i2">Which slakes the thirst of bards to whom 't is + given</p> + + <p>The destined dues of hopes divine to sing,</p> + + <p class="i2">And weave the needed chain to bind to + heaven.</p> + + <p>Only from such could be obtained a draught</p> + + <p>For him who in his early home from Jove's own cup has + quaffed</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"To wait, to wait, but not to wait too long.</p> + + <p>Till heavy grows the burden of a song;</p> + + <p>O bird! too long hast thou been gone to-day,</p> + + <p>My feet are weary of their frequent way,</p> + + <p>The spell that opes the spring my tongue no more can + say.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page43" id= + "page43"></a>[pg 43]</span> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"If soon thou com'st not, night will fall around,</p> + + <p>My head with a sad slumber will be bound,</p> + + <p>And the pure draught be spilt upon the ground.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"Remember that I am not yet divine,</p> + + <p>Long years of service to the fatal Nine</p> + + <p>Are yet to make a Delphian vigor mine.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"O, make them not too hard, thou bird of Jove!</p> + + <p>Answer the stripling's hope, confirm his love,</p> + + <p>Receive the service in which he delights,</p> + + <p>And bear him often to the serene heights,</p> + + <p>Where hands that were so prompt in serving thee</p> + + <p>Shall be allowed the highest ministry,</p> + + <p>And Rapture live with bright Fidelity."</p> + </div> + </div> + + <p>The afternoon was spent in a very different manner. The family + whose guests we were possessed a gay and graceful hospitality + that gave zest to each moment. They possessed that rare + politeness which, while fertile in pleasant expedients to vary + the enjoyment of a friend, leaves him perfectly free the moment + he wishes to be so. With such hosts, pleasure may be combined + with repose. They lived on the bank opposite the town, and, as + their house was full, we slept in the town, and passed three days + with them, passing to and fro morning and evening in their boats. + To one of these, called the Fairy, in which a sweet little + daughter of the house moved about lighter than any Scotch Ellen + ever sung, I should indite a poem, if I had not been guilty of + rhyme on this very page. At morning this boating was very + pleasant; at evening, I confess, I was generally too tired with + the excitements of the day to think it so.</p> + + <p>The house—a double log-cabin—was, to my eye, the + model of a Western villa. Nature had laid out before it grounds + which could not be improved. Within, female taste had veiled + every rudeness, availed itself of every sylvan grace.</p> + + <p>In this charming abode what laughter, what sweet thoughts, + what pleasing fancies, did we not enjoy! May such never desert + those who reared it, and made us so kindly welcome to all its + pleasures!</p> + + <p>Fragments of city life were dexterously crumbled into the dish + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page44" id="page44"></a>[pg + 44]</span> prepared for general entertainment. Ice-creams + followed the dinner, which was drawn by the gentlemen from the + river, and music and fireworks wound up the evening of days spent + on the Eagle's Nest. Now they had prepared a little fleet to pass + over to the Fourth of July celebration, which some queer drumming + and fifing, from, the opposite bank, had announced to be "on + hand."</p> + + <p>We found the free and independent citizens there collected + beneath the trees, among whom many a round Irish visage dimpled + at the usual puffs of "Ameriky."</p> + + <p>The orator was a New-Englander, and the speech smacked loudly + of Boston, but was received with much applause and followed by a + plentiful dinner, provided by and for the Sovereign People, to + which Hail Columbia served as grace.</p> + + <p>Returning, the gay flotilla cheered the little flag which the + children had raised from a log-cabin, prettier than any president + ever saw, and drank the health of our country and all mankind, + with a clear conscience.</p> + + <p>Dance and song wound up the day. I know not when the mere + local habitation has seemed to me to afford so fair a chance of + happiness as this. To a person of unspoiled tastes, the beauty + alone would afford stimulus enough. But with it would be + naturally associated all kinds of wild sports, experiments, and + the studies of natural history. In these regards, the poet, the + sportsman, the naturalist, would alike rejoice in this wide range + of untouched loveliness.</p> + + <p>Then, with a very little money, a ducal estate may be + purchased, and by a very little more, and moderate labor, a + family be maintained upon it with raiment, food, and shelter. The + luxurious and minute comforts of a city life are not yet to be + had without effort disproportionate to their value. But, where + there is so great a counterpoise, cannot these be given up once + for all? If the houses are imperfectly built, they can afford + immense fires and plenty of covering; if they are small, who + cares,—with, such fields to roam in? in winter, it may be + borne; in summer, is of no consequence. With plenty of fish, and + game, and wheat, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page45" id= + "page45"></a>[pg 45]</span> can they not dispense with a baker to + bring "muffins hot" every morning to the door for their + breakfast?</p> + + <p>A man need not here take a small slice from the landscape, and + fence it in from the obtrusions of an uncongenial neighbor, and + there cut down his fancies to miniature improvements which a + chicken could run over in ten minutes. He may have water and wood + and land enough, to dread no incursions on his prospect from some + chance Vandal that may enter his neighborhood. He need not + painfully economize and manage how he may use it all; he can + afford to leave some of it wild, and to carry out his own plans + without obliterating those of Nature.</p> + + <p>Here, whole families might live together, if they would. The + sons might return from their pilgrimages to settle near the + parent hearth; the daughters might find room near their mother. + Those painful separations, which already desecrate and desolate + the Atlantic coast, are not enforced here by the stern need of + seeking bread; and where they are voluntary, it is no matter. To + me, too, used to the feelings which haunt a society of struggling + men, it was delightful to look upon a scene where Nature still + wore her motherly smile, and seemed to promise room, not only for + those favored or cursed with the qualities best adapting for the + strifes of competition, but for the delicate, the thoughtful, + even the indolent or eccentric. She did not say, Fight or starve; + nor even, Work or cease to exist; but, merely showing that the + apple was a finer fruit than the wild crab, gave both room to + grow in the garden.</p> + + <p>A pleasant society is formed of the families who live along + the banks of this stream upon farms. They are from various parts + of the world, and have much to communicate to one another. Many + have cultivated minds and refined manners, all a varied + experience, while they have in common the interests of a new + country and a new life. They must traverse some space to get at + one another, but the journey is through scenes that make it a + separate pleasure. They must bear inconveniences to stay in one + another's houses; but these, to the well-disposed, are only a + source of amusement and adventure.</p><span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page46" id="page46"></a>[pg 46]</span> + + <p>The great drawback upon the lives of these settlers, at + present, is the unfitness of the women for their new lot. It has + generally been the choice of the men, and the women follow, as + women will, doing their best for affection's sake, but too often + in heartsickness and weariness. Beside, it frequently not being a + choice or conviction of their own minds that it is best to be + here, their part is the hardest, and they are least fitted for + it. The men can find assistance in field labor, and recreation + with the gun and fishing-rod. Their bodily strength is greater, + and enables them to bear and enjoy both these forms of life.</p> + + <p>The women can rarely find any aid in domestic labor. All its + various and careful tasks must often be performed, sick, or well, + by the mother and daughters, to whom a city education has + imparted neither the strength nor skill now demanded.</p> + + <p>The wives of the poorer settlers, having more hard work to do + than before, very frequently become slatterns; but the ladies, + accustomed to a refined neatness, feel that they cannot degrade + themselves by its absence, and struggle under every disadvantage + to keep up the necessary routine of small arrangements.</p> + + <p>With all these disadvantages for work, their resources for + pleasure are fewer. When they can leave the housework, they have + not learnt to ride, to drive, to row, alone. Their culture has + too generally been that given to women to make them "the + ornaments of society." They can dance, but not draw; talk French, + but know nothing of the language of flowers; neither in childhood + were allowed to cultivate them, lest they should tan their + complexions. Accustomed to the pavement of Broadway, they dare + not tread the wild-wood paths for fear of rattlesnakes!</p> + + <p>Seeing much of this joylessness, and inaptitude, both of body + and mind, for a lot which would be full of blessings for those + prepared for it, we could not but look with deep interest on the + little girls, and hope they would grow up with the strength of + body, dexterity, simple tastes, and resources that would fit them + to enjoy and refine the Western farmer's life.</p> + + <p>But they have a great deal to war with in the habits of + thought acquired by their mothers from their own early life. + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page47" id="page47"></a>[pg + 47]</span> Everywhere the fatal spirit of imitation, of reference + to European standards, penetrates, and threatens to blight + whatever of original growth might adorn the soil.</p> + + <p>If the little girls grow up strong, resolute, able to exert + their faculties, their mothers mourn over their want of + fashionable delicacy. Are they gay, enterprising, ready to fly + about in the various ways that teach them so much, these ladies + lament that "they cannot go to school, where they might learn to + be quiet." They lament the want of "education" for their + daughters, as if the thousand needs which call out their young + energies, and the language of nature around, yielded no + education.</p> + + <p>Their grand ambition for their children is to send them to + school in some Eastern city, the measure most likely to make them + useless and unhappy at home. I earnestly hope that, erelong, the + existence of good schools near themselves, planned by persons of + sufficient thought to meet the wants of the place and time, + instead of copying New York or Boston, will correct this mania. + Instruction the children want to enable them to profit by the + great natural advantages of their position; but methods copied + from the education of some English Lady Augusta are as ill suited + to the daughter of an Illinois farmer, as satin shoes to climb + the Indian mounds. An elegance she would diffuse around her, if + her mind were opened to appreciate elegance; it might be of a + kind new, original, enchanting, as different from that of the + city belle as that of the prairie torch-flower from the shop-worn + article that touches the cheek of that lady within her + bonnet.</p> + + <p>To a girl really skilled to make home beautiful and + comfortable, with bodily strength to enjoy plenty of exercise, + the woods, the streams, a few studies, music, and the sincere and + familiar intercourse, far more easily to be met with here than + elsewhere, would afford happiness enough. Her eyes would not grow + dim, nor her cheeks sunken, in the absence of parties, morning + visits, and milliners' shops.</p> + + <p>As to music, I wish I could see in such places the guitar + rather than the piano, and good vocal more than instrumental + music.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page48" id= + "page48"></a>[pg 48]</span> + + <p>The piano many carry with them, because it is the fashionable + instrument in the Eastern cities. Even there, it is so merely + from the habit of imitating Europe, for not one in a thousand is + willing to give the labor requisite to insure any valuable use of + the instrument.</p> + + <p>But out here, where the ladies have so much less leisure, it + is still less desirable. Add to this, they never know how to tune + their own instruments, and as persons seldom visit them who can + do so, these pianos are constantly out of tune, and would spoil + the ear of one who began by having any.</p> + + <p>The guitar, or some portable instrument which requires less + practice, and could be kept in tune by themselves, would be far + more desirable for most of these ladies. It would give all they + want as a household companion to fill up the gaps of life with a + pleasant stimulus or solace, and be sufficient accompaniment to + the voice in social meetings.</p> + + <p>Singing in parts is the most delightful family amusement, and + those who are constantly together can learn to sing in perfect + accord. All the practice it needs, after some good elementary + instruction, is such as meetings by summer twilight and evening + firelight naturally suggest. And as music is a universal + language, we cannot but think a fine Italian duet would be as + much at home in the log cabin as one of Mrs. Gore's novels.</p> + + <p>The 6th of July we left this beautiful place. It was one of + those rich days of bright sunlight, varied by the purple shadows + of large, sweeping clouds. Many a backward look we cast, and left + the heart behind.</p> + + <p>Our journey to-day was no less delightful than before, still + all new, boundless, limitless. Kinmont says, that limits are + sacred; that the Greeks were in the right to worship a god of + limits. I say, that what is limitless is alone divine, that there + was neither wall nor road in Eden, that those who walked, there + lost and found their way just as we did, and that all the gain + from the Fall was that we had a wagon to ride in. I do not think, + either, that even the horses doubted whether this last was any + advantage.</p> + + <p>Everywhere the rattlesnake-weed grows in profusion. The + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page49" id="page49"></a>[pg + 49]</span> antidote survives the bane. Soon the coarser plantain, + the "white man's footstep," shall take its place.</p> + + <p>We saw also the compass-plant, and the Western tea-plant. Of + some of the brightest flowers an Indian girl afterwards told me + the medicinal virtues. I doubt not those students of the soil + knew a use to every fair emblem, on which we could only look to + admire its hues and shape.</p> + + <p>After noon we were ferried by a girl (unfortunately not of the + most picturesque appearance) across the Kishwaukie, the most + graceful of streams, and on whose bosom rested many full-blown + water-lilies,—twice as large as any of ours. I was told + that, <i>en revanche</i>, they were scentless, but I still regret + that I could not get at one of them to try. Query, did the lilied + fragrance which, in the miraculous times, accompanied visions of + saints and angels, proceed from water or garden lilies?</p> + + <p>Kishwaukie is, according to tradition, the scene of a famous + battle, and its many grassy mounds contain the bones of the + valiant. On these waved thickly the mysterious purple flower, of + which I have spoken before. I think it springs from the blood of + the Indians, as the hyacinth did from that of Apollo's + darling.</p> + + <p>The ladies of our host's family at Oregon, when they first + went, there, after all the pains and plagues of building and + settling, found their first pastime in opening one of these + mounds, in which they found, I think, three of the departed, + seated, in the Indian fashion.</p> + + <p>One of these same ladies, as she was making bread one winter + morning, saw from the window a deer directly before the house. + She ran out, with her hands covered with dough, calling the + others, and they caught him bodily before he had time to + escape.</p> + + <p>Here (at Kiskwaukie) we received a visit from a ragged and + barefooted, but bright-eyed gentleman, who seemed to be the + intellectual loafer, the walking Will's coffee-house, of the + place. He told us many charming snake-stories; among others, of + himself having seen seventeen young ones re-enter the mother + snake, on the approach of a visitor.</p> + + <p>This night we reached Belvidere, a flourishing town in Boon + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page50" id="page50"></a>[pg + 50]</span> County, where was the tomb, now despoiled, of Big + Thunder. In this later day we felt happy to find a really good + hotel.</p> + + <p>From this place, by two days of very leisurely and devious + journeying, we reached Chicago, and thus ended a journey, which + one at least of the party might have wished unending.</p> + + <p>I have not been particularly anxious to give the geography of + the scene, inasmuch as it seemed to me no route, nor series of + stations, but a garden interspersed with cottages, groves, and + flowery lawns, through which a stately river ran. I had no + guide-book, kept no diary, do not know how many miles we + travelled each day, nor how many in all. What I got from the + journey was the poetic impression of the country at large; it is + all I have aimed to communicate.</p> + + <p>The narrative might have been made much more interesting, as + life was at the time, by many piquant anecdotes and tales drawn + from private life. But here courtesy restrains the pen, for I + know those who received the stranger with such frank kindness + would feel ill requited by its becoming the means of fixing many + spy-glasses, even though the scrutiny might be one of admiring + interest, upon their private homes.</p> + + <p>For many of these anecdotes, too, I was indebted to a friend, + whose property they more lawfully are. This friend was one of + those rare beings who are equally at home in nature and with man. + He knew a tale of all that ran and swam and flew, or only grew, + possessing that extensive familiarity with things which shows + equal sweetness of sympathy and playful penetration. Most + refreshing to me was his unstudied lore, the unwritten poetry + which common life presents to a strong and gentle mind. It was a + great contrast to the subtilties of analysis, the philosophic + strainings of which I had seen too much. But I will not attempt + to transplant it. May it profit others as it did me in the region + where it was born, where it belongs.</p> + + <p>The evening of our return to Chicago, the sunset was of a + splendor and calmness beyond any we saw at the West. The twilight + that succeeded was equally beautiful; soft, pathetic, but just so + calm. When afterwards I learned this was the evening <span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page51" id="page51"></a>[pg 51]</span> of + Allston's death, it seemed to me as if this glorious pageant was + not without connection with that event; at least, it inspired + similar emotions,—a heavenly gate closing a path adorned + with shows well worthy Paradise.</p> + + <h4>FAREWELL TO ROCK RIVER VALLEY.</h4> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>Farewell, ye soft and sumptuous solitudes!</p> + + <p>Ye fairy distances, ye lordly woods,</p> + + <p>Haunted, by paths like those that Poussin knew,</p> + + <p>When after his all gazers' eyes he drew;</p> + + <p>I go,—and if I never more may steep</p> + + <p>An eager heart in your enchantments deep,</p> + + <p>Yet ever to itself that heart may say,</p> + + <p>Be not exacting; them hast lived one day,—</p> + + <p>Hast looked on that which matches with thy mood,</p> + + <p>Impassioned sweetness of full being's flood,</p> + + <p>Where nothing checked the bold yet gentle wave,</p> + + <p>Where naught repelled the lavish love that gave.</p> + + <p>A tender blessing lingers o'er the scene,</p> + + <p>Like some young mother's thought, fond, yet serene,</p> + + <p>And through its life new-born our lives have been.</p> + + <p>Once more farewell,—a sad, a sweet farewell;</p> + + <p>And, if I never must behold you more,</p> + + <p>In other worlds I will not cease to tell</p> + + <p>The rosary I here have numbered o'er;</p> + + <p>And bright-haired Hope will lend a gladdened ear,</p> + + <p>And Love will free him from the grasp of Fear,</p> + + <p>And Gorgon critics, while the tale they hear,</p> + + <p>Shall dew their stony glances with a tear,</p> + + <p>If I but catch one echo from your spell:—</p> + + <p>And so farewell,—a grateful, sad farewell!</p> + </div> + </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="page52" id="page52"></a>[pg + 52]</span> + <p> </p> + <h3>CHAPTER IV.</h3> + + <h4>A SHORT CHAPTER.—CHICAGO AGAIN.—MORRIS + BIRKBECK.</h4> + + <p>Chicago had become interesting to me now, that I knew it as + the portal to so fair a scene. I had become interested in the + land, in the people, and looked sorrowfully on the lake on which + I must soon embark, to leave behind what I had just begun to + enjoy.</p> + + <p>Now was the time to see the lake. The July moon was near its + full, and night after night it rose in a cloudless sky above this + majestic sea. The heat was excessive, so that there was no + enjoyment of life, except in the night; but then the air was of + that delicious temperature worthy of orange-groves. However, they + were not wanted;—nothing was, as that full light fell on + the faintly rippling waters, which then seemed, boundless.</p> + + <p>The most picturesque objects to be seen from Chicago on the + inland side were the lines of Hoosier wagons. These rude farmers, + the large first product of the soil, travel leisurely along, + sleeping in their wagons by night, eating only what they bring + with them. In the town they observe the same plan, and trouble no + luxurious hotel for board and lodging. Here they look like + foreign peasantry, and contrast well with the many Germans, + Dutch, and Irish. In the country it is very pretty to see them + prepared to "camp out" at night, their horses taken out of + harness, and they lounging under the trees, enjoying the evening + meal.</p> + + <p>On the lake-side it is fine to see the great boats come + panting in from their rapid and marvellous journey. Especially at + night the motion of their lights is very + majestic.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page53" id= + "page53"></a>[pg 53]</span> + + <p>When the favorite boats, the Great Western and Illinois, are + going out, the town is thronged with, people from the South and + farther West, to go in them. These moonlight nights I would hear + the French rippling and fluttering familiarly amid the rude ups + and downs of the Hoosier dialect.</p> + + <p>At the hotel table were daily to be seen new faces, and new + stories to be learned. And any one who has a large acquaintance + may be pretty sure of meeting some of them here in the course of + a few days.</p> + + <p>At Chicago I read again Philip Van Artevelde, and certain + passages in it will always be in my mind associated with the deep + sound of the lake, as heard in the night. I used to read a short + time at night, and then open the blind to look out. The moon + would be full upon the lake, and the calm breath, pure light, and + the deep voice harmonized well with the thought of the Flemish + hero. When will this country have such a man? It is what she + needs; no thin Idealist, no coarse Realist, but a man whose eye + reads the heavens, while his feet step firmly on the ground, and + his hands are strong and dexterous for the use of human + implements. A man religious, virtuous, and—sagacious; a man + of universal sympathies, but self-possessed; a man who knows the + region of emotion, though he is not its slave; a man to whom this + world is no mere spectacle, or fleeting shadow, not a great, + solemn game, to be played with, good heed, for its stakes are of + eternal value, yet who, if his own play be true, heeds not what + he loses by the falsehood of others;—a man who hives from + the past, yet knows that its honey can but moderately avail him; + whose comprehensive eye scans the present, neither infatuated by + its golden lures, nor chilled by its many ventures; who possesses + prescience, as the wise man must, but not so far as to be driven + mad to-day by the gift which discerns to-morrow;—when there + is such a man for America, the thought which urges her on will be + expressed.</p> + <hr class="short" /> + + <p>Now that I am about to leave Illinois, feelings of regret and + admiration come over me, as in parting with a friend whom, we + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page54" id="page54"></a>[pg + 54]</span> have not had the good sense to prize and study, while + hours of association, never perhaps to return, were granted. I + have fixed my attention almost exclusively on the picturesque + beauty of this region; it was so new, so inspiring. But I ought + to have been more interested in the housekeeping of this + magnificent State, in the education she is giving her children, + in their prospects.</p> + + <p>Illinois is, at present, a by-word of reproach among the + nations, for the careless, prodigal course by which, in early + youth, she has endangered her honor. But you cannot look about + you there, without seeing that there are resources abundant to + retrieve, and soon to retrieve, far greater errors, if they are + only directed with wisdom.</p> + + <p>Would that the simple maxim, that honesty is the best policy, + might be laid to heart; that a sense of the true aim of life + might elevate the tone of politics and trade till public and + private honor became identical; that the Western man, in that + crowded and exciting life which, develops his faculties so fully + for to-day, might not forget that better part which could not be + taken from him; that the Western woman might take that interest + and acquire that light for the education of the children, for + which she alone has leisure!</p> + + <p>This is indeed the great problem of the place and time. If the + next generation be well prepared for their work, ambitious of + good and skilful to achieve it, the children of the present + settlers may be leaven enough for the mass constantly increasing + by immigration. And how much is this needed, where those rude + foreigners can so little understand the best interests of the + land they seek for bread and shelter! It would be a happiness to + aid in this good work, and interweave the white and golden + threads into the fate of Illinois. It would be a work worthy the + devotion of any mind.</p> + + <p>In the little that I saw was a large proportion of + intelligence, activity, and kind feeling; but, if there was much + serious laying to heart of the true purposes of life, it did not + appear in the tone of conversation.</p><span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page55" id="page55"></a>[pg 55]</span> + + <p>Having before me the Illinois Guide-Book, I find there + mentioned, as a "visionary," one of the men I should think of as + able to be a truly valuable settler in a new and great + country,—Morris Birkbeck, of England. Since my return, I + have read his journey to, and letters from, Illinois. I see + nothing promised there that will not surely belong to the man who + knows how to seek for it.</p> + + <p>Mr. Birkbeck was an enlightened, philanthropist, the rather + that he did not wish to sacrifice himself to his fellow-men, but + to benefit them with all he had, and was, and wished. He thought + all the creatures of a divine love ought to be happy and ought to + be good, and that his own soul and his own life were not less + precious than those of others; indeed, that to keep these healthy + was his only means of a healthy influence.</p> + + <p>But his aims were altogether generous. Freedom, the liberty of + law, not license; not indolence, work for himself and children + and all men, but under genial and poetic influences;—these + were his aims. How different from those of the new settlers in + general! And into his mind so long ago shone steadily the two + thoughts, now so prevalent in thinking and aspiring minds, of + "Resist not evil," and "Every man his own priest, and the heart + the only true church."</p> + + <p>He has lost credit for sagacity from accidental circumstances. + It does not appear that his position was ill chosen, or his means + disproportioned to his ends, had he been sustained by funds from + England, as he had a right to expect. But through the profligacy + of a near relative, commissioned to collect these dues, he was + disappointed of them, and his paper protested and credit + destroyed in our cities, before he became aware of his + danger.</p> + + <p>Still, though more slowly and with more difficulty, he might + have succeeded in his designs. The English farmer might have made + the English settlement a model for good methods and good aims to + all that region, had not death prematurely cut short his + plans.</p> + + <p>I have wished to say these few words, because the veneration + with which I have been inspired for his character by those who + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page56" id="page56"></a>[pg + 56]</span> knew him well, makes me impatient of this careless + blame being passed from mouth to mouth and book to book. Success + is no test of a man's endeavor, and Illinois will yet, I hope, + regard this man, who knew so well what <i>ought</i> to be, as one + of her true patriarchs, the Abraham of a promised land.</p> + + <p>He was one too much before his time to be soon valued; but the + time is growing up to him, and will understand his mild + philanthropy, and clear, large views.</p> + + <p>I subjoin the account of his death, given me by a friend, as + expressing, in fair picture, the character of the man.</p> + + <p>"Mr. Birkbeck was returning from the seat of government, + whither he had been on public business, and was accompanied by + his son Bradford, a youth of sixteen or eighteen. It was + necessary to cross a ford, which was rendered difficult by the + swelling of the stream. Mr. B.'s horse was unwilling to plunge + into the water, so his son offered to go first, and he followed. + Bradford's horse had just gained footing on the opposite shore, + when he looked back and perceived his father was dismounted, + struggling in the water, and carried down by the current.</p> + + <p>"Mr. Birkbeck could not swim; Bradford could; so he + dismounted, and plunged into the stream to save his father. He + got to him before he sunk, held him up above water, and told him + to take hold of his collar, and he would swim ashore with him. + Mr. B. did so, and Bradford exerted all his strength to stem the + current and reach the shore at a point where they could land; + but, encumbered by his own clothing and his father's weight, he + made no progress; when Mr. B. perceived this, he, with his + characteristic calmness and resolution, gave up his hold of his + son, and, motioning to him to save himself, resigned himself to + his fate. His son reached the shore, but was too much overwhelmed + by his loss to leave it. He was found by some travellers, many + hours after, seated on the margin of the stream, with his face in + his hands, stupefied with grief.</p> + + <p>"The body was found, and on the countenance was the sweetest + smile; and Bradford said, 'Just so he smiled, upon me when he let + go and pushed me away from him.'"</p><span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page57" id="page57"></a>[pg 57]</span> + + <p>Many men can choose the right and best on a great occasion, + but not many can, with such ready and serene decision, lay aside + even life, when that is right and best. This little narrative + touched my imagination in very early youth, and often has come + up, in lonely vision, that face, serenely smiling above the + current which bore him away to another realm of + being.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page58" id= + "page58"></a>[pg 58]</span> + <p> </p> + <h3>CHAPTER V.</h3> + + <h4>THOUGHTS AND SCENES IN WISCONSIN.—SOCIETY IN + MILWAUKIE.—INDIAN ANECDOTE.—SEERESS OF + PREVORST.—MILWAUKIE.</h4> + + <p>A territory, not yet a State;<a id="footnotetagg" name= + "footnotetagg"></a><a href="#footnoteg"><sup>G</sup></a> still + nearer the acorn than we were.</p> + + <p>It was very pleasant coming up. These large and elegant boats + are so well arranged that every excursion may be a party of + pleasure. There are many fair shows to see on the lake and its + shores, almost always new and agreeable persons on board, pretty + children playing about, ladies singing (and if not very well, + there is room, to keep out of the way). You may see a great deal + here of Life, in the London sense, if you know a few people; or + if you do not, and have the tact to look about you without + seeming to stare.</p> + + <p>We came to Milwaukie, where we were to pass a fortnight or + more.</p> + + <p>This place is most beautifully situated. A little river, with + romantic banks, passes up through the town. The bank of the lake + is here a bold bluff, eighty feet in height. From its summit is + enjoyed a noble outlook on the lake. A little narrow path winds + along the edge of the lake below. I liked this walk + much,—above me this high wall of rich earth, garlanded on + its crest with trees, the long ripples of the lake coming up to + my feet. Here, standing in the shadow, I could appreciate better + its magnificent <span class="pagenum"><a name="page59" id= + "page59"></a>[pg 59]</span> changes of color, which are the chief + beauties of the lake-waters; but these are indescribable.</p> + + <p>It was fine to ascend into the lighthouse, above this bluff, + and thence watch the thunder-clouds which so frequently rose over + the lake, or the great boats coming in. Approaching the Milwaukie + pier, they made a bend, and seemed to do obeisance in the heavy + style of some dowager duchess entering a circle she wishes to + treat with especial respect.</p> + + <p>These boats come in and out every day, and still afford a + cause for general excitement. The people swarm, down to greet + them, to receive and send away their packages and letters. To me + they seemed such mighty messengers, to give, by their noble + motion, such an idea of the power and fulness of life, that they + were worthy to carry despatches from king to king. It must be + very pleasant for those who have an active share in carrying on + the affairs of this great and growing world to see them approach, + and pleasant to such as have dearly loved friends at the next + station. To those who have neither business nor friends, it + sometimes gives a desolating sense of insignificance.</p> + + <p>The town promises to be, some time, a fine one, as it is so + well situated; and they have good building material,—a + yellow brick, very pleasing to the eye. It seems to grow before + you, and has indeed but just emerged from the thickets of oak and + wild-roses. A few steps will take you into the thickets, and + certainly I never saw so many wild-roses, or of so beautiful a + red. Of such a color were the first red ones the world ever saw, + when, says the legend, Venus flying to the assistance of Adonis, + the rose-bushes kept catching her to make her stay, and the drops + of blood the thorns drew from her feet, as she tore herself a + way, fell on the white roses, and turned them this beautiful + red.</p> + + <p>One day, walking along the river's bank in search of a + waterfall to be seen from one ravine, we heard tones from a band + of music, and saw a gay troop shooting at a mark, on the opposite + bank. Between every shot the band played; the effect was very + pretty.</p> + + <p>On this walk we found two of the oldest and most gnarled + hemlocks <span class="pagenum"><a name="page60" id= + "page60"></a>[pg 60]</span> that ever afforded study for a + painter. They were the only ones we saw; they seemed the veterans + of a former race.</p> + + <p>At Milwaukie, as at Chicago, are many pleasant people, drawn + together from all parts of the world. A resident here would find + great piquancy in the associations,—those he met having + such dissimilar histories and topics. And several persons I saw, + evidently transplanted from the most refined circles to be met in + this country. There are lures enough in the West for people of + all kinds;—the enthusiast and the cunning man; the + naturalist, and the lover who needs to be rich for the sake of + her he loves.</p> + + <p>The torrent of immigration swells very strongly towards this + place. During the fine weather, the poor refugees arrive daily, + in their national dresses, all travel-soiled and worn. The night + they pass in rude shantees, in a particular quarter of the town, + then walk off into the country,—the mothers carrying their + infants, the fathers leading the little children by the hand, + seeking a home where their hands may maintain them.</p> + + <p>One morning we set off in their track, and travelled a day's + journey into this country,—fair, yet not, in that part + which I saw, comparable, in my eyes, to the Rock River region. + Rich fields, proper for grain, alternate with oak openings, as + they are called; bold, various, and beautiful were the features + of the scene, but I saw not those majestic sweeps, those + boundless distances, those heavenly fields; it was not the same + world.</p> + + <p>Neither did we travel in the same delightful manner. We were + now in a nice carriage, which must not go off the road, for fear + of breakage, with a regular coachman, whose chief care was not to + tire his horses, and who had no taste for entering fields in + pursuit of wild-flowers, or tempting some strange wood-path, in + search of whatever might befall. It was pleasant, but almost as + tame as New England.</p> + + <p>But charming indeed was the place where we stopped. It was in + the vicinity of a chain of lakes, and on the bank of the + loveliest little stream, called, the Bark River, which, flowed in + rapid amber brightness, through fields, and dells, and stately + knolls, of most poetic beauty.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name= + "page61" id="page61"></a>[pg 61]</span> + + <p>The little log-cabin where we slept, with its flower-garden in + front, disturbed the scene no more than a stray lock on the fair + cheek. The hospitality of that house I may well call princely; it + was the boundless hospitality of the heart, which, if it has no + Aladdin's lamp to create a palace for the guest, does him still + higher service by the freedom of its bounty to the very last drop + of its powers.</p> + + <p>Sweet were the sunsets seen in the valley of this stream, + though, here, and, I grieve to say, no less near the Rock River, + the fiend, who has every liberty to tempt the happy in this + world, appeared in the shape of mosquitos, and allowed us no + bodily to enjoy our mental peace.</p> + + <p>One day we ladies gave, under the guidance of our host, to + visiting all the beauties of the adjacent lakes,—Nomabbin, + Silver, and Pine Lakes. On the shore of Nomabbin had formerly + been one of the finest Indian villages. Our host said, that once, + as he was lying there beneath the bank, he saw a tall Indian + standing at gaze on the knoll. He lay a long time, curious to see + how long the figure would maintain its statue-like absorption. + But at last his patience yielded, and, in moving, he made a + slight noise. The Indian saw him, gave a wild, snorting sound of + indignation and pain, and strode away.</p> + + <p>What feelings must consume their hearts at such moments! I + scarcely see how they can forbear to shoot the white man where he + stands.</p> + + <p>But the power of fate is with, the white man, and the Indian + feels it. This same gentleman told of his travelling through the + wilderness with an Indian guide. He had with him a bottle of + spirit which he meant to give him in small quantities, but the + Indian, once excited, wanted the whole at once. "I would not," + said Mr. ——, "give it him, for I thought, if he got + really drunk, there was an end to his services as a guide. But he + persisted, and at last tried to take it from me. I was not armed; + he was, and twice as strong as I. But I knew an Indian could not + resist the look of a white man, and I fixed my eye steadily on + his. He bore it for a moment, then his eye fell; he let go the + bottle. <span class="pagenum"><a name="page62" id= + "page62"></a>[pg 62]</span> I took his gun and threw it to a + distance. After a few moments' pause, I told him to go and fetch + it, and left it in his hands. From that moment he was quite + obedient, even servile, all the rest of the way."</p> + + <p>This gentleman, though in other respects of most kindly and + liberal heart, showed the aversion that the white man soon learns + to feel for the Indian on whom he encroaches,—the aversion + of the injurer for him he has degraded. After telling the + anecdote of his seeing the Indian gazing at the seat of his + former home,</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"A thing for human feelings the most trying,"</p> + </div> + </div> + + <p>and which, one would think, would have awakened soft + compassion—almost remorse—in the present owner of + that fair hill, which contained for the exile the bones of his + dead, the ashes of his hopes, he observed: "They cannot be + prevented from straggling back here to their old haunts. I wish + they could. They ought not to be permitted to drive away + <i>our</i> game." OUR game,—just heavens!</p> + + <p>The same gentleman showed, on a slight occasion, the true + spirit of a sportsman, or perhaps I might say of Man, when + engaged in any kind of chase. Showing us some antlers, he said: + "This one belonged to a majestic creature. But this other was the + beauty. I had been lying a long time at watch, when at last I + heard them come crackling along. I lifted my head cautiously, as + they burst through the trees. The first was a magnificent fellow; + but then I saw coming one, the prettiest, the most graceful I + ever beheld,—there was something so soft and beseeching in + its look. I chose him at once, took aim, and shot him dead. You + see the antlers are not very large; it was young, but the + prettiest creature!"</p> + + <p>In the course of this morning's drive, we visited the + gentlemen on their fishing party. They hailed us gayly, and rowed + ashore to show us what fine booty they had. No disappointment + there, no dull work.</p> + + <p>On the beautiful point of land from which we first saw them + lived a contented woman, the only one I heard of out there. She + was <span class="pagenum"><a name="page63" id="page63"></a>[pg + 63]</span> English, and said she had seen so much suffering in + her own country, that the hardships of this seemed as nothing to + her. But the others—even our sweet and gentle + hostess—found their labors disproportioned to their + strength, if not to their patience; and, while their husbands and + brothers enjoyed the country in hunting or fishing, they found + themselves confined to a comfortless and laborious in-door life. + But it need not be so long.</p> + + <p>This afternoon, driving about on the banks of these lakes, we + found the scene all of one kind of loveliness; wide, graceful + woods, and then these fine sheets of water, with, fine points of + land jutting out boldly into them. It was lovely, but not + striking or peculiar.</p> + + <p>All woods suggest pictures. The European forest, with its long + glades and green, sunny dells, naturally suggested the figures of + armed knight on his proud steed, or maiden, decked in gold and + pearl, pricking along them on a snow-white palfrey; the green + dells, of weary Palmer sleeping there beside the spring with his + head upon his wallet. Our minds, familiar with such, figures, + people with them the New England woods, wherever the sunlight + falls down a longer than usual cart-track, wherever a cleared + spot has lain still enough for the trees to look friendly, with + their exposed sides cultivated by the light, and the grass to + look velvet warm, and be embroidered with flowers. These Western + woods suggest a different kind of ballad. The Indian legends have + often an air of the wildest solitude, as has the one Mr. Lowell + has put into verse in his late volume. But I did not see those + wild woods; only such as suggest to me little romances of love + and sorrow, like this:—</p> + + + <h4>GUNHILDA</h4> + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>A maiden sat beneath the tree,</p> + + <p>Tear-bedewed her pale cheeks be,</p> + + <p>And she sigheth heavily.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>From forth the wood into the light</p> + + <p>A hunter strides, with carol light,</p> + + <p>And a glance so bold and bright.</p><span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page64" id="page64"></a>[pg 64]</span> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>He careless stopped and eyed the maid;</p> + + <p>"Why weepest thou?" he gently said;</p> + + <p>"I love thee well; be not afraid."</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>He takes her hand, and leads her on;</p> + + <p>She should have waited there alone,</p> + + <p>For he was not her chosen one.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>He leans her head upon his breast,</p> + + <p>She knew 't was not her home of rest,</p> + + <p>But ah! she had been sore distrest.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>The sacred stars looked sadly down;</p> + + <p>The parting moon appeared to frown,</p> + + <p>To see thus dimmed the diamond crown.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>Then from the thicket starts a deer,</p> + + <p>The huntsman, seizing on his spear,</p> + + <p>Cries, "Maiden, wait thou for me here."</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>She sees him vanish into night,</p> + + <p>She starts from sleep in deep affright,</p> + + <p>For it was not her own true knight.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>Though but in dream Gunhilda failed.</p> + + <p>Though but a fancied ill assailed,</p> + + <p>Though she but fancied fault bewailed,—</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>Yet thought of day makes dream of night:</p> + + <p>She is not worthy of the knight,</p> + + <p>The inmost altar burns not bright.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>If loneliness thou canst not bear,</p> + + <p>Cannot the dragon's venom dare,</p> + + <p>Of the pure meed thou shouldst despair.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>Now sadder that lone maiden sighs,</p> + + <p>Far bitterer tears profane her eyes,</p> + + <p>Crushed, in the dust her heart's flower lies.</p> + </div> + </div> + + <p>On the bank of Silver Lake we saw an Indian encampment. A + shower threatened us, but we resolved to try if we could not + visit <span class="pagenum"><a name="page65" id="page65"></a>[pg + 65]</span> it before it came on. We crossed a wide field on foot, + and found the Indians amid the trees on a shelving bank; just as + we reached them, the rain began to fall in torrents, with + frequent thunderclaps, and we had to take refuge in their lodges. + These were very small, being for temporary use, and we crowded + the occupants much, among whom were several sick, on the damp + ground, or with only a ragged mat between them and it. But they + showed all the gentle courtesy which, marks their demeanor + towards the stranger, who stands in any need; though it was + obvious that the visit, which inconvenienced them, could only + have been caused by the most impertinent curiosity, they made us + as comfortable as their extreme poverty permitted. They seemed to + think we would not like to touch them; a sick girl in the lodge + where I was, persisted in moving so as to give me the dry place; + a woman, with the sweet melancholy eye of the race, kept off the + children and wet dogs from even the hem of my garment.</p> + + <p>Without, their fires smouldered, and black kettles, hung over + them on sticks, smoked, and seethed in the rain. An old, + theatrical-looking Indian stood with arms folded, looking up to + the heavens, from which the rain clashed and the thunder + reverberated; his air was French-Roman; that is, more Romanesque + than Roman. The Indian ponies, much excited, kept careering + through the wood, around the encampment, and now and then, + halting suddenly, would thrust in their intelligent, though + amazed faces, as if to ask their masters when this awful pother + would cease, and then, after a moment, rush and trample off + again.</p> + + <p>At last we got away, well wetted, but with a picturesque scene + for memory. At a house where we stopped to get dry, they told us + that this wandering band (of Pottawattamies), who had returned, + on a visit, either from homesickness, or need of relief, were + extremely destitute. The women had been there to see if they + could barter for food their head-bands, with which they club + their hair behind into a form not unlike a Grecian knot. They + seemed, indeed, to have neither food, utensils, clothes, nor + bedding; nothing but the ground, the sky, and their own strength. + Little wonder if they drove off the game!</p><span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page66" id="page66"></a>[pg 66]</span> + + <p>Part of the same band I had seen in Milwaukee, on a begging + dance. The effect of this was wild and grotesque. They wore much + paint and feather head-dresses. "Indians without paint are poor + coots," said a gentleman who had been a great deal with, and + really liked, them; and I like the effect of the paint on them; + it reminds of the gay fantasies of nature. With them in Milwaukie + was a chief, the finest Indian figure I saw, more than six feet + in height, erect, and of a sullen, but grand gait and gesture. He + wore a deep-red blanket, which fell in large folds from his + shoulders to his feet, did not join in the dance, but slowly + strode about through the streets, a fine sight, not a + French-Roman, but a real Roman. He looked unhappy, but listlessly + unhappy, as if he felt it was of no use to strive or resist.</p> + + <p>While in the neighborhood of these lakes, we visited also a + foreign settlement of great interest. Here were minds, it seemed, + to "comprehend the trust" of their new life; and, if they can + only stand true to them, will derive and bestow great benefits + therefrom.</p> + + <p>But sad and sickening to the enthusiast who comes to these + shores, hoping the tranquil enjoyment of intellectual blessings, + and the pure happiness of mutual love, must be a part of the + scene that he encounters at first. He has escaped from the + heartlessness of courts, to encounter the vulgarity of the mob; + he has secured solitude, but it is a lonely, a deserted solitude. + Amid the abundance of nature, he cannot, from petty, but + insuperable obstacles, procure, for a long time, comforts or a + home.</p> + + <p>But let him come sufficiently armed with patience to learn the + new spells which the new dragons require, (and this can only be + done on the spot,) he will not finally be disappointed of the + promised treasure; the mob will resolve itself into men, yet + crude, but of good dispositions, and capable of good character; + the solitude will become sufficiently enlivened, and home grow up + at last from the rich sod.</p> + + <p>In this transition state we found one of these homes. As we + approached, it seemed the very Eden which earth might still + afford to a pair willing to give up the hackneyed pleasures of + the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page67" id="page67"></a>[pg + 67]</span> world for a better and more intimate communion with + one another and with beauty: the wild road led through wide, + beautiful woods, to the wilder and more beautiful shores of the + finest lake we saw. On its waters, glittering in the morning sun, + a few Indians were paddling to and fro in their light canoes. On + one of those fair knolls I have so often mentioned stood the + cottage, beneath trees which stooped as if they yet felt + brotherhood with its roof-tree. Flowers waved, birds fluttered + round, all had the sweetness of a happy seclusion; all invited to + cry to those who inhabited it, All hail, ye happy ones!</p> + + <p>But on entrance to those evidently rich in personal beauty, + talents, love, and courage, the aspect of things was rather sad. + Sickness had been with them, death, care, and labor; these had + not yet blighted them, but had turned their gay smiles grave. It + seemed that hope and joy had given place to resolution. How much, + too, was there in them, worthless in this place, which would have + been so valuable elsewhere! Refined graces, cultivated powers, + shine in vain before field-laborers, as laborers are in this + present world; you might as well cultivate heliotropes to present + to an ox. Oxen and heliotropes are both good, but not for one + another.</p> + + <p>With them were some of the old means of enjoyment, the books, + the pencil, the guitar; but where the wash-tub and the axe are so + constantly in requisition, there is not much time and pliancy of + hand for these.</p> + + <p>In the inner room, the master of the house was seated; he had + been sitting there long, for he had injured his foot on + ship-board, and his farming had to be done by proxy. His + beautiful young wife was his only attendant and nurse, as well as + a farm, housekeeper. How well she performed hard and unaccustomed + duties, the objects of her care showed; everything that belonged + to the house was rude, but neatly arranged. The invalid, confined + to an uneasy wooden chair, (they had not been able to induce any + one to bring them an easy-chair from the town,) looked as neat + and elegant as if he had been dressed by the valet of a duke. He + was of Northern blood, with clear, full blue eyes, calm features, + a <span class="pagenum"><a name="page68" id="page68"></a>[pg + 68]</span> tempering of the soldier, scholar, and man of the + world, in his aspect. Either various intercourses had given him + that thoroughbred look never seen in Americans, or it was + inherited from a race who had known all these disciplines. He + formed a great but pleasing contrast to his wife, whose glowing + complexion and dark yellow eye bespoke an origin in some climate + more familiar with the sun. He looked as if he could sit there a + great while patiently, and live on his own mind, biding his time; + she, as if she could bear anything for affection's sake, but + would feel the weight of each moment as it passed.</p> + + <p>Seeing the album full of drawings and verses, which bespoke + the circle of elegant and affectionate intercourse they had left + behind, we could not but see that the young wife sometimes must + need a sister, the husband a companion, and both must often miss + that electricity which sparkles from the chain of congenial + minds.</p> + + <p>For mankind, a position is desirable in some degree + proportioned to education. Mr. Birkbeck was bred a farmer, but + these were nurslings of the court and city; they may persevere, + for an affectionate courage shone in their eyes, and, if so, + become true lords of the soil, and informing geniuses to those + around; then, perhaps, they will feel that they have not paid too + clear for the tormented independence of the new settler's life. + But, generally, damask roses will not thrive in the wood, and a + ruder growth, if healthy and pure, we wish rather to see + there.</p> + + <p>I feel about these foreigners very differently from what I do + about Americans. American men and women are inexcusable if they + do not bring up children so as to be fit for vicissitudes; the + meaning of our star is, that here all men being free and equal, + every man should be fitted for freedom and an independence by his + own resources wherever the changeful wave of our mighty stream + may take him. But the star of Europe brought a different + horoscope, and to mix destinies breaks the thread of both. The + Arabian horse will not plough well, nor can the plough-horse be + rode to play the jereed. Yet a man is a man wherever he goes, and + something precious cannot fail to be gained by one who knows how + to abide by a resolution of any kind, and pay the cost without a + murmur.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page69" id= + "page69"></a>[pg 69]</span> + + <p>Returning, the fine carriage at last fulfilled its threat of + breaking down. We took refuge in a farm-house. Here was a + pleasant scene,—a rich and beautiful estate, several happy + families, who had removed together, and formed a natural + community, ready to help and enliven one another. They were + farmers at home, in Western New York, and both men and women knew + how to work. Yet even here the women did not like the change, but + they were willing, "as it might be best for the young folks." + Their hospitality was great: the houseful of women and pretty + children seemed all of one mind.</p> + + <p>Returning to Milwaukie much fatigued, I entertained myself: + for a day or two with reading. The book I had brought with me was + in strong contrast with, the life around, me. Very strange was + this vision of an exalted and sensitive existence, which seemed + to invade the next sphere, in contrast with the spontaneous, + instinctive life, so healthy and so near the ground I had been + surveying. This was the German book entitled:—</p> + + <p>"The Seeress of Prevorst.—Revelations concerning the + Inward Life of Man, and the Projection of a World of Spirits into + ours, communicated by Justinus Kerner."</p> + + <p>This book, published in Germany some twelve years since, and + which called forth there plenteous dews of admiration, as + plenteous hail-storms of jeers and scorns, I never saw mentioned + in any English publication till some year or two since. Then a + playful, but not sarcastic account of it, in the Dublin Magazine, + so far excited my curiosity, that I procured the book, intending + to read it so soon as I should have some leisure days, such as + this journey has afforded.</p> + + <p>Dr. Kerner, its author, is a man of distinction in his native + land, both as a physician and a thinker, though always on the + side of reverence, marvel, and mysticism. He was known to me only + through two or three little poems of his in Catholic legends, + which I much admired for the fine sense they showed of the beauty + of symbols.</p> + + <p>He here gives a biography, mental and physical, of one of the + most remarkable cases of high nervous excitement that the age, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page70" id="page70"></a>[pg + 70]</span> so interested in such, yet affords, with all its + phenomena of clairvoyance and susceptibility of magnetic + influences. As to my own mental positron on these subjects, it + may be briefly expressed by a dialogue between several persons + who honor me with a portion of friendly confidence and criticism, + and myself, personified as <i>Free Hope</i>. The others may be + styled <i>Old Church</i>, <i>Good Sense</i>, and + <i>Self-Poise</i>.</p> + + <h4>DIALOGUE.</h4> + + <p><i>Good Sense.</i> I wonder you can take any interest in such + observations or experiments. Don't you see how almost impossible + it is to make them with any exactness, how entirely impossible to + know anything about them unless made by yourself, when the least + leaven of credulity, excited fancy, to say nothing of willing or + careless imposture, spoils the whole loaf? Beside, allowing the + possibility of some clear glimpses into a higher state of being, + what do we want of it now? All around us lies what we neither + understand nor use. Our capacities, our instincts for this our + present sphere, are but half developed. Let us confine ourselves + to that till the lesson be learned; let us be completely natural, + before we trouble ourselves with the supernatural. I never see + any of these things but I long to get away and lie under a green + tree, and let the wind blow on me. There is marvel and charm + enough in that for me.</p> + + <p><i>Free Hope.</i> And for me also. Nothing is truer than the + Wordsworthian creed, on which Carlyle lays such stress, that we + need only look on the miracle of every day, to sate ourselves + with thought and admiration every day. But how are our faculties + sharpened to do it? Precisely by apprehending the infinite + results of every day.</p> + + <p>Who sees the meaning of the flower uprooted in the ploughed + field? The ploughman who does not look beyond its boundaries and + does not raise his eyes from the ground? No,—but the poet + who sees that field in its relations with the universe, and looks + oftener to the sky than on the ground. Only the dreamer shall + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page71" id="page71"></a>[pg + 71]</span> understand realities, though, in truth, his dreaming + must be not out of proportion to his waking!</p> + + <p>The mind, roused powerfully by this existence, stretches of + itself into what the French sage calls the "aromal state." From + the hope thus gleaned it forms the hypothesis, under whose banner + it collects its facts.</p> + + <p>Long before these slight attempts were made to establish, as a + science what is at present called animal magnetism, always, in + fact, men were occupied more or less with this vital + principle,—principle of flux and influx,—dynamic of + our mental mechanics,—human phase of electricity. Poetic + observation was pure, there was no quackery in its free course, + as there is so often in this wilful tampering with the hidden + springs of life, for it is tampering unless done in a patient + spirit and with severe truth; yet it may be, by the rude or + greedy miners, some good ore is unearthed. And some there are who + work in the true temper, patient and accurate in trial, not + rushing to conclusions, feeling there is a mystery, not eager to + call it by name till they can know it as a reality: such may + learn, such may teach.</p> + + <p>Subject to the sudden revelations, the breaks in habitual + existence, caused by the aspect of death, the touch of love, the + flood of music, I never lived, that I remember, what you call a + common natural day. All my days are touched by the supernatural, + for I feel the pressure of hidden causes, and the presence, + sometimes the communion, of unseen powers. It needs not that I + should ask the clairvoyant whether "a spirit-world projects into + ours." As to the specific evidence, I would not tarnish my mind + by hasty reception. The mind is not, I know, a highway, but a + temple, and its doors should not be carelessly left open. Yet it + were sin, if indolence or coldness excluded what had a claim to + enter; and I doubt whether, in the eyes of pure intelligence, an + ill-grounded hasty rejection be not a greater sign of weakness + than an ill-grounded and hasty faith.</p> + + <p>I will quote, as my best plea, the saying of a man old in + years, but not in heart, and whose long life has been + distinguished by that clear adaptation of means to ends which + gives the credit of <span class="pagenum"><a name="page72" id= + "page72"></a>[pg 72]</span> practical wisdom. He wrote to his + child, "I have lived too long, and seen too much, to be <i>in</i> + credulous." Noble the thought, no less so its frank expression, + instead of saws of caution, mean advices, and other modern + instances. Such was the romance of Socrates when he bade his + disciples "sacrifice a cock to Æsculapius."</p> + + <p><i>Old Church.</i> You are always so quick-witted and voluble, + Free Hope, you don't get time to see how often you err, and even, + perhaps, sin and blaspheme. The Author of all has intended to + confine our knowledge within certain boundaries, has given us a + short span of time for a certain probation, for which our + faculties are adapted. By wild speculation and intemperate + curiosity we violate His will, and incur dangerous, perhaps + fatal, consequences. We waste our powers, and, becoming morbid + and visionary, are unfitted to obey positive precepts, and + perform positive duties.</p> + + <p><i>Free Hope.</i> I do not see how it is possible to go + further beyond the results of a limited human experience than + those do who pretend to settle the origin and nature of sin, the + final destiny of souls, and the whole plan of the Causal Spirit + with regard to them. I think those who take your view have not + examined themselves, and do not know the ground on which they + stand.</p> + + <p>I acknowledge no limit, set up by man's opinion, as to the + capacities of man. "Care is taken," I see it, "that the trees + grow not up into heaven"; but, to me it seems, the more + vigorously they aspire, the better. Only let it be a vigorous, + not a partial or sickly aspiration. Let not the tree forget its + root.</p> + + <p>So long as the child insists on knowing where its dead parent + is, so long as bright eyes weep at mysterious pressures, too + heavy for the life, so long as that impulse is constantly arising + which made the Roman emperor address his soul in a strain of such + touching softness, vanishing from, the thought, as the column of + smoke from the eye, I know of no inquiry which the impulse of man + suggests that is forbidden to the resolution of man to pursue. In + every inquiry, unless sustained by a pure and reverent spirit, he + gropes in the dark, or falls headlong.</p> + + <p><i>Self-Poise.</i> All this may be very true, but what is the + use of <span class="pagenum"><a name="page73" id="page73"></a>[pg + 73]</span> all this straining? Far-sought is dear-bought. When we + know that all is in each, and that the ordinary contains the + extraordinary, why should we play the baby, and insist upon + having the moon for a toy when a tin dish will do as well? Our + deep ignorance is a chasm that we can only fill up by degrees, + but the commonest rubbish will help us as well as shred silk. The + god Brahma, while on earth, was set to fill up a valley, but he + had only a basket given him in which to fetch earth for this + purpose; so is it with us all. No leaps, no starts, will avail + us; by patient crystallization alone, the equal temper of wisdom + is attainable. Sit at home, and the spirit-world will look in at + your window with moonlit eyes; run out to find it, and rainbow + and golden cup will have vanished, and left you the beggarly + child you were. The better part of wisdom is a sublime prudence, + a pure and patient truth, that will receive nothing it is not + sure it can permanently lay to heart. Of our study, there should + be in proportion two thirds of rejection to one of acceptance. + And, amid the manifold infatuations and illusions of this world + of emotion, a being capable of clear intelligence can do no + better service than to hold himself upright, avoid nonsense, and + do what chores lie in his way, acknowledging every moment that + primal truth, which no fact exhibits, nor, if pressed by too warm + a hope, will even indicate. I think, indeed, it is part of our + lesson to give a formal consent to what is farcical, and to pick + up our living and our virtue amid what is so ridiculous, hardly + deigning a smile, and certainly not vexed. The work is done + through all, if not by every one.</p> + + <p><i>Free Hope.</i> Thou art greatly wise, my friend, and ever + respected by me, yet I find not in your theory or your scope room + enough for the lyric inspirations or the mysterious whispers of + life. To me it seems that it is madder never to abandon one's + self, than often to be infatuated; better to be wounded, a + captive, and a slave, than always to walk in armor. As to + magnetism, that is only a matter of fancy. You sometimes need + just such a field in which to wander vagrant, and if it bear a + higher name, yet it may be that, in last result, the trance of + Pythagoras might be classed with the more infantine transports of + the Seeress of Prevorst.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name= + "page74" id="page74"></a>[pg 74]</span> + + <p>What is done interests me more than what is thought and + supposed. Every fact is impure, but every fact contains in it the + juices of life. Every fact is a clod, from which may grow an + amaranth or a palm.</p> + + <p>Climb you the snowy peaks whence come the streams, where the + atmosphere is rare, where you can see the sky nearer, from which + you can get a commanding view of the landscape? I see great + disadvantages as well as advantages in this dignified position. I + had rather walk myself through all kinds of places, even at the + risk of being robbed in the forest, half drowned at the ford, and + covered with dust in the street.</p> + + <p>I would beat with the living heart of the world, and + understand all the moods, even the fancies or fantasies, of + nature. I dare to trust to the interpreting spirit to bring me + out all right at last,—establish truth through error.</p> + + <p>Whether this be the best way is of no consequence, if it be + the one individual character points out.</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>For one, like me, it would be vain</p> + + <p>From glittering heights the eyes to strain;</p> + + <p>I the truth can only know,</p> + + <p>Tested by life's most fiery glow.</p> + + <p>Seeds of thought will never thrive,</p> + + <p>Till dews of love shall bid them live.</p> + </div> + </div> + + <p>Let me stand in my age with all its waters flowing round me. + If they sometimes subdue, they must finally upbear me, for I seek + the universal,—and that must be the best.</p> + + <p>The Spirit, no doubt, leads in every movement of my time: if I + seek the How, I shall find it, as well as if I busied myself more + with the Why.</p> + + <p>Whatever is, is right, if only men are steadily bent to make + it so, by comprehending and fulfilling its design.</p> + + <p>May not I have an office, too, in my hospitality and ready + sympathy? If I sometimes entertain guests who cannot pay with + gold coin, with "fair rose nobles," that is better than to lose + the chance of entertaining angels unawares.</p> + + <p>You, my three friends, are held, in heart-honor, by me. You, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page75" id="page75"></a>[pg + 75]</span> especially, Good Sense, because where you do not go + yourself, you do not object to another's going, if he will. You + are really liberal. You, Old Church, are of use, by keeping + unforgot the effigies of old religion, and reviving the tone of + pure Spenserian sentiment, which this time is apt to stifle in + its childish haste. But you are very faulty in censuring and + wishing to limit others by your own standard. You, Self-Poise, + fill a priestly office. Could but a larger intelligence of the + vocations of others, and a tender sympathy with their individual + natures, be added, had you more of love, or more of apprehensive + genius, (for either would give you the needed expansion and + delicacy,) you would command my entire reverence. As it is, I + must at times deny and oppose you, and so must others, for you + tend, by your influence, to exclude us from our full, free life. + We must be content when you censure, and rejoiced when you + approve; always admonished to good by your whole being, and + sometimes by your judgment.</p> + <hr class="short" /> + + <p>Do not blame me that I have written so much suggested by the + German seeress, while you were looking for news of the West. Here + on the pier, I see disembarking the Germans, the Norwegians, the + Swedes, the Swiss. Who knows how much of old legendary lore, of + modern wonder, they have already planted amid the Wisconsin + forests? Soon, their tales of the origin of things, and the + Providence which rules them, will be so mingled with those of the + Indian, that the very oak-tree will not know them + apart,—will not know whether itself be a Runic, a Druid, or + a Winnebago oak.</p> + + <p>Some seeds of all growths that have ever been known in this + world might, no doubt, already be found in these Western wilds, + if we had the power to call them to life.</p> + + <p>I saw, in the newspaper, that the American Tract Society + boasted of their agent's having exchanged, at a Western cabin + door, tracts for the "Devil on Two Sticks," and then burnt that + more entertaining than edifying volume. No wonder, though, they + study it there. Could one but have the gift of reading the + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page76" id="page76"></a>[pg + 76]</span> dreams dreamed by men of such various birth, various + history, various mind, it would afford much, more extensive + amusement than did the chambers of one Spanish city!</p> + + <p>Could I but have flown at night through such mental + experiences, instead of being shut up in my little bedroom at the + Milwaukie boarding-house, this chapter would have been worth + reading. As it is, let us hasten to a close.</p> + + <p>Had I been rich in money, I might have built a house, or set + up in business, during my fortnight's stay at Milwaukie, matters + move on there at so rapid a rate. But being only rich in + curiosity, I was obliged to walk the streets and pick up what I + could in casual intercourse. When I left the street, indeed, and + walked on the bluffs, or sat beside the lake in their shadow, my + mind was rich in dreams congenial to the scene, some time to be + realized, though not by me.</p> + + <p>A boat was left, keel up, half on the sand, half in the water, + swaying with each swell of the lake. It gave a picturesque grace + to that part of the shore, as the only image of + inaction,—only object of a pensive character to be seen. + Near this I sat, to dream my dreams and watch the colors of the + lake, changing hourly, till the sun sank. These hours yielded + impulses, wove webs, such as life will not again afford.</p> + + <p>Returning to the boarding-house, which was also a + boarding-school, we were sure to be greeted by gay laughter.</p> + + <p>This school was conducted by two girls of nineteen and + seventeen years; their pupils were nearly as old as themselves. + The relation seemed very pleasant between them; the only + superiority—that of superior knowledge—was sufficient + to maintain authority,—all the authority that was needed to + keep daily life in good order.</p> + + <p>In the West, people are not respected merely because they are + old in years; people there have not time to keep up appearances + in that way; when persons cease to have a real advantage in + wisdom, knowledge, or enterprise, they must stand back, and let + those who are oldest in character "go ahead," however few years + they may count. There are no banks of established respectability + in <span class="pagenum"><a name="page77" id="page77"></a>[pg + 77]</span> which to bury the talent there; no napkin of precedent + in which to wrap it. What cannot be made to pass current, is not + esteemed coin of the realm.</p> + + <p>To the windows of this house, where the daughter of a famous + "Indian fighter," i.e. fighter against the Indians, was learning + French, and the piano, came wild, tawny figures, offering for + sale their baskets of berries. The boys now, instead of + brandishing the tomahawk, tame their hands to pick + raspberries.</p> + + <p>Here the evenings were much lightened by the gay chat of one + of the party, who with the excellent practical sense of mature + experience, and the kindest heart, united a + <i>naïveté</i> and innocence such as I never + saw in any other who had walked so long life's tangled path. Like + a child, she was everywhere at home, and, like a child, received + and bestowed entertainment from all places, all persons. I + thanked her for making me laugh, as did the sick and poor, whom + she was sure to find out in her briefest sojourn in any place, + for more substantial aid. Happy are those who never grieve, and + so often aid and enliven their fellow-men!</p> + + <p>This scene, however, I was not sorry to exchange for the much + celebrated beauties of the island of Mackinaw.</p> + + <blockquote class="footnote"> + <a id="footnoteg" name="footnoteg"></a><b>Footnote G:</b> + <a href="#footnotetagg">(return)</a> + + <p>Wisconsin was not admitted into the Union as a State till + 1847, after this volume was written.—ED.</p> + </blockquote><span class="pagenum"><a name="page78" id= + "page78"></a>[pg 78]</span> + <p> </p> + <h3>CHAPTER VI.</h3> + + <h4>MACKINAW.—INDIANS.—INDIAN WOMEN.—EVERETT'S + RECEPTION OF CHIEFS.—UNFITNESS OF INDIAN + MISSIONARIES.—OUR DUTIES TOWARD THIS RACE.</h4> + + <p>Late at night we reached this island of Mackinaw, so famous + for its beauty, and to which I proposed a visit of some length. + It was the last week in August, at which, time a large + representation from the Chippewa and Ottawa tribes are here to + receive their annual payments from the American government. As + their habits make travelling easy and inexpensive to them, + neither being obliged to wait for steamboats, or write to see + whether hotels are full, they come hither by thousands, and those + thousands in families, secure of accommodation on the beach, and + food from the lake, to make a long holiday out of the occasion. + There were near two thousand encamped on the island already, and + more arriving every day.</p> + + <p>As our boat came in, the captain had some rockets let off. + This greatly excited the Indians, and their yells and wild cries + resounded along the shore. Except for the momentary flash of the + rockets, it was perfectly dark, and my sensations as I walked + with a stranger to a strange hotel, through the midst of these + shrieking savages, and heard the pants and snorts of the + departing steamer, which carried, away all my companions, were + somewhat of the dismal sort; though it was pleasant, too, in the + way that everything strange is; everything that breaks in upon + the routine that so easily incrusts us.</p> + + <p>I had reason to expect a room to myself at the hotel, but + found none, and was obliged to take up my rest in the common + parlor <span class="pagenum"><a name="page79" id="page79"></a>[pg + 79]</span> and eating-room, a circumstance which insured my being + an early riser.</p> + + <p>With the first rosy streak, I was out among my Indian + neighbors, whose lodges honeycombed the beautiful beach, that + curved away in long, fair outline on either side the house. They + were already on the alert, the children creeping out from beneath + the blanket door of the lodge, the women pounding corn in their + rude mortars, the young men playing on their pipes. I had been + much amused, when the strain proper to the Winnebago courting + flute was played to me on another instrument, at any one fancying + it a melody; but now, when I heard the notes in their true tone + and time, I thought it not unworthy comparison, in its graceful + sequence, and the light flourish at the close, with the sweetest + bird-song; and this, like the bird-song, is only practised to + allure a mate. The Indian, become a citizen and a husband, no + more thinks of playing the flute, than one of the "settled-down" + members of our society would, of choosing the "purple light of + love" as dye-stuff for a surtout.</p> + + <p>Mackinaw has been fully described by able pens, and I can only + add my tribute to the exceeding beauty of the spot and its + position. It is charming to be on an island so small that you can + sail round it in an afternoon, yet large enough to admit of long, + secluded walks through its gentle groves. You can go round it in + your boat; or, on foot, you can tread its narrow beach, resting, + at times, beneath the lofty walls of stone, richly wooded, which + rise from it in various architectural forms. In this stone, caves + are continually forming, from the action of the atmosphere; one + of these is quite deep, and a rocky fragment left at its mouth, + wreathed with little creeping plants, looks, as you sit within, + like a ruined pillar.</p> + + <p>The arched rock surprised me, much as I had heard of it, from, + the perfection of the arch. It is perfect, whether you look up + through it from the lake, or down through it to the transparent + waters. We both ascended and descended—no very easy + matter—the steep and crumbling path, and rested at the + summit, beneath the trees, and at the foot, upon the cool, mossy + stones beside the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page80" id= + "page80"></a>[pg 80]</span> lapsing wave. Nature has carefully + decorated all this architecture with shrubs that take root within + the crevices, and small creeping vines. These natural ruins may + vie for beautiful effect with the remains of European grandeur, + and have, beside, a charm as of a playful mood in Nature.</p> + + <p>The sugar-loaf rock is a fragment in the same kind as the pine + rock we saw in Illinois. It has the same air of a helmet, as seen + from an eminence at the side, which you descend by a long and + steep path. The rock itself may be ascended by the bold and + agile: half-way up is a niche, to which those who are neither can + climb by a ladder. A very handsome young officer and lady who + were with us did so, and then, facing round, stood there side by + side, looking in the niche, if not like saints or angels wrought + by pious hands in stone, as romantically, if not as holily, + worthy the gazer's eye.</p> + + <p>The woods which adorn the central ridge of the island are very + full in foliage, and, in August, showed the tender green and + pliant leaf of June elsewhere. They are rich in beautiful mosses + and the wild raspberry.</p> + + <p>From Fort Holmes, the old fort, we had the most commanding + view of the lake and straits, opposite shores, and fair islets. + Mackinaw itself is best seen from the water. Its peculiar shape + is supposed to have been the origin of its name, Michilimackinac, + which means the Great Turtle. One person whom I saw wished to + establish another etymology, which he fancied to be more refined; + but, I doubt not, this is the true one, both because the shape + might suggest such a name, and the existence of an island of such + form in this commanding position would seem a significant fact to + the Indians. For Henry gives the details of peculiar worship paid + to the Great Turtle, and the oracles received from this + extraordinary Apollo of the Indian Delphos.</p> + + <p>It is crowned, most picturesquely, by the white fort, with its + gay flag. From this, on one side, stretches the town. How + pleasing a sight, after the raw, crude, staring assemblage of + houses everywhere else to be met in this country, is an old + French town, mellow in its coloring, and with the harmonious + effect of a slow <span class="pagenum"><a name="page81" id= + "page81"></a>[pg 81]</span> growth, which assimilates, naturally, + with objects round it! The people in its streets, Indian, French, + half-breeds, and others, walked with a leisure step, as of those + who live a life of taste and inclination, rather than of the hard + press of business, as in American towns elsewhere.</p> + + <p>On the other side, along the fair, curving beach, below the + white houses scattered on the declivity, clustered the Indian + lodges, with their amber-brown matting, so soft and bright of + hue, in the late afternoon sun. The first afternoon I was there, + looking down from a near height, I felt that I never wished to + see a more fascinating picture. It was an hour of the deepest + serenity; bright blue and gold, with rich shadows. Every moment + the sunlight fell more mellow. The Indians were grouped and + scattered among the lodges; the women preparing food, in the + kettle or frying-pan, over the many small fires; the children, + half naked, wild as little goblins, were playing both in and out + of the water. Here and there lounged a young girl, with a baby at + her back, whose bright eyes glanced, as if born into a world of + courage and of joy, instead of ignominious servitude and slow + decay. Some girls were cutting wood, a little way from me, + talking and laughing, in the low musical tone, so charming in the + Indian women. Many bark canoes were upturned upon the beach, and, + by that light, of almost the same amber as the lodges; others + coming in, their square sails set, and with almost arrowy speed, + though heavily laden with dusky forms, and all the apparatus of + their household. Here and there a sail-boat glided by, with a + different but scarce less pleasing motion.</p> + + <p>It was a scene of ideal loveliness, and these wild forms + adorned it, as looking so at home in it. All seemed happy, and + they were happy that day, for they had no fire-water to madden + them, as it was Sunday, and the shops were shut.</p> + + <p>From my window, at the boarding-house, my eye was constantly + attracted by these picturesque groups. I was never tired of + seeing the canoes come in, and the new arrivals set up their + temporary dwellings. The women ran to set up the tent-poles, and + spread the mats on the ground. The men brought the <span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page82" id="page82"></a>[pg 82]</span> chests, + kettles, &c.; the mats were then laid on the outside, the + cedar-boughs strewed on the ground, the blanket hung up for a + door, and all was completed in less than twenty minutes. Then + they began to prepare the night meal, and to learn of their + neighbors the news of the day.</p> + + <p>The habit of preparing food out of doors gave all the gypsy + charm and variety to their conduct. Continually I wanted Sir + Walter Scott to have been there. If such romantic sketches were + suggested to him, by the sight of a few gypsies, not a group near + one of these fires but would have furnished him material for a + separate canvas. I was so taken up with the spirit of the scene, + that I could not follow out the stories suggested by these + weather-beaten, sullen, but eloquent figures.</p> + + <p>They talked a great deal, and with much, variety of gesture, + so that I often had a good guess at the meaning of their + discourse. I saw that, whatever the Indian may be among the + whites, he is anything but taciturn with his own people; and he + often would declaim, or narrate at length. Indeed, it is obvious, + if only from the fables taken from their stores by Mr. + Schoolcraft, that these tribes possess great power that way.</p> + + <p>I liked very much, to walk or sit among them. With, the women + I held much communication by signs. They are almost invariably + coarse and ugly, with the exception of their eyes, with a + peculiarly awkward gait, and forms bent by burdens. This gait, so + different from the steady and noble step of the men, marks the + inferior position they occupy. I had heard much eloquent + contradiction of this. Mrs. Schoolcraft had maintained to a + friend, that they were in fact as nearly on a par with their + husbands as the white woman with hers. "Although," said she, "on + account of inevitable causes, the Indian woman is subjected to + many hardships of a peculiar nature, yet her position, compared + with that of the man, is higher and freer than that of the white + woman. Why will people look only on one side? They either exalt + the red man into a demigod, or degrade him into a beast. They say + that he compels his wife to do all the drudgery, while he does + nothing but hunt and amuse himself; forgetting that <span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page83" id="page83"></a>[pg 83]</span> upon + his activity and power of endurance as a hunter depends the + support of his family; that this is labor of the most fatiguing + kind, and that it is absolutely necessary that he should keep his + frame unbent by burdens and unworn by toil, that he may be able + to obtain the means of subsistence. I have witnessed scenes of + conjugal and parental love in the Indian's wigwam, from, which I + have often, often thought the educated white man, proud of his + superior civilization, might learn a useful lesson. When he + returns from hunting, worn out with, fatigue, having tasted + nothing since dawn, his wife, if she is a good wife, will take + off his moccasons and replace them with dry ones, and will + prepare his game for their repast, while his children will climb + upon him, and he will caress them, with all the tenderness of a + woman; and in the evening the Indian wigwam is the scene of the + purest domestic pleasures. The father will relate, for the + amusement of the wife and for the instruction of the children, + all the events of the day's hunt, while they will treasure up + every word that falls, and thus learn the theory of the art whose + practice is to be the occupation of their lives."</p> + + <p>Mrs. Grant speaks thus of the position of woman amid the + Mohawk Indians:—</p> + + <p>"Lady Mary Montague says, that the court of Vienna was the + paradise of old women, and that there is no other place in the + world where a woman past fifty excites the least interest. Had + her travels extended to the interior of North America, she would + have seen another instance of this inversion of the common mode + of thinking. Here a woman never was of consequence, till sire had + a son old enough to fight the battles of his country. From, that + date she held a superior rank in society; was allowed to live at + ease, and even called to consultations on national affairs. In + savage and warlike countries, the reign of beauty is very short, + and its influence comparatively limited. The girls in childhood + had a very pleasing appearance; but excepting their fine hair, + eyes, and teeth, every external grace was soon banished by + perpetual drudgery, carrying burdens too heavy to be borne, and + other slavish employments, considered beneath the dignity of the + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page84" id="page84"></a>[pg + 84]</span> men. These walked before, erect and graceful, decked + with ornaments which set off to advantage the symmetry of their + well-formed persons, while the poor women followed, meanly + attired, bent under the weight of the children and the utensils, + which they carried everywhere with, them, and disfigured and + degraded by ceaseless toils. They were very early married, for a + Mohawk had no other servant but his wife; and whenever he + commenced hunter, it was requisite he should have some one to + carry his load, cook his kettle, make his moccasons, and, above + all, produce the young warriors who were to succeed him in the + honors of the chase and of the tomahawk. Wherever man is a mere + hunter, woman is a mere slave. It is domestic intercourse that + softens man, and elevates woman; and of that there can be but + little, where the employments and amusements are not in common. + The ancient Caledonians honored the fair; but then it is to be + observed, they were fair huntresses, and moved in the light of + their beauty to the hill of roes; and the culinary toils were + entirely left to the rougher sex. When the young warrior made his + appearance, it softened the cares of his mother, who well knew + that, when he grew up, every deficiency in tenderness to his wife + would be made up in superabundant duty and affection to her. If + it were possible to carry filial veneration to excess, it was + done here; for all other charities were absorbed in it. I wonder + this system of depressing the sex in their early years, to exalt + them, when all their juvenile attractions are flown, and when + mind alone can distinguish them, has not occurred to our modern + reformers. The Mohawks took good care not to admit their women to + share their prerogatives, till they approved themselves good + wives and mothers."</p> + + <p>The observations of women upon the position of woman are + always more valuable than those of men; but, of these two, Mrs. + Grant's seem much, nearer the truth than Mrs. Schoolcraft's, + because, though her opportunities for observation did not bring + her so close, she looked more at both sides to find the + truth.</p> + + <p>Carver, in his travels among the Winnebagoes, describes two + queens, one nominally so, like Queen Victoria; the other invested + with a genuine royalty, springing from her own + conduct.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page85" id= + "page85"></a>[pg 85]</span> + + <p>In the great town of the Winnebagoes, he found a queen + presiding over the tribe, instead of a sachem. He adds, that, in + some tribes, the descent is given to the female line in + preference to the male, that is, a sister's son will succeed to + the authority, rather than a brother's son. The position of this + Winnebago queen reminded me forcibly of Queen Victoria's.</p> + + <p>"She sat in the council, but only asked a few questions, or + gave some trifling directions in matters relative to the state, + for women are never allowed to sit in their councils, except they + happen to be invested with the supreme authority, and then it is + not customary for them to make any formal speeches, as the chiefs + do. She was a very ancient woman, small in stature, and not much + distinguished by her dress from several young women that attended + her. These, her attendants, seemed greatly pleased whenever I + showed any tokens of respect to their queen, especially when I + saluted her, which I frequently did to acquire her favor."</p> + + <p>The other was a woman, who, being taken captive, found means + to kill her captor, and make her escape; and the tribe were so + struck with admiration at the courage and calmness she displayed + on the occasion, as to make her chieftainess in her own + light.</p> + + <p>Notwithstanding the homage paid to women, and the consequence + allowed them in some cases, it is impossible to look upon the + Indian women without feeling that they <i>do</i> occupy a lower + place than women among the nations of European civilization. The + habits of drudgery expressed in their form and gesture, the soft + and wild but melancholy expression of their eye, reminded me of + the tribe mentioned by Mackenzie, where the women destroy their + female children, whenever they have a good opportunity; and of + the eloquent reproaches addressed by the Paraguay woman to her + mother, that she had not, in the same way, saved her from the + anguish and weariness of her lot.</p> + + <p>More weariness than anguish, no doubt, falls to the lot of + most of these women. They inherit submission, and the minds of + the generality accommodate themselves more or less to any + posture. <span class="pagenum"><a name="page86" id= + "page86"></a>[pg 86]</span> Perhaps they suffer less than their + white sisters, who have more aspiration and refinement, with + little power of self-sustenance. But their place is certainly + lower, and their share of the human inheritance less.</p> + + <p>Their decorum and delicacy are striking, and show that, when + these are native to the mind, no habits of life make any + difference. Their whole gesture is timid, yet self-possessed. + They used to crowd round me, to inspect little things I had to + show them, but never press near; on the contrary, would reprove + and keep off the children. Anything they took from my hand was + held with care, then shut or folded, and returned with an air of + lady-like precision. They would not stare, however curious they + might be, but cast sidelong glances.</p> + + <p>A locket that I wore was an object of untiring interest; they + seemed to regard it as a talisman. My little sun-shade was still + more fascinating to them; apparently they had never before seen + one. For an umbrella they entertained profound regard, probably + looking upon it as the most luxurious superfluity a person can + possess, and therefore a badge of great wealth. I used to see an + old squaw, whose sullied skin and coarse, tanned locks told that + she had braved sun and storm, without a doubt or care, for sixty + years at least, sitting gravely at the door of her lodge, with an + old green umbrella over her head, happy for hours together in the + dignified shade. For her happiness pomp came not, as it so often + does, too late; she received it with grateful enjoyment.</p> + + <p>One day, as I was seated on one of the canoes, a woman came + and sat beside me, with her baby in its cradle set up at her + feet. She asked me by a gesture to let her take my sun-shade, and + then to show her how to open it. Then she put it into her baby's + hand, and held it over its head, looking at me the while with a + sweet, mischievous laugh, as much, as to say, "You carry a thing + that is only fit for a baby." Her pantomime was very pretty. She, + like the other women, had a glance, and shy, sweet expression in + the eye; the men have a steady gaze.</p> + + <p>That noblest and loveliest of modern Preux, Lord Edward + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page87" id="page87"></a>[pg + 87]</span> Fitzgerald, who came through Buffalo to Detroit and + Mackinaw, with Brant, and was adopted into the Bear tribe by the + name of Eghnidal, was struck in the same way by the delicacy of + manners in women. He says: "Notwithstanding the life they lead, + which would make most women rough and masculine, they are as + soft, meek, and modest as the best brought up girls in England. + Somewhat coquettish too! Imagine the manners of Mimi in a poor + <i>squaw</i>, that has been carrying packs in the woods all her + life."</p> + + <p>McKenney mentions that the young wife, during the short bloom + of her beauty, is an object of homage and tenderness to her + husband. One Indian woman, the Flying Pigeon, a beautiful and + excellent person, of whom he gives some particulars, is an + instance of the power uncommon characters will always exert of + breaking down the barriers custom has erected round them. She + captivated by her charms, and inspired her husband and son with, + reverence for her character. The simple praise with which the + husband indicates the religion, the judgment, and the generosity + he saw in her, are as satisfying as Count Zinzendorf's more + labored eulogium on his "noble consort." The conduct of her son, + when, many years after her death, he saw her picture at + Washington, is unspeakably affecting. Catlin gives anecdotes of + the grief of a chief for the loss of a daughter, and the princely + gifts he offers in exchange for her portrait, worthy not merely + of European, but of Troubadour sentiment. It is also evident + that, as Mrs. Schoolcraft says, the women have great power at + home. It can never be otherwise, men being dependent upon them + for the comfort of their lives. Just so among ourselves, wives + who are neither esteemed nor loved by their husbands have great + power over their conduct by the friction of every day, and over + the formation of their opinions by the daily opportunities so + close a relation affords of perverting testimony and instilling + doubts. But these sentiments should not come in brief flashes, + but burn as a steady flame; then there would be more women worthy + to inspire them. This power is good for nothing, unless the woman + be wise to use it aright. Has the Indian, has the white woman, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page88" id="page88"></a>[pg + 88]</span> as noble a feeling of life and its uses, as religious + a self-respect, as worthy a field of thought and action, as man? + If not, the white woman, the Indian woman, occupies a position + inferior to that of man. It is not so much a question of power, + as of privilege.</p> + + <p>The men of these subjugated tribes, now accustomed to + drunkenness and every way degraded, bear but a faint impress of + the lost grandeur of the race. They are no longer strong, tall, + or finely proportioned. Yet, as you see them stealing along a + height, or striding boldly forward, they remind you of what + <i>was</i> majestic in the red man.</p> + + <p>On the shores of Lake Superior, it is said, if you visit them + at home, you may still see a remnant of the noble blood. The + Pillagers (Pilleurs), a band celebrated by the old travellers, + are still existent there.</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"Still some, 'the eagles of their tribe,' may rush."</p> + </div> + </div> + + <p>I have spoken of the hatred felt by the white man for the + Indian: with white women it seems to amount to disgust, to + loathing. How I could endure the dirt, the peculiar smell, of the + Indians, and their dwellings, was a great marvel in the eyes of + my lady acquaintance; indeed, I wonder why they did not quite + give me up, as they certainly looked on me with great distaste + for it. "Get you gone, you Indian dog," was the felt, if not the + breathed, expression towards the hapless owners of the + soil;—all their claims, all their sorrows quite forgot, in + abhorrence of their dirt, their tawny skins, and the vices the + whites have taught them.</p> + + <p>A person who had seen them during great part of a life + expressed his prejudices to me with such violence, that I was no + longer surprised that the Indian children threw sticks at him, as + he passed. A lady said: "Do what you will for them, they will be + ungrateful. The savage cannot be washed out of them. Bring up an + Indian child, and see if you can attach it to you." The next + moment, she expressed, in the presence of one of those children + whom she was bringing up, loathing at the odor left by one of her + people, and one of the most respected, as he passed through the + room. When the child is grown, she will be <span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page89" id="page89"></a>[pg 89]</span> + considered basely ungrateful not to love the lady, as she + certainly will not; and this will be cited as an instance of the + impossibility of attaching the Indian.</p> + + <p>Whether the Indian could, by any efforts of love and + intelligence from, the white man, have been civilized and made a + valuable ingredient in the new state, I will not say; but this we + are sure of,—the French Catholics, at least, did not harm + them, nor disturb their minds merely to corrupt them. The French, + they loved. But the stern Presbyterian, with his dogmas and his + task-work, the city circle and the college, with their niggard + concessions and unfeeling stare, have never tried the experiment. + It has not been tried. Our people and our government have sinned + alike against the first-born of the soil, and if they are the + fated agents of a new era, they have done nothing,—have + invoked no god to keep them sinless while they do the hest of + fate.</p> + + <p>Worst of all is it, when they invoke the holy power only to + mask their iniquity; when the felon trader, who, all the week, + has been besotting and degrading the Indian with rum mixed with + red pepper, and damaged tobacco, kneels with him on Sunday before + a common altar, to tell the rosary which recalls the thought of + Him crucified for love of suffering men, and to listen to sermons + in praise of "purity"!!</p> + + <p>"My savage friends," cries the old, fat priest, "you must, + above all things, aim at <i>purity</i>."</p> + + <p>Oh! my heart swelled when I saw them in a Christian church. + Better their own dog-feasts and bloody rites than such mockery of + that other faith.</p> + + <p>"The dog," said an Indian, "was once a spirit; he has fallen + for his sin, and was given by the Great Spirit, in this shape, to + man, as his most intelligent companion. Therefore we sacrifice it + in highest honor to our friends in this world,—to our + protecting geniuses in another."</p> + + <p>There was religion in that thought. The white man sacrifices + his own brother, and to Mammon, yet he turns in loathing from, + the dog-feast.</p> + + <p>"You say," said the Indian of the South to the missionary, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page90" id="page90"></a>[pg + 90]</span> "that Christianity is pleasing to God. How can that + be?—Those men at Savannah are Christians."</p> + + <p>Yes! slave-drivers and Indian traders are called Christians, + and the Indian is to be deemed less like the Son of Mary than + they! Wonderful is the deceit of man's heart!</p> + + <p>I have not, on seeing something of them in their own haunts, + found reason to change the sentiments expressed in the following + lines, when a deputation of the Sacs and Foxes visited Boston in + 1837, and were, by one person at least, received in a dignified + and courteous manner.</p> + + <h4>GOVERNOR EVERETT RECEIVING THE INDIAN CHIEFS,</h4> + + <p class="center">NOVEMBER, 1837.</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>Who says that Poesy is on the wane,</p> + + <p>And that the Muses tune their lyres in vain?</p> + + <p>'Mid all the treasures of romantic story,</p> + + <p>When thought was fresh and fancy in her glory,</p> + + <p>Has ever Art found out a richer theme,</p> + + <p>More dark a shadow, or more soft a gleam,</p> + + <p>Than fall upon the scene, sketched carelessly,</p> + + <p>In the newspaper column of to-day?</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>American romance is somewhat stale.</p> + + <p>Talk of the hatchet, and the faces pale,</p> + + <p>Wampum and calumets and forests dreary,</p> + + <p>Once so attractive, now begins to weary.</p> + + <p>Uncas and Magawisca please us still,</p> + + <p>Unreal, yet idealized with skill;</p> + + <p>But every poetaster, scribbling witling,</p> + + <p>From the majestic oak his stylus whittling,</p> + + <p>Has helped to tire us, and to make us fear</p> + + <p>The monotone in which so much we hear</p> + + <p>Of "stoics of the wood," and "men without a tear."</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>Yet Nature, ever buoyant, ever young,</p> + + <p>If let alone, will sing as erst she sung;</p> + + <p>The course of circumstance gives back again</p> + + <p>The Picturesque, erewhile pursued in vain;</p><span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page91" id="page91"></a>[pg 91]</span> + + <p>Shows us the fount of Romance is not wasted,—</p> + + <p>The lights and shades of contrast not exhausted.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>Shorn of his strength, the Samson now must sue</p> + + <p class="i2">For fragments from the feast his fathers + gave;</p> + + <p>The Indian dare not claim what is his due,</p> + + <p class="i2">But as a boon his heritage must crave;</p> + + <p>His stately form shall soon be seen no more</p> + + <p>Through all his father's land, the Atlantic shore;</p> + + <p>Beneath the sun, to <i>us</i> so kind, <i>they</i> + melt,</p> + + <p>More heavily each day our rule is felt.</p> + + <p>The tale is old,—we do as mortals must:</p> + + <p>Might makes right here, but God and Time are just.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>Though, near the drama hastens to its close,</p> + + <p>On this last scene awhile your eyes repose;</p> + + <p>The polished Greek and Scythian meet again,</p> + + <p>The ancient life is lived by modern men;</p> + + <p>The savage through our busy cities walks,</p> + + <p>He in his untouched, grandeur silent stalks.</p> + + <p>Unmoved by all our gayeties and shows,</p> + + <p>Wonder nor shame can touch him as he goes;</p> + + <p>He gazes on the marvels we have wrought,</p> + + <p>But knows the models from whence all was brought;</p> + + <p>In God's first temples he has stood so oft,</p> + + <p>And listened to the natural organ-loft,</p> + + <p>Has watched the eagle's flight, the muttering thunder + heard.</p> + + <p>Art cannot move him to a wondering word.</p> + + <p>Perhaps he sees that all this luxury</p> + + <p>Brings less food to the mind than to the eye;</p> + + <p>Perhaps a simple sentiment has brought</p> + + <p>More to him than your arts had ever taught.</p> + + <p>What are the petty triumphs <i>Art</i> has given,</p> + + <p>To eyes familiar with the naked heaven?</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>All has been seen,—dock, railroad, and canal,</p> + + <p>Fort, market, bridge, college, and arsenal,</p> + + <p>Asylum, hospital, and cotton-mill,</p> + + <p>The theatre, the lighthouse, and the jail.</p> + + <p>The Braves each novelty, reflecting, saw,</p> + + <p>And now and then growled out the earnest + "<i>Yaw</i>."</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page92" id= + "page92"></a>[pg 92]</span> + + <p>And now the time is come, 't is understood,</p> + + <p>When, having seen and thought so much, a <i>talk</i> may + do some good.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>A well-dressed mob have thronged the sight to greet,</p> + + <p>And motley figures throng the spacious street;</p> + + <p>Majestical and calm through all they stride,</p> + + <p>Wearing the blanket with a monarch's pride;</p> + + <p>The gazers stare and shrug, but can't deny</p> + + <p>Their noble forms and blameless symmetry.</p> + + <p>If the Great Spirit their <i>morale</i> has slighted,</p> + + <p>And wigwam smoke their mental culture blighted,</p> + + <p>Yet the <i>physique</i>, at least, perfection reaches,</p> + + <p>In wilds where neither Combe nor Spurzheim teaches;</p> + + <p>Where whispering trees invite man to the chase,</p> + + <p>And bounding deer allure him to the race.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>Would thou hadst seen it! That dark, stately band,</p> + + <p>Whose ancestors enjoyed all this fair land,</p> + + <p>Whence they, by force or fraud, were made to flee,</p> + + <p>Are brought, the white man's victory to see.</p> + + <p>Can kind emotions in their proud hearts glow,</p> + + <p>As through these realms, now decked by Art, they go?</p> + + <p>The church, the school, the railroad, and the + mart,—</p> + + <p>Can these a pleasure to their minds impart?</p> + + <p>All once was theirs,—earth, ocean, forest, + sky,—</p> + + <p>How can they joy in what now meets the eye?</p> + + <p>Not yet Religion has unlocked the soul,</p> + + <p>Nor Each has learned to glory in the Whole!</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>Must they not think, so strange and sad their lot,</p> + + <p>That they by the Great Spirit are forgot?</p> + + <p>From the far border to which they are driven,</p> + + <p>They might look up in trust to the clear heaven;</p> + + <p>But <i>here</i>,—what tales doth every object + tell</p> + + <p>Where Massasoit sleeps, where Philip fell!</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>We take our turn, and the Philosopher</p> + + <p>Sees through the clouds a hand which cannot err</p> + + <p>An unimproving race, with all their graces</p> + + <p>And all their vices, must resign their places;</p> + + <p>And Human Culture rolls its onward flood</p> + + <p>Over the broad plains steeped in Indian + blood</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page93" id= + "page93"></a>[pg 93]</span> + + <p>Such thoughts steady our faith; yet there will rise</p> + + <p>Some natural tears into the calmest eyes,—</p> + + <p>Which gaze where forest princes haughty go,</p> + + <p>Made for a gaping crowd a raree-show.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>But <i>this</i> a scene seems where, in courtesy,</p> + + <p>The pale face with the forest prince could vie,</p> + + <p>For one presided, who, for tact and grace,</p> + + <p>In any age had held an honored place,—</p> + + <p>In Beauty's own dear day had shone a polished Phidian + vase!</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>Oft have I listened to his accents bland,</p> + + <p class="i2">And owned the magic of his silvery voice,</p> + + <p>In all the graces which life's arts demand,</p> + + <p class="i2">Delighted by the justness of his choice.</p> + + <p>Not his the stream of lavish, fervid thought,—</p> + + <p>The rhetoric by passion's magic wrought;</p> + + <p>Not his the massive style, the lion port,</p> + + <p>Which with the granite class of mind assort;</p> + + <p>But, in a range of excellence his own,</p> + + <p>With all the charms to soft persuasion known,</p> + + <p>Amid our busy people we admire him,—"elegant and + lone."</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>He scarce needs words: so exquisite the skill</p> + + <p>Which modulates the tones to do his will,</p> + + <p>That the mere sound enough would charm the ear,</p> + + <p>And lap in its Elysium all who hear.</p> + + <p>The intellectual paleness of his cheek,</p> + + <p class="i2">The heavy eyelids and slow, tranquil smile,</p> + + <p>The well-cut lips from which the graces speak,</p> + + <p class="i2">Pit him alike to win or to beguile;</p> + + <p>Then those words so well chosen, fit, though few,</p> + + <p>Their linked sweetness as our thoughts pursue,</p> + + <p>We deem them spoken pearls, or radiant diamond dew.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>And never yet did I admire the power</p> + + <p class="i2">Which makes so lustrous every threadbare + theme,—</p> + + <p>Which won for La Fayette one other hour,</p> + + <p class="i2">And e'en on July Fourth could cast a + gleam,—</p> + + <p>As now, when I behold him play the host,</p> + + <p>With all the dignity which red men + boast,—</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page94" id= + "page94"></a>[pg 94]</span> + + <p>With all the courtesy the whites have lost;</p> + + <p>Assume the very hue of savage mind,</p> + + <p>Yet in rude accents show the thought refined;</p> + + <p>Assume the <i>naïveté</i> of infant + age,</p> + + <p>And in such prattle seem still more a sage;</p> + + <p>The golden mean with tact unerring seized,</p> + + <p>A courtly critic shone, a simple savage pleased.</p> + + <p>The stoic of the woods his skill confessed,</p> + + <p>As all the father answered in his breast;</p> + + <p>To the sure mark the silver arrow sped,</p> + + <p>The "man without a tear" a tear has shed;</p> + + <p>And them hadst wept, hadst thou been there, to see</p> + + <p>How true one sentiment must ever be,</p> + + <p>In court or camp, the city or the wild,—</p> + + <p>To rouse the father's heart, you need but name his + child.</p> + </div> + </div> + + <p>The speech of Governor Everett on that occasion was admirable; + as I think, the happiest attempt ever made to meet the Indian in + his own way, and catch the tone of his mind. It was said, in the + newspapers, that Keokuck did actually shed tears when addressed + as a father. If he did not with his eyes, he well might in his + heart.</p> + + <p>Not often have they been addressed with such intelligence and + tact. The few who have not approached them with sordid rapacity, + but from love to them, as men having souls to be redeemed, have + most frequently been persons intellectually too narrow, too + straitly bound in sects or opinions, to throw themselves into the + character or position of the Indians, or impart to them anything + they can make available. The Christ shown them by these + missionaries is to them but a new and more powerful Manito; the + signs of the new religion, but the fetiches that have aided the + conquerors.</p> + + <p>Here I will copy some remarks made by a discerning observer, + on the methods used by the missionaries, and their natural + results.</p> + + <p>"Mr. —— and myself had a very interesting + conversation, upon the subject of the Indians, their character, + capabilities, &c. After ten years' experience among them, he + was forced to acknowledge <span class="pagenum"><a name="page95" + id="page95"></a>[pg 95]</span> that the results of the missionary + efforts had produced nothing calculated to encourage. He thought + that there was an intrinsic disability in them to rise above, or + go beyond, the sphere in which they had so long moved. He said, + that even those Indians who had been converted, and who had + adopted the habits of civilization, were very little improved in + their real character; they were as selfish, as deceitful, and as + indolent, as those who were still heathens. They had repaid the + kindnesses of the missionaries with the basest ingratitude, + killing their cattle and swine, and robbing them of their + harvests, which, they wantonly destroyed. He had abandoned the + idea of effecting any general good to the Indians. He had + conscientious scruples as to promoting an enterprise so hopeless + as that of missions among the Indians, by sending accounts to the + East that might induce philanthropic individuals to contribute to + their support. In fact, the whole experience of his intercourse + with them seemed to have convinced him of the irremediable + degradation of the race. Their fortitude under suffering he + considered the result of physical and mental insensibility; their + courage, a mere animal excitement, which they found it necessary + to inflame, before daring to meet a foe. They have no constancy + of purpose; and are, in fact, but little superior to the brutes + in point of moral development. It is not astonishing, that one + looking upon the Indian character from Mr. ——'s point + of view should entertain such sentiments. The object of his + intercourse with them was, to make them apprehend the mysteries + of a theology, which, to the most enlightened, is an abstruse, + metaphysical study; and it is not singular they should prefer + their pagan superstitions, which address themselves more directly + to the senses. Failing in the attempt to Christianize before + civilizing them, he inferred that in the intrinsic degradation of + their faculties the obstacle was to be found."</p> + + <p>Thus the missionary vainly attempts, by once or twice holding + up the cross, to turn deer and tigers into lambs; vainly attempts + to convince the red man that a heavenly mandate takes from him + his broad lands. He bows his head, but does not at heart + acquiesce. He cannot. It is not true; and if it were, the descent + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page96" id="page96"></a>[pg + 96]</span> of blood through the same channels, for centuries, has + formed habits of thought not so easily to be disturbed.</p> + + <p>Amalgamation would afford the only true and profound means of + civilization. But nature seems, like all else, to declare that + this race is fated to perish. Those of mixed blood fade early, + and are not generally a fine race. They lose what is best in + either type, rather than enhance the value of each, by mingling. + There are exceptions,—one or two such I know of,—but + this, it is said, is the general rule.</p> + + <p>A traveller observes, that the white settlers who live in the + woods soon become sallow, lanky, and dejected; the atmosphere of + the trees does not agree with Caucasian lungs; and it is, + perhaps, in part an instinct of this which causes the hatred of + the new settlers towards trees. The Indian breathed the + atmosphere of the forests freely; he loved their shade. As they + are effaced from the land, he fleets too; a part of the same + manifestation, which cannot linger behind its proper era.</p> + + <p>The Chippewas have lately petitioned the State of Michigan, + that they may be admitted as citizens; but this would be vain, + unless they could be admitted, as brothers, to the heart of the + white man. And while the latter feels that conviction of + superiority which enabled our Wisconsin friend to throw away the + gun, and send the Indian to fetch it, he needs to be very good, + and very wise, not to abuse his position. But the white man, as + yet, is a half-tamed pirate, and avails himself as much as ever + of the maxim, "Might makes right." All that civilization does for + the generality is to cover up this with a veil of subtle evasions + and chicane, and here and there to rouse the individual mind to + appeal to Heaven against it.</p> + + <p>I have no hope of liberalizing the missionary, of humanizing + the sharks of trade, of infusing the conscientious drop into the + flinty bosom of policy, of saving the Indian from immediate + degradation and speedy death. The whole sermon may be preached + from the text, "Needs be that offences must come, yet woe onto + them by whom they come." Yet, ere they depart, I wish there might + be some masterly attempt to reproduce, in art or literature, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page97" id="page97"></a>[pg + 97]</span> what is proper to them,—a kind of beauty and + grandeur which few of the every-day crowd have hearts to feel, + yet which ought to leave in the world its monuments, to inspire + the thought of genius through all ages. Nothing in this kind has + been done masterly; since it was Clevengers's ambition, 't is + pity he had not opportunity to try fully his powers. We hope some + other mind may be bent upon it, ere too late. At present the only + lively impress of their passage through the world is to be found + in such books as Catlin's, and some stories told by the old + travellers.</p> + + <p>Let me here give another brief tale of the power exerted by + the white man over the savage in a trying case; but in this case + it was righteous, was moral power.</p> + + <p>"We were looking over McKenney's Tour to the Lakes, and, on + observing the picture of Key-way-no-wut, or the Going Cloud, Mr. + B. observed, 'Ah, that is the fellow I came near having a fight + with'; and he detailed at length the circumstances. This Indian + was a very desperate character, and of whom, all the Leech Lake + band stood in fear. He would shoot down any Indian who offended + him, without the least hesitation, and had become quite the bully + of that part of the tribe. The trader at Leech Lake warned Mr. B. + to beware of him, and said that he once, when he (the trader) + refused to give up to him his stock of wild-rice, went and got + his gun and tomahawk, and shook the tomahawk over his head, + saying, '<i>Now</i>, give me your wild-rice.' The trader complied + with his exaction, but not so did Mr. B. in the adventure which I + am about to relate. Key-way-no-wut came frequently to him with + furs, wishing him to give for them, cotton-cloth, sugar, flour, + &c. Mr. B. explained to him that he could not trade for furs, + as he was sent there as a teacher, and that it would be like + putting his hand into the fire to do so, as the traders would + inform against him, and he would be sent out of the country. At + the same time, he <i>gave</i> him the articles which he wished. + Key-way-no-wut found this a very convenient way of getting what + he wanted, and followed up this sort of game, until, at last, it + became insupportable. One day the Indian brought a very large + otter-skin, and said, 'I want to get for this ten pounds of + sugar, and some <span class="pagenum"><a name="page98" id= + "page98"></a>[pg 98]</span> flour and cloth,' adding, 'I am not + like other Indians, <i>I</i> want to pay for what I get.' Mr. B. + found that he must either be robbed of all he had by submitting + to these exactions, or take a stand at once. He thought, however, + he would try to avoid a scrape, and told his customer he had not + so much sugar to spare. 'Give me, then,' said he, 'what you can + spare'; and Mr. B., thinking to make him back out, told him he + would, give him five pounds of sugar for his skin. 'Take it,' + said the Indian. He left the skin, telling Mr. B. to take good + care of it. Mr. B. took it at once to the trader's store, and + related the circumstance, congratulating himself that he had got + rid of the Indian's exactions. But in about a month + Key-way-no-wut appeared, bringing some dirty Indian sugar, and + said, 'I have brought back the sugar that I borrowed of you, and + I want my otter-skin back.' Mr. B. told him, 'I <i>bought</i> an + otter-skin of you, but if you will return the other articles you + have got for it, perhaps I can get it for you.' 'Where is the + skin?' said he very quickly; 'what have you done with it?' Mr. B. + replied it was in the trader's store, where he (the Indian) could + not get it. At this information he was furious, laid his hands on + his knife and tomahawk, and commanded Mr. B. to bring it at once. + Mr. B. found this was the crisis, where he must take a stand or + be 'rode over rough-shod' by this man. His wife, who was present + was much alarmed, and begged he would get the skin for the + Indian, but he told her that 'either he or the Indian would soon + be master of his house, and if she was afraid to see it decided + which was to be so, she had better retire,' He turned to + Key-way-no-wut, and addressed him in a stern voice as follows: 'I + will <i>not</i> give you the skin. How often have you come to my + house, and I have shared with you what I had. I gave you tobacco + when you were well, and medicine when you were sick, and you + never went away from my wigwam with your hands empty. And this is + the way you return my treatment to you. I had thought you were a + man and a chief, but you are not, you are nothing but an old + woman. Leave this house, and never enter it again.' Mr. B. said + he expected the Indian would attempt his life when he said this, + but that he had placed himself in a position so <span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page99" id="page99"></a>[pg 99]</span> that he + could defend himself, and looked straight into the Indian's eye, + and, like other wild beasts, he quailed before the glance of + mental and moral courage. He calmed down at once, and soon began + to make apologies. Mr. B. then told him kindly, but firmly, that, + if he wished to walk in the same path with him, he must walk as + straight as the crack on the floor before them; adding, that he + would not walk with anybody who would jostle him by walking so + crooked as he had done. He was perfectly tamed, and Mr. B. said + he never had any more trouble with him."</p> + + <p>The conviction here livingly enforced of the superiority on + the side of the white man, was thus expressed by the Indian + orator at Mackinaw while we were there. After the customary + compliments about sun, dew, &c., "This," said he, "is the + difference between the white and the red man; the white man looks + to the future and paves the way for posterity. The red man never + thought of this." This is a statement uncommonly refined for an + Indian; but one of the gentlemen present, who understood the + Chippewa, vouched for it as a literal rendering of his phrases; + and he did indeed touch the vital point of difference. But the + Indian, if he understands, cannot make use of his intelligence. + The fate of his people is against it, and Pontiac and Philip have + no more chance than Julian in the times of old.</p> + + <p>The Indian is steady to that simple creed which forms the + basis of all his mythology; that there is a God and a life beyond + this; a right and wrong which each man can see, betwixt which + each man should choose; that good brings with it its reward, and + vice its punishment. His moral code, if not as refined as that of + civilized nations, is clear and noble in the stress laid upon + truth and fidelity. And all unprejudiced observers bear + testimony, that the Indians, until broken from their old + anchorage by intercourse with the whites,—who offer them, + instead, a religion of which they furnish neither interpretation + nor example,—were singularly virtuous, if virtue be allowed + to consist in a man's acting up to his own ideas of right.</p> + + <p>My friend, who joined me at Mackinaw, happened, on the + homeward journey, to see a little Chinese girl, who had been sent + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page100" id="page100"></a>[pg + 100]</span> over by one of the missionaries, and observed that, + in features, complexion, and gesture, she was a counterpart to + the little Indian girls she had just seen playing about on the + lake shore.</p> + + <p>The parentage of these tribes is still an interesting subject + of speculation, though, if they be not created for this region, + they have become so assimilated to it as to retain little trace + of any other. To me it seems most probable, that a peculiar race + was bestowed on each region,<a id="footnotetagh" name= + "footnotetagh"></a><a href="#footnoteh"><sup>H</sup></a> as the + lion on one latitude and the white bear on another. As man has + two natures,—one, like that of the plants and animals, + adapted to the uses and enjoyments of this planet, another which + presages and demands a higher sphere,—he is constantly + breaking bounds, in proportion as the mental gets the better of + the mere instinctive existence. As yet, he loses in harmony of + being what he gains in height and extension; the civilized man is + a larger mind, but a more imperfect nature, than the savage.</p> + + <p>We hope there will be a national institute, containing all the + remains of the Indians, all that has been preserved by official + intercourse at Washington, Catlin's collection, and a + picture-gallery as complete as can be made, with a collection of + skulls from all parts of the country. To this should be joined + the scanty library that exists on the subject.</p> + + <p>A little pamphlet, giving an account of the massacre at + Chicago, has lately; been published, which I wish much I had seen + while there, as it would have imparted an interest to spots + otherwise barren. It is written with animation, and in an + excellent style, telling just what we want to hear, and no more. + The traits given of Indian generosity are as characteristic as + those of Indian cruelty. A lady, who was saved by a friendly + chief holding her under the waters of the lake, at the moment the + balls endangered her, received also, in the heat of the conflict, + a reviving draught from a squaw, who saw she was exhausted; and + as she lay down, a mat was hung up between her and the scene of + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page101" id="page101"></a>[pg + 101]</span> butchery, so that she was protected from the sight, + though she could not be from sounds full of horror.</p> + + <p>I have not wished to write sentimentally about the Indians, + however moved by the thought of their wrongs and speedy + extinction. I know that the Europeans who took possession of this + country felt themselves justified by their superior civilization + and religious ideas. Had they been truly civilized or + Christianized, the conflicts which sprang from the collision of + the two races might have been avoided; but this cannot be + expected in movements made by masses of men. The mass has never + yet been humanized, though the age may develop a human thought. + Since those conflicts and differences did arise, the hatred which + sprang from terror and suffering, on the European side, has + naturally warped the whites still further from justice.</p> + + <p>The Indian, brandishing the scalps of his wife and friends, + drinking their blood, and eating their hearts, is by him viewed + as a fiend, though, at a distant day, he will no doubt be + considered as having acted the Roman or Carthaginian part of + heroic and patriotic self-defence, according to the standard of + right and motives prescribed by his religious faith and + education. Looked at by his own standard, he is virtuous when he + most injures his enemy, and the white, if he be really the + superior in enlargement of thought, ought to cast aside his + inherited prejudices enough to see this, to look on him in pity + and brotherly good-will, and do all he can to mitigate the doom + of those who survive his past injuries.</p> + + <p>In McKenney's book is proposed a project for organizing the + Indians under a patriarchal government; but it does not look + feasible, even on paper. Could their own intelligent men be left + to act unimpeded in their behalf, they would do far better for + them than the white thinker, with all his general knowledge. But + we dare not hope the designs of such will not always be + frustrated by barbarous selfishness, as they were in Georgia. + <i>There</i> was a chance of seeing what might have been done, + now lost for ever.</p> + + <p>Yet let every man look to himself how far this blood shall be + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page102" id="page102"></a>[pg + 102]</span> required at his hands. Let the missionary, instead of + preaching to the Indian, preach to the trader who ruins him, of + the dreadful account which will be demanded of the followers of + Cain, in a sphere where the accents of purity and love come on + the ear more decisively than in ours. Let every legislator take + the subject to heart, and, if he cannot undo the effects of past + sin, try for that clear view and right sense that may save us + from sinning still more deeply. And let every man and every + woman, in their private dealings with the subjugated race, avoid + all share in embittering, by insult or unfeeling prejudice, the + captivity of Israel.</p> + + <blockquote class="footnote"> + <a id="footnoteh" name="footnoteh"></a><b>Footnote H:</b> + <a href="#footnotetagh">(return)</a> + + <p>Professor Agassiz has recently published some able + scientific papers tending to enforce this theory.—ED.</p> + </blockquote><span class="pagenum"><a name="page103" id= + "page103"></a>[pg 103]</span> + <p> </p> + <h3>CHAPTER VII.</h3> + + <h4>SAULT ST. MARIE.—ST. JOSEPH'S ISLAND.—THE LAND OF + MUSIC.—RAPIDS.—HOMEWARD.—GENERAL + HULL.—THE BOOK TO THE READER.</h4> + + <p>Nine days I passed alone at Mackinaw, except for occasional + visits from kind and agreeable residents at the fort, and Mr. and + Mrs. A. Mr. A., long engaged in the fur-trade, is gratefully + remembered by many travellers. From Mrs. A., also, I received + kind attentions, paid in the vivacious and graceful manner of her + nation.</p> + + <p>The society at the boarding-house entertained, being of a kind + entirely new to me. There were many traders from the remote + stations, such as La Pointe, Arbre Croche,—men who had + become half wild and wholly rude by living in the wild; but + good-humored, observing, and with a store of knowledge to impart, + of the kind proper to their place.</p> + + <p>There were two little girls here, that were pleasant + companions for me. One gay, frank, impetuous, but sweet and + winning. She was an American, fair, and with bright brown hair. + The other, a little French Canadian, used to join me in my walks, + silently take my hand, and sit at my feet when I stopped in + beautiful places. She seemed to understand without a word; and I + never shall forget her little figure, with its light, but pensive + motion, and her delicate, grave features, with the pale, clear + complexion and soft eye. She was motherless, and much left alone + by her father and brothers, who were boatmen. The two little + girls were as pretty representatives of Allegro and Penseroso as + one would wish to see.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page104" + id="page104"></a>[pg 104]</span> + + <p>I had been wishing that a boat would come in to take me to the + Sault St. Marie, and several times started to the window at night + in hopes that the pant and dusky-red light crossing the waters + belonged to such an one; but they were always boats for Chicago + or Buffalo, till, on the 28th of August, Allegro, who shared my + plans and wishes, rushed in to tell me that the General Scott had + come; and in this little steamer, accordingly, I set off the next + morning.</p> + + <p>I was the only lady, and attended in the cabin by a Dutch girl + and an Indian woman. They both spoke English fluently, and + entertained me much by accounts of their different + experiences.</p> + + <p>The Dutch girl told me of a dance among the common people at + Amsterdam, called the shepherd's dance. The two leaders are + dressed as shepherd and shepherdess; they invent to the music all + kinds of movements, descriptive of things that may happen in the + field, and the rest are obliged to follow. I have never heard of + any dance which gave such free play to the fancy as this. French + dances merely describe the polite movements of society; Spanish + and Neapolitan, love; the beautiful Mazurkas, &c. are + war-like or expressive of wild scenery. But in this one is great + room both for fun and fancy.</p> + + <p>The Indian was married, when young, by her parents, to a man + she did not love. He became dissipated, and did not maintain her. + She left him, taking with her their child, for whom and herself + she earns a subsistence by going as chambermaid in these boats. + Now and then, she said, her husband called on her, and asked if + he might live with her again; but she always answered, No. Here + she was far freer than she would have been in civilized life. I + was pleased by the nonchalance of this woman, and the perfectly + national manner she had preserved after so many years of contact + with all kinds of people.</p> + + <p>The two women, when I left the boat, made me presents of + Indian work, such as travellers value, and the manner of the two + was characteristic of their different nations. The Indian brought + me hers, when I was alone, looked bashfully down when she gave + it, and made an almost sentimental little speech. <span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page105" id="page105"></a>[pg 105]</span> The + Dutch girl brought hers in public, and, bridling her short chin + with a self-complacent air, observed she had <i>bought</i> it for + me. But the feeling of affectionate regard was the same in the + minds of both.</p> + + <p>Island after island we passed, all fairly shaped and + clustering in a friendly way, but with little variety of + vegetation. In the afternoon the weather became foggy, and we + could not proceed after dark. That was as dull an evening as ever + fell.</p> + + <p>The next morning the fog still lay heavy, but the captain took + me out in his boat on an exploring expedition, and we found the + remains of the old English fort on Point St. Joseph's. All around + was so wholly unmarked by anything but stress of wind and + weather, the shores of these islands and their woods so like one + another, wild and lonely, but nowhere rich and majestic, that + there was some charm, in the remains of the garden, the remains + even of chimneys and a pier. They gave feature to the scene.</p> + + <p>Here I gathered many flowers, but they were the same as at + Mackinaw.</p> + + <p>The captain, though he had been on this trip hundreds of + times, had never seen this spot, and never would but for this + fog, and his desire to entertain me. He presented a striking + instance how men, for the sake of getting a living, forget to + live. It is just the same in the most romantic as the most dull + and vulgar places. Men get the harness on so fast, that they can + never shake it off, unless they guard against this danger from + the very first. In Chicago, how many men live who never find time + to see the prairies, or learn anything unconnected with the + business of the day, or about the country they are living in!</p> + + <p>So this captain, a man of strong sense and good eyesight, + rarely found time to go off the track or look about him on it. He + lamented, too, that there had been no call which, induced him to + develop his powers of expression, so that he might communicate + what he had seen for the enjoyment or instruction of others.</p> + + <p>This is a common fault among the active men, the truly living, + who could tell what life is. It should not be so. Literature + should not be left to the mere literati,—eloquence to the + mere <span class="pagenum"><a name="page106" id="page106"></a>[pg + 106]</span> orator; every Cæsar should be able to write + his own commentary. We want a more equal, more thorough, more + harmonious development, and there is nothing to hinder the men of + this country from it, except their own supineness, or sordid + views.</p> + + <p>When the weather did clear, our course up the river was + delightful. Long stretched before us the island of St. Joseph's, + with its fair woods of sugar-maple. A gentleman on board, who + belongs to the Fort at the Sault, said their pastime was to come + in the season of making sugar, and pass some time on this + island,—the days at work, and the evening in dancing and + other amusements. Work of this kind done in the open air, where + everything is temporary, and every utensil prepared on the spot, + gives life a truly festive air. At such times, there is labor and + no care,—energy with gayety, gayety of the heart.</p> + + <p>I think with the same pleasure of the Italian vintage, the + Scotch harvest-home, with its evening dance in the barn, the + Russian cabbage-feast even, and our huskings and hop-gatherings. + The hop-gatherings, where the groups of men and girls are pulling + down and filling baskets with the gay festoons, present as + graceful pictures as the Italian vintage.</p> + + <p>How pleasant is the course along a new river, the sight of new + shores! like a life, would but life flow as fast, and upbear us + with as full a stream. I hoped we should come in sight of the + rapids by daylight; but the beautiful sunset was quite gone, and + only a young moon trembling over the scene, when we came within + hearing of them.</p> + + <p>I sat up long to hear them merely. It was a thoughtful hour. + These two days, the 29th and 30th of August, are memorable in my + life; the latter is the birthday of a near friend. I pass them + alone, approaching Lake Superior; but I shall not enter into that + truly wild and free region; shall not have the canoe voyage, + whose daily adventure, with the camping out at night beneath the + stars, would have given an interlude of such value to my + existence. I shall not see the Pictured Rocks, their chapels and + urns. It did not depend on me; it never has, whether such things + shall be done or not.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page107" + id="page107"></a>[pg 107]</span> + + <p>My friends! may they see, and do, and be more; especially + those who have before them a greater number of birthdays, and a + more healthy and unfettered existence!</p> + + <p>I should like to hear some notes of earthly music to-night. By + the faint moonshine I can hardly see the banks; how they look I + have no guess, except that there are trees, and, now and then, a + light lets me know there are homes, with their various interests. + I should like to hear some strains of the flute from beneath + those trees, just to break the sound of the rapids.</p> + + <h4>THE LAND OF MUSIC.</h4> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>When no gentle eyebeam charms;</p> + + <p>No fond hope the bosom warms;</p> + + <p>Of thinking the lone mind is tired,—</p> + + <p>Naught seems bright to be desired.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>Music, be thy sails unfurled;</p> + + <p>Bear me to thy better world;</p> + + <p>O'er a cold and weltering sea,</p> + + <p>Blow thy breezes warm and free.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>By sad sighs they ne'er were chilled,</p> + + <p>By sceptic spell were never stilled.</p> + + <p>Take me to that far-off shore,</p> + + <p>Where lovers meet to part no more.</p> + + <p class="i4">There doubt and fear and sin are o'er;</p> + + <p class="i4">The star of love shall set no more.</p> + </div> + </div> + + <p>With the first light of dawn I was up and out, and then was + glad I had not seen all the night before, it came upon me with + such power in its dewy freshness. O, they are beautiful indeed, + these rapids! The grace is so much more obvious than the power. I + went up through the old Chippewa burying-ground to their head, + and sat down on a large stone to look. A little way off was one + of the home-lodges, unlike in shape to the temporary ones at + Mackinaw, but these have been described by Mrs. Jameson. Women, + too, I saw coming home from the woods, stooping under great loads + of cedar-boughs, that were strapped upon their <span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page108" id="page108"></a>[pg 108]</span> + backs. But in many European countries women carry great loads, + even of wood, upon their backs. I used to hear the girls singing + and laughing as they were cutting down boughs at Mackinaw; this + part of their employment, though laborious, gives them the + pleasure of being a great deal in the free woods.</p> + + <p>I had ordered a canoe to take me down the rapids, and + presently I saw it coming, with the two Indian canoe-men in pink + calico shirts, moving it about with their long poles, with a + grace and dexterity worthy fairy-land. Now and then they cast the + scoop-net;—all looked just as I had fancied, only far + prettier.</p> + + <p>When they came to me, they spread a mat in the middle of the + canoe; I sat down, and in less than four minutes we had descended + the rapids, a distance of more than three quarters of a mile. I + was somewhat disappointed in this being no more of an exploit + than I found it. Having heard such expressions used as of + "darting," or "shooting down," these rapids, I had fancied there + was a wall of rock somewhere, where descent would somehow be + accomplished, and that there would come some one gasp of terror + and delight, some sensation entirely new to me; but I found + myself in smooth water, before I had time to feel anything but + the buoyant pleasure of being carried so lightly through this + surf amid the breakers. Now and then the Indians spoke to one + another in a vehement jabber, which, however, had no tone that + expressed other than pleasant excitement. It is, no doubt, an act + of wonderful dexterity to steer amid these jagged rocks, when one + rude touch would tear a hole in the birch canoe; but these men + are evidently so used to doing it, and so adroit, that the + silliest person could not feel afraid. I should like to have come + down twenty times, that I might have had leisure to realize the + pleasure. But the fog which had detained us on the way shortened + the boat's stay at the Sault, and I wanted my time to walk + about.</p> + + <p>While coming down the rapids, the Indians caught a white-fish + for my breakfast; and certainly it was the best of breakfasts. + The white-fish I found quite another thing caught on the spot, + and cooked immediately, from what I had found it at Chicago + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page109" id="page109"></a>[pg + 109]</span> or Mackinaw. Before, I had had the bad taste to + prefer the trout, despite the solemn and eloquent remonstrances + of the <i>habitués</i>, to whom the superiority of + white-fish seemed a cardinal point of faith.</p> + + <p>I am here reminded that I have omitted that indispensable part + of a travelling journal, the account of what we found to eat. I + cannot hope to make up, by one bold stroke, all my omissions of + daily record; but that I may show myself not destitute of the + common feelings of humanity, I will observe that he whose + affections turn in summer towards vegetables should not come to + this region, till the subject of diet be better understood; that + of fruit, too, there is little yet, even at the best hotel + tables; that the prairie chickens require no praise from me, and + that the trout and white-fish are worthy the transparency of the + lake waters.</p> + + <p>In this brief mention I by no means intend to give myself an + air of superiority to the subject. If a dinner in the Illinois + woods, on dry bread and drier meat, with water from the stream + that flowed hard by, pleased me best of all, yet, at one time, + when living at a house where nothing was prepared for the table + fit to touch, and even the bread could not be partaken of without + a headache in consequence, I learnt to understand and sympathize + with the anxious tone in which fathers of families, about to take + their innocent children into some scene of wild beauty, ask first + of all, "Is there a good, table?" I shall ask just so in future. + Only those whom the Powers have furnished with small travelling + cases of ambrosia can take exercise all day, and be happy without + even bread morning or night.</p> + + <p>Our voyage back was all pleasure. It was the fairest day. I + saw the river, the islands, the clouds, to the greatest + advantage.</p> + + <p>On board was an old man, an Illinois farmer, whom I found a + most agreeable companion. He had just been with his son, and + eleven other young men, on an exploring expedition to the shores + of Lake Superior. He was the only old man of the party, but he + had enjoyed most of any the journey. He had been the counsellor + and playmate, too, of the young ones. He was one of those + parents—why so rare?—who understand and live a new + life in <span class="pagenum"><a name="page110" id= + "page110"></a>[pg 110]</span> that of their children, instead of + wasting time and young happiness in trying to make them conform + to an object and standard of their own. The character and history + of each child may be a new and poetic experience to the parent, + if he will let it. Our farmer was domestic, judicious, solid; the + son, inventive, enterprising, superficial, full of follies, full + of resources, always liable to failure, sure to rise above it. + The father conformed to, and learnt from, a character he could + not change, and won the sweet from the bitter.</p> + + <p>His account of his life at home, and of his late adventures + among the Indians, was very amusing, but I want talent to write + it down, and I have not heard the slang of these people + intimately enough. There is a good book about Indiana, called the + New Purchase, written by a person who knows the people of the + country well enough to describe them in their own way. It is not + witty, but penetrating, valuable for its practical wisdom and + good-humored fun.</p> + + <p>There were many sportsman-stories told, too, by those from + Illinois and Wisconsin. I do not retain any of these well enough, + nor any that I heard earlier, to write them down, though they + always interested me from bringing wild natural scenes before the + mind. It is pleasant for the sportsman to be in countries so + alive with game; yet it is so plenty that one would think + shooting pigeons or grouse would seem more like slaughter, than + the excitement of skill to a good sportsman. Hunting the deer is + full of adventure, and needs only a Scrope to describe it to + invest the Western woods with <i>historic</i> associations.</p> + + <p>How pleasant it was to sit and hear rough men tell pieces out + of their own common lives, in place of the frippery talk of some + fine circle with its conventional sentiment, and timid, + second-hand criticism. Free blew the wind, and boldly flowed the + stream, named for Mary mother mild.</p> + + <p>A fine thunder-shower came on in the afternoon. It cleared at + sunset, just as we came in sight of beautiful Mackinaw, over + which, a rainbow bent in promise of peace.</p> + + <p>I have always wondered, in reading travels, at the childish + joy <span class="pagenum"><a name="page111" id="page111"></a>[pg + 111]</span> travellers felt at meeting people they knew, and + their sense of loneliness when they did not, in places where + there was everything new to occupy the attention. So childish, I + thought, always to be longing for the new in the old, and the old + in the new. Yet just such sadness I felt, when I looked on the + island glittering in the sunset, canopied by the rainbow, and + thought no friend would welcome me there; just such childish joy + I felt to see unexpectedly on the landing the face of one whom I + called friend.</p> + + <p>The remaining two or three days were delightfully spent, in + walking or boating, or sitting at the window to see the Indians + go. This was not quite so pleasant as their coming in, though + accomplished with the same rapidity; a family not taking half an + hour to prepare for departure, and the departing canoe a + beautiful object. But they left behind, on all the shore, the + blemishes of their stay,—old rags, dried boughs, fragments + of food, the marks of their fires. Nature likes to cover up and + gloss over spots and scars, but it would take her some time to + restore that beach to the state it was in before they came.</p> + + <p>S. and I had a mind for a canoe excursion, and we asked one of + the traders to engage us two good Indians, that would not only + take us out, but be sure and bring us back, as we could not hold + converse with them. Two others offered their aid, beside the + chief's son, a fine-looking youth of about sixteen, richly + dressed in blue broadcloth, scarlet sash and leggins, with a + scarf of brighter red than the rest, tied around his head, its + ends falling gracefully on one shoulder. They thought it, + apparently, fine amusement to be attending two white women; they + carried us into the path of the steamboat, which was going out, + and paddled with all their force,—rather too fast, indeed, + for there was something of a swell on the lake, and they + sometimes threw water into the canoe. However, it flew over the + waves, light as a seagull. They would say, "Pull away," and "Ver' + warm," and, after these words, would laugh gayly. They enjoyed + the hour, I believe, as much as we.</p> + + <p>The house where we lived belonged to the widow of a French + trader, an Indian by birth, and wearing the dress of her country + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page112" id="page112"></a>[pg + 112]</span> She spoke French fluently, and was very ladylike in + her manners. She is a great character among them. They were all + the time coming to pay her homage, or to get her aid and advice; + for she is, I am told, a shrewd woman of business. My companion + carried about her sketch-book with her, and the Indians were + interested when they saw her using her pencil, though less so + than about the sun-shade. This lady of the tribe wanted to borrow + the sketches of the beach, with its lodges and wild groups, "to + show to the <i>savages</i>" she said.</p> + + <p>Of the practical ability of the Indian women, a good specimen + is given by McKenney, in an amusing story of one who went to + Washington, and acted her part there in the "first circles," with + a tact and sustained dissimulation worthy of Cagliostro. She + seemed to have a thorough love of intrigue for its own sake, and + much dramatic talent. Like the chiefs of her nation, when on an + expedition among the foe, whether for revenge or profit, no + impulses of vanity or way-side seductions had power to turn her + aside from carrying out her plan as she had originally projected + it.</p> + + <p>Although I have little to tell, I feel that I have learnt a + great deal of the Indians, from observing them even in this + broken and degraded condition. There is a language of eye and + motion which cannot be put into words, and which teaches what + words never can. I feel acquainted with the soul of this race; I + read its nobler thought in their defaced figures. There + <i>was</i> a greatness, unique and precious, which he who does + not feel will never duly appreciate the majesty of nature in this + American continent.</p> + + <p>I have mentioned that the Indian orator, who addressed the + agents on this occasion, said, the difference between the white + man and the red man is this: "The white man no sooner came here, + than he thought of preparing the way for his posterity; the red + man never thought of this." I was assured this was exactly his + phrase; and it defines the true difference. We get the better + because we do</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"Look before and after."</p> + </div> + </div> + + <p>But, from, the same cause, we</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"Pine for what is not."</p> + </div> + </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="page113" id= + "page113"></a>[pg 113]</span> The red man, when happy, was + thoroughly happy; when good, was simply good. He needed the + medal, to let him know that he <i>was</i> good. + + <p>These evenings we were happy, looking over the old-fashioned + garden, over the beach, over the waters and pretty island + opposite, beneath the growing moon. We did not stay to see it + full at Mackinaw; at two o'clock one night, or rather morning, + the Great Western came snorting in, and we must go; and Mackinaw, + and all the Northwest summer, is now to me no more than picture + and dream:—</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"A dream within a dream."</p> + </div> + </div> + + <p>These last days at Mackinaw have been pleasanter than the + "lonesome" nine, for I have recovered the companion with whom I + set out from the East,—one who sees all, prizes all, enjoys + much, interrupts never.</p> + + <p>At Detroit we stopped for half a day. This place is famous in + our history, and the unjust anger at its surrender is still + expressed by almost every one who passes there. I had always + shared the common feeling on this subject; for the indignation at + a disgrace to our arms that seemed so unnecessary has been handed + down from father to child, and few of us have taken the pains to + ascertain where the blame lay. But now, upon the spot, having + read all the testimony, I felt convinced that it should rest + solely with the government, which, by neglecting to sustain + General Hull, as he had a right to expect they would, compelled + him to take this step, or sacrifice many lives, and of the + defenceless inhabitants, not of soldiers, to the cruelty of a + savage foe, for the sake of his reputation.</p> + + <p>I am a woman, and unlearned in such affairs; but, to a person + with common sense and good eyesight, it is clear, when viewing + the location, that, under the circumstances, he had no prospect + of successful defence, and that to attempt it would have been an + act of vanity, not valor.</p> + + <p>I feel that I am not biassed in this judgment by my personal + relations, for I have always heard both sides, and though my + feelings <span class="pagenum"><a name="page114" id= + "page114"></a>[pg 114]</span> had been moved by the picture of + the old man sitting in the midst of his children, to a retired + and despoiled old age, after a life of honor and happy + intercourse with the public, yet tranquil, always secure that + justice must be done at last, I supposed, like others, that he + deceived himself, and deserved to pay the penalty for failure to + the responsibility he had undertaken. Now, on the spot, I change, + and believe the country at large must, erelong, change from this + opinion. And I wish to add my testimony, however trifling its + weight, before it be drowned in the voice of general assent, that + I may do some justice to the feelings which possess me here and + now.</p> + + <p>A noble boat, the Wisconsin, was to be launched this + afternoon; the whole town was out in many-colored array, the band + playing. Our boat swept round to a good position, and all was + ready but—the Wisconsin, which could not be made to stir. + This was quite a disappointment. It would have been an imposing + sight.</p> + + <p>In the boat many signs admonished that we were floating + eastward. A shabbily-dressed phrenologist laid his hand on every + head which would bend, with half-conceited, half-sheepish + expression, to the trial of his skill. Knots of people gathered + here and there to discuss points of theology. A bereaved lover + was seeking religious consolation in—Butler's Analogy, + which he had purchased for that purpose. However, he did not turn + over many pages before his attention was drawn aside by the gay + glances of certain damsels that came on board at Detroit, and, + though Butler might afterwards be seen sticking from his pocket, + it had not weight to impede him from many a feat of lightness and + liveliness. I doubt if it went with him from the boat. Some there + were, even, discussing the doctrines of Fourier. It seemed pity + they were not going to, rather than from, the rich and free + country where it would be so much easier than with us to try the + great experiment of voluntary association, and show beyond a + doubt that "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," a + maxim of the "wisdom of nations" which has proved of little + practical efficacy as yet.</p> + + <p>Better to stop before landing at Buffalo, while I have yet the + advantage over some of my readers.</p><span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page115" id="page115"></a>[pg 115]</span> + <p> </p> + <h3>THE BOOK TO THE READER,</h3> + + <p class="center">WHO OPENS, AS AMERICAN READERS OFTEN DO,—AT THE + END.</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>To see your cousin in her country home,</p> + + <p>If at the time of blackberries you come,</p> + + <p>"Welcome, my friends," she cries with ready glee,</p> + + <p>"The fruit is ripened, and the paths are free.</p> + + <p>But, madam, you will tear that handsome gown;</p> + + <p>The little boy be sure to tumble down;</p> + + <p>And, in the thickets where they ripen best,</p> + + <p>The matted ivy, too, its bower has drest.</p> + + <p>And then the thorns your hands are sure to rend,</p> + + <p>Unless with heavy gloves you will defend;</p> + + <p>Amid most thorns the sweetest roses blow,</p> + + <p>Amid most thorns the sweetest berries grow."</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>If, undeterred, you to the fields must go,</p> + + <p class="i2">You tear your dresses and you scratch your + hands;</p> + + <p>But, in the places where the berries grow,</p> + + <p class="i2">A sweeter fruit the ready sense commands,</p> + + <p>Of wild, gay feelings, fancies springing sweet,—</p> + + <p>Of bird-like pleasures, fluttering and fleet.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>Another year, you cannot go yourself,</p> + + <p class="i2">To win the berries from the thickets wild,</p> + + <p>And housewife skill, instead, has filled the shelf</p> + + <p class="i2">With blackberry jam, "by best receipts + compiled,—</p> + + <p>Not made with country sugar, for too strong</p> + + <p>The flavors that to maple-juice belong;</p> + + <p>But foreign sugar, nicely mixed 'to suit</p> + + <p>The taste,' spoils not the fragrance of the fruit."</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"'T is pretty good," half-tasting, you reply,</p> + + <p>"I scarce should know it from fresh blackberry.</p> + + <p>But the best pleasure such a fruit can yield</p> + + <p>Is to be gathered in the open field;</p><span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page116" id="page116"></a>[pg 116]</span> + + <p>If only as an article of food,</p> + + <p>Cherry or crab-apple is quite as good;</p> + + <p>And, for occasions of festivity,</p> + + <p>West India sweetmeats you had better buy."</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>Thus, such a dish of homely sweets as these</p> + + <p>In neither way may chance the taste to please.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>Yet try a little with the evening-bread;</p> + + <p>Bring a good needle for the spool of thread;</p> + + <p>Take fact with fiction, silver with the lead,</p> + + <p>And, at the mint, you can get gold instead;</p> + + <p>In fine, read me, even as you would be read.</p> + </div> + </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="page117" id= + "page117"></a>[pg 117]</span> + <p> </p> + <p> </p> + <h2>PART II.</h2> + + <h2>THINGS AND THOUGHTS IN EUROPE.</h2><span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page119" id="page119"></a>[pg 119]</span> + <p> </p> + <h3>LETTER I.</h3> + + <h4>Passage in the Cambria.—Lord and Lady + Falkland.—Captain + Judkins.—Liverpool.—Manchester.—Mechanics' + Institute.—"The Dial."—Peace and War.—The + Working-Men of England.—Their Tribute to Sir Robert + Peel.—The Royal + Institute.—Statues.—Chester.—Bathing.</h4> + + <p class="author">Ambleside, Westmoreland, 23d August, 1846.</p> + + <p>I take the first interval of rest and stillness to be filled + up by some lines for the Tribune. Only three weeks have passed + since leaving New York, but I have already had nine days of + wonder in England, and, having learned a good deal, suppose I may + have something to tell.</p> + + <p>Long before receiving this, you know that we were fortunate in + the shortest voyage ever made across the Atlantic,<a id= + "footnotetagi" name="footnotetagi"></a><a href= + "#footnotei"><sup>I</sup></a>—only ten days and sixteen + hours from Boston to Liverpool. The weather and all circumstances + were propitious; and, if some of us were weak of head enough to + suffer from the smell and jar of the machinery, or other ills by + which the sea is wont to avenge itself on the arrogance of its + vanquishers, we found no pity. The stewardess observed that she + thought "any one tempted God Almighty who complained on a voyage + where they did not even have to put guards to the dishes"!</p> + + <p>As many contradictory counsels were given us with regard to + going in one of the steamers in preference to a sailing vessel, I + will mention here, for the benefit of those who have not yet + tried one, that he must be fastidious indeed who could complain + of the Cambria. The advantage of a quick passage and certainty as + to <span class="pagenum"><a name="page120" id="page120"></a>[pg + 120]</span> the time of arrival, would, with us, have outweighed + many ills; but, apart from this, we found more space than we + expected and as much as we needed for a very tolerable degree of + convenience in our sleeping-rooms, better ventilation than + Americans in general can be persuaded to accept, general + cleanliness, and good attendance. In the evening, when the wind + was favorable, and the sails set, so that the vessel looked like + a great winged creature darting across the apparently measureless + expanse, the effect was very grand, but ah! for such a spectacle + one pays too dear; I far prefer looking out upon "the blue and + foaming sea" from a firm green shore.</p> + + <p>Our ship's company numbered several pleasant members, and that + desire prevailed in each to contribute to the satisfaction of + all, which, if carried out through the voyage of life, would make + this earth as happy as it is a lovely abode. At Halifax we took + in the Governor of Nova Scotia, returning from his very unpopular + administration. His lady was with, him, a daughter of William the + Fourth and the celebrated Mrs. Jordan. The English on board, and + the Americans, following their lead, as usual, seemed to attach + much importance to her left-handed alliance with one of the + dullest families that ever sat upon a throne, (and that is a bold + word, too,) none to her descent from one whom Nature had endowed + with her most splendid regalia,—genius that fascinated the + attention of all kinds and classes of men, grace and winning + qualities that no heart could resist. Was the cestus buried with + her, that no sense of its pre-eminent value lingered, as far as I + could perceive, in the thoughts of any except myself?</p> + + <p>We had a foretaste of the delights of living under an + aristocratical government at the Custom-House, where our baggage + was detained, and we waiting for it weary hours, because of the + preference given to the mass of household stuff carried back by + this same Lord and Lady Falkland.</p> + + <p>Captain Judkins of the Cambria, an able and prompt commander, + is the man who insisted upon Douglass being admitted to equal + rights upon his deck with the insolent slave-holders, and assumed + a tone toward their assumptions, which, if the Northern + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page121" id="page121"></a>[pg + 121]</span> States had had the firmness, good sense, and honor to + use, would have had the same effect, and put our country in a + very different position from that she occupies at present. He + mentioned with pride that he understood the New York Herald + called him "the Nigger Captain," and seemed as willing to accept + the distinction as Colonel McKenney is to wear as his last title + that of "the Indian's friend."</p> + + <p>At the first sight of the famous Liverpool Docks, extending + miles on each side of our landing, we felt ourselves in a slower, + solider, and not on that account less truly active, state of + things than at home. That impression is confirmed. There is not + as we travel that rushing, tearing, and swearing, that snatching + of baggage, that prodigality of shoe-leather and lungs, which + attend the course of the traveller in the United States; but we + do not lose our "goods," we do not miss our car. The dinner, if + ordered in time, is cooked properly, and served punctually, and + at the end of the day more that is permanent seems to have come + of it than on the full-drive system. But more of this, and with a + better grace, at a later day.</p> + + <p>The day after our arrival we went to Manchester. There we went + over the magnificent warehouse of —— Phillips, in + itself a Bazaar ample to furnish provision for all the wants and + fancies of thousands. In the evening we went to the Mechanics' + Institute, and saw the boys and young men in their classes. I + have since visited the Mechanics' Institute at Liverpool, where + more than seventeen hundred pupils are received, and with more + thorough educational arrangements; but the excellent spirit, the + desire for growth in wisdom and enlightened benevolence, is the + same in both. For a very small fee, the mechanic, clerk, or + apprentice, and the women of their families, can receive various + good and well-arranged instruction, not only in common branches + of an English education, but in mathematics, composition, the + French and German, languages, the practice and theory of the Fine + Arts, and they are ardent in availing themselves of instruction + in the higher branches. I found large classes, not only in + architectural drawing, which may be supposed to be followed with + a view to <span class="pagenum"><a name="page122" id= + "page122"></a>[pg 122]</span> professional objects, but landscape + also, and as large in German as in French. They can attend many + good lectures and concerts without additional charge, for a due + place is here assigned to music as to its influence on the whole + mind. The large and well-furnished libraries are in constant + requisition, and the books in most constant demand are not those + of amusement, but of a solid and permanent interest and value. + Only for the last year in Manchester, and for two in Liverpool, + have these advantages been extended to girls; but now that part + of the subject is looked upon as it ought to be, and begins to be + treated more and more as it must and will be wherever true + civilization is making its way. One of the handsomest houses in + Liverpool has been purchased for the girls' school, and room and + good arrangement been afforded for their work and their play. + Among other things they are taught, as they ought to be in all + American schools, to cut out and make dresses.</p> + + <p>I had the pleasure of seeing quotations made from our Boston + "Dial," in the address in which the Director of the Liverpool + Institute, a very benevolent and intelligent man, explained to + his disciples and others its objects, and which concludes + thus:—</p> + + <p>"But this subject of self-improvement is inexhaustible. If + traced to its results in action, it is, in fact, 'The Whole Duty + of Man.' What of detail it involves and implies, I know that you + will, each and all, think out for yourselves. Beautifully has it + been said: 'Is not the difference between spiritual and material + things just this,—that in the one case we must watch + details, in the other, keep alive the high resolve, and the + details will take care of themselves? Keep the sacred central + fire burning, and throughout the system, in each of its acts, + will be warmth and glow enough.'<a id="footnotetagj" name= + "footnotetagj"></a><a href="#footnotej"><sup>J</sup></a></p> + + <p>"For myself, if I be asked what my purpose is in relation to + you, I would briefly reply, It is that I may help, be it ever so + feebly, to train up a race of young men, who shall escape vice by + rising above it; who shall love truth because it is truth, not + because it <span class="pagenum"><a name="page123" id= + "page123"></a>[pg 123]</span> brings them wealth or honor; who + shall regard life as a solemn thing, involving too weighty + responsibilities to be wasted in idle or frivolous pursuits; who + shall recognize in their daily labors, not merely a tribute to + the "hard necessity of daily bread," but a field for the + development of their better nature by the discharge of duty; who + shall judge in all things for themselves, bowing the knee to no + sectarian or party watchwords of any kind; and who, while they + think for themselves, shall feel for others, and regard their + talents, their attainments, their opportunities, their + possessions, as blessings held in trust for the good of their + fellow-men."</p> + + <p>I found that The Dial had been read with earnest interest by + some of the best minds in these especially practical regions, + that it had been welcomed as a representative of some sincere and + honorable life in America, and thought the fittest to be quoted + under this motto:—</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"What are noble deeds but noble thoughts realized?"</p> + </div> + </div> + + <p>Among other signs of the times we bought Bradshaw's Railway + Guide, and, opening it, found extracts from the writings of our + countrymen, Elihu Burritt and Charles Sumner, on the subject of + Peace, occupying a leading place in the "Collect," for the month, + of this little hand-book, more likely, in an era like ours, to + influence the conduct of the day than would an illuminated + breviary. Now that peace is secured for the present between our + two countries, the spirit is not forgotten that quelled the + storm. Greeted on every side with expressions of feeling about + the blessings of peace, the madness and wickedness of war, that + would be deemed romantic in our darker land, I have answered to + the speakers, "But you are mightily pleased, and illuminate for + your victories in China and Ireland, do you not?" and they, + unprovoked by the taunt, would mildly reply, "<i>We</i> do not, + but it is too true that a large part of the nation fail to bring + home the true nature and bearing of those events, and apply + principle to conduct with as much justice as they do in the case + of a nation nearer to them by kindred and position. But we are + sure that feeling is growing purer on the subject day by day, and + that there will <span class="pagenum"><a name="page124" id= + "page124"></a>[pg 124]</span> soon be a large majority against + war on any occasion or for any object."</p> + + <p>I heard a most interesting letter read from a tradesman in one + of the country towns, whose daughters are self-elected + instructors of the people in the way of cutting out from books + and pamphlets fragments on the great subjects of the day, which + they send about in packages, or paste on walls and doors. He said + that one such passage, pasted on a door, he had seen read with + eager interest by hundreds to whom such thoughts were, probably, + quite new, and with some of whom it could scarcely fail to be as + a little seed of a large harvest. Another good omen I found in + written tracts by Joseph Barker, a working-man of the town of + Wortley, published through his own printing-press.</p> + + <p>How great, how imperious the need of such men, of such deeds, + we felt more than ever, while compelled to turn a deaf ear to the + squalid and shameless beggars of Liverpool, or talking by night + in the streets of Manchester to the girls from the Mills, who + were strolling bareheaded, with coarse, rude, and reckless air, + through the streets, or seeing through the windows of the + gin-palaces the women seated drinking, too dull to carouse. The + homes of England! their sweetness is melting into fable; only the + new Spirit in its holiest power can restore to those homes their + boasted security of "each man's castle," for Woman, the warder, + is driven into the street, and has let fall the keys in her sad + plight. Yet darkest hour of night is nearest dawn, and there + seems reason to believe that</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"There's a good time coming."</p> + </div> + </div> + + <p>Blest be those who aid, who doubt not that</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"Smallest helps, if rightly given,</p> + + <p>Make the impulse stronger;</p> + + <p>'T will be strong enough one day."</p> + </div> + </div> + + <p>Other things we saw in Liverpool,—the Royal Institute, + with the statue of Roscoe by Chantrey, and in its collection from + the works of the early Italian artists, and otherwise, bearing + traces of that liberality and culture by which the man, happy + enough to <span class="pagenum"><a name="page125" id= + "page125"></a>[pg 125]</span> possess them, and at the same time + engaged with his fellow-citizens in practical life, can do so + much more to enlighten and form them, than prince or noble + possibly can with far larger pecuniary means. We saw the statue + of Huskisson in the Cemetery. It is fine as a portrait statue, + but as a work of art wants firmness and grandeur. I say it is + fine as a portrait statue, though we were told it is not like the + original; but it is a good conception of an individuality which + might exist, if it does not yet. It is by Gibson, who received + his early education in Liverpool. I saw there, too, the body of + an infant borne to the grave by women; for it is a beautiful + custom, here, that those who have fulfilled all other tender + offices to the little being should hold to it the same relation + to the very last.</p> + + <p>From Liverpool we went to Chester, one of the oldest cities in + England, a Roman station once, and abode of the "Twentieth + Legion," "the Victorious." Tiles bearing this inscription, heads + of Jupiter, and other marks of their occupation, have, not long + ago, been detected beneath the sod. The town also bears the marks + of Welsh invasion and domestic struggles. The shape of a cross in + which it is laid out, its walls and towers, its four arched + gateways, its ramparts and ruined, towers, mantled with ivy, its + old houses with Biblical inscriptions, its cathedral,—in + which tall trees have grown up amid the arches, a fresh + garden-plot, with flowers, bright green and red, taken place of + the altar, and a crowd of revelling swallows supplanted the + sallow choirs of a former priesthood,—present a + <i>tout-ensemble</i> highly romantic in itself, and charming, + indeed, to Transatlantic eyes. Yet not to all eyes would it have + had charms, for one American traveller, our companion on the + voyage, gravely assured us that we should find the "castles and + that sort of thing all humbug," and that, if we wished to enjoy + them, it would "be best to sit at home and read some + <i>handsome</i> work on the subject."</p> + + <p>At the hotel in Liverpool and that in Manchester I had found + no bath, and asking for one at Chester, the chambermaid said, + with earnest good-will, that "they had none, but she thought she + could get me a note from her master to the Infirmary (!!) if I + would go <span class="pagenum"><a name="page126" id= + "page126"></a>[pg 126]</span> there." Luckily I did not + generalize quite as rapidly as travellers in America usually do, + and put in the note-book,—"<i>Mem.</i>: None but the sick + ever bathe in England"; for in the next establishment we tried, I + found the plentiful provision for a clean and healthy day, which + I had read would be met <i>everywhere</i> in this country.</p> + + <p>All else I must defer to my next, as the mail is soon to + close.</p> + + <blockquote class="footnote"> + <a id="footnotei" name="footnotei"></a><b>Footnote I:</b> + <a href="#footnotetagi">(return)</a> + + <p>True at the time these Letters were written.—ED.</p> + </blockquote> + + <blockquote class="footnote"> + <a id="footnotej" name="footnotej"></a><b>Footnote J:</b> + <a href="#footnotetagj">(return)</a> + + <p>The Dial, Vol. I. p. 188, October, 1840, "Musings of a + Recluse."</p> + </blockquote><span class="pagenum"><a name="page127" id= + "page127"></a>[pg 127]</span> + <p> </p> + <h3>LETTER II.</h3> + + <h4>Chester.—Its Museum.—Travelling + Companions.—A + Bengalese.—Westmoreland.—Ambleside.—Cobden and + Bright.—A Scotch Lady.—Wordsworth.—His + Flowers.—Miss Martineau.</h4> + + <p class="author">Ambleside. Westmoreland, 27th August, 1846.</p> + + <p>I forgot to mention, in writing of Chester, an object which + gave me pleasure. I mentioned, that the wall which enclosed the + old town was two miles in circumference; far beyond this + stretches the modern part of Chester, and the old gateways now + overarch the middle of long streets. This wall is now a walk for + the inhabitants, commanding a wide prospect, and three persons + could walk abreast on its smooth flags. We passed one of its old + picturesque towers, from whose top Charles the First, poor, weak, + unhappy king, looked down and saw his troops defeated by the + Parliamentary army on the adjacent plain. A little farther on, + one of these picturesque towers is turned to the use of a Museum, + whose stock, though scanty, I examined with singular pleasure, + for it had been made up by truly filial contributions from, all + who had derived benefit from Chester, from the Marquis of + Westminster—whose magnificent abode, Eton Hall, lies not + far off—down to the merchant's clerk, who had furnished it + in his leisure hours with a geological chart, the soldier and + sailor, who sent back shells, insects, and petrifactions from + their distant wanderings, and a boy of thirteen, who had made, in + wood, a model of its cathedral, and even furnished it with a bell + to ring out the evening chimes. Many women had been busy in + filling these magazines for the instruction and the pleasure of + their fellow-townsmen. Lady ——, the wife of the + captain of the garrison, grateful for the gratuitous admission of + the soldiers once a month,—a privilege of which + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page128" id="page128"></a>[pg + 128]</span> the keeper of the Museum (a woman also, who took an + intelligent pleasure in her task) assured me that they were eager + to avail themselves,—had given a fine collection of + butterflies, and a ship. An untiring diligence had been shown in + adding whatever might stimulate or gratify imperfectly educated + minds. I like to see women perceive that there are other ways of + doing good besides making clothes for the poor or teaching + Sunday-school; these are well, if well directed, but there are + many other ways, some as sure and surer, and which benefit the + giver no less than the receiver.</p> + + <p>I was waked from sleep at the Chester Inn by a loud dispute + between the chambermaid and an unhappy elderly gentleman, who + insisted that he had engaged the room in which I was, had + returned to sleep in it, and consequently must do so. To her + assurances that the lady was long since in possession, he was + deaf; but the lock, fortunately for me, proved a stronger + defence. With all a chambermaid's morality, the maiden boasted to + me, "He said he had engaged 44, and would not believe me when I + assured him it was 46; indeed, how could he? I did not believe + myself." To my assurance that, if I had known the room, was his, + I should not have wished for it, but preferred taking a worse, I + found her a polite but incredulous listener.</p> + + <p>Passing from Liverpool to Lancaster by railroad, that + convenient but most unprofitable and stupid way of travelling, we + there took the canal-boat to Kendal, and passed pleasantly + through a country of that soft, that refined and cultivated + loveliness, which, however much we have heard of it, finds the + American eye—accustomed to so much wildness, so much + rudeness, such a corrosive action of man upon nature—wholly + unprepared. I feel all the time as if in a sweet dream, and dread + to be presently awakened by some rude jar or glare; but none + comes, and here in Westmoreland—but wait a moment, before + we speak of that.</p> + + <p>In the canal-boat we found two well-bred English gentlemen, + and two well-informed German gentlemen, with whom we had some + agreeable talk. With one of the former was a beautiful youth, + about eighteen, whom I supposed, at the first glance, to be + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page129" id="page129"></a>[pg + 129]</span> a type of that pure East-Indian race whose beauty I + had never seen represented before except in pictures; and he made + a picture, from which I could scarcely take my eyes a moment, and + from it could as ill endure to part. He was dressed in a + broadcloth robe richly embroidered, leaving his throat and the + upper part of his neck bare, except that he wore a heavy gold + chain. A rich shawl was thrown gracefully around him; the sleeves + of his robe were loose, with white sleeves below. He wore a black + satin cap. The whole effect of this dress was very fine yet + simple, setting off to the utmost advantage the distinguished + beauty of his features, in which there was a mingling of national + pride, voluptuous sweetness in that unconscious state of reverie + when it affects us as it does in the flower, and intelligence in + its newly awakened purity. As he turned his head, his profile was + like one I used to have of Love asleep, while Psyche leans over + him with the lamp; but his front face, with the full, summery + look of the eye, was unlike that. He was a Bengalese, living in + England for his education, as several others are at present. He + spoke English well, and conversed on several subjects, literary + and political, with grace, fluency, and delicacy of thought.</p> + + <p>Passing from Kendal to Ambleside, we found a charming abode + furnished us by the care of a friend in one of the stone cottages + of this region, almost the only one <i>not</i> ivy-wreathed, but + commanding a beautiful view of the mountains, and truly an + English home in its neatness, quiet, and delicate, noiseless + attention to the wants of all within its walls. Here we have + passed eight happy days, varied by many drives, boating + excursions on Grasmere and Winandermere, and the society of + several agreeable persons. As the Lake district at this season + draws together all kinds of people, and a great variety beside + come from, all quarters to inhabit the charming dwellings that + adorn its hill-sides and shores, I met and saw a good deal of the + representatives of various classes, at once. I found here two + landed proprietors from other parts of England, both "travelled + English," one owning a property in Greece, where he frequently + resides, both warmly engaged in Reform measures, anti-Corn-Law, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page130" id="page130"></a>[pg + 130]</span> anti-Capital-Punishment,—one of them an earnest + student of Emerson's Essays. Both of them had wives, who kept + pace with their projects and their thoughts, active and + intelligent women, true ladies, skilful in drawing and music; all + the better wives for the development of every power. One of them + told me, with a glow of pride, that it was not long since her + husband had been "cut" by all his neighbors among the gentry for + the part he took against the Corn Laws; but, she added, he was + now a favorite with them all. Verily, faith will remove + mountains, if only you do join with it any fair portion of the + dove and serpent attributes.</p> + + <p>I found here, too, a wealthy manufacturer, who had written + many valuable pamphlets on popular subjects. He said: "Now that + the progress of public opinion was beginning to make the Church + and the Army narrower fields for the younger sons of 'noble' + families, they sometimes wish to enter into trade; but, beside + the aversion which had been instilled into them for many + centuries, they had rarely patience and energy for the + apprenticeship requisite to give the needed knowledge of the + world and habits of labor." Of Cobden he said: "He is inferior in + acquirements to very many of his class, as he is self-educated + and had everything to learn after he was grown up; but in clear + insight there is none like him." A man of very little education, + whom I met a day or two after in the stage-coach, observed to me: + "Bright is far the more eloquent of the two, but Cobden is more + felt, just <i>because</i> his speeches are so plain, so merely + matter-of-fact and to the point."</p> + + <p>We became acquainted also with Dr. Gregory, Professor of + Chemistry at Edinburgh, a very enlightened and benevolent man, + who in many ways both instructed and benefited us. He is the + friend of Liebig, and one of his chief representatives here.</p> + + <p>We also met a fine specimen of the noble, intelligent + Scotchwoman, such as Walter Scott and Burns knew how to prize. + Seventy-six years have passed over her head, only to prove in her + the truth of my theory, that we need never grow old. She was + "brought up" in the animated and intellectual circle of + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page131" id="page131"></a>[pg + 131]</span> Edinburgh, in youth an apt disciple, in her prime a + bright ornament of that society. She had been an only child, a + cherished wife, an adored mother, unspoiled by love in any of + these relations, because that love was founded on knowledge. In + childhood she had warmly sympathized in the spirit that animated + the American Revolution, and Washington had been her hero; later, + the interest of her husband in every struggle for freedom had + cherished her own; she had known in the course of her long life + many eminent men, knew minutely the history of efforts in that + direction, and sympathized now in the triumph of the people over + the Corn Laws, as she had in the American victories, with as much + ardor as when a girl, though with a wiser mind. Her eye was full + of light, her manner and gesture of dignity; her voice rich, + sonorous, and finely modulated; her tide of talk marked by + candor, justice, and showing in every sentence her ripe + experience and her noble, genial nature. Dear to memory will be + the sight of her in the beautiful seclusion of her home among the + mountains, a picturesque, flower-wreathed dwelling, where + affection, tranquillity, and wisdom were the gods of the hearth, + to whom was offered no vain oblation. Grant us more such women, + Time! Grant to men the power to reverence, to seek for such!</p> + + <p>Our visit to Mr. Wordsworth was very pleasant. He also is + seventy-six, but his is a florid, fair old age. He walked with us + to all his haunts about the house. Its situation is beautiful, + and the "Rydalian Laurels" are magnificent. Still I saw abodes + among the hills that I should have preferred for Wordsworth, more + wild and still, more romantic; the fresh and lovely Rydal Mount + seems merely the retirement of a gentleman, rather than the haunt + of a poet. He showed his benignity of disposition in several + little things, especially in his attentions to a young boy we had + with us. This boy had left the Circus, exhibiting its feats of + horsemanship in Ambleside "for that day only," at his own desire + to see Wordsworth, and I feared he would be disappointed, as I + know I should have been at his age, if, when called to see a + poet, I had found no Apollo, flaming with youthful glory, + laurel-crowned and lyre in hand, but, instead, a reverend old man + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page132" id="page132"></a>[pg + 132]</span> clothed in black, and walking with cautious step + along the level garden-path; however, he was not disappointed, + but seemed in timid reverence to recognize the spirit that had + dictated "Laodamia" and "Dion,"—and Wordsworth, in his + turn, seemed to feel and prize a congenial nature in this + child.</p> + + <p>Taking us into the house, he showed us the picture of his + sister, repeating with much expression some lines of hers, and + those so famous of his about her, beginning, "Five years," + &c.; also his own picture, by Inman, of whom he spoke with + esteem.</p> + + <p>Mr. Wordsworth is fond of the hollyhock, a partiality scarcely + deserved by the flower, but which marks the simplicity of his + tastes. He had made a long avenue of them of all colors, from the + crimson-brown to rose, straw-color, and white, and pleased + himself with having made proselytes to a liking for them among + his neighbors.</p> + + <p>I never have seen such magnificent fuchsias as at Ambleside, + and there was one to be seen in every cottage-yard. They are no + longer here under the shelter of the green-house, as with us, and + as they used to be in England. The plant, from its grace and + finished elegance, being a great favorite of mine, I should like + to see it as frequently and of as luxuriant a growth at home, and + asked their mode of culture, which I here mark down, for the + benefit of all who may be interested. Make a bed of bog-earth and + sand, put down slips of the fuchsia, and give them a great deal + of water,—this is all they need. People have them out here + in winter, but perhaps they would not bear the cold of our + Januaries.</p> + + <p>Mr. Wordsworth spoke with, more liberality than we expected of + the recent measures about the Corn Laws, saying that "the + principle was certainly right, though as to whether existing + interests had been as carefully attended to as was just, he was + not prepared to say." His neighbors were pleased to hear of his + speaking thus mildly, and hailed it as a sign that he was opening + his mind to more light on these subjects. They lament that his + habits of seclusion keep him much ignorant of the real wants of + England and the world. Living in this region, which is cultivated + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page133" id="page133"></a>[pg + 133]</span> by small proprietors, where there is little poverty, + vice, or misery, he hears not the voice which cries so loudly + from other parts of England, and will not be stilled by sweet + poetic suasion or philosophy, for it is the cry of men in the + jaws of destruction.</p> + + <p>It was pleasant to find the reverence inspired by this great + and pure mind warmest nearest home. Our landlady, in heaping + praises upon him, added, constantly, "And Mrs. Wordsworth, too." + "Do the people here," said I, "value Mr. Wordsworth most because + he is a celebrated writer?" "Truly, madam," said she, "I think it + is because he is so kind a neighbor."</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"True to the kindred points of Heaven and Home."</p> + </div> + </div> + + <p>Dr. Arnold, too,—who lived, as his family still live, + here,—diffused the same ennobling and animating spirit + among those who knew him in private, as through the sphere of his + public labors.</p> + + <p>Miss Martineau has here a charming residence; it has been + finished only a few months, but all about it is in unexpectedly + fair order, and promises much beauty after a year or two of + growth. Here we found her restored to full health and activity, + looking, indeed, far better than she did when in the United + States. It was pleasant to see her in this home, presented to her + by the gratitude of England for her course of energetic and + benevolent effort, and adorned by tributes of affection and + esteem from many quarters. From the testimony of those who were + with her in and since her illness, her recovery would seem to be + of as magical quickness and sure progress as has been + represented. At the house of Miss Martineau I saw Milman, the + author, I must not say poet,—a specimen of the polished, + scholarly man of the world.</p> + + <p>We passed one most delightful day in a visit to + Langdale,—the scene of "The Excursion,"—and to + Dungeon-Ghyll Force. I am finishing my letter at Carlisle on my + way to Scotland, and will give a slight sketch of that excursion, + and one which occupied another day, from Keswick to Buttermere + and Crummock Water, in my next.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name= + "page134" id="page134"></a>[pg 134]</span> + <p> </p> + <h3>LETTER III.</h3> + + <h4>Westmoreland.—Langdale.—Dungeon-Ghyll + Force.—Keswick.—Carlisle.—Branxholm.—Scott.—Burns.</h4> + + <p class="author">Edinburgh, 20th September, 1846.</p> + + <p>I have too long delayed writing up my journal.—Many + interesting observations slip from recollection if one waits so + many days: yet, while travelling, it is almost impossible to find + an hour when something of value to be seen will not be lost while + writing.</p> + + <p>I said, in closing my last, that I would write a little more + about Westmoreland; but so much, has happened since, that I must + now dismiss that region with all possible brevity.</p> + + <p>The first day of which I wished to speak was passed in + visiting Langdale, the scene of Wordsworth's "Excursion." Our + party of eight went in two of the vehicles called cars or + droskas,—open carriages, each drawn by one horse. They are + rather fatiguing to ride in, but good to see from. In steep and + stony places all alight, and the driver leads the horse: so many + of these there are, that we were four or five hours in going ten + miles, including the pauses when we wished to <i>look</i>.</p> + + <p>The scenes through which we passed are, indeed, of the most + wild and noble character. The wildness is not savage, but very + calm. Without recurring to details, I recognized the tone and + atmosphere of that noble poem, which was to me, at a feverish + period in my life, as pure waters, free breezes, and cold blue + sky, bringing a sense of eternity that gave an aspect of + composure to the rudest volcanic wrecks of time.</p> + + <p>We dined at a farm-house of the vale, with its stone floors, + old carved cabinet (the pride of a house of this sort), and ready + provision <span class="pagenum"><a name="page135" id= + "page135"></a>[pg 135]</span> of oaten cakes. We then ascended a + near hill to the waterfall called Dungeon-Ghyll Force, also a + subject touched by Wordsworth's Muse. You wind along a path for a + long time, hearing the sound of the falling water, but do not see + it till, descending by a ladder the side of the ravine, you come + to its very foot. You find yourself then in a deep chasm, bridged + over by a narrow arch of rock; the water falls at the farther end + in a narrow column. Looking up, you see the sky through a fissure + so narrow as to make it look very pure and distant. One of our + party, passing in, stood some time at the foot of the waterfall, + and added much to its effect, as his height gave a measure by + which to appreciate that of surrounding objects, and his look, by + that light so pale and statuesque, seemed to inform the place + with the presence of its genius.</p> + + <p>Our circuit homeward from this grand scene led us through some + lovely places, and to an outlook upon the most beautiful part of + Westmoreland. Passing over to Keswick we saw Derwentwater, and + near it the Fall of Lodore. It was from Keswick that we made the + excursion of a day through Borrowdale to Buttermere and Crummock + Water, which I meant to speak of, but find it impossible at this + moment. The mind does not now furnish congenial colors with which + to represent the vision of that day: it must still wait in the + mind and bide its time, again to emerge to outer air.</p> + + <p>At Keswick we went to see a model of the Lake country which + gives an excellent idea of the relative positions of all objects. + Its maker had given six years to the necessary surveys and + drawings. He said that he had first become acquainted with the + country from his taste for fishing, but had learned to love its + beauty, till the thought arose of making this model; that while + engaged in it, he visited almost every spot amid the hills, and + commonly saw both sunrise and sunset upon them; that he was happy + all the time, but almost too happy when he saw one section of his + model coming out quite right, and felt sure at last that he + should be quite successful in representing to others the home of + his thoughts. I looked upon him as indeed an enviable man, to + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page136" id="page136"></a>[pg + 136]</span> have a profession so congenial with his feelings, in + which he had been so naturally led to do what would be useful and + pleasant for others.</p> + + <p>Passing from Keswick through a pleasant and cultivated + country, we paused at "fair Carlisle," not voluntarily, but + because we could not get the means of proceeding farther that + day. So, as it was one in which</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"The sun shone fair on Carlisle wall,"</p> + </div> + </div> + + <p>we visited its Cathedral and Castle, and trod, for the first + time, in some of the footsteps of the unfortunate Queen of + Scots.</p> + + <p>Passing next day the Border, we found the mosses all drained, + and the very existence of sometime moss-troopers would have + seemed problematical, but for the remains of Gilnockie,—the + tower of Johnnie Armstrong, so pathetically recalled in one of + the finest of the Scottish ballads. Its size, as well as that of + other keeps, towers, and castles, whose ruins are reverentially + preserved in Scotland, gives a lively sense of the time when + population was so scanty, and individual manhood grew to such + force. Ten men in Gilnockie were stronger then in proportion to + the whole, and probably had in them more of intelligence, + resource, and genuine manly power, than ten regiments now of + red-coats drilled to act out manoeuvres they do not understand, + and use artillery which needs of them no more than the match to + go off and do its hideous message.</p> + + <p>Farther on we saw Branxholm, and the water in crossing which + the Goblin Page was obliged to resume his proper shape and fly, + crying, "Lost, lost, lost!" Verily these things seem more like + home than one's own nursery, whose toys and furniture could not + in actual presence engage the thoughts like these pictures, made + familiar as household words by the most generous, kindly genius + that ever blessed this earth.</p> + + <p>On the coach with us was a gentleman coming from London to + make his yearly visit to the neighborhood of Burns, in which he + was born. "I can now," said he, "go but once a year; when a boy, + I never let a week pass without visiting the house of Burns." + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page137" id="page137"></a>[pg + 137]</span> He afterward observed, as every step woke us to fresh + recollections of Walter Scott, that Scott, with all his vast + range of talent, knowledge, and activity, was a poet of the past + only, and in his inmost heart wedded to the habits of a feudal + aristocracy, while Burns is the poet of the present and the + future, the man of the people, and throughout a genuine man. This + is true enough; but for my part I cannot endure a comparison + which by a breath of coolness depreciates either. Both were + wanted; each acted the important part assigned him by destiny + with a wonderful thoroughness and completeness. Scott breathed + the breath just fleeting from the forms of ancient Scottish + heroism and poesy into new,—he made for us the bridge by + which we have gone into the old Ossianic hall and caught the + meaning just as it was about to pass from us for ever. Burns is + full of the noble, genuine democracy which seeks not to destroy + royalty, but to make all men kings, as he himself was, in nature + and in action. They belong to the same world; they are pillars of + the same church, though they uphold its starry roof from opposite + sides. Burns was much the rarer man; precisely because he had + most of common nature on a grand scale; his humor, his passion, + his sweetness, are all his own; they need no picturesque or + romantic accessories to give them due relief: looked at by all + lights they are the same. Since Adam, there has been none that + approached nearer fitness to stand up before God and angels in + the naked majesty of manhood than Robert Burns;—but there + was a serpent in his field also! Yet but for his fault we could + never have seen brought out the brave and patriotic modesty with + which he owned it. Shame on him who could bear to think of fault + in this rich jewel, unless reminded by such confession.</p> + + <p>We passed Abbotsford without stopping, intending to go there + on our return. Last year five hundred Americans inscribed their + names in its porter's book. A raw-boned Scotsman, who gathered + his weary length into our coach on his return from a pilgrimage + thither, did us the favor to inform us that "Sir Walter was a + vara intelligent mon," and the guide-book mentions "the American + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page138" id="page138"></a>[pg + 138]</span> Washington" as "a worthy old patriot." Lord safe us, + cummers, what news be there!</p> + + <p>This letter, meant to go by the Great Britain, many + interruptions force me to close, unflavored by one whiff from the + smoke of Auld Reekie. More and better matter shall my next + contain, for here and in the Highlands I have passed three not + unproductive weeks, of which more anon.</p><span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page139" id="page139"></a>[pg 139]</span> + <p> </p> + <h3>LETTER IV.</h3> + + <h4>Edinburgh, Old and New.—Scott and Burns.—Dr. + Andrew Combe.—American Re-publishing.—The Bookselling + Trade.—The Messrs. Chambers.—De Quincey the + Opium-Eater.—Dr. Chalmers.</h4> + + <p class="author">Edinburgh, September 22d, 1846.</p> + + <p>The beautiful and stately aspect of this city has been the + theme of admiration so general that I can only echo it. We have + seen it to the greatest advantage both from Calton Hill and + Arthur's Seat, and our lodgings in Princess Street allow us a + fine view of the Castle, always impressive, but peculiarly so in + the moonlit evenings of our first week here, when a veil of mist + added to its apparent size, and at the same time gave it the air + with which Martin, in his illustrations of "Paradise Lost," has + invested the palace which "rose like an exhalation."</p> + + <p>On this our second visit, after an absence of near a fortnight + in the Highlands, we are at a hotel nearly facing the new + monument to Scott, and the tallest buildings of the Old Town. + From my windows I see the famous Kirk, the spot where the old + Tolbooth was, and can almost distinguish that where Porteous was + done to death, and other objects described in the most dramatic + part of "The Heart of Mid-Lothian." In one of these tall houses + Hume wrote part of his History of England, and on this spot still + nearer was the home of Allan Ramsay. A thousand other interesting + and pregnant associations present themselves every time I look + out of the window.</p> + + <p>In the open square between us and the Old Town is to be the + terminus of the railroad, but as the building will be masked with + trees, it is thought it will not mar the beauty of the place; yet + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page140" id="page140"></a>[pg + 140]</span> Scott could hardly have looked without regret upon an + object that marks so distinctly the conquest of the New over the + Old, and, appropriately enough, his statue has its back turned + that way. The effect of the monument to Scott is pleasing, though + without strict unity of thought or original beauty of design. The + statue is too much hid within the monument, and wants that + majesty of repose in the attitude and drapery which a sitting + figure should have, and which might well accompany the massive + head of Scott. Still the monument is an ornament and an honor to + the city. This is now the fourth that has been erected within two + years to commemorate the triumphs of genius. Monuments that have + risen from the same idea, and in such quick succession, to + Schiller, to Goethe, to Beethoven, and to Scott, signalize the + character of the new era still more happily than does the + railroad coming up almost to the foot of Edinburgh Castle.</p> + + <p>The statue of Burns has been removed from the monument erected + in his honor, to one of the public libraries, as being there more + accessible to the public. It is, however, entirely unworthy its + subject, giving the idea of a smaller and younger person, while + we think of Burns as of a man in the prime of manhood, one who + not only promised, but <i>was</i>, and with a sunny glow and + breadth, of character of which this stone effigy presents no + sign.</p> + + <p>A Scottish gentleman told me the following story, which would + afford the finest subject for a painter capable of representing + the glowing eye and natural kingliness of Burns, in contrast to + the poor, mean puppets he reproved.</p> + + <p>Burns, still only in the dawn of his celebrity, was invited to + dine with one of the neighboring so-called gentry (unhappily + quite void of true gentle blood). On arriving he found his plate + set in the servants' room!! After dinner he was invited into a + room where guests were assembled, and, a chair being placed for + him at the lower end of the board, a glass of wine was offered, + and he was requested to sing one of his songs for the + entertainment of the company. He drank off the wine, and + thundered forth in reply his grand song, "For a' that and a' + that," with which it will do no harm to refresh the memories of + our readers, for we <span class="pagenum"><a name="page141" id= + "page141"></a>[pg 141]</span> doubt there may be, even in + Republican America, those who need the reproof as much, and with + far less excuse, than had that Scottish company.</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"Is there, for honest poverty,</p> + + <p class="i2">That hangs his head, and a' that?</p> + + <p>The coward slave, we pass him by,</p> + + <p class="i2">We dare be poor for a' that!</p> + + <p class="i2">For a' that, and a' that,</p> + + <p class="i2">Our toils obscure, and a' that,</p> + + <p>The rank is but the guinea's stamp,</p> + + <p class="i2">The man's the gowd for a' that.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"What tho' on hamely fare we dine,</p> + + <p class="i2">Wear hoddin gray, and a' that;</p> + + <p>Gie fools their silks, and knaves their wine,</p> + + <p class="i2">A man 's a man for a' that!</p> + + <p class="i2">For a' that, and a' that,</p> + + <p class="i2">Their tinsel show, and a' that,</p> + + <p>The honest man, though, e'er sae poor</p> + + <p class="i2">Is king o' men for a' that.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"Ye see yon birkie, ca'd a lord,</p> + + <p class="i2">Wha struts, and stares, and a' that;</p> + + <p>Tho' hundreds worship at his word,</p> + + <p class="i2">He's but a coof for a' that;</p> + + <p class="i2">For a' that, and a' that,</p> + + <p class="i2">His ribbon, star, and a' that,</p> + + <p>The man of independent mind,</p> + + <p class="i2">He looks and laughs at a' that.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"A prince can make a belted knight,</p> + + <p class="i2">A marquis, duke, and a' that;</p> + + <p>But an honest man's aboon his might</p> + + <p class="i2">Guid faith, he maunna fa' that!</p> + + <p class="i2">For a' that, and a' that,</p> + + <p class="i2">Their dignities, and a' that,</p> + + <p>The pith o' sense and pride o' worth</p> + + <p class="i2">Are higher ranks than a' that.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"Then let us pray that, come it may,</p> + + <p class="i2">As come it will for a' that,</p> + + <p>That sense and worth, o'er a' the earth,</p> + + <p class="i2">May bear the gree, and a' that;</p> + + <p class="i2">For a' that, and a' that,</p> + + <p class="i2">It's coming yet for a' that,</p> + + <p>That man to man, the wide warld o'er,</p> + + <p class="i2">Shall brothers be for a' that."</p> + </div> + </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="page142" id= + "page142"></a>[pg 142]</span> And, having finished this prophecy + and prayer, Nature's nobleman left his churlish entertainers to + hide their diminished heads in the home they had disgraced. + + <p>We have seen all the stock lions. The Regalia people still + crowd to see, though the old natural feelings from which they so + long lay hidden seem almost extinct. Scotland grows English day + by day. The libraries of the Advocates, Writers to the Signet, + &c., are fine establishments. The University and schools are + now in vacation; we are compelled by unwise postponement of our + journey to see both Edinburgh and London at the worst possible + season. We should have been here in April, there in June. There + is always enough to see, but now we find a majority of the most + interesting persons absent, and a stagnation in the intellectual + movements of the place.</p> + + <p>We had, however, the good fortune to find Dr. Andrew Combe, + who, though a great invalid, was able and disposed for + conversation at this time. I was impressed with great and + affectionate respect by the benign and even temper of his mind, + his extensive and accurate knowledge, accompanied, as such should + naturally be, by a large and intelligent liberality. Of our + country he spoke very wisely and hopefully, though among other + stories with which we, as Americans, are put to the blush here, + there is none worse than that of the conduct of some of our + publishers toward him. One of these stories I had heard in New + York, but supposed it to be exaggerated till I had it from the + best authority. It is of one of our leading houses who were + publishing on their own account and had stereotyped one of his + works from an early edition. When this work had passed through + other editions and he had for years been busy in reforming and + amending it, he applied to this house to republish from the later + and better edition. They refused. In vain he urged that it was + not only for his own reputation as an author that he was anxious, + but for the good of the great country through which writings on + such, important subjects were to be circulated, that they might + have the benefit of his labors and best knowledge. Such arguments + on the stupid and mercenary tempers of those <span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page143" id="page143"></a>[pg 143]</span> + addressed fell harmless as on a buffalo's hide might a + gold-tipped arrow. The book, they thought, answered THEIR purpose + sufficiently, for IT SELLS. Other purpose for a book they knew + none. And as to the natural rights of an author over the fruits + of his mind, the distilled essence of a life consumed in the + severities of mental labor, they had never heard of such a thing. + His work was in the market, and he had no more to do with it, + that they could see, than the silkworm with the lining of one of + their coats.</p> + + <p>Mr. Greeley, the more I look at this subject, the more I must + maintain, in opposition to your views, that the publisher cannot, + if a mere tradesman, be a man of honor. It is impossible in the + nature of things. He <i>must</i> have some idea of the nature and + value of literary labor, or he is wholly unfit to deal with its + products. He cannot get along by occasional recourse to paid + critics or readers; he must himself have some idea what he is + about. One partner, at least, in the firm, must be a man of + culture. All must understand enough to appreciate their position, + and know that he who, for his sordid aims, circulates poisonous + trash amid a great and growing people, and makes it almost + impossible for those whom Heaven has appointed as its instructors + to do their office, are the worst of traitors, and to be + condemned at the bar of nations under a sentence no less severe + than false statesmen and false priests. This matter should and + must be looked to more conscientiously.</p> + + <p>Dr. Combe, repelled by all this indifference to conscience and + natural equity in the firm who had taken possession of his work, + applied to others. But here he found himself at once opposed by + the invisible barrier that makes this sort of tyranny so strong + and so pernicious. "It was the understanding among the trade that + they were not to interfere with one another; indeed, they could + have no chance," &c., &c. When at last he did get the + work republished in another part of the country less favorable + for his purposes, the bargain made as to the pecuniary part of + the transaction was in various ways so evaded, that, up to this + time, he has received no compensation from that widely-circulated + work, except a lock of Spurzheim's hair!!</p><span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page144" id="page144"></a>[pg 144]</span> + + <p>I was pleased to hear the true view expressed by one of the + Messrs. Chambers. These brothers have worked their way up to + wealth and influence by daily labor and many steps. One of them + is more the business man, the other the literary curator of their + Journal. Of this Journal they issue regularly eighty thousand + copies, and it is doing an excellent work, by awakening among the + people a desire for knowledge, and, to a considerable extent, + furnishing them with good materials. I went over their fine + establishment, where I found more than a hundred and fifty + persons, in good part women, employed, all in well-aired, + well-lighted rooms, seemingly healthy and content. Connected with + the establishment is a Savings Bank, and evening instruction in + writing, singing, and arithmetic. There was also a reading-room, + and the same valuable and liberal provision we had found attached + to some of the Manchester warehouses. Such accessories dignify + and gladden all kinds of labor, and show somewhat of the true + spirit of human brotherhood in the employer. Mr. Chambers said he + trusted they should never look on publishing <i>chiefly</i> as + <i>business</i>, or a lucrative and respectable employment, but + as the means of mental and moral benefit to their countrymen. To + one so wearied and disgusted as I have been by vulgar and base + avowals on such subjects, it was very refreshing to hear this + from the lips of a successful publisher.</p> + + <p>Dr. Combe spoke with high praise of Mr. Hurlbart's book, + "Human Rights and their Political Guaranties," which was + published at the Tribune office. He observed that it was the work + of a real thinker, and extremely well written. It is to be + republished here. Dr. Combe said that it must make its way + slowly, as it could interest those only who were willing to read + thoughtfully; but its success was sure at last.</p> + + <p>He also spoke with, great interest and respect of Mrs. + Farnham, of whose character and the influence she has exerted on + the female prisoners at Sing Sing he had heard some account.</p> + + <p>A person of a quite different character and celebrity is De + Quincey, the English Opium-Eater, and who lately has delighted us + again with the papers in Blackwood headed "Suspiria de + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page145" id="page145"></a>[pg + 145]</span> Profundis." I had the satisfaction, not easily + attainable now, of seeing him for some hours, and in the mood of + conversation. As one belonging to the Wordsworth, and Coleridge + constellation, (he too is now seventy-six years of age,) the + thoughts and knowledge of Mr. De Quincey lie in the past; and + oftentimes he spoke of matters now become trite to one of a later + culture. But to all that fell from his lips, his eloquence, + subtile and forcible as the wind, full and gently falling as the + evening dew, lent a peculiar charm. He is an admirable narrator, + not rapid, but gliding along like a rivulet through a green + meadow, giving and taking a thousand little beauties not + absolutely required to give his story due relief, but each, in + itself, a separate boon.</p> + + <p>I admired, too, his urbanity, so opposite to the rapid, slang, + Vivian-Greyish style current in the literary conversation of the + day. "Sixty years since," men had time to do things better and + more gracefully than now.</p> + + <p>With Dr. Chalmers we passed a couple of hours. He is old now, + but still full of vigor and fire. We had an opportunity of + hearing a fine burst of indignant eloquence from him. "I shall + blush to my very bones," said he, "if the + <i>Chaarrch</i>"—(sound these two <i>rr</i>'s with as much + burr as possible and you will get at an idea of his mode of + pronouncing that unweariable word)—"if the Chaarrch yields + to the storm." He alluded to the outcry now raised against the + Free Church by the Abolitionists, whose motto is, "Send back the + money," i.e. money taken from the American slaveholders. Dr. + Chalmers felt that, if they did not yield from conviction, they + must not to assault. His manner of speaking on this subject gave + me an idea of the nature of his eloquence. He seldom preaches + now.</p> + + <p>A fine picture was presented by the opposition of figure and + lineaments between a young Indian, son of the celebrated + Dwarkanauth Tagore, who happened to be there that morning, and + Dr. Chalmers, as they were conversing together. The swarthy, + half-timid, yet elegant face and form of the Indian made a fine + contrast with the florid, portly, yet intellectually luminous + appearance <span class="pagenum"><a name="page146" id= + "page146"></a>[pg 146]</span> of the Doctor; half shepherd, half + orator, he looked a Shepherd King opposed to some Arabian + story-teller.</p> + + <p>I saw others in Edinburgh of a later date who haply gave more + valuable as well as fresher revelations of the spirit, and whose + names may be by and by more celebrated than those I have cited; + but for the present this must suffice. It would take a week, if I + wrote half I saw or thought in Edinburgh, and I must close for + to-day.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page147" id= + "page147"></a>[pg 147]</span> + <p> </p> + <h3>LETTER V.</h3> + + <h4>Perth.—Travelling by Coach.—Loch + Leven.—Queen Mary.—Loch Katrine.—The + Trosachs.—Rowardennan.—A Night on Ben + Lomond.—Scotch Peasantry.</h4> + + <p class="author">Birmingham, September 30th, 1846.</p> + + <p>I was obliged to stop writing at Edinburgh before the better + half of my tale was told, and must now begin there again, to + speak of an excursion into the Highlands, which occupied about a + fortnight.</p> + + <p>We left Edinburgh, by coach for Perth, and arrived there about + three in the afternoon. I have reason to be very glad that I + visit this island before the reign of the stage-coach is quite + over. I have been constantly on the top of the coach, even one + day of drenching rain, and enjoy it highly. Nothing can be more + inspiring than this swift, steady progress over such smooth + roads, and placed so high as to overlook the country freely, with + the lively flourish of the horn preluding every pause. Travelling + by railroad is, in my opinion, the most stupid process on earth; + it is sleep without the refreshment of sleep, for the noise of + the train makes it impossible either to read, talk, or sleep to + advantage. But here the advantages are immense; you can fly + through this dull trance from one beautiful place to another, and + stay at each during the time that would otherwise be spent on the + road. Already the artists, who are obliged to find their home in + London, rejoice that all England is thrown open to them for + sketching-ground, since they can now avail themselves of a day's + leisure at a great distance, and with choice of position, whereas + formerly they were obliged to confine themselves to a few "green, + and bowery" spots in the neighborhood of the metropolis. But + while in <span class="pagenum"><a name="page148" id= + "page148"></a>[pg 148]</span> the car, it is to me that worst of + purgatories, the purgatory of dulness.</p> + + <p>Well, on the coach we went to Perth, and passed through + Kinross, and saw Loch Leven, and the island where Queen Mary + passed those sorrowful months, before her romantic escape under + care of the Douglas. As this unhappy, lovely woman stands for a + type in history, death, time, and distance do not destroy her + attractive power. Like Cleopatra, she has still her adorers; nay, + some are born to her in each new generation of men. Lately she + has for her chevalier the Russian Prince Labanoff, who has spent + fourteen years in studying upon all that related to her, and + thinks now that he can make out a story and a picture about the + mysteries of her short reign, which shall satisfy the desire of + her lovers to find her as pure and just as she was charming. I + have only seen of his array of evidence so much, as may be found + in the pages of Chambers's Journal, but that much does not + disturb the original view I have taken of the case; which is, + that from a princess educated under the Medici and Guise + influence, engaged in the meshes of secret intrigue to favor the + Roman Catholic faith, her tacit acquiescence, at least, in the + murder of Darnley, after all his injurious conduct toward her, + was just what was to be expected. From a poor, beautiful young + woman, longing to enjoy life, exposed both by her position and + her natural fascinations to the utmost bewilderment of flattery, + whether prompted by interest or passion, her other acts of folly + are most natural, and let all who feel inclined harshly to + condemn her remember to</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"Gently scan your brother man,</p> + + <p>Still gentler sister woman."</p> + </div> + </div> + + <p>Surely, in all the stern pages of life's account-book there is + none on which a more terrible price is exacted for every precious + endowment. Her rank and reign only made her powerless to do good, + and exposed her to danger; her talents only served to irritate + her foes and disappoint her friends. This most charming of women + was the destruction of her lovers: married three times, she had + never any happiness as a wife, but in both the connections + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page149" id="page149"></a>[pg + 149]</span> of her choice found that she had either never + possessed or could not retain, even for a few weeks, the love of + the men she had chosen, so that Darnley was willing to risk her + life and that of his unborn child to wreak his wrath upon Rizzio, + and after a few weeks with Bothwell she was heard "calling aloud + for a knife to kill herself with." A mother twice, and of a son + and daughter, both the children were brought forth in loneliness + and sorrow, and separated from her early, her son educated to + hate her, her daughter at once immured in a convent. Add the + eighteen years of her imprisonment, and the fact that this + foolish, prodigal world, when there was in it one woman fitted by + her grace and loveliness to charm all eyes and enliven all + fancies, suffered her to be shut up to water with her tears her + dull embroidery during all the full rose-blossom of her life, and + you will hardly get beyond this story for a tragedy, not noble, + but pallid and forlorn.</p> + + <p>Such were the bootless, best thoughts I had while looking at + the dull blood-stain and blocked-up secret stair of Holyrood, at + the ruins of Loch Leven castle, and afterward at Abbotsford, + where the picture of Queen Mary's head, as it lay on the pillow + when severed from the block, hung opposite to a fine caricature + of "Queen Elizabeth dancing high and disposedly." In this last + the face is like a mask, so frightful is the expression of cold + craft, irritated, vanity, and the malice of a lonely breast in + contrast with the attitude and elaborate frippery of the dress. + The ambassador looks on dismayed; the little page can scarcely + control the laughter which swells his boyish cheeks. Such can win + the world which, better hearts (and such Mary's was, even if it + had a large black speck in it) are most like to lose.</p> + + <p>That was a most lovely day on which we entered Perth, and saw + in full sunshine its beautiful meadows, among them the + North-Inch, the famous battle-ground commemorated in "The Fair + Maid of Perth," adorned with graceful trees like those of the New + England country towns. In the afternoon we visited the modern + Kinfauns, the stately home of Lord Grey. The drive to it is most + beautiful, on the one side the Park, with noble heights that + skirt it, on the other through a belt of trees was seen the + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page150" id="page150"></a>[pg + 150]</span> river and the sweep of that fair and cultivated + country. The house is a fine one, and furnished with taste, the + library large, and some good works in marble. Among the family + pictures one arrested my attention,—the face of a girl full + of the most pathetic sensibility, and with no restraint of + convention upon its ardent, gentle expression. She died + young.</p> + + <p>Returning, we were saddened, as almost always on leaving any + such place, by seeing such swarms of dirty women and dirtier + children at the doors of the cottages almost close by the gate of + the avenue. To the horrors and sorrows of the streets in such + places as Liverpool, Glasgow, and, above all, London, one has to + grow insensible or die daily; but here in the sweet, fresh, green + country, where there seems to be room for everybody, it is + impossible to forget the frightful inequalities between the lot + of man and man, or believe that God can smile upon a state of + things such as we find existent here. Can any man who has seen + these things dare blame the Associationists for their attempt to + find prevention against such misery and wickedness in our land? + Rather will not every man of tolerable intelligence and good + feeling commend, say rather revere, every earnest attempt in that + direction, nor dare interfere with any, unless he has a better to + offer in its place?</p> + + <p>Next morning we passed on to Crieff, in whose neighborhood we + visited Drummond Castle, the abode, or rather one of the abodes, + of Lord Willoughby D'Eresby. It has a noble park, through which + you pass by an avenue of two miles long. The old keep is still + ascended to get the fine view of the surrounding country; and + during Queen Victoria's visit, her Guards were quartered there. + But what took my fancy most was the old-fashioned garden, full of + old shrubs and new flowers, with its formal parterres in the + shape of the family arms, and its clipped yew and box trees. It + was fresh from a shower, and now glittering and fragrant in + bright sunshine.</p> + + <p>This afternoon we pursued our way, passing through the + plantations of Ochtertyre, a far more charming place to my taste + than Drummond Castle, freer and more various in its features. + Five <span class="pagenum"><a name="page151" id="page151"></a>[pg + 151]</span> or six of these fine places lie in the neighborhood + of Crieff, and the traveller may give two or three days to + visiting them with a rich reward of delight. But we were pressing + on to be with the lakes and mountains rather, and that night + brought us to St. Fillan's, where we saw the moon shining on Loch + Earn.</p> + + <p>All this region, and that of Loch Katrine and the Trosachs, + which we reached next day, Scott has described exactly in "The + Lady of the Lake"; nor is it possible to appreciate that poem, + without going thither, neither to describe the scene better than + he has done after you have seen it. I was somewhat disappointed + in the pass of the Trosachs itself; it is very grand, but the + grand part lasts so little while. The opening view of Loch + Katrine, however, surpassed, expectation. It was late in the + afternoon when we launched our little boat there for Ellen's + isle.</p> + + <p>The boatmen recite, though not <i>con molto espressione</i>, + the parts of the poem which describe these localities. Observing + that they spoke of the personages, too, with the same air of + confidence, we asked if they were sure that all this really + happened. They replied, "Certainly; it had been told from father + to son through so many generations." Such is the power of genius + to interpolate what it will into the regular log-book of Time's + voyage.</p> + + <p>Leaving Loch Katrine the following day, we entered Rob Roy's + country, and saw on the way the house where Helen MacGregor was + born, and Rob Roy's sword, which is shown in a house by the + way-side.</p> + + <p>We came in a row-boat up Loch Katrine, though both on that and + Loch Lomond you <i>may</i> go in a hateful little steamer with a + squeaking fiddle to play Rob Roy MacGregor O. I walked almost all + the way through the pass from Loch Katrine to Loch Lomond; it was + a distance of six miles; but you feel as if you could walk sixty + in that pure, exhilarating air. At Inversnaid we took boat again + to go down Loch Lomond to the little inn of Rowardennan, from + which the ascent is made of Ben Lomond, the greatest elevation in + these parts. The boatmen are fine, athletic men; one of those + with us this evening, a handsome young man of two or three and + twenty, sang to us some Gaelic <span class="pagenum"><a name= + "page152" id="page152"></a>[pg 152]</span> songs. The first, a + very wild and plaintive air, was the expostulation of a girl + whose lover has deserted her and married another. It seems he is + ashamed, and will not even look at her when they meet upon the + road. She implores him, if he has not forgotten all that scene of + bygone love, at least to lift up his eyes and give her one + friendly glance. The sad <i>crooning</i> burden of the stanzas in + which she repeats this request was very touching. When the + boatman had finished, he hung his head and seemed ashamed of + feeling the song too much; then, when we asked for another, he + said he would sing another about a girl that was happy. This one + was in three parts. First, a tuneful address from a maiden to her + absent lover; second, his reply, assuring her of his fidelity and + tenderness; third, a strain which expresses their joy when + reunited. I thought this boatman had sympathies which would + prevent his tormenting any poor women, and perhaps make some one + happy, and this was a pleasant thought, since probably in the + Highlands, as elsewhere,</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"Maidens lend an ear too oft</p> + + <p class="i2">To the careless wooer;</p> + + <p>Maidens' hearts are <i>always soft</i>;</p> + + <p class="i2">Would that men's were truer!"</p> + </div> + </div> + + <p>I don't know that I quote the words correctly, but that is the + sum and substance of a masculine report on these matters.</p> + + <p>The first day at Rowardennan not being propitious for + ascending the mountain, we went down the lake to sup, and got + very tired in various ways, so that we rose very late next + morning. Their we found a day of ten thousand for our purpose; + but unhappily a large party had come with the sun and engaged all + the horses, so that, if we went, it must be on foot. This was + something of an enterprise for me, as the ascent is four miles, + and toward the summit quite fatiguing; however, in the pride of + newly gained health and strength, I was ready, and set forth with + Mr. S. alone. We took no guide,—and the people of the house + did not advise it, as they ought. They told us afterward they + thought the day was so clear that there was no probability of + danger, and they were afraid of seeming mercenary about it. It + was, however, wrong, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page153" id= + "page153"></a>[pg 153]</span> as they knew what we did not, that + even the shepherds, if a mist comes on, can be lost in these + hills; that a party of gentlemen were so a few weeks before, and + only by accident found their way to a house on the other side; + and that a child which had been lost was not found for five days, + long after its death. We, however, nothing doubting, set forth, + ascending slowly, and often stopping to enjoy the points of view, + which are many, for Ben Lomond consists of a congeries of hills, + above which towers the true Ben, or highest peak, as the head of + a many-limbed body.</p> + + <p>On reaching the peak, the night was one of beauty and grandeur + such as imagination never painted. You see around you no plain + ground, but on every side constellations or groups of hills + exquisitely dressed in the soft purple of the heather, amid which + gleam the lakes, like eyes that tell the secrets of the earth and + drink in those of the heavens. Peak beyond peak caught from the + shifting light all the colors of the prism, and on the farthest, + angel companies seemed hovering in their glorious white + robes.</p> + + <p>Words are idle on such subjects; what can I say, but that it + was a noble vision, that satisfied the eye and stirred the + imagination in all its secret pulses? Had that been, as afterward + seemed likely, the last act of my life, there could not have been + a finer decoration painted on the curtain which was to drop upon + it.</p> + + <p>About four o'clock we began our descent. Near the summit the + traces of the path are not distinct, and I said to Mr. S., after + a while, that we had lost it. He said, he thought that was of no + consequence, we could find oar way down. I thought however it + was, as the ground was full of springs that were bridged over in + the pathway. He accordingly went to look for it, and I stood + still because so tired that I did not like to waste any labor. + Soon he called to me that he had found it, and I followed in the + direction where he seemed to be. But I mistook, overshot it, and + saw him no more. In about ten minutes I became alarmed, and + called him many times. It seems he on his side did the same, but + the brow of some hill was between us, and we neither saw nor + heard one another.</p> + + <p>I then thought I would make the best of my way down, and I + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page154" id="page154"></a>[pg + 154]</span> should find him upon my arrival. But in doing so I + found the justice of my apprehension about the springs, as, so + soon as I got to the foot of the hills, I would sink up to my + knees in bog, and have to go up the hills again, seeking better + crossing-places. Thus I lost much time; nevertheless, in the + twilight I saw at last the lake and the inn of Rowardennan on its + shore.</p> + + <p>Between me and it lay direct a high heathery hill, which I + afterward found is called "The Tongue," because hemmed in on + three sides by a watercourse. It looked as if, could I only get + to the bottom of that, I should be on comparatively level ground. + I then attempted to descend in the watercourse, but, finding that + impracticable, climbed on the hill again and let myself down by + the heather, for it was very steep and full of deep holes. With + great fatigue I got to the bottom, but when about to cross the + watercourse there, it looked so deep in the dim twilight that I + felt afraid. I got down as far as I could by the root of a tree, + and threw down a stone; it sounded very hollow, and made me + afraid to jump. The shepherds told me afterward, if I had, I + should probably have killed myself, it was so deep and the bed of + the torrent full of sharp stones.</p> + + <p>I then tried to ascend the hill again, for there was no other + way to get off it, but soon sunk down utterly exhausted. When + able to get up again and look about me, it was completely dark. I + saw far below me a light, that looked about as big as a pin's + head, which I knew to be from the inn at Rowardennan, but heard + no sound except the rush of the waterfall, and the sighing of the + night-wind.</p> + + <p>For the first few minutes after I perceived I had got to my + night's lodging, such as it was, the prospect seemed appalling. I + was very lightly clad,—my feet and dress were very + wet,—I had only a little shawl to throw round me, and a + cold autumn wind had already come, and the night-mist was to fall + on me, all fevered and exhausted as I was. I thought I should not + live through the night, or, if I did, live always a miserable + invalid. There was no chance to keep myself warm by walking, for, + now it was dark, it would be too dangerous to + stir.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page155" id= + "page155"></a>[pg 155]</span> + + <p>My only chance, however, lay in motion, and my only help in + myself, and so convinced was I of this, that I did keep in motion + the whole of that long night, imprisoned as I was on such a + little perch of that great mountain. <i>How</i> long it seemed + under such circumstances only those can guess who may have been + similarly circumstanced. The mental experience of the time, most + precious and profound,—for it was indeed a season lonely, + dangerous, and helpless enough for the birth of thoughts beyond + what the common sunlight will ever call to being,—may be + told in another place and time.</p> + + <p>For about two hours I saw the stars, and very cheery and + companionable they looked; but then the mist fell, and I saw + nothing more, except such apparitions as visited Ossian on the + hill-side when he went out by night and struck the bosky shield + and called to him the spirits of the heroes and the white-armed + maids with their blue eyes of grief. To me, too, came those + visionary shapes; floating slowly and gracefully, their white + robes would unfurl from the great body of mist in which they had + been engaged, and come upon me with a kiss pervasively cold as + that of death. What they might have told me, who knows, if I had + but resigned myself more passively to that cold, spirit-like + breathing!</p> + + <p>At last the moon rose. I could not see her, but the silver + light filled the mist. Then I knew it was two o'clock, and that, + having weathered out so much of the night, I might the rest; and + the hours hardly seemed long to me more.</p> + + <p>It may give an idea of the extent of the mountain to say that, + though I called every now and then with all my force, in case by + chance some aid might be near, and though no less than twenty men + with their dogs were looking for me, I never heard a sound except + the rush of the waterfall and the sighing of the night-wind, and + once or twice the startling of the grouse in the heather. It was + sublime indeed,—a never-to-be-forgotten presentation of + stern, serene realities.</p> + + <p>At last came the signs of day, the gradual clearing and + breaking up; some faint sounds, from I know not what. The little + flies, too, arose from their bed amid the purple heather, and bit + me; <span class="pagenum"><a name="page156" id="page156"></a>[pg + 156]</span> truly they were very welcome to do so. But what was + my disappointment to find the mist so thick, that I could see + neither lake nor inn, nor anything to guide me. I had to go by + guess, and, as it happened, my Yankee method served me well. I + ascended the hill, crossed the torrent in the waterfall, first + drinking some of the water, which was as good at that time as + ambrosia. I crossed in that place because the waterfall made + steps, as it were, to the next hill; to be sure they were covered + with water, but I was already entirely wet with the mist, so that + it did not matter. I then kept on scrambling, as it happened, in + the right direction, till, about seven, some of the shepherds + found me. The moment they came, all my feverish strength + departed, though, if unaided, I dare say it would have kept me up + during the day; and they carried me home, where my arrival + relieved my friends of distress far greater than I had undergone, + for I had had my grand solitude, my Ossianic visions, and the + pleasure of sustaining myself while they had only doubt amounting + to anguish and a fruitless search through the night.</p> + + <p>Entirely contrary to my expectations, I only suffered for this + a few days, and was able to take a parting look at my prison, as + I went down the lake, with feelings of complacency. It was a + majestic-looking hill, that Tongue, with the deep ravines on + either side, and the richest robe of heather I have seen + anywhere.</p> + + <p>Mr. S. gave all the men who were looking for me a dinner in + the barn, and he and Mrs. S. ministered to them, and they talked + of Burns, really the national writer, and known by them, + apparently, as none other is, and of hair-breadth escapes by + flood and fell. Afterwards they were all brought up to see me, + and it was pleasing indeed to observe the good breeding and good, + feeling with which they deported themselves on the occasion. + Indeed, this adventure created quite an intimate feeling between + us and the people there. I had been much pleased, with them + before, in attending one of their dances, on account of the + genuine independence and politeness of their conduct. They were + willing and pleased to dance their Highland flings and + strathspeys for our <span class="pagenum"><a name="page157" id= + "page157"></a>[pg 157]</span> amusement, and did it as naturally + and as freely as they would have offered the stranger the best + chair.</p> + + <p>All the rest must wait a while. I cannot economize time to + keep up my record in any proportion with what happens, nor can I + get out of Scotland on this page, as I had intended, without + utterly slighting many gifts and graces.</p><span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page158" id="page158"></a>[pg 158]</span> + <p> </p> + <h3>LETTER VI.</h3> + + <h4>Inverary.—The Argyle + Family.—Dumbarton.—Sunset on the + Clyde.—Glasgow.—Dirt and + Intellect.—Stirling.—"The Scottish + Chiefs."—Stirling Castle.—The Tournament + Ground.—Edinburgh.—James Simpson.—Infant + Schools.—Free + Baths.—Melrose.—Abbotsford.—Walter + Scott.—Dryburgh Abbey.—Scott's Tomb.</h4> + + <p class="author">Paris, November, 1846.</p> + + <p>I am very sorry to leave such a wide gap between my letters, + but I was inevitably prevented from finishing one that was begun + for the steamer of the 4th of November. I then hoped to prepare + one after my arrival here in time for the Hibernia, but a severe + cold, caught on the way, unfitted me for writing. It is now + necessary to retrace my steps a long way, or lose sight of + several things it has seemed desirable to mention to friends in + America, though I shall make out my narrative more briefly than + if nearer the time of action.</p> + + <p>If I mistake not, my last closed just as I was looking back on + the hill where I had passed the night in all the miserable chill + and amid the ghostly apparitions of a Scotch mist, but which + looked in the morning truly beautiful, and (had I not known it + too well to be deceived) alluring, in its mantle of rich pink + heath, the tallest and most full of blossoms we anywhere saw, and + with, the waterfall making music by its side, and sparkling in + the morning sun.</p> + + <p>Passing from Tarbet, we entered the grand and beautiful pass + of Glencoe,—sublime with purple shadows with bright lights + between, and in one place showing an exquisitely silent and + lonely little lake. The wildness of the scene was heightened by + the black <span class="pagenum"><a name="page159" id= + "page159"></a>[pg 159]</span> Highland cattle feeding here and + there. They looked much at home, too, in the park at Inverary, + where I saw them next day. In Inverary I was disappointed. I + found, indeed, the position of every object the same as indicated + in the "Legend of Montrose," but the expression of the whole + seemed unlike what I had fancied. The present abode of the Argyle + family is a modern structure, and boasts very few vestiges of the + old romantic history attached to the name. The park and look-out + upon the lake are beautiful, but except from the brief pleasure + derived from these, the old cross from Iona that stands in the + market-place, and the drone of the bagpipe which lulled me to + sleep at night playing some melancholy air, there was nothing to + make me feel that it was "a far cry to Lochawe," but, on the + contrary, I seemed in the very midst of the prosaic, the + civilized world.</p> + + <p>Leaving Inverary, we left that day the Highlands too, passing + through. Hell Glen, a very wild and grand defile. Taking boat + then on Loch Levy, we passed down the Clyde, stopping an hour or + two on our way at Dumbarton. Nature herself foresaw the era of + picture when she made and placed this rock: there is every + preparation for the artist's stealing a little piece from her + treasures to hang on the walls of a room. Here I saw the sword of + "Wallace wight," shown by a son of the nineteenth century, who + said that this hero lived about fifty years ago, and who did not + know the height of this rock, in a cranny of which he lived, or + at least ate and slept and "donned his clothes." From the top of + the rock I saw sunset on the beautiful Clyde, animated that day + by an endless procession of steamers, little skiffs, and boats. + In one of the former, the Cardiff Castle, we embarked as the last + light of day was fading, and that evening found ourselves in + Glasgow.</p> + + <p>I understand there is an intellectual society of high merit in + Glasgow, but we were there only a few hours, and did not see any + one. Certainly the place, as it may be judged of merely from the + general aspect of the population and such objects as may be seen + in the streets, more resembles an <i>Inferno</i> than any other + we have yet visited. The people are more crowded together, and + the stamp of squalid, stolid misery and degradation more obvious + and <span class="pagenum"><a name="page160" id="page160"></a>[pg + 160]</span> appalling. The English and Scotch do not take kindly + to poverty, like those of sunnier climes; it makes them fierce or + stupid, and, life presenting no other cheap pleasure, they take + refuge in drinking.</p> + + <p>I saw here in Glasgow persons, especially women, dressed in + dirty, wretched tatters, worse than none, and with an expression + of listless, unexpecting woe upon their faces, far more tragic + than the inscription over the gate of Dante's <i>Inferno</i>. To + one species of misery suffered here to the last extent, I shall + advert in speaking of London.</p> + + <p>But from all these sorrowful tokens I by no means inferred the + falsehood of the information, that here was to be found a circle + rich in intellect and in aspiration. The manufacturing and + commercial towns, burning focuses of grief and vice, are also the + centres of intellectual life, as in forcing-beds the rarest + flowers and fruits are developed by use of impure and repulsive + materials. Where evil comes to an extreme, Heaven seems busy in + providing means for the remedy. Glaring throughout Scotland and + England is the necessity for the devoutest application of + intellect and love to the cure of ills that cry aloud, and, + without such application, erelong help <i>must</i> be sought by + other means than words. Yet there is every reason to hope that + those who ought to help are seriously, though, slowly, becoming + alive to the imperative nature of this duty; so we must not cease + to hope, even in the streets of Glasgow, and the gin-palaces of + Manchester, and the dreariest recesses of London.</p> + + <p>From Glasgow we passed to Stirling, like Dumbarton endeared to + the mind which cherishes the memory of its childhood more by + association with Miss Porter's Scottish Chiefs, than with + "Snowdon's knight and Scotland's king." We reached the town too + late to see the castle before the next morning, and I took up at + the inn "The Scottish Chiefs," in which I had not read a word + since ten or twelve years old. We are in the habit now of + laughing when this book is named, as if it were a representative + of what is most absurdly stilted or bombastic, but now, in + reading, my maturer mind was differently impressed from what I + expected, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page161" id= + "page161"></a>[pg 161]</span> and the infatuation with which + childhood and early youth regard this book and its companion, + "Thaddeus of Warsaw," was justified. The characters and dialogue + are, indeed, out of nature, but the sentiment that animates them + is pure, true, and no less healthy than noble. Here is bad + drawing, bad drama, but good music, to which the unspoiled heart + will always echo, even when the intellect has learned to demand a + better organ for its communication.</p> + + <p>The castle of Stirling is as rich as any place in romantic + associations. We were shown its dungeons and its Court of Lions, + where, says tradition, wild animals, kept in the grated cells + adjacent, were brought out on festival occasions to furnish + entertainment for the court. So, while lords and ladies gay + danced and sang above, prisoners pined and wild beasts starved + below. This, at first blush, looks like a very barbarous state of + things, but, on reflection, one does not find that we have + outgrown it in our present so-called state of refined + civilization, only the present way of expressing the same facts + is a little different. Still lords and ladies dance and sing, + unknowing or uncaring that the laborers who minister to their + luxuries starve or are turned into wild beasts. Man need not + boast his condition, methinks, till he can weave his costly + tapestry without the side that is kept under looking thus + sadly.</p> + + <p>The tournament ground is still kept green and in beautiful + order, near Stirling castle, as a memento of the olden time, and + as we passed away down the beautiful Firth, a turn of the river + gave us a very advantageous view of it. So gay it looked, so + festive in the bright sunshine, one almost seemed to see the + graceful forms of knight and noble pricking their good steeds to + the encounter, or the stalwart Douglas, vindicating his claim to + be indeed a chief by conquest in the rougher sports of the + yeomanry.</p> + + <p>Passing along the Firth to Edinburgh, we again passed two or + three days in that beautiful city, which I could not be content + to leave so imperfectly seen, if I had not some hope of + revisiting it when the bright lights that adorn it are concentred + there. In summer almost every one is absent. I was very fortunate + to see <span class="pagenum"><a name="page162" id= + "page162"></a>[pg 162]</span> as many interesting persons as I + did. On this second visit I saw James Simpson, a well-known + philanthropist, and leader in the cause of popular education. + Infant schools have been an especial care of his, and America as + well as Scotland has received the benefit of his thoughts on this + subject. His last good work has been to induce the erection of + public baths in Edinburgh, and the working people of that place, + already deeply in his debt for the lectures he has been unwearied + in delivering for their benefit, have signified their gratitude + by presenting him with a beautiful model of a fountain in silver + as an ornament to his study. Never was there a place where such a + measure would be more important; if cleanliness be akin to + godliness, Edinburgh stands at great disadvantage in her + devotions. The impure air, the terrific dirt which surround the + working people, must make all progress in higher culture + impossible; and I saw nothing which seemed to me so likely to + have results of incalculable good, as this practical measure of + the Simpsons in support of the precept,</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"Wash and be clean every whit."</p> + </div> + </div> + + <p>We returned into England by the way of Melrose, not content to + leave Scotland without making our pilgrimage to Abbotsford. The + universal feeling, however, has made this pilgrimage so common + that there is nothing left for me to say; yet, though I had read + a hundred descriptions, everything seemed new as I went over this + epitome of the mind and life of Scott. As what constitutes the + great man is more commonly some extraordinary combination and + balance of qualities, than the highest development of any one, so + you cannot but here be struck anew by the singular combination in + Scott's mind of love for the picturesque and romantic with the + plainest common sense,—a delight in heroic excess with the + prudential habit of order. Here the most pleasing order pervades + emblems of what men commonly esteem disorder and excess.</p> + + <p>Amid the exquisite beauty of the ruins of Dryburgh, I saw with + regret that Scott's body rests in almost the only spot that is + not green, and cannot well be made so, for the light does not + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page163" id="page163"></a>[pg + 163]</span> reach it. That is not a fit couch for him who dressed + so many dim and time-worn relics with living green.</p> + + <p>Always cheerful and beneficent, Scott seemed to the common eye + in like measure prosperous and happy, up to the last years, and + the chair in which, under the pressure of the sorrows which led + to his death, he was propped up to write when brain and eye and + hand refused their aid, the product remaining only as a guide to + the speculator as to the workings of the mind in case of insanity + or approaching imbecility, would by most persons be viewed as the + only saddening relic of his career. Yet when I recall some + passages in the Lady of the Lake, and the Address to his Harp, I + cannot doubt that Scott had the full share of bitter in his cup, + and feel the tender hope that we do about other gentle and + generous guardians and benefactors of our youth, that in a nobler + career they are now fulfilling still higher duties with serener + mind. Doubtless too they are trusting in us that we will try to + fill their places with kindly deeds, ardent thoughts, nor leave + the world, in their absence,</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"A dim, vast vale of tears,</p> + + <p class="i2">Vacant and desolate."</p> + </div> + </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="page164" id= + "page164"></a>[pg 164]</span> + <p> </p> + <h3>LETTER VII.</h3> + + <h4>Newcastle.—Descent into a Coal-Mine.—York with + its Minster.—Sheffield.—Chatsworth.—Warwick + Castle.—Leamington and + Stratford.—Shakespeare.—Birmingham.—George + Dawson.—James Martineau.—W.J. Fox.—W.H. + Charming and Theodore Parker.—London and Paris.</h4> + + <p class="author">Paris, 1846.</p> + + <p>We crossed the moorland in a heavy rain, and reached Newcastle + late at night. Next day we descended into a coal-mine; it was + quite an odd sensation to be taken off one's feet and dropped + down into darkness by the bucket. The stables under ground had a + pleasant Gil-Blas air, though the poor horses cannot like it + much; generally they see the light of day no more after they have + once been let down into these gloomy recesses, but pass their + days in dragging cars along the rails of the narrow passages, and + their nights in eating hay and dreaming of grass!! When we went + down, we meant to go along the gallery to the place where the + miners were then at work, but found this was a walk of a mile and + a half, and, beside the weariness of picking one's steps slowly + along by the light of a tallow candle, too wet and dirty an + enterprise to be undertaken by way of amusement; so, after + proceeding half a mile or so, we begged to be restored to our + accustomed level, and reached it with minds slightly edified and + face and hands much blackened.</p> + + <p>Passing thence we saw York with its Minster, that dream of + beauty realized. From, its roof I saw two rainbows, overarching + that lovely country. Through its aisles I heard grand music + pealing. But how sorrowfully bare is the interior of such a + cathedral, despoiled of the statues, the paintings, and the + garlands <span class="pagenum"><a name="page165" id= + "page165"></a>[pg 165]</span> that belong to the Catholic + religion! The eye aches for them. Such a church is ruined by + Protestantism; its admirable exterior seems that of a sepulchre; + there is no correspondent life within.</p> + + <p>Within the citadel, a tower half ruined and ivy-clad, is life + that has been growing up while the exterior bulwarks of the old + feudal time crumbled to ruin. George Fox, while a prisoner at + York for obedience to the dictates of his conscience, planted + here a walnut, and the tall tree that grew from it still "bears + testimony" to his living presence on that spot. The tree is old, + but still bears nuts; one of them was taken away by my + companions, and may perhaps be the parent of a tree somewhere in + America, that shall shade those who inherit the spirit, if they + do not attach importance to the etiquettes, of Quakerism.</p> + + <p>In Sheffield I saw the sooty servitors tending their furnaces. + I saw them, also on Saturday night, after their work was done, + going to receive its poor wages, looking pallid and dull, as if + they had spent on tempering the steel that vital force that + should have tempered themselves to manhood.</p> + + <p>We saw, also, Chatsworth, with its park and mock wilderness, + and immense conservatory, and really splendid fountains and + wealth of marbles. It is a fine expression of modern luxury and + splendor, but did not interest me; I found little there of true + beauty or grandeur.</p> + + <p>Warwick Castle is a place entirely to my mind, a real + representative of the English aristocracy in the day of its + nobler life. The grandeur of the pile itself, and its beauty of + position, introduce you fitly to the noble company with which the + genius of Vandyke has peopled its walls. But a short time was + allowed to look upon these nobles, warriors, statesmen, and + ladies, who gaze upon us in turn with such a majesty of historic + association, yet was I very well satisfied. It is not difficult + to see men through the eyes of Vandyke. His way of viewing + character seems superficial, though commanding; he sees the man + in his action on the crowd, not in his hidden life; he does not, + like some painters, amaze and engross us by his revelations as to + the secret springs <span class="pagenum"><a name="page166" id= + "page166"></a>[pg 166]</span> of conduct. I know not by what + hallucination I forebore to look at the picture I most desired to + see,—that of Lucy, Countess of Carlisle. I was looking at + something else, and when the fat, pompous butler announced her, I + did not recognize her name from his mouth. Afterward it flashed + across me, that I had really been standing before her and + forgotten to look. But repentance was too late; I had passed the + castle gate to return no more.</p> + + <p>Pretty Leamington and Stratford are hackneyed ground. Of the + latter I only observed what, if I knew, I had forgotten, that the + room where Shakespeare was born has been an object of devotion + only for forty years. England has learned much of her + appreciation of Shakespeare from the Germans. In the days of + innocence, I fondly supposed that every one who could understand + English, and was not a cannibal, adored Shakespeare and read him + on Sundays always for an hour or more, and on week days a + considerable portion of the time. But I have lived to know some + hundreds of persons in my native land, without finding ten who + had any direct acquaintance with their greatest benefactor, and I + dare say in England as large an experience would not end more + honorably to its subjects. So vast a treasure is left untouched, + while men are complaining of being poor, because they have not + toothpicks exactly to their mind.</p> + + <p>At Stratford I handled, too, the poker used to such good + purpose by Geoffrey Crayon. The muse had fled, the fire was out, + and the poker rusty, yet a pleasant influence lingered even in + that cold little room, and seemed to lend a transient glow to the + poker under the influence of sympathy.</p> + + <p>In Birmingham I heard two discourses from one of the rising + lights of England, George Dawson, a young man of whom I had + earlier heard much in praise. He is a friend of the people, in + the sense of brotherhood, not of a social convenience or + patronage; in literature catholic; in matters of religion + antisectarian, seeking truth in aspiration and love. He is + eloquent, with good method in his discourse, fire and dignity + when wanted, with a frequent homeliness in enforcement and + illustration which offends the etiquettes of England, but fits + him the better for the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page167" + id="page167"></a>[pg 167]</span> class he has to address. His + powers are uncommon and unfettered in their play; his aim is + worthy. He is fulfilling and will fulfil an important task as an + educator of the people, if all be not marred by a taint of + self-love and arrogance now obvious in his discourse. This taint + is not surprising in one so young, who has done so much, and in + order to do it has been compelled to great self-confidence and + light heed of the authority of other minds, and who is surrounded + almost exclusively by admirers; neither is it, at present, a + large speck; it may be quite purged from him by the influence of + nobler motives and the rise of his ideal standard; but, on the + other hand, should it spread, all must be vitiated. Let us hope + the best, for he is one that could ill be spared from the band + who have taken up the cause of Progress in England.</p> + + <p>In this connection I may as well speak of James Martineau, + whom I heard in Liverpool, and W.J. Fox, whom I heard in + London.</p> + + <p>Mr. Martineau looks like the over-intellectual, the partially + developed man, and his speech confirms this impression. He is + sometimes conservative, sometimes reformer, not in the sense of + eclecticism, but because his powers and views do not find a true + harmony. On the conservative side he is scholarly, + acute,—on the other, pathetic, pictorial, generous. He is + no prophet and no sage, yet a man full of fine affections and + thoughts, always suggestive, sometimes satisfactory; he is well + adapted to the wants of that class, a large one in the present + day, who love the new wine, but do not feel that they can afford + to throw away <i>all</i> their old bottles.</p> + + <p>Mr. Fox is the reverse of all this: he is homogeneous in his + materials and harmonious in the results he produces. He has great + persuasive power; it is the persuasive power of a mind warmly + engaged in seeking truth for itself. He sometimes carries + homeward convictions with great energy, driving in the thought as + with golden nails. A glow of kindly human sympathy enlivens his + argument, and the whole presents thought in a well-proportioned, + animated body. But I am told he is far superior in speech on + political or social problems, than on such as I heard him + discuss.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page168" id= + "page168"></a>[pg 168]</span> + + <p>I was reminded, in hearing all three, of men similarly engaged + in our country, W.H. Charming and Theodore Parker. None of them + compare in the symmetrical arrangement of extempore discourse, or + in pure eloquence and communication of spiritual beauty, with + Charming, nor in fulness and sustained flow with Parker, but, in + power of practical and homely adaptation of their thought to + common wants, they are superior to the former, and all have more + variety, finer perceptions, and are more powerful in single + passages, than Parker.</p> + + <p>And now my pen has run to 1st October, and still I have such + notabilities as fell to my lot to observe while in London, and + these that are thronging upon me here in Paris to record for you. + I am sadly in arrears, but 't is comfort to think that such meats + as I have to serve up are as good cold as hot. At any rate, it is + just impossible to do any better, and I shall comfort myself, as + often before, with the triplet which I heard in childhood from a + sage (if only sages wear wigs!):—</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"As said the great Prince Fernando,</p> + + <p>What <i>can</i> a man do,</p> + + <p>More than he can do?"</p> + </div> + </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="page169" id= + "page169"></a>[pg 169]</span> + <p> </p> + <h3>LETTER VIII.</h3> + + <h4>Recollections of London.—The English + Gentleman.—London Climate.—Out of + Season.—Luxury and Misery.—A Difficult + Problem.—Terrors of Poverty.—Joanna Baillie and + Madame Roland.—Hampstead.—Miss Berry.—Female + Artists.—Margaret Gillies.—The People's + Journal.—The Times.—The Howitts.—South wood + Smith.—Houses for the Poor.—Skeleton of Jeremy + Bentham.—Cooper the Poet.—Thom.</h4> + + <p class="author">Paris, December, 1846.</p> + + <p>I sit down here in Paris to narrate some recollections of + London. The distance in space and time is not great, yet I seem + in wholly a different world. Here in the region of wax-lights, + mirrors, bright wood fires, shrugs, vivacious ejaculations, + wreathed smiles, and adroit courtesies, it is hard to remember + John Bull, with his coal-smoke, hands in pockets, except when + extended for ungracious demand of the perpetual half-crown, or to + pay for the all but perpetual mug of beer. John, seen on that + side, is certainly the most churlish of clowns, and the most + clownish of churls. But then there are so many other sides! When + a gentleman, he is so truly the gentleman, when a man, so truly + the man of honor! His graces, when he has any, grow up from his + inmost heart.</p> + + <p>Not that he is free from humbug; on the contrary, he is prone + to the most solemn humbug, generally of the philanthrophic or + otherwise moral kind. But he is always awkward beneath the mask, + and can never impose upon anybody—but himself. Nature meant + him to be noble, generous, sincere, and has furnished him with no + faculties to make himself agreeable in any other way or mode of + being. 'T is not so with your Frenchman, who can cheat you + pleasantly, and move with grace in the devious and slippery path. + You would be almost sorry to see him quite <span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page170" id="page170"></a>[pg 170]</span> + disinterested and straightforward, so much of agreeable talent + and naughty wit would thus lie hid for want of use. But John, O + John, we must admire, esteem, or be disgusted with thee.</p> + + <p>As to climate, there is not much to choose at this time of + year. In London, for six weeks, we never saw the sun for + coal-smoke and fog. In Paris we have not been blessed with its + cheering rays above three or four days in the same length of + time, and are, beside, tormented with an oily and tenacious mud + beneath the feet, which makes it almost impossible to walk. This + year, indeed, is an uncommonly severe one at Paris; but then, if + they have their share of dark, cold days, it must be admitted + that they do all they can to enliven them.</p> + + <p>But to dwell first on London,—London, in itself a world. + We arrived at a time which the well-bred Englishman considers as + no time at all,—quite out of "the season," when Parliament + is in session, and London thronged with the equipages of her + aristocracy, her titled wealthy nobles. I was listened to with a + smile of contempt when I declared that the stock shows of London + would yield me amusement and employment more than sufficient for + the time I had to stay. But I found that, with my way of viewing + things, it would be to me an inexhaustible studio, and that, if + life were only long enough, I would live there for years obscure + in some corner, from which I could issue forth day by day to + watch unobserved the vast stream of life, or to decipher the + hieroglyphics which ages have been inscribing on the walls of + this vast palace (I may not call it a temple), which human effort + has reared for means, not yet used efficaciously, of human + culture.</p> + + <p>And though I wish to return to London in "the season," when + that city is an adequate representative of the state of things in + England, I am glad I did not at first see all that pomp and + parade of wealth and luxury in contrast with the misery, squalid, + agonizing, ruffianly, which stares one in the face in every + street of London, and hoots at the gates of her palaces more + ominous a note than ever was that of owl or raven in the + portentous times when empires and races have crumbled and fallen + from inward decay.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page171" id= + "page171"></a>[pg 171]</span> + + <p>It is impossible, however, to take a near view of the + treasures created by English genius, accumulated by English + industry, without a prayer, daily more fervent, that the needful + changes in the condition of this people may be effected by + peaceful revolution, which shall destroy nothing except the + shocking inhumanity of exclusiveness, which now prevents their + being used, for the benefit of all. May their present possessors + look to it in time! A few already are earnest in a good spirit. + For myself, much as I pitied the poor, abandoned, hopeless + wretches that swarm in the roads and streets of England, I pity + far more the English noble, with this difficult problem before + him, and such need of a speedy solution. Sad is his life, if a + conscientious man; sadder still, if not. Poverty in England has + terrors of which I never dreamed at home. I felt that it would be + terrible to be poor there, but far more so to be the possessor of + that for which so many thousands are perishing. And the middle + class, too, cannot here enjoy that serenity which the sages have + described as naturally their peculiar blessing. Too close, too + dark throng the evils they cannot obviate, the sorrows they + cannot relieve. To a man of good heart, each day must bring + purgatory which he knows not how to bear, yet to which he fears + to become insensible.</p> + + <p>From these clouds of the Present, it is pleasant to turn the + thoughts to some objects which have cast a light upon the Past, + and which, by the virtue of their very nature, prescribe hope for + the Future. I have mentioned with satisfaction seeing some + persons who illustrated the past dynasty in the progress of + thought here: Wordsworth, Dr. Chalmers, De Quincey, Andrew Combe. + With a still higher pleasure, because to one of my own sex, whom + I have honored almost above any, I went to pay my court to Joanna + Baillie. I found on her brow, not indeed a coronal of gold, but a + serenity and strength undimmed and unbroken by the weight of more + than fourscore years, or by the scanty appreciation which her + thoughts have received.</p> + + <p>I prize Joanna Baillie and Madame Roland as the best specimens + which have been hitherto offered of women of a Roman strength and + singleness of mind, adorned by the various culture <span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page172" id="page172"></a>[pg 172]</span> and + capable of the various action opened to them by the progress of + the Christian Idea. They are not sentimental; they do not sigh + and write of withered flowers of fond affection, and woman's + heart born to be misunderstood by the object or objects of her + fond, inevitable choice. Love (the passion), when spoken of at + all by them, seems a thing noble, religious, worthy to be felt. + They do not write of it always; they did not think of it always; + they saw other things in this great, rich, suffering world. In + superior delicacy of touch, they show the woman, but the hand is + firm; nor was all their speech, one continued utterance of mere + personal experience. It contained things which are good, + intellectually, universally.</p> + + <p>I regret that the writings of Joanna Baillie are not more + known in the United States. The Plays on the Passions are faulty + in their plan,—all attempts at comic, even at truly + dramatic effect, fail; but there are masterly sketches of + character, vigorous expressions of wise thought, deep, fervent + ejaculations of an aspiring soul!</p> + + <p>We found her in her little calm retreat at Hampstead, + surrounded by marks of love and reverence from distinguished and + excellent friends. Near her was the sister, older than herself, + yet still sprightly and full of active kindness, whose character + and their mutual relation she has, in one of her last poems, + indicated with such a happy mixture of sagacity, humor, and + tender pathos, and with so absolute a truth of outline. Although + no autograph collector, I asked for theirs, and when the elder + gave hers as "sister to Joanna Baillie," it drew a tear from my + eye,—a good tear, a genuine pearl,—fit homage to that + fairest product of the soul of man, humble, disinterested + tenderness.</p> + + <p>Hampstead has still a good deal of romantic beauty. I was told + it was the favorite sketching-ground of London artists, till the + railroads gave them easy means of spending a few hours to + advantage farther off. But, indeed, there is a wonderful deal of + natural beauty lying in untouched sweetness near London. Near one + of our cities it would all have been grabbed up the first thing. + But we, too, are beginning to grow wiser.</p><span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page173" id="page173"></a>[pg 173]</span> + + <p>At Richmond I went to see another lady of more than threescore + years' celebrity, more than fourscore in age, Miss Berry the + friend of Horace Walpole, and for her charms of manner and + conversation long and still a reigning power. She has still the + vivacity, the careless nature, or refined art, that made her + please so much in earlier days,—still is girlish, and + gracefully so. Verily, with her was no sign of labor or + sorrow.</p> + + <p>From the older turning to the young, I must speak with + pleasure of several girls I know in London, who are devoting + themselves to painting as a profession. They have really wise and + worthy views of the artist's avocation; if they remain true to + them, they will enjoy a free, serene existence, unprofaned by + undue care or sentimental sorrow. Among these, Margaret Gillies + has attained some celebrity; she may be known to some in America + by engravings in the "People's Journal" from her pictures; but, + if I remember right, these are coarse things, and give no just + notion of her pictures, which are distinguished for elegance and + refinement; a little mannerized, but she is improving in that + respect.</p> + + <p>The "People's Journal" comes nearer being a fair sign of the + times than any other publication of England, apparently, if we + except Punch. As for the Times, on which you all use your + scissors so industriously, it is managed with vast ability, no + doubt, but the blood would tingle many a time to the fingers' + ends of the body politic, before that solemn organ which claims + to represent the heart would dare to beat in unison. Still it + would require all the wise management of the Times, or wisdom + enough to do without it, and a wide range and diversity of + talent, indeed, almost sweeping the circle, to make a People's + Journal for England. The present is only a bud of the future + flower.</p> + + <p>Mary and William Howitt are its main support. I saw them + several times at their cheerful and elegant home. In Mary Howitt + I found the same engaging traits of character we are led to + expect from her books for children. Her husband is full of the + same agreeable information, communicated in the same lively yet + precise manner we find in his books; it was like talking with + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page174" id="page174"></a>[pg + 174]</span> old friends, except that now the eloquence of the eye + was added. At their house I became acquainted with Dr. Southwood + Smith, the well-known philanthropist. He is at present engaged on + the construction of good tenements calculated to improve the + condition of the working people. His plans look promising, and + should they succeed, you shall have a detailed account of them. + On visiting him, we saw an object which I had often heard + celebrated, and had thought would be revolting, but found, on the + contrary, an agreeable sight; this is the skeleton of Jeremy + Bentham. It was at Bentham's request that the skeleton, dressed + in the same dress he habitually wore, stuffed out to an exact + resemblance of life, and with a portrait mark in wax, the best I + ever saw, sits there, as assistant to Dr. Smith in the + entertainment of his guests and companion of his studies. The + figure leans a little forward, resting the hands on a, stout + stick which Bentham always carried, and had named "Dapple"; the + attitude is quite easy, the expression of the whole quite mild, + winning, yet highly individual. It is a pleasing mark of that + unity of aim and tendency to be expected throughout the life of + such a mind, that Bentham, while quite a young man, had made a + will, in which, to oppose in the most convincing manner the + prejudice against dissection of the human subject, he had given + his body after death to be used in service of the cause of + science. "I have not yet been able," said the will, "to do much + service to my fellow-men by my life, but perhaps I may in this + manner by my death." Many years after, reading a pamphlet by Dr. + Smith on the same subject, he was much pleased with it, became + his friend, and bequeathed his body to his care and use, with + directions that the skeleton should finally be disposed of in the + way I have described.</p> + + <p>The countenance of Dr. Smith has an expression of expansive, + sweet, almost childlike goodness. Miss Gillies has made a + charming picture of him, with a favorite little granddaughter + nestling in his arms.</p> + + <p>Another marked figure that I encountered on this great + showboard was Cooper, the author of "The Purgatory of Luicides," + a very remarkable poem, of which, had there been leisure before + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page175" id="page175"></a>[pg + 175]</span> my departure, I should have made a review, and given + copious extracts in the Tribune. Cooper is as strong a man, and + probably a milder one, than when in the prison where that poem + was written. The earnestness in seeking freedom and happiness for + all men, which drew upon him that penalty, seems unabated; he is + a very significant type of the new era, and also an agent in + bringing it near. One of the poets of the people, also, I + saw,—the sweetest singer of them all,—Thom. "A + Chieftain unknown to the Queen" is again exacting a cruel tribute + from him. I wish much that some of those of New York who have + taken an interest in him would provide there a nook in which he + might find refuge and solace for the evening of his days, to sing + or to work as likes him best, and where he could bring up two + fine boys to happier prospects than the parent land will afford + them. Could and would America but take from other lands more of + the talent, as well as the bone and sinew, she would be rich.</p> + + <p>But the stroke of the clock warns me to stop now, and begin + to-morrow with fresher eye and hand on some interesting topics. + My sketches are slight; still they cannot be made without time, + and I find none to be had in this Europe except late at night. I + believe it is what all the inhabitants use, but I am too sleepy a + genius to carry the practice far.</p><span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page176" id="page176"></a>[pg 176]</span> + <p> </p> + <h3>LETTER IX.</h3> + + <h4>Writing at Night.—London.—National + Gallery.—Murillo.—The Flower + Girl.—Nursery-Maids and Working-men.—Hampton + Court.—Zoölogical Gardens.—King of + Animals.—English Piety.—Eagles.—Sir John + Soane's Museum.—Kew Gardens.—The Great + Cactus.—The Reform Club House.—Men + Cooks.—Orderly Kitchen.—A Gilpin Excursion.—The + Bell at Edmonton.—Omnibus.—Cheapside.—English + Slowness.—Freiligrath.—Arcadia.—Italian + School.—Mazzini.—Italy.—Italian + Refugees.—Correggio.—Hope of + Italians.—Addresses.—Supper.—Carlyle, his + Appearance, Conversation, &c.</h4> + + <p>Again I must begin to write late in the evening. I am told it + is the custom of the literati in these large cities to work in + the night. It is easy to see that it must be almost impossible to + do otherwise; yet not only is the practice very bad for the + health, and one that brings on premature old age, but I cannot + think this night-work will prove as firm in texture and as fair + of hue as what is done by sunlight. Give me a lonely chamber, a + window from which through the foliage you can catch glimpses of a + beautiful prospect, and the mind finds itself tuned to + action.</p> + + <p>But London, London! I have yet some brief notes to make on + London. We had scarcely any sunlight by which to see pictures, + and I postponed all visits to private collections, except one, in + the hope of being in England next time in the long summer days. + In the National Gallery I saw little except the Murillos; they + were so beautiful, that with me, who had no true conception of + his kind of genius before, they took away the desire to look into + anything else at the same time. They did not affect me much + either, except with a sense of content in this genius, so rich + and full and strong. It was a cup of sunny wine that refreshed + but brought no intoxicating visions. There is something very + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page177" id="page177"></a>[pg + 177]</span> noble in the genius of Spain, there is such an + intensity and singleness; it seems to me it has not half shown + itself, and must have an important part to play yet in the drama + of this planet.</p> + + <p>At the Dulwich Gallery I saw the Flower Girl of Murillo, an + enchanting picture, the memory of which must always</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p class="i4">"Cast a light upon the day,</p> + + <p>A light that will not pass away,</p> + + <p class="i4">A sweet forewarning."</p> + </div> + </div> + + <p>Who can despair when he thinks of a form like that, so full of + life and bliss! Nature, that made such human forms to match the + butterfly and the bee on June mornings when the lime-trees are in + blossom, has surely enough of happiness in store to satisfy us + all, somewhere, some time.</p> + + <p>It was pleasant, indeed, to see the treasures of those + galleries, of the British Museum, and of so charming a place as + Hampton Court, open to everybody. In the National Gallery one + finds a throng of nursery-maids, and men just come from their + work; true, they make a great deal of noise thronging to and fro + on the uncarpeted floors in their thick boots, and noise from + which, when penetrated by the atmosphere of Art, men in the + thickest boots would know how to refrain; still I felt that the + sight of such objects must be gradually doing them a great deal + of good. The British Museum would, in itself, be an education for + a man who should go there once a week, and think and read at his + leisure moments about what he saw.</p> + + <p>Hampton Court I saw in the gloom, and rain, and my chief + recollections are of the magnificent yew-trees beneath whose + shelter—the work of ages—I took refuge from the + pelting shower. The expectations cherished from childhood about + the Cartoons were all baffled; there was no light by which they + could be seen. But I must hope to visit Hampton Court again in + the time of roses.</p> + + <p>The Zoölogical Gardens are another pleasure of the + million, since, although something is paid there, it is so little + that almost all can afford it. To me, it is a vast pleasure to + see animals where they can show out their habits or instincts, + and to see <span class="pagenum"><a name="page178" id= + "page178"></a>[pg 178]</span> them assembled from, all climates + and countries, amid verdure and with room enough, as they are + here, is a true poem. They have a fine lion, the first I ever saw + that realized the idea we have of the king of the animal world; + but the groan and roar of this one were equally royal. The eagles + were fine, but rather disgraced themselves. It is a trait of + English piety, which would, no doubt, find its defenders among + ourselves, not to feed the animals on Sunday, that their keepers + may have rest; at least this was the explanation given us by one + of these men of the state of ravenous hunger in which we found + them on the Monday. I half hope he was jesting with us. Certain + it is that the eagles were wild with famine, and even the + grandest of them, who had eyed us at first as if we were not fit + to live in the same zone with him, when the meat came round, + after a short struggle to maintain his dignity, joined in wild + shriek and scramble with the rest.</p> + + <p>Sir John Soane's Museum I visited, containing the sarcophagus + described by Dr. Waagen, Hogarth's pictures, a fine Canaletto, + and a manuscript of Tasso. It fills the house once the residence + of his body, still of his mind. It is not a mind with which I + have sympathy; I found there no law of harmony, and it annoyed me + to see things all jumbled together as if in an old + curiosity-shop. Nevertheless it was a generous bequest, and much + may perhaps be found there of value to him who takes time to + seek.</p> + + <p>The Gardens at Kew delighted me, thereabouts all was so green, + and still one could indulge at leisure in the humorous and + fantastic associations that cluster around the name of Kew, like + the curls of a "big wig" round the serene and sleepy face of its + wearer. Here are fourteen green-houses: in one you find all the + palms; in another, the productions of the regions of snow; in + another, those squibs and humorsome utterances of Nature, the + cactuses,—ay! there I saw the great-grandfather of all the + cactuses, a hoary, solemn plant, declared to be a thousand years + old, disdaining to say if it is not really much, older; in yet + another, the most exquisitely minute plants, delicate as the + tracery of frostwork, too delicate for the bowers of fairies, + such at least as visit the gross brains of earthly + poets.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page179" id= + "page179"></a>[pg 179]</span> + + <p>The Reform Club was the only one of those splendid + establishments that I visited. Certainly the force of comfort can + no farther go, nor can anything be better contrived to make + dressing, eating, news-getting, and even sleeping (for there are + bedrooms as well as dressing-rooms for those who will), as + comfortable as can be imagined. Yet to me this palace of so many + "single gentlemen rolled into one" seemed <i>stupidly</i> + comfortable, in the absence of that elegant arrangement and + vivacious atmosphere which only women can inspire. In the + kitchen, indeed, I met them, and on that account it seemed the + pleasantest part of the building,—though even there they + are but the servants of servants. There reigned supreme a genius + in his way, who has published a work on Cookery, and around him + his pupils,—young men who pay a handsome yearly fee for + novitiate under his instruction. I was not sorry, however, to see + men predominant in the cooking department, as I hope to see that + and washing transferred to their care in the progress of things, + since they are "the stronger sex."</p> + + <p>The arrangements of this kitchen were very fine, combining + great convenience with neatness, and even elegance. Fourier + himself might have taken pleasure in them. Thence we passed into + the private apartments of the artist, and found them full of + pictures by his wife, an artist in another walk. One or two of + them had been engraved. <i>She</i> was an Englishwoman.</p> + + <p>A whimsical little excursion we made on occasion of the + anniversary of the wedding-day of two of my friends. They had + often enjoyed reading the account of John Gilpin's in America, + and now thought that, as they were in England and near enough, + they would celebrate theirs also at "the Bell at Edmonton." I + accompanied them with "a little foot-page," to eke out the train, + pretty and graceful and playful enough for the train of a + princess. But our excursion turned out somewhat of a failure, in + an opposite way to Gilpin's. Whereas he went too fast, we went + too slow. First we took coach and went through Cheapside to take + omnibus at (strange misnomer!) the Flower-Pot. But Gilpin could + never have had his race through Cheapside as it is in its + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page180" id="page180"></a>[pg + 180]</span> present crowded state; we were obliged to proceed at + a funeral pace. We missed the omnibus, and when we took the next + one it went with the slowness of a "family horse" in the old + chaise of a New England deacon, and, after all, only took us + half-way. At the half-way house a carriage was to be sought. The + lady who let it, and all her grooms, were to be allowed time to + recover from their consternation at so unusual a move as + strangers taking a carriage to dine at the little inn at + Edmonton, now a mere alehouse, before we could be allowed to + proceed. The English stand lost in amaze at "Yankee notions," + with their quick come and go, and it is impossible to make them + "go ahead" in the zigzag chain-lightning path, unless you push + them. A rather old part of the plan had been a pilgrimage to the + grave of Lamb, with a collateral view to the rural beauties of + Edmonton, but night had fallen on all such hopes two hours at + least before we reached the Bell. <i>There</i>, indeed, we found + them somewhat more alert to comprehend our wishes; they laughed + when we spoke of Gilpin, showed us a print of the race and the + window where Mrs. Gilpin must have stood,—balcony, alas! + there was none; allowed us to make our own fire, and provided us + a wedding dinner of tough meat and stale bread. Nevertheless we + danced, dined, paid (I believe), and celebrated the wedding quite + to our satisfaction, though in the space of half an hour, as we + knew friends were even at that moment expecting us to <i>tea</i> + at some miles' distance. But it is always pleasant in this world + of routine to act out a freak. "Such a one," said an English + gentleman, "one of <i>us</i> would rarely have dreamed of, much, + less acted." "Why, was it not pleasant?" "Oh, <i>very</i>! but + <i>so</i> out of the way!"</p> + + <p>Returning, we passed the house where Freiligrath finds a + temporary home, earning the bread, of himself and his family in a + commercial house. England houses the exile, but not without + house-tax, window-tax, and head-tax. Where is the Arcadia that + dares invite all genius to her arms, and change her golden wheat + for their green laurels and immortal flowers? + Arcadia?—would the name were America!</p><span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page181" id="page181"></a>[pg 181]</span> + + <p>And now returns naturally to my mind one of the most + interesting things I have seen here or elsewhere,—the + school for poor Italian boys, sustained and taught by a few of + their exiled compatriots, and especially by the mind and efforts + of Mazzini. The name of Joseph Mazzini is well known to those + among us who take an interest in the cause of human freedom, who, + not content with the peace and ease bought for themselves by the + devotion and sacrifices of their fathers, look with anxious + interest on the suffering nations who are preparing for a similar + struggle. Those who are not, like the brutes that perish, content + with the enjoyment of mere national advantages, indifferent to + the idea they represent, cannot forget that the human family is + one,</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"And beats with one great heart."</p> + </div> + </div> + + <p>They know that there can be no genuine happiness, no salvation + for any, unless the same can be secured for all.</p> + + <p>To this universal interest in all nations and places where + man, understanding his inheritance, strives to throw off an + arbitrary rule and establish a state of things where he shall be + governed as becomes a man, by his own conscience and + intelligence,—where he may speak the truth as it rises in + his mind, and indulge his natural emotions in purity,—is + added an especial interest in Italy, the mother of our language + and our laws, our greatest benefactress in the gifts of genius, + the garden of the world, in which our best thoughts have + delighted to expatiate, but over whose bowers now hangs a + perpetual veil of sadness, and whose noblest plants are doomed to + removal,—for, if they cannot bear their ripe and perfect + fruit in another climate, they are not permitted to lift their + heads to heaven in their own.</p> + + <p>Some of these generous refugees our country has received + kindly, if not with a fervent kindness; and the word + <i>Correggio</i> is still in my ears as I heard it spoken in New + York by one whose heart long oppression could not paralyze. + <i>Speranza</i> some of the Italian youth now inscribe on their + banners, encouraged by some traits of apparent promise in the new + Pope. However, their only true hope is in themselves, in their + own courage, and in that wisdom winch may only be learned through + many <span class="pagenum"><a name="page182" id="page182"></a>[pg + 182]</span> disappointments as to how to employ it so that it may + destroy tyranny, not themselves.</p> + + <p>Mazzini, one of these noble refugees, is not only one of the + heroic, the courageous, and the faithful,—Italy boasts many + such,—but he is also one of the wise;—one of those + who, disappointed in the outward results of their undertakings, + can yet "bate no jot of heart and hope," but <i>must</i> "steer + right onward "; for it was no superficial enthusiasm, no + impatient energies, that impelled him, but an understanding of + what <i>must</i> be the designs of Heaven with regard to man, + since God is Love, is Justice. He is one who can live fervently, + but steadily, gently, every day, every hour, as well as on great, + occasions, cheered by the light of hope; for, with Schiller, he + is sure that "those who live for their faith shall behold it + living." He is one of those same beings who, measuring all things + by the ideal standard, have yet no time to mourn over failure or + imperfection; there is too much to be done to obviate it.</p> + + <p>Thus Mazzini, excluded from publication in his native + language, has acquired the mastery both of French and English, + and through his expressions in either shine the thoughts which + animated his earlier effort with mild and steady radiance. The + misfortunes of his country have only widened the sphere of his + instructions, and made him an exponent of the better era to + Europe at large. Those who wish to form an idea of his mind could + not do better than to read his sketches of the Italian Martyrs in + the "People's Journal." They will find there, on one of the most + difficult occasions, an ardent friend speaking of his martyred + friends with, the purity of impulse, warmth of sympathy, + largeness and steadiness of view, and fineness of discrimination + which must belong to a legislator for a CHRISTIAN + commonwealth.</p> + + <p>But though I have read these expressions with great delight, + this school was one to me still more forcible of the same ideas. + Here these poor boys, picked up from the streets, are redeemed + from bondage and gross ignorance by the most patient and constant + devotion of time and effort. What love and sincerity this demands + from minds capable of great thoughts, large plans, and + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page183" id="page183"></a>[pg + 183]</span> rapid progress, only their peers can comprehend, yet + exceeding great shall he the reward; and as among the fishermen, + and poor people of Judæa were picked up those who have + become to modern Europe a leaven that leavens the whole mass, so + may these poor Italian boys yet become more efficacious as + missionaries to their people than would an Orphic poet at this + period. These youths have very commonly good faces, and eyes from + which that Italian fire that has done so much to warm the world + glows out. We saw the distribution of prizes to the school, heard + addresses from Mazzini, Pistracci, Mariotti (once a resident in + our country), and an English gentleman who takes a great interest + in the work, and then adjourned to an adjacent room, where a + supper was provided for the boys and other guests, among whom we + saw some of the exiled Poles. The whole evening gave a true and + deep pleasure, though tinged with sadness. We saw a planting of + the kingdom of Heaven, though now no larger than a grain of + mustard-seed, and though perhaps none of those who watch the spot + may live to see the birds singing in its branches.</p> + + <p>I have not yet spoken of one of <i>our</i> benefactors, Mr. + Carlyle, whom I saw several times. I approached him with more + reverence after a little experience of England and Scotland had + taught me to appreciate the strength and height of that wall of + shams and conventions which he more than any man, or thousand + men,—indeed, he almost alone,—has begun to throw + down. Wherever there was fresh thought, generous hope, the + thought of Carlyle has begun the work. He has torn off the veils + from hideous facts; he has burnt away foolish illusions; he has + awakened thousands to know what it is to be a man,—that we + must live, and not merely pretend to others that we live. He has + touched the rocks and they have given forth musical answer; + little more was wanting to begin to construct the city.</p> + + <p>But that little was wanting, and the work of construction is + left to those that come after him: nay, all attempts of the kind + he is the readiest to deride, fearing new shams worse than the + old, unable to trust the general action of a thought, and finding + no heroic man, no natural king, to represent it and challenge his + confidence.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page184" id= + "page184"></a>[pg 184]</span> + + <p>Accustomed to the infinite wit and exuberant richness of his + writings, his talk is still an amazement and a splendor scarcely + to be faced with steady eyes. He does not converse,—only + harangues. It is the usual misfortune of such marked men (happily + not one invariable or inevitable) that they cannot allow other + minds room to breathe and show themselves in their atmosphere, + and thus miss the refreshment and instruction, which the greatest + never cease to need from the experience of the humblest. Carlyle + allows no one a chance, but bears down all opposition, not only + by his wit and onset of words, resistless in their sharpness as + so many bayonets, but by actual physical superiority, raising his + voice and rushing on his opponent with a torrent of sound. This + is not the least from unwillingness to allow freedom to others; + on the contrary, no man would more enjoy a manly resistance to + his thought; but it is the impulse of a mind accustomed to follow + out its own impulse as the hawk its prey, and which knows not how + to stop in the chase. Carlyle, indeed, is arrogant and + overbearing, but in his arrogance there is no littleness or + self-love: it is the heroic arrogance of some old Scandinavian + conqueror,—it is his nature and the untamable impulse that + has given him power to crush the dragons. You do not love him, + perhaps, nor revere, and perhaps, also, he would only laugh at + you if you did; but you like him heartily, and like to see him + the powerful smith, the Siegfried, melting all the old iron in + his furnace till it glows to a sunset red, and burns you if you + senselessly go too near. He seemed to me quite isolated, lonely + as the desert; yet never was man more fitted to prize a man, + could he find one to match his mood. He finds such, but only in + the past. He sings rather than talks. He pours upon you a kind of + satirical, heroical, critical poem, with regular cadences, and + generally catching up near the beginning some singular epithet, + which, serves as a <i>refrain</i> when his song is full, or with + which as with a knitting-needle he catches up the stitches if he + has chanced now and then to let fall a row. For the higher kinds + of poetry he has no sense, and his talk on that subject is + delightfully and gorgeously absurd; he sometimes stops a minute + to laugh at it himself, then begins anew with fresh <span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page185" id="page185"></a>[pg 185]</span> + vigor; for all the spirits he is driving before him seem to him + as Fata Morganas, ugly masks, in fact, if he can but make them + turn about, but he laughs that they seem to others such dainty + Ariels. He puts out his chin sometimes till it looks like the + beak of a bird, and his eyes flash bright instinctive meanings + like Jove's bird; yet he is not calm and grand enough for the + eagle: he is more like the falcon, and yet not of gentle blood + enough for that either. He is not exactly like anything but + himself, and therefore you cannot see him without the most hearty + refreshment and good-will, for he is original, rich, and strong + enough to afford a thousand, faults; one expects some wild land + in a rich kingdom. His talk, like his books, is full of pictures, + his critical strokes masterly; allow for his point of view, and + his survey is admirable. He is a large subject; I cannot speak + more or wiselier of him now, nor needs it; his works are true, to + blame and praise him, the Siegfried of England, great and + powerful, if not quite invulnerable, and of a might rather to + destroy evil than legislate for good. At all events, he seems to + be what Destiny intended, and represents fully a certain side; so + we make no remonstrance as to his being and proceeding for + himself, though we sometimes must for us.</p> + + <p>I had meant some remarks on some fine pictures, and the little + I saw of the theatre in England; but these topics must wait till + my next, where they may connect themselves naturally enough with + what I have to say of Paris.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name= + "page186" id="page186"></a>[pg 186]</span> + <p> </p> + <h3>LETTER X.</h3> + + <h4>More of London.—The Model Prison at + Pentonville.—Bathing Establishment for the Poor.—Also + one for washing Clothes.—The Crèches of Paris, for + Poor People's Children.—Old Drury in London.—Sadler's + Wells.—English and French Acting + compared.—Mademoiselle Rachel.—French + Tragedy.—Rose Cheny.—Dumas.—Guizot.—The + Presentation at Court of the young Duchess.—Ball at the + Tuileries.—American and French + Women.—Leverrier.—The + Sorbonne.—Arago.—Discussions on Suicide and the + Crusades.—Rémusat.—The Academy.—La + Mennais.—Béranger.—Reflections.</h4> + + <p class="author">Paris.</p> + + <p>When I wrote last I could not finish with London, and there + remain yet two or three things I wish to speak of before passing + to my impressions of this wonder-full Paris.</p> + + <p>I visited the model prison at Pentonville; but though in some + respects an improvement upon others I have seen,—though + there was the appearance of great neatness and order in the + arrangements of life, kindness and good judgment in the + discipline of the prisoners,—yet there was also an air of + bleak forlornness about the place, and it fell far short of what + my mind demands of such abodes considered as redemption schools. + But as the subject of prisons is now engaging the attention of + many of the wisest and best, and the tendency is in what seems to + me the true direction, I need not trouble myself to make prude + and hasty suggestions; it is a subject to which persons who would + be of use should give the earnest devotion of calm and leisurely + thought.</p> + + <p>The same day I went to see an establishment which gave me + unmixed pleasure; it is a bathing establishment put at a very low + rate to enable the poor to avoid one of thee worst miseries of + their lot, and which yet promises <i>to pay</i>. Joined with this + is <span class="pagenum"><a name="page187" id="page187"></a>[pg + 187]</span> an establishment for washing clothes, where the poor + can go and hire, for almost nothing, good tubs, water ready + heated, the use of an apparatus for rinsing, drying, and ironing, + all so admirably arranged that a poor woman can in three hours + get through an amount of washing and ironing that would, under + ordinary circumstances, occupy three or four days. Especially the + drying closets I contemplated with great satisfaction, and hope + to see in our own country the same arrangements throughout the + cities, and even in the towns and villages. Hanging out the + clothes is a great exposure for women, even when they have a good + place for it; but when, as is so common in cities, they must dry + them in the house, how much they suffer! In New York, I know, + those poor women who take in washing endure a great deal of + trouble and toil from this cause; I have suffered myself from + being obliged to send back what had cost them so much toil, + because it had been, perhaps inevitably, soiled in the drying or + ironing, or filled with the smell of their miscellaneous cooking. + In London it is much worse. An eminent physician told me he knew + of two children whom he considered to have died because their + mother, having but one room to live in, was obliged to wash and + dry clothes close to their bed when they were ill. The poor + people in London naturally do without washing all they can, and + beneath that perpetual fall of soot the result may be guessed. + All but the very poor in England put out their washing, and this + custom ought to be universal in civilized countries, as it can be + done much better and quicker by a few regular laundresses than by + many families, and "the washing day" is so malignant a foe to the + peace and joy of households that it ought to be effaced from the + calendar. But as long as we are so miserable as to have any very + poor people in this world, <i>they</i> cannot put out their + washing, because they cannot earn enough money to pay for it, + and, preliminary to something better, washing establishments like + this of London are desirable.</p> + + <p>One arrangement that they have here in Paris will be a good + one, even when we cease to have any very poor people, and, please + Heaven, also to have any very rich. These are the <span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page188" id="page188"></a>[pg 188]</span> + <i>Crèches</i>,—houses where poor women leave + their children to be nursed during the day while they are at + work.</p> + + <p>I must mention that the superintendent of the washing + establishment observed, with a legitimate triumph, that it had + been built without giving a single dinner or printing a single + puff,—an extraordinary thing, indeed, for England!</p> + + <p>To turn to something a little gayer,—the embroidery on + this tattered coat of civilized life,—I went into only two + theatres; one the Old Drury, once the scene of great glories, now + of execrable music and more execrable acting. If anything can be + invented more excruciating than an English opera, such as was the + fashion at the time I was in London, I am sure no sin of mine + deserves the punishment of bearing it.</p> + + <p>At the Sadler's Wells theatre I saw a play which I had much + admired in reading it, but found still better in actual + representation; indeed, it seems to me there can be no better + acting play: this is "The Patrician's Daughter," by J.W. Marston. + The movement is rapid, yet clear and free; the dialogue natural, + dignified, and flowing; the characters marked with few, but + distinct strokes. "Where the tone of discourse rises with manly + sentiment or passion, the audience applauded with bursts of + generous feeling that gave me great pleasure, for this play is + one that, in its scope and meaning, marks the new era in England; + it is full of an experience which is inevitable to a man of + talent there, and is harbinger of the day when the noblest + commoner shall be the only noble possible in England.</p> + + <p>But how different all this acting to what I find in France! + Here the theatre is living; you see something really good, and + good throughout. Not one touch of that stage strut and vulgar + bombast of tone, which the English actor fancies indispensable to + scenic illusion, is tolerated here. For the first time in my life + I saw something represented in a style uniformly good, and should + have found sufficient proof, if I had needed any, that all men + will prefer what is good to what is bad, if only a fair + opportunity for choice be allowed. When I came here, my first + thought was to go and see Mademoiselle Rachel. I was sure that in + her I should <span class="pagenum"><a name="page189" id= + "page189"></a>[pg 189]</span> find a true genius, absolutely the + diamond, and so it proved. I went to see her seven or eight + times, always in parts that required great force of soul and + purity of taste even to conceive them, and only once had reason + to find fault with her. On one single occasion I saw her violate + the harmony of the character to produce effect at a particular + moment; but almost invariably I found her a true artist, worthy + Greece, and worthy at many moments to have her conceptions + immortalized in marble.</p> + + <p>Her range even in high tragedy is limited. She can only + express the darker passions, and grief in its most desolate + aspects. Nature has not gifted her with those softer and more + flowery attributes that lend to pathos its utmost tenderness. She + does not melt to tears, or calm or elevate the heart by the + presence of that tragic beauty that needs all the assaults of + Fate to make it show its immortal sweetness. Her noblest aspect + is when sometimes she expresses truth in some severe shape, and + rises, simple and austere, above the mixed elements around her. + On the dark side, she is very great in hatred and revenge. I + admired her more in Phedre than in any other part in which I saw + her. The guilty love inspired by the hatred of a goddess was + expressed in all its symptoms with a force and terrible + naturalness that almost suffocated the beholder. After she had + taken the poison, the exhaustion and paralysis of the system, the + sad, cold, calm submission to Fate, were still more grand.</p> + + <p>I had heard so much about the power of her eye in one fixed + look, and the expression she could concentrate in a single word, + that the utmost results could only satisfy my expectations. It + is, indeed, something magnificent to see the dark cloud give out + such sparks, each one fit to deal a separate death; but it was + not that I admired most in her: it was the grandeur, truth, and + depth of her conception of each part, and the sustained purity + with which she represented it.</p> + + <p>For the rest, I shall write somewhere a detailed + <i>critique</i> upon the parts in which I saw her. It is she who + has made me acquainted with the true way of viewing French + tragedy. I had no idea of its powers and symmetry till now, and + have received from the revelation high pleasure and a crowd of + thoughts.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page190" id= + "page190"></a>[pg 190]</span> + + <p>The French language from her lips is a divine dialect; it is + stripped of its national and personal peculiarities, and becomes + what any language must, moulded by such a genius, the pure music + of the heart and soul. I never could remember her tone in + speaking any word; it was too perfect; you had received the + thought quite direct. Yet, had I never heard her speak a word, my + mind would, be filled by her attitudes. Nothing more graceful can + be conceived, nor could the genius of sculpture surpass her + management of the antique drapery.</p> + + <p>She has no beauty except in the intellectual severity of her + outline, and bears marks of age which will grow stronger every + year, and make her ugly before long. Still it will be a + <i>grandiose</i>, gypsy, or rather Sibylline ugliness, well + adapted to the expression of some tragic parts. Only it seems as + if she could not live long; she expends force enough upon a part + to furnish out a dozen common lives.</p> + + <p>Though the French tragedy is well acted throughout, yet + unhappily there is no male actor now with a spark of fire, and + these men seem the meanest pigmies by the side of + Rachel;—so on the scene, beside the tragedy intended by the + author, you see also that common tragedy, a woman of genius who + throws away her precious heart, lives and dies for one unworthy + of her. In parts this effect is productive of too much pain. I + saw Rachel one night with her brother and sister. The sister + imitated her so closely that you could not help seeing she had a + manner, and an imitable manner. Her brother was in the play her + lover,—a wretched automaton, and presenting the most + unhappy family likeness to herself. Since then I have hardly + cared to go and see her. We could wish with geniuses, as with the + Phoenix, to see only one of the family at a time.</p> + + <p>In the pathetic or sentimental drama Paris boasts another + young actress, nearly as distinguished in that walk as Rachel in + hers. This is Rose Cheny, whom we saw in her ninety-eighth + personation of Clarissa Harlowe, and afterward in Genevieve and + the <i>Protégé sans le Savoir</i>,—a + little piece written expressly for her by Scribe. The "Miss + Clarisse" of the French drama is a <span class="pagenum"><a name= + "page191" id="page191"></a>[pg 191]</span> feeble and partial + reproduction of the heroine of Richardson; indeed, the original + in all its force of intellect and character would have been too + much for the charming Rose Cheny, but to the purity and lovely + tenderness of Clarissa she does full justice. In the other + characters she was the true French girl, full of grace and a + mixture of <i>naïveté</i> and cunning, + sentiment and frivolity, that is winning and <i>piquant</i>, if + not satisfying. Only grief seems very strange to those bright + eyes; we do not find that they can weep much and bear the light + of day, and the inhaling of charcoal seems near at hand to their + brightest pleasures.</p> + + <p>At the other little theatres you see excellent acting, and a + sparkle of wit unknown to the world out of France. The little + pieces in which all the leading topics of the day are reviewed + are full of drolleries that make you laugh at each instant. + <i>Poudre-Colon</i> is the only one of these I have seen; in + this, among other jokes, Dumas, in the character of Monte-Christo + and in a costume half Oriental, half juggler, is made to pass the + other theatres in review while seeking candidates for his new + one.</p> + + <p>Dumas appeared in court yesterday, and defended his own cause + against the editors who sue him for evading some of his + engagements. I was very desirous to hear him speak, and went + there in what I was assured would be very good season; but a + French audience, who knew the ground better, had slipped in + before me, and I returned, as has been too often the case with me + in Paris, having seen nothing but endless staircases, dreary + vestibules, and <i>gens d'armes</i>. The hospitality of <i>le + grande nation</i> to the stranger is, in many respects, + admirable. Galleries, libraries, cabinets of coins, museums, are + opened in the most liberal manner to the stranger, warmed, + lighted, ay, and guarded, for him almost all days in the week; + treasures of the past are at his service; but when anything is + happening in the present, the French run quicker, glide in more + adroitly, and get possession of the ground. I find it not the + most easy matter to get to places even where there is nothing + going on, there is so much tiresome fuss of getting + <i>billets</i> from one and another to be gone through; but when + something is happening it is still worse. I missed hearing M. + Guizot in <span class="pagenum"><a name="page192" id= + "page192"></a>[pg 192]</span> his speech on the Montpensier + marriage, which would have given a very good idea of his manner, + and which, like this defence of M. Dumas, was a skilful piece of + work as regards evasion of the truth. The good feeling toward + England which had been fostered with so much care and toil seems + to have been entirely dissipated by the mutual recriminations + about this marriage, and the old dislike flames up more fiercely + for having been hid awhile beneath the ashes. I saw the little + Duchess, the innocent or ignorant cause of all this disturbance, + when presented at court. She went round the circle on the arm of + the Queen. Though only fourteen, she looks twenty, but has + something fresh, engaging, and girlish about her. I fancy it will + soon be rubbed out under the drill of the royal household.</p> + + <p>I attended not only at the presentation, but at the ball given + at the Tuileries directly after. These are fine shows, as the + suite of apartments is very handsome, brilliantly lighted, and + the French ladies surpass all others in the art of dress; indeed, + it gave me much, pleasure to see them. Certainly there are many + ugly ones, but they are so well dressed, and have such an air of + graceful vivacity, that the general effect was that of a + flower-garden. As often happens, several American women were + among the most distinguished for positive beauty; one from + Philadelphia, who is by many persons considered the prettiest + ornament of the dress circle at the Italian Opera, was especially + marked by the attention of the king. However, these ladies, even + if here a long time, do not attain the air and manner of French + women; the magnetic atmosphere that envelops them is less + brilliant and exhilarating in its attractions.</p> + + <p>It was pleasant to my eye, which has always been so wearied in + our country by the sombre masses of men that overcloud our public + assemblies, to see them now in so great variety of costume, + color, and decoration.</p> + + <p>Among the crowd wandered Leverrier, in the costume of + Academician, looking as if he had lost, not found, his planet. + French <i>savants</i> are more generally men of the world, and + even men of fashion, than those of other climates; but, in his + case, he seemed not to find it easy to exchange the music of the + spheres for the music of fiddles.</p><span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page193" id="page193"></a>[pg 193]</span> + + <p>Speaking of Leverrier leads to another of my disappointments. + I went to the Sorbonne to hear him lecture, nothing dreaming that + the old pedantic and theological character of those halls was + strictly kept up in these days of light. An old guardian of the + inner temple, seeing me approach, had his speech all ready, and, + manning the entrance, said with a disdainful air, before we had + time to utter a word, "Monsieur may enter if he pleases, but + Madame must remain here" (i.e. in the court-yard). After some + exclamations of surprise, I found an alternative in the Hotel de + Clugny, where I passed an hour very delightfully while waiting + for my companion. The rich remains of other centuries are there + so arranged that they can be seen to the best advantage; many of + the works in ivory, china, and carved wood are truly splendid or + exquisite. I saw a dagger with jewelled hilt which talked whole + poems to my mind. In the various "Adorations of the Magi," I + found constantly one of the wise men black, and with the marked + African lineaments. Before I had half finished, my companion came + and wished me at least to visit the lecture-rooms of the + Sorbonne, now that the talk, too good for female ears, was over. + But the guardian again interfered to deny me entrance. "You can + go, Madame," said he, "to the College of France; you can go to + this and t'other place, but you cannot enter here." "What, sir," + said I, "is it your institution alone that remains in a state of + barbarism?" "Que voulez vous, Madame?" he replied, and, as he + spoke, his little dog began to bark at me,—"Que voulez + vous, Madame? c'est la regle,"—"What would you have, Madam? + IT IS THE RULE,"—a reply which makes me laugh even now, as + I think how the satirical wits of former days might have used it + against the bulwarks of learned dulness.</p> + + <p>I was more fortunate in hearing Arago, and he justified all my + expectations. Clear, rapid, full and equal, his discourse is + worthy its celebrity, and I felt repaid for the four hours one is + obliged to spend in going, in waiting, and in hearing; for the + lecture begins at half past one, and you must be there before + twelve to get a seat, so constant and animated is his + popularity.</p> + + <p>I have attended, with some interest, two discussions at the + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page194" id="page194"></a>[pg + 194]</span> Athenée,—one on Suicide, the other on + the Crusades. They are amateur affairs, where, as always at such + times, one hears much, nonsense and vanity, much making of + phrases and sentimental grimace; but there was one excellent + speaker, adroit and rapid as only a Frenchman could be. With + admirable readiness, skill, and rhetorical polish, he examined + the arguments of all the others, and built upon their failures a + triumph for himself. His management of the language, too, was + masterly, and French is the best of languages for such a + purpose,—clear, flexible, full of sparkling points and + quick, picturesque turns, with a subtile blandness that makes the + dart tickle while it wounds. Truly he pleased the fancy, filled + the ear, and carried us pleasantly along over the smooth, swift + waters; but then came from the crowd a gentleman, not one of the + appointed orators of the evening, but who had really something in + his heart to say,—a grave, dark man, with Spanish eyes, and + the simple dignity of honor and earnestness in all his gesture + and manner. He said in few and unadorned words his say, and the + sense of a real presence filled the room, and those charms of + rhetoric faded, as vanish the beauties of soap-bubbles from the + eyes of astonished childhood.</p> + + <p>I was present on one good occasion at the Academy the day that + M. Rémusat was received there in the place of + Royer-Collard. I looked down from one of the tribunes upon the + flower of the celebrities of France, that is to say, of the + celebrities which are authentic, <i>comme il faut</i>. Among them + were many marked faces, many fine heads; but in reading the works + of poets we always fancy them about the age of Apollo himself, + and I found with pain some of my favorites quite old, and very + unlike the company on Parnassus as represented by Raphael. Some, + however, were venerable, even noble, to behold. Indeed, the + literary dynasty of France is growing old, and here, as in + England and Germany, there seems likely to occur a serious gap + before the inauguration of another, if indeed another is + coming.</p> + + <p>However, it was an imposing sight; there are men of real + distinction now in the Academy, and Molière would have a + fair chance if he were proposed to-day. Among the audience I saw + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page195" id="page195"></a>[pg + 195]</span> many ladies of fine expression and manner, as well as + one or two <i>precieuses ridicules</i>, a race which is never + quite extinct.</p> + + <p>M. Rémusat, as is the custom on these occasions, + painted the portrait of his predecessor; the discourse was + brilliant and discriminating in the details, but the orator + seemed to me to neglect drawing some obvious inferences which + would have given a better point of view for his subject.</p> + + <p>A <i>séance</i> to me much more impressive find + interesting was one which borrowed nothing from dress, + decorations, or the presence of titled pomp. I went to call on La + Mennais, to whom I had a letter, I found him in a little study; + his secretary was writing in a larger room through which I + passed. With him was a somewhat citizen-looking, but vivacious, + elderly man, whom I was at first sorry to see, having wished for + half an hour's undisturbed visit to the apostle of Democracy. But + how quickly were those feelings displaced by joy when he named to + me the great national lyrist of France, the unequalled + Béranger. I had not expected to see him at all, for he + is not one to be seen in any show place; he lives in the hearts + of the people, and needs no homage from their eyes. I was very + happy in that little study in presence of these two men, whose + influence has been so great, so real. To me Béranger has + been much; his wit, his pathos, his exquisite lyric grace, have + made the most delicate strings vibrate, and I can feel, as well + as see, what he is in his nation and his place. I have not + personally received anything from La Mennais, as, born under + other circumstances, mental facts which he, once the pupil of + Rome, has learned by passing through severe ordeals, are at the + basis of all my thoughts. But I see well what he has been and is + to Europe, and of what great force of nature and spirit. He seems + suffering and pale, but in his eyes is the light of the + future.</p> + + <p>These are men who need no flourish of trumpets to announce + their coming,—no band of martial music upon their + steps,—no obsequious nobles in their train. They are the + true kings, the theocratic kings, the judges in Israel. The + hearts of men make music at their approach; the mind of the age + is the historian of their passage; and only men of destiny like + themselves shall be permitted to write their eulogies, or fill + their vacant seats.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page196" + id="page196"></a>[pg 196]</span> + + <p>Wherever there is a genius like his own, a germ of the finest + fruit still hidden beneath the soil, the "<i>Chante pauvre + petit</i>" of Béranger shall strike, like a sunbeam, and + give it force to emerge, and wherever there is the true + Crusade,—for the spirit, not the tomb of + Christ,—shall be felt an echo of the "<i>Que tes armes + soient benis jeune soldat</i>" of La Mennais.</p><span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page197" id="page197"></a>[pg 197]</span> + <p> </p> + <h3>LETTER XI.</h3> + + <h4>France and her Artistic Excellence.—The Pictures of + Horace Vernet.—De la Roche.—Leopold + Robert.—Contrast between the French and English Schools of + Art.—The general Appreciation of Turner's + Pictures.—Botanical Models in Wax.—Music.—The + Opera.—Duprez.—Lablache.—Ronconi.—Grisi.—Persiana.—"Semiramide" + as performed by the New York and Paris + Operas.—Mario.—Coletti.—Gardini.—"Don + Giovanni."—The Writer's Trial of the "Letheon."—Its + Effects.</h4> + + <p>It needs not to speak in this cursory manner of the treasures + of Art, pictures, sculptures, engravings, and the other riches + which France lays open so freely to the stranger in her + Musées. Any examination worth writing of such objects, + or account of the thoughts they inspire, demands a place by + itself, and an ample field in which to expatiate. The American, + first introduced to some good pictures by the truly great + geniuses of the religious period in Art, must, if capable at all + of mental approximation to the life therein embodied, be too + deeply affected, too full of thoughts, to be in haste to say + anything, and for me, I bide my time.</p> + + <p>No such great crisis, however, is to be apprehended from + acquaintance with the productions of the modern French school. + They are, indeed, full of talent and of vigor, but also + melodramatic and exaggerated to a degree that seems to give the + nightmare passage through the fresh and cheerful day. They sound + no depth of soul, and are marked with the signet of a degenerate + age.</p> + + <p>Thus speak I generally. To the pictures of Horace Vernet one + cannot but turn a gracious eye, they are so faithful a transcript + of the life which circulates around us in the present state of + things, and we are willing to see his nobles and generals mounted + on <span class="pagenum"><a name="page198" id="page198"></a>[pg + 198]</span> such excellent horses. De la Roche gives me pleasure; + there is in his pictures a simple and natural poesy; he is a man + who has in his own heart a well of good water, whence he draws + for himself when the streams are mixed with strange soil and bear + offensive marks of the bloody battles of life.</p> + + <p>The pictures of Leopold Robert I find charming. They are full + of vigor and nobleness; they express a nature where all is rich, + young, and on a large scale. Those that I have seen are so + happily expressive of the thoughts and perceptions of early + manhood, I can hardly regret he did not live to enter on another + stage of life, the impression now received is so single.</p> + + <p>The effort of the French school in Art, as also its main + tendency in literature, seems to be to turn the mind inside out, + in the coarsest acceptation of such a phrase. Art can only be + truly Art by presenting an adequate outward symbol of some fact + in the interior life. But then it <i>is</i> a symbol that Art + seeks to present, and not the fact itself. These French painters + seem to have no idea of this; they have not studied the method of + Nature. With the true artist, as with Nature herself, the more + full the representation, the more profound and enchanting is the + sense of mystery. We look and look, as on a flower of which we + cannot scrutinize the secret life, yet b; looking seem constantly + drawn nearer to the soul that causes and governs that life. But + in the French pictures suffering is represented by streams of + blood,—wickedness by the most ghastly contortions.</p> + + <p>I saw a movement in the opposite direction in England; it was + in Turner's pictures of the later period. It is well known that + Turner, so long an idol of the English public, paints now in a + manner which has caused the liveliest dissensions in the world of + connoisseurs. There are two parties, one of which maintains, not + only that the pictures of the late period are not good, but that + they are not pictures at all,—that it is impossible to make + out the design, or find what Turner is aiming at by those strange + blotches of color. The other party declare that these pictures + are not only good, but divine,—that whoever looks upon them + in the true manner will not fail to find there somewhat ineffably + and <span class="pagenum"><a name="page199" id="page199"></a>[pg + 199]</span> transcendently admirable,—the soul of Art. + Books have been written to defend this side of the question.</p> + + <p>I had become much interested about this matter, as the fervor + of feeling on either side seemed to denote that there was + something real and vital going on, and, while time would not + permit my visiting other private collections in London and its + neighborhood, I insisted on taking it for one of Turner's + pictures. It was at the house of one of his devoutest disciples, + who has arranged everything in the rooms to harmonize with them. + There were a great many of the earlier period; these seemed to me + charming, but superficial, views of Nature. They were of a + character that he who runs may read,—obvious, simple, + graceful. The later pictures were quite a different matter; + mysterious-looking things,—hieroglyphics of picture, rather + than picture itself. Sometimes you saw a range of red dots, + which, after long looking, dawned on you as the roofs of + houses,—shining streaks turned out to be most alluring + rivulets, if traced with patience and a devout eye. Above all, + they charmed the eye and the thought. Still, these pictures, it + seems to me, cannot be considered fine works of Art, more than + the mystical writing common to a certain class of minds in the + United States can be called good writing. A great work of Art + demands a great thought, or a thought of beauty adequately + expressed. Neither in Art nor literature more than in life can an + ordinary thought be made interesting because well dressed. But in + a transition state, whether of Art or literature, deeper thoughts + are imperfectly expressed, because they cannot yet be held and + treated masterly. This seems to be the case with Turner. He has + got beyond the English gentleman's conventional view of Nature, + which implies a <i>little</i> sentiment and a <i>very</i> + cultivated taste; he has become awake to what is elemental, + normal, in Nature,—such, for instance, as one sees in the + working of water on the sea-shore. He tries to represent these + primitive forms. In the drawings of Piranesi, in the pictures of + Rembrandt, one sees this grand language exhibited more truly. It + is not picture, but certain primitive and leading effects of + light and shadow, or <span class="pagenum"><a name="page200" id= + "page200"></a>[pg 200]</span> lines and contours, that captivate + the attention. I saw a picture of Rembrandt's at the Louvre, + whose subject I do not know and have never cared to inquire. I + cannot analyze the group, but I understand and feel the thought + it embodies. At something similar Turner seems aiming; an aim so + opposed to the practical and outward tendency of the English + mind, that, as a matter of course, the majority find themselves + mystified, and thereby angered, but for the same reason answering + to so deep and seldom satisfied a want in the minds of the + minority, as to secure the most ardent sympathy where any at all + can be elicited.</p> + + <p>Upon this topic of the primitive forms and operations of + nature, I am reminded of something interesting I was looking at + yesterday. These are botanical models in wax, with microscopic + dissections, by an artist from Florence, a pupil of Calamajo, the + Director of the Wax-Model Museum there. I saw collections of ten + different genera, embracing from fifty to sixty species, of + Fungi, Mosses, and Lichens, detected and displayed in all the + beautiful secrets of their lives; many of them, as observed by + Dr. Leveillé of Paris. The artist told me that a + fisherman, introduced to such acquaintance with the marvels of + love and beauty which we trample under foot or burn in the + chimney each careless day, exclaimed, "'T is the good God who + protects us on the sea that made all these"; and a similar + recognition, a correspondent feeling, will not be easily evaded + by the most callous observer. This artist has supplied many of + these models to the magnificent collection of the <i>Jardin des + Plantes</i>, to Edinburgh, and to Bologna, and would furnish + them, to our museums at a much cheaper rate than they can + elsewhere be obtained. I wish the Universities of Cambridge, New + York, and other leading institutions of our country, might avail + themselves of the opportunity.</p> + + <p>In Paris I have not been very fortunate in hearing the best + music. At the different Opera-Houses, the orchestra is always + good, but the vocalization, though far superior to what I have + heard at home, falls so far short of my ideas and hopes + that—except to the Italian Opera—I have not been + often. The <i>Opera Comique</i> I visited only once; it was + tolerably well, and no more, <span class="pagenum"><a name= + "page201" id="page201"></a>[pg 201]</span> and, for myself, I + find the tolerable intolerable in music. At the Grand Opera I + heard <i>Robert le Diable</i> and <i>Guillaume Tell</i> almost + with ennui; the decorations and dresses are magnificent, the + instrumental performance good, but not one fine singer to fill + these fine parts. Duprez has had a great reputation, and probably + has sung better In former days; still he has a vulgar mind, and + can never have had any merit as an artist. At present I find him + unbearable. He forces his voice, sings in the most coarse, showy + style, and aims at producing effects without regard to the + harmony of his part; fat and vulgar, he still takes the part of + the lover and young chevalier; to my sorrow I saw him in + Ravenswood, and he has well-nigh disenchanted for me the Bride of + Lammermoor.</p> + + <p>The Italian Opera is here as well sustained, I believe, as + anywhere in the world at present; all about it is certainly quite + good, but alas! nothing excellent, nothing admirable. Yet no! I + must not say nothing: Lablache is excellent,—voice, + intonation, manner of song, action. Ronconi I found good in the + Doctor of "<i>L'Elisire d'Amore</i>". For the higher parts Grisi, + though now much too large for some of her parts, and without a + particle of poetic grace or dignity, has certainly beauty of + feature, and from nature a fine voice. But I find her conception + of her parts equally coarse and shallow. Her love is the love of + a peasant; her anger, though having the Italian picturesque + richness and vigor, is the anger of an Italian fishwife, entirely + unlike anything in the same rank elsewhere; her despair is that + of a person with the toothache, or who has drawn a blank in the + lottery. The first time I saw her was in <i>Norma</i>; then the + beauty of her outline, which becomes really enchanting as she + recalls the first emotions of love, the force and gush of her + song, filled my ear, and charmed the senses, so that I was + pleased, and did not perceive her great defects; but with each + time of seeing her I liked her less, and now I do not like her at + all.</p> + + <p>Persiani is more generally a favorite here; she is indeed + skilful both as an actress and in the management of her voice, + but I find her expression meretricious, her singing mechanical. + Neither of these women is equal to Pico in natural force, if she + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page202" id="page202"></a>[pg + 202]</span> had but the same advantages of culture and + environment. In hearing <i>Semiramide</i> here, I first learned + to appreciate the degree of talent with which it was cast in New + York. Grisi indeed is a far better Semiramis than Borghese, but + the best parts of the opera lost all their charm from the + inferiority of Brambilla, who took Pico's place. Mario has a + charming voice, grace and tenderness; he fills very well the part + of the young, chivalric lover, but he has no range of power. + Coletti is a very good singer; he has not from Nature a fine + voice or personal beauty; but he has talent, good taste, and + often surpasses the expectation he has inspired. Gardini, the new + singer, I have only heard once, and that was in a + lovesick-shepherd part; he showed delicacy, tenderness, and tact. + In fine, among all these male singers there is much to please, + but little to charm; and for the women, they never fail + absolutely to fill their parts, but no ray of the Muse has fallen + on them.</p> + + <p><i>Don Giovanni</i> conferred on me a benefit, of which + certainly its great author never dreamed. I shall relate + it,—first begging pardon of Mozart, and assuring him I had + no thought of turning his music to the account of a "vulgar + utility." It was quite by accident. After suffering several days + very much with the toothache, I resolved to get rid of the cause + of sorrow by the aid of ether; not sorry, either, to try its + efficacy, after all the marvellous stories I had heard. The first + time I inhaled it, I did not for several seconds feel the effect, + and was just thinking, "Alas! this has not power to soothe nerves + so irritable as mine," when suddenly I wandered off, I don't know + where, but it was a sensation like wandering in long + garden-walks, and through many alleys of trees,—many + impressions, but all pleasant and serene. The moment the tube was + removed, I started into consciousness, and put my hand to my + cheek; but, sad! the throbbing tooth was still there. The dentist + said I had not seemed to him insensible. He then gave me the + ether in a stronger dose, and this time I quitted the body + instantly, and cannot remember any detail of what I saw and did; + but the impression was as in the Oriental tale, where the man has + his head in the water an instant only, but in his vision a + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page203" id="page203"></a>[pg + 203]</span> thousand years seem to have passed. I experienced + that same sense of an immense length of time and succession of + impressions; even, now, the moment my mind was in that state + seems to me a far longer period in time than my life on earth + does as I look back upon it. Suddenly I seemed to see the old + dentist, as I had for the moment before I inhaled the gas, amid + his plants, in his nightcap and dressing-gown; in the twilight + the figure had somewhat of a Faust-like, magical air, and he + seemed to say, "<i>C'est inutile.</i>" Again I started up, + fancying that once more he had not dared to extract the tooth, + but it was gone. What is worth, noticing is the mental + translation I made of his words, which, my ear must have caught, + for my companion tells me he said, "<i>C'est le moment</i>," a + phrase of just as many syllables, but conveying just the opposite + sense.</p> + + <p>Ah! I how I wished then, that you had settled, there in the + United States, who really brought this means of evading a portion + of the misery of life into use. But as it was, I remained at a + loss whom to apostrophize with my benedictions, whether Dr. + Jackson, Morton, or Wells, and somebody thus was robbed of his + clue;—neither does Europe know to whom to address her + medals.</p> + + <p>However, there is no evading the heavier part of these + miseries. You avoid the moment of suffering, and escape the + effort of screwing up your courage for one of these moments, but + not the jar to the whole system. I found the effect of having + taken the ether bad for me. I seemed to taste it all the time, + and neuralgic pain continued; this lasted three days. For the + evening of the third, I had taken a ticket to <i>Don + Giovanni</i>, and could not bear to give up this opera, which I + had always been longing to hear; still I was in much suffering, + and, as it was the sixth day I had been so, much weakened. + However, I went, expecting to be obliged to come out; but the + music soothed the nerves at once. I hardly suffered at all during + the opera; however, I supposed the pain would return as soon as I + came out; but no! it left me from that time. Ah! if physicians + only understood the influence of the mind over the body, instead + of treating, as they so often do, their patients like machines, + and according to precedent! But I must pause here for + to-day.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page204" id= + "page204"></a>[pg 204]</span> + <p> </p> + <h3>LETTER XII.</h3> + + <h4>Adieu to Paris.—Its Scenes.—The Procession of the + Fat Ox.—Destitution of the Poorer Classes.—Need of a + Reform.—The Doctrines of Fourier making + Progress.—Review of Fourier's Life and Character.—The + Parisian Press on the Spanish Marriage.—Guizot's + Policy.—Napoleon.—The Manuscripts of Rousseau in the + Chamber of Deputies.—His Character.—Speech of M. + Berryer in the Chamber.—American and French + Oratory.—The Affair of Cracow.—Dull Speakers in the + Chamber.—French Vivacity.—Amusing Scene.—Guizot + speaking.—International Exchange of Books.—The + Evening School of the <i>Frères Chretiens</i>.—The + Great Good accomplished by them.—Suggestions for the like + in America.—The Institution of the Deaconesses.—The + New York "Home."—School for Idiots near Paris.—The + Reclamation of Idiots.</h4> + + <p>I bade adieu to Paris on the 25th of February, just as we had + had one fine day. It was the only one of really delightful + weather, from morning till night, that I had to enjoy all the + while I was at Paris, from the 13th of November till the 25th of + February. Let no one abuse our climate; even in winter it is + delightful, compared to the Parisian winter of mud and mist.</p> + + <p>This one day brought out the Parisian world in its gayest + colors. I never saw anything more animated or prettier, of the + kind, than the promenade that day in the <i>Champs + Elysées</i>. Such crowds of gay equipages, with + <i>cavaliers</i> and their <i>amazons</i> flying through their + midst on handsome and swift horses! On the promenade, what groups + of passably pretty ladies, with excessively pretty bonnets, + announcing in their hues of light green, peach-blossom, and + primrose the approach of spring, and charming children, for + French children are charming! I cannot speak with equal + approbation of the files of men sauntering arm in arm. One sees + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page205" id="page205"></a>[pg + 205]</span> few fine-looking men in Paris: the air, + half-military, half-dandy, of self-esteem and + <i>savoir-faire</i>, is not particularly interesting; nor are the + glassy stare and fumes of bad cigars exactly what one most + desires to encounter, when the heart is opened by the breath of + spring zephyrs and the hope of buds and blossoms.</p> + + <p>But a French crowd is always gay, full of quick turns and + drolleries; most amusing when most petulant, it represents what + is so agreeable in the character of the nation. We have now seen + it on two good occasions, the festivities of the new year, and + just after we came was the procession of the <i>Fat Ox</i>, + described, if I mistake not, by Eugene Sue. An immense crowd + thronged the streets this year to see it, but few figures and + little invention followed the emblem of plenty; indeed, few among + the people could have had the heart for such a sham, knowing how + the poorer classes have suffered from hunger this winter. All + signs of this are kept out of sight in Paris. A pamphlet, called + "The Voice of Famine," stating facts, though in the tone of + vulgar and exaggerated declamation, unhappily common to + productions on the radical side, was suppressed almost as soon as + published; but the fact cannot be suppressed, that the people in + the provinces have suffered most terribly amid the vaunted + prosperity of France.</p> + + <p>While Louis Philippe lives, the gases, compressed by his + strong grasp, may not burst up to light; but the need of some + radical measures of reform is not less strongly felt in France + than elsewhere, and the time will come before long when such will + be imperatively demanded. The doctrines of Fourier are making + considerable progress, and wherever they spread, the necessity of + some practical application of the precepts of Christ, in lieu of + the mummeries of a worn-out ritual, cannot fail to be felt. The + more I see of the terrible ills which infest the body politic of + Europe, the more indignation I feel at the selfishness or + stupidity of those in my own country who oppose an examination of + these subjects,—such as is animated by the hope of + prevention. The mind of Fourier was, in many respects, + uncongenial to mine. Educated in an age of gross materialism, he + was tainted by its faults. In <span class="pagenum"><a name= + "page206" id="page206"></a>[pg 206]</span> attempts to reorganize + society, he commits the error of making soul the result of health + of body, instead of body the clothing of soul; but his heart was + that of a genuine lover of his kind, of a philanthropist in the + sense of Jesus,—his views were large and noble. His life + was one of devout study on these subjects, and I should pity the + person who, after the briefest sojourn in Manchester and + Lyons,—the most superficial acquaintance with the + population of London and Paris,—could seek to hinder a + study of his thoughts, or be wanting in reverence for his + purposes. But always, always, the unthinking mob has found stones + on the highway to throw at the prophets.</p> + + <p>Amid so many great causes for thought and anxiety, how + childish has seemed the endless gossip of the Parisian press on + the subject of the Spanish marriage,—how melancholy the + flimsy falsehoods of M. Guizot,—more melancholy the avowal + so naïvely made, amid those falsehoods, that to his mind + expediency is the best policy! This is the policy, said he, that + has made France so prosperous. Indeed, the success is + correspondent with the means, though in quite another sense than + that he meant.</p> + + <p>I went to the <i>Hotel des Invalides</i>, supposing I should + be admitted to the spot where repose the ashes of Napoleon, for + though I love not pilgrimages to sepulchres, and prefer paying my + homage to the living spirit rather than to the dust it once + animated, I should have liked to muse a moment beside his urn; + but as yet the visitor is not admitted there. In the library, + however, one sees the picture of Napoleon crossing the Alps, + opposite to that of the present King of the French. Just as they + are, these should serve as frontispieces to two chapters of + history. In the first, the seed was sown in a field of blood + indeed, yet was it the seed of all that is vital in the present + period. By Napoleon the career was really laid open to talent, + and all that is really great in France now consists in the + possibility that talent finds of struggling to the light.</p> + + <p>Paris is a great intellectual centre, and there is a Chamber + of Deputies to represent the people, very different from the + poor, limited Assembly politically so called. Their tribune is + that of literature, and one needs not to beg tickets to mingle + with the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page207" id= + "page207"></a>[pg 207]</span> audience. To the actually so-called + Chamber of Deputies I was indebted for two pleasures. First and + greatest, a sight of the manuscripts of Rousseau treasured in + their Library. I saw them and touched them,—those + manuscripts just as he has celebrated them, written on the fine + white paper, tied with ribbon. Yellow and faded age has made + them, yet at their touch I seemed to feel the fire of youth, + immortally glowing, more and more expansive, with which his soul + has pervaded this century. He was the precursor of all we most + prize. True, his blood was mixed with madness, and the course of + his actual life made some detours through villanous places, but + his spirit was intimate with the fundamental truths of human + nature, and fraught with prophecy. There is none who has given + birth to more life for this age; his gifts are yet untold; they + are too present with us; but he who thinks really must often + think with Rousseau, and learn of him even more and more: such is + the method of genius, to ripen fruit for the crowd of those rays + of whose heat they complain.</p> + + <p>The second pleasure was in the speech of M. Berryer, when the + Chamber was discussing the Address to the King. Those of Thiers + and Guizot had been, so far, more interesting, as they stood for + more that was important; but M. Berryer is the most eloquent + speaker of the House. His oratory is, indeed, very good; not + logical, but plausible, full and rapid, with occasional bursts of + flame and showers of sparks, though indeed no stone of size and + weight enough to crush any man was thrown out of the crater. + Although the oratory of our country is very inferior to what + might be expected from the perfect freedom and powerful motive + for development of genius in this province, it presents several + examples of persons superior in both force and scope, and equal + in polish, to M. Berryer.</p> + + <p>Nothing can be more pitiful than the manner in which the + infamous affair of Cracow is treated on all hands. There is not + even the affectation of noble feeling about it. La Mennais and + his coadjutors published in <i>La Reforme</i> an honorable and + manly protest, which the public rushed to devour the moment it + was out of the press;—and no wonder! for it was the only + crumb of <span class="pagenum"><a name="page208" id= + "page208"></a>[pg 208]</span> comfort offered to those who have + the nobleness to hope that the confederation of nations may yet + be conducted on the basis of divine justice and human right. Most + men who touched the subject apparently weary of feigning, + appeared in their genuine colors of the calmest, most complacent + selfishness. As described by Körner in the prayer of + such a man:—</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"O God, save me,</p> + + <p>My wife, child, and hearth,</p> + + <p>Then my harvest also;</p> + + <p>Then will I bless thee,</p> + + <p>Though thy lightning scorch to blackness</p> + + <p>All the rest of human kind."</p> + </div> + </div> + + <p>A sentiment which finds its paraphrase in the following + vulgate of our land:—</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"O Lord, save me,</p> + + <p>My wife, child, and brother Sammy,</p> + + <p>Us four, <i>and no more</i>."</p> + </div> + </div> + + <p>The latter clause, indeed, is not quite frankly avowed as yet + by politicians.</p> + + <p>It is very amusing to be in the Chamber of Deputies when some + dull person is speaking. The French have a truly Greek vivacity; + they cannot endure to be bored. Though their conduct is not very + dignified, I should like a corps of the same kind of + sharp-shooters in our legislative assemblies when honorable + gentlemen are addressing their constituents and not the assembly, + repeating in lengthy, windy, clumsy paragraphs what has been the + truism of the newspaper press for months previous, wickedly + wasting the time that was given us to learn something for + ourselves, and help our fellow-creatures. In the French Chamber, + if a man who has nothing to say ascends the tribune, the + audience-room is filled with the noise as of myriad beehives; the + President rises on his feet, and passes the whole time of the + speech in taking the most violent exercise, stretching himself to + look imposing, ringing his bell every two minutes, shouting to + the representatives of the nation to be decorous and attentive. + In vain: the more he rings, the more they won't be still. I saw + an orator in this situation, <span class="pagenum"><a name= + "page209" id="page209"></a>[pg 209]</span> fighting against the + desires of the audience, as only a Frenchman + could,—certainly a man of any other nation would have died + of embarrassment rather,—screaming out his sentences, + stretching out both arms with an air of injured dignity, panting, + growing red in the face; but the hubbub of voices never stopped + an instant. At last he pretended to be exhausted, stopped, and + took out his snuff-box. Instantly there was a calm. He seized the + occasion, and shouted out a sentence; but it was the only one he + was able to make heard. They were not to be trapped so a second + time. When any one is speaking that commands interest, as Berryer + did, the effect of this vivacity is very pleasing, the murmur of + feeling that rushes over the assembly is so quick and + electric,—light, too, as the ripple on the lake. I heard + Guizot speak one day for a short time. His manner is very + deficient in dignity,—has not even the dignity of station; + you see the man of cultivated intellect, but without inward + strength; nor is even his panoply of proof.</p> + + <p>I saw in the Library of the Deputies some books intended to be + sent to our country through M. Vattemare. The French have shown + great readiness and generosity with regard to his project, and I + earnestly hope that our country, if it accept these tokens of + good-will, will show both energy and judgment in making a return. + I do not speak from myself alone, but from others whose opinion + is entitled to the highest respect, when I say it is not by + sending a great quantity of documents of merely local interest, + that would be esteemed lumber in our garrets at home, that you + pay respect to a nation able to look beyond, the binding of a + book. If anything is to be sent, let persons of ability be + deputed to make a selection honorable to us and of value to the + French. They would like documents from our Congress,—what + is important as to commerce and manufactures; they would also + like much what can throw light on the history and character of + our aborigines. This project of international exchange could not + be carried on to any permanent advantage without accredited + agents on either side, but in its present shape it wears an + aspect of good feeling that is valuable, and may give a very + desirable impulse to thought <span class="pagenum"><a name= + "page210" id="page210"></a>[pg 210]</span> and knowledge. M. + Vattemare has given himself to the plan with indefatigable + perseverance, and I hope our country will not be backward to + accord him that furtherance he has known how to conquer from his + countrymen.</p> + + <p>To his complaisance I was indebted for opportunity of a + leisurely survey of the <i>Imprimeri Royale</i>, which gave me + several suggestions I shall impart at a more favorable time, and + of the operations of the Mint also. It was at his request that + the Librarian of the Chamber showed me the manuscripts of + Rousseau, which are not always seen by the traveller. He also + introduced me to one of the evening schools of the + <i>Frères Chretiens</i>, where I saw, with pleasure, how + much can be done for the working classes only by evening lessons. + In reading and writing, adults had made surprising progress, and + still more so in drawing. I saw with the highest pleasure, + excellent copies of good models, made by hard-handed porters and + errand-boys with their brass badges on their breasts. The + benefits of such an accomplishment are, in my eyes, of the + highest value, giving them, by insensible degrees, their part in + the glories of art and science, and in the tranquil refinements + of home. Visions rose in my mind of all that might be done in our + country by associations of men and women who have received the + benefits of literary culture, giving such evening lessons + throughout our cities and villages. Should I ever return, I shall + propose to some of the like-minded an association for such a + purpose, and try the experiment of one of these schools of + Christian brothers, with the vow of disinterestedness, but + without the robe and the subdued priestly manner, which even in + these men, some of whom seemed to me truly good, I could not away + with.</p> + + <p>I visited also a Protestant institution, called that of the + Deaconesses, which pleased me in some respects. Beside the + regular <i>Crèche</i>, they take the sick children of + the poor, and nurse them till they are well. They have also a + refuge like that of the Home which, the ladies of New York have + provided, through which members of the most unjustly treated + class of society may return to peace and usefulness. There are + institutions of the kind in <span class="pagenum"><a name= + "page211" id="page211"></a>[pg 211]</span> Paris, but too + formal,—and the treatment shows ignorance of human nature. + I see nothing that shows so enlightened a spirit as the Home, a + little germ of good which I hope flourishes and finds active aid + in the community. I have collected many facts with regard to this + suffering class of women, both in England and in France. I have + seen them under the thin veil of gayety, and in the horrible + tatters of utter degradation. I have seen the feelings of men + with regard to their condition, and the general heartlessness in + women of more favored and protected lives, which I can only + ascribe to utter ignorance of the facts. If a proclamation of + some of these can remove it, I hope to make such a one in the + hour of riper judgment, and after a more extensive survey.</p> + + <p>Sad as are many features of the time, we have at least the + satisfaction of feeling that if something true can be revealed, + if something wise and kind shall be perseveringly tried, it + stands a chance of nearer success than ever before; for much + light has been let in at the windows of the world, and many dark + nooks have been touched by a consoling ray. The influence of such + a ray I felt in visiting the School for Idiots, near + Paris,—idiots, so called long time by the impatience of the + crowd; yet there are really none such, but only beings so below + the average standard, so partially organized, that it is + difficult for them to learn or to sustain themselves. I wept the + whole time I was in this place a shower of sweet and bitter + tears; of joy at what had been done, of grief for all that I and + others possess and cannot impart to these little ones. But + patience, and the Father of All will give them all yet. A good + angel these of Paris have in their master. I have seen no man + that seemed to me more worthy of envy, if one could envy + happiness so pure and tender. He is a man of seven or eight and + twenty, who formerly came there only to give lessons in writing, + but became so interested in his charge that he came at last to + live among them and to serve them. They sing the hymns he writes + for them, and as I saw his fine countenance looking in love on + those distorted and opaque vases of humanity, where he had + succeeded in waking up a faint flame, I thought his heart could + never fail to be well warmed and buoyant. They <span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page212" id="page212"></a>[pg 212]</span> sang + well, both in parts and in chorus, went through gymnastic + exercises with order and pleasure, then stood in a circle and + kept time, while several danced extremely well. One little + fellow, with whom the difficulty seemed to be that an excess of + nervous sensibility paralyzed instead of exciting the powers, + recited poems with a touching, childish grace and perfect memory. + They write well, draw well, make shoes, and do carpenter's work. + One of the cases most interesting to the metaphysician is that of + a boy, brought there about two years and a half ago, at the age + of thirteen, in a state of brutality, and of ferocious brutality. + I read the physician's report of him at that period. He + discovered no ray of decency or reason; entirely beneath the + animals in the exercise of the senses, he discovered a restless + fury beyond that of beasts of prey, breaking and throwing down + whatever came in his way; was a voracious glutton, and every way + grossly sensual. Many trials and vast patience were necessary + before an inlet could be obtained to his mind; then it was + through the means of mathematics. He delights in the figures, can + draw and name them all, detects them by the touch when + blindfolded. Each, mental effort of the kind he still follows up + with an imbecile chuckle, as indeed his face and whole manner are + still that of an idiot; but he has been raised from his sensual + state, and can now discriminate and name colors and perfumes + which before were all alike to him. He is partially redeemed; + earlier, no doubt, far more might have been done for him, but the + degree of success is an earnest which must encourage to + perseverance in the most seemingly hopeless cases. I thought + sorrowfully of the persons of this class whom I have known in our + country, who might have been so raised and solaced by similar + care. I hope ample provision may erelong be made for these + Pariahs of the human race; every case of the kind brings its + blessings with it, and observation on these subjects would be as + rich in suggestion for the thought, as such acts of love are + balmy for the heart.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page213" + id="page213"></a>[pg 213]</span> + <p> </p> + <h3>LETTER XIII.</h3> + + <h4>Music in Paris.—Chopin and the Chevalier + Neukomm.—Adieu to Paris.—A Midnight Drive in a + Diligence.—Lyons and its Weavers.—Their Manner of + Life.—A Young Wife.—The Weavers' Children.—The + Banks of the Rhone.—Dreary Weather for Southern + France.—The Old Roman Amphitheatre at Arles.—The + Women of Arles.—Marseilles.—Passage to + Genoa.—Italy.—Genoa and + Naples.—Baiæ.—Vesuvius.—The Italian + Character at Home.—Passage from Leghorn in a Small + Steamer.—Narrow Escape.—A Confusion of + Languages.—Degradation of the Neapolitans.</h4> + + <p class="author">Naples.</p> + + <p>In my last days at Paris I was fortunate in hearing some + delightful music. A friend of Chopin's took me to see him, and I + had the pleasure, which the delicacy of Iris health makes a rare + one for the public, of hearing him play. All the impressions I + had received from hearing his music imperfectly performed were + justified, for it has marked traits, which can be veiled, but not + travestied; but to feel it as it merits, one must hear himself; + only a person as exquisitely organized as he can adequately + express these subtile secrets of the creative spirit.</p> + + <p>It was with, a very different sort of pleasure that I listened + to the Chevalier Neukomm, the celebrated composer of "David," + which has been so popular in our country. I heard him improvise + on the <i>orgue expressif</i>, and afterward on a great organ + which has just been built here by Cavaille for the cathedral of + Ajaccio. Full, sustained, ardent, yet exact, the stream, of his + thought bears with it the attention of hearers of all characters, + as his character, full of <i>bonhommie</i>, open, friendly, + animated, and sagacious, would seem to have something to present + for the affection and esteem of all kinds of men.</p> + + <p>Chopin is the minstrel, Neukomm the orator of music: we + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page214" id="page214"></a>[pg + 214]</span> want them both,—the mysterious whispers and the + resolute pleadings from the better world, which calls us not to + slumber here, but press daily onward to claim our heritage.</p> + + <p>Paris! I was sad to leave thee, thou wonderful focus, where + ignorance ceases to be a pain, because there we find such means + daily to lessen it. It is the only school where I ever found + abundance of teachers who could bear being examined by the pupil + in their special branches. I must go to this school more before I + again cross the Atlantic, where often for years I have carried + about some trifling question without finding the person who could + answer it. Really deep questions we must all answer for + ourselves; the more the pity, then, that we get not quickly + through with a crowd of details, where the experience of others + might accelerate our progress.</p> + + <p>Leaving by <i>diligence</i>, we pursued our way from twelve + o'clock on Thursday till twelve at night on Friday, thus having a + large share of magnificent moonlight upon the unknown fields we + were traversing. At Chalons we took boat and reached Lyons + betimes that afternoon. So soon as refreshed, we sallied out to + visit some of the garrets of the weavers. As we were making + inquiries about these, a sweet little girl who heard us offered + to be our guide. She led us by a weary, winding way, whose + pavement was much easier for her feet in their wooden + <i>sabots</i> than for ours in Paris shoes, to the top of a hill, + from which we saw for the first time "the blue and arrowy Rhone." + Entering the light buildings on this high hill, I found each + chamber tenanted by a family of weavers,—all weavers; wife, + husband, sons, daughters,—from nine years old + upward,—each was helping. On one side were the looms; + nearer the door the cooking apparatus; the beds were shelves near + the ceiling: they climbed up to them on ladders. My sweet little + girl turned out to be a wife of six or seven years' standing, + with two rather sickly-looking children; she seemed to have the + greatest comfort that is possible amid the perplexities of a hard + and anxious lot, to judge by the proud and affectionate manner in + which she always said "<i>mon mari</i>," and by the courteous + gentleness of his manner toward her. She seemed, indeed, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page215" id="page215"></a>[pg + 215]</span> to be one of those persons on whom "the Graces have + smiled in their cradle," and to whom a natural loveliness of + character makes the world as easy as it can be made while the + evil spirit is still so busy choking the wheat with tares. I + admired her graceful manner of introducing us into those dark + little rooms, and she was affectionately received by all her + acquaintance. But alas! that voice, by nature of such bird-like + vivacity, repeated again and again, "Ah! we are all very unhappy + now." "Do you sing together, or go to evening schools?" "We have + not the heart. When we have a piece of work, we do not stir till + it is finished, and then we run to try and get another; but often + we have to wait idle for weeks. It grows worse and worse, and + they say it is not likely to be any better. We can think of + nothing, but whether we shall be able to pay our rent. Ah! the + workpeople are very unhappy now." This poor, lovely little girl, + at an age when the merchant's daughters of Boston and New York + are just gaining their first experiences of "society," knew to a + farthing the price of every article of food and clothing that is + wanted by such a household. Her thought by day and her dream by + night was, whether she should long be able to procure a scanty + supply of these, and Nature had gifted her with precisely those + qualities, which, unembarrassed by care, would have made her and + all she loved really happy; and she was fortunate now, compared + with many of her sex in Lyons,—of whom a gentleman who + knows the class well said: "When their work fails, they have no + resource except in the sale of their persons. There are but these + two ways open to them, weaving or prostitution, to gain their + bread." And there are those who dare to say that such a state of + things is <i>well enough</i>, and what Providence intended for + man,—who call those who have hearts to suffer at the sight, + energy and zeal to seek its remedy, visionaries and fanatics! To + themselves be woe, who have eyes and see not, ears and hear not, + the convulsions and sobs of injured Humanity!</p> + + <p>My little friend told me she had nursed both her + children,—though almost all of her class are obliged to put + their children out to nurse; "but," said she, "they are brought + back so little, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page216" id= + "page216"></a>[pg 216]</span> so miserable, that I resolved, if + possible, to keep mine with me." Next day in the steamboat I read + a pamphlet by a physician of Lyons in which he recommends the + establishment of <i>Crèches</i>, not merely like those + of Paris, to keep the children by day, but to provide wet-nurses + for them. Thus, by the infants receiving nourishment from more + healthy persons, and who under the supervision of directors would + treat them well, he hopes to counteract the tendency to + degenerate in this race of sedentary workers, and to save the + mothers from too heavy a burden of care and labor, without + breaking the bond between them and their children, whom, under + such circumstances, they could visit often, and see them taken + care of as they, brought up to know nothing except how to weave, + cannot take care of them. Here, again, how is one reminded of + Fourier's observations and plans, still more enforced by the + recent developments at Manchester as to the habit of feeding + children on opium, which has grown out of the position of things + there.</p> + + <p>Descending next day to Avignon, I had the mortification of + finding the banks of the Rhone still sheeted with white, and + there waded through melting snow to Laura's tomb. We did not see + Mr. Dickens's Tower and Goblin,—it was too late in the + day,—but we saw a snowball fight between two bands of the + military in the castle yard that was gay enough to make a goblin + laugh. And next day on to Arles, still snow,—snow and + cutting blasts in the South of France, where everybody had + promised us bird-songs and blossoms to console us for the dreary + winter of Paris. At Arles, indeed, I saw the little saxifrage + blossoming on the steps of the Amphitheatre, and fruit-trees in + flower amid the tombs. Here for the first time I saw the great + handwriting of the Romans in its proper medium of stone, and I + was content. It looked us grand and solid as I expected, as if + life in those days was thought worth the having, the enjoying, + and the using. The sunlight was warm this day; it lay deliciously + still and calm upon the ruins. One old woman sat knitting where + twenty-five thousand persons once gazed down in fierce excitement + on the fights of men and lions. Coming back, we were refreshed + all <span class="pagenum"><a name="page217" id="page217"></a>[pg + 217]</span> through the streets by the sight of the women of + Arles. They answered to their reputation for beauty; tall, erect, + and noble, with high and dignified features, and a full, earnest + gaze of the eye, they looked as if the Eagle still waved its + wings over their city. Even the very old women still have a + degree of beauty, because when the colors are all faded, and the + skin wrinkled, the face retains this dignity of outline. The men + do not share in these characteristics; some priestess, well + beloved of the powers of old religion, must have called down an + especial blessing on her sex in this town.</p> + + <p>Hence to Marseilles,—where is little for the traveller + to see, except the mixture of Oriental blood in the crowd of the + streets. Thence by steamer to Genoa. Of this transit, he who has + been on the Mediterranean in a stiff breeze well understands I + can have nothing to say, except "I suffered." It was all one + dull, tormented dream to me, and, I believe, to most of the + ship's company,—a dream too of thirty hours' duration, + instead of the promised sixteen.</p> + + <p>The excessive beauty of Genoa is well known, and the + impression upon the eye alone was correspondent with what I + expected; but, alas! the weather was still so cold I could not + realize that I had actually touched those shores to which I had + looked forward all my life, where it seemed that the heart would + expand, and the whole nature be turned to delight. Seen by a + cutting wind, the marble palaces, the gardens, the magnificent + water-view of Genoa, failed to charm,—"I <i>saw, not + felt</i>, how beautiful they were." Only at Naples have I found + <i>my</i> Italy, and here not till after a week's + waiting,—not till I began to believe that all I had heard + in praise of the climate of Italy was fable, and that there is + really no spring anywhere except in the imagination of poets. For + the first week was an exact copy of the miseries of a New England + spring; a bright sun came for an hour or two in the morning, just + to coax you forth without your cloak, and then came up a + villanous, horrible wind, exactly like the worst east wind of + Boston, breaking the heart, racking the brain, and turning hope + and fancy to an irrevocable green and yellow hue, in lieu of + their native rose.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page218" id= + "page218"></a>[pg 218]</span> + + <p>However, here at Naples I <i>have</i> at last found <i>my</i> + Italy; I have passed through the Grotto of Pausilippo, visited + Cuma, Baiæ, and Capri, ascended Vesuvius, and found all + familiar, except the sense of enchantment, of sweet exhilaration, + this scene conveys.</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"Behold how brightly breaks the morning!"</p> + </div> + </div> + + <p>and yet all new, as if never yet described, for Nature here, + most prolific and exuberant in her gifts, has touched them all + with a charm unhackneyed, unhackneyable, which the boots of + English dandies cannot trample out, nor the raptures of + sentimental tourists daub or fade. Baiæ had still a hid + divinity for me, Vesuvius a fresh baptism of fire, and + Sorrento—O Sorrento was beyond picture, beyond poesy, for + the greatest Artist had been at work there in a temper beyond the + reach of human art.</p> + + <p>Beyond this, reader, my old friend and valued acquaintance on + other themes, I shall tell you nothing of Naples, for it is a + thing apart in the journey of life, and, if represented at all, + should be so in a fairer form than offers itself at present. Now + the actual life here is over, I am going to Rome, and expect to + see that fane of thought the last day of this week.</p> + + <p>At Genoa and Leghorn, I saw for the first time Italians in + their homes. Very attractive I found them, charming women, + refined men, eloquent and courteous. If the cold wind hid Italy, + it could not the Italians. A little group of faces, each so full + of character, dignity, and, what is so rare in an American face, + the capacity for pure, exalting passion, will live ever in my + memory,—the fulfilment of a hope!</p> + + <p>We started from Leghorn in an English boat, highly + recommended, and as little deserving of such praise as many + another bepuffed article. In the middle of a fine, clear night, + she was run into by the mail steamer, which all on deck clearly + saw coming upon her, for no reason that could be ascertained, + except that the man at the wheel said <i>he</i> had turned the + right way, and it never seemed to occur to him that he could + change when he found the other steamer had taken the same + direction. To be sure, the other steamer was equally careless, + but as a change on our part <span class="pagenum"><a name= + "page219" id="page219"></a>[pg 219]</span> would have prevented + an accident that narrowly missed sending us all to the bottom, it + hardly seemed worth while to persist, for the sake of convicting + them of error.</p> + + <p>Neither the Captain nor any of his people spoke French, and we + had been much amused before by the chambermaid acting out the old + story of "Will you lend me the loan of a gridiron?" A Polish lady + was on board, with a French waiting-maid, who understood no word + of English. The daughter of John Bull would speak to the lady in + English, and, when she found it of no use, would say imperiously + to the <i>suivante</i>, "Go and ask your mistress what she will + have for breakfast." And now when I went on deck there was a + parley between the two steamers, which the Captain was obliged to + manage by such interpreters as he could find; it was a long and + confused business. It ended at last in the Neapolitan steamer + taking us in tow for an inglorious return to Leghorn. When she + had decided upon this she swept round, her lights glancing like + sagacious eyes, to take us. The sea was calm as a lake, the sky + full of stars; she made a long detour, with her black hull, her + smoke and lights, which look so pretty at night, then came round + to us like the bend of an arm embracing. It was a pretty picture, + worth the stop and the fright,—perhaps the loss of + twenty-four hours, though I did not think so at the time.</p> + + <p>At Leghorn we changed the boat, and, retracing our steps, came + now at last to Naples,—to this priest-ridden, misgoverned, + full of dirty, degraded men and women, yet still most lovely + Naples,—of which the most I can say is that the divine + aspect of nature <i>can</i> make you forget the situation of man + in this region, which was surely intended for him as a princely + child, angelic in virtue, genius, and beauty, and not as a + begging, vermin-haunted, image kissing Lazzarone.</p><span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page220" id="page220"></a>[pg 220]</span> + <p> </p> + <h3>LETTER XIV.</h3> + + <h4>Italy.—Misfortune of Travellers.—English + Travellers.—Cockneyism.—Macdonald the + Sculptor.—British + Aristocracy.—Tenerani.—Wolff's Diana and + Seasons.—Gott.—Crawford.—Overbeck the + Painter.—American Painters in + Rome.—Terry.—Granch.—Hicks.—Remains of + the Antique.—Italian Painters.—Domenichimo and + Titian.—Frescos of Raphael.—Michel Angelo.—The + Colosseum.—Holy Week.—St. Peter's.—Pius IX. and + his Measures.—Popular Enthusiasm.—Public Dinner at + the Baths of Titus.—Austrian Jealousy.—The + "Contemporaneo."</h4> + + <p class="author">Rome, May, 1847.</p> + + <p>There is very little that I can like to write about Italy. + Italy is beautiful, worthy to be loved and embraced, not talked + about. Yet I remember well that, when afar, I liked to read what + was written about her; now, all thought of it is very + tedious.</p> + + <p>The traveller passing along the beaten track, vetturinoed from + inn to inn, ciceroned from gallery to gallery, thrown, through + indolence, want of tact, or ignorance of the language, too much + into the society of his compatriots, sees the least possible of + the country; fortunately, it is impossible to avoid seeing a + great deal. The great features of the part pursue and fill the + eye.</p> + + <p>Yet I find that it is quite out of the question to know Italy; + to say anything of her that is full and sweet, so as to convey + any idea of her spirit, without long residence, and residence in + the districts untouched by the scorch and dust of foreign + invasion (the invasion of the <i>dilettanti</i> I mean), and + without an intimacy of feeling, an abandonment to the spirit of + the place, impossible to most Americans. They retain too much, of + their English blood; and the travelling English, as a class, seem + to me the most unseeing of all possible animals. There are + exceptions; for instance, the perceptions and pictures of + Browning seem as delicate and just here on the spot as they did + at a distance; but, take them as a class, <span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page221" id="page221"></a>[pg 221]</span> they + have the vulgar familiarity of Mrs. Trollope without her + vivacity, the cockneyism of Dickens without his graphic power and + love of the odd corners of human nature. I admired the English at + home in their island; I admired their honor, truth, practical + intelligence, persistent power. But they do not look well in + Italy; they are not the figures for this landscape. I am + indignant at the contempt they have presumed to express for the + faults of our semi-barbarous state. What is the vulgarity + expressed in our tobacco-chewing, and way of eating eggs, + compared to that which elbows the Greek marbles, guide-book in + hand,—chatters and sneers through the Miserere of the + Sistine Chapel, beneath the very glance of Michel Angelo's + Sibyls,—praises St. Peter's as "<i>nice</i>"—talks of + "<i>managing</i>" the Colosseum by moonlight,—and snatches + "<i>bits</i>" for a "<i>sketch</i>" from the sublime silence of + the Campagna.</p> + + <p>Yet I was again reconciled with them, the other day, in + visiting the studio of Macdonald. There I found a complete + gallery of the aristocracy of England; for each lord and lady who + visits Rome considers it a part of the ceremony to sit to him for + a bust. And what a fine race! how worthy the marble! what heads + of orators, statesmen, gentlemen! of women chaste, grave, + resolute, and tender! Unfortunately, they do not look as well in + flesh and blood; then they show the habitual coldness of their + temperament, the habitual subservience to frivolous + conventionalities. They need some great occasion, some exciting + crisis, in order to make them look as free and dignified as these + busts; yet is the beauty there, though, imprisoned, and clouded, + and such a crisis would show us more then one Boadicea, more than + one Alfred. Tenerani has just completed a statue which is + highly-spoken of; it is called the Angel of the Resurrection. I + was not so fortunate as to find it in his studio. In that of + Wolff I saw a Diana, ordered by the Emperor of Russia. It is + modern and sentimental; as different from, the antique Diana as + the trance of a novel-read young lady of our day from the thrill + with which the ancient shepherds deprecated the magic pervasions + of Hecate, but very beautiful and exquisitely wrought. He has + also lately <span class="pagenum"><a name="page222" id= + "page222"></a>[pg 222]</span> finished the Four Seasons, + represented as children. Of these, Winter is graceful and + charming.</p> + + <p>Among the sculptors I delayed longest in the work-rooms of + Gott. I found his groups of young figures connected with animals + very refreshing after the grander attempts of the present time. + They seem real growths of his habitual mind,—fruits of + Nature, full of joy and freedom. His spaniels and other frisky + poppets would please Apollo far better than most of the marble + nymphs and muses of the present day.</p> + + <p>Our Crawford has just finished a bust of Mrs. Crawford, which + is extremely beautiful, full of grace and innocent sweetness. All + its accessaries are charming,—the wreaths, the arrangement + of drapery, the stuff of which the robe is made. I hope it will + be much seen on its arrival in New York. He has also an Herodias + in the clay, which is individual in expression, and the figure of + distinguished elegance. I liked the designs of Crawford better + than those of Gibson, who is estimated as highest in the + profession now.</p> + + <p>Among the studios of the European painters I have visited only + that of Overbeck. It is well known in the United States what his + pictures are. I have much to say at a more favorable time of what + they represented to me. He himself looks as if he had just + stepped out of one of them,—a lay monk, with a pious eye + and habitual morality of thought which limits every gesture.</p> + + <p>Painting is not largely represented here by American artists + at present. Terry has two pleasing pictures on the easel: one is + a costume picture of Italian life, such as I saw it myself, + enchanted beyond my hopes, on coming to Naples on a day of grand + festival in honor of Santa Agatha. Cranch sends soon to America a + picture of the Campagna, such as I saw it on my first entrance + into Rome, all light and calmness; Hicks, a charming half-length + of an Italian girl, holding a mandolin: it will be sure to + please. His pictures are full of life, and give the promise of + some real achievement in Art.</p> + + <p>Of the fragments of the great time, I have now seen nearly all + that are treasured up here: I have, however, as yet nothing of + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page223" id="page223"></a>[pg + 223]</span> consequence to say of them. I find that others have + often given good hints as to how they <i>look</i>; and as to what + they <i>are</i>, it can only be known by approximating to the + state of soul out of which they grew. They should not be + described, but reproduced. They are many and precious, yet is + there not so much of high excellence as I had expected: they will + not float the heart on a boundless sea of feeling, like the + starry night on our Western prairies. Yet I love much to see the + galleries of marbles, even when there are not many separately + admirable, amid the cypresses and ilexes of Roman villas; and a + picture that is good at all looks very good in one of these old + palaces.</p> + + <p>The Italian painters whom I have learned most to appreciate, + since I came abroad, are Domenichino and Titian. Of others one + may learn something by copies and engravings: but not of these. + The portraits of Titian look upon me from the walls things new + and strange. They are portraits of men such as I have not known. + In his picture, absurdly called <i>Sacred and Profane Love</i>, + in the Borghese Palace, one of the figures has developed my + powers of gazing to an extent unknown before.</p> + + <p>Domenichino seems very unequal in his pictures; but when he is + grand and free, the energy of his genius perfectly satisfies. The + frescos of Caracci and his scholars in the Farnese Palace have + been to me a source of the purest pleasure, and I do not remember + to have heard of them. I loved Guercino much before I came here, + but I have looked too much at his pictures and begin to grow sick + of them; he is a very limited genius. Leonardo I cannot yet like + at all, but I suppose the pictures are good for some people to + look at; they show a wonderful deal of study and thought. That is + not what I can best appreciate in a work of art. I hate to see + the marks of them. I want a simple and direct expression of soul. + For the rest, the ordinary cant of connoisseur-ship on these + matters seems in Italy even more detestable than elsewhere.</p> + + <p>I have not yet so sufficiently recovered from my pain at + finding the frescos of Raphael in such a state, as to be able to + look at them, happily. I had heard of their condition, but could + not realize it. <span class="pagenum"><a name="page224" id= + "page224"></a>[pg 224]</span> However, I have gained nothing by + seeing his pictures in oil, which are well preserved. I find I + had before the full impression of his genius. Michel Angelo's + frescos, in like manner, I seem to have seen as far as I can. But + it is not the same with the sculptures: my thought had not risen + to the height of the Moses. It is the only thing in Europe, so + far, which has entirely outgone my hopes. Michel Angelo was my + demigod before; but I find no offering worthy to cast at the feet + of his Moses. I like much, too, his Christ. It is a refreshing + contrast with all the other representations of the same subject. + I like it even as contrasted with Raphael's Christ of the + Transfiguration, or that of the cartoon of <i>Feed my + Lambs</i>.</p> + + <p>I have heard owls hoot in the Colosseum by moonlight, and they + spoke more to the purpose than I ever heard any other voice upon + that subject. I have seen all the pomps and shows of Holy Week in + the church of St. Peter, and found them less imposing than an + habitual acquaintance with the place, with processions of monks + and nuns stealing in now and then, or the swell of vespers from + some side chapel. I have ascended the dome, and seen thence Rome + and its Campagna, its villas with, their cypresses and pines + serenely sad as is nothing else in the world, and the fountains + of the Vatican garden gushing hard by. I have been in the + Subterranean to see a poor little boy introduced, much to his + surprise, to the bosom of the Church; and then I have seen by + torch-light the stone popes where they lie on their tombs, and + the old mosaics, and virgins with gilt caps. It is all rich, and + full,—very impressive in its way. St. Peter's must be to + each one a separate poem.</p> + + <p>The ceremonies of the Church, have been numerous and splendid + during our stay here; and they borrow unusual interest from the + love and expectation inspired by the present Pontiff. He is a man + of noble and good aspect, who, it is easy to see, has set his + heart upon doing something solid for the benefit of man. But + pensively, too, must one feel how hampered and inadequate are the + means at his command to accomplish these ends. The Italians do + not feel it, but deliver themselves, with all the vivacity of + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page225" id="page225"></a>[pg + 225]</span> their temperament, to perpetual hurras, vivas, + rockets, and torch-light processions. I often think how grave and + sad must the Pope feel, as he sits alone and hears all this noise + of expectation.</p> + + <p>A week or two ago the Cardinal Secretary published a circular + inviting the departments to measures which would give the people + a sort of representative council. Nothing could seem more limited + than this improvement, but it was a great measure for Rome. At + night the Corso in which, we live was illuminated, and many + thousands passed through it in a torch-bearing procession. I saw + them first assembled in the Piazza del Popolo, forming around its + fountain a great circle of fire. Then, as a river of fire, they + streamed slowly through the Corso, on their way to the Quirinal + to thank the Pope, upbearing a banner on which the edict was + printed. The stream, of fire advanced slowly, with a perpetual + surge-like sound of voices; the torches flashed on the animated + Italian faces. I have never seen anything finer. Ascending the + Quirinal they made it a mount of light. Bengal fires were thrown + up, which cast their red and white light on the noble Greek + figures of men and horses that reign over it. The Pope appeared + on his balcony; the crowd shouted three vivas; he extended his + arms; the crowd fell on their knees and received his benediction; + he retired, and the torches were extinguished, and the multitude + dispersed in an instant.</p> + + <p>The same week came the natal day of Rome. A great dinner was + given at the Baths of Titus, in the open air. The company was on + the grass in the area; the music at one end; boxes filled with + the handsome Roman women occupied the other sides. It was a new + thing here, this popular dinner, and the Romans greeted it in an + intoxication of hope and pleasure. Sterbini, author of "The + Vestal," presided: many others, like him, long time exiled and + restored to their country by the present Pope, were at the + tables. The Colosseum, and triumphal arches were in sight; an + effigy of the Roman wolf with her royal nursling was erected on + high; the guests, with shouts and music, congratulated themselves + on the possession, in Pius IX., of a new and nobler founder for + another state. Among the speeches that of the Marquis d'Azeglio, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page226" id="page226"></a>[pg + 226]</span> a man of literary note in Italy, and son-in-law of + Manzoni, contained this passage (he was sketching the past + history of Italy):—</p> + + <p>"The crown passed to the head of a German monarch; but he wore + it not to the benefit, but the injury, of Christianity,—of + the world. The Emperor Henry was a tyrant who wearied out the + patience of God. God said to Rome, 'I give you the Emperor + Henry'; and from these hills that surround us, Hildebrand, Pope + Gregory VII., raised his austere and potent voice to say to the + Emperor, 'God did not give you Italy that you might destroy her,' + and Italy, Germany, Europe, saw her butcher prostrated at the + feet of Gregory in penitence. Italy, Germany, Europe, had then + kindled in the heart the first spark of liberty."</p> + + <p>The narrative of the dinner passed the censor, and was + published: the Ambassador of Austria read it, and found, with a + modesty and candor truly admirable, that this passage was meant + to allude to his Emperor. He must take his passports, if such + home thrusts are to be made. And so the paper was seized, and the + account of the dinner only told from, mouth to mouth, from those + who had already read it. Also the idea of a dinner for the Pope's + fête-day is abandoned, lest something too frank should + again be said; and they tell me here, with a laugh, "I fancy you + have assisted at the first and last popular dinner." Thus we may + see that the liberty of Rome does not yet advance with + seven-leagued boots; and the new Romulus will need to be prepared + for deeds at least as bold as his predecessor, if he is to open a + new order of things.</p> + + <p>I cannot well wind up my gossip on this subject better than by + translating a passage from the programme of the + <i>Contemporaneo</i>, which represents the hope of Rome at this + moment. It is conducted by men of well-known talent.</p> + + <p>"The <i>Contemporaneo</i> (Contemporary) is a journal of + progress, but tempered, as the good and wise think best, in + conformity with the will of our best of princes, and the wants + and expectations of the public....</p> + + <p>"Through discussion it desires to prepare minds to receive + reforms <span class="pagenum"><a name="page227" id= + "page227"></a>[pg 227]</span> so soon and far as they are favored + by the law of <i>opportunity</i>.</p> + + <p>"Every attempt which is made contrary to this social law must + fail. It is vain to hope fruits from a tree out of season, and + equally in vain to introduce the best measures into a country not + prepared to receive them."</p> + + <p>And so on. I intended to have translated in full the + programme, but time fails, and the law of opportunity does not + favor, as my "opportunity" leaves for London this afternoon. I + have given enough to mark the purport of the whole. It will + easily be seen that it was not from the platform assumed by the + <i>Contemporaneo</i> that Lycurgus legislated, or Socrates + taught,—that the Christian religion was propagated, or the + Church, was reformed by Luther. The opportunity that the martyrs + found here in the Colosseum, from whose blood grew up this great + tree of Papacy, was not of the kind waited for by these moderate + progressists. Nevertheless, they may be good schoolmasters for + Italy, and are not to be disdained in these piping times of + peace.</p> + + <p>More anon, of old and new, from Tuscany.</p><span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page228" id="page228"></a>[pg 228]</span> + <p> </p> + <h3>LETTER XV.</h3> + + <h4>Italy.—Fruits and Flowers on the Route from Florence to + Rome.—The Plain of Umbria.—Assisi.—The + Saints.—Tuition In Schools.—Pius IX.—The + Etrurian Tomb.—Perugia and its Stores of Early + Art.—Portraits of Raphael.—Florence.—The Grand + Duke and his Policy.—The Liberty of the Press and its + Influence.—The American Sculptors.—Greenough and his + New Works.—Powers.—His Statue of + Calhoun.—Review of his Endeavors.—The Festivals of + St. John at Florence.—Bologna.—Female Professors in + its University.—Matilda Tambroni and others.—Milan + and her Female Mathematician.—The State of Woman in + Italy.—Ravenna and Byron.—Venice.—The + Adda.—Milan and its Neighborhood, and + Manzoni.—Excitements.—National Affairs.</h4> + + <p class="author">Milan, August 9, 1847.</p> + + <p>Since leaving Rome, I have not been able to steal a moment + from the rich and varied objects before me to write about them. I + will, therefore, take a brief retrospect of the ground.</p> + + <p>I passed from Florence to Rome by the Perugia route, and saw + for the first time the Italian vineyards. The grapes hung in + little clusters. When I return, they will be full of light and + life, but the fields will not be so enchantingly fresh, nor so + enamelled with flowers.</p> + + <p>The profusion of red poppies, which dance on every wall and + glitter throughout the grass, is a great ornament to the + landscape. In full sunlight their vermilion is most beautiful. + Well might Ceres gather <i>such</i> poppies to mingle with her + wheat.</p> + + <p>We climbed the hill to Assisi, and my ears thrilled as with + many old remembered melodies, when an old peasant, in sonorous + phrase, bade me look out and see the plain of Umbria. I looked + back and saw the carriage toiling up the steep path, drawn by a + pair of those light-colored oxen Shelley so much admired. I stood + near the spot where Goethe met with a little adventure, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page229" id="page229"></a>[pg + 229]</span> which he has described with even more than his usual + delicate humor. Who can ever be alone for a moment in Italy? + Every stone has a voice, every grain of dust seems instinct with + spirit from the Past, every step recalls some line, some legend + of long-neglected lore.</p> + + <p>Assisi was exceedingly charming to me. So still!—all + temporal noise and bustle seem hushed down yet by the presence of + the saint. So clean!—the rains of heaven wash down all + impurities into the valley. I must confess that, elsewhere, I + have shared the feelings of Dickens toward St. Francis and St. + Sebastian, as the "Mounseer Tonsons" of Catholic art. St. + Sebastian I have not been so tired of, for the beauty and youth + of the figure make the monotony with which the subject of his + martyrdom is treated somewhat less wearisome. But St. Francis is + so sad, and so ecstatic, and so brown, so entirely the + monk,—and St. Clara so entirely the nun! I have been very + sorry for her that he was able to draw her from the human to the + heavenly life; she seems so sad and so worn out by the effort. + But here at Assisi, one cannot help being penetrated by the + spirit that flowed from that life. Here is the room where his + father shut up the boy to punish his early severity of devotion. + Here is the picture which represents him despoiled of all outward + things, even his garments,—devoting himself, body and soul, + to the service of God in the way he believed most acceptable. + Here is the underground chapel, where rest those weary bones, + saluted by the tears of so many weary pilgrims who have come + hither to seek strength from his example. Here are the churches + above, full of the works of earlier art, animated by the + contagion of a great example. It is impossible not to bow the + head, and feel how mighty an influence flows from a single soul, + sincere in its service of truth, in whatever form that truth + comes to it.</p> + + <p>A troop of neat, pretty school-girls attended us about, going + with us into the little chapels adorned with pictures which open + at every corner of the streets, smiling on us at a respectful + distance. Some of them were fourteen or fifteen years old. I + found reading, writing, and sewing were all they learned at their + school; <span class="pagenum"><a name="page230" id= + "page230"></a>[pg 230]</span> the first, indeed, they knew well + enough, if they could ever get books to use it on. Tranquil as + Assisi was, on every wall was read <i>Viva Pio IX.!</i> and we + found the guides and workmen in the shop full of a vague hope + from him. The old love which has made so rich this aerial cradle + of St. Francis glows warm as ever in the breasts of men; still, + as ever, they long for hero-worship, and shout aloud at the least + appearance of an object.</p> + + <p>The church at the foot of the hill, Santa Maria degli Angeli, + seems tawdry after Assisi. It also is full of records of St. + Francis, his pains and his triumphs. Here, too, on a little + chapel, is the famous picture by Overbeck; too exact a copy, but + how different in effect from the early art we had just seen + above! Harmonious but frigid, grave but dull; childhood is + beautiful, but not when continued, or rather transplanted, into + the period where we look for passion, varied means, and manly + force.</p> + + <p>Before reaching Perugia, I visited an Etrurian tomb, which is + a little way off the road; it is said to be one of the finest in + Etruria. The hill-side is full of them, but excavations are + expensive, and not frequent. The effect of this one was beyond my + expectations; in it were several female figures, very dignified + and calm, as the dim lamp-light fell on them by turns. The + expression of these figures shows that the position of woman in + these states was noble. Their eagles' nests cherished well the + female eagle who kept watch in the eyrie.</p> + + <p>Perugia too is on a noble hill. What a daily excitement such a + view, taken at every step! life is worth ten times as much in a + city so situated. Perugia is full, overflowing, with the + treasures of early art. I saw them so rapidly it seems now as if + in a trance, yet certainly with a profit, a manifold gain, such + as Mahomet thought he gained from his five minutes' visits to + other spheres. Here are two portraits of Raphael as a youth: it + is touching to see what effect this angel had upon all that + surrounded him from the very first.</p> + + <p>Florence! I was there a month, and in a sense saw Florence: + that is to say, I took an inventory of what is to be seen there, + and not without great intellectual profit. There is too + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page231" id="page231"></a>[pg + 231]</span> much that is really admirable in art,—the + nature of its growth lies before you too clearly to be evaded. Of + such things more elsewhere.</p> + + <p>I do not like Florence as I do cities more purely Italian. The + natural character is ironed out here, and done up in a French + pattern; yet there is no French vivacity, nor Italian either. The + Grand Duke—more and more agitated by the position in which + he finds himself between the influence of the Pope and that of + Austria—keeps imploring and commanding his people to keep + still, and they <i>are</i> still and glum as death. This is all + on the outside; within, Tuscany burns. Private culture has not + been in vain, and there is, in a large circle, mental preparation + for a very different state of things from the present, with an + ardent desire to diffuse the same amid the people at large. The + sovereign has been obliged for the present to give more liberty + to the press, and there is an immediate rush of thought to the + new vent; if it is kept open a few months, the effect on the body + of the people cannot fail to be great. I intended to have + translated some passages from the programme of the <i>Patria</i>, + one of the papers newly started at Florence, but time fails. One + of the articles in the same number by Lambruschini, on the duties + of the clergy at this juncture, contains views as liberal as can + be found in print anywhere in the world. More of these things + when I return to Rome in the autumn, when I hope to find a little + leisure to think over what I have seen, and, if found worthy, to + put the result in writing.</p> + + <p>I visited the studios of our sculptors; Greenough has in clay + a David which promises high beauty and nobleness, a bass-relief, + full of grace and tender expression; he is also modelling a head + of Napoleon, and justly enthusiastic in the study. His great + group I did not see in such a state as to be secure of my + impression. The face of the Pioneer is very fine, the form of the + woman graceful and expressive; but I was not satisfied with the + Indian. I shall see it more as a whole on my return to + Florence.</p> + + <p>As to the Eve and the Greek Slave, I could only join with the + rest of the world in admiration of their beauty and the fine + feeling <span class="pagenum"><a name="page232" id= + "page232"></a>[pg 232]</span> of nature which they exhibit. The + statue of Calhoun is full of power, simple, and majestic in + attitude and expression. In busts Powers seems to me unrivalled; + still, he ought not to spend his best years on an employment + which cannot satisfy his ambition nor develop his powers. If our + country loves herself, she will order from him some great work + before the prime of his genius has been frittered away, and his + best years spent on lesser things.</p> + + <p>I saw at Florence the festivals of St. John, but they are poor + affairs to one who has seen the Neapolitan and Roman people on + such occasions.</p> + + <p>Passing from Florence, I came to Bologna,—learned + Bologna; indeed an Italian city, full of expression, of + physiognomy, so to speak. A woman should love Bologna, for there + has the spark of intellect in woman been cherished with reverent + care. Not in former ages only, but in this, Bologna raised a + woman who was worthy to the dignities of its University, and in + their Certosa they proudly show the monument to Matilda Tambroni, + late Greek Professor there. Her letters, preserved by her + friends, are said to form a very valuable collection. In their + anatomical hall is the bust of a woman, Professor of Anatomy. In + Art they have had Properzia di Rossi, Elizabetta Sirani, Lavinia + Fontana, and delight to give their works a conspicuous place.</p> + + <p>In other cities the men alone have their <i>Casino dei + Nobili</i>, where they give balls, <i>conversazioni</i>, and + similar entertainments. Here women have one, and are the soul of + society.</p> + + <p>In Milan, also, I see in the Ambrosian Library the bust of a + female mathematician. These things make me feel that, if the + state of woman in Italy is so depressed, yet a good-will toward a + better is not wholly wanting. Still more significant is the + reverence to the Madonna and innumerable female saints, who, if, + like St. Teresa, they had intellect as well as piety, became + counsellors no less than comforters to the spirit of men.</p> + + <p>Ravenna, too, I saw, and its old Christian art, the Pineta, + where Byron loved to ride, and the paltry apartments where, + cheered by a new affection, in which was more of tender + friendship than of <span class="pagenum"><a name="page233" id= + "page233"></a>[pg 233]</span> passion, he found himself less + wretched than at beautiful Venice or stately Genoa.</p> + + <p>All the details of this visit to Ravenna are pretty. I shall + write them out some time. Of Padua, too, the little to be said + should be said in detail.</p> + + <p>Of Venice and its enchanted life I could not speak; it should + only be echoed back in music. There only I began to feel in its + fulness Venetian Art. It can only be seen in its own atmosphere. + Never had I the least idea of what is to be seen at Venice. It + seems to me as if no one ever yet had seen it,—so entirely + wanting is any expression of what I felt myself. Venice! on this + subject I shall not write much till time, place, and mode agree + to make it fit.</p> + + <p>Venice, where all is past, is a fit asylum for the dynasties + of the Past. The Duchesse de Berri owns one of the finest palaces + on the Grand Canal; the Duc de Bordeaux rents another; + Mademoiselle Taglioni has bought the famous Casa d'Oro, and it is + under repair. Thanks to the fashion which has made Venice a + refuge of this kind, the palaces, rarely inhabited by the + representatives of their ancient names, are valuable property, + and the noble structures will not be suffered to lapse into the + sea, above which they rose so proudly. The restorations, too, are + made with excellent taste and judgment,—nothing is spoiled. + Three of these fine palaces are now hotels, so that the transient + visitor can enjoy from their balconies all the wondrous shows of + the Venetian night and day as much as any of their former + possessors did. I was at the Europa, formerly the Giustiniani + Palace, with better air than those on the Grand Canal, and a more + unobstructed view than Danieli's.</p> + + <p>Madame de Berri gave an entertainment on the birthnight of her + son, and the old Duchesse d'Angoulême came from Vienna + to attend it. 'T was a scene of fairy-land, the palace full of + light, so that from the canal could be seen even the pictures on + the walls. Landing from the gondolas, the elegantly dressed + ladies and gentlemen seemed to rise from the water; we also saw + them glide up the great stair, rustling their plumes, and in the + reception-rooms <span class="pagenum"><a name="page234" id= + "page234"></a>[pg 234]</span> make and receive the customary + grimaces. A fine band stationed on the opposite side of the canal + played the while, and a flotilla of gondolas lingered there to + listen. I, too, amid, the mob, a pleasant position in Venice + alone, thought of the Stuarts, Bourbons, Bonapartes, here in + Italy, and offered up a prayer that other names, when the + possessors have power without the heart to use it for the + emancipation of mankind, might he added to the list, and other + princes, more rich in blood than brain, might come to enjoy a + perpetual <i>villeggiatura</i> in Italy. It did not seem to me a + cruel wish. The show of greatness will satisfy every legitimate + desire of such minds. A gentle punishment for the distributors of + <i>letters de cachet</i> and Spielberg dungeons to their + fellow-men.</p> + + <p>Having passed more than a fortnight at Venice, I have come + here, stopping at Vicenza, Verona, Mantua, Lago di Garda, + Brescia. Certainly I have learned more than ever in any previous + ten days of my existence, and have formed an idea what is needed + for the study of Art and its history in these regions. To be + sure, I shall never have time to follow it up, but it is a + delight to look up those glorious vistas, even when there is no + hope of entering them.</p> + + <p>A violent shower obliged me to stop on the way. It was late at + night, and I was nearly asleep, when, roused by the sound of + bubbling waters, I started up and asked, "Is that the Adda?" and + it was. So deep is the impression made by a simple natural + recital, like that of Renzo's wanderings in the <i>Promessi + Sposi</i>, that the memory of his hearing the Adda in this way + occurred to me at once, and the Adda seemed familiar as if I had + been a native of this region.</p> + + <p>As the Scottish lakes seem the domain of Walter Scott, so does + Milan and its neighborhood in the mind of a foreigner belong to + Manzoni. I have seen him since, the gentle lord of this wide + domain; his hair is white, but his eyes still beam as when he + first saw the apparitions of truth, simple tenderness, and piety + which he has so admirably recorded for our benefit. Those around + lament that the fastidiousness of his taste prevents his + completing and publishing more, and that thus a treasury of rare + knowledge <span class="pagenum"><a name="page235" id= + "page235"></a>[pg 235]</span> and refined thought will pass from + us without our reaping the benefit. We, indeed, have no title to + complain, what we do possess from his hand is so excellent.</p> + + <p>At this moment there is great excitement in Italy. A supposed + spy of Austria has been assassinated at Ferrara, and Austrian + troops are marched there. It is pretended that a conspiracy has + been discovered in Rome; the consequent disturbances have been + put down. The National Guard is forming. All things seem to + announce that some important change is inevitable here, but what? + Neither Radicals nor Moderates dare predict with confidence, and + I am yet too much a stranger to speak with assurance of + impressions I have received. But it is impossible not to + hope.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page236" id= + "page236"></a>[pg 236]</span> + <p> </p> + <h3>LETTER XVI.</h3> + + <h4>Review of Past and Present.—The Merits of Italian + Literature.—Manzoni.—Italian Dialects.—Milan, + the Milanese, and the Simplicity of their Language.—The + North of Italy, and a Tour to Switzerland.—Italian + Lakes.—Maggiore, Como, and Lugano.—Lago di + Garda.—The Boatmen of the Lakes and the + Gondoliers.—Lady Franklin, Widow of the + Navigator.—Return to and Festivals at Milan.—The + Archbishop.—Austrian Rule and Austrian Policy.—The + Future Hopes of Italy.—A Glance at Pavia, Florence, Parma, + and Bologna, and the Works of the Masters.</h4> + + <p class="author">Rome, October, 1847.</p> + + <p>I think my last letter was from Milan, and written after I had + seen Manzoni. This was to me a great pleasure. I have now seen + the most important representatives who survive of the last epoch + in thought. Our age has still its demonstrations to make, its + heroes and poets to crown.</p> + + <p>Although the modern Italian literature is not poor, as many + persons at a distance suppose, but, on the contrary, surprisingly + rich in tokens of talent, if we consider the circumstances under + which it struggles to exist, yet very few writers have or deserve + a European or American reputation. Where a whole country is so + kept down, her best minds cannot take the lead in the progress of + the age; they have too much to suffer, too much to explain. But + among the few who, through depth of spiritual experience and the + beauty of form in which it is expressed, belong not only to + Italy, but to the world, Manzoni takes a high rank. The passive + virtues he teaches are no longer what is wanted; the manners he + paints with so delicate a fidelity are beginning to change; but + the spirit of his works,—the tender piety, the sensibility + to the meaning of every humblest form of life, the delicate humor + and satire so free from disdain,—these are + immortal.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page237" id= + "page237"></a>[pg 237]</span> + + <p>Young Italy rejects Manzoni, though not irreverently; Young + Italy prizes his works, but feels that the doctrine of "Pray and + wait" is not for her at this moment,—that she needs a more + fervent hope, a more active faith. She is right.</p> + + <p>It is well known that the traveller, if he knows the Italian + language as written in books, the standard Tuscan, still finds + himself a stranger in many parts of Italy, unable to comprehend + the dialects, with their lively abbreviations and witty slang. + That of Venice I had understood somewhat, and could enter into + the drollery and <i>naïveté</i> of the + gondoliers, who, as a class, have an unusual share of character. + But the Milanese I could not at first understand at all. Their + language seemed to me detestably harsh, and their gestures + unmeaning. But after a friend, who possesses that large and ready + sympathy easier found in Italy than anywhere else, had translated + for me verbatim into French some of the poems written in the + Milanese, and then read them aloud in the original, I + comprehended the peculiar inflection of voice and idiom in the + people, and was charmed with it, as one is with the instinctive + wit and wisdom of children.</p> + + <p>There is very little to see at Milan, compared with any other + Italian city; and this was very fortunate for me, allowing an + interval of repose in the house, which I cannot take when there + is so much without, tempting me to incessant observation and + study. I went through, the North of Italy with a constantly + increasing fervor of interest. When I had thought of Italy, it + was always of the South, of the Roman States, of Tuscany. But now + I became deeply interested in the history, the institutions, the + art of the North. The fragments of the past mark the progress of + its waves so clearly, I learned to understand, to prize them + every day more, to know how to make use of the books about them. + I shall have much to say on these subjects some day.</p> + + <p>Leaving Milan, I went on the Lago Maggiore, and afterward into + Switzerland. Of this tour I shall not speak here; it was a + beautiful little romance by itself, and infinitely refreshing to + be so near nature in these grand and simple forms, after so much + exciting thought of Art and Man. The day passed in the St. + Bernardin, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page238" id= + "page238"></a>[pg 238]</span> with its lofty peaks and changing + lights upon the distant snows,—its holy, exquisite valleys + and waterfalls, its stories of eagles and chamois, was the + greatest refreshment I ever experienced: it was bracing as a cold + bath after the heat of a crowd amid which one has listened to + some most eloquent oration.</p> + + <p>Returning from Switzerland, I passed a fortnight on the Lake + of Como, and afterward visited Lugano. There is no exaggeration + in the enthusiastic feeling with which artists and poets have + viewed these Italian lakes. Their beauties are peculiar, + enchanting, innumerable. The Titan of Richter, the Wanderjahre of + Goethe, the Elena of Taylor, the pictures of Turner, had not + prepared me for the visions of beauty that daily entranced the + eyes and heart in those regions. To our country Nature has been + most bounteous; but we have nothing in the same kind that can + compare with these lakes, as seen under the Italian heaven. As to + those persons who have pretended to discover that the effects of + light and atmosphere were no finer than they found in our own + lake scenery, I can only say that they must be exceedingly obtuse + in organization,—a defect not uncommon among Americans.</p> + + <p>Nature seems to have labored to express her full heart in as + many ways as possible, when she made these lakes, moulded and + planted their shores. Lago Maggiore is grand, resplendent in Its + beauty; the view of the Alps gives a sort of lyric exaltation to + the scene. Lago di Garda is so soft and fair,—so glittering + sweet on one side, the ruins of ancient palaces rise so softly + with the beauties of that shore; but at the other end, amid the + Tyrol, it is sublime, calm, concentrated in its meaning. Como + cannot be better described in general than in the words of + Taylor:</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"Softly sublime, profusely fair."</p> + </div> + </div> + + <p>Lugano is more savage, more free in its beauty. I was on it in + a high gale; there was a little clanger, just enough to + exhilarate; its waters were wild, and clouds blowing across the + neighboring peaks. I like very much the boatmen on these lakes; + they have <span class="pagenum"><a name="page239" id= + "page239"></a>[pg 239]</span> strong and prompt character. Of + simple features, they are more honest and manly than Italian men + are found in the thoroughfares; their talk is not so witty as + that of the Venetian gondoliers, but picturesque, and what the + French call <i>incisive</i>. Very touching were some of their + histories, as they told them to me while pausing sometimes on the + lake.</p> + + <p>On this lake, also, I met Lady Franklin, wife of the + celebrated navigator. She has been in the United States, and + showed equal penetration and candor in remarks on what she had + seen there. She gave me interesting particulars as to the state + of things in Van Diemen's Land, where she passed seven years when + her husband was in authority there.</p> + + <p>I returned to Milan for the great feast of the Madonna, 8th + September, and those made for the Archbishop's entry, which took + place the same week. These excited as much feeling as the + Milanese can have a chance to display, this Archbishop being much + nearer tire public heart than his predecessor, who was a poor + servant of Austria.</p> + + <p>The Austrian rule is always equally hated, and time, instead + of melting away differences, only makes them more glaring. The + Austrian race have no faculties that can ever enable them to + understand the Italian character; their policy, so well contrived + to palsy and repress for a time, cannot kill, and there is always + a force at work underneath which shall yet, and I think now + before long, shake off the incubus. The Italian nobility have + always kept the invader at a distance; they have not been at all + seduced or corrupted by the lures of pleasure or power, but have + shown a passive patriotism highly honorable to them. In the + middle class ferments much thought, and there is a capacity for + effort; in the present system it cannot show itself, but it is + there; thought ferments, and will yet produce a wine that shall + set the Lombard veins on fire when the time for action shall + arrive. The lower classes of the population are in a dull state + indeed. The censorship of the press prevents all easy, natural + ways of instructing them; there are no public meetings, no free + access to them by more instructed and aspiring minds. The + Austrian policy is to allow <span class="pagenum"><a name= + "page240" id="page240"></a>[pg 240]</span> them a degree of + material well-being, and though so much wealth is drained from, + the country for the service of the foreigners, jet enough must + remain on these rich plains comfortably to feed and clothe the + inhabitants. Yet the great moral influence of the Pope's action, + though obstructed in their case, does reach and rouse them, and + they, too, felt the thrill of indignation at the occupation of + Ferrara. The base conduct of the police toward the people, when, + at Milan, some youths were resolute to sing tire hymn in honor of + Pius IX., when the feasts for the Archbishop afforded so + legitimate an occasion, roused all the people to unwonted + feeling. The nobles protested, and Austria had not courage to + persist as usual. She could not sustain her police, who rushed + upon a defenceless crowd, that had no share in what excited their + displeasure, except by sympathy, and, driving them like sheep, + wounded them <i>in the backs</i>. Austria feels that there is now + no sympathy for her in these matters; that it is not the interest + of the world to sustain her. Her policy is, indeed, too + thoroughly organized to change except by revolution; its scope is + to serve, first, a reigning family instead of the people; second, + with the people to seek a physical in preference to an + intellectual good; and, third, to prefer a seeming outward peace + to an inward life. This policy may change its opposition from the + tyrannical to the insidious; it can know no other change. Yet do + I meet persons who call themselves Americans,—miserable, + thoughtless Esaus, unworthy their high birthright,—who + think that a mess of pottage can satisfy the wants of man, and + that the Viennese listening to Strauss's waltzes, the Lombard + peasant supping full of his polenta, is <i>happy enough</i>. + Alas: I have the more reason to be ashamed of my countrymen that + it is not among the poor, who have so much, toil that there is + little time to think, but those who are rich, who + travel,—in body that is, they do not travel in mind. + Absorbed at home by the lust of gain, the love of show, abroad + they see only the equipages, the fine clothes, the + food,—they have no heart for the idea, for the destiny of + our own great nation: how can they feel the spirit that is + struggling now in this and others of Europe?</p><span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page241" id="page241"></a>[pg 241]</span> + + <p>But of the hopes of Italy I will write more fully in another + letter, and state what I have seen, what felt, what thought. I + went from Milan, to Pavia, and saw its magnificent Certosa, I + passed several hours in examining its riches, especially the + sculptures of its façade, full of force and spirit. I + then went to Florence by Parma and Bologna. In Parma, though ill, + I went to see all the works of the masters. A wonderful beauty it + is that informs them,—not that which is the chosen food of + my soul, yet a noble beauty, and which did its message to me + also. Those works are failing; it will not be useless to describe + them in a book. Beside these pictures, I saw nothing in Parma and + Modena; these states are obliged to hold their breath while their + poor, ignorant sovereigns skulk in corners, hoping to hide from + the coming storm. Of all this more in my next.</p><span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page242" id="page242"></a>[pg 242]</span> + <p> </p> + <h3>LETTER XVII.</h3> + + <h4>First Impressions of Rome in the Spring.—The + Pope.—Rome as a Capital.—Tuscany.—The Liberty + of the Press there just established.—The Enlightened Minds + and Available Instructors of Tuscany.—Italian Estimation of + Pius IX., and the Influence, Present and Future, of his + Labors.—Foreign Intrusion the Curse of + Italy.—Irruption of the Austrians into Italy, and its + Effects.—Louis Philippe's Apostasy turned to the Advantage + of Freedom.—The Great Fête at Florence in Honor of + the Grant of a National Guard.—The American Sculptors, + Greenough, Crawford, and their Participation in the + Fête.—Americans generally in Italy.—Hymns In + Florence in Honor of Pius IX.—Happy Augury to be drawn from + the wise Docility of the People.—An Expression of Sympathy + from America toward Italy earnestly hoped for.</h4> + + <p class="author">Rome, October 18, 1847.</p> + + <p>In the spring, when I came to Rome, the people were in the + intoxication of joy at the first serious measures of reform taken + by the Pope. I saw with pleasure their childlike joy and trust. + With equal pleasure I saw the Pope, who has not in his expression + the signs of intellectual greatness so much as of nobleness and + tenderness of heart, of large and liberal sympathies. Heart had + spoken to heart between the prince and the people; it was + beautiful to see the immediate good influence exerted by human + feeling and generous designs, on the part of a ruler. He had + wished to be a father, and the Italians, with that readiness of + genius that characterizes them, entered at once into the + relation; they, the Roman people, stigmatized by prejudice as so + crafty and ferocious, showed themselves children, eager to learn, + quick to obey, happy to confide.</p> + + <p>Still doubts were always present whether all this joy was not + premature. The task undertaken by the Pope seemed to present + insuperable difficulties. It is never easy to put new wine into + old bottles, and our age is one where all things tend to a great + crisis; not merely to revolution, but to radical reform. From + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page243" id="page243"></a>[pg + 243]</span> the people themselves the help must come, and not + from princes; in the new state of things, there will be none but + natural princes, great men. From the aspirations of the general + heart, from the teachings of conscience in individuals, and not + from an old ivy-covered church long since undermined, corroded by + time and gnawed by vermin, the help must come. Rome, to resume + her glory, must cease to be an ecclesiastical capital; must + renounce all this gorgeous mummery, whose poetry, whose picture, + charms no one more than myself, but whose meaning is all of the + past, and finds no echo in the future. Although I sympathized + warmly with the warm love of the people, the adulation of leading + writers, who were so willing to take all from the hand of the + prince, of the Church, as a gift and a bounty, instead of + implying steadily that it was the right of the people, was very + repulsive to me. The moderate party, like all who, in a + transition state, manage affairs with a constant eye to prudence, + lacks dignity always in its expositions; it is disagreeable and + depressing to read them.</p> + + <p>Passing into Tuscany, I found the liberty of the press just + established, and a superior preparation to make use of it. The + <i>Alba</i>, the <i>Patria</i>, were begun, and have been + continued with equal judgment and spirit. Their aim is to educate + the youth, to educate the lower people; they see that this is to + be done by promoting thought fearlessly, yet urge temperance in + action, while the time is yet so difficult, and many of its signs + dubious. They aim at breaking down those barriers between the + different states of Italy, relics of a barbarous state of polity, + artificially kept up by the craft of her foes. While anxious not + to break down what is really native to the Italian + character,—defences and differences that give individual + genius a chance to grow and the fruits of each region to ripen in + their natural way,—they aim at a harmony of spirit as to + measures of education and for the affairs of business, without + which Italy can never, as one nation, present a front strong + enough to resist foreign robbery, and for want of which so much + time and talent are wasted here, and internal development almost + wholly checked.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page244" id= + "page244"></a>[pg 244]</span> + + <p>There is in Tuscany a large corps of enlightened minds, well + prepared to be the instructors, the elder brothers and guardians, + of the lower people, and whose hearts burn to fulfil that noble + office. Before, it had been almost impossible to them, for the + reasons I have named in speaking of Lombardy; but during these + last four months that the way has been opened by the freedom of + the press, and establishment of the National Guard,—so + valuable, first of all, as giving occasion for public meetings + and free interchange of thought between the different + classes,—it is surprising how much light they have been + able to diffuse.</p> + + <p>A Bolognese, to whom I observed, "How can you be so full of + trust when all your hopes depend, not on the recognition of + principles and wants throughout the people, but on the life of + one mortal man?" replied: "Ah! but you don't consider that his + life gives us a chance to effect that recognition. If Pius IX. be + spared to us five years, it will be impossible for his successors + ever to take a backward course. Our nation is of a genius so + vivacious,—we are unhappy, but not stupid, we + Italians,—we can learn as much in two months as other + nations in twenty years." This seemed to me no brag when I + returned to Tuscany and saw the great development and diffusion + of thought that had taken place during my brief absence. The + Grand Duke, a well-intentioned, though dull man, had dared, to + declare himself "<i>an</i> ITALIAN <i>prince</i>" and the heart + of Tuscany had bounded with hope. It is now deeply as justly felt + that <i>the</i> curse of Italy is foreign intrusion; that if she + could dispense with foreign aid, and be free from foreign + aggression, she would find the elements of salvation within + herself. All her efforts tend that way, to re-establish the + natural position of things; may Heaven grant them success! For + myself, I believe they will attain it. I see more reason for + hope, as I know more of the people. Their rash and baffled + struggles have taught them prudence; they are wanted in the + civilized world as a peculiar influence; their leaders are + thinking men, their cause is righteous. I believe that Italy will + revive to new life, and probably a greater, one more truly rich + and glorious, than at either epoch of her former + greatness.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page245" id= + "page245"></a>[pg 245]</span> + + <p>During the period of my absence, the Austrians had entered + Ferrara. It is well that they hazarded this step, for it showed + them the difficulties in acting against a prince of the Church + who is at the same time a friend to the people. The position was + new, and they were probably surprised at the + result,—surprised at the firmness of the Pope, surprised at + the indignation, tempered by calm resolve, on the part of the + Italians. Louis Philippe's mean apostasy has this time turned to + the advantage of freedom. He renounced the good understanding + with England which it had been one of the leading features of his + policy to maintain, in the hope of aggrandizing and enriching his + family (not France, he did not care for France); he did not know + that he was paving the way for Italian freedom. England now is + led to play a part a little nearer her pretensions as the + guardian of progress than she often comes, and the ghost of La + Fayette looks down, not unappeased, to see the "Constitutional + King" decried by the subjects he has cheated and lulled so + craftily. The king of Sardinia is a worthless man, in whom nobody + puts any trust so far as regards his heart or honor; but the + stress of things seems likely to keep him on the right side. The + little sovereigns blustered at first, then ran away affrighted + when they found there was really a spirit risen at last within + the charmed circle,—a spirit likely to defy, to transcend, + the spells of haggard premiers and imbecile monarchs.</p> + + <p>I arrived in Florence, unhappily, too late for the great + fête of the 12th of September, in honor of the grant of + a National Guard. But I wept at the mere recital of the events of + that day, which, if it should lead to no important results, must + still be hallowed for ever in the memory of Italy, for the great + and beautiful emotions that flooded the hearts of her children. + The National Guard is hailed with no undue joy by Italians, as + the earnest of progress, the first step toward truly national + institutions and a representation of the people. Gratitude has + done its natural work in their hearts; it has made them better. + Some days before the fête were passed in reconciling all + strifes, composing all differences between cities, districts, and + individuals. They wished to <span class="pagenum"><a name= + "page246" id="page246"></a>[pg 246]</span> drop all petty, all + local differences, to wash away all stains, to bathe and prepare + for a new great covenant of brotherly love, where each should act + for the good of all. On that day they all embraced in sign of + this,—strangers, foes, all exchanged the kiss of faith and + love; they exchanged banners, as a token that they would fight + for, would animate, one another. All was done in that beautiful + poetic manner peculiar to this artist people; but it was the + spirit, so great and tender, that melts my heart to think of. It + was the spirit of true religion,—such, my Country! as, + welling freshly from some great hearts in thy early hours, won + for thee all of value that thou canst call thy own, whose + groundwork is the assertion, still sublime though thou hast not + been true to it, that all men have equal rights, and that these + are <i>birth</i>-rights, derived from God alone.</p> + + <p>I rejoice to say that the Americans took their share on this + occasion, and that Greenough—one of the few Americans who, + living in Italy, takes the pains to know whether it is alive or + dead, who penetrates beyond the cheats of tradesmen and the + cunning of a mob corrupted by centuries of slavery, to know the + real mind, the vital blood, of Italy—took a leading part. I + am sorry to say that a large portion of my countrymen here take + the same slothful and prejudiced view as the English, and, after + many years' sojourn, betray entire ignorance of Italian + literature and Italian life, beyond what is attainable in a + month's passage through the thoroughfares. However, they did + show, this time, a becoming spirit, and erected the American + eagle where its cry ought to be heard from afar,—where a + nation is striving for independent existence, and a government + representing the people. Crawford here in Rome has had the just + feeling to join the Guard, and it is a real sacrifice for an + artist to spend time on the exercises; but it well becomes the + sculptor of Orpheus,—of him who had such faith, such music + of divine thought, that he made the stones move, turned the + beasts from their accustomed haunts, and shamed hell itself into + sympathy with the grief of love. I do not deny that such a spirit + is wanted here in Italy; it is everywhere, if anything great, + anything permanent, is to be done. <span class="pagenum"><a name= + "page247" id="page247"></a>[pg 247]</span> In reference to what I + have said of many Americans in Italy, I will only add, that they + talk about the corrupt and degenerate state of Italy as they do + about that of our slaves at home. They come ready trained to that + mode of reasoning which affirms that, because men are degraded by + bad institutions, they are not fit for better.</p> + + <p>As to the English, some of them are full of generous, + intelligent sympathy;—indeed what is more solidly, more + wisely good than the right sort of Englishmen!—but others + are like a gentleman I travelled with the other day, a man of + intelligence and refinement too as to the details of life and + outside culture, who observed, that he did not see what the + Italians wanted of a National Guard, unless to wear these little + caps. He was a man who had passed five years in Italy, but always + covered with that non-conductor called by a witty French writer + "the Britannic fluid."</p> + + <p>Very sweet to my ear was the continual hymn in the streets of + Florence, in honor of Pius IX. It is the Roman hymn, and none of + the new ones written in Tuscany have been able to take its place. + The people thank the Grand Duke when he does them good, but they + know well from whose mind that good originates, and all their + love is for the Pope. Time presses, or I would fain describe in + detail the troupe of laborers of the lower class, marching home + at night, keeping step as if they were in the National Guard, + filling the air, and cheering the melancholy moon, by the + patriotic hymns sung with the mellow tone and in the perfect time + which belong to Italians. I would describe the extempore concerts + in the streets, the rejoicings at the theatres, where the + addresses of liberal souls to the people, through that best + vehicle, the drama, may now be heard. But I am tired; what I have + to write would fill volumes, and my letter must go. I will only + add some words upon the happy augury I draw from the wise + docility of the people. With what readiness they listened to wise + counsel, and the hopes of the Pope that they would give no + advantage to his enemies, at a time when they were so fevered by + the knowledge that conspiracy was at work in their midst! That + was a time of trial. On all these occasions of popular excitement + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page248" id="page248"></a>[pg + 248]</span> their conduct is like music, in such order, and with + such union of the melody of feeling with discretion where to + stop; but what is wonderful is that they acted in the same manner + on that difficult occasion. The influence of the Pope here is + without bounds; he can always calm the crowd at once. But in + Tuscany, where they have no such idol, they listened in the same + way on a very trying occasion. The first announcement of the + regulation for the Tuscan National Guard terribly disappointed + the people; they felt that the Grand Duke, after suffering them + to demonstrate such trust and joy on the feast of the 12th, did + not really trust, on his side; that he meant to limit them all he + could. They felt baffled, cheated; hence young men in anger tore + down at once the symbols of satisfaction and respect; but the + leading men went among the people, begged them to be calm, and + wait till a deputation had seen the Grand Duke. The people, + listening at once to men who, they were sure, had at heart their + best good, waited; the Grand Duke became convinced, and all ended + without disturbance. If they continue to act thus, their hopes + cannot be baffled. Certainly I, for one, do not think that the + present road will suffice to lead Italy to her goal. But it + <i>is</i> an onward, upward road, and the people learn as they + advance. Now they can seek and think fearless of prisons and + bayonets, a healthy circulation of blood begins, and the heart + frees itself from disease.</p> + + <p>I earnestly hope for some expression of sympathy from my + country toward Italy. Take a good chance and do something; you + have shown much good feeling toward the Old World in its physical + difficulties,—you ought to do still more in its spiritual + endeavor. This cause is OURS, above all others; we ought to show + that we feel it to be so. At present there is no likelihood of + war, but in case of it I trust the United States would not fail + in some noble token of sympathy toward this country. The soul of + our nation need not wait for its government; these things are + better done by individuals. I believe some in the United States + will pay attention to these words of mine, will feel that I am + not a person to be kindled by a childish, sentimental enthusiasm, + but that <span class="pagenum"><a name="page249" id= + "page249"></a>[pg 249]</span> I must be sure I have seen + something of Italy before speaking as I do. I have been here only + seven months, but my means of observation have been uncommon. I + have been ardently desirous to judge fairly, and had no + prejudices to prevent; beside, I was not ignorant of the history + and literature of Italy, and had some common ground on which to + stand with, its inhabitants, and hear what they have to say. In + many ways Italy is of kin to us; she is the country of Columbus, + of Amerigo, of Cabot. It would please me much to see a cannon + here bought by the contributions of Americans, at whose head + should stand the name of Cabot, to be used by the Guard for + salutes on festive occasions, if they should be so happy as to + have no more serious need. In Tuscany they are casting one to be + called the "Gioberti," from a writer who has given a great + impulse to the present movement. I should like the gift of + America to be called the AMERIGO, the COLUMBO, or the WASHINGTON. + Please think of this, some of my friends, who still care for the + eagle, the Fourth of July, and the old cries of hope and honor. + See if there are any objections that I do not think of, and do + something if it is well and brotherly. Ah! America, with all thy + rich boons, thou hast a heavy account to render for the talent + given; see in every way that thou be not found + wanting.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page250" id= + "page250"></a>[pg 250]</span> + <p> </p> + <h3>LETTER XVIII.</h3> + + <h4>Reflections for the New Year.—Americans in + Europe.—France, England, Poland, Italy, Russia, + Austria,—their Policy.—Europe toils and + struggles.—All things bode a new Outbreak.—The Eagle + of America stoops to Earth, and shares the Character of the + Vulture.—Abolition.—The Youth of the + Land.—Anticipations of their Usefulness.</h4> + + <p>This letter will reach the United States about the 1st of + January; and it may not be impertinent to offer a few New-Year's + reflections. Every new year, indeed, confirms the old thoughts, + but also presents them under some new aspects.</p> + + <p>The American in Europe, if a thinking mind, can only become + more American. In some respects it is a great pleasure to be + here. Although we have an independent political existence, bur + position toward Europe, as to literature and the arts, is still + that of a colony, and one feels the same joy here that is + experienced by the colonist in returning to the parent home. What + was but picture to us becomes reality; remote allusions and + derivations trouble no more: we see the pattern of the stuff, and + understand the whole tapestry. There is a gradual clearing up on + many points, and many baseless notions and crude fancies are + dropped. Even the post-haste passage of the business American + through the great cities, escorted by cheating couriers and + ignorant <i>valets de place</i>, unable to hold intercourse with + the natives of the country, and passing all his leisure hours + with his countrymen, who know no more than himself, clears his + mind of some mistakes,—lifts some mists from his + horizon.</p> + + <p>There are three species. First, the servile American,—a + being utterly shallow, thoughtless, worthless. He comes abroad to + spend his money and indulge his tastes. His object in Europe + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page251" id="page251"></a>[pg + 251]</span> is to have fashionable clothes, good foreign cookery, + to know some titled persons, and furnish himself with + coffee-house gossip, by retailing which among those less + travelled and as uninformed as himself he can win importance at + home. I look with unspeakable contempt on this class,—a + class which has all the thoughtlessness and partiality of the + exclusive classes in Europe, without any of their refinement, or + the chivalric feeling which still sparkles among them here and + there. However, though these willing serfs in a free age do some + little hurt, and cause some annoyance at present, they cannot + continue long; our country is fated to a grand, independent + existence, and, as its laws develop, these parasites of a bygone + period must wither and drop away.</p> + + <p>Then there is the conceited American, instinctively bristling + and proud of—he knows not what. He does not see, not he, + that the history of Humanity for many centuries is likely to have + produced results it requires some training, some devotion, to + appreciate and profit by. With his great clumsy hands, only + fitted to work on a steam-engine, he seizes the old Cremona + violin, makes it shriek with anguish, in his grasp, and then + declares he thought it was all humbug before he came, and now he + knows it; that there is not really any music in these old things; + that the frogs in one of our swamps make much finer, for they are + young and alive. To him the etiquettes of courts and camps, the + ritual of the Church, seem simply silly,—and no wonder, + profoundly ignorant as he is of their origin and meaning. Just so + the legends which are the subjects of pictures, the profound + myths which are represented in the antique marbles, amaze and + revolt him; as, indeed, such things need to be judged of by + another standard than that of the Connecticut Blue-Laws. He + criticises severely pictures, feeling quite sure that his natural + senses are better means of judgment than the rules of + connoisseurs,—not feeling that, to see such objects, mental + vision as well as fleshly eyes are needed and that something is + aimed at in Art beyond the imitation of the commonest forms of + Nature. This is Jonathan in the sprawling state, the booby + truant, not yet aspiring enough to be a good school-boy. Yet in + his folly there is meaning; add thought and culture <span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page252" id="page252"></a>[pg 252]</span> to + his independence, and he will be a man of might: he is not a + creature without hope, like the thick-skinned dandy of the class + first specified.</p> + + <p>The artistes form a class by themselves. Yet among them, + though seeking special aims by special means, may also be found + the lineaments of these two classes, as well as of the third, of + which I am now to speak.</p> + + <p>This is that of the thinking American,—a man who, + recognizing the immense advantage of being born to a new world + and on a virgin soil, yet does not wish one seed from the past to + be lost. He is anxious to gather and carry back with him every + plant that will bear a new climate and new culture. Some will + dwindle; others will attain a bloom and stature unknown before. + He wishes to gather them clean, free from noxious insects, and to + give them a fair trial in his new world. And that he may know the + conditions under which he may best place them in that new world, + he does not neglect to study their history in this.</p> + + <p>The history of our planet in some moments seems so painfully + mean and little,—such terrible bafflings and failures to + compensate some brilliant successes,—such a crushing of the + mass of men beneath, the feet of a few, and these, too, often the + least worthy,—such a small drop of honey to each cup of + gall, and, in many cases, so mingled that it is never one moment + in life purely tasted,—above all, so little achieved for + Humanity as a whole, such tides of war and pestilence intervening + to blot out the traces of each triumph,—that no wonder if + the strongest soul sometimes pauses aghast; no wonder if the many + indolently console themselves with gross joys and frivolous + prizes. Yes! those men <i>are</i> worthy of admiration who can + carry this cross faithfully through fifty years; it is a great + while for all the agonies that beset a lover of good, a lover of + men; it makes a soul worthy of a speedier ascent, a more + productive ministry in the next sphere. Blessed are they who ever + keep that portion of pure, generous love with which they began + life! How blessed those who have deepened the fountains, and have + enough to spare for the thirst of others! Some such there are; + and, feeling that, with all the excuses for <span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page253" id="page253"></a>[pg 253]</span> + failure, still only the sight of those who triumph, gives a + meaning to life or makes its pangs endurable, we must arise and + follow.</p> + + <p>Eighteen hundred years of this Christian culture in these + European kingdoms, a great theme never lost sight of, a mighty + idea, an adorable history to which the hearts of men invariably + cling, yet are genuine results rare as grains of gold in the + river's sandy bed! Where is the genuine democracy to which the + rights of all men are holy? where the child-like wisdom learning + all through life more and more of the will of God? where the + aversion to falsehood, in all its myriad disguises of cant, + vanity, covetousness, so clear to be read in all the history of + Jesus of Nazareth? Modern Europe is the sequel to that history, + and see this hollow England, with its monstrous wealth and cruel + poverty, its conventional life, and low, practical aims! see this + poor France, so full of talent, so adroit, yet so shallow and + glossy still, which could not escape from a false position with + all its baptism of blood! see that lost Poland, and this Italy + bound down by treacherous hands in all the force of genius! see + Russia with its brutal Czar and innumerable slaves! see Austria + and its royalty that represents nothing, and its people, who, as + people, are and have nothing! If we consider the amount of truth + that has really been spoken out in the world, and the love that + has beat in private hearts,—how genius has decked each + spring-time with such splendid flowers, conveying each one enough + of instruction in its life of harmonious energy, and how + continually, unquenchably, the spark of faith has striven to + burst into flame and light up the universe,—the public + failure seems amazing, seems monstrous.</p> + + <p>Still Europe toils and struggles with her idea, and, at this + moment, all things bode and declare a new outbreak of the fire, + to destroy old palaces of crime! May it fertilize also many + vineyards! Here at this moment a successor of St. Peter, after + the lapse of near two thousand years, is called "Utopian" by a + part of this Europe, because he strives to get some food to the + mouths of the <i>leaner</i> of his flock. A wonderful state of + things, and which leaves as the best argument against despair, + that men do not, <i>cannot</i> despair amid such dark + experiences. And thou, my Country! <span class="pagenum"><a name= + "page254" id="page254"></a>[pg 254]</span> wilt thou not be more + true? does no greater success await thee? All things have so + conspired to teach, to aid! A new world, a new chance, with + oceans to wall in the new thought against interference from the + old!—treasures of all kinds, gold, silver, corn, marble, to + provide for every physical need! A noble, constant, starlike + soul, an Italian, led the way to thy shores, and, in the first + days, the strong, the pure, those too brave, too sincere, for the + life of the Old World, hastened to people them. A generous + struggle then shook off what was foreign, and gave the nation a + glorious start for a worthy goal. Men rocked the cradle of its + hopes, great, firm, disinterested, men, who saw, who wrote, as + the basis of all that was to be done, a statement of the rights, + the <i>inborn</i> rights of men, which, if fully interpreted and + acted upon, leaves nothing to be desired.</p> + + <p>Yet, O Eagle! whose early flight showed this clear sight of + the sun, how often dost thou near the ground, how show the + vulture in these later days! Thou wert to be the advance-guard of + humanity, the herald of all progress; how often hast thou + betrayed this high commission! Fain would the tongue in clear, + triumphant accents draw example from thy story, to encourage the + hearts of those who almost faint and die beneath the old + oppressions. But we must stammer and blush when we speak of many + things. I take pride here, that I can really say the liberty of + the press works well, and that checks and balances are found + naturally which suffice to its government. I can say that the + minds of our people are alert, and that talent has a free chance + to rise. This is much. But dare I further say that political + ambition is not as darkly sullied as in other countries? Dare I + say that men of most influence in political life are those who + represent most virtue, or even intellectual power? Is it easy to + find names in that career of which I can speak with enthusiasm? + Must I not confess to a boundless lust of gain in my country? + Must I not concede the weakest vanity, which bristles and + blusters at each foolish taunt of the foreign press, and admit + that the men who make these undignified rejoinders seek and find + popularity so? Can I help admitting that there is as yet no + antidote cordially <span class="pagenum"><a name="page255" id= + "page255"></a>[pg 255]</span> adopted, which will defend even + that great, rich country against the evils that have grown out of + the commercial system in the Old World? Can I say our social laws + are generally better, or show a nobler insight into the wants of + man and woman? I do, indeed, say what I believe, that voluntary + association for improvement in these particulars will be the + grand means for my nation to grow, and give a nobler harmony to + the coming age. But it is only of a small minority that I can say + they as yet seriously take to heart these things; that they + earnestly meditate on what is wanted for their country, for + mankind,—for our cause is indeed, the cause of all mankind + at present. Could we succeed, really succeed, combine a deep + religious love with practical development, the achievements of + genius with the happiness of the multitude, we might believe man + had now reached a commanding point in his ascent, and would + stumble and faint no more. Then there is this horrible cancer of + slavery, and the wicked war that has grown out of it. How dare I + speak of these things here? I listen to the same arguments + against the emancipation of Italy, that are used against the + emancipation of our blacks; the same arguments in favor of the + spoliation of Poland, as for the conquest of Mexico. I find the + cause of tyranny and wrong everywhere the same,—and lo! my + country! the darkest offender, because with the least excuse; + forsworn to the high calling with which she was called; no + champion of the rights of men, but a robber and a jailer; the + scourge hid behind her banner; her eyes fixed, not on the stars, + but on the possessions of other men.</p> + + <p>How it pleases me here to think of the Abolitionists! I could + never endure to be with them at home, they were so tedious, often + so narrow, always so rabid and exaggerated in their tone. But, + after all, they had a high motive, something eternal in their + desire and life; and if it was not the only thing worth thinking + of, it was really something worth living and dying for, to free a + great nation from such a terrible blot, such a threatening + plague. God strengthen them, and make them wise to achieve their + purpose!</p> + + <p>I please myself, too, with remembering some ardent souls among + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page256" id="page256"></a>[pg + 256]</span> the American youth, who I trust will yet expand, and + help to give soul to the huge, over-fed, too hastily grown-up + body. May they be constant! "Were man but constant, he were + perfect," it has been said; and it is true that he who could be + constant to those moments in which he has been truly human, not + brutal, not mechanical, is on the sure path to his perfection, + and to effectual service of the universe.</p> + + <p>It is to the youth that hope addresses itself; to those who + yet burn with aspiration, who are not hardened in their sins. But + I dare not expect too much of them. I am not very old; yet of + those who, in life's morning, I saw touched by the light of a + high hope, many have seceded. Some have become voluptuaries; + some, mere family men, who think it quite life enough to win + bread for half a dozen people, and treat them, decently; others + are lost through indolence and vacillation. Yet some remain + constant;</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"I have witnessed many a shipwreck,</p> + + <p>Yet still beat noble hearts."</p> + </div> + </div> + + <p>I have found many among the youth of England, of France, of + Italy, also, full of high desire; but will they have courage and + purity to fight the battle through in the sacred, the immortal + band? Of some of them I believe it, and await the proof. If a few + succeed amid the trial, we have not lived and loved in vain.</p> + + <p>To these, the heart and hope of my country, a happy new year! + I do not know what I have written; I have merely yielded to my + feelings in thinking of America; but something of true love must + be in these lines. Receive them kindly, my friends; it is, of + itself, some merit for printed words to be + sincere.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page257" id= + "page257"></a>[pg 257]</span> + <p> </p> + <h3>LETTER XIX.</h3> + + <h4>The Climate of Italy.—Review of First + Impressions.—Rome in its various Aspects.—The + Pope.—Cemetery of Santo Spirito.—Ceremonies at the + Chapels.—The Women of Italy.—Festival of St. Carlo + Borromeo.—An Incident in the Chapel.—English + Residents in the Seven-hilled City.—Mrs. Trollope a + Resident of Florence.—The Pope as he communicates with his + People.—The Position of Affairs.—Lesser + Potentates.—The Inauguration of the New Council.—The + Ceremonies thereto appertaining.—The American Flag in + Rome.—A Ball.—A Feast, and its Reverse.—The + Funeral of a Councillor.</h4> + + <p class="author">Rome, December 17, 1847.</p> + + <p>This 17th day of December I rise to see the floods of sunlight + blessing us, as they have almost every day since I returned to + Rome,—two months and more,—with scarce three or four + days of rainy weather. I still see the fresh roses and grapes + each morning on my table, though both these I expect to give up + at Christmas.</p> + + <p>This autumn is <i>something like</i>, as my countrymen say at + home. Like <i>what</i>, they do not say; so I always supposed + they meant like their ideal standard. Certainly this weather + corresponds with mine; and I begin to believe the climate of + Italy is really what it has been represented. Shivering here last + spring in an air no better than the cruel cast wind of Puritan + Boston, I thought all the praises lavished on</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"Italia, O Italia!"</p> + </div> + </div> + + <p>would turn out to be figments of the brain; and that even + Byron, usually accurate beyond the conception of plodding + pedants, had deceived us when he says, you have the happiness in + Italy to</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"See the sun set, sure he'll rise to-morrow,"</p> + </div> + </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="page258" id= + "page258"></a>[pg 258]</span> and not, according to a view which + exercises a withering influence on the enthusiasm of youth in my + native land, be forced to regard each pleasant day as a + <i>weather-breeder</i>. + + <p>How delightful, too, is the contrast between this time and the + spring in another respect! Then I was here, like travellers in + general, expecting to be driven away in a short time. Like + others, I went through the painful process of sight-seeing, so + unnatural everywhere, so counter to the healthful methods and + true life of the mind. You rise in the morning knowing there are + a great number of objects worth knowing, which you may never have + the chance to see again. You go every day, in all moods, under + all circumstances; feeling, probably, in seeing them, the + inadequacy of your preparation for understanding or duly + receiving them. This consciousness would be most valuable if one + had time to think and study, being the natural way in which the + mind is lured to cure its defects; but you have no time; you are + always wearied, body and mind, confused, dissipated, sad. The + objects are of commanding beauty or full of suggestion, but there + is no quiet to let that beauty breathe its life into the soul; no + time to follow up these suggestions, and plant for the proper + harvest. Many persons run about Rome for nine days, and then go + away; they might as well expect to appreciate the Venus by + throwing a stone at it, as hope really to see Rome in this time. + I stayed in Rome nine weeks, and came away unhappy as he who, + having been taken in the visions of the night through some + wondrous realm, wakes unable to recall anything but the hues and + outlines of the pageant; the real knowledge, the recreative power + induced by familiar love, the assimilation of its soul and + substance,—all the true value of such a + revelation,—is wanting; and he remains a poor Tantalus, + hungrier than before he had tasted this spiritual food.</p> + + <p>No; Rome is not a nine-days wonder; and those who try to make + it such lose the ideal Rome (if they ever had it), without + gaining any notion of the real. To those who travel, as they do + everything else, only because others do, I do not speak; they are + nothing. Nobody counts in the estimate of the human race who has + not a character.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page259" id= + "page259"></a>[pg 259]</span> + + <p>For one, I now really live in Rome, and I begin to see and + feel the real Rome. She reveals herself day by day; she tells me + some of her life. Now I never go out to see a sight, but I walk + every day; and here I cannot miss of some object of consummate + interest to end a walk. In the evenings, which are long now, I am + at leisure to follow up the inquiries suggested by the day.</p> + + <p>As one becomes familiar, Ancient and Modern Rome, at first so + painfully and discordantly jumbled together, are drawn apart to + the mental vision. One sees where objects and limits anciently + wore; the superstructures vanish, and you recognize the local + habitation of so many thoughts. When this begins to happen, one + feels first truly at ease in Rome. Then the old kings, the + consuls and tribunes, the emperors, drunk with blood and gold, + the warriors of eagle sight and remorseless beak, return for us, + and the togated procession finds room to sweep across the scene; + the seven hills tower, the innumerable temples glitter, and the + Via Sacra swarms with triumphal life once more.</p> + + <p>Ah! how joyful to see once more <i>this</i> Rome, instead of + the pitiful, peddling, Anglicized Rome, first viewed in + unutterable dismay from the <i>coupé</i> of the + vettura,—a Rome all full of taverns, lodging-houses, + cheating chambermaids, vilest <i>valets de place</i>, and fleas! + A Niobe of nations indeed! Ah! why, secretly the heart + blasphemed, did the sun omit to kill her too, when all the + glorious race which wore her crown fell beneath his ray? Thank + Heaven, it is possible to wash away all this dirt, and come at + the marble yet.</p> + + <p>Their the later Papal Rome: it requires much acquaintance, + much thought, much reference to books, for the child of + Protestant Republican America to see where belong the legends + illustrated by rite and picture, the sense of all the rich + tapestry, where it has a united and poetic meaning, where it is + broken by some accident of history. For all these things—a + senseless mass of juggleries to the uninformed eye—are + really growths of the human spirit struggling to develop its + life, and full of instruction for those who learn to understand + them.</p> + + <p>Then Modern Rome,—still ecclesiastical, still darkened + and <span class="pagenum"><a name="page260" id="page260"></a>[pg + 260]</span> damp in the shadow of the Vatican, but where bright + hopes gleam now amid the ashes! Never was a people who have had + more to corrupt them,—bloody tyranny, and incubus of + priestcraft, the invasions, first of Goths, then of trampling + emperors and kings, then of sight-seeing + foreigners,—everything to turn them from a sincere, + hopeful, fruitful life; and they are much corrupted, but still a + fine race. I cannot look merely with a pictorial eye on the + lounge of the Roman dandy, the bold, Juno gait of the Roman + Contadina. I love them,—dandies and all? I believe the + natural expression of these fine forms will animate them yet. + Certainly there never was a people that showed a better heart + than they do in this day of love, of purely moral influence. It + makes me very happy to be for once in a place ruled by a father's + love, and where the pervasive glow of one good, generous heart is + felt in every pulse of every day.</p> + + <p>I have seen the Pope several times since my return, and it is + a real pleasure to see him in the thoroughfares, where his + passage is always greeted as that of <i>the</i> living soul.</p> + + <p>The first week of November there is much praying for the dead + here in the chapels of the cemeteries. I went to Santo Spirito. + This cemetery stands high, and all the way up the slope was lined + with beggars petitioning for alms, in every attitude find tone, + (I mean tone that belongs to the professional beggar's gamut, for + that is peculiar,) and under every pretext imaginable, from the + quite legless elderly gentleman to the ragged ruffian with the + roguish twinkle in his eye, who has merely a slight stiffness in + one arm and one leg. I could not help laughing, it was such a + show,—greatly to the alarm of my attendant, who declared + they would kill me, if ever they caught me alone; but I was not + afraid. I am sure the endless falsehood in which such creatures + live must make them very cowardly. We entered the cemetery; it + was a sweet, tranquil place, lined with cypresses, and soft + sunshine lying on the stone coverings where repose the houses of + clay in which once dwelt joyous Roman hearts,—for the + hearts here do take pleasure in life. There were several chapels; + in one boys were chanting, in others people on their <span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page261" id="page261"></a>[pg 261]</span> + knees silently praying for the dead. In another was one of the + groups in wax exhibited in such chapels through the first week of + November. It represented St. Carlo Borromeo as a beautiful young + man in a long scarlet robe, pure and brilliant as was the blood + of the martyrs, relieving the poor who were grouped around + him,—old people and children, the halt, the maimed, the + blind; he had called them all into the feast of love. The chapel + was lighted and draped so as to give very good effect to this + group; the spectators were mainly children and young girls, + listening with ardent eyes, while their parents or the nuns + explained to them the group, or told some story of the saint. It + was a pretty scene, only marred by the presence of a + villanous-looking man, who ever and anon shook the poor's box. I + cannot understand the bad taste of choosing him, when there were + <i>frati</i> and priests enough of expression less + unprepossessing.</p> + + <p>I next entered a court-yard, where the stations, or different + periods in the Passion of Jesus, are painted on the wall. + Kneeling before these were many persons: here a Franciscan, in + his brown robe and cord; there a pregnant woman, uttering, + doubtless, some tender aspiration for the welfare of the yet + unborn dear one; there some boys, with gay yet reverent air; + while all the while these fresh young voices were heard chanting. + It was a beautiful moment, and despite the wax saint, the + ill-favored friar, the professional mendicants, and my own + removal, wide as pole from pole, from the positron of mind + indicated by these forms, their spirit touched me, and. I prayed + too; prayed for the distant, every way distant,—for those + who seem to have forgotten me, and with me all we had in common; + prayed for the dead in spirit, if not in body; prayed for myself, + that I might never walk the earth</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"The tomb of my dead self";</p> + </div> + </div> + + <p>and prayed in general for all unspoiled and loving + hearts,—no less for all who suffer and find yet no + helper.</p> + + <p>Going out, I took my road by the cross which marks the brow of + the hill. Up the ascent still wound the crowd of devotees, and + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page262" id="page262"></a>[pg + 262]</span> still the beggars beset them. Amid that crowd, how + many lovely, warm-hearted women! The women of Italy are + intellectually in a low place, <i>but</i>—they are + unaffected; you can see what Heaven meant them to be, and I + believe they will be yet the mothers of a great and generous + race. Before me lay Rome,—how exquisitely tranquil in the + sunset! Never was an aspect that for serene grandeur could vie + with that of Rome at sunset.</p> + + <p>Next day was the feast of the Milanese saint, whose life has + been made known to some Americans by Manzoni, when speaking in + his popular novel of the cousin of St. Carlo, Federigo Borromeo. + The Pope came in state to the church of St. Carlo, in the Corso. + The show was magnificent; the church is not very large, and was + almost filled with Papal court and guards, in all their splendid + harmonies of color. An Italian child was next me, a little girl + of four or five years, whom her mother had brought to see the + Pope. As in the intervals of gazing the child smiled and made + signs to me, I nodded in return, and asked her name. "Virginia," + said she; "and how is the Signora named?" "Margherita," "My + name," she rejoined, "is Virginia Gentili." I laughed, but did + not follow up the cunning, graceful lead,—still I chatted + and played with her now and then. At last, she said to her + mother, "La Signora e molto cara," ("The Signora is very dear," + or, to use the English equivalent, <i>a darling</i>,) "show her + my two sisters." So the mother, herself a fine-looking woman, + introduced two handsome young ladies, and with the family I was + in a moment pleasantly intimate for the hour.</p> + + <p>Before me sat three young English ladies, the pretty daughters + of a noble Earl; their manners were a strange contrast to this + Italian graciousness, best expressed by their constant use of the + pronoun <i>that</i>. "<i>See that man!</i>" (i.e. some high + dignitary of the Church,) "Look at that dress!" dropped + constantly from their lips. Ah! without being a Catholic, one may + well wish Rome was not dependent on English sight-seers, who + violate her ceremonies with acts that bespeak their thoughts full + of wooden shoes and warming-pans. Can anything be more sadly + expressive of times out of joint than the fact that Mrs. Trollope + is a resident <span class="pagenum"><a name="page263" id= + "page263"></a>[pg 263]</span> in Italy? Yes! she is fixed + permanently in Florence, as I am told, pensioned at the rate of + two thousand pounds a year to trail her slime over the fruit of + Italy. She is here in Rome this winter, and, after having + violated the virgin beauty of America, will have for many a year + her chance to sully the imperial matron of the civilized world. + What must the English public be, if it wishes to pay two thousand + pounds a year to get Italy Trollopified?</p> + + <p>But to turn to a pleasanter subject. When the Pope entered, + borne in his chair of state amid the pomp of his tiara and his + white and gold robes, he looked to me thin, or, as the Italians + murmur anxiously at times, <i>consumato</i>, or wasted. But + during the ceremony he seemed absorbed in his devotions, and at + the end I think he had become exhilarated by thinking of St. + Carlo, who was such another over the human race as himself, and + his face wore a bright glow of faith. As he blessed the people, + he raised his eyes to Heaven, with a gesture quite natural: it + was the spontaneous act of a soul which felt that moment more + than usual its relation with things above it, and sure of support + from a higher Power. I saw him to still greater advantage a + little while after, when, riding on the Campagna with a young + gentleman who had been ill, we met the Pope on foot, taking + exercise. He often quits his carriage at the gates and walks in + this way. He walked rapidly, robed in a simple white drapery, two + young priests in spotless purple on either side; they gave silver + to the poor who knelt beside the way, while the beloved Father + gave his benediction. My companion knelt; he is not a Catholic, + but he felt that "this blessing would do him no harm." The Pope + saw at once he was ill, and gave him a mark of interest, with + that expression of melting love, the true, the only charity, + which assures all who look on him that, were his power equal to + his will, no living thing would ever suffer more. This expression + the artists try in vain to catch; all busts and engravings of him + are caricatures; it is a magnetic sweetness, a lambent light that + plays over his features, and of which only great genius or a soul + tender as his own would form an adequate image.</p><span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page264" id="page264"></a>[pg 264]</span> + + <p>The Italians have one term of praise peculiarly characteristic + of their highly endowed nature. They say of such and such, <i>Ha + una phisonomia simpatica</i>,—"He has a sympathetic + expression"; and this is praise enough. This may be pre-eminently + said of that of Pius IX. <i>He</i> looks, indeed, as if nothing + human could be foreign to him. Such alone are the genuine kings + of men.</p> + + <p>He has shown undoubted wisdom, clear-sightedness, bravery, and + firmness; but it is, above all, his generous human heart that + gives him his power over this people. His is a face to shame the + selfish, redeem the sceptic, alarm the wicked, and cheer to new + effort the weary and heavy-laden. What form the issues of his + life may take is yet uncertain; in my belief, they are such as he + does not think of; but they cannot fail to be for good. For my + part, I shall always rejoice to have been here in his time. The + working of his influence confirms my theories, and it is a + positive treasure to me to have seen him. I have never been + presented, not wishing to approach, so real a presence in the + path of mere etiquette; I am quite content to see him standing + amid the crowd, while the band plays the music he has + inspired.</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"Sons of Rome, awake!"</p> + </div> + </div> + + <p>Yes, awake, and let no police-officer put you again to sleep + in prison, as has happened to those who were called by the + Marseillaise.</p> + + <p>Affairs look well. The king of Sardinia has at last, though + with evident distrust and heartlessness, entered the upward path + in a way that makes it difficult to return. The Duke of Modena, + the most senseless of all these ancient gentlemen, after + publishing a declaration, which made him more ridiculous than + would the bitterest pasquinade penned by another, that he would + fight to the death against reform, finds himself obliged to lend + an ear as to the league for the customs; and if he joins that, + other measures follow of course. Austria trembles; and, in fine, + cannot sustain the point of Ferrara. The king of Naples, after + having shed much blood, for which he has a terrible account to + render, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page265" id= + "page265"></a>[pg 265]</span> (ah! how many sad, fair romances + are to tell already about the Calabrian difficulties!) still + finds the spirit fomenting in his people; he cannot put it down. + The dragon's teeth are sown, and the Lazzaroni may be men yet! + The Swiss affairs have taken the right direction, and good will + ensue, if other powers act with decent honesty, and think of + healing the wounds of Switzerland, rather than merely of tying + her down, so that she cannot annoy them.</p> + + <p>In Rome, here, the new Council is inaugurated, and elections + have given tolerable satisfaction. Already, struggles ended in + other places begin to be renewed here, as to gas-lights, + introduction of machinery, &c. We shall see at the end of the + winter how they have gone on. At any rate, the wants of the + people are in some measure represented; and already the conduct + of those who have taken to themselves so large a portion of the + loaves and fishes on the very platform supposed to be selected by + Jesus for a general feeding of his sheep, begins to be the + subject of spoken as well as whispered animadversion. Torlonia is + assailed in his bank, Campana amid his urns or his Monte di + Picti; but these assaults have yet to be verified.</p> + + <p>On the day when the Council was to be inaugurated, great + preparations were made by representatives of other parts of + Italy, and also of foreign nations friendly to the cause of + progress. It was considered to represent the same fact as the + feast of the 12th of September in Tuscany,—the dawn of an + epoch when the people shall find their wants and aspirations + represented and guarded. The Americans showed a warm interest; + the gentlemen subscribing to buy a flag, the United States having + none before in Rome, and the ladies meeting to make it. The same + distinguished individual, indeed, who at Florence made a speech + to prevent "the American eagle being taken out on so trifling an + occasion," with similar perspicuity and superiority of view, on + the present occasion, was anxious to prevent "rash + demonstrations, which might embroil the United States with + Austria"; but the rash youth here present rushed on, ignorant how + to value his Nestorian prudence,—fancying, hot-headed + simpletons, that the cause of Freedom was <span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page266" id="page266"></a>[pg 266]</span> the + cause of America, and her eagle at home wherever the sun shed a + warmer ray, and there was reason to hope a happier life for man. + So they hurried to buy their silk, red, white, and blue, and + inquired of recent arrivals how many States there are this winter + in the Union, in order to making the proper number of stars. A + magnificent spread-eagle was procured, not without difficulty, as + this, once the eyrie of the king of birds, is now a rookery + rather, full of black, ominous fowl, ready to eat the harvest + sown by industrious hands. This eagle, having previously spread + its wings over a piece of furniture where its back was sustained + by the wall, was somewhat deficient in a part of its anatomy. But + we flattered ourselves he should be held so high that no Roman + eye, if disposed, could carp and criticise. When lo! just as the + banner was ready to unfold its young glories in the home of + Horace, Virgil, and Tacitus, an ordinance appeared prohibiting + the display of any but the Roman ensign.</p> + + <p>This ordinance was, it is said, caused by representations made + to the Pope that the Oscurantists, ever on the watch to do + mischief, meant to make this the occasion of + disturbance,—as it is their policy to seek to create + irritation here; that the Neapolitan and Lombardo-Venetian flags + would appear draped with black, and thus the signal be given for + tumult. I cannot help thinking these fears were groundless; that + the people, on their guard, would have indignantly crushed at + once any of these malignant efforts. However that may be, no one + can ever be really displeased with any measure of the Pope, + knowing his excellent intentions. But the limitation of the + festival deprived it of the noble character of the brotherhood of + nations and an ideal aim, worn by that of Tuscany. The Romans, + drilled and disappointed, greeted their Councillors with but + little enthusiasm. The procession, too, was but a poor affair for + Rome. Twenty-four carriages had been lent by the princes and + nobles, at the request of the city, to convey the Councillors. I + found something symbolical in this. Thus will they be obliged to + furnish from their old grandeur the vehicles of the new ideas. + Each deputy was followed by his target and banner. When the + deputy for Ferrara passed, many garlands were <span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page267" id="page267"></a>[pg 267]</span> + thrown upon his carriage. There has been deep respect and + sympathy felt for the citizens of Ferrara, they have conducted so + well under their late trying circumstances. They contained + themselves, knowing that the least indiscretion would give a + handle for aggression to the enemies of the good cause. But the + daily occasions of irritation must have been innumerable, and + they have shown much power of wise and dignified + self-government.</p> + + <p>After the procession passed, I attempted to go on foot from + the Café Novo, in the Corso, to St. Peter's, to see the + decorations of the streets, but it was impossible. In that dense, + but most vivacious, various, and good-humored crowd, with all + best will on their part to aid the foreigner, it was impossible + to advance. So I saw only themselves; but that was a great + pleasure. There is so much individuality of character here, that + it is a great entertainment to be in a crowd.</p> + + <p>In the evening, there was a ball given at the Argentina. Lord + Minto was there; Prince Corsini, now Senator; the Torlonias, in + uniform of the Civic Guard,—Princess Torlonia in a sash of + their colors, given her by the Civic Guard, which she waved often + in answer to their greetings. But the beautiful show of the + evening was the Trasteverini dancing the Saltarello in their most + brilliant costume. I saw them thus to much greater advantage than + ever before. Several were nobly handsome, and danced admirably; + it was really like Pinelli.</p> + + <p>The Saltarello enchants me; in this is really the Italian + wine, the Italian sun. The first time, I saw it danced one night + very unexpectedly near the Colosseum; it carried me quite beyond + myself, so that I most unamiably insisted on staying, while the + friends in my company, not heated by enthusiasm like me, were + shivering and perhaps catching cold from the damp night-air. I + fear they remember it against me; nevertheless I cherish the + memory of the moments wickedly stolen at their expense, for it is + only the first time seeing such a thing that you enjoy a peculiar + delight. But since, I love to see and study it much.</p> + + <p>The Pope, in receiving the Councillors, made a + speech,—such as the king of Prussia intrenched himself in + on a similar occasion, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page268" + id="page268"></a>[pg 268]</span> only much better and + shorter,—implying that he meant only to improve, not to + <i>reform</i>, and should keep things <i>in statu quo</i>, safe + locked with the keys of St. Peter. This little speech was made, + no doubt, more to reassure czars, emperors, and kings, than from + the promptings of the spirit. But the fact of its necessity, as + well as the inferior freedom and spirit of the Roman journals to + those of Tuscany, seems to say that the pontifical government, + though from the accident of this one man's accession it has taken + the initiative to better times, yet may not, after a while, from + its very nature, be able to keep in the vanguard.</p> + + <p>A sad contrast to the feast of this day was presented by the + same persons, a fortnight after, following the body of Silvani, + one of the Councillors, who died suddenly. The Councillors, the + different societies of Rome, a corps <i>frati</i> bearing tapers, + the Civic Guard with drums slowly beating, the same state + carriages with their liveried attendants all slowly, sadly + moving, with torches and banners, drooped along the Corso in the + dark night. A single horseman, with his long white plume and + torch reversed, governed the procession; it was the Prince + Aldobrandini. The whole had that grand effect so easily given by + this artist people, who seize instantly the natural poetry of an + occasion, and with unanimous tact hasten to represent it. More + and much anon.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page269" id= + "page269"></a>[pg 269]</span> + <p> </p> + <h3>LETTER XX.</h3> + + <h4>Rome.—Bad Weather.—St. Cecilia.—The + People's Processions.—Taking the + Veil.—Festivities.—Political + Agitation.—Nobles.—Maria + Louisa.—Guiccioli.—Parma.—Address to the new + Sovereign.—The New York Meeting for Italy.—Address to + the Pope.</h4> + + <p class="author">Rome, December 30, 1847.</p> + + <p>I could not, in my last, content myself with praising the + glorious weather. I wrote in the last day of it. Since, we have + had a fortnight of rain falling incessantly, and whole days and + nights of torrents such as are peculiar to the "clearing-up" + shower in our country.</p> + + <p>Under these circumstances, I have found my lodging in the + Corso not only has its dark side, but is all dark, and that one + in the Piazza di Spagne would have been better for me in this + respect; there on these days, the only ones when I wish to stay + at home and write and study, I should have had the light. Now, if + I consulted the good of my eyes, I should have the lamp lit on + first rising in the morning.</p> + + <p>"Every sweet must have its bitter," and the exchange from the + brilliance of the Italian heaven to weeks and months of rain, and + such black cloud, is unspeakably dejecting. For myself, at the + end of this fortnight without exercise or light, and in such a + damp atmosphere, I find myself without strength, without + appetite, almost without spirits. The life of the German scholar + who studies fifteen hours out of the twenty-four, or that of the + Spielberg prisoner who could live through ten, fifteen, twenty + years of dark prison with, only half an hour's exercise in the + day, is to me a mystery. How can the brain, the nerves, ever + support it? We are made to keep in motion, to drink the air and + light; to me <span class="pagenum"><a name="page270" id= + "page270"></a>[pg 270]</span> these are needed to make life + supportable, the physical state is so difficult and full of pains + at any rate.</p> + + <p>I am sorry for those who have arrived just at this time hoping + to enjoy the Christmas festivities. Everything was spoiled by the + weather. I went at half past ten to San Luigi Francese, a church + adorned with some of Domenichino's finest frescos on the life and + death of St. Cecilia.</p> + + <p>This name leads me to a little digression. In a letter to Mr. + Phillips, the dear friend of our revered Dr. Charming, I asked + him if he remembered what recumbent statue it was of which Dr. + Charming was wont to speak as of a sight that impressed him more + than anything else in Rome. He said, indeed, his mood, and the + unexpectedness in seeing this gentle, saintly figure lying there + as if death had just struck her down, had no doubt much influence + upon him; but still he believed the work had a peculiar holiness + in its expression. I recognized at once the theme of his + description (the name he himself had forgotten) as I entered the + other evening the lonely church of St. Cecilia in Trastevere. As + in his case, it was twilight: one or two nuns were at their + devotions, and there lay the figure in its grave-clothes, with an + air so gentle, so holy, as if she had only ceased to pray as the + hand of the murderer struck her down. Her gentle limbs seemed + instinct still with soft, sweet life; the expression was not of + the heroine, the martyr, so much as of the tender, angelic woman. + I could well understand the deep impression made upon his mind. + The expression of the frescos of Domenichino is not inharmonious + with the suggestions of this statue.</p> + + <p>Finding the Mass was not to begin for some time, I set out for + the Quirinal to see the Pope return from that noble church, Santa + Maria Maggiore, where he officiated this night. I reached the + mount just as he was returning. A few torches gleamed before his + door; perhaps a hundred people were gathered together round the + fountain. Last year an immense multitude waited for him there to + express their affection in one grand good-night; the change was + occasioned partly by the weather, partly by other causes, of + which I shall speak by and by. Just as he returned, <span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page271" id="page271"></a>[pg 271]</span> the + moon looked palely out from amid the wet clouds, and shone upon + the fountain, and the noble figures above it, and the long white + cloaks of the Guardia Nobile who followed his carriage on + horseback; darker objects could scarcely be seen, except by the + flickering light of the torches, much blown by the wind. I then + returned to San Luigi. The effect of the night service there was + very fine; those details which often have such a glaring, mean + look by day are lost sight of in the night, and the unity of + impression from the service is much more undisturbed. The music, + too, descriptive of that era which promised peace on earth, + good-will to men, was very sweet, and the <i>pastorale</i> + particularly soothed the heart amid the crowd, and pompous + ceremonial. But here, too, the sweet had its bitter, in the + vulgar vanity of the leader of the orchestra, a trait too common + in such, who, not content with marking the time for the + musicians, made his stick heard in the remotest nook of the + church; so that what would have been sweet music, and flowed in + upon the soul, was vulgarized to make you remember the performers + and their machines.</p> + + <p>On Monday the leaders of the Guardia Civica paid their + respects to the Pope, who, in receiving them, expressed his + constantly increasing satisfaction in having given this + institution to his people. The same evening there was a + procession with torches to the Quirinal, to pay the homage due to + the day (Feast of St. John, and name-day of the Pope, <i>Giovanni + Maria Mastai</i>); but all the way the rain continually + threatened to extinguish the torches, and the Pope could give but + a hasty salute under an umbrella, when the heavens were again + opened, and such a cataract of water descended, as drove both man + and beast to seek the nearest shelter.</p> + + <p>On Sunday, I went to see a nun take the veil. She was a person + of high family; a princess gave her away, and the Cardinal + Ferreti, Secretary of State, officiated. It was a much less + effective ceremony than I expected from the descriptions of + travellers and romance-writers. There was no moment of throwing + on the black veil; no peal of music; no salute of cannon. The + nun, an elegantly dressed woman of five or six and + twenty,—pretty <span class="pagenum"><a name="page272" id= + "page272"></a>[pg 272]</span> enough, but whose quite worldly air + gave the idea that it was one of those arrangements made because + no suitable establishment could otherwise be given + her,—came forward, knelt, and prayed; her confessor, in + that strained, unnatural whine too common among preachers of all + churches and all countries, praised himself for having induced + her to enter on a path which would lead her fettered steps "from + palm to palm, from triumph to triumph," Poor thing! she looked as + if the domestic olives and poppies were all she wanted; and + lacking these, tares and wormwood must be her portion. She was + then taken behind a grating, her hair cut, and her clothes + exchanged for the nun's vestments; the black-robed sisters who + worked upon her looking like crows or ravens at their ominous + feasts. All the while, the music played, first sweet and + thoughtful, then triumphant strains. The effect on my mind was + revolting and painful to the last degree. Were monastic seclusion + always voluntary, and could it be ended whenever the mind + required a change back from seclusion to common life, I should + have nothing to say against it; there are positions of the mind + which it suits exactly, and even characters that might choose it + all through life; certainly, to the broken-hearted it presents a + shelter that Protestant communities do not provide. But where it + is enforced or repented of, no hell could be worse; nor can a + more terrible responsibility be incurred than by him who has + persuaded a novice that the snares of the world are less + dangerous than the demons of solitude.</p> + + <p>Festivities in Italy have been of great importance, since, for + a century or two back, the thought, the feeling, the genius of + the people have had more chance to expand, to express themselves, + there than anywhere else. Now, if the march of reform goes + forward, this will not be so; there will be also speeches made + freely on public occasions, without having the life pressed out + of them by the censorship. Now we hover betwixt the old and the + new; when the many reasons for the new prevail, I hope what is + poetical in the old will not be lost. The ceremonies of New Year + are before me; but as I shall have to send this letter on + New-Year's day, I cannot describe them. <span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page273" id="page273"></a>[pg 273]</span> The + Romans begin now to talk of the mad gayeties of Carnival, and the + Opera is open. They have begun with "Attila," as, indeed, there + is little hope of hearing in Italy other music than Verdi's. + Great applause waited on the following words:—</p> + + <h4>"EZIO (THE ROMAN LEADER).</h4> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"E gittata la mia sorte,</p> + + <p class="i2">Pronto sono ad ogni guerra,</p> + + <p>S' io cardò, cadrè da forte,</p> + + <p class="i2">E il mio nome resterà.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"Non vedrò l'amata terra</p> + + <p class="i2">Svener lenta e farri a brano,</p> + + <p>Sopra l'ultimo Romano</p> + + <p class="i2">Tutta Italia piangerà."</p> + </div> + </div> + + <blockquote> + <p>"My lot is fixed, and I stand ready for every conflict. If I + must fall, I shall fall as a brave man, and my fame will + survive. I shall not see my beloved country fall to pieces and + slowly perish, and over the last Roman all Italy will + weep."</p> + </blockquote> + + <p>And at lines of which the following is a + translation:—</p> + + <blockquote> + <p>"O brave man, whose mighty power can raise thy country from + such dire distress; from the immortal hills, radiant with + glory, let the shades of our ancestors arise; oh! only one day, + one instant, arise to look upon us!"</p> + </blockquote> + + <p>It was an Italian who sung this strain, though, singularly + enough, here in the heart of Italy, so long reputed the home of + music, three principal parts were filled by persons bearing the + foreign names of Ivanoff, Mitrovich, and Nissren.</p> + + <p>Naples continues in a state of great excitement, which now + pervades the upper classes, as several young men of noble + families have been arrested; among them, one young man much + beloved, son of Prince Terella, and who, it is said, was + certainly not present on the occasion for which he was arrested, + and that the measure was taken because he was known to sympathize + strongly with the liberal movement. The nobility very generally + have not feared to go to the house of his father to express their + displeasure at the arrest and interest in the young man. The + ministry, it is said, are now persuaded of the necessity of a + change of measures. The king alone remains inflexible in his + stupidity.</p> + + <p>The stars of Bonaparte and Byron show again a conjunction, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page274" id="page274"></a>[pg + 274]</span> by the almost simultaneous announcement of changes in + the lot of women with whom they were so intimately + connected;—the Archduchess of Parma, Maria Louisa, is dead; + the Countess Guiccioli is married. The Countess I have seen + several times; she still looks young, and retains the charms + which by the contemporaries of Byron she is reputed to have had; + they never were of a very high order; her best expression is that + of a good heart. I always supposed that Byron, weary and sick of + the world such as he had known it, became attached to her for her + good disposition, and sincere, warm tenderness for him; the sight + of her, and the testimony of a near relative, confirmed this + impression. This friend of hers added, that she had tried very + hard to remain devoted to the memory of Byron, but was quite + unequal to the part, being one of those affectionate natures that + must have some one near with whom to be occupied; and now, it + seems, she has resigned herself publicly to abandon her romance. + However, I fancy the manes of Byron remain undisturbed.</p> + + <p>We all know the worthless character of Maria Louisa, the + indifference she showed to a husband who, if he was not her own + choice, yet would have been endeared to almost any woman, as one + fallen from an immense height into immense misfortune, and as the + father of her child. No voice from her penetrated to cheer his + exile: the unhappiness of Josephine was well avenged. And that + child, the poor Duke of Reichstadt, of a character so + interesting, and with obvious elements of greatness, withering + beneath the mean, cold influence of his grandfather,—what + did Maria Louisa do for him,—she, appointed by Nature to be + his inspiring genius, his protecting angel? I felt for her a most + sad and profound contempt last summer, as I passed through her + oppressed dominion, a little sphere, in which, if she could not + save it from the usual effects of the Austrian rule, she might + have done so much private, womanly good,—might have been a + genial heart to warm it,—and where she had let so much ill + be done. A journal announces her death in these words: "The + Archduchess is dead; a woman who <i>might</i> have occupied one + of the noblest positions in the history of the age";—and + there makes expressive pause.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name= + "page275" id="page275"></a>[pg 275]</span> + + <p>Parma, passing from bad to worse, falls into the hands of the + Duke of Modena; and the people and magistracy have made an + address to their new ruler. The address has received many + thousand signatures, and seems quite sincere, except in the + assumption of good-will in the Duke of Modena; and this is merely + an insincerity of etiquette.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name= + "page276" id="page276"></a>[pg 276]</span> + <p> </p> + <h3>LETTER XXI.</h3> + + <h4>The Pope's Reception of the New Officers.—They kiss his + Foot.—Vespers at the Gesù.—A Poor Youth in + Rome seeking a Patron.—Rumors of Disturbances.—Their + Cause.—Representations to the Pope.—His Conduct in + the Affair.—An Italian Consul for the United + States.—Catholicism.—The Popularity of the + Pope.—His Deposition of a Censor.—The Policy of the + Pope in his Domestic not equal to that of his Public + Life.—His Opposition to Protestant Reform.—Letter + from Joseph Mazzini to the Pontiff.—Reflections on it.</h4> + + <p class="author">Rome, January 10, 1848.</p> + + <p>In the first morning of this New Year I sent off a letter + which must then be mailed, in order to reach the steamer of the + 16th. So far am I from home, that even steam does not come nigh + to annihilate the distance.</p> + + <p>This afternoon I went to the Quirinal Palace to see the Pope + receive the new municipal officers. He was to-day in his robes of + white and gold, with his usual corps of attendants in pure red + and white, or violet and white. The new officers were in black + velvet dresses, with broad white collars. They took the oaths of + office, and then actually kissed his foot. I had supposed this + was never really done, but only a very low obeisance made; the + act seemed to me disgustingly abject. A Heavenly Father does not + want his children at his feet, but in his arms, on a level with + his heart.</p> + + <p>After this was over the Pope went to the Gesù, a very + rich church, belonging to the Jesuits, to officiate at Vespers, + and we followed. The music was beautiful, and the effect of the + church, with its richly-painted dome and altar-piece in a blaze + of light, while the assembly were in a sort of brown darkness, + was very fine.</p> + + <p>A number of Americans there, new arrivals, kept requesting in + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page277" id="page277"></a>[pg + 277]</span> the midst of the music to know when <i>it</i> would + begin. "Why, this is <i>it</i>," some one at last had the + patience to answer; "you are hearing Vespers now." "What," they + replied, "is there no oration, no speech!" So deeply rooted in + the American mind is the idea that a sermon is the only real + worship!</p> + + <p>This church, is indelibly stamped on my mind. Coming to Rome + this time, I saw in the diligence a young man, whom his uncle, a + priest of the convent that owns this church, had sent for, + intending to provide him employment here. Some slight + circumstances tested the character of this young man, and showed + it what I have ever found it, singularly honorable and + conscientious. He was led to show me his papers, among which was + a letter from a youth whom, with that true benevolence only + possible to the poor, because only they <i>can</i> make great + sacrifices, he had so benefited as to make an entire change in + his prospects for life. Himself a poor orphan, with nothing but a + tolerable education at an orphan asylum, and a friend of his dead + parents to find him employment on leaving it, he had felt for + this young man, poorer and more uninstructed than himself, had + taught him at his leisure to read and write, had then collected + from, friends, and given himself, till he had gathered together + sixty francs, procuring also for his + <i>protégé</i> a letter from monks, who were + friends of his, to the convents on the road, so that wherever + there was one, the poor youth had lodging and food gratis. Thus + armed, he set forth on foot for Rome; Piacenza, their native + place, affording little hope even of gaining bread, in the + present distressed state of that dominion. The letter was to say + that he had arrived, and been so fortunate as to find employment + immediately in the studio of Benzoni, the sculptor.</p> + + <p>The poor patron's eyes sparkled as I read the letter. "How + happy he is!" said he. "And does he not spell and write well? I + was his only master."</p> + + <p>But the good do not inherit the earth, and, less fortunate + than his <i>protégé</i>, Germano on his arrival + found his uncle ill of the Roman fever. He came to see me, much + agitated. "Can it be, Signorina," says he, "that God, who has + taken my father and <span class="pagenum"><a name="page278" id= + "page278"></a>[pg 278]</span> mother, will also take from me the + only protector I have left, and just as I arrive in this strange + place, too?" After a few days he seemed more tranquil, and told + me that, though he had felt as if it would console him and divert + his mind to go to some places of entertainment, he had forborne + and applied the money to have masses said for his uncle. "I + feel," he said, "as if God would help me." Alas! at that moment + the uncle was dying. Poor Germano came next day with a receipt + for masses said for the soul of the departed, (his simple faith + in these being apparently indestructible,) and amid his tears he + said: "The Fathers were so unkind, they were hardly willing to + hear me speak a word; they were so afraid I should be a burden to + them, I shall never go there again. But the most cruel thing was, + I offered them a scudo (dollar) to say six masses for the soul of + my poor uncle; they said they would only say five, and must have + seven baiocchi (cents) more for that."</p> + + <p>A few days after, I happened to go into their church, and + found it thronged, while a preacher, panting, sweating, leaning + half out of the pulpit, was exhorting his hearers to "imitate + Christ." With unspeakable disgust I gazed on this false shepherd + of those who had just so failed in their duty to a poor stray + lamb, Their church is so rich in ornaments, the seven baiocchi + were hardly needed to burnish it. Their altar-piece is a very + imposing composition, by an artist of Rome, still in the prime of + his powers. Capalti. It represents the Circumcision, with the + cross and six waiting angels in the background; Joseph, who holds + the child, the priest, and all the figures in the foreground, + seem intent upon the barbarous rite, except Mary the mother; her + mind seems to rush forward into the future, and understand the + destiny of her child; she sees the cross,—she sees the + angels, too.</p> + + <p>Now I have mentioned a picture, let me say a word or two about + Art and artists, by way of parenthesis in this letter so much + occupied, with political affairs. We laugh a little here at some + words that come from your city on the subject of Art.</p> + + <p>We hear that the landscapes painted here show a want of + familiarity with Nature; artists need to return to America and + see her <span class="pagenum"><a name="page279" id= + "page279"></a>[pg 279]</span> again. But, friends, Nature wears a + different face in Italy from what she does in America. Do you not + want to see her Italian face? it is very glorious! We thought it + was the aim of Art to reproduce all forms of Nature, and that you + would not be sorry to have transcripts of what you have not + always round you. American Art is not necessarily a reproduction + of American Nature.</p> + + <p>Hicks has made a charming picture of familiar life, which + those who cannot believe in Italian daylight would not tolerate. + I am not sure that all eyes are made in the same manner, for I + have known those who declare they see nothing remarkable in these + skies, these hues; and always complain when they are reproduced + in picture. I have yet seen no picture by Cropsey on an Italian + subject, but his sketches from Scotch scenes are most poetical + and just presentations of those lakes, those mountains, with + their mourning veils. He is an artist of great promise. Cranch + has made a picture for Mr. Ogden Haggerty of a fine mountain-hold + of old Colonna story. I wish he would write a ballad about it + too; there is plenty of material.</p> + + <p>But to return to the Jesuits. One swallow does not make a + summer, nor am I—who have seen so much hard-heartedness and + barbarous greed of gain in all classes of men—so foolish as + to attach undue importance to the demand, by those who have dared + to appropriate peculiarly to themselves the sacred name of Jesus, + from a poor orphan, and for the soul of one of their own order, + of "seven baiocchi more." But I have always been satisfied, from + the very nature of their institutions, that the current prejudice + against them must be correct. These institutions are calculated + to harden the heart, and destroy entirely that truth which is the + conservative principle in character. Their influence is and must + be always against the free progress of humanity. The more I see + of its working, the more I feel how pernicious it is, and were I + a European, to no object should I lend myself with more ardor, + than to the extirpation of this cancer. True, disband the + Jesuits, there would still remain Jesuitical men, but singly they + would have infinitely less power to work mischief.</p> + + <p>The influence of the Oscurantist foe has shown itself more and + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page280" id="page280"></a>[pg + 280]</span> more plainly in Rome, during the last four or five + weeks. A false miracle is devised: the Madonna del Popolo, (who + has her handsome house very near me,) has cured, a paralytic + youth, (who, in fact, was never diseased,) and, appearing to him + in a vision, takes occasion to criticise severely the measures of + the Pope. Rumors of tumult in one quarter are circulated, to + excite it in another. Inflammatory handbills are put up in the + night. But the Romans thus far resist all intrigues of the foe to + excite them to bad conduct.</p> + + <p>On New-Year's day, however, success was near. The people, as + usual, asked permission of the Governor to go to the Quirinal and + receive the benediction of the Pope. This was denied, and not, as + it might truly have been, because the Pope was unwell, but in the + most ungracious, irritating manner possible, by saying, "He is + tired of these things: he is afraid of disturbance." Then, the + people being naturally excited and angry, the Governor sent word + to the Pope that there was excitement, without letting him know + why, and had the guards doubled on the posts. The most absurd + rumors were circulated among the people that the cannon of St. + Angelo were to be pointed on them, &c. But they, with that + singular discretion which they show now, instead of rising, as + their enemies had hoped, went to ask counsel of their lately + appointed Senator, Corsini. He went to the Pope, found him ill, + entirely ignorant of what was going on, and much distressed when + he heard it. He declared that the people should be satisfied, + and, since they had not been allowed to come to him, he would go + to them. Accordingly, the next day, though rainy and of a + searching cold like that of a Scotch mist, we had all our windows + thrown open, and the red and yellow tapestries hung out. He + passed through the principal parts of the city, the people + throwing themselves on their knees and crying out, "O Holy + Father, don't desert us! don't forget us! don't listen to our + enemies!" The Pope wept often, and replied, "Fear nothing, my + people, my heart is yours." At last, seeing how ill he was, they + begged him to go in, and he returned to the Quirinal; the present + Tribune of the People, as far as rule in the heart is concerned, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page281" id="page281"></a>[pg + 281]</span> Ciceronacchio, following his carriage. I shall give + some account of this man in another letter.</p> + + <p>For the moment, the difficulties are healed, as they will be + whenever the Pope directly shows himself to the people. Then his + generous, affectionate heart will always act, and act on them, + dissipating the clouds which others have been toiling to + darken.</p> + + <p>In speaking of the intrigues of these emissaries of the power + of darkness, I will mention that there is a report here that they + are trying to get an Italian Consul for the United States, and + one in the employment of the Jesuits. This rumor seems + ridiculous; yet it is true that Dr. Beecher's panic about + Catholic influence in the United States is not quite unfounded, + and that there is considerable hope of establishing a new + dominion there. I hope the United States will appoint no Italian, + no Catholic, to a consulship. The representative of the United + States should be American; our national character and interests + are peculiar, and cannot be fitly represented by a foreigner, + unless, like Mr. Ombrossi of Florence, he has passed part of his + youth in the United States. It would, indeed, be well if our + government paid attention to qualification for the office in the + candidate, and not to pretensions founded on partisan service; + appointing only men of probity, who would not stain the national + honor in the sight of Europe. It would be wise also not to select + men entirely ignorant of foreign manners, customs, ways of + thinking, or even of any language in which to communicate with + foreign society, making the country ridiculous by all sorts of + blunders; but 't were pity if a sufficient number of Americans + could not be found, who are honest, have some knowledge of Europe + and gentlemanly tact, and are able at least to speak French.</p> + + <p>To return to the Pope, although the shadow that has fallen on + his popularity is in a great measure the work of his enemies, yet + there is real cause for it too. His conduct in deposing for a + time one of the Censors, about the banners of the 15th of + December, his speech to the Council the same day, his extreme + displeasure at the sympathy of a few persons with the triumph of + the Swiss Diet, because it was a Protestant triumph, and, above + all, his speech <span class="pagenum"><a name="page282" id= + "page282"></a>[pg 282]</span> to the Consistory, so deplorably + weak in thought and absolute in manner, show a man less strong + against domestic than foreign foes, instigated by a generous, + humane heart to advance, but fettered by the prejudices of + education, and terribly afraid to be or seem to be less the Pope + of Rome, in becoming a reform prince, and father to the + fatherless. I insert a passage of this speech, which seems to say + that, whenever there shall be collision between the priest and + the reformer, the priest shall triumph:—</p> + + <p>"Another subject there is which profoundly afflicts and + harasses our mind. It is not certainly unknown to you, Venerable + Brethren, that many enemies of Catholic truth have, in our times + especially, directed their efforts by the desire to place certain + monstrous offsprings of opinion on a par with the doctrine of + Christ, or to blend them therewith, seeking to propagate more and + more that impious system of <i>indifference</i> toward all + religion whatever.</p> + + <p>"And lately some have been found, dreadful to narrate! who + have offered such an insult to our name and Apostolic dignity, as + slanderously to represent us participators in their folly, and + favorers of that most iniquitous system above named. These have + been pleased to infer from, the counsels (certainly not foreign + to the sanctity of the Catholic religion) which, in certain + affairs pertaining to the civil exercise of the Pontific sway, we + had benignly embraced for the increase of public prosperity and + good, and also from the pardon bestowed in clemency upon certain + persons subject to that sway, in the very beginning of our + Pontificate, that we had such benevolent sentiments toward every + description of persons as to believe that not only the sons of + the Church, but others also, remaining aliens from Catholic + unity, are alike in the way of salvation, and may attain eternal + life. Words are wanting to us, from horror, to repel this new and + atrocious calumny against us. It is true that with intimate + affection of heart we love all mankind, but not otherwise than in + the charity of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ, who came to seek + and to save that which had perished, who wisheth that all men + should be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth, and who + sent his disciples through <span class="pagenum"><a name= + "page283" id="page283"></a>[pg 283]</span> the whole world to + preach the Gospel to every creature, declaring that those who + should believe and be baptized should be saved, but those who + should not believe, should be condemned. Let those therefore who + seek salvation come to the pillar and support of the Truth, which + is the Church,—let them come, that is, to the true Church + of Christ, which possesses in its bishops and the supreme head of + all, the Roman Pontiff, a never-interrupted succession of + Apostolic authority, and which for nothing has ever been more + zealous than to preach, and with all care preserve and defend, + the doctrine announced as the mandate of Christ by his Apostles; + which Church afterward increased, from the time of the Apostles, + in the midst of every species of difficulties, and flourished + throughout the whole world, radiant in the splendor of miracles, + amplified by the blood of martyrs, ennobled by the virtues of + confessors and virgins, corroborated by the testimony and most + sapient writings of the fathers,—as it still flourishes + throughout all lands, refulgent in perfect unity of the + sacraments, of faith, and of holy discipline. We who, though + unworthy, preside in this supreme chair of the Apostle Peter, in + which Christ our Lord placed the foundation of his Church, have + at no time abstained, from any cares or toils to bring, through + the grace of Christ himself, those who are in ignorance and error + to this sole way of truth and salvation. Let those, whoever they + be, that are adverse, remember that heaven and earth shall pass + away, but nothing can ever perish of the words of Christ, nor be + changed in the doctrine which the Catholic Church received, to + guard, defend, and publish, from him.</p> + + <p>"Next to this we cannot but speak to you, Venerable Brethren, + of the bitterness of sorrow by which we were affected, on seeing + that a few days since, in this our fair city, the fortress and + centre of the Catholic religion, it proved possible to find + some—very few indeed and well-nigh frantic men—who, + laying aside the very sense of humanity, and to the extreme + disgust and indignation of other citizens of this town, were not + withheld, by horror from triumphing openly and publicly over the + most lamentable intestine war lately excited among the Helvetic + people; which <span class="pagenum"><a name="page284" id= + "page284"></a>[pg 284]</span> truly fatal war we sorrow over from + the depths of our heart, as well considering the blood shed by + that nation, the slaughter of brothers, the atrocious, daily + recurring, and fatal discords, hatreds, and dissensions (which + usually redound among nations in consequence especially of civil + wars), as the detriment which we learn the Catholic religion has + suffered, and fear it may yet suffer, in consequence of this, + and, finally, the deplorable acts of sacrilege committed in the + first conflict, which our soul shrinks from narrating."</p> + + <p>It is probably on account of these fears of Pius IX. lest he + should be a called a Protestant Pope, that the Roman journals + thus far, in translating the American Address to the Pope, have + not dared to add any comment.</p> + + <p>But if the heart, the instincts, of this good man have been + beyond his thinking powers, that only shows him the providential + agent to work out aims beyond his ken. A wave has been set in + motion, which cannot stop till it casts up its freight upon the + shore, and if Pius IX. does not suffer himself to be surrounded + by dignitaries, and see the signs of the times through the eyes + of others,—if he does not suffer the knowledge he had of + general society as a simple prelate to become incrusted by the + ignorance habitual to princes,—he cannot fail long to be a + most important agent in fashioning a new and better era for this + beautiful injured land.</p> + + <p>I will now give another document, which may be considered as + representing the view of what is now passing taken by the + democratic party called "Young Italy." Should it in any other way + have reached the United States, yet it will not come amiss to + have it translated for the Tribune, as many of your readers may + not otherwise have a chance of seeing this noble document, one of + the milestones in the march of thought. It is a letter to the + Most High Pontiff, Pius IX., from Joseph Mazzini.</p> + + <p class="author">"London, 8th September, 1847.</p> + + <p>"MOST HOLY FATHER,—Permit an Italian, who has studied + your every step for some months back with much hopefulness, to + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page285" id="page285"></a>[pg + 285]</span> address to you, in the midst of the applauses, often + far too servile and unworthy of you, which, resound near you, + some free and profoundly sincere words. Take to read them some + moments from your infinite cares. From a simple individual + animated by holy intentions may come, sometimes, a great counsel; + and I write to you with so much love, with so much emotion of my + whole soul, with so much faith in the destiny of my country, + which may be revived by your means, that my thoughts ought to + speak truth.</p> + + <p>"And first, it is needful, Most Holy Father, that I should say + to you somewhat of myself. My name has probably reached your + ears, but accompanied by all the calumnies, by all the errors, by + all the foolish conjectures, which the police, by system, and + many men of my party through want of knowledge or poverty of + intellect, have heaped upon it. I am not a subverter, nor a + communist, nor a man of blood, nor a hater, nor intolerant, nor + exclusive adorer of a system, or of a form imagined by my mind. I + adore God, and an idea which seems to me of God,—Italy an + angel of moral unity and of progressive civilization for the + nations of Europe. Here and everywhere I have written the best I + know how against the vices of materialism, of egotism, of + reaction, and against the destructive tendencies which + contaminate many of our party. If the people should rise in + violent attack against the selfishness and bad government of + their rulers, I, while rendering homage to the right of the + people, shall be among the first to prevent the excesses and the + vengeance which long slavery has prepared. I believe profoundly + in a religious principle, supreme above all social ordinances; in + a divine order, which we ought to seek to realize here on earth; + in a law, in a providential design, which we all ought, according + to our powers, to study and to promote. I believe in the + inspiration of my immortal soul, in the teaching of Humanity, + which shouts to me, through the deeds and words of all its + saints, incessant progress for all through, the work of all my + brothers toward a common moral amelioration, toward the + fulfilment of the Divine Law. And in the great history of + Humanity I have studied the history <span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page286" id="page286"></a>[pg 286]</span> of + Italy, and have found there Rome twice directress of the + world,—first through the Emperors, later through the Popes. + I have found there, that every manifestation of Italian life has + also been a manifestation of European life; and that always when + Italy fell, the moral unity of Europe began to fall apart in + analysis, in doubt, in anarchy. I believe in yet another + manifestation of the Italian idea; and I believe that another + European world ought to be revealed from the Eternal City, that + had the Capitol, and has the Vatican. And this faith has not + abandoned me ever, through years, poverty, and griefs which God + alone knows. In these few words lies all my being, all the secret + of my life. I may err in the intellect, but the heart has always + remained pure. I have never lied through fear or hope, and I + speak to you as I should speak to God beyond the sepulchre.</p> + + <p>"I believe you good. There is no man this day, I will not say + in Italy, but in all Europe, more powerful than you; you then + have, most Holy Father, vast duties. God measures these according + to the means which he has granted to his creatures.</p> + + <p>"Europe is in a tremendous crisis of doubts and desires. + Through the work of time, accelerated by your predecessors of the + hierarchy of the Church, faith is dead, Catholicism is lost in + despotism; Protestantism is lost in anarchy. Look around you; you + will find superstitious and hypocrites, but not believers. The + intellect travels in a void. The bad adore calculation, physical + good; the good pray and hope; nobody <i>believes</i>. Kings, + governments, the ruling classes, combat for a power usurped, + illegitimate, since it does not represent the worship of truth, + nor disposition to sacrifice one's self for the good of all; the + people combat because they suffer, because they would fain take + their turn to enjoy; nobody fights for duty, nobody because the + war against evil and falsehood is a holy war, the crusade of God. + We have no more a heaven; hence we have no more a society.</p> + + <p>"Do not deceive yourself, Most Holy Father; this is the + present state of Europe.</p> + + <p>"But humanity cannot exist without a heaven. The idea of + society is only a consequence of the idea of religion. We shall + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page287" id="page287"></a>[pg + 287]</span> have then, sooner or later, religion and heaven. We + shall have these not in the kings and the privileged + classes,—their very condition excludes love, the soul of + all religions,—but in the people. The spirit from God + descends on many gathered together in his name. The people have + suffered for ages on the cross, and God will bless them with a + faith.</p> + + <p>"You can, Most Holy Father, hasten that moment. I will not + tell you my individual opinions on the religious development + which is to come; these are of little importance. But I will say + to you, that, whatever be the destiny of the creeds now existing, + you can put yourself at the head of this development. If God + wills that such creeds should revive, you can make them revive; + if God wills that they should be transformed, that, leaving the + foot of the cross, dogma and worship should be purified by rising + a step nearer God, the Father and Educator of the world, you can + put yourself between the two epochs, and guide the world to the + conquest and the practice of religious truth, extirpating a + hateful egotism, a barren negation.</p> + + <p>"God preserve me from tempting you with ambition; that would + be profanation. I call you, in the name of the power which God + has granted you, and has not granted without a reason, to fulfil + the good, the regenerating European work. I call you, after so + many ages of doubt and corruption, to be apostle of Eternal + Truth. I call you to make yourself the 'servant of all,' to + sacrifice yourself, if needful, so that 'the will of God may be + done on the earth as it is in heaven'; to hold yourself ready to + glorify God in victory, or to repeat with resignation, if you + must fail, the words of Gregory VII.: 'I die in exile, because I + have loved justice and hated iniquity.'</p> + + <p>"But for this, to fulfil the mission which God confides to + you, two things are needful,—to be a believer, and to unify + Italy. Without the first, you will fall in the middle of the way, + abandoned by God and by men; without the second, you will not + have the lever with which only you can effect great, holy, and + durable things.</p> + + <p>"Be a believer; abhor to be king, politician, statesman. Make + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page288" id="page288"></a>[pg + 288]</span> no compromise with error; do not contaminate yourself + with diplomacy, make no compact with fear, with expediency, with + the false doctrines of a <i>legality</i>, which is merely a + falsehood invented when faith failed. Take no counsel except from + God, from the inspirations of your own heart, and from the + imperious necessity of rebuilding a temple to truth, to justice, + to faith. Self-collected, in enthusiasm of love for humanity, and + apart from every human regard, ask of God that he will teach you + the way; then enter upon it, with the faith of a conqueror on + your brow, with the irrevocable decision of the martyr in your + heart; look neither to the right hand nor the left, but straight + before you, and up to heaven. Of every object that meets you on + the way, ask of yourself: 'Is this just or unjust, true or false, + law of man or law of God?' Proclaim aloud the result of your + examination, and act accordingly. Do not say to yourself: 'If I + speak and work in such a way, the princes of the earth will + disagree; the ambassadors will present notes and protests!' What + are the quarrels of selfishness in princes, or their notes, + before a syllable of the eternal Evangelists of God? They have + had importance till now, because, though phantoms, they had + nothing to oppose them but phantoms; oppose to them the reality + of a man who sees the Divine view, unknown to them, of human + affairs, of an immortal soul conscious of a high mission, and + these will vanish before you as vapors accumulated in darkness + before the sun which rises in the east. Do not let yourself be + affrighted by intrigues; the creature who fulfils a duty belongs + not to men, but to God. God will protect you; God will spread + around you such a halo of love, that neither the perfidy of men + irreparably lost, nor the suggestions of hell, can break through + it. Give to the world a spectacle new, unique: you will have + results new, not to be foreseen by human calculation. Announce an + era; declare that Humanity is sacred, and a daughter of God; that + all who violate her rights to progress, to association, are on + the way of error; that in God is the source of every government; + that those who are best by intellect and heart, by genius and + virtue, must be the guides of the people. Bless those who suffer + and combat; blame, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page289" id= + "page289"></a>[pg 289]</span> reprove, those who cause suffering, + without regard to the name they bear, the rank that invests them. + The people will adore in you the best interpreter of the Divine + design, and your conscience will give you rest, strength, and + ineffable comfort.</p> + + <p>"Unify Italy, your country. For this you have no need to work, + but to bless Him who works through you and in your name. Gather + round you those who best represent the national party. Do not beg + alliances with princes. Continue to seek the alliance of our own + people; say, 'The unity of Italy ought to be a fact of the + nineteenth century,' and it will suffice; we shall work for you. + Leave our pens free; leave free the circulation of ideas in what + regards this point, vital for us, of the national unity. Treat + the Austrian government, even when it no longer menaces your + territory, with the reserve of one who knows that it governs by + usurpation in Italy and elsewhere; combat it with words of a just + man, wherever it contrives oppressions and violations of the + rights of others out of Italy. Require, in the name of the God of + Peace, the Jesuits allied with Austria in Switzerland to withdraw + from that country, where their presence prepares an inevitable + and speedy effusion of the blood of the citizens. Give a word of + sympathy which shall become public to the first Pole of Galicia + who comes into your presence. Show us, in fine, by some fact, + that you intend not only to improve the physical condition of + your own few subjects, but that you embrace in your love the + twenty-four millions of Italians, your brothers; that you believe + them called by God to unite in family unity under one and the + same compact; that you would bless the national banner, wherever + it should be raised by pure and incontaminate hands; and leave + the rest to us. We will cause to rise around you a nation over + whose free and popular development you, living, shall preside. We + will found a government unique in Europe, which shall destroy the + absurd divorce between spiritual and temporal power, and in which + you shall be chosen to represent the principle of which the men + chosen by the nation will make the application. We shall know how + to translate into a potent fact the instinct which palpitates + through all Italy. We will excite for you active support + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page290" id="page290"></a>[pg + 290]</span> among the nations of Europe; we will find you friends + even in the ranks of Austria; we alone, because we alone have + unity of design, believe in the truth of our principle, and have + never betrayed it. Do not fear excesses from the people once + entered upon this way; the people only commit excesses when left + to their own impulses without any guide whom they respect. Do not + pause before the idea of becoming a cause of war. War exists, + everywhere, open or latent, but near breaking out, inevitable; + nor can human power prevent it. Nor do I, it must be said + frankly, Most Holy Father, address to you these words because I + doubt in the least of our destiny, or because I believe you the + sole, the indispensable means of the enterprise. The unity of + Italy is a work of God,—a part of the design of Providence + and of all, even of those who show themselves most satisfied with + local improvements, and who, less sincere than I, wish to make + them means of attaining their own aims. It will be fulfilled, + with you or without you. But I address you, because I believe you + worthy to take the initiative in a work so vast; because your + putting yourself at the head of it would much abridge the road + and diminish the dangers, the injury, the blood; because with you + the conflict would assume a religious aspect, and be freed from + many dangers of reaction and civil errors; because might be + attained at once under your banner a political result and a vast + moral result; because the revival of Italy under the + ægis of a religious idea, of a standard, not of rights, + but of duties, would leave behind all the revolutions of other + countries, and place her immediately at the head of European + progress; because it is in your power to cause that God and the + people, terms too often fatally disjoined, should meet at once in + beautiful and holy harmony, to direct the fate of nations.</p> + + <p>"If I could be near you, I would invoke from God power to + convince you, by gesture, by accent, by tears; now I can only + confide to the paper the cold corpse, as it were, of my thought; + nor can I ever have the certainty that you have read, and + meditated a moment what I write. But I feel an imperious + necessity of fulfilling this duty toward Italy and you, and, + whatsoever you <span class="pagenum"><a name="page291" id= + "page291"></a>[pg 291]</span> may think of it, I shall find + myself more in peace with my conscience for having thus addressed + you.</p> + + <p>"Believe, Most Holy Father, in the feelings of veneration and + of high hope which professes for you your most devoted</p> + + <p class="author close">"JOSEPH MAZZINI."</p> + + <p>Whatever may be the impression of the reader as to the ideas + and propositions contained in this document,<a id="footnotetagk" + name="footnotetagk"></a><a href="#footnotek"><sup>K</sup></a> I + think he cannot fail to be struck with its simple nobleness, its + fervent truth.</p> + + <p>A thousand petty interruptions have prevented my completing + this letter, till, now the hour of closing the mail for the + steamer is so near, I shall not have time to look over it, either + to see what I have written or make slight corrections. However, I + suppose it represents the feelings of the last few days, and + shows that, without having lost any of my confidence in the + Italian movement, the office of the Pope in promoting it has + shown narrower limits, and sooner than I had expected.</p> + + <p>This does not at all weaken my personal feeling toward this + excellent man, whose heart I have seen in his face, and can never + doubt. It was necessary to be a great thinker, a great genius, to + compete with the difficulties of his position. I never supposed + he was that; I am only disappointed that his good heart has not + carried him on a little farther. With regard to the reception of + the American address, it is only the Roman press that is so + timid; the private expressions of pleasure have been very warm; + the Italians say, "The Americans are indeed our brothers." It + remains to be seen, when Pius IX. receives it, whether the man, + the reforming prince, or the Pope is uppermost at that + moment.</p> + + <blockquote class="footnote"> + <a id="footnotek" name="footnotek"></a><b>Footnote K:</b> + <a href="#footnotetagk">(return)</a> + + <p>This letter was printed in Paris to be circulated in Italy. + A prefatory note signed by a friend of Mazzini's, states that + the original was known to have reached the hands of the Pope. + The hope is expressed that the publication of this letter, + though without the authority of its writer, will yet not + displease him, as those who are deceived as to his plans and + motives will thus learn his true purposes and feelings, and the + letter will one day aid the historian who seeks to know what + were the opinions and hopes of the entire people of + Italy.—ED.</p> + </blockquote><span class="pagenum"><a name="page292" id= + "page292"></a>[pg 292]</span> + <p> </p> + <h3>LETTER XXII.</h3> + + <h4>The Ceremonies succeeding Epiphany.—The Death of + Torlonia, and its predisposing Causes.—Funeral + Honors.—A striking Contrast in the Decease of the Cardinal + Prince Massimo.—The Pope and his Officers of + State.—The Cardinal Bofondi.—Sympathetic Excitements + through Italy.—Sicily in full Insurrection.—The King + of Sicily, Prince Metternich, and Louis Philippe.—A Rumor + as to the Parentage of the King of the French.—Rome: Ave + Maria.—Life in the Eternal City.—The + Bambino.—Catholicism: its Gifts and its Workings.—The + Church of Ara Coeli.—Exhibition of the + Bambino.—Bygone Superstition and Living Reality.—The + Soul of Catholicism has fled.—Reflections.—Exhibition + by the College of the Propaganda.—Exercises in all + Languages.—Disturbances and their + Causes.—Thoughts.—Blessing Animals.—Accounts + from Pavia.—Austria.—The King of Naples.—Rumors + from other Parts of + Europe.—France.—Guizot.—Appearances and + Apprehensions.</h4> + + <p class="author">Rome, January, 1848.</p> + + <p>I think I closed my last letter, without having had time to + speak of the ceremonies that precede and follow Epiphany. This + month, no day, scarcely an hour, has passed unmarked by some + showy spectacle or some exciting piece of news.</p> + + <p>On the last day of the year died Don Carlo Torlonia, brother + of the banker, a man greatly beloved and regretted. The public + felt this event the more that its proximate cause was an attack + made upon his brother's house by Paradisi, now imprisoned in the + Castle of St. Angelo, pending a law process for proof of his + accusations. Don Carlo had been ill before, and the painful + agitation caused by these circumstances decided his fate. The + public had been by no means displeased at this inquiry into the + conduct of Don Alessandro Torlonia, believing that his assumed + munificence is, in this case, literally a robbery of Peter to pay + Paul, and that all he gives to Rome is taken from Rome. But I + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page293" id="page293"></a>[pg + 293]</span> sympathized no less with the affectionate indignation + of his brother, too good a man to be made the confidant of wrong, + or have eyes for it, if such exist.</p> + + <p>Thus, in the poetical justice which does not fail to be done + in the prose narrative of life, while men hastened, the moment a + cry was raised against Don Alessandro, to echo it back with all + kinds of imputations both on himself and his employees, every man + held his breath, and many wept, when the mortal remains of Don + Carlo passed; feeling that in him was lost a benefactor, a + brother, a simple, just man.</p> + + <p>Don Carlo was a Knight of Malta; yet with him the celibate + life had not hardened the heart, but only left it free on all + sides to general love. Not less than half a dozen pompous + funerals were given in his honor, by his relatives, the + brotherhoods to which he belonged, and the battalion of the Civic + Guard of which he was commander-in-chief. But in his own house + the body lay in no other state than that of a simple Franciscan, + the order to which he first belonged, and whose vow he had kept + through half a century, by giving all he had for the good of + others. He lay on the ground in the plain dark robe and cowl, no + unfit subject for a modern picture of little angels descending to + shower lilies on a good man's corpse. The long files of armed + men, the rich coaches, and liveried retinues of the princes, were + little observed, in comparison with more than a hundred orphan + girls whom his liberality had sustained, and who followed the + bier in mourning robes and long white veils, spirit-like, in the + dark night. The trumpet's wail, and soft, melancholy music from + the bands, broke at times the roll of the muffled drum; the hymns + of the Church were chanted, and volleys of musketry discharged, + in honor of the departed; but much more musical was the whisper + in which the crowd, as passed his mortal frame, told anecdotes of + his good deeds.</p> + + <p>I do not know when I have passed more consolatory moments than + in the streets one evening during this pomp and picturesque + show,—for once not empty of all meaning as to the present + time, recognizing that good which remains in the human + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page294" id="page294"></a>[pg + 294]</span> being, ineradicable by all ill, and promises that our + poor, injured nature shall rise, and bloom again, from present + corruption to immortal purity. If Don Carlo had been a + thinker,—a man of strong intellect,—he might have + devised means of using his money to more radical advantage than + simply to give it in alms; he had only a kind human heart, but + from that heart distilled a balm which made all men bless it, + happy in finding cause to bless.</p> + + <p>As in the moral little books with which our nurseries are + entertained, followed another death in violent contrast. One of + those whom the new arrangements deprived of power and the means + of unjust gain was the Cardinal Prince Massimo, a man a little + younger than Don Carlo, but who had passed his forty years in a + very different manner. He remonstrated; the Pope was firm, and, + at last, is said to have answered with sharp reproof for the + past. The Cardinal contained himself in the audience, but, going + out, literally suffocated with the rage he had suppressed. The + bad blood his bad heart had been so long making rushed to his + head, and he died on his return home. Men laughed, and proposed + that all the widows he had deprived of a maintenance should + combine to follow <i>his</i> bier. It was said boys hissed as + that bier passed. Now, a splendid suit of lace being for sale in + a shop of the Corso, everybody says: "Have you been to look at + the lace of Cardinal Massimo, who died of rage, because he could + no longer devour the public goods?" And this is the last echo of + <i>his</i> requiem.</p> + + <p>The Pope is anxious to have at least well-intentioned men in + places of power. Men of much ability, it would seem, are not to + be had. His last prime minister was a man said to have energy, + good dispositions, but no thinking power. The Cardinal Bofondi, + whom he has taken now, is said to be a man of scarce any ability; + there being few among the new Councillors the public can name as + fitted for important trust. In consolation, we must remember that + the Chancellor Oxenstiern found nothing more worthy of remark to + show his son, than by how little wisdom the world could be + governed. We must hope these men <span class="pagenum"><a name= + "page295" id="page295"></a>[pg 295]</span> of straw will serve as + thatch to keep out the rain, and not be exposed to the assaults + of a devouring flame.</p> + + <p>Yet that hour may not be distant. The disturbances of the 1st + of January here were answered by similar excitements in Leghorn + and Genoa, produced by the same hidden and malignant foe. At the + same time, the Austrian government in Milan organized an attempt + to rouse the people to revolt, with a view to arrests, and other + measures calculated to stifle the spirit of independence they + know to be latent there. In this iniquitous attempt they murdered + eighty persons; yet the citizens, on their guard, refused them + the desired means of ruin, and they were forced to retractions as + impudently vile as their attempts had been. The Viceroy + proclaimed that "he hoped the people would confide in him as he + did in them"; and no doubt they will. At Leghorn and Genoa, the + wiles of the foe were baffled by the wisdom of the popular + leaders, as I trust they always will be; but it is needful daily + to expect these nets laid in the path of the unwary.</p> + + <p>Sicily is in full insurrection; and it is reported Naples, but + this is not sure. There was a report, day before yesterday, that + the poor, stupid king was already here, and had taken cheap + chambers at the Hotel d'Allemagne, as, indeed, it is said he has + always a turn for economy, when he cannot live at the expense of + his suffering people. Day before yesterday, every carriage that + the people saw with a stupid-looking man in it they did not know, + they looked to see if it was not the royal runaway. But it was + their wish was father to that thought, and it has not as yet + taken body as fact. In like manner they report this week the + death of Prince Metternich; but I believe it is not sure he is + dead yet, only dying. With him passes one great embodiment of ill + to Europe. As for Louis Philippe, he seems reserved to give the + world daily more signal proofs of his base apostasy to the cause + that placed him on the throne, and that heartless selfishness, of + which his face alone bears witness to any one that has a mind to + read it. How the French nation could look upon that face, while + yet flushed with the hopes of the Three Days, and put + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page296" id="page296"></a>[pg + 296]</span> him on the throne as representative of those hopes, I + cannot conceive. There is a story current in Italy, that he is + really the child of a man first a barber, afterwards a + police-officer, and was substituted at nurse for the true heir of + Orleans; and the vulgarity of form in his body of limbs, power of + endurance, greed of gain, and hard, cunning intellect, so unlike + all traits of the weak, but more "genteel" Bourbon race, might + well lend plausibility to such a fable.</p> + + <p>But to return to Rome, where I hear the Ave Maria just + ringing. By the way, nobody pauses, nobody thinks, nobody + prays.</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"Ave Maria! 't is the hour of prayer,</p> + + <p>Ave Maria! 't is the hour of love," &c.,</p> + </div> + </div> + + <p>is but a figment of the poet's fancy.</p> + + <p>To return to Rome: what a Rome! the fortieth day of rain, and + damp, and abominable reeking odors, such as blessed cities swept + by the sea-breeze—bitter sometimes, yet indeed a + friend—never know. It has been dark all day, though the + lamp has only been lit half an hour. The music of the day has + been, first the atrocious <i>arias</i>, which last in the Corso + till near noon, though certainly less in virulence on rainy days. + Then came the wicked organ-grinder, who, apart from the horror of + the noise, grinds exactly the same obsolete abominations as at + home or in England,—the Copenhagen Waltz, "Home, sweet + home," and all that! The cruel chance that both an English + my-lady and a Councillor from one of the provinces live opposite, + keeps him constantly before my window, hoping baiocchi. Within, + the three pet dogs of my landlady, bereft of their walk, unable + to employ their miserable legs and eyes, exercise themselves by a + continual barking, which is answered by all the dogs in the + neighborhood. An urchin returning from the laundress, delighted + with the symphony, lays down his white bundle in the gutter, + seats himself on the curb-stone, and attempts an imitation of the + music of cats as a tribute to the concert. The door-bell rings. + <i>Chi è?</i> "Who is it?" cries the handmaid, with + unweariable senselessness, <span class="pagenum"><a name= + "page297" id="page297"></a>[pg 297]</span> as if any one would + answer, <i>Rogue</i>, or <i>Enemy</i>, instead of the + traditionary <i>Amico</i>, <i>Friend</i>. Can it be, perchance, a + letter, news of home, or some of the many friends who have + neglected so long to write, or some ray of hope to break the + clouds of the difficult Future? Far from it. Enter a man + poisoning me at once with the smell of the worst possible cigars, + not to be driven out, insisting I shall look upon frightful, + ill-cut cameos, and worse-designed mosaics, made by some friend + of his, who works in a chamber and will sell <i>so</i> cheap. Man + of ill-odors and meanest smile! I am no Countess to be fooled by + you. For dogs they were not even—dog-cheap.</p> + + <p>A faint and misty gleam of sun greeted the day on which there + was the feast to the Bambino, the most venerated doll of Rome. + This is the famous image of the infant Jesus, reputed to be made + of wood from a tree of Palestine, and which, being taken away + from its present abode,—the church of Ara + Coeli,—returned by itself, making the bells ring as it + sought admittance at the door. It is this which is carried in + extreme cases to the bedside of the sick. It has received more + splendid gifts than any other idol. An orphan by my side, now + struggling with difficulties, showed me on its breast a splendid + jewel, which a doting grandmother thought more likely to benefit + her soul if given to the Bambino, than if turned into money to + give her grandchildren education and prospects in life. The same + old lady left her vineyard, not to these children, but to her + confessor, a well-endowed Monsignor, who occasionally asks this + youth, his godson, to dinner! Children so placed are not quite + such devotees to Catholicism as the new proselytes of + America;—they are not so much patted on the head, and + things do not show to them under quite the same silver veil.</p> + + <p>The church of Ara Coeli is on or near the site of the temple + of Capitoline Jove, which certainly saw nothing more idolatrous + than these ceremonies. For about a week the Bambino is exhibited + in an illuminated chapel, in the arms of a splendidly dressed + Madonna doll. Behind, a transparency represents the shepherds, by + moonlight, at the time the birth was announced, <span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page298" id="page298"></a>[pg 298]</span> and, + above, God the Father, with many angels hailing the event. A + pretty part of this exhibition, which I was not so fortunate as + to hit upon, though I went twice on purpose, is the children + making little speeches in honor of the occasion. Many readers + will remember some account of this in Andersen's + "Improvvisatore."</p> + + <p>The last time I went was the grand feast in honor of the + Bambino. The church was entirely full, mostly with Contadini and + the poorer people, absorbed in their devotions: one man near me + never raised his head or stirred from his knees to see anything; + he seemed in an anguish of prayer, either from repentance or + anxiety. I wished I could have hoped the ugly little doll could + do Mm any good. The noble stair which descends from the great + door of this church to the foot of the Capitol,—a stair + made from fragments of the old imperial time,—was flooded + with people; the street below was a rapid river also, whose waves + were men. The ceremonies began with splendid music from the + organ, pealing sweetly long and repeated invocations. As if + answering to this call, the world came in, many dignitaries, the + Conservatori, (I think conservatives are the same everywhere, + official or no,) and did homage to the image; then men in white + and gold, with the candles they are so fond here of burning by + daylight, as if the poorest artificial were better than the + greatest natural light, uplifted high above themselves the baby, + with its gilded robes and crown, and made twice the tour of the + church, passing twice the column labelled "From the Home of + Augustus," while the band played—what?—the Hymn to + Pius IX. and "Sons of Rome, awake!" Never was a crueller comment + upon the irreconcilableness of these two things. Rome seeks to + reconcile reform and priestcraft.</p> + + <p>But her eyes are shut, that they see not. O awake indeed, + Romans! and you will see that the Christ who is to save men is no + wooden dingy effigy of bygone superstitions, but such as Art has + seen him in your better mood,—a Child, living, full of + love, prophetic of a boundless future,—a Man acquainted + with all sorrows that rend the heart of all, and ever loving man + with sympathy <span class="pagenum"><a name="page299" id= + "page299"></a>[pg 299]</span> and faith death could not + quench,—<i>that</i> Christ lives and may be sought; burn + your doll of wood.</p> + + <p>How any one can remain a Catholic—I mean who has ever + been aroused to think, and is not biassed by the partialities of + childish years—after seeing Catholicism here in Italy, I + cannot conceive. There was once a soul in the religion while the + blood of its martyrs was yet fresh upon the ground, but that soul + was always too much encumbered with the remains of pagan habits + and customs: that soul is now quite fled elsewhere, and in the + splendid catafalco, watched by so many white and red-robed + snuff-taking, sly-eyed men, would they let it be opened, nothing + would be found but bones!</p> + + <p>Then the College for propagating all this, the most venerable + Propaganda, has given its exhibition in honor of the Magi, wise + men of the East who came to Christ. I was there one day. In + conformity with the general spirit of Rome,—strangely + inconsistent in a country where the Madonna is far more + frequently and devoutly worshipped than God or Christ, in a city + where at least as many female saints and martyrs are venerated as + male,—there was no good place for women to sit. All the + good seats were for the men in the area below, but in the gallery + windows, and from the organ-loft, a few women were allowed to + peep at what was going on. I was one of these exceptional + characters. The exercises were in all the different languages + under the sun. It would have been exceedingly interesting to hear + them, one after the other, each in its peculiar cadence and + inflection, but much of the individual expression was taken away + by that general false academic tone which is sure to pervade such + exhibitions where young men speak who have as yet nothing to say. + It would have been different, indeed, if we could have heard + natives of all those countries, who were animated by real + feelings, real wants. Still it was interesting, particularly the + language and music of Kurdistan, and the full-grown beauty of the + Greek after the ruder dialects. Among those who appeared to the + best advantage were several blacks, and the majesty of the Latin + hexameters was confided to a full-blooded Guinea negro, who + acquitted himself better than <span class="pagenum"><a name= + "page300" id="page300"></a>[pg 300]</span> any other I heard. I + observed, too, the perfectly gentlemanly appearance of these + young men, and that they had nothing of that Cuffy swagger by + which those freed from a servile state try to cover a painful + consciousness of their position in our country. Their air was + self-possessed, quiet and free beyond that of most of the + whites.</p> + + <p class="author">January 22, 2 o'clock, P.M.</p> + + <p>Pour, pour, pour again, dark as night,—many people + coming in to see me because they don't know what to do with + themselves. I am very glad to see them for the same reason; this + atmosphere is so heavy, I seem to carry the weight of the world + on my head and feel unfitted for every exertion. As to eating, + that is a bygone thing; wine, coffee, meat, I have resigned; + vegetables are few and hard to have, except horrible cabbage, in + which the Romans delight. A little rice still remains, which I + take with pleasure, remembering it growing in the rich fields of + Lombardy, so green and full of glorious light. That light fell + still more beautiful on the tall plantations of hemp, but it is + dangerous just at present to think of what is made from hemp.</p> + + <p>This week all the animals are being blessed,<a id= + "footnotetagl" name="footnotetagl"></a><a href= + "#footnotel"><sup>L</sup></a> and they get a gratuitous baptism, + too, the while. The lambs one morning were taken out to the + church of St. Agnes for this purpose. The little companion of my + travels, if he sees this letter, will remember how often we saw + her with her lamb in pictures. The horses are being blessed by + St. Antonio, and under his harmonizing influence are afterward + driven through the city, twelve and even twenty in hand. They are + harnessed into light wagons, and men run beside them to guard + against accident, in case the good influence of the Saint should + fail.</p> + + <p>This morning came the details of infamous attempts by the + Austrian police to exasperate the students of Pavia. The way is + to send persons to smoke cigars in forbidden places, who insult + those who are obliged to tell them to desist. These traps seem + particularly shocking when laid for fiery and sensitive young + men. <span class="pagenum"><a name="page301" id="page301"></a>[pg + 301]</span> They succeeded: the students were lured, into combat, + and a number left dead and wounded on both sides. The University + is shut up; the inhabitants of Pavia and Milan have put on + mourning; even at the theatre they wear it. The Milanese will not + walk in that quarter where the blood of their fellow-citizens has + been so wantonly shed. They have demanded a legal investigation + of the conduct of the officials.</p> + + <p>At Piacenza similar attempts have been made to excite the + Italians, by smoking in their faces, and crying, "Long live the + Emperor!" It is a worthy homage to pay to the Austrian + crown,—this offering of cigars and blood.</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"O this offence is rank; it smells to Heaven."</p> + </div> + </div> + + <p>This morning authentic news is received from Naples. The king, + when assured by his own brother that Sicily was in a state of + irresistible revolt, and that even the women quelled the + troops,—showering on them stones, furniture, boiling oil, + such means of warfare as the household may easily furnish to a + thoughtful matron,—had, first, a stroke of apoplexy, from, + which the loss of a good deal of bad blood relieved him. His mind + apparently having become clearer thereby, he has offered his + subjects an amnesty and terms of reform, which, it is hoped, will + arrive before his troops have begun to bombard the cities in + obedience to earlier orders.</p> + + <p>Comes also to-day the news that the French Chamber of Peers + propose an Address to the King, echoing back all the falsehoods + of his speech, including those upon reform, and the enormous one + that "the peace of Europe is now assured"; but that some members + have worthily opposed this address, and spoken truth in an + honorable manner.</p> + + <p>Also, that the infamous sacrifice of the poor little queen of + Spain puts on more tragic colors; that it is pretended she has + epilepsy, and she is to be made to renounce the throne, which, + indeed, has been a terrific curse to her. And Heaven and Earth + have looked calmly on, while the king of France has managed all + this with the most unnatural of mothers.</p><span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page302" id="page302"></a>[pg 302]</span> + + <p class="author">January 27.</p> + + <p>This morning comes the plan of the Address of the Chamber of + Deputies to the King: it contains some passages that are keenest + satire upon him, as also some remarks which have been made, some + words of truth spoken in the Chamber of Peers, that must have + given him some twinges of nervous shame as he read. M. Guizot's + speech on the affairs of Switzerland shows his usual shabbiness + and falsehood. Surely never prime minister stood in so mean a + position as he: one like Metternich seems noble and manly in + comparison; for if there is a cruel, atheistical, treacherous + policy, there needs not at least continual evasion to avoid + declaring in words what is so glaringly manifest in fact.</p> + + <p>There is news that the revolution has now broken out in + Naples; that neither Sicilians nor Neapolitans will trust the + king, but demand his abdication; and that his bad demon, Coclo, + has fled, carrying two hundred thousand ducats of gold. But in + particulars this news is not yet sure, though, no doubt, there is + truth, at the bottom.</p> + + <p>Aggressions on the part of the Austrians continue in the + North. The advocates Tommaso and Manin (a light thus reflected on + the name of the last Doge), having dared to declare formally the + necessity of reform, are thrown into prison. Every day the cloud + swells, and the next fortnight is likely to bring important + tidings.</p> + + <blockquote class="footnote"> + <a id="footnotel" name="footnotel"></a><b>Footnote L:</b> + <a href="#footnotetagl">(return)</a> + + <p>One of Rome's singular customs.—ED.</p> + </blockquote><span class="pagenum"><a name="page303" id= + "page303"></a>[pg 303]</span> + <p> </p> + <h3>LETTER XXIII.</h3> + + <h4>Unpleasantness of a Roman Winter.—Progress of Events in + Europe, and their Effect upon Italy.—The + Carnival.—Rain interrupts the Gayety.—Rejoicings for + the Revolutions of France and Austria.—Transports of the + People.—Oblations to the Cause of Liberty.—Castle + Fusano.—The Weather, Gladsomeness of Nature, and the + Pleasure of Thought.</h4> + + <p class="author">Rome, March 29, 1848.</p> + + <p>It is long since I have written. My health entirely gave way + beneath the Roman winter. The rain was constant, commonly falling + in torrents from the 16th of December to the 19th of March. + Nothing could surpass the dirt, the gloom, the desolation, of + Rome. Let no one fancy he has seen her who comes here only in the + winter. It is an immense mistake to do so. I cannot sufficiently + rejoice that I did not first see Italy in the winter.</p> + + <p>The climate of Rome at this time of extreme damp I have found + equally exasperating and weakening. I have had constant nervous + headache without strength to bear it, nightly fever, want of + appetite. Some constitutions bear it better, but the complaint of + weakness and extreme dejection of spirits is general among + foreigners in the wet season. The English say they become + acclimated in two or three years, and cease to suffer, though + never so strong as at home.</p> + + <p>Now this long dark dream—to me the most idle and most + suffering season of my life—seems past. The Italian heavens + wear again their deep blue; the sun shines gloriously; the + melancholy lustres are stealing again over the Campagna, and + hundreds of larks sing unwearied above its ruins.</p> + + <p>Nature seems in sympathy with the great events that are + transpiring,—with the emotions which are swelling the + hearts of men. <span class="pagenum"><a name="page304" id= + "page304"></a>[pg 304]</span> The morning sun is greeted by the + trumpets of the Roman legions marching out once more, now not to + oppress but to defend. The stars look down on their jubilees over + the good news which nightly reaches them from their brothers of + Lombardy. This week has been one of nobler, sweeter feeling, of a + better hope and faith, than Rome in her greatest days ever knew. + How much has happened since I wrote! First, the victorious + resistance of Sicily and the revolution of Naples. This has led + us yet only to half-measures, but even these have been of great + use to the progress of Italy. The Neapolitans will probably have + to get rid at last of the stupid crowned head who is at present + their puppet; but their bearing with him has led to the wiser + sovereigns granting these constitutions, which, if eventually + inadequate to the wants of Italy, will be so useful, are so + needed, to educate her to seek better, completer forms of + administration.</p> + + <p>In the midst of all this serious work came the play of + Carnival, in which there was much less interest felt than usual, + but enough to dazzle and captivate a stranger. One thing, + however, has been omitted in the description of the Roman + Carnival; i.e. that it rains every day. Almost every day came on + violent rain, just as the tide of gay masks was fairly engaged in + the Corso. This would have been well worth bearing once or twice, + for the sake of seeing the admirable good humor of this people. + Those who had laid out all their savings in the gayest, thinnest + dresses, on carriages and chairs for the Corso, found themselves + suddenly drenched, their finery spoiled, and obliged to ride and + sit shivering all the afternoon. But they never murmured, never + scolded, never stopped throwing their flowers. Their strength of + constitution is wonderful. While I, in my shawl and boa, was + coughing at the open window from the moment I inhaled the wet + sepulchral air, the servant-girls of the house had taken off + their woollen gowns, and, arrayed in white muslins and roses, sat + in the drenched street beneath the drenching rain, quite happy, + and have suffered nothing in consequence.</p> + + <p>The Romans renounced the <i>Moccoletti</i>, ostensibly as an + expression of sympathy for the sufferings of the Milanese, but + really <span class="pagenum"><a name="page305" id= + "page305"></a>[pg 305]</span> because, at that time, there was + great disturbance about the Jesuits, and the government feared + that difficulties would arise in the excitement of the evening. + But, since, we have had this entertainment in honor of the + revolutions of France and Austria, and nothing could be more + beautiful. The fun usually consists in all the people blowing one + another's lights out. We had not this; all the little tapers were + left to blaze, and the long Corso swarmed with tall fire-flies. + Lights crept out over the surface of all the houses, and such + merry little twinkling lights, laughing and flickering with each + slightest movement of those who held them! Up and down the Corso + they twinkled, they swarmed, they streamed, while a surge of gay + triumphant sound ebbed and flowed beneath that glittering + surface. Here and there danced men carrying aloft <i>moccoli</i>, + and clanking chains, emblem of the tyrannic power now vanquished + by the people;—the people, sweet and noble, who, in the + intoxication of their joy, were guilty of no rude or unkindly + word or act, and who, no signal being given as usual for the + termination of their diversion, closed, of their own accord and + with one consent, singing the hymns for Pio, by nine o'clock, and + retired peacefully to their homes, to dream of hopes they yet + scarce understand.</p> + + <p>This happened last week. The news of the dethronement of Louis + Philippe reached us just after the close of the Carnival. It was + just a year from my leaving Paris. I did not think, as I looked + with such disgust on the empire of sham he had established in + France, and saw the soul of the people imprisoned and held fast + as in an iron vice, that it would burst its chains so soon. + Whatever be the result, France has done gloriously; she has + declared that she will not be satisfied with pretexts while there + are facts in the world,—that to stop her march is a vain + attempt, though the onward path be dangerous and difficult. It is + vain to cry, Peace! peace! when there is no peace. The news from + France, in these days, sounds ominous, though still vague. It + would appear that the political is being merged in the social + struggle: it is well. Whatever blood is to be shed, whatever + altars cast down, those tremendous problems MUST be solved, + whatever be the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page306" id= + "page306"></a>[pg 306]</span> cost! That cost cannot fail to + break many a bank, many a heart, in Europe, before the good can + bud again out of a mighty corruption. To you, people of America, + it may perhaps be given to look on and learn in time for a + preventive wisdom. You may learn the real meaning of the words + FRATERNITY, EQUALITY: you may, despite the apes of the past who + strive to tutor you, learn the needs of a true democracy. You may + in time learn to reverence, learn to guard, the true aristocracy + of a nation, the only really nobles,—the LABORING + CLASSES.</p> + + <p>And Metternich, too, is crushed; the seed of the woman has had + his foot on the serpent. I have seen the Austrian arms dragged + through the streets of Rome and burned in the Piazza del Popolo. + The Italians embraced one another, and cried, <i>Miracolo! + Providenza!</i> the modern Tribune Ciceronacchio fed the flame + with faggots; Adam Mickiewicz, the great poet of Poland, long + exiled from his country or the hopes of a country, looked on, + while Polish women, exiled too, or who perhaps, like one nun who + is here, had been daily scourged by the orders of a tyrant, + brought little pieces that had been scattered in the street and + threw them into the flames,—an offering received by the + Italians with loud plaudits. It was a transport of the people, + who found no way to vent their joy, but the symbol, the poesy, + natural to the Italian mind. The ever-too-wise "upper classes" + regret it, and the Germans choose to resent it as an insult to + Germany; but it was nothing of the kind; the insult was to the + prisons of Spielberg, to those who commanded the massacres of + Milan,—a base tyranny little congenial to the native German + heart, as the true Germans of Germany are at this moment showing + by their resolves, by their struggles.</p> + + <p>When the double-headed eagle was pulled down from above the + lofty portal of the Palazzo di Venezia, the people placed there + in its stead one of white and gold, inscribed with the name ALTA + ITALIA, and quick upon the emblem followed the news that Milan + was fighting against her tyrants,—that Venice had driven + them out and freed from their prisons the courageous Protestants + in favor of truth, Tommaso and Manin,—that Manin, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page307" id="page307"></a>[pg + 307]</span> descendant of the last Doge, had raised the + republican banner on the Place St. Mark,—and that Modena, + that Parma, were driving out the unfeeling and imbecile creatures + who had mocked Heaven and man by the pretence of government + there.</p> + + <p>With indescribable rapture these tidings were received in + Rome. Men were seen dancing, women weeping with joy along the + street. The youth rushed to enroll themselves in regiments to go + to the frontier. In the Colosseum their names were received. + Father Gavazzi, a truly patriotic monk, gave them the cross to + carry on a new, a better, because defensive, crusade. Sterbini, + long exiled, addressed them. He said: "Romans, do you wish to go; + do you wish to go with all your hearts? If so, you <i>may</i>, + and those who do not wish to go themselves may give money. To + those who will go, the government gives bread and fifteen + baiocchi a day." The people cried: "We wish to go, but we do not + wish so much; the government is very poor; we can live on a paul + a day." The princes answered by giving, one sixty thousand, + others twenty, fifteen, ten thousand dollars. The people + responded by giving at the benches which are opened in the + piazzas literally everything; street-pedlers gave the gains of + each day; women gave every ornament,—from the splendid + necklace and bracelet down to the poorest bit of coral; + servant-girls gave five pauls, two pauls, even half a paul, if + they had no more. A man all in rags gave two pauls. "It is," said + he, "all I have." "Then," said Torlonia, "take from me this + dollar." The man of rags thanked him warmly, and handed that also + to the bench, which refused to receive it. "No! <i>that</i> must + stay with you," shouted all present. These are the people whom + the traveller accuses of being unable to rise above selfish + considerations;—a nation rich and glorious by nature, + capable, like all nations, all men, of being degraded by slavery, + capable, as are few nations, few men, of kindling into pure flame + at the touch of a ray from the Sun of Truth, of Life.</p> + + <p>The two or three days that followed, the troops were marching + about by detachments, followed always by the people, to the Ponte + Molle, often farther. The women wept; for the habits of the + Romans are so domestic, that it seemed a great thing to have + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page308" id="page308"></a>[pg + 308]</span> their sons and lovers gone even for a few months. The + English—or at least those of the illiberal, bristling + nature too often met here, which casts out its porcupine quills + against everything like enthusiasm (of the more generous Saxon + blood I know some noble examples)—laughed at all this. They + have said that this people would not fight; when the Sicilians, + men and women, did so nobly, they said: "O, the Sicilians are + quite unlike the Italians; you will see, when the struggle comes + on in Lombardy, they cannot resist the Austrian force a moment." + I said: "That force is only physical; do not you think a + sentiment can sustain them?" They replied: "All stuff and poetry; + it will fade the moment their blood flows." When the news came + that the Milanese, men and women, fight as the Sicilians did, + they said: "Well, the Lombards are a better race, but these + Romans are good for nothing. It is a farce for a Roman to try to + walk even; they never walk a mile; they will not be able to + support the first day's march of thirty miles, and not have their + usual <i>minéstra</i> to eat either." Now the troops + were not willing to wait for the government to make the necessary + arrangements for their march, so at the first night's + station—Monterosi—they did <i>not</i> find food or + bedding; yet the second night, at Civita Castellana, they were so + well alive as to remain dancing and vivaing Pio Nono in the + piazza till after midnight. No, Gentlemen, soul is not quite + nothing, if matter be a clog upon its transports.</p> + + <p>The Americans show a better, warmer feeling than they did; the + meeting in New York was of use in instructing the Americans + abroad! The dinner given here on Washington's birthday was marked + by fine expressions of sentiment, and a display of talent unusual + on such occasions. There was a poem from Mr. Story of Boston, + which gave great pleasure; a speech by Mr. Hillard, said to be + very good, and one by Rev. Mr. Hedge of Bangor, exceedingly + admired for the felicity of thought and image, and the finished + beauty of style.</p> + + <p>Next week we shall have more news, and I shall try to write + and mention also some interesting things want of time obliges me + to omit in this letter.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name= + "page309" id="page309"></a>[pg 309]</span> + + <p class="author">April 1.</p> + + <p>Yesterday I passed at Ostia and Castle Fusano. A million birds + sang; the woods teemed with blossoms; the sod grew green hourly + over the graves of the mighty Past; the surf rushed in on a fair + shore; the Tiber majestically retreated to carry inland her share + from the treasures of the deep; the sea-breezes burnt my face, + but revived my heart. I felt the calm of thought, the sublime + hopes of the future, nature, man,—so great, though so + little,—so dear, though incomplete. Returning to Rome, I + find the news pronounced official, that the viceroy Ranieri has + capitulated at Verona; that Italy is free, independent, and one. + I trust this will prove no April-foolery, no premature news; it + seems too good, too speedy a realization of hope, to have come on + earth, and can only be answered in the words of the proclamation + made yesterday by Pius IX.:—</p> + + <p>"The events which these two months past have seen rush after + one another in rapid succession, are no human work. Woe to him + who, in this wind, which shakes and tears up alike the lofty + cedars and humble shrubs, hears not the voice of God! Woe to + human pride, if to the fault or merit of any man whatsoever it + refer these wonderful changes, instead of adoring the mysterious + designs of Providence."</p><span class="pagenum"><a name= + "page310" id="page310"></a>[pg 310]</span> + <p> </p> + <h3>LETTER XXIV.</h3> + + <h4>Affairs in Italy.—The Provisional Government of + Milan.—Address to the German Nation.—Brotherhood, and + the Independence of Italy.—The Provisional Government to + the Nations subject to the Rule of the House of + Austria.—Reflections on these + Movements.—Lamartine.—Beranger.—Mickiewicz in + Florence: Enthusiastic Reception: styled the Dante of Poland: his + Address before the Florentines.—Exiles + returning.—Mazzini.—The Position of Pius + IX.—His Dereliction from the Cause of Freedom and of + Progress.—The Affair of the Jesuits.—His Course in + various Matters.—Language of the People.—The Work + begun by Napoleon virtually finished.—The Loss of Pius IX. + for the Moment a great one.—The Responsibility of Events + lying wholly with the People.—Hopes and Prospects of the + Future.</h4> + + <p class="author">Rome, April 19, 1848.</p> + + <p>In closing my last, I hoped to have some decisive intelligence + to impart by this time, as to the fortunes of Italy. But though + everything, so far, turns in her favor, there has been no + decisive battle, no final stroke. It pleases me much, as the news + comes from day to day, that I passed so leisurely last summer + over that part of Lombardy now occupied by the opposing forces, + that I have in my mind the faces both of the Lombard and Austrian + leaders. A number of the present members of the Provisional + Government of Milan I knew while there; they are men of + twenty-eight and thirty, much more advanced in thought than the + Moderates of Rome, Naples, Tuscany, who are too much fettered + with a bygone state of things, and not on a par in thought, + knowledge, preparation for the great future, with the rest of the + civilized world at this moment. The papers that emanate from the + Milanese government are far superior in tone to any that have + been uttered by the other states. Their protest in favor of their + rights, their addresses to the Germans at large and the countries + under the dominion of Austria, are full of nobleness and + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page311" id="page311"></a>[pg + 311]</span> thoughts sufficiently great for the use of the coming + age. These addresses I translate, thinking they may not in other + form reach America.</p> + + <p class="center">"THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT OF MILAN TO THE GERMAN NATION.</p> + + <p>"We hail you as brothers, valiant, learned, generous + Germans!</p> + + <p>"This salutation from a people just risen after a terrible + struggle to self-consciousness and to the exercise of its rights, + ought deeply to move your magnanimous hearts.</p> + + <p>"We deem ourselves worthy to utter that great word + Brotherhood, which effaces among nations the traditions of all + ancient hate, and we proffer it over the new-made graves of our + fellow-citizens, who have fought and died to give us the right to + proffer it without fear or shame.</p> + + <p>"We call brothers men of all nations who believe and hope in + the improvement of the human family, and seek the occasion to + further it; but you, especially, we call brothers, you Germans, + with whom, we have in common so many noble sympathies,—the + love of the arts and higher studies, the delight of noble + contemplation,—with whom also we have much correspondence + in our civil destinies.</p> + + <p>"With you are of first importance the interests of the great + country, Germany,—with us, those of the great country, + Italy.</p> + + <p>"We were induced to rise in arms against Austria, (we mean, + not the people, but the government of Austria,) not only by the + need of redeeming ourselves from the shame and grief of + thirty-one years of the most abject despotism, but by a + deliberate resolve to take our place upon the plane of nations, + to unite with our brothers of the Peninsula, and take rank with + them under the great banner raised by Pius IX., on which is + written, THE INDEPENDENCE OF ITALY.</p> + + <p>"Can you blame us, independent Germans? In blaming us, you + would sink beneath your history, beneath your most honored and + recent declarations.</p> + + <p>"We have chased the Austrian from our soil; we shall give + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page312" id="page312"></a>[pg + 312]</span> ourselves no repose till we have chased him from all + parts of Italy. No this enterprise we are all sworn; for this + fights our army enrolled in every part of the Peninsula,—an + array of brothers led by the king of Sardinia, who prides himself + on being the sword of Italy.</p> + + <p>"And the Austrian is not more our enemy than yours.</p> + + <p>"The Austrian—we speak still of the government, and not + of the people—has always denied and contradicted the + interests of the whole German nation, at the head of an + assemblage of races differing in language, in customs, in + institutions. When it was in his power to have corrected the + errors of time and a dynastic policy, by assuming the high + mission of uniting them by great moral interests, he preferred to + arm one against the other, and to corrupt them all.</p> + + <p>"Fearing every noble instinct, hostile to every grand idea, + devoted to the material interests of an oligarchy of princes + spoiled by a senseless education, of ministers who had sold their + consciences, of speculators who subjected and sacrificed + everything to gold, the only aim of such a government was to sow + division everywhere. What wonder if everywhere in Italy, as in + Germany, it reaps harvests of hate and ignominy. Yes, of hate! To + this the Austrian has condemned us, to know hate and its deep + sorrows. But we are absolved in the sight of God, and by the + insults which have been heaped upon us for so many years, the + unwearied efforts to debase us, the destruction of our villages, + the cold-blooded slaughter of our aged people, our priests, our + women, our children. And you,—you shall be the first to + absolve us, you, virtuous among the Germans, who certainly have + shared our indignation when a venal and lying press accused us of + being enemies to your great and generous nation, and we could not + answer, and were constrained to devour in silence the shame of an + accusation which wounded us to the heart.</p> + + <p>"We honor you, Germans! we pant to give you glorious evidence + of this. And, as a prelude to the friendly relations we hope to + form with your governments, we seek to alleviate as much as + possible the pains of captivity to some officers and <span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page313" id="page313"></a>[pg 313]</span> + soldiers belonging to various states of the Germanic + Confederation, who fought in the Austrian army. These we wish to + send back to you, and are occupied by seeking the means to effect + this purpose. We honor you so much, that we believe you capable + of preferring to the bonds of race and language the sacred titles + of misfortune and of right.</p> + + <p>"Ah! answer to our appeal, valiant, wise, and generous + Germans! Clasp the hand, which we offer you with the heart of a + brother and friend; hasten to disavow every appearance of + complicity with a government which the massacres of Galicia and + Lombardy have blotted from the list of civilized and Christian + governments. It would be a beautiful thing for you to give this + example, which will be new in history and worthy of these + miraculous times,—the example of a strong and generous + people casting aside other sympathies, other interests, to answer + the invitation of a regenerate people, to cheer it in its new + career, obedient to the great principles of justice, of humanity, + of civil and Christian brotherhood."</p> + + <p class="center">"THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT OF MILAN TO THE NATIONS SUBJECT TO + THE RULE OF THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA.</p> + + <p>"From your lands have come three armies which have brought war + into ours; your speech is spoken by those hostile bands who come + to us with fire and sword; nevertheless we come to you as to + brothers.</p> + + <p>"The war which calls for our resistance is not your war; you + are not our enemies: you are only instruments in the hand of our + foe, and this foe, brothers, is common to us all.</p> + + <p>"Before God, before men, solemnly we declare it,—our + only enemy is the government of Austria.</p> + + <p>"And that government which for so many years has labored to + cancel, in the races it has subdued, every vestige of + nationality, which takes no heed of their wants or prayers, bent + only on serving miserable interests and more miserable pride, + fomenting always antipathies conformably with the ancient maxim + of tyrants, <i>Divide and govern</i>,—this government has + constituted <span class="pagenum"><a name="page314" id= + "page314"></a>[pg 314]</span> itself the adversary of every + generous thought, the ally and patron of all ignoble causes, the + government declared by the whole civilized world paymaster of the + executioners of Galicia.</p> + + <p>"This government, after having pertinaciously resisted the + legal expression of moderate desires,—after having defied + with ludicrous hauteur the opinion of Europe, has found itself in + its metropolis too weak to resist an insurrection of students, + and has yielded,—has yielded, making an assignment on time, + and throwing to you, brothers, as an alms-gift to the importunate + beggar, the promise of institutions which, in these days, are + held essential conditions of life for a civilized nation.</p> + + <p>"But you have not confided in this promise; for the youth of + Vienna, which feels the inspiring breath of this miraculous time, + is impelled on the path of progress; and therefore the Austrian + government, uncertain of itself and of your dispositions, took + its old part of standing still to wait for events, in the hope of + turning them to its own profit.</p> + + <p>"In the midst of this it received the news of our glorious + revolution, and it thought to have found in this the best way to + escape from its embarrassment. First it concealed that news; then + made it known piecemeal, and disfigured by hypocrisy and hatred. + We were a handful of rebels thirsting for German blood. We make a + war of stilettos, we wish the destruction of all Germany. But for + us answers the admiration of all Italy, of all Europe, even the + evidence of your own people whom we are constrained to hold + prisoners or hostages, who will unanimously avow that we have + shown heroic courage in the fight, heroic moderation in + victory.</p> + + <p>"Yes! we have risen as one man against the Austrian + government, to become again a nation, to make common cause with + our Italian brothers, and the arms which we have assumed for so + great an object we shall not lay down till we have attained it. + Assailed by a brutal executor of brutal orders, we have combated + in a just war; betrayed, a price set on our heads, wounded in the + most vital parts, we have not transgressed the bounds of + legitimate defence. The murders, the depredations of the hostile + band, irritated against us by most wicked arts, have excited our + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page315" id="page315"></a>[pg + 315]</span> horror, but never a reprisal. The soldier, his arms + once laid down, was for us only an unfortunate.</p> + + <p>"But behold how the Austrian government provokes you against + us, and bids you come against us as a crusade! A crusade! The + parody would be ludicrous if it were not so cruel. A crusade + against a people which, in the name of Christ, under a banner + blessed by the Vicar of Christ, and revered by all the nations, + fights to secure its indefeasible rights.</p> + + <p>"Oh! if you form against us this crusade,—we have + already shown the world what a people can do to reconquer its + liberty, its independence,—we will show, also, what it can + do to preserve them. If, almost unarmed, we have put to flight an + army inured to war,—surely, brothers, that army wanted + faith in the cause for which it fought,—can we fear that + our courage will grow faint after our triumph, and when aided by + all our brothers of Italy? Let the Austrian government send + against us its threatened battalions, they will find in our + breasts a barrier more insuperable than the Alps. Everything will + be a weapon to us; from every villa, from every field, from every + hedge, will issue defenders of the national cause; women and + children will fight like men; men will centuple their strength, + their courage; and we will all perish amid the ruins of our city, + before receiving foreign rule into this land which at last we + call ours.</p> + + <p>"But this must not be. You, our brothers, must not permit it + to be; your honor, your interests, do not permit it. Will you + fight in a cause which you must feel to be absurd and wicked? You + sink to the condition of hirelings, and do you not believe that + the Austrian government, should it conquer us and Italy, would + turn against you the arms you had furnished for the conquest? Do + you not believe it would act as after the struggle with Napoleon? + And are you not terrified by the idea of finding yourself in + conflict with all civilized Europe, and constrained to receive, + to feast as your ally, the Autocrat of Russia, that perpetual + terror to the improvement and independence of Europe? It is not + possible for the house of Lorraine to forget its traditions; it + is not possible that it should resign itself to live tranquil in + the atmosphere of <span class="pagenum"><a name="page316" id= + "page316"></a>[pg 316]</span> Liberty. You can only constrain it + by sustaining yourself, with the Germanic and Slavonian + nationalities, and with this Italy, which longs only to see the + nations harmonize with that resolve which she has finally taken, + that she may never more be torn in pieces.</p> + + <p>"Think of us, brothers. This is for you and for us a question + of life and of death; it is a question on which depends, perhaps, + the peace of Europe.</p> + + <p>"For ourselves, we have already weighed the chances of the + struggle, and subordinated them all to this final resolution, + that we will be free and independent, with our brothers of + Italy.</p> + + <p>"We hope that our words will induce you to calm counsels; if + not, you will find us on the field of battle generous and loyal + enemies, as now we profess ourselves your generous and loyal + brothers.</p> + +<table summary="signatorys" width="100%" style="margin-left: 2em;"> + <tr> + <td>(Signed,)</td> + <td>"CASATI, <i>President</i>,</td> + <td>BORROMEO,</td> + </tr> + <tr><td> </td><td>DURINI,</td><td>P. LITTA,</td></tr> + + <tr><td> </td><td>STRIGELLI,</td><td>GIULINI,</td></tr> + + <tr><td> </td><td>BERETTA,</td><td>GUERRIERI,</td></tr> + + <tr><td> </td><td>GRAPPI,</td><td>PORRO,</td></tr> + + <tr><td> </td><td>TURRONI,</td><td>MORRONI,</td></tr> + + <tr><td> </td><td>REZZONICO,</td><td>AB. ANELLI,</td></tr> + + <tr><td> </td><td>CARBONERA,</td><td>CORRENTI, <i>Sec.-Gen.</i>"</td></tr> + </table> + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + <p>These are the names of men whose hearts glow with that + generous ardor, the noble product of difficult times. Into their + hearts flows wisdom from on high,—thoughts great, + magnanimous, brotherly. They may not all remain true to this high + vocation, but, at any rate, they will have lived a period of true + life. I knew some of these men when in Lombardy; of old + aristocratic families, with all the refinement of inheritance and + education, they are thoroughly pervaded by principles of a + genuine democracy of brotherhood and justice. In the flower of + their age, they have before them a long career of the noblest + usefulness, if this era follows up its present promise, and they + are faithful to their present creed, and ready to improve and + extend it.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page317" id= + "page317"></a>[pg 317]</span> + + <p>Every day produces these remarkable documents. So many years + as we have been suffocated and poisoned by the atmosphere of + falsehood in official papers, how refreshing is the tone of noble + sentiment in Lamartine! What a real wisdom and pure dignity in + the letter of Béranger! <i>He</i> was always absolutely + true,—an oasis in the pestilential desert of Humbug; but + the present time allowed him a fine occasion.</p> + + <p>The Poles have also made noble manifestations. Their great + poet, Adam Mickiewicz, has been here to enroll the Italian Poles, + publish the declaration of faith in which they hope to re-enter + and re-establish their country, and receive the Pope's + benediction on their banner. In their declaration of faith are + found these three articles:—</p> + + <p>"Every one of the nation a citizen,—every citizen equal + in rights and before authorities.</p> + + <p>"To the Jew, our elder brother, respect, brotherhood, aid on + the way to his eternal and terrestrial good, entire equality in + political and civil rights.</p> + + <p>"To the companion of life, woman, citizenship, entire equality + of rights."</p> + + <p>This last expression of just thought the Poles ought to + initiate, for what other nation has had such truly heroic women? + Women indeed,—not children, servants, or playthings.</p> + + <p>Mickiewicz, with the squadron that accompanied him from Rome, + was received with the greatest enthusiasm at Florence. + Deputations from the clubs and journals went to his hotel and + escorted him to the Piazza del Gran Dúca, where, amid an + immense concourse of people, some good speeches were made. A + Florentine, with a generous forgetfulness of national vanity, + addressed him as the Dante of Poland, who, more fortunate than + the great bard and seer of Italy, was likely to return to his + country to reap the harvest of the seed he had sown.</p> + + <p>"O Dante of Poland! who, like our Alighieri, hast received + from Heaven sovereign genius, divine song, but from earth + sufferings and exile,—more happy than our Alighieri, thou + hast reacquired a country; already thou art meditating on the + sacred <span class="pagenum"><a name="page318" id= + "page318"></a>[pg 318]</span> harp the patriotic hymn of + restoration and of victory. The pilgrims of Poland have become + the warriors of their nation. Long live Poland, and the + brotherhood of nations!"</p> + + <p>When this address was finished, the great poet appeared on the + balcony to answer. The people received him with a tumult of + applause, followed by a profound silence, as they anxiously + awaited his voice. Those who are acquainted with the powerful + eloquence, the magnetism, of Mickiewicz as an orator, will not be + surprised at the effect produced by this speech, though delivered + in a foreign language. It is the force of truth, the great + vitality of his presence, that loads his words with such electric + power. He spoke as follows:—</p> + + <p>"People of Tuscany! Friends! Brothers! We receive your shouts + of sympathy in the name of Poland; not for us, but for our + country. Our country, though distant, claims from you this + sympathy by its long martyrdom. The glory of Poland, its only + glory, truly Christian, is to have suffered more than all the + nations. In other countries the goodness, the generosity of + heart, of some sovereigns protected the people; as yours has + enjoyed the dawn of the era now coming, under the protection of + your excellent prince. [Viva Leopold II.!] But conquered Poland, + slave and victim, of sovereigns who were her sworn enemies and + executioners,—Poland, abandoned by the governments and the + nations, lay in agony on her solitary Golgotha. She was believed + slain, dead, burred. 'We have slain her,' shouted the despots; + 'she is dead!' [No, no! long live Poland!] 'The dead cannot rise + again,' replied the diplomatists; 'we may now be tranquil.' [A + universal shudder of feeling in the crowd.] There came a moment + in which the world doubted of the mercy and justice of the + Omnipotent. There was a moment in which the nations thought that + the earth might be for ever abandoned by God, and condemned to + the rule of the demon, its ancient lord. The nations forgot that + Jesus Christ came down from heaven to give liberty and peace to + the earth. The nations had forgotten all this. But God is just. + The voice of Pius IX. roused Italy. [Long live Pius IX.!] The + people of Paris have driven out the great <span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page319" id="page319"></a>[pg 319]</span> + traitor against the cause of the nations. [Bravo! Viva the people + of Paris!] Very soon will be heard the voice of Poland. Poland + will rise again! [Yes, yes! Poland will rise again!] Poland will + call to life all the Slavonic races,—the Croats, the + Dalmatians, the Bohemians, the Moravians, the Illyrians. These + will form the bulwark against the tyrant of the North. [Great + applause.] They will close for ever the way against the + barbarians of the North,—destroyers of liberty and of + civilization. Poland is called to do more yet: Poland, as + crucified nation, is risen again, and called to serve her sister + nations. The will of God is, that Christianity should become in + Poland, and through Poland elsewhere, no more a dead letter of + the law, but the living law of states and civil + associations;—[Great applause;]—that Christianity + should be manifested by acts, the sacrifices of generosity and + liberality. This Christianity is not new to you, Florentines; + your ancient republic knew and has acted upon it: it is time that + the same spirit should make to itself a larger sphere. The will + of God is that the nations should act towards one another as + neighbors,—as brothers. [A tumult of applause.] And you, + Tuscans, have to-day done an act of Christian brotherhood. + Receiving thus foreign, unknown pilgrims, who go to defy the + greatest powers of the earth, you have in us saluted only what is + in us of spiritual and immortal,—our faith and our + patriotism. [Applause.] We thank you; and we will now go into the + church to thank God."</p> + + <p>"All the people then followed the Poles to the church of Santa + Cróce, where was sung the <i>Benedictus Dominus</i>, and + amid the memorials of the greatness of Italy collected in that + temple was forged more strongly the chain of sympathy and of + union between two nations, sisters in misfortune and in + glory."</p> + + <p>This speech and its reception, literally translated from the + journal of the day, show how pleasant it is on great occasions to + be brought in contact with this people, so full of natural + eloquence and of lively sensibility to what is great and + beautiful.</p> + + <p>It is a glorious time too for the exiles who return, and reap + even a momentary fruit of their long sorrows. Mazzini has been + able <span class="pagenum"><a name="page320" id="page320"></a>[pg + 320]</span> to return from his seventeen years' exile, during + which there was no hour, night or day, that the thought of Italy + was banished from his heart,—no possible effort that he did + not make to achieve the emancipation of his people, and with it + the progress of mankind. He returns, like Wordsworth's great man, + "to see what he foresaw." He will see his predictions + accomplishing yet for a long time, for Mazzini has a mind far in + advance of his times in general, and his nation in + particular,—a mind that will be best revered and understood + when the "illustrious Gioberti" shall be remembered as a pompous + verbose charlatan, with just talent enough to catch the echo from + the advancing wave of his day, but without any true sight of the + wants of man at this epoch. And yet Mazzini sees not all: he aims + at political emancipation; but he sees not, perhaps would deny, + the bearing of some events, which even now begin to work their + way. Of this, more anon; but not to-day, nor in the small print + of the Tribune. Suffice it to say, I allude to that of which the + cry of Communism, the systems of Fourier, &c., are but + forerunners. Mazzini sees much already,—at Milan, where he + is, he has probably this day received the intelligence of the + accomplishment of his foresight, implied in his letter to the + Pope, which angered Italy by what was thought its tone of + irreverence and doubt, some six months since.</p> + + <p>To-day is the 7th of May, for I had thrown aside this letter, + begun the 19th of April, from a sense that there was something + coming that would supersede what was then to say. This something + has appeared in a form that will cause deep sadness to good + hearts everywhere. Good and loving hearts, that long for a human + form which they can revere, will be unprepared and for a time + must suffer much from the final dereliction of Pius IX. to the + cause of freedom, progress, and of the war. He was a fair image, + and men went nigh to idolize it; this they can do no more, though + they may be able to find excuse for his feebleness, love his good + heart no less than before, and draw instruction from the causes + that have produced his failure, more valuable than his success + would have been.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page321" id= + "page321"></a>[pg 321]</span> + + <p>Pius IX., no one can doubt who has looked on him, has a good + and pure heart; but it needed also, not only a strong, but a + great mind,</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"To <i>comprehend his trust</i>, and to the same</p> + + <p>Keep faithful, with a singleness of aim."</p> + </div> + </div> + + <p>A highly esteemed friend in the United States wrote to express + distaste to some observations in a letter of mine to the Tribune + on first seeing the Pontiff a year ago, observing, "To say that + he had not the expression of great intellect was <i>uncalled + for</i>" Alas! far from it; it was an observation that rose + inevitably on knowing something of the task before Pius IX., and + the hopes he had excited. The problem he had to solve was one of + such difficulty, that only one of those minds, the rare product + of ages for the redemption of mankind, could be equal to its + solution. The question that inevitably rose on seeing him was, + "Is he such a one?" The answer was immediately negative. But at + the same time, he had such an aspect of true benevolence and + piety, that a hope arose that Heaven would act through him, and + impel him to measures wise beyond his knowledge.</p> + + <p>This hope was confirmed by the calmness he showed at the time + of the conspiracy of July, and the occupation of Ferrara by the + Austrians. Tales were told of simple wisdom, of instinct, which + he obeyed in opposition to the counsels of all his Cardinals. + Everything went on well for a time.</p> + + <p>But tokens of indubitable weakness were shown by the Pope in + early acts of the winter, in the removal of a censor at the + suggestion of others, in his speech, to the Consistory, in his + answer to the first address of the Council. In these he declared + that, when there was conflict between the priest and the man, he + always meant to be the priest; and that he preferred the wisdom + of the past to that of the future.</p> + + <p>Still, times went on bending his predeterminations to the call + of the moment. He <i>acted</i> wiselier than he intended; as, for + instance, three weeks after declaring he would not give a + constitution to his people, he gave it,—a sop to Cerberus, + indeed,—a poor vamped-up thing that will by and by have to + give place to something <span class="pagenum"><a name="page322" + id="page322"></a>[pg 322]</span> more legitimate, but which + served its purpose at the time as declaration of rights for the + people. When the news of the revolution of Vienna arrived, the + Pope himself cried <i>Viva Pio Nono!</i> and this ebullition of + truth in one so humble, though opposed to his formal + declarations, was received by his people with that immediate + assent which truth commands.</p> + + <p>The revolution of Lombardy followed. The troops of the line + were sent thither; the volunteers rushed to accompany them. In + the streets of Rome was read the proclamation of Charles Albert, + in which he styles himself the servant of Italy and of Pius IX. + The priests preached the war, and justly, as a crusade; the Pope + blessed their banners. Nobody dreamed, or had cause to dream, + that these movements had not his full sympathy; and his name was + in every form invoked as the chosen instrument of God to inspire + Italy to throw off the oppressive yoke of the foreigner, and + recover her rights in the civilized world.</p> + + <p>At the same time, however, the Pope was seen to act with great + blindness in the affair of the Jesuits. The other states of Italy + drove them out by main force, resolved not to have in the midst + of the war a foe and spy in the camp. Rome wished to do the same, + but the Pope rose in their defence. He talked as if they were + assailed as a <i>religious</i> body, when he could not fail, like + everybody else, to be aware that they were dreaded and hated + solely as agents of despotism. He demanded that they should be + assailed only by legal means, when none such were available. The + end was in half-measures, always the worst possible. He would not + entirely yield, and the people would not at all. The Order was + ostensibly dissolved; but great part of the Jesuits really remain + here in disguise, a constant source of irritation and mischief, + which, if still greater difficulties had not arisen, would of + itself have created enough. Meanwhile, in the earnestness of the + clergy about the pretended loss of the head of St. Andrew, in the + ceremonies of the holy week, which at this juncture excited no + real interest, was much matter for thought to the calm observer + as to the restlessness of the new wine, the old bottles being + heard to crack on every side, and hour by hour.</p><span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page323" id="page323"></a>[pg 323]</span> + + <p>Thus affairs went on from day to day,—the Pope kissing + the foot of the brazen Jupiter and blessing palms of straw at St. + Peter's; the <i>Circolo Romano</i> erecting itself into a kind of + Jacobin Club, dictating programmes for an Italian Diet-General, + and choosing committees to provide for the expenses of the war; + the Civic Guard arresting people who tried to make mobs as if + famishing, and, being searched, were found well provided both + with arms and money; the ministry at their wits' end, with their + trunks packed up ready to be off at a moment's + warning,—when the report, it is not yet known whether true + or false, that one of the Roman Civic Guard, a well-known artist + engaged in the war of Lombardy, had been taken and hung by the + Austrians as a brigand, roused the people to a sense of the + position of their friends, and they went to the Pope to demand + that he should take a decisive stand, and declare war against the + Austrians.</p> + + <p>The Pope summoned, a consistory; the people waited anxiously, + for expressions of his were reported, as if the troops ought not + to have thought of leaving the frontier, while every man, woman, + and child in Rome knew, and every letter and bulletin declared, + that all their thought was to render active aid to the cause of + Italian independence. This anxious doubt, however, had not + prepared at all for the excess to which they were to be + disappointed.</p> + + <p>The speech of the Pope declared, that he had never any thought + of the great results which had followed his actions; that he had + only intended local reforms, such as had previously been + suggested by the potentates of Europe; that he regretted the + <i>mis</i>use which had been made of his name; and wound up by + lamenting over the war,—dear to every Italian heart as the + best and holiest cause in which for ages they had been called to + embark their hopes,—as if it was something offensive to the + spirit of religion, and which he would fain see hushed up, and + its motives smoothed out and ironed over.</p> + + <p>A momentary stupefaction followed this astounding performance, + succeeded by a passion of indignation, in which the words + <i>traitor</i> and <i>imbecile</i> were associated with the name + that had been so dear to his people. This again yielded to a + settled grief: they <span class="pagenum"><a name="page324" id= + "page324"></a>[pg 324]</span> felt that he was betrayed, but no + traitor; timid and weak, but still a sovereign whom they had + adored, and a man who had brought them much good, which could not + be quite destroyed by his wishing to disown it. Even of this fact + they had no time to stop and think; the necessity was too + imminent of obviating the worst consequences of this ill; and the + first thought was to prevent the news leaving Rome, to dishearten + the provinces and army, before they had tried to persuade the + Pontiff to wiser resolves, or, if this could not be, to supersede + his power.</p> + + <p>I cannot repress my admiration at the gentleness, clearness, + and good sense with which the Roman people acted under these most + difficult circumstances. It was astonishing to see the clear + understanding which animated the crowd, as one man, and the + decision with which they acted to effect their purpose. + Wonderfully has this people been developed within a year!</p> + + <p>The Pope, besieged by deputations, who mildly but firmly + showed him that, if he persisted, the temporal power must be + placed in other hands, his ears filled with reports of Cardinals, + "such venerable persons," as he pathetically styles them, would + not yield in spirit, though compelled to in act. After two days' + struggle, he was obliged to place the power in the hands of the + persons most opposed to him, and nominally acquiesce in their + proceedings, while in his second proclamation, very touching from + the sweetness of its tone, he shows a fixed misunderstanding of + the cause at issue, which leaves no hope of his ever again being + more than a name or an effigy in their affairs.</p> + + <p>His people were much affected, and entirely laid aside their + anger, but they would not be blinded as to the truth. While + gladly returning to their accustomed habits of affectionate + homage toward the Pontiff, their unanimous sense and resolve is + thus expressed in an able pamphlet of the day, such as in every + respect would have been deemed impossible to the Rome of + 1847:—</p> + + <p>"From the last allocution of Pius result two facts of extreme + gravity;—the entire separation between the spiritual and + temporal power, and the express refusal of the Pontiff to be + chief of an Italian Republic. But far from drawing hence reason + for <span class="pagenum"><a name="page325" id="page325"></a>[pg + 325]</span> discouragement and grief, who looks well at the + destiny of Italy may bless Providence, which breaks or changes + the instrument when the work is completed, and by secret and + inscrutable ways conducts us to the fulfilment of our desires and + of our hopes.</p> + + <p>"If Pius IX. refuses, the Italian people does not therefore + draw back. Nothing remains to the free people of Italy, except to + unite in one constitutional kingdom, founded on the largest + basis; and if the chief who, by our assemblies, shall be called + to the highest honor, either declines or does not answer + worthily, the people will take care of itself.</p> + + <p>"Italians! down with all emblems of private and partial + interests. Let us unite under one single banner, the tricolor, + and if he who has carried it bravely thus far lets it fall from + his hand, we will take it one from the other, twenty-four + millions of us, and, till the last of us shall have perished + under the banner of our redemption, the stranger shall not return + into Italy.</p> + + <p>"Viva Italy! viva the Italian people!"<a id="footnotetagm" + name="footnotetagm"></a><a href="#footnotem"><sup>M</sup></a></p> + + <p>These events make indeed a crisis. The work begun by Napoleon + is finished. There will never more be really a Pope, but only the + effigy or simulacrum of one.</p> + + <p>The loss of Pius IX. is for the moment a great one. His name + had real moral weight,—was a trumpet appeal to sentiment. + It is not the same with any man that is left. There is not one + that can be truly a leader in the Roman dominion, not one who has + even great intellectual weight.</p> + + <p>The responsibility of events now lies wholly with the people, + and that wave of thought which has begun to pervade them. + Sovereigns and statesmen will go where they are carried; it is + probable power will be changed continually from, hand to hand, + and government become, to all intents and purposes, + representative. Italy needs now quite to throw aside her stupid + king of Naples, who hangs like a dead weight on her movements. + The king of <span class="pagenum"><a name="page326" id= + "page326"></a>[pg 326]</span> Sardinia and the Grand Duke of + Tuscany will be trusted while they keep their present course; but + who can feel sure of any sovereign, now that Louis Philippe has + shown himself so mad and Pius IX. so blind? It seems as if fate + was at work to bewilder and cast down the dignities of the world + and democratize society at a blow.</p> + + <p>In Rome there is now no anchor except the good sense of the + people. It seems impossible that collision should not arise + between him who retains the name but not the place of sovereign, + and the provisional government which calls itself a ministry. The + Count Mamiani, its new head, is a man of reputation as a writer, + but untried as yet as a leader or a statesman. Should agitations + arise, the Pope can no longer calm them by one of his fatherly + looks.</p> + + <p>All lies in the future; and our best hope must be that the + Power which has begun so great a work will find due means to end + it, and make the year 1850 a year of true jubilee to Italy; a + year not merely of pomps and tributes, but of recognized rights + and intelligent joys; a year of real peace,—peace, founded + not on compromise and the lying etiquettes of diplomacy, but on + truth and justice.</p> + + <p>Then this sad disappointment in Pius IX. may be forgotten, or, + while all that was lovely and generous in his life is prized and + reverenced, deep instruction may be drawn from his errors as to + the inevitable dangers of a priestly or a princely environment, + and a higher knowledge may elevate a nobler commonwealth than the + world has yet known.</p> + + <p>Hoping this era, I remain at present here. Should my hopes be + dashed to the ground, it will not change my faith, but the + struggle for its manifestation is to me of vital interest. My + friends write to urge my return; they talk of our country as the + land of the future. It is so, but that spirit which made it all + it is of value in my eyes, which gave all of hope with which I + can sympathize for that future, is more alive here at present + than in America. My country is at present spoiled by prosperity, + stupid with the lust of gain, soiled by crime in its willing + perpetuation of <span class="pagenum"><a name="page327" id= + "page327"></a>[pg 327]</span> slavery, shamed by an unjust war, + noble sentiment much forgotten even by individuals, the aims of + politicians selfish or petty, the literature frivolous and venal. + In Europe, amid the teachings of adversity, a nobler spirit is + struggling,—a spirit which cheers and animates mine. I hear + earnest words of pure faith and love. I see deeds of brotherhood. + This is what makes <i>my</i> America. I do not deeply distrust my + country. She is not dead, but in my time she sleepeth, and the + spirit of our fathers flames no more, but lies hid beneath the + ashes. It will not be so long; bodies cannot live when the soul + gets too overgrown with gluttony and falsehood. But it is not the + making a President out of the Mexican war that would make me wish + to come back. Here things are before my eyes worth recording, + and, if I cannot help this work, I would gladly be its + historian.</p> + + <p class="author">May 13.</p> + + <p>Returning from a little tour in the Alban Mount, where + everything looks so glorious this glorious spring, I find a + temporary quiet. The Pope's brothers have come to sympathize with + him; the crowd sighs over what he has done, presents him with + great bouquets of flowers, and reads anxiously the news from the + north and the proclamations of the new ministry. Meanwhile the + nightingales sing; every tree and plant is in flower, and the sun + and moon shine as if paradise were already re-established on + earth. I go to one of the villas to dream it is so, beneath the + pale light of the stars.</p> + + <blockquote class="footnote"> + <a id="footnotem" name="footnotem"></a><b>Footnote M:</b> + <a href="#footnotetagm">(return)</a> + + <p>Close of "A Comment by Pio Angelo Fierortino on the + Allocution of Pius IX. spoken in the Secret Consistory of 29th + April, 1848," dated Italy, 30th April, 1st year of the + Redemption of Italy.</p> + </blockquote><span class="pagenum"><a name="page328" id= + "page328"></a>[pg 328]</span> + <p> </p> + <h3>LETTER XXV.</h3> + + <h4>Review of the Course of Pius IX.—Mamiani.—The + People's disappointed Hopes.—The Monuments in Milan, + Naples, etc.—The King of Naples and his + Troops.—Calamities of the War.—The Italian + People.—Charles Albert.—Deductions.—Summer + among the Mountains of Italy.</h4> + + <p class="author">Rome, December 2, 1848.</p> + + <p>I have not written for six months, and within that time what + changes have taken place on this side "the great + water,"—changes of how great dramatic interest + historically,—of bearing infinitely important ideally! Easy + is the descent in ill.</p> + + <p>I wrote last when Pius IX. had taken the first stride on the + downward road. He had proclaimed himself the foe of further + reform measures, when he implied that Italian independence was + not important in his eyes, when he abandoned the crowd of heroic + youth who had gone to the field with his benediction, to some of + whom his own hand had given crosses. All the Popes, his + predecessors, had meddled with, most frequently instigated, war; + now came one who must carry out, literally, the doctrines of the + Prince of Peace, when the war was not for wrong, or the + aggrandizement of individuals, but to redeem national, to redeem + human, rights from the grasp of foreign oppression.</p> + + <p>I said some cried "traitor," some "imbecile," some wept, but + In the minds of all, I believe, at that time, grief was + predominant. They could no longer depend on him they had thought + their best friend. They had lost their father.</p> + + <p>Meanwhile his people would not submit to the inaction he + urged. They saw it was not only ruinous to themselves, but base + and treacherous to the rest of Italy. They said to the Pope, + "This <span class="pagenum"><a name="page329" id= + "page329"></a>[pg 329]</span> cannot be; you must follow up the + pledges you have given, or, if you will not act to redeem them, + you must have a ministry that will." The Pope, after he had once + declared to the contrary, ought to have persisted. He should have + said, "I cannot thus belie myself, I cannot put my name to acts I + have just declared to be against my conscience."</p> + + <p>The ministers of the people ought to have seen that the + position they assumed was utterly untenable; that they could not + advance with an enemy in the background cutting off all supplies. + But some patriotism and some vanity exhilarated them, and, the + Pope having weakly yielded, they unwisely began their impossible + task. Mamiani, their chief, I esteem a man, under all + circumstances, unequal to such a position,—a man of + rhetoric merely. But no man could have acted, unless the Pope had + resigned his temporal power, the Cardinals been put under + sufficient check, and the Jesuits and emissaries of Austria + driven from their lurking-places.</p> + + <p>A sad scene began. The Pope,—shut up more and more in + his palace, the crowd of selfish and insidious advisers darkening + round, enslaved by a confessor,—he who might have been the + liberator of suffering Europe permitted the most infamous + treacheries to be practised in his name. Private letters were + written to the foreign powers, denying the acts he outwardly + sanctioned; the hopes of the people were evaded or dallied with; + the Chamber of Deputies permitted to talk and pass measures which + they never could get funds to put into execution; legions to form + and manoeuvre, but never to have the arms and clothing they + needed. Again and again the people went to the Pope for + satisfaction. They got only—benediction.</p> + + <p>Thus plotted and thus worked the scarlet men of sin, playing + the hopes of Italy off and on, while <i>their</i> hope was of the + miserable defeat consummated by a still worse traitor at Milan on + the 6th of August. But, indeed, what could be expected from the + "Sword of Pius IX.," when Pius IX. himself had thus failed in his + high vocation. The king of Naples bombarded his city, and set on + the Lazzaroni to rob and murder the subjects he had <span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page330" id="page330"></a>[pg 330]</span> + deluded by his pretended gift of the Constitution. Pius + proclaimed that he longed to embrace <i>all</i> the princes of + Italy. He talked of peace, when all knew for a great part of the + Italians there was no longer hope of peace, except in the + sepulchre, or freedom.</p> + + <p>The taunting manifestos of Welden are a sufficient comment on + the conduct of the Pope. "As the government of his Holiness is + too weak to control his subjects,"—"As, singularly enough, + a great number of Romans are found, fighting against us, contrary + to the <i>expressed</i> will of their prince,"—such were + the excuses for invasions of the Pontifical dominions, and the + robbery and insult by which they were accompanied. Such + invasions, it was said, made his Holiness very indignant; he + remonstrated against these; but we find no word of remonstrance + against the tyranny of the king of Naples,—no word of + sympathy for the victims of Lombardy, the sufferings of Verona, + Vicenza, Padua, Mantua, Venice.</p> + + <p>In the affairs of Europe there are continued signs of the plan + of the retrograde party to effect similar demonstrations in + different places at the same hour. The 15th of May was one of + these marked days. On that day the king of Naples made use of the + insurrection he had contrived to excite, to massacre his people, + and find an excuse for recalling his troops from Lombardy. The + same day a similar crisis was hoped in Rome from the declarations + of the Pope, but that did not work at the moment exactly as the + foes of enfranchisement hoped.</p> + + <p>However, the wounds were cruel enough. The Roman volunteers + received the astounding news that they were not to expect + protection or countenance from their prince; all the army stood + aghast, that they were no longer to fight in the name of Pio. It + had been so dear, so sweet, to love and really reverence the head + of their Church, so inspiring to find their religion for once in + accordance with the aspirations of the soul! They were to be + deprived, too, of the aid of the disciplined Neapolitan troops + and their artillery, on which they had counted. How cunningly all + this was contrived to cause dissension and dismay may easily be + seen.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page331" id= + "page331"></a>[pg 331]</span> + + <p>The Neapolitan General Pepe nobly refused to obey, and called + on the troops to remain with him. They wavered; but they are a + pampered army, personally much attached to the king, who pays + them well and indulges them at the expense of his people, that + they may be his support against that people when in a throe of + nature it rises and striven for its rights. For the same reason, + the sentiment of patriotism was little diffused among them in + comparison with the other troops. And the alternative presented + was one in which it required a very clear sense of higher duty to + act against habit. Generally, after wavering awhile, they obeyed + and returned. The Roman States, which had received them with so + many testimonials of affection and honor, on their retreat were + not slack to show a correspondent aversion and contempt. The + towns would not suffer their passage; the hamlets were unwilling + to serve them even with fire and water. They were filled at once + with shame and rage; one officer killed himself, unable to bear + it; in the unreflecting minds of the soldiers, hate sprung up for + the rest of Italy, and especially Rome, which will make them + admirable tools of tyranny in case of civil war.</p> + + <p>This was the first great calamity of the war. But apart from + the treachery of the king of Naples and the dereliction of the + Pope, it was impossible it should end thoroughly well. The people + were in earnest, and have shown themselves so; brave, and able to + bear privation. No one should dare, after the proofs of the + summer, to reiterate the taunt, so unfriendly frequent on foreign + lips at the beginning of the contest, that the Italian can boast, + shout, and fling garlands, but not <i>act</i>. The Italian always + showed himself noble and brave, even in foreign service, and is + doubly so in the cause of his country. But efficient heads were + wanting. The princes were not in earnest; they were looking at + expediency. The Grand Duke, timid and prudent, wanted to do what + was safest for Tuscany; his ministry, "<i>Moderate</i>" and + prudent, would have liked to win a great prize at small risk. + They went no farther than the people pulled them. The king of + Sardinia had taken the first bold step, and the idea that + treachery on his part was premeditated cannot be sustained; it + arises from the extraordinary <span class="pagenum"><a name= + "page332" id="page332"></a>[pg 332]</span> aspect of his + measures, and the knowledge that he is not incapable of + treachery, as he proved in early youth. But now it was only his + selfishness that worked to the same results. He fought and + planned, not for Italy, but the house of Savoy, which his Balbis + and Giobertis had so long been prophesying was to reign supreme + in the new great era of Italy. These prophecies he more than half + believed, because they chimed with his ambitious wishes; but he + had not soul enough to realize them; he trusted only in his + disciplined troops; he had not nobleness enough to believe he + might rely at all on the sentiment of the people. For his troops + he dared not have good generals; conscious of meanness and + timidity, he shrank from the approach of able and earnest men; he + was inly afraid they would, in helping Italy, take her and + themselves out of his guardianship. Antonini was insulted, + Garibaldi rejected; other experienced leaders, who had rushed to + Italy at the first trumpet-sound, could never get employment from + him. As to his generalship, it was entirely inadequate, even if + he had made use of the first favorable moments. But his first + thought was not to strike a blow at the Austrians before they + recovered from the discomfiture of Milan, but to use the panic + and need of his assistance to induce Lombardy and Venice to annex + themselves to his kingdom. He did not even wish seriously to get + the better till this was done, and when this was done, it was too + late. The Austrian army was recruited, the generals had recovered + their spirits, and were burning to retrieve and avenge their past + defeat. The conduct of Charles Albert had been shamefully evasive + in the first months. The account given by Franzini, when + challenged in the Chamber of Deputies at Turin, might be summed + up thus: "Why, gentlemen, what would you have? Every one knows + that the army is in excellent condition, and eager for action. + They are often reviewed, hear speeches, and sometimes get medals. + We take places always, if it is not difficult. I myself was + present once when the troops advanced; our men behaved gallantly, + and had the advantage in the first skirmish; but afterward the + enemy pointed on us artillery from the heights, and, naturally, + we retired. But as to supposing <span class="pagenum"><a name= + "page333" id="page333"></a>[pg 333]</span> that his Majesty + Charles Albert is indifferent to the success of Italy in the war, + that is absurd. He is 'the Sword of Italy'; he is the most + magnanimous of princes; he is seriously occupied about the war; + many a day I have been called into his tent to talk it over, + before he was up in the morning!"</p> + + <p>Sad was it that the heroic Milan, the heroic Venice, the + heroic Sicily, should lean on such a reed as this, and by hurried + acts, equally unworthy as unwise, sully the glory of their + shields. Some names, indeed, stand, out quite free from this + blame. Mazzini, who kept up a combat against folly and cowardice, + day by day and hour by hour, with almost supernatural strength, + warned the people constantly of the evils which their advisers + were drawing upon them. He was heard then only by a few, but in + this "Italia del Popolo" may be found many prophecies exactly + fulfilled, as those of "the golden-haired love of Phoebus" during + the struggles of Ilium. He himself, in the last sad days of + Milan, compared his lot to that of Cassandra. At all events, his + hands are pure from that ill. What could be done to arouse + Lombardy he did, but the "Moderate" party unable to wean + themselves from old habits, the pupils of the wordy Gioberti + thought there could be no safety unless under the mantle of a + prince. They did not foresee that he would run away, and throw + that mantle on the ground.</p> + + <p>Tommaso and Manin also were clear in their aversion to these + measures; and with them, as with all who were resolute in + principle at that time, a great influence has followed.</p> + + <p>It is said Charles Albert feels bitterly the imputations on + his courage, and says they are most ungrateful, since he has + exposed the lives of himself and his sons in the combat. Indeed, + there ought to be made a distinction between personal and mental + courage. The former Charles Albert may possess, may have too much + of what this still aristocratic world calls "the feelings of a + gentleman" to shun exposing himself to a chance shot now and + then. An entire want of mental courage he has shown. The battle, + decisive against him, was made so by his giving up the moment + fortune turned against him. It is shameful to hear so many say + this result <span class="pagenum"><a name="page334" id= + "page334"></a>[pg 334]</span> was inevitable, just because the + material advantages were in favor of the Austrians. Pray, was + never a battle won against material odds? It is precisely such + that a good leader, a noble man, may expect to win. Were the + Austrians driven out of Milan because the Milanese had that + advantage? The Austrians would again, have suffered repulse from + them, but for the baseness of this man, on whom they had been + cajoled into relying,—a baseness that deserves the pillory; + and on a pillory will the "Magnanimous," as he was meanly called + in face of the crimes of his youth and the timid selfishness of + his middle age, stand in the sight of posterity. He made use of + his power only to betray Milan; he took from the citizens all + means of defence, and then gave them up to the spoiler; he + promised to defend them "to the last drop of his blood," and sold + them the next minute; even the paltry terms he made, he has not + seen maintained. Had the people slain him in their rage, he well + deserved it at their hands; and all his conduct since show how + righteous would have been that sudden verdict of passion.</p> + + <p>Of all this great drama I have much to write, but elsewhere, + in a more full form, and where I can duly sketch the portraits of + actors little known in America. The materials are over-rich. I + have bought my right in them by much sympathetic suffering; yet, + amid the blood and tears of Italy, 't is joy to see some glorious + new births. The Italians are getting cured of mean adulation and + hasty boasts; they are learning to prize and seek realities; the + effigies of straw are getting knocked down, and living, growing + men take their places. Italy is being educated for the future, + her leaders are learning that the time is past for trust in + princes and precedents,—that there is no hope except in + truth and God; her lower people are learning to shout less and + think more.</p> + + <p>Though my thoughts have been much with the public in this + struggle for life, I have been away from it during the summer + months, in the quiet valleys, on the lonely mountains. There, + personally undisturbed, I have seen the glorious Italian summer + wax and wane,—the summer of Southern Italy, which I did not + see last year. On the mountains it was not too hot for me, and I + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page335" id="page335"></a>[pg + 335]</span> enjoyed the great luxuriance of vegetation. I had the + advantage of having visited the scene of the war minutely last + summer, so that, in mind, I could follow every step of the + campaign, while around me were the glorious relics of old + times,—the crumbling theatre or temple of the Roman day, + the bird's-nest village of the Middle Ages, on whose purple + height shone the sun and moon of Italy in changeless lustre. It + was great pleasure to me to watch the gradual growth and change + of the seasons, so different from ours. Last year I had not + leisure for this quiet acquaintance. Now I saw the fields first + dressed in their carpets of green, enamelled richly with the red + poppy and blue corn-flower,—in that sunshine how + resplendent! Then swelled the fig, the grape, the olive, the + almond; and my food was of these products of this rich clime. For + near three months I had grapes every day; the last four weeks, + enough daily for two persons for a cent! Exquisite salad for two + persons' dinner and supper cost but a cent, and all other + products of the region were in the same proportion. One who keeps + still in Italy, and lives as the people do, may really have much + simple luxury for very little money; though both travel, and, to + the inexperienced foreigner, life in the cities, are + expensive.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page336" id= + "page336"></a>[pg 336]</span> + <p> </p> + <h3>LETTER XXVI.</h3> + + <h4>Thoughts of the Italian Race, the Seasons, and + Rome.—Changes.—The Death of the Minister + Rossi.—The Church of San Luigi del Francesi.—St. + Cecilia and the Domenichino Chapel.—The Piazza del + Popolo.—The Troops: Preparatory Movements toward the + Quirinal.—The Demonstration on the Palace.—The + Church: its Position and Aims.—The Pope's Flight, + &c.—Social Life.—Don Tirlone.—The New + Year.</h4> + + <p class="author">Rome, December 2, 1848.</p> + + <p>Not till I saw the snow on the mountains grow rosy in the + autumn sunset did I turn my steps again toward Rome. I was very + ready to return. After three or four years of constant + excitement, this six months of seclusion had been welcome; but + now I felt the need of meeting other eyes beside those, so bright + and so shallow, of the Italian peasant. Indeed, I left what was + most precious, but which I could not take with me;<a id= + "footnotetagn" name="footnotetagn"></a><a href= + "#footnoten"><sup>N</sup></a> still it was a compensation that I + was again to see Rome,—Rome, that almost killed me with her + cold breath of last winter, yet still with that cold breath + whispered a tale of import so divine. Rome so beautiful, so + great! her presence stupefies, and one has to withdraw to prize + the treasures she has given. City of the soul! yes, it is + <i>that</i>; the very dust magnetizes you, and thousand spells + have been chaining you in every careless, every murmuring moment. + Yes! Rome, however seen, thou must be still adored; and every + hour of absence or presence must deepen love with one who has + known what it is to repose in thy arms.</p> + + <p>Repose! for whatever be the revolutions, tumults, panics, + hopes, of the present day, still the temper of life here is + repose. The great past enfolds us, and the emotions of the moment + cannot <span class="pagenum"><a name="page337" id= + "page337"></a>[pg 337]</span> here greatly disturb that + impression. From the wild shout and throng of the streets the + setting sun recalls us as it rests on a hundred domes and + temples,—rests on the Campagna, whose grass is rooted in + departed human greatness. Burial-place so full of spirit that + death itself seems no longer cold! O let me rest here, too! Hest + here seems possible; meseems myriad lives still linger here, + awaiting some one great summons.</p> + + <p>The rivers had burst their bounds, and beneath the moon the + fields round Rome lay one sheet of silver. Entering the gate + while the baggage was under examination, I walked to the entrance + of a villa. Far stretched its overarching shrubberies, its deep + green bowers; two statues, with foot advanced and uplifted + finger, seemed to greet me; it was near the scene of great + revels, great splendors in the old time; there lay the gardens of + Sallust, where were combined palace, theatre, library, bath, and + villa. Strange things have happened since, the most attractive + part of which—the secret heart—lies buried or has + fled to animate other forms; for of that part historians have + rarely given a hint more than they do now of the truest life of + our day, which refuses to be embodied, by the pen, craving forms + more mutable, more eloquent than the pen can give.</p> + + <p>I found Rome empty of foreigners. Most of the English have + fled in affright,—the Germans and French are wanted at + home,—the Czar has recalled many of his younger subjects; + he does not like the schooling they get here. That large part of + the population, which lives by the visits of foreigners was + suffering very much,—trade, industry, for every reason, + stagnant. The people were every moment becoming more exasperated + by the impudent measures of the Minister Rossi, and their + mortification at seeing Rome represented and betrayed by a + foreigner. And what foreigner? A pupil of Guizot and Louis + Philippe. The news of the bombardment and storm of Vienna had + just reached Rome. Zucchi, the Minister of War, at once left the + city to put down over-free manifestations in the provinces, and + impede the entrance of the troops of the patriot chief, + Garibaldi, into Bologna. From the provinces came soldiery, called + by Rossi to keep order at the <span class="pagenum"><a name= + "page338" id="page338"></a>[pg 338]</span> opening of the Chamber + of Deputies. He reviewed them in the face of the Civic Guard; the + press began to be restrained; men were arbitrarily seized and + sent out of the kingdom. The public indignation rose to its + height; the cup overflowed.</p> + + <p>The 15th was a beautiful day, and I had gone out for a long + walk. Returning at night, the old Padrona met me with her usual + smile a little clouded. "Do you know," said she, "that the + Minister Rossi has been killed?" No Roman said + <i>murdered</i>.</p> + + <p>"Killed?"</p> + + <p>"Yes,—with a thrust in the back. A wicked man, surely; + but is that the way to punish even the wicked?"</p> + + <p>"I cannot," observed a philosopher, "sympathize under any + circumstances with so immoral a deed; but surely the manner of + doing it was great."</p> + + <p>The people at large were not so refined in their comments as + either the Padrona or the philosopher; but soldiers and populace + alike ran up and down, singing, "Blessed the hand that rids the + earth of a tyrant."</p> + + <p>Certainly, the manner <i>was</i> "great."</p> + + <p>The Chamber was awaiting the entrance of Rossi. Had he lived + to enter, he would have found the Assembly, without a single + exception, ranged upon the Opposition benches. His carriage + approached, attended by a howling, hissing multitude. He smiled, + affected unconcern, but must have felt relieved when his horses + entered the courtyard gate of the <i>Cancelleria</i>. He did not + know he was entering the place of his execution. The horses + stopped; he alighted in the midst of a crowd; it jostled him, as + if for the purpose of insult; he turned abruptly, and received as + he did so the fatal blow. It was dealt by a resolute, perhaps + experienced, hand; he fell and spoke no word more.</p> + + <p>The crowd, as if all previously acquainted with the plan, as + no doubt most of them were, issued quietly from the gate, and + passed through the outside crowd,—its members, among whom + was he who dealt the blow, dispersing in all directions. For two + or three minutes this outside crowd did not know that anything + special had happened. When they did, the news was at the moment + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page339" id="page339"></a>[pg + 339]</span> received in silence. The soldiers in whom Rossi had + trusted, whom he had hoped to flatter and bribe, stood at their + posts and said not a word. Neither they nor any one asked, "Who + did this? Where is he gone?" The sense of the people certainly + was that it was an act of summary justice on an offender whom the + laws could not reach, but they felt it to be indecent to shout or + exult on the spot where he was breathing his last. Rome, so long + supposed the capital of Christendom, certainly took a very pagan + view of this act, and the piece represented on the occasion at + the theatres was "The Death of Nero."</p> + + <p>The next morning I went to the Church of St. Andrea della + Valle, where was to be performed a funeral service, with fine + music, in honor of the victims of Vienna; for this they do here + for the victims of every place,—"victims of Milan," + "victims of Paris," "victims of Naples," and now "victims of + Vienna." But to-day I found the church closed, the service put + off,—Rome was thinking about her own victims.</p> + + <p>I passed into the Ripetta, and entered the Church of San Luigi + dei Francesi. The Republican flag was flying at the door; the + young sacristan said the fine musical service, which this church + gave formerly on St. Philip's day in honor of Louis Philippe, + would now be transferred to the Republican anniversary, the 25th + of February. I looked at the monument Chateaubriand erected when + here, to a poor girl who died, last of her family, having seen + all the others perish round her. I entered the Domenichino + Chapel, and gazed anew on the magnificent representations of the + Life and Death of St. Cecilia. She and St. Agnes are my favorite + saints. I love to think of those angel visits which her husband + knew by the fragrance of roses and lilies left behind in the + apartment. I love to think of his visit to the Catacombs, and all + that followed. In one of the pictures St. Cecilia, as she + stretches out her arms toward the suffering multitude, seems as + if an immortal fount of purest love sprung from her heart. It + gives very strongly the idea of an inexhaustible love,—the + only love that is much worth thinking about.</p> + + <p>Leaving the church, I passed along toward the Piazza del + Popolo. <span class="pagenum"><a name="page340" id= + "page340"></a>[pg 340]</span> "Yellow Tiber rose," but not high + enough to cause "distress," as he does when in a swelling mood. I + heard the drums beating, and, entering the Piazza, I found the + troops of the line already assembled, and the Civic Guard + marching in by platoons, each battalion saluted as it entered by + trumpets and a fine strain from the band of the Carbineers.</p> + + <p>I climbed the Pincian to see better. There is no place so fine + for anything of this kind as the Piazza del Popolo, it is so full + of light, so fair and grand, the obelisk and fountain make so + fine a centre to all kinds of groups.</p> + + <p>The object of the present meeting was for the Civic Guard and + troops of the line to give pledges of sympathy preparatory to + going to the Quirinal to demand a change of ministry and of + measures. The flag of the Union was placed in front of the + obelisk; all present saluted it; some officials made addresses; + the trumpets sounded, and all moved toward the Quirinal.</p> + + <p>Nothing could be gentler than the disposition of those + composing the crowd. They were resolved to be played with no + longer, but no threat was uttered or thought. They believed that + the court would be convinced by the fate of Rossi that the + retrograde movement it had attempted was impracticable. They knew + the retrograde party were panic-struck, and hoped to use the + occasion to free the Pope from its meshes. All felt that Pius IX. + had fallen irrevocably from his high place as the friend of + progress and father of Italy; but still he was personally + beloved, and still his name, so often shouted in hope and joy, + had not quite lost its <i>prestige</i>.</p> + + <p>I returned to the house, which is very near the Quirinal. On + one side I could see the palace and gardens of the Pope, on the + other the Piazza Barberini and street of the Four Fountains. + Presently I saw the carriage of Prince Barberini drive hurriedly + into his court-yard gate, the footman signing to close it, a + discharge of fire-arms was heard, and the drums of the Civic + Guard beat to arms.</p> + + <p>The Padrona ran up and down, crying with every round of shot, + "Jesu Maria, they are killing the Pope! O poor Holy + Father!—Tito, Tito," (out of the window to her husband,) + "what <i>is</i> the matter?"</p><span class="pagenum"><a name= + "page341" id="page341"></a>[pg 341]</span> + + <p>The lord of creation disdained to reply.</p> + + <p>"O Signora! pray, pray, ask Tito what is the matter?"</p> + + <p>I did so.</p> + + <p>"I don't know, Signora; nobody knows."</p> + + <p>"Why don't you go on the Mount and see?"</p> + + <p>"It would be an imprudence, Signora; nobody will go."</p> + + <p>I was just thinking to go myself, when I saw a poor man borne + by, badly wounded, and heard that the Swiss were firing on the + people. Their doing so was the cause of whatever violence there + was, and it was not much.</p> + + <p>The people had assembled, as usual, at the Quirinal, only with + more form and solemnity than usual. They had taken with them + several of the Chamber of Deputies, and they sent an embassy, + headed by Galetti, who had been in the late ministry, to state + their wishes. They received a peremptory negative. They then + insisted on seeing the Pope, and pressed on the palace. The Swiss + became alarmed, and fired from the windows and from the roof. + They did this, it is said, without orders; but who could, at the + time, suppose that? If it had been planned to exasperate the + people to blood, what more could have been done? As it was, very + little was shed; but the Pope, no doubt, felt great panic. He + heard the report of fire-arms,—heard that they tried to + burn a door of the palace. I would lay my life that he could have + shown himself without the slightest danger; nay, that the + habitual respect for his presence would have prevailed, and + hushed all tumult. He did not think so, and, to still it, once + more degraded himself and injured his people, by making promises + he did not mean to keep.</p> + + <p>He protests now against those promises as extorted by + violence,—a strange plea indeed for the representative of + St. Peter!</p> + + <p>Rome is all full of the effigies of those over whom violence + had no power. There was an early Pope about to be thrown into the + Tiber; violence had no power to make him say what he did not + mean. Delicate girls, men in the prime of hope and pride of + power,—they were all alike about that. They could die in + boiling oil, roasted on coals, or cut to pieces; but they could + not say <span class="pagenum"><a name="page342" id= + "page342"></a>[pg 342]</span> what they did not mean. These + formed the true Church; it was these who had power to disseminate + the religion of him, the Prince of Peace, who died a bloody death + of torture between sinners, because he never could say what he + did not mean.</p> + + <p>A little church, outside the gate of St. Sebastian + commemorates the following affecting tradition of the Church. + Peter, alarmed at the persecution of the Christians, had gone + forth to fly, when in this spot he saw a bright figure in his + path, and recognized his Master travelling toward Rome. "Lord," + he said, "whither goest thou?" "I go," replied Jesus, "to die + with my people." Peter comprehended the reproof. He felt that he + must not a fourth time deny his Master, yet hope for salvation. + He returned to Rome to offer his life in attestation of his + faith.</p> + + <p>The Roman Catholic Church has risen a monument to the memory + of such facts. And has the present head of that Church quite + failed to understand their monition?</p> + + <p>Not all the Popes have so failed, though the majority have + been intriguing, ambitious men of the world. But even the mob of + Rome—and in Rome there <i>is</i> a true mob of unheeding + cabbage-sellers, who never had a thought before beyond contriving + how to satisfy their animal instincts for the day—said, on + hearing the protest, "There was another Pius, not long since, who + talked in a very different style. When the French threatened him, + he said, 'You may do with me as you see fit, but I cannot consent + to act against my convictions.'"</p> + + <p>In fact, the only dignified course for the Pope to pursue was + to resign his temporal power. He could no longer hold it on his + own terms; but to it he clung; and the counsellors around him + were men to wish him to regard <i>that</i> as the first of + duties. When the question was of waging war for the independence + of Italy, they regarded him solely as the head of the Church; but + when the demand was to satisfy the wants of his people, and + ecclesiastical goods were threatened with taxes, then he was the + prince of the state, bound to maintain all the selfish + prerogatives of bygone days for the benefit of his successors. + Poor Pope! how has his mind been torn to pieces in these later + days! It moves compassion. <span class="pagenum"><a name= + "page343" id="page343"></a>[pg 343]</span> There can be no doubt + that all his natural impulses are generous and kind, and in a + more private station he would have died beloved and honored; but + to this he was unequal; he has suffered bad men to surround him, + and by their misrepresentations and insidious suggestions at last + entirely to cloud his mind. I believe he really thinks now the + Progress movement tends to anarchy, blood, and all that looked + worst in the first French revolution. However that may be, I + cannot forgive him some of the circumstances of this flight. To + fly to Naples; to throw himself in the arms of the bombarding + monarch, blessing him and thanking his soldiery for preserving + that part of Italy from anarchy; to protest that all his promises + at Rome were null and void, when he thought himself in safety to + choose a commission for governing in his absence, composed of men + of princely blood, but as to character so null that everybody + laughed, and said he chose those who could best be spared if they + were killed; (but they all ran away directly;) when Rome was thus + left without any government, to refuse to see any deputation, + even the Senator of Rome, whom he had so gladly + sanctioned,—these are the acts either of a fool or a foe. + They are not his acts, to be sure, but he is responsible; he lets + them stand as such in the face of the world, and weeps and prays + for their success.</p> + + <p>No more of him! His day is over. He has been made, it seems + unconsciously, an instrument of good his regrets cannot destroy. + Nor can he be made so important an instrument of ill. These acts + have not had the effect the foes of freedom hoped. Rome remained + quite cool and composed; all felt that they had not demanded more + than was their duty to demand, and were willing to accept what + might follow. In a few days all began to say: "Well, who would + have thought it? The Pope, the Cardinals, the Princes are gone, + and Rome is perfectly tranquil, and one does not miss anything, + except that there are not so many rich carriages and + liveries."</p> + + <p>The Pope may regret too late that he ever gave the people a + chance to make this reflection. Yet the best fruits of the + movement may not ripen for a long time. It is a movement which + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page344" id="page344"></a>[pg + 344]</span> requires radical measures, clear-sighted, resolute + men: these last, as yet, do not show themselves in Rome. The new + Tuscan ministry has three men of superior force in various + ways,—Montanelli, Guerazzi, D'Aguila; such are not as yet + to be found in Rome.</p> + + <p>But should she fall this time,—and she must either + advance with decision and force, or fall, since to stand still is + impossible,—the people have learned much; ignorance and + servility of thought are lessened,—the way is paving for + final triumph.</p> + + <p>And my country, what does she? You have chosen a new President + from a Slave State, representative of the Mexican war. But he + seems to be honest, a man that can be esteemed, and is one really + known to the people, which is a step upward, after having sunk + last time to choosing a mere tool of party.</p> + + <p>Pray send here a good Ambassador,—one that has + experience of foreign life, that he may act with good judgment, + and, if possible, a man that has knowledge and views which extend + beyond the cause of party politics in the United States,—a + man of unity in principles, but capable of understanding variety + in forms. And send a man capable of prizing the luxury of living + in, or knowing Rome; the office of Ambassador is one that should + not be thrown away on a person who cannot prize or use it. + Another century, and I might ask to be made Ambassador myself, + ('t is true, like other Ambassadors, I would employ clerks to do + the most of the duty,) but woman's day has not come yet. They + hold their clubs in Paris, but even George Sand will not act with + women as they are. They say she pleads they are too mean, too + treacherous. She should not abandon them for that, which is not + nature, but misfortune. How much I shall have to say on that + subject if I live, which I desire not, for I am very tired of the + battle with giant wrongs, and would like to have some one younger + and stronger arise to say what ought to be said, still more to do + what ought to be done. Enough! if I felt these things in + privileged America, the cries of mothers and wives beaten at + night by sons and husbands for their diversion after drinking, as + I have repeatedly heard them these past months,—the excuse + for falsehood, "I <i>dare not</i> <span class="pagenum"><a name= + "page345" id="page345"></a>[pg 345]</span> tell my husband, he + would be ready to kill me,"—have sharpened my perception as + to the ills of woman's condition and the remedies that must be + applied. Had I but genius, had I but energy, to tell what I know + as it ought to be told! God grant them me, or some other more + worthy woman, I pray.</p> + + <p><i>Don Tirlone</i>, the <i>Punch</i> of Rome, has just come + in. This number represents the fortress of Gaëta. + Outside hangs a cage containing a parrot (<i>pappagallo</i>), the + plump body of the bird surmounted by a noble large head with + benign face and Papal head-dress. He sits on the perch now with + folded wings, but the cage door, in likeness of a portico, shows + there is convenience to come forth for the purposes of + benediction, when wanted. Outside, the king of Naples, dressed as + Harlequin, plays the organ for instruction of the bird (unhappy + penitent, doomed to penance), and, grinning with sharp teeth, + observes: "He speaks in my way now." In the background a young + Republican holds ready the match for a barrel of gunpowder, but + looks at his watch, waiting the moment to ignite it.</p> + + <p>A happy New Year to my country! may she be worthy of the + privileges she possesses, while others are lavishing their blood + to win them,—that is all that need be wished for her at + present.</p> + + <blockquote class="footnote"> + <a id="footnoten" name="footnoten"></a><b>Footnote N:</b> + <a href="#footnotetagn">(return)</a> + + <p>Her child, who was born in Rieti, September 5, 1848, and was + necessarily left in that town during the difficulties and siege + of Rome.—ED.</p> + </blockquote><span class="pagenum"><a name="page346" id= + "page346"></a>[pg 346]</span> + <p> </p> + <h3>LETTER XXVII.</h3> + + <h4>Rome.—The Carnival: the Moccoletti.—The Roman + Character.—The Pope's Flight.—The Assembly.—The + People.—The Pope's Mistake.—His Manifesto: its Tone + and Effect.—Destruction of the Temporal Dominion of the + Church.</h4> + + <p class="author">Rome, Evening of Feb. 20, 1849.</p> + + <p>It is said you cannot thoroughly know any place till you have + both summered and wintered in it; but more than one summer and + winter of experience seems to be needed for Rome. How I fretted + last winter, during the three months' rain, and sepulchral chill, + and far worse than sepulchral odors, which accompanied it! I + thought it was the invariable Roman winter, and that I should + never be able to stay here during another; so took my room only + by the month, thinking to fly so soon as the rain set in. And lo! + it has never rained at all; but there has been glorious sun and + moon, unstained by cloud, always; and these last days have been + as warm as May,—the days of the Carnival, for I have just + come in from seeing the <i>Moccoletti</i>.</p> + + <p>The Republican Carnival has not been as splendid as the Papal, + the absence of dukes and princes being felt in the way of coaches + and rich dresses; there are also fewer foreigners than usual, + many having feared to assist at this most peaceful of + revolutions. But if less splendid, it was not less gay; the + costumes were many and fanciful,—flowers, smiles, and fun + abundant.</p> + + <p>This is the first time of my seeing the true + <i>Moccoletti</i>; last year, in one of the first triumphs of + democracy, they did not blow oat the lights, thus turning it into + an illumination. The effect of the swarms of lights, little and + large, thus in motion all over the fronts of the houses, and up + and down the Corso, was exceedingly pretty and fairy-like; but + that did not make up for the loss of that <span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page347" id="page347"></a>[pg 347]</span> + wild, innocent gayety of which this people alone is capable after + childhood, and which never shines out so much as on this + occasion. It is astonishing the variety of tones, the lively + satire and taunt of which the words <i>Senza moccolo</i>, + <i>senza mo</i>, are susceptible from their tongues. The scene is + the best burlesque on the life of the "respectable" world that + can be imagined. A ragamuffin with a little piece of candle, not + even lighted, thrusts it in your face with an air of far greater + superiority than he can wear who, dressed in gold and velvet, + erect in his carriage, holds aloft his light on a tall pole. In + vain his security; while he looks down on the crowd to taunt the + wretches <i>senza mo</i>, a weak female hand from a chamber + window blots out his pretensions by one flirt of an old + handkerchief.</p> + + <p>Many handsome women, otherwise dressed in white, wore the red + liberty cap, and the noble though somewhat coarse Roman outline + beneath this brilliant red, by the changeful glow of million + lights, made a fine effect. Men looked too vulgar in the liberty + cap.</p> + + <p>How I mourn that my little companion E. never saw these + things, that would have given him such store of enchanting + reminiscences for all his after years! I miss him always on such + occasions; formerly it was through him that I enjoyed them. He + had the child's heart, had the susceptible fancy, and, naturally, + a fine discerning sense for whatever is individual or + peculiar.</p> + + <p>I missed him much at the Fair of St. Eustachio. This, like the + Carnival, was last year entirely spoiled by constant rain. I + never saw it at all before. It comes in the first days, or rather + nights, of January. All the quarter of St. Eustachio is turned + into one toy-shop; the stalls are set out in the street and + brightly lighted, up. These are full of cheap toys,—prices + varying from half a cent up to twenty cents. The dolls, which are + dressed as husband and wife, or sometimes grouped in families, + are the most grotesque rag-babies that can be imagined. Among the + toys are great quantities of whistles, tin trumpets, and little + tambourines; of these every man, woman, and child has bought one, + and is using it to make a noise. This extempore concert begins + about ten o'clock, and lasts <span class="pagenum"><a name= + "page348" id="page348"></a>[pg 348]</span> till midnight; the + delight of the numerous children that form part of the orchestra, + the good-humored familiarity without the least touch of rudeness + in the crowd, the lively effect of the light upon the toys, and + the jumping, shouting figures that, exhibit them, make this the + pleasantest Saturnalia. Had you only been there, E., to guide me + by the hand, blowing the trumpet for both, and spying out a + hundred queer things in nooks that entirely escape me!</p> + + <p>The Roman still plays amid his serious affairs, and very + serious have they been this past winter. The Roman legions went + out singing and dancing to fight in Lombardy, and they fought no + less bravely for that.</p> + + <p>When I wrote last, the Pope had fled, guided, he says, "by the + hand of Providence,"—Italy deems by the hand of + Austria,—to Gaëta. He had already soiled his white + robes, and defamed himself for ever, by heaping benedictions on + the king of Naples and the bands of mercenaries whom he employs + to murder his subjects on the least sign of restlessness in their + most painful position. Most cowardly had been the conduct of his + making promises he never meant to keep, stealing away by night in + the coach of a foreign diplomatist, protesting that what he had + done was null because he had acted under fear,—as if such a + protest could avail to one who boasts himself representative of + Christ and his Apostles, guardian of the legacy of the martyrs! + He selected a band of most incapable men to face the danger he + had feared for himself; most of these followed his example and + fled. Rome sought an interview with him, to see if reconciliation + were possible; he refused to receive her messengers. His wicked + advisers calculated upon great confusion and distress as + inevitable on the occasion; but, for once, the hope of the bad + heart was doomed to immediate disappointment. Rome coolly said, + "If you desert me,—if you will not hear me,—I must + act for myself." She threw herself into the arms of a few men who + had courage and calmness for this crisis; they bade her think + upon what was to be done, meanwhile avoiding every excess that + could give a color to calumny and revenge. The people, with + admirable good sense, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page349" id= + "page349"></a>[pg 349]</span> comprehended and followed up this + advice. Never was Rome so truly tranquil, so nearly free from + gross ill, as this winter. A few words of brotherly admonition + have been more powerful than all the spies, dungeons, and + scaffolds of Gregory.</p> + + <p>"The hand of the Omnipotent works for us," observed an old man + whom I saw in the street selling cigars the evening before the + opening of the Constitutional Assembly. He was struck by the + radiant beauty of the night. The old people observe that there + never has been such a winter as this which follows the + establishment by the French of a republic.</p> + + <p>May the omens speed well! A host of enemies without are ready + to levy war against this long-suffering people, to rivet anew + their chains. Still there is now an obvious tide throughout + Europe toward a better order of things, and a wave of it may bear + Italy onward to the shore.</p> + + <p>The revolution, like all genuine ones, has been instinctive, + its results unexpected and surprising to the greater part of + those who achieved them. The waters, which had flowed so secretly + beneath the crust of habit that many never heard their murmur, + unless in dreams, have suddenly burst to light in full and + beautiful jets; all rush to drink the pure and living + draught.</p> + + <p>As in the time of Jesus, the multitude had been long enslaved + beneath a cumbrous ritual, their minds designedly darkened by + those who should have enlightened them, brutified, corrupted, + amid monstrous contradictions and abuses; yet the moment they + hear a word correspondent to the original nature, "Yes, it is + true," they cry. "It is spoken with, authority. Yes, it ought to + be so. Priests ought to be better and wiser than other men; if + they were, they would not need pomp and temporal power to command + respect. Yes, it is true; we ought not to lie; we should not try + to impose upon one another. We ought rather to prefer that our + children should work honestly for their bread, than get it by + cheating, begging, or the prostitution of their mothers. It would + be better to act worthily and kindly, probably would please God + more than the kissing of relics. We have long darkly felt that + these things were so; <i>now</i> we know it."</p><span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page350" id="page350"></a>[pg 350]</span> + + <p>The unreality of relation between the people and the hierarchy + was obvious instantly upon the flight of Pius. He made an immense + mistake then, and he made it because neither he nor his Cardinals + were aware of the unreality. They did not know that, great as is + the force of habit, truth <i>only</i> is imperishable. The people + had abhorred Gregory, had adored Pius, upon whom they looked as a + saviour, as a liberator; finding themselves deceived, a + mourning-veil had overshadowed their love. Still, had Pius + remained here, and had courage to show himself on agitating + occasions, his position as the Pope, before whom they had been + bred to bow, his aspect, which had once seemed to them full of + blessing and promise, like that of an angel, would have still + retained power. Probably the temporal dominion of the Papacy + would not have been broken up. He fled; the people felt contempt + for his want of force and truth. He wrote to reproach them with + ingratitude; they were indignant. What had they to be grateful + for? A constitution to which he had not kept true an instant; the + institution of the National Guard, which he had begun to + neutralize; benedictions, followed by such actions as the + desertion of the poor volunteers in the war for Italian + independence? Still, the people were not quite alienated from + Pius. They felt sure that his heart was, in substance, good and + kindly, though the habits of the priest and the arts of his + counsellors had led him so egregiously to falsify its dictates + and forget the vocation with which he had been called. Many hoped + he would see his mistake, and return to be at one with the + people. Among the more ignorant, there was a superstitious notion + that he would return in the night of the 5th of January. There + were many bets that he would be found in the palace of the + Quirinal the morning of the 6th. All these lingering feelings + were finally extinguished by the advice of excommunication. As + this may not have readied America, I subjoin a translation. Here + I was obliged to make use of a manuscript copy; all the printed + ones were at once destroyed. It is probably the last document of + the kind the world will see.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name= + "page351" id="page351"></a>[pg 351]</span> + + <p class="center">MANIFESTO OF PIUS IX.</p> + + <p>"To OUR MOST BELOVED SUBJECTS:—</p> + + <p>"From this pacific abode to which it has pleased Divine + Providence to conduct us, and whence we can freely manifest our + sentiments and our will, we have waited for testimonies of + remorse from our misguided children for the sacrileges and + misdeeds committed against persons attached to our + service,—among whom some have been slain, others outraged + in the most barbarous manner,—as well as for those against + our residence and our person. But we have seen nothing except a + sterile invitation to return to our capital, unaccompanied by a + word of condemnation for those crimes or the least guaranty for + our security against the frauds and violences of that same + company of furious men which still tyrannizes with a barbarous + despotism over Rome and the States of the Church. We also waited, + expecting that the protests and orders we have uttered would + recall to the duties of fidelity and subjection those who have + despised and trampled upon them in the very capital of our + States. But, instead of this, a new and more monstrous act of + undisguised felony and of actual rebellion by them audaciously + committed, has filled the measure of our affliction, and excited + at the same time our just indignation, as it will afflict the + Church Universal. We speak of that act, in every respect + detestable, by which, it has been pretended to initiate the + convocation of a so-called General National Assembly of the Roman + States, by a decree of the 29th of last December, in order to + establish new political forms for the Pontifical dominion. Adding + thus iniquity to iniquity, the authors and favorers of the + demagogical anarchy strive to destroy the temporal authority of + the Roman Pontiff over the dominions of Holy + Church,—however irrefragably established through the most + ancient and solid rights, and venerated, recognized, and + sustained by all the nations,—pretending and making others + believe that his sovereign power can be subject to controversy or + depend on the caprices of the factious. We shall spare our + dignity the humiliation of dwelling on all that is monstrous + contained in that act, abominable <span class="pagenum"><a name= + "page352" id="page352"></a>[pg 352]</span> through the absurdity + of its origin no less than the illegality of its form and the + impiety of its scope; but it appertains to the apostolic + authority, with which, however unworthy, we are invested, and to + the responsibility which binds us by the most sacred oaths in the + sight of the Omnipotent, not only to protest in the most + energetic and efficacious manner against that same act, but to + condemn it in the face of the universe as an enormous and + sacrilegious crime against our independence and sovereignty, + meriting the chastisements threatened by divine and human laws. + We are persuaded that, on receiving the impudent invitation, you + were full of holy indignation, and will have rejected far from + you this guilty and shameful provocation. Notwithstanding, that + none of you may say he has been deluded by fallacious seductions, + and by the preachers of subversive doctrines, or ignorant of what + is contriving by the foes of all order, all law, all right, true + liberty, and your happiness, we to-day again raise and utter + abroad our voice, so that you may be more certain of the + absoluteness with which we prohibit men, of whatever class and + condition, from taking any part in the meetings which those + persons may dare to call, for the nomination of individuals to be + sent to the condemned Assembly. At the same time we recall to you + how this absolute prohibition is sanctioned by the decrees of our + predecessors and of the Councils, especially of the Sacred + Council-General of Trent, Sect. XXII. Chap. 11, in which the + Church has fulminated many times her censures, and especially the + greater excommunication, as incurred without fail by any + declaration of whomsoever daring to become guilty of whatsoever + attempt against the temporal sovereignty of the Supreme Pontiff, + this we declare to have been already unhappily incurred by all + those who have given aid to the above-named act, and others + preceding, intended to prejudice the same sovereignty, and in + other modes and under false pretexts have, perturbed, violated, + and usurped our authority. Yet, though we feel ourselves obliged + by conscience to guard the sacred deposit of the patrimony of the + Spouse of Jesus Christ, confided to our care, by using the sword + of severity given to us for that purpose, we cannot therefore + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page353" id="page353"></a>[pg + 353]</span> forget that we are on earth the representative of Him + who in exercise of his justice does not forget mercy. Raising, + therefore, our hands to Heaven, while we to it recommend a cause + which is indeed more Heaven's than ours, and while anew we + declare ourselves ready, with the aid of its powerful grace, to + drink even to the dregs, for the defence and glory of the + Catholic Church, the cup of persecution which He first wished to + drink for the salvation of the same, we shall not desist from + supplicating Him benignly to hear the fervent prayers which day + and night we unceasingly offer for the salvation of the + misguided. No day certainly could be more joyful for us, than + that in which it shall be granted to see return into the fold of + the Lord our sons from whom now we derive so much bitterness and + so great tribulations. The hope of enjoying soon the happiness of + such a day is strengthened in us by the reflection, that + universal are the prayers which, united to ours, ascend to the + throne of Divine Mercy from the lips and the heart of the + faithful throughout the Catholic world, urging it continually to + change the hearts of sinners, and reconduct them into the paths + of truth and of justice.<br /> + + <span class="note">"Gaëta, January 6, 1849."</span></p> + + <p>The silliness, bigotry, and ungenerous tone of this manifesto + excited a simultaneous movement in the population. The procession + which carried it, mumbling chants, for deposit in places provided + for lowest uses, and then, taking from, the doors of the hatters' + shops the cardinals' hats, threw them into the Tiber, was a real + and general expression of popular disgust. From that hour the + power of the scarlet hierarchy fell to rise no more. No authority + can survive a universal movement of derision. From that hour + tongues and pens were loosed, the leaven of Machiavellism, which + still polluted the productions of the more liberal, disappeared, + and people talked as they felt, just as those of us who do not + choose to be slaves are accustomed to do in America.</p> + + <p>"Jesus," cried an orator, "bade them feed his lambs. If they + have done so, it has been to rob their fleece and drink their + blood."</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page354" id= + "page354"></a>[pg 354]</span> + + <p>"Why," said another, "have we been so long deaf to the saying, + that the temporal dominion of the Church was like a thorn in the + wound of Italy, which shall never be healed till that thorn is + extracted?"</p> + + <p>And then, without passion, all felt that the temporal dominion + was in fact finished of itself, and that it only remained to + organize another form of government.</p><span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page355" id="page355"></a>[pg 355]</span> + <p> </p> + <h3>LETTER XXVIII.</h3> + + <h4>Gioberti, Mamiani, and Mazzini.—Formation of the + Constitutional Assembly.—The Right of Suffrage.—A + Procession.—Proclamation of the + Republic.—Results.—Decree of the + Assembly.—Americans in Rome: Difference of + Impressions.—Flight of the Grand Duke of + Tuscany.—Charles Albert.—Present State of + Rome.—Reflections and Conclusions.—Latest + Intelligence.</h4> + + <p class="author">Rome, Evening of Feb. 20, 1849.</p> + + <p>The League between the Italian States, and the Diet which was + to establish it, had been the thought of Gioberti, but had found + the instrument at Rome in Mamiani. The deputies were to be named + by princes or parliaments, their mandate to be limited by the + existing institutions of the several states; measures of mutual + security and some modifications in the way of reform would be the + utmost that could be hoped from this Diet. The scope of this + party did not go beyond more vigorous prosecution of the war for + independence, and the establishment of good, institutions for the + several principalities on a basis of assimilation.</p> + + <p>Mazzini, the great radical thinker of Italy, was, on the + contrary, persuaded that unity, not union, was necessary to this + country. He had taken for his motto, GOD AND THE PEOPLE, and + believed in no other powers. He wished an Italian Constitutional + Assembly, selected directly by the people, and furnished with an + unlimited mandate to decide what form was now required by the + needs of the Peninsula. His own wishes, certainly, aimed at a + republic; but the decision remained with the representatives of + the people.</p> + + <p>The thought of Gioberti had been at first the popular one, as + he, in fact, was the seer of the so-called Moderate party. For + myself, I always looked upon him as entirely a charlatan, who + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page356" id="page356"></a>[pg + 356]</span> covered his want of all real force by the thickest + embroidered mantle of words. Still, for a time, he corresponded + with the wants of the Italian mind. He assailed the Jesuits, and + was of real use by embodying the distrust and aversion that + brooded in the minds of men against these most insidious and + inveterate foes of liberty and progress. This triumph, at least, + he may boast: that sect has been obliged to yield; its extinction + seems impossible, of such life-giving power was the fiery will of + Loyola. In the Primate he had embodied the lingering hope of the + Catholic Church; Pius IX. had answered to the appeal, had + answered only to show its futility. He had run through Italy as + courier for Charles Albert, when the so falsely styled + Magnanimous entered, pretending to save her from the stranger, + really hoping to take her for himself. His own cowardice and + treachery neutralized the hope, and Charles Albert, abject in his + disgrace, took a retrograde ministry. This the country would not + suffer, and obliged him after a while to reassume at least the + position of the previous year, by taking Gioberti for his + premier. But it soon became evident that the ministry of Charles + Albert was in the same position as had been that of Pius IX. The + hand was powerless when the head was indisposed. Meantime the + name of Mazzini had echoed through Tuscany from the revered lips + of Montanelli; it reached the Roman States, and though at first + propagated by foreign impulse, yet, as soon as understood, was + welcomed as congenial. Montanelli had nobly said, addressing + Florence: "We could not regret that the realization of this + project should take place in a sister city, still more + illustrious than ours." The Romans took him at his word; the + Constitutional Assembly for the Roman States was elected with a + double mandate, that the deputies might sit in the Constitutional + Assembly for all Italy whenever the other provinces could send + theirs. They were elected by universal suffrage. Those who + listened to Jesuits and Moderates predicted that the project + would fail of itself. The people were too ignorant to make use of + the liberty of suffrage.</p> + + <p>But ravens now-a-days are not the true prophetic birds. The + Roman eagle recommences her flight, and it is from its direction + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page357" id="page357"></a>[pg + 357]</span> only that the high-priest may draw his augury. The + people are certainly as ignorant as centuries of the worst + government, the neglect of popular education, the enslavement of + speech and the press, could make them; yet they have an instinct + to recognize measures that are good for them. A few weeks' + schooling at some popular meetings, the clubs, the conversations + of the National Guards in their quarters or on patrol, were + sufficient to concert measures so well, that the people voted in + larger proportion than at contested elections in our country, and + made a very good choice.</p> + + <p>The opening of the Constitutional Assembly gave occasion for a + fine procession. All the troops in Rome defiled from the + Campidoglio; among them many bear the marks of suffering from the + Lombard war. The banners of Sicily, Venice, and Bologna waved + proudly; that of Naples was veiled with crape. I was in a balcony + in the Piazza di Venezia; the Palazzo di Venezia, that sternest + feudal pile, so long the head-quarters of Austrian machinations, + seemed to frown, as the bands each in passing struck up the + <i>Marseillaise</i>. The nephew of Napoleon and Garibaldi, the + hero of Montevideo, walked together, as deputies. The deputies, a + grave band, mostly advocates or other professional men, walked + without other badge of distinction than the tricolored scarf. I + remembered the entrance of the deputies to the Council only + fourteen months ago, in the magnificent carriages lent by the + princes for the occasion; they too were mostly nobles, and their + liveried attendants followed, carrying their scutcheons. Princes + and councillors have both fled or sunk into nothingness; in those + councillors was no counsel. Will it be found in the present? Let + us hope so! What we see to-day has much more the air of reality + than all that parade of scutcheons, or the pomp of dress and + retinue with which the Ecclesiastical Court was wont to amuse the + people.</p> + + <p>A few days after followed the proclamation of a Republic. An + immense crowd of people surrounded the Palazzo della Cancelleria, + within whose court-yard Rossi fell, while the debate was going on + within. At one o'clock in the morning of the 9th of February, a + Republic was resolved upon, and the crowd rushed away to ring all + the bells.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page358" id= + "page358"></a>[pg 358]</span> + + <p>Early next morning I rose and went forth to observe the + Republic. Over the Quirinal I went, through the Forum, to the + Capitol. There was nothing to be seen except the magnificent calm + emperor, the tamers of horses, the fountain, the trophies, the + lions, as usual; among the marbles, for living figures, a few + dirty, bold women, and Murillo boys in the sun just as usual. I + passed into the Corso; there were men in the liberty + cap,—of course the lowest and vilest had been the first to + assume it; all the horrible beggars persecuting as impudently as + usual. I met some English; all their comfort was, "It would not + last a month." "They hoped to see all these fellows shot yet." + The English clergyman, more mild and legal, only hopes to see + them (i.e. the ministry, deputies, &c.) <i>hung</i>.</p> + + <p>Mr. Carlyle would be delighted with his countrymen. They are + entirely ready and anxious to see a Cromwell for Italy. They, + too, think, when the people starve, "It is no matter what happens + in the back parlor." What signifies that, if there is "order" in + the front? How dare the people make a noise to disturb us yawning + at billiards!</p> + + <p>I met an American. He "had no confidence in the Republic." + Why? Because he "had no confidence in the people." Why? Because + "they were not like <i>our</i> people." Ah! Jonathan and + John,—excuse me, but I must say the Italian has a decided + advantage over you in the power of quickly feeling generous + sympathy, as well as some other things which I have not time now + to particularize. I have memoranda from you both in my + note-book.</p> + + <p>At last the procession mounts the Campidoglio. It is all + dressed with banners. The tricolor surmounts the palace of the + senator; the senator himself has fled. The deputies mount the + steps, and one of them reads, in a clear, friendly voice, the + following words:—</p> + + <p class="center">"FUNDAMENTAL DECREE OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL ASSEMBLY OF + ROME.</p> + + <p>"ART. I.—The Papacy has fallen in fact and in right from + the temporal government of the Roman State.</p><span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page359" id="page359"></a>[pg 359]</span> + + <p>"ART. II.—The Roman Pontiff shall have all the necessary + guaranties for independence in the exercise of his spiritual + power.</p> + + <p>"ART. III.—The form of government of the Roman State + shall be a pure democracy, and will take the glorious name of + Roman Republic.</p> + + <p>"ART. IV.—The Roman Republic shall have with the rest of + Italy the relations exacted by a common nationality."</p> + + <p>Between each of these expressive sentences the speaker paused; + the great bell of the Capitol gave forth its solemn melodies; the + cannon answered; while the crowd shouted, <i>Viva la Republica! + Viva Italia!</i></p> + + <p>The imposing grandeur of the spectacle to me gave new force to + the emotion that already swelled my heart; my nerves thrilled, + and I longed to see in some answering glance a spark of Rienzi, a + little of that soul which made my country what she is. The + American at my side remained impassive. Receiving all his + birthright from a triumph of democracy, he was quite indifferent + to this manifestation on this consecrated spot. Passing the + winter in Rome to study art, he was insensible to the artistic + beauty of the scene,—insensible to this new life of that + spirit from which all the forms he gazes at in galleries + emanated. He "did not see the use of these popular + demonstrations."</p> + + <p>Again I must mention a remark of his, as a specimen of the + ignorance in which Americans usually remain during their flighty + visits to these scenes, where they associate only with one + another. And I do it the rather as this seemed a really + thoughtful, intelligent man; no vain, vulgar trifler. He said, + "The people seem only to be looking on; they take no part."</p> + + <p>What people? said I.</p> + + <p>"Why, these around us; there is no other people."</p> + + <p>There are a few beggars, errand-boys, and nurse-maids.</p> + + <p>"The others are only soldiers."</p> + + <p>Soldiers! The Civic Guard! all the decent men in Rome.</p> + + <p>Thus it is that the American, on many points, becomes more + ignorant for coming abroad, because he attaches some value to his + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page360" id="page360"></a>[pg + 360]</span> crude impressions and frequent blunders. It is not + thus that any seed-corn can be gathered from foreign gardens. + Without modest scrutiny, patient study, and observation, he + spends his money and goes home, with a new coat perhaps, but a + mind befooled rather than instructed. It is necessary to speak + the languages of these countries, and know personally some of + their inhabitants, in order to form any accurate impressions.</p> + + <p>The flight of the Grand Duke of Tuscany followed. In imitation + of his great exemplar, he promised and smiled to the last, + deceiving Montanelli, the pure and sincere, at the very moment he + was about to enter his carriage, into the belief that he + persevered in his assent to the liberal movement. His position + was certainly very difficult, but he might have left it like a + gentleman, like a man of honor. 'T was pity to destroy so lightly + the good opinion the Tuscans had of him. Now Tuscany meditates + union with Rome.</p> + + <p>Meanwhile, Charles Albert is filled with alarm. He is indeed + betwixt two fires. Gioberti has published one of his prolix, weak + addresses, in which, he says, that in the beginning of every + revolution one must fix a limit beyond which he will not go; + that, for himself, he has done it,—others are passing + beyond his mark, and he will not go any farther. Of the want of + thought, of insight into historic and all other truths, which + distinguishes the "illustrious Gioberti," this assumption is a + specimen. But it makes no difference; he and his prince must go, + sooner or later, if the movement continues, nor is there any + prospect of its being stayed unless by foreign intervention. This + the Pope has not yet, it is believed, solicited, but there is + little reason to hope he will be spared that crowning disgrace. + He has already consented to the incitement of civil war. Should + an intervention be solicited, all depends on France. Will she + basely forfeit every pledge and every duty, to say nothing of her + true interest? It seems that her President stands doubtful, + intending to do what is for <i>his</i> particular interest; but + if his interest proves opposed to the republican principle, will + France suffer herself again to be hoodwinked and enslaved? It is + impossible to know, she has already shown such devotion to the + mere prestige of a name.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name= + "page361" id="page361"></a>[pg 361]</span> + + <p>On England no dependence can be placed. She is guided by no + great idea; her Parliamentary leaders sneer at sentimental + policy, and the "jargon" of ideas. She will act, as always, for + her own interest; and the interest of her present government is + becoming more and more the crushing of the democratic tendency. + They are obliged to do it at home, both in the back and the front + parlor; it would not be decent as yet to have a Spielberg just at + home for obstreperous patriots, but England has so many ships, it + is just as easy to transport them to a safe distance. Then the + Church of England, so long an enemy to the Church of Rome, feels + a decided interest with it on the subject of temporal + possessions. The rich English traveller, fearing to see the + Prince Borghese stripped of one of his palaces for a hospital or + some such low use, thinks of his own twenty-mile park and the + crowded village of beggars at its gate, and muses: "I hope to see + them all shot yet, these rascally republicans."</p> + + <p>How I wish my country would show some noble sympathy when an + experience so like her own is going on. Politically she cannot + interfere; but formerly, when Greece and Poland were struggling, + they were at least aided by private contributions. Italy, + naturally so rich, but long racked and impoverished by her + oppressors, greatly needs money to arm and clothe her troops. + Some token of sympathy, too, from America would be so welcome to + her now. If there were a circle of persons inclined to trust such + to me, I might venture to promise the trust should be used to the + advantage of Italy. It would make me proud to have my country + show a religious faith in the progress of ideas, and make some + small sacrifice of its own great resources in aid of a sister + cause, now.</p> + + <p>But I must close this letter, which it would be easy to swell + to a volume from the materials in my mind. One or two traits of + the hour I must note. Mazzarelli, chief of the present ministry, + was a prelate, and named spontaneously by the Pope before his + flight. He has shown entire and frank intrepidity. He has laid + aside the title of Monsignor, and appears before the world as a + layman.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page362" id= + "page362"></a>[pg 362]</span> + + <p>Nothing can be more tranquil than has been the state of Rome + all winter. Every wile has been used by the Oscurantists to + excite the people, but their confidence in their leaders could + not be broken. A little mutiny in the troops, stimulated by + letters from their old leaders, was quelled in a moment. The day + after the proclamation of the Republic, some zealous ignoramuses + insulted the carriages that appeared with servants in livery. The + ministry published a grave admonition, that democracy meant + liberty, not license, and that he who infringed upon an innocent + freedom of action in others must be declared traitor to his + country. Every act of the kind ceased instantly. An intimation + that it was better not to throw large comfits or oranges during + the Carnival, as injuries have thus been sometimes caused, was + obeyed with equal docility.</p> + + <p>On Sunday last, placards affixed in the high places summoned + the city to invest Giuseppe Mazzini with the rights of a Roman + citizen. I have not yet heard the result. The Pope made Rossi a + Roman citizen; he was suffered to retain that title only one day. + It was given him on the 14th of November, he died the 15th. + Mazzini enters Rome at any rate, for the first time in his life, + as deputy to the Constitutional Assembly; it would be a noble + poetic justice, if he could enter also as a Roman citizen.</p> + + <p class="author">February 24.</p> + + <p>The Austrians have invaded Ferrara, taken $200,000 and six + hostages, and retired. This step is, no doubt, intended to + determine whether France will resent the insult, or whether she + will betray Italy. It shows also the assurance of the Austrian + that the Pope will approve of an armed intervention. Probably + before I write again these matters will reach some decided + crisis.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page363" id= + "page363"></a>[pg 363]</span> + <p> </p> + <h3>LETTER XXIX.</h3> + + <h4>The Roman Republic.—Charles Albert a + Traitor.—Fall of Gioberti.—Mazzini.—His + Character.—His Address to the People.—His + Oratory.—American Artists.—Brown, Terry, and + Freeman.—Hicks and his Pictures.—Cropsey and Cranch + contrasted.—American Landscape + Paintings.—Sculptors.—Story's "Fisher + Boy."—Mozier's "Pocahontas."—Greenough's + Group.—Powers's "Slave."—The Equestrian Statue of + Washington.—Crawford's Design.—Trials of the + Artist.—American Patrons of Art.—Expenses of Artist + Life.—A German Sculptor.—Overbeck and his + Paintings.—Festival of Fried Rice.—An Ave Maria.</h4> + + <p class="author">Rome, March 20, 1849.</p> + + <p>The Roman Republic moves on better than could have been + expected. There are great difficulties about money, necessarily, + as the government, so beset with trials and dangers, cannot + command confidence in that respect. The solid coin has crept out + of the country or lies hid, and in the use of paper there are the + corresponding inconveniences. But the poor, always the chief + sufferers from such a state of things, are wonderfully patient, + and I doubt not that the new form, if Italy could be left to + itself, would be settled for the advantage of all. Tuscany would + soon be united with Rome, and to the Republic of Central Italy, + no longer broken asunder by petty restrictions and sacrificed to + the interests of a few persons, would come that prosperity + natural to a region so favored by nature.</p> + + <p>Could Italy be left alone! But treacherous, selfish men at + home strive to betray, and foes threaten her from without on + every side. Even France, her natural ally, promises to prove + foolishly and basely faithless. The dereliction from principle of + her government seems certain, and thus far the nation, despite + the remonstrance of a few worthy men, gives no sign of effective + protest. <span class="pagenum"><a name="page364" id= + "page364"></a>[pg 364]</span> There would be little hope for + Italy, were not the thrones of her foes in a tottering state, + their action liable at every moment to be distracted by domestic + difficulties. The Austrian government seems as destitute of + support from the nation as is possible for a government to be, + and the army is no longer what it was, being made up so largely + of new recruits. The Croats are uncertain in their adhesion, the + war in Hungary likely to give them much to do; and if the Russian + is called in, the rest of Europe becomes hostile. All these + circumstances give Italy a chance she otherwise could not have; + she is in great measure unfurnished with arms and money; her king + in the South is a bloody, angry, well-armed foe; her king in the + North, a proved traitor. Charles Albert has now declared, war + because he could not do otherwise; but his sympathies are in fact + all against liberty; the splendid lure that he might become king + of Italy glitters no more; the Republicans are in the ascendant, + and he may well doubt, should the stranger be driven out, whether + Piedmont could escape the contagion. Now, his people insisting on + war, he has the air of making it with a good grace; but should he + be worsted, probably he will know some loophole by which to steal + out. The rat will get out and leave the lion in the trap.</p> + + <p>The "illustrious Gioberti" has fallen,—fallen for ever + from his high scaffold of words. His demerits were too + unmistakable for rhetoric to hide. That he sympathized with the + Pope rather than the Roman people, and could not endure to see + him stripped of his temporal power, no one could blame in the + author of the <i>Primato</i>. That he refused the Italian General + Assembly, if it was to be based on the so-called Montanelli + system instead of his own, might be conviction, or it might be + littleness and vanity. But that he privily planned, without even + adherence of the council of ministers, an armed intervention of + the Piedmontese troops in Tuscany, thus willing to cause civil + war, and, at this great moment, to see Italian blood shed by + Italian hands, was treachery. I think, indeed, he has been + probably made the scape-goat in that affair; that Charles Albert + planned the measure, and, finding himself unable to carry it out, + in consequence of the vigilance and <span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page365" id="page365"></a>[pg 365]</span> + indignant opposition of the Chamber of Deputies, was somewhat + consoled by making it an occasion to victimize the "Illustrious," + whom four weeks before the people had forced him to accept as his + minister.</p> + + <p>Now the name of Gioberti is erased from the corners of the + streets to which it was affixed a year ago; he is stripped of all + his honorary degrees, and proclaimed an unworthy son of the + country. Mazzini is the idol of the people. "Soon to be hunted + out," sneered the sceptical American. Possibly yes; for no man is + secure of his palm till the fight is over. The civic wreath may + be knocked from his head a hundred times in the ardor of the + contest. No matter, if he can always keep the forehead pure and + lofty, as will Mazzini.</p> + + <p>In thinking of Mazzini, I always remember Petrarch's + invocation to Rienzi. Mazzini comes at a riper period in the + world's history, with the same energy of soul, but of purer + temper and more enlarged views to answer them.</p> + + <p>I do not know whether I mentioned a kind of poetical + correspondence about Mazzini and Rossi. Rossi was also an exile + for liberal principles, but he did not value his birthright; he + alienated it, and as a French citizen became peer of France and + representative of Louis Philippe in Italy. When, with the fatuity + of those whom the gods have doomed to perish, Pius IX. took the + representative of the fallen Guizot policy for his minister, he + made him a Roman citizen. He was proclaimed such on the 14th of + November. On the 15th he perished, before he could enter the + parliament he had called. He fell at the door of the Cancelleria + when it was sitting.</p> + + <p>Mazzini, in his exile, remained absolutely devoted to his + native country. Because, though feeling as few can that the + interests of humanity in all nations are identical, he felt also + that, born of a race so suffering, so much needing devotion and + energy, his first duty was to that. The only powers he + acknowledged were <i>God and the People</i>, the special scope of + his acts the unity and independence of Italy. Rome was the theme + of his thoughts, but, very early exiled, he had never seen that + home to which all the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page366" id= + "page366"></a>[pg 366]</span> orphans of the soul so naturally + turn. Now he entered it as a Roman citizen, elected + representative of the people by universal suffrage. His motto, + <i>Dio e Popolo</i>, is put upon the coin with the Roman eagle; + unhappily this first-issued coin is of brass, or else of silver, + with much alloy. <i>Dii, avertite omen</i>, and may peaceful days + turn it all to pure gold!</p> + + <p>On his first entrance to the house, Mazzini, received with + fervent applause and summoned, to take his place beside the + President, spoke as follows:—</p> + + <p>"It is from me, colleagues, that should come these tokens of + applause, these tokens of affection, because the little good I + have not done, but tried to do, has come to me from Rome. Rome + was always a sort of talisman for me; a youth, I studied the + history of Italy, and found, while all the other nations were + born, grew up, played their part in the world, then fell to + reappear no more in the same power, a single city was privileged + by God to die only to rise again greater than before, to fulfil a + mission greater than the first. I saw the Rome of the Empire + extend her conquests from the confines of Africa to the confines + of Asia. I saw Rome perish, crushed by the barbarians, by those + whom even yet the world, calls barbarians. I saw her rise again, + after having chased away these same barbarians, reviving in its + sepulchre the germ of Civilization. I saw her rise more great for + conquest, not with arms, but with words,—rise in the name + of the Popes to repeat her grand mission. I said in my heart, the + city which alone in the world has had two grand lives, one + greater than the other, will have a third. After the Rome which + wrought by conquest of arms, the Rome which wrought by conquest + of words, must come a third which shall work by virtue of + example. After the Rome of the Emperors, after the Rome of the + Popes, will come the Rome of the People. The Rome of the People + is arisen; do not salute with applauses, but let us rejoice + together! I cannot promise anything for myself, except + concurrence in all you shall do for the good of Rome, of Italy, + of mankind. Perhaps we shall have to pass through great crises; + perhaps we shall have to fight a sacred battle against the only + enemy that threatens <span class="pagenum"><a name="page367" id= + "page367"></a>[pg 367]</span> us,—Austria. We will fight + it, and we will conquer. I hope, please God, that foreigners may + not be able to say any more that which so many of them repeat + to-day, speaking of our affairs,—that the light which, + comes from Rome is only an <i>ignis fatuus</i> wandering among + the tombs. The world shall see that it is a starry light, + eternal, pure, and resplendent as those we look up to in the + heavens!"</p> + + <p>On a later day he spoke more fully of the difficulties that + threaten at home the young republic, and said:—</p> + + <p>"Let us not hear of Right, of Left, of Centre; these terms + express the three powers in a constitutional monarchy; for us + they have no meaning; the only divisions for us are of + Republicans or non-Republicans,—or of sincere men and + temporizing men. Let us not hear so much of the Republicans of + to-day and of yesterday; I am a Republican of twenty years' + standing. Entertaining such hopes for Italy, when many excellent, + many sincere men held them as Utopian, shall I denounce these men + because they are now convinced of their practicability?"</p> + + <p>This last I quote from memory. In hearing the gentle tone of + remonstrance with those of more petty mind, or influenced by the + passions of the partisan, I was forcibly reminded of the parable + by Jesus, of the vineyard and the discontent of the laborers that + those who came at the eleventh hour "received also a penny." + Mazzini also is content that all should fare alike as brethren, + if only they will come into the vineyard. He is not an orator, + but the simple conversational tone of his address is in + refreshing contrast with the boyish rhetoric and academic swell + common to Italian speakers in the present unfledged state. As + they have freer use of the power of debate, they will become more + simple and manly. The speech of Mazzini is laden with + thought,—it goes straight to the mark by the shortest path, + and moves without effort, from the irresistible impression of + deep conviction and fidelity in the speaker. Mazzini is a man of + genius, an elevated thinker; but the most powerful and first + impression from his presence must always be of the religion of + his soul, of his <i>virtue</i>, both in the modern and antique + sense of that word.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page368" + id="page368"></a>[pg 368]</span> + + <p>If clearness of right, if energy, if indefatigable + perseverance, can steer the ship through this dangerous pass, it + will be done. He said, "We will conquer"; whether Rome will, this + time, is not to me certain, but such men as Mazzini conquer + always,—conquer in defeat. Yet Heaven grant that no more + blood, no more corruption of priestly government, be for Italy. + It could only be for once more, for the strength, of her present + impulse would not fail to triumph at last; but even one more + trial seems too intolerably much, when I think of the holocaust + of the broken hearts, baffled lives, that must attend it.</p> + + <p>But enough of politics for the present; this letter goes by + private hand, and, as news, will be superseded before it can + arrive.</p> + + <p>Let me rather take the opportunity to say some things that I + have let lie by, while writing of political events. Especially of + our artists I wish to say something. I know many of thorn, if not + all, and see with pleasure our young country so fairly + represented.</p> + + <p>Among the painters I saw of Brown only two or three pictures + at the exhibition in Florence; they were coarse, flashy things. I + was told he could do better; but a man who indulges himself with + such, coarse sale-work cannot surely do well at any time.</p> + + <p>The merits of Terry and Freeman are not my merits; they are + beside both favorites in our country, and have a sufficient + number of pictures there for every one to judge. I am no + connoisseur as regards the technical merits of paintings; it is + only poetic invention, or a tender feeling of nature, which + captivates me.</p> + + <p>Terry loves grace, and consciously works from the model. The + result is a pleasing transposition of the hues of this clime. But + the design of the picture is never original, nor is it laden with + any message from, the heart. Of Freeman I know less; as the two + or three pictures of his that I have seen never interested me. I + have not visited his studio.</p> + + <p>Of Hicks I think very highly. He is a man of ideas, an + original observer, and with a poetic heart. His system of + coloring is derived from a thoughtful study, not a mere imitation + of nature, and shows the fineness of his organization. Struggling + unaided <span class="pagenum"><a name="page369" id= + "page369"></a>[pg 369]</span> to pursue the expensive studies of + his art, he has had only a small studio, and received only orders + for little cabinet pictures. Could, he carry out adequately his + ideas, in him would be found the treasure of genius. He has made + the drawings for a large picture of many figures; the design is + original and noble, the grouping highly effective. Could he paint + this picture, I believe it would be a real boon to the lovers of + art, the lovers of truth. I hope very much that, when he returns + to the United States, some competent patron of art—one of + the few who have mind as well as purse—will see the + drawings and order the picture. Otherwise he cannot paint it, as + the expenses attendant on models for so many figures, &c. are + great, and the time demanded could not otherwise be taken from + the claims of the day.</p> + + <p>Among landscape painters Cropsey and Cranch have the true + artist spirit. In faculties, each has what the other wants. + Cropsey is a reverent and careful student of nature in detail; it + is no pedantry, but a true love he has, and his pictures are full + of little, gentle signs of intimacy. They please and touch; but + yet in poetic feeling of the heart of nature he is not equal to + Cranch, who produces fine effects by means more superficial, and, + on examination, less satisfactory. Each might take somewhat from + the other to advantage, could he do it without diminishing his + own original dower. Both are artists of high promise, and deserve + to be loved and cherished by a country which may, without + presumption, hope to carry landscape painting to a pitch of + excellence unreached before. For the historical painter, the + position with us is, for many reasons, not favorable; but there + is no bar in the way of the landscape painter, and fate, + bestowing such a prodigality of subject, seems to give us a hint + not to be mistaken. I think the love of landscape painting is + genuine in our nation, and as it is a branch of art where + achievement has been comparatively low, we may not unreasonably + suppose it has been left for us. I trust it will be undertaken in + the highest spirit. Nature, it seems to me, reveals herself more + freely in our land; she is true, virgin, and confiding,—she + smiles upon the vision of a true Endymion. I hope to see, not + only copies upon canvas of our magnificent scenes, but a + transfusion of the spirit which is their + divinity.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page370" id= + "page370"></a>[pg 370]</span> + + <p>Then why should the American landscape painter come to Italy? + cry many. I think, myself, he ought not to stay here very long. + Yet a few years' study is precious, for here Nature herself has + worked with man, as if she wanted to help him in the composition + of pictures. The ruins of Italy, in their varied relations with + vegetation and the heavens, make speeches from every stone for + instruction of the artist; the greatest variety here is found + with the greatest harmony. To know how this union may be + accomplished is a main secret of art, and though the coloring is + not the same, yet he who has the key to its mysteries of beauty + is the more initiated to the same in other climates, and will + easily attune afresh his more instructed eye and mind to the + contemplation of that which moulded his childhood.</p> + + <p>I may observe of the two artists I have named, that Cranch has + entered more into the spirit of Italian landscape, while Cropsey + is still more distinguished on subjects such as he first loved. + He seemed to find the Scotch lake and mountain scenery very + congenial; his sketches and pictures taken from a short residence + there are impressive. Perhaps a melancholy or tender subject + suits him best; something rich, bold, and mellow is more adapted + to call out the genius of Cranch.</p> + + <p>Among the sculptors new names rise up, to show that this is + decidedly a province for hope in America. I look upon this as the + natural talent of an American, and have no doubt that glories + will be displayed by our sculptors unknown to classic art. The + facts of our history, ideal and social, will be grand and of new + import; it is perfectly natural to the American to mould in clay + and carve in stone. The permanence of material and solid, relief + in the forms correspond to the positiveness of his nature better + than the mere ephemeral and even tricky methods of the + painter,—to his need of motion and action, better than the + chambered scribbling of the poet. He will thus record his best + experiences, and these records will adorn the noble structures + that must naturally arise for the public uses of our society.</p> + + <p>It is particularly gratifying to see men that might amass far + more money and attain more temporary power in other things, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page371" id="page371"></a>[pg + 371]</span> despise those lower lures, too powerful in our + country, and aim only at excellence in the expression of thought. + Among these I may mention Story and Mozier. Story has made in + Florence the model for a statue of his father. This I have not + seen, but two statuettes that he modelled here from the "Fisher" + of Goethe pleased me extremely. The languid, meditative reverie + of the boy, the morbid tenderness of his nature, is most happily + expressed in the first, as is the fascinated surrender to the + siren murmur of tire flood in the second. He has taken the + moment</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"Half drew she him; half sank he in," &c.</p> + </div> + </div> + + <p>I hope some one will give him an order to make them in marble. + Mozier seemed to have an immediate success. The fidelity and + spirit of his portrait-busts could be appreciated by every one; + for an ideal head of Pocahontas, too, he had at once orders for + many copies. It was not an Indian head, but, in the union of + sweetness and strength with a princelike, childlike dignity, very + happily expressive of his idea of her character. I think he has + modelled a Rebecca at the Well, but this I did not see.</p> + + <p>These have already a firm hold on the affections of our + people; every American who comes to Italy visits their studios, + and speaks of them with pride, as indeed they well may, in + comparing them with artists of other nations. It will not be long + before you see Greenough's group; it is in spirit a pendant to + Cooper's novels. I confess I wish he had availed himself of the + opportunity to immortalize the real noble Indian in marble. This + is only the man of the woods,—no Metamora, no Uncas. But + the group should be very instructive to our people.</p> + + <p>You seem as crazy about Powers's Greek Slave as the + Florentines were about Cimabue's Madonnas, in which we still see + the spark of genius, but not fanned to its full flame. If your + enthusiasm be as genuine as that of the lively Florentines, we + will not quarrel with it; but I am afraid a great part is + drawing-room rapture and newspaper echo. Genuine enthusiasm, + however crude the state of mind from which it springs, always + elevates, always educates; but in the same proportion talking and + writing <span class="pagenum"><a name="page372" id= + "page372"></a>[pg 372]</span> for effect stultifies and debases. + I shall not judge the adorers of the Greek Slave, but only + observe, that they have not kept in reserve any higher admiration + for works even now extant, which are, in comparison with that + statue, what that statue is compared with any weeping marble on a + common monument.</p> + + <p>I consider the Slave as a form of simple and sweet beauty, but + that neither as an ideal expression nor a specimen of plastic + power is it transcendent. Powers stands far higher in his busts + than in any ideal statue. His conception of what is individual in + character is clear and just, his power of execution almost + unrivalled; but he has had a lifetime of discipline for the bust, + while his studies on the human body are comparatively limited; + nor is his treatment of it free and masterly. To me, his + conception of subject is not striking: I do not consider him rich + in artistic thought.</p> + + <p>He, no less than Greenough and Crawford, would feel it a rich + reward for many labors, and a happy climax to their honors, to + make an equestrian statue of Washington for our country. I wish + they might all do it, as each would show a different kind of + excellence. To present the man on horseback, the wise centaur, + the tamer of horses, may well be deemed a high achievement of + modern, as it was of ancient art. The study of the anatomy and + action of the horse, so rich in suggestions, is naturally most + desirable to the artist; happy he who, obliged by the brevity of + life and the limitations of fortune, to make his studies conform + to his "orders," finds himself justified by a national behest in + entering on this department.</p> + + <p>At home one gets callous about the character of Washington, + from a long experience of Fourth of July bombast in his praise. + But seeing the struggles of other nations, and the deficiencies + of the leaders who try to sustain them, the heart is again + stimulated, and puts forth buds of praise. One appreciates the + wonderful combination of events and influences that gave our + independence so healthy a birth, and the almost miraculous merits + of the men who tended its first motions. In the combination of + excellences needed at such a period with the purity and modesty + which dignify the private man in the humblest station, Washington + as yet <span class="pagenum"><a name="page373" id= + "page373"></a>[pg 373]</span> stands alone. No country has ever + had such a good future; no other is so happy as to have a pattern + of spotless worth which will remain in her latest day venerable + as now.</p> + + <p>Surely, then, that form should be immortalized in material + solid as its fame; and, happily for the artist, that form was of + natural beauty and dignity, and he who places him on horseback + simply represents his habitual existence. Everything concurs to + make an equestrian statue of Washington desirable.</p> + + <p>The dignified way to manage that affair would be to have a + committee chosen of impartial judges, men who would look only to + the merits of the work and the interests of the country, + unbiassed by any personal interest in favor of some one artist. + It is said it is impossible to find such a committee, but I + cannot believe it. Let there be put aside the mean squabbles and + jealousies, the vulgar pushing of unworthy friends, with which, + unhappily, the artist's career seems more rife than any other, + and a fair concurrence established; let each artist offer his + design for an equestrian statue of Washington, and let the best + have the preference.</p> + + <p>Mr. Crawford has made a design which he takes with him to + America, and which, I hope, will be generally seen. He has + represented Washington in his actual dress; a figure of Fame, + winged, presents the laurel and civic wreath; his gesture + declines them; he seems to say, "For me the deed is + enough,—I need no badge, no outward, token in reward."</p> + + <p>This group has no insipid, allegorical air, as might be + supposed; and its composition is very graceful, simple, and + harmonious. The costume is very happily managed. The angel figure + is draped, and with, the liberty-cap, which, as a badge both of + ancient and modern times, seems to connect the two figures, and + in an artistic point of view balances well the cocked hat; there + is a similar harmony between the angel's wings and the + extremities of the horse. The action of the winged figure induces + a natural and spirited action of the horse and rider. I thought + of Goethe's remark, that a fine work of art will always have, at + a distance, where its details cannot be discerned, a beautiful + effect, as of architectural ornament, and that this excellence + the groups of <span class="pagenum"><a name="page374" id= + "page374"></a>[pg 374]</span> Raphael share with the antique. He + would have been pleased with the beautiful balance of forms in + this group, with the freedom with which light and air play in and + out, the management of the whole being clear and satisfactory at + the first glance. But one should go into a great number of + studies, as you can in Rome or Florence, and see the abundance of + heavy and inharmonious designs to appreciate the merits of this; + anything really good seems so simple and so a matter of course to + the unpractised observer.</p> + + <p>Some say the Americans will not want a group, but just the + fact; the portrait of Washington riding straight onward, like + Marcus Aurelius, or making an address, or lifting his sword. I do + not know about that,—it is a matter of feeling. This winged + figure not only gives a poetic sense to the group, but a natural + support and occasion for action to the horse and rider. Uncle Sam + must send Major Downing to look at it, and then, if he wants + other designs, let him establish a concurrence, as I have said, + and choose what is best. I am not particularly attached to Mr. + Greenough, Mr. Powers, or Mr. Crawford. I admire various + excellences in the works of each, and should be glad if each + received an order for an equestrian statue. Nor is there any + reason why they should not. There is money enough in the country, + and the more good things there are for the people to see freely + in open daylight, the better. That makes artists germinate.</p> + + <p>I love the artists, though I cannot speak of their works in a + way to content their friends, or even themselves, often. Who can, + that has a standard of excellence in the mind, and a delicate + conscience in the use of words? My highest tribute is meagre of + superlatives in comparison with the hackneyed puffs with which + artists submit to be besmeared. Submit? alas! often they court + them, rather. I do not expect any kindness from my + contemporaries. I know that what is to me justice and honor is to + them only a hateful coldness. Still I love them, I wish for their + good, I feel deeply for their sufferings, annoyances, privations, + and would lessen them if I could. I have thought it might perhaps + be of use to publish some account of the expenses of the artist. + There is a general impression, that the artist lives very cheaply + in <span class="pagenum"><a name="page375" id="page375"></a>[pg + 375]</span> Italy. This is a mistake. Italy, compared with + America, is not so very cheap, except for those who have iron + constitutions to endure bad food, eaten in bad air, damp and + dirty lodgings. The expenses, even in Florence, of a simple but + clean and wholesome life, are little less than in New York. The + great difference is for people that are rich. An Englishman of + rank and fortune does not need the same amount of luxury as at + home, to be on a footing with the nobles of Italy. The Broadway + merchant would find his display of mahogany and carpets thrown + away in a country where a higher kind of ornament is the only one + available. But poor people, who can, at any rate, buy only the + necessaries of life, will find them in the Italian cities, where + all sellers live by cheating foreigners, very little cheaper than + in America.</p> + + <p>The patrons of Art in America, ignorant of these facts, and + not knowing the great expenses which attend the study of Art and + the production of its wonders, are often guilty of most + undesigned cruelty, and do things which it would grieve their + hearts to have done, if they only knew the facts. They have read + essays on the uses of adversity in developing genius, and they + are not sufficiently afraid to administer a dose of adversity + beyond what the forces of the patient can bear. Laudanum in drops + is useful as a medicine, but a cupful kills downright.</p> + + <p>Beside this romantic idea about letting artists suffer to + develop their genius, the American Mæcenas is not + sufficiently aware of the expenses attendant on producing the + work he wants. He does not consider that the painter, the + sculptor, must be paid for the time he spends in designing and + moulding, no less than in painting and carving; that he must have + his bread and sleeping-house, his workhouse or studio, his + marbles and colors,—the sculptor his workmen; so that if + the price be paid he asks, a modest and delicate man very + commonly receives <i>no</i> guerdon for his thought,—the + real essence of the work,—except the luxury of seeing it + embodied, which he could not otherwise have afforded, The + American Mæcenas often pushes the price down, not from + want of generosity, but from a habit of making what are called + good bargains,—i.e. bargains for one's own advantage at the + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page376" id="page376"></a>[pg + 376]</span> expense of a poorer brother. Those who call these + good do not believe that</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p class="i10">"Mankind is one,</p> + + <p>And beats with one great heart."</p> + </div> + </div> + + <p>They have not read the life of Jesus Christ.</p> + + <p>Then the American Mæcenas sometimes, after ordering a + work, has been known to change his mind when the statue is + already modelled. It is the American who does these things, + because an American, who either from taste or vanity buys a + picture, is often quite uneducated as to the arts, and cannot + understand why a little picture or figure costs so much money. + The Englishman or Frenchman, of a suitable position to seek these + adornments for his house, usually understands better than the + visitor of Powers who, on hearing the price of the Proserpine, + wonderingly asked, "Isn't statuary riz lately?" Queen Victoria + of England, and her Albert, it is said, use their royal privilege + to get works of art at a price below their value; but their + subjects would be ashamed to do so.</p> + + <p>To supply means of judging to the American merchant (full of + kindness and honorable sympathy as beneath the crust he so often + is) who wants pictures and statues, not merely from ostentation, + but as means of delight and improvement to himself and his + friends, who has a soul to respect the genius and desire the + happiness of the artist, and who, if he errs, does so from + ignorance of the circumstances, I give the following memorandum, + made at my desire by an artist, my neighbor:—</p> + + <p>"The rent of a suitable studio for modelling in clay and + executing statues in marble may be estimated at $200 a year.</p> + + <p>"The best journeyman carver in marble at Rome receives $60 a + month. Models are paid $1 a day.</p> + + <p>"The cost of marble varies according to the size of the block, + being generally sold by the cubic palm, a square of nine inches + English. As a general guide regarding the prices established + among the higher sculptors of Rome, I may mention that for a + statue of life-size the demand is from $1,000 to $5,000, varying + according to the composition of the figure and the number of + accessories.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page377" id= + "page377"></a>[pg 377]</span> + + <p>"It is a common belief in the United States, that a student of + Art can live in Italy and pursue his studies on an income of $300 + or $400 a year. This is a lamentable error; the Russian + government allows its pensioners $700, which is scarcely + sufficient. $1,000 per annum should be placed at the disposal of + every young artist leaving our country for Europe."</p> + + <p>Let it be remembered, in addition to considerations inevitable + from this memorandum, that an artist may after years and months + of uncheered and difficult toil, after he has gone through the + earlier stages of an education, find it too largely based, and of + aim too high, to finish in this world.</p> + + <p>The Prussian artist here on my left hand learned not only his + art, but reading and writing, after he was thirty. A farmer's + son, he was allowed no freedom to learn anything till the death + of the head of the house left him a beggar, but set him free; he + walked to Berlin, distant several hundred miles, attracted by his + first works some attention, and received some assistance in + money, earned more by invention of a ploughshare, walked to Rome, + struggled through every privation, and has now a reputation which + has secured him the means of putting his thoughts into marble. + True, at forty-nine years of age he is still severely poor; he + cannot marry, because he cannot maintain a family; but he is + cheerful, because he can work in his own way, trusts with + childlike reliance in God, and is still sustained by the vigorous + health he won laboring in his father's fields. Not every man + could continue to work, circumstanced as he is, at the end of the + half-century. For him the only sad thing in my mind is that his + works are not worth working, though of merit in composition and + execution, yet ideally a product of the galvanized piety of the + German school, more mutton-like than lamb-like to my unchurched + eyes.</p> + + <p>You are likely to have a work to look at in the United States + by the great master of that school, Overbeck; Mr. Perkins of + Boston, who knows how to spend his money with equal generosity + and discretion, having bought his "Wise and Foolish Virgins." It + will be precious to the country from great artistic merits. As to + the spirit, "blessed are the poor in spirit." That <span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page378" id="page378"></a>[pg 378]</span> kind + of severity is, perhaps has become, the nature of Overbeck. He + seems like a monk, but a really pious and pure one. This spirit + is not what I seek; I deem it too narrow for our day, but being + deeply sincere in him, its expression is at times also deeply + touching. Barabbas borne in triumph, and the child Jesus, who, + playing with his father's tools, has made himself a cross, are + subjects best adapted for expression of this spirit.</p> + + <p>I have written too carelessly,—much writing hath made me + mad of late. Forgive if the "style be not neat, terse, and + sparkling," if there be naught of the "thrilling," if the + sentences seem not "written with a diamond pen," like all else + that is published in America. Some time I must try to do better. + For this time</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"Forgive my faults; forgive my virtues too."</p> + </div> + </div> + + <p class="author">March 21.</p> + + <p>Day before yesterday was the Feast of St. Joseph. He is + supposed to have acquired a fondness for fried rice-cakes during + his residence in Egypt. Many are eaten in the open street, in + arbors made for the occasion. One was made beneath my window, on + Piazza Barberini. All the day and evening men, cleanly dressed in + white aprons and liberty caps, quite new, of fine, red cloth, + were frying cakes for crowds of laughing, gesticulating + customers. It rained a little, and they held an umbrella over the + frying-pan, but not over themselves. The arbor is still there, + and little children are playing in and out of it; one still + lesser runs in its leading-strings, followed by the bold, gay + nurse, to the brink of the fountain, after its orange which has + rolled before it. Tenerani's workmen are coming out of his + studio, the priests are coming home from Ponte Pio, the Contadini + beginning to play at <i>moro</i>, for the setting sun has just + lit up the magnificent range of windows in the Palazzo Barberini, + and then faded tenderly, sadly away, and the mellow bells have + chimed the Ave Maria. Rome looks as Roman, that is to say as + tranquil, as ever, despite the trouble that tugs at her + heart-strings. There is a report that Mazzini is to be made + Dictator, as Manin is in Venice, for a short time, so as to + provide hastily and energetically for the war. Ave Maria + Sanissima! <span class="pagenum"><a name="page379" id= + "page379"></a>[pg 379]</span> when thou didst gaze on thy babe + with such infinite hope, thou didst not dream that, so many ages + after, blood would be shed and curses uttered in his name. + Madonna Addolorata! hadst thou not hoped peace and good-will + would spring from his bloody woes, couldst thou have borne those + hours at the foot of the cross. O Stella! woman's heart of love, + send yet a ray of pure light on this troubled + deep?</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page380" id= + "page380"></a>[pg 380]</span> + <p> </p> + <h3>LETTER XXX.</h3> + + <h4>The Struggle in Rome.—Position of the French.—The + Austrians.—Feeling of the Roman People.—The French + Troops.—Effects of War.—Hospitals.—The Princess + Belgioioso.—Position of Mr. Cass as + Envoy.—Difficulties and Suggestions.—America and + Rome.—Reflections on the Eternal City.—The French: + The People.</h4> + + <p class="author">Rome, May 27, 1849.</p> + + <p>I have suspended writing in the expectation of some decisive + event; but none such comes yet. The French, entangled in a web of + falsehood, abashed by a defeat that Oudinot has vainly tried to + gloss over, the expedition disowned by all honorable men at home, + disappointed at Gaëta, not daring to go the length Papal + infatuation demands, know not what to do. The Neapolitans have + been decidedly driven back into their own borders, the last time + in a most shameful rout, their king flying in front. We have + heard for several days that the Austrians were advancing, but + they come not. They also, it is probable, meet with unexpected + embarrassments. They find that the sincere movement of the + Italian people is very unlike that of troops commanded by princes + and generals who never wished to conquer and were always waiting + to betray. Then their troubles at home are constantly increasing, + and, should the Russian intervention quell these to-day, it is + only to raise a storm far more terrible to-morrow.</p> + + <p>The struggle is now fairly, thoroughly commenced between the + principle of democracy and the old powers, no longer legitimate. + That struggle may last fifty years, and the earth be watered with + the blood and tears of more than one generation, but the result + is sure. All Europe, including Great Britain, where the most + bitter resistance of all will be made, is to be under republican + government in the next century.</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"God moves in a mysterious way."</p> + </div> + </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="page381" id= + "page381"></a>[pg 381]</span> + + <p>Every struggle made by the old tyrannies, all their Jesuitical + deceptions, their rapacity, their imprisonments and executions of + the most generous men, only sow more dragon's teeth; the crop + shoots up daily more and more plenteous.</p> + + <p>When I first arrived in Italy, the vast majority of this + people had no wish beyond limited monarchies, constitutional + governments. They still respected the famous names of the + nobility; they despised the priests, but were still fondly + attached to the dogmas and ritual of the Roman Catholic Church. + It required King Bomba, the triple treachery of Charles Albert, + Pius IX., and the "illustrious Gioberti," the naturally + kind-hearted, but, from the necessity of his position, cowardly + and false Leopold of Tuscany, the vagabond "serene" meannesses of + Parma and Modena, the "fatherly" Radetzsky, and, finally, the + imbecile Louis Bonaparte, "would-be Emperor of France," to + convince this people that no transition is possible between the + old and the new. <i>The work is done</i>; the revolution in Italy + is now radical, nor can it stop till Italy becomes independent + and united as a republic. Protestant she already is, and though + the memory of saints and martyrs may continue to be revered, the + ideal of woman to be adored under the name of Mary, yet Christ + will now begin to be a little thought of; <i>his</i> idea has + always been kept carefully out of sight under the old + <i>régime</i>; all the worship being for the Madonna and + saints, who were to be well paid for interceding for + sinners;—an example which might make men cease to be such, + was no way coveted. Now the New Testament has been translated + into Italian; copies are already dispersed far and wide; men + calling themselves Christians will no longer be left entirely + ignorant of the precepts and life of Jesus.</p> + + <p>The people of Rome have burnt the Cardinals' carriages. They + took the confessionals out of the churches, and made mock + confessions in the piazzas, the scope of which was, "I have + sinned, father, so and so." "Well, my son, how much will you + <i>pay</i> to the Church for absolution?" Afterward the people + thought of burning the confessionals, or using them for + barricades; but at the request of the Triumvirate they desisted, + and even put them back <span class="pagenum"><a name="page382" + id="page382"></a>[pg 382]</span> into the churches. But it was + from no reaction of feeling that they stopped short, only from + respect for the government. The "Tartuffe" of Molière + has been translated into Italian, and was last night performed + with great applause at the Valle. Can all this be forgotten? + Never! Should guns and bayonets replace the Pope on the throne, + he will find its foundations, once deep as modern civilization, + now so undermined that it falls with the least awkward + movement.</p> + + <p>But I cannot believe he will be replaced there. France alone + could consummate that crime,—that, for her, most cruel, + most infamous treason. The elections in France will decide. In + three or four days we shall know whether the French nation at + large be guilty or no,—whether it be the will of the nation + to aid or strive to ruin a government founded on precisely the + same basis as their own.</p> + + <p>I do not dare to trust that people. The peasant is yet very + ignorant. The suffering workman is frightened as he thinks of the + punishments that ensued on the insurrections of May and June. The + man of property is full of horror at the brotherly scope of + Socialism. The aristocrat dreams of the guillotine always when he + hears men speak of the people. The influence of the Jesuits is + still immense in France. Both in France and England the grossest + falsehoods have been circulated with unwearied diligence about + the state of things in Italy. An amusing specimen of what is + still done in this line I find just now in a foreign journal, + where it says there are red flags on all the houses of Rome; + meaning to imply that the Romans are athirst for blood. Now, the + fact is, that these flags are put up at the entrance of those + streets where there is no barricade, as a signal to coachmen and + horsemen that they can pass freely. There is one on the house + where I am, in which is no person but myself, who thirst for + peace, and the Padrone, who thirsts for money.</p> + + <p>Meanwhile the French troops are encamped at a little distance + from Rome. Some attempts at fair and equal treaty when their + desire to occupy Rome was firmly resisted, Oudinot describes in + his despatches as a readiness for <i>submission</i>. Having tried + in <span class="pagenum"><a name="page383" id="page383"></a>[pg + 383]</span> vain to gain this point, he has sent to France for + fresh orders. These will be decided by the turn the election + takes. Meanwhile the French troops are much exposed to the Roman + force where they are. Should the Austrians come up, what will + they do? Will they shamelessly fraternize with the French, after + pretending and proclaiming that they came here as a check upon + their aggressions? Will they oppose them in defence of Rome, with + which they are at war?</p> + + <p>Ah! the way of falsehood, the way of treachery,—how + dark, how full of pitfalls and traps! Heaven defend from it all + who are not yet engaged therein!</p> + + <p>War near at hand seems to me even more dreadful than I had + fancied it. True, it tries men's souls, lays bare selfishness in + undeniable deformity. Here it has produced much fruit of noble + sentiment, noble act; but still it breeds vice too, drunkenness, + mental dissipation, tears asunder the tenderest ties, lavishes + the productions of Earth, for which her starving poor stretch out + their hands in vain, in the most unprofitable manner. And the + ruin that ensues, how terrible! Let those who have ever passed + happy days in Rome grieve to hear that the beautiful plantations + of Villa Borghese—that chief delight and refreshment of + citizens, foreigners, and little children—are laid low, as + far as the obelisk. The fountain, singing alone amid the fallen + groves, cannot be seen and heard without tears; it seems like + some innocent infant calling and crowing amid dead bodies on a + field which battle has strewn with the bodies of those who once + cherished it. The plantations of Villa Salvage on the Tiber, + also, the beautiful trees on the way from St. John Lateran to La + Maria Maggiore, the trees of the Forum, are fallen. Rome is shorn + of the locks which lent grace to her venerable brow. She looks + desolate, profaned. I feel what I never expected to,—as if + I might by and by be willing to leave Rome.</p> + + <p>Then I have, for the first time, seen what wounded men suffer. + The night of the 30th of April I passed in the hospital, and saw + the terrible agonies of those dying or who needed amputation, + felt their mental pains and longing for the loved ones who were + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page384" id="page384"></a>[pg + 384]</span> away; for many of these were Lombards, who had come + from the field of Novarra to fight with a fairer + chance,—many were students of the University, who had + enlisted and thrown themselves into the front of the engagement. + The impudent falsehoods of the French general's despatches are + incredible. The French were never decoyed on in any way. They + were received with every possible mark of hostility. They were + defeated in open field, the Garibaldi legion rushing out to meet + them; and though they suffered much from the walls, they + sustained themselves nowhere. They never put up a white flag till + they wished to surrender. The vanity that strives to cover over + these facts is unworthy of men. The only excuse for the imprudent + conduct of the expedition is that they were deceived, not by the + Romans here, but by the priests of Gaëta, leading them + to expect action in their favor within the walls. These priests + themselves were deluded by their hopes and old habits of mind. + The troops did not fight well, and General Oudinot abandoned his + wounded without proper care. All this says nothing against French + valor, proved by ages of glory, beyond the doubt of their worst + foes. They were demoralized because they fought in so bad a + cause, and there was no sincere ardor or clear hope in any + breast.</p> + + <p>But to return to the hospitals: these were put in order, and + have been kept so, by the Princess Belgioioso. The princess was + born of one of the noblest families of the Milanese, a descendant + of the great Trivalzio, and inherited a large fortune. Very early + she compromised it in liberal movements, and, on their failure, + was obliged to fly to Paris, where for a time she maintained + herself by writing, and I think by painting also. A princess so + placed naturally excited great interest, and she drew around her + a little court of celebrated men. After recovering her fortune, + she still lived in Paris, distinguished for her talents and + munificence, both toward literary men and her exiled countrymen. + Later, on her estate, called Locate, between Pavia and Milan, she + had made experiments in the Socialist direction with fine + judgment and success. Association for education, for labor, for + transaction of household affairs, had been carried on for several + years; <span class="pagenum"><a name="page385" id= + "page385"></a>[pg 385]</span> she had spared no devotion of time + and money to this object, loved, and was much beloved by, those + objects of her care, and said she hoped to die there. All is now + despoiled and broken up, though it may be hoped that some seeds + of peaceful reform have been sown which will spring to light when + least expected. The princess returned to Italy in 1847-8, full of + hope in Pius IX and Charles Albert. She showed her usual energy + and truly princely heart, sustaining, at her own expense, a + company of soldiers and a journal up to the last sad betrayal of + Milan, August 6th. These days undeceived all the people, but few + of the noblesse; she was one of the few with mind strong enough + to understand the lesson, and is now warmly interested in the + republican movement. From Milan she went to France, but, finding + it impossible to effect anything serious there in behalf of + Italy, returned, and has been in Rome about two months. Since + leaving Milan she receives no income, her possessions being in + the grasp of Radetzky, and cannot know when, if ever, she will + again. But as she worked so largely and well with money, so can + she without. She published an invitation to the Roman women to + make lint and bandages, and offer their services to the wounded; + she put the hospitals in order; in the central one, Trinita de + Pellegrini, once the abode where the pilgrims were received + during holy week, and where foreigners were entertained by seeing + their feet washed by the noble dames and dignitaries of Rome, she + has remained day and night since the 30th of April, when the + wounded were first there. Some money she procured at first by + going through Rome, accompanied by two other ladies veiled, to + beg it. Afterward the voluntary contributions were generous; + among the rest, I am proud to say, the Americans in Rome gave + $250, of which a handsome portion came from Mr. Brown, the + Consul.</p> + + <p>I value this mark of sympathy more because of the irritation + and surprise occasioned here by the position of Mr. Cass, the + Envoy. It is most unfortunate that we should have an envoy here + for the first time, just to offend and disappoint the Romans. + When all the other ambassadors are at Gaëta, ours is in + Rome, as if by his presence to discountenance the republican + government, which he <span class="pagenum"><a name="page386" id= + "page386"></a>[pg 386]</span> does not recognize. Mr. Cass, it + seems, is required by his instructions not to recognize the + government till sure it can be sustained. Now it seems to me that + the only dignified ground for our government, the only legitimate + ground for any republican government, is to recognize for any + nation the government chosen by itself. The suffrage had been + correct here, and the proportion of votes to the whole population + was much larger, it was said by Americans here, than it is in our + own country at the time of contested elections. It had elected an + Assembly; that Assembly had appointed, to meet the exigencies of + this time, the Triumvirate. If any misrepresentations have + induced America to believe, as France affects to have believed, + that so large a vote could have been obtained by moral + intimidation, the present unanimity of the population in + resisting such immense odds, and the enthusiasm of their every + expression in favor of the present government, puts the matter + beyond a doubt. The Roman people claims once more to have a + national existence. It declines further serfdom to an + ecclesiastical court. It claims liberty of conscience, of action, + and of thought. Should it fall from its present position, it will + not be from, internal dissent, but from foreign oppression.</p> + + <p>Since this is the case, surely our country, if no other, is + bound to recognize the present government <i>so long as it can + sustain itself</i>. This position is that to which we have a + right: being such, it is no matter how it is viewed by others. + But I dare assert it is the only respectable one for our country, + in the eyes of the Emperor of Russia himself.</p> + + <p>The first, best occasion is past, when Mr. Cass might, had he + been empowered to act as Mr. Rush did in France, have morally + strengthened the staggering republic, which would have found + sympathy where alone it is of permanent value, on the basis of + principle. Had it been in vain, what then? America would have + acted honorably; as to our being compromised thereby with the + Papal government, that fear is idle. Pope and Cardinals have + great hopes from America; the giant influence there is kept up + with the greatest care; the number of Catholic writers in the + United States, too, carefully counted. Had our republican + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page387" id="page387"></a>[pg + 387]</span> government acknowledged this republican government, + the Papal Camarilla would have respected us more, but not loved + us less; for have we not the loaves and fishes to give, as well + as the precious souls to be saved? Ah! here, indeed, America + might go straightforward with all needful impunity. Bishop Hughes + himself need not be anxious. That first, best occasion has + passed, and the unrecognized, unrecognizing Envoy has given + offence, and not comfort, by a presence that seemed constantly to + say, I do not think you can sustain yourselves. It has wounded + both the heart and the pride of Rome. Some of the lowest people + have asked me, "Is it not true that your country had a war to + become free?" "Yes." "Then why do they not feel for us?"</p> + + <p>Yet even now it is not too late. If America would only hail + triumphant, though she could not sustain injured Rome, that would + be something. "Can you suppose Rome will triumph," you say, + "without money, and against so potent a league of foes?" I am not + sure, but I hope, for I believe something in the heart of a + people when fairly awakened. I have also a lurking confidence in + what our fathers spoke of so constantly, a providential order of + things, by which brute force and selfish enterprise are sometimes + set at naught by aid which seems to descend from a higher sphere. + Even old pagans believed in that, you know; and I was born in + America, Christianized by the Puritans,—America, freed by + eight years' patient suffering, poverty, and + struggle,—America, so cheered in dark days by one spark of + sympathy from a foreign shore,—America, first "recognized" + by Lafayette. I saw him when traversing our country, then great, + rich, and free. Millions of men who owed in part their happiness + to what, no doubt, was once sneered at as romantic sympathy, + threw garlands in his path. It is natural that I should have some + faith.</p> + + <p>Send, dear America! to thy ambassadors a talisman precious + beyond all that boasted gold of California. Let it loose his + tongue to cry, "Long live the Republic, and may God bless the + cause of the people, the brotherhood of nations and of + men,—equality of rights for all." <i>Viva + America!</i></p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page388" id= + "page388"></a>[pg 388]</span> + + <p>Hail to my country! May she live a free, a glorious, a loving + life, and not perish, like the old dominions, from, the leprosy + of selfishness.</p> + + <p class="author">Evening.</p> + + <p>I am alone in the ghostly silence of a great house, not long + since full of gay faces and echoing with gay voices, now deserted + by every one but me,—for almost all foreigners are gone + now, driven by force either of the summer heats or the foe. I + hear all the Spaniards are going now,—that twenty-one have + taken passports to-day; why that is, I do not know.</p> + + <p>I shall not go till the last moment; my only fear is of + France. I cannot think in any case there would be found men + willing to damn themselves to latest posterity by bombarding + Rome. Other cities they may treat thus, careless of destroying + the innocent and helpless, the babe and old grandsire who cannot + war against them. But Rome, precious inheritance of + mankind,—will they run the risk of marring her shrined + treasures? Would they dare do it?</p> + + <p>Two of the balls that struck St. Peter's have been sent to + Pius IX. by his children, who find themselves so much less + "beloved" than were the Austrians.</p> + + <p>These two days, days of solemn festivity in the calends of the + Church, have been duly kept, and the population looks cheerful as + it swarms through the streets. The order of Rome, thronged as it + is with troops, is amazing. I go from one end to the other, and + amid the poorest and most barbarous of the population, + (barbarously ignorant, I mean,) alone and on foot. My friends + send out their little children alone with their nurses. The + amount of crime is almost nothing to what it was. The Roman, no + longer pent in ignorance and crouching beneath espionage, no + longer stabs in the dark. His energies have true vent; his better + feelings are roused; he has thrown aside the stiletto. The power + here is indeed miraculous, since no doubt still lurk within the + walls many who are eager to incite brawls, if only to give an + excuse for slander.</p> + + <p>To-day I suppose twelve thousand Austrians marched into + Florence. The Florentines have humbled and disgraced themselves + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page389" id="page389"></a>[pg + 389]</span> in vain. They recalled the Grand Duke to ward off the + entrance of the Austrians, but in vain went the deputation to + Gaëta—in an American steamer! Leopold was afraid + to come till his dear cousins of Austria had put everything in + perfect order; then the Austrians entered to take Leghorn, but + the Florentines still kept on imploring them not to come there; + Florence was as subdued, as good as possible, already:—they + have had the answer they deserved. Now they crown their work by + giving over Guerazzi and Petracci to be tried by an Austrian + court-martial. Truly the cup of shame brims over.</p> + + <p>I have been out on the balcony to look over the city. All + sleeps with that peculiar air of serene majesty known to this + city only;—this city that has grown, not out of the + necessities of commerce nor the luxuries of wealth, but first out + of heroism, then out of faith. Swelling domes, roofs softly + tinted with yellow moss! what deep meaning, what deep repose, in + your faintly seen outline!</p> + + <p>The young moon climbs among clouds,—the clouds of a + departing thunderstorm. Tender, smiling moon! can it be that thy + full orb may look down on a smoking, smouldering Rome, and see + her best blood run along the stones, without one nation in the + world to defend, one to aid,—scarce one to cry out a tardy + "Shame"? We will wait, whisper the nations, and see if they can + bear it. Rack them well to see if they are brave. <i>If they can + do without us</i>, we will help them. Is it thus ye would be + served in your turn? Beware!</p><span class="pagenum"><a name= + "page390" id="page390"></a>[pg 390]</span> + <p> </p> + <h3>LETTER XXXI.</h3> + + <h4>The French Treason at + Rome.—Oudinot.—Lesseps.—Letter of the + Triumvirate.—Reply of Lesseps.—Course of + Oudinot.—The Wounded + Italians.—Garibaldi.—Italian Young + Men.—Military Funeral.—Havoc of the + Siege.—Courage of Mazzini.—Falseness of the London + Times.</h4> + + <p class="author">Rome, June 10, 1849.</p> + + <p>What shall I write of Rome in these sad but glorious days? + Plain facts are the best; for my feelings I could not find fit + words.</p> + + <p>When I last wrote, the French were playing the second act of + their farce.</p> + + <p>In the first, the French government affected to consult the + Assembly. The Assembly, or a majority of the Assembly, affected + to believe the pretext it gave, and voted funds for twelve + thousand men to go to Civita Vecchia. Arriving there, Oudinot + proclaimed that he had come as a friend and brother. He was + received as such. Immediately he took possession of the town, + disarmed the Roman troops, and published a manifesto in direct + opposition to his first declaration.</p> + + <p>He sends to Rome that he is coming there as a friend; receives + the answer that he is not wanted and cannot be trusted. This + answer he chooses to consider as coming from a minority, and + advances on Rome. The pretended majority on which he counts never + shows itself by a single movement within the walls. He makes an + assault, and is defeated. On this subject his despatches to his + government are full of falsehoods that would disgrace the lowest + pickpocket,—falsehoods which it is impossible he should not + know to be such.</p> + + <p>The Assembly passed a vote of blame. M. Louis Bonaparte + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page391" id="page391"></a>[pg + 391]</span> writes a letter of compliment and assurance that this + course of violence shall be sustained. In conformity with this + promise twelve thousand more troops are sent. This time it is not + thought necessary to consult the Assembly. Let us view the</p> + + <p class="center">SECOND ACT.</p> + + <p>Now appears in Rome M. Ferdinand Lesseps, Envoy, &c. of + the French government. He declares himself clothed with full + powers to treat with Rome. He cannot conceal his surprise at all + he sees there, at the ability with which preparations have been + made for defence, at the patriotic enthusiasm which pervades the + population. Nevertheless, in beginning his game of treaty-making, + he is not ashamed to insist on the French occupying the city. + Again and again repulsed, he again and again returns to the + charge on this point. And here I shall translate the letter + addressed to him by the Triumvirate, both because of its perfect + candor of statement, and to give an idea of the sweet and noble + temper in which these treacherous aggressions have been met.</p> + + <p class="center">LETTER OF THE TRIUMVIRS TO MONSIEUR LESSEPS.</p> + + <p class="author">"May 25, 1849.</p> + + <p>"We have had the honor, Monsieur, to furnish you, in our note + of the 16th, with some information as to the unanimous consent + which was given to the formation of the government of the Roman + Republic. We to-day would speak to you of the actual question, + such as it is debated in fact, if not by right, between the + French government and ours. You will allow us to do it with the + frankness demanded by the urgency of the situation, as well as + the sympathy which ought to govern all relations between France + and Italy. Our diplomacy is the truth, and the character given to + your mission is a guaranty that the best possible interpretation + will be given to what we shall say to you.</p> + + <p>"With your permission, we return for an instant to the cause + of the present situation of affairs.</p> + + <p>"In consequence of conferences and arrangements which took + place without the government of the Roman Republic ever being + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page392" id="page392"></a>[pg + 392]</span> called on to take part, it was some time since + decided by the Catholic Powers,—1st. That a modification + should take place in the government and institutions of the Roman + States; 2d. That this modification should have for basis the + return of Pius IX., not as Pope, for to that no obstacle is + interposed by us, but as temporal sovereign; 3d. That if, to + attain that aim, a continuous intervention was judged necessary, + that intervention should take place.</p> + + <p>"We are willing to admit, that while for some of the + contracting governments the only motive was the hope of a general + restoration and absolute return to the treaties of 1815, the + French government was drawn into this agreement only in + consequence of erroneous information, tending systematically to + depict the Roman States as given up to anarchy and governed by + terror exercised in the name of an audacious minority. We know + also, that, in the modification proposed, the French government + intended to represent an influence more or less liberal, opposed + to the absolutist programme of Austria and of Naples. It does + none the less remain true, that under the Apostolic or + constitutional form, with or without liberal guaranties to the + Roman people, the dominant thought in all the negotiations to + which we allude has been some sort of return toward the past, a + compromise between the Roman people and Pius IX. considered as + temporal prince.</p> + + <p>"We cannot dissemble to ourselves, Monsieur, that the French + expedition has been planned and executed under the inspiration of + this thought. Its object was, on one side, to throw the sword of + France into the balance of negotiations which were to be opened + at Rome; on the other, to guarantee the Roman people from the + excess of retrograde, but always on condition that it should + submit to constitutional monarchy in favor of the Holy Father. + This is assured to us partly from information which we believe we + possess as to the concert with Austria; from the proclamations of + General Oudinot; from the formal declarations made by successive + envoys to the Triumvirate; from the silence obstinately + maintained whenever we have sought to approach the political + question and obtain a formal declaration of the fact <span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page393" id="page393"></a>[pg 393]</span> + proved in our note of the 16th, that the institutions by which + the Roman people are governed at this time are the free and + spontaneous expression of the wish of the people inviolable when + legally ascertained. For the rest, the vote of the French + Assembly sustains implicitly the fact that we affirm.</p> + + <p>"In such a situation, under the menace of an inadmissible + compromise, and of negotiations which the state of our people no + way provoked, our part, Monsieur, could not be doubtful. To + resist,—we owed this to our country, to France, to all + Europe. We ought, in fulfilment of a mandate loyally given, + loyally accepted, maintain to our country the inviolability, so + far as that was possible to us, of its territory, and of the + institutions decreed by all the powers, by all the elements, of + the state. We ought to conquer the time needed for appeal from + France ill informed to France better informed, to save the sister + republic the disgrace and the remorse which must be hers if, + rashly led on by bad suggestions from without, she became, before + she was aware, accomplice in an act of violence to which we can + find no parallel without going back to the partition of Poland in + 1772. We owed it to Europe to maintain, as far as we could, the + fundamental principles of all international life, the + independence of each people in all that concerns its internal + administration. We say it without pride,—for if it is with + enthusiasm that we resist the attempts of the Neapolitan monarchy + and of Austria, our eternal enemy, it is with profound grief that + we are ourselves constrained to contend with the arms of + France,—we believe in following this line of conduct we + have deserved well, not only of our country, but of all the + people of Europe, even of France herself.</p> + + <p>"We come to the actual question. You know, Monsieur, the + events which have followed the French intervention. Our territory + has been invaded by the king of Naples.</p> + + <p>"Four thousand Spaniards were to embark on the 17th for + invasion of this country. The Austrians, having surmounted the + heroic resistance of Bologna, have advanced into Romagna, and are + now marching on Ancona.</p> + + <p>"We have beaten and driven out of our territory the forces of + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page394" id="page394"></a>[pg + 394]</span> the king of Naples. We believe we should do the same + by the Austrian forces, if the attitude of the French here did + not fetter our action.</p> + + <p>"We are sorry to say it, but France must be informed that the + expedition of Civita Vecchia, said to be planned for our + protection, costs us very dear. Of all the interventions with + which it is hoped to overwhelm us, that of the French has been + the most perilous. Against the soldiers of Austria and the king + of Naples we can fight, for God protects a good cause. But we + <i>do not wish to fight</i> against the French. We are toward + them in a state, not of war, but of simple defence. But this + position, the only one we wish to take wherever we meet France, + has for us all the inconveniences without any of the favorable + chances of war.</p> + + <p>"The French expedition has, from the first, forced us to + concentrate our troops, thus leaving our frontier open to + Austrian invasion, and Bologna and the cities of Romagna + unsustained. The Austrians have profited by this. After eight + days of heroic resistance by the population, Bologna was forced + to yield. We had bought in France arms for our defence. Of these + ten thousand muskets have been detained between Marseilles and + Civita Vecchia. These are in your hands. Thus with a single blow + you deprive us of ten thousand soldiers. In every armed man is a + soldier against the Austrians.</p> + + <p>"Your forces are disposed around our walls as if for a siege. + They remain there without avowed aim or programme. They have + forced us to keep the city in a state of defence which weighs + upon our finances. They force us to keep here a body of troops + who might be saving our cities from the occupation and ravages of + the Austrians. They hinder our going from place to place, our + provisioning the city, our sending couriers. They keep minds in a + state of excitement and distrust which might, if our population + were less good and devoted, lead to sinister results. They do + <i>not</i> engender anarchy nor reaction, for both are impossible + at Rome; but they sow the seed of irritation against France, and + it is a misfortune for us who were accustomed to love and hope in + her.</p> + + <p>"We are besieged, Monsieur, besieged by France, in the name + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page395" id="page395"></a>[pg + 395]</span> of a protective mission, while some leagues off the + king of Naples, flying, carries off our hostages, and the + Austrian slays our brothers.</p> + + <p>"You have presented propositions. Those propositions have been + declared inadmissible by the Assembly. To-day you add a fourth to + the three already rejected. This says that France will protect + from foreign invasion all that part of our territory that may be + occupied by her troops. You must yourself feel that this changes + nothing in our position.</p> + + <p>"The parts of the territory occupied by your troops are in + fact protected; but if only for the present, to what are they + reduced? and if it is for the future, have we no other way to + protect our territory than by giving it up entirely to you?</p> + + <p>"The real intent of your demands is not stated. It is the + occupation of Rome. This demand has constantly stood first in + your list of propositions. Now we have had the honor to say to + you, Monsieur, that is impossible. The people will never consent + to it. If the occupation of Rome has for its aim only to protect + it, the people thank you, but tell you at the same time, that, + able to defend Rome by their own forces, they would be dishonored + even in your eyes by declaring themselves insufficient, and + needing the aid of some regiments of French soldiers. If the + occupation has otherwise a political object, which God forbid, + the people, who have given themselves freely these institutions, + cannot suffer it. Rome is their capital, their palladium, their + sacred city. They know very well, that, apart from their + principles, apart from their honor, there is civil war at the end + of such an occupation. They are filled with distrust by your + persistence. They foresee, the troops being once admitted, + changes in men and in actions which would be fatal to their + liberty. They know that, in presence of foreign bayonets, the + independence of their Assembly, of their government, would be a + vain word. They have always Civita Vecchia before their eyes.</p> + + <p>"On this point be sure their will is irrevocable. They will be + massacred from barricade to barricade, before they will + surrender. Can the soldiers of France wish to massacre a brother + people whom they came to protect, because they do not wish to + surrender to them their capital?</p><span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page396" id="page396"></a>[pg 396]</span> + + <p>"There are for France only three parts to take in the Roman + States. She ought to declare herself for us, against us, or + neutral. To declare herself for us would be to recognize our + republic, and fight side by side with us against the Austrians. + To declare against us is to crush without motive the liberty, the + national life, of a friendly people, and fight side by side with + the Austrians. France <i>cannot</i> do that. She <i>will not</i> + risk a European war to depress us, her ally. Let her, then, rest + neutral in this conflict between us and our enemies. Only + yesterday we hoped more from her, but to-day we demand but + this.</p> + + <p>"The occupation of Civita Vecchia is a fact accomplished; let + it go. France thinks that, in the present state of things, she + ought not to remain distant from the field of battle. She thinks + that, vanquishers or vanquished, we may have need of her + moderative action and of her protection. We do not think so; but + we will not react against her. Let her keep Civita Vecchia. Let + her even extend her encampments, if the numbers of her troops + require it, in the healthy regions of Civita Vecchia and Viterbo. + Let her then wait the issue of the combats about to take place. + All facilities will be offered her, every proof of frank and + cordial sympathy given; her officers can visit Rome, her soldiers + have all the solace possible. But let her neutrality be sincere + and without concealed plans. Let her declare herself in explicit + terms. Let her leave us free to use all our forces. Let her + restore our arms. Let her not by her cruisers drive back from our + ports the men who come to our aid from other parts of Italy. Let + her, above all, withdraw from before our walls, and cause even + the appearance of hostility to cease between two nations who, + later, undoubtedly are destined to unite in the same + international faith, as now they have adopted the same form of + government."</p> + <p> </p> + <p>In his answer, Lesseps appears moved by this statement, and + particularly expresses himself thus:—</p> + + <p>"One point appears above all to occupy you; it is the thought + that we wish forcibly to impose upon you the obligation of + receiving <span class="pagenum"><a name="page397" id= + "page397"></a>[pg 397]</span> us as friends. <i>Friendship and + violence are incompatible.</i> Thus it would be + <i>inconsistent</i> on our part to begin by firing our cannon + upon you, since we are your natural protectors. <i>Such a + contradiction enters neither into my intentions, nor those of the + government of the French republic, nor of our army and its + honorable chief.</i>"</p> + + <p>These words were written at the head-quarters of Oudinot, and + of course seen and approved by him. At the same time, in private + conversation, "the honorable chief" could swear he would occupy + Rome by "one means or another." A few days after, Lesseps + consented to conditions such as the Romans would tolerate. He no + longer insisted on occupying Rome, but would content himself with + good positions in the country. Oudinot protested that the + Plenipotentiary had "exceeded his powers,"—that he should + not obey,—that the armistice was at an end, and he should + attack Rome on Monday. It was then Friday. He proposed to leave + these two days for the few foreigners that remained to get out of + town. M. Lesseps went off to Paris, in great seeming indignation, + to get <i>his</i> treaty ratified. Of course we could not hear + from him for eight or ten days. Meanwhile, the <i>honorable</i> + chief, alike in all his conduct, attacked on Sunday instead of + Monday. The attack began before sunrise, and lasted all day. I + saw it from my window, which, though distant, commands the gate + of St. Pancrazio. Why the whole force was bent on that part, I do + not know. If they could take it, the town would be cannonaded, + and the barricades useless; but it is the same with the Pincian + Gate. Small-parties made feints in two other directions, but they + were at once repelled. The French fought with great bravery, and + this time it is said with beautiful skill and order, sheltering + themselves in their advance by movable barricades. The Italians + fought like lions, and no inch of ground was gained by the + assailants. The loss of the French is said to be very great: it + could not be otherwise. Six or seven hundred Italians are dead or + wounded. Among them are many officers, those of Garibaldi + especially, who are much exposed by their daring bravery, and + whose red tunic makes them the natural mark of the enemy. It + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page398" id="page398"></a>[pg + 398]</span> seems to me great folly to wear such a dress amid the + dark uniforms; but Garibaldi has always done it. He has now been + wounded twice here and seventeen times in Ancona.</p> + + <p>All this week I have been much at the hospitals where are + these noble sufferers. They are full of enthusiasm; this time was + no treason, no Vicenza, no Novara, no Milan. They had not been + given up by wicked chiefs at the moment they were shedding their + blood, and they had conquered. All were only anxious to get out + again and be at their posts. They seemed to feel that those who + died so gloriously were fortunate; perhaps they were, for if Rome + is obliged to yield,—and how can she stand always unaided + against the four powers?—where shall these noble youths + fly? They are the flower of the Italian youth; especially among + the Lombards are some of the finest young men I have ever seen. + If Rome falls, if Venice falls, there is no spot of Italian earth + where they can abide more, and certainly no Italian will wish to + take refuge in France. Truly you said, M. Lesseps, "Violence and + friendship are incompatible."</p> + + <p>A military funeral of the officer Ramerino was sadly + picturesque and affecting. The white-robed priests went before + the body singing, while his brothers in arms bore the lighted + tapers. His horse followed, saddled and bridled. The horse hung + his head and stepped dejectedly; he felt there was something + strange and gloomy going on,—felt that his master was laid + low. Ramerino left a wife and children. A great proportion of + those who run those risks are, happily, alone. Parents weep, but + will not suffer long; their grief is not like that of widows and + children.</p> + + <p>Since the 3d we have only cannonade and skirmishes. The French + are at their trenches, but cannot advance much; they are too much + molested from the walls. The Romans have made one very successful + sortie. The French availed themselves of a violent thunderstorm, + when the walls were left more thinly guarded, to try to scale + them, but were immediately driven back. It was thought by many + that they never would be willing to throw bombs and shells into + Rome, but they do whenever they can. That generous hope and faith + in them as republicans and brothers, <span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page399" id="page399"></a>[pg 399]</span> + which put the best construction on their actions, and believed in + their truth as far as possible, is now destroyed. The government + is false, and the people do not resist; the general is false, and + the soldiers obey.</p> + + <p>Meanwhile, frightful sacrifices are being made by Rome. All + her glorious oaks, all her gardens of delight, her casinos, full + of the monuments of genius and taste, are perishing in the + defence. The houses, the trees which had been spared at the gate + of St. Pancrazio, all afforded shelter to the foe, and caused so + much loss of life, that the Romans have now fully acquiesced in + destruction agonizing to witness. Villa Borghese is finally laid + waste, the villa of Raphael has perished, the trees are all cut + down at Villa Albani, and the house, that most beautiful ornament + of Rome, must, I suppose, go too. The stately marble forms are + already driven from their place in that portico where Winckelmann + sat and talked with such delight. Villa Salvage is burnt, with + all its fine frescos, and that bank of the Tiber shorn of its + lovely plantations.</p> + + <p>Rome will never recover the cruel ravage of these days, + perhaps only just begun. I had often thought of living a few + months near St. Peter's, that I might go as much as I liked to + the church and the museum, have Villa Pamfili and Monte Mario + within the compass of a walk. It is not easy to find lodgings + there, as it is a quarter foreigners never inhabit; but, walking + about to see what pleasant places there were, I had fixed my eye + on a clean, simple house near Ponte St. Angelo. It bore on a + tablet that it was the property of Angela ——; its little + balconies with their old wooden rails, full of flowers in humble + earthen vases, the many bird-cages, the air of domestic quiet and + comfort, marked it as the home of some vestal or widow, some lone + woman whose heart was centred in the ordinary and simplest + pleasures of a home. I saw also she was one having the most + limited income, and I thought, "She will not refuse to let me a + room for a few months, as I shall be as quiet as herself, and + sympathize about the flowers and birds." Now the Villa Pamfili is + all laid waste. The French encamp on Monte Mario; what they have + done there is not known yet. The cannonade reverberates all day + under the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page400" id= + "page400"></a>[pg 400]</span> dome of St. Peter's, and the house + of poor Angela is levelled with the ground. I hope her birds and + the white peacocks of the Vatican gardens are in + safety;—but who cares for gentle, harmless creatures + now?</p> + + <p>I have been often interrupted while writing this letter, and + suppose it is confused as well as incomplete. I hope my next may + tell of something decisive one way or the other. News is not yet + come from Lesseps, but the conduct of Oudinot and the formation + of the new French ministry give reason to hope no good. Many seem + resolved to force back Pius IX. among his bleeding flock, into + the city ruined by him, where he cannot remain, and if he come, + all this struggle and sorrow is to be borne over again. Mazzini + stands firm as a rock. I know not whether he hopes for a + successful issue, but he <i>believes</i> in a God bound to + protect men who do what they deem their duty. Yet how long, O + Lord, shall the few trample on the many?</p> + + <p>I am surprised to see the air of perfect good faith with which + articles from the London Times, upon the revolutionary movements, + are copied into our papers. There exists not in Europe a paper + more violently opposed to the cause of freedom than the Times, + and neither its leaders nor its foreign correspondence are to be + depended upon. It is said to receive money from Austria. I know + not whether this be true, or whether it be merely subservient to + the aristocratical feeling of England, which is far more opposed + to republican movements than is that of Russia; for in England + fear embitters hate. It is droll to remember our reading in the + class-book.</p> + + <blockquote> + <p>"Ay, down to the dust with them, slaves as they + are";—</p> + </blockquote> + + <p>to think how bitter the English were on the Italians who + succumbed, and see how they hate those who resist. And their + cowardice here in Italy is ludicrous. It is they who run away at + the least intimation of danger,—it is they who invent all + the "fe, fo, fum" stories about Italy,—it is they who write + to the Times and elsewhere that they dare not for their lives + stay in Rome, where I, a woman, walk everywhere alone, and all + the little children do the same, with their nurses. More of this + anon.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page401" id= + "page401"></a>[pg 401]</span> + <p> </p> + <h3>LETTER XXXII.</h3> + + <h4>Progress of the Tragedy.—Pius IX. disavows + Liberalism.—Oudinot, and the Roman Authorities.—Shame + of France.—Devastation of the City.—Courage of the + People.—Bombs extinguished.—A Crisis + approaching.</h4> + + <p class="author">Rome, June 21, 1849.</p> + + <p>It is now two weeks since the first attack of Oudinot, and as + yet we hear nothing decisive from Paris. I know not yet what news + may have come last night, but by the morning's mail we did not + even receive notice that Lesseps had arrived in Paris.</p> + + <p>Whether Lesseps was consciously the servant of all these base + intrigues, time will show. His conduct was boyish and foolish, if + it was not treacherous. The only object seemed to be to create + panic, to agitate, to take possession of Rome somehow, though + what to do with it, if they could get it, the French government + would hardly know.</p> + + <p>Pius IX., in his allocution of the 29th of April last, has + explained himself fully. He has disavowed every liberal act which + ever seemed to emanate from him, with the exception of the + amnesty. He has shamelessly recalled his refusal to let Austrian + blood be shed, while Roman flows daily at his request. He has + implicitly declared that his future government, could he return, + would be absolute despotism,—has dispelled the last + lingering illusion of those still anxious to apologize for him as + only a prisoner now in the hands of the Cardinals and the king of + Naples. The last frail link is broken that bound to him the + people of Rome, and could the French restore him, they must + frankly avow themselves, abandon entirely and fully the position + they took in February, 1848, and declare themselves the allies of + Austria and of Russia.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page402" + id="page402"></a>[pg 402]</span> + + <p>Meanwhile they persevere in the Jesuitical policy that has + already disgraced and is to ruin them. After a week of vain + assaults, Oudinot sent to Rome the following letter, which I + translate, as well as the answers it elicited.</p> + + <p class="center">LETTER OF GENERAL OUDINOT,</p> + + <p><i>Intended for the Roman Constituent Assembly, the + Triumvirate, the Generalissimo, and the Commander-in-Chief of the + National Guard.</i></p> + + <p>"General,—The events of war have, as you know, conducted + the French army to the gates of Rome.</p> + + <p>"Should the entrance into the city remain closed against us, I + should see myself constrained to employ immediately all the means + of action that France has placed in my hands.</p> + + <p>"Before having recourse to such terrible necessity, I think it + my duty to make a last appeal to a people who cannot have toward + France sentiments of hostility.</p> + + <p>"The Roman army wishes, no doubt, equally with myself, to + spare bloody ruin to the capital of the Christian world.</p> + + <p>"With this conviction, I pray you, Signore General, to give + the enclosed proclamation the most speedy publicity. If, twelve + hours after this despatch shall have been delivered to you, an + answer corresponding to the honor and the intentions of France + shall not have reached me, I shall be constrained to give the + forcible attack.</p> + + <p class="center close">"Accept, &c.</p> + + <p class="note close">"Villa Pamfili, 12 June, 1849, 5 P.M."</p> + + <p>He was in fact at Villa Santucci, much farther out, but could + not be content without falsifying his date as well as all his + statements.</p> + + <p class="center">"PROCLAMATION.</p> + + <p>"Inhabitants of Rome,—We did not come to bring you war. + We came to sustain among you order, with liberty. The intentions + of our government have been misunderstood. The labors + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page403" id="page403"></a>[pg + 403]</span> of the siege have conducted us under your walls. Till + now we have wished only occasionally to answer the fire of your + batteries. We approach these last moments, when the necessities + of war burst out in terrible calamities. Spare them to a city + fall of so many glorious memories.</p> + + <p>"If you persist in repelling us, on you alone will fall the + responsibility of irreparable disasters."</p> + + <p>The following are the answers of the various functionaries to + whom this letter was sent:—</p> + + <p class="center">ANSWER OF THE ASSEMBLY.</p> + + <p>"General,—The Roman Constitutional Assembly informs you, + in reply to your despatch of yesterday, that, having concluded a + convention from the 31st of May, 1849, with M. de Lesseps, + Minister Plenipotentiary of the French Republic, a convention + which we confirmed soon after your protest, it must consider that + convention obligatory for both parties, and indeed a safeguard of + the rights of nations, until it has been ratified or declined by + the government of France. Therefore the Assembly must regard as a + violation of that convention every hostile act of the French army + since the above-named 31st of May, and all others that shall take + place before the resolution of your government can be made known, + and before the expiration of the time agreed upon for the + armistice. You demand, General, an answer correspondent to the + intentions and power of France. Nothing could be more conformable + with the intentions and power of France than to cease a flagrant + violation of the rights of nations.</p> + + <p>"Whatever may be the results of such violation, the people of + Rome are not responsible for them. Rome is strong in its right, + and decided to maintain tire conventions which attach it to your + nation; only it finds itself constrained by the necessity of + self-defence to repel unjust aggressions.<br /> + + <span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Accept, &c., for the Assembly,</span></p> + <p class="author close">"The President, GALLETTI.</p> + <p class="close">"Secretaries, FABRETTI, PANNACCHI, + COCCHI."</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page404" id= + "page404"></a>[pg 404]</span> + <p> </p> + <p class="center">"ANSWER OF THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE NATIONAL GUARD.</p> + + <p>"General,—The treaty, of which we await the + ratification, assures this tranquil city from every disaster.</p> + + <p>"The National Guard, destined to maintain order, has the duty + of seconding the resolutions of the government; willingly and + zealously it fulfils this duty, not caring for annoyance and + fatigue.</p> + + <p>"The National Guard showed very lately, when it escorted the + prisoners sent back to you, its sympathy for France, but it shows + also on every occasion a supreme regard for its own dignity, for + the honor of Rome.</p> + + <p>"Any misfortune to the capital of the Catholic world, to the + monumental city, must be attributed not to the pacific citizens + constrained to defend themselves, but solely to its + aggressors.<br /> + + <span style="margin-left:4em;">"Accept, &c.</span></p> + <p class="author close">"STURBINETTI,<br /> + + <i>General of the National Guard, Representative of the + People</i>".</p> + <p> </p> + + <p class="center">ANSWER OF THE GENERALISSIMO.</p> + + <p>"Citizen General,—A fatality leads to conflict between + the armies of two republics, whom a better destiny would have + invited to combat against their common enemy; for the enemies of + the one cannot fail to be also enemies of the other.</p> + + <p>"We are not deceived, and shall combat by every means in our + power whoever assails our institutions, for only the brave are + worthy to stand before the French soldiers.</p> + + <p>"Reflecting that there is a state of life worse than death, if + the war you wage should put us in that state, it will be better + to close our eyes for ever than to see the interminable + oppressions of oar country.<br /> + + <span style="margin-left: 4em;">"I wish you well, and desire fraternity.</span></p> + + <p class="author close">"ROSSELLI."</p> + <p> </p> + + <p class="center">ANSWER OF THE TRIUMVIRATE.</p> + + <p>"We have the honor to transmit to you the answer of the + Assembly.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page405" id= + "page405"></a>[pg 405]</span> + + <p>"We never break our promises. We have promised to defend, in + execution of orders from the Assembly and people of Rome, the + banner of the Republic, the honor of the country, and the + sanctity of the capital of the Christian world; this promise we + shall maintain.<br /> + + <span style="margin-left: 4em;">"Accept, &c.</span></p> + + <p class="author close">"The Triumvirs, <br /> + ARMELLINI.<br /> + MAZZINI.<br /> + SAFFI."</p> + + <p>Observe the miserable evasion of this missive of Oudinot: "The + fortune of war has conducted us." What war? He pretended to come + as a friend, a protector; is enraged only because, after his + deceits at Civita Vecchia, Rome will not trust him within her + walls. For this he daily sacrifices hundreds of lives. "The Roman + people cannot be hostile to the French?" No, indeed; they were + not disposed to be so. They had been stirred to emulation by the + example of France. They had warmly hoped in her as their true + ally. It required all that Oudinot has done to turn their faith + to contempt and aversion.</p> + + <p>Cowardly man! He knows now that he comes upon a city which + wished to receive him only as a friend, and he cries, "With my + cannon, with my bombs, I will compel you to let me betray + you."</p> + + <p>The conduct of France—infamous enough before—looks + tenfold blacker now that, while the so-called Plenipotentiary is + absent with the treaty to be ratified, her army daily assails + Rome,—assails in vain. After receiving these answers to his + letter and proclamation, Oudinot turned all the force of his + cannonade to make a breach, and began, what no one, even in these + days, has believed possible, the bombardment of Rome.</p> + + <p>Yes! the French, who pretend to be the advanced guard of + civilization, are bombarding Rome. They dare take the risk of + destroying the richest bequests made to man by the great Past. + Nay, they seem to do it in an especially barbarous manner. It was + thought they would avoid, as much as possible, the hospitals + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page406" id="page406"></a>[pg + 406]</span> for the wounded, marked to their view by the black + banner, and the places where are the most precious monuments; but + several bombs have fallen on the chief hospital, and the Capitol + evidently is especially aimed at. They made a breach in the wall, + but it was immediately filled up with a barricade, and all the + week they have been repulsed in every attempt they made to gain + ground, though with considerable loss of life on our side; on + theirs it must be great, but how great we cannot know.</p> + + <p>Ponte Molle, the scene of Raphael's fresco of a battle, in the + Vatican, saw again a fierce struggle last Friday. More than fifty + were brought wounded into Rome.</p> + + <p>But wounds and assaults only fire more and more the courage of + her defenders. They feel the justice of their cause, and the + peculiar iniquity of this aggression. In proportion as there + seems little aid to be hoped from man, they seem to claim it from + God. The noblest sentiments are heard from every lip, and, thus + far, their acts amply correspond.</p> + + <p>On the eve of the bombardment one or two officers went round + with a fine band. It played on the piazzas the Marseillaise and + Roman marches; and when the people were thus assembled, they were + told of the proclamation, and asked how they felt. Many shouted + loudly, <i>Guerra! Viva la Republica Romana!</i> Afterward, bands + of young men went round singing the chorus,</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"Vogliamo sempre quella,</p> + + <p>Vogliamo Liberta."</p> + </div> + </div> + + <p>("We want always one thing; we want liberty.") Guitars played, + and some danced. When the bombs began to come, one of the + Trasteverini, those noble images of the old Roman race, redeemed + her claim to that descent by seizing a bomb and extinguishing the + match. She received a medal and a reward in money. A soldier did + the same thing at Palazza Spada, where is the statue of Pompey, + at whose base great Cæsar fell. He was promoted. + Immediately the people were seized with emulation; armed with + pans of wet clay, they ran wherever the bombs fell, to extinguish + them. Women collect the balls from the hostile cannon, and carry + them to ours. As thus very little injury has been done to life, + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page407" id="page407"></a>[pg + 407]</span> the people cry, "Madonna protects us against the + bombs; she wills not that Rome should be destroyed."</p> + + <p>Meanwhile many poor people are driven from their homes, and + provisions are growing very dear. The heats are now terrible for + us, and must be far more so for the French. It is said a vast + number are ill of fever; indeed, it cannot be otherwise. Oudinot + himself has it, and perhaps this is one explanation of the + mixture of violence and weakness in his actions.</p> + + <p>He must be deeply ashamed at the poor result of his bad + acts,—that at the end of two weeks and so much bravado, he + has done nothing to Rome, unless intercept provisions, kill some + of her brave youth, and injure churches, which should be sacred + to him as to us. St. Maria Trastevere, that ancient church, so + full of precious remains, and which had an air of mild repose + more beautiful than almost any other, is said to have suffered + particularly.</p> + + <p>As to the men who die, I share the impassioned sorrow of the + Triumvirs. "O Frenchmen!" they wrote, "could you know what men + you destroy! <i>They</i> are no mercenaries, like those who fill + your ranks, but the flower of the Italian youth, and the noblest + among the aged. When you shall know of what minds you have robbed + the world, how ought you to repent and mourn!"</p> + + <p>This is especially true of the Emigrant and Garibaldi legions. + The misfortunes of Northern and Southern Italy, the conscription + which compels to the service of tyranny those who remain, has + driven from the kingdom of Naples and from Lombardy all the brave + and noble youth. Many are in Venice or Rome, the forlorn hope of + Italy. Radetzky, every day more cruel, now impresses aged men and + the fathers of large families. He carries them with him in + chains, determined, if he cannot have good troops to send into + Hungary, at least to revenge himself on the unhappy Lombards.</p> + + <p>Many of these young men, students from Pisa, Pavia, Padua, and + the Roman University, lie wounded in the hospitals, for naturally + they rushed first to the combat. One kissed an arm which was cut + off; another preserves pieces of bone which were painfully + extracted from his wound, as relics of the best days of his + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page408" id="page408"></a>[pg + 408]</span> life. The older men, many of whom have been saddened + by exile and disappointment, less glowing, are not less resolved. + A spirit burns noble as ever animated the most precious deeds we + treasure from the heroic age. I suffer to see these temples of + the soul thus broken, to see the fever-weary days and painful + operations undergone by these noble men, these true priests of a + higher hope; but I would not, for much, have missed seeing it + all. The memory of it will console amid the spectacles of + meanness, selfishness, and faithlessness which life may yet have + in store for the pilgrim.</p> + + <p class="author">June 23.</p> + + <p>Matters verge to a crisis. The French government sustains + Oudinot and disclaims Lesseps. Harmonious throughout, shameless + in falsehood, it seems Oudinot knew that tire mission of Lesseps + was at an end, when he availed himself of his pacific promises to + occupy Monte Mario. When the Romans were anxious at seeing French + troops move in that direction, Lesseps said it was only done to + occupy them, and conjured the Romans to avoid all collision which + might prevent his success with the treaty. The sham treaty was + concluded on the 30th of May, a detachment of French having + occupied Monte Mario on the night of the 29th. Oudinot flies into + a rage and refuses to sign; M. Lesseps goes off to Paris; + meanwhile, the brave Oudinot attacks on the 3d of June, after + writing to the French Consul that Ire should not till the 4th, to + leave time for the foreigners remaining to retire. He attacked in + the night, possessing himself of Villa Pamfili, as he had of + Monte Mario, by treachery and surprise.</p> + + <p>Meanwhile, M. Lesseps arrives in Paris, to find himself + seemingly or really in great disgrace with the would-be Emperor + and his cabinet. To give reason for this, M. Drouyn de Lhuys, who + had publicly declared to the Assembly that M. Lesseps had no + instructions except from the report of the sitting of the 7th of + May, shamefully publishes a letter of special instructions, + hemming him in on every side, which M. Lesseps, the + "Plenipotentiary," dares not disown.</p> + + <p>What are we to think of a great nation, whose leading men + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page409" id="page409"></a>[pg + 409]</span> are such barefaced liars? M. Guizot finds his creed + faithfully followed up.</p> + + <p>The liberal party in France does what it can to wash its hands + of this offence, but it seems weak, and unlikely to render + effectual service at this crisis. Venice, Rome, Ancona, are the + last strong-holds of hope, and they cannot stand for ever thus + unsustained. Night before last, a tremendous cannonade left no + moment to sleep, even had the anxious hearts of mothers and wives + been able to crave it. At morning a little detachment of French + had entered by the breach of St. Pancrazio, and intrenched itself + in a vineyard. Another has possession of Villa Poniatowski, close + to the Porta del Popolo, and attacks and alarms are hourly to be + expected. I long to see the final one, dreadful as that hour may + be, since now there seems no hope from delay. Men are daily + slain, and this state of suspense is agonizing.</p> + + <p>In the evening 't is pretty, though terrible, to see the + bombs, fiery meteors, springing from the horizon line upon their + bright path, to do their wicked message. 'T would not be so bad, + methinks, to die by one of these, as wait to have every drop of + pure blood, every childlike radiant hope, drained and driven from + the heart by the betrayals of nations and of individuals, till at + last the sickened eyes refuse more to open to that light which + shines daily on such pits of iniquity.</p><span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page410" id="page410"></a>[pg 410]</span> + <p> </p> + <h3>LETTER XXXIII.</h3> + + <h4>Siege of Rome.—Heat.—Night Attacks.—The + Bombardment.—The Night Breach.—Defection.—Entry + of the French.—Slaughter of the Romans.—The + Hospitals.—Destruction by Bombs.—Cessation of + Resistance.—Oudinot's Stubbornness.—Garibaldi's + Troops.—Their Muster on the Scene of Rienzi's + Triumph.—Garibaldi.—His + Departure.—"Respectable" Opinion.—The Protectors + unmasked.—Cold Reception.—A Priest + assassinated.—Martial Law declared.—Republican + Education.—Disappearance of French Soldiers.—Clearing + the Hospitals.—Priestly Baseness.—Insult to the + American Consul.—His Protest and Departure.—Disarming + the National Guard.—Position of Mr. Cass.—Petty + Oppression.—Expulsion of Foreigners.—Effect of French + Presence.—Address to the People.—Visit to the Scene + of Strife.—American Sympathy for Liberty in Europe.</h4> + + <p class="author">Rome, July 6, 1849.</p> + + <p>If I mistake not, I closed my last letter just as the news + arrived here that the attempt of the democratic party in France + to resist the infamous proceedings of the government had failed, + and thus Rome, as far as human calculation went, had not a hope + for her liberties left. An inland city cannot long sustain a + siege when there is no hope of aid. Then followed the news of the + surrender of Ancona, and Rome found herself alone; for, though + Venice continued to hold out, all communication was cut off.</p> + + <p>The Republican troops, almost to a man, left Ancona, but a + long march separated them from Rome.</p> + + <p>The extreme heat of these days was far more fatal to the + Romans than to their assailants, for as fast as the French troops + sickened, their place was taken by fresh arrivals. Ours also not + only sustained the exhausting service by day, but were harassed + at night by attacks, feigned or real. These commonly began about + eleven or twelve o'clock at night, just when all who meant to + rest were fairly asleep. I can imagine the harassing effect upon + the troops, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page411" id= + "page411"></a>[pg 411]</span> from what I feel in my sheltered + pavilion, in consequence of not knowing a quiet night's sleep for + a month.</p> + + <p>The bombardment became constantly more serious. The house + where I live was filled as early as the 20th with persons obliged + to fly from the Piazza di Gesu, where the fiery rain fell + thickest. The night of the 21st-22d, we were all alarmed about + two o'clock, A.M. by a tremendous cannonade. It was the moment + when the breach was finally made by which the French entered. + They rushed in, and I grieve to say, that, by the only instance + of defection known in the course of the siege, those companies of + the regiment Union which had in charge a position on that point + yielded to panic and abandoned it. The French immediately entered + and intrenched themselves. That was the fatal hour for the city. + Every day afterward, though obstinately resisted, the enemy + gained, till at last, their cannon being well placed, the city + was entirely commanded from the Janiculum, and all thought of + further resistance was idle.</p> + + <p>It was true policy to avoid a street-fight, in which the + Italian, an unpractised soldier, but full of feeling and + sustained from the houses, would have been a match even for their + disciplined troops. After the 22d of June, the slaughter of the + Romans became every day more fearful. Their defences were knocked + down by the heavy cannon of the French, and, entirely exposed in + their valorous onsets, great numbers perished on the spot. Those + who were brought into the hospitals were generally grievously + wounded, very commonly subjects for amputation. My heart bled + daily more and more at these sights, and I could not feel much + for myself, though now the balls and bombs began to fall round me + also. The night of the 28th the effect was truly fearful, as they + whizzed and burst near me. As many as thirty fell upon or near + the Hotel de Russie, where Mr. Cass has his temporary abode. The + roof of the studio in the pavilion, tenanted by Mr. Stermer, well + known to the visitors of Rome for his highly-finished cabinet + pictures, was torn to pieces. I sat alone in my much exposed + apartment, thinking, "If one strikes me, I only hope it will kill + me at once, and that God will transport my soul to some sphere + where <span class="pagenum"><a name="page412" id= + "page412"></a>[pg 412]</span> virtue and love are not tyrannized + over by egotism and brute force, as in this." However, that night + passed; the next, we had reason to expect a still more fiery + salute toward the Pincian, as here alone remained three or four + pieces of cannon which could be used. But on the morning of the + 30th, in a contest at the foot of the Janiculum, the line, old + Papal troops, naturally not in earnest like the free corps, + refused to fight against odds so terrible. The heroic Marina + fell, with hundreds of his devoted Lombards. Garibaldi saw his + best officers perish, and himself went in the afternoon to say to + the Assembly that further resistance was unavailing.</p> + + <p>The Assembly sent to Oudinot, but he refused any + conditions,—refused even to guarantee a safe departure to + Garibaldi, his brave foe. Notwithstanding, a great number of men + left the other regiments to follow the leader whose courage had + captivated them, and whose superiority over difficulties + commanded their entire confidence. Toward the evening of Monday, + the 2d of July, it was known that the French were preparing to + cross the river and take possession of all the city. I went into + the Corso with some friends; it was filled with citizens and + military. The carriage was stopped by the crowd near the Doria + palace; the lancers of Garibaldi galloped along in full career. I + longed for Sir Walter Scott to be on earth again, and see them; + all are light, athletic, resolute figures, many of the forms of + the finest manly beauty of the South, all sparkling with its + genius and ennobled by the resolute spirit, ready to dare, to do, + to die. We followed them to the piazza of St. John Lateran. Never + have I seen a sight so beautiful, so romantic, and so sad. + Whoever knows Rome knows the peculiar solemn grandeur of that + piazza, scene of the first triumph of Rienzi, and whence may be + seen the magnificence of the "mother of all churches," the + baptistery with its porphyry columns, the Santa Scala with its + glittering mosaics of the early ages, the obelisk standing + fairest of any of those most imposing monuments of Rome, the view + through the gates of the Campagna, on that side so richly strewn + with ruins. The sun was setting, the crescent moon rising, the + flower of the Italian youth were marshalling in that solemn + place. They <span class="pagenum"><a name="page413" id= + "page413"></a>[pg 413]</span> had been driven from every other + spot where they had offered their hearts as bulwarks of Italian + independence; in this last strong-hold they had sacrificed + hecatombs of their best and bravest in that cause; they must now + go or remain prisoners and slaves. <i>Where</i> go, they knew + not; for except distant Hungary there is not now a spot which + would receive them, or where they can act as honor commands. They + had all put on the beautiful dress of the Garibaldi legion, the + tunic of bright red cloth, the Greek cap, or else round hat with + Puritan plume. Their long hair was blown back from resolute + faces; all looked full of courage. They had counted the cost + before they entered on this perilous struggle; they had weighed + life and all its material advantages against liberty, and made + their election; they turned not back, nor flinched, at this + bitter crisis. I saw the wounded, all that could go, laden upon + their baggage cars; some were already pale and fainting, still + they wished to go. I saw many youths, born to rich inheritance, + carrying in a handkerchief all their worldly goods. The women + were ready; their eyes too were resolved, if sad. The wife of + Garibaldi followed him on horseback. He himself was distinguished + by the white tunic; his look was entirely that of a hero of the + Middle Ages,—his face still young, for the excitements of + his life, though so many, have all been youthful, and there is no + fatigue upon his brow or cheek. Fall or stand, one sees in him a + man engaged in the career for which he is adapted by nature. He + went upon the parapet, and looked upon the road with a spy-glass, + and, no obstruction being in sight, he turned his face for a + moment back upon Rome, then led the way through the gate. Hard + was the heart, stony and seared the eye, that had no tear for + that moment. Go, fated, gallant band! and if God care not indeed + for men as for the sparrows, most of ye go forth to perish. And + Rome, anew the Niobe! Must she lose also these beautiful and + brave, that promised her regeneration, and would have given it, + but for the perfidy, the overpowering force, of the foreign + intervention?</p> + + <p>I know that many "respectable" gentlemen would be surprised to + hear me speak in this way. Gentlemen who perform their + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page414" id="page414"></a>[pg + 414]</span> "duties to society" by buying for themselves handsome + clothes and furniture with the interest of their money, speak of + Garibaldi and his men as "brigands" and "vagabonds." Such are + they, doubtless, in the same sense as Jesus, Moses, and Eneas + were. To me, men who can throw so lightly aside the ease of + wealth, the joys of affection, for the sake of what they deem + honor, in whatsoever form, are the "respectable." No doubt there + are in these bands a number of men of lawless minds, and who + follow this banner only because there is for them no other path. + But the greater part are the noble youths who have fled from the + Austrian conscription, or fly now from the renewal of the Papal + suffocation, darkened by French protection.</p> + + <p>As for the protectors, they entirely threw aside the mask, as + it was always supposed they would, the moment they had possession + of Rome. I do not know whether they were really so bewildered by + their priestly counsellors as to imagine they would be well + received in a city which they had bombarded, and where twelve + hundred men were lying wounded by their assault. To say nothing + of the justice or injustice of the matter, it could not be + supposed that the Roman people, if it had any sense of dignity, + would welcome them. I did not appear in the street, as I would + not give any countenance to such a wrong; but an English lady, my + friend, told me they seemed to look expectingly for the strong + party of friends they had always pretended to have within the + walls. The French officers looked up to the windows for ladies, + and, she being the only one they saw, saluted her. She made no + reply. They then passed into the Corso. Many were assembled, the + softer Romans being unable to control a curiosity the Milanese + would have disclaimed, but preserving an icy silence. In an evil + hour, a foolish priest dared to break it by the cry of <i>Viva + Pio Nono!</i> The populace, roused to fury, rushed on him with + their knives. He was much wounded; one or two others were killed + in the rush. The people howled then, and hissed at the French, + who, advancing their bayonets, and clearing the way before them, + fortified themselves in the piazzas. Next day the French troops + were marched to and fro through Rome, to inspire awe in the + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page415" id="page415"></a>[pg + 415]</span> people; but it has only created a disgust amounting + to loathing, to see that, with such an imposing force, and in + great part fresh, the French were not ashamed to use bombs also, + and kill women and children in their beds. Oudinot then, seeing + the feeling of the people, and finding they pursued as a spy any + man who so much as showed the way to his soldiers,—that the + Italians went out of the cafés if Frenchmen + entered,—in short, that the people regarded him and his + followers in the same light as the Austrians,—has declared + martial law in Rome; the press is stifled; everybody is to be in + the house at half past nine o'clock in the evening, and whoever + in any way insults his men, or puts any obstacle in their way, is + to be shot.</p> + + <p>The fruits of all this will be the same as elsewhere; + temporary repression will sow the seeds of perpetual resistance; + and never was Rome in so fair a way to be educated for a + republican form of government as now.</p> + + <p>Especially could nothing be more irritating to an Italian + population, in the month of July, than to drive them to their + homes at half past nine. After the insupportable heat of the day, + their only enjoyment and refreshment are found in evening walks, + and chats together as they sit before their cafés, or in + groups outside some friendly door. Now they must hurry home when + the drum beats at nine o'clock. They are forbidden to stand or + sit in groups, and this by their bombarding <i>protector!</i> + Comment is unnecessary.</p> + + <p>French soldiers are daily missing; of some it is known that + they have been killed by the Trasteverini for daring to make + court to their women. Of more than a hundred and fifty, it is + only known that they cannot he found; and in two days of French + "order" more acts of violence have been committed, than in two + months under the Triumvirate.</p> + + <p>The French have taken up their quarters in the court-yards of + the Quirinal and Venetian palaces, which are full of the wounded, + many of whom have been driven well-nigh mad, and their burning + wounds exasperated, by the sound of the drums and + trumpets,—the constant sense of an insulting presence. The + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page416" id="page416"></a>[pg + 416]</span> wounded have been warned to leave the Quirinal at the + end of eight days, though there are many who cannot be moved from + bed to bed without causing them great anguish and peril; nor is + it known that any other place has been provided as a hospital for + them. At the Palazzo di Venezia the French have searched for + three emigrants whom they wished to imprison, even in the + apartments where the wounded were lying, running their bayonets + into the mattresses. They have taken for themselves beds given by + the Romans to the hospital,—not public property, but + private gift. The hospital of Santo Spirito was a governmental + establishment, and, in using a part of it for the wounded, its + director had been retained, because he had the reputation of + being honest and not illiberal. But as soon as the French + entered, he, with true priestly baseness, sent away the women + nurses, saying he had no longer money to pay them, transported + the wounded into a miserable, airless basement, that had before + been used as a granary, and appropriated the good apartments to + the use of the French!</p> + + <p class="author">July 8.</p> + + <p>The report of this morning is that the French yesterday + violated the domicile of our Consul, Mr. Brown, pretending to + search for persons hidden there; that Mr. Brown, banner in one + hand and sword in the other, repelled the assault, and fairly + drove them down stairs; that then he made them an appropriate + speech, though in a mixed language of English, French, and + Italian; that the crowd vehemently applauded Mr. Brown, who + already was much liked for the warm sympathy he had shown the + Romans in their aspirations and their distresses; and that he + then donned his uniform, and went to Oudinot to make his protest. + How this was received I know not, but understand Mr. Brown + departed with his family yesterday evening. Will America look as + coldly on the insult to herself, as she has on the struggle of + this injured people?</p> + + <p>To-day an edict is out to disarm the National Guard. The + generous "protectors" wish to take all the trouble upon + themselves. Rome is full of them; at every step are met groups in + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page417" id="page417"></a>[pg + 417]</span> the uniform of France, with faces bronzed in the + African war, and so stultified by a life without enthusiasm and + without thought, that I do not believe Napoleon would recognize + them as French soldiers. The effect of their appearance compared + with that of the Italian free corps is that of body as compared + with spirit. It is easy to see how they could be used to purposes + so contrary to the legitimate policy of France, for they do not + look more intellectual, more fitted to have opinions of their + own, than the Austrian soldiery.</p> + + <p class="author">July 10.</p> + + <p>The plot thickens. The exact facts with regard to the invasion + of Mr. Brown's house I have not been able to ascertain. I suppose + they will be published, as Oudinot has promised to satisfy Mr. + Cass. I must add, in reference to what I wrote some time ago of + the position of our Envoy here, that the kind and sympathetic + course of Mr. Cass toward the Republicans in these troubles, his + very gentlemanly and courteous bearing, have from the minds of + most removed all unpleasant feelings. They see that his position + was very peculiar,—sent to the Papal government, finding + here the Republican, and just at that moment violently assailed. + Unless he had extraordinary powers, he naturally felt obliged to + communicate further with our government before acknowledging + this. I shall always regret, however, that he did not stand free + to occupy the high position that belonged to the representative + of the United States at that moment, and peculiarly because it + was by a republic that the Roman Republic was betrayed.</p> + + <p>But, as I say, the plot thickens. Yesterday three families + were carried to prison because a boy crowed like a cock at the + French soldiery from the windows of the house they occupied. + Another, because a man pursued took refuge in their court-yard. + At the same time, the city being mostly disarmed, came the edict + to take down the insignia of the Republic, "emblems of anarchy." + But worst of all they have done is an edict commanding all + foreigners who had been in the service of the Republican + government to leave Rome within twenty-four hours. This is + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page418" id="page418"></a>[pg + 418]</span> the most infamous thing done yet, as it drives to + desperation those who stayed because they had so many to go with + and no place to go to, or because their relatives lie wounded + here: no others wished to remain in Rome under present + circumstances.</p> + + <p>I am sick of breathing the same air with men capable of a part + so utterly cruel and false. As soon as I can, I shall take refuge + in the mountains, if it be possible to find an obscure nook + unpervaded by these convulsions. Let not my friends be surprised + if they do not hear from me for some time. I may not feel like + writing. I have seen too much sorrow, and, alas! without power to + aid. It makes me sick to see the palaces and streets of Rome full + of these infamous foreigners, and to note the already changed + aspect of her population. The men of Rome had begun, filled with + new hopes, to develop unknown energy,—they walked quick, + their eyes sparkled, they delighted in duty, in responsibility; + in a year of such life their effeminacy would have been + vanquished. Now, dejectedly, unemployed, they lounge along the + streets, feeling that all the implements of labor, all the + ensigns of hope, have been snatched from them. Their hands fall + slack, their eyes rove aimless, the beggars begin to swarm again, + and the black ravens who delight in the night of ignorance, the + slumber of sloth, as the only sureties for their rule, emerge + daily more and more frequent from their hiding-places.</p> + + <p>The following Address has been circulated from hand to + hand.</p> + + <p class="center">"TO THE PEOPLE OF ROME.</p> + + <p>"Misfortune, brothers, has fallen upon us anew. But it is + trial of brief duration,—it is the stone of the sepulchre + which we shall throw away after three days, rising victorious and + renewed, an immortal nation. For with us are God and + Justice,—God and Justice, who cannot die, but always + triumph, while kings and popes, once dead, revive no more.</p> + + <p>"As you have been great in the combat, be so in the days of + sorrow,—great in your conduct as citizens, by generous + disdain, by sublime silence. Silence is the weapon we have now to + use against the Cossacks of France and the priests, their + masters.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page419" id= + "page419"></a>[pg 419]</span> + + <p>"In the streets do not look at them; do not answer if they + address you.</p> + + <p>"In the cafés, in the eating-houses, if they enter, + rise and go out.</p> + + <p>"Let your windows remain closed as they pass.</p> + + <p>"Never attend their feasts, their parades.</p> + + <p>"Regard the harmony of their musical bands as tones of + slavery, and, when you hear them, fly.</p> + + <p>"Let the liberticide soldier be condemned to isolation; let + him atone in solitude and contempt for having served priests and + kings.</p> + + <p>"And you, Roman women, masterpiece of God's work! deign no + look, no smile, to those satellites of an abhorred Pope! Cursed + be she who, before the odious satellites of Austria, forgets that + she is Italian! Her name shall be published for the execration of + all her people! And even the courtesans! let them show love for + their country, and thus regain the dignity of citizens!</p> + + <p>"And our word of order, our cry of reunion and emancipation, + be now and ever, VIVA LA REPUBLICA!</p> + + <p>"This incessant cry, which not even French slaves can dispute, + shall prepare us to administer the bequest of our martyrs, shall + be consoling dew to the immaculate and holy bones that repose, + sublime holocaust of faith and of love, near our walls, and make + doubly divine the Eternal City. In this cry we shall find + ourselves always brothers, and we shall conquer. Viva Rome, the + capital of Italy! Viva the Italy of the people! Viva the Roman + Republic!</p> + + <p class="author close">"A ROMAN.</p> + + <p class="note close">"Rome, July 4, 1849."</p> +<p> </p> + + <p>Yes; July 4th, the day so joyously celebrated in our land, is + that of the entrance of the French into Rome!</p> + + <p>I know not whether the Romans will follow out this programme + with constancy, as the sterner Milanese have done. If they can, + it will draw upon them endless persecutions, countless + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page420" id="page420"></a>[pg + 420]</span> exactions, but at once educate and prove them worthy + of a nobler life.</p> + + <p>Yesterday I went over the scene of conflict. It was fearful + even to <i>see</i> the Casinos Quattro Venti and Vascello, where + the French and Romans had been several days so near one another, + all shattered to pieces, with fragments of rich stucco and + painting still sticking to rafters between the great holes made + by the cannonade, and think that men had stayed and fought in + them when only a mass of ruins. The French, indeed, were entirely + sheltered the last days; to my unpractised eyes, the extent and + thoroughness of their works seemed miraculous, and gave me the + first clear idea of the incompetency of the Italians to resist + organized armies. I saw their commanders had not even known + enough of the art of war to understand how the French were + conducting the siege. It is true, their resources were at any + rate inadequate to resistance; only continual sorties would have + arrested the progress of the foe, and to make them and man the + wall their forces were inadequate. I was struck more than ever by + the heroic valor of <i>our</i> people,—let me so call them + now as ever; for go where I may, a large part of my heart will + ever remain in Italy. I hope her children will always acknowledge + me as a sister, though I drew not my first breath here. A + Contadini showed me where thirty-seven braves are buried beneath + a heap of wall that fell upon them in the shock of one cannonade. + A marble nymph, with broken arm, looked sadly that way from her + sun-dried fountain; some roses were blooming still, some red + oleanders, amid the ruin. The sun was casting its last light on + the mountains on the tranquil, sad Campagna, that sees one leaf + more turned in the book of woe. This was in the Vascello. I then + entered the French ground, all mapped and hollowed like a + honeycomb. A pair of skeleton legs protruded from a bank of one + barricade; lower, a dog had scratched away its light covering of + earth from the body of a man, and discovered it lying face upward + all dressed; the dog stood gazing on it with an air of stupid + amazement. I thought at that moment, recalling some letters + received: "O men and women of America, spared these frightful + sights, <span class="pagenum"><a name="page421" id= + "page421"></a>[pg 421]</span> these sudden wrecks of every hope, + what angel of heaven do you suppose has time to listen to your + tales of morbid woe? If any find leisure to work for men to-day, + think you not they have enough to do to care for the victims + here?"</p> + + <p>I see you have meetings, where you speak of the Italians, the + Hungarians. I pray you <i>do something</i>; let it not end in a + mere cry of sentiment. That is better than to sneer at all that + is liberal, like the English,—than to talk of the holy + victims of patriotism as "anarchists" and "brigands"; but it is + not enough. It ought not to content your consciences. Do you owe + no tithe to Heaven for the privileges it has showered on you, for + whose achievement so many here suffer and perish daily? Deserve + to retain them, by helping your fellow-men to acquire them. Our + government must abstain from interference, but private action is + practicable, is due. For Italy, it is in this moment too late; + but all that helps Hungary helps her also,—helps all who + wish the freedom of men from an hereditary yoke now become + intolerable. Send money, send cheer,—acknowledge as the + legitimate leaders and rulers those men who represent the people, + who understand their wants, who are ready to die or to live for + their good. Kossuth I know not, but his people recognize him; + Manin I know not, but with what firm nobleness, what perserving + virtue, he has acted for Venice! Mazzini I know, the man and his + acts, great, pure, and constant,—a man to whom only the + next age can do justice, as it reaps the harvest of the seed he + has sown in this. Friends, countrymen, and lovers of virtue, + lovers of freedom, lovers of truth! be on the alert; rest not + supine in your easier lives, but remember</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"Mankind is one,</p> + + <p>And beats with one great heart."</p> + </div> + </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="page423" id= + "page423"></a>[pg 423]</span> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + <h2>PART III.</h2> + + <h2>LETTERS FROM ABROAD TO FRIENDS AT HOME.</h2><span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page425" id="page425"></a>[pg 425]</span> +<p> </p> + <h3>LETTERS.</h3> + + <h4>FROM A LETTER TO —— ——.</h4> + + <p class="author">Bellagio, Lake of Como, August, 1847.</p> + + <p>You do not deceive yourself surely about religion, in so far + as that there is a deep meaning in those pangs of our fate which, + if we live by faith, will become our most precious possession. + "Live for thy faith and thou shalt yet behold it living," is with + me, as it hath been, a maxim.</p> + + <p>Wherever I turn, I see still the same dark clouds, with + occasional gleams of light. In this Europe how much suffocated + life!—a sort of woe much less seen with us. I know many of + the noble exiles, pining for their natural sphere; many of them + seek in Jesus the guide and friend, as you do. For me, it is my + nature to wish to go straight to the Creative Spirit, and I can + fully appreciate what you say of the need of our happiness + depending on no human being. Can you really have attained such + wisdom? Your letter seemed to me very modest and pure, and I + trust in Heaven all may be solid.</p> + + <p>I am everywhere well received, and high and low take pleasure + in smoothing my path. I love much the Italians. The lower classes + have the vices induced by long subjection to tyranny; but also a + winning sweetness, a ready and discriminating love for the + beautiful, and a delicacy in the sympathies, the absence of which + always made me sick in our own country. Here, at least, one does + not suffer from obtuseness or indifference. They take pleasure, + too, in acts of kindness; they are bountiful, but it is useless + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page426" id="page426"></a>[pg + 426]</span> to hope the least honor in affairs of business. I + cannot persuade those who serve me, however attached, that they + should not deceive me, and plunder me. They think that is part of + their duty towards a foreigner. This is troublesome no less than + disagreeable; it is absolutely necessary to be always on the + watch against being cheated.</p> + <hr class="short" /> + + <h4>EXTRACT FROM A LETTER.</h4> + + <p>One loses sight of all dabbling and pretension when seated at + the feet of dead Rome,—Rome so grand and beautiful upon her + bier. Art is dead here; the few sparkles that sometimes break + through the embers cannot make a flame; but the relics of the + past are great enough, over-great; we should do nothing but sit, + and weep, and worship.</p> + + <p>In Rome, one has all the free feeling of the country; the city + is so interwoven with vineyards and gardens, such delightful + walks in the villas, such ceaseless music of the fountains, and + from every high point the Campagna and Tiber seem so near.</p> + + <p>Full of enchantment has been my summer, passed wholly among + Italians, in places where no foreigner goes, amid the snowy + peaks, in the exquisite valleys of the Abruzzi. I have seen a + thousand landscapes, any one of which might employ the thoughts + of the painter for years. Not without reason the people dream + that, at the death of a saint, columns of light are seen to hover + on those mountains. They take, at sunset, the same rose-hues as + the Alps. The torrents are magnificent. I knew some noblemen, + with baronial castles nestled in the hills and slopes, rich in + the artistic treasures of centuries. They liked me, and showed me + the hidden beauties of Roman remains.</p> + <hr class="short" /> + + <p class="author">Rome, April, 1848.</p> + + <p>The gods themselves walk on earth, here in the Italian spring. + Day after day of sunny weather lights up the flowery woods and + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page427" id="page427"></a>[pg + 427]</span> Arcadian glades. The fountains, hateful during the + endless rains, charm again. At Castle Turano I found heaths, as + large as our pear-trees, in full flower. Such wealth of beauty is + irresistible, but ah! the drama of my life is very strange: the + ship plunges deeper as it rises higher. You would be amazed, + could you know how different is my present phase of life from + that in which you knew me; but you would love me no less; it is + tire same planet that shows such different climes.</p> + <hr class="short" /> + + <h4>TO HER MOTHER.</h4> + + <p class="author">Rome, November 16, 1848.</p> + + <p>I am again in Rome, situated for the first time entirely to my + mind. I have only one room, but large; and everything about the + bed so gracefully and adroitly disposed that it makes a beautiful + parlor,—and of course I pay much less. I have the sun all + day, and an excellent chimney. It is very high, and has pure air + and the most beautiful view all around imaginable. Add, that I am + with the dearest, delightful old couple one can + imagine,—quick, prompt, and kind, sensible and contented. + Having no children, they like to regard me and the Prussian + sculptor, my neighbor, as such; yet are too delicate and too busy + ever to intrude. In the attic dwells a priest, who insists on + making my fire when Antonia is away. To be sure, he pays himself + for his trouble by asking a great many questions....</p> + + <p>You cannot conceive the enchantment of this place. So much I + suffered here last January and February, I thought myself a + little weaned; but returning, my heart swelled even to tears with + the cry of the poet,</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>"O Rome, <i>my</i> country, city of the soul!"</p> + </div> + </div> + + <p>Those have not lived who have not seen Rome. Warned, however, + by the last winter, I dared not rent my lodgings for the year. I + hope I am acclimated. I have been through what is called the + grape-cure, much more charming, certainly, than the water-cure. + At present I am very well, but, alas! because I have <span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page428" id="page428"></a>[pg 428]</span> gone + to bed early, and done very little. I do not know if I can + maintain any labor. As to my life, I think it is not the will of + Heaven it should terminate very soon. I have had another strange + escape.</p> + + <p>I had taken passage in the diligence to come to Rome; two + rivers were to be passed, the Turano and the Tiber, but passed by + good bridges, and a road excellent when not broken unexpectedly + by torrents from the mountains. The diligence sets out between + three and four in the morning, long before light. The director + sent me word that the Marchioness Crispoldi had taken for herself + and family a coach extraordinary, which would start two hours + later, and that I could have a place in that if I liked; so I + accepted. The weather had been beautiful, but on the eve of the + day fixed for my departure, the wind rose, and the rain fell in + torrents. I observed that the river, which passed my window, was + much swollen, and rushed with great violence. In the night I + heard its voice still stronger, and felt glad I had not to set + out in the dark. I rose at twilight and was expecting my + carriage, and wondering at its delay, when I heard that the great + diligence, several miles below, had been seized by a torrent; the + horses were up to their necks in water, before any one dreamed of + danger. The postilion called on all the saints, and threw himself + into the water. Tire door of the diligence could not be opened, + and tire passengers forced themselves, one after another, into + the cold water; it was dark too. Had I been there, I had fared + ill. A pair of strong men were ill after it, though all escaped + with life.</p> + + <p>For several days there was no going to Rome; but at last we + set forth in two great diligences, with all the horses of the + route. For many miles the mountains and ravines were covered with + snow; I seemed to have returned to my own country and climate. + Few miles were passed before the conductor injured his leg under + the wheel, and I had the pain of seeing him suffer all the way, + while "Blood of Jesus!" and "Souls in Purgatory!" was the mildest + beginning of an answer to the jeers of the postilions upon his + paleness. We stopped at a miserable osteria, in whose cellar we + found a magnificent relic of Cyclopean architecture,—as + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page429" id="page429"></a>[pg + 429]</span> indeed in Italy one is paid at every step for + discomfort and danger, by some precious subject of thought. We + proceeded very slowly, and reached just at night a solitary + little inn which marks the site of the ancient home of the Sabine + virgins, snatched away to become the mothers of Rome. We were + there saluted with, the news that the Tiber also had overflowed + its banks, and it was very doubtful if we could pass. But what + else to do? There were no accommodations in the house for thirty + people, or even for three; and to sleep in the carriages, in that + wet air of the marshes, was a more certain danger than to attempt + the passage. So we set forth; the moon, almost at the full, + smiling sadly on the ancient grandeurs half draped in mist, and + anon drawing over her face a thin white veil. As we approached + the Tiber, the towers and domes of Rome could be seen, like a + cloud lying low on the horizon. The road and the meadows, alike + under water, Jay between us and it, one sheet of silver. The + horses entered; they behaved nobly. We proceeded, every moment + uncertain if the water would not become deep; but the scene was + beautiful, and I enjoyed it highly. I have never yet felt afraid, + when really in the presence of danger, though sometimes in its + apprehension.</p> + + <p>At last we entered the gate; the diligence stopping to be + examined, I walked to the gate of Villa Ludovisi, and saw its + rich shrubberies of myrtle, so pale and eloquent in the + moonlight....</p> + + <p>My dear friend, Madame Arconati, has shown me generous love; a + Contadina, whom I have known this summer, hardly less. Every + Sunday she came in her holiday dress, a beautiful corset of red + silk, richly embroidered, rich petticoat, nice shoes and + stockings, and handsome coral necklace, on one arm an immense + basket of grapes, on the other a pair of live chickens to be + eaten by me for her sake ("<i>per amore mio</i>"), and wanted no + present, no reward: it was, as she said, "for the honor and + pleasure of her acquaintance." The old father of the family never + met me but he took off his hat, and said, "Madame, it is to me a + consolation to see you." Are there not sweet flowers of affection + in life, glorious moments, great thoughts? Why must they be so + dearly paid for?</p> + + <p>Many Americans have shown me great and thoughtful kindness + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page430" id="page430"></a>[pg + 430]</span> and none more so than William Story and his wife. + They are now in Florence, but may return. I do not know whether I + shall stay here or not: I shall be guided much by the state of my + health.</p> + + <p>All is quieted now in Rome. Late at night the Pope had to + yield, but not till the door of his palace was half burned, and + his confessor killed. This man, Parma, provoked his fate by + firing on the people from a window. It seems the Pope never gave + order to fire; his guard acted from a sudden impulse of their + own. The new ministry chosen are little inclined to accept. It is + almost impossible for any one to act, unless the Pope is stripped + of his temporal power, and the hour for that is not yet quite + ripe; though they talk more and more of proclaiming the Republic, + and even of calling to Rome my friend Mazzini.</p> + + <p>If I came home at this moment, I should feel as if forced to + leave my own house, my own people, and the hour which I had + always longed for. If I do come in this way, all I can promise is + to plague other people as little as possible. My own plans and + desires will be postponed to another world.</p> + + <p>Do not feel anxious about me. Some higher Power leads me + through strange, dark, thorny paths, broken at times by glades + opening down into prospects of sunny beauty, into which I am not + permitted to enter. If God disposes for us, it is not for + nothing. This I can say: my heart is in some respects better, it + is kinder, and more humble. Also, my mental acquisitions have + certainly been great, however inadequate to my desires.</p> + <hr class="short" /> + + <h4>TO HER BROTHER, K.F. FULLER.</h4> + + <p class="author">Rome, January 19, 1849.</p> + + <p>MY DEAR RICHARD,—With my window open, looking out upon + St. Peter's, and the glorious Italian sun pouring in, I was just + thinking of you; I was just thinking how I wished you were here, + that we might walk forth and talk together under the influence + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page431" id="page431"></a>[pg + 431]</span> of these magnificent objects. I was thinking of the + proclamation of the Constitutional Assembly here, a measure + carried by courageous youth in the face of age, sustained by the + prejudices of many years, the ignorance of the people, and all + the wealth of the country; yet courageous youth faces not only + these, but the most threatening aspect of foreign powers, and + dares a future of blood and exile to achieve privileges which are + our American common birthright. I thought of the great interests + which may in our country be sustained without obstacle by every + able man,—interests of humanity, interests of God.</p> + + <p>I thought of the new prospects of wealth opened to our + countrymen by the acquisition of New Mexico and + California,—the vast prospects of our country every way, so + that it is itself a vast blessing to be born an American; and I + thought how impossible it is that one like you, of so strong and + generous a nature, should, if he can but patiently persevere, be + defrauded of a rich, manifold, powerful life.</p> + + <p class="author">Thursday eve, January 25.</p> + + <p>This has been a most beautiful day, and I have taken a long + walk out of town. How much I should like sometimes to walk with + you again! I went to the church of St. Lorenzo, one of the most + ancient in Rome, rich in early mosaics, also with spoils from the + temples, marbles, ancient sarcophagi with fine bassirilievi, and + magnificent columns. There is a little of everything, but the + medley is harmonized by the action of time, and the sensation + induced is that of repose. It has the public cemetery, and there + lie the bones of many poor; the rich and noble lie in lead + coffins in the church vaults of Rome, but St. Lorenzo loved the + poor. When his tormentors insisted on knowing where he had hid + his riches,—"There," he said, pointing to the crowd of + wretches who hovered near his bed, compelled to see the tyrants + of the earth hew down the tree that had nourished and sheltered + them.</p> + + <p>Amid the crowd of inexpressive epitaphs, one touched me, + erected by a son to his father. "He was," says the son, "an angel + of prosperity, seeking our good in distant countries with + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page432" id="page432"></a>[pg + 432]</span> unremitting toll and pain. We owe him all. For his + death it is my only consolation that in life I never left his + side."</p> + + <p>Returning, I passed the Pretorian Camp, the Campus Salisetus, + where vestals that had broken their vows were buried alive in the + city whose founder was born from a similar event. Such are the + usual, the frightful inconsistencies of mankind.</p> + + <p>From my windows I see the Barberini palace; in its chambers + are the pictures of the Cenci, and the Galatea, so beautifully + described by Goethe; in the gardens are the remains of the tomb + of Servius Tullius.</p> + + <p>Yesterday as I went forth I saw the house where Keats lived in + Rome, and where he died; I saw the Casino of Raphael. Returning, + I passed the villa where Goethe lived when in Rome: afterwards, + the houses of Claude and Poussin.</p> + + <p>Ah what human companionship here! how everything speaks! I + live myself in the apartment described in Andersen's + "Improvvisatore," which get you, and read a scene of the + childhood of Antonio. I have the room, I suppose, indicated as + being occupied by the Danish sculptor.</p> + <hr class="short" /> + + <h4>TO THE SAME.</h4> + + <p class="author">Rome, March 17, 1849.</p> + + <p>I take occasion to enclose this seal, as a little birthday + present, for I think you will be twenty-five in May. I have used + it a great deal; the design is graceful and expressive,—the + stone of some little value.</p> + + <p>I live with the severest economy consistent with my health. I + could not live for less anywhere. I have renounced much, have + suffered more. I trust I shall not find it impossible to + accomplish, at least one of my designs. This is, to see the end + of the political struggle in Italy, and write its history. I + think it will come to its crisis within, this year. But to + complete my work as I have begun, I must watch it to the end.</p> + + <p>This work, if I can accomplish it, will be a worthy chapter in + the <span class="pagenum"><a name="page433" id="page433"></a>[pg + 433]</span> history of the world; and if written with the spirit + which breathes through me, and with sufficient energy and + calmness to execute well the details, would be what the motto on + my ring indicates,—"<i>a possession for ever, for + man</i>."</p> + + <p>It ought to be profitable to me pecuniarily; but in these + respects Fate runs so uniformly counter to me, that I dare not + expect ever to be free from perplexity and uncongenial labor. + Still, these will never more be so hard to me, if I shall have + done something good, which may survive my troubled existence. Yet + it would be like the rest, if by ill health, want of means, or + being driven prematurely from the field of observation, this hope + also should be blighted. I am prepared to have it so. Only my + efforts tend to the accomplishment of my object; and should they + not be baffled, you will not see me before the summer of + 1850.</p> + + <p>Meantime, let the future be what it may, I live as well as I + can in the present.</p> + + <p>Farewell, my dear Richard; that you may lead a peaceful, + aspiring, and generous life was ever, and must ever be, the + prayer from the soul of your sister</p> + + <p class="author">MARGARET.</p> + <hr class="short" /> + + <h4>UNDAUNTED ROME.</h4> + + <p class="author">Rome, May 6, 1849.</p> + + <p>I write you from barricaded Rome. The "Mother of Nations" is + now at bay against them all. Rome was suffering before. The + misfortunes of other regions of Italy, the defeat at Novara, + preconcerted in hope to strike the last blow at Italian + independence, the surrender and painful condition of Genoa, the + money-difficulties,—insuperable unless the government could + secure confidence abroad as well as at home,—prevented her + people from finding that foothold for which they were ready.</p> + + <p>The vacillations of France agitated them; still they could not + seriously believe she would ever act the part she has. We must + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page434" id="page434"></a>[pg + 434]</span> say France, because, though many honorable men have + washed their hands of all share in the perfidy, the Assembly + voted funds to sustain the expedition to Civita Vecchia; and the + nation, the army, have remained quiescent. No one was, no one + could be, deceived as to the scope of this expedition. It was + intended to restore the Pope to the temporal sovereignty, from + which the people, by the use of suffrage, had deposed him. No + doubt the French, in case of success, proposed to temper the + triumph of Austria and Naples, and stipulate for conditions that + might soothe the Romans and make their act less odious. They were + probably deceived, also, by the representations of + Gaëta, and believed that a large party, which had been + intimidated by the republicans, would declare in favor of the + Pope when they found themselves likely to be sustained. But this + last pretext can in noway avail them. They landed at Civita + Vecchia, and no one declared for the Pope. They marched on Rome. + Placards were affixed within the walls by hands unknown, calling + upon the Papal party to rise within the town. Not a soul stirred. + The French had no excuse left for pretending to believe that the + present government was not entirely acceptable to the people. + Notwithstanding, they assail the gates; they fire upon St. + Peter's, and their balls pierce the Vatican. They were repulsed, + as they deserved, retired in quick and shameful defeat, as surely + the brave French soldiery could not, if they had not been + demoralized by the sense of what an infamous course they were + pursuing.</p> + + <p>France, eager to destroy the last hope of Italian + emancipation,—France, the alguazil of Austria, the soldiers + of republican France, firing upon republican Rome! If there be + angel as well as demon powers that interfere in the affairs of + men, those bullets could scarcely fail to be turned back against + their own breasts. Yet Roman blood has flowed also; I saw how it + stained the walls of the Vatican Gardens on the 30th of + April—the first anniversary of the appearance of Pius IX.'s + too famous encyclic letter. Shall he, shall any Pope, ever again + walk peacefully in these gardens? It seems impossible! The + temporal sovereignty of the Popes is virtually destroyed by their + shameless, merciless measures taken to restore it. The spiritual + dominion ultimately <span class="pagenum"><a name="page435" id= + "page435"></a>[pg 435]</span> falls, too, into irrevocable ruin. + What may be the issue at this moment, we cannot guess. The French + have retired to Civita Vecchia, but whether to reëmbark + or to await reinforcements, we know not. The Neapolitan force has + halted within a few miles of the walls; it is not large, and they + are undoubtedly surprised at the discomfiture of the French. + Perhaps they wait for the Austrians, but we do not yet hear that + these have entered the Romagna. Meanwhile, Rome is strongly + barricaded, and, though she cannot stand always against a world + in arms, she means at least to do so as long as possible. Mazzini + is at her head; she has now a guide "who understands his faith," + and all there is of a noble spirit will show itself. We all feel + very sad, because the idea of bombs, barbarously thrown in, and + street-fights in Rome, is peculiarly dreadful. Apart from all the + blood and anguish inevitable at such times, the glories of Art + may perish, and mankind be forever despoiled of the most + beautiful inheritance. Yet I would defend Rome to the last + moment. She must not be false to the higher hope that has dawned + upon her. She must not fall back again into servility and + corruption.</p> + + <p>And no one is willing. The interference of the French has + roused the weakest to resistance. "From the Austrians, from the + Neapolitans," they cried, "we expected this; but from the + French—it is too infamous; it cannot be borne;" and they + all ran to arms and fought nobly.</p> + + <p>The Americans here are not in a pleasant situation. Mr. Cass, + the Chargé of the United States, stays here without + recognizing the government. Of course, he holds no position at + the present moment that can enable him to act for us. Beside, it + gives us pain that our country, whose policy it justly is to + avoid armed interference with the affairs of Europe, should not + use a moral influence. Rome has, as we did, thrown off a + government no longer tolerable; she has made use of the suffrage + to form another; she stands on the same basis as ourselves. Mr. + Rush did us great honor by his ready recognition of a principle + as represented by the French Provisional Government; had Mr. Cass + been empowered to do the same, our country would have acted + nobly, and all that is most truly American in America + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page436" id="page436"></a>[pg + 436]</span> would have spoken to sustain the sickened hopes of + European democracy. But of this more when I write next. Who knows + what I may have to tell another week?</p> + <hr class="short" /> + + <h4>TO HER BROTHER, R.B. FULLER.</h4> + + <p class="author">Rome, May 22, 1849.</p> + + <p>I do not write to Eugene yet, because around me is such + excitement I cannot settle my mind enough to write a letter good + for anything. The Neapolitans have been driven back; but the + French, seem to be amusing us with a pretence of treaties, while + waiting for the Austrians to come up. The Austrians cannot, I + suppose, be more than three days' march from us. I feel but + little about myself. Such thoughts are merged in indignation, and + in the fears I have that Rome may be bombarded. It seems + incredible that any nation should be willing to incur the infamy + of such an act,—an act that may rob posterity of a most + precious part of its inheritance;—only so many incredible + things have happened of late. I am with William Story, his wife + and uncle. Very kind friends they have been in this strait. They + are going away, so soon as they can find horses,—going into + Germany. I remain alone in the house, under our flag, almost the + only American except the Consul and Ambassador. But Mr. Cass, the + Envoy, has offered to do anything for me, and I feel at liberty + to call on him if I please.</p> + + <p>But enough of this. Let us implore of fate another good + meeting, full and free, whether long or short. Love to dearest + mother, Arthur, Ellen, Lloyd. Say to all, that, should any + accident possible to these troubled times transfer me to another + scene of existence, they need not regret it. There must be better + worlds than this, where innocent blood is not ruthlessly shed, + where treason does not so easily triumph, where the greatest and + best are not crucified. I do not say this in apprehension, but in + case of accident, you might be glad to keep this last word from + your sister</p> + + <p class="author">MARGARET.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page437" id= + "page437"></a>[pg 437]</span> + +<hr class="short" /> + + <h4>TO R.W. EMERSON.</h4> + + <p class="author">Rome, June 10, 1849.</p> + + <p>I received your letter amid the round of cannonade and + musketry. It was a terrible battle fought here from the first to + the last light of day. I could see all its progress from my + balcony. The Italians fought like lions. It is a truly heroic + spirit that animates them. They make a stand here for honor and + their rights, with little ground for hope that they can resist, + now they are betrayed by France.</p> + + <p>Since the 30th of April, I go almost daily to the hospitals, + and though I have suffered, for I had no idea before how terrible + gun-shot wounds and wound-fevers are, yet I have taken pleasure, + and great pleasure, in being with the men. There is scarcely one + who is not moved by a noble spirit. Many, especially among the + Lombards, are the flower of the Italian youth. When they begin to + get better, I carry them books and flowers; they read, and we + talk.</p> + + <p>The palace of the Pope, on the Quirinal, is now used for + convalescents. In those beautiful gardens I walk with them, one + with his sling, another with his crutch. The gardener plays off + all his water-works for the defenders of the country, and gathers + flowers for me, their friend.</p> + + <p>A day or two since, we sat in the Pope's little pavilion, + where he used to give private audience. The sun was going + gloriously down over Monte Mario, where gleamed the white tents + of the French light-horse among the trees. The cannonade was + heard at intervals. Two bright-eyed boys sat at our feet, and + gathered up eagerly every word said by the heroes of the day. It + was a beautiful hour, stolen from the midst of ruin and sorrow, + and tales were told as full of grace and pathos as in the gardens + of Boccaccio, only in a very different spirit,—with noble + hope for man, and reverence for woman.</p><span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page438" id="page438"></a>[pg 438]</span> + + <p>The young ladies of the family, very young girls, were filled + with enthusiasm for the suffering, wounded patriots, and they + wished to go to the hospital, to give their services. Excepting + the three superintendents, none but married ladies were permitted + to serve there, but their services were accepted. Their governess + then wished to go too, and, as she could speak several languages, + she was admitted to the rooms of the wounded soldiers, to + interpret for them, as the nurses knew nothing but Italian, and + many of these poor men were suffering because they could not make + their wishes known. Some are French, some Germans, many Poles. + Indeed, I am afraid it is too true that there were comparatively + few Romans among them. This young lady passed several nights + there.</p> + + <p>Should I never return, and sometimes I despair of doing so, it + seems so far off,—so difficult, I am caught in such a net + of ties here,—if ever you know of my life here, I think you + will only wonder at the constancy with which I have sustained + myself,—the degree of profit to which, amid great + difficulties, I have put the time,—at least in the way of + observation. Meanwhile, love me all you can. Let me feel that, + amid the fearful agitations of the world, there are pure hands, + with healthful, even pulse, stretched out toward me, if I claim + their grasp.</p> + + <p>I feel profoundly for Mazzini. At moments I am tempted to say, + "Cursed with every granted prayer,"—so cunning is the + demon. Mazzini has become the inspiring soul of his people. He + saw Rome, to which all his hopes through life tended, for the + first time as a Roman citizen, and to become in a few days its + ruler. He has animated, he sustains her to a glorious effort, + which, if it fails this time, will not in the age. His country + will be free. Yet to me it would be so dreadful to cause all this + bloodshed,—to dig the graves of such martyrs!</p> + + <p>Then, Rome is being destroyed; her glorious oaks,—her + villas, haunts of sacred beauty, that seemed the possession of + the world for ever,—the villa of Raphael, the villa of + Albani, home of Winckelmann and the best expression of the ideal + of modern Rome, and so many other sanctuaries of + beauty,—all must perish, <span class="pagenum"><a name= + "page439" id="page439"></a>[pg 439]</span> lest a foe should + level his musket from their shelter. I could not, could not!</p> + + <p>I know not, dear friend, whether I shall ever get home across + that great ocean, but here in Rome I shall no longer wish to + live.</p> + + <p>O Rome, <i>my</i> country! could I imagine that the triumph of + what I held dear was to heap such desolation on thy head!</p> + + <p>Speaking of the republic, you say, "Do you not wish Italy had + a great man?" Mazzini is a great man. In mind, a great, poetic + statesman; in heart, a lover; in action, decisive and full of + resource as Cæsar. Dearly I love Mazzini. He came in, + just as I had finished the first letter to you. His soft, radiant + look makes melancholy music in my soul; it consecrates my present + life, that, like the Magdalen, I may, at the important hour, shed + all the consecrated ointment on his head. There is one, Mazzini, + who understands thee well,—who knew thee no less when an + object of popular fear than now of idolatry,—and who, if + the pen be not held too feebly, will help posterity to know thee + too!</p> + <hr class="short" /> + + <h4>TO HER SISTER, MRS. E.K. CHANNING.</h4> + + <p class="author">Rome, June 19, 1849.</p> + + <p>As was Eve, at first, I suppose every mother is delighted by + the birth of a man-child. There is a hope that he will conquer + more ill, and effect more good, than is expected from girls. This + prejudice in favor of man does not seem to be destroyed by his + shortcomings for ages. Still, each mother hopes to find in hers + an Emanuel. I should like very much to see your children, but + hardly realize I ever shall. The journey home seems so long, so + difficult, so expensive. I should really like to lie down here, + and sleep my way into another sphere of existence, if I could + take with me one or two that love and need me, and was sure of a + good haven for them on that other side.</p> + + <p>The world seems to go so strangely wrong! The bad side + triumphs; the blood and tears of the generous flow in vain. I + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page440" id="page440"></a>[pg + 440]</span> assist at many saddest scenes, and suffer for those + whom I knew not before. Those whom I knew and loved,—who, + if they had triumphed, would have opened for me an easier, + broader, higher-mounting road,—are everyday more and more + involved in earthly ruin. Eternity is with us, but there is much + darkness and bitterness in this portion of it. A baleful star + rose on my birth, and its hostility, I fear, will never be + disarmed while I walk below.</p> + <hr class="short" /> + + <h4>TO W.H. CHANNING.</h4> + + <p class="author">July, 1849.</p> + + <p>I cannot tell you what I endured in leaving Rome, abandoning + the wounded soldiers,—knowing that there is no provision + made for them, when they rise from the beds where they have been + thrown by a noble courage, and have suffered with a noble + patience. Some of the poorer men, who rise bereft even of the + right arm,—one having lost both the right arm and the right + leg,—I could have provided for with a small sum. Could I + have sold my hair, or blood from my arm, I would have done it. + Had any of the rich Americans remained in Rome, they would have + given it to me; they helped nobly at first, in the service of the + hospitals, when there was far less need; but they had all gone. + What would I have given could I but have spoken to one of the + Lawrences, or the Phillipses! They could and would have saved + this misery. These poor men are left helpless in the power of a + mean and vindictive foe. You felt so oppressed in the Slave + States; imagine what I felt at seeing all the noblest youth, all + the genius of this dear land, again enslaved!</p> + <hr class="short" /> + + <h4>TO HER MOTHER.</h4> + + <p class="author">Florence, February 6, 1850.</p> + + <p>Dearest Mother,—After receiving your letter of October, + I answered immediately; but as Richard mentions, in one dated + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page441" id="page441"></a>[pg + 441]</span> December 4th, that you have not heard, I am afraid, + by some post-office mistake, it went into the mail-bag of some + sail-ship, instead of steamer, so you were very long without + hearing. I regret it the more, as I wanted so much to respond + fully to your letter,—so lovely, so generous, and which, of + all your acts of love, was perhaps the one most needed by me, and + which has touched me the most deeply.</p> + + <p>I gave you in that a flattering picture of our life. And those + pleasant days lasted till the middle of December; but then came + on a cold unknown to Italy, and which has lasted ever since. As + the apartments were not prepared for such weather, we suffered a + good deal. Besides, both Ossoli and myself were taken ill at + New-Year's time, and were not quite well again, all January: now + we are quite well. The weather begins to soften, though still + cloudy, damp, and chilly, so that poor baby can go out very + little; on that account he does not grow so fast, and gets + troublesome by evening, as he tires of being shut up in two or + three little rooms, where he has examined every object hundreds + of times. He is always pointing to the door. He suffers much with + chilblains, as do other children here; however, he is, with that + exception, in the best health, and is a great part of the time + very gay, laughing and dancing in the nurse-maid's arms, and + trying to sing and drum, in imitation of the bands, which play a + great deal in the Piazza.</p> + + <p>Nothing special has happened to me. The uninhabitableness of + the rooms where I had expected to write, and the need of using + our little dining-room, the only one in which is a stove, for + dressing baby, taking care of him, eating, and receiving visits + and messages, have prevented my writing for six or seven weeks + past. In the evening, when baby went to bed, about eight, I began + to have time, but was generally too tired to do anything but + read. The four hours, however, from nine till one, beside the + bright little fire, have been very pleasant. I have thought of + you a great deal, remembering how you suffer from cold in the + winter, and hope you are in a warm, comfortable house, have + pleasant books to read, and some pleasant friends to see. One + does not want many; only a few bright faces to look in now and + then, and <span class="pagenum"><a name="page442" id= + "page442"></a>[pg 442]</span> help thaw the ice with little rills + of genial conversation. I have fewer of these than at + Rome,—but still several.</p> + <hr class="short" /> + + <p>Horace Sumner, youngest son of father's friend, Mr. Charles P. + Sumner, lives near us, and comes every evening to read a little + while with Ossoli. He has solid good in his heart and mind. We + have a true regard for him, and he has shown true and steadfast + sympathy for us; when I am ill or in a hurry, he helps me like a + brother. Ossoli and Sumner exchange some instruction in English + and Italian.</p> + <hr /> + <p>My sister's last letter from Europe is full of solemnity, and + evidences her clear conviction of the perils of the voyage across + the treacherous ocean. It is a leave-taking, dearly cherished now + by the mother to whom it was addressed, the kindred of whom she + speaks, and by those other kindred,—those who in spirit + felt near to and loved her. It is as follows:—</p> + + <p class="author">Florence, May 14, 1850.</p> + + <p>"Dear Mother,—I will believe I shall be welcome with my + treasures,—my husband and child. For me, I long so much to + see you! Should anything hinder our meeting upon earth, think of + your daughter, as one who always wished, at least, to do her + duty, and who always cherished you, according as her mind opened + to discover excellence.</p> + + <p>"Give dear love, too, to my brothers; and first to my eldest, + faithful friend, Eugene; a sister's love to Ellen; love to my + kind good aunts, and to my dear cousin E. God bless them!</p> + + <p>"I hope we shall be able to pass some time together yet, in + this world. But if God decrees otherwise,—here and + HEREAFTER, my dearest mother,</p> + + <p class="center close">"Your loving child,</p> + + <p class="author close">"MARGARET."</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page443" id= + "page443"></a>[pg 443]</span> + <p> </p> + <p> </p> + <h2>PART IV.</h2> + + <h2>HOMEWARD VOYAGE, AND MEMORIALS.</h2> + <p> </p> + <p>It seems proper that some account of the sad close of Madame + Ossoli's earthly journeyings should be embodied in this volume + recording her travels. But a brother's hand trembles even now and + <i>cannot</i> write it. Noble, heroic, unselfish, + <i>Christian</i> was that death, even as had been her life; but + its outward circumstances were too painful for my pen to + describe. Nor needs it,—for a scene like that must have + impressed itself indelibly on those who witnessed it, and + accurate and vivid have been their narratives. The Memoirs of my + sister contain a most faithful description; but as they are + accessible to all, and I trust will be read by all who have read + this volume, I have chosen rather to give the accounts somewhat + condensed which appeared in the New York Tribune at the time of + the calamity. The first is from the pen of Bayard Taylor, who + visited the scene on the day succeeding the wreck, and describes + the appearance of the shore and the remains of the vessel. This + is followed by the narrative of Mrs. Hasty, wife of the captain, + herself a participant in the scene, and so overwhelmed by grief + at her husband's loss, and that of friends she had learned so + much to value, that she has since faded from this life. A true + and noble woman, her account deserves to be remembered. The third + article is from the pen of Horace Greeley, my sister's + ever-valued friend. Several poems, suggested by this scene, + written by those in the Old World and New who loved and honored + Madame Ossoli, are also inserted here. The respect they testify + for the departed is soothing to the hearts of kindred, and to the + many who love and cherish the memory of Margaret + Fuller.—ED.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page444" id= + "page444"></a>[pg 444]</span> + <p> </p> + <h3>LETTER OF BAYARD TAYLOR</h3> + + <p class="author">Fire Island, Tuesday, July 23.</p> + + <p>To the Editors of the Tribune:—</p> + + <p>I reached the house of Mr. Smith Oakes, about one mile from + the spot where the Elizabeth was wrecked, at three o'clock this + morning. The boat in which I set out last night from Babylon, to + cross the bay, was seven hours making the passage. On landing + among the sand-hills, Mr. Oakes admitted me into his house, and + gave me a place of rest for the remaining two or three hours of + the night.</p> + + <p>This morning I visited the wreck, traversed the beach for some + extent on both sides, and collected all the particulars that are + now likely to be obtained, relative to the closing scenes of this + terrible disaster. The sand is strewn for a distance of three or + four miles with fragments of planks, spars, boxes, and the + merchandise with which the vessel was laden. With the exception + of a piece of her broadside, which floated to the shore intact, + all the timbers have been so chopped and broken by the sea, that + scarcely a stick of ten feet in length can be found. In front of + the wreck these fragments are piled up along high-water mark to + the height of several feet, while farther in among the sand-hills + are scattered casks of almonds stove in, and their contents mixed + with the sand, sacks of juniper-berries, oil-flasks, &c. + About half the hull remains under water, not more than fifty + yards from the shore. The spars and rigging belonging to the + foremast, with part of the mast itself, are still attached to the + ruins, surging over them at every swell. Mr. Jonathan Smith, the + agent of the underwriters, intended to have the surf-boat + launched this morning, for the purpose of cutting away the + rigging and ascertaining how the wreck lies; but the sea is still + too high.</p> + + <p>From what I can learn, the loss of the Elizabeth is mainly to + be attributed to the inexperience of the mate, Mr. H.P. Bangs, + who acted as captain after leaving Gibraltar. By his own + statement, he supposed he was somewhere between Cape May and + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page445" id="page445"></a>[pg + 445]</span> Barnegat, on Thursday evening. The vessel was + consequently running northward, and struck head on. At the second + thump, a hole was broken in her side, the seas poured through and + over her, and she began going to pieces. This happened at ten + minutes before four o'clock. The passengers were roused from + their sleep by the shock, and hurried out of the cabin in their + night-clothes, to take refuge on the forecastle, which was the + least exposed part of the vessel. They succeeded with great + difficulty; Mrs. Hasty, the widow of the late captain, fell into + a hatchway, from which she was dragged by a sailor who seized her + by the hair.</p> + + <p>The swells increased continually, and the danger of the vessel + giving way induced several of the sailors to commit themselves to + the waves. Previous to this they divested themselves of their + clothes, which they tied to pieces of plank and sent ashore. + These were immediately seized upon by the beach pirates, and + never afterward recovered. The carpenter cut loose some planks + and spars, and upon one of these Madame Ossoli was advised to + trust herself, the captain promising to go in advance, with her + boy. She refused, saying that she had no wish to live without the + child, and would not, at that hour, give the care of it to + another. Mrs. Hasty then took hold of a plank, in company with + the second mate, Mr. Davis, through whose assistance she landed + safely, though terribly bruised by the floating timber. The + captain clung to a hatch, and was washed ashore insensible, where + he was resuscitated by the efforts of Mr. Oakes and several + others, who were by this time collected on the beach. Most of the + men were entirely destitute of clothing, and some, who were + exhausted and ready to let go their hold, were saved by the + islanders, who went into the surf with lines about their waists, + and caught them.</p> + + <p>The young Italian girl, Celesta Pardena, who was bound for New + York, where she had already lived in the family of Henry Peters + Gray, the artist, was at first greatly alarmed, and uttered the + most piercing screams. By the exertions of the Ossolis she was + quieted, and apparently resigned to her fate. The passengers + reconciled themselves to the idea of death. At the proposal of + the Marquis Ossoli some time was spent in prayer, after which + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page446" id="page446"></a>[pg + 446]</span> all sat down calmly to await the parting of the + vessel. The Marchioness Ossoli was entreated by the sailors to + leave the vessel, or at least to trust her child to them, but she + steadily refused.</p> + + <p>Early in the morning some men had been sent to the lighthouse + for the life-boat which is kept there. Although this is but two + miles distant, the boat did not arrive till about one o'clock, by + which time the gale had so increased, and the swells were so high + and terrific, that it was impossible to make any use of it. A + mortar was also brought for the purpose of firing a line over the + vessel, to stretch a hawser between it and the shore. The mortar + was stationed on the lee of a hillock, about a hundred and fifty + rods from the wreck, that the powder might be kept dry. It was + fired five times, but failed to carry a line more than half the + necessary distance. Just before the forecastle sunk, the + remaining sailors determined to leave.</p> + + <p>The steward, with whom the child had always been a great + favorite, took it, almost by main force, and plunged with it into + the sea; neither reached the shore alive. The Marquis Ossoli was + soon afterwards washed away, but his wife remained in ignorance + of his fate. The cook, who was the last person that reached the + shore alive, said that the last words he heard her speak were: "I + see nothing but death before me,—I shall never reach the + shore." It was between two and three o'clock in the afternoon, + and after lingering for about ten hours, exposed to the + mountainous surf that swept over the vessel, with the + contemplation of death constantly forced upon her mind, she was + finally overwhelmed as the foremast fell. It is supposed that her + body and that of her husband are still buried under the ruins of + the vessel. Mr. Horace Sumner, who jumped overboard early in the + morning, was never seen afterwards.</p> + + <p>The dead bodies that were washed on shore were terribly + bruised and mangled. That of the young Italian girl was enclosed + in a rough box, and buried in the sand, together with those of + the sailors. Mrs. Hasty had by this time found a place of shelter + at Mr. Oakes's house, and at her request the body of the boy, + Angelo Eugene Ossoli, was carried thither, and kept for a + <span class="pagenum"><a name="page447" id="page447"></a>[pg + 447]</span> day previous to interment. The sailors, who had all + formed a strong attachment to him during the voyage, wept like + children when they saw him. There was some difficulty in finding + a coffin when the time of burial came, whereupon they took one of + their chests, knocked out the tills, laid the body carefully + inside, locked and nailed down the lid. He was buried in a little + nook between two of the sand-hills, some distance from the + sea.</p> + + <p>The same afternoon a trunk belonging to the Marchioness Ossoli + came to shore, and was fortunately secured before the pirates had + an opportunity of purloining it. Mrs. Hasty informs me that it + contained several large packages of manuscripts, which she dried + carefully by the fire. I have therefore a strong hope that the + work on Italy will be entirely recovered. In a pile of soaked + papers near the door, I found files of the <i>Democratie + Pacifique</i> and <i>Il Nazionale</i> of Florence, as well as + several of Mazzini's pamphlets, which I have preserved.</p> + + <p>An attempt will probably be made to-morrow to reach the wreck + with the surf-boat. Judging from its position and the known depth + of the water, I should think the recovery, not only of the + bodies, if they are still remaining there, but also of Powers's + statue and the blocks of rough Carrara, quite practicable, if + there should be a sufficiency of still weather. There are about a + hundred and fifty tons of marble under the ruins. The paintings, + belonging to Mr. Aspinwall, which were washed ashore in boxes, + and might have been saved had any one been on the spot to care + for them, are for the most part utterly destroyed. Those which + were least injured by the sea-water were cut from the frames and + carried off by the pirates; the frames were broken in pieces, and + scattered along the beach. This morning I found several shreds of + canvas, evidently more than a century old, half buried in the + sand. All the silk, Leghorn braid, hats, wool, oil, almonds, and + other articles contained in the vessel, were carried off as soon + as they came to land. On Sunday there were nearly a thousand + persons here, from all parts of the coast between Rockaway and + Montauk, and more than half of them were engaged in secreting and + carrying off everything that seemed to be of + value.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page448" id= + "page448"></a>[pg 448]</span> + + <p>The two bodies found yesterday were those of sailors. All have + now come to land but those of the Ossolis and Horace Sumner. If + not found in the wreck, they will be cast ashore to the westward + of this, as the current has set in that direction since the + gale.</p> + + <p class="author">Yours, &c.</p> + <p> </p> + <h3>THE WRECK OF THE ELIZABETH.</h3> + + <p>From a conversation with Mrs. Hasty, widow of the captain of + the ill-fated Elizabeth, we gather the following particulars of + her voyage and its melancholy termination.</p> + + <p>We have already stated that Captain Hasty was prostrated, + eight days after leaving Leghorn, by a disease which was regarded + and treated as fever, but which ultimately exhibited itself as + small-pox of the most malignant type. He died of it just as the + vessel reached Gibraltar, and his remains were committed to the + deep. After a short detention in quarantine, the Elizabeth + resumed her voyage on the 8th ultimo, and was long baffled by + adverse winds. Two days from Gibraltar, the terrible disease + which had proved fatal to the captain attacked the child of the + Ossolis, a beautiful boy of two years, and for many days his + recovery was regarded as hopeless. His eyes were completely + closed for five days, his head deprived of all shape, and his + whole person covered with pustules; yet, through the devoted + attention of his parents and their friends, he survived, and at + length gradually recovered. Only a few scars and red spots + remained on his face and body, and these were disappearing, to + the great joy of his mother, who felt solicitous that his rare + beauty should not be marred at his first meeting with those she + loved, and especially her mother.</p> + + <p>At length, after a month of slow progress, the wind shifted, + and blew strongly from the southwest for several days, sweeping + them rapidly on their course, until, on Thursday evening last, + they <span class="pagenum"><a name="page449" id="page449"></a>[pg + 449]</span> knew that they were near the end of their voyage. + Their trunks were brought up and repacked, in anticipation of a + speedy arrival in port. Meantime, the breeze gradually swelled to + a gale, which became decided about nine o'clock on that evening. + But their ship was new and strong, and all retired to rest as + usual. They were running west, and supposed themselves about + sixty miles farther south than they actually were. By their + reckoning, they would be just off the harbor of New York next + morning. About half past two o'clock, Mr. Bangs, the mate in + command, took soundings, and reported twenty-one fathoms. He said + that depth insured their safety till daylight, and turned in + again. Of course, all was thick around the vessel, and the storm + howling fiercely. One hour afterward, the ship struck with great + violence, and in a moment was fast aground. She was a stout brig + of 531 tons, five years old, heavily laden with marble, &c., + and drawing seventeen feet water. Had she been light, she might + have floated over the bar into twenty feet water, and all on + board could have been saved. She struck rather sidewise than bows + on, canted on her side and stuck fast, the mad waves making a + clear sweep over her, pouring down into the cabin through the + skylight, which was destroyed. One side of the cabin was + immediately and permanently under water, the other frequently + drenched. The passengers, who were all up in a moment, chose the + most sheltered positions, and there remained, calm, earnest, and + resigned to any fate, for a long three hours. No land was yet + visible; they knew not where they were, but they knew that their + chance of surviving was small indeed. When the coast was first + visible through the driving storm in the gray light of morning, + the sand-hills were mistaken for rocks, which made the prospect + still more dismal. The young Ossoli cried a little with + discomfort and fright, but was soon hushed to sleep. Our friend + Margaret had two life-preservers, but one of them proved unfit + for use. All the boats had been smashed in pieces or torn away + soon after the vessel struck; and it would have been madness to + launch them in the dark, if it had been possible to launch them + at all, with the waves charging over the wreck every moment. A + sailor, soon after <span class="pagenum"><a name="page450" id= + "page450"></a>[pg 450]</span> light, took Madame Ossoli's + serviceable life-preserver and swam ashore with it, in quest of + aid for those left on board, and arrived safe, but of course + could not return his means of deliverance.</p> + + <p>By 7 A.M. it became evident that the cabin must soon go to + pieces, and indeed it was scarcely tenantable then. The crew were + collected in the forecastle, which was stronger and less exposed, + the vessel having settled by the stem, and the sailors had been + repeatedly ordered to go aft and help the passengers forward, but + the peril was so great that none obeyed. At length the second + mate, Davis, went himself, and accompanied the Italian girl, + Celesta Pardena, safely to the forecastle, though with great + difficulty. Madame Ossoli went next, and had a narrow escape from + being washed away, but got over. Her child was placed in a bag + tied around a sailor's neck, and thus carried safely. Marquis + Ossoli and the rest followed, each convoyed by the mate or one of + the sailors.</p> + + <p>All being collected in the forecastle, it was evident that + their position was still most perilous, and that the ship could + not much longer hold together. The women were urged to try first + the experiment of taking each a plank and committing themselves + to the waves. Madame Ossoli refused thus to be separated from her + husband and child. She had from the first expressed a willingness + to live or die with them, but not to live without them. Mrs. + Hasty was the first to try the plank, and, though the struggle + was for some time a doubtful one, did finally reach the shore, + utterly exhausted. There was a strong current setting to the + westward, so that, though the wreck lay but a quarter of a mile + from the shore, she landed three fourths of a mile distant. No + other woman, and no passenger, survives, though several of the + crew came ashore after she did, in a similar manner. The last who + came reports that the child had been washed away from the man who + held it before the ship broke up, that Ossoli had in like manner + been washed from the foremast, to which he was clinging; but, in + the horror of the moment, Margaret never learned that those she + so clung to had preceded her to the spirit land. Those who + remained of the crew had just persuaded <span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page451" id="page451"></a>[pg 451]</span> her + to trust herself to a plank, in the belief that Ossoli and their + child had already started for the shore, when just as she was + stepping down, a great wave broke over the vessel and swept her + into the boiling deep. She never rose again. The ship broke up + soon after (about 10 A.M. Mrs. Hasty says, instead of the later + hour previously reported); but both mates and most of the crew + got on one fragment or another. It was supposed that those of + them who were drowned were struck by floating spars or planks, + and thus stunned or disabled so as to preclude all chance of + their rescue.</p> + + <p>We do not know at the time of this writing whether the + manuscript of our friend's work on Italy and her late struggles + has been saved. We fear it has not been. One of her trunks is + known to have been saved; but, though it contained a good many + papers, Mrs. Hasty believes that this was not among them. The + author had thrown her whole soul into this work, had enjoyed the + fullest opportunities for observation, was herself a partaker in + the gallant though unsuccessful struggle which has redeemed the + name of Rome from the long rust of sloth, servility, and + cowardice, was the intimate friend and compatriot of the + Republican leaders, and better fitted than any one else to refute + the calumnies and falsehoods with which their names have been + blackened by the champions of aristocratic "order" throughout the + civilized world. We cannot forego the hope that her work on Italy + has been saved, or will yet be recovered.</p> + <hr class="short" /> + + <p>The following is a complete list of the persons lost by the + wreck of the ship Elizabeth:—</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>Giovanni, Marquis Ossoli.</p> + + <p>Margaret Fuller Ossoli.</p> + + <p>Their child, Eugene Angelo Ossoli.</p> + + <p>Celesta Pardena, of Rome.</p> + + <p>Horace Sumner, of Boston.</p> + + <p>George Sanford, seaman (Swede).</p> + + <p>Henry Westervelt, seaman (Swede).</p> + + <p>George Bates, steward.</p> + </div> + </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="page452" id= + "page452"></a>[pg 452]</span> + <p> </p> + <h3>DEATH OF MARGARET FULLER.</h3> + + <p>A great soul has passed from this mortal stage of being by the + death of MARGARET FULLER, by marriage Marchioness Ossoli, who, + with her husband and child, Mr. Horace Sumner of Boston,<a id= + "footnotetago" name="footnotetago"></a><a href= + "#footnoteo"><sup>O</sup></a> and others, was drowned in the + wreck of the brig Elizabeth from Leghorn for this port, on the + south shore of Long Island, near Fire Island, on Friday afternoon + last. No passenger survives to tell the story of that night of + horrors, whose fury appalled many of our snugly sheltered + citizens reposing securely in their beds. We can adequately + realize what it must have been to voyagers approaching our coast + from the Old World, on vessels helplessly exposed to the rage of + that wild southwestern gale, and seeing in the long and anxiously + expected land of their youth and their love only an aggravation + of their perils, a death-blow to their hopes, an assurance of + their temporal doom!</p> + + <p>Margaret Fuller was the daughter of Hon. Timothy Fuller, a + lawyer of Boston, but nearly all his life a resident of + Cambridge, and a Representative of the Middlessex District in + Congress from 1817 to 1825. Mr. Fuller, upon his retirement from + Congress, purchased a farm at some distance from Boston, and + abandoned law for agriculture, soon after which he died. His + widow and six children still survive.</p><span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page453" id="page453"></a>[pg 453]</span> + + <p>Margaret, if we mistake not, was the first-born, and from a + very early age evinced the possession of remarkable intellectual + powers. Her father regarded her with a proud admiration, and was + from childhood her chief instructor, guide, companion, and + friend. He committed the too common error of stimulating her + intellect to an assiduity and persistency of effort which + severely taxed and ultimately injured her physical powers.<a id= + "footnotetagp" name="footnotetagp"></a><a href= + "#footnotep"><sup>P</sup></a> At eight years of age he was + accustomed to require of her the composition of a number of Latin + verses per day, while her studies in philosophy, history, general + science, and current literature were in after years extensive and + profound. After her father's death, she applied herself to + teaching as a vocation, first in Boston, then in Providence, and + afterward in Boston again, where her "Conversations" were for + several seasons attended by classes of women, some of them + married, and including many from the best families of the + "American Athens."</p> + + <p>In the autumn of 1844, she accepted an invitation to take part + in the conduct of the Tribune, with especial reference to the + department of Reviews and Criticism on current Literature, Art, + Music, &c.; a position which she filled for nearly two + years,—how eminently, our readers well know. Her reviews of + Longfellow's Poems, Wesley's Memoirs, Poe's Poems, Bailey's + "Festus," Douglas's Life, &c. must yet be remembered by many. + She had previously found "fit audience, though few," for a series + of remarkable papers on "The Great Musicians," "Lord Herbert of + Cherbury," "Woman," &c., &c., in "The Dial," a quarterly + of remarkable breadth and vigor, of which she was at first + co-editor with Ralph Waldo Emerson, but which was afterward + edited by him only, though she continued a contributor to its + pages. In 1843, she accompanied some friends on a tour via + Niagara, Detroit, and Mackinac to Chicago, and across the + prairies of Illinois, and her <span class="pagenum"><a name= + "page454" id="page454"></a>[pg 454]</span> resulting volume, + entitled "Summer on the Lakes," is one of the best works in this + department ever issued from the American press. It was too good + to be widely and instantly popular. Her "Woman in the Nineteenth + Century"—an extension of her essay in the Dial—was + published by us early in 1845, and a moderate edition sold. The + next year, a selection from her "Papers on Literature and Art" + was issued by Wiley and Putnam, in two fair volumes of their + "Library of American Books." We believe the original edition was + nearly or quite exhausted, but a second has not been called for, + while books nowise comparable to it for strength or worth have + run through half a dozen editions.<a id="footnotetagq" name= + "footnotetagq"></a><a href="#footnoteq"><sup>Q</sup></a> These + "Papers" embody some of her best contributions to the Dial, the + Tribune, and perhaps one or two which had not appeared in + either.</p> + + <p>In the summer of 1845, Miss Fuller accompanied the family of a + devoted friend to Europe, visiting England, Scotland, France, and + passing through Italy to Rome, where they spent the ensuing + winter. She accompanied her friends next spring to the North of + Italy, and there stopped, spending most of the summer at + Florence, and returning at the approach of winter to Rome, where + she was soon after married to Giovanni, Marquis Ossoli, who had + made her acquaintance during her first winter in the Eternal + City. They have since resided in the Roman States until the last + summer, after the surrender of Rome to the French army of + assassins of liberty, when they deemed it expedient to migrate to + Florence, both having taken an active part in the Republican + movement which resulted so disastrously,—nay, of which the + ultimate result is yet to be witnessed. Thence in June they + departed and set sail at Leghorn for this port, in the + Philadelphia brig Elizabeth, which was doomed to encounter a + succession of disasters. They had not been many days at sea when + the captain was prostrated by a disease which ultimately + exhibited itself as confluent small-pox of the most malignant + type, and terminated his life soon after they touched at + Gibraltar, after a sickness of intense <span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page455" id="page455"></a>[pg 455]</span> + agony and loathsome horror. The vessel was detained some days in + quarantine by reason of this affliction, but finally set sail + again on the 8th ultimo, just in season to bring her on our coast + on the fearful night between Thursday and Friday last, when + darkness, rain, and a terrific gale from the southwest (the most + dangerous quarter possible), conspired to hurl her into the very + jaws of destruction. It is said, but we know not how truly, that + the mate in command since the captain's death mistook the Fire + Island light for that on the Highlands of Neversink, and so + fatally miscalculated his course; but it is hardly probable that + any other than a first-class, fully manned ship could have worked + off that coast under such a gale, blowing him directly toward the + roaring breakers. She struck during the night, and before the + next evening the Elizabeth was a mass of drifting sticks and + planks, while her passengers and part of her crew were buried in + the boiling surges. Alas that our gifted friend, and those + nearest to and most loved by her, should have been among + them!</p> + + <p>We trust a new, compact, and cheap edition or selection, of + Margaret Fuller's writings will soon be given to the public, + prefaced by a Memoir. It were a shame to us if one so radiantly + lofty in intellect, so devoted to human liberty and well-being, + so ready to dare and to endure for the upraising of her sex and + her race, should perish from among us, and leave no memento less + imperfect and casual than those we now have. We trust the more + immediate relatives of our departed friend will lose no time in + selecting the fittest person to prepare a Memoir, with a + selection from her writings, for the press.<a id="footnotetagr" + name="footnotetagr"></a><a href="#footnoter"><sup>R</sup></a> + America has produced no woman who in mental endowments and + acquirements has surpassed Margaret Fuller, and it will be a + public misfortune if her thoughts are not promptly and acceptably + embodied.</p> + + <blockquote class="footnote"> + <a id="footnoteo" name="footnoteo"></a><b>Footnote O:</b> + <a href="#footnotetago">(return)</a> + + <p>Horace Sumner, one of the victims of the lamentable wreck of + the Elizabeth, was the youngest son of the late Hon. Charles P. + Sumner, of Boston, for many years Sheriff of Suffolk County, + and the brother of George Sumner, Esq., the distinguished + American writer, now resident at Paris, and of Hon. Charles + Sumner of Boston, who is well known for his legal and literary + eminence throughout the country. He was about twenty-four years + of age, and had been abroad for nearly a year, travelling in + the South of Europe for the benefit of his health. The past + winter was spent by him chiefly in Florence, where he was on + terms of familiar intimacy with the Marquis and Marchioness + Ossoli, and was induced to take passage in the same vessel with + them for his return to his native land. He was a young man of + singular modesty of deportment, of an original turn of mind, + and greatly endeared to his friends by the sweetness of his + disposition and the purity of his character.</p> + </blockquote> + + <blockquote class="footnote"> + <a id="footnotep" name="footnotep"></a><b>Footnote P:</b> + <a href="#footnotetagp">(return)</a> + + <p>I think this opinion somewhat erroneous, for reasons which I + have already given in the edition recently published of Woman + in the Nineteenth Century. The reader is referred to page 352 + of that work, and also to page 38, where I believe my sister + personified herself under the name of Miranda, and stated + clearly and justly the relation which, existed between her + father and herself.—ED.</p> + </blockquote> + + <blockquote class="footnote"> + <a id="footnoteq" name="footnoteq"></a><b>Footnote Q:</b> + <a href="#footnotetagq">(return)</a> + + <p>A second edition has since been published.—ED.</p> + </blockquote> + + <blockquote class="footnote"> + <a id="footnoter" name="footnoter"></a><b>Footnote R:</b> + <a href="#footnotetagr">(return)</a> + + <p>The reader is aware that such a Memoir has since been + published, and that several of her works have been republished + likewise. I trust soon to publish a volume of Madame Ossoli's + Miscellaneous Writings.—ED.</p> + </blockquote><span class="pagenum"><a name="page456" id= + "page456"></a>[pg 456]</span> + <p> </p> + <h3>MARGARET FULLER OSSOLI</h3> + + <p class="center">BY C.P. CRANCH.</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>O still, sweet summer days! O moonlight nights!</p> + + <p>After so drear a storm how can ye shine?</p> + + <p>O smiling world of many-hued delights,</p> + + <p>How canst thou 'round our sad hearts still entwine</p> + + <p>The accustomed wreaths of pleasure? How, O Day,</p> + + <p>Wakest thou so full of beauty? Twilight deep,</p> + + <p>How diest thou so tranquilly away?</p> + + <p>And how, O Night, bring'st thou the sphere of sleep?</p> + + <p>For she is gone from us,—gone, lost for + ever,—</p> + + <p>In the wild billows swallowed up and lost,—</p> + + <p>Gone, full of love, life, hope, and high endeavor,</p> + + <p>Just when we would have welcomed her the most.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>Was it for this, O woman, true and pure!</p> + + <p>That life through shade and light had formed thy mind</p> + + <p>To feel, imagine, reason, and endure,—</p> + + <p>To soar for truth, to labor for mankind?</p> + + <p>Was it for this sad end thou didst bear thy part</p> + + <p>In deeds and words for struggling Italy,—</p> + + <p>Devoting thy large mind and larger heart</p> + + <p>That Rome in later days might yet be free?</p> + + <p>And, from that home driven out by tyranny,</p> + + <p>Didst turn to see thy fatherland once more,</p> + + <p>Bearing affection's dearest ties with thee;</p> + + <p>And as the vessel bore thee to our shore,</p> + + <p>And hope rose to fulfilment,—on the deck,</p> + + <p>When friends seemed almost beckoning unto thee:</p> + + <p>O God! the fearful storm,—the splitting + wreck,—</p> + + <p>The drowning billows of the dreary sea!</p><span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page457" id="page457"></a>[pg 457]</span> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>O, many a heart was stricken dumb with grief!</p> + + <p>We who had known thee here,—had met thee there</p> + + <p>Where Rome threw golden light on every leaf</p> + + <p>Life's volume turned in that enchanted air,—</p> + + <p>O friend! how we recall the Italian days</p> + + <p>Amid the Cæsar's ruined palace halls,—</p> + + <p>The Coliseum, and the frescoed blaze</p> + + <p>Of proud St. Peter's dome,—the Sistine + walls,—</p> + + <p>The lone Campagna and the village green,—</p> + + <p>The Vatican,—the music and dim light</p> + + <p>Of gorgeous temples,—statues, pictures, seen</p> + + <p>With thee: those sunny days return so bright,</p> + + <p>Now thou art gone! Thou hast a fairer world</p> + + <p>Than that bright clime. The dreams that filled thee + here</p> + + <p>Now find divine completion, and, unfurled</p> + + <p>Thy spirit-wings, find out their own high sphere.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>Farewell! thought-gifted, noble-hearted one!</p> + + <p>We, who have known thee, know thou art not lost;</p> + + <p>The star that set in storms still shines upon</p> + + <p>The o'ershadowing cloud, and, when we sorrow most,</p> + + <p>In the blue spaces of God's firmament</p> + + <p>Beams out with purer light than we have known.</p> + + <p>Above the tempest and the wild lament</p> + + <p>Of those who weep the radiance that is flown.</p> + </div> + </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="page458" id= + "page458"></a>[pg 458]</span> +<p> </p> + <h3>THE DEATH OF MARGARET FULLER OSSOLI.</h3> + + <p class="center">BY MARY C. AMES.</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>O Italy! amid thy scenes of blood,</p> + + <p class="i2">She acted long a woman's noble part!</p> + + <p>Soothing the dying of thy sons, proud Rome!</p> + + <p class="i2">Till thou wert bowed, O city of her heart!</p> + + <p>When thou hadst fallen, joy no longer flowed</p> + + <p class="i2">In the rich sunlight of thy heaven;</p> + + <p>And from thy glorious domes and shrines of art,</p> + + <p class="i2">No quickening impulse to her life was + given.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>From the deep shadow of thy cypress hills,</p> + + <p class="i2">From the soft beauty of thy classic plains,</p> + + <p>The noble-hearted, with, her treasures, turned</p> + + <p class="i2">To the far land where Freedom proudly + reigns.</p> + + <p>After the rocking of long years of storms,</p> + + <p class="i2">Her weary spirit looked and longed for + rest;</p> + + <p>Pictures of home, of loved and kindred forms,</p> + + <p class="i2">Rose warm and life-like in her aching + breast.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>But the wild ocean rolled before her home;</p> + + <p class="i2">And, listening long unto its fearful moan,</p> + + <p>She thought of myriads who had found their rest</p> + + <p class="i2">Down in its caverns, silent, deep, and + lone.</p> + + <p>Then rose the prayer within her heart of hearts,</p> + + <p class="i2">With the dark phantoms of a coming grief,</p> + + <p>That "<i>Nino</i>, Ossoli, and I may go</p> + + <p class="i2"><i>Together</i>;—that the anguish may be + brief."</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>The bark spread out her pennons proud and free,</p> + + <p class="i2">The sunbeams frolicked with the wanton + waves;</p> + + <p>Smiled through the long, long days the summer sea,</p> + + <p class="i2">And sung sweet requiems o'er her sunken + graves.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page459" id= + "page459"></a>[pg 459]</span> + + <p>E'en then the shadow of the fearful King</p> + + <p class="i2">Hung deep and darkening o'er the fated + bark;</p> + + <p>Suffering and death and anguish reigned, ere came</p> + + <p class="i2">Hope's weary dove back to the longing ark.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>This was the morning to the night of woe;</p> + + <p class="i2">When the grim Ocean, in his fiercest wrath,</p> + + <p>Held fearful contest with the god of storms,</p> + + <p class="i2">Who lashed the waves with death upon his + path.</p> + + <p>O night of agony! O awful morn,</p> + + <p class="i2">That oped on such a scene thy sullen eyes!</p> + + <p>The shattered ship,—those wrecked and broken + hearts,</p> + + <p class="i2">Who only prayed, "<i>Together let us + die</i>."</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>Was this thy greeting longed for, Margaret,</p> + + <p class="i2">In the high, noontide of thy lofty pride?</p> + + <p>The welcome sighed for, in thine hours of grief,</p> + + <p class="i2">When pride had fled and hope in thee had + died?</p> + + <p>Twelve hours' communion with the Terror-King!</p> + + <p class="i2">No wandering hope to give the heart relief!</p> + + <p>And yet thy prayer was heard,—the cold waves + wrapt</p> + + <p class="i2">Those forms "together," and the woe was + "brief."</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>Thus closed thy day in darkness and in tears;</p> + + <p class="i2">Thus waned a life, alas! too full of pain;</p> + + <p>But O thou noble woman! thy brief life,</p> + + <p class="i2">Though full of sorrows, was not lived in + vain.</p> + + <p>No more a pilgrim o'er a weary waste,</p> + + <p class="i2">With light ineffable thy mind is crowned;</p> + + <p>Heaven's richest lore is thine own heritage;</p> + + <p class="i2">All height is gained, thy "kingdom" now is + found.</p> + </div> + </div><span class="pagenum"><a name="page460" id= + "page460"></a>[pg 460]</span> + <p> </p> + <h3>TO THE MEMORY OF MARGARET FULLER.</h3> + + <p class="center">BY E. OAKES SMITH.</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>We hailed thee, Margaret, from the sea,</p> + + <p class="i2">We hailed thee o'er the wave,</p> + + <p>And little thought, in greeting thee,</p> + + <p class="i2">Thy home would be a grave.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>We blest thee in thy laurel crown,</p> + + <p class="i2">And in the myrtle's sheen,—</p> + + <p>Rejoiced thy noble worth to own,</p> + + <p class="i2">Still joy, our tears between.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>We hoped that many a happy year</p> + + <p class="i2">Would bless thy coming feet;</p> + + <p>And thy bright fame grow brighter here,</p> + + <p class="i2">By Fatherland made sweet.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>Gone, gone! with all thy glorious thought,—</p> + + <p class="i2">Gone with thy waking life,—</p> + + <p>With the green chaplet Fame had wrought,—</p> + + <p class="i2">The joy of Mother, Wife.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>Oh! who shall dare thy harp to take,</p> + + <p class="i2">And pour upon the air</p> + + <p>The clear, calm music, that should wake</p> + + <p class="i2">The heart to love and prayer!</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>The lip, all eloquent, is stilled</p> + + <p class="i2">And silent with its trust,—</p> + + <p>The heart, with Woman's greatness filled,</p> + + <p class="i2">Must crumble to the dust:</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>But from thy <i>great heart</i> we will take</p> + + <p class="i2">New courage for the strife;</p><span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page461" id="page461"></a>[pg 461]</span> + + <p>From petty ills our bondage break,</p> + + <p class="i2">And labor with new life.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>Wake up, in darkness though it be,</p> + + <p class="i2">To better truth and light;</p> + + <p>Patient in toil, as we saw thee,</p> + + <p class="i2">In searching for the light;</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>And mindless of the scorn it brings,</p> + + <p class="i2">For 't is in desert land</p> + + <p>That angels come with sheltering wings</p> + + <p class="i2">To lead us by the hand.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>Courageous one! thou art not lost,</p> + + <p class="i2">Though sleeping in the wave;</p> + + <p>Upon its chainless billows tost,</p> + + <p class="i2">For thee is fitting grave.</p> + </div> + </div> + <p> </p> + + <h3>SLEEP SWEETLY, GENTLE CHILD.<a id="footnotetags" name= + "footnotetags"></a><a href="#footnotes"><sup>S</sup></a></h3> + + <blockquote class="note"> + <p>[The only child of the Marchioness Ossoli, well known as + Margaret Fuller, is buried in the Valley Cemetery, at + Manchester, N.H. There is always a vase of flowers placed near + the grave, and a marble slab, with a cross and lily sculptured + upon it, bears this inscription: "In Memory of Angelo Eugene + Philip Ossoli, who was born at Rieti, in Italy, 5th September, + 1848, and perished by shipwreck off Fire Island, with both his + parents, Giovanni Angelo and Margaret Fuller Ossoli, on the + 19th of July, 1850."]</p> + </blockquote> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>Sleep sweetly, gentle child! though to this sleep</p> + + <p class="i2">The cold winds rocked thee, on the ocean's + breast,</p> + + <p>And strange, wild murmurs o'er the dark, blue deep</p> + + <p class="i2">Were the last sounds that lulled thee to thy + rest,</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page462" id= + "page462"></a>[pg 462]</span> + + <p>And while the moaning waves above thee rolled,</p> + + <p>The hearts that loved thee best grew still and cold.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>Sleep sweetly, gentle child! though the loved tone</p> + + <p class="i2">That twice twelve months had hushed thee to + repose</p> + + <p>Could give no answer to the tearful moan</p> + + <p class="i2">That faintly from thy sea-moss pillow rose.</p> + + <p>That night the arms that closely folded thee</p> + + <p>Were the wet weeds that floated in the sea.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>Sleep sweetly, gentle child! the cold, blue wave</p> + + <p class="i2">Hath pitied the sad sighs the wild winds + bore,</p> + + <p>And from the wreck it held <i>one</i> treasure gave</p> + + <p class="i2">To the fond watchers weeping on the + shore;—</p> + + <p>Now the sweet vale shall guard its precious trust,</p> + + <p>While mourning hearts weep o'er thy silent dust.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>Sleep sweetly, gentle child! love's tears are shed</p> + + <p class="i2">Upon the garlands of fair Northern flowers</p> + + <p>That fond hearts strew above thy lowly bed,</p> + + <p class="i2">Through all our summer's glad and pleasant + hours:</p> + + <p>For thy sake, and for hers who sleeps beneath the + wave,</p> + + <p>Kind hands bring flowers to fade upon thy grave.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>Sleep sweetly, gentle child! the warm wind sighs</p> + + <p class="i2">Amid the dark pines through this quiet + dell,</p> + + <p>And waves the light flower-shade that lies</p> + + <p class="i2">Upon the white-leaved lily's sculptured + bell;—</p> + + <p>The "Valley's" flowers are fair, the turf is + green;—</p> + + <p>Sleep sweetly here, wept-for Eugene!</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>Sleep sweetly, gentle child! this peaceful rest</p> + + <p class="i2">Hath early given thee to a home above,</p> + + <p>Safe from all sin and tears, for, ever blest</p> + + <p class="i2">To sing sweet praises of redeeming + love.—</p> + + <p>The love that took thee to that world of bliss</p> + + <p>Ere thou hadst learned the sighs and griefs of this.</p> + </div> + </div> + + <p class="center">JULIET.</p> + + <p class="note">Laurel Brook, N.H., September, 1851.</p><span class= + "pagenum"><a name="page463" id="page463"></a>[pg 463]</span> + <p> </p> + <h3>ON THE DEATH OF MARGARET FULLER.</h3> + + <p class="center">BY G.P.R. JAMES.</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>High hopes and bright thine early path bedecked,</p> + + <p class="i2">And aspirations beautiful though + wild,—</p> + + <p>A heart too strong, a powerful will unchecked,</p> + + <p class="i2">A dream that earth-things could be + undefiled.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>But soon, around thee, grew a golden chain,</p> + + <p class="i2">That bound the woman to more human things,</p> + + <p>And taught with joy—and, it may be, with + pain—</p> + + <p class="i2">That there are limits e'en to Spirit's + wings.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>Husband and child,—the loving and + beloved,—</p> + + <p class="i2">Won, from the vast of thought, a mortal + part,</p> + + <p>The impassioned wife and mother, yielding, proved</p> + + <p class="i2">Mind has itself a master—in the + heart.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>In distant lands enhaloed by, old fame</p> + + <p class="i2">Thou found'st the only chain thy spirit + knew,</p> + + <p>But captive ledst thy captors, from the shame</p> + + <p class="i2">Of ancient freedom, to the pride of new.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>And loved hearts clung around thee on the deck,</p> + + <p class="i2">Welling with sunny hopes 'neath sunny + skies:</p> + + <p>The wide horizon round thee had no speck,—</p> + + <p class="i2">E'en Doubt herself could see no cloud + arise.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>Thy loved ones clung around thee, when the sail</p> + + <p class="i2">O'er wide Atlantic billows onward bore</p> + + <p>Thy freight of joys, and the expanding gale</p> + + <p class="i2">Pressed the glad bark toward thy native + shore.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page464" id= + "page464"></a>[pg 464]</span> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>The loved ones clung around thee still, when all</p> + + <p class="i2">Was darkness, tempest, terror, and + dismay,—</p> + + <p>More closely clung around thee, when the pall</p> + + <p class="i2">Of Fate was falling o'er the mortal clay.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>With them to live,—with them, with them to die,</p> + + <p class="i2">Sublime of human love intense and + fine!—</p> + + <p>Was thy last prayer unto the Deity;</p> + + <p class="i2">And it was granted thee by Love Divine.</p> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>In the same billow,—in the same dark + grave,—</p> + + <p class="i2">Mother, and child, and husband, find their + rest.</p> + + <p>The dream is ended; and the solemn wave</p> + + <p class="i2">Gives back the gifted to her country's + breast.</p> + </div> + </div> + <p> </p> + + <h3>ON THE DEATH OF MARQUIS OSSOLI AND HIS WIFE, MARGARET + FULLER.</h3> + + <p class="center">BY WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR.</p> + + <div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p>Over his millions Death has lawful power,</p> + + <p>But over thee, brave Ossoli! none, none!</p> + + <p>After a long struggle, in a fight</p> + + <p>Worthy of Italy to youth restored,</p> + + <p>Thou, far from home, art sunk beneath the surge</p> + + <p>Of the Atlantic; on its shore; in reach</p> + + <p>Of help; in trust of refuge; sunk with all</p> + + <p>Precious on earth to thee,—a child, a wife!</p> + + <p>Proud as thou wert of her, America</p> + + <p>Is prouder, showing to her sons how high</p> + + <p>Swells woman's courage in a virtuous + breast.</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page465" id= + "page465"></a>[pg 465]</span> + </div> + + <div class="stanza"> + <p>She would not leave behind her those she loved:</p> + + <p>Such solitary safety might become</p> + + <p>Others,—not her; not her who stood beside</p> + + <p>The pallet of the wounded, when the worst</p> + + <p>Of France and Perfidy assailed the walls</p> + + <p>Of unsuspicious Rome. Rest, glorious soul,</p> + + <p>Renowned for strength of genius, Margaret!</p> + + <p>Rest with the twain too dear! My words are few,</p> + + <p>And shortly none will hear my failing voice,</p> + + <p>But the same language with more full appeal</p> + + <p>Shall hail thee. Many are the sons of song</p> + + <p>Whom thou hast heard upon thy native plains,</p> + + <p>Worthy to sing of thee; the hour is come;</p> + + <p>Take we our seats and let the dirge begin.</p> + </div> + </div> + <p> </p> + + <h3>MONUMENT TO THE OSSOLI FAMILY.</h3> + + <p class="center note">[From the New York Tribune.]</p> + + <p>The family of Margaret Fuller Ossoli have just erected to her + memory, and that of her husband and child, a marble monument in + Mount Auburn cemetery, in Massachusetts. It is located on Pyrola + Path, in a beautiful part of the grounds, and has near it some + noble oaks, while the hand of affection has planted many a + flower. The body of Margaret Fuller rests in the ocean, but her + memory abides in many hearts. She needs no monumental stone, but + human affection loves thus to do honor to the departed.</p> + + <p>The following is the inscription on the + monument:—</p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page466" id= + "page466"></a>[pg 466]</span> + + <table summary="" align="center"> + <tr> + <td align="center">Erected</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="center">In Memory of</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="center"></td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="center">MARGARET FULLER OSSOLI,</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="center">Born in Cambridge, Mass., May 23, + 1810.</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="center"></td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="center">By birth, a Citizen of New England; by + adoption, a Citizen of Rome; by genius,</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="center">belonging to the World. In youth, an + insatiate Student, seeking the</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="center">highest culture; in riper years, Teacher, + Writer, Critic of</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="center">Literature and Art; in maturer age, + Companion and Helper</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="center">of many earnest Reformers in America</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="center">and Europe.</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="center"></td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="center">And</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="center"></td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="center">In Memory of her Husband,</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="center">GIOVANNI ANGELO, MARQUIS OSSOLI.</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="center"></td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="center">He gave up rank, station, and home for the + Roman Republic,</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="center">and for his Wife and Child.</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="center"></td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="center">And</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="center"></td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="center">In Memory of that Child,</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="center">ANGELO EUGENE PHILIP OSSOLI,</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="center"></td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="center">Born in Rieti, Italy, Sept. 5, 1848,</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="center">Whose dust reposes at the foot of this + stone.</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="center">They passed from life together by + shipwreck,</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="center">July 19, 1850.</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="center"></td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="center">United in life by mutual love, labors, and + trials, the merciful Father</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="center">took them together, and</td> + </tr> + + <tr> + <td align="center">In death they were not divided.</td> + </tr> + </table> + + <blockquote class="footnote"> + <a id="footnotes" name="footnotes"></a><b>Footnote S:</b> + <a href="#footnotetags">(return)</a> + + <p>These lines are beautiful and full of sweet sympathy. The + home of the mother and brother of Margaret Fuller being now + removed from Manchester to Boston, the remains of the little + child, too dear to remain distant from us, have been removed to + Mount Auburn. The same marble slab is there with, its + inscription, and the lines deserve insertion + here.—ED.</p> + </blockquote> + <p> </p> + <h4>THE END.</h4> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's At Home And Abroad, by Margaret Fuller Ossoli + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AT HOME AND ABROAD *** + +***** This file should be named 16327-h.htm or 16327-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/3/2/16327/ + +Produced by Alison Hadwin 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: At Home And Abroad + Or, Things And Thoughts In America and Europe + +Author: Margaret Fuller Ossoli + +Editor: Arthur B. Fuller + +Release Date: July 18, 2005 [EBook #16327] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AT HOME AND ABROAD *** + + + + +Produced by Alison Hadwin and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +AT HOME AND ABROAD; +OR, +THINGS AND THOUGHTS +IN +AMERICA AND EUROPE. + + +BY +MARGARET FULLER OSSOLI, + +Author of "Woman in the Nineteenth Century," "Art, Literature, +and the Drama," "Life without and Life Within," etc. + +Edited by Her Brother, +ARTHUR B. FULLER. + +NEW AND COMPLETE EDITION. + +NEW YORK; +THE TRIBUNE ASSOCIATION. +134 Nassau Street +1869 + +Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, by +ARTHUR B. FULLER, +In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of +Massachusetts. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +There are at least three classes of persons who travel in our own land +and abroad. The first and largest in number consists of those +who, "having eyes, see not, and ears, hear not," anything which is +profitable to be remembered. Crossing lake and ocean, passing over +the broad prairies of the New World or the classic fields of the Old, +though they look on the virgin soil sown thickly with flowers by +the hand of God, or on scenes memorable in man's history, they gaze +heedlessly, and when they return home can but tell us what they ate +and drank, and where slept,--no more; for this and matters of like +import are all for which they have cared in their wanderings. + +Those composing the second class travel more intelligently. They +visit scrupulously all places which are noted either as the homes of +literature, the abodes of Art, or made classic by the pens of ancient +genius. Accurately do they mark the distance of one famed city from +another, the size and general appearance of each; they see as many as +possible of celebrated pictures and works of art, and mark carefully +dimensions, age, and all details concerning them. Men, too, whom the +world regards as great men, whether because of wisdom, poesy, warlike +achievements, or of wealth and station, they seek to take by the +hand and in some degree to know; at least to note their appearance, +demeanor, and mode of life. Writers belonging to this class of +travellers are not to be undervalued; returning home, they can give +much useful information, and tell much which all wish to hear and +know, though, as their narratives are chiefly circumstantial, and +every year circumstances change, such recitals lessen constantly in +value. + +But there is a third class of those who journey, who see indeed the +outward, and observe it well. They, too, seek localities where Art and +Genius dwell, or have painted on canvas or sculptured in marble their +memorials; they become acquainted with the people, both famed and +obscure, of the lands which they visit and in which for a time they +abide; their hearts throb as they stand on places where great deeds +have been done, with whose dust perhaps is mingled the sacred ashes +of men who fell in the warfare for truth and freedom,--a warfare begun +early in the world's history, and not yet ended. But they do much +_more_ than this. There is, though in a different sense from what +ancient Pagans fancied, a genius or guardian spirit of each scene, +each stream and lake and country, and this spirit is ever speaking, +but in a tone which only the attent ear of the noble and gifted +can hear, and in a language which such minds and hearts only can +understand. With vision which needs no miracle to make it prophetic, +they see the destinies which nations are all-unconsciously shaping +for themselves, and note the deep meaning of passing events which only +make others wonder. Beneath the mask of mere externals, their eyes +discern the character of those whom they meet, and, refusing to accept +popular judgment in place of truth, they see often the real relation +which men bear to their race and age, and observe the facts by which +to determine whether such men are great only because of circumstances, +or by the irresistible power of their own minds. When such narrate +their journeyings, we have what is valuable not for a few years only, +but, because of its philosophic and suggestive spirit, what must +always be useful. + +The reader of the following pages, it is believed, will decide that +Margaret Fuller deserves to rank with the latter class of travellers, +while not neglectful of those details which it is well to learn and +remember. + +Twelve years ago she journeyed, in company with several friends, on +the Lakes, and through some of the Western States. Returning, she +published a volume describing this journey, which seems worthy of +republication. It seems so because it rather gives an idea of Western +scenery and character, than enters into guide-book statements which +would be all erroneous now. + +Beside this, it is much a record of thoughts as well as things, and +those thoughts have lost none of their significance now. It gives us +also knowledge of Indian character, and impressions respecting that +much injured and fast vanishing race, which justice to them makes it +desirable should be remembered. The friends of Madame Ossoli will be +glad to make permanent this additional proof of her sympathy with all +the oppressed, no matter whether that oppression find embodiment in +the Indian or the African, the American or the European. + +The second part of the present volume gives my sister's impressions +and observations during her European journey and residence in Italy. +This is done through letters, which originally appeared in the New +York Tribune but have never before been gathered into book form. There +may be a degree of incompleteness, sometimes perhaps inaccuracy, in +these letters, which are inseparable attendants upon letter-writing +during a journey or amid exciting and warlike scenes. None can lament +more than I that their writer lives not to revise them. Some errors, +too, were doubtless made in the original printing of these letters, +owing to her handwriting not being easily read by those who were not +familiar with it, and very probably some such errors may have escaped +my notice in the revision, especially as many emendations must be +conjectural, the original manuscript not now existing. + +There is one fact, however, which gives this part of the volume a high +value. Madame Ossoli was in Rome during the most eventful period of +its modern history. She was almost the only American who remained +there during the Italian Revolution, and the siege of the city. Her +marriage with the Marquis Ossoli, who was Captain of the Civic Guard +and active in the republican councils and army, and her own ardent +love of freedom, and sacrifices for it, brought her into immediate +acquaintance with the leaders in the revolutionary army, and made +her cognizant of their plans, their motives, and their characters. +Unsuccessful for a time as has been that struggle for freedom, it was +yet a noble one, and its true history should be known in this country +and in all lands, that justice may be done to those who sacrificed +much, some even life, in behalf of liberty. Her peculiar fitness to +write the history of this struggle is well expressed by Mr. Greeley, +in his Introduction to one of her volumes recently published.[A] "Of +Italy's last struggle for liberty and light," he says, "she might +not merely say, with the Grattan of Ireland's kindred effort, half a +century earlier, 'I stood by its cradle; I followed its hearse.' +She might fairly claim to have been a portion of its incitement, its +animation, its informing soul. She bore more than a woman's part in +its conflicts and its perils; and the bombs of that ruthless army +which a false and traitorous government impelled against the ramparts +of Republican Rome, could have stilled no voice more eloquent in its +exposures, no heart more lofty in its defiance, of the villany which +so wantonly drowned in blood the hopes, while crushing the dearest +rights, of a people, than those of Margaret Fuller." + +[Footnote A: Introduction to Papers on Literature and Art, p. 8.] + +Inadequate, indeed, are these letters as a memorial and vindication of +that struggle, in comparison with the history which Madame Ossoli had +written, and which perished with her; but well do they deserve to be +preserved, as the record of a clear-minded and true-hearted eyewitness +of, and participator in, this effort to establish a new and better +Roman Republic. In one respect they have an interest higher than +would the history. They were written during the struggle, and show the +fluctuations of hope and despondency-which animated those most deeply +interested. I have thought it right to leave unchanged all expressions +of her opinion and feeling, even when it is evident from the letters +themselves that these were gradually somewhat modified by ensuing +events. Especially did this change occur in regard to the Pope, whom +she at first regarded, in common with all lovers of freedom in this +and other lands, with a hopefulness which was doomed to a cruel +disappointment. She was, however, never for a moment deceived as to +his character. His heart she believed kindly and good; his intellect, +of a low order; his views as to reform, narrow, intending only what is +partial, temporary, and alleviating, never a permanent, vital reform, +which should remove the cause of the ills on account of which his +people groaned. Really to elevate and free Italy, it was necessary to +remove the yoke of ecclesiastical and political thraldom; to do this +formed no part of his plans,--from his very nature he was incapable +of so great a purpose. The expression in her letters of this opinion, +when most people hoped better things, was at first censured, as doing +injustice to Pius IX.; but alas! events proved the impulses of his +heart to be in subjection to the prejudices of his mind, and that mind +to be weaker than even she had deemed it, with views as narrow as she +had feared. + +The third part of this volume contains some letters to friends, which +were never written for the public eye, but are necessary to complete, +as far as can now be done, the narrative of her residence abroad. Some +few of these have already appeared in her "Memoirs," a work I cannot +too warmly recommend to those who would know my sister's character. +Many more of her letters may be there found, equally worthy of +perusal, but not so necessary to complete the history of events in +Italy. + +The fourth part contains the details of that shipwreck which caused +mourning not only in the hearts of her kindred, but of the many +who knew and loved her. These, with some poems commemorative of her +character and eventful death, form a sad but fitting close to a book +which records her European journeyings, and her voyage to a home which +proved to be not in this land, where were waiting warm hearts to bid +her welcome, but one in a land yet freer, better than this, where she +can be no less loved by the angels, by our Saviour, and the Infinite +Father. After the copy for this volume had been sent to the press, +it was found necessary to omit some portions of the work in the +republication, as too much matter had been furnished for a volume of +reasonable size. The Editor made these omissions with much reluctance, +but the desire to bring a record of Madame Ossoli's journeyings within +the compass of one volume outweighed that reluctance. He believes the +omissions have been made in such a way as not materially to diminish +its value, especially as most which has been omitted will find place +in another volume he hopes soon to issue, containing a portion of the +miscellaneous writings of Madame Ossoli. + +All of these omissions that are important occur in the Summer on the +Lakes, it being thought better to omit from a portion of the work +which had previously been before the public in book form. The +episodical nature of that work, too, enabled the Editor to make +omissions without in any way marring its unity. These omissions, when +other than mere verbal ones, consist of extracts from books which she +read in relation to the Indians; an account of and translation from +the Seeress of Prevorst, a German work which had not then, but has +since, been translated into English, and republished in this country; +a few extracts from letters and poems sent to her by friends while she +was in the West, one of which poems has been since published elsewhere +by its author; and the story of Marianna, (a great portion of which +may be found in my sister's "Memoirs,") and also Lines to Edith, a +short poem. Marianna and Lines to Edith will probably be republished +in another volume. From the letters of Madame Ossoli in Parts II. and +III. no omissions have been made other than verbal, or when pertaining +to trifling incidents, having only a temporary interest. Nothing in +any portion of the book recording my sister's own observations or +opinions has been omitted or changed. The reader, too, will notice +that nothing affecting the unity of the narrative is here wanting, the +volume even gaining in that respect by the omission of extracts from +other writers, and of a story and short poem not connected in any +regard with Western life. + +In conclusion, the Editor would express the sincere hope that this +volume may not only be of general interest, but inspire its readers +with an increased love of republican institutions, and an earnest +purpose to seek the removal of every national wrong which hinders +our beloved country from being a perfect example and hearty helper +of other nations in their struggles for liberty. May it do something, +also, to remove misapprehension of the motives, character, and action +of those noble patriots of Italy, who strove, though for a time +vainly, to make their country free, and to deepen the sympathy which +every true American should feel with faithful men everywhere, who by +art are seeking to refine, by philanthropic exertion to elevate, by +the diffusion of truth to enlighten, or by self-sacrifice and earnest +effort to free, their fellow-men. + +A.B.F. + +Boston, March 1, 1856. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + PART I. + SUMMER ON THE LAKES 1 + + + PART II. + THINGS AND THOUGHTS IN EUROPE 117 + + + PART III. + LETTERS FROM ABROAD TO FRIENDS AT HOME 423 + + + PART IV. + HOMEWARD VOYAGE, AND MEMORIALS 441 + + + + +PART I + +SUMMER ON THE LAKES. + + Summer days of busy leisure, + Long summer days of dear-bought pleasure, + You have done your teaching well; + Had the scholar means to tell + How grew the vine of bitter-sweet, + What made the path for truant feet, + Winter nights would quickly pass, + Gazing on the magic glass + O'er which the new-world shadows pass. + But, in fault of wizard spell, + Moderns their tale can only tell + In dull words, with a poor reed + Breaking at each time of need. + Yet those to whom a hint suffices + Mottoes find for all devices, + See the knights behind their shields, + Through dried grasses, blooming fields. + + * * * * * + + Some dried grass-tufts from the wide flowery field, + A muscle-shell from the lone fairy shore, + Some antlers from tall woods which never more + To the wild deer a safe retreat can yield, + An eagle's feather which adorned a Brave, + Well-nigh the last of his despairing band,-- + For such slight gifts wilt thou extend thy hand + When weary hours a brief refreshment crave? + I give you what I can, not what I would + If my small drinking-cup would hold a flood, + As Scandinavia sung those must contain + With which, the giants gods may entertain; + In our dwarf day we drain few drops, and soon must thirst again. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +NIAGARA. + + +Niagara, June 10, 1843. + +Since you are to share with me such foot-notes as may be made on the +pages of my life during this summer's wanderings, I should not be +quite silent as to this magnificent prologue to the, as yet, unknown +drama. Yet I, like others, have little to say, where the spectacle is, +for once, great enough to fill the whole life, and supersede thought, +giving us only its own presence. "It is good to be here," is the best, +as the simplest, expression that occurs to the mind. + +We have been here eight days, and I am quite willing to go away. So +great a sight soon satisfies, making us content with itself, and with +what is less than itself. Our desires, once realized, haunt us again +less readily. Having "lived one day," we would depart, and become +worthy to live another. + +We have not been fortunate in weather, for there cannot be too much, +or too warm sunlight for this scene, and the skies have been lowering, +with cold, unkind winds. My nerves, too much braced up by such an +atmosphere, do not well bear the continual stress of sight and sound. +For here there is no escape from the weight of a perpetual creation; +all other forms and motions come and go, the tide rises and recedes, +the wind, at its mightiest, moves in gales and gusts, but here is +really an incessant, an indefatigable motion. Awake or asleep, there +is no escape, still this rushing round you and through you. It is +in this way I have most felt the grandeur,--somewhat eternal, if not +infinite. + +At times a secondary music rises; the cataract seems to seize its own +rhythm and sing it over again, so that the ear and soul are roused by +a double vibration. This is some effect of the wind, causing echoes +to the thundering anthem. It is very sublime, giving the effect of a +spiritual repetition through all the spheres. + +When I first came, I felt nothing but a quiet satisfaction. I found +that drawings, the panorama, &c. had given me a clear notion of the +position and proportions of all objects here; I knew where to look for +everything, and everything looked as I thought it would. + +Long ago, I was looking from a hill-side with a friend at one of +the finest sunsets that ever enriched, this world. A little cowboy, +trudging along, wondered what we could be gazing at. After spying +about some time, he found it could only be the sunset, and looking, +too, a moment, he said approvingly, "That sun looks well enough"; a +speech worthy of Shakespeare's Cloten, or the infant Mercury, up to +everything from the cradle, as you please to take it. + +Even such a familiarity, worthy of Jonathan, our national hero, in +a prince's palace, or "stumping," as he boasts to have done, "up the +Vatican stairs, into the Pope's presence, in my old boots," I felt +here; it looks really _well enough_, I felt, and was inclined, as you +suggested, to give my approbation as to the one object in the world +that would not disappoint. + +But all great expression, which, on a superficial survey, seems so +easy as well as so simple, furnishes, after a while, to the faithful +observer, its own standard by which to appreciate it. Daily these +proportions widened and towered more and more upon my sight, and I +got, at last, a proper foreground for these sublime distances. Before +coming away, I think I really saw the full wonder of the scene. After +a while it so drew me into itself as to inspire an undefined dread, +such as I never knew before, such as may be felt when death is about +to usher us into a new existence. The perpetual trampling of the +waters seized my senses. I felt that no other sound, however near, +could be heard, and would start and look behind me for a foe. I +realized the identity of that mood of nature in which these waters +were poured down with such absorbing force, with that in which the +Indian was shaped on the same soil. For continually upon my mind came, +unsought and unwelcome, images, such as never haunted it before, of +naked savages stealing behind me with uplifted tomahawks; again and +again this illusion recurred, and even after I had thought it over, +and tried to shake it off, I could not help starting and looking +behind me. + +As picture, the falls can only be seen from the British side. There +they are seen in their veils, and at sufficient distance to appreciate +the magical effects of these, and the light and shade. From the boat, +as you cross, the effects and contrasts are more melodramatic. On the +road back from the whirlpool, we saw them as a reduced picture with +delight. But what I liked best was to sit on Table Rock, close to +the great fall. There all power of observing details, all separate +consciousness, was quite lost. + +Once, just as I had seated myself there, a man came to take his first +look. He walked close up to the fall, and, after looking at it a +moment, with an air as if thinking how he could best appropriate it to +his own use, he spat into it. + +This trait seemed wholly worthy of an age whose love of _utility_ is +such that the Prince Puckler Muskau suggests the probability of +men coming to put the bodies of their dead parents in the fields to +fertilize them, and of a country such as Dickens has described; but +these will not, I hope, be seen on the historic page to be truly the +age or truly the America. A little leaven is leavening the whole mass +for other bread. + +The whirlpool I like very much. It is seen to advantage after the +great falls; it is so sternly solemn. The river cannot look more +imperturbable, almost sullen in its marble green, than it does just +below the great fall; but the slight circles that mark the hidden +vortex seem to whisper mysteries the thundering voice above could not +proclaim,--a meaning as untold as ever. + +It is fearful, too, to know, as you look, that whatever has been +swallowed by the cataract is like to rise suddenly to light here, +whether uprooted tree, or body of man or bird. + +The rapids enchanted me far beyond what I expected; they are so swift +that they cease to seem so; you can think only of their beauty. The +fountain beyond the Moss Islands I discovered for myself, and thought +it for some time an accidental beauty which it would not do to +leave, lest I might never see it again. After I found it permanent, +I returned many times to watch the play of its crest. In the little +waterfall beyond, Nature seems, as she often does, to have made a +study for some larger design. She delights in this,--a sketch within +a sketch, a dream within a dream. Wherever we see it, the lines of +the great buttress in the fragment of stone, the hues of the +waterfall copied in the flowers that star its bordering mosses, we +are delighted; for all the lineaments become fluent, and we mould the +scene in congenial thought with its genius. + +People complain of the buildings at Niagara, and fear to see it +further deformed. I cannot sympathize with such an apprehension: the +spectacle is capable of swallowing up all such objects; they are not +seen in the great whole, more than an earthworm in a wide field. + +The beautiful wood on Goat Island is full of flowers; many of the +fairest love to do homage here. The Wake-robin and May-apple are in +bloom now; the former, white, pink, green, purple, copying the rainbow +of the fall, and fit to make a garland for its presiding deity when he +walks the land, for they are of imperial size, and shaped like stones +for a diadem. Of the May-apple, I did not raise one green tent without +finding a flower beneath. + +And now farewell. Niagara. I have seen thee, and I think all who come +here must in some sort see thee; thou art not to be got rid of as +easily as the stars. I will be here again beneath some flooding July +moon and sun. Owing to the absence of light, I have seen the rainbow +only two or three times by day; the lunar bow not at all. However, the +imperial presence needs not its crown, though illustrated by it. + +General Porter and Jack Downing were not unsuitable figures here. The +former heroically planted the bridges by which we cross to Goat Island +and the Wake-robin-crowned genius has punished his temerity with +deafness, which must, I think, have come upon him when he sunk the +first stone in the rapids. Jack seemed an acute and entertaining +representative of Jonathan, come to look at his great water-privilege. +He told us all about the Americanisms of the spectacle; that is to +say, the battles that have been fought here. It seems strange that +men could fight in such a place; but no temple can still the personal +griefs and strifes in the breasts of its visitors. + +No less strange is the fact that, in this neighborhood, an eagle +should be chained for a plaything. When a child, I used often to stand +at a window from which I could see an eagle chained in the balcony of +a museum. The people used to poke at it with sticks, and my childish +heart would swell with indignation as I saw their insults, and the +mien with which they were borne by the monarch-bird. Its eye was dull, +and its plumage soiled and shabby, yet, in its form and attitude, +all the king was visible, though sorrowful and dethroned. I never +saw another of the family till, when passing through the Notch of the +White Mountains, at that moment glowing before us in all the panoply +of sunset, the driver shouted, "Look there!" and following with our +eyes his upward-pointing finger, we saw, soaring slow in majestic +poise above the highest summit, the bird of Jove. It was a glorious +sight, yet I know not that I felt more on seeing the bird in all its +natural freedom and royalty, than when, imprisoned and insulted, +he had filled my early thoughts with the Byronic "silent rages" of +misanthropy. + +Now, again, I saw him a captive, and addressed by the vulgar with the +language they seem to find most appropriate to such occasions,--that +of thrusts and blows. Silently, his head averted, he ignored their +existence, as Plotinus or Sophocles might that of a modern reviewer. +Probably he listened to the voice of the cataract, and felt that +congenial powers flowed free, and was consoled, though his own wing +was broken. + +The story of the Recluse of Niagara interested me a little. It is +wonderful that men do not oftener attach their lives to localities +of great beauty,--that, when once deeply penetrated, they will let +themselves so easily be borne away by the general stream of things, +to live anywhere and anyhow. But there is something ludicrous in being +the hermit of a show-place, unlike St. Francis in his mountain-bed, +where none but the stars and rising sun ever saw him. + +There is also a "guide to the falls," who wears his title labelled on +his hat; otherwise, indeed, one might as soon think of asking for a +gentleman usher to point out the moon. Yet why should we wonder at +such, when we have Commentaries on Shakespeare, and Harmonies of the +Gospels? + +And now you have the little all I have to write. Can it interest you? +To one who has enjoyed the full life of any scene, of any hour, what +thoughts can be recorded about it seem like the commas and semicolons +in the paragraph,--mere stops. Yet I suppose it is not so to the +absent. At least, I have read things written about Niagara, music, and +the like, that interested _me_. Once I was moved by Mr. Greenwood's +remark, that he could not realize this marvel till, opening his eyes +the next morning after he had seen it, his doubt as to the possibility +of its being still there taught him what he had experienced. I +remember this now with pleasure, though, or because, it is exactly the +opposite to what I myself felt. For all greatness affects different +minds, each in "its own particular kind," and the variations of +testimony mark the truth of feeling.[A] + +[Footnote A: "Somewhat avails, in one regard, the mere sight of beauty +without the union of feeling therewith. Carried away in memory, it +hangs there in the lonely hall as a picture, and may some time do its +message. I trust it may be so in my case, for I _saw_ every object far +more clearly than if I had been moved and filled with the presence, +and my recollections are equally distinct and vivid." Extracted from +Manuscript Notes of this Journey left by Margaret Fuller.--ED.] + +I will here add a brief narrative of the experience of another, as +being much better than anything I could write, because more simple and +individual. + +"Now that I have left this 'Earth-wonder,' and the emotions it +excited are past, it seems not so much like profanation to analyze +my feelings, to recall minutely and accurately the effect of this +manifestation of the Eternal. But one should go to such a scene +prepared to yield entirely to its influences, to forget one's little +self and one's little mind. To see a miserable worm creep to the brink +of this falling world of waters, and watch the trembling of its +own petty bosom, and fancy that this is made alone to act upon him +excites--derision? No,--pity." + +As I rode up to the neighborhood of the falls, a solemn awe +imperceptibly stole over me, and the deep sound of the ever-hurrying +rapids prepared my mind for the lofty emotions to be experienced. When +I reached the hotel, I felt a strange indifference about seeing the +aspiration of my life's hopes. I lounged about the rooms, read the +stage-bills upon the walls, looked over the register, and, finding the +name of an acquaintance, sent to see if he was still there. What this +hesitation arose from, I know not; perhaps it was a feeling of my +unworthiness to enter this temple which nature has erected to its God. + +At last, slowly and thoughtfully I walked down to the bridge leading +to Goat Island, and when I stood upon this frail support, and saw +a quarter of a mile of tumbling, rushing rapids, and heard their +everlasting roar, my emotions overpowered me, a choking sensation rose +to my throat, a thrill rushed through my veins, "my blood ran rippling +to my fingers' ends." This was the climax of the effect which the +falls produced upon me,--neither the American nor the British fall +moved me as did these rapids. For the magnificence, the sublimity of +the latter, I was prepared by descriptions and by paintings. When I +arrived in sight of them I merely felt, "Ah, yes! here is the fall, +just as I have seen it in a picture." When I arrived at the Terrapin +Bridge, I expected to be overwhelmed, to retire trembling from this +giddy eminence, and gaze with unlimited wonder and awe upon the +immense mass rolling on and on; but, somehow or other, I thought only +of comparing the effect on my mind with what I had read and heard. +I looked for a short time, and then, with almost a feeling of +disappointment, turned to go to the other points of view, to see if I +was not mistaken in not feeling any surpassing emotion at this sight. +But from the foot of Biddle's Stairs, and the middle of the river, and +from below the Table Rock, it was still "barren, barren all." + +Provoked with my stupidity in feeling most moved in the wrong place, +I turned away to the hotel, determined to set off for Buffalo that +afternoon. But the stage did not go, and, after nightfall, as there +was a splendid moon, I went down to the bridge, and leaned over the +parapet, where the boiling rapids came down in their might. It was +grand, and it was also gorgeous; the yellow rays of the moon made +the broken waves appear like auburn tresses twining around the black +rocks. But they did not inspire me as before. I felt a foreboding of a +mightier emotion to rise up and swallow all others, and I passed on to +the Terrapin Bridge. Everything was changed, the misty apparition had +taken off its many-colored crown which it had worn by day, and a bow +of silvery white spanned its summit. The moonlight gave a poetical +indefiniteness to the distant parts of the waters, and while the +rapids were glancing in her beams, the river below the falls was black +as night, save where the reflection of the sky gave it the appearance +of a shield of blued steel. No gaping tourists loitered, eyeing with +their glasses, or sketching on cards the hoary locks of the ancient +river-god. All tended to harmonize with the natural grandeur of the +scene. I gazed long. I saw how here mutability and unchangeableness +were united. I surveyed the conspiring waters rushing against the +rocky ledge to overthrow it at one mad plunge, till, like toppling +ambition, o'er-leaping themselves, they fall on t' other side, +expanding into foam ere they reach the deep channel where they creep +submissively away. + +Then arose in my breast a genuine admiration, and a humble adoration +of the Being who was the architect of this and of all. Happy were the +first discoverers of Niagara, those who could come unawares upon this +view and upon that, whose feelings were entirely their own. With what +gusto does Father Hennepin describe "this great downfall of water," +"this vast and prodigious cadence of water, which falls down after a +surprising and astonishing manner, insomuch that the universe does not +afford its parallel. 'Tis true Italy and Swedeland boast of some such +things, but we may well say that they be sorry patterns when compared +with this of which we do now speak." + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE LAKES.--CHICAGO.--GENEVA.--A THUNDER-STORM.--PAPAW GROVE. + + +SCENE, STEAMBOAT.--_About to leave Buffalo.--Baggage coming on +board.--Passengers bustling for their berths.--Little boys persecuting +everybody with their newspapers and pamphlets.--J., S., and M. huddled +up in a forlorn corner, behind a large trunk.--A heavy rain falling._ + +_M._ Water, water everywhere. After Niagara one would like a dry strip +of existence. And at any rate it is quite enough for me to have it +under foot without having it overhead in this way. + +_J._ Ah, do not abuse the gentle element. It is hardly possible to +have too much of it, and indeed, if I were obliged to choose amid the +four, it would be the one in which I could bear confinement best. + +_S._ You would make a pretty Undine, to be sure! + +_J._ Nay. I only offered myself as a Triton, a boisterous Triton of +the sounding shell. You, M., I suppose, would be a salamander, rather. + +_M._ No! that is too equivocal a position, whether in modern +mythology, or Hoffman's tales. I should choose to be a gnome. + +_J._ That choice savors of the pride that apes humility. + +_M._ By no means; the gnomes are the most important of all the +elemental tribes. Is it not they who make the money? + +_J._ And are accordingly a dark, mean, scoffing ---- + +_M._ You talk as if you had always lived in that wild, unprofitable +element you are so fond of, where all things glitter, and nothing is +gold; all show and no substance. My people work in the secret, and +their works praise them in the open light; they remain in the dark +because only there such marvels could be bred. You call them mean. +They do not spend their energies on their own growth, or their own +play, but to feed the veins of Mother Earth with permanent splendors, +very different from what she shows on the surface. + +Think of passing a life, not merely in heaping together, but _making_ +gold. Of all dreams, that of the alchemist is the most poetical, for +he looked at the finest symbol. "Gold," says one of our friends, "is +the hidden light of the earth, it crowns the mineral, as wine the +vegetable order, being the last expression of vital energy." + +_J._ Have you paid for your passage? + +_J._ Yes! and in gold, not in shells or pebbles. + +_J._ No really wise gnome would scoff at the water, the beautiful +water. "The spirit of man is like the water." + +_S._ And like the air and fire, no less. + +_J._ Yes, but not like the earth, this low-minded creature's chosen, +dwelling. + +_M._ The earth is spirit made fruitful,--life. And its heartbeats are +told in gold and wine. + +_J._ Oh! it is shocking to hear such sentiments in these times. I +thought that Bacchic energy of yours was long since repressed. + +_M._ No! I have only learned to mix water with my wine, and stamp upon +my gold the heads of kings, or the hieroglyphics of worship. But since +I have learnt to mix with water, let's hear what you have to say in +praise of your favorite. + +_J._ From water Venus was born, what more would you have? It is the +mother of Beauty, the girdle of earth, and the marriage of nations. + +_S._ Without any of that high-flown poetry, it is enough, I think, +that it is the great artist, turning all objects that approach it to +picture. + +_J._ True, no object that touches it, whether it be the cart that +ploughs the wave for sea-weed, or the boat or plank that rides upon +it, but is brought at once from the demesne of coarse utilities into +that of picture. All trades, all callings, become picturesque by the +water's side, or on the water. The soil, the slovenliness, is washed +out of every calling by its touch. All river-crafts, sea-crafts, are +picturesque, are poetical. Their very slang is poetry. + +_M._ The reasons for that are complex. + +_J._ The reason is, that there can be no plodding, groping words and +motions on my water as there are on your earth. There is no time, +no chance for them where all moves so rapidly, though so smoothly; +everything connected with water must be like itself, forcible, but +clear. That is why sea-slang is so poetical; there is a word for +everything and every act, and a thing and an act for every word. +Seamen must speak quick and bold, but also with utmost precision. +They cannot reef and brace other than in a Homeric dialect,-- +therefore--(Steamboat bell rings.) But I must say a quick good-by. + +_M._ What, going, going back to earth after all this talk upon the +other side. Well, that is nowise Homeric, but truly modern. + +J. is borne off without time for any reply, but a laugh--at himself, +of course. + +S. and M. retire to their state-rooms to forget the wet, the chill, +and steamboat smell, in their just-bought new world of novels. + +Next day, when we stopped at Cleveland, the storm was just clearing +up; ascending the bluff, we had one of the finest views of the lake +that could have been wished. The varying depths of these lakes give to +their surface a great variety of coloring, and beneath this wild sky +and changeful light, the waters presented a kaleidoscopic variety +of hues, rich, but mournful. I admire these bluffs of red, crumbling +earth. Here land and water meet under very different auspices from +those of the rock-bound coast to which I have been accustomed. There +they meet tenderly to challenge, and proudly to refuse, though, not in +fact repel. But here they meet to mingle, are always rushing together, +and changing places; a new creation takes place beneath the eye. + +The weather grew gradually clearer, but not bright; yet we could see +the shore and appreciate the extent of these noble waters. + +Coming up the river St. Clair, we saw Indians for the first time. +They were camped out on the bank. It was twilight, and their blanketed +forms, in listless groups or stealing along the bank, with a lounge +and a stride so different in its wildness from the rudeness of the +white settler, gave me the first feeling that I really approached the +West. + +The people on the boat were almost all New-Englanders, seeking their +fortunes. They had brought with them their habits of calculation, +their cautious manners, their love of polemics. It grieved me to hear +these immigrants, who were to be the fathers of a new race, all, from +the old man down to the little girl, talking, not of what they should +do, but of what they should get in the new scene. It was to them a +prospect, not of the unfolding nobler energies, but of more ease and +larger accumulation. It wearied me, too, to hear Trinity and Unity +discussed in the poor, narrow, doctrinal way on these free waters; but +that will soon cease; there is not time for this clash of opinions in +the West, where the clash of material interests is so noisy. They will +need the spirit of religion more than ever to guide them, but will +find less time than before for its doctrine. This change was to me, +who am tired of the war of words on these subjects, and believe it +only sows the wind to reap the whirlwind, refreshing, but I argue +nothing from it; there is nothing real in the freedom of thought at +the West,--it is from the position of men's lives, not the state +of their minds. So soon as they have time, unless they grow better +meanwhile, they will cavil and criticise, and judge other men by their +own standard, and outrage the law of love every way, just as they do +with us. + +We reached Mackinaw the evening of the third day, but, to my great +disappointment, it was too late and too rainy to go ashore. The beauty +of the island, though seen under the most unfavorable circumstances, +did not disappoint my expectations.[A] But I shall see it to more +purpose on my return. + +[Footnote A: "Mackinaw, that long desired, sight, was dimly discerned +under a thick fog, yet it soothed and cheered me. All looked mellow +there; man seemed to have worked in harmony with Nature instead of +rudely invading her, as in most Western towns. It seemed possible, on +that spot, to lead a life of serenity and cheerfulness. Some richly +dressed Indians came down to show themselves. Their dresses were of +blue broadcloth, with splendid leggings and knee-ties. On their heads +were crimson scarfs adorned with beads and falling on one shoulder, +their hair long and looking cleanly. Near were one or two wild figures +clad in the common white blankets." Manuscript Notes.--ED.] + +As the day has passed dully, a cold rain preventing us from keeping +out in the air, my thoughts have been dwelling on a story told when we +were off Detroit, this morning, by a fellow-passenger, and whose moral +beauty touched me profoundly. + +"Some years ago," said Mrs. L., "my father and mother stopped to +dine at Detroit. A short time before dinner my father met in the hall +Captain P., a friend of his youthful days. He had loved P. extremely, +as did many who knew him, and had not been surprised to hear of the +distinction and popular esteem which his wide knowledge, talents, and +noble temper commanded, as he went onward in the world. P. was every +way fitted to succeed; his aims were high, but not too high for his +powers, suggested by an instinct of his own capacities, not by an +ideal standard drawn from culture. Though steadfast in his course, it +was not to overrun others; his wise self-possession was no less for +them than himself. He was thoroughly the gentleman, gentle because +manly, and was a striking instance that, where there is strength +for sincere courtesy, there is no need of other adaptation to the +character of others, to make one's way freely and gracefully through +the crowd. + +"My father was delighted to see him, and after a short parley in the +hall, 'We will dine together,' he cried, 'then we shall have time to +tell all our stories.' + +"P. hesitated a moment, then said, 'My wife is with me.' + +"'And mine with me,' said my father; 'that's well; they, too, will +have an opportunity of getting acquainted, and can entertain one +another, if they get tired of our college stories.' + +"P. acquiesced, with a grave bow, and shortly after they all met in +the dining-room. My father was much surprised at the appearance of +Mrs. P. He had heard that his friend married abroad, but nothing +further, and he was not prepared to see the calm, dignified P. with +a woman on his arm, still handsome, indeed, but whose coarse and +imperious expression showed as low habits of mind as her exaggerated +dress and gesture did of education. Nor could there be a greater +contrast to my mother, who, though understanding her claims and place +with the certainty of a lady, was soft and retiring in an uncommon +degree. + +"However, there was no time to wonder or fancy; they sat down, and +P. engaged in conversation, without much vivacity, but with his usual +ease. The first quarter of an hour passed well enough. But soon it was +observable that Mrs. P. was drinking glass after glass of wine, to an +extent few gentlemen did, even then, and soon that she was actually +excited by it. Before this, her manner had been brusque, if not +contemptuous, towards her new acquaintance; now it became, towards +my mother especially, quite rude. Presently she took up some slight +remark made by my mother, which, though, it did not naturally mean +anything of the sort, could be twisted into some reflection upon +England, and made it a handle, first of vulgar sarcasm, and then, upon +my mother's defending herself with some surprise and gentle dignity, +hurled upon her a volley of abuse, beyond Billingsgate. + +"My mother, confounded by scenes and ideas presented to her mind +equally new and painful, sat trembling; she knew not what to do; tears +rushed into her eyes. My father, no less distressed, yet unwilling +to outrage the feelings of his friend by doing or saying what his +indignation prompted, turned an appealing look on P. + +"Never, as he often said, was the painful expression of that sight +effaced from his mind. It haunted his dreams and disturbed his waking +thoughts. P. sat with his head bent forward, and his eyes cast down, +pale, but calm, with a fixed expression, not merely of patient woe, +but of patient shame, which it would not have been thought possible +for that noble countenance to wear. 'Yet,' said my father, 'it became +him. At other times he was handsome, but then beautiful, though of a +beauty saddened and abashed. For a spiritual light borrowed from the +worldly perfection of his mien that illustration by contrast, which +the penitence of the Magdalen does from the glowing earthliness of her +charms.' + +"Seeing that he preserved silence, while Mrs. P. grew still more +exasperated, my father rose and led his wife to her own room. Half +an hour had passed, in painful and wondering surmises, when a gentle +knock was heard at the door, and P. entered equipped for a journey. +'We are just going,' he said, and holding out his hand, but without +looking at them, 'Forgive.' + +"They each took his hand, and silently pressed it; then he went +without a word more. + +"Some time passed, and they heard now and then of P., as he passed +from one army station to another, with his uncongenial companion, +who became, it was said, constantly more degraded. Whoever mentioned +having seen them wondered at the chance which had yoked him to such +a woman, but yet more at the silent fortitude with which he bore it. +Many blamed him for enduring it, apparently without efforts to check +her; others answered that he had probably made such at an earlier +period, and, finding them unavailing, had resigned himself to despair, +and was too delicate to meet the scandal that, with such resistance as +such a woman could offer, must attend a formal separation. + +"But my father, who was not in such haste to come to conclusions, and +substitute some plausible explanation for the truth, found something +in the look of P. at that trying moment to which, none of these +explanations offered a key. There was in it, he felt, a fortitude, +but not the fortitude of the hero; a religious submission, above the +penitent, if not enkindled with the enthusiasm, of the martyr. + +"I have said that my father was not one of those who are ready to +substitute specious explanations for truth, and those who are thus +abstinent rarely lay their hand, on a thread without making it a clew. +Such a man, like the dexterous weaver, lets not one color go till Ire +finds that which matches it in the pattern,--he keeps on weaving, but +chooses his shades; and my father found at last what he wanted to make +out the pattern for himself. He met a lady who had been intimate +with both himself and P. in early days, and, finding she had seen the +latter abroad, asked if she knew the circumstances of the marriage. + +"'The circumstances of the act which sealed the misery of our friend, +I know,' she said, 'though as much in the dark as any one about the +motives that led to it. + +"'We were quite intimate with P. in London, and he was our most +delightful companion. He was then in the full flower of the varied +accomplishments which set off his fine manners and dignified +character, joined, towards those he loved, with a certain soft +willingness which gives the desirable chivalry to a man. None was more +clear of choice where his personal affections were not touched, +but where they were, it cost him pain to say no, on the slightest +occasion. I have thought this must have had some connection with the +mystery of his misfortunes. + +"'One day he called on me, and, without any preface, asked if I +would be present next day at his marriage. I was so surprised, and so +unpleasantly surprised, that I did not at first answer a word. We had +been on terms so familiar, that I thought I knew all about him, yet +had never dreamed of his having an attachment; and, though I had never +inquired on the subject, yet this reserve where perfect openness had +been supposed, and really, on my side, existed, seemed to me a kind of +treachery. Then it is never pleasant to know that a heart on which we +have some claim is to be given to another. We cannot tell how it will +affect our own relations with a person; it may strengthen or it may +swallow up other affections; the crisis is hazardous, and our first +thought, on such an occasion, is too often for ourselves,--at least +mine was. Seeing me silent, he repeated his question. "To whom," said +I, "are you to be married?" "That," he replied, "I cannot tell you." +He was a moment silent, then continued, with an impassive look of cold +self-possession, that affected me with strange sadness: "The name of +the person you will hear, of course, at the time, but more I cannot +tell you. I need, however, the presence, not only of legal, but of +respectable and friendly witnesses. I have hoped you and your husband +would, do me this kindness. Will you?" Something in his manner made it +impossible to refuse. I answered, before I knew I was going to speak, +"We will," and he left me. + +"'I will not weary you with telling how I harassed myself and my +husband, who was, however, scarce less interested, with doubts and +conjectures. Suffice it that, next morning, P. came and took us in a +carriage to a distant church. We had just entered the porch, when a +cart, such as fruit and vegetables are brought to market in, drove +up, containing an elderly woman and a young girl. P. assisted them to +alight, and advanced with the girl to the altar. + +"'The girl was neatly dressed and quite handsome, yet something in her +expression displeased me the moment I looked upon her. Meanwhile, +the ceremony was going on, and, at its close, P. introduced us to the +bride, and we all went to the door. "Good by, Fanny," said the elderly +woman. The new-made Mrs. P. replied without any token of affection or +emotion. The woman got into the cart and drove away. + +"'From that time I saw but little of P. or his wife. I took our mutual +friends to see her, and they were civil to her for his sake. Curiosity +was very much excited, but entirely baffled; no one, of course, dared +speak to P. on the subject, and no other means could be found of +solving the riddle. + +"'He treated his wife with grave and kind politeness, but it was +always obvious that they had nothing in common between them. Her +manners and tastes were not at that time gross, but her character +showed itself hard and material. She was fond of riding, and spent +much time so. Her style in this, and in dress, seemed the opposite of +P.'s; but he indulged all her wishes, while, for himself, he plunged +into his own pursuits. + +"'For a time he seemed, if not happy, not positively unhappy; but, +after a few years, Mrs. P. fell into the habit of drinking, and then +such scenes as you witnessed grew frequent. I have often heard of +them, and always that P. sat, as you describe him, his head bowed down +and perfectly silent all through, whatever might be done or whoever +be present, and always his aspect has inspired such sympathy that no +person has questioned him or resented her insults, but merely got out +of the way as soon as possible.' + +"'Hard and long penance,' said my father, after some minutes musing, +'for an hour of passion, probably for his only error.' + +"'Is that your explanation?' said the lady. 'O, improbable! P. might +err, but not be led beyond himself.' + +"I know that his cool, gray eye and calm complexion seemed to say +so, but a different story is told by the lip that could tremble, and +showed what flashes might pierce those deep blue heavens; and when +these over-intellectual beings do swerve aside, it is to fall down a +precipice, for their narrow path lies over such. But he was not one +to sin without making a brave atonement, and that it had become a holy +one, was written on that downcast brow." + +The fourth day on these waters, the weather was milder and brighter, +so that we could now see them to some purpose. At night the moon was +clear, and, for the first time, from, the upper deck I saw one of the +great steamboats come majestically up. It was glowing with lights, +looking many-eyed and sagacious; in its heavy motion it seemed a +dowager queen, and this motion, with its solemn pulse, and determined +sweep, becomes these smooth waters, especially at night, as much as +the dip of the sail-ship the long billows of the ocean. + +But it was not so soon that I learned to appreciate the lake scenery; +it was only after a daily and careless familiarity that I entered into +its beauty, for Nature always refuses to be seen by being stared at. +Like Bonaparte, she discharges her face of all expression when she +catches the eye of impertinent curiosity fixed on her. But he who has +gone to sleep in childish ease on her lap, or leaned an aching brow +upon her breast, seeking there comfort with full trust as from a +mother, will see all a mother's beauty in the look she bends upon him. +Later, I felt that I had really seen these regions, and shall speak of +them again. + +In the afternoon we went on shore at the Manitou Islands, where the +boat stops to wood. No one lives here except wood-cutters for the +steamboats. I had thought of such a position, from its mixture of +profound solitude with service to the great world, as possessing an +ideal beauty. I think so still, even after seeing the wood-cutters and +their slovenly huts. + +In times of slower growth, man did not enter a situation without a +certain preparation or adaptedness to it. He drew from it, if not to +the poetical extent, at least in some proportion, its moral and its +meaning. The wood-cutter did not cut down so many trees a day, that +the Hamadryads had not time to make their plaints heard; the shepherd +tended his sheep, and did no jobs or chores the while; the idyl had a +chance to grow up, and modulate his oaten pipe. But now the poet +must be at the whole expense of the poetry in describing one of these +positions; the worker is a true Midas to the gold he makes. The poet +must describe, as the painter sketches Irish peasant-girls and Danish +fishwives, adding the beauty, and leaving out the dirt. + +I come to the West prepared for the distaste I must experience at its +mushroom growth. I know that, where "go ahead" is tire only motto, the +village cannot grow into the gentle proportions that successive +lives and the gradations of experience involuntarily give. In older +countries the house of the son grew from that of the father, as +naturally as new joints on a bough, and the cathedral crowned the +whole as naturally as the leafy summit the tree. This cannot be here. +The march of peaceful is scarce less wanton than that of warlike +invasion. The old landmarks are broken down, and the land, for a +season, bears none, except of the rudeness of conquest and the needs +of the day, whose bivouac-fires blacken the sweetest forest glades. I +have come prepared to see all this, to dislike it, but not with stupid +narrowness to distrust or defame. On the contrary, while I will not be +so obliging as to confound ugliness with beauty, discord with harmony, +and laud and be contented with all I meet, when it conflicts with my +best desires and tastes, I trust by reverent faith to woo the mighty +meaning of the scene, perhaps to foresee the law by which a new order, +a new poetry, is to be evoked from this chaos, and with a curiosity +as ardent, but not so selfish, as that of Macbeth, to call up the +apparitions of future kings from the strange ingredients of the +witch's caldron. Thus I will not grieve that all the noble trees are +gone already from this island to feed this caldron, but believe +it will have Medea's virtue, and reproduce them in the form of new +intellectual growths, since centuries cannot again adorn the land with +such as have been removed. + +On this most beautiful beach of smooth white pebbles, interspersed +with agates and cornelians for those who know how to find them, we +stepped, not like the Indian, with some humble offering, which, if no +better than an arrow-head or a little parched corn, would, he judged, +please the Manitou, who looks only at the spirit in which it is +offered. Our visit was so far for a religious purpose that one of our +party went to inquire the fate of some Unitarian tracts left among +the wood-cutters a year or two before. But the old Manitou, though, +daunted like his children by the approach of the fire-ships, which he +probably considered demons of a new dynasty, he had suffered his +woods to be felled to feed their pride, had been less patient of an +encroachment which did not to him seem so authorized by the law of the +strongest, and had scattered those leaves as carelessly as the others +of that year. + +But S. and I, like other emigrants, went, not to give, but to get, +to rifle the wood of flowers for the service of the fire-ship. We +returned with a rich booty, among which was the _Uva-ursi_, whose +leaves the Indians smoke, with the _Kinnikinnik_, and which had then +just put forth its highly finished little blossoms, as pretty as those +of the blueberry. + +Passing along still further, I thought it would be well if the crowds +assembled to stare from the various landings were still confined to +the _Kinnikinnik_, for almost all had tobacco written on their faces, +their cheeks rounded with plugs, their eyes dull with its fumes. We +reached Chicago on the evening of the sixth day, having been out five +days and a half, a rather longer passage than usual at a favorable +season of the year. + + +Chicago, June 20. + +There can be no two places in the world more completely thoroughfares +than this place and Buffalo. They are the two correspondent valves +that open and shut all the time, as the life-blood rushes from east to +west, and back again from west to east. + +Since it is their office thus to be the doors, and let in and out, it +would be unfair to expect from them much character of their own. To +make the best provisions for the transmission of produce is their +office, and the people who live there are such as are suited for +this,--active, complaisant, inventive, business people. There are no +provisions for the student or idler; to know what the place can give, +you should be at work with the rest; the mere traveller will not find +it profitable to loiter there as I did. + +Since circumstances made it necessary for me so to do, I read all the +books I could find about the new region, which now began, to become +real to me. Especially I read all the books about the Indians,--a +paltry collection truly, yet which furnished material for many +thoughts. The most narrow-minded and awkward recital still bears some +lineaments of the great features of this nature, and the races of men +that illustrated them. + +Catlin's book is far the best. I was afterwards assured by those +acquainted with the regions he describes, that he is not to be +depended on for the accuracy of his facts, and indeed it is obvious, +without the aid of such assertions, that he sometimes yields to the +temptation of making out a story. They admitted, however, what from +my feelings I was sure of, that he is true to the spirit of the scene, +and that a far better view can be got from him than from any source +at present existing, of the Indian tribes of the Far West, and of the +country where their inheritance lay. + +Murray's Travels I read, and was charmed by their accuracy and clear, +broad tone. He is the only Englishman that seems to have traversed +these regions as man simply, not as John Bull. He deserves to belong +to an aristocracy, for he showed his title to it more when left +without a guide in the wilderness, than he can at the court of +Victoria. He has; himself, no poetic force at description, but it is +easy to make images from his hints. Yet we believe the Indian cannot +be locked at truly except by a poetic eye. The Pawnees, no doubt, are +such as he describes them, filthy in their habits, and treacherous in +their character, but some would have seen, and seen truly, more beauty +and dignity than he does with all his manliness and fairness of mind. +However, his one fine old man is enough to redeem the rest, and is +perhaps tire relic of a better day, a Phocion among the Pawnees. + +Schoolcraft's Algic Researches is a valuable book, though a worse +use could hardly have been made of such fine material. Had the +mythological or hunting stories of the Indians been written down +exactly as they were received from the lips of the narrators, the +collection could not have been surpassed in interest? both for +the wild charm they carry with them, and the light they throw on a +peculiar modification of life and mind. As it is, though the incidents +have an air of originality and pertinence to the occasion, that gives +us confidence that they have not been altered, the phraseology in +which they were expressed has been entirely set aside, and the flimsy +graces, common to the style of annuals and souvenirs, substituted for +the Spartan brevity and sinewy grasp of Indian speech. We can +just guess what might have been there, as we can detect the fine +proportions of the Brave whom the bad taste of some white patron has +arranged in frock-coat, hat, and pantaloons. + +The few stories Mrs. Jameson wrote out, though to these also a +sentimental air has been given, offend much less in that way than is +common in this book. What would we not give for a completely faithful +version of some among them! Yet, with all these drawbacks, we cannot +doubt from internal evidence that they truly ascribe to the Indian +a delicacy of sentiment and of fancy that justifies Cooper in such +inventions as his Uncas. It is a white man's view of a savage hero, +who would be far finer in his natural proportions; still, through a +masquerade figure, it implies the truth. + +Irving's books I also read, some for the first, some for the second +time, with increased interest, now that I was to meet such people as +he received his materials from. Though the books are pleasing from, +their grace and luminous arrangement, yet, with the exception of the +Tour to the Prairies, they have a stereotype, second-hand air. They +lack the breath, the glow, the charming minute traits of living +presence. His scenery is only fit to be glanced at from, dioramic +distance; his Indians are academic figures only. He would have made +the best of pictures, if he could have used his own eyes for studies +and sketches; as it is, his success is wonderful, but inadequate. + +McKenney's Tour to the Lakes is the dullest of books, yet faithful and +quiet, and gives some facts not to be met with everywhere. + +I also read a collection of Indian anecdotes and speeches, the worst +compiled and arranged book possible, yet not without clews of some +value. All these books I read in anticipation of a canoe-voyage +on Lake Superior as far as the Pictured Rocks, and, though I was +afterwards compelled to give up this project, they aided me in judging +of what I subsequently saw and heard of the Indians. + +In Chicago I first saw the beautiful prairie-flowers. They were in +their glory the first ten days we were there,-- + + "The golden and the flame-like flowers." + +The flame-like flower I was taught afterwards, by an Indian girl, to +call "Wickapee"; and she told me, too, that its splendors had a useful +side, for it was used by the Indians as a remedy for an illness to +which they were subject. + +Beside these brilliant flowers, which gemmed and gilt the grass in a +sunny afternoon's drive near the blue lake, between the low oak-wood +and the narrow beach, stimulated, whether sensuously by the optic +nerve, unused to so much gold and crimson with such tender green, or +symbolically through some meaning dimly seen in the flowers, I enjoyed +a sort of fairy-land exultation never felt before, and the first drive +amid the flowers gave me anticipation of the beauty of the prairies. + +At first, the prairie seemed to speak of the very desolation of +dulness. After sweeping over the vast monotony of the lakes to come to +this monotony of land, with all around a limitless horizon,--to walk, +and walk, and run, but never climb, oh! it was too dreary for any but +a Hollander to bear. How the eye greeted the approach of a sail, or +the smoke of a steamboat; it seemed that anything so animated must +come from a better land, where mountains gave religion to the scene. + +The only thing I liked at first to do was to trace with slow and +unexpecting step the narrow margin of the lake. Sometimes a heavy +swell gave it expression; at others, only its varied coloring, which +I found more admirable every day, and which gave it an air of mirage +instead of the vastness of ocean. Then there was a grandeur in the +feeling that I might continue that walk, if I had any seven-leagued +mode of conveyance to save fatigue, for hundreds of miles without an +obstacle and without a change. + +But after I had ridden out, and seen the flowers, and observed the +sun set with that calmness seen only in the prairies, and tire cattle +winding slowly to their homes in the "island groves,"--most peaceful +of sights,--I began to love, because I began to know tire scene, and +shrank no longer from "the encircling vastness." + +It is always thus with the new form of life; we must learn to look +at it by its own standard. At first, no doubt, my accustomed eye kept +saying, if the mind did not, What! no distant mountains? What! no +valleys? But after a while I would ascend the roof of the house where +we lived, and pass many hours, needing no sight but the moon reigning +in the heavens, or starlight falling upon the lake, till all the +lights were out in the island grove of men beneath my feet, and felt +nearer heaven that there was nothing but this lovely, still reception +on the earth; no towering mountains, no deep tree-shadows, nothing but +plain earth and water bathed in light. + +Sunset, as seen from that place, presented most generally, low-lying, +flaky clouds, of the softest serenity. + +One night a star "shot madly from, its sphere," and it had a fair +chance to be seen, but that serenity could not be astonished. + +Yes! it was a peculiar beauty, that of those sunsets and moonlights on +the levels of Chicago, which Chamouny or the Trosachs could not make +me forget.[A] + +[Footnote A: "From the prairie near Chicago had I seen, some days +before, the sun set with that calmness observed only on the prairies. +I know not what it says, but something quite different from sunset +at sea. There is no motion except of waving grasses,--the cattle move +slowly homeward in the distance. That _home!_ where is it? It seems as +If there was no home, and no need of one, and there is room enough to +wander on for ever."--Manuscript Notes.] + +Notwithstanding all the attractions I thus found out by degrees on the +flat shores of the lake, I was delighted when I found myself really on +my way into the country for an excursion of two or three weeks. We set +forth in a strong wagon, almost as large, and with the look of those +used elsewhere for transporting caravans of wild beasts, loaded with +everything we might want, in case nobody would give it to us,--for +buying and selling were no longer to be counted on,--with, a pair of +strong horses, able and willing to force their way through mud-holes +and amid stumps, and a guide, equally admirable as marshal and +companion, who knew by heart the country and its history, both natural +and artificial, and whose clear hunter's eye needed, neither road nor +goal to guide it to all the spots where beauty best loves to dwell. + +Add to this the finest weather, and such country as I had never seen, +even in my dreams, although these dreams had been haunted by wishes +for just such a one, and you may judge whether years of dulness might +not, by these bright days, be redeemed, and a sweetness be shed over +all thoughts of the West. + +The first day brought us through woods rich in the moccason-flower +and lupine, and plains whose soft expanse was continually touched with +expression by the slow moving clouds which + + "Sweep over with their shadows, and beneath + The surface rolls and fluctuates to the eye; + Dark hollows seem to glide along and chase + The sunny ridges," + +to the banks of the Fox River, a sweet and graceful stream. We +readied Geneva just in time to escape being drenched by a violent +thunder-shower, whose rise and disappearance threw expression into all +the features of the scene. + +Geneva reminds me of a New England village, as indeed there, and +in the neighborhood, are many New-Englanders of an excellent stamp, +generous, intelligent, discreet, and seeking to win from life its true +values. Such are much wanted, and seem like points of light among the +swarms of settlers, whose aims are sordid, whose habits thoughtless +and slovenly.[A] + +[Footnote A: "We passed a portion of one day with Mr. and Mrs. ----, +young, healthy, and, thank Heaven, _gay_ people. In the general +dulness that broods over this land where so little genius flows, +and care, business, and fashionable frivolity are equally dull, +unspeakable is the relief of some flashes of vivacity, some sparkles +of wit. Of course it is hard enough for those, most natively disposed +that way, to strike fire. I would willingly be the tinder to promote +the cheering blaze."--Manuscript Notes.] + +With great pleasure we heard, with his attentive and affectionate +congregation, the Unitarian clergyman, Mr. Conant, and afterward +visited him in his house, where almost everything bore traces of his +own handiwork or that of his father. He is just such a teacher as is +wanted in this region, familiar enough, with the habits of those he +addresses to come home to their experience and their wants; earnest +and enlightened enough to draw the important inferences from the life +of every day.[B] + +[Footnote B: "Let any who think men do not need or want the church, +hear these people talk about it as if it were the only indispensable +thing, and see what I saw in Chicago. An elderly lady from +Philadelphia, who had been visiting her sons in the West, arrived +there about one o'clock on a hot Sunday noon. She rang the bell and +requested a room immediately, as she wanted to get ready for afternoon +service. Some delay occurring, she expressed great regret, as she had +ridden all night for the sake of attending church. She went to +church, neither having dined nor taken any repose after her +journey."--Manuscript Notes.] + +A day or two we remained here, and passed some happy hours in the +woods that fringe the stream, where the gentlemen found a rich booty +of fish. + +Next day, travelling along the river's banks, was an uninterrupted +pleasure. We closed our drive in the afternoon at the house of an +English gentleman, who has gratified, as few men do, the common wish +to pass the evening of an active day amid the quiet influences of +country life. He showed us a bookcase filled with books about this +country; these he had collected for years, and become so familiar with +the localities, that, on coming here at last, he sought and found, at +once, the very spot he wanted, and where he is as content as he hoped +to be, thus realizing Wordsworth's description of the wise man, who +"sees what he foresaw." + +A wood surrounds the house, through which paths are cut in every +direction. It is, for this new country, a large and handsome dwelling; +but round it are its barns and farm-yard, with cattle and poultry. +These, however, in the framework of wood, have a very picturesque and +pleasing effect. There is that mixture of culture and rudeness in the +aspect of things which gives a feeling of freedom, not of confusion. + +I wish, it were possible to give some idea of this scene, as viewed +by the earliest freshness of dewy dawn. This habitation of man seemed +like a nest in the grass, so thoroughly were the buildings and all +the objects of human care harmonized with, what was natural. The tall +trees bent and whispered all around, as if to hail with, sheltering +love the men who had come to dwell among them. + +The young ladies were musicians, and spoke French fluently, having +been educated in a convent. Here in the prairie, they had learned to +take care of the milk-room, and kill the rattlesnakes that assailed +their poultry-yard. Beneath the shade of heavy curtains you looked out +from the high and large windows to see Norwegian peasants at work in +their national dress. In the wood grew, not only the flowers I had +before seen, and wealth of tall, wild roses, but the splendid blue +spiderwort, that ornament of our gardens. Beautiful children strayed +there, who were soon to leave these civilized regions for some really +wild and western place, a post in the buffalo country. Their no less +beautiful mother was of Welsh descent, and the eldest child bore +the name of Gwynthleon. Perhaps there she will meet with some young +descendants of Madoc, to be her friends; at any rate, her looks may +retain that sweet, wild beauty, that is soon made to vanish from eyes +which look too much on shops and streets, and the vulgarities of city +"parties." + +Next day we crossed the river. We ladies crossed on a little +foot-bridge, from which we could look down the stream, and see the +wagon pass over at the ford. A black thunder-cloud was coming up; the +sky and waters heavy with expectation. The motion of the wagon, with +its white cover, and the laboring horses, gave just the due interest +to the picture, because it seemed, as if they would not have time to +cross before the storm came on. However, they did get across, and we +were a mile or two on our way before the violent shower obliged us to +take refuge in a solitary house upon the prairie. In this country it +is as pleasant to stop as to go on, to lose your way as to find +it, for the variety in the population gives you a chance for fresh +entertainment in every hut, and the luxuriant beauty makes every path +attractive. In this house we found a family "quite above the common," +but, I grieve to say, not above false pride, for the father, ashamed +of being caught barefoot, told us a story of a man, one of the richest +men, he said, in one of the Eastern cities, who went barefoot, from +choice and taste. + +Near the door grew a Provence rose, then in blossom. Other families we +saw had brought with them and planted the locust. It was pleasant +to see their old home loves, brought into connection with their new +splendors. Wherever there were traces of this tenderness of feeling, +only too rare among Americans, other things bore signs also of +prosperity and intelligence, as if the ordering mind of man had some +idea of home beyond a mere shelter beneath which to eat and sleep. + +No heaven need wear a lovelier aspect than earth did this afternoon, +after the clearing up of the shower. We traversed the blooming plain, +unmarked by any road, only the friendly track of wheels which bent, +not broke, the grass. Our stations were not from town to town, but +from grove to grove. These groves first floated like blue islands +in the distance. As we drew nearer, they seemed fair parks, and the +little log-houses on the edge, with their curling smokes, harmonized +beautifully with them. + +One of these groves, Ross's Grove, we reached just at sunset, It was +of the noblest trees I saw during this journey, for generally the +trees were not large or lofty, but only of fair proportions. Here they +were large enough to form with their clear stems pillars for grand +cathedral aisles. There was space enough for crimson light to stream +through upon the floor of water which the shower had left. As we +slowly plashed through, I thought I was never in a better place for +vespers. + +That night we rested, or rather tarried, at a grove some miles beyond, +and there partook of the miseries, so often jocosely portrayed, of +bedchambers for twelve, a milk dish for universal hand-basin, and +expectations that you would use and lend your "hankercher" for a +towel. But this was the only night, thanks to the hospitality of +private families, that we passed thus; and it was well that we had +this bit of experience, else might we have pronounced all Trollopian +records of the kind to be inventions of pure malice. + +With us was a young lady who showed herself to have been bathed in +the Britannic fluid, wittily described by a late French writer, by +the impossibility she experienced of accommodating herself to the +indecorums of the scene. We ladies were to sleep in the bar-room, from +which its drinking visitors could be ejected only at a late hour. The +outer door had no fastening to prevent their return. However, our host +kindly requested we would call him, if they did, as he had "conquered +them for us," and would do so again. We had also rather hard couches +(mine was the supper-table); but we Yankees, born to rove, were +altogether too much fatigued to stand upon trifles, and slept as +sweetly as we would in the "bigly bower" of any baroness. But I think +England sat up all night, wrapped in her blanket-shawl, and with a +neat lace cap upon her head,--so that she would have looked perfectly +the lady, if any one had come in,--shuddering and listening. I know +that she was very ill next day, in requital. She watched, as her +parent country watches the seas, that nobody may do wrong in any case, +and deserved to have met some interruption, she was so well prepared. +However, there was none, other than from the nearness of some twenty +sets of powerful lungs, which would not leave the night to a deathly +stillness. In this house we had, if not good beds, yet good tea, good +bread, and wild strawberries, and were entertained with most free +communications of opinion and history from our hosts. Neither shall +any of us have a right to say again that we cannot find any who may +be willing to hear all we may have to say. "A's fish that comes to the +net," should be painted on the sign at Papaw Grove. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +ROCK RIVER.--OREGON.--ANCIENT INDIAN VILLAGE.--GANYMEDE TO +HIS EAGLE.--WESTERN FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATION.--WOMEN IN THE +WEST.--KISHWAUKIE.--BELVIDERE.--FAREWELL. + + +In the afternoon of this day we reached the Rock River, in whose +neighborhood we proposed to make some stay, and crossed at Dixon's +Ferry. + +This beautiful stream flows full and wide over a bed of rocks, +traversing a distance of near two hundred miles, to reach the +Mississippi. Great part of the country along its banks is the finest +region of Illinois, and the scene of some of the latest romance of +Indian warfare. To these beautiful regions Black Hawk returned with +his band "to pass the summer," when he drew upon himself the warfare +in which he was finally vanquished. No wonder he could not resist the +longing, unwise though its indulgence might be, to return in summer to +this home of beauty. + +Of Illinois, in general, it has often been remarked, that it bears the +character of country which has been inhabited by a nation skilled +like the English in all the ornamental arts of life, especially in +landscape-gardening. The villas and castles seem to have been burnt, +the enclosures taken down, but the velvet lawns, the flower-gardens, +the stately parks, scattered at graceful intervals by the decorous +hand of art, the frequent deer, and the peaceful herd of cattle that +make picture of the plain, all suggest more of the masterly mind +of man, than the prodigal, but careless, motherly love of Nature. +Especially is this true of the Rock River country. The river flows +sometimes through these parks and lawns, then betwixt high bluffs, +whose grassy ridges are covered with fine trees, or broken with +crumbling stone, that easily assumes the forms of buttress, arch, and +clustered columns. Along the face of such crumbling rocks, swallows' +nests are clustered, thick as cities, and eagles and deer do not +disdain their summits. One morning, out in the boat along the base of +these rocks, it was amusing, and affecting too, to see these swallows +put their heads out to look at us. There was something very hospitable +about it, as if man had never shown himself a tyrant near them. What +a morning that was! Every sight is worth twice as much by the early +morning light. We borrow something of the spirit of the hour to look +upon them. + +The first place where we stopped was one of singular beauty, a beauty +of soft, luxuriant wildness. It was on the bend of the river, a place +chosen by an Irish gentleman, whose absenteeship seems of the wisest +kind, since, for a sum which would have been but a drop of water to +the thirsty fever of his native land, he commands a residence +which has all that is desirable, in its independence, its beautiful +retirement, and means of benefit to others. + +His park, his deer-chase, he found already prepared; he had only to +make an avenue through it. This brought us to the house by a drive, +which in the heat of noon seemed long, though afterwards, in the cool +of morning and evening, delightful. This is, for that part of the +world, a large and commodious dwelling. Near it stands the log-cabin +where its master lived while it was building, a very ornamental +accessory. + +In front of the house was a lawn, adorned by the most graceful trees. +A few of these had been taken out to give a full view of the river, +gliding through banks such as I have described. On this bend the bank +is high and bold, so from, the house or the lawn the view was very +rich and commanding. But if you descended a ravine at the side to the +water's edge, you found there a long walk on the narrow shore, with +a wall above of the richest hanging wood, in which they said the deer +lay hid. I never saw one but often fancied that I heard them rustling, +at daybreak, by these bright, clear waters, stretching out in such +smiling promise where no sound broke the deep and blissful seclusion, +unless now and then this rustling, or the splash of some fish a little +gayer than the others; it seemed not necessary to have any better +heaven, or fuller expression of love and freedom, than in the mood of +Nature here. + +Then, leaving the bank, you would walk far and yet farther through +long, grassy paths, full of the most brilliant, also the most delicate +flowers. The brilliant are more common on the prairie, but both kinds +loved this place. + +Amid the grass of the lawn, with a profusion of wild strawberries, we +greeted also a familiar love, the Scottish harebell, the gentlest and +most touching form of the flower-world. + +The master of the house was absent, but with a kindness beyond thanks +had offered us a resting-place there. Here we were taken care of by +a deputy, who would, for his youth, have been assigned the place of +a page in former times, but in the young West, it seems, he was old +enough for a steward. Whatever be called his function, he did the +honors of the place so much in harmony with it, as to leave the guests +free to imagine themselves in Elysium. And the three days passed here +were days of unalloyed, spotless happiness. + +There was a peculiar charm in coming here, where the choice of +location, and the unobtrusive good taste of all the arrangements, +showed such intelligent appreciation of the spirit of the scene, after +seeing so many dwellings of the new settlers, which showed plainly +that they had no thought beyond satisfying the grossest material +wants. Sometimes they looked attractive, these little brown houses, +the natural architecture of the country, in the edge of the timber. +But almost always, when you came near the slovenliness of the +dwelling, and the rude way in which objects around it were treated, +when so little care would have presented a charming whole, were +very repulsive. Seeing the traces of the Indians, who chose the most +beautiful sites for their dwellings, and whose habits do not break +in on that aspect of Nature under which they were born, we feel as if +they were the rightful lords of a beauty they forbore to deform. But +most of these settlers do not see it at all; it breathes, it speaks +in vain to those who are rushing into its sphere. Their progress is +Gothic, not Roman, and their mode of cultivation will, in the course +of twenty, perhaps ten years, obliterate the natural expression of the +country. + +This is inevitable, fatal; we must not complain, but look forward to +a good result. Still, in travelling through this country, I could not +but be struck with the force of a symbol. Wherever the hog comes, +the rattlesnake disappears; the omnivorous traveller, safe in its +stupidity, willingly and easily makes a meal of the most dangerous of +reptiles, and one which the Indian looks on with a mystic awe. Even so +the white settler pursues the Indian, and is victor in the chase. But +I shall say more upon the subject by and by. + +While we were here, we had one grand thunder-storm, which added new +glory to the scene. + +One beautiful feature was the return of the pigeons every afternoon +to their home. At this time they would come sweeping across the lawn, +positively in clouds, and with a swiftness and softness of winged +motion more beautiful than anything of the kind I ever knew. Had +I been a musician, such as Mendelssohn, I felt that I could have +improvised a music quite peculiar, from the sound they made, which +should have indicated all the beauty over which their wings bore them. +I will here insert a few lines left at this house on parting, which +feebly indicate some of the features. + + THE WESTERN EDEN. + + Familiar to the childish mind were tales + Of rock-girt isles amid a desert sea, + Where unexpected stretch the flowery vales + To soothe the shipwrecked sailor's misery. + Fainting, he lay upon a sandy shore, + And fancied that all hope of life was o'er; + But let him patient climb the frowning wall, + Within, the orange glows beneath the palm-tree tall, + And all that Eden boasted waits his call. + + Almost these tales seem realized to-day, + When the long dulness of the sultry way, + Where "independent" settlers' careless cheer + Made us indeed feel we were "strangers" here, + Is cheered by sudden sight of this fair spot, + On which "improvement" yet has made no blot, + But Nature all-astonished stands, to find + Her plan protected by the human mind. + + Blest be the kindly genius of the scene; + The river, bending in unbroken grace, + The stately thickets, with their pathways green, + Fair, lonely trees, each in its fittest place; + Those thickets haunted by the deer and fawn; + Those cloudlike flights of birds across the lawn! + The gentlest breezes here delight to blow, + And sun and shower and star are emulous to deck the show. + + Wondering, as Crusoe, we survey the land; + Happier than Crusoe we, a friendly band. + Blest be the hand that reared this friendly home, + The heart and mind of him to whom we owe + Hours of pure peace such as few mortals know; + May he find such, should he be led to roam,-- + Be tended by such ministering sprites,-- + Enjoy such gayly childish days, such hopeful nights! + And yet, amid the goods to mortals given, + To give those goods again is most like heaven. + +Hazelwood, Rock River, June 30, 1843. + + +The only really rustic feature was of the many coops of poultry near +the house, which I understood it to be one of the chief pleasures of +the master to feed. + +Leaving this place, we proceeded a day's journey along the beautiful +stream, to a little town named Oregon. We called at a cabin, from +whose door looked out one of those faces which, once seen, are never +forgotten; young, yet touched with many traces of feeling, not only +possible, but endured; spirited, too, like the gleam of a finely +tempered blade. It was a face that suggested a history, and many +histories, but whose scene would have been in courts and camps. At +this moment their circles are dull for want of that life which, is +waning unexcited in this solitary recess. + +The master of the house proposed to show us a "short cut," by which +we might, to especial advantage, pursue our journey. This proved to be +almost perpendicular down a hill, studded with young trees and stumps. +From these he proposed, with a hospitality of service worthy an +Oriental, to free our wheels whenever they should get entangled, +also to be himself the drag, to prevent our too rapid descent. Such +generosity deserved trust; however, we women could not be persuaded to +render it. We got out and admired, from afar, the process. Left by our +guide and prop, we found ourselves in a wide field, where, by playful +quips and turns, an endless "creek," seemed to divert itself with our +attempts to cross it. Failing in this, the next best was to whirl +down a steep bank, which feat our charioteer performed with an air +not unlike that of Rhesus, had he but been as suitably furnished with +chariot and steeds! + +At last, after wasting some two or three hours on the "short cut," +we got out by following an Indian trail,--Black Hawk's! How fair +the scene through which it led! How could they let themselves be +conquered, with such a country to fight for! + +Afterwards, in the wide prairie, we saw a lively picture of +nonchalance (to speak in the fashion of clear Ireland). There, in the +wide sunny field, with neither tree nor umbrella above his head, sat +a pedler, with his pack, waiting apparently for customers. He was not +disappointed. We bought what hold, in regard to the human world, +as unmarked, as mysterious, and as important an existence, as the +infusoria to the natural, to wit, pins. This incident would have +delighted those modern sages, who, in imitation of the sitting +philosophers of ancient Ind, prefer silence to speech, waiting to +going, and scornfully smile, in answer to the motions of earnest life, + + "Of itself will nothing come, + That ye must still be seeking?" + +However, it seemed to me to-day, as formerly on these sublime +occasions, obvious that nothing would, come, unless something would +go; now, if we had been as sublimely still as the pedler, his pins +would have tarried in the pack, and his pockets sustained an aching +void of pence. + +Passing through one of the fine, park-like woods, almost clear from +underbrush and carpeted with thick grasses and flowers, we met (for it +was Sunday) a little congregation just returning from their service, +which had been performed in a rude house in its midst. It had a sweet +and peaceful air, as if such words and thoughts were very dear to +them. The parents had with them, all their little children; but we saw +no old people; that charm was wanting which exists in such scenes in +older settlements, of seeing the silver bent in reverence beside the +flaxen head. + +At Oregon, the beauty of the scene was of even a more sumptuous +character than at our former "stopping-place." Here swelled the river +in its boldest course, interspersed by halcyon isles on which Nature +had lavished all her prodigality in tree, vine, and flower, banked +by noble bluffs, three Hundred feet high, their sharp ridges as +exquisitely definite as the edge of a shell; their summits adorned +with those same beautiful trees, and with buttresses of rich rock, +crested with old hemlocks, which wore a touching and antique grace +amid, the softer and more luxuriant vegetation. Lofty natural mounds +rose amidst the rest, with the same lovely and sweeping outline, +showing everywhere the plastic power of water,--water, mother of +beauty,--which, by its sweet and eager flow, had left such lineaments +as human genius never dreamt of. + +Not far from the river was a high crag, called the Pine Rock, which +looks out, as our guide observed, like a helmet above the brow of the +country. It seems as if the water left here and there a vestige of +forms and materials that preceded its course, just to set off its new +and richer designs. + +The aspect of this country was to me enchanting, beyond any I have +ever seen, from its fulness of expression, its bold and impassioned +sweetness. Here the flood of emotion has passed over and marked +everywhere its course by a smile. The fragments of rock touch it with +a wildness and liberality which give just the needed relief. I should +never be tired here, though I have elsewhere seen country of more +secret and alluring charms, better calculated to stimulate and +suggest. Here the eye and heart are filled. + +How happy the Indians must have been here! It is not long since they +were driven away, and the ground, above and below, is full of their +traces. + + "The earth is full of men." + +You have only to turn up the sod to find arrowheads and Indian +pottery. On an island, belonging to our host, and nearly opposite his +house, they loved to stay, and, no doubt, enjoyed its lavish beauty +as much as the myriad wild pigeons that now haunt its flower-filled +shades. Here are still the marks of their tomahawks, the troughs in +which they prepared their corn, their caches. + +A little way down the river is the site of an ancient Indian village, +with its regularly arranged mounds. As usual, they had chosen with the +finest taste. When we went there, it was one of those soft, shadowy +afternoons when Nature seems ready to weep, not from grief, but from +an overfull heart. Two prattling, lovely little girls, and an African +boy, with glittering eye and ready grin, made our party gay; but +all were still as we entered the little inlet and trod those flowery +paths. They may blacken Indian life as they will, talk of its dirt, +its brutality, I will ever believe that the men who chose that +dwelling-place were able to feel emotions of noble happiness as they +returned to it, and so were the women that received them. Neither were +the children sad or dull, who lived so familiarly with the deer +and the birds, and swam that clear wave in the shadow of the Seven +Sisters. The whole scene suggested to me a Greek splendor, a Greek +sweetness, and I can believe that an Indian brave, accustomed to +ramble in such paths, and be bathed by such sunbeams, might be +mistaken for Apollo, as Apollo was for him by West. Two of the boldest +bluffs are called the Deer's Walk, (not because deer do _not_ walk +there,) and the Eagle's Nest. The latter I visited one glorious +morning; it was that of the fourth of July, and certainly I think I +had never felt so happy that I was born in America. Woe to all country +folks that never saw this spot, never swept an enraptured gaze over +the prospect that stretched beneath. I do believe Rome and Florence +are suburbs compared to this capital of Nature's art. + +The bluff was decked with great bunches of a scarlet variety of the +milkweed, like cut coral, and all starred with a mysterious-looking +dark flower, whose cup rose lonely on a tall stem. This had, for +two or three days, disputed the ground with the lupine and phlox. My +companions disliked, I liked it. + +Here I thought of, or rather saw, what the Greek expresses under the +form of Jove's darling, Ganymede, and the following stanzas took form. + + GANYMEDE TO HIS EAGLE. + + SUGGESTED BY A WORK OF THORWALDSEN'S. + + Composed on the height called the Eagle's Nest, Oregon, Rock River, + July 4th, 1843. + + Upon the rocky mountain stood the boy, + A goblet of pure water in his hand; + His face and form spoke him one made for joy, + A willing servant to sweet love's command, + But a strange pain was written on his brow, + And thrilled throughout his silver accents now. + + "My bird," he cries, "my destined brother friend, + O whither fleets to-day thy wayward flight? + Hast thou forgotten that I here attend, + From the full noon until this sad twilight? + A hundred times, at least, from the clear spring, + Since the fall noon o'er hill and valley glowed, + I've filled the vase which our Olympian king + Upon my care for thy sole use bestowed; + That, at the moment when thou shouldst descend, + A pure refreshment might thy thirst attend. + + "Hast thou forgotten earth, forgotten me, + Thy fellow-bondsman in a royal cause, + Who, from the sadness of infinity, + Only with thee can know that peaceful pause + In which we catch the flowing strain of love, + Which binds our dim fates to the throne of Jove? + + "Before I saw thee, I was like the May, + Longing for summer that must mar its bloom, + Or like the morning star that calls the day, + Whose glories to its promise are the tomb; + And as the eager fountain rises higher + To throw itself more strongly back to earth, + Still, as more sweet and full rose my desire, + More fondly it reverted to its birth, + For what the rosebud seeks tells not the rose, + The meaning that the boy foretold the man cannot disclose. + + "I was all Spring, for in my being dwelt + Eternal youth, where flowers are the fruit; + Full feeling was the thought of what was felt, + Its music was the meaning of the lute; + But heaven and earth such life will still deny, + For earth, divorced from heaven, still asks the question _Why?_ + + "Upon the highest mountains my young feet + Ached, that no pinions from their lightness grew, + My starlike eyes the stars would fondly greet, + Yet win no greeting from the circling blue; + Fair, self-subsistent each in its own sphere, + They had no care that there was none for me; + Alike to them that I was far or near, + Alike to them time and eternity. + + "But from the violet of lower air + Sometimes an answer to my wishing came; + Those lightning-births my nature seemed to share, + They told the secrets of its fiery frame, + The sudden messengers of hate and love, + The thunderbolts that arm the hand of Jove, + And strike sometimes the sacred spire, and strike the sacred grove. + + "Come in a moment, in a moment gone, + They answered me, then left me still more lone; + They told me that the thought which ruled the world + As yet no sail upon its course had furled, + That the creation was but just begun, + New leaves still leaving from the primal one, + But spoke not of the goal to which _my_ rapid wheels would run. + + "Still, still my eyes, though tearfully, I strained + To the far future which my heart contained, + And no dull doubt my proper hope profaned. + + "At last, O bliss! thy living form I spied, + Then a mere speck upon a distant sky; + Yet my keen glance discerned its noble pride, + And the full answer of that sun-filled eye; + I knew it was the wing that must upbear + My earthlier form into the realms of air. + + "Thou knowest how we gained that beauteous height, + Where dwells the monarch, of the sons of light; + Thou knowest he declared us two to be + The chosen servants of his ministry, + Thou as his messenger, a sacred sign + Of conquest, or, with omen more benign, + To give its due weight to the righteous cause, + To express the verdict of Olympian laws. + + "And I to wait upon the lonely spring, + Which slakes the thirst of bards to whom 't is given + The destined dues of hopes divine to sing, + And weave the needed chain to bind to heaven. + Only from such could be obtained a draught + For him who in his early home from Jove's own cup has quaffed + + "To wait, to wait, but not to wait too long. + Till heavy grows the burden of a song; + O bird! too long hast thou been gone to-day, + My feet are weary of their frequent way, + The spell that opes the spring my tongue no more can say. + + "If soon thou com'st not, night will fall around, + My head with a sad slumber will be bound, + And the pure draught be spilt upon the ground. + + "Remember that I am not yet divine, + Long years of service to the fatal Nine + Are yet to make a Delphian vigor mine. + + "O, make them not too hard, thou bird of Jove! + Answer the stripling's hope, confirm his love, + Receive the service in which he delights, + And bear him often to the serene heights, + Where hands that were so prompt in serving thee + Shall be allowed the highest ministry, + And Rapture live with bright Fidelity." + + +The afternoon was spent in a very different manner. The family whose +guests we were possessed a gay and graceful hospitality that gave +zest to each moment. They possessed that rare politeness which, while +fertile in pleasant expedients to vary the enjoyment of a friend, +leaves him perfectly free the moment he wishes to be so. With such +hosts, pleasure may be combined with repose. They lived on the bank +opposite the town, and, as their house was full, we slept in the +town, and passed three days with them, passing to and fro morning and +evening in their boats. To one of these, called the Fairy, in which a +sweet little daughter of the house moved about lighter than any Scotch +Ellen ever sung, I should indite a poem, if I had not been guilty of +rhyme on this very page. At morning this boating was very pleasant; at +evening, I confess, I was generally too tired with the excitements of +the day to think it so. + +The house--a double log-cabin--was, to my eye, the model of a Western +villa. Nature had laid out before it grounds which could not be +improved. Within, female taste had veiled every rudeness, availed +itself of every sylvan grace. + +In this charming abode what laughter, what sweet thoughts, what +pleasing fancies, did we not enjoy! May such never desert those who +reared it, and made us so kindly welcome to all its pleasures! + +Fragments of city life were dexterously crumbled into the dish +prepared for general entertainment. Ice-creams followed the dinner, +which was drawn by the gentlemen from the river, and music and +fireworks wound up the evening of days spent on the Eagle's Nest. Now +they had prepared a little fleet to pass over to the Fourth of July +celebration, which some queer drumming and fifing, from, the opposite +bank, had announced to be "on hand." + +We found the free and independent citizens there collected beneath the +trees, among whom many a round Irish visage dimpled at the usual puffs +of "Ameriky." + +The orator was a New-Englander, and the speech smacked loudly +of Boston, but was received with much applause and followed by a +plentiful dinner, provided by and for the Sovereign People, to which +Hail Columbia served as grace. + +Returning, the gay flotilla cheered the little flag which the children +had raised from a log-cabin, prettier than any president ever saw, +and drank the health of our country and all mankind, with a clear +conscience. + +Dance and song wound up the day. I know not when the mere local +habitation has seemed to me to afford so fair a chance of happiness as +this. To a person of unspoiled tastes, the beauty alone would afford +stimulus enough. But with it would be naturally associated all kinds +of wild sports, experiments, and the studies of natural history. In +these regards, the poet, the sportsman, the naturalist, would alike +rejoice in this wide range of untouched loveliness. + +Then, with a very little money, a ducal estate may be purchased, and +by a very little more, and moderate labor, a family be maintained upon +it with raiment, food, and shelter. The luxurious and minute comforts +of a city life are not yet to be had without effort disproportionate +to their value. But, where there is so great a counterpoise, cannot +these be given up once for all? If the houses are imperfectly built, +they can afford immense fires and plenty of covering; if they are +small, who cares,--with, such fields to roam in? in winter, it may be +borne; in summer, is of no consequence. With plenty of fish, and game, +and wheat, can they not dispense with a baker to bring "muffins hot" +every morning to the door for their breakfast? + +A man need not here take a small slice from the landscape, and fence +it in from the obtrusions of an uncongenial neighbor, and there cut +down his fancies to miniature improvements which a chicken could run +over in ten minutes. He may have water and wood and land enough, to +dread no incursions on his prospect from some chance Vandal that may +enter his neighborhood. He need not painfully economize and manage +how he may use it all; he can afford to leave some of it wild, and to +carry out his own plans without obliterating those of Nature. + +Here, whole families might live together, if they would. The sons +might return from their pilgrimages to settle near the parent hearth; +the daughters might find room near their mother. Those painful +separations, which already desecrate and desolate the Atlantic coast, +are not enforced here by the stern need of seeking bread; and where +they are voluntary, it is no matter. To me, too, used to the feelings +which haunt a society of struggling men, it was delightful to look +upon a scene where Nature still wore her motherly smile, and seemed to +promise room, not only for those favored or cursed with the qualities +best adapting for the strifes of competition, but for the delicate, +the thoughtful, even the indolent or eccentric. She did not say, Fight +or starve; nor even, Work or cease to exist; but, merely showing that +the apple was a finer fruit than the wild crab, gave both room to grow +in the garden. + +A pleasant society is formed of the families who live along the banks +of this stream upon farms. They are from various parts of the world, +and have much to communicate to one another. Many have cultivated +minds and refined manners, all a varied experience, while they have +in common the interests of a new country and a new life. They must +traverse some space to get at one another, but the journey is through +scenes that make it a separate pleasure. They must bear inconveniences +to stay in one another's houses; but these, to the well-disposed, are +only a source of amusement and adventure. + +The great drawback upon the lives of these settlers, at present, is +the unfitness of the women for their new lot. It has generally been +the choice of the men, and the women follow, as women will, doing +their best for affection's sake, but too often in heartsickness and +weariness. Beside, it frequently not being a choice or conviction of +their own minds that it is best to be here, their part is the hardest, +and they are least fitted for it. The men can find assistance in +field labor, and recreation with the gun and fishing-rod. Their bodily +strength is greater, and enables them to bear and enjoy both these +forms of life. + +The women can rarely find any aid in domestic labor. All its various +and careful tasks must often be performed, sick, or well, by the +mother and daughters, to whom a city education has imparted neither +the strength nor skill now demanded. + +The wives of the poorer settlers, having more hard work to do than +before, very frequently become slatterns; but the ladies, accustomed +to a refined neatness, feel that they cannot degrade themselves by +its absence, and struggle under every disadvantage to keep up the +necessary routine of small arrangements. + +With all these disadvantages for work, their resources for pleasure +are fewer. When they can leave the housework, they have not learnt to +ride, to drive, to row, alone. Their culture has too generally been +that given to women to make them "the ornaments of society." They can +dance, but not draw; talk French, but know nothing of the language +of flowers; neither in childhood were allowed to cultivate them, +lest they should tan their complexions. Accustomed to the pavement +of Broadway, they dare not tread the wild-wood paths for fear of +rattlesnakes! + +Seeing much of this joylessness, and inaptitude, both of body and +mind, for a lot which would be full of blessings for those prepared +for it, we could not but look with deep interest on the little girls, +and hope they would grow up with the strength of body, dexterity, +simple tastes, and resources that would fit them to enjoy and refine +the Western farmer's life. + +But they have a great deal to war with in the habits of thought +acquired by their mothers from their own early life. Everywhere +the fatal spirit of imitation, of reference to European standards, +penetrates, and threatens to blight whatever of original growth might +adorn the soil. + +If the little girls grow up strong, resolute, able to exert their +faculties, their mothers mourn over their want of fashionable +delicacy. Are they gay, enterprising, ready to fly about in the +various ways that teach them so much, these ladies lament that "they +cannot go to school, where they might learn to be quiet." They lament +the want of "education" for their daughters, as if the thousand +needs which call out their young energies, and the language of nature +around, yielded no education. + +Their grand ambition for their children is to send them to school in +some Eastern city, the measure most likely to make them useless and +unhappy at home. I earnestly hope that, erelong, the existence of good +schools near themselves, planned by persons of sufficient thought to +meet the wants of the place and time, instead of copying New York +or Boston, will correct this mania. Instruction the children want +to enable them to profit by the great natural advantages of their +position; but methods copied from the education of some English Lady +Augusta are as ill suited to the daughter of an Illinois farmer, as +satin shoes to climb the Indian mounds. An elegance she would diffuse +around her, if her mind were opened to appreciate elegance; it might +be of a kind new, original, enchanting, as different from that of +the city belle as that of the prairie torch-flower from the shop-worn +article that touches the cheek of that lady within her bonnet. + +To a girl really skilled to make home beautiful and comfortable, with +bodily strength to enjoy plenty of exercise, the woods, the streams, a +few studies, music, and the sincere and familiar intercourse, far +more easily to be met with here than elsewhere, would afford happiness +enough. Her eyes would not grow dim, nor her cheeks sunken, in the +absence of parties, morning visits, and milliners' shops. + +As to music, I wish I could see in such places the guitar rather than +the piano, and good vocal more than instrumental music. + +The piano many carry with them, because it is the fashionable +instrument in the Eastern cities. Even there, it is so merely from +the habit of imitating Europe, for not one in a thousand is willing to +give the labor requisite to insure any valuable use of the instrument. + +But out here, where the ladies have so much less leisure, it is still +less desirable. Add to this, they never know how to tune their own +instruments, and as persons seldom visit them who can do so, these +pianos are constantly out of tune, and would spoil the ear of one who +began by having any. + +The guitar, or some portable instrument which requires less practice, +and could be kept in tune by themselves, would be far more desirable +for most of these ladies. It would give all they want as a household +companion to fill up the gaps of life with a pleasant stimulus +or solace, and be sufficient accompaniment to the voice in social +meetings. + +Singing in parts is the most delightful family amusement, and those +who are constantly together can learn to sing in perfect accord. All +the practice it needs, after some good elementary instruction, is +such as meetings by summer twilight and evening firelight naturally +suggest. And as music is a universal language, we cannot but think a +fine Italian duet would be as much at home in the log cabin as one of +Mrs. Gore's novels. + +The 6th of July we left this beautiful place. It was one of those +rich days of bright sunlight, varied by the purple shadows of large, +sweeping clouds. Many a backward look we cast, and left the heart +behind. + +Our journey to-day was no less delightful than before, still all new, +boundless, limitless. Kinmont says, that limits are sacred; that the +Greeks were in the right to worship a god of limits. I say, that what +is limitless is alone divine, that there was neither wall nor road in +Eden, that those who walked, there lost and found their way just as +we did, and that all the gain from the Fall was that we had a wagon to +ride in. I do not think, either, that even the horses doubted whether +this last was any advantage. + +Everywhere the rattlesnake-weed grows in profusion. The antidote +survives the bane. Soon the coarser plantain, the "white man's +footstep," shall take its place. + +We saw also the compass-plant, and the Western tea-plant. Of some of +the brightest flowers an Indian girl afterwards told me the medicinal +virtues. I doubt not those students of the soil knew a use to every +fair emblem, on which we could only look to admire its hues and shape. + +After noon we were ferried by a girl (unfortunately not of the most +picturesque appearance) across the Kishwaukie, the most graceful +of streams, and on whose bosom rested many full-blown +water-lilies,--twice as large as any of ours. I was told that, _en +revanche_, they were scentless, but I still regret that I could not +get at one of them to try. Query, did the lilied fragrance which, +in the miraculous times, accompanied visions of saints and angels, +proceed from water or garden lilies? + +Kishwaukie is, according to tradition, the scene of a famous battle, +and its many grassy mounds contain the bones of the valiant. On these +waved thickly the mysterious purple flower, of which I have spoken +before. I think it springs from the blood of the Indians, as the +hyacinth did from that of Apollo's darling. + +The ladies of our host's family at Oregon, when they first went, +there, after all the pains and plagues of building and settling, found +their first pastime in opening one of these mounds, in which they +found, I think, three of the departed, seated, in the Indian fashion. + +One of these same ladies, as she was making bread one winter morning, +saw from the window a deer directly before the house. She ran out, +with her hands covered with dough, calling the others, and they caught +him bodily before he had time to escape. + +Here (at Kiskwaukie) we received a visit from a ragged and barefooted, +but bright-eyed gentleman, who seemed to be the intellectual loafer, +the walking Will's coffee-house, of the place. He told us many +charming snake-stories; among others, of himself having seen seventeen +young ones re-enter the mother snake, on the approach of a visitor. + +This night we reached Belvidere, a flourishing town in Boon County, +where was the tomb, now despoiled, of Big Thunder. In this later day +we felt happy to find a really good hotel. + +From this place, by two days of very leisurely and devious journeying, +we reached Chicago, and thus ended a journey, which one at least of +the party might have wished unending. + +I have not been particularly anxious to give the geography of the +scene, inasmuch as it seemed to me no route, nor series of stations, +but a garden interspersed with cottages, groves, and flowery lawns, +through which a stately river ran. I had no guide-book, kept no diary, +do not know how many miles we travelled each day, nor how many in all. +What I got from the journey was the poetic impression of the country +at large; it is all I have aimed to communicate. + +The narrative might have been made much more interesting, as life was +at the time, by many piquant anecdotes and tales drawn from private +life. But here courtesy restrains the pen, for I know those who +received the stranger with such frank kindness would feel ill requited +by its becoming the means of fixing many spy-glasses, even though the +scrutiny might be one of admiring interest, upon their private homes. + +For many of these anecdotes, too, I was indebted to a friend, whose +property they more lawfully are. This friend was one of those rare +beings who are equally at home in nature and with man. He knew a +tale of all that ran and swam and flew, or only grew, possessing +that extensive familiarity with things which shows equal sweetness +of sympathy and playful penetration. Most refreshing to me was his +unstudied lore, the unwritten poetry which common life presents to a +strong and gentle mind. It was a great contrast to the subtilties of +analysis, the philosophic strainings of which I had seen too much. But +I will not attempt to transplant it. May it profit others as it did me +in the region where it was born, where it belongs. + +The evening of our return to Chicago, the sunset was of a splendor and +calmness beyond any we saw at the West. The twilight that succeeded +was equally beautiful; soft, pathetic, but just so calm. When +afterwards I learned this was the evening of Allston's death, it +seemed to me as if this glorious pageant was not without connection +with that event; at least, it inspired similar emotions,--a heavenly +gate closing a path adorned with shows well worthy Paradise. + + +FAREWELL TO ROCK RIVER VALLEY. + + Farewell, ye soft and sumptuous solitudes! + Ye fairy distances, ye lordly woods, + Haunted, by paths like those that Poussin knew, + When after his all gazers' eyes he drew; + I go,--and if I never more may steep + An eager heart in your enchantments deep, + Yet ever to itself that heart may say, + Be not exacting; them hast lived one day,-- + Hast looked on that which matches with thy mood, + Impassioned sweetness of full being's flood, + Where nothing checked the bold yet gentle wave, + Where naught repelled the lavish love that gave. + A tender blessing lingers o'er the scene, + Like some young mother's thought, fond, yet serene, + And through its life new-born our lives have been. + Once more farewell,--a sad, a sweet farewell; + And, if I never must behold you more, + In other worlds I will not cease to tell + The rosary I here have numbered o'er; + And bright-haired Hope will lend a gladdened ear, + And Love will free him from the grasp of Fear, + And Gorgon critics, while the tale they hear, + Shall dew their stony glances with a tear, + If I but catch one echo from your spell:-- + And so farewell,--a grateful, sad farewell! + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +A SHORT CHAPTER.--CHICAGO AGAIN.--MORRIS BIRKBECK. + + +Chicago had become interesting to me now, that I knew it as the +portal to so fair a scene. I had become interested in the land, in +the people, and looked sorrowfully on the lake on which I must soon +embark, to leave behind what I had just begun to enjoy. + +Now was the time to see the lake. The July moon was near its full, and +night after night it rose in a cloudless sky above this majestic sea. +The heat was excessive, so that there was no enjoyment of life, except +in the night; but then the air was of that delicious temperature +worthy of orange-groves. However, they were not wanted;--nothing was, +as that full light fell on the faintly rippling waters, which then +seemed, boundless. + +The most picturesque objects to be seen from Chicago on the inland +side were the lines of Hoosier wagons. These rude farmers, the large +first product of the soil, travel leisurely along, sleeping in their +wagons by night, eating only what they bring with them. In the town +they observe the same plan, and trouble no luxurious hotel for board +and lodging. Here they look like foreign peasantry, and contrast well +with the many Germans, Dutch, and Irish. In the country it is very +pretty to see them prepared to "camp out" at night, their horses +taken out of harness, and they lounging under the trees, enjoying the +evening meal. + +On the lake-side it is fine to see the great boats come panting in +from their rapid and marvellous journey. Especially at night the +motion of their lights is very majestic. + +When the favorite boats, the Great Western and Illinois, are going +out, the town is thronged with, people from the South and farther +West, to go in them. These moonlight nights I would hear the French +rippling and fluttering familiarly amid the rude ups and downs of the +Hoosier dialect. + +At the hotel table were daily to be seen new faces, and new stories +to be learned. And any one who has a large acquaintance may be pretty +sure of meeting some of them here in the course of a few days. + +At Chicago I read again Philip Van Artevelde, and certain passages +in it will always be in my mind associated with the deep sound of the +lake, as heard in the night. I used to read a short time at night, and +then open the blind to look out. The moon would be full upon the lake, +and the calm breath, pure light, and the deep voice harmonized well +with the thought of the Flemish hero. When will this country have such +a man? It is what she needs; no thin Idealist, no coarse Realist, but +a man whose eye reads the heavens, while his feet step firmly on the +ground, and his hands are strong and dexterous for the use of human +implements. A man religious, virtuous, and--sagacious; a man of +universal sympathies, but self-possessed; a man who knows the region +of emotion, though he is not its slave; a man to whom this world is +no mere spectacle, or fleeting shadow, not a great, solemn game, to be +played with, good heed, for its stakes are of eternal value, yet who, +if his own play be true, heeds not what he loses by the falsehood of +others;--a man who hives from the past, yet knows that its honey can +but moderately avail him; whose comprehensive eye scans the present, +neither infatuated by its golden lures, nor chilled by its many +ventures; who possesses prescience, as the wise man must, but not +so far as to be driven mad to-day by the gift which discerns +to-morrow;--when there is such a man for America, the thought which +urges her on will be expressed. + + * * * * * + +Now that I am about to leave Illinois, feelings of regret and +admiration come over me, as in parting with a friend whom, we have +not had the good sense to prize and study, while hours of association, +never perhaps to return, were granted. I have fixed my attention +almost exclusively on the picturesque beauty of this region; it was +so new, so inspiring. But I ought to have been more interested in the +housekeeping of this magnificent State, in the education she is giving +her children, in their prospects. + +Illinois is, at present, a by-word of reproach among the nations, +for the careless, prodigal course by which, in early youth, she has +endangered her honor. But you cannot look about you there, without +seeing that there are resources abundant to retrieve, and soon to +retrieve, far greater errors, if they are only directed with wisdom. + +Would that the simple maxim, that honesty is the best policy, might be +laid to heart; that a sense of the true aim of life might elevate +the tone of politics and trade till public and private honor became +identical; that the Western man, in that crowded and exciting life +which, develops his faculties so fully for to-day, might not forget +that better part which could not be taken from him; that the Western +woman might take that interest and acquire that light for the +education of the children, for which she alone has leisure! + +This is indeed the great problem of the place and time. If the next +generation be well prepared for their work, ambitious of good and +skilful to achieve it, the children of the present settlers may be +leaven enough for the mass constantly increasing by immigration. And +how much is this needed, where those rude foreigners can so little +understand the best interests of the land they seek for bread and +shelter! It would be a happiness to aid in this good work, and +interweave the white and golden threads into the fate of Illinois. It +would be a work worthy the devotion of any mind. + +In the little that I saw was a large proportion of intelligence, +activity, and kind feeling; but, if there was much serious laying to +heart of the true purposes of life, it did not appear in the tone of +conversation. + +Having before me the Illinois Guide-Book, I find there mentioned, as +a "visionary," one of the men I should think of as able to be a truly +valuable settler in a new and great country,--Morris Birkbeck, of +England. Since my return, I have read his journey to, and letters +from, Illinois. I see nothing promised there that will not surely +belong to the man who knows how to seek for it. + +Mr. Birkbeck was an enlightened, philanthropist, the rather that he +did not wish to sacrifice himself to his fellow-men, but to benefit +them with all he had, and was, and wished. He thought all the +creatures of a divine love ought to be happy and ought to be good, and +that his own soul and his own life were not less precious than those +of others; indeed, that to keep these healthy was his only means of a +healthy influence. + +But his aims were altogether generous. Freedom, the liberty of law, +not license; not indolence, work for himself and children and all +men, but under genial and poetic influences;--these were his aims. How +different from those of the new settlers in general! And into his +mind so long ago shone steadily the two thoughts, now so prevalent in +thinking and aspiring minds, of "Resist not evil," and "Every man his +own priest, and the heart the only true church." + +He has lost credit for sagacity from accidental circumstances. It +does not appear that his position was ill chosen, or his means +disproportioned to his ends, had he been sustained by funds from +England, as he had a right to expect. But through the profligacy of a +near relative, commissioned to collect these dues, he was disappointed +of them, and his paper protested and credit destroyed in our cities, +before he became aware of his danger. + +Still, though more slowly and with more difficulty, he might have +succeeded in his designs. The English farmer might have made the +English settlement a model for good methods and good aims to all that +region, had not death prematurely cut short his plans. + +I have wished to say these few words, because the veneration with +which I have been inspired for his character by those who knew him +well, makes me impatient of this careless blame being passed from +mouth to mouth and book to book. Success is no test of a man's +endeavor, and Illinois will yet, I hope, regard this man, who knew so +well what _ought_ to be, as one of her true patriarchs, the Abraham of +a promised land. + +He was one too much before his time to be soon valued; but the time +is growing up to him, and will understand his mild philanthropy, and +clear, large views. + +I subjoin the account of his death, given me by a friend, as +expressing, in fair picture, the character of the man. + +"Mr. Birkbeck was returning from the seat of government, whither he +had been on public business, and was accompanied by his son Bradford, +a youth of sixteen or eighteen. It was necessary to cross a ford, +which was rendered difficult by the swelling of the stream. Mr. B.'s +horse was unwilling to plunge into the water, so his son offered to +go first, and he followed. Bradford's horse had just gained footing on +the opposite shore, when he looked back and perceived his father was +dismounted, struggling in the water, and carried down by the current. + +"Mr. Birkbeck could not swim; Bradford could; so he dismounted, and +plunged into the stream to save his father. He got to him before +he sunk, held him up above water, and told him to take hold of his +collar, and he would swim ashore with him. Mr. B. did so, and Bradford +exerted all his strength to stem the current and reach the shore at a +point where they could land; but, encumbered by his own clothing and +his father's weight, he made no progress; when Mr. B. perceived this, +he, with his characteristic calmness and resolution, gave up his hold +of his son, and, motioning to him to save himself, resigned himself to +his fate. His son reached the shore, but was too much overwhelmed +by his loss to leave it. He was found by some travellers, many hours +after, seated on the margin of the stream, with his face in his hands, +stupefied with grief. + +"The body was found, and on the countenance was the sweetest smile; +and Bradford said, 'Just so he smiled, upon me when he let go and +pushed me away from him.'" + +Many men can choose the right and best on a great occasion, but not +many can, with such ready and serene decision, lay aside even +life, when that is right and best. This little narrative touched my +imagination in very early youth, and often has come up, in lonely +vision, that face, serenely smiling above the current which bore him +away to another realm of being. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THOUGHTS AND SCENES IN WISCONSIN.--SOCIETY IN MILWAUKIE.--INDIAN +ANECDOTE.--SEERESS OF PREVORST.--MILWAUKIE. + + +A territory, not yet a State;[A] still nearer the acorn than we were. + +[Footnote A: Wisconsin was not admitted into the Union as a State till +1847, after this volume was written.--ED.] + +It was very pleasant coming up. These large and elegant boats are so +well arranged that every excursion may be a party of pleasure. There +are many fair shows to see on the lake and its shores, almost always +new and agreeable persons on board, pretty children playing about, +ladies singing (and if not very well, there is room, to keep out of +the way). You may see a great deal here of Life, in the London sense, +if you know a few people; or if you do not, and have the tact to look +about you without seeming to stare. + +We came to Milwaukie, where we were to pass a fortnight or more. + +This place is most beautifully situated. A little river, with romantic +banks, passes up through the town. The bank of the lake is here a +bold bluff, eighty feet in height. From its summit is enjoyed a noble +outlook on the lake. A little narrow path winds along the edge of the +lake below. I liked this walk much,--above me this high wall of rich +earth, garlanded on its crest with trees, the long ripples of the lake +coming up to my feet. Here, standing in the shadow, I could appreciate +better its magnificent changes of color, which are the chief beauties +of the lake-waters; but these are indescribable. + +It was fine to ascend into the lighthouse, above this bluff, and +thence watch the thunder-clouds which so frequently rose over the +lake, or the great boats coming in. Approaching the Milwaukie pier, +they made a bend, and seemed to do obeisance in the heavy style +of some dowager duchess entering a circle she wishes to treat with +especial respect. + +These boats come in and out every day, and still afford a cause for +general excitement. The people swarm, down to greet them, to receive +and send away their packages and letters. To me they seemed such +mighty messengers, to give, by their noble motion, such an idea of the +power and fulness of life, that they were worthy to carry despatches +from king to king. It must be very pleasant for those who have an +active share in carrying on the affairs of this great and growing +world to see them approach, and pleasant to such as have dearly loved +friends at the next station. To those who have neither business nor +friends, it sometimes gives a desolating sense of insignificance. + +The town promises to be, some time, a fine one, as it is so well +situated; and they have good building material,--a yellow brick, very +pleasing to the eye. It seems to grow before you, and has indeed but +just emerged from the thickets of oak and wild-roses. A few steps +will take you into the thickets, and certainly I never saw so many +wild-roses, or of so beautiful a red. Of such a color were the first +red ones the world ever saw, when, says the legend, Venus flying to +the assistance of Adonis, the rose-bushes kept catching her to make +her stay, and the drops of blood the thorns drew from her feet, as +she tore herself a way, fell on the white roses, and turned them this +beautiful red. + +One day, walking along the river's bank in search of a waterfall to be +seen from one ravine, we heard tones from a band of music, and saw a +gay troop shooting at a mark, on the opposite bank. Between every shot +the band played; the effect was very pretty. + +On this walk we found two of the oldest and most gnarled hemlocks that +ever afforded study for a painter. They were the only ones we saw; +they seemed the veterans of a former race. + +At Milwaukie, as at Chicago, are many pleasant people, drawn together +from all parts of the world. A resident here would find great piquancy +in the associations,--those he met having such dissimilar histories +and topics. And several persons I saw, evidently transplanted from the +most refined circles to be met in this country. There are lures enough +in the West for people of all kinds;--the enthusiast and the cunning +man; the naturalist, and the lover who needs to be rich for the sake +of her he loves. + +The torrent of immigration swells very strongly towards this place. +During the fine weather, the poor refugees arrive daily, in their +national dresses, all travel-soiled and worn. The night they pass in +rude shantees, in a particular quarter of the town, then walk off into +the country,--the mothers carrying their infants, the fathers leading +the little children by the hand, seeking a home where their hands may +maintain them. + +One morning we set off in their track, and travelled a day's +journey into this country,--fair, yet not, in that part which I saw, +comparable, in my eyes, to the Rock River region. Rich fields, proper +for grain, alternate with oak openings, as they are called; bold, +various, and beautiful were the features of the scene, but I saw +not those majestic sweeps, those boundless distances, those heavenly +fields; it was not the same world. + +Neither did we travel in the same delightful manner. We were now in a +nice carriage, which must not go off the road, for fear of breakage, +with a regular coachman, whose chief care was not to tire his horses, +and who had no taste for entering fields in pursuit of wild-flowers, +or tempting some strange wood-path, in search of whatever might +befall. It was pleasant, but almost as tame as New England. + +But charming indeed was the place where we stopped. It was in the +vicinity of a chain of lakes, and on the bank of the loveliest +little stream, called, the Bark River, which, flowed in rapid amber +brightness, through fields, and dells, and stately knolls, of most +poetic beauty. + +The little log-cabin where we slept, with its flower-garden in front, +disturbed the scene no more than a stray lock on the fair cheek. +The hospitality of that house I may well call princely; it was the +boundless hospitality of the heart, which, if it has no Aladdin's lamp +to create a palace for the guest, does him still higher service by the +freedom of its bounty to the very last drop of its powers. + +Sweet were the sunsets seen in the valley of this stream, though, +here, and, I grieve to say, no less near the Rock River, the fiend, +who has every liberty to tempt the happy in this world, appeared in +the shape of mosquitos, and allowed us no bodily to enjoy our mental +peace. + +One day we ladies gave, under the guidance of our host, to visiting +all the beauties of the adjacent lakes,--Nomabbin, Silver, and Pine +Lakes. On the shore of Nomabbin had formerly been one of the finest +Indian villages. Our host said, that once, as he was lying there +beneath the bank, he saw a tall Indian standing at gaze on the knoll. +He lay a long time, curious to see how long the figure would maintain +its statue-like absorption. But at last his patience yielded, and, +in moving, he made a slight noise. The Indian saw him, gave a wild, +snorting sound of indignation and pain, and strode away. + +What feelings must consume their hearts at such moments! I scarcely +see how they can forbear to shoot the white man where he stands. + +But the power of fate is with, the white man, and the Indian feels it. +This same gentleman told of his travelling through the wilderness with +an Indian guide. He had with him a bottle of spirit which he meant to +give him in small quantities, but the Indian, once excited, wanted +the whole at once. "I would not," said Mr. ----, "give it him, for I +thought, if he got really drunk, there was an end to his services as +a guide. But he persisted, and at last tried to take it from me. I +was not armed; he was, and twice as strong as I. But I knew an Indian +could not resist the look of a white man, and I fixed my eye steadily +on his. He bore it for a moment, then his eye fell; he let go the +bottle. I took his gun and threw it to a distance. After a few +moments' pause, I told him to go and fetch it, and left it in his +hands. From that moment he was quite obedient, even servile, all the +rest of the way." + +This gentleman, though in other respects of most kindly and liberal +heart, showed the aversion that the white man soon learns to feel for +the Indian on whom he encroaches,--the aversion of the injurer for him +he has degraded. After telling the anecdote of his seeing the Indian +gazing at the seat of his former home, + + "A thing for human feelings the most trying," + +and which, one would think, would have awakened soft compassion-- +almost remorse--in the present owner of that fair hill, which +contained for the exile the bones of his dead, the ashes of his +hopes, he observed: "They cannot be prevented from straggling back +here to their old haunts. I wish they could. They ought not to be +permitted to drive away _our_ game." OUR game,--just heavens! + +The same gentleman showed, on a slight occasion, the true spirit of a +sportsman, or perhaps I might say of Man, when engaged in any kind +of chase. Showing us some antlers, he said: "This one belonged to a +majestic creature. But this other was the beauty. I had been lying a +long time at watch, when at last I heard them come crackling along. I +lifted my head cautiously, as they burst through the trees. The first +was a magnificent fellow; but then I saw coming one, the prettiest, +the most graceful I ever beheld,--there was something so soft and +beseeching in its look. I chose him at once, took aim, and shot him +dead. You see the antlers are not very large; it was young, but the +prettiest creature!" + +In the course of this morning's drive, we visited the gentlemen on +their fishing party. They hailed us gayly, and rowed ashore to show us +what fine booty they had. No disappointment there, no dull work. + +On the beautiful point of land from which we first saw them lived a +contented woman, the only one I heard of out there. She was English, +and said she had seen so much suffering in her own country, that the +hardships of this seemed as nothing to her. But the others--even our +sweet and gentle hostess--found their labors disproportioned to their +strength, if not to their patience; and, while their husbands and +brothers enjoyed the country in hunting or fishing, they found +themselves confined to a comfortless and laborious in-door life. But +it need not be so long. + +This afternoon, driving about on the banks of these lakes, we found +the scene all of one kind of loveliness; wide, graceful woods, and +then these fine sheets of water, with, fine points of land jutting out +boldly into them. It was lovely, but not striking or peculiar. + +All woods suggest pictures. The European forest, with its long glades +and green, sunny dells, naturally suggested the figures of armed +knight on his proud steed, or maiden, decked in gold and pearl, +pricking along them on a snow-white palfrey; the green dells, of weary +Palmer sleeping there beside the spring with his head upon his wallet. +Our minds, familiar with such, figures, people with them the New +England woods, wherever the sunlight falls down a longer than usual +cart-track, wherever a cleared spot has lain still enough for the +trees to look friendly, with their exposed sides cultivated by the +light, and the grass to look velvet warm, and be embroidered with +flowers. These Western woods suggest a different kind of ballad. The +Indian legends have often an air of the wildest solitude, as has the +one Mr. Lowell has put into verse in his late volume. But I did not +see those wild woods; only such as suggest to me little romances of +love and sorrow, like this:-- + +GUNHILDA. + + A maiden sat beneath the tree, + Tear-bedewed her pale cheeks be, + And she sigheth heavily. + + From forth the wood into the light + A hunter strides, with carol light, + And a glance so bold and bright. + + He careless stopped and eyed the maid; + "Why weepest thou?" he gently said; + "I love thee well; be not afraid." + + He takes her hand, and leads her on; + She should have waited there alone, + For he was not her chosen one. + + He leans her head upon his breast, + She knew 't was not her home of rest, + But ah! she had been sore distrest. + + The sacred stars looked sadly down; + The parting moon appeared to frown, + To see thus dimmed the diamond crown. + + Then from the thicket starts a deer, + The huntsman, seizing on his spear, + Cries, "Maiden, wait thou for me here." + + She sees him vanish into night, + She starts from sleep in deep affright, + For it was not her own true knight. + + Though but in dream Gunhilda failed. + Though but a fancied ill assailed, + Though she but fancied fault bewailed,-- + + Yet thought of day makes dream of night: + She is not worthy of the knight, + The inmost altar burns not bright. + + If loneliness thou canst not bear, + Cannot the dragon's venom dare, + Of the pure meed thou shouldst despair. + + Now sadder that lone maiden sighs, + Far bitterer tears profane her eyes, + Crushed, in the dust her heart's flower lies. + +On the bank of Silver Lake we saw an Indian encampment. A shower +threatened us, but we resolved to try if we could not visit it before +it came on. We crossed a wide field on foot, and found the Indians +amid the trees on a shelving bank; just as we reached them, the rain +began to fall in torrents, with frequent thunderclaps, and we had +to take refuge in their lodges. These were very small, being for +temporary use, and we crowded the occupants much, among whom were +several sick, on the damp ground, or with only a ragged mat between +them and it. But they showed all the gentle courtesy which, marks +their demeanor towards the stranger, who stands in any need; though it +was obvious that the visit, which inconvenienced them, could only +have been caused by the most impertinent curiosity, they made us as +comfortable as their extreme poverty permitted. They seemed to think +we would not like to touch them; a sick girl in the lodge where I was, +persisted in moving so as to give me the dry place; a woman, with the +sweet melancholy eye of the race, kept off the children and wet dogs +from even the hem of my garment. + +Without, their fires smouldered, and black kettles, hung over them on +sticks, smoked, and seethed in the rain. An old, theatrical-looking +Indian stood with arms folded, looking up to the heavens, from +which the rain clashed and the thunder reverberated; his air was +French-Roman; that is, more Romanesque than Roman. The Indian ponies, +much excited, kept careering through the wood, around the encampment, +and now and then, halting suddenly, would thrust in their intelligent, +though amazed faces, as if to ask their masters when this awful pother +would cease, and then, after a moment, rush and trample off again. + +At last we got away, well wetted, but with a picturesque scene for +memory. At a house where we stopped to get dry, they told us that +this wandering band (of Pottawattamies), who had returned, on a visit, +either from homesickness, or need of relief, were extremely destitute. +The women had been there to see if they could barter for food their +head-bands, with which they club their hair behind into a form not +unlike a Grecian knot. They seemed, indeed, to have neither food, +utensils, clothes, nor bedding; nothing but the ground, the sky, and +their own strength. Little wonder if they drove off the game! + +Part of the same band I had seen in Milwaukee, on a begging dance. +The effect of this was wild and grotesque. They wore much paint and +feather head-dresses. "Indians without paint are poor coots," said a +gentleman who had been a great deal with, and really liked, them; +and I like the effect of the paint on them; it reminds of the gay +fantasies of nature. With them in Milwaukie was a chief, the finest +Indian figure I saw, more than six feet in height, erect, and of a +sullen, but grand gait and gesture. He wore a deep-red blanket, which +fell in large folds from his shoulders to his feet, did not join in +the dance, but slowly strode about through the streets, a fine +sight, not a French-Roman, but a real Roman. He looked unhappy, +but listlessly unhappy, as if he felt it was of no use to strive or +resist. + +While in the neighborhood of these lakes, we visited also a foreign +settlement of great interest. Here were minds, it seemed, to +"comprehend the trust" of their new life; and, if they can only stand +true to them, will derive and bestow great benefits therefrom. + +But sad and sickening to the enthusiast who comes to these shores, +hoping the tranquil enjoyment of intellectual blessings, and the +pure happiness of mutual love, must be a part of the scene that he +encounters at first. He has escaped from the heartlessness of courts, +to encounter the vulgarity of the mob; he has secured solitude, but +it is a lonely, a deserted solitude. Amid the abundance of nature, +he cannot, from petty, but insuperable obstacles, procure, for a long +time, comforts or a home. + +But let him come sufficiently armed with patience to learn the new +spells which the new dragons require, (and this can only be done +on the spot,) he will not finally be disappointed of the promised +treasure; the mob will resolve itself into men, yet crude, but of good +dispositions, and capable of good character; the solitude will become +sufficiently enlivened, and home grow up at last from the rich sod. + +In this transition state we found one of these homes. As we +approached, it seemed the very Eden which earth might still afford to +a pair willing to give up the hackneyed pleasures of the world for a +better and more intimate communion with one another and with beauty: +the wild road led through wide, beautiful woods, to the wilder and +more beautiful shores of the finest lake we saw. On its waters, +glittering in the morning sun, a few Indians were paddling to and fro +in their light canoes. On one of those fair knolls I have so often +mentioned stood the cottage, beneath trees which stooped as if +they yet felt brotherhood with its roof-tree. Flowers waved, birds +fluttered round, all had the sweetness of a happy seclusion; all +invited to cry to those who inhabited it, All hail, ye happy ones! + +But on entrance to those evidently rich in personal beauty, talents, +love, and courage, the aspect of things was rather sad. Sickness had +been with them, death, care, and labor; these had not yet blighted +them, but had turned their gay smiles grave. It seemed that hope and +joy had given place to resolution. How much, too, was there in them, +worthless in this place, which would have been so valuable +elsewhere! Refined graces, cultivated powers, shine in vain before +field-laborers, as laborers are in this present world; you might as +well cultivate heliotropes to present to an ox. Oxen and heliotropes +are both good, but not for one another. + +With them were some of the old means of enjoyment, the books, +the pencil, the guitar; but where the wash-tub and the axe are so +constantly in requisition, there is not much time and pliancy of hand +for these. + +In the inner room, the master of the house was seated; he had been +sitting there long, for he had injured his foot on ship-board, and his +farming had to be done by proxy. His beautiful young wife was his +only attendant and nurse, as well as a farm, housekeeper. How well +she performed hard and unaccustomed duties, the objects of her care +showed; everything that belonged to the house was rude, but neatly +arranged. The invalid, confined to an uneasy wooden chair, (they had +not been able to induce any one to bring them an easy-chair from the +town,) looked as neat and elegant as if he had been dressed by the +valet of a duke. He was of Northern blood, with clear, full blue eyes, +calm features, a tempering of the soldier, scholar, and man of the +world, in his aspect. Either various intercourses had given him that +thoroughbred look never seen in Americans, or it was inherited from +a race who had known all these disciplines. He formed a great but +pleasing contrast to his wife, whose glowing complexion and dark +yellow eye bespoke an origin in some climate more familiar with the +sun. He looked as if he could sit there a great while patiently, +and live on his own mind, biding his time; she, as if she could bear +anything for affection's sake, but would feel the weight of each +moment as it passed. + +Seeing the album full of drawings and verses, which bespoke the circle +of elegant and affectionate intercourse they had left behind, we could +not but see that the young wife sometimes must need a sister, the +husband a companion, and both must often miss that electricity which +sparkles from the chain of congenial minds. + +For mankind, a position is desirable in some degree proportioned to +education. Mr. Birkbeck was bred a farmer, but these were nurslings +of the court and city; they may persevere, for an affectionate courage +shone in their eyes, and, if so, become true lords of the soil, and +informing geniuses to those around; then, perhaps, they will feel that +they have not paid too clear for the tormented independence of the new +settler's life. But, generally, damask roses will not thrive in the +wood, and a ruder growth, if healthy and pure, we wish rather to see +there. + +I feel about these foreigners very differently from what I do about +Americans. American men and women are inexcusable if they do not bring +up children so as to be fit for vicissitudes; the meaning of our star +is, that here all men being free and equal, every man should be fitted +for freedom and an independence by his own resources wherever the +changeful wave of our mighty stream may take him. But the star of +Europe brought a different horoscope, and to mix destinies breaks the +thread of both. The Arabian horse will not plough well, nor can the +plough-horse be rode to play the jereed. Yet a man is a man wherever +he goes, and something precious cannot fail to be gained by one who +knows how to abide by a resolution of any kind, and pay the cost +without a murmur. + +Returning, the fine carriage at last fulfilled its threat of breaking +down. We took refuge in a farm-house. Here was a pleasant scene,--a +rich and beautiful estate, several happy families, who had removed +together, and formed a natural community, ready to help and enliven +one another. They were farmers at home, in Western New York, and both +men and women knew how to work. Yet even here the women did not like +the change, but they were willing, "as it might be best for the young +folks." Their hospitality was great: the houseful of women and pretty +children seemed all of one mind. + +Returning to Milwaukie much fatigued, I entertained myself: for a +day or two with reading. The book I had brought with me was in strong +contrast with, the life around, me. Very strange was this vision of +an exalted and sensitive existence, which seemed to invade the next +sphere, in contrast with the spontaneous, instinctive life, so healthy +and so near the ground I had been surveying. This was the German book +entitled:-- + +"The Seeress of Prevorst.--Revelations concerning the Inward Life of +Man, and the Projection of a World of Spirits into ours, communicated +by Justinus Kerner." + +This book, published in Germany some twelve years since, and which +called forth there plenteous dews of admiration, as plenteous +hail-storms of jeers and scorns, I never saw mentioned in any English +publication till some year or two since. Then a playful, but not +sarcastic account of it, in the Dublin Magazine, so far excited my +curiosity, that I procured the book, intending to read it so soon as I +should have some leisure days, such as this journey has afforded. + +Dr. Kerner, its author, is a man of distinction in his native land, +both as a physician and a thinker, though always on the side of +reverence, marvel, and mysticism. He was known to me only through two +or three little poems of his in Catholic legends, which I much admired +for the fine sense they showed of the beauty of symbols. + +He here gives a biography, mental and physical, of one of the +most remarkable cases of high nervous excitement that the age, +so interested in such, yet affords, with all its phenomena of +clairvoyance and susceptibility of magnetic influences. As to my own +mental positron on these subjects, it may be briefly expressed by +a dialogue between several persons who honor me with a portion of +friendly confidence and criticism, and myself, personified as _Free +Hope_. The others may be styled _Old Church_, _Good Sense_, and +_Self-Poise_. + + +DIALOGUE. + +_Good Sense._ I wonder you can take any interest in such observations +or experiments. Don't you see how almost impossible it is to make them +with any exactness, how entirely impossible to know anything about +them unless made by yourself, when the least leaven of credulity, +excited fancy, to say nothing of willing or careless imposture, +spoils the whole loaf? Beside, allowing the possibility of some clear +glimpses into a higher state of being, what do we want of it now? All +around us lies what we neither understand nor use. Our capacities, our +instincts for this our present sphere, are but half developed. Let +us confine ourselves to that till the lesson be learned; let us be +completely natural, before we trouble ourselves with the supernatural. +I never see any of these things but I long to get away and lie under +a green tree, and let the wind blow on me. There is marvel and charm +enough in that for me. + +_Free Hope._ And for me also. Nothing is truer than the Wordsworthian +creed, on which Carlyle lays such stress, that we need only look +on the miracle of every day, to sate ourselves with thought and +admiration every day. But how are our faculties sharpened to do it? +Precisely by apprehending the infinite results of every day. + +Who sees the meaning of the flower uprooted in the ploughed field? The +ploughman who does not look beyond its boundaries and does not raise +his eyes from the ground? No,--but the poet who sees that field in its +relations with the universe, and looks oftener to the sky than on the +ground. Only the dreamer shall understand realities, though, in truth, +his dreaming must be not out of proportion to his waking! + +The mind, roused powerfully by this existence, stretches of itself +into what the French sage calls the "aromal state." From the hope thus +gleaned it forms the hypothesis, under whose banner it collects its +facts. + +Long before these slight attempts were made to establish, as a science +what is at present called animal magnetism, always, in fact, men were +occupied more or less with this vital principle,--principle of +flux and influx,--dynamic of our mental mechanics,--human phase of +electricity. Poetic observation was pure, there was no quackery in its +free course, as there is so often in this wilful tampering with the +hidden springs of life, for it is tampering unless done in a patient +spirit and with severe truth; yet it may be, by the rude or greedy +miners, some good ore is unearthed. And some there are who work in +the true temper, patient and accurate in trial, not rushing to +conclusions, feeling there is a mystery, not eager to call it by name +till they can know it as a reality: such may learn, such may teach. + +Subject to the sudden revelations, the breaks in habitual existence, +caused by the aspect of death, the touch of love, the flood of music, +I never lived, that I remember, what you call a common natural day. +All my days are touched by the supernatural, for I feel the pressure +of hidden causes, and the presence, sometimes the communion, of unseen +powers. It needs not that I should ask the clairvoyant whether "a +spirit-world projects into ours." As to the specific evidence, I would +not tarnish my mind by hasty reception. The mind is not, I know, a +highway, but a temple, and its doors should not be carelessly left +open. Yet it were sin, if indolence or coldness excluded what had a +claim to enter; and I doubt whether, in the eyes of pure intelligence, +an ill-grounded hasty rejection be not a greater sign of weakness than +an ill-grounded and hasty faith. + +I will quote, as my best plea, the saying of a man old in years, but +not in heart, and whose long life has been distinguished by that +clear adaptation of means to ends which gives the credit of practical +wisdom. He wrote to his child, "I have lived too long, and seen too +much, to be _in_ credulous." Noble the thought, no less so its frank +expression, instead of saws of caution, mean advices, and other modern +instances. Such was the romance of Socrates when he bade his disciples +"sacrifice a cock to AEsculapius." + +_Old Church._ You are always so quick-witted and voluble, Free Hope, +you don't get time to see how often you err, and even, perhaps, sin +and blaspheme. The Author of all has intended to confine our knowledge +within certain boundaries, has given us a short span of time for +a certain probation, for which our faculties are adapted. By wild +speculation and intemperate curiosity we violate His will, and incur +dangerous, perhaps fatal, consequences. We waste our powers, and, +becoming morbid and visionary, are unfitted to obey positive precepts, +and perform positive duties. + +_Free Hope._ I do not see how it is possible to go further beyond the +results of a limited human experience than those do who pretend to +settle the origin and nature of sin, the final destiny of souls, and +the whole plan of the Causal Spirit with regard to them. I think those +who take your view have not examined themselves, and do not know the +ground on which they stand. + +I acknowledge no limit, set up by man's opinion, as to the capacities +of man. "Care is taken," I see it, "that the trees grow not up into +heaven"; but, to me it seems, the more vigorously they aspire, the +better. Only let it be a vigorous, not a partial or sickly aspiration. +Let not the tree forget its root. + +So long as the child insists on knowing where its dead parent is, so +long as bright eyes weep at mysterious pressures, too heavy for the +life, so long as that impulse is constantly arising which made the +Roman emperor address his soul in a strain of such touching softness, +vanishing from, the thought, as the column of smoke from the eye, I +know of no inquiry which the impulse of man suggests that is forbidden +to the resolution of man to pursue. In every inquiry, unless sustained +by a pure and reverent spirit, he gropes in the dark, or falls +headlong. + +_Self-Poise._ All this may be very true, but what is the use of all +this straining? Far-sought is dear-bought. When we know that all is in +each, and that the ordinary contains the extraordinary, why should we +play the baby, and insist upon having the moon for a toy when a tin +dish will do as well? Our deep ignorance is a chasm that we can only +fill up by degrees, but the commonest rubbish will help us as well +as shred silk. The god Brahma, while on earth, was set to fill up a +valley, but he had only a basket given him in which to fetch earth for +this purpose; so is it with us all. No leaps, no starts, will avail +us; by patient crystallization alone, the equal temper of wisdom is +attainable. Sit at home, and the spirit-world will look in at your +window with moonlit eyes; run out to find it, and rainbow and golden +cup will have vanished, and left you the beggarly child you were. The +better part of wisdom is a sublime prudence, a pure and patient truth, +that will receive nothing it is not sure it can permanently lay to +heart. Of our study, there should be in proportion two thirds of +rejection to one of acceptance. And, amid the manifold infatuations +and illusions of this world of emotion, a being capable of clear +intelligence can do no better service than to hold himself upright, +avoid nonsense, and do what chores lie in his way, acknowledging every +moment that primal truth, which no fact exhibits, nor, if pressed by +too warm a hope, will even indicate. I think, indeed, it is part of +our lesson to give a formal consent to what is farcical, and to +pick up our living and our virtue amid what is so ridiculous, hardly +deigning a smile, and certainly not vexed. The work is done through +all, if not by every one. + +_Free Hope._ Thou art greatly wise, my friend, and ever respected by +me, yet I find not in your theory or your scope room enough for the +lyric inspirations or the mysterious whispers of life. To me it +seems that it is madder never to abandon one's self, than often to be +infatuated; better to be wounded, a captive, and a slave, than always +to walk in armor. As to magnetism, that is only a matter of fancy. You +sometimes need just such a field in which to wander vagrant, and if it +bear a higher name, yet it may be that, in last result, the trance of +Pythagoras might be classed with the more infantine transports of the +Seeress of Prevorst. + +What is done interests me more than what is thought and supposed. +Every fact is impure, but every fact contains in it the juices of +life. Every fact is a clod, from which may grow an amaranth or a palm. + +Climb you the snowy peaks whence come the streams, where the +atmosphere is rare, where you can see the sky nearer, from which you +can get a commanding view of the landscape? I see great disadvantages +as well as advantages in this dignified position. I had rather walk +myself through all kinds of places, even at the risk of being robbed +in the forest, half drowned at the ford, and covered with dust in the +street. + +I would beat with the living heart of the world, and understand all +the moods, even the fancies or fantasies, of nature. I dare to +trust to the interpreting spirit to bring me out all right at +last,--establish truth through error. + +Whether this be the best way is of no consequence, if it be the one +individual character points out. + + For one, like me, it would be vain + From glittering heights the eyes to strain; + I the truth can only know, + Tested by life's most fiery glow. + Seeds of thought will never thrive, + Till dews of love shall bid them live. + +Let me stand in my age with all its waters flowing round me. If +they sometimes subdue, they must finally upbear me, for I seek the +universal,--and that must be the best. + +The Spirit, no doubt, leads in every movement of my time: if I seek +the How, I shall find it, as well as if I busied myself more with the +Why. + +Whatever is, is right, if only men are steadily bent to make it so, by +comprehending and fulfilling its design. + +May not I have an office, too, in my hospitality and ready sympathy? +If I sometimes entertain guests who cannot pay with gold coin, +with "fair rose nobles," that is better than to lose the chance of +entertaining angels unawares. + +You, my three friends, are held, in heart-honor, by me. You, +especially, Good Sense, because where you do not go yourself, you do +not object to another's going, if he will. You are really liberal. +You, Old Church, are of use, by keeping unforgot the effigies of old +religion, and reviving the tone of pure Spenserian sentiment, which +this time is apt to stifle in its childish haste. But you are very +faulty in censuring and wishing to limit others by your own +standard. You, Self-Poise, fill a priestly office. Could but a larger +intelligence of the vocations of others, and a tender sympathy with +their individual natures, be added, had you more of love, or more of +apprehensive genius, (for either would give you the needed expansion +and delicacy,) you would command my entire reverence. As it is, I must +at times deny and oppose you, and so must others, for you tend, by +your influence, to exclude us from our full, free life. We must +be content when you censure, and rejoiced when you approve; always +admonished to good by your whole being, and sometimes by your +judgment. + + * * * * * + +Do not blame me that I have written so much suggested by the German +seeress, while you were looking for news of the West. Here on the +pier, I see disembarking the Germans, the Norwegians, the Swedes, the +Swiss. Who knows how much of old legendary lore, of modern wonder, +they have already planted amid the Wisconsin forests? Soon, their +tales of the origin of things, and the Providence which rules them, +will be so mingled with those of the Indian, that the very oak-tree +will not know them apart,--will not know whether itself be a Runic, a +Druid, or a Winnebago oak. + +Some seeds of all growths that have ever been known in this world +might, no doubt, already be found in these Western wilds, if we had +the power to call them to life. + +I saw, in the newspaper, that the American Tract Society boasted of +their agent's having exchanged, at a Western cabin door, tracts for +the "Devil on Two Sticks," and then burnt that more entertaining than +edifying volume. No wonder, though, they study it there. Could one +but have the gift of reading the dreams dreamed by men of such various +birth, various history, various mind, it would afford much, more +extensive amusement than did the chambers of one Spanish city! + +Could I but have flown at night through such mental experiences, +instead of being shut up in my little bedroom at the Milwaukie +boarding-house, this chapter would have been worth reading. As it is, +let us hasten to a close. + +Had I been rich in money, I might have built a house, or set up in +business, during my fortnight's stay at Milwaukie, matters move on +there at so rapid a rate. But being only rich in curiosity, I was +obliged to walk the streets and pick up what I could in casual +intercourse. When I left the street, indeed, and walked on the bluffs, +or sat beside the lake in their shadow, my mind was rich in dreams +congenial to the scene, some time to be realized, though not by me. + +A boat was left, keel up, half on the sand, half in the water, swaying +with each swell of the lake. It gave a picturesque grace to that part +of the shore, as the only image of inaction,--only object of a pensive +character to be seen. Near this I sat, to dream my dreams and watch +the colors of the lake, changing hourly, till the sun sank. These +hours yielded impulses, wove webs, such as life will not again afford. + +Returning to the boarding-house, which was also a boarding-school, we +were sure to be greeted by gay laughter. + +This school was conducted by two girls of nineteen and seventeen +years; their pupils were nearly as old as themselves. The relation +seemed very pleasant between them; the only superiority--that of +superior knowledge--was sufficient to maintain authority,--all the +authority that was needed to keep daily life in good order. + +In the West, people are not respected merely because they are old in +years; people there have not time to keep up appearances in that way; +when persons cease to have a real advantage in wisdom, knowledge, +or enterprise, they must stand back, and let those who are oldest in +character "go ahead," however few years they may count. There are no +banks of established respectability in which to bury the talent there; +no napkin of precedent in which to wrap it. What cannot be made to +pass current, is not esteemed coin of the realm. + +To the windows of this house, where the daughter of a famous "Indian +fighter," i.e. fighter against the Indians, was learning French, and +the piano, came wild, tawny figures, offering for sale their baskets +of berries. The boys now, instead of brandishing the tomahawk, tame +their hands to pick raspberries. + +Here the evenings were much lightened by the gay chat of one of the +party, who with the excellent practical sense of mature experience, +and the kindest heart, united a _naivete_ and innocence such as I +never saw in any other who had walked so long life's tangled path. +Like a child, she was everywhere at home, and, like a child, received +and bestowed entertainment from all places, all persons. I thanked her +for making me laugh, as did the sick and poor, whom she was sure to +find out in her briefest sojourn in any place, for more substantial +aid. Happy are those who never grieve, and so often aid and enliven +their fellow-men! + +This scene, however, I was not sorry to exchange for the much +celebrated beauties of the island of Mackinaw. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +MACKINAW.--INDIANS.--INDIAN WOMEN.--EVERETT'S RECEPTION OF +CHIEFS.--UNFITNESS OF INDIAN MISSIONARIES.--OUR DUTIES TOWARD THIS +RACE. + + +Late at night we reached this island of Mackinaw, so famous for its +beauty, and to which I proposed a visit of some length. It was the +last week in August, at which, time a large representation from the +Chippewa and Ottawa tribes are here to receive their annual payments +from the American government. As their habits make travelling easy and +inexpensive to them, neither being obliged to wait for steamboats, or +write to see whether hotels are full, they come hither by thousands, +and those thousands in families, secure of accommodation on the beach, +and food from the lake, to make a long holiday out of the occasion. +There were near two thousand encamped on the island already, and more +arriving every day. + +As our boat came in, the captain had some rockets let off. This +greatly excited the Indians, and their yells and wild cries resounded +along the shore. Except for the momentary flash of the rockets, it +was perfectly dark, and my sensations as I walked with a stranger to a +strange hotel, through the midst of these shrieking savages, and heard +the pants and snorts of the departing steamer, which carried, away +all my companions, were somewhat of the dismal sort; though it was +pleasant, too, in the way that everything strange is; everything that +breaks in upon the routine that so easily incrusts us. + +I had reason to expect a room to myself at the hotel, but found +none, and was obliged to take up my rest in the common parlor and +eating-room, a circumstance which insured my being an early riser. + +With the first rosy streak, I was out among my Indian neighbors, whose +lodges honeycombed the beautiful beach, that curved away in long, fair +outline on either side the house. They were already on the alert, the +children creeping out from beneath the blanket door of the lodge, the +women pounding corn in their rude mortars, the young men playing on +their pipes. I had been much amused, when the strain proper to the +Winnebago courting flute was played to me on another instrument, at +any one fancying it a melody; but now, when I heard the notes in +their true tone and time, I thought it not unworthy comparison, in +its graceful sequence, and the light flourish at the close, with the +sweetest bird-song; and this, like the bird-song, is only practised +to allure a mate. The Indian, become a citizen and a husband, no more +thinks of playing the flute, than one of the "settled-down" members of +our society would, of choosing the "purple light of love" as dye-stuff +for a surtout. + +Mackinaw has been fully described by able pens, and I can only add my +tribute to the exceeding beauty of the spot and its position. It is +charming to be on an island so small that you can sail round it in an +afternoon, yet large enough to admit of long, secluded walks through +its gentle groves. You can go round it in your boat; or, on foot, you +can tread its narrow beach, resting, at times, beneath the lofty walls +of stone, richly wooded, which rise from it in various architectural +forms. In this stone, caves are continually forming, from the action +of the atmosphere; one of these is quite deep, and a rocky fragment +left at its mouth, wreathed with little creeping plants, looks, as you +sit within, like a ruined pillar. + +The arched rock surprised me, much as I had heard of it, from, the +perfection of the arch. It is perfect, whether you look up through it +from the lake, or down through it to the transparent waters. We both +ascended and descended--no very easy matter--the steep and crumbling +path, and rested at the summit, beneath the trees, and at the foot, +upon the cool, mossy stones beside the lapsing wave. Nature has +carefully decorated all this architecture with shrubs that take root +within the crevices, and small creeping vines. These natural ruins may +vie for beautiful effect with the remains of European grandeur, and +have, beside, a charm as of a playful mood in Nature. + +The sugar-loaf rock is a fragment in the same kind as the pine rock +we saw in Illinois. It has the same air of a helmet, as seen from an +eminence at the side, which you descend by a long and steep path. The +rock itself may be ascended by the bold and agile: half-way up is a +niche, to which those who are neither can climb by a ladder. A very +handsome young officer and lady who were with us did so, and then, +facing round, stood there side by side, looking in the niche, if +not like saints or angels wrought by pious hands in stone, as +romantically, if not as holily, worthy the gazer's eye. + +The woods which adorn the central ridge of the island are very full +in foliage, and, in August, showed the tender green and pliant leaf +of June elsewhere. They are rich in beautiful mosses and the wild +raspberry. + +From Fort Holmes, the old fort, we had the most commanding view of the +lake and straits, opposite shores, and fair islets. Mackinaw itself is +best seen from the water. Its peculiar shape is supposed to have been +the origin of its name, Michilimackinac, which means the Great Turtle. +One person whom I saw wished to establish another etymology, which he +fancied to be more refined; but, I doubt not, this is the true one, +both because the shape might suggest such a name, and the existence +of an island of such form in this commanding position would seem +a significant fact to the Indians. For Henry gives the details of +peculiar worship paid to the Great Turtle, and the oracles received +from this extraordinary Apollo of the Indian Delphos. + +It is crowned, most picturesquely, by the white fort, with its gay +flag. From this, on one side, stretches the town. How pleasing a +sight, after the raw, crude, staring assemblage of houses everywhere +else to be met in this country, is an old French town, mellow in +its coloring, and with the harmonious effect of a slow growth, which +assimilates, naturally, with objects round it! The people in its +streets, Indian, French, half-breeds, and others, walked with a +leisure step, as of those who live a life of taste and inclination, +rather than of the hard press of business, as in American towns +elsewhere. + +On the other side, along the fair, curving beach, below the white +houses scattered on the declivity, clustered the Indian lodges, with +their amber-brown matting, so soft and bright of hue, in the late +afternoon sun. The first afternoon I was there, looking down from +a near height, I felt that I never wished to see a more fascinating +picture. It was an hour of the deepest serenity; bright blue and gold, +with rich shadows. Every moment the sunlight fell more mellow. +The Indians were grouped and scattered among the lodges; the women +preparing food, in the kettle or frying-pan, over the many small +fires; the children, half naked, wild as little goblins, were playing +both in and out of the water. Here and there lounged a young girl, +with a baby at her back, whose bright eyes glanced, as if born into a +world of courage and of joy, instead of ignominious servitude and slow +decay. Some girls were cutting wood, a little way from me, talking and +laughing, in the low musical tone, so charming in the Indian women. +Many bark canoes were upturned upon the beach, and, by that light, of +almost the same amber as the lodges; others coming in, their square +sails set, and with almost arrowy speed, though heavily laden with +dusky forms, and all the apparatus of their household. Here and there +a sail-boat glided by, with a different but scarce less pleasing +motion. + +It was a scene of ideal loveliness, and these wild forms adorned it, +as looking so at home in it. All seemed happy, and they were happy +that day, for they had no fire-water to madden them, as it was Sunday, +and the shops were shut. + +From my window, at the boarding-house, my eye was constantly attracted +by these picturesque groups. I was never tired of seeing the canoes +come in, and the new arrivals set up their temporary dwellings. The +women ran to set up the tent-poles, and spread the mats on the ground. +The men brought the chests, kettles, &c.; the mats were then laid on +the outside, the cedar-boughs strewed on the ground, the blanket hung +up for a door, and all was completed in less than twenty minutes. Then +they began to prepare the night meal, and to learn of their neighbors +the news of the day. + +The habit of preparing food out of doors gave all the gypsy charm and +variety to their conduct. Continually I wanted Sir Walter Scott to +have been there. If such romantic sketches were suggested to him, by +the sight of a few gypsies, not a group near one of these fires but +would have furnished him material for a separate canvas. I was so +taken up with the spirit of the scene, that I could not follow out +the stories suggested by these weather-beaten, sullen, but eloquent +figures. + +They talked a great deal, and with much, variety of gesture, so that I +often had a good guess at the meaning of their discourse. I saw +that, whatever the Indian may be among the whites, he is anything but +taciturn with his own people; and he often would declaim, or narrate +at length. Indeed, it is obvious, if only from the fables taken from +their stores by Mr. Schoolcraft, that these tribes possess great power +that way. + +I liked very much, to walk or sit among them. With, the women I held +much communication by signs. They are almost invariably coarse and +ugly, with the exception of their eyes, with a peculiarly awkward +gait, and forms bent by burdens. This gait, so different from the +steady and noble step of the men, marks the inferior position +they occupy. I had heard much eloquent contradiction of this. Mrs. +Schoolcraft had maintained to a friend, that they were in fact as +nearly on a par with their husbands as the white woman with hers. +"Although," said she, "on account of inevitable causes, the Indian +woman is subjected to many hardships of a peculiar nature, yet her +position, compared with that of the man, is higher and freer than that +of the white woman. Why will people look only on one side? They either +exalt the red man into a demigod, or degrade him into a beast. They +say that he compels his wife to do all the drudgery, while he does +nothing but hunt and amuse himself; forgetting that upon his activity +and power of endurance as a hunter depends the support of his +family; that this is labor of the most fatiguing kind, and that it is +absolutely necessary that he should keep his frame unbent by burdens +and unworn by toil, that he may be able to obtain the means of +subsistence. I have witnessed scenes of conjugal and parental love +in the Indian's wigwam, from, which I have often, often thought the +educated white man, proud of his superior civilization, might learn a +useful lesson. When he returns from hunting, worn out with, fatigue, +having tasted nothing since dawn, his wife, if she is a good wife, +will take off his moccasons and replace them with dry ones, and will +prepare his game for their repast, while his children will climb upon +him, and he will caress them, with all the tenderness of a woman; and +in the evening the Indian wigwam is the scene of the purest domestic +pleasures. The father will relate, for the amusement of the wife and +for the instruction of the children, all the events of the day's hunt, +while they will treasure up every word that falls, and thus learn +the theory of the art whose practice is to be the occupation of their +lives." + +Mrs. Grant speaks thus of the position of woman amid the Mohawk +Indians:-- + +"Lady Mary Montague says, that the court of Vienna was the paradise of +old women, and that there is no other place in the world where a woman +past fifty excites the least interest. Had her travels extended to +the interior of North America, she would have seen another instance of +this inversion of the common mode of thinking. Here a woman never was +of consequence, till sire had a son old enough to fight the battles of +his country. From, that date she held a superior rank in society; was +allowed to live at ease, and even called to consultations on national +affairs. In savage and warlike countries, the reign of beauty is very +short, and its influence comparatively limited. The girls in childhood +had a very pleasing appearance; but excepting their fine hair, +eyes, and teeth, every external grace was soon banished by perpetual +drudgery, carrying burdens too heavy to be borne, and other slavish +employments, considered beneath the dignity of the men. These walked +before, erect and graceful, decked with ornaments which set off to +advantage the symmetry of their well-formed persons, while the poor +women followed, meanly attired, bent under the weight of the children +and the utensils, which they carried everywhere with, them, and +disfigured and degraded by ceaseless toils. They were very early +married, for a Mohawk had no other servant but his wife; and whenever +he commenced hunter, it was requisite he should have some one to carry +his load, cook his kettle, make his moccasons, and, above all, produce +the young warriors who were to succeed him in the honors of the chase +and of the tomahawk. Wherever man is a mere hunter, woman is a mere +slave. It is domestic intercourse that softens man, and elevates +woman; and of that there can be but little, where the employments +and amusements are not in common. The ancient Caledonians honored the +fair; but then it is to be observed, they were fair huntresses, +and moved in the light of their beauty to the hill of roes; and the +culinary toils were entirely left to the rougher sex. When the young +warrior made his appearance, it softened the cares of his mother, who +well knew that, when he grew up, every deficiency in tenderness to his +wife would be made up in superabundant duty and affection to her. If +it were possible to carry filial veneration to excess, it was done +here; for all other charities were absorbed in it. I wonder this +system of depressing the sex in their early years, to exalt them, +when all their juvenile attractions are flown, and when mind alone +can distinguish them, has not occurred to our modern reformers. +The Mohawks took good care not to admit their women to share their +prerogatives, till they approved themselves good wives and mothers." + +The observations of women upon the position of woman are always more +valuable than those of men; but, of these two, Mrs. Grant's seem +much, nearer the truth than Mrs. Schoolcraft's, because, though her +opportunities for observation did not bring her so close, she looked +more at both sides to find the truth. + +Carver, in his travels among the Winnebagoes, describes two queens, +one nominally so, like Queen Victoria; the other invested with a +genuine royalty, springing from her own conduct. + +In the great town of the Winnebagoes, he found a queen presiding over +the tribe, instead of a sachem. He adds, that, in some tribes, the +descent is given to the female line in preference to the male, that +is, a sister's son will succeed to the authority, rather than a +brother's son. The position of this Winnebago queen reminded me +forcibly of Queen Victoria's. + +"She sat in the council, but only asked a few questions, or gave some +trifling directions in matters relative to the state, for women are +never allowed to sit in their councils, except they happen to be +invested with the supreme authority, and then it is not customary for +them to make any formal speeches, as the chiefs do. She was a very +ancient woman, small in stature, and not much distinguished by +her dress from several young women that attended her. These, her +attendants, seemed greatly pleased whenever I showed any tokens +of respect to their queen, especially when I saluted her, which I +frequently did to acquire her favor." + +The other was a woman, who, being taken captive, found means to kill +her captor, and make her escape; and the tribe were so struck with +admiration at the courage and calmness she displayed on the occasion, +as to make her chieftainess in her own light. + +Notwithstanding the homage paid to women, and the consequence allowed +them in some cases, it is impossible to look upon the Indian women +without feeling that they _do_ occupy a lower place than women among +the nations of European civilization. The habits of drudgery expressed +in their form and gesture, the soft and wild but melancholy expression +of their eye, reminded me of the tribe mentioned by Mackenzie, where +the women destroy their female children, whenever they have a good +opportunity; and of the eloquent reproaches addressed by the Paraguay +woman to her mother, that she had not, in the same way, saved her from +the anguish and weariness of her lot. + +More weariness than anguish, no doubt, falls to the lot of most of +these women. They inherit submission, and the minds of the generality +accommodate themselves more or less to any posture. Perhaps they +suffer less than their white sisters, who have more aspiration and +refinement, with little power of self-sustenance. But their place is +certainly lower, and their share of the human inheritance less. + +Their decorum and delicacy are striking, and show that, when these are +native to the mind, no habits of life make any difference. Their whole +gesture is timid, yet self-possessed. They used to crowd round me, to +inspect little things I had to show them, but never press near; on the +contrary, would reprove and keep off the children. Anything they took +from my hand was held with care, then shut or folded, and returned +with an air of lady-like precision. They would not stare, however +curious they might be, but cast sidelong glances. + +A locket that I wore was an object of untiring interest; they seemed +to regard it as a talisman. My little sun-shade was still more +fascinating to them; apparently they had never before seen one. For an +umbrella they entertained profound regard, probably looking upon it as +the most luxurious superfluity a person can possess, and therefore a +badge of great wealth. I used to see an old squaw, whose sullied +skin and coarse, tanned locks told that she had braved sun and storm, +without a doubt or care, for sixty years at least, sitting gravely at +the door of her lodge, with an old green umbrella over her head, happy +for hours together in the dignified shade. For her happiness pomp +came not, as it so often does, too late; she received it with grateful +enjoyment. + +One day, as I was seated on one of the canoes, a woman came and sat +beside me, with her baby in its cradle set up at her feet. She asked +me by a gesture to let her take my sun-shade, and then to show her how +to open it. Then she put it into her baby's hand, and held it over +its head, looking at me the while with a sweet, mischievous laugh, as +much, as to say, "You carry a thing that is only fit for a baby." Her +pantomime was very pretty. She, like the other women, had a glance, +and shy, sweet expression in the eye; the men have a steady gaze. + +That noblest and loveliest of modern Preux, Lord Edward Fitzgerald, +who came through Buffalo to Detroit and Mackinaw, with Brant, and was +adopted into the Bear tribe by the name of Eghnidal, was struck in +the same way by the delicacy of manners in women. He says: +"Notwithstanding the life they lead, which would make most women rough +and masculine, they are as soft, meek, and modest as the best brought +up girls in England. Somewhat coquettish too! Imagine the manners of +Mimi in a poor _squaw_, that has been carrying packs in the woods all +her life." + +McKenney mentions that the young wife, during the short bloom of her +beauty, is an object of homage and tenderness to her husband. One +Indian woman, the Flying Pigeon, a beautiful and excellent person, of +whom he gives some particulars, is an instance of the power uncommon +characters will always exert of breaking down the barriers custom has +erected round them. She captivated by her charms, and inspired her +husband and son with, reverence for her character. The simple praise +with which the husband indicates the religion, the judgment, and the +generosity he saw in her, are as satisfying as Count Zinzendorf's more +labored eulogium on his "noble consort." The conduct of her son, +when, many years after her death, he saw her picture at Washington, is +unspeakably affecting. Catlin gives anecdotes of the grief of a +chief for the loss of a daughter, and the princely gifts he offers +in exchange for her portrait, worthy not merely of European, but of +Troubadour sentiment. It is also evident that, as Mrs. Schoolcraft +says, the women have great power at home. It can never be otherwise, +men being dependent upon them for the comfort of their lives. Just +so among ourselves, wives who are neither esteemed nor loved by their +husbands have great power over their conduct by the friction of +every day, and over the formation of their opinions by the daily +opportunities so close a relation affords of perverting testimony +and instilling doubts. But these sentiments should not come in brief +flashes, but burn as a steady flame; then there would be more women +worthy to inspire them. This power is good for nothing, unless the +woman be wise to use it aright. Has the Indian, has the white woman, +as noble a feeling of life and its uses, as religious a self-respect, +as worthy a field of thought and action, as man? If not, the white +woman, the Indian woman, occupies a position inferior to that of man. +It is not so much a question of power, as of privilege. + +The men of these subjugated tribes, now accustomed to drunkenness and +every way degraded, bear but a faint impress of the lost grandeur of +the race. They are no longer strong, tall, or finely proportioned. +Yet, as you see them stealing along a height, or striding boldly +forward, they remind you of what _was_ majestic in the red man. + +On the shores of Lake Superior, it is said, if you visit them at +home, you may still see a remnant of the noble blood. The Pillagers +(Pilleurs), a band celebrated by the old travellers, are still +existent there. + + "Still some, 'the eagles of their tribe,' may rush." + +I have spoken of the hatred felt by the white man for the Indian: with +white women it seems to amount to disgust, to loathing. How I could +endure the dirt, the peculiar smell, of the Indians, and their +dwellings, was a great marvel in the eyes of my lady acquaintance; +indeed, I wonder why they did not quite give me up, as they certainly +looked on me with great distaste for it. "Get you gone, you Indian +dog," was the felt, if not the breathed, expression towards the +hapless owners of the soil;--all their claims, all their sorrows quite +forgot, in abhorrence of their dirt, their tawny skins, and the vices +the whites have taught them. + +A person who had seen them during great part of a life expressed his +prejudices to me with such violence, that I was no longer surprised +that the Indian children threw sticks at him, as he passed. A lady +said: "Do what you will for them, they will be ungrateful. The savage +cannot be washed out of them. Bring up an Indian child, and see if you +can attach it to you." The next moment, she expressed, in the presence +of one of those children whom she was bringing up, loathing at the +odor left by one of her people, and one of the most respected, as +he passed through the room. When the child is grown, she will be +considered basely ungrateful not to love the lady, as she certainly +will not; and this will be cited as an instance of the impossibility +of attaching the Indian. + +Whether the Indian could, by any efforts of love and intelligence +from, the white man, have been civilized and made a valuable +ingredient in the new state, I will not say; but this we are sure +of,--the French Catholics, at least, did not harm them, nor disturb +their minds merely to corrupt them. The French, they loved. But the +stern Presbyterian, with his dogmas and his task-work, the city circle +and the college, with their niggard concessions and unfeeling stare, +have never tried the experiment. It has not been tried. Our people and +our government have sinned alike against the first-born of the +soil, and if they are the fated agents of a new era, they have done +nothing,--have invoked no god to keep them sinless while they do the +hest of fate. + +Worst of all is it, when they invoke the holy power only to mask their +iniquity; when the felon trader, who, all the week, has been besotting +and degrading the Indian with rum mixed with red pepper, and damaged +tobacco, kneels with him on Sunday before a common altar, to tell +the rosary which recalls the thought of Him crucified for love of +suffering men, and to listen to sermons in praise of "purity"!! + +"My savage friends," cries the old, fat priest, "you must, above all +things, aim at _purity_." + +Oh! my heart swelled when I saw them in a Christian church. Better +their own dog-feasts and bloody rites than such mockery of that other +faith. + +"The dog," said an Indian, "was once a spirit; he has fallen for his +sin, and was given by the Great Spirit, in this shape, to man, as his +most intelligent companion. Therefore we sacrifice it in highest honor +to our friends in this world,--to our protecting geniuses in another." + +There was religion in that thought. The white man sacrifices his own +brother, and to Mammon, yet he turns in loathing from, the dog-feast. + +"You say," said the Indian of the South to the missionary, "that +Christianity is pleasing to God. How can that be?--Those men at +Savannah are Christians." + +Yes! slave-drivers and Indian traders are called Christians, and the +Indian is to be deemed less like the Son of Mary than they! Wonderful +is the deceit of man's heart! + +I have not, on seeing something of them in their own haunts, found +reason to change the sentiments expressed in the following lines, when +a deputation of the Sacs and Foxes visited Boston in 1837, and were, +by one person at least, received in a dignified and courteous manner. + + +GOVERNOR EVERETT RECEIVING THE INDIAN CHIEFS, + +NOVEMBER, 1837. + + Who says that Poesy is on the wane, + And that the Muses tune their lyres in vain? + 'Mid all the treasures of romantic story, + When thought was fresh and fancy in her glory, + Has ever Art found out a richer theme, + More dark a shadow, or more soft a gleam, + Than fall upon the scene, sketched carelessly, + In the newspaper column of to-day? + + American romance is somewhat stale. + Talk of the hatchet, and the faces pale, + Wampum and calumets and forests dreary, + Once so attractive, now begins to weary. + Uncas and Magawisca please us still, + Unreal, yet idealized with skill; + But every poetaster, scribbling witling, + From the majestic oak his stylus whittling, + Has helped to tire us, and to make us fear + The monotone in which so much we hear + Of "stoics of the wood," and "men without a tear." + + Yet Nature, ever buoyant, ever young, + If let alone, will sing as erst she sung; + The course of circumstance gives back again + The Picturesque, erewhile pursued in vain; + Shows us the fount of Romance is not wasted,-- + The lights and shades of contrast not exhausted. + + Shorn of his strength, the Samson now must sue + For fragments from the feast his fathers gave; + The Indian dare not claim what is his due, + But as a boon his heritage must crave; + His stately form shall soon be seen no more + Through all his father's land, the Atlantic shore; + Beneath the sun, to _us_ so kind, _they_ melt, + More heavily each day our rule is felt. + The tale is old,--we do as mortals must: + Might makes right here, but God and Time are just. + + Though, near the drama hastens to its close, + On this last scene awhile your eyes repose; + The polished Greek and Scythian meet again, + The ancient life is lived by modern men; + The savage through our busy cities walks, + He in his untouched, grandeur silent stalks. + Unmoved by all our gayeties and shows, + Wonder nor shame can touch him as he goes; + He gazes on the marvels we have wrought, + But knows the models from whence all was brought; + In God's first temples he has stood so oft, + And listened to the natural organ-loft, + Has watched the eagle's flight, the muttering thunder heard. + Art cannot move him to a wondering word. + Perhaps he sees that all this luxury + Brings less food to the mind than to the eye; + Perhaps a simple sentiment has brought + More to him than your arts had ever taught. + What are the petty triumphs _Art_ has given, + To eyes familiar with the naked heaven? + + All has been seen,--dock, railroad, and canal, + Fort, market, bridge, college, and arsenal, + Asylum, hospital, and cotton-mill, + The theatre, the lighthouse, and the jail. + The Braves each novelty, reflecting, saw, + And now and then growled out the earnest "_Yaw_." + And now the time is come, 'tis understood, + When, having seen and thought so much, a _talk_ may do some good. + + A well-dressed mob have thronged the sight to greet, + And motley figures throng the spacious street; + Majestical and calm through all they stride, + Wearing the blanket with a monarch's pride; + The gazers stare and shrug, but can't deny + Their noble forms and blameless symmetry. + If the Great Spirit their _morale_ has slighted, + And wigwam smoke their mental culture blighted, + Yet the _physique_, at least, perfection reaches, + In wilds where neither Combe nor Spurzheim teaches; + Where whispering trees invite man to the chase, + And bounding deer allure him to the race. + + Would thou hadst seen it! That dark, stately band, + Whose ancestors enjoyed all this fair land, + Whence they, by force or fraud, were made to flee, + Are brought, the white man's victory to see. + Can kind emotions in their proud hearts glow, + As through these realms, now decked by Art, they go? + The church, the school, the railroad, and the mart,-- + Can these a pleasure to their minds impart? + All once was theirs,--earth, ocean, forest, sky,-- + How can they joy in what now meets the eye? + Not yet Religion has unlocked the soul, + Nor Each has learned to glory in the Whole! + + Must they not think, so strange and sad their lot, + That they by the Great Spirit are forgot? + From the far border to which they are driven, + They might look up in trust to the clear heaven; + But _here_,--what tales doth every object tell + Where Massasoit sleeps, where Philip fell! + + We take our turn, and the Philosopher + Sees through the clouds a hand which cannot err + An unimproving race, with all their graces + And all their vices, must resign their places; + And Human Culture rolls its onward flood + Over the broad plains steeped in Indian blood + Such thoughts steady our faith; yet there will rise + Some natural tears into the calmest eyes,-- + Which gaze where forest princes haughty go, + Made for a gaping crowd a raree-show. + + But _this_ a scene seems where, in courtesy, + The pale face with the forest prince could vie, + For one presided, who, for tact and grace, + In any age had held an honored place,-- + In Beauty's own dear day had shone a polished Phidian vase! + + Oft have I listened to his accents bland, + And owned the magic of his silvery voice, + In all the graces which life's arts demand, + Delighted by the justness of his choice. + Not his the stream of lavish, fervid thought,-- + The rhetoric by passion's magic wrought; + Not his the massive style, the lion port, + Which with the granite class of mind assort; + But, in a range of excellence his own, + With all the charms to soft persuasion known, + Amid our busy people we admire him,--"elegant and lone." + + He scarce needs words: so exquisite the skill + Which modulates the tones to do his will, + That the mere sound enough would charm the ear, + And lap in its Elysium all who hear. + The intellectual paleness of his cheek, + The heavy eyelids and slow, tranquil smile, + The well-cut lips from which the graces speak, + Pit him alike to win or to beguile; + Then those words so well chosen, fit, though few, + Their linked sweetness as our thoughts pursue, + We deem them spoken pearls, or radiant diamond dew. + + And never yet did I admire the power + Which makes so lustrous every threadbare theme,-- + Which won for La Fayette one other hour, + And e'en on July Fourth could cast a gleam,-- + As now, when I behold him play the host, + With all the dignity which red men boast,-- + With all the courtesy the whites have lost; + Assume the very hue of savage mind, + Yet in rude accents show the thought refined; + Assume the _naivete_ of infant age, + And in such prattle seem still more a sage; + The golden mean with tact unerring seized, + A courtly critic shone, a simple savage pleased. + The stoic of the woods his skill confessed, + As all the father answered in his breast; + To the sure mark the silver arrow sped, + The "man without a tear" a tear has shed; + And them hadst wept, hadst thou been there, to see + How true one sentiment must ever be, + In court or camp, the city or the wild,-- + To rouse the father's heart, you need but name his child. + +The speech of Governor Everett on that occasion was admirable; as I +think, the happiest attempt ever made to meet the Indian in his own +way, and catch the tone of his mind. It was said, in the newspapers, +that Keokuck did actually shed tears when addressed as a father. If he +did not with his eyes, he well might in his heart. + +Not often have they been addressed with such intelligence and tact. +The few who have not approached them with sordid rapacity, but from +love to them, as men having souls to be redeemed, have most frequently +been persons intellectually too narrow, too straitly bound in sects +or opinions, to throw themselves into the character or position of +the Indians, or impart to them anything they can make available. The +Christ shown them by these missionaries is to them but a new and more +powerful Manito; the signs of the new religion, but the fetiches that +have aided the conquerors. + +Here I will copy some remarks made by a discerning observer, on the +methods used by the missionaries, and their natural results. + +"Mr. ---- and myself had a very interesting conversation, upon the +subject of the Indians, their character, capabilities, &c. After ten +years' experience among them, he was forced to acknowledge that the +results of the missionary efforts had produced nothing calculated to +encourage. He thought that there was an intrinsic disability in them +to rise above, or go beyond, the sphere in which they had so long +moved. He said, that even those Indians who had been converted, and +who had adopted the habits of civilization, were very little improved +in their real character; they were as selfish, as deceitful, and +as indolent, as those who were still heathens. They had repaid the +kindnesses of the missionaries with the basest ingratitude, killing +their cattle and swine, and robbing them of their harvests, which, +they wantonly destroyed. He had abandoned the idea of effecting any +general good to the Indians. He had conscientious scruples as to +promoting an enterprise so hopeless as that of missions among +the Indians, by sending accounts to the East that might induce +philanthropic individuals to contribute to their support. In fact, the +whole experience of his intercourse with them seemed to have convinced +him of the irremediable degradation of the race. Their fortitude +under suffering he considered the result of physical and mental +insensibility; their courage, a mere animal excitement, which they +found it necessary to inflame, before daring to meet a foe. They have +no constancy of purpose; and are, in fact, but little superior to the +brutes in point of moral development. It is not astonishing, that one +looking upon the Indian character from Mr. ----'s point of view should +entertain such sentiments. The object of his intercourse with them +was, to make them apprehend the mysteries of a theology, which, to the +most enlightened, is an abstruse, metaphysical study; and it is not +singular they should prefer their pagan superstitions, which address +themselves more directly to the senses. Failing in the attempt to +Christianize before civilizing them, he inferred that in the intrinsic +degradation of their faculties the obstacle was to be found." + +Thus the missionary vainly attempts, by once or twice holding up the +cross, to turn deer and tigers into lambs; vainly attempts to convince +the red man that a heavenly mandate takes from him his broad lands. He +bows his head, but does not at heart acquiesce. He cannot. It is not +true; and if it were, the descent of blood through the same channels, +for centuries, has formed habits of thought not so easily to be +disturbed. + +Amalgamation would afford the only true and profound means of +civilization. But nature seems, like all else, to declare that this +race is fated to perish. Those of mixed blood fade early, and are not +generally a fine race. They lose what is best in either type, +rather than enhance the value of each, by mingling. There are +exceptions,--one or two such I know of,--but this, it is said, is the +general rule. + +A traveller observes, that the white settlers who live in the woods +soon become sallow, lanky, and dejected; the atmosphere of the trees +does not agree with Caucasian lungs; and it is, perhaps, in part an +instinct of this which causes the hatred of the new settlers towards +trees. The Indian breathed the atmosphere of the forests freely; he +loved their shade. As they are effaced from the land, he fleets too; a +part of the same manifestation, which cannot linger behind its proper +era. + +The Chippewas have lately petitioned the State of Michigan, that they +may be admitted as citizens; but this would be vain, unless they could +be admitted, as brothers, to the heart of the white man. And while +the latter feels that conviction of superiority which enabled our +Wisconsin friend to throw away the gun, and send the Indian to +fetch it, he needs to be very good, and very wise, not to abuse his +position. But the white man, as yet, is a half-tamed pirate, and +avails himself as much as ever of the maxim, "Might makes right." All +that civilization does for the generality is to cover up this with a +veil of subtle evasions and chicane, and here and there to rouse the +individual mind to appeal to Heaven against it. + +I have no hope of liberalizing the missionary, of humanizing the +sharks of trade, of infusing the conscientious drop into the flinty +bosom of policy, of saving the Indian from immediate degradation and +speedy death. The whole sermon may be preached from the text, "Needs +be that offences must come, yet woe onto them by whom they come." +Yet, ere they depart, I wish there might be some masterly attempt to +reproduce, in art or literature, what is proper to them,--a kind of +beauty and grandeur which few of the every-day crowd have hearts to +feel, yet which ought to leave in the world its monuments, to inspire +the thought of genius through all ages. Nothing in this kind has been +done masterly; since it was Clevengers's ambition, 't is pity he had +not opportunity to try fully his powers. We hope some other mind may +be bent upon it, ere too late. At present the only lively impress +of their passage through the world is to be found in such books as +Catlin's, and some stories told by the old travellers. + +Let me here give another brief tale of the power exerted by the +white man over the savage in a trying case; but in this case it was +righteous, was moral power. + +"We were looking over McKenney's Tour to the Lakes, and, on observing +the picture of Key-way-no-wut, or the Going Cloud, Mr. B. observed, +'Ah, that is the fellow I came near having a fight with'; and he +detailed at length the circumstances. This Indian was a very desperate +character, and of whom, all the Leech Lake band stood in fear. He +would shoot down any Indian who offended him, without the least +hesitation, and had become quite the bully of that part of the tribe. +The trader at Leech Lake warned Mr. B. to beware of him, and said that +he once, when he (the trader) refused to give up to him his stock of +wild-rice, went and got his gun and tomahawk, and shook the tomahawk +over his head, saying, '_Now_, give me your wild-rice.' The trader +complied with his exaction, but not so did Mr. B. in the adventure +which I am about to relate. Key-way-no-wut came frequently to him with +furs, wishing him to give for them, cotton-cloth, sugar, flour, &c. +Mr. B. explained to him that he could not trade for furs, as he was +sent there as a teacher, and that it would be like putting his hand +into the fire to do so, as the traders would inform against him, and +he would be sent out of the country. At the same time, he _gave_ +him the articles which he wished. Key-way-no-wut found this a very +convenient way of getting what he wanted, and followed up this sort +of game, until, at last, it became insupportable. One day the Indian +brought a very large otter-skin, and said, 'I want to get for this +ten pounds of sugar, and some flour and cloth,' adding, 'I am not like +other Indians, _I_ want to pay for what I get.' Mr. B. found that he +must either be robbed of all he had by submitting to these exactions, +or take a stand at once. He thought, however, he would try to avoid a +scrape, and told his customer he had not so much sugar to spare. 'Give +me, then,' said he, 'what you can spare'; and Mr. B., thinking to make +him back out, told him he would, give him five pounds of sugar for his +skin. 'Take it,' said the Indian. He left the skin, telling Mr. B. to +take good care of it. Mr. B. took it at once to the trader's store, +and related the circumstance, congratulating himself that he had got +rid of the Indian's exactions. But in about a month Key-way-no-wut +appeared, bringing some dirty Indian sugar, and said, 'I have brought +back the sugar that I borrowed of you, and I want my otter-skin back.' +Mr. B. told him, 'I _bought_ an otter-skin of you, but if you will +return the other articles you have got for it, perhaps I can get it +for you.' 'Where is the skin?' said he very quickly; 'what have you +done with it?' Mr. B. replied it was in the trader's store, where he +(the Indian) could not get it. At this information he was furious, +laid his hands on his knife and tomahawk, and commanded Mr. B. to +bring it at once. Mr. B. found this was the crisis, where he must take +a stand or be 'rode over rough-shod' by this man. His wife, who was +present was much alarmed, and begged he would get the skin for the +Indian, but he told her that 'either he or the Indian would soon be +master of his house, and if she was afraid to see it decided which +was to be so, she had better retire,' He turned to Key-way-no-wut, and +addressed him in a stern voice as follows: 'I will _not_ give you the +skin. How often have you come to my house, and I have shared with you +what I had. I gave you tobacco when you were well, and medicine when +you were sick, and you never went away from my wigwam with your hands +empty. And this is the way you return my treatment to you. I had +thought you were a man and a chief, but you are not, you are nothing +but an old woman. Leave this house, and never enter it again.' Mr. B. +said he expected the Indian would attempt his life when he said this, +but that he had placed himself in a position so that he could defend +himself, and looked straight into the Indian's eye, and, like other +wild beasts, he quailed before the glance of mental and moral courage. +He calmed down at once, and soon began to make apologies. Mr. B. then +told him kindly, but firmly, that, if he wished to walk in the same +path with him, he must walk as straight as the crack on the floor +before them; adding, that he would not walk with anybody who would +jostle him by walking so crooked as he had done. He was perfectly +tamed, and Mr. B. said he never had any more trouble with him." + +The conviction here livingly enforced of the superiority on the side +of the white man, was thus expressed by the Indian orator at Mackinaw +while we were there. After the customary compliments about sun, dew, +&c., "This," said he, "is the difference between the white and the +red man; the white man looks to the future and paves the way for +posterity. The red man never thought of this." This is a statement +uncommonly refined for an Indian; but one of the gentlemen present, +who understood the Chippewa, vouched for it as a literal rendering of +his phrases; and he did indeed touch the vital point of difference. +But the Indian, if he understands, cannot make use of his +intelligence. The fate of his people is against it, and Pontiac and +Philip have no more chance than Julian in the times of old. + +The Indian is steady to that simple creed which forms the basis of all +his mythology; that there is a God and a life beyond this; a right and +wrong which each man can see, betwixt which each man should choose; +that good brings with it its reward, and vice its punishment. His +moral code, if not as refined as that of civilized nations, is +clear and noble in the stress laid upon truth and fidelity. And all +unprejudiced observers bear testimony, that the Indians, until broken +from their old anchorage by intercourse with the whites,--who offer +them, instead, a religion of which they furnish neither interpretation +nor example,--were singularly virtuous, if virtue be allowed to +consist in a man's acting up to his own ideas of right. + +My friend, who joined me at Mackinaw, happened, on the homeward +journey, to see a little Chinese girl, who had been sent over by one +of the missionaries, and observed that, in features, complexion, and +gesture, she was a counterpart to the little Indian girls she had just +seen playing about on the lake shore. + +The parentage of these tribes is still an interesting subject of +speculation, though, if they be not created for this region, they have +become so assimilated to it as to retain little trace of any other. To +me it seems most probable, that a peculiar race was bestowed on each +region,[A] as the lion on one latitude and the white bear on another. +As man has two natures,--one, like that of the plants and animals, +adapted to the uses and enjoyments of this planet, another which +presages and demands a higher sphere,--he is constantly breaking +bounds, in proportion as the mental gets the better of the mere +instinctive existence. As yet, he loses in harmony of being what he +gains in height and extension; the civilized man is a larger mind, but +a more imperfect nature, than the savage. + +[Footnote A: Professor Agassiz has recently published some able +scientific papers tending to enforce this theory.--ED.] + +We hope there will be a national institute, containing all the remains +of the Indians, all that has been preserved by official intercourse at +Washington, Catlin's collection, and a picture-gallery as complete +as can be made, with a collection of skulls from all parts of the +country. To this should be joined the scanty library that exists on +the subject. + +A little pamphlet, giving an account of the massacre at Chicago, has +lately; been published, which I wish much I had seen while there, as +it would have imparted an interest to spots otherwise barren. It is +written with animation, and in an excellent style, telling just what +we want to hear, and no more. The traits given of Indian generosity +are as characteristic as those of Indian cruelty. A lady, who was +saved by a friendly chief holding her under the waters of the lake, at +the moment the balls endangered her, received also, in the heat of the +conflict, a reviving draught from a squaw, who saw she was exhausted; +and as she lay down, a mat was hung up between her and the scene of +butchery, so that she was protected from the sight, though she could +not be from sounds full of horror. + +I have not wished to write sentimentally about the Indians, however +moved by the thought of their wrongs and speedy extinction. I know +that the Europeans who took possession of this country felt themselves +justified by their superior civilization and religious ideas. Had they +been truly civilized or Christianized, the conflicts which sprang +from the collision of the two races might have been avoided; but this +cannot be expected in movements made by masses of men. The mass has +never yet been humanized, though the age may develop a human thought. +Since those conflicts and differences did arise, the hatred which +sprang from terror and suffering, on the European side, has naturally +warped the whites still further from justice. + +The Indian, brandishing the scalps of his wife and friends, drinking +their blood, and eating their hearts, is by him viewed as a fiend, +though, at a distant day, he will no doubt be considered as having +acted the Roman or Carthaginian part of heroic and patriotic +self-defence, according to the standard of right and motives +prescribed by his religious faith and education. Looked at by his +own standard, he is virtuous when he most injures his enemy, and the +white, if he be really the superior in enlargement of thought, ought +to cast aside his inherited prejudices enough to see this, to look on +him in pity and brotherly good-will, and do all he can to mitigate the +doom of those who survive his past injuries. + +In McKenney's book is proposed a project for organizing the Indians +under a patriarchal government; but it does not look feasible, even +on paper. Could their own intelligent men be left to act unimpeded +in their behalf, they would do far better for them than the white +thinker, with all his general knowledge. But we dare not hope +the designs of such will not always be frustrated by barbarous +selfishness, as they were in Georgia. _There_ was a chance of seeing +what might have been done, now lost for ever. + +Yet let every man look to himself how far this blood shall be required +at his hands. Let the missionary, instead of preaching to the Indian, +preach to the trader who ruins him, of the dreadful account which will +be demanded of the followers of Cain, in a sphere where the accents +of purity and love come on the ear more decisively than in ours. Let +every legislator take the subject to heart, and, if he cannot undo the +effects of past sin, try for that clear view and right sense that may +save us from sinning still more deeply. And let every man and every +woman, in their private dealings with the subjugated race, avoid all +share in embittering, by insult or unfeeling prejudice, the captivity +of Israel. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +SAULT ST. MARIE.--ST. JOSEPH'S ISLAND.--THE LAND OF +MUSIC.--RAPIDS.--HOMEWARD.--GENERAL HULL.--THE BOOK TO THE READER. + + +Nine days I passed alone at Mackinaw, except for occasional visits +from kind and agreeable residents at the fort, and Mr. and Mrs. A. Mr. +A., long engaged in the fur-trade, is gratefully remembered by many +travellers. From Mrs. A., also, I received kind attentions, paid in +the vivacious and graceful manner of her nation. + +The society at the boarding-house entertained, being of a kind +entirely new to me. There were many traders from the remote stations, +such as La Pointe, Arbre Croche,--men who had become half wild and +wholly rude by living in the wild; but good-humored, observing, and +with a store of knowledge to impart, of the kind proper to their +place. + +There were two little girls here, that were pleasant companions for +me. One gay, frank, impetuous, but sweet and winning. She was an +American, fair, and with bright brown hair. The other, a little French +Canadian, used to join me in my walks, silently take my hand, and +sit at my feet when I stopped in beautiful places. She seemed to +understand without a word; and I never shall forget her little figure, +with its light, but pensive motion, and her delicate, grave features, +with the pale, clear complexion and soft eye. She was motherless, and +much left alone by her father and brothers, who were boatmen. The two +little girls were as pretty representatives of Allegro and Penseroso +as one would wish to see. + +I had been wishing that a boat would come in to take me to the Sault +St. Marie, and several times started to the window at night in hopes +that the pant and dusky-red light crossing the waters belonged to such +an one; but they were always boats for Chicago or Buffalo, till, on +the 28th of August, Allegro, who shared my plans and wishes, rushed +in to tell me that the General Scott had come; and in this little +steamer, accordingly, I set off the next morning. + +I was the only lady, and attended in the cabin by a Dutch girl and +an Indian woman. They both spoke English fluently, and entertained me +much by accounts of their different experiences. + +The Dutch girl told me of a dance among the common people at +Amsterdam, called the shepherd's dance. The two leaders are dressed +as shepherd and shepherdess; they invent to the music all kinds of +movements, descriptive of things that may happen in the field, and the +rest are obliged to follow. I have never heard of any dance which gave +such free play to the fancy as this. French dances merely describe +the polite movements of society; Spanish and Neapolitan, love; the +beautiful Mazurkas, &c. are war-like or expressive of wild scenery. +But in this one is great room both for fun and fancy. + +The Indian was married, when young, by her parents, to a man she did +not love. He became dissipated, and did not maintain her. She left +him, taking with her their child, for whom and herself she earns a +subsistence by going as chambermaid in these boats. Now and then, she +said, her husband called on her, and asked if he might live with her +again; but she always answered, No. Here she was far freer than she +would have been in civilized life. I was pleased by the nonchalance of +this woman, and the perfectly national manner she had preserved after +so many years of contact with all kinds of people. + +The two women, when I left the boat, made me presents of Indian work, +such as travellers value, and the manner of the two was characteristic +of their different nations. The Indian brought me hers, when I was +alone, looked bashfully down when she gave it, and made an almost +sentimental little speech. The Dutch girl brought hers in public, and, +bridling her short chin with a self-complacent air, observed she had +_bought_ it for me. But the feeling of affectionate regard was the +same in the minds of both. + +Island after island we passed, all fairly shaped and clustering in a +friendly way, but with little variety of vegetation. In the afternoon +the weather became foggy, and we could not proceed after dark. That +was as dull an evening as ever fell. + +The next morning the fog still lay heavy, but the captain took me out +in his boat on an exploring expedition, and we found the remains of +the old English fort on Point St. Joseph's. All around was so wholly +unmarked by anything but stress of wind and weather, the shores of +these islands and their woods so like one another, wild and lonely, +but nowhere rich and majestic, that there was some charm, in the +remains of the garden, the remains even of chimneys and a pier. They +gave feature to the scene. + +Here I gathered many flowers, but they were the same as at Mackinaw. + +The captain, though he had been on this trip hundreds of times, had +never seen this spot, and never would but for this fog, and his desire +to entertain me. He presented a striking instance how men, for the +sake of getting a living, forget to live. It is just the same in the +most romantic as the most dull and vulgar places. Men get the harness +on so fast, that they can never shake it off, unless they guard +against this danger from the very first. In Chicago, how many men live +who never find time to see the prairies, or learn anything unconnected +with the business of the day, or about the country they are living in! + +So this captain, a man of strong sense and good eyesight, rarely found +time to go off the track or look about him on it. He lamented, too, +that there had been no call which, induced him to develop his powers +of expression, so that he might communicate what he had seen for the +enjoyment or instruction of others. + +This is a common fault among the active men, the truly living, who +could tell what life is. It should not be so. Literature should not be +left to the mere literati,--eloquence to the mere orator; every Caesar +should be able to write his own commentary. We want a more equal, more +thorough, more harmonious development, and there is nothing to hinder +the men of this country from it, except their own supineness, or +sordid views. + +When the weather did clear, our course up the river was delightful. +Long stretched before us the island of St. Joseph's, with its fair +woods of sugar-maple. A gentleman on board, who belongs to the Fort +at the Sault, said their pastime was to come in the season of making +sugar, and pass some time on this island,--the days at work, and the +evening in dancing and other amusements. Work of this kind done in the +open air, where everything is temporary, and every utensil prepared +on the spot, gives life a truly festive air. At such times, there is +labor and no care,--energy with gayety, gayety of the heart. + +I think with the same pleasure of the Italian vintage, the Scotch +harvest-home, with its evening dance in the barn, the Russian +cabbage-feast even, and our huskings and hop-gatherings. The +hop-gatherings, where the groups of men and girls are pulling down and +filling baskets with the gay festoons, present as graceful pictures as +the Italian vintage. + +How pleasant is the course along a new river, the sight of new shores! +like a life, would but life flow as fast, and upbear us with as full a +stream. I hoped we should come in sight of the rapids by daylight; but +the beautiful sunset was quite gone, and only a young moon trembling +over the scene, when we came within hearing of them. + +I sat up long to hear them merely. It was a thoughtful hour. These +two days, the 29th and 30th of August, are memorable in my life; +the latter is the birthday of a near friend. I pass them alone, +approaching Lake Superior; but I shall not enter into that truly +wild and free region; shall not have the canoe voyage, whose daily +adventure, with the camping out at night beneath the stars, would have +given an interlude of such value to my existence. I shall not see the +Pictured Rocks, their chapels and urns. It did not depend on me; it +never has, whether such things shall be done or not. + +My friends! may they see, and do, and be more; especially those who +have before them a greater number of birthdays, and a more healthy and +unfettered existence! + +I should like to hear some notes of earthly music to-night. By the +faint moonshine I can hardly see the banks; how they look I have no +guess, except that there are trees, and, now and then, a light lets me +know there are homes, with their various interests. I should like to +hear some strains of the flute from beneath those trees, just to break +the sound of the rapids. + + THE LAND OF MUSIC. + + When no gentle eyebeam charms; + No fond hope the bosom warms; + Of thinking the lone mind is tired,-- + Naught seems bright to be desired. + + Music, be thy sails unfurled; + Bear me to thy better world; + O'er a cold and weltering sea, + Blow thy breezes warm and free. + + By sad sighs they ne'er were chilled, + By sceptic spell were never stilled. + Take me to that far-off shore, + Where lovers meet to part no more. + There doubt and fear and sin are o'er; + The star of love shall set no more. + +With the first light of dawn I was up and out, and then was glad I had +not seen all the night before, it came upon me with such power in its +dewy freshness. O, they are beautiful indeed, these rapids! The grace +is so much more obvious than the power. I went up through the old +Chippewa burying-ground to their head, and sat down on a large stone +to look. A little way off was one of the home-lodges, unlike in shape +to the temporary ones at Mackinaw, but these have been described by +Mrs. Jameson. Women, too, I saw coming home from the woods, stooping +under great loads of cedar-boughs, that were strapped upon their +backs. But in many European countries women carry great loads, even of +wood, upon their backs. I used to hear the girls singing and laughing +as they were cutting down boughs at Mackinaw; this part of their +employment, though laborious, gives them the pleasure of being a great +deal in the free woods. + +I had ordered a canoe to take me down the rapids, and presently I saw +it coming, with the two Indian canoe-men in pink calico shirts, moving +it about with their long poles, with a grace and dexterity worthy +fairy-land. Now and then they cast the scoop-net;--all looked just as +I had fancied, only far prettier. + +When they came to me, they spread a mat in the middle of the canoe; I +sat down, and in less than four minutes we had descended the rapids, +a distance of more than three quarters of a mile. I was somewhat +disappointed in this being no more of an exploit than I found it. +Having heard such expressions used as of "darting," or "shooting +down," these rapids, I had fancied there was a wall of rock somewhere, +where descent would somehow be accomplished, and that there would come +some one gasp of terror and delight, some sensation entirely new to +me; but I found myself in smooth water, before I had time to feel +anything but the buoyant pleasure of being carried so lightly through +this surf amid the breakers. Now and then the Indians spoke to +one another in a vehement jabber, which, however, had no tone that +expressed other than pleasant excitement. It is, no doubt, an act of +wonderful dexterity to steer amid these jagged rocks, when one +rude touch would tear a hole in the birch canoe; but these men are +evidently so used to doing it, and so adroit, that the silliest person +could not feel afraid. I should like to have come down twenty times, +that I might have had leisure to realize the pleasure. But the fog +which had detained us on the way shortened the boat's stay at the +Sault, and I wanted my time to walk about. + +While coming down the rapids, the Indians caught a white-fish for my +breakfast; and certainly it was the best of breakfasts. The +white-fish I found quite another thing caught on the spot, and cooked +immediately, from what I had found it at Chicago or Mackinaw. Before, +I had had the bad taste to prefer the trout, despite the solemn and +eloquent remonstrances of the _habitues_, to whom the superiority of +white-fish seemed a cardinal point of faith. + +I am here reminded that I have omitted that indispensable part of a +travelling journal, the account of what we found to eat. I cannot hope +to make up, by one bold stroke, all my omissions of daily record; +but that I may show myself not destitute of the common feelings of +humanity, I will observe that he whose affections turn in summer +towards vegetables should not come to this region, till the subject +of diet be better understood; that of fruit, too, there is little yet, +even at the best hotel tables; that the prairie chickens require +no praise from me, and that the trout and white-fish are worthy the +transparency of the lake waters. + +In this brief mention I by no means intend to give myself an air of +superiority to the subject. If a dinner in the Illinois woods, on dry +bread and drier meat, with water from the stream that flowed hard by, +pleased me best of all, yet, at one time, when living at a house where +nothing was prepared for the table fit to touch, and even the bread +could not be partaken of without a headache in consequence, I learnt +to understand and sympathize with the anxious tone in which fathers +of families, about to take their innocent children into some scene of +wild beauty, ask first of all, "Is there a good, table?" I shall ask +just so in future. Only those whom the Powers have furnished with +small travelling cases of ambrosia can take exercise all day, and be +happy without even bread morning or night. + +Our voyage back was all pleasure. It was the fairest day. I saw the +river, the islands, the clouds, to the greatest advantage. + +On board was an old man, an Illinois farmer, whom I found a most +agreeable companion. He had just been with his son, and eleven other +young men, on an exploring expedition to the shores of Lake Superior. +He was the only old man of the party, but he had enjoyed most of any +the journey. He had been the counsellor and playmate, too, of the +young ones. He was one of those parents--why so rare?--who understand +and live a new life in that of their children, instead of wasting time +and young happiness in trying to make them conform to an object and +standard of their own. The character and history of each child may +be a new and poetic experience to the parent, if he will let it. +Our farmer was domestic, judicious, solid; the son, inventive, +enterprising, superficial, full of follies, full of resources, always +liable to failure, sure to rise above it. The father conformed to, and +learnt from, a character he could not change, and won the sweet from +the bitter. + +His account of his life at home, and of his late adventures among the +Indians, was very amusing, but I want talent to write it down, and I +have not heard the slang of these people intimately enough. There is a +good book about Indiana, called the New Purchase, written by a person +who knows the people of the country well enough to describe them in +their own way. It is not witty, but penetrating, valuable for its +practical wisdom and good-humored fun. + +There were many sportsman-stories told, too, by those from Illinois +and Wisconsin. I do not retain any of these well enough, nor any that +I heard earlier, to write them down, though they always interested me +from bringing wild natural scenes before the mind. It is pleasant +for the sportsman to be in countries so alive with game; yet it is so +plenty that one would think shooting pigeons or grouse would seem +more like slaughter, than the excitement of skill to a good sportsman. +Hunting the deer is full of adventure, and needs only a Scrope to +describe it to invest the Western woods with _historic_ associations. + +How pleasant it was to sit and hear rough men tell pieces out of their +own common lives, in place of the frippery talk of some fine circle +with its conventional sentiment, and timid, second-hand criticism. +Free blew the wind, and boldly flowed the stream, named for Mary +mother mild. + +A fine thunder-shower came on in the afternoon. It cleared at sunset, +just as we came in sight of beautiful Mackinaw, over which, a rainbow +bent in promise of peace. + +I have always wondered, in reading travels, at the childish joy +travellers felt at meeting people they knew, and their sense of +loneliness when they did not, in places where there was everything new +to occupy the attention. So childish, I thought, always to be longing +for the new in the old, and the old in the new. Yet just such sadness +I felt, when I looked on the island glittering in the sunset, canopied +by the rainbow, and thought no friend would welcome me there; just +such childish joy I felt to see unexpectedly on the landing the face +of one whom I called friend. + +The remaining two or three days were delightfully spent, in walking or +boating, or sitting at the window to see the Indians go. This was not +quite so pleasant as their coming in, though accomplished with +the same rapidity; a family not taking half an hour to prepare for +departure, and the departing canoe a beautiful object. But they left +behind, on all the shore, the blemishes of their stay,--old rags, +dried boughs, fragments of food, the marks of their fires. Nature +likes to cover up and gloss over spots and scars, but it would take +her some time to restore that beach to the state it was in before they +came. + +S. and I had a mind for a canoe excursion, and we asked one of the +traders to engage us two good Indians, that would not only take us +out, but be sure and bring us back, as we could not hold converse +with them. Two others offered their aid, beside the chief's son, +a fine-looking youth of about sixteen, richly dressed in blue +broadcloth, scarlet sash and leggins, with a scarf of brighter red +than the rest, tied around his head, its ends falling gracefully +on one shoulder. They thought it, apparently, fine amusement to +be attending two white women; they carried us into the path of +the steamboat, which was going out, and paddled with all their +force,--rather too fast, indeed, for there was something of a swell on +the lake, and they sometimes threw water into the canoe. However, it +flew over the waves, light as a seagull. They would say, "Pull away," +and "Ver' warm," and, after these words, would laugh gayly. They +enjoyed the hour, I believe, as much as we. + +The house where we lived belonged to the widow of a French trader, an +Indian by birth, and wearing the dress of her country She spoke +French fluently, and was very ladylike in her manners. She is a great +character among them. They were all the time coming to pay her homage, +or to get her aid and advice; for she is, I am told, a shrewd woman of +business. My companion carried about her sketch-book with her, and +the Indians were interested when they saw her using her pencil, though +less so than about the sun-shade. This lady of the tribe wanted to +borrow the sketches of the beach, with its lodges and wild groups, "to +show to the _savages_" she said. + +Of the practical ability of the Indian women, a good specimen is given +by McKenney, in an amusing story of one who went to Washington, and +acted her part there in the "first circles," with a tact and sustained +dissimulation worthy of Cagliostro. She seemed to have a thorough +love of intrigue for its own sake, and much dramatic talent. Like the +chiefs of her nation, when on an expedition among the foe, whether for +revenge or profit, no impulses of vanity or way-side seductions +had power to turn her aside from carrying out her plan as she had +originally projected it. + +Although I have little to tell, I feel that I have learnt a great deal +of the Indians, from observing them even in this broken and degraded +condition. There is a language of eye and motion which cannot be put +into words, and which teaches what words never can. I feel acquainted +with the soul of this race; I read its nobler thought in their defaced +figures. There _was_ a greatness, unique and precious, which he who +does not feel will never duly appreciate the majesty of nature in this +American continent. + +I have mentioned that the Indian orator, who addressed the agents on +this occasion, said, the difference between the white man and the red +man is this: "The white man no sooner came here, than he thought of +preparing the way for his posterity; the red man never thought of +this." I was assured this was exactly his phrase; and it defines the +true difference. We get the better because we do + + "Look before and after." + +But, from, the same cause, we + + "Pine for what is not." + +The red man, when happy, was thoroughly happy; when good, was simply +good. He needed the medal, to let him know that he _was_ good. + +These evenings we were happy, looking over the old-fashioned garden, +over the beach, over the waters and pretty island opposite, beneath +the growing moon. We did not stay to see it full at Mackinaw; at two +o'clock one night, or rather morning, the Great Western came snorting +in, and we must go; and Mackinaw, and all the Northwest summer, is now +to me no more than picture and dream:-- + + "A dream within a dream." + +These last days at Mackinaw have been pleasanter than the "lonesome" +nine, for I have recovered the companion with whom I set out from the +East,--one who sees all, prizes all, enjoys much, interrupts never. + +At Detroit we stopped for half a day. This place is famous in our +history, and the unjust anger at its surrender is still expressed +by almost every one who passes there. I had always shared the common +feeling on this subject; for the indignation at a disgrace to our arms +that seemed so unnecessary has been handed down from father to child, +and few of us have taken the pains to ascertain where the blame +lay. But now, upon the spot, having read all the testimony, I felt +convinced that it should rest solely with the government, which, by +neglecting to sustain General Hull, as he had a right to expect they +would, compelled him to take this step, or sacrifice many lives, and +of the defenceless inhabitants, not of soldiers, to the cruelty of a +savage foe, for the sake of his reputation. + +I am a woman, and unlearned in such affairs; but, to a person +with common sense and good eyesight, it is clear, when viewing +the location, that, under the circumstances, he had no prospect of +successful defence, and that to attempt it would have been an act of +vanity, not valor. + +I feel that I am not biassed in this judgment by my personal +relations, for I have always heard both sides, and though my feelings +had been moved by the picture of the old man sitting in the midst +of his children, to a retired and despoiled old age, after a life +of honor and happy intercourse with the public, yet tranquil, always +secure that justice must be done at last, I supposed, like others, +that he deceived himself, and deserved to pay the penalty for failure +to the responsibility he had undertaken. Now, on the spot, I change, +and believe the country at large must, erelong, change from this +opinion. And I wish to add my testimony, however trifling its weight, +before it be drowned in the voice of general assent, that I may do +some justice to the feelings which possess me here and now. + +A noble boat, the Wisconsin, was to be launched this afternoon; the +whole town was out in many-colored array, the band playing. Our boat +swept round to a good position, and all was ready but--the Wisconsin, +which could not be made to stir. This was quite a disappointment. It +would have been an imposing sight. + +In the boat many signs admonished that we were floating eastward. A +shabbily-dressed phrenologist laid his hand on every head which would +bend, with half-conceited, half-sheepish expression, to the trial of +his skill. Knots of people gathered here and there to discuss points +of theology. A bereaved lover was seeking religious consolation +in--Butler's Analogy, which he had purchased for that purpose. +However, he did not turn over many pages before his attention was +drawn aside by the gay glances of certain damsels that came on board +at Detroit, and, though Butler might afterwards be seen sticking +from his pocket, it had not weight to impede him from many a feat of +lightness and liveliness. I doubt if it went with him from the boat. +Some there were, even, discussing the doctrines of Fourier. It seemed +pity they were not going to, rather than from, the rich and free +country where it would be so much easier than with us to try the great +experiment of voluntary association, and show beyond a doubt that "an +ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," a maxim of the "wisdom +of nations" which has proved of little practical efficacy as yet. + +Better to stop before landing at Buffalo, while I have yet the +advantage over some of my readers. + + + + +THE BOOK TO THE READER, + +WHO OPENS, AS AMERICAN READERS OFTEN DO,--AT THE END. + + To see your cousin in her country home, + If at the time of blackberries you come, + "Welcome, my friends," she cries with ready glee, + "The fruit is ripened, and the paths are free. + But, madam, you will tear that handsome gown; + The little boy be sure to tumble down; + And, in the thickets where they ripen best, + The matted ivy, too, its bower has drest. + And then the thorns your hands are sure to rend, + Unless with heavy gloves you will defend; + Amid most thorns the sweetest roses blow, + Amid most thorns the sweetest berries grow." + + If, undeterred, you to the fields must go, + You tear your dresses and you scratch your hands; + But, in the places where the berries grow, + A sweeter fruit the ready sense commands, + Of wild, gay feelings, fancies springing sweet,-- + Of bird-like pleasures, fluttering and fleet. + + Another year, you cannot go yourself, + To win the berries from the thickets wild, + And housewife skill, instead, has filled the shelf + With blackberry jam, "by best receipts compiled,-- + Not made with country sugar, for too strong + The flavors that to maple-juice belong; + But foreign sugar, nicely mixed 'to suit + The taste,' spoils not the fragrance of the fruit." + + "'Tis pretty good," half-tasting, you reply, + "I scarce should know it from fresh blackberry. + But the best pleasure such a fruit can yield + Is to be gathered in the open field; + If only as an article of food, + Cherry or crab-apple is quite as good; + And, for occasions of festivity, + West India sweetmeats you had better buy." + + Thus, such a dish of homely sweets as these + In neither way may chance the taste to please. + + Yet try a little with the evening-bread; + Bring a good needle for the spool of thread; + Take fact with fiction, silver with the lead, + And, at the mint, you can get gold instead; + In fine, read me, even as you would be read. + + + + +PART II. + +THINGS AND THOUGHTS IN EUROPE. + + + + +LETTER I. + +PASSAGE IN THE CAMBRIA.--LORD AND LADY FALKLAND.--CAPTAIN +JUDKINS.--LIVERPOOL.--MANCHESTER.--MECHANICS' INSTITUTE.--"THE +DIAL."--PEACE AND WAR.--THE WORKING-MEN OF ENGLAND.--THEIR TRIBUTE TO +SIR ROBERT PEEL.--THE ROYAL INSTITUTE.--STATUES.--CHESTER.--BATHING. + + +Ambleside, Westmoreland, 23d August, 1846. + +I take the first interval of rest and stillness to be filled up by +some lines for the Tribune. Only three weeks have passed since leaving +New York, but I have already had nine days of wonder in England, and, +having learned a good deal, suppose I may have something to tell. + +Long before receiving this, you know that we were fortunate in the +shortest voyage ever made across the Atlantic,[A]--only ten days +and sixteen hours from Boston to Liverpool. The weather and all +circumstances were propitious; and, if some of us were weak of head +enough to suffer from the smell and jar of the machinery, or other +ills by which the sea is wont to avenge itself on the arrogance of +its vanquishers, we found no pity. The stewardess observed that she +thought "any one tempted God Almighty who complained on a voyage where +they did not even have to put guards to the dishes"! + +[Footnote A: True at the time these Letters were written.--ED.] + +As many contradictory counsels were given us with regard to going in +one of the steamers in preference to a sailing vessel, I will mention +here, for the benefit of those who have not yet tried one, that he +must be fastidious indeed who could complain of the Cambria. The +advantage of a quick passage and certainty as to the time of arrival, +would, with us, have outweighed many ills; but, apart from this, we +found more space than we expected and as much as we needed for a +very tolerable degree of convenience in our sleeping-rooms, better +ventilation than Americans in general can be persuaded to accept, +general cleanliness, and good attendance. In the evening, when the +wind was favorable, and the sails set, so that the vessel looked like +a great winged creature darting across the apparently measureless +expanse, the effect was very grand, but ah! for such a spectacle one +pays too dear; I far prefer looking out upon "the blue and foaming +sea" from a firm green shore. + +Our ship's company numbered several pleasant members, and that desire +prevailed in each to contribute to the satisfaction of all, which, if +carried out through the voyage of life, would make this earth as happy +as it is a lovely abode. At Halifax we took in the Governor of Nova +Scotia, returning from his very unpopular administration. His lady was +with, him, a daughter of William the Fourth and the celebrated Mrs. +Jordan. The English on board, and the Americans, following their lead, +as usual, seemed to attach much importance to her left-handed alliance +with one of the dullest families that ever sat upon a throne, (and +that is a bold word, too,) none to her descent from one whom Nature +had endowed with her most splendid regalia,--genius that fascinated +the attention of all kinds and classes of men, grace and winning +qualities that no heart could resist. Was the cestus buried with her, +that no sense of its pre-eminent value lingered, as far as I could +perceive, in the thoughts of any except myself? + +We had a foretaste of the delights of living under an aristocratical +government at the Custom-House, where our baggage was detained, and +we waiting for it weary hours, because of the preference given to +the mass of household stuff carried back by this same Lord and Lady +Falkland. + +Captain Judkins of the Cambria, an able and prompt commander, is the +man who insisted upon Douglass being admitted to equal rights upon his +deck with the insolent slave-holders, and assumed a tone toward their +assumptions, which, if the Northern States had had the firmness, good +sense, and honor to use, would have had the same effect, and put +our country in a very different position from that she occupies at +present. He mentioned with pride that he understood the New York +Herald called him "the Nigger Captain," and seemed as willing to +accept the distinction as Colonel McKenney is to wear as his last +title that of "the Indian's friend." + +At the first sight of the famous Liverpool Docks, extending miles on +each side of our landing, we felt ourselves in a slower, solider, and +not on that account less truly active, state of things than at home. +That impression is confirmed. There is not as we travel that rushing, +tearing, and swearing, that snatching of baggage, that prodigality of +shoe-leather and lungs, which attend the course of the traveller in +the United States; but we do not lose our "goods," we do not miss our +car. The dinner, if ordered in time, is cooked properly, and served +punctually, and at the end of the day more that is permanent seems to +have come of it than on the full-drive system. But more of this, and +with a better grace, at a later day. + +The day after our arrival we went to Manchester. There we went over +the magnificent warehouse of ---- Phillips, in itself a Bazaar ample +to furnish provision for all the wants and fancies of thousands. In +the evening we went to the Mechanics' Institute, and saw the boys +and young men in their classes. I have since visited the Mechanics' +Institute at Liverpool, where more than seventeen hundred pupils are +received, and with more thorough educational arrangements; but the +excellent spirit, the desire for growth in wisdom and enlightened +benevolence, is the same in both. For a very small fee, the mechanic, +clerk, or apprentice, and the women of their families, can receive +various good and well-arranged instruction, not only in common +branches of an English education, but in mathematics, composition, +the French and German, languages, the practice and theory of the Fine +Arts, and they are ardent in availing themselves of instruction in +the higher branches. I found large classes, not only in architectural +drawing, which may be supposed to be followed with a view to +professional objects, but landscape also, and as large in German as +in French. They can attend many good lectures and concerts without +additional charge, for a due place is here assigned to music as to its +influence on the whole mind. The large and well-furnished libraries +are in constant requisition, and the books in most constant demand +are not those of amusement, but of a solid and permanent interest and +value. Only for the last year in Manchester, and for two in Liverpool, +have these advantages been extended to girls; but now that part of +the subject is looked upon as it ought to be, and begins to be treated +more and more as it must and will be wherever true civilization is +making its way. One of the handsomest houses in Liverpool has been +purchased for the girls' school, and room and good arrangement been +afforded for their work and their play. Among other things they are +taught, as they ought to be in all American schools, to cut out and +make dresses. + +I had the pleasure of seeing quotations made from our Boston "Dial," +in the address in which the Director of the Liverpool Institute, a +very benevolent and intelligent man, explained to his disciples and +others its objects, and which concludes thus:-- + +"But this subject of self-improvement is inexhaustible. If traced to +its results in action, it is, in fact, 'The Whole Duty of Man.' What +of detail it involves and implies, I know that you will, each and all, +think out for yourselves. Beautifully has it been said: 'Is not the +difference between spiritual and material things just this,--that in +the one case we must watch details, in the other, keep alive the high +resolve, and the details will take care of themselves? Keep the sacred +central fire burning, and throughout the system, in each of its acts, +will be warmth and glow enough.'[A] + +[Footnote A: The Dial, Vol. I. p. 188, October, 1840, "Musings of a +Recluse."] + +"For myself, if I be asked what my purpose is in relation to you, I +would briefly reply, It is that I may help, be it ever so feebly, to +train up a race of young men, who shall escape vice by rising above +it; who shall love truth because it is truth, not because it brings +them wealth or honor; who shall regard life as a solemn thing, +involving too weighty responsibilities to be wasted in idle or +frivolous pursuits; who shall recognize in their daily labors, not +merely a tribute to the "hard necessity of daily bread," but a field +for the development of their better nature by the discharge of duty; +who shall judge in all things for themselves, bowing the knee to no +sectarian or party watchwords of any kind; and who, while they think +for themselves, shall feel for others, and regard their talents, their +attainments, their opportunities, their possessions, as blessings held +in trust for the good of their fellow-men." + +I found that The Dial had been read with earnest interest by some of +the best minds in these especially practical regions, that it had been +welcomed as a representative of some sincere and honorable life in +America, and thought the fittest to be quoted under this motto:-- + + "What are noble deeds but noble thoughts realized?" + +Among other signs of the times we bought Bradshaw's Railway Guide, +and, opening it, found extracts from the writings of our countrymen, +Elihu Burritt and Charles Sumner, on the subject of Peace, occupying +a leading place in the "Collect," for the month, of this little +hand-book, more likely, in an era like ours, to influence the conduct +of the day than would an illuminated breviary. Now that peace is +secured for the present between our two countries, the spirit is +not forgotten that quelled the storm. Greeted on every side with +expressions of feeling about the blessings of peace, the madness and +wickedness of war, that would be deemed romantic in our darker land, +I have answered to the speakers, "But you are mightily pleased, and +illuminate for your victories in China and Ireland, do you not?" and +they, unprovoked by the taunt, would mildly reply, "_We_ do not, but +it is too true that a large part of the nation fail to bring home +the true nature and bearing of those events, and apply principle to +conduct with as much justice as they do in the case of a nation nearer +to them by kindred and position. But we are sure that feeling is +growing purer on the subject day by day, and that there will soon be a +large majority against war on any occasion or for any object." + +I heard a most interesting letter read from a tradesman in one of the +country towns, whose daughters are self-elected instructors of the +people in the way of cutting out from books and pamphlets fragments on +the great subjects of the day, which they send about in packages, or +paste on walls and doors. He said that one such passage, pasted on a +door, he had seen read with eager interest by hundreds to whom such +thoughts were, probably, quite new, and with some of whom it could +scarcely fail to be as a little seed of a large harvest. Another good +omen I found in written tracts by Joseph Barker, a working-man of the +town of Wortley, published through his own printing-press. + +How great, how imperious the need of such men, of such deeds, we felt +more than ever, while compelled to turn a deaf ear to the squalid and +shameless beggars of Liverpool, or talking by night in the streets of +Manchester to the girls from the Mills, who were strolling bareheaded, +with coarse, rude, and reckless air, through the streets, or seeing +through the windows of the gin-palaces the women seated drinking, too +dull to carouse. The homes of England! their sweetness is melting into +fable; only the new Spirit in its holiest power can restore to those +homes their boasted security of "each man's castle," for Woman, the +warder, is driven into the street, and has let fall the keys in her +sad plight. Yet darkest hour of night is nearest dawn, and there seems +reason to believe that + + "There's a good time coming." + +Blest be those who aid, who doubt not that + + "Smallest helps, if rightly given, + Make the impulse stronger; + 'Twill be strong enough one day." + +Other things we saw in Liverpool,--the Royal Institute, with the +statue of Roscoe by Chantrey, and in its collection from the works +of the early Italian artists, and otherwise, bearing traces of that +liberality and culture by which the man, happy enough to possess them, +and at the same time engaged with his fellow-citizens in practical +life, can do so much more to enlighten and form them, than prince or +noble possibly can with far larger pecuniary means. We saw the statue +of Huskisson in the Cemetery. It is fine as a portrait statue, but +as a work of art wants firmness and grandeur. I say it is fine as a +portrait statue, though we were told it is not like the original; but +it is a good conception of an individuality which might exist, if it +does not yet. It is by Gibson, who received his early education in +Liverpool. I saw there, too, the body of an infant borne to the grave +by women; for it is a beautiful custom, here, that those who have +fulfilled all other tender offices to the little being should hold to +it the same relation to the very last. + +From Liverpool we went to Chester, one of the oldest cities in +England, a Roman station once, and abode of the "Twentieth Legion," +"the Victorious." Tiles bearing this inscription, heads of Jupiter, +and other marks of their occupation, have, not long ago, been detected +beneath the sod. The town also bears the marks of Welsh invasion and +domestic struggles. The shape of a cross in which it is laid out, its +walls and towers, its four arched gateways, its ramparts and ruined, +towers, mantled with ivy, its old houses with Biblical inscriptions, +its cathedral,--in which tall trees have grown up amid the arches, a +fresh garden-plot, with flowers, bright green and red, taken place +of the altar, and a crowd of revelling swallows supplanted the sallow +choirs of a former priesthood,--present a _tout-ensemble_ highly +romantic in itself, and charming, indeed, to Transatlantic eyes. Yet +not to all eyes would it have had charms, for one American traveller, +our companion on the voyage, gravely assured us that we should find +the "castles and that sort of thing all humbug," and that, if we +wished to enjoy them, it would "be best to sit at home and read some +_handsome_ work on the subject." + +At the hotel in Liverpool and that in Manchester I had found no bath, +and asking for one at Chester, the chambermaid said, with earnest +good-will, that "they had none, but she thought she could get me +a note from her master to the Infirmary (!!) if I would go there." +Luckily I did not generalize quite as rapidly as travellers in America +usually do, and put in the note-book,--"_Mem._: None but the sick ever +bathe in England"; for in the next establishment we tried, I found +the plentiful provision for a clean and healthy day, which I had read +would be met _everywhere_ in this country. + +All else I must defer to my next, as the mail is soon to close. + + + + +LETTER II. + +CHESTER.--ITS MUSEUM.--TRAVELLING COMPANIONS.--A BENGALESE.-- +WESTMORELAND.--AMBLESIDE.--COBDEN AND BRIGHT.--A SCOTCH +LADY.--WORDSWORTH.--HIS FLOWERS.--MISS MARTINEAU. + + +Ambleside. Westmoreland, 27th August, 1846. + +I forgot to mention, in writing of Chester, an object which gave me +pleasure. I mentioned, that the wall which enclosed the old town was +two miles in circumference; far beyond this stretches the modern +part of Chester, and the old gateways now overarch the middle of long +streets. This wall is now a walk for the inhabitants, commanding a +wide prospect, and three persons could walk abreast on its smooth +flags. We passed one of its old picturesque towers, from whose top +Charles the First, poor, weak, unhappy king, looked down and saw his +troops defeated by the Parliamentary army on the adjacent plain. A +little farther on, one of these picturesque towers is turned to the +use of a Museum, whose stock, though scanty, I examined with singular +pleasure, for it had been made up by truly filial contributions +from, all who had derived benefit from Chester, from the Marquis +of Westminster--whose magnificent abode, Eton Hall, lies not far +off--down to the merchant's clerk, who had furnished it in his leisure +hours with a geological chart, the soldier and sailor, who sent back +shells, insects, and petrifactions from their distant wanderings, and +a boy of thirteen, who had made, in wood, a model of its cathedral, +and even furnished it with a bell to ring out the evening chimes. Many +women had been busy in filling these magazines for the instruction +and the pleasure of their fellow-townsmen. Lady ----, the wife of the +captain of the garrison, grateful for the gratuitous admission of the +soldiers once a month,--a privilege of which the keeper of the Museum +(a woman also, who took an intelligent pleasure in her task) assured +me that they were eager to avail themselves,--had given a fine +collection of butterflies, and a ship. An untiring diligence had +been shown in adding whatever might stimulate or gratify imperfectly +educated minds. I like to see women perceive that there are other +ways of doing good besides making clothes for the poor or teaching +Sunday-school; these are well, if well directed, but there are many +other ways, some as sure and surer, and which benefit the giver no +less than the receiver. + +I was waked from sleep at the Chester Inn by a loud dispute between +the chambermaid and an unhappy elderly gentleman, who insisted that he +had engaged the room in which I was, had returned to sleep in it, +and consequently must do so. To her assurances that the lady was long +since in possession, he was deaf; but the lock, fortunately for me, +proved a stronger defence. With all a chambermaid's morality, the +maiden boasted to me, "He said he had engaged 44, and would not +believe me when I assured him it was 46; indeed, how could he? I did +not believe myself." To my assurance that, if I had known the room, +was his, I should not have wished for it, but preferred taking a +worse, I found her a polite but incredulous listener. + +Passing from Liverpool to Lancaster by railroad, that convenient but +most unprofitable and stupid way of travelling, we there took the +canal-boat to Kendal, and passed pleasantly through a country of that +soft, that refined and cultivated loveliness, which, however much +we have heard of it, finds the American eye--accustomed to so much +wildness, so much rudeness, such a corrosive action of man upon +nature--wholly unprepared. I feel all the time as if in a sweet dream, +and dread to be presently awakened by some rude jar or glare; but none +comes, and here in Westmoreland--but wait a moment, before we speak of +that. + +In the canal-boat we found two well-bred English gentlemen, and two +well-informed German gentlemen, with whom we had some agreeable talk. +With one of the former was a beautiful youth, about eighteen, whom I +supposed, at the first glance, to be a type of that pure East-Indian +race whose beauty I had never seen represented before except in +pictures; and he made a picture, from which I could scarcely take my +eyes a moment, and from it could as ill endure to part. He was dressed +in a broadcloth robe richly embroidered, leaving his throat and the +upper part of his neck bare, except that he wore a heavy gold chain. +A rich shawl was thrown gracefully around him; the sleeves of his robe +were loose, with white sleeves below. He wore a black satin cap. The +whole effect of this dress was very fine yet simple, setting off to +the utmost advantage the distinguished beauty of his features, in +which there was a mingling of national pride, voluptuous sweetness in +that unconscious state of reverie when it affects us as it does in the +flower, and intelligence in its newly awakened purity. As he turned +his head, his profile was like one I used to have of Love asleep, +while Psyche leans over him with the lamp; but his front face, +with the full, summery look of the eye, was unlike that. He was a +Bengalese, living in England for his education, as several others are +at present. He spoke English well, and conversed on several subjects, +literary and political, with grace, fluency, and delicacy of thought. + +Passing from Kendal to Ambleside, we found a charming abode furnished +us by the care of a friend in one of the stone cottages of this +region, almost the only one _not_ ivy-wreathed, but commanding a +beautiful view of the mountains, and truly an English home in its +neatness, quiet, and delicate, noiseless attention to the wants of all +within its walls. Here we have passed eight happy days, varied by +many drives, boating excursions on Grasmere and Winandermere, and the +society of several agreeable persons. As the Lake district at this +season draws together all kinds of people, and a great variety beside +come from, all quarters to inhabit the charming dwellings that +adorn its hill-sides and shores, I met and saw a good deal of the +representatives of various classes, at once. I found here two landed +proprietors from other parts of England, both "travelled English," +one owning a property in Greece, where he frequently resides, +both warmly engaged in Reform measures, anti-Corn-Law, +anti-Capital-Punishment,--one of them an earnest student of Emerson's +Essays. Both of them had wives, who kept pace with their projects and +their thoughts, active and intelligent women, true ladies, skilful in +drawing and music; all the better wives for the development of every +power. One of them told me, with a glow of pride, that it was not long +since her husband had been "cut" by all his neighbors among the gentry +for the part he took against the Corn Laws; but, she added, he was now +a favorite with them all. Verily, faith will remove mountains, if +only you do join with it any fair portion of the dove and serpent +attributes. + +I found here, too, a wealthy manufacturer, who had written many +valuable pamphlets on popular subjects. He said: "Now that the +progress of public opinion was beginning to make the Church and the +Army narrower fields for the younger sons of 'noble' families, they +sometimes wish to enter into trade; but, beside the aversion which had +been instilled into them for many centuries, they had rarely patience +and energy for the apprenticeship requisite to give the needed +knowledge of the world and habits of labor." Of Cobden he said: "He +is inferior in acquirements to very many of his class, as he is +self-educated and had everything to learn after he was grown up; +but in clear insight there is none like him." A man of very little +education, whom I met a day or two after in the stage-coach, observed +to me: "Bright is far the more eloquent of the two, but Cobden is +more felt, just _because_ his speeches are so plain, so merely +matter-of-fact and to the point." + +We became acquainted also with Dr. Gregory, Professor of Chemistry +at Edinburgh, a very enlightened and benevolent man, who in many ways +both instructed and benefited us. He is the friend of Liebig, and one +of his chief representatives here. + +We also met a fine specimen of the noble, intelligent Scotchwoman, +such as Walter Scott and Burns knew how to prize. Seventy-six years +have passed over her head, only to prove in her the truth of my +theory, that we need never grow old. She was "brought up" in the +animated and intellectual circle of Edinburgh, in youth an apt +disciple, in her prime a bright ornament of that society. She had been +an only child, a cherished wife, an adored mother, unspoiled by love +in any of these relations, because that love was founded on knowledge. +In childhood she had warmly sympathized in the spirit that animated +the American Revolution, and Washington had been her hero; later, the +interest of her husband in every struggle for freedom had cherished +her own; she had known in the course of her long life many eminent +men, knew minutely the history of efforts in that direction, and +sympathized now in the triumph of the people over the Corn Laws, as +she had in the American victories, with as much ardor as when a girl, +though with a wiser mind. Her eye was full of light, her manner and +gesture of dignity; her voice rich, sonorous, and finely modulated; +her tide of talk marked by candor, justice, and showing in every +sentence her ripe experience and her noble, genial nature. Dear to +memory will be the sight of her in the beautiful seclusion of her home +among the mountains, a picturesque, flower-wreathed dwelling, where +affection, tranquillity, and wisdom were the gods of the hearth, to +whom was offered no vain oblation. Grant us more such women, Time! +Grant to men the power to reverence, to seek for such! + +Our visit to Mr. Wordsworth was very pleasant. He also is seventy-six, +but his is a florid, fair old age. He walked with us to all his +haunts about the house. Its situation is beautiful, and the "Rydalian +Laurels" are magnificent. Still I saw abodes among the hills that +I should have preferred for Wordsworth, more wild and still, more +romantic; the fresh and lovely Rydal Mount seems merely the retirement +of a gentleman, rather than the haunt of a poet. He showed his +benignity of disposition in several little things, especially in +his attentions to a young boy we had with us. This boy had left the +Circus, exhibiting its feats of horsemanship in Ambleside "for that +day only," at his own desire to see Wordsworth, and I feared he would +be disappointed, as I know I should have been at his age, if, when +called to see a poet, I had found no Apollo, flaming with youthful +glory, laurel-crowned and lyre in hand, but, instead, a reverend old +man clothed in black, and walking with cautious step along the level +garden-path; however, he was not disappointed, but seemed in timid +reverence to recognize the spirit that had dictated "Laodamia" and +"Dion,"--and Wordsworth, in his turn, seemed to feel and prize a +congenial nature in this child. + +Taking us into the house, he showed us the picture of his sister, +repeating with much expression some lines of hers, and those so famous +of his about her, beginning, "Five years," &c.; also his own picture, +by Inman, of whom he spoke with esteem. + +Mr. Wordsworth is fond of the hollyhock, a partiality scarcely +deserved by the flower, but which marks the simplicity of his +tastes. He had made a long avenue of them of all colors, from the +crimson-brown to rose, straw-color, and white, and pleased himself +with having made proselytes to a liking for them among his neighbors. + +I never have seen such magnificent fuchsias as at Ambleside, and there +was one to be seen in every cottage-yard. They are no longer here +under the shelter of the green-house, as with us, and as they used to +be in England. The plant, from its grace and finished elegance, being +a great favorite of mine, I should like to see it as frequently and of +as luxuriant a growth at home, and asked their mode of culture, which +I here mark down, for the benefit of all who may be interested. Make +a bed of bog-earth and sand, put down slips of the fuchsia, and give +them a great deal of water,--this is all they need. People have them +out here in winter, but perhaps they would not bear the cold of our +Januaries. + +Mr. Wordsworth spoke with, more liberality than we expected of the +recent measures about the Corn Laws, saying that "the principle was +certainly right, though as to whether existing interests had been as +carefully attended to as was just, he was not prepared to say." His +neighbors were pleased to hear of his speaking thus mildly, and hailed +it as a sign that he was opening his mind to more light on these +subjects. They lament that his habits of seclusion keep him much +ignorant of the real wants of England and the world. Living in this +region, which is cultivated by small proprietors, where there is +little poverty, vice, or misery, he hears not the voice which cries so +loudly from other parts of England, and will not be stilled by sweet +poetic suasion or philosophy, for it is the cry of men in the jaws of +destruction. + +It was pleasant to find the reverence inspired by this great and pure +mind warmest nearest home. Our landlady, in heaping praises upon him, +added, constantly, "And Mrs. Wordsworth, too." "Do the people here," +said I, "value Mr. Wordsworth most because he is a celebrated writer?" +"Truly, madam," said she, "I think it is because he is so kind a +neighbor." + + "True to the kindred points of Heaven and Home." + +Dr. Arnold, too,--who lived, as his family still live, here,--diffused +the same ennobling and animating spirit among those who knew him in +private, as through the sphere of his public labors. + +Miss Martineau has here a charming residence; it has been finished +only a few months, but all about it is in unexpectedly fair order, and +promises much beauty after a year or two of growth. Here we found her +restored to full health and activity, looking, indeed, far better than +she did when in the United States. It was pleasant to see her in this +home, presented to her by the gratitude of England for her course of +energetic and benevolent effort, and adorned by tributes of affection +and esteem from many quarters. From the testimony of those who were +with her in and since her illness, her recovery would seem to be of +as magical quickness and sure progress as has been represented. At +the house of Miss Martineau I saw Milman, the author, I must not say +poet,--a specimen of the polished, scholarly man of the world. + +We passed one most delightful day in a visit to Langdale,--the scene +of "The Excursion,"--and to Dungeon-Ghyll Force. I am finishing my +letter at Carlisle on my way to Scotland, and will give a slight +sketch of that excursion, and one which occupied another day, from +Keswick to Buttermere and Crummock Water, in my next. + + + + +LETTER III. + +WESTMORELAND.--LANGDALE.--DUNGEON-GHYLL FORCE.--KESWICK.--CARLISLE.-- +BRANXHOLM.--SCOTT.--BURNS. + + +Edinburgh, 20th September, 1846. + +I have too long delayed writing up my journal.--Many interesting +observations slip from recollection if one waits so many days: +yet, while travelling, it is almost impossible to find an hour when +something of value to be seen will not be lost while writing. + +I said, in closing my last, that I would write a little more about +Westmoreland; but so much, has happened since, that I must now dismiss +that region with all possible brevity. + +The first day of which I wished to speak was passed in visiting +Langdale, the scene of Wordsworth's "Excursion." Our party of eight +went in two of the vehicles called cars or droskas,--open carriages, +each drawn by one horse. They are rather fatiguing to ride in, but +good to see from. In steep and stony places all alight, and the driver +leads the horse: so many of these there are, that we were four or +five hours in going ten miles, including the pauses when we wished to +_look_. + +The scenes through which we passed are, indeed, of the most wild and +noble character. The wildness is not savage, but very calm. Without +recurring to details, I recognized the tone and atmosphere of that +noble poem, which was to me, at a feverish period in my life, as pure +waters, free breezes, and cold blue sky, bringing a sense of eternity +that gave an aspect of composure to the rudest volcanic wrecks of +time. + +We dined at a farm-house of the vale, with its stone floors, old +carved cabinet (the pride of a house of this sort), and ready +provision of oaten cakes. We then ascended a near hill to the +waterfall called Dungeon-Ghyll Force, also a subject touched by +Wordsworth's Muse. You wind along a path for a long time, hearing the +sound of the falling water, but do not see it till, descending by a +ladder the side of the ravine, you come to its very foot. You find +yourself then in a deep chasm, bridged over by a narrow arch of rock; +the water falls at the farther end in a narrow column. Looking up, you +see the sky through a fissure so narrow as to make it look very pure +and distant. One of our party, passing in, stood some time at the foot +of the waterfall, and added much to its effect, as his height gave a +measure by which to appreciate that of surrounding objects, and his +look, by that light so pale and statuesque, seemed to inform the place +with the presence of its genius. + +Our circuit homeward from this grand scene led us through some +lovely places, and to an outlook upon the most beautiful part of +Westmoreland. Passing over to Keswick we saw Derwentwater, and near it +the Fall of Lodore. It was from Keswick that we made the excursion +of a day through Borrowdale to Buttermere and Crummock Water, which +I meant to speak of, but find it impossible at this moment. The mind +does not now furnish congenial colors with which to represent the +vision of that day: it must still wait in the mind and bide its time, +again to emerge to outer air. + +At Keswick we went to see a model of the Lake country which gives an +excellent idea of the relative positions of all objects. Its maker had +given six years to the necessary surveys and drawings. He said that +he had first become acquainted with the country from his taste for +fishing, but had learned to love its beauty, till the thought arose of +making this model; that while engaged in it, he visited almost every +spot amid the hills, and commonly saw both sunrise and sunset upon +them; that he was happy all the time, but almost too happy when he saw +one section of his model coming out quite right, and felt sure at last +that he should be quite successful in representing to others the home +of his thoughts. I looked upon him as indeed an enviable man, to have +a profession so congenial with his feelings, in which he had been so +naturally led to do what would be useful and pleasant for others. + +Passing from Keswick through a pleasant and cultivated country, we +paused at "fair Carlisle," not voluntarily, but because we could not +get the means of proceeding farther that day. So, as it was one in +which + + "The sun shone fair on Carlisle wall," + +we visited its Cathedral and Castle, and trod, for the first time, in +some of the footsteps of the unfortunate Queen of Scots. + +Passing next day the Border, we found the mosses all drained, and +the very existence of sometime moss-troopers would have seemed +problematical, but for the remains of Gilnockie,--the tower of Johnnie +Armstrong, so pathetically recalled in one of the finest of the +Scottish ballads. Its size, as well as that of other keeps, towers, +and castles, whose ruins are reverentially preserved in Scotland, +gives a lively sense of the time when population was so scanty, and +individual manhood grew to such force. Ten men in Gilnockie were +stronger then in proportion to the whole, and probably had in them +more of intelligence, resource, and genuine manly power, than ten +regiments now of red-coats drilled to act out manoeuvres they do not +understand, and use artillery which needs of them no more than the +match to go off and do its hideous message. + +Farther on we saw Branxholm, and the water in crossing which the +Goblin Page was obliged to resume his proper shape and fly, crying, +"Lost, lost, lost!" Verily these things seem more like home than one's +own nursery, whose toys and furniture could not in actual presence +engage the thoughts like these pictures, made familiar as household +words by the most generous, kindly genius that ever blessed this +earth. + +On the coach with us was a gentleman coming from London to make his +yearly visit to the neighborhood of Burns, in which he was born. "I +can now," said he, "go but once a year; when a boy, I never let a week +pass without visiting the house of Burns." He afterward observed, as +every step woke us to fresh recollections of Walter Scott, that Scott, +with all his vast range of talent, knowledge, and activity, was a poet +of the past only, and in his inmost heart wedded to the habits of a +feudal aristocracy, while Burns is the poet of the present and the +future, the man of the people, and throughout a genuine man. This is +true enough; but for my part I cannot endure a comparison which by a +breath of coolness depreciates either. Both were wanted; each +acted the important part assigned him by destiny with a wonderful +thoroughness and completeness. Scott breathed the breath just fleeting +from the forms of ancient Scottish heroism and poesy into new,--he +made for us the bridge by which we have gone into the old Ossianic +hall and caught the meaning just as it was about to pass from us for +ever. Burns is full of the noble, genuine democracy which seeks not +to destroy royalty, but to make all men kings, as he himself was, in +nature and in action. They belong to the same world; they are pillars +of the same church, though they uphold its starry roof from opposite +sides. Burns was much the rarer man; precisely because he had most of +common nature on a grand scale; his humor, his passion, his sweetness, +are all his own; they need no picturesque or romantic accessories to +give them due relief: looked at by all lights they are the same. Since +Adam, there has been none that approached nearer fitness to stand +up before God and angels in the naked majesty of manhood than Robert +Burns;--but there was a serpent in his field also! Yet but for his +fault we could never have seen brought out the brave and patriotic +modesty with which he owned it. Shame on him who could bear to think +of fault in this rich jewel, unless reminded by such confession. + +We passed Abbotsford without stopping, intending to go there on our +return. Last year five hundred Americans inscribed their names in its +porter's book. A raw-boned Scotsman, who gathered his weary length +into our coach on his return from a pilgrimage thither, did us the +favor to inform us that "Sir Walter was a vara intelligent mon," and +the guide-book mentions "the American Washington" as "a worthy old +patriot." Lord safe us, cummers, what news be there! + +This letter, meant to go by the Great Britain, many interruptions +force me to close, unflavored by one whiff from the smoke of Auld +Reekie. More and better matter shall my next contain, for here and +in the Highlands I have passed three not unproductive weeks, of which +more anon. + + + + +LETTER IV. + +EDINBURGH, OLD AND NEW.--SCOTT AND BURNS.--DR. ANDREW COMBE.--AMERICAN +RE-PUBLISHING.--THE BOOKSELLING TRADE.--THE MESSRS. CHAMBERS.--DE +QUINCEY THE OPIUM-EATER.--DR. CHALMERS. + + +Edinburgh, September 22d, 1846. + +The beautiful and stately aspect of this city has been the theme of +admiration so general that I can only echo it. We have seen it to the +greatest advantage both from Calton Hill and Arthur's Seat, and our +lodgings in Princess Street allow us a fine view of the Castle, always +impressive, but peculiarly so in the moonlit evenings of our first +week here, when a veil of mist added to its apparent size, and at the +same time gave it the air with which Martin, in his illustrations +of "Paradise Lost," has invested the palace which "rose like an +exhalation." + +On this our second visit, after an absence of near a fortnight in the +Highlands, we are at a hotel nearly facing the new monument to Scott, +and the tallest buildings of the Old Town. From my windows I see +the famous Kirk, the spot where the old Tolbooth was, and can almost +distinguish that where Porteous was done to death, and other objects +described in the most dramatic part of "The Heart of Mid-Lothian." In +one of these tall houses Hume wrote part of his History of England, +and on this spot still nearer was the home of Allan Ramsay. A thousand +other interesting and pregnant associations present themselves every +time I look out of the window. + +In the open square between us and the Old Town is to be the terminus +of the railroad, but as the building will be masked with trees, it +is thought it will not mar the beauty of the place; yet Scott could +hardly have looked without regret upon an object that marks so +distinctly the conquest of the New over the Old, and, appropriately +enough, his statue has its back turned that way. The effect of the +monument to Scott is pleasing, though without strict unity of thought +or original beauty of design. The statue is too much hid within the +monument, and wants that majesty of repose in the attitude and drapery +which a sitting figure should have, and which might well accompany the +massive head of Scott. Still the monument is an ornament and an honor +to the city. This is now the fourth that has been erected within two +years to commemorate the triumphs of genius. Monuments that have risen +from the same idea, and in such quick succession, to Schiller, to +Goethe, to Beethoven, and to Scott, signalize the character of the new +era still more happily than does the railroad coming up almost to the +foot of Edinburgh Castle. + +The statue of Burns has been removed from the monument erected in his +honor, to one of the public libraries, as being there more accessible +to the public. It is, however, entirely unworthy its subject, giving +the idea of a smaller and younger person, while we think of Burns +as of a man in the prime of manhood, one who not only promised, but +_was_, and with a sunny glow and breadth, of character of which this +stone effigy presents no sign. + +A Scottish gentleman told me the following story, which would afford +the finest subject for a painter capable of representing the glowing +eye and natural kingliness of Burns, in contrast to the poor, mean +puppets he reproved. + +Burns, still only in the dawn of his celebrity, was invited to dine +with one of the neighboring so-called gentry (unhappily quite void +of true gentle blood). On arriving he found his plate set in the +servants' room!! After dinner he was invited into a room where guests +were assembled, and, a chair being placed for him at the lower end of +the board, a glass of wine was offered, and he was requested to sing +one of his songs for the entertainment of the company. He drank off +the wine, and thundered forth in reply his grand song, "For a' that +and a' that," with which it will do no harm to refresh the memories +of our readers, for we doubt there may be, even in Republican America, +those who need the reproof as much, and with far less excuse, than had +that Scottish company. + + "Is there, for honest poverty, + That hangs his head, and a' that? + The coward slave, we pass him by, + We dare be poor for a' that! + For a' that, and a' that, + Our toils obscure, and a' that, + The rank is but the guinea's stamp, + The man's the gowd for a' that. + + "What tho' on hamely fare we dine, + Wear hoddin gray, and a' that; + Gie fools their silks, and knaves their wine, + A man's a man for a' that! + For a' that, and a' that, + Their tinsel show, and a' that, + The honest man, though, e'er sae poor + Is king o' men for a' that. + + "Ye see yon birkie, ca'd a lord, + Wha struts, and stares, and a' that; + Tho' hundreds worship at his word, + He's but a coof for a' that; + For a' that, and a' that, + His ribbon, star, and a' that, + The man of independent mind, + He looks and laughs at a' that. + + "A prince can make a belted knight, + A marquis, duke, and a' that; + But an honest man's aboon his might + Guid faith, he maunna fa' that! + For a' that, and a' that, + Their dignities, and a' that, + The pith o' sense and pride o' worth + Are higher ranks than a' that. + + "Then let us pray that, come it may, + As come it will for a' that, + That sense and worth, o'er a' the earth, + May bear the gree, and a' that; + For a' that, and a' that, + It's coming yet for a' that, + That man to man, the wide warld o'er, + Shall brothers be for a' that." + +And, having finished this prophecy and prayer, Nature's nobleman left +his churlish entertainers to hide their diminished heads in the home +they had disgraced. + +We have seen all the stock lions. The Regalia people still crowd +to see, though the old natural feelings from which they so long lay +hidden seem almost extinct. Scotland grows English day by day. The +libraries of the Advocates, Writers to the Signet, &c., are fine +establishments. The University and schools are now in vacation; we are +compelled by unwise postponement of our journey to see both Edinburgh +and London at the worst possible season. We should have been here in +April, there in June. There is always enough to see, but now we find +a majority of the most interesting persons absent, and a stagnation in +the intellectual movements of the place. + +We had, however, the good fortune to find Dr. Andrew Combe, who, +though a great invalid, was able and disposed for conversation at +this time. I was impressed with great and affectionate respect by +the benign and even temper of his mind, his extensive and accurate +knowledge, accompanied, as such should naturally be, by a large +and intelligent liberality. Of our country he spoke very wisely and +hopefully, though among other stories with which we, as Americans, are +put to the blush here, there is none worse than that of the conduct of +some of our publishers toward him. One of these stories I had heard +in New York, but supposed it to be exaggerated till I had it from the +best authority. It is of one of our leading houses who were publishing +on their own account and had stereotyped one of his works from an +early edition. When this work had passed through other editions and +he had for years been busy in reforming and amending it, he applied +to this house to republish from the later and better edition. They +refused. In vain he urged that it was not only for his own reputation +as an author that he was anxious, but for the good of the great +country through which writings on such, important subjects were to be +circulated, that they might have the benefit of his labors and best +knowledge. Such arguments on the stupid and mercenary tempers of those +addressed fell harmless as on a buffalo's hide might a gold-tipped +arrow. The book, they thought, answered THEIR purpose sufficiently, +for IT SELLS. Other purpose for a book they knew none. And as to the +natural rights of an author over the fruits of his mind, the distilled +essence of a life consumed in the severities of mental labor, they had +never heard of such a thing. His work was in the market, and he had +no more to do with it, that they could see, than the silkworm with the +lining of one of their coats. + +Mr. Greeley, the more I look at this subject, the more I must +maintain, in opposition to your views, that the publisher cannot, if +a mere tradesman, be a man of honor. It is impossible in the nature of +things. He _must_ have some idea of the nature and value of literary +labor, or he is wholly unfit to deal with its products. He cannot +get along by occasional recourse to paid critics or readers; he must +himself have some idea what he is about. One partner, at least, in +the firm, must be a man of culture. All must understand enough to +appreciate their position, and know that he who, for his sordid aims, +circulates poisonous trash amid a great and growing people, and +makes it almost impossible for those whom Heaven has appointed as its +instructors to do their office, are the worst of traitors, and to be +condemned at the bar of nations under a sentence no less severe than +false statesmen and false priests. This matter should and must be +looked to more conscientiously. + +Dr. Combe, repelled by all this indifference to conscience and natural +equity in the firm who had taken possession of his work, applied to +others. But here he found himself at once opposed by the invisible +barrier that makes this sort of tyranny so strong and so pernicious. +"It was the understanding among the trade that they were not to +interfere with one another; indeed, they could have no chance," &c., +&c. When at last he did get the work republished in another part of +the country less favorable for his purposes, the bargain made as to +the pecuniary part of the transaction was in various ways so evaded, +that, up to this time, he has received no compensation from that +widely-circulated work, except a lock of Spurzheim's hair!! + +I was pleased to hear the true view expressed by one of the Messrs. +Chambers. These brothers have worked their way up to wealth and +influence by daily labor and many steps. One of them is more the +business man, the other the literary curator of their Journal. Of this +Journal they issue regularly eighty thousand copies, and it is +doing an excellent work, by awakening among the people a desire for +knowledge, and, to a considerable extent, furnishing them with good +materials. I went over their fine establishment, where I found more +than a hundred and fifty persons, in good part women, employed, all +in well-aired, well-lighted rooms, seemingly healthy and content. +Connected with the establishment is a Savings Bank, and evening +instruction in writing, singing, and arithmetic. There was also a +reading-room, and the same valuable and liberal provision we had +found attached to some of the Manchester warehouses. Such accessories +dignify and gladden all kinds of labor, and show somewhat of the true +spirit of human brotherhood in the employer. Mr. Chambers said he +trusted they should never look on publishing _chiefly_ as _business_, +or a lucrative and respectable employment, but as the means of mental +and moral benefit to their countrymen. To one so wearied and disgusted +as I have been by vulgar and base avowals on such subjects, it was +very refreshing to hear this from the lips of a successful publisher. + +Dr. Combe spoke with high praise of Mr. Hurlbart's book, "Human Rights +and their Political Guaranties," which was published at the Tribune +office. He observed that it was the work of a real thinker, and +extremely well written. It is to be republished here. Dr. Combe said +that it must make its way slowly, as it could interest those only who +were willing to read thoughtfully; but its success was sure at last. + +He also spoke with, great interest and respect of Mrs. Farnham, +of whose character and the influence she has exerted on the female +prisoners at Sing Sing he had heard some account. + +A person of a quite different character and celebrity is De Quincey, +the English Opium-Eater, and who lately has delighted us again with +the papers in Blackwood headed "Suspiria de Profundis." I had the +satisfaction, not easily attainable now, of seeing him for some hours, +and in the mood of conversation. As one belonging to the Wordsworth, +and Coleridge constellation, (he too is now seventy-six years of age,) +the thoughts and knowledge of Mr. De Quincey lie in the past; and +oftentimes he spoke of matters now become trite to one of a later +culture. But to all that fell from his lips, his eloquence, subtile +and forcible as the wind, full and gently falling as the evening dew, +lent a peculiar charm. He is an admirable narrator, not rapid, but +gliding along like a rivulet through a green meadow, giving and taking +a thousand little beauties not absolutely required to give his story +due relief, but each, in itself, a separate boon. + +I admired, too, his urbanity, so opposite to the rapid, slang, +Vivian-Greyish style current in the literary conversation of the +day. "Sixty years since," men had time to do things better and more +gracefully than now. + +With Dr. Chalmers we passed a couple of hours. He is old now, but +still full of vigor and fire. We had an opportunity of hearing a +fine burst of indignant eloquence from him. "I shall blush to my very +bones," said he, "if the _Chaarrch_"--(sound these two _rr_'s with +as much burr as possible and you will get at an idea of his mode of +pronouncing that unweariable word)--"if the Chaarrch yields to the +storm." He alluded to the outcry now raised against the Free Church by +the Abolitionists, whose motto is, "Send back the money," i.e. money +taken from the American slaveholders. Dr. Chalmers felt that, if they +did not yield from conviction, they must not to assault. His manner +of speaking on this subject gave me an idea of the nature of his +eloquence. He seldom preaches now. + +A fine picture was presented by the opposition of figure and +lineaments between a young Indian, son of the celebrated Dwarkanauth +Tagore, who happened to be there that morning, and Dr. Chalmers, as +they were conversing together. The swarthy, half-timid, yet elegant +face and form of the Indian made a fine contrast with the florid, +portly, yet intellectually luminous appearance of the Doctor; half +shepherd, half orator, he looked a Shepherd King opposed to some +Arabian story-teller. + +I saw others in Edinburgh of a later date who haply gave more valuable +as well as fresher revelations of the spirit, and whose names may be +by and by more celebrated than those I have cited; but for the present +this must suffice. It would take a week, if I wrote half I saw or +thought in Edinburgh, and I must close for to-day. + + + + +LETTER V. + +PERTH.--TRAVELLING BY COACH.--LOCH LEVEN.--QUEEN MARY.--LOCH +KATRINE.--THE TROSACHS.--ROWARDENNAN.--A NIGHT ON BEN LOMOND.--SCOTCH +PEASANTRY. + + +Birmingham, September 30th, 1846. + +I was obliged to stop writing at Edinburgh before the better half +of my tale was told, and must now begin there again, to speak of an +excursion into the Highlands, which occupied about a fortnight. + +We left Edinburgh, by coach for Perth, and arrived there about three +in the afternoon. I have reason to be very glad that I visit this +island before the reign of the stage-coach is quite over. I have been +constantly on the top of the coach, even one day of drenching rain, +and enjoy it highly. Nothing can be more inspiring than this swift, +steady progress over such smooth roads, and placed so high as to +overlook the country freely, with the lively flourish of the horn +preluding every pause. Travelling by railroad is, in my opinion, the +most stupid process on earth; it is sleep without the refreshment of +sleep, for the noise of the train makes it impossible either to read, +talk, or sleep to advantage. But here the advantages are immense; you +can fly through this dull trance from one beautiful place to another, +and stay at each during the time that would otherwise be spent on +the road. Already the artists, who are obliged to find their home +in London, rejoice that all England is thrown open to them for +sketching-ground, since they can now avail themselves of a day's +leisure at a great distance, and with choice of position, whereas +formerly they were obliged to confine themselves to a few "green, and +bowery" spots in the neighborhood of the metropolis. But while in the +car, it is to me that worst of purgatories, the purgatory of dulness. + +Well, on the coach we went to Perth, and passed through Kinross, and +saw Loch Leven, and the island where Queen Mary passed those sorrowful +months, before her romantic escape under care of the Douglas. As this +unhappy, lovely woman stands for a type in history, death, time, and +distance do not destroy her attractive power. Like Cleopatra, she has +still her adorers; nay, some are born to her in each new generation of +men. Lately she has for her chevalier the Russian Prince Labanoff, who +has spent fourteen years in studying upon all that related to her, +and thinks now that he can make out a story and a picture about the +mysteries of her short reign, which shall satisfy the desire of her +lovers to find her as pure and just as she was charming. I have only +seen of his array of evidence so much, as may be found in the pages of +Chambers's Journal, but that much does not disturb the original view I +have taken of the case; which is, that from a princess educated +under the Medici and Guise influence, engaged in the meshes of secret +intrigue to favor the Roman Catholic faith, her tacit acquiescence, +at least, in the murder of Darnley, after all his injurious conduct +toward her, was just what was to be expected. From a poor, beautiful +young woman, longing to enjoy life, exposed both by her position +and her natural fascinations to the utmost bewilderment of flattery, +whether prompted by interest or passion, her other acts of folly are +most natural, and let all who feel inclined harshly to condemn her +remember to + + "Gently scan your brother man, + Still gentler sister woman." + +Surely, in all the stern pages of life's account-book there is none on +which a more terrible price is exacted for every precious endowment. +Her rank and reign only made her powerless to do good, and exposed her +to danger; her talents only served to irritate her foes and disappoint +her friends. This most charming of women was the destruction of her +lovers: married three times, she had never any happiness as a wife, +but in both the connections of her choice found that she had either +never possessed or could not retain, even for a few weeks, the love of +the men she had chosen, so that Darnley was willing to risk her life +and that of his unborn child to wreak his wrath upon Rizzio, and after +a few weeks with Bothwell she was heard "calling aloud for a knife to +kill herself with." A mother twice, and of a son and daughter, +both the children were brought forth in loneliness and sorrow, and +separated from her early, her son educated to hate her, her +daughter at once immured in a convent. Add the eighteen years of her +imprisonment, and the fact that this foolish, prodigal world, when +there was in it one woman fitted by her grace and loveliness to charm +all eyes and enliven all fancies, suffered her to be shut up to water +with her tears her dull embroidery during all the full rose-blossom of +her life, and you will hardly get beyond this story for a tragedy, not +noble, but pallid and forlorn. + +Such were the bootless, best thoughts I had while looking at the dull +blood-stain and blocked-up secret stair of Holyrood, at the ruins of +Loch Leven castle, and afterward at Abbotsford, where the picture +of Queen Mary's head, as it lay on the pillow when severed from the +block, hung opposite to a fine caricature of "Queen Elizabeth dancing +high and disposedly." In this last the face is like a mask, so +frightful is the expression of cold craft, irritated, vanity, and the +malice of a lonely breast in contrast with the attitude and elaborate +frippery of the dress. The ambassador looks on dismayed; the little +page can scarcely control the laughter which swells his boyish cheeks. +Such can win the world which, better hearts (and such Mary's was, even +if it had a large black speck in it) are most like to lose. + +That was a most lovely day on which we entered Perth, and saw in full +sunshine its beautiful meadows, among them the North-Inch, the famous +battle-ground commemorated in "The Fair Maid of Perth," adorned with +graceful trees like those of the New England country towns. In the +afternoon we visited the modern Kinfauns, the stately home of Lord +Grey. The drive to it is most beautiful, on the one side the Park, +with noble heights that skirt it, on the other through a belt of trees +was seen the river and the sweep of that fair and cultivated country. +The house is a fine one, and furnished with taste, the library large, +and some good works in marble. Among the family pictures one +arrested my attention,--the face of a girl full of the most pathetic +sensibility, and with no restraint of convention upon its ardent, +gentle expression. She died young. + +Returning, we were saddened, as almost always on leaving any such +place, by seeing such swarms of dirty women and dirtier children at +the doors of the cottages almost close by the gate of the avenue. To +the horrors and sorrows of the streets in such places as Liverpool, +Glasgow, and, above all, London, one has to grow insensible or die +daily; but here in the sweet, fresh, green country, where there seems +to be room for everybody, it is impossible to forget the frightful +inequalities between the lot of man and man, or believe that God can +smile upon a state of things such as we find existent here. Can any +man who has seen these things dare blame the Associationists for their +attempt to find prevention against such misery and wickedness in our +land? Rather will not every man of tolerable intelligence and good +feeling commend, say rather revere, every earnest attempt in that +direction, nor dare interfere with any, unless he has a better to +offer in its place? + +Next morning we passed on to Crieff, in whose neighborhood we visited +Drummond Castle, the abode, or rather one of the abodes, of Lord +Willoughby D'Eresby. It has a noble park, through which you pass by +an avenue of two miles long. The old keep is still ascended to get +the fine view of the surrounding country; and during Queen Victoria's +visit, her Guards were quartered there. But what took my fancy most +was the old-fashioned garden, full of old shrubs and new flowers, with +its formal parterres in the shape of the family arms, and its clipped +yew and box trees. It was fresh from a shower, and now glittering and +fragrant in bright sunshine. + +This afternoon we pursued our way, passing through the plantations +of Ochtertyre, a far more charming place to my taste than Drummond +Castle, freer and more various in its features. Five or six of these +fine places lie in the neighborhood of Crieff, and the traveller may +give two or three days to visiting them with a rich reward of delight. +But we were pressing on to be with the lakes and mountains rather, and +that night brought us to St. Fillan's, where we saw the moon shining +on Loch Earn. + +All this region, and that of Loch Katrine and the Trosachs, which +we reached next day, Scott has described exactly in "The Lady of +the Lake"; nor is it possible to appreciate that poem, without going +thither, neither to describe the scene better than he has done after +you have seen it. I was somewhat disappointed in the pass of the +Trosachs itself; it is very grand, but the grand part lasts so +little while. The opening view of Loch Katrine, however, surpassed, +expectation. It was late in the afternoon when we launched our little +boat there for Ellen's isle. + +The boatmen recite, though not _con molto espressione_, the parts of +the poem which describe these localities. Observing that they spoke of +the personages, too, with the same air of confidence, we asked if they +were sure that all this really happened. They replied, "Certainly; it +had been told from father to son through so many generations." Such +is the power of genius to interpolate what it will into the regular +log-book of Time's voyage. + +Leaving Loch Katrine the following day, we entered Rob Roy's country, +and saw on the way the house where Helen MacGregor was born, and Rob +Roy's sword, which is shown in a house by the way-side. + +We came in a row-boat up Loch Katrine, though both on that and Loch +Lomond you _may_ go in a hateful little steamer with a squeaking +fiddle to play Rob Roy MacGregor O. I walked almost all the way +through the pass from Loch Katrine to Loch Lomond; it was a distance +of six miles; but you feel as if you could walk sixty in that pure, +exhilarating air. At Inversnaid we took boat again to go down Loch +Lomond to the little inn of Rowardennan, from which the ascent is made +of Ben Lomond, the greatest elevation in these parts. The boatmen +are fine, athletic men; one of those with us this evening, a handsome +young man of two or three and twenty, sang to us some Gaelic songs. +The first, a very wild and plaintive air, was the expostulation of a +girl whose lover has deserted her and married another. It seems he is +ashamed, and will not even look at her when they meet upon the road. +She implores him, if he has not forgotten all that scene of bygone +love, at least to lift up his eyes and give her one friendly glance. +The sad _crooning_ burden of the stanzas in which she repeats this +request was very touching. When the boatman had finished, he hung his +head and seemed ashamed of feeling the song too much; then, when we +asked for another, he said he would sing another about a girl that was +happy. This one was in three parts. First, a tuneful address from a +maiden to her absent lover; second, his reply, assuring her of his +fidelity and tenderness; third, a strain which expresses their joy +when reunited. I thought this boatman had sympathies which would +prevent his tormenting any poor women, and perhaps make some one +happy, and this was a pleasant thought, since probably in the +Highlands, as elsewhere, + + "Maidens lend an ear too oft + To the careless wooer; + Maidens' hearts are _always soft_; + Would that men's were truer!" + +I don't know that I quote the words correctly, but that is the sum and +substance of a masculine report on these matters. + +The first day at Rowardennan not being propitious for ascending the +mountain, we went down the lake to sup, and got very tired in various +ways, so that we rose very late next morning. Their we found a day +of ten thousand for our purpose; but unhappily a large party had come +with the sun and engaged all the horses, so that, if we went, it must +be on foot. This was something of an enterprise for me, as the ascent +is four miles, and toward the summit quite fatiguing; however, in the +pride of newly gained health and strength, I was ready, and set forth +with Mr. S. alone. We took no guide,--and the people of the house did +not advise it, as they ought. They told us afterward they thought the +day was so clear that there was no probability of danger, and they +were afraid of seeming mercenary about it. It was, however, wrong, as +they knew what we did not, that even the shepherds, if a mist comes +on, can be lost in these hills; that a party of gentlemen were so a +few weeks before, and only by accident found their way to a house on +the other side; and that a child which had been lost was not found for +five days, long after its death. We, however, nothing doubting, set +forth, ascending slowly, and often stopping to enjoy the points of +view, which are many, for Ben Lomond consists of a congeries of hills, +above which towers the true Ben, or highest peak, as the head of a +many-limbed body. + +On reaching the peak, the night was one of beauty and grandeur such as +imagination never painted. You see around you no plain ground, but on +every side constellations or groups of hills exquisitely dressed in +the soft purple of the heather, amid which gleam the lakes, like eyes +that tell the secrets of the earth and drink in those of the heavens. +Peak beyond peak caught from the shifting light all the colors of the +prism, and on the farthest, angel companies seemed hovering in their +glorious white robes. + +Words are idle on such subjects; what can I say, but that it was a +noble vision, that satisfied the eye and stirred the imagination in +all its secret pulses? Had that been, as afterward seemed likely, +the last act of my life, there could not have been a finer decoration +painted on the curtain which was to drop upon it. + +About four o'clock we began our descent. Near the summit the traces of +the path are not distinct, and I said to Mr. S., after a while, that +we had lost it. He said, he thought that was of no consequence, we +could find oar way down. I thought however it was, as the ground was +full of springs that were bridged over in the pathway. He accordingly +went to look for it, and I stood still because so tired that I did not +like to waste any labor. Soon he called to me that he had found it, +and I followed in the direction where he seemed to be. But I mistook, +overshot it, and saw him no more. In about ten minutes I became +alarmed, and called him many times. It seems he on his side did the +same, but the brow of some hill was between us, and we neither saw nor +heard one another. + +I then thought I would make the best of my way down, and I should +find him upon my arrival. But in doing so I found the justice of my +apprehension about the springs, as, so soon as I got to the foot of +the hills, I would sink up to my knees in bog, and have to go up the +hills again, seeking better crossing-places. Thus I lost much time; +nevertheless, in the twilight I saw at last the lake and the inn of +Rowardennan on its shore. + +Between me and it lay direct a high heathery hill, which I afterward +found is called "The Tongue," because hemmed in on three sides by a +watercourse. It looked as if, could I only get to the bottom of that, +I should be on comparatively level ground. I then attempted to descend +in the watercourse, but, finding that impracticable, climbed on the +hill again and let myself down by the heather, for it was very steep +and full of deep holes. With great fatigue I got to the bottom, but +when about to cross the watercourse there, it looked so deep in the +dim twilight that I felt afraid. I got down as far as I could by the +root of a tree, and threw down a stone; it sounded very hollow, and +made me afraid to jump. The shepherds told me afterward, if I had, I +should probably have killed myself, it was so deep and the bed of the +torrent full of sharp stones. + +I then tried to ascend the hill again, for there was no other way to +get off it, but soon sunk down utterly exhausted. When able to get up +again and look about me, it was completely dark. I saw far below me +a light, that looked about as big as a pin's head, which I knew to be +from the inn at Rowardennan, but heard no sound except the rush of the +waterfall, and the sighing of the night-wind. + +For the first few minutes after I perceived I had got to my night's +lodging, such as it was, the prospect seemed appalling. I was very +lightly clad,--my feet and dress were very wet,--I had only a little +shawl to throw round me, and a cold autumn wind had already come, and +the night-mist was to fall on me, all fevered and exhausted as I was. +I thought I should not live through the night, or, if I did, live +always a miserable invalid. There was no chance to keep myself warm by +walking, for, now it was dark, it would be too dangerous to stir. + +My only chance, however, lay in motion, and my only help in myself, +and so convinced was I of this, that I did keep in motion the whole +of that long night, imprisoned as I was on such a little perch of that +great mountain. _How_ long it seemed under such circumstances only +those can guess who may have been similarly circumstanced. The mental +experience of the time, most precious and profound,--for it was indeed +a season lonely, dangerous, and helpless enough for the birth of +thoughts beyond what the common sunlight will ever call to being,--may +be told in another place and time. + +For about two hours I saw the stars, and very cheery and companionable +they looked; but then the mist fell, and I saw nothing more, except +such apparitions as visited Ossian on the hill-side when he went out +by night and struck the bosky shield and called to him the spirits of +the heroes and the white-armed maids with their blue eyes of grief. To +me, too, came those visionary shapes; floating slowly and gracefully, +their white robes would unfurl from the great body of mist in which +they had been engaged, and come upon me with a kiss pervasively cold +as that of death. What they might have told me, who knows, if I +had but resigned myself more passively to that cold, spirit-like +breathing! + +At last the moon rose. I could not see her, but the silver light +filled the mist. Then I knew it was two o'clock, and that, having +weathered out so much of the night, I might the rest; and the hours +hardly seemed long to me more. + +It may give an idea of the extent of the mountain to say that, though +I called every now and then with all my force, in case by chance some +aid might be near, and though no less than twenty men with their dogs +were looking for me, I never heard a sound except the rush of the +waterfall and the sighing of the night-wind, and once or twice the +startling of the grouse in the heather. It was sublime indeed,--a +never-to-be-forgotten presentation of stern, serene realities. + +At last came the signs of day, the gradual clearing and breaking up; +some faint sounds, from I know not what. The little flies, too, arose +from their bed amid the purple heather, and bit me; truly they were +very welcome to do so. But what was my disappointment to find the mist +so thick, that I could see neither lake nor inn, nor anything to guide +me. I had to go by guess, and, as it happened, my Yankee method served +me well. I ascended the hill, crossed the torrent in the waterfall, +first drinking some of the water, which was as good at that time as +ambrosia. I crossed in that place because the waterfall made steps, +as it were, to the next hill; to be sure they were covered with water, +but I was already entirely wet with the mist, so that it did not +matter. I then kept on scrambling, as it happened, in the right +direction, till, about seven, some of the shepherds found me. The +moment they came, all my feverish strength departed, though, if +unaided, I dare say it would have kept me up during the day; and they +carried me home, where my arrival relieved my friends of distress +far greater than I had undergone, for I had had my grand solitude, my +Ossianic visions, and the pleasure of sustaining myself while they +had only doubt amounting to anguish and a fruitless search through the +night. + +Entirely contrary to my expectations, I only suffered for this a few +days, and was able to take a parting look at my prison, as I went +down the lake, with feelings of complacency. It was a majestic-looking +hill, that Tongue, with the deep ravines on either side, and the +richest robe of heather I have seen anywhere. + +Mr. S. gave all the men who were looking for me a dinner in the barn, +and he and Mrs. S. ministered to them, and they talked of Burns, +really the national writer, and known by them, apparently, as none +other is, and of hair-breadth escapes by flood and fell. Afterwards +they were all brought up to see me, and it was pleasing indeed to +observe the good breeding and good, feeling with which they deported +themselves on the occasion. Indeed, this adventure created quite an +intimate feeling between us and the people there. I had been much +pleased, with them before, in attending one of their dances, on +account of the genuine independence and politeness of their conduct. +They were willing and pleased to dance their Highland flings and +strathspeys for our amusement, and did it as naturally and as freely +as they would have offered the stranger the best chair. + +All the rest must wait a while. I cannot economize time to keep up +my record in any proportion with what happens, nor can I get out of +Scotland on this page, as I had intended, without utterly slighting +many gifts and graces. + + + + +LETTER VI. + +INVERARY.--THE ARGYLE FAMILY.--DUMBARTON.--SUNSET ON THE +CLYDE.--GLASGOW.--DIRT AND INTELLECT.--STIRLING.--"THE SCOTTISH +CHIEFS."--STIRLING CASTLE.--THE TOURNAMENT GROUND.--EDINBURGH.--JAMES +SIMPSON.--INFANT SCHOOLS.--FREE BATHS.--MELROSE.--ABBOTSFORD.--WALTER +SCOTT.--DRYBURGH ABBEY.--SCOTT'S TOMB. + + +Paris, November, 1846. + +I am very sorry to leave such a wide gap between my letters, but I was +inevitably prevented from finishing one that was begun for the steamer +of the 4th of November. I then hoped to prepare one after my arrival +here in time for the Hibernia, but a severe cold, caught on the way, +unfitted me for writing. It is now necessary to retrace my steps a +long way, or lose sight of several things it has seemed desirable to +mention to friends in America, though I shall make out my narrative +more briefly than if nearer the time of action. + +If I mistake not, my last closed just as I was looking back on the +hill where I had passed the night in all the miserable chill and amid +the ghostly apparitions of a Scotch mist, but which looked in the +morning truly beautiful, and (had I not known it too well to be +deceived) alluring, in its mantle of rich pink heath, the tallest and +most full of blossoms we anywhere saw, and with, the waterfall making +music by its side, and sparkling in the morning sun. + +Passing from Tarbet, we entered the grand and beautiful pass of +Glencoe,--sublime with purple shadows with bright lights between, and +in one place showing an exquisitely silent and lonely little lake. +The wildness of the scene was heightened by the black Highland cattle +feeding here and there. They looked much at home, too, in the park at +Inverary, where I saw them next day. In Inverary I was disappointed. +I found, indeed, the position of every object the same as indicated +in the "Legend of Montrose," but the expression of the whole seemed +unlike what I had fancied. The present abode of the Argyle family is +a modern structure, and boasts very few vestiges of the old romantic +history attached to the name. The park and look-out upon the lake are +beautiful, but except from the brief pleasure derived from these, the +old cross from Iona that stands in the market-place, and the drone of +the bagpipe which lulled me to sleep at night playing some melancholy +air, there was nothing to make me feel that it was "a far cry to +Lochawe," but, on the contrary, I seemed in the very midst of the +prosaic, the civilized world. + +Leaving Inverary, we left that day the Highlands too, passing through. +Hell Glen, a very wild and grand defile. Taking boat then on Loch +Levy, we passed down the Clyde, stopping an hour or two on our way at +Dumbarton. Nature herself foresaw the era of picture when she made and +placed this rock: there is every preparation for the artist's stealing +a little piece from her treasures to hang on the walls of a room. Here +I saw the sword of "Wallace wight," shown by a son of the nineteenth +century, who said that this hero lived about fifty years ago, and who +did not know the height of this rock, in a cranny of which he lived, +or at least ate and slept and "donned his clothes." From the top of +the rock I saw sunset on the beautiful Clyde, animated that day by an +endless procession of steamers, little skiffs, and boats. In one of +the former, the Cardiff Castle, we embarked as the last light of day +was fading, and that evening found ourselves in Glasgow. + +I understand there is an intellectual society of high merit in +Glasgow, but we were there only a few hours, and did not see any one. +Certainly the place, as it may be judged of merely from the general +aspect of the population and such objects as may be seen in the +streets, more resembles an _Inferno_ than any other we have yet +visited. The people are more crowded together, and the stamp of +squalid, stolid misery and degradation more obvious and appalling. +The English and Scotch do not take kindly to poverty, like those of +sunnier climes; it makes them fierce or stupid, and, life presenting +no other cheap pleasure, they take refuge in drinking. + +I saw here in Glasgow persons, especially women, dressed in dirty, +wretched tatters, worse than none, and with an expression of listless, +unexpecting woe upon their faces, far more tragic than the inscription +over the gate of Dante's _Inferno_. To one species of misery suffered +here to the last extent, I shall advert in speaking of London. + +But from all these sorrowful tokens I by no means inferred the +falsehood of the information, that here was to be found a circle +rich in intellect and in aspiration. The manufacturing and commercial +towns, burning focuses of grief and vice, are also the centres of +intellectual life, as in forcing-beds the rarest flowers and fruits +are developed by use of impure and repulsive materials. Where evil +comes to an extreme, Heaven seems busy in providing means for the +remedy. Glaring throughout Scotland and England is the necessity for +the devoutest application of intellect and love to the cure of ills +that cry aloud, and, without such application, erelong help _must_ be +sought by other means than words. Yet there is every reason to hope +that those who ought to help are seriously, though, slowly, becoming +alive to the imperative nature of this duty; so we must not cease +to hope, even in the streets of Glasgow, and the gin-palaces of +Manchester, and the dreariest recesses of London. + +From Glasgow we passed to Stirling, like Dumbarton endeared to the +mind which cherishes the memory of its childhood more by association +with Miss Porter's Scottish Chiefs, than with "Snowdon's knight and +Scotland's king." We reached the town too late to see the castle +before the next morning, and I took up at the inn "The Scottish +Chiefs," in which I had not read a word since ten or twelve years old. +We are in the habit now of laughing when this book is named, as if it +were a representative of what is most absurdly stilted or bombastic, +but now, in reading, my maturer mind was differently impressed from +what I expected, and the infatuation with which childhood and early +youth regard this book and its companion, "Thaddeus of Warsaw," was +justified. The characters and dialogue are, indeed, out of nature, but +the sentiment that animates them is pure, true, and no less healthy +than noble. Here is bad drawing, bad drama, but good music, to which +the unspoiled heart will always echo, even when the intellect has +learned to demand a better organ for its communication. + +The castle of Stirling is as rich as any place in romantic +associations. We were shown its dungeons and its Court of Lions, +where, says tradition, wild animals, kept in the grated cells +adjacent, were brought out on festival occasions to furnish +entertainment for the court. So, while lords and ladies gay danced and +sang above, prisoners pined and wild beasts starved below. This, at +first blush, looks like a very barbarous state of things, but, on +reflection, one does not find that we have outgrown it in our present +so-called state of refined civilization, only the present way of +expressing the same facts is a little different. Still lords and +ladies dance and sing, unknowing or uncaring that the laborers who +minister to their luxuries starve or are turned into wild beasts. Man +need not boast his condition, methinks, till he can weave his costly +tapestry without the side that is kept under looking thus sadly. + +The tournament ground is still kept green and in beautiful order, near +Stirling castle, as a memento of the olden time, and as we passed +away down the beautiful Firth, a turn of the river gave us a very +advantageous view of it. So gay it looked, so festive in the bright +sunshine, one almost seemed to see the graceful forms of knight and +noble pricking their good steeds to the encounter, or the stalwart +Douglas, vindicating his claim to be indeed a chief by conquest in the +rougher sports of the yeomanry. + +Passing along the Firth to Edinburgh, we again passed two or three +days in that beautiful city, which I could not be content to leave +so imperfectly seen, if I had not some hope of revisiting it when the +bright lights that adorn it are concentred there. In summer almost +every one is absent. I was very fortunate to see as many interesting +persons as I did. On this second visit I saw James Simpson, a +well-known philanthropist, and leader in the cause of popular +education. Infant schools have been an especial care of his, and +America as well as Scotland has received the benefit of his thoughts +on this subject. His last good work has been to induce the erection +of public baths in Edinburgh, and the working people of that place, +already deeply in his debt for the lectures he has been unwearied +in delivering for their benefit, have signified their gratitude by +presenting him with a beautiful model of a fountain in silver as an +ornament to his study. Never was there a place where such a measure +would be more important; if cleanliness be akin to godliness, +Edinburgh stands at great disadvantage in her devotions. The impure +air, the terrific dirt which surround the working people, must make +all progress in higher culture impossible; and I saw nothing which +seemed to me so likely to have results of incalculable good, as this +practical measure of the Simpsons in support of the precept, + + "Wash and be clean every whit." + +We returned into England by the way of Melrose, not content to leave +Scotland without making our pilgrimage to Abbotsford. The universal +feeling, however, has made this pilgrimage so common that there +is nothing left for me to say; yet, though I had read a hundred +descriptions, everything seemed new as I went over this epitome of +the mind and life of Scott. As what constitutes the great man is more +commonly some extraordinary combination and balance of qualities, than +the highest development of any one, so you cannot but here be struck +anew by the singular combination in Scott's mind of love for the +picturesque and romantic with the plainest common sense,--a delight +in heroic excess with the prudential habit of order. Here the most +pleasing order pervades emblems of what men commonly esteem disorder +and excess. + +Amid the exquisite beauty of the ruins of Dryburgh, I saw with regret +that Scott's body rests in almost the only spot that is not green, and +cannot well be made so, for the light does not reach it. That is not +a fit couch for him who dressed so many dim and time-worn relics with +living green. + +Always cheerful and beneficent, Scott seemed to the common eye in like +measure prosperous and happy, up to the last years, and the chair in +which, under the pressure of the sorrows which led to his death, he +was propped up to write when brain and eye and hand refused their +aid, the product remaining only as a guide to the speculator as to the +workings of the mind in case of insanity or approaching imbecility, +would by most persons be viewed as the only saddening relic of his +career. Yet when I recall some passages in the Lady of the Lake, and +the Address to his Harp, I cannot doubt that Scott had the full share +of bitter in his cup, and feel the tender hope that we do about other +gentle and generous guardians and benefactors of our youth, that in a +nobler career they are now fulfilling still higher duties with serener +mind. Doubtless too they are trusting in us that we will try to fill +their places with kindly deeds, ardent thoughts, nor leave the world, +in their absence, + + "A dim, vast vale of tears, + Vacant and desolate." + + + + +LETTER VII. + +NEWCASTLE.--DESCENT INTO A COAL-MINE.--YORK WITH ITS MINSTER.-- +SHEFFIELD.--CHATSWORTH.--WARWICK CASTLE.--LEAMINGTON AND +STRATFORD.--SHAKESPEARE.--BIRMINGHAM.--GEORGE DAWSON.--JAMES +MARTINEAU.--W.J. FOX.--W.H. CHARMING AND THEODORE PARKER.--LONDON +AND PARIS. + + +Paris, 1846. + +We crossed the moorland in a heavy rain, and reached Newcastle late +at night. Next day we descended into a coal-mine; it was quite an odd +sensation to be taken off one's feet and dropped down into darkness +by the bucket. The stables under ground had a pleasant Gil-Blas air, +though the poor horses cannot like it much; generally they see the +light of day no more after they have once been let down into these +gloomy recesses, but pass their days in dragging cars along the rails +of the narrow passages, and their nights in eating hay and dreaming +of grass!! When we went down, we meant to go along the gallery to the +place where the miners were then at work, but found this was a walk +of a mile and a half, and, beside the weariness of picking one's steps +slowly along by the light of a tallow candle, too wet and dirty an +enterprise to be undertaken by way of amusement; so, after proceeding +half a mile or so, we begged to be restored to our accustomed level, +and reached it with minds slightly edified and face and hands much +blackened. + +Passing thence we saw York with its Minster, that dream of beauty +realized. From, its roof I saw two rainbows, overarching that lovely +country. Through its aisles I heard grand music pealing. But how +sorrowfully bare is the interior of such a cathedral, despoiled of the +statues, the paintings, and the garlands that belong to the Catholic +religion! The eye aches for them. Such a church is ruined by +Protestantism; its admirable exterior seems that of a sepulchre; there +is no correspondent life within. + +Within the citadel, a tower half ruined and ivy-clad, is life that +has been growing up while the exterior bulwarks of the old feudal time +crumbled to ruin. George Fox, while a prisoner at York for obedience +to the dictates of his conscience, planted here a walnut, and the tall +tree that grew from it still "bears testimony" to his living presence +on that spot. The tree is old, but still bears nuts; one of them was +taken away by my companions, and may perhaps be the parent of a tree +somewhere in America, that shall shade those who inherit the spirit, +if they do not attach importance to the etiquettes, of Quakerism. + +In Sheffield I saw the sooty servitors tending their furnaces. I saw +them, also on Saturday night, after their work was done, going to +receive its poor wages, looking pallid and dull, as if they had spent +on tempering the steel that vital force that should have tempered +themselves to manhood. + +We saw, also, Chatsworth, with its park and mock wilderness, and +immense conservatory, and really splendid fountains and wealth of +marbles. It is a fine expression of modern luxury and splendor, but +did not interest me; I found little there of true beauty or grandeur. + +Warwick Castle is a place entirely to my mind, a real representative +of the English aristocracy in the day of its nobler life. The grandeur +of the pile itself, and its beauty of position, introduce you fitly +to the noble company with which the genius of Vandyke has peopled +its walls. But a short time was allowed to look upon these nobles, +warriors, statesmen, and ladies, who gaze upon us in turn with such a +majesty of historic association, yet was I very well satisfied. It +is not difficult to see men through the eyes of Vandyke. His way of +viewing character seems superficial, though commanding; he sees the +man in his action on the crowd, not in his hidden life; he does not, +like some painters, amaze and engross us by his revelations as to the +secret springs of conduct. I know not by what hallucination I forebore +to look at the picture I most desired to see,--that of Lucy, Countess +of Carlisle. I was looking at something else, and when the fat, +pompous butler announced her, I did not recognize her name from his +mouth. Afterward it flashed across me, that I had really been standing +before her and forgotten to look. But repentance was too late; I had +passed the castle gate to return no more. + +Pretty Leamington and Stratford are hackneyed ground. Of the latter +I only observed what, if I knew, I had forgotten, that the room where +Shakespeare was born has been an object of devotion only for forty +years. England has learned much of her appreciation of Shakespeare +from the Germans. In the days of innocence, I fondly supposed that +every one who could understand English, and was not a cannibal, adored +Shakespeare and read him on Sundays always for an hour or more, and on +week days a considerable portion of the time. But I have lived to know +some hundreds of persons in my native land, without finding ten who +had any direct acquaintance with their greatest benefactor, and I dare +say in England as large an experience would not end more honorably +to its subjects. So vast a treasure is left untouched, while men are +complaining of being poor, because they have not toothpicks exactly to +their mind. + +At Stratford I handled, too, the poker used to such good purpose by +Geoffrey Crayon. The muse had fled, the fire was out, and the poker +rusty, yet a pleasant influence lingered even in that cold little +room, and seemed to lend a transient glow to the poker under the +influence of sympathy. + +In Birmingham I heard two discourses from one of the rising lights of +England, George Dawson, a young man of whom I had earlier heard much +in praise. He is a friend of the people, in the sense of brotherhood, +not of a social convenience or patronage; in literature catholic; in +matters of religion antisectarian, seeking truth in aspiration and +love. He is eloquent, with good method in his discourse, fire and +dignity when wanted, with a frequent homeliness in enforcement and +illustration which offends the etiquettes of England, but fits him the +better for the class he has to address. His powers are uncommon and +unfettered in their play; his aim is worthy. He is fulfilling and will +fulfil an important task as an educator of the people, if all be +not marred by a taint of self-love and arrogance now obvious in his +discourse. This taint is not surprising in one so young, who has +done so much, and in order to do it has been compelled to great +self-confidence and light heed of the authority of other minds, and +who is surrounded almost exclusively by admirers; neither is it, +at present, a large speck; it may be quite purged from him by the +influence of nobler motives and the rise of his ideal standard; but, +on the other hand, should it spread, all must be vitiated. Let us hope +the best, for he is one that could ill be spared from the band who +have taken up the cause of Progress in England. + +In this connection I may as well speak of James Martineau, whom I +heard in Liverpool, and W.J. Fox, whom I heard in London. + +Mr. Martineau looks like the over-intellectual, the partially +developed man, and his speech confirms this impression. He is +sometimes conservative, sometimes reformer, not in the sense of +eclecticism, but because his powers and views do not find a true +harmony. On the conservative side he is scholarly, acute,--on the +other, pathetic, pictorial, generous. He is no prophet and no sage, +yet a man full of fine affections and thoughts, always suggestive, +sometimes satisfactory; he is well adapted to the wants of that class, +a large one in the present day, who love the new wine, but do not feel +that they can afford to throw away _all_ their old bottles. + +Mr. Fox is the reverse of all this: he is homogeneous in his materials +and harmonious in the results he produces. He has great persuasive +power; it is the persuasive power of a mind warmly engaged in seeking +truth for itself. He sometimes carries homeward convictions with great +energy, driving in the thought as with golden nails. A glow of kindly +human sympathy enlivens his argument, and the whole presents thought +in a well-proportioned, animated body. But I am told he is far +superior in speech on political or social problems, than on such as I +heard him discuss. + +I was reminded, in hearing all three, of men similarly engaged in our +country, W.H. Charming and Theodore Parker. None of them compare +in the symmetrical arrangement of extempore discourse, or in pure +eloquence and communication of spiritual beauty, with Charming, nor in +fulness and sustained flow with Parker, but, in power of practical and +homely adaptation of their thought to common wants, they are superior +to the former, and all have more variety, finer perceptions, and are +more powerful in single passages, than Parker. + +And now my pen has run to 1st October, and still I have such +notabilities as fell to my lot to observe while in London, and these +that are thronging upon me here in Paris to record for you. I am sadly +in arrears, but 't is comfort to think that such meats as I have to +serve up are as good cold as hot. At any rate, it is just impossible +to do any better, and I shall comfort myself, as often before, with +the triplet which I heard in childhood from a sage (if only sages wear +wigs!):-- + + "As said the great Prince Fernando, + What _can_ a man do, + More than he can do?" + + + + +LETTER VIII. + +RECOLLECTIONS OF LONDON.--THE ENGLISH GENTLEMAN.--LONDON CLIMATE.--OUT +OF SEASON.--LUXURY AND MISERY.--A DIFFICULT PROBLEM.--TERRORS +OF POVERTY.--JOANNA BAILLIE AND MADAME ROLAND.--HAMPSTEAD.--MISS +BERRY.--FEMALE ARTISTS.--MARGARET GILLIES.--THE PEOPLE'S +JOURNAL.--THE TIMES.--THE HOWITTS.--SOUTH WOOD SMITH.--HOUSES FOR THE +POOR.--SKELETON OF JEREMY BENTHAM.--COOPER THE POET.--THOM. + + +Paris, December, 1846. + +I sit down here in Paris to narrate some recollections of London. +The distance in space and time is not great, yet I seem in wholly a +different world. Here in the region of wax-lights, mirrors, bright +wood fires, shrugs, vivacious ejaculations, wreathed smiles, and +adroit courtesies, it is hard to remember John Bull, with his +coal-smoke, hands in pockets, except when extended for ungracious +demand of the perpetual half-crown, or to pay for the all but +perpetual mug of beer. John, seen on that side, is certainly the most +churlish of clowns, and the most clownish of churls. But then +there are so many other sides! When a gentleman, he is so truly the +gentleman, when a man, so truly the man of honor! His graces, when he +has any, grow up from his inmost heart. + +Not that he is free from humbug; on the contrary, he is prone to the +most solemn humbug, generally of the philanthrophic or otherwise moral +kind. But he is always awkward beneath the mask, and can never impose +upon anybody--but himself. Nature meant him to be noble, generous, +sincere, and has furnished him with no faculties to make himself +agreeable in any other way or mode of being. 'Tis not so with your +Frenchman, who can cheat you pleasantly, and move with grace in the +devious and slippery path. You would be almost sorry to see him quite +disinterested and straightforward, so much of agreeable talent and +naughty wit would thus lie hid for want of use. But John, O John, we +must admire, esteem, or be disgusted with thee. + +As to climate, there is not much to choose at this time of year. In +London, for six weeks, we never saw the sun for coal-smoke and fog. In +Paris we have not been blessed with its cheering rays above three or +four days in the same length of time, and are, beside, tormented with +an oily and tenacious mud beneath the feet, which makes it almost +impossible to walk. This year, indeed, is an uncommonly severe one at +Paris; but then, if they have their share of dark, cold days, it must +be admitted that they do all they can to enliven them. + +But to dwell first on London,--London, in itself a world. We arrived +at a time which the well-bred Englishman considers as no time at +all,--quite out of "the season," when Parliament is in session, and +London thronged with the equipages of her aristocracy, her titled +wealthy nobles. I was listened to with a smile of contempt when I +declared that the stock shows of London would yield me amusement and +employment more than sufficient for the time I had to stay. But +I found that, with my way of viewing things, it would be to me an +inexhaustible studio, and that, if life were only long enough, I would +live there for years obscure in some corner, from which I could issue +forth day by day to watch unobserved the vast stream of life, or to +decipher the hieroglyphics which ages have been inscribing on the +walls of this vast palace (I may not call it a temple), which human +effort has reared for means, not yet used efficaciously, of human +culture. + +And though I wish to return to London in "the season," when that city +is an adequate representative of the state of things in England, I +am glad I did not at first see all that pomp and parade of wealth and +luxury in contrast with the misery, squalid, agonizing, ruffianly, +which stares one in the face in every street of London, and hoots at +the gates of her palaces more ominous a note than ever was that of owl +or raven in the portentous times when empires and races have crumbled +and fallen from inward decay. + +It is impossible, however, to take a near view of the treasures +created by English genius, accumulated by English industry, without a +prayer, daily more fervent, that the needful changes in the condition +of this people may be effected by peaceful revolution, which shall +destroy nothing except the shocking inhumanity of exclusiveness, +which now prevents their being used, for the benefit of all. May their +present possessors look to it in time! A few already are earnest in +a good spirit. For myself, much as I pitied the poor, abandoned, +hopeless wretches that swarm in the roads and streets of England, I +pity far more the English noble, with this difficult problem before +him, and such need of a speedy solution. Sad is his life, if a +conscientious man; sadder still, if not. Poverty in England has +terrors of which I never dreamed at home. I felt that it would be +terrible to be poor there, but far more so to be the possessor of that +for which so many thousands are perishing. And the middle class, too, +cannot here enjoy that serenity which the sages have described as +naturally their peculiar blessing. Too close, too dark throng the +evils they cannot obviate, the sorrows they cannot relieve. To a man +of good heart, each day must bring purgatory which he knows not how to +bear, yet to which he fears to become insensible. + +From these clouds of the Present, it is pleasant to turn the thoughts +to some objects which have cast a light upon the Past, and which, by +the virtue of their very nature, prescribe hope for the Future. I have +mentioned with satisfaction seeing some persons who illustrated +the past dynasty in the progress of thought here: Wordsworth, Dr. +Chalmers, De Quincey, Andrew Combe. With a still higher pleasure, +because to one of my own sex, whom I have honored almost above any, +I went to pay my court to Joanna Baillie. I found on her brow, not +indeed a coronal of gold, but a serenity and strength undimmed and +unbroken by the weight of more than fourscore years, or by the scanty +appreciation which her thoughts have received. + +I prize Joanna Baillie and Madame Roland as the best specimens which +have been hitherto offered of women of a Roman strength and singleness +of mind, adorned by the various culture and capable of the various +action opened to them by the progress of the Christian Idea. They are +not sentimental; they do not sigh and write of withered flowers of +fond affection, and woman's heart born to be misunderstood by the +object or objects of her fond, inevitable choice. Love (the passion), +when spoken of at all by them, seems a thing noble, religious, worthy +to be felt. They do not write of it always; they did not think of it +always; they saw other things in this great, rich, suffering world. In +superior delicacy of touch, they show the woman, but the hand is firm; +nor was all their speech, one continued utterance of mere personal +experience. It contained things which are good, intellectually, +universally. + +I regret that the writings of Joanna Baillie are not more known in +the United States. The Plays on the Passions are faulty in their +plan,--all attempts at comic, even at truly dramatic effect, fail; but +there are masterly sketches of character, vigorous expressions of wise +thought, deep, fervent ejaculations of an aspiring soul! + +We found her in her little calm retreat at Hampstead, surrounded by +marks of love and reverence from distinguished and excellent friends. +Near her was the sister, older than herself, yet still sprightly and +full of active kindness, whose character and their mutual relation she +has, in one of her last poems, indicated with such a happy mixture of +sagacity, humor, and tender pathos, and with so absolute a truth of +outline. Although no autograph collector, I asked for theirs, and when +the elder gave hers as "sister to Joanna Baillie," it drew a tear from +my eye,--a good tear, a genuine pearl,--fit homage to that fairest +product of the soul of man, humble, disinterested tenderness. + +Hampstead has still a good deal of romantic beauty. I was told it was +the favorite sketching-ground of London artists, till the railroads +gave them easy means of spending a few hours to advantage farther +off. But, indeed, there is a wonderful deal of natural beauty lying in +untouched sweetness near London. Near one of our cities it would all +have been grabbed up the first thing. But we, too, are beginning to +grow wiser. + +At Richmond I went to see another lady of more than threescore years' +celebrity, more than fourscore in age, Miss Berry the friend of Horace +Walpole, and for her charms of manner and conversation long and still +a reigning power. She has still the vivacity, the careless nature, or +refined art, that made her please so much in earlier days,--still is +girlish, and gracefully so. Verily, with her was no sign of labor or +sorrow. + +From the older turning to the young, I must speak with pleasure +of several girls I know in London, who are devoting themselves to +painting as a profession. They have really wise and worthy views of +the artist's avocation; if they remain true to them, they will enjoy +a free, serene existence, unprofaned by undue care or sentimental +sorrow. Among these, Margaret Gillies has attained some celebrity; +she may be known to some in America by engravings in the "People's +Journal" from her pictures; but, if I remember right, these are +coarse things, and give no just notion of her pictures, which are +distinguished for elegance and refinement; a little mannerized, but +she is improving in that respect. + +The "People's Journal" comes nearer being a fair sign of the times +than any other publication of England, apparently, if we except Punch. +As for the Times, on which you all use your scissors so industriously, +it is managed with vast ability, no doubt, but the blood would tingle +many a time to the fingers' ends of the body politic, before that +solemn organ which claims to represent the heart would dare to beat in +unison. Still it would require all the wise management of the Times, +or wisdom enough to do without it, and a wide range and diversity of +talent, indeed, almost sweeping the circle, to make a People's Journal +for England. The present is only a bud of the future flower. + +Mary and William Howitt are its main support. I saw them several times +at their cheerful and elegant home. In Mary Howitt I found the same +engaging traits of character we are led to expect from her books +for children. Her husband is full of the same agreeable information, +communicated in the same lively yet precise manner we find in his +books; it was like talking with old friends, except that now the +eloquence of the eye was added. At their house I became acquainted +with Dr. Southwood Smith, the well-known philanthropist. He is at +present engaged on the construction of good tenements calculated to +improve the condition of the working people. His plans look promising, +and should they succeed, you shall have a detailed account of them. On +visiting him, we saw an object which I had often heard celebrated, +and had thought would be revolting, but found, on the contrary, an +agreeable sight; this is the skeleton of Jeremy Bentham. It was at +Bentham's request that the skeleton, dressed in the same dress he +habitually wore, stuffed out to an exact resemblance of life, and with +a portrait mark in wax, the best I ever saw, sits there, as assistant +to Dr. Smith in the entertainment of his guests and companion of his +studies. The figure leans a little forward, resting the hands on a, +stout stick which Bentham always carried, and had named "Dapple"; +the attitude is quite easy, the expression of the whole quite mild, +winning, yet highly individual. It is a pleasing mark of that unity +of aim and tendency to be expected throughout the life of such a mind, +that Bentham, while quite a young man, had made a will, in which, to +oppose in the most convincing manner the prejudice against dissection +of the human subject, he had given his body after death to be used in +service of the cause of science. "I have not yet been able," said the +will, "to do much service to my fellow-men by my life, but perhaps I +may in this manner by my death." Many years after, reading a pamphlet +by Dr. Smith on the same subject, he was much pleased with it, +became his friend, and bequeathed his body to his care and use, with +directions that the skeleton should finally be disposed of in the way +I have described. + +The countenance of Dr. Smith has an expression of expansive, sweet, +almost childlike goodness. Miss Gillies has made a charming picture of +him, with a favorite little granddaughter nestling in his arms. + +Another marked figure that I encountered on this great showboard was +Cooper, the author of "The Purgatory of Luicides," a very remarkable +poem, of which, had there been leisure before my departure, I should +have made a review, and given copious extracts in the Tribune. Cooper +is as strong a man, and probably a milder one, than when in the prison +where that poem was written. The earnestness in seeking freedom +and happiness for all men, which drew upon him that penalty, seems +unabated; he is a very significant type of the new era, and also an +agent in bringing it near. One of the poets of the people, also, I +saw,--the sweetest singer of them all,--Thom. "A Chieftain unknown +to the Queen" is again exacting a cruel tribute from him. I wish much +that some of those of New York who have taken an interest in him would +provide there a nook in which he might find refuge and solace for the +evening of his days, to sing or to work as likes him best, and where +he could bring up two fine boys to happier prospects than the parent +land will afford them. Could and would America but take from other +lands more of the talent, as well as the bone and sinew, she would be +rich. + +But the stroke of the clock warns me to stop now, and begin to-morrow +with fresher eye and hand on some interesting topics. My sketches are +slight; still they cannot be made without time, and I find none to be +had in this Europe except late at night. I believe it is what all the +inhabitants use, but I am too sleepy a genius to carry the practice +far. + + + + +LETTER IX. + +WRITING AT NIGHT.--LONDON.--NATIONAL GALLERY.--MURILLO.--THE FLOWER +GIRL.--NURSERY-MAIDS AND WORKING-MEN.--HAMPTON COURT.--ZOOeLOGICAL +GARDENS.--KING OF ANIMALS.--ENGLISH PIETY.--EAGLES.--SIR JOHN SOANE'S +MUSEUM.--KEW GARDENS.--THE GREAT CACTUS.--THE REFORM CLUB HOUSE.--MEN +COOKS.--ORDERLY KITCHEN.--A GILPIN EXCURSION.--THE BELL AT EDMONTON.-- +OMNIBUS.--CHEAPSIDE.--ENGLISH SLOWNESS.--FREILIGRATH.--ARCADIA.-- +ITALIAN SCHOOL.--MAZZINI.--ITALY.--ITALIAN REFUGEES.--CORREGGIO.-- +HOPE OF ITALIANS.--ADDRESSES.--SUPPER.--CARLYLE, HIS APPEARANCE, +CONVERSATION, &C. + + +Again I must begin to write late in the evening. I am told it is the +custom of the literati in these large cities to work in the night. It +is easy to see that it must be almost impossible to do otherwise; yet +not only is the practice very bad for the health, and one that brings +on premature old age, but I cannot think this night-work will prove as +firm in texture and as fair of hue as what is done by sunlight. Give +me a lonely chamber, a window from which through the foliage you can +catch glimpses of a beautiful prospect, and the mind finds itself +tuned to action. + +But London, London! I have yet some brief notes to make on London. We +had scarcely any sunlight by which to see pictures, and I postponed +all visits to private collections, except one, in the hope of being in +England next time in the long summer days. In the National Gallery I +saw little except the Murillos; they were so beautiful, that with me, +who had no true conception of his kind of genius before, they took +away the desire to look into anything else at the same time. They +did not affect me much either, except with a sense of content in this +genius, so rich and full and strong. It was a cup of sunny wine that +refreshed but brought no intoxicating visions. There is something +very noble in the genius of Spain, there is such an intensity and +singleness; it seems to me it has not half shown itself, and must have +an important part to play yet in the drama of this planet. + +At the Dulwich Gallery I saw the Flower Girl of Murillo, an enchanting +picture, the memory of which must always + + "Cast a light upon the day, + A light that will not pass away, + A sweet forewarning." + +Who can despair when he thinks of a form like that, so full of life +and bliss! Nature, that made such human forms to match the butterfly +and the bee on June mornings when the lime-trees are in blossom, has +surely enough of happiness in store to satisfy us all, somewhere, some +time. + +It was pleasant, indeed, to see the treasures of those galleries, of +the British Museum, and of so charming a place as Hampton Court, +open to everybody. In the National Gallery one finds a throng of +nursery-maids, and men just come from their work; true, they make a +great deal of noise thronging to and fro on the uncarpeted floors +in their thick boots, and noise from which, when penetrated by +the atmosphere of Art, men in the thickest boots would know how to +refrain; still I felt that the sight of such objects must be gradually +doing them a great deal of good. The British Museum would, in itself, +be an education for a man who should go there once a week, and think +and read at his leisure moments about what he saw. + +Hampton Court I saw in the gloom, and rain, and my chief recollections +are of the magnificent yew-trees beneath whose shelter--the work +of ages--I took refuge from the pelting shower. The expectations +cherished from childhood about the Cartoons were all baffled; there +was no light by which they could be seen. But I must hope to visit +Hampton Court again in the time of roses. + +The Zooelogical Gardens are another pleasure of the million, since, +although something is paid there, it is so little that almost all can +afford it. To me, it is a vast pleasure to see animals where they can +show out their habits or instincts, and to see them assembled from, +all climates and countries, amid verdure and with room enough, as they +are here, is a true poem. They have a fine lion, the first I ever saw +that realized the idea we have of the king of the animal world; but +the groan and roar of this one were equally royal. The eagles were +fine, but rather disgraced themselves. It is a trait of English piety, +which would, no doubt, find its defenders among ourselves, not to feed +the animals on Sunday, that their keepers may have rest; at least +this was the explanation given us by one of these men of the state of +ravenous hunger in which we found them on the Monday. I half hope +he was jesting with us. Certain it is that the eagles were wild with +famine, and even the grandest of them, who had eyed us at first as if +we were not fit to live in the same zone with him, when the meat came +round, after a short struggle to maintain his dignity, joined in wild +shriek and scramble with the rest. + +Sir John Soane's Museum I visited, containing the sarcophagus +described by Dr. Waagen, Hogarth's pictures, a fine Canaletto, and +a manuscript of Tasso. It fills the house once the residence of his +body, still of his mind. It is not a mind with which I have sympathy; +I found there no law of harmony, and it annoyed me to see things all +jumbled together as if in an old curiosity-shop. Nevertheless it was a +generous bequest, and much may perhaps be found there of value to him +who takes time to seek. + +The Gardens at Kew delighted me, thereabouts all was so green, and +still one could indulge at leisure in the humorous and fantastic +associations that cluster around the name of Kew, like the curls of +a "big wig" round the serene and sleepy face of its wearer. Here are +fourteen green-houses: in one you find all the palms; in another, +the productions of the regions of snow; in another, those squibs and +humorsome utterances of Nature, the cactuses,--ay! there I saw the +great-grandfather of all the cactuses, a hoary, solemn plant, declared +to be a thousand years old, disdaining to say if it is not really +much, older; in yet another, the most exquisitely minute plants, +delicate as the tracery of frostwork, too delicate for the bowers of +fairies, such at least as visit the gross brains of earthly poets. + +The Reform Club was the only one of those splendid establishments that +I visited. Certainly the force of comfort can no farther go, nor can +anything be better contrived to make dressing, eating, news-getting, +and even sleeping (for there are bedrooms as well as dressing-rooms +for those who will), as comfortable as can be imagined. Yet to me this +palace of so many "single gentlemen rolled into one" seemed _stupidly_ +comfortable, in the absence of that elegant arrangement and vivacious +atmosphere which only women can inspire. In the kitchen, indeed, I +met them, and on that account it seemed the pleasantest part of the +building,--though even there they are but the servants of servants. +There reigned supreme a genius in his way, who has published a work +on Cookery, and around him his pupils,--young men who pay a handsome +yearly fee for novitiate under his instruction. I was not sorry, +however, to see men predominant in the cooking department, as I hope +to see that and washing transferred to their care in the progress of +things, since they are "the stronger sex." + +The arrangements of this kitchen were very fine, combining great +convenience with neatness, and even elegance. Fourier himself might +have taken pleasure in them. Thence we passed into the private +apartments of the artist, and found them full of pictures by his wife, +an artist in another walk. One or two of them had been engraved. _She_ +was an Englishwoman. + +A whimsical little excursion we made on occasion of the anniversary of +the wedding-day of two of my friends. They had often enjoyed reading +the account of John Gilpin's in America, and now thought that, as they +were in England and near enough, they would celebrate theirs also at +"the Bell at Edmonton." I accompanied them with "a little foot-page," +to eke out the train, pretty and graceful and playful enough for +the train of a princess. But our excursion turned out somewhat of a +failure, in an opposite way to Gilpin's. Whereas he went too fast, we +went too slow. First we took coach and went through Cheapside to take +omnibus at (strange misnomer!) the Flower-Pot. But Gilpin could never +have had his race through Cheapside as it is in its present crowded +state; we were obliged to proceed at a funeral pace. We missed the +omnibus, and when we took the next one it went with the slowness of a +"family horse" in the old chaise of a New England deacon, and, after +all, only took us half-way. At the half-way house a carriage was to +be sought. The lady who let it, and all her grooms, were to be allowed +time to recover from their consternation at so unusual a move as +strangers taking a carriage to dine at the little inn at Edmonton, now +a mere alehouse, before we could be allowed to proceed. The English +stand lost in amaze at "Yankee notions," with their quick come and +go, and it is impossible to make them "go ahead" in the zigzag +chain-lightning path, unless you push them. A rather old part of the +plan had been a pilgrimage to the grave of Lamb, with a collateral +view to the rural beauties of Edmonton, but night had fallen on all +such hopes two hours at least before we reached the Bell. _There_, +indeed, we found them somewhat more alert to comprehend our wishes; +they laughed when we spoke of Gilpin, showed us a print of the race +and the window where Mrs. Gilpin must have stood,--balcony, alas! +there was none; allowed us to make our own fire, and provided us a +wedding dinner of tough meat and stale bread. Nevertheless we danced, +dined, paid (I believe), and celebrated the wedding quite to our +satisfaction, though in the space of half an hour, as we knew +friends were even at that moment expecting us to _tea_ at some miles' +distance. But it is always pleasant in this world of routine to act +out a freak. "Such a one," said an English gentleman, "one of _us_ +would rarely have dreamed of, much, less acted." "Why, was it not +pleasant?" "Oh, _very_! but _so_ out of the way!" + +Returning, we passed the house where Freiligrath finds a temporary +home, earning the bread, of himself and his family in a commercial +house. England houses the exile, but not without house-tax, +window-tax, and head-tax. Where is the Arcadia that dares invite +all genius to her arms, and change her golden wheat for their green +laurels and immortal flowers? Arcadia?--would the name were America! + +And now returns naturally to my mind one of the most interesting +things I have seen here or elsewhere,--the school for poor Italian +boys, sustained and taught by a few of their exiled compatriots, and +especially by the mind and efforts of Mazzini. The name of Joseph +Mazzini is well known to those among us who take an interest in the +cause of human freedom, who, not content with the peace and ease +bought for themselves by the devotion and sacrifices of their fathers, +look with anxious interest on the suffering nations who are preparing +for a similar struggle. Those who are not, like the brutes that +perish, content with the enjoyment of mere national advantages, +indifferent to the idea they represent, cannot forget that the human +family is one, + + "And beats with one great heart." + +They know that there can be no genuine happiness, no salvation for +any, unless the same can be secured for all. + +To this universal interest in all nations and places where man, +understanding his inheritance, strives to throw off an arbitrary rule +and establish a state of things where he shall be governed as becomes +a man, by his own conscience and intelligence,--where he may speak +the truth as it rises in his mind, and indulge his natural emotions +in purity,--is added an especial interest in Italy, the mother of +our language and our laws, our greatest benefactress in the gifts +of genius, the garden of the world, in which our best thoughts have +delighted to expatiate, but over whose bowers now hangs a perpetual +veil of sadness, and whose noblest plants are doomed to removal,--for, +if they cannot bear their ripe and perfect fruit in another climate, +they are not permitted to lift their heads to heaven in their own. + +Some of these generous refugees our country has received kindly, if +not with a fervent kindness; and the word _Correggio_ is still in +my ears as I heard it spoken in New York by one whose heart long +oppression could not paralyze. _Speranza_ some of the Italian youth +now inscribe on their banners, encouraged by some traits of apparent +promise in the new Pope. However, their only true hope is in +themselves, in their own courage, and in that wisdom winch may only be +learned through many disappointments as to how to employ it so that it +may destroy tyranny, not themselves. + +Mazzini, one of these noble refugees, is not only one of the heroic, +the courageous, and the faithful,--Italy boasts many such,--but he is +also one of the wise;--one of those who, disappointed in the outward +results of their undertakings, can yet "bate no jot of heart and +hope," but _must_ "steer right onward "; for it was no superficial +enthusiasm, no impatient energies, that impelled him, but an +understanding of what _must_ be the designs of Heaven with regard to +man, since God is Love, is Justice. He is one who can live fervently, +but steadily, gently, every day, every hour, as well as on great, +occasions, cheered by the light of hope; for, with Schiller, he is +sure that "those who live for their faith shall behold it living." +He is one of those same beings who, measuring all things by the ideal +standard, have yet no time to mourn over failure or imperfection; +there is too much to be done to obviate it. + +Thus Mazzini, excluded from publication in his native language, has +acquired the mastery both of French and English, and through his +expressions in either shine the thoughts which animated his earlier +effort with mild and steady radiance. The misfortunes of his country +have only widened the sphere of his instructions, and made him an +exponent of the better era to Europe at large. Those who wish to form +an idea of his mind could not do better than to read his sketches of +the Italian Martyrs in the "People's Journal." They will find there, +on one of the most difficult occasions, an ardent friend speaking of +his martyred friends with, the purity of impulse, warmth of sympathy, +largeness and steadiness of view, and fineness of discrimination which +must belong to a legislator for a CHRISTIAN commonwealth. + +But though I have read these expressions with great delight, this +school was one to me still more forcible of the same ideas. Here these +poor boys, picked up from the streets, are redeemed from bondage and +gross ignorance by the most patient and constant devotion of time and +effort. What love and sincerity this demands from minds capable of +great thoughts, large plans, and rapid progress, only their peers can +comprehend, yet exceeding great shall he the reward; and as among +the fishermen, and poor people of Judaea were picked up those who have +become to modern Europe a leaven that leavens the whole mass, so may +these poor Italian boys yet become more efficacious as missionaries +to their people than would an Orphic poet at this period. These youths +have very commonly good faces, and eyes from which that Italian +fire that has done so much to warm the world glows out. We saw the +distribution of prizes to the school, heard addresses from Mazzini, +Pistracci, Mariotti (once a resident in our country), and an English +gentleman who takes a great interest in the work, and then adjourned +to an adjacent room, where a supper was provided for the boys and +other guests, among whom we saw some of the exiled Poles. The whole +evening gave a true and deep pleasure, though tinged with sadness. We +saw a planting of the kingdom of Heaven, though now no larger than a +grain of mustard-seed, and though perhaps none of those who watch the +spot may live to see the birds singing in its branches. + +I have not yet spoken of one of _our_ benefactors, Mr. Carlyle, whom I +saw several times. I approached him with more reverence after a little +experience of England and Scotland had taught me to appreciate the +strength and height of that wall of shams and conventions which he +more than any man, or thousand men,--indeed, he almost alone,--has +begun to throw down. Wherever there was fresh thought, generous hope, +the thought of Carlyle has begun the work. He has torn off the veils +from hideous facts; he has burnt away foolish illusions; he has +awakened thousands to know what it is to be a man,--that we must live, +and not merely pretend to others that we live. He has touched the +rocks and they have given forth musical answer; little more was +wanting to begin to construct the city. + +But that little was wanting, and the work of construction is left to +those that come after him: nay, all attempts of the kind he is the +readiest to deride, fearing new shams worse than the old, unable to +trust the general action of a thought, and finding no heroic man, no +natural king, to represent it and challenge his confidence. + +Accustomed to the infinite wit and exuberant richness of his writings, +his talk is still an amazement and a splendor scarcely to be faced +with steady eyes. He does not converse,--only harangues. It is the +usual misfortune of such marked men (happily not one invariable or +inevitable) that they cannot allow other minds room to breathe and +show themselves in their atmosphere, and thus miss the refreshment +and instruction, which the greatest never cease to need from the +experience of the humblest. Carlyle allows no one a chance, but +bears down all opposition, not only by his wit and onset of words, +resistless in their sharpness as so many bayonets, but by actual +physical superiority, raising his voice and rushing on his opponent +with a torrent of sound. This is not the least from unwillingness to +allow freedom to others; on the contrary, no man would more enjoy +a manly resistance to his thought; but it is the impulse of a mind +accustomed to follow out its own impulse as the hawk its prey, and +which knows not how to stop in the chase. Carlyle, indeed, is arrogant +and overbearing, but in his arrogance there is no littleness or +self-love: it is the heroic arrogance of some old Scandinavian +conqueror,--it is his nature and the untamable impulse that has given +him power to crush the dragons. You do not love him, perhaps, nor +revere, and perhaps, also, he would only laugh at you if you did; but +you like him heartily, and like to see him the powerful smith, the +Siegfried, melting all the old iron in his furnace till it glows to a +sunset red, and burns you if you senselessly go too near. He seemed to +me quite isolated, lonely as the desert; yet never was man more fitted +to prize a man, could he find one to match his mood. He finds such, +but only in the past. He sings rather than talks. He pours upon you a +kind of satirical, heroical, critical poem, with regular cadences, and +generally catching up near the beginning some singular epithet, which, +serves as a _refrain_ when his song is full, or with which as with a +knitting-needle he catches up the stitches if he has chanced now +and then to let fall a row. For the higher kinds of poetry he has no +sense, and his talk on that subject is delightfully and gorgeously +absurd; he sometimes stops a minute to laugh at it himself, then +begins anew with fresh vigor; for all the spirits he is driving before +him seem to him as Fata Morganas, ugly masks, in fact, if he can but +make them turn about, but he laughs that they seem to others such +dainty Ariels. He puts out his chin sometimes till it looks like the +beak of a bird, and his eyes flash bright instinctive meanings like +Jove's bird; yet he is not calm and grand enough for the eagle: he +is more like the falcon, and yet not of gentle blood enough for that +either. He is not exactly like anything but himself, and therefore you +cannot see him without the most hearty refreshment and good-will, for +he is original, rich, and strong enough to afford a thousand, faults; +one expects some wild land in a rich kingdom. His talk, like his +books, is full of pictures, his critical strokes masterly; allow for +his point of view, and his survey is admirable. He is a large subject; +I cannot speak more or wiselier of him now, nor needs it; his works +are true, to blame and praise him, the Siegfried of England, great and +powerful, if not quite invulnerable, and of a might rather to destroy +evil than legislate for good. At all events, he seems to be what +Destiny intended, and represents fully a certain side; so we make no +remonstrance as to his being and proceeding for himself, though we +sometimes must for us. + +I had meant some remarks on some fine pictures, and the little I saw +of the theatre in England; but these topics must wait till my next, +where they may connect themselves naturally enough with what I have to +say of Paris. + + + + +LETTER X. + +MORE OF LONDON.--THE MODEL PRISON AT PENTONVILLE.--BATHING +ESTABLISHMENT FOR THE POOR.--ALSO ONE FOR WASHING CLOTHES.--THE +CRECHES OF PARIS, FOR POOR PEOPLE'S CHILDREN.--OLD DRURY +IN LONDON.--SADLER'S WELLS.--ENGLISH AND FRENCH ACTING COMPARED.-- +MADEMOISELLE RACHEL.--FRENCH TRAGEDY.--ROSE CHENY.--DUMAS.--GUIZOT.-- +THE PRESENTATION AT COURT OF THE YOUNG DUCHESS.--BALL AT THE +TUILERIES.--AMERICAN AND FRENCH WOMEN.--LEVERRIER.--THE SORBONNE.-- +ARAGO.--DISCUSSIONS ON SUICIDE AND THE CRUSADES.--REMUSAT.--THE +ACADEMY.--LA MENNAIS.--BERANGER.--REFLECTIONS. + + +Paris. + +When I wrote last I could not finish with London, and there remain +yet two or three things I wish to speak of before passing to my +impressions of this wonder-full Paris. + +I visited the model prison at Pentonville; but though in some +respects an improvement upon others I have seen,--though there was the +appearance of great neatness and order in the arrangements of life, +kindness and good judgment in the discipline of the prisoners,--yet +there was also an air of bleak forlornness about the place, and it +fell far short of what my mind demands of such abodes considered as +redemption schools. But as the subject of prisons is now engaging the +attention of many of the wisest and best, and the tendency is in what +seems to me the true direction, I need not trouble myself to make +prude and hasty suggestions; it is a subject to which persons who +would be of use should give the earnest devotion of calm and leisurely +thought. + +The same day I went to see an establishment which gave me unmixed +pleasure; it is a bathing establishment put at a very low rate to +enable the poor to avoid one of thee worst miseries of their lot, and +which yet promises _to pay_. Joined with this is an establishment for +washing clothes, where the poor can go and hire, for almost nothing, +good tubs, water ready heated, the use of an apparatus for rinsing, +drying, and ironing, all so admirably arranged that a poor woman +can in three hours get through an amount of washing and ironing +that would, under ordinary circumstances, occupy three or four days. +Especially the drying closets I contemplated with great satisfaction, +and hope to see in our own country the same arrangements throughout +the cities, and even in the towns and villages. Hanging out the +clothes is a great exposure for women, even when they have a good +place for it; but when, as is so common in cities, they must dry them +in the house, how much they suffer! In New York, I know, those poor +women who take in washing endure a great deal of trouble and toil from +this cause; I have suffered myself from being obliged to send +back what had cost them so much toil, because it had been, perhaps +inevitably, soiled in the drying or ironing, or filled with the smell +of their miscellaneous cooking. In London it is much worse. An eminent +physician told me he knew of two children whom he considered to have +died because their mother, having but one room to live in, was obliged +to wash and dry clothes close to their bed when they were ill. The +poor people in London naturally do without washing all they can, and +beneath that perpetual fall of soot the result may be guessed. All but +the very poor in England put out their washing, and this custom ought +to be universal in civilized countries, as it can be done much better +and quicker by a few regular laundresses than by many families, +and "the washing day" is so malignant a foe to the peace and joy of +households that it ought to be effaced from the calendar. But as long +as we are so miserable as to have any very poor people in this world, +_they_ cannot put out their washing, because they cannot earn enough +money to pay for it, and, preliminary to something better, washing +establishments like this of London are desirable. + +One arrangement that they have here in Paris will be a good one, even +when we cease to have any very poor people, and, please Heaven, also +to have any very rich. These are the _Creches_,--houses where poor +women leave their children to be nursed during the day while they are +at work. + +I must mention that the superintendent of the washing establishment +observed, with a legitimate triumph, that it had been built without +giving a single dinner or printing a single puff,--an extraordinary +thing, indeed, for England! + +To turn to something a little gayer,--the embroidery on this tattered +coat of civilized life,--I went into only two theatres; one the Old +Drury, once the scene of great glories, now of execrable music and +more execrable acting. If anything can be invented more excruciating +than an English opera, such as was the fashion at the time I was in +London, I am sure no sin of mine deserves the punishment of bearing +it. + +At the Sadler's Wells theatre I saw a play which I had much admired in +reading it, but found still better in actual representation; indeed, +it seems to me there can be no better acting play: this is "The +Patrician's Daughter," by J.W. Marston. The movement is rapid, yet +clear and free; the dialogue natural, dignified, and flowing; the +characters marked with few, but distinct strokes. Where the tone +of discourse rises with manly sentiment or passion, the audience +applauded with bursts of generous feeling that gave me great pleasure, +for this play is one that, in its scope and meaning, marks the new era +in England; it is full of an experience which is inevitable to a man +of talent there, and is harbinger of the day when the noblest commoner +shall be the only noble possible in England. + +But how different all this acting to what I find in France! Here the +theatre is living; you see something really good, and good throughout. +Not one touch of that stage strut and vulgar bombast of tone, which +the English actor fancies indispensable to scenic illusion, is +tolerated here. For the first time in my life I saw something +represented in a style uniformly good, and should have found +sufficient proof, if I had needed any, that all men will prefer what +is good to what is bad, if only a fair opportunity for choice +be allowed. When I came here, my first thought was to go and see +Mademoiselle Rachel. I was sure that in her I should find a true +genius, absolutely the diamond, and so it proved. I went to see her +seven or eight times, always in parts that required great force of +soul and purity of taste even to conceive them, and only once had +reason to find fault with her. On one single occasion I saw her +violate the harmony of the character to produce effect at a particular +moment; but almost invariably I found her a true artist, worthy +Greece, and worthy at many moments to have her conceptions +immortalized in marble. + +Her range even in high tragedy is limited. She can only express the +darker passions, and grief in its most desolate aspects. Nature has +not gifted her with those softer and more flowery attributes that lend +to pathos its utmost tenderness. She does not melt to tears, or calm +or elevate the heart by the presence of that tragic beauty that needs +all the assaults of Fate to make it show its immortal sweetness. Her +noblest aspect is when sometimes she expresses truth in some severe +shape, and rises, simple and austere, above the mixed elements around +her. On the dark side, she is very great in hatred and revenge. I +admired her more in Phedre than in any other part in which I saw her. +The guilty love inspired by the hatred of a goddess was expressed in +all its symptoms with a force and terrible naturalness that almost +suffocated the beholder. After she had taken the poison, the +exhaustion and paralysis of the system, the sad, cold, calm submission +to Fate, were still more grand. + +I had heard so much about the power of her eye in one fixed look, and +the expression she could concentrate in a single word, that the utmost +results could only satisfy my expectations. It is, indeed, something +magnificent to see the dark cloud give out such sparks, each one fit +to deal a separate death; but it was not that I admired most in her: +it was the grandeur, truth, and depth of her conception of each part, +and the sustained purity with which she represented it. + +For the rest, I shall write somewhere a detailed _critique_ upon the +parts in which I saw her. It is she who has made me acquainted with +the true way of viewing French tragedy. I had no idea of its powers +and symmetry till now, and have received from the revelation high +pleasure and a crowd of thoughts. + +The French language from her lips is a divine dialect; it is stripped +of its national and personal peculiarities, and becomes what any +language must, moulded by such a genius, the pure music of the heart +and soul. I never could remember her tone in speaking any word; it +was too perfect; you had received the thought quite direct. Yet, had +I never heard her speak a word, my mind would, be filled by her +attitudes. Nothing more graceful can be conceived, nor could the +genius of sculpture surpass her management of the antique drapery. + +She has no beauty except in the intellectual severity of her outline, +and bears marks of age which will grow stronger every year, and make +her ugly before long. Still it will be a _grandiose_, gypsy, or rather +Sibylline ugliness, well adapted to the expression of some tragic +parts. Only it seems as if she could not live long; she expends force +enough upon a part to furnish out a dozen common lives. + +Though the French tragedy is well acted throughout, yet unhappily +there is no male actor now with a spark of fire, and these men seem +the meanest pigmies by the side of Rachel;--so on the scene, beside +the tragedy intended by the author, you see also that common tragedy, +a woman of genius who throws away her precious heart, lives and dies +for one unworthy of her. In parts this effect is productive of too +much pain. I saw Rachel one night with her brother and sister. The +sister imitated her so closely that you could not help seeing she +had a manner, and an imitable manner. Her brother was in the play her +lover,--a wretched automaton, and presenting the most unhappy family +likeness to herself. Since then I have hardly cared to go and see her. +We could wish with geniuses, as with the Phoenix, to see only one of +the family at a time. + +In the pathetic or sentimental drama Paris boasts another young +actress, nearly as distinguished in that walk as Rachel in hers. +This is Rose Cheny, whom we saw in her ninety-eighth personation of +Clarissa Harlowe, and afterward in Genevieve and the _Protege sans +le Savoir_,--a little piece written expressly for her by Scribe. +The "Miss Clarisse" of the French drama is a feeble and partial +reproduction of the heroine of Richardson; indeed, the original in all +its force of intellect and character would have been too much for +the charming Rose Cheny, but to the purity and lovely tenderness of +Clarissa she does full justice. In the other characters she was +the true French girl, full of grace and a mixture of _naivete_ and +cunning, sentiment and frivolity, that is winning and _piquant_, if +not satisfying. Only grief seems very strange to those bright eyes; we +do not find that they can weep much and bear the light of day, and the +inhaling of charcoal seems near at hand to their brightest pleasures. + +At the other little theatres you see excellent acting, and a sparkle +of wit unknown to the world out of France. The little pieces in which +all the leading topics of the day are reviewed are full of drolleries +that make you laugh at each instant. _Poudre-Colon_ is the only one of +these I have seen; in this, among other jokes, Dumas, in the character +of Monte-Christo and in a costume half Oriental, half juggler, is made +to pass the other theatres in review while seeking candidates for his +new one. + +Dumas appeared in court yesterday, and defended his own cause against +the editors who sue him for evading some of his engagements. I was +very desirous to hear him speak, and went there in what I was assured +would be very good season; but a French audience, who knew the ground +better, had slipped in before me, and I returned, as has been too +often the case with me in Paris, having seen nothing but endless +staircases, dreary vestibules, and _gens d'armes_. The hospitality of +_le grande nation_ to the stranger is, in many respects, admirable. +Galleries, libraries, cabinets of coins, museums, are opened in the +most liberal manner to the stranger, warmed, lighted, ay, and guarded, +for him almost all days in the week; treasures of the past are at his +service; but when anything is happening in the present, the French run +quicker, glide in more adroitly, and get possession of the ground. I +find it not the most easy matter to get to places even where there is +nothing going on, there is so much tiresome fuss of getting _billets_ +from one and another to be gone through; but when something is +happening it is still worse. I missed hearing M. Guizot in his speech +on the Montpensier marriage, which would have given a very good idea +of his manner, and which, like this defence of M. Dumas, was a skilful +piece of work as regards evasion of the truth. The good feeling toward +England which had been fostered with so much care and toil seems to +have been entirely dissipated by the mutual recriminations about this +marriage, and the old dislike flames up more fiercely for having been +hid awhile beneath the ashes. I saw the little Duchess, the innocent +or ignorant cause of all this disturbance, when presented at court. +She went round the circle on the arm of the Queen. Though only +fourteen, she looks twenty, but has something fresh, engaging, and +girlish about her. I fancy it will soon be rubbed out under the drill +of the royal household. + +I attended not only at the presentation, but at the ball given at +the Tuileries directly after. These are fine shows, as the suite +of apartments is very handsome, brilliantly lighted, and the French +ladies surpass all others in the art of dress; indeed, it gave me +much, pleasure to see them. Certainly there are many ugly ones, but +they are so well dressed, and have such an air of graceful vivacity, +that the general effect was that of a flower-garden. As often happens, +several American women were among the most distinguished for positive +beauty; one from Philadelphia, who is by many persons considered +the prettiest ornament of the dress circle at the Italian Opera, was +especially marked by the attention of the king. However, these ladies, +even if here a long time, do not attain the air and manner of French +women; the magnetic atmosphere that envelops them is less brilliant +and exhilarating in its attractions. + +It was pleasant to my eye, which has always been so wearied in +our country by the sombre masses of men that overcloud our public +assemblies, to see them now in so great variety of costume, color, and +decoration. + +Among the crowd wandered Leverrier, in the costume of Academician, +looking as if he had lost, not found, his planet. French _savants_ are +more generally men of the world, and even men of fashion, than those +of other climates; but, in his case, he seemed not to find it easy to +exchange the music of the spheres for the music of fiddles. + +Speaking of Leverrier leads to another of my disappointments. I went +to the Sorbonne to hear him lecture, nothing dreaming that the old +pedantic and theological character of those halls was strictly kept up +in these days of light. An old guardian of the inner temple, seeing +me approach, had his speech all ready, and, manning the entrance, said +with a disdainful air, before we had time to utter a word, "Monsieur +may enter if he pleases, but Madame must remain here" (i.e. in +the court-yard). After some exclamations of surprise, I found an +alternative in the Hotel de Clugny, where I passed an hour very +delightfully while waiting for my companion. The rich remains of other +centuries are there so arranged that they can be seen to the best +advantage; many of the works in ivory, china, and carved wood are +truly splendid or exquisite. I saw a dagger with jewelled hilt which +talked whole poems to my mind. In the various "Adorations of the +Magi," I found constantly one of the wise men black, and with the +marked African lineaments. Before I had half finished, my companion +came and wished me at least to visit the lecture-rooms of the +Sorbonne, now that the talk, too good for female ears, was over. +But the guardian again interfered to deny me entrance. "You can go, +Madame," said he, "to the College of France; you can go to this and +t'other place, but you cannot enter here." "What, sir," said I, "is +it your institution alone that remains in a state of barbarism?" "Que +voulez vous, Madame?" he replied, and, as he spoke, his little +dog began to bark at me,--"Que voulez vous, Madame? c'est la +regle,"--"What would you have, Madam? IT IS THE RULE,"--a reply which +makes me laugh even now, as I think how the satirical wits of former +days might have used it against the bulwarks of learned dulness. + +I was more fortunate in hearing Arago, and he justified all my +expectations. Clear, rapid, full and equal, his discourse is worthy +its celebrity, and I felt repaid for the four hours one is obliged to +spend in going, in waiting, and in hearing; for the lecture begins at +half past one, and you must be there before twelve to get a seat, so +constant and animated is his popularity. + +I have attended, with some interest, two discussions at the +Athenee,--one on Suicide, the other on the Crusades. They are amateur +affairs, where, as always at such times, one hears much, nonsense and +vanity, much making of phrases and sentimental grimace; but there was +one excellent speaker, adroit and rapid as only a Frenchman could be. +With admirable readiness, skill, and rhetorical polish, he examined +the arguments of all the others, and built upon their failures +a triumph for himself. His management of the language, too, +was masterly, and French is the best of languages for such a +purpose,--clear, flexible, full of sparkling points and quick, +picturesque turns, with a subtile blandness that makes the dart tickle +while it wounds. Truly he pleased the fancy, filled the ear, and +carried us pleasantly along over the smooth, swift waters; but then +came from the crowd a gentleman, not one of the appointed orators +of the evening, but who had really something in his heart to say,--a +grave, dark man, with Spanish eyes, and the simple dignity of honor +and earnestness in all his gesture and manner. He said in few and +unadorned words his say, and the sense of a real presence filled the +room, and those charms of rhetoric faded, as vanish the beauties of +soap-bubbles from the eyes of astonished childhood. + +I was present on one good occasion at the Academy the day that M. +Remusat was received there in the place of Royer-Collard. I looked +down from one of the tribunes upon the flower of the celebrities of +France, that is to say, of the celebrities which are authentic, _comme +il faut_. Among them were many marked faces, many fine heads; but +in reading the works of poets we always fancy them about the age of +Apollo himself, and I found with pain some of my favorites quite old, +and very unlike the company on Parnassus as represented by Raphael. +Some, however, were venerable, even noble, to behold. Indeed, the +literary dynasty of France is growing old, and here, as in England +and Germany, there seems likely to occur a serious gap before the +inauguration of another, if indeed another is coming. + +However, it was an imposing sight; there are men of real distinction +now in the Academy, and Moliere would have a fair chance if he +were proposed to-day. Among the audience I saw many ladies of fine +expression and manner, as well as one or two _precieuses ridicules_, a +race which is never quite extinct. + +M. Remusat, as is the custom on these occasions, painted the portrait +of his predecessor; the discourse was brilliant and discriminating +in the details, but the orator seemed to me to neglect drawing some +obvious inferences which would have given a better point of view for +his subject. + +A _seance_ to me much more impressive find interesting was one which +borrowed nothing from dress, decorations, or the presence of titled +pomp. I went to call on La Mennais, to whom I had a letter, I found +him in a little study; his secretary was writing in a larger room +through which I passed. With him was a somewhat citizen-looking, +but vivacious, elderly man, whom I was at first sorry to see, +having wished for half an hour's undisturbed visit to the apostle of +Democracy. But how quickly were those feelings displaced by joy when +he named to me the great national lyrist of France, the unequalled +Beranger. I had not expected to see him at all, for he is not one to +be seen in any show place; he lives in the hearts of the people, and +needs no homage from their eyes. I was very happy in that little study +in presence of these two men, whose influence has been so great, so +real. To me Beranger has been much; his wit, his pathos, his exquisite +lyric grace, have made the most delicate strings vibrate, and I can +feel, as well as see, what he is in his nation and his place. I have +not personally received anything from La Mennais, as, born under other +circumstances, mental facts which he, once the pupil of Rome, has +learned by passing through severe ordeals, are at the basis of all +my thoughts. But I see well what he has been and is to Europe, and of +what great force of nature and spirit. He seems suffering and pale, +but in his eyes is the light of the future. + +These are men who need no flourish of trumpets to announce their +coming,--no band of martial music upon their steps,--no obsequious +nobles in their train. They are the true kings, the theocratic kings, +the judges in Israel. The hearts of men make music at their approach; +the mind of the age is the historian of their passage; and only men of +destiny like themselves shall be permitted to write their eulogies, or +fill their vacant seats. + +Wherever there is a genius like his own, a germ of the finest fruit +still hidden beneath the soil, the "_Chante pauvre petit_" of Beranger +shall strike, like a sunbeam, and give it force to emerge, and +wherever there is the true Crusade,--for the spirit, not the tomb of +Christ,--shall be felt an echo of the "_Que tes armes soient benis +jeune soldat_" of La Mennais. + + + + +LETTER XI. + +FRANCE AND HER ARTISTIC EXCELLENCE.--THE PICTURES OF HORACE +VERNET.--DE LA ROCHE.--LEOPOLD ROBERT.--CONTRAST BETWEEN THE FRENCH +AND ENGLISH SCHOOLS OF ART.--THE GENERAL APPRECIATION OF TURNER'S +PICTURES.--BOTANICAL MODELS IN WAX.--MUSIC.--THE OPERA.--DUPREZ.-- +LABLACHE.--RONCONI.--GRISI.--PERSIANA.--"SEMIRAMIDE" AS PERFORMED BY +THE NEW YORK AND PARIS OPERAS.--MARIO.--COLETTI.--GARDINI.-- +"DON GIOVANNI."--THE WRITER'S TRIAL OF THE "LETHEON."--ITS EFFECTS. + + +It needs not to speak in this cursory manner of the treasures of Art, +pictures, sculptures, engravings, and the other riches which France +lays open so freely to the stranger in her Musees. Any examination +worth writing of such objects, or account of the thoughts they +inspire, demands a place by itself, and an ample field in which to +expatiate. The American, first introduced to some good pictures by the +truly great geniuses of the religious period in Art, must, if capable +at all of mental approximation to the life therein embodied, be too +deeply affected, too full of thoughts, to be in haste to say anything, +and for me, I bide my time. + +No such great crisis, however, is to be apprehended from acquaintance +with the productions of the modern French school. They are, indeed, +full of talent and of vigor, but also melodramatic and exaggerated to +a degree that seems to give the nightmare passage through the fresh +and cheerful day. They sound no depth of soul, and are marked with the +signet of a degenerate age. + +Thus speak I generally. To the pictures of Horace Vernet one cannot +but turn a gracious eye, they are so faithful a transcript of the life +which circulates around us in the present state of things, and we +are willing to see his nobles and generals mounted on such excellent +horses. De la Roche gives me pleasure; there is in his pictures a +simple and natural poesy; he is a man who has in his own heart a well +of good water, whence he draws for himself when the streams are mixed +with strange soil and bear offensive marks of the bloody battles of +life. + +The pictures of Leopold Robert I find charming. They are full of vigor +and nobleness; they express a nature where all is rich, young, and on +a large scale. Those that I have seen are so happily expressive of the +thoughts and perceptions of early manhood, I can hardly regret he +did not live to enter on another stage of life, the impression now +received is so single. + +The effort of the French school in Art, as also its main tendency in +literature, seems to be to turn the mind inside out, in the coarsest +acceptation of such a phrase. Art can only be truly Art by presenting +an adequate outward symbol of some fact in the interior life. But then +it _is_ a symbol that Art seeks to present, and not the fact itself. +These French painters seem to have no idea of this; they have not +studied the method of Nature. With the true artist, as with Nature +herself, the more full the representation, the more profound and +enchanting is the sense of mystery. We look and look, as on a flower +of which we cannot scrutinize the secret life, yet b; looking seem +constantly drawn nearer to the soul that causes and governs that life. +But in the French pictures suffering is represented by streams of +blood,--wickedness by the most ghastly contortions. + +I saw a movement in the opposite direction in England; it was in +Turner's pictures of the later period. It is well known that Turner, +so long an idol of the English public, paints now in a manner which +has caused the liveliest dissensions in the world of connoisseurs. +There are two parties, one of which maintains, not only that the +pictures of the late period are not good, but that they are not +pictures at all,--that it is impossible to make out the design, or +find what Turner is aiming at by those strange blotches of color. +The other party declare that these pictures are not only good, but +divine,--that whoever looks upon them in the true manner will not fail +to find there somewhat ineffably and transcendently admirable,--the +soul of Art. Books have been written to defend this side of the +question. + +I had become much interested about this matter, as the fervor of +feeling on either side seemed to denote that there was something real +and vital going on, and, while time would not permit my visiting other +private collections in London and its neighborhood, I insisted on +taking it for one of Turner's pictures. It was at the house of one of +his devoutest disciples, who has arranged everything in the rooms to +harmonize with them. There were a great many of the earlier period; +these seemed to me charming, but superficial, views of Nature. They +were of a character that he who runs may read,--obvious, simple, +graceful. The later pictures were quite a different matter; +mysterious-looking things,--hieroglyphics of picture, rather than +picture itself. Sometimes you saw a range of red dots, which, after +long looking, dawned on you as the roofs of houses,--shining streaks +turned out to be most alluring rivulets, if traced with patience and +a devout eye. Above all, they charmed the eye and the thought. Still, +these pictures, it seems to me, cannot be considered fine works of +Art, more than the mystical writing common to a certain class of minds +in the United States can be called good writing. A great work of Art +demands a great thought, or a thought of beauty adequately expressed. +Neither in Art nor literature more than in life can an ordinary +thought be made interesting because well dressed. But in a transition +state, whether of Art or literature, deeper thoughts are imperfectly +expressed, because they cannot yet be held and treated masterly. +This seems to be the case with Turner. He has got beyond the English +gentleman's conventional view of Nature, which implies a _little_ +sentiment and a _very_ cultivated taste; he has become awake to what +is elemental, normal, in Nature,--such, for instance, as one sees in +the working of water on the sea-shore. He tries to represent these +primitive forms. In the drawings of Piranesi, in the pictures of +Rembrandt, one sees this grand language exhibited more truly. It is +not picture, but certain primitive and leading effects of light and +shadow, or lines and contours, that captivate the attention. I saw a +picture of Rembrandt's at the Louvre, whose subject I do not know +and have never cared to inquire. I cannot analyze the group, but I +understand and feel the thought it embodies. At something similar +Turner seems aiming; an aim so opposed to the practical and outward +tendency of the English mind, that, as a matter of course, the +majority find themselves mystified, and thereby angered, but for the +same reason answering to so deep and seldom satisfied a want in the +minds of the minority, as to secure the most ardent sympathy where any +at all can be elicited. + +Upon this topic of the primitive forms and operations of nature, I am +reminded of something interesting I was looking at yesterday. These +are botanical models in wax, with microscopic dissections, by an +artist from Florence, a pupil of Calamajo, the Director of the +Wax-Model Museum there. I saw collections of ten different genera, +embracing from fifty to sixty species, of Fungi, Mosses, and Lichens, +detected and displayed in all the beautiful secrets of their lives; +many of them, as observed by Dr. Leveille of Paris. The artist told me +that a fisherman, introduced to such acquaintance with the marvels +of love and beauty which we trample under foot or burn in the chimney +each careless day, exclaimed, "'Tis the good God who protects us +on the sea that made all these"; and a similar recognition, a +correspondent feeling, will not be easily evaded by the most callous +observer. This artist has supplied many of these models to the +magnificent collection of the _Jardin des Plantes_, to Edinburgh, and +to Bologna, and would furnish them, to our museums at a much cheaper +rate than they can elsewhere be obtained. I wish the Universities of +Cambridge, New York, and other leading institutions of our country, +might avail themselves of the opportunity. + +In Paris I have not been very fortunate in hearing the best music. +At the different Opera-Houses, the orchestra is always good, but the +vocalization, though far superior to what I have heard at home, +falls so far short of my ideas and hopes that--except to the Italian +Opera--I have not been often. The _Opera Comique_ I visited only +once; it was tolerably well, and no more, and, for myself, I find the +tolerable intolerable in music. At the Grand Opera I heard _Robert le +Diable_ and _Guillaume Tell_ almost with ennui; the decorations and +dresses are magnificent, the instrumental performance good, but not +one fine singer to fill these fine parts. Duprez has had a great +reputation, and probably has sung better In former days; still he +has a vulgar mind, and can never have had any merit as an artist. At +present I find him unbearable. He forces his voice, sings in the most +coarse, showy style, and aims at producing effects without regard to +the harmony of his part; fat and vulgar, he still takes the part of +the lover and young chevalier; to my sorrow I saw him in Ravenswood, +and he has well-nigh disenchanted for me the Bride of Lammermoor. + +The Italian Opera is here as well sustained, I believe, as anywhere in +the world at present; all about it is certainly quite good, but alas! +nothing excellent, nothing admirable. Yet no! I must not say nothing: +Lablache is excellent,--voice, intonation, manner of song, action. +Ronconi I found good in the Doctor of "_L'Elisire d'Amore_". For the +higher parts Grisi, though now much too large for some of her parts, +and without a particle of poetic grace or dignity, has certainly +beauty of feature, and from nature a fine voice. But I find her +conception of her parts equally coarse and shallow. Her love is the +love of a peasant; her anger, though having the Italian picturesque +richness and vigor, is the anger of an Italian fishwife, entirely +unlike anything in the same rank elsewhere; her despair is that of a +person with the toothache, or who has drawn a blank in the lottery. +The first time I saw her was in _Norma_; then the beauty of her +outline, which becomes really enchanting as she recalls the first +emotions of love, the force and gush of her song, filled my ear, and +charmed the senses, so that I was pleased, and did not perceive her +great defects; but with each time of seeing her I liked her less, and +now I do not like her at all. + +Persiani is more generally a favorite here; she is indeed skilful +both as an actress and in the management of her voice, but I find +her expression meretricious, her singing mechanical. Neither of these +women is equal to Pico in natural force, if she had but the same +advantages of culture and environment. In hearing _Semiramide_ here, +I first learned to appreciate the degree of talent with which it +was cast in New York. Grisi indeed is a far better Semiramis than +Borghese, but the best parts of the opera lost all their charm from +the inferiority of Brambilla, who took Pico's place. Mario has a +charming voice, grace and tenderness; he fills very well the part of +the young, chivalric lover, but he has no range of power. Coletti is +a very good singer; he has not from Nature a fine voice or personal +beauty; but he has talent, good taste, and often surpasses the +expectation he has inspired. Gardini, the new singer, I have only +heard once, and that was in a lovesick-shepherd part; he showed +delicacy, tenderness, and tact. In fine, among all these male singers +there is much to please, but little to charm; and for the women, they +never fail absolutely to fill their parts, but no ray of the Muse has +fallen on them. + +_Don Giovanni_ conferred on me a benefit, of which certainly its great +author never dreamed. I shall relate it,--first begging pardon of +Mozart, and assuring him I had no thought of turning his music to +the account of a "vulgar utility." It was quite by accident. After +suffering several days very much with the toothache, I resolved to get +rid of the cause of sorrow by the aid of ether; not sorry, either, to +try its efficacy, after all the marvellous stories I had heard. +The first time I inhaled it, I did not for several seconds feel the +effect, and was just thinking, "Alas! this has not power to soothe +nerves so irritable as mine," when suddenly I wandered off, I +don't know where, but it was a sensation like wandering in long +garden-walks, and through many alleys of trees,--many impressions, but +all pleasant and serene. The moment the tube was removed, I started +into consciousness, and put my hand to my cheek; but, sad! the +throbbing tooth was still there. The dentist said I had not seemed to +him insensible. He then gave me the ether in a stronger dose, and this +time I quitted the body instantly, and cannot remember any detail of +what I saw and did; but the impression was as in the Oriental tale, +where the man has his head in the water an instant only, but in his +vision a thousand years seem to have passed. I experienced that same +sense of an immense length of time and succession of impressions; +even, now, the moment my mind was in that state seems to me a far +longer period in time than my life on earth does as I look back upon +it. Suddenly I seemed to see the old dentist, as I had for the +moment before I inhaled the gas, amid his plants, in his nightcap +and dressing-gown; in the twilight the figure had somewhat of a +Faust-like, magical air, and he seemed to say, "_C'est inutile._" +Again I started up, fancying that once more he had not dared to +extract the tooth, but it was gone. What is worth, noticing is the +mental translation I made of his words, which, my ear must have +caught, for my companion tells me he said, "_C'est le moment_," a +phrase of just as many syllables, but conveying just the opposite +sense. + +Ah! I how I wished then, that you had settled, there in the United +States, who really brought this means of evading a portion of the +misery of life into use. But as it was, I remained at a loss whom to +apostrophize with my benedictions, whether Dr. Jackson, Morton, or +Wells, and somebody thus was robbed of his clue;--neither does Europe +know to whom to address her medals. + +However, there is no evading the heavier part of these miseries. You +avoid the moment of suffering, and escape the effort of screwing up +your courage for one of these moments, but not the jar to the whole +system. I found the effect of having taken the ether bad for me. I +seemed to taste it all the time, and neuralgic pain continued; this +lasted three days. For the evening of the third, I had taken a ticket +to _Don Giovanni_, and could not bear to give up this opera, which I +had always been longing to hear; still I was in much suffering, and, +as it was the sixth day I had been so, much weakened. However, I went, +expecting to be obliged to come out; but the music soothed the +nerves at once. I hardly suffered at all during the opera; however, I +supposed the pain would return as soon as I came out; but no! it left +me from that time. Ah! if physicians only understood the influence +of the mind over the body, instead of treating, as they so often do, +their patients like machines, and according to precedent! But I must +pause here for to-day. + + + + +LETTER XII. + +ADIEU TO PARIS.--ITS SCENES.--THE PROCESSION OF THE FAT +OX.--DESTITUTION OF THE POORER CLASSES.--NEED OF A REFORM.--THE +DOCTRINES OF FOURIER MAKING PROGRESS.--REVIEW OF FOURIER'S LIFE AND +CHARACTER.--THE PARISIAN PRESS ON THE SPANISH MARRIAGE.--GUIZOT'S +POLICY.--NAPOLEON.--THE MANUSCRIPTS OF ROUSSEAU IN THE CHAMBER +OF DEPUTIES.--HIS CHARACTER.--SPEECH OF M. BERRYER IN THE +CHAMBER.--AMERICAN AND FRENCH ORATORY.--THE AFFAIR OF CRACOW.--DULL +SPEAKERS IN THE CHAMBER.--FRENCH VIVACITY.--AMUSING SCENE.--GUIZOT +SPEAKING.--INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE OF BOOKS.--THE EVENING SCHOOL OF THE +_FRERES CHRETIENS_.--THE GREAT GOOD ACCOMPLISHED BY THEM.--SUGGESTIONS +FOR THE LIKE IN AMERICA.--THE INSTITUTION OF THE DEACONESSES.--THE +NEW YORK "HOME."--SCHOOL FOR IDIOTS NEAR PARIS.--THE RECLAMATION OF +IDIOTS. + + +I bade adieu to Paris on the 25th of February, just as we had had +one fine day. It was the only one of really delightful weather, from +morning till night, that I had to enjoy all the while I was at Paris, +from the 13th of November till the 25th of February. Let no one abuse +our climate; even in winter it is delightful, compared to the Parisian +winter of mud and mist. + +This one day brought out the Parisian world in its gayest colors. I +never saw anything more animated or prettier, of the kind, than +the promenade that day in the _Champs Elysees_. Such crowds of gay +equipages, with _cavaliers_ and their _amazons_ flying through their +midst on handsome and swift horses! On the promenade, what groups of +passably pretty ladies, with excessively pretty bonnets, announcing in +their hues of light green, peach-blossom, and primrose the approach +of spring, and charming children, for French children are charming! I +cannot speak with equal approbation of the files of men sauntering +arm in arm. One sees few fine-looking men in Paris: the air, +half-military, half-dandy, of self-esteem and _savoir-faire_, is not +particularly interesting; nor are the glassy stare and fumes of bad +cigars exactly what one most desires to encounter, when the heart +is opened by the breath of spring zephyrs and the hope of buds and +blossoms. + +But a French crowd is always gay, full of quick turns and drolleries; +most amusing when most petulant, it represents what is so agreeable +in the character of the nation. We have now seen it on two good +occasions, the festivities of the new year, and just after we came was +the procession of the _Fat Ox_, described, if I mistake not, by Eugene +Sue. An immense crowd thronged the streets this year to see it, +but few figures and little invention followed the emblem of plenty; +indeed, few among the people could have had the heart for such a sham, +knowing how the poorer classes have suffered from hunger this winter. +All signs of this are kept out of sight in Paris. A pamphlet, called +"The Voice of Famine," stating facts, though in the tone of vulgar +and exaggerated declamation, unhappily common to productions on the +radical side, was suppressed almost as soon as published; but the fact +cannot be suppressed, that the people in the provinces have suffered +most terribly amid the vaunted prosperity of France. + +While Louis Philippe lives, the gases, compressed by his strong grasp, +may not burst up to light; but the need of some radical measures of +reform is not less strongly felt in France than elsewhere, and the +time will come before long when such will be imperatively demanded. +The doctrines of Fourier are making considerable progress, and +wherever they spread, the necessity of some practical application of +the precepts of Christ, in lieu of the mummeries of a worn-out ritual, +cannot fail to be felt. The more I see of the terrible ills which +infest the body politic of Europe, the more indignation I feel at +the selfishness or stupidity of those in my own country who oppose +an examination of these subjects,--such as is animated by the hope of +prevention. The mind of Fourier was, in many respects, uncongenial to +mine. Educated in an age of gross materialism, he was tainted by its +faults. In attempts to reorganize society, he commits the error of +making soul the result of health of body, instead of body the clothing +of soul; but his heart was that of a genuine lover of his kind, of a +philanthropist in the sense of Jesus,--his views were large and noble. +His life was one of devout study on these subjects, and I should +pity the person who, after the briefest sojourn in Manchester and +Lyons,--the most superficial acquaintance with the population of +London and Paris,--could seek to hinder a study of his thoughts, or +be wanting in reverence for his purposes. But always, always, the +unthinking mob has found stones on the highway to throw at the +prophets. + +Amid so many great causes for thought and anxiety, how childish has +seemed the endless gossip of the Parisian press on the subject of +the Spanish marriage,--how melancholy the flimsy falsehoods of M. +Guizot,--more melancholy the avowal so naively made, amid those +falsehoods, that to his mind expediency is the best policy! This is +the policy, said he, that has made France so prosperous. Indeed, the +success is correspondent with the means, though in quite another sense +than that he meant. + +I went to the _Hotel des Invalides_, supposing I should be admitted +to the spot where repose the ashes of Napoleon, for though I love not +pilgrimages to sepulchres, and prefer paying my homage to the living +spirit rather than to the dust it once animated, I should have +liked to muse a moment beside his urn; but as yet the visitor is +not admitted there. In the library, however, one sees the picture of +Napoleon crossing the Alps, opposite to that of the present King of +the French. Just as they are, these should serve as frontispieces to +two chapters of history. In the first, the seed was sown in a field of +blood indeed, yet was it the seed of all that is vital in the present +period. By Napoleon the career was really laid open to talent, and all +that is really great in France now consists in the possibility that +talent finds of struggling to the light. + +Paris is a great intellectual centre, and there is a Chamber of +Deputies to represent the people, very different from the poor, +limited Assembly politically so called. Their tribune is that of +literature, and one needs not to beg tickets to mingle with the +audience. To the actually so-called Chamber of Deputies I was indebted +for two pleasures. First and greatest, a sight of the manuscripts +of Rousseau treasured in their Library. I saw them and touched +them,--those manuscripts just as he has celebrated them, written on +the fine white paper, tied with ribbon. Yellow and faded age has +made them, yet at their touch I seemed to feel the fire of youth, +immortally glowing, more and more expansive, with which his soul has +pervaded this century. He was the precursor of all we most prize. +True, his blood was mixed with madness, and the course of his actual +life made some detours through villanous places, but his spirit was +intimate with the fundamental truths of human nature, and fraught with +prophecy. There is none who has given birth to more life for this age; +his gifts are yet untold; they are too present with us; but he who +thinks really must often think with Rousseau, and learn of him even +more and more: such is the method of genius, to ripen fruit for the +crowd of those rays of whose heat they complain. + +The second pleasure was in the speech of M. Berryer, when the Chamber +was discussing the Address to the King. Those of Thiers and Guizot +had been, so far, more interesting, as they stood for more that was +important; but M. Berryer is the most eloquent speaker of the House. +His oratory is, indeed, very good; not logical, but plausible, full +and rapid, with occasional bursts of flame and showers of sparks, +though indeed no stone of size and weight enough to crush any man was +thrown out of the crater. Although the oratory of our country is +very inferior to what might be expected from the perfect freedom +and powerful motive for development of genius in this province, it +presents several examples of persons superior in both force and scope, +and equal in polish, to M. Berryer. + +Nothing can be more pitiful than the manner in which the infamous +affair of Cracow is treated on all hands. There is not even the +affectation of noble feeling about it. La Mennais and his coadjutors +published in _La Reforme_ an honorable and manly protest, which the +public rushed to devour the moment it was out of the press;--and no +wonder! for it was the only crumb of comfort offered to those who have +the nobleness to hope that the confederation of nations may yet be +conducted on the basis of divine justice and human right. Most men who +touched the subject apparently weary of feigning, appeared in their +genuine colors of the calmest, most complacent selfishness. As +described by Koerner in the prayer of such a man:-- + + "O God, save me, + My wife, child, and hearth, + Then my harvest also; + Then will I bless thee, + Though thy lightning scorch to blackness + All the rest of human kind." + +A sentiment which finds its paraphrase in the following vulgate of our +land:-- + + "O Lord, save me, + My wife, child, and brother Sammy, + Us four, _and no more_." + +The latter clause, indeed, is not quite frankly avowed as yet by +politicians. + +It is very amusing to be in the Chamber of Deputies when some dull +person is speaking. The French have a truly Greek vivacity; they +cannot endure to be bored. Though their conduct is not very dignified, +I should like a corps of the same kind of sharp-shooters in our +legislative assemblies when honorable gentlemen are addressing their +constituents and not the assembly, repeating in lengthy, windy, clumsy +paragraphs what has been the truism of the newspaper press for +months previous, wickedly wasting the time that was given us to learn +something for ourselves, and help our fellow-creatures. In the French +Chamber, if a man who has nothing to say ascends the tribune, the +audience-room is filled with the noise as of myriad beehives; the +President rises on his feet, and passes the whole time of the speech +in taking the most violent exercise, stretching himself to look +imposing, ringing his bell every two minutes, shouting to the +representatives of the nation to be decorous and attentive. In vain: +the more he rings, the more they won't be still. I saw an orator in +this situation, fighting against the desires of the audience, as only +a Frenchman could,--certainly a man of any other nation would have +died of embarrassment rather,--screaming out his sentences, stretching +out both arms with an air of injured dignity, panting, growing red in +the face; but the hubbub of voices never stopped an instant. At last +he pretended to be exhausted, stopped, and took out his snuff-box. +Instantly there was a calm. He seized the occasion, and shouted out a +sentence; but it was the only one he was able to make heard. They +were not to be trapped so a second time. When any one is speaking that +commands interest, as Berryer did, the effect of this vivacity is very +pleasing, the murmur of feeling that rushes over the assembly is so +quick and electric,--light, too, as the ripple on the lake. I heard +Guizot speak one day for a short time. His manner is very deficient +in dignity,--has not even the dignity of station; you see the man of +cultivated intellect, but without inward strength; nor is even his +panoply of proof. + +I saw in the Library of the Deputies some books intended to be sent +to our country through M. Vattemare. The French have shown great +readiness and generosity with regard to his project, and I earnestly +hope that our country, if it accept these tokens of good-will, will +show both energy and judgment in making a return. I do not speak from +myself alone, but from others whose opinion is entitled to the highest +respect, when I say it is not by sending a great quantity of documents +of merely local interest, that would be esteemed lumber in our garrets +at home, that you pay respect to a nation able to look beyond, the +binding of a book. If anything is to be sent, let persons of ability +be deputed to make a selection honorable to us and of value to +the French. They would like documents from our Congress,--what is +important as to commerce and manufactures; they would also like much +what can throw light on the history and character of our aborigines. +This project of international exchange could not be carried on to any +permanent advantage without accredited agents on either side, but in +its present shape it wears an aspect of good feeling that is valuable, +and may give a very desirable impulse to thought and knowledge. +M. Vattemare has given himself to the plan with indefatigable +perseverance, and I hope our country will not be backward to accord +him that furtherance he has known how to conquer from his countrymen. + +To his complaisance I was indebted for opportunity of a leisurely +survey of the _Imprimeri Royale_, which gave me several suggestions +I shall impart at a more favorable time, and of the operations of the +Mint also. It was at his request that the Librarian of the Chamber +showed me the manuscripts of Rousseau, which are not always seen by +the traveller. He also introduced me to one of the evening schools of +the _Freres Chretiens_, where I saw, with pleasure, how much can be +done for the working classes only by evening lessons. In reading and +writing, adults had made surprising progress, and still more so in +drawing. I saw with the highest pleasure, excellent copies of good +models, made by hard-handed porters and errand-boys with their brass +badges on their breasts. The benefits of such an accomplishment are, +in my eyes, of the highest value, giving them, by insensible degrees, +their part in the glories of art and science, and in the tranquil +refinements of home. Visions rose in my mind of all that might be done +in our country by associations of men and women who have received the +benefits of literary culture, giving such evening lessons throughout +our cities and villages. Should I ever return, I shall propose to +some of the like-minded an association for such a purpose, and try the +experiment of one of these schools of Christian brothers, with the vow +of disinterestedness, but without the robe and the subdued priestly +manner, which even in these men, some of whom seemed to me truly good, +I could not away with. + +I visited also a Protestant institution, called that of the +Deaconesses, which pleased me in some respects. Beside the regular +_Creche_, they take the sick children of the poor, and nurse them till +they are well. They have also a refuge like that of the Home which, +the ladies of New York have provided, through which members of +the most unjustly treated class of society may return to peace and +usefulness. There are institutions of the kind in Paris, but too +formal,--and the treatment shows ignorance of human nature. I see +nothing that shows so enlightened a spirit as the Home, a little germ +of good which I hope flourishes and finds active aid in the community. +I have collected many facts with regard to this suffering class of +women, both in England and in France. I have seen them under the thin +veil of gayety, and in the horrible tatters of utter degradation. I +have seen the feelings of men with regard to their condition, and the +general heartlessness in women of more favored and protected lives, +which I can only ascribe to utter ignorance of the facts. If a +proclamation of some of these can remove it, I hope to make such a one +in the hour of riper judgment, and after a more extensive survey. + +Sad as are many features of the time, we have at least the +satisfaction of feeling that if something true can be revealed, if +something wise and kind shall be perseveringly tried, it stands a +chance of nearer success than ever before; for much light has been let +in at the windows of the world, and many dark nooks have been touched +by a consoling ray. The influence of such a ray I felt in visiting +the School for Idiots, near Paris,--idiots, so called long time by +the impatience of the crowd; yet there are really none such, but only +beings so below the average standard, so partially organized, that it +is difficult for them to learn or to sustain themselves. I wept the +whole time I was in this place a shower of sweet and bitter tears; of +joy at what had been done, of grief for all that I and others possess +and cannot impart to these little ones. But patience, and the Father +of All will give them all yet. A good angel these of Paris have in +their master. I have seen no man that seemed to me more worthy of +envy, if one could envy happiness so pure and tender. He is a man +of seven or eight and twenty, who formerly came there only to give +lessons in writing, but became so interested in his charge that he +came at last to live among them and to serve them. They sing the hymns +he writes for them, and as I saw his fine countenance looking in +love on those distorted and opaque vases of humanity, where he had +succeeded in waking up a faint flame, I thought his heart could never +fail to be well warmed and buoyant. They sang well, both in parts and +in chorus, went through gymnastic exercises with order and pleasure, +then stood in a circle and kept time, while several danced extremely +well. One little fellow, with whom the difficulty seemed to be that +an excess of nervous sensibility paralyzed instead of exciting the +powers, recited poems with a touching, childish grace and perfect +memory. They write well, draw well, make shoes, and do carpenter's +work. One of the cases most interesting to the metaphysician is that +of a boy, brought there about two years and a half ago, at the age of +thirteen, in a state of brutality, and of ferocious brutality. I read +the physician's report of him at that period. He discovered no ray of +decency or reason; entirely beneath the animals in the exercise of the +senses, he discovered a restless fury beyond that of beasts of prey, +breaking and throwing down whatever came in his way; was a voracious +glutton, and every way grossly sensual. Many trials and vast patience +were necessary before an inlet could be obtained to his mind; then it +was through the means of mathematics. He delights in the figures, can +draw and name them all, detects them by the touch when blindfolded. +Each, mental effort of the kind he still follows up with an imbecile +chuckle, as indeed his face and whole manner are still that of an +idiot; but he has been raised from his sensual state, and can now +discriminate and name colors and perfumes which before were all alike +to him. He is partially redeemed; earlier, no doubt, far more might +have been done for him, but the degree of success is an earnest which +must encourage to perseverance in the most seemingly hopeless cases. I +thought sorrowfully of the persons of this class whom I have known +in our country, who might have been so raised and solaced by similar +care. I hope ample provision may erelong be made for these Pariahs of +the human race; every case of the kind brings its blessings with it, +and observation on these subjects would be as rich in suggestion for +the thought, as such acts of love are balmy for the heart. + + + + +LETTER XIII. + +MUSIC IN PARIS.--CHOPIN AND THE CHEVALIER NEUKOMM.--ADIEU TO PARIS.--A +MIDNIGHT DRIVE IN A DILIGENCE.--LYONS AND ITS WEAVERS.--THEIR MANNER +OF LIFE.--A YOUNG WIFE.--THE WEAVERS' CHILDREN.--THE BANKS OF +THE RHONE.--DREARY WEATHER FOR SOUTHERN FRANCE.--THE OLD ROMAN +AMPHITHEATRE AT ARLES.--THE WOMEN OF ARLES.--MARSEILLES.--PASSAGE +TO GENOA.--ITALY.--GENOA AND NAPLES.--BAIAE.--VESUVIUS.--THE ITALIAN +CHARACTER AT HOME.--PASSAGE FROM LEGHORN IN A SMALL STEAMER.--NARROW +ESCAPE.--A CONFUSION OF LANGUAGES.--DEGRADATION OF THE NEAPOLITANS. + + +Naples. + +In my last days at Paris I was fortunate in hearing some delightful +music. A friend of Chopin's took me to see him, and I had the +pleasure, which the delicacy of Iris health makes a rare one for the +public, of hearing him play. All the impressions I had received from +hearing his music imperfectly performed were justified, for it has +marked traits, which can be veiled, but not travestied; but to feel +it as it merits, one must hear himself; only a person as exquisitely +organized as he can adequately express these subtile secrets of the +creative spirit. + +It was with, a very different sort of pleasure that I listened to the +Chevalier Neukomm, the celebrated composer of "David," which has +been so popular in our country. I heard him improvise on the _orgue +expressif_, and afterward on a great organ which has just been built +here by Cavaille for the cathedral of Ajaccio. Full, sustained, +ardent, yet exact, the stream, of his thought bears with it the +attention of hearers of all characters, as his character, full of +_bonhommie_, open, friendly, animated, and sagacious, would seem to +have something to present for the affection and esteem of all kinds of +men. + +Chopin is the minstrel, Neukomm the orator of music: we want them +both,--the mysterious whispers and the resolute pleadings from the +better world, which calls us not to slumber here, but press daily +onward to claim our heritage. + +Paris! I was sad to leave thee, thou wonderful focus, where ignorance +ceases to be a pain, because there we find such means daily to lessen +it. It is the only school where I ever found abundance of teachers who +could bear being examined by the pupil in their special branches. I +must go to this school more before I again cross the Atlantic, where +often for years I have carried about some trifling question without +finding the person who could answer it. Really deep questions we must +all answer for ourselves; the more the pity, then, that we get not +quickly through with a crowd of details, where the experience of +others might accelerate our progress. + +Leaving by _diligence_, we pursued our way from twelve o'clock on +Thursday till twelve at night on Friday, thus having a large share of +magnificent moonlight upon the unknown fields we were traversing. At +Chalons we took boat and reached Lyons betimes that afternoon. So +soon as refreshed, we sallied out to visit some of the garrets of the +weavers. As we were making inquiries about these, a sweet little girl +who heard us offered to be our guide. She led us by a weary, winding +way, whose pavement was much easier for her feet in their wooden +_sabots_ than for ours in Paris shoes, to the top of a hill, from +which we saw for the first time "the blue and arrowy Rhone." Entering +the light buildings on this high hill, I found each chamber +tenanted by a family of weavers,--all weavers; wife, husband, sons, +daughters,--from nine years old upward,--each was helping. On one side +were the looms; nearer the door the cooking apparatus; the beds were +shelves near the ceiling: they climbed up to them on ladders. My sweet +little girl turned out to be a wife of six or seven years' standing, +with two rather sickly-looking children; she seemed to have the +greatest comfort that is possible amid the perplexities of a hard and +anxious lot, to judge by the proud and affectionate manner in which +she always said "_mon mari_," and by the courteous gentleness of his +manner toward her. She seemed, indeed, to be one of those persons on +whom "the Graces have smiled in their cradle," and to whom a natural +loveliness of character makes the world as easy as it can be made +while the evil spirit is still so busy choking the wheat with tares. +I admired her graceful manner of introducing us into those dark little +rooms, and she was affectionately received by all her acquaintance. +But alas! that voice, by nature of such bird-like vivacity, repeated +again and again, "Ah! we are all very unhappy now." "Do you sing +together, or go to evening schools?" "We have not the heart. When we +have a piece of work, we do not stir till it is finished, and then we +run to try and get another; but often we have to wait idle for weeks. +It grows worse and worse, and they say it is not likely to be any +better. We can think of nothing, but whether we shall be able to pay +our rent. Ah! the workpeople are very unhappy now." This poor, lovely +little girl, at an age when the merchant's daughters of Boston and New +York are just gaining their first experiences of "society," knew to +a farthing the price of every article of food and clothing that is +wanted by such a household. Her thought by day and her dream by night +was, whether she should long be able to procure a scanty supply of +these, and Nature had gifted her with precisely those qualities, +which, unembarrassed by care, would have made her and all she loved +really happy; and she was fortunate now, compared with many of her sex +in Lyons,--of whom a gentleman who knows the class well said: "When +their work fails, they have no resource except in the sale of their +persons. There are but these two ways open to them, weaving or +prostitution, to gain their bread." And there are those who dare to +say that such a state of things is _well enough_, and what Providence +intended for man,--who call those who have hearts to suffer at the +sight, energy and zeal to seek its remedy, visionaries and fanatics! +To themselves be woe, who have eyes and see not, ears and hear not, +the convulsions and sobs of injured Humanity! + +My little friend told me she had nursed both her children,--though +almost all of her class are obliged to put their children out +to nurse; "but," said she, "they are brought back so little, so +miserable, that I resolved, if possible, to keep mine with me." Next +day in the steamboat I read a pamphlet by a physician of Lyons in +which he recommends the establishment of _Creches_, not merely like +those of Paris, to keep the children by day, but to provide wet-nurses +for them. Thus, by the infants receiving nourishment from more healthy +persons, and who under the supervision of directors would treat them +well, he hopes to counteract the tendency to degenerate in this race +of sedentary workers, and to save the mothers from too heavy a burden +of care and labor, without breaking the bond between them and their +children, whom, under such circumstances, they could visit often, and +see them taken care of as they, brought up to know nothing except how +to weave, cannot take care of them. Here, again, how is one reminded +of Fourier's observations and plans, still more enforced by the recent +developments at Manchester as to the habit of feeding children on +opium, which has grown out of the position of things there. + +Descending next day to Avignon, I had the mortification of finding the +banks of the Rhone still sheeted with white, and there waded through +melting snow to Laura's tomb. We did not see Mr. Dickens's Tower and +Goblin,--it was too late in the day,--but we saw a snowball fight +between two bands of the military in the castle yard that was gay +enough to make a goblin laugh. And next day on to Arles, still +snow,--snow and cutting blasts in the South of France, where everybody +had promised us bird-songs and blossoms to console us for the +dreary winter of Paris. At Arles, indeed, I saw the little saxifrage +blossoming on the steps of the Amphitheatre, and fruit-trees in flower +amid the tombs. Here for the first time I saw the great handwriting of +the Romans in its proper medium of stone, and I was content. It looked +us grand and solid as I expected, as if life in those days was thought +worth the having, the enjoying, and the using. The sunlight was warm +this day; it lay deliciously still and calm upon the ruins. One old +woman sat knitting where twenty-five thousand persons once gazed down +in fierce excitement on the fights of men and lions. Coming back, we +were refreshed all through the streets by the sight of the women of +Arles. They answered to their reputation for beauty; tall, erect, and +noble, with high and dignified features, and a full, earnest gaze of +the eye, they looked as if the Eagle still waved its wings over their +city. Even the very old women still have a degree of beauty, because +when the colors are all faded, and the skin wrinkled, the face +retains this dignity of outline. The men do not share in these +characteristics; some priestess, well beloved of the powers of old +religion, must have called down an especial blessing on her sex in +this town. + +Hence to Marseilles,--where is little for the traveller to see, except +the mixture of Oriental blood in the crowd of the streets. Thence +by steamer to Genoa. Of this transit, he who has been on the +Mediterranean in a stiff breeze well understands I can have nothing to +say, except "I suffered." It was all one dull, tormented dream to me, +and, I believe, to most of the ship's company,--a dream too of thirty +hours' duration, instead of the promised sixteen. + +The excessive beauty of Genoa is well known, and the impression upon +the eye alone was correspondent with what I expected; but, alas! the +weather was still so cold I could not realize that I had actually +touched those shores to which I had looked forward all my life, where +it seemed that the heart would expand, and the whole nature be turned +to delight. Seen by a cutting wind, the marble palaces, the gardens, +the magnificent water-view of Genoa, failed to charm,--"I _saw, not +felt_, how beautiful they were." Only at Naples have I found _my_ +Italy, and here not till after a week's waiting,--not till I began +to believe that all I had heard in praise of the climate of Italy +was fable, and that there is really no spring anywhere except in the +imagination of poets. For the first week was an exact copy of the +miseries of a New England spring; a bright sun came for an hour or two +in the morning, just to coax you forth without your cloak, and then +came up a villanous, horrible wind, exactly like the worst east wind +of Boston, breaking the heart, racking the brain, and turning hope and +fancy to an irrevocable green and yellow hue, in lieu of their native +rose. + +However, here at Naples I _have_ at last found _my_ Italy; I have +passed through the Grotto of Pausilippo, visited Cuma, Baiae, and +Capri, ascended Vesuvius, and found all familiar, except the sense of +enchantment, of sweet exhilaration, this scene conveys. + + "Behold how brightly breaks the morning!" + +and yet all new, as if never yet described, for Nature here, most +prolific and exuberant in her gifts, has touched them all with a charm +unhackneyed, unhackneyable, which the boots of English dandies cannot +trample out, nor the raptures of sentimental tourists daub or fade. +Baiae had still a hid divinity for me, Vesuvius a fresh baptism of +fire, and Sorrento--O Sorrento was beyond picture, beyond poesy, for +the greatest Artist had been at work there in a temper beyond the +reach of human art. + +Beyond this, reader, my old friend and valued acquaintance on other +themes, I shall tell you nothing of Naples, for it is a thing apart +in the journey of life, and, if represented at all, should be so in a +fairer form than offers itself at present. Now the actual life here is +over, I am going to Rome, and expect to see that fane of thought the +last day of this week. + +At Genoa and Leghorn, I saw for the first time Italians in their +homes. Very attractive I found them, charming women, refined men, +eloquent and courteous. If the cold wind hid Italy, it could not the +Italians. A little group of faces, each so full of character, dignity, +and, what is so rare in an American face, the capacity for pure, +exalting passion, will live ever in my memory,--the fulfilment of a +hope! + +We started from Leghorn in an English boat, highly recommended, and as +little deserving of such praise as many another bepuffed article. +In the middle of a fine, clear night, she was run into by the mail +steamer, which all on deck clearly saw coming upon her, for no reason +that could be ascertained, except that the man at the wheel said _he_ +had turned the right way, and it never seemed to occur to him that +he could change when he found the other steamer had taken the same +direction. To be sure, the other steamer was equally careless, but as +a change on our part would have prevented an accident that narrowly +missed sending us all to the bottom, it hardly seemed worth while to +persist, for the sake of convicting them of error. + +Neither the Captain nor any of his people spoke French, and we had +been much amused before by the chambermaid acting out the old story of +"Will you lend me the loan of a gridiron?" A Polish lady was on board, +with a French waiting-maid, who understood no word of English. The +daughter of John Bull would speak to the lady in English, and, when +she found it of no use, would say imperiously to the _suivante_, "Go +and ask your mistress what she will have for breakfast." And now when +I went on deck there was a parley between the two steamers, which the +Captain was obliged to manage by such interpreters as he could +find; it was a long and confused business. It ended at last in the +Neapolitan steamer taking us in tow for an inglorious return to +Leghorn. When she had decided upon this she swept round, her lights +glancing like sagacious eyes, to take us. The sea was calm as a lake, +the sky full of stars; she made a long detour, with her black hull, +her smoke and lights, which look so pretty at night, then came round +to us like the bend of an arm embracing. It was a pretty picture, +worth the stop and the fright,--perhaps the loss of twenty-four hours, +though I did not think so at the time. + +At Leghorn we changed the boat, and, retracing our steps, came now at +last to Naples,--to this priest-ridden, misgoverned, full of dirty, +degraded men and women, yet still most lovely Naples,--of which the +most I can say is that the divine aspect of nature _can_ make you +forget the situation of man in this region, which was surely intended +for him as a princely child, angelic in virtue, genius, and beauty, +and not as a begging, vermin-haunted, image kissing Lazzarone. + + + + +LETTER XIV. + +ITALY.--MISFORTUNE OF TRAVELLERS.--ENGLISH TRAVELLERS.-- +COCKNEYISM.--MACDONALD THE SCULPTOR.--BRITISH ARISTOCRACY.-- +TENERANI.--WOLFF'S DIANA AND SEASONS.--GOTT.--CRAWFORD.--OVERBECK +THE PAINTER.--AMERICAN PAINTERS IN ROME.--TERRY.--GRANCH.--HICKS.-- +REMAINS OF THE ANTIQUE.--ITALIAN PAINTERS.--DOMENICHIMO AND +TITIAN.--FRESCOS OF RAPHAEL.--MICHEL ANGELO.--THE COLOSSEUM.--HOLY +WEEK.--ST. PETER'S.--PIUS IX. AND HIS MEASURES.--POPULAR +ENTHUSIASM.--PUBLIC DINNER AT THE BATHS OF TITUS.--AUSTRIAN +JEALOUSY.--THE "CONTEMPORANEO." + + +Rome, May, 1847. + +There is very little that I can like to write about Italy. Italy is +beautiful, worthy to be loved and embraced, not talked about. Yet I +remember well that, when afar, I liked to read what was written about +her; now, all thought of it is very tedious. + +The traveller passing along the beaten track, vetturinoed from inn +to inn, ciceroned from gallery to gallery, thrown, through indolence, +want of tact, or ignorance of the language, too much into the +society of his compatriots, sees the least possible of the country; +fortunately, it is impossible to avoid seeing a great deal. The great +features of the part pursue and fill the eye. + +Yet I find that it is quite out of the question to know Italy; to say +anything of her that is full and sweet, so as to convey any idea of +her spirit, without long residence, and residence in the districts +untouched by the scorch and dust of foreign invasion (the invasion +of the _dilettanti_ I mean), and without an intimacy of feeling, an +abandonment to the spirit of the place, impossible to most Americans. +They retain too much, of their English blood; and the travelling +English, as a class, seem to me the most unseeing of all possible +animals. There are exceptions; for instance, the perceptions and +pictures of Browning seem as delicate and just here on the spot as +they did at a distance; but, take them as a class, they have the +vulgar familiarity of Mrs. Trollope without her vivacity, the +cockneyism of Dickens without his graphic power and love of the +odd corners of human nature. I admired the English at home in +their island; I admired their honor, truth, practical intelligence, +persistent power. But they do not look well in Italy; they are not the +figures for this landscape. I am indignant at the contempt they have +presumed to express for the faults of our semi-barbarous state. What +is the vulgarity expressed in our tobacco-chewing, and way of eating +eggs, compared to that which elbows the Greek marbles, guide-book in +hand,--chatters and sneers through the Miserere of the Sistine Chapel, +beneath the very glance of Michel Angelo's Sibyls,--praises +St. Peter's as "_nice_"--talks of "_managing_" the Colosseum by +moonlight,--and snatches "_bits_" for a "_sketch_" from the sublime +silence of the Campagna. + +Yet I was again reconciled with them, the other day, in visiting +the studio of Macdonald. There I found a complete gallery of the +aristocracy of England; for each lord and lady who visits Rome +considers it a part of the ceremony to sit to him for a bust. And what +a fine race! how worthy the marble! what heads of orators, +statesmen, gentlemen! of women chaste, grave, resolute, and tender! +Unfortunately, they do not look as well in flesh and blood; then +they show the habitual coldness of their temperament, the habitual +subservience to frivolous conventionalities. They need some great +occasion, some exciting crisis, in order to make them look as free and +dignified as these busts; yet is the beauty there, though, imprisoned, +and clouded, and such a crisis would show us more then one Boadicea, +more than one Alfred. Tenerani has just completed a statue which is +highly-spoken of; it is called the Angel of the Resurrection. I was +not so fortunate as to find it in his studio. In that of Wolff I saw a +Diana, ordered by the Emperor of Russia. It is modern and sentimental; +as different from, the antique Diana as the trance of a novel-read +young lady of our day from the thrill with which the ancient shepherds +deprecated the magic pervasions of Hecate, but very beautiful and +exquisitely wrought. He has also lately finished the Four Seasons, +represented as children. Of these, Winter is graceful and charming. + +Among the sculptors I delayed longest in the work-rooms of Gott. +I found his groups of young figures connected with animals very +refreshing after the grander attempts of the present time. They seem +real growths of his habitual mind,--fruits of Nature, full of joy and +freedom. His spaniels and other frisky poppets would please Apollo far +better than most of the marble nymphs and muses of the present day. + +Our Crawford has just finished a bust of Mrs. Crawford, which is +extremely beautiful, full of grace and innocent sweetness. All its +accessaries are charming,--the wreaths, the arrangement of drapery, +the stuff of which the robe is made. I hope it will be much seen on +its arrival in New York. He has also an Herodias in the clay, which is +individual in expression, and the figure of distinguished elegance. +I liked the designs of Crawford better than those of Gibson, who is +estimated as highest in the profession now. + +Among the studios of the European painters I have visited only that of +Overbeck. It is well known in the United States what his pictures are. +I have much to say at a more favorable time of what they represented +to me. He himself looks as if he had just stepped out of one of +them,--a lay monk, with a pious eye and habitual morality of thought +which limits every gesture. + +Painting is not largely represented here by American artists at +present. Terry has two pleasing pictures on the easel: one is a +costume picture of Italian life, such as I saw it myself, enchanted +beyond my hopes, on coming to Naples on a day of grand festival in +honor of Santa Agatha. Cranch sends soon to America a picture of the +Campagna, such as I saw it on my first entrance into Rome, all light +and calmness; Hicks, a charming half-length of an Italian girl, +holding a mandolin: it will be sure to please. His pictures are full +of life, and give the promise of some real achievement in Art. + +Of the fragments of the great time, I have now seen nearly all that +are treasured up here: I have, however, as yet nothing of consequence +to say of them. I find that others have often given good hints as to +how they _look_; and as to what they _are_, it can only be known by +approximating to the state of soul out of which they grew. They should +not be described, but reproduced. They are many and precious, yet is +there not so much of high excellence as I had expected: they will not +float the heart on a boundless sea of feeling, like the starry night +on our Western prairies. Yet I love much to see the galleries of +marbles, even when there are not many separately admirable, amid the +cypresses and ilexes of Roman villas; and a picture that is good at +all looks very good in one of these old palaces. + +The Italian painters whom I have learned most to appreciate, since +I came abroad, are Domenichino and Titian. Of others one may learn +something by copies and engravings: but not of these. The portraits +of Titian look upon me from the walls things new and strange. They are +portraits of men such as I have not known. In his picture, absurdly +called _Sacred and Profane Love_, in the Borghese Palace, one of the +figures has developed my powers of gazing to an extent unknown before. + +Domenichino seems very unequal in his pictures; but when he is grand +and free, the energy of his genius perfectly satisfies. The frescos +of Caracci and his scholars in the Farnese Palace have been to me a +source of the purest pleasure, and I do not remember to have heard of +them. I loved Guercino much before I came here, but I have looked +too much at his pictures and begin to grow sick of them; he is a very +limited genius. Leonardo I cannot yet like at all, but I suppose the +pictures are good for some people to look at; they show a wonderful +deal of study and thought. That is not what I can best appreciate in +a work of art. I hate to see the marks of them. I want a simple +and direct expression of soul. For the rest, the ordinary cant of +connoisseur-ship on these matters seems in Italy even more detestable +than elsewhere. + +I have not yet so sufficiently recovered from my pain at finding the +frescos of Raphael in such a state, as to be able to look at them, +happily. I had heard of their condition, but could not realize it. +However, I have gained nothing by seeing his pictures in oil, which +are well preserved. I find I had before the full impression of his +genius. Michel Angelo's frescos, in like manner, I seem to have +seen as far as I can. But it is not the same with the sculptures: my +thought had not risen to the height of the Moses. It is the only thing +in Europe, so far, which has entirely outgone my hopes. Michel Angelo +was my demigod before; but I find no offering worthy to cast at the +feet of his Moses. I like much, too, his Christ. It is a refreshing +contrast with all the other representations of the same subject. +I like it even as contrasted with Raphael's Christ of the +Transfiguration, or that of the cartoon of _Feed my Lambs_. + +I have heard owls hoot in the Colosseum by moonlight, and they spoke +more to the purpose than I ever heard any other voice upon that +subject. I have seen all the pomps and shows of Holy Week in the +church of St. Peter, and found them less imposing than an habitual +acquaintance with the place, with processions of monks and nuns +stealing in now and then, or the swell of vespers from some side +chapel. I have ascended the dome, and seen thence Rome and its +Campagna, its villas with, their cypresses and pines serenely sad as +is nothing else in the world, and the fountains of the Vatican garden +gushing hard by. I have been in the Subterranean to see a poor little +boy introduced, much to his surprise, to the bosom of the Church; +and then I have seen by torch-light the stone popes where they lie on +their tombs, and the old mosaics, and virgins with gilt caps. It is +all rich, and full,--very impressive in its way. St. Peter's must be +to each one a separate poem. + +The ceremonies of the Church, have been numerous and splendid during +our stay here; and they borrow unusual interest from the love and +expectation inspired by the present Pontiff. He is a man of noble +and good aspect, who, it is easy to see, has set his heart upon doing +something solid for the benefit of man. But pensively, too, must +one feel how hampered and inadequate are the means at his command +to accomplish these ends. The Italians do not feel it, but deliver +themselves, with all the vivacity of their temperament, to perpetual +hurras, vivas, rockets, and torch-light processions. I often think how +grave and sad must the Pope feel, as he sits alone and hears all this +noise of expectation. + +A week or two ago the Cardinal Secretary published a circular inviting +the departments to measures which would give the people a sort of +representative council. Nothing could seem more limited than this +improvement, but it was a great measure for Rome. At night the Corso +in which, we live was illuminated, and many thousands passed through +it in a torch-bearing procession. I saw them first assembled in the +Piazza del Popolo, forming around its fountain a great circle of fire. +Then, as a river of fire, they streamed slowly through the Corso, on +their way to the Quirinal to thank the Pope, upbearing a banner on +which the edict was printed. The stream, of fire advanced slowly, with +a perpetual surge-like sound of voices; the torches flashed on the +animated Italian faces. I have never seen anything finer. Ascending +the Quirinal they made it a mount of light. Bengal fires were thrown +up, which cast their red and white light on the noble Greek figures of +men and horses that reign over it. The Pope appeared on his balcony; +the crowd shouted three vivas; he extended his arms; the crowd fell on +their knees and received his benediction; he retired, and the torches +were extinguished, and the multitude dispersed in an instant. + +The same week came the natal day of Rome. A great dinner was given at +the Baths of Titus, in the open air. The company was on the grass in +the area; the music at one end; boxes filled with the handsome Roman +women occupied the other sides. It was a new thing here, this popular +dinner, and the Romans greeted it in an intoxication of hope and +pleasure. Sterbini, author of "The Vestal," presided: many others, +like him, long time exiled and restored to their country by the +present Pope, were at the tables. The Colosseum, and triumphal arches +were in sight; an effigy of the Roman wolf with her royal nursling +was erected on high; the guests, with shouts and music, congratulated +themselves on the possession, in Pius IX., of a new and nobler founder +for another state. Among the speeches that of the Marquis d'Azeglio, +a man of literary note in Italy, and son-in-law of Manzoni, contained +this passage (he was sketching the past history of Italy):-- + +"The crown passed to the head of a German monarch; but he wore it not +to the benefit, but the injury, of Christianity,--of the world. The +Emperor Henry was a tyrant who wearied out the patience of God. God +said to Rome, 'I give you the Emperor Henry'; and from these hills +that surround us, Hildebrand, Pope Gregory VII., raised his austere +and potent voice to say to the Emperor, 'God did not give you Italy +that you might destroy her,' and Italy, Germany, Europe, saw her +butcher prostrated at the feet of Gregory in penitence. Italy, +Germany, Europe, had then kindled in the heart the first spark of +liberty." + +The narrative of the dinner passed the censor, and was published: the +Ambassador of Austria read it, and found, with a modesty and candor +truly admirable, that this passage was meant to allude to his Emperor. +He must take his passports, if such home thrusts are to be made. And +so the paper was seized, and the account of the dinner only told from, +mouth to mouth, from those who had already read it. Also the idea of a +dinner for the Pope's fete-day is abandoned, lest something too frank +should again be said; and they tell me here, with a laugh, "I fancy +you have assisted at the first and last popular dinner." Thus we may +see that the liberty of Rome does not yet advance with seven-leagued +boots; and the new Romulus will need to be prepared for deeds at least +as bold as his predecessor, if he is to open a new order of things. + +I cannot well wind up my gossip on this subject better than by +translating a passage from the programme of the _Contemporaneo_, which +represents the hope of Rome at this moment. It is conducted by men of +well-known talent. + +"The _Contemporaneo_ (Contemporary) is a journal of progress, but +tempered, as the good and wise think best, in conformity with the +will of our best of princes, and the wants and expectations of the +public.... + +"Through discussion it desires to prepare minds to receive reforms so +soon and far as they are favored by the law of _opportunity_. + +"Every attempt which is made contrary to this social law must fail. It +is vain to hope fruits from a tree out of season, and equally in vain +to introduce the best measures into a country not prepared to receive +them." + +And so on. I intended to have translated in full the programme, +but time fails, and the law of opportunity does not favor, as my +"opportunity" leaves for London this afternoon. I have given enough to +mark the purport of the whole. It will easily be seen that it was +not from the platform assumed by the _Contemporaneo_ that Lycurgus +legislated, or Socrates taught,--that the Christian religion was +propagated, or the Church, was reformed by Luther. The opportunity +that the martyrs found here in the Colosseum, from whose blood grew +up this great tree of Papacy, was not of the kind waited for by these +moderate progressists. Nevertheless, they may be good schoolmasters +for Italy, and are not to be disdained in these piping times of peace. + +More anon, of old and new, from Tuscany. + + + + +LETTER XV. + +ITALY.--FRUITS AND FLOWERS ON THE ROUTE FROM FLORENCE TO ROME.--THE +PLAIN OF UMBRIA.--ASSISI.--THE SAINTS.--TUITION IN SCHOOLS.--PIUS +IX.--THE ETRURIAN TOMB.--PERUGIA AND ITS STORES OF EARLY +ART.--PORTRAITS OF RAPHAEL.--FLORENCE.--THE GRAND DUKE AND HIS +POLICY.--THE LIBERTY OF THE PRESS AND ITS INFLUENCE.--THE AMERICAN +SCULPTORS.--GREENOUGH AND HIS NEW WORKS.--POWERS.--HIS STATUE OF +CALHOUN.--REVIEW OF HIS ENDEAVORS.--THE FESTIVALS OF ST. JOHN AT +FLORENCE.--BOLOGNA.--FEMALE PROFESSORS IN ITS UNIVERSITY.--MATILDA +TAMBRONI AND OTHERS.--MILAN AND HER FEMALE MATHEMATICIAN.--THE STATE +OF WOMAN IN ITALY.--RAVENNA AND BYRON.--VENICE.--THE ADDA.--MILAN AND +ITS NEIGHBORHOOD, AND MANZONI.--EXCITEMENTS.--NATIONAL AFFAIRS. + + +Milan, August 9, 1847. + +Since leaving Rome, I have not been able to steal a moment from +the rich and varied objects before me to write about them. I will, +therefore, take a brief retrospect of the ground. + +I passed from Florence to Rome by the Perugia route, and saw for the +first time the Italian vineyards. The grapes hung in little clusters. +When I return, they will be full of light and life, but the fields +will not be so enchantingly fresh, nor so enamelled with flowers. + +The profusion of red poppies, which dance on every wall and glitter +throughout the grass, is a great ornament to the landscape. In full +sunlight their vermilion is most beautiful. Well might Ceres gather +_such_ poppies to mingle with her wheat. + +We climbed the hill to Assisi, and my ears thrilled as with many old +remembered melodies, when an old peasant, in sonorous phrase, bade +me look out and see the plain of Umbria. I looked back and saw +the carriage toiling up the steep path, drawn by a pair of those +light-colored oxen Shelley so much admired. I stood near the spot +where Goethe met with a little adventure, which he has described with +even more than his usual delicate humor. Who can ever be alone for a +moment in Italy? Every stone has a voice, every grain of dust seems +instinct with spirit from the Past, every step recalls some line, some +legend of long-neglected lore. + +Assisi was exceedingly charming to me. So still!--all temporal noise +and bustle seem hushed down yet by the presence of the saint. So +clean!--the rains of heaven wash down all impurities into the valley. +I must confess that, elsewhere, I have shared the feelings of Dickens +toward St. Francis and St. Sebastian, as the "Mounseer Tonsons" of +Catholic art. St. Sebastian I have not been so tired of, for the +beauty and youth of the figure make the monotony with which the +subject of his martyrdom is treated somewhat less wearisome. But St. +Francis is so sad, and so ecstatic, and so brown, so entirely the +monk,--and St. Clara so entirely the nun! I have been very sorry for +her that he was able to draw her from the human to the heavenly life; +she seems so sad and so worn out by the effort. But here at Assisi, +one cannot help being penetrated by the spirit that flowed from that +life. Here is the room where his father shut up the boy to punish his +early severity of devotion. Here is the picture which represents him +despoiled of all outward things, even his garments,--devoting himself, +body and soul, to the service of God in the way he believed most +acceptable. Here is the underground chapel, where rest those weary +bones, saluted by the tears of so many weary pilgrims who have come +hither to seek strength from his example. Here are the churches above, +full of the works of earlier art, animated by the contagion of a great +example. It is impossible not to bow the head, and feel how mighty an +influence flows from a single soul, sincere in its service of truth, +in whatever form that truth comes to it. + +A troop of neat, pretty school-girls attended us about, going with +us into the little chapels adorned with pictures which open at every +corner of the streets, smiling on us at a respectful distance. Some of +them were fourteen or fifteen years old. I found reading, writing, and +sewing were all they learned at their school; the first, indeed, they +knew well enough, if they could ever get books to use it on. Tranquil +as Assisi was, on every wall was read _Viva Pio IX.!_ and we found the +guides and workmen in the shop full of a vague hope from him. The old +love which has made so rich this aerial cradle of St. Francis glows +warm as ever in the breasts of men; still, as ever, they long for +hero-worship, and shout aloud at the least appearance of an object. + +The church at the foot of the hill, Santa Maria degli Angeli, seems +tawdry after Assisi. It also is full of records of St. Francis, his +pains and his triumphs. Here, too, on a little chapel, is the famous +picture by Overbeck; too exact a copy, but how different in effect +from the early art we had just seen above! Harmonious but frigid, +grave but dull; childhood is beautiful, but not when continued, or +rather transplanted, into the period where we look for passion, varied +means, and manly force. + +Before reaching Perugia, I visited an Etrurian tomb, which is a little +way off the road; it is said to be one of the finest in Etruria. The +hill-side is full of them, but excavations are expensive, and not +frequent. The effect of this one was beyond my expectations; in it +were several female figures, very dignified and calm, as the dim +lamp-light fell on them by turns. The expression of these figures +shows that the position of woman in these states was noble. Their +eagles' nests cherished well the female eagle who kept watch in the +eyrie. + +Perugia too is on a noble hill. What a daily excitement such a view, +taken at every step! life is worth ten times as much in a city so +situated. Perugia is full, overflowing, with the treasures of early +art. I saw them so rapidly it seems now as if in a trance, yet +certainly with a profit, a manifold gain, such as Mahomet thought he +gained from his five minutes' visits to other spheres. Here are two +portraits of Raphael as a youth: it is touching to see what effect +this angel had upon all that surrounded him from the very first. + +Florence! I was there a month, and in a sense saw Florence: that is to +say, I took an inventory of what is to be seen there, and not without +great intellectual profit. There is too much that is really admirable +in art,--the nature of its growth lies before you too clearly to be +evaded. Of such things more elsewhere. + +I do not like Florence as I do cities more purely Italian. The natural +character is ironed out here, and done up in a French pattern; yet +there is no French vivacity, nor Italian either. The Grand Duke--more +and more agitated by the position in which he finds himself between +the influence of the Pope and that of Austria--keeps imploring and +commanding his people to keep still, and they _are_ still and glum +as death. This is all on the outside; within, Tuscany burns. Private +culture has not been in vain, and there is, in a large circle, mental +preparation for a very different state of things from the present, +with an ardent desire to diffuse the same amid the people at large. +The sovereign has been obliged for the present to give more liberty to +the press, and there is an immediate rush of thought to the new vent; +if it is kept open a few months, the effect on the body of the people +cannot fail to be great. I intended to have translated some passages +from the programme of the _Patria_, one of the papers newly started +at Florence, but time fails. One of the articles in the same number by +Lambruschini, on the duties of the clergy at this juncture, contains +views as liberal as can be found in print anywhere in the world. More +of these things when I return to Rome in the autumn, when I hope to +find a little leisure to think over what I have seen, and, if found +worthy, to put the result in writing. + +I visited the studios of our sculptors; Greenough has in clay a David +which promises high beauty and nobleness, a bass-relief, full of grace +and tender expression; he is also modelling a head of Napoleon, and +justly enthusiastic in the study. His great group I did not see in +such a state as to be secure of my impression. The face of the Pioneer +is very fine, the form of the woman graceful and expressive; but I was +not satisfied with the Indian. I shall see it more as a whole on my +return to Florence. + +As to the Eve and the Greek Slave, I could only join with the rest of +the world in admiration of their beauty and the fine feeling of nature +which they exhibit. The statue of Calhoun is full of power, simple, +and majestic in attitude and expression. In busts Powers seems to +me unrivalled; still, he ought not to spend his best years on an +employment which cannot satisfy his ambition nor develop his powers. +If our country loves herself, she will order from him some great work +before the prime of his genius has been frittered away, and his best +years spent on lesser things. + +I saw at Florence the festivals of St. John, but they are poor affairs +to one who has seen the Neapolitan and Roman people on such occasions. + +Passing from Florence, I came to Bologna,--learned Bologna; indeed an +Italian city, full of expression, of physiognomy, so to speak. A woman +should love Bologna, for there has the spark of intellect in woman +been cherished with reverent care. Not in former ages only, but in +this, Bologna raised a woman who was worthy to the dignities of its +University, and in their Certosa they proudly show the monument to +Matilda Tambroni, late Greek Professor there. Her letters, preserved +by her friends, are said to form a very valuable collection. In their +anatomical hall is the bust of a woman, Professor of Anatomy. In Art +they have had Properzia di Rossi, Elizabetta Sirani, Lavinia Fontana, +and delight to give their works a conspicuous place. + +In other cities the men alone have their _Casino dei Nobili_, where +they give balls, _conversazioni_, and similar entertainments. Here +women have one, and are the soul of society. + +In Milan, also, I see in the Ambrosian Library the bust of a female +mathematician. These things make me feel that, if the state of woman +in Italy is so depressed, yet a good-will toward a better is not +wholly wanting. Still more significant is the reverence to the Madonna +and innumerable female saints, who, if, like St. Teresa, they had +intellect as well as piety, became counsellors no less than comforters +to the spirit of men. + +Ravenna, too, I saw, and its old Christian art, the Pineta, where +Byron loved to ride, and the paltry apartments where, cheered by a new +affection, in which was more of tender friendship than of passion, he +found himself less wretched than at beautiful Venice or stately Genoa. + +All the details of this visit to Ravenna are pretty. I shall write +them out some time. Of Padua, too, the little to be said should be +said in detail. + +Of Venice and its enchanted life I could not speak; it should only +be echoed back in music. There only I began to feel in its fulness +Venetian Art. It can only be seen in its own atmosphere. Never had I +the least idea of what is to be seen at Venice. It seems to me as if +no one ever yet had seen it,--so entirely wanting is any expression +of what I felt myself. Venice! on this subject I shall not write much +till time, place, and mode agree to make it fit. + +Venice, where all is past, is a fit asylum for the dynasties of the +Past. The Duchesse de Berri owns one of the finest palaces on the +Grand Canal; the Duc de Bordeaux rents another; Mademoiselle Taglioni +has bought the famous Casa d'Oro, and it is under repair. Thanks to +the fashion which has made Venice a refuge of this kind, the palaces, +rarely inhabited by the representatives of their ancient names, are +valuable property, and the noble structures will not be suffered +to lapse into the sea, above which they rose so proudly. +The restorations, too, are made with excellent taste and +judgment,--nothing is spoiled. Three of these fine palaces are now +hotels, so that the transient visitor can enjoy from their balconies +all the wondrous shows of the Venetian night and day as much as any +of their former possessors did. I was at the Europa, formerly the +Giustiniani Palace, with better air than those on the Grand Canal, and +a more unobstructed view than Danieli's. + +Madame de Berri gave an entertainment on the birthnight of her son, +and the old Duchesse d'Angouleme came from Vienna to attend it. 'T +was a scene of fairy-land, the palace full of light, so that from the +canal could be seen even the pictures on the walls. Landing from the +gondolas, the elegantly dressed ladies and gentlemen seemed to rise +from the water; we also saw them glide up the great stair, rustling +their plumes, and in the reception-rooms make and receive the +customary grimaces. A fine band stationed on the opposite side of the +canal played the while, and a flotilla of gondolas lingered there to +listen. I, too, amid, the mob, a pleasant position in Venice alone, +thought of the Stuarts, Bourbons, Bonapartes, here in Italy, and +offered up a prayer that other names, when the possessors have power +without the heart to use it for the emancipation of mankind, might he +added to the list, and other princes, more rich in blood than brain, +might come to enjoy a perpetual _villeggiatura_ in Italy. It did not +seem to me a cruel wish. The show of greatness will satisfy every +legitimate desire of such minds. A gentle punishment for the +distributors of _letters de cachet_ and Spielberg dungeons to their +fellow-men. + +Having passed more than a fortnight at Venice, I have come here, +stopping at Vicenza, Verona, Mantua, Lago di Garda, Brescia. +Certainly I have learned more than ever in any previous ten days of my +existence, and have formed an idea what is needed for the study of Art +and its history in these regions. To be sure, I shall never have time +to follow it up, but it is a delight to look up those glorious vistas, +even when there is no hope of entering them. + +A violent shower obliged me to stop on the way. It was late at night, +and I was nearly asleep, when, roused by the sound of bubbling waters, +I started up and asked, "Is that the Adda?" and it was. So deep is +the impression made by a simple natural recital, like that of Renzo's +wanderings in the _Promessi Sposi_, that the memory of his hearing the +Adda in this way occurred to me at once, and the Adda seemed familiar +as if I had been a native of this region. + +As the Scottish lakes seem the domain of Walter Scott, so does Milan +and its neighborhood in the mind of a foreigner belong to Manzoni. I +have seen him since, the gentle lord of this wide domain; his hair is +white, but his eyes still beam as when he first saw the apparitions of +truth, simple tenderness, and piety which he has so admirably recorded +for our benefit. Those around lament that the fastidiousness of his +taste prevents his completing and publishing more, and that thus +a treasury of rare knowledge and refined thought will pass from +us without our reaping the benefit. We, indeed, have no title to +complain, what we do possess from his hand is so excellent. + +At this moment there is great excitement in Italy. A supposed spy +of Austria has been assassinated at Ferrara, and Austrian troops are +marched there. It is pretended that a conspiracy has been discovered +in Rome; the consequent disturbances have been put down. The National +Guard is forming. All things seem to announce that some important +change is inevitable here, but what? Neither Radicals nor Moderates +dare predict with confidence, and I am yet too much a stranger +to speak with assurance of impressions I have received. But it is +impossible not to hope. + + + + +LETTER XVI. + +REVIEW OF PAST AND PRESENT.--THE MERITS OF ITALIAN +LITERATURE.--MANZONI.--ITALIAN DIALECTS.--MILAN, THE MILANESE, AND +THE SIMPLICITY OF THEIR LANGUAGE.--THE NORTH OF ITALY, AND A TOUR TO +SWITZERLAND.--ITALIAN LAKES.--MAGGIORE, COMO, AND LUGANO.--LAGO DI +GARDA.--THE BOATMEN OF THE LAKES AND THE GONDOLIERS.--LADY FRANKLIN, +WIDOW OF THE NAVIGATOR.--RETURN TO AND FESTIVALS AT MILAN.--THE +ARCHBISHOP.--AUSTRIAN RULE AND AUSTRIAN POLICY.--THE FUTURE HOPES OF +ITALY.--A GLANCE AT PAVIA, FLORENCE, PARMA, AND BOLOGNA, AND THE WORKS +OF THE MASTERS. + + +Rome, October, 1847. + +I think my last letter was from Milan, and written after I had seen +Manzoni. This was to me a great pleasure. I have now seen the most +important representatives who survive of the last epoch in thought. +Our age has still its demonstrations to make, its heroes and poets to +crown. + +Although the modern Italian literature is not poor, as many persons at +a distance suppose, but, on the contrary, surprisingly rich in tokens +of talent, if we consider the circumstances under which it struggles +to exist, yet very few writers have or deserve a European or American +reputation. Where a whole country is so kept down, her best minds +cannot take the lead in the progress of the age; they have too much to +suffer, too much to explain. But among the few who, through depth of +spiritual experience and the beauty of form in which it is expressed, +belong not only to Italy, but to the world, Manzoni takes a high +rank. The passive virtues he teaches are no longer what is wanted; the +manners he paints with so delicate a fidelity are beginning to change; +but the spirit of his works,--the tender piety, the sensibility to the +meaning of every humblest form of life, the delicate humor and satire +so free from disdain,--these are immortal. + +Young Italy rejects Manzoni, though not irreverently; Young Italy +prizes his works, but feels that the doctrine of "Pray and wait" is +not for her at this moment,--that she needs a more fervent hope, a +more active faith. She is right. + +It is well known that the traveller, if he knows the Italian language +as written in books, the standard Tuscan, still finds himself a +stranger in many parts of Italy, unable to comprehend the dialects, +with their lively abbreviations and witty slang. That of Venice I had +understood somewhat, and could enter into the drollery and _naivete_ +of the gondoliers, who, as a class, have an unusual share of +character. But the Milanese I could not at first understand at all. +Their language seemed to me detestably harsh, and their gestures +unmeaning. But after a friend, who possesses that large and ready +sympathy easier found in Italy than anywhere else, had translated for +me verbatim into French some of the poems written in the Milanese, +and then read them aloud in the original, I comprehended the peculiar +inflection of voice and idiom in the people, and was charmed with it, +as one is with the instinctive wit and wisdom of children. + +There is very little to see at Milan, compared with any other Italian +city; and this was very fortunate for me, allowing an interval +of repose in the house, which I cannot take when there is so much +without, tempting me to incessant observation and study. I went +through, the North of Italy with a constantly increasing fervor of +interest. When I had thought of Italy, it was always of the South, of +the Roman States, of Tuscany. But now I became deeply interested in +the history, the institutions, the art of the North. The fragments +of the past mark the progress of its waves so clearly, I learned to +understand, to prize them every day more, to know how to make use of +the books about them. I shall have much to say on these subjects some +day. + +Leaving Milan, I went on the Lago Maggiore, and afterward into +Switzerland. Of this tour I shall not speak here; it was a beautiful +little romance by itself, and infinitely refreshing to be so near +nature in these grand and simple forms, after so much exciting thought +of Art and Man. The day passed in the St. Bernardin, with its lofty +peaks and changing lights upon the distant snows,--its holy, exquisite +valleys and waterfalls, its stories of eagles and chamois, was the +greatest refreshment I ever experienced: it was bracing as a cold bath +after the heat of a crowd amid which one has listened to some most +eloquent oration. + +Returning from Switzerland, I passed a fortnight on the Lake of +Como, and afterward visited Lugano. There is no exaggeration in the +enthusiastic feeling with which artists and poets have viewed these +Italian lakes. Their beauties are peculiar, enchanting, innumerable. +The Titan of Richter, the Wanderjahre of Goethe, the Elena of Taylor, +the pictures of Turner, had not prepared me for the visions of beauty +that daily entranced the eyes and heart in those regions. To our +country Nature has been most bounteous; but we have nothing in the +same kind that can compare with these lakes, as seen under the Italian +heaven. As to those persons who have pretended to discover that the +effects of light and atmosphere were no finer than they found in our +own lake scenery, I can only say that they must be exceedingly obtuse +in organization,--a defect not uncommon among Americans. + +Nature seems to have labored to express her full heart in as many +ways as possible, when she made these lakes, moulded and planted their +shores. Lago Maggiore is grand, resplendent in Its beauty; the view of +the Alps gives a sort of lyric exaltation to the scene. Lago di Garda +is so soft and fair,--so glittering sweet on one side, the ruins of +ancient palaces rise so softly with the beauties of that shore; but +at the other end, amid the Tyrol, it is sublime, calm, concentrated +in its meaning. Como cannot be better described in general than in the +words of Taylor: + + "Softly sublime, profusely fair." + +Lugano is more savage, more free in its beauty. I was on it in a +high gale; there was a little clanger, just enough to exhilarate; its +waters were wild, and clouds blowing across the neighboring peaks. I +like very much the boatmen on these lakes; they have strong and prompt +character. Of simple features, they are more honest and manly than +Italian men are found in the thoroughfares; their talk is not so witty +as that of the Venetian gondoliers, but picturesque, and what the +French call _incisive_. Very touching were some of their histories, as +they told them to me while pausing sometimes on the lake. + +On this lake, also, I met Lady Franklin, wife of the celebrated +navigator. She has been in the United States, and showed equal +penetration and candor in remarks on what she had seen there. She gave +me interesting particulars as to the state of things in Van Diemen's +Land, where she passed seven years when her husband was in authority +there. + +I returned to Milan for the great feast of the Madonna, 8th September, +and those made for the Archbishop's entry, which took place the same +week. These excited as much feeling as the Milanese can have a chance +to display, this Archbishop being much nearer tire public heart than +his predecessor, who was a poor servant of Austria. + +The Austrian rule is always equally hated, and time, instead of +melting away differences, only makes them more glaring. The Austrian +race have no faculties that can ever enable them to understand the +Italian character; their policy, so well contrived to palsy and +repress for a time, cannot kill, and there is always a force at work +underneath which shall yet, and I think now before long, shake off +the incubus. The Italian nobility have always kept the invader at a +distance; they have not been at all seduced or corrupted by the lures +of pleasure or power, but have shown a passive patriotism highly +honorable to them. In the middle class ferments much thought, and +there is a capacity for effort; in the present system it cannot show +itself, but it is there; thought ferments, and will yet produce a +wine that shall set the Lombard veins on fire when the time for action +shall arrive. The lower classes of the population are in a dull state +indeed. The censorship of the press prevents all easy, natural ways of +instructing them; there are no public meetings, no free access to them +by more instructed and aspiring minds. The Austrian policy is to allow +them a degree of material well-being, and though so much wealth is +drained from, the country for the service of the foreigners, jet +enough must remain on these rich plains comfortably to feed and clothe +the inhabitants. Yet the great moral influence of the Pope's action, +though obstructed in their case, does reach and rouse them, and they, +too, felt the thrill of indignation at the occupation of Ferrara. The +base conduct of the police toward the people, when, at Milan, some +youths were resolute to sing tire hymn in honor of Pius IX., when the +feasts for the Archbishop afforded so legitimate an occasion, roused +all the people to unwonted feeling. The nobles protested, and Austria +had not courage to persist as usual. She could not sustain her police, +who rushed upon a defenceless crowd, that had no share in what excited +their displeasure, except by sympathy, and, driving them like sheep, +wounded them _in the backs_. Austria feels that there is now no +sympathy for her in these matters; that it is not the interest of the +world to sustain her. Her policy is, indeed, too thoroughly organized +to change except by revolution; its scope is to serve, first, a +reigning family instead of the people; second, with the people to +seek a physical in preference to an intellectual good; and, third, +to prefer a seeming outward peace to an inward life. This policy may +change its opposition from the tyrannical to the insidious; it can +know no other change. Yet do I meet persons who call themselves +Americans,--miserable, thoughtless Esaus, unworthy their high +birthright,--who think that a mess of pottage can satisfy the wants of +man, and that the Viennese listening to Strauss's waltzes, the Lombard +peasant supping full of his polenta, is _happy enough_. Alas: I have +the more reason to be ashamed of my countrymen that it is not among +the poor, who have so much, toil that there is little time to think, +but those who are rich, who travel,--in body that is, they do not +travel in mind. Absorbed at home by the lust of gain, the love of +show, abroad they see only the equipages, the fine clothes, the +food,--they have no heart for the idea, for the destiny of our own +great nation: how can they feel the spirit that is struggling now in +this and others of Europe? + +But of the hopes of Italy I will write more fully in another letter, +and state what I have seen, what felt, what thought. I went from +Milan, to Pavia, and saw its magnificent Certosa, I passed several +hours in examining its riches, especially the sculptures of its +facade, full of force and spirit. I then went to Florence by Parma +and Bologna. In Parma, though ill, I went to see all the works of the +masters. A wonderful beauty it is that informs them,--not that which +is the chosen food of my soul, yet a noble beauty, and which did its +message to me also. Those works are failing; it will not be useless to +describe them in a book. Beside these pictures, I saw nothing in Parma +and Modena; these states are obliged to hold their breath while their +poor, ignorant sovereigns skulk in corners, hoping to hide from the +coming storm. Of all this more in my next. + + + + +LETTER XVII. + +FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF ROME IN THE SPRING.--THE POPE.--ROME AS +A CAPITAL.--TUSCANY.--THE LIBERTY OF THE PRESS THERE JUST +ESTABLISHED.--THE ENLIGHTENED MINDS AND AVAILABLE INSTRUCTORS OF +TUSCANY.--ITALIAN ESTIMATION OF PIUS IX., AND THE INFLUENCE, +PRESENT AND FUTURE, OF HIS LABORS.--FOREIGN INTRUSION THE CURSE OF +ITALY.--IRRUPTION OF THE AUSTRIANS INTO ITALY, AND ITS EFFECTS.--LOUIS +PHILIPPE'S APOSTASY TURNED TO THE ADVANTAGE OF FREEDOM.--THE GREAT +FETE AT FLORENCE IN HONOR OF THE GRANT OF A NATIONAL GUARD.--THE +AMERICAN SCULPTORS, GREENOUGH, CRAWFORD, AND THEIR PARTICIPATION IN +THE FETE.--AMERICANS GENERALLY IN ITALY.--HYMNS IN FLORENCE IN HONOR +OF PIUS IX.--HAPPY AUGURY TO BE DRAWN FROM THE WISE DOCILITY OF THE +PEOPLE.--AN EXPRESSION OF SYMPATHY FROM AMERICA TOWARD ITALY EARNESTLY +HOPED FOR. + + +Rome, October 18, 1847. + +In the spring, when I came to Rome, the people were in the +intoxication of joy at the first serious measures of reform taken +by the Pope. I saw with pleasure their childlike joy and trust. With +equal pleasure I saw the Pope, who has not in his expression the signs +of intellectual greatness so much as of nobleness and tenderness of +heart, of large and liberal sympathies. Heart had spoken to heart +between the prince and the people; it was beautiful to see the +immediate good influence exerted by human feeling and generous +designs, on the part of a ruler. He had wished to be a father, and +the Italians, with that readiness of genius that characterizes them, +entered at once into the relation; they, the Roman people, stigmatized +by prejudice as so crafty and ferocious, showed themselves children, +eager to learn, quick to obey, happy to confide. + +Still doubts were always present whether all this joy was not +premature. The task undertaken by the Pope seemed to present +insuperable difficulties. It is never easy to put new wine into old +bottles, and our age is one where all things tend to a great crisis; +not merely to revolution, but to radical reform. From the people +themselves the help must come, and not from princes; in the new state +of things, there will be none but natural princes, great men. From the +aspirations of the general heart, from the teachings of conscience +in individuals, and not from an old ivy-covered church long since +undermined, corroded by time and gnawed by vermin, the help must come. +Rome, to resume her glory, must cease to be an ecclesiastical capital; +must renounce all this gorgeous mummery, whose poetry, whose picture, +charms no one more than myself, but whose meaning is all of the past, +and finds no echo in the future. Although I sympathized warmly with +the warm love of the people, the adulation of leading writers, who +were so willing to take all from the hand of the prince, of the +Church, as a gift and a bounty, instead of implying steadily that it +was the right of the people, was very repulsive to me. The moderate +party, like all who, in a transition state, manage affairs with a +constant eye to prudence, lacks dignity always in its expositions; it +is disagreeable and depressing to read them. + +Passing into Tuscany, I found the liberty of the press just +established, and a superior preparation to make use of it. The _Alba_, +the _Patria_, were begun, and have been continued with equal judgment +and spirit. Their aim is to educate the youth, to educate the +lower people; they see that this is to be done by promoting thought +fearlessly, yet urge temperance in action, while the time is yet so +difficult, and many of its signs dubious. They aim at breaking down +those barriers between the different states of Italy, relics of a +barbarous state of polity, artificially kept up by the craft of her +foes. While anxious not to break down what is really native to the +Italian character,--defences and differences that give individual +genius a chance to grow and the fruits of each region to ripen in +their natural way,--they aim at a harmony of spirit as to measures +of education and for the affairs of business, without which Italy can +never, as one nation, present a front strong enough to resist foreign +robbery, and for want of which so much time and talent are wasted +here, and internal development almost wholly checked. + +There is in Tuscany a large corps of enlightened minds, well prepared +to be the instructors, the elder brothers and guardians, of the lower +people, and whose hearts burn to fulfil that noble office. Before, it +had been almost impossible to them, for the reasons I have named in +speaking of Lombardy; but during these last four months that the way +has been opened by the freedom of the press, and establishment of the +National Guard,--so valuable, first of all, as giving occasion for +public meetings and free interchange of thought between the different +classes,--it is surprising how much light they have been able to +diffuse. + +A Bolognese, to whom I observed, "How can you be so full of trust when +all your hopes depend, not on the recognition of principles and wants +throughout the people, but on the life of one mortal man?" replied: +"Ah! but you don't consider that his life gives us a chance to effect +that recognition. If Pius IX. be spared to us five years, it will +be impossible for his successors ever to take a backward course. Our +nation is of a genius so vivacious,--we are unhappy, but not stupid, +we Italians,--we can learn as much in two months as other nations in +twenty years." This seemed to me no brag when I returned to Tuscany +and saw the great development and diffusion of thought that had taken +place during my brief absence. The Grand Duke, a well-intentioned, +though dull man, had dared, to declare himself "_an_ ITALIAN _prince_" +and the heart of Tuscany had bounded with hope. It is now deeply as +justly felt that _the_ curse of Italy is foreign intrusion; that +if she could dispense with foreign aid, and be free from foreign +aggression, she would find the elements of salvation within herself. +All her efforts tend that way, to re-establish the natural position of +things; may Heaven grant them success! For myself, I believe they will +attain it. I see more reason for hope, as I know more of the people. +Their rash and baffled struggles have taught them prudence; they are +wanted in the civilized world as a peculiar influence; their leaders +are thinking men, their cause is righteous. I believe that Italy will +revive to new life, and probably a greater, one more truly rich and +glorious, than at either epoch of her former greatness. + +During the period of my absence, the Austrians had entered Ferrara. +It is well that they hazarded this step, for it showed them the +difficulties in acting against a prince of the Church who is at the +same time a friend to the people. The position was new, and they were +probably surprised at the result,--surprised at the firmness of the +Pope, surprised at the indignation, tempered by calm resolve, on the +part of the Italians. Louis Philippe's mean apostasy has this +time turned to the advantage of freedom. He renounced the good +understanding with England which it had been one of the leading +features of his policy to maintain, in the hope of aggrandizing and +enriching his family (not France, he did not care for France); he did +not know that he was paving the way for Italian freedom. England now +is led to play a part a little nearer her pretensions as the guardian +of progress than she often comes, and the ghost of La Fayette looks +down, not unappeased, to see the "Constitutional King" decried by the +subjects he has cheated and lulled so craftily. The king of Sardinia +is a worthless man, in whom nobody puts any trust so far as regards +his heart or honor; but the stress of things seems likely to keep him +on the right side. The little sovereigns blustered at first, then ran +away affrighted when they found there was really a spirit risen +at last within the charmed circle,--a spirit likely to defy, to +transcend, the spells of haggard premiers and imbecile monarchs. + +I arrived in Florence, unhappily, too late for the great fete of the +12th of September, in honor of the grant of a National Guard. But +I wept at the mere recital of the events of that day, which, if it +should lead to no important results, must still be hallowed for ever +in the memory of Italy, for the great and beautiful emotions that +flooded the hearts of her children. The National Guard is hailed with +no undue joy by Italians, as the earnest of progress, the first step +toward truly national institutions and a representation of the people. +Gratitude has done its natural work in their hearts; it has made +them better. Some days before the fete were passed in reconciling +all strifes, composing all differences between cities, districts, and +individuals. They wished to drop all petty, all local differences, to +wash away all stains, to bathe and prepare for a new great covenant of +brotherly love, where each should act for the good of all. On that day +they all embraced in sign of this,--strangers, foes, all exchanged the +kiss of faith and love; they exchanged banners, as a token that they +would fight for, would animate, one another. All was done in that +beautiful poetic manner peculiar to this artist people; but it was the +spirit, so great and tender, that melts my heart to think of. It was +the spirit of true religion,--such, my Country! as, welling freshly +from some great hearts in thy early hours, won for thee all of value +that thou canst call thy own, whose groundwork is the assertion, still +sublime though thou hast not been true to it, that all men have equal +rights, and that these are _birth_-rights, derived from God alone. + +I rejoice to say that the Americans took their share on this occasion, +and that Greenough--one of the few Americans who, living in Italy, +takes the pains to know whether it is alive or dead, who penetrates +beyond the cheats of tradesmen and the cunning of a mob corrupted +by centuries of slavery, to know the real mind, the vital blood, of +Italy--took a leading part. I am sorry to say that a large portion of +my countrymen here take the same slothful and prejudiced view as the +English, and, after many years' sojourn, betray entire ignorance of +Italian literature and Italian life, beyond what is attainable in a +month's passage through the thoroughfares. However, they did show, +this time, a becoming spirit, and erected the American eagle where +its cry ought to be heard from afar,--where a nation is striving +for independent existence, and a government representing the people. +Crawford here in Rome has had the just feeling to join the Guard, and +it is a real sacrifice for an artist to spend time on the exercises; +but it well becomes the sculptor of Orpheus,--of him who had such +faith, such music of divine thought, that he made the stones move, +turned the beasts from their accustomed haunts, and shamed hell itself +into sympathy with the grief of love. I do not deny that such a spirit +is wanted here in Italy; it is everywhere, if anything great, anything +permanent, is to be done. In reference to what I have said of many +Americans in Italy, I will only add, that they talk about the corrupt +and degenerate state of Italy as they do about that of our slaves at +home. They come ready trained to that mode of reasoning which affirms +that, because men are degraded by bad institutions, they are not fit +for better. + +As to the English, some of them are full of generous, intelligent +sympathy;--indeed what is more solidly, more wisely good than the +right sort of Englishmen!--but others are like a gentleman I travelled +with the other day, a man of intelligence and refinement too as to the +details of life and outside culture, who observed, that he did not +see what the Italians wanted of a National Guard, unless to wear these +little caps. He was a man who had passed five years in Italy, but +always covered with that non-conductor called by a witty French writer +"the Britannic fluid." + +Very sweet to my ear was the continual hymn in the streets of +Florence, in honor of Pius IX. It is the Roman hymn, and none of the +new ones written in Tuscany have been able to take its place. The +people thank the Grand Duke when he does them good, but they know well +from whose mind that good originates, and all their love is for the +Pope. Time presses, or I would fain describe in detail the troupe of +laborers of the lower class, marching home at night, keeping step as +if they were in the National Guard, filling the air, and cheering the +melancholy moon, by the patriotic hymns sung with the mellow tone and +in the perfect time which belong to Italians. I would describe the +extempore concerts in the streets, the rejoicings at the theatres, +where the addresses of liberal souls to the people, through that best +vehicle, the drama, may now be heard. But I am tired; what I have to +write would fill volumes, and my letter must go. I will only add +some words upon the happy augury I draw from the wise docility of the +people. With what readiness they listened to wise counsel, and the +hopes of the Pope that they would give no advantage to his enemies, at +a time when they were so fevered by the knowledge that conspiracy +was at work in their midst! That was a time of trial. On all these +occasions of popular excitement their conduct is like music, in such +order, and with such union of the melody of feeling with discretion +where to stop; but what is wonderful is that they acted in the same +manner on that difficult occasion. The influence of the Pope here is +without bounds; he can always calm the crowd at once. But in Tuscany, +where they have no such idol, they listened in the same way on a very +trying occasion. The first announcement of the regulation for the +Tuscan National Guard terribly disappointed the people; they felt that +the Grand Duke, after suffering them to demonstrate such trust and joy +on the feast of the 12th, did not really trust, on his side; that he +meant to limit them all he could. They felt baffled, cheated; hence +young men in anger tore down at once the symbols of satisfaction and +respect; but the leading men went among the people, begged them to be +calm, and wait till a deputation had seen the Grand Duke. The people, +listening at once to men who, they were sure, had at heart their best +good, waited; the Grand Duke became convinced, and all ended without +disturbance. If they continue to act thus, their hopes cannot be +baffled. Certainly I, for one, do not think that the present road will +suffice to lead Italy to her goal. But it _is_ an onward, upward road, +and the people learn as they advance. Now they can seek and think +fearless of prisons and bayonets, a healthy circulation of blood +begins, and the heart frees itself from disease. + +I earnestly hope for some expression of sympathy from my country +toward Italy. Take a good chance and do something; you have shown much +good feeling toward the Old World in its physical difficulties,--you +ought to do still more in its spiritual endeavor. This cause is +OURS, above all others; we ought to show that we feel it to be so. At +present there is no likelihood of war, but in case of it I trust the +United States would not fail in some noble token of sympathy toward +this country. The soul of our nation need not wait for its government; +these things are better done by individuals. I believe some in the +United States will pay attention to these words of mine, will feel +that I am not a person to be kindled by a childish, sentimental +enthusiasm, but that I must be sure I have seen something of Italy +before speaking as I do. I have been here only seven months, but my +means of observation have been uncommon. I have been ardently desirous +to judge fairly, and had no prejudices to prevent; beside, I was not +ignorant of the history and literature of Italy, and had some common +ground on which to stand with, its inhabitants, and hear what they +have to say. In many ways Italy is of kin to us; she is the country +of Columbus, of Amerigo, of Cabot. It would please me much to see a +cannon here bought by the contributions of Americans, at whose head +should stand the name of Cabot, to be used by the Guard for salutes +on festive occasions, if they should be so happy as to have no +more serious need. In Tuscany they are casting one to be called the +"Gioberti," from a writer who has given a great impulse to the present +movement. I should like the gift of America to be called the AMERIGO, +the COLUMBO, or the WASHINGTON. Please think of this, some of my +friends, who still care for the eagle, the Fourth of July, and the old +cries of hope and honor. See if there are any objections that I do not +think of, and do something if it is well and brotherly. Ah! America, +with all thy rich boons, thou hast a heavy account to render for the +talent given; see in every way that thou be not found wanting. + + + + +LETTER XVIII. + +REFLECTIONS FOR THE NEW YEAR.--AMERICANS IN EUROPE.--FRANCE, ENGLAND, +POLAND, ITALY, RUSSIA, AUSTRIA,--THEIR POLICY.--EUROPE TOILS AND +STRUGGLES.--ALL THINGS BODE A NEW OUTBREAK.--THE EAGLE OF +AMERICA STOOPS TO EARTH, AND SHARES THE CHARACTER OF THE +VULTURE.--ABOLITION.--THE YOUTH OF THE LAND.--ANTICIPATIONS OF THEIR +USEFULNESS. + + +This letter will reach the United States about the 1st of January; and +it may not be impertinent to offer a few New-Year's reflections. Every +new year, indeed, confirms the old thoughts, but also presents them +under some new aspects. + +The American in Europe, if a thinking mind, can only become more +American. In some respects it is a great pleasure to be here. Although +we have an independent political existence, bur position toward +Europe, as to literature and the arts, is still that of a colony, and +one feels the same joy here that is experienced by the colonist in +returning to the parent home. What was but picture to us becomes +reality; remote allusions and derivations trouble no more: we see the +pattern of the stuff, and understand the whole tapestry. There is +a gradual clearing up on many points, and many baseless notions and +crude fancies are dropped. Even the post-haste passage of the business +American through the great cities, escorted by cheating couriers +and ignorant _valets de place_, unable to hold intercourse with the +natives of the country, and passing all his leisure hours with his +countrymen, who know no more than himself, clears his mind of some +mistakes,--lifts some mists from his horizon. + +There are three species. First, the servile American,--a being utterly +shallow, thoughtless, worthless. He comes abroad to spend his money +and indulge his tastes. His object in Europe is to have fashionable +clothes, good foreign cookery, to know some titled persons, and +furnish himself with coffee-house gossip, by retailing which +among those less travelled and as uninformed as himself he can win +importance at home. I look with unspeakable contempt on this class,--a +class which has all the thoughtlessness and partiality of the +exclusive classes in Europe, without any of their refinement, or the +chivalric feeling which still sparkles among them here and there. +However, though these willing serfs in a free age do some little hurt, +and cause some annoyance at present, they cannot continue long; our +country is fated to a grand, independent existence, and, as its laws +develop, these parasites of a bygone period must wither and drop away. + +Then there is the conceited American, instinctively bristling and +proud of--he knows not what. He does not see, not he, that the history +of Humanity for many centuries is likely to have produced results it +requires some training, some devotion, to appreciate and profit by. +With his great clumsy hands, only fitted to work on a steam-engine, +he seizes the old Cremona violin, makes it shriek with anguish, in his +grasp, and then declares he thought it was all humbug before he came, +and now he knows it; that there is not really any music in these old +things; that the frogs in one of our swamps make much finer, for they +are young and alive. To him the etiquettes of courts and camps, the +ritual of the Church, seem simply silly,--and no wonder, profoundly +ignorant as he is of their origin and meaning. Just so the legends +which are the subjects of pictures, the profound myths which are +represented in the antique marbles, amaze and revolt him; as, indeed, +such things need to be judged of by another standard than that of the +Connecticut Blue-Laws. He criticises severely pictures, feeling quite +sure that his natural senses are better means of judgment than the +rules of connoisseurs,--not feeling that, to see such objects, mental +vision as well as fleshly eyes are needed and that something is aimed +at in Art beyond the imitation of the commonest forms of Nature. This +is Jonathan in the sprawling state, the booby truant, not yet aspiring +enough to be a good school-boy. Yet in his folly there is meaning; +add thought and culture to his independence, and he will be a man of +might: he is not a creature without hope, like the thick-skinned dandy +of the class first specified. + +The artistes form a class by themselves. Yet among them, though +seeking special aims by special means, may also be found the +lineaments of these two classes, as well as of the third, of which I +am now to speak. + +This is that of the thinking American,--a man who, recognizing the +immense advantage of being born to a new world and on a virgin soil, +yet does not wish one seed from the past to be lost. He is anxious +to gather and carry back with him every plant that will bear a new +climate and new culture. Some will dwindle; others will attain a bloom +and stature unknown before. He wishes to gather them clean, free from +noxious insects, and to give them a fair trial in his new world. And +that he may know the conditions under which he may best place them in +that new world, he does not neglect to study their history in this. + +The history of our planet in some moments seems so painfully mean +and little,--such terrible bafflings and failures to compensate some +brilliant successes,--such a crushing of the mass of men beneath, the +feet of a few, and these, too, often the least worthy,--such a small +drop of honey to each cup of gall, and, in many cases, so mingled that +it is never one moment in life purely tasted,--above all, so little +achieved for Humanity as a whole, such tides of war and pestilence +intervening to blot out the traces of each triumph,--that no wonder +if the strongest soul sometimes pauses aghast; no wonder if the many +indolently console themselves with gross joys and frivolous prizes. +Yes! those men _are_ worthy of admiration who can carry this cross +faithfully through fifty years; it is a great while for all the +agonies that beset a lover of good, a lover of men; it makes a soul +worthy of a speedier ascent, a more productive ministry in the next +sphere. Blessed are they who ever keep that portion of pure, generous +love with which they began life! How blessed those who have deepened +the fountains, and have enough to spare for the thirst of others! Some +such there are; and, feeling that, with all the excuses for failure, +still only the sight of those who triumph, gives a meaning to life or +makes its pangs endurable, we must arise and follow. + +Eighteen hundred years of this Christian culture in these European +kingdoms, a great theme never lost sight of, a mighty idea, an +adorable history to which the hearts of men invariably cling, yet are +genuine results rare as grains of gold in the river's sandy bed! Where +is the genuine democracy to which the rights of all men are holy? +where the child-like wisdom learning all through life more and more +of the will of God? where the aversion to falsehood, in all its myriad +disguises of cant, vanity, covetousness, so clear to be read in all +the history of Jesus of Nazareth? Modern Europe is the sequel to that +history, and see this hollow England, with its monstrous wealth and +cruel poverty, its conventional life, and low, practical aims! see +this poor France, so full of talent, so adroit, yet so shallow and +glossy still, which could not escape from a false position with all +its baptism of blood! see that lost Poland, and this Italy bound down +by treacherous hands in all the force of genius! see Russia with its +brutal Czar and innumerable slaves! see Austria and its royalty that +represents nothing, and its people, who, as people, are and have +nothing! If we consider the amount of truth that has really been +spoken out in the world, and the love that has beat in private +hearts,--how genius has decked each spring-time with such splendid +flowers, conveying each one enough of instruction in its life of +harmonious energy, and how continually, unquenchably, the spark of +faith has striven to burst into flame and light up the universe,--the +public failure seems amazing, seems monstrous. + +Still Europe toils and struggles with her idea, and, at this moment, +all things bode and declare a new outbreak of the fire, to destroy old +palaces of crime! May it fertilize also many vineyards! Here at this +moment a successor of St. Peter, after the lapse of near two thousand +years, is called "Utopian" by a part of this Europe, because he +strives to get some food to the mouths of the _leaner_ of his flock. +A wonderful state of things, and which leaves as the best argument +against despair, that men do not, _cannot_ despair amid such dark +experiences. And thou, my Country! wilt thou not be more true? does no +greater success await thee? All things have so conspired to teach, to +aid! A new world, a new chance, with oceans to wall in the new thought +against interference from the old!--treasures of all kinds, gold, +silver, corn, marble, to provide for every physical need! A noble, +constant, starlike soul, an Italian, led the way to thy shores, and, +in the first days, the strong, the pure, those too brave, too sincere, +for the life of the Old World, hastened to people them. A generous +struggle then shook off what was foreign, and gave the nation a +glorious start for a worthy goal. Men rocked the cradle of its hopes, +great, firm, disinterested, men, who saw, who wrote, as the basis +of all that was to be done, a statement of the rights, the _inborn_ +rights of men, which, if fully interpreted and acted upon, leaves +nothing to be desired. + +Yet, O Eagle! whose early flight showed this clear sight of the sun, +how often dost thou near the ground, how show the vulture in these +later days! Thou wert to be the advance-guard of humanity, the herald +of all progress; how often hast thou betrayed this high commission! +Fain would the tongue in clear, triumphant accents draw example from +thy story, to encourage the hearts of those who almost faint and die +beneath the old oppressions. But we must stammer and blush when we +speak of many things. I take pride here, that I can really say the +liberty of the press works well, and that checks and balances are +found naturally which suffice to its government. I can say that the +minds of our people are alert, and that talent has a free chance to +rise. This is much. But dare I further say that political ambition is +not as darkly sullied as in other countries? Dare I say that men of +most influence in political life are those who represent most virtue, +or even intellectual power? Is it easy to find names in that career of +which I can speak with enthusiasm? Must I not confess to a boundless +lust of gain in my country? Must I not concede the weakest vanity, +which bristles and blusters at each foolish taunt of the foreign +press, and admit that the men who make these undignified rejoinders +seek and find popularity so? Can I help admitting that there is as yet +no antidote cordially adopted, which will defend even that great, rich +country against the evils that have grown out of the commercial system +in the Old World? Can I say our social laws are generally better, or +show a nobler insight into the wants of man and woman? I do, indeed, +say what I believe, that voluntary association for improvement in +these particulars will be the grand means for my nation to grow, and +give a nobler harmony to the coming age. But it is only of a small +minority that I can say they as yet seriously take to heart these +things; that they earnestly meditate on what is wanted for their +country, for mankind,--for our cause is indeed, the cause of all +mankind at present. Could we succeed, really succeed, combine a deep +religious love with practical development, the achievements of genius +with the happiness of the multitude, we might believe man had now +reached a commanding point in his ascent, and would stumble and faint +no more. Then there is this horrible cancer of slavery, and the wicked +war that has grown out of it. How dare I speak of these things here? +I listen to the same arguments against the emancipation of Italy, that +are used against the emancipation of our blacks; the same arguments +in favor of the spoliation of Poland, as for the conquest of Mexico. +I find the cause of tyranny and wrong everywhere the same,--and lo! my +country! the darkest offender, because with the least excuse; forsworn +to the high calling with which she was called; no champion of the +rights of men, but a robber and a jailer; the scourge hid behind her +banner; her eyes fixed, not on the stars, but on the possessions of +other men. + +How it pleases me here to think of the Abolitionists! I could never +endure to be with them at home, they were so tedious, often so narrow, +always so rabid and exaggerated in their tone. But, after all, they +had a high motive, something eternal in their desire and life; and if +it was not the only thing worth thinking of, it was really something +worth living and dying for, to free a great nation from such a +terrible blot, such a threatening plague. God strengthen them, and +make them wise to achieve their purpose! + +I please myself, too, with remembering some ardent souls among the +American youth, who I trust will yet expand, and help to give soul to +the huge, over-fed, too hastily grown-up body. May they be constant! +"Were man but constant, he were perfect," it has been said; and it is +true that he who could be constant to those moments in which he has +been truly human, not brutal, not mechanical, is on the sure path to +his perfection, and to effectual service of the universe. + +It is to the youth that hope addresses itself; to those who yet burn +with aspiration, who are not hardened in their sins. But I dare not +expect too much of them. I am not very old; yet of those who, in +life's morning, I saw touched by the light of a high hope, many have +seceded. Some have become voluptuaries; some, mere family men, who +think it quite life enough to win bread for half a dozen people, +and treat them, decently; others are lost through indolence and +vacillation. Yet some remain constant; + + "I have witnessed many a shipwreck, + Yet still beat noble hearts." + +I have found many among the youth of England, of France, of Italy, +also, full of high desire; but will they have courage and purity to +fight the battle through in the sacred, the immortal band? Of some +of them I believe it, and await the proof. If a few succeed amid the +trial, we have not lived and loved in vain. + +To these, the heart and hope of my country, a happy new year! I do +not know what I have written; I have merely yielded to my feelings +in thinking of America; but something of true love must be in these +lines. Receive them kindly, my friends; it is, of itself, some merit +for printed words to be sincere. + + + + +LETTER XIX. + +THE CLIMATE OF ITALY.--REVIEW OF FIRST IMPRESSIONS.--ROME IN ITS +VARIOUS ASPECTS.--THE POPE.--CEMETERY OF SANTO SPIRITO.--CEREMONIES AT +THE CHAPELS.--THE WOMEN OF ITALY.--FESTIVAL OF ST. CARLO BORROMEO.--AN +INCIDENT IN THE CHAPEL.--ENGLISH RESIDENTS IN THE SEVEN-HILLED +CITY.--MRS. TROLLOPE A RESIDENT OF FLORENCE.--THE POPE AS HE +COMMUNICATES WITH HIS PEOPLE.--THE POSITION OF AFFAIRS.--LESSER +POTENTATES.--THE INAUGURATION OF THE NEW COUNCIL.--THE CEREMONIES +THERETO APPERTAINING.--THE AMERICAN FLAG IN ROME.--A BALL.--A FEAST, +AND ITS REVERSE.--THE FUNERAL OF A COUNCILLOR. + + +Rome, December 17, 1847. + +This 17th day of December I rise to see the floods of sunlight +blessing us, as they have almost every day since I returned to +Rome,--two months and more,--with scarce three or four days of rainy +weather. I still see the fresh roses and grapes each morning on my +table, though both these I expect to give up at Christmas. + +This autumn is _something like_, as my countrymen say at home. Like +_what_, they do not say; so I always supposed they meant like their +ideal standard. Certainly this weather corresponds with mine; and +I begin to believe the climate of Italy is really what it has been +represented. Shivering here last spring in an air no better than the +cruel cast wind of Puritan Boston, I thought all the praises lavished +on + + "Italia, O Italia!" + +would turn out to be figments of the brain; and that even Byron, +usually accurate beyond the conception of plodding pedants, had +deceived us when he says, you have the happiness in Italy to + + "See the sun set, sure he'll rise to-morrow," + +and not, according to a view which exercises a withering influence on +the enthusiasm of youth in my native land, be forced to regard each +pleasant day as a _weather-breeder_. + +How delightful, too, is the contrast between this time and the spring +in another respect! Then I was here, like travellers in general, +expecting to be driven away in a short time. Like others, I went +through the painful process of sight-seeing, so unnatural everywhere, +so counter to the healthful methods and true life of the mind. You +rise in the morning knowing there are a great number of objects worth +knowing, which you may never have the chance to see again. You go +every day, in all moods, under all circumstances; feeling, probably, +in seeing them, the inadequacy of your preparation for understanding +or duly receiving them. This consciousness would be most valuable if +one had time to think and study, being the natural way in which the +mind is lured to cure its defects; but you have no time; you are +always wearied, body and mind, confused, dissipated, sad. The objects +are of commanding beauty or full of suggestion, but there is no quiet +to let that beauty breathe its life into the soul; no time to follow +up these suggestions, and plant for the proper harvest. Many persons +run about Rome for nine days, and then go away; they might as well +expect to appreciate the Venus by throwing a stone at it, as hope +really to see Rome in this time. I stayed in Rome nine weeks, and came +away unhappy as he who, having been taken in the visions of the night +through some wondrous realm, wakes unable to recall anything but the +hues and outlines of the pageant; the real knowledge, the recreative +power induced by familiar love, the assimilation of its soul and +substance,--all the true value of such a revelation,--is wanting; and +he remains a poor Tantalus, hungrier than before he had tasted this +spiritual food. + +No; Rome is not a nine-days wonder; and those who try to make it such +lose the ideal Rome (if they ever had it), without gaining any notion +of the real. To those who travel, as they do everything else, only +because others do, I do not speak; they are nothing. Nobody counts in +the estimate of the human race who has not a character. + +For one, I now really live in Rome, and I begin to see and feel the +real Rome. She reveals herself day by day; she tells me some of her +life. Now I never go out to see a sight, but I walk every day; and +here I cannot miss of some object of consummate interest to end a +walk. In the evenings, which are long now, I am at leisure to follow +up the inquiries suggested by the day. + +As one becomes familiar, Ancient and Modern Rome, at first so +painfully and discordantly jumbled together, are drawn apart to the +mental vision. One sees where objects and limits anciently wore; the +superstructures vanish, and you recognize the local habitation of so +many thoughts. When this begins to happen, one feels first truly +at ease in Rome. Then the old kings, the consuls and tribunes, the +emperors, drunk with blood and gold, the warriors of eagle sight and +remorseless beak, return for us, and the togated procession finds +room to sweep across the scene; the seven hills tower, the innumerable +temples glitter, and the Via Sacra swarms with triumphal life once +more. + +Ah! how joyful to see once more _this_ Rome, instead of the pitiful, +peddling, Anglicized Rome, first viewed in unutterable dismay from the +_coupe_ of the vettura,--a Rome all full of taverns, lodging-houses, +cheating chambermaids, vilest _valets de place_, and fleas! A Niobe +of nations indeed! Ah! why, secretly the heart blasphemed, did the sun +omit to kill her too, when all the glorious race which wore her crown +fell beneath his ray? Thank Heaven, it is possible to wash away all +this dirt, and come at the marble yet. + +Their the later Papal Rome: it requires much acquaintance, much +thought, much reference to books, for the child of Protestant +Republican America to see where belong the legends illustrated by rite +and picture, the sense of all the rich tapestry, where it has a united +and poetic meaning, where it is broken by some accident of history. +For all these things--a senseless mass of juggleries to the uninformed +eye--are really growths of the human spirit struggling to develop its +life, and full of instruction for those who learn to understand them. + +Then Modern Rome,--still ecclesiastical, still darkened and damp in +the shadow of the Vatican, but where bright hopes gleam now amid the +ashes! Never was a people who have had more to corrupt them,--bloody +tyranny, and incubus of priestcraft, the invasions, first of +Goths, then of trampling emperors and kings, then of sight-seeing +foreigners,--everything to turn them from a sincere, hopeful, fruitful +life; and they are much corrupted, but still a fine race. I cannot +look merely with a pictorial eye on the lounge of the Roman dandy, the +bold, Juno gait of the Roman Contadina. I love them,--dandies and all? +I believe the natural expression of these fine forms will animate them +yet. Certainly there never was a people that showed a better heart +than they do in this day of love, of purely moral influence. It makes +me very happy to be for once in a place ruled by a father's love, and +where the pervasive glow of one good, generous heart is felt in every +pulse of every day. + +I have seen the Pope several times since my return, and it is a real +pleasure to see him in the thoroughfares, where his passage is always +greeted as that of _the_ living soul. + +The first week of November there is much praying for the dead here in +the chapels of the cemeteries. I went to Santo Spirito. This cemetery +stands high, and all the way up the slope was lined with beggars +petitioning for alms, in every attitude find tone, (I mean tone that +belongs to the professional beggar's gamut, for that is peculiar,) +and under every pretext imaginable, from the quite legless elderly +gentleman to the ragged ruffian with the roguish twinkle in his eye, +who has merely a slight stiffness in one arm and one leg. I could +not help laughing, it was such a show,--greatly to the alarm of my +attendant, who declared they would kill me, if ever they caught me +alone; but I was not afraid. I am sure the endless falsehood in which +such creatures live must make them very cowardly. We entered the +cemetery; it was a sweet, tranquil place, lined with cypresses, and +soft sunshine lying on the stone coverings where repose the houses of +clay in which once dwelt joyous Roman hearts,--for the hearts here do +take pleasure in life. There were several chapels; in one boys were +chanting, in others people on their knees silently praying for the +dead. In another was one of the groups in wax exhibited in such +chapels through the first week of November. It represented St. Carlo +Borromeo as a beautiful young man in a long scarlet robe, pure and +brilliant as was the blood of the martyrs, relieving the poor who were +grouped around him,--old people and children, the halt, the maimed, +the blind; he had called them all into the feast of love. The chapel +was lighted and draped so as to give very good effect to this group; +the spectators were mainly children and young girls, listening with +ardent eyes, while their parents or the nuns explained to them the +group, or told some story of the saint. It was a pretty scene, only +marred by the presence of a villanous-looking man, who ever and anon +shook the poor's box. I cannot understand the bad taste of choosing +him, when there were _frati_ and priests enough of expression less +unprepossessing. + +I next entered a court-yard, where the stations, or different periods +in the Passion of Jesus, are painted on the wall. Kneeling before +these were many persons: here a Franciscan, in his brown robe and +cord; there a pregnant woman, uttering, doubtless, some tender +aspiration for the welfare of the yet unborn dear one; there some +boys, with gay yet reverent air; while all the while these fresh young +voices were heard chanting. It was a beautiful moment, and despite the +wax saint, the ill-favored friar, the professional mendicants, and +my own removal, wide as pole from pole, from the positron of mind +indicated by these forms, their spirit touched me, and. I prayed too; +prayed for the distant, every way distant,--for those who seem to have +forgotten me, and with me all we had in common; prayed for the dead in +spirit, if not in body; prayed for myself, that I might never walk the +earth + + "The tomb of my dead self"; + +and prayed in general for all unspoiled and loving hearts,--no less +for all who suffer and find yet no helper. + +Going out, I took my road by the cross which marks the brow of the +hill. Up the ascent still wound the crowd of devotees, and still the +beggars beset them. Amid that crowd, how many lovely, warm-hearted +women! The women of Italy are intellectually in a low place, +_but_--they are unaffected; you can see what Heaven meant them to be, +and I believe they will be yet the mothers of a great and generous +race. Before me lay Rome,--how exquisitely tranquil in the sunset! +Never was an aspect that for serene grandeur could vie with that of +Rome at sunset. + +Next day was the feast of the Milanese saint, whose life has been made +known to some Americans by Manzoni, when speaking in his popular novel +of the cousin of St. Carlo, Federigo Borromeo. The Pope came in state +to the church of St. Carlo, in the Corso. The show was magnificent; +the church is not very large, and was almost filled with Papal court +and guards, in all their splendid harmonies of color. An Italian child +was next me, a little girl of four or five years, whom her mother +had brought to see the Pope. As in the intervals of gazing the child +smiled and made signs to me, I nodded in return, and asked her name. +"Virginia," said she; "and how is the Signora named?" "Margherita," +"My name," she rejoined, "is Virginia Gentili." I laughed, but did not +follow up the cunning, graceful lead,--still I chatted and played with +her now and then. At last, she said to her mother, "La Signora e molto +cara," ("The Signora is very dear," or, to use the English equivalent, +_a darling_,) "show her my two sisters." So the mother, herself a +fine-looking woman, introduced two handsome young ladies, and with the +family I was in a moment pleasantly intimate for the hour. + +Before me sat three young English ladies, the pretty daughters of +a noble Earl; their manners were a strange contrast to this Italian +graciousness, best expressed by their constant use of the pronoun +_that_. "_See that man!_" (i.e. some high dignitary of the Church,) +"Look at that dress!" dropped constantly from their lips. Ah! without +being a Catholic, one may well wish Rome was not dependent on English +sight-seers, who violate her ceremonies with acts that bespeak their +thoughts full of wooden shoes and warming-pans. Can anything be +more sadly expressive of times out of joint than the fact that Mrs. +Trollope is a resident in Italy? Yes! she is fixed permanently in +Florence, as I am told, pensioned at the rate of two thousand pounds +a year to trail her slime over the fruit of Italy. She is here in Rome +this winter, and, after having violated the virgin beauty of America, +will have for many a year her chance to sully the imperial matron of +the civilized world. What must the English public be, if it wishes to +pay two thousand pounds a year to get Italy Trollopified? + +But to turn to a pleasanter subject. When the Pope entered, borne in +his chair of state amid the pomp of his tiara and his white and gold +robes, he looked to me thin, or, as the Italians murmur anxiously +at times, _consumato_, or wasted. But during the ceremony he seemed +absorbed in his devotions, and at the end I think he had become +exhilarated by thinking of St. Carlo, who was such another over the +human race as himself, and his face wore a bright glow of faith. As he +blessed the people, he raised his eyes to Heaven, with a gesture quite +natural: it was the spontaneous act of a soul which felt that moment +more than usual its relation with things above it, and sure of support +from a higher Power. I saw him to still greater advantage a little +while after, when, riding on the Campagna with a young gentleman who +had been ill, we met the Pope on foot, taking exercise. He often quits +his carriage at the gates and walks in this way. He walked rapidly, +robed in a simple white drapery, two young priests in spotless purple +on either side; they gave silver to the poor who knelt beside the way, +while the beloved Father gave his benediction. My companion knelt; +he is not a Catholic, but he felt that "this blessing would do him +no harm." The Pope saw at once he was ill, and gave him a mark of +interest, with that expression of melting love, the true, the only +charity, which assures all who look on him that, were his power equal +to his will, no living thing would ever suffer more. This expression +the artists try in vain to catch; all busts and engravings of him are +caricatures; it is a magnetic sweetness, a lambent light that plays +over his features, and of which only great genius or a soul tender as +his own would form an adequate image. + +The Italians have one term of praise peculiarly characteristic of +their highly endowed nature. They say of such and such, _Ha una +phisonomia simpatica_,--"He has a sympathetic expression"; and this is +praise enough. This may be pre-eminently said of that of Pius IX. _He_ +looks, indeed, as if nothing human could be foreign to him. Such alone +are the genuine kings of men. + +He has shown undoubted wisdom, clear-sightedness, bravery, and +firmness; but it is, above all, his generous human heart that gives +him his power over this people. His is a face to shame the selfish, +redeem the sceptic, alarm the wicked, and cheer to new effort the +weary and heavy-laden. What form the issues of his life may take is +yet uncertain; in my belief, they are such as he does not think of; +but they cannot fail to be for good. For my part, I shall always +rejoice to have been here in his time. The working of his influence +confirms my theories, and it is a positive treasure to me to have seen +him. I have never been presented, not wishing to approach, so real a +presence in the path of mere etiquette; I am quite content to see +him standing amid the crowd, while the band plays the music he has +inspired. + + "Sons of Rome, awake!" + +Yes, awake, and let no police-officer put you again to sleep in +prison, as has happened to those who were called by the Marseillaise. + +Affairs look well. The king of Sardinia has at last, though with +evident distrust and heartlessness, entered the upward path in a +way that makes it difficult to return. The Duke of Modena, the +most senseless of all these ancient gentlemen, after publishing a +declaration, which made him more ridiculous than would the bitterest +pasquinade penned by another, that he would fight to the death against +reform, finds himself obliged to lend an ear as to the league for +the customs; and if he joins that, other measures follow of course. +Austria trembles; and, in fine, cannot sustain the point of Ferrara. +The king of Naples, after having shed much blood, for which he has a +terrible account to render, (ah! how many sad, fair romances are to +tell already about the Calabrian difficulties!) still finds the spirit +fomenting in his people; he cannot put it down. The dragon's teeth are +sown, and the Lazzaroni may be men yet! The Swiss affairs have taken +the right direction, and good will ensue, if other powers act with +decent honesty, and think of healing the wounds of Switzerland, rather +than merely of tying her down, so that she cannot annoy them. + +In Rome, here, the new Council is inaugurated, and elections have +given tolerable satisfaction. Already, struggles ended in other places +begin to be renewed here, as to gas-lights, introduction of machinery, +&c. We shall see at the end of the winter how they have gone on. At +any rate, the wants of the people are in some measure represented; and +already the conduct of those who have taken to themselves so large a +portion of the loaves and fishes on the very platform supposed to be +selected by Jesus for a general feeding of his sheep, begins to be +the subject of spoken as well as whispered animadversion. Torlonia is +assailed in his bank, Campana amid his urns or his Monte di Picti; but +these assaults have yet to be verified. + +On the day when the Council was to be inaugurated, great preparations +were made by representatives of other parts of Italy, and also of +foreign nations friendly to the cause of progress. It was considered +to represent the same fact as the feast of the 12th of September in +Tuscany,--the dawn of an epoch when the people shall find their wants +and aspirations represented and guarded. The Americans showed a warm +interest; the gentlemen subscribing to buy a flag, the United States +having none before in Rome, and the ladies meeting to make it. The +same distinguished individual, indeed, who at Florence made a speech +to prevent "the American eagle being taken out on so trifling an +occasion," with similar perspicuity and superiority of view, on the +present occasion, was anxious to prevent "rash demonstrations, which +might embroil the United States with Austria"; but the rash youth +here present rushed on, ignorant how to value his Nestorian +prudence,--fancying, hot-headed simpletons, that the cause of Freedom +was the cause of America, and her eagle at home wherever the sun shed +a warmer ray, and there was reason to hope a happier life for man. So +they hurried to buy their silk, red, white, and blue, and inquired of +recent arrivals how many States there are this winter in the Union, in +order to making the proper number of stars. A magnificent spread-eagle +was procured, not without difficulty, as this, once the eyrie of the +king of birds, is now a rookery rather, full of black, ominous fowl, +ready to eat the harvest sown by industrious hands. This eagle, having +previously spread its wings over a piece of furniture where its back +was sustained by the wall, was somewhat deficient in a part of its +anatomy. But we flattered ourselves he should be held so high that no +Roman eye, if disposed, could carp and criticise. When lo! just as the +banner was ready to unfold its young glories in the home of Horace, +Virgil, and Tacitus, an ordinance appeared prohibiting the display of +any but the Roman ensign. + +This ordinance was, it is said, caused by representations made to the +Pope that the Oscurantists, ever on the watch to do mischief, meant to +make this the occasion of disturbance,--as it is their policy to seek +to create irritation here; that the Neapolitan and Lombardo-Venetian +flags would appear draped with black, and thus the signal be given for +tumult. I cannot help thinking these fears were groundless; that the +people, on their guard, would have indignantly crushed at once any +of these malignant efforts. However that may be, no one can ever be +really displeased with any measure of the Pope, knowing his excellent +intentions. But the limitation of the festival deprived it of the +noble character of the brotherhood of nations and an ideal aim, worn +by that of Tuscany. The Romans, drilled and disappointed, greeted +their Councillors with but little enthusiasm. The procession, too, was +but a poor affair for Rome. Twenty-four carriages had been lent by +the princes and nobles, at the request of the city, to convey the +Councillors. I found something symbolical in this. Thus will they be +obliged to furnish from their old grandeur the vehicles of the new +ideas. Each deputy was followed by his target and banner. When +the deputy for Ferrara passed, many garlands were thrown upon his +carriage. There has been deep respect and sympathy felt for the +citizens of Ferrara, they have conducted so well under their late +trying circumstances. They contained themselves, knowing that the +least indiscretion would give a handle for aggression to the enemies +of the good cause. But the daily occasions of irritation must have +been innumerable, and they have shown much power of wise and dignified +self-government. + +After the procession passed, I attempted to go on foot from the Cafe +Novo, in the Corso, to St. Peter's, to see the decorations of the +streets, but it was impossible. In that dense, but most vivacious, +various, and good-humored crowd, with all best will on their part +to aid the foreigner, it was impossible to advance. So I saw +only themselves; but that was a great pleasure. There is so much +individuality of character here, that it is a great entertainment to +be in a crowd. + +In the evening, there was a ball given at the Argentina. Lord Minto +was there; Prince Corsini, now Senator; the Torlonias, in uniform of +the Civic Guard,--Princess Torlonia in a sash of their colors, given +her by the Civic Guard, which she waved often in answer to their +greetings. But the beautiful show of the evening was the Trasteverini +dancing the Saltarello in their most brilliant costume. I saw them +thus to much greater advantage than ever before. Several were nobly +handsome, and danced admirably; it was really like Pinelli. + +The Saltarello enchants me; in this is really the Italian wine, +the Italian sun. The first time, I saw it danced one night very +unexpectedly near the Colosseum; it carried me quite beyond myself, +so that I most unamiably insisted on staying, while the friends in my +company, not heated by enthusiasm like me, were shivering and perhaps +catching cold from the damp night-air. I fear they remember it against +me; nevertheless I cherish the memory of the moments wickedly stolen +at their expense, for it is only the first time seeing such a thing +that you enjoy a peculiar delight. But since, I love to see and study +it much. + +The Pope, in receiving the Councillors, made a speech,--such as the +king of Prussia intrenched himself in on a similar occasion, only much +better and shorter,--implying that he meant only to improve, not to +_reform_, and should keep things _in statu quo_, safe locked with +the keys of St. Peter. This little speech was made, no doubt, more to +reassure czars, emperors, and kings, than from the promptings of the +spirit. But the fact of its necessity, as well as the inferior freedom +and spirit of the Roman journals to those of Tuscany, seems to say +that the pontifical government, though from the accident of this one +man's accession it has taken the initiative to better times, yet +may not, after a while, from its very nature, be able to keep in the +vanguard. + +A sad contrast to the feast of this day was presented by the same +persons, a fortnight after, following the body of Silvani, one of +the Councillors, who died suddenly. The Councillors, the different +societies of Rome, a corps _frati_ bearing tapers, the Civic Guard +with drums slowly beating, the same state carriages with their +liveried attendants all slowly, sadly moving, with torches and +banners, drooped along the Corso in the dark night. A single horseman, +with his long white plume and torch reversed, governed the procession; +it was the Prince Aldobrandini. The whole had that grand effect so +easily given by this artist people, who seize instantly the natural +poetry of an occasion, and with unanimous tact hasten to represent it. +More and much anon. + + + + +LETTER XX. + +ROME.--BAD WEATHER.--ST. CECILIA.--THE PEOPLE'S PROCESSIONS.--TAKING +THE VEIL.--FESTIVITIES.--POLITICAL AGITATION.--NOBLES.--MARIA +LOUISA.--GUICCIOLI.--PARMA.--ADDRESS TO THE NEW SOVEREIGN.--THE NEW +YORK MEETING FOR ITALY.--ADDRESS TO THE POPE. + + +Rome, December 30, 1847. + +I could not, in my last, content myself with praising the glorious +weather. I wrote in the last day of it. Since, we have had a fortnight +of rain falling incessantly, and whole days and nights of torrents +such as are peculiar to the "clearing-up" shower in our country. + +Under these circumstances, I have found my lodging in the Corso not +only has its dark side, but is all dark, and that one in the Piazza di +Spagne would have been better for me in this respect; there on these +days, the only ones when I wish to stay at home and write and study, I +should have had the light. Now, if I consulted the good of my eyes, I +should have the lamp lit on first rising in the morning. + +"Every sweet must have its bitter," and the exchange from the +brilliance of the Italian heaven to weeks and months of rain, and such +black cloud, is unspeakably dejecting. For myself, at the end of this +fortnight without exercise or light, and in such a damp atmosphere, +I find myself without strength, without appetite, almost without +spirits. The life of the German scholar who studies fifteen hours out +of the twenty-four, or that of the Spielberg prisoner who could live +through ten, fifteen, twenty years of dark prison with, only half an +hour's exercise in the day, is to me a mystery. How can the brain, the +nerves, ever support it? We are made to keep in motion, to drink the +air and light; to me these are needed to make life supportable, the +physical state is so difficult and full of pains at any rate. + +I am sorry for those who have arrived just at this time hoping +to enjoy the Christmas festivities. Everything was spoiled by the +weather. I went at half past ten to San Luigi Francese, a church +adorned with some of Domenichino's finest frescos on the life and +death of St. Cecilia. + +This name leads me to a little digression. In a letter to Mr. +Phillips, the dear friend of our revered Dr. Charming, I asked him if +he remembered what recumbent statue it was of which Dr. Charming was +wont to speak as of a sight that impressed him more than anything else +in Rome. He said, indeed, his mood, and the unexpectedness in seeing +this gentle, saintly figure lying there as if death had just struck +her down, had no doubt much influence upon him; but still he believed +the work had a peculiar holiness in its expression. I recognized at +once the theme of his description (the name he himself had forgotten) +as I entered the other evening the lonely church of St. Cecilia in +Trastevere. As in his case, it was twilight: one or two nuns were at +their devotions, and there lay the figure in its grave-clothes, with +an air so gentle, so holy, as if she had only ceased to pray as the +hand of the murderer struck her down. Her gentle limbs seemed instinct +still with soft, sweet life; the expression was not of the heroine, +the martyr, so much as of the tender, angelic woman. I could well +understand the deep impression made upon his mind. The expression of +the frescos of Domenichino is not inharmonious with the suggestions of +this statue. + +Finding the Mass was not to begin for some time, I set out for the +Quirinal to see the Pope return from that noble church, Santa Maria +Maggiore, where he officiated this night. I reached the mount just +as he was returning. A few torches gleamed before his door; perhaps a +hundred people were gathered together round the fountain. Last year an +immense multitude waited for him there to express their affection in +one grand good-night; the change was occasioned partly by the weather, +partly by other causes, of which I shall speak by and by. Just as he +returned, the moon looked palely out from amid the wet clouds, and +shone upon the fountain, and the noble figures above it, and the +long white cloaks of the Guardia Nobile who followed his carriage +on horseback; darker objects could scarcely be seen, except by the +flickering light of the torches, much blown by the wind. I then +returned to San Luigi. The effect of the night service there was very +fine; those details which often have such a glaring, mean look by day +are lost sight of in the night, and the unity of impression from the +service is much more undisturbed. The music, too, descriptive of that +era which promised peace on earth, good-will to men, was very sweet, +and the _pastorale_ particularly soothed the heart amid the crowd, and +pompous ceremonial. But here, too, the sweet had its bitter, in the +vulgar vanity of the leader of the orchestra, a trait too common in +such, who, not content with marking the time for the musicians, made +his stick heard in the remotest nook of the church; so that what would +have been sweet music, and flowed in upon the soul, was vulgarized to +make you remember the performers and their machines. + +On Monday the leaders of the Guardia Civica paid their respects to +the Pope, who, in receiving them, expressed his constantly increasing +satisfaction in having given this institution to his people. The same +evening there was a procession with torches to the Quirinal, to pay +the homage due to the day (Feast of St. John, and name-day of the +Pope, _Giovanni Maria Mastai_); but all the way the rain continually +threatened to extinguish the torches, and the Pope could give but a +hasty salute under an umbrella, when the heavens were again opened, +and such a cataract of water descended, as drove both man and beast to +seek the nearest shelter. + +On Sunday, I went to see a nun take the veil. She was a person of high +family; a princess gave her away, and the Cardinal Ferreti, Secretary +of State, officiated. It was a much less effective ceremony than I +expected from the descriptions of travellers and romance-writers. +There was no moment of throwing on the black veil; no peal of music; +no salute of cannon. The nun, an elegantly dressed woman of five or +six and twenty,--pretty enough, but whose quite worldly air gave the +idea that it was one of those arrangements made because no suitable +establishment could otherwise be given her,--came forward, knelt, and +prayed; her confessor, in that strained, unnatural whine too common +among preachers of all churches and all countries, praised himself for +having induced her to enter on a path which would lead her fettered +steps "from palm to palm, from triumph to triumph," Poor thing! she +looked as if the domestic olives and poppies were all she wanted; and +lacking these, tares and wormwood must be her portion. She was then +taken behind a grating, her hair cut, and her clothes exchanged for +the nun's vestments; the black-robed sisters who worked upon her +looking like crows or ravens at their ominous feasts. All the while, +the music played, first sweet and thoughtful, then triumphant strains. +The effect on my mind was revolting and painful to the last degree. +Were monastic seclusion always voluntary, and could it be ended +whenever the mind required a change back from seclusion to common +life, I should have nothing to say against it; there are positions of +the mind which it suits exactly, and even characters that might choose +it all through life; certainly, to the broken-hearted it presents a +shelter that Protestant communities do not provide. But where it +is enforced or repented of, no hell could be worse; nor can a more +terrible responsibility be incurred than by him who has persuaded a +novice that the snares of the world are less dangerous than the demons +of solitude. + +Festivities in Italy have been of great importance, since, for a +century or two back, the thought, the feeling, the genius of the +people have had more chance to expand, to express themselves, there +than anywhere else. Now, if the march of reform goes forward, this +will not be so; there will be also speeches made freely on public +occasions, without having the life pressed out of them by the +censorship. Now we hover betwixt the old and the new; when the many +reasons for the new prevail, I hope what is poetical in the old will +not be lost. The ceremonies of New Year are before me; but as I shall +have to send this letter on New-Year's day, I cannot describe them. +The Romans begin now to talk of the mad gayeties of Carnival, and the +Opera is open. They have begun with "Attila," as, indeed, there +is little hope of hearing in Italy other music than Verdi's. Great +applause waited on the following words:-- + +"EZIO (THE ROMAN LEADER). + + "E gittata la mia sorte, + Pronto sono ad ogni guerra, + S' io cardo, cadre da forte, + E il mio nome restera. + + "Non vedro l'amata terra + Svener lenta e farri a brano, + Sopra l'ultimo Romano + Tutta Italia piangera." + + "My lot is fixed, and I stand ready for every conflict. If + I must fall, I shall fall as a brave man, and my fame will + survive. I shall not see my beloved country fall to pieces and + slowly perish, and over the last Roman all Italy will weep." + +And at lines of which the following is a translation:-- + + "O brave man, whose mighty power can raise thy country from + such dire distress; from the immortal hills, radiant with + glory, let the shades of our ancestors arise; oh! only one + day, one instant, arise to look upon us!" + +It was an Italian who sung this strain, though, singularly enough, +here in the heart of Italy, so long reputed the home of music, three +principal parts were filled by persons bearing the foreign names of +Ivanoff, Mitrovich, and Nissren. + +Naples continues in a state of great excitement, which now pervades +the upper classes, as several young men of noble families have been +arrested; among them, one young man much beloved, son of Prince +Terella, and who, it is said, was certainly not present on the +occasion for which he was arrested, and that the measure was taken +because he was known to sympathize strongly with the liberal movement. +The nobility very generally have not feared to go to the house of his +father to express their displeasure at the arrest and interest in +the young man. The ministry, it is said, are now persuaded of the +necessity of a change of measures. The king alone remains inflexible +in his stupidity. + +The stars of Bonaparte and Byron show again a conjunction, by the +almost simultaneous announcement of changes in the lot of women with +whom they were so intimately connected;--the Archduchess of Parma, +Maria Louisa, is dead; the Countess Guiccioli is married. The Countess +I have seen several times; she still looks young, and retains the +charms which by the contemporaries of Byron she is reputed to have +had; they never were of a very high order; her best expression is that +of a good heart. I always supposed that Byron, weary and sick of the +world such as he had known it, became attached to her for her good +disposition, and sincere, warm tenderness for him; the sight of her, +and the testimony of a near relative, confirmed this impression. This +friend of hers added, that she had tried very hard to remain devoted +to the memory of Byron, but was quite unequal to the part, being one +of those affectionate natures that must have some one near with whom +to be occupied; and now, it seems, she has resigned herself publicly +to abandon her romance. However, I fancy the manes of Byron remain +undisturbed. + +We all know the worthless character of Maria Louisa, the indifference +she showed to a husband who, if he was not her own choice, yet would +have been endeared to almost any woman, as one fallen from an immense +height into immense misfortune, and as the father of her child. No +voice from her penetrated to cheer his exile: the unhappiness +of Josephine was well avenged. And that child, the poor Duke of +Reichstadt, of a character so interesting, and with obvious elements +of greatness, withering beneath the mean, cold influence of his +grandfather,--what did Maria Louisa do for him,--she, appointed by +Nature to be his inspiring genius, his protecting angel? I felt for +her a most sad and profound contempt last summer, as I passed through +her oppressed dominion, a little sphere, in which, if she could not +save it from the usual effects of the Austrian rule, she might have +done so much private, womanly good,--might have been a genial heart +to warm it,--and where she had let so much ill be done. A journal +announces her death in these words: "The Archduchess is dead; a woman +who _might_ have occupied one of the noblest positions in the history +of the age";--and there makes expressive pause. + +Parma, passing from bad to worse, falls into the hands of the Duke of +Modena; and the people and magistracy have made an address to their +new ruler. The address has received many thousand signatures, and +seems quite sincere, except in the assumption of good-will in the Duke +of Modena; and this is merely an insincerity of etiquette. + + + + +LETTER XXI. + +THE POPE'S RECEPTION OF THE NEW OFFICERS.--THEY KISS HIS +FOOT.--VESPERS AT THE GESU.--A POOR YOUTH IN ROME SEEKING A +PATRON.--RUMORS OF DISTURBANCES.--THEIR CAUSE.--REPRESENTATIONS TO THE +POPE.--HIS CONDUCT IN THE AFFAIR.--AN ITALIAN CONSUL FOR THE UNITED +STATES.--CATHOLICISM.--THE POPULARITY OF THE POPE.--HIS DEPOSITION OF +A CENSOR.--THE POLICY OF THE POPE IN HIS DOMESTIC NOT EQUAL TO THAT +OF HIS PUBLIC LIFE.--HIS OPPOSITION TO PROTESTANT REFORM.--LETTER FROM +JOSEPH MAZZINI TO THE PONTIFF.--REFLECTIONS ON IT. + + +Rome, January 10, 1848. + +In the first morning of this New Year I sent off a letter which must +then be mailed, in order to reach the steamer of the 16th. So far am +I from home, that even steam does not come nigh to annihilate the +distance. + +This afternoon I went to the Quirinal Palace to see the Pope receive +the new municipal officers. He was to-day in his robes of white and +gold, with his usual corps of attendants in pure red and white, or +violet and white. The new officers were in black velvet dresses, with +broad white collars. They took the oaths of office, and then actually +kissed his foot. I had supposed this was never really done, but only +a very low obeisance made; the act seemed to me disgustingly abject. +A Heavenly Father does not want his children at his feet, but in his +arms, on a level with his heart. + +After this was over the Pope went to the Gesu, a very rich church, +belonging to the Jesuits, to officiate at Vespers, and we followed. +The music was beautiful, and the effect of the church, with its +richly-painted dome and altar-piece in a blaze of light, while the +assembly were in a sort of brown darkness, was very fine. + +A number of Americans there, new arrivals, kept requesting in the +midst of the music to know when _it_ would begin. "Why, this is _it_," +some one at last had the patience to answer; "you are hearing Vespers +now." "What," they replied, "is there no oration, no speech!" So +deeply rooted in the American mind is the idea that a sermon is the +only real worship! + +This church, is indelibly stamped on my mind. Coming to Rome this +time, I saw in the diligence a young man, whom his uncle, a priest of +the convent that owns this church, had sent for, intending to provide +him employment here. Some slight circumstances tested the character +of this young man, and showed it what I have ever found it, singularly +honorable and conscientious. He was led to show me his papers, among +which was a letter from a youth whom, with that true benevolence only +possible to the poor, because only they _can_ make great sacrifices, +he had so benefited as to make an entire change in his prospects for +life. Himself a poor orphan, with nothing but a tolerable education +at an orphan asylum, and a friend of his dead parents to find him +employment on leaving it, he had felt for this young man, poorer and +more uninstructed than himself, had taught him at his leisure to read +and write, had then collected from, friends, and given himself, +till he had gathered together sixty francs, procuring also for +his _protege_ a letter from monks, who were friends of his, to the +convents on the road, so that wherever there was one, the poor youth +had lodging and food gratis. Thus armed, he set forth on foot for +Rome; Piacenza, their native place, affording little hope even of +gaining bread, in the present distressed state of that dominion. The +letter was to say that he had arrived, and been so fortunate as to +find employment immediately in the studio of Benzoni, the sculptor. + +The poor patron's eyes sparkled as I read the letter. "How happy he +is!" said he. "And does he not spell and write well? I was his only +master." + +But the good do not inherit the earth, and, less fortunate than his +_protege_, Germano on his arrival found his uncle ill of the Roman +fever. He came to see me, much agitated. "Can it be, Signorina," says +he, "that God, who has taken my father and mother, will also take +from me the only protector I have left, and just as I arrive in this +strange place, too?" After a few days he seemed more tranquil, and +told me that, though he had felt as if it would console him and divert +his mind to go to some places of entertainment, he had forborne and +applied the money to have masses said for his uncle. "I feel," he +said, "as if God would help me." Alas! at that moment the uncle was +dying. Poor Germano came next day with a receipt for masses said for +the soul of the departed, (his simple faith in these being apparently +indestructible,) and amid his tears he said: "The Fathers were so +unkind, they were hardly willing to hear me speak a word; they were so +afraid I should be a burden to them, I shall never go there again. But +the most cruel thing was, I offered them a scudo (dollar) to say six +masses for the soul of my poor uncle; they said they would only say +five, and must have seven baiocchi (cents) more for that." + +A few days after, I happened to go into their church, and found it +thronged, while a preacher, panting, sweating, leaning half out of +the pulpit, was exhorting his hearers to "imitate Christ." With +unspeakable disgust I gazed on this false shepherd of those who had +just so failed in their duty to a poor stray lamb, Their church is so +rich in ornaments, the seven baiocchi were hardly needed to burnish +it. Their altar-piece is a very imposing composition, by an artist +of Rome, still in the prime of his powers. Capalti. It represents the +Circumcision, with the cross and six waiting angels in the background; +Joseph, who holds the child, the priest, and all the figures in the +foreground, seem intent upon the barbarous rite, except Mary the +mother; her mind seems to rush forward into the future, and understand +the destiny of her child; she sees the cross,--she sees the angels, +too. + +Now I have mentioned a picture, let me say a word or two about Art and +artists, by way of parenthesis in this letter so much occupied, with +political affairs. We laugh a little here at some words that come from +your city on the subject of Art. + +We hear that the landscapes painted here show a want of familiarity +with Nature; artists need to return to America and see her again. But, +friends, Nature wears a different face in Italy from what she does in +America. Do you not want to see her Italian face? it is very glorious! +We thought it was the aim of Art to reproduce all forms of Nature, and +that you would not be sorry to have transcripts of what you have not +always round you. American Art is not necessarily a reproduction of +American Nature. + +Hicks has made a charming picture of familiar life, which those who +cannot believe in Italian daylight would not tolerate. I am not sure +that all eyes are made in the same manner, for I have known those who +declare they see nothing remarkable in these skies, these hues; and +always complain when they are reproduced in picture. I have yet seen +no picture by Cropsey on an Italian subject, but his sketches from +Scotch scenes are most poetical and just presentations of those lakes, +those mountains, with their mourning veils. He is an artist of great +promise. Cranch has made a picture for Mr. Ogden Haggerty of a fine +mountain-hold of old Colonna story. I wish he would write a ballad +about it too; there is plenty of material. + +But to return to the Jesuits. One swallow does not make a summer, nor +am I--who have seen so much hard-heartedness and barbarous greed of +gain in all classes of men--so foolish as to attach undue importance +to the demand, by those who have dared to appropriate peculiarly to +themselves the sacred name of Jesus, from a poor orphan, and for the +soul of one of their own order, of "seven baiocchi more." But I have +always been satisfied, from the very nature of their institutions, +that the current prejudice against them must be correct. These +institutions are calculated to harden the heart, and destroy entirely +that truth which is the conservative principle in character. Their +influence is and must be always against the free progress of humanity. +The more I see of its working, the more I feel how pernicious it is, +and were I a European, to no object should I lend myself with more +ardor, than to the extirpation of this cancer. True, disband the +Jesuits, there would still remain Jesuitical men, but singly they +would have infinitely less power to work mischief. + +The influence of the Oscurantist foe has shown itself more and more +plainly in Rome, during the last four or five weeks. A false miracle +is devised: the Madonna del Popolo, (who has her handsome house very +near me,) has cured, a paralytic youth, (who, in fact, was never +diseased,) and, appearing to him in a vision, takes occasion to +criticise severely the measures of the Pope. Rumors of tumult in +one quarter are circulated, to excite it in another. Inflammatory +handbills are put up in the night. But the Romans thus far resist all +intrigues of the foe to excite them to bad conduct. + +On New-Year's day, however, success was near. The people, as usual, +asked permission of the Governor to go to the Quirinal and receive the +benediction of the Pope. This was denied, and not, as it might truly +have been, because the Pope was unwell, but in the most ungracious, +irritating manner possible, by saying, "He is tired of these things: +he is afraid of disturbance." Then, the people being naturally +excited and angry, the Governor sent word to the Pope that there was +excitement, without letting him know why, and had the guards doubled +on the posts. The most absurd rumors were circulated among the people +that the cannon of St. Angelo were to be pointed on them, &c. But +they, with that singular discretion which they show now, instead +of rising, as their enemies had hoped, went to ask counsel of their +lately appointed Senator, Corsini. He went to the Pope, found him ill, +entirely ignorant of what was going on, and much distressed when he +heard it. He declared that the people should be satisfied, and, +since they had not been allowed to come to him, he would go to them. +Accordingly, the next day, though rainy and of a searching cold like +that of a Scotch mist, we had all our windows thrown open, and the red +and yellow tapestries hung out. He passed through the principal parts +of the city, the people throwing themselves on their knees and crying +out, "O Holy Father, don't desert us! don't forget us! don't listen +to our enemies!" The Pope wept often, and replied, "Fear nothing, +my people, my heart is yours." At last, seeing how ill he was, they +begged him to go in, and he returned to the Quirinal; the present +Tribune of the People, as far as rule in the heart is concerned, +Ciceronacchio, following his carriage. I shall give some account of +this man in another letter. + +For the moment, the difficulties are healed, as they will be whenever +the Pope directly shows himself to the people. Then his generous, +affectionate heart will always act, and act on them, dissipating the +clouds which others have been toiling to darken. + +In speaking of the intrigues of these emissaries of the power of +darkness, I will mention that there is a report here that they are +trying to get an Italian Consul for the United States, and one in the +employment of the Jesuits. This rumor seems ridiculous; yet it is true +that Dr. Beecher's panic about Catholic influence in the United +States is not quite unfounded, and that there is considerable hope +of establishing a new dominion there. I hope the United States will +appoint no Italian, no Catholic, to a consulship. The representative +of the United States should be American; our national character +and interests are peculiar, and cannot be fitly represented by a +foreigner, unless, like Mr. Ombrossi of Florence, he has passed part +of his youth in the United States. It would, indeed, be well if our +government paid attention to qualification for the office in the +candidate, and not to pretensions founded on partisan service; +appointing only men of probity, who would not stain the national +honor in the sight of Europe. It would be wise also not to select men +entirely ignorant of foreign manners, customs, ways of thinking, or +even of any language in which to communicate with foreign society, +making the country ridiculous by all sorts of blunders; but 't were +pity if a sufficient number of Americans could not be found, who are +honest, have some knowledge of Europe and gentlemanly tact, and are +able at least to speak French. + +To return to the Pope, although the shadow that has fallen on his +popularity is in a great measure the work of his enemies, yet there is +real cause for it too. His conduct in deposing for a time one of the +Censors, about the banners of the 15th of December, his speech to the +Council the same day, his extreme displeasure at the sympathy of a +few persons with the triumph of the Swiss Diet, because it was a +Protestant triumph, and, above all, his speech to the Consistory, so +deplorably weak in thought and absolute in manner, show a man less +strong against domestic than foreign foes, instigated by a generous, +humane heart to advance, but fettered by the prejudices of education, +and terribly afraid to be or seem to be less the Pope of Rome, in +becoming a reform prince, and father to the fatherless. I insert a +passage of this speech, which seems to say that, whenever there shall +be collision between the priest and the reformer, the priest shall +triumph:-- + +"Another subject there is which profoundly afflicts and harasses our +mind. It is not certainly unknown to you, Venerable Brethren, that +many enemies of Catholic truth have, in our times especially, directed +their efforts by the desire to place certain monstrous offsprings +of opinion on a par with the doctrine of Christ, or to blend them +therewith, seeking to propagate more and more that impious system of +_indifference_ toward all religion whatever. + +"And lately some have been found, dreadful to narrate! who have +offered such an insult to our name and Apostolic dignity, as +slanderously to represent us participators in their folly, and +favorers of that most iniquitous system above named. These have been +pleased to infer from, the counsels (certainly not foreign to +the sanctity of the Catholic religion) which, in certain affairs +pertaining to the civil exercise of the Pontific sway, we had benignly +embraced for the increase of public prosperity and good, and also from +the pardon bestowed in clemency upon certain persons subject to that +sway, in the very beginning of our Pontificate, that we had such +benevolent sentiments toward every description of persons as to +believe that not only the sons of the Church, but others also, +remaining aliens from Catholic unity, are alike in the way of +salvation, and may attain eternal life. Words are wanting to us, from +horror, to repel this new and atrocious calumny against us. It is true +that with intimate affection of heart we love all mankind, but not +otherwise than in the charity of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ, who +came to seek and to save that which had perished, who wisheth that all +men should be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth, and who sent +his disciples through the whole world to preach the Gospel to every +creature, declaring that those who should believe and be baptized +should be saved, but those who should not believe, should be +condemned. Let those therefore who seek salvation come to the pillar +and support of the Truth, which is the Church,--let them come, that +is, to the true Church of Christ, which possesses in its bishops +and the supreme head of all, the Roman Pontiff, a never-interrupted +succession of Apostolic authority, and which for nothing has ever been +more zealous than to preach, and with all care preserve and defend, +the doctrine announced as the mandate of Christ by his Apostles; which +Church afterward increased, from the time of the Apostles, in the +midst of every species of difficulties, and flourished throughout the +whole world, radiant in the splendor of miracles, amplified by the +blood of martyrs, ennobled by the virtues of confessors and virgins, +corroborated by the testimony and most sapient writings of the +fathers,--as it still flourishes throughout all lands, refulgent in +perfect unity of the sacraments, of faith, and of holy discipline. +We who, though unworthy, preside in this supreme chair of the Apostle +Peter, in which Christ our Lord placed the foundation of his Church, +have at no time abstained, from any cares or toils to bring, through +the grace of Christ himself, those who are in ignorance and error to +this sole way of truth and salvation. Let those, whoever they be, +that are adverse, remember that heaven and earth shall pass away, but +nothing can ever perish of the words of Christ, nor be changed in the +doctrine which the Catholic Church received, to guard, defend, and +publish, from him. + +"Next to this we cannot but speak to you, Venerable Brethren, of the +bitterness of sorrow by which we were affected, on seeing that a few +days since, in this our fair city, the fortress and centre of the +Catholic religion, it proved possible to find some--very few indeed +and well-nigh frantic men--who, laying aside the very sense of +humanity, and to the extreme disgust and indignation of other citizens +of this town, were not withheld, by horror from triumphing openly and +publicly over the most lamentable intestine war lately excited among +the Helvetic people; which truly fatal war we sorrow over from the +depths of our heart, as well considering the blood shed by that +nation, the slaughter of brothers, the atrocious, daily recurring, and +fatal discords, hatreds, and dissensions (which usually redound among +nations in consequence especially of civil wars), as the detriment +which we learn the Catholic religion has suffered, and fear it may yet +suffer, in consequence of this, and, finally, the deplorable acts of +sacrilege committed in the first conflict, which our soul shrinks from +narrating." + +It is probably on account of these fears of Pius IX. lest he should +be a called a Protestant Pope, that the Roman journals thus far, in +translating the American Address to the Pope, have not dared to add +any comment. + +But if the heart, the instincts, of this good man have been beyond his +thinking powers, that only shows him the providential agent to work +out aims beyond his ken. A wave has been set in motion, which cannot +stop till it casts up its freight upon the shore, and if Pius IX. does +not suffer himself to be surrounded by dignitaries, and see the signs +of the times through the eyes of others,--if he does not suffer the +knowledge he had of general society as a simple prelate to become +incrusted by the ignorance habitual to princes,--he cannot fail long +to be a most important agent in fashioning a new and better era for +this beautiful injured land. + +I will now give another document, which may be considered as +representing the view of what is now passing taken by the democratic +party called "Young Italy." Should it in any other way have reached +the United States, yet it will not come amiss to have it translated +for the Tribune, as many of your readers may not otherwise have a +chance of seeing this noble document, one of the milestones in the +march of thought. It is a letter to the Most High Pontiff, Pius IX., +from Joseph Mazzini. + + +"London, 8th September, 1847. + +"MOST HOLY FATHER,--Permit an Italian, who has studied your every step +for some months back with much hopefulness, to address to you, in the +midst of the applauses, often far too servile and unworthy of you, +which, resound near you, some free and profoundly sincere words. Take +to read them some moments from your infinite cares. From a simple +individual animated by holy intentions may come, sometimes, a great +counsel; and I write to you with so much love, with so much emotion of +my whole soul, with so much faith in the destiny of my country, which +may be revived by your means, that my thoughts ought to speak truth. + +"And first, it is needful, Most Holy Father, that I should say to +you somewhat of myself. My name has probably reached your ears, +but accompanied by all the calumnies, by all the errors, by all the +foolish conjectures, which the police, by system, and many men of my +party through want of knowledge or poverty of intellect, have heaped +upon it. I am not a subverter, nor a communist, nor a man of blood, +nor a hater, nor intolerant, nor exclusive adorer of a system, or of +a form imagined by my mind. I adore God, and an idea which seems to me +of God,--Italy an angel of moral unity and of progressive civilization +for the nations of Europe. Here and everywhere I have written the best +I know how against the vices of materialism, of egotism, of reaction, +and against the destructive tendencies which contaminate many of +our party. If the people should rise in violent attack against the +selfishness and bad government of their rulers, I, while rendering +homage to the right of the people, shall be among the first to prevent +the excesses and the vengeance which long slavery has prepared. I +believe profoundly in a religious principle, supreme above all social +ordinances; in a divine order, which we ought to seek to realize here +on earth; in a law, in a providential design, which we all ought, +according to our powers, to study and to promote. I believe in the +inspiration of my immortal soul, in the teaching of Humanity, which +shouts to me, through the deeds and words of all its saints, incessant +progress for all through, the work of all my brothers toward a common +moral amelioration, toward the fulfilment of the Divine Law. And in +the great history of Humanity I have studied the history of Italy, and +have found there Rome twice directress of the world,--first through +the Emperors, later through the Popes. I have found there, that +every manifestation of Italian life has also been a manifestation of +European life; and that always when Italy fell, the moral unity +of Europe began to fall apart in analysis, in doubt, in anarchy. +I believe in yet another manifestation of the Italian idea; and I +believe that another European world ought to be revealed from the +Eternal City, that had the Capitol, and has the Vatican. And this +faith has not abandoned me ever, through years, poverty, and griefs +which God alone knows. In these few words lies all my being, all +the secret of my life. I may err in the intellect, but the heart has +always remained pure. I have never lied through fear or hope, and I +speak to you as I should speak to God beyond the sepulchre. + +"I believe you good. There is no man this day, I will not say in +Italy, but in all Europe, more powerful than you; you then have, most +Holy Father, vast duties. God measures these according to the means +which he has granted to his creatures. + +"Europe is in a tremendous crisis of doubts and desires. Through the +work of time, accelerated by your predecessors of the hierarchy of the +Church, faith is dead, Catholicism is lost in despotism; Protestantism +is lost in anarchy. Look around you; you will find superstitious and +hypocrites, but not believers. The intellect travels in a void. The +bad adore calculation, physical good; the good pray and hope; nobody +_believes_. Kings, governments, the ruling classes, combat for a power +usurped, illegitimate, since it does not represent the worship of +truth, nor disposition to sacrifice one's self for the good of all; +the people combat because they suffer, because they would fain take +their turn to enjoy; nobody fights for duty, nobody because the war +against evil and falsehood is a holy war, the crusade of God. We have +no more a heaven; hence we have no more a society. + +"Do not deceive yourself, Most Holy Father; this is the present state +of Europe. + +"But humanity cannot exist without a heaven. The idea of society is +only a consequence of the idea of religion. We shall have then, sooner +or later, religion and heaven. We shall have these not in the kings +and the privileged classes,--their very condition excludes love, +the soul of all religions,--but in the people. The spirit from God +descends on many gathered together in his name. The people have +suffered for ages on the cross, and God will bless them with a faith. + +"You can, Most Holy Father, hasten that moment. I will not tell you +my individual opinions on the religious development which is to come; +these are of little importance. But I will say to you, that, whatever +be the destiny of the creeds now existing, you can put yourself at the +head of this development. If God wills that such creeds should +revive, you can make them revive; if God wills that they should be +transformed, that, leaving the foot of the cross, dogma and worship +should be purified by rising a step nearer God, the Father and +Educator of the world, you can put yourself between the two epochs, +and guide the world to the conquest and the practice of religious +truth, extirpating a hateful egotism, a barren negation. + +"God preserve me from tempting you with ambition; that would be +profanation. I call you, in the name of the power which God has +granted you, and has not granted without a reason, to fulfil the good, +the regenerating European work. I call you, after so many ages of +doubt and corruption, to be apostle of Eternal Truth. I call you to +make yourself the 'servant of all,' to sacrifice yourself, if needful, +so that 'the will of God may be done on the earth as it is in heaven'; +to hold yourself ready to glorify God in victory, or to repeat with +resignation, if you must fail, the words of Gregory VII.: 'I die in +exile, because I have loved justice and hated iniquity.' + +"But for this, to fulfil the mission which God confides to you, two +things are needful,--to be a believer, and to unify Italy. Without the +first, you will fall in the middle of the way, abandoned by God and by +men; without the second, you will not have the lever with which only +you can effect great, holy, and durable things. + +"Be a believer; abhor to be king, politician, statesman. Make no +compromise with error; do not contaminate yourself with diplomacy, +make no compact with fear, with expediency, with the false doctrines +of a _legality_, which is merely a falsehood invented when faith +failed. Take no counsel except from God, from the inspirations of your +own heart, and from the imperious necessity of rebuilding a temple to +truth, to justice, to faith. Self-collected, in enthusiasm of love for +humanity, and apart from every human regard, ask of God that he will +teach you the way; then enter upon it, with the faith of a conqueror +on your brow, with the irrevocable decision of the martyr in your +heart; look neither to the right hand nor the left, but straight +before you, and up to heaven. Of every object that meets you on the +way, ask of yourself: 'Is this just or unjust, true or false, law of +man or law of God?' Proclaim aloud the result of your examination, and +act accordingly. Do not say to yourself: 'If I speak and work in such +a way, the princes of the earth will disagree; the ambassadors will +present notes and protests!' What are the quarrels of selfishness in +princes, or their notes, before a syllable of the eternal Evangelists +of God? They have had importance till now, because, though phantoms, +they had nothing to oppose them but phantoms; oppose to them the +reality of a man who sees the Divine view, unknown to them, of human +affairs, of an immortal soul conscious of a high mission, and these +will vanish before you as vapors accumulated in darkness before the +sun which rises in the east. Do not let yourself be affrighted by +intrigues; the creature who fulfils a duty belongs not to men, but to +God. God will protect you; God will spread around you such a halo +of love, that neither the perfidy of men irreparably lost, nor +the suggestions of hell, can break through it. Give to the world a +spectacle new, unique: you will have results new, not to be foreseen +by human calculation. Announce an era; declare that Humanity is +sacred, and a daughter of God; that all who violate her rights to +progress, to association, are on the way of error; that in God is the +source of every government; that those who are best by intellect and +heart, by genius and virtue, must be the guides of the people. +Bless those who suffer and combat; blame, reprove, those who cause +suffering, without regard to the name they bear, the rank that invests +them. The people will adore in you the best interpreter of the +Divine design, and your conscience will give you rest, strength, and +ineffable comfort. + +"Unify Italy, your country. For this you have no need to work, but +to bless Him who works through you and in your name. Gather round you +those who best represent the national party. Do not beg alliances with +princes. Continue to seek the alliance of our own people; say, 'The +unity of Italy ought to be a fact of the nineteenth century,' and it +will suffice; we shall work for you. Leave our pens free; leave free +the circulation of ideas in what regards this point, vital for us, +of the national unity. Treat the Austrian government, even when it no +longer menaces your territory, with the reserve of one who knows that +it governs by usurpation in Italy and elsewhere; combat it with words +of a just man, wherever it contrives oppressions and violations of +the rights of others out of Italy. Require, in the name of the God of +Peace, the Jesuits allied with Austria in Switzerland to withdraw from +that country, where their presence prepares an inevitable and speedy +effusion of the blood of the citizens. Give a word of sympathy which +shall become public to the first Pole of Galicia who comes into your +presence. Show us, in fine, by some fact, that you intend not only to +improve the physical condition of your own few subjects, but that +you embrace in your love the twenty-four millions of Italians, your +brothers; that you believe them called by God to unite in family unity +under one and the same compact; that you would bless the national +banner, wherever it should be raised by pure and incontaminate hands; +and leave the rest to us. We will cause to rise around you a nation +over whose free and popular development you, living, shall preside. +We will found a government unique in Europe, which shall destroy the +absurd divorce between spiritual and temporal power, and in which you +shall be chosen to represent the principle of which the men chosen by +the nation will make the application. We shall know how to translate +into a potent fact the instinct which palpitates through all Italy. +We will excite for you active support among the nations of Europe; we +will find you friends even in the ranks of Austria; we alone, because +we alone have unity of design, believe in the truth of our principle, +and have never betrayed it. Do not fear excesses from the people once +entered upon this way; the people only commit excesses when left to +their own impulses without any guide whom they respect. Do not pause +before the idea of becoming a cause of war. War exists, everywhere, +open or latent, but near breaking out, inevitable; nor can human +power prevent it. Nor do I, it must be said frankly, Most Holy +Father, address to you these words because I doubt in the least of our +destiny, or because I believe you the sole, the indispensable means +of the enterprise. The unity of Italy is a work of God,--a part of +the design of Providence and of all, even of those who show themselves +most satisfied with local improvements, and who, less sincere than +I, wish to make them means of attaining their own aims. It will be +fulfilled, with you or without you. But I address you, because I +believe you worthy to take the initiative in a work so vast; because +your putting yourself at the head of it would much abridge the road +and diminish the dangers, the injury, the blood; because with you +the conflict would assume a religious aspect, and be freed from many +dangers of reaction and civil errors; because might be attained at +once under your banner a political result and a vast moral result; +because the revival of Italy under the aegis of a religious idea, of +a standard, not of rights, but of duties, would leave behind all the +revolutions of other countries, and place her immediately at the head +of European progress; because it is in your power to cause that God +and the people, terms too often fatally disjoined, should meet at once +in beautiful and holy harmony, to direct the fate of nations. + +"If I could be near you, I would invoke from God power to convince +you, by gesture, by accent, by tears; now I can only confide to the +paper the cold corpse, as it were, of my thought; nor can I ever have +the certainty that you have read, and meditated a moment what I write. +But I feel an imperious necessity of fulfilling this duty toward Italy +and you, and, whatsoever you may think of it, I shall find myself more +in peace with my conscience for having thus addressed you. + +"Believe, Most Holy Father, in the feelings of veneration and of high +hope which professes for you your most devoted + +"JOSEPH MAZZINI." + + +Whatever may be the impression of the reader as to the ideas and +propositions contained in this document,[A] I think he cannot fail to +be struck with its simple nobleness, its fervent truth. + +[Footnote A: This letter was printed in Paris to be circulated in +Italy. A prefatory note signed by a friend of Mazzini's, states that +the original was known to have reached the hands of the Pope. The hope +is expressed that the publication of this letter, though without the +authority of its writer, will yet not displease him, as those who are +deceived as to his plans and motives will thus learn his true purposes +and feelings, and the letter will one day aid the historian who seeks +to know what were the opinions and hopes of the entire people of +Italy.--ED.] + +A thousand petty interruptions have prevented my completing this +letter, till, now the hour of closing the mail for the steamer is so +near, I shall not have time to look over it, either to see what I have +written or make slight corrections. However, I suppose it represents +the feelings of the last few days, and shows that, without having lost +any of my confidence in the Italian movement, the office of the Pope +in promoting it has shown narrower limits, and sooner than I had +expected. + +This does not at all weaken my personal feeling toward this excellent +man, whose heart I have seen in his face, and can never doubt. It was +necessary to be a great thinker, a great genius, to compete with the +difficulties of his position. I never supposed he was that; I am +only disappointed that his good heart has not carried him on a little +farther. With regard to the reception of the American address, it +is only the Roman press that is so timid; the private expressions of +pleasure have been very warm; the Italians say, "The Americans are +indeed our brothers." It remains to be seen, when Pius IX. receives +it, whether the man, the reforming prince, or the Pope is uppermost at +that moment. + + + + +LETTER XXII. + +THE CEREMONIES SUCCEEDING EPIPHANY.--THE DEATH OF TORLONIA, AND ITS +PREDISPOSING CAUSES.--FUNERAL HONORS.--A STRIKING CONTRAST IN THE +DECEASE OF THE CARDINAL PRINCE MASSIMO.--THE POPE AND HIS OFFICERS +OF STATE.--THE CARDINAL BOFONDI.--SYMPATHETIC EXCITEMENTS THROUGH +ITALY.--SICILY IN FULL INSURRECTION.--THE KING OF SICILY, PRINCE +METTERNICH, AND LOUIS PHILIPPE.--A RUMOR AS TO THE PARENTAGE OF THE +KING OF THE FRENCH.--ROME: AVE MARIA.--LIFE IN THE ETERNAL CITY.--THE +BAMBINO.--CATHOLICISM: ITS GIFTS AND ITS WORKINGS.--THE CHURCH OF ARA +COELI.--EXHIBITION OF THE BAMBINO.--BYGONE SUPERSTITION AND LIVING +REALITY.--THE SOUL OF CATHOLICISM HAS FLED.--REFLECTIONS.--EXHIBITION +BY THE COLLEGE OF THE PROPAGANDA.--EXERCISES IN ALL LANGUAGES.-- +DISTURBANCES AND THEIR CAUSES.--THOUGHTS.--BLESSING ANIMALS.--ACCOUNTS +FROM PAVIA.--AUSTRIA.--THE KING OF NAPLES.--RUMORS FROM OTHER PARTS OF +EUROPE.--FRANCE.--GUIZOT.--APPEARANCES AND APPREHENSIONS. + + +Rome, January, 1848. + +I think I closed my last letter, without having had time to speak of +the ceremonies that precede and follow Epiphany. This month, no day, +scarcely an hour, has passed unmarked by some showy spectacle or some +exciting piece of news. + +On the last day of the year died Don Carlo Torlonia, brother of the +banker, a man greatly beloved and regretted. The public felt this +event the more that its proximate cause was an attack made upon his +brother's house by Paradisi, now imprisoned in the Castle of St. +Angelo, pending a law process for proof of his accusations. Don +Carlo had been ill before, and the painful agitation caused by these +circumstances decided his fate. The public had been by no means +displeased at this inquiry into the conduct of Don Alessandro +Torlonia, believing that his assumed munificence is, in this case, +literally a robbery of Peter to pay Paul, and that all he gives +to Rome is taken from Rome. But I sympathized no less with the +affectionate indignation of his brother, too good a man to be made the +confidant of wrong, or have eyes for it, if such exist. + +Thus, in the poetical justice which does not fail to be done in the +prose narrative of life, while men hastened, the moment a cry was +raised against Don Alessandro, to echo it back with all kinds of +imputations both on himself and his employees, every man held his +breath, and many wept, when the mortal remains of Don Carlo passed; +feeling that in him was lost a benefactor, a brother, a simple, just +man. + +Don Carlo was a Knight of Malta; yet with him the celibate life had +not hardened the heart, but only left it free on all sides to general +love. Not less than half a dozen pompous funerals were given in his +honor, by his relatives, the brotherhoods to which he belonged, and +the battalion of the Civic Guard of which he was commander-in-chief. +But in his own house the body lay in no other state than that of a +simple Franciscan, the order to which he first belonged, and whose vow +he had kept through half a century, by giving all he had for the good +of others. He lay on the ground in the plain dark robe and cowl, no +unfit subject for a modern picture of little angels descending to +shower lilies on a good man's corpse. The long files of armed men, +the rich coaches, and liveried retinues of the princes, were little +observed, in comparison with more than a hundred orphan girls whom his +liberality had sustained, and who followed the bier in mourning robes +and long white veils, spirit-like, in the dark night. The trumpet's +wail, and soft, melancholy music from the bands, broke at times the +roll of the muffled drum; the hymns of the Church were chanted, and +volleys of musketry discharged, in honor of the departed; but much +more musical was the whisper in which the crowd, as passed his mortal +frame, told anecdotes of his good deeds. + +I do not know when I have passed more consolatory moments than in the +streets one evening during this pomp and picturesque show,--for once +not empty of all meaning as to the present time, recognizing that +good which remains in the human being, ineradicable by all ill, and +promises that our poor, injured nature shall rise, and bloom again, +from present corruption to immortal purity. If Don Carlo had been a +thinker,--a man of strong intellect,--he might have devised means of +using his money to more radical advantage than simply to give it in +alms; he had only a kind human heart, but from that heart distilled a +balm which made all men bless it, happy in finding cause to bless. + +As in the moral little books with which our nurseries are entertained, +followed another death in violent contrast. One of those whom the new +arrangements deprived of power and the means of unjust gain was the +Cardinal Prince Massimo, a man a little younger than Don Carlo, +but who had passed his forty years in a very different manner. +He remonstrated; the Pope was firm, and, at last, is said to have +answered with sharp reproof for the past. The Cardinal contained +himself in the audience, but, going out, literally suffocated with the +rage he had suppressed. The bad blood his bad heart had been so +long making rushed to his head, and he died on his return home. +Men laughed, and proposed that all the widows he had deprived of a +maintenance should combine to follow _his_ bier. It was said boys +hissed as that bier passed. Now, a splendid suit of lace being for +sale in a shop of the Corso, everybody says: "Have you been to look +at the lace of Cardinal Massimo, who died of rage, because he could +no longer devour the public goods?" And this is the last echo of _his_ +requiem. + +The Pope is anxious to have at least well-intentioned men in places of +power. Men of much ability, it would seem, are not to be had. His last +prime minister was a man said to have energy, good dispositions, but +no thinking power. The Cardinal Bofondi, whom he has taken now, is +said to be a man of scarce any ability; there being few among the +new Councillors the public can name as fitted for important trust. +In consolation, we must remember that the Chancellor Oxenstiern found +nothing more worthy of remark to show his son, than by how little +wisdom the world could be governed. We must hope these men of straw +will serve as thatch to keep out the rain, and not be exposed to the +assaults of a devouring flame. + +Yet that hour may not be distant. The disturbances of the 1st of +January here were answered by similar excitements in Leghorn and +Genoa, produced by the same hidden and malignant foe. At the same +time, the Austrian government in Milan organized an attempt to rouse +the people to revolt, with a view to arrests, and other measures +calculated to stifle the spirit of independence they know to be latent +there. In this iniquitous attempt they murdered eighty persons; yet +the citizens, on their guard, refused them the desired means of +ruin, and they were forced to retractions as impudently vile as their +attempts had been. The Viceroy proclaimed that "he hoped the people +would confide in him as he did in them"; and no doubt they will. At +Leghorn and Genoa, the wiles of the foe were baffled by the wisdom of +the popular leaders, as I trust they always will be; but it is needful +daily to expect these nets laid in the path of the unwary. + +Sicily is in full insurrection; and it is reported Naples, but this +is not sure. There was a report, day before yesterday, that the poor, +stupid king was already here, and had taken cheap chambers at the +Hotel d'Allemagne, as, indeed, it is said he has always a turn for +economy, when he cannot live at the expense of his suffering people. +Day before yesterday, every carriage that the people saw with a +stupid-looking man in it they did not know, they looked to see if it +was not the royal runaway. But it was their wish was father to that +thought, and it has not as yet taken body as fact. In like manner they +report this week the death of Prince Metternich; but I believe it +is not sure he is dead yet, only dying. With him passes one great +embodiment of ill to Europe. As for Louis Philippe, he seems reserved +to give the world daily more signal proofs of his base apostasy to the +cause that placed him on the throne, and that heartless selfishness, +of which his face alone bears witness to any one that has a mind to +read it. How the French nation could look upon that face, while yet +flushed with the hopes of the Three Days, and put him on the throne +as representative of those hopes, I cannot conceive. There is a story +current in Italy, that he is really the child of a man first a barber, +afterwards a police-officer, and was substituted at nurse for the true +heir of Orleans; and the vulgarity of form in his body of limbs, power +of endurance, greed of gain, and hard, cunning intellect, so unlike +all traits of the weak, but more "genteel" Bourbon race, might well +lend plausibility to such a fable. + +But to return to Rome, where I hear the Ave Maria just ringing. By the +way, nobody pauses, nobody thinks, nobody prays. + + "Ave Maria! 't is the hour of prayer, + Ave Maria! 't is the hour of love," &c., + +is but a figment of the poet's fancy. + +To return to Rome: what a Rome! the fortieth day of rain, and damp, +and abominable reeking odors, such as blessed cities swept by the +sea-breeze--bitter sometimes, yet indeed a friend--never know. It has +been dark all day, though the lamp has only been lit half an hour. The +music of the day has been, first the atrocious _arias_, which last in +the Corso till near noon, though certainly less in virulence on rainy +days. Then came the wicked organ-grinder, who, apart from the horror +of the noise, grinds exactly the same obsolete abominations as at +home or in England,--the Copenhagen Waltz, "Home, sweet home," and all +that! The cruel chance that both an English my-lady and a Councillor +from one of the provinces live opposite, keeps him constantly before +my window, hoping baiocchi. Within, the three pet dogs of my landlady, +bereft of their walk, unable to employ their miserable legs and eyes, +exercise themselves by a continual barking, which is answered by all +the dogs in the neighborhood. An urchin returning from the laundress, +delighted with the symphony, lays down his white bundle in the gutter, +seats himself on the curb-stone, and attempts an imitation of the +music of cats as a tribute to the concert. The door-bell rings. _Chi +e?_ "Who is it?" cries the handmaid, with unweariable senselessness, +as if any one would answer, _Rogue_, or _Enemy_, instead of the +traditionary _Amico_, _Friend_. Can it be, perchance, a letter, news +of home, or some of the many friends who have neglected so long +to write, or some ray of hope to break the clouds of the difficult +Future? Far from it. Enter a man poisoning me at once with the smell +of the worst possible cigars, not to be driven out, insisting I shall +look upon frightful, ill-cut cameos, and worse-designed mosaics, +made by some friend of his, who works in a chamber and will sell _so_ +cheap. Man of ill-odors and meanest smile! I am no Countess to be +fooled by you. For dogs they were not even--dog-cheap. + +A faint and misty gleam of sun greeted the day on which there was the +feast to the Bambino, the most venerated doll of Rome. This is the +famous image of the infant Jesus, reputed to be made of wood from +a tree of Palestine, and which, being taken away from its present +abode,--the church of Ara Coeli,--returned by itself, making the bells +ring as it sought admittance at the door. It is this which is carried +in extreme cases to the bedside of the sick. It has received more +splendid gifts than any other idol. An orphan by my side, now +struggling with difficulties, showed me on its breast a splendid +jewel, which a doting grandmother thought more likely to benefit her +soul if given to the Bambino, than if turned into money to give her +grandchildren education and prospects in life. The same old lady +left her vineyard, not to these children, but to her confessor, a +well-endowed Monsignor, who occasionally asks this youth, his +godson, to dinner! Children so placed are not quite such devotees to +Catholicism as the new proselytes of America;--they are not so much +patted on the head, and things do not show to them under quite the +same silver veil. + +The church of Ara Coeli is on or near the site of the temple of +Capitoline Jove, which certainly saw nothing more idolatrous than +these ceremonies. For about a week the Bambino is exhibited in an +illuminated chapel, in the arms of a splendidly dressed Madonna doll. +Behind, a transparency represents the shepherds, by moonlight, at the +time the birth was announced, and, above, God the Father, with many +angels hailing the event. A pretty part of this exhibition, which I +was not so fortunate as to hit upon, though I went twice on purpose, +is the children making little speeches in honor of the occasion. +Many readers will remember some account of this in Andersen's +"Improvvisatore." + +The last time I went was the grand feast in honor of the Bambino. The +church was entirely full, mostly with Contadini and the poorer people, +absorbed in their devotions: one man near me never raised his head +or stirred from his knees to see anything; he seemed in an anguish of +prayer, either from repentance or anxiety. I wished I could have +hoped the ugly little doll could do Mm any good. The noble stair +which descends from the great door of this church to the foot of the +Capitol,--a stair made from fragments of the old imperial time,--was +flooded with people; the street below was a rapid river also, whose +waves were men. The ceremonies began with splendid music from the +organ, pealing sweetly long and repeated invocations. As if answering +to this call, the world came in, many dignitaries, the Conservatori, +(I think conservatives are the same everywhere, official or no,) and +did homage to the image; then men in white and gold, with the candles +they are so fond here of burning by daylight, as if the poorest +artificial were better than the greatest natural light, uplifted high +above themselves the baby, with its gilded robes and crown, and made +twice the tour of the church, passing twice the column labelled "From +the Home of Augustus," while the band played--what?--the Hymn to Pius +IX. and "Sons of Rome, awake!" Never was a crueller comment upon the +irreconcilableness of these two things. Rome seeks to reconcile reform +and priestcraft. + +But her eyes are shut, that they see not. O awake indeed, Romans! and +you will see that the Christ who is to save men is no wooden dingy +effigy of bygone superstitions, but such as Art has seen him in your +better mood,--a Child, living, full of love, prophetic of a boundless +future,--a Man acquainted with all sorrows that rend the heart of +all, and ever loving man with sympathy and faith death could not +quench,--_that_ Christ lives and may be sought; burn your doll of +wood. + +How any one can remain a Catholic--I mean who has ever been aroused to +think, and is not biassed by the partialities of childish years--after +seeing Catholicism here in Italy, I cannot conceive. There was once a +soul in the religion while the blood of its martyrs was yet fresh +upon the ground, but that soul was always too much encumbered with +the remains of pagan habits and customs: that soul is now quite fled +elsewhere, and in the splendid catafalco, watched by so many white +and red-robed snuff-taking, sly-eyed men, would they let it be opened, +nothing would be found but bones! + +Then the College for propagating all this, the most venerable +Propaganda, has given its exhibition in honor of the Magi, wise men of +the East who came to Christ. I was there one day. In conformity with +the general spirit of Rome,--strangely inconsistent in a country where +the Madonna is far more frequently and devoutly worshipped than God or +Christ, in a city where at least as many female saints and martyrs are +venerated as male,--there was no good place for women to sit. All +the good seats were for the men in the area below, but in the gallery +windows, and from the organ-loft, a few women were allowed to peep +at what was going on. I was one of these exceptional characters. The +exercises were in all the different languages under the sun. It would +have been exceedingly interesting to hear them, one after the +other, each in its peculiar cadence and inflection, but much of the +individual expression was taken away by that general false academic +tone which is sure to pervade such exhibitions where young men speak +who have as yet nothing to say. It would have been different, indeed, +if we could have heard natives of all those countries, who were +animated by real feelings, real wants. Still it was interesting, +particularly the language and music of Kurdistan, and the full-grown +beauty of the Greek after the ruder dialects. Among those who appeared +to the best advantage were several blacks, and the majesty of the +Latin hexameters was confided to a full-blooded Guinea negro, who +acquitted himself better than any other I heard. I observed, too, the +perfectly gentlemanly appearance of these young men, and that they +had nothing of that Cuffy swagger by which those freed from a servile +state try to cover a painful consciousness of their position in our +country. Their air was self-possessed, quiet and free beyond that of +most of the whites. + + +January 22, 2 o'clock, P.M. + +Pour, pour, pour again, dark as night,--many people coming in to see +me because they don't know what to do with themselves. I am very glad +to see them for the same reason; this atmosphere is so heavy, I seem +to carry the weight of the world on my head and feel unfitted for +every exertion. As to eating, that is a bygone thing; wine, coffee, +meat, I have resigned; vegetables are few and hard to have, except +horrible cabbage, in which the Romans delight. A little rice still +remains, which I take with pleasure, remembering it growing in the +rich fields of Lombardy, so green and full of glorious light. That +light fell still more beautiful on the tall plantations of hemp, but +it is dangerous just at present to think of what is made from hemp. + +This week all the animals are being blessed,[A] and they get a +gratuitous baptism, too, the while. The lambs one morning were taken +out to the church of St. Agnes for this purpose. The little companion +of my travels, if he sees this letter, will remember how often we saw +her with her lamb in pictures. The horses are being blessed by St. +Antonio, and under his harmonizing influence are afterward driven +through the city, twelve and even twenty in hand. They are harnessed +into light wagons, and men run beside them to guard against accident, +in case the good influence of the Saint should fail. + +[Footnote A: One of Rome's singular customs.--ED.] + +This morning came the details of infamous attempts by the Austrian +police to exasperate the students of Pavia. The way is to send persons +to smoke cigars in forbidden places, who insult those who are obliged +to tell them to desist. These traps seem particularly shocking when +laid for fiery and sensitive young men. They succeeded: the students +were lured, into combat, and a number left dead and wounded on both +sides. The University is shut up; the inhabitants of Pavia and Milan +have put on mourning; even at the theatre they wear it. The Milanese +will not walk in that quarter where the blood of their fellow-citizens +has been so wantonly shed. They have demanded a legal investigation of +the conduct of the officials. + +At Piacenza similar attempts have been made to excite the Italians, by +smoking in their faces, and crying, "Long live the Emperor!" It is a +worthy homage to pay to the Austrian crown,--this offering of cigars +and blood. + + "O this offence is rank; it smells to Heaven." + +This morning authentic news is received from Naples. The king, when +assured by his own brother that Sicily was in a state of irresistible +revolt, and that even the women quelled the troops,--showering on them +stones, furniture, boiling oil, such means of warfare as the household +may easily furnish to a thoughtful matron,--had, first, a stroke of +apoplexy, from, which the loss of a good deal of bad blood relieved +him. His mind apparently having become clearer thereby, he has offered +his subjects an amnesty and terms of reform, which, it is hoped, will +arrive before his troops have begun to bombard the cities in obedience +to earlier orders. + +Comes also to-day the news that the French Chamber of Peers propose +an Address to the King, echoing back all the falsehoods of his speech, +including those upon reform, and the enormous one that "the peace of +Europe is now assured"; but that some members have worthily opposed +this address, and spoken truth in an honorable manner. + +Also, that the infamous sacrifice of the poor little queen of Spain +puts on more tragic colors; that it is pretended she has epilepsy, and +she is to be made to renounce the throne, which, indeed, has been a +terrific curse to her. And Heaven and Earth have looked calmly on, +while the king of France has managed all this with the most unnatural +of mothers. + + +January 27. + +This morning comes the plan of the Address of the Chamber of Deputies +to the King: it contains some passages that are keenest satire upon +him, as also some remarks which have been made, some words of truth +spoken in the Chamber of Peers, that must have given him some twinges +of nervous shame as he read. M. Guizot's speech on the affairs of +Switzerland shows his usual shabbiness and falsehood. Surely never +prime minister stood in so mean a position as he: one like Metternich +seems noble and manly in comparison; for if there is a cruel, +atheistical, treacherous policy, there needs not at least continual +evasion to avoid declaring in words what is so glaringly manifest in +fact. + +There is news that the revolution has now broken out in Naples; that +neither Sicilians nor Neapolitans will trust the king, but demand +his abdication; and that his bad demon, Coclo, has fled, carrying two +hundred thousand ducats of gold. But in particulars this news is not +yet sure, though, no doubt, there is truth, at the bottom. + +Aggressions on the part of the Austrians continue in the North. The +advocates Tommaso and Manin (a light thus reflected on the name of the +last Doge), having dared to declare formally the necessity of reform, +are thrown into prison. Every day the cloud swells, and the next +fortnight is likely to bring important tidings. + + + + +LETTER XXIII. + +UNPLEASANTNESS OF A ROMAN WINTER.--PROGRESS OF EVENTS IN EUROPE, +AND THEIR EFFECT UPON ITALY.--THE CARNIVAL.--RAIN INTERRUPTS +THE GAYETY.--REJOICINGS FOR THE REVOLUTIONS OF FRANCE AND +AUSTRIA.--TRANSPORTS OF THE PEOPLE.--OBLATIONS TO THE CAUSE OF +LIBERTY.--CASTLE FUSANO.--THE WEATHER, GLADSOMENESS OF NATURE, AND THE +PLEASURE OF THOUGHT. + + +Rome, March 29, 1848. + +It is long since I have written. My health entirely gave way beneath +the Roman winter. The rain was constant, commonly falling in torrents +from the 16th of December to the 19th of March. Nothing could surpass +the dirt, the gloom, the desolation, of Rome. Let no one fancy he has +seen her who comes here only in the winter. It is an immense mistake +to do so. I cannot sufficiently rejoice that I did not first see Italy +in the winter. + +The climate of Rome at this time of extreme damp I have found equally +exasperating and weakening. I have had constant nervous headache +without strength to bear it, nightly fever, want of appetite. Some +constitutions bear it better, but the complaint of weakness and +extreme dejection of spirits is general among foreigners in the wet +season. The English say they become acclimated in two or three years, +and cease to suffer, though never so strong as at home. + +Now this long dark dream--to me the most idle and most suffering +season of my life--seems past. The Italian heavens wear again their +deep blue; the sun shines gloriously; the melancholy lustres are +stealing again over the Campagna, and hundreds of larks sing unwearied +above its ruins. + +Nature seems in sympathy with the great events that are +transpiring,--with the emotions which are swelling the hearts of +men. The morning sun is greeted by the trumpets of the Roman legions +marching out once more, now not to oppress but to defend. The stars +look down on their jubilees over the good news which nightly reaches +them from their brothers of Lombardy. This week has been one of +nobler, sweeter feeling, of a better hope and faith, than Rome in her +greatest days ever knew. How much has happened since I wrote! First, +the victorious resistance of Sicily and the revolution of Naples. +This has led us yet only to half-measures, but even these have been of +great use to the progress of Italy. The Neapolitans will probably have +to get rid at last of the stupid crowned head who is at present their +puppet; but their bearing with him has led to the wiser sovereigns +granting these constitutions, which, if eventually inadequate to the +wants of Italy, will be so useful, are so needed, to educate her to +seek better, completer forms of administration. + +In the midst of all this serious work came the play of Carnival, in +which there was much less interest felt than usual, but enough to +dazzle and captivate a stranger. One thing, however, has been omitted +in the description of the Roman Carnival; i.e. that it rains every +day. Almost every day came on violent rain, just as the tide of gay +masks was fairly engaged in the Corso. This would have been well worth +bearing once or twice, for the sake of seeing the admirable good +humor of this people. Those who had laid out all their savings in the +gayest, thinnest dresses, on carriages and chairs for the Corso, found +themselves suddenly drenched, their finery spoiled, and obliged to +ride and sit shivering all the afternoon. But they never murmured, +never scolded, never stopped throwing their flowers. Their strength of +constitution is wonderful. While I, in my shawl and boa, was coughing +at the open window from the moment I inhaled the wet sepulchral air, +the servant-girls of the house had taken off their woollen gowns, and, +arrayed in white muslins and roses, sat in the drenched street +beneath the drenching rain, quite happy, and have suffered nothing in +consequence. + +The Romans renounced the _Moccoletti_, ostensibly as an expression of +sympathy for the sufferings of the Milanese, but really because, at +that time, there was great disturbance about the Jesuits, and the +government feared that difficulties would arise in the excitement of +the evening. But, since, we have had this entertainment in honor +of the revolutions of France and Austria, and nothing could be more +beautiful. The fun usually consists in all the people blowing one +another's lights out. We had not this; all the little tapers were +left to blaze, and the long Corso swarmed with tall fire-flies. Lights +crept out over the surface of all the houses, and such merry little +twinkling lights, laughing and flickering with each slightest movement +of those who held them! Up and down the Corso they twinkled, they +swarmed, they streamed, while a surge of gay triumphant sound ebbed +and flowed beneath that glittering surface. Here and there danced men +carrying aloft _moccoli_, and clanking chains, emblem of the tyrannic +power now vanquished by the people;--the people, sweet and noble, who, +in the intoxication of their joy, were guilty of no rude or unkindly +word or act, and who, no signal being given as usual for the +termination of their diversion, closed, of their own accord and with +one consent, singing the hymns for Pio, by nine o'clock, and +retired peacefully to their homes, to dream of hopes they yet scarce +understand. + +This happened last week. The news of the dethronement of Louis +Philippe reached us just after the close of the Carnival. It was just +a year from my leaving Paris. I did not think, as I looked with such +disgust on the empire of sham he had established in France, and saw +the soul of the people imprisoned and held fast as in an iron vice, +that it would burst its chains so soon. Whatever be the result, France +has done gloriously; she has declared that she will not be satisfied +with pretexts while there are facts in the world,--that to stop her +march is a vain attempt, though the onward path be dangerous and +difficult. It is vain to cry, Peace! peace! when there is no peace. +The news from France, in these days, sounds ominous, though still +vague. It would appear that the political is being merged in the +social struggle: it is well. Whatever blood is to be shed, whatever +altars cast down, those tremendous problems MUST be solved, whatever +be the cost! That cost cannot fail to break many a bank, many a heart, +in Europe, before the good can bud again out of a mighty corruption. +To you, people of America, it may perhaps be given to look on and +learn in time for a preventive wisdom. You may learn the real meaning +of the words FRATERNITY, EQUALITY: you may, despite the apes of the +past who strive to tutor you, learn the needs of a true democracy. You +may in time learn to reverence, learn to guard, the true aristocracy +of a nation, the only really nobles,--the LABORING CLASSES. + +And Metternich, too, is crushed; the seed of the woman has had his +foot on the serpent. I have seen the Austrian arms dragged through +the streets of Rome and burned in the Piazza del Popolo. The Italians +embraced one another, and cried, _Miracolo! Providenza!_ the modern +Tribune Ciceronacchio fed the flame with faggots; Adam Mickiewicz, the +great poet of Poland, long exiled from his country or the hopes of a +country, looked on, while Polish women, exiled too, or who perhaps, +like one nun who is here, had been daily scourged by the orders of a +tyrant, brought little pieces that had been scattered in the street +and threw them into the flames,--an offering received by the Italians +with loud plaudits. It was a transport of the people, who found no way +to vent their joy, but the symbol, the poesy, natural to the Italian +mind. The ever-too-wise "upper classes" regret it, and the Germans +choose to resent it as an insult to Germany; but it was nothing of +the kind; the insult was to the prisons of Spielberg, to those who +commanded the massacres of Milan,--a base tyranny little congenial to +the native German heart, as the true Germans of Germany are at this +moment showing by their resolves, by their struggles. + +When the double-headed eagle was pulled down from above the lofty +portal of the Palazzo di Venezia, the people placed there in its stead +one of white and gold, inscribed with the name ALTA ITALIA, and quick +upon the emblem followed the news that Milan was fighting against her +tyrants,--that Venice had driven them out and freed from their prisons +the courageous Protestants in favor of truth, Tommaso and Manin,--that +Manin, descendant of the last Doge, had raised the republican banner +on the Place St. Mark,--and that Modena, that Parma, were driving out +the unfeeling and imbecile creatures who had mocked Heaven and man by +the pretence of government there. + +With indescribable rapture these tidings were received in Rome. Men +were seen dancing, women weeping with joy along the street. The youth +rushed to enroll themselves in regiments to go to the frontier. In the +Colosseum their names were received. Father Gavazzi, a truly patriotic +monk, gave them the cross to carry on a new, a better, because +defensive, crusade. Sterbini, long exiled, addressed them. He said: +"Romans, do you wish to go; do you wish to go with all your hearts? +If so, you _may_, and those who do not wish to go themselves may give +money. To those who will go, the government gives bread and fifteen +baiocchi a day." The people cried: "We wish to go, but we do not wish +so much; the government is very poor; we can live on a paul a day." +The princes answered by giving, one sixty thousand, others twenty, +fifteen, ten thousand dollars. The people responded by giving at +the benches which are opened in the piazzas literally everything; +street-pedlers gave the gains of each day; women gave every +ornament,--from the splendid necklace and bracelet down to the poorest +bit of coral; servant-girls gave five pauls, two pauls, even half a +paul, if they had no more. A man all in rags gave two pauls. "It +is," said he, "all I have." "Then," said Torlonia, "take from me this +dollar." The man of rags thanked him warmly, and handed that also to +the bench, which refused to receive it. "No! _that_ must stay with +you," shouted all present. These are the people whom the traveller +accuses of being unable to rise above selfish considerations;--a +nation rich and glorious by nature, capable, like all nations, all +men, of being degraded by slavery, capable, as are few nations, few +men, of kindling into pure flame at the touch of a ray from the Sun of +Truth, of Life. + +The two or three days that followed, the troops were marching about by +detachments, followed always by the people, to the Ponte Molle, often +farther. The women wept; for the habits of the Romans are so domestic, +that it seemed a great thing to have their sons and lovers gone even +for a few months. The English--or at least those of the illiberal, +bristling nature too often met here, which casts out its porcupine +quills against everything like enthusiasm (of the more generous Saxon +blood I know some noble examples)--laughed at all this. They have said +that this people would not fight; when the Sicilians, men and women, +did so nobly, they said: "O, the Sicilians are quite unlike the +Italians; you will see, when the struggle comes on in Lombardy, they +cannot resist the Austrian force a moment." I said: "That force is +only physical; do not you think a sentiment can sustain them?" They +replied: "All stuff and poetry; it will fade the moment their blood +flows." When the news came that the Milanese, men and women, fight as +the Sicilians did, they said: "Well, the Lombards are a better race, +but these Romans are good for nothing. It is a farce for a Roman to +try to walk even; they never walk a mile; they will not be able to +support the first day's march of thirty miles, and not have their +usual _minestra_ to eat either." Now the troops were not willing to +wait for the government to make the necessary arrangements for their +march, so at the first night's station--Monterosi--they did _not_ find +food or bedding; yet the second night, at Civita Castellana, they were +so well alive as to remain dancing and vivaing Pio Nono in the piazza +till after midnight. No, Gentlemen, soul is not quite nothing, if +matter be a clog upon its transports. + +The Americans show a better, warmer feeling than they did; the meeting +in New York was of use in instructing the Americans abroad! The dinner +given here on Washington's birthday was marked by fine expressions of +sentiment, and a display of talent unusual on such occasions. There +was a poem from Mr. Story of Boston, which gave great pleasure; a +speech by Mr. Hillard, said to be very good, and one by Rev. Mr. Hedge +of Bangor, exceedingly admired for the felicity of thought and image, +and the finished beauty of style. + +Next week we shall have more news, and I shall try to write and +mention also some interesting things want of time obliges me to omit +in this letter. + + +April 1. + +Yesterday I passed at Ostia and Castle Fusano. A million birds sang; +the woods teemed with blossoms; the sod grew green hourly over the +graves of the mighty Past; the surf rushed in on a fair shore; the +Tiber majestically retreated to carry inland her share from the +treasures of the deep; the sea-breezes burnt my face, but revived my +heart. I felt the calm of thought, the sublime hopes of the future, +nature, man,--so great, though so little,--so dear, though incomplete. +Returning to Rome, I find the news pronounced official, that the +viceroy Ranieri has capitulated at Verona; that Italy is free, +independent, and one. I trust this will prove no April-foolery, no +premature news; it seems too good, too speedy a realization of hope, +to have come on earth, and can only be answered in the words of the +proclamation made yesterday by Pius IX.:-- + +"The events which these two months past have seen rush after one +another in rapid succession, are no human work. Woe to him who, in +this wind, which shakes and tears up alike the lofty cedars and humble +shrubs, hears not the voice of God! Woe to human pride, if to the +fault or merit of any man whatsoever it refer these wonderful changes, +instead of adoring the mysterious designs of Providence." + + + + +LETTER XXIV. + +AFFAIRS IN ITALY.--THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT OF MILAN.--ADDRESS TO +THE GERMAN NATION.--BROTHERHOOD, AND THE INDEPENDENCE OF ITALY.--THE +PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT TO THE NATIONS SUBJECT TO THE RULE OF THE +HOUSE OF AUSTRIA.--REFLECTIONS ON THESE MOVEMENTS.--LAMARTINE.-- +BERANGER.--MICKIEWICZ IN FLORENCE: ENTHUSIASTIC RECEPTION: STYLED +THE DANTE OF POLAND: HIS ADDRESS BEFORE THE FLORENTINES.--EXILES +RETURNING.--MAZZINI.--THE POSITION OF PIUS IX.--HIS DERELICTION FROM +THE CAUSE OF FREEDOM AND OF PROGRESS.--THE AFFAIR OF THE JESUITS.-- +HIS COURSE IN VARIOUS MATTERS.--LANGUAGE OF THE PEOPLE.--THE WORK +BEGUN BY NAPOLEON VIRTUALLY FINISHED.--THE LOSS OF PIUS IX. FOR THE +MOMENT A GREAT ONE.--THE RESPONSIBILITY OF EVENTS LYING WHOLLY WITH +THE PEOPLE.--HOPES AND PROSPECTS OF THE FUTURE. + + +Rome, April 19, 1848. + +In closing my last, I hoped to have some decisive intelligence +to impart by this time, as to the fortunes of Italy. But though +everything, so far, turns in her favor, there has been no decisive +battle, no final stroke. It pleases me much, as the news comes from +day to day, that I passed so leisurely last summer over that part of +Lombardy now occupied by the opposing forces, that I have in my mind +the faces both of the Lombard and Austrian leaders. A number of the +present members of the Provisional Government of Milan I knew while +there; they are men of twenty-eight and thirty, much more advanced in +thought than the Moderates of Rome, Naples, Tuscany, who are too much +fettered with a bygone state of things, and not on a par in thought, +knowledge, preparation for the great future, with the rest of the +civilized world at this moment. The papers that emanate from the +Milanese government are far superior in tone to any that have been +uttered by the other states. Their protest in favor of their rights, +their addresses to the Germans at large and the countries under the +dominion of Austria, are full of nobleness and thoughts sufficiently +great for the use of the coming age. These addresses I translate, +thinking they may not in other form reach America. + + +"THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT OF MILAN TO THE GERMAN NATION. + +"We hail you as brothers, valiant, learned, generous Germans! + +"This salutation from a people just risen after a terrible struggle to +self-consciousness and to the exercise of its rights, ought deeply to +move your magnanimous hearts. + +"We deem ourselves worthy to utter that great word Brotherhood, which +effaces among nations the traditions of all ancient hate, and we +proffer it over the new-made graves of our fellow-citizens, who have +fought and died to give us the right to proffer it without fear or +shame. + +"We call brothers men of all nations who believe and hope in the +improvement of the human family, and seek the occasion to further it; +but you, especially, we call brothers, you Germans, with whom, we have +in common so many noble sympathies,--the love of the arts and higher +studies, the delight of noble contemplation,--with whom also we have +much correspondence in our civil destinies. + +"With you are of first importance the interests of the great country, +Germany,--with us, those of the great country, Italy. + +"We were induced to rise in arms against Austria, (we mean, not +the people, but the government of Austria,) not only by the need of +redeeming ourselves from the shame and grief of thirty-one years of +the most abject despotism, but by a deliberate resolve to take our +place upon the plane of nations, to unite with our brothers of the +Peninsula, and take rank with them under the great banner raised by +Pius IX., on which is written, THE INDEPENDENCE OF ITALY. + +"Can you blame us, independent Germans? In blaming us, you would +sink beneath your history, beneath your most honored and recent +declarations. + +"We have chased the Austrian from our soil; we shall give ourselves +no repose till we have chased him from all parts of Italy. No this +enterprise we are all sworn; for this fights our army enrolled in +every part of the Peninsula,--an array of brothers led by the king of +Sardinia, who prides himself on being the sword of Italy. + +"And the Austrian is not more our enemy than yours. + +"The Austrian--we speak still of the government, and not of the +people--has always denied and contradicted the interests of the whole +German nation, at the head of an assemblage of races differing in +language, in customs, in institutions. When it was in his power to +have corrected the errors of time and a dynastic policy, by assuming +the high mission of uniting them by great moral interests, he +preferred to arm one against the other, and to corrupt them all. + +"Fearing every noble instinct, hostile to every grand idea, devoted +to the material interests of an oligarchy of princes spoiled by a +senseless education, of ministers who had sold their consciences, of +speculators who subjected and sacrificed everything to gold, the only +aim of such a government was to sow division everywhere. What wonder +if everywhere in Italy, as in Germany, it reaps harvests of hate and +ignominy. Yes, of hate! To this the Austrian has condemned us, to know +hate and its deep sorrows. But we are absolved in the sight of God, +and by the insults which have been heaped upon us for so many years, +the unwearied efforts to debase us, the destruction of our villages, +the cold-blooded slaughter of our aged people, our priests, our women, +our children. And you,--you shall be the first to absolve us, you, +virtuous among the Germans, who certainly have shared our indignation +when a venal and lying press accused us of being enemies to your great +and generous nation, and we could not answer, and were constrained to +devour in silence the shame of an accusation which wounded us to the +heart. + +"We honor you, Germans! we pant to give you glorious evidence of this. +And, as a prelude to the friendly relations we hope to form with your +governments, we seek to alleviate as much as possible the pains of +captivity to some officers and soldiers belonging to various states of +the Germanic Confederation, who fought in the Austrian army. These +we wish to send back to you, and are occupied by seeking the means to +effect this purpose. We honor you so much, that we believe you capable +of preferring to the bonds of race and language the sacred titles of +misfortune and of right. + +"Ah! answer to our appeal, valiant, wise, and generous Germans! Clasp +the hand, which we offer you with the heart of a brother and friend; +hasten to disavow every appearance of complicity with a government +which the massacres of Galicia and Lombardy have blotted from the list +of civilized and Christian governments. It would be a beautiful thing +for you to give this example, which will be new in history and worthy +of these miraculous times,--the example of a strong and generous +people casting aside other sympathies, other interests, to answer +the invitation of a regenerate people, to cheer it in its new career, +obedient to the great principles of justice, of humanity, of civil and +Christian brotherhood." + + +"THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT OF MILAN TO THE NATIONS SUBJECT TO THE +RULE OF THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA. + +"From your lands have come three armies which have brought war into +ours; your speech is spoken by those hostile bands who come to us with +fire and sword; nevertheless we come to you as to brothers. + +"The war which calls for our resistance is not your war; you are not +our enemies: you are only instruments in the hand of our foe, and this +foe, brothers, is common to us all. + +"Before God, before men, solemnly we declare it,--our only enemy is +the government of Austria. + +"And that government which for so many years has labored to cancel, in +the races it has subdued, every vestige of nationality, which takes +no heed of their wants or prayers, bent only on serving miserable +interests and more miserable pride, fomenting always antipathies +conformably with the ancient maxim of tyrants, _Divide and +govern_,--this government has constituted itself the adversary of +every generous thought, the ally and patron of all ignoble causes, +the government declared by the whole civilized world paymaster of the +executioners of Galicia. + +"This government, after having pertinaciously resisted the legal +expression of moderate desires,--after having defied with ludicrous +hauteur the opinion of Europe, has found itself in its metropolis +too weak to resist an insurrection of students, and has yielded,--has +yielded, making an assignment on time, and throwing to you, brothers, +as an alms-gift to the importunate beggar, the promise of institutions +which, in these days, are held essential conditions of life for a +civilized nation. + +"But you have not confided in this promise; for the youth of Vienna, +which feels the inspiring breath of this miraculous time, is impelled +on the path of progress; and therefore the Austrian government, +uncertain of itself and of your dispositions, took its old part of +standing still to wait for events, in the hope of turning them to its +own profit. + +"In the midst of this it received the news of our glorious revolution, +and it thought to have found in this the best way to escape from +its embarrassment. First it concealed that news; then made it known +piecemeal, and disfigured by hypocrisy and hatred. We were a handful +of rebels thirsting for German blood. We make a war of stilettos, we +wish the destruction of all Germany. But for us answers the admiration +of all Italy, of all Europe, even the evidence of your own people whom +we are constrained to hold prisoners or hostages, who will unanimously +avow that we have shown heroic courage in the fight, heroic moderation +in victory. + +"Yes! we have risen as one man against the Austrian government, to +become again a nation, to make common cause with our Italian brothers, +and the arms which we have assumed for so great an object we shall not +lay down till we have attained it. Assailed by a brutal executor of +brutal orders, we have combated in a just war; betrayed, a price +set on our heads, wounded in the most vital parts, we have not +transgressed the bounds of legitimate defence. The murders, the +depredations of the hostile band, irritated against us by most wicked +arts, have excited our horror, but never a reprisal. The soldier, his +arms once laid down, was for us only an unfortunate. + +"But behold how the Austrian government provokes you against us, and +bids you come against us as a crusade! A crusade! The parody would be +ludicrous if it were not so cruel. A crusade against a people which, +in the name of Christ, under a banner blessed by the Vicar of Christ, +and revered by all the nations, fights to secure its indefeasible +rights. + +"Oh! if you form against us this crusade,--we have already shown +the world what a people can do to reconquer its liberty, its +independence,--we will show, also, what it can do to preserve +them. If, almost unarmed, we have put to flight an army inured to +war,--surely, brothers, that army wanted faith in the cause for which +it fought,--can we fear that our courage will grow faint after our +triumph, and when aided by all our brothers of Italy? Let the Austrian +government send against us its threatened battalions, they will find +in our breasts a barrier more insuperable than the Alps. Everything +will be a weapon to us; from every villa, from every field, from every +hedge, will issue defenders of the national cause; women and children +will fight like men; men will centuple their strength, their courage; +and we will all perish amid the ruins of our city, before receiving +foreign rule into this land which at last we call ours. + +"But this must not be. You, our brothers, must not permit it to be; +your honor, your interests, do not permit it. Will you fight in a +cause which you must feel to be absurd and wicked? You sink to the +condition of hirelings, and do you not believe that the Austrian +government, should it conquer us and Italy, would turn against you the +arms you had furnished for the conquest? Do you not believe it would +act as after the struggle with Napoleon? And are you not terrified by +the idea of finding yourself in conflict with all civilized Europe, +and constrained to receive, to feast as your ally, the Autocrat of +Russia, that perpetual terror to the improvement and independence of +Europe? It is not possible for the house of Lorraine to forget its +traditions; it is not possible that it should resign itself to live +tranquil in the atmosphere of Liberty. You can only constrain it by +sustaining yourself, with the Germanic and Slavonian nationalities, +and with this Italy, which longs only to see the nations harmonize +with that resolve which she has finally taken, that she may never more +be torn in pieces. + +"Think of us, brothers. This is for you and for us a question of life +and of death; it is a question on which depends, perhaps, the peace of +Europe. + +"For ourselves, we have already weighed the chances of the struggle, +and subordinated them all to this final resolution, that we will be +free and independent, with our brothers of Italy. + +"We hope that our words will induce you to calm counsels; if not, you +will find us on the field of battle generous and loyal enemies, as now +we profess ourselves your generous and loyal brothers. + + (Signed,) + + "CASATI, _President_, + DURINI, + STRIGELLI, + BERETTA, + GRAPPI, + TURRONI, + REZZONICO, + CARBONERA, + BORROMEO, + P. LITTA, + GIULINI, + GUERRIERI, + PORRO, + MORRONI, + AB. ANELLI, + CORRENTI, _Sec.-Gen._" + +These are the names of men whose hearts glow with that generous ardor, +the noble product of difficult times. Into their hearts flows wisdom +from on high,--thoughts great, magnanimous, brotherly. They may not +all remain true to this high vocation, but, at any rate, they will +have lived a period of true life. I knew some of these men when in +Lombardy; of old aristocratic families, with all the refinement of +inheritance and education, they are thoroughly pervaded by principles +of a genuine democracy of brotherhood and justice. In the flower +of their age, they have before them a long career of the noblest +usefulness, if this era follows up its present promise, and they are +faithful to their present creed, and ready to improve and extend it. + +Every day produces these remarkable documents. So many years as we +have been suffocated and poisoned by the atmosphere of falsehood in +official papers, how refreshing is the tone of noble sentiment in +Lamartine! What a real wisdom and pure dignity in the letter +of Beranger! _He_ was always absolutely true,--an oasis in the +pestilential desert of Humbug; but the present time allowed him a fine +occasion. + +The Poles have also made noble manifestations. Their great poet, Adam +Mickiewicz, has been here to enroll the Italian Poles, publish the +declaration of faith in which they hope to re-enter and re-establish +their country, and receive the Pope's benediction on their banner. In +their declaration of faith are found these three articles:-- + +"Every one of the nation a citizen,--every citizen equal in rights and +before authorities. + +"To the Jew, our elder brother, respect, brotherhood, aid on the way +to his eternal and terrestrial good, entire equality in political and +civil rights. + +"To the companion of life, woman, citizenship, entire equality of +rights." + +This last expression of just thought the Poles ought to initiate, for +what other nation has had such truly heroic women? Women indeed,--not +children, servants, or playthings. + +Mickiewicz, with the squadron that accompanied him from Rome, was +received with the greatest enthusiasm at Florence. Deputations from +the clubs and journals went to his hotel and escorted him to the +Piazza del Gran Duca, where, amid an immense concourse of people, some +good speeches were made. A Florentine, with a generous forgetfulness +of national vanity, addressed him as the Dante of Poland, who, more +fortunate than the great bard and seer of Italy, was likely to return +to his country to reap the harvest of the seed he had sown. + +"O Dante of Poland! who, like our Alighieri, hast received from +Heaven sovereign genius, divine song, but from earth sufferings and +exile,--more happy than our Alighieri, thou hast reacquired a country; +already thou art meditating on the sacred harp the patriotic hymn of +restoration and of victory. The pilgrims of Poland have become the +warriors of their nation. Long live Poland, and the brotherhood of +nations!" + +When this address was finished, the great poet appeared on the balcony +to answer. The people received him with a tumult of applause, followed +by a profound silence, as they anxiously awaited his voice. Those +who are acquainted with the powerful eloquence, the magnetism, of +Mickiewicz as an orator, will not be surprised at the effect produced +by this speech, though delivered in a foreign language. It is the +force of truth, the great vitality of his presence, that loads his +words with such electric power. He spoke as follows:-- + +"People of Tuscany! Friends! Brothers! We receive your shouts of +sympathy in the name of Poland; not for us, but for our country. Our +country, though distant, claims from you this sympathy by its long +martyrdom. The glory of Poland, its only glory, truly Christian, is +to have suffered more than all the nations. In other countries the +goodness, the generosity of heart, of some sovereigns protected the +people; as yours has enjoyed the dawn of the era now coming, under the +protection of your excellent prince. [Viva Leopold II.!] But conquered +Poland, slave and victim, of sovereigns who were her sworn enemies and +executioners,--Poland, abandoned by the governments and the nations, +lay in agony on her solitary Golgotha. She was believed slain, dead, +burred. 'We have slain her,' shouted the despots; 'she is dead!' +[No, no! long live Poland!] 'The dead cannot rise again,' replied +the diplomatists; 'we may now be tranquil.' [A universal shudder of +feeling in the crowd.] There came a moment in which the world doubted +of the mercy and justice of the Omnipotent. There was a moment in +which the nations thought that the earth might be for ever abandoned +by God, and condemned to the rule of the demon, its ancient lord. The +nations forgot that Jesus Christ came down from heaven to give liberty +and peace to the earth. The nations had forgotten all this. But God +is just. The voice of Pius IX. roused Italy. [Long live Pius IX.!] The +people of Paris have driven out the great traitor against the cause +of the nations. [Bravo! Viva the people of Paris!] Very soon will be +heard the voice of Poland. Poland will rise again! [Yes, yes! +Poland will rise again!] Poland will call to life all the Slavonic +races,--the Croats, the Dalmatians, the Bohemians, the Moravians, +the Illyrians. These will form the bulwark against the tyrant of the +North. [Great applause.] They will close for ever the way against the +barbarians of the North,--destroyers of liberty and of civilization. +Poland is called to do more yet: Poland, as crucified nation, is risen +again, and called to serve her sister nations. The will of God +is, that Christianity should become in Poland, and through Poland +elsewhere, no more a dead letter of the law, but the living law of +states and civil associations;--[Great applause;]--that Christianity +should be manifested by acts, the sacrifices of generosity and +liberality. This Christianity is not new to you, Florentines; your +ancient republic knew and has acted upon it: it is time that the same +spirit should make to itself a larger sphere. The will of God is that +the nations should act towards one another as neighbors,--as brothers. +[A tumult of applause.] And you, Tuscans, have to-day done an act of +Christian brotherhood. Receiving thus foreign, unknown pilgrims, who +go to defy the greatest powers of the earth, you have in us saluted +only what is in us of spiritual and immortal,--our faith and our +patriotism. [Applause.] We thank you; and we will now go into the +church to thank God." + +"All the people then followed the Poles to the church of Santa Croce, +where was sung the _Benedictus Dominus_, and amid the memorials of the +greatness of Italy collected in that temple was forged more strongly +the chain of sympathy and of union between two nations, sisters in +misfortune and in glory." + +This speech and its reception, literally translated from the journal +of the day, show how pleasant it is on great occasions to be brought +in contact with this people, so full of natural eloquence and of +lively sensibility to what is great and beautiful. + +It is a glorious time too for the exiles who return, and reap even a +momentary fruit of their long sorrows. Mazzini has been able to return +from his seventeen years' exile, during which there was no hour, night +or day, that the thought of Italy was banished from his heart,--no +possible effort that he did not make to achieve the emancipation of +his people, and with it the progress of mankind. He returns, like +Wordsworth's great man, "to see what he foresaw." He will see his +predictions accomplishing yet for a long time, for Mazzini has a +mind far in advance of his times in general, and his nation in +particular,--a mind that will be best revered and understood when +the "illustrious Gioberti" shall be remembered as a pompous verbose +charlatan, with just talent enough to catch the echo from the +advancing wave of his day, but without any true sight of the wants of +man at this epoch. And yet Mazzini sees not all: he aims at political +emancipation; but he sees not, perhaps would deny, the bearing of some +events, which even now begin to work their way. Of this, more anon; +but not to-day, nor in the small print of the Tribune. Suffice it to +say, I allude to that of which the cry of Communism, the systems of +Fourier, &c., are but forerunners. Mazzini sees much already,--at +Milan, where he is, he has probably this day received the intelligence +of the accomplishment of his foresight, implied in his letter to the +Pope, which angered Italy by what was thought its tone of irreverence +and doubt, some six months since. + +To-day is the 7th of May, for I had thrown aside this letter, begun +the 19th of April, from a sense that there was something coming that +would supersede what was then to say. This something has appeared in a +form that will cause deep sadness to good hearts everywhere. Good and +loving hearts, that long for a human form which they can revere, +will be unprepared and for a time must suffer much from the final +dereliction of Pius IX. to the cause of freedom, progress, and of the +war. He was a fair image, and men went nigh to idolize it; this +they can do no more, though they may be able to find excuse for +his feebleness, love his good heart no less than before, and draw +instruction from the causes that have produced his failure, more +valuable than his success would have been. + +Pius IX., no one can doubt who has looked on him, has a good and pure +heart; but it needed also, not only a strong, but a great mind, + + "To _comprehend his trust_, and to the same + Keep faithful, with a singleness of aim." + +A highly esteemed friend in the United States wrote to express +distaste to some observations in a letter of mine to the Tribune on +first seeing the Pontiff a year ago, observing, "To say that he had +not the expression of great intellect was _uncalled for_" Alas! +far from it; it was an observation that rose inevitably on knowing +something of the task before Pius IX., and the hopes he had excited. +The problem he had to solve was one of such difficulty, that only +one of those minds, the rare product of ages for the redemption of +mankind, could be equal to its solution. The question that inevitably +rose on seeing him was, "Is he such a one?" The answer was immediately +negative. But at the same time, he had such an aspect of true +benevolence and piety, that a hope arose that Heaven would act through +him, and impel him to measures wise beyond his knowledge. + +This hope was confirmed by the calmness he showed at the time of the +conspiracy of July, and the occupation of Ferrara by the Austrians. +Tales were told of simple wisdom, of instinct, which he obeyed in +opposition to the counsels of all his Cardinals. Everything went on +well for a time. + +But tokens of indubitable weakness were shown by the Pope in early +acts of the winter, in the removal of a censor at the suggestion of +others, in his speech, to the Consistory, in his answer to the first +address of the Council. In these he declared that, when there was +conflict between the priest and the man, he always meant to be the +priest; and that he preferred the wisdom of the past to that of the +future. + +Still, times went on bending his predeterminations to the call of the +moment. He _acted_ wiselier than he intended; as, for instance, three +weeks after declaring he would not give a constitution to his people, +he gave it,--a sop to Cerberus, indeed,--a poor vamped-up thing that +will by and by have to give place to something more legitimate, but +which served its purpose at the time as declaration of rights for the +people. When the news of the revolution of Vienna arrived, the Pope +himself cried _Viva Pio Nono!_ and this ebullition of truth in one so +humble, though opposed to his formal declarations, was received by his +people with that immediate assent which truth commands. + +The revolution of Lombardy followed. The troops of the line were sent +thither; the volunteers rushed to accompany them. In the streets of +Rome was read the proclamation of Charles Albert, in which he styles +himself the servant of Italy and of Pius IX. The priests preached the +war, and justly, as a crusade; the Pope blessed their banners. Nobody +dreamed, or had cause to dream, that these movements had not his +full sympathy; and his name was in every form invoked as the chosen +instrument of God to inspire Italy to throw off the oppressive yoke of +the foreigner, and recover her rights in the civilized world. + +At the same time, however, the Pope was seen to act with great +blindness in the affair of the Jesuits. The other states of Italy +drove them out by main force, resolved not to have in the midst of +the war a foe and spy in the camp. Rome wished to do the same, but the +Pope rose in their defence. He talked as if they were assailed as a +_religious_ body, when he could not fail, like everybody else, to be +aware that they were dreaded and hated solely as agents of despotism. +He demanded that they should be assailed only by legal means, when +none such were available. The end was in half-measures, always the +worst possible. He would not entirely yield, and the people would +not at all. The Order was ostensibly dissolved; but great part of +the Jesuits really remain here in disguise, a constant source of +irritation and mischief, which, if still greater difficulties had +not arisen, would of itself have created enough. Meanwhile, in the +earnestness of the clergy about the pretended loss of the head of St. +Andrew, in the ceremonies of the holy week, which at this juncture +excited no real interest, was much matter for thought to the calm +observer as to the restlessness of the new wine, the old bottles being +heard to crack on every side, and hour by hour. + +Thus affairs went on from day to day,--the Pope kissing the foot of +the brazen Jupiter and blessing palms of straw at St. Peter's; +the _Circolo Romano_ erecting itself into a kind of Jacobin Club, +dictating programmes for an Italian Diet-General, and choosing +committees to provide for the expenses of the war; the Civic Guard +arresting people who tried to make mobs as if famishing, and, being +searched, were found well provided both with arms and money; the +ministry at their wits' end, with their trunks packed up ready to +be off at a moment's warning,--when the report, it is not yet known +whether true or false, that one of the Roman Civic Guard, a well-known +artist engaged in the war of Lombardy, had been taken and hung by the +Austrians as a brigand, roused the people to a sense of the position +of their friends, and they went to the Pope to demand that he should +take a decisive stand, and declare war against the Austrians. + +The Pope summoned, a consistory; the people waited anxiously, for +expressions of his were reported, as if the troops ought not to have +thought of leaving the frontier, while every man, woman, and child +in Rome knew, and every letter and bulletin declared, that all their +thought was to render active aid to the cause of Italian independence. +This anxious doubt, however, had not prepared at all for the excess to +which they were to be disappointed. + +The speech of the Pope declared, that he had never any thought of +the great results which had followed his actions; that he had only +intended local reforms, such as had previously been suggested by the +potentates of Europe; that he regretted the _mis_use which had been +made of his name; and wound up by lamenting over the war,--dear to +every Italian heart as the best and holiest cause in which for ages +they had been called to embark their hopes,--as if it was something +offensive to the spirit of religion, and which he would fain see +hushed up, and its motives smoothed out and ironed over. + +A momentary stupefaction followed this astounding performance, +succeeded by a passion of indignation, in which the words _traitor_ +and _imbecile_ were associated with the name that had been so dear to +his people. This again yielded to a settled grief: they felt that he +was betrayed, but no traitor; timid and weak, but still a sovereign +whom they had adored, and a man who had brought them much good, which +could not be quite destroyed by his wishing to disown it. Even of +this fact they had no time to stop and think; the necessity was too +imminent of obviating the worst consequences of this ill; and the +first thought was to prevent the news leaving Rome, to dishearten the +provinces and army, before they had tried to persuade the Pontiff to +wiser resolves, or, if this could not be, to supersede his power. + +I cannot repress my admiration at the gentleness, clearness, and good +sense with which the Roman people acted under these most difficult +circumstances. It was astonishing to see the clear understanding which +animated the crowd, as one man, and the decision with which they acted +to effect their purpose. Wonderfully has this people been developed +within a year! + +The Pope, besieged by deputations, who mildly but firmly showed him +that, if he persisted, the temporal power must be placed in other +hands, his ears filled with reports of Cardinals, "such venerable +persons," as he pathetically styles them, would not yield in spirit, +though compelled to in act. After two days' struggle, he was obliged +to place the power in the hands of the persons most opposed to him, +and nominally acquiesce in their proceedings, while in his second +proclamation, very touching from the sweetness of its tone, he shows a +fixed misunderstanding of the cause at issue, which leaves no hope of +his ever again being more than a name or an effigy in their affairs. + +His people were much affected, and entirely laid aside their anger, +but they would not be blinded as to the truth. While gladly returning +to their accustomed habits of affectionate homage toward the Pontiff, +their unanimous sense and resolve is thus expressed in an able +pamphlet of the day, such as in every respect would have been deemed +impossible to the Rome of 1847:-- + +"From the last allocution of Pius result two facts of extreme +gravity;--the entire separation between the spiritual and temporal +power, and the express refusal of the Pontiff to be chief of an +Italian Republic. But far from drawing hence reason for discouragement +and grief, who looks well at the destiny of Italy may bless +Providence, which breaks or changes the instrument when the work +is completed, and by secret and inscrutable ways conducts us to the +fulfilment of our desires and of our hopes. + +"If Pius IX. refuses, the Italian people does not therefore draw back. +Nothing remains to the free people of Italy, except to unite in one +constitutional kingdom, founded on the largest basis; and if the chief +who, by our assemblies, shall be called to the highest honor, either +declines or does not answer worthily, the people will take care of +itself. + +"Italians! down with all emblems of private and partial interests. +Let us unite under one single banner, the tricolor, and if he who has +carried it bravely thus far lets it fall from his hand, we will take +it one from the other, twenty-four millions of us, and, till the last +of us shall have perished under the banner of our redemption, the +stranger shall not return into Italy. + +"Viva Italy! viva the Italian people!"[A] + +[Footnote A: Close of "A Comment by Pio Angelo Fierortino on the +Allocution of Pius IX. spoken in the Secret Consistory of 29th April, +1848," dated Italy, 30th April, 1st year of the Redemption of Italy.] + +These events make indeed a crisis. The work begun by Napoleon is +finished. There will never more be really a Pope, but only the effigy +or simulacrum of one. + +The loss of Pius IX. is for the moment a great one. His name had real +moral weight,--was a trumpet appeal to sentiment. It is not the same +with any man that is left. There is not one that can be truly a leader +in the Roman dominion, not one who has even great intellectual weight. + +The responsibility of events now lies wholly with the people, and +that wave of thought which has begun to pervade them. Sovereigns and +statesmen will go where they are carried; it is probable power will be +changed continually from, hand to hand, and government become, to all +intents and purposes, representative. Italy needs now quite to throw +aside her stupid king of Naples, who hangs like a dead weight on her +movements. The king of Sardinia and the Grand Duke of Tuscany will be +trusted while they keep their present course; but who can feel sure +of any sovereign, now that Louis Philippe has shown himself so mad +and Pius IX. so blind? It seems as if fate was at work to bewilder +and cast down the dignities of the world and democratize society at a +blow. + +In Rome there is now no anchor except the good sense of the people. +It seems impossible that collision should not arise between him who +retains the name but not the place of sovereign, and the provisional +government which calls itself a ministry. The Count Mamiani, its new +head, is a man of reputation as a writer, but untried as yet as a +leader or a statesman. Should agitations arise, the Pope can no longer +calm them by one of his fatherly looks. + +All lies in the future; and our best hope must be that the Power which +has begun so great a work will find due means to end it, and make the +year 1850 a year of true jubilee to Italy; a year not merely of pomps +and tributes, but of recognized rights and intelligent joys; a year of +real peace,--peace, founded not on compromise and the lying etiquettes +of diplomacy, but on truth and justice. + +Then this sad disappointment in Pius IX. may be forgotten, or, while +all that was lovely and generous in his life is prized and reverenced, +deep instruction may be drawn from his errors as to the inevitable +dangers of a priestly or a princely environment, and a higher +knowledge may elevate a nobler commonwealth than the world has yet +known. + +Hoping this era, I remain at present here. Should my hopes be dashed +to the ground, it will not change my faith, but the struggle for its +manifestation is to me of vital interest. My friends write to urge my +return; they talk of our country as the land of the future. It is so, +but that spirit which made it all it is of value in my eyes, which +gave all of hope with which I can sympathize for that future, is +more alive here at present than in America. My country is at present +spoiled by prosperity, stupid with the lust of gain, soiled by crime +in its willing perpetuation of slavery, shamed by an unjust war, noble +sentiment much forgotten even by individuals, the aims of politicians +selfish or petty, the literature frivolous and venal. In Europe, amid +the teachings of adversity, a nobler spirit is struggling,--a spirit +which cheers and animates mine. I hear earnest words of pure faith and +love. I see deeds of brotherhood. This is what makes _my_ America. I +do not deeply distrust my country. She is not dead, but in my time she +sleepeth, and the spirit of our fathers flames no more, but lies hid +beneath the ashes. It will not be so long; bodies cannot live when the +soul gets too overgrown with gluttony and falsehood. But it is not the +making a President out of the Mexican war that would make me wish to +come back. Here things are before my eyes worth recording, and, if I +cannot help this work, I would gladly be its historian. + + +May 13. + +Returning from a little tour in the Alban Mount, where everything +looks so glorious this glorious spring, I find a temporary quiet. The +Pope's brothers have come to sympathize with him; the crowd sighs over +what he has done, presents him with great bouquets of flowers, and +reads anxiously the news from the north and the proclamations of the +new ministry. Meanwhile the nightingales sing; every tree and plant +is in flower, and the sun and moon shine as if paradise were already +re-established on earth. I go to one of the villas to dream it is so, +beneath the pale light of the stars. + + + + +LETTER XXV. + +REVIEW OF THE COURSE OF PIUS IX.--MAMIANI.--THE PEOPLE'S DISAPPOINTED +HOPES.--THE MONUMENTS IN MILAN, NAPLES, ETC.--THE KING OF NAPLES AND +HIS TROOPS.--CALAMITIES OF THE WAR.--THE ITALIAN PEOPLE.--CHARLES +ALBERT.--DEDUCTIONS.--SUMMER AMONG THE MOUNTAINS OF ITALY. + + +Rome, December 2, 1848. + +I have not written for six months, and within that time what changes +have taken place on this side "the great water,"--changes of how +great dramatic interest historically,--of bearing infinitely important +ideally! Easy is the descent in ill. + +I wrote last when Pius IX. had taken the first stride on the downward +road. He had proclaimed himself the foe of further reform measures, +when he implied that Italian independence was not important in his +eyes, when he abandoned the crowd of heroic youth who had gone to the +field with his benediction, to some of whom his own hand had given +crosses. All the Popes, his predecessors, had meddled with, most +frequently instigated, war; now came one who must carry out, +literally, the doctrines of the Prince of Peace, when the war was +not for wrong, or the aggrandizement of individuals, but to +redeem national, to redeem human, rights from the grasp of foreign +oppression. + +I said some cried "traitor," some "imbecile," some wept, but In the +minds of all, I believe, at that time, grief was predominant. They +could no longer depend on him they had thought their best friend. They +had lost their father. + +Meanwhile his people would not submit to the inaction he urged. They +saw it was not only ruinous to themselves, but base and treacherous +to the rest of Italy. They said to the Pope, "This cannot be; you +must follow up the pledges you have given, or, if you will not act to +redeem them, you must have a ministry that will." The Pope, after he +had once declared to the contrary, ought to have persisted. He should +have said, "I cannot thus belie myself, I cannot put my name to acts I +have just declared to be against my conscience." + +The ministers of the people ought to have seen that the position they +assumed was utterly untenable; that they could not advance with an +enemy in the background cutting off all supplies. But some patriotism +and some vanity exhilarated them, and, the Pope having weakly yielded, +they unwisely began their impossible task. Mamiani, their chief, I +esteem a man, under all circumstances, unequal to such a position,--a +man of rhetoric merely. But no man could have acted, unless the +Pope had resigned his temporal power, the Cardinals been put under +sufficient check, and the Jesuits and emissaries of Austria driven +from their lurking-places. + +A sad scene began. The Pope,--shut up more and more in his palace, the +crowd of selfish and insidious advisers darkening round, enslaved by +a confessor,--he who might have been the liberator of suffering Europe +permitted the most infamous treacheries to be practised in his name. +Private letters were written to the foreign powers, denying the +acts he outwardly sanctioned; the hopes of the people were evaded +or dallied with; the Chamber of Deputies permitted to talk and pass +measures which they never could get funds to put into execution; +legions to form and manoeuvre, but never to have the arms and +clothing they needed. Again and again the people went to the Pope for +satisfaction. They got only--benediction. + +Thus plotted and thus worked the scarlet men of sin, playing the hopes +of Italy off and on, while _their_ hope was of the miserable defeat +consummated by a still worse traitor at Milan on the 6th of August. +But, indeed, what could be expected from the "Sword of Pius IX.," when +Pius IX. himself had thus failed in his high vocation. The king of +Naples bombarded his city, and set on the Lazzaroni to rob and murder +the subjects he had deluded by his pretended gift of the Constitution. +Pius proclaimed that he longed to embrace _all_ the princes of Italy. +He talked of peace, when all knew for a great part of the Italians +there was no longer hope of peace, except in the sepulchre, or +freedom. + +The taunting manifestos of Welden are a sufficient comment on the +conduct of the Pope. "As the government of his Holiness is too weak +to control his subjects,"--"As, singularly enough, a great number of +Romans are found, fighting against us, contrary to the _expressed_ +will of their prince,"--such were the excuses for invasions of the +Pontifical dominions, and the robbery and insult by which they were +accompanied. Such invasions, it was said, made his Holiness very +indignant; he remonstrated against these; but we find no word of +remonstrance against the tyranny of the king of Naples,--no word +of sympathy for the victims of Lombardy, the sufferings of Verona, +Vicenza, Padua, Mantua, Venice. + +In the affairs of Europe there are continued signs of the plan of the +retrograde party to effect similar demonstrations in different places +at the same hour. The 15th of May was one of these marked days. +On that day the king of Naples made use of the insurrection he had +contrived to excite, to massacre his people, and find an excuse for +recalling his troops from Lombardy. The same day a similar crisis was +hoped in Rome from the declarations of the Pope, but that did not work +at the moment exactly as the foes of enfranchisement hoped. + +However, the wounds were cruel enough. The Roman volunteers received +the astounding news that they were not to expect protection or +countenance from their prince; all the army stood aghast, that they +were no longer to fight in the name of Pio. It had been so dear, +so sweet, to love and really reverence the head of their Church, +so inspiring to find their religion for once in accordance with the +aspirations of the soul! They were to be deprived, too, of the aid of +the disciplined Neapolitan troops and their artillery, on which they +had counted. How cunningly all this was contrived to cause dissension +and dismay may easily be seen. + +The Neapolitan General Pepe nobly refused to obey, and called on the +troops to remain with him. They wavered; but they are a pampered army, +personally much attached to the king, who pays them well and indulges +them at the expense of his people, that they may be his support +against that people when in a throe of nature it rises and striven +for its rights. For the same reason, the sentiment of patriotism was +little diffused among them in comparison with the other troops. And +the alternative presented was one in which it required a very clear +sense of higher duty to act against habit. Generally, after wavering +awhile, they obeyed and returned. The Roman States, which had received +them with so many testimonials of affection and honor, on their +retreat were not slack to show a correspondent aversion and contempt. +The towns would not suffer their passage; the hamlets were unwilling +to serve them even with fire and water. They were filled at once with +shame and rage; one officer killed himself, unable to bear it; in the +unreflecting minds of the soldiers, hate sprung up for the rest of +Italy, and especially Rome, which will make them admirable tools of +tyranny in case of civil war. + +This was the first great calamity of the war. But apart from the +treachery of the king of Naples and the dereliction of the Pope, +it was impossible it should end thoroughly well. The people were +in earnest, and have shown themselves so; brave, and able to bear +privation. No one should dare, after the proofs of the summer, to +reiterate the taunt, so unfriendly frequent on foreign lips at the +beginning of the contest, that the Italian can boast, shout, and fling +garlands, but not _act_. The Italian always showed himself noble and +brave, even in foreign service, and is doubly so in the cause of his +country. But efficient heads were wanting. The princes were not in +earnest; they were looking at expediency. The Grand Duke, timid and +prudent, wanted to do what was safest for Tuscany; his ministry, +"_Moderate_" and prudent, would have liked to win a great prize at +small risk. They went no farther than the people pulled them. The king +of Sardinia had taken the first bold step, and the idea that treachery +on his part was premeditated cannot be sustained; it arises from the +extraordinary aspect of his measures, and the knowledge that he is not +incapable of treachery, as he proved in early youth. But now it was +only his selfishness that worked to the same results. He fought and +planned, not for Italy, but the house of Savoy, which his Balbis and +Giobertis had so long been prophesying was to reign supreme in the +new great era of Italy. These prophecies he more than half believed, +because they chimed with his ambitious wishes; but he had not soul +enough to realize them; he trusted only in his disciplined troops; +he had not nobleness enough to believe he might rely at all on +the sentiment of the people. For his troops he dared not have good +generals; conscious of meanness and timidity, he shrank from the +approach of able and earnest men; he was inly afraid they would, +in helping Italy, take her and themselves out of his guardianship. +Antonini was insulted, Garibaldi rejected; other experienced leaders, +who had rushed to Italy at the first trumpet-sound, could never +get employment from him. As to his generalship, it was entirely +inadequate, even if he had made use of the first favorable moments. +But his first thought was not to strike a blow at the Austrians before +they recovered from the discomfiture of Milan, but to use the panic +and need of his assistance to induce Lombardy and Venice to annex +themselves to his kingdom. He did not even wish seriously to get the +better till this was done, and when this was done, it was too late. +The Austrian army was recruited, the generals had recovered their +spirits, and were burning to retrieve and avenge their past defeat. +The conduct of Charles Albert had been shamefully evasive in the first +months. The account given by Franzini, when challenged in the Chamber +of Deputies at Turin, might be summed up thus: "Why, gentlemen, +what would you have? Every one knows that the army is in excellent +condition, and eager for action. They are often reviewed, hear +speeches, and sometimes get medals. We take places always, if it is +not difficult. I myself was present once when the troops advanced; our +men behaved gallantly, and had the advantage in the first skirmish; +but afterward the enemy pointed on us artillery from the heights, and, +naturally, we retired. But as to supposing that his Majesty Charles +Albert is indifferent to the success of Italy in the war, that is +absurd. He is 'the Sword of Italy'; he is the most magnanimous of +princes; he is seriously occupied about the war; many a day I have +been called into his tent to talk it over, before he was up in the +morning!" + +Sad was it that the heroic Milan, the heroic Venice, the heroic +Sicily, should lean on such a reed as this, and by hurried acts, +equally unworthy as unwise, sully the glory of their shields. Some +names, indeed, stand, out quite free from this blame. Mazzini, who +kept up a combat against folly and cowardice, day by day and hour by +hour, with almost supernatural strength, warned the people constantly +of the evils which their advisers were drawing upon them. He was heard +then only by a few, but in this "Italia del Popolo" may be found many +prophecies exactly fulfilled, as those of "the golden-haired love of +Phoebus" during the struggles of Ilium. He himself, in the last sad +days of Milan, compared his lot to that of Cassandra. At all events, +his hands are pure from that ill. What could be done to arouse +Lombardy he did, but the "Moderate" party unable to wean themselves +from old habits, the pupils of the wordy Gioberti thought there could +be no safety unless under the mantle of a prince. They did not foresee +that he would run away, and throw that mantle on the ground. + +Tommaso and Manin also were clear in their aversion to these measures; +and with them, as with all who were resolute in principle at that +time, a great influence has followed. + +It is said Charles Albert feels bitterly the imputations on his +courage, and says they are most ungrateful, since he has exposed the +lives of himself and his sons in the combat. Indeed, there ought to +be made a distinction between personal and mental courage. The former +Charles Albert may possess, may have too much of what this still +aristocratic world calls "the feelings of a gentleman" to shun +exposing himself to a chance shot now and then. An entire want of +mental courage he has shown. The battle, decisive against him, was +made so by his giving up the moment fortune turned against him. It is +shameful to hear so many say this result was inevitable, just because +the material advantages were in favor of the Austrians. Pray, was +never a battle won against material odds? It is precisely such that a +good leader, a noble man, may expect to win. Were the Austrians driven +out of Milan because the Milanese had that advantage? The Austrians +would again, have suffered repulse from them, but for the baseness of +this man, on whom they had been cajoled into relying,--a baseness that +deserves the pillory; and on a pillory will the "Magnanimous," as he +was meanly called in face of the crimes of his youth and the timid +selfishness of his middle age, stand in the sight of posterity. He +made use of his power only to betray Milan; he took from the citizens +all means of defence, and then gave them up to the spoiler; he +promised to defend them "to the last drop of his blood," and sold +them the next minute; even the paltry terms he made, he has not seen +maintained. Had the people slain him in their rage, he well deserved +it at their hands; and all his conduct since show how righteous would +have been that sudden verdict of passion. + +Of all this great drama I have much to write, but elsewhere, in a more +full form, and where I can duly sketch the portraits of actors little +known in America. The materials are over-rich. I have bought my right +in them by much sympathetic suffering; yet, amid the blood and tears +of Italy, 'tis joy to see some glorious new births. The Italians are +getting cured of mean adulation and hasty boasts; they are learning +to prize and seek realities; the effigies of straw are getting knocked +down, and living, growing men take their places. Italy is being +educated for the future, her leaders are learning that the time is +past for trust in princes and precedents,--that there is no hope +except in truth and God; her lower people are learning to shout less +and think more. + +Though my thoughts have been much with the public in this struggle for +life, I have been away from it during the summer months, in the quiet +valleys, on the lonely mountains. There, personally undisturbed, I +have seen the glorious Italian summer wax and wane,--the summer of +Southern Italy, which I did not see last year. On the mountains it was +not too hot for me, and I enjoyed the great luxuriance of vegetation. +I had the advantage of having visited the scene of the war minutely +last summer, so that, in mind, I could follow every step of the +campaign, while around me were the glorious relics of old times,--the +crumbling theatre or temple of the Roman day, the bird's-nest village +of the Middle Ages, on whose purple height shone the sun and moon of +Italy in changeless lustre. It was great pleasure to me to watch the +gradual growth and change of the seasons, so different from ours. +Last year I had not leisure for this quiet acquaintance. Now I saw the +fields first dressed in their carpets of green, enamelled richly with +the red poppy and blue corn-flower,--in that sunshine how resplendent! +Then swelled the fig, the grape, the olive, the almond; and my food +was of these products of this rich clime. For near three months I had +grapes every day; the last four weeks, enough daily for two persons +for a cent! Exquisite salad for two persons' dinner and supper cost +but a cent, and all other products of the region were in the same +proportion. One who keeps still in Italy, and lives as the people do, +may really have much simple luxury for very little money; though both +travel, and, to the inexperienced foreigner, life in the cities, are +expensive. + + + + +LETTER XXVI. + +THOUGHTS OF THE ITALIAN RACE, THE SEASONS, AND ROME.--CHANGES.--THE +DEATH OF THE MINISTER ROSSI.--THE CHURCH OF SAN LUIGI DEL +FRANCESI.--ST. CECILIA AND THE DOMENICHINO CHAPEL.--THE PIAZZA DEL +POPOLO.--THE TROOPS: PREPARATORY MOVEMENTS TOWARD THE QUIRINAL.--THE +DEMONSTRATION ON THE PALACE.--THE CHURCH: ITS POSITION AND AIMS.--THE +POPE'S FLIGHT, &C.--SOCIAL LIFE.--DON TIRLONE.--THE NEW YEAR. + + +Rome, December 2, 1848. + +Not till I saw the snow on the mountains grow rosy in the autumn +sunset did I turn my steps again toward Rome. I was very ready to +return. After three or four years of constant excitement, this six +months of seclusion had been welcome; but now I felt the need of +meeting other eyes beside those, so bright and so shallow, of the +Italian peasant. Indeed, I left what was most precious, but which +I could not take with me;[A] still it was a compensation that I was +again to see Rome,--Rome, that almost killed me with her cold breath +of last winter, yet still with that cold breath whispered a tale of +import so divine. Rome so beautiful, so great! her presence stupefies, +and one has to withdraw to prize the treasures she has given. City +of the soul! yes, it is _that_; the very dust magnetizes you, and +thousand spells have been chaining you in every careless, every +murmuring moment. Yes! Rome, however seen, thou must be still adored; +and every hour of absence or presence must deepen love with one who +has known what it is to repose in thy arms. + +[Footnote A: Her child, who was born in Rieti, September 5, 1848, and +was necessarily left in that town during the difficulties and siege of +Rome.--ED.] + +Repose! for whatever be the revolutions, tumults, panics, hopes, of +the present day, still the temper of life here is repose. The great +past enfolds us, and the emotions of the moment cannot here greatly +disturb that impression. From the wild shout and throng of the +streets the setting sun recalls us as it rests on a hundred domes and +temples,--rests on the Campagna, whose grass is rooted in departed +human greatness. Burial-place so full of spirit that death itself +seems no longer cold! O let me rest here, too! Hest here seems +possible; meseems myriad lives still linger here, awaiting some one +great summons. + +The rivers had burst their bounds, and beneath the moon the fields +round Rome lay one sheet of silver. Entering the gate while the +baggage was under examination, I walked to the entrance of a villa. +Far stretched its overarching shrubberies, its deep green bowers; two +statues, with foot advanced and uplifted finger, seemed to greet me; +it was near the scene of great revels, great splendors in the old +time; there lay the gardens of Sallust, where were combined palace, +theatre, library, bath, and villa. Strange things have happened since, +the most attractive part of which--the secret heart--lies buried or +has fled to animate other forms; for of that part historians have +rarely given a hint more than they do now of the truest life of our +day, which refuses to be embodied, by the pen, craving forms more +mutable, more eloquent than the pen can give. + +I found Rome empty of foreigners. Most of the English have fled in +affright,--the Germans and French are wanted at home,--the Czar has +recalled many of his younger subjects; he does not like the schooling +they get here. That large part of the population, which lives by the +visits of foreigners was suffering very much,--trade, industry, for +every reason, stagnant. The people were every moment becoming more +exasperated by the impudent measures of the Minister Rossi, and their +mortification at seeing Rome represented and betrayed by a foreigner. +And what foreigner? A pupil of Guizot and Louis Philippe. The news of +the bombardment and storm of Vienna had just reached Rome. Zucchi, +the Minister of War, at once left the city to put down over-free +manifestations in the provinces, and impede the entrance of the troops +of the patriot chief, Garibaldi, into Bologna. From the provinces came +soldiery, called by Rossi to keep order at the opening of the Chamber +of Deputies. He reviewed them in the face of the Civic Guard; the +press began to be restrained; men were arbitrarily seized and sent +out of the kingdom. The public indignation rose to its height; the cup +overflowed. + +The 15th was a beautiful day, and I had gone out for a long walk. +Returning at night, the old Padrona met me with her usual smile a +little clouded. "Do you know," said she, "that the Minister Rossi has +been killed?" No Roman said _murdered_. + +"Killed?" + +"Yes,--with a thrust in the back. A wicked man, surely; but is that +the way to punish even the wicked?" + +"I cannot," observed a philosopher, "sympathize under any +circumstances with so immoral a deed; but surely the manner of doing +it was great." + +The people at large were not so refined in their comments as either +the Padrona or the philosopher; but soldiers and populace alike ran up +and down, singing, "Blessed the hand that rids the earth of a tyrant." + +Certainly, the manner _was_ "great." + +The Chamber was awaiting the entrance of Rossi. Had he lived to enter, +he would have found the Assembly, without a single exception, ranged +upon the Opposition benches. His carriage approached, attended by a +howling, hissing multitude. He smiled, affected unconcern, but must +have felt relieved when his horses entered the courtyard gate of +the _Cancelleria_. He did not know he was entering the place of his +execution. The horses stopped; he alighted in the midst of a crowd; it +jostled him, as if for the purpose of insult; he turned abruptly, +and received as he did so the fatal blow. It was dealt by a resolute, +perhaps experienced, hand; he fell and spoke no word more. + +The crowd, as if all previously acquainted with the plan, as no doubt +most of them were, issued quietly from the gate, and passed through +the outside crowd,--its members, among whom was he who dealt the blow, +dispersing in all directions. For two or three minutes this outside +crowd did not know that anything special had happened. When they did, +the news was at the moment received in silence. The soldiers in whom +Rossi had trusted, whom he had hoped to flatter and bribe, stood at +their posts and said not a word. Neither they nor any one asked, "Who +did this? Where is he gone?" The sense of the people certainly was +that it was an act of summary justice on an offender whom the laws +could not reach, but they felt it to be indecent to shout or exult on +the spot where he was breathing his last. Rome, so long supposed the +capital of Christendom, certainly took a very pagan view of this act, +and the piece represented on the occasion at the theatres was "The +Death of Nero." + +The next morning I went to the Church of St. Andrea della Valle, where +was to be performed a funeral service, with fine music, in honor of +the victims of Vienna; for this they do here for the victims of every +place,--"victims of Milan," "victims of Paris," "victims of Naples," +and now "victims of Vienna." But to-day I found the church closed, the +service put off,--Rome was thinking about her own victims. + +I passed into the Ripetta, and entered the Church of San Luigi dei +Francesi. The Republican flag was flying at the door; the young +sacristan said the fine musical service, which this church gave +formerly on St. Philip's day in honor of Louis Philippe, would now +be transferred to the Republican anniversary, the 25th of February. I +looked at the monument Chateaubriand erected when here, to a poor girl +who died, last of her family, having seen all the others perish +round her. I entered the Domenichino Chapel, and gazed anew on the +magnificent representations of the Life and Death of St. Cecilia. She +and St. Agnes are my favorite saints. I love to think of those angel +visits which her husband knew by the fragrance of roses and lilies +left behind in the apartment. I love to think of his visit to the +Catacombs, and all that followed. In one of the pictures St. Cecilia, +as she stretches out her arms toward the suffering multitude, seems +as if an immortal fount of purest love sprung from her heart. It gives +very strongly the idea of an inexhaustible love,--the only love that +is much worth thinking about. + +Leaving the church, I passed along toward the Piazza del Popolo. +"Yellow Tiber rose," but not high enough to cause "distress," as he +does when in a swelling mood. I heard the drums beating, and, entering +the Piazza, I found the troops of the line already assembled, and +the Civic Guard marching in by platoons, each battalion saluted as it +entered by trumpets and a fine strain from the band of the Carbineers. + +I climbed the Pincian to see better. There is no place so fine for +anything of this kind as the Piazza del Popolo, it is so full of +light, so fair and grand, the obelisk and fountain make so fine a +centre to all kinds of groups. + +The object of the present meeting was for the Civic Guard and troops +of the line to give pledges of sympathy preparatory to going to the +Quirinal to demand a change of ministry and of measures. The flag of +the Union was placed in front of the obelisk; all present saluted it; +some officials made addresses; the trumpets sounded, and all moved +toward the Quirinal. + +Nothing could be gentler than the disposition of those composing the +crowd. They were resolved to be played with no longer, but no +threat was uttered or thought. They believed that the court would be +convinced by the fate of Rossi that the retrograde movement it had +attempted was impracticable. They knew the retrograde party were +panic-struck, and hoped to use the occasion to free the Pope from its +meshes. All felt that Pius IX. had fallen irrevocably from his high +place as the friend of progress and father of Italy; but still he was +personally beloved, and still his name, so often shouted in hope and +joy, had not quite lost its _prestige_. + +I returned to the house, which is very near the Quirinal. On one +side I could see the palace and gardens of the Pope, on the other the +Piazza Barberini and street of the Four Fountains. Presently I saw the +carriage of Prince Barberini drive hurriedly into his court-yard gate, +the footman signing to close it, a discharge of fire-arms was heard, +and the drums of the Civic Guard beat to arms. + +The Padrona ran up and down, crying with every round of shot, "Jesu +Maria, they are killing the Pope! O poor Holy Father!--Tito, Tito," +(out of the window to her husband,) "what _is_ the matter?" + +The lord of creation disdained to reply. + +"O Signora! pray, pray, ask Tito what is the matter?" + +I did so. + +"I don't know, Signora; nobody knows." + +"Why don't you go on the Mount and see?" + +"It would be an imprudence, Signora; nobody will go." + +I was just thinking to go myself, when I saw a poor man borne by, +badly wounded, and heard that the Swiss were firing on the people. +Their doing so was the cause of whatever violence there was, and it +was not much. + +The people had assembled, as usual, at the Quirinal, only with more +form and solemnity than usual. They had taken with them several of the +Chamber of Deputies, and they sent an embassy, headed by Galetti, who +had been in the late ministry, to state their wishes. They received +a peremptory negative. They then insisted on seeing the Pope, and +pressed on the palace. The Swiss became alarmed, and fired from the +windows and from the roof. They did this, it is said, without orders; +but who could, at the time, suppose that? If it had been planned to +exasperate the people to blood, what more could have been done? As it +was, very little was shed; but the Pope, no doubt, felt great panic. +He heard the report of fire-arms,--heard that they tried to burn +a door of the palace. I would lay my life that he could have shown +himself without the slightest danger; nay, that the habitual respect +for his presence would have prevailed, and hushed all tumult. He did +not think so, and, to still it, once more degraded himself and injured +his people, by making promises he did not mean to keep. + +He protests now against those promises as extorted by violence,--a +strange plea indeed for the representative of St. Peter! + +Rome is all full of the effigies of those over whom violence had no +power. There was an early Pope about to be thrown into the Tiber; +violence had no power to make him say what he did not mean. Delicate +girls, men in the prime of hope and pride of power,--they were all +alike about that. They could die in boiling oil, roasted on coals, or +cut to pieces; but they could not say what they did not mean. These +formed the true Church; it was these who had power to disseminate +the religion of him, the Prince of Peace, who died a bloody death of +torture between sinners, because he never could say what he did not +mean. + +A little church, outside the gate of St. Sebastian commemorates the +following affecting tradition of the Church. Peter, alarmed at the +persecution of the Christians, had gone forth to fly, when in this +spot he saw a bright figure in his path, and recognized his Master +travelling toward Rome. "Lord," he said, "whither goest thou?" "I +go," replied Jesus, "to die with my people." Peter comprehended the +reproof. He felt that he must not a fourth time deny his Master, +yet hope for salvation. He returned to Rome to offer his life in +attestation of his faith. + +The Roman Catholic Church has risen a monument to the memory of +such facts. And has the present head of that Church quite failed to +understand their monition? + +Not all the Popes have so failed, though the majority have been +intriguing, ambitious men of the world. But even the mob of Rome--and +in Rome there _is_ a true mob of unheeding cabbage-sellers, who never +had a thought before beyond contriving how to satisfy their animal +instincts for the day--said, on hearing the protest, "There was +another Pius, not long since, who talked in a very different style. +When the French threatened him, he said, 'You may do with me as you +see fit, but I cannot consent to act against my convictions.'" + +In fact, the only dignified course for the Pope to pursue was to +resign his temporal power. He could no longer hold it on his own +terms; but to it he clung; and the counsellors around him were men to +wish him to regard _that_ as the first of duties. When the question +was of waging war for the independence of Italy, they regarded him +solely as the head of the Church; but when the demand was to satisfy +the wants of his people, and ecclesiastical goods were threatened with +taxes, then he was the prince of the state, bound to maintain all the +selfish prerogatives of bygone days for the benefit of his successors. +Poor Pope! how has his mind been torn to pieces in these later days! +It moves compassion. There can be no doubt that all his natural +impulses are generous and kind, and in a more private station he would +have died beloved and honored; but to this he was unequal; he has +suffered bad men to surround him, and by their misrepresentations and +insidious suggestions at last entirely to cloud his mind. I believe he +really thinks now the Progress movement tends to anarchy, blood, and +all that looked worst in the first French revolution. However that may +be, I cannot forgive him some of the circumstances of this flight. To +fly to Naples; to throw himself in the arms of the bombarding monarch, +blessing him and thanking his soldiery for preserving that part of +Italy from anarchy; to protest that all his promises at Rome were null +and void, when he thought himself in safety to choose a commission for +governing in his absence, composed of men of princely blood, but as to +character so null that everybody laughed, and said he chose those +who could best be spared if they were killed; (but they all ran away +directly;) when Rome was thus left without any government, to refuse +to see any deputation, even the Senator of Rome, whom he had so gladly +sanctioned,--these are the acts either of a fool or a foe. They are +not his acts, to be sure, but he is responsible; he lets them stand as +such in the face of the world, and weeps and prays for their success. + +No more of him! His day is over. He has been made, it seems +unconsciously, an instrument of good his regrets cannot destroy. Nor +can he be made so important an instrument of ill. These acts have not +had the effect the foes of freedom hoped. Rome remained quite cool and +composed; all felt that they had not demanded more than was their duty +to demand, and were willing to accept what might follow. In a few +days all began to say: "Well, who would have thought it? The Pope, the +Cardinals, the Princes are gone, and Rome is perfectly tranquil, and +one does not miss anything, except that there are not so many rich +carriages and liveries." + +The Pope may regret too late that he ever gave the people a chance +to make this reflection. Yet the best fruits of the movement may +not ripen for a long time. It is a movement which requires radical +measures, clear-sighted, resolute men: these last, as yet, do not show +themselves in Rome. The new Tuscan ministry has three men of superior +force in various ways,--Montanelli, Guerazzi, D'Aguila; such are not +as yet to be found in Rome. + +But should she fall this time,--and she must either advance with +decision and force, or fall, since to stand still is impossible,--the +people have learned much; ignorance and servility of thought are +lessened,--the way is paving for final triumph. + +And my country, what does she? You have chosen a new President from +a Slave State, representative of the Mexican war. But he seems to be +honest, a man that can be esteemed, and is one really known to +the people, which is a step upward, after having sunk last time to +choosing a mere tool of party. + +Pray send here a good Ambassador,--one that has experience of foreign +life, that he may act with good judgment, and, if possible, a man +that has knowledge and views which extend beyond the cause of party +politics in the United States,--a man of unity in principles, but +capable of understanding variety in forms. And send a man capable +of prizing the luxury of living in, or knowing Rome; the office of +Ambassador is one that should not be thrown away on a person who +cannot prize or use it. Another century, and I might ask to be made +Ambassador myself, ('tis true, like other Ambassadors, I would employ +clerks to do the most of the duty,) but woman's day has not come yet. +They hold their clubs in Paris, but even George Sand will not act +with women as they are. They say she pleads they are too mean, too +treacherous. She should not abandon them for that, which is not +nature, but misfortune. How much I shall have to say on that subject +if I live, which I desire not, for I am very tired of the battle with +giant wrongs, and would like to have some one younger and stronger +arise to say what ought to be said, still more to do what ought to be +done. Enough! if I felt these things in privileged America, the cries +of mothers and wives beaten at night by sons and husbands for their +diversion after drinking, as I have repeatedly heard them these past +months,--the excuse for falsehood, "I _dare not_ tell my husband, he +would be ready to kill me,"--have sharpened my perception as to the +ills of woman's condition and the remedies that must be applied. Had +I but genius, had I but energy, to tell what I know as it ought to be +told! God grant them me, or some other more worthy woman, I pray. + +_Don Tirlone_, the _Punch_ of Rome, has just come in. This number +represents the fortress of Gaeta. Outside hangs a cage containing +a parrot (_pappagallo_), the plump body of the bird surmounted by a +noble large head with benign face and Papal head-dress. He sits on +the perch now with folded wings, but the cage door, in likeness of a +portico, shows there is convenience to come forth for the purposes +of benediction, when wanted. Outside, the king of Naples, dressed +as Harlequin, plays the organ for instruction of the bird (unhappy +penitent, doomed to penance), and, grinning with sharp teeth, +observes: "He speaks in my way now." In the background a young +Republican holds ready the match for a barrel of gunpowder, but looks +at his watch, waiting the moment to ignite it. + +A happy New Year to my country! may she be worthy of the privileges +she possesses, while others are lavishing their blood to win +them,--that is all that need be wished for her at present. + + + + +LETTER XXVII. + +ROME.--THE CARNIVAL: THE MOCCOLETTI.--THE ROMAN CHARACTER.--THE +POPE'S FLIGHT.--THE ASSEMBLY.--THE PEOPLE.--THE POPE'S MISTAKE.--HIS +MANIFESTO: ITS TONE AND EFFECT.--DESTRUCTION OF THE TEMPORAL DOMINION +OF THE CHURCH. + + +Rome, Evening of Feb. 20, 1849. + +It is said you cannot thoroughly know any place till you have both +summered and wintered in it; but more than one summer and winter of +experience seems to be needed for Rome. How I fretted last winter, +during the three months' rain, and sepulchral chill, and far worse +than sepulchral odors, which accompanied it! I thought it was the +invariable Roman winter, and that I should never be able to stay here +during another; so took my room only by the month, thinking to fly so +soon as the rain set in. And lo! it has never rained at all; but there +has been glorious sun and moon, unstained by cloud, always; and these +last days have been as warm as May,--the days of the Carnival, for I +have just come in from seeing the _Moccoletti_. + +The Republican Carnival has not been as splendid as the Papal, the +absence of dukes and princes being felt in the way of coaches and +rich dresses; there are also fewer foreigners than usual, many having +feared to assist at this most peaceful of revolutions. But if +less splendid, it was not less gay; the costumes were many and +fanciful,--flowers, smiles, and fun abundant. + +This is the first time of my seeing the true _Moccoletti_; last year, +in one of the first triumphs of democracy, they did not blow oat the +lights, thus turning it into an illumination. The effect of the swarms +of lights, little and large, thus in motion all over the fronts of +the houses, and up and down the Corso, was exceedingly pretty and +fairy-like; but that did not make up for the loss of that wild, +innocent gayety of which this people alone is capable after childhood, +and which never shines out so much as on this occasion. It is +astonishing the variety of tones, the lively satire and taunt of which +the words _Senza moccolo_, _senza mo_, are susceptible from +their tongues. The scene is the best burlesque on the life of the +"respectable" world that can be imagined. A ragamuffin with a little +piece of candle, not even lighted, thrusts it in your face with an air +of far greater superiority than he can wear who, dressed in gold and +velvet, erect in his carriage, holds aloft his light on a tall pole. +In vain his security; while he looks down on the crowd to taunt the +wretches _senza mo_, a weak female hand from a chamber window blots +out his pretensions by one flirt of an old handkerchief. + +Many handsome women, otherwise dressed in white, wore the red liberty +cap, and the noble though somewhat coarse Roman outline beneath this +brilliant red, by the changeful glow of million lights, made a fine +effect. Men looked too vulgar in the liberty cap. + +How I mourn that my little companion E. never saw these things, that +would have given him such store of enchanting reminiscences for all +his after years! I miss him always on such occasions; formerly it was +through him that I enjoyed them. He had the child's heart, had +the susceptible fancy, and, naturally, a fine discerning sense for +whatever is individual or peculiar. + +I missed him much at the Fair of St. Eustachio. This, like the +Carnival, was last year entirely spoiled by constant rain. I never +saw it at all before. It comes in the first days, or rather nights, of +January. All the quarter of St. Eustachio is turned into one toy-shop; +the stalls are set out in the street and brightly lighted, up. These +are full of cheap toys,--prices varying from half a cent up to twenty +cents. The dolls, which are dressed as husband and wife, or sometimes +grouped in families, are the most grotesque rag-babies that can +be imagined. Among the toys are great quantities of whistles, tin +trumpets, and little tambourines; of these every man, woman, and +child has bought one, and is using it to make a noise. This extempore +concert begins about ten o'clock, and lasts till midnight; the +delight of the numerous children that form part of the orchestra, the +good-humored familiarity without the least touch of rudeness in the +crowd, the lively effect of the light upon the toys, and the jumping, +shouting figures that, exhibit them, make this the pleasantest +Saturnalia. Had you only been there, E., to guide me by the hand, +blowing the trumpet for both, and spying out a hundred queer things in +nooks that entirely escape me! + +The Roman still plays amid his serious affairs, and very serious have +they been this past winter. The Roman legions went out singing and +dancing to fight in Lombardy, and they fought no less bravely for +that. + +When I wrote last, the Pope had fled, guided, he says, "by the hand +of Providence,"--Italy deems by the hand of Austria,--to Gaeta. He +had already soiled his white robes, and defamed himself for ever, +by heaping benedictions on the king of Naples and the bands of +mercenaries whom he employs to murder his subjects on the least sign +of restlessness in their most painful position. Most cowardly had been +the conduct of his making promises he never meant to keep, stealing +away by night in the coach of a foreign diplomatist, protesting that +what he had done was null because he had acted under fear,--as if +such a protest could avail to one who boasts himself representative +of Christ and his Apostles, guardian of the legacy of the martyrs! He +selected a band of most incapable men to face the danger he had feared +for himself; most of these followed his example and fled. Rome sought +an interview with him, to see if reconciliation were possible; he +refused to receive her messengers. His wicked advisers calculated upon +great confusion and distress as inevitable on the occasion; but, +for once, the hope of the bad heart was doomed to immediate +disappointment. Rome coolly said, "If you desert me,--if you will not +hear me,--I must act for myself." She threw herself into the arms of +a few men who had courage and calmness for this crisis; they bade her +think upon what was to be done, meanwhile avoiding every excess that +could give a color to calumny and revenge. The people, with admirable +good sense, comprehended and followed up this advice. Never was Rome +so truly tranquil, so nearly free from gross ill, as this winter. A +few words of brotherly admonition have been more powerful than all the +spies, dungeons, and scaffolds of Gregory. + +"The hand of the Omnipotent works for us," observed an old man whom I +saw in the street selling cigars the evening before the opening of the +Constitutional Assembly. He was struck by the radiant beauty of the +night. The old people observe that there never has been such a winter +as this which follows the establishment by the French of a republic. + +May the omens speed well! A host of enemies without are ready to levy +war against this long-suffering people, to rivet anew their chains. +Still there is now an obvious tide throughout Europe toward a better +order of things, and a wave of it may bear Italy onward to the shore. + +The revolution, like all genuine ones, has been instinctive, its +results unexpected and surprising to the greater part of those who +achieved them. The waters, which had flowed so secretly beneath the +crust of habit that many never heard their murmur, unless in dreams, +have suddenly burst to light in full and beautiful jets; all rush to +drink the pure and living draught. + +As in the time of Jesus, the multitude had been long enslaved beneath +a cumbrous ritual, their minds designedly darkened by those who +should have enlightened them, brutified, corrupted, amid monstrous +contradictions and abuses; yet the moment they hear a word +correspondent to the original nature, "Yes, it is true," they cry. "It +is spoken with, authority. Yes, it ought to be so. Priests ought to +be better and wiser than other men; if they were, they would not need +pomp and temporal power to command respect. Yes, it is true; we ought +not to lie; we should not try to impose upon one another. We ought +rather to prefer that our children should work honestly for their +bread, than get it by cheating, begging, or the prostitution of their +mothers. It would be better to act worthily and kindly, probably would +please God more than the kissing of relics. We have long darkly felt +that these things were so; _now_ we know it." + +The unreality of relation between the people and the hierarchy was +obvious instantly upon the flight of Pius. He made an immense mistake +then, and he made it because neither he nor his Cardinals were aware +of the unreality. They did not know that, great as is the force of +habit, truth _only_ is imperishable. The people had abhorred Gregory, +had adored Pius, upon whom they looked as a saviour, as a liberator; +finding themselves deceived, a mourning-veil had overshadowed their +love. Still, had Pius remained here, and had courage to show himself +on agitating occasions, his position as the Pope, before whom they had +been bred to bow, his aspect, which had once seemed to them full of +blessing and promise, like that of an angel, would have still retained +power. Probably the temporal dominion of the Papacy would not have +been broken up. He fled; the people felt contempt for his want of +force and truth. He wrote to reproach them with ingratitude; they were +indignant. What had they to be grateful for? A constitution to which +he had not kept true an instant; the institution of the National +Guard, which he had begun to neutralize; benedictions, followed by +such actions as the desertion of the poor volunteers in the war for +Italian independence? Still, the people were not quite alienated +from Pius. They felt sure that his heart was, in substance, good +and kindly, though the habits of the priest and the arts of his +counsellors had led him so egregiously to falsify its dictates and +forget the vocation with which he had been called. Many hoped he would +see his mistake, and return to be at one with the people. Among the +more ignorant, there was a superstitious notion that he would return +in the night of the 5th of January. There were many bets that he would +be found in the palace of the Quirinal the morning of the 6th. All +these lingering feelings were finally extinguished by the advice of +excommunication. As this may not have readied America, I subjoin a +translation. Here I was obliged to make use of a manuscript copy; +all the printed ones were at once destroyed. It is probably the last +document of the kind the world will see. + + +MANIFESTO OF PIUS IX. + +"To OUR MOST BELOVED SUBJECTS:-- + +"From this pacific abode to which it has pleased Divine Providence to +conduct us, and whence we can freely manifest our sentiments and our +will, we have waited for testimonies of remorse from our misguided +children for the sacrileges and misdeeds committed against persons +attached to our service,--among whom some have been slain, others +outraged in the most barbarous manner,--as well as for those against +our residence and our person. But we have seen nothing except a +sterile invitation to return to our capital, unaccompanied by a +word of condemnation for those crimes or the least guaranty for our +security against the frauds and violences of that same company of +furious men which still tyrannizes with a barbarous despotism over +Rome and the States of the Church. We also waited, expecting that +the protests and orders we have uttered would recall to the duties of +fidelity and subjection those who have despised and trampled upon them +in the very capital of our States. But, instead of this, a new and +more monstrous act of undisguised felony and of actual rebellion by +them audaciously committed, has filled the measure of our affliction, +and excited at the same time our just indignation, as it will +afflict the Church Universal. We speak of that act, in every +respect detestable, by which, it has been pretended to initiate the +convocation of a so-called General National Assembly of the Roman +States, by a decree of the 29th of last December, in order to +establish new political forms for the Pontifical dominion. Adding +thus iniquity to iniquity, the authors and favorers of the demagogical +anarchy strive to destroy the temporal authority of the Roman Pontiff +over the dominions of Holy Church,--however irrefragably established +through the most ancient and solid rights, and venerated, recognized, +and sustained by all the nations,--pretending and making others +believe that his sovereign power can be subject to controversy or +depend on the caprices of the factious. We shall spare our dignity +the humiliation of dwelling on all that is monstrous contained in that +act, abominable through the absurdity of its origin no less than the +illegality of its form and the impiety of its scope; but it appertains +to the apostolic authority, with which, however unworthy, we are +invested, and to the responsibility which binds us by the most sacred +oaths in the sight of the Omnipotent, not only to protest in the most +energetic and efficacious manner against that same act, but to condemn +it in the face of the universe as an enormous and sacrilegious crime +against our independence and sovereignty, meriting the chastisements +threatened by divine and human laws. We are persuaded that, on +receiving the impudent invitation, you were full of holy indignation, +and will have rejected far from you this guilty and shameful +provocation. Notwithstanding, that none of you may say he has been +deluded by fallacious seductions, and by the preachers of subversive +doctrines, or ignorant of what is contriving by the foes of all order, +all law, all right, true liberty, and your happiness, we to-day again +raise and utter abroad our voice, so that you may be more certain of +the absoluteness with which we prohibit men, of whatever class and +condition, from taking any part in the meetings which those persons +may dare to call, for the nomination of individuals to be sent to +the condemned Assembly. At the same time we recall to you how this +absolute prohibition is sanctioned by the decrees of our predecessors +and of the Councils, especially of the Sacred Council-General of +Trent, Sect. XXII. Chap. 11, in which the Church has fulminated many +times her censures, and especially the greater excommunication, as +incurred without fail by any declaration of whomsoever daring to +become guilty of whatsoever attempt against the temporal sovereignty +of the Supreme Pontiff, this we declare to have been already unhappily +incurred by all those who have given aid to the above-named act, and +others preceding, intended to prejudice the same sovereignty, and in +other modes and under false pretexts have, perturbed, violated, +and usurped our authority. Yet, though we feel ourselves obliged by +conscience to guard the sacred deposit of the patrimony of the Spouse +of Jesus Christ, confided to our care, by using the sword of severity +given to us for that purpose, we cannot therefore forget that we are +on earth the representative of Him who in exercise of his justice does +not forget mercy. Raising, therefore, our hands to Heaven, while we +to it recommend a cause which is indeed more Heaven's than ours, and +while anew we declare ourselves ready, with the aid of its powerful +grace, to drink even to the dregs, for the defence and glory of the +Catholic Church, the cup of persecution which He first wished to drink +for the salvation of the same, we shall not desist from supplicating +Him benignly to hear the fervent prayers which day and night we +unceasingly offer for the salvation of the misguided. No day certainly +could be more joyful for us, than that in which it shall be granted to +see return into the fold of the Lord our sons from whom now we derive +so much bitterness and so great tribulations. The hope of enjoying +soon the happiness of such a day is strengthened in us by the +reflection, that universal are the prayers which, united to ours, +ascend to the throne of Divine Mercy from the lips and the heart of +the faithful throughout the Catholic world, urging it continually to +change the hearts of sinners, and reconduct them into the paths of +truth and of justice. + +"Gaeta, January 6, 1849." + + +The silliness, bigotry, and ungenerous tone of this manifesto excited +a simultaneous movement in the population. The procession which +carried it, mumbling chants, for deposit in places provided for lowest +uses, and then, taking from, the doors of the hatters' shops the +cardinals' hats, threw them into the Tiber, was a real and general +expression of popular disgust. From that hour the power of the scarlet +hierarchy fell to rise no more. No authority can survive a universal +movement of derision. From that hour tongues and pens were loosed, the +leaven of Machiavellism, which still polluted the productions of the +more liberal, disappeared, and people talked as they felt, just as +those of us who do not choose to be slaves are accustomed to do in +America. + +"Jesus," cried an orator, "bade them feed his lambs. If they have done +so, it has been to rob their fleece and drink their blood." + +"Why," said another, "have we been so long deaf to the saying, that +the temporal dominion of the Church was like a thorn in the wound of +Italy, which shall never be healed till that thorn is extracted?" + +And then, without passion, all felt that the temporal dominion was in +fact finished of itself, and that it only remained to organize another +form of government. + + + + +LETTER XXVIII. + +GIOBERTI, MAMIANI, AND MAZZINI.--FORMATION OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL +ASSEMBLY.--THE RIGHT OF SUFFRAGE.--A PROCESSION.--PROCLAMATION OF +THE REPUBLIC.--RESULTS.--DECREE OF THE ASSEMBLY.--AMERICANS IN +ROME: DIFFERENCE OF IMPRESSIONS.--FLIGHT OF THE GRAND DUKE OF +TUSCANY.--CHARLES ALBERT.--PRESENT STATE OF ROME.--REFLECTIONS AND +CONCLUSIONS.--LATEST INTELLIGENCE. + + +Rome, Evening of Feb. 20, 1849. + +The League between the Italian States, and the Diet which was to +establish it, had been the thought of Gioberti, but had found the +instrument at Rome in Mamiani. The deputies were to be named by +princes or parliaments, their mandate to be limited by the existing +institutions of the several states; measures of mutual security and +some modifications in the way of reform would be the utmost that could +be hoped from this Diet. The scope of this party did not go beyond +more vigorous prosecution of the war for independence, and the +establishment of good, institutions for the several principalities on +a basis of assimilation. + +Mazzini, the great radical thinker of Italy, was, on the contrary, +persuaded that unity, not union, was necessary to this country. He +had taken for his motto, GOD AND THE PEOPLE, and believed in no +other powers. He wished an Italian Constitutional Assembly, selected +directly by the people, and furnished with an unlimited mandate to +decide what form was now required by the needs of the Peninsula. His +own wishes, certainly, aimed at a republic; but the decision remained +with the representatives of the people. + +The thought of Gioberti had been at first the popular one, as he, +in fact, was the seer of the so-called Moderate party. For myself, I +always looked upon him as entirely a charlatan, who covered his want +of all real force by the thickest embroidered mantle of words. Still, +for a time, he corresponded with the wants of the Italian mind. He +assailed the Jesuits, and was of real use by embodying the distrust +and aversion that brooded in the minds of men against these most +insidious and inveterate foes of liberty and progress. This triumph, +at least, he may boast: that sect has been obliged to yield; its +extinction seems impossible, of such life-giving power was the fiery +will of Loyola. In the Primate he had embodied the lingering hope of +the Catholic Church; Pius IX. had answered to the appeal, had answered +only to show its futility. He had run through Italy as courier for +Charles Albert, when the so falsely styled Magnanimous entered, +pretending to save her from the stranger, really hoping to take her +for himself. His own cowardice and treachery neutralized the hope, and +Charles Albert, abject in his disgrace, took a retrograde ministry. +This the country would not suffer, and obliged him after a while +to reassume at least the position of the previous year, by taking +Gioberti for his premier. But it soon became evident that the ministry +of Charles Albert was in the same position as had been that of Pius +IX. The hand was powerless when the head was indisposed. Meantime the +name of Mazzini had echoed through Tuscany from the revered lips +of Montanelli; it reached the Roman States, and though at first +propagated by foreign impulse, yet, as soon as understood, was +welcomed as congenial. Montanelli had nobly said, addressing Florence: +"We could not regret that the realization of this project should take +place in a sister city, still more illustrious than ours." The Romans +took him at his word; the Constitutional Assembly for the Roman States +was elected with a double mandate, that the deputies might sit in the +Constitutional Assembly for all Italy whenever the other provinces +could send theirs. They were elected by universal suffrage. Those who +listened to Jesuits and Moderates predicted that the project would +fail of itself. The people were too ignorant to make use of the +liberty of suffrage. + +But ravens now-a-days are not the true prophetic birds. The Roman +eagle recommences her flight, and it is from its direction only that +the high-priest may draw his augury. The people are certainly as +ignorant as centuries of the worst government, the neglect of popular +education, the enslavement of speech and the press, could make them; +yet they have an instinct to recognize measures that are good for +them. A few weeks' schooling at some popular meetings, the clubs, the +conversations of the National Guards in their quarters or on patrol, +were sufficient to concert measures so well, that the people voted in +larger proportion than at contested elections in our country, and made +a very good choice. + +The opening of the Constitutional Assembly gave occasion for a fine +procession. All the troops in Rome defiled from the Campidoglio; +among them many bear the marks of suffering from the Lombard war. The +banners of Sicily, Venice, and Bologna waved proudly; that of Naples +was veiled with crape. I was in a balcony in the Piazza di Venezia; +the Palazzo di Venezia, that sternest feudal pile, so long the +head-quarters of Austrian machinations, seemed to frown, as the bands +each in passing struck up the _Marseillaise_. The nephew of Napoleon +and Garibaldi, the hero of Montevideo, walked together, as deputies. +The deputies, a grave band, mostly advocates or other professional +men, walked without other badge of distinction than the tricolored +scarf. I remembered the entrance of the deputies to the Council only +fourteen months ago, in the magnificent carriages lent by the princes +for the occasion; they too were mostly nobles, and their liveried +attendants followed, carrying their scutcheons. Princes and +councillors have both fled or sunk into nothingness; in those +councillors was no counsel. Will it be found in the present? Let us +hope so! What we see to-day has much more the air of reality than all +that parade of scutcheons, or the pomp of dress and retinue with which +the Ecclesiastical Court was wont to amuse the people. + +A few days after followed the proclamation of a Republic. An immense +crowd of people surrounded the Palazzo della Cancelleria, within whose +court-yard Rossi fell, while the debate was going on within. At one +o'clock in the morning of the 9th of February, a Republic was resolved +upon, and the crowd rushed away to ring all the bells. + +Early next morning I rose and went forth to observe the Republic. +Over the Quirinal I went, through the Forum, to the Capitol. There was +nothing to be seen except the magnificent calm emperor, the tamers +of horses, the fountain, the trophies, the lions, as usual; among the +marbles, for living figures, a few dirty, bold women, and Murillo boys +in the sun just as usual. I passed into the Corso; there were men in +the liberty cap,--of course the lowest and vilest had been the first +to assume it; all the horrible beggars persecuting as impudently as +usual. I met some English; all their comfort was, "It would not last +a month." "They hoped to see all these fellows shot yet." The English +clergyman, more mild and legal, only hopes to see them (i.e. the +ministry, deputies, &c.) _hung_. + +Mr. Carlyle would be delighted with his countrymen. They are entirely +ready and anxious to see a Cromwell for Italy. They, too, think, when +the people starve, "It is no matter what happens in the back parlor." +What signifies that, if there is "order" in the front? How dare the +people make a noise to disturb us yawning at billiards! + +I met an American. He "had no confidence in the Republic." Why? +Because he "had no confidence in the people." Why? Because "they were +not like _our_ people." Ah! Jonathan and John,--excuse me, but I +must say the Italian has a decided advantage over you in the power of +quickly feeling generous sympathy, as well as some other things which +I have not time now to particularize. I have memoranda from you both +in my note-book. + +At last the procession mounts the Campidoglio. It is all dressed with +banners. The tricolor surmounts the palace of the senator; the senator +himself has fled. The deputies mount the steps, and one of them reads, +in a clear, friendly voice, the following words:-- + + +"FUNDAMENTAL DECREE OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL ASSEMBLY OF ROME. + +"ART. I.--The Papacy has fallen in fact and in right from the temporal +government of the Roman State. + +"ART. II.--The Roman Pontiff shall have all the necessary guaranties +for independence in the exercise of his spiritual power. + +"ART. III.--The form of government of the Roman State shall be a pure +democracy, and will take the glorious name of Roman Republic. + +"ART. IV.--The Roman Republic shall have with the rest of Italy the +relations exacted by a common nationality." + +Between each of these expressive sentences the speaker paused; the +great bell of the Capitol gave forth its solemn melodies; the cannon +answered; while the crowd shouted, _Viva la Republica! Viva Italia!_ + + +The imposing grandeur of the spectacle to me gave new force to the +emotion that already swelled my heart; my nerves thrilled, and I +longed to see in some answering glance a spark of Rienzi, a little of +that soul which made my country what she is. The American at my side +remained impassive. Receiving all his birthright from a triumph of +democracy, he was quite indifferent to this manifestation on this +consecrated spot. Passing the winter in Rome to study art, he was +insensible to the artistic beauty of the scene,--insensible to this +new life of that spirit from which all the forms he gazes at +in galleries emanated. He "did not see the use of these popular +demonstrations." + +Again I must mention a remark of his, as a specimen of the ignorance +in which Americans usually remain during their flighty visits to these +scenes, where they associate only with one another. And I do it the +rather as this seemed a really thoughtful, intelligent man; no vain, +vulgar trifler. He said, "The people seem only to be looking on; they +take no part." + +What people? said I. + +"Why, these around us; there is no other people." + +There are a few beggars, errand-boys, and nurse-maids. + +"The others are only soldiers." + +Soldiers! The Civic Guard! all the decent men in Rome. + +Thus it is that the American, on many points, becomes more ignorant +for coming abroad, because he attaches some value to his crude +impressions and frequent blunders. It is not thus that any seed-corn +can be gathered from foreign gardens. Without modest scrutiny, patient +study, and observation, he spends his money and goes home, with a +new coat perhaps, but a mind befooled rather than instructed. It +is necessary to speak the languages of these countries, and know +personally some of their inhabitants, in order to form any accurate +impressions. + +The flight of the Grand Duke of Tuscany followed. In imitation of +his great exemplar, he promised and smiled to the last, deceiving +Montanelli, the pure and sincere, at the very moment he was about to +enter his carriage, into the belief that he persevered in his assent +to the liberal movement. His position was certainly very difficult, +but he might have left it like a gentleman, like a man of honor. 'T +was pity to destroy so lightly the good opinion the Tuscans had of +him. Now Tuscany meditates union with Rome. + +Meanwhile, Charles Albert is filled with alarm. He is indeed betwixt +two fires. Gioberti has published one of his prolix, weak addresses, +in which, he says, that in the beginning of every revolution one must +fix a limit beyond which he will not go; that, for himself, he has +done it,--others are passing beyond his mark, and he will not go any +farther. Of the want of thought, of insight into historic and all +other truths, which distinguishes the "illustrious Gioberti," this +assumption is a specimen. But it makes no difference; he and his +prince must go, sooner or later, if the movement continues, nor is +there any prospect of its being stayed unless by foreign intervention. +This the Pope has not yet, it is believed, solicited, but there is +little reason to hope he will be spared that crowning disgrace. He +has already consented to the incitement of civil war. Should an +intervention be solicited, all depends on France. Will she basely +forfeit every pledge and every duty, to say nothing of her true +interest? It seems that her President stands doubtful, intending to +do what is for _his_ particular interest; but if his interest proves +opposed to the republican principle, will France suffer herself again +to be hoodwinked and enslaved? It is impossible to know, she has +already shown such devotion to the mere prestige of a name. + +On England no dependence can be placed. She is guided by no great +idea; her Parliamentary leaders sneer at sentimental policy, and the +"jargon" of ideas. She will act, as always, for her own interest; and +the interest of her present government is becoming more and more the +crushing of the democratic tendency. They are obliged to do it at +home, both in the back and the front parlor; it would not be decent +as yet to have a Spielberg just at home for obstreperous patriots, but +England has so many ships, it is just as easy to transport them to +a safe distance. Then the Church of England, so long an enemy to the +Church of Rome, feels a decided interest with it on the subject of +temporal possessions. The rich English traveller, fearing to see the +Prince Borghese stripped of one of his palaces for a hospital or +some such low use, thinks of his own twenty-mile park and the crowded +village of beggars at its gate, and muses: "I hope to see them all +shot yet, these rascally republicans." + +How I wish my country would show some noble sympathy when an +experience so like her own is going on. Politically she cannot +interfere; but formerly, when Greece and Poland were struggling, they +were at least aided by private contributions. Italy, naturally so +rich, but long racked and impoverished by her oppressors, greatly +needs money to arm and clothe her troops. Some token of sympathy, too, +from America would be so welcome to her now. If there were a circle of +persons inclined to trust such to me, I might venture to promise the +trust should be used to the advantage of Italy. It would make me proud +to have my country show a religious faith in the progress of ideas, +and make some small sacrifice of its own great resources in aid of a +sister cause, now. + +But I must close this letter, which it would be easy to swell to a +volume from the materials in my mind. One or two traits of the hour I +must note. Mazzarelli, chief of the present ministry, was a prelate, +and named spontaneously by the Pope before his flight. He has +shown entire and frank intrepidity. He has laid aside the title of +Monsignor, and appears before the world as a layman. + +Nothing can be more tranquil than has been the state of Rome all +winter. Every wile has been used by the Oscurantists to excite the +people, but their confidence in their leaders could not be broken. +A little mutiny in the troops, stimulated by letters from their old +leaders, was quelled in a moment. The day after the proclamation of +the Republic, some zealous ignoramuses insulted the carriages that +appeared with servants in livery. The ministry published a grave +admonition, that democracy meant liberty, not license, and that he +who infringed upon an innocent freedom of action in others must +be declared traitor to his country. Every act of the kind ceased +instantly. An intimation that it was better not to throw large comfits +or oranges during the Carnival, as injuries have thus been sometimes +caused, was obeyed with equal docility. + +On Sunday last, placards affixed in the high places summoned the city +to invest Giuseppe Mazzini with the rights of a Roman citizen. I have +not yet heard the result. The Pope made Rossi a Roman citizen; he was +suffered to retain that title only one day. It was given him on the +14th of November, he died the 15th. Mazzini enters Rome at any rate, +for the first time in his life, as deputy to the Constitutional +Assembly; it would be a noble poetic justice, if he could enter also +as a Roman citizen. + + +February 24. + +The Austrians have invaded Ferrara, taken $200,000 and six hostages, +and retired. This step is, no doubt, intended to determine whether +France will resent the insult, or whether she will betray Italy. It +shows also the assurance of the Austrian that the Pope will approve +of an armed intervention. Probably before I write again these matters +will reach some decided crisis. + + + + +LETTER XXIX. + +THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.--CHARLES ALBERT A TRAITOR.--FALL OF +GIOBERTI.--MAZZINI.--HIS CHARACTER.--HIS ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE.--HIS +ORATORY.--AMERICAN ARTISTS.--BROWN, TERRY, AND FREEMAN.--HICKS AND +HIS PICTURES.--CROPSEY AND CRANCH CONTRASTED.--AMERICAN +LANDSCAPE PAINTINGS.--SCULPTORS.--STORY'S "FISHER BOY."--MOZIER'S +"POCAHONTAS."--GREENOUGH'S GROUP.--POWERS'S "SLAVE."--THE +EQUESTRIAN STATUE OF WASHINGTON.--CRAWFORD'S DESIGN.--TRIALS OF THE +ARTIST.--AMERICAN PATRONS OF ART.--EXPENSES OF ARTIST LIFE.--A GERMAN +SCULPTOR.--OVERBECK AND HIS PAINTINGS.--FESTIVAL OF FRIED RICE.--AN +AVE MARIA. + + +Rome, March 20, 1849. + +The Roman Republic moves on better than could have been expected. +There are great difficulties about money, necessarily, as the +government, so beset with trials and dangers, cannot command +confidence in that respect. The solid coin has crept out of +the country or lies hid, and in the use of paper there are the +corresponding inconveniences. But the poor, always the chief sufferers +from such a state of things, are wonderfully patient, and I doubt not +that the new form, if Italy could be left to itself, would be settled +for the advantage of all. Tuscany would soon be united with Rome, and +to the Republic of Central Italy, no longer broken asunder by petty +restrictions and sacrificed to the interests of a few persons, would +come that prosperity natural to a region so favored by nature. + +Could Italy be left alone! But treacherous, selfish men at home strive +to betray, and foes threaten her from without on every side. Even +France, her natural ally, promises to prove foolishly and basely +faithless. The dereliction from principle of her government seems +certain, and thus far the nation, despite the remonstrance of a few +worthy men, gives no sign of effective protest. There would be little +hope for Italy, were not the thrones of her foes in a tottering state, +their action liable at every moment to be distracted by domestic +difficulties. The Austrian government seems as destitute of support +from the nation as is possible for a government to be, and the army is +no longer what it was, being made up so largely of new recruits. The +Croats are uncertain in their adhesion, the war in Hungary likely to +give them much to do; and if the Russian is called in, the rest of +Europe becomes hostile. All these circumstances give Italy a chance +she otherwise could not have; she is in great measure unfurnished with +arms and money; her king in the South is a bloody, angry, well-armed +foe; her king in the North, a proved traitor. Charles Albert has now +declared, war because he could not do otherwise; but his sympathies +are in fact all against liberty; the splendid lure that he might +become king of Italy glitters no more; the Republicans are in the +ascendant, and he may well doubt, should the stranger be driven out, +whether Piedmont could escape the contagion. Now, his people insisting +on war, he has the air of making it with a good grace; but should he +be worsted, probably he will know some loophole by which to steal out. +The rat will get out and leave the lion in the trap. + +The "illustrious Gioberti" has fallen,--fallen for ever from his high +scaffold of words. His demerits were too unmistakable for rhetoric to +hide. That he sympathized with the Pope rather than the Roman people, +and could not endure to see him stripped of his temporal power, no +one could blame in the author of the _Primato_. That he refused the +Italian General Assembly, if it was to be based on the so-called +Montanelli system instead of his own, might be conviction, or it might +be littleness and vanity. But that he privily planned, without even +adherence of the council of ministers, an armed intervention of the +Piedmontese troops in Tuscany, thus willing to cause civil war, and, +at this great moment, to see Italian blood shed by Italian hands, was +treachery. I think, indeed, he has been probably made the scape-goat +in that affair; that Charles Albert planned the measure, and, finding +himself unable to carry it out, in consequence of the vigilance and +indignant opposition of the Chamber of Deputies, was somewhat consoled +by making it an occasion to victimize the "Illustrious," whom four +weeks before the people had forced him to accept as his minister. + +Now the name of Gioberti is erased from the corners of the streets to +which it was affixed a year ago; he is stripped of all his honorary +degrees, and proclaimed an unworthy son of the country. Mazzini is +the idol of the people. "Soon to be hunted out," sneered the sceptical +American. Possibly yes; for no man is secure of his palm till the +fight is over. The civic wreath may be knocked from his head a hundred +times in the ardor of the contest. No matter, if he can always keep +the forehead pure and lofty, as will Mazzini. + +In thinking of Mazzini, I always remember Petrarch's invocation to +Rienzi. Mazzini comes at a riper period in the world's history, with +the same energy of soul, but of purer temper and more enlarged views +to answer them. + +I do not know whether I mentioned a kind of poetical correspondence +about Mazzini and Rossi. Rossi was also an exile for liberal +principles, but he did not value his birthright; he alienated it, and +as a French citizen became peer of France and representative of Louis +Philippe in Italy. When, with the fatuity of those whom the gods +have doomed to perish, Pius IX. took the representative of the fallen +Guizot policy for his minister, he made him a Roman citizen. He was +proclaimed such on the 14th of November. On the 15th he perished, +before he could enter the parliament he had called. He fell at the +door of the Cancelleria when it was sitting. + +Mazzini, in his exile, remained absolutely devoted to his native +country. Because, though feeling as few can that the interests of +humanity in all nations are identical, he felt also that, born of a +race so suffering, so much needing devotion and energy, his first +duty was to that. The only powers he acknowledged were _God and the +People_, the special scope of his acts the unity and independence of +Italy. Rome was the theme of his thoughts, but, very early exiled, +he had never seen that home to which all the orphans of the soul +so naturally turn. Now he entered it as a Roman citizen, elected +representative of the people by universal suffrage. His motto, _Dio +e Popolo_, is put upon the coin with the Roman eagle; unhappily this +first-issued coin is of brass, or else of silver, with much alloy. +_Dii, avertite omen_, and may peaceful days turn it all to pure gold! + +On his first entrance to the house, Mazzini, received with fervent +applause and summoned, to take his place beside the President, spoke +as follows:-- + +"It is from me, colleagues, that should come these tokens of applause, +these tokens of affection, because the little good I have not done, +but tried to do, has come to me from Rome. Rome was always a sort of +talisman for me; a youth, I studied the history of Italy, and found, +while all the other nations were born, grew up, played their part in +the world, then fell to reappear no more in the same power, a single +city was privileged by God to die only to rise again greater than +before, to fulfil a mission greater than the first. I saw the Rome +of the Empire extend her conquests from the confines of Africa to the +confines of Asia. I saw Rome perish, crushed by the barbarians, by +those whom even yet the world, calls barbarians. I saw her rise +again, after having chased away these same barbarians, reviving in +its sepulchre the germ of Civilization. I saw her rise more great +for conquest, not with arms, but with words,--rise in the name of the +Popes to repeat her grand mission. I said in my heart, the city which +alone in the world has had two grand lives, one greater than the +other, will have a third. After the Rome which wrought by conquest of +arms, the Rome which wrought by conquest of words, must come a third +which shall work by virtue of example. After the Rome of the Emperors, +after the Rome of the Popes, will come the Rome of the People. The +Rome of the People is arisen; do not salute with applauses, but let +us rejoice together! I cannot promise anything for myself, except +concurrence in all you shall do for the good of Rome, of Italy, of +mankind. Perhaps we shall have to pass through great crises; perhaps +we shall have to fight a sacred battle against the only enemy that +threatens us,--Austria. We will fight it, and we will conquer. I hope, +please God, that foreigners may not be able to say any more that which +so many of them repeat to-day, speaking of our affairs,--that the +light which, comes from Rome is only an _ignis fatuus_ wandering among +the tombs. The world shall see that it is a starry light, eternal, +pure, and resplendent as those we look up to in the heavens!" + +On a later day he spoke more fully of the difficulties that threaten +at home the young republic, and said:-- + +"Let us not hear of Right, of Left, of Centre; these terms express +the three powers in a constitutional monarchy; for us they have +no meaning; the only divisions for us are of Republicans or +non-Republicans,--or of sincere men and temporizing men. Let us not +hear so much of the Republicans of to-day and of yesterday; I am a +Republican of twenty years' standing. Entertaining such hopes for +Italy, when many excellent, many sincere men held them as Utopian, +shall I denounce these men because they are now convinced of their +practicability?" + +This last I quote from memory. In hearing the gentle tone of +remonstrance with those of more petty mind, or influenced by the +passions of the partisan, I was forcibly reminded of the parable by +Jesus, of the vineyard and the discontent of the laborers that those +who came at the eleventh hour "received also a penny." Mazzini also is +content that all should fare alike as brethren, if only they will come +into the vineyard. He is not an orator, but the simple conversational +tone of his address is in refreshing contrast with the boyish rhetoric +and academic swell common to Italian speakers in the present unfledged +state. As they have freer use of the power of debate, they will +become more simple and manly. The speech of Mazzini is laden with +thought,--it goes straight to the mark by the shortest path, and moves +without effort, from the irresistible impression of deep conviction +and fidelity in the speaker. Mazzini is a man of genius, an elevated +thinker; but the most powerful and first impression from his presence +must always be of the religion of his soul, of his _virtue_, both in +the modern and antique sense of that word. + +If clearness of right, if energy, if indefatigable perseverance, can +steer the ship through this dangerous pass, it will be done. He said, +"We will conquer"; whether Rome will, this time, is not to me certain, +but such men as Mazzini conquer always,--conquer in defeat. Yet Heaven +grant that no more blood, no more corruption of priestly government, +be for Italy. It could only be for once more, for the strength, of her +present impulse would not fail to triumph at last; but even one more +trial seems too intolerably much, when I think of the holocaust of the +broken hearts, baffled lives, that must attend it. + +But enough of politics for the present; this letter goes by private +hand, and, as news, will be superseded before it can arrive. + +Let me rather take the opportunity to say some things that I have let +lie by, while writing of political events. Especially of our artists I +wish to say something. I know many of thorn, if not all, and see with +pleasure our young country so fairly represented. + +Among the painters I saw of Brown only two or three pictures at the +exhibition in Florence; they were coarse, flashy things. I was told +he could do better; but a man who indulges himself with such, coarse +sale-work cannot surely do well at any time. + +The merits of Terry and Freeman are not my merits; they are beside +both favorites in our country, and have a sufficient number of +pictures there for every one to judge. I am no connoisseur as regards +the technical merits of paintings; it is only poetic invention, or a +tender feeling of nature, which captivates me. + +Terry loves grace, and consciously works from the model. The result is +a pleasing transposition of the hues of this clime. But the design of +the picture is never original, nor is it laden with any message from, +the heart. Of Freeman I know less; as the two or three pictures of his +that I have seen never interested me. I have not visited his studio. + +Of Hicks I think very highly. He is a man of ideas, an original +observer, and with a poetic heart. His system of coloring is derived +from a thoughtful study, not a mere imitation of nature, and shows +the fineness of his organization. Struggling unaided to pursue the +expensive studies of his art, he has had only a small studio, and +received only orders for little cabinet pictures. Could, he carry out +adequately his ideas, in him would be found the treasure of genius. He +has made the drawings for a large picture of many figures; the design +is original and noble, the grouping highly effective. Could he paint +this picture, I believe it would be a real boon to the lovers of art, +the lovers of truth. I hope very much that, when he returns to the +United States, some competent patron of art--one of the few who have +mind as well as purse--will see the drawings and order the picture. +Otherwise he cannot paint it, as the expenses attendant on models +for so many figures, &c. are great, and the time demanded could not +otherwise be taken from the claims of the day. + +Among landscape painters Cropsey and Cranch have the true artist +spirit. In faculties, each has what the other wants. Cropsey is a +reverent and careful student of nature in detail; it is no pedantry, +but a true love he has, and his pictures are full of little, gentle +signs of intimacy. They please and touch; but yet in poetic feeling +of the heart of nature he is not equal to Cranch, who produces +fine effects by means more superficial, and, on examination, less +satisfactory. Each might take somewhat from the other to advantage, +could he do it without diminishing his own original dower. Both are +artists of high promise, and deserve to be loved and cherished by +a country which may, without presumption, hope to carry landscape +painting to a pitch of excellence unreached before. For the historical +painter, the position with us is, for many reasons, not favorable; +but there is no bar in the way of the landscape painter, and fate, +bestowing such a prodigality of subject, seems to give us a hint not +to be mistaken. I think the love of landscape painting is genuine in +our nation, and as it is a branch of art where achievement has been +comparatively low, we may not unreasonably suppose it has been left +for us. I trust it will be undertaken in the highest spirit. Nature, +it seems to me, reveals herself more freely in our land; she is true, +virgin, and confiding,--she smiles upon the vision of a true Endymion. +I hope to see, not only copies upon canvas of our magnificent scenes, +but a transfusion of the spirit which is their divinity. + +Then why should the American landscape painter come to Italy? cry +many. I think, myself, he ought not to stay here very long. Yet a few +years' study is precious, for here Nature herself has worked with man, +as if she wanted to help him in the composition of pictures. The ruins +of Italy, in their varied relations with vegetation and the heavens, +make speeches from every stone for instruction of the artist; the +greatest variety here is found with the greatest harmony. To know how +this union may be accomplished is a main secret of art, and though the +coloring is not the same, yet he who has the key to its mysteries of +beauty is the more initiated to the same in other climates, and +will easily attune afresh his more instructed eye and mind to the +contemplation of that which moulded his childhood. + +I may observe of the two artists I have named, that Cranch has entered +more into the spirit of Italian landscape, while Cropsey is still more +distinguished on subjects such as he first loved. He seemed to find +the Scotch lake and mountain scenery very congenial; his sketches and +pictures taken from a short residence there are impressive. Perhaps a +melancholy or tender subject suits him best; something rich, bold, and +mellow is more adapted to call out the genius of Cranch. + +Among the sculptors new names rise up, to show that this is decidedly +a province for hope in America. I look upon this as the natural talent +of an American, and have no doubt that glories will be displayed by +our sculptors unknown to classic art. The facts of our history, ideal +and social, will be grand and of new import; it is perfectly natural +to the American to mould in clay and carve in stone. The permanence of +material and solid, relief in the forms correspond to the positiveness +of his nature better than the mere ephemeral and even tricky methods +of the painter,--to his need of motion and action, better than +the chambered scribbling of the poet. He will thus record his best +experiences, and these records will adorn the noble structures that +must naturally arise for the public uses of our society. + +It is particularly gratifying to see men that might amass far more +money and attain more temporary power in other things, despise those +lower lures, too powerful in our country, and aim only at excellence +in the expression of thought. Among these I may mention Story and +Mozier. Story has made in Florence the model for a statue of his +father. This I have not seen, but two statuettes that he modelled +here from the "Fisher" of Goethe pleased me extremely. The languid, +meditative reverie of the boy, the morbid tenderness of his nature, is +most happily expressed in the first, as is the fascinated surrender to +the siren murmur of tire flood in the second. He has taken the moment + + "Half drew she him; half sank he in," &c. + +I hope some one will give him an order to make them in marble. Mozier +seemed to have an immediate success. The fidelity and spirit of his +portrait-busts could be appreciated by every one; for an ideal head of +Pocahontas, too, he had at once orders for many copies. It was not +an Indian head, but, in the union of sweetness and strength with a +princelike, childlike dignity, very happily expressive of his idea of +her character. I think he has modelled a Rebecca at the Well, but this +I did not see. + +These have already a firm hold on the affections of our people; every +American who comes to Italy visits their studios, and speaks of them +with pride, as indeed they well may, in comparing them with artists of +other nations. It will not be long before you see Greenough's group; +it is in spirit a pendant to Cooper's novels. I confess I wish he +had availed himself of the opportunity to immortalize the real noble +Indian in marble. This is only the man of the woods,--no Metamora, no +Uncas. But the group should be very instructive to our people. + +You seem as crazy about Powers's Greek Slave as the Florentines were +about Cimabue's Madonnas, in which we still see the spark of genius, +but not fanned to its full flame. If your enthusiasm be as genuine as +that of the lively Florentines, we will not quarrel with it; but I +am afraid a great part is drawing-room rapture and newspaper echo. +Genuine enthusiasm, however crude the state of mind from which it +springs, always elevates, always educates; but in the same proportion +talking and writing for effect stultifies and debases. I shall not +judge the adorers of the Greek Slave, but only observe, that they have +not kept in reserve any higher admiration for works even now extant, +which are, in comparison with that statue, what that statue is +compared with any weeping marble on a common monument. + +I consider the Slave as a form of simple and sweet beauty, but that +neither as an ideal expression nor a specimen of plastic power is it +transcendent. Powers stands far higher in his busts than in any ideal +statue. His conception of what is individual in character is clear +and just, his power of execution almost unrivalled; but he has had a +lifetime of discipline for the bust, while his studies on the human +body are comparatively limited; nor is his treatment of it free and +masterly. To me, his conception of subject is not striking: I do not +consider him rich in artistic thought. + +He, no less than Greenough and Crawford, would feel it a rich reward +for many labors, and a happy climax to their honors, to make an +equestrian statue of Washington for our country. I wish they might all +do it, as each would show a different kind of excellence. To present +the man on horseback, the wise centaur, the tamer of horses, may well +be deemed a high achievement of modern, as it was of ancient art. The +study of the anatomy and action of the horse, so rich in suggestions, +is naturally most desirable to the artist; happy he who, obliged +by the brevity of life and the limitations of fortune, to make his +studies conform to his "orders," finds himself justified by a national +behest in entering on this department. + +At home one gets callous about the character of Washington, from a +long experience of Fourth of July bombast in his praise. But seeing +the struggles of other nations, and the deficiencies of the leaders +who try to sustain them, the heart is again stimulated, and puts forth +buds of praise. One appreciates the wonderful combination of events +and influences that gave our independence so healthy a birth, and the +almost miraculous merits of the men who tended its first motions. In +the combination of excellences needed at such a period with the purity +and modesty which dignify the private man in the humblest station, +Washington as yet stands alone. No country has ever had such a good +future; no other is so happy as to have a pattern of spotless worth +which will remain in her latest day venerable as now. + +Surely, then, that form should be immortalized in material solid as +its fame; and, happily for the artist, that form was of natural beauty +and dignity, and he who places him on horseback simply represents his +habitual existence. Everything concurs to make an equestrian statue of +Washington desirable. + +The dignified way to manage that affair would be to have a committee +chosen of impartial judges, men who would look only to the merits of +the work and the interests of the country, unbiassed by any personal +interest in favor of some one artist. It is said it is impossible to +find such a committee, but I cannot believe it. Let there be put aside +the mean squabbles and jealousies, the vulgar pushing of unworthy +friends, with which, unhappily, the artist's career seems more rife +than any other, and a fair concurrence established; let each artist +offer his design for an equestrian statue of Washington, and let the +best have the preference. + +Mr. Crawford has made a design which he takes with him to America, and +which, I hope, will be generally seen. He has represented Washington +in his actual dress; a figure of Fame, winged, presents the laurel and +civic wreath; his gesture declines them; he seems to say, "For me the +deed is enough,--I need no badge, no outward, token in reward." + +This group has no insipid, allegorical air, as might be supposed; and +its composition is very graceful, simple, and harmonious. The costume +is very happily managed. The angel figure is draped, and with, the +liberty-cap, which, as a badge both of ancient and modern times, seems +to connect the two figures, and in an artistic point of view balances +well the cocked hat; there is a similar harmony between the angel's +wings and the extremities of the horse. The action of the winged +figure induces a natural and spirited action of the horse and rider. I +thought of Goethe's remark, that a fine work of art will always have, +at a distance, where its details cannot be discerned, a beautiful +effect, as of architectural ornament, and that this excellence the +groups of Raphael share with the antique. He would have been pleased +with the beautiful balance of forms in this group, with the freedom +with which light and air play in and out, the management of the whole +being clear and satisfactory at the first glance. But one should go +into a great number of studies, as you can in Rome or Florence, and +see the abundance of heavy and inharmonious designs to appreciate the +merits of this; anything really good seems so simple and so a matter +of course to the unpractised observer. + +Some say the Americans will not want a group, but just the fact; the +portrait of Washington riding straight onward, like Marcus Aurelius, +or making an address, or lifting his sword. I do not know about +that,--it is a matter of feeling. This winged figure not only gives +a poetic sense to the group, but a natural support and occasion for +action to the horse and rider. Uncle Sam must send Major Downing to +look at it, and then, if he wants other designs, let him establish +a concurrence, as I have said, and choose what is best. I am not +particularly attached to Mr. Greenough, Mr. Powers, or Mr. Crawford. I +admire various excellences in the works of each, and should be glad +if each received an order for an equestrian statue. Nor is there any +reason why they should not. There is money enough in the country, and +the more good things there are for the people to see freely in open +daylight, the better. That makes artists germinate. + +I love the artists, though I cannot speak of their works in a way to +content their friends, or even themselves, often. Who can, that has a +standard of excellence in the mind, and a delicate conscience in +the use of words? My highest tribute is meagre of superlatives in +comparison with the hackneyed puffs with which artists submit to +be besmeared. Submit? alas! often they court them, rather. I do not +expect any kindness from my contemporaries. I know that what is to +me justice and honor is to them only a hateful coldness. Still I +love them, I wish for their good, I feel deeply for their sufferings, +annoyances, privations, and would lessen them if I could. I have +thought it might perhaps be of use to publish some account of the +expenses of the artist. There is a general impression, that the artist +lives very cheaply in Italy. This is a mistake. Italy, compared +with America, is not so very cheap, except for those who have iron +constitutions to endure bad food, eaten in bad air, damp and dirty +lodgings. The expenses, even in Florence, of a simple but clean and +wholesome life, are little less than in New York. The great difference +is for people that are rich. An Englishman of rank and fortune does +not need the same amount of luxury as at home, to be on a footing with +the nobles of Italy. The Broadway merchant would find his display of +mahogany and carpets thrown away in a country where a higher kind of +ornament is the only one available. But poor people, who can, at any +rate, buy only the necessaries of life, will find them in the Italian +cities, where all sellers live by cheating foreigners, very little +cheaper than in America. + +The patrons of Art in America, ignorant of these facts, and not +knowing the great expenses which attend the study of Art and the +production of its wonders, are often guilty of most undesigned +cruelty, and do things which it would grieve their hearts to have +done, if they only knew the facts. They have read essays on the uses +of adversity in developing genius, and they are not sufficiently +afraid to administer a dose of adversity beyond what the forces of +the patient can bear. Laudanum in drops is useful as a medicine, but a +cupful kills downright. + +Beside this romantic idea about letting artists suffer to develop +their genius, the American Maecenas is not sufficiently aware of +the expenses attendant on producing the work he wants. He does not +consider that the painter, the sculptor, must be paid for the time +he spends in designing and moulding, no less than in painting and +carving; that he must have his bread and sleeping-house, his workhouse +or studio, his marbles and colors,--the sculptor his workmen; so that +if the price be paid he asks, a modest and delicate man very commonly +receives _no_ guerdon for his thought,--the real essence of the +work,--except the luxury of seeing it embodied, which he could not +otherwise have afforded, The American Maecenas often pushes the price +down, not from want of generosity, but from a habit of making what are +called good bargains,--i.e. bargains for one's own advantage at the +expense of a poorer brother. Those who call these good do not believe +that + + "Mankind is one, + And beats with one great heart." + +They have not read the life of Jesus Christ. + +Then the American Maecenas sometimes, after ordering a work, has been +known to change his mind when the statue is already modelled. It is +the American who does these things, because an American, who either +from taste or vanity buys a picture, is often quite uneducated as to +the arts, and cannot understand why a little picture or figure costs +so much money. The Englishman or Frenchman, of a suitable position to +seek these adornments for his house, usually understands better than +the visitor of Powers who, on hearing the price of the Proserpine, +wonderingly asked, "Isn't statuary riz lately?" Queen Victoria of +England, and her Albert, it is said, use their royal privilege to get +works of art at a price below their value; but their subjects would be +ashamed to do so. + +To supply means of judging to the American merchant (full of kindness +and honorable sympathy as beneath the crust he so often is) who wants +pictures and statues, not merely from ostentation, but as means of +delight and improvement to himself and his friends, who has a soul to +respect the genius and desire the happiness of the artist, and who, +if he errs, does so from ignorance of the circumstances, I give the +following memorandum, made at my desire by an artist, my neighbor:-- + +"The rent of a suitable studio for modelling in clay and executing +statues in marble may be estimated at $200 a year. + +"The best journeyman carver in marble at Rome receives $60 a month. +Models are paid $1 a day. + +"The cost of marble varies according to the size of the block, being +generally sold by the cubic palm, a square of nine inches English. +As a general guide regarding the prices established among the higher +sculptors of Rome, I may mention that for a statue of life-size the +demand is from $1,000 to $5,000, varying according to the composition +of the figure and the number of accessories. + +"It is a common belief in the United States, that a student of Art can +live in Italy and pursue his studies on an income of $300 or $400 a +year. This is a lamentable error; the Russian government allows its +pensioners $700, which is scarcely sufficient. $1,000 per annum should +be placed at the disposal of every young artist leaving our country +for Europe." + +Let it be remembered, in addition to considerations inevitable +from this memorandum, that an artist may after years and months of +uncheered and difficult toil, after he has gone through the earlier +stages of an education, find it too largely based, and of aim too +high, to finish in this world. + +The Prussian artist here on my left hand learned not only his art, +but reading and writing, after he was thirty. A farmer's son, he was +allowed no freedom to learn anything till the death of the head of +the house left him a beggar, but set him free; he walked to Berlin, +distant several hundred miles, attracted by his first works some +attention, and received some assistance in money, earned more by +invention of a ploughshare, walked to Rome, struggled through every +privation, and has now a reputation which has secured him the means of +putting his thoughts into marble. True, at forty-nine years of age he +is still severely poor; he cannot marry, because he cannot maintain a +family; but he is cheerful, because he can work in his own way, trusts +with childlike reliance in God, and is still sustained by the vigorous +health he won laboring in his father's fields. Not every man +could continue to work, circumstanced as he is, at the end of the +half-century. For him the only sad thing in my mind is that his works +are not worth working, though of merit in composition and execution, +yet ideally a product of the galvanized piety of the German school, +more mutton-like than lamb-like to my unchurched eyes. + +You are likely to have a work to look at in the United States by the +great master of that school, Overbeck; Mr. Perkins of Boston, who +knows how to spend his money with equal generosity and discretion, +having bought his "Wise and Foolish Virgins." It will be precious to +the country from great artistic merits. As to the spirit, "blessed are +the poor in spirit." That kind of severity is, perhaps has become, the +nature of Overbeck. He seems like a monk, but a really pious and pure +one. This spirit is not what I seek; I deem it too narrow for our +day, but being deeply sincere in him, its expression is at times also +deeply touching. Barabbas borne in triumph, and the child Jesus, +who, playing with his father's tools, has made himself a cross, are +subjects best adapted for expression of this spirit. + +I have written too carelessly,--much writing hath made me mad of late. +Forgive if the "style be not neat, terse, and sparkling," if there be +naught of the "thrilling," if the sentences seem not "written with a +diamond pen," like all else that is published in America. Some time I +must try to do better. For this time + + "Forgive my faults; forgive my virtues too." + + +March 21. + +Day before yesterday was the Feast of St. Joseph. He is supposed to +have acquired a fondness for fried rice-cakes during his residence +in Egypt. Many are eaten in the open street, in arbors made for the +occasion. One was made beneath my window, on Piazza Barberini. All the +day and evening men, cleanly dressed in white aprons and liberty +caps, quite new, of fine, red cloth, were frying cakes for crowds of +laughing, gesticulating customers. It rained a little, and they held +an umbrella over the frying-pan, but not over themselves. The arbor +is still there, and little children are playing in and out of it; one +still lesser runs in its leading-strings, followed by the bold, gay +nurse, to the brink of the fountain, after its orange which has +rolled before it. Tenerani's workmen are coming out of his studio, +the priests are coming home from Ponte Pio, the Contadini beginning +to play at _moro_, for the setting sun has just lit up the magnificent +range of windows in the Palazzo Barberini, and then faded tenderly, +sadly away, and the mellow bells have chimed the Ave Maria. Rome looks +as Roman, that is to say as tranquil, as ever, despite the trouble +that tugs at her heart-strings. There is a report that Mazzini is to +be made Dictator, as Manin is in Venice, for a short time, so as to +provide hastily and energetically for the war. Ave Maria Sanissima! +when thou didst gaze on thy babe with such infinite hope, thou didst +not dream that, so many ages after, blood would be shed and curses +uttered in his name. Madonna Addolorata! hadst thou not hoped peace +and good-will would spring from his bloody woes, couldst thou have +borne those hours at the foot of the cross. O Stella! woman's heart of +love, send yet a ray of pure light on this troubled deep? + + + + +LETTER XXX. + +THE STRUGGLE IN ROME.--POSITION OF THE FRENCH.--THE +AUSTRIANS.--FEELING OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE.--THE FRENCH TROOPS.--EFFECTS +OF WAR.--HOSPITALS.--THE PRINCESS BELGIOIOSO.--POSITION OF MR. CASS AS +ENVOY.--DIFFICULTIES AND SUGGESTIONS.--AMERICA AND ROME.--REFLECTIONS +ON THE ETERNAL CITY.--THE FRENCH: THE PEOPLE. + + +Rome, May 27, 1849. + +I have suspended writing in the expectation of some decisive event; +but none such comes yet. The French, entangled in a web of falsehood, +abashed by a defeat that Oudinot has vainly tried to gloss over, the +expedition disowned by all honorable men at home, disappointed at +Gaeta, not daring to go the length Papal infatuation demands, know not +what to do. The Neapolitans have been decidedly driven back into their +own borders, the last time in a most shameful rout, their king flying +in front. We have heard for several days that the Austrians were +advancing, but they come not. They also, it is probable, meet with +unexpected embarrassments. They find that the sincere movement of the +Italian people is very unlike that of troops commanded by princes +and generals who never wished to conquer and were always waiting to +betray. Then their troubles at home are constantly increasing, and, +should the Russian intervention quell these to-day, it is only to +raise a storm far more terrible to-morrow. + +The struggle is now fairly, thoroughly commenced between the principle +of democracy and the old powers, no longer legitimate. That struggle +may last fifty years, and the earth be watered with the blood and +tears of more than one generation, but the result is sure. All Europe, +including Great Britain, where the most bitter resistance of all will +be made, is to be under republican government in the next century. + + "God moves in a mysterious way." + +Every struggle made by the old tyrannies, all their Jesuitical +deceptions, their rapacity, their imprisonments and executions of the +most generous men, only sow more dragon's teeth; the crop shoots up +daily more and more plenteous. + +When I first arrived in Italy, the vast majority of this people had no +wish beyond limited monarchies, constitutional governments. They still +respected the famous names of the nobility; they despised the priests, +but were still fondly attached to the dogmas and ritual of the Roman +Catholic Church. It required King Bomba, the triple treachery +of Charles Albert, Pius IX., and the "illustrious Gioberti," the +naturally kind-hearted, but, from the necessity of his position, +cowardly and false Leopold of Tuscany, the vagabond "serene" +meannesses of Parma and Modena, the "fatherly" Radetzsky, and, +finally, the imbecile Louis Bonaparte, "would-be Emperor of France," +to convince this people that no transition is possible between the +old and the new. _The work is done_; the revolution in Italy is now +radical, nor can it stop till Italy becomes independent and united as +a republic. Protestant she already is, and though the memory of saints +and martyrs may continue to be revered, the ideal of woman to be +adored under the name of Mary, yet Christ will now begin to be a +little thought of; _his_ idea has always been kept carefully out of +sight under the old _regime_; all the worship being for the Madonna +and saints, who were to be well paid for interceding for sinners;--an +example which might make men cease to be such, was no way coveted. Now +the New Testament has been translated into Italian; copies are already +dispersed far and wide; men calling themselves Christians will no +longer be left entirely ignorant of the precepts and life of Jesus. + +The people of Rome have burnt the Cardinals' carriages. They took the +confessionals out of the churches, and made mock confessions in the +piazzas, the scope of which was, "I have sinned, father, so and so." +"Well, my son, how much will you _pay_ to the Church for absolution?" +Afterward the people thought of burning the confessionals, or using +them for barricades; but at the request of the Triumvirate they +desisted, and even put them back into the churches. But it was from no +reaction of feeling that they stopped short, only from respect for +the government. The "Tartuffe" of Moliere has been translated into +Italian, and was last night performed with great applause at the +Valle. Can all this be forgotten? Never! Should guns and bayonets +replace the Pope on the throne, he will find its foundations, once +deep as modern civilization, now so undermined that it falls with the +least awkward movement. + +But I cannot believe he will be replaced there. France alone could +consummate that crime,--that, for her, most cruel, most infamous +treason. The elections in France will decide. In three or four days +we shall know whether the French nation at large be guilty or +no,--whether it be the will of the nation to aid or strive to ruin a +government founded on precisely the same basis as their own. + +I do not dare to trust that people. The peasant is yet very ignorant. +The suffering workman is frightened as he thinks of the punishments +that ensued on the insurrections of May and June. The man of property +is full of horror at the brotherly scope of Socialism. The aristocrat +dreams of the guillotine always when he hears men speak of the people. +The influence of the Jesuits is still immense in France. Both in +France and England the grossest falsehoods have been circulated with +unwearied diligence about the state of things in Italy. An amusing +specimen of what is still done in this line I find just now in a +foreign journal, where it says there are red flags on all the houses +of Rome; meaning to imply that the Romans are athirst for blood. Now, +the fact is, that these flags are put up at the entrance of those +streets where there is no barricade, as a signal to coachmen and +horsemen that they can pass freely. There is one on the house where +I am, in which is no person but myself, who thirst for peace, and the +Padrone, who thirsts for money. + +Meanwhile the French troops are encamped at a little distance from +Rome. Some attempts at fair and equal treaty when their desire to +occupy Rome was firmly resisted, Oudinot describes in his despatches +as a readiness for _submission_. Having tried in vain to gain this +point, he has sent to France for fresh orders. These will be decided +by the turn the election takes. Meanwhile the French troops are much +exposed to the Roman force where they are. Should the Austrians come +up, what will they do? Will they shamelessly fraternize with the +French, after pretending and proclaiming that they came here as a +check upon their aggressions? Will they oppose them in defence of +Rome, with which they are at war? + +Ah! the way of falsehood, the way of treachery,--how dark, how full of +pitfalls and traps! Heaven defend from it all who are not yet engaged +therein! + +War near at hand seems to me even more dreadful than I had fancied +it. True, it tries men's souls, lays bare selfishness in undeniable +deformity. Here it has produced much fruit of noble sentiment, noble +act; but still it breeds vice too, drunkenness, mental dissipation, +tears asunder the tenderest ties, lavishes the productions of Earth, +for which her starving poor stretch out their hands in vain, in the +most unprofitable manner. And the ruin that ensues, how terrible! Let +those who have ever passed happy days in Rome grieve to hear that +the beautiful plantations of Villa Borghese--that chief delight and +refreshment of citizens, foreigners, and little children--are laid +low, as far as the obelisk. The fountain, singing alone amid the +fallen groves, cannot be seen and heard without tears; it seems like +some innocent infant calling and crowing amid dead bodies on a field +which battle has strewn with the bodies of those who once cherished +it. The plantations of Villa Salvage on the Tiber, also, the beautiful +trees on the way from St. John Lateran to La Maria Maggiore, the trees +of the Forum, are fallen. Rome is shorn of the locks which lent grace +to her venerable brow. She looks desolate, profaned. I feel what I +never expected to,--as if I might by and by be willing to leave Rome. + +Then I have, for the first time, seen what wounded men suffer. The +night of the 30th of April I passed in the hospital, and saw the +terrible agonies of those dying or who needed amputation, felt their +mental pains and longing for the loved ones who were away; for many of +these were Lombards, who had come from the field of Novarra to fight +with a fairer chance,--many were students of the University, who had +enlisted and thrown themselves into the front of the engagement. The +impudent falsehoods of the French general's despatches are incredible. +The French were never decoyed on in any way. They were received with +every possible mark of hostility. They were defeated in open field, +the Garibaldi legion rushing out to meet them; and though they +suffered much from the walls, they sustained themselves nowhere. They +never put up a white flag till they wished to surrender. The vanity +that strives to cover over these facts is unworthy of men. The only +excuse for the imprudent conduct of the expedition is that they were +deceived, not by the Romans here, but by the priests of Gaeta, leading +them to expect action in their favor within the walls. These priests +themselves were deluded by their hopes and old habits of mind. The +troops did not fight well, and General Oudinot abandoned his wounded +without proper care. All this says nothing against French valor, +proved by ages of glory, beyond the doubt of their worst foes. They +were demoralized because they fought in so bad a cause, and there was +no sincere ardor or clear hope in any breast. + +But to return to the hospitals: these were put in order, and have been +kept so, by the Princess Belgioioso. The princess was born of one +of the noblest families of the Milanese, a descendant of the great +Trivalzio, and inherited a large fortune. Very early she compromised +it in liberal movements, and, on their failure, was obliged to fly to +Paris, where for a time she maintained herself by writing, and I +think by painting also. A princess so placed naturally excited great +interest, and she drew around her a little court of celebrated men. +After recovering her fortune, she still lived in Paris, distinguished +for her talents and munificence, both toward literary men and her +exiled countrymen. Later, on her estate, called Locate, between Pavia +and Milan, she had made experiments in the Socialist direction with +fine judgment and success. Association for education, for labor, for +transaction of household affairs, had been carried on for several +years; she had spared no devotion of time and money to this object, +loved, and was much beloved by, those objects of her care, and said +she hoped to die there. All is now despoiled and broken up, though it +may be hoped that some seeds of peaceful reform have been sown which +will spring to light when least expected. The princess returned to +Italy in 1847-8, full of hope in Pius IX and Charles Albert. She +showed her usual energy and truly princely heart, sustaining, at her +own expense, a company of soldiers and a journal up to the last sad +betrayal of Milan, August 6th. These days undeceived all the people, +but few of the noblesse; she was one of the few with mind strong +enough to understand the lesson, and is now warmly interested in the +republican movement. From Milan she went to France, but, finding +it impossible to effect anything serious there in behalf of Italy, +returned, and has been in Rome about two months. Since leaving +Milan she receives no income, her possessions being in the grasp of +Radetzky, and cannot know when, if ever, she will again. But as +she worked so largely and well with money, so can she without. She +published an invitation to the Roman women to make lint and bandages, +and offer their services to the wounded; she put the hospitals in +order; in the central one, Trinita de Pellegrini, once the abode where +the pilgrims were received during holy week, and where foreigners +were entertained by seeing their feet washed by the noble dames and +dignitaries of Rome, she has remained day and night since the 30th of +April, when the wounded were first there. Some money she procured at +first by going through Rome, accompanied by two other ladies veiled, +to beg it. Afterward the voluntary contributions were generous; among +the rest, I am proud to say, the Americans in Rome gave $250, of which +a handsome portion came from Mr. Brown, the Consul. + +I value this mark of sympathy more because of the irritation and +surprise occasioned here by the position of Mr. Cass, the Envoy. It is +most unfortunate that we should have an envoy here for the first +time, just to offend and disappoint the Romans. When all the other +ambassadors are at Gaeta, ours is in Rome, as if by his presence to +discountenance the republican government, which he does not recognize. +Mr. Cass, it seems, is required by his instructions not to recognize +the government till sure it can be sustained. Now it seems to me that +the only dignified ground for our government, the only legitimate +ground for any republican government, is to recognize for any nation +the government chosen by itself. The suffrage had been correct here, +and the proportion of votes to the whole population was much larger, +it was said by Americans here, than it is in our own country at the +time of contested elections. It had elected an Assembly; that Assembly +had appointed, to meet the exigencies of this time, the Triumvirate. +If any misrepresentations have induced America to believe, as France +affects to have believed, that so large a vote could have been +obtained by moral intimidation, the present unanimity of the +population in resisting such immense odds, and the enthusiasm of their +every expression in favor of the present government, puts the matter +beyond a doubt. The Roman people claims once more to have a national +existence. It declines further serfdom to an ecclesiastical court. +It claims liberty of conscience, of action, and of thought. Should it +fall from its present position, it will not be from, internal dissent, +but from foreign oppression. + +Since this is the case, surely our country, if no other, is bound to +recognize the present government _so long as it can sustain itself_. +This position is that to which we have a right: being such, it is no +matter how it is viewed by others. But I dare assert it is the only +respectable one for our country, in the eyes of the Emperor of Russia +himself. + +The first, best occasion is past, when Mr. Cass might, had he been +empowered to act as Mr. Rush did in France, have morally strengthened +the staggering republic, which would have found sympathy where alone +it is of permanent value, on the basis of principle. Had it been in +vain, what then? America would have acted honorably; as to our being +compromised thereby with the Papal government, that fear is idle. Pope +and Cardinals have great hopes from America; the giant influence there +is kept up with the greatest care; the number of Catholic writers +in the United States, too, carefully counted. Had our republican +government acknowledged this republican government, the Papal +Camarilla would have respected us more, but not loved us less; for +have we not the loaves and fishes to give, as well as the precious +souls to be saved? Ah! here, indeed, America might go straightforward +with all needful impunity. Bishop Hughes himself need not be +anxious. That first, best occasion has passed, and the unrecognized, +unrecognizing Envoy has given offence, and not comfort, by a presence +that seemed constantly to say, I do not think you can sustain +yourselves. It has wounded both the heart and the pride of Rome. Some +of the lowest people have asked me, "Is it not true that your country +had a war to become free?" "Yes." "Then why do they not feel for us?" + +Yet even now it is not too late. If America would only hail +triumphant, though she could not sustain injured Rome, that would +be something. "Can you suppose Rome will triumph," you say, "without +money, and against so potent a league of foes?" I am not sure, but +I hope, for I believe something in the heart of a people when fairly +awakened. I have also a lurking confidence in what our fathers spoke +of so constantly, a providential order of things, by which brute force +and selfish enterprise are sometimes set at naught by aid which seems +to descend from a higher sphere. Even old pagans believed in that, +you know; and I was born in America, Christianized by the +Puritans,--America, freed by eight years' patient suffering, poverty, +and struggle,--America, so cheered in dark days by one spark of +sympathy from a foreign shore,--America, first "recognized" by +Lafayette. I saw him when traversing our country, then great, rich, +and free. Millions of men who owed in part their happiness to what, no +doubt, was once sneered at as romantic sympathy, threw garlands in his +path. It is natural that I should have some faith. + +Send, dear America! to thy ambassadors a talisman precious beyond all +that boasted gold of California. Let it loose his tongue to cry, "Long +live the Republic, and may God bless the cause of the people, the +brotherhood of nations and of men,--equality of rights for all." _Viva +America!_ + +Hail to my country! May she live a free, a glorious, a loving +life, and not perish, like the old dominions, from, the leprosy of +selfishness. + + +Evening. + +I am alone in the ghostly silence of a great house, not long since +full of gay faces and echoing with gay voices, now deserted by every +one but me,--for almost all foreigners are gone now, driven by force +either of the summer heats or the foe. I hear all the Spaniards are +going now,--that twenty-one have taken passports to-day; why that is, +I do not know. + +I shall not go till the last moment; my only fear is of France. I +cannot think in any case there would be found men willing to damn +themselves to latest posterity by bombarding Rome. Other cities they +may treat thus, careless of destroying the innocent and helpless, the +babe and old grandsire who cannot war against them. But Rome, precious +inheritance of mankind,--will they run the risk of marring her shrined +treasures? Would they dare do it? + +Two of the balls that struck St. Peter's have been sent to Pius IX. by +his children, who find themselves so much less "beloved" than were the +Austrians. + +These two days, days of solemn festivity in the calends of the Church, +have been duly kept, and the population looks cheerful as it swarms +through the streets. The order of Rome, thronged as it is with troops, +is amazing. I go from one end to the other, and amid the poorest and +most barbarous of the population, (barbarously ignorant, I mean,) +alone and on foot. My friends send out their little children alone +with their nurses. The amount of crime is almost nothing to what it +was. The Roman, no longer pent in ignorance and crouching beneath +espionage, no longer stabs in the dark. His energies have true vent; +his better feelings are roused; he has thrown aside the stiletto. The +power here is indeed miraculous, since no doubt still lurk within the +walls many who are eager to incite brawls, if only to give an excuse +for slander. + +To-day I suppose twelve thousand Austrians marched into Florence. +The Florentines have humbled and disgraced themselves in vain. They +recalled the Grand Duke to ward off the entrance of the Austrians, but +in vain went the deputation to Gaeta--in an American steamer! Leopold +was afraid to come till his dear cousins of Austria had put everything +in perfect order; then the Austrians entered to take Leghorn, but the +Florentines still kept on imploring them not to come there; Florence +was as subdued, as good as possible, already:--they have had the +answer they deserved. Now they crown their work by giving over +Guerazzi and Petracci to be tried by an Austrian court-martial. Truly +the cup of shame brims over. + +I have been out on the balcony to look over the city. All sleeps with +that peculiar air of serene majesty known to this city only;--this +city that has grown, not out of the necessities of commerce nor the +luxuries of wealth, but first out of heroism, then out of faith. +Swelling domes, roofs softly tinted with yellow moss! what deep +meaning, what deep repose, in your faintly seen outline! + +The young moon climbs among clouds,--the clouds of a departing +thunderstorm. Tender, smiling moon! can it be that thy full orb may +look down on a smoking, smouldering Rome, and see her best blood run +along the stones, without one nation in the world to defend, one to +aid,--scarce one to cry out a tardy "Shame"? We will wait, whisper the +nations, and see if they can bear it. Rack them well to see if they +are brave. _If they can do without us_, we will help them. Is it thus +ye would be served in your turn? Beware! + + + + +LETTER XXXI. + +THE FRENCH TREASON AT ROME.--OUDINOT.--LESSEPS.--LETTER OF THE +TRIUMVIRATE.--REPLY OF LESSEPS.--COURSE OF OUDINOT.--THE WOUNDED +ITALIANS.--GARIBALDI.--ITALIAN YOUNG MEN.--MILITARY FUNERAL.--HAVOC OF +THE SIEGE.--COURAGE OF MAZZINI.--FALSENESS OF THE LONDON TIMES. + + +Rome, June 10, 1849. + +What shall I write of Rome in these sad but glorious days? Plain facts +are the best; for my feelings I could not find fit words. + +When I last wrote, the French were playing the second act of their +farce. + +In the first, the French government affected to consult the Assembly. +The Assembly, or a majority of the Assembly, affected to believe the +pretext it gave, and voted funds for twelve thousand men to go to +Civita Vecchia. Arriving there, Oudinot proclaimed that he had come +as a friend and brother. He was received as such. Immediately he took +possession of the town, disarmed the Roman troops, and published a +manifesto in direct opposition to his first declaration. + +He sends to Rome that he is coming there as a friend; receives the +answer that he is not wanted and cannot be trusted. This answer he +chooses to consider as coming from a minority, and advances on Rome. +The pretended majority on which he counts never shows itself by +a single movement within the walls. He makes an assault, and is +defeated. On this subject his despatches to his government are full +of falsehoods that would disgrace the lowest pickpocket,--falsehoods +which it is impossible he should not know to be such. + +The Assembly passed a vote of blame. M. Louis Bonaparte writes a +letter of compliment and assurance that this course of violence shall +be sustained. In conformity with this promise twelve thousand more +troops are sent. This time it is not thought necessary to consult the +Assembly. Let us view the + +SECOND ACT. + +Now appears in Rome M. Ferdinand Lesseps, Envoy, &c. of the French +government. He declares himself clothed with full powers to treat +with Rome. He cannot conceal his surprise at all he sees there, at +the ability with which preparations have been made for defence, at the +patriotic enthusiasm which pervades the population. Nevertheless, in +beginning his game of treaty-making, he is not ashamed to insist on +the French occupying the city. Again and again repulsed, he again and +again returns to the charge on this point. And here I shall translate +the letter addressed to him by the Triumvirate, both because of its +perfect candor of statement, and to give an idea of the sweet and +noble temper in which these treacherous aggressions have been met. + + +LETTER OF THE TRIUMVIRS TO MONSIEUR LESSEPS. + +"May 25, 1849. + +"We have had the honor, Monsieur, to furnish you, in our note of the +16th, with some information as to the unanimous consent which was +given to the formation of the government of the Roman Republic. +We to-day would speak to you of the actual question, such as it is +debated in fact, if not by right, between the French government and +ours. You will allow us to do it with the frankness demanded by the +urgency of the situation, as well as the sympathy which ought to +govern all relations between France and Italy. Our diplomacy is the +truth, and the character given to your mission is a guaranty that the +best possible interpretation will be given to what we shall say to +you. + +"With your permission, we return for an instant to the cause of the +present situation of affairs. + +"In consequence of conferences and arrangements which took place +without the government of the Roman Republic ever being called on +to take part, it was some time since decided by the Catholic +Powers,--1st. That a modification should take place in the government +and institutions of the Roman States; 2d. That this modification +should have for basis the return of Pius IX., not as Pope, for to that +no obstacle is interposed by us, but as temporal sovereign; 3d. +That if, to attain that aim, a continuous intervention was judged +necessary, that intervention should take place. + +"We are willing to admit, that while for some of the contracting +governments the only motive was the hope of a general restoration and +absolute return to the treaties of 1815, the French government +was drawn into this agreement only in consequence of erroneous +information, tending systematically to depict the Roman States as +given up to anarchy and governed by terror exercised in the name of an +audacious minority. We know also, that, in the modification proposed, +the French government intended to represent an influence more or less +liberal, opposed to the absolutist programme of Austria and of +Naples. It does none the less remain true, that under the Apostolic or +constitutional form, with or without liberal guaranties to the Roman +people, the dominant thought in all the negotiations to which we +allude has been some sort of return toward the past, a compromise +between the Roman people and Pius IX. considered as temporal prince. + +"We cannot dissemble to ourselves, Monsieur, that the French +expedition has been planned and executed under the inspiration of this +thought. Its object was, on one side, to throw the sword of France +into the balance of negotiations which were to be opened at Rome; +on the other, to guarantee the Roman people from the excess of +retrograde, but always on condition that it should submit to +constitutional monarchy in favor of the Holy Father. This is assured +to us partly from information which we believe we possess as to the +concert with Austria; from the proclamations of General Oudinot; from +the formal declarations made by successive envoys to the Triumvirate; +from the silence obstinately maintained whenever we have sought to +approach the political question and obtain a formal declaration of the +fact proved in our note of the 16th, that the institutions by +which the Roman people are governed at this time are the free and +spontaneous expression of the wish of the people inviolable when +legally ascertained. For the rest, the vote of the French Assembly +sustains implicitly the fact that we affirm. + +"In such a situation, under the menace of an inadmissible compromise, +and of negotiations which the state of our people no way provoked, our +part, Monsieur, could not be doubtful. To resist,--we owed this to +our country, to France, to all Europe. We ought, in fulfilment of a +mandate loyally given, loyally accepted, maintain to our country the +inviolability, so far as that was possible to us, of its territory, +and of the institutions decreed by all the powers, by all the +elements, of the state. We ought to conquer the time needed for appeal +from France ill informed to France better informed, to save the sister +republic the disgrace and the remorse which must be hers if, rashly +led on by bad suggestions from without, she became, before she was +aware, accomplice in an act of violence to which we can find no +parallel without going back to the partition of Poland in 1772. We +owed it to Europe to maintain, as far as we could, the fundamental +principles of all international life, the independence of each people +in all that concerns its internal administration. We say it without +pride,--for if it is with enthusiasm that we resist the attempts of +the Neapolitan monarchy and of Austria, our eternal enemy, it is with +profound grief that we are ourselves constrained to contend with the +arms of France,--we believe in following this line of conduct we +have deserved well, not only of our country, but of all the people of +Europe, even of France herself. + +"We come to the actual question. You know, Monsieur, the events which +have followed the French intervention. Our territory has been invaded +by the king of Naples. + +"Four thousand Spaniards were to embark on the 17th for invasion of +this country. The Austrians, having surmounted the heroic resistance +of Bologna, have advanced into Romagna, and are now marching on +Ancona. + +"We have beaten and driven out of our territory the forces of the king +of Naples. We believe we should do the same by the Austrian forces, if +the attitude of the French here did not fetter our action. + +"We are sorry to say it, but France must be informed that the +expedition of Civita Vecchia, said to be planned for our protection, +costs us very dear. Of all the interventions with which it is hoped to +overwhelm us, that of the French has been the most perilous. Against +the soldiers of Austria and the king of Naples we can fight, for +God protects a good cause. But we _do not wish to fight_ against +the French. We are toward them in a state, not of war, but of simple +defence. But this position, the only one we wish to take wherever +we meet France, has for us all the inconveniences without any of the +favorable chances of war. + +"The French expedition has, from the first, forced us to concentrate +our troops, thus leaving our frontier open to Austrian invasion, and +Bologna and the cities of Romagna unsustained. The Austrians have +profited by this. After eight days of heroic resistance by the +population, Bologna was forced to yield. We had bought in France arms +for our defence. Of these ten thousand muskets have been detained +between Marseilles and Civita Vecchia. These are in your hands. Thus +with a single blow you deprive us of ten thousand soldiers. In every +armed man is a soldier against the Austrians. + +"Your forces are disposed around our walls as if for a siege. They +remain there without avowed aim or programme. They have forced us to +keep the city in a state of defence which weighs upon our finances. +They force us to keep here a body of troops who might be saving our +cities from the occupation and ravages of the Austrians. They hinder +our going from place to place, our provisioning the city, our sending +couriers. They keep minds in a state of excitement and distrust which +might, if our population were less good and devoted, lead to sinister +results. They do _not_ engender anarchy nor reaction, for both are +impossible at Rome; but they sow the seed of irritation against +France, and it is a misfortune for us who were accustomed to love and +hope in her. + +"We are besieged, Monsieur, besieged by France, in the name of a +protective mission, while some leagues off the king of Naples, flying, +carries off our hostages, and the Austrian slays our brothers. + +"You have presented propositions. Those propositions have been +declared inadmissible by the Assembly. To-day you add a fourth to +the three already rejected. This says that France will protect from +foreign invasion all that part of our territory that may be occupied +by her troops. You must yourself feel that this changes nothing in our +position. + +"The parts of the territory occupied by your troops are in fact +protected; but if only for the present, to what are they reduced? and +if it is for the future, have we no other way to protect our territory +than by giving it up entirely to you? + +"The real intent of your demands is not stated. It is the occupation +of Rome. This demand has constantly stood first in your list of +propositions. Now we have had the honor to say to you, Monsieur, that +is impossible. The people will never consent to it. If the occupation +of Rome has for its aim only to protect it, the people thank you, +but tell you at the same time, that, able to defend Rome by their +own forces, they would be dishonored even in your eyes by declaring +themselves insufficient, and needing the aid of some regiments of +French soldiers. If the occupation has otherwise a political object, +which God forbid, the people, who have given themselves freely +these institutions, cannot suffer it. Rome is their capital, their +palladium, their sacred city. They know very well, that, apart from +their principles, apart from their honor, there is civil war at the +end of such an occupation. They are filled with distrust by your +persistence. They foresee, the troops being once admitted, changes in +men and in actions which would be fatal to their liberty. They know +that, in presence of foreign bayonets, the independence of their +Assembly, of their government, would be a vain word. They have always +Civita Vecchia before their eyes. + +"On this point be sure their will is irrevocable. They will be +massacred from barricade to barricade, before they will surrender. +Can the soldiers of France wish to massacre a brother people whom they +came to protect, because they do not wish to surrender to them their +capital? + +"There are for France only three parts to take in the Roman States. +She ought to declare herself for us, against us, or neutral. To +declare herself for us would be to recognize our republic, and fight +side by side with us against the Austrians. To declare against us is +to crush without motive the liberty, the national life, of a friendly +people, and fight side by side with the Austrians. France _cannot_ do +that. She _will not_ risk a European war to depress us, her ally. Let +her, then, rest neutral in this conflict between us and our enemies. +Only yesterday we hoped more from her, but to-day we demand but this. + +"The occupation of Civita Vecchia is a fact accomplished; let it go. +France thinks that, in the present state of things, she ought not to +remain distant from the field of battle. She thinks that, vanquishers +or vanquished, we may have need of her moderative action and of her +protection. We do not think so; but we will not react against her. Let +her keep Civita Vecchia. Let her even extend her encampments, if the +numbers of her troops require it, in the healthy regions of Civita +Vecchia and Viterbo. Let her then wait the issue of the combats about +to take place. All facilities will be offered her, every proof of +frank and cordial sympathy given; her officers can visit Rome, her +soldiers have all the solace possible. But let her neutrality be +sincere and without concealed plans. Let her declare herself in +explicit terms. Let her leave us free to use all our forces. Let her +restore our arms. Let her not by her cruisers drive back from our +ports the men who come to our aid from other parts of Italy. Let +her, above all, withdraw from before our walls, and cause even the +appearance of hostility to cease between two nations who, later, +undoubtedly are destined to unite in the same international faith, as +now they have adopted the same form of government." + + +In his answer, Lesseps appears moved by this statement, and +particularly expresses himself thus:-- + +"One point appears above all to occupy you; it is the thought that +we wish forcibly to impose upon you the obligation of receiving us as +friends. _Friendship and violence are incompatible._ Thus it would +be _inconsistent_ on our part to begin by firing our cannon upon you, +since we are your natural protectors. _Such a contradiction enters +neither into my intentions, nor those of the government of the French +republic, nor of our army and its honorable chief._" + +These words were written at the head-quarters of Oudinot, and +of course seen and approved by him. At the same time, in private +conversation, "the honorable chief" could swear he would occupy Rome +by "one means or another." A few days after, Lesseps consented to +conditions such as the Romans would tolerate. He no longer insisted on +occupying Rome, but would content himself with good positions in the +country. Oudinot protested that the Plenipotentiary had "exceeded his +powers,"--that he should not obey,--that the armistice was at an end, +and he should attack Rome on Monday. It was then Friday. He proposed +to leave these two days for the few foreigners that remained to +get out of town. M. Lesseps went off to Paris, in great seeming +indignation, to get _his_ treaty ratified. Of course we could not +hear from him for eight or ten days. Meanwhile, the _honorable_ chief, +alike in all his conduct, attacked on Sunday instead of Monday. The +attack began before sunrise, and lasted all day. I saw it from my +window, which, though distant, commands the gate of St. Pancrazio. Why +the whole force was bent on that part, I do not know. If they could +take it, the town would be cannonaded, and the barricades useless; but +it is the same with the Pincian Gate. Small-parties made feints in two +other directions, but they were at once repelled. The French fought +with great bravery, and this time it is said with beautiful skill and +order, sheltering themselves in their advance by movable barricades. +The Italians fought like lions, and no inch of ground was gained by +the assailants. The loss of the French is said to be very great: it +could not be otherwise. Six or seven hundred Italians are dead or +wounded. Among them are many officers, those of Garibaldi especially, +who are much exposed by their daring bravery, and whose red tunic +makes them the natural mark of the enemy. It seems to me great folly +to wear such a dress amid the dark uniforms; but Garibaldi has always +done it. He has now been wounded twice here and seventeen times in +Ancona. + +All this week I have been much at the hospitals where are these noble +sufferers. They are full of enthusiasm; this time was no treason, no +Vicenza, no Novara, no Milan. They had not been given up by wicked +chiefs at the moment they were shedding their blood, and they had +conquered. All were only anxious to get out again and be at their +posts. They seemed to feel that those who died so gloriously were +fortunate; perhaps they were, for if Rome is obliged to yield,--and +how can she stand always unaided against the four powers?--where shall +these noble youths fly? They are the flower of the Italian youth; +especially among the Lombards are some of the finest young men I have +ever seen. If Rome falls, if Venice falls, there is no spot of Italian +earth where they can abide more, and certainly no Italian will wish +to take refuge in France. Truly you said, M. Lesseps, "Violence and +friendship are incompatible." + +A military funeral of the officer Ramerino was sadly picturesque and +affecting. The white-robed priests went before the body singing, while +his brothers in arms bore the lighted tapers. His horse followed, +saddled and bridled. The horse hung his head and stepped dejectedly; +he felt there was something strange and gloomy going on,--felt that +his master was laid low. Ramerino left a wife and children. A great +proportion of those who run those risks are, happily, alone. Parents +weep, but will not suffer long; their grief is not like that of widows +and children. + +Since the 3d we have only cannonade and skirmishes. The French are at +their trenches, but cannot advance much; they are too much molested +from the walls. The Romans have made one very successful sortie. The +French availed themselves of a violent thunderstorm, when the +walls were left more thinly guarded, to try to scale them, but were +immediately driven back. It was thought by many that they never would +be willing to throw bombs and shells into Rome, but they do whenever +they can. That generous hope and faith in them as republicans and +brothers, which put the best construction on their actions, and +believed in their truth as far as possible, is now destroyed. The +government is false, and the people do not resist; the general is +false, and the soldiers obey. + +Meanwhile, frightful sacrifices are being made by Rome. All her +glorious oaks, all her gardens of delight, her casinos, full of the +monuments of genius and taste, are perishing in the defence. The +houses, the trees which had been spared at the gate of St. Pancrazio, +all afforded shelter to the foe, and caused so much loss of life, +that the Romans have now fully acquiesced in destruction agonizing to +witness. Villa Borghese is finally laid waste, the villa of Raphael +has perished, the trees are all cut down at Villa Albani, and the +house, that most beautiful ornament of Rome, must, I suppose, go too. +The stately marble forms are already driven from their place in that +portico where Winckelmann sat and talked with such delight. Villa +Salvage is burnt, with all its fine frescos, and that bank of the +Tiber shorn of its lovely plantations. + +Rome will never recover the cruel ravage of these days, perhaps +only just begun. I had often thought of living a few months near St. +Peter's, that I might go as much as I liked to the church and the +museum, have Villa Pamfili and Monte Mario within the compass of +a walk. It is not easy to find lodgings there, as it is a quarter +foreigners never inhabit; but, walking about to see what pleasant +places there were, I had fixed my eye on a clean, simple house near +Ponte St. Angelo. It bore on a tablet that it was the property of +Angela ----; its little balconies with their old wooden rails, full +of flowers in humble earthen vases, the many bird-cages, the air of +domestic quiet and comfort, marked it as the home of some vestal or +widow, some lone woman whose heart was centred in the ordinary and +simplest pleasures of a home. I saw also she was one having the most +limited income, and I thought, "She will not refuse to let me a room +for a few months, as I shall be as quiet as herself, and sympathize +about the flowers and birds." Now the Villa Pamfili is all laid waste. +The French encamp on Monte Mario; what they have done there is not +known yet. The cannonade reverberates all day under the dome of St. +Peter's, and the house of poor Angela is levelled with the ground. I +hope her birds and the white peacocks of the Vatican gardens are in +safety;--but who cares for gentle, harmless creatures now? + +I have been often interrupted while writing this letter, and suppose +it is confused as well as incomplete. I hope my next may tell of +something decisive one way or the other. News is not yet come from +Lesseps, but the conduct of Oudinot and the formation of the new +French ministry give reason to hope no good. Many seem resolved to +force back Pius IX. among his bleeding flock, into the city ruined +by him, where he cannot remain, and if he come, all this struggle and +sorrow is to be borne over again. Mazzini stands firm as a rock. I +know not whether he hopes for a successful issue, but he _believes_ in +a God bound to protect men who do what they deem their duty. Yet how +long, O Lord, shall the few trample on the many? + +I am surprised to see the air of perfect good faith with which +articles from the London Times, upon the revolutionary movements, +are copied into our papers. There exists not in Europe a paper more +violently opposed to the cause of freedom than the Times, and neither +its leaders nor its foreign correspondence are to be depended upon. +It is said to receive money from Austria. I know not whether this +be true, or whether it be merely subservient to the aristocratical +feeling of England, which is far more opposed to republican movements +than is that of Russia; for in England fear embitters hate. It is +droll to remember our reading in the class-book. + + "Ay, down to the dust with them, slaves as they are";-- + +to think how bitter the English were on the Italians who succumbed, +and see how they hate those who resist. And their cowardice here in +Italy is ludicrous. It is they who run away at the least intimation +of danger,--it is they who invent all the "fe, fo, fum" stories about +Italy,--it is they who write to the Times and elsewhere that they dare +not for their lives stay in Rome, where I, a woman, walk everywhere +alone, and all the little children do the same, with their nurses. +More of this anon. + + + + +LETTER XXXII. + +PROGRESS OF THE TRAGEDY.--PIUS IX. DISAVOWS LIBERALISM.--OUDINOT, +AND THE ROMAN AUTHORITIES.--SHAME OF FRANCE.--DEVASTATION OF +THE CITY.--COURAGE OF THE PEOPLE.--BOMBS EXTINGUISHED.--A CRISIS +APPROACHING. + + +Rome, June 21, 1849. + +It is now two weeks since the first attack of Oudinot, and as yet we +hear nothing decisive from Paris. I know not yet what news may have +come last night, but by the morning's mail we did not even receive +notice that Lesseps had arrived in Paris. + +Whether Lesseps was consciously the servant of all these base +intrigues, time will show. His conduct was boyish and foolish, if it +was not treacherous. The only object seemed to be to create panic, to +agitate, to take possession of Rome somehow, though what to do with +it, if they could get it, the French government would hardly know. + +Pius IX., in his allocution of the 29th of April last, has explained +himself fully. He has disavowed every liberal act which ever seemed +to emanate from him, with the exception of the amnesty. He has +shamelessly recalled his refusal to let Austrian blood be shed, while +Roman flows daily at his request. He has implicitly declared that his +future government, could he return, would be absolute despotism,--has +dispelled the last lingering illusion of those still anxious to +apologize for him as only a prisoner now in the hands of the Cardinals +and the king of Naples. The last frail link is broken that bound to +him the people of Rome, and could the French restore him, they must +frankly avow themselves, abandon entirely and fully the position they +took in February, 1848, and declare themselves the allies of Austria +and of Russia. + +Meanwhile they persevere in the Jesuitical policy that has already +disgraced and is to ruin them. After a week of vain assaults, Oudinot +sent to Rome the following letter, which I translate, as well as the +answers it elicited. + + +LETTER OF GENERAL OUDINOT, + +_Intended for the Roman Constituent Assembly, the Triumvirate, the +Generalissimo, and the Commander-in-Chief of the National Guard._ + +"General,--The events of war have, as you know, conducted the French +army to the gates of Rome. + +"Should the entrance into the city remain closed against us, I should +see myself constrained to employ immediately all the means of action +that France has placed in my hands. + +"Before having recourse to such terrible necessity, I think it my +duty to make a last appeal to a people who cannot have toward France +sentiments of hostility. + +"The Roman army wishes, no doubt, equally with myself, to spare bloody +ruin to the capital of the Christian world. + +"With this conviction, I pray you, Signore General, to give the +enclosed proclamation the most speedy publicity. If, twelve hours +after this despatch shall have been delivered to you, an answer +corresponding to the honor and the intentions of France shall not have +reached me, I shall be constrained to give the forcible attack. + +"Accept, &c. + +"Villa Pamfili, 12 June, 1849, 5 P.M." + + +He was in fact at Villa Santucci, much farther out, but could not be +content without falsifying his date as well as all his statements. + + +"PROCLAMATION. + +"Inhabitants of Rome,--We did not come to bring you war. We came +to sustain among you order, with liberty. The intentions of our +government have been misunderstood. The labors of the siege +have conducted us under your walls. Till now we have wished only +occasionally to answer the fire of your batteries. We approach these +last moments, when the necessities of war burst out in terrible +calamities. Spare them to a city fall of so many glorious memories. + +"If you persist in repelling us, on you alone will fall the +responsibility of irreparable disasters." + + +The following are the answers of the various functionaries to whom +this letter was sent:-- + + +ANSWER OF THE ASSEMBLY. + +"General,--The Roman Constitutional Assembly informs you, in reply to +your despatch of yesterday, that, having concluded a convention from +the 31st of May, 1849, with M. de Lesseps, Minister Plenipotentiary of +the French Republic, a convention which we confirmed soon after your +protest, it must consider that convention obligatory for both parties, +and indeed a safeguard of the rights of nations, until it has been +ratified or declined by the government of France. Therefore the +Assembly must regard as a violation of that convention every hostile +act of the French army since the above-named 31st of May, and all +others that shall take place before the resolution of your government +can be made known, and before the expiration of the time agreed upon +for the armistice. You demand, General, an answer correspondent to the +intentions and power of France. Nothing could be more conformable with +the intentions and power of France than to cease a flagrant violation +of the rights of nations. + +"Whatever may be the results of such violation, the people of Rome are +not responsible for them. Rome is strong in its right, and decided +to maintain tire conventions which attach it to your nation; only it +finds itself constrained by the necessity of self-defence to repel +unjust aggressions. + +"Accept, &c., for the Assembly, + +"The President, GALLETTI. + +"Secretaries, FABRETTI, PANNACCHI, COCCHI." + + +"ANSWER OF THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE NATIONAL GUARD. + +"General,--The treaty, of which we await the ratification, assures +this tranquil city from every disaster. + +"The National Guard, destined to maintain order, has the duty of +seconding the resolutions of the government; willingly and zealously +it fulfils this duty, not caring for annoyance and fatigue. + +"The National Guard showed very lately, when it escorted the prisoners +sent back to you, its sympathy for France, but it shows also on every +occasion a supreme regard for its own dignity, for the honor of Rome. + +"Any misfortune to the capital of the Catholic world, to the +monumental city, must be attributed not to the pacific citizens +constrained to defend themselves, but solely to its aggressors. + +"Accept, &c. + +"STURBINETTI, + +_General of the National Guard, Representative of the People_". + + +ANSWER OF THE GENERALISSIMO. + +"Citizen General,--A fatality leads to conflict between the armies +of two republics, whom a better destiny would have invited to combat +against their common enemy; for the enemies of the one cannot fail to +be also enemies of the other. + +"We are not deceived, and shall combat by every means in our power +whoever assails our institutions, for only the brave are worthy to +stand before the French soldiers. + +"Reflecting that there is a state of life worse than death, if the war +you wage should put us in that state, it will be better to close our +eyes for ever than to see the interminable oppressions of oar country. + +"I wish you well, and desire fraternity. + +"ROSSELLI." + + +ANSWER OF THE TRIUMVIRATE. + +"We have the honor to transmit to you the answer of the Assembly. + +"We never break our promises. We have promised to defend, in execution +of orders from the Assembly and people of Rome, the banner of the +Republic, the honor of the country, and the sanctity of the capital of +the Christian world; this promise we shall maintain. + +"Accept, &c. + +"The Triumvirs, + + ARMELLINI. + MAZZINI. + SAFFI." + + +Observe the miserable evasion of this missive of Oudinot: "The fortune +of war has conducted us." What war? He pretended to come as a friend, +a protector; is enraged only because, after his deceits at Civita +Vecchia, Rome will not trust him within her walls. For this he daily +sacrifices hundreds of lives. "The Roman people cannot be hostile to +the French?" No, indeed; they were not disposed to be so. They had +been stirred to emulation by the example of France. They had warmly +hoped in her as their true ally. It required all that Oudinot has done +to turn their faith to contempt and aversion. + +Cowardly man! He knows now that he comes upon a city which wished to +receive him only as a friend, and he cries, "With my cannon, with my +bombs, I will compel you to let me betray you." + +The conduct of France--infamous enough before--looks tenfold blacker +now that, while the so-called Plenipotentiary is absent with the +treaty to be ratified, her army daily assails Rome,--assails in vain. +After receiving these answers to his letter and proclamation, Oudinot +turned all the force of his cannonade to make a breach, and +began, what no one, even in these days, has believed possible, the +bombardment of Rome. + +Yes! the French, who pretend to be the advanced guard of civilization, +are bombarding Rome. They dare take the risk of destroying the richest +bequests made to man by the great Past. Nay, they seem to do it in an +especially barbarous manner. It was thought they would avoid, as much +as possible, the hospitals for the wounded, marked to their view +by the black banner, and the places where are the most precious +monuments; but several bombs have fallen on the chief hospital, and +the Capitol evidently is especially aimed at. They made a breach in +the wall, but it was immediately filled up with a barricade, and all +the week they have been repulsed in every attempt they made to gain +ground, though with considerable loss of life on our side; on theirs +it must be great, but how great we cannot know. + +Ponte Molle, the scene of Raphael's fresco of a battle, in the +Vatican, saw again a fierce struggle last Friday. More than fifty were +brought wounded into Rome. + +But wounds and assaults only fire more and more the courage of her +defenders. They feel the justice of their cause, and the peculiar +iniquity of this aggression. In proportion as there seems little aid +to be hoped from man, they seem to claim it from God. The noblest +sentiments are heard from every lip, and, thus far, their acts amply +correspond. + +On the eve of the bombardment one or two officers went round with +a fine band. It played on the piazzas the Marseillaise and Roman +marches; and when the people were thus assembled, they were told +of the proclamation, and asked how they felt. Many shouted loudly, +_Guerra! Viva la Republica Romana!_ Afterward, bands of young men went +round singing the chorus, + + "Vogliamo sempre quella, + Vogliamo Liberta." + +("We want always one thing; we want liberty.") Guitars played, and +some danced. When the bombs began to come, one of the Trasteverini, +those noble images of the old Roman race, redeemed her claim to that +descent by seizing a bomb and extinguishing the match. She received a +medal and a reward in money. A soldier did the same thing at Palazza +Spada, where is the statue of Pompey, at whose base great Caesar fell. +He was promoted. Immediately the people were seized with emulation; +armed with pans of wet clay, they ran wherever the bombs fell, to +extinguish them. Women collect the balls from the hostile cannon, and +carry them to ours. As thus very little injury has been done to life, +the people cry, "Madonna protects us against the bombs; she wills not +that Rome should be destroyed." + +Meanwhile many poor people are driven from their homes, and provisions +are growing very dear. The heats are now terrible for us, and must be +far more so for the French. It is said a vast number are ill of fever; +indeed, it cannot be otherwise. Oudinot himself has it, and perhaps +this is one explanation of the mixture of violence and weakness in his +actions. + +He must be deeply ashamed at the poor result of his bad acts,--that at +the end of two weeks and so much bravado, he has done nothing to Rome, +unless intercept provisions, kill some of her brave youth, and +injure churches, which should be sacred to him as to us. St. Maria +Trastevere, that ancient church, so full of precious remains, and +which had an air of mild repose more beautiful than almost any other, +is said to have suffered particularly. + +As to the men who die, I share the impassioned sorrow of the +Triumvirs. "O Frenchmen!" they wrote, "could you know what men you +destroy! _They_ are no mercenaries, like those who fill your ranks, +but the flower of the Italian youth, and the noblest among the aged. +When you shall know of what minds you have robbed the world, how ought +you to repent and mourn!" + +This is especially true of the Emigrant and Garibaldi legions. The +misfortunes of Northern and Southern Italy, the conscription which +compels to the service of tyranny those who remain, has driven from +the kingdom of Naples and from Lombardy all the brave and noble youth. +Many are in Venice or Rome, the forlorn hope of Italy. Radetzky, +every day more cruel, now impresses aged men and the fathers of large +families. He carries them with him in chains, determined, if he cannot +have good troops to send into Hungary, at least to revenge himself on +the unhappy Lombards. + +Many of these young men, students from Pisa, Pavia, Padua, and the +Roman University, lie wounded in the hospitals, for naturally they +rushed first to the combat. One kissed an arm which was cut off; +another preserves pieces of bone which were painfully extracted from +his wound, as relics of the best days of his life. The older men, many +of whom have been saddened by exile and disappointment, less glowing, +are not less resolved. A spirit burns noble as ever animated the most +precious deeds we treasure from the heroic age. I suffer to see these +temples of the soul thus broken, to see the fever-weary days and +painful operations undergone by these noble men, these true priests of +a higher hope; but I would not, for much, have missed seeing it +all. The memory of it will console amid the spectacles of meanness, +selfishness, and faithlessness which life may yet have in store for +the pilgrim. + + +June 23. + +Matters verge to a crisis. The French government sustains Oudinot and +disclaims Lesseps. Harmonious throughout, shameless in falsehood, it +seems Oudinot knew that tire mission of Lesseps was at an end, when +he availed himself of his pacific promises to occupy Monte Mario. +When the Romans were anxious at seeing French troops move in that +direction, Lesseps said it was only done to occupy them, and conjured +the Romans to avoid all collision which might prevent his success +with the treaty. The sham treaty was concluded on the 30th of May, a +detachment of French having occupied Monte Mario on the night of the +29th. Oudinot flies into a rage and refuses to sign; M. Lesseps goes +off to Paris; meanwhile, the brave Oudinot attacks on the 3d of June, +after writing to the French Consul that Ire should not till the 4th, +to leave time for the foreigners remaining to retire. He attacked in +the night, possessing himself of Villa Pamfili, as he had of Monte +Mario, by treachery and surprise. + +Meanwhile, M. Lesseps arrives in Paris, to find himself seemingly or +really in great disgrace with the would-be Emperor and his cabinet. To +give reason for this, M. Drouyn de Lhuys, who had publicly declared +to the Assembly that M. Lesseps had no instructions except from the +report of the sitting of the 7th of May, shamefully publishes a +letter of special instructions, hemming him in on every side, which M. +Lesseps, the "Plenipotentiary," dares not disown. + +What are we to think of a great nation, whose leading men are such +barefaced liars? M. Guizot finds his creed faithfully followed up. + +The liberal party in France does what it can to wash its hands of this +offence, but it seems weak, and unlikely to render effectual service +at this crisis. Venice, Rome, Ancona, are the last strong-holds of +hope, and they cannot stand for ever thus unsustained. Night before +last, a tremendous cannonade left no moment to sleep, even had the +anxious hearts of mothers and wives been able to crave it. At morning +a little detachment of French had entered by the breach of St. +Pancrazio, and intrenched itself in a vineyard. Another has possession +of Villa Poniatowski, close to the Porta del Popolo, and attacks +and alarms are hourly to be expected. I long to see the final one, +dreadful as that hour may be, since now there seems no hope from +delay. Men are daily slain, and this state of suspense is agonizing. + +In the evening 'tis pretty, though terrible, to see the bombs, fiery +meteors, springing from the horizon line upon their bright path, to do +their wicked message. 'T would not be so bad, methinks, to die by one +of these, as wait to have every drop of pure blood, every childlike +radiant hope, drained and driven from the heart by the betrayals of +nations and of individuals, till at last the sickened eyes refuse more +to open to that light which shines daily on such pits of iniquity. + + + + +LETTER XXXIII. + +SIEGE OF ROME.--HEAT.--NIGHT ATTACKS.--THE BOMBARDMENT.--THE +NIGHT BREACH.--DEFECTION.--ENTRY OF THE FRENCH.--SLAUGHTER OF +THE ROMANS.--THE HOSPITALS.--DESTRUCTION BY BOMBS.--CESSATION OF +RESISTANCE.--OUDINOT'S STUBBORNNESS.--GARIBALDI'S TROOPS.--THEIR +MUSTER ON THE SCENE OF RIENZI'S TRIUMPH.--GARIBALDI.--HIS +DEPARTURE.--"RESPECTABLE" OPINION.--THE PROTECTORS UNMASKED.--COLD +RECEPTION.--A PRIEST ASSASSINATED.--MARTIAL LAW DECLARED.--REPUBLICAN +EDUCATION.--DISAPPEARANCE OF FRENCH SOLDIERS.--CLEARING THE +HOSPITALS.--PRIESTLY BASENESS.--INSULT TO THE AMERICAN CONSUL.--HIS +PROTEST AND DEPARTURE.--DISARMING THE NATIONAL GUARD.--POSITION OF MR. +CASS.--PETTY OPPRESSION.--EXPULSION OF FOREIGNERS.--EFFECT OF +FRENCH PRESENCE.--ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE.--VISIT TO THE SCENE OF +STRIFE.--AMERICAN SYMPATHY FOR LIBERTY IN EUROPE. + + +Rome, July 6, 1849. + +If I mistake not, I closed my last letter just as the news arrived +here that the attempt of the democratic party in France to resist the +infamous proceedings of the government had failed, and thus Rome, as +far as human calculation went, had not a hope for her liberties left. +An inland city cannot long sustain a siege when there is no hope of +aid. Then followed the news of the surrender of Ancona, and Rome +found herself alone; for, though Venice continued to hold out, all +communication was cut off. + +The Republican troops, almost to a man, left Ancona, but a long march +separated them from Rome. + +The extreme heat of these days was far more fatal to the Romans than +to their assailants, for as fast as the French troops sickened, their +place was taken by fresh arrivals. Ours also not only sustained the +exhausting service by day, but were harassed at night by attacks, +feigned or real. These commonly began about eleven or twelve o'clock +at night, just when all who meant to rest were fairly asleep. I can +imagine the harassing effect upon the troops, from what I feel in +my sheltered pavilion, in consequence of not knowing a quiet night's +sleep for a month. + +The bombardment became constantly more serious. The house where I live +was filled as early as the 20th with persons obliged to fly from the +Piazza di Gesu, where the fiery rain fell thickest. The night of the +21st-22d, we were all alarmed about two o'clock, A.M. by a tremendous +cannonade. It was the moment when the breach was finally made by which +the French entered. They rushed in, and I grieve to say, that, by the +only instance of defection known in the course of the siege, those +companies of the regiment Union which had in charge a position on +that point yielded to panic and abandoned it. The French immediately +entered and intrenched themselves. That was the fatal hour for the +city. Every day afterward, though obstinately resisted, the enemy +gained, till at last, their cannon being well placed, the city was +entirely commanded from the Janiculum, and all thought of further +resistance was idle. + +It was true policy to avoid a street-fight, in which the Italian, +an unpractised soldier, but full of feeling and sustained from the +houses, would have been a match even for their disciplined troops. +After the 22d of June, the slaughter of the Romans became every day +more fearful. Their defences were knocked down by the heavy cannon +of the French, and, entirely exposed in their valorous onsets, +great numbers perished on the spot. Those who were brought into the +hospitals were generally grievously wounded, very commonly subjects +for amputation. My heart bled daily more and more at these sights, and +I could not feel much for myself, though now the balls and bombs began +to fall round me also. The night of the 28th the effect was truly +fearful, as they whizzed and burst near me. As many as thirty fell +upon or near the Hotel de Russie, where Mr. Cass has his temporary +abode. The roof of the studio in the pavilion, tenanted by Mr. +Stermer, well known to the visitors of Rome for his highly-finished +cabinet pictures, was torn to pieces. I sat alone in my much exposed +apartment, thinking, "If one strikes me, I only hope it will kill +me at once, and that God will transport my soul to some sphere where +virtue and love are not tyrannized over by egotism and brute force, +as in this." However, that night passed; the next, we had reason to +expect a still more fiery salute toward the Pincian, as here alone +remained three or four pieces of cannon which could be used. But on +the morning of the 30th, in a contest at the foot of the Janiculum, +the line, old Papal troops, naturally not in earnest like the free +corps, refused to fight against odds so terrible. The heroic Marina +fell, with hundreds of his devoted Lombards. Garibaldi saw his best +officers perish, and himself went in the afternoon to say to the +Assembly that further resistance was unavailing. + +The Assembly sent to Oudinot, but he refused any conditions,--refused +even to guarantee a safe departure to Garibaldi, his brave foe. +Notwithstanding, a great number of men left the other regiments +to follow the leader whose courage had captivated them, and whose +superiority over difficulties commanded their entire confidence. +Toward the evening of Monday, the 2d of July, it was known that the +French were preparing to cross the river and take possession of all +the city. I went into the Corso with some friends; it was filled with +citizens and military. The carriage was stopped by the crowd near the +Doria palace; the lancers of Garibaldi galloped along in full career. +I longed for Sir Walter Scott to be on earth again, and see them; all +are light, athletic, resolute figures, many of the forms of the finest +manly beauty of the South, all sparkling with its genius and ennobled +by the resolute spirit, ready to dare, to do, to die. We followed +them to the piazza of St. John Lateran. Never have I seen a sight +so beautiful, so romantic, and so sad. Whoever knows Rome knows the +peculiar solemn grandeur of that piazza, scene of the first triumph of +Rienzi, and whence may be seen the magnificence of the "mother of all +churches," the baptistery with its porphyry columns, the Santa Scala +with its glittering mosaics of the early ages, the obelisk standing +fairest of any of those most imposing monuments of Rome, the view +through the gates of the Campagna, on that side so richly strewn with +ruins. The sun was setting, the crescent moon rising, the flower of +the Italian youth were marshalling in that solemn place. They had been +driven from every other spot where they had offered their hearts as +bulwarks of Italian independence; in this last strong-hold they had +sacrificed hecatombs of their best and bravest in that cause; they +must now go or remain prisoners and slaves. _Where_ go, they knew not; +for except distant Hungary there is not now a spot which would receive +them, or where they can act as honor commands. They had all put on +the beautiful dress of the Garibaldi legion, the tunic of bright red +cloth, the Greek cap, or else round hat with Puritan plume. Their long +hair was blown back from resolute faces; all looked full of courage. +They had counted the cost before they entered on this perilous +struggle; they had weighed life and all its material advantages +against liberty, and made their election; they turned not back, nor +flinched, at this bitter crisis. I saw the wounded, all that could go, +laden upon their baggage cars; some were already pale and fainting, +still they wished to go. I saw many youths, born to rich inheritance, +carrying in a handkerchief all their worldly goods. The women were +ready; their eyes too were resolved, if sad. The wife of Garibaldi +followed him on horseback. He himself was distinguished by the white +tunic; his look was entirely that of a hero of the Middle Ages,--his +face still young, for the excitements of his life, though so many, +have all been youthful, and there is no fatigue upon his brow or +cheek. Fall or stand, one sees in him a man engaged in the career for +which he is adapted by nature. He went upon the parapet, and looked +upon the road with a spy-glass, and, no obstruction being in sight, he +turned his face for a moment back upon Rome, then led the way through +the gate. Hard was the heart, stony and seared the eye, that had no +tear for that moment. Go, fated, gallant band! and if God care not +indeed for men as for the sparrows, most of ye go forth to perish. And +Rome, anew the Niobe! Must she lose also these beautiful and brave, +that promised her regeneration, and would have given it, but for the +perfidy, the overpowering force, of the foreign intervention? + +I know that many "respectable" gentlemen would be surprised to hear me +speak in this way. Gentlemen who perform their "duties to society" by +buying for themselves handsome clothes and furniture with the interest +of their money, speak of Garibaldi and his men as "brigands" and +"vagabonds." Such are they, doubtless, in the same sense as Jesus, +Moses, and Eneas were. To me, men who can throw so lightly aside the +ease of wealth, the joys of affection, for the sake of what they deem +honor, in whatsoever form, are the "respectable." No doubt there are +in these bands a number of men of lawless minds, and who follow this +banner only because there is for them no other path. But the +greater part are the noble youths who have fled from the Austrian +conscription, or fly now from the renewal of the Papal suffocation, +darkened by French protection. + +As for the protectors, they entirely threw aside the mask, as it was +always supposed they would, the moment they had possession of Rome. I +do not know whether they were really so bewildered by their priestly +counsellors as to imagine they would be well received in a city which +they had bombarded, and where twelve hundred men were lying wounded +by their assault. To say nothing of the justice or injustice of the +matter, it could not be supposed that the Roman people, if it had any +sense of dignity, would welcome them. I did not appear in the street, +as I would not give any countenance to such a wrong; but an English +lady, my friend, told me they seemed to look expectingly for the +strong party of friends they had always pretended to have within the +walls. The French officers looked up to the windows for ladies, and, +she being the only one they saw, saluted her. She made no reply. They +then passed into the Corso. Many were assembled, the softer +Romans being unable to control a curiosity the Milanese would have +disclaimed, but preserving an icy silence. In an evil hour, a foolish +priest dared to break it by the cry of _Viva Pio Nono!_ The populace, +roused to fury, rushed on him with their knives. He was much wounded; +one or two others were killed in the rush. The people howled then, and +hissed at the French, who, advancing their bayonets, and clearing the +way before them, fortified themselves in the piazzas. Next day the +French troops were marched to and fro through Rome, to inspire awe in +the people; but it has only created a disgust amounting to loathing, +to see that, with such an imposing force, and in great part fresh, the +French were not ashamed to use bombs also, and kill women and children +in their beds. Oudinot then, seeing the feeling of the people, and +finding they pursued as a spy any man who so much as showed the way +to his soldiers,--that the Italians went out of the cafes if Frenchmen +entered,--in short, that the people regarded him and his followers in +the same light as the Austrians,--has declared martial law in Rome; +the press is stifled; everybody is to be in the house at half past +nine o'clock in the evening, and whoever in any way insults his men, +or puts any obstacle in their way, is to be shot. + +The fruits of all this will be the same as elsewhere; temporary +repression will sow the seeds of perpetual resistance; and never +was Rome in so fair a way to be educated for a republican form of +government as now. + +Especially could nothing be more irritating to an Italian population, +in the month of July, than to drive them to their homes at half past +nine. After the insupportable heat of the day, their only enjoyment +and refreshment are found in evening walks, and chats together as they +sit before their cafes, or in groups outside some friendly door. Now +they must hurry home when the drum beats at nine o'clock. They are +forbidden to stand or sit in groups, and this by their bombarding +_protector!_ Comment is unnecessary. + +French soldiers are daily missing; of some it is known that they have +been killed by the Trasteverini for daring to make court to their +women. Of more than a hundred and fifty, it is only known that they +cannot he found; and in two days of French "order" more acts +of violence have been committed, than in two months under the +Triumvirate. + +The French have taken up their quarters in the court-yards of the +Quirinal and Venetian palaces, which are full of the wounded, many +of whom have been driven well-nigh mad, and their burning wounds +exasperated, by the sound of the drums and trumpets,--the constant +sense of an insulting presence. The wounded have been warned to leave +the Quirinal at the end of eight days, though there are many who +cannot be moved from bed to bed without causing them great anguish +and peril; nor is it known that any other place has been provided as a +hospital for them. At the Palazzo di Venezia the French have searched +for three emigrants whom they wished to imprison, even in the +apartments where the wounded were lying, running their bayonets into +the mattresses. They have taken for themselves beds given by the +Romans to the hospital,--not public property, but private gift. The +hospital of Santo Spirito was a governmental establishment, and, in +using a part of it for the wounded, its director had been retained, +because he had the reputation of being honest and not illiberal. But +as soon as the French entered, he, with true priestly baseness, sent +away the women nurses, saying he had no longer money to pay them, +transported the wounded into a miserable, airless basement, that had +before been used as a granary, and appropriated the good apartments to +the use of the French! + + +July 8. + +The report of this morning is that the French yesterday violated the +domicile of our Consul, Mr. Brown, pretending to search for persons +hidden there; that Mr. Brown, banner in one hand and sword in the +other, repelled the assault, and fairly drove them down stairs; that +then he made them an appropriate speech, though in a mixed language of +English, French, and Italian; that the crowd vehemently applauded Mr. +Brown, who already was much liked for the warm sympathy he had shown +the Romans in their aspirations and their distresses; and that he then +donned his uniform, and went to Oudinot to make his protest. How this +was received I know not, but understand Mr. Brown departed with his +family yesterday evening. Will America look as coldly on the insult to +herself, as she has on the struggle of this injured people? + +To-day an edict is out to disarm the National Guard. The generous +"protectors" wish to take all the trouble upon themselves. Rome is +full of them; at every step are met groups in the uniform of France, +with faces bronzed in the African war, and so stultified by a life +without enthusiasm and without thought, that I do not believe +Napoleon would recognize them as French soldiers. The effect of their +appearance compared with that of the Italian free corps is that of +body as compared with spirit. It is easy to see how they could be used +to purposes so contrary to the legitimate policy of France, for they +do not look more intellectual, more fitted to have opinions of their +own, than the Austrian soldiery. + + +July 10. + +The plot thickens. The exact facts with regard to the invasion of Mr. +Brown's house I have not been able to ascertain. I suppose they will +be published, as Oudinot has promised to satisfy Mr. Cass. I must +add, in reference to what I wrote some time ago of the position of our +Envoy here, that the kind and sympathetic course of Mr. Cass toward +the Republicans in these troubles, his very gentlemanly and courteous +bearing, have from the minds of most removed all unpleasant feelings. +They see that his position was very peculiar,--sent to the Papal +government, finding here the Republican, and just at that moment +violently assailed. Unless he had extraordinary powers, he naturally +felt obliged to communicate further with our government before +acknowledging this. I shall always regret, however, that he did +not stand free to occupy the high position that belonged to the +representative of the United States at that moment, and peculiarly +because it was by a republic that the Roman Republic was betrayed. + +But, as I say, the plot thickens. Yesterday three families were +carried to prison because a boy crowed like a cock at the French +soldiery from the windows of the house they occupied. Another, because +a man pursued took refuge in their court-yard. At the same time, the +city being mostly disarmed, came the edict to take down the insignia +of the Republic, "emblems of anarchy." But worst of all they have done +is an edict commanding all foreigners who had been in the service of +the Republican government to leave Rome within twenty-four hours. This +is the most infamous thing done yet, as it drives to desperation those +who stayed because they had so many to go with and no place to go +to, or because their relatives lie wounded here: no others wished to +remain in Rome under present circumstances. + +I am sick of breathing the same air with men capable of a part so +utterly cruel and false. As soon as I can, I shall take refuge in the +mountains, if it be possible to find an obscure nook unpervaded by +these convulsions. Let not my friends be surprised if they do not hear +from me for some time. I may not feel like writing. I have seen too +much sorrow, and, alas! without power to aid. It makes me sick to see +the palaces and streets of Rome full of these infamous foreigners, and +to note the already changed aspect of her population. The men of Rome +had begun, filled with new hopes, to develop unknown energy,--they +walked quick, their eyes sparkled, they delighted in duty, in +responsibility; in a year of such life their effeminacy would have +been vanquished. Now, dejectedly, unemployed, they lounge along the +streets, feeling that all the implements of labor, all the ensigns of +hope, have been snatched from them. Their hands fall slack, their eyes +rove aimless, the beggars begin to swarm again, and the black ravens +who delight in the night of ignorance, the slumber of sloth, as the +only sureties for their rule, emerge daily more and more frequent from +their hiding-places. + +The following Address has been circulated from hand to hand. + + +"TO THE PEOPLE OF ROME. + +"Misfortune, brothers, has fallen upon us anew. But it is trial of +brief duration,--it is the stone of the sepulchre which we shall throw +away after three days, rising victorious and renewed, an immortal +nation. For with us are God and Justice,--God and Justice, who cannot +die, but always triumph, while kings and popes, once dead, revive no +more. + +"As you have been great in the combat, be so in the days of +sorrow,--great in your conduct as citizens, by generous disdain, by +sublime silence. Silence is the weapon we have now to use against the +Cossacks of France and the priests, their masters. + +"In the streets do not look at them; do not answer if they address +you. + +"In the cafes, in the eating-houses, if they enter, rise and go out. + +"Let your windows remain closed as they pass. + +"Never attend their feasts, their parades. + +"Regard the harmony of their musical bands as tones of slavery, and, +when you hear them, fly. + +"Let the liberticide soldier be condemned to isolation; let him atone +in solitude and contempt for having served priests and kings. + +"And you, Roman women, masterpiece of God's work! deign no look, no +smile, to those satellites of an abhorred Pope! Cursed be she who, +before the odious satellites of Austria, forgets that she is Italian! +Her name shall be published for the execration of all her people! And +even the courtesans! let them show love for their country, and thus +regain the dignity of citizens! + +"And our word of order, our cry of reunion and emancipation, be now +and ever, VIVA LA REPUBLICA! + +"This incessant cry, which not even French slaves can dispute, +shall prepare us to administer the bequest of our martyrs, shall be +consoling dew to the immaculate and holy bones that repose, sublime +holocaust of faith and of love, near our walls, and make doubly divine +the Eternal City. In this cry we shall find ourselves always brothers, +and we shall conquer. Viva Rome, the capital of Italy! Viva the Italy +of the people! Viva the Roman Republic! + +"A ROMAN. + +"Rome, July 4, 1849." + + +Yes; July 4th, the day so joyously celebrated in our land, is that of +the entrance of the French into Rome! + +I know not whether the Romans will follow out this programme with +constancy, as the sterner Milanese have done. If they can, it will +draw upon them endless persecutions, countless exactions, but at once +educate and prove them worthy of a nobler life. + +Yesterday I went over the scene of conflict. It was fearful even to +_see_ the Casinos Quattro Venti and Vascello, where the French and +Romans had been several days so near one another, all shattered to +pieces, with fragments of rich stucco and painting still sticking to +rafters between the great holes made by the cannonade, and think +that men had stayed and fought in them when only a mass of ruins. +The French, indeed, were entirely sheltered the last days; to my +unpractised eyes, the extent and thoroughness of their works seemed +miraculous, and gave me the first clear idea of the incompetency of +the Italians to resist organized armies. I saw their commanders had +not even known enough of the art of war to understand how the French +were conducting the siege. It is true, their resources were at any +rate inadequate to resistance; only continual sorties would have +arrested the progress of the foe, and to make them and man the wall +their forces were inadequate. I was struck more than ever by the +heroic valor of _our_ people,--let me so call them now as ever; for +go where I may, a large part of my heart will ever remain in Italy. +I hope her children will always acknowledge me as a sister, though +I drew not my first breath here. A Contadini showed me where +thirty-seven braves are buried beneath a heap of wall that fell upon +them in the shock of one cannonade. A marble nymph, with broken arm, +looked sadly that way from her sun-dried fountain; some roses were +blooming still, some red oleanders, amid the ruin. The sun was casting +its last light on the mountains on the tranquil, sad Campagna, +that sees one leaf more turned in the book of woe. This was in the +Vascello. I then entered the French ground, all mapped and hollowed +like a honeycomb. A pair of skeleton legs protruded from a bank of one +barricade; lower, a dog had scratched away its light covering of +earth from the body of a man, and discovered it lying face upward all +dressed; the dog stood gazing on it with an air of stupid amazement. +I thought at that moment, recalling some letters received: "O men and +women of America, spared these frightful sights, these sudden wrecks +of every hope, what angel of heaven do you suppose has time to listen +to your tales of morbid woe? If any find leisure to work for men +to-day, think you not they have enough to do to care for the victims +here?" + +I see you have meetings, where you speak of the Italians, the +Hungarians. I pray you _do something_; let it not end in a mere cry of +sentiment. That is better than to sneer at all that is liberal, +like the English,--than to talk of the holy victims of patriotism as +"anarchists" and "brigands"; but it is not enough. It ought not +to content your consciences. Do you owe no tithe to Heaven for the +privileges it has showered on you, for whose achievement so many +here suffer and perish daily? Deserve to retain them, by helping +your fellow-men to acquire them. Our government must abstain from +interference, but private action is practicable, is due. For Italy, +it is in this moment too late; but all that helps Hungary helps her +also,--helps all who wish the freedom of men from an hereditary yoke +now become intolerable. Send money, send cheer,--acknowledge as the +legitimate leaders and rulers those men who represent the people, +who understand their wants, who are ready to die or to live for their +good. Kossuth I know not, but his people recognize him; Manin I know +not, but with what firm nobleness, what perserving virtue, he has +acted for Venice! Mazzini I know, the man and his acts, great, pure, +and constant,--a man to whom only the next age can do justice, as +it reaps the harvest of the seed he has sown in this. Friends, +countrymen, and lovers of virtue, lovers of freedom, lovers of truth! +be on the alert; rest not supine in your easier lives, but remember + + "Mankind is one, + And beats with one great heart." + + + + +PART III. + +LETTERS FROM ABROAD TO FRIENDS AT HOME. + + + + +LETTERS. + +FROM A LETTER TO ---- ----. + + +Bellagio, Lake of Como, August, 1847. + +You do not deceive yourself surely about religion, in so far as that +there is a deep meaning in those pangs of our fate which, if we live +by faith, will become our most precious possession. "Live for thy +faith and thou shalt yet behold it living," is with me, as it hath +been, a maxim. + +Wherever I turn, I see still the same dark clouds, with occasional +gleams of light. In this Europe how much suffocated life!--a sort of +woe much less seen with us. I know many of the noble exiles, pining +for their natural sphere; many of them seek in Jesus the guide and +friend, as you do. For me, it is my nature to wish to go straight to +the Creative Spirit, and I can fully appreciate what you say of the +need of our happiness depending on no human being. Can you really have +attained such wisdom? Your letter seemed to me very modest and pure, +and I trust in Heaven all may be solid. + +I am everywhere well received, and high and low take pleasure in +smoothing my path. I love much the Italians. The lower classes have +the vices induced by long subjection to tyranny; but also a winning +sweetness, a ready and discriminating love for the beautiful, and a +delicacy in the sympathies, the absence of which always made me +sick in our own country. Here, at least, one does not suffer from +obtuseness or indifference. They take pleasure, too, in acts of +kindness; they are bountiful, but it is useless to hope the least +honor in affairs of business. I cannot persuade those who serve me, +however attached, that they should not deceive me, and plunder me. +They think that is part of their duty towards a foreigner. This is +troublesome no less than disagreeable; it is absolutely necessary to +be always on the watch against being cheated. + + * * * * * + +EXTRACT FROM A LETTER. + +One loses sight of all dabbling and pretension when seated at the feet +of dead Rome,--Rome so grand and beautiful upon her bier. Art is dead +here; the few sparkles that sometimes break through the embers cannot +make a flame; but the relics of the past are great enough, over-great; +we should do nothing but sit, and weep, and worship. + +In Rome, one has all the free feeling of the country; the city is so +interwoven with vineyards and gardens, such delightful walks in the +villas, such ceaseless music of the fountains, and from every high +point the Campagna and Tiber seem so near. + +Full of enchantment has been my summer, passed wholly among Italians, +in places where no foreigner goes, amid the snowy peaks, in the +exquisite valleys of the Abruzzi. I have seen a thousand landscapes, +any one of which might employ the thoughts of the painter for years. +Not without reason the people dream that, at the death of a saint, +columns of light are seen to hover on those mountains. They take, at +sunset, the same rose-hues as the Alps. The torrents are magnificent. +I knew some noblemen, with baronial castles nestled in the hills and +slopes, rich in the artistic treasures of centuries. They liked me, +and showed me the hidden beauties of Roman remains. + + * * * * * + +Rome, April, 1848. + +The gods themselves walk on earth, here in the Italian spring. Day +after day of sunny weather lights up the flowery woods and Arcadian +glades. The fountains, hateful during the endless rains, charm again. +At Castle Turano I found heaths, as large as our pear-trees, in full +flower. Such wealth of beauty is irresistible, but ah! the drama of my +life is very strange: the ship plunges deeper as it rises higher. You +would be amazed, could you know how different is my present phase of +life from that in which you knew me; but you would love me no less; it +is tire same planet that shows such different climes. + + * * * * * + +TO HER MOTHER. + +Rome, November 16, 1848. + +I am again in Rome, situated for the first time entirely to my mind. +I have only one room, but large; and everything about the bed +so gracefully and adroitly disposed that it makes a beautiful +parlor,--and of course I pay much less. I have the sun all day, and +an excellent chimney. It is very high, and has pure air and the most +beautiful view all around imaginable. Add, that I am with the dearest, +delightful old couple one can imagine,--quick, prompt, and kind, +sensible and contented. Having no children, they like to regard me and +the Prussian sculptor, my neighbor, as such; yet are too delicate and +too busy ever to intrude. In the attic dwells a priest, who insists on +making my fire when Antonia is away. To be sure, he pays himself for +his trouble by asking a great many questions.... + +You cannot conceive the enchantment of this place. So much I suffered +here last January and February, I thought myself a little weaned; but +returning, my heart swelled even to tears with the cry of the poet, + + "O Rome, _my_ country, city of the soul!" + +Those have not lived who have not seen Rome. Warned, however, by the +last winter, I dared not rent my lodgings for the year. I hope I am +acclimated. I have been through what is called the grape-cure, much +more charming, certainly, than the water-cure. At present I am very +well, but, alas! because I have gone to bed early, and done very +little. I do not know if I can maintain any labor. As to my life, I +think it is not the will of Heaven it should terminate very soon. I +have had another strange escape. + +I had taken passage in the diligence to come to Rome; two rivers were +to be passed, the Turano and the Tiber, but passed by good bridges, +and a road excellent when not broken unexpectedly by torrents from +the mountains. The diligence sets out between three and four in +the morning, long before light. The director sent me word that +the Marchioness Crispoldi had taken for herself and family a coach +extraordinary, which would start two hours later, and that I could +have a place in that if I liked; so I accepted. The weather had been +beautiful, but on the eve of the day fixed for my departure, the wind +rose, and the rain fell in torrents. I observed that the river, which +passed my window, was much swollen, and rushed with great violence. In +the night I heard its voice still stronger, and felt glad I had not to +set out in the dark. I rose at twilight and was expecting my carriage, +and wondering at its delay, when I heard that the great diligence, +several miles below, had been seized by a torrent; the horses were +up to their necks in water, before any one dreamed of danger. The +postilion called on all the saints, and threw himself into the water. +Tire door of the diligence could not be opened, and tire passengers +forced themselves, one after another, into the cold water; it was dark +too. Had I been there, I had fared ill. A pair of strong men were ill +after it, though all escaped with life. + +For several days there was no going to Rome; but at last we set forth +in two great diligences, with all the horses of the route. For many +miles the mountains and ravines were covered with snow; I seemed to +have returned to my own country and climate. Few miles were passed +before the conductor injured his leg under the wheel, and I had the +pain of seeing him suffer all the way, while "Blood of Jesus!" and +"Souls in Purgatory!" was the mildest beginning of an answer to the +jeers of the postilions upon his paleness. We stopped at a miserable +osteria, in whose cellar we found a magnificent relic of Cyclopean +architecture,--as indeed in Italy one is paid at every step for +discomfort and danger, by some precious subject of thought. We +proceeded very slowly, and reached just at night a solitary little +inn which marks the site of the ancient home of the Sabine virgins, +snatched away to become the mothers of Rome. We were there saluted +with, the news that the Tiber also had overflowed its banks, and it +was very doubtful if we could pass. But what else to do? There were no +accommodations in the house for thirty people, or even for three; and +to sleep in the carriages, in that wet air of the marshes, was a more +certain danger than to attempt the passage. So we set forth; the moon, +almost at the full, smiling sadly on the ancient grandeurs half draped +in mist, and anon drawing over her face a thin white veil. As we +approached the Tiber, the towers and domes of Rome could be seen, +like a cloud lying low on the horizon. The road and the meadows, alike +under water, Jay between us and it, one sheet of silver. The horses +entered; they behaved nobly. We proceeded, every moment uncertain if +the water would not become deep; but the scene was beautiful, and I +enjoyed it highly. I have never yet felt afraid, when really in the +presence of danger, though sometimes in its apprehension. + +At last we entered the gate; the diligence stopping to be examined, I +walked to the gate of Villa Ludovisi, and saw its rich shrubberies of +myrtle, so pale and eloquent in the moonlight.... + +My dear friend, Madame Arconati, has shown me generous love; a +Contadina, whom I have known this summer, hardly less. Every Sunday +she came in her holiday dress, a beautiful corset of red silk, richly +embroidered, rich petticoat, nice shoes and stockings, and handsome +coral necklace, on one arm an immense basket of grapes, on the other +a pair of live chickens to be eaten by me for her sake ("_per amore +mio_"), and wanted no present, no reward: it was, as she said, "for +the honor and pleasure of her acquaintance." The old father of the +family never met me but he took off his hat, and said, "Madame, it +is to me a consolation to see you." Are there not sweet flowers of +affection in life, glorious moments, great thoughts? Why must they be +so dearly paid for? + +Many Americans have shown me great and thoughtful kindness and none +more so than William Story and his wife. They are now in Florence, but +may return. I do not know whether I shall stay here or not: I shall be +guided much by the state of my health. + +All is quieted now in Rome. Late at night the Pope had to yield, but +not till the door of his palace was half burned, and his confessor +killed. This man, Parma, provoked his fate by firing on the people +from a window. It seems the Pope never gave order to fire; his guard +acted from a sudden impulse of their own. The new ministry chosen are +little inclined to accept. It is almost impossible for any one to act, +unless the Pope is stripped of his temporal power, and the hour +for that is not yet quite ripe; though they talk more and more of +proclaiming the Republic, and even of calling to Rome my friend +Mazzini. + +If I came home at this moment, I should feel as if forced to leave my +own house, my own people, and the hour which I had always longed for. +If I do come in this way, all I can promise is to plague other people +as little as possible. My own plans and desires will be postponed to +another world. + +Do not feel anxious about me. Some higher Power leads me through +strange, dark, thorny paths, broken at times by glades opening down +into prospects of sunny beauty, into which I am not permitted to +enter. If God disposes for us, it is not for nothing. This I can say: +my heart is in some respects better, it is kinder, and more humble. +Also, my mental acquisitions have certainly been great, however +inadequate to my desires. + + * * * * * + +TO HER BROTHER, K.F. FULLER. + +Rome, January 19, 1849. + +MY DEAR RICHARD,--With my window open, looking out upon St. Peter's, +and the glorious Italian sun pouring in, I was just thinking of you; I +was just thinking how I wished you were here, that we might walk forth +and talk together under the influence of these magnificent objects. I +was thinking of the proclamation of the Constitutional Assembly here, +a measure carried by courageous youth in the face of age, sustained by +the prejudices of many years, the ignorance of the people, and all the +wealth of the country; yet courageous youth faces not only these, but +the most threatening aspect of foreign powers, and dares a future of +blood and exile to achieve privileges which are our American common +birthright. I thought of the great interests which may in our country +be sustained without obstacle by every able man,--interests of +humanity, interests of God. + +I thought of the new prospects of wealth opened to our countrymen by +the acquisition of New Mexico and California,--the vast prospects of +our country every way, so that it is itself a vast blessing to be born +an American; and I thought how impossible it is that one like you, +of so strong and generous a nature, should, if he can but patiently +persevere, be defrauded of a rich, manifold, powerful life. + + +Thursday eve, January 25. + +This has been a most beautiful day, and I have taken a long walk out +of town. How much I should like sometimes to walk with you again! I +went to the church of St. Lorenzo, one of the most ancient in Rome, +rich in early mosaics, also with spoils from the temples, marbles, +ancient sarcophagi with fine bassirilievi, and magnificent columns. +There is a little of everything, but the medley is harmonized by the +action of time, and the sensation induced is that of repose. It has +the public cemetery, and there lie the bones of many poor; the rich +and noble lie in lead coffins in the church vaults of Rome, but St. +Lorenzo loved the poor. When his tormentors insisted on knowing where +he had hid his riches,--"There," he said, pointing to the crowd of +wretches who hovered near his bed, compelled to see the tyrants of the +earth hew down the tree that had nourished and sheltered them. + +Amid the crowd of inexpressive epitaphs, one touched me, erected by +a son to his father. "He was," says the son, "an angel of prosperity, +seeking our good in distant countries with unremitting toll and pain. +We owe him all. For his death it is my only consolation that in life I +never left his side." + +Returning, I passed the Pretorian Camp, the Campus Salisetus, where +vestals that had broken their vows were buried alive in the city +whose founder was born from a similar event. Such are the usual, the +frightful inconsistencies of mankind. + +From my windows I see the Barberini palace; in its chambers are the +pictures of the Cenci, and the Galatea, so beautifully described by +Goethe; in the gardens are the remains of the tomb of Servius Tullius. + +Yesterday as I went forth I saw the house where Keats lived in Rome, +and where he died; I saw the Casino of Raphael. Returning, I passed +the villa where Goethe lived when in Rome: afterwards, the houses of +Claude and Poussin. + +Ah what human companionship here! how everything speaks! I live myself +in the apartment described in Andersen's "Improvvisatore," which get +you, and read a scene of the childhood of Antonio. I have the room, I +suppose, indicated as being occupied by the Danish sculptor. + + * * * * * + +TO THE SAME. + +Rome, March 17, 1849. + +I take occasion to enclose this seal, as a little birthday present, +for I think you will be twenty-five in May. I have used it a great +deal; the design is graceful and expressive,--the stone of some little +value. + +I live with the severest economy consistent with my health. I could +not live for less anywhere. I have renounced much, have suffered more. +I trust I shall not find it impossible to accomplish, at least one +of my designs. This is, to see the end of the political struggle +in Italy, and write its history. I think it will come to its crisis +within, this year. But to complete my work as I have begun, I must +watch it to the end. + +This work, if I can accomplish it, will be a worthy chapter in the +history of the world; and if written with the spirit which breathes +through me, and with sufficient energy and calmness to execute well +the details, would be what the motto on my ring indicates,--"_a +possession for ever, for man_." + +It ought to be profitable to me pecuniarily; but in these respects +Fate runs so uniformly counter to me, that I dare not expect ever to +be free from perplexity and uncongenial labor. Still, these will never +more be so hard to me, if I shall have done something good, which may +survive my troubled existence. Yet it would be like the rest, if by +ill health, want of means, or being driven prematurely from the field +of observation, this hope also should be blighted. I am prepared to +have it so. Only my efforts tend to the accomplishment of my object; +and should they not be baffled, you will not see me before the summer +of 1850. + +Meantime, let the future be what it may, I live as well as I can in +the present. + +Farewell, my dear Richard; that you may lead a peaceful, aspiring, and +generous life was ever, and must ever be, the prayer from the soul of +your sister + +MARGARET. + + * * * * * + +UNDAUNTED ROME. + +Rome, May 6, 1849. + +I write you from barricaded Rome. The "Mother of Nations" is now at +bay against them all. Rome was suffering before. The misfortunes of +other regions of Italy, the defeat at Novara, preconcerted in hope +to strike the last blow at Italian independence, the surrender and +painful condition of Genoa, the money-difficulties,--insuperable +unless the government could secure confidence abroad as well as at +home,--prevented her people from finding that foothold for which they +were ready. + +The vacillations of France agitated them; still they could not +seriously believe she would ever act the part she has. We must say +France, because, though many honorable men have washed their hands +of all share in the perfidy, the Assembly voted funds to sustain the +expedition to Civita Vecchia; and the nation, the army, have remained +quiescent. No one was, no one could be, deceived as to the scope of +this expedition. It was intended to restore the Pope to the temporal +sovereignty, from which the people, by the use of suffrage, had +deposed him. No doubt the French, in case of success, proposed to +temper the triumph of Austria and Naples, and stipulate for conditions +that might soothe the Romans and make their act less odious. They were +probably deceived, also, by the representations of Gaeta, and believed +that a large party, which had been intimidated by the republicans, +would declare in favor of the Pope when they found themselves likely +to be sustained. But this last pretext can in noway avail them. They +landed at Civita Vecchia, and no one declared for the Pope. They +marched on Rome. Placards were affixed within the walls by hands +unknown, calling upon the Papal party to rise within the town. Not a +soul stirred. The French had no excuse left for pretending to believe +that the present government was not entirely acceptable to the people. +Notwithstanding, they assail the gates; they fire upon St. Peter's, +and their balls pierce the Vatican. They were repulsed, as they +deserved, retired in quick and shameful defeat, as surely the brave +French soldiery could not, if they had not been demoralized by the +sense of what an infamous course they were pursuing. + +France, eager to destroy the last hope of Italian +emancipation,--France, the alguazil of Austria, the soldiers of +republican France, firing upon republican Rome! If there be angel +as well as demon powers that interfere in the affairs of men, those +bullets could scarcely fail to be turned back against their own +breasts. Yet Roman blood has flowed also; I saw how it stained +the walls of the Vatican Gardens on the 30th of April--the first +anniversary of the appearance of Pius IX.'s too famous encyclic +letter. Shall he, shall any Pope, ever again walk peacefully in these +gardens? It seems impossible! The temporal sovereignty of the Popes +is virtually destroyed by their shameless, merciless measures taken +to restore it. The spiritual dominion ultimately falls, too, into +irrevocable ruin. What may be the issue at this moment, we cannot +guess. The French have retired to Civita Vecchia, but whether to +reembark or to await reinforcements, we know not. The Neapolitan force +has halted within a few miles of the walls; it is not large, and they +are undoubtedly surprised at the discomfiture of the French. Perhaps +they wait for the Austrians, but we do not yet hear that these have +entered the Romagna. Meanwhile, Rome is strongly barricaded, and, +though she cannot stand always against a world in arms, she means at +least to do so as long as possible. Mazzini is at her head; she has +now a guide "who understands his faith," and all there is of a noble +spirit will show itself. We all feel very sad, because the idea of +bombs, barbarously thrown in, and street-fights in Rome, is peculiarly +dreadful. Apart from all the blood and anguish inevitable at such +times, the glories of Art may perish, and mankind be forever despoiled +of the most beautiful inheritance. Yet I would defend Rome to the last +moment. She must not be false to the higher hope that has dawned upon +her. She must not fall back again into servility and corruption. + +And no one is willing. The interference of the French has roused the +weakest to resistance. "From the Austrians, from the Neapolitans," +they cried, "we expected this; but from the French--it is too +infamous; it cannot be borne;" and they all ran to arms and fought +nobly. + +The Americans here are not in a pleasant situation. Mr. Cass, the +Charge of the United States, stays here without recognizing the +government. Of course, he holds no position at the present moment +that can enable him to act for us. Beside, it gives us pain that our +country, whose policy it justly is to avoid armed interference with +the affairs of Europe, should not use a moral influence. Rome has, as +we did, thrown off a government no longer tolerable; she has made +use of the suffrage to form another; she stands on the same basis as +ourselves. Mr. Rush did us great honor by his ready recognition of a +principle as represented by the French Provisional Government; had +Mr. Cass been empowered to do the same, our country would have acted +nobly, and all that is most truly American in America would have +spoken to sustain the sickened hopes of European democracy. But of +this more when I write next. Who knows what I may have to tell another +week? + + * * * * * + +TO HER BROTHER, R.B. FULLER. + +Rome, May 22, 1849. + +I do not write to Eugene yet, because around me is such excitement I +cannot settle my mind enough to write a letter good for anything. The +Neapolitans have been driven back; but the French, seem to be amusing +us with a pretence of treaties, while waiting for the Austrians to +come up. The Austrians cannot, I suppose, be more than three days' +march from us. I feel but little about myself. Such thoughts are +merged in indignation, and in the fears I have that Rome may be +bombarded. It seems incredible that any nation should be willing to +incur the infamy of such an act,--an act that may rob posterity of a +most precious part of its inheritance;--only so many incredible things +have happened of late. I am with William Story, his wife and uncle. +Very kind friends they have been in this strait. They are going away, +so soon as they can find horses,--going into Germany. I remain alone +in the house, under our flag, almost the only American except the +Consul and Ambassador. But Mr. Cass, the Envoy, has offered to do +anything for me, and I feel at liberty to call on him if I please. + +But enough of this. Let us implore of fate another good meeting, +full and free, whether long or short. Love to dearest mother, Arthur, +Ellen, Lloyd. Say to all, that, should any accident possible to these +troubled times transfer me to another scene of existence, they need +not regret it. There must be better worlds than this, where innocent +blood is not ruthlessly shed, where treason does not so easily +triumph, where the greatest and best are not crucified. I do not say +this in apprehension, but in case of accident, you might be glad to +keep this last word from your sister + +MARGARET. + + * * * * * + +TO R.W. EMERSON. + +Rome, June 10, 1849. + +I received your letter amid the round of cannonade and musketry. It +was a terrible battle fought here from the first to the last light of +day. I could see all its progress from my balcony. The Italians fought +like lions. It is a truly heroic spirit that animates them. They make +a stand here for honor and their rights, with little ground for hope +that they can resist, now they are betrayed by France. + +Since the 30th of April, I go almost daily to the hospitals, and +though I have suffered, for I had no idea before how terrible gun-shot +wounds and wound-fevers are, yet I have taken pleasure, and great +pleasure, in being with the men. There is scarcely one who is not +moved by a noble spirit. Many, especially among the Lombards, are the +flower of the Italian youth. When they begin to get better, I carry +them books and flowers; they read, and we talk. + +The palace of the Pope, on the Quirinal, is now used for +convalescents. In those beautiful gardens I walk with them, one with +his sling, another with his crutch. The gardener plays off all his +water-works for the defenders of the country, and gathers flowers for +me, their friend. + +A day or two since, we sat in the Pope's little pavilion, where he +used to give private audience. The sun was going gloriously down over +Monte Mario, where gleamed the white tents of the French light-horse +among the trees. The cannonade was heard at intervals. Two bright-eyed +boys sat at our feet, and gathered up eagerly every word said by the +heroes of the day. It was a beautiful hour, stolen from the midst of +ruin and sorrow, and tales were told as full of grace and pathos as in +the gardens of Boccaccio, only in a very different spirit,--with noble +hope for man, and reverence for woman. + +The young ladies of the family, very young girls, were filled with +enthusiasm for the suffering, wounded patriots, and they wished to +go to the hospital, to give their services. Excepting the three +superintendents, none but married ladies were permitted to serve +there, but their services were accepted. Their governess then wished +to go too, and, as she could speak several languages, she was admitted +to the rooms of the wounded soldiers, to interpret for them, as the +nurses knew nothing but Italian, and many of these poor men were +suffering because they could not make their wishes known. Some are +French, some Germans, many Poles. Indeed, I am afraid it is too true +that there were comparatively few Romans among them. This young lady +passed several nights there. + +Should I never return, and sometimes I despair of doing so, it seems +so far off,--so difficult, I am caught in such a net of ties here,--if +ever you know of my life here, I think you will only wonder at the +constancy with which I have sustained myself,--the degree of profit to +which, amid great difficulties, I have put the time,--at least in the +way of observation. Meanwhile, love me all you can. Let me feel that, +amid the fearful agitations of the world, there are pure hands, with +healthful, even pulse, stretched out toward me, if I claim their +grasp. + +I feel profoundly for Mazzini. At moments I am tempted to say, "Cursed +with every granted prayer,"--so cunning is the demon. Mazzini has +become the inspiring soul of his people. He saw Rome, to which all his +hopes through life tended, for the first time as a Roman citizen, and +to become in a few days its ruler. He has animated, he sustains her to +a glorious effort, which, if it fails this time, will not in the age. +His country will be free. Yet to me it would be so dreadful to cause +all this bloodshed,--to dig the graves of such martyrs! + +Then, Rome is being destroyed; her glorious oaks,--her villas, +haunts of sacred beauty, that seemed the possession of the world for +ever,--the villa of Raphael, the villa of Albani, home of Winckelmann +and the best expression of the ideal of modern Rome, and so many other +sanctuaries of beauty,--all must perish, lest a foe should level his +musket from their shelter. I could not, could not! + +I know not, dear friend, whether I shall ever get home across that +great ocean, but here in Rome I shall no longer wish to live. + +O Rome, _my_ country! could I imagine that the triumph of what I held +dear was to heap such desolation on thy head! + +Speaking of the republic, you say, "Do you not wish Italy had a great +man?" Mazzini is a great man. In mind, a great, poetic statesman; in +heart, a lover; in action, decisive and full of resource as Caesar. +Dearly I love Mazzini. He came in, just as I had finished the first +letter to you. His soft, radiant look makes melancholy music in my +soul; it consecrates my present life, that, like the Magdalen, I may, +at the important hour, shed all the consecrated ointment on his head. +There is one, Mazzini, who understands thee well,--who knew thee no +less when an object of popular fear than now of idolatry,--and who, if +the pen be not held too feebly, will help posterity to know thee too! + + * * * * * + +TO HER SISTER, MRS. E.K. CHANNING. + +Rome, June 19, 1849. + +As was Eve, at first, I suppose every mother is delighted by the birth +of a man-child. There is a hope that he will conquer more ill, and +effect more good, than is expected from girls. This prejudice in favor +of man does not seem to be destroyed by his shortcomings for ages. +Still, each mother hopes to find in hers an Emanuel. I should like +very much to see your children, but hardly realize I ever shall. +The journey home seems so long, so difficult, so expensive. I should +really like to lie down here, and sleep my way into another sphere of +existence, if I could take with me one or two that love and need me, +and was sure of a good haven for them on that other side. + +The world seems to go so strangely wrong! The bad side triumphs; the +blood and tears of the generous flow in vain. I assist at many saddest +scenes, and suffer for those whom I knew not before. Those whom I knew +and loved,--who, if they had triumphed, would have opened for me an +easier, broader, higher-mounting road,--are everyday more and more +involved in earthly ruin. Eternity is with us, but there is much +darkness and bitterness in this portion of it. A baleful star rose on +my birth, and its hostility, I fear, will never be disarmed while I +walk below. + + * * * * * + +TO W.H. CHANNING. + +July, 1849. + +I cannot tell you what I endured in leaving Rome, abandoning the +wounded soldiers,--knowing that there is no provision made for them, +when they rise from the beds where they have been thrown by a noble +courage, and have suffered with a noble patience. Some of the poorer +men, who rise bereft even of the right arm,--one having lost both the +right arm and the right leg,--I could have provided for with a small +sum. Could I have sold my hair, or blood from my arm, I would have +done it. Had any of the rich Americans remained in Rome, they would +have given it to me; they helped nobly at first, in the service of the +hospitals, when there was far less need; but they had all gone. What +would I have given could I but have spoken to one of the Lawrences, +or the Phillipses! They could and would have saved this misery. These +poor men are left helpless in the power of a mean and vindictive foe. +You felt so oppressed in the Slave States; imagine what I felt at +seeing all the noblest youth, all the genius of this dear land, again +enslaved! + + * * * * * + +TO HER MOTHER. + +Florence, February 6, 1850. + +Dearest Mother,--After receiving your letter of October, I answered +immediately; but as Richard mentions, in one dated December 4th, that +you have not heard, I am afraid, by some post-office mistake, it went +into the mail-bag of some sail-ship, instead of steamer, so you were +very long without hearing. I regret it the more, as I wanted so much +to respond fully to your letter,--so lovely, so generous, and which, +of all your acts of love, was perhaps the one most needed by me, and +which has touched me the most deeply. + +I gave you in that a flattering picture of our life. And those +pleasant days lasted till the middle of December; but then came on +a cold unknown to Italy, and which has lasted ever since. As the +apartments were not prepared for such weather, we suffered a good +deal. Besides, both Ossoli and myself were taken ill at New-Year's +time, and were not quite well again, all January: now we are quite +well. The weather begins to soften, though still cloudy, damp, and +chilly, so that poor baby can go out very little; on that account he +does not grow so fast, and gets troublesome by evening, as he tires +of being shut up in two or three little rooms, where he has examined +every object hundreds of times. He is always pointing to the door. He +suffers much with chilblains, as do other children here; however, he +is, with that exception, in the best health, and is a great part of +the time very gay, laughing and dancing in the nurse-maid's arms, and +trying to sing and drum, in imitation of the bands, which play a great +deal in the Piazza. + +Nothing special has happened to me. The uninhabitableness of the +rooms where I had expected to write, and the need of using our little +dining-room, the only one in which is a stove, for dressing baby, +taking care of him, eating, and receiving visits and messages, have +prevented my writing for six or seven weeks past. In the evening, when +baby went to bed, about eight, I began to have time, but was generally +too tired to do anything but read. The four hours, however, from nine +till one, beside the bright little fire, have been very pleasant. I +have thought of you a great deal, remembering how you suffer from cold +in the winter, and hope you are in a warm, comfortable house, have +pleasant books to read, and some pleasant friends to see. One does not +want many; only a few bright faces to look in now and then, and help +thaw the ice with little rills of genial conversation. I have fewer of +these than at Rome,--but still several. + * * * * * +Horace Sumner, youngest son of father's friend, Mr. Charles P. Sumner, +lives near us, and comes every evening to read a little while with +Ossoli. He has solid good in his heart and mind. We have a true regard +for him, and he has shown true and steadfast sympathy for us; when I +am ill or in a hurry, he helps me like a brother. Ossoli and Sumner +exchange some instruction in English and Italian. + + * * * * * + +My sister's last letter from Europe is full of solemnity, and +evidences her clear conviction of the perils of the voyage across the +treacherous ocean. It is a leave-taking, dearly cherished now by the +mother to whom it was addressed, the kindred of whom she speaks, and +by those other kindred,--those who in spirit felt near to and loved +her. It is as follows:-- + +Florence, May 14, 1850. + +"Dear Mother,--I will believe I shall be welcome with my +treasures,--my husband and child. For me, I long so much to see you! +Should anything hinder our meeting upon earth, think of your daughter, +as one who always wished, at least, to do her duty, and who always +cherished you, according as her mind opened to discover excellence. + +"Give dear love, too, to my brothers; and first to my eldest, faithful +friend, Eugene; a sister's love to Ellen; love to my kind good aunts, +and to my dear cousin E. God bless them! + +"I hope we shall be able to pass some time together yet, in this +world. But if God decrees otherwise,--here and HEREAFTER, my dearest +mother, + +"Your loving child, + +"MARGARET." + + + + +PART IV. + +HOMEWARD VOYAGE, AND MEMORIALS. + + +It seems proper that some account of the sad close of Madame Ossoli's +earthly journeyings should be embodied in this volume recording her +travels. But a brother's hand trembles even now and _cannot_ write it. +Noble, heroic, unselfish, _Christian_ was that death, even as had been +her life; but its outward circumstances were too painful for my pen +to describe. Nor needs it,--for a scene like that must have impressed +itself indelibly on those who witnessed it, and accurate and vivid +have been their narratives. The Memoirs of my sister contain a most +faithful description; but as they are accessible to all, and I trust +will be read by all who have read this volume, I have chosen rather +to give the accounts somewhat condensed which appeared in the New +York Tribune at the time of the calamity. The first is from the pen of +Bayard Taylor, who visited the scene on the day succeeding the wreck, +and describes the appearance of the shore and the remains of the +vessel. This is followed by the narrative of Mrs. Hasty, wife of the +captain, herself a participant in the scene, and so overwhelmed by +grief at her husband's loss, and that of friends she had learned so +much to value, that she has since faded from this life. A true and +noble woman, her account deserves to be remembered. The third article +is from the pen of Horace Greeley, my sister's ever-valued friend. +Several poems, suggested by this scene, written by those in the Old +World and New who loved and honored Madame Ossoli, are also inserted +here. The respect they testify for the departed is soothing to the +hearts of kindred, and to the many who love and cherish the memory of +Margaret Fuller.--ED. + + + + +LETTER OF BAYARD TAYLOR + + +Fire Island, Tuesday, July 23. + +To the Editors of the Tribune:-- + +I reached the house of Mr. Smith Oakes, about one mile from the spot +where the Elizabeth was wrecked, at three o'clock this morning. The +boat in which I set out last night from Babylon, to cross the bay, was +seven hours making the passage. On landing among the sand-hills, Mr. +Oakes admitted me into his house, and gave me a place of rest for the +remaining two or three hours of the night. + +This morning I visited the wreck, traversed the beach for some extent +on both sides, and collected all the particulars that are now likely +to be obtained, relative to the closing scenes of this terrible +disaster. The sand is strewn for a distance of three or four miles +with fragments of planks, spars, boxes, and the merchandise with which +the vessel was laden. With the exception of a piece of her broadside, +which floated to the shore intact, all the timbers have been so +chopped and broken by the sea, that scarcely a stick of ten feet in +length can be found. In front of the wreck these fragments are piled +up along high-water mark to the height of several feet, while farther +in among the sand-hills are scattered casks of almonds stove in, +and their contents mixed with the sand, sacks of juniper-berries, +oil-flasks, &c. About half the hull remains under water, not more than +fifty yards from the shore. The spars and rigging belonging to the +foremast, with part of the mast itself, are still attached to the +ruins, surging over them at every swell. Mr. Jonathan Smith, the agent +of the underwriters, intended to have the surf-boat launched this +morning, for the purpose of cutting away the rigging and ascertaining +how the wreck lies; but the sea is still too high. + +From what I can learn, the loss of the Elizabeth is mainly to be +attributed to the inexperience of the mate, Mr. H.P. Bangs, who acted +as captain after leaving Gibraltar. By his own statement, he supposed +he was somewhere between Cape May and Barnegat, on Thursday evening. +The vessel was consequently running northward, and struck head on. +At the second thump, a hole was broken in her side, the seas poured +through and over her, and she began going to pieces. This happened at +ten minutes before four o'clock. The passengers were roused from +their sleep by the shock, and hurried out of the cabin in their +night-clothes, to take refuge on the forecastle, which was the least +exposed part of the vessel. They succeeded with great difficulty; Mrs. +Hasty, the widow of the late captain, fell into a hatchway, from which +she was dragged by a sailor who seized her by the hair. + +The swells increased continually, and the danger of the vessel giving +way induced several of the sailors to commit themselves to the waves. +Previous to this they divested themselves of their clothes, which they +tied to pieces of plank and sent ashore. These were immediately +seized upon by the beach pirates, and never afterward recovered. +The carpenter cut loose some planks and spars, and upon one of these +Madame Ossoli was advised to trust herself, the captain promising to +go in advance, with her boy. She refused, saying that she had no wish +to live without the child, and would not, at that hour, give the care +of it to another. Mrs. Hasty then took hold of a plank, in company +with the second mate, Mr. Davis, through whose assistance she landed +safely, though terribly bruised by the floating timber. The captain +clung to a hatch, and was washed ashore insensible, where he was +resuscitated by the efforts of Mr. Oakes and several others, who were +by this time collected on the beach. Most of the men were entirely +destitute of clothing, and some, who were exhausted and ready to let +go their hold, were saved by the islanders, who went into the surf +with lines about their waists, and caught them. + +The young Italian girl, Celesta Pardena, who was bound for New York, +where she had already lived in the family of Henry Peters Gray, the +artist, was at first greatly alarmed, and uttered the most piercing +screams. By the exertions of the Ossolis she was quieted, and +apparently resigned to her fate. The passengers reconciled themselves +to the idea of death. At the proposal of the Marquis Ossoli some time +was spent in prayer, after which all sat down calmly to await the +parting of the vessel. The Marchioness Ossoli was entreated by the +sailors to leave the vessel, or at least to trust her child to them, +but she steadily refused. + +Early in the morning some men had been sent to the lighthouse for the +life-boat which is kept there. Although this is but two miles distant, +the boat did not arrive till about one o'clock, by which time the gale +had so increased, and the swells were so high and terrific, that it +was impossible to make any use of it. A mortar was also brought for +the purpose of firing a line over the vessel, to stretch a hawser +between it and the shore. The mortar was stationed on the lee of +a hillock, about a hundred and fifty rods from the wreck, that the +powder might be kept dry. It was fired five times, but failed to +carry a line more than half the necessary distance. Just before the +forecastle sunk, the remaining sailors determined to leave. + +The steward, with whom the child had always been a great favorite, +took it, almost by main force, and plunged with it into the sea; +neither reached the shore alive. The Marquis Ossoli was soon +afterwards washed away, but his wife remained in ignorance of his +fate. The cook, who was the last person that reached the shore alive, +said that the last words he heard her speak were: "I see nothing but +death before me,--I shall never reach the shore." It was between two +and three o'clock in the afternoon, and after lingering for about ten +hours, exposed to the mountainous surf that swept over the vessel, +with the contemplation of death constantly forced upon her mind, she +was finally overwhelmed as the foremast fell. It is supposed that her +body and that of her husband are still buried under the ruins of the +vessel. Mr. Horace Sumner, who jumped overboard early in the morning, +was never seen afterwards. + +The dead bodies that were washed on shore were terribly bruised and +mangled. That of the young Italian girl was enclosed in a rough box, +and buried in the sand, together with those of the sailors. Mrs. Hasty +had by this time found a place of shelter at Mr. Oakes's house, and +at her request the body of the boy, Angelo Eugene Ossoli, was carried +thither, and kept for a day previous to interment. The sailors, who +had all formed a strong attachment to him during the voyage, wept like +children when they saw him. There was some difficulty in finding a +coffin when the time of burial came, whereupon they took one of their +chests, knocked out the tills, laid the body carefully inside, locked +and nailed down the lid. He was buried in a little nook between two of +the sand-hills, some distance from the sea. + +The same afternoon a trunk belonging to the Marchioness Ossoli came +to shore, and was fortunately secured before the pirates had an +opportunity of purloining it. Mrs. Hasty informs me that it contained +several large packages of manuscripts, which she dried carefully by +the fire. I have therefore a strong hope that the work on Italy will +be entirely recovered. In a pile of soaked papers near the door, +I found files of the _Democratie Pacifique_ and _Il Nazionale_ of +Florence, as well as several of Mazzini's pamphlets, which I have +preserved. + +An attempt will probably be made to-morrow to reach the wreck with the +surf-boat. Judging from its position and the known depth of the water, +I should think the recovery, not only of the bodies, if they are still +remaining there, but also of Powers's statue and the blocks of rough +Carrara, quite practicable, if there should be a sufficiency of still +weather. There are about a hundred and fifty tons of marble under the +ruins. The paintings, belonging to Mr. Aspinwall, which were washed +ashore in boxes, and might have been saved had any one been on the +spot to care for them, are for the most part utterly destroyed. Those +which were least injured by the sea-water were cut from the frames +and carried off by the pirates; the frames were broken in pieces, +and scattered along the beach. This morning I found several shreds of +canvas, evidently more than a century old, half buried in the sand. +All the silk, Leghorn braid, hats, wool, oil, almonds, and other +articles contained in the vessel, were carried off as soon as they +came to land. On Sunday there were nearly a thousand persons here, +from all parts of the coast between Rockaway and Montauk, and +more than half of them were engaged in secreting and carrying off +everything that seemed to be of value. + +The two bodies found yesterday were those of sailors. All have now +come to land but those of the Ossolis and Horace Sumner. If not found +in the wreck, they will be cast ashore to the westward of this, as the +current has set in that direction since the gale. + +Yours, &c. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE WRECK OF THE ELIZABETH. + + +From a conversation with Mrs. Hasty, widow of the captain of the +ill-fated Elizabeth, we gather the following particulars of her voyage +and its melancholy termination. + +We have already stated that Captain Hasty was prostrated, eight days +after leaving Leghorn, by a disease which was regarded and treated as +fever, but which ultimately exhibited itself as small-pox of the most +malignant type. He died of it just as the vessel reached Gibraltar, +and his remains were committed to the deep. After a short detention +in quarantine, the Elizabeth resumed her voyage on the 8th ultimo, +and was long baffled by adverse winds. Two days from Gibraltar, the +terrible disease which had proved fatal to the captain attacked the +child of the Ossolis, a beautiful boy of two years, and for many days +his recovery was regarded as hopeless. His eyes were completely closed +for five days, his head deprived of all shape, and his whole person +covered with pustules; yet, through the devoted attention of his +parents and their friends, he survived, and at length gradually +recovered. Only a few scars and red spots remained on his face and +body, and these were disappearing, to the great joy of his mother, who +felt solicitous that his rare beauty should not be marred at his first +meeting with those she loved, and especially her mother. + +At length, after a month of slow progress, the wind shifted, and blew +strongly from the southwest for several days, sweeping them rapidly +on their course, until, on Thursday evening last, they knew that they +were near the end of their voyage. Their trunks were brought up and +repacked, in anticipation of a speedy arrival in port. Meantime, the +breeze gradually swelled to a gale, which became decided about nine +o'clock on that evening. But their ship was new and strong, and +all retired to rest as usual. They were running west, and supposed +themselves about sixty miles farther south than they actually were. +By their reckoning, they would be just off the harbor of New York next +morning. About half past two o'clock, Mr. Bangs, the mate in command, +took soundings, and reported twenty-one fathoms. He said that depth +insured their safety till daylight, and turned in again. Of course, +all was thick around the vessel, and the storm howling fiercely. One +hour afterward, the ship struck with great violence, and in a moment +was fast aground. She was a stout brig of 531 tons, five years old, +heavily laden with marble, &c., and drawing seventeen feet water. Had +she been light, she might have floated over the bar into twenty feet +water, and all on board could have been saved. She struck rather +sidewise than bows on, canted on her side and stuck fast, the mad +waves making a clear sweep over her, pouring down into the cabin +through the skylight, which was destroyed. One side of the cabin +was immediately and permanently under water, the other frequently +drenched. The passengers, who were all up in a moment, chose the most +sheltered positions, and there remained, calm, earnest, and resigned +to any fate, for a long three hours. No land was yet visible; they +knew not where they were, but they knew that their chance of surviving +was small indeed. When the coast was first visible through the driving +storm in the gray light of morning, the sand-hills were mistaken for +rocks, which made the prospect still more dismal. The young Ossoli +cried a little with discomfort and fright, but was soon hushed to +sleep. Our friend Margaret had two life-preservers, but one of them +proved unfit for use. All the boats had been smashed in pieces or torn +away soon after the vessel struck; and it would have been madness to +launch them in the dark, if it had been possible to launch them at +all, with the waves charging over the wreck every moment. A sailor, +soon after light, took Madame Ossoli's serviceable life-preserver +and swam ashore with it, in quest of aid for those left on board, and +arrived safe, but of course could not return his means of deliverance. + +By 7 A.M. it became evident that the cabin must soon go to pieces, and +indeed it was scarcely tenantable then. The crew were collected in +the forecastle, which was stronger and less exposed, the vessel having +settled by the stem, and the sailors had been repeatedly ordered to go +aft and help the passengers forward, but the peril was so great that +none obeyed. At length the second mate, Davis, went himself, +and accompanied the Italian girl, Celesta Pardena, safely to the +forecastle, though with great difficulty. Madame Ossoli went next, and +had a narrow escape from being washed away, but got over. Her child +was placed in a bag tied around a sailor's neck, and thus carried +safely. Marquis Ossoli and the rest followed, each convoyed by the +mate or one of the sailors. + +All being collected in the forecastle, it was evident that their +position was still most perilous, and that the ship could not much +longer hold together. The women were urged to try first the experiment +of taking each a plank and committing themselves to the waves. Madame +Ossoli refused thus to be separated from her husband and child. She +had from the first expressed a willingness to live or die with them, +but not to live without them. Mrs. Hasty was the first to try the +plank, and, though the struggle was for some time a doubtful one, did +finally reach the shore, utterly exhausted. There was a strong current +setting to the westward, so that, though the wreck lay but a quarter +of a mile from the shore, she landed three fourths of a mile distant. +No other woman, and no passenger, survives, though several of the +crew came ashore after she did, in a similar manner. The last who came +reports that the child had been washed away from the man who held it +before the ship broke up, that Ossoli had in like manner been washed +from the foremast, to which he was clinging; but, in the horror of the +moment, Margaret never learned that those she so clung to had preceded +her to the spirit land. Those who remained of the crew had just +persuaded her to trust herself to a plank, in the belief that Ossoli +and their child had already started for the shore, when just as she +was stepping down, a great wave broke over the vessel and swept her +into the boiling deep. She never rose again. The ship broke up soon +after (about 10 A.M. Mrs. Hasty says, instead of the later hour +previously reported); but both mates and most of the crew got on +one fragment or another. It was supposed that those of them who were +drowned were struck by floating spars or planks, and thus stunned or +disabled so as to preclude all chance of their rescue. + +We do not know at the time of this writing whether the manuscript of +our friend's work on Italy and her late struggles has been saved. We +fear it has not been. One of her trunks is known to have been saved; +but, though it contained a good many papers, Mrs. Hasty believes that +this was not among them. The author had thrown her whole soul into +this work, had enjoyed the fullest opportunities for observation, was +herself a partaker in the gallant though unsuccessful struggle which +has redeemed the name of Rome from the long rust of sloth, servility, +and cowardice, was the intimate friend and compatriot of the +Republican leaders, and better fitted than any one else to refute the +calumnies and falsehoods with which their names have been blackened by +the champions of aristocratic "order" throughout the civilized world. +We cannot forego the hope that her work on Italy has been saved, or +will yet be recovered. + + * * * * * + +The following is a complete list of the persons lost by the wreck of +the ship Elizabeth:-- + + Giovanni, Marquis Ossoli. + Margaret Fuller Ossoli. + Their child, Eugene Angelo Ossoli. + Celesta Pardena, of Rome. + Horace Sumner, of Boston. + George Sanford, seaman (Swede). + Henry Westervelt, seaman (Swede). + George Bates, steward. + + * * * * * + + + + +DEATH OF MARGARET FULLER. + + +A great soul has passed from this mortal stage of being by the death +of MARGARET FULLER, by marriage Marchioness Ossoli, who, with her +husband and child, Mr. Horace Sumner of Boston,[A] and others, was +drowned in the wreck of the brig Elizabeth from Leghorn for this +port, on the south shore of Long Island, near Fire Island, on Friday +afternoon last. No passenger survives to tell the story of that night +of horrors, whose fury appalled many of our snugly sheltered citizens +reposing securely in their beds. We can adequately realize what it +must have been to voyagers approaching our coast from the Old World, +on vessels helplessly exposed to the rage of that wild southwestern +gale, and seeing in the long and anxiously expected land of their +youth and their love only an aggravation of their perils, a death-blow +to their hopes, an assurance of their temporal doom! + +[Footnote A: Horace Sumner, one of the victims of the lamentable wreck +of the Elizabeth, was the youngest son of the late Hon. Charles P. +Sumner, of Boston, for many years Sheriff of Suffolk County, and the +brother of George Sumner, Esq., the distinguished American writer, now +resident at Paris, and of Hon. Charles Sumner of Boston, who is well +known for his legal and literary eminence throughout the country. He +was about twenty-four years of age, and had been abroad for nearly a +year, travelling in the South of Europe for the benefit of his health. +The past winter was spent by him chiefly in Florence, where he was on +terms of familiar intimacy with the Marquis and Marchioness Ossoli, +and was induced to take passage in the same vessel with them for his +return to his native land. He was a young man of singular modesty of +deportment, of an original turn of mind, and greatly endeared to his +friends by the sweetness of his disposition and the purity of his +character.] + +Margaret Fuller was the daughter of Hon. Timothy Fuller, a lawyer +of Boston, but nearly all his life a resident of Cambridge, and a +Representative of the Middlessex District in Congress from 1817 to +1825. Mr. Fuller, upon his retirement from Congress, purchased a farm +at some distance from Boston, and abandoned law for agriculture, soon +after which he died. His widow and six children still survive. + +Margaret, if we mistake not, was the first-born, and from a very early +age evinced the possession of remarkable intellectual powers. Her +father regarded her with a proud admiration, and was from childhood +her chief instructor, guide, companion, and friend. He committed the +too common error of stimulating her intellect to an assiduity and +persistency of effort which severely taxed and ultimately injured her +physical powers.[A] At eight years of age he was accustomed to require +of her the composition of a number of Latin verses per day, while +her studies in philosophy, history, general science, and current +literature were in after years extensive and profound. After her +father's death, she applied herself to teaching as a vocation, first +in Boston, then in Providence, and afterward in Boston again, where +her "Conversations" were for several seasons attended by classes of +women, some of them married, and including many from the best families +of the "American Athens." + +[Footnote A: I think this opinion somewhat erroneous, for reasons +which I have already given in the edition recently published of Woman +in the Nineteenth Century. The reader is referred to page 352 of +that work, and also to page 38, where I believe my sister personified +herself under the name of Miranda, and stated clearly and justly the +relation which, existed between her father and herself.--ED.] + +In the autumn of 1844, she accepted an invitation to take part in the +conduct of the Tribune, with especial reference to the department +of Reviews and Criticism on current Literature, Art, Music, &c.; a +position which she filled for nearly two years,--how eminently, +our readers well know. Her reviews of Longfellow's Poems, Wesley's +Memoirs, Poe's Poems, Bailey's "Festus," Douglas's Life, &c. must yet +be remembered by many. She had previously found "fit audience, though +few," for a series of remarkable papers on "The Great Musicians," +"Lord Herbert of Cherbury," "Woman," &c., &c., in "The Dial," a +quarterly of remarkable breadth and vigor, of which she was at first +co-editor with Ralph Waldo Emerson, but which was afterward edited by +him only, though she continued a contributor to its pages. In 1843, +she accompanied some friends on a tour via Niagara, Detroit, and +Mackinac to Chicago, and across the prairies of Illinois, and her +resulting volume, entitled "Summer on the Lakes," is one of the best +works in this department ever issued from the American press. It +was too good to be widely and instantly popular. Her "Woman in the +Nineteenth Century"--an extension of her essay in the Dial--was +published by us early in 1845, and a moderate edition sold. The next +year, a selection from her "Papers on Literature and Art" was issued +by Wiley and Putnam, in two fair volumes of their "Library of American +Books." We believe the original edition was nearly or quite exhausted, +but a second has not been called for, while books nowise comparable +to it for strength or worth have run through half a dozen editions.[A] +These "Papers" embody some of her best contributions to the Dial, the +Tribune, and perhaps one or two which had not appeared in either. + +[Footnote A: A second edition has since been published.--ED.] + +In the summer of 1845, Miss Fuller accompanied the family of a devoted +friend to Europe, visiting England, Scotland, France, and passing +through Italy to Rome, where they spent the ensuing winter. She +accompanied her friends next spring to the North of Italy, and there +stopped, spending most of the summer at Florence, and returning at +the approach of winter to Rome, where she was soon after married to +Giovanni, Marquis Ossoli, who had made her acquaintance during her +first winter in the Eternal City. They have since resided in the +Roman States until the last summer, after the surrender of Rome to the +French army of assassins of liberty, when they deemed it expedient +to migrate to Florence, both having taken an active part in the +Republican movement which resulted so disastrously,--nay, of which the +ultimate result is yet to be witnessed. Thence in June they departed +and set sail at Leghorn for this port, in the Philadelphia brig +Elizabeth, which was doomed to encounter a succession of disasters. +They had not been many days at sea when the captain was prostrated by +a disease which ultimately exhibited itself as confluent small-pox +of the most malignant type, and terminated his life soon after they +touched at Gibraltar, after a sickness of intense agony and loathsome +horror. The vessel was detained some days in quarantine by reason of +this affliction, but finally set sail again on the 8th ultimo, just in +season to bring her on our coast on the fearful night between Thursday +and Friday last, when darkness, rain, and a terrific gale from the +southwest (the most dangerous quarter possible), conspired to hurl +her into the very jaws of destruction. It is said, but we know not how +truly, that the mate in command since the captain's death mistook +the Fire Island light for that on the Highlands of Neversink, and so +fatally miscalculated his course; but it is hardly probable that any +other than a first-class, fully manned ship could have worked off +that coast under such a gale, blowing him directly toward the roaring +breakers. She struck during the night, and before the next evening +the Elizabeth was a mass of drifting sticks and planks, while her +passengers and part of her crew were buried in the boiling surges. +Alas that our gifted friend, and those nearest to and most loved by +her, should have been among them! + +We trust a new, compact, and cheap edition or selection, of Margaret +Fuller's writings will soon be given to the public, prefaced by a +Memoir. It were a shame to us if one so radiantly lofty in intellect, +so devoted to human liberty and well-being, so ready to dare and to +endure for the upraising of her sex and her race, should perish from +among us, and leave no memento less imperfect and casual than those we +now have. We trust the more immediate relatives of our departed friend +will lose no time in selecting the fittest person to prepare a Memoir, +with a selection from her writings, for the press.[A] America has +produced no woman who in mental endowments and acquirements has +surpassed Margaret Fuller, and it will be a public misfortune if her +thoughts are not promptly and acceptably embodied. + +[Footnote A: The reader is aware that such a Memoir has since been +published, and that several of her works have been republished +likewise. I trust soon to publish a volume of Madame Ossoli's +Miscellaneous Writings.--ED.] + + * * * * * + + + + +MARGARET FULLER OSSOLI + +BY C.P. CRANCH. + + + O still, sweet summer days! O moonlight nights! + After so drear a storm how can ye shine? + O smiling world of many-hued delights, + How canst thou 'round our sad hearts still entwine + The accustomed wreaths of pleasure? How, O Day, + Wakest thou so full of beauty? Twilight deep, + How diest thou so tranquilly away? + And how, O Night, bring'st thou the sphere of sleep? + For she is gone from us,--gone, lost for ever,-- + In the wild billows swallowed up and lost,-- + Gone, full of love, life, hope, and high endeavor, + Just when we would have welcomed her the most. + + Was it for this, O woman, true and pure! + That life through shade and light had formed thy mind + To feel, imagine, reason, and endure,-- + To soar for truth, to labor for mankind? + Was it for this sad end thou didst bear thy part + In deeds and words for struggling Italy,-- + Devoting thy large mind and larger heart + That Rome in later days might yet be free? + And, from that home driven out by tyranny, + Didst turn to see thy fatherland once more, + Bearing affection's dearest ties with thee; + And as the vessel bore thee to our shore, + And hope rose to fulfilment,--on the deck, + When friends seemed almost beckoning unto thee: + O God! the fearful storm,--the splitting wreck,-- + The drowning billows of the dreary sea! + + O, many a heart was stricken dumb with grief! + We who had known thee here,--had met thee there + Where Rome threw golden light on every leaf + Life's volume turned in that enchanted air,-- + O friend! how we recall the Italian days + Amid the Caesar's ruined palace halls,-- + The Coliseum, and the frescoed blaze + Of proud St. Peter's dome,--the Sistine walls,-- + The lone Campagna and the village green,-- + The Vatican,--the music and dim light + Of gorgeous temples,--statues, pictures, seen + With thee: those sunny days return so bright, + Now thou art gone! Thou hast a fairer world + Than that bright clime. The dreams that filled thee here + Now find divine completion, and, unfurled + Thy spirit-wings, find out their own high sphere. + + Farewell! thought-gifted, noble-hearted one! + We, who have known thee, know thou art not lost; + The star that set in storms still shines upon + The o'ershadowing cloud, and, when we sorrow most, + In the blue spaces of God's firmament + Beams out with purer light than we have known. + Above the tempest and the wild lament + Of those who weep the radiance that is flown. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE DEATH OF MARGARET FULLER OSSOLI. + +BY MARY C. AMES. + + + O Italy! amid thy scenes of blood, + She acted long a woman's noble part! + Soothing the dying of thy sons, proud Rome! + Till thou wert bowed, O city of her heart! + When thou hadst fallen, joy no longer flowed + In the rich sunlight of thy heaven; + And from thy glorious domes and shrines of art, + No quickening impulse to her life was given. + + From the deep shadow of thy cypress hills, + From the soft beauty of thy classic plains, + The noble-hearted, with, her treasures, turned + To the far land where Freedom proudly reigns. + After the rocking of long years of storms, + Her weary spirit looked and longed for rest; + Pictures of home, of loved and kindred forms, + Rose warm and life-like in her aching breast. + + But the wild ocean rolled before her home; + And, listening long unto its fearful moan, + She thought of myriads who had found their rest + Down in its caverns, silent, deep, and lone. + Then rose the prayer within her heart of hearts, + With the dark phantoms of a coming grief, + That "_Nino_, Ossoli, and I may go + _Together_;--that the anguish may be brief." + + The bark spread out her pennons proud and free, + The sunbeams frolicked with the wanton waves; + Smiled through the long, long days the summer sea, + And sung sweet requiems o'er her sunken graves. + E'en then the shadow of the fearful King + Hung deep and darkening o'er the fated bark; + Suffering and death and anguish reigned, ere came + Hope's weary dove back to the longing ark. + + This was the morning to the night of woe; + When the grim Ocean, in his fiercest wrath, + Held fearful contest with the god of storms, + Who lashed the waves with death upon his path. + O night of agony! O awful morn, + That oped on such a scene thy sullen eyes! + The shattered ship,--those wrecked and broken hearts, + Who only prayed, "_Together let us die_." + + Was this thy greeting longed for, Margaret, + In the high, noontide of thy lofty pride? + The welcome sighed for, in thine hours of grief, + When pride had fled and hope in thee had died? + Twelve hours' communion with the Terror-King! + No wandering hope to give the heart relief! + And yet thy prayer was heard,--the cold waves wrapt + Those forms "together," and the woe was "brief." + + Thus closed thy day in darkness and in tears; + Thus waned a life, alas! too full of pain; + But O thou noble woman! thy brief life, + Though full of sorrows, was not lived in vain. + No more a pilgrim o'er a weary waste, + With light ineffable thy mind is crowned; + Heaven's richest lore is thine own heritage; + All height is gained, thy "kingdom" now is found. + + * * * * * + + + + +TO THE MEMORY OF MARGARET FULLER. + +BY E. OAKES SMITH. + + + We hailed thee, Margaret, from the sea, + We hailed thee o'er the wave, + And little thought, in greeting thee, + Thy home would be a grave. + + We blest thee in thy laurel crown, + And in the myrtle's sheen,-- + Rejoiced thy noble worth to own, + Still joy, our tears between. + + We hoped that many a happy year + Would bless thy coming feet; + And thy bright fame grow brighter here, + By Fatherland made sweet. + + Gone, gone! with all thy glorious thought,-- + Gone with thy waking life,-- + With the green chaplet Fame had wrought,-- + The joy of Mother, Wife. + + Oh! who shall dare thy harp to take, + And pour upon the air + The clear, calm music, that should wake + The heart to love and prayer! + + The lip, all eloquent, is stilled + And silent with its trust,-- + The heart, with Woman's greatness filled, + Must crumble to the dust: + + But from thy _great heart_ we will take + New courage for the strife; + From petty ills our bondage break, + And labor with new life. + + Wake up, in darkness though it be, + To better truth and light; + Patient in toil, as we saw thee, + In searching for the light; + + And mindless of the scorn it brings, + For 't is in desert land + That angels come with sheltering wings + To lead us by the hand. + + Courageous one! thou art not lost, + Though sleeping in the wave; + Upon its chainless billows tost, + For thee is fitting grave. + + * * * * * + + + + +SLEEP SWEETLY, GENTLE CHILD.[A] + + + [The only child of the Marchioness Ossoli, well known + as Margaret Fuller, is buried in the Valley Cemetery, at + Manchester, N.H. There is always a vase of flowers placed near + the grave, and a marble slab, with a cross and lily sculptured + upon it, bears this inscription: "In Memory of Angelo Eugene + Philip Ossoli, who was born at Rieti, in Italy, 5th September, + 1848, and perished by shipwreck off Fire Island, with both his + parents, Giovanni Angelo and Margaret Fuller Ossoli, on the + 19th of July, 1850."] + + Sleep sweetly, gentle child! though to this sleep + The cold winds rocked thee, on the ocean's breast, + And strange, wild murmurs o'er the dark, blue deep + Were the last sounds that lulled thee to thy rest, + And while the moaning waves above thee rolled, + The hearts that loved thee best grew still and cold. + + Sleep sweetly, gentle child! though the loved tone + That twice twelve months had hushed thee to repose + Could give no answer to the tearful moan + That faintly from thy sea-moss pillow rose. + That night the arms that closely folded thee + Were the wet weeds that floated in the sea. + + Sleep sweetly, gentle child! the cold, blue wave + Hath pitied the sad sighs the wild winds bore, + And from the wreck it held _one_ treasure gave + To the fond watchers weeping on the shore;-- + Now the sweet vale shall guard its precious trust, + While mourning hearts weep o'er thy silent dust. + + Sleep sweetly, gentle child! love's tears are shed + Upon the garlands of fair Northern flowers + That fond hearts strew above thy lowly bed, + Through all our summer's glad and pleasant hours: + For thy sake, and for hers who sleeps beneath the wave, + Kind hands bring flowers to fade upon thy grave. + + Sleep sweetly, gentle child! the warm wind sighs + Amid the dark pines through this quiet dell, + And waves the light flower-shade that lies + Upon the white-leaved lily's sculptured bell;-- + The "Valley's" flowers are fair, the turf is green;-- + Sleep sweetly here, wept-for Eugene! + + Sleep sweetly, gentle child! this peaceful rest + Hath early given thee to a home above, + Safe from all sin and tears, for, ever blest + To sing sweet praises of redeeming love.-- + The love that took thee to that world of bliss + Ere thou hadst learned the sighs and griefs of this. + +JULIET. + +Laurel Brook, N.H., September, 1851. + +[Footnote A: These lines are beautiful and full of sweet sympathy. The +home of the mother and brother of Margaret Fuller being now removed +from Manchester to Boston, the remains of the little child, too dear +to remain distant from us, have been removed to Mount Auburn. The +same marble slab is there with, its inscription, and the lines deserve +insertion here.--ED.] + + * * * * * + + + + +ON THE DEATH OF MARGARET FULLER. + +BY G.P.R. JAMES. + + + High hopes and bright thine early path bedecked, + And aspirations beautiful though wild,-- + A heart too strong, a powerful will unchecked, + A dream that earth-things could be undefiled. + + But soon, around thee, grew a golden chain, + That bound the woman to more human things, + And taught with joy--and, it may be, with pain-- + That there are limits e'en to Spirit's wings. + + Husband and child,--the loving and beloved,-- + Won, from the vast of thought, a mortal part, + The impassioned wife and mother, yielding, proved + Mind has itself a master--in the heart. + + In distant lands enhaloed by, old fame + Thou found'st the only chain thy spirit knew, + But captive ledst thy captors, from the shame + Of ancient freedom, to the pride of new. + + And loved hearts clung around thee on the deck, + Welling with sunny hopes 'neath sunny skies: + The wide horizon round thee had no speck,-- + E'en Doubt herself could see no cloud arise. + + Thy loved ones clung around thee, when the sail + O'er wide Atlantic billows onward bore + Thy freight of joys, and the expanding gale + Pressed the glad bark toward thy native shore. + + The loved ones clung around thee still, when all + Was darkness, tempest, terror, and dismay,-- + More closely clung around thee, when the pall + Of Fate was falling o'er the mortal clay. + + With them to live,--with them, with them to die, + Sublime of human love intense and fine!-- + Was thy last prayer unto the Deity; + And it was granted thee by Love Divine. + + In the same billow,--in the same dark grave,-- + Mother, and child, and husband, find their rest. + The dream is ended; and the solemn wave + Gives back the gifted to her country's breast. + + * * * * * + + + + +ON THE DEATH OF MARQUIS OSSOLI AND HIS WIFE, MARGARET FULLER. + +BY WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR. + + + Over his millions Death has lawful power, + But over thee, brave Ossoli! none, none! + After a long struggle, in a fight + Worthy of Italy to youth restored, + Thou, far from home, art sunk beneath the surge + Of the Atlantic; on its shore; in reach + Of help; in trust of refuge; sunk with all + Precious on earth to thee,--a child, a wife! + Proud as thou wert of her, America + Is prouder, showing to her sons how high + Swells woman's courage in a virtuous breast. + + She would not leave behind her those she loved: + Such solitary safety might become + Others,--not her; not her who stood beside + The pallet of the wounded, when the worst + Of France and Perfidy assailed the walls + Of unsuspicious Rome. Rest, glorious soul, + Renowned for strength of genius, Margaret! + Rest with the twain too dear! My words are few, + And shortly none will hear my failing voice, + But the same language with more full appeal + Shall hail thee. Many are the sons of song + Whom thou hast heard upon thy native plains, + Worthy to sing of thee; the hour is come; + Take we our seats and let the dirge begin. + + * * * * * + + + + +MONUMENT TO THE OSSOLI FAMILY. + +[FROM THE NEW YORK TRIBUNE.] + + +The family of Margaret Fuller Ossoli have just erected to her memory, +and that of her husband and child, a marble monument in Mount Auburn +cemetery, in Massachusetts. It is located on Pyrola Path, in a +beautiful part of the grounds, and has near it some noble oaks, while +the hand of affection has planted many a flower. The body of Margaret +Fuller rests in the ocean, but her memory abides in many hearts. She +needs no monumental stone, but human affection loves thus to do honor +to the departed. + +The following is the inscription on the monument:-- + + Erected + In Memory of + + MARGARET FULLER OSSOLI, + Born in Cambridge, Mass., May 23, 1810. + + By birth, a Citizen of New England; by adoption, a Citizen of Rome; by genius, + belonging to the World. In youth, an insatiate Student, seeking the + highest culture; in riper years, Teacher, Writer, Critic of + Literature and Art; in maturer age, Companion and Helper + of many earnest Reformers in America + and Europe. + + And + + In Memory of her Husband, + GIOVANNI ANGELO, MARQUIS OSSOLI. + + He gave up rank, station, and home for the Roman Republic, + and for his Wife and Child. + + And + + In Memory of that Child, + ANGELO EUGENE PHILIP OSSOLI, + + Born in Rieti, Italy, Sept. 5, 1848, + Whose dust reposes at the foot of this stone. + They passed from life together by shipwreck, + July 19, 1850. + + United in life by mutual love, labors, and trials, the merciful Father + took them together, and + In death they were not divided. + + + +THE END. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's At Home And Abroad, by Margaret Fuller Ossoli + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AT HOME AND ABROAD *** + +***** This file should be named 16327.txt or 16327.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/3/2/16327/ + +Produced by Alison Hadwin 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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