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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 4, No. 23,
+September, 1859, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 4, No. 23, September, 1859
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: August 4, 2005 [EBook #16430]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY, VOLUME ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Cornell University, Joshua Hutchinson, Jon
+King and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY.
+
+A MAGAZINE OF LITERATURE, ART, AND POLITICS.
+
+VOL. IV.--SEPTEMBER, 1859.--NO. XXIII.
+
+
+
+
+THE LIFE AND WORKS OF ARY SCHEFFER.
+
+
+No painter of this age has made so deep an impression on the popular
+mind of America as Ary Scheffer. Few, if any other contemporary artists
+are domesticated at our firesides, and known and loved in our remotest
+villages and towns. Only a small number, indeed, of his original works
+have been exhibited here,--yet engravings from them are not only
+familiar to every person of acknowledged taste and culture, but are dear
+to the hearts of many who scarcely know the artist's name. Young maidens
+delight in their tender pathos, and the suffering heart is consoled and
+elevated by their pure and lofty religious aspiration. An effect so
+great must have an adequate and peculiar cause; and we shall not have
+far to seek for it, but shall find it in the aim and character of the
+artist. Scheffer has two prominent qualities, by which he has won his
+place in the popular estimation. The first is his sentiment. His works
+are full of simple, tender pathos. His pictures always tell their story,
+first to the eye, next to the heart and soul of the beholder. His
+admirable knowledge of composition is always subordinate to expression.
+His meaning is not merely historical or poetical, but is true to life
+and every-day experience. "Mignon regrettant sa Patrie" is felt and
+appreciated by those who have never sung,
+
+    "Kennst du das Land wo die Citronen
+    blühen,"--
+
+and "Faust" and "Margaret" tell their story to all who have felt life's
+struggles and temptations, whether they have read them in Goethe's
+version or not. Added to this power of pathos and sentiment is the deep
+religious feeling which pervades every work of his pencil, whatever be
+its outward form. His religion is of no dogma or sect, but the inflowing
+of a life which makes all things holy and full of infinite meaning.
+Whether he paint the legends of the Catholic Church, as in "St.
+Augustine" and "St. Monica," or illustrate the life-poem of the
+Protestant Goethe, or tell a simple story of childhood, the same
+feelings are kindled, in our heart's faith in God, love to man, the sure
+hope of immortality. It is this genuine and earnest religion of humanity
+which has made his works familiar to every lover of Art and sentiment,
+and given us a feeling of personal love and reverence for the made
+artist.
+
+It is now nearly a year since his labors on earth terminated, and yet no
+adequate account of his life and labors has appeared. It is very
+difficult to satisfy the craving desire to know more of the personal
+life and character of him who has been a household friend so long. Yet
+it is rather the privilege of succeeding generations, than of
+contemporaries, to draw aside the veil from the sanctuary, and to behold
+the works of a man in his greatest art,--the art of life. But the cold
+waters of the Atlantic, like the river of Death, make the person of a
+European artist sacred to us; and it is hard for us to realize that
+those whom we have surrounded with a halo of classic reverence were
+partakers of the daily jar and turmoil of our busy age,--that the good
+physician who tended our sick children so faithfully had lived in
+familiar intercourse with Goethe, and might have listened to the first
+performance of those symphonies of Beethoven which seem to us as eternal
+as the mountains. Losing the effluence of his personal presence, which
+his neighbors and countrymen enjoyed, we demand the privilege of
+posterity to hear and tell all that can be told of him. We can wait
+fifty years more for a biography of Allston, because something of his
+gracious presence yet lingers among us; but we can touch Scheffer only
+with the burin or the pen. So we shall throw in our mite to fill up this
+chasm. A few gleanings from current French literature, a few anecdotes
+familiarly told of the great artist, and the vivid recollection of one
+short interview are all the aids we can summon to enable our readers to
+call up in their own minds a living image which will answer to the name
+that has so long been familiar to our lips and dear to our hearts.
+
+Ary Scheffer was born about the year 1795, in the town of Dordrecht, in
+Holland; but, as at that period Holland belonged to the French Empire,
+the child was entitled by birth to those privileges of a French citizen
+which opened to him important advantages in his artistic career. French
+by this accident of birth, and still more so by his education and long
+residence at Paris, he yet always retained traces of his Teutonic origin
+in the form of his head, in his general appearance, and in his earnest
+and religious character. He always cherished a warm affection for his
+native land.
+
+Many distinguished artists have been the sons of painters or designers
+of superior note. Raffaello, Albert Dürer, Alonzo Cano, Vandyck, Luca
+Giordano are familiar instances. It seems as if the accumulation of two
+generations of talent were necessary to produce the fine flower of
+genius. The father of Ary Scheffer was an artist of considerable
+ability, and promised to become an eminent painter, when he was cut off
+by an early death. He left a widow, many unfinished pictures, and three
+sons, yet very young. The character of the mother we infer only from her
+influence on her son, from the devoted affection he bore to her, and
+from the wisdom with which she guided his early education; but these
+show her to have been a true woman,--brave, loving, and always loyal to
+the highest. The three sons all lived to middle age, and all became
+distinguished men. Ary, the eldest, very early gave unequivocal signs of
+his future destiny. His countrymen still remember a large picture
+painted by him at Amsterdam when only twelve years old, indicating
+extraordinary talent, even at that early age. His mother did not,
+however, overrate this boyish success, as stamping him a prodigy, but
+regarded it only as a motive for giving him a thorough artistic
+education. He went, accordingly, to Paris, and entered the _atelier_ of
+Guérin, the teacher then most in vogue.
+
+It was in the latter days of the Empire that Ary Scheffer commenced his
+studies,--a period of great stagnation in Art. The whole force of the
+popular mind had for many years been turned to politics and war; and if
+French Art had striven to emancipate itself from slavish dependence on
+the Greek, it still clung to the Roman models, which are far less
+inspiring. "The autocrat David, with his correct, but soulless
+compositions, was more absolute than his master, the Emperor." Only in
+the Saloon of 1819 did the Revolution, which had already affected every
+other department of thought and life, reach the _ateliers_. It commenced
+in that of Guérin. The very weakness of the master, who himself halted
+between two opinions, left the pupils in freedom to pursue their own
+course. Scheffer did not esteem this a fortunate circumstance for
+himself. His own nature was too strong and living to be crushed by a
+severe master or exact study, and he felt the want of that thorough
+early training which would have saved him much struggle in after life.
+He used to speak of Ingres as such a teacher as he would have chosen for
+himself. From the pupil of David, the admirer of Michel Angelo, the
+conservator of the sacred traditions of Art, the student might learn all
+the treasured wisdom of antiquity,--while the influences around him, and
+his own genius, would impel him towards prophesying the hope of the
+future. His favorite companions of the _atelier_ at this time were
+Eugène Delacroix and Géricault. Delacroix ranks among the greatest
+living French artists; and if death early closed the brilliant career of
+Géricault, it has not yet shrouded his name in oblivion. The trio made
+their first appearance together in the Saloon of 1819. Géricault sent
+his "Wreck of the Medusa," Delacroix "The Barque of Dante," and Ary
+Scheffer "The Citizens of Calais."[1]
+
+The works of these friends may be considered as the commencement of the
+modern French school of Art, still so little known, and so ill
+appreciated by us, but which is really an expression of the new ideas of
+Art and Humanity which have agitated France to its centre for half a
+century. Their hour of triumph has not yet come; but as the poet sings
+most touchingly of his love, neither when he rejoices in its happy
+consummation, nor in the hour of utter despair, but when doubt still
+tempers hope,--so does the artist labor with prophetic zeal to express
+those sentiments of humanity and brotherhood which are not yet organized
+into institutions. A careless eye might have perceived little departure
+from the old models in these pictures, but a keener one would have
+already discovered that Scheffer and his friends worked with a different
+aim from that of their predecessors. Not merely to paint a well-composed
+picture on a classical theme, but to give expression to thought and
+feeling, was now the object. "The Wreck of the Medusa" of Géricault is
+full of earnest, if niggling life. Delacroix has followed his own bent
+with such independent zeal as has made him the object of intense
+admiration to some, of bitter hatred to others. But Ary Scheffer has
+taken his rank at the head of the Spiritualist school, and has awakened
+a wider love and obtained a fuller appreciation than either of them. The
+spirit which found in them its first expression is continually
+increasing in power, and developing into richer life. The living artists
+of France are the exponents of her genuine Christian democracy.
+
+"The entire collection of Rosa Bonheur's works," says a French writer,
+"might be called the Hymn to Labor. Here she shows us the ploughing,
+there the reaping, farther on the gathering in of the hay, then of the
+harvests, elsewhere the vintage,--always and everywhere labor." Edouard
+Frère, in his scenes from humble life, which the skilful lithographer
+places within the means of all, represents the incidents of domestic
+existence among the poor. "The Prayer at the Mother's Knee," "The Woman
+at her Ironing Table," "The Child shelling Peas," "The Walk to School
+amid Rain and Sleet," are all charming idyls of every-day life. With yet
+greater skill and deeper pathos does the peasant Millet tell the story
+of his neighbors. The washerwomen, as the sun sets upon their labors,
+and they go wearily homeward; the digger, at his lonely task, who can
+pause but an instant to wipe the sweat from his brow; the sewing-women
+bending over their work, while every nerve and muscle are strained by
+the unremitting toil; the girl tending her geese; the woman her
+cows:--such are the subjects of his masterly pencil. Do not all these
+facts point to the realization of Christian democracy? If the king is
+now but the servant of the people, so the artist who is royal in the
+kingdom of the mind finds his true glory in serving humanity. What a
+change from the classic subjects or monkish legends which occupied the
+pencils of David and his greater predecessors, Le Sueur and Poussin!
+
+And yet those students of the antique have done French Art good service;
+they have furnished it with admirable tools, so that to them we are
+indebted for the thorough drawing, the masterly knowledge, which render
+Paris the great school for all beginners in Art. Such men as we have
+named do not scorn the past, but use it in the service of the present.
+While Scheffer always subordinated the material part of Art to its
+expression, he was never afraid of knowing too much, but often regretted
+the loss of valuable time in youth from incompetent instruction.
+
+Encouraged by the success of his first essay, Scheffer continued to
+paint a series of small pictures, representing simple and affecting
+scenes from common life, some of which are familiar to all. "The
+Soldier's Widow," "The Conscript's Return," "The Orphans at their
+Mother's Tomb," "The Sister of Charity," "The Fishermen before a Storm,"
+"The Burning of the Farm," and "The Scene of the Invasion in 1814," are
+titles which give an idea of the range of his subjects and the tenor of
+his thoughts at this time. The French have long excelled in the art of
+composition. It is this quality which gives the greatest value to the
+works of Le Sueur and Poussin. Scheffer possessed this power in a
+remarkable degree, but it was united to a directness and truth of
+feeling which made his art the perfection of natural expression. A very
+charming little engraving, entitled "The Lost Children," which appeared
+in "The Token" for 1830, is probably from a picture of this period. A
+little boy and girl are lost in a wood. Wearied with their fruitless
+attempts to find a path, the boy has at length sunk down upon a log and
+buried his face in his hands; while the little girl, still patient,
+still hopeful, stands, with folded hands, looking earnestly into the
+wood, with a sweet, sad look of anxiety, but not of despair. The
+contrast in the expression of the two figures is very touching and very
+true to Nature;--the boy was hopeful so long as his own exertions
+offered a chance of escape, but the courage of the girl appears when
+earthly hope is most dim and faint. The sweet unconsciousness of this
+early picture has hardly been surpassed by any subsequent work.
+"Naturalness and the charm of composition," says a French critic, "are
+the secrets of Scheffer's success in these early pictures, to which may
+be added a third,--the distinction of the type of his faces, and
+especially of his female heads,--a kind of suave and melancholy ideal,
+which gave so new a stamp to his works."
+
+These small pictures were very successful in winning popular favor; but
+this success, far from intoxicating the young artist, only opened his
+eyes to his own faults. He applied himself diligently to repairing the
+deficiencies which he recognized in his work, by severe studies and
+labors. He knew the danger of working too long on small-sized pictures,
+in which faults may be so easily hidden. About the year 1826 he turned
+resolutely from his "pretty jewels," as he called them, and commenced
+his "Femmes Suliotes," on a large canvas, with figures the size of life.
+M. Vitet describes the appearance of the canvas when Scheffer had
+already spent eight days "in the fire of his first thought." It seemed
+to him rather like a vision than a picture, as he saw the dim outlines
+of those heroic women, who cast themselves from the rock to escape
+slavery by death. He confesses that the finished picture never moved him
+as did the sketch. Three years earlier Scheffer had sent to the Saloon
+of 1824, in company with three or four small pictures, a large picture
+of Gaston de Foix after the Battle of Ravenna. It was a sombre picture,
+painted with that lavish use of pigment and that unrestrained freedom
+which distinguished the innovators of that day. The new school were in
+raptures, and claimed Scheffer as belonging to them. The public judged
+less favorably; "they admired the noble head of Gaston de Foix, but,
+uninterested in the remainder of the picture, they turned off to look at
+'The Soldier's Widow.'" Scheffer did not listen to his flatterers; but,
+remembering Michel Angelo's words to the young sculptor, "The light of
+the public square will test its value," he believed in the verdict of
+the people, and never again painted in the same manner. It was one of
+his peculiar merits, that, although open to conviction, and ready to try
+a new path which seemed to offer itself, he was also ready to turn from
+it when he found it leading him astray. "Les Femmes Suliotes" did not
+seem to have been designed by the same hand or with the same pencil as
+the "Gaston de Foix." The first sketch was particularly
+pleasing,--already clear and harmonious in color, although rather low in
+tone. Many counselled him to leave the picture, thus. "No," said
+Scheffer, "I did not take a large canvas merely to increase the size of
+my figures and to paint large in water-colors, but to give greater truth
+and thoroughness to my forms." In 1827 this picture was exhibited with
+ample success, and the critics were forced to acknowledge the great
+improvement in his style, although he had not entirely escaped from the
+influence of his companions, and some violent contrasts of color mar the
+general effect. The picture is now in the Luxembourg Gallery.
+
+M. Vitet divides Scheffer's artistic life into three portions: that in
+which he painted subjects from simple life; that devoted to poetic
+subjects; and the last, or distinctively religious period. These
+divisions cannot, of course, be very sharply drawn, but may help us to
+understand the progress of his mind; and "Les Femmes Suliotes" will mark
+the transition from the first to the second period. Turning from the
+simple scenes of domestic sorrow, he now sought inspiration in
+literature. The vigorous and hearty Northern Muse especially won his
+favor; yet the greatest Italian poet was also his earnest study. Goethe,
+Schiller, Byron, Dante, all furnished subjects for his pencil. The story
+of Faust and Margaret took such hold of his imagination that it pursued
+him for nearly thirty years. Their forms appeared before him in new
+attitudes and situations almost to his last hour, so that, in the midst
+of his labors on religious pictures, he seized his pencils to paint yet
+another Faust, another Margaret. Nor can we wonder at this absorbing
+interest, when we reflect on the profound significance and touching
+pathos of this theme, which may wear a hundred faces, and touch every
+chord of the human heart. It is intellect and passion, in contrast with
+innocence and faith; it is natural and spontaneous love, thwarted by
+convention and circumstance; it is condemnation before men, and
+forgiveness before God; it is the ideal and the worldly; it is an
+epitome of human life,--love, joy, sorrow, sin,--birth, life, death, and
+the sure hope of resurrection. How pregnant with expression was it to a
+mind like Scheffer's, where the intellectual, the affectional, and the
+spiritual natures were so nicely blended! He first painted "Margaret at
+her Wheel," in 1831,--accompanied by a "Faust tormented by Doubt." These
+were two simple heads, each by itself, like a portrait, but with all the
+fine perception of character which constitutes an ideal work. Next he
+painted "Margaret at Church." Here other figures fill up the canvas; but
+the touching expression of the young girl, whose soul is just beginning
+to be torn by the yet new joy of her love and the bitter consciousness
+of her lost innocence, fills the mind of the spectator. This is the
+most inspired and the most touching of all the pictures; it strikes the
+key-note of the whole story; it is the meeting of the young girl's own
+ideal world of pure thought with the outward world. The sense of guilt
+comes from the reflection in the thoughts of those about her; and where
+all before was peace and love, now come discord and agony;--she has
+eaten of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and is already cast out
+of her paradise. "Margaret on the Sabbath," "Margaret going out of
+Church," and "Margaret walking in the Garden," are all charming idyls,
+but have less expression. The last picture, painted just before
+Scheffer's death, and soon to be engraved, represents "Margaret at the
+Fountain." "It is full of expression, and paints the joy and pain of
+love still struggling in the young girl's heart, while conscience begins
+to make its chiding voice heard."
+
+The "Mignons" are the best known of all Scheffer's works of this period.
+The youngest one, "Mignon regrettant sa Patrie," is the most
+satisfactory in its simple, unconscious expression. The wonderful child
+stands in the most natural attitude, absorbed in her own thought, and
+struggling to recall those dim memories, floating in beauty before her
+mind, which seem almost to belong to a previous state of existence.
+There is less of the weird and fantastic than Goethe has given to
+her,--but the central, deep nature is beautifully reproduced. "Mignon
+aspirant au Ciel," although full of spiritual beauty, is a little more
+constrained; the longing after her heavenly home is less naturally
+expressed than her childish regret; the pose is a little mannered; and
+the feeling is more conscious, but less deep. "Mignon with the Old
+Harper" is far less interesting; the old man's head does not express
+that mixture of inspiration and insanity, the result of a life of love,
+misery, and wrong, which Goethe has portrayed in this strange character.
+
+A very different picture, painted at this period, is peculiarly
+interesting to us as our first acquaintance among Scheffer's works. An
+excellent copy or duplicate of it belongs to the Boston Athenæum. The
+original is in the Luxembourg at Paris. The subject is taken from
+Schiller's ballad of "Count Eberhard." After the victory in which his
+son has fallen, though the old Count has said to those who would have
+paused to mourn his death, "My son is like another man; on, comrades, to
+the foe!"--yet now he sits alone in his tent and looks upon the dead
+body of his child. The silent grief of the stern old man is very
+touching. This sorrow, so contrary to Nature, when old age stands by the
+grave of youth, always moves the deepest feeling; and Scheffer, in the
+noble old man and the brave and beautiful boy before him, has given it
+its simplest and most appropriate expression. This picture was painted
+in 1834. At that period Scheffer was engaged in some experiments in
+color, and this sad subject led him to employ the dark tints of
+Rembrandt. In 1850 he painted a duplicate of it, lighter and more
+agreeable in tone. He painted "The Giaour" and "Medora," from Byron,
+which pictures we have never seen. The wayward and morbid Muse of the
+English Lord does not seem to us a fit inspiration for the pure pencil
+of Scheffer.
+
+The well-known composition of "Francesca da Rimini" may well conclude
+our brief notice of the pictures of this second epoch. M. Vitet regards
+it as the most harmonious and complete of all his works; but we think it
+has taken less hold on the popular heart than the "Mignons" and
+"Margaret." Yet it is a work of great skill and beauty. The difficult
+theme is managed with that moderation and good taste which recognize the
+true limits of the art. The crowd of spirits which Dante so powerfully
+describes as driven by the wind without rest are only dimly seen in the
+background. The horrors of hell are shown only in the anguish of those
+faces, in the despairing languor of the attitude, which not even mutual
+love can lighten. The love which made them one in guilt, one in
+condemnation, is stronger than death, stronger than hell; but it cannot
+bring peace and joy to these souls shut out from heaven and God.
+
+    "Se fosse amico il Re dell' universo,
+    Noi pregheremmo."
+
+But even prayer is denied to him who feels that he has not God for a
+friend. There is no mark of physical torture; it is pure spiritual
+suffering,--restless, aimless weariness,--the loss of hope; it is
+death,--and love demands life. How strangely appropriate is this
+punishment of spirits driven hither and thither by the winds, with no
+hope of rest, to those who reject the firm anchorage of duty and
+principle, and allow themselves to float at the mercy of their impulses
+and passions! The overpowering compassion and sympathy of the poets is
+shown in their earnest faces. Neither here, nor in the well-known "Dante
+and Beatrice," which is too familiar to need description, does Scheffer
+quite do justice to our ideal of the sublime poet of Heaven and Hell;
+but neither do the portraits which remain of him. The picture was first
+exhibited in 1835. As it had suffered very much in 1850, Scheffer
+painted a repetition of it, with a few slight alterations, in which,
+however, his progress in his art during twenty years was very evident.
+This copy is very far superior to the engraving.
+
+About this period Scheffer seems to have wandered a little from the true
+mission of Art, and to have esteemed it her province to represent
+abstract theological truths. His religious feeling seems to have become
+morbid, and his natural melancholy intensified. The death of his wife,
+and consequent loneliness, may have given this ascetic tinge to his
+feelings. But we must acknowledge, if it were so, that the sorrow which
+oppressed did not embitter his heart, and that a brave and humane spirit
+appears even in those works which have the least artistic merit to
+recommend them. The "Christus Consolator" is the best known of this
+class of pictures. It is cold, abstract, and inharmonious; but its
+religious spirit and the beautiful truth which it expresses have won for
+it a welcome which it seems hardly to merit. Yet it has touching beauty
+in the separate figures. The woman who leans so trustingly on her
+Saviour's arm has a very high and holy face, whose type we recognize in
+more than one of his pictures; and the mother and her dead child form a
+very touching group. But the various persons are not connected by any
+common story or mutual relation, and we feel a want of unity in the
+whole work. Perhaps the strongest tribute to its power of expression is
+the story, that religious publishers found it necessary to blot out the
+figure of the slave who takes his place among the recipients of Christ's
+blessing, in order to fit their reprint for a Southern market. As a
+companion to it, he painted the "Christus Remunerator," which is less
+interesting. To this same class of pictures we should probably refer
+"The Lamentations of Earth to Heaven," which we have never seen, but
+which is thus described by M. Anatole de la Lorge:--
+
+"There are also treasures of disappointed pleasure and of bitterness in
+this picture of 'The Lamentations of Earth to Heaven,'--dim symbol of
+human suffering. How does one, in the presence of this poem, feel filled
+with the spirit of St. Augustine, the nothingness of what we call joy,
+happiness, glory, here below,--delights of a moment, which at most only
+aid us to traverse in a dream this valley of tears! Certain pages of
+'The City of God,' funeral prayers of Bossuet, can alone serve us for a
+comparison, in order to express the effect produced upon those who have
+visited this _chef d'oeuvre_ in Ary Scheffer's _atelier_. Before
+producing it, the artist must have thought long, suffered long; for each
+stroke of the pencil seems to hide a grief, each figure speaks to you in
+passing, and utters a complaint, a sigh, a prayer,--sad echoes of the
+despair of life! The religious tendency of the thinker is here fully
+shown; his poetic sympathy, his aspirations, his dreams, have found a
+free course. We must mark, also, with what freedom his lamentations
+spring from the ground, to carry even to the feet of the Creator the
+overwhelming weight of earthly woe. Ary Scheffer's picture is like the
+epitaph destined some day for the obsequies of the world; it breathes of
+death, and has the sombre harmony of the Miserere. And nevertheless,--a
+strange thing!--this dreaming painter, who seizes and afflicts us, is
+the same man who at the same time reassures and consoles us,--without
+doubt, because by dint of spiritualizing our thoughts he raises them
+above our sufferings, by showing the consoling light of eternity to
+those whom he would sever from the deceitful joys of earth."
+
+If the picture be not overcolored by the critic's eye, we must believe
+this to be the culmination of the morbidly spiritualistic tendency which
+we meet in Scheffer's works. Yet it never exists unrelieved by redeeming
+qualities. Many will remember the original picture of the "Dead Christ,"
+which was exhibited here by an Art Union about ten years ago. The
+engraving gives but a faint idea of the touching expression of the whole
+group. The deathly pallor of the corpse was in strange harmony with the
+face of the mother which bent over it, her whole being dissolved in
+grief and love. No picture of this scene recalls to us more fully the
+simple account in the Gospels. The cold, wan color of the whole scene
+seems like that gray pall which a public grief will draw across the sky,
+even when the meridian sun is shining in its glory. We have seen such
+days even in Boston. No wonder that darkness covered the land to the
+believing disciples even until the ninth hour.
+
+His "St. Monica," which appeared in 1846, met with great success. "Ruth
+and Naomi" is yet unknown to us, but it seems to be a subject specially
+adapted to his powers. Of those works which he produced within the last
+twelve years, very few are yet engraved. When thus placed before the
+public, we believe the popular estimate of Scheffer will be raised even
+higher than at present.
+
+His pictures of Christ are of very superior merit. His representation of
+the person of Jesus was not formal and conventional, but fresh in
+expression and feeling, and full of touching pathos and sentiment. He
+has neither the youthful beauty with which the Italians represent him,
+nor the worn and wasted features which the early Germans often gave him,
+but a thoughtful, earnest, tender beauty. The predominant expression is
+the love and tenderness born of suffering. Three of his finest
+representations of the life of Jesus of Nazareth are, "The Christ
+weeping over Jerusalem," the "Ecce Homo," and "The Temptation." The last
+is as original in design and composition; it is noble in expression. The
+two figures stand on the summit of a mountain, and the calm, still air
+around them gives a wonderful sense of height and solitude. You almost
+feel the frost of the high, rare atmosphere. Satan is a very powerful
+figure,--not the vulgar devil, but the determined will, the unsanctified
+power. The figure of Christ is simple and expressive,--even the flow of
+the drapery being full of significance and beauty. Another composition
+of great beauty represents a group of souls rising from earth, and
+soaring upwards to heaven. The highest ones are already rejoicing in the
+heavenly light, while those below seem scarcely awakened from the sleep
+of death. The whole picture is full of aspiration; everything seems
+mounting upwards.
+
+Scheffer also painted a few pictures which can hardly be called his own.
+Such are "The Battle of Tolbiac," and "Charlemagne dictating his
+Statutes." These were painted by the command of Louis Philippe, who was
+his constant friend and patron. The young princes were his pupils; and
+Scheffer was careful to form them to better taste than that of the
+citizen monarch who has lined Versailles with poor pictures. For the
+King he painted "The Battle of Tolbiac," and we can only regret the time
+which was thus wasted; _but for his pupils_ he designed "Francesca da
+Rimini" and the "Mignons."
+
+A few masterly portraits by Scheffer's hand indicate his power of
+reproducing individual character. Among these we may name that of his
+mother, which is said to be his finest work,--one of the Queen,--a
+picture of Lamennais,--and another of Emilia Manin, to which we shall
+again refer. He occasionally modelled a bust, and sometimes engaged in
+literary labor, contributing some valuable articles on Art to "La Revue
+Française."
+
+It would be impossible for us to analyze or even enumerate all of
+Scheffer's works. They are scattered throughout France and Holland, and
+a few have found their way to this country. Most of the engravings from
+his pictures are too well known to require description; and we feel that
+we have said enough to justify our placing Scheffer in the high rank
+which we claim for him. Engravings give us a juster idea of the French
+than of the Dutch or Italian artists; for their merit is rather in
+design and composition than in color. We agree with M. Vitet, that color
+need not be a prominent excellence in a work of high spiritual beauty,
+and that it should always be toned to a complete harmony with the
+prevailing feeling of the picture. In this aspect we look upon the cold
+color of the "Dead Christ" as hardly a defect; it is in keeping with the
+sad solemnity of the scene. But if color should not be so brilliant as
+to overpower the expression of form and sentiment, still less should it
+be so inharmonious as to distract the mind from it, as is sometimes the
+case with Scheffer. The "Dante and Beatrice" is a familiar instance. We
+can see no reason why Beatrice should be dressed in disagreeable pink,
+and Dante in brick-red. Surely, such color is neither agreeable to the
+eye nor harmonious with the expression of the scene. This defect in
+color has led many to prefer the engravings to Scheffer's original
+pictures; but no copy can quite reproduce the nice touches of thought
+and feeling given by the master's hand. Color is supposed by many to
+belong mainly to the representation of physical beauty; but has not
+Allston proved to us that the most subtile and delicate harmonies of
+color may be united with ethereal grace and spiritual beauty? Compare
+his "Beatrice" with that of Scheffer. But, in truth, the whole spiritual
+relation of color is yet but dimly understood; and there are, perhaps,
+influences in the climate and organization of the French nation which
+have rendered them inferior in this department of Art. Allowing this
+deduction--a great one, certainly,--still, if the expression of the
+highest thoughts in the most beautiful forms be the true aim of Art,
+Scheffer must rank among the very first painters of his age. Delaroche
+may surpass him in strength and vigor of conception, and in thorough
+modelling and execution; but Scheffer has taken a deeper hold of the
+feelings, and has risen into a higher spiritual region.
+
+It has been reproachfully said that Scheffer is the painter for pretty
+women, for poets, and for lovers. The reproach is also a eulogium, since
+he must thus meet the demand of the human soul in its highest and finest
+development. Others have accused him of morbid sensibility. There is
+reason for the charge. He has not the full, round, healthy, development
+which belongs to the perfect type of Art. Compare the "St. Cecilia" of
+Scheffer--this single figure, with such womanly depth of feeling, such
+lofty inspiration, yet so sad--with the joyous and almost girlish grace
+of Raphael's representation of the same subject, and we feel at once the
+height and the limitation of Scheffer's genius. There is always pathos,
+always suffering; we cannot recall a single subject, unless it be the
+group of rising spirits, in which struggle and sorrow do not form the
+key-note.
+
+    "In all your music, one pathetic minor
+        Your ears shall cross;
+    And all fair sights shall mind you of diviner,
+        With sense of loss."
+
+This is one view of human life, but it is a transitional and imperfect
+one,--neither that of the first healthy unconsciousness of childhood,
+nor of the full consciousness of a soul which has risen to that height
+of divine wisdom which feels the meaning of all suffering, of all life.
+The music of Beethoven expresses the struggle, the contest, the
+sufferings of humanity, as Art has never done before; but it always
+contains an eternal prophecy, rather than a mournful regret,--and in the
+last triumphant symphony it swells onward and upward, until at last it
+bursts forth in all the freedom and gush of song, and its theme is "The
+Hymn to Joy." How much the fatherless home of Scheffer's childhood, how
+much his own desolated life, when his beloved companion was so early
+taken from his side, may have had to do with this melancholy cast of
+thought, or how far it belonged to his delicate physical constitution,
+we are not prepared to say. It becomes less prominent in his later
+compositions, "as faith became stronger and sight clearer"; and perhaps
+in those pictures yet unknown to us we may find still brighter omens of
+the new life of rest and joy into which he has entered.
+
+If we turn from Scheffer's works to his life, our task is no less
+grateful and pleasing. The admiration and affection which his countrymen
+express for his character surpass even what they feel for his works. He
+was a noble, generous, active, benevolent friend of humanity. He gave
+freely to all who were in need, counsel, money, advice, personal care,
+and love. Young artists found him ever ready to help them. "He gave
+them," says M. Vitet, "home, _atelier_, material, sympathy,--whatever
+they needed." Another writer, M. Anatole de la Lorge, said of him, while
+yet living,--"Ary Scheffer has the rare good luck not to be exclusive.
+His heart can pity every suffering as fully as his pencil can portray
+it. A faithful and intimate friend of a now fallen dynasty, (that of
+Orléans,) proud, even distrustful towards men in power, indifferent to
+their opinion, inaccessible to their offers, Ary Scheffer, in his
+original individuality, is one of the most independent and most
+honorable political men of our country. His studio is the rendezvous of
+all opinions, provided they are honest,--of all religions, provided they
+are sincere. There each one is received, not according to the habit
+which he wears, as the ancient proverb says, but according to the mind
+(_esprit_) which he has shown. We say mind, but it is heart that we
+should say; for Ary Scheffer seems to us to estimate the latter more
+highly than the former. His whole life proves it." Always an ardent
+friend of liberty, he was also a lover of law and order, and he rendered
+good service in their preservation in the capital during the Revolution
+of 1848, for which, he received honorable distinction.
+
+The same writer quoted above gives an interesting description of his
+meeting with Ary Scheffer in the sick-room and by the death-bed of an
+Italian refugee, Emilia Manin. A young Venetian girl, full of devotion
+to her country and her proscribed father, she supported her exile with
+all a woman's courage, buoyed up by the hope of returning to her
+country, redeemed from its misery. She is described as possessing
+extraordinary powers of mind and great beauty of person. There were no
+questions, however sublime or abstract, which she did not treat with a
+surprising depth and sagacity. "Her speech, ordinarily timid and feeble,
+became emphatic and stirring; her great, dreamy eyes suddenly acquired
+unequalled energy; she spoke of the misfortunes of her country in terms
+so moving as to draw tears from our eyes." But the body which contained
+this burning soul was very frail, "and the poor Emilia, the silent
+martyr, turned her head upon her pillow, and took her first hour of
+repose. When no longer able to speak, she had traced with a trembling
+hand on a paper these last words,--'Oh, Venice! I shall never see thee
+more!' She yet retained the position in which she drew her last breath,
+when Ary Scheffer came, as Tintoret formerly came to the bedside of his
+daughter, to retrace, with a hand unsteady through emotion, the features
+of Emilia Manin. This holy image, snatched by genius from death, is one
+of the most admirable works we have ever seen. She lies there, extended
+and cold,--the poor child!--in that peace unknown to the life which she
+had lived in the body. It is, indeed, the intelligent brow from which
+the inspiration of her soul seemed to speak. It is the delicate mouth
+and the pale lips, which, never uttering a murmur, betrayed the
+celestial goodness of her heart. In truth, it would have been difficult
+to hide our emotion, in recognizing--thanks to the pure devotion of the
+painter--the touching features of this innocent victim, whom we had
+known, loved, and venerated during her life. Some hours later, we again
+found Ary Scheffer sustaining with us the tottering steps of Manin upon
+the freshly removed earth which was soon to cover the coffin of his
+child."
+
+By the same loving and faithful hand were traced the features of the
+Abbé de Lamennais, a name so dear to those who live in the hope of new
+progress and liberty for humanity. "At the moment," says M. de la Lorge,
+"when death was yet tearing this great genius from the earth, the pencil
+of the artist restored him, in some sense alive, in the midst of us all,
+his friends, his disciples, his admirers. Hereafter, thanks to the
+indefatigable devotion of Ary Scheffer, we shall be permitted to see
+again the meagre visage, the burning eyes, the sad and energetic
+features of the Breton Apostle."
+
+Into the domestic life of Scheffer it is not at present our privilege to
+enter. Some near friend--the brother, the daughter, the wife--may,
+perhaps, hereafter, lift the veil from the sacred spot, and reveal him
+to us in those relations which most deeply affect and most truly express
+a man's inmost nature. We close this notice with some slight sketch of
+his life in the _atelier_.
+
+None could enter this room without a feeling of reverence and
+sacredness. In the failing light of a November afternoon, all was
+subdued to a quiet and religious tone. Large and commodious in size, it
+was filled with objects of the deepest interest. Nothing was in
+disorder; there was no smoke, no unnecessary litter; yet everywhere
+little sketches or hints of pictures were perceptible among the casts,
+which one longed to bring forth into the light. A few portraits
+especially dear to him--best of all, that of his mother--were on the
+walls; a few casts of the finest statues--among others, that of the
+Venus de Milo--around the room. His last copy of the "Francesca da
+Rimini," and the original picture of "The Three Marys," and the yet
+unfinished "Temptation on the Mount," were all there. On the easel stood
+the picture of the "Group of Spirits ascending to Heaven." Such was the
+aspect of this celebrated _atelier_, as we saw it in 1854. But "the
+greatest thing in the room was the master of it." Ary Scheffer was then
+about sixty years of age, but was still healthy and fresh in appearance.
+His face was rather German than French, and bore the stamp of purity and
+goodness in every line; but the eyes especially had the fire of genius
+tempered by gentleness and love. It was a face which satisfied you at
+once, answering to all you could ask of the painter of "Mignon," and the
+"Christus Consolator." His manner was quiet and reserved, but courteous.
+Unconscious modesty was the peculiar charm of his appearance. One of our
+party said that he reminded him strongly of Allston. It was a reverend
+presence, which forbade common topics, and strangers thus meeting had
+few words to say. As we turned away, we knew that we should never meet
+again on earth; but we had gained a new life, and we had beheld, as it
+were, the face of an angel.
+
+Two American artists stood with us in that room: one a fair young girl,
+whose purity of soul was mirrored in her beautiful face, who had gone to
+Paris to continue her studies in an art which she loved as she did her
+life; the other, a man of mature age, whose high and reverent genius has
+always met with a loving and faithful appreciation among his countrymen,
+which does them as much honor as it did him. The young girl lay down to
+die amid her labors, and her frail body rests amid the flowers and trees
+of Montmartre; the grown man came home but to bid farewell to home,
+friends, and life; the great artist whom we met to honor has gone home
+too. A threefold halo of sanctity rests on that room to us.
+
+To those who shared the privilege of Scheffer's friendship this room was
+endeared by hours of the richest social enjoyment. His liberal
+hospitality welcomed all ranks and all classes. It is related that Louis
+Philippe once sat waiting for him in the _atelier_, and answered a knock
+at the door. The visitor was delivering his messages to him, when the
+artist returned, and was somewhat surprised to find his royal friend
+playing the part of _concierge_. "It was not rare to meet in this
+_atelier_ the great men of finance, who counted themselves among his
+most passionate admirers." Here was conversation, not without gayety,
+but without loud laughter or revelry. Scheffer was very fond of music of
+the highest order. He was a generous patron of musicians, and loved to
+listen to music while he was engaged in painting. His friends sometimes
+held an extemporaneous concert in his room, without preparation,
+programme, or audience. Think of listening to an _andante_ of Mozart's,
+played in that room! "Music doubled her power, and painting seemed
+illuminated." Beethoven was his favorite composer; his lofty genius
+harmonized with, and satisfied the longings of, Scheffer's aspiring
+nature.
+
+Ary Scheffer was a personal friend of the Orléans family. He was,
+however, an ardent lover of liberty; and his hospitalities were free to
+all shades of opinion. He did not forsake this family when their star
+went down. Hearing of the death of Hélène, the Duchess of Orléans, he
+hastened to England, to pay a last tribute of love and respect to her
+memory. The English climate had always been ungenial to him. He took a
+severe cold, which proved fatal in its results. He died soon after his
+return to Paris, on the 16th of June, 1858. Sadly as the news of his
+death struck upon our hearts, it seemed no great change for him to die.
+So pure and holy was his life, so spiritual his whole nature, so lofty
+his aspirations, that it seemed as if
+
+    "He might to Heaven from Paradise go,
+    As from one room to another."
+
+Ary Scheffer was twice married. His first wife died early. Many years
+after her death he again married,--very happily, as we have heard. He
+leaves behind him one daughter, who is also an artist. Under her loving
+care, we trust every relic of his artistic labors and every trait of his
+personal life will be faithfully preserved.
+
+Both his brothers lived to middle age. One, of whom we know little but
+that M. Vitet calls him "a distinguished man," died in 1855. The only
+surviving brother, Henri, is also a painter, of considerable reputation.
+He is a thorough and accomplished draughtsman, and a superior teacher.
+His _atelier_ is one of the few in Paris which are open to women, and
+several American ladies have enjoyed its advantages.
+
+We have spoken of Scheffer's love for his native country. By his will he
+bequeathed to his native town of Dordrecht "the portrait of Sir J.
+Reynolds, by Scheffer; a dog lying down, life-size, by the same; a copy
+of the picture of the 'Christus Remunerator,' on pasteboard, of the size
+of the original in England; a copy of the 'Christus Consolator,'--both
+by himself: also, his own statue, in plaster; his own bust, by his
+daughter; and the Virgin and Infant Jesus, by himself." The town of
+Dordrecht proposes to erect a statue in commemoration of the fame of the
+great artist.
+
+It is too early to assign to Ary Scheffer the rank which he will finally
+occupy in the new era of French Art which is coeval with his labors. He
+will always stand as the companion of Ingres and Delaroche and
+Géricault; and if his successors surpass him even in his own path, they
+will owe much to him who helped to open the way. He lived through times
+of trouble, when a man's faith in humanity might well be shaken, yet he
+remained no less a believer in and lover of mankind. Brighter days for
+France may lead her artists to a healthier and freer development; but
+they can never be more single-hearted, true, and loving than Ary
+Scheffer.
+
+
+[1] This picture is now in the Louvre. It is a composition of
+great dramatic power. Mrs. Stowe gives a graphic description of the
+effect it produced upon her, in her "Sunny Memories of Sunny Lands."
+
+
+
+
+A VISIT TO MARTHA'S VINEYARD.
+
+
+We have all, in our days of atlases and "the use of the globes," been
+made aware of the fact, that off the southern shore of Massachusetts
+lies a long and narrow island, called Martha's Vineyard, one of the many
+defences thrown out by the beleaguered New England coast against its
+untiring foe, the Atlantic.
+
+But how many are those who know more than this? How many have visited
+it, inquired into its traditions, classified its curiosities, mineral,
+saline, and human? How many have seen Gay Head and the Gay-Head Indians?
+Not many, truly; and yet the island is well worth a visit, and will
+repay the tourist better for his time and labor than any jaded, glaring,
+seaside watering-place, with its barrack of white hotel, and its crowd
+of idle people.
+
+In the first place, the delicious suggestiveness of the name,--Martha's
+Vineyard! At once we ask, Who was Martha? and how did she use her
+vineyard? Was she the thrifty wife of some old Puritan proprietor of
+untamed acres?--and did she fancy the wild grapes of this little island,
+fuller of flavor, and sweeter for the manufacture of her jellies and
+home-made wine, than those which grew elsewhere?--and did she come in
+the vintage season, with her children and her friends, to gather in the
+rich purple clusters, bearing them back as did the Israelitish spies, to
+show the fatness of the promised land?
+
+It was one of the fairest days of the Indian summer, when Caleb, Mysie,
+and the Baron (a young gentleman four years old) set gayly forth to
+explore this new and almost unknown region.
+
+The first stage of their journey was New Bedford; and at the neat and
+quiet hotel where they spent the night, Caleb ascertained that the
+steamer "Eagle's Wing" would leave its wharf, bound to the Vineyard.
+
+Pending this event, the trio wandered about the quiet wharves,
+inspecting the shipping, and saturating themselves with nautical odors
+and information. They discovered that whaleships are not the leviathans
+of the deep which Mysie had supposed them, being very rarely of a
+thousand tons, and averaging five hundred. They were informed that
+whaling has ceased to be a profitable occupation to any but the officers
+of the ships, the owners frequently making only enough to repay their
+outlay from a voyage which has brought the captain and first mate
+several thousand dollars each.
+
+Every member of a whaleship's crew, from the captain down to the
+cabin-boy, is paid, not fixed wages, but a "lay," or share of the
+profits of the voyage. Formerly, these "lays" were so graduated, that
+the chief advantage of the expedition was to the owners; but, of late
+years, matters have altered, so that now it is not uncommon for the
+captain to receive a twelfth, tenth, or even eighth of the entire
+profit, and the other officers in proportion.
+
+The attention of our travellers was now directed to numerous squares and
+plateaus of great black objects buried in seaweed; these, they were
+informed, were casks of oil, stored in this manner instead of in
+warehouses, as less liable to leakage.
+
+It was also asserted, as a fact, that the sperm whale, alarmed at the
+untiring rigor of his assailants, has almost disappeared from the
+navigable waters, retreating to the fastnesses of the Frozen Ocean,
+where he is still pursued, although at the greatest peril, by the
+dauntless New Bedford, Nantucket, and Vineyard whalemen, who, as the
+narrator proudly stated, have, time and again, come out unscathed from
+the perils under which Franklin and his crew succumbed. Many a man now
+walks the streets of these seaports who has conversed with the Esquimaux
+last in company with that ill-fated crew.
+
+Full-fed with maritime and oleaginous lore, our travellers at last
+embarked upon the "Eagle's Wing," bound down the Vineyard Sound. As the
+steamer gained its offing, the view of New Bedford was very picturesque,
+reminding one of Boston seated at the head of her beautiful bay. The
+passage through the islands, though not long, is intricate, requiring
+skilful pilotage; and as the boat passed through the channel called
+Wood's Hole, certain feeble-minded sisters were positive that all on
+board were bound to immediate destruction; and, in truth, the reefs,
+between which the channel lies, approach too closely to leave much room
+for steering. The perils of the vasty deep, however, were finally
+surmounted, and the steamer made fast to its wharf at Holmes's Hole, one
+of the two principal ports of Martha's Vineyard.
+
+Our trio disembarked, and found themselves at once the subjects of
+fierce contention to no less than three aspirants for the honor of
+conveying them and their luggage to their point of destination. One of
+these, called Dave, was a grave, saturnine Yankee, his hands in the
+pockets of his black trousers, his costume further exhibiting the
+national livery of black dress coat, black satin waistcoat and necktie,
+cow-hide boots, and stiff, shiny hat, very much upon the back of his
+head. The languid and independent offers of this individual were,
+however, quite drowned by the flood of vociferous overtures from his two
+rivals,--an original youth, about eighteen years old, and a man, or
+rather mannikin, who, judging by his face, might be in his fiftieth,
+and, by his back, in his tenth year.
+
+Mannikin first succeeded in gaining the attention of Caleb,--the efforts
+of Mysie, meanwhile, barely sufficing to restrain the Baron from
+plunging over the side of the wharf, in his anxiety to witness the
+departure of the steamboat. Mannikin, asserting earnestly that he had a
+"good conveyance" close at hand, danced around the group with vehement
+gesticulations, intended to strike despair into the souls of his two
+adversaries, who, nevertheless, retained their ground,--Dave lounging in
+the middle distance, a grim smile of derision upon his face, and Youth
+dodging in with loud offers of service, wherever Mannikin left a point
+undefended.
+
+Caleb, at last, demanding to see the "good conveyance," was led away to
+the head of the wharf, when Youth at once seized the opportunity to rush
+in, and breathlessly inquire of Mysie,--
+
+"Wher' ye goin', Ma'am? Wher' ye want to be kerried?"
+
+"We are going to Gay-Head Light-house; but my"--
+
+"Ga'ed Light? I kin kerry ye there fust-rate, and cheap too;--kerry ye
+there for two dollars!"
+
+"My husband has already spoken"--
+
+"Wat! t' ole Ransom? Wy, he a'n't got nothin' but a weelbarry." And
+Caleb, returning at the same moment with a somewhat perplexed air,
+corroborated this statement by saying,--
+
+"This man has no carriage, but will get us one in a short time."
+
+"But this boy," retorted Mysie, "says he has a carriage, and will carry
+us to Gay Head for two dollars."
+
+"You hear that, ole feller?--they're a-goin' with me!" crowed triumphant
+Youth at disconcerted Mannikin, who nevertheless rapidly proceeded to
+pile the luggage upon his barrow and trundle it away.
+
+This _coup d'état_ was checked by Caleb, but afterward allowed, upon
+discovering that Youth's carriage was still reposing in his father's
+stable, "jist up here"; and Mannikin was consoled by being allowed to
+earn a quarter of a dollar by transporting the luggage to that
+destination. The procession at once set forth, including Dave, who
+strolled in the rear, softly whistling, and apparently totally
+unconcerned, yet all the while alive with feline watchfulness.
+
+Arrived at the stable, the travellers were requested to wait there while
+Youth went to find his father and "borry a wip."
+
+At these last words, a "subtle smile, foreboding triumph," broke over
+Dave's composed features, as he muttered,--
+
+"Reckin you'll need one 'fore you reach Ga'ed Light."
+
+The coast clear, Dave became a little more communicative, expatiated
+upon the dangers and discomforts of the road, the incapacity of Youth's
+horse, and the improbability that his father would ratify the bargain,
+concluding by offering to "do the job himself in good shape for four
+dollars," which offer was held in abeyance until we should learn the
+result of Youth's interview with his father.
+
+In the mean time, a matron suddenly made her appearance in the barn,
+with a hospitable entreaty that "the woman and child" would come up to
+the house and warm themselves; and Caleb strongly advocating the Idea,
+Mysie and the Baron proceeded houseward.
+
+About half-way they encountered Paterfamilias, hastening with Youth
+toward the barn, and to him Matron at once recapitulated the affair,
+concluding with mentioning the stipulated price. At this Pater turned,
+with thunderous brow, toward Youth; but Matron interposed, with womanly
+tact,--
+
+"You can do jest as you like, you know, about lettin' him go; but Dave's
+in the barn."
+
+"Dave in my barn! Wat in thunder's he doin' there? Yes, go, boy,--go for
+nothin', if they ask you to, sooner than let that"--
+
+The rest of the sentence was lost in the distance. But Mysie, following
+her guide to the house, felt quite sure of their conveyance; and, in
+fact, barely sufficient time elapsed for the hostess to possess herself
+of the leading facts in her guests' history, before the carriage was
+announced, and our travellers hastened down the lane, and found there
+awaiting them the evident model of the Autocrat's "One-Hoss Shay," in
+its last five years of senility;--to this was attached a quadruped who
+immediately reminded Mysie of a long-forgotten conundrum.
+
+"What was the first created animal?"
+
+_Ans._ "Shay-'oss."
+
+Holding him ostentatiously by the head stood Youth, the "borried" whip
+flourished in his right hand, as he invited his passengers to seat
+themselves without reference to him.
+
+This being done and the seat pretty thoroughly filled, Youth perched
+himself upon a bag and valise, which filled the front of the vehicle,
+and the journey commenced.
+
+That ride! The first mile was not passed before the meaning of Dave's
+malicious smile, at mention of a whip, became painfully apparent; for
+never was weapon more perseveringly used, or with so little result, the
+cunning old beast falling into a jog-trot at the commencement, from
+which no amount of vociferation or whipping could move him.
+
+"I wouldn't hurry him so much," interposed Mysie, her compassion
+aroused both for beast and Youth. "I don't like to see a horse whipped
+so much."
+
+"Oh, you see, Ma'am, he's so used to it, he won't go noways without it;
+feels kind o' lonesome, I 'xpect. It don't hurt him none, nuther; his
+skin's got so thick an' tough, that he wouldn't know, if you was to put
+bilin' tar on him."
+
+"Do you feed your horse on oats, much?" inquired Caleb, gravely, after a
+long and observant silence.
+
+"No, Sir, we darsn't give him no oats, 'cause he'd be sure to run away;
+doos sometimes, as it is."
+
+"I don't think you need fear it to-day," replied Caleb, quietly, as he
+settled himself into the corner, in the vain hope of a nap; but Youth
+was now loquaciously inclined.
+
+"Reck'n Dave was disappinted," said he, with a chuckle. "He meant to
+kerry ye himself; but soon's I see him round, I says to myself, says I,
+'Ole Chick, you sha'n't come it this time, if I go for nothin'.'"
+
+"Competition is the soul of trade," drowsily murmured Caleb; but as
+Youth turned to inquire, "Whossay?" the bag upon which he was seated,
+and upon which, in the enjoyment of his triumph, he had been wriggling
+somewhat too vivaciously, suddenly gave way, and a pair of snow-white
+hose came tumbling out. They were at once caught and held admiringly up
+by Youth, with the ingenuous remark,--
+
+"How wite them looks! An' if you'll blieve it, mine was jest as clean
+yis'day mornin',--an' now you look at 'em!" To facilitate which
+inspection, the speaker conscientiously drew up his corduroys, so as
+fully to display a pair of home-knit socks, which certainly had wofully
+deteriorated from the condition ascribed to them "yis'day mornin'."
+
+"You see, I went clammin' las' night," pursued Youth; "an' that's death
+on clo's."
+
+"What's clammin'?" inquired the Baron, changing the subject with
+unconscious tact, and quite surprised at the admiring kiss bestowed upon
+him by his mother, while Youth, readjusting his corduroys, replied with
+astonishment,--
+
+"Clammin'? Wy, clammin's goin' arter clams; didn't ye never eat no
+clam-chowder?"
+
+"N-o, I don't think I ever did," replied the Baron, reflectively. "Is it
+like ice-cream?"
+
+"Well, I never eat none o' that, so I dunno," was the reply; and Youth
+and Child, each regarding the other with wondering pity, relapsed into
+silence.
+
+Having now passed from the township of Holmes's Hole into Tisbury, the
+road lay through what would have been an oak forest, except that none of
+the trees exceeded some four feet in height,--Youth affirming this to be
+their mature growth, and that no larger ones had grown since the forest
+was cleared by the original settlers. A few miles more were slowly
+passed, and Mysie began to look hopefully from every eminence for a
+sight of the light-house, when she was stunned by the information, that
+they were then entering Chilmark, and were "'bout half-way."
+
+Caleb, with an exclamation of disgust, leaped from "the shay," and
+accomplished the remaining ten miles, wrathfully, on foot,--while Mysie,
+wrapping her feminine patience about her as a mantle, resigned herself
+to endurance; but Youth, noticing, perhaps, her weary and disconsolate
+expression, applied himself sedulously to the task of entertaining her;
+and, as a light and airy way of opening the conversation, inquired,--
+
+"Was you pooty sick aboard the boat?"
+
+"Not at all."
+
+"That's curous! Women 'most alluz is,--'specially wen it's so ruffly as
+it is to-day. Was bubby sick any?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Wa-al, that's very fortnit, for I don't blieve he'll be sick wen he
+grows up an' goes walin'. It's pooty tryin', the fust two or three weeks
+out, ginerally. How young is he a-goin' to begin?"
+
+"I do not think he will ever go to sea."
+
+"Not a-goin' to sea? Wy, his father's a captain, I 'xpect; a'n't he?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Mate, then, a'n't he?"
+
+"He is not a sailor at all."
+
+"Ha'n't never ben to sea?"
+
+"Never."
+
+Oh, the look of wide-mouthed astonishment which took possession of
+Youth's hitherto vacant features, at thus encountering a strong-looking
+man, in the prime of life, who had never been to sea, and a healthy,
+sturdy boy, whose parents did not mean that he ever should! He had no
+more to say; every faculty was, for at least an hour, devoted to the
+contemplation of these _lusus naturæ_, thus presented to his vision.
+
+At last, the road, which had long been in a condition of ominous
+second-childhood, suddenly died a natural death at the foot of a steep
+hill, where a rail-fence presented itself as a barrier to farther
+progress. The bars were soon removed by Youth, who triumphantly
+announced, as Cha-os walked slowly through the opening thus presented,--
+
+"Now we're on Ga'ed, an' I'll run along and take down the next bars, if
+you kin drive. Git along, Tom,--you ha'n't got nothin' but two feathers
+ahind you now."
+
+"How far is it to the Light-house?" inquired Mysie, faintly.
+
+"Ony 'bout four mild," was the discouraging reply, as Youth "loped" on
+in advance.
+
+"Four mild!" and such miles! The only road, a faint track in the grass,
+now undiscernible in the gathering gloom, now on the slope of steep
+hills marked by deep gullies worn by the impetuous autumn rains, and
+down which the poor old "shay" jerked along in a series of bumps and
+jolts threatening to demolish at once that patriarchal vehicle and the
+bones of its occupants.
+
+At last, however, from the top of one of these declivities, the
+brilliant, flashing light of the long-watched-for Pharos greeted Mysie's
+despairing eyes, and woke new hopes of warmth, rest, and shelter. But
+never did bewildering _ignisfatuus_ retire more persistently from the
+pursuit of unwary traveller than did that Light-house from the occupants
+of that creaking "shay"; and it was not till total darkness had settled
+upon the earth that they reached its door, and discovered, by the
+lamplight streaming out, that Caleb stood in the entrance, awaiting
+their arrival.
+
+As the chaise stopped, he came forward and lifted the stiff and weary
+forms of "the woman and child" to the ground, and delivered them to the
+guidance of the hostess.
+
+The first aspect of affairs was somewhat discouraging,--the parlor into
+which they were ushered being without fire and but dimly lighted, the
+bedroom not yet prepared for toilet purposes, and the hostess, as she
+averred, entirely unprepared for company.
+
+Left alone in the dreary parlor, Caleb subsided into moody silence, and
+Mysie into tears, upon which the Baron followed suit, and produced such
+a ludicrous state of affairs, that the sobs which had evoked his changed
+to an irrepressible laugh, in which all parties soon joined. This
+pleasant frame of mind was speedily encouraged and augmented, first, by
+water and towels _ad libitum_, and then by an introduction to the
+dining-room, in whose ample grate now roared a fire, of what our
+travellers were informed was peat,--an article supplying, in the absence
+of all other indigenous fuel, nearly every chimney upon the island.
+
+A good cup of tea and a substantial supper prepared the trio to accept
+the invitation of the excellent Mr. F. (the chief keeper, and their
+host) to go up with him "into the Light."
+
+And now our travellers suddenly found that they had made a pilgrimage
+unawares. They had come to the island for sea-air and pebbles, to shoot
+ducks, see the Indians, and find out who Martha was, and had come to the
+Light-house, as the only "white" dwelling upon the Head,--the rest
+being all occupied by the descendants of the red men,--and now found
+themselves applauded by their host for having "come so far to see our
+Light;--not so far as some, either," continued he, "for we have had
+visitors from every part of the Union,--even from Florida; every one who
+understands such things is so anxious to see it."
+
+"Why, is it different from common light-houses?" carelessly inquired
+Caleb.
+
+"Don't you know? Haven't you come on purpose to see it?" asked the
+keeper, in astonishment,--and then proceeded to explain, that this is
+the famous Fresnel light, the identical structure exhibited at the great
+Exposition at Paris, bought there by an agent of the United States, and
+shipped by him to America.
+
+Owing, however, to some inexplicable blunder, its arrival was not made
+known to the proper authorities,--and the papers which should have
+accompanied it being lost or not delivered, no one at the custom-house
+knew what the huge case contained. It was deposited in a bonded
+warehouse during the legal interval, but, never having been claimed, was
+then sold, still unexamined, to the highest bidder. He soon identified
+his purchase, and proceeded to make his own profit out of it,--the
+consequence being that government at last discovered that the Fresnel
+light had been some two years in this country, and was then upon
+exhibition, if the President and cabinet would like to take a peep. The
+particulars of the bargain which ensued did not transpire, but it
+resulted in the lantern being repacked and reshipped to Gay Head, its
+original destination.
+
+While hearing this little history, the party were breathlessly climbing
+three steep iron staircases, the last of which ended at a trap-door,
+giving admittance to the clock-room, where the keeper generally sits;
+from here another ladder-like staircase leads up into the lantern.
+Arrived at the top, the Baron screamed with delight at the gorgeous
+spectacle before him.
+
+The lamp (into the four concentric wicks of which a continual and
+superabundant supply of oil is forced by a species of clock-work,
+causing a flame of dazzling brilliancy) is surrounded by a revolving
+cover, about eight feet high by four or five in diameter, and in shape
+like the hand-glasses with which gardeners cover tender plants, or the
+shades which one sees over fancy clocks and articles of _bijouterie_.
+This cover is composed of over six hundred pieces of glass, arranged in
+a complicated and scientific system of lenses and prisms, very difficult
+to comprehend, but very beautiful in the result; for every ray of light
+from that brilliant flame is shivered into a thousand glittering arrows,
+reflected, refracted, tinted with all the rainbow hues, and finally
+projected through the clear plate-glass windows of the lantern with all
+the force and brilliancy of a hundred rays. If any one cares to
+understand more clearly the why and the how, let him either go and see
+for himself or read about it in Brande's Encyclopædia. Mysie and the
+Baron were content to bask ignorantly in the glittering, ever-changing,
+ever-flowing flood of light, dreaming of Fairy Land, and careless of
+philosophy. Only so much heed did they give to the outer world as always
+to place themselves upon the landward side of the lantern, lest
+unwittingly their forms should hide one ray of the blessed light from
+those for whose good it was put there.
+
+Caleb, meanwhile, sat with his host in the clock-room, smoking many a
+meerschaum, and listening to the keeper's talk about his beautiful
+charge,--a pet as well as a duty with him, obviously.
+
+With the same fond pride with which a mother affects to complain of the
+care she lavishes upon her darling child would the old man speak of the
+time necessary to keep his six hundred lenses clear and spotless, each
+one being rubbed daily with softest doeskin saturated with _rouge_, to
+keep the windows of the lantern free from constantly accumulating saline
+incrustations,--of the care with which the lamp, when burning, must be
+watched, lest intrusive fly or miller should drown in the great
+reservoir of oil and be drawn into the air-passages. This duty, and the
+necessity of winding up the "clock" (which forces the oil up into the
+wick) every half-hour, require a constant watch to be kept through the
+night, which is divided between the chief and two assistant keepers.
+
+The morning after their arrival, our travellers, strong with the vigor
+of the young day, set forth to explore the cliffs, bidding adieu to
+original Youth, who, standing ready to depart, beside his horse, was
+carolling the following ditty in glorification of his native town:--
+
+    "Ga'ed Light is out o' sight,
+        Menemshee Crik is sandy,
+    Holmes's Hole's a pooty place,
+        An' Oldtown Pint's onhandy."
+
+(Oldtown being synonymous with Edgartown, the rival seaport.)
+
+Leaving this young patriot to his national anthem, a walk of a few
+hundred feet through deep sword-edged grass brought our explorers to the
+edge of a cliff, down which they gazed with awe-hushed breath. Below
+them, at a depth of a hundred and fifty feet, the thunderous waves beat
+upon the foot of the cliff over whose brink they peered, and which,
+stern and impassive as it had stood for ages, frowned back with the mute
+strength of endurance upon the furious, eager waves, which now and again
+dashed themselves fiercely against its front, only to be flung back
+shattered into a thousand glittering fragments.
+
+The cliffs themselves are very curious and beautiful, being composed of
+red and black ochre, the largest cliff showing the one color on its
+northern and the other on its southern face. The forms are
+various,--some showing a sheer descent, with no vestige of earth or
+vegetation, their faces seamed with scars won in the elemental war which
+they have so long withstood. In other spots the cliff has been rent into
+sharp pinnacles, varied and beautiful in hue.
+
+One spot, in particular, which became Mysie's favorite resort, was at
+once singular and beautiful in its conformation. About three feet above
+the water's edge lay a level plateau, its floor of loose, sandy, black
+conglomerate, abounding in sparkling bits of quartz and sulphate of
+iron; beneath this lay a bed of beautifully marbled and variegated clay,
+its edge showing all along the black border of the plateau like the
+brilliant wreath with which a brunette binds her dusky hair. Blocks of
+this clay, fallen upon the beach, and wet with every flowing wave, lay
+glistening in the sunlight and looking like--
+
+"Castile soap, mamma," suggested the Baron, as Mysie was describing the
+scene in his presence, and hesitated for a simile.
+
+At the back of the terrace, which, in its widest part, measured some
+fifty feet, rose suddenly and sharply the pinnacled cliffs, some snowy
+white, some black, some deep red, and others a cold gray. At either hand
+they extended quite down to the water's edge, so that, seated upon the
+plateau, nothing met the eye but ocean, sky, and cliffs; no work of man
+struck a discordant note in the grand harmony of these three simple,
+mighty elements of creation.
+
+Mysie sometimes took a book here with her, but it was not a place to
+read in; the scene crushed and dwarfed human thoughts and words to
+nothingness; and to repeat to the ocean himself what had been said of
+him by the loftiest even of poets seemed tame and impertinent.
+
+These cliffs extend about a mile along the shore, and then suddenly give
+place to a broad sandy beach, behind which lies a level, desolate moor,
+treeless, shrubless, and barren of all vegetation, save coarse grass and
+weeds, and a profusion of stunted dog-roses, which, in their season,
+must throw a rare and singular charm over their sterile home.
+
+The beach, though smooth and even, is not flat, like those of Nantasket,
+Nahant, and Newport, but shelves rapidly down; and there is a belief
+among the islanders, that a short distance out it terminates suddenly at
+the brow of a submarine precipice, beyond which are no soundings.
+
+Owing to the sharp declivity of the beach, the rollers break with great
+force, and the surf is very high. At one point is grouped a cluster of
+rocks, half in the water, half on the beach, among which, as the tide
+comes in, the waves break with furious force, dashing high over the
+outermost barrier, and then plunging and leaping forward, like a troop
+of wild horses, their white manes flung high in air, as they leap
+forward over one and another of the obstacles in their path.
+
+Perched upon the crest of one of these half-submerged rocks, watching
+the mad waves fling themselves exhausted at her feet, it was Mysie's
+delight to sit, enjoying the half danger of her position, and retreating
+only when the waters had many times closed behind her throne, leaving,
+in their momentary absence, but a wet and slippery path back to the
+beach.
+
+Along this beach, too, lay the road to Squipnocket, a pond famed for its
+immense flocks of wild geese and ducks,--fame shared by Menemshee Creek
+and Pond, as well as several others of similar aboriginal titles.
+
+To these repaired, almost daily, Caleb, accompanied by one or another of
+his host's five sons; and the result of their efforts with the gun was
+no inconsiderable addition to the table at Ga'ed Light.
+
+But greatest of all the wonders at the Head are the Fossil Cliffs.
+
+A short time after the arrival of our travellers, their hostess inquired
+if they had yet found any fossils. Mysie frankly confessed that they did
+not know there were any to find, which was evidently as great a surprise
+to Mrs. F. as their ignorance of the Fresnel light had been to her
+husband. She at once offered the services of her daughter Clarissa as
+guide and assistant, and gave glowing accounts of the treasures to be
+found. The offer was gladly accepted; and Clarissa, a merry little romp,
+about twelve years old, soon made her appearance, armed with a pickaxe,
+hoe, and basket.
+
+Thus laden, and in the teeth of a shrewd northeast wind, the little
+barefooted pioneer led the way directly over the brow of a cliff, which,
+had Mysie been alone, she would have pronounced entirely impracticable.
+Now, however, fired with a lofty emulation, she silently followed her
+guide, grasping, however, at every shrub and protection with somewhat
+convulsive energy.
+
+"Here's a good place," announced Clarissa, pausing where a shelf of
+gravelly rock afforded tolerable foothold. "Professor Hitchcock told
+father that in here were strata of the tertiary formation, and there's
+where we get the fossils."
+
+"But how do you come at the tertiary formation through all this sand and
+gravel?" asked Mysie, aghast at the prospect.
+
+"Oh, dig; that's why I brought the pick and hoe; we must dig a hole
+about a foot deep, and then we shall come to the stuff that has the
+fossils in it. You may have the hoe, and I'll take the pick, 'cause
+that's the hardest."
+
+"Then let me have it; I am stronger than you," exclaimed Mysie, suddenly
+roused to enthusiasm at the idea of "picking" her way into the tertiary
+formation of the earth, and exhuming its fossilized remains.
+
+Seizing the pickaxe, she aimed a mighty blow at the clay and gravel
+conglomerate before her; but the instrument, falling wide of its
+intended mark, struck upon a rock, and sent such a jarring thrill up
+both her arms and such a tingle to her fingers' ends as suddenly
+quenched her antiquarian zeal, and reminded her of a frightful account
+she once read of a convent of nuns captured by some brutal potentate,
+who forced them to mend his highways by breaking stones upon them with
+very heavy hammers; and the historian mentioned, as a common
+occurrence, that, when any sister dislocated her shoulder, one of her
+comrades would set it, and the sufferer would then resume her labors.
+
+Mysie, having this warning before her eyes, and being doubtful of
+Clarissa's surgical abilities, concluded to postpone her researches, and
+proposed to her companion to fill the basket with shells and pebbles
+from the beach, to which cowardly proposition Clarissa yielded but a
+reluctant consent.
+
+The next day, however, Mr. F. and Caleb, learning the result of the
+fossil-search, offered to apply their more efficient skill and strength
+to a new attempt in the same direction; and, with high hopes for the
+result, Mysie, still accompanied by Clarissa, proceeded to another
+portion of the cliffs, where a low, wedge-shaped promontory, shadowed by
+beetling crags, was, as Mr. F. confidently stated, "sure for teeth."
+
+The pickaxe, in the sinewy arms of its owner, soon dislodged great cakes
+of the upper deposit and laid bare a stratum of olive-green clay, which
+was announced to be a fossil-bed. Lumps of this clay being broken off
+and crumbled up, proved indeed rich in deposit. They found sharks'
+teeth, the edges still sharply serrated, firmly set in pieces of the
+jawbone,--whales' teeth,--vertebrae of various species,--fragments of
+bone, great and small,--several species of shell-fish, among which
+chiefly abounded a kind called quahaug,--and many nondescript fragments,
+not easily classified. One of these was a little bone closely resembling
+the tibia of a child's leg, and may have belonged to some antediluvian
+infant lost at sea, (if Noah's ancestors were mariners,) or perhaps
+drowned in the Deluge,--for Mr. F. quoted an eminent geologist who has
+visited the Vineyard, and who supposed these remains to have been
+brought here by that mighty Flood-tide. Another _savant_, however,
+supposes the island to have been thrown up from the sea by volcanic
+action; and that the fossils, now imbedded in cliffs a hundred feet
+high, were once deposited upon the bed of the ocean. There is certainly
+a great amount of conglomerate, which has evidently been fused by
+intense heat; and masses of rock, sea-pebbles, sand, and iron-ore are
+now as firmly integrated as a piece of granite.
+
+However, the fossils came; here they certainly are; many of them perfect
+in form, and light and porous to the eye, but all hard and heavy as
+stone to the touch. Teeth, which are considered the most valuable of all
+the remains, are sometimes found as wide as a man's hand, and weighing
+several pounds; but Mysie was quite content with the more insignificant
+weight of those which filled her basket, especially when an immense
+reticulated paving-stone was added, which Mr. F. pronounced to be a
+whale's vertebra. She then was induced to trust the precious collection
+to Caleb's care, the more willingly that the ascent of the cliffs was
+now to be attempted. This was easily and quickly accomplished by Mr. F.
+and his little son, by going to the right spot before beginning to
+climb; but Mysie declaring that the ascent was quite practicable where
+they were, Caleb and Clarissa felt bound in honor to accompany her. For
+some distance, all went very well,--the face of the cliff presuming
+slight inequalities of surface, which answered for foot-and hand-holds,
+and not being very steep; but suddenly Mysie, the leader of the group,
+arriving within about three feet of the top, found the rock above her so
+smooth as to give no possible foothold by which she might reach the
+strong, coarse grass which nodded tauntingly to her over the brink.
+
+Clinging closely to the face of the cliff, she turned her head to
+announce to Caleb that she could not go on, and, in turning, looked
+down. Before this she had felt no fear, only perplexity; but the sight
+of those cruel rocks below,--the hollow booming of the waves, as they
+lashed the foot of the cliff,--the consciousness that a fall of a
+hundred feet awaited her, should she let go her hold,--all this struck
+terror to Mysie's heart; and while a heavy, confused noise came
+throbbing and ringing through her head, she shut her eyes, and fancied
+she had seen her last of earth.
+
+In an instant Caleb was beside her,--his arm about her, holding her
+safely where she was; but to continue was impossible for either.
+
+"Ho! Mr. F.!" shouted Caleb; "come this way, will you, and give my wife
+your hand? She is a little frightened, and can't go on."
+
+Presently a stout arm and hand appeared from among that nodding, mocking
+grass, and a cheery voice exclaimed,--
+
+"Here, my dear lady, take right hold, strong;--you can't pull me
+over,--not if you try to."
+
+Unclasping, with some difficulty, her fingers from the rock, into which
+they seemed to have grown, Mysie grasped the proffered hand, and the
+next moment was safe upon the turf.
+
+"Oh, my good gracious!" muttered the kind old man; but whether the
+exclamation was caused by Mysie's face, pale, no doubt, by the effort
+necessary to raise her half-fainting figure, or by the idea of the peril
+in which she had been, did not appear.
+
+Clarissa, calm and equable, was next passed up by Caleb, who, declining
+the proffered hand, drew himself up, by a firm grasp upon the rocky
+scarp of the cliff.
+
+"Guess you was scart some then, wa'n't you?" inquired Clarissa, as the
+party walked homeward.
+
+"Oh, no!" replied Mysie, quickly. "But I could not get over the top of
+the cliff alone,--it was so steep."
+
+"Oh, that was the matter?" drawled the child, with a sidelong glance of
+her sharp black eyes.
+
+The northeast wind which went fossilizing with Mysie and Clara on their
+first excursion was the precursor of a furious storm of rain and wind,
+ranking, according to the dictum of experienced weatherseers, as little
+inferior to that famous one in which fell the Minot's Ledge Light-house.
+
+As the gale reached its height, it was a sight at once terrible and
+beautiful, to watch, standing in the lantern, the goaded sea, whose
+foam-capped waves could plainly be seen at the horizon line, breaking
+here and there upon sunken rocks, over which in their playful moods they
+scarcely rippled, but on which they now dashed with such white fury as
+to make them discernible, even through the darkness of night. One long,
+low ridge of submarine rocks, around which seethed a perpetual caldron,
+was called the Devil's Bridge; but when erected, or for what purpose,
+tradition failed to state.
+
+Never, surely, did the wind rave about a peaceful inland dwelling as it
+did about that lonely light-house for two long nights. It roared, it
+howled, it shrieked, it whistled; it drew back to gather strength, and
+then rushed to the attack with such mad fury, that the strong, young
+light-house, whose frame was all of iron and stone, shrunk trembling
+before it, and the children in their beds screamed aloud for fear. But
+through all and beyond all, the calm, strong light sent out its
+piercing, warning rays into the black night; and who can tell what
+sinner it may that night have prevented from crossing the Devil's Bridge
+to the world which lies beyond?
+
+There was but one wreck during the storm, so far as our travellers
+heard; and in this the lives were saved. Two men, caught out in a
+fishing-smack, finding that their little vessel was foundering, betook
+themselves to their small boat; but this filled more rapidly than they
+could bale it; and they had just given themselves up for lost, when
+their signals of distress were observed on board the light-ship
+stationed near Newport, which sent a life-boat to their assistance, and
+rescued them just as their little boat went to pieces.
+
+When Mysie heard this occurrence mentioned, as they were journeying
+homeward, it recalled to her mind a little incident of the day
+succeeding the storm.
+
+Walking with Clara upon the beach, they saw borne toward them, on the
+crest of a mighty wave, a square beam of wood, bent at an obtuse angle,
+which Clara at once pronounced to be the knee from some large boat, and,
+rushing dauntlessly into the water, the energetic little maid battled
+with the wave for its unwieldy toy, and finally dragged it triumphantly
+out upon the beach, and beyond the reach of the wave, only wishing that
+she had "a piece of chalk to make father's mark upon it." Failing the
+chalk, she rushed off home for "father and one of the boys," who soon
+bestowed the prize in a place of safety.
+
+Mysie at first wondered considerably that persons should take so much
+trouble for a piece of wood, but ceased to do so when she remembered
+that on the whole island could not probably be found a tree of a foot in
+diameter, and that everything like board or joist at the light-house
+must be brought by sea to Holmes's Hole, Edgartown, or Menemshee, and
+thence carted over _that_ road to Gay Head, becoming, by the time it
+reached "the Light," not a common necessary, but an expensive luxury.
+She was not, therefore, surprised at being accompanied in her next walk
+along the beach by quite a little party of wreckers, who, joyfully
+seizing every chip which the waves tossed within their reach,
+accumulated at last a very respectable pile of drift-wood.
+
+"It would be a good thing for you, if the schooner "Mary Ann" should go
+to pieces off here," remarked Mysie to Clara, who had become her
+constant attendant.
+
+"Why?" inquired she, expectantly.
+
+"On account of her cargo. When hailed by another ship, and asked his
+name, the captain replied,--
+
+    'I'm Jonathan Homer, master and owner
+        Of the schooner Mary Ann;
+    She comes from Pank-a-tank, laden with oak plank,
+        And bound to Surinam.'"
+
+"Did he _really_ say so?" asked Clara, sharply.
+
+"I don't know," said Mysie, laughing; "but that's what I heard about it
+when I was a little girl."
+
+While the storm continued too violent for out-of-door exercise, Mysie
+cultivated an acquaintance with a remarkably pleasant and intelligent
+lady who fortunately was making a visit at the light-house. She had been
+for many years a resident of the Vineyard, and had taken great interest
+in its history, both past and present. From her Mysie derived much
+curious and interesting information.
+
+It seems that the island was first discovered by a certain Thomas
+Mayhew, who, voyaging with others to settle in the Plymouth Colony
+during its early days, was driven by stress of weather into a safe and
+commodious bay, now Edgartown harbor, but then seen and used for the
+first time by white men. The storm over, his companions prepared to
+resume their voyage; but Mayhew, seeing the land fair and pleasant to
+look upon, decided to remain there, and landed with whoever in the ship
+belonged to him.
+
+He, of course, found the land in the hands of its original possessors, a
+small and peaceful tribe of Indians, living quietly upon their own
+island, and having very little communication with their neighbors. With
+them Thomas Mayhew bargained for what land he wanted, selecting it in
+what is now the town of Chilmark, and paying for it, to the satisfaction
+of all parties, with an old soldier's coat which happened to be among
+his possessions.
+
+In process of time, one of his sons, named Experience, having been
+educated for the purpose in England, returned to his father's home as a
+missionary to the kind and hospitable savages among whom he dwelt. So
+prosperous were the labors of himself, and afterward of his son
+Zachariah, that in a journal, kept by the latter, it is mentioned that
+there were then upon the island twelve thousand "praying Indians."
+
+Experience Mayhew is still spoken of as "the great Indian missionary,"
+and the house in which he lived was still standing a few years since
+upon the farm of Mr. Hancock in Chilmark.
+
+The island is to this day full of Mayhews of every degree,--so far, at
+least, as distinctions of rank have obtained among this isolated and
+primitive people.
+
+When Massachusetts erected herself into a State, and included the
+Vineyard within her bounds, it was divided into the townships of
+Edgartown, (or Oldtown,) Holmes's Hole, Tisbury, and Chilmark, and the
+district of Gay Head, which last, with the island of Chip-a-quid-dick,
+off Edgartown, and a small tract of land in Tisbury, named
+Christian-town, were made over in perpetuity to the Indians who chose to
+remain. They have not the power of alienating any portion of this
+territory, nor may any white man build or dwell there. If, however, one
+of the tribe marry out of the community, the alien husband or wife may
+come to live with the native spouse so long as the marriage continues;
+and the Indians have taken advantage of this permission to intermarry
+with the negroes, until there is not one pure-blooded descendant of the
+original stock remaining, and its physiognomy and complexion are in most
+cases undistinguishable in the combination of the two races.
+
+Gay Head contains eleven hundred acres, seven of which are the
+birthright of every Indian child; but it is not generally divided by
+fences, the cattle of the whole tribe grazing together in amicable
+companionship. Much of the value of the property lies in the
+cranberry-meadows, which are large and productive, and in the beds of
+rich peat. A great deal of the soil, however, is valuable for
+cultivation, although but little used, as the majority of the men follow
+the example of their white co-islanders, and plough the sea instead of
+the land. They make excellent seamen, and sometimes rise to the rank of
+officers, although few white sailors are sufficiently liberal in their
+views to approve of being commanded by "a nigger," as they persist in
+calling these half-breeds.
+
+The wigwams, which, no doubt, were at first erected here, have given
+place to neat and substantial frame buildings, as comfortable,
+apparently, as those in many New England villages. There is also a
+nice-looking Baptist church, of which denomination almost every adult is
+a member. Near this is a parsonage, occupied until lately by a white
+clergyman; but the spirit of Experience Mayhew is not common in these
+days; and his successor, finding the parish lonely and uncongenial,
+removed to a pleasanter one,--his pulpit being now filled by a preacher
+from among the Indians themselves.
+
+Mysie took occasion to call at one of these _quasi_ wigwams, soon after
+her arrival, but could discern only one aboriginal vestige in either
+inhabitants or customs. This existed in the shape of a dish of
+succotash, (corn and beans boiled together,) which the good woman was
+preparing for breakfast,--very possibly in ignorance that her ancestors
+had cooked and eaten and named the compound ages before the white
+intruders ever saw their shore.
+
+Mysie pursued her morning walk in a somewhat melancholy mood. It is a
+sad and dreary sight to behold a nation in decay; saddest when the fall
+is from so slight an elevation as that on which the savage stood. Greece
+and Rome, falling into old age, proudly boast, "Men cannot say I did not
+_have_ the crown"; each shows undying, unsurpassable achievements of her
+day of power and strength,--each, if she live no longer in the sight of
+the world, is sure of dwelling forever in its memory. But the
+aboriginal, when his simple routine of life is broken up by the
+intrusion of a people more powerful, more wicked, and more wise than
+himself, is incapable of exchanging his own purely physical ambitions
+and pursuits for the intellectual and cultivated life belonging to the
+better class of his conquerors, while his wild and sensuous nature
+grasps eagerly at the new forms of vice which follow in their train.
+Civilization to the savage destroys his own existence, and gives him no
+better one,--destroys it irremediably and forever. The life sufficient
+for himself and for the day is not that which stretches its hand into
+the future and sets its mark on ages not yet born; it dies and is
+forgotten,--forgotten even by the descendants of those who lived it.
+
+Some of the Indian names still survive; and Mysie's indignation was
+roused, when a descendant of the Mayhews, pointing out the hamlets of
+Menemshee and Nashaquitsa, (commonly called Quitsy,) added,
+contemptuously,--
+
+"But them's only nicknames given by the colored folks; it's all Chilmark
+by rights."
+
+"I suppose they are the names used by the ancestors of these Indians,
+before a white man ever saw the island,--are they not?" inquired she,
+somewhat dryly.
+
+"Like enough, like enough," replied the other, carelessly, and not in
+the least appreciating the rebuke.
+
+From the lady before referred to Mysie received an answer to her
+oft-repeated question,--
+
+"Is there any tradition how the island received its name?"
+
+"Oh, yes," was the unexpected and welcome answer. "All the islands near
+here were granted by the King of England to a gentleman whose name is
+forgotten; but he had four daughters, among whom he divided his new
+possessions.
+
+"This one, remarkable then, as now, in a degree, for its abundance of
+wild grapes, he gave to Martha as her Vineyard.
+
+"The group to the north, consisting of Pennikeese, Cuttyhunk, Nashawena,
+Naushon, Pasqui, and Punkatasset, are called the Elizabeth Islands, from
+the daughter who inherited them.
+
+"That little island to the southwest of us was Naomi's portion. It is
+now called Noman's Land, and is remarkable only for the fine quality of
+the codfish caught and cured there.
+
+"The strangest of all, however, was the name given to the island
+selected by Ann, which was first called Nan-took-it, and is now known as
+Nantucket."
+
+"Thank Heaven, that I at last know something about Martha!" ejaculated
+Mysie.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At length, every corner filled with _specimens_, every face deeply
+imbrowned by sun and wind, and the Baron with only the ghost of a pair
+of shoes to his feet, our travellers set their faces homeward,--Caleb
+resolving to renew his acquaintance with the birds at some future
+period, his imagination having been quite inflamed by the accounts of
+plover and grouse to be found here in their season. The latter, however,
+are very strictly protected by law during most of the season, on account
+of the rapidity with which they were disappearing. They are identical
+with the prairie-fowl, so common at the West, and are said to be
+delicious eating.
+
+Desirous to improve their minds and manners by as much travel as
+possible, the trio resolved to leave the island by the way of Edgartown,
+the terminus of the steamboat route. Bidding adieu to their kind and
+obliging host and hostess, the twelve children, and the pleasant new
+friend, they set out, upon the most charming of all autumn days, for
+Edgartown, fully prepared to be dazzled by its beauty and confounded by
+its magnificence.
+
+"Edgartown is a much finer place than Holmes's Hole, I understand,"
+remarked Caleb to their driver.
+
+"Well, I dunno; it's some bigger," was the reply.
+
+"But it is a better sort of place, I am told; people from Edgartown
+don't seem to think much of Holmes's Hole."
+
+"No, nor the Holmes's Hole folks don't think much of Oldtown; it's
+pretty much according to who you talk to, which place is called the
+handsomest, I reckon."
+
+"Athens or Rome, London or Paris, Oldtown or Holmes's Hole, Mysie,"
+murmured Caleb, as their driver stopped to reply to the driver of "a
+team," who was anxious to know when he was "a-goin' to butcher agin."
+
+Edgartown proved to be a pretty little seaside town, with some handsome
+wooden houses, a little bank, and a very nice tavern, at which the
+travellers received very satisfactory entertainment. The next day,
+reembarking upon the "Eagle's Wing," they soon reached New Bedford.
+
+
+
+
+OCTOBER TO MAY.
+
+
+    The day that brightens half the earth
+        Is night to half. Ah, sweet!
+    One's mourning is another's mirth;--
+You wear your bright years like a crown,--
+While mine, dead garlands, tangle down
+        In chains about my feet.
+
+    The breeze which wakes the folded flower
+        Sweeps dead leaves from the tree;--
+    So partial Time, as hour by hour
+He tells the rapid years,--cheu!
+Brings bloom and beauty still to you,
+        But leaves his blight with me.
+
+    The rain which calls the violet up
+        Out of the moistened mould
+    Shatters the wind-flower's fragile cup;--
+For even Nature has her pets,
+And, favoring the new, forgets
+        To love and spare the old.
+
+    The shower which makes the bud a rose
+        Beats off the lilac-bloom.
+    I am a lilac,--so life goes,--
+A lilac that has outlived May;--
+You are a blush-rose. Welladay!
+        I pass, and give you room!
+
+
+
+
+THE ELEUSINIA.
+
+
+What did the Eleusinia mean? Perhaps, reader, you think the question of
+little interest. "The Eleusinia! Why, Lobeck made that little matter
+clear long ago; and there was Porphyry, who told us that the whole thing
+was only an illustration of the Platonic philosophy. St. Croix, too,--he
+made the affair as clear as day!"
+
+But the question is not so easily settled, my friend; and I insist upon
+it that you _have_ an interest in it. Were I to ask you the meaning of
+Freemasonry, you would think _that_ of importance; you could not utter
+the name without wonder; and it may be that there is even more wonder in
+it than you suspect,--though you be an arch-mason yourself. But in sight
+of Eleusis, freemasonry sinks into insignificance. For, of all races,
+the Grecian was the most mysterious; and, of all Grecian mysteries, the
+Eleusinia were _the_ mysteries _par excellence_. They must certainly
+have meant something to Greece,--something more than can ever be
+adequately known to us. A farce is soon over; but the Eleusinia reached
+from the mythic Eumolpus to Theodosius the Great,--nearly two thousand
+years. Think you that all Athens, every fifth year, for more than sixty
+generations, went to Eleusis to witness and take part in a sham?
+
+But, reader, let _us_ go to Eleusis, and see, for ourselves, this great
+festival. Suppose it to be the 15th of September, B.C. 411, Anno Mundi
+3593 (though we would not make oath to that). It is a fine morning at
+Athens, and every one is astir, for it is the day of assembling together
+at Eleusis. Then, for company, we shall have Plato, now eighteen years
+old, Sophocles, an old man of eighty-four, Euripides, at sixty-nine, and
+Aristophanes, at forty-five. Socrates, who has his peculiar notions
+about things, is not one of the initiated, but will go with us, if we
+ask him. These are the _élite_ of Athens. Then there are the Sophists
+and their young disciples, and the vast crowd of the Athenian people.
+Some of the oldest among them may have seen and heard the "Prometheus
+Vinctus"; certainly very many of them have seen "Antigone," and
+"Oedipus," and "Electra"; and all of them have heard the Rhapsodists.
+Great wonders have they seen and heard, which, in their appeal to the
+heart, transcend all the wonders of this nineteenth century. Not more
+fatal to the poor Indian was modern civilization, bringing swift ruin to
+his wigwam and transforming his hunting-grounds into the sites of
+populous cities, than modern improvements would have been to the Greek.
+Modern strategy! What a subject for Homer would the siege of Troy have
+been, had it consisted of a series of pitched battles with rifles!
+Railways, steamboats, and telegraphs, annihilating space and time, would
+also have annihilated the Argonautic expedition and the wanderings of
+Ulysses. There would have been little fear, in a modern steamship, of
+the Sirens' song; one whistle would have broken the charm. A modern
+steamship might have borne Ulysses to Hades,--but it would never have
+brought him back, as his own ship did. And now do you think a ride to
+Eleusis by railway to-day would strike this Athenian populace, to say
+nothing of the philosophers and poets we have along with us?
+
+But they are thinking of Eleusis, and not of the way to Eleusis; so that
+we may as well keep our suggestion to ourselves,--also those pious
+admonitions which we were just about to administer to our companions on
+heathenish superstitions. A strange fascination these Athenians have;
+and before we are aware, _our_ thoughts, too, are centred in Eleusis,
+whither are tending, not Athens only, but vast multitudes from all
+Greece. Their movement is tumultuous; but it is a tumult of natural
+enthusiasm, and not of Bacchic frenzy. If Athens be, as Milton calls
+her, "the eye of Greece," surely Eleusis must be its heart!
+
+There are nine days of the festival. This first is the day of the
+_agurmos_, ([Greek: agyrmos],) or assembling together the flux of
+Grecian life into the secret chambers of its Eleusinian heart. To-morrow
+is the day of purification; then, "To the sea, all ye that are
+initiated!" ([Greek: Alade, mystai!]) lest any come with the stain of
+impurity to the mysteries of God. The third day is the day of
+sacrifices, that the heart also may be made pure, when are offered
+barley from the fields of Eleusis and a mullet. All other sacrifices may
+be tasted; but _this_ is for Demeter alone, and not to be touched by
+mortal lips. On the fourth day, we join the procession bearing the
+sacred basket of the goddess, filled with curious symbols, grains of
+salt, carded wool, sesame, pomegranates, and poppies,--symbols of the
+gifts of our Great Mother and of her mighty sorrow. On the night of the
+fifth, we are lost in the hurrying tumult of the torch-light
+processions. Then there is the sixth day, the great day of all, when
+from Athens the statue of Iacchus (Bacchus) is borne, crowned with
+myrtle, tumultuously through the sacred gate, along the sacred way,
+halting by the sacred fig-tree, (all sacred, mark you, from Eleusinian
+associations,) where the procession rests, and then moves on to the
+bridge over the Cephissus, where again it rests, and where the
+expression of the wildest grief gives place to the trifling farce,--even
+as Demeter, in the midst of her grief, smiled at the levity of Iambe in
+the palace of Celeus. Through the "mystical entrance" we enter Eleusis.
+On the seventh day, games are celebrated; and to the victor is given a
+measure of barley,--as it were a gift direct from the hand of the
+goddess. The eighth is sacred to Aesculapius, the Divine Physician, who
+heals all diseases; and in the evening is performed the initiatory
+ritual.
+
+Let us enter the mystic temple and be initiated,--though it must be
+supposed that a year ago we were initiated into the Lesser Mysteries at
+Agræ. ("_Certamen enim,--et præludium certaminis; et mysteria sunt quæ
+præcedunt mysteria_.") We must have been _mystæ_ (veiled) before we can
+become _epoptæ_ (seers); in plain English, we must have shut our eyes to
+all else before we can behold the mysteries. Crowned with myrtle, we
+enter with the other _mystæ_ into the vestibule of the temple,--blind as
+yet, but the Hierophant within will soon open our eyes.
+
+But first,--for here we must do nothing rashly,--first we must wash in
+this holy water; for it is with pure hands and a pure heart that we are
+bidden to enter the most sacred inclosure. Then, led into the presence
+of the Hierophant, he reads to us, from a book of stone, things which we
+must not divulge on pain of death. Let it suffice that they fit the
+place and the occasion; and though you might laugh at them, if they were
+spoken outside, still you seem very far from that mood now, as you hear
+the words of the old man (for old he always was) and look upon the
+revealed symbols. And very far indeed are you from ridicule, when
+Demeter seals, by her own peculiar utterances and signals, by vivid
+coruscations of light, and cloud piled upon cloud, all that we have seen
+and heard from her sacred priest; and when, finally, the light of a
+serene wonder fills the temple, and we see the pure fields of Elysium
+and hear the choirs of the Blessed;--then, not merely by external
+seeming or philosophic interpretation, but in real fact, does the
+Hierophant become the Creator and Revealer of all things; the Sun is but
+his torch-bearer, the Moon his attendant at the altar, and Hermes his
+mystic herald. But the final word has been uttered: "_Conx Ompax_." The
+rite is consummated, and we are _epoptæ_ forever!
+
+One day more, and the Eleusinia themselves are completed. As in the
+beginning by lustration and sacrifices we conciliated the favor of the
+gods, so now by libation we finally commend ourselves to their care.
+Thus did the Greeks begin all things with lustration and end with
+libation, each day, each feast,--all their solemn treaties, their
+ceremonies, and sacred festivals. But, like all else Eleusinian, this
+libation must be _sui generis_, emptied from two bowls,--the one toward
+the East, the other toward the West. Thus is finished this Epos, or, as
+Clemens Alexandrinus calls it, the "mystical drama" of the Eleusinia.
+
+Now, reader, you have seen the Mysteries. And what do they mean? Let us
+take care lest we deceive ourselves, as many before us have done, by
+merely _looking_ at the Eleusinia.
+
+Oh, this everlasting staring! This it is that leads us astray. That old
+stargazer, with whom Aesop has made us acquainted, deserved, indeed, to
+fall into the well, no less for his profanity than his stupidity. Yet
+this same star-gazing it is that we miscall reflection. Thus, in our
+blank wonder at Nature, in our naked analysis of her life, expressed
+through long lists of genera and species and mathematical calculations,
+as if we were calling off the roll of creation, or as if her depth of
+meaning rested in her vast orbs and incalculable velocities,--in all
+this we fail of her real mystery.
+
+To mere external seeming, the Eleusinia point to Demeter for their
+interpretation. To _her_ are they consecrated,--of her grief are they
+commemorative; out of reverence to her do the _mystæ_ purify themselves
+by lustration and by the sacrifice that may not be tasted; she it is who
+is symbolized, in the procession of the basket, as our Great Mother,
+through the salt, wool, and sesame, which point to her bountiful
+gifts,--while by the poppies and pomegranates it is hinted that she
+nourishes in her heart some profound sorrow: by the former, that she
+seeks to bury this sorrow in eternal oblivion,--by the latter, that it
+must be eternally reiterated. The procession of the torches defines the
+sorrow; and by this wild, despairing search in the darkness do we know
+that her daughter Proserpine, plucking flowers in the fields of light,
+has been snatched by ruthless Pluto to the realm of the Invisible. Then
+by the procession of Iacchus we learn that divine aid has come to the
+despairing Demeter; by the coming of, Aesculapius shall all her wounds
+be healed; and the change in the evening from the _mystæ_ to _epoptæ_ is
+because that now to Demeter, the cycle of her grief being accomplished,
+the ways of Jove are made plain,--even his permission of violence from
+unseen hands; to _her_ also is the final libation.
+
+But the story of the stolen Proserpina is itself an afterthought, a
+fable invented to explain the Mysteries; and, however much it may have
+modified them in detail, certainly could not have been their ground. Nor
+is the sorrowing Demeter herself adequate to the solution. For the
+Eleusinia are older than Eleusis,--older than Demeter, even the Demeter
+of Thrace,--certainly as old as Isis, who was to Egypt what Demeter was
+to Greece,--the Great Mother[2] of a thousand names, who also had _her_
+endlessly repeated sorrow for the loss of Osiris, and in honor of whom
+the Egyptians held an annual festival. Thus we only remove the mystery
+back to the very verge of myth itself; and we must either give up the
+solution or take a different course. But perhaps Isis will reveal
+herself, and at the same time unveil the Mysteries. Let us read her
+tablet: "I am all that, has been, all that is, all that is to be; and
+the veil which is over my face no mortal hand hath ever raised!" Now,
+reader, would it not be strange, if, in solving _her_ mystery, we should
+also solve the Sphinx's riddle? But so it is. This is the Sphinx in her
+eldest shape,--this Isis of a thousand names; and the answer to her
+ever-recurring riddle is always the same. In the Human Spirit is
+infolded whatsoever has been, is, or shall be; and mortality cannot
+reveal it!
+
+Not to Demeter, then, nor even to Isis, do the Eleusinia primarily
+point, but to the human heart. We no longer look at them; henceforth
+they are within us. Long has this mystic mother, the wonder of the
+world, waited for the revelation of her face. Let us draw aside the
+veil, (not by mortal hand,--it moves at your will,) and listen:--
+
+"I am the First and the Last,--mother of gods and men. As deep as is my
+mystery, so deep is my sorrow. For, lo! all generations are mine. But
+the fairest fruit of my Holy Garden was plucked by my mortal children;
+since which, Apollo among men and Artemis among women have raged with
+their fearful arrows. My fairest children, whom I have brought forth and
+nourished in the light, have been stolen by the children of darkness. By
+the Flood they were taken; and I wandered forty days and forty nights
+upon the waters, ere again I saw the face of the earth. Then, wherever I
+went, I brought joy; at Cyprus the grasses sprang up beneath my feet,
+the golden-filleted Horæ crowned me with a wreath of gold and clothed me
+in immortal robes. Then, also, was renewed my grief; for Adonis, whom I
+had chosen, was slain in the chase and carried to Hades. Six months I
+wept his loss, when he rose again and I triumphed. Thus in Egypt I
+mourned for Osiris, for Atys in Phrygia, and for Proserpina at
+Eleusis,--all of whom passed to the underworld, were restored for a
+season, and then retaken. Thus is my sorrow repeated without end. All
+things are taken from me. Night treads upon the heels of Day, the
+desolation of Winter wastes the fair fruit of Summer, and Death walks in
+the ways of Life with inexorable claims. But at the last, through Him,
+my First-begotten and my Best-beloved, who also died and descended into
+Hades, and the third day rose again,--through Him, having ceased from
+wandering, I shall triumph in Infinite Joy!"
+
+_That_, reader, is not so difficult to translate into human language.
+Thus, from the beginning to the end of the world, do these Mysteries,
+under various names, shadow forth the great problem of human life, which
+problem, as being fundamental, must be religious, the same that is
+shadowed forth in Nature and Revelation, namely: man's sin, and his
+redemption from sin,--his great loss, his infinite error, and his final
+salvation.
+
+Sorrow, so strong a sense of which pervaded these Mysteries that it was
+the name (Achtheia) by which Demeter was known to her mystic
+worshippers,--_human_ sorrow it was which veiled the eyelids; toward
+which veiling (or _muesis_) the lotus about the head of Isis and the
+poppy in the hand of Demeter distinctly point. Hence the _mystæ_, whom
+the reader must suppose to have closed their eyes to all without
+them,--even to Nature, except as in sympathy she mirrors forth the
+central sorrow of their hearts. But this same sorrow and its mighty
+work, veiled from all mortal vision, shut out by very necessity from any
+sympathy save that of God, is a preparation for a purer vision,--a
+second initiation, in which the eyes shall be reopened and the _mystæ_
+become _epoptæ_; and of such significance was this higher vision to the
+Greek, that it was a synonyme for the highest earthly happiness and a
+foretaste of Elysium.
+
+As this vision of the _epoptæ_ was the vision of real faith, so the
+_muesis_, or veiling of the _mystæ_, was no mere affectation of
+mysticism. Not so easily could be set aside this weight of sorrow upon
+the eyelids, which, notwithstanding that, leading to self, it leads to
+wandering, leads also through Divine aid to that peace which passeth
+all understanding. Thus were the Hebrews led out of Egyptian bondage
+through wanderings in the Wilderness to the Promised Land. Even thus,
+through rites and ceremonies which to us are hieroglyphics hard to be
+deciphered, which are known only as shrouded in infinite sorrow,--as
+dimly shadowing forth some wild search in darkness and some final
+resurrection into light,--through these, many from Egypt and India and
+Scythia, from Scandinavia and from the aboriginal forests of America,
+have for unnumbered ages passed from a world of bewildering error to the
+heaven of their hopes. To the eye of sense and to shallow infidelity,
+this may seem absurd; but the foolishness of man is the wisdom of God to
+the salvation of His erring children. Happy, indeed, are the initiated!
+Blessed are the poor in spirit, the Pariah, and the slave,--all they
+whose eyes are veiled with overshadowing sorrow! for only thus is
+revealed the glory of human life!
+
+There are many things, kind reader, which, in our senseless staring, we
+may call the signs of human weakness, but which, by a higher
+interpretation, become revelations of human power. The gross and
+pitiable features of the world are dissolved and clarified, when by an
+impassioned sympathy we can penetrate to the heart of things. We are
+about to pity the ragged vesture, the feeble knees, and the beseeching
+hand of poverty, and the cries of the oppressed and the weary; but, at a
+thought, Pity is slain by Reverence. We are ready to cry out against the
+sluggish movement of the world and its lazy flux of life; but before the
+satire is spoken, we are fascinated by an undercurrent of this same
+world, earnest and full toward its sure goal,--of which, indeed, we only
+dream; but "the dream is from God,"[3] and surer than sight. There is a
+profounder calm than appears to the eye, in the quiet cottages scattered
+up and down among the peaceful valleys; the rest of death is more
+untroubled than the marble face which it leaves as its visible symbol;
+and sleep, "the minor mystery of death," ([Greek: hypnos ta mikra tou
+thanutou mystêria][4]) has a deeper significance than is revealed in any
+external token. So what is sneeringly called the credulity of human
+nature is its holy faith, and, in spite of all the hard facts which you
+may charge upon it, is the glory of man. It introduces us into that
+region where "nothing is unexpected, nothing impossible."[5] It was the
+glory of our childhood, and by it childhood is made immortal. Myth
+herself is ever a child,--a genuine child of the earth, indeed,--but
+received among men as the child of Heaven.
+
+Upon the slightest material basis have been constructed myths and
+miracles and fairy-tales without number; and so it must ever be. Thus
+man asserts his own inherent strength of imagination and faith over
+against the external fact. Whatsoever is facile to Imagination is also
+facile to Faith. Easy, therefore, in our thoughts, is the transition
+from the Cinder-wench in the ashes to the Cinderella of the palace; easy
+the apotheosis of the slave, and the passage from the weary earth to the
+fields of Elysium and the Isles of the Blessed.
+
+This flight of the Imagination, this vision of Faith,--_these_, reader,
+are only for the _epoptæ_. It matters not, that, by naked analysis, you
+can prove that the palaces of our fancy and the temples of our faith are
+but the baseless fabric of a dream. It may be that the greater part of
+life is made up of dreams, and that wakefulness is merely incidental as
+a relief to the picture. It may be, indeed, in the last analysis, that
+the _ideal_ is the highest, if not the only _real_.
+
+For the sensible, palpable fact can, by the nature of things, exist for
+us only in the Present. But, my dear reader, it is just here, in this
+Present, that the tenure by which we have hold upon life is the most
+frail and shadowy. For, by the strictest analysis, _there is no
+Present_. The formula, _It is_, even before we can give it utterance, by
+some subtile chemistry of logic, is resolved into _It was_ and _It
+shall be_. Thus by our analysis do we retreat into the ideal. In the
+deepest reflection, all that we call external is only the material basis
+upon which our dreams are built; and the sleep that surrounds life
+swallows up life,--all but a dim wreck of matter, floating this way and
+that, and forever evanishing from sight. Complete the analysis, and we
+lose even the shadow of the external Present, and only the Past and the
+Future are left us as our sure inheritance. This is the first
+initiation,--the veiling of the eyes to the external. But, as _epoptæ_,
+by the synthesis of this Past and Future in a living nature, we obtain a
+higher, an ideal Present, comprehending within itself all that can be
+real for us within us or without. This is the second initiation, in
+which is unveiled to us the Present as a new birth from our own life.
+
+Thus the great problem of Idealism is symbolically solved in the
+Eleusinia. For us there is nothing real except as we _realize_ it. Let
+it be that myriads have walked upon the earth before us,--that each race
+and generation has wrought its change and left its monumental record
+upon pillar and pyramid and obelisk; set aside the ruin which Time has
+wrought both upon the change and the record, levelling the cities and
+temples of men, diminishing the shadows of the Pyramids, and rendering
+more shadowy the names and memories of heroes,--obliterating even its
+own ruin;--set aside this oblivion of Time, still there would be
+hieroglyphics,--still to us all that comes from this abyss of Time
+behind us, or from the abyss of Space around us, must be but dim and
+evanescent imagery and empty reverberation of sound, except as, becoming
+a part of our own life, by a new birth, it receives shape and
+significance. Nothing can be unveiled to us till it is born of us. Thus
+the _epoptæ_ are both creators and interpreters. Strength of knowledge
+and strength of purpose, lying at the foundation of our own nature,
+become also the measure of our interpretation of all Nature. Therefore
+in each successive cycle of human history, as we realize more completely
+the great Ideal, our appreciation of the Past increases, and our hope of
+the Future. The difference lies not in the _data_ of history, but in
+what we make of the _data_.
+
+We cannot see too clearly that the great problem of life, in Philosophy,
+Art, or Religion, is essentially the same from the beginning. Like
+Nature, indeed, it repeats itself under various external phases, in
+different ages and under different skies. History whispers from her
+antediluvian lips of a race of giants; so does the earth reveal mammoths
+and stupendous forests. But the wonder neither of Man nor of Nature was
+greater then than now. We say much, too, of Progress. But the progress
+does not consist in a change of the fundamental problem of the race; we
+have only learned to use our material so that we effect our changes more
+readily, and write our record with a finer touch and in clearer outline.
+The progress is in the facility and elaboration, and may be measured in
+Space and Time; but the Ideal is ever the same and immeasurable. Homer
+is hard to read; but when once you have read him you have read all
+poetry. Or suppose that Orpheus, instead of striving with his mythic
+brother Cheiron, were to engage in a musical contest with Mozart, and
+you, reader? were to adjudge the prize. Undoubtedly you would give the
+palm to Mozart. Not that Mozart is the better musician; the difficulty
+is all in your ear, my friend. If you could only hear the nice
+vibrations of the "golden shell," you might reverse your decision.
+
+So in Religion; the central idea, if you can only discern it, is ever
+the same. She no longer, indeed, looks with the bewildered gaze of her
+childhood to the mountains and rivers, to the sun, moon, and stars, for
+aid. In the fulness of time the veil is rent in twain, and she looks
+beyond with a clearer eye to the surer signs that are visible of her
+unspeakable glory. But the longing of her heart is ever the same.
+
+What remains to us of ancient systems of faith is, for the most part,
+mere name and shadow. It is even more difficult for us to realize to
+ourselves a single ceremony of Grecian worship,--for instance, a dance
+in honor of Apollo,--in its subtile meaning, than it would be to
+appreciate the "Prometheus" of Æschylus. This ignorance leads oftentimes
+to the most shocking profanation; and from mere lack of vision we
+ridicule much that should call forth our reverence.
+
+Thus many Christian writers have sought to throw ridicule upon the
+Eleusinia. But we must remember, that, to Greece, throughout her whole
+history, they presented a well-defined system of faith,--that,
+essentially, they even served the function of a church by their inherent
+idea of divine discipline and purification and the hope which they ever
+held out of future resurrection and glory. Why, then, you ask, if they
+were so pure and full of meaning, why was not such a man as Socrates one
+of the Initiated? The reason, reader, was simply this: What the
+Eleusinia furnished to Greece, that Socrates furnished to himself. That
+man who could stand stock-still a whole day, lost in silent
+contemplation, what was the need to him of the Eleusinian veil? The most
+self-sufficient man in all Greece, who could find the way directly to
+himself and to the mystery and responsibility of his own will without
+the medium of external rites, to whom there were the ever-present
+intimations of his strange Divinity,--what need to him of the Eleusinian
+revealings or their sublime self-intuition ([Greek: autopsia])? He had
+his own separate tragedy also. And when with his last words he requested
+that a cock be sacrificed to Æsculapius, that, reader, was to indicate
+that to him had come the eighth day of the drama, in which the Great
+Physician brings deliverance,--and in the evening of which there should
+be the final unveiling of the eyes in the presence of the Great
+Hierophant!
+
+Such were the Eleusinia of Greece. But what do they mean to us? We have
+already hinted at their connection with the Sphinx's riddle. It is
+through this connection that they receive their most general
+significance; for this riddle is the riddle of the race, and the problem
+which it involves can be adequately realized only in the life of the
+race. To Greece, as peculiarly sensitive to all that is tragical, the
+Sphinx connected her questions most intimately with human sorrow, either
+in the individual or the household.
+
+"Who is it," thus the riddle ran, "who is it that in the morning creeps
+upon all-fours, touching the earth in complete dependence,--and at noon,
+grown into the fulness of beauty and strength, walks erect with his face
+toward heaven,--but at the going down of the sun, returns again to his
+original frailty and dependence?"
+
+This, answered Oedipus, is Man; and most fearfully did he realize it in
+his own life! In the mysteries of the Eleusinia there is the same
+prominence of human sorrow,--only here the Sphinx propounds her riddle
+in its religious phase; and in the change from the _mystæ_ to the
+_epoptæ_, in the revelation of the central self, was the great problem
+symbolically realized.
+
+Greece had her reckoning; and to her eye the Sphinx long ago seemed to
+plunge herself headlong into precipitate destruction. But this strange
+lady is ever reappearing with her awful alternative: they who cannot
+solve her riddle must die. It is no trifling account, reader, which we
+have with this lady. For now her riddle has grown to fearful
+proportions, connecting itself with the rise and fall of empires, with
+the dim realm of superstition, with vast systems of philosophy and
+faith. And the answer is always the same: "That which hath been is that
+which shall be; and that which hath been is named already,--and it is
+known that it is Man."
+
+What is it that shall explain the difference between our map of the
+world and that of Sesostris or Anaximander? Geological deposits, the
+washing away of mountains, and the change of river-courses are certainly
+but trifling in such an account. But an Argonautic expedition, a Trojan
+siege, a Jewish exodus, Nomadic invasions, and the names of Hanno,
+Cæsar, William the Conqueror, and Columbus, suggest an explanation. It
+is the flux of human life which must account for the flowing outline of
+the earth's geography. As with the terrestrial, so with the celestial.
+The heavens change by a subtiler movement than the precession of the
+equinoxes. In Job, "Behold the height of the stars, how high they are!"
+but to Homer they bathe in the Western seas; while to us, they are again
+removed to an incalculable distance,--but at the same time so near,
+that, in our hopes, they are the many mansions of our Father's house,
+the stepping-stones to our everlasting rest.
+
+But there is also another map, reader, more shadowy in its outline, of
+an invisible region, neither of the heavens nor of the earth,--but
+having vague relations to each, with a secret history of its own, of
+which now and then strange tales and traditions are softly whispered in
+our ear,--where each of us has been, though no two ever tell the same
+story of their wanderings. Strange to say, each one calls all other
+tales superstitions and old-wives' fables; but observe, he always
+trembles when he tells his own. But they are all true; there is not one
+old-wife's fable on the list. Necromancers have had private interviews
+with visitors who had no right to be seen this side the Styx. The Witch
+of Endor and the raising of Samuel were literal facts. Above all others,
+the Nemesis and Eumenides were facts not to be withstood. And,
+philosophize as we may, ghosts have been seen at dead of night, and not
+always under the conduct of Mercury;[6] even the Salem witchcraft was
+very far from being a humbug. They are all true,--the gibbering ghost,
+the riding hag, the enchantment of wizards, and all the miracles of
+magic, none of which we have ever seen with the eye, but all of which we
+believe at heart. But who is it that weirdly draws aside the dark
+curtain? Who is this mystic lady, ever weaving at her loom,--weaving
+long ago, and weaving yet,--singing with unutterable sadness, as she
+interweaves with her web all the sorrows and shadowy fears that ever
+were or that ever shall be? We know, indeed, that she weaves the web of
+Fate and the curtain of the Invisible; for we have seen her work. We
+know, too, that she alone can show the many-colored web or draw aside
+the dark curtain; for we have seen her revelations. But who is _she_?
+
+Ay, reader, the Sphinx puts close questions now and then; but there is
+only one answer that can satisfy her or avert death. This person,--the
+only real mystery which can exist for you,--of all things the most
+familiar, and at the same the most unfamiliar,--is yourself! You need
+not speak in whispers. It is true, this lady has a golden quiver as well
+as a golden distaff; but her arrows are all for those who cannot solve
+her riddle.
+
+Protagoras, then, was right; and, looking back through these twenty-two
+centuries, we nod assent to his grand proposition: "Man is the measure
+of all things,--of the possible, how it is,--of the impossible, how it
+is not." In the individual life are laid the foundations of the
+universe, and upon each individual artist depend the symmetry and
+meaning of the constructed whole. This Master-Artist it is who holds the
+keys of life and death; and whatsoever he shall bind or loose in his
+consciousness shall be bound or loosed throughout the universe. Apart
+from him, Nature is resolved into an intangible, shapeless vanity of
+silence and darkness,--without a name, and, in fact, no Nature at all.
+To man, all Nature must be human in some soul. God himself is worshipped
+under a human phase; and it is here that Christianity, the flower of all
+Faith, furnishes the highest answer and realization of this world-riddle
+of the Sphinx,--here that it rests its eternal Truth, even as here it
+secures its unfailing appeal to the human heart!
+
+The process by which any nature is _realized_ is the process by which it
+is _humanized_. Thus are all things given to us for an inheritance. Let
+it be, that, apart from us, the universe sinks into insignificance and
+nothingness; _to_ us it is a royal possession; and we are all kings,
+with a dominion as unlimited as our desire. _Ubi Cæsar, ibi Roma!_ Rome
+is the world; and each man, if he will, is Cæsar.
+
+_If he will_;--ay, there's the rub! In the strength of his will lie
+glory and absolute sway. But if he fail, then becomes evident the
+frailty of his tenure,--"he is a king of shreds and patches!"
+
+Here is the crying treachery; and thus it happens that there are slaves
+and craven hearts. This is the profound pathos of history, (for the
+Sphinx has always more or less of sadness in her face,) which enters so
+inevitably into all human triumphs. The monuments of Egypt, the palaces
+and tombs of her kings,--revelations of the strength of will,--also by
+inevitable suggestions call to our remembrance successive generations of
+slaves and their endless toil. Morn after morn, at sunrise, for
+thousands of years, did Memnon breathe forth his music, that his name
+might be remembered upon the earth; but his music was the swell of a
+broken harp, and his name was whispered in mournful silence! Among the
+embalmed dead, in urn-burials, in the midst of catacombs, and among the
+graves upon our hillsides and in our valleys, there lurks the same sad
+mockery. Surely "purple Death and the strong Fates do conquer us!"
+Strangely, in vast solitudes, comes over us a sense of desolation, when
+even the faintest adumbrations of life seem lost in the inertia of
+mortality. In all pomp lurks the pomp of funeral; and we do now and then
+pay homage to the grim skeleton king who sways this dusty earth,--yea,
+who sways our hearts of dust!
+
+But it is only when we yield that we are conquered. "The daemon shall
+not choose us, _but we shall choose our daemon_."[7] It is only when we
+lose hold of our royal inheritance that Time is seen with his scythe and
+the heritage becomes a waste.
+
+This is the failure, the central loss, over which Achtheia mourns. Happy
+are the _epoptæ_ who know this, who have looked the Sphinx in the face,
+and escaped death! They are the seers, they the heroes!
+
+But "_Conx Ompax_!"
+
+And now, like good Grecians, let us make the double libation to our
+lady,--toward the East and toward the West. That is an important point,
+reader; for thus is recognized the intimate connection which our lady
+has with the movements of Nature, in which her life is mirrored,--
+especially with the rising, the ongoing, and the waning of the day; and
+you remember that this also was the relief of the Sphinx's riddle,--this
+same movement from the rising to the setting sun. But prominently, as in
+all worship, are our eyes turned toward the East,--toward the
+resurrection. In the tomb of Memnon, at Thebes, are wrought two series
+of paintings; in the one, through successive stages, the sun is
+represented in his course from the East to the West,--and in the other
+is represented, through various stages, his return to the Orient. It was
+to this Orient that the old king looked, awaiting his regeneration.
+
+Thus, reader, in all nations,--by no mere superstition, but by a
+glorious symbolism of Faith,--do the children of the earth lay them down
+in their last sleep with their faces to the East.
+
+
+[2] The worship of this Great Mother is not more wonderful for
+its antiquity in time than for its prevalence as regards space. To the
+Hindu she was the Lady Isani. She was the Ceres of Roman mythology, the
+Cybele of Phrygia and Lydia, and the Disa of the North. According to
+Tacitus, (_Germania_, c. 9,) she was worshipped by the ancient Suevi.
+She was worshipped by the Muscovite, and representations of her are
+found upon the sacred drums of the Laplanders. She swayed the ancient
+world, from its southeast corner in India to Scandinavia in the
+northwest; and everywhere she is the "Mater Dolorosa." And who is it,
+reader, that in the Christian world struggles for life and power under
+the name of the Holy Virgin, and through the sad features of the
+Madonna?
+
+[3] _Iliad_, I. 63.
+
+[4] Euripides.
+
+[5] Archilochus.
+
+[6] This function of Mercury, as Psycho-Pompos, or conductor of
+departed souls to Hades, is often misunderstood. He was a Pompos not so
+much for the safety of the dead (though that was an important
+consideration) as for the peace of the living. The Greeks had an
+overwhelming fear of the dead, as is evident from the propitiatory rites
+to their shades; hence the necessity of putting them under strict
+charge,--even against their will. (Horace, I. Ode xxiv. 15.) All
+Mercury's qualifications point to this office, by which he defends the
+living against the invasions of the dead. Hence his craft and
+agility;--for who so fleet and subtle as a ghost?
+
+[7] Plato's _Republic_, at the close.
+
+
+
+
+THE MINISTER'S WOOING.
+
+[Continued.]
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+
+Mary returned to the house with her basket of warm, fresh eggs, which
+she set down mournfully upon the table. In her heart there was one
+conscious want and yearning, and that was to go to the friends of him
+she had lost,--to go to his mother. The first impulse of bereavement is
+to stretch out the hands towards what was nearest and dearest to the
+departed.
+
+Her dove came fluttering down out of the tree, and settled on her hand,
+and began asking in his dumb way to be noticed. Mary stroked his white
+feathers, and bent her head down over them till they were wet with
+tears. "Oh, birdie, you live, but he is gone!" she said. Then suddenly
+putting it gently from her, and going near and throwing her arms around
+her mother's neck,--"Mother," she said, "I want to go up to Cousin
+Ellen's." (This was the familiar name by which she always called Mrs.
+Marvyn.) "Can't you go with me, mother?"
+
+"My daughter, I have thought of it. I hurried about my baking this
+morning, and sent word to Mr. Jenkyns that he needn't come to see about
+the chimney, because I expected to go as soon as breakfast should be out
+of the way. So, hurry, now, boil some eggs, and get on the cold beef and
+potatoes; for I see Solomon and Amaziah coming in with the milk. They'll
+want their breakfast immediately."
+
+The breakfast for the hired men was soon arranged on the table, and Mary
+sat down to preside while her mother was going on with her
+baking,--introducing various loaves of white and brown bread into the
+capacious oven by means of a long iron shovel, and discoursing at
+intervals with Solomon, with regard to the different farming operations
+which he had in hand for the day.
+
+Solomon was a tall, large-boned man, brawny and angular; with a face
+tanned by the sun, and graven with those considerate lines which New
+England so early writes on the faces of her sons. He was reputed an
+oracle in matters of agriculture and cattle, and, like oracles
+generally, was prudently sparing of his responses. Amaziah was one of
+those uncouth over-grown boys of eighteen whose physical bulk appears to
+have so suddenly developed that the soul has more matter than she has
+learned to recognize, so that the hapless individual is always awkwardly
+conscious of too much limb; and in Amaziah's case, this consciousness
+grew particularly distressing when Mary was in the room. He liked to
+have her there, he said,--"but, somehow, she was so white and pretty,
+she made him feel sort o' awful-like."
+
+Of course, as such poor mortals always do, he must, on this particular
+morning, blunder into precisely the wrong subject.
+
+"S'pose you've heerd the news that Jeduthun Pettibone brought home in
+the 'Flying Scud,' 'bout the wreck o' the 'Monsoon'; it's an awful
+providence, that 'ar' is,--a'n't it? Why, Jeduthun says she jest crushed
+like an egg-shell";--and with that Amaziah illustrated the fact by
+crushing an egg in his great brown hand.
+
+Mary did not answer. She could not grow any paler than she was before; a
+dreadful curiosity came over her, but her lips could frame no question.
+Amaziah went on:--
+
+"Ye see, the cap'en he got killed with a spar when the blow fust come
+on, and Jim Marvyn he commanded; and Jeduthun says that he seemed to
+have the spirit of ten men in him; he worked and he watched, and he was
+everywhere at once, and he kep' 'em all up for three days, till finally
+they lost their rudder, and went drivin' right onto the rocks. When,
+they come in sight, he come up on deck, and says he, 'Well, my boys,
+we're headin' right into eternity,' says he, 'and our chances for this
+world a'n't worth mentionin', any on us; but we'll all have one try for
+our lives. Boys, I've tried to do my duty by you and the ship,--but
+God's will be done! All I have to ask now is, that, if any of you git to
+shore, you'll find my mother and tell her I died thinkin' of her and
+father and my dear friends.' That was the last Jeduthun saw of him; for
+in a few minutes more the ship struck, and then it was every man for
+himself. Laws! Jeduthun says there couldn't nobody have stood beatin'
+agin them rocks, unless they was all leather and inger-rubber like him.
+Why, he says the waves would take strong men and jest crush 'em against
+the rocks like smashin' a pie-plate!"
+
+Here Mary's paleness became livid; she made a hasty motion to rise from
+the table, and Solomon trod on the foot of the narrator.
+
+"You seem to forget that friends and relations has feelin's," he said,
+as Mary hastily went into her own room.
+
+Amaziah, suddenly awakened to the fact that he had been trespassing, sat
+with mouth half open and a stupefied look of perplexity on his face for
+a moment, and then, rising hastily, said, "Well, Sol, I guess I'll go
+an' yoke up the steers."
+
+At eight o'clock all the morning toils were over, the wide kitchen cool
+and still, and the one-horse wagon standing at the door, into which
+climbed Mary, her mother, and the Doctor; for, though invested with no
+spiritual authority, and charged with no ritual or form for hours of
+affliction, the religion of New England always expects her minister as a
+first visitor in every house of mourning.
+
+The ride was a sorrowful and silent one. The Doctor, propped upon his
+cane, seemed to reflect deeply.
+
+"Have you been at all conversant with the exercises of our young
+friend's mind on the subject of religion?" he asked.
+
+Mrs. Scudder did not at first reply. The remembrance of James's last
+letter flashed over her mind, and she felt the vibration of the frail
+child beside her, in whom every nerve was quivering. After a moment, she
+said,--"It does not become us to judge the spiritual state of any one.
+James's mind was in an unsettled way when he left; but who can say what
+wonders may have been effected by divine grace since then?"
+
+This conversation fell on the soul of Mary like the sound of clods
+falling on a coffin to the ear of one buried alive;--she heard it with a
+dull, smothering sense of suffocation. _That_ question to be
+raised?--and about one, too, for whom she could have given her own soul?
+At this moment she felt how idle is the mere hope or promise of personal
+salvation made to one who has passed beyond the life of self, and struck
+deep the roots of his existence in others. She did not utter a
+word;--how could she? A doubt,--the faintest shadow of a doubt,--in such
+a case, falls on the soul with the weight of mountain certainty; and in
+that short ride she felt what an infinite pain may be locked in one
+small, silent breast.
+
+The wagon drew up to the house of mourning. Cato stood at the gate, and
+came forward, officiously, to help them out. "Mass'r and Missis will be
+glad to see you," he said. "It's a drefful stroke has come upon 'em."
+
+Candace appeared at the door. There was a majesty of sorrow in her
+bearing, as she received them. She said not a word, but pointed with her
+finger towards the inner room; but as Mary lifted up her faded, weary
+face to hers, her whole soul seemed to heave towards her like a billow,
+and she took her up in her arms and broke forth into sobbing, and,
+carrying her in, as if she had been a child, set her down in the inner
+room and sat down beside her.
+
+Mrs. Marvyn and her husband sat together, holding each other's hands,
+the open Bible between them. For a few moments nothing was to be heard
+but sobs and unrestrained weeping, and then all kneeled down to pray.
+
+After they rose up, Mr. Zebedee Marvyn stood for a moment thoughtfully,
+and then said,--"If it had pleased the Lord to give me a sure evidence
+of my son's salvation, I could have given him up with all my heart; but
+now, whatever there may be, I have seen none." He stood in an attitude
+of hopeless, heart-smitten dejection, which contrasted painfully with
+his usual upright carriage and the firm lines of his face.
+
+Mrs. Marvyn started as if a sword had pierced her, passed her arm round
+Mary's waist, with a strong, nervous clasp, unlike her usual calm self,
+and said,--"Stay with me, daughter, to-day!--stay with me!"
+
+"Mary can stay as long as you wish, cousin," said Mrs. Scudder; "we have
+nothing to call her home."
+
+"_Come_ with me!" said Mrs. Marvyn to Mary, opening an adjoining door
+into her bedroom, and drawing her in with a sort of suppressed
+vehemence,--"I want you!--I must have you!"
+
+"Mrs. Marvyn's state alarms me," said her husband, looking
+apprehensively after her when the door was closed; "she has not shed any
+tears, nor slept any, since she heard this news. You know that her mind
+has been in a peculiar and unhappy state with regard to religious things
+for many years. I was in hopes she might feel free to open her exercises
+of mind to the Doctor."
+
+"Perhaps she will feel more freedom with Mary," said the Doctor. "There
+is no healing for such troubles except in unconditional submission to
+Infinite Wisdom and Goodness. The Lord reigneth, and will at last bring
+infinite good out of evil, whether _our_ small portion of existence be
+included or not."
+
+After a few moments more of conference, Mrs. Scudder and the Doctor
+departed, leaving Mary alone in the house of mourning.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+We have said before, what we now repeat, that it is impossible to write
+a story of New England life and manners for superficial thought or
+shallow feeling. They who would fully understand the springs which moved
+the characters with whom we now associate must go down with us to the
+very depths.
+
+Never was there a community where the roots of common life shot down so
+deeply, and were so intensely grappled around things sublime and
+eternal. The founders of it were a body of confessors and martyrs, who
+turned their backs on the whole glory of the visible, to found in the
+wilderness a republic of which the God of Heaven and Earth should be the
+sovereign power. For the first hundred years grew this community, shut
+out by a fathomless ocean from the existing world, and divided by an
+antagonism not less deep from all the reigning ideas of nominal
+Christendom.
+
+In a community thus unworldly must have arisen a mode of thought,
+energetic, original, and sublime. The leaders of thought and feeling
+were the ministry, and we boldly assert that the spectacle of the early
+ministry of New England was one to which the world gives no parallel.
+Living an intense, earnest, practical life, mostly tilling the earth
+with their own hands, they yet carried on the most startling and
+original religious investigations with a simplicity that might have been
+deemed audacious, were it not so reverential. All old issues relating to
+government, religion, ritual, and forms of church organization having
+for them passed away, they went straight to the heart of things, and
+boldly confronted the problem of universal being. They had come out from
+the world as witnesses to the most solemn and sacred of human rights.
+They had accustomed themselves boldly to challenge and dispute all sham
+pretensions and idolatries of past ages,--to question the right of kings
+in the State, and of prelates in the Church; and now they turned the
+same bold inquiries towards the Eternal Throne, and threw down their
+glove in the lists as authorized defenders of every mystery in the
+Eternal Government. The task they proposed to themselves was that of
+reconciling the most tremendous facts of sin and evil, present and
+eternal, with those conceptions of Infinite Power and Benevolence which
+their own strong and generous natures enabled them so vividly to
+realize. In the intervals of planting and harvesting, they were busy
+with the toils of adjusting the laws of a universe. Solemnly simple,
+they made long journeys in their old one-horse chaises, to settle with
+each other some nice point of celestial jurisprudence, and to compare
+their maps of the Infinite. Their letters to each other form a
+literature altogether unique. Hopkins sends to Edwards the younger his
+scheme of the universe, in which he starts with the proposition, that
+God is infinitely above all obligations of any kind to his creatures.
+Edwards replies with the brusque comment,--"This is wrong; God has no
+more right to injure a creature than a creature has to injure God"; and
+each probably about that time preached a sermon on his own views, which
+was discussed by every farmer, in intervals of plough and hoe, by every
+woman and girl, at loom, spinning-wheel, or wash-tub. New England was
+one vast sea, surging from depths to heights with thought and discussion
+on the most insoluble of mysteries. And it is to be added, that no man
+or woman accepted any theory or speculation simply _as_ theory or
+speculation; all was profoundly real and vital,--a foundation on which
+actual life was based with intensest earnestness.
+
+The views of human existence which resulted from this course of training
+were gloomy enough to oppress any heart which did not rise above them by
+triumphant faith or sink below them by brutish insensibility; for they
+included every moral problem of natural or revealed religion, divested
+of all those softening poetries and tender draperies which forms,
+ceremonies, and rituals had thrown around them in other parts and ages
+of Christendom. The human race, without exception, coming into existence
+"under God's wrath and curse," with a nature so fatally disordered,
+that, although perfect free agents, men were infallibly certain to do
+nothing to Divine acceptance until regenerated by the supernatural aid
+of God's Spirit,--this aid being given only to a certain decreed number
+of the human race, the rest, with enough free agency to make them
+responsible, but without this indispensable assistance exposed to the
+malignant assaults of evil spirits versed in every art of temptation,
+were sure to fall hopelessly into perdition. The standard of what
+constituted a true regeneration, as presented in such treatises as
+Edwards on the Affections, and others of the times, made this change to
+be something so high, disinterested, and superhuman, so removed from all
+natural and common habits and feelings, that the most earnest and
+devoted, whose whole life had been a constant travail of endeavor, a
+tissue of almost unearthly disinterestedness, often lived and died with
+only a glimmering hope of its attainment.
+
+According to any views then entertained of the evidences of a true
+regeneration, the number of the whole human race who could be supposed
+as yet to have received this grace was so small, that, as to any
+numerical valuation, it must have been expressed as an infinitesimal.
+Dr. Hopkins in many places distinctly recognizes the fact, that the
+greater part of the human race, up to his time, had been eternally
+lost,--and boldly assumes the ground, that this amount of sin and
+suffering, being the best and most necessary means of the greatest final
+amount of happiness, was not merely permitted, but distinctly chosen,
+decreed, and provided for, as essential in the schemes of Infinite
+Benevolence. He held that this decree not only _permitted_ each
+individual act of sin, but also took measures to make it certain,
+though, by an exercise of infinite skill, it accomplished this result
+without violating human free agency.
+
+The preaching of those times was animated by an unflinching consistency
+which never shrank from carrying an idea to its remotest logical verge.
+The sufferings of the lost were not kept from view, but proclaimed with
+a terrible power. Dr. Hopkins boldly asserts, that "all the use which
+God will have for them is to suffer; this is all the end they can
+answer; therefore all their faculties, and their whole capacities, will
+be employed and used for this end.... The body can by omnipotence be
+made capable of suffering the greatest imaginable pain, without
+producing dissolution, or abating the least degree of life or
+sensibility.... One way in which God will show his power in the
+punishment of the wicked will be in strengthening and upholding their
+bodies and souls in torments which otherwise would be intolerable."
+
+The sermons preached by President Edwards on this subject are so
+terrific in their refined poetry of torture, that very few persons of
+quick sensibility could read them through without agony; and it is
+related, that, when, in those calm and tender tones which never rose to
+passionate enunciation, he read these discourses, the house was often
+filled with shrieks and waitings, and that a brother minister once laid
+hold of his skirts, exclaiming, in an involuntary agony, "Oh! Mr.
+Edwards! Mr. Edwards! is God not a God of mercy?"
+
+Not that these men were indifferent or insensible to the dread words
+they spoke; their whole lives and deportment bore thrilling witness to
+their sincerity. Edwards set apart special days of fasting, in view of
+the dreadful doom of the lost, in which he was wont to walk the floor,
+weeping and wringing his hands. Hopkins fasted every Saturday. David
+Brainerd gave up every refinement of civilized life to weep and pray at
+the feet of hardened savages, if by any means he might save _one_. All,
+by lives of eminent purity and earnestness, gave awful weight and
+sanction to their words.
+
+If we add to this statement the fact, that it was always proposed to
+every inquiring soul, as an evidence of regeneration, that it should
+truly and heartily accept all the ways of God thus declared right and
+lovely, and from the heart submit to Him as the only just and good, it
+will be seen what materials of tremendous internal conflict and
+agitation were all the while working in every bosom. Almost all the
+histories of religious experience of those times relate paroxysms of
+opposition to God and fierce rebellion, expressed in language which
+appalls the very soul,--followed, at length, by mysterious elevations of
+faith and reactions of confiding love, the result of Divine
+interposition, which carried the soul far above the region of the
+intellect, into that of direct spiritual intuition.
+
+President Edwards records that he was once in this state of
+enmity,--that the facts of the Divine administration seemed horrible to
+him,--and that this opposition was overcome by no course of reasoning,
+but by an "_inward and sweet sense_," which came to him once when
+walking alone in the fields, and, looking up into the blue sky, he saw
+the blending of the Divine majesty with a calm, sweet, and almost
+infinite meekness.
+
+The piety which grew up under such a system was, of necessity,
+energetic,--it was the uprousing of the whole energy of the human soul,
+pierced and wrenched and probed from her lowest depths to her topmost
+heights with every awful life-force possible to existence. He whose
+faith in God came clear through these terrible tests would be sure never
+to know greater ones. He might certainly challenge earth or heaven,
+things present or things to come, to swerve him from this grand
+allegiance.
+
+But it is to be conceded, that these systems, so admirable in relation
+to the energy, earnestness, and acuteness of their authors, when
+received as absolute truth, and as a basis of actual life, had, on minds
+of a certain class, the effect of a slow poison, producing life-habits
+of morbid action very different from any which ever followed the simple
+reading of the Bible. They differ from the New Testament as the living
+embrace of a friend does from his lifeless body, mapped out under the
+knife of the anatomical demonstrator;--every nerve and muscle is there,
+but to a sensitive spirit there is the very chill of death in the
+analysis.
+
+All systems that deal with the infinite are, besides, exposed to danger
+from small, unsuspected admixtures of human error, which become deadly
+when carried to such vast results. The smallest speck of earth's dust,
+in the focus of an infinite lens, appears magnified among the heavenly
+orbs as a frightful monster.
+
+Thus it happened, that, while strong spirits walked, palm-crowned, with
+victorious hymns, along these sublime paths, feebler and more sensitive
+ones lay along the track, bleeding away in life-long despair. Fearful to
+them were the shadows that lay over the cradle and the grave. The mother
+clasped her babe to her bosom, and looked with shuddering to the awful
+coming trial of free agency, with its terrible responsibilities and
+risks, and, as she thought of the infinite chances against her beloved,
+almost wished it might die in infancy. But when the stroke of death
+came, and some young, thoughtless head was laid suddenly low, who can
+say what silent anguish of loving hearts sounded the dread depths of
+eternity with the awful question, _Where_?
+
+In no other time or place of Christendom have so fearful issues been
+presented to the mind. Some church interposed its protecting shield; the
+Christian born and baptized child was supposed in some wise rescued from
+the curse of the fall, and related to the great redemption,--to be a
+member of Christ's family, and, if ever so sinful, still infolded in
+some vague sphere of hope and protection. Augustine solaced the dread
+anxieties of trembling love by prayers offered for the dead, in times
+when the Church above and on earth presented itself to the eye of the
+mourner as a great assembly with one accord lifting interceding hands
+for the parted soul.
+
+But the clear logic and intense individualism of New England deepened
+the problems of the Augustinian faith, while they swept away all those
+softening provisions so earnestly clasped to the throbbing heart of that
+great poet of theology. No rite, no form, no paternal relation, no faith
+or prayer of church, earthly or heavenly, interposed the slightest
+shield between the trembling spirit and Eternal Justice. The individual
+entered eternity alone, as if he had no interceding relation in the
+universe.
+
+This, then, was the awful dread which was constantly underlying life.
+This it was which caused the tolling bell in green hollows and lonely
+dells to be a sound which shook the soul and searched the heart with
+fearful questions. And this it was that was lying with mountain weight
+on the soul of the mother, too keenly agonized to feel that doubt in
+such a case was any less a torture than the most dreadful certainty.
+
+Hers was a nature more reasoning than creative and poetic; and whatever
+she believed bound her mind in strictest chains to its logical results.
+She delighted in the regions of mathematical knowledge, and walked them
+as a native home; but the commerce with abstract certainties fitted her
+mind still more to be stiffened and enchained by glacial reasonings, in
+regions where spiritual intuitions are as necessary as wings to birds.
+
+Mary was by nature of the class who never reason abstractly, whose
+intellections all begin in the heart, which sends them colored with its
+warm life-tint to the brain. Her perceptions of the same subjects were
+as different from Mrs. Marvyn's as his who revels only in color from his
+who is busy with the dry details of mere outline. The one mind was
+arranged like a map, and the other like a picture. In all the system
+which had been explained to her, her mind selected points on which it
+seized with intense sympathy, which it dwelt upon and expanded till all
+else fell away. The sublimity of disinterested benevolence,--the harmony
+and order of a system tending in its final results to infinite
+happiness,--the goodness of God,--the love of a self-sacrificing
+Redeemer,--were all so many glorious pictures, which she revolved in her
+mind with small care for their logical relations.
+
+Mrs. Marvyn had never, in all the course of their intimacy, opened her
+mouth to Mary on the subject of religion. It was not an uncommon
+incident of those times for persons of great elevation and purity of
+character to be familiarly known and spoken of as living under a cloud
+of religious gloom; and it was simply regarded as one more mysterious
+instance of the workings of that infinite decree which denied to them
+the special illumination of the Spirit.
+
+When Mrs. Marvyn had drawn Mary with her into her room, she seemed like
+a person almost in frenzy. She shut and bolted the door, drew her to the
+foot of the bed, and, throwing her arms round her, rested her hot and
+throbbing forehead on her shoulder. She pressed her thin hand over her
+eyes, and then, suddenly drawing back, looked her in the face as one
+resolved to speak something long suppressed. Her soft brown eyes had a
+flash of despairing wildness in them, like that of a hunted animal
+turning in its death-struggle on its pursuer.
+
+"Mary," she said, "I can't help it,--don't mind what I say, but I must
+speak or die! Mary, I cannot, will not, be resigned!--it is all hard,
+unjust, cruel!--to all eternity I will say so! To me there is no
+goodness, no justice, no mercy in anything! Life seems to me the most
+tremendous doom that can be inflicted on a helpless being! _What had we
+done_, that it should be sent upon us? Why were we made to love so, to
+hope so,--our hearts so full of feeling, and all the laws of Nature
+marching over us,--never stopping for our agony? Why, we can suffer so
+in this life that we had better never have been born!
+
+"But, Mary, think what a moment life is! think of those awful ages of
+eternity! and then think of all God's power and knowledge used on the
+lost to make them suffer! think that all but the merest fragment of
+mankind have gone into this,--are in it now! The number of the elect is
+so small we can scarce count them for anything! Think what noble minds,
+what warm, generous hearts, what splendid natures are wrecked and thrown
+away by thousands and tens of thousands! How we love each other! how our
+hearts weave into each other! how more than glad we should be to die for
+each other! And all this ends--O God, how must it end?--Mary! it isn't
+_my_ sorrow only! What right have I to mourn? Is _my_ son any better
+than any other mother's son? Thousands of thousands, whose mothers loved
+them as I love mine, are gone there!--Oh, my wedding-day! Why did they
+rejoice? Brides should wear mourning,--the bells should toll for every
+wedding; every new family is built over this awful pit of despair, and
+only one in a thousand escapes!"
+
+Pale, aghast, horror-stricken, Mary stood dumb, as one who in the dark
+and storm sees by the sudden glare of lightning a chasm yawning under
+foot. It was amazement and dimness of anguish;--the dreadful words
+struck on the very centre where her soul rested. She felt as if the
+point of a wedge were being driven between her life and her life's
+life,--between her and her God. She clasped her hands instinctively on
+her bosom, as if to hold there some cherished image, and said in a
+piercing voice of supplication, "_My_ God! _my_ God! oh, where art
+Thou?"
+
+Mrs. Marvyn walked up and down the room with a vivid spot of red in each
+cheek and a baleful fire in her eyes, talking in rapid soliloquy,
+scarcely regarding her listener, absorbed in her own enkindled thoughts.
+
+"Dr. Hopkins says that this is all best,--better than it would have been
+in any other possible way,--that God _chose_ it because it was for a
+greater final good,--that He not only chose it, but took means to make
+it certain,--that He ordains every sin, and does all that is necessary
+to make it certain,--that He creates the vessels of wrath and fits them
+for destruction, and that He has an infinite knowledge by which He can
+do it without violating their free agency.--So much the worse! What a
+use of infinite knowledge What if men should do so? What if a father
+should take means to make it certain that his poor little child should
+be an abandoned wretch, without violating his free agency? So much the
+worse, I say!--They say He does this so that He may show to all
+eternity, by their example, the evil nature of sin and its consequences!
+This is all that the greater part of the human race have been used for
+yet; and it is all right, because an overplus of infinite happiness is
+yet to be wrought out by it!--It is _not_ right! No possible amount of
+good to ever so many can make it right to deprave ever so
+few;--happiness and misery cannot be measured so! I never can think it
+right,--never!--Yet they say our salvation depends on our loving
+God,--loving Him better than ourselves,--loving Him better than our
+dearest friends.--It is impossible!--it is contrary to the laws of my
+nature! I can never love God! I can never praise Him!--I am lost! lost!
+lost! And what is worse, I cannot redeem my friends! Oh, I _could_
+suffer forever,--how willingly!--if I could save _him_!--But oh,
+eternity, eternity! Frightful, unspeakable woe! No end!--no bottom!--no
+shore!--no hope!--O God! O God!"
+
+Mrs. Marvyn's eyes grew wilder,--she walked the door, wringing her
+hands,--and her words, mingled with shrieks and moans, became whirling
+and confused, as when in autumn a storm drives the leaves in dizzy
+mazes.
+
+Mary was alarmed,--the ecstasy of despair was just verging on insanity.
+She rushed out and called Mr. Marvyn.
+
+"Oh! come in! do! quick!--I'm afraid her mind is going!" she said.
+
+"It is what I feared," he said, rising from where he sat reading his
+great Bible, with an air of heartbroken dejection. "Since she heard this
+news, she has not slept nor shed a tear. The Lord hath covered us with a
+cloud in the day of his fierce anger."
+
+He came into the room, and tried to take his wife into his arms. She
+pushed him violently back, her eyes glistening with a fierce light.
+"Leave me alone!" she said,--"I am a lost spirit!"
+
+These words were uttered in a shriek that went through Mary's heart like
+an arrow.
+
+At this moment, Candace, who had been anxiously listening at the door
+for an hour past, suddenly burst into the room.
+
+"Lor' bress ye, Squire Marvyn, we won't hab her goin' on dis yer way,"
+she said. "Do talk _gospel_ to her, can't ye?--ef you can't, I will."
+
+"Come, ye poor little lamb," she said, walking straight up to Mrs.
+Marvyn, "come to ole Candace!"--and with that she gathered the pale form
+to her bosom, and sat down and began rocking her, as if she had been a
+babe. "Honey, darlin', ye a'n't right,--dar's a drefful mistake
+somewhar," she said. "Why, de Lord a'n't like what ye tink,--He _loves_
+ye, honey! Why, jes' feel how _I_ loves ye,--poor ole black
+Candace,--an' I a'n't better'n Him as made me! Who was it wore de crown
+o' thorns, lamb?--who was it sweat great drops o' blood?--who was it
+said, 'Father, forgive dem'? Say, honey!--wasn't it de Lord dat made
+ye?--Dar, dar, now ye'r' cryin'!--cry away, and ease yer poor little
+heart! He died for Mass'r Jim,--loved him and _died_ for him,--jes' give
+up his sweet, precious body and soul for him on de cross! Laws, jes'
+_leave_ him in Jesus' hands! Why, honey, dar's de very print o' de nails
+in his hands now!"
+
+The flood-gates were rent; and healing sobs and tears shook the frail
+form, as a faded lily shakes under the soft rains of summer. All in the
+room wept together.
+
+"Now, honey," said Candace, after a pause of some minutes, "I knows our
+Doctor's a mighty good man, an' larned,--an' in fair weather I ha'n't
+no 'bjection to yer hearin' all about dese yer great an' mighty tings
+he's got to say. But, honey, dey won't do for you now; sick folks
+mus'n't hab strong meat; an' times like dese, dar jest a'n't but one
+ting to come to, an' dat ar's _Jesus_. Jes' come right down to whar poor
+ole black Candace has to stay allers,--it's a good place, darlin'! _Look
+right at Jesus_. Tell ye, honey, ye can't live no other way now. Don't
+ye 'member how He looked on His mother, when she stood faintin' an'
+tremblin' under de cross, jes' like you? He knows all about mothers'
+hearts; He won't break yours. It was jes' 'cause He know'd we'd come
+into straits like dis yer, dat he went through all dese tings,--Him, de
+Lord o' Glory! Is dis Him you was a-talkin' about?--Him you can't love?
+Look at Him, an' see ef you can't. Look an' see what He is!--don't ask
+no questions, and don't go to no reasonin's,--jes' look at _Him_,
+hangin' dar, so sweet and patient, on de cross! All dey could do
+couldn't stop his lovin' 'em; he prayed for 'em wid all de breath he
+had. Dar's a God you can love, a'n't dar? Candace loves Him,--poor, ole,
+foolish, black, wicked Candace,--and she knows He loves her,"--and here
+Candace broke down into torrents of weeping.
+
+They laid the mother, faint and weary, on her bed, and beneath the
+shadow of that suffering cross came down a healing sleep on those weary
+eyelids.
+
+"Honey," said Candace, mysteriously, after she had drawn Mary out of the
+room, "don't ye go for to troublin' yer mind wid dis yer. I'm clar
+Mass'r James is one o' de 'lect; and I'm clar dar's consid'able more o'
+de 'lect dan people tink. Why, Jesus didn't die for nothin',--all dat
+love a'n't gwine to be wasted. De 'lect is more'n you or I knows, honey!
+Dar's de _Spirit_,--He'll give it to 'em; and ef Mass'r James _is_
+called an' took, depend upon it de Lord has got him ready,--course He
+has,--so don't ye go to layin' on yer poor heart what no mortal creetur
+can live under; 'cause, as we's got to live in dis yer world, it's quite
+clar de Lord must ha' fixed it so we _can_; and ef tings was as some
+folks suppose, why, we _couldn't_ live, and dar wouldn't be no sense in
+anyting dat goes on."
+
+The sudden shock of these scenes was followed, in Mrs. Marvyn's case, by
+a low, lingering fever. Her room was darkened, and she lay on her bed, a
+pale, suffering form, with scarcely the ability to raise her hand. The
+shimmering twilight of the sick-room fell on white napkins, spread over
+stands, where constantly appeared new vials, big and little, as the
+physician, made his daily visit, and prescribed now this drug and now
+that, for a wound that had struck through the soul.
+
+Mary remained many days at the white house, because, to the invalid, no
+step, no voice, no hand was like hers. We see her there now, as she sits
+in the glimmering by the bed-curtains,--her head a little drooped, as
+droops a snowdrop over a grave;--one ray of light from a round hole in
+the closed shutters falls on her smooth-parted hair, her small hands are
+clasped on her knees, her mouth has lines of sad compression, and in her
+eyes are infinite questionings.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+When Mrs. Marvyn began to amend, Mary returned to the home cottage, and
+resumed the details of her industrious and quiet life.
+
+Between her and her two best friends had fallen a curtain of silence.
+The subject that filled all her thoughts could not be named between
+them. The Doctor often looked at her pale cheeks and drooping form with
+a face of honest sorrow, and heaved deep sighs as she passed; but he did
+not find any power within himself by which he could approach her. When
+he would speak, and she turned her sad, patient eyes so gently on him,
+the words went back again to his heart, and there, taking a second
+thought, spread upward wing in prayer.
+
+Mrs. Scudder sometimes came to her room after she was gone to bed, and
+found her weeping; and when gently she urged her to sleep, she would
+wipe her eyes so patiently and turn her head with such obedient
+sweetness, that her mother's heart utterly failed her. For hours Mary
+sat in her room with James's last letter spread out before her. How
+anxiously had she studied every word and phrase in it, weighing them to
+see if the hope of eternal life were in them! How she dwelt on those
+last promises! Had he kept them? Ah! to die without one word more! Would
+no angel tell her?--would not the loving God, who knew all, just whisper
+one word? He must have read the little Bible! What had he thought? What
+did he feel in that awful hour when he felt himself drifting on to that
+fearful eternity? Perhaps he had been regenerated,--perhaps there had
+been a sudden change;--who knows?--she had read of such
+things;--_perhaps_--Ah, in that perhaps lies a world of anguish! Love
+will not hear of it. Love _dies_ for certainty. Against an uncertainty
+who can brace the soul? We put all our forces of faith and prayer
+against it, and it goes down just as a buoy sinks in the water, and the
+next moment it is up again. The soul fatigues itself with efforts which
+come and go in waves; and when with laborious care she has adjusted all
+things in the light of hope, back flows the tide, and sweeps all away.
+In such struggles life spends itself fast; an inward wound does not
+carry one deathward more surely than this worst wound of the soul. God
+has made us so mercifully that there is no _certainty_, however
+dreadful, to which life-forces do not in time adjust themselves,--but to
+uncertainty there is no possible adjustment. Where is he? Oh, question
+of questions!--question which we suppress, but which a power of infinite
+force still urges on the soul, who feels a part of herself torn away.
+
+Mary sat at her window in evening hours, and watched the slanting
+sunbeams through the green blades of grass, and thought one year ago he
+stood there, with his well-knit, manly form, his bright eye, his buoyant
+hope, his victorious mastery of life! And where was he now? Was his
+heart as sick, longing for her, as hers for him? Was he looking back to
+earth and its joys with pangs of unutterable regret? or had a divine
+power interpenetrated his soul, and lighted there the flame of a
+celestial love which bore him far above earth? If he were among the
+lost, in what age of eternity could she ever be blessed? Could Christ be
+happy, if those who were one with Him were sinful and accursed? and
+could Christ's own loved ones be happy, when those with whom they have
+exchanged being, in whom they live and feel, are as wandering stars, for
+whom is reserved the mist of darkness forever? She had been taught that
+the agonies of the lost would be forever in sight of the saints, without
+abating in the least their eternal joys; nay, that they would find in it
+increasing motives to praise and adoration. Could it be so? Would the
+last act of the great Bridegroom of the Church be to strike from the
+heart of his purified Bride those yearnings of self-devoting love which
+His whole example had taught her, and in which she reflected, as in a
+glass, His own nature? If not, is there not some provision by which
+those roots of deathless love which Christ's betrothed ones strike into
+other hearts shall have a divine, redeeming power? Question vital as
+life-blood to ten thousand hearts,--fathers, mothers, wives,
+husbands,--to all who feel the infinite sacredness of love!
+
+After the first interview with Mrs. Marvyn, the subject which had so
+agitated them was not renewed. She had risen at last from her sick-bed,
+as thin and shadowy as a faded moon after sunrise. Candace often shook
+her head mournfully, as her eyes followed her about her dally tasks.
+Once only, with Mary, she alluded to the conversation which had passed
+between them;--it was one day when they were together, spinning, in the
+north upper room that looked out upon the sea. It was a glorious day. A
+ship was coming in under full sail, with white gleaming wings. Mrs.
+Marvyn watched it a few moments,--the gay creature, so full of exultant
+life,--and then smothered down an inward groan, and Mary thought she
+heard her saying, "Thy will be done!"
+
+"Mary," she said, gently, "I hope you will forget all I said to you that
+dreadful day. It had to be said, or I should have died. Mary, I begin to
+think that it is not best to stretch our minds with reasonings where we
+are so limited, where we can know so little. I am quite sure there must
+be dreadful mistakes somewhere.
+
+"It seems to me irreverent and shocking that a child should oppose a
+father, or a creature its Creator. I never should have done it, only
+that, where direct questions are presented to the judgment, one cannot
+help judging. If one is required to praise a being as just and good, one
+must judge of his actions by some standard of right,--and we have no
+standard but such as our Creator has placed in us. I have been told it
+was my duty to attend to these subjects, and I have tried to,--and the
+result has been that the facts presented seem wholly irreconcilable with
+any notions of justice or mercy that I am able to form. If these be the
+facts, I can only say that my nature is made entirely opposed to them.
+If I followed the standard of right they present, and acted according to
+my small mortal powers on the same principles, I should be a very bad
+person. Any father, who should make such use of power over his children
+as they say the Deity does with regard to us, would be looked upon as a
+monster by our very imperfect moral sense. Yet I cannot say that the
+facts are not so. When I heard the Doctor's sermons on 'Sin a Necessary
+Means of the Greatest Good,' I could not extricate myself from the
+reasoning.
+
+"I have thought, in desperate moments, of giving up the Bible itself.
+But what do I gain? Do I not see the same difficulty in Nature? I see
+everywhere a Being whose main ends seem to be beneficent, but whose good
+purposes are worked out at terrible expense of suffering, and apparently
+by the total sacrifice of myriads of sensitive creatures. I see
+unflinching order, general good-will, but no sympathy, no mercy. Storms,
+earthquakes, volcanoes, sickness, death, go on without regarding us.
+Everywhere I see the most hopeless, unrelieved suffering,--and for aught
+I see, it may be eternal. Immortality is a dreadful chance, and I would
+rather never have been.--The Doctor's dreadful system is, I confess,
+much like the laws of Nature,--about what one might reason out from
+them.
+
+"There is but just one thing remaining, and that is, as Candace said,
+the cross of Christ. If God so loved us,--if He died for us,--greater
+love hath no man than this. It seems to me that love is shown here in
+the two highest forms possible to our comprehension. We see a Being who
+gives himself for us,--and more than that, harder than that, a Being who
+consents to the suffering of a dearer than self. Mary, I feel that I
+must love more, to give up one of my children to suffer, than to consent
+to suffer myself. There is a world of comfort to me in the words, 'He
+that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall
+he not with him also freely give us all things?' These words speak to my
+heart. I can interpret them by my own nature, and I rest on them. If
+there is a fathomless mystery of sin and sorrow, there is a deeper
+mystery of God's love. So, Mary, I try Candace's way,--I look at
+Christ,--I pray to Him. If he that hath seen Him hath seen the Father,
+it is enough. I rest there,--I wait. What I know not now I shall know
+hereafter."
+
+Mary kept all things and pondered them in her heart. She could speak to
+no one,--not to her mother, nor to her spiritual guide; for had she not
+passed to a region beyond theirs? As well might those on the hither side
+of mortality instruct the souls gone beyond the veil as souls outside a
+great affliction guide those who are struggling in it. That is a mighty
+baptism, and only Christ can go down with us into those waters.
+
+Mrs. Scudder and the Doctor only marked that she was more than ever
+conscientious in every duty, and that she brought to life's daily
+realities something of the calmness and disengagedness of one whose soul
+has been wrenched by a mighty shock from all moorings here below. Hopes
+did not excite, fears did not alarm her; life had no force strong enough
+to awaken a thrill within; and the only subjects on which she ever spoke
+with any degree of ardor were religious subjects.
+
+One who should have seen moving about the daily ministrations of the
+cottage a pale girl, whose steps were firm, whose eye was calm, whose
+hands were ever busy, would scarce imagine that through that silent
+heart were passing tides of thought that measured a universe; but it was
+even so. Through that one gap of sorrow flowed in the whole awful
+mystery of existence, and silently, as she spun and sewed, she thought
+over and over again all that she had ever been taught, and compared and
+revolved it by the light of a dawning inward revelation.
+
+Sorrow is the great birth-agony of immortal powers,--sorrow is the great
+searcher and revealer of hearts, the great test of truth; for Plato has
+wisely said, sorrow will not endure sophisms,--all shams and unrealities
+melt in the fire of that awful furnace. Sorrow reveals forces in
+ourselves we never dreamed of. The soul, a bound and sleeping prisoner,
+hears her knock on her cell-door, and wakens. Oh, how narrow the walls!
+oh, how close and dark the grated window! how the long useless wings
+beat against the impassable barriers! Where are we? What is this prison?
+What is beyond? Oh for more air, more light! When will the door be
+opened? The soul seems to itself to widen and deepen; it trembles at its
+own dreadful forces; it gathers up in waves that break with wailing only
+to flow back into the everlasting void. The calmest and most centred
+natures are sometimes thrown by the shock of a great sorrow into a
+tumultuous amazement. All things are changed. The earth no longer seems
+solid, the skies no longer secure; a deep abyss seems underlying every
+joyous scene of life. The soul, struck with this awful inspiration, is a
+mournful Cassandra; she sees blood on every threshold, and shudders in
+the midst of mirth and festival with the weight of a terrible wisdom.
+
+Who shall dare be glad any more, that has once seen the frail
+foundations on which love and joy are built? Our brighter hours, have
+they only been weaving a network of agonizing remembrances for this day
+of bereavement? The heart is pierced with every past joy, with every
+hope of its ignorant prosperity. Behind every scale in music, the gayest
+and cheeriest, the grandest, the most triumphant, lies its dark relative
+minor; the notes are the same, but the change of a semitone changes all
+to gloom;--all our gayest hours are tunes that have a modulation into
+these dreary keys ever possible; at any moment the key-note may be
+struck.
+
+The firmest, best-prepared natures are often beside themselves with
+astonishment and dismay, when they are called to this dread initiation.
+They thought it a very happy world before,--a glorious universe. Now it
+is darkened with the shadow of insoluble mysteries. Why this everlasting
+tramp of inevitable laws on quivering life? If the wheels must roll, why
+must the crushed be so living and sensitive?
+
+And yet sorrow is godlike, sorrow is grand and great, sorrow is wise and
+farseeing. Our own instinctive valuations, the intense sympathy which we
+give to the tragedy which God has inwoven into the laws of Nature, show
+us that it is with no slavish dread, no cowardly shrinking, that we
+should approach her divine mysteries. What are the natures that cannot
+suffer? Who values them? From the fat oyster, over which the silver
+tide rises and falls without one pulse upon its fleshy ear, to the hero
+who stands with quivering nerve parting with wife and child and home for
+country and God, all the way up is an ascending scale, marked by
+increasing power to suffer; and when we look to the Head of all being,
+up through principalities and powers and princedoms, with dazzling
+orders and celestial blazonry, to behold by what emblem the Infinite
+Sovereign chooses to reveal himself, we behold, in the midst of the
+throne, "a lamb as it had been slain."
+
+Sorrow is divine. Sorrow is reigning on the throne of the universe, and
+the crown of all crowns has been one of thorns. There have been many
+books that treat of the mystery of sorrow, but only one that bids us
+glory in tribulation, and count it all joy when we fall into divers
+afflictions, that so we may be associated with that great fellowship of
+suffering of which the Incarnate God is the head, and through which He
+is carrying a redemptive conflict to a glorious victory over evil. If we
+suffer with Him, we shall also reign with Him.
+
+Even in the very making up of our physical nature, God puts suggestions
+of such a result. "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the
+morning." There are victorious powers in our nature which are all the
+while working for us in our deepest pain. It is said, that, after the
+sufferings of the rack, there ensues a period in which the simple repose
+from torture produces a beatific trance; it is the reaction of Nature,
+asserting the benignant intentions of her Creator. So, after great
+mental conflicts and agonies must come a reaction, and the Divine
+Spirit, co-working with our spirit, seizes the favorable moment, and,
+interpenetrating natural laws with a celestial vitality, carries up the
+soul to joys beyond the ordinary possibilities of mortality.
+
+It is said that gardeners, sometimes, when they would bring a rose to
+richer flowering, deprive it, for a season, of light and moisture.
+Silent and dark it stands, dropping one fading leaf after another, and
+seeming to go down patiently to death. But when every leaf is dropped,
+and the plant stands stripped to the uttermost, a new life is even then
+working in the buds, from which shall spring a tender foliage and a
+brighter wealth of flowers. So, often in celestial gardening, every leaf
+of earthly joy must drop, before a new and divine bloom visits the soul.
+
+Gradually, as months passed away, the floods grew still; the mighty
+rushes of the inner tides ceased to dash. There came first a delicious
+calmness, and then a celestial inner clearness, in which the soul seemed
+to lie quiet as an untroubled ocean, reflecting heaven. Then came the
+fulness of mysterious communion given to the pure in heart,--that advent
+of the Comforter in the soul, teaching all things and bringing all
+things to remembrance; and Mary moved in a world transfigured by a
+celestial radiance. Her face, so long mournfully calm, like some
+chiselled statue of Patience, now wore a radiance, as when one places a
+light behind some alabaster screen sculptured with mysterious and holy
+emblems, and words of strange sweetness broke from her, as if one should
+hear snatches of music from a door suddenly opened in heaven. Something
+wise and strong and sacred gave an involuntary impression of awe in her
+looks and words;--it was not the childlike loveliness of early days,
+looking with dovelike, ignorant eyes on sin and sorrow; but the
+victorious sweetness of that great multitude who have come out of great
+tribulation, having washed their robes and made them white in the blood
+of the Lamb. In her eyes there was that nameless depth that one sees
+with awe in the Sistine Madonna,--eyes that have measured infinite
+sorrow and looked through it to an infinite peace.
+
+"My dear Madam," said the Doctor to Mrs. Scudder, "I cannot but think
+that there must be some uncommonly gracious exercises passing in the
+mind of your daughter; for I observe, that, though she is not inclined
+to conversation, she seems to be much in prayer; and I have, of late,
+felt the sense of a Divine Presence with her in a most unusual degree.
+Has she opened her mind to you?"
+
+"Mary was always a silent girl," said Mrs. Scudder, "and not given to
+speaking of her own feelings; indeed, until she gave you an account of
+her spiritual state, on joining the church, I never knew what her
+exercises were. Hers is a most singular case. I never knew the time when
+she did not seem to love God more than anything else. It has disturbed
+me sometimes,--because I did not know but it might be mere natural
+sensibility, instead of gracious affection."
+
+"Do not disturb yourself, Madam," said the Doctor. "The Spirit worketh
+when, where, and how He will; and, undoubtedly, there have been cases
+where His operations commence exceedingly early. Mr. Edwards relates a
+case of a young person who experienced a marked conversion when three
+years of age; and Jeremiah was called from the womb. (Jeremiah, i. 5.)
+In all cases we must test the quality of the evidence without relation
+to the time of its commencement. I do not generally lay much stress on
+our impressions, which are often uncertain and delusive; yet I have had
+an impression that the Lord would be pleased to make some singular
+manifestations of His grace through this young person. In the economy of
+grace there is neither male nor female; and Peter says (Acts, ii. 17)
+that the Spirit of the Lord shall be poured out and your sons and your
+daughters shall prophesy. Yet if we consider that the Son of God, as to
+his human nature, was made of a woman, it leads us to see that in
+matters of grace God sets a special value on woman's nature and designs
+to put special honor upon it. Accordingly, there have been in the
+Church, in all ages, holy women who have received the Spirit and been
+called to a ministration in the things of God,--such as Deborah, Huldah,
+and Anna, the prophetess. In our own days, most uncommon manifestations
+of divine grace have been given to holy women. It was my privilege to be
+in the family of President Edwards at a time when Northampton was
+specially visited, and his wife seemed and spoke more like a glorified
+spirit than a mortal woman,--and multitudes flocked to the house to hear
+her wonderful words. She seemed to have such a sense of the Divine love
+as was almost beyond the powers of nature to endure. Just to speak the
+words, 'Our Father who art in heaven,' would overcome her with such a
+manifestation that she would become cold and almost faint; and though
+she uttered much, yet she told us that the divinest things she saw could
+not be spoken. These things could not be fanaticism, for she was a
+person of a singular evenness of nature, and of great skill and
+discretion in temporal matters, and of an exceeding humility, sweetness,
+and quietness of disposition."
+
+"I have observed of late," said Mrs. Scudder, "that, in our praying
+circles, Mary seemed much carried out of herself, and often as if she
+would speak, and with difficulty holding herself back. I have not urged
+her, because I thought it best to wait till she should feel full
+liberty."
+
+"Therein you do rightly, Madam," said the Doctor; "but I am persuaded
+you will hear from her yet."
+
+It came at length, the hour of utterance. And one day, in a praying
+circle of the women of the church, all were startled by the clear silver
+tones of one who sat among them and spoke with the unconscious
+simplicity of an angel child, calling God her Father, and speaking of an
+ineffable union in Christ, binding all things together in one, and
+making all complete in Him. She spoke of a love passing
+knowledge,--passing all love of lovers or of mothers,--a love forever
+spending, yet never spent,--a love ever pierced and bleeding, yet ever
+constant and triumphant, rejoicing with infinite joy to bear in its own
+body the sins and sorrows of a universe,--conquering, victorious love,
+rejoicing to endure, panting to give, and offering its whole self with
+an infinite joyfulness for our salvation. And when, kneeling, she
+poured out her soul in prayer, her words seemed so many winged angels,
+musical with unearthly harpings of an untold blessedness. They who heard
+her had the sensation of rising in the air, of feeling a celestial light
+and warmth, descending into their souls; and when, rising, she stood
+silent and with downcast drooping eyelids, there were tears in all eyes,
+and a hush in all movements as she passed, as if something celestial
+were passing out.
+
+Miss Prissy came rushing homeward, to hold a private congratulatory talk
+with the Doctor and Mrs. Scudder, while Mary was tranquilly setting the
+tea-table and cutting bread for supper.
+
+"To see her now, certainly," said Miss Prissy, "moving round so
+thoughtful, not forgetting anything, and doing everything so calm, you
+wouldn't 'a' thought it could be her that spoke those blessed words and
+made that prayer! Well, certainly, that prayer seemed to take us all
+right up and put us down in heaven! and when I opened my eyes, and saw
+the roses and asparagus-bushes on the manteltree-piece, I had to ask
+myself, 'Where have I been?' Oh, Miss Scudder, her afflictions have been
+sanctified to her!--and really, when I see her going on so, I feel she
+can't be long for us. They say, dying grace is for dying hours; and I'm
+sure this seems more like dying grace than anything that I ever yet
+saw."
+
+"She is a precious gift," said the Doctor; "let us thank the Lord for
+his grace through her. She has evidently had a manifestation of the
+Beloved, and feedeth among the lilies (Canticles, vi. 3); and we will
+not question the Lord's further dispensations concerning her."
+
+"Certainly," said Miss Prissy, briskly, "it's never best to borrow
+trouble; 'sufficient unto the day' is enough, to be sure.--And now, Miss
+Scudder, I thought I'd just take a look at that dove-colored silk of
+yours to-night, to see what would have to be done with it, because I
+must make every minute tell; and you know I lose half a day every week
+for the prayer-meeting. Though I ought not to say I lose it, either; for
+I was telling Miss General Wilcox I wouldn't give up that meeting for
+bags and bags of gold. She wanted me to come and sew for her one
+Wednesday, and says I, 'Miss Wilcox, I'm poor and have to live by my
+work, but I a'n't so poor but what I have some comforts, and I can't
+give up my prayer-meeting for any money,--for you see, if one gets a
+little lift there, it makes all the work go lighter,--but then I have to
+be particular to save up every scrap and end of time."
+
+Mrs. Scudder and Miss Prissy crossed the kitchen and entered the
+bedroom, and soon had the dove-colored silk under consideration.
+
+"Well, Miss Scudder," said Miss Prissy, after mature investigation,
+"here's a broad hem, not cut at all on the edge, as I see, and that
+might be turned down, and so cut off the worn spot up by the waist,--and
+then, if it is turned, it will look every bit and grain as well as a new
+silk;--I'll sit right down now and go to ripping. I put my ripping-knife
+into my pocket when I put on this dress to go to prayer-meeting,
+because, says I to myself, there'll be something to do at Miss Scudder's
+to-night. You just get an iron to the fire, and we'll have it all ripped
+and pressed out before dark."
+
+Miss Prissy seated herself at the open window, as cheery as a fresh
+apple-blossom, and began busily plying her knife, looking at the garment
+she was ripping with an astute air, as if she were about to circumvent
+it into being a new dress by some surprising act of legerdemain. Mrs.
+Scudder walked to the looking-glass and began changing her bonnet cap
+for a tea-table one.
+
+Miss Prissy, after a while, commenced in a mysterious tone.
+
+"Miss Scudder, I know folks like me shouldn't have their eyes open too
+wide, but then I can't help noticing some things. Did you see the
+Doctor's face when we was talking to him about Mary? Why, he colored all
+up and the tears came into his eyes. It's my belief that that blessed
+man worships the ground she treads on. I don't mean _worships_,
+either,--'cause that would be wicked, and he's too good a man to make a
+graven image of anything,--but it's clear to see that there a'n't
+anybody in the world like Mary to him. I always did think so; but I used
+to think Mary was such a little poppet--that she'd do better for--Well,
+you know, I thought about some younger man;--but, laws, now I see how
+she rises up to be ahead of everybody, and is so kind of solemn-like. I
+can't but see the leadings of Providence. What a minister's wife she'd
+be, Miss Scudder!--why, all the ladies coming out of prayer-meeting were
+speaking of it. You see, they want the Doctor to get married;--it seems
+more comfortable-like to have ministers married; one feels more free to
+open their exercises of mind; and as Miss Deacon Twitchel said to
+me,--'If the Lord had made a woman o' purpose, as he did for Adam, he
+wouldn't have made her a bit different from Mary Scudder.' Why, the
+oldest of us would follow her lead,--'cause she goes before us without
+knowing it."
+
+"I feel that the Lord has greatly blessed me in such a child," said Mrs.
+Scudder, "and I feel disposed to wait the leadings of Providence."
+
+"Just exactly," said Miss Prissy, giving a shake to her silk; "and as
+Miss Twitchel said, in this case every providence seems to p'int. I felt
+dreadfully for her along six months back; but now I see how she's been
+brought out, I begin to see that things are for the best, perhaps, after
+all. I can't help feeling that Jim Marvyn is gone to heaven, poor
+fellow! His father is a deacon,--and such a good man!--and Jim, though
+he did make a great laugh wherever he went, and sometimes laughed where
+he hadn't ought to, was a noble-hearted fellow. Now, to be sure, as the
+Doctor says, 'amiable instincts a'n't true holiness'; but then they are
+better than unamiable ones, like Simeon Brown's. I do think, if that man
+is a Christian, he is a dreadful ugly one; he snapped me short up about
+my change, when he settled with me last Tuesday; and if I hadn't felt
+that it was a sinful rising, I should have told him I'd never put foot
+in his house again; I'm glad, for my part, he's gone out of our church.
+Now Jim Marvyn was like a prince to poor people; and I remember once his
+mother told him to settle with me, and he gave me 'most double, and
+wouldn't let me make change. 'Confound it all, Miss Prissy,' says he, 'I
+wouldn't stitch as you do from morning to night for double that money.'
+Now I know we can't do anything to recommend ourselves to the Lord, but
+then I can't help feeling some sorts of folks must be by nature more
+pleasing to Him than others. David was a man after God's own heart, and
+he was a generous, whole-souled fellow, like Jim Marvyn, though he did
+get carried away by his spirits sometimes and do wrong things; and so I
+hope the Lord saw fit to make Jim one of the elect. We don't ever know
+what God's grace has done for folks. I think a great many are converted
+when we know nothing about it, as Miss Twitchel told poor old Miss
+Tyrel, who was mourning about her son, a dreadful wild boy, who was
+killed falling from mast-head; she says, that from the mast-head to the
+deck was time enough for divine grace to do the work."
+
+"I have always had a trembling hope for poor James," said Mrs.
+Scudder,--"not on account of any of his good deeds or amiable traits,
+because election is without foresight of any good works,--but I felt he
+was a child of the covenant, at least by the father's side, and I hope
+the Lord has heard his prayer. These are dark providences; the world is
+full of them; and all we can do is to have faith that the Lord will
+bring infinite good out of finite evil, and make everything better than
+if the evil had not happened. That's what our good Doctor is always
+repeating; and we must try to rejoice, in view of the happiness of the
+universe, without considering whether we or our friends are to be
+included in it or not."
+
+"Well, dear me!" said Miss Prissy, "I hope, if that is necessary, it
+will please the Lord to give it to me; for I don't seem to find any
+powers in me to get up to it. But all's for the best, at any rate,--and
+that's a comfort."
+
+Just at this moment Mary's clear voice at the door announced that tea
+was on the table.
+
+"Coming, this very minute," said Miss Prissy, bustling up and pulling
+off her spectacles. Then, running across the room, she shut the door
+mysteriously, and turned to Mrs. Scudder with the air of an impending
+secret. Miss Prissy was subject to sudden impulses of confidence, in
+which she was so very cautious that not the thickest oak-plank door
+seemed secure enough, and her voice dropped to its lowest key. The most
+important and critical words were entirely omitted, or supplied by a
+knowing wink and a slight stamp of the foot.
+
+In this mood she now approached Mrs. Scudder, and, holding up her hand
+on the door-side to prevent consequences, if, after all she should be
+betrayed into a loud word, she said, "I thought I'd just say, Miss
+Scudder, that, in case Mary should ---- the Doctor,--in case, you know,
+there should be a ---- in the house, you _must_ just contrive it so as
+to give me a month's notice, so that I could give you a whole fortnight
+to fix her up as such a good man's ---- ought to be. Now I know how
+spiritually-minded our blessed Doctor is; but, bless you, Ma'am, he's
+got eyes. I tell you, Miss Scudder, these men, the best of 'em, _feel_
+what's what, though they don't _know_ much. I saw the Doctor look at
+Mary that night I dressed her for the wedding-party. I tell you he'd
+like to have his wife look pretty well, and he'll get up some blessed
+text or other about it, just as he did that night about being brought
+unto the king in raiment of needle-work. That is an encouraging thought
+to us sewing-women.
+
+"But this thing was spoken of after the meeting. Miss Twitchel and Miss
+Jones were talking about it; and they all say that there would be the
+best setting-out got for her that was ever seen in Newport, if it should
+happen. Why, there's reason in it. She ought to have at least two real
+good India silks that will stand alone,--and you'll see she'll have 'em,
+too; you let me alone for that; and I was thinking, as I lay awake last
+night, of a new way of making up, that you will say is just the sweetest
+that ever you did see. And Miss Jones was saying that she hoped there
+wouldn't anything happen without her knowing it, because her husband's
+sister in Philadelphia has sent her a new receipt for cake, and she has
+tried it and it came out beautifully, and she says she'll send some in."
+
+All the time that this stream was flowing, Mrs. Scudder stood with the
+properly reserved air of a discreet matron, who leaves all such matters
+to Providence, and is not supposed unduly to anticipate the future; and,
+in reply, she warmly pressed Miss Prissy's hand, and remarked, that no
+one could tell what a day might bring forth,--and other general
+observations on the uncertainty of mortal prospects, which form a
+becoming shield when people do not wish to say more exactly what they
+are thinking of.
+
+[To be continued.]
+
+
+
+
+ONCE AND NOW.
+
+
+The Mourner lies in the solemn room
+    Where his Dead hath lately lain;
+And in the drear, oppressive gloom,
+Death-pallid with the dying moon,
+    There pass before his brain,
+In blended visions manifold,
+The present and the days of old.
+
+Fair falls the snow on her grave to-day,
+    Shrouding her sleep sublime;
+But he sees in the sunny far-away
+None among maidens so fair and gay
+    As she in her sweet spring-time:
+Where the song and the sport and the revel be,
+None among maidens so fair as she.
+
+He marks where the perfect crescent dips
+    Above the heaven of her eyes,
+Her beamy hair in soft eclipse,
+The red enchantment of her lips,
+    And all the grace that lies
+Dreaming in her neck's pure curve,
+With its regal lift and its swanlike swerve.
+
+In pictures which are forever joys,
+    She cometh to him once more:
+Once, with her dainty foot a-poise,
+She drives the bird with a merry noise
+    From her lifted battledoor,
+And tosses back, with impatient air,
+The ruffled glory of her hair;--
+
+Then gayly draping a painted doll,
+    To please an eager child;
+Or pacing athwart a stately hall;
+Or kneeling at dewy evenfall,
+    When clouds are crimson-piled,
+And all the hushed and scented air
+Is tremulous with the voice of prayer;--
+
+Or standing mute and rapture-bound
+    The while her sisters sing;
+From voice and lute there floats around
+A golden confluence of sound,
+    Spreading in fairy ring;
+And with a beautiful grace and glow
+Her head sways to the music's flow.
+
+One night of nights in lustrous June,
+    She walks with him alone;
+Through silver glidings of the moon
+The runnels purl a dreamy tune;
+    His arm is round her thrown:
+But looks and sounds far lovelier
+Thrill on his trancéd soul from her.
+
+And then that rounded bliss, increased
+    To one consummate hour!
+The marriage-robe, the stoléd priest,
+The kisses when the rite hath ceased,
+    And with her heart's rich dower
+She standeth by his shielding side,
+His wedded wife and his own bright bride!
+
+And then the sacred influence
+    That flushed her flower to prime!
+Through Love's divine omnipotence
+She ripened to a mother once,
+    But once, and for all time:
+No higher heaven on him smiled
+Than that young mother and her child.
+
+Then all the pleasant household scenes
+    Through all the latter years!
+No murky shadow intervenes,--
+Her gentle aspect only leans
+    Through the soft mist of tears;
+Her sweet, warm smile, her welkin glance,--
+There is no speech nor utterance.
+
+O angel form, O darling face,
+    Slow fading from the shore!
+O brave, true heart, whose warmest place
+Was his alone by Love's sweet grace,
+    Still, still, forevermore!
+And now he lonely lieth, broken-hearted;
+For all the grace and glory have departed.
+
+Snow-cold in sculptured calm she lies,
+    Apparelled saintly white;
+On her sealed lips no sweet replies,
+And the blue splendor of her eyes
+    Gone down in dreamless night;
+All empery of Death expressed
+In that inexorable rest!
+
+Now leave this fair and holy Thing
+    Alone with God's dear grace!
+Her grave is but the entering
+Beneath the shadow of His wing,
+    Her trusty hiding-place,
+Till, in the grand, sweet Dawn, at last,
+This tyranny be overpast.
+
+
+
+
+A TRIP TO CUBA.
+
+CAN GRANDE'S DEPARTURE.--THE DOMINICA.--LOTTERY-TICKETS.
+
+
+I have not told you how Can Grande took leave of the Isle of Rogues, as
+one of our party christened the fair Queen of the Antilles. I could not
+tell you how he loathed the goings on at Havana, how hateful he found
+the Spaniards, and how villainous the American hotel-keepers. His
+superlatives of censure were in such constant employment that they began
+to have a threadbare sound before he left us; and as he has it in
+prospective to run the gantlet of all the inn-keepers on the continent
+of Europe, to say nothing of farther lands, where inn-keepers would be a
+relief, there is no knowing what exhaustion his powers in this sort may
+undergo before he reaches us again. He may break down into weak,
+compliant good-nature, and never be able to abuse anybody again, as long
+as he lives. In that case, his past life and his future, taken together,
+will make a very respectable average. But the climate really did not
+suit him, the company did not satisfy him, and there came a moment when
+he said, "I can bear it no longer!" and we answered, "Go in peace!"
+
+It now becomes me to speak of Sobrina, who has long been on a temperance
+footing, and who forgets even to blush when the former toddy is
+mentioned, though she still shudders at the remembrance of sour-sop. She
+is the business-man of the party; and while philosophy and highest
+considerations occupy the others, with an occasional squabble over
+virtue and the rights of man, she changes lodgings, hires carts,
+transports baggage, and, knowing half-a-dozen words of Spanish, makes
+herself clearly comprehensible to everybody. We have found a Spanish
+steamer for Can Grande; but she rows thither in a boat and secures his
+passage and state-room. The noontide sun is hot upon the waters, but her
+zeal is hotter still. Now she has made a curious bargain with her
+boatmen, by which they are to convey the whole party to the steamer on
+the fourth day.
+
+"What did you tell them?" we asked.
+
+"I said, _tres noches_ (three nights) and _un dia_, (one day,) and then
+took out my watch and showed them five o'clock on it, and pointed to the
+boat and to myself. They understood, perfectly."
+
+And so, in truth, they did; for, going to the wharf on the day and at
+the hour appointed, we found the boatmen in waiting, with eager faces.
+But here a new difficulty presented itself;--the runner of our hotel, a
+rascal German, whose Cuban life has sharpened his wits and blunted his
+conscience, insisted that the hiring of boats for the lodgers was one of
+his (many) perquisites, and that before his sovereign prerogative all
+other agreements were null and void.--N.B. There was always something
+experimentative about this man's wickedness. He felt that he did not
+know how far men might be gulled, or the point where they would be
+likely to resist. This was a fault of youth. With increasing years and
+experience he will become bolder and more skilful, and bids fair, we
+should say, to become one of the most dexterous operators known in his
+peculiar line. On the present occasion, he did not heed the piteous
+pleadings of the disappointed boatmen, nor Sobrina's explanations, nor
+Can Grande's arguments. But when the whole five of us fixed upon him our
+mild and scornful eyes, something within him gave way. He felt a little
+bit of the moral pressure of Boston, and feebly broke down, saying, "You
+better do as you like, then," and so the point was carried.
+
+A pleasant run brought us to the side of the steamer. It was dusk
+already as we ascended her steep gangway, and from that to darkness
+there is, at this season, but the interval of a breath. Dusk, too, were
+our thoughts, at parting from Can Grande, the mighty, the vehement, the
+great fighter. How were we to miss his deep music, here and at home!
+With his assistance we had made a very respectable band; now we were to
+be only a wandering drum and fife,--the fife particularly shrill, and
+the drum particularly solemn. Well, we went below, and examined the
+little den where Can Grande was to pass the other seven days of his
+tropical voyaging. The berths were arranged the wrong way,--across, not
+along, the vessel,--and we foresaw that his head would go up and his
+feet down, and _vice versâ_, with every movement of the steamer, and our
+weak brains reeled at the bare thought of what he was to suffer. He,
+good soul, meanwhile, was thinking of his supper, and wondering if he
+could get tea, coffee, and chocolate, a toasted roll, and the touch of
+cold ham which an invalid loves. And we beheld, and they were bringing
+up the side of the vessel trays of delicious pastry, and festoons of
+fowls, with more literal butcher's meat. And we said, "There will be no
+famine on board. Make the most of your supper, Can Grande; for it will
+be the last of earth to you, for some time to come." And now came
+silence, and tears, and last embraces; we slipped down the gangway into
+our little craft, and, looking up, saw, bending above us, between the
+slouched hat and the silver beard, the eyes that we can never forget,
+that seemed to drop back in the darkness with the solemnity of a last
+farewell. We went home, and the drum hung himself gloomily on his peg,
+and the little fife _shut up_ for the remainder of the evening.
+
+Has Mr. Dana described the Dominica, I wonder? Well, if he has, I cannot
+help it. He never can have eaten so many ices there as I have, nor
+passed so many patient hours amid the screeching, chattering, and
+devouring, which make it most like a cage of strange birds, or the
+monkey department in the Jardin des Plantes.--_Mem._ I always observed
+that the monkeys just mentioned seemed far more mirthful than their
+brethren in the London Zoölogical Gardens. They form themselves, so to
+speak, on a livelier model, and feel themselves more at home with their
+hosts.
+
+But the Dominica. You know, probably, that it is the great _café_ of
+Havana. All the day long it is full of people of all nations, sipping
+ices, chocolate, and so on; and all night long, also, up to the to me
+very questionable hour when its patrons go home and its _garçons_ go to
+bed. We often found it a welcome refuge at noon, when the _douche_ of
+sunlight on one's _cervix_ bewilders the faculties, and confuses one's
+principles of gravitation, toleration, etc., etc. You enter from the
+Tophet of the street, and the intolerable glare is at once softened to a
+sort of golden shadow. The floor is of stone; in the midst trickles a
+tiny fountain with golden network; all other available space is crowded
+with marble tables, square or round; and they, in turn, are scarcely
+visible for the swarm of black-coats that gather round them. The smoke
+of innumerable cigars gives a Rembrandtic tinge to the depths of the
+picture, and the rows and groups of nodding Panama hats are like very
+dull flower-beds. In the company, of course, the Spanish-Cuban element
+largely predominates; yet here and there the sharper English breaks upon
+the ear.
+
+"Yes, I went to that plantation; but they have only one thousand boxes
+of sugar, and we want three thousand for our operation."
+
+A Yankee, you say. Yes, certainly; and turning, you see the tall, strong
+Philadelphian from our hotel, who calls for everything by its right
+name, and always says, "_Mas! mas!_" when the waiter helps him to ice.
+Some one near us is speaking a fuller English, with a richer "_r_" and
+deeper intonation. See there! that is our own jolly captain, Brownless
+of ours, the King of the "Karnak"; and going up to the British lion, we
+shake the noble beast heartily by the paw.
+
+The people about us are imbibing a variety of cooling liquids. Our turn
+comes at last. The _garçon_ who says, "I speke Aingliss," brings us
+each a delicious orange _granizada_, a sort of half-frozen water-ice,
+familiar to Italy, but unknown in America. It is ice in the first
+enthusiasm of freezing,--condensed, not hardened. Promoting its
+liquefaction with the spoon, you enjoy it through the mediation of a
+straw. The unskilful make strange noises and gurglings through this
+_tenuis avena_; but to those who have not forgotten the accomplishment
+of suction, as acquired at an early period of existence, the _modus in
+quo_ is easy and agreeable.
+
+You will hardly weary of watching the groups that come and go and sit
+and talk in this dreamy place. If you are a lady, every black eye
+directs its full, tiresome stare at your face, no matter how plain that
+face may be. But you have learned before this to consider those eyes as
+so many black dots, so many marks of wonder with no sentence attached;
+and so you coolly pursue your philosophizing in your corner, strong in
+the support of a companion, who, though deeply humanitarian and
+peaceful, would not hesitate to punch any number of Spanish heads that
+should be necessary for the maintenance of your comfort and his dignity.
+
+The scene is occasionally varied by the appearance of a beggar-woman,
+got up in great decency, and with a wonderful air of pinched and faded
+gentility. She wears an old shawl upon her head, but it is as nicely
+folded as an aristocratic mantilla; her feet are cased in the linen
+slippers worn by the poorer classes, but there are no unsavory rags and
+dirt about her. "That good walk of yours, friend," I thought, "does not
+look like starvation." Yet, if over there were a moment when one's heart
+should soften towards an imposing fellow-creature, it is when one is in
+the midst of the orange _granizada_. The beggar circles slowly and
+mournfully round all the marble tables in turn, holding out her hand to
+each, as the plate is offered at a church collection. She is not
+importunate; but, looking in each one's face, seems to divine whether he
+will give or no. A Yankee, sitting with a Spaniard, offers her his
+cigar. The Spaniard gravely pushes the cigar away, and gives her a
+_medio_.
+
+More pertinacious is the seller of lottery-tickets, male or female, who
+has more at stake, and must run the risk of your displeasure for the
+chance of your custom. Even in your bed you are hardly safe from the
+ticket-vender. You stand at your window, and he, waiting in the street,
+perceives you, and with nods, winks, and showing of his wares endeavors
+to establish a communication with you. Or you stop and wait somewhere in
+your _volante_, and in the twinkling of an eye the wretch is at your
+side to bear you company till you drive off again. At the Dominica he is
+especially persevering, and stands and waits with as much zeal as if he
+knew the saintly line of Milton. Like the beggar, however, he is
+discriminative in the choice of his victims, and persecutes the stony
+Yankee less than the oily Spaniard, whose inbred superstitions force him
+to believe in luck.
+
+Very strange stories do they tell about the trade in
+lottery-tickets,--strange, at least, to us, who consider them the folly
+of follies. Here, as in Italy, the lotteries are under the care of the
+State, and their administration is as careful and important as that of
+any other branch of finance. They are a regular and even reputable mode
+of investment. The wealthy commercial houses all own tickets, sometimes
+keeping the same number for years, but more frequently changing after
+each unsuccessful experiment. A French gentleman in Havana assured me
+that his tickets had already cost him seven thousand dollars. "And now,"
+said he, "I cannot withdraw, for I cannot lose what I have already paid.
+The number has not been up once in eight years; its turn must come soon.
+If I were to sell my ticket, some one would be sure to draw the great
+prize with it the week after." This, perhaps, is not very unlike the
+calculations of business risks most in vogue in our great cities. A
+single ticket costs an ounce (seventeen dollars); but you are constantly
+offered fractions, to an eighth or a sixteenth. There are ticket-brokers
+who accommodate the poorer classes with interests to the amount of ten
+cents, and so on. Thus, for them, the lottery replaces the savings-bank,
+with entire uncertainty of any return, and the demoralizing process of
+expectation thrown into the bargain. The negroes invest a good deal of
+money in this way, and we heard in Matanzas a curious anecdote on this
+head. A number of negroes, putting their means together, had
+commissioned a ticket-broker to purchase and hold for them a certain
+ticket. After long waiting and paying up, news came to Matanzas that the
+ticket had drawn the $100,000 prize. The owners of the negroes were in
+despair at this intelligence. "Now my cook will buy himself," says one;
+"my _calesero_ will be free," says another; and so on. The poor slaves
+ran, of course, in great agitation, to get their money. But, lo! the
+office was shut up. The rascal broker had absconded. He had never run
+the risk of purchasing the ticket; but had coolly appropriated this and
+similar investments to his own use, preferring the bird in the hand to
+the whole aviary of possibilities. He was never heard of more; but
+should he ever turn up anywhere, I commend him as the fittest subject
+for Lynch-law on record.
+
+Well, as I have told you, all these golden chances wait for you at the
+Dominica, and many Americans buy, and look very foolish when they
+acknowledge it. The Nassauese all bought largely during their short
+stay; and even their little children held up with exultation their
+fragments of tickets, all good for something, and bad for something,
+too.
+
+If you visit the Dominica in the evening, you find the same crowd, only
+with a sprinkling of women, oftenest of your own country, in audacious
+bonnets, and with voices and laughter which bring the black eyes upon
+them for a time. If it be Sunday evening, you will see here and there
+groups of ladies in full ball-dress, fresh from the Paseo, the _volante_
+waiting for them outside. All is then at its gayest and busiest; but
+your favorite waiter, with disappointment in his eyes, will tell you
+that there is "_no mas_" of your favorite _granizada_, and will persuade
+you to take, I know not what nauseous substitute in its place; for all
+ices are not good at the Dominica, and some are (excuse the word) nasty.
+People sit and sip, prolonging their pleasures with dilatory spoon and
+indefatigable tongue. Group follows group; but the Spaniards are what I
+should call heavy sitters, and tarry long over their ice or chocolate.
+The waiter invariably brings to every table a chafing-dish with a
+burning coal, which will light a cigar long after its outer glow has
+subsided into ashy white. Some humans retain this kindling
+power;--_vide_ Ninon and the ancient Goethe;--it is the heart of fire,
+not the flame of beauty, that does it. When one goes home, tired, at ten
+or eleven, the company shows no sign of thinning, nor does one imagine
+how the ground is ever cleared, so as to allow an interval of sleep
+between the last ice at night and the first coffee in the morning. It is
+the universal _siesta_ which makes the Cubans so bright and fresh in the
+evening. With all this, their habits are sober, and the evening
+refreshment always light. No suppers are eaten here; and it is even held
+dangerous to take fruit as late as eight o'clock, P.M.
+
+The Dominica has still another aspect to you, when you go there in the
+character of a citizen and head of family to order West India sweetmeats
+for home-consumption. You utter the magic word _dulces_, and are shown
+with respect into the establishment across the way, where a neat
+steam-engine is in full operation, tended by blacks and whites, stripped
+above the waist, and with no superfluous clothing below it. Here they
+grind the chocolate, and make the famous preserves, of which a list is
+shown you, with prices affixed. As you will probably lose some minutes
+in perplexity as to which are best for you to order, let me tell you
+that the guava jelly and marmalade are first among them, and there is no
+second. You may throw in a little pine-apple, mamey, lime, and
+cocoa-plum; but the guava is the thing, and, in case of a long run on
+the tea-table, will give the most effectual support. The limes used to
+be famous in our youth; but in these days they make them hard and tough.
+The marmalade of bitter oranges is one of the most useful of Southern
+preserves; but I do not remember it on the list of the Dominica. Having
+given your order, let me further advise you to remain, if practicable,
+and see it fulfilled; as you will find, otherwise, divers trifling
+discrepancies between the bill and the goods as delivered, which, though
+of course purely accidental, will all be, somehow, to the Dominica's
+advantage, and not to yours. If you are in moderate circumstances, order
+eight or ten dollars' worth; if affluent, twenty or thirty dollars'
+worth; if rash and extravagant, you may rise even to sixty dollars; but
+you will find in such an outlay food for repentance. One word in your
+ear: do not buy the syrups, for they are made with very bad sugar, and
+have no savor of the fruits they represent.
+
+And this is all I can tell about the Dominica, which I recommend to all
+of you for refreshment and amusement. We have nothing like it in New
+York or Boston,--our _salons_ of the same description having in them
+much more to eat and much less to see. As I look back upon it, the place
+assumes a deeply Moorish aspect. I see the fountain, the golden light,
+the dark faces, and intense black eyes, a little softened by the
+comforting distance. Oh! to sit there for one hour, and help the
+garçon's bad English, and be pestered by the beggar, and tormented by
+the ticket-vender, and support the battery of the wondering looks, which
+make it sin for you, a woman, to be abroad by day! Is there any
+purgatory which does not grow lovely as you remember it? Would not a man
+be hanged twice, if he could?
+
+[To be continued.]
+
+
+
+
+ZELMA'S VOW.
+
+[Continued from the July Number.]
+
+PART SECOND.
+
+HOW IT WAS KEPT.
+
+
+It was late when Zelma Burleigh returned to the Grange. As she stole
+softly into the hall, she startled an Italian greyhound, which was lying
+asleep on a mat near the door. As he sprang up, the little silver bells
+on his collar tinkled out his master's secret;--Sir Harry Willerton was
+still in the drawing-room with Bessie.
+
+As Zelma passed up to her chamber, she said to herself bitterly,--"Thus
+openly and fearlessly can the rich and well-born woo and be wooed, while
+such as we must steal away to happiness as to crime, and plight our vows
+under the chill and shadow of night!" But the next moment she felt that
+there was about her love a piquant sense of peril and lawlessness, a
+wild flavor infinitely more to her taste than would be any prudent,
+commendable affection grown in drawing-rooms, nourished by
+conventionalism, and propped by social fitness; and remembering the
+manly beauty and brilliant parts of her lover, she felt that she would
+not exchange him for the proudest noble of the realm.
+
+After a time Bessie came stealing up from the drawing-room, and lay
+down by her cousin's side, softly, for fear of waking her; and all night
+long Bessie's secret curled about her smiling mouth, and quivered
+through the lids of her shut eyes, and overran her red lips in murmurs
+of happy dreams; but Zelma's secret burned like slow fire in her deepest
+heart. Bessie dreamed of merry games and quiet rambles and country
+_fêtes_ with the gay Sir Harry; but Zelma, when at last she slept,
+dreamed of wandering with her adventurous lover from province to
+province,--then of playing Juliet to his Romeo before a vast
+metropolitan audience.
+
+Days went on, and Bessie's pure, transparent nature, a lily-bud of
+sweetest womanhood, seemed unconsciously revealing itself, leaf by leaf,
+to all the world, and blooming out its beautiful innermost life; but
+Zelma's secret still smouldered in her shut heart, never by any chance
+flaming up to her lips in words. Her month assumed a look of rigid
+resolution, almost of desperation; and her eyes shone with a hard,
+diamond-like brilliancy, fitful, but never soft or tearful. Her manner
+grew more and more moody and constrained, till even her matter-of-fact
+uncle and aunt, good easy souls, and her absorbed cousin, became curious
+and anxious. The little elfish black pony was in more frequent request
+than ever; for his mistress now went out at any hour that suited her
+whim, in any weather, chose the loneliest by-ways, and rode furiously.
+Often, at evening, she ascended a dark gorge of the western hills and
+plunged down on the other side, as though in hot pursuit of the setting
+sun; and at length there came a report from the gossiping post-mistress
+of a little village over there, that she came for letters, which she
+duly received, addressed in a dashing, manly hand. This story, coming to
+the ears of Roger Burleigh, quickened his dull suspicions that
+"something was wrong with that poor girl"; and just as he was getting
+positive and peremptory, and Bessie perplexed and alarmed, Zelma
+disappeared!
+
+For several days there were anxious inquiries and vain searches in every
+direction,--storming, weeping, and sleeplessness in the Squire's usually
+happy household; and then came a letter, whose Scottish post-mark
+revealed much of the mystery. It was from Zelma, telling that she had
+left the Grange forever, and become the wife of "Mr. Bury, the strolling
+player"; and saying that she had taken this step of her own free will,
+knowing it to be a fatal, unpardonable sin against caste, and that it
+would set a great gulf between her and her respectable relatives. Yet,
+she asked, had not a gulf of _feeling_, as deep and wide, ever separated
+their hearts from the gypsy's daughter? and was it not better and more
+honest to break the weak social ties of protection and dependence which
+had stretched like wild vines across the chasm to hide it from the
+world? She then bade them all an abrupt and final farewell It was a
+letter brief, cold, and curt, almost to insolence; but beneath her new
+name, which was dashed off with somewhat of a dramatic flourish, there
+appeared hurriedly scrawled in pencil a woman's postscript, containing
+the real soul of the letter, a passionate burst of feeling, a bitter cry
+of long-repressed, sorrowful tenderness. It implored forgiveness for any
+pain she might ever have given them, for any disgrace she might ever
+bring upon them,--it thanked and blessed them for past kindness, and
+humbly prayed for them the choicest gifts and the most loving protection
+of Heaven. This postscript was signed "Zelle,"--the orphan's childish
+and pet name at the Grange, which she now put off with the peace and
+purity of maidenhood and domestic life.
+
+When it was known how Zelma Burleigh had fled, and with whom, the
+neighboring gentry were duly shocked and scandalized. The village
+gossips declared that they had always foreseen some such fate for "that
+strange girl," and sagely prophesied that the master of Willerton Hall
+would abandon all thought of an alliance with a family whose escutcheon
+had suffered so severely. But they counted on the baronet, not on the
+man,--and so, for once, were mistaken.
+
+As for honest Roger Burleigh, he was beside himself with amazement and
+indignation at the folly and ingratitude of his niece and the
+measureless presumption of "that infernal puppy of a play-actor," as he
+denominated Zelma's clever husband.
+
+As he was one day talking over the sad affair with his friend Sir Harry,
+who best succeeded in soothing him down, he inveighed against all actors
+and actresses in the strongest terms of aversion and contempt, giving
+free expression to the violent provincial prejudice of his time against
+players of all degrees.
+
+"But, my dear Sir," interrupted the young Baronet, "your niece has not
+become an actress,--only the wife of a promising actor."
+
+"No,--but she will be one yet. She's stage-struck now, more than
+anything else; and mark my words,--that villain will have her on the
+boards before the year's end, and live by her ranting. Why, you see, Sir
+Harry, strolling is in the blood, and must out, I suppose. The girl, as
+you may have heard, is half gypsy. My brother, Captain Burleigh, was a
+sad scamp, and actually married a Spanish Zincala! He was drunk at the
+time, we have the consolation to believe, or he could never have so far
+belied his good old English blood, dissipated dog as he was. To be sure,
+she saved his life once, and really was a beautiful, devoted creature,
+by all accounts; and if Zelma had done no worse than she,--run away with
+any poor devil, provided only he were a gentleman,--or if she had gone
+off vagabondizing with one of her mother's people, it would not have
+been so infamous an affair as it is; she might still have been accounted
+an honest woman;--but, my God, Sir Harry, a strolling player!"
+
+Mrs. Burleigh was but a dutiful echo of her husband's prejudices, and
+gave up her hapless niece as lost beyond redemption; but Bessie, though
+she grieved more than either, suffered from no sense of humiliation, and
+allowed no virtuous anger, no injurious doubts, to enter her blessed
+little heart. Yet she missed her lost companion, her strong friend, and,
+still vine-like in her instincts, turned wholly to the new support,--to
+one who submitted himself gladly to the sweet inthralment, and felt all
+the grander for the luscious weight and tendril-like clasp. And so Love
+came to pretty Bessie's heart "with healing in his wings."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Unspeakable was the dismay of Mr. Bury at finding that a very modest
+amount of personal property was all that his runaway wife could hope to
+receive from her relatives,--that she was utterly portionless, her
+father having more than exhausted the patrimony of a younger son. He had
+supposed, from Zelma's apparently honorable position in the household of
+her uncle, that she was, if not an heiress, at least respectably
+dowered. Had he been better informed, it is doubtful whether,
+improvident and enamored as he was, he would have ruralized and
+practicalized Romeo in the lane of Burleigh Grange. Zelma herself, too
+unworldly to suspect that self-interest had anything to do with her
+conquest, never alluded to her lack of dowry till it was too late. Then
+both manly shame and manly passion (for the actor loved her in his way,
+which was by no means her way, or the way of any large, loyal nature)
+restrained all unbecoming expression of chagrin and disappointment,--
+which yet sunk into his heart, and prepared the not uncongenial coil for
+a goodly crop of suspicion, jealousy, alienation, aversion, and all
+manner of domestic infelicities.
+
+We cannot follow Zelma step by step, in her precarious and wandering
+life, for the six months succeeding her marriage. It was a life not
+altogether distasteful to her. She was not enough of a fine lady to be
+dismayed or humiliated by its straits and shifts of poverty, by its
+isolation and ostracism; while there was something in its alternations
+of want and profusion, in its piquant contrasts of real and mimic life,
+in its excitement, action, and change, which had a peculiar charm for
+her wild and restless spirit. But from many of the associations of the
+stage, from nearly all actors and actresses, and from all green-room
+loungers, she instinctively recoiled, and held herself haughtily aloof
+from the motley little world behind the scenes,--apparently by no
+effort, but as sphered apart by the atmosphere of refinement and
+superiority which enveloped her. Yet she almost constantly accompanied
+her husband to rehearsal and play, where, for a time, her presence was
+grateful both to the pride and a more amiable passion of her mercurial
+lord. But the sight of that shy, shadowy figure haunting the wings, of
+those keen, critical eyes ever following the business of the stage, at
+last grew irksome to him, and he would fain have persuaded her to remain
+quietly at their lodgings, whilst he was attending to his professional
+duties. But no, she would go with him,--not for pleasure, or even
+affection, but, as she always avowed, for artistic purposes. That she
+had cherished, ever since her marriage, the plan of adopting her
+husband's profession, she had never concealed from him. He usually
+laughed, in his gay, supercilious way, when she spoke of this purpose,
+or lightly patted her grand head and declared her to be a wilful,
+unpractical enthusiast,--too much a child of Nature to attempt an art of
+any kind,--born to _live_ and _be_ poetry, not to declaim it,--to
+inspire genius, not to embody it,--a Muse, not a Sibyl.
+
+Once, when she was more than usually earnest in pleading for her
+plan,--not merely on the strength of her own deep, prophetic conviction
+of her fitness for a dramatic career, but on the ground of an urgent and
+bitter necessity for exertion on her part, to ward off actual
+destitution and suffering,--he exclaimed, somewhat impatiently,--"Why,
+Zelma, it is an impossibility, almost an absurdity, you urge! You could
+never make an actress. You are too hopelessly natural, erratic, and
+impulsive. You would follow no teaching implicitly, but, when you saw
+fit, would trample on conventionalities and venerable stage-traditions.
+You would set up the standard of revolt against the ancient canons of
+Art, and flout it in the faces of the critics, and--_fail_,--ay, fail,
+in spite of your great, staring eyes, the tragic weight of your brows,
+and the fiery swell of your nostril."
+
+"I should certainly tread my own ways on the boards, as elsewhere,"
+replied Zelma, quietly,--"move and act from the central force, the
+instinct and inspiration of Nature,--letting the passion of my part work
+itself out in its own gestures, postures, looks, and tones,--falling
+short of, or going beyond, mere stage-traditions. With all due deference
+for authorities, this would be my art, as it has been the art of all
+truly great actors. I shall certainly not adopt my husband's profession
+without his consent,--but I shall never cease importuning him for that
+consent."
+
+Lawrence "laughed a laugh of merry scorn," and left her to her solitary
+studies and the patient nursing of her purpose.
+
+It was finally, for Zelma's sake, through the unsolicited influence of
+Sir Harry Willerton, that "Mr. Lawrence Bury, Tragedian," attained to a
+high point in a provincial actor's ambition,--a London engagement.
+
+After a disheartening period of waiting and idleness, during which he
+and his wife made actual face-to-face acquaintance with want, and both
+came near playing their parts in the high-tragedy of starvation in a
+garret, he made his first appearance before the audience of Covent
+Garden, in the part of Mercutio. He was young, shapely, handsome, and
+clever,--full of flash and dash, and, above all, _new_. He had chosen
+well his part,--Mercutio,--that graceful frolic of fancy, which less
+requires sustained intellectual power than the exaltation of animal
+spirits,--that brief sunburst of life, that brilliant bubble of
+character, which reflects, for a moment, a world of beauty and sparkle,
+and dies in a flash of wit, yet leaves on the mind a want, a tender
+regret, which follow one through all the storm and woe of the tragedy.
+
+So it was little wonder, perhaps, that he achieved a decided success,
+though incomparably greater artists had failed where he triumphed, and
+that, in spite of the doubtful looks and faint praise of the critics, he
+became at once a public favorite,--the fashion, the rage. Ladies of the
+highest _ton_ condescended to admire and applaud, and hailed as a
+benefactor the creator of a new sensation.
+
+Very soon the young actor's aspiring soul rose above all secondary
+parts, dropped Mercutio and Horatio for Romeo and Hamlet, and had not
+the sense to see that he was getting utterly out of his element, dashing
+with silken sails into the tempest of tragedy, soaring on Icarian wings
+over its profoundest deeps and into the height and heat of its intensest
+passion.
+
+Yet with the young, the unthinking, the eager, the curious, it was then
+as it is now and ever shall be,--confidence easily passed for genius,
+and presumption for power. Tributes of admiration and envy poured in
+upon him,--anonymous missives, tender and daring, odorous with the
+atmosphere of luxurious boudoirs, and coarse scrawls, scented with
+orange-peel and lamp-smoke, and seeming to hiss with the sibilant
+whisper of green-room spite; and the young actor, valuing alike the
+sentiments, kindly or malign, which ministered to his egoism,
+intoxicated with the first foamy draught of fame, grew careless,
+freakish, and arrogant, as all suddenly adopted pets of the public are
+likely to do.
+
+At length Mr. Bury played before Royalty, and Royalty was heard to say
+to Nobility in attendance,--"What!--Who is he? Where did he come from?
+How old is he? Not quite equal to Garrick yet, but clever,--eh, my
+Lord?"
+
+This gracious royal criticism, being duly reported and printed, removed
+the last let to aristocratic favor; fast young bloods of the highest
+nobility did not acorn to shake off their perfumes and air their profane
+vocabulary in the green-room, offering snuff and the incense of flattery
+together to the Tamerlane, the Romeo, or the Lord Hamlet of the night.
+
+Happily, with the actor's fame rose his salary; and as both rose, the
+actor and his wife descended from their lofty attic-room--into whose one
+window the stars looked with, it seemed to Zelma, a startling
+nearness--to respectable lodgings on the second floor.
+
+It was during this first London season that the manager of Covent
+Garden, himself an actor, remarked the rare capabilities of Zelma's
+face, voice, and figure for the stage, and in a matter-of-fact business
+way spoke of them to her husband. The leading actor looked annoyed, and
+sought to change the subject of conversation; but as the wife's dreamy
+eyes flashed with sudden splendor, revealing the true dramatic fire, the
+manager returned upon him with his artistic convictions and practical
+arguments, and at length wrung from him most reluctant consent that
+Zelma, after the necessary study, should make a trial of her powers.
+
+Though well over the first summer-warmth of his romantic passion,
+Lawrence Bury had not yet grown so utterly cold toward his beautiful
+wife that he could see that trial approach without some slight
+sympathetic dread; but his miserable egoism forbade him to wish her
+success; in his secret heart he even hoped that an utter, irretrievable
+failure would wither at once and forever her pretty artistic
+aspirations.
+
+Zelma chose for her _début_ the part of Zara in "The Mourning
+Bride,"--not out of any love for the character, which was too stormy,
+vicious, and revengeful to engage her sympathies,--but because it was
+rapid, vehement, sharply defined, and, if realized at all, she said,
+would put her, by its very fierceness and wickedness, too far out of
+herself for failure,--sweep her through the play like a whirlwind, and
+give her no time to droop. It had for her heart, moreover, a peculiar
+charm of association, as her first play,--as that in which she had first
+beheld the hero of her dreams, "the god of her idolatry," before whom
+she yet bowed, but as with eyes cast down or veiled, not in reverence,
+but from a chill, unavowed fear of beholding the very common clay of
+which he was fashioned.
+
+The awful night of the _début_ arrived, as doomsday will come at last;
+and after having been elaborately arrayed for her part by a gossiping
+tire-woman, who _would_ chatter incessantly, relating, for the
+encouragement of the _débutante_, tale after tale of stage-fright,
+swoons, and failure,--after having been plumed, powdered, and most
+reluctantly rouged, the rose of nineteen summers having suddenly paled
+on her cheek, Zelma was silently conducted from her dressing-room by her
+husband, who, as Osmyn, took his stand with her, the guards, and
+attendants at the left wing, awaiting the summons to the presence of
+King Manuel. As they were listening to the last tender bleating of
+Almeria, the same pretty actress whom Zelma had seen as Zara at Arden,
+and the gruff responses of her sire, an eager whisper ran through the
+group;--the King and Queen had entered the royal box! This was quite
+unexpected, and Zelma was aghast. Involuntarily, she stretched out her
+hand and grasped that of her husband;--as she did so, the rattle of the
+chains on her wrist betrayed her. The attendants looked round and
+smiled;--Lawrence frowned and turned away, with a boy's pettishness. He
+had been more than usually moody that day; but Zelma had believed him
+troubled for her sake, and even now interpreted his unkindness as
+nervous anxiety.
+
+The next moment, everything, even he, was forgotten; for she stood, she
+hardly knew how, upon the stage, receiving and mechanically
+acknowledging a great burst of generous British applause.
+
+It was a greeting less complaisant and patronizing than is usually given
+to _débutantes_. Zelma's youthful charms, heightened by her sumptuous
+dress, took her audience by surprise, and, while voice and action
+delayed, made for her friends and favor, and bribed judgment with
+beauty.
+
+King Manuel receives his captives with a courteous speech,--only a few
+lines; but, during their reading, through what a lifetime of fear, of
+pain, of unimaginable horrors passed Zelma! Stage-fright, that waking
+nightmare of _débutantes_, clutched her at once, petrifying, while it
+tortured her. The house seemed to surge around her, the stage to rock
+under her feet. She fancied she heard low, elfish laughter behind the
+scenes, and already the hiss of the critics seemed to sing in her
+reeling brain. A thousand eyes pierced her through and through,--seemed
+to see how the frightened blood had shrunk away from its mask of rouge
+and hidden in her heart,--how that poor childish heart fluttered and
+palpitated,--how near the hot tears were to the glazed eyeballs,--how
+fast the black, obliterating shadows were creeping over the records of
+memory,--how the first instinct of fear, a blind impulse to flight, was
+maddening her.
+
+She raised her eyes to the royal box, where sat a stout, middle-aged
+man, with a dull, good-humored face, a star and ribbon on his breast,
+and by his side a woman, ample and motherly, with an ugly tuft of
+feathers on her head, and a diamond tiara, which lit up her heavy Dutch
+features like a torch. The King, the Queen!
+
+Just at this moment, his Majesty was in gracious converse with a lady on
+his right, a foreign princess, of an ancient, unpronounceable title,--a
+thin, colorless head and form, overloaded with immemorial
+family-jewels,--a mere frame of a woman, to hang brilliants upon. She
+was one shine and shiver of diamonds, from head to foot;--she palpitated
+light, like a glow-worm. Her Majesty, meanwhile, was regaling herself
+from a jewelled snuff-box, and talking affably over her shoulder to her
+favorite mistress of the robes, the fearful Schwellenberg.
+
+But Zelma, looking through the transfiguring atmosphere of loyalty,
+beheld the royal group encompassed by all the ideal splendor and
+sacredness of majesty;--over their very commonplace heads towered the
+airy crowns of a hundred regal ancestors, piled round on round, and
+glimmering away into the clouds.
+
+Ere she turned her fascinated eyes away from the august sight, her cue
+was given. She started, and struggled to speak, but her lips clung
+together. There was a dull roar and whirl in her brain, as of a vortex
+of waters. In piteous appealing she looked into the face of her husband,
+and caught on his lips a strange, faint smile of mingled pity and
+exultation. It stung her like a lash! Instantly she was herself, or
+rather Zara, a captive, but every inch a queen, and delivered herself
+calmly and proudly, though with a little tremble of her past agitation
+in her voice,--a thrill of womanly feeling, which felt its way at once
+to the hearts of her audience.
+
+The first act, however, afforded her so little scope for acting, that
+she left the stage unassured of her own success. There was doubt before
+and behind the curtain. The critics had given no certain sign,--the
+general applause might have been merely an involuntary tribute to youth
+and beauty. Actors and actresses hung back,--even the friendly manager
+was guarded in his congratulations. But in the second act the
+_débutante_ put an end to this dubious state of things,--at least, so
+far as her audience was concerned. "The Captive Queen" took captive all,
+save that stern row of critics,--the indomitable, the incorruptible.
+Their awful judgment still hung suspended over her head.
+
+In a scene with Osmyn Zelma first revealed her tragic power. In her
+fitful tenderness, in the passionate reproaches which she stormed upon
+him, in her entreaties and imprecations, she was the poet's ideal, and
+more. She dashed into the crude and sketchy character bold strokes of
+Nature and illuminative gleams of genius, all her own.
+
+Mr. Bury, as Osmyn, was cold and unsympathetic, avoided the eye of Zara,
+and was even more tender than was "set down in the book" to Almeria.
+
+"How well he acts his part!" said to herself the generous Zelma.
+
+"How anxiety for his wife dashes his spirit!" said the charitable
+audience.
+
+At the close of this act the manager grasped Zelma's hand, and spoke of
+her success as certain. She thanked him with an absent air, and gazed
+about her wistfully. Surely her husband should have been the first to
+give her joy. But he did not come forward. She shrank away to her
+dressing-room, and waited for him vainly till she knew he was on the
+stage, where she next met him in the great prison-scene.
+
+In this scene, some bitterness of feeling--the first sharp pangs of
+jealousy--gave, unconsciously to herself, a terrible vitality and
+reality to her acting. She filled the stage with the electrical
+atmosphere of her genius. Waxen Almeria, who was to have gone out as she
+entered, received a shock of it, and stood for a moment transfixed. Even
+Osmyn kindled out of his stony coldness, and gazed with awe and
+irrepressible admiration at this new revelation of that strange,
+profound creature he had called "wife." She, so late a shy woodland
+nymph, stealing to his embrace,--now an angered goddess, blazing before
+him, calling down upon him the lightnings of Olympus, with all the world
+to see him shrink and shrivel into nothingness! And all this power and
+passion, overtopping his utmost reach of art, outsoaring his wildest
+aspirations, he had wooed, fondled, and protected! At first he was
+overwhelmed with amazement; he could hardly have been more so, had a
+volcano broken out through his hearth-stone; but soon, under the fierce
+storm of Zara's taunts and reproaches, a sullen rage took possession of
+him. He could not separate the actress from the wife,--and the wife
+seemed in open, disloyal revolt. Every burst of applause from the
+audience was an insult to him; and he felt a mad desire to oppose, to
+defy them all, to assert a master's right over that frenzied woman, to
+grasp her by the arm and drag her from the stage before their eyes!
+
+This scene closes with a memorable speech:--
+
+    "Vile and ingrate! too late thou shalt repent
+    The base injustice thou hast done my love!
+    Ay, thou shalt know, spite of thy past distress,
+    And all the evils thou so long hast mourned,
+    Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned,
+    Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned!"
+
+Zelma gave these lines as no pre-Siddonian actress had ever given
+them,--with a certain _sublimity_ of rage, the ire of an immortal,--and
+swept off the scene before a wild tumult of applause, led by the
+vanquished critics. It followed her, surge on surge, to her
+dressing-room, whither she hastily retreated through a crowd of players
+and green-room _habitués_.
+
+That sudden tempest shook even the royal box. The King, who a short time
+before had been observed to nod, not shaking his "ambrosial locks" in
+Jove-like approval, but somnolently, started up, exclaiming, "What!
+what! what's that?"--and the Queen--took snuff.
+
+In her dressing-room Zelma waited for her husband. "Surely he will come
+now," she said.
+
+She had already put off the tragedy-queen; she was again the loving
+wife, yearning for one proud smile, one tender word, one straining
+embrace. The tempest outside the curtain still rolled in upon her, as
+she sat alone, drooping and sad, a spent thunder-cloud. The sound
+brought her no sense of triumph; she only looked around her drearily,
+like a frightened child, and called, "Lawrence!"
+
+Instead of him came the manager. She must go before the curtain; the
+audience would not be denied.
+
+Lawrence led her out,--holding her hot, trembling fingers in his cold,
+nerveless hand, a moody frown on his brow, and his lips writhing with a
+forced smile.
+
+As Zelma bent and smiled in modest acknowledgment of renewed applause,
+led by royalty itself,--her aspirations so speedily fulfilled, her
+genius so early crowned,--even at that supreme moment, the grief of the
+woman would have outweighed the triumph of the artist, and saddened all
+those plaudits into knell-like sounds, could she have known that the
+miserable fiends of envy and jealousy had grasped her husband's heart
+and torn it out of her possession forever.
+
+In the death-scene, where the full tide of womanly feeling, which has
+been driven out of Zara's heart by the volcanic shocks of fierce
+passions, comes pouring back with whelming force, Zelma lost none of her
+power, but won new laurels, bedewed with tears from "eyes unused to
+weep."
+
+Zara dies by her own hand, clinging to the headless body of King Manuel,
+believing it to be Osmyn's. Zelma gave the concluding lines of her part
+brokenly, in a tone of almost childlike lamenting, with piteous murmurs
+and penitent caresses:--
+
+    "Cold, cold!--my veins are icicles and frost!
+    Cover us close, or I shall chill his breast,
+    And fright him from my arms!--See! see! he slides
+    Still farther from me! Look! he hides his face!
+    I cannot feel it!--quite beyond my reach!--Ah,
+    now he's gone, and all is dark!"
+
+With that last desolate moan of a proud and stormy spirit, sobbing
+itself into the death-quiet, a visible shudder crept through the house.
+Even the King threw himself back in his royal chair with an
+uncomfortable sort of "ahem!" as though choking with an emotion of
+common humanity; and the Queen--forgot to take snuff.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+From the night of her triumphant _début_, the life of the actress ran in
+the full sunlight of public favor; but the life of the woman crept away
+into the shadow,--not of that quiet and repose so grateful to the true
+artist, but of domestic discomfort and jealous estrangement.
+
+Nobly self-forgetful always, Zelma, in the first hour of success,
+feeling, in spite of herself, the pettiness and egoism of her husband's
+nature, with a sense of humiliation in which it seemed her very soul
+blushed, offered to renounce forever the career on which she had just
+entered. Mr. Bury, however, angrily refused to accept the sacrifice,
+though she pressed it upon him, at last, as a "peace-offering," on her
+knees, and weeping like a penitent. "It is too late," he said, bitterly.
+"The deed is done. You are mine no longer,--you belong to the public;--I
+wish you joy of your fickle master."
+
+From that time Zelma went her own ways, calm and self-reliant outwardly,
+but inwardly tortured with a host of womanly griefs and regrets, a
+helpless sense of wrong and desolation. She flew to her beautiful art
+for consolation, flinging herself, with a sort of desperate abandonment,
+out of her own life of monotonous misery into the varied sorrows of the
+characters she personated. For her the cup of fame was not mantling with
+the wine of delight which reddens the lips and "maketh glad the heart."
+The costly pearl she had dissolved in it had not sweetened the draught;
+but it was intoxicating, and she drank it with feverish avidity.
+
+But for Lawrence Bury, his powers flagged and failed in the unnatural
+rivalship; his acting grew more and more cold and mechanical. He became
+more than ever subject to moods and caprices, and rapidly lost favor
+with the public, till at last he was regarded only as the husband of the
+popular actress,--then, merely tolerated for her sake. He fell, or
+rather flung himself, into a life of reckless dissipation and
+profligacy, and sunk so low that he scrupled not to accept from his
+wife, and squander on base pleasures, money won by the genius for which
+he hated her. Many were the nights when Zelma returned from the
+playhouse to her cheerless lodgings, exhausted, dispirited, and alone,
+to walk her chamber till the morning, wrestling with real terrors and
+sorrows, the homely distresses of the heart, hard, absolute,
+unrelieved,--to which the tragic agonies she had been representing
+seemed but child's play.
+
+At length, finding himself at the lowest ebb of theatrical favor, and
+hating horribly the scene of his humiliating defeat, Mr. Bury resolved
+to return to his old strolling life in the provinces. Making at the same
+moment the first announcement of his going and his hurried adieux to
+Zelma, who heard his last cold words in dumb dismay, with little show of
+emotion, but with heavy grief and dread presentiments at her heart, he
+departed. He was accompanied by the fair actress with whom he played
+first parts at Arden,--but now, green-room gossip said, not in a merely
+professional association. This story was brought to Zelma; but her
+bitter cup was full without it. With a noble blindness, the fanaticism
+of wifely faith, she rejected it utterly. "He is weak, misguided, mad,"
+she said, "but not so basely false as that. He must run his wild,
+wretched course awhile longer,--it seems necessary for him; but he will
+return at last,--surely he will,--sorrowful, repentant, 'in his right
+mind,' himself and mine once more. He cannot weary out God's patience
+and my love."
+
+After the first shock of her desertion was past, Zelma was conscious of
+a sense of relief from a weight of daily recurring care and humiliation,
+the torture of an unloving presence, chill and ungenial as arctic
+sunlight. Even in the cold blank of his absence there was something
+grateful to her bruised heart, like the balm of darkness to suffering
+eyes. Her art was now all in all to her,--the strong-winged passion,
+which lifted her out of herself and her sorrows. She was studying Juliet
+for the first time. She had been playing for more than a year before she
+could be prevailed upon to attempt a Shakspearian character, restrained
+by a profound modesty from exercising her crude powers upon one of those
+grand creations.
+
+When, at length, she made choice of Juliet, what study was hers!--how
+reverent! how loving! how glad!--the perfect service of the spirit! She
+shut out the world of London from her sight, from her thoughts, till it
+seemed lost in one of its own fogs. The air, the sky, the passion, the
+poetry of Italy were above and around her. Again she revelled in that
+wondrous garden of love and poesy, with a background of graves,
+solemnizing joy. Now her fancy flitted, on swift, unresting wing, from
+beauty to beauty,--now settled, bee-like, on some rich, half-hidden
+thought, and hung upon it, sucking out its most sweet and secret heart
+of meaning. She steeped her soul in the delicious romance, the summer
+warmth, the moonlight, the sighs and tears of the play. She went from
+the closet to the stage, not brain-weary and pale with thought, but
+fresh, tender, and virginal,--not like one who had committed the _part_
+of Juliet, but one whom Juliet possessed in every part. She seemed to
+bear about her an atmosphere of poetry and love, the subtile spirit of
+that marvellous play. There was no air of study, not the faintest taint
+of the midnight oil;--like a gatherer of roses from some garden of
+Cashmere, or a peasant-girl from the vintage, she brought only odors
+from her toil,--the sweets of the fancy, a flavor of the passion she had
+made her own.
+
+On her first night in this play, Zelma was startled by recognizing among
+the audience the once familiar faces of her uncle Roger, her cousin
+Bessie, and Sir Harry Willerton. They had all come up to London to draw
+up the papers and purchase the _trousseau_ for the wedding, which would
+have taken place a year sooner, but for the death of Bessie's mother.
+
+Squire Burleigh had been entrapped by his daughter and her lover into
+coming to the play,--he being in utter ignorance as to whom he was to
+see in the part of Juliet. When he recognized his niece in the ball-room
+scene, he was shocked, and even angry. He started up, impetuously, to
+leave the house; and it was only by the united entreaties of Bessie and
+Sir Harry that he was persuaded to stay. As the play went on, however,
+his sympathies became enlisted, in spite of his prejudices. Gradually
+his heart melted toward the fair offender, and irrepressible tears of
+admiration and pity welled up to his kindly blue eyes. He watched the
+progress of the drama with an almost breathless interest while she was
+before him, but grew listless and indifferent whenever she left the
+stage. The passion of Romeo, the philosophy of the Friar, the quaint
+garrulousness of the Nurse, the trenchant wit of Mercutio were alike
+without charm for him.
+
+But though thus lost in the fortunes and sorrows of the heroine of the
+play, the dramatic illusion was far from complete for him. It was not
+Juliet,--it was Zelma, the wild, misguided, lost, but still beloved
+child of his poor brother; and in his bewildered brain her sad story was
+strangely complicated with that of the hapless girl of Verona. When she
+swallowed the sleeping-draught, he shrank and shuddered at the horrible
+pictures conjured up by her frenzied fancy; and in the last woful scene,
+he forgot himself, the play, the audience, everything but her, the
+forlorn gypsy child, the shy and lonely little girl whom long years ago
+he had taken on his knee, and smoothed down her tangled black hair, as
+he might have smoothed the plumage of an eaglet, struggling and
+palpitating under his hand, and glancing up sideways, with fierce and
+frightened eyes,--and now, when he saw her about to plunge the cruel
+blade into her breast, he leaped to his feet and electrified the house
+by calling out, in a tone of agonized entreaty,--"Don't, Zelle! for
+God's sake, don't! Leave this, and come home with us,--home to the
+Grange!"
+
+It was a great proof of Mrs. Bury's presence of mind and command over
+her emotions, that she was not visibly discomposed by this strange and
+touching appeal, or by the laughter and applause it called forth, but
+finished her sad part, and was Juliet to the last.
+
+When, obeying the stormy summons of the audience, the lovers arose from
+the dead, and glided ghost-like before the curtain, Zelma, really pale
+with the passion and woe of her part, glanced eagerly at the box in
+which she had beheld her friends;--it was empty. The worthy Squire,
+overcome with confusion at the exposure he had made of his weakness and
+simplicity, had hurried from the theatre, willingly accompanied by his
+daughter and Sir Harry.
+
+On the following day, sweet Bessie Burleigh, with the consent, at the
+request even, of her father, sought out her famous cousin, bearing terms
+of reconciliation and proffers of renewed affection.
+
+The actress was alone. She had just risen from her late breakfast, and
+was in a morning costume,--careless, but not untidy. She looked languid
+and jaded; the beautiful light of young love, which the night before had
+shone with a soft, lambent flame in every glance, seemed to have burned
+itself out in her hollow eyes, or to have been quenched in tears.
+
+She flung herself on her cousin's breast with a laugh of pure joy and a
+child's quick impulse of lovingness; but almost immediately drew herself
+back, as with a sudden sense of having leaned across a chasm in the
+embrace. But Bessie, guessing her feeling, clung about her very
+tenderly, calling her pet names, smoothing her hair and kissing her wan
+cheek till she almost kissed back its faded roses. And infinite good she
+did poor Zelma.
+
+Bessie--dear, simple heart!--was no diplomatist; she did not creep
+stealthily toward her object, but dashed at it at once.
+
+"I am come, dearest Zelle, to win you home," she said. "You cannot think
+how lonely it is at the Grange, now that dear mamma is gone; and
+by-and-by it will be yet more lonely,--at least, for poor papa. He loves
+you still, though he was angry with you at first,--and he longs to have
+you come back, and to make it all up with you. Oh, I am sure, you must
+be weary of this life,--or rather, this mockery of life, this prolonged
+fever dream, this playing with passion and pain! It is killing you! Why,
+you look worn and anxious and sad as death by daylight, though you do
+bloom out strangely bright and beautiful on the stage. So, dear, come
+into the country, and rest and renew your life."
+
+Zelma opened her superb eyes in amazement, and her cheek kindled with a
+little flush of displeasure; yet she answered playfully,--"What! would
+you resolve 'the new star of the drama' into nebulousness and
+nothingness again? Remember my art, sweet Coz; I am a priestess sworn to
+its altar."
+
+"But, surely," replied Bessie, ingenuously, "you will not live on thus
+alone, unprotected, a mark for suspicion and calumny; for they say--they
+say that your husband has deserted you."
+
+"Mr. Bury is absent, fulfilling a professional engagement. I shall await
+his return here," replied Zelma, haughtily.
+
+Bessie blushed deeply and was silent. So, too, was the actress, for some
+moments; then, softened almost to tears, half closing her eyes, and
+letting her fancy float away like thistle-down over town and country,
+upland, valley, and moor, she said softly,--"Dear Burleigh Grange, how
+lovely it must be now! What a verdurous twilight reigns under the old
+elms of the avenue!--in what a passion of bloom the roses are unfolding
+to the sun, these warm May-days! How the honeysuckles drip with sweet
+dews! how thickly the shed hawthorn-blossoms lie on the grass of the
+long lane, rolling in little drifts before the wind! And the birds,--do
+the same birds come back to nest in their old places about the Grange, I
+wonder?"
+
+"Yes," answered Bessie, smiling; "I think all the birds have come back,
+save one, the dearest of them all, who fled away in the night-time. Her
+nest is empty still. Oh, Zelle, do you remember our pleasant little
+chamber in the turret? I could not stay there when you were gone. It is
+the stillest, loneliest place in all the house now. Even your pet hound
+refuses to enter it."
+
+"Now, my Cousin, you are really cruel," said Zelma, the tears at last
+forcing their way through her reluctant eyelids. "When I left Burleigh
+Grange, I went like Eve from Paradise,--_forever_."
+
+"Ah, but Cousin dear, there is no terrible angel with a flaming sword
+guarding the gates of the Grange against you."
+
+"Yes, the angel of its peace and ancient honor," said the actress; then
+added, pleasantly, "and he is backed by a mighty ogre, _Respectability_.
+No, no, Bessie, I can never go back to my old home, or my old self; it
+is quite impossible. But you and my uncle are very good to ask me.
+Heaven bless you for that! And, dear, when you are Lady Willerton, a
+proud wife, and, if God please, a happy mother, put me away from your
+thoughts, if I trouble you. Rest in the safe haven of home, anchored in
+content, and do not vex yourself about the poor waif afloat on wild,
+unknown seas. It is not worth while."
+
+So Bessie Burleigh was obliged to abandon her dear, impracticable plan;
+and the cousins parted forever, though neither thought or meant it then.
+Bessie returned to Arden, married the master of Willerton Hall, and slid
+into the easy grooves of a happy, luxurious country-life; while Zelma
+rode for a few proud years on the topmost swell of popular favor,--then
+suddenly passed away beyond the horizon of London life, and so, as it
+were, out of the world.
+
+One dreary November night, after having revealed new powers and won new
+honors by her first personation of Belvedera, Zelma went home to find on
+her table a brief, business-like letter from the manager of a theatre at
+Walton, a town in the North, stating that Mr. Lawrence Bury had died
+suddenly at that place of a violent, inflammatory disease, brought on,
+it was to be feared, by some excesses to which he had been addicted. The
+theatrical wardrobe of the deceased (of small value) had been retained
+in payment for expenses of illness and burial; his private papers were
+at the disposal of the widow. Deceased had been buried in the parish
+church-yard of Walton. This was all.
+
+Zelma had abruptly dismissed her maid, that she might read quite
+unobserved a letter which she suspected brought news from her husband;
+so she was quite alone throughout that fearful night. What fierce,
+face-to-face wrestlings with grief and remorse were hers! What sweet,
+torturing memories of love, of estrangement, of loss! What visions of
+_him_, torn with the agonies, wild with the terrors of death, calling
+her name in vain imploring or with angry imprecations!--of him, so
+young, so sinful, dragged struggling toward the abyss of mystery and
+night, wrenched, as it were, out of life, with all its passions hot at
+his heart!
+
+Hour after hour she sat at her table, grasping the fatal letter, still
+as death, and all but as cold. She yet wore the last dress of Belvedera,
+and was half enveloped by the black cloud of her dishevelled hair; but
+the simulated frenzy, which so late had drawn shuddering sighs from a
+thousand hearts, was succeeded by a silent, stony despair, infinitely
+more terrible. A sense of hopeless desolation and abandonment settled
+upon her soul; the distances of universes seemed to separate her from
+the dead. But to this suddenly succeeded a chill, awful sense of a
+presence, wrapped in silence and mystery, melting through all material
+barriers, treading on the impalpable air, not "looking ancient kindness
+on her pain," but lowering amid the shadows of her chamber, stern,
+perturbed, unreconciled. All these lonely horrors, these wild griefs,
+unrelieved by human sympathy or companionship, by even the unconscious
+comfort which flows in the breathing of a near sleeper, crowded and
+pressed upon her brain, and seemed to touch her veins with frost and
+fire.
+
+For long weeks, Zelma lay ill, with a slow, baffling fever. Her mind,
+torn from its moorings, went wandering, wandering, over a vast sea of
+troubled dreams,--now creeping on through weary stretches of calm, now
+plunging into the heart of tempests and tossed upon mountainous surges,
+now touching momently at islands of light, now wrecked upon black,
+desert shores.
+
+All was strange, vague, and terrible, at first; but gradually there
+stole back upon her her own life of womanhood and Art,--its scenes and
+changes, its struggles, temptations, and triumphs, its brief joy and
+long sorrow, all shaken and confused together, but still familiar. Now
+the faces of her audiences seemed to throng upon her, packing her room
+from floor to ceiling, darkening the light, sucking up all the air, and
+again piercing her through and through with their cold, merciless gaze.
+Now the characters she had personated grouped themselves around her bed,
+all distinct, yet duplicates and multiplications of herself, mocking her
+with her own voice, and glaring at her with her own eyes. Now pleasant
+summer-scenes at Burleigh Grange brightened the dull walls, and a memory
+of the long lane in the white prime of its hawthorn bloom flowed like a
+river of fragrance through her chamber. Then there strode in upon her a
+form of beauty and terror, and held her by the passion and gloom of his
+eye,--and with him crept in a chill and heavy air, like an exhalation
+from the rank turf of neglected graves.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Zelma recovered from this illness, if it could be called a recovery, to
+a state of only tolerable physical health, and a condition of pitiable
+mental apathy and languor. She turned with a half-weary, half-petulant
+distaste from her former pursuits and pleasures, and abandoned her
+profession with a sort of terror,--feeling that its mockery of sorrows,
+such as had fallen so crushingly on her unchastened heart, would madden
+her utterly. But neither could she endure again the constraint and
+conventionalities of English private life; she had died to her art, and
+she glided, like a phantom, out of her country, and out of the thoughts
+of the public, in whose breath she had lived, for whose pleasure she had
+toiled, often from the hidden force of her own sorrows, the elements of
+all tragedy seething in her secret heart.
+
+Year after year she lived a wandering, out-of-the-way life on the
+Continent. It was said that she went to Spain, sought out her mother's
+wild kindred, and dwelt with them, making their life her life, their
+ways her ways, shrinking neither from sun-glare nor tempest, privation
+nor peril. But, at length, tired of wandering and satiated with
+adventure, she flung off the Zincala, returned to England, and even
+returned, forsworn, to her art, as all do, or long to do, who have once
+embraced it from a genuine passion.
+
+She made no effort to obtain an engagement at Covent Garden; for her,
+that stage was haunted by a presence more gloomy than Hamlet, more
+dreadful than the Ghost. Nor did she seek to tread, with her free,
+unpractised step, the classic boards of Drury Lane,--where Garrick, the
+_Grand Monarque_ of the Drama, though now toward the end of his reign,
+ruled with jealous, despotic sway,--but modestly and quietly appeared at
+a minor theatre, seeming, to such play-goers as remembered her brief,
+brilliant career and sudden disappearance, like the Muse of Tragedy
+returned from the shades.
+
+She was kindly received, both for her own sake, and because of the
+pleasant memories which the sight of her, pale, slender, and sad-eyed,
+yet beautiful still, revived. Those who had once sworn by her swore by
+her still, and were loath to admit even to themselves that her early
+style of acting--easy, flowing, impulsive, the natural translation in
+action of a strong and imaginative nature--must remain what, in the long
+absence of the actress, it had become, a beautiful tradition of the
+stage,--that her present personations were wanting in force and
+spontaneity,--that they were efforts, rather than inspirations,--were
+marked by a weary tension of thought,--were careful, but not composed,
+roughened by unsteady strokes of genius, freshly furrowed with labor.
+
+Mrs. Bury made a grave mistake in choosing for her second _début_ her
+great part of Juliet; for she had outlived the possibility of playing it
+as she played it at that period of her life when her soul readily melted
+in the divine glow of youthful passion and flowed into the character,
+taking its perfect shape, rounded and smooth and fair. Through long
+years of sorrow and unrest, she had now to toil back to that golden
+time,--and there was a sort of sharpness and haggardness about her
+acting, a singular tone of weariness, broken by starts and bursts of
+almost preternatural power. Except in scenes and sentiments of pathos,
+where she had lost nothing, the last, fine, evanishing tints, the
+delicate aroma of the character, were wanting in her personation. It was
+touched with autumnal shadows,--it was comparatively hard and dry, not
+from any inartistic misapprehension of the poet's ideal, but because the
+fountain of youth in Zelma's own soul ran low, and was choked by the
+dead violets which once sweetened its waters.
+
+She felt all this bitterly that night, ere the play was over; and though
+her audience generously applauded and old friends congratulated her, she
+never played Juliet again.
+
+Yet, even in the darker and sterner parts, in which she was once so
+famous, she was hardly more successful now. In losing her bloom and
+youthful fulness of form, she had not gained that statuesque repose, or
+that refined essence of physical power and energy, which sometimes
+belongs to slenderness and pallor. She was often strangely agitated and
+unnerved when the occasion called most for calm, sustained power,--at
+times, glancing around wildly and piteously, like a haunted creature.
+Her passion was fitful and strained,--the fire of rage flickered in her
+eye, her relaxed lips quivered out curses, her hand shook with the
+dagger and spilled the poison. Her sorrows, real and imaginary, seemed
+to have broken her spirit with her heart.
+
+But in anything weird and supernatural, awful with vague, unearthly
+terrors, she was greater than ever. Whenever, in her part of Lady
+Macbeth, she came to the sleep-walking scene, that shadowy neutral
+ground between death and life, where the perturbed, burdened spirit
+moans out its secret agony, she gave startling token of the genius which
+had electrified and awed her audiences of old. A solemn stillness
+pervaded the house; every eye followed the ghost-like gliding of her
+form, every ear hung upon the voice whose tones could sound the most
+mysterious and awful depths of human grief and despair.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was during the first season of her reappearance that Mrs. Bury went
+to Drury Lane, on an off-night, to witness one of the latest efforts of
+Garrick as Richard the Third. He was, as usual, terribly great in the
+part; but, in spite of his overwhelming power, Zelma found herself
+watching the Lady Anne of the night with a strange, fascinated interest.
+This part, of too secondary and negative a character for the display of
+high dramatic powers, even in an actress who should be perfect mistress
+of herself, was borne by a young and beautiful woman, new to the London
+stage, though of some provincial reputation, who on this occasion was
+distressingly nervous and ill-assured. She had to contend not only with
+stage-fright, but Garrick-fright. "She met Roscius in all his terrors,"
+and shrank from the encounter. The fierce lightnings of his dreadful
+eyes seemed to shrivel and paralyze her; even his demoniac cunning and
+persuasiveness filled her with mortal fear. Her voice shook with a
+pathetic tremor, became hoarse and almost inaudible; her eyes sank, or
+wandered wildly; her brow was bathed with the sweat of a secret agony;
+she might have given way utterly under the paralyzing spell, had not
+some sudden inspiration of genius or love, a prophetic thrill of power,
+or a memory of her unwearied babe, come to nerve, to upbear her. She
+roused, and went through her part with some flickering flashes of
+spirit, and through all her painful embarrassment was stately and
+graceful by the regal necessity of her beauty. The event was not
+success,--was but a shade better than utter failure; and when, soon
+after, that beautiful woman dropped out of London dramatic life, few
+were they who missed her enough to ask whither she had gone.
+
+But Zelma, whose sad, searching eyes saw deeper than the eyes of
+critics, recognized from the first her grand, long-sought ideal in the
+fair unknown, whose name had appeared on the play-bills in small,
+deprecating type, under the overwhelming capitals of "MR.
+GARRICK"--"_Mrs. Siddons_." She looked upon that frightened and fragile
+woman with prophetic reverence and noble admiration: and as she walked
+her lonely chamber that night, she said to herself, somewhat sadly, but
+not bitterly,--"The true light of the English drama has arisen at last.
+'Out, out, brief candle!'"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Season after season, year after year, Zelma continued to play in London,
+but never again with the fame, the homage, the flatteries and triumphs
+of a great actress. All these she saw at last accorded to her noble
+rival. Mrs. Bury had shone very acceptably in a doubtful dramatic
+period,--first as an inspired, impassioned enthusiast, and after as a
+conscientious artist, subdued and saddened, yet always careful and
+earnest; but, like many another lesser light, she was destined to be
+lost sight of in the long, splendid day of the Kembles.
+
+Yet once again the spirit of unrest, the nomadic instinct, came back
+upon Zelma Bury,--haunted her heart and stirred in her blood till she
+could resist no longer, but, joining a company for a provincial tour,
+left London.
+
+The health of the actress had been long declining, under the almost
+unsuspected attacks of a slow, insidious disease. She was more weak and
+ill than she would confess, even to herself; she wanted change, she
+said, only change. She never dreamed of rest. Week after week she
+travelled,--never tarrying long enough In one place to weary of it,--the
+peaceful sights and sounds of rural life tranquillizing and refreshing
+her soul, as the clear expanse of its sky, the green of its woods and
+parks, the daisied swell of its downs refreshed and soothed her eye,
+tired of striking forever against dull brick walls and struggling with
+smoke and fog.
+
+Then May came round,--the haunted month of all the year for her. The
+hawthorn-hedges burst into flower,--the high-ways and by-paths and lanes
+became Milky Ways of bloom, and all England was once more veined with
+fragrance.
+
+They were in the North, when one morning Zelma was startled by hearing
+the manager say that the next night they should play at Walton. It was
+there that Lawrence Bury died; it was there he slept, in the stranger's
+unvisited grave. She would seek out that grave and sink on it, as on the
+breast of one beloved, though long estranged. It would cool the dull,
+ceaseless fever of her heart to press it against the cold mound, and to
+whisper into the rank grass her faithful remembrance, her forgiveness,
+her unconquerable love.
+
+But it was late when the players reached Walton; and, after the
+necessary arrangements for the evening were concluded, Zelma found that
+she had no time for a pilgrimage to the parish churchyard. She could see
+it from a window of her lodgings;--it was high-walled, dark and damp,
+crowded with quaint, mossy tomb-stones, and brooded over by immemorial
+yews. In the deepening, misty twilight, there was something awful in the
+spot. It was easy to fancy unquiet spectres lurking in its gloomy
+shadows, waiting for the night Yet Zelma's heart yearned toward it, and
+she murmured softly, as she turned away, "Wait for me, love!"
+
+The play, on this night, was "The Fair Penitent." In the character of
+Calista Mrs. Bury had always been accounted great, though it was
+distasteful to her. Indeed, for the entire play she expressed only
+contempt and aversion; yet she played her part in it faithfully and
+carefully, as she performed all professional tasks.
+
+In reading this tragedy now, one is at a loss to understand how such
+trash could have been tolerated at the very time of the revival of a
+pure dramatic literature,--how such an unsavored broth of sentiment,
+such a meagre hash of heroics, could have been relished, even when
+served by Kembles, after the rich, varied, Olympian banquets of
+Shakspeare.
+
+The argument is briefly this:--
+
+Calista, daughter of Sciolto, is betrothed to Altamount, a young lord,
+favored by Sciolto. Altamount has a friend, Horatio, and an enemy,
+Lothario, secretly the lover and seducer of Calista, whose dishonor is
+discovered by Horatio, shortly after her marriage with Altamount, to
+whom he reveals it. Calista denies the charge, with fierce indignation
+and scorn; and the young husband believes her and discredits his friend.
+But the fourth act brings the guilt of Calista and the villany of
+Lothario fully to light. Lothario is killed by the injured husband,
+Sciolto goes mad with shame and rage, and Calista falls into a state of
+despair and penitence.
+
+The fifth act opens with Sciolto's elaborate preparations for vengeance
+on his daughter. The stage directions for this scene are,--
+
+    ["A room hung with black: on one side Lothario's
+        body on a bier; on the other a table,
+        with a skull and other bones, a book, and a
+        lamp on it. Calista is discovered on a couch,
+        in black, her hair hanging loose and disordered.
+        After soft music, she rises and comes
+        forward."]
+
+She takes the book from the table, but, finding it the pious prosing of
+some "lazy, dull, luxurious gownsman," flings it aside. She examines the
+cross-bones curiously, lays her hand on the skull, soliloquizing upon
+mortality, somewhat in the strain of Hamlet; then peers into the coffin
+of Lothario, beholds his pale visage, "grim with clotted blood," and the
+stern, unwinking stare of his dead eyes. Sciolto enters and bids her
+prepare to die; but while she stands meek and unresisting before him,
+his heart fails him; he rushes out, and is shortly after killed by
+Lothario's faction. Calista then dies by her own hand, leaving Altamount
+desperate and despairing.
+
+Poor Calista is neither a lovely nor a lofty character; but there is
+something almost grand in her fierce pride, in her defiant _hauteur_, in
+her mighty struggle with shame. Mrs. Siddons made the part terribly
+impressive. Mrs. Bury softened it somewhat, giving it a womanly dignity
+and pathos that would seem foreign and almost impossible to the
+character.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When Zelma entered her dressing-room, on that first night at Walton, she
+found on her table a small spray of hawthorn-blossoms.
+
+"How came these flowers here?" she asked, in a hurried, startled tone.
+
+"I placed them there," replied her little maid, Susan, half-frightened
+by the strange agitation of her mistress. "I plucked the sprig in our
+landlady's garden; for I remembered that you loved hawthorn-blossoms,
+and used often to buy them in Covent-Garden Market."
+
+"Ah, yes; thank you, Susan. I do indeed love them, and I will wear them
+to-night."
+
+As she said this, she placed the flowers in her bosom,--but, the little
+maid noticed, not as an ornament, but quite out of sight, where her
+close bodice would crush them against her heart.
+
+During the first acts of the play, Zelma was languid, absent, and more
+unequal than usual. A strange sense of evil, a vague foreboding, haunted
+her. It was in vain that she said to herself, "What have I, a lonely,
+disappointed woman, loveless and joyless, to fear of misfortune
+more,--since death itself were welcome as change, and doubly welcome as
+rest?" The nameless fear still clung to her, sending cold thrills along
+her veins, fiercely grasping and holding her palpitating heart.
+
+When, in the last act, reclining on her sombre couch, she waited through
+the playing of the "soft music," there came to her a little season of
+respite and calm. Tender thoughts, and sweet, wild fancies of other days
+revisited her. The wilted hawthorn-blossoms in her bosom seemed to
+revive and to pour forth volumes of fragrance, which enveloped her like
+an atmosphere; and as she rose and advanced slowly toward the
+foot-lights, winking dimly like funeral lamps amid the gloom of the
+scene, it strangely seemed to her that she was going down the long,
+sweet lane of Burleigh Grange. The magic of that perfume, and something
+of kindred sweetness in the sad, wailing music, brought old times and
+scenes before her with preternatural distinctness. Then she became
+conscious of a _something_ making still darker and deeper the gloomy
+shadows cast by the black hangings of the scene,--a presence, not
+palpable or visible to the senses, but terribly real to the finer
+perceptions of the spirit,--a presence unearthly, yet familiar and
+commanding, persistent, resistless, unappeasable,--moving as she moved,
+pausing as she paused, clutching at her hands, and searching after her
+eyes. The air about her seemed heavy with a brooding horror which sought
+to resolve itself into shape,--the dread mystery of life in death
+waiting to be revealed. Her own soul seemed groping and beating against
+the veil which hides the unseen; she gasped, she trembled, and great
+drops, like the distillation of the last mortal anguish, burst from her
+forehead.
+
+She was roused by a murmur of applause from the audience. She was acting
+so well! Nerving herself by an almost superhuman effort, her
+phantom-haunted soul standing at bay, she approached the table, and
+began, in a voice but slightly broken, the reading of her melancholy
+soliloquy. But, as she laid her hand on the skull, she gave a wild start
+of horror,--not at the touch of the cold, smooth bone, nor at the blank,
+black stare of the eyeless sockets, but at finding beneath her hand a
+mass of soft, curling hair, damp, as with night-dew!--at beholding eyes
+with "speculation" in them,--ay, with human passions, luminous and
+full,--eyes that now yearned with love, now burned with hate,--ah, God!
+the eyes of Lawrence Bury!
+
+With a shrill, frenzied shriek, Zelma sprang back and stood for a moment
+shuddering and crouching in a mute agony of fear. Then she burst into
+wild cries of grief and passionate entreaty, stretching her tremulous
+hands into the void air, in piteous imploring.
+
+"She has gone mad! Take her away!" shouted the excited audience; but
+before any one could reach her, she had fallen on the stage in strong
+convulsions.
+
+The actors raised her and bore her out; and as they did so, a little
+stream of blood was seen to bubble from her lips. A medical man, who
+happened to be present, having proffered his services, was hurried
+behind the scenes to where the sufferer lay, on a rude couch in the
+green-room, surrounded by the frightened players, and wept over by her
+faithful little maid.
+
+The audience lingered awhile within sound of the fitful, frenzied cries
+of the dying actress, and then dispersed in dismay and confusion.
+
+Zelma remained for some hours convulsed and delirious; but toward
+morning she sank into a deep, swoon-like sleep of utter exhaustion. She
+awoke from this, quite sane and calm, but marble-white and cold,--the
+work of death all done, it seemed, save the dashing out of the sad, wild
+light yet burning in her sunken eyes. But the bright red blood no longer
+oozed from her lips, and they told her she was better. She gave no heed
+to the assurance, but, somewhat in her old, quick, decisive way, called
+for the manager. Scarcely had he reached her side, when she began to
+question him eagerly, though in hoarse, failing tones, in regard to the
+skull used in the play of the preceding night. The manager had procured
+it of the sexton, he said, and knew nothing more of it.
+
+She sent for the sexton. He came,--a man "of the earth, earthy,"--a man
+with a grave-ward stoop and a strange uneven gait, caught in forty
+years' stumbling over mounds. A smell of turf and mould, an odor of
+mortality, went before him.
+
+He approached the couch of the actress, and looked down upon her with a
+curious, professional look, as though he were peering into a face newly
+coffined or freshly exhumed; but when Zelma fixed her live eyes upon
+him, angry and threatening, and asked, in abrupt, yet solemn tones,
+"Whose was that skull you brought for me last night?" he fell back with
+an exclamation of surprise and terror. As soon as he could collect
+himself sufficiently, he replied, that, to the best of his knowledge,
+the skull had belonged to a poor play-actor, who had died in the parish
+some sixteen or, it might be, eighteen years before; and compelled by
+the merciless inquisition of those eyes, fixed and stern, though
+dilating with horror, he added, that, if his memory served him well, the
+player's name was _Bury_.
+
+A strong shudder shivered through the poor woman's frame at this
+confirmation of the awful revealment of the previous night; but she
+replied calmly, though with added sternness,--"He was my husband. How
+dared you disturb his bones? Are you a ghoul, that you burrow among
+graves and steal from the dead?"
+
+The poor man eagerly denied being anything so inhuman. The skull had
+rolled into a grave he had been digging by the side of the almost
+forgotten grave of the poor player; and, as the manager had bespoken one
+for the play, he had thought it no harm to furnish him this. But he
+would put it back carefully into its place that very day.
+
+"See that you do it, man, if you value the repose of your own soul!"
+said Zelma, with an awful impressiveness, raising herself on one elbow
+and looking him out of the room.
+
+When he was gone, she sunk back and murmured, partly to herself, partly
+to her little maid, who wept through all, the more that she did not
+understand,--"I knew it was so; it was needless to ask. Well, 'tis well;
+he will forgive me, now that I come when he calls me, accomplishing to
+the utmost my vow. He will make peace with me, when I take my old place
+at his side,--when my head shall lie as low as his,--when he sees that
+all the laurels have dropped away,--when he sees the sorrow shining
+through the dark of my hair in rifts of silver."
+
+After a little time she grew restless, and would return to her lodgings.
+
+As the doctor and her attendant were about placing her in a sedan-chair
+to bear her away, a strange desire seized her to behold the theatre and
+tread the boards once more. They conducted her to the centre of the
+stage, and seated her on the black couch of Calista. There they left her
+quite alone for a while, and stood back where they could observe without
+disturbing her. They saw her gaze about her dreamily and mournfully;
+then she seemed to be recalling and reciting some favorite part. To
+their surprise, the tones of her voice were clear and resonant once
+more; and when she had ceased speaking, she rose and walked toward them,
+slowly, but firmly, turning once or twice to bow proudly and solemnly to
+an invisible audience. Just before she reached them, she suddenly
+pressed her hand on her heart, and the next instant felt forward into
+the arms of her maid. The young girl could not support the weight--the
+_dead_ weight, and sank with it to the floor. Zelma had made her last
+exit.
+
+
+
+
+THE MURDER OF THE INNOCENTS.
+
+A SECOND EPISTLE TO DOLOROSUS.
+
+
+So you are already mending, my dear fellow? Can it be that my modest
+epistle has done so much service? Are you like those invalids in Central
+Africa, who, when the medicine itself is not accessible, straightway
+swallow the written prescription as a substitute, inwardly digest it,
+and recover? No,--I think you have tested the actual _materia medica_
+recommended. I hear of you from all directions, walking up hills in the
+mornings and down hills in the afternoons, skimming round in wherries
+like a rather unsteady water-spider, blistering your hands upon
+gymnastic bars, receiving severe contusions on your nose from
+cricket-balls, shaking up and down on hard-trotting horses, and making
+the most startling innovations in respect to eating, sleeping, and
+bathing. Like all our countrymen, you are plunging from one extreme to
+the other. Undoubtedly, you will soon make yourself sick again; but your
+present extreme is the safer of the two. Time works many miracles; it
+has made Louis Napoleon espouse the cause of liberty, and it may yet
+make you reasonable.
+
+After all, that advice of mine, which is thought to have benefited you
+so greatly, was simply that which Dr. Abernethy used to give his
+patients: "Don't come to me,--go buy a skipping-rope." If you can only
+guard against excesses, and keep the skipping-rope in operation, there
+are yet hopes for you. Only remember that it is equally important to
+preserve health as to attain it, and it needs much the same regimen. Do
+not be like that Lord Russell in Spence's Anecdotes, who only went
+hunting for the sake of an appetite, and who, the moment he felt any
+sensation of vitality in the epigastrium, used to turn short round,
+exclaiming, "I have found it!" and ride home from the finest chase. It
+was the same Lord Russell, by the way, who, when he met a beggar and was
+implored to give him something, because he was almost famished with
+hunger, called him a happy dog, and envied him too much to relieve him.
+From some recent remarks of your boarding-house hostess, my friend, I am
+led to suppose that you are now almost as well off, in point of
+appetite, as if you were a beggar; and I wish to keep you so.
+
+How much the spirits rise with health! A family of children is a very
+different sight to a healthy man and to a dyspeptic. What pleasure you
+now take in yours! You are going to live more in their manner and for
+their sakes, henceforward, you tell me. You are to enter upon business
+again, but in a more moderate way; you are to live in a pleasant little
+suburban cottage, with fresh air, a horse-railroad, and good schools.
+For I am startled to find that your interest In your offspring, like
+that of most American parents, culminates in the school-room. This
+important matter you have neglected long enough, you think, foolishly
+absorbed in making money for them. Now they shall have money enough, to
+be sure, but wisdom in plenty. Angelina shall walk in silk attire, and
+knowledge have to spare. To which school shall you send her? you ask me,
+with something of the old careworn expression, pulling six different
+prospectuses from your pocket. Put them away, Dolorosus; I know the
+needs of Angelina, and I can answer instantly. Send the girl, for the
+present at least, to that school whose daily hours of session are the
+shortest, and whose recess-times and vacations are of the most
+formidable length.
+
+No, anxious parent, I am not joking. I am more anxious for your children
+than you are. On the faith of an ex-teacher and ex-school-committee-
+man,--for what respectable middle-aged American man but has passed
+through both these spheres of uncomfortable usefulness?--I am terribly
+in earnest. Upon this point asserted,--that the merit of an American
+school, at least so far as Angelina is concerned, is in inverse ratio to
+the time given to study,--I will lay down incontrovertible propositions.
+
+Sir Walter Scott, according to Carlyle, was the only perfectly healthy
+literary man who ever lived,--in fact, the one suitable text, he says,
+for a sermon on health. You may wonder, Dolorosus, what Sir Walter Scott
+has to do with Angelina, except to supply her with novel-reading, and
+with passages for impassioned recitation, at the twilight hour, from the
+"Lady of the Lake." But that same Scott has left one remark on record
+which may yet save the lives and reasons of greater men than himself,
+more gifted women (if that were possible) than Angelina, if we can only
+accept it with the deference to which that same healthiness of his
+entitles it. He gave it as his deliberate opinion, in conversation with
+Basil Hall, that five and a half hours form the limit of healthful
+mental labor for a mature person. "This I reckon very good work for a
+man," he said,--adding, "I can very seldom reach six hours a day; and I
+reckon that what is written after five or six hours' hard mental labor
+is not good for much." This he said in the fulness of his magnificent
+strength, and when he was producing, with astounding rapidity, those
+pages of delight over which every new generation still hangs enchanted.
+
+He did not mean, of course, that this was the maximum of possible mental
+labor, but only of wise and desirable labor. In later life, driven by
+terrible pecuniary involvements, he himself worked far more than this.
+Southey, his contemporary, worked far more,--writing, in 1814, "I cannot
+get through more than at present, unless I give up sleep, or the little
+exercise I take (walking a mile and back, after breakfast); and, that
+hour excepted, and my meals, (barely the meals, for I remain not one
+minute after them,) the pen or the book is always in my hand." Our own
+time and country afford a yet more astonishing instance. Theodore
+Parker, to my certain knowledge, has often spent in his study from
+twelve to seventeen hours daily, for weeks together. But the result in
+all these cases has sadly proved the supremacy of the laws which were
+defied; and the nobler the victim, the more tremendous the warning
+retribution.
+
+Let us return, then, from the practice of Scott's ruined days to the
+principles of his sound ones. Supposing his estimate to be correct, and
+five and a half hours to be a reasonable limit for the day's work of a
+mature brain, it is evident that even this must be altogether too much
+for an immature one. "To suppose the youthful brain," says the recent
+admirable report by Dr. Ray, of the Providence Insane Hospital, "to be
+capable of an amount of work which is considered an ample allowance to
+an adult brain is simply absurd, and the attempt to carry this fully
+into effect must necessarily be dangerous to the health and efficacy of
+the organ." It would be wrong, therefore, to deduct less than a
+half-hour from Scott's estimate, for even the oldest pupils in our
+highest schools; leaving five hours as the limit of real mental effort
+for them, and reducing this, for all younger pupils, very much farther.
+
+It is vain to suggest, at this point, that the application of Scott's
+estimate is not fair, because the mental labor of our schools is
+different in quality from his, and therefore less exhausting. It differs
+only in being more exhausting. To the robust and affluent mind of the
+novelist, composition was not, of itself, exceedingly fatiguing; we know
+this from his own testimony; he was able, moreover, to select his own
+subject, keep his own hours, and arrange all his own conditions of
+labor. And on the other hand, when we consider what energy and genius
+have for years been brought to bear upon the perfecting of our
+educational methods,--how thoroughly our best schools are now graded
+and systematized, until each day's lessons become a Procrustes-bed to
+which all must fit themselves,--how stimulating the apparatus of prizes
+and applauses, how crushing the penalties of reproof and
+degradation,--when we reflect, that it is the ideal of every school,
+that the whole faculties of every scholar should be concentrated upon
+every lesson and every recitation from beginning to end, and that
+anything short of this is considered partial failure,--it is not
+exaggeration to say, that the daily tension of brain demanded of
+children in our best schools is altogether severer, while it lasts, than
+that upon which Scott based his estimate. But Scott is not the only
+authority in the case; let us ask the physiologists.
+
+So said Horace Mann, before us, in the days when the Massachusetts
+school system was in process of formation. He asked the physiologists,
+in 1840, and in his next Report printed the answers of three of the most
+eminent. The late Dr. Woodward, of Worcester, promptly said, that
+children under eight should never be confined more than one hour at a
+time, nor more than four hours a day; and that, if any child showed
+alarming symptoms of precocity, it should be taken from school
+altogether. Dr. James Jackson, of Boston, allowed the children four
+hours' schooling in winter and five in summer, but only one hour at a
+time, and heartily expressed his "detestation of the practice of giving
+young children lessons to learn at home." Dr. S. G. Howe, reasoning
+elaborately on the whole subject, said, that children under eight should
+not be confined more than half an hour at a time,--"by following which
+rule, with long recesses, they can study four hours daily"; children
+between eight and fourteen should not be confined more than
+three-quarters of an hour at a time, having the last quarter of each
+hour for exercise in the playground,--and he allowed six hours of school
+in winter, or seven in summer, solely on condition of this deduction of
+twenty-five per cent, for recesses.
+
+Indeed, the one thing about which doctors do _not_ disagree is the
+destructive effect of premature or excessive mental labor. I can quote
+you medical authority for and against every maxim of dietetics beyond
+the very simplest; but I defy you to find one man who ever begged,
+borrowed, or stole the title of M.D., and yet abused those two honorary
+letters by asserting, under their cover, that a child could safely study
+as much as a man, or that a man could safely study more than six hours a
+day. Most of the intelligent men in the profession would probably admit,
+with Scott, that even that is too large an allowance in maturity for
+vigorous work of the brain.
+
+Taking, then, five hours as the reasonable daily limit of mental effort
+for children of eight to fourteen years, and one hour as the longest
+time of continuous confinement, (it was a standing rule of the Jesuits,
+by the way, that no pupil should study more than two hours without
+relaxation,) the important question now recurs, To what school shall we
+send Angelina?
+
+Shall we send her, for instance, to Dothegirls' Hall? At that seminary
+of useful knowledge, I find by careful inquiry that the daily
+performance is as follows, at least in summer. The pupils rise at or
+before five, A.M.; at any rate, they study from five to seven, two
+hours. From seven to eight they breakfast. From eight to two they are in
+the schoolroom, six consecutive hours. From two to three they dine. From
+three to five they are "allowed" to walk or take other exercise,--that
+is, if it is pleasant weather, and if they feel the spirit for it, and
+if the time is not all used up in sewing, writing letters, school
+politics, and all the small miscellaneous duties of existence, for which
+no other moment is provided during day or night. From five to six they
+study; from six to seven comes the tea-table; from seven to nine study
+again; then bed and (at least for the stupid ones) sleep.
+
+Eleven solid hours of study each day, Dolorosus! Eight for sleep, three
+for meals, two during which out-door exercise is "allowed." There is no
+mistake about this statement; I wish there were. I have not imagined it;
+who could have done so, short of Milton and Dante, who were versed in
+the exploration of kindred regions of torment? But as I cannot expect
+the general public to believe the statement, even if you do,--and as
+this letter, like my previous one, may accidentally find its way into
+print,--and as I cannot refer to those who have personally attended the
+school, since they probably die off too fast to be summoned as
+witnesses,--I will come down to a rather milder statement, and see if
+you will believe that.
+
+Shall we send her, then, to the famous New York school of Mrs.
+Destructive? This is recently noticed as follows in the "Household
+Journal":--"Of this most admirable school, for faithful and well-bred
+system of education, we have long intended to speak approvingly; but in
+the following extract from the circular the truth is more expressively
+given:--'From September to April the time of rising is a quarter before
+seven o'clock, and from April to July half an hour earlier; then
+breakfast; after which, from eight to nine o'clock, study,--the school
+opening at nine o'clock, with reading the Scriptures and prayer. From
+nine until half past twelve, the recitations succeed one another, with
+occasional short intervals of rest. From half past twelve to one,
+recreation and lunch. From one to three o'clock, at which hour the
+school closes, the studies are exclusively in the French language....
+From three to four o'clock in the winter, but later in the summer,
+exercise in the open air. There are also opportunities for exercise
+several times in the day, at short intervals, which cannot easily be
+explained. From a quarter past four to five o'clock, study; then dinner,
+and soon after, tea. From seven to nine, two hours of study; immediately
+after which all retire for the night, and lights in the sleeping
+apartments must be extinguished at half past nine.'" You have summed up
+the total already, Dolorosus; I see it on your lips;--nine--hours--
+and--a quarter of study, and one solitary hour for exercise, not
+counting those inexplicable "short intervals which cannot easily be
+explained!"
+
+You will be pleased to hear that I have had an opportunity of witnessing
+the brilliant results of Mrs. Destructive's system, in the case of my
+charming little neighbor, Fanny Carroll. She has lately returned from a
+stay of one year under that fashionable roof. In most respects, I was
+assured, the results of the school were all that could be desired; the
+mother informed me, with delight, that the child now spoke French like
+an angel from Paris, and handled her silver fork like a seraph from the
+skies. You may well suppose that I hastened to call upon her; for the
+gay little creature was always a great pet of mine, and I always quoted
+her with delight, as a proof that bloom and strength were not
+monopolized by English girls. In the parlor I found the mother closeted
+with the family physician. Soon, Fanny, aged sixteen, glided in,--a pale
+spectre, exquisite in costume, unexceptionable in manners, looking in
+all respects like an exceedingly used-up belle of five-and-twenty. "What
+were you just saying that some of my Fanny's symptoms were, Doctor?"
+asked the languid mother, as if longing for a second taste of some
+dainty morsel. The courteous physician dropped them into her eager palm,
+like sugar-plums, one by one: "Vertigo, headache, neuralgic pains, and
+general debility." The mother sighed once genteelly at me, and then
+again, quite sincerely, to herself;--but I never yet saw an habitual
+invalid who did not seem to take a secret satisfaction in finding her
+child to be a chip of the old block, though block and chip were both
+wofully decayed. However, nothing is now said of Miss Carroll's
+returning to school; and the other day I actually saw her dashing
+through the lane on the family pony, with a tinge of the old brightness
+in her cheeks. I ventured to inquire of her, soon after, if she had
+finished her education; and she replied, with a slight tinge of satire,
+that she studied regularly every day, at various "short intervals,
+which could not easily be explained."
+
+Five hours a day the safe limit for study, Dolorosus, and these terrible
+schools quietly put into their programmes nine, ten, eleven hours; and
+the deluded parents think they have out-manoeuvred the laws of Nature,
+and made a better bargain with Time. But these are private, exclusive
+schools, you may say, for especially favored children. We cannot afford
+to have most of the rising generation murdered so expensively; and in
+our public schools, at least, one thinks there may be some relaxation of
+this tremendous strain. Besides, physiological reformers had the making
+of our public system. "A man without high health," said Horace Mann, "is
+as much at war with Nature as a guilty soul is at war with the spirit of
+God." Look first at our Normal Schools, therefore, and see how finely
+their theory, also, presents this same lofty view.
+
+"Those who have had much to do with students, especially with the female
+portion," said a Normal School Report a few years since, "well know the
+sort of martyr-spirit that extensively prevails,--how ready they often
+are to sacrifice everything for the sake of a good lesson,--how false
+are their notions of true economy in mental labor, ... sacrificing their
+physical natures most unscrupulously to their intellectual. Indeed, so
+strong had this passion for abuse become [in this institution], that no
+study of the laws of the physical organization, no warning, no painful
+experiences of their own or of their associates, were sufficient to
+overcome their readiness for self-sacrifice." And it appears, that, in
+consequence of this state of things, circulars were sent to all
+boarding-houses in the village, laying down stringent rules to prevent
+the young ladies from exceeding the prescribed amount of study.
+
+Now turn from theory to practice. What was this "prescribed amount of
+study" which these desperate young females persisted in exceeding in
+this model school? It began with an hour's study before daylight (in
+winter),--a thing most dangerous to eyesight, as multitudes have found
+to their cost. Then from eight to half past two, from four to half past
+five, from seven to nine,--with one or two slight recesses. Ten hours
+and three quarters daily, Dolorosus! as surely as you are a living
+sinner, and as surely as the Board of Education who framed that
+programme were sinners likewise. I believe that some Normal Schools have
+learned more moderation now; but I know also what forlorn wrecks of
+womanhood have been strewed along their melancholy history, thus far;
+and at what incalculable cost their successes have been purchased.
+
+But it is premature to contemplate this form of martyrdom, for Angelina,
+who has to run the gantlet of our common schools and high schools first.
+Let us consider her prospects in these, carrying with us that blessed
+maxim, five hours' study a day,--"Nature loves the number five," as
+Emerson judiciously remarks,--for our aegis against the wiles of
+schoolmasters.
+
+The year 1854 is memorable for a bomb-shell then thrown into the midst
+of the triumphant school-system of Boston, in the form of a solemn
+protest by the city physician against the ruinous manner in which the
+children were overworked. Fact, feeling, and physiology were brought to
+bear, with much tact and energy, and the one special point of assault
+was the practice of imposing out-of-school studies, beyond the habitual
+six hours of session. A committee of inquiry was appointed. They
+interrogated the grammar-school teachers. The innocent and unsuspecting
+teachers were amazed at the suggestion of any excess. Most of them
+promptly replied, in writing, that "they had never heard of any
+complaints on this subject from parents or guardians"; that "most of the
+masters were watchful upon the matter"; that "none of them _pressed_
+out-of-school studies"; while "the general opinion appeared to be, that
+a moderate amount of out-of-school study was both necessary for the
+prescribed course of study and wholesome in its influence on character
+and habits." They suggested that "commonly the ill health that might
+exist arose from other causes than excessive study"; one attributed it
+to the use of confectionery, another to fashionable parties, another to
+the practice of "chewing pitch,"--anything, everything, rather than
+admit that American children of fourteen could possibly be damaged by
+working only two hours day _more_ than Walter Scott.
+
+However, the committee thought differently. At any rate, they fancied
+that they had more immediate control over the school-hours than they
+could exercise over the propensity of young girls for confectionery, or
+over the improprieties of small boys who, yet immature for tobacco,
+touched pitch and were defiled. So by their influence was passed that
+immortal Section 7 of Chapter V. of the School Regulations,--the Magna
+Charta of childish liberty, so far as it goes, and the only safeguard
+which renders it prudent to rear a family within the limits of Boston:--
+
+"In assigning lessons to boys to be studied out of school-hours, the
+instructors shall not assign a longer lesson than a boy of good capacity
+can acquire by an hour's study; but no out-of-school lessons shall be
+assigned to girls, nor shall the lessons to be studied in school be so
+long as to require a scholar of ordinary capacity to study out of school
+in order to learn them."
+
+It appears that since that epoch this rule has "generally" been
+observed, "though many of the teachers would prefer a different
+practice." "The rule is regarded by some as an uncomfortable
+restriction, which without, adequate reason (!) retards the progress of
+pupils." "A majority of our teachers would consider the permission to
+assign lessons for study at home to be a decided advantage and
+privilege." So say the later reports of the committee.
+
+Fortunately for Angelina and the junior members of the house of
+Dolorosus, you are not now directly dependent upon Boston regulations. I
+mention them only because they represent a contest which is inevitable
+in every large town in the United States where the public-school system
+is sufficiently perfected to be dangerous. It is simply the question,
+whether children can bear more brain-work than men can. Physiology,
+speaking through my humble voice, (the personification may remind you of
+the days when men began poems with "Inoculation, heavenly maid!")
+shrieks loudly for five hours as the utmost limit, and four hours as far
+more reasonable than six. But even the comparatively moderate "friends
+of education" still claim the contrary. Mr. Bishop, the worthy
+Superintendent of Schools in Boston, says, (Report, 1855,) "The time
+daily allotted to studies may very properly be extended to seven hours a
+day for young persons over fifteen years of age"; and the Secretary of
+the Massachusetts Board of Education, in his recent volume, seems to
+think it a great concession to limit the period for younger pupils to
+six.
+
+And we must not forget, that, frame regulations as we may, the tendency
+will always be to overrun them. In the report of the Boston
+sub-committee to which I have referred, it was expressly admitted that
+the restrictions recommended "would not alone remedy the evil, or do
+much toward it; there would still be much, and with the ambitious too
+much, studying out of school." They ascribed the real difficulty "to the
+general arrangements of our schools, and to the strong pressure from
+various causes urging the pupils to intense application and the masters
+to encourage it," and said that this "could only be met by some general
+changes introduced by general legislation." Some few of the masters had
+previously admitted the same thing: "The pressure from without, the
+expectations of the committee, the wishes of the parents, the ambition
+of the pupils, and an exacting public sentiment, do tend to stimulate
+many to excessive application, both in and out of school."
+
+This admits the same fact, in a different form. If these children have
+half their vitality taken out of them for life by premature and
+excessive brain-work, it makes no difference whether it is done in the
+form of direct taxation or of indirect,--whether they are compelled to
+it by authority or allured into it by excitement and emulation. If a
+horse breaks a blood-vessel by running too hard, it is no matter whether
+he was goaded by whip and spur, or ingeniously coaxed by the Hibernian
+method of a lock of hay tied six inches before his nose. The method is
+nothing,--it is the pace which kills. Probably the fact is, that for
+every extra hour directly required by the teacher, another is indirectly
+extorted in addition by the general stimulus of the school. The best
+scholars put on the added hour, because they are the best,--and the
+inferior scholars, because they are not the best. In either case the
+excess is destructive in its tendency, and the only refuge for
+individuals is to be found in a combination of fortunate dulness with
+happy indifference to shame. But is it desirable, my friend, to
+construct our school-system on such a basis that safety and health shall
+be monopolized by the stupid and the shameless?
+
+Is this magnificent system of public instruction, the glory of the
+world, to turn out merely a vast machine for grinding down Young
+America, just as the system of middle-men, similarly organized, has
+ground down the Irish peasantry? Look at it! as now arranged, committees
+are responsible to the public, teachers to committees, pupils to
+teachers,--all pledged to extract a maximum crop from childish brains.
+Each is responsible to the authority next above him for a certain
+amount, and must get it out of the victim next below him. Constant
+improvements in machinery perfect and expedite the work; improved gauges
+and metres (in the form of examinations) compute the comparative yield
+to a nicety, and allow no evasion. The child cannot spare an hour, for
+he must keep up with the other children; the teacher dares not relax,
+for he must keep up with the other schools; the committees must only
+stimulate, not check, for the eyes of the editors are upon them, and the
+municipal glory is at stake: every one of these, from highest to lowest,
+has his appointed place in the tread-mill and must keep step with the
+rest; and only once a year, at the summer vacation, the vast machine
+stops, and the poor remains of childish brain and body are taken out and
+handed to anxious parents (like you, Dolorosus):--"Here, most worthy
+tax-payer, is the dilapidated residue of your beloved Angelina; take her
+to the sea-shore for a few weeks, and make the most of her."
+
+Do not you know that foreigners, coming from the contemplation of races
+less precociously intellectual, see the danger we are in, if we do not?
+I was struck by the sudden disappointment of an enthusiastic English
+teacher, (Mr. Calthrop,) who visited the New York schools the other day
+and got a little behind the scenes. "If I wanted a stranger to believe
+that the Millennium was not far off," he said, "I would take him to some
+of those grand ward-schools in New York, where able heads are trained by
+the thousand. I spent four or five days in doing little else than going
+through these truly wonderful schools. I staid more than three hours in
+one of them, wondering at all I saw, admiring the stately order, the
+unbroken discipline of the whole arrangements, and the wonderful
+quickness and intelligence of the scholars. That same evening I went to
+see a friend, whose daughter, a child of thirteen, was at one of these
+schools. I examined her, and found that the little girl could hold her
+own with many of larger growth. 'Did she go to school to-day?' asked I.
+'No,' was the answer, 'she has not been for some time, as she was
+beginning to get quite a serious curvature of the spine; so now she goes
+regularly to a gymnastic doctor!'"
+
+I am sure that we have all had the same experience. How exciting it was,
+last year, to be sure, to see Angelina at the grammar-school
+examination, multiplying mentally 351,426 by 236,145, and announcing the
+result in two minutes and thirteen seconds as 82,987,492,770! I
+remember how you stood trembling as she staggered under the monstrous
+load, and how your cheek hung out the red flag of parental exultation
+when she can out safe. But when I looked at her colorless visage, sharp
+features, and shiny consumptive skin, I groaned inwardly. It seemed as
+if that crop of figures, like the innumerable florets of the whiteweed,
+now overspreading your paternal farm, were exhausting the last vitality
+from a shallow soil. What a pity it is that the Deity gave to these
+children of ours bodies as well as brains! How it interferes with
+thorough instruction in the languages and the sciences! You remember the
+negro-trader in "Uncle Tom," who sighs for a lot of negroes specially
+constructed for his convenience, with the souls left out? Could not some
+of our school-committees take measures to secure the companion set,
+possessing merely the brains, and with the troublesome bodies
+conveniently omitted?
+
+The truth is, that we Americans, having overcome all other obstacles to
+universal education of the people, have thought to overcome even the
+limitations imposed by the laws of Nature; and so we were going
+triumphantly on, when the ruined health of our children suddenly brought
+us to a stand. Now we suddenly discover, that, in the absence of
+Inquisitions, and other unpleasant Old-World tortures, our school-houses
+have taken their place. We have outgrown war, we think; and yet we have
+not outgrown a form of contest which is undeniably more sanguinary,
+since one-half the community actually die, under present arrangements,
+before they are old enough to see a battle-field,--that is, before the
+age of eighteen. It is an actual fact, that, if you can only keep
+Angelina alive up to that birthday, even if she be an ignoramus, she
+will at least have accomplished the feat of surviving half her
+contemporaries. Can there be no Peace Society to check this terrific
+carnage? Dolorosus, rather than have a child of mine die, as I have
+recently heard of a child's dying, insane from sheer overwork, and
+raving of algebra, I would have her come no nearer to the splendors of
+science than the man in the French play, who brings away from school
+only the general impression that two and two make five for a creditor
+and three for a debtor.
+
+De Quincey wrote a treatise on "Murder considered as one of the Fine
+Arts," and it is certainly the fine art which receives most attention in
+our schools. "So far as the body is concerned," said Horace Mann of
+these institutions, "they provide for all the natural tendencies to
+physical ease and inactivity as carefully as though paleness and
+languor, muscular enervation and debility, were held to be constituent
+elements in national beauty." With this denial of the body on one side,
+with this tremendous stimulus of brain on the other, and with a delicate
+and nervous national organization to begin with, the result is
+inevitable. Boys hold out better than girls, partly because they are not
+so docile in school, partly because they are allowed to be more active
+out of it, and so have more recuperative power. But who has not seen
+some delicate girl, after five consecutive hours spent over French and
+Latin and Algebra, come home to swallow an indigestible dinner, and
+straightway settle down again to spend literally every waking hour out
+of the twenty-four in study, save those scanty meal-times,--protracting
+the labor, it may be, far into the night, till the weary eyes close
+unwillingly over the slate or the lexicon,--then to bed, to be vexed by
+troubled dreams, instead of being wrapt in the sunny slumber of
+childhood,--waking unrefreshed, to be reproached by parents and friends
+with the nervous irritability which this detestable routine has created?
+
+For I aver that parents are more exacting than even teachers. It is
+outrageous to heap it all upon the pedagogues, as if they were the only
+apostolical successors of him whom Charles Lamb lauded "the much
+calumniated good King Herod." Indeed, teachers have no objection to
+educating the bodies of their small subjects, if they can only be as
+well paid for it as for educating their intellects. But, until recently,
+they have never been allowed to put the bodies into the bill. And as
+charity begins at home, even in a physiological sense,--and as their own
+children's bodies required bread and butter,--they naturally postponed
+all regard for the physical education of their pupils until the thing
+acquired a marketable value. Now that the change is taking place, every
+schoolmaster in the land gladly adapts himself to it, and hastens to
+insert in his advertisement, "Especial attention given to physical
+education." But what good does this do, so long as parents are not
+willing that time enough should be deducted from the ordinary tasks to
+make the athletic apparatus available,--so long as it is regarded as a
+merit in pupils to take time from their plays and give it to extra
+studies,--so long as we exult over an inactive and studious child, as
+Dr. Beattie did over his, that "exploits of strength, dexterity, and
+speed" "to him no vanity or joy could bring," and then almost die of
+despair, like Dr. Beattie, because such a child dies before us? With
+girls it is far worse. "Girls, during childhood, are liable to no
+diseases distinct from those of boys," says Salzmann, "except the
+disease of education." What mother in decent society, I ask you, who is
+not delighted to have her little girl devote even Wednesday and Saturday
+afternoons to additional tasks in drawing or music, rather than run the
+risk of having her make a noise somewhere, or possibly even soil her
+dress? Papa himself will far more readily appropriate ten dollars to
+this additional confinement than five to the gymnasium or the
+riding-school. And so, beset with snares on every hand, the poor little
+well-educated thing can only pray the prayer recorded of a despairing
+child, brought up in the best society,--that she might "die and go to
+heaven and play with the Irish children on Saturday afternoons."
+
+And the Sunday Schools coöperate with the week-day seminaries in the
+pious work of destruction. Dolorosus, are all your small neighbors hard
+at work in committing to memory Scripture texts for a wager,--I have an
+impression, however, that they call it a prize,--consisting of one
+Bible? In my circle of society the excitement runs high. At any
+tea-drinking, you may hear the ladies discussing the comparative points
+and prospects of their various little Ellens and Harriets, with shrill
+eagerness; while their husbands, on the other side of the room, are
+debating the merits of Ethan Allen and Flora Temple, the famous
+trotting-horses, who are soon expected to try their speed on our
+"Agricultural Ground." Each horse, and each girl, appears to have
+enthusiastic backers, though the Sunday-School excitement has the
+advantage of lasting longer. From inquiry, I find the state of the field
+to be about as follows:--Fanny Hastings, who won the prize last year, is
+not to be entered for it again; she damaged her memory by the process,
+her teacher tells me, so that she can now scarcely fix the simplest
+lesson in her mind. Carry Blake had got up to five thousand verses, but
+had such terrible headaches that her mother compelled her to stop, some
+weeks ago; the texts have all vanished from her brain, but the headache
+unfortunately still lingers. Nelly Sanborn has reached six thousand,
+although her anxious father long since tried to buy her off by offering
+her a new Bible twice as handsome as the prize one: but what did she
+care for that? she said; she had handsome Bibles already, but she had no
+intention of being beaten by Ella Prentiss. Poor child, we see no chance
+for her; for Ella has it all her own way; she has made up a score of
+seven thousand one hundred texts, and it is only three days to the fatal
+Sunday. Between ourselves, I think Nelly does her work more fairly; for
+Ella has a marvellous ingenuity in picking out easy verses, like Jack
+Horner's plums, and valuing every sacred sentence, not by its subject,
+but by its shortness. Still, she is bound to win.
+
+"How is her health this summer?" I asked her mother, the other day.
+
+"Well, her verses weigh on her," said the good woman, solemnly.
+
+And here I pledge you my word, Dolorosus, that to every one of these
+statements I might append, as Miss Edgeworth does to every particularly
+tough story,--"_N.B. This is a fact._" I will only add that our
+Sunday-School Superintendent, who is a physician, told me that he had as
+strong objections to the whole thing as I could have; but that it was no
+use talking; all the other schools did it, and ours must; emulation was
+the order of the day. "Besides," he added, with that sort of cheerful
+hopelessness peculiar to his profession, "the boys are not trying for
+the prize much, this year; and as for the girls, they would probably
+lose their health very soon, at any rate, and may as well devote it to a
+sacred cause."
+
+Do not misunderstand me. The supposed object in this case is a good one,
+just as the object in week-day schools is a good one,--to communicate
+valuable knowledge and develop the powers of the mind. The defect in
+policy, in both cases, appears to be, that it totally defeats its own
+aim, renders the employments hateful that should be delightful, and
+sacrifices the whole powers, so far as its influence goes, without any
+equivalent. All excess defeats itself. As a grown man can work more in
+ten hours than in fifteen, taking a series of days together, so a child
+can make more substantial mental progress in five hours daily than in
+ten. Your child's mind is not an earthen jar, to be filled by pouring
+into it; it is a delicate plant, to be wisely and healthfully reared;
+and your wife might as well attempt to enrich her mignonette-bed by
+laying a Greek Lexicon upon it as try to cultivate that young nature by
+a topdressing of Encyclopædias. I use the word on high authority.
+"Courage, my boy!" wrote Lord Chatham to his son, "only the Encyclopædia
+to learn!"--and the cruel diseases of a lifetime repaid Pitt for the
+forcing. I do not object to the severest _quality_ of study for boys or
+girls;--while their brains work, let them work in earnest. But I do
+object to this immoderate and terrific _quantity_. Cut down every
+school, public and private, to five hours' total work _per diem_ for the
+oldest children, and four for the younger ones, and they will accomplish
+more in the end than you ever saw them do in six or seven. Only give
+little enough at a time, and some freshness to do it with, and you may,
+if you like, send Angelina to any school, and put her through the whole
+programme of the last educational prospectus sent to me,--"Philology,
+Pantology, Orthology, Aristology, and Linguistics."
+
+For what is the end to be desired? Is it to exhibit a prodigy, or to
+rear a noble and symmetrical specimen of a human being? Because Socrates
+taught that a boy who has learned to speak is not too small for the
+sciences,--because Tiberius delivered his father's funeral oration at
+the age of nine, and Marcus Aurelius put on the philosophic gown at
+twelve, and Cicero wrote a treatise on the art of speaking at
+thirteen,--because Lipsius is said to have composed a work the day he
+was born, meaning, say the commentators, that he began a new life at the
+age of ten,--because the learned Licetus, who was brought into the world
+so feeble as to be baked up to maturity in an oven, sent forth from that
+receptacle, like a loaf of bread, a treatise called
+"Gonopsychanthropologia,"--is it, therefore, indispensably necessary,
+Dolorosus, that all your pale little offspring shall imitate these?
+Spare these innocents! it is not their fault that they are your
+children,--so do not visit it upon them so severely. Turn, Angelina,
+ever dear, and out of a little childish recreation we will yet extract a
+great deal of maturer wisdom for you, if we can only bring this deluded
+parent to his senses.
+
+To change the sweet privilege of childhood into weary days and restless
+nights,--to darken its pure associations, which for many are the sole
+light that ever brings them back from sin and despair to the heaven of
+their infancy,--to banish those reveries of innocent fancy which even
+noisy boyhood knows, and which are the appointed guardians of its purity
+before conscience wakes,--to abolish its moments of priceless idleness,
+saturated with sunshine, blissful, aimless moments, when every angel is
+near,--to bring insanity, once the terrible prerogative of maturer life,
+down into the summer region of childhood, with blight and ruin;--all
+this is the work of our folly, Dolorosus, of our miserable ambition to
+have our unconscious little ones begin, in their very infancy, the race
+of desperate ambition, which has, we admit, exhausted prematurely the
+lives of their parents.
+
+The worst danger of it is, that the moral is written at the end of the
+fable, not the beginning. The organization in youth is so dangerously
+elastic, that the result of these intellectual excesses is not seen
+until years after. When some young girl incurs spinal disease for life
+from some slight fall which she ought not to have felt for an hour, or
+some businessman breaks down in the prime of his years from some
+trifling over-anxiety which should have left no trace behind, the
+popular verdict may be, "Mysterious Providence"; but the wiser observer
+sees the retribution for the folly of those misspent days which
+enfeebled the childish constitution, instead of ripening it. One of the
+most admirable passages in the Report of Dr. Ray, already mentioned, is
+that in which he explains, that, though hard study at school is rarely
+the immediate cause of insanity, it is the most frequent of its ulterior
+causes, except hereditary tendencies. "It diminishes the conservative
+power of the animal economy to such a degree, that attacks of disease,
+which otherwise would have passed off safely, destroy life almost before
+danger is anticipated. Every intelligent physician understands, that,
+other things being equal, the chances of recovery are far less in the
+studious, highly intellectual child than in one of an opposite
+description. The immediate mischief may have seemed slight, but the
+brain is left in a condition of peculiar impressibility, which renders
+it morbidly sensitive to every adverse influence."
+
+Indeed, here is precisely the weakness of our whole national training
+thus far,--brilliant immediate results, instead of wise delays. The life
+of the average American is a very hasty breakfast, a magnificent
+luncheon, a dyspeptic dinner, and no supper. Our masculine energy is
+like our feminine beauty, bright and evanescent. As enthusiastic
+travellers inform us that there are in every American village a dozen,
+girls of sixteen who are prettier than any English hamlet of the same
+size can produce, so the same village undoubtedly possesses a dozen very
+young men who, tried by the same standard, are "smarter" than their
+English peers. Come again fifteen years after, when the Englishmen and
+Englishwomen are reported to be just in their prime, and, lo! those
+lovely girls are sallow old women, and the boys are worn-out men,--with
+fire left in them, it may be, but fuel gone,--retired from active
+business, very likely, and just waiting for consumption to carry them
+off, as one waits for the omnibus.
+
+To say that this should be amended is to say little. Either it must be
+amended, or the American race fails;--there is no middle ground. If we
+fail, (which I do not expect, I assure you,) we fail disastrously. If we
+succeed, if we bring up our vital and muscular developments into due
+proportion with our nervous energy, we shall have a race of men and
+women such as the world never saw. Dolorosus, when in the course of
+human events you are next invited to give a Fourth-of-July Oration,
+grasp at the opportunity, and take for your subject "Health." Tell your
+audience, when you rise to the accustomed flowers of rhetoric as the day
+wears on, that Health is the central luminary, of which all the stars
+that spangle the proud flag of our common country are but satellites;
+and close with a hint to the plumed emblem of our nation, (pointing to
+the stuffed one which will probably be exhibited on the platform,) that
+she should not henceforward confine her energies to the hatching of
+short-lived eaglets, but endeavor rather to educate a few full-grown
+birds.
+
+As I take it, Nature said, some years since,--"Thus far the English is
+my best race; but we have had Englishmen enough; now for another turning
+of the globe, and a step farther. We need something with a little more
+buoyancy than the Englishman; let us lighten the ship, even at the risk
+of a little peril in the process. Put in one drop more of nervous fluid
+and make the American." With that drop, a new range of promise opened on
+the human race, and a lighter, finer, more highly organized type of
+mankind was born. But the promise must be fulfilled through unequalled
+dangers. With the new drop came new intoxication, new ardors, passions,
+ambitions, hopes, reactions, and despairs,--more daring, more invention,
+more disease, more insanity,--forgetfulness, at first, of the old,
+wholesome traditions of living, recklessness of sin and saleratus, loss
+of refreshing sleep and of the power of play. To surmount all this, we
+have got to fight the good fight, I assure you, Dolorosus. Nature is yet
+pledged to produce that finer type, and if we miss it, she will leave us
+to decay, like our predecessors,--whirl the globe over once more, and
+choose a new place for a new experiment.
+
+
+
+
+MY DOUBLE; AND HOW HE UNDID ME.
+
+
+It is not often that I trouble the readers of the "Atlantic Monthly." I
+should not trouble them now, but for the importunities of my wife, who
+"feels to insist" that a duty to society is unfulfilled, till I have
+told why I had to have a double, and how he undid me. She is sure, she
+says, that intelligent persons cannot understand that pressure upon
+public servants which alone drives any man into the employment of a
+double. And while I fear she thinks, at the bottom of her heart, that my
+fortunes will never be remade, she has a faint hope, that, as another
+Rasselas, I may teach a lesson to future publics, from which they may
+profit, though we die. Owing to the behaviour of my double, or, if you
+please, to that public pressure which compelled me to employ him, I have
+plenty of leisure to write this communication.
+
+I am, or rather was, a minister, of the Sandemanian connection. I was
+settled in the active, wide-awake town of Naguadavick, on one of the
+finest water-powers in Maine. We used to call it a Western town in the
+heart of the civilization of New England. A charming place it was and
+is. A spirited, brave young parish had I; and it seemed as if we might
+have all "the joy of eventful living" to our hearts' content.
+
+Alas! how little we knew on the day of my ordination, and in those
+halcyon moments of our first housekeeping! To be the confidential friend
+in a hundred families in the town,--cutting the social trifle, as my
+friend Haliburton says, "from the top of the whipped-syllabub to the
+bottom of the sponge-cake, which is the foundation,"--to keep abreast of
+the thought of the age in one's study, and to do one's best on Sunday to
+interweave that thought with the active life of an active town, and to
+inspirit both and make both infinite by glimpses of the Eternal Glory,
+seemed such an exquisite forelock into one's life! Enough to do, and all
+so real and so grand! If this vision could only have lasted!
+
+The truth is, that this vision was not in itself a delusion, nor,
+indeed, half bright enough. If one could only have been left to do his
+own business, the vision would have accomplished itself and brought out
+new paraheliacal visions, each as bright as the original. The misery was
+and is, as we found out, I and Polly, before long, that, besides the
+vision, and besides the usual human and finite failures in life, (such
+as breaking the old pitcher that came over in the "Mayflower," and
+putting into the fire the Alpenstock with which her father climbed Mont
+Blanc,)--besides these, I say, (imitating the style of Robinson Crusoe,)
+there were pitch-forked in on us a great rowen-heap of humbugs, banded
+down from some unknown seed-time, in which we were expected, and I
+chiefly, to fulfil certain public functions before the community, of the
+character of those fulfilled by the third row of supernumeraries who
+stand behind the Sepoys in the spectacle of the "Cataract of the
+Ganges." They were the duties, in a word, which one performs as member
+of one or another social class or subdivision, wholly distinct from what
+one does as A. by himself A. What invisible power put these functions on
+me, it would be very hard to tell. But such power there was and is. And
+I had not been at work a year before I found I was living two lives, one
+real and one merely functional,--for two sets of people, one my parish,
+whom I loved, and the other a vague public, for whom I did not care two
+straws. All this was in a vague notion, which everybody had and has,
+that this second life would eventually bring out some great results,
+unknown at present, to somebody somewhere.
+
+Crazed by this duality of life, I first read Dr. Wigan on the "Duality
+of the Brain," hoping that I could train one side of my head to do these
+outside jobs, and the other to do my intimate and real duties. For
+Richard Greenough once told me, that, in studying for the statue of
+Franklin, he found that the left side of the great man's face was
+philosophic and reflective, and the right side funny and smiling. If you
+will go and look at the bronze statue, you will find he has repeated
+this observation there for posterity. The eastern profile is the
+portrait of the statesman Franklin, the western of Poor Richard. But Dr.
+Wigan does not go into these niceties of this subject, and I failed. It
+was then, that, on my wife's suggestion, I resolved to look out for a
+Double.
+
+I was, at first, singularly successful. We happened to be recreating at
+Stafford Springs that summer. We rode out one day, for one of the
+relaxations of that watering-place, to the great Monsonpon House. We
+were passing through one of the large halls, when my destiny was
+fulfilled! I saw my man!
+
+He was not shaven. He had on no spectacles. He was dressed in a green
+baize roundabout and faded blue overalls, worn sadly at the knee. But I
+saw at once that he was of my height, five feet four and a half. He had
+black hair, worn off by his hat. So have and have not I. He stooped in
+walking. So do I. His hands were large, and mine. And--choicest gift of
+Fate in all--he had, not "a strawberry-mark on his left arm," but a cut
+from a juvenile brickbat over his right eye, slightly affecting the play
+of that eyebrow. Reader, so have I!--My fate was sealed!
+
+A word with Mr. Holley, one of the inspectors, settled the whole thing.
+It proved that this Dennis Shea was a harmless, amiable fellow, of the
+class known as shiftless, who had scaled his fate by marrying a dumb
+wife, who was at that moment ironing in the laundry. Before I left
+Stafford, I had hired both for five years. We had applied to Judge
+Pynchon, then the probate judge at Springfield, to change the name of
+Dennis Shea to Frederic Ingham. We had explained to the Judge, what was
+the precise truth, that an eccentric gentleman wished to adopt Dennis
+under this new name into his family. It never occurred to him that
+Dennis might be more than fourteen years old. And thus, to shorten this
+preface, when we returned at night to my parsonage at Naguadavick, there
+entered Mrs. Ingham, her new dumb laundress, myself, who am Mr. Frederic
+Ingham, and my double, who was Mr. Frederic Ingham by as good right as
+I.
+
+Oh, the fun we had the next morning in shaving his beard to my pattern,
+cutting his hair to match mine, and teaching him how to wear and how to
+take off gold-bowed spectacles! Really, they were electro-plate, and the
+glass was plain (for the poor fellow's eyes were excellent). Then in
+four successive afternoons I taught, him four speeches. I had found
+these would be quite enough for the supernumerary-Sepoy line of life,
+and it was well for me they were. For though he was good-natured, he was
+very shiftless, and it was, as our national proverb says, "like pulling
+teeth" to teach him. But at the end of the next week he could say, with
+quite my easy and frisky air,--
+
+1. "Very well, thank you. And you?" This for an answer to casual
+salutations.
+
+2. "I am very glad you liked it."
+
+3. "There has been so much said, and, on the whole, so well said, that I
+will not occupy the time."
+
+4. "I agree, in general, with my friend the other side of the room."
+
+At first I had a feeling that I was going to be at great cost for
+clothing him. But it proved, of course, at once, that, whenever he was
+out, I should be at home. And I went, during the bright period of his
+success, to so few of those awful pageants which require a black
+dress-coat and what the ungodly call, after Mr. Dickens, a white choker,
+that in the happy retreat of my own dressing-gowns and jackets my days
+went by as happily and cheaply as those of another Thalaba. And Polly
+declares there was never a year when the tailoring cost so little. He
+lived (Dennis, not Thalaba) in his wife's room over the kitchen. He had
+orders never to show himself at that window. When he appeared in the
+front of the house, I retired to my sanctissimum and my dressing-gown.
+In short, the Dutchman and his wife, in the old weather-box, had not
+less to do with each other than he and I. He made the furnace-fire and
+split the wood before daylight; then he went to sleep again, and slept
+late; then came for orders, with a red silk bandanna tied round his
+head, with his overalls on, and his dress-coat and spectacles off. If we
+happened to be interrupted, no one guessed that he was Frederic Ingham
+as well as I; and, in the neighborhood, there grew up an impression that
+the minister's Irishman worked day-times in the factory-village at New
+Coventry. After I had given him his orders, I never saw him till the
+next day.
+
+I launched him by sending him to a meeting of the Enlightenment Board.
+The Enlightenment Board consists of seventy-four members, of whom
+sixty-seven are necessary to form a quorum. One becomes a member under
+the regulations laid down in old Judge Dudley's will. I became one by
+being ordained pastor of a church in Naguadavick. You see you cannot
+help yourself, if you would. At this particular time we had had four
+successive meetings, averaging four hours each,--wholly occupied in
+whipping in a quorum. At the first only eleven men were present; at the
+next, by force of three circulars, twenty-seven; at the third, thanks to
+two days canvassing by Auchmuty and myself, begging men to come, we had
+sixty. Half the others were In Europe. But without a quorum we could do
+nothing. All the rest of us waited grimly for our four hours, and
+adjourned without any action. At the fourth meeting we had flagged, and
+only got fifty-nine together. But on the first appearance of my
+double,--whom I sent on this fatal Monday to the fifth meeting,--he was
+the sixty-seventh man who entered the room. He was greeted with a storm
+of applause! The poor fellow had missed his way,--read the street signs
+ill though his spectacles, (very ill, in fact, without them,)--and had
+not dared to inquire. He entered the room,--finding the president and
+secretary holding to their chairs two judges of the Supreme Court, who
+were also members _ex officio_, and were begging leave to go away. On
+his entrance all was changed. _Presto_, the by-laws were amended, and
+the Western property was given away. Nobody stopped to converse with
+him. He voted, as I had charged him to do, in every instance, with the
+minority. I won new laurels as a man of sense, though a little
+unpunctual,--and Dennis, _alias_ Ingham, returned to the parsonage,
+astonished to see with how little wisdom the world is governed. He cut a
+few of my parishioners in the street; but he had his glasses off, and I
+am known to be near-sighted. Eventually he recognized them more readily
+than I.
+
+I "set him again" at the exhibition of the New Coventry Academy; and
+here he undertook a "speaking part,"--as, in my boyish, worldly days, I
+remember the bills used to say of Mlle. Céleste. We are all trustees of
+the New Coventry Academy; and there has lately been "a good deal of
+feeling" because the Sandemanian trustees did not regularly attend the
+exhibitions. It has been intimated, indeed, that the Sandemanians are
+leaning towards Free-Will, and that we have, therefore, neglected these
+semi-annual exhibitions, while there is no doubt that Auchmuty last year
+went to Commencement at Waterville. Now the head master at New Coventry
+is a real good fellow, who knows a Sanskrit root when he sees it, and
+often cracks etymologies with me,--so that, in strictness, I ought to go
+to their exhibitions. But think, reader, of sitting through three long
+July days in that Academy chapel, following the programme from
+
+    TUESDAY MORNING. _English Composition_.
+    "SUNSHINE." Miss Jones.
+
+round to
+
+    Trio on Three Pianos. Duel from the Opera
+    of "Midshipman Easy." _Marryatt_.
+
+coming in at nine, Thursday evening! Think of this, reader, for men who
+know the world is trying to go backward, and who would give their lives
+if they could help it on! Well! The double had succeeded so well at the
+Board, that I sent him to the Academy. (Shade of Plato, pardon!) He
+arrived early on Tuesday, when, indeed, few but mothers and clergymen
+are generally expected, and returned in the evening to us, covered with
+honors. He had dined at the right hand of the chairman, and he spoke in
+high terms of the repast. The chairman had expressed his interest in the
+French conversation. "I am very glad you liked it," said Dennis; and the
+poor chairman, abashed, supposed the accent had been wrong. At the end
+of the day, the gentlemen present had been called upon for
+speeches,--the Rev. Frederic Ingham first, as it happened; upon which
+Dennis had risen, and had said, "There has been so much said, and, on
+the whole, so well said, that I will not occupy the time." The girls
+were delighted, because Dr. Dabney, the year before, had given them at
+this occasion a scolding on impropriety of behavior at lyceum lectures.
+They all declared Mr. Ingham was a love,--and _so_ handsome! (Dennis is
+good-looking.) Three of them, with arms behind the others' waists,
+followed him up to the wagon he rode home in; and a little girl with a
+blue sash had been sent to give him a rosebud. After this _début_ in
+speaking, he went to the exhibition for two days more, to the mutual
+satisfaction of all concerned. Indeed, Polly reported that he had
+pronounced the trustees' dinners of a higher grade than those of the
+parsonage. When the next term began, I found six of the Academy girls
+had obtained permission to come across the river and attend our church.
+But this arrangement did not long continue.
+
+After this he went to several Commencements for me, and ate the dinners
+provided; he sat through three of our Quarterly Conventions for
+me,--always voting judiciously, by the simple rule mentioned above, of
+siding with the minority. And I, meanwhile, who had before been losing
+caste among my friends, as holding myself aloof from the associations of
+the body, began to rise in everybody's favor. "Ingham's a good
+fellow,--always on hand"; "never talks much,--but does the right thing
+at the right time"; "is not as unpunctual as he used to be,--he comes
+early, and sits through to the end." "He has got over his old talkative
+habit, too. I spoke to a friend of his about it once; and I think Ingham
+took it kindly," etc., etc.
+
+This voting power of Dennis was particularly valuable at the quarterly
+meetings of the Proprietors of the Naguadavick Ferry. My wife inherited
+from her father some shares in that enterprise, which is not yet fully
+developed, though it doubtless will become a very valuable property. The
+law of Maine then forbade stockholders to appear by proxy at such
+meetings. Polly disliked to go, not being, in fact, a "hens'-rights
+hen," and transferred her stock to me. I, after going once, disliked it
+more than she. But Dennis went to the next meeting, and liked it very
+much. He said the armchairs were good, the collation good, and the free
+rides to stockholders pleasant. He was a little frightened when they
+first took him upon one of the ferry-boats, but after two or three
+quarterly meetings he became quite brave.
+
+Thus far I never had any difficulty with him. Indeed, being of that type
+which is called shiftless, he was only too happy to be told daily what
+to do, and to be charged not to be forthputting or in any way original
+in his discharge of that duty. He learned, however, to discriminate
+between the lines of his life, and very much preferred these
+stockholders' meetings and trustees' dinners and Commencement collations
+to another set of occasions, from which he used to beg off most
+piteously. Our excellent brother, Dr. Fillmore, had taken a notion at
+this time that our Sandemanian churches needed more expression of mutual
+sympathy. He insisted upon it that we were remiss. He said, that, if the
+Bishop came to preach at Naguadavick, all the Episcopal clergy of the
+neighborhood were present; if Dr. Pond came, all the Congregational
+clergymen turned out to hear him; if Dr. Nichols, all the Unitarians;
+and he thought we owed it to each other, that, whenever there was an
+occasional service at a Sandemanian church, the other brethren should
+all, if possible, attend. "It looked well," if nothing more. Now this
+really meant that I had not been to hear one of Dr. Fillmore's lectures
+on the Ethnology of Religion. He forgot that he did not hear one of my
+course on the "Sandemanianism of Anselm." But I felt badly when he said
+it; and afterwards I always made Dennis go to hear all the brethren
+preach, when I was not preaching myself. This was what he took
+exceptions to,--the only thing, as I said, which he ever did except to.
+Now came the advantage of his long morning-nap, and of the green tea
+with which Polly supplied the kitchen. But he would plead, so humbly, to
+be let off, only from one or two! I never excepted him, however. I knew
+the lectures were of value, and I thought it best he should be able to
+keep the connection.
+
+Polly is more rash than I am, as the reader has observed in the outset
+of this memoir. She risked Dennis one night under the eyes of her own
+sex. Governor Gorges had always been very kind to us; and when he gave
+his great annual party to the town, asked us. I confess I hated to go. I
+was deep in the new volume of Pfeiffer's "Mystics," which Haliburton had
+just sent me from Boston. "But how rude," said Polly, "not to return the
+Governor's civility and Mrs. Gorges's, when they will be sure to ask why
+you are away!" Still I demurred, and at last she, with the wit of Eve
+and of Semiramis conjoined, let me off by saying, that, if I would go in
+with her, and sustain the initial conversations with the Governor and
+the ladies staying there, she would risk Dennis for the rest of the
+evening. And that was just what we did. She took Dennis in training all
+that afternoon, instructed him in fashionable conversation, cautioned
+him against the temptations of the supper-table,--and at nine in the
+evening he drove us all down in the carryall. I made the grand
+star-_entrée_ with Polly and the pretty Walton girls, who were staying
+with us. We had put Dennis into a great rough top-coat, without his
+glasses,--and the girls never dreamed, in the darkness, of looking at
+him. He sat in the carriage, at the door, while we entered. I did the
+agreeable to Mrs. Gorges, was introduced to her niece, Miss Fernanda,--I
+complimented Judge Jeffries on his decision in the great case of
+D'Aulnay _vs_. Laconia Mining Co.,--I stepped into the dressing-room for
+a moment,--stepped out for another,--walked home, after a nod with
+Dennis, and tying the horse to a pump;--and while I walked home, Mr.
+Frederic Ingham, my double, stepped in through the library into the
+Gorges's grand saloon.
+
+Oh! Polly died of laughing as she told me of it at midnight! And even
+here, where I have to teach my hands to hew the beech for stakes to
+fence our cave, she dies of laughing as she recalls it,--and says that
+single occasion was worth all we have paid for it. Gallant Eve that she
+is! She joined Dennis at the library-door, and in an instant presented
+him to Dr. Ochterlong, from Baltimore, who was on a visit in town, and
+was talking with her, as Dennis came in. "Mr. Ingham would like to hear
+what you were telling us about your success among the German
+population." And Dennis bowed and said, in spite of a scowl from Polly,
+"I'm very glad you liked it." But Dr. Ochterlong did not observe, and
+plunged into the tide of explanation, Dennis listening like a
+prime-minister, and bowing like a mandarin,--which is, I suppose, the
+same thing. Polly declared it was just like Haliburton's Latin
+conversation with the Hungarian minister, of which he is very fond of
+telling. "_Quæne sit historia Reformationis in Ungariâ_?" quoth
+Haliburton, after some thought. And his _confrère_ replied gallantly,
+"_In seculo decimo tertio_," etc., etc., etc.; and from _decimo
+tertio_[8] to the nineteenth century and a half lasted till the oysters
+came. So was it that before Dr. Ochterlong came to the "success," or
+near it, Governor Gorges came to Dennis and asked him to hand Mrs.
+Jeffries down to supper, a request which he heard with great joy.
+
+Polly was skipping round the room, I guess, gay as a lark. Auchmuty came
+to her "in pity for poor Ingham," who was so bored by the stupid
+pundit,--and Auchmuty could not understand why I stood it so long. But
+when Dennis took Mrs. Jeffries down, Polly could not resist standing
+near them. He was a little flustered, till the sight of the eatables and
+drinkables gave him the same Mercian courage which it gave Diggory. A
+little excited then, he attempted one or two of his speeches to the
+Judge's lady. But little he knew how hard it was to get in even a
+_promptu_ there edgewise. "Very well, I thank you," said he, after the
+eating elements were adjusted; "and you?" And then did not he have to
+hear about the mumps, and the measles, and arnica, and belladonna, and
+chamomile-flower, and dodecathem, till she changed oysters for
+salad,--and then about the old practice and the new, and what her sister
+said, and what her sister's friend said, and what the physician to her
+sister's friend said, and then what was said by the brother of the
+sister of the physician of the friend of her sister, exactly as if it
+had been in Ollendorff? There was a moment's pause, as she declined
+Champagne. "I am very glad you liked it," said Dennis again, which he
+never should have said, but to one who complimented a sermon. "Oh! you
+are so sharp, Mr. Ingham! No! I never drink any wine at all,--except
+sometimes in summer a little currant spirits,--from our own currants,
+you know. My own mother,--that is, I call her my own mother, because,
+you know, I do not remember," etc., etc., etc.; till they came to the
+candied orange at the end of the feast,--when Dennis, rather confused,
+thought he must say something, and tried No. 4,--"I agree, in general,
+with my friend the other side of the room,"--which he never should have
+said but at a public meeting. But Mrs. Jeffries, who never listens
+expecting to understand, caught him up instantly with, "Well, I'm sure
+my husband returns the compliment; he always agrees with you,--though we
+do worship with the Methodists;--but you know, Mr. Ingham," etc., etc.,
+etc., till the move was made up-stairs;--and as Dennis led her through
+the hall, he was scarcely understood by any but Polly, as he said,
+"There has been so much said, and, on the whole, so well said, that I
+will not occupy the time."
+
+His great resource the rest of the evening was, standing in the library,
+carrying on animated conversations with one and another in much the same
+way. Polly had initiated him in the mysteries of a discovery of mine,
+that it is not necessary to finish your sentences in a crowd, but by a
+sort of mumble, omitting sibilants and dentals. This, indeed, if your
+words fail you, answers even in public extempore speech,--but better
+where other talking is going on. Thus,--"We missed you at the Natural
+History Society, Ingham." Ingham replies,--"I am very gligloglum, that
+is, that you were mmmmm." By gradually dropping the voice, the
+interlocutor is compelled to supply the answer. "Mrs. Ingham, I hope
+your friend Augusta is better." Augusta has not been ill. Polly cannot
+think of explaining, however, and answers,--"Thank you, Ma'am; she is
+very rearason wewahwewoh," in lower and lower tones. And Mrs.
+Throckmorton, who forgot the subject of which she spoke, as soon as she
+asked the question, is quite satisfied. Dennis could see into the
+card-room, and came to Polly to ask if he might not go and play
+all-fours. But, of course, she sternly refused. At midnight they came
+home delighted,--Polly, as I said, wild to tell me the story of victory;
+only both the pretty Walton girls said,--"Cousin Frederic, you did not
+come near me all the evening."
+
+We always called him Dennis at home, for convenience, though his real
+name was Frederic Ingham, as I have explained. When the election-day
+came round, however, I found that by some accident there was only one
+Frederic Ingham's name on the voting-list; and, as I was quite busy that
+day in writing some foreign letters to Halle, I thought I would forego
+my privilege of suffrage, and stay quietly at home, telling Dennis that
+he might use the record on the voting-list and vote. I gave him a
+ticket, which I told him he might use, if he liked to. That was that
+very sharp election in Maine which the readers of the "Atlantic" so well
+remember, and it had been intimated in public that the ministers would
+do well not to appear at the polls. Of course, after that, we had to
+appear by self or proxy. Still, Naguadavick was not then a city, and
+this standing in a double queue at town-meeting several hours to vote
+was a bore of the first water; and so, when I found that there was but
+one Frederic Ingham on the list, and that one of us must give up, I
+staid at home and finished the letters, (which, indeed, procured for
+Fothergill his coveted appointment of Professor of Astronomy at
+Leavenworth,) and I gave Dennis, as we called him, the chance. Something
+in the matter gave a good deal of popularity to the Frederic Ingham
+name; and at the adjourned election, next week, Frederic Ingham was
+chosen to the legislature. Whether this was I or Dennis, I never really
+knew. My friends seemed to think it was I; but I felt, that, as Dennis
+had done the popular thing, he was entitled to the honor; so I sent him
+to Augusta when the time came, and he took the oaths. And a very
+valuable member he made. They appointed him on the Committee on
+Parishes; but I wrote a letter for him, resigning, on the ground that he
+took an interest in our claim to the stumpage in the minister's
+sixteenths of Gore A, next No. 7, in the 10th Range. He never made any
+speeches, and always voted with the minority, which was what he was sent
+to do. He made me and himself a great many good friends, some of whom I
+did not afterwards recognize as quickly as Dennis did my parishioners.
+On one or two occasions, when there was wood to saw at home, I kept him
+at home; but I took those occasions to go to Augusta myself. Finding
+myself often in his vacant seat at these times, I watched the
+proceedings with a good deal of care; and once was so much excited that
+I delivered my somewhat celebrated speech on the Central School-District
+question, a speech of which the "State of Maine" printed some extra
+copies. I believe there is no formal rule permitting strangers to speak;
+but no one objected.
+
+Dennis himself, as I said, never spoke at all. But our experience this
+session led me to think, that, if, by some such "general understanding"
+as the reports speak of in legislation daily, every member of Congress
+might leave a double to sit through those deadly sessions and answer to
+roll-calls and do the legitimate party-voting, which appears stereotyped
+in the regular list of Ashe, Bocock, Black, etc., we should gain
+decidedly in working-power. As things stand, the saddest State prison I
+ever visit is that Representatives' Chamber in Washington. If a man
+leaves for an hour, twenty "correspondents" may be howling, "Where was
+Mr. Pendergrast when the Oregon bill passed?" And if poor Pendergrast
+stays there! Certainly, the worst use you can make of a man is to put
+him in prison!
+
+I know, indeed, that public men of the highest rank have resorted to
+this expedient long ago. Dumas's novel of the "Iron Mask" turns on the
+brutal imprisonment of Louis the Fourteenth's double. There seems little
+doubt, in our own history, that it was the real General Pierce who shed
+tears when the delegate from Lawrence explained to him the sufferings of
+the people there,--and only General Pierce's double who had given the
+orders for the assault on that town, which was invaded the next day. My
+charming friend, George Withers, has, I am almost sure, a double, who
+preaches his afternoon sermons for him. This is the reason that the
+theology often varies so from that of the forenoon. But that double is
+almost as charming as the original. Some of the most well-defined men,
+who stand out most prominently on the background of history, are in this
+way stereoscopic men, who owe their distinct relief to the slight
+differences between the doubles. All this I know. My present suggestion
+is simply the great extension of the system, so that all public
+machine-work may be done by it.
+
+But I see I loiter on my story, which is rushing to the plunge. Let me
+stop an instant more, however, to recall, were it only to myself, that
+charming year while all was yet well. After the double had become a
+matter of course, for nearly twelve months before he undid me, what a
+year it was! Full of active life, full of happy love, of the hardest
+work, of the sweetest sleep, and the fulfilment of so many of the fresh
+aspirations and dreams of boyhood! Dennis went to every school-committee
+meeting, and sat through all those late wranglings which used to keep me
+up till midnight and awake till morning. He attended all the lectures to
+which foreign exiles sent me tickets begging me to come for the love of
+Heaven and of Bohemia. He accepted and used all the tickets for charity
+concerts which were sent to me. He appeared everywhere where it was
+specially desirable that "our denomination," or "our party," or "our
+class," or "our family," or "our street," or "our town," or "our
+county," or "our State," should be fully represented. And I fell back to
+that charming life which in boyhood one dreams of, when he supposes he
+shall do his own duty and make his own sacrifices, without being tied up
+with those of other people. My rusty Sanskrit, Arabic, Hebrew, Greek,
+Latin, French, Italian, Spanish, German, and English began to take
+polish. Heavens! how little I had done with them while I attended to my
+_public_ duties! My calls on my parishioners became the friendly,
+frequent, homelike sociabilities they were meant to be, instead of the
+hard work of a man goaded to desperation by the sight of his lists of
+arrears. And preaching! what a luxury preaching was when I had on
+Sunday the whole result of an individual, personal week, from which to
+speak to a people whom all that week I had been meeting as hand-to-hand
+friend! I never tired on Sunday, and was in condition to leave the
+sermon at home, if I chose, and preach it extempore, as all men should
+do always. Indeed, I wonder, when I think that a sensible people, like
+ours,--really more attached to their clergy than they were in the lost
+days, when the Mathers and Nortons were noblemen,--should choose to
+neutralize so much of their ministers' lives, and destroy so much of
+their early training, by this undefined passion for seeing them in
+public. It springs from our balancing of sects. If a spirited
+Episcopalian takes an interest in the alms-house, and is put on the Poor
+Board, every other denomination must have a minister there, lest the
+poor-house be changed into St. Paul's Cathedral. If a Sandemanian is
+chosen president of the Young Men's Library, there must be a Methodist
+vice-president and a Baptist secretary. And if a Universalist
+Sunday-School Convention collects five hundred delegates, the next
+Congregationalist Sabbath-School Conference must be as large, "lest
+'they'--whoever _they_ may be--should think 'we'--whoever _we_ may
+be--are going down."
+
+Freed from these necessities, that happy year, I began to know my wife
+by sight. We saw each other sometimes. In those long mornings, when
+Dennis was in the study explaining to map-peddlers that I had eleven
+maps of Jerusalem already, and to school-book agents that I would see
+them hanged before I would be bribed to introduce their textbooks into
+the schools,--she and I were at work together, as in those old dreamy
+days,--and in these of our log-cabin again. But all this could not
+last,--and at length poor Dennis, my double, over-tasked in turn, undid
+me.
+
+It was thus it happened.--There is an excellent fellow,--once a
+minister,--I will call him Isaacs,--who deserves well of the world till
+he dies, and after,--because he once, in, a real exigency, did the right
+thing, in the right way, at the right time, as no other man could do it.
+In the world's great football match, the ball by chance found him
+loitering on the outside of the field; he closed with it, "camped" it,
+charged it home,--yes, right through the other side,--not disturbed, not
+frightened by his own success,--and breathless found himself a great
+man,--as the Great Delta rang applause. But he did not find himself a
+rich man; and the football has never come in his way again. From that
+moment to this moment he has been of no use, that one can see, at all.
+Still, for that great act we speak of Isaacs gratefully and remember him
+kindly; and he forges on, hoping to meet the football somewhere again.
+In that vague hope, he had arranged a "movement" for a general
+organization of the human family into Debating-Clubs, County Societies,
+State Unions, etc., etc., with a view of inducing all children to take
+hold of the handles of their knives and forks, instead of the metal.
+Children have bad habits in that way. The movement, of course, was
+absurd; but we all did our best to forward, not it, but him. It came
+time for the annual county-meeting on this subject to be held at
+Naguadavick. Isaacs came round, good fellow! to arrange for it,--got the
+town-hall, got the Governor to preside, (the saint!--he ought to have
+triplet doubles provided him by law,) and then came to get me to speak.
+"No," I said, "I would not speak, if ten Governors presided. I do not
+believe in the enterprise. If I spoke, it should be to say children
+should take hold of the prongs of the forks and the blades of the
+knives. I would subscribe ten dollars, but I would not speak a mill." So
+poor Isaacs went his way, sadly, to coax Auchmuty to speak, and
+Delafield. I went out. Not long after, he came back, and told Polly that
+they had promised to speak,--the Governor would speak,--and he himself
+would close with the quarterly report, and some interesting anecdotes
+regarding Miss Biffin's way of handling her knife and Mr. Nellis's way
+of footing his fork. "Now if Mr. Ingham will only come and sit on the
+platform, he need not say one word; but it will show well in the
+paper,--it will show that the Sandemanians take as much interest in the
+movement as the Armenians or the Mesopotamians, and will be a great
+favor to me." Polly, good soul! was tempted, and she promised. She knew
+Mrs. Isaacs was starving, and the babies,--she knew Dennis was at
+home,--and she promised! Night came, and I returned. I heard her story.
+I was sorry. I doubted. But Polly had promised to beg me, and I dared
+all! I told Dennis to hold his peace, under all circumstances, and sent
+him down.
+
+It was not half an hour more before he returned, wild with
+excitement,--in a perfect Irish fury,--which it was long before I
+understood. But I knew at once that he had undone me!
+
+What happened was this.--The audience got together, attracted by
+Governor Gorges's name. There were a thousand people. Poor Gorges was
+late from Augusta. They became impatient. He came in direct from the
+train at last, really ignorant of the object of the meeting. He opened
+it in the fewest possible words, and said other gentlemen were present
+who would entertain them better than he. The audience were disappointed,
+but waited. The Governor, prompted by Isaacs, said, "The Honorable Mr.
+Delafield will address you." Delafield had forgotten the knives and
+forks, and was playing the Ruy Lopez opening at the chess-club. "The
+Rev. Mr. Auchmuty will address you." Auchmuty had promised to speak
+late, and was at the school-committee. "I see Dr. Stearns in the hall;
+perhaps he will say a word." Dr. Stearns said he had come to listen and
+not to speak. The Governor and Isaacs whispered. The Governor looked at
+Dennis, who was resplendent on the platform; but Isaacs, to give him his
+due, shook his head. But the look was enough. A miserable lad, ill-bred,
+who had once been in Boston, thought it would sound well to call for me,
+and peeped out, "Ingham!" A few more wretches cried, "Ingham! Ingham!"
+Still Isaacs was firm; but the Governor, anxious, indeed, to prevent a
+row, knew I would say something, and said, "Our friend Mr. Ingham is
+always prepared,--and though we had not relied upon him, he will say a
+word, perhaps." Applause followed, which turned Dennis's head. He rose,
+fluttered, and tried No. 3: "There has been so much said, and, on the
+whole, so well said, that I will not longer occupy the time!" and sat
+down, looking for his hat; for things seemed squally. But the people
+cried, "Go on! go on!" and some applauded. Dennis, still confused, but
+flattered by the applause, to which neither he nor I are used, rose
+again, and this time tried No. 2: "I am very glad you liked it!" in a
+sonorous, clear delivery. My best friends stared. All the people who did
+not know me personally yelled with delight at the aspect of the evening;
+the Governor was beside himself, and poor Isaacs thought he was undone!
+Alas, it was I! A boy in the gallery cried in a loud tone, "It's all an
+infernal humbug," just as Dennis, waving his hand, commanded silence,
+and tried No. 4: "I agree, in general, with my friend the other side of
+the room." The poor Governor doubted his senses, and crossed to stop
+him,--not in time, however. The same gallery-boy shouted, "How's your
+mother?"--and Dennis, now completely lost, tried, as his last shot, No.
+1, vainly: "Very well, thank you; and you?"
+
+I think I must have been undone already. But Dennis, like another
+Lockhard, chose "to make sicker." The audience rose in a whirl of
+amazement, rage, and sorrow. Some other impertinence, aimed at Dennis,
+broke all restraint, and, in pure Irish, he delivered himself of an
+address to the gallery, inviting any person who wished to fight to come
+down and do so,--stating, that they were all dogs and cowards and the
+sons of dogs and cowards,--that he would take any five of them
+single-handed. "Shure, I have said all his Riverence and the Misthress
+bade me say," cried he, in defiance; and, seizing the Governor's cane
+from his hand, brandished it, quarterstaff fashion, above his head. He
+was, indeed, got from the hall only with the greatest difficulty by the
+Governor, the City Marshal, who had been called in, and the
+Superintendent of my Sunday-School.
+
+The universal impression, of course, was, that the Rev. Frederic Ingham
+had lost all command of himself in some of those haunts of intoxication
+which for fifteen years I have been laboring to destroy. Till this
+moment, indeed, that is the impression in Naguadavick. This number of
+the "Atlantic" will relieve from it a hundred friends of mine who have
+been sadly wounded by that notion now for years;--but I shall not be
+likely ever to show my head there again.
+
+No! My double has undone me.
+
+We left town at seven the next morning. I came to No. 9, in the Third
+Range, and settled on the Minister's Lot. In the new towns in Maine, the
+first settled minister has a gift of a hundred acres of land. I am the
+first settled minister in No. 9. My wife and little Paulina are my
+parish. We raise corn enough to live on in summer. We kill bear's meat
+enough to carbonize it in winter. I work on steadily on my "Traces of
+Sandemanianism in the Sixth and Seventh Centuries," which I hope to
+persuade Phillips, Sampson, & Co. to publish next year. We are very
+happy, but the world thinks we are undone.
+
+
+[8] Which means, "In the thirteenth century," my dear little
+bell-and-coral reader. You have rightly guessed that the question means,
+"What is the history of the Reformation in Hungary?"
+
+
+
+
+THE SINGER.
+
+
+A star into our twilight fell,
+    'Mong peasant homes in vales remote;
+Men marvelled not till all the dell
+    Was waked as by a bugle-note.
+
+They wondered at the wild-eyed boy,
+    And drank his song like draughts of wine;
+And yet, amid their new-born joy,
+    They bade him tend the herds and swine.
+
+But he knew neither swine nor herds,--
+    His shepherd soul was otherwhere;
+The flocks he tended were the birds,
+    And stars that fill the folds of air.
+
+To sweeter song the wind would melt
+    That fanned him with its perfumed wing;
+Flowers thronged his path as if they felt
+    The warm and flashing feet of Spring.
+
+The brooklet flung its ringlets wide,
+    And leapt to him, and kept his pace,--
+Sang when he sang, and when he sighed,
+    Turned up to him its starry face.
+
+Through many a dawn and noon and night,
+    The singing boy still kept his course;
+For in his heart that meteor light
+    Still burned with all its natal force.
+
+He sang,--nor cherished thought of care,--
+    As when, upon the garden-vine,
+A blue-bird thrills the April air,
+    Regardless of the herds and swine.
+
+The children in their May-time plays,
+    The maidens in their rosy hours,
+And matrons in their autumn days,
+    All heard and flung him praise or flowers.
+
+And Age, to chimney-nooks beguiled,
+    Caught the sweet music's tender closes,
+And, gazing on the embers, smiled
+    As on a bed of summer roses.
+
+And many a heart, by hope forsook,
+    Received his song through depths of pain,
+As the dry channels of a brook
+    The freshness of a summer rain.
+
+But when he looked for house or bread,
+    The stewards of earth's oil and wine
+Shook sternly the reproving head,
+    And bade him tend the herds and swine!
+
+He strayed into the harvest plains,
+    And 'mid the sultry windrows sung,
+Till glowing girls and swarthy swains
+    Caught music from his charmed tongue,--
+
+Caught music that from heart to brain
+    Went thrilling with delicious measure,
+Till toil, which late had seemed a pain,
+    Became a sweet Arcadian pleasure.
+
+The farmer, at the day's decline,
+    Sat listening till the eve was late;
+Then, offering neither bread nor wine,
+    Arose, and barred the outer gate,--
+
+And said, "Would you have where to sleep
+    On wholesome straw, good brother mine,
+You need but plow, and sow, and reap,
+    And daily tend the herds and swine."
+
+The poet's locks shook out reply;
+    He turned him gayly down the rill;
+Yet left a light which shall not die,
+    A sunshine on the farmer's sill.
+
+He strewed the vale with flowers of song;
+    He filled the homes with lighter grace,
+Which round those hearth-stones lingered long,
+    And still makes beautiful the place.
+
+The country, hamlet, and the town
+    Grew wiser, better, for his songs;--
+The roaring city could not drown
+    The voice that to the world belongs.
+
+To beds of pain, to rooms of death,
+    The soft and solemn music stole,
+And soothed the dying with its breath,
+    And passed into the mourner's soul.
+
+And yet what was the poet's meed?
+    Such, Bard of Alloway, was thine!
+The soul that sings, the heart must bleed,
+    Or tend the common herds and swine.
+
+The nation heard his patriot lays,
+    And rung them, like an anthem, round,
+Till Freedom waved her branch of bays,
+    Wherewith the world shall yet be crowned.
+
+His war-songs fired the battle-host,
+    His mottoes on their banners burned;
+And when the foe had fled the coast,
+    Wild with his songs the troops returned.
+
+Then at the feast's triumphal board,
+    His thrilling music cheered the wine;--
+But when the singer asked reward,
+    They pointed to the herds and swine.
+
+"What! he a bard? Then bid him go
+    And beg,--it is the poet's trade!
+Dan Homer was the first to show
+    The rank for which the bards were made!
+
+"A living bard! What's he to us?
+    A bard, to live, must first be dead!
+And when he dies, we may discuss
+    To whom belongs the poet's head!"
+
+'Neath suns that burn, through storms that drench,
+    He went, an outcast from his birth,
+Still singing,--for they could not quench
+    The fire that was not born of earth.
+
+At last, behind cold prison-bars,
+    By colder natures unforgiven,
+His frail dust starved! but 'mid the stars
+    His spirit found its native heaven.
+
+Now, when a meteor-spark, forlorn,
+    Descends upon its fiery wing,
+I sigh to think a soul is born,
+    Perchance, to suffer and to sing:--
+
+Its own heart a consuming pyre
+    Of flame, to brighten and refine:--
+A singer, in the starry choir,
+    That will not tend the herds and swine.
+
+
+
+
+THE PROFESSOR AT THE BREAKFAST-TABLE.
+
+WHAT HE SAID, WHAT HE HEARD, AND WHAT HE SAW.
+
+
+One of our boarders--perhaps more than one was concerned in it--sent in
+some questions to me, the other day, which, trivial as some of them are,
+I felt bound to answer.
+
+1.--Whether a lady was ever known to write a letter covering only a
+single page?
+
+To this I answered, that there was a case on record where a lady had but
+half a sheet of paper and no envelope; and being obliged to send through
+the post-office, she _covered_ only one side of the paper (crosswise,
+lengthwise, and diagonally).
+
+2.--What constitutes a man a gentleman?
+
+To this I gave several answers, adapted to particular classes of
+questions.
+
+a. Not trying to be a gentleman.
+
+b. Self-respect underlying courtesy.
+
+c. Knowledge and observance of the _fitness of things_ in social
+intercourse.
+
+d. £. _s.d._ (as many suppose.)
+
+3.--Whether face or figure is most attractive in the female sex?
+
+Answered in the following epigram, by a young man about town:--
+
+    Quoth Tom, "Though fair her features be,
+    it is her figure pleases me."
+    "What may her figure be?" I cried.
+    "_One hundred thousand_!" he replied.
+
+When this was read to the boarders, the young man John said he should
+like a chance to "step up" to a figger of that kind, if the girl was one
+of the right sort.
+
+The landlady said them that merried for money didn't deserve the
+blessin' of a good wife. Money was a great thing when them that had it
+made a good use of it. She had seen better days herself, and knew what
+it was never to want for anything. One of her cousins merried a very
+rich old gentleman, and she had heerd that he said he lived ten year
+longer than if he'd staid by himself without anybody to take care of
+him. There was nothin' like a wife for nussin' sick folks and them that
+couldn't take care of themselves.
+
+The young man John got off a little wink, and pointed slyly with his
+thumb in the direction of our diminutive friend, for whom he seemed to
+think this speech was intended.
+
+If it was meant for him, he didn't appear to know that it was. Indeed,
+he seems somewhat listless of late, except when the conversation falls
+upon one of those larger topics that specially interest him, and then he
+grows excited, speaks loud and fast, sometimes almost savagely,--and, I
+have noticed once or twice, presses his left hand to his right side, as
+if there were something that ached, or weighed, or throbbed in that
+region.
+
+While he speaks in this way, the general conversation is interrupted,
+and we all listen to him. Iris looks steadily in his face, and then he
+will turn as if magnetized and meet the amber eyes with his own
+melancholy gaze. I do believe that they have some kind of understanding
+together, that they meet elsewhere than at our table, and that there is
+a mystery, which is going to break upon us all of a sudden, involving
+the relations of these two persons. From the very first, they have taken
+to each other. The one thing they have in common is the heroic will. In
+him, it shows itself in thinking his way straightforward, in doing
+battle for "free trade and no right of search" on the high seas of
+religious controversy, and especially in fighting the battles of his
+crooked old city. In her, it is standing up for her little friend with
+the most queenly disregard of the code of boarding-house etiquette.
+People may say or look what they like,--she will have her way about this
+sentiment of hers.
+
+The poor relation is in a dreadful fidget whenever the little gentleman
+says anything that interferes with her own infallibility. She seems to
+think Faith must go with her face tied up, as if she had the
+toothache,--and that if she opens her mouth to the quarter the wind
+blows from, she will catch her "death o' cold."
+
+The landlady herself came to him one day, as I have found out, and tried
+to persuade him to hold his tongue.--The boarders was gettin'
+uneasy,--she said,--and some of 'em would go, she mistrusted, if he
+talked any more about things that belonged to the ministers to settle.
+She was a poor woman, that had known better days, but all her livin'
+depended on her boarders, and she was sure there wasn't any of 'em she
+set so much by as she did by him; but there was them that never liked to
+hear about such things, except on Sundays.
+
+The little gentleman looked very smiling at the landlady, who smiled
+even more cordially in return, and adjusted her cap-ribbon with an
+unconscious movement,--a reminiscence of the long-past pairing-time,
+when she had smoothed her locks and softened her voice, and won her mate
+by these and other bird-like graces.--My dear Madam,--he said,--I will
+remember your interests, and speak only of matters to which I am totally
+indifferent.--I don't doubt he meant this; but a day or two after,
+something stirred him up, and I heard his voice uttering itself aloud,
+thus:--
+
+--It must be done, Sir!--he was saying,--it must be done! Our religion
+has been Judaized, it has been Romanized, it has been Orientalized, it
+has been Anglicized, and the time is at hand when it must be
+AMERICANIZED! Now, Sir, you see what Americanizing is in politics;--it
+means that a man shall have a vote because he is a man,--and shall vote
+for whom he pleases, without his neighbor's interference. If he chooses
+to vote for the Devil, that is his lookout;--perhaps he thinks the Devil
+is better than the other candidates; and I don't doubt he's often right,
+Sir! Just so a man's soul has a vote in the spiritual community; and it
+doesn't do, Sir, or it won't do long, to call him "schismatic" and
+"heretic" and those other wicked names that the old murderous
+Inquisitors have left us to help along "peace and good-will to men"!
+
+As long as you could catch a man and drop him into an _oubliette_, or
+pull him out a few inches longer by machinery, or put a hot iron through
+his tongue, or make him climb up a ladder and sit on a board at the top
+of a stake so that he should be slowly broiled by the fire kindled round
+it, there was some sense in these words; they led to something. But
+since we have done with those tools, we had better give up those words.
+I should like to see a Yankee advertisement like this!--(the little
+gentleman laughed fiercely as he uttered the words,--)
+
+--Patent thumb-screws, warranted to crush the bone in three turns.
+
+--The cast-iron boot, with wedge and mallet,--only five dollars!
+
+--The celebrated extension-rack, warranted to stretch a man six inches
+in twenty minutes,--money returned, if it proves unsatisfactory.
+
+I should like to see such an advertisement, I say, Sir! Now, what's the
+use of using the words that belonged with the thumb-screws, and the
+Blessed Virgin with the knives under her petticoats and sleeves and
+bodice, and the _dry pan and gradual fire_, if we can't have the things
+themselves, Sir? What's the use of _painting_ the fire round a poor
+fellow, when you think it won't do to kindle one under him,--as they did
+at Valencia or Valladolid, or wherever it was?
+
+--What story is that?--I said.
+
+Why,--he answered,--at the last _auto-da-fé_, in 1824 or '5, or
+somewhere there,--it's a traveller's story, but a mighty knowing
+traveller he is,--they had a "heretic" to use up according to the
+statutes provided for the crime of private opinion. They couldn't quite
+make up their minds to burn him, so they only _hung_ him in a hogshead
+painted all over with flames!
+
+No, Sir! when a man calls you names because you go to the ballot-box and
+vote for your candidate, or because you say this or that is your
+opinion, he forgets in which half of the world he was born, Sir! It
+won't be long, Sir, before we have Americanized religion as we have
+Americanized government; and then, Sir, every soul God sends into the
+world will be good in the face of all men for just so much of His
+"inspiration" as "giveth him understanding"!--None of my words, Sir!
+none of my words!
+
+--If Iris does not love this little gentleman, what does love look like
+when one sees it? She follows him with her eyes, she leans over toward
+him when he speaks, her face changes with the changes of his speech, so
+that one might think it was with her as with Christabel,--
+
+    That all her features were resigned
+    To this sole image in her mind.
+
+But she never looks at him with such intensity of devotion as when he
+says anything about the soul and the soul's atmosphere, religion.
+
+Women are twice as religious as men;--all the world knows that. Whether
+they are any _better_, in the eyes of Absolute Justice, might be
+questioned; for the additional religious element supplied by sex hardly
+seems to be a matter of praise or blame. But in all common aspects they
+are so much above us that we get most of our religion from them,--from
+their teachings, from their example,--above all, from their pure
+affections.
+
+Now this poor little Iris had been talked to strangely in her childhood.
+Especially she had been told that she hated all good things,--which
+every sensible parent knows well enough is not true of a great many
+children, to say the least. I have sometimes questioned whether many
+libels on human nature had not been a natural consequence of the
+celibacy of the clergy, which was enforced for so long a period.
+
+The child had met this and some other equally encouraging statements as
+to her spiritual conditions, early in life, and fought the battle of
+spiritual independence prematurely, as many children do. If all she did
+was hateful to God, what was the meaning of the approving or else the
+disapproving conscience, when she had done "right" or "wrong"? No
+"shoulder-striker" hits out straighter than a child with its logic. Why,
+I can remember lying in my bed in the nursery and settling questions
+which all that I have heard since and got out of books has never been
+able to raise again. If a child does not assert itself in this way in
+good season, it becomes just what its parents or teachers were, and is
+no better than a plaster image.--How old was I at the time? I suppose
+about 5823 years old,--that is, counting from Archbishop Usher's date of
+the Creation, and adding the life of the race, whose accumulated
+intelligence is a part of my inheritance, to my own. A good deal older
+than Plato, you see, and much more experienced than my Lord Bacon and
+most of the world's teachers.--Old books are books of the world's youth,
+and new books are fruits of its age. How many of all these old folios
+round me are like so many old cupels! The gold has passed out of them
+long ago, but their pores are full of the dross with which it was
+mingled.
+
+And so Iris--having thrown off that first lasso, which not only fetters,
+but _chokes_ those whom it can hold, so that they give themselves up
+trembling and breathless to the great soul-subduer, who has them by the
+windpipe--had settled a brief creed for herself, in which love of the
+neighbor, whom we have seen, was the first article, and love of the
+Creator, whom we have not seen, grew out of this as its natural
+development, being necessarily second in order of time to the first
+unselfish emotions which we feel for the fellow-creatures who surround
+us in our early years.
+
+The child must have some place to worship. What would a young girl be
+who never mingled her voice with the songs and prayers that rose all
+around her with every returning day of rest? And Iris was free to
+choose. Sometimes one and sometimes another would offer to carry her to
+this or that place of worship; and when the doors were hospitably
+opened, she would often go meekly in by herself. It was a curious fact,
+that two churches as remote from each other in doctrine as could well be
+divided her affections.
+
+The Church of Saint Polycarp had very much the look of a Roman Catholic
+chapel. I do not wish to run the risk of giving names to the
+ecclesiastical furniture which gave it such a Romish aspect; but there
+were pictures, and inscriptions in antiquated characters, and there were
+reading-stands, and flowers on the altar, and other elegant
+arrangements. Then there were boys to sing alternately in choirs
+responsive to each other, and there was much bowing, with very loud
+responding, and a long service and a short sermon, and a bag, such as
+Judas used to hold in the old pictures, was carried round to receive
+contributions. Everything was done not only "decently and in order,"
+but, perhaps one might say, with a certain air of magnifying their
+office on the part of the dignified clergymen, often two or three in
+number. The music and the free welcome were grateful to Iris, and she
+forgot her prejudices at the door of the chapel. For this was a church
+with open doors, with seats for all classes and all colors alike,--a
+church of zealous worshippers after their faith, of charitable and
+serviceable men and women, one that took care of its children and never
+forgot its poor, and whose people were much more occupied in looking out
+for their own souls than in attacking the faith of their neighbors. In
+its mode of worship there was a union of two qualities,--the taste and
+refinement, which the educated require just as much in their churches as
+else where, and the air of stateliness, almost of pomp, which impresses
+the common worshipper, and is often not without its effect upon those
+who think they hold outward forms as of little value. Under the
+half-Romish aspect of the Church of Saint Polycarp, the young girl found
+a devout and loving and singularly cheerful religious spirit. The
+artistic sense, which betrayed itself in the dramatic proprieties of its
+ritual, harmonized with her taste. The mingled murmur of the loud
+responses, in those rhythmic phrases, so simple, yet so fervent, almost
+as if every tenth heartbeat, instead of its dull _tic-tac_, articulated
+itself as "Good Lord, deliver us!"--the sweet alternation of the two
+choirs, as their holy song floated from side to side,--the keen young
+voices rising like a flight of singing-birds that passes from one grove
+to another, carrying its music with it back and forward,--why should she
+not love these gracious outward signs of those inner harmonies which
+none could deny made beautiful the lives of many of her
+fellow-worshippers in the humble, yet not inelegant Chapel of Saint
+Polycarp?
+
+The young Marylander, who was born and bred to that mode of worship, had
+introduced her to the chapel, for which he did the honors for such of
+our boarders as were not otherwise provided for. I saw them looking over
+the same prayer-book one Sunday, and I could not help thinking that two
+such young and handsome persons could hardly worship together in safety
+for a great while. But they seemed to mind nothing but their
+prayer-book. By-and-by the silken bag was handed round.--I don't believe
+she will;--so awkward, you know;--besides, she only came by invitation.
+There she is, with her hand in her pocket, though,--and sure enough, her
+little bit of silver tinkled as it struck the coin beneath. God bless
+her! she hasn't much to give; but her eye glistens when she gives it,
+and that is all Heaven asks.--That was the first time I noticed these
+young people together, and I am sure they behaved with the most charming
+propriety,--in fact, there was one of our silent lady-boarders with
+them, whose eyes would have kept Cupid and Psyche to their good
+behavior. A day or two after this I noticed that the young gentleman had
+left his seat, which you may remember was at the corner diagonal to that
+of Iris, so that they have been as far removed from each other as they
+could be at the table. His new seat is three or four places farther down
+the table. Of course I made a romance out of this, at once. So stupid
+not to see it! How could it be otherwise?--Did you speak, Madam? I beg
+your pardon. (To my lady-reader.)
+
+I never saw anything like the tenderness with which this young girl
+treats her little deformed neighbor. If he were in the way of going to
+church, I know she would follow him. But his worship, if any, is not
+with the throng of men and women and staring children.
+
+I, the Professor, on the other hand, am a regular church-goer. I should
+go for various reasons, if I did not love it; but I am happy enough to
+find great pleasure in the midst of devout multitudes, whether I can
+accept all their creeds or not. One place of worship comes nearer than
+the rest to my ideal standard, and to this it was that I carried our
+young girl.
+
+The Church of the Galileans, as it is called, is even humbler in outside
+pretensions than the Church of Saint Polycarp. Like that, it is open to
+all comers. The stranger who approaches it looks down a quiet street and
+sees the plainest of chapels,--a kind of wooden tent, that owes whatever
+grace it has to its pointed windows and the high, sharp roof,--traces,
+both, of that upward movement of ecclesiastical architecture which
+soared aloft in cathedral-spires, shooting into the sky as the spike of
+a flowering aloe from the cluster of broad, sharp-wedged leaves below.
+This suggestion of mediæval symbolism, aided by a minute turret in which
+a hand-bell might have hung and found just room enough to turn over, was
+all of outward show the small edifice could boast. Within there was very
+little that pretended to be attractive. A small organ at one side, and a
+plain pulpit, showed that the building was a church; but it was a church
+reduced to its simplest expression.
+
+Yet when the great and wise monarch of the East sat upon his throne, in
+all the golden blaze of the spoils of Ophir and the freights of the navy
+of Tarshish, his glory was not like that of this simple chapel in its
+Sunday garniture. For the lilies of the field, in their season, and the
+fairest flowers of the year, in due succession, were clustered every
+Sunday morning over the preacher's desk. Slight, thin-tissued blossoms
+of pink and blue and virgin white in early spring, then the
+full-breasted and deep-hearted roses of summer, then the velvet-robed
+crimson and yellow flowers of autumn, and in the winter delicate exotics
+that grew under skies of glass in the false summers of our crystal
+palaces without knowing that it was the dreadful winter of New England
+which was rattling the doors and frosting the panes,--the whole year
+told its history of life and growth and beauty from that simple desk.
+There was always at least one good sermon,--this floral homily. There
+was at least one good prayer,--that brief space when all were silent,
+after the manner of the Friends at their devotions.
+
+Here, too, Iris found an atmosphere of peace and love. The same gentle,
+thoughtful faces, the same cheerful but reverential spirit, the same
+quiet, the same life of active benevolence. But in all else how
+different from the Church of Saint Polycarp! No clerical costume, no
+ceremonial forms, no carefully trained choirs. A liturgy they have, to
+be sure, which does not scruple to borrow from the time-honored manuals
+of devotion, but also does not hesitate to change its expressions to its
+own liking.
+
+Perhaps the good people seem a little easy with each other;--they are
+apt to nod cheerfully, and have even been known to whisper before the
+minister came in. But it is a relief to get rid of that old
+Sunday--no,--_Sabbath_ face, which suggests the idea that the first day
+of the week is commemorative of some most mournful event. The truth is,
+these people meet very much as a family does for its devotions, not
+putting off their humanity in the least, considering it on the whole
+quite a cheerful matter to come together for prayer and song and good
+counsel from kind and wise lips. And if they are freer in their demeanor
+than some very precise congregations, they have not the air of a worldly
+set of people. Clearly they have _not_ come to advertise their tailors
+and milliners, nor for the sake of exchanging criticisms on the literary
+character of the sermon they may hear. There is no restlessness and no
+restraint among this quiet, cheerful people. One thing that keeps them
+calm and happy during the season so evidently trying to many
+congregations is, that they join very generally in the singing. In this
+way they get rid of that accumulated nervous force which escapes in all
+sorts of fidgety movements, so that a minister trying to keep his
+congregation still reminds one of a boy with his hand over the nose of a
+pump which another boy is working,--this spirting impatience of the
+people is so like the jets that find their way through his fingers, and
+the grand rush out at the final Amen! has such a wonderful likeness to
+the gush that takes place when the boy pulls his hand away, with such
+immense relief, as it seems, to both the pump and the officiating
+youngster.
+
+How sweet is this blending of all voices and all hearts in one common
+song of praise! Some will sing a little loud, perhaps,--and now and then
+an impatient chorister will get a syllable or two in advance, or an
+enchanted singer so lose all thought of time and place in the luxury of
+a closing cadence that he holds on to the last semibreve upon his
+private responsibility; but how much more of the spirit of the old
+Psalmist in the music of these imperfectly trained voices than in the
+academic niceties of the paid performers who take our musical worship
+out of our hands!
+
+I am of the opinion that the creed of the Church of the Galileans is not
+quite so precisely laid down as that of the Church of Saint Polycarp.
+Yet I suspect, if one of the good people from each of those churches had
+met over the bed of a suffering fellow-creature, or for the promotion of
+any charitable object, they would have found they had more in common
+than all the special beliefs or want of beliefs that separated them
+would amount to. There are always many who believe that the fruits of a
+tree afford a better test of its condition than a statement of the
+composts with which it is dressed,--though the last has its meaning and
+importance, no doubt.
+
+Between these two churches, then, our young Iris divides her affections.
+But I doubt if she listens to the preacher at either with more devotion
+than she does to her little neighbor when he talks of these matters.
+
+What does he believe? In the first place, there is some deep-rooted
+disquiet lying at the bottom of his soul, which makes him very bitter
+against all kinds of usurpation over the right of private judgment. Over
+this seems to lie a certain tenderness for humanity in general, bred out
+of life-long trial, I should say, but sharply streaked with fiery lines
+of wrath at various individual acts of wrong, especially if they come in
+an ecclesiastical shape, and recall to him the days when his mother's
+great-grandmother was strangled on Witch Hill, with a text from the Old
+Testament for her halter. With all this, he has a boundless belief in
+the future of this experimental hemisphere, and especially in the
+destiny of the free thought of its northeastern metropolis.
+
+--A man can see further, Sir,--he said one day,--from the top of Boston
+State-House, and see more that is worth seeing, than from all the
+pyramids and turrets and steeples in all the places in the world! No
+smoke, Sir; no fog, Sir; and a clean sweep from the Outer Light and the
+sea beyond it to the New Hampshire mountains! Yes, Sir,--and there are
+great truths that are higher than mountains and broader than seas, that
+people are looking for from the tops of these hills of ours,--such as
+the world never saw, though it might have seen them at Jerusalem, if its
+eyes had been open!--Where do they have most crazy people? Tell me that,
+Sir!
+
+I answered, that I had heard it said there were more in New England than
+in most countries, perhaps more than in any part of the world.
+
+Very good. Sir,--he answered.--When have there been most people killed
+and wounded in the course of this century?
+
+During the wars of the French Empire, no doubt,--I said.
+
+That's it! that's it!--said the little gentleman;--where the battle of
+intelligence is fought, there are most minds bruised and broken! We're
+battling for a faith here, Sir.
+
+The divinity-student remarked, that it was rather late in the world's
+history for men to be looking out for a new faith.
+
+I didn't say a new faith,--said the little gentleman;--old or new, it
+can't help being different here in this American mind of ours from
+anything that ever was before; the _people_ are new, Sir, and that makes
+the difference. One load of corn goes to the sty, and makes the fat of
+swine,--another goes to the farm-house, and becomes the muscle that
+clothes the right arms of heroes. It isn't where a pawn stands on the
+board that makes the difference, but what the game round it is when it
+is on this or that square.
+
+Can any man look round and see what Christian countries are now doing,
+and how they are governed, and what is the general condition of society,
+without seeing that Christianity is the flag under which the world
+sails, and not the rudder that steers its course? No, Sir! There was a
+great raft built about two thousand years ago,--call it an ark,
+rather,--the world's great ark! big enough to hold all mankind, and made
+to be launched right out into the open waves of life,--and here it has
+been lying, one end on the shore and one end bobbing up and down in the
+water, men fighting all the time as to who should be captain and who
+should have the state-rooms, and throwing each other over the side
+because they could not agree about the points of compass, but the great
+vessel never gelling afloat with its freight of nations and their
+rulers;--and now, Sir, there is and has been for this long time a fleet
+of "heretic" lighters sailing out of Boston Bay, and they have been
+saying, and they say now, and they mean to keep saying, "Pump out your
+bilge-water, shovel over your loads of idle ballast, get out your old
+rotten cargo, and we will carry it out into deep waters and sink it
+where it will never be seen again; so shall the ark of the world's hope
+float on the ocean, instead of sticking in the dock-mud where it is
+lying!"
+
+It's a slow business, this of getting the ark launched. The Jordan
+wasn't deep enough, and the Tiber wasn't deep enough, and the Rhone
+wasn't deep enough, and the Thames wasn't deep enough,--and perhaps the
+Charles isn't deep enough; but I don't feel sure of that, Sir, and I
+love to hear the workmen knocking at the old blocks of tradition and
+making the ways smooth with the oil of the Good Samaritan. I don't know,
+Sir,--but I do think she stirs a little,--I do believe she slides;--and
+when I think of what a work that is for the dear old three-breasted
+mother of American liberty, I would not take all the glory of all the
+greatest cities in the world for my birthright in the soil of little
+Boston!
+
+--Some of us could not help smiling at this burst of local patriotism,
+especially when it finished with the last two words.
+
+And Iris smiled, too. But it was the radiant smile of pleasure which
+always lights up her face when her little neighbor gets excited on the
+great topics of progress in freedom and religion, and especially on the
+part which, as he pleases himself with believing, his own city is to
+take in that consummation of human development to which he looks
+forward.
+
+Presently she looked into his face with a changed expression,--the
+anxiety of a mother that sees her child suffering.
+
+You are not well,--she said.
+
+I am never well,--he answered.--His eyes fell mechanically on the
+death's-head ring he wore on his right hand. She took his hand as if it
+had been a baby's, and turned the grim device so that it should be out
+of sight. One slight, sad, slow movement of the head seemed to say, "The
+death-symbol is still there!"
+
+A very odd personage, to be sure! Seems to know what is going on,--reads
+books, old and new,--has many recent publications sent him, they tell
+me,--but, what is more curious, keeps up with the every-day affairs of
+the world, too. Whether he hears everything that is said with
+preternatural acuteness, or whether some confidential friend visits him
+in a quiet way, is more than I can tell. I can make nothing more of the
+noises I hear in his room than my old conjectures. The movements I
+mention are less frequent, but I often hear the plaintive cry,--I
+observe that it is rarely laughing of late;--I never have detected one
+articulate word, but I never heard such tones from anything but a human
+voice.
+
+There has been, of late, a deference approaching to tenderness, on the
+part of the boarders generally, so far as he is concerned. This is
+doubtless owing to the air of suffering which seems to have saddened his
+look of late. Either some passion is gnawing at him inwardly, or some
+hidden disease is at work upon him.
+
+--What's the matter with Little Boston?--said the young man John to me
+one day.--There a'n't much of him, anyhow; but 't seems to me he looks
+peakeder than ever. The old woman says he's in a bad way, 'n' wants a
+nuss to take care of him. Them nusses that take care of old rich folks
+marry 'em sometimes,--'n' they don't commonly live a great while after
+that. _No, Sir!_ I don't see what he wants to die for, after he's taken
+so much trouble to live in such poor accommodations as that crooked body
+of his. I should like to know how his soul crawled into it, 'n' how it's
+goin' to get out. What business has he to die, I should like to know?
+Let Ma'am Allen (the gentleman with the _diamond_) die, if he likes, and
+be (this is a family-magazine); but we a'n't goin' to have _him_ dyin'.
+Not by a great sight. Can't do without him anyhow. A'n't it fun to hear
+him blow off his steam?
+
+I believe the young fellow would take it as a personal insult, if the
+little gentleman should show any symptoms of quitting our table for a
+better world.
+
+--In the mean time, what with going to church in company with our young
+lady, and taking every chance I could get to talk with her, I have found
+myself becoming, I will not say intimate, but well acquainted with Miss
+Iris. There is a certain frankness and directness about her that perhaps
+belong to her artist nature. For, you see, the one thing that marks the
+true artist is a clear perception and a firm, bold hand, in distinction
+from that imperfect mental vision and uncertain touch which give us the
+feeble pictures and the lumpy statues of the mere artisans on canvas or
+in stone. A true artist, therefore, can hardly fail to have a sharp,
+well-defined character. Besides this, many young girls have a strange
+audacity blended with their instinctive delicacy. Even in physical
+daring many of them are a match for boys; whereas you will find few
+among mature women, and especially if they are mothers, who do not
+confess, and not unfrequently proclaim, their timidity. One of these
+young girls, as many of us hereabouts remember, climbed to the top of a
+jagged, slippery rock lying out in the waves,--an ugly height to get up,
+and a worse one to get down, even for a bold young fellow of sixteen.
+Another was in the way of climbing tall trees for crows' nests,--and
+crows generally know about how far boys can "shin up," and set their
+household establishments above high-water-mark. Still another of these
+young ladies I saw for the first time in an open boat, tossing on the
+ocean ground-swell, a mile or two from shore, off a lonely island. She
+lost all her daring, after she had some girls of her own to look out
+for.
+
+Many blondes are very gentle, yielding in character, impressible,
+unelastic. But the _positive_ blondes, with the golden tint running
+through them, are often full of character. They come from those
+deep-bosomed German women that Tacitus portrayed in such strong colors.
+The _negative_ blondes, or those women whose tints have faded out as
+their line of descent has become impoverished, are of various blood, and
+in them the soul has often become pale with that blanching of the hair
+and loss of color in the eyes which makes them approach the character of
+Albinesses.
+
+I see in this young girl that union of strength and sensibility which,
+when directed and impelled by the strong instinct so apt to accompany
+this combination of active and passive capacity, we call _genius_. She
+is not an accomplished artist, certainly, as yet; but there is always an
+air in every careless figure she draws, as it were of upward
+aspiration,--the _elan_ of John of Bologna's Mercury,--a lift to them,
+as if they had on winged sandals, like the herald of the gods. I hear
+her singing sometimes; and though she evidently is not trained, yet is
+there a wild sweetness in her fitful and sometimes fantastic
+melodies,--such as can come only from the inspiration of the
+moment,--strangely enough, reminding me of those long passages I have
+heard from my little neighbor's room, yet of different tone, and by no
+means to be mistaken for those weird harmonies.
+
+I cannot pretend to deny that I am interested in the girl. Alone,
+unprotected, as I have seen so many young girls left in boarding-houses,
+the centre of all the men's eyes that surround the table, watched with
+jealous sharpness by every woman, most of all by that poor relation of
+our landlady, who belongs to the class of women that like to catch
+others in mischief when they are too mature for indiscretions, (as one
+sees old rogues turn to thief-catchers,) one of Nature's _gendarmerie_,
+clad in a complete suit of wrinkles, the cheapest coat-of-mail against
+the shafts of the great little enemy,--so surrounded, Iris spans this
+commonplace household-life of ours with her arch of beauty, as the
+rainbow, whose name she borrows, looks down on a dreary pasture with its
+feeding flocks and herds of indifferent animals.
+
+These young girls that live in boarding-houses can do pretty much as
+they will. The female _gendarmes_ are off guard occasionally. The
+sitting-room has its solitary moments, when any two boarders who wish to
+meet may come together accidentally, (_accidentally_, I said, Madam, and
+I had not the slightest intention of Italicizing the word,) and discuss
+the social or political questions of the day, or any other subject that
+may prove interesting. Many charming conversations take place at the
+foot of the stairs, or while one of the parties is holding the latch of
+a door,--in the shadow of porticos, and especially on those outside
+balconies which some of our Southern neighbors call "stoops," the most
+charming places in the world when the moon is just right and the roses
+and honeysuckles are in full blow,--as we used to think in eighteen
+hundred and never mention it.
+
+On such a balcony or "stoop," one evening, I walked with Iris. We were
+on pretty good terms now, and I had coaxed her arm under mine,--my left
+arm, of course. That leaves one's right arm free to defend the lovely
+creature, if the rival--odious wretch!--attempt to ravish her from your
+side. Likewise if one's heart should happen to beat a little, its mute
+language will not be without its meaning, as you will perceive when the
+arm you hold begins to tremble,--a circumstance like to occur, if you
+happen to be a good-looking young fellow, and you two have the "stoop"
+to yourselves.
+
+We had it to ourselves that evening. The Koh-i-noor, as we called him,
+was in a corner with our landlady's daughter. The young fellow John was
+smoking out in the yard. The _gendarme_ was afraid of the evening air,
+and kept inside. The young Marylander came to the door, looked out and
+saw us walking together, gave his hat a pull over his forehead and
+stalked off. I felt a slight spasm, as it were, in the arm I held, and
+saw the girl's head turn over her shoulder for a second. What a kind
+creature this is! She has no special interest in this youth, but she
+does not like to see a young fellow going off because he feels as if he
+were not wanted.
+
+She had her locked drawing-book under her arm.--Let me take it,--I said.
+
+She gave it to me to carry.
+
+This is full of caricatures of all of us, I am sure,--said I.
+
+She laughed, and said,--No,--not all of you.
+
+I was there, of course?
+
+Why, no,--she had never taken so much pains with me.
+
+Then she would let me see the inside of it?
+
+She would think of it.
+
+Just as we parted, she took a little key from her pocket and handed it
+to me.--This unlocks my naughty book,--she said,--you shall see it. I am
+not afraid of you.
+
+I don't know whether the last words exactly pleased me. At any rate, I
+took the book and hurried with it to my room. I opened it, and saw, in a
+few glances, that I held the heart of Iris in my hand.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+--I have no verses for you this month, except these few lines suggested
+by the season.
+
+
+MIDSUMMER.
+
+Here! sweep these foolish leaves away,--
+I will not crush my brains to-day!--
+Look! are the southern curtains drawn?
+Fetch me a fan, and so begone!
+
+Not that,--the palm-tree's rustling leaf
+Brought from a parching coral-reef!
+Its breath is heated;--I would swing
+The broad gray plumes,--the eagle's wing.
+
+I hate these roses' feverish blood!--
+Pluck me a half-blown lily-bud,
+A long-stemmed lily from the lake,
+Cold as a coiling water-snake.
+
+Rain me sweet odors on the air,
+And wheel me up my Indian chair,
+And spread some book not overwise
+Flat out before my sleepy eyes.
+
+--Who knows it not,--this dead recoil
+Of weary fibres stretched with toil,--
+The pulse that flutters faint and low
+When Summer's seething breezes blow?
+
+O Nature! bare thy loving breast
+And give thy child one hour of rest,--
+One little hour to lie unseen
+Beneath thy scarf of leafy green!
+
+So, curtained by a singing pine,
+Its murmuring voice shall blend with mine,
+Till, lost in dreams, my faltering lay
+In sweeter music dies away.
+
+
+
+
+REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES.
+
+
+_Life and Liberty in America_: or Sketches of a Tour in the United
+States and Canada in 1857-8. By CHARLES MACKAY, LL.D., F.S.A. London:
+Smith, Elder, & Co. 1859.
+
+"Let him come back and write a book about the 'Merrikins as'll pay all
+his expenses and more, if he blows 'em up enough," urged Mr. Anthony
+Weller, by way of climax to his scheme for Mr. Pickwick's liberation from
+the Fleet Prison. Whether Mr. Dickens, in putting forth this suggestion
+through one of his favorite characters, had or had not a view to
+subsequent operations of his own, has long been a sore question among
+his admirers on this side of the Atlantic. We believe that he had not;
+and that such "blowing-up" as he imparted to the people of this country
+was wholly unpremeditated and spontaneous, besides being of so harmless
+a nature that the patriot of most uneasy virtue need have been nowise
+distressed in consequence. The language can show few more amusing books
+than the "American Notes," especially the serious parts thereof.
+
+Mr. Dickens had plenty of objects besides his future self at which to
+aim his satirical shot. At the time he discharged it, the literary
+market of England was overstocked with books on America, the authors of
+which had apparently tasked the best energies of their lungs in
+incessant "blowings-up" of all that came within range of their breath.
+Up to that period, though viewing America from various stand-points,
+they had seldom failed to recognize this one essential element of
+success. Since then, however, attempts have been made to satisfy the
+prejudices of all sides,--in which the bitter and the sweet have been
+deftly mingled, with the obvious belief that persons aggrieved, while
+suffering from the authors' stings, would derive comfort from the
+consciousness of accompanying honey. These hopes generally proved
+fallacious, and the authors, falling to the ground between the two
+stools of American sensitiveness and British asperity, were regarded in
+the light of stern warnings by many of their successors, who straightway
+became pitiless.
+
+The critical works on America by English writers, published during the
+last fifty years, may be numbered by hundreds. Of these, nearly half
+have at different times been reprinted in this country. Most of them are
+now unknown, having passed to that oblivion of letters from whose bourn
+no short-sighted and narrow-minded traveller ever ought to return. The
+annual harvest began to appear about a half-century ago, when little
+more than descriptions of scenery and geographical statistics were
+ventured upon,--although one quaint explorer, John Lambert, vouchsafed,
+in 1810, some sketches of society, from which we learn, among other
+interesting facts, that a species of Bloomerism pervaded New York, and
+flourished on Broadway, even at that early day. Our visitors very soon
+enlarged the sphere of their observations, and entered upon the widest
+discussions of republican manners and morals. Slavery, as was to be
+expected, received immediate attention. In the course of ten years,
+"American Tours" had set in with such rigor, that one writer felt called
+upon to apologize for adding another to the already profuse supply. This
+was in 1818. For the next fifteen years, the principle of unlimited
+mockery was quite faithfully observed. The Honorable De Roos, who made a
+naval examination in 1826, and satisfied himself that the United States
+could never be a maritime power,--Colonel Maxwell, who entered upon a
+military investigation, and came to a similar conclusion respecting our
+prospects as to army, and who gained great credit for independent
+judgment by pronouncing Niagara a humbug,--Mrs. Kemble, frisky and
+fragmentary, excepting when her father was concerned, and then filially
+diffuse,--Mrs. Trollope, who refused to incumber herself with amiability
+or veracity,--Mr. Lieber, who was principally troubled by a camp meeting
+at which he assisted,--Miss Martineau, who retailed too much of the
+gossip that had been decanted through the tunnel of her trumpet,--and
+Captain Marryatt, who was simply clownish,--afford fair examples of the
+style which dominated until about 1836 or 1837. Then works of a better
+order began to appear. America received scientific attention. It had
+been agriculturally worked up in 1818 by Cobbett, whose example was now
+followed by Shirreff and others. In 1839, George Combe subjected us to
+phrenological treatment, and had the frankness to acknowledge that it
+was impossible for an individual to properly describe a great nation.
+Afterwards came Lyell, the geologist, who did not, however, confine
+himself to scientific research, but also analyzed the social deposits,
+and ascertained that Slavery was triturable. The manufacturers of
+gossip, meanwhile, had revolutionized the old system. Mr. Dickens blew
+hot and cold, uniting extremes. Godley, in 1841, disavowed satire, and
+was solemnly severe. Others evinced a similar disposition, but the
+result was not triumphant. Alexander Mackay, in 1846, returned to
+ridicule; and Alfred Bunn, a few years after, surpassed even Marryatt in
+his flippant falsehood. Mr. Arthur Cunynghame, a Canadian officer,
+entertained his friends, in 1850, with a dainty volume, in which the
+first personal pronoun averaged one hundred to a page, and the manner of
+which was as stiff as the ramrods of his regiment. Of our more recent
+judges, the best remembered are Lady Emmeline Stuart Wortley who gave to
+the world the details of her private experiences,--Mr. Chambers, of
+whose book there is really nothing in particular to say,--Mr. Baxter,
+who considered Peter Parley a shining light of American
+literature,--Miss Murray, who sacrificed her interests at St. James's
+upon the shrine of Antislavery,--Mr. Phillipps, scientific,--Mr.
+Russell, agricultural,--Mr. Jobson, theological,--and Mr. Colley
+Grattan, who may be termed the Sir Anthony Absolute of American censors,
+insisting that the Lady Columbia shall be as ugly as he chooses, shall
+have a hump on each shoulder, shall be as crooked as the crescent, and
+so forth.
+
+Last of all comes Mr. Charles Mackay's book. Before proceeding to the
+few general words we have to say of it, let us look for a moment at a
+question which he, like a number of his predecessors, has considered
+with some attention. Why it is that the people of the United States
+manifest such acute sensibility to the strictures of English writers,
+and receive their criticisms with so much suspicion, Mr. Mackay is
+unable fully to determine. He is forced to believe that it is only their
+anxiety "to stand well in English opinion which causes them to wince";
+particularly as "French and Germans may condemn, and nobody cares what
+they say." This is but a part of the truth. Unquestionably, Americans
+do, as Mr. Mackay says, "attach undue importance to what English
+travellers may say"; but this does not account for the universal feeling
+of mortification which follows the appearance of each new tourist's
+story. Americans have not failed to observe, that, of the hundreds of
+writers who come over, only a few of the most prominent of whom we have
+mentioned above, not one in fifty is animated by a sincere impulse of
+honest good-will. They have learned to mistrust them all, as triflers
+with our reputation, if not predetermined calumniators. They have
+witnessed over and over again the childish ignorance, the discourtesy,
+the vulgar deceptions of this class of bookmakers. They are not blind to
+these repeated struggles to digest a mass of mental food for years, in
+days or weeks. They know their nation cannot be understood by these
+chance viewers, feebly glancing through greenest spectacles, any more
+than the Atlantic can be sounded with a seven-fathom line. They have
+become familiar with the English traveller only to regard him with
+contempt. Each new production has opened the old wound. Each new
+announcement awakens only derisive expectations. As for "French and
+Germans," with them it is very different; and Mr. Mackay ought to know
+it. They commonly write, if not with comprehensive vision, at least with
+integrity of purpose. The best works on America are by Frenchmen. What
+Englishman has shown the sincerity and fairness of De Tocqueville or
+Chevalier? Knowing, then, that absurd malice and a capacity for
+microscopic investigation of superficial irregularities in a society not
+yet defined are the principal, and in many cases the only,
+qualifications deemed necessary to accomplish an English book on
+America, is it matter for wonder that Americans should hesitate to kiss
+the clumsy rods so liberally dispensed?
+
+We hasten to say that Mr. Charles Mackay's "Life and Liberty in America"
+is unusually free from the worst of these faults. Hasty judgments,
+offences against taste, inaccuracies, occasional revelations of personal
+pique it has; but it is not malicious. Sometimes it is even affecting in
+its tenderness. It breathes a spirit of paternal regard. But it is,
+perhaps, the dullest of books. If not "icily regular," it is "splendidly
+null." The style is as oppressive as a London fog. It is marked, to use
+the author's own words, by "elegant and drowsy stagnation." After the
+first few pages, it is with weariness that we follow him. We are
+inclined to think Mr. Mackay has written too much, Mr. Squeers had milk
+for three of his pupils watered up to the necessities of five. Mr.
+Mackay's experiences might have sustained him through a single small
+volume, but he has diluted them to the requirements of two large ones.
+This would injure the prospects of his work in America, but may not
+interfere with them in England. Minute details of toilet agonies,
+pecuniary miseries, laundry tribulations, and anxieties of appetite may
+possess an interest abroad which we are unable to appreciate here. We
+are not excited by the intelligence that Mr. Mackay had an altercation
+with a negro servant on board a Sound steamer, because he could not have
+lager-beer at table. Such things have been noticed before. We do not
+shed a sympathetic tear over the two dollars which he once had to
+disgorge in New York, in payment for a ride of two miles; nor do we
+mourn for the numerous other dollars with which he reluctantly parted to
+satisfy the rapacity of hack-drivers all over the Union. We do not
+thrill with indignation, when we learn that he was, on a certain
+occasion, swept by crinolines into the middle of Broadway. Neither are
+we in any way stirred by such information as, that he, like an English
+lord of whom he tells, was accustomed to eat oysters every night in New
+York; or that he "was pervaded, permeated, steeped, and bathed in a
+longing desire to behold Niagara," and that, when he beheld it, his
+"feelings were not so much those of astonishment as of an overpowering
+sense of Law"; or that a peddler in a railroad-car sold nine bottles of
+quack medicine at a dollar a bottle; or that he had eight pages of
+interview with a Baltimore madman, who proved his insanity by
+perpetually calling Mr. Mackay the "Prince of the Poets of England." The
+dreary solemnity with which these incidents are narrated renders them
+doubly tedious. A flash of humor might enliven them, but we never see a
+spark. Mr. Mackay's comic stories, too, of which there are not a few,
+are most lamentable specimens of wit, suggesting forcibly the
+poppy-seeds spoken of by Mr. Pillicoddy, which are soporific in
+tendency, and which, if taken incessantly for a period of three weeks,
+produce instant death.
+
+Mr. Mackay's experiences were not of a startling character. He travelled
+leisurely, and recorded discreetly. His blunders on a large scale are
+not numerous; but of minor facts, he announces many which may be classed
+among the remarkable discoveries of the season. He states that New York,
+New Jersey,(!) and Brooklyn form one city; that Broadway, N.Y., is
+decorated with elms, willows, and mountain-ashes, "drooping in green
+beauty"; that persons with decent coats and clean shirts in Boston may
+be safely put down as lecturers, Unitarian ministers, or poets; that
+Maryland and Virginia are one commonwealth; that eighteen months before
+every Presidential election, a cause of quarrel is made with England by
+both the principal political parties, for the purpose of securing the
+Irish rote; that measly pork is caused by too hasty insertion in brine
+after killing, and consequent rapid fermentation; that the people of
+the United States, unless they have travelled in Europe, are quite
+unable to appreciate wit. [Mr. Mackay's wit? If so, certainly.] These
+are but random pluckings from a rich blossoming.
+
+The subject upon which the author has labored most earnestly is that of
+Slavery. If the views he sets forth are the result of his own
+investigation, he is entitled to credit for unusual exactness. There is
+nothing new about them, to be sure; but there is also nothing absurd,
+which is a great point. He maintains the argument against Slavery, that
+it is to be practically considered in its injurious influences on the
+white people of the Slave States, and, through them, on the nation at
+large. When he undertakes an emotional view of the "institution," he
+becomes feeble again. He thus describes his sensations while visiting a
+slave-market in New Orleans:--"I entertained at that moment such a
+hatred of slavery, that, had it been in my power to abolish it in an
+instant off the face of the earth by the mere expression of my will,
+slavery at that moment would have ceased to exist,"--an avowal which
+will hardly be likely to confound the American people by its boldness.
+
+The statistical information in these volumes is as accurate as that of
+ordinary gazetteers. In most cases, the author appears to have drawn his
+information from proper sources. The principal exceptions to this are
+shown in one or two statements which he makes on the authority of his
+Pylades, Colonel Fuller, and in his remarks upon Canada, which are
+colored with excessive warmth. Mr. Mackay rests greater hopes upon the
+future of Canada than upon that of the United States. He considers the
+Canadians as the rivals in energy, enterprise, and industry of the
+people of the United States. His testimony differs from that of Lord
+Durham, who had good opportunities for knowing something about the
+matter when he had charge of Canadian affairs, and who declared, that
+"on the American side of the frontier all is activity and bustle," etc.,
+"on the British side all seems waste and desolate."
+
+Mr. Mackay gives correctly the most prominent names of American
+literature, but his list of artists is very imperfect. The little that
+he says about American music is all wrong. The first opera by an
+American was produced in 1845; and it is not true that this is a
+solitary example. Were it possible for us to pursue them, we should run
+down more errors of this kind than a prudent man would have put into
+print.
+
+Altogether, while we readily admit that Mr. Mackay has honestly, and, in
+general, good-naturedly, performed his duty as an American chronicler,
+renouncing in a great measure the old principle of "blowing-up," and
+that his essays do not reek with ignorance, like those of many of his
+predecessors, it is yet proper to say that he has achieved a stupendous
+bore. His two volumes are to us a melancholy remembrance. Their life is
+spiced with no variety. The same dead level of dry personal detail
+speaks through each chapter; or if occasional relief is afforded, it is
+"in liquid lines mellifluously bland," and prosier than all the rest.
+The one source of amusement that the reader will discover is the
+complacent self-confidence which no assumption of modesty can hide. "A
+controversy had been raging for at least a week" in Philadelphia about
+the author's letters in the "Illustrated London News." His defender was
+"one of the most influential and best-conducted papers of the Union";
+his assailant behaved "scurvily." We cannot lavish examples. This is the
+type of a hundred. Mr. Mackay seems to expect that his Jeremiad on
+tobacco-chewing and spitting will act in America as St. Patrick's spells
+did on the vermin of Ireland. Unfortunately, it will not. Mr. Dickens
+attempted the same thing in a much better manner,--excepting where Mr.
+Mackay has copied him exactly, as he has once or twice,--and even the
+novelist's efforts were fruitless. On the other hand, the main source of
+annoyance will be found in the needless elevation of minute evils, and
+the determination to form general judgments from isolated experiences.
+But of this we do not much complain. Rome derived some benefit from the
+cackling of a goose. Possibly we may be made in some respects a wiser
+and a better nation through Mr. Mackay's influence. For ourselves,
+however, if our aspirations ever turn toward a literary Paradise, we
+shall pray that it may be one where travellers cease from troubling and
+dull tourists are at rest.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+1. _The New and the Old_; or California and India in Romantic Aspects.
+By J.W. PALMER, M.D. New York: Rudd & Carleton. 1859.
+
+2. _Up and Down the Irawaddi_; being Passages of Adventure in the Burman
+Empire. By the Same.
+
+It has passed into a scornful proverb, that it needs good optics to see
+what is not to be seen; and yet we should be inclined to say that the
+first essential of a good traveller was to be gifted with eyesight of
+precisely that kind. All his senses should be as delicate as eyes; and,
+above all, he should be able to see with the fine eye of imagination,
+compared with which all the other organs with which the mind grasps and
+the memory holds are as clumsy as thumbs. The demand for this kind of
+traveller and the opportunity for him increase as we learn more and more
+minutely the dry facts and figures of the most inaccessible corners of
+the earth's surface. There is no hope of another Ferdinand Mendez Pinto,
+with his statistics of Dreamland, who makes no difficulty of impressing
+"fourscore thousand rhinocerots" to draw the wagons of the King of
+Tartary's army, or of killing eight hundred and fifty thousand men with
+a flourish of his quill,--for what were a few ciphers to him, when his
+inkhorn was full and all Christendom to be astonished?--but there is all
+the more need of voyagers who give us something better than a census of
+population, and who know of other exports from strange countries than
+can be expressed by $----. Give us the traveller who makes us feel the
+mystery of the Figure at Saïs, whose veil has a new meaning for every
+beholder, rather than him who brings back a photograph of the uncovered
+countenance, with its one unvarying granite story for all. There is one
+glory of the Gazetteer with his fixed facts, and another of the Poet
+with his variable quantities of fancy. The fixed fact may be unfixed
+next year, like an almanac, but the hasty sketch of the true artist is
+good forever.
+
+Critics have a good-natured way of stigmatizing, for the initiated, all
+poetry that is not poetry, by saying that it is "elegant," "harmonious,"
+or, worse than all, "descriptive." This last commonly means that the
+author has done for his readers precisely what they could do for
+themselves,--that he has made a catalogue of the natural objects to be
+found in a certain number of acres, which differs from the literary
+efforts of an auctioneer only in this, that each line begins with a
+capital and contains the same number of syllables. He counts the number
+of cabbages in a field, of cows in a pasture, and tells us how many
+times a squirrel ran up (or down) a given tree in a given time. He
+informs us that the bark of the shagbark is shaggy, that the
+sleep-at-noon slumbers at mid-day, that moss is apt to grow on fallen
+tree-trunks in damp places,--treats us as the old alchemists do, who
+give us a list of the materials out of which gold (if it had any moral
+sense) would at once consent to be made, but somehow won't,--and leaves
+us impressed with that very dead certainty, that things are so-and-so,
+which is the result of verses that are only so-so.
+
+Readers of the "Atlantic" need not be told that Dr. Palmer is not a
+descriptive poet of this fashion. They have known how to appreciate his
+sketches of East Indian life, so vivid, picturesque, and imaginative
+that they could make "Griffins" feel twinges of liver-complaint, and so
+true that we have heard them pronounced "incomparable" by men familiar
+with India. Dr. Palmer is no mere describer; he sees with the eye of a
+poet, touches only what is characteristic, and, while he seems to
+surrender himself wholly to the Circe Imagination, retains the polished
+coolness of the man of the world, and the _brownness_ of the man of the
+nineteenth century. He not only knows how to observe, but how to
+write,--both of them accomplishments rare enough in an age when
+everybody is ready to contract for their display by the column. His
+style is nervous and original, not harassingly pointed like a
+chestnut-burr, but full of _esprit_ or wit diffused,--that Gallic leaven
+which pervades whole sentences and paragraphs with an indefinable
+lightness and palatableness. It is a thoroughly American style, too, a
+little over-indifferent to tradition and convention, but quite free of
+the _sic-semper-tyrannis_ swagger. Uncle Bull, who is just like his
+nephew in thinking that he has a divine right to the world's oyster,
+cannot swallow it properly till he has donned a white choker, and
+refuses to be comforted when Jonathan disposes of it in his rapid way
+with the shell for a platter. We confess that we prefer the
+free-and-easy manner in its proper place to the diplomatic way of always
+treating the reader with sentiments of the highest consideration, and
+like a book all the more for having an Occidental flavor.
+
+But it is not merely or chiefly as being among the cleverest and
+liveliest of modern light literature that we value Dr. Palmer's books.
+They have a true poetic value, and instruct as much as they entertain.
+While he is telling us a San Francisco story, the truth of the
+accessories and the skill with which they are grouped bring the
+California of 1849 before us with unmatched vividness. We have been
+getting knowledge and learning a deep moral without suspecting it, as if
+by our own observation and experience. In the same way "Asirvadam the
+Brahmin" is a prose poem that lets us into the secret of the Indian
+revolt. It is seldom that we meet with volumes of more real power than
+these, or whose force is so artistically masked under ease and
+playfulness. We prefer the "Old" part of the book to the "New." It seems
+to us to show a better style of handling. There is something of
+melodrama in the style of the California stories,--a flavor of blue
+lights and burnt cork. At the same time, we must admit that there is a
+melodramatic taint in our American life:--witness the Sickles vulgarity.
+Young America is _b'hoyish_ rather than boyish, and perhaps the "New"
+may be all the truer to Nature for what we dislike in it.
+
+"The New and the Old" is fittingly dedicated to the Autocrat of all the
+Breakfast-Tables, than whom no man has done more to demonstrate that wit
+and mirth are not incompatible with seriousness of purpose and
+incisiveness of thought.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Napoleonic Ideas_. By Prince NAPOLEON LOUIS BONAPARTE. Translated by
+JAMES A. DORR. New York: D. Appleton & Company. 1859.
+
+This publication has at least that merit which is one of the first in
+literature,--it is timely. Though we look upon the Emperor of the French
+as a kind of imperial Jonathan Wild, it does not the less concern us to
+make a true estimate of his intellectual capacity. Nothing is more
+unwise than to assume that a man's brain must be limited because his
+moral sense is small; yet no mistake is more common. Napoleon the Third
+may play an important part in History, though by no possibility an
+heroic one. In reading this little volume, one cannot fail to be struck
+with the presence of mind and the absence of heart of which it gives
+evidence. It is the advertisement of a charlatan, whose sole inheritance
+is the right to manufacture the Napoleonic pill, and we read with
+unavoidable distrust the vouchers of its wonderful efficacy. We do not
+fancy the Bonapartist grape-cure, nor believe in it.
+
+Mr. Dorr's translation is excellent. He understands French, and is able
+to do it into English elegantly and accurately without any trace of
+foreign idiom. This is no easy thing; for our general experience has
+been that translators read French like Englishmen and write English like
+Frenchmen.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Country Life_. By R. MORRIS COPELAND. Boston: John P. Jewett & Company.
+1859.
+
+In an article on "Farming Life in New England," published in a former
+volume of the "Atlantic," a valued contributor drew attention to the
+painful lack of beauty in the lives and homes of our rural population.
+Some attempts were made to show that his statements were exaggerated;
+but we are satisfied that they were true in all essential particulars.
+The abolition of entails, (however wise in itself,) and the consequent
+subdivision of estates, will always put country life, in the English
+sense of the words, out of the question here. Our houses will continue
+to be tents; trees, without ancestral associations, will be valued by
+the cord; and that cumulative charm, the slow result of associations, of
+the hereditary taste of many generations, must always be wanting. Age is
+one of the prime elements of natural beauty; but among us the love of
+what is new so predominates, that we have known the largest oak in a
+county to be cut down by the selectmen to make room for a shanty
+schoolhouse, simply because the tree was of "no account," being hollow
+and gnarled, and otherwise delightfully picturesque. Our people are
+singularly dead also to the value of beauty in public architecture; and
+while they clear away a tree which the seasons have been two centuries
+in building, they will put up with as little remorse a stone or brick
+abomination that shall be a waking nightmare for a couple of centuries
+to come. But selectmen are not chosen with reference to their knowledge
+of Price or Ruskin.
+
+Mr. Copeland's book is specially adapted to the conditions of a
+community like ours. Its title might have been "Rural Æsthetics for Men
+of Limited Means, or the Laws of Beauty considered in their Application
+to Small Estates." It is a volume happily conceived and happily
+executed, and meets a palpable and increasing want of our civilization.
+Whatever adds grace to the daily lives of a people, and awakens in them
+a perception of the beauty of outward Nature and its healthful reaction
+on the nature of man,--whatever tends to make toil unsordid, and to put
+it in relations of intelligent sympathy with the beautiful progression
+of the seasons,--adds incalculably to the wealth of a country, though
+the increase may not appear in the Report of the Secretary of the
+Interior.
+
+Mr. Copeland's volume is calculated to do this, and his own
+qualifications for the task he has undertaken are manifold. Chief among
+them we should reckon a true enthusiasm for the cause he advocates, and
+a hearty delight in out-of-doors-life. He writes with the zeal and
+warmth of a reformer; but these are tempered by practical knowledge, and
+such a respect for the useful as will not sacrifice it to the merely
+pretty. His volume contains not only suggestions in landscape-gardening,
+guided always by the true principle of making Nature our ally rather
+than attempting to subdue her, but minute directions for the greenhouse,
+grapery, conservatory, farm, and kitchen-garden. One may learn from it
+how to plant whatever grows, and to care for it afterwards. Engravings
+and plans make clear whatever needs illustration. The book has also the
+special merit of _not_ being adapted to the meridian of Greenwich.
+
+We do not always agree with Mr. Copeland; we dissent especially from his
+prejudice against the noble horsechestnut-tree, with its grand
+thunder-cloud of foliage, its bee-haunted cones of bloom, and its
+polished fruit so uselessly useful to children,--Bushy Park is answer
+enough on that score; but we cordially appreciate his taste and ability.
+His book will justify a warm commendation. It is laid out on true
+principles of landscape-farming. The stiff and square economical details
+are relieved by passages of great beauty and picturesqueness. The
+cockney who owns a snoring-privilege in the suburbs will be stimulated
+to a sense of latent beauty in clouds and fields; and the farmer who
+looks on the cosmic forces as mere motive-power for the wheels of his
+money-mill will find the truth of the proverb, that more water runs over
+the dam than the miller wots of, and learn that Nature is as lavish of
+Beauty as she is frugal in Use. Even to the editor, whose only fields
+are those of literature, and whose only leaves grow from a
+composing-stick, the advent of a book like this is refreshing. It
+enables him to lay out with a judicious economy the gardens attached to
+his Spanish manor-houses, and to do his farming without risk of loss, in
+the most charming way of all, (especially in July weather,)--by proxy.
+Without leaving our study, we have already raised some astonishing
+prize-vegetables, and our fat cattle have been approvingly mentioned in
+the committee's report. We have found an afternoon's reading in Mr.
+Copeland's book almost as good as owning that "place in the country"
+which almost all men dream of as an ideal to be realized whenever their
+visionary ship comes in.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_High Life in New York_. By JONATHAN SLICK. Philadelphia: Peterson &
+Brothers.
+
+The advantages of a favorable introduction are very obvious. A person
+who enters society fortified with eulogistic letters, giving assurance
+of his trustworthiness, so far as respectability and good behavior are
+concerned, is tolerably sure of a comfortable reception. But if, unable
+to sustain the character his credentials ascribe to him, he immediately
+begin to display bad manners, ignorance, and folly, he not only forfeits
+the position to which he has gained accidental access, but also brings
+discredit upon his too hasty indorser.
+
+In literature it is not different. The collection of printed matter
+which appears under the title of "High Life in New York" is accompanied
+by a note, signed by the publishers, who are naturally supposed to know
+something of the real value of the works they issue, in which "editors
+are forewarned that it is a volume which, for downright drollery and
+hearty humor, has never had its equal in the productions of any American
+pen," and are otherwise admonished in various ways calculated to inspire
+lofty expectations, and to fill the mind with exalted visions of coming
+joy. But when it appears, on examination, that the book is as utterly
+unworthy of these elaborate commendations as any book can possibly
+be,--that it is from beginning to end nothing but a dead level of
+stagnant verbiage, a desolate waste of dreary platitude,--the reader
+cannot but regard the publishers' ardent expressions of approbation as
+going quite beyond the license allowable in preliminary puffs.
+
+"High Life in New York" represents a class of publications which has, of
+late, in many ways, been set before the public with too great
+liberality. The sole object seems to be to exhibit the "Yankee"
+character in its traditional deformities of stupidity and
+meanness,--otherwise denominated simplicity and shrewdness. Mr. Jonathan
+Slick is in no respect different from the ordinary fabulous Yankee. An
+illiterate clown he is, who, visiting New York, contrives by vice of
+impudence, to interfere very seriously with certain conventionalities of
+the metropolis. He overthrows, by his indomitable will, a great many
+social follies. He eats soup with a knife and fork; wears no more than
+one shirt a week; forces his way into ladies' chambers at unseemly
+hours, to cure them of timidity; and introduces sundry other reforms,
+all of which are recorded as evidences of glorious independence and a
+true nobility of spirit. Sometimes he goes farther,--farther than we
+care to follow him. It would be easy to show wherein he is offensive,
+not to say disgusting; but we are not so disposed. It is not considered
+necessary for the traveller who has dragged his way over a muddy road to
+prove the nastiness of his pilgrimage by imparting the stain to our
+carpets.
+
+In this book, as in most of its class, the Yankee dialect is employed
+throughout, the author evidently believing that bad spelling and bad
+grammar are the legitimate sources of New England humor. This shows that
+he mistakes means for ends,--just as one who supposes that Mr. Merryman,
+in the circus, must, of necessity, be funny, because he wears the motley
+and his nose is painted red. The Yankee dialect is Mr. Jonathan Slick's
+principal element of wit; his second is the onion. The book is redolent
+of onions. That odorous vegetable breathes from every page. A woman
+weeps, and onions are invoked to lend aromatic fragrance to a stale
+comparison. In one place, onions and education are woven together by
+some extraordinary rhetorical machinery; in another, religion is
+glorified through the medium of the onion; until at last the narrative
+seems to resolve itself into a nauseating nightmare, such as might
+torture the brain of some unhappy dreamer in a bed of onions.
+
+Why such works are ever written at all, it is difficult to imagine; but
+how it is, that, when written, they find publishers, is inconceivable.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Great Auction-Sale of Slaves, at Savannah, Georgia_. New York:
+Published by the American Anti-Slavery Society.
+
+This little pamphlet, reprinted from the columns of the "New York
+Tribune," possesses a double interest. It furnishes the best and most
+minute description of an auction-sale of slaves that has ever been
+published; and it admirably illustrates the enterprise and prompt energy
+which often distinguish the journalism of America above that of any
+other country.
+
+The slave-sale of which it is a record took place on the second and
+third days of March last, in the city of Savannah. For many reasons, it
+had been looked forward to with more than usual interest. The position
+of the owner, Mr. Pierce M. Butler, of Philadelphia, and the large
+number (no less than four hundred and thirty-six) and superior quality
+of the human chattels offered for sale, added to the importance of the
+event. The "Tribune" had one of its best descriptive writers, Mr.
+Mortimer Thomson, on the spot. The duty Mr. Thomson undertook was not
+without danger; for a somewhat extensive notoriety as an _attaché_ of
+the "Tribune" was not likely to insure him the most cordial reception at
+the South. Had his presence been discovered, the temper of the people of
+Savannah would speedily have betrayed itself; and had his purpose been
+suspected, their wrath would assuredly have culminated in wreakages of a
+nature unfavorable to his personal comfort. But with caution, and the
+aid of Masonic influences, he escaped detection, and accomplished his
+aim. The result of his observations was a report of considerable length,
+in which every striking incident of the sale was narrated with accurate
+fidelity. Although written mostly on the rail and against time, under
+circumstances which would be fatal to the labors of any man not inured
+by newspaper experience to all sorts of literary hardships, the style is
+clear, distinct, and often eloquent. The scene and the transaction are
+brought vividly to the reader's mind. The throng of eager
+speculators,--the heavy-eyed and brutal drivers,--the sprightlier
+representatives of Chivalry,--the unhappy slaves, abandoning hope as
+they enter the mart, excepting in rare cases, where, grasping at straws,
+they pray in trembling tones that their ties of love may remain
+unsevered,--the operations of the sale,--the shrinking women, standing
+submissively under the vile jests of the reckless crowd,--are portrayed
+with all the emphasis of truth. One little episode in particular, the
+love-story of Jeffrey and Dorcas, is a more affecting history than
+romance can show.
+
+The effect of this publication in the "Tribune" was prodigious. It was
+widely circulated through all the journals of the North. The
+Anti-Slavery Society preserved it in a pamphlet. The ire of a good
+portion of the Southern journals was ludicrous to witness, and proved
+how keenly the blow was felt. The report was republished in Great
+Britain,--first in the London "Times," and subsequently, as a pamphlet,
+in Edinburgh, in Glasgow, and in Belfast. In one publisher's
+announcement, at least, it was advertised as "Greeley's Account of the
+Great Slave-Sale."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Popular Tales from the Norse_. By GEORGE WEBBE DASENT, D.C.L. With an
+Introductory Essay on the Origin and Diffusion of Popular Tales. New
+York: D. Appleton & Co. 12mo. pp. lxix., 379.
+
+The tales of which this volume presents the first English
+translation--though, as regards some of them, hardly the first English
+version--appear to have been collected about twenty or twenty-five years
+ago. Two gentlemen, Messrs. Asbjörnsen and Moe, (the name of the first
+of whom begets much confidence in his ability for the task,) went out
+among the most unlettered and rudest of the common folk of Norway and
+Sweden, and there, from the lips of old women and little children,
+gathered these stories of the antique time. Of what age the stories are,
+nobody knows,--those who listened to them in their childhood, to relate
+them in turn in their declining years, least perhaps of all. For they
+are a part of the inheritance common to all the races that have sprung
+from the Asiatic ancestor, who, at periods the nearest of which is far
+beyond the ken of history, and at intervals of centuries, sent off
+descendants to find a resting-place in Europe; and it is one great
+object, if not the principal object, of the original collectors and the
+translator of these tales to exhibit in them a bond of union among all
+European peoples.
+
+Indeed, the tales in their present form may be regarded as examples in
+point appended to the translator's Essay which opens the volume. For
+they will add little to our stock of available stories, for either
+youthful or adult reading. The best of them already are a part of our
+nursery lore, and are known to the English race under forms better
+adapted to English taste and sympathies than those under which they are
+here presented; and nearly all of those that are exceptions to this
+remark are unfitted for "home consumption," either by the objectionable
+nature of their subjects, by the still more objectionable tendency of
+their teaching, or by a yet more fatal demerit,--their lack of interest.
+They are in some respects notably tame and puerile,--with a puerility
+which is not childish simplicity, but a lack of inventive fancy, and
+which exhibits itself in bald repetition. The giant, for instance,
+always complains of a smell of Christian blood, and is always answered
+by the formula, that a crow flew over the chimney and must have dropped
+a bone down it; the hero almost always meets three old women, or three
+Trolls, or three enchanted beasts or birds, of whom he in that case
+always asks the same questions, receiving the same replies, _verbatim_.
+There is a reason for this sameness, which is indicative of the rude
+condition of the people among whom the tales have been perpetuated; but
+the sameness palls none the less upon more cultivated minds. Mr. Dasent
+characterizes these people as "an honest and manly race,--not the race
+of the towns and cities, but of the dales and fells, free and unsubdued,
+holding its own in a country where there are neither lords nor ladies,
+but simple men and women. Brave men and fair women," etc. (p. lxviii.)
+And he says of the tales, that in no other collection is "the general
+tone so chaste, are the great principles of morality better worked out,
+and right and wrong kept so steadily in sight." (p. lxii.) We cannot
+agree with him in this appreciation of the moral tone of the stories,
+many of which certainly speak ill for the honesty and manliness of the
+race among which they have been for centuries cherished
+household-treasures. For in a large proportion of those that have a
+successful hero, he obtains his success either by lying or some kind of
+deceit or treachery, by stealing, or by imposing upon the credulity or
+feebleness of age; and of those in which the hero is himself victorious
+over oppression, we are not able to recollect one which exhibits the
+beauty of moderation and magnanimity, not to say of Christian charity
+and forgiveness. Mr. Dasent mentions it as an admirable trait of the
+tales, that, "in the midst of every difficulty and danger, arises that
+old Norse feeling of making the best of everything and keeping a good
+face to the foe." Certainly the heroes of these tales do make the best
+of everything, but they are not at all scrupulous as to their way of
+making it; and they do also keep a good face to the foe, when (often by
+craft, theft, or violence) they have obtained some implement or other
+gift of supernatural power which places their opponents entirely at
+their mercy and with no risk to themselves. But of a manful contest on
+equal terms, or of a victory obtained over tyrannous power by a union of
+patience, boldness, and honest skill, or even by undegrading stratagem,
+the collection affords no instance that we remember.
+
+The story of Shortshanks may be taken as a fair, and even a favorable
+example of the tone of these Norse tales. Shortshanks and King Sturdy
+are twin brothers, who set out to seek their fortunes within a few
+minutes of their birth, driven thereto by a precocious perception of the
+_res angustæ domi_. They part at two roads almost immediately, and the
+story follows the fortunes of Shortshanks, the younger; for in these
+miniature romances the elder is, as usual, continually snubbed, and the
+younger is always the great man. Shortshanks has not gone far before he
+meets "an old crook-backed hag," who has only one eye; and he commences
+his career by gouging out or "snapping up" the single comfort of this
+helpless creature. To get her eye back again, she gives Shortshanks a
+sword that will put a whole army to flight; and he, charmed with the
+result of his first manoeuvre, puts it in practice successively upon two
+other decrepit, half-blind women, who, to get their eyes again, give
+him, one, a ship that can sail over fresh water and salt water and over
+high hills and deep dales, the other, the art how to brew a hundred
+lasts of malt at one strike. The ship takes him to the king's palace, on
+arriving at which he puts his vessel in his pocket, when he summons his
+craft to his aid, and gets a place in the king's kitchen to carry wood
+and water for the maid. The king's daughter has for some inscrutable
+reason been promised to three ogres, who come successively to fetch her;
+and a certain Ritter Red professes to be man enough to rescue her, but
+on the approach of the first ogre proves to be a coward and climbs a
+tree. But Shortshanks slips off from his scullery; and having a weapon
+which can put a whole army to flight by a single stroke, he is very
+brave, and keeps a remarkably good face to the foe, giving him with his
+tongue as good as he sends, and, laughing the ogres' dubs to scorn, cuts
+off the ogrous heads, (there are five on the first individual, ten on
+the second, and fifteen on the third,) and carries off much treasure
+from the ships in which his foes came to fetch their victim. Ritter Red
+descends, and takes the lungs and the tongues of the ogres, (though, as
+the latter were thirty in number and of gigantic size, he must have had
+trouble in carrying them,) and wishes to pass them off as evidence that
+he is the deliverer of the princess, of which they would seem to have
+been very satisfactory proof: but the gold, silver, and diamonds carry
+the day; Shortshanks has the princess and half the kingdom, and Ritter
+Red is thrown into a pit full of snakes,--on the French general's
+principle, we suppose, who hung his cowards "_pour encourager les
+autres_." But the king has another daughter, whom an ogre has carried
+off to the bottom of the sea. Shortshanks discovers her while the ogre
+is out looking for a man who can brew a hundred lasts of malt at one
+strike. He finds the man at home, of course, and puts him to his task.
+Shortshanks gets the ogre and all his kith and kin to help the brew, and
+brews the wort so strong, that, on tasting it, they all fall down dead,
+except one, an old woman, "who lay bed-ridden in the chimney-corner,"
+and to her our hero carries his wort and kills her too. He then carries
+off the treasure of the ogres, and gives this princess and the other
+half of the kingdom to his brother Sturdy.
+
+Now we have no particular fault to find with such stories as these, when
+they are produced as characteristic specimens of the folk-lore of a
+people; as such, they have a value beside their intrinsic interest;--but
+when we are asked to receive them as part of the evidence that that
+people is an honest and manly race, and as an acceptable addition to our
+stock of household tales, we demur. The truth is, that the very worth of
+these tales is to be found not only in the fact that they form a part of
+the stock from which our own are derived, but in the other fact that
+they represent that stock as it existed at an earlier and ruder stage of
+humanitarian development. They were told by savage mothers to savage
+children; and although some of them teach the few virtues common to
+barbarism and civilization, they are filled with the glorification of
+savage vice and crime;--deceit, theft, violence, even ruthless vengeance
+upon a cruel parent, are constantly practised by the characters which
+they hold up to favor. Such humor as they have, too, is of the coarsest
+kind, and is expressed chiefly in rude practical jokes, or the bloody
+overreaching of the poor thick-headed Trolls, who are the butts of the
+stories and the victims of their heroes. There is good ethnological and
+mythological reason why the Trolls should be butts and victims, it is
+true; but that is not to the present purpose.
+
+But although this judgment must be passed upon the collection,
+considered merely as tales to be told and read at this stage of the
+world's progress, there are several notable exceptions to it,--tales
+which are based upon healthy instincts, and which appeal to sympathies
+that are never entirely undeveloped in the breasts of human beings above
+the grade of Bushmen, or in which the fun does not depend upon the
+exhibition of unexpected modes of inflicting death, pain, or discomfort.
+It is not, however, in these that we are to look for the chief
+attraction and compensating value of the collection. Those are to be
+found, as we have already hinted, in the relative aspects of the tales,
+which the general reader might consider for a long time fruitlessly,
+save for the help of Mr. Dasent's Introductory Essay. This is at once an
+acute and learned commentary upon the tales themselves, and a thoroughly
+elaborated monograph upon mythology in its ethnological relations. We
+know no other essay upon this subject that is so comprehensive, so
+compact, so clear, and so well adapted to interest intelligent readers
+who have little previous knowledge on the subject, as Mr. Dasent's,
+although, of necessity, it presents us with results, not processes. A
+perusal of this Essay will give the intelligent and attentive reader so
+just a general notion of the last results of philological and
+ethnological investigation into the history of the origin and progress
+of the Indo-European races, that he can listen with understanding to the
+conversation of men who have made that subject their special study, and
+appreciate, in a measure at least, the value of the many references to
+it which he meets in the course of his miscellaneous reading. And should
+he be led by the contagion of Mr. Dasent's intelligent enthusiasm to
+desire a more intimate acquaintance with a topic which rarely fails to
+fascinate those whose tastes lead them to enter at all upon it, he may
+start from this Essay with hints as to the plan and purpose of his
+reading which will save him much otherwise blind and fruitless labor.
+
+This, however, is not all. It is but right also to say that the readers
+whose religion is one of extreme orthodoxy, that is, who deem it their
+bounden duty to believe exactly and literally as somebody else believed
+before them,--such readers will find their orthodoxy often shocked by
+the tales which Mr. Dasent has translated, and yet oftener and more
+violently by conclusions which Mr. Dasent draws from a comparison of
+these stories with others that bear the same relation to other races
+which these do to the Norsemen. The man who believes that Hell is a
+particular part of the universe, filled with flames and melted
+brimstone, into which actual devils, with horns, hoofs, and tails, dip,
+or are to dip, wicked people, whom, for greater convenience, they have
+previously perforated with three-tined pitchforks,--such a man will be
+puzzled by the story, "Why the Sea is Salt," and horrified with this
+comment in Mr. Dasent's Essay:--
+
+    "The North had its own notion on this point. Its mythology
+    was not without its own dark powers; but though they, too,
+    were ejected and dispossessed, they, according to that
+    mythology, had rights of their own. To them belonged all the
+    universe that had not been seized and reclaimed by the
+    younger race of Odin and Æsir; and though this upstart
+    dynasty, as the Frost-Giants in Æschylean phrase would have
+    called it, well knew that Hel, one of this giant progeny, was
+    fated to do them all mischief, and to outlive them, they took
+    her and made her queen of Niflheim, and mistress over nine
+    worlds. There, in a bitterly cold place, she received the
+    souls of all who died of sickness or old age; care was her
+    bed, hunger her dish, starvation her knife. Her walls were
+    high and strong, and her bolts and bars huge. 'Half blue was
+    her skin, and half the color of human flesh. A goddess easy
+    to know, and in all things very stern and grim.' But though
+    severe, she was not an evil spirit. She only received those
+    who died as no Norseman wished to die. For those who fell on
+    the gory battle-field, or sank beneath the waves, Valhalla
+    was prepared, and endless mirth and bliss with Odin. Those
+    went to Hel who were rather unfortunate than wicked, who died
+    before they could be killed. But when Christianity came in
+    and ejected Odin and his crew of false divinities, declaring
+    them to be lying gods and demons, then Hel fell with the
+    rest,--but, fulfilling her fate, outlived them. From a person
+    she became a place; and all the Northern nations, from the
+    Goth to the Norseman, agreed in believing Hell to be the
+    abode of the Devil and his wicked spirits, the place prepared
+    from the beginning for the everlasting torments of the
+    damned. One curious fact connected with this explanation of
+    Hell's origin will not escape the reader's attention. The
+    Christian notion of Hell is that of a place of heat; for in
+    the East, whence Christianity came, heat is often an
+    intolerable torment,--and cold, on the other hand, everything
+    that is pleasant and delightful. But to the dweller in the
+    North heat brings with it sensations of joy and comfort, and
+    life without fire has a dreary outlook; so their Hel ruled in
+    a cold region, over those who were cowards by implication,
+    while the mead-cup went round, and huge logs blazed and
+    crackled, for the brave and beautiful who had dared to die on
+    the field of battle. But under Christianity the extremes of
+    heat and cold have met, and Hel, the cold, uncomfortable
+    goddess, is now our Hell, where flames and fires abound, and
+    where the devils abide in everlasting flame."
+
+Still more will orthodoxy be shocked by Mr. Dasent's neglect to except
+Christianity from the conclusion, (no new one, it need hardly be said,
+to those who know anything of the subject,) that the mythologies or
+personal histories of all religions have been evolved the one from the
+other, or grafted the one upon the other,--and by his intimation, that
+Christianity, keeping pure in its spirit and undiverted from its
+purpose, has yet not hesitated to adapt its outward forms to the tough
+popular traditions which it found deeply rooted in the soil where it
+sought to grow, thus making itself "all things to all men, that it might
+by all means save some."
+
+It will be seen that this book is not milk for babes, but meat for
+strong men. Among the tales are some--and those, perhaps, the most
+interesting--which Mr. Dasent justly characterizes as "intensely
+heathen," and yet in which the Saviour of the world or his apostles
+appear as interlocutors or actors, which alone unfits the volume for the
+book-table of the household room. We are led to insist upon this trait
+of the collection the more, because the translator's choice of language
+often seems to be the result of a desire to adapt himself to very
+youthful readers,--though why should even they be led to believe that
+such phrases as the following are correct by seeing them in
+print?--"Tore it up like nothing"; "ran away like anything"; "it was no
+good" [_i.e._ of no use]; "in all my born days"; "after a bit" [_i.e._ a
+little while]; "she had to let him in, and when he was, he lay," etc.;
+"the Giant got up cruelly early." These, and others like them, are
+profusely scattered through the tales, apparently from the mistaken
+notion that they have some idiomatic force. They jar upon the ear of the
+reader who comes to them from Mr. Dasent's admirably written
+Introductory Essay.
+
+The book is one which we can heartily recommend to all who are
+interested in popular traditions for their own sake, or in their
+ethnological relations.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Love_, From the French of M.J. Michelet. Translated from the Fourth
+Paris Edition, by J.W. Palmer, M.D., Author of "The New and The Old,"
+"Up and Down the Irawaddi," etc.
+
+M. Michelet perhaps longs, like Anacreon, to tell the story of the
+Atrides and of Cadmus, but here we find him singing only of Love. It is
+a surprise to us that the historian should have chosen this
+subject;--the book itself is another surprise. It starts from a few
+facts which it borrows from science, and out of them it builds a
+poem,--a drama in five acts called _Books_, to disguise them. Two
+characters figure chiefly on the stage,--a husband and a wife. The unity
+of time is not very strictly kept, for the pair are traced from youth to
+age, and even beyond their mortal years. Moral reflections and
+occasional rhapsodies are wreathed about this physiological and
+psychological love-drama.
+
+Here, then, is a book with the most taking word in the language for its
+title, and one of the most distinguished personages in contemporary
+literature for its author. It has been extensively read in France, and
+is attracting general notice in this country. Opinions are divided among
+us concerning it; it is extravagantly praised, and hastily condemned.
+
+On the whole, the book is destined, we believe, to do much more good
+than harm. Admit all its high-flown sentimentalism to be
+half-unconscious affectation, such as we pardon in writers of the Great
+Nation,--admit that the author is wild and fanciful in many of his
+statements, that he talks of a state of society of which it has been
+said that the law is that a man shall hate his neighbor and love his
+neighbor's wife,--admit all this and what lesser faults may be added to
+them, its great lessons are on the side of humanity, and especially of
+justice to woman, founded on a study of her organic and spiritual
+limitations.
+
+_Woman is an invalid_. This is the first axiom, out of which flow the
+precepts of care, bodily and mental, of tenderness, of consideration,
+with which the book abounds. To show this, M. Michelet has recourse to
+the investigations of the physiologists who during the present century
+have studied the special conditions which according to the old axiom
+make woman what she is. As nothing short of this can by any possibility
+enable us to understand the feminine nature, we must not find fault with
+some details not commonly thought adapted to the general reader. They
+are given delicately, but they are given, and suggest a certain reserve
+in introducing the book to the reading classes. Not only is woman an
+invalid, but the _rhythmic character of her life_, "as if scanned by
+Nature," is an element not to be neglected without total failure to read
+her in health and in disease. There is a great deal relating to this
+matter, some of it seeming fanciful and overwrought, but not more so
+than the natures of many women. For woman herself is an hyperbole, and
+the plainest statement of her condition is a figure of speech. Some of
+those chapters that are written, as we might say, in hysteric
+paragraphs, only more fitly express the extravagances which belong to
+the nervous movements of the woman's nature.
+
+_The husband must create the wife_. Much of the book is taken up with
+the precepts by which this new birth of the woman is to be brought
+about, M. Michelet's "entire affection" hateth those "nicer hands" winch
+would refuse any, even the humblest offices. The husband should be at
+once nurse and physician. He should regulate the food of the body, and
+measure out the doses of mental nourishment. All this is kind and good
+and affectionate; but there is just a suspicion excited that _Madame_
+might become slightly _ennuyée_, if she were subjected to this minute
+surveillance over her physical and spiritual hygiene. Everything must
+depend on individual tendencies and aptitudes; we have known husbands
+that were born for nurses,--and others, not less affectionate, that
+worried more than they helped in that capacity.
+
+We cannot follow M. Michelet through his study of the reaction of the
+characters of the husband and wife upon each other, of the influence of
+maternity on conjugal relations, of the languishing of love and its
+rejuvenescence. Still less can we do more than remotely allude to those
+chapters in which his model woman is represented as ready on the
+slightest occasion to prove the name of her sex synonymous with frailty.
+We really do not know what to make of such things. The cool calculations
+of temptation as certain, and failure as probable,--the serious advice
+not to strike a wife under any circumstances,--such words have literally
+no meaning to most of our own American readers. Our women are educated
+to self-reliance,--and our men are, at least, too busy for the trade of
+tempters.
+
+In a word, this book was written for French people, and is adjusted to
+the meridian of Paris. We must remember this always in reading it, and
+also remember that a Frenchman does not think English any more than he
+_talks_ it. We sometimes flatter ourselves with the idea that we as a
+people are original in our tendency to extravagance of thought and
+language. It is a conceit of ours. Remember Sterne's _perruquier_.
+
+"'You may immerge it,' replied he, 'into the ocean, and it will stand.'
+
+"'What a great scale is everything upon, in this city!' thought I. 'The
+utmost stretch of an English periwig-maker's ideas could have gone no
+farther than to have dipped it into a pail of water.'"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+How much such experiences as the following amount to we must leave to
+the ecclesiastical bodies to settle.
+
+"The Church is openly against her, [woman,] owing her a grudge for the
+sin of Eve."
+
+"It is very easy for us, educated in the religion of the indulgent God
+of Nature, to look our common destiny in the face. But she, impressed
+with the dogma of eternal punishment, though she may have received other
+ideas from you, still, in her suffering and debility, has painful
+foreshadowings of the future state."
+
+But here are physiological statements which we take the liberty to
+question on our own responsibility.
+
+"A French girl of fifteen is as mature as an English one of eighteen."
+What will Mr. Roberton of Manchester, who has exploded so many of our
+fancies about the women of the East, say to this?
+
+"A wound, for which the German woman would require surgical aid, in the
+French woman cures itself." We must say of such an unproved assertion as
+the French General said of the charge at Balaklava,--"_C'est magnifique,
+mais ce n'est pas la_"--_médecine_.
+
+"Generally, she [woman] is sick from love,--man, from indigestion." What
+a pity Nature never makes such pretty epigrams with her facts as wits do
+with their words!
+
+We have enough, too, of that self-assertion which Carlyle and Ruskin and
+some of our clerical neighbors have made us familiar with, and which
+gives flavor to a work of genius. "I was worth more than my writings,
+more than my discourses. I brought to this teaching of philosophy and
+history a soul as yet entire,--a great freshness of mind, under forms
+often subtle,--a true simplicity of heart," etc.
+
+M. Michelet does not undervalue the importance of his work. He thinks he
+has ruined the dancing-gardens by the startling revelations respecting
+woman contained in his book. He announces a still greater triumph:--"I
+believe I have effectually suppressed old women. They will no longer be
+met with." M. Michelet has not seen the columns of some of our weekly
+newspapers.
+
+These are scales from the husk of his book, which, with all its
+fantasies, is a generous plea for woman. Wise persons may safely read
+it, though they be not Parisians.
+
+The translation is, and is generally considered, excellent. We notice
+two errors,--_Jerres_, instead of _Serres_,--and _would_, for _should_,
+after the Scotch and Southern provincial fashion;--with some
+questionable words, as _reliable_, for which we have Sir Robert Peel's
+authority, which cannot make it as honest a word as _trustworthy_,--
+_masculize_, which is at least intelligible,--and _fast_, used as
+college-boys use it in their loose talk, but not with the meaning which
+sober scholars are wont to give it. With these slight exceptions, the
+translation appears to us singularly felicitous, notwithstanding the
+task must have been very difficult, which Dr. Palmer has performed with
+such rare success.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Farm-Drainage_. The Principles, Processes, and Effects of Draining
+Land, with Wood, Stones, Ploughs, and Open Ditches, and especially with
+Tiles; including Tables of Rainfall, Evaporation, Filtration,
+Excavation, Capacity of Pipes; Cost, and Number to the Acre, of Tiles,
+etc., etc.; and more than One Hundred Illustrations. By HENRY E. FRENCH.
+New York: A.O. Moore & Co. 1859. 8vo. pp. 384.
+
+We remember standing, thirty years ago, upon the cupola of a court-house
+in New Jersey, and, while enjoying the whole panorama, being
+particularly impressed with the superior fertility and luxuriance of one
+farm on the outskirts of the town. We recollect further, that, on
+inquiry, we found this farm to belong to a Judge of the Court of Common
+Pleas, who also exercised the trade of a potter, and underdrained his
+land with tile-drains. His neighbors attributed the improvement in his
+farm to manure and tillage, and thought his attempts to introduce
+tile-drains into use arose chiefly from his desire to make a market for
+his tiles. Thirty years have made a great change; and a New Hampshire
+Judge of the Court of Common Pleas gives us a book on Farm-Drainage
+which tells us that in England twenty millions of dollars have been
+loaned by the government to be used in underdraining with tile!
+
+We believe that Judge French has given the first practical guide in
+draining to the American farmer,--indeed, the first book professing to
+be a complete practical guide to the farmers of any country. His right
+to speak is derived from successful experiments of his own, from a visit
+to European agriculturists, and from a personal correspondence with the
+best drainage-engineers of England and America, as well as from the
+study of all available magazines and journals. No one could handle the
+subject in a more pleasant and lucid style; flashes of wit, and even of
+humor, are sparkling through every chapter, but they never divert the
+mind of the reader from the main purpose of elucidating the subject of
+deep drainage. The title-page does not promise so much as the book
+performs; and we feel confident that its reputation will increase, as
+our farmers begin to understand the true effects of deep drainage on
+upland, and seek for a guide in the improvement of their farms.
+
+The rain-tables, furnished by Dr. E. Hobbs, of Waltham, afford some very
+interesting statistics, by which our climate may be definitely compared
+with that of our mother country. In England, they have about 156 rainy
+days _per annum_, and we but 56. In England, one inch in 24 hours is
+considered a great rain; but in New England six inches and seven-eighths
+(6.88) has been known to fall in 24 hours. In England, the annual fall
+is about 21,--in New England, 42 inches. The experiments on the
+retention of water by the soil are also interesting; showing that
+ordinary arable soil is capable of holding nearly six inches of water in
+every foot of soil.
+
+Not the least valuable portion of the book is a brief discussion of some
+of the legal questions connected with drainage; the rights of
+land-owners in running waters, and in reference to the water in the
+soil; the rights of mill-owners and water-power companies; and the
+subject of flowage, by which so many thousand acres of valuable arable
+land are ruined to support unprofitable manufacturing companies. The
+rights of agriculturists, and the interests of agriculture, demand the
+care of our governments, and the hearty aid of our scientific men; and
+we are glad to find a judge who, at least when off the bench, speaks
+sound words in their behalf.
+
+Agriculture in the Atlantic States is beginning to attract the attention
+which its great importance demands. Thorough draining is, as yet, little
+used among us, but a beginning has been made; and Judge French's book
+will, doubtless, be of value in extension of the practice. If any reader
+has not yet heard what thorough draining is, we would say, in brief,
+that it consists in laying tile-pipes, from one and a half to three
+inches in diameter, four feet under ground, at from twenty to sixty feet
+apart, so inclined as to drain out of your ground all the water that may
+be within three feet of the surface. This costs from $30 to $60 per
+acre, and is in almost all kinds of arable land an excellent investment
+of capital,--making the spring earlier, the land warmer, rain less
+injurious, drought less severe, the crops better in quality and greater
+in quantity. In short, thorough draining is, as our author says,
+following Cromwell's advice, "trusting in Providence, but keeping the
+powder dry."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Novels of James Fenimore Cooper_. Illustrated with Steel Engravings
+from Drawings by Darley. New York: W.A. Townsend & Co.
+
+The British Museum, it is said, has accumulated over twenty-seven
+thousand novels written since the publication of "Waverley." With the
+general diffusion of education the ambition of authorship has had a
+corresponding increase; and people who were not inspired to make rhymes,
+nor learned enough to undertake history, philosophy, or science, as well
+as those who despaired of success in essays, travels, or sermons, have
+all thought themselves capable of representing human life in the form of
+fiction. Very few of the twenty-seven thousand, probably, are wholly
+destitute of merit. Each author has drawn what he saw, or knew, or did,
+or imagined; and so has preserved something worthy, for those who live
+upon his plane and see the world with his eyes. The difficulty is, that
+the vision of most men is limited; they observe human nature only in a
+few of its many aspects; they cannot so far lift themselves above the
+trivial affairs around them as to take in the whole of humanity at a
+glance. Even when rare types of character are presented to view, it is
+only a genius who can for the time assimilate himself to them, and so
+make their portraits life-like upon his canvas. In every old-fashioned
+town there are models for new Dogberrys and Edie Ochiltrees; our
+seaports have plenty of Bunsbys; every great city has its Becky Sharpe
+and Major Pendennis. One has only to listen to a group of Irish laborers
+in their unrestrained talk to find that the delicious _non sequitur_,
+which is the charm of the grave-diggers' conversation in "Hamlet," is by
+no means obsolete. But who can write such a colloquy? It would be
+easier, we fancy, for a clever man to give a sketch of Lord Bacon, with
+all his rapid and profound generalization, than to follow the slow and
+tortuous mental processes of a clodhopper.
+
+To secure the attention of his readers, the novelist must construct a
+plot and create the characters whose movements shall produce the
+designed catastrophe, and, by the incidents and dialogue, exhibit the
+passions, the virtues, the aspirations, the weaknesses, and the villany
+of human nature. It is needless to say that most characters in fiction
+are as shadowy as Ossian's ghosts; the proof is, that, when the
+incidents of the story have passed out of memory, the persons are
+likewise forgotten. Of all the popular novelists, not more than half a
+dozen have ever created characters that survive,--characters that are
+felt to be "representative men." After Shakspeare and Scott, Dickens
+comes first, unquestionably; although, in analysis, philosophy, force,
+and purity of style, he is far inferior to Thackeray. Parson Adams will
+not be forgotten, nor that gentle monogamist, the good Vicar of
+Wakefield. But as for Bulwer, notwithstanding his wonderful art in
+construction and the brilliancy of his style, who remembers a character
+out of his novels, unless it be Doctor Riccabocca?
+
+After this rather long preamble, let us hasten to say, that Cooper, in
+spite of many and the most obvious faults, has succeeded in portraying a
+few characters which stand out in bold relief,--and that his works,
+after years of criticism and competition, still hold their place, on
+both continents, among the most delightful novels in the language. Other
+writers have appeared, with more culture, with more imagination, with
+more spiritual insight, with more attractiveness of style; but
+Leatherstocking, in the virgin forest, with the crafty, painted savage
+retreating before him, and the far-distant hum of civilization following
+his trail, is a creation which no reader ever can or would forget,--a
+creation for which the merely accomplished writer would gladly exchange
+all the fine sentences and word-pictures that he had ever put on paper.
+It is also due to Cooper to say, that "The Pilot" was the first, and
+still is the best, of nautical novels; we say this in fell recollection
+of its trace of stupid heroines. The very air of the book is salt. As
+you read, you hear the wind in the rigging,--a sound that one never
+forgets. The form and motion of waves, the passing of distant ships, the
+outlines of spars and cordage against the sky, the blue above and the
+blue below, all the scenery of the sea, here for the first time found an
+appreciative artist.
+
+We have not space to mention these novels separately. We are glad to see
+an edition which is worthy of the author's genius,--each volume graced
+with the designs of Darley. The style in which the work has been issued
+is creditable to the publishers, and cannot fail to be remunerative.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Ettore Fieramosca; or, the Challenge of Barletta_. The Struggles of an
+Italian against Foreign Invaders and Foreign Protectors. By MASSIMO D'
+AZEGLIO. Boston: Phillips, Sampson, & Co. 16mo.
+
+The recent war led to the publication of a great number of books upon
+the state of Italy and the relative positions of the contending powers;
+now that the wave has receded, all these are left high and dry. This
+novel, however, does not depend upon any transient interest in the
+affairs of Italy for its success. As the production of an eminent
+author, who is also one of the first of Italian statesmen, it demands a
+respectful consideration. The condition of the country in the sixteenth
+century presents a striking counterpart to that of the present year: two
+foreign monarchs were at war in the Peninsula; and then, as now, it was
+a question whether unhappy Italy had not as much to fear from her allies
+as from her invaders.
+
+The scene of the story is laid in the little town of Barletta, on the
+Adriatic coast, in the present kingdom of Naples. The action turns upon
+the fortunes of the day in a contest _à l'outrance_, wherein a dozen
+French knights, the flower of the invading army, were met and vanquished
+by an equal number of Italians, of whom the hero, Ettore Fieramosca, was
+the chief. The English reader will not expect to find in this book any
+of the traits with which he is familiar in the novels of our own
+authors. There is little scenery-painting, few wayside reflections, and
+no attempt at portraying the comic side of human nature, or even the
+ordinary gayety of domestic life. The times did not suggest such topics;
+and if they did, we suspect that the Italian novelists would turn from
+such commonplace affairs to the more stirring events with which History
+has been heretofore concerned. But the story before us has no lack of
+incident. When the persons of the drama are fairly brought upon the
+stage, the action begins at once; surprise follows surprise, plot is
+matched by plot, until the fortunes of the actors are entwined
+inextricably. The portraits of the famous Colonna and of the infamous
+Cæsar Borgia (the latter being the arch "villain" of the story) are
+drawn in sharp and decisive lines. The tournament which forms the scene
+of the catastrophe is a brilliant picture, though not a pleasing one for
+a Friend or a member of the Peace Society.
+
+Of course the element of Love is not wanting; two golden threads run
+through the crimsoned web; but whether they meet before Atropos comes
+with the fatal shears, it is not best to say. When the modern
+novel-reader can answer the momentous question, "Did they marry?" the
+charm of the most exciting story, for him, is gone.
+
+Aside from the interest which one feels in the changing fortunes of the
+hero, the book is especially valuable for the light it throws upon that
+period of Italian history, and upon the subtilties of Italian character.
+
+
+
+
+RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS.
+
+
+The Goodness of God. Sermons by Charles Kingsley. New York. Burt,
+Hutchinson, & Abbey. 12mo. pp. 370. $1.00.
+
+Theodore Parker's Experience as a Minister; with some Account of his
+Early Life and Education for the Ministry. Contained in a Letter from
+him to the Members of the Twenty-Eighth Congregationalist Society of
+Boston. Boston. Rufus Leighton, Jr. 16mo. pp. 182. 50 cts.
+
+The Roman Question. By E. About. Translated from the French, by H.C.
+Coape. New York. D. Appleton & Co. 12mo. pp. 219. 60 cts.
+
+Tent and Harem. Notes of an Oriental Trip. By Caroline Paine. New York.
+D. Appleton & Co. 12mo. pp. 300. $1.00.
+
+The French Revolution of 1789, as viewed in the Light of Republican
+Institutions. By J.S.C. Abbott. With One Hundred Engravings. New York.
+Harper & Brothers. 8vo. pp. 439. $2.50.
+
+Popular Tales from the Norse. By George Webbe Dasent, D.C.L. With an
+Introductory Essay on the Origin and Diffusion of Popular Tales. New
+York. D. Appleton & Co. 12mo. pp. 379. $1.00.
+
+Personal Recollections of the American Revolution. A Private Journal.
+Prepared from Authentic Domestic Records. Together with Reminiscences of
+Washington and Lafayette. Edited by Sidney Barclay. New York. Rudd &
+Carleton. 12mo. pp. 251. $1.00.
+
+Hartley Norman. A Tale of the Times. By Allen Hampden. New York. Rudd &
+Carleton. 12mo. pp. 429. $1.25.
+
+The Science of Education and Art of Teaching. In Two Parts. By John
+Ogden, A.M. Cincinnati. Moore, Wilstach, & Keys. 12mo. pp. 478. $1.25.
+
+Observations on the Growth of the Mind. By Sampson Reed. Fifth Edition.
+Boston. Crosby, Nichols, & Co. 16mo. pp. 99. 50 cts.
+
+Italy and the War of 1859. With Biographical Notices of Sovereigns,
+Statesmen, and Military Commanders; Description and Statistics of the
+Country; Causes of the War, etc. By Julia de Marguerittes. With an
+Introduction, by Dr. R. Shelton Mackenzie. With Map and Portraits.
+Philadelphia. Geo. G. Evans. 12mo. pp. 359. $1.25.
+
+Here and Beyond; or, The New Man, the True Man. By Hugh Smith Carpenter.
+New York. Mason Brothers. 12mo. pp. 345. $1.00.
+
+Temper. A Novel. By Miss Marryatt. (Daughter of Captain Marryatt.) New
+York. Dick and Fitzgerald. 12mo. pp. 365. $1.00.
+
+Shelley Memorials: from Authentic Sources. Edited by Lady Shelley. To
+which is added an Essay on Christianity, by Percy Bysshe Shelley: now
+first Printed. Boston. Ticknor & Fields. 16mo. pp. 308. 75 cts.
+
+Sparks from a Locomotive; or, Life and Liberty in Europe. By the Author
+of "Belle Brittan." New York. Derby & Jackson. 12mo. pp. 305. $1.00.
+
+The Life of General Garibaldi. Written by Himself. With Sketches of his
+Companions in Arms. Translated by his Friend and Admirer, Theodore
+Dwight. Embellished with a Fine Portrait, engraved on Steel. New York.
+A.S. Barnes & Burr. 12mo. pp. 820. $1.00.
+
+Ettore Fieramosca; or, The Challenge of Barletta. The Struggles of an
+Italian against Foreign Invaders and Foreign Protectors. By Massimo
+d'Azeglio. Boston. Phillips, Sampson, & Co. 16mo. pp. 356. $1.00.
+
+Idyls of the King. By Alfred Tennyson, D.C.L., Poet Laureate. Boston.
+Ticknor & Fields. 16mo. pp. 227. 75 cts.
+
+Lectures for the People. By the Rev. Hugh Stowell Brown, of Liverpool.
+First Series. With a Biographical Introduction, by Dr. Shelton
+Mackenzie. Authorized Edition. Philadelphia. G.G. Evans. 12mo. pp. 414.
+$1.26.
+
+The Roman Question. Translated from the French of Edmund About, by Mrs.
+Annie T. Wood. Edited, with an Introduction, by Rev. E.N. Kirk, D.D.
+Boston. J.E. Tilton & Co. 16mo. pp. 308. 60 cts.
+
+The Pilot. A Tale of the Sea. By J. Fenimore Cooper. Illustrated from
+Drawings by F.O.C. Darley. New York. W.A. Townsend & Co. crown 8vo. pp.
+486. $1.50.
+
+The Mathematical Monthly for July and August. Cambridge. John Bartlett.
+
+From Dawn to Daylight; or, The Simple Story of a Western Home. By a
+Minister's Wife. New York. Derby & Jackson. 12mo. pp. 339. $1.00.
+
+A System of Surgery; Pathological, Diagnostic, Therapeutic, and
+Operative. By Samuel D. Gross, M.D., Professor of Surgery in the
+Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia, etc. Illustrated by Nine
+Hundred and Thirty-Six Illustrations, a Large Number of which are from
+Original Drawings. Philadelphia. Blanchard & Lea. 2 vols. 8vo. pp. 1162,
+1198. $12.00.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 4, No.
+23, September, 1859, by Various
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY, VOLUME ***
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