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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/20088-8.txt b/20088-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4e35f5e --- /dev/null +++ b/20088-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8961 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 16, No. 97, +November, 1865, 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 16, No. 97, November, 1865 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: December 11, 2006 [EBook #20088] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY *** + + + + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net. +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by Cornell University Digital Collections). + + + + + + + + + +THE + +ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +_A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics._ + +VOL. XVI.--NOVEMBER, 1865.--NO. XCVII. + +Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by TICKNOR AND +FIELDS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of +Massachusetts. + +Transcriber's Note: Minor typos have been corrected and footnotes moved +to the end of the article. Headings in large tables converted to letters +with a legend. + + + + +WHY THE PUTKAMMER CASTLE WAS DESTROYED. + + +There is a test of truth in popular creeds and in human opinions +generally which is prominently put forward by Herbert Spencer, and has +been more or less distinctly stated by other writers, long before our +time,--a very searching and trustworthy test. + +It is, in substance, this:--Whatever doctrine or opinion has received, +throughout a long succession of centuries, the common assent of mankind, +may be properly set down as being, if not absolutely true in its usually +received form, yet founded on truth, and having, at least, a great, +undeniable verity that underlies it. + +If, however, there be conflicting details as to any doctrine, varying in +form according to the sect or the nation that entertains it, then the +test is to be received as affirming the grand underlying truth, but not +as proving any of the conflicting varieties of investment in which +particular sects or nations may have chosen to clothe it. + +Thus of the world's belief in the reality of another life, and in the +doctrine of future reward and punishment. + +In some form or other, such a faith has existed in every age and among +almost every people. Charon and his boat might be the means of +conveyance. Or the believer, dying in battle for the creed of the +Faithful, might expect to wake up in a celestial harem peopled with +Houris. Or the belief might embody the matchless horrors painted by +Dante; his dolorous city with the terrible inscription over its +entrance-gate: "_Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch'entrate_." + +Again, the conception might be of a long unconscious interval after +death, succeeded at last by a resuscitation; or it might be of another +world, the supplement and immediate continuation of this, into which +Death, herald, not destroyer, ushers us even while human friends are yet +closing our eyes and composing our limbs. It might be of the Paradise in +which, on the very day of the crucifixion, the penitent thief was to +meet the Saviour of mankind; or it might be of that Heaven, yet increate +or unpeopled, seen by some in long, distant perspective, shadowed forth +in such lines as these:-- + + "That man, when laid in lonesome grave, + Shall sleep in Death's dark gloom, + Until the eternal morning wake + The slumbers of the tomb." + +Yet again, the idea may be of a Future of which the denizens shall be, +on some Great Day, tried as before an earthly court, doomed as by an +earthly tribunal, and sentence pronounced against them by a presiding +God, who, of his own omnipotent will, decides to inflict upon sinners +condign punishment, in measure far beyond all earthly severity,--torment +in quenchless flames, with no drop of water to cool the parched tongue, +for ever and ever. + +In other words, we may conceive, as to human destiny in another world, +either of punishments optional and arbitrary, growing out of the +indignation of an offended Judge who hates and requites sin, or of +punishments natural and inherent, growing out of the very nature of sin +itself, as _delirium tremens_ requites a long career of intemperance. We +may conceive of punishments which are the awards of judicial vengeance; +or we may believe in those only which are the inevitable results of +eternal and immutable law, a necessary sequence in the next life to the +bad passions and evil deeds of this. + +Those who incline to this latter aspect of the Great Future, as the +scene of reward or punishment supervening in the natural order of +things, may chance to find interest, beyond mere curiosity, in the +following strange narrative. + + * * * * * + +There is not, perhaps, a country more rife in legends of haunted houses +than Germany. No province but has its store of them. Many, drawn by +tradition from the obscurity of the past, have lost, if they ever +possessed, any claim to be regarded except as apocryphal. But others, of +a recent date and better attested, cannot be disposed of in so summary a +manner. + +In furnishing a specimen of this latter class, I depart from a rule +which I think it well to observe in regard to original narratives of +character so marvellous: to record such, namely, only when they can be +procured direct from the lips of the witnesses themselves. This comes to +me at second hand. I had no opportunity of cross-questioning the actors +in the scenes narrated. Yet I had the story from a gentleman of high +respectability: the principal Secretary of the ---- Legation at Naples: +and his sources of information were direct and authentic. + + * * * * * + +In the southeastern portion of Pomerania, at no great distance from the +frontier of the province of West Prussia, and in the vicinity of the +small town of Bütow, there stood, not many years since, an ancient +château. It was the ancestral residence of an old Pomeranian family of +baronial rank; and the narrative of its destruction, with the causes +which led thereto, is curious and remarkable. + +Its former owner, the Baron von Putkammer, after leading a wild and +dissolute life, had expired within its walls. For years previously, many +a mysterious story, fraught with dark hints of seduction and +infanticide, had been whispered over the surrounding country; and when +at last death arrested the Baron's profligate career, some reported that +he had been strangled in requital of outrage committed,--others, that +the Devil had taken home his own, as they had long expected. + +His estate went to a relative of the same name, who granted the +enjoyment of it to his eldest son, heir to the title. This young man, +after a time, arrived to take possession. He found in the château the +administrator of the deceased Baron's estate. + +It was late, the first night, before he went to bed. Yet he was scarcely +undressed, when he heard, through the stillness of the night, the +approach of a carriage, at first rolling over the sharp gravel of the +avenue, then entering the paved court-yard. This was succeeded by the +noise of the front door opening, and the distinct sound of steps on the +principal staircase. + +Young Putkammer, surprised at this unseasonable visit, yet supposing it +some friend who had been benighted, hastily donned his dressing-gown, +and, with light in hand, stepped to the landing. Nothing to be seen +there! But he heard behind him the opening of a door leading into the +principal gallery of the château,--a long hall which for some time had +been out of use. It had been employed by the former owner of the castle +as a banqueting-room, was hung with old family portraits, and, as the +young man had noticed during the day, was so completely incumbered with +furniture, which had been temporarily stored there, that no one could +pass through it. + +He returned in great surprise, which was much increased when he found +the door of the gallery in question closed and locked. He listened, and +heard quite distinctly, within the room, the noise of plates and dishes +and the clatter of knives and forks. To this, after a time, succeeded +the sound of shuffling cards and the rattle of money, as if thrown on +the table in the course of the game. + +More and more astonished, he awoke his servant, and bade him listen at +the door and tell him what he heard. The terrified valet reported the +same sounds that had reached his master's ears, Thereupon the latter +told him to arouse the administrator and request his presence. + +When this gentleman appeared, the young nobleman eagerly asked if he +could furnish any explanation of this strange disturbance. + +"I was unwilling," said he, in reply, "to anticipate what you now +witness, lest you might imagine I had some interested motive to prevent +your coming hither. We are all familiar with these sounds. They occur +every night at about the same hour. And we have sought in vain any +natural explanation of their constant recurrence." + +"Have you the key of the gallery?" + +"Here it is." + +The door was unlocked and thrown open. Silence and darkness! And when +the lights were introduced, not an object to be seen through the gloom, +but the old furniture confusedly piled up over the floor. + +They closed and locked the door. Again the same sounds commenced: the +clatter of dishes, the noise of revelling, the clink of the gamblers' +gold. A second time they opened the door, this time quickly and +suddenly; and a second time the sounds instantly ceased, and the hall, +untenanted except by the silent portraits on its walls, appeared before +them, the same still and gloomy lumber-room as before. + +Baffled for the time, young Putkammer dismissed his attendants and +retired to his chamber. Erelong he heard the door of the gallery open, +the heavy footsteps sound on the stairway, the front door creak on its +hinges,--and then the roll of the carriage, first over the stone +pavement, then along the gravelled avenue, till the sounds gradually +died away in the distance. + +The next night he was ready dressed and prepared with lights. When, +about the same hour, the noise of the approaching carriage was heard, he +had the lights immediately carried to the top of the stairway, and he +himself half descended the stairs. Up the stairs and past his very side +came the footsteps; but neither living being nor spectral form could his +eyes perceive. + +The same noises in the old banqueting-hall. The same fruitless attempts +to witness the revel, or to get at the secret, if any, of the +imposition. + +The young man was brave and devoid of superstition. Yet, in spite of +himself, these mysterious sounds, renewed night after night, irritated +his nerves, and preyed upon his quiet. He thought to break through the +spell by inviting a party of living guests. They came, to the number of +thirty or forty; but not for their presence did the invisible revellers +intermit their nocturnal visit. All heard the approach of the carriage, +the steps ascending the staircase, the sounds of revelry in the hall. +And all, when the opened door disclosed, as wont, but darkness and +silence, turned away with a shudder,--and to the subsequent invitation +of their host to favor him again with their company replied by some +shallow apology, which he perfectly understood. + +Thus deserted by his friends, and subjected, night after night, to the +same ghastly annoyance, the young man found his health beginning to +suffer, and decided to endure it no longer. + +Returning to his father, he informed him that he would receive with +gratitude the rents of the property, but only on condition that he was +not required to reside in its haunted château. + +The father, ridiculing what he termed his son's superstitious weakness, +declared that he would himself take up his residence there for a time, +assured that he could not fail to discover the true cause of the sounds +that had driven off its former occupants. + +But the result belied his expectations. Like his son, he never could +_see_ anything. But the selfsame sounds nightly assailed his ears. He +caused the hall to be cleared out and occupied daily. So long as it was +lighted, and there was any one within it, no sounds were heard; and by +thus occupying it all night, the disturbance could be averted. But as +often as it was closed or left in darkness, the invisible revel +recommenced at the wonted hour, preceded by the same preliminaries, +terminating in the same manner. + +Nothing was left untried to penetrate the mystery, and to detect the +trick, if to trickery the disturbances were due. But every effort to +obtain an explanation of the phenomena utterly failed. And the father, +like the son, after a few weeks' struggle against the nightly annoyance, +found his nervous system unable to cope with this constant strain upon +it, and left the château, determined never again to enter its walls. + +The next expedient was to rent it to those whom the fame of its ghostly +reputation had not reached. But this was unavailing, except for a brief +season. No tenant would remain beyond a week or ten days. This plan, +therefore, was abandoned in despair; the principal rooms were closed; +and the building remained for years untenanted, except by one or two +unwilling dependants. + +Finally the proprietor, deeming all change hopeless, and finding that +the keeping up of the château was a mere useless expense, resolved to +destroy it. The dead had fairly driven out the living. He had it pulled +down; and a few low, ruined walls alone remained to mark the place where +it stood. + +Still, even within these deserted ruins, the same sounds of nightly +revelry were declared to have been heard by those who were bold enough +to approach them at the midnight hour. When this was reported to the +proprietor, he determined, if possible, to outroot this last remnant of +disturbance. Accordingly, he caused to be erected, out of the remaining +materials of the château and on the spot where it had stood, a small +chapel, now to be found there, a mute witness of the story I have here +told. + +The chapel was completed and consecrated in the year 1844. Even while +the rites attending its consecration were in progress, strange and +unwonted noises disturbed the congregation; but from that time on they +ceased; and the chapel has since been entirely free from any such. + +A relative of the proprietor, a young officer in the Prussian army, was +present at the consecration, himself witnessed the noises in question, +and had previously heard, from the parties themselves, all the former +occurrences. He it was who related the circumstances to my informant, +the Baron von P----, a gentleman of a grave and earnest character, whose +manner, in repeating them to me, evinced sincerity and conviction. But +it is not merely upon his authority that the details of the narrative +rest. They are, it would seem, of public notoriety in Pomerania; and +hundreds of persons in the neighborhood, as my informant declared, can +yet be found to testify, from personal observation, to the general +accuracy of the above narration.[A] + +The most salient point in this story is the practical and business part +of it,--the actual pulling down of the château, as a last resort, to get +rid of the disturbance. Mere fancy is not wont to lead to such a result +as that. The owner of a piece of valuable property is not likely to +destroy it for imaginary cause. Interest is a marvellous quickener of +the wits, and may be supposed to have left no stone unturned, before +assenting to such a sacrifice. + +I inquired of the gentleman to whom I am indebted for the above +narrative if there were no skeptical surmises in regard to the origin of +the disturbance. He replied, that he had heard but one,--namely, that +the administrator of the deceased Baron's estate might, from motives of +interest and to have the field to himself, have resorted to a trick to +scare the owners from the premises. + +It is beyond a doubt that such devices have been successfully employed +ere now for similar purpose. An example may be found in the story of the +monks of St. Bruno, and the shrewd device they employed to obtain from +King Louis the Saint the grant of one of his ancestral palaces. It was +in this wise. + +Having heard his confessor speak in high terms of the goodness and +learning of the monks of St. Bruno, the King expressed a desire to found +a community of them near Paris. Bernard de la Tour, the superior, sent +six of the brethren; and Louis assigned to them, as residence, a +handsome dwelling in the village of Chantilly. It so happened, that from +their windows they had a fine view of the old palace of Vauvert, +originally erected for a royal residence by King Robert, but which had +been deserted for years. The worthy monks, oblivious of the Tenth +Commandment, may have thought the place would suit them; but ashamed, +probably, to make a formal demand of it from the King, they seem to have +set their wits to work to procure it by stratagem. + +At all events, the palace of Vauvert, which had never labored under any +imputation against its character until they became its neighbors, began +almost immediately afterwards to acquire a bad name. Frightful shrieks +were heard to proceed thence at night. Blue, red, and green lights were +seen to glimmer from its casements, and then suddenly disappear. The +clanking of chains succeeded, together with the howlings of persons as +in great pain. Then a ghastly spectre, in pea-green, with long, white +beard and serpent's tail, appeared at the principal windows, shaking his +fist at the passers-by. This went on for months. + +The King, to whom all these wonders were duly reported, deplored the +scandal, and sent commissioners to look into the affair. To these the +six monks of Chantilly, indignant that the Devil should play such pranks +before their very faces, suggested, that, if they could but have the +palace as a residence, they would undertake speedily to cure it of all +ghostly intrusion. A deed, with the royal sign-manual, conveyed Vauvert +to the monks of St Bruno. It bears the date of 1259. From that time all +disturbances ceased,--the green ghost, according to the creed of the +pious, being laid to rest forever under the waters of the Red Sea.[B] + +Some will surmise that the story of the castle of Putkammer is but a +modified version of that of the palace of Vauvert. It may be so. One who +was not on the spot, to witness the phenomena and personally to verify +all the details, cannot rationally deny the possibility of such an +hypothesis. Yet I find little parallel between the cases, and +difficulties, apparently insuperable, in the way of accepting such a +solution of the mystery. + +The French palace was deserted, and nothing was easier than to play off +there, unchallenged, such commonplace tricks as the showing of colored +lights, the clanking of chains, shrieks, groans, and a howling spectre +with beard and tail,--all in accordance with the prejudices of that +age; nor do we read that any one was bold enough to penetrate, during +the night, into the scene of the disturbance; nor had the King's +commissioners any personal motive to urge a thorough research; nor had a +pious sovereign, the owner of a dozen palaces, any strong inducement to +refuse the cession of one of these, already untenanted and useless, to +certain holy men, the objects of his veneration. + +Very different, in every respect, is the affair of the Pomeranian +castle. It is a narrative of the skeptical nineteenth century, that sets +down all ghost-stories as nursery-tales. The owner, and his son, the +future possessor, each at separate times and for weeks, reside in the +castle, and occupy themselves in repeated attempts to discover whether +they have been imposed on. The selfsame trick, if trick it was, is +repeated night after night, without variation. The roll of the +approaching carriage-wheels, first along the gravelled avenue, then over +the paved court-yard, while no carriage was visible,--how were such +sounds to be imitated? The fall of footsteps, unaccompanied by aught in +bodily form, up the lighted stairway, and past the very side of the bold +youth who stepped down to meet them,--what human device could +successfully simulate these? The sound of the opening gallery-door and +the noises of the midnight orgies, with full opportunity to examine +every nook and corner of the scene whence, to every ear, the same +identical indications came,--how, in producing and reproducing these, +could trickery, time after time, escape detection? Both father and son, +it is evident, had their suspicions aroused; and both, as evidently, +were men of courage, not to be blinded by superstitious panic. Is it a +probable thing that they would destroy an old and valued family mansion, +without having exhausted every conceivable expedient to detect +imposture? + +Nor was this imposture, if as such we are to regard it, conducted in +approved form, after the orthodox fashion. It assumed a shape contrary +to all usually received ideas. No spectre clanking its chains; no lights +burning blue; no groans of the tormented; no ordinary getting-up of a +ghostly disturbance. But a mere succession of sounds, indicating, if we +are to receive and interpret them literally, the periodical return from +the world of spirits of some of its tenants, restless and unblest. Was +this the machinery a mystifier was likely to select? + +Such are the difficulties which attend the hypothesis of a concerted +plan of deception. They will be overlooked by those who have made up +their minds that communications between this world and the next are +impossible, and who will content themselves with pronouncing, that, +though they cannot detect the mode of the imposture, yet imposture of +some kind or other it plainly must have been. + +And such skeptics will very properly remind us of other difficulties in +the way of accepting as a reality the alleged phenomena. What have the +spirits of the departed to do with conveyances resembling those of +earthly structure? Are there incorporeal carriages and horses? Can grave +men admit such fancies as these?[C] Or is all this, even if genuine, +only symbolical,--sounds without objective counterpart? Then what +becomes of the positive character of this narrative, as a lesson, as a +warning to us? The whole degenerates into an acted parable. It fades +into the idle pageantry of a dream. Thus we lose ourselves in shadowy +conjecture. + +But, none the less, the facts, if facts they be, remain to be dealt +with. And if at last we concede the ultramundane origin of these +manifestations, whether as objective reality or only as truth-teaching +allegory, what a field is opened to our speculations regarding the +realms of spirit and the possible punishments there in store for those +who, by degrading their natures in this world, may have rendered +themselves unfit for happiness in the next,--and who, perhaps, still +attracted to earth by the debasing excesses they once mistook for +pleasure, may be doomed, in the phantom repetition of their sins, to +detect their naked reality, to have stamped on their consciousness the +vileness of these without the brutal gratifications that veiled it, the +essence of vice shorn of its sensual halo, the grossness without the +glitter: if so, a terrible expiation! + +I beg it may not be imagined, that, because I see grave difficulties in +the way of regarding this case as one of imposture, I therefore set it +up as proof of a novel theory regarding future punishments. A structure +so great cannot be erected on foundation so slender. I but furnish it as +a chance contribution towards the probabilities of ultramundane +intercourse,--as material for thought,--as one of those hints which +future facts may render valueless, but which, on the other hand, other +observed phenomena may possibly serve to work out and corroborate and +explain. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[A] I find in my journal the following:--"_August 17, 1857._ Read over +to the Baron von P---- the Putkammer narrative; and he assented to its +accuracy in every particular." + +[B] This story is given in Garinet's _Histoire de la Magie en France_, +p. 75. + +[C] Yet in a recent case, occurring in England, and authenticated in the +strongest manner, the "sound of carriages driving in the park when none +were there" is one of the incidents given on the authority of the lady +who had witnessed the disturbances, and who furnishes a detailed account +of them. See "Facts and Fantasies," a sequel to "Lights and Sounds, the +Mystery of the Day," by Henry Spicer, London, 1853, pp. 76-101. + + + + +THE RHYME OF THE MASTER'S MATE. + +FORT HENRY. + + + None who saw it can forget + How they went into the fight, + Four abreast,-- + Thereby was the foe perplexed,-- + With the Essex on the right, + That is nearest to the Fort, + And the Cincinnati next, + The St. Louis on her left, + All so gallant and so deft, + And the brave Carondelet. + + Boom, boom, from every bow! + (They'll have to answer that!) + From the Rebel bastions, now, + There's a flash. + Cool, keep cool, boys, don't be rash! + Mind your eyes, as the old Boss said; + Keep together and go ahead,-- + Not too high and not too low, + Fire slow! + + Paff! + Now we have it from the Fort, + And the Rebels all a-crowing; + While the devils'-echoes laugh, + With a loonish thunder-lowing, + After every gun's report: + 'Tisn't bird-shot they are throwing,-- + 'Tisn't chaff! + Ping! Ping! + If you've ever seen the thing + That can fly without a wing + Swifter than the Thunder's bird, + Lightning-clenching, lightning-spurred,-- + If you've ever heard it sing, + You will understand the word, + And look out; + For, beyond a mortal doubt, + It can sting! + + Thump! + 'D y' ever hear anything like it? + Sounded very much like a ten-strike,--it + Appears they're after a spare! + Bet it made the old Boss jump, + Or at any rate awfully screw up his brows,-- + Hit the pilot-house, + And he's up there,-- + Must 'a' been a hundred-pounder,-- + Had the twang of a conical ball,-- + Would 'a' gone plumb through a ten-foot wall. + Isn't the old _Cinc._ a trump? + + They meant that for a damper! + Square it off with an eighty shell + And a fifteen-second fuse, + (With all the latest news!)-- + Pretty well done, boys, pretty well! + Guess that'll be apt to tell + 'Em all about where it came from, + And where it's a-going to, + What it took its name from, + And all it's a-knowing to! + See 'em scamper! + + The Conestoga, the Tyler, + And the Lexington, you know, + Are in line a half a mile, or + A little less, below,-- + Just this side of the Panther + (Little woody island), + They've their orders----Oh, + But, after all, how _can_ their + Wooden-heads keep silent? + Wonder 'f it don't make 'em feel bad, + Even if they ain't all _steel_-clad, + At being slighted so! + + 'Tisn't so bad a day, + Although it's a little cloudy,-- + Or rather, as one might say, + _Smoky_, perhaps,-- + A little hazy, a little dubious, + A little too sulphury to be salubrious. + D' ye mind those thunder-claps? + Do you feel now and then the least little bit + Of an incipient earthquake fit, + Accompanied with awful raps? + But give 'em gowdy, give 'em gowdy, + And it'll soon clear away! + + Old Boss ain't to be balked.-- + All this, you know, + Was only the way (or nearly so) + The boys talked, + And felt and thought, + (And acted, too,) + The harder they fought + And the hotter it grew.-- + + But there was a Hand at the reel + That nobody saw,-- + Old Hickory there at every keel, + In every timber, from stem to stern,-- + A _something_ in every crank and wheel, + That made 'em answer their turn; + And everywhere, + On earth and water, in fire and air, + As it were to see it all well done, + The Wraith of the murdered Law,-- + Old John Brown at every gun! + + But the Fort was all in a roar: + No use to talk, they had the range,-- + Which wasn't strange, + Guess they'd tried it before,-- + And the pounding was not soft, + But might well appall + The boldest heart. + Cool and calm, + Trumpet in hand, + Up in the cock-loft, + Where 't was the hottest of all, + Our brave old Commodore + Took his stand, + And played his part, + Humming over some old psalm! + + Tut! did ye hear the hiss and scream + Of that hot steam? + It's the Essex that's struck,-- + She never had any luck: + Ah, 'twas a wicked shot, + And, whether they know it or not, + It doesn't give us joy! + + Thorough an open port it flew, + As with some special permit to destroy; + And first, for sport, + Struck the soul from that beautiful boy; + Then through the bulkhead lunged, + And into the boiler plunged, + Scalding the whole crew! + + We know that the brave must fall,-- + But that was a sight to see: + Twenty-three, + All in an instant scalded and scathed, + All at once in the white shroud swathed! + A low moan came from the deck + Of the drifting wreck,-- + And that was all. + + How the traitors'll boast, + As soon as they come to see her + All adrift and aghast!-- + Hark! d' ye hear? d' ye hear? + D' ye hear 'em shout? + They see it already, no doubt. + We shall have to count her out,-- + That white breath was her last,-- + She has given up the ghost! + + What does the old Boss think? + Will he shrink? + Will he waver or falter now?-- + A little shadow flits over his brow, + For the sharp pang in his heart,-- + Flits over--and is gone,-- + And a light looms up in his old gray eye, + Whether you see it or not, + That is like a sudden dawn + In a stormy sky! + + What does he _think_? + What will he _do_?-- + Well! he don't say! + But I'll tell you what, + You can bet your life, + As you would your knife, + And your wife, too, + He'll do + (And put 'em up at once!)-- + He'll run these boats right up to their guns, + And take that Fort, or sink! + + But, oh--oh, it was hot! + So thick and fast the solid shot + Upon our iron armor played, + It kept, like thunder, a kind of time-- + Devil's tattoo or gallopade-- + That, like an awful, awful rhyme, + Rang in the ear; + And they sent us cheer after cheer. + + But the boys had been to _school_, + And _their_ guns were not cool; + For they knew what Cause they served, + And not a man of 'em swerved! + But on, right on, they swept, + And from every grim bow-port + Their nutmegs and shell-barks leaped + Into the jaws of the Fort! + And (to give her, perhaps, a chance to breathe) + Knocked out some of her big, black teeth! + And (to raise a better crop, no doubt, + Than was ever raised there before) + Ploughed her up into awful creases, + Inside and out!-- + For now they were up and doing the chore + At only four hundred yards, + And the death-dealing shreds and shards + Of our shell were tearing 'em all to pieces! + + Hurrah for the brave old Flag! + To triumph see her ride!-- + Ha, ha! they dodge and duck,-- + The Snake's expiring! + Their gunners run and hide,-- + By heaven, they've struck! + Down comes the rattlesnake rag + By the run,-- + Stop the firing! + The work is done!-- + + Anyhow, she'll do for batter!-- + You see now, Butternuts, you were plucky; + But that ain't "what's the matter,"-- + Not by a long shot! + No, no,--no! I'll tell you what-- + And you mustn't take it at all amiss-- + I'll tell you what the _matter_ is: + 'Tain't because you were born unlucky, + (Bear in mind,) + Nor that you've good eyes and we are blind,-- + Nothing of the kind,-- + But it's something else, if it isn't more: + The reason--pardon!--you had to cotton + Was simply this: Your _Cause_ was rotten,-- + Rotten to the very core: + That's what's the matter! + + But you ought to 'a' heard our water-dogs yelp!-- + Just an hour and fifteen minutes!-- + (Twitter away, you English linnets!) + Horizontal and perpendicular, + Fair and square, without any help,-- + That is, any in particular,-- + The old ferry wash-tubs of the West, + With some new-fashioned _hoops_, for a little test, + And a few old _pounders_ from--Kingdom Come, + And nothing for suds but the "Nawth'n scum," + Made these "gen'l'men" turn as white + As a head o' hair in a single night! + Cleaned their army completely out, + (We're going to give _that_ another wipe!) + On the double-quick, by the shortest route,-- + Wrung their stronghold from their gripe,-- + Brought their garrison right to taw, + And made 'em get down to the "higher law"! + + So that when Grant and his boys came up, + (There's places enough for a man to die!) + Swearing that we had "spoiled" their "sport," + With a quiet twinkle in his eye, + Old Boss asked 'em to come in and sup, + And set 'em to _house-keeping_ in the Fort!-- + But all the old fellow could say or do, + They'd still keep a-going it: "Bully for _you_!" + + "Bully" for Grant and for Foote!-- + E'en if the voice must tremble,-- + And "bully" for all who helped 'em to do 't! + Bully for Porter and Stemble! + For Paulding and for Walke,-- + For Phelps, for Gwin, and for Shirk!-- + But what's the use to talk? + They were all of 'em up to the work! + Bully for each brave tub + That bore the Union Blue! + And for every mother's son + Of every gallant crew, + Whatever his color or name, + Who, when it came to the rub, + Shall be found to have been _game_! + + * * * * * + + Such was the Rhyme of the Master's Mate, + Just as they found it in the locker, + With this at the foot:-- + "It's getting late, + And I hear a pretty loud Knock at the knocker! + Captain, if I should chance to fall, + Try to send me home. Good bye!" That's all,-- + Excepting the date, the name, and rank:-- + "Feb. 12th, '62, ---- ----, + Master's Mate." + + All next day a great black Cloud + Hung over the land from coast to coast; + And the next, the Knocking was "pretty loud,"-- + With a sudden Eclipse, as it were, of the sun,-- + And the earth, all day, quaked--"Donelson!" + But the next was the deadliest day of all, + And the Master's Mate was not at Call! + Yet nobody seemed to wonder why,-- + There was something, perhaps, the Master knew + Far better than we, for his Mate to do,-- + And the Day went down with a bloody sky! + + But when the long, long Night was past, + And our Eagle, sweeping the traitor's crag, + Circled to victory up the dome, + The great Reveille was heard at last!-- + They wrapped the Mate in his country's flag, + And sent him in glory home! + + + + +THE VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE IN LIBRARIES. + + +A visible library is a goodly sight. We do not underrate the external +value of books, when we say it is the invisible which forms their chief +charm. Sometimes rather too much is said about "tall copies," and +"large-paper copies," and "first editions," the binding, paper, type, +and all the rest of the outside attraction, or the fancy price, which go +to make up the collector's trade. The books themselves feel a little +degraded, when this sort of conversation is carried on in their +presence: some of them know well enough that occasionally they fall into +hands which think more "of the coat than of the man who is under it." We +must, however, be honest enough to confess that we are ourself a +bibliomaniac, and few possessions are more valued than an old +manuscript, written on vellum some five hundred years ago, of which we +cannot read one word. Nor do we prize less the modern extreme of +external attraction,--volumes exquisitely printed and adorned, bound by +Rivière, in full tree-marbled calf, with delicate tooling on the back, +which looks as if the frost-work from the window-pane on a cold January +morning had been transmuted into gold, and laid on the leather. Ah, +these are sights fit for the gods! + +Nevertheless, we come back to our starting-point, that what is unseen +forms the real value of the library. The type, the paper, the binding, +the age, are all visible; but the soul that conceived it, the mind that +arranged it, the hand that wrote it, the associations which cling to it, +are the invisible links in a long chain of thought, effort, and history, +which make the book what it is. + +In wandering through the great libraries of Europe, how often has this +truth been impressed upon the mind!--such a library as that in the old +city of Nuremberg, housed in what was once a monastery, and looking so +ancient, quaint, and black-lettered, visibly and invisibly, that, if the +old monk in the legend who slipped over a thousand years while the +little bird sang to him in the wood, and was thereby taught, what he +could not understand in the written Word, that a thousand years in +God's sight are but as a day,--if that old monk had walked out of the +Nuremberg monastery and now walked back again, he might almost take up +the selfsame manuscript he had laid down a thousand years ago. + +What invisible heads have ached, and hands become weary, over those +vellum volumes, with their bright initial letters! What hearts have +throbbed over the early printed book! How triumphantly was the first +copy, now worm-eaten and forgotten, contemplated by the author! How was +that invisible world which surrounded him to be stirred by that new +book! + +We remember looking into one of the cell-like alcoves arranged for +students in a college library at Oxford, and watching a fellow of the +college (a type of scholars, grown old among books, rarely found in our +busy land) crooning over a strange black-letter folio, and laughing to +himself with a sort of invisible chuckle. The unseen in that volume was +revealed to us through that laugh of the old bookworm, and quite unseen +we partook of his amusement. Another alcove was vacant; a crabbed +manuscript, just laid down by the writer, was on the desk. He was +invisible; but the watchful guardian at the head of the room saw us +peering in, and warned us with a loud voice not to enter. Safely might +we have been permitted to do so, for we could hardly have deciphered at +a glance all the wisdom that lurked in the open page; yet that hidden +meaning, invisible to us, was of real value to the unseen writer. + +There are many incidents connected with the visible and invisible of +libraries existing in the great houses of England, which could point a +moral in sketches of this subject. One, concerning a pamphlet found at +Woburn Abbey, has a peculiar interest. + +Lord William Russell, eldest son of Francis, fourth Earl of Bedford, +after completing his education at Oxford, and travelling abroad for two +years, returned home in the winter of 1634. Young, handsome, +accomplished, and the eldest son of the House of Russell, the +fashionable world of London marked him as a prize in the matrimonial +speculations of the times, and was quite in a flutter to know which of +the reigning beauties, would captivate the young Lord Russell. Lady +Elizabeth Cecil, Lady Dorothy Sidney, Lady Anne Carr were the rival +belles upon whom the eyes of the world were fixed. It was with no small +consternation that the Earl of Bedford soon found that the affections of +his son had been attracted by Lady Anne Carr, the daughter of the Earl +and Countess of Somerset, more widely known as Robert Carr and Lady +Essex. The Earl of Bedford had taken a prominent part in the Countess's +trial, and participated in the general abhorrence of her character. In +vain his son pleaded the innocence of the daughter, who, early separated +from her parents, knew nothing of their history or their crimes. The +Earl of Bedford shrunk with a feeling of all but insurmountable aversion +to such an alliance; and not until the king interceded for the youthful +lovers, did the father yield a reluctant consent, and their marriage was +celebrated. The undisturbed happiness and harmony in which the parties +lived reconciled the Earl to the connection; he became much attached to +his beautiful daughter-in-law; and in the sweetness and domestic purity +of her character he could sometimes forget her parents. Lady Anne's life +passed quietly in the discharge of the duties of a wife and mother, and +of those which devolved upon her when her husband became fifth Earl of +Bedford in 1641. In 1683, their eldest son, Lord William Russell, died +on the scaffold. + +"There is a life in the principles of freedom," says the historian of +the House of Russell, "which the axe of the executioner does not, for it +cannot, touch." This great thought must have strengthened the souls of +the parents under so terrible a trial. The mother's health, however, +sunk under the blow, which, in the sympathy of her celebrated +daughter-in-law, the heroic Lady Rachel Russell, she endeavored to +sustain. One day, seeking, perhaps, some book to cheer her thoughts, +Lady Bedford entered the library, and in an anteroom seldom visited +chanced to take a pamphlet from the shelves. She opened its pages, and +read there, for the first time, the record of her mother's guilt. The +visible in that page rent aside the invisible veil which those who loved +Lady Bedford had silently woven over her whole life, as a shield from a +terrible truth. She was found by her attendants senseless, with the +fatal book open in her hand. The revelations of the past, the sorrows of +the present, were too much for her to bear, and she died. Lady Rachel +Russell, writing from Woburn Abbey at the time, states her conviction +that Lady Bedford's reason would not have sustained the shock received +from the contents of the pamphlet, even had her physical powers rallied. + +Turning aside one moment from our subject, we stand in awe before the +striking contrast presented by the characters of two women, each so +closely linked with Lady Bedford's life,--the one who heard her first +breath, and the other who received her last sigh. If Lady Somerset +causes us to shrink with horror from the depth of depravity of which +woman's nature is capable, let us thank God that in Lady Rachel Russell +we have a witness of the purity, self-sacrifice, and holiness a true +woman's soul can attain. + +In the library at Wilton House, the seat of the Sidneys, we were shown a +lock of Queen Elizabeth's hair, hidden for more than a hundred years in +one of the books. A day came when some member of the family took down an +old volume to see what treasures of wisdom lurked therein. "She builded +better than she knew," for between the leaves lay folded a paper which +contained a faded lock of the once proud Queen Bess. How it came there, +and by whose hand it was placed in the book, is one of the invisible +things of the library, but the writing within the paper authenticated +the relic beyond doubt; and it is now shown as one of the visible +treasures of the library of Wilton House. + +Magdalen College, Cambridge, contains the Pepysian Library,--placed +there by the will of Pepys, under stringent conditions, in default of +whose fulfilment the bequest falls to Trinity. One of the fellows of +Magdalen is always obliged to mount guard over visitors to the library. +Such an escort being provided, we ascended the stairs, and found +ourselves in the presence of the bookcases which once adorned Pepys's +house in London, containing the "three thousand bookes" of which he was +so proud. The bookcases are handsome, with small mirrors let into them, +in which, doubtless, Mrs. Pepys often surveyed the effect of those +"newegownes" which pleased her husband's vanity so well, although he +rather reluctantly paid the cost. There, too, is the original manuscript +of that entertaining Diary, wherein Pepys daguerrotyped the age in which +he lived, and himself with all his sense and nonsense. That Diary would +have remained one of the invisible treasures of libraries, for it was +written in a cipher of his own invention, but, by a very curious chance, +the key to that cipher was unintentionally betrayed through comparison +with another paper, and the journal was brought to light, and many +things made visible which the writer dreamed not of confiding to future +ages. Pepys was an indefatigable, and, we cannot but half suspect, an +unscrupulous collector. Volumes of autographs, great scrap-books filled +with prints, tickets, invitations, ballads, let us into the visible and +invisible of the reign of Charles II. A manuscript music-book, elegantly +bound, and labelled, "Songs altered to suit my Voice," carried us back +to the days when, after going to the play in the afternoon, Pepys and +some of his companions "came back to my house and had musique." + +Pepys certainly never meant to be one of the invisible things in his own +library, for every book contains an engraving from his own portrait. +Should he ever come back to look after the possessions he so much +valued, he can surely be at no loss to find the likeness of the form he +once wore. If a spirit can retain any human vanity and self-importance, +his must certainly be unpleasantly surprised that the great collection +looks small in these days, and attracts but little attention. To +antiquaries and lovers of the odd and curious it must ever be valuable; +but the obligation of having a fellow of Magdalen at one's elbow much +interferes with that quiet, cozy "mousing" so dear to the soul of a +bibliomaniac. We heartily wished that we could have made an appointment +with the shade of old Pepys, and, returning to the library in the +stillness of midnight, have found him ready to show off his collections. +That would have been, indeed, the visible and the invisible of the +Pepysian Library. The Cambridge men of to-day are too busy about their +own affairs to look much into Pepys's collections, which remain quietly +ensconced under the guardianship of Old Magdalen, one of the visible +links between the seen and unseen in libraries. + +Nestled quietly in an old Elizabethan house, among the great trees at +Wotton, is the library of John Evelyn. Belonging to the same age as that +of Pepys, but collected by a man of widely different tastes and +character, there is much outwardly to charm as well as to elevate the +mind in the influences shed around it. Here are tall copies and folios +of grave works, classic and historical, the solid literary food of a man +who kept his soul pure amid a corrupt age, books as harmonious with the +reflective mind of Evelyn as were the grand old woods of Wotton with the +refined tastes of the author of "Sylva." Here is preserved the original +manuscript of Evelyn's Journal, the paper yellow with the mellow tints +of two hundred autumns, yet the thought as fresh as if written +yesterday. Near the manuscript is seen the prayer-book which Charles I. +held in his hand when he mounted the scaffold at Whitehall. There is +much of the visible and invisible in that quaint old library at Wotton. + +The internal treasures of Christian faith opened a wide field for the +outward decoration of religious books. "The Hours" (meaning devotional +hours) of kings and queens are magnificent specimens of chirography, +showing also the skill of artists in the earliest centuries. The art of +preparing these volumes was divided into two branches: that of the +_Miniatori_, or illuminators, who furnished the paintings, the borders, +and arabesques, and also laid on the gold; and that of the _Miniatori +calligrafi_, who wrote the whole of the book, and drew the initial +letters of blue and red with their fanciful ornaments. Many of the great +libraries of Europe contain these splendid manuscripts, and although but +one page is open to the passing visitor, which he sees "through a glass +darkly," yet that page is written over and illuminated with associations +and memories. Could a glance reveal thoughts which have looked out of +eyes bending over these pages, when they were held in the hand of their +first owner, what messages from the invisible would be received! Some of +these rare and regal possessions have gone a little astray, and wandered +about in the wilderness of the world, as is confirmed by an anecdote we +recently received from good authority. A magnificent volume, illustrated +by views of French châteaux of the Middle Ages, presented to a princess +of the House of Bourbon, was known to have existed. This manuscript had +disappeared, and for more than a hundred years it could not be traced. +The Duc d'Aumale, son of Louis Philippe, while in Genoa, was informed +(by a person who called upon him for that purpose) that there was for +sale in that city a valuable illuminated manuscript, and, as the Duke +was known to be a collector of rare books, it would be shown to him. He +accordingly followed his informant to an obscure part of the city, and +into an old house, where the manuscript was produced. What was his +astonishment, when he beheld before him the lost Bourbon manuscript, so +long sought for in vain! He immediately became its purchaser; and +whatever secret history belongs to the volume, connected with the time +when it was invisible, it is now one of the most treasured realities in +the magnificent library at Orleans House. + +In the illuminated pages of many of these old manuscripts there lurks +much more, doubtless, than meets the eye. Thus, that famous poem of the +Middle Ages, the "Romance of the Rose," has passed for a mere fanciful +allegory, or love-story. Splendidly illuminated copies of this Romance +are well known. The British Museum possesses one, which Dibdin calls +"the cream of the Harleian Collection": it is in folio, and replete with +embellishments. He also mentions another copy, at that time belonging to +Mr. North, the frontispiece of which represents Francis I. surrounded by +his courtiers, receiving a copy from the author. Only the visible of the +illuminated volume was probably opened to the eyes of Francis, or even +of Dibdin. A later student pronounces the Romance to be a complete +specimen of Hermetic Philosophy, concealing great truths under its +allegory,--the Rose being the symbol of philosophic gold. + +Such is the view taken of this Romance by our distinguished +fellow-countryman, Major-General Hitchcock, who found time, in the +interval between two wars, to collect and study three hundred volumes of +Hermetic Philosophy, coming forth therefrom as a champion in defence of +a much misunderstood class. This ingenious work, entitled "Alchemy and +the Alchemists," published in 1857, was written to prove that the +alchemists were not foolish seekers for sordid gold, nor vain believers +in the elixir of life, but philosophers of deep thought and high aims, +who, in days when a man dared not say his soul was his own, veiled in +mystic language, perfectly understood by each other, theological and +philosophical truths, theories, and discoveries, which would have +brought them to the stake or the rack, had they been produced openly. +"Man was the subject of alchemy, and the object of the art was the +perfection, or at least the improvement, of man." These were the _real_ +Hermetic Philosophers. After them came men who, not knowing the meaning +of the symbolic language which concealed the spiritual truths, took the +written word in a literal sense, and went to work with crucibles and +retorts, seeking the philosopher's stone and the elixir of life, not +knowing, indeed, the Scripture, that "the letter killeth, but the spirit +maketh alive." + +Such a theory as that advanced in "Alchemy and the Alchemists" opens a +new chapter in the visible and invisible of a library of Hermetic +Philosophy. + +The most ancient specimens of calligraphy extant are probably the +Terence of the fourth century and the Virgil of the fifth century, in +the Vatican Library. Alas for those who have no open sesame to that +collection! We shall never forget our disappointment upon entering the +Vatican. We could not gaze even on the mouldy vellum or faded leather of +old bindings, and saw nothing but stupid modern painted cases, bodies +quite unworthy of the souls they hid. Gladly would we have laid aside +our theory concerning unseen treasures, and looked that great collection +face to face. + +"The taste for the external decoration of manuscripts," says Labarte, +(whose interesting "Hand-Book on the Arts of the Middle Ages" has been +admirably translated by Mrs. Palliser,) "already existed among the +ancients. Marcus Varro called forth the praises of Cicero for having +traced in his book the portraits of more than seven hundred celebrated +persons; Seneca, in his treatise 'De Tranquillitate Animi,' speaks of +books ornamented with figures; and Martial addresses his thanks to +Stertinius, who had placed his portrait in his library." + +These ancient works of Art have vanished, none have survived the stormy +passage of ages, yet this casual mention of them carries us into the +otherwise invisible past. We see the seven hundred portraits in Marcus +Varro's book, and walk into the library of Stertinius to give our +opinion of the portrait of Martial. + +"The miniatures of manuscripts were long considered," says Labarte, +"only as ornaments. Montfaucon was the first to recognize their +usefulness as historical documents. To possess manuscripts of the Middle +Ages with miniatures is in fact to possess a gallery of contemporaneous +pictures." + +The most beautiful specimen of ancient illuminated manuscript we have +seen in this country belongs to the Honorable Charles Sumner. It is a +missal of the fifteenth century, of finest quality. Several of the +miniatures might well be claimed as the work of Van Eyck. The +frontispiece consists of the portrait of the lady for whose devotions +the book was prepared. She kneels before the Madonna, while her patron +saint stands beside her. Beneath this celestial vision is the heraldic +shield of the lady's family, thus throwing in a glimpse of visible +worldly grandeur. The borders and arabesques of this manuscript are +equal in execution to the miniatures, and the missal is one of rare +beauty. + +Can we forbear alluding to that other treasure of Senator Sumner's +collection,--the Album which belonged to Camillus Cordoyn, who, more +than two centuries ago, entertained guests at his house as they +journeyed into Italy? One of these, Thomas Wentworth, afterwards Lord +Strafford, then a young man gayly travelling about the world, wrote his +name in the volume, little thinking of the block and the axe which were +to illustrate the closing chapter of his book of life. The immortal +Milton, on his return from Italy, was the guest of the same nobleman. +What would we not give for a look into that house at Geneva, and see +this little volume laid before the visitor! The glorious eyes of John +Milton looked over its pages, and perhaps he listened to the story of +some of the distinguished personages, now all forgotten, whose names and +heraldic shields are there. Then he turned to a blank leaf, and wrote +two lines from his own "Comus,"-- + + "If Virtue feeble were, + Heaven itself would stoop to her." + +He signed his name on that 20th of June, 1639, and the host took back +the book. And now, more than two hundred years after, that page is held +as priceless in this great republic beyond the sea. + +We should speak gratefully of the externals of books, because for two +long years our oculist did not allow us to open them. We dared not go +farther than their titles, yet even these were talismans which revealed +wide regions, and carried us from Indus to the Pole. We went with Arthur +Penrhyn Stanley to the Holy Land, discovered Nineveh with Layard, +explored Art treasures with Mrs. Jameson, plunged among icebergs with +Parry. A volume of Belzoni bore us not only to pyramids and mummies in +Egypt, but away to a strange old hall "in Padua, beyond the sea." +Cabalistic paintings cover the walls, misty with age; lurking in one +corner of the vast apartment is a gigantic wooden horse, that figured at +some public festival four hundred years ago, and now pauses, ready to +prance out of the mouldy past into the affrighted present; opposite +stand two Egyptian statues, cat-headed human figures, resting their +hands on their stone knees. These were gifts from Belzoni to his native +city of Padua; and his handsome head in the Eastern turban, turned into +white marble, stands above the entrance-door. + +Coming back from the Paduan hall, so weird and ghostly, we glance along +the shelves at a long row of volumes which bear De Quincey's name, and +we need not open a page to feel the mysterious spell of the opium-eater. +Like one of those strange dreams of his seems a remembrance which comes +back to us with his name. A quaint, tall house in the old part of +Edinburgh has admitted us into a quiet apartment, where, as the twilight +is creeping in through the windows, a small gray man receives us, with +graceful and tender courtesy. He converses with a felicity of language +like that of his printed pages, but in a voice so sweet, so low, so +exquisitely modulated, that the magical tone vibrates on the ear like +music. It was De Quincey, who held us entranced until darkness gathered +around us, then bade us farewell, his kind words lingering on the air, +as, with a flickering candle in his hand, he flitted up the winding +stair, and vanished away. + +Another volume bears the name of William Wordsworth, and beneath his +autograph he writes that it was purchased at Bath from a +circulating-library. It is that strange journal of the Margravine of +Bareith, sister of Frederic the Great, a sad story of those who dwell in +kings' houses; but we think only of Wordsworth, and of the viewless +history of the book carried by the poet from circulating in Bath to +quiet rural Rydal Mount, and now having wandered over to New England. + +A dainty volume near by bears the autograph of Rogers, and though the +association is not so purely imaginative, perhaps, as a poet should call +up, yet it always brings to our mind the breakfasts at his house, of +which many of our friends have partaken, and related divers stories +concerning those morning refections. They are invisible feasts to us, +for we never even picked up the crumbs from them, except at second hand; +yet this elegant little book knew all about them, and heard what was +said before, and also behind--the table-cloth. + +Singular experiences connected with books are sometimes known to their +owners, quite invisible to others. In yonder corner are two volumes. +Book-collectors know that they are rare, and the uninitiated think they +contain queer old wood-cuts. To us that corner is haunted; an invisible +lady hovers about those volumes. Once upon a time an order was given for +those books, but the answer came back from over the sea, that they were +not to be had, or to be had only at rare intervals on the breaking up of +a library. To our no small surprise, very soon after this quietus had +been given to bibliomaniacal hopes, the books in question appeared +before us in excellent condition. We could hardly suppose that any one +had been benevolent enough to break up a library on purpose to oblige +us, and we waited to hear a very odd story. + +Soon after the letter had been sent, announcing the ill success of our +commission, the writer of it was in a bookshop in London, when a lady +entered and desired an interview with the master. After some private +conversation, the lady returned to her carriage and drove away. The +bookseller remarked to his friend, that the lady had brought with her +some books, which she desired to part with. Our informant asked to see +them, and, lo! the very volumes for which in our behalf he had searched +in vain: he immediately secured the prize, which was forwarded by the +next steamer. + +Can any one ask why the figure of the lady who brought those books to us +three thousand miles over the sea "haunts us like a shadow"? We see her +ascend her invisible carriage, we go with her to her invisible home, we +meet her viewless husband;--here we shudder, but we recover ourselves; +we are convinced that he could not have been a book-collector, or she +had not dared such a deed. Then we puzzle ourselves about her unseen +motives for selling the books. Had she gambled? Had she bet on the +losing horse at the Derby? Had she bought an expensive bonnet? Or was it +the impulse of some strong benevolent purpose? Why _did_ she sell those +books? Since she did thus part with them, we thank her, and are content +that by very strange combinations of circumstances, blending the visible +and invisible together, those books, viewless in her library, are now +apparent in our own. + +Here is another volume which has also something mystical about it in its +visible and invisible effect. It is a copy of Dibdin's "Bibliomania," +which belonged to Dawson Turner. A note in his handwriting states that +the tools required for the binding were used exclusively for Lord +Spencer, and that a view of Strawberry Hill will be found on its edges. +Gilt edges, however, are all that meet the eye; but turned by a skilful +hand to the right light, the gilding vanishes, and a picture of +Strawberry Hill appears, painted with velvety softness. Such a nice +bibliomaniacal fancy must have delighted Dibdin; and as he was at one +time librarian at Althorpe, he doubtless was the medium of bestowing +this charm upon the binding of his own work for his friend. + +The invisible in libraries has ever seemed to us linked with those who +have written or read the books. If souls are allowed to return to their +earthly haunts, a library would surely be the place to meet them. For +this reason we have cherished a firm belief in the apparition which the +distinguished librarian of the Astor Library beheld, and never desire to +hear any commonplace explanations concerning it; and on visiting the +Astor collection, we were more desirous to see the spot where the +reading phantom appeared than all the rest of the building. Who shall +say that authors and students do not come back to the books which +contain their invisible souls, or spirits like themselves? Without +venturing to invoke the sceptred sovereigns of literature, or to call up +the shades of the prophets and sibyls of elder time, yet at midnight +what a circle might come forth and visit the library! Scott and Burns +and Byron, Burke and Fox and Sheridan, all in one evening; clever, +pretty Mrs. Thrale comes bringing Fanny Burney to meet Jane Austen and +Maria Edgeworth; Horace Walpole, patronizing Gray, Rogers, Wordsworth, +Coleridge, Keats, and Charles Lamb,--what a social club that would be! +Ah, the librarian of the Astor is more fortunate than we; these spirits +are all invisible, and we catch not even at midnight the rustle of the +leaf they turn or the passing murmur of their voices. Yet within the +library, ever ready to meet us, their souls still linger; and when we +open the visible book which enshrines it, we find the hidden spirit. + +A number of gentlemen once went together to a friend's house. While they +awaited his entrance, one of the party, being a lover of books, +naturally turned to the shelves of the library. Without any particular +attraction to the title, he chanced to take down one of the volumes. As +he opened it, a sealed letter fell from between the leaves on the floor. +He took it up, and, to his no small astonishment, perceived that it was +addressed to himself. + +He called the attention of his companions to this strange circumstance. +As it could be no breach of decorum to break the seal of a letter +addressed to one's self, he did so. The surprise was increased by +finding a bank-note within. The letter came from a well-known gentleman, +and bore the date of a year past. When the owner of the house entered, +he found his guests in quite a tumult of surprise and puzzle. At first +he was quite as much at a loss as themselves to account for this +discovery. It was, however, remembered by the gentleman to whom the +letter was addressed, that about a year before he had applied to the +writer for aid in some charity, but, having many demands of the same +kind to supply, he declined. Afterwards, as it appeared, he regretted +having done so, and had accordingly inclosed the money. Probably, soon +after, he met the gentleman in whose book it was found, (with whom he +was on intimate terms,) and asked him to give the letter as addressed. +The receiver brought it home, laid it on his table, and forgot it. The +book lying open, it may be that the letter slipped between the leaves +and the volume was returned to the shelf. And there it had waited for +more than a year, holding the invisible letter quite safe, until the +person to whom it was addressed took down, for the first time in his +life, a volume from those shelves, and received into his own hand the +communication intended for him. No one can wonder that the invisible in +libraries has a strong hold on the faith of our friend. + +Although few may be so fortunate as to find bank-notes in letters +addressed to themselves between the leaves of books in libraries, yet +we all have felt the sensation of discoverers of hidden treasures. After +carelessly looking at a volume which has stood on the shelves for years, +we open it and find within thoughts which appeal to our deepest +experiences, high incentives to our nobler energies, deep sympathy in +our sorrows, sustaining words to help us on with our life-work. How +differently do we ever after regard the visible of that book! The +invisible has been revealed to us, and we almost wonder whether, if we +had looked into it two or three years before, we should have found there +what now we prize so much. Perhaps not; for after different experiences +in life come different revelations from books. The pages which a few +years ago we might have glanced over with indifference now speak to us +as if uttering the emotions of our own souls. + +Sometimes it is a work of fiction which, we open for the first time, the +title of which has been familiar to our eyes. Out of it invisible +spirits walk. We are introduced to charming people who never existed, +and yet who become our daily companions. We go with them through many +trials, we rejoice with them, we know all their secrets, and share with +them many of our own. Is it possible, that, shut up between those +covers, long unknown, all these existed which have since made life +brighter and better to us? + +In Sterling's "Onyx Ring," Walsingham, the poet, takes down a volume +from Sir Charles Harcourt's library, and reads a charming romance, +apparently from its pages. A lady of the company afterwards turned to +the same book, which proved to be a work of Jeremy Bentham's, and +searched in vain for the graceful narrative. Walsingham smiled at her +perplexity, and said, "Those only find who know where to look." + +The invisible world of thought, and the invisible representation of it +in books, have known many changes since Cicero looked at the volume +which Marcus Varro had illustrated; and from an earlier civilization +than Cicero's comes the exclamation of the soul-wearied Job, "Oh that +mine adversary had written a book!" Solomon also exclaims, "Of making +many books there is no end." He dreamed not of the extent to which the +manufacture would be carried in these days. On the other hand, how +little we know of the literary world existing in the days of Job or +Solomon! and may we not be led by these exclamations to suspect not only +a large supply of books, but even the existence of an Arabian Review or +a Dead-Sea Magazine? + +The increase of wealth, and the restless activity of intellect in the +new world which surrounds us, lead naturally to the accumulation of +libraries, both public and private. In our daily walks we often pass +dwellings which we know hold literary treasures. Sometimes the beauties +of Nature can be combined with those of Art, even in a city, around the +library. We recall one from the windows of which we look forth, not on +crowded streets, but on the wide river as it bends to the sea. Behind +the distant hills the heavens are resplendent with the autumnal hues of +sunset, the water is aglow with reflected glories, while swooping and +sailing over the waves come the white sea-gulls. It is a leaf from the +illuminated prayer-missal for all eyes and hearts. The literary +treasures of that friend's library have been elsewhere described, some +of them gifts from wise men, earnest women, world-worshipped poets, +bearing on their leaves the signatures of their authors' friendship. +Other treasures are there, visible and invisible, among which we would +fain linger, but we must pass on. We enter another library, once filled +with rare and costly works, which taught of the wonderful structure of +plants, from the hyssop on the wall to the cedar of Lebanon. Gone now +are these volumes, and vanished, too, is their collector, whose wide and +generous culture was veiled by the curtain of modesty and quietness. His +collections he bestowed upon a public institution, where the wonders of +God's universe will be a subject of study for all coming time. These he +gave, and then went peacefully away from our sight to learn yet wider +and grander lessons at the feet of that Teacher who, when he was on +earth, bade his followers "consider the lilies of the field." Is not +that library as real to us as when the books filled its shelves, and we +were welcomed by the gentle voice of its master? + +The crowds which form the living stream that surges through Washington +Street and eddies around the Old South Church seldom, perhaps, pause to +think of that edifice as one of the links uniting the memorable past of +our country's history with the momentous present. Still less do they who +raise their eyes to the tower to learn the hour of the day imagine that +there is an invisible library connected with the familiar form of the +belfry. Yet a romance of literary and historic interest encircles it. At +the time of the Revolution, Dr. Prince was pastor of the Old South +Church, and in the tower he kept his historical treasures along with the +New England Library. Among these volumes were Governor Bradford's +letter-book and the manuscript of his "History of the Plantation of +Plymouth." During the siege of Boston, the British turned the Old South +into a riding-school, and the troopers had free scope to do what +mischief they pleased. After the evacuation of the town the library was +found in a disordered condition, and the valued manuscripts of Bradford +were missing. Some time after, a person observed that the article he had +bought from a grocer in Halifax was wrapped in paper written over in a +peculiar hand. He deciphered enough to make him earnest to obtain what +remained of the manuscript in the grocer's possession. It proved to be +fragments of the missing letter-book of Governor Bradford. Years passed +on until 1856, when the attention of an historical writer was attracted +by a quotation, in a note to an English work, from "a manuscript history +of the Plantation of Plymouth, in the Fulham Library." As the extract +contained passages not found in any part of that history known in +America, it immediately occurred to those interested that this might be +the missing volume from the Prince Library. A correspondence was +thereupon opened with the Bishop of London. The handwriting of Bradford +being authenticated, as well as that of Dr. Prince, which was found in a +memorandum, dated "June 28th, showing how he obtained it from Major John +Bradford," there could no longer remain a doubt that this was indeed the +lost historical treasure. Part of the manuscripts of Bradford had been +carried by the British soldiers to Halifax, and sold at last as +waste-paper to a grocer; and the rest, after some history unknown, +reached England and found protection under the care of the Bishop of +London. A copy of this manuscript is now in the possession of the Boston +Historical Society. + +In the rooms of that society is preserved the Dowse Library. A rare +collection of books, formed by a man daily engaged in the mechanic craft +of a leather-dresser, is a singular illustration of the visible and +invisible of libraries. We recall past days in Cambridge, when, beneath +the sign of a white wooden sheep, we entered the unpretending house +which contained not only the leather-dresser's shop, but a small gallery +of pictures and this valuable library. We remember, also, with grateful +interest, the modest, but manly, welcome of the master of both the +mechanic craft and the treasures of art and literature, and how quietly +he would give us a few words about his books. The Dowse Library we visit +is always _there_, and although much is visible in the beautiful room +where the bequest of the owner has been fittingly enshrined, yet its +distinctive charm is invisible. + +The City Library of Boston has one feature entirely new in the visible +of a great public collection. A large portion of the books, under +certain regulations, are circulated among the inhabitants of the city, +and thousands avail themselves of this privilege. Here, then, is opened +a great fountain of knowledge in the midst of a wide population: all may +come, without money and without price. The visible pages of learning, +wisdom, science, truth, imagination, ingenious theory, or deep +conviction lie open not only to the eyes, but to the hearts and homes of +a great people. It is like the overflowing Nile, carrying sweet waters +to irrigate many waste places, and clothing the dry dust of common life +with the flowers, the fruit, and the sustaining grain, springing from +invisible seeds cast by unseen hands into the wide field of the world. + +"If," says Lord Bacon, "the invention of ships was thought so noble, +which carrieth riches and commodities from place to place, how much more +are letters to be magnified, which, as ships, pass through the vast seas +of time, and make ages so distant to participate of the wisdom, +illuminations, and inventions, the one of the other!" + + NOTE.--Since these pages were written, one who knew how to + prize the visible and invisible of books has passed away. The + silent library of George Livermore speaks eloquently of him. + That collection, gathered with a love which increased as years + advanced, includes ancient copies of the Bible of rarest + values. His life was a book, written over with good deeds and + pure thoughts, illuminated by holy aspirations. That volume is + closed, but the spirit which rendered it precious is not + withdrawn; living in many hearts, it will continue to be a + cherished presence in the world, the home, and the library. + + + + +LETTER TO A YOUNG HOUSEKEEPER. + + +You know, dear M., it is said that in times of bankruptcy men go home to +get acquainted with their wives; perhaps it should be added that wives +then go to get introduced to their kitchens. But your sensible letter is +an omen, little friend, that to you and H. this does not apply. You will +not wait for poverty to teach you economy, but will learn economy to +ward off poverty. So herewith I send a few of the culinary notes of the +last two years; but neither of us is to be taken for a bankrupt's wife, +for all that. It is simply recognizing that you are alone in new duties, +and that cookery is an art which may not be gained even from that +fountain of knowledge, named by the Apostle Paul as one's husband. The +successes of the art no one knows better than he; but of the processes +he will be found sublimely ignorant. There are but two points in which +you can defer to him,--punch and lobster-salad. These, like swearing and +smoking, are strictly masculine accomplishments. + +If you had the thrifty maiden aunt kept in reserve by most families for +an emergency, you would kindly offer her a home at your house for a +while. But since you have not, I will be as disagreeable to you as she. +So turn your glowing Spanish eyes toward me, instead of looking demurely +about, as people do when they are having old letters read to them. + +Byron said he hated to see a woman eat; and there is a class of +housekeepers who certainly return the compliment upon men. These +ethereal beings are forever sighing for life with appetite left out. +Like Lord Dundreary's lady-love, they are "_so_ delicate," unless caught +in the pantry hastily devouring onions and beefsteak. To be hungry is so +vulgar! One should live by nothing grosser than inhalation, and should +never have an appetite greater than that of a healthy bumble-bee. But, +thanks to the robust, latter-day theory, that the best saints have the +best bodies, this puerile class is diminishing. For who can doubt that +the senses are entitled to their full blossom? Gustation was meant to be +delightful; and cooking is certainly half as good as tasting. At times +one may have longed for the old Roman custom of two meals a day, and +going to bed at chicken-time, bringing the hour of roast near the hour +of roost; but this was probably in families where there were three +repasts, with lunch all the way between, and an incessant buying of +cookies from the baker, lest the children should go hungry. After this +surfeit one pardons a recoil. Or, in an enervating day of July, one may +have longed to dine upon humming-bird, with rose-leaves for dessert. But +these are exceptional times; the abiding hope is, that we shall continue +to eat, drink, and be merry. For the practical is in the imperative. It +is cumulative, and reinforces itself,--a real John Brown power that is +always marching on, and we must march beside it with patient, cheery +hearts. Is it strange that even the moss-covered Carlisle town, of which +the Last Minstrel sang, and where the Scottish Mary tarried in her +flight from the cousin queen, is now chiefly remarkable for its +cotton-factory and biscuit-bakery? + +Indeed, the enthusiasm over biscuits has its place, as well as that over +books; and it is not always that there is as much genuine joy in a novel +as one may get out of bread-making. This is quite too scientific and +interesting to be left to a domestic. It is really among the most +exciting experiments. Try it every week for two years, and it seems just +as new an enterprise as at the beginning,--but a thousand times more +successful, we observe. Working up the light drifts of flour, leaving +them at night a heavy pat and nothing more,--waking to find a dish +flowing-full of snowy foam. The first thing on rising one's self is, to +see if the dough be risen, too; and that is always sure to be early, for +every batch of bread sets an alarm in one's brain. After breakfast one +will be as expectant as if going to a ball in lieu of a baking. Then to +see the difference a little more or less flour will make, and out of +what quantity comes perfection! To feminine vision, more precious than +"apples of gold in pictures of silver" are loaves of bread in dishes of +tin. If one were ever penurious, might it not be of these handsome +loaves of hers? The little housewife will be very gentle to the +persecuted man of Scripture who was so reluctant to get up at midnight +and give away his bread. She will even be charitable to the stingy +merchant scorned by Saadi, of whom it was written, that, "if, instead of +his loaf of bread, the orb of the sun had been in his wallet, nobody had +seen daylight in the world till the Day of Judgment." + +Dr. Kane says, he knows how bread can be raised in three hours without +salt, saleratus, or shortening,--knows, but sha'n't tell. This must be +another mystery of the Arctic regions. Certainly that bread could not +have been raised in the sun. But how one quantity was managed the Doctor +is free to say. He kneaded a whole barrel of flour in a pickled-cabbage +cask, and baked it at once by firing several volumes of the "Penny +Cyclopædia of Useful Knowledge." + +After compliments, however, to come in with the cash down of the +practical, here is a veritable bread-making recipe, well-tested and +voted superior. Take a quart of milk; heat one third and scald with it a +half-pint of flour; if skimmed milk, use a small piece of butter. When +the batter is cool, add the remainder of the milk, a teacup of +hop-yeast, a half-tablespoon of salt, with flour to make it quite stiff. +Knead it on the board till it is very fine and smooth; raise over night. +It will make two small loaves and a half-dozen biscuits. + +This recipe ought to give good bread week in and week out, so saving you +from the frequent calamity of soda-biscuits. These may be used for +dumplings, or as a sudden extempore, but do not let them be habitual. +True, you will occasionally meet people who say that they can eat these, +when raised ones are fatal. But some persons find cheese good for +dyspepsia, many advocate ice-cream, others can eat only beans, while +some are cured by popped corn. Yet these articles are not likely to +become staples of diet. They would hardly answer a normal appetite; and +any stomach that can steadily withstand the searchingness of soda and +tartaric acid seems ready to go out to pasture and eat the fences. +Chemists will say, if bread must be improvised, use soda and muriatic +acid. These combined in precise proportions are supposed to evaporate in +the baking, and leave common salt. But this acid is such furious stuff! +It will come to you from the druggists in a bottle marked "Poison," and +it is not pleasant to put into one's mouth a substance that will burn a +hole in her apron. It is too much of the Roland for an Oliver,--You eat +me and I will eat you. For it is quite difficult to perfectly combine +the acid and alkali, and then the bread is streaked with muriatic fire; +then one might easily take into the system a thousand streaks a year, +and then one would become a fire-eater. + +But probably the greatest of all bread wonders are the unleavened Graham +cakes. These are worth a special mail and large postage to tell of. I +was about to beg that you surprise H. with them at your next breakfast. +But no, he won't like them; besides, according to the theory of "Woman +and her Era," they're a deal too good for men, they are fit only for +women and angels. So just salt and scald some Graham meal into a dough +as soft as can be and be handled. Roll it an inch thick, cutting in +diamonds, which place on a tin sheet and thrust into the hottest of +ovens. (Note this last direction, or the diamonds will be flat leather.) +Strange to say, they will rise, and keep rising, till in ten minutes you +take them out quite puffed. One would never guess them innocent of +yeast. An inch thick is the rule; but there is nothing like an +adventurous courage. It is at once suggested, if they are so good at an +inch, will they not be twice as good at two inches. And certainly they +are. The meal will not be outwitted. It is the liveliest and most +buoyant material. Its lightness keeps up with the utmost experiment. +Finally, it may be turned into a massive loaf, and with a brisk heat it +will refuse to be depressed. + +The morning when were produced these charming little miracles remains a +red-letter day in our household. Who ever tasted anything, save a nut, +half so sweet, or who ever anything so pure? We ate, lingered, and +revelled in them, thus becoming epicures at once. It seemed as if all +our lives we had been seeking something really _recherché_, and had just +found it. They were as great a revelation to the palate as Bettine or +Thoreau might be to the mind. Now all was _couleur de rose_. Here was +found, if not the philosopher's stone, the philosopher's bread, that +should turn everything into health. Henceforth the strong heroes +celebrated by Emerson, who "at rich men's tables eat but bread and +pulse," might sit at ours, arising refreshed and glorified. And was not +this also coming very near Nature? but two removes from the field, wheat +cracked, then ground. (I have since come a degree nearer on cracked +wheat at a water-cure!) It sounded altogether wholesome and primitive. I +hastened with a sample to my best friend. She, too, tasted, exulted, and +passed on the tidings to others. Now, indeed, was the golden age in +dawn. Already we saw a community purified and rejuvenated. Before our +philosopher-cakes sin and bad blood would disappear, and already the +crowns of grateful generations were pressing on our brows. But something +went wrong with all the cooks. Either they didn't scald the meal or they +didn't heat the oven,--what in one hand was light beaten gold in another +became lead. For a while it seemed that I could not go to my friend's +without meeting some one who cast scorn on our reformation cakes. All +tried them and failed; so sin remains in the world. + +But now hope plumes itself anew. You at least will attempt the little +wheatens. You have a deft hand, and will succeed. The buoyancy of the +meal revives in my blood. Now the world rights itself again, and once +more we are all bounding sunward. + +But to be honest. For a few weeks I and the radical cakes were as +satisfied as young lovers, but soon came temptations to progress from +the primitive,--first to add a little sugar. But I vetoed as resolutely +as Andrew Jackson himself, thus putting up the bars between the +wheat-field and cane-field, or probably by this time I should have been +pouring in spice, eggs, and milk, and at last should have committed the +crime of doing just as other people do. + +If you would confess it, you have probably found in your new +captain-general a susceptibility not only to your charms, but to those +of good cooking. Always count these among the young wife's fascinations. +Remember how Miss Bremer's Fannie, of "The Neighbors," in a matrimonial +quarrel with her Bear, conquered him with fresh-baked patties aimed at +his mouth. But be not too conciliatory,--especially towards coffee. If +you could be hard-hearted enough to win H. from this bilious beverage, +would it not be worth the perils? Entertain him for a few mornings so +brilliantly that he won't know what he is drinking, then----But I'll +tell you how we will cheat him admirably; and it isn't very cruel +either, for merely to gratify the taste make-believes are as good as +realities. First, every one knows Taraxacum or dandelion; invalids know +crust-coffee, and many with indignation know burnt peas. Also Miss +Beecher, whose estimable cook-book you certainly must get, mentions that +ochra seeds or gumbo cannot be told from Java; an army correspondent has +since reported coffee made at the South from oker seeds, doubtless the +same; another found in use the sweet potato, roasted, and flavored with +coffee; while a friend has just described the most enticing beverage +made from chickory,--the root being stripped and dried under the stove. +This is said to be so rich that sometimes it has to be diluted with a +trifle of coffee. And still further, there is simple rye, which is +cheaper found than either. Jeff. Davis drank it for four years and wrote +all _her_ grand proclamations out of it. But probably the wholesomer +article is wheat coffee. I have lately prepared some by boiling a cup of +well-scorched wheat-bran in a pint of water; and although I don't quite +know how good coffee tastes, no doubt this was very like the true Java. +It poured clear and rich as wine. Now try this in full strength with +your spouse, being very witty when he drinks. And as the mornings pass, +oh, weaken it more and more. That is, cheat him pleasantly at first, +then worse and worse, till he is glad to take milk or pure water with +you. Conspiracies are usually contemptible; but this is one of the very +"best water," you see. + +Perhaps we who never drink coffee can hardly understand the affection +its votaries have for it. To their minds, water seems to be given only +for steeping that delicious mud. Said one extravagant Madame Follet, +"When I see a coffee-pot, 'tis exactly the same as if I saw an angel +from heaven." And the Biloxi people, whom General Butler surprised of a +morning, were found to be in a very tragic state. One boy exclaimed, +"Oh, give me just a handful of coffee, master, an' I'll give you +'lasses, sugar, anything!" while a strong man ejaculated, "My God, we're +short of everything! I haven't tasted tea or coffee for four +months!"--as grievous as if he hadn't seen a human face for a year. +According to the "Herald" correspondent, the chief reason that the South +rejoices in peace is that "Now we'll be able to get some real +coffee!"--perhaps, he adds, in the next breath inquiring, "What are you +going to do with our niggers?" + +No, we could not, with Ward Beecher, "bless the man who discovered the +immortal berry." Nor could we, with De Quincey, apostrophize to a +certain other excitant, "O just, subtle, and mighty opium! thou boldest +the keys of Paradise!" Yet one must concede the possible uses of a +stimulant. Coffee has been priceless to our army, on its cold, wet +marches; and benedictions should be ordered in the churches, if need be, +to the man who made it into that wondrous pemmican, so that the coffee +of a regiment may be carried in a few tin cans. Then, too, it seems good +for men who go driving up and down the world on stage-coaches and +locomotives; but for stay-at-home, counting-house mortals, is it not a +mere delicious superfluity? Quite as much of one as a cigar, I think. + +But henceforth, when Rio is high, drink rye. If one must have either, +better the simulant than the stimulant. + +Among other things, you have doubtless discovered that one admirable +breakfast dish is eggs. If you serve them in the shell, it is quite +worth while to follow the English way, keeping them close covered for +ten minutes in very hot water without boiling. The yolks are thus left +running, and the whites are beautifully jellied. These are convenient to +get when relations arrive at night, and there is no meat in the house. +Relations always expect meat for breakfast. + +In fact, it is just at this point that one's genius is to come in,--when +a nice meal must be gotten at short notice, and the larder is empty. +None but the woman of resources can do it; and she knows her realm is as +full of strategies as was ever the Department of the Potomac. Under her +hand, when there was supposed to be nothing for breakfast, I have seen +bits of meat snatched from cold soup, and wrought up into the most +savory morsels,--one would never guess that the goodness was all boiled +out of them; while a cup of yesterday's griddle-cake batter went +suddenly into the oven, and came out a breakfast-cake finer than +waffles. + +One who had the knack of the heroine Fleda, in "Queechy," would be +friendly to omelets, and tell of them too. But you must be self-reliant, +and put them on the list of experiments. It will probably be some time +before you come to that refinement of egg-eating which Mrs. Stowe found +at the mansion of the Duke of Sutherland, where she was honored with +lunch. Her sylvan spirit was somewhat startled, when a servant brought +five little speckled plover eggs, all lying in the nest just as taken +from the tree. How they were cooked is unknown; but one would certainly +need a recipe to eat them by. + +But an American woman can outdo the Duchess of Sutherland. She will find +an egg daintier than the plover's, and not stir from her own door; for +awhile since, some one, fumbling among the secrets of Nature, +discovered, not that stones were sermons, but that snow was eggs, and +straight made a cook-book to tell it, as we will do on discovering that +rain is milk. Of course all things have their limitations; and these new +eggs are not just the article for custards, will not do to poach for +breakfast, or would hardly keep in brine; but they may be used in any +compound that requires lightness without richness. Even our grandmothers +made snow pancakes; but, in the present age, to be distinguished is to +be venturesome, and in this experiment one need not stop short of +veritable loaf-cake. The volatile element in snow makes two table-spoons +of it equal to one egg; therefore to a small loaf I should allow ten +table-spoons. Cooks always put in as many eggs as they can afford, you +know. + +Thus, when snow falls every day for four months, as it does in New +England, eggs get exceedingly cheap in the prudent household. Then one +can smile to think how she circumvents the grocer, and pray the clouds +to lay a good nestful every week. + +A friend the other day improvised a list of edibles headed, "Poisonous +_P_s,"--pastry, pickles, pork, and preserves. She was pleased to leave +out puddings, and hereto we shall say, Amen. Not that one is to indorse +such odiously rich ones as cocoa-nut, suet, and English plum; but, +bating these, there are enough both nice and wholesome to change the +dessert every day for a fortnight, at least. At another time I may give +you some recipes, with various items by this writing omitted. + +Pastry the physiologists have been shaking their heads about for some +time,--especially as many persons use soda with the lard, not being +aware that they are making soft soap. This sort of paste one often sees +in the country. But it is easy to omit the soap. On the next +bread-making day, simply reserve a piece of the well-raised dough, and +roll in butter. This gives a palatable and harmless crust. I have also +experimented with a shortening of hot, fine-mashed potato and milk, +which, if it may not be recommended to an epicure, is really better than +it sounds, And does it not sound better than Dr. Trall's proposal of +sweet oil? Will not some of these ways satisfy our ardent reformers and +physiologists? But about chicken-pie, remember the tradition, that, +unless the top crust is punctured, it will make one very ill. (Who knows +but this was the secret of the National Hotel sickness?) At least, it is +truer than some other traditions, such as that eating burnt crusts will +make the cheeks red, or that fried turnip will make the hair curl. + +Pickles do not seem so good that they must be eaten, nor so bad that +they must not be. But with them comes evermore the vision that Trollope +has prepared of all our smart little five-year-old men and women perched +at hotel-tables, pale-faced and sedate, with waiters behind their +chairs, and ordering chowders and chops with an inevitable "Please don't +forget the pickles." + +Preserves, aside from the recent luxury of canned fruit, have the +happiest substitutes, if we will take what the seasons bring to our +hands. Not a month in the year is left wholly barren of these relishes +for the tea-table. There are berries all the summer, apples and +cranberries in the winter, when, just as the last russet disappears, and +with it every one's appetite, up springs the pungent and luxuriant +rhubarb. Somewhat curious is it concerning this last article. Forty +years ago it was such a pure experiment in England, that a Mr. Myatt, +who took seven bundles of it to London, succeeded in selling but three. +Still he persisted in keeping it before the people, although he seemed +only to lose rhubarb and to gain ridicule, being designated as the man +who sold "physic pies." + +And besides our own zone, with its fruits fresh or dried, there are the +abounding tropics always at the door: Pine-apples, which, if +unwholesome, are yet charmingly convenient to help a luckless +housekeeper, and which, by the way, made a better _entrée_ in London +than pie-plant, being so popular that their salesmen floated flags from +the top of their stalls; bananas, those foreign muskmelons of spring; +oranges, gilding every street-corner; dates, which do not go meanly with +bread and butter, though one is a little fearful of finding a whole +straw bed therein; and prunes, which, if soaked several hours and stewed +slowly, are luscious enough for a prince. + +But pork it appears to be the common impression that man cannot do +without. Certainly he must have partaken somewhat of its nature to make +him so greedy; and there would seem to be animals enough on land and +sea, without devouring the swine. If pork be important anywhere, it is +so in the old Puritan dish of baked beans; yet those who have tasted +baked beans prepared with fine rich beef instead have voted them quite +sumptuous, and possibly rich enough for people who live at restaurants. +But so long as fish, bird, and fowl remain, and men even eat turtles and +frogs,--so long as sheep do not die of wolves, nor cattle of the county +commissioners,--may not the pig be left to his wallowing in the mire? + +Thus much for the poisonous _p_s. We do not place among them that +popular plant, the potato, though it has the blood of the nightshade in +its veins. But these may be made moderately poisonous by putting them +into soup. Once taste clear potato-water, and you will not aspire to +drink a strong broth from it. And even potatoes one may eat at a dozen +tables, and not find nicely served at any. With domestics generally they +figure as the article that in cooking takes care of itself,--the +convenient vegetable, that may be thrown into the kettle, and taken up +when nothing else needs to be. In the end they are either half done and +hard, or when done, being left soaking, are watery and soggy; whereas +they should be pared, kept boiling in salted water till they break, then +drained and shaken over the coals till powdery dry. They need tossing +up with as light a hand as an omelet, you see. If they are not of the +nicest variety, they should be mashed with milk, butter, and salt, and +placed in the oven to brown. This is a kind of medication which usually +makes the poorest article quite palatable, and is resorted to in the +early summer, when potatoes are become decidedly an "aged _p_." I was +once amused to hear a man complaining of a certain potato, because it +was "too dry." It is doubtful what he would do in Maine, the land of the +famous Jackson whites, which boil to a creamy powder. One must be +grateful that our Massachusetts Dovers cannot be dampened by this +original potato-taster. He probably would like juicy potatoes and mealy +oranges. + +But of course none can have studied diet and its varied effects on +various persons, without seeing it to be impossible to make up two lists +of dishes, one of which shall be voted hurtful and the other harmless. +Nor does the healthfulness of food seem to consist wholly in its +simplicity, according to old Grahamite theories. There is probably some +truth in the saying of Hippocrates, "Whatever pleases the palate +nourishes"; but one cannot fail to recognize the wisdom of M. Soyer, +that prince of the _cuisine_, who maintains that the digestibility of +food depends, not on the number of articles used in its manufacture, but +in their proper combination. Says M. Soyer, "I would wager that I could +give a first-class indigestion to the greatest _gourmet_, even while +using the most _recherché_ provisions, without his being able to detect +any fault in the preparation of the dishes of which he had +partaken,--and this simply by improperly classifying the condiments used +in the preparation." This gives a hint of the nicety of the culinary +art, the genius required to practise it, and the fine physical effects +that hinge upon it. It is no wonder that Vatel committed suicide before +the great banquet which he had prepared for his master, the Prince of +Condé, because he feared it was to fail. It is certainly enough to alarm +ordinary amateurs,--and such are the most of us; for, while Americans +place all due stress upon the table, they neglect to emphasize the +_cuisine_. Instead of this _nonchalance_, we have yet to discover that +cookery belongs to the fine arts; that it is exhaustive alike of +chemistry and physiology, and touches upon laws as sure as those which +mingle the atmospheric elements, hourly adjusting them to man's nicest +needs. And we should count it among the best of the progressive plans of +our country, if to the new Industrial College under subscription at +Worcester were to be added an elaborate culinary department, with the +most accomplished professor that could be obtained. Perhaps, as M. Soyer +was philanthropic enough to go to the Crimea, and teach the English to +make hospital soup, he would even come here and give our nation a +glimpse of those marvellous morsels that have made Paris the envy of +epicures the world over. + +And if there is a proper harmony to be attained in the combining of +various ingredients, making every perfect dish a poem, there is no less +harmony in combining the various dishes for a repast, making a poem in +every perfect meal. For every leading dish has its kindred and +antagonistic ones: as, at dinner, one would not serve cauliflower with +fricasseed chicken, nor turnips with boiled salmon, nor, at tea, +currants with cream-toast, nor currants with custard. But this is +something that cannot be fully taught or learned. It is almost wholly at +the mercy of one's instinct, and may be ruled by a tact as delicate as +that which conducts a drawing-room. + +But we are quite curious to learn, M., if your excellent companion has +yet been away from home so long that you have had to go to market. And +can you wisely discern roasts, steaks, and fowl? Says one, "The way to +select fowl is first to select your butcher"; and away he swings out of +intelligence and responsibility with a magnificent air. A lady friend +has this charming fashion of frankness: "Now, Mr. ----, I don't know one +piece of meat from another, and shall expect you to give me the best"; +thus throwing herself directly on her faith and fascinations. But these +might grow jejune, nor is it safe to trust the tender mercies of a +butcher. Better know what you want, and know if you get it. Therefore +you will study the anatomy of animals, as laid down in all modern +cook-books. But really it is a little perplexing. I confess I am near +concluding that every beef creature is a special creation; for one never +finds the same joint twice, and apparently the only things common to all +are tongue and liver. + +Not long since, having a discussion at the market with an elderly +gentleman, he said something pleasant which must be written for the +husband of a young housekeeper. We agreed that a rump steak was of more +uniform richness than a sirloin, the best of the latter being only that +luscious strip underlying the bone. "But," added the kindly man, "I +always buy the sirloin, because I give that juicy scrap to my wife." It +is worth while, M., to be wedded to the thoughtful heart, who, after +forty years, yet wills to give one the single choice bit from the table. + +Aside from the ordinary beef-routine, there is another dish which is +usually popular. Select a cheap, lean piece of beef, weighing two or +three pounds, put it on the stove in cold water soon after breakfast, +boiling gently. Half an hour before dinner add a small onion, a sliced +parsnip and carrot, a few bits of turnip, and a half-dozen dumplings. +When these are done, remove them; season and thicken, serving a dumpling +with meat and vegetables to each plate of stew. This may be rather +plebeian, but is certainly palatable,--unless there be choice company to +dine. We might call it Rainy-Day Stew. + +But the toothsome time for beef-eaters was undoubtedly in the days of +pleuro-pneumonia. Then the frightened public fled from beef as from the +plague, and all the best cuts were left for the bold. One was tempted to +pray that such pleuro might last for the season, save that the +Commissioners were so costly, and the dear cattle were having an +unusually sanguinary Bull Run. I know what our vegetarian friend, Mr. +Alcott, will say; but he must indulge me in a very small mania, even if +it seem to him a kind of cannibalism; therefore, whatever rhapsodies are +left from bread and potato, let them all be given to good beef. While +the quarrel of round, rump, and sirloin goes on, this let us buy and eat +and reinforce ourselves. In it are poems, powers, and possessions +ineffable. Twenty-five cents a pound, and the strength of the gods in +one's veins! Broil it carefully and rare, then go and toss quoits with +Hercules. In this, ye disconsolate, behold lands, lovers, and virtues in +plenty. It fills and steadies the pulse, and plants the planet plump +under one's feet. "My friend, is he who makes me do what I can," says +the sage. Only beefsteak can come to the rescue. If one were going to a +martyr's fire, of this should he eat, lest he die, not sublimely, with a +fainting body. He would try this steak, and then that stake. + +But there is one event that comes alike to all, and that is a holiday +dinner. Even the poor have their plum-pudding days, and all seem to +think that on a Christmas or Thanksgiving Nature suspends her laws and +lets one eat as much as he can. It is quite in the spirit of the +Scottish Lord Cockburn, who, ending a long walk, used to say, "We will +eat a profligate supper,--a supper without regard to discretion or +digestion." Or after the theory of one who ate whatever he pleased, +whenever he pleased, and as much as he pleased, saying, "Oh, if it makes +me sick, I can take medicine. What are the doctors for, if 'tisn't to +cure people?" He did not know how small hope can be gotten from the +doctors, and how those who know best get more and more courage to travel +into places where they are not. There must have been a poor chance for +the Egyptians, who, Herodotus says, had a physician for each part of the +body; so that the human frame would seem to have been a sort of +university, and each of the organs a vacant professorship. In case of +malady, every officer worked away on his own member without regard to +what his medical neighbors were doing. Michelet mentions a fish that has +the power of multiplying stomachs to the number of one hundred and +twenty. Fortunately that power is not man's. Think of dyspepsia with a +hundred and twenty stomachs, and a different doctor for each! + +Do not imagine this a plea for the transcendental diet that drove Sydney +Smith to that pathetic sigh, "Ah, I wish they would allow me even the +wing of a roasted butterfly!" But perhaps it would not be amiss to +conjure up a terror-demon from these bodies of ours, so that we should +fear to violate laws with such merciless penalties,--should have none +but well-cooked food, at sensible and systematic hours. Is it strange +that little Miss Bremer, who thought herself of soundest digestion, +after three months of American night-dinners with oysters and preserve, +is at last seen to grasp Dr. Osgood with both hands, exclaiming, in +tears, "Oh, help me!" I want to save you from resembling the great +people of the world after the manner of Dr. Beattie, whose title to +genius was, "Have I not headaches like Pope, vertigo like Swift, gray +hairs like Homer? Do I not wear large shoes for fear of corns like +Virgil, and sometimes complain of sore eyes like Horace?" + +Therefore I hope that your H. will make the counting-room conform to +regular mid-day dinner and early tea-time. And let us trust that it will +not have the same fatal result as with King Louis XII., who is said to +have died earlier from changing his dinner-hour in compliment to his +foreign bride. + +One can hardly think of late suppers without turning quite away to those +ideal tea-takings of the Wordsworths at Grasmere. "Plain living and high +thinking," was the motto of the philosopher-poet, and that table was +never crowded with viands. One can well believe, that, as De Quincey +said, in the quiet walks after tea the face of the poet "grew solemn and +spiritual as any saint's." But he probably was thinking very high when +he drew a knife from the buttered toast and cut the leaves of a new book +just lent to him! + +Quite sombre are the memories of Rydal Mount; but since we are really +alive, let us be lively. Behold me, then, dear M., well turbaned and +aproned, and know that this is our churning-day. You give one of your +gleeful little shrieks, perhaps; but yes, it is true; we live in the +city, take a pint of milk per day, and make butter. + +And where is the churn? you suggest. Oh, I extemporize that. It is out +of the question to buy every convenient thing, or purse will run dry and +house overflow. Dr. Kane hints how few dishes it is possible to use; and +the plan is admirable; so one need not buy a churn, but make one out of +a bowl and spoon. Into the bowl goes the cream, into the cream the +spoon, and then I beat, beat, beat, not as one who beateth the air. This +often lasts for two hours or more; it might be said that the cream +remains in chrysalis, and refuses to butterfly! Indeed, there is no +reason why a small bowl of cream shouldn't be as refractory as a wooden +churnful. But when it "won't come," my distress is not at all +proportioned to the size of the bowl. + +Still I beat, beat, beat, perspiringly, but resolutely, while it whisks +about, spattering over face, bib, and turban. At length there appear +within it greasy-looking flecks. These increase till the mass thickens, +beats solidly, separates from the milk, and declares itself butter. A +limited quantity, certainly, but I will none the less press it dry, +salt, and make it into cakes as large as a full-blown tea-rose. Each of +these I will stamp, lay on a dapper glass cup-plate, and at tea-time +several dear ones in various households will find these astonishing +little pats beside them. Think you not they are genuine love-pats? + +This would be a pretty way to serve butter always, did it not remind one +of cheap hotels kept on the European plan, where those small, slushy, +yellow cakes come in with the rolls. A choicer way is to form it into +acorns or strawberries,--though I don't in the least know how it is +done,--placing them all together on a plate and serving one to each at +the table. This dainty way, however, would hardly make a bad article +good, and no one would crave a berry of ancient firkin butter. For, as +trivial a matter as it seems, this single condiment of food, one has +only to encounter it in a strong, cheesy state to feel it among the most +important things in the _cuisine_. Then one suddenly discovers that +butter is in everything. Eating becomes intolerable, living dwindles +into dyspepsia, and finally one is tempted to exclaim with a certain +epicure, "I wish I were under the sod! There's no lump butter in the +market!" + +It is related of Apicius, who lived at Rome, that he ate very large +shrimps; but hearing that those of Greece were larger, he straightway +sailed for that coast without losing a day. He met a great storm and +much danger; but on arriving, the fishermen brought him of their best. +Apicius shook his head. + +"Have you never any larger shrimps?" + +"No, Seignior, never!" + +At which, rubbing his hands with delight, he ordered the captain to sail +back at once, saying,-- + +"I have left some at home larger than these, and they will be spoiled, +if the wind is not in our favor." + +We will not carry our dilletantism so far as this, nor let it carry us +so far; still we are glad not to be driven to the expedient of the +Syrians, whose only butter is the fat procured from the tails of their +sheep,--which is literally being reduced to extremities. + +By the way, something quite remarkable occurred in my first churning. I +began with one cup of cream and ended with a cup of butter and a full +cup of buttermilk! This law of expansion is paralleled only by that of +contraction, as shown to the farmer who took a brimming pail of dinner +to the sty; and after the little pig had eaten it all, the farmer put +him into the pail, and had room for another half of a pig beside. + + * * * * * + +But, dear M., it is hardly two moons since the bridal trunks were taken +from our hall, and you went away with the friend. You have scarcely been +domesticated long enough to see that bright tins bake badly, and that +one must crucify her pride by allowing them to blacken; yet so soon do I +overwhelm you with culinary suggestions. I am distressed to remember +them. But you must forgive and smile me into peacefulness again. And be +not discouraged, little housewife! It may take years of attention to +excel in bread-making, some skill even for boiling potatoes, and +common-sense for everything; but stand steadily beside your servants, +and watch their processes patiently. Take notes, experiment, amend, and +if there be failure, discover the reason; then it need not happen again. + +And despite the difficulties of the practical, you and H. will not +slight the ideal. Love the work you are doing and must do; but when it +is done, oh, train the rose-vines over your door! + + + + +THE PEACE AUTUMN. + + + Thank God for rest, where none molest, + And none can make afraid,-- + For Peace that sits as Plenty's guest, + Beneath the homestead shade! + + Bring pike and gun, the sword's red scourge, + The negro's broken chains, + And beat them at the blacksmith's forge + To ploughshares for our plains. + + Alike henceforth our hills of snow, + And vales where cotton flowers; + All streams that flow, all winds that blow, + Are Freedom's motive-powers. + + Henceforth to Labor's chivalry + Be knightly honors paid; + For nobler than the sword's shall be + The sickle's accolade. + + Build up an altar to the Lord, + O grateful hearts of ours! + And shape it of the greenest sward + That ever drank the showers. + + Lay all the bloom of gardens there, + And there the orchard fruits; + Bring golden grain from sun and air, + From earth her goodly roots. + + There let our banners droop and flow, + The stars uprise and fall; + Our roll of martyrs, sad and slow, + Let sighing breezes call. + + Their names let hands of horn and tan + And rough-shod feet applaud, + Who died to make the slave a man, + And link with toil reward. + + There let the common heart keep time + To such an anthem sung, + As never swelled on poet's rhyme, + Or thrilled on singer's tongue. + + Song of our burden and relief + Of peace and long annoy; + The passion of our mighty grief + And our exceeding joy! + + A song of praise to Him who filled + The harvests sown in tears, + And gave each field a double yield + To feed our battle-years! + + A song of faith that trusts the end + To match the good begun, + Nor doubts the power of Love to blend + The hearts of men as one! + + + + +DOCTOR JOHNS. + + +XXXVII. + +Meantime Reuben was gaining, month by month, in a knowledge of the +world,--at least of such portion of it as came within the range of his +vision in New York. He imagined it, indeed, a very large portion, and +took airs upon himself in consequence. He thought with due commiseration +of the humble people of Ashfield. He wonders how he could have tolerated +so long their simple ways. The Eagle Tavern, with its creaking +sign-board, does not loom so largely as it once did upon the horizon of +his thought. That he should ever have trembled as a lad at walking up to +the little corner bar, in company with Phil! And as for Nat Boody, whose +stories he once listened to admiringly, what a scrubby personage he has +become in his eye! Fighting-dogs, indeed! "Scamp" would be nothing to +what he has seen a score of times in the city! + +He has put Phil through some of the "sights": for that great lout of a +country lad (as Reuben could not help counting him, though he liked his +big, honest heart for all that) had found him out, when he came to New +York to take ship for the West Indies. + +"I say, Phil," Reuben had said, as he marched his old schoolmate up +Broadway, "it's rather a touch beyond Ashfield, this, isn't it? How do +you think Old Boody's tavern and sign-board would look along here?" + +And Phil laughed, quietly. + +"I should like to see old Deacon Tourtelot," continued Reuben, "with +Huldy on his arm, sloping down Broadway. Wouldn't the old people stare?" + +"I guess they would," Phil said, demurely. + +"I wonder if they'd knock off at sundown Saturday night," continued +Reuben, mockingly. + +And his tone somehow hurt Phil, who had the memories of the old home--a +very dear one to him--fresh upon him. + +"And I suppose Miss Almiry keeps at her singing?" + +"Yes," said Phil, straining a point in favor of his townswoman; "and I +think she sings pretty well." + +"Pretty well! By Jove, Phil, you should have been at the Old Park night +before last; you would have heard what _I_ call singing. It would have +stirred up the old folks of Ashfield." + +And Phil met it all very seriously. It seemed to him, in his honesty, +that Reuben was wantonly cutting asunder all the ties that once bound +him to the old home. It pained him, moreover, to think--as he did, with +a good deal of restiveness--that his blessed mother, and Rose perhaps, +and the old Squire, his father, were among the Ashfield people at whom +Reuben sneered so glibly. And when he parted with him upon the +dock,--for Reuben had gone down to see him off,--it was with a secret +conviction that their old friendship had come to an end, and that +thenceforth they two could have no sympathies in common. + +But in this Phil was by no means wholly right. The talk of Reuben was, +after all, but the ebullition of a city conceit,--a conceit which is apt +to belong to all young men at some period of their novitiate in city +life. He was mainly anxious to impress upon Phil the great gain which he +had made in knowledge of the world in the last few years, and to astound +him with the great difference between his present standpoint and the old +one, when they were boys together on the benches of the Ashfield +meeting-house. We never make such gains, or apparent gains, at any +period of life, it is to be feared, without wishing to demonstrate their +magnitude to the slow coaches we have left behind. + +And on the very night after Reuben had parted from Phil, when he came +late to his chamber, dazed with some new scene at the theatre, and his +brain flighty with a cup too much, it may well have happened, that, in +his fevered restlessness, as the clock near by chimed midnight, his +thoughts ran back to that other chamber where once sweet sleep always +greeted him,--to the overhanging boughs that rustled in the evening air +at the window,--to the shaded street that stretched away between the +silent houses,--to the song of the katydids, chattering their noisy +chorus,--to the golden noons when light feet tripped along the village +walks,--to the sunny smiles of Rose,--to the kindly entreaty of good +Mrs. Elderkin,--and more faintly, yet more tenderly, than elsewhere, to +a figure and face far remote, and so glorified by distance that they +seem almost divine, a figure and a face that are somehow associated with +the utterance of his first prayer,--and with the tender vision before +him, he mumbles the same prayer and falls asleep with it upon his lip. + +Only on his lip, however,--and the next day, when he steals a half-hour +for a stroll upon Broadway with that dashing girl, Miss Sophie Bowrigg, +(she is really a stylish creature,) he has very little thought of the +dreamy sentiments of the night before, which seemed for the time to keep +his wilder vagaries in subjection, and to kindle aspirations toward a +better life. It is doubtful, even, if he did not indulge in an artful +compliment or two to the dashing Miss Sophie, the point of which lay in +a cleverly covered contrast of herself with the humdrum manners of the +fair ones of Ashfield. Yet, to tell truth, he is not wholly untouched by +certain little rallying, coquettish speeches of Miss Sophie in respect +to Adèle, who, in her open, girl-like way, has very likely told the full +story of Reuben's city attentions. + +Reuben had, indeed, been piqued by the French girl's reception of his +patronage, and he had been fairly carried off his feet in view of her +easy adaptation to the ways of the city, and of her graceful carriage +under all the toilet equipments which had been lavished upon her, under +the advice of Mrs. Brindlock. A raw boy comes only by long aptitude into +the freedom of a worldly manner; but a girl--most of all a French girl, +in whom the instincts of her race are strong--leaps to such conquest in +a day. Of course he had intimated to Adèle no wonder at the change; but +he had thrust a stray glove of hers into his pocket, counting it only a +gallant theft; and there had been days when he had drawn out that little +relic of her visit from its hidden receptacle, and smoothed it upon his +table, and pressed it, very likely, to his lips, in the same way in +which youth of nineteen or twenty are used to treat such feminine tokens +of grace. + +It was a dainty glove, to be sure. It conjured up her presence in its +most alluring aspect. The rustle of her silk, the glow of her cheek, the +coyness of her touch, whenever she had dropped that delicate hand on +his, came with the sight of it. He ventures, in a moment of gallant +exuberance, to purchase a half-dozen of the same number, of very +charming tints, (to his eye,) and sends them as a gift to Adèle, +saying,-- + +"I found your stray glove we had a search for in the carriage, but did +not tell of it. I hope these will fit." + +"They fit nicely," said Adèle, writing back to him,--"so nicely, I may +be tempted to throw another old glove of mine some time in your way." + +Miss Eliza Johns was of course delighted with this attention of +Reuben's, and made it the occasion of writing him a long letter, (and +her letters were very rare, by reason of the elaboration she counted +necessary,) in which she set forth the excellence of Adèle's character, +her "propriety of speech," her "lady-like deportment," her "cheerful +observance of duty," and her "eminent moral worth," in such terms as +stripped all romance from Reuben's recollection of her, and made him +more than half regret his gallant generosity. + +The Doctor writes to him regularly once a fortnight; of which missives +Reuben reads as regularly the last third, containing, as it does +usually, a little home news or casual mention of Miss Rose Elderkin or +of the family circle. The other two thirds, mainly expostulatory, he +skips, only allowing his eye to glance over them, and catch such +scattered admonitions as these:--"Be steadfast in the truth.... Let your +light shine before men.... Be not tempted of the Devil; for if you +resist him, he will flee from you.... The wisdom of this world is +foolishness.... Trust not, my son, in any arm of flesh." + +Ah, how much of such good advice had been twisted into tapers for the +lighting of Reuben's cigars! Not because it was absolutely scorned; not +because it was held in contempt, or its giver held in contempt; but +because there was so much of it. If the old gentleman had been in any +imminent bodily peril, it is certain that Reuben would have rushed far +and wide to aid him. It is certain that he loved him; it is certain that +he venerated him; and yet, and yet, (he said to himself,) "I do wish he +would keep this solemn stuff for his sermons. Who cares to read it? Who +cares to hear it, except on Sundays?" + +Our good reader will exclaim,--A bad young man! And yet we think our +good readers--nay, our best of readers--have shirked godly counsel over +and over, with very much the same promptitude. We all grow so weary with +the iteration of even the best of truths! we all love youth so much! we +all love the world so much! we all trust to an arm of flesh so much! + +Not for a moment did the Doctor believe that his recreant son pondered +wisely and deeply these successive epistles of his. He knew him too well +for that. But for him duty was always duty. "Here a little, and there a +little." It would have pained the old gentleman grievously to know the +full extent of the wickedness of his boy,--to have looked for a moment +into the haunts to which he was beguiled by his companions of the +city,--to have seen his flushed and swollen face after some of those +revels to which Reuben was a party. But the good Doctor was too ignorant +of the world to conceive, even, of larger latitude than an occasional +cigar or a stolen sight at the orgies of the theatre. And when Mr. +Brindlock wrote, as he took occasion to do about this period, regretting +the extravagance of Reuben and the bad associations into which he had +fallen, and urging the Doctor to impress upon him the advantages of +regularity and of promptitude, and to warn him that a very advantageous +business career which was opening upon him would be blighted by his +present habits, the poor gentleman was fairly taken aback. + +That even this worldly gentleman, Mr. Brindlock, should take exception +to the courses of his son was a most startling fact. What admonition +could the Doctor add to those which he had addressed to his poor son +fortnightly for years past? Had he not warned him over and over that he +was standing upon slippery places? Had he not unfolded the terrors of +God's wrath upon sinners? Had he not set before him in "line upon line" +the awful truth that his immortal career was at stake? And should he +descend from this ground to plead with him upon the score of his +short-lived worldly career? What were all business prospects, however +they might wane, compared with that dreadful prospect which lies before +him who refuseth godly counsel and hardeneth his heart? Was it not a +fearful confirmation of Satan's reign upon earth, that peril to a +temporal career should serve for warning against criminal excesses, when +the soul's everlasting peril was urged vainly? The Doctor wrote to +Reuben with even more than his usual unction. But he could not bring +himself to warn his boy of the mere blight to his worldly career,--that +was so small a matter! Yet he laid before him in graver terms than he +had ever done before the weight of the judgment of an offended God, and +the fearful retribution that would certainly overtake the ungodly. +Reuben lighted his cigar with the letter, not unfeelingly, but +indifferently, and ventured even upon a blasphemous joke with his +companions. + +"It ought to burn," he says, "There's plenty of brimstone in it!" + +It would have crazed the minister of Ashfield to have heard the speech. +In his agony of mind he went to consult Squire Elderkin, and laid before +him the dire accounts he had heard. + +"Ah, young men will be young men, Doctor. There's time for him to come +out right yet. It's the blood of the old Major; it must have vent." + +As the Doctor recalled what he counted his father's godless death, he +shuddered. Presently he talked of summoning his boy home immediately. + +"Well, Doctor," said the Squire, meditatively, "there are two sides to +that matter. There are great temptations in the city, to be sure; but if +God puts a man in the way of great temptations, I suppose He gives him +strength to resist them. Isn't that good theology?" + +The parson nodded assent. + +"We can always resist, if we will, Squire," said he. + +"Very good, Doctor. Suppose, now, you bring your boy home; he'll fret +desperately under your long lectures, and with Miss Eliza, and perhaps +run off into deviltries that will make him worse than those of the city. +You must humor him a little, Doctor; touch his pride; there's a fine, +frank spirit at the bottom; give him a good word now and then." + +"I know no word so good as prayer," said the Doctor, gravely. + +"That's very well, Doctor, very well. Mrs. Elderkin gives him help that +way; and between you and me, Doctor, if any woman's prayers can call +down blessings, I think that little woman's can,"--and the Squire's eyes +fairly flashed with the dew that came into them. + +"An estimable lady,--most estimable!" said the Doctor. + +"Pray, if you will, Doctor; it's all right; and for my part, I'll drop +him a line, telling him the town feels an ownership in him, and hopes +he'll do us all credit. I think we can bring him out all right." + +"Thank you,--thank you, Squire," said the Doctor, with an unusual +warmth. + +And he wrought fervently in prayer that night; may-be, too, the hearty +invocation of that good woman, Mrs. Elderkin, joined with his in the +Celestial Presence; and if the kindly letter of the Squire did not rank +with the prayers, we may believe, without hardihood, that the recording +angel took note of it, and gave credit on the account current of human +charities. + + +XXXVIII. + +Mr. Brindlock had, may-be, exaggerated somewhat the story of Reuben's +extravagances, but he was anxious that a word of caution should be +dropped in his ear from some other lips than his own. The allowance from +the Doctor, notwithstanding all the economies of Miss Eliza's frugal +administration, would have been, indeed, somewhat narrow, and could by +no means have kept Reuben upon his feet in the ambitious city-career +upon which he had entered. But Mr. Brindlock had taken a great fancy to +the lad, and, besides the stipend granted for his duties about the +counting-room, had given him certain shares in a few private ventures +which had resulted very prosperously,--so prosperously, indeed, that the +prudent merchant had determined to hold the full knowledge of the +success in reserve. The prospects of Reuben, however, he being the +favorite nephew of a well-established merchant, were regarded by the +most indifferent observers as extremely flattering; and Mr. Bowrigg was +not disposed to look unfavorably upon the young man's occasional +attentions to the dashing Sophie. + +But the Brindlocks, though winking at a great deal which the Doctor +would have counted grievous sin, still were uneasy at the lad's growing +dissoluteness of habit. Would the prayers of the good people of Ashfield +help him? + +It was some time in the month of September, of the same autumn in which +poor Adèle lay sick at the parsonage, that Reuben came in one night, at +twelve or thereabout, to his home at the Brindlocks', (living at this +time in the neighborhood of Washington Square,) with his head cruelly +battered, and altogether in a very piteous plight. Mrs. Brindlock, +terribly frightened,--in her woman's way,--was for summoning the Doctor +at once; but Reuben pleaded against it; he had been in a row, that was +all, and had caught a big knock or two. The truth was, he had been upon +one of his frolics with his old boon companions; and it so happened that +one had spoken sneeringly of the parson's son, in a way which to the +fiery young fellow seemed to cast ridicule upon the old gentleman. And +thereupon Reuben, though somewhat maudlin with wine, yet with the +generous spirit not wholly quenched in him, had entered upon a glowing +little speech in praise of the old gentleman and of his profession,--a +speech which, if it were garnished with here and there an objectionable +expletive, was very earnest and did him credit. + +"Good for Reuben!" the party had cried out. "Get him a pulpit!" + +"Hang me, if he wouldn't preach better now than the old man!" said one. + +"And a deused sight livelier," said another. + +"Hold your tongue, you blackguard!" burst out Reuben. + +And from this the matter came very shortly to blows, in the course of +which poor Reuben was severely punished, though he must have hit some +hard blows, for he was wondrously active, and not a few boxing-lessons +had gone to make up the tale of his city accomplishments. + +Howbeit, he was housed now, in view of his black eye, for many days, and +had ample time for reflection. In aid of this came a full sheet of +serious expostulations from the Doctor, and that letter of advice which +Squire Elderkin had promised, with a little warm-hearted postscript from +good Mrs. Elderkin,--so unlike to the carefully modulated letters of +Aunt Eliza! The Doctor's missive, very likely, did not impress him more +than the scores that had gone before it; but there was a practical tact, +and good-natured, common-sense homeliness, in the urgence of the Squire, +which engaged all Reuben's attention; and the words of the good woman, +his wife, were worth more than a sermon to him. "We all want," she +writes, "to think well of you, Reuben; we _do_ think well of you. Don't +disappoint us. I can't think of the cheery, bright face, that for so +many an evening shone amid our household, as anything but bright and +cheery now. We all pray for your well-being and happiness, Reuben; and I +_do_ hope you have not forgotten to pray for it yourself." + +And with the memory of the kindly woman which this letter called up came +a pleasant vision of the winsome face of Rose, as she used to sit, with +downcast eyes, beside her mother in the old house of Ashfield,--of Rose, +as she used to lower upon him in their frolic, with those great hazel +eyes sparkling with indignation. And if the vision did not quicken any +lingering sentiment, it at the least gave a mellow tint to his +thought,--a mellowness which even the hardness of Aunt Eliza could not +wholly do away. + +"I feel it my duty to write you, Reuben," she says, "and to inform you +how very much we have all been shocked and astonished by the accounts +which reach us of your continued indifference to religious duties, and +your reckless extravagance. Let me implore you to be frugal and +virtuous. If you learn to save now, the habit will be of very great +service when you come to take your stand on the arena of life. I am +aware that the temptations of a great city are almost innumerable; but I +need hardly inform you that you will greatly consult your own interests +and mitigate our harassment of feeling by practising a strict economy +with your funds, and by attending regularly at church. You will excuse +all errors in my writing, since I indite this by the sick-bed of Adèle." + +Adèle, then, is sick; and upon that point alone in the Aunt's letter the +thought of Reuben fastens. Adèle is sick! He knows where she must be +lying,--in that little room at the parsonage looking out upon the +orchard; there are white hangings to the bed; careful steps go up and +down the stairway. There had never been much illness in the parson's +home, indeed, but certain early awful days Reuben just remembers; there +were white bed-curtains, (he recalls those,) and a face as white lying +beneath; the nurse, too, lifting a warning finger at him with a low +"hist!" the knocker tied over thickly with a great muffler of cloth, +lest the sound might come into the chamber; and then, awful stillness. +On a morning later, all the windows are suddenly thrown open, and +strange men bring a red coffin into the house, which, after a day or +two, goes out borne by different people, who tread uneasily and +awkwardly under the weight, but very softly; and after this a weary, +weary loneliness. All which drifting over the mind of Reuben, and +stirring his sensibilities with a quick rush of vague, boyish griefs, +induces a train of melancholy religious musings, which, if they do no +good, can hardly, it would seem, work harm. Under their influence, +indeed, (which lasted for several days,) he astonished his Aunt Mabel, +on the next Sunday, by declaring his intention to attend church. + +It is not the ponderous Dr. Mowry, fortunately or unfortunately, that he +is called upon to listen to; but a younger man, of ripe age, indeed, but +full of fervor and earnestness, and with a piercing magnetic quality of +voice that electrifies from the beginning. And Reuben listens to his +reading of the hymn, + + "Return, O wanderer! now return!" + +with parted lips, and with an exaltation of feeling that is wholly +strange to him. With the prayer it seems to him that all the religious +influences to which he has ever been subject are slowly and surely +converging their forces upon his mind; and, rapt as he is in the +preacher's utterance, there come to him shadowy recollections of some +tender admonition addressed to him by dear womanly lips in boyhood, +which now, on a sudden, flames into the semblance of a Divine summons. +Then comes the sermon, from the text, "My son, give me thine heart." +There is no repulsive formality, no array of logical presentment to +arouse antagonism of thought, but only inglowing enthusiasm, that +transfuses the Scriptural appeal, and illuminates it with winning +illustration. Reuben sees that the evangelist feels in his inmost soul +what he utters; the thrill of his voice and the touching earnestness of +his manner declare it. It is as if our eager listener were, by every +successive appeal, placed in full _rapport_ with a great battery of +religious emotions, and at every touch were growing into fuller and +fuller entertainment of the truths which so fired and sublimed the +speaker's utterance. + +Do we use too gross a figure to represent what many people would call +the influences of the Spirit? Heaven forgive us, if we do; but nothing +can more definitely describe the seemingly electrical influences which +were working upon the mind of Reuben, as he caught, ever and again, +breaking through the torrent of the speaker's language, the tender, +appealing refrain, _"My son, give me thine heart!"_ + +All thought of God the Avenger and of God the Judge, which had been so +linked with most of his boyish instructions, seemed now to melt away in +an aureole of golden light, through which he saw only God the Father! +And the first prayer he ever learned comes to his mind with a grace and +a meaning and a power that he never felt before. + +"Whether we obey Him," (it is the preacher we quote,) "or distrust Him, +or revile Him, or forget Him, or struggle to ignore Him, always, always +He is our Father. And whatever we may do, however we may sin, however +recreant we may be to early faith or early teaching, however unmoved by +the voice of conscience,--which is smiting on your hearts, as it is on +mine to-day,--whatever we are, or whatever we may be, yet, ever while +life is in us, that great, serene voice of the All-Merciful is sounding +in our ears, 'My son, give me thine heart!' Ay, the flowers repeat it in +their bloom, the birds in their summer carol, the rejoicing brooks, and +the seasons in their courses, all, all repeat it, 'My son, give me thine +heart!' + +"Oh, my hearers, this is real, this is true! It is our Father who says +it; and we, unworthy ministers of His word and messengers to declare His +beneficence, repeat it for Him, 'My son, give me thine heart!' Not to +crush, not to spurn, not for a toy. The great God asks your hearts +because He wishes your gratitude and your love. Do you believe He asks +it? Yes, you do. Do you believe He asks it idly? No, you do not. What, +then, does this appeal mean? It means, that God is love,--that you are +His children,--straying, outcast, wretched, may-be, but still His +children,--and by the abounding love which is in Him, He asks your love +in return. Will you give it?" + +And Reuben says to himself, yet almost audibly, "I will." + +The sermon was altogether such a one as to act with prodigious force +upon so emotional a nature as that of Reuben. Yet we dare say there were +gray-haired men in the church, and sallow-faced young men, who nodded +their heads wisely and coolly, as they went out, and said, "An eloquent +sermon, quite; but not much argument in it." As if all men were to plod +to heaven on the vertebræ of an inexorable logic, and not--God +willing--to be rapt away thitherward by the clinging force of a glowing +and confiding heart! Alas, how the intellect droops in its attempt to +measure or comprehend the infinite! How the heart leaps and grows large +in its reach toward the altitude of Boundless Love, if only it be buoyed +with faith! + +"Is this religion?" Reuben asked himself, as he went out of the church, +with his pride all subdued. And the very atmosphere seemed to wear a new +glory, and a new lien of brotherhood to tie him to every creature he met +upon the thronged streets. All the time, too, was sounding in his ears +(as if he had yielded full assent) the mellow and grateful cadence of +the hymn, + + "Return, O wanderer! now return!" + + +XXXIX. + +Reuben wrote to the Doctor, under the influence of this new glow of +feeling, in a way that at once amazed and delighted the good old +gentleman. And yet there were ill-defined, but very decided, terrors and +doubts in his delight Dr. Johns, by nature as well as by education, was +disposed to look distrustfully upon any sudden conviction of duty which +had its spring in any extraordinary exaltation of feeling, rather than +in that full intellectual seizure of the Divine Word, which it seemed to +him could come only after a determined wrestling with those dogmas that +to his mind were the aptest and compactest expression of the truth +toward which we must agonize. The day of Pentecost showed a great +miracle, indeed; but was not the day of miracles past? + +The Doctor, however, did not allow his entertainment of a secret fear to +color in any way his letters of earnest gratulation to his son. If God +has miraculously snatched him from the ways that lead to destruction, +(such was his thought,) let us rejoice. + +"Be steadfast, my dear Reuben," he writes. "You have now a cross to +bear. Do not dishonor its holy character; do not faint upon the way. Our +beloved Adèle, as you have been told, is trembling upon the verge of the +grave. May God in His mercy spare her, until, at least, she gain some +more fitting sense of the great mission of His Son, and of the divine +scheme of atonement! I fear greatly that she has but loose ideas upon +these all-important subjects. It pains me beyond belief to find her +indifferent to the godly counsels of your pious aunt, which she does not +fail to urge upon her, 'in season and out of season'; and she has shown +a tenacity in guarding that wretched relic of her early life, the rosary +and crucifix, which, I fear, augurs the worst. Pray for her, my son; +pray that all the vanities and idolatries of this world may be swept +from her thoughts." + +And Reuben, still living in that roseate atmosphere of religious +meditation, is shocked by this story of the danger of Adèle. Is he not +himself in some measure accountable? In those days when they raced +through the Catechism together, did he never provoke her mocking smiles +by his sneers at the ponderous language? Did he not tempt her to some +mischievous sally of mirth, on many a day when they were kneeling in +couple about the family altar? + +And in the flush of his exalted feeling he writes her how bitterly he +deplores all this, and, borrowing his language from the sermons he now +listens to with greed, he urges Adèle "to plant her feet upon the Rock +of Ages, to eschew all vanities, and to trust to those blessed promises +which were given from the foundation of the world." + +Indeed, there is a fervor in his feeling which pushes him into such +extravagances of expression as the Doctor would have found it necessary +to qualify, if Adèle, poor child, had not been by far too weak for their +comprehension. + +The Brindlocks were, of course, utterly amazed at this new aspect in the +character of their pet young nephew from the country. Mr. Brindlock +said, consolingly, to his wife, when the truth became only too apparent, +"My dear, it's atmospheric, I think. It's a 'revival' season; there was +such a one, I remember, in my young days." + +(Mrs. Brindlock laughed at this quite merrily.) + +"To be sure there was, my dear, and I was really quite deeply affected. +Reuben will come out all right; we shall see him settling down soon to +good merchant habits again." + +But the _animus_ of the new tendency was far stronger than Brindlock had +supposed; and within a month Reuben had come to a quiet rupture with his +city patron. The smack of worldliness was too strong for him. He felt +that he must go back to his old home, and place himself again under the +instructions of the father whose counsels he had once so spurned. + +"You don't say you mean to become a parson?" said Mr. Brindlock, more +than ever astounded. + +"It is very likely," said Reuben; "or possibly a missionary." + +"Well, Reuben, if you must, you must. But I don't see things in that +light. However, my boy, we'll keep our little private ventures astir; +you may need them some day." + +And so they parted; and Reuben went home to Ashfield, taking an +affectionate leave of his Aunt Mabel, who had been over-kind to him, and +praying in his heart that that good, but exceedingly worldly woman, +might some day look on serious things as he looked on them. + +He had thought in his wild days, that, when he should go back to +Ashfield for any lengthened stay, (for thus far his visits had been few +and flying ones,) he should considerably astonish the old people there +by his air and city cultivation. It is quite possible that he had laid +by certain flaming cravats which he thought would have a killing effect +in the country church, and anticipated a very handsome triumph by the +easy swagger with which he would greet old Deacon Tourtelot and ask +after the health of Miss Almira. But the hope of all such triumphs was +now dropped utterly. Such things clearly belonged to the lusts of the +eye and the pride of life. He even left behind him some of the most +flashy articles of his attire, with the request to Aunt Mabel that she +would bestow them upon some needy person, or, in default of this, make +them over to the Missionary Society for distribution among the +heathen,--a purpose for which some of them, by reason of their brilliant +colors, were certainly most admirably adapted. Under his changed view of +life, it appeared to Reuben that every unnecessary indulgence, whether +of dress or food, was a sin. With the glowing enthusiasm of youth, he +put such beautiful construction upon the rules of Christian faith as +would hardly survive the rough every-day wear of the world. Even the +stiff dignity of Dr. Mowry he was inclined to count only an accidental +incrustation of manner, beneath which the heart of the parson was all +aglow with the tenderest benevolence. We hope he may have been right in +this; it is certain, that, if he could carry forward the same loving +charity to the end of his days, he would have won the best third of the +elements of a Christian career, without respect to dogmas. + +So Reuben goes back to Ashfield with a very modest and quiet bearing. He +is to look with other eyes now upon the life there, and to judge how far +it will sustain his new-found religious sympathies. All meet him kindly. +Old Squire Elderkin, who chances to be the first to greet him as he +alights from the coach, shakes him warmly by the hand, and taps him +patronizingly upon the shoulder. + +"Welcome home again, Reuben! Well, well, they thought you were given +over to bad courses; but it's all right now, I hear; quite upon the +other tack, eh, Reuben? That's well, my good fellow, that's well." + +And Reuben thanked him, thinking perhaps how odd it was that this +worldly old gentleman, of whom he had thought, since his late revulsion +of feeling, with a good deal of quiet pity, should commend what was so +foreign to his own habit. There were, then, some streaks of good-natured +worldliness which tallied with Christian duty. The serene, kindly look +of Mrs. Elderkin was in itself the tenderest welcome; and it was an +ennobling thought to Reuben, that he had at last placed himself (or +fancied he had) upon the same moral plane with that good woman. As for +Rose, the joyous, frolicsome, charming Rose, whom he had thought at one +time to electrify by his elegant city accomplishments,--was not even the +graceful Rose a veteran in the Christian army in which he had but now +enlisted? Why, then, should she show timidity and shyness at this +meeting with him? Yet her little fingers had a quick tremor in them as +she took his hand, and a swift change of color (he knew it of old) ran +over her face like a rosy cloud. + +"It is delightful to think that Reuben is safe at last," said Mrs. +Elderkin, after he had gone. + +"Yes, mamma," said Rose. + +"It must be a great delight to them all at the parsonage." + +"I suppose so, mamma. I wish Phil were here," said Rose again, in a +plaintive little tone. + +"I wish he were, my child; it might have a good influence upon him: and +poor Adèle, too; she must surely listen to Reuben, he is so earnest and +impassioned. Don't you think so, Rose?" + +Rose is working with nervous rapidity. + +"But, my child," says the mother; "are you not sewing that breadth upon +the wrong side?" + +True enough, upon the wrong side,--so many weary stitches to undo! + +Miss Eliza had shown a well-considered approval of Reuben's change of +opinions; but this had not forbidden a certain reserve of worldly regret +that he should give up so promising a business career. She had half +hinted as much to the Doctor. + +"I do not see, brother," she had said, "that his piety will involve the +abandonment of mercantile life." + +"His piety," said the Doctor, "if it be of the right stamp, will involve +an obedience to conscience." + +And there the discussion had rested. The spinster received Reuben with +much warmth, in which her stately proprieties of manner, however, were +never for one moment forgotten. + +Adèle, who was now fortunately in a fair way of recovery, but who was +still very weak, and who looked charmingly in her white chamber-dress +with its simple black belt, received him with a tender-heartedness of +manner which he had never met in her before. The letter of Reuben had +been given her, and, with all its rawness of appeal, had somehow touched +her religious sentiment in a way it had never been touched before. He +had put so much of his youthful enthusiasm into his language, it showed +such an elasticity of hope and joy, as impressed her very strangely. It +made the formal homilies of Miss Eliza seem more harsh than ever. She +had listened, in those fatiguing and terrible days of illness, to psalms +long drawn out, and wearily; but here was some wild bird that chanted a +glorious carol in her ear,--a carol that seemed touched with Heaven's +own joy. And under its influence--exaggerated as it was by extreme +youthful emotion--she seemed to see the celestial gates of jasper and +pearl swing open before her, and the beckonings of the great crowd of +celestial inhabitants to enter and enjoy. + +For a long time she had been hovering (how nearly she did not know) upon +the confines of the other world; but with a vague sense that its +mysteries might open upon her in any hour, she had, in her sane +intervals, ranked together the promises and penalties that had been set +before her by the good Doctor: now worrying her spirit, as it confronted +some awful catechismal dogma, that it sought vainly to solve; and then, +from sheer weakness and disappointment, seizing upon the symbol of the +cross, (of which the effigy was always near at hand,) and by a kiss and +a tear seeking to ally her fainting heart with the mystic company of the +elect who would find admission to the joys of paradise. But the dogmas +were vain, because she could not grapple them to her heart; the cross +was vain, because it was an empty symbol; the kisses and the tears left +her groping blindly for the key that would surely unlock for her the +wealth of the celestial kingdom. In this attitude of mind, wearied by +struggle and by fantasies, came to her the letter of Reuben,--the joyous +outburst of a pioneer who had found the way. She never once doubted that +the good Doctor had found it, too,--but so long ago, and by so hard a +road, that she despaired of following in his steps. But Reuben had +leaped to the conquest, and carried a blithe heart with him. Surely, +then, there must be a joy in believing. + +"I thank you very much for your letter, Reuben," said Adèle, and she +looked eagerly into his face for traces of that triumph which so +glittered throughout his letter. + +And she did not look in vain; for, whether it were from the warm, +electric touch of those white, thin fingers of hers, or the eager +welcome in her eyes, or from more sacred cause, a great joy shone in his +face,--a joy that from thenceforward they began to share in common. At +last--at last, a bright illumination was spread over the dreary +teachings of these last years. Not a doubt, not a penalty, not a mystic, +blind utterance of the Catechism, but the glowing enthusiasm of Reuben +invested it with cheery promise, or covered it with the wonderful +glamour of his hope. Between these two young hearts--the one, till then, +all doubt and weariness, and the other, just now, all impassioned +exuberance--there came a grafting, by virtue of which the religious +sentiment, in Adèle shot away from all the severities around her into an +atmosphere of peace and joy. + +The Doctor saw it, and wondered at the abounding mercies of God. The +spinster saw it, and rejoiced at the welding of this new link in the +chain of her purposes. The village people all saw it, and said among +themselves, "If he has won her from the iniquities of the world, he can +win her for a wife, if he will." + +And the echoes of such speeches come, as they needs must, to the ear of +Rose, without surprising her, so much do they seem the echo of her own +thought; and if her heart may droop a little under it, she conceals it +bravely, and abates no jot in her abounding love for Adèle. + +"I wish Phil were here," she says in the privacy of her home. + +"So do I, darling," says the mother, and looks at her with a tender +inquisitiveness that makes the sweet girl flinch, and affect for a +moment a noisy gayety, which is not in her heart. + +Rose! Rose! are you not taking wrong stitches again? + + + + +RODOLPHE TÖPFFER, + +THE GENEVESE CARICATURIST. + + +In 1842 there appeared in New York a little _brochure_ with scarcely any +letter-press, which contained many pages of the most humorous and +spirited sketches. Its title told the whole story, namely:-- + +_"The Adventures of Mr. Obadiah Oldbuck: wherein are duly set forth the +Crosses, Chagrins, Calamities, Checks, Chills, Changes, and +Circumgyrations by which his Courtship was attended. Showing also the +Issue of his Suit, and his Espousal to his Ladye-Love."_ + +Thousands laughed themselves to tears, when looking at these grotesque, +yet lifelike pictures; but scarcely one knew the name of their author, +M. Rodolphe Töpffer, of Geneva, Switzerland. + +Long before Mr. Oldbuck made his appearance in America, he had been the +means of uniting in fast friendship the great poetic giant of Germany, +Goethe, and the modest Genevese caricaturist. The least of M. Töpffer's +merit, however, was his ability to handle the pencil. As a humoristic, +satiric, pathetic, and æsthetic writer, he is unique in the French +language. His wonderful genius was so pliable, that, while he excelled +in the power of catching the warmest glow of Nature in those exquisite +descriptions with which his writings are filled, and while, with +picture-words, he could reproduce all the tender beauty of a sunset in +the Alps, or the soft, singing gurgle of the mountain-brook, no one +better than he could also portray every subtile shade and feature of the +human mind. He excelled in analyzing character. His mental perception +was sympathetic and ready. His mind-eye was so keen and so piercing, +that nothing could escape its searching glance. The most insignificant +attitude of the heart was not only seen, but at once noted down and +studied by him; and in its delicately skilful dissection, Töpffer +comprehended the whole of the individual. Hence his universality. In +manner of thought, and in style, his writings have traits which remind +one of Sterne, Addison, Charles Lamb, Montaigne, Xavier de Maistre, (the +author of the famous "Voyage autour de ma Chambre,") and our own +Hawthorne. + +It is just twenty-three years ago, that Xavier de Maistre, being +besieged by publishers for another of his charming stories, answered, +"Before all, take Töpffer, not me." Previously to this, a Swiss +gentleman, while visiting Weimar, introduced to Goethe the comic series +already referred to, which Töpffer had merely thrown off in his hours of +leisure. Goethe at once sent over the Alps for "Mr. Jabot," "Mr. +Pencil," "Mr. Crépin," and "Dr. Festus"; and, in the "Kunst und +Alterthum," the great poet expressed to his admiring circle of friends +his full appreciation, of the unequalled ability and charming humor of +Töpffer. He went still farther; for, in his favorite literary journal, +he drew the attention of all Germany to the merit of the Genevese +author. + +In 1839, M. de Sainte-Beuve introduced, with the highest eulogium, M. +Töpffer to the wide and fastidious world of French letters. Thus did the +greatest genius of Germany, the most celebrated modern romancer of +Northern Italy, and one of the first writers of France stand godfathers +to M. Töpffer. Their judgment did not misguide them; for, though Töpffer +was not a _littérateur_ by profession, his few volumes stand out in +French literature like those gigantic Alpine summits whose snow-white +purity is never dimmed by cloud-shadows. + +But I anticipate. Personal recollections become more interesting in +proportion to the distance of time which intervenes between us and the +death of the loved and admired. Violets are not gathered on a fresh-made +grave; and the soil of Memory must have been moistened with tears, +before we can expect it to yield its most cherished flowers. + +As some of our author's works, "Les Nouvelles Génevoises," and "Les +Voyages en Zig-Zag," have attracted considerable attention in the United +States, a sketch of his life and a mention of his various writings will +be acceptable to American readers. + +I was but a child when the name of Töpffer already had for me a +significance and a meaning which no other possessed. I had a feeling of +deepest regard and veneration for him, as I would meet him in the narrow +streets of Geneva, or in some of the shaded walks, which clasp, like +loving arms of Beauty, that bright little city of Central Europe. His +tall, commanding figure gave him an air of dignity and patrician +distinction; which latter was his by right. When he looked at you from +under the shadow of his broad-brimmed hat, you felt in that gaze there +was power,--a something which dropped from his eye into your very heart, +and made its home there. + +But allow me to make a _détour_, and call attention to that city where +Töpffer was born, and where society had such an influence upon his +creative mind. + +No spot in all Europe has more intrinsic importance than Switzerland. +Perched, as it is, amid inaccessible summits of intellectual and of +geographical elevation, it remains the magnetic centre, towards which, +from every part of the world, the sympathies of people most naturally +converge. And Geneva--the proud, miniature Republic--is to-day what she +has been for three long centuries, the Mecca of Switzerland, a luminous +altar of freedom of thought and of intellectual independence, from which +bold opinions have sprung and radiated, and around which every son of +Liberty has rallied. The Republic of Geneva stands alone in her +celebrity. So small a country that one morning's drive embraces the +whole of its territory, it can yet boast of a nationality so deeply +rooted, and of an individuality so strongly marked, that no foreign +invasion and no foreign contact have ever been able to impair them. + +It is impossible, even for the most superficial reader of history, to +overlook that great array of names which made the last years of the +eighteenth century so illustrious in Europe. Among them it is equally +impossible not to recognize those which Geneva so proudly furnished. +Theology, Natural Science, Philology, Morals, Intellectual Philosophy, +and Belles-Lettres,--all these branches are admirably represented, and +bend down with their luxuriant weight of fruit. The native land of such +men as Bonnet, De Saussure, De Candolle, Calandrini, Hubert, Rousseau, +Sismondi, Necker, has nothing to covet from other countries. Still +Geneva became the foster-mother of many great men. Calvin she took from +his own Picardy. Theodore Agrippa d'Aubigné, the grandfather of Madame +de Maintenon, and ancestor of Merle d'Aubigné, the truest friend of +Henry IV., Geneva honored as if her own son. Voltaire so loved Geneva +that there he had a residence as well as at Ferney, and sang with +enthusiasm of blue Lake Leman, "Mon lac est le premier." Madame de Staël +was born of Swiss parents in Paris, but her childhood and many of her +mature years were spent in charming Coppet, where the waters of the lake +lave the shores within the boundary of the Canton of Geneva. Sismondi +was a native of Geneva, and under the influence of Madame de Staël, and +inspired by his visits to Italy, resolved to devote himself to the past +glories of the land of his ancestors. It was in the city of Geneva that +he first delivered those lectures on "The Literature of Southern +Europe," which, in book-form, are so well known to every civilized +nation. Benjamin Constant, another Genevese, was a kindred spirit, who +shared with Madame de Staël a delightful and profitable intimacy. +Dumont; (so highly eulogized by Lord Macaulay,) the friend of Mirabeau +and of Jeremy Bentham, was also of Geneva. De Candolle and his son gave +to science their arduous labors. De la Rive in Chemistry, Pictet in +Electrology, and Merle d'Aubigné in History, Gaussen and Malan in +Theology, and many others, not unknown to fame, might be mentioned as +continuing the list of distinguished names that testify to the +intellectual supremacy of Geneva. + +Here, in our own day, what sons of Fame have gone to linger near a +society so congenial! Byron tells us that his life was purer at Geneva +than that which he led elsewhere. Here, amidst the scenes consecrated by +Milton nearly two centuries before, Shelley delighted to dream away his +summer hours. He loved to go forth on the pellucid surface of "clear, +placid Leman," there to drink in the soft beauties of the shores, or to +gaze upon the distant sublimities of Mont Blanc. Here Sir Humphry Davy +came, after his Southern tour, and "laid him down to die." Wordsworth +found here the graces of his Westmoreland home wedded to a grandeur +which realized the loftiest conception of his mind. At Geneva, to-day, +is found that noble son of France and devoted friend of America, the +Count Agénor de Gasparin. + +Here, too, have members of the royal and noble houses of Europe come to +be wooed by those waters whose "crystal face" Byron calls + + "The mirror where the stars and mountains view + The stillness of their aspect." + +The late Charles Albert, the hero King of Sardinia, was educated at +Geneva. More than once did the future benefactor and monarch of Northern +Italy stray along the road to Lausanne, or float in his little shallop +on the side of Bellevue, whence he could look upon that prettiest of +summer residences, Pregny, and at night could listen to the trills of +the nightingales, which sing with a tenderness peculiar to the Valley of +Geneva. At Pregny lived Josephine, whose Imperial spouse had driven away +from Sardinia the members of the House of Savoy. But Time is a wonderful +magician, and to-day near beautiful Pregny the nephew of Europe's great +conqueror and conquered and the grand-daughter of Charles Albert have +their own villa. The favorite residence of the late Grand Duchess +Constantine of Russia was La Boissière, in the Canton of Geneva, and on +the road to Chamouny, not far from the house of Sismondi. The late +Duchess de Broglie, the daughter of Madame de Staël, lived during the +winter in the street St. Antoine; near where M. Töpffer had his house, +and in the summer at Coppet. Not far from her, at Genthod, resided that +gentle daughter of America, the Baroness Rumpf, still remembered in New +York as the daughter of John Jacob Astor. The Duchess de Broglie and the +Baroness Rumpf are rare instances of the truest Christian womanhood in +exalted stations.--But a whole magazine article would not suffice to +give a list of the great, the noble, and the gifted who have sojourned +for a time in the city of Geneva. + +Yet, if Geneva has borrowed some of the great of other countries, she +has amply repaid the debt. She sent her Casaubon to the court of James +I. of England, to be the defender of the faith. Later, she lent to +England her De Lolme, who added to his distinguished political acumen +such affluent philological knowledge, that he wrote one of the best +works ever written on the British Constitution in the English and the +French languages. She lent to Russia Le Fort, the famous general and +admiral, the counsellor of Peter the Great, the originator of the +Russian navy, and the founder of that army out of which grew the forces +that defeated Charles XII. at Pultowa. During the tempestuous days which +signalized the downfall of a monarchy, and while France was rent asunder +by the mad upheavings of an infuriated populace, Necker was called to +the head of the finances. After five years of indefatigable probity, and +when his services had enlisted the profound gratitude of the doomed +king, he was compelled to quit Paris. Recalled again, and again +dismissed, his final departure was the signal for a general outbreak, +which resulted in the taking of the Bastille and the overthrow of the +House of Capet. Albert Gallatin she gave to the United States. How +curious it is to trace the life of this son of Geneva! Graduating with +honors at his native university, he came to America in 1780, was +commander of a small fort at Machias while Maine was still +Massachusetts, was teacher in Harvard University, filled high places +under the government of Pennsylvania; elected Senator to Congress from +that State, (but vacating his seat because his residence had not been +sufficiently long to qualify him,) Secretary of the Treasury under +Jefferson, Envoy Extraordinary to sign the Treaty of Ghent, and for +seven years Minister Plenipotentiary to France. He was offered the +Secretaryship of State by Madison, a place in the Cabinet by Monroe, and +was selected by the dominant party as a candidate for the second office +in the gift of the American people. All of these last three proffered +honors he refused, and passed the remainder of his long life in the +genial pursuits of literature. + +If Geneva has been the fireside of learning and of belles-lettres, it +has not been less the home of the fine arts. Petitot, the celebrated +painter on enamel, has handsomely paid his share to the +_chefs-d'oeuvres_ of the seventeenth century. While enjoying the +capricious favors of Charles I. at Whitehall, where he had his lodgings, +he worked on some of those perfect portraits which to-day have their +place in the Louvre, and which for ages must remain the triumphs of +minutely finished, expressive Art. Nor is the little Republic poor in +contemporaneous artistic talent. Pradier was born and grew up in +presence of Mont Blanc, whose sublime grandeur may well inspire the +dreams of the sculptor and ennoble him. Calame, Diday, and Hubert in +landscape painting, and Hornung in historical painting, (widely known by +his "Death of John Calvin,") are all sons of Geneva. Thalberg, the +musician, is a native of Geneva. + +The habitual companionship of master minds must necessarily exert an +immediate and irresistible influence upon the rapid growth of thoughts +and ideas in the young. And it is not to be wondered at that those who +from their earliest infancy have had the readiest access to such a +companionship, and who have most fully imbibed that influence, retain +through the after-years of life a strength and a boldness of originality +essentially opposed to the hesitating timidity of less favored +individuals. In a society like that of Geneva, where family traditions +are jealously cherished as a part of the national history, and where +every family has its importance and its well-defined place, the memory +of distinguished men cannot perish, but is handed down from father to +son, as a portion of the state patrimony. Every little boy, as he plays +in the street, feels that he has reason to be proud that he is a +Genevese. It was with such sentiments and under such auspices that +Töpffer glided through the years of childhood. He drank deep at the +fountain of inspiration unawares, and manhood found him ready to follow +those who beckoned to him from the pages of history. + +Rodolphe Töpffer was born at Geneva on the seventeenth day of February, +1799. As his name indicates, he was of German descent; but his family +had resided so many years in French Switzerland that he could no longer +be claimed by the land of Schiller and Goethe, though it was said that +one of his most distinctive literary characteristics was like that of +Mozart in music,--that he blended the deep, warm feeling of Germany with +the light and elegant graces of Southern Europe. + +Americans who have visited the public Gallery of Art, known in Geneva as +the Musée Rath, will perhaps recall a small, but very spirited, +winter-scene, painted in oil, and which bears the name of Töpffer. This +picture is by the father of Rodolphe. M. Töpffer _le père_ was the first +of that long list of Swiss painters who became devoted students of +Nature. The names of Calame, Diday, (Calame's master,) and Hubert are +now known throughout the world; and that of Calame stands among the +first in the rank of eminent living landscape painters. They are worthy +successors of the father of Rodolphe Töpffer, who was peculiarly happy +in rendering the mountain-scenes of Savoy, and in portraying those +picturesque and attractive episodes of peasant-life entitled "The +Village Wedding," "The Fair in Winter," etc., etc. + +There are but few incidents to record of Töpffer _fils_. It is in his +writings mostly that he is to be found. Elsewhere he is only passing by; +but _there_ he dwells and shines in full radiance. His life was so +quietly modest, so tranquil and far removed from the tumultuous +preoccupations which belong to a fashionable society, it was so simple +and pure, that the biographer is at a loss to find any striking event +that may give it an outward coloring. When only a child, as he so +charmingly tells us in his inimitable pages of the "Presbytère," he +devoured books, all sorts of books,--indeed, all the books he could get +hold of in his uncle's well-stocked library. And many an hour of his +sunny boyhood did he pass at the window in the house where he was born, +gazing dreamily at the mullions, arches, and fretted work of the old +Cathedral, or at the distant flight of the swallows, while in his mind +he dwelt upon some brilliant _saillie_ of Montaigne or Rabelais. His +marked fondness for sketching showed itself in numerous and picturesque +outlines, all of which bore the unmistakable stamp of talent, and +foretold in the exuberance of the boy-fancy what the man would be. +Happily for him, happily for us who are allowed to gather up the crumbs +of art and authorship which fell from his ample store, Töpffer enjoyed +the very best and most propitious advantages which in any country can +bless childhood. He was born in the lap of a society daintily +intellectual and fastidiously cultivated. His very first impressions +were those of refinement. His very first steps were directed towards +culture. There was no arid waste around him, and he had not to cut his +way through the newly broken furrows of a young civilization. He was +taken by the hand of Genius at the very outset of his career, and was +never allowed to falter; for in the successive creations of his pencil +and of his pen there is the same fulness of imagination, the same +delicacy of observation, the same exquisite perfection of analysis. He +seems to have understood so well the power of his mind, that he never +ventured beyond his depth, but sustained himself through all his years +of authorship with the same grace and elegance. + +And nowhere could he have better artistic encouragement and emulation +than in his native city. We do not remember who said that "in Geneva +every child is born an artist," but the statement would bear +investigation. Talent as well as taste for drawing and painting is +almost universal, and belongs as well to the poor as to the rich. It +may not be well known that De Candolle, the celebrated and untiring +Genevese botanist, made use, in a course of lectures, of a valuable +collection of tropical American plants, intrusted to his care by a +Spanish botanist. Unfortunately, the herbarium was needed by its owner +sooner than expected, and Professor De Candolle was requested to send it +back. This he stated to his audience, with many a regret for so +irreparable a loss. But some of the ladies present at once offered to +copy the whole collection in one week, This was done. The drawings, +"filling thirteen folio volumes, and amounting in number to eight +hundred and sixty, were accurately executed by one hundred and fourteen +women-artists in the time specified." In most cases the principal parts +of the plants alone were colored; the rest was only pencilled with great +accuracy. Where is the other city of the same size in which such a +number of amateur lady-artists could be found? One of these very +drawings, having been accidentally dropped in the street, was picked up +by a little girl ten years old, and was returned to De Candolle, copied +by the child; and it is no blemish to the collection. + +The son of an artist, Töpffer found his own career ready made, and +stepped into it with all the instincts of his Art-loving nature. His few +early paintings are full of promise. But the young artist was not +destined to distinguish himself in his chosen career. A disease of the +eyes compelled him to give up his favorite pursuit. His brush, still +warm from the passionate ardor with which it had been grasped, was +broken and thrown away. Töpffer lamented all his life long the privation +that was thus forced upon him. Art, as a profession, was closed against +his eager ambition; yet he loved Art, and lived for it. Happily for him, +he was still in the complete possession of all his hopes and illusions. +Happily for him, he was young; and, without being discouraged by his +great disappointment, he turned the bent of his mind study-ward. Töpffer +became a close student of human nature. He took to analyzing it +instinctively, as the bird takes to the air. He was more than a dreamer, +though the charming dreams which we have from him make us half regret, +perhaps, that he did something else besides dreaming. He says, in his +story, "La Bibliothèque de mon Oncle,"--"The man who does not enjoy +dreaming his time away is but an automaton, who travels from life to +death like a locomotive rushing from Manchester to Liverpool. A whole +summer spent in this listless manner does not seem _de trop_ in a +refined education. It is even probable that one such summer would not +prove enough to produce a great man. Socrates dreamed his time away for +years. Rousseau did the same till he was forty years old; La +Fontaine--his whole life. And what a charming mode of working is that +science of losing time!" + +But, either dreaming or working, Töpffer knew well what he was capable +of; and without impatience, without restlessness, he awaited the future, +consoling himself with the sentiment he expresses so well in the +following sentence:--"What can be said of those beardless poets who dare +to sing at that age, when, if they were true poets, they would not have +too much in their whole being with which to _feel_, and to inhale +silently, those perfumes which later only they may know how to diffuse +in their verse? There are precocious mathematicians; but precocious +poets--_never_." + +Töpffer was right. Life is the true poet. Its teachings drop in tears, +and the heart receives them kneeling, and is in no hurry to babble to +the world all their silent beauty. + +If Töpffer studied, it was not alone. He had devoted himself to the +serious task of education. His pupils, mostly the sons of wealthy +Englishmen and Russians, together with a few lads from France, Italy, +and America, served only to widen his family circle. His relation to +them was charming. As an authority, he used the most winning persuasion. +He respected the mental individuality even of a child, and would use +his admirable tact in kindly encouraging every indication of talent, +which, from want of a sufficient self-reliance or of a timely care, was +hiding itself. Year after year, in vacation-time, Töpffer left the +city with his thirty or forty young companions, and with them he +travelled on foot through the mountains and around the lakes of +Switzerland,--sometimes pushing in the track of Agassiz over glacier +billows, sometimes wandering far down upon the fertile plains of +Lombardy and Venetia. These were always most delightful excursions, when +the ordinary halt became a common enjoyment, not only from the +fun-loving spirit of the master, but also for the promise of future +illustrations. After the return home, during the long winter evenings, +Töpffer took either his pen or his pencil, and, with his pupils, +re-gathered from their memoranda and drawings their summer impressions +and adventures. Then he made his paper laugh with the spirited and +piquant sketches which all know who have peeped into the "Voyages en +Zig-Zag." Thus his fireside amusements have become those of the world. +The "Voyages en Zig-Zag," before his death, were already classic in +France. The richest luxury of type, paper, and illustration has not been +spared, and edition after edition is scattered in Europe from the Neva +to the Tagus. In the "Voyages" we find the most correct delineation, in +words and sketches, of the peculiarities and glories of Alp-land. The +exquisite French of this work has never yet found a translator. + +His early style had something so fresh and so quaint that it can be +accounted for only by going to the books which Töpffer studied. His _dii +majores_ were Montaigne and Amyot, and Paul Louis Courier, a learned +Hellenistic scholar, as well as vivacious writer of the French +Revolution and of the first Empire. For Montaigne Töpffer cherished the +highest admiration. In his "Reflections and Short Disquisitions upon +Art," (_Réflexions et Menus Propos_,) he thus tersely sums up the +excellency of the French philosopher:--"Thinker full of probity and +grace; philosopher so much the greater by that which he said he did not +know than by that which he thought he knew." In our own language, +Shakspeare was his favorite author. M. de Sainte-Beuve says, "Töpffer +was sworn to Shakspeare," and adds that the works of Hogarth first +taught the Genevese writer to appreciate Shakspeare, Richardson, and +Fielding. + +Besides possessing the ability to convey instruction to others, Töpffer +was a fine classical scholar. With two other literary gentlemen, he +published some excellent editions of the Greek classics, which he +enriched with notes. All these qualifications marked him as the man for +a still higher position. Accordingly, in 1832, when only thirty-three, +he was appointed Professor of Belles-Lettres in the College of Geneva. +At the same time, while discharging faithfully his duties in the +College, he conducted, aided by tutors, his little _pension_, now so +well known by the "Voyages en Zig-Zag." + +It was in the midst of these various occupations that Töpffer took his +recreation in contributing to the literary periodicals of Geneva +superior essays on Art, and many of those charming stories which to-day +delight us in the collection entitled "Les Nouvelles Génevoises." He +also wrote for political journals. But what made him first known outside +those communities where the French tongue is spoken were his humoristic +sketches. They were not thrown off from his fertile and genial hand for +gain or for renown. From childhood, under the influence of artistic +example at home, and of his admiration of Hogarth, he had acquired a +remarkable skill in graphically delineating whatever his close +observation of men prompted. Like Hogarth, his artist-wit, his fun, and +his moral teachings took the shape of series. These were handed around +the circle of his intimate friends; yet he had thoughts only of his own +amusement and of that of his companions, and did not contemplate +offering them to the public. It was at the urgency of Goethe that he +gave them to the world. + +In 1842, as we stated before, "M. Vieux Bois" (Mr. Oldbuck) appeared in +the United States; and the following year, 1843, "M. Cryptogame," under +the name of "Bachelor Butterfly," (by no means so amusing or so full of +hits for America as some other sketches,) delighted the Transatlantic +reader. + +Visitors to Geneva had their attention drawn to the "Voyages en Zig-Zag" +as soon as it was published; and in 1841 "Les Nouvelles Génevoises" took +the literary and artistic world of Paris by surprise. These simple +graphic stories gained the hearts of thousands. French tourists and +French artists sought the basin of Lake Leman, the wild passes of the +Vallée de Trient, the Lac de Gers, the Col d'Anterne, and the Deux +Scheidegg, wooed thither by the picturesque pages of Töpffer. The +"Presbytère," a fresh story in the epistolary form, not long after +crossed the Jura, and amidst the artificial, heated literature of Paris, +appeared as reviving as a bracing morning in the Alps. + +In this modest way M. Töpffer was unconsciously building up his European +reputation. The warp of his talent is the richest of humor blended with +woman-like sensibility and tenderness. Fanciful, but never exaggerated, +he stands before us an amiable philosopher, whose heart is large enough +to comprehend and to pity the frailties of human nature, yet whose +spotless purity serves as a beacon--light on the wreck-strewn shore of +human passions. He has not the exaltation nor the ardent vehemence of +Rousseau, neither has he the sentimental morbidity of Xavier de Maistre. +On the contrary, he is always true and always simple, and he remains +within the bounds of emotion which the family circle allows. This must +be accounted for by the peaceful life which he led, (a life so different +from that of his French literary brothers,) as well as by the beneficial +influence of the society in which he resided. That society, though +cultivated and liberal, has, in contrast with that of France, remained +pure. It retains as its birthright a certain nameless innocence, unknown +in the polished French circles a few leagues beyond. M. de Sainte-Beuve +wonders at this, and asks,--"Is it that man is kept pure and good by the +magnificent beauties in which Nature rocks him there from his babyhood? +Is it that the heart becomes awed in presence of that sublime calm of +Nature, and, before he is aware of it, the passions have transformed +themselves into a religious adoration?" + +But the true source of the Genevese author's purity was apart from, +though deeply influenced by Nature. He was a man of principle and of +religious faith. Töpffer had but to gaze into his own heart to find all +the sweet, the graceful, and the fresh poetry of his country. His +untiring and patient observation of Nature is the secret of his power as +a writer. He disdained nothing, for nothing seemed too small for him. +Nature, in none of its phases, could appear insignificant to his fertile +and mellow soul. When he could not soar in the high regions of +contemplative philosophy, he stooped as low as the little child whose +rosy cheek he patted, and who then became to him a teacher and a study. +An insect crawling on a leaf,--a bit of grass bringing the joy of its +short life around the stones of the pavement,--a cloud floating over the +meadows,--a murmur of voices in the air,--the wings of a butterfly, or +the thundering of the storm above the lake,--all and everything was the +domain where his genial disposition reaped so plentiful a harvest of +rare graces and smiles. + +When Töpffer abandoned his brushes for his pen, it seems that the vision +of his mind became intensified, and he began to study man as minutely as +he had studied Nature. He became a moral portrait-painter, in the same +way as his illustrious townsmen, Calame and Diday, were landscape +painters. To analyze and to describe became the occupation he most +delighted in; and the more minute the analysis and the more subtile the +description, the more also was he pleased with it. + +Töpffer's writings are eminently moral. There are few works in French +literature in which the moral aspiration is so alive and the worship of +duty so eloquently advocated. In reading them one feels that the writer +did not step beyond his own sentiments, that he did not borrow +convictions, that he did not affect the austerity of a stolen creed. He +writes as he feels, and he feels rightly,--never forgetting to remain +indulgent, even when he appears most unbendingly severe. Then to it all +he adds an inexhaustible cheerfulness. His mind wears no dark-colored +glasses; it is strong and healthy enough to bear the dazzling effulgence +of the sun. Töpffer was a joyous man. If he so rapidly seized the +ridiculous, it was through his love of fun; but while he laughed at +others, so kind and genial was he ever that he made others join and +laugh with him also. + +We said that his genius was universal. He is eminently so in his +artistic creations. Take, for instance, his unique comic sketches and +compare them with those of other leading caricaturists. Our impression +must be that none are like his. Leech, Doyle, and Gavarni have attained +a reputation which the world acknowledged long ago, and which no one +would dare dispute; yet they differ entirely from the Genevese +caricaturist. "Oldbuck" (_M. Vieux Bois_) is as universal as music or +Shakspeare, and belongs to no one country in particular. All of Leech's +pretty women, his "Mr. Briggs" and his "Frederick Augustus," with his +"_Haw_" and other swell words and airs, are all unmistakably English. +They could have been born on no other soil than England. It requires an +Englishman, or an American familiar with English fashions and foibles, +to appreciate them. The German, the Frenchman, the Spaniard, the +Italian, or the Russian, could no more understand them without a +previous initiation, or study and experience of English manners, than +they could speak English without long application and practice. The same +may be said of Richard Doyle's famous "Foreign Tour of Messrs. Brown, +Jones, and Robinson." Here we have an irresistible series of sketches, +depicting what the famous trio saw, what they said, and what they did, +in Belgium, Switzerland, and Italy. The interest of that work lies in an +intense expression of English nationality, carried everywhere by the +three Englishmen. Their mishaps and adventures are exactly such as every +American has witnessed a thousand times, when some of his cousins from +the fast-anchored isle have visited him. Gavarni, though freer with his +pencil than either Doyle or Leech, is still as much of a Parisian as +Albert Smith was a Londoner. Every one of his spirited sketches is +intensely French, and, above all, Parisian. To a person who knew nothing +of Paris, who had never been in Paris, and who was not somewhat _au +fait_ with the gay and triste, the splendid and squalid, the brilliant +and unequal society there, these sketches would be meaningless. Again, +Gavarni's pictures are not series. He does not develop his heroes and +heroines. He does not make us feel for them in their mishaps. We do not +laugh _with_ them, as we would with friends or acquaintances, but we +laugh _at_ them. We do not once recognize _ourselves_ in them. His +portraits stand before us, but we gaze at them as we would at some +half-civilized creatures, with curiosity more than with mirth; and while +we admire and acknowledge the truthfulness of the sketch, we do not +desire to have any familiarity or contact with the individuals +represented. Furthermore, Gavarni is more limited than Doyle, by making +the "Sweep," the "Rag-Picker," the "Grisette," tell his or her own +story; and what each one says is necessary to the comprehension of the +person before you. But very different is Töpffer. He possesses, with the +funny conception of Leech and Doyle, a freer pictorial conception than +either, and holds a pencil that is more at command than Gavarni's. In +his single outlines, often of the rudest kind, there is the very +rollicking of freedom, the exact hitting of traits and character. He +dashes down his creation with the quickness of thought, and with as +much confidence that Messrs. Oldbuck, Crépin, and Jabot will leap into +the very existence he wishes them to assume, as Giotto had, when, with a +single sweep of his arm, he drew his magic circle. It may be objected, +that the comparison between the two Englishmen and the two Continentals +is hardly equal. Doyle and Leech lost, doubtless, much of their freedom +by drawing with hard pencils upon box for the wood-engraver. Töpffer and +Gavarni swept the soft, yielding crayon over the lithographer's stone, +and hence we have the very conception of the artists in their sketches. + +The whole Continent roared over "M. Vieux Bois," then England began to +laugh, and finally America. Yet "M. Vieux Bois" was only the portrait of +a foolish old bachelor in love. Though born in Geneva, he was neither +Swiss nor French, neither English nor American; he was simply human. He +exemplifies Töpffer's universality. + +I have already mentioned the "Nouvelles Génevoises," the "Voyages en +Zig-Zag," and the "Presbytère." But it is not possible to quote from +them. Before pages so lively and so picturesquely effective, one feels +embarrassed in selecting any particular portion, lest another should be +left unnoticed,--like the child, who, being told that he may help +himself to choice flowers, feels afraid that he will not take those he +most wants, and, in his hesitation, dares not so much as untie the +bouquet. The reader must choose for himself. He can accompany the +amiable philosopher in his summer excursions, take the Alpine-stock, and +with him visit the mountain solitudes, or linger around the blue +lakes--those air-hung forget-me-nots--which gem the highest valleys of +Switzerland. + +His remaining works, published in book-form, are "Rosa et Gertrude," and +the "Réflexions et Menus Propos d'un Peintre Génevois, ou Essai sur le +Beau dans les Arts." + +"Rosa et Gertrude," given to the public a short time before his death, +is considered by some as holding the first place in Töpffer's works of +imagination. It is a touching story of two orphan girls, deeply attached +to each other, one of whom, deceived and maltreated by the world, +receives that kind and Christian charity "which thinketh no evil" from +M. Bernier, the good old clergyman, who is the guardian of Rosa and +Gertrude, as well as the narrator of their simple history. In this book +Töpffer has abandoned the humoristic, his ordinary vein in his short +stones, and in taking up the more serious mode of treating his +characters has succeeded so well that Albert Aubert of Paris, in his +criticism, says, "In 'Rosa and Gertrude' M. Töpffer has surpassed +himself"; and yet it is not so characteristic as his other writings. + +However, that one of M. Töpffer's works which, it seems to me, is +destined to live longest in the future, is his "Réflexions et Menus +Propos," etc.,--"Reflections and Short Disquisitions on Art." Here are +the results of twelve years' meditations on Art, by one who _felt_ Art +in his inmost soul, and who understood its practice as well as its +theory. In this work we find a Ruskin without dogmatism, uncertainty, or +man-worship. If Töpffer had written several volumes on his favorite +subject, we should not find him, in each succeeding tome, taking back +what he had said in the first. He studied, reflected, rewrote, and then +waited patiently for years before he committed his mature judgment to +the perpetuity of print. Long before Ruskin's first volume appeared, +Töpffer's "Réflexions et Menus Propos" had commanded the admiration of +the best writers and artists of the Continent. As an æsthetic and +philosophic work, it is of the highest value. Pearls of thought and +beauty are dropped on every side. It is relieved by fanciful episodes; +and yet the whole book starts from and plays around a stick of India +ink! It is not merely a volume in which the professional artist can gain +great advantage, but one by which the general reader is fascinated as +well as instructed. The former may discern its scope and its importance +in the felicity with which Töpffer illustrates the true aim of Art, as +being the expression, the idealization, and not the rigid copy of +Nature. He maintains that Nature should be the only teacher, and that we +are to be wedded to no man's mannerism. + +It is to be hoped that some day the "Réflexions et Menus Propos" may be +rendered into English by one fully acquainted, not only with French, but +with the philosophic and the æsthetic writings of France. If the late +Bayle St. John (whose knowledge of the French language and manner of +thought was so thorough) had possessed the finished style of the author +of "Six Months in Italy," he would have been the very man to have +introduced M. Töpffer's works to English readers. + +Whoever reads the works which I have thus briefly mentioned will regret +that so genial and gifted a man as M. Töpffer should have been so soon +snatched away from earth. It is rare to find in any author's or artist's +life such calm happiness as that which smiled over his existence. Fame +did not spoil him; and if he lived long enough to win it, he died too +soon to enjoy it. + +The last two years of M. Töpffer's life were years of continual +suffering, through which his amiable cheerfulness never faltered. When +he was told by his physicians that he could not recover, as if he +thought only of alleviating the sorrow of those who loved him, he did +not give way for one hour to impressions of sadness, and his private +journal alone received the confidence of the keen regret he felt in +taking farewell of his young wife and his lovely children. To the very +last day of his life his friends found him in the evening surrounded by +his family, and even then handling the pencil for their amusement and +his own. + +On Sundays, Calame dined with him; and we may imagine what a brilliant +coloring of thought must have characterized the conversation of these +two sympathetic men. + +In 1844, when M. Töpffer had just concluded his romance of "Rosa et +Gertrude," his disease took an alarming turn, and he became aware that +he was fast drawing to the close of his earthly voyage. After two +repeated visits to the French watering-place of Vichy, he returned to +Geneva. Towards the end of the following winter he was obliged to +abandon those duties which hitherto had been to him so pure an +enjoyment. Unable now to write, he tried painting, which, it will be +remembered, he had given up in early manhood. Leaning heavily forward in +his chair, his easel before him, he painted with an enthusiasm which was +the last of his life. But that diversion could not be kept up long, and +he was soon compelled to sit motionless, awaiting his release. + +On the morning of the 8th of June, 1846, consoled by the hopes of the +Christian, he expired. On the 14th he was followed to his final +resting-place by the whole city, among whom were those who in him had +lost their friend, their colleague, and their master. His remains sleep +in the cemetery of Plain-palais, which he has so graphically described +in "La Peur"; but his memory and his works still live in the minds of +his countrymen, and his fame is daily widening, wherever the good, the +true, and the beautiful are appreciated. + + + + +THE CHIMNEY-CORNER. + + +X. + +THE WOMAN QUESTION: OR, WHAT WILL YOU DO WITH HER? + +"Well, what will you do with her?" said I to my wife. + +My wife had just come down from an interview with a pale, faded-looking +young woman in rusty black attire, who had called upon me on the very +common supposition that I was an editor of the "Atlantic Monthly." + +By the bye, this is a mistake that brings me, Christopher Crowfield, +many letters that do not belong to me, and which might with equal +pertinency be addressed, "To the Man in the Moon." Yet these letters +often make my heart ache,--they speak so of people who strive and sorrow +and want help; and it is hard to be called on in plaintive tones for +help which you know it is perfectly impossible for you to give. + +For instance, you get a letter in a delicate hand, setting forth the old +distress,--She is poor, and she has looking to her for support those +that are poorer and more helpless than herself: she has tried sewing, +but can make little at it; tried teaching, but cannot now get a +school,--all places being filled, and more than filled; at last has +tried literature, and written some little things, of which she sends you +a modest specimen, and wants your opinion whether she can gain her +living by writing. You run over the articles, and perceive at a glance +that there is no kind of hope or use in her trying to do anything at +literature; and then you ask yourself, mentally, "What is to be done +with her? What can she do?" + +Such was the application that had come to me this morning,--only, +instead of by note, it came, as I have said, in the person of the +applicant, a thin, delicate, consumptive-looking being, wearing that +rusty mourning which speaks sadly at once of heart-bereavement and +material poverty. + +My usual course is to turn such cases over to Mrs. Crowfield; and it is +to be confessed that this worthy woman spends a large portion of her +time and wears out an extraordinary amount of shoe-leather in performing +the duties of a self-constituted intelligence-office. + +Talk of giving money to the poor!--what is that, compared to giving +sympathy, thought, time, taking their burdens upon you, sharing their +perplexities? They who are able to buy off every application at the door +of their heart with a five or ten dollar bill are those who free +themselves at least expense. + +My wife had communicated to our friend, in the gentlest tones and in the +blandest manner, that her poor little pieces, however interesting to her +own household circle, had nothing in them wherewith to enable her to +make her way in the thronged and crowded thoroughfare of letters,--that +they had no more strength or adaptation to win bread for her than a +broken-winged butterfly to draw a plough; and it took some resolution in +the background of her tenderness to make the poor applicant entirely +certain of this. In cases like this, absolute certainty is the very +greatest, the only true kindness. + +It was grievous, my wife said, to see the discouraged shade which passed +over her thin, tremulous features, when this certainty forced itself +upon her. It is hard, when sinking in the waves, to see the frail bush +at which the hand clutches uprooted; hard, when alone in the crowded +thoroughfare of travel, to have one's last bank-note declared a +counterfeit. I knew I should not be able to see her face, under the +shade of this disappointment; and so, coward that I was, I turned this +trouble, where I have turned so many others, upon my wife. + +"Well, what shall we do with her?" said I. + +"I really don't know," said my wife, musingly. + +"Do you think we could get that school in Taunton for her?" + +"Impossible; Mr. Herbert told me he had already twelve applicants for +it." + +"Couldn't you get her plain sewing? Is she handy with her needle?" + +"She has tried that, but it brings on a pain in her side, and cough; and +the Doctor has told her it will not do for her to confine herself." + +"How is her handwriting? Does she write a good hand?" + +"Only passable." + +"Because," said I, "I was thinking if I could get Steele and Simpson to +give her law-papers to copy." + +"They have more copyists than they need now; and, in fact, this woman +does not write the sort of hand at all that would enable her to get on +as a copyist." + +"Well," said I, turning uneasily in my chair, and at last hitting on a +bright masculine expedient, "I'll tell you what must be done. She must +get married." + +"My dear," said my wife, "marrying for a living is the very hardest way +a woman can take to get it. Even marrying for love often turns out badly +enough. Witness poor Jane." + +Jane was one of the large number of people whom it seemed my wife's +fortune to carry through life on her back. She was a pretty, smiling, +pleasing daughter of Erin, who had been in our family originally as +nursery-maid. I had been greatly pleased in watching a little idyllic +affair growing up between her and a joyous, good-natured young Irishman, +to whom at last we married her. Mike soon after, however, took to +drinking and unsteady courses, and the result has been to Jane only a +yearly baby, with poor health, and no money. + +"In fact," said my wife, "if Jane had only kept single, she could have +made her own way well enough, and might have now been in good health and +had a pretty sum in the savings bank. As it is, I must carry not only +her, but her three children, on my back." + +"You ought to drop her, my dear. You really ought not to burden yourself +with other people's affairs as you do," said I, inconsistently. + +"How _can_ I drop her? Can I help knowing that she is poor and +suffering? And if I drop her, who will take her up?" + +Now there is a way of getting rid of cases of this kind, spoken of in a +quaint old book, which occurred strongly to me at this moment:-- + +"If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one +of you say unto them, 'Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled,' +notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the +body, what doth it profit?" + +I must confess, notwithstanding the strong point of the closing +question, I looked with an evil eye of longing on this very easy way of +disposing of such cases: a few sympathizing words, a few expressions of +hope that I did not feel, a line written to turn the case into somebody +else's hands,--any expedient, in fact, to hide the longing eyes and +imploring hands from my sight was what my carnal nature at this moment +greatly craved. + +"Besides," said my wife, resuming the thread of her thoughts in regard +to the subject just now before us,--"as to marriage, it's out of the +question at present for this poor child; for the man she loved and would +have married lies low in one of the graves before Richmond. It's a sad +story;--one of a thousand like it. She brightened for a few moments, and +looked almost handsome, when she spoke of his bravery and goodness. Her +father and lover have both died in this war. Her only brother has +returned from it a broken-down cripple, and she has him and her poor old +mother to care for, and so she seeks work. I told her to come again +to-morrow, and I would look about for her a little to-day." + +"Let me see, how many are now down on your list to be looked about for, +Mrs. Crowfield?--some twelve or thirteen, are there not? You've got +Tom's sister disposed of finally, I hope,--that's a comfort!" + +"Well, I'm sorry to say she came back on my hands yesterday," said my +wife, patiently. "She is a foolish young thing, and said she didn't like +living out in the country. I'm sorry, because the Morrises are an +excellent family, and she might have had a life-home there, if she had +only been steady and chosen to behave herself properly. But yesterday I +found her back on her mother's hands again; and the poor woman told me +that the dear child never could bear to be separated from her, and that +she hadn't the heart to send her back." + +"And, in short," said I, "she gave you notice that you must provide for +Miss O'Connor in some more agreeable way. Cross that name off your list, +at any rate. That woman and girl need a few hard raps in the school of +experience before you can do anything for them." + +"I think I shall," said my long-suffering wife; "but it's a pity to see +a young thing put in the direct road to ruin." + +"It is one of the inevitables," said I, "and we must save our strength +for those that are willing to help themselves." + +"What's all this talk about?" said Bob, coming in upon us rather +brusquely. + +"Oh, as usual, the old question," said I,--"'What's to be done with +her?'" + +"Well," said Bob, "it's exactly what I've come to talk with mother +about. Since she keeps a distressed-women's agency-office, I've come to +consult her about Marianne. That woman will die before six months are +out, a victim to high civilization and the Paddies. There we are, twelve +miles out from Boston, in a country villa so convenient that every part +of it might almost do its own work,--everything arranged in the most +convenient, contiguous, self-adjusting, self-acting, patent-right, +perfective manner,--and yet, I tell you, Marianne will die of that +house. It will yet be recorded on her tombstone, 'Died of conveniences.' +For myself, what I languish for is a log cabin, with a bed in one +corner, a trundle-bed underneath for the children, a fire-place only six +feet off, a table, four chairs, one kettle, a coffee-pot, and a tin +baker,--that's all. I lived deliciously in an establishment of this kind +last summer, when I was up at Lake Superior; and I am convinced, if I +could move Marianne into it at once, that she would become a healthy and +a happy woman. Her life is smothered out of her with comforts: we have +too many rooms, too many carpets, too many vases and knickknacks, too +much china and silver; she has too many laces and dresses and bonnets; +the children all have too many clothes;--in fact, to put it +Scripturally, our riches are corrupted, our garments are moth-eaten, our +gold and our silver is cankered,--and, in short, Marianne is sick in +bed, and I have come to the agency-office for-distressed-women to take +you out to attend to her. + +"The fact is," continued Bob, "that, since our cook married and Alice +went to California, there seems to be no possibility of putting our +domestic cabinet upon any permanent basis. The number of female persons +that have been through our house, and the ravages they have wrought on +it for the last six months, pass belief. I had yesterday a bill of sixty +dollars' plumbing to pay for damages of various kinds which had had to +be repaired in our very convenient water-works; and the blame of each +particular one had been bandied like a shuttlecock among our three +household divinities. Biddy privately assured my wife that Kate was in +the habit of emptying dust-pans of rubbish into the main drain from the +chambers, and washing any little extra bits down through the bowls; and, +in fact, when one of the bathing-room bowls had overflowed so as to +damage the frescoes below, my wife, with great delicacy and precaution, +interrogated Kate as to whether she had followed her instructions in the +care of the water-pipes. Of course she protested the most immaculate +care and circumspection. 'Sure, and she knew how careful one ought to +be, and wasn't of the likes of thim as wouldn't mind what throuble they +made,--like Biddy, who would throw trash and hair in the pipes, and +niver listen to her tellin'; sure, and hadn't she broken the pipes in +the kitchen, and lost the stoppers, as it was a shame to see in a +Christian house?' Ann, the third girl, being privately questioned, +blamed Biddy on Monday and Kate on Tuesday; on Wednesday, however, she +exonerated both; but on Thursday, being in a high quarrel with both, she +departed, accusing them severally not only of all the evil practices +aforesaid, but of lying, and stealing, and all other miscellaneous +wickednesses that came to hand. Whereat the two thus accused rushed in, +bewailing themselves and cursing Ann in alternate strophes, averring +that she had given the baby laudanum, and, taking it out riding, had +stopped for hours with it in a filthy lane, where the scarlet fever was +said to be rife,--in short, made so fearful a picture, that Marianne +gave up the child's life at once, and has taken to her bed. I have +endeavored all I could to quiet her, by telling her that the +scarlet-fever story was probably an extemporaneous work of fiction, got +up to gratify the Hibernian anger at Ann, and that it wasn't in the +least worth while to believe one thing more than another from the fact +that any of the tribe said it. But she refuses to be comforted, and is +so Utopian as to lie there, crying,--'Oh, if I only could get one that I +could trust,--one that really would speak the truth to me,--one that I +might know really went where she said she went, and really did as she +said she did!' To have to live so, she says, and bring up little +children with those she can't trust out of her sight, whose word is good +for nothing,--to feel that her beautiful house and her lovely things are +all going to rack and ruin, and she can't take care of them, and can't +see where or when or how the mischief is done,----in short, the poor +child talks as women do who are violently attacked with housekeeping +fever tending to congestion of the brain. She actually yesterday told me +that she wished, on the whole, she never had got married, which I take +to be the most positive indication of mental alienation." + +"Here," said I, "we behold at this moment two women dying for the want +of what they can mutually give one another,--each having a supply of +what the other needs, but held back by certain invisible cobwebs, +slight, but strong, from coming to each other's assistance. Marianne has +money enough, but she wants a helper in her family, such as all her +money has been hitherto unable to buy; and here close at hand is a woman +who wants home-shelter, healthy, varied, active, cheerful labor, with +nourishing food, kind care, and good wages. What hinders these women +from rushing to the help of one another, just as two drops of water on a +leaf rush together and make one? Nothing but a miserable prejudice,--but +a prejudice so strong that women will starve in any other mode of life, +rather than accept competency and comfort in this." + +"You don't mean," said my wife, "to propose that our _protégée_ should +go to Marianne as a servant?" + +"I do say it would be the best thing for her to do, the only opening +that I see,--and a very good one, too, it is. Just look at it. Her bare +living at this moment cannot cost her less than five or six dollars a +week,--everything at the present time is so very dear in the city. Now +by what possible calling open to her capacity can she pay her board and +washing, fuel and lights, and clear a hundred and some odd dollars a +year? She could not do it as a district school-teacher; she certainly +cannot, with her feeble health, do it by plain sewing; she could not do +it as a copyist. A robust woman might go into a factory and earn more; +but factory-work is unintermitted, twelve hours daily, week in and out, +in the same movement, in close air, amid the clatter of machinery; and a +person delicately organized soon sinks under it. It takes a stolid, +enduring temperament to bear factory-labor. Now look at Marianne's house +and family, and see what is insured to your _protégée_ there. + +"In the first place, a home,--a neat, quiet chamber, quite as good as +she has probably been accustomed to,--the very best of food, served in a +pleasant, light, airy kitchen, which is one of the most agreeable rooms +in the house, and the table and table-service quite equal to those of +most farmers and mechanics. Then her daily tasks would be light and +varied,--some sweeping, some dusting, the washing and dressing of +children, the care of their rooms and the nursery,--all of it the most +healthful, the most natural work of a woman,--work alternating with +rest, and diverting thought from painful subjects by its variety,--and +what is more, a kind of work in which a good Christian woman might have +satisfaction, as feeling herself useful in the highest and best way: for +the child's nurse, if she be a pious, well-educated woman, may make the +whole course of nursery-life an education in goodness. Then, what is far +different from many other modes of gaining a livelihood, a woman in this +capacity can make and feel herself really and truly beloved. The hearts +of little children are easily gained, and their love is real and warm, +and no true woman can become the object of it without feeling her own +life made brighter. Again, she would have in Marianne a sincere, +warm-hearted friend, who would care for her tenderly, respect her +sorrows, shelter her feelings, be considerate of her wants, and in every +way aid her in the cause she has most at heart, the succor of her +family. There are many ways besides her wages in which she would +infallibly be assisted by Marianne, so that the probability would be +that she could send her little salary almost untouched to those for +whose support she was toiling,--all this on her part." + +"But," added my wife, "on the other hand, she would be obliged to +associate and be ranked with common Irish servants." + +"Well," I answered, "is there any occupation, by which any of us gain +our living, which has not its disagreeable side? Does not the lawyer +spend all his days either in a dusty office or in the foul air of a +court-room? Is he not brought into much disagreeable contact with the +lowest class of society? Are not his labors dry and hard and exhausting? +Does not the blacksmith spend half his life in soot and grime, that he +may gain a competence for the other half? If this woman were to work in +a factory, would she not often be brought into associations distasteful +to her? Might it not be the same in any of the arts and trades in which +a living is to be got? There must be unpleasant circumstances about +earning a living in any way; only I maintain that those which a woman +would be likely to meet with as a servant in a refined, well-bred, +Christian family would be less than in almost any other calling. Are +there no trials to a woman, I beg to know, in teaching a district +school, where all the boys, big and little, of a neighborhood +congregate? For my part, were it my daughter or sister who was in +necessitous circumstances, I would choose for her a position such as I +name, in a kind, intelligent, Christian family, before many of those to +which women do devote themselves." + +"Well," said Bob, "all this has a good sound enough, but it's quite +impossible. It's true, I verily believe, that such a kind of servant in +our family would really prolong Marianne's life years,--that it would +improve her health, and be an unspeakable blessing to her, to me, and +the children,--and I would almost go down on my knees to a really +well-educated, good, American woman who would come into our family, and +take that place; but I know it's perfectly vain and useless to expect +it. You know we have tried the experiment two or three times of having a +person in our family who should be on the footing of a friend, yet do +the duties of a servant, and that we _never_ could make it work well. +These half-and-half people are so sensitive, so exacting in their +demands, so hard to please, that we have come to the firm determination +that we will have no sliding-scale in our family, and that whoever we +are to depend on must come with _bona-fide_ willingness to take the +position of a servant, such as that position is in our house; and +_that_, I suppose, your _protégée_ would never do, even if she could +thereby live easier, have less hard work, better health, and quite as +much money as she could earn in any other way." + +"She would consider it a personal degradation, I suppose," said my wife. + +"And yet, if she only knew it," said Bob, "I should respect her far more +profoundly for her willingness to take that position, when adverse +fortune has shut other doors." + +"Well, now," said I, "this woman is, as I understand, the daughter of a +respectable stone-mason; and the domestic habits of her early life have +probably been economical and simple. Like most of our mechanics' +daughters, she has received in one of our high schools an education +which has cultivated and developed her mind far beyond those of her +parents and the associates of her childhood. This is a common fact in +our American life. By our high schools the daughters of plain workingmen +are raised to a state of intellectual culture which seems to make the +disposition of them in any kind of industrial calling a difficult one. +They all want to teach school,--and school-teaching, consequently, is an +overcrowded profession,--and, failing that, there is only millinery and +dress-making. Of late, it is true; efforts have been made in various +directions to widen their sphere. Type-setting and book-keeping are in +some instances beginning to be open to them. + +"All this time there is lying, neglected and despised, a calling to +which womanly talents and instincts are peculiarly fitted,--a calling +full of opportunities of the most lasting usefulness,--a calling which +insures a settled home, respectable protection, healthful exercise, good +air, good food, and good wages,--a calling in which a woman may make +real friends, and secure to herself warm affection: and yet this calling +is the one always refused, shunned, contemned, left to the alien and the +stranger, and that simply and solely because it bears the name of +_servant_. A Christian woman, who holds the name of Christ in her heart +in true devotion, would think it the greatest possible misfortune and +degradation to become like him in taking upon her 'the form of a +servant.' The founder of Christianity says, 'Whether is greater, he that +sitteth at meat or he that serveth? But _I_ am among you as he that +serveth.' But notwithstanding these so plain declarations of Jesus, we +find that scarce any one in a Christian land will accept real advantages +of position and employment that come with that name and condition." + +"I suppose," said my wife, "I could prevail upon this woman to do all +the duties of the situation, if she could be, as they phrase it, +'treated as one of the family.'" + +"That is to say," said Bob, "if she could sit with us at the same table, +be introduced to our friends, and be in all respects as one of us. Now +as to this, I am free to say that I have no false aristocratic scruples. +I consider every well-educated woman as fully my equal, not to say my +superior; but it does not follow from this that she would be one whom I +should wish to make a third party with me and my wife at mealtimes. Our +meals are often our seasons of privacy,--the times when we wish in +perfect unreserve to speak of matters that concern ourselves and our +family alone. Even invited guests and family friends would not be always +welcome, however agreeable at times. Now a woman may be perfectly worthy +of respect, and we may be perfectly respectful to her, whom nevertheless +we do not wish to take into the circle of intimate friendship. I regard +the position of a woman who comes to perform domestic service as I do +any other business relation. We have a very respectable young lady in +our employ who does legal copying for us, and all is perfectly pleasant +and agreeable in our mutual relations; but the case would be far +otherwise, were she to take it into her head that we treated her with +contempt, because my wife did not call on her, and because she was not +occasionally invited to tea. Besides, I apprehend that a woman of quick +sensibilities, employed in domestic service, and who was so far treated +as a member of the family as to share our table, would find her position +even more painful and embarrassing than if she took once for all the +position of a servant. We could not control the feelings of our friends; +we could not always insure that they would be free from aristocratic +prejudice, even were we so ourselves. We could not force her upon their +acquaintance, and she might feel far more slighted than she would in a +position where no attentions of any kind were to be expected. Besides +which, I have always noticed that persons standing in this uncertain +position are objects of peculiar antipathy to the servants in full; that +they are the cause of constant and secret cabals and discontents; and +that a family where the two orders exist has always raked up in it the +smouldering embers of a quarrel ready at any time to burst out into open +feud." + +"Well," said I, "here lies the problem of American life. Half our women, +like Marianne, are being faded and made old before their time by +exhausting endeavors to lead a life of high civilization and refinement +with only such untrained help as is washed up on our shores by the tide +of emigration. Our houses are built upon a plan that precludes the +necessity of much hard labor, but requires rather careful and nice +handling. A well-trained, intelligent woman, who had vitalized her +finger-ends by means of a well-developed brain, could do all the work of +such a house with comparatively little physical fatigue. So stands the +case as regards our houses. Now over against the women that are +perishing in them from too much care, there is another class of American +women that are wandering up and down, perishing for lack of some +remunerative employment. That class of women, whose developed brains and +less developed muscles mark them as peculiarly fitted for the +performance of the labors of a high civilization, stand utterly aloof +from paid domestic service. Sooner beg, sooner starve, sooner marry for +money, sooner hang on as dependents in families where they know they are +not wanted, than accept of a quiet home, easy, healthful work, and +certain wages, in these refined and pleasant modern dwellings of ours." + +"What is the reason of this?" said Bob. + +"The reason is, that we have not yet come to the full development of +Christian democracy. The taint of old aristocracies is yet pervading all +parts of our society. We have not yet realized fully the true dignity of +labor, and the surpassing dignity of domestic labor. And I must say that +the valuable and courageous women who have agitated the doctrines of +Woman's Rights among us have not in all things seen their way clear in +this matter." + +"Don't talk to me of those creatures," said Bob, "those men-women, those +anomalies, neither flesh nor fish, with their conventions, and their +cracked woman-voices strained in what they call public speaking, but +which I call public squeaking! No man reverences true women more than I +do. I hold a real, true, thoroughly good _woman_, whether in my parlor +or my kitchen, as my superior. She can always teach me something that I +need to know. She has always in her somewhat of the divine gift of +prophecy; but in order to keep it, she must remain a woman. When she +crops her hair, puts on pantaloons, and strides about in conventions, +she is an abortion, and not a woman." + +"Come! come!" said I, "after all, speak with deference. We that choose +to wear soft clothing and dwell in kings' houses must respect the +Baptists, who wear leathern girdles and eat locusts and wild honey. They +are the voices crying in the wilderness, preparing the way for a coming +good. They go down on their knees in the mire of life to lift up and +brighten and restore a neglected truth; and we that have not the energy +to share their struggle should at least refrain from criticizing their +soiled garments and ungraceful action. There have been excrescences, +eccentricities, peculiarities about the camp of these reformers; but the +body of them have been true and noble women, and worthy of all the +reverence due to such. They have already in many of our States reformed +the laws relating to woman's position, and placed her on a more just and +Christian basis. It is through their movements that in many of our +States a woman can hold the fruits of her own earnings, if it be her ill +luck to have a worthless, drunken spendthrift for a husband. It is owing +to their exertions that new trades and professions are opening to woman; +and all that I have to say of them is, that in the suddenness of their +zeal for opening new paths for her feet, they have not sufficiently +considered the propriety of straightening, widening, and mending the one +broad, good old path of domestic labor, established by God Himself. It +does appear to me, that, if at least a portion of their zeal could be +spent in removing the stones out of this highway of domestic life, and +making it pleasant and honorable, they would effect even more. I would +not have them leave undone what they are doing; but I would, were I +worthy to be considered, humbly suggest to their prophetic wisdom and +enthusiasm, whether, in this new future of woman which they wish to +introduce, woman's natural, God-given employment of _domestic service_ +is not to receive a new character and rise in a new form. + +"'To love and serve' is a motto worn with pride on some aristocratic +family shields in England. It ought to be graven on the Christian +shield. _Servant_ is the name which Christ gives to the _Christian_; and +in speaking of his kingdom as distinguished from earthly kingdoms, he +distinctly said, that rank there should be conditioned, not upon desire +to command, but on willingness to serve. + +"'Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, +and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not +be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your +minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your +_servant_.' + +"Why is it, that this name of servant, which Christ says is the highest +in the kingdom of heaven, is so dishonored among us professing +Christians, that good women will beg or starve, will suffer almost any +extreme of poverty and privation, rather than accept home, competence, +security, with this honored name?" + +"The fault with many of our friends of the Woman's Rights order," said +my wife, "is the depreciatory tone in which they have spoken of the +domestic labors of a family as being altogether below the scope of the +faculties of woman. '_Domestic drudgery_' they call it: an expression +that has done more harm than any two words that ever were put together. + +"Think of a woman's calling clear-starching and ironing domestic +drudgery, and to better the matter turning to type-setting in a grimy +printing-office! Call the care of china and silver, the sweeping of +carpets, the arrangement of parlors and sitting rooms, drudgery; and go +into a factory and spend the day amid the whir and clatter and thunder +of machinery, inhaling an atmosphere loaded with wool and +machine-grease, and keeping on the feet for twelve hours, nearly +continuously! Think of its being called drudgery to take care of a +clean, light, airy nursery, to wash and dress and care for two or three +children, to mend their clothes, tell them stories, make them +playthings, take them out walking or driving; and rather than this, to +wear out the whole livelong day, extending often deep into the night, in +endless sewing, in a close room of a dressmaking establishment! Is it +any less drudgery to stand all day behind a counter, serving customers, +than to tend a door-bell and wait on a table? For my part," said my +wife, "I have often thought the matter over, and concluded, that, if I +were left in straitened circumstances, as many are in a great city, I +would seek a position as a servant in one of our good families." + +"I envy the family that you even think of in that connection," said I. +"I fancy the amazement which would take possession of them as you began +to develop among them." + +"I have always held," said my wife, "that family work, in many of its +branches, can be better performed by an educated woman than an +uneducated one. Just as an army where even the bayonets think is +superior to one of mere brute force and mechanical training, so, I have +heard it said, some of our distinguished modern female reformers show an +equal superiority in the domestic sphere,--and I do not doubt it. Family +work was never meant to be the special province of untaught brains, I +have sometimes thought I should like to show what I could do as a +servant." + +"Well," said Bob, "to return from all this to the question, What's to be +done with her? Are you going to _my_ distressed woman? If you are, +suppose you take _your_ distressed woman along, and ask her to try it. I +can promise her a pleasant house, a quiet room by herself, healthful and +not too hard work, a kind friend, and some leisure for reading, writing, +or whatever other pursuit of her own she may choose for her recreation. +We are always quite willing to lend books to any who appreciate them. +Our house is surrounded by pleasant grounds, which are open to our +servants as to ourselves. So, let her come and try us. I am quite sure +that country air, quiet security, and moderate exercise in a good home +will bring up her health; and if she is willing to take the one or two +disagreeables which may come with all this, let her try us." + +"Well," said I, "so be it; and would that all the women seeking homes +and employment could thus fall in with women who have homes and are +perishing in them for want of educated helpers!" + +On this question of woman's work I have yet more to say, but must defer +it to another month. + + + + +JEREMY BENTHAM. + + +When I first knew this great and good man, he was in his seventy-ninth +year, and quite as remarkable for strength of constitution, (though he +had been always ailing up to the age of threescore,) and for +cheerfulness of temper, as for the oddities which made him a +laughing-stock for Professor Wilson and the reprobates of "Blackwood," a +prodigious myth for the "Edinburgh" and "Quarterly," and a sort of +Cocklane ghost for Sydney Smith, Hazlitt, Captain Parry, Tom Moore, and +Lord Byron. + +His "Benthamee" was believed to be a language he had invented for +himself, and quite incapable of being understood, or even deciphered, by +any but a thorough-going disciple, such as Dr., now Sir John, Bowring, +James Mill, the author of "British India," John Stuart Mill, the two +Austins, or George Grote, the banker and historian of Greece. + +"Ah," said Mrs. Wheeler, a strong-minded, clever woman, the Mary +Wollstonecraft of her day, on hearing that I had been asked to the +"Hermitage" of Queen-Square Place by Mr. Bentham,--"Ah, you have no idea +of what is before you! I wonder you are not afraid." + +"Afraid, my dear Madam! Of what should I be afraid?" + +"Afraid of being left alone with him after dinner. He cannot bear +contradiction. The queerest old man alive. One of his most intimate +friends told me that he was undoubtedly deranged, mad as a March hare +upon some subjects, and a monomaniac upon others. Do you know that he +keeps a relay of young men, thoroughly trained for the work, to follow +him round all day and pick up his droppings,--or what his followers call +'sibylline leaves,'--bits of paper, that is, written all over with +cabalistic signs, which no mortal could ever hope to decipher without a +long apprenticeship? These 'leaves' he scatters round him right and +left, while on the trot through his large, beautiful garden, or, if in +the house, while taking his 'post-prandial' vibration,--the after-dinner +walk through a narrow passageway running between a raised platform in +what he calls his 'workshop,' and the outer partition. Here he labors +day after day, and year after year, at codification, without stopping to +draw a long breath, or even to look up, so afraid is he of what may +happen to the world, if he should be taken away before it is all +finished. And here, on this platform, the table for one guest, two +secretaries, and himself is always set, and he never has more than one +guest at a time." + +Extravagant and laughable as all this appeared to me at the time, I +found truth enough at the bottom, before six months were over, to +justify many of the drollest caricatures. + +That Mr. Bentham's minutes were drops of gold about this time, and his +half-hours ingots, in the estimation of others, I had reason to +know,--of others, too, among the foremost celebrities of the age. Hence, +though he gave capital dinners, it was one of the rarest things in the +world for a stranger to be seen at his table. The curious and the +inquisitive stood no chance; and men of the highest rank were constantly +refused the introductions they sought. + +"Anne, if the Duke of Sussex calls, I am not at home," said he one day +to his housekeeper: nobody ever knew why. + +And there were hundreds of distinguished men, otherwise well-informed, +who believed in Jeremy Bentham, afar off, somewhat as others do in the +heroes of Ossian, or in their great Scandinavian prototypes, Woden and +Thor. If to be met with at all, it was only along the tops of mountains, +where "mist and moonlight mingle fitfully." + +For myself, I can truly say, that, of those I met with, who talked most +freely about him, and who wrote as if well acquainted, not only with his +works, but with the man himself, there was not one in fifty who had ever +set eyes on him or knew where to look for the "Hermitage," while the +fiftieth could not tell me whether he was an Englishman or Frenchman by +birth, (most of his writings on jurisprudence being written by him in +French,) nor whether he was living or dead. + +Nevertheless, they were full of anecdotes. They went with the scoffers, +and quoted Sydney Smith and "Blackwood," while "the world's dread laugh" +made them shy of committing themselves to any decided opinion. But if +Bentham was a myth, surely Dumont was not, and the shadow might well be +allowed to prove the substance; and yet they persisted in believing the +most extravagant inventions, and the drollest, without investigation or +misgiving. + +And even I,--I, myself,--though familiar with his works, both in French +and English, was so much influenced by the mystery about him, and by the +stories I heard of him, and by the flings I saw in the leading journals, +that I was betrayed into writing as follows in "Blackwood," about a year +before I first met Mr. Bentham, notwithstanding my profound convictions +of his worth and greatness, and my fixed belief that he was cruelly +misunderstood and shamefully misrepresented, and that his "Morals and +Legislation" and his "Theory of Rewards and Punishments" would change +the jurisprudence of the world, as they certainly have done:-- + +"Setting aside John Locke's Constitution for North Carolina, and Jeremy +Bentham's conundrums on Legislation, to speak reverently of what we +cannot speak irreverently of, _a truly great and incomprehensible mind, +whose thoughts are problems, and whose words--when they are +English--miracles_," etc. + +This paragraph occurs _incidentally_. I durst not go farther at the +time; for Bentham had never been mentioned but with a sneer in that +journal. I was writing a review of another "British Traveller in +America," whose blundering misrepresentations had greatly disturbed me. +The book was entitled, "A Summary View of America ... By an Englishman." +My review was the longest paper, I believe, that ever appeared in +"Blackwood." It was the leader for December, 1824; and on the back of +the title-page is a note by Christopher North himself, (Professor +Wilson,) from which I extract the following rather significant passages. + +"Our readers will perceive that this number opens with an article much +longer than any that ever appeared in our journal before. As a general +rule, we hate and detest articles of anything like this length; but we +found, on perusing this, (and so will our readers, when they follow our +example,) that in reality every paragraph of it is an article by itself; +in fact, that the paper is not an article, but a collection of many +articles upon subjects, all full of interest, and most of them not less +important than interesting." + +"In short, this _review_ of a single book on America contains more new +facts, more new reasonings, more new speculations of and concerning the +United States of America, than have as yet appeared in any ten books (by +themselves, books) upon that subject. This is enough for us, and this +will be enough for our readers. + +"We do not know personally the author of this article; nor do we pledge +ourselves for the justice of many of his views. From internal evidence +we believe that he says nothing but what he believes to be true." + +On the whole, perhaps, I had better add another paragraph from +Christopher North's note. It may serve to disabuse not a few of my +countrymen who have hitherto misunderstood the purpose of my "mission" +abroad, and especially the nature of my connection with the "Blackwood" +freebooters. + +"It is certain that he does know America well," continues the Professor; +"and it is equally certain that we fully participate in his feelings, as +to the folly or knavery of every writer, English or American, who libels +either of these countries for the amusement of the other; and we have +not the smallest doubt that the appearance of such a writer as we have +had the good fortune to introduce will henceforth operate as a salutary +check both on the chatterers of the 'Westminster Review' and the +growlers of the 'Quarterly.'" + +Entertaining the opinions I have stated with regard to Mr. Bentham and +his labors, and being well aware that his early writings in English (the +"Fragment on Government," for example, wherein, at the age of +twenty-eight, he enters the lists with Blackstone so successfully, and +the "Defence of Usury," an argument not only unanswered, but +unanswerable, to this day) were such models of clearness, strength, and +precision, and so remarkable for a transparent beauty of style, that the +first was attributed to Lord Mansfield, and the last to others of like +reputation; while some of his earlier pamphlets (like that which is +entitled "Emancipate your Colonies," being an address to the National +Assembly of France, whose predecessors had made him a French citizen, or +the "Draught of a Code for the Organization of the Judicial +Establishment of France," written at the age of two-and-forty) were +quite as remarkable for genius, warmth, manly strength, and a lofty +eloquence, as the earlier writings mentioned were for clearness and +logical precision,--how could I be guilty of such irreverence, not to +say impertinence? + +My answer is, that the believers in "Blackwood," having been pampered so +long on highly seasoned, fiery pap, to which the lines of M. G. Lewis +might often be applied,-- + + "And this juice of hell, + Wherever it fell, + To a cinder burned the floor,"-- + +were not ready for the whole truth, for the strong meat, much less for +the lion's meat I should have been delighted to serve them with; and +so, as in the case of Leigh Hunt and some others eminently obnoxious to +that journal, I slipped in the few words I have quoted _incidentally_, +as a sort of entering wedge: and the result in both cases, I must +acknowledge, fully justified my expectations; for neither Mr. Bentham +nor Leigh Hunt was ever unhandsomely treated or in any way disparaged by +that journal from that time forward, so far as I know. + +Let me add, that I did this for the same reason that I began writing +about our country, and about the institutions, the people, the +literature, and the fine arts of America, as if I were an +Englishman,--for otherwise what hope had I of being admitted into the +"Field of the Cloth of Gold," or of being allowed to break a lance in +the tournament which was always open there?--and that I continued +writing as an Englishman long after it was known by Blackwood himself, +and by Wilson, that I was not only an American, but a Yankee, and a +Yankee to the backbone, and that the signature I had adopted--"Carter +Holmes"--was not so much a _nom de plume_ as a _nom de guerre_, till I +had got possession of the enemy's battery, and turned the guns upon his +camp. + +In personal appearance, in features, and in the habitual expression of +countenance, Mr. Bentham bore an astonishing resemblance to our Dr. +Franklin. He was, to be sure, of a somewhat heavier build, though +shorter by two or three inches, I should say, judging by the bronze +full-length you have in Boston. The prevailing expression was much alike +in both; but there was not so much of constitutional benignity in the +looks of Bentham, nor was he ever so grave and thoughtful as Franklin is +generally represented in his portraitures; but he was fuller of +shrewdness and playfulness,--of downright drollery, indeed,--of boyish +fun,--and, above all, of a warm-hearted, unquestioning sympathy for +everything alive, man or beast, that he called "virtuous," like the +"virtuous deer" and the "affectionate swan": and all this you could see +plainly in the man's countenance, whether at play or in repose. + +So great, indeed, was the outward resemblance between these two +extraordinary men,--so much alike in appearance were they, though so +utterly unlike in reality,--that, after Mr. Bentham had passed the age +of threescore-and-five, a bust of Dr. Franklin, by a celebrated French +artist, was bought by Ricardo, at the suggestion of La Fayette, I +believe, and sent to Mr. James Mill for a likeness of Bentham. + +"Do you know," said the philosopher to me one day, while talking upon +this very subject, "that Ricardo was my grand-disciple?" + +"Your grand-disciple? How so?" + +"Why, you see, Mill was my disciple, and Ricardo was his; _ergo_, +Ricardo was my grand-disciple: hey?" + +But perhaps you would like to see for yourself the "white-haired Sage of +Queen-Square Place," as Dr. Bowring, now Sir John Bowring, used to call +him,--the "Philosopher,"--the "Hermit,"--the "High Priest of Reform," as +others, like Mr. Canning, the Premier, Sir Samuel Romilly, Sir Francis +Burdett, the two Mills, father and son, Dr. Southwood Smith, the +Austins, and Frank Place, the great radical tailor, used to call him. + +If so, have the goodness to follow me step by step for a few minutes, +forgetting all the long years that have interposed, and you shall see +him, with your eyes shut, as I saw him first, and as I continued to see +him almost every day for eighteen months or so, face to face. + +Picture to yourself a man "fourscore and upwards," like Lear, and like +Lear, too, "mightily abused," about five feet seven, a little stooping, +but still vigorous and alert; with a pleasant, fresh countenance, and +the complexion of a middle-aged, plump, healthy woman, such as Rubens or +Gilbert Stuart would gloat over in portraiture, and love to paint for a +wager; with a low, cheerful, trembling voice in conversation, though +loud and ringing in the open air; large, clear, bluish-gray eyes,--I +think I cannot be mistaken about the color, though Hazlitt, who was a +tenant of Bentham's at one time, and got snubbed for some little +impertinence, which of course he never forgave, calls them "lack-lustre +eyes"; very soft, plentiful white hair, slightly tinged with gold, like +flossed silk in the sunshine,--pushed back from a broad, but rather low +forehead, and flowing down to the shoulders. This white hair, when the +wind blows it about his face in the open air, or he is talking earnestly +at his own table,--and he never goes to any other,--he has a strange +habit of throwing off with a sudden crook and spring of the left elbow, +and a sort of impatient jerk of the left forefinger, which has come to +be so characteristic of the man himself, that, if Mathews (Charles +Mathews) were to do that, and that only, before you, after you had been +with Bentham for five minutes, you would have, not, perhaps, a +photograph or a portrait, but a "charcoal sketch" of the philosopher, +which you would instantly acknowledge. And, by the way, this reminds me +that I wanted to call these "Charcoal Sketches,"--that title being mine +long before the late Joseph C. Neal borrowed it of me without leave, and +used it for his "Loafer" and a variety of capital sketches, which have +been attributed to me, and still are, notwithstanding my denials. I +wrote one number only,--the first. It was a Yankee sketch; while his +were street sketches, and among the best in our language. + +But let us return to the living Bentham. The stoop, you see, is not so +much on account of his great age as from a long habit of bending over +his abominable manuscript,--the worst you ever saw, perhaps, not +excepting Rufus Choate's or Napoleon Bonaparte's,--day after day, and +year after year, while adding his marginal annotations in "Benthamee" to +what has been corrected over and over again, and rewritten more than +once by the secretary. + +He wears a plain, single-breasted coat, of the Quaker type, with a +narrow, straight collar, and a waistcoat of thin, striped calico, all +open to the weather, and trousers,--not small-clothes, nor breeches, +never being able to look at himself in breeches without laughing, he +says; thick woollen stockings rolled up over his knees, and shoes with +ties instead of buckles,--in short, the every-day costume of our +Revolutionary fathers, barring the breeches, the shoe-buckles, and the +ruffles, which he never could endure. + +In the warmest weather he wears thick leather gloves, and in the coldest +a straw hat, bound and edged with the brightest green ribbon, and +carries a stout stick of buckthorn, which he has named Dapple, after the +ass of Sancho Panza, for whom he professes the greatest admiration. + +While thus equipped, and while you are in conversation with him perhaps, +or answering one of his hurried questions, he starts off ahead in a slow +trot, up one alley and down another, or to and fro in the large garden +of Queen-Square Place,--the largest but one of all that open into the +Green Park; and this trot he will continue for a whole hour +sometimes, without losing his breath or evincing any signs of +weariness,--occasionally shouting at the top of his lungs, to show that +his wind is untouched, till the whole neighborhood rings with the echo, +and the blank walls of the Knightsbridge Barracks "answer from their +misty shroud." + +On the whole, therefore, that extravagant story told by Captain Parry +has a pretty good foundation, though he never saw with his own eyes what +he describes with so much drollery, but took the whole upon trust; for +Mr. Bentham was in the habit of going after his annuity every year, +trotting all the way down and back through Fleet Street, with his white +hair flying loose, and followed by one or both of his two secretaries. +He was the last survivor--the very last--of the beneficiaries, and +seemed to take a pleasure in astonishing the managers once a year with +his "wind and bottom." Parry represents him as being taken for a +lunatic running away from his keepers. + +Having now the man himself before you, let me give you some idea of his +habits and characteristics, his temper,--and I never saw him out of +temper in my life, though he had enough to try him almost every day in +his household arrangements,--his kindness of heart, his drollery, and +his wonderful powers of endurance, while working out the great problem +of his life. + +At the time I knew him, he used to sleep in a bag, and sometimes with +most of his clothes on. This he did for economy. "It took less of +sheeting," he said. Then, too, there was not so much likelihood of his +getting the clothes off, should he get restless or fidgety. He was read +to sleep every night by one of his secretaries, who told me that he +often amused himself with reading the same paragraph or the same page +over and over again, without turning a leaf, the philosopher declaring +that he had never lost a word of the whole, and that he not only +understood, but remembered, the drift of the author. In this way my +"Brother Jonathan," then just published by Blackwood in three large +volumes, was read to him every night for weeks, and greatly to his +satisfaction, as I then understood; though it seems by what Dr. +Bowring--I beg his pardon, Sir John Bowring--says on the subject, that +the "white-haired sage" was wide enough awake, on the whole, to form a +pretty fair estimate of its unnaturalness and extravagance: being +himself a great admirer of Richardson's ten-volume stories, like +"Pamela" and "Clarissa Harlowe," and always looking upon them as the +standard for novel-writers. + +Mr. Bentham was very "regular" in his habits, _very_,--and timed most of +his doings, whether asleep or awake, by a watch lying on the table. But +then he _always_ breakfasted between twelve and three, or a little later +on special occasions, and always dined at half past six, or thereabouts, +taking two cups of strong coffee in bed every morning, though he never +allowed himself but one, and died in the belief that he had never broken +the pledge. + +And yet, notwithstanding all this, he maintained that there is no +getting along in this world--or the other--without "regularity," or what +he called "system." And that "system" he carried into all the business +of life, as well as into legislation and government; going back, after +years of uninterrupted labor and the severest analysis, to invent a +panopticon, a self-sustaining penitentiary, or rather to apply that +invention of his brother, General Sir Samuel Bentham, to the bettering +of our prison-houses and to the restoration of the lost,--or perhaps a +ballot-box, that nothing might be wanted, when that "system" he valued +himself so much upon should be adopted throughout the world, as the +outlines already are. + +Scores of anecdotes are crowding upon my recollection, as I call to mind +his affectionate manner, his habitual good temper, and his amiable, +almost childish, kindness of heart. While yet a boy, for example,--and +this he told me himself, with a singular mixture of self-complacency and +self-depreciation, as if more than half ashamed of his weakness,--while +yet a boy, he was on a visit, where two different persons undertook to +help him to the goodies, among which was a magnificent gooseberry-pie, +one of his favorite dishes to the last. He ate until he could eat no +more. A third person offered him another piece; but, notwithstanding his +capacity, being "full up to here," he was obliged to refuse. He couldn't +swallow another mouthful, and the idea of _ingratitude_ was so strong +with him that he fell a-crying. I have no doubt of his entire +truthfulness; but I could not help thinking of the poor boy at his +grandfather's table on Christmas-day, who began at last to take things +rather seriously. "What's the matter, Georgie? what are you crying for?" +said the grandfather. "I can't eat another mouthful, grandpa," said +Georgie, still blubbering. "Never mind, my boy, never mind, fill your +pockets." "They're all full now, grandpa." + +One of the cleverest women I ever knew, Mrs. Sarah Austin, the +magnificent mother of Lady Duff Gordon, and the author of a capital and +safe book on Germany, which seems to be little known here, though +greatly esteemed there, once wrote me as follows. She was a great +favorite of Mr. Bentham, a pet indeed; and her husband, the elder +Austin, John, was a disciple of the philosopher, a briefless barrister, +though one of the clearest reasoners and profoundest thinkers of the +age, as a paper on Jurisprudence, in the "Encyclopædia Britannica," will +show. He wrote very little, but his pages were worth volumes; and he +gave Benthamism unadulterated and undiluted, though made intelligible to +the "meanest capacity," in or out of the "Edinburgh" and the +"Quarterly,"--grasping every subject he handled with fingers of steel. + +"God bless you," she says, after we had been talking about the +philosopher and his vagaries and whimsicalities,--"God bless you for +exalting me in my beloved grandpa's good graces. You can't think how +dearly I do love him, legislation and _all that_ apart; and yet, if +there ever was a woman peculiarly prone to love and admire a man for his +public affections and public usefulness, I do say I am that she, and +that I could not love a paragon of beauty, wit, and private kindness, if +he looked on the good or ill being of mankind with indifference or +scorn, or with anti-social feelings. Think of the divine old man growing +a sort of vetch in his garden to cram his pockets with for the deer in +Kensington Garden. I remember his pointing it out to me, and telling me +the '_virtuous deer_' were fond of it, and ate it out of his hand. I +could have kissed his feet; it was the feeling of a kind, +tender-hearted, loving child." + +He had another pet, almost a rival on some special occasions for Mrs. +Austin. It was a large sleepy-looking tomcat, very black, and of a most +uncommon seriousness of deportment. The philosopher treated him with +great consideration, I might almost say reverence, and called him +Doctor,--but whether an LL. D., a D. D., or only an M. D., I never +clearly understood, though I have a faint recollection, that, on the +happening of some event in which Tom bore a part, he accounted for the +deference he showed, by calling him the Reverend Doctor somebody. Like +Byron, too, he once had a pet bear; but he was in Russia at the time, +and the wolves got into the poor creature's box, on a terrible winter's +night, and carried off a part of his face, a depredation which the +philosopher never forgot nor forgave to his dying day. He always kept a +supply of stale bread in the drawer of his dining-table for the +"mousies." + +When he introduced me to Mr. Joseph Hume, the great penny-wise and +pound-foolish reformer, he begged me to bear in mind that he was _only_ +a Scotchman, or "no better than a Scotchman"; and he once gave me an +open letter to the celebrated philanthropist, Dr. Southwood Smith, which +he asked me to read before it was delivered. I did so, and found that he +wished the Doctor to know that I had been at Queen-Square Place a long +while, and that, so far as he knew I had neither told lies nor stolen +spoons. Of course I delivered the letter, leaving Dr. Smith to take the +consequences, if any silver should be missed after I left him. + +And, by the way, this reminds me that this very Dr. Smith was the +individual to whom he bequeathed his body, with certain directions, +which appear to have been carried out to the very letter, according to +Miss Margaret Fuller, who describes what she herself saw with her own +eyes not long after Mr. Bentham's death. + +"I became acquainted with Dr. Southwood Smith," she says. "On visiting +him, we saw an object which I have often heard celebrated, and had +thought would be revolting, but found, on the contrary, an agreeable +sight; this is the skeleton of Jeremy Bentham. It was at Bentham's +request, that the skeleton, dressed in the same dress he habitually +wore, stuffed out to an exact resemblance of life, and with a +portrait-mask in wax,--the best I ever saw,--sits there as assistant to +Dr. Smith in the entertainment of his guests, and companion of his +studies. The figure leans a little forward, resting the hands on a stout +stick which Bentham always carried, and had named 'Dapple'; the attitude +is quite easy, the expression on the whole mild, winning, yet highly +individual."--In Westminster Abbey there was at this time, and probably +is now, a wax figure of Lord Nelson in the very dress he wore at +Trafalgar. It is set up in a show-case, just as Barnum would do it. + +One other incident, showing his imperturbable good temper, and I have +done. A Frenchman had somehow got access to him,--through Dr. Bowring, I +believe. No sooner was he seated than he pulled out Mr. Bentham's +pamphlet, already mentioned, and entitled, "Emancipate your Colonies," +which opens in this way:-- + +"You have made me a Frenchman. Hear me speak like one." + +This the poor Frenchman read, in an ecstasy of admiration, as if +written, "You have make me a Frainchman. Hear me speak like _own_." Yet +Mr. Bentham kept his countenance, gave the poor fellow a good dinner, +and gossiped with him till the time had run out. + +But Mr. Bentham could be "terribly in earnest," when the proper occasion +arose. Aaron Burr had been a guest of his for a long while, after being +driven abroad by the outburst of indignation here,--and, while with him, +made such revelations of character, that Mr. Bentham, who acknowledged +his talents, actually shuddered when he mentioned his name. Burr +declared, in so many words, that he meant to kill Hamilton, because he +had threatened to do so long before. He told Mr. Bentham, while boasting +of his great success with our finest women, that Mrs. Madison herself +was his mistress before marriage; and seriously proposed--in accordance +with what may be found in his Life by Matthew L. Davis, about educating +daughters and sons alike, and exposing them in the same way--that he +would send for his daughter Theodosia, and Mr. Bentham should take her +for his mistress; and in a marginal note, now before me, by the Reverend +John Pierpont, I find abundant confirmation of what Mr. Bentham told me, +though Mr. Davis undertook to say that the stories of Aaron Burr's +_bonnes fortunes_ were true, and that he had a trunkful of letters from +the leading women of his day to prove it, and that Mr. Bentham was +_untrustworthy_. Upon this point I challenged him to the proof; but he +shrunk from the issue. + +"This reminds me," says Mr. Pierpont, in the note referred to, "that +Colonel William Alston, the father of Joseph, who married Miss Burr, +once told me, at his own table, that, soon after the marriage of his son +to Miss Burr, her father, Colonel Burr, had told him, (Colonel Alston,) +that, rather than have had his daughter marry otherwise than to his +mind, he would have made her the mistress of some gentleman of rank or +fortune, who would have placed her in the station in society for which +he had educated her. + +"I believe, however," he adds, in a postscript, "that not even parental +authority or influence could ever have brought the beautiful and +accomplished Miss Theodosia Burr thus to prostitute herself to her +father's ambitious purposes." + +In speaking of Burr, one day, and of his wonderful strength of character +and keenness of observation, he broke away suddenly, called him an +"atrocious scoundrel," and then asked me about his life and history. +Then it was that the kind-hearted, benevolent old man underwent a sudden +transfiguration. He trembled all over; his clear eyes lighted up; his +white hair was like a glory about his face; and he seemed like one of +the Hebrew Prophets, in his terrible denunciations of the heartless +manslayer, and the shameless, boastful profligate. + +Our very pleasant, and, to me, most profitable intercourse for a year +and a half was brought to an end by the happening of two or three +incidents. His fat housekeeper, who ruled him with a rod of iron, and +insulted Mrs. Austin and others, undertook to manage me in the same way, +and got packed off in consequence, though I did all I could to keep the +secret, and prevent the catastrophe; but he insisted on knowing why I +left him, and he applied to the secretaries, who were witnesses of the +whole transaction. The philosopher was indignant, and insisted on her +making me a suitable apology. I said I wanted no apology, having made up +my mind to go on my journey. She refused, and he cut her adrift, after +having been so dependent upon her, I know not how many years, that he +would allow her to say, "The pan is put away," when he asked for more of +a favorite dish,--fried parsley,--which he had prepared for Dr. +Macculloch, the geologist, who at one time could eat nothing else. She +was reinstated, however, within two or three years after I left him. + +The other incident was this. Mr. Bentham had urged me to write a paper +for the "Westminster Review," of which Dr. Bowring and Mr. Henry +Southern were the editors. I did so, and took for my text four or five +orations by Webster, Everett, and Sprague, and then launched out upon +the subject of Jurisprudence, of the Militia System, as it prevailed +here at the time,--a monstrous folly, and a monstrous outrage upon the +rights of man,--and of Slavery. The proof came without a word of +alteration or amendment. Of course I had nothing to do but correct any +verbal errors. But, lo! when the article appeared, not only had changes +been made, passages struck out, and various emendations worked in, but I +was made to say the very reverse of what I did say, and to utter +opinions which I never entertained, and for which I have had to suffer +from that day to this among my countrymen. + +For example. The editor, who had never seen the pamphlets, as he proves +by calling them "books," interpolates the following, which, as I have +said before, I have had to answer for:-- + +"Violent exaggeration is the character of American literature at the +present day, and, compared with the chaster and more rational style of +_our_ best writers, the style of the North American authors _is usually +the rant and unmeaning vehemence of a strolling Thespian_, when placed +beside the _calm, appropriate, and expressive delivery of an +accomplished actor_." Bear in mind that the samples I gave were from +Webster, and Everett, and Sprague!--three of our coldest and clearest +crystals, and among the least impassioned, and certainly the least +extravagant, of our orators. "Sometimes," the editor adds, with a show +of relenting at last, "sometimes the reader will find these remarkable +parts the worst, and sometimes the best of the paragraph, and often +composed in a spirit worthy of a less vitiated expression."[D] + +This was a little too much; but, owing to the expostulations of Mr. +Bentham, who had wasted about twenty or twenty-five thousand dollars on +the "Westminster Review," without a hope of getting a sixpence in +return, I consented to overlook the outrage. But my confidence in the +amiable Dr. Bowring was ended forever. We had a short interview, but no +intimacy after this, and I had begun to think of Northern Europe more +seriously than ever, when at last the tiff with the housekeeper settled +the question,--the Doctor declaring, though he knew from Mr. Bentham's +own lips how much he desired me to stay, and how unwilling he was to +part with me, that he, Mr. Bentham, said that he would as lief have a +rattlesnake under his roof! + +FOOTNOTES: + +[D] See "Westminster Review" for January, 1826. + + + + +A FAREWELL TO AGASSIZ. + + + How the mountains talked together, + Looking down upon the weather, + When they heard our friend had planned his + Little trip among the Andes! + How they'll bare their snowy scalps + To the climber of the Alps, + When the cry goes through their passes, + "Here comes the great Agassiz!" + "Yes, I'm tall," says Chimborazo, + "But I wait for him to say so,-- + That's the only thing that lacks,--he + Must see me, Cotopaxi!" + "Ay! ay!" the fire-peak thunders, + "And he must view my wonders! + I'm but a lonely crater, + Till I have him for spectator!" + The mountain hearts are yearning, + The lava-torches burning, + The rivers bend to meet him, + The forests bow to greet him, + It thrills the spinal column + Of fossil fishes solemn, + And glaciers crawl the faster + To the feet of their old master! + + Heaven keep him well and hearty, + Both him and all his party! + From the sun that broils and smites, + From the centipede that bites, + From the hail-storm and the thunder, + From the vampire and the condor, + From the gust upon the river, + From the sudden earthquake shiver, + From the trip of mule or donkey, + From the midnight howling monkey, + From the stroke of knife or dagger, + From the puma and the jaguar, + From the horrid boa-constrictor + That has scared us in the pictur', + From the Indians of the Pampas, + Who would dine upon their grampas, + From every beast and vermin + That to think of sets us squirming, + From every snake that tries on + The traveller his p'ison, + From every pest of Natur', + Likewise the alligator, + And from two things left behind him, + (Be sure they'll try to find him,)-- + The tax-bill and assessor,-- + Heaven keep the great Professor! + + May he find, with his apostles, + That the land is full of fossils, + That the waters swarm with fishes + Shaped according to his wishes, + That every pool is fertile + In fancy kinds of turtle, + New birds around him singing, + New insects, never stinging, + With a million novel data + About the articulata, + And facts that strip off all husks + From the history of mollusks. + + And when, with loud Te Deum, + He returns to his Museum, + May he find the monstrous reptile + That so long the land has kept ill + By Grant and Sherman throttled, + And by Father Abraham bottled, + (All specked and streaked and mottled + With the scars of murderous battles, + Where he clashed the iron rattles + That gods and men he shook at,) + For all the world to look at! + + God bless the great Professor! + And Madam too, God bless her! + Bless him and all his band, + On the sea and on the land, + As they sail, ride, walk, and stand,-- + Bless them head and heart and hand, + Till their glorious raid is o'er, + And they touch our ransomed shore! + Then the welcome of a nation, + With its shout of exultation, + Shall awake the dumb creation, + And the shapes of buried æons + Join the living creatures' pæans, + While the mighty megalosaurus + Leads the palæozoic chorus,-- + God bless the great Professor, + And the land his proud possessor,-- + Bless them now and evermore! + + + + +THE FORGE. + + +CHAPTER I. + +"One more horse to shoe, Sandy. The man's late, but he's come a matter +of ten mile, perhaps, over the cross road by Derby, yonder. Lead the +critter up, boy, and give a look at the furnace." + +I stooped to replenish the glowing fire, then turned toward the door, +made broad and high for entrance of man and beast, and giving a coarse +frame to the winter landscape without. The trees fluttered their +snow-plumed wings in the chill wind; on the opposite hill a red light +glared a response to our glowing smithy. It was the eye of elegant +luxury confronting the eye of toil; for it shone from the windows of the +only really fine mansion for miles around. I had always felt grateful to +those stone walls for standing there, surrounded by old trees on lawn +and woodland, an embodiment to my imagination of all I had heard or read +of stately homes, and a style of life remote from my own, and +fascinating from its very mystery. + +But I anticipate. My glance travelled over the intervening stretch of +level country, wrapped in its winding-sheet of snow, and stopped at a +tall figure confronting me, leading by the bridle the finest horse I had +ever seen. + +"Well, young man, shall you or I lead in the horse?" he asked, +haughtily; "that light on the hill must be reached before an hour goes +by, if I would keep an engagement"; and tossing me the bridle, as he +spoke, he drew carelessly toward the forge. + +The few villagers whose day's work was ended, or whose business called +them to the smithy, suddenly remembered waiting wives and children at +home, the bit of supper spread for their return, or the evening gossip +at the tavern; and thinking the matter they came for could wait the +morning, since the smith was busy, gave way, and left only the stranger, +my master, myself, and the noble horse grouped around the forge. + +"Look alive, Sandy! you'd better keep at it steady, if you want to git +to your schoolin' to-night," growled the blacksmith, in an undertone; +for he, too, had a memory for the smoking dish at home, and would gladly +stop work to eat of it. + +So I busied myself at once collecting the needed materials, while the +smith proceeded to lift the horse's leg and examine the foot. The animal +resisted the attempt, however, by plunging in the most violent manner. + +"Confound the beast!" muttered the blacksmith, as he dodged to escape a +kick. + +"I thought as much," said the stranger, quietly. "The horse is very +particular as to who handles him. I shall have to hold his foot, I +suppose"; and with rather a scornful smile, as if the dislike of his +horse to my master confirmed his own, he stepped up and held out a +slender brown hand. + +The horse lifted his foot, and gently dropped it on the outstretched +palm. No bird ever settled more trustfully on its nest. + +My master swore an oath or two by way of astonishment, and then, seizing +his shoe, approached again. But the scene was repeated with even more +violence on the part of the horse: he pranced, reared, shook his head, +and snorted at the smith, who again drew off. + +"I sha'n't get off to-night," murmured the stranger, impatiently. + +"Let me try," I said. "Horses have their fancies, as well as people. +He'll like me, may-be." + +"May-be he will," laughed my master, hoarsely; "but you're not a boss at +puttin' a shoe on. A dumb critter might take a shine to you, who's one +of their kind." And again he laughed at his own wit. + +"Step up and try," exclaimed the stranger, impatiently. + +I grasped the leg firmly in my hand; the horse made no resistance, and I +began my work. + +"Well, seein' as you've made friends with the critter, I'll be the +gainer and take a bit of supper," said my master, after a dogged stare. +"Be sure you put it on strong, Sandy. I don't say as I'll charge any +more, though I'd make a man pay for showin' he'd a spite agin me, let +alone a dumb critter." And taking his hat from a peg, he walked off, +leaving me, with the sparks flying from the forge, busy at the shoe, and +the stranger, with one arm across the neck of the horse, watching me. + +Ten minutes of silent work, and, as I loosened my grasp on the leg for a +moment, I met the eye of the gentleman, who, I was conscious, had been +watching me narrowly. + +"The horse likes you," he said, pleasantly, here again as though he +shared the feeling. + +"Yes," I replied. "Is he in the habit of doing as he did to-night with +strangers?" + +"He is fastidious, if you know what that means,--as fond of gentlemen as +his master," he returned, so pleasantly, that, when I looked up, +reddening at the cool assumption of the speech, blacksmith's apprentice +though I was, my eye fell beneath the amused glance of his. + +"I'm not a gentleman," I said, after a pause,--a little resentfully, I +fear; "but I'm not a clown, like my master." + +"No, that one can see at a glance," he replied. "You may be a gentleman +for aught I see to the contrary; but it requires a great deal to make +one.--What school was that the blacksmith spoke of?" + +"It is a village class kept by a young lady who rides over from the +hillside twice a week to teach us poor fellows something. I'm learning +to draw," I added,--the frankness coaxed out of me by a sympathy implied +rather than expressed. + +"And you are sorry enough to lose any of this lesson," he said, kindly, +as I put the horse's foot, firmly shod, upon the ground. "There is the +regular pay which goes to the smith, I suppose; and here is a ten-dollar +bill for you, if you have the sense to take it. I don't know what kind +of a youth you may be; but you have a good head and face, and evidently +are superior to the people about you. You don't feel obliged to use +their language or lead their life because you are thrown with them, I +suppose; but neither are you obliged to leave this work because you are +better than the man who calls himself your master. Learn all you can and +get a smithy of your own. A good blacksmith is as respectable as a good +artist," he said, looking at me keenly, as he mounted his horse, and +then rode rapidly through the village street. + + +CHAPTER II. + +I was no proud-spirited hero to work my way independently in the world, +but a poor blacksmith's apprentice, glad of every penny honestly earned +or kindly given; so I handled my bill over and over again with real +pleasure. Amos Bray, my master, was about as well to do as any man in +the village, its doctor excepted; but I doubted if Amos ever had a +ten-dollar bill over and above the quarter's expenses to spend as he +liked. + +The smithy often glowed with the double fire of its forge and my fancy. +I walked about with a picture-gallery in my brain, and was usually led +into its rather meagre display whenever the past was recalled or the +future portrayed. The smithy hung there, in warmth and brightness, a +genuine Rembrandt of light and shadow, filled with many an odd, +picturesque group on winter evenings, or just at twilight, when the fire +had died away to its embers. My master had gone home, and work was over; +the village children in gay woollen garments and with ruddy faces +crowded round the door, fringing brightly the canopy of darkness within. + +Again, when, after days of monotonous work, I felt a benumbing sense of +being but a part of the world's giant machinery, chosen because the +mobility and suppleness of human material worked by the steam-power of +the brain were more than a match even for the durability and unwearied +stroke of steel or iron, the warm blood rushed back, life throbbed again +with its endless ebbs and flows of desire and disappointment, as my +master's daughter, with her golden hair and innocent eyes, summoned us +to dinner, breaking like blue sky and sunshine through the cloud-rifts +of our toil. + +But now the smithy was not merely idealized, it was transformed. The +stranger, whose haughty bearing and address had changed to kindly and +appreciative words, had filled it with a new presence and excited new +hopes. + +Pleased as I was with the unexpected gift of money, the stranger's hint +of my superiority to those around me was a more generous bounty still. I +had been jeered at for years by the village boys, because I never +followed my master to the tavern in the evenings to listen to the gossip +there and learn to drink my mug of beer, and because I rarely talked +with any one except a few of the village children more modest than the +rest. + +The alphabet of my mind, like that of the race, was first found in the +hieroglyphics of the pencil; and by its aid I communicated with my +little friends more frequently than by word, drawing pictures for them +with chalk on the rude walls of the smithy, and carving images of the +various devices my experience or imagination suggested out of wood with +my master's jack-knife. + +From this group of children had arisen a constant companion and +sympathizer in my master's daughter. In leisure hours we explored the +woods together, or she sat beside me while I pored over the few old +books which were my father's sole legacy to me. + +During the last winter and this, however, my evenings had been almost +constantly occupied in study and sketching at the class to which I have +alluded. What an endless store of drawing-materials now loomed before +me! And what a swelling of heart I experienced at the thought that the +aims for which I had been taunted by the villagers were acknowledged by +my new friend as a ground of superiority! + +I was startled from these pleasing dreams by my master's voice. + +"Hullo there, Sandy! where's the money for that job? He's a mean one, if +he a'n't made it double." + +Instinctively I thrust my ten-dollar bill into one pocket, as I drew the +pay for the horseshoeing from the other. He swore a little as I handed +it to him, but he knew me well enough never to doubt my honesty; and, as +I was leaving, he called, with a gruff kindness,--the only approach to +courtesy of which he was capable,-- + +"Hurry up, Sandy; Miss Bray can't git Sary Ann to bed till she sees you, +and you're late for your schoolin' besides." + +So I ground my way quickly through the snow, choosing the middle of the +street, because it was less worn, and helped me better to work off my +unusual excitement. + +My master's cottage stood on the same street with his smithy. In fact, +this Main Street was, as its name indicated, the principal thoroughfare +of Warren; the real village life all centred here; and it contained, +besides the stores and the church, the dwellings of the more prosperous +inhabitants. The smithy being at one end, on the outskirts, as it were, +of the social and gay life, Mr. Bray had been able to rent it for a low +sum, although more pleasantly situated than any other building on the +street. Here the land made a slight ascent, giving a more extended view +of the valley and distant hills than at any other point. The business +character of this street mingled oddly in summer with the rural life +around it. At several right-angles, green and mossy lanes, arched by +venerable elms, seemed to be offering their crooked elbows to lead it +back to the simple pastoral life from which it sprang. + +Bordering these sequestered paths, which were dignified by the title of +streets, were cottages surrounded by small inclosures, whose proprietors +cultivated vegetables, hens, pigs, and cows,--these last being, quite +unconsciously, the true surveyors of Warren; for, in direct obedience to +pathways they had worn when traversing the fields to and from their +homes, chewing the quiet cud of meditation, had the buildings been +erected. Outside these lanes, again, were the larger land-owners, whose +farms formed the outer circle of our life. + +Annie Bray was fond of penetrating beyond these various circles of +social existence, and wandering far off to the woods and hills, whose +ring of emerald, studded now and then with the turquoise of some +forest-lake, inclosed us as in a basin. + +As I entered the kitchen of the cottage, Mrs. Bray, a stout woman of +forty, the oracle of her sex in the village as to matters of domestic +economy and dress,--which last was of a more costly and varied material +than the others could afford, abounding in many-colored prints, and a +stuff gown for Sunday wear,--made her appearance, her apron covered with +flour, an incrustation of dough on each particular finger, which it +always destroyed my appetite to see. + +"Well, Sandy, I'm glad you've come. You've jest sp'iled Sary Ann. There +she sets a-nid-nid-noddin' on that stool, and won't stir to bed till she +sees Sandy." + +There, by the stove, sat the blacksmith's blue-eyed daughter, a proof +that God sometimes interferes with hereditary botch-work, and makes a +child fresh and fair, letting her, like a delicate flower in noisome +marsh or stagnant water, draw pure, nourishing juices out of elements +poisonous to anything less impregnated with Himself. + +To be sure, through ignorance of the nature of the child intrusted to +them, the blacksmith and his wife blundered with her tender soul and +beautiful body. One of their most heinous crimes against her, in my +estimation, had been in the bestowal of the name of Sary Ann,--a filial +compliment paid by Mrs. Bray to the mother who bore her. Then they +dressed her in the brightest of red or orange, so that Nature, which had +tinted her complexion brightly, though delicately, seemed forever to be +put to shame by the brazen garments which infolded her. They called her +'sp'iled,' when her innocent eyes filled with tears at her father's +oaths or her mother's coarse scolding; and though her tender beauty +touched the rough smith with a kind of awe, he often said, "Such pootty +gals a'n't of much use. I mistrust if Sary Ann will ever 'arn her +livin'." + +Anxious as I was to get to my class this evening, I could not neglect my +little friend; so, going hurriedly to her, I said, as I bent over the +head which at every breath of sleep waved like a pale golden flower on +its stalk,-- + +"Good night, Annie. To-morrow evening I'll be home earlier, and then we +can have our lesson together." + +And she, quite satisfied, held up her face for a kiss, and rose to leave +the room. + +"Your supper is a-warmin' in the stove, Sandy," said Mrs. Bray; but I +did not wait either to eat it or to chat with her about the stranger +whose horse I had shod, and who interested her because she thought he +might have given "Amos" extra pay. Reminding her of my lesson, I pushed +up the rickety stairs to my attic, and began as quickly as possible to +make those preparations for meeting the teacher which the young men of +the class, impelled by a rude kind of gallantry, never failed to +observe, and which they described by the expressive term of "smartenin' +up." + + +CHAPTER III. + +The class met in the village school-house; and when I entered, Miss +Darry, our teacher, was seated at her desk, talking to about a dozen +rough country youths, of ages ranging from fourteen to twenty-five, and +of occupations as diverse as the trades of the village afforded. + +She was of medium height, rather full than slim, with clear, +intelligent, dark eyes, a broad, open forehead, a nose somewhat +delicately cut, a wide mouth, with thin lips, and teeth of dazzling +whiteness. Her whole aspect was that of physical and mental health,--not +only removed from morbid sensitiveness, but as far from sentiment even +as a breezy spring wind, and yet as prompt to fathom it in others as the +wind to search out violets. + +One would think that even an ordinary nature might have so revealed +itself through such a face as to give an impression of unusual beauty; +yet such was not the case,--and this, it seemed to me, because she had +no feminine consciousness of personal beauty or attractiveness. I know +that unconsciousness is regarded as the first element of fascination; +and it may be, when it pervades the entire character: but Miss Darry +_was_ conscious of mental power, of the ability to wrest from the world +many of its choicest gifts, to taste the delights of scholarship, of +self-supporting independence and charity to range freely over the whole +domain where man is usually sole victor; and thus one felt the shock of +a vigorous nature before recognizing the fact that it was clad in the +butterfly robes of a woman's loveliness. + +Her evening teaching of us was purely a labor of love. Fortunately, she +was not of that shrinking nature which dreads contact with persons less +refined than itself. There was a world of sympathy in her frank, +good-natured smile, which placed her at once more in harmony with her +scholars than I, who had passed my life among them. There was, too, a +dash and spirit about this young woman, in which I, as a man, was +entirely lacking; and it was this element which held her rough pupils in +subordination. + +I was the only one of them who had not been communicative with her. My +lessons were always better prepared and understood than those of the +others, yet I talked less with her about them; and in the half-hour +after recitation, which she devoted to my drawing, I rarely uttered a +word not called forth by my occupation at the moment. + +To-night, however, I must have betrayed my new mood to the first glance +of her keen eye; for, after the other scholars had stumbled noisily out +of the room, she turned to me, saying,-- + +"Well, Sandy, often as you have been here, I have never seen your visor +of reserve or diffidence lifted until to-night. Do you mean to let me +share your happiness? Bob Tims has been telling me that the rosy-faced +girl up by Fresh Pond has smiled upon him; and Tracy Waters says he's +'going to hoe his own row next year, and not spend his strength for Dad +any longer': they are both happy in their way, but, mind, I don't expect +such confidences from you, Sandy." + +Miss Darry spoke without satire. She sympathized with these rough +natures far more than with many of the more polished whom she met in +society, and I could not withhold my confidence from the cordial smile +and ready ear which waited to receive it. + +So I related the incident of the afternoon, revealing unconsciously, I +suppose, many a budding hope, which waited only the warm sun of +opportunity and encouragement to burst into blossom. + +"I am very glad for you, Sandy," she said, giving me her hand, as I +concluded. "Your village friends would probably advise you to hoard the +money as so much towards a forge; while others, less judicious than your +new friend, would say, 'Give up your trade, and support yourself by your +brain'; but I say, support yourself by your forge, and let what surplus +power you have be expended on your mind." + +And here let me hold the thread of my story a moment, to express my +sense of the wisdom of Miss Darry's advice. It would be well, perhaps, +if more men, when striving to elevate their condition, should still rely +upon the occupation to which they have been trained, as a stepping-stone +to something better. Now and then comes an exceptional character, a +David Grey, who must follow the bent of his genius, and listen so +intently to the melody to which his soul is set that the coarser sounds +of daily toil are dumb for him; but usually the Elihu Burritt who +strikes hard blows with hands and brain alike is the man to achieve +success. + +"Your friend may be worth far more to you than his money," continued +Miss Darry, thoughtfully. "He can do much more for you than I, if he +only will." + +"Do you know him?" I exclaimed. "Tell me who he is." + +"A tall, dark-eyed gentleman, on a magnificent horse," she replied, +playfully. "I shall know him, Sandy, from your description, if I meet +him." + +And she placed my crayon-study before me, changing so entirely from +confidential friend to teacher, that I had no resource but to relapse +into my customary shyness. + +After the lesson, we consulted as to the purchases to which my money had +best be applied. She offered to buy the books I needed in the city, to +which she was going soon for a visit, but she insisted on supplying me +with drawing-materials as before. Our good-bye was said more cordially +than usual, and I drew on my overcoat and closed the door with the +comfortable feeling that my welfare was becoming a matter of interest to +others besides myself. + + +CHAPTER IV. + +The man who drove over from the hillside with Miss Darry was always +waiting in the sleigh when I went out from my lesson. To-night, however, +he was not to be seen. Supposing he had merely stopped for one more +glass than usual at the tavern, I walked down the street, but, finding +that he did not appear, and disliking to leave Miss Darry alone in the +school-house, so late in the evening, I resolved, as I approached the +turn which led into Main Street, to go back and investigate the matter. +The tavern was beyond the school-house, at a little distance from the +village,--as, indeed, it should have been, to insure sleep to its +quiet-loving inhabitants. As I approached the school-house again, I saw +Miss Darry, warmly muffled for the drive home, walking also in the +direction of the tavern. "She surely cannot know what rough men go +there," I thought, and, conquering my awkwardness, I ran after her. + +"Miss Darry!" I cried, when within a few steps of her. She turned, and I +strode to her side. "I am going to the tavern to look after your driver; +it will never do for you to go there alone. Hadn't you better go back to +the school-house and wait for me?" I said. + +"You must have a great deal of native gallantry, Sandy. One would +imagine, from your lot in life, you had not been used to seeing women +shielded from disagreeable duties. I will go on with you, and wait +outside," she answered, smiling. So we walked on together. + +The sleigh stood before the tavern-door. A warm buffalo was thrown over +the horse, who was, nevertheless, pawing impatiently in the snow, as if +aware that it was time to go home. Asking Miss Darry to get into the +sleigh, for I would not have taken the liberty of assisting her for the +world, I hastened up the low wooden steps, and, pushing open the door, +stood inside the bar-room. I had heard snatches of song, as we drew +near, and, afraid lest they should reach Miss Darry's ear also, I closed +it after me. A few of the village loafers were there, with the addition +of one or two less harmless characters, who, strolling through the +country, had tarried here for refreshment and a frolic: among the latter +was the man for whom Miss Darry was waiting, stretched in a state of +intoxication on the floor. I made my exit as soon as by a glance I +comprehended matters, yet not soon enough to escape the recognition of +the villagers, who cried out, "Come on, Sandy Allen!--don't slink off +that way!--let's have a drink!" + +As I stood by the sleigh, explaining to Miss Darry the condition of her +driver, a crowd of the half-drunken fellows came out of the tavern, and +staggered down the path toward us. I had not the courage to offer to +drive her home, but she did not wait for me to grow bolder. + +"Jump in, Sandy,--no, not on the front seat,--here by me. I am afraid of +those men. Besides, I want to talk with you." + +So I seated myself next her, drew the warm robe over us both, and just +as one of the men attempted to seize the reins, declaring he had himself +promised to carry the lady home, I caught them from him, and we drove +rapidly up the street. + +Somehow Miss Darry's confession of a little feminine timidity put me +more at ease with her than I had ever been before. I was a strong, +muscular fellow of nineteen, perfectly able to defend myself in +circumstances of ordinary danger, and proud that a woman so superior to +me should trust in my readiness to protect her. Life and vigor tingled +in every nerve of my body; the clear, stinging winter air, exhilarating +to healthy, as wine is to enfeebled bodies, thrilled me with enjoyment; +and I was seated beside the most intelligent and appreciative companion +I had ever known. + +How much of my life, with its restless desires and unsatisfied tastes, +must have revealed itself in that ride, which seemed only too short, as +she asked me to drive up the avenue leading to the stone house, whose +beacon I had looked at that same evening from the forge! + +"Do you live here?" I asked, in surprise, as we drove swiftly along. + +"Yes, I teach Miss Merton's little sisters." + +We had no time for further words. The horse stopped before the house, +whose great hall-door swung open, letting a flood of light stream over +the stone steps. A young girl, wrapped in an ermine cape, ran down to +us, followed by the stranger whose appearance in the forge that +afternoon had created such a tumult in my mind. + +The scene was a beautiful one. Every shrub and tree on the lawn was +enveloped in a garment of more dazzling purity than the ermine before +me. The moonlight was radiant, the stars sparkled lustrously in the +steel cold sky, the earth was carpeted and canopied with a beauty more +resplendent than the graceful luxuriance of summer. Miss Darry probably +ascribed my immovable position to artistic enjoyment of the landscape, +for I remained perfectly quiet while she explained the cause of her +detention to Miss Merton. + +"We have been quite anxious about you," said the gentleman, as she +concluded; and turning to me, "Why, we are indebted for your safe return +to the young man by whom my horse was shod this evening!" + +And before I could stammer a reply, Miss Darry exclaimed,-- + +"Jump out, if you please, Sandy. I should like to do the same." + +I did so, mechanically, and was about to stand aside for the gentleman +to offer his hand, but she extended hers to me, and sprang lightly +beside me. + +"You will surely take cold, Alice," said the gentleman, drawing Miss +Merton's hand within his arm, and turning to ascend the steps. Then, +first, I awoke from mingled surprise and admiration sufficiently to say +quietly,-- + +"I must go home. Good evening." + +"Not at all," exclaimed the gentleman, turning round; "it is nearly +twelve o'clock, and I verily believe you think of walking back to Warren +to-night. You must take the horse and sleigh, if you go. Shall he not, +Alice?" + +Miss Merton, thus appealed to, replied by saying to me,-- + +"Come in with us, Mr. Allen, and get warmed at least. I have heard Miss +Darry speak of you as the one of her class in whom she is especially +interested; so you see we are not strangers, after all." + +There was no condescension in the gentle voice and smile for even my +sensitiveness to detect. I had never been addressed as Mr. Allen before; +and this of itself would have confused me sometimes, but now I forgot +myself in admiration of her. + +That face was of perfect contour. Small and delicately fair, soft bands +of light-brown hair shaded the low, smooth brow and large gray eyes, +and the full red lips were tremulous with varying expression. Her hands +and figure were of the same delicate outline as her face. And as her +cape blew aside, I noticed the violet silk she wore, of that blended +blue and purple so becoming to blondes. + +It were surely a narrow view, to ascribe this grace of expression and +manner, so peculiarly womanly, this evident desire to please even, +betrayed in careful attention to the artistic finish and details of +dress, to vanity or coquetry merely,--it is so often the outgrowth of a +beauty-loving nature, to be found in some of the most sensitive and +refined of the other sex. + +Looking at Miss Merton, therefore, I seemed to have a vision of what +Annie Bray might become, if she were developed from within and +surrounded from without by that halo of refinement which crowned the +lady before me. Already I was developing an Epicurean taste for that +spirit of beauty which flooded Annie Bray's humble life as well as her +own. + +Miss Darry spoke to me, as we went up the steps; but to what I assented +I do not know. I listened to the low tones in front of me. I have always +possessed a preternaturally quick ear; but I confess I might have used +it to better purpose on that occasion. + +"Now, Hamilton, of course he must stay all night," she whispered, as she +leaned on the gentleman's arm; "and I want you to make him feel +perfectly comfortable in doing so." + +"Certainly, if he will; but pray don't spoil him, Alice, darling. +Because he is a youth of some scholarship, a good deal of refinement, +and develops a talent for drawing, it is no reason he should be made to +forget he's a blacksmith." + +"It is too late for theories to-night, Hamilton," she replied, +playfully. "I have none, you know, like you and Frank Darry. I only wish +to treat him considerately. _We_ can afford to forget distinctions which +undoubtedly seem a great barrier to him. If he stays, he shares our +hospitality like any other guest." + +The answer I did not catch. I had heard enough, however, to feel both +grateful and irritated. + +I went in and warmed myself by the coal-fire in the library. I looked +covertly at books and Miss Merton while toasting my hands, and answered +intelligently, I believe, Mr. Hamilton Lang's questions as to the +village and my pursuits there. I did not neglect to speak a few cordial, +yet respectful, words to Miss Darry, at parting; but all I clearly +recall is the fact that I insisted upon going home that night, and that +Miss Merton, kindly offering to lend me any books I could find time to +read, laid her little hand in my rough palm at parting. + + +CHAPTER V. + +There was a variety-store on Main Street, with "JANE DINSMORE" painted +in letters of mingled blue and orange on the sign above its door. Miss +Dinsmore boarded in one of those green lanes whose inhabitants formed +the second circle of Warren society. To this fact it may have been +partly due that she was less appealed to than Mrs. Bray on all questions +of social etiquette; but undoubtedly a more sufficient reason was to be +found in Miss Dinsmore herself, who, though more beloved than any other +woman in the village, had a suppressed, quiet manner, not at all adapted +for leadership. Her reputation was that of having been a pretty, giddy +young girl, a farmer's daughter; but some great crisis had swept over +her life, muffling all the tinkling melodies, the ringing laugh, the +merry coquettings of the village belle. It was rumored that the old +story of disappointed love had changed the current of her life. Jenny +Dinsmore, though humbly born and bred, had been fastidious; the uncouth +advances of her rustic admirers were not agreeable to her; and so the +romance of the fresh young heart was expended on a college youth, who +found his way to Warren from classic halls for the renovation of +physical and moral health, and who, attracted by her pretty face and +figure, made his rustication less burdensome by devotion to her. + +Jenny had not one of those weak natures whose influence dies away in +absence. She had inherited some of the old farmer's sturdy traits of +character, and her affections had a clinging tenacity of hold which +would not suffer the young scholar to throw her off so easily. When he +returned to college, he walked the grounds more than once, summoning +through the avenues of embowering elms the slender figure, the smiling +face, with the glow of the setting sun upon it, which had so often +awaited his coming at the stile of the old orchard. + +However, parental authority, and the prospect of an ample fortune on +good behavior, soon convinced the young man of his folly. Let us be +thankful, who note this brief sketch of their mingled fortunes, that he +had a tender care for Jenny's trusting nature, and removed the sting +from the sorrow he inflicted by making her believe it inevitable. Thus +this little wellspring of romance forever watered and kept fresh her +otherwise withered life; if subdued, she was not bitter; and no one can +tell how the thin, wan face renewed its youth, and the wrinkled cheeks +their pinkish bloom, caught in that far-off spring-time in her father's +orchards, as, sitting in her solitary room, she remembered the man, now +occupying a prominent position in life, who said, as he bade her +tenderly good-bye, that he would never forget her, no matter what woman +reigned by his fireside, or what children played on his hearth. Perhaps, +in his stately library, no book was so welcome on a winter's evening as +an idyl of rural life, no picture so pleasing as that of some Maud +Muller raking hay or receiving the dumb caresses of the cows she milked. + +What would the elegant woman, with her costly jewels, India shawls, and +splendid equipage, have thought of this whilom rival, who issued every +summer morning from the lane, in her hand a bunch of those simple +flowers, occupying, as she did, the border-ground between the wild +hemlock and honeysuckle of the wilderness and the exotic of the +parterre, the bachelor's-button, mulberry-pink, southernwood, and +bee-larkspur, destined to fill a tumbler on an end of the counter where +she displayed her most attractive goods? + +She prided herself upon the tastefulness and variety of her selections: +ribbons and gowns, pins, needles, soap, and matches for all; jars of +striped candy for well, and hoarhound for sick children; and a little +fragrant Old Hyson and San Domingo for venerable customers. She walked +about gently; was never betrayed into any bustle by the excitement of +traffic; liked all sweet, shy, woodland natures, from Annie Bray to +squirrels; and contracted an affection for me because of my diffidence +and devotion to the former. + +Whenever she came to the cottage, she poured oil upon the turbulent +waters of its domestic life; coaxed up Amos as daintily and charily as a +child would proffer crumbs to a bear in a menagerie; pleased Mrs. Bray +by accounts of her city shopping; and petted Annie, giving her +occasionally, in a shy way, some bow or bit of silk, of an especially +brilliant hue, which had caught her eye in town. She was a very useful +member of the Methodist Society, for she had always innumerable odds and +ends for pin-cushions and needle-books; and although her religious +experiences did not seek those stormy channels which the Reverend Mr. +Purdo believed to have been elected for the saints, yet her sympathies +were so ready, her heart so kind, that, when he saw her after a day of +activity collect her bunch of flowers again in her hand, and start, as +she often did, for one of the lanes or outlying farms, to watch through +the night with some sick woman or child, he was fain to remember that +"faith without works is dead." + +Miss Dinsmore's store was exceedingly attractive to the young people of +the village. She lent a cordial ear to every matrimonial scheme; was +quite willing that all preliminaries for such arrangements should be +settled within her precincts; and many a tender word and glance, +doubtless, received its inspiration from a conspicuous stand for +bonnets, whose four pegs were kept supplied with those of Miss +Dinsmore's own manufacture, originally white, but so seldom demanded for +village wear that the honey-moon in Warren shed its pale yellow beams on +this crowning article of bridal attire long before it was donned by the +happy wearer. These bonnets were severally labelled on modest slips of +paper, after city nomenclature, "Bridal Hat"; and Miss Dinsmore would on +no account have parted with them for any less occasion, however festive; +so that one consulting her stand had as accurate a knowledge of +impending marriages as could have been obtained from the +"publishing-list" of the "meeting-house." + +Moreover, Miss Dinsmore herself was laboring under that hallucination, +not infrequent with maiden ladies rather advanced, that her own +spring-time was perennial; and though by no means disposed to displace +the hero of her youth from his supremacy in her heart, she yet accepted, +with the ordinary feminine serenity, gallant attentions from youths over +whose infant slumbers she had, in times of domestic disturbance, often +presided. Hence it happened that the "Variety Store" often afforded the +first introduction to Warren society; indeed, so sharp was the rivalry +between it, as a lounging-place, and the tavern, that, when a youth was +won over from the bar-room to its counter fascinations, his work of +regeneration was regarded by Mr. Purdo as begun; and the walk round the +corner to the parsonage (which Miss Dinsmore's hats suggested) made his +calling and election sure. + +Entering the store, therefore, on one of my leisure evenings, I was not +surprised to find there a number of Miss Darry's class, and the Reverend +Mr. Purdo himself, who had evidently walked in to discover what young +men had sowed their wild oats and were seeking the "strait and narrer +path" between Miss Dinsmore's counter and the wall. Mr. Purdo was of +middle height, and portly; and there was such a sombre hue about the +entire man,--black suit of clothes, jet-black hair, eyebrows, and +eyes,--that it was a relief to find that Nature had relented in her +mourning over making him, and bestowed a sallow complexion, which strove +to enliven his aspect by an infusion of orange. He greeted me with a +mild and forgiving manner, which at once reminded me of the quiet +strolls I occasionally preferred, on a pleasant Sunday, to a prolonged +sitting and homily in the church; but I was glad of his presence, since +it would be likely to restrain the boisterous mirth of the young men, +when I should make known my errand. + +Since seeing Miss Merton, my imagination had been so filled with the +idea of how complete a transformation Annie Bray would undergo, if only +the ugly garments she wore could be pulled away like weeds from her +sweet, flower-like beauty, that I resolved to expend a part of my money +in buying her a dress. With diffidence, therefore, I made known my wish +to Miss Dinsmore, who responded at once with a ready comprehension of +the whole matter. + +"I know jest what'll suit you, Sandy. Nothin' like vi'let for blue eyes +and yeller hair; my own was like June butter once, but of course it's +been darker since I've grown up" (Miss Dinsmore's gold was fast becoming +silver); "Sary Ann's is changin', too, I see. Miss Bray says she isn't +over-fond of stirrin' round; and I shouldn't wonder if 't was so. Sary +Ann don't look no more like workin' than a buttercup; but then, as I +tell Miss Bray, corn is made for usin' and flowers for starin' at, and I +don't know as any special sign is set on either of 'em to show which is +the best. Don't mind them youngsters, Sandy; they're always pretty +chipper of an evenin'. You see, I've measured off this piece of +calico,--nine yard and a finger; if you like it, seein' it's for you and +Annie, and a remnant, I'd want it to go cheap." + +It was as near the shade of Miss Merton's dress as the coarser material +could copy it; and with all the embarrassment of a novice in such +matters, I signified my wish to take it, when the door swung open to +admit Annie Bray herself, who had come to make some trifling purchase +for her mother. + +"All right, Sandy; we'll settle some other time," whispered Miss +Dinsmore, quite aware that I should scarcely like to make so public a +presentation of my gift, and quietly concealing it in a sheet of +wrapping-paper, while Annie, surprised and pleased at seeing me, +approached the counter. + +"Bless your sweet face, it isn't often I see it of an evenin'," was Miss +Dinsmore's welcome to her favorite. + +"Beauty's but a witherin' flower," said Mr. Purdo, by way of +professional improvement of the occasion, and pointing the remark by a +glance at Miss Dinsmore, whose early bloom he undoubtedly remembered. +"Still it's cause for great gratitude, Sary, that your cheeks are so +rosy,"--here a general laugh warned him of the dangerous admission, and +he added,--"it shows you're healthy, and that's a most aboundin' +blessin'." + +"That's so!" exclaimed Tracy Waters. "You're mighty pretty now, Sary +Ann; and it a'n't no use to look ahead to the time when you won't be, is +it?" + +Annie's cheeks glowed more deeply still now. She was accomplishing her +errand as quickly as possible; and while Miss Dinsmore tied up her +parcel, Tracy Waters bent over her, whispering. It may have been only +that "innate gallantry" alluded to by Miss Darry that made me reprove +his evidently unwelcome admiration. + +"Annie is a shy little thing. Don't you see, Tracy, that she doesn't +like flattery?" I exclaimed, angrily approaching them. + +"I see pretty plain that you don't want her to have it from any other +fellow than yourself," he answered, roughly. "Miss Annie," he added, in +imitation of my manner, "supposin' I see you home?" + +But I pushed past him and went out of the store with her. + +"He says I am to be his little wife by-and-by," said Annie, a most +unusual expression of disgust and alarm ruffling the quiet serenity of +her face; "but that can never be, unless I wish it, can it, Sandy?" + +"I should think not, indeed," I answered, smiling at her earnestness. +"When he speaks of it again, tell him I want you myself." + +"That would be a good way to stop him," she replied, accepting +graciously this solution of her present difficulty. + + +CHAPTER VI. + +Miss Darry, knowing I could borrow books at Hillside, and that those +which I already possessed were the old English classics, bought for me +in the city only a Greek Grammar, through whose intricacies she proposed +to be my guide, and a box of water-colors, and brought to me some lives +of the old painters from Miss Merton's library. + +She bewildered my mind by telling me of all there was in store for it in +the way of work and study. Her interest in my progress seemed to have +received a new impetus from her visit in town. She described the rooms +where were casts of legs and arms, heads and groups of figures, to which +I might one day have access, with the privilege of copying; and in +return I showed her two crayon sketches I had made in her absence. +Michel Angelo might have relished the knotty, muscular development of +the arm I showed her first. If there is beauty and satisfaction in +coarse brute strength, this member of my master's body was worthy of all +praise. On another sheet I had drawn, by way of contrast, Annie's +delicately small and fair, but round, arm and hand, which might have +served in her infancy as models for those of one of Raphael's cherubs. +She liked them both, and said that I should do as well, perhaps, in the +school of Nature as anywhere, for the present. + +She desired me to become a sculptor, for form appealed more strongly to +her nature than color; and it seemed to be tacitly decided between us +that Art was to be my vocation. She thought that my strong hands, +accustomed to labor, could hew my own idea out of the marble for the +present, and save the expense of workmen. And then she described to me +the beautiful marbles she had seen abroad, where the artist's +inspiration was so chastely uttered by the purity of his material, +declaring that a subject which coloring would debase might be worthily +treated by the chisel. And when I exclaimed, that Autumn, with her +glowing palette, was as pure an artist as the old sculptor Winter, +chiselling in unvaried white, she reminded me that Nature was infinite, +handling all themes with equal power and purity; but that man, in +copying, became, as she thought some of the Preraphaelites had done, a +caricaturist, in attempting to follow her too closely. I was unconvinced +by her arguments, but held my newly bought color-box as a means of +proving to her the wisdom of my choice. + +When I was about to leave, she said,-- + +"Sandy, pray don't make an enemy of Tracy Waters on account of any words +you had the other evening about the blacksmith's little girl. He's a +rough, but kind fellow, and your superiority and desire to rise in life +will stir up envy enough of themselves. Why not let him show his +admiration of the child, if he wanted to?" + +"Oh, have they been telling you about that, Miss Darry?" I answered, +awkwardly. "If you knew Annie Bray, you would not ask me why I didn't +let him bend his great rough face over hers. She's only a child in +years, to be sure; but she has a woman's modesty." + +"Oh, well, if she shrank from it, of course, as a gentleman, you were +bound to take her part; but don't spoil your chances in life, Sandy, I +beg, by any entanglement with these villagers of which you may repent. A +pretty country lassie to smile when you look at her would doubtless be a +comforting companion in your struggles. But once attain what you long +for in other ways, and you will crave an intelligent friend, whose +gaucheries shall not forever put you to the blush." + +Miss Darry, in her appreciation of my abilities, sometimes forgot my +lack of attainment. I was not always familiar with her quotations, but +now I was more disturbed by her regarding so seriously my brotherly +devotion to Annie Bray, and by the depreciating estimate which she held +of her. + +"I did not know you looked down so entirely upon our villagers. The only +way in which I could expect to differ from them is through my talent for +painting, if I prove to have any. My mother was a good woman, gentle and +quiet in her ways, but only a farmer's daughter; and though my father +was the village doctor, he studied his profession without any regular +training, and I suppose knew less of chemistry and anatomy than you, +Miss Darry. Annie Bray is as much a lady, in her childish way, as Miss +Merton; only she is the stone in its native soil, and Miss Merton has +been set by the jeweller." + +I was irritated and had spoken warmly, but the bright smile did not +leave Miss Darry's face, as she answered,-- + +"Sandy, you have unmistakably the poetic temperament; but use your brush +on the canvas, and don't color every human being you see. I never could +comprehend why the practical affairs of life should not be ruled by +judgment and reason,--why the mental mansion should not have every +needful arrangement for comfort, though a hundred illusions may fresco +its ceilings. Every child is charming because it is a child, as every +bud is charming because it is a bud, though it may open a poppy or a +rose. I haven't a doubt but this little friend of yours will develop +some qualities of her ignorant ancestors to remove her in a few years +far from your ideal of womanhood. The rare gift of genius is as often +bestowed on the child of common parentage as on any other; but the +refinement which makes a woman a congenial companion is a mingling of +birth, education, and associations, in my opinion. It seems from your +own account, that poverty, not choice, apprenticed you to Amos Bray." + +Her good-nature shamed me, and her unselfish labor for my improvement +touched me more deeply. So, though we did not agree about my profession +or friendship, I said no more. + + +CHAPTER VII. + +As I have said, Miss Darry and I differed about Annie Bray. Yet her +words, having the weight of her greater knowledge of the world, and +really strong, though prejudiced mind, made their impression upon me. +Instead of regarding Annie with the old brotherly interest, I looked +critically now to see if any sign of rude origin betrayed itself in look +or speech. I found only the wayside bloom and sweetness quite peculiar +to herself, and many a quaint, rare fancy born of lonely rambles in +field and wood; but at fourteen, with no outward stimulus to act upon +her life, she was an undeveloped being, a child to be loved and petted, +but no friend for my growing and restless manhood. + +In the evenings I worked hard, endeavoring both to improve myself +intellectually and to progress in my art. I was supplied with constant +reading from the Hillside library; but I had never been there since the +evening when I had driven Miss Darry home. The impression made upon me +at that time by Mr. Lang had not been wholly pleasant. Notwithstanding +his words at the forge, I felt as though he had in some way contended +for making me feel the drawbacks of my position. + +One mild day in April, the Spring sun lay warm upon the earth, and the +wind brought from the woods the delicious scent of early flowers. I had +worked very steadily for several days in sole charge of the smithy; for +Mr. Bray had been away to visit a sister who lived some thirty miles +off. I had handed him quite large profits that morning; so I ventured to +ask for a half-holiday. It was granted, and after dinner I went up to my +room to prepare for it. I had practised in water-colors for the last few +weeks, and intended to surprise Miss Darry with a picture from Nature as +the result of the afternoon's work. So I thrust my paint-box into the +pocket of my portfolio, took a tin cup for water, and ran down stairs. + +Annie was sitting on the door-step studying Gray's Botany, which at odd +moments in the winter I had attended to with her. My heart smote me for +that egotistic contemplation of myself and my prospects which had led me +to neglect her. + +"Come, Annie," I said, "bring your Botany into the woods. We will find +plenty of wild-flowers there, and you shall help me, besides, to paint +my first picture." + +The little face which had looked so dull a moment before brightened at +once. She gained her mother's permission, and was soon walking by my +side. + +On the slope of the hill which led to the stone house where so many of +my dreams centred, we found innumerable bloodroot and anemone blossoms, +with a few buds of trailing arbutus just blushing at their edges. + +Annie had a wonderful fellowship with Nature, liking even its wildest, +most uncouth forms. The snakes, with shining skin and sinuous movement, +glistening like streams of water, or lying coiled like stagnant pools +amid the rank luxuriance of grass and flowers, were as eagerly watched +by her as the most brilliant butterfly that ever fanned a blossom. She +had a faculty for tracing resemblances in the material creation, akin to +that, perhaps, which causes many to see points of likeness in faces, so +that they, as it were, carry their home about with them, and see their +friends in the new costume of every land. + +Childhood and genius alike look through and over the lattice-work which +separates the regions of the natural and the supernatural. She had firm +faith in midnight revels in the woods, held by those elves, fairies, and +satyrs who come down to us from the dim and shaded life of earlier +ages, and whose existence she had eagerly accepted when I hinted its +possibility. Her theory of the mutability of species exceeded Darwin's; +for she fancied that the vegetable world was occasionally endowed with +animal life, and that the luxuriant and often poisonous vines, which +choked by their rude embrace so many tenderer forms of life, waked up, +under some unknown influence, into the snakes, of which she felt as +little fear. + +As for me, I encouraged this tangle of woodland dreams across her brain, +and liked to think she dwelt apart, blind and deaf to all contamination +through its simple power. + +Annie was to-day, therefore, most happy that Spring was reorganizing her +dreamland again; and while I seated myself on a stone to arrange my +materials, she ran to fill the tin cup with water from the brook below. +Then she helped me with my paints, and watched curiously all my +preparations. When these were completed, I said,-- + +"Now, Annie, prepare a little scene for me, and I will paint it." + +At first she was reluctant to make the attempt; but I insisted, and she +did so. + +The tiny thread which fed the stream below trickled over a stone beside +us, making rich with its silver beads of moisture a cushion of moss +beneath. On this Annie heaped bloodroots and anemones, a few early +violets, and one or two arbutus-sprays, and then looked up to see if I +was satisfied. + +"Yes," I said, "if you will sit on that tree-stump, and leave your hand +there." + +She laughed merrily, pleased to be in my first painting. I drew out my +paper, and rapidly sketched the outlines. Then I took my brush; the pale +spring beauties grew beneath its touch, and lay with careless grace on +the soft, damp moss. + +Annie had resumed her Botany as the afternoon wore on, reaching forward +occasionally to note my progress; and her hand lay relaxed, the fingers +loosely clasping the last violets laid down. + +I was giving most affectionate pats of my camel's-hair to the last +little pink nail, feeling more elated at this first attempt than at many +a better picture since, when I heard the tramp of horses' feet in the +road to the left of the meadow where we sat. I was too intent upon my +work to raise my eyes, and Annie sat with her face turned toward the +woods, so that I thought nothing more of it until we were startled by a +voice at a little distance. + +"Well, my young friend, I suppose this studio is open to visitors?" + +I looked up, and saw Miss Merton and Mr. Lang. + +"We were riding, and called at the forge," said Miss Merton, with a +wondering glance at Annie, whose astonishment had not admitted of a +change of position; "and as Mr. Lang heard there you were off on an +excursion, we have been expecting to see you, and caught our first +glimpse as the horses walked up the hill. Won't you introduce us to your +young friend, Mr. Allen?" + +"This is Annie Bray, my master's daughter," I stammered, with a keen and +very unpleasant remembrance of Miss Darry's remarks. + +Annie rose, and returned with natural ease Miss Merton's smile and +kindly greeting, while Mr. Lang bent over to look at my painting. + +"Alice, look here. This is as pretty a bit of water-color as I've ever +seen. A young girl's hand is a gratifying possession, but I am not sure +that I should have stopped with it in the present instance." And he +looked admiringly at Annie's modest beauty. + +Miss Merton walked round the stump, and stood behind me. + +"It is indeed pretty. Miss Annie's hand suggests the idea that these +blossoms at least were not 'born to blush unseen.' It reminds me of our +object in seeking you, Mr. Allen. A friend," she added, with an arch +look at Mr. Lang, "has been audacious enough to give me a costly +picture. I am to have a few friends to admire it to-morrow evening. I +know you will enjoy it; so I want you to come, too." + +"You are very kind, but"----I hesitated. + +"But what?" inquired Mr. Lang. "Speak out boldly, Sandy." + +"I should not think you would care to have a poor blacksmith with your +friends. Let me come another evening." + +"I am sorry, that, judging by your own feelings, you have arrived at +this conclusion," answered Mr. Lang, dryly. "I might have thought, under +similar circumstances, you would have treated us in the same way. Do as +you choose, of course; but remember, blacksmith or artist, no one will +respect you, unless you so thoroughly respect yourself as to hold your +manhood above your profession, and accept every courtesy in the spirit +in which it is offered." + +I began to understand that he would guard me from the vanity and +over-sensitiveness which were the natural outgrowth of my position; yet +I reddened at the implied weakness. + +"Pray don't mind Mr. Lang's criticisms," said Miss Merton, noticing my +confusion. "You certainly do not doubt the sincerity of our invitation?" + +"Not at all," I exclaimed, warmly. + +"Then will you not come to-morrow evening?" + +Yielding to the fascinating persuasiveness of her manner, I now +consented so readily, that Mr. Lang, laughing, asked, in the old +friendly tone,-- + +"Did you paint this picture, Sandy, for any special purpose?" + +"Only that I might show it to Miss Darry." + +"Ah, well, let us take it to her. I have another use for it besides. Are +there any further touches to be given it?" + +I looked; it might have been improved by more work, but I had not the +courage to undertake it before them. So I said I thought it would do. + +He lingered a moment, while Miss Merton spoke a few words to Annie, who +only waited until they reached the stile to express warmly her +admiration of the lovely lady, who had invited her also to come some day +to Hillside, to see the air-plants in her conservatory. + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +When I descended from my room to the kitchen, the next evening, arrayed +for my visit, with all the elegance of which my simple wardrobe +admitted, Mrs. Bray exclaimed,-- + +"Well, Sandy, I protest, you do look smart! But don't be set up, 'cause +you keep high company. I s'pose, knowin Amos was a family man, and +couldn't go visitin' round, they took a notion to you." + +Annie followed me to the door, saying,-- + +"You must remember to tell me about the picture, Sandy, and what they +say of yours; and do look at the plants Miss Merton promised to show me, +and see just how she looks herself." + +"And anything more?" I asked, laughing. + +"Yes,--what they say to you. You look as handsome to-night, Sandy, as +the tall gentleman with Miss Merton,--only such a very different +handsome!" + +"Then you admired his appearance?" I asked, lingering. "I fancied you +were too busy looking at Miss Merton to think of him." + +But Annie continued to unfold her opinion without noticing my remark. + +"I should be afraid he wouldn't care for me, if I didn't look and act +just as he wanted me to. I don't like his way of being handsome, Sandy, +so well as yours." + +Unconsciously, Annie was making her first experiment in analysis; and as +I did not quite relish the basis upon which my beauty rested, I bade her +good-night, and hurried away. + +I knew I was not handsome, yet Annie's naïve admiration undoubtedly +braced me to face the evening. In my gray eye there was nothing of the +soft, dreamy expression usually supposed to accompany the æsthetic +temperament. On the contrary, it had the earnest, scrutinizing glance +peculiar to a more restless intellect than mine. The intent gaze of some +ancestor, perhaps, looked out from these "windows of my soul." If so, +and his spirit was occasionally permitted to view the world through me, +the "fancy gardening" in which I so extensively indulged could scarcely +have been congenial to his tastes. The eye was the salient point, +however, of a countenance not otherwise noticeable, except from a +girlish habit I had of coloring whenever I was suddenly addressed. + +When I reached Hillside, I rang the bell with some trepidation, which +was increased by the announcement of the servant that the ladies were at +the tea-table. This trifling annoyance of presenting myself at the +tea-hour, when expected to pass the evening, was sufficiently serious to +my awkwardness to threaten my enjoyment of the visit; but I had scarcely +seated myself in the library when Miss Darry appeared. + +"I hoped you would be in doubt as to the hour of coming, Sandy, and get +here early," she said, smiling brightly. "You must let me thank you for +painting that picture for me to look at; I even admired the little white +hand of your plebeian friend, it was so charmingly done." + +I could not be annoyed at this mingling of praise and badinage, +especially when she relieved me from all sense of intrusion. Moreover, +she looked so brilliant, so sparkling and happy, that I watched her, +amazed at the metamorphosis from her ordinarily calm, intellectual +conversation and plain appearance. + +"I thought perhaps you would keep the picture to please me, Miss Darry," +I faltered, feeling that I was presenting it to an entirely new +character. + +She accepted it, however, most graciously, and led me into the +conservatory, that I might assist her in arranging some baskets of +flowers for the parlor-tables. + +"I never did believe in conservatories," she exclaimed, as I expressed +my admiration of the many rare plants. "It is as unnatural a life for +flowers to be crowded together, each in its little pot of earth, as for +human beings in their separate beds in a hospital. The idea of shutting +up plants and pictures in a room by themselves, to be visited on state +occasions, or when some member of the family in a vagrant mood chances +unexpectedly among them, seems to me preposterous." + +Meanwhile she ran in and out among the flower-stands, breaking off +branches of flame-colored azalea, creamy, voluptuous-looking callas, and +a variety of drooping blossoms and sprays of green, with a reckless +handling of their proud beauty, which I involuntarily contrasted with +Annie Bray's timid, half-caressing touch of the wild-flowers. + +The umber-colored silk she wore toned down what I, who fancied the +delicate sea-shell hue of blondes, should have termed her rather strong +colors; and now, bent on my enjoyment rather than improvement, she +looked much younger, and certainly far handsomer, than I had supposed +she could. Her entire self-possession, the familiarity with which she +approached human beings, Nature, and Art, were to me so many indications +of her power, and because of my own awe in the presence of any +revelation of beauty or intellect, seemed the more wonderful. In +admiration of her ease, I became at ease myself, and was thoroughly +enjoying her gay mood, which puzzled while it charmed me, when the glass +door opening into the drawing-room was pushed aside, and Mr. Lang +entered. + +"Good evening, Sandy. Alice and Mr. Leopold have been inquiring for you, +Miss Darry; but don't run away with those baskets so quickly. I want a +few blossoms for Alice's hair. Yours is gorgeous, tropical. Sandy's here +has as much of a wild-wood appearance as exotics will admit of. One +would think Nature was in league with Darley in making these ferns; they +are outlines merely; but this rich red japonica in the centre, on its +cushion of white flowers, shows you a genuine colorist, Sandy." + +Miss Darry, making some gay reply, gave me a basket, which, designedly +or not, made me less awkwardly conscious of my hands, and we entered the +drawing-room. Unaccustomed to gayeties of any kind, I was quite dazzled +by the sudden and brilliant blaze of light, the few guests already +assembled, and by Miss Merton's beauty enveloped in soft floating folds +of gossamer, looking as though the mist itself had woven her a garment. +No time, however, was given in which I could relapse into +self-consciousness. Miss Darry occupied me with various statuettes and +engravings, until Mr. Lang rejoined us, accompanied by a gentleman whom +he introduced to me as Mr. Leopold, the painter of the picture which I +was to see in the course of the evening. Although my reading had +necessarily been limited, Miss Darry's persistent training, and my own +voracious appetite for information in everything relating to the arts, +had given me a somewhat superficial knowledge of the pictures, style, +and personal appearance of the best old and modern painters. In spite of +some obstinate facts tending to a different conclusion, I had imbibed +the conventional idea of a genius, that he must dwell in an etherealized +body,--and Mr. Leopold's stalwart frame, full, florid face, and +well-rounded features were a surprise and disappointment. I expected the +Raphaelesque,--tender grace and melancholy; but about these frank blue +eyes and full red lips lurked the good-nature of a healthy school-boy, +the quaint, unchecked humor of a man upon whose life had fallen the +sunshine of prosperity. + +"So, you are the young man, Mr. Allen, who painted the Spring Flowers +and the Maiden's Hand," he said, in a full, rich voice, and with a +genial smile. "It is evident, you, too, are in your spring-time, while +I, near my autumn, can afford to refer to the peculiarities of that +period. I cannot regret that you have a life of struggle before you; for +it is not merely the pleasing fancy which paints fine pictures. You +would have let a sunbeam play over that little hand, had you possessed +the technical knowledge to manage it: now, wouldn't you?" + +I crimsoned, assenting as though to a crime. + +"Effects of sunlight on bright colors are sometimes very striking," he +continued. "A crimson flower wet with dew and nodding in sunshine is a +kind of tremulous rainbow, which a man might well like to copy. We must +make a compact to help each other, Mr. Allen, I want to study human +nature, and would like an introduction to all the oddities of the +village." + +I promised to make him acquainted with them, wondering meanwhile that he +craved for his culture what I regarded as the chief obstacle to mine. + +"You shall meet Sandy at the forge some day, when work is over, and +visit the villagers," said Mr. Lang. "Miss Darry, shall you or I take +Mr. Allen to see the picture? He may like a longer inspection of it than +some of us." + +I looked imploringly at Miss Darry, who, slipping her hand within my +arm, led me into a room corresponding to the conservatory in size and +position. The walls were mostly covered with cabinet-pictures, and among +several larger ones was the recent addition by Mr. Leopold. At my first +glance, I was conscious of that sense of disappointment which comes to +us when our imagination devises an ideal beauty, which human hands rob +of delicacy by the very act of embodiment: moreover, how could I, in my +dreamy, undeveloped boy-life, with a fancy just awakened, and revelling +in its own tropical creations, appreciate the simple strength, the grand +repose of the picture before me? What appeared barren to me in the man +and his works was born of the very depth of a nature which, in copying +the Infinite, had learned not only the tender beauty of flowers, the +consolations of the clouds, the grandeur of mountains, seas, and rocks, +but the beauty of common scenes, the grass and herbage of daily +intercourse and use. Touching the world at all points, he had something +to give and receive from nearly every one he met; and, as Sydney Smith +has said Dr. Chalmers was a thousand men in one, I can say that he had +the versatility and power of ten ordinary artists. At the time, however, +nothing of all this was in my mind; only a certain sense of satisfaction +took the place of disappointment, as I looked at the picture. He had +given clearly the impression of magnitude in the gigantic mass of gray +limestone which juts out of the deep blue Spanish sea. Misty flakes of +dispersing cloud above suggested the recent rain which had clothed its +frequently barren sides with a mantle of verdure. A few bell-shaped +blossoms hung over crevices of rock, fearless in the frail foothold of +their thread-like stems, as innocent child-faces above a precipice. It +was in this simple way, and by the isthmus of sand connecting it to the +continent, long and level, like the dash Nature made after so grand a +work, before descending to the commonplaces of ordinary creation, that +he had toned down the grandeur of stern old Gibraltar. + +Miss Darry Indulged me long in my desire to look at the first fine +picture I had ever seen; but when other guests entered, we withdrew to +the farther side of the room, where I was not left in undisturbed +possession of her society, though conscious that she never, for a +moment, lost sight of me or my manner of acquitting myself. Miss Merton, +Miss Darry, Mr. Lang, Mr. Leopold, and a few others, formed the group of +talkers; and I stood within the circle, a listener, until Miss Darry and +Mr. Leopold obliged me to participate. They had an admirable power of +drawing each other out, and he seemed greatly attracted by her brilliant +criticisms of life and Art. Had I known of the theory which, robbed of +its metaphysical subtilties, is advanced in some of our fashionable +romances, I should have been convinced that evening that Miss Darry was, +intellectually at least, my counterpart. If I faltered in my vocabulary, +when expressing an opinion or replying to a question, she supplied the +missing word, or by glance and approving smile reassured me to recall +it; if my thought lacked shape and completeness, she gave it a few sharp +cuts with the chisel of her keen wit and clear intellect, handing it +back for me to color as I chose. Miss Merton, lovely as she was, shone +with a lesser light that evening in Miss Darry's presence; yet Mr. Lang, +tempted away for a moment, always rejoined her with an admiring smile, +well pleased at fascinations less indiscriminately exercised. + +A little later, as I again approached Mr. Leopold's picture, not +venturing to return to the parlors, now that Miss Darry was engrossed by +other gentlemen, I became an unwilling listener to a few words of +conversation between Miss Merton and Mr. Lang, who stood just outside +the door. + +"What a girl Frank Darry is for accomplishing everything she +undertakes!" said Miss Merton, admiringly; "how she has improved her +_protégé_! he can talk on subjects where I have to be silent, though I +have had what dear mamma used to call a 'finished education.'" + +"Yes, darling. She has made his mental growth very rapid; but, in the +process of cultivation, he is gaining a little false pride, which I hope +is not of her planting. He blushes, whenever his trade is alluded to: +foolish fellow! not to see that the very fact of being a blacksmith is +his claim to superiority. A thoroughly trained youth might have done far +more than he without any special ability." + +"But, Hamilton, you may misconstrue blushes which are so frequent; he is +in a new world, too; do give him a chance to make himself at home, +before you criticize him. You must admit I was right about his not +annoying one by any decided awkwardness of behavior." + +"Oh, yes, dear. A certain sense of fitness goes with the artistic +temperament. I suppose old Dr. Johnson, devouring his food and drinking +innumerable cups of tea, might be a far more shocking social companion +than this blacksmith's apprentice. You are always drawing out the +lovable traits of people, dear Alice," he added, in a lower tone; "and +that is a thousand times better than Frank Darry's intellectual +developments." + +They turned away then; and I, angry at being forced to listen at all to +what was not meant for my ear, and the more so that Mr. Lang had spoken +of me so depreciatingly, stood burning with shame and indignation. Annie +Bray's undoubting faith and love would have comforted me without a word +of spoken confidence; but she was not here to give it; and, longing for +the reassurance of Miss Darry's presence, I entered the +drawing-room,--but would gladly have withdrawn again, for Mr. Lang came +quickly toward me. + +"Sandy," he said, "this may not be exactly the time to discuss business +matters with you; but your friends seem to feel that you deserve a +better chance in the world. Mr. Bray, to whom I spoke yesterday, says +you were not bound to serve him after your eighteenth birthday, but that +you have never expressed a wish to leave. Don't you see what a foolish +fellow you are to work for him, when you might be earning for yourself?" + +"But I have had no money to start with. I have had time for study, too," +I stammered. + +"Two reasons sufficient for an abstracted youth like you, but utterly +unpractical. I want you to hire a forge this side of Warren. I will +insure you custom enough to warrant the step." + +He looked at me keenly as he spoke, while I colored with the pride and +indignation which, since his words to Miss Merton a few moments before, +I had been trying to control. Was this to be the end of all my hopes, +the object of Miss Darry's instructions, her flattering encouragements +and exaggerated estimate of my "genius," as she had termed it, that I +might have a forge of my own, to which I should be compelled to give +undivided attention, and shoe Mr. Lang's horses, and possibly some +others belonging to Miss Merton's visitors? Yet, remembering how much +had been already, if unwisely, done for me, I held down these thoughts, +and, after a momentary pause, professed my willingness to think the +matter over, if I could reserve time for other pursuits. His face +lighted up, then, with the smile which had charmed me at the forge. + +"You are not spoiled yet, Sandy, I see. If you will only keep to your +trade, I will keep you to your art. You must have a boy at the forge, +and in the afternoons you can come here and paint under Mr. Leopold's +direction: he makes his home here during the summer, and he says you +have a talent worth cultivation." + +The revulsion of feeling was as complete as he could have desired; and I +had not fully expressed my gratitude when Miss Darry appeared. I went +with her to bid Miss Merton good-evening, and she stood in the moonlight +beside me on the step, as Annie Bray had done a few hours before; but +now I also was a changed character. + +"I am proud of my pupil, Sandy," she said, with more of her ordinary +manner than I had observed during the evening. "If I can place you in +better hands than mine, I shall be willing to give you up." + +"Give me up? never!" I cried, "Why, Miss Darry, this evening has proved +to me that I could not sustain myself in any untried position without +some help from you." + +She smiled, saying I was ridiculously unconscious of my own ability, and +yet looking gratified, I fancied, at the confession. + +(_To be continued._) + + + + +THE PROGRESS OF THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. + + +In the spring of 1860 an article was published in this magazine with the +above title, giving an account of the extension of the telegraph up to +that time. Its progress since has been very great in every quarter of +the globe. Upon this continent the electric wire extends from the Gulf +of St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico, and from the Atlantic to the +Pacific Ocean, connecting upwards of six thousand cities and villages; +while upon the Eastern Continent unbroken telegraphic communication +exists from London to all parts of Europe,--to Tripoli and Algiers, in +Africa,--Cairo, in Egypt,--Teheran, in Persia,--Jerusalem, in +Syria,--Bagdad and Nineveh, in Asiatic Turkey,--Bombay, Calcutta, and +other important cities, in India,--Irkoutsk, the capital of Eastern +Siberia,--and to Kiakhta, on the borders of China. + +But however rapid the extension of the telegraph has been in the past, +it is destined to show still greater advancement in the future. Neither +the American nor the European system has yet attained to its ultimate +development. Transient wars now delay the establishment of lines in San +Juan, Panama, Quito, Lima, Valparaiso, Buenos Ayres, Montevideo, Rio +Janeiro, Surinam, Caraccas, and Mexico, and the incorporating of them, +with all their local ramifications, into one American telegraph system. +The Atlantic cable, although its recent attempted submergence has proved +a failure, will yet be successfully laid; while the equally important +enterprise of establishing overland telegraphic communication with +Europe _viâ_ the Pacific coast and the Amoor River is now being +vigorously pushed forward towards its successful completion. + +The latter project, which is being carried out by the Western Union +Extension Telegraph Company, with a capital of ten million dollars, +embraces the construction of a line of telegraph from New Westminster, +British Columbia, the northern terminus of the California State +Telegraph Company, through British Columbia and Russian America to Cape +Prince of Wales, and thence across Behring's Strait to East Cape; or, if +found more practicable, from Cape Romanzoff to St. Lawrence Island, +thence to Cape Tchuktchi, and thence by an inland route around the Sea +of Okhotsk to the mouth of the Amoor River. At this point it is to be +joined by the line now being constructed by the Russian Government to +connect with Irkoutsk, where a line of telegraph begins, which stretches +through Tomsk and Omsk, in Western Siberia, Katharinburg, on the +Asiatic-European frontier, Perm, Kasan, Nijni-Novogorod, and Moscow, to +St. Petersburg. + +This line, which was projected by Perry McDonough Collins, Esq., United +States Commercial Agent for the Amoor River, with its extension by the +Russian Government to Irkoutsk, is the link now wanted to supply direct +and unbroken telegraphic communication from Cape Race, in Newfoundland, +on the eastern coast of America, across the Western Continent, the +Pacific Ocean, and the Eastern Continent, to Cape Clear, in Ireland, the +westernmost projection of Europe; and when a submarine cable shall be +successfully laid between Cape Clear and Cape Race, will complete a +telegraphic circuit around the earth between the parallels of forty-two +and sixty-five degrees of north latitude. + +The chief difficulties to be anticipated in Mr. Collins's enterprise are +the extent of the territory to be traversed, its wild and rugged surface +formation, and the uncivilized character of its inhabitants. + +The distance to be traversed through British America is six hundred +miles; through Russian America, nineteen hundred miles; the length of +the submarine cable across Behring's Strait, four hundred miles; and the +distance from East Cape, by an inland passage around the Sea of +Okhotsk, and through the settlements of Okhotsk, Ayan, and Shanter's +Bay, which are well-known stations of the whale-fishery, to the mouth of +the Amoor River, is about twenty-five hundred miles. The entire length +of the line would thus be about five thousand four hundred miles. + +That portion of the route which lies through British Columbia is chiefly +mountainous, but divided into three ranges, whose courses are from north +to south, while intervening valleys invite the introduction of +telegraphs and roads. The Pacific coast of Russian America is mainly +level. The portion of Siberia which lies between East Cape and the head +of the Sea of Okhotsk is, for a large extent, a steppe or plain, with +gentle elevations occasionally rising into mountainous ridges. At the +head of the Sea of Okhotsk a range of mountains must be crossed; and the +region lying between that range and the mouth of the Amoor River is of +the same character as that before mentioned, which extends from the same +range northward to East Cape. The electric telegraph has already been +carried over steppes, in both continents, similar to those above +described; and the Pacific telegraph line, in crossing the Sierra +Nevada, rises to an elevation greater than that which is to be +surmounted on this line. + +Suitable timber for setting up the line can be found on those portions +of the route lying within British Columbia and the Russian dominions on +each continent, with the exception of an unwooded steppe five hundred +miles wide on each side of Behring's Strait. Here the needful timber can +be brought near to the line, either by sea or from the forest-covered +shores of navigable rivers. + +The temperature of the region through which the northern part of the +line would pass is very low; but the winter is less severe than between +the same parallels of latitude on the Atlantic coast. The telegraphic +line which connects St. Petersburg with Archangel, on the White Sea, and +that also which passes around the Gulf of Bothnia and connects St. +Petersburg with Tornea, are maintained in operation without difficulty, +although they cross as high parallels of latitude as those which lie in +the way of this overland line to Europe. The waters of Behring's Strait +are about one hundred and eighty feet deep, and they are frozen through +one half of the year; but the congealed mass, when broken, generally +takes the form of anchor ice, and not that of iceberg. Thus climate +seems to offer no serious obstacle to the enterprise; while it is worthy +of consideration that in high latitudes timber is far less perishable +than in low, and less insulating material is required in cold regions +than in more genial climates. + +Indian tribes are found along the American part of the route, but they +have been so well subjected to the influences of society and government, +through the operations of the fur-trade, that no serious resistance from +them is apprehended. The inhabitants of Asiatic Russia, who dwell +inland, are nomadic Tartars, affecting much independence, but they are, +nevertheless, not savages, like the American natives. After centuries of +internal war, they have now settled into a state of semi-civilization, +in which they are accustomed to barter with whalers, with exploring +parties, and with the Government agents of Russia, and they are +hospitably inclined by that intercourse. Thus it is seen that there are +no insuperable obstacles, either physical or social, in the way of this +projected line of intercontinental telegraph. + +From New Westminster, the capital of British Columbia, situated on +Frazer River, about fifteen miles from its mouth, and the terminus of +the California State Telegraph, the line of the Collins Overland +Telegraph has already been commenced. A letter from Mr. F. L. Pope, +Assistant-Engineer of the Overland Company, dated June 13th, 1865, +states that the work on this portion of the line is proceeding with +great energy. Scarcely two months had elapsed since active operations +were commenced; and yet during that time nearly three hundred miles of +poles had been cut and prepared for use, a large number had been set, +and the remainder had been already distributed along the line. The poles +are nearly all of cedar, and of good size, and will form one of the most +durable lines on the American continent. When the extremely mountainous +and difficult nature of the country along the Frazer River is taken into +consideration, the rapidity with which this large amount of work has +been done is extraordinary. It seems quite probable that the line will +be finished the present season from New Westminster to Quesnell River, +the terminus of the wagon-road to the mines. + +The Colonial Government are now engaged in cutting a road from New +Westminster to Yale, a distance of about ninety miles, along which the +wire will be carried. There has heretofore been no communication between +these points except by water. The river is bordered on both sides by +high mountains and dense forests of heavy timber, with an almost +impenetrable undergrowth. Notwithstanding these difficulties, Mr. +Conway, one of the telegraph engineers, made an exploration of the +entire route, during the latter part of last winter, on snow-shoes, +being at one time three days in the woods without food or blankets. + +From Yale to the Quesnell River, a distance of some three hundred miles, +the line will follow the wagon-road, which has been built at an enormous +expense by the Colonial Government, as a means of communication with the +gold-mining regions of Carriboo. It will be a matter of considerable +difficulty to set up a line of telegraph over that portion of this road +which passes through the great canon, as in many places the road has a +perpendicular wall of rock upon one side and a perpendicular precipice +on the other, and in one place is carried around the face of a cliff in +this manner, at an elevation of some two thousand feet, directly over +the river, being in some places blasted out of the solid rock, and in +others supported by a sort of staging. + +Two exploring parties have been dispatched from San Francisco: one to +examine the route through Eastern Siberia, between Behring's Strait and +the Amoor; and the other to follow the proposed route up the Frazer +River in British Columbia, and thence along the valley supposed to exist +between the Rocky Mountains and the Coast Range, to the head-waters of +Pelly River, following down the valley of this river and the Yerkin, +into which it empties, to a point near the mouth of the latter, or in +the neighborhood of Behring's Strait. + +The Pacific Telegraph Line, which will form an important link in the +overland line to Europe, was projected in 1859, when the measure was +first brought to the attention of Congress. A bill in aid of the project +was passed after some opposition, and proposals for the construction of +the line were invited by Secretary Cobb. Mr. Hiram Sibley, President of +the Western Union Telegraph Company, who was really the originator of +the whole enterprise, submitted to the directors of the Company the +question of authorizing him to send in proposals; but so formidable did +the undertaking appear, that the proposition was carried only by a +single vote. + +After long and tedious delays on the part of Secretary Cobb, the +contract for building the line was awarded, on the 20th of September, +1860, to Mr. Sibley, on behalf of the Western Union Telegraph Company. +The Company at once assumed the contract, and furnished all the money +required for the line east of Salt Lake. + +Mr. J. H. Wade, of Cleveland, one of the officers of the Company, now +visited California to confer with parties familiar with the various +routes, to determine where and how to build the line, and to arrange +with the telegraph companies in the Pacific States to extend their lines +eastward and form a business connection. The California Company agreed +to assume the construction of the line to Salt Lake City, and, if +possible, to have it completed to that point as soon as the line from +the eastward reached there. The route selected was _viâ_ Forts Kearney, +Laramie, and Bridger, crossing the Rocky Mountains at the South Pass, +and thence to Salt Lake City; and from this point, _viâ_ Forts +Crittenden and Churchill, across the Sierra Nevada Mountains to +Placerville and San Francisco. Mr. Edward Creighton, who had already +surveyed the proposed route, and was convinced of the feasibility of +maintaining a line over it, was appointed superintendent of +construction. + +The Company was organized April 17th, 1862, after which time nearly all +the wire, insulators, and other material had to be manufactured before +the construction of the line could be proceeded with. The reader can +judge of the extent of the preparations required for setting up two +thousand miles of telegraph through a wilderness inhabited only by +Indians and wild beasts, and a part of which was a desert. The materials +and tools were taken to Omaha, Kansas, at which point everything +necessary for the enterprise was gathered in readiness to start +westward. + +Of the force employed on the Pacific side we have no knowledge; but for +the line from Omaha to Salt Lake City, Mr. Creighton had four hundred +men, fitted out for a hard campaign, with a rifle and navy-revolver for +each man, and with the necessary provisions, including one hundred head +of cattle for beef, to be driven with the train and killed as needed. +For the transportation of the material and the supplies for this army of +workmen, five hundred oxen and mules and over one hundred wagons were +purchased by the Company; and these not proving sufficient, other +transportation was hired, making the total number of beasts of burden +seven hundred oxen and one hundred pair of mules. + +The first pole was set up on the 4th of July, 1862, and the line was +completed to Salt Lake on the 18th of October following,--the California +party reaching the same point six days later. The work proceeded at the +rate of about ten miles per day. + +The whole line is upon poles,--it being thought best to cross the rivers +in this manner rather than by means of submarine cables. The country is +for the most part bare of wood; the longest distance, however, that +timber had to be drawn in one stretch was two hundred and forty miles. +The poles are of large size, and stand eighty to the mile, more than +half of red cedar, the remainder mostly pine. On the highest mountains, +where the snow accumulates to a great depth during the winter, they are +of extra size, and sufficiently tall to keep the wires above the deepest +snow; they are also placed close enough together to prevent the wire +being broken by an accumulation of snow and sleet. + +The wire used in this line is No. 9 iron, zinc-coated, weighing three +hundred and fifty pounds to the mile, and the total weight used between +Omaha and San Francisco amounts to seven hundred thousand pounds. The +insulators are of glass, protected by a wooden shield, of the pattern +known as the Wade insulator. + +The line is worked by Morse instruments, usually direct from Chicago to +Salt Lake, Hicks's self-acting repeaters being kept in the circuit at +Omaha and Fort Laramie. At Salt Lake the messages are rewritten, and +thence sent direct to San Francisco. The stations average about one for +each fifty miles, and the whole length of the line is inspected twice a +week by persons employed for the purpose. The cost of construction was +about two hundred and fifty dollars per mile. + +No trouble was experienced from Indian depredations until the last +winter. Up to that time the line had worked almost uninterruptedly. Even +during the Indian difficulties of the previous summer and autumn, which +compelled the suspension of the overland mail, the telegraph was not in +any manner molested by the savages. This was supposed to be owing in a +great measure to the influence of superstitious fear among them in +regard to the wire, which they supposed to be under the especial care of +the Great Spirit; but it was probably largely due also to the many kind +offices done them by the telegraph-operators, who frequently ascertained +where the buffalo were in force, and informed their red-skinned +neighbors, who were thus enabled to find their favorite game. The charm +is now, however, unfortunately, dispelled; and the savages take every +opportunity to break and carry off the wire and destroy the poles. +Government is dispatching a large force of cavalry to punish the +marauders and protect the line, which it is to be hoped may prove +effectual. + + * * * * * + +It has already been mentioned that the Russian Government has undertaken +to extend the main eastern and western line from Irkoutsk to the mouth +of the Amoor River. This extension is now rapidly progressing. But this +is only a single and not very prominent part of the work which the +Emperor of Russia has begun. His design embraces nothing less than the +following stupendous works, namely:-- + +A line, with the necessary submarine cables, from the mouth of the Amoor +River, across the Straits of Tartary, over the island of Sakhalien, +across the Straits of La Pérouse, over the Island of Jesso, through +Hakodadi, and across the Straits of Sangar, to Jeddo, the capital of +Japan. + +A line from the confluence of the Usuri with the Amoor, seven hundred +miles above the mouth of the latter, thence southward, on the bank of +the Usuri, to Lake Kingka, and thence to the port of Vladi Vastok, on +the coast of Tartary, opposite the port of Hakodadi, on the eastern +coast of the Japanese Sea. Vladi Vastok is selected by the Emperor for +his naval station on the Pacific coast. + +A line from Irkoutsk, the capital of Eastern Siberia, through Kiakhta, +now the entrepôt of European and Chinese overland commerce, through the +vast territory of the Mongols, to the gate in the Chinese wall at Yahol, +and thence to Pekin, the capital of the Chinese Empire.[E] + +A line from a station on the main continental line at Omsk, near the +southern boundary of Asiatic Russia, passing through Mongolia, and +entering China at Hirck, sometimes called Illy, thence crossing +Turkistan, Bokhara, and Balk, to Cabool, in Afghanistan, thence to +capital places in the Punjaub, where it will meet the telegraphic system +of India, and thus become a medium of communication between London and +the colonial dependencies of Great Britain, Holland, Spain, and +Portugal, on the shores and islands of the great Indian Ocean. + +A line from Kasan, on the main central Russian line, through Georgia and +Circassia, along the western shore of the Caspian Sea, to Teheran, the +capital of Persia, thence to the Tigris, at Bagdad, thence descending +along the banks of that river to the head of the Persian Gulf, there to +be connected with the Oriental telegraph system of India. + +The line from Irkoutsk to Pekin American citizens residing in China are +now soliciting, with good prospect of success, permission from the +Chinese Government to extend through the Empire, with the needful +branches, connecting the principal ports along the Pacific coast, +opposite California. A company to carry out this project has been +organized under the laws of the State of New York. The wires of this +company are first to be put up from Canton to Macao and Hong Kong, a +distance of 140 miles,--Canton having a population of 1,000,000, +Hong-Kong of 40,000, and the trade of both cities world-famous. Lying +245 miles north is Amoy, with 250,000 inhabitants; and 120 miles farther +in the same direction is Foochow, a city with a population of 600,000, +and within 70 miles of the black-tea districts, with large commerce, and +with numerous manufactures of great value. Beyond it 250 miles is +Ningpo, with 300,000 inhabitants, and thriving manufactures of silks. +Eighty miles north is Shanghai, a city of not less than 200,000 +inhabitants, and possessing a larger inland or native trade than any +other in China. Yet between these great marts there is no telegraphic +communication whatever,--nor, indeed, is there a line in any part of the +whole Chinese Empire. The company proposes, therefore, to connect these +great commercial cities, and, having done that, to carry on its line to +Nankin, with its 400,000 inhabitants, and thence to Pekin, which has a +population of 2,000,000, and is the capital of an empire spread over an +area of 5,000,000 square miles, and containing more than 420,000,000 +souls, who pay to the Government an annual revenue of $120,000,000. It +may well be understood, that, for Government purposes alone, a line of +telegraph thus extending between the chief cities of China will prove of +incalculable value, alike in its use, and in its profits to those who +erect it and receive its income. The enterprise is a great one, but its +reward will be great. Its successful accomplishment seems to be well +assured; and New York may expect presently to claim the honor of first +giving to the oldest of existing empires the beneficent invention which +the newest of nations created, and at the same time of taking the final +step for the completion of the one great line which is to put all the +countries of the earth in instant communication. + +A line from Calcutta to Canton is already undertaken by an English +company, with due authority from the British Government. + +In Australia there are now in operation twelve thousand miles of +telegraph-wire. This Australian system, which is at present so purely +local and isolated, is nevertheless expected to be brought into +combination, by alternating submarine and island wires, with the Chinese +and Russian line above described. + +The statistics of the telegraph-lines in Great Britain show not only an +increase in the number of lines, but a great augmentation in the amount +of business transacted. In 1861 there were 11,528 miles of line open for +public use; in 1862, 12,711 miles; and in 1863, 13,892 miles, comprising +65,012 miles of wire. Last year, the number of stations was augmented in +like proportion; and facilities were offered for the transmission of +telegraphic dispatches at no fewer than 1,755 stations, containing 6,196 +instruments, through which about 3,400,000 telegrams were sent. In +addition to the lines on British soil, the Submarine Telegraph Company +has cables stretching to Calais, Boulogne, Dieppe, Jersey, Ostend, +Hanover, and Denmark, with which the other lines are more or less in +connection, covering 887 miles with 2,683 miles of wire. This company +has upwards of 3,000 stations on the Continent. The messages sent by it +to and from foreign countries were, in 1861, 230,000; in 1862, 310,595; +and in 1863, 345,784. + +France possesses a system comprising 71,034 miles of wire and 1,301 +stations, which transmit about 1,500,000 private dispatches annually, +and nearly 175,000 official ones. Russia has 36,663 miles of wire; +Austria, 22,230; Italy, 20,120; Prussia, 24,149; Spain, 17,743; Belgium, +3,773; Switzerland, 3,720; Turkey, 6,571; Persia, 2,500; Greece, 3,000; +India, 10,994, and 136 stations; Australia, 12,000; South Australia, +2,000; the United States, 120,000; the British Provinces in America, +20,000;--making a total of upwards of 440,000 miles of aërial wire in +operation in all parts of the world. + + * * * * * + +The following tables give the details of the principal cables hitherto +laid by all makers. They are divided into three heads: 1st, Those which +have been wholly successful, and are now working (September, 1865); 2d, +Those which were partially successful, having worked for a time; 3d, +Those which wholly failed, or never worked after their submergence. + +TABLE I. + +_Submarine Telegraph Cables which are now in Successful Working Order._ + +Column A: No. +Column B: Date when laid. +Column C: From +Column D: To +Column E: Number of conducting wires. +Column F: Length of cable in statute miles. +Column G: Length of insulated wire in statute miles. +Column H: Maximum depth of water in fathoms. +Column I: Weight in tons per statute mile. +Column J: Length of time the cables have worked. Years. + +A B C D E F G H I J + +1 1851 Dover Calais 4 27 108 30 6.00 14 +2 1852 Keyhaven Hurst Castle 4 3 12 .. .. 13 +3 1853 Denmark Across the Belt 3 18 54 15 4.00 12 +4 1853 Dover Ostend 6 80-1/2 483 30 5.75 12 +5 1853 Firth of Forth ... 4 5 20 .. 7.00 12 +6 1853 England Holland 1 120 120 30 1.75 12 +7 1853 Portpatrick Donaghadee 6 25 150 160 6.00 12 +8 1854 Portpatrick Whitehead 6 27 162 150 6.00 11 +9 1854 Sweden Denmark 3 12 36 14 6.00 11 +10 1854 Italy Corsica 6 120 660 325 8.00 11 +11 1854 Corsica Sardinia 6 10 60 20 8.00 11 +12 1855 Egypt ... 4 10 40 .. 6.00 10 +13 1855 Italy Sicily 1 5 5 27 6.00 10 +14 1856 Prince Edward Cape Breton 1 12 12 14 2.50 9 + Island +15 1857 Norway across ... 1 49 49 300 2.75 8 + Fiords +16 1857 Across mouth of ... 1 3 3 .. 1.75 8 + Danube +17 1857 Ceylon India 1 60 60 45 2.75 8 +18 1858 Italy Sicily 1 8 8 60 5.25 7 +19 1858 England Holland 4 140 560 30 9.75 7 +20 1858 England Hanover 2 280 560 30 3.00 7 +21 1858 Norway across ... 1 16 16 300 2.75 7 + Fiords +22 1858 Dardanelles Scio 1 115 115 200 1.00 7 +23 1858 Scio Syra 1 85 85 200 1.00 7 +24 1859 Alexandria ... 4 2 8 .. 5.25 6 +25 1859 England Denmark 3 360 1,104 30 4.00 6 +26 1859 Scio Smyrna 1 40 40 40 1.00 6 +27 1859 Syra Athens 1 105 105 150 1.00 6 +28 1859 Sweden Gottland 1 64 64 80 2.50 6 +29 1859 Folkestone Boulogne 6 24 144 32 9.50 6 +30 1859 Across rivers ... 1 10 10 .. 4.50 6 + in India +31 1859 Otranto Avlona 1 50 50 400 1.00 6 +32 1859 Malta Sicily 1 60 60 79 3.25 6 +33 1859 Jersey Pirou in France 1 21 21 15 3.75 6 +34 1859 South Australia Tasmania 1 140 140 60 2.00 6 +35 1860 France Algiers 1 520 520 1,585 1.14 5 +36 1860 Denmark (Great Belt) 6 14 84 18 8.00 5 +37 1860 Denmark (Great Belt) 3 14 42 18 6.00 5 +38 1860 In Arracan ... 1 116 116 50 1.00 5 +39 1860 Barcelona Port Mahon 1 198 198 1,400 1.25 5 +40 1860 Minorca Majorca 2 35 70 250 2.00 5 +41 1860 Iviza Majorca 2 74 148 500 2.00 5 +42 1860 San Antonio Iviza 2 76 152 450 2.00 5 +43 1861 Corfu Otranto 1 90 90 1,000 2.75 4 +44 1861 Norway across ... 1 16 16 300 2.75 4 + Fiords +45 1861 Toulon Corsica 1 195 195 1,550 1.14 4 +46 1861 Malta Alexandria 1 1,535 1,535 420 1.85 4 +47 1861 Beachy Head Dieppe 6 80 320 30 8.00 4 +48 1862 Abermawr Grenore 4 63 252 58 5.25 3 +49 1862 England Holland 4 130 520 30 9.00 3 +50 1862 Across rivers ... 1 2 2 .. .. 3 + in Ireland +51 1862 Firth of Forth ... 4 6 24 7 .. 3 +52 1862 Fortress Monroe Cherrystone 1 23 23 .. .. 3 +53 1862 Fortress Monroe Newport News 1 3 3 .. .. 3 +54 1863 Sardinia Sicily 1 243 243 1,200 .. 2 +55 1864 Gwadur Fao 1 1,450 1,450 .. .. 1 + (Persian Gulf) + _____ ______ + 6,979 11,127 + +In addition to the above, there have been laid across American rivers, +since 1854, 95 lines, in lengths of from 120 feet to two miles, and +comprising from 120 feet to 6 miles of insulated wire each,--making an +aggregate of 250 miles of subaqueous wire in operation on this +continent, and a total of 6,979 miles of cable, and 11,127 miles of +submarine wire in operation in all parts of the world. + +TABLE II. + +_Submarine Telegraph Cables which have been successful for some Time, +but are not now working._ + +Column A: No. +Column B: Date when laid. +Column C: From +Column D: To +Column E: Number of conducting wires. +Column F: Length of cable in statute miles. +Column G: Length insulated wire in statute miles. +Column H: Maximum depth of water in fathoms. +Column I: Weight in tons per statute mile. +Column J: Length of time the cables have worked. + + A B C D E F G H I J + + 1 1850 Dover Calais 1 25 25 30 .. 1 day. + 2 1853 England Holland 1 360 360 30 2.00 5 yrs. + (Three Cables) + 3 1854 Holyhead Howth 1 75 75 70 2.00 5 " + 4 1854 Nantucket Cape Cod 1 25 25 16 .. .... + 5 1855 Varna Balaklava 1 355 355 300 0.10 9 mos. + 6 1855 Balaklava Eupatoria 1 1 1 .. .. 9 " + 7 1856 Martha's Vineyard Cape Cod 1 5 5 15 .. 2 wks. + 8 1856 Newfoundland Cape Breton 1 85 85 360 2.50 9 yrs. + 9 1857 Sardinia Bona 4 150 600 1,500 .. 3 " +10 1857 Varna Constantinople 1 170 170 .. 0.75 5 " +11 1857 Cape Cod Naushon 1 1 .. .. .. 2 " +12 1857 Martha's Vineyard Nantucket 1 30 30 16 .. 4 " +13 1857 Sardinia Corfu 1 700 700 1,000 0.90 1 " +14 1858 England Channel Islands 1 102 102 60 2.50 3 " +15 1858 Ireland(Atlantic) Newfoundland 1 2,500 2,500 2,400 1.00 23 ds. +16 1859 Singapore Batavia 1 630 630 20 0.04 2 yrs. +17 1859 Suez Kurrachee 1 3,500 3,500 1,910 0.94 6 mos. + (Red Sea & India) +18 1859 Spain Africa (Centa) 1 25 25 .. 1.00 1 yr. +19 1859 England Isle of Man 1 36 36 30 2.50 3 yrs. +20 1859 South Australia Tasmania 1 100 100 60 2.00 1 yr. +21 1859 Liverpool Holyhead 2 25 50 14 3.10 1 " +22 1859 Syra Candia 1 150 150 .. 0.89 3 yrs. +23 1860 Across the Mersey .. 1 3 3 .. .. 1 yr. + _____ _____ + 9,053 9,527 + +TABLE III. + +_Submarine Telegraph Cables Which Are Total Failures._ + +Column A: No. +Column B: Date when laid. +Column C: From +Column D: To +Column E: Number of conducting wires. +Column F: Length of cable in statute miles. +Column G: Length of insulated wire in statute miles. +Column H: Maximum depth of water in fathoms. +Column I: Weight in tons per statute mile. + + A B C D E F G H I + + 1 1852 Holyhead Howth 1 75 75 70 0.45 + 2 1852 Portpatrick Donaghadee 2 17 34 160 .. + 3 1852 Portpatrick Donaghadee 5 15 75 160 4.80 + 4 1854 Holyhead Howth 1 65 65 70 2.00 + 5 1855 Sardinia Africa 6 50 300 800 8.00 + 6 1855 Cape Ray Cape North 3 30 90 360 .. + 7 1855 Sardinia Africa 3 160 480 1,500 3.70 + 8 1857 Ireland Newfoundland 1 300 300 2,400 .. + (Lost in laying) + 9 1859 Candia Alexandria 1 150 150 1,600 0.89 +10 1865 Ireland Newfoundland 1 1,300 1,300 2,400 1.75 + +It will be seen from the above list of failures, that the great +extension and success of submarine cables has been attained through many +great failure,--among the most prominent being the old and new Atlantic, +the Red Sea and India, (which was laid in five sections, that worked +from six to nine months each, but was never in working order from end to +end,) the Singapore and Batavia, and Sardinia and Corfu. None of these +cable, with the exception of the new Atlantic, were tested under water +after manufacture, and every one of them was covered with a sheathing of +light iron wire, weighing in the aggregate only about fifteen hundred +pounds per mile. + +These two peculiarities are sufficient to account for every failure +which has occurred, with the exception of the new Atlantic. No +electrical test will show the presence of flaws in the insulating cover +of a wire, unless water, or some other conductor, enters the flaws and +establishes an electrical connection between the outside and inside of +the cable. All cables now manufactured are tested under water before +being laid. + + * * * * * + +Communication between the Ottoman capital and Western Europe passes +through Vienna. From this city to Constantinople there are two distinct +lines,--one passing by Semlin and Belgrade to Adrianople, the other by +Toultcha, Kustendji, and Varna. There is a third line to Adrianople by +Bucharest; and by the opening of the submarine line between Avlona and +Otranto, in Italy, the Turkish telegraph service will be in direct +communication with the West, without going through Servia or the +Moldo-Wallachian Principalities. + +Communication between Constantinople and India is maintained over the +following route:--To Ismid, 55 miles; thence to Mudurli, 104 miles; +thence to Angora, 111 miles; thence to Guzgat, 113 miles; thence to +Sivas, 140 miles; Kharpoot, 178 miles; Diarbekir, 77 miles; Mardeen, 61 +miles; Djezireh, 104 miles; Mosul, (Nineveh,) 91 miles; Kerkook, 114 +miles; Bagdad, 189 miles. From Bagdad to Fao, at the mouth of the +Shat-el-Arab, on the Persian Gulf, is 400 miles. From Fao to Kurrachee +the submarine cable stretches along the bottom of the Persian Gulf for +1,450 miles; and thence are 500 miles of aërial line across a portion of +British India to Bombay. + +The accounts of the successful opening of this line tell of the +astonishment of the savage Beloochees and Arabs along the Mekran coast +at the marvel of a blue spark flashing for the Sahib to the Indus and +back again in less time than it takes to smoke a hookah. At Gwadur, no +sooner was the cable landed than the people of the surrounding country +flocked down to hear and talk of the Feringhee witchcraft. Chiefs of the +Beloochees, Muscatees, and Heratees, with their retainers, trod upon +each other's toes in their eagerness to see it work. Gwadur has given up +the idea that Mahomet taught everything that could be known, and now +sits upon the carpet of astonishment and chews the betel-nut of +meditation. + +The establishment of the electric telegraph in India presented some +curious as well as difficult problems. In the first place, it was +discovered that the air of India is in a state of constant electrical +perturbation of the strongest kind, so that the instruments there +mounted went into a high fever and refused to work. Along the north and +south lines a current of electricity was constantly passing, which threw +the needles out of gear and baffled the signallers. Moreover, the +tremendous thunder-storms ran up and down the wires and melted the +conductors; the monsoon winds tore the teak-posts out of the sodden +ground; the elephants and buffaloes trampled the fallen lines into kinks +and tangles; the Delta aborigines carried off the timber supports for +fuel, and the wires or iron rods upon them to make bracelets and to +supply the Hindoo smitheries; the cotton- and rice-boats, kedging up and +down the river, dragged the subaqueous wires to the surface. In addition +to these graver difficulties were many of an amusing character. Wild +pigs and tigers scratched their skins against the posts in the jungle, +and porcupines and bandicoots burrowed them out of the ground. Kites, +fishing-eagles, and hooded-crows came in hundreds and perched upon the +line to see what on earth it could mean, and sometimes after a +thunder-storm, when the wires were wet, were found dead by dozens, the +victims of their curiosity, Monkeys climbed the posts and ran along the +lines, chattering, and dropping an interfering tail from one wire to +another, which tended to confound the conversations of Calcutta. +Parrots, with the same contempt for electrical insulation, fastened upon +one string by the beak and another by the leg; and in one village, the +complacent natives hung their fishing-lines to dry upon them. + +In 1856 there were four thousand miles of telegraph-wire stretched over +India: some upon bamboo posts, which bent to the storms and thus defied +them; some, as in the Madras Presidency, upon monoliths of +granite,--these, during the Mutiny, proving worth ten times their cost. + + * * * * * + +Whilst the telegraph has been thus rapidly encircling the globe with its +iron threads, great improvement has been made in the apparatus for +transmitting the electrical signals over them. Instruments called +translators, or repeaters, have been devised, by which aërial lines may +be operated, without repetition, over distances of many thousands of +miles. Through the use of this valuable invention upon the California +line, operators in New York and San Francisco are able to converse as +readily and rapidly as those situated at the extremities of a line only +a hundred miles in length. + +The enormous increase in the amount of matter to be transmitted over the +wires has stimulated the inventive genius of our own country and Europe +to produce an apparatus by which the capacity of a wire may be greatly +increased. Mr. M. G. Farmer of Boston, Mr. J. G. Smith of Portland, +Maine, Dr. Gintl of Germany, and one or two other persons, have solved +the problem of the simultaneous transmission of messages over a single +wire in opposite directions. But while their apparatus, with the proper +arrangement of batteries, will unquestionably permit the accomplishment +of this apparent paradox, the natural disturbances upon a wire of any +considerable length, together with the inequalities of the current +caused by escape in wet weather, have precluded its practical use. + +In this country, General Lefferts of New York, and in Europe, Professor +Bonelli, have devoted much time and expense to the perfection of +apparatus for securing greater rapidity of transmission over the aërial +lines. + +General Lefferts owns several patents covering inventions of great +ingenuity and value, which are now being perfected and will shortly be +brought into operation. The apparatus consists of an instrument, +operated by keys similar to those of a piano-forte, for punching +characters, composed of dots and lines, upon a narrow strip of paper. +The paper, when thus prepared, is passed rapidly through an instrument +attached to a telegraph-wire, at the other end of which is a similar +instrument which runs in unison. The first instrument is provided with a +flexible metallic comb, which presses through the perforations in the +paper and thus closes the circuit at each dot and line, while the second +instrument is provided with a metallic stylus, or pointer, which rests +upon a fillet of paper prepared with chemicals, and produces, whenever +the circuit is closed, dots and lines of a dark blue color upon the +prepared paper. When the paper is prepared by the perforating apparatus, +it can be run through the instrument at any rate of speed that is +desirable, and it is estimated that with this apparatus one wire may +easily perform as much work in a day as ten can under the ordinary +arrangement. + +In Professor Bonelli's system the dispatch is set up in printing-type, +and placed on a little carriage, which is made to pass beneath a comb +with five teeth, which are in communication with five aërial wires of +the line, at the extremity of which these same wires are joined to the +five teeth of a second comb, under which passes a chemically prepared +paper, carried along on a little carriage similar to the one at the +other end on which the printing-type is placed. If under this +arrangement the electric circuit of a battery composed of a sufficient +number of elements, and distributed in a certain order, be completed, +then, at the same time that the first comb is passing over the +printing-type at the one end, the second comb at the other end will +trace the dispatch on the prepared paper in beautiful Roman letters, and +with so great a rapidity that it may be expected that five hundred +messages of twenty words each will be transmitted hourly. + +On Wednesday, April 19th, the day of Mr. Lincoln's funeral, eighty-five +thousand words of reports were transmitted between Washington and New +York, between the hours of 7, P. M., and 1, A. M., being at the rate of +over fourteen thousand words per hour. Nine wires were employed for the +purpose. Thirteen thousand six hundred words were transmitted by the +House printing instruments on a single wire after half past seven +o'clock. + +A telegraphic message was recently received in London from India in +eight hours and a half. This message was forwarded by the Indo-European +Telegraph Company, _viâ_ Kurrachee and the Persian Gulf, crossing one +half of Asia and the whole of Europe. + +During the late Rebellion in this country the telegraph was extensively +employed both by the Government and the Insurgents. In the course of the +past year, there have been in the service of the Government thirty +field-trains, distributed as follows:--In the Army of the Potomac, five; +in the Department of the Cumberland, five; in the Department of the +Gulf, three; in the Department of North Carolina and Virginia, three; in +the Department of the South, two; in the Department of the Tennessee, +six; in the Department of the Ohio, two; at the Signal Camp of +Instruction, Georgetown, D. C., three; at the United States Military +Academy, West Point, New York, one. Of these trains, some were equipped +with five, and others with ten miles of insulated wire. There were +carried in the trains lances for setting up the wire, when +necessary,--reels, portable by hand, carrying wire made purposely +flexible for this particular use,--and various minor appliances, which +experience has proved useful. A military organization was directed for +each train. + +In duty of this kind, the construction of the trains, the equipment to +be carried by them, and the military organization to be provided for +their use, to enable them to be most rapidly and anywhere brought into +action, are the subjects for study: the particular instrument to be +equipped is a secondary consideration. The soldiers drilled to the duty +of construction acquire in a short time a remarkable skill in the rapid +extension of these lines. As was anticipated, they have proved valuable +auxiliaries to the services of the corps, and have sometimes rendered +them available when they would have been otherwise useless. The greatest +distance at which the instruments are reported to have worked is twenty +miles. The average distances at which they are used are from five to +eight miles. The average speed of the most rapid construction is +reported to be at the rate of a slow walk. + +At the first Battle of Fredericksburg field-trains were for the first +time in the history of the war used on the battle-field, under the fire +of the enemy's batteries. The movements to be made on the day of that +battle were of the first magnitude. The movements of the retreat were +perilous to the whole army. The trains in use contributed something to +the success of those movements. + +Many incidents are recorded of operators accompanying raiding parties +into the enemy's territory and tapping the telegraph-lines, sometimes +obtaining valuable information. One is related by the "Selma Rebel." The +operator at that place was called to his instrument by some one up the +Tennessee and Alabama Road, who desired information as to the number of +the forces and supplies at Coosa Bridge. After getting all the +information he could, regarding the location and strength of the Rebel +forces, he informed the Selma operator that he was attached to the +expedition under General Wilson, and that, at that particular time, he +was stationed with his instruments up a tree near Monticello, in the +hardest rain he ever saw! Permission being given, he sent a dispatch to +a young lady in Mobile, and another to a telegraph-operator in the Rebel +lines, telling him he loved him as much as before the war. After some +other conversation, the Yankee operator clambered down from the tree, +mounted his horse, and rode away. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[E] The Chinese Government has been informed by the Russian Ambassador +that the Russian portion of this line to Pekin will be completed by the +first of January, 1868. + + + + +THE FIELD OF GETTYSBURG. + + +In the month of August, 1865, I set out to visit some of the scenes of +the great conflict through which the country has lately passed. + +On the twelfth, I reached Harrisburg,--a plain, prosaic town of brick +and wood, with nothing especially attractive about it, except its +broad-sheeted, shining river, flowing down from the Blue Ridge, around +wooded islands, and between pleasant shores. + +It is in this region that the traveller from the North first meets with +indications of recent actual war. The Susquehanna, on the eastern shore +of which the city stands, forms the northern limit of Rebel military +operations. The "highwater mark of the Rebellion" is here: along these +banks its uttermost ripples died. The bluffs opposite the town are still +crested with the hastily constructed breastworks, on which the citizens +worked night and day in the pleasant month of June, 1863, throwing up, +as it were, a dike against the tide of invasion. These defences were of +no practical value. They were unfinished when the Rebels appeared in +force in the vicinity. Harrisburg might easily have been taken, and a +way opened into the heart of the North. But a Power greater than man's +ruled the event. The Power that lifted these azure hills, and spread out +the green valleys, and hollowed a passage for the stream, appointed to +treason also a limit and a term. "Thus far, and no farther." + +The surrounding country is full of lively reminiscences of those +terrible times. Panic-stricken populations flying at the approach of the +enemy; whole families fugitive from homes none thought of defending; +flocks and herds, horses, wagon-loads of promiscuously heaped household +stuffs and farm produce; men, women, children, riding, walking, running, +driving or leading their bewildered four-footed chattels,--all rushing +forward with clamor and alarm under clouds of dust, crowding every road +to the river, and thundering across the long bridges regardless of the +"five-dollars-fine" notice (though it is to be hoped that the +toll-takers did their duty):--such were the scenes which occurred to +render the Rebel invasion memorable. The thrifty German farmers of the +lower counties did not gain much credit either for courage or patriotism +at that time. It was a panic, however, to which almost any community +would have been liable. Stuart's famous raid of the previous year was +well remembered. If a small cavalry force had swept from their track +through a circuit of about sixty miles over two thousand horses, what +was to be expected from Lee's whole army? Resistance to the formidable +advance of one hundred thousand disciplined troops was of course out of +the question. The slowness, however, with which the people responded to +the State's almost frantic calls for volunteers was in singular contrast +with the alacrity each man showed to run off his horses and get his +goods out of Rebel reach. + +From Harrisburg, I went, by the way of York and Hanover, to Gettysburg. +Having hastily secured a room at a hotel in the Square, (the citizens +call it the "Di'mond,") I inquired the way to the battle-ground. + +"You are on it now," said the landlord, with proud satisfaction,--for +it is not every man that lives, much less keeps a tavern, on the field +of a world-famous fight. "I tell you the truth," said he; and, in proof +of his words, (as if the fact were too wonderful to be believed without +proof,) he showed me a Rebel shell imbedded in the brick wall of a house +close by. (N. B. The battle-field was put into the bill.) + +Gettysburg is the capital of Adams County: a town of about three +thousand souls,--or fifteen hundred, according to John Burns, who +assured me that half the population were Copperheads, and that they had +no souls. It is pleasantly situated on the swells of a fine undulating +country, drained by the headwaters of the Monocacy. It has no special +natural advantages,--owing its existence, probably, to the mere fact +that several important roads found it convenient to meet at this point, +to which accident also is due its historical renown. The circumstance +which made it a burg made it likewise a battle-field. + +About the town itself there is nothing very interesting. It consists +chiefly of two-story houses of wood and brick, in dull rows, with +thresholds but little elevated above the street. Rarely a front yard or +blooming garden-plot relieves the dreary monotony. Occasionally there is +a three-story house, comfortable, no doubt and sufficiently expensive, +about which the one thing remarkable is the total absence of taste in +its construction. In this respect Gettysburg is but a fair sample of a +large class of American towns, the builders of which seem never once to +have been conscious that there exists such a thing as beauty. + +John Burns, known as "the hero of Gettysburg," was almost the first +person whose acquaintance I made. He was sitting under the thick shade +of an English elm in front of the tavern. The landlord introduced him as +"the old man who took his gun and went into the first day's fight." He +rose to his feet and received me with sturdy politeness,--his evident +delight in the celebrity he enjoys twinkling through the veil of a +naturally modest demeanor. + +"John will go with you and show you the different parts of the +battle-ground," said the landlord. "Will you, John?" + +"Oh, yes, I'll go," said John, quite readily; and we set out at once. + +A mile south of the town is Cemetery Hill, the head and front of an +important ridge, running two miles farther south to Round Top,--the +ridge held by General Meade's army during the great battles. The Rebels +attacked on three sides,--on the west, on the north, and on the east; +breaking their forces in vain upon this tremendous wedge, of which +Cemetery Hill may be considered the point. A portion of Ewell's Corps +had passed through the town several days before, and neglected to secure +that very commanding position. Was it mere accident, or something more, +which thus gave the key to the country into our hands, and led the +invaders, alarmed by Meade's vigorous pursuit, to fall back and fight +the decisive battle here? + +With the old "hero" at my side pointing out the various points of +interest, I ascended Cemetery Hill. The view from the top is beautiful +and striking. On the north and east is spread a finely variegated farm +country; on the west, with woods and valleys and sunny slopes between, +rise the summits of the Blue Ridge. + +It was a soft and peaceful summer day. There was scarce a sound to break +the stillness, save the shrill note of the locust, and the perpetual +click-click of the stone-cutters, at work upon the granite headstones of +the soldiers' cemetery. There was nothing to indicate to a stranger that +so tranquil a spot had ever been a scene of strife. We were walking in +the time-hallowed place of the dead, by whose side the martyr-soldiers, +who fought so bravely and so well on those terrible first days of July, +slept as sweetly and securely as they. + +"It don't look here as it did after the battle," said John Burns. "Sad +work was made with the tombstones. The ground was all covered with dead +horses, and broken wagons, and pieces of shells, and battered muskets, +and everything of that kind, not to speak of the heaps of dead." But +now the tombstones have been replaced, the neat iron fences have been +mostly repaired, and scarcely a vestige of the fight remains. Only the +burial-places of the slain are there. _Thirty-five hundred and sixty +slaughtered Union soldiers lie on the field of Gettysburg._ This number +does not include those whose bodies have been claimed by friends and +removed. + +The new cemetery, devoted to the patriot slain, and dedicated with +fitting ceremonies on the 19th of November, 1863, adjoins the old one. +In the centre is the spot reserved for the monument, the corner-stone of +which was laid on the 4th of July, 1865. The cemetery is semicircular, +in the form of an amphitheatre, except that the slope is reversed, the +monument occupying the highest place. The granite headstones resemble +rows of semicircular seats. Side by side, with two feet of ground +allotted to each, and with their heads towards the monument, rest the +three thousand five hundred and sixty. The name of each, when it could +be ascertained, together with the number of the company and regiment in +which he served, is lettered on the granite at his head. But the +barbarous practice of stripping such of our dead as fell into their +hands, in which the Rebels indulged here as elsewhere, rendered it +impossible to identify large numbers. The headstones of these are +lettered, "Unknown." At the time when I visited the cemetery, the +sections containing most of the unknown had not yet received their +headstones, and their resting-places were indicated by a forest of +stakes. I have seen few sadder sights. + +The spectacle of so large a field crowded with the graves of the slain +brings home to the heart an overpowering sense of the horror and +wickedness of war. Yet, as I have said, not all our dead are here. None +of the Rebel dead are here. Not one of those who fell on other fields, +or died in hospitals and prisons in those States where the war was +chiefly waged,--not one out of those innumerable martyred hosts lies on +this pleasant hill. The bodies of once living and brave men, slowly +mouldering to dust in this sanctified soil, form but a small, a single +sheaf from that great recent harvest reaped by Death with the sickle of +war. + +Once living and brave! How full of life, how full of unflinching courage +and fiery zeal, they marched up hither to fight the great fight, and to +give their lives! And each man had his history; each soldier resting +here had his interests, his loves, his darling hopes, the same as you or +I. All were laid down with his life. It was no trifle to him, it was as +great a thing to him as it would be to you, thus to be cut off from all +things dear in this world, and to drop at once into a vague eternity. +Grown accustomed to the waste of life through years of war, we learn to +think too lightly of such sacrifices. "So many killed,"--with that brief +sentence we glide over the unimaginably fearful fact, and pass on to +other details. We indulge in pious commonplaces,--"They have gone to a +better world, they have their reward," and the like. No doubt this is +true; if not, then life is a mockery, and hope a lie. But the future, +with all our faith, is vague and uncertain. It lies before us like one +of those unidentified heroes, hidden from sight, deep-buried, +mysterious, its headstone lettered "Unknown." Will it ever rise? Through +trouble, toils, and privations,--not insensible to danger, but braving +it,--these men--and not these only, but the uncounted thousands +represented by these--confronted, for their country's sake, that awful +uncertainty. Did they believe in your better world? Whether they did or +not, this world was a reality, and dear to them. + +I looked into one of the trenches in which workmen were laying +foundations for the headstones, and saw the ends of the coffins +protruding. It was silent and dark down there. Side by side the soldiers +slept, as side by side they fought. I chose out one coffin from among +the rest, and thought of him whose dust it contained,--your brother and +mine, although we never knew him. I thought of him as a child, tenderly +reared--for this. I thought of his home, his heart-life:-- + + "Had he a father? + Had he a mother? + Had he a sister? + Had he a brother? + Or was there a nearer one + Still, and a dearer one + Yet, than all other?" + +I could not know: in this world, none will ever know. He sleeps with the +undistinguishable multitude, and his headstone is lettered, "Unknown." + +Eighteen loyal States are represented by the tenants of these graves. +New York has the greatest number,--upwards of eight hundred; +Pennsylvania comes next in order, having upwards of five hundred. Tall +men from Maine, young braves from Wisconsin, heroes from every state +between, met here to defend their country and their homes. Sons of +Massachusetts fought for Massachusetts on Pennsylvania soil. If they had +not fought, or if our armies had been annihilated there, the whole North +would have been at the mercy of Lee's victorious legions. As Cemetery +Hill was the pivot on which turned the fortunes of the battle, so +Gettysburg itself was the pivot on which turned the destiny of the +nation. Here the power of aggressive treason culminated; and from that +memorable Fourth of July when the Rebel invaders, beaten in the three +days' previous fight, stole away down the valleys and behind the +mountains on their ignominious retreat,--from that day, signalized also +by the fall of Vicksburg in the West, it waned and waned, until it was +swept from the earth. + +Cemetery Hill should be the first visited by the tourist of the +battle-ground. Here a view of the entire field, and a clear +understanding of the military operations of the three days, are best +obtained. Looking north, away on your left lies Seminary Ridge, the +scene of the first day's fight, in which the gallant Reynolds fell, and +from which our troops were driven back in confusion through the town by +overwhelming numbers, in the afternoon. Farther south spread the +beautiful woods and vales that swarmed with Rebels on the second and +third day, and from which they made such desperate charges upon our +lines. On the right as you stand is Culp's Hill, the scene of Ewell's +furious, but futile, attempts to flank us there. You are in the focus of +a half-circle, from all points of which was poured in upon this now +silent hill such an artillery fire as has seldom been concentrated upon +one point of an open field in any of the great battles upon this planet. +From this spot extend your observations as you please. + +Guided by the sturdy old man, I proceeded first to Culp's Hill, +following a line of breastworks into the woods. Here are seen some of +the soldiers' devices hastily adopted for defence. A rude embankment of +stakes and logs and stones, covered with earth, forms the principal +work; aside from which you meet with little private breastworks, as it +were, consisting of rocks heaped up by the trunk of a tree, or beside a +larger rock, or across a cleft in the rocks, where some sharpshooter +stood and exercised his skill at his ease. + +The woods are of oak chiefly, but with a liberal sprinkling of chestnut, +black-walnut, hickory, and other common forest-trees. Very beautiful +they were that day, with their great, silent trunks, all so friendly, +their clear vistas and sun-spotted spaces. Beneath reposed huge, sleepy +ledges and boulders, their broad backs covered with lichens and old +moss. A more fitting spot for a picnic, one would say, than for a +battle. + +Yet here remain more astonishing evidences of fierce fighting than +anywhere else about Gettysburg. The trees in certain localities are all +seamed, disfigured, and literally dying or dead from their wounds. The +marks of balls in some of the trunks are countless. Here are limbs, and +yonder are whole tree-tops, cut off by shells. Many of these trees have +been hacked for lead, and chips containing bullets have been carried +away for relics. + +Past the foot of the hill runs Rock Creek, a muddy, sluggish stream, +"great for eels," said John Burns. Big boulders and blocks of stone lie +scattered along its bed. Its low shores are covered with thin grass, +shaded by the forest-trees. Plenty of Rebel knapsacks and haversacks lie +rotting upon the ground; and there are Rebel graves in the woods near +by. By these I was inclined to pause longer than John Burns thought it +worth the while. I felt a pity for these unhappy men which he could not +understand. To him they were dead Rebels, and nothing more; and he spoke +with great disgust of an effort which had been made by certain +"Copperheads" of the town to have all the buried Rebels, now scattered +about in the woods and fields, gathered together in a cemetery near that +dedicated to our own dead. + +"Yet consider, my friend," I said, "though they were altogether in the +wrong, and their cause was infernal, these, too, were brave men; and +under different circumstances, with no better hearts than they had, they +might have been lying in honored graves up yonder, instead of being +buried in heaps, like dead cattle, down here." + +Is there not a better future for these men also? The time will come when +we shall at least cease to hate them. + +The cicada was singing, insects were humming in the air, crows were +cawing in the tree-tops, the sunshine slept on the boughs or nestled in +the beds of brown leaves on the ground,--all so pleasant and so pensive, +I could have passed the day there. But John reminded me that night was +approaching, and we returned to Gettysburg. + +That evening I walked alone to Cemetery Hill to see the sun set behind +the Blue Ridge. A quiet prevailed there still more profound than during +the day. The stonecutters had finished their day's work and gone home. +The katydids were singing, and the shrill, sad chirp of the crickets +welcomed the cool shades. The sun went down, and the stars came out and +shone upon the graves,--the same stars which were no doubt shining even +then upon many a vacant home and mourning heart left lonely by the +husbands, the fathers, the dear brothers and sons, who fell at +Gettysburg. + +The next morning, according to agreement, I went to call on the old +hero. I found him living in the upper part of a little whitewashed +two-story house, on the corner of two streets, west of the town. A +flight of wooden steps outside took me to his door. He was there to +welcome me. John Burns is a stoutish, slightly bent, hale old man, with +a light blue eye, a long, aggressive nose, a firm-set mouth, expressive +of determination of character, and a choleric temperament. His hair, +originally dark brown, is considerably bleached with age; and his beard, +once sandy, covers his face (shaved once or twice a week) with a fine +crop of silver stubble. A short, massy kind of man; about five feet four +or five inches in height, I should judge. He was never measured but once +in his life. That was when he enlisted in the War of 1812. He was then +nineteen years old, and stood five feet in his shoes. "But I've growed a +heap since," said the old hero. + +He introduced me to his wife, a slow, somewhat melancholy old lady, in +ill health. "She has been poorly now for a good many years." They have +no children. + +At my request he told me his story. He is of Scotch parentage; and who +knows but he may be akin to the ploughman-poet whose "arrowy songs still +sing in our morning air"? He was born and bred in Burlington, New +Jersey. A shoemaker by trade, he became a soldier by choice, and fought +the British in what used to be the "last war." I am afraid he contracted +bad habits in the army. For some years after the war he led a wandering +and dissipated life. Forty years ago he chanced to find himself in +Gettysburg, where he married and settled down. But his unfortunate +habits still adhered to him, and he was long looked upon as a man of +little worth. At last, however, when there seemed to be no hope of his +ever being anything but a despised old man, he took a sudden resolution +to reform. The fact that he kept that resolution, and still keeps it so +strictly that it is impossible to prevail upon him to taste a drop of +intoxicating liquor, attests a truly heroic will. He was afterwards a +constable in Gettysburg, in which capacity he served some six years. + +On the morning of the first day's fight he sent his wife away, telling +her that he would take care of the house. The firing was near by, over +Seminary Ridge. Soon a wounded soldier came into the town and stopped at +an old house on the opposite corner. Burns saw the poor fellow lay down +his musket, and the inspiration to go into the battle seems then first +to have seized him. He went over and demanded the gun. + +"What are you going to do with it?" asked the soldier. + +"I'm going to shoot some of the damned Rebels!" replied John. + +He is not a swearing man, and the strong adjective is to be taken in a +strictly literal, not a profane, sense. + +Having obtained the gun, he pushed out on the Chambersburg Pike, and was +soon in the thick of the skirmish. + +"I wore a high-crowned hat, and a long-tailed blue; and I was seventy +years old." + +The sight of so old a man, in such costume, rushing fearlessly forward +to get a shot in the very front of the battle, of course attracted +attention. He fought with the Seventh Wisconsin Regiment, the Colonel of +which ordered him back, and questioned him, and finally, seeing the old +man's patriotic determination, gave him a good rifle in place of the +musket he had brought with him. + +"Are you a good shot?" + +"Tolerable good," said John, who is an old fox-hunter. + +"Do you see that Rebel riding yonder?" + +"I do." + +"Can you fetch him?" + +"I can try." + +The old man took deliberate aim and fired. He does not say he killed the +Rebel, but simply that his shot was cheered by the Wisconsin boys, and +that afterwards the horse the Rebel rode was seen galloping with an +empty saddle. "That's all I know about it." + +He fought until our forces were driven back in the afternoon. He had +already received two slight wounds, and a third one through the arm, to +which he paid little attention: "only the blood running down my hand +bothered me a heap." Then, as he was slowly falling back with the rest, +he received a final shot through the leg. "Down I went, and the whole +Rebel army ran over me." Helpless, nearly bleeding to death from his +wounds, he lay upon the field all night. "About sun-up, next morning, I +crawled to a neighbor's house, and found it full of wounded Rebels." The +neighbor afterwards took him to his own house, which had also been +turned into a Rebel hospital. A Rebel surgeon dressed his wounds; and he +says he received decent treatment at the hands of the enemy, until a +Copperhead woman living opposite "told on him." + +"That's the old man who said he was going out to shoot some of the +damned Rebels!" + +Some officers came and questioned him, endeavoring to convict him of +"bushwhacking"; but the old man gave them little satisfaction. This was +on Friday, the third day of the battle; and he was alone with his wife +in the upper part of the house. The Rebels left, and soon after two +shots were fired. One bullet entered the window, passed over Burns's +head, and struck the wall behind the lounge on which he was lying. The +other shot fell lower, passing through a door. Burns is certain that the +design was to assassinate him. That the shots were fired by the Rebels +there can be no doubt; and as they were fired from their own side, +towards the town, of which they held possession at the time, John's +theory was plainly the true one. The hole in the window, and the +bullet-marks in the door and wall remain. + +Burns went with me over the ground where the first day's fight took +place. He showed me the scene of his hot day's work,--pointed out two +trees, behind which he and one of the Wisconsin boys stood and "picked +off every Rebel that showed his head," and the spot where he fell and +lay all night under the stars and dew. + +This act of daring on the part of so aged a citizen, and his subsequent +sufferings from wounds, naturally called out a great deal of sympathy, +and caused him to be looked upon as a hero. But a hero, like a prophet, +has not all honor in his own country. There's a wide-spread, violent +prejudice against Burns among that class of the townspeople termed +"Copperheads." The young men, especially, who did _not_ take their guns +and go into the fight as this old man did, but who ran, when running was +possible, in the opposite direction, dislike Burns. Some aver that he +did not have a gun in his hand that day, and that he was wounded by +accident, happening to get between the two lines. Others admit the fact +of his carrying a gun into the fight, but tell you, with a sardonic +smile, that his "motives were questionable." Some, who are eager enough +to make money on his picture, sold against his will, and without profit +to him, will tell you in confidence, after you have purchased it, that +"Burns is a perfect humbug." + +After studying the old man's character, conversing both with his friends +and enemies, and sifting evidence, during four days spent in Gettysburg, +I formed my conclusions. Of his going into the fight, and _fighting_, +there is no doubt whatever. Of his bravery, amounting even to rashness, +there can be no reasonable question. He is a patriot of the most zealous +sort; a hot, impulsive man, who meant what he said, when he started with +the gun to go and shoot some of the Rebels qualified with the strong +adjective. A thoroughly honest man, too, I think; although some of his +remarks are to be taken with considerable allowance. His temper causes +him to form immoderate opinions and to make strong statements. "_He +always goes beyant_," said my landlord, a firm friend of his, speaking +of this tendency to overstep the bounds of calm judgment. + +Burns is a sagacious observer of men and things, and makes occasionally +such shrewd remarks as this:-- + +"Whenever you see the marks of shells and bullets on a house all covered +up, and painted and plastered over, that's the house of a Rebel +sympathizer; but when you see them all preserved and kept in sight, as +something to be proud of, that's the house of a true Union man." + +Well, whatever is said or thought of the old hero, he is _what he is_, +and has satisfaction in that, and not in other people's opinions; for so +it must finally be with all. _Character_ is the one thing valuable. +_Reputation_, which is a mere shadow of the man, what his character is +_reputed_ to be, is, in the long run, of infinitely less importance. + +I am happy to add that the old man has been awarded a pension. + +The next day I mounted a hard-trotting horse and rode to Round Top. On +the way I stopped at the historical peach-orchard, known as Sherfy's, +where Sickles's Corps was repulsed, after a terrific conflict, on +Thursday, the second day of the battle. The peaches were green on the +trees then; but they were ripe now, and the trees were breaking down +with them. One of Mr. Sherfy's girls--the youngest, she told me--was in +the orchard. She had in her basket rareripes to sell. They were large +and juicy and sweet,--all the redder, no doubt, for the blood of the +brave that had drenched the sod. So calm and impassive is Nature, +silently turning all things to use! The carcass of a mule, or the +godlike shape of a warrior cut down in the hour of glory,--she knows no +difference between them, but straightway proceeds to convert both alike +into new forms of life and beauty. + +Between fields made memorable by hard fighting I rode eastward, and, +entering a pleasant wood, ascended Little Round Top. The eastern slope +of this rugged knob is covered with timber. The western side is steep, +and wild with rocks and bushes. Near by is the Devil's Den, a dark +cavity in the rocks, interesting henceforth on account of the fight that +took place here for the possession of these heights. A photographic +view, taken the Sunday morning after the battle, shows eight dead Rebels +tumbled headlong, with their guns, among the rocks below the Den. + +A little farther on is Round Top itself, a craggy tusk of the rock-jawed +earth pushed up there towards the azure. It is covered all over with +broken ledges, boulders, and fields of stones. Among these the +forest-trees have taken root,--thrifty Nature making the most of things +even here. The serene leafy tops of ancient oaks tower aloft in the +bluish-golden air. It is a natural fortress, which our boys strengthened +still further by throwing up the loose stones into handy breastworks. + +Returning, I rode the whole length of the ridge held by our troops, +realizing more and more the importance of that extraordinary position. +It is like a shoe, of which Round Top represents the heel, and Cemetery +Hill the toe. Here all our forces were concentrated on Thursday and +Friday, within a space of three miles. Movements from one part to +another of this compact field could be made with celerity. Lee's forces, +on the other hand, extended over a circle of seven miles or more around, +in a country where all their movements could be watched by us and +anticipated. + +At a point well forward on the foot of this shoe, Meade had his +head-quarters. I tied my horse at the gate, and entered the little +square box of a house which enjoys that historical celebrity. It is +scarcely more than a hut, having but two little rooms on the +ground-floor, and I know not what narrow, low-roofed chambers above. Two +small girls, with brown, German faces, were paring wormy apples under +the porch; and a round-shouldered, bareheaded, and barefooted woman, +also with a German face and a strong German accent, was drawing water at +the well. I asked her for a drink, which she kindly gave me, and invited +me into the house. + +The little box was whitewashed outside and in, except the floor and +ceilings and inside doors, which were neatly scoured. The woman sat down +to some mending, and entered freely into conversation. She was a widow, +and the mother of six children. The two girls cutting wormy apples at +the door were the youngest, and the only ones that were left to her. A +son in the army was expected home in a few days. She did not know how +old her children were,--she did not know how old she herself was, "she +was so forgetful." + +She ran away at the time of the fight, but was sorry afterwards she did +not stay at home. "She lost a heap." The house was robbed of almost +everything; "coverlids and sheets and some of our own clo'es, all +carried away. They got about two ton of hay from me. I owed a little on +my land yit, and thought I'd put in two lots of wheat that year, and it +was all trampled down, and I didn't get nothing from it. I had seven +pieces of meat yit, and them was all took. All I had when I got back was +jest a little bit of flour yit. The fences was all tore down, so that +there wa'n't one standing, and the rails was burnt up. One shell come +into the house and knocked a bedstead all to pieces for me. One come in +under the roof and knocked out a rafter for me. The porch was all +knocked down. There was seventeen dead horses on my land. They burnt +five of 'em around my best peach-tree, and killed it; so I ha'n't no +peaches this year. They broke down all my young apple-trees for me. The +dead horses sp'iled my spring, so I had to have my well dug." + +I inquired if she had ever got anything for the damage. + +"Not much. I jest sold the bones of the dead horses. I couldn't do it +till this year, for the meat hadn't rotted off yit. I got fifty cents a +hundred. There was seven hundred and fifty pounds. You can reckon up +what they come to. That's all I got." + +Not much, indeed! + +This poor woman's entire interest in the great battle was, I found, +centred in her own losses. That the country lost or gained she did not +know nor care, never having once thought of that side of the question. + +The town is full of similar reminiscences; and it is a subject which +everybody except the "Copperheads" likes to talk with you about. There +were heroic women here, too. On the evening of Wednesday, as our forces +were retreating, an exhausted Union soldier came to Mr. Culp's house, +near Culp's Hill, and said, as he sank down,-- + +"If I can't have a drink of water, I must die." + +Mrs. Culp, who had taken refuge in the cellar,--for the house was now +between the two fires,--said,-- + +"I will go to the spring and get you some water." + +It was then nearly dark. As she was returning with the water, a bullet +whizzed past her. It was fired by a sharpshooter on our own side, who +had mistaken her for one of the advancing Rebels. Greatly frightened, +she hurried home, bringing the water safely. One poor soldier was made +eternally grateful by this courageous womanly deed. A few days later the +sharpshooter came to the house and learned that it was a ministering +angel in the guise of a woman he had shot at. Great, also, must have +been his gratitude for the veil of darkness which caused him to miss his +aim. + +Shortly after the battle, sad tales were told of the cruel inhospitality +shown to the wounded Union troops by the people of Gettysburg. Many of +these stories were doubtless true; but they were true only of the more +brutal of the Rebel sympathizers. The Union men threw open their hearts +and their houses to the wounded. + +One day I met a soldier on Cemetery Hill, who was in the battle, and +who, being at Harrisburg for a few days, had taken advantage of an +excursion-train to come over and revisit the scene of that terrible +experience. Getting into conversation, we walked down the hill together. +As we were approaching a double house with high wooden steps, he pointed +out the farther one, and said,-- + +"Saturday morning, after the fight, I got a piece of bread at that +house. A man stood on the steps and gave each of our fellows a piece. We +were hungry as bears, and it was a godsend. I should like to see that +man and thank him." + +Just then the man himself appeared at the door. We went over, and I +introduced the soldier, who, with tears in his eyes, expressed his +gratitude for that act of Christian charity. + +"Yes," said the man, when reminded of the circumstance, "we did what we +could. We baked bread here night and day to give to every hungry soldier +who wanted it. We sent away our own children, to make room for the +wounded soldiers, and for days our house was a hospital." + +Instances of this kind are not few. Let them be remembered to the honor +of Gettysburg. + +Of the magnitude of a battle fought so desperately during three days by +armies numbering not far from two hundred thousand men no adequate +conception can be formed. One or two facts may help to give a faint idea +of it. Mr. Culp's meadow, below Cemetery Hill,--a lot of near twenty +acres,--was so thickly strown with Rebel dead, that Mr. Culp declared he +"could have walked across it without putting foot upon the ground." +Upwards of three hundred Confederates were buried in that fair field in +one hole. On Mr. Gwynn's farm, below Round Top, near five hundred sons +of the South lie promiscuously heaped in one huge sepulchre. Of the +quantities of iron, of the wagon-loads of arms, knapsacks, haversacks, +and clothing, which strewed the country, no estimate can be made. +Government set a guard over these, and for weeks officials were busy in +gathering together all the more valuable spoils. The harvest of bullets +was left for the citizens to glean. Many of the poorer people did a +thriving business, picking up these missiles of death, and selling them +to dealers; two of whom alone sent to Baltimore fifty tons of lead +collected in this way from this battle-field. + + + + +ALEXANDER HAMILTON. + + +The greatest name in American history is that of ALEXANDER HAMILTON, if +we consider the versatility of the man who bore it, the early age at +which he began a great public career, the success which attended all his +labors, the impression which he made on his country and its government, +and the rare foresight by which he was enabled to understand that our +political system would encounter that very danger through which it has +just passed,--and passed not without receiving severe wounds, which have +left it scarcely recognizable even by its warmest admirers. Talleyrand, +who had a just appreciation of Hamilton's talents and character, said +that he had divined Europe. An American need not be possessed of high +powers or position to venture the assertion that Hamilton divined +American history, and foresaw all that we have suffered because our +predecessors would build the national edifice on sand, so that it could +not stand against the political storm which it was in the breath of +selfish partisans to send against it, but has, as it were, to be +buttressed by mighty fleets and armies. A system, which, had it been +rightly formed in the first place, would have been self-sustaining, was +saved from destruction solely by the uprising of the people, who had to +operate with bullets and bayonets, when it had been fondly hoped that +the ballot would ever be a sufficiently formidable weapon in the hand of +the American citizen, and that he never would have to become the +citizen-soldier in a civil contest. Had Hamilton been allowed to shape +our national polity, it would have worked as successfully for ages as +that financial system which he formed has ever worked, and which has +never been departed from without the result being most injurious to the +country. At this day, when events have so signally justified the views +of Alexander Hamilton, and are daily justifying them,[F] it may not be +unprofitable to glance over the career of one whose virtues, services, +and genius are constantly rising in the estimation of his countrymen and +of the world, "the dead growing visible from the shades of time." + +To be born at all is to be well born is the general belief in this very +liberal-minded age: but even the most determined of democrats is not +averse to a good descent; and Hamilton, who was a democrat in no sense, +had one of the noblest ancestries in Europe, though himself of American +birth. His family was of Scotland, a country which, the smallness of its +population considered, has produced more able and useful men than any +other. The Hamiltons of Scotland, and we may add of France, were one of +the noblest of patrician houses, and they had a great part in the stormy +history of their country. Walter de Hamilton, of Cambuskeith, in the +County of Ayr,--Burns's county,--second son of Sir David de Hamilton, +Dominus de Cadyow, was the founder of that branch of the Hamilton family +to which the American statesman belonged. He flourished _temp._ Robert +III., second of the Stuart kings, almost five hundred years ago. Many +noble Scotch names are very common, because it was the custom of the +families to which they belonged to extend them to all their retainers; +but Alexander Hamilton obtained his name in no such way as that. His +descent from the Lord of Cadyow is made up with the nicest precision. +The family became of Grange in the sixteenth century. The names of the +ladies married by the heads of the Hamiltons of Cambuskeith and Grange +all belong to those of the ingenuous classes. The same Christian names +are continued in the line, that of Alexander appearing as early as the +latter part of the fifteenth century, and reappearing frequently for +three hundred years. Alexander Hamilton of Grange, fourteenth in descent +from Sir David de Hamilton, had three sons, the third bearing his +father's name; and that son's fifth child was James Hamilton, who +emigrated to the West Indies, settling in the Island of Nevis. Mr. James +Hamilton married a French lady, whose maiden name was Faucette, and +whose father was one of many persons of worth who were forced to leave +France because of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, through the +bigotry of that little man who is commonly called the Grand Monarch, and +whose bigotry was made active by the promptings of Madame de Maintenon, +who was descended from a fierce Huguenot, as was the monarch himself. + +Alexander Hamilton was born on the 11th of January, 1757. His mother +died in his early childhood, a more than usually severe loss, for she +was a superior woman. He was the only one of her children who survived +her. His father soon became poor, and the child was dependent upon the +relatives of his mother for support and education. They resided at Santa +Cruz, where he was brought up. Just before completing his thirteenth +year he entered the counting-house of Mr. Cruger, a merchant of Santa +Cruz. Young as he was, his employer left him in charge of his business +while he made a visit to New York, and had every reason to be satisfied +with the arrangement. He read all the books he could obtain, and read +them understandingly. Even at that early age he was remarkable for the +manliness of his mind. He wrote, too; and an account of the hurricane of +1772, which he contributed to a public journal, attracted so much +attention that he was sought out, and it was determined to send him to +New York to be regularly educated. He left Santa Cruz, and sailed for +Boston, which port he reached in October, 1772. Proceeding to New York, +he was sent to school at Elizabethtown, New Jersey; and in 1773 entered +King's College, in the city of New York, where he pursued his studies +with signal success. But events were happening that were to place him in +a very different school from that in which he was preparing to become a +physician. He was to be the physician of the State, and to that end he +was thrown among men, and appointed to do the work of men of the highest +intellect, at an age when most persons have not half completed the +ordinary training which is to fit them to begin the common routine of +common life. + +Hamilton's connection with the history of his country, as one of those +who were making material for it, began at the age of seventeen. The +American Revolution was moving steadily onward when he arrived at New +York, and by the summer of 1774 it had assumed large proportions. He +first spoke at "the Great Meeting in the Fields," July 6th, and +astonished those who heard him by the fervor of his eloquence and the +closeness of his logic. His fame dates from that day. He sided with the +people of his new home from the time that he came among them, and never +had any doubt or hesitation as to the course which duty required him to +adopt and pursue. As a writer he was even more successful than as a +speaker. A pamphlet which he wrote in December, 1774, vindicating the +Continental Congress, attracted much attention, and that and another +from his pen were attributed to veteran Whigs, particularly to John Jay; +but the evidence of Hamilton's authorship is perfect, or we might well +agree with the Tories, and believe that works so able could not have +been written by a youth of eighteen. Other writings of his subsequently +appeared, and were most serviceable to the patriots. Young as he was, he +was already regarded by the country as one of its foremost champions +with the pen. The time was fast coming when it was to be made known that +the holder of the pen could also hold the sword, and hold it to +effective purpose. + +He had joined a volunteer corps while in college, and was forward in all +its doings. The first time he was under fire was when this corps was +engaged in removing guns from the Battery. The fire of a man-of-war was +opened on it, doing some injury. This was the first act of war in New +York, and it is interesting to know that Hamilton had part in it. In the +commotion that followed, he was zealous in his efforts to prevent the +triumph of a mob, and not more zealous than successful. From the very +beginning of his career, he never thought of liberty, save as the +closest associate of law. Diligently devoting himself to the study of +the military art, and particularly to gunnery, he asked for the command +of an artillery company, and obtained it after a thorough examination, +being made captain on the 14th of March, 1776, when but two months +beyond his nineteenth year. He completed his company, and expended the +very last money he received from his relatives in making it fit for the +field. Even at that time he advocated promotion from the ranks, and +succeeded in having his first sergeant made a commissioned officer: a +fact worthy of mention, when it is recollected that his enemies have +always represented him as an aristocrat, there being nothing less +aristocratical than the placing of the sword of command in the hands of +men who have carried the musket. While pursuing his military duties, he +did not neglect the study of politics; and his notes show that before +the Declaration of Independence he had thought out a plan of government +for the nation that was so soon to come into existence. Among them is +this inquiry: "_Quære_, would it not be advisable to let all taxes, even +those imposed by the States, be collected by persons of Congressional +appointment? and would it not be advisable to pay the collectors so much +per cent on the sums collected?" This, as his son says, "is the +intuitive idea of a general government, truly such, which he first +proposed to Congress, and earnestly advocated." He was in his twentieth +year when he showed himself capable of understanding the nature of the +situation, and the wants of the country. Probably no other person had +got so far at that time, and it required years for the people to reach +the point at which Hamilton had arrived intuitively. With them it was a +conclusion reached through bitter experience. The lesson has not been +perfectly acquired even at this time. + +Hamilton's company belonged to that army which Washington commanded, in +1776, in New England and New Jersey; and it was while the army was on +the heights of Haerlem, in the autumn of 1776, that he attracted the +notice of Washington. The General inspected an earthwork which the +Captain was constructing, conversed with him, and invited him to his +tent. This was the beginning of an acquaintance that was destined to +have memorable consequences and lasting effects on the American nation. +On the 1st of March, 1777, Hamilton was appointed to a place on +Washington's staff, becoming one of his aides, with the rank of +lieutenant-colonel,--his "principal and most confidential aide," to use +Washington's language. It was not without much hesitation that Hamilton +accepted this post. He had already made a name, and his promotion in the +line of the army was secured; and had he remained to take that +promotion, he would have won the highest distinction, supposing him to +have escaped the casualties of war. His military genius was +unquestioned; and what Washington required of him was service that would +not secure promotion or opportunity to show that he deserved it. He +required the mind and the pen of Hamilton. These he obtained; and the +amount of labor performed by the youthful aide-de-camp with his pen was +enormous. He was something more than an aide and a private secretary. He +was the commander's trusted friend, and he proved that he deserved the +trust reposed in him, not less by his high-minded conduct than by the +talent which he brought to the discharge of the duties of a most +difficult post,--duties which were of an arduous and highly responsible +character. The limits of a sketch like the present do not admit of more +than the general mention of his great services. Those who would know +them in full should consult the work in which Mr. John C. Hamilton has +done justice to the part which his father had, first in the +Revolutionary contest, and then in the creation of the American +Republic, and the settlement of its policy.[G] There was no event with +which Washington was concerned for more than four years with which +Hamilton was not also concerned. The range of his business and his +labors was equal to his talents, and it is not possible to say more of +them. He was but twenty years old when Washington thus really placed him +next to himself in the work of conducting the American cause. In what +estimation his services were held by the commander-in-chief may be +inferred from the fact that he was selected by him, in 1780, being then +in his twenty-fourth year, as a special minister to France, to induce +the French Government to grant more aid to this country. Hamilton did +not take the office, because it was desired by his friend, Colonel +Laurens, whose father was then a prisoner in England. + +Colonel Hamilton was married on the 14th of December, 1780, to Miss +Elizabeth Schuyler, second daughter of General Philip Schuyler, one of +the most distinguished soldiers of the Revolution, to whom was due the +defeat of General Burgoyne, and head of one of those old families of +which New York possessed so many. This lady was destined to survive her +husband half a century, and to be associated with two ages of the +country,--her death occurring in 1854, in her ninety-eighth year. She +was a woman of exalted character, and worthy to be the wife of Alexander +Hamilton. + +The relations between Washington and Hamilton were briefly interrupted +early in 1781, and Hamilton left the commander's military family. He had +a command in that allied army which Washington and Rochambeau led to +Yorktown, the success of which put an end to the "great war" of the +Revolution on this continent. When the British redoubts were stormed, +Hamilton commanded the American column, and carried the redoubt he +assailed before the French had taken that which it fell to their lot to +attack. Shortly afterward he retired from the service, and, taking up +his residence in Albany, devoted himself to the study of the law. In +1782 he was elected a member of the Continental Congress by the +Legislature of New York, and took his seat on the 25th of November. He +proved an energetic member, his attention being largely directed to the +financial state of the country, than which nothing could be more dreary. +At an early day he had been convinced that something sound must be +attempted in relation to our finances; and in 1780 he had addressed a +letter on the subject to Robert Morris, which showed that his ideas +regarding money and credit were those of a great statesman. But the time +had not come in which he was to mould the country to his will, and make +it rich in spite of itself, and against its own exertions. More +suffering was necessary before the people could be made to listen to the +words of truth, though uttered by genius. Military matters also +commanded the attention of the young member, as was natural, he having +been so distinguished as a soldier, and retaining that interest in the +army which he had acquired from six years' connection with it. His +Congressional career was brilliant, and added much to his reputation. It +seemed that he was destined to succeed in everything he attempted. Yet +at that time he thought of retiring altogether from public life, and of +devoting himself entirely to his profession, in which he had already +become eminent. In November, 1783, he removed to the city of New York, +which then had entered on that astonishing growth which has since been +so steadily maintained. + +The first of the law labors of this great man were in support of those +_national_ principles which are more closely identified with his name +than with that of any other individual. In advocating the cause of his +client, he had to argue that the terms of the treaty of peace with +England and the law of nations were of more force than a statute passed +by the Legislature of the State of New York. He carried the court as +decidedly with him as public opinion was against him; and he had to +defend himself in several pamphlets, which he did with his usual +success. As time went on, it became every day more apparent that the +country's great need was a strong central government, and that, until +such a government should be adopted, prosperity could not be looked for, +nor order, nor anything like national life; and had not something been +done, North America would doubtless have presented very much the same +spectacle that has long been afforded by South America, and from which +that rich land is but now slowly recovering. Of those who most earnestly +and effectively advocated the action necessary to save the country from +anarchy, Hamilton was among the foremost. As we have seen, he had +thought soundly on this subject as early as 1776, and years and events +had confirmed and strengthened the impression formed before independence +had been resolved upon. + +Appointed a delegate from New York to the commercial convention held at +Annapolis in 1786, Colonel Hamilton wrote the address put forth by that +body to the States, out of which grew the Convention of 1787, which made +the Federal Constitution. To that Convention he was sent by the New York +Legislature, and his part in the work done was of the first order, +though the Constitution formed was far from commanding his entire +approbation. Like a wise statesman, who does not insist that means of +action shall be perfect, but makes the best use he can of those that are +available, Hamilton accepted the Constitution, and became the strongest +advocate for its adoption, and its firmest supporter after its adoption. +This part of his life--a part as honorable to him as it was useful to +his country--has been systematically misrepresented, so that many +Americans have been taught to believe that he was an enemy of freedom, +and would have established an arbitrary government. He was accused of +being opposed to any republican polity, and of seeking the annihilation +of the State Governments. He was called a monarchist and a +consolidationist. These misrepresentations of his opinions and acts were +forever dispelled, according to the views of honest and unprejudiced +men, by the publication of a letter which he wrote to Timothy Pickering, +in 1803. In that letter he said,--"The highest-toned propositions which +I made to the Convention were for a President, Senate, and Judges, +during good behavior, and a House of Representatives for three years. +Though I would have enlarged the legislative power of the General +Government, yet I never contemplated the abolition of the State +Governments; but, on the contrary, they were, in some particulars, +constituent parts of my plan. This plan was, in my conception, +conformable with the strict theory of a government purely republican; +the essential criteria of which are, that the principal organs of the +executive and legislative departments be elected by the people, and hold +the office by a responsible and temporary or defeasible nature.... I may +truly, then, say that I never proposed either a President or Senate for +life, and that I neither recommended nor meditated the annihilation of +State Governments.... It is a fact that my final opinion was against an +executive during good behavior, on account of the increased danger to +the public tranquillity incident to the election of a magistrate of his +degree of permanency. In the plan of a constitution which I drew up +while the Convention was sitting, and which I communicated to Mr. +Madison about the close of it, perhaps a day or two after, the office of +President has no longer duration than for three years. This plan was +predicated upon these bases: 1. That the political principles of the +people of this country would endure nothing but a republican government; +2. That, in the actual situation of the country, it was itself right and +proper that the republican theory should have a full and fair trial; 3. +That to such a trial it was essential that the government should be so +constructed as to give it all the energy and the stability reconcilable +with the principles of that theory. These were the genuine sentiments of +my heart; and upon them I then acted. I sincerely hope that it may not +hereafter be discovered, that, through want of sufficient attention to +the last idea, the experiment of republican government, even in this +country, has not been as complete, as satisfactory, and as decisive as +could be wished." + +Such were the views of Hamilton in 1787, and which had undergone no +change in the sixteen years that elapsed between that time and the date +of his letter to Colonel Pickering. Yet this man, so true a republican +that his only desire was to have the republican polity that he knew must +here exist so framed and constituted as to become permanent, has been +drawn as a bigoted monarchist and as the enemy of freedom! In the eyes +of good democrats he was the Evil Principle incarnate; and even to this +day, in the more retired portions of the country, they believe, that, if +he had lived a few years longer, he would have made himself king, and +married one of the daughters of George III. They had, and some of them +yet have, about as clear conceptions of Hamilton's career and conduct as +Squire Western and his class had of the intentions of the English Whigs +of George II.'s time, whom they suspected of the intention of seizing +and selling their estates, with the purpose of sending the proceeds to +Hanover, to be invested in the funds. + +The leaders of the great party which triumphed in 1801, and who had +libelled Hamilton while they were in opposition, found it for their +interest to continue their misrepresentations long after the fall of the +Federalists, and when the ablest of all the Federalists had been for +years in his grave. Many of them could overlook Burr's party treachery, +as well as his supposed treason, because he had been the rival of +Hamilton; though probably it would be unjust to them to suppose that +they approved of his conduct in murdering the man whose talents and +influence caused them so much alarm. So far was Hamilton from pursuing a +course in the Convention of 1787 that would have embarrassed that body, +because it did not adopt all his plans, that Dr. W. S. Johnson, one of +Connecticut's delegates, said, that, if "the Constitution did not +succeed on trial, Mr. Hamilton was less responsible for that result than +any other member, for he fully and frankly pointed out to the Convention +what he apprehended were the infirmities to which it was liable,--and +that, if it answered the fond expectations of the public, the community +would be more indebted to Mr. Hamilton than to any other member, for, +after its essential outlines were agreed to, he labored most +indefatigably to heal those infirmities, and to guard against the evils +to which they might expose it." M. Guizot, who understands our +politics, who knows our history, and whose practical statesmanship and +lofty talents render his opinion most valuable, when he declared that +"there is not in the Constitution of the United States an element of +order, of force, of duration, which Hamilton has not powerfully +contributed to introduce into it and to give it a predominance," stated +but the simplest truth. Equally correct is his remark, that "Hamilton +must be classed among the men who have best known the vital principles +and fundamental conditions of a government." Alone of all the New York +delegates Hamilton subscribed the Constitution. + +In the discussions that followed the labors of the Convention, Hamilton +had the principal part in urging the adoption of the Constitution. "The +Federalist," that first of all American political works, and the +excellence of which was quickly recognized by foreign statesmen, was his +production. Not only did he write most of it, but the least of what he +wrote for it excels the best that was contributed to it by men so able +as Jay and Madison. Every attempt that has been made to take from him +any portion of the honor of this masterly work has failed, and it is now +admitted that it can fairly be associated only with his name. "The total +number of these essays," says Mr. John C. Hamilton, "by Hamilton's +enumeration, approved by Madison, is seen to be eighty-five. Of this +enumeration, an abbreviated copy by Hamilton from his original minute, +both in Hamilton's autograph, ascribes to himself the sole authorship of +sixty-three numbers, and the joint authorship with Madison of three +numbers, leaving to the latter the sole authorship of fourteen numbers, +and to Jay of five numbers."[H] "The Federalist" had a powerful +influence on the public mind, and contributed vastly to the success of +the Constitutionalists; and other writings of Hamilton had scarcely less +effect. Had he not been a friend of the Constitution, and had he sought +only the creation of a powerful central government, he never would have +labored for the success of the Constitutional party; for the surest road +to despotism would have been through that anarchy which must have +followed a refusal by the people to ratify the action of the Convention +of 1787. As a member of the Convention of the State of New York, +Hamilton most ably supported the ratification of the Constitution made +at Philadelphia. + +The Constitution was adopted, and the new government was organized on +the 30th of April, 1789, on which day General Washington became +President of the United States. It was not until the 2d of September +that the Treasury Department was created; and on the 11th Alexander +Hamilton was made Secretary of the Treasury. Writing to Robert Morris, +Washington had asked, "What are we to do with this heavy debt?" To which +Morris answered, "There is but one man in the United States who can tell +you: that is Alexander Hamilton. I am glad you have given me this +opportunity to declare to you the extent of the obligations I am under +to him." Hamilton had thought of the station for himself, but his +warmest personal friends objected to his taking it Robert Troup +says,--"I remonstrated with him: he admitted that his acceptance of it +would be likely to injure his family, but said there was a strong +impression on his mind that in the financial department he would +essentially promote the welfare of the country; and this impression, +united with Washington's request, forbade his refusal of the +appointment." Having said, in conversing with Gouverneur Morris, that he +was confident he could restore public credit, "Morris remonstrated with +him for thinking of so perilous a position, on which calumny and +persecution were the inevitable attendants. 'Of that,' Hamilton +answered, 'I am aware; but I am convinced it is the situation in which I +can do most good.'" He had the same just self-confidence that Cromwell +felt, when he said to John Hampden that he would effect something for +the Parliamentary cause, and that William Pitt felt in 1757, when he +said to the Duke of Devonshire, "My Lord, I am sure that I can save this +country, and that nobody else can." As with Cromwell and with Pitt, +Hamilton's self-confidence was to be conclusively justified by the +event. + +Hamilton's career as the first finance minister of the United States is +the greatest evidence of statesmanship in American history; nor is it +likely ever to be surpassed, so complete is the change in the country's +condition,--a change due in great measure to his policy and conduct. The +world's annals show no more striking example of the right man in the +right place than is afforded by Hamilton's Secretaryship of the +Treasury. "The discerning eye of Washington," said Mr. Webster in 1831, +"immediately called him to that post which was far the most important in +the administration of the new system. He was made Secretary of the +Treasury; and how he fulfilled the duties of such a place, at such a +time, the whole country perceived with delight, and the whole world saw +with admiration. He smote the rock of the National Resources, and +abundant streams of revenue gushed forth. He touched the dead corpse of +the Public Credit, and it sprung upon its feet. The fabled birth of +Minerva, from the brain of Jove, was hardly more sudden or more perfect +than the financial system of the United States, as it burst forth from +the conceptions of Alexander Hamilton." Lofty as this praise is, it is +literally true. American Public Credit was a dead corpse in 1789; and in +1790 it was living and erect, as it has ever since remained, in spite of +the utmost exertions of all political parties to reduce it to the state +in which Hamilton found it, in the hope of injuring their rivals. All +that has been good in our financial history for three quarters of a +century is due to Alexander Hamilton; and all that has been evil in it +can be traced directly to violation of his principles or disregard of +his modes of action. That we were enabled to preserve the Union against +the attacks of the Secessionists must be attributed to Hamilton's genius +and exertions. He is one of those "dead, but sceptred sovereigns, who +still rule our spirits from their urns." + +Ten days after his appointment to office, Secretary Hamilton was +required by Congress to report a plan for the support of the public +credit. His report is admitted, even by those who do not agree with its +views, to be an able state paper. Besides upholding the payment of the +foreign debt, on which all parties were of one mind, he recommended that +the domestic debt should be treated in the same spirit. As the revival +and maintenance of the public credit was the object which the Secretary +had in view, he advocated the fulfilment of original contracts, no +matter by whom claims might be held. His recommendations were adopted; +and the famous "funding system" dates from that time, and with it the +prosperity of the United States. He had recommended the assumption of +the State debts; but in this he was only partially successful. The +measures suggested for the carrying out of his system were adopted. +Among these was the creation of a national bank, at the beginning of +1791. Other measures concerned the raising of revenue, and were +extraordinarily successful. And yet others for the advancement of trade, +both foreign and domestic, were not less successful: there being no +subject that came properly within his department to which he did not +give his entire attention; and as he was laboring for a new nation, it +necessarily happened that all the machinery had to be improvised, To the +demands made on his intellect, his time, and his industry, the Secretary +was found to be more than equal. His triumphs astonished and gratified +the friends of good government throughout the world, and carried his +name to all nations. In only eighteen months, a change had been effected +such as it well might have taken as many years to accomplish, and which +thoroughly justified the new polity, and the measures which had been +adopted under it. Foreign commerce flourished, and also the domestic +trade. The agricultural interest prospered, and manufactures steadily +increased. "The waste lands in the interior were being rapidly settled; +towns were springing up in every direction; the seaports were increasing +in wealth and population; and that great career of internal improvement, +by numerous highways, with which the United States have amazed the +world, was begun." Fisher Ames wrote to the Secretary of the Treasury +that the national bank and the Federal Government possessed more +popularity than any institution or government could long maintain. "The +success of the government, and especially of the measures proceeding +from your department," he said, "has astonished the multitude; and while +it has shut the mouths, it has stung the envious hearts, of the State +leaders." American credit was raised so high in Europe, that, at the +opening of 1791, a great loan was taken in Holland in two hours, on +better terms than any European government but one could have obtained. +The subscriptions to the national bank were filled in a day, and could +easily have been doubled. Such another instance of successful +statesmanship it would be difficult, if not impossible, to find. + +It is sometimes said that the success of the Hamiltonian system was due +to European events,--that the great wars which grew out of the French +Revolution created so extensive demands for our productions that we must +have prospered, no matter what should have been the course of American +political life. What might have been, had the Constitution failed of +adoption, it is not necessary to discuss; but this we know, that the +success of Secretary Hamilton's plans was pronounced and complete before +the European wars alluded to began. That success was seen in the early +days of 1791, and war did not commence until 1792; and then it was not +waged on that grand scale to which it subsequently reached. The war +between France and England, which affected this country most, broke out +in 1793, two years after Ames had written so encouragingly to Hamilton, +and yet warning him to prepare for the inevitable Nemesis, that "envy of +the gods," which, according to the Hellenic superstition, but fairly +justifiable by innumerable historical facts, waits on all prosperity and +rebukes human wisdom. To us it seems that the most that can be said of +the effect of the wide-spread and long-continued European quarrel on our +business was this,--that it gave to it much of its peculiar character, +but did not create it, and was not necessary to its creation or its +continuance. What Hamilton did was to remove depressing influences from +American life and the American mind,--to substitute order for disorder, +hope for fear, and confidence and security for dread and distrust. This +was what was done by Hamilton and his associates; and this done, the +native energies of the people did all the rest. It is all but certain +that the extraordinary career of material prosperity that began +immediately after it was seen what was to be our policy under the new +polity, would have been essentially the same, as to the general result, +had Europe remained quiet for twenty years longer, and had there been no +downfall of the old French monarchy. The details of American business +life would have been different, but the result would have been pretty +much the same as what we have seen. + +Events soon justified the apprehensions of the sensitive, but sagacious +Ames. Hamilton's prosperity bred its natural consequences, and he became +the target at which many aspiring men directed their attacks,--Thomas +Jefferson standing at their head. The cause of this, which has been +sought in the French Revolution, in opposition to the supposed +centralizing tendencies of the Hamiltonian policy, and so forth, really +lies on the surface. It grew out of men's ambition, and their desire for +power. It was plain to Southern men, that, if Hamilton were permitted to +accomplish his purpose entire, he must become the man of men, and that +his influence would become equal to that of Washington, whose influence +they bowed to most unwillingly. Not less plain was it that power would +be with the North. Hence their determination to "break him down," which +they would have pursued with all their might, had the French Revolution +been postponed, though its occurrence furnished them with means of +attack,--the larger part of the American people sympathizing with the +French, while Hamilton shared with Edmund Burke opinions which time has +done much to show were sound; and he was a strenuous supporter of that +policy of neutrality which Washington wisely adopted. The Secretary of +the Treasury was assailed by those who envied and hated him, in various +ways. His official integrity was called in question, but the +investigations which he courted led to the confounding of his enemies, +while his personal character stood brighter than ever. So bitter became +the opposition that some of their number wished for the success of the +Whiskey Insurrection in Pennsylvania, as Mr. Jefferson's correspondence +shows; and the part which Hamilton had in suppressing that outbreak did +not increase their regard for him. The presence of two such men in +Washington's Cabinet as Hamilton and Jefferson made it the scene of +dissension until Jefferson retired. + +Hamilton remained in office some time longer; and when he left it, he +did so only for personal reasons. He was poor. He had expended, not only +his salary, but almost all the property he possessed when he took +office. The man who had made his country rich had made himself poor by +his devotion to her interests, and had received nothing but vindictive +abuse in requital of his unrivalled labors. He resolved to return to the +practice of his profession, which he never would have left, had he +consulted merely his individual interests and those of his family. Some +weeks before he retired, he addressed a letter to the Speaker of the +House of Representatives, announcing his purpose, in order that inquiry +might be made into the state of his department, should Congress see fit +to make it; but his foes had been so humiliated by the results of the +two inquiries undertaken at their instance, that they would not venture +upon a third. In January, 1795, he sent a letter to Congress on the +subject of the public credit, which is one of his ablest productions, +full of sound financial doctrine, and showing that he was in advance of +most men on those economical questions the proper settlement of which so +closely concerns the welfare of nations. This letter affords a complete +view of the financial history of the government, and may be considered +as Secretary Hamilton's statement of his case to the world. The debt +exceeded $76,000,000, a sum that bore as great a proportion to the +revenues of the country seventy years since as the debt of to-day bears +to our present resources. As Hamilton was no believer in the absurd +doctrine that "a national debt is a national blessing," we need say no +more than that he dwelt with emphasis on the necessity of providing for +the debt's payment. It is important to mention that he declared +government could not rightfully tax its promises to pay. + +Though Hamilton, as Madison wrote to Jefferson, went to New York "with +the word Poverty as his label," his great reputation rapidly secured for +him abundant professional employment. But he was too important a +personage to be able to refrain altogether from political pursuits, and +was forced to defend some of the measures of government, though no +longer responsible for them. He advocated Jay's Treaty, one of the most +unpopular measures that ever were carried through by an honest +government in face of the most vehement opposition. Had the treaty been +rejected, war with England would probably have followed, which would +have been a profound calamity. While living in retirement, Hamilton was +assailed by his Southern enemies, who were supported by their Northern +allies, their object being to show that he had acted corruptly while at +the head of the Treasury. His reply was as complete a refutation as +their earlier calumnies had encountered. He wrote the celebrated +Farewell Address of President Washington. On all occasions he was ready +with pen and tongue to defend and uphold those political principles in +the triumph of which he had that interest which a statesman must ever +have in the advancement of truth. + +When it was supposed that the French might attempt the invasion of this +country, in 1798, preparations were made to meet them. Washington was +made Commander-in-Chief, with the rank of Lieutenant-General; but he +stipulated that he should not be required to take the field save for +active service, and that Hamilton should have the post next to his own, +which made the latter actually commander of the army. He was +indefatigable in discharging the duties of this station; but, +fortunately, hostilities with France were confined to the ocean, and the +seizure of power in that country by Bonaparte led to a settlement of the +points in dispute. Hamilton again returned to private life. He could +not, however, altogether give up politics, but was forced to take some +part in the exciting political contests of those days. When the +Presidential election of 1801 devolved upon the House of +Representatives, he exerted his influence against Burr, whom the +Federalists were inclined to support, preferring him to Jefferson. In +1804 he again labored to defeat Burr's political aspirations, and +prevented his being chosen Governor of New York. Burr was then on the +verge of ruin, and he resolved upon being revenged, and on the +destruction of so powerful a political foe. He required from Hamilton +the disavowal of language which there was no evidence that he +ever had used, and so managed the dispute that a duel became +inevitable,--reference being had to the state of public sentiment then +prevalent on the subject of honor, and to the circumstance that duelling +was almost as common in New York at that time as it was in any Southern +State just before the Secession War. + +The death of Alexander Hamilton was as much the work of assassination as +was that of Abraham Lincoln, in all save the forms that were observed on +the occasion. Aaron Burr, of whose actions he had sometimes spoken with +severity,--but not with more severity than is common in all high party +times,[I]--was determined that so bold and able an enemy should be +removed from his political path; and to that end he fastened a duel upon +him, and in the meeting that ensued deliberately shot him. It has been +said, that Burr, who was "a good shot" from his youth, and whose nerves +were as brazen as his brow, practised with the pistol for some days +before the fatal encounter took place; and the story is perfectly in +character, and helps sustain the position that Hamilton was +assassinated. That Hamilton should have consented to meet such a man, +knowing as he did what was his purpose, and that he was capable of any +crime, has often been remarked upon; and probably his decision will +serve to point many a moral for ages, and all the more emphatically when +the force of that opinion in regard to duelling which once was so strong +shall not only have utterly passed away, but have been forgotten, and +have become quite incomprehensible to men who shall live in the light of +sounder opinion than prevailed at the beginning of this century. A +soldier, it was reasonable that Hamilton should feel very differently on +the point of honor from a mere civilian, and that he should not have +felt himself at liberty to decline Burr's challenge. He believed that +his ability to be useful thereafter in public life would be greatly +lessened, should he not fight. In the paper he drew up, giving his +reasons for the course he pursued, he says,--"The ability to be in +future useful, whether in resisting mischief or in effecting good, in +those crises of our public affairs which seem likely to happen, would +probably be inseparable from a conformity with public prejudice in this +particular." He was particularly thinking of his power to contend +against a scheme for a dissolution of the Union which had been formed in +the North, the existence of which he knew, and also that it was known to +Burr, who, had he not committed suicide by the same act which made him a +murderer, would soon have been seen at the head of a rebellion. The +result of the duel was to deprive Burr of all power and influence. He +killed Hamilton, but he fell himself by the same shot that carried death +to his opponent; and so complete was his fall that he never could rise +again, though he continued to cumber the earth for more than thirty-two +years. Hamilton's quarrel with Burr, as his son and biographer truly +observes, "was the quarrel of his country. It was the last act in the +great drama of his life. It was the deliberate sacrifice of that life +for his country's welfare,--a sacrifice which, by overwhelming his +antagonist with the execrations of the American people, prevented a +civil war, and saved from 'dismemberment' this great republic." + +What strikes us most forcibly, in considering Hamilton's career, is the +remarkably, early development of his powers. At thirteen, he was found +competent to take charge of a mercantile establishment. At fifteen, his +writings win for him public applause and the aid of friends. At +seventeen, he addresses with success a great public meeting. At +eighteen, his anonymous productions are attributed to some of the +leading men of America. At nineteen, he has thought out that principle +of government which is indelibly associated with his name. At twenty, he +has not only approved himself a skilful and courageous soldier, but he +has won the esteem of the grave and reserved Washington, and is placed +by that great man in a post of the closest confidence, and which really +makes him the second man in the American service. At twenty-three, he +has shown that he is master of the intricate subject of finance. At +twenty-five, after an active military life that had allowed no time for +study, he is known as a lawyer of the first order. At twenty-six, he is +distinguished as a member of Congress. At thirty, he takes a leading +part in framing the Constitution of the United States. And in his +thirty-third year, he becomes the most extraordinary finance minister +the world has ever seen. He was statesman, soldier, writer, and orator, +and first in each department; and he was as ready for all the parts +which he filled as if he had been long and studiously trained for each +of them by the best of instructors. When Mr. Webster so happily compared +the instantaneousness and perfection of his financial system to "the +fabled birth of Minerva," he did but allude to what is to be remarked of +all Hamilton's works. All that he did was perfect, and no one seems to +have been aware of his power until he had established the fact of its +existence. Such a combination of precocity and versatility stands quite +unparalleled. Octavius, William the Third, Henry St. John, Charles James +Fox, and William Pitt the younger, all showed various powers at early +periods of their lives; but not one of them was the equal of Hamilton in +respect to early maturity of intellect, or in ability to command success +in every department to which he turned his attention. The historical +character of whom he most reminds us is the elder Africanus. In the +early development of his faculties, in his self-reliant spirit, in his +patriotism, in his kingliness of mind, in his personal purity, in his +generosity of thought and of action, and in the fear and envy that he +excited in inferior minds, he was a repetition of the most majestic of +all the Romans. But, unlike the Roman soldier-statesman, he did not +desert the land he had saved, but which had proved ungrateful; and the +grave only was to be his Liternum. He died at not far from the same age +as that to which Africanus reached. In comparing him with certain other +men who achieved fame early, it should be remembered that they all were +regularly prepared for public life, and were born to it as to an +inheritance; whereas he, though of patrician blood, was possessed of no +advantages of fortune, and had to fight the battle of life while +fighting the battles of the nation. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[F] Mr. Riethmüller, in his volume on "Hamilton and his Contemporaries," +coolly assumes that Hamilton would have opposed the late war for the +maintenance of the Union, had he been living! Anything more absurd than +such a view of Hamilton's probable course, under circumstances like +those which occurred in 1861, it would be impossible to imagine. +Hamilton would have been the firmest supporter of the war, had he lived +to see it, or had such a war broken out in his time. His principles +would have led him to be for extreme measures. It is easy to see why Mr. +Riethmüller thus misrepresents Hamilton's opinions. Living in London, +where it is thought that every foreign nation should submit to +destruction, if that be desirable to England, he wrote under the +influence of the place. The English do not take the same view of +Secession, when it comes home to them. They think as unfavorably of that +repeal of the Union which the Irish demand as we thought of that +dissolution of our Union which South Carolinians demanded; and they +moved against the Fenians much earlier than we moved against the +Carolinians. Mr. Riethmüller's assumption is pointedly disclaimed by +General Hamilton's representatives, who declare that it is a palpable +misrepresentation of their father's views: and no one who is familiar +with Hamilton's writings and history can honestly say that they are +wrong. To say that Andrew Jackson, who crushed Nullification, would have +been a Secessionist, had he been living in 1861, would be a moderate +assertion, compared to that which places Alexander Hamilton in the list +of possible Secessionists, had he survived to Secession times. + +[G] _History of the Republic of the United States of America, as traced +in the Writings of Alexander Hamilton and his Contemporaries._ By John +C. Hamilton. Seven Volumes. 8vo. New York: D. Appleton & Co. A work in +every respect deserving of the closest and most attentive study, replete +as it is with valuable and well-arranged matter and able writing. + +[H] _The Federalist: a Commentary on the Constitution of the United +States._ A Collection of Essays, by Alexander Hamilton, Jay, and +Madison. Also, _The Continentalist_ and other Papers, by Hamilton. +Edited by John C. Hamilton, Author of "The Republic of the United +States." 1 vol. 8vo. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co.--This is by +far the best edition of "The Federalist" that has appeared, and should +alone be consulted and read by Hamilton's admirers. The Historical +Notice with which Mr. Hamilton has prefaced it is a noble production, +and worthy of the subject and of his name. + +[I] Burr, in his correspondence with Hamilton just before the challenge +that led to the duel, said,--"Political opposition can never absolve +gentlemen from the necessity of a rigid adherence to the laws of honor +and the rules of decorum. I neither claim such privilege, nor indulge it +in others." This has been called affectation; but we have no doubt that +Burr uttered the truth in the sentences quoted. He was exactly the man +to observe the rules of decorum, and those of honor, as he understood +them, in political warfare. The strong language that is so common in +political disputes is proof as much of the abundance of men's sincerity +as it is of their want of good breeding. They are honestly moved by the +evil words or deeds, or both, or what they consider such, of their +opponents, and speak of them coarsely. The man who is indifferent to all +opinions, principles, and actions, but who is nevertheless ambitious, is +never tempted to the utterance of disparaging language concerning his +political foes. He may laugh at their zeal, but he cannot be offended by +it. Burr was utterly indifferent to all political principle. He never +really belonged to any party, and was as ready to act with Federalists +as with Democrats; and it was only through the force of circumstances +that he did act generally with the latter. A party man never would have +done as Burr saw fit to do when the Presidential election of 1801 +devolved on the House of Representatives. The party to which he +professed to belong intended, as everybody knew, that Jefferson should +be President; and yet Burr allowed himself to be used against Jefferson. +That "all is fair in politics" was his creed. He may have been "a man of +honor," but what Lord Macaulay says of Avaux is strictly applicable to +him, namely,--"that of the difference between right and wrong he had no +more notion than a brute." + + + + +REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES. + + +_Memoirs of the Life of William Shakespeare, with an Essay toward the +Expression of his Genius, and an Account of the Rise and Progress of the +English Drama to the Time of Shakespeare._ By RICHARD GRANT WHITE. +Boston: Little, Brown, & Co. + +Mr. White's closing-up of his Shakespeare labors has been long in +coming, but comes good and acceptable at last. The volume now in hand, +however, does not form a part of his edition of the poet; it stands by +itself; though a portion of its contents is repeated in the first volume +(the last published) of this edition. It is rich in matter, and the +workmanship, for the most part, capital. All Shakespearians are bound to +relish it; and if any general reader does not find it delectable, he may +well suspect some fault in himself. + +The contents of the volume are, first, "Memoirs of the Life of William +Shakespeare"; second, "An Essay toward the Expression of Shakespeare's +Genius"; third, "An Account of the Rise and Progress of the English +Drama to the Time of Shakespeare." + +In his "Memoirs," the author of course adds nothing to what was already +known of the poet's life. But his presentation of the matter is +eminently readable, and, in parts, decidedly interesting; which is as +much as can fairly be looked for in any writing on that subject. Some +readers may think, we _do_ think, that the author is a little at fault +on one or two points. For instance, he overworks certain questions +touching the poet's wife, worrying up the matter against her to the +utmost, and, in fact, tormenting the poor woman's memory in such a way +as to indicate something very like spite. Now this is not fair; and Mr. +White's general fairness on other subjects makes his proceeding the less +excusable in this case. + +Of course everybody knows that Mrs. Anne Shakespeare was some eight +years older than her husband; that the circumstances of the marriage +were not altogether what they should have been; and that the oldest +daughter was born a little too soon for the credit of either parent. +This is all, all, there is known about the matter. And if conjecture or +inference must be at work on these facts, surely it had better run in +the direction of charity, especially of charity towards the weaker +vessel. We say weaker vessel, because in this case the man must, in all +fairness, be supposed to have had the advantage, at least as much in +strength of natural understanding as the woman had in years. And as +Shakespeare was, by all accounts, a very attractive person, it does not +well appear but that the woman had as good a right to lose her heart in +his company as he had to lose his head in hers. Yet our author +insinuates, perhaps we should say more than insinuates, that the lady +immodestly angled for and seduced the youthful lover, and entangled his +honor in an obligation of marriage; and he seems quite positive that the +poet afterwards hated her, and took refuge in London partly to escape +from her society. Moreover, he presumes her to have been a coarse, low, +vulgar creature, such as, the fascination of the honeymoon once worn +off, the poet could not choose but loathe and detest. Now all this is +sheer conjecture; it has no basis of fact or of fair likelihood to stand +upon; there is not so much as a particle even of tradition to support +it. Rowe hints nothing of the sort; and surely his candor would not have +spared the parties, if he had found anything: it was the very point of +all others on which scandal would have been most apt to fasten and feed; +and yet even Aubrey, arrant old gossip as he was, supplies nothing to +justify it. + +In default of other grounds, resort has been had to certain passages in +the poet's dramas. And Mr. White, though knowing, none better, the +poet's wonderful self-aloofness from his representations, thinks it +worth the while to make an exception in this particular case. Presuming +such and such things to be true in his own experience, the poet, our +author observes, must have thought of them while writing certain +passages. Our answer is, To be sure, he must have thought of them, and +he must have known that others would think of them too; and a reasonable +delicacy on his part would have counselled the withholding of anything +that he was conscious might be applied to his own domestic affairs. Does +not Mr. White see that his inferences in this are just the reverse of +what they should be? Sensible men do not write in their public pages +such things as would be almost sure to breed or to foster scandal about +their own names or their own homes. The man that has a secret cancer on +his person will be the last to speak of cancers in reference to others; +and if the truth of his own case be suspected at all, it will rather be +from his silence than from his speech. We can hardly think Shakespeare +was so wanting in a sense of propriety as to have written the passages +in question, but that he knew no man could say he was exposing the +foulness of his own nest. + +But we are dwelling too long on this point; and we confess something of +impatience at Mr. White's treatment of it. His _animus_ in the thing is +shown, perhaps, in one slight mistake he has made. Speaking of the +lady's haste to "provide herself with a husband," he says, "In less than +five months after she obtained one she was delivered of a daughter." The +bishop's license for the marriage was dated November 28th, 1582, and +Susannah Shakespeare was baptized May 26th, 1583; thus leaving an +interval of but two days short of _six_ months between the marriage and +the birth. As Sir Hugh observes, "I like not when a 'oman has a great +peard." + +We are moved to add one more item of dissent.--Mr. White thinks, and it +appears that the German critic, Gervinus, coincides with him, that +Shakespeare must have acquired all his best ideas of womanhood after he +went to London, and conversed with the ladies of the city. And in +support of this notion he cites the fact--for such it is--that the women +of the poet's later plays are much superior to those of his earlier +ones. But are not the _men_ of his later plays quite as much superior to +the men of his first? Unquestionably they are. Are not his later plays +as much better _every way_, as in respect of the female characters? Mr. +White is too wise and too ripe in the theme to question it. The truth +seems to be, that Shakespeare saw more of great and good in both man and +woman as he became older and knew them better; for he was full of +intellectual righteousness in this as in other things. But if there must +be any conjecturing about it, we prefer to conjecture that the poet +caught his ideas of womanhood, or at least the rudiments of them, from +his mother, and other specimens of the sex in his native town. For in +this matter it may with something of special fitness be said that a man +finds what he brings with him the faculty of finding; and he who does +not learn respect for woman in the nursery and at the fireside will +hardly learn it at all. The poet's mind did not stay on the surface of +things. He had the head to know, and the heart to feel, the claims of +humble, modest worth; for, as he was the wisest, so was he also the most +human-hearted of men. And to his keen, yet kindly eye, the +plain-thoughted women of Stratford may well have been as pure, as sweet, +as lovely, as rich in all the inward graces which he delighted to unfold +in his female characters, as anything he afterwards found among the +fine ladies of the metropolis: though far be it from us to disrepute +these latter; for he was, by the best of all rights, a thorough +gentleman; and the ladies who pleased him in London had womanhood +enough, no doubt, to recognize him as such, without the flourishes of +rank. At all events, it is reasonable to infer that the foundations of +his mind were laid before he left Stratford, and that the gatherings of +the boy's eye and heart were the germs of the man's thoughts. And, +indeed, if his great social heart had found all the best delights of +society in London, how should he have been so desirous, as Mr. White +allows he was, to escape from the city, and set up his rest in his +Stratford home? + +Mr. White's history of the Drama, though far from copious, supplies +enough, perhaps, to put the reader right as regards Shakespeare's +historical relations to that great branch of English literature. From +what is there given, any one can, with reasonable attention, learn that +the English drama, as we have it in Shakespeare, was the well-ripened +fruit of centuries of preparation: the form, structure, and order of the +thing being settled long before his time. The attentive reader will also +see, though this point is not emphasized so much as it might be, that +the national mind and taste were ready and eager to welcome the right +man as soon as the right man came; so that, in catering wisely for the +public taste, the poet could hardly fail of the supremacy due to his +transcendent genius; which infers, of course, that the public taste had +nearly as much to do in forming him as he had in forming it. On one or +two points, as, for instance, in the matter of Shakespeare's senior +contemporaries, we should have preferred a somewhat larger outlay of the +author's learned and well-practised strength; while, again, in reference +to the old plays of "Jeronimo" and "The Spanish Tragedy," he might well +have used more economy of strength, as the matter is neither interesting +in itself nor helpful to his purpose. Here is a specimen of his +felicity, referring to the plays of old John Lily, the euphuist. + +"They are in all respects opposed to the genius of the English drama. +They do not even pretend to be representations of human life and human +character, but are pure fantasy pieces, in which the personages are a +heterogeneous medley of Grecian gods and goddesses, and impassible, +colorless creatures, with sublunary names, all thinking with one brain, +and speaking with one tongue,--the conceitful, crotchety brain, and the +dainty, well-trained tongue of clever, witty John Lily." + +This is, indeed, the exact truth of the matter, and it could hardly be +better said. On divers points, however, the little that he gives us just +sets the reader on fire for more: that is, he does not satisfy the +desire quite enough in proportion as he stimulates it. But he probably +goes on the safe principle, that in such cases an intelligent reader is +apt to crave more than he will justify a writer in giving; or, in other +words, that he does not seem to have enough, until he has too much. + +But the "Essay" is most decidedly the jewel of the volume: not, however, +to disparage the other parts; for it is worthy to be the jewel of +anybody's volume. A single reading of the "Essay," as it ought to be +read, will suffice to make any one glad to own the book, and will almost +certainly induce him to mark it down for a second reading, as the second +also will for a third. The work, indeed, is a positive, and we think it +will prove a permanent addition to our already opulent inheritance of +Shakespearian criticism. It is weighty throughout with fresh, yet sober +and well-considered thought, expressed in tight and sinewy +English,--every part being highly elaborate, but nothing over-labored. +The author discusses a large number of topics, all in "a manly style, +fitted to manly ears," but is particularly full and instructive in +regard to the poet's language and style: a rich field, indeed, which has +not been proportionably cultivated by the poet's later critics, who have +put their force mainly on what may be called his dramatic architecture, +and on his development of character, where there is more room to be +philosophical, but less chance of determinate results. Over this field +Mr. White walks with the firm, yet graceful step of a master: his +current of thought running deep, strong, and clear, and carrying us +through page after page full of nice and subtile discrimination, without +over-refinement, and of illustrations apt and luminous, yet without a +touch of false brilliancy or mere smartness; which is saying a good +deal, in these days of high-pressure rhetoric. + +We commend the "Essay" to all lovers of solid and well-proportioned +critical discourse. + + + + +RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS. + + +The Ideal Attained: being the Story of Two Steadfast Souls, and how they +won their Happiness and lost it not. By Eliza Farnham, Author of "Woman +and her Era," etc. New York. C. W. Plumb & Co. 12mo. pp. 510. $2.00. + +At Anchor. A Story of Our Civil War. By an American. New York. D. +Appleton & Co. 12mo. pp. 311. $1.50. + +Methods of Instruction. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 16, No. 97, November, 1865 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: December 11, 2006 [EBook #20088] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY *** + + + + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net. +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by Cornell University Digital Collections). + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_513" id="Page_513">[Pg 513]</a></span></p> + +<h4>THE</h4> + +<h1>ATLANTIC MONTHLY.</h1> + +<h2><i>A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics.</i></h2> + +<h3>VOL. XVI.—NOVEMBER, 1865.—NO. XCVII.</h3> + +<p>Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by <span class="smcap">Ticknor and +Fields</span>, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of +Massachusetts.</p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p>Transcriber's Note: Minor typos have been corrected and footnotes moved +to the end of the article. Table of contents has been created for the HTML version.</p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h2>Contents</h2> +<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. --> +<p> +<a href="#WHY_THE_PUTKAMMER_CASTLE_WAS_DESTROYED"><b>WHY THE PUTKAMMER CASTLE WAS DESTROYED.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#THE_RHYME_OF_THE_MASTERS_MATE"><b>THE RHYME OF THE MASTER'S MATE.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#THE_VISIBLE_AND_INVISIBLE_IN_LIBRARIES"><b>THE VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE IN LIBRARIES.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#LETTER_TO_A_YOUNG_HOUSEKEEPER"><b>LETTER TO A YOUNG HOUSEKEEPER.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#THE_PEACE_AUTUMN"><b>THE PEACE AUTUMN.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#DOCTOR_JOHNS"><b>DOCTOR JOHNS.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#RODOLPHE_TOPFFER"><b>RODOLPHE TÖPFFER,</b></a><br /> +<a href="#THE_CHIMNEY-CORNER"><b>THE CHIMNEY-CORNER.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#JEREMY_BENTHAM"><b>JEREMY BENTHAM.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#A_FAREWELL_TO_AGASSIZ"><b>A FAREWELL TO AGASSIZ.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#THE_FORGE"><b>THE FORGE.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#THE_PROGRESS_OF_THE_ELECTRIC_TELEGRAPH"><b>THE PROGRESS OF THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#THE_FIELD_OF_GETTYSBURG"><b>THE FIELD OF GETTYSBURG.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#ALEXANDER_HAMILTON"><b>ALEXANDER HAMILTON.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#REVIEWS_AND_LITERARY_NOTICES"><b>REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#RECENT_AMERICAN_PUBLICATIONS"><b>RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS.</b></a><br /> +</p> +<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="WHY_THE_PUTKAMMER_CASTLE_WAS_DESTROYED" id="WHY_THE_PUTKAMMER_CASTLE_WAS_DESTROYED"></a>WHY THE PUTKAMMER CASTLE WAS DESTROYED.</h2> + + +<p>There is a test of truth in popular creeds and in human opinions +generally which is prominently put forward by Herbert Spencer, and has +been more or less distinctly stated by other writers, long before our +time,—a very searching and trustworthy test.</p> + +<p>It is, in substance, this:—Whatever doctrine or opinion has received, +throughout a long succession of centuries, the common assent of mankind, +may be properly set down as being, if not absolutely true in its usually +received form, yet founded on truth, and having, at least, a great, +undeniable verity that underlies it.</p> + +<p>If, however, there be conflicting details as to any doctrine, varying in +form according to the sect or the nation that entertains it, then the +test is to be received as affirming the grand underlying truth, but not +as proving any of the conflicting varieties of investment in which +particular sects or nations may have chosen to clothe it.</p> + +<p>Thus of the world's belief in the reality of another life, and in the +doctrine of future reward and punishment.</p> + +<p>In some form or other, such a faith has existed in every age and among +almost every people. Charon and his boat might be the means of +conveyance. Or the believer, dying in battle for the creed of the +Faithful, might expect to wake up in a celestial harem peopled with +Houris. Or the belief might embody the matchless horrors painted by +Dante; his dolorous city with the terrible inscription over its +entrance-gate: "<i>Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch'entrate</i>."</p> + +<p>Again, the conception might be of a long unconscious interval after +death, succeeded at last by a resuscitation; or it might be of another +world, the supplement and immediate continuation of this, into which +Death, herald, not destroyer, ushers us even while human friends are yet +closing our eyes and composing our limbs. It might be of the Paradise in +which, on the very day of the crucifixion, the penitent thief was to +meet the Saviour of mankind; or it might be of that Heaven, yet increate +or unpeopled, seen by some in long, distant perspective, shadowed forth +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_514" id="Page_514">[Pg 514]</a></span>in such lines as these:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"That man, when laid in lonesome grave,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Shall sleep in Death's dark gloom,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Until the eternal morning wake<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The slumbers of the tomb."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Yet again, the idea may be of a Future of which the denizens shall be, +on some Great Day, tried as before an earthly court, doomed as by an +earthly tribunal, and sentence pronounced against them by a presiding +God, who, of his own omnipotent will, decides to inflict upon sinners +condign punishment, in measure far beyond all earthly severity,—torment +in quenchless flames, with no drop of water to cool the parched tongue, +for ever and ever.</p> + +<p>In other words, we may conceive, as to human destiny in another world, +either of punishments optional and arbitrary, growing out of the +indignation of an offended Judge who hates and requites sin, or of +punishments natural and inherent, growing out of the very nature of sin +itself, as <i>delirium tremens</i> requites a long career of intemperance. We +may conceive of punishments which are the awards of judicial vengeance; +or we may believe in those only which are the inevitable results of +eternal and immutable law, a necessary sequence in the next life to the +bad passions and evil deeds of this.</p> + +<p>Those who incline to this latter aspect of the Great Future, as the +scene of reward or punishment supervening in the natural order of +things, may chance to find interest, beyond mere curiosity, in the +following strange narrative.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>There is not, perhaps, a country more rife in legends of haunted houses +than Germany. No province but has its store of them. Many, drawn by +tradition from the obscurity of the past, have lost, if they ever +possessed, any claim to be regarded except as apocryphal. But others, of +a recent date and better attested, cannot be disposed of in so summary a +manner.</p> + +<p>In furnishing a specimen of this latter class, I depart from a rule +which I think it well to observe in regard to original narratives of +character so marvellous: to record such, namely, only when they can be +procured direct from the lips of the witnesses themselves. This comes to +me at second hand. I had no opportunity of cross-questioning the actors +in the scenes narrated. Yet I had the story from a gentleman of high +respectability: the principal Secretary of the —— Legation at Naples: +and his sources of information were direct and authentic.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>In the southeastern portion of Pomerania, at no great distance from the +frontier of the province of West Prussia, and in the vicinity of the +small town of Bütow, there stood, not many years since, an ancient +château. It was the ancestral residence of an old Pomeranian family of +baronial rank; and the narrative of its destruction, with the causes +which led thereto, is curious and remarkable.</p> + +<p>Its former owner, the Baron von Putkammer, after leading a wild and +dissolute life, had expired within its walls. For years previously, many +a mysterious story, fraught with dark hints of seduction and +infanticide, had been whispered over the surrounding country; and when +at last death arrested the Baron's profligate career, some reported that +he had been strangled in requital of outrage committed,—others, that +the Devil had taken home his own, as they had long expected.</p> + +<p>His estate went to a relative of the same name, who granted the +enjoyment of it to his eldest son, heir to the title. This young man, +after a time, arrived to take possession. He found in the château the +administrator of the deceased Baron's estate.</p> + +<p>It was late, the first night, before he went to bed. Yet he was scarcely +undressed, when he heard, through the stillness of the night, the +approach of a carriage, at first rolling over the sharp gravel of the +avenue, then entering the paved court-yard. This was succeeded by the +noise of the front door opening, and the distinct sound of steps on the +principal staircase.</p> + +<p>Young Putkammer, surprised at this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_515" id="Page_515">[Pg 515]</a></span> unseasonable visit, yet supposing it +some friend who had been benighted, hastily donned his dressing-gown, +and, with light in hand, stepped to the landing. Nothing to be seen +there! But he heard behind him the opening of a door leading into the +principal gallery of the château,—a long hall which for some time had +been out of use. It had been employed by the former owner of the castle +as a banqueting-room, was hung with old family portraits, and, as the +young man had noticed during the day, was so completely incumbered with +furniture, which had been temporarily stored there, that no one could +pass through it.</p> + +<p>He returned in great surprise, which was much increased when he found +the door of the gallery in question closed and locked. He listened, and +heard quite distinctly, within the room, the noise of plates and dishes +and the clatter of knives and forks. To this, after a time, succeeded +the sound of shuffling cards and the rattle of money, as if thrown on +the table in the course of the game.</p> + +<p>More and more astonished, he awoke his servant, and bade him listen at +the door and tell him what he heard. The terrified valet reported the +same sounds that had reached his master's ears, Thereupon the latter +told him to arouse the administrator and request his presence.</p> + +<p>When this gentleman appeared, the young nobleman eagerly asked if he +could furnish any explanation of this strange disturbance.</p> + +<p>"I was unwilling," said he, in reply, "to anticipate what you now +witness, lest you might imagine I had some interested motive to prevent +your coming hither. We are all familiar with these sounds. They occur +every night at about the same hour. And we have sought in vain any +natural explanation of their constant recurrence."</p> + +<p>"Have you the key of the gallery?"</p> + +<p>"Here it is."</p> + +<p>The door was unlocked and thrown open. Silence and darkness! And when +the lights were introduced, not an object to be seen through the gloom, +but the old furniture confusedly piled up over the floor.</p> + +<p>They closed and locked the door. Again the same sounds commenced: the +clatter of dishes, the noise of revelling, the clink of the gamblers' +gold. A second time they opened the door, this time quickly and +suddenly; and a second time the sounds instantly ceased, and the hall, +untenanted except by the silent portraits on its walls, appeared before +them, the same still and gloomy lumber-room as before.</p> + +<p>Baffled for the time, young Putkammer dismissed his attendants and +retired to his chamber. Erelong he heard the door of the gallery open, +the heavy footsteps sound on the stairway, the front door creak on its +hinges,—and then the roll of the carriage, first over the stone +pavement, then along the gravelled avenue, till the sounds gradually +died away in the distance.</p> + +<p>The next night he was ready dressed and prepared with lights. When, +about the same hour, the noise of the approaching carriage was heard, he +had the lights immediately carried to the top of the stairway, and he +himself half descended the stairs. Up the stairs and past his very side +came the footsteps; but neither living being nor spectral form could his +eyes perceive.</p> + +<p>The same noises in the old banqueting-hall. The same fruitless attempts +to witness the revel, or to get at the secret, if any, of the +imposition.</p> + +<p>The young man was brave and devoid of superstition. Yet, in spite of +himself, these mysterious sounds, renewed night after night, irritated +his nerves, and preyed upon his quiet. He thought to break through the +spell by inviting a party of living guests. They came, to the number of +thirty or forty; but not for their presence did the invisible revellers +intermit their nocturnal visit. All heard the approach of the carriage, +the steps ascending the staircase, the sounds of revelry in the hall. +And all, when the opened door disclosed, as wont, but darkness and +silence, turned away with a shudder,—and to the subsequent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_516" id="Page_516">[Pg 516]</a></span> invitation +of their host to favor him again with their company replied by some +shallow apology, which he perfectly understood.</p> + +<p>Thus deserted by his friends, and subjected, night after night, to the +same ghastly annoyance, the young man found his health beginning to +suffer, and decided to endure it no longer.</p> + +<p>Returning to his father, he informed him that he would receive with +gratitude the rents of the property, but only on condition that he was +not required to reside in its haunted château.</p> + +<p>The father, ridiculing what he termed his son's superstitious weakness, +declared that he would himself take up his residence there for a time, +assured that he could not fail to discover the true cause of the sounds +that had driven off its former occupants.</p> + +<p>But the result belied his expectations. Like his son, he never could +<i>see</i> anything. But the selfsame sounds nightly assailed his ears. He +caused the hall to be cleared out and occupied daily. So long as it was +lighted, and there was any one within it, no sounds were heard; and by +thus occupying it all night, the disturbance could be averted. But as +often as it was closed or left in darkness, the invisible revel +recommenced at the wonted hour, preceded by the same preliminaries, +terminating in the same manner.</p> + +<p>Nothing was left untried to penetrate the mystery, and to detect the +trick, if to trickery the disturbances were due. But every effort to +obtain an explanation of the phenomena utterly failed. And the father, +like the son, after a few weeks' struggle against the nightly annoyance, +found his nervous system unable to cope with this constant strain upon +it, and left the château, determined never again to enter its walls.</p> + +<p>The next expedient was to rent it to those whom the fame of its ghostly +reputation had not reached. But this was unavailing, except for a brief +season. No tenant would remain beyond a week or ten days. This plan, +therefore, was abandoned in despair; the principal rooms were closed; +and the building remained for years untenanted, except by one or two +unwilling dependants.</p> + +<p>Finally the proprietor, deeming all change hopeless, and finding that +the keeping up of the château was a mere useless expense, resolved to +destroy it. The dead had fairly driven out the living. He had it pulled +down; and a few low, ruined walls alone remained to mark the place where +it stood.</p> + +<p>Still, even within these deserted ruins, the same sounds of nightly +revelry were declared to have been heard by those who were bold enough +to approach them at the midnight hour. When this was reported to the +proprietor, he determined, if possible, to outroot this last remnant of +disturbance. Accordingly, he caused to be erected, out of the remaining +materials of the château and on the spot where it had stood, a small +chapel, now to be found there, a mute witness of the story I have here +told.</p> + +<p>The chapel was completed and consecrated in the year 1844. Even while +the rites attending its consecration were in progress, strange and +unwonted noises disturbed the congregation; but from that time on they +ceased; and the chapel has since been entirely free from any such.</p> + +<p>A relative of the proprietor, a young officer in the Prussian army, was +present at the consecration, himself witnessed the noises in question, +and had previously heard, from the parties themselves, all the former +occurrences. He it was who related the circumstances to my informant, +the Baron von P——, a gentleman of a grave and earnest character, whose +manner, in repeating them to me, evinced sincerity and conviction. But +it is not merely upon his authority that the details of the narrative +rest. They are, it would seem, of public notoriety in Pomerania; and +hundreds of persons in the neighborhood, as my informant declared, can +yet be found to testify, from personal observation, to the general +accuracy of the above narration.<a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_517" id="Page_517">[Pg 517]</a></span></p> +<p>The most salient point in this story is the practical and business part +of it,—the actual pulling down of the château, as a last resort, to get +rid of the disturbance. Mere fancy is not wont to lead to such a result +as that. The owner of a piece of valuable property is not likely to +destroy it for imaginary cause. Interest is a marvellous quickener of +the wits, and may be supposed to have left no stone unturned, before +assenting to such a sacrifice.</p> + +<p>I inquired of the gentleman to whom I am indebted for the above +narrative if there were no skeptical surmises in regard to the origin of +the disturbance. He replied, that he had heard but one,—namely, that +the administrator of the deceased Baron's estate might, from motives of +interest and to have the field to himself, have resorted to a trick to +scare the owners from the premises.</p> + +<p>It is beyond a doubt that such devices have been successfully employed +ere now for similar purpose. An example may be found in the story of the +monks of St. Bruno, and the shrewd device they employed to obtain from +King Louis the Saint the grant of one of his ancestral palaces. It was +in this wise.</p> + +<p>Having heard his confessor speak in high terms of the goodness and +learning of the monks of St. Bruno, the King expressed a desire to found +a community of them near Paris. Bernard de la Tour, the superior, sent +six of the brethren; and Louis assigned to them, as residence, a +handsome dwelling in the village of Chantilly. It so happened, that from +their windows they had a fine view of the old palace of Vauvert, +originally erected for a royal residence by King Robert, but which had +been deserted for years. The worthy monks, oblivious of the Tenth +Commandment, may have thought the place would suit them; but ashamed, +probably, to make a formal demand of it from the King, they seem to have +set their wits to work to procure it by stratagem.</p> + +<p>At all events, the palace of Vauvert, which had never labored under any +imputation against its character until they became its neighbors, began +almost immediately afterwards to acquire a bad name. Frightful shrieks +were heard to proceed thence at night. Blue, red, and green lights were +seen to glimmer from its casements, and then suddenly disappear. The +clanking of chains succeeded, together with the howlings of persons as +in great pain. Then a ghastly spectre, in pea-green, with long, white +beard and serpent's tail, appeared at the principal windows, shaking his +fist at the passers-by. This went on for months.</p> + +<p>The King, to whom all these wonders were duly reported, deplored the +scandal, and sent commissioners to look into the affair. To these the +six monks of Chantilly, indignant that the Devil should play such pranks +before their very faces, suggested, that, if they could but have the +palace as a residence, they would undertake speedily to cure it of all +ghostly intrusion. A deed, with the royal sign-manual, conveyed Vauvert +to the monks of St Bruno. It bears the date of 1259. From that time all +disturbances ceased,—the green ghost, according to the creed of the +pious, being laid to rest forever under the waters of the Red Sea.<a name="FNanchor_B_2" id="FNanchor_B_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_B_2" class="fnanchor">[B]</a></p> + +<p>Some will surmise that the story of the castle of Putkammer is but a +modified version of that of the palace of Vauvert. It may be so. One who +was not on the spot, to witness the phenomena and personally to verify +all the details, cannot rationally deny the possibility of such an +hypothesis. Yet I find little parallel between the cases, and +difficulties, apparently insuperable, in the way of accepting such a +solution of the mystery.</p> + +<p>The French palace was deserted, and nothing was easier than to play off +there, unchallenged, such commonplace tricks as the showing of colored +lights, the clanking of chains, shrieks, groans, and a howling spectre +with beard and tail,—all in accordance with the prejudices<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_518" id="Page_518">[Pg 518]</a></span> of that +age; nor do we read that any one was bold enough to penetrate, during +the night, into the scene of the disturbance; nor had the King's +commissioners any personal motive to urge a thorough research; nor had a +pious sovereign, the owner of a dozen palaces, any strong inducement to +refuse the cession of one of these, already untenanted and useless, to +certain holy men, the objects of his veneration.</p> + +<p>Very different, in every respect, is the affair of the Pomeranian +castle. It is a narrative of the skeptical nineteenth century, that sets +down all ghost-stories as nursery-tales. The owner, and his son, the +future possessor, each at separate times and for weeks, reside in the +castle, and occupy themselves in repeated attempts to discover whether +they have been imposed on. The selfsame trick, if trick it was, is +repeated night after night, without variation. The roll of the +approaching carriage-wheels, first along the gravelled avenue, then over +the paved court-yard, while no carriage was visible,—how were such +sounds to be imitated? The fall of footsteps, unaccompanied by aught in +bodily form, up the lighted stairway, and past the very side of the bold +youth who stepped down to meet them,—what human device could +successfully simulate these? The sound of the opening gallery-door and +the noises of the midnight orgies, with full opportunity to examine +every nook and corner of the scene whence, to every ear, the same +identical indications came,—how, in producing and reproducing these, +could trickery, time after time, escape detection? Both father and son, +it is evident, had their suspicions aroused; and both, as evidently, +were men of courage, not to be blinded by superstitious panic. Is it a +probable thing that they would destroy an old and valued family mansion, +without having exhausted every conceivable expedient to detect +imposture?</p> + +<p>Nor was this imposture, if as such we are to regard it, conducted in +approved form, after the orthodox fashion. It assumed a shape contrary +to all usually received ideas. No spectre clanking its chains; no lights +burning blue; no groans of the tormented; no ordinary getting-up of a +ghostly disturbance. But a mere succession of sounds, indicating, if we +are to receive and interpret them literally, the periodical return from +the world of spirits of some of its tenants, restless and unblest. Was +this the machinery a mystifier was likely to select?</p> + +<p>Such are the difficulties which attend the hypothesis of a concerted +plan of deception. They will be overlooked by those who have made up +their minds that communications between this world and the next are +impossible, and who will content themselves with pronouncing, that, +though they cannot detect the mode of the imposture, yet imposture of +some kind or other it plainly must have been.</p> + +<p>And such skeptics will very properly remind us of other difficulties in +the way of accepting as a reality the alleged phenomena. What have the +spirits of the departed to do with conveyances resembling those of +earthly structure? Are there incorporeal carriages and horses? Can grave +men admit such fancies as these?<a name="FNanchor_C_3" id="FNanchor_C_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_C_3" class="fnanchor">[C]</a> Or is all this, even if genuine, +only symbolical,—sounds without objective counterpart? Then what +becomes of the positive character of this narrative, as a lesson, as a +warning to us? The whole degenerates into an acted parable. It fades +into the idle pageantry of a dream. Thus we lose ourselves in shadowy +conjecture.</p> + +<p>But, none the less, the facts, if facts they be, remain to be dealt +with. And if at last we concede the ultramundane origin of these +manifestations, whether as objective reality or only as truth-teaching +allegory, what a field is opened to our speculations regarding the +realms<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_519" id="Page_519">[Pg 519]</a></span> of spirit and the possible punishments there in store for those +who, by degrading their natures in this world, may have rendered +themselves unfit for happiness in the next,—and who, perhaps, still +attracted to earth by the debasing excesses they once mistook for +pleasure, may be doomed, in the phantom repetition of their sins, to +detect their naked reality, to have stamped on their consciousness the +vileness of these without the brutal gratifications that veiled it, the +essence of vice shorn of its sensual halo, the grossness without the +glitter: if so, a terrible expiation!</p> + +<p>I beg it may not be imagined, that, because I see grave difficulties in +the way of regarding this case as one of imposture, I therefore set it +up as proof of a novel theory regarding future punishments. A structure +so great cannot be erected on foundation so slender. I but furnish it as +a chance contribution towards the probabilities of ultramundane +intercourse,—as material for thought,—as one of those hints which +future facts may render valueless, but which, on the other hand, other +observed phenomena may possibly serve to work out and corroborate and +explain.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_1"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> I find in my journal the following:—"<i>August 17, 1857.</i> +Read over to the Baron von P—— the Putkammer narrative; and he +assented to its accuracy in every particular."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_B_2" id="Footnote_B_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_B_2"><span class="label">[B]</span></a> This story is given in Garinet's <i>Histoire de la Magie en +France</i>, p. 75.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_C_3" id="Footnote_C_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_C_3"><span class="label">[C]</span></a> Yet in a recent case, occurring in England, and +authenticated in the strongest manner, the "sound of carriages driving +in the park when none were there" is one of the incidents given on the +authority of the lady who had witnessed the disturbances, and who +furnishes a detailed account of them. See "Facts and Fantasies," a +sequel to "Lights and Sounds, the Mystery of the Day," by Henry Spicer, +London, 1853, pp. 76-101.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_RHYME_OF_THE_MASTERS_MATE" id="THE_RHYME_OF_THE_MASTERS_MATE"></a>THE RHYME OF THE MASTER'S MATE.</h2> + +<h3>FORT HENRY.</h3> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">None who saw it can forget<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How they went into the fight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Four abreast,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thereby was the foe perplexed,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With the Essex on the right,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That is nearest to the Fort,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the Cincinnati next,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The St. Louis on her left,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All so gallant and so deft,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the brave Carondelet.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Boom, boom, from every bow!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(They'll have to answer that!)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the Rebel bastions, now,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There's a flash.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cool, keep cool, boys, don't be rash!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mind your eyes, as the old Boss said;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Keep together and go ahead,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not too high and not too low,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fire slow!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">Paff!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now we have it from the Fort,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the Rebels all a-crowing;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While the devils'-echoes laugh,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With a loonish thunder-lowing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">After every gun's report:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Tisn't bird-shot they are throwing,—<br /></span> +<span class="i4">'Tisn't chaff!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_520" id="Page_520">[Pg 520]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i4">Ping! Ping!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If you've ever seen the thing<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That can fly without a wing<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Swifter than the Thunder's bird,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lightning-clenching, lightning-spurred,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If you've ever heard it sing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You will understand the word,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And look out;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For, beyond a mortal doubt,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">It can sting!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">Thump!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'D y' ever hear anything like it?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sounded very much like a ten-strike,—it<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Appears they're after a spare!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bet it made the old Boss jump,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or at any rate awfully screw up his brows,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hit the pilot-house,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And he's up there,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Must 'a' been a hundred-pounder,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Had the twang of a conical ball,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Would 'a' gone plumb through a ten-foot wall.<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Isn't the old <i>Cinc.</i> a trump?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">They meant that for a damper!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Square it off with an eighty shell<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And a fifteen-second fuse,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(With all the latest news!)—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pretty well done, boys, pretty well!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Guess that'll be apt to tell<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Em all about where it came from,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And where it's a-going to,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What it took its name from,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all it's a-knowing to!<br /></span> +<span class="i4">See 'em scamper!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The Conestoga, the Tyler,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the Lexington, you know,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are in line a half a mile, or<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A little less, below,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Just this side of the Panther<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(Little woody island),<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They've their orders——Oh,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But, after all, how <i>can</i> their<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wooden-heads keep silent?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wonder 'f it don't make 'em feel bad,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Even if they ain't all <i>steel</i>-clad,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At being slighted so!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Tisn't so bad a day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Although it's a little cloudy,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or rather, as one might say,<br /></span> +<span class="i4"><i>Smoky</i>, perhaps,—<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_521" id="Page_521">[Pg 521]</a></span> +<span class="i0">A little hazy, a little dubious,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A little too sulphury to be salubrious.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">D' ye mind those thunder-claps?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Do you feel now and then the least little bit<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of an incipient earthquake fit,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Accompanied with awful raps?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But give 'em gowdy, give 'em gowdy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And it'll soon clear away!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Old Boss ain't to be balked.—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All this, you know,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was only the way (or nearly so)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The boys talked,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And felt and thought,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(And acted, too,)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The harder they fought<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the hotter it grew.—<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But there was a Hand at the reel<br /></span> +<span class="i4">That nobody saw,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Old Hickory there at every keel,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In every timber, from stem to stern,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A <i>something</i> in every crank and wheel,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That made 'em answer their turn;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And everywhere,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On earth and water, in fire and air,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As it were to see it all well done,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Wraith of the murdered Law,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Old John Brown at every gun!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But the Fort was all in a roar:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No use to talk, they had the range,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which wasn't strange,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Guess they'd tried it before,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the pounding was not soft,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But might well appall<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The boldest heart.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cool and calm,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Trumpet in hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Up in the cock-loft,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where 'twas the hottest of all,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our brave old Commodore<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Took his stand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And played his part,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Humming over some old psalm!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Tut! did ye hear the hiss and scream<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of that hot steam?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It's the Essex that's struck,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She never had any luck:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah, 'twas a wicked shot,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, whether they know it or not,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It doesn't give us joy!<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_522" id="Page_522">[Pg 522]</a></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thorough an open port it flew,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As with some special permit to destroy;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And first, for sport,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Struck the soul from that beautiful boy;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then through the bulkhead lunged,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And into the boiler plunged,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Scalding the whole crew!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We know that the brave must fall,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But that was a sight to see:<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Twenty-three,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All in an instant scalded and scathed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All at once in the white shroud swathed!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A low moan came from the deck<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of the drifting wreck,—<br /></span> +<span class="i4">And that was all.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">How the traitors'll boast,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As soon as they come to see her<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All adrift and aghast!—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hark! d' ye hear? d' ye hear?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">D' ye hear 'em shout?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They see it already, no doubt.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We shall have to count her out,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That white breath was her last,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She has given up the ghost!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">What does the old Boss think?<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Will he shrink?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Will he waver or falter now?—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A little shadow flits over his brow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For the sharp pang in his heart,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Flits over—and is gone,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And a light looms up in his old gray eye,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whether you see it or not,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That is like a sudden dawn<br /></span> +<span class="i4">In a stormy sky!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">What does he <i>think</i>?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What will he <i>do</i>?—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Well! he don't say!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But I'll tell you what,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You can bet your life,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As you would your knife,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And your wife, too,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">He'll do<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(And put 'em up at once!)—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He'll run these boats right up to their guns,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And take that Fort, or sink!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But, oh—oh, it was hot!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So thick and fast the solid shot<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_523" id="Page_523">[Pg 523]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Upon our iron armor played,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It kept, like thunder, a kind of time—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Devil's tattoo or gallopade—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That, like an awful, awful rhyme,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Rang in the ear;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And they sent us cheer after cheer.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But the boys had been to <i>school</i>,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And <i>their</i> guns were not cool;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For they knew what Cause they served,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And not a man of 'em swerved!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But on, right on, they swept,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And from every grim bow-port<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their nutmegs and shell-barks leaped<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Into the jaws of the Fort!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And (to give her, perhaps, a chance to breathe)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Knocked out some of her big, black teeth!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And (to raise a better crop, no doubt,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than was ever raised there before)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ploughed her up into awful creases,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Inside and out!—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For now they were up and doing the chore<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At only four hundred yards,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the death-dealing shreds and shards<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of our shell were tearing 'em all to pieces!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Hurrah for the brave old Flag!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To triumph see her ride!—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ha, ha! they dodge and duck,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Snake's expiring!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their gunners run and hide,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By heaven, they've struck!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Down comes the rattlesnake rag<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By the run,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Stop the firing!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The work is done!—<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Anyhow, she'll do for batter!—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You see now, Butternuts, you were plucky;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But that ain't "what's the matter,"—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not by a long shot!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No, no,—no! I'll tell you what—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And you mustn't take it at all amiss—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I'll tell you what the <i>matter</i> is:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Tain't because you were born unlucky,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(Bear in mind,)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor that you've good eyes and we are blind,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nothing of the kind,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But it's something else, if it isn't more:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The reason—pardon!—you had to cotton<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was simply this: Your <i>Cause</i> was rotten,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rotten to the very core:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That's what's the matter!<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_524" id="Page_524">[Pg 524]</a></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But you ought to 'a' heard our water-dogs yelp!—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Just an hour and fifteen minutes!—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(Twitter away, you English linnets!)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Horizontal and perpendicular,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fair and square, without any help,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That is, any in particular,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The old ferry wash-tubs of the West,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With some new-fashioned <i>hoops</i>, for a little test,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And a few old <i>pounders</i> from—Kingdom Come,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And nothing for suds but the "Nawth'n scum,"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Made these "gen'l'men" turn as white<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As a head o' hair in a single night!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cleaned their army completely out,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(We're going to give <i>that</i> another wipe!)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On the double-quick, by the shortest route,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wrung their stronghold from their gripe,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Brought their garrison right to taw,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And made 'em get down to the "higher law"!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So that when Grant and his boys came up,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(There's places enough for a man to die!)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Swearing that we had "spoiled" their "sport,"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With a quiet twinkle in his eye,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Old Boss asked 'em to come in and sup,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And set 'em to <i>house-keeping</i> in the Fort!—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But all the old fellow could say or do,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They'd still keep a-going it: "Bully for <i>you</i>!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Bully" for Grant and for Foote!—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E'en if the voice must tremble,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And "bully" for all who helped 'em to do 't!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bully for Porter and Stemble!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For Paulding and for Walke,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For Phelps, for Gwin, and for Shirk!—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But what's the use to talk?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They were all of 'em up to the work!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bully for each brave tub<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That bore the Union Blue!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And for every mother's son<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of every gallant crew,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whatever his color or name,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who, when it came to the rub,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall be found to have been <i>game</i>!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"> * * * * *<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Such was the Rhyme of the Master's Mate,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Just as they found it in the locker,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With this at the foot:—<br /></span> +<span class="i4">"It's getting late,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And I hear a pretty loud Knock at the knocker!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Captain, if I should chance to fall,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Try to send me home. Good bye!" That's all,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Excepting the date, the name, and rank:—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">"Feb. 12th, '62, —— ——,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Master's Mate."<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_525" id="Page_525">[Pg 525]</a></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">All next day a great black Cloud<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hung over the land from coast to coast;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the next, the Knocking was "pretty loud,"—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With a sudden Eclipse, as it were, of the sun,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the earth, all day, quaked—"Donelson!"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But the next was the deadliest day of all,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the Master's Mate was not at Call!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet nobody seemed to wonder why,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There was something, perhaps, the Master knew<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Far better than we, for his Mate to do,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the Day went down with a bloody sky!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But when the long, long Night was past,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And our Eagle, sweeping the traitor's crag,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Circled to victory up the dome,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The great Reveille was heard at last!—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They wrapped the Mate in his country's flag,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sent him in glory home!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_VISIBLE_AND_INVISIBLE_IN_LIBRARIES" id="THE_VISIBLE_AND_INVISIBLE_IN_LIBRARIES"></a>THE VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE IN LIBRARIES.</h2> + + +<p>A visible library is a goodly sight. We do not underrate the external +value of books, when we say it is the invisible which forms their chief +charm. Sometimes rather too much is said about "tall copies," and +"large-paper copies," and "first editions," the binding, paper, type, +and all the rest of the outside attraction, or the fancy price, which go +to make up the collector's trade. The books themselves feel a little +degraded, when this sort of conversation is carried on in their +presence: some of them know well enough that occasionally they fall into +hands which think more "of the coat than of the man who is under it." We +must, however, be honest enough to confess that we are ourself a +bibliomaniac, and few possessions are more valued than an old +manuscript, written on vellum some five hundred years ago, of which we +cannot read one word. Nor do we prize less the modern extreme of +external attraction,—volumes exquisitely printed and adorned, bound by +Rivière, in full tree-marbled calf, with delicate tooling on the back, +which looks as if the frost-work from the window-pane on a cold January +morning had been transmuted into gold, and laid on the leather. Ah, +these are sights fit for the gods!</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, we come back to our starting-point, that what is unseen +forms the real value of the library. The type, the paper, the binding, +the age, are all visible; but the soul that conceived it, the mind that +arranged it, the hand that wrote it, the associations which cling to it, +are the invisible links in a long chain of thought, effort, and history, +which make the book what it is.</p> + +<p>In wandering through the great libraries of Europe, how often has this +truth been impressed upon the mind!—such a library as that in the old +city of Nuremberg, housed in what was once a monastery, and looking so +ancient, quaint, and black-lettered, visibly and invisibly, that, if the +old monk in the legend who slipped over a thousand years while the +little bird sang to him in the wood, and was thereby taught, what he +could not understand in the written Word, that a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_526" id="Page_526">[Pg 526]</a></span> thousand years in +God's sight are but as a day,—if that old monk had walked out of the +Nuremberg monastery and now walked back again, he might almost take up +the selfsame manuscript he had laid down a thousand years ago.</p> + +<p>What invisible heads have ached, and hands become weary, over those +vellum volumes, with their bright initial letters! What hearts have +throbbed over the early printed book! How triumphantly was the first +copy, now worm-eaten and forgotten, contemplated by the author! How was +that invisible world which surrounded him to be stirred by that new +book!</p> + +<p>We remember looking into one of the cell-like alcoves arranged for +students in a college library at Oxford, and watching a fellow of the +college (a type of scholars, grown old among books, rarely found in our +busy land) crooning over a strange black-letter folio, and laughing to +himself with a sort of invisible chuckle. The unseen in that volume was +revealed to us through that laugh of the old bookworm, and quite unseen +we partook of his amusement. Another alcove was vacant; a crabbed +manuscript, just laid down by the writer, was on the desk. He was +invisible; but the watchful guardian at the head of the room saw us +peering in, and warned us with a loud voice not to enter. Safely might +we have been permitted to do so, for we could hardly have deciphered at +a glance all the wisdom that lurked in the open page; yet that hidden +meaning, invisible to us, was of real value to the unseen writer.</p> + +<p>There are many incidents connected with the visible and invisible of +libraries existing in the great houses of England, which could point a +moral in sketches of this subject. One, concerning a pamphlet found at +Woburn Abbey, has a peculiar interest.</p> + +<p>Lord William Russell, eldest son of Francis, fourth Earl of Bedford, +after completing his education at Oxford, and travelling abroad for two +years, returned home in the winter of 1634. Young, handsome, +accomplished, and the eldest son of the House of Russell, the +fashionable world of London marked him as a prize in the matrimonial +speculations of the times, and was quite in a flutter to know which of +the reigning beauties, would captivate the young Lord Russell. Lady +Elizabeth Cecil, Lady Dorothy Sidney, Lady Anne Carr were the rival +belles upon whom the eyes of the world were fixed. It was with no small +consternation that the Earl of Bedford soon found that the affections of +his son had been attracted by Lady Anne Carr, the daughter of the Earl +and Countess of Somerset, more widely known as Robert Carr and Lady +Essex. The Earl of Bedford had taken a prominent part in the Countess's +trial, and participated in the general abhorrence of her character. In +vain his son pleaded the innocence of the daughter, who, early separated +from her parents, knew nothing of their history or their crimes. The +Earl of Bedford shrunk with a feeling of all but insurmountable aversion +to such an alliance; and not until the king interceded for the youthful +lovers, did the father yield a reluctant consent, and their marriage was +celebrated. The undisturbed happiness and harmony in which the parties +lived reconciled the Earl to the connection; he became much attached to +his beautiful daughter-in-law; and in the sweetness and domestic purity +of her character he could sometimes forget her parents. Lady Anne's life +passed quietly in the discharge of the duties of a wife and mother, and +of those which devolved upon her when her husband became fifth Earl of +Bedford in 1641. In 1683, their eldest son, Lord William Russell, died +on the scaffold.</p> + +<p>"There is a life in the principles of freedom," says the historian of +the House of Russell, "which the axe of the executioner does not, for it +cannot, touch." This great thought must have strengthened the souls of +the parents under so terrible a trial. The mother's health, however, +sunk under the blow, which, in the sympathy of her celebrated +daughter-in-law, the heroic Lady Rachel Russell,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_527" id="Page_527">[Pg 527]</a></span> she endeavored to +sustain. One day, seeking, perhaps, some book to cheer her thoughts, +Lady Bedford entered the library, and in an anteroom seldom visited +chanced to take a pamphlet from the shelves. She opened its pages, and +read there, for the first time, the record of her mother's guilt. The +visible in that page rent aside the invisible veil which those who loved +Lady Bedford had silently woven over her whole life, as a shield from a +terrible truth. She was found by her attendants senseless, with the +fatal book open in her hand. The revelations of the past, the sorrows of +the present, were too much for her to bear, and she died. Lady Rachel +Russell, writing from Woburn Abbey at the time, states her conviction +that Lady Bedford's reason would not have sustained the shock received +from the contents of the pamphlet, even had her physical powers rallied.</p> + +<p>Turning aside one moment from our subject, we stand in awe before the +striking contrast presented by the characters of two women, each so +closely linked with Lady Bedford's life,—the one who heard her first +breath, and the other who received her last sigh. If Lady Somerset +causes us to shrink with horror from the depth of depravity of which +woman's nature is capable, let us thank God that in Lady Rachel Russell +we have a witness of the purity, self-sacrifice, and holiness a true +woman's soul can attain.</p> + +<p>In the library at Wilton House, the seat of the Sidneys, we were shown a +lock of Queen Elizabeth's hair, hidden for more than a hundred years in +one of the books. A day came when some member of the family took down an +old volume to see what treasures of wisdom lurked therein. "She builded +better than she knew," for between the leaves lay folded a paper which +contained a faded lock of the once proud Queen Bess. How it came there, +and by whose hand it was placed in the book, is one of the invisible +things of the library, but the writing within the paper authenticated +the relic beyond doubt; and it is now shown as one of the visible +treasures of the library of Wilton House.</p> + +<p>Magdalen College, Cambridge, contains the Pepysian Library,—placed +there by the will of Pepys, under stringent conditions, in default of +whose fulfilment the bequest falls to Trinity. One of the fellows of +Magdalen is always obliged to mount guard over visitors to the library. +Such an escort being provided, we ascended the stairs, and found +ourselves in the presence of the bookcases which once adorned Pepys's +house in London, containing the "three thousand bookes" of which he was +so proud. The bookcases are handsome, with small mirrors let into them, +in which, doubtless, Mrs. Pepys often surveyed the effect of those +"newegownes" which pleased her husband's vanity so well, although he +rather reluctantly paid the cost. There, too, is the original manuscript +of that entertaining Diary, wherein Pepys daguerrotyped the age in which +he lived, and himself with all his sense and nonsense. That Diary would +have remained one of the invisible treasures of libraries, for it was +written in a cipher of his own invention, but, by a very curious chance, +the key to that cipher was unintentionally betrayed through comparison +with another paper, and the journal was brought to light, and many +things made visible which the writer dreamed not of confiding to future +ages. Pepys was an indefatigable, and, we cannot but half suspect, an +unscrupulous collector. Volumes of autographs, great scrap-books filled +with prints, tickets, invitations, ballads, let us into the visible and +invisible of the reign of Charles II. A manuscript music-book, elegantly +bound, and labelled, "Songs altered to suit my Voice," carried us back +to the days when, after going to the play in the afternoon, Pepys and +some of his companions "came back to my house and had musique."</p> + +<p>Pepys certainly never meant to be one of the invisible things in his own +library, for every book contains an engraving from his own portrait. +Should<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_528" id="Page_528">[Pg 528]</a></span> he ever come back to look after the possessions he so much +valued, he can surely be at no loss to find the likeness of the form he +once wore. If a spirit can retain any human vanity and self-importance, +his must certainly be unpleasantly surprised that the great collection +looks small in these days, and attracts but little attention. To +antiquaries and lovers of the odd and curious it must ever be valuable; +but the obligation of having a fellow of Magdalen at one's elbow much +interferes with that quiet, cozy "mousing" so dear to the soul of a +bibliomaniac. We heartily wished that we could have made an appointment +with the shade of old Pepys, and, returning to the library in the +stillness of midnight, have found him ready to show off his collections. +That would have been, indeed, the visible and the invisible of the +Pepysian Library. The Cambridge men of to-day are too busy about their +own affairs to look much into Pepys's collections, which remain quietly +ensconced under the guardianship of Old Magdalen, one of the visible +links between the seen and unseen in libraries.</p> + +<p>Nestled quietly in an old Elizabethan house, among the great trees at +Wotton, is the library of John Evelyn. Belonging to the same age as that +of Pepys, but collected by a man of widely different tastes and +character, there is much outwardly to charm as well as to elevate the +mind in the influences shed around it. Here are tall copies and folios +of grave works, classic and historical, the solid literary food of a man +who kept his soul pure amid a corrupt age, books as harmonious with the +reflective mind of Evelyn as were the grand old woods of Wotton with the +refined tastes of the author of "Sylva." Here is preserved the original +manuscript of Evelyn's Journal, the paper yellow with the mellow tints +of two hundred autumns, yet the thought as fresh as if written +yesterday. Near the manuscript is seen the prayer-book which Charles I. +held in his hand when he mounted the scaffold at Whitehall. There is +much of the visible and invisible in that quaint old library at Wotton.</p> + +<p>The internal treasures of Christian faith opened a wide field for the +outward decoration of religious books. "The Hours" (meaning devotional +hours) of kings and queens are magnificent specimens of chirography, +showing also the skill of artists in the earliest centuries. The art of +preparing these volumes was divided into two branches: that of the +<i>Miniatori</i>, or illuminators, who furnished the paintings, the borders, +and arabesques, and also laid on the gold; and that of the <i>Miniatori +calligrafi</i>, who wrote the whole of the book, and drew the initial +letters of blue and red with their fanciful ornaments. Many of the great +libraries of Europe contain these splendid manuscripts, and although but +one page is open to the passing visitor, which he sees "through a glass +darkly," yet that page is written over and illuminated with associations +and memories. Could a glance reveal thoughts which have looked out of +eyes bending over these pages, when they were held in the hand of their +first owner, what messages from the invisible would be received! Some of +these rare and regal possessions have gone a little astray, and wandered +about in the wilderness of the world, as is confirmed by an anecdote we +recently received from good authority. A magnificent volume, illustrated +by views of French châteaux of the Middle Ages, presented to a princess +of the House of Bourbon, was known to have existed. This manuscript had +disappeared, and for more than a hundred years it could not be traced. +The Duc d'Aumale, son of Louis Philippe, while in Genoa, was informed +(by a person who called upon him for that purpose) that there was for +sale in that city a valuable illuminated manuscript, and, as the Duke +was known to be a collector of rare books, it would be shown to him. He +accordingly followed his informant to an obscure part of the city, and +into an old house, where the manuscript was produced. What was his +astonishment, when he beheld before him the lost Bourbon manuscript, so +long sought for in vain! He immediately became its purchaser; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_529" id="Page_529">[Pg 529]</a></span> +whatever secret history belongs to the volume, connected with the time +when it was invisible, it is now one of the most treasured realities in +the magnificent library at Orleans House.</p> + +<p>In the illuminated pages of many of these old manuscripts there lurks +much more, doubtless, than meets the eye. Thus, that famous poem of the +Middle Ages, the "Romance of the Rose," has passed for a mere fanciful +allegory, or love-story. Splendidly illuminated copies of this Romance +are well known. The British Museum possesses one, which Dibdin calls +"the cream of the Harleian Collection": it is in folio, and replete with +embellishments. He also mentions another copy, at that time belonging to +Mr. North, the frontispiece of which represents Francis I. surrounded by +his courtiers, receiving a copy from the author. Only the visible of the +illuminated volume was probably opened to the eyes of Francis, or even +of Dibdin. A later student pronounces the Romance to be a complete +specimen of Hermetic Philosophy, concealing great truths under its +allegory,—the Rose being the symbol of philosophic gold.</p> + +<p>Such is the view taken of this Romance by our distinguished +fellow-countryman, Major-General Hitchcock, who found time, in the +interval between two wars, to collect and study three hundred volumes of +Hermetic Philosophy, coming forth therefrom as a champion in defence of +a much misunderstood class. This ingenious work, entitled "Alchemy and +the Alchemists," published in 1857, was written to prove that the +alchemists were not foolish seekers for sordid gold, nor vain believers +in the elixir of life, but philosophers of deep thought and high aims, +who, in days when a man dared not say his soul was his own, veiled in +mystic language, perfectly understood by each other, theological and +philosophical truths, theories, and discoveries, which would have +brought them to the stake or the rack, had they been produced openly. +"Man was the subject of alchemy, and the object of the art was the +perfection, or at least the improvement, of man." These were the <i>real</i> +Hermetic Philosophers. After them came men who, not knowing the meaning +of the symbolic language which concealed the spiritual truths, took the +written word in a literal sense, and went to work with crucibles and +retorts, seeking the philosopher's stone and the elixir of life, not +knowing, indeed, the Scripture, that "the letter killeth, but the spirit +maketh alive."</p> + +<p>Such a theory as that advanced in "Alchemy and the Alchemists" opens a +new chapter in the visible and invisible of a library of Hermetic +Philosophy.</p> + +<p>The most ancient specimens of calligraphy extant are probably the +Terence of the fourth century and the Virgil of the fifth century, in +the Vatican Library. Alas for those who have no open sesame to that +collection! We shall never forget our disappointment upon entering the +Vatican. We could not gaze even on the mouldy vellum or faded leather of +old bindings, and saw nothing but stupid modern painted cases, bodies +quite unworthy of the souls they hid. Gladly would we have laid aside +our theory concerning unseen treasures, and looked that great collection +face to face.</p> + +<p>"The taste for the external decoration of manuscripts," says Labarte, +(whose interesting "Hand-Book on the Arts of the Middle Ages" has been +admirably translated by Mrs. Palliser,) "already existed among the +ancients. Marcus Varro called forth the praises of Cicero for having +traced in his book the portraits of more than seven hundred celebrated +persons; Seneca, in his treatise 'De Tranquillitate Animi,' speaks of +books ornamented with figures; and Martial addresses his thanks to +Stertinius, who had placed his portrait in his library."</p> + +<p>These ancient works of Art have vanished, none have survived the stormy +passage of ages, yet this casual mention of them carries us into the +otherwise invisible past. We see the seven hundred portraits in Marcus +Varro's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_530" id="Page_530">[Pg 530]</a></span> book, and walk into the library of Stertinius to give our +opinion of the portrait of Martial.</p> + +<p>"The miniatures of manuscripts were long considered," says Labarte, +"only as ornaments. Montfaucon was the first to recognize their +usefulness as historical documents. To possess manuscripts of the Middle +Ages with miniatures is in fact to possess a gallery of contemporaneous +pictures."</p> + +<p>The most beautiful specimen of ancient illuminated manuscript we have +seen in this country belongs to the Honorable Charles Sumner. It is a +missal of the fifteenth century, of finest quality. Several of the +miniatures might well be claimed as the work of Van Eyck. The +frontispiece consists of the portrait of the lady for whose devotions +the book was prepared. She kneels before the Madonna, while her patron +saint stands beside her. Beneath this celestial vision is the heraldic +shield of the lady's family, thus throwing in a glimpse of visible +worldly grandeur. The borders and arabesques of this manuscript are +equal in execution to the miniatures, and the missal is one of rare +beauty.</p> + +<p>Can we forbear alluding to that other treasure of Senator Sumner's +collection,—the Album which belonged to Camillus Cordoyn, who, more +than two centuries ago, entertained guests at his house as they +journeyed into Italy? One of these, Thomas Wentworth, afterwards Lord +Strafford, then a young man gayly travelling about the world, wrote his +name in the volume, little thinking of the block and the axe which were +to illustrate the closing chapter of his book of life. The immortal +Milton, on his return from Italy, was the guest of the same nobleman. +What would we not give for a look into that house at Geneva, and see +this little volume laid before the visitor! The glorious eyes of John +Milton looked over its pages, and perhaps he listened to the story of +some of the distinguished personages, now all forgotten, whose names and +heraldic shields are there. Then he turned to a blank leaf, and wrote +two lines from his own "Comus,"—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i8">"If Virtue feeble were,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Heaven itself would stoop to her."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>He signed his name on that 20th of June, 1639, and the host took back +the book. And now, more than two hundred years after, that page is held +as priceless in this great republic beyond the sea.</p> + +<p>We should speak gratefully of the externals of books, because for two +long years our oculist did not allow us to open them. We dared not go +farther than their titles, yet even these were talismans which revealed +wide regions, and carried us from Indus to the Pole. We went with Arthur +Penrhyn Stanley to the Holy Land, discovered Nineveh with Layard, +explored Art treasures with Mrs. Jameson, plunged among icebergs with +Parry. A volume of Belzoni bore us not only to pyramids and mummies in +Egypt, but away to a strange old hall "in Padua, beyond the sea." +Cabalistic paintings cover the walls, misty with age; lurking in one +corner of the vast apartment is a gigantic wooden horse, that figured at +some public festival four hundred years ago, and now pauses, ready to +prance out of the mouldy past into the affrighted present; opposite +stand two Egyptian statues, cat-headed human figures, resting their +hands on their stone knees. These were gifts from Belzoni to his native +city of Padua; and his handsome head in the Eastern turban, turned into +white marble, stands above the entrance-door.</p> + +<p>Coming back from the Paduan hall, so weird and ghostly, we glance along +the shelves at a long row of volumes which bear De Quincey's name, and +we need not open a page to feel the mysterious spell of the opium-eater. +Like one of those strange dreams of his seems a remembrance which comes +back to us with his name. A quaint, tall house in the old part of +Edinburgh has admitted us into a quiet apartment, where, as the twilight +is creeping in through the windows, a small gray man receives us, with +graceful and tender courtesy. He converses with a felicity of language +like that of his printed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_531" id="Page_531">[Pg 531]</a></span> pages, but in a voice so sweet, so low, so +exquisitely modulated, that the magical tone vibrates on the ear like +music. It was De Quincey, who held us entranced until darkness gathered +around us, then bade us farewell, his kind words lingering on the air, +as, with a flickering candle in his hand, he flitted up the winding +stair, and vanished away.</p> + +<p>Another volume bears the name of William Wordsworth, and beneath his +autograph he writes that it was purchased at Bath from a +circulating-library. It is that strange journal of the Margravine of +Bareith, sister of Frederic the Great, a sad story of those who dwell in +kings' houses; but we think only of Wordsworth, and of the viewless +history of the book carried by the poet from circulating in Bath to +quiet rural Rydal Mount, and now having wandered over to New England.</p> + +<p>A dainty volume near by bears the autograph of Rogers, and though the +association is not so purely imaginative, perhaps, as a poet should call +up, yet it always brings to our mind the breakfasts at his house, of +which many of our friends have partaken, and related divers stories +concerning those morning refections. They are invisible feasts to us, +for we never even picked up the crumbs from them, except at second hand; +yet this elegant little book knew all about them, and heard what was +said before, and also behind—the table-cloth.</p> + +<p>Singular experiences connected with books are sometimes known to their +owners, quite invisible to others. In yonder corner are two volumes. +Book-collectors know that they are rare, and the uninitiated think they +contain queer old wood-cuts. To us that corner is haunted; an invisible +lady hovers about those volumes. Once upon a time an order was given for +those books, but the answer came back from over the sea, that they were +not to be had, or to be had only at rare intervals on the breaking up of +a library. To our no small surprise, very soon after this quietus had +been given to bibliomaniacal hopes, the books in question appeared +before us in excellent condition. We could hardly suppose that any one +had been benevolent enough to break up a library on purpose to oblige +us, and we waited to hear a very odd story.</p> + +<p>Soon after the letter had been sent, announcing the ill success of our +commission, the writer of it was in a bookshop in London, when a lady +entered and desired an interview with the master. After some private +conversation, the lady returned to her carriage and drove away. The +bookseller remarked to his friend, that the lady had brought with her +some books, which she desired to part with. Our informant asked to see +them, and, lo! the very volumes for which in our behalf he had searched +in vain: he immediately secured the prize, which was forwarded by the +next steamer.</p> + +<p>Can any one ask why the figure of the lady who brought those books to us +three thousand miles over the sea "haunts us like a shadow"? We see her +ascend her invisible carriage, we go with her to her invisible home, we +meet her viewless husband;—here we shudder, but we recover ourselves; +we are convinced that he could not have been a book-collector, or she +had not dared such a deed. Then we puzzle ourselves about her unseen +motives for selling the books. Had she gambled? Had she bet on the +losing horse at the Derby? Had she bought an expensive bonnet? Or was it +the impulse of some strong benevolent purpose? Why <i>did</i> she sell those +books? Since she did thus part with them, we thank her, and are content +that by very strange combinations of circumstances, blending the visible +and invisible together, those books, viewless in her library, are now +apparent in our own.</p> + +<p>Here is another volume which has also something mystical about it in its +visible and invisible effect. It is a copy of Dibdin's "Bibliomania," +which belonged to Dawson Turner. A note in his handwriting states that +the tools required for the binding were used exclusively for Lord +Spencer, and that a view<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_532" id="Page_532">[Pg 532]</a></span> of Strawberry Hill will be found on its edges. +Gilt edges, however, are all that meet the eye; but turned by a skilful +hand to the right light, the gilding vanishes, and a picture of +Strawberry Hill appears, painted with velvety softness. Such a nice +bibliomaniacal fancy must have delighted Dibdin; and as he was at one +time librarian at Althorpe, he doubtless was the medium of bestowing +this charm upon the binding of his own work for his friend.</p> + +<p>The invisible in libraries has ever seemed to us linked with those who +have written or read the books. If souls are allowed to return to their +earthly haunts, a library would surely be the place to meet them. For +this reason we have cherished a firm belief in the apparition which the +distinguished librarian of the Astor Library beheld, and never desire to +hear any commonplace explanations concerning it; and on visiting the +Astor collection, we were more desirous to see the spot where the +reading phantom appeared than all the rest of the building. Who shall +say that authors and students do not come back to the books which +contain their invisible souls, or spirits like themselves? Without +venturing to invoke the sceptred sovereigns of literature, or to call up +the shades of the prophets and sibyls of elder time, yet at midnight +what a circle might come forth and visit the library! Scott and Burns +and Byron, Burke and Fox and Sheridan, all in one evening; clever, +pretty Mrs. Thrale comes bringing Fanny Burney to meet Jane Austen and +Maria Edgeworth; Horace Walpole, patronizing Gray, Rogers, Wordsworth, +Coleridge, Keats, and Charles Lamb,—what a social club that would be! +Ah, the librarian of the Astor is more fortunate than we; these spirits +are all invisible, and we catch not even at midnight the rustle of the +leaf they turn or the passing murmur of their voices. Yet within the +library, ever ready to meet us, their souls still linger; and when we +open the visible book which enshrines it, we find the hidden spirit.</p> + +<p>A number of gentlemen once went together to a friend's house. While they +awaited his entrance, one of the party, being a lover of books, +naturally turned to the shelves of the library. Without any particular +attraction to the title, he chanced to take down one of the volumes. As +he opened it, a sealed letter fell from between the leaves on the floor. +He took it up, and, to his no small astonishment, perceived that it was +addressed to himself.</p> + +<p>He called the attention of his companions to this strange circumstance. +As it could be no breach of decorum to break the seal of a letter +addressed to one's self, he did so. The surprise was increased by +finding a bank-note within. The letter came from a well-known gentleman, +and bore the date of a year past. When the owner of the house entered, +he found his guests in quite a tumult of surprise and puzzle. At first +he was quite as much at a loss as themselves to account for this +discovery. It was, however, remembered by the gentleman to whom the +letter was addressed, that about a year before he had applied to the +writer for aid in some charity, but, having many demands of the same +kind to supply, he declined. Afterwards, as it appeared, he regretted +having done so, and had accordingly inclosed the money. Probably, soon +after, he met the gentleman in whose book it was found, (with whom he +was on intimate terms,) and asked him to give the letter as addressed. +The receiver brought it home, laid it on his table, and forgot it. The +book lying open, it may be that the letter slipped between the leaves +and the volume was returned to the shelf. And there it had waited for +more than a year, holding the invisible letter quite safe, until the +person to whom it was addressed took down, for the first time in his +life, a volume from those shelves, and received into his own hand the +communication intended for him. No one can wonder that the invisible in +libraries has a strong hold on the faith of our friend.</p> + +<p>Although few may be so fortunate as to find bank-notes in letters +addressed to themselves between the leaves of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_533" id="Page_533">[Pg 533]</a></span> books in libraries, yet +we all have felt the sensation of discoverers of hidden treasures. After +carelessly looking at a volume which has stood on the shelves for years, +we open it and find within thoughts which appeal to our deepest +experiences, high incentives to our nobler energies, deep sympathy in +our sorrows, sustaining words to help us on with our life-work. How +differently do we ever after regard the visible of that book! The +invisible has been revealed to us, and we almost wonder whether, if we +had looked into it two or three years before, we should have found there +what now we prize so much. Perhaps not; for after different experiences +in life come different revelations from books. The pages which a few +years ago we might have glanced over with indifference now speak to us +as if uttering the emotions of our own souls.</p> + +<p>Sometimes it is a work of fiction which, we open for the first time, the +title of which has been familiar to our eyes. Out of it invisible +spirits walk. We are introduced to charming people who never existed, +and yet who become our daily companions. We go with them through many +trials, we rejoice with them, we know all their secrets, and share with +them many of our own. Is it possible, that, shut up between those +covers, long unknown, all these existed which have since made life +brighter and better to us?</p> + +<p>In Sterling's "Onyx Ring," Walsingham, the poet, takes down a volume +from Sir Charles Harcourt's library, and reads a charming romance, +apparently from its pages. A lady of the company afterwards turned to +the same book, which proved to be a work of Jeremy Bentham's, and +searched in vain for the graceful narrative. Walsingham smiled at her +perplexity, and said, "Those only find who know where to look."</p> + +<p>The invisible world of thought, and the invisible representation of it +in books, have known many changes since Cicero looked at the volume +which Marcus Varro had illustrated; and from an earlier civilization +than Cicero's comes the exclamation of the soul-wearied Job, "Oh that +mine adversary had written a book!" Solomon also exclaims, "Of making +many books there is no end." He dreamed not of the extent to which the +manufacture would be carried in these days. On the other hand, how +little we know of the literary world existing in the days of Job or +Solomon! and may we not be led by these exclamations to suspect not only +a large supply of books, but even the existence of an Arabian Review or +a Dead-Sea Magazine?</p> + +<p>The increase of wealth, and the restless activity of intellect in the +new world which surrounds us, lead naturally to the accumulation of +libraries, both public and private. In our daily walks we often pass +dwellings which we know hold literary treasures. Sometimes the beauties +of Nature can be combined with those of Art, even in a city, around the +library. We recall one from the windows of which we look forth, not on +crowded streets, but on the wide river as it bends to the sea. Behind +the distant hills the heavens are resplendent with the autumnal hues of +sunset, the water is aglow with reflected glories, while swooping and +sailing over the waves come the white sea-gulls. It is a leaf from the +illuminated prayer-missal for all eyes and hearts. The literary +treasures of that friend's library have been elsewhere described, some +of them gifts from wise men, earnest women, world-worshipped poets, +bearing on their leaves the signatures of their authors' friendship. +Other treasures are there, visible and invisible, among which we would +fain linger, but we must pass on. We enter another library, once filled +with rare and costly works, which taught of the wonderful structure of +plants, from the hyssop on the wall to the cedar of Lebanon. Gone now +are these volumes, and vanished, too, is their collector, whose wide and +generous culture was veiled by the curtain of modesty and quietness. His +collections he bestowed upon a public institution, where the wonders of +God's universe will be a subject of study for all coming time.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_534" id="Page_534">[Pg 534]</a></span> These he +gave, and then went peacefully away from our sight to learn yet wider +and grander lessons at the feet of that Teacher who, when he was on +earth, bade his followers "consider the lilies of the field." Is not +that library as real to us as when the books filled its shelves, and we +were welcomed by the gentle voice of its master?</p> + +<p>The crowds which form the living stream that surges through Washington +Street and eddies around the Old South Church seldom, perhaps, pause to +think of that edifice as one of the links uniting the memorable past of +our country's history with the momentous present. Still less do they who +raise their eyes to the tower to learn the hour of the day imagine that +there is an invisible library connected with the familiar form of the +belfry. Yet a romance of literary and historic interest encircles it. At +the time of the Revolution, Dr. Prince was pastor of the Old South +Church, and in the tower he kept his historical treasures along with the +New England Library. Among these volumes were Governor Bradford's +letter-book and the manuscript of his "History of the Plantation of +Plymouth." During the siege of Boston, the British turned the Old South +into a riding-school, and the troopers had free scope to do what +mischief they pleased. After the evacuation of the town the library was +found in a disordered condition, and the valued manuscripts of Bradford +were missing. Some time after, a person observed that the article he had +bought from a grocer in Halifax was wrapped in paper written over in a +peculiar hand. He deciphered enough to make him earnest to obtain what +remained of the manuscript in the grocer's possession. It proved to be +fragments of the missing letter-book of Governor Bradford. Years passed +on until 1856, when the attention of an historical writer was attracted +by a quotation, in a note to an English work, from "a manuscript history +of the Plantation of Plymouth, in the Fulham Library." As the extract +contained passages not found in any part of that history known in +America, it immediately occurred to those interested that this might be +the missing volume from the Prince Library. A correspondence was +thereupon opened with the Bishop of London. The handwriting of Bradford +being authenticated, as well as that of Dr. Prince, which was found in a +memorandum, dated "June 28th, showing how he obtained it from Major John +Bradford," there could no longer remain a doubt that this was indeed the +lost historical treasure. Part of the manuscripts of Bradford had been +carried by the British soldiers to Halifax, and sold at last as +waste-paper to a grocer; and the rest, after some history unknown, +reached England and found protection under the care of the Bishop of +London. A copy of this manuscript is now in the possession of the Boston +Historical Society.</p> + +<p>In the rooms of that society is preserved the Dowse Library. A rare +collection of books, formed by a man daily engaged in the mechanic craft +of a leather-dresser, is a singular illustration of the visible and +invisible of libraries. We recall past days in Cambridge, when, beneath +the sign of a white wooden sheep, we entered the unpretending house +which contained not only the leather-dresser's shop, but a small gallery +of pictures and this valuable library. We remember, also, with grateful +interest, the modest, but manly, welcome of the master of both the +mechanic craft and the treasures of art and literature, and how quietly +he would give us a few words about his books. The Dowse Library we visit +is always <i>there</i>, and although much is visible in the beautiful room +where the bequest of the owner has been fittingly enshrined, yet its +distinctive charm is invisible.</p> + +<p>The City Library of Boston has one feature entirely new in the visible +of a great public collection. A large portion of the books, under +certain regulations, are circulated among the inhabitants of the city, +and thousands avail themselves of this privilege. Here, then, is opened +a great fountain of knowledge in the midst of a wide population: all may +come, without money and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_535" id="Page_535">[Pg 535]</a></span> without price. The visible pages of learning, +wisdom, science, truth, imagination, ingenious theory, or deep +conviction lie open not only to the eyes, but to the hearts and homes of +a great people. It is like the overflowing Nile, carrying sweet waters +to irrigate many waste places, and clothing the dry dust of common life +with the flowers, the fruit, and the sustaining grain, springing from +invisible seeds cast by unseen hands into the wide field of the world.</p> + +<p>"If," says Lord Bacon, "the invention of ships was thought so noble, +which carrieth riches and commodities from place to place, how much more +are letters to be magnified, which, as ships, pass through the vast seas +of time, and make ages so distant to participate of the wisdom, +illuminations, and inventions, the one of the other!"</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Note.</span>—Since these pages were written, one who knew how to +prize the visible and invisible of books has passed away. The +silent library of George Livermore speaks eloquently of him. +That collection, gathered with a love which increased as years +advanced, includes ancient copies of the Bible of rarest +values. His life was a book, written over with good deeds and +pure thoughts, illuminated by holy aspirations. That volume is +closed, but the spirit which rendered it precious is not +withdrawn; living in many hearts, it will continue to be a +cherished presence in the world, the home, and the library.</p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="LETTER_TO_A_YOUNG_HOUSEKEEPER" id="LETTER_TO_A_YOUNG_HOUSEKEEPER"></a>LETTER TO A YOUNG HOUSEKEEPER.</h2> + + +<p>You know, dear M., it is said that in times of bankruptcy men go home to +get acquainted with their wives; perhaps it should be added that wives +then go to get introduced to their kitchens. But your sensible letter is +an omen, little friend, that to you and H. this does not apply. You will +not wait for poverty to teach you economy, but will learn economy to +ward off poverty. So herewith I send a few of the culinary notes of the +last two years; but neither of us is to be taken for a bankrupt's wife, +for all that. It is simply recognizing that you are alone in new duties, +and that cookery is an art which may not be gained even from that +fountain of knowledge, named by the Apostle Paul as one's husband. The +successes of the art no one knows better than he; but of the processes +he will be found sublimely ignorant. There are but two points in which +you can defer to him,—punch and lobster-salad. These, like swearing and +smoking, are strictly masculine accomplishments.</p> + +<p>If you had the thrifty maiden aunt kept in reserve by most families for +an emergency, you would kindly offer her a home at your house for a +while. But since you have not, I will be as disagreeable to you as she. +So turn your glowing Spanish eyes toward me, instead of looking demurely +about, as people do when they are having old letters read to them.</p> + +<p>Byron said he hated to see a woman eat; and there is a class of +housekeepers who certainly return the compliment upon men. These +ethereal beings are forever sighing for life with appetite left out. +Like Lord Dundreary's lady-love, they are "<i>so</i> delicate," unless caught +in the pantry hastily devouring onions and beefsteak. To be hungry is so +vulgar! One should live by nothing grosser than inhalation, and should +never have an appetite greater than that of a healthy bumble-bee. But, +thanks to the robust, latter-day theory, that the best saints have the +best bodies, this puerile class is diminishing. For who can doubt that +the senses are entitled to their full blossom? Gustation was meant to be +delightful; and cooking is certainly half as good as tasting. At times +one may have longed for the old Roman custom of two meals a day, and +going to bed at chicken-time, bringing the hour of roast near the hour +of roost; but this was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_536" id="Page_536">[Pg 536]</a></span> probably in families where there were three +repasts, with lunch all the way between, and an incessant buying of +cookies from the baker, lest the children should go hungry. After this +surfeit one pardons a recoil. Or, in an enervating day of July, one may +have longed to dine upon humming-bird, with rose-leaves for dessert. But +these are exceptional times; the abiding hope is, that we shall continue +to eat, drink, and be merry. For the practical is in the imperative. It +is cumulative, and reinforces itself,—a real John Brown power that is +always marching on, and we must march beside it with patient, cheery +hearts. Is it strange that even the moss-covered Carlisle town, of which +the Last Minstrel sang, and where the Scottish Mary tarried in her +flight from the cousin queen, is now chiefly remarkable for its +cotton-factory and biscuit-bakery?</p> + +<p>Indeed, the enthusiasm over biscuits has its place, as well as that over +books; and it is not always that there is as much genuine joy in a novel +as one may get out of bread-making. This is quite too scientific and +interesting to be left to a domestic. It is really among the most +exciting experiments. Try it every week for two years, and it seems just +as new an enterprise as at the beginning,—but a thousand times more +successful, we observe. Working up the light drifts of flour, leaving +them at night a heavy pat and nothing more,—waking to find a dish +flowing-full of snowy foam. The first thing on rising one's self is, to +see if the dough be risen, too; and that is always sure to be early, for +every batch of bread sets an alarm in one's brain. After breakfast one +will be as expectant as if going to a ball in lieu of a baking. Then to +see the difference a little more or less flour will make, and out of +what quantity comes perfection! To feminine vision, more precious than +"apples of gold in pictures of silver" are loaves of bread in dishes of +tin. If one were ever penurious, might it not be of these handsome +loaves of hers? The little housewife will be very gentle to the +persecuted man of Scripture who was so reluctant to get up at midnight +and give away his bread. She will even be charitable to the stingy +merchant scorned by Saadi, of whom it was written, that, "if, instead of +his loaf of bread, the orb of the sun had been in his wallet, nobody had +seen daylight in the world till the Day of Judgment."</p> + +<p>Dr. Kane says, he knows how bread can be raised in three hours without +salt, saleratus, or shortening,—knows, but sha'n't tell. This must be +another mystery of the Arctic regions. Certainly that bread could not +have been raised in the sun. But how one quantity was managed the Doctor +is free to say. He kneaded a whole barrel of flour in a pickled-cabbage +cask, and baked it at once by firing several volumes of the "Penny +Cyclopædia of Useful Knowledge."</p> + +<p>After compliments, however, to come in with the cash down of the +practical, here is a veritable bread-making recipe, well-tested and +voted superior. Take a quart of milk; heat one third and scald with it a +half-pint of flour; if skimmed milk, use a small piece of butter. When +the batter is cool, add the remainder of the milk, a teacup of +hop-yeast, a half-tablespoon of salt, with flour to make it quite stiff. +Knead it on the board till it is very fine and smooth; raise over night. +It will make two small loaves and a half-dozen biscuits.</p> + +<p>This recipe ought to give good bread week in and week out, so saving you +from the frequent calamity of soda-biscuits. These may be used for +dumplings, or as a sudden extempore, but do not let them be habitual. +True, you will occasionally meet people who say that they can eat these, +when raised ones are fatal. But some persons find cheese good for +dyspepsia, many advocate ice-cream, others can eat only beans, while +some are cured by popped corn. Yet these articles are not likely to +become staples of diet. They would hardly answer a normal appetite; and +any stomach that can steadily withstand the searchingness of soda and +tartaric acid<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_537" id="Page_537">[Pg 537]</a></span> seems ready to go out to pasture and eat the fences. +Chemists will say, if bread must be improvised, use soda and muriatic +acid. These combined in precise proportions are supposed to evaporate in +the baking, and leave common salt. But this acid is such furious stuff! +It will come to you from the druggists in a bottle marked "Poison," and +it is not pleasant to put into one's mouth a substance that will burn a +hole in her apron. It is too much of the Roland for an Oliver,—You eat +me and I will eat you. For it is quite difficult to perfectly combine +the acid and alkali, and then the bread is streaked with muriatic fire; +then one might easily take into the system a thousand streaks a year, +and then one would become a fire-eater.</p> + +<p>But probably the greatest of all bread wonders are the unleavened Graham +cakes. These are worth a special mail and large postage to tell of. I +was about to beg that you surprise H. with them at your next breakfast. +But no, he won't like them; besides, according to the theory of "Woman +and her Era," they're a deal too good for men, they are fit only for +women and angels. So just salt and scald some Graham meal into a dough +as soft as can be and be handled. Roll it an inch thick, cutting in +diamonds, which place on a tin sheet and thrust into the hottest of +ovens. (Note this last direction, or the diamonds will be flat leather.) +Strange to say, they will rise, and keep rising, till in ten minutes you +take them out quite puffed. One would never guess them innocent of +yeast. An inch thick is the rule; but there is nothing like an +adventurous courage. It is at once suggested, if they are so good at an +inch, will they not be twice as good at two inches. And certainly they +are. The meal will not be outwitted. It is the liveliest and most +buoyant material. Its lightness keeps up with the utmost experiment. +Finally, it may be turned into a massive loaf, and with a brisk heat it +will refuse to be depressed.</p> + +<p>The morning when were produced these charming little miracles remains a +red-letter day in our household. Who ever tasted anything, save a nut, +half so sweet, or who ever anything so pure? We ate, lingered, and +revelled in them, thus becoming epicures at once. It seemed as if all +our lives we had been seeking something really <i>recherché</i>, and had just +found it. They were as great a revelation to the palate as Bettine or +Thoreau might be to the mind. Now all was <i>couleur de rose</i>. Here was +found, if not the philosopher's stone, the philosopher's bread, that +should turn everything into health. Henceforth the strong heroes +celebrated by Emerson, who "at rich men's tables eat but bread and +pulse," might sit at ours, arising refreshed and glorified. And was not +this also coming very near Nature? but two removes from the field, wheat +cracked, then ground. (I have since come a degree nearer on cracked +wheat at a water-cure!) It sounded altogether wholesome and primitive. I +hastened with a sample to my best friend. She, too, tasted, exulted, and +passed on the tidings to others. Now, indeed, was the golden age in +dawn. Already we saw a community purified and rejuvenated. Before our +philosopher-cakes sin and bad blood would disappear, and already the +crowns of grateful generations were pressing on our brows. But something +went wrong with all the cooks. Either they didn't scald the meal or they +didn't heat the oven,—what in one hand was light beaten gold in another +became lead. For a while it seemed that I could not go to my friend's +without meeting some one who cast scorn on our reformation cakes. All +tried them and failed; so sin remains in the world.</p> + +<p>But now hope plumes itself anew. You at least will attempt the little +wheatens. You have a deft hand, and will succeed. The buoyancy of the +meal revives in my blood. Now the world rights itself again, and once +more we are all bounding sunward.</p> + +<p>But to be honest. For a few weeks I and the radical cakes were as +satisfied as young lovers, but soon came temptations to progress from +the primitive,—first to add a little sugar. But I vetoed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_538" id="Page_538">[Pg 538]</a></span> as resolutely +as Andrew Jackson himself, thus putting up the bars between the +wheat-field and cane-field, or probably by this time I should have been +pouring in spice, eggs, and milk, and at last should have committed the +crime of doing just as other people do.</p> + +<p>If you would confess it, you have probably found in your new +captain-general a susceptibility not only to your charms, but to those +of good cooking. Always count these among the young wife's fascinations. +Remember how Miss Bremer's Fannie, of "The Neighbors," in a matrimonial +quarrel with her Bear, conquered him with fresh-baked patties aimed at +his mouth. But be not too conciliatory,—especially towards coffee. If +you could be hard-hearted enough to win H. from this bilious beverage, +would it not be worth the perils? Entertain him for a few mornings so +brilliantly that he won't know what he is drinking, then——But I'll +tell you how we will cheat him admirably; and it isn't very cruel +either, for merely to gratify the taste make-believes are as good as +realities. First, every one knows Taraxacum or dandelion; invalids know +crust-coffee, and many with indignation know burnt peas. Also Miss +Beecher, whose estimable cook-book you certainly must get, mentions that +ochra seeds or gumbo cannot be told from Java; an army correspondent has +since reported coffee made at the South from oker seeds, doubtless the +same; another found in use the sweet potato, roasted, and flavored with +coffee; while a friend has just described the most enticing beverage +made from chickory,—the root being stripped and dried under the stove. +This is said to be so rich that sometimes it has to be diluted with a +trifle of coffee. And still further, there is simple rye, which is +cheaper found than either. Jeff. Davis drank it for four years and wrote +all <i>her</i> grand proclamations out of it. But probably the wholesomer +article is wheat coffee. I have lately prepared some by boiling a cup of +well-scorched wheat-bran in a pint of water; and although I don't quite +know how good coffee tastes, no doubt this was very like the true Java. +It poured clear and rich as wine. Now try this in full strength with +your spouse, being very witty when he drinks. And as the mornings pass, +oh, weaken it more and more. That is, cheat him pleasantly at first, +then worse and worse, till he is glad to take milk or pure water with +you. Conspiracies are usually contemptible; but this is one of the very +"best water," you see.</p> + +<p>Perhaps we who never drink coffee can hardly understand the affection +its votaries have for it. To their minds, water seems to be given only +for steeping that delicious mud. Said one extravagant Madame Follet, +"When I see a coffee-pot, 'tis exactly the same as if I saw an angel +from heaven." And the Biloxi people, whom General Butler surprised of a +morning, were found to be in a very tragic state. One boy exclaimed, +"Oh, give me just a handful of coffee, master, an' I'll give you +'lasses, sugar, anything!" while a strong man ejaculated, "My God, we're +short of everything! I haven't tasted tea or coffee for four +months!"—as grievous as if he hadn't seen a human face for a year. +According to the "Herald" correspondent, the chief reason that the South +rejoices in peace is that "Now we'll be able to get some real +coffee!"—perhaps, he adds, in the next breath inquiring, "What are you +going to do with our niggers?"</p> + +<p>No, we could not, with Ward Beecher, "bless the man who discovered the +immortal berry." Nor could we, with De Quincey, apostrophize to a +certain other excitant, "O just, subtle, and mighty opium! thou boldest +the keys of Paradise!" Yet one must concede the possible uses of a +stimulant. Coffee has been priceless to our army, on its cold, wet +marches; and benedictions should be ordered in the churches, if need be, +to the man who made it into that wondrous pemmican, so that the coffee +of a regiment may be carried in a few tin cans. Then, too, it seems good +for men who go driving up and down the world on stage-coaches and +locomotives; but for stay-at-home,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_539" id="Page_539">[Pg 539]</a></span> counting-house mortals, is it not a +mere delicious superfluity? Quite as much of one as a cigar, I think.</p> + +<p>But henceforth, when Rio is high, drink rye. If one must have either, +better the simulant than the stimulant.</p> + +<p>Among other things, you have doubtless discovered that one admirable +breakfast dish is eggs. If you serve them in the shell, it is quite +worth while to follow the English way, keeping them close covered for +ten minutes in very hot water without boiling. The yolks are thus left +running, and the whites are beautifully jellied. These are convenient to +get when relations arrive at night, and there is no meat in the house. +Relations always expect meat for breakfast.</p> + +<p>In fact, it is just at this point that one's genius is to come in,—when +a nice meal must be gotten at short notice, and the larder is empty. +None but the woman of resources can do it; and she knows her realm is as +full of strategies as was ever the Department of the Potomac. Under her +hand, when there was supposed to be nothing for breakfast, I have seen +bits of meat snatched from cold soup, and wrought up into the most +savory morsels,—one would never guess that the goodness was all boiled +out of them; while a cup of yesterday's griddle-cake batter went +suddenly into the oven, and came out a breakfast-cake finer than +waffles.</p> + +<p>One who had the knack of the heroine Fleda, in "Queechy," would be +friendly to omelets, and tell of them too. But you must be self-reliant, +and put them on the list of experiments. It will probably be some time +before you come to that refinement of egg-eating which Mrs. Stowe found +at the mansion of the Duke of Sutherland, where she was honored with +lunch. Her sylvan spirit was somewhat startled, when a servant brought +five little speckled plover eggs, all lying in the nest just as taken +from the tree. How they were cooked is unknown; but one would certainly +need a recipe to eat them by.</p> + +<p>But an American woman can outdo the Duchess of Sutherland. She will find +an egg daintier than the plover's, and not stir from her own door; for +awhile since, some one, fumbling among the secrets of Nature, +discovered, not that stones were sermons, but that snow was eggs, and +straight made a cook-book to tell it, as we will do on discovering that +rain is milk. Of course all things have their limitations; and these new +eggs are not just the article for custards, will not do to poach for +breakfast, or would hardly keep in brine; but they may be used in any +compound that requires lightness without richness. Even our grandmothers +made snow pancakes; but, in the present age, to be distinguished is to +be venturesome, and in this experiment one need not stop short of +veritable loaf-cake. The volatile element in snow makes two table-spoons +of it equal to one egg; therefore to a small loaf I should allow ten +table-spoons. Cooks always put in as many eggs as they can afford, you +know.</p> + +<p>Thus, when snow falls every day for four months, as it does in New +England, eggs get exceedingly cheap in the prudent household. Then one +can smile to think how she circumvents the grocer, and pray the clouds +to lay a good nestful every week.</p> + +<p>A friend the other day improvised a list of edibles headed, "Poisonous +<i>P</i>s,"—pastry, pickles, pork, and preserves. She was pleased to leave +out puddings, and hereto we shall say, Amen. Not that one is to indorse +such odiously rich ones as cocoa-nut, suet, and English plum; but, +bating these, there are enough both nice and wholesome to change the +dessert every day for a fortnight, at least. At another time I may give +you some recipes, with various items by this writing omitted.</p> + +<p>Pastry the physiologists have been shaking their heads about for some +time,—especially as many persons use soda with the lard, not being +aware that they are making soft soap. This sort of paste one often sees +in the country. But it is easy to omit the soap. On the next +bread-making day, simply reserve a piece of the well-raised dough, and +roll in butter. This gives a palatable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_540" id="Page_540">[Pg 540]</a></span> and harmless crust. I have also +experimented with a shortening of hot, fine-mashed potato and milk, +which, if it may not be recommended to an epicure, is really better than +it sounds, And does it not sound better than Dr. Trall's proposal of +sweet oil? Will not some of these ways satisfy our ardent reformers and +physiologists? But about chicken-pie, remember the tradition, that, +unless the top crust is punctured, it will make one very ill. (Who knows +but this was the secret of the National Hotel sickness?) At least, it is +truer than some other traditions, such as that eating burnt crusts will +make the cheeks red, or that fried turnip will make the hair curl.</p> + +<p>Pickles do not seem so good that they must be eaten, nor so bad that +they must not be. But with them comes evermore the vision that Trollope +has prepared of all our smart little five-year-old men and women perched +at hotel-tables, pale-faced and sedate, with waiters behind their +chairs, and ordering chowders and chops with an inevitable "Please don't +forget the pickles."</p> + +<p>Preserves, aside from the recent luxury of canned fruit, have the +happiest substitutes, if we will take what the seasons bring to our +hands. Not a month in the year is left wholly barren of these relishes +for the tea-table. There are berries all the summer, apples and +cranberries in the winter, when, just as the last russet disappears, and +with it every one's appetite, up springs the pungent and luxuriant +rhubarb. Somewhat curious is it concerning this last article. Forty +years ago it was such a pure experiment in England, that a Mr. Myatt, +who took seven bundles of it to London, succeeded in selling but three. +Still he persisted in keeping it before the people, although he seemed +only to lose rhubarb and to gain ridicule, being designated as the man +who sold "physic pies."</p> + +<p>And besides our own zone, with its fruits fresh or dried, there are the +abounding tropics always at the door: Pine-apples, which, if +unwholesome, are yet charmingly convenient to help a luckless +housekeeper, and which, by the way, made a better <i>entrée</i> in London +than pie-plant, being so popular that their salesmen floated flags from +the top of their stalls; bananas, those foreign muskmelons of spring; +oranges, gilding every street-corner; dates, which do not go meanly with +bread and butter, though one is a little fearful of finding a whole +straw bed therein; and prunes, which, if soaked several hours and stewed +slowly, are luscious enough for a prince.</p> + +<p>But pork it appears to be the common impression that man cannot do +without. Certainly he must have partaken somewhat of its nature to make +him so greedy; and there would seem to be animals enough on land and +sea, without devouring the swine. If pork be important anywhere, it is +so in the old Puritan dish of baked beans; yet those who have tasted +baked beans prepared with fine rich beef instead have voted them quite +sumptuous, and possibly rich enough for people who live at restaurants. +But so long as fish, bird, and fowl remain, and men even eat turtles and +frogs,—so long as sheep do not die of wolves, nor cattle of the county +commissioners,—may not the pig be left to his wallowing in the mire?</p> + +<p>Thus much for the poisonous <i>p</i>s. We do not place among them that +popular plant, the potato, though it has the blood of the nightshade in +its veins. But these may be made moderately poisonous by putting them +into soup. Once taste clear potato-water, and you will not aspire to +drink a strong broth from it. And even potatoes one may eat at a dozen +tables, and not find nicely served at any. With domestics generally they +figure as the article that in cooking takes care of itself,—the +convenient vegetable, that may be thrown into the kettle, and taken up +when nothing else needs to be. In the end they are either half done and +hard, or when done, being left soaking, are watery and soggy; whereas +they should be pared, kept boiling in salted water till they break, then +drained and shaken over the coals till powdery dry. They need<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_541" id="Page_541">[Pg 541]</a></span> tossing +up with as light a hand as an omelet, you see. If they are not of the +nicest variety, they should be mashed with milk, butter, and salt, and +placed in the oven to brown. This is a kind of medication which usually +makes the poorest article quite palatable, and is resorted to in the +early summer, when potatoes are become decidedly an "aged <i>p</i>." I was +once amused to hear a man complaining of a certain potato, because it +was "too dry." It is doubtful what he would do in Maine, the land of the +famous Jackson whites, which boil to a creamy powder. One must be +grateful that our Massachusetts Dovers cannot be dampened by this +original potato-taster. He probably would like juicy potatoes and mealy +oranges.</p> + +<p>But of course none can have studied diet and its varied effects on +various persons, without seeing it to be impossible to make up two lists +of dishes, one of which shall be voted hurtful and the other harmless. +Nor does the healthfulness of food seem to consist wholly in its +simplicity, according to old Grahamite theories. There is probably some +truth in the saying of Hippocrates, "Whatever pleases the palate +nourishes"; but one cannot fail to recognize the wisdom of M. Soyer, +that prince of the <i>cuisine</i>, who maintains that the digestibility of +food depends, not on the number of articles used in its manufacture, but +in their proper combination. Says M. Soyer, "I would wager that I could +give a first-class indigestion to the greatest <i>gourmet</i>, even while +using the most <i>recherché</i> provisions, without his being able to detect +any fault in the preparation of the dishes of which he had +partaken,—and this simply by improperly classifying the condiments used +in the preparation." This gives a hint of the nicety of the culinary +art, the genius required to practise it, and the fine physical effects +that hinge upon it. It is no wonder that Vatel committed suicide before +the great banquet which he had prepared for his master, the Prince of +Condé, because he feared it was to fail. It is certainly enough to alarm +ordinary amateurs,—and such are the most of us; for, while Americans +place all due stress upon the table, they neglect to emphasize the +<i>cuisine</i>. Instead of this <i>nonchalance</i>, we have yet to discover that +cookery belongs to the fine arts; that it is exhaustive alike of +chemistry and physiology, and touches upon laws as sure as those which +mingle the atmospheric elements, hourly adjusting them to man's nicest +needs. And we should count it among the best of the progressive plans of +our country, if to the new Industrial College under subscription at +Worcester were to be added an elaborate culinary department, with the +most accomplished professor that could be obtained. Perhaps, as M. Soyer +was philanthropic enough to go to the Crimea, and teach the English to +make hospital soup, he would even come here and give our nation a +glimpse of those marvellous morsels that have made Paris the envy of +epicures the world over.</p> + +<p>And if there is a proper harmony to be attained in the combining of +various ingredients, making every perfect dish a poem, there is no less +harmony in combining the various dishes for a repast, making a poem in +every perfect meal. For every leading dish has its kindred and +antagonistic ones: as, at dinner, one would not serve cauliflower with +fricasseed chicken, nor turnips with boiled salmon, nor, at tea, +currants with cream-toast, nor currants with custard. But this is +something that cannot be fully taught or learned. It is almost wholly at +the mercy of one's instinct, and may be ruled by a tact as delicate as +that which conducts a drawing-room.</p> + +<p>But we are quite curious to learn, M., if your excellent companion has +yet been away from home so long that you have had to go to market. And +can you wisely discern roasts, steaks, and fowl? Says one, "The way to +select fowl is first to select your butcher"; and away he swings out of +intelligence and responsibility with a magnificent air. A lady friend +has this charming fashion of frankness: "Now, Mr. ——, I don't know one +piece of meat from another, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_542" id="Page_542">[Pg 542]</a></span> shall expect you to give me the best"; +thus throwing herself directly on her faith and fascinations. But these +might grow jejune, nor is it safe to trust the tender mercies of a +butcher. Better know what you want, and know if you get it. Therefore +you will study the anatomy of animals, as laid down in all modern +cook-books. But really it is a little perplexing. I confess I am near +concluding that every beef creature is a special creation; for one never +finds the same joint twice, and apparently the only things common to all +are tongue and liver.</p> + +<p>Not long since, having a discussion at the market with an elderly +gentleman, he said something pleasant which must be written for the +husband of a young housekeeper. We agreed that a rump steak was of more +uniform richness than a sirloin, the best of the latter being only that +luscious strip underlying the bone. "But," added the kindly man, "I +always buy the sirloin, because I give that juicy scrap to my wife." It +is worth while, M., to be wedded to the thoughtful heart, who, after +forty years, yet wills to give one the single choice bit from the table.</p> + +<p>Aside from the ordinary beef-routine, there is another dish which is +usually popular. Select a cheap, lean piece of beef, weighing two or +three pounds, put it on the stove in cold water soon after breakfast, +boiling gently. Half an hour before dinner add a small onion, a sliced +parsnip and carrot, a few bits of turnip, and a half-dozen dumplings. +When these are done, remove them; season and thicken, serving a dumpling +with meat and vegetables to each plate of stew. This may be rather +plebeian, but is certainly palatable,—unless there be choice company to +dine. We might call it Rainy-Day Stew.</p> + +<p>But the toothsome time for beef-eaters was undoubtedly in the days of +pleuro-pneumonia. Then the frightened public fled from beef as from the +plague, and all the best cuts were left for the bold. One was tempted to +pray that such pleuro might last for the season, save that the +Commissioners were so costly, and the dear cattle were having an +unusually sanguinary Bull Run. I know what our vegetarian friend, Mr. +Alcott, will say; but he must indulge me in a very small mania, even if +it seem to him a kind of cannibalism; therefore, whatever rhapsodies are +left from bread and potato, let them all be given to good beef. While +the quarrel of round, rump, and sirloin goes on, this let us buy and eat +and reinforce ourselves. In it are poems, powers, and possessions +ineffable. Twenty-five cents a pound, and the strength of the gods in +one's veins! Broil it carefully and rare, then go and toss quoits with +Hercules. In this, ye disconsolate, behold lands, lovers, and virtues in +plenty. It fills and steadies the pulse, and plants the planet plump +under one's feet. "My friend, is he who makes me do what I can," says +the sage. Only beefsteak can come to the rescue. If one were going to a +martyr's fire, of this should he eat, lest he die, not sublimely, with a +fainting body. He would try this steak, and then that stake.</p> + +<p>But there is one event that comes alike to all, and that is a holiday +dinner. Even the poor have their plum-pudding days, and all seem to +think that on a Christmas or Thanksgiving Nature suspends her laws and +lets one eat as much as he can. It is quite in the spirit of the +Scottish Lord Cockburn, who, ending a long walk, used to say, "We will +eat a profligate supper,—a supper without regard to discretion or +digestion." Or after the theory of one who ate whatever he pleased, +whenever he pleased, and as much as he pleased, saying, "Oh, if it makes +me sick, I can take medicine. What are the doctors for, if 'tisn't to +cure people?" He did not know how small hope can be gotten from the +doctors, and how those who know best get more and more courage to travel +into places where they are not. There must have been a poor chance for +the Egyptians, who, Herodotus says, had a physician for each part of the +body; so that the human frame would seem to have been a sort of +university, and each of the organs a vacant professorship. In<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_543" id="Page_543">[Pg 543]</a></span> case of +malady, every officer worked away on his own member without regard to +what his medical neighbors were doing. Michelet mentions a fish that has +the power of multiplying stomachs to the number of one hundred and +twenty. Fortunately that power is not man's. Think of dyspepsia with a +hundred and twenty stomachs, and a different doctor for each!</p> + +<p>Do not imagine this a plea for the transcendental diet that drove Sydney +Smith to that pathetic sigh, "Ah, I wish they would allow me even the +wing of a roasted butterfly!" But perhaps it would not be amiss to +conjure up a terror-demon from these bodies of ours, so that we should +fear to violate laws with such merciless penalties,—should have none +but well-cooked food, at sensible and systematic hours. Is it strange +that little Miss Bremer, who thought herself of soundest digestion, +after three months of American night-dinners with oysters and preserve, +is at last seen to grasp Dr. Osgood with both hands, exclaiming, in +tears, "Oh, help me!" I want to save you from resembling the great +people of the world after the manner of Dr. Beattie, whose title to +genius was, "Have I not headaches like Pope, vertigo like Swift, gray +hairs like Homer? Do I not wear large shoes for fear of corns like +Virgil, and sometimes complain of sore eyes like Horace?"</p> + +<p>Therefore I hope that your H. will make the counting-room conform to +regular mid-day dinner and early tea-time. And let us trust that it will +not have the same fatal result as with King Louis XII., who is said to +have died earlier from changing his dinner-hour in compliment to his +foreign bride.</p> + +<p>One can hardly think of late suppers without turning quite away to those +ideal tea-takings of the Wordsworths at Grasmere. "Plain living and high +thinking," was the motto of the philosopher-poet, and that table was +never crowded with viands. One can well believe, that, as De Quincey +said, in the quiet walks after tea the face of the poet "grew solemn and +spiritual as any saint's." But he probably was thinking very high when +he drew a knife from the buttered toast and cut the leaves of a new book +just lent to him!</p> + +<p>Quite sombre are the memories of Rydal Mount; but since we are really +alive, let us be lively. Behold me, then, dear M., well turbaned and +aproned, and know that this is our churning-day. You give one of your +gleeful little shrieks, perhaps; but yes, it is true; we live in the +city, take a pint of milk per day, and make butter.</p> + +<p>And where is the churn? you suggest. Oh, I extemporize that. It is out +of the question to buy every convenient thing, or purse will run dry and +house overflow. Dr. Kane hints how few dishes it is possible to use; and +the plan is admirable; so one need not buy a churn, but make one out of +a bowl and spoon. Into the bowl goes the cream, into the cream the +spoon, and then I beat, beat, beat, not as one who beateth the air. This +often lasts for two hours or more; it might be said that the cream +remains in chrysalis, and refuses to butterfly! Indeed, there is no +reason why a small bowl of cream shouldn't be as refractory as a wooden +churnful. But when it "won't come," my distress is not at all +proportioned to the size of the bowl.</p> + +<p>Still I beat, beat, beat, perspiringly, but resolutely, while it whisks +about, spattering over face, bib, and turban. At length there appear +within it greasy-looking flecks. These increase till the mass thickens, +beats solidly, separates from the milk, and declares itself butter. A +limited quantity, certainly, but I will none the less press it dry, +salt, and make it into cakes as large as a full-blown tea-rose. Each of +these I will stamp, lay on a dapper glass cup-plate, and at tea-time +several dear ones in various households will find these astonishing +little pats beside them. Think you not they are genuine love-pats?</p> + +<p>This would be a pretty way to serve butter always, did it not remind one +of cheap hotels kept on the European plan, where those small, slushy, +yellow cakes come in with the rolls. A choicer way<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_544" id="Page_544">[Pg 544]</a></span> is to form it into +acorns or strawberries,—though I don't in the least know how it is +done,—placing them all together on a plate and serving one to each at +the table. This dainty way, however, would hardly make a bad article +good, and no one would crave a berry of ancient firkin butter. For, as +trivial a matter as it seems, this single condiment of food, one has +only to encounter it in a strong, cheesy state to feel it among the most +important things in the <i>cuisine</i>. Then one suddenly discovers that +butter is in everything. Eating becomes intolerable, living dwindles +into dyspepsia, and finally one is tempted to exclaim with a certain +epicure, "I wish I were under the sod! There's no lump butter in the +market!"</p> + +<p>It is related of Apicius, who lived at Rome, that he ate very large +shrimps; but hearing that those of Greece were larger, he straightway +sailed for that coast without losing a day. He met a great storm and +much danger; but on arriving, the fishermen brought him of their best. +Apicius shook his head.</p> + +<p>"Have you never any larger shrimps?"</p> + +<p>"No, Seignior, never!"</p> + +<p>At which, rubbing his hands with delight, he ordered the captain to sail +back at once, saying,—</p> + +<p>"I have left some at home larger than these, and they will be spoiled, +if the wind is not in our favor."</p> + +<p>We will not carry our dilletantism so far as this, nor let it carry us +so far; still we are glad not to be driven to the expedient of the +Syrians, whose only butter is the fat procured from the tails of their +sheep,—which is literally being reduced to extremities.</p> + +<p>By the way, something quite remarkable occurred in my first churning. I +began with one cup of cream and ended with a cup of butter and a full +cup of buttermilk! This law of expansion is paralleled only by that of +contraction, as shown to the farmer who took a brimming pail of dinner +to the sty; and after the little pig had eaten it all, the farmer put +him into the pail, and had room for another half of a pig beside.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>But, dear M., it is hardly two moons since the bridal trunks were taken +from our hall, and you went away with the friend. You have scarcely been +domesticated long enough to see that bright tins bake badly, and that +one must crucify her pride by allowing them to blacken; yet so soon do I +overwhelm you with culinary suggestions. I am distressed to remember +them. But you must forgive and smile me into peacefulness again. And be +not discouraged, little housewife! It may take years of attention to +excel in bread-making, some skill even for boiling potatoes, and +common-sense for everything; but stand steadily beside your servants, +and watch their processes patiently. Take notes, experiment, amend, and +if there be failure, discover the reason; then it need not happen again.</p> + +<p>And despite the difficulties of the practical, you and H. will not +slight the ideal. Love the work you are doing and must do; but when it +is done, oh, train the rose-vines over your door!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_545" id="Page_545">[Pg 545]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="THE_PEACE_AUTUMN" id="THE_PEACE_AUTUMN"></a>THE PEACE AUTUMN.</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thank God for rest, where none molest,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And none can make afraid,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For Peace that sits as Plenty's guest,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Beneath the homestead shade!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Bring pike and gun, the sword's red scourge,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The negro's broken chains,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And beat them at the blacksmith's forge<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To ploughshares for our plains.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Alike henceforth our hills of snow,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And vales where cotton flowers;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All streams that flow, all winds that blow,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Are Freedom's motive-powers.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Henceforth to Labor's chivalry<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Be knightly honors paid;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For nobler than the sword's shall be<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The sickle's accolade.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Build up an altar to the Lord,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">O grateful hearts of ours!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And shape it of the greenest sward<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That ever drank the showers.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Lay all the bloom of gardens there,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And there the orchard fruits;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bring golden grain from sun and air,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From earth her goodly roots.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There let our banners droop and flow,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The stars uprise and fall;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our roll of martyrs, sad and slow,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Let sighing breezes call.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Their names let hands of horn and tan<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And rough-shod feet applaud,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who died to make the slave a man,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And link with toil reward.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There let the common heart keep time<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To such an anthem sung,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As never swelled on poet's rhyme,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or thrilled on singer's tongue.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Song of our burden and relief<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of peace and long annoy;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The passion of our mighty grief<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And our exceeding joy!<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_546" id="Page_546">[Pg 546]</a></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">A song of praise to Him who filled<br /></span> +<span class="i6">The harvests sown in tears,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">And gave each field a double yield<br /></span> +<span class="i6">To feed our battle-years!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">A song of faith that trusts the end<br /></span> +<span class="i6">To match the good begun,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Nor doubts the power of Love to blend<br /></span> +<span class="i6">The hearts of men as one!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="DOCTOR_JOHNS" id="DOCTOR_JOHNS"></a>DOCTOR JOHNS.</h2> + + +<h3>XXXVII.</h3> + +<p>Meantime Reuben was gaining, month by month, in a knowledge of the +world,—at least of such portion of it as came within the range of his +vision in New York. He imagined it, indeed, a very large portion, and +took airs upon himself in consequence. He thought with due commiseration +of the humble people of Ashfield. He wonders how he could have tolerated +so long their simple ways. The Eagle Tavern, with its creaking +sign-board, does not loom so largely as it once did upon the horizon of +his thought. That he should ever have trembled as a lad at walking up to +the little corner bar, in company with Phil! And as for Nat Boody, whose +stories he once listened to admiringly, what a scrubby personage he has +become in his eye! Fighting-dogs, indeed! "Scamp" would be nothing to +what he has seen a score of times in the city!</p> + +<p>He has put Phil through some of the "sights": for that great lout of a +country lad (as Reuben could not help counting him, though he liked his +big, honest heart for all that) had found him out, when he came to New +York to take ship for the West Indies.</p> + +<p>"I say, Phil," Reuben had said, as he marched his old schoolmate up +Broadway, "it's rather a touch beyond Ashfield, this, isn't it? How do +you think Old Boody's tavern and sign-board would look along here?"</p> + +<p>And Phil laughed, quietly.</p> + +<p>"I should like to see old Deacon Tourtelot," continued Reuben, "with +Huldy on his arm, sloping down Broadway. Wouldn't the old people stare?"</p> + +<p>"I guess they would," Phil said, demurely.</p> + +<p>"I wonder if they'd knock off at sundown Saturday night," continued +Reuben, mockingly.</p> + +<p>And his tone somehow hurt Phil, who had the memories of the old home—a +very dear one to him—fresh upon him.</p> + +<p>"And I suppose Miss Almiry keeps at her singing?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Phil, straining a point in favor of his townswoman; "and I +think she sings pretty well."</p> + +<p>"Pretty well! By Jove, Phil, you should have been at the Old Park night +before last; you would have heard what <i>I</i> call singing. It would have +stirred up the old folks of Ashfield."</p> + +<p>And Phil met it all very seriously. It seemed to him, in his honesty, +that Reuben was wantonly cutting asunder all the ties that once bound +him to the old home. It pained him, moreover, to think—as he did, with +a good deal of restiveness—that his blessed mother, and Rose perhaps, +and the old Squire, his father, were among the Ashfield people at whom +Reuben sneered so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_547" id="Page_547">[Pg 547]</a></span> glibly. And when he parted with him upon the +dock,—for Reuben had gone down to see him off,—it was with a secret +conviction that their old friendship had come to an end, and that +thenceforth they two could have no sympathies in common.</p> + +<p>But in this Phil was by no means wholly right. The talk of Reuben was, +after all, but the ebullition of a city conceit,—a conceit which is apt +to belong to all young men at some period of their novitiate in city +life. He was mainly anxious to impress upon Phil the great gain which he +had made in knowledge of the world in the last few years, and to astound +him with the great difference between his present standpoint and the old +one, when they were boys together on the benches of the Ashfield +meeting-house. We never make such gains, or apparent gains, at any +period of life, it is to be feared, without wishing to demonstrate their +magnitude to the slow coaches we have left behind.</p> + +<p>And on the very night after Reuben had parted from Phil, when he came +late to his chamber, dazed with some new scene at the theatre, and his +brain flighty with a cup too much, it may well have happened, that, in +his fevered restlessness, as the clock near by chimed midnight, his +thoughts ran back to that other chamber where once sweet sleep always +greeted him,—to the overhanging boughs that rustled in the evening air +at the window,—to the shaded street that stretched away between the +silent houses,—to the song of the katydids, chattering their noisy +chorus,—to the golden noons when light feet tripped along the village +walks,—to the sunny smiles of Rose,—to the kindly entreaty of good +Mrs. Elderkin,—and more faintly, yet more tenderly, than elsewhere, to +a figure and face far remote, and so glorified by distance that they +seem almost divine, a figure and a face that are somehow associated with +the utterance of his first prayer,—and with the tender vision before +him, he mumbles the same prayer and falls asleep with it upon his lip.</p> + +<p>Only on his lip, however,—and the next day, when he steals a half-hour +for a stroll upon Broadway with that dashing girl, Miss Sophie Bowrigg, +(she is really a stylish creature,) he has very little thought of the +dreamy sentiments of the night before, which seemed for the time to keep +his wilder vagaries in subjection, and to kindle aspirations toward a +better life. It is doubtful, even, if he did not indulge in an artful +compliment or two to the dashing Miss Sophie, the point of which lay in +a cleverly covered contrast of herself with the humdrum manners of the +fair ones of Ashfield. Yet, to tell truth, he is not wholly untouched by +certain little rallying, coquettish speeches of Miss Sophie in respect +to Adèle, who, in her open, girl-like way, has very likely told the full +story of Reuben's city attentions.</p> + +<p>Reuben had, indeed, been piqued by the French girl's reception of his +patronage, and he had been fairly carried off his feet in view of her +easy adaptation to the ways of the city, and of her graceful carriage +under all the toilet equipments which had been lavished upon her, under +the advice of Mrs. Brindlock. A raw boy comes only by long aptitude into +the freedom of a worldly manner; but a girl—most of all a French girl, +in whom the instincts of her race are strong—leaps to such conquest in +a day. Of course he had intimated to Adèle no wonder at the change; but +he had thrust a stray glove of hers into his pocket, counting it only a +gallant theft; and there had been days when he had drawn out that little +relic of her visit from its hidden receptacle, and smoothed it upon his +table, and pressed it, very likely, to his lips, in the same way in +which youth of nineteen or twenty are used to treat such feminine tokens +of grace.</p> + +<p>It was a dainty glove, to be sure. It conjured up her presence in its +most alluring aspect. The rustle of her silk, the glow of her cheek, the +coyness of her touch, whenever she had dropped that delicate hand on +his, came with the sight of it. He ventures, in a moment of gallant +exuberance, to purchase a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_548" id="Page_548">[Pg 548]</a></span> half-dozen of the same number, of very +charming tints, (to his eye,) and sends them as a gift to Adèle, +saying,—</p> + +<p>"I found your stray glove we had a search for in the carriage, but did +not tell of it. I hope these will fit."</p> + +<p>"They fit nicely," said Adèle, writing back to him,—"so nicely, I may +be tempted to throw another old glove of mine some time in your way."</p> + +<p>Miss Eliza Johns was of course delighted with this attention of +Reuben's, and made it the occasion of writing him a long letter, (and +her letters were very rare, by reason of the elaboration she counted +necessary,) in which she set forth the excellence of Adèle's character, +her "propriety of speech," her "lady-like deportment," her "cheerful +observance of duty," and her "eminent moral worth," in such terms as +stripped all romance from Reuben's recollection of her, and made him +more than half regret his gallant generosity.</p> + +<p>The Doctor writes to him regularly once a fortnight; of which missives +Reuben reads as regularly the last third, containing, as it does +usually, a little home news or casual mention of Miss Rose Elderkin or +of the family circle. The other two thirds, mainly expostulatory, he +skips, only allowing his eye to glance over them, and catch such +scattered admonitions as these:—"Be steadfast in the truth.... Let your +light shine before men.... Be not tempted of the Devil; for if you +resist him, he will flee from you.... The wisdom of this world is +foolishness.... Trust not, my son, in any arm of flesh."</p> + +<p>Ah, how much of such good advice had been twisted into tapers for the +lighting of Reuben's cigars! Not because it was absolutely scorned; not +because it was held in contempt, or its giver held in contempt; but +because there was so much of it. If the old gentleman had been in any +imminent bodily peril, it is certain that Reuben would have rushed far +and wide to aid him. It is certain that he loved him; it is certain that +he venerated him; and yet, and yet, (he said to himself,) "I do wish he +would keep this solemn stuff for his sermons. Who cares to read it? Who +cares to hear it, except on Sundays?"</p> + +<p>Our good reader will exclaim,—A bad young man! And yet we think our +good readers—nay, our best of readers—have shirked godly counsel over +and over, with very much the same promptitude. We all grow so weary with +the iteration of even the best of truths! we all love youth so much! we +all love the world so much! we all trust to an arm of flesh so much!</p> + +<p>Not for a moment did the Doctor believe that his recreant son pondered +wisely and deeply these successive epistles of his. He knew him too well +for that. But for him duty was always duty. "Here a little, and there a +little." It would have pained the old gentleman grievously to know the +full extent of the wickedness of his boy,—to have looked for a moment +into the haunts to which he was beguiled by his companions of the +city,—to have seen his flushed and swollen face after some of those +revels to which Reuben was a party. But the good Doctor was too ignorant +of the world to conceive, even, of larger latitude than an occasional +cigar or a stolen sight at the orgies of the theatre. And when Mr. +Brindlock wrote, as he took occasion to do about this period, regretting +the extravagance of Reuben and the bad associations into which he had +fallen, and urging the Doctor to impress upon him the advantages of +regularity and of promptitude, and to warn him that a very advantageous +business career which was opening upon him would be blighted by his +present habits, the poor gentleman was fairly taken aback.</p> + +<p>That even this worldly gentleman, Mr. Brindlock, should take exception +to the courses of his son was a most startling fact. What admonition +could the Doctor add to those which he had addressed to his poor son +fortnightly for years past? Had he not warned him over and over that he +was standing upon slippery places? Had he not unfolded the terrors of +God's wrath upon sinners? Had he not set before him in "line upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_549" id="Page_549">[Pg 549]</a></span> line" +the awful truth that his immortal career was at stake? And should he +descend from this ground to plead with him upon the score of his +short-lived worldly career? What were all business prospects, however +they might wane, compared with that dreadful prospect which lies before +him who refuseth godly counsel and hardeneth his heart? Was it not a +fearful confirmation of Satan's reign upon earth, that peril to a +temporal career should serve for warning against criminal excesses, when +the soul's everlasting peril was urged vainly? The Doctor wrote to +Reuben with even more than his usual unction. But he could not bring +himself to warn his boy of the mere blight to his worldly career,—that +was so small a matter! Yet he laid before him in graver terms than he +had ever done before the weight of the judgment of an offended God, and +the fearful retribution that would certainly overtake the ungodly. +Reuben lighted his cigar with the letter, not unfeelingly, but +indifferently, and ventured even upon a blasphemous joke with his +companions.</p> + +<p>"It ought to burn," he says, "There's plenty of brimstone in it!"</p> + +<p>It would have crazed the minister of Ashfield to have heard the speech. +In his agony of mind he went to consult Squire Elderkin, and laid before +him the dire accounts he had heard.</p> + +<p>"Ah, young men will be young men, Doctor. There's time for him to come +out right yet. It's the blood of the old Major; it must have vent."</p> + +<p>As the Doctor recalled what he counted his father's godless death, he +shuddered. Presently he talked of summoning his boy home immediately.</p> + +<p>"Well, Doctor," said the Squire, meditatively, "there are two sides to +that matter. There are great temptations in the city, to be sure; but if +God puts a man in the way of great temptations, I suppose He gives him +strength to resist them. Isn't that good theology?"</p> + +<p>The parson nodded assent.</p> + +<p>"We can always resist, if we will, Squire," said he.</p> + +<p>"Very good, Doctor. Suppose, now, you bring your boy home; he'll fret +desperately under your long lectures, and with Miss Eliza, and perhaps +run off into deviltries that will make him worse than those of the city. +You must humor him a little, Doctor; touch his pride; there's a fine, +frank spirit at the bottom; give him a good word now and then."</p> + +<p>"I know no word so good as prayer," said the Doctor, gravely.</p> + +<p>"That's very well, Doctor, very well. Mrs. Elderkin gives him help that +way; and between you and me, Doctor, if any woman's prayers can call +down blessings, I think that little woman's can,"—and the Squire's eyes +fairly flashed with the dew that came into them.</p> + +<p>"An estimable lady,—most estimable!" said the Doctor.</p> + +<p>"Pray, if you will, Doctor; it's all right; and for my part, I'll drop +him a line, telling him the town feels an ownership in him, and hopes +he'll do us all credit. I think we can bring him out all right."</p> + +<p>"Thank you,—thank you, Squire," said the Doctor, with an unusual +warmth.</p> + +<p>And he wrought fervently in prayer that night; may-be, too, the hearty +invocation of that good woman, Mrs. Elderkin, joined with his in the +Celestial Presence; and if the kindly letter of the Squire did not rank +with the prayers, we may believe, without hardihood, that the recording +angel took note of it, and gave credit on the account current of human +charities.</p> + + +<h3>XXXVIII.</h3> + +<p>Mr. Brindlock had, may-be, exaggerated somewhat the story of Reuben's +extravagances, but he was anxious that a word of caution should be +dropped in his ear from some other lips than his own. The allowance from +the Doctor, notwithstanding all the economies of Miss Eliza's frugal +administration, would have been, indeed, somewhat narrow, and could by +no means have kept Reuben<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_550" id="Page_550">[Pg 550]</a></span> upon his feet in the ambitious city-career +upon which he had entered. But Mr. Brindlock had taken a great fancy to +the lad, and, besides the stipend granted for his duties about the +counting-room, had given him certain shares in a few private ventures +which had resulted very prosperously,—so prosperously, indeed, that the +prudent merchant had determined to hold the full knowledge of the +success in reserve. The prospects of Reuben, however, he being the +favorite nephew of a well-established merchant, were regarded by the +most indifferent observers as extremely flattering; and Mr. Bowrigg was +not disposed to look unfavorably upon the young man's occasional +attentions to the dashing Sophie.</p> + +<p>But the Brindlocks, though winking at a great deal which the Doctor +would have counted grievous sin, still were uneasy at the lad's growing +dissoluteness of habit. Would the prayers of the good people of Ashfield +help him?</p> + +<p>It was some time in the month of September, of the same autumn in which +poor Adèle lay sick at the parsonage, that Reuben came in one night, at +twelve or thereabout, to his home at the Brindlocks', (living at this +time in the neighborhood of Washington Square,) with his head cruelly +battered, and altogether in a very piteous plight. Mrs. Brindlock, +terribly frightened,—in her woman's way,—was for summoning the Doctor +at once; but Reuben pleaded against it; he had been in a row, that was +all, and had caught a big knock or two. The truth was, he had been upon +one of his frolics with his old boon companions; and it so happened that +one had spoken sneeringly of the parson's son, in a way which to the +fiery young fellow seemed to cast ridicule upon the old gentleman. And +thereupon Reuben, though somewhat maudlin with wine, yet with the +generous spirit not wholly quenched in him, had entered upon a glowing +little speech in praise of the old gentleman and of his profession,—a +speech which, if it were garnished with here and there an objectionable +expletive, was very earnest and did him credit.</p> + +<p>"Good for Reuben!" the party had cried out. "Get him a pulpit!"</p> + +<p>"Hang me, if he wouldn't preach better now than the old man!" said one.</p> + +<p>"And a deused sight livelier," said another.</p> + +<p>"Hold your tongue, you blackguard!" burst out Reuben.</p> + +<p>And from this the matter came very shortly to blows, in the course of +which poor Reuben was severely punished, though he must have hit some +hard blows, for he was wondrously active, and not a few boxing-lessons +had gone to make up the tale of his city accomplishments.</p> + +<p>Howbeit, he was housed now, in view of his black eye, for many days, and +had ample time for reflection. In aid of this came a full sheet of +serious expostulations from the Doctor, and that letter of advice which +Squire Elderkin had promised, with a little warm-hearted postscript from +good Mrs. Elderkin,—so unlike to the carefully modulated letters of +Aunt Eliza! The Doctor's missive, very likely, did not impress him more +than the scores that had gone before it; but there was a practical tact, +and good-natured, common-sense homeliness, in the urgence of the Squire, +which engaged all Reuben's attention; and the words of the good woman, +his wife, were worth more than a sermon to him. "We all want," she +writes, "to think well of you, Reuben; we <i>do</i> think well of you. Don't +disappoint us. I can't think of the cheery, bright face, that for so +many an evening shone amid our household, as anything but bright and +cheery now. We all pray for your well-being and happiness, Reuben; and I +<i>do</i> hope you have not forgotten to pray for it yourself."</p> + +<p>And with the memory of the kindly woman which this letter called up came +a pleasant vision of the winsome face of Rose, as she used to sit, with +downcast eyes, beside her mother in the old house of Ashfield,—of Rose, +as she used to lower upon him in their frolic, with those great hazel +eyes sparkling with indignation. And if the vision did not quicken any +lingering sentiment, it at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_551" id="Page_551">[Pg 551]</a></span> the least gave a mellow tint to his +thought,—a mellowness which even the hardness of Aunt Eliza could not +wholly do away.</p> + +<p>"I feel it my duty to write you, Reuben," she says, "and to inform you +how very much we have all been shocked and astonished by the accounts +which reach us of your continued indifference to religious duties, and +your reckless extravagance. Let me implore you to be frugal and +virtuous. If you learn to save now, the habit will be of very great +service when you come to take your stand on the arena of life. I am +aware that the temptations of a great city are almost innumerable; but I +need hardly inform you that you will greatly consult your own interests +and mitigate our harassment of feeling by practising a strict economy +with your funds, and by attending regularly at church. You will excuse +all errors in my writing, since I indite this by the sick-bed of Adèle."</p> + +<p>Adèle, then, is sick; and upon that point alone in the Aunt's letter the +thought of Reuben fastens. Adèle is sick! He knows where she must be +lying,—in that little room at the parsonage looking out upon the +orchard; there are white hangings to the bed; careful steps go up and +down the stairway. There had never been much illness in the parson's +home, indeed, but certain early awful days Reuben just remembers; there +were white bed-curtains, (he recalls those,) and a face as white lying +beneath; the nurse, too, lifting a warning finger at him with a low +"hist!" the knocker tied over thickly with a great muffler of cloth, +lest the sound might come into the chamber; and then, awful stillness. +On a morning later, all the windows are suddenly thrown open, and +strange men bring a red coffin into the house, which, after a day or +two, goes out borne by different people, who tread uneasily and +awkwardly under the weight, but very softly; and after this a weary, +weary loneliness. All which drifting over the mind of Reuben, and +stirring his sensibilities with a quick rush of vague, boyish griefs, +induces a train of melancholy religious musings, which, if they do no +good, can hardly, it would seem, work harm. Under their influence, +indeed, (which lasted for several days,) he astonished his Aunt Mabel, +on the next Sunday, by declaring his intention to attend church.</p> + +<p>It is not the ponderous Dr. Mowry, fortunately or unfortunately, that he +is called upon to listen to; but a younger man, of ripe age, indeed, but +full of fervor and earnestness, and with a piercing magnetic quality of +voice that electrifies from the beginning. And Reuben listens to his +reading of the hymn,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Return, O wanderer! now return!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>with parted lips, and with an exaltation of feeling that is wholly +strange to him. With the prayer it seems to him that all the religious +influences to which he has ever been subject are slowly and surely +converging their forces upon his mind; and, rapt as he is in the +preacher's utterance, there come to him shadowy recollections of some +tender admonition addressed to him by dear womanly lips in boyhood, +which now, on a sudden, flames into the semblance of a Divine summons. +Then comes the sermon, from the text, "My son, give me thine heart." +There is no repulsive formality, no array of logical presentment to +arouse antagonism of thought, but only inglowing enthusiasm, that +transfuses the Scriptural appeal, and illuminates it with winning +illustration. Reuben sees that the evangelist feels in his inmost soul +what he utters; the thrill of his voice and the touching earnestness of +his manner declare it. It is as if our eager listener were, by every +successive appeal, placed in full <i>rapport</i> with a great battery of +religious emotions, and at every touch were growing into fuller and +fuller entertainment of the truths which so fired and sublimed the +speaker's utterance.</p> + +<p>Do we use too gross a figure to represent what many people would call +the influences of the Spirit? Heaven forgive us, if we do; but nothing +can more definitely describe the seemingly electrical influences which +were working<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_552" id="Page_552">[Pg 552]</a></span> upon the mind of Reuben, as he caught, ever and again, +breaking through the torrent of the speaker's language, the tender, +appealing refrain, <i>"My son, give me thine heart!"</i></p> + +<p>All thought of God the Avenger and of God the Judge, which had been so +linked with most of his boyish instructions, seemed now to melt away in +an aureole of golden light, through which he saw only God the Father! +And the first prayer he ever learned comes to his mind with a grace and +a meaning and a power that he never felt before.</p> + +<p>"Whether we obey Him," (it is the preacher we quote,) "or distrust Him, +or revile Him, or forget Him, or struggle to ignore Him, always, always +He is our Father. And whatever we may do, however we may sin, however +recreant we may be to early faith or early teaching, however unmoved by +the voice of conscience,—which is smiting on your hearts, as it is on +mine to-day,—whatever we are, or whatever we may be, yet, ever while +life is in us, that great, serene voice of the All-Merciful is sounding +in our ears, 'My son, give me thine heart!' Ay, the flowers repeat it in +their bloom, the birds in their summer carol, the rejoicing brooks, and +the seasons in their courses, all, all repeat it, 'My son, give me thine +heart!'</p> + +<p>"Oh, my hearers, this is real, this is true! It is our Father who says +it; and we, unworthy ministers of His word and messengers to declare His +beneficence, repeat it for Him, 'My son, give me thine heart!' Not to +crush, not to spurn, not for a toy. The great God asks your hearts +because He wishes your gratitude and your love. Do you believe He asks +it? Yes, you do. Do you believe He asks it idly? No, you do not. What, +then, does this appeal mean? It means, that God is love,—that you are +His children,—straying, outcast, wretched, may-be, but still His +children,—and by the abounding love which is in Him, He asks your love +in return. Will you give it?"</p> + +<p>And Reuben says to himself, yet almost audibly, "I will."</p> + +<p>The sermon was altogether such a one as to act with prodigious force +upon so emotional a nature as that of Reuben. Yet we dare say there were +gray-haired men in the church, and sallow-faced young men, who nodded +their heads wisely and coolly, as they went out, and said, "An eloquent +sermon, quite; but not much argument in it." As if all men were to plod +to heaven on the vertebræ of an inexorable logic, and not—God +willing—to be rapt away thitherward by the clinging force of a glowing +and confiding heart! Alas, how the intellect droops in its attempt to +measure or comprehend the infinite! How the heart leaps and grows large +in its reach toward the altitude of Boundless Love, if only it be buoyed +with faith!</p> + +<p>"Is this religion?" Reuben asked himself, as he went out of the church, +with his pride all subdued. And the very atmosphere seemed to wear a new +glory, and a new lien of brotherhood to tie him to every creature he met +upon the thronged streets. All the time, too, was sounding in his ears +(as if he had yielded full assent) the mellow and grateful cadence of +the hymn,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Return, O wanderer! now return!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h3>XXXIX.</h3> + +<p>Reuben wrote to the Doctor, under the influence of this new glow of +feeling, in a way that at once amazed and delighted the good old +gentleman. And yet there were ill-defined, but very decided, terrors and +doubts in his delight Dr. Johns, by nature as well as by education, was +disposed to look distrustfully upon any sudden conviction of duty which +had its spring in any extraordinary exaltation of feeling, rather than +in that full intellectual seizure of the Divine Word, which it seemed to +him could come only after a determined wrestling with those dogmas that +to his mind were the aptest and compactest expression of the truth +toward which we must agonize. The day of Pentecost showed a great +miracle, indeed; but was not the day of miracles past?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_553" id="Page_553">[Pg 553]</a></span></p> + +<p>The Doctor, however, did not allow his entertainment of a secret fear to +color in any way his letters of earnest gratulation to his son. If God +has miraculously snatched him from the ways that lead to destruction, +(such was his thought,) let us rejoice.</p> + +<p>"Be steadfast, my dear Reuben," he writes. "You have now a cross to +bear. Do not dishonor its holy character; do not faint upon the way. Our +beloved Adèle, as you have been told, is trembling upon the verge of the +grave. May God in His mercy spare her, until, at least, she gain some +more fitting sense of the great mission of His Son, and of the divine +scheme of atonement! I fear greatly that she has but loose ideas upon +these all-important subjects. It pains me beyond belief to find her +indifferent to the godly counsels of your pious aunt, which she does not +fail to urge upon her, 'in season and out of season'; and she has shown +a tenacity in guarding that wretched relic of her early life, the rosary +and crucifix, which, I fear, augurs the worst. Pray for her, my son; +pray that all the vanities and idolatries of this world may be swept +from her thoughts."</p> + +<p>And Reuben, still living in that roseate atmosphere of religious +meditation, is shocked by this story of the danger of Adèle. Is he not +himself in some measure accountable? In those days when they raced +through the Catechism together, did he never provoke her mocking smiles +by his sneers at the ponderous language? Did he not tempt her to some +mischievous sally of mirth, on many a day when they were kneeling in +couple about the family altar?</p> + +<p>And in the flush of his exalted feeling he writes her how bitterly he +deplores all this, and, borrowing his language from the sermons he now +listens to with greed, he urges Adèle "to plant her feet upon the Rock +of Ages, to eschew all vanities, and to trust to those blessed promises +which were given from the foundation of the world."</p> + +<p>Indeed, there is a fervor in his feeling which pushes him into such +extravagances of expression as the Doctor would have found it necessary +to qualify, if Adèle, poor child, had not been by far too weak for their +comprehension.</p> + +<p>The Brindlocks were, of course, utterly amazed at this new aspect in the +character of their pet young nephew from the country. Mr. Brindlock +said, consolingly, to his wife, when the truth became only too apparent, +"My dear, it's atmospheric, I think. It's a 'revival' season; there was +such a one, I remember, in my young days."</p> + +<p>(Mrs. Brindlock laughed at this quite merrily.)</p> + +<p>"To be sure there was, my dear, and I was really quite deeply affected. +Reuben will come out all right; we shall see him settling down soon to +good merchant habits again."</p> + +<p>But the <i>animus</i> of the new tendency was far stronger than Brindlock had +supposed; and within a month Reuben had come to a quiet rupture with his +city patron. The smack of worldliness was too strong for him. He felt +that he must go back to his old home, and place himself again under the +instructions of the father whose counsels he had once so spurned.</p> + +<p>"You don't say you mean to become a parson?" said Mr. Brindlock, more +than ever astounded.</p> + +<p>"It is very likely," said Reuben; "or possibly a missionary."</p> + +<p>"Well, Reuben, if you must, you must. But I don't see things in that +light. However, my boy, we'll keep our little private ventures astir; +you may need them some day."</p> + +<p>And so they parted; and Reuben went home to Ashfield, taking an +affectionate leave of his Aunt Mabel, who had been over-kind to him, and +praying in his heart that that good, but exceedingly worldly woman, +might some day look on serious things as he looked on them.</p> + +<p>He had thought in his wild days, that, when he should go back to +Ashfield for any lengthened stay, (for thus far his visits had been few +and flying ones,) he should considerably astonish the old people there +by his air and city<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_554" id="Page_554">[Pg 554]</a></span> cultivation. It is quite possible that he had laid +by certain flaming cravats which he thought would have a killing effect +in the country church, and anticipated a very handsome triumph by the +easy swagger with which he would greet old Deacon Tourtelot and ask +after the health of Miss Almira. But the hope of all such triumphs was +now dropped utterly. Such things clearly belonged to the lusts of the +eye and the pride of life. He even left behind him some of the most +flashy articles of his attire, with the request to Aunt Mabel that she +would bestow them upon some needy person, or, in default of this, make +them over to the Missionary Society for distribution among the +heathen,—a purpose for which some of them, by reason of their brilliant +colors, were certainly most admirably adapted. Under his changed view of +life, it appeared to Reuben that every unnecessary indulgence, whether +of dress or food, was a sin. With the glowing enthusiasm of youth, he +put such beautiful construction upon the rules of Christian faith as +would hardly survive the rough every-day wear of the world. Even the +stiff dignity of Dr. Mowry he was inclined to count only an accidental +incrustation of manner, beneath which the heart of the parson was all +aglow with the tenderest benevolence. We hope he may have been right in +this; it is certain, that, if he could carry forward the same loving +charity to the end of his days, he would have won the best third of the +elements of a Christian career, without respect to dogmas.</p> + +<p>So Reuben goes back to Ashfield with a very modest and quiet bearing. He +is to look with other eyes now upon the life there, and to judge how far +it will sustain his new-found religious sympathies. All meet him kindly. +Old Squire Elderkin, who chances to be the first to greet him as he +alights from the coach, shakes him warmly by the hand, and taps him +patronizingly upon the shoulder.</p> + +<p>"Welcome home again, Reuben! Well, well, they thought you were given +over to bad courses; but it's all right now, I hear; quite upon the +other tack, eh, Reuben? That's well, my good fellow, that's well."</p> + +<p>And Reuben thanked him, thinking perhaps how odd it was that this +worldly old gentleman, of whom he had thought, since his late revulsion +of feeling, with a good deal of quiet pity, should commend what was so +foreign to his own habit. There were, then, some streaks of good-natured +worldliness which tallied with Christian duty. The serene, kindly look +of Mrs. Elderkin was in itself the tenderest welcome; and it was an +ennobling thought to Reuben, that he had at last placed himself (or +fancied he had) upon the same moral plane with that good woman. As for +Rose, the joyous, frolicsome, charming Rose, whom he had thought at one +time to electrify by his elegant city accomplishments,—was not even the +graceful Rose a veteran in the Christian army in which he had but now +enlisted? Why, then, should she show timidity and shyness at this +meeting with him? Yet her little fingers had a quick tremor in them as +she took his hand, and a swift change of color (he knew it of old) ran +over her face like a rosy cloud.</p> + +<p>"It is delightful to think that Reuben is safe at last," said Mrs. +Elderkin, after he had gone.</p> + +<p>"Yes, mamma," said Rose.</p> + +<p>"It must be a great delight to them all at the parsonage."</p> + +<p>"I suppose so, mamma. I wish Phil were here," said Rose again, in a +plaintive little tone.</p> + +<p>"I wish he were, my child; it might have a good influence upon him: and +poor Adèle, too; she must surely listen to Reuben, he is so earnest and +impassioned. Don't you think so, Rose?"</p> + +<p>Rose is working with nervous rapidity.</p> + +<p>"But, my child," says the mother; "are you not sewing that breadth upon +the wrong side?"</p> + +<p>True enough, upon the wrong side,—so many weary stitches to undo!</p> + +<p>Miss Eliza had shown a well-considered approval of Reuben's change of +opinions; but this had not forbidden a certain reserve of worldly regret +that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_555" id="Page_555">[Pg 555]</a></span> he should give up so promising a business career. She had half +hinted as much to the Doctor.</p> + +<p>"I do not see, brother," she had said, "that his piety will involve the +abandonment of mercantile life."</p> + +<p>"His piety," said the Doctor, "if it be of the right stamp, will involve +an obedience to conscience."</p> + +<p>And there the discussion had rested. The spinster received Reuben with +much warmth, in which her stately proprieties of manner, however, were +never for one moment forgotten.</p> + +<p>Adèle, who was now fortunately in a fair way of recovery, but who was +still very weak, and who looked charmingly in her white chamber-dress +with its simple black belt, received him with a tender-heartedness of +manner which he had never met in her before. The letter of Reuben had +been given her, and, with all its rawness of appeal, had somehow touched +her religious sentiment in a way it had never been touched before. He +had put so much of his youthful enthusiasm into his language, it showed +such an elasticity of hope and joy, as impressed her very strangely. It +made the formal homilies of Miss Eliza seem more harsh than ever. She +had listened, in those fatiguing and terrible days of illness, to psalms +long drawn out, and wearily; but here was some wild bird that chanted a +glorious carol in her ear,—a carol that seemed touched with Heaven's +own joy. And under its influence—exaggerated as it was by extreme +youthful emotion—she seemed to see the celestial gates of jasper and +pearl swing open before her, and the beckonings of the great crowd of +celestial inhabitants to enter and enjoy.</p> + +<p>For a long time she had been hovering (how nearly she did not know) upon +the confines of the other world; but with a vague sense that its +mysteries might open upon her in any hour, she had, in her sane +intervals, ranked together the promises and penalties that had been set +before her by the good Doctor: now worrying her spirit, as it confronted +some awful catechismal dogma, that it sought vainly to solve; and then, +from sheer weakness and disappointment, seizing upon the symbol of the +cross, (of which the effigy was always near at hand,) and by a kiss and +a tear seeking to ally her fainting heart with the mystic company of the +elect who would find admission to the joys of paradise. But the dogmas +were vain, because she could not grapple them to her heart; the cross +was vain, because it was an empty symbol; the kisses and the tears left +her groping blindly for the key that would surely unlock for her the +wealth of the celestial kingdom. In this attitude of mind, wearied by +struggle and by fantasies, came to her the letter of Reuben,—the joyous +outburst of a pioneer who had found the way. She never once doubted that +the good Doctor had found it, too,—but so long ago, and by so hard a +road, that she despaired of following in his steps. But Reuben had +leaped to the conquest, and carried a blithe heart with him. Surely, +then, there must be a joy in believing.</p> + +<p>"I thank you very much for your letter, Reuben," said Adèle, and she +looked eagerly into his face for traces of that triumph which so +glittered throughout his letter.</p> + +<p>And she did not look in vain; for, whether it were from the warm, +electric touch of those white, thin fingers of hers, or the eager +welcome in her eyes, or from more sacred cause, a great joy shone in his +face,—a joy that from thenceforward they began to share in common. At +last—at last, a bright illumination was spread over the dreary +teachings of these last years. Not a doubt, not a penalty, not a mystic, +blind utterance of the Catechism, but the glowing enthusiasm of Reuben +invested it with cheery promise, or covered it with the wonderful +glamour of his hope. Between these two young hearts—the one, till then, +all doubt and weariness, and the other, just now, all impassioned +exuberance—there came a grafting, by virtue of which the religious +sentiment, in Adèle shot away from all the severities around her into an +atmosphere of peace and joy.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_556" id="Page_556">[Pg 556]</a></span></p> + +<p>The Doctor saw it, and wondered at the abounding mercies of God. The +spinster saw it, and rejoiced at the welding of this new link in the +chain of her purposes. The village people all saw it, and said among +themselves, "If he has won her from the iniquities of the world, he can +win her for a wife, if he will."</p> + +<p>And the echoes of such speeches come, as they needs must, to the ear of +Rose, without surprising her, so much do they seem the echo of her own +thought; and if her heart may droop a little under it, she conceals it +bravely, and abates no jot in her abounding love for Adèle.</p> + +<p>"I wish Phil were here," she says in the privacy of her home.</p> + +<p>"So do I, darling," says the mother, and looks at her with a tender +inquisitiveness that makes the sweet girl flinch, and affect for a +moment a noisy gayety, which is not in her heart.</p> + +<p>Rose! Rose! are you not taking wrong stitches again?</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="RODOLPHE_TOPFFER" id="RODOLPHE_TOPFFER"></a>RODOLPHE TÖPFFER,</h2> + +<h3>THE GENEVESE CARICATURIST.</h3> + + +<p>In 1842 there appeared in New York a little <i>brochure</i> with scarcely any +letter-press, which contained many pages of the most humorous and +spirited sketches. Its title told the whole story, namely:—</p> + +<p><i>"The Adventures of Mr. Obadiah Oldbuck: wherein are duly set forth the +Crosses, Chagrins, Calamities, Checks, Chills, Changes, and +Circumgyrations by which his Courtship was attended. Showing also the +Issue of his Suit, and his Espousal to his Ladye-Love."</i></p> + +<p>Thousands laughed themselves to tears, when looking at these grotesque, +yet lifelike pictures; but scarcely one knew the name of their author, +M. Rodolphe Töpffer, of Geneva, Switzerland.</p> + +<p>Long before Mr. Oldbuck made his appearance in America, he had been the +means of uniting in fast friendship the great poetic giant of Germany, +Goethe, and the modest Genevese caricaturist. The least of M. Töpffer's +merit, however, was his ability to handle the pencil. As a humoristic, +satiric, pathetic, and æsthetic writer, he is unique in the French +language. His wonderful genius was so pliable, that, while he excelled +in the power of catching the warmest glow of Nature in those exquisite +descriptions with which his writings are filled, and while, with +picture-words, he could reproduce all the tender beauty of a sunset in +the Alps, or the soft, singing gurgle of the mountain-brook, no one +better than he could also portray every subtile shade and feature of the +human mind. He excelled in analyzing character. His mental perception +was sympathetic and ready. His mind-eye was so keen and so piercing, +that nothing could escape its searching glance. The most insignificant +attitude of the heart was not only seen, but at once noted down and +studied by him; and in its delicately skilful dissection, Töpffer +comprehended the whole of the individual. Hence his universality. In +manner of thought, and in style, his writings have traits which remind +one of Sterne, Addison, Charles Lamb, Montaigne, Xavier de Maistre, (the +author of the famous "Voyage autour de ma Chambre,") and our own +Hawthorne.</p> + +<p>It is just twenty-three years ago, that Xavier de Maistre, being +besieged by publishers for another of his charming stories, answered, +"Before all, take Töpffer, not me." Previously to this, a Swiss +gentleman, while visiting Weimar,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_557" id="Page_557">[Pg 557]</a></span> introduced to Goethe the comic series +already referred to, which Töpffer had merely thrown off in his hours of +leisure. Goethe at once sent over the Alps for "Mr. Jabot," "Mr. +Pencil," "Mr. Crépin," and "Dr. Festus"; and, in the "Kunst und +Alterthum," the great poet expressed to his admiring circle of friends +his full appreciation, of the unequalled ability and charming humor of +Töpffer. He went still farther; for, in his favorite literary journal, +he drew the attention of all Germany to the merit of the Genevese +author.</p> + +<p>In 1839, M. de Sainte-Beuve introduced, with the highest eulogium, M. +Töpffer to the wide and fastidious world of French letters. Thus did the +greatest genius of Germany, the most celebrated modern romancer of +Northern Italy, and one of the first writers of France stand godfathers +to M. Töpffer. Their judgment did not misguide them; for, though Töpffer +was not a <i>littérateur</i> by profession, his few volumes stand out in +French literature like those gigantic Alpine summits whose snow-white +purity is never dimmed by cloud-shadows.</p> + +<p>But I anticipate. Personal recollections become more interesting in +proportion to the distance of time which intervenes between us and the +death of the loved and admired. Violets are not gathered on a fresh-made +grave; and the soil of Memory must have been moistened with tears, +before we can expect it to yield its most cherished flowers.</p> + +<p>As some of our author's works, "Les Nouvelles Génevoises," and "Les +Voyages en Zig-Zag," have attracted considerable attention in the United +States, a sketch of his life and a mention of his various writings will +be acceptable to American readers.</p> + +<p>I was but a child when the name of Töpffer already had for me a +significance and a meaning which no other possessed. I had a feeling of +deepest regard and veneration for him, as I would meet him in the narrow +streets of Geneva, or in some of the shaded walks, which clasp, like +loving arms of Beauty, that bright little city of Central Europe. His +tall, commanding figure gave him an air of dignity and patrician +distinction; which latter was his by right. When he looked at you from +under the shadow of his broad-brimmed hat, you felt in that gaze there +was power,—a something which dropped from his eye into your very heart, +and made its home there.</p> + +<p>But allow me to make a <i>détour</i>, and call attention to that city where +Töpffer was born, and where society had such an influence upon his +creative mind.</p> + +<p>No spot in all Europe has more intrinsic importance than Switzerland. +Perched, as it is, amid inaccessible summits of intellectual and of +geographical elevation, it remains the magnetic centre, towards which, +from every part of the world, the sympathies of people most naturally +converge. And Geneva—the proud, miniature Republic—is to-day what she +has been for three long centuries, the Mecca of Switzerland, a luminous +altar of freedom of thought and of intellectual independence, from which +bold opinions have sprung and radiated, and around which every son of +Liberty has rallied. The Republic of Geneva stands alone in her +celebrity. So small a country that one morning's drive embraces the +whole of its territory, it can yet boast of a nationality so deeply +rooted, and of an individuality so strongly marked, that no foreign +invasion and no foreign contact have ever been able to impair them.</p> + +<p>It is impossible, even for the most superficial reader of history, to +overlook that great array of names which made the last years of the +eighteenth century so illustrious in Europe. Among them it is equally +impossible not to recognize those which Geneva so proudly furnished. +Theology, Natural Science, Philology, Morals, Intellectual Philosophy, +and Belles-Lettres,—all these branches are admirably represented, and +bend down with their luxuriant weight of fruit. The native land of such +men as Bonnet, De Saussure, De Candolle, Calandrini, Hubert, Rousseau, +Sismondi, Necker, has nothing to covet from other countries. Still +Geneva became the foster-mother of many great men.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_558" id="Page_558">[Pg 558]</a></span> Calvin she took from +his own Picardy. Theodore Agrippa d'Aubigné, the grandfather of Madame +de Maintenon, and ancestor of Merle d'Aubigné, the truest friend of +Henry IV., Geneva honored as if her own son. Voltaire so loved Geneva +that there he had a residence as well as at Ferney, and sang with +enthusiasm of blue Lake Leman, "Mon lac est le premier." Madame de Staël +was born of Swiss parents in Paris, but her childhood and many of her +mature years were spent in charming Coppet, where the waters of the lake +lave the shores within the boundary of the Canton of Geneva. Sismondi +was a native of Geneva, and under the influence of Madame de Staël, and +inspired by his visits to Italy, resolved to devote himself to the past +glories of the land of his ancestors. It was in the city of Geneva that +he first delivered those lectures on "The Literature of Southern +Europe," which, in book-form, are so well known to every civilized +nation. Benjamin Constant, another Genevese, was a kindred spirit, who +shared with Madame de Staël a delightful and profitable intimacy. +Dumont; (so highly eulogized by Lord Macaulay,) the friend of Mirabeau +and of Jeremy Bentham, was also of Geneva. De Candolle and his son gave +to science their arduous labors. De la Rive in Chemistry, Pictet in +Electrology, and Merle d'Aubigné in History, Gaussen and Malan in +Theology, and many others, not unknown to fame, might be mentioned as +continuing the list of distinguished names that testify to the +intellectual supremacy of Geneva.</p> + +<p>Here, in our own day, what sons of Fame have gone to linger near a +society so congenial! Byron tells us that his life was purer at Geneva +than that which he led elsewhere. Here, amidst the scenes consecrated by +Milton nearly two centuries before, Shelley delighted to dream away his +summer hours. He loved to go forth on the pellucid surface of "clear, +placid Leman," there to drink in the soft beauties of the shores, or to +gaze upon the distant sublimities of Mont Blanc. Here Sir Humphry Davy +came, after his Southern tour, and "laid him down to die." Wordsworth +found here the graces of his Westmoreland home wedded to a grandeur +which realized the loftiest conception of his mind. At Geneva, to-day, +is found that noble son of France and devoted friend of America, the +Count Agénor de Gasparin.</p> + +<p>Here, too, have members of the royal and noble houses of Europe come to +be wooed by those waters whose "crystal face" Byron calls</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"The mirror where the stars and mountains view<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The stillness of their aspect."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The late Charles Albert, the hero King of Sardinia, was educated at +Geneva. More than once did the future benefactor and monarch of Northern +Italy stray along the road to Lausanne, or float in his little shallop +on the side of Bellevue, whence he could look upon that prettiest of +summer residences, Pregny, and at night could listen to the trills of +the nightingales, which sing with a tenderness peculiar to the Valley of +Geneva. At Pregny lived Josephine, whose Imperial spouse had driven away +from Sardinia the members of the House of Savoy. But Time is a wonderful +magician, and to-day near beautiful Pregny the nephew of Europe's great +conqueror and conquered and the grand-daughter of Charles Albert have +their own villa. The favorite residence of the late Grand Duchess +Constantine of Russia was La Boissière, in the Canton of Geneva, and on +the road to Chamouny, not far from the house of Sismondi. The late +Duchess de Broglie, the daughter of Madame de Staël, lived during the +winter in the street St. Antoine; near where M. Töpffer had his house, +and in the summer at Coppet. Not far from her, at Genthod, resided that +gentle daughter of America, the Baroness Rumpf, still remembered in New +York as the daughter of John Jacob Astor. The Duchess de Broglie and the +Baroness Rumpf are rare instances of the truest Christian womanhood in +exalted stations.—But a whole magazine article would not suffice to +give a list of the great, the noble, and the gifted who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_559" id="Page_559">[Pg 559]</a></span> have sojourned +for a time in the city of Geneva.</p> + +<p>Yet, if Geneva has borrowed some of the great of other countries, she +has amply repaid the debt. She sent her Casaubon to the court of James +I. of England, to be the defender of the faith. Later, she lent to +England her De Lolme, who added to his distinguished political acumen +such affluent philological knowledge, that he wrote one of the best +works ever written on the British Constitution in the English and the +French languages. She lent to Russia Le Fort, the famous general and +admiral, the counsellor of Peter the Great, the originator of the +Russian navy, and the founder of that army out of which grew the forces +that defeated Charles XII. at Pultowa. During the tempestuous days which +signalized the downfall of a monarchy, and while France was rent asunder +by the mad upheavings of an infuriated populace, Necker was called to +the head of the finances. After five years of indefatigable probity, and +when his services had enlisted the profound gratitude of the doomed +king, he was compelled to quit Paris. Recalled again, and again +dismissed, his final departure was the signal for a general outbreak, +which resulted in the taking of the Bastille and the overthrow of the +House of Capet. Albert Gallatin she gave to the United States. How +curious it is to trace the life of this son of Geneva! Graduating with +honors at his native university, he came to America in 1780, was +commander of a small fort at Machias while Maine was still +Massachusetts, was teacher in Harvard University, filled high places +under the government of Pennsylvania; elected Senator to Congress from +that State, (but vacating his seat because his residence had not been +sufficiently long to qualify him,) Secretary of the Treasury under +Jefferson, Envoy Extraordinary to sign the Treaty of Ghent, and for +seven years Minister Plenipotentiary to France. He was offered the +Secretaryship of State by Madison, a place in the Cabinet by Monroe, and +was selected by the dominant party as a candidate for the second office +in the gift of the American people. All of these last three proffered +honors he refused, and passed the remainder of his long life in the +genial pursuits of literature.</p> + +<p>If Geneva has been the fireside of learning and of belles-lettres, it +has not been less the home of the fine arts. Petitot, the celebrated +painter on enamel, has handsomely paid his share to the +<i>chefs-d'[oe]uvres</i> of the seventeenth century. While enjoying the +capricious favors of Charles I. at Whitehall, where he had his lodgings, +he worked on some of those perfect portraits which to-day have their +place in the Louvre, and which for ages must remain the triumphs of +minutely finished, expressive Art. Nor is the little Republic poor in +contemporaneous artistic talent. Pradier was born and grew up in +presence of Mont Blanc, whose sublime grandeur may well inspire the +dreams of the sculptor and ennoble him. Calame, Diday, and Hubert in +landscape painting, and Hornung in historical painting, (widely known by +his "Death of John Calvin,") are all sons of Geneva. Thalberg, the +musician, is a native of Geneva.</p> + +<p>The habitual companionship of master minds must necessarily exert an +immediate and irresistible influence upon the rapid growth of thoughts +and ideas in the young. And it is not to be wondered at that those who +from their earliest infancy have had the readiest access to such a +companionship, and who have most fully imbibed that influence, retain +through the after-years of life a strength and a boldness of originality +essentially opposed to the hesitating timidity of less favored +individuals. In a society like that of Geneva, where family traditions +are jealously cherished as a part of the national history, and where +every family has its importance and its well-defined place, the memory +of distinguished men cannot perish, but is handed down from father to +son, as a portion of the state patrimony. Every little boy, as he plays +in the street, feels that he has reason<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_560" id="Page_560">[Pg 560]</a></span> to be proud that he is a +Genevese. It was with such sentiments and under such auspices that +Töpffer glided through the years of childhood. He drank deep at the +fountain of inspiration unawares, and manhood found him ready to follow +those who beckoned to him from the pages of history.</p> + +<p>Rodolphe Töpffer was born at Geneva on the seventeenth day of February, +1799. As his name indicates, he was of German descent; but his family +had resided so many years in French Switzerland that he could no longer +be claimed by the land of Schiller and Goethe, though it was said that +one of his most distinctive literary characteristics was like that of +Mozart in music,—that he blended the deep, warm feeling of Germany with +the light and elegant graces of Southern Europe.</p> + +<p>Americans who have visited the public Gallery of Art, known in Geneva as +the Musée Rath, will perhaps recall a small, but very spirited, +winter-scene, painted in oil, and which bears the name of Töpffer. This +picture is by the father of Rodolphe. M. Töpffer <i>le père</i> was the first +of that long list of Swiss painters who became devoted students of +Nature. The names of Calame, Diday, (Calame's master,) and Hubert are +now known throughout the world; and that of Calame stands among the +first in the rank of eminent living landscape painters. They are worthy +successors of the father of Rodolphe Töpffer, who was peculiarly happy +in rendering the mountain-scenes of Savoy, and in portraying those +picturesque and attractive episodes of peasant-life entitled "The +Village Wedding," "The Fair in Winter," etc., etc.</p> + +<p>There are but few incidents to record of Töpffer <i>fils</i>. It is in his +writings mostly that he is to be found. Elsewhere he is only passing by; +but <i>there</i> he dwells and shines in full radiance. His life was so +quietly modest, so tranquil and far removed from the tumultuous +preoccupations which belong to a fashionable society, it was so simple +and pure, that the biographer is at a loss to find any striking event +that may give it an outward coloring. When only a child, as he so +charmingly tells us in his inimitable pages of the "Presbytère," he +devoured books, all sorts of books,—indeed, all the books he could get +hold of in his uncle's well-stocked library. And many an hour of his +sunny boyhood did he pass at the window in the house where he was born, +gazing dreamily at the mullions, arches, and fretted work of the old +Cathedral, or at the distant flight of the swallows, while in his mind +he dwelt upon some brilliant <i>saillie</i> of Montaigne or Rabelais. His +marked fondness for sketching showed itself in numerous and picturesque +outlines, all of which bore the unmistakable stamp of talent, and +foretold in the exuberance of the boy-fancy what the man would be. +Happily for him, happily for us who are allowed to gather up the crumbs +of art and authorship which fell from his ample store, Töpffer enjoyed +the very best and most propitious advantages which in any country can +bless childhood. He was born in the lap of a society daintily +intellectual and fastidiously cultivated. His very first impressions +were those of refinement. His very first steps were directed towards +culture. There was no arid waste around him, and he had not to cut his +way through the newly broken furrows of a young civilization. He was +taken by the hand of Genius at the very outset of his career, and was +never allowed to falter; for in the successive creations of his pencil +and of his pen there is the same fulness of imagination, the same +delicacy of observation, the same exquisite perfection of analysis. He +seems to have understood so well the power of his mind, that he never +ventured beyond his depth, but sustained himself through all his years +of authorship with the same grace and elegance.</p> + +<p>And nowhere could he have better artistic encouragement and emulation +than in his native city. We do not remember who said that "in Geneva +every child is born an artist," but the statement would bear +investigation. Talent as well as taste for drawing and painting is +almost universal, and belongs<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_561" id="Page_561">[Pg 561]</a></span> as well to the poor as to the rich. It +may not be well known that De Candolle, the celebrated and untiring +Genevese botanist, made use, in a course of lectures, of a valuable +collection of tropical American plants, intrusted to his care by a +Spanish botanist. Unfortunately, the herbarium was needed by its owner +sooner than expected, and Professor De Candolle was requested to send it +back. This he stated to his audience, with many a regret for so +irreparable a loss. But some of the ladies present at once offered to +copy the whole collection in one week, This was done. The drawings, +"filling thirteen folio volumes, and amounting in number to eight +hundred and sixty, were accurately executed by one hundred and fourteen +women-artists in the time specified." In most cases the principal parts +of the plants alone were colored; the rest was only pencilled with great +accuracy. Where is the other city of the same size in which such a +number of amateur lady-artists could be found? One of these very +drawings, having been accidentally dropped in the street, was picked up +by a little girl ten years old, and was returned to De Candolle, copied +by the child; and it is no blemish to the collection.</p> + +<p>The son of an artist, Töpffer found his own career ready made, and +stepped into it with all the instincts of his Art-loving nature. His few +early paintings are full of promise. But the young artist was not +destined to distinguish himself in his chosen career. A disease of the +eyes compelled him to give up his favorite pursuit. His brush, still +warm from the passionate ardor with which it had been grasped, was +broken and thrown away. Töpffer lamented all his life long the privation +that was thus forced upon him. Art, as a profession, was closed against +his eager ambition; yet he loved Art, and lived for it. Happily for him, +he was still in the complete possession of all his hopes and illusions. +Happily for him, he was young; and, without being discouraged by his +great disappointment, he turned the bent of his mind study-ward. Töpffer +became a close student of human nature. He took to analyzing it +instinctively, as the bird takes to the air. He was more than a dreamer, +though the charming dreams which we have from him make us half regret, +perhaps, that he did something else besides dreaming. He says, in his +story, "La Bibliothèque de mon Oncle,"—"The man who does not enjoy +dreaming his time away is but an automaton, who travels from life to +death like a locomotive rushing from Manchester to Liverpool. A whole +summer spent in this listless manner does not seem <i>de trop</i> in a +refined education. It is even probable that one such summer would not +prove enough to produce a great man. Socrates dreamed his time away for +years. Rousseau did the same till he was forty years old; La +Fontaine—his whole life. And what a charming mode of working is that +science of losing time!"</p> + +<p>But, either dreaming or working, Töpffer knew well what he was capable +of; and without impatience, without restlessness, he awaited the future, +consoling himself with the sentiment he expresses so well in the +following sentence:—"What can be said of those beardless poets who dare +to sing at that age, when, if they were true poets, they would not have +too much in their whole being with which to <i>feel</i>, and to inhale +silently, those perfumes which later only they may know how to diffuse +in their verse? There are precocious mathematicians; but precocious +poets—<i>never</i>."</p> + +<p>Töpffer was right. Life is the true poet. Its teachings drop in tears, +and the heart receives them kneeling, and is in no hurry to babble to +the world all their silent beauty.</p> + +<p>If Töpffer studied, it was not alone. He had devoted himself to the +serious task of education. His pupils, mostly the sons of wealthy +Englishmen and Russians, together with a few lads from France, Italy, +and America, served only to widen his family circle. His relation to +them was charming. As an authority, he used the most winning persuasion. +He respected the mental individuality<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_562" id="Page_562">[Pg 562]</a></span> even of a child, and would use +his admirable tact in kindly encouraging every indication of talent, +which, from want of a sufficient self-reliance or of a timely care, was +hiding itself. Year after year, in vacation-time, Töpffer left the +city with his thirty or forty young companions, and with them he +travelled on foot through the mountains and around the lakes of +Switzerland,—sometimes pushing in the track of Agassiz over glacier +billows, sometimes wandering far down upon the fertile plains of +Lombardy and Venetia. These were always most delightful excursions, when +the ordinary halt became a common enjoyment, not only from the +fun-loving spirit of the master, but also for the promise of future +illustrations. After the return home, during the long winter evenings, +Töpffer took either his pen or his pencil, and, with his pupils, +re-gathered from their memoranda and drawings their summer impressions +and adventures. Then he made his paper laugh with the spirited and +piquant sketches which all know who have peeped into the "Voyages en +Zig-Zag." Thus his fireside amusements have become those of the world. +The "Voyages en Zig-Zag," before his death, were already classic in +France. The richest luxury of type, paper, and illustration has not been +spared, and edition after edition is scattered in Europe from the Neva +to the Tagus. In the "Voyages" we find the most correct delineation, in +words and sketches, of the peculiarities and glories of Alp-land. The +exquisite French of this work has never yet found a translator.</p> + +<p>His early style had something so fresh and so quaint that it can be +accounted for only by going to the books which Töpffer studied. His <i>dii +majores</i> were Montaigne and Amyot, and Paul Louis Courier, a learned +Hellenistic scholar, as well as vivacious writer of the French +Revolution and of the first Empire. For Montaigne Töpffer cherished the +highest admiration. In his "Reflections and Short Disquisitions upon +Art," (<i>Réflexions et Menus Propos</i>,) he thus tersely sums up the +excellency of the French philosopher:—"Thinker full of probity and +grace; philosopher so much the greater by that which he said he did not +know than by that which he thought he knew." In our own language, +Shakspeare was his favorite author. M. de Sainte-Beuve says, "Töpffer +was sworn to Shakspeare," and adds that the works of Hogarth first +taught the Genevese writer to appreciate Shakspeare, Richardson, and +Fielding.</p> + +<p>Besides possessing the ability to convey instruction to others, Töpffer +was a fine classical scholar. With two other literary gentlemen, he +published some excellent editions of the Greek classics, which he +enriched with notes. All these qualifications marked him as the man for +a still higher position. Accordingly, in 1832, when only thirty-three, +he was appointed Professor of Belles-Lettres in the College of Geneva. +At the same time, while discharging faithfully his duties in the +College, he conducted, aided by tutors, his little <i>pension</i>, now so +well known by the "Voyages en Zig-Zag."</p> + +<p>It was in the midst of these various occupations that Töpffer took his +recreation in contributing to the literary periodicals of Geneva +superior essays on Art, and many of those charming stories which to-day +delight us in the collection entitled "Les Nouvelles Génevoises." He +also wrote for political journals. But what made him first known outside +those communities where the French tongue is spoken were his humoristic +sketches. They were not thrown off from his fertile and genial hand for +gain or for renown. From childhood, under the influence of artistic +example at home, and of his admiration of Hogarth, he had acquired a +remarkable skill in graphically delineating whatever his close +observation of men prompted. Like Hogarth, his artist-wit, his fun, and +his moral teachings took the shape of series. These were handed around +the circle of his intimate friends; yet he had thoughts only of his own +amusement and of that of his companions, and did not contemplate +offering them to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_563" id="Page_563">[Pg 563]</a></span> public. It was at the urgency of Goethe that he +gave them to the world.</p> + +<p>In 1842, as we stated before, "M. Vieux Bois" (Mr. Oldbuck) appeared in +the United States; and the following year, 1843, "M. Cryptogame," under +the name of "Bachelor Butterfly," (by no means so amusing or so full of +hits for America as some other sketches,) delighted the Transatlantic +reader.</p> + +<p>Visitors to Geneva had their attention drawn to the "Voyages en Zig-Zag" +as soon as it was published; and in 1841 "Les Nouvelles Génevoises" took +the literary and artistic world of Paris by surprise. These simple +graphic stories gained the hearts of thousands. French tourists and +French artists sought the basin of Lake Leman, the wild passes of the +Vallée de Trient, the Lac de Gers, the Col d'Anterne, and the Deux +Scheidegg, wooed thither by the picturesque pages of Töpffer. The +"Presbytère," a fresh story in the epistolary form, not long after +crossed the Jura, and amidst the artificial, heated literature of Paris, +appeared as reviving as a bracing morning in the Alps.</p> + +<p>In this modest way M. Töpffer was unconsciously building up his European +reputation. The warp of his talent is the richest of humor blended with +woman-like sensibility and tenderness. Fanciful, but never exaggerated, +he stands before us an amiable philosopher, whose heart is large enough +to comprehend and to pity the frailties of human nature, yet whose +spotless purity serves as a beacon—light on the wreck-strewn shore of +human passions. He has not the exaltation nor the ardent vehemence of +Rousseau, neither has he the sentimental morbidity of Xavier de Maistre. +On the contrary, he is always true and always simple, and he remains +within the bounds of emotion which the family circle allows. This must +be accounted for by the peaceful life which he led, (a life so different +from that of his French literary brothers,) as well as by the beneficial +influence of the society in which he resided. That society, though +cultivated and liberal, has, in contrast with that of France, remained +pure. It retains as its birthright a certain nameless innocence, unknown +in the polished French circles a few leagues beyond. M. de Sainte-Beuve +wonders at this, and asks,—"Is it that man is kept pure and good by the +magnificent beauties in which Nature rocks him there from his babyhood? +Is it that the heart becomes awed in presence of that sublime calm of +Nature, and, before he is aware of it, the passions have transformed +themselves into a religious adoration?"</p> + +<p>But the true source of the Genevese author's purity was apart from, +though deeply influenced by Nature. He was a man of principle and of +religious faith. Töpffer had but to gaze into his own heart to find all +the sweet, the graceful, and the fresh poetry of his country. His +untiring and patient observation of Nature is the secret of his power as +a writer. He disdained nothing, for nothing seemed too small for him. +Nature, in none of its phases, could appear insignificant to his fertile +and mellow soul. When he could not soar in the high regions of +contemplative philosophy, he stooped as low as the little child whose +rosy cheek he patted, and who then became to him a teacher and a study. +An insect crawling on a leaf,—a bit of grass bringing the joy of its +short life around the stones of the pavement,—a cloud floating over the +meadows,—a murmur of voices in the air,—the wings of a butterfly, or +the thundering of the storm above the lake,—all and everything was the +domain where his genial disposition reaped so plentiful a harvest of +rare graces and smiles.</p> + +<p>When Töpffer abandoned his brushes for his pen, it seems that the vision +of his mind became intensified, and he began to study man as minutely as +he had studied Nature. He became a moral portrait-painter, in the same +way as his illustrious townsmen, Calame and Diday, were landscape +painters. To analyze and to describe became the occupation he most +delighted in; and the more minute the analysis and the more subtile the +description, the more also was he pleased with it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_564" id="Page_564">[Pg 564]</a></span></p> + +<p>Töpffer's writings are eminently moral. There are few works in French +literature in which the moral aspiration is so alive and the worship of +duty so eloquently advocated. In reading them one feels that the writer +did not step beyond his own sentiments, that he did not borrow +convictions, that he did not affect the austerity of a stolen creed. He +writes as he feels, and he feels rightly,—never forgetting to remain +indulgent, even when he appears most unbendingly severe. Then to it all +he adds an inexhaustible cheerfulness. His mind wears no dark-colored +glasses; it is strong and healthy enough to bear the dazzling effulgence +of the sun. Töpffer was a joyous man. If he so rapidly seized the +ridiculous, it was through his love of fun; but while he laughed at +others, so kind and genial was he ever that he made others join and +laugh with him also.</p> + +<p>We said that his genius was universal. He is eminently so in his +artistic creations. Take, for instance, his unique comic sketches and +compare them with those of other leading caricaturists. Our impression +must be that none are like his. Leech, Doyle, and Gavarni have attained +a reputation which the world acknowledged long ago, and which no one +would dare dispute; yet they differ entirely from the Genevese +caricaturist. "Oldbuck" (<i>M. Vieux Bois</i>) is as universal as music or +Shakspeare, and belongs to no one country in particular. All of Leech's +pretty women, his "Mr. Briggs" and his "Frederick Augustus," with his +"<i>Haw</i>" and other swell words and airs, are all unmistakably English. +They could have been born on no other soil than England. It requires an +Englishman, or an American familiar with English fashions and foibles, +to appreciate them. The German, the Frenchman, the Spaniard, the +Italian, or the Russian, could no more understand them without a +previous initiation, or study and experience of English manners, than +they could speak English without long application and practice. The same +may be said of Richard Doyle's famous "Foreign Tour of Messrs. Brown, +Jones, and Robinson." Here we have an irresistible series of sketches, +depicting what the famous trio saw, what they said, and what they did, +in Belgium, Switzerland, and Italy. The interest of that work lies in an +intense expression of English nationality, carried everywhere by the +three Englishmen. Their mishaps and adventures are exactly such as every +American has witnessed a thousand times, when some of his cousins from +the fast-anchored isle have visited him. Gavarni, though freer with his +pencil than either Doyle or Leech, is still as much of a Parisian as +Albert Smith was a Londoner. Every one of his spirited sketches is +intensely French, and, above all, Parisian. To a person who knew nothing +of Paris, who had never been in Paris, and who was not somewhat <i>au +fait</i> with the gay and triste, the splendid and squalid, the brilliant +and unequal society there, these sketches would be meaningless. Again, +Gavarni's pictures are not series. He does not develop his heroes and +heroines. He does not make us feel for them in their mishaps. We do not +laugh <i>with</i> them, as we would with friends or acquaintances, but we +laugh <i>at</i> them. We do not once recognize <i>ourselves</i> in them. His +portraits stand before us, but we gaze at them as we would at some +half-civilized creatures, with curiosity more than with mirth; and while +we admire and acknowledge the truthfulness of the sketch, we do not +desire to have any familiarity or contact with the individuals +represented. Furthermore, Gavarni is more limited than Doyle, by making +the "Sweep," the "Rag-Picker," the "Grisette," tell his or her own +story; and what each one says is necessary to the comprehension of the +person before you. But very different is Töpffer. He possesses, with the +funny conception of Leech and Doyle, a freer pictorial conception than +either, and holds a pencil that is more at command than Gavarni's. In +his single outlines, often of the rudest kind, there is the very +rollicking of freedom, the exact hitting of traits and character. He +dashes down his creation<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_565" id="Page_565">[Pg 565]</a></span> with the quickness of thought, and with as +much confidence that Messrs. Oldbuck, Crépin, and Jabot will leap into +the very existence he wishes them to assume, as Giotto had, when, with a +single sweep of his arm, he drew his magic circle. It may be objected, +that the comparison between the two Englishmen and the two Continentals +is hardly equal. Doyle and Leech lost, doubtless, much of their freedom +by drawing with hard pencils upon box for the wood-engraver. Töpffer and +Gavarni swept the soft, yielding crayon over the lithographer's stone, +and hence we have the very conception of the artists in their sketches.</p> + +<p>The whole Continent roared over "M. Vieux Bois," then England began to +laugh, and finally America. Yet "M. Vieux Bois" was only the portrait of +a foolish old bachelor in love. Though born in Geneva, he was neither +Swiss nor French, neither English nor American; he was simply human. He +exemplifies Töpffer's universality.</p> + +<p>I have already mentioned the "Nouvelles Génevoises," the "Voyages en +Zig-Zag," and the "Presbytère." But it is not possible to quote from +them. Before pages so lively and so picturesquely effective, one feels +embarrassed in selecting any particular portion, lest another should be +left unnoticed,—like the child, who, being told that he may help +himself to choice flowers, feels afraid that he will not take those he +most wants, and, in his hesitation, dares not so much as untie the +bouquet. The reader must choose for himself. He can accompany the +amiable philosopher in his summer excursions, take the Alpine-stock, and +with him visit the mountain solitudes, or linger around the blue +lakes—those air-hung forget-me-nots—which gem the highest valleys of +Switzerland.</p> + +<p>His remaining works, published in book-form, are "Rosa et Gertrude," and +the "Réflexions et Menus Propos d'un Peintre Génevois, ou Essai sur le +Beau dans les Arts."</p> + +<p>"Rosa et Gertrude," given to the public a short time before his death, +is considered by some as holding the first place in Töpffer's works of +imagination. It is a touching story of two orphan girls, deeply attached +to each other, one of whom, deceived and maltreated by the world, +receives that kind and Christian charity "which thinketh no evil" from +M. Bernier, the good old clergyman, who is the guardian of Rosa and +Gertrude, as well as the narrator of their simple history. In this book +Töpffer has abandoned the humoristic, his ordinary vein in his short +stones, and in taking up the more serious mode of treating his +characters has succeeded so well that Albert Aubert of Paris, in his +criticism, says, "In 'Rosa and Gertrude' M. Töpffer has surpassed +himself"; and yet it is not so characteristic as his other writings.</p> + +<p>However, that one of M. Töpffer's works which, it seems to me, is +destined to live longest in the future, is his "Réflexions et Menus +Propos," etc.,—"Reflections and Short Disquisitions on Art." Here are +the results of twelve years' meditations on Art, by one who <i>felt</i> Art +in his inmost soul, and who understood its practice as well as its +theory. In this work we find a Ruskin without dogmatism, uncertainty, or +man-worship. If Töpffer had written several volumes on his favorite +subject, we should not find him, in each succeeding tome, taking back +what he had said in the first. He studied, reflected, rewrote, and then +waited patiently for years before he committed his mature judgment to +the perpetuity of print. Long before Ruskin's first volume appeared, +Töpffer's "Réflexions et Menus Propos" had commanded the admiration of +the best writers and artists of the Continent. As an æsthetic and +philosophic work, it is of the highest value. Pearls of thought and +beauty are dropped on every side. It is relieved by fanciful episodes; +and yet the whole book starts from and plays around a stick of India +ink! It is not merely a volume in which the professional artist can gain +great advantage, but one by which the general reader is fascinated as +well as instructed. The former may discern its scope and its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_566" id="Page_566">[Pg 566]</a></span> importance +in the felicity with which Töpffer illustrates the true aim of Art, as +being the expression, the idealization, and not the rigid copy of +Nature. He maintains that Nature should be the only teacher, and that we +are to be wedded to no man's mannerism.</p> + +<p>It is to be hoped that some day the "Réflexions et Menus Propos" may be +rendered into English by one fully acquainted, not only with French, but +with the philosophic and the æsthetic writings of France. If the late +Bayle St. John (whose knowledge of the French language and manner of +thought was so thorough) had possessed the finished style of the author +of "Six Months in Italy," he would have been the very man to have +introduced M. Töpffer's works to English readers.</p> + +<p>Whoever reads the works which I have thus briefly mentioned will regret +that so genial and gifted a man as M. Töpffer should have been so soon +snatched away from earth. It is rare to find in any author's or artist's +life such calm happiness as that which smiled over his existence. Fame +did not spoil him; and if he lived long enough to win it, he died too +soon to enjoy it.</p> + +<p>The last two years of M. Töpffer's life were years of continual +suffering, through which his amiable cheerfulness never faltered. When +he was told by his physicians that he could not recover, as if he +thought only of alleviating the sorrow of those who loved him, he did +not give way for one hour to impressions of sadness, and his private +journal alone received the confidence of the keen regret he felt in +taking farewell of his young wife and his lovely children. To the very +last day of his life his friends found him in the evening surrounded by +his family, and even then handling the pencil for their amusement and +his own.</p> + +<p>On Sundays, Calame dined with him; and we may imagine what a brilliant +coloring of thought must have characterized the conversation of these +two sympathetic men.</p> + +<p>In 1844, when M. Töpffer had just concluded his romance of "Rosa et +Gertrude," his disease took an alarming turn, and he became aware that +he was fast drawing to the close of his earthly voyage. After two +repeated visits to the French watering-place of Vichy, he returned to +Geneva. Towards the end of the following winter he was obliged to +abandon those duties which hitherto had been to him so pure an +enjoyment. Unable now to write, he tried painting, which, it will be +remembered, he had given up in early manhood. Leaning heavily forward in +his chair, his easel before him, he painted with an enthusiasm which was +the last of his life. But that diversion could not be kept up long, and +he was soon compelled to sit motionless, awaiting his release.</p> + +<p>On the morning of the 8th of June, 1846, consoled by the hopes of the +Christian, he expired. On the 14th he was followed to his final +resting-place by the whole city, among whom were those who in him had +lost their friend, their colleague, and their master. His remains sleep +in the cemetery of Plain-palais, which he has so graphically described +in "La Peur"; but his memory and his works still live in the minds of +his countrymen, and his fame is daily widening, wherever the good, the +true, and the beautiful are appreciated.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_567" id="Page_567">[Pg 567]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_CHIMNEY-CORNER" id="THE_CHIMNEY-CORNER"></a>THE CHIMNEY-CORNER.</h2> + + +<h3>X.</h3> + +<h4>THE WOMAN QUESTION: OR, WHAT WILL YOU DO WITH HER?</h4> + +<p>"Well, what will you do with her?" said I to my wife.</p> + +<p>My wife had just come down from an interview with a pale, faded-looking +young woman in rusty black attire, who had called upon me on the very +common supposition that I was an editor of the "Atlantic Monthly."</p> + +<p>By the bye, this is a mistake that brings me, Christopher Crowfield, +many letters that do not belong to me, and which might with equal +pertinency be addressed, "To the Man in the Moon." Yet these letters +often make my heart ache,—they speak so of people who strive and sorrow +and want help; and it is hard to be called on in plaintive tones for +help which you know it is perfectly impossible for you to give.</p> + +<p>For instance, you get a letter in a delicate hand, setting forth the old +distress,—She is poor, and she has looking to her for support those +that are poorer and more helpless than herself: she has tried sewing, +but can make little at it; tried teaching, but cannot now get a +school,—all places being filled, and more than filled; at last has +tried literature, and written some little things, of which she sends you +a modest specimen, and wants your opinion whether she can gain her +living by writing. You run over the articles, and perceive at a glance +that there is no kind of hope or use in her trying to do anything at +literature; and then you ask yourself, mentally, "What is to be done +with her? What can she do?"</p> + +<p>Such was the application that had come to me this morning,—only, +instead of by note, it came, as I have said, in the person of the +applicant, a thin, delicate, consumptive-looking being, wearing that +rusty mourning which speaks sadly at once of heart-bereavement and +material poverty.</p> + +<p>My usual course is to turn such cases over to Mrs. Crowfield; and it is +to be confessed that this worthy woman spends a large portion of her +time and wears out an extraordinary amount of shoe-leather in performing +the duties of a self-constituted intelligence-office.</p> + +<p>Talk of giving money to the poor!—what is that, compared to giving +sympathy, thought, time, taking their burdens upon you, sharing their +perplexities? They who are able to buy off every application at the door +of their heart with a five or ten dollar bill are those who free +themselves at least expense.</p> + +<p>My wife had communicated to our friend, in the gentlest tones and in the +blandest manner, that her poor little pieces, however interesting to her +own household circle, had nothing in them wherewith to enable her to +make her way in the thronged and crowded thoroughfare of letters,—that +they had no more strength or adaptation to win bread for her than a +broken-winged butterfly to draw a plough; and it took some resolution in +the background of her tenderness to make the poor applicant entirely +certain of this. In cases like this, absolute certainty is the very +greatest, the only true kindness.</p> + +<p>It was grievous, my wife said, to see the discouraged shade which passed +over her thin, tremulous features, when this certainty forced itself +upon her. It is hard, when sinking in the waves, to see the frail bush +at which the hand clutches uprooted; hard, when alone in the crowded +thoroughfare of travel, to have one's last bank-note declared a +counterfeit. I knew I should not be able to see her face, under the +shade of this disappointment; and so, coward that I was, I turned this +trouble, where I have turned so many others, upon my wife.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_568" id="Page_568">[Pg 568]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Well, what shall we do with her?" said I.</p> + +<p>"I really don't know," said my wife, musingly.</p> + +<p>"Do you think we could get that school in Taunton for her?"</p> + +<p>"Impossible; Mr. Herbert told me he had already twelve applicants for +it."</p> + +<p>"Couldn't you get her plain sewing? Is she handy with her needle?"</p> + +<p>"She has tried that, but it brings on a pain in her side, and cough; and +the Doctor has told her it will not do for her to confine herself."</p> + +<p>"How is her handwriting? Does she write a good hand?"</p> + +<p>"Only passable."</p> + +<p>"Because," said I, "I was thinking if I could get Steele and Simpson to +give her law-papers to copy."</p> + +<p>"They have more copyists than they need now; and, in fact, this woman +does not write the sort of hand at all that would enable her to get on +as a copyist."</p> + +<p>"Well," said I, turning uneasily in my chair, and at last hitting on a +bright masculine expedient, "I'll tell you what must be done. She must +get married."</p> + +<p>"My dear," said my wife, "marrying for a living is the very hardest way +a woman can take to get it. Even marrying for love often turns out badly +enough. Witness poor Jane."</p> + +<p>Jane was one of the large number of people whom it seemed my wife's +fortune to carry through life on her back. She was a pretty, smiling, +pleasing daughter of Erin, who had been in our family originally as +nursery-maid. I had been greatly pleased in watching a little idyllic +affair growing up between her and a joyous, good-natured young Irishman, +to whom at last we married her. Mike soon after, however, took to +drinking and unsteady courses, and the result has been to Jane only a +yearly baby, with poor health, and no money.</p> + +<p>"In fact," said my wife, "if Jane had only kept single, she could have +made her own way well enough, and might have now been in good health and +had a pretty sum in the savings bank. As it is, I must carry not only +her, but her three children, on my back."</p> + +<p>"You ought to drop her, my dear. You really ought not to burden yourself +with other people's affairs as you do," said I, inconsistently.</p> + +<p>"How <i>can</i> I drop her? Can I help knowing that she is poor and +suffering? And if I drop her, who will take her up?"</p> + +<p>Now there is a way of getting rid of cases of this kind, spoken of in a +quaint old book, which occurred strongly to me at this moment:—</p> + +<p>"If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one +of you say unto them, 'Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled,' +notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the +body, what doth it profit?"</p> + +<p>I must confess, notwithstanding the strong point of the closing +question, I looked with an evil eye of longing on this very easy way of +disposing of such cases: a few sympathizing words, a few expressions of +hope that I did not feel, a line written to turn the case into somebody +else's hands,—any expedient, in fact, to hide the longing eyes and +imploring hands from my sight was what my carnal nature at this moment +greatly craved.</p> + +<p>"Besides," said my wife, resuming the thread of her thoughts in regard +to the subject just now before us,—"as to marriage, it's out of the +question at present for this poor child; for the man she loved and would +have married lies low in one of the graves before Richmond. It's a sad +story;—one of a thousand like it. She brightened for a few moments, and +looked almost handsome, when she spoke of his bravery and goodness. Her +father and lover have both died in this war. Her only brother has +returned from it a broken-down cripple, and she has him and her poor old +mother to care for, and so she seeks work. I told her to come again +to-morrow, and I would look about for her a little to-day."</p> + +<p>"Let me see, how many are now down on your list to be looked about for, +Mrs.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_569" id="Page_569">[Pg 569]</a></span> Crowfield?—some twelve or thirteen, are there not? You've got +Tom's sister disposed of finally, I hope,—that's a comfort!"</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm sorry to say she came back on my hands yesterday," said my +wife, patiently. "She is a foolish young thing, and said she didn't like +living out in the country. I'm sorry, because the Morrises are an +excellent family, and she might have had a life-home there, if she had +only been steady and chosen to behave herself properly. But yesterday I +found her back on her mother's hands again; and the poor woman told me +that the dear child never could bear to be separated from her, and that +she hadn't the heart to send her back."</p> + +<p>"And, in short," said I, "she gave you notice that you must provide for +Miss O'Connor in some more agreeable way. Cross that name off your list, +at any rate. That woman and girl need a few hard raps in the school of +experience before you can do anything for them."</p> + +<p>"I think I shall," said my long-suffering wife; "but it's a pity to see +a young thing put in the direct road to ruin."</p> + +<p>"It is one of the inevitables," said I, "and we must save our strength +for those that are willing to help themselves."</p> + +<p>"What's all this talk about?" said Bob, coming in upon us rather +brusquely.</p> + +<p>"Oh, as usual, the old question," said I,—"'What's to be done with +her?'"</p> + +<p>"Well," said Bob, "it's exactly what I've come to talk with mother +about. Since she keeps a distressed-women's agency-office, I've come to +consult her about Marianne. That woman will die before six months are +out, a victim to high civilization and the Paddies. There we are, twelve +miles out from Boston, in a country villa so convenient that every part +of it might almost do its own work,—everything arranged in the most +convenient, contiguous, self-adjusting, self-acting, patent-right, +perfective manner,—and yet, I tell you, Marianne will die of that +house. It will yet be recorded on her tombstone, 'Died of conveniences.' +For myself, what I languish for is a log cabin, with a bed in one +corner, a trundle-bed underneath for the children, a fire-place only six +feet off, a table, four chairs, one kettle, a coffee-pot, and a tin +baker,—that's all. I lived deliciously in an establishment of this kind +last summer, when I was up at Lake Superior; and I am convinced, if I +could move Marianne into it at once, that she would become a healthy and +a happy woman. Her life is smothered out of her with comforts: we have +too many rooms, too many carpets, too many vases and knickknacks, too +much china and silver; she has too many laces and dresses and bonnets; +the children all have too many clothes;—in fact, to put it +Scripturally, our riches are corrupted, our garments are moth-eaten, our +gold and our silver is cankered,—and, in short, Marianne is sick in +bed, and I have come to the agency-office for-distressed-women to take +you out to attend to her.</p> + +<p>"The fact is," continued Bob, "that, since our cook married and Alice +went to California, there seems to be no possibility of putting our +domestic cabinet upon any permanent basis. The number of female persons +that have been through our house, and the ravages they have wrought on +it for the last six months, pass belief. I had yesterday a bill of sixty +dollars' plumbing to pay for damages of various kinds which had had to +be repaired in our very convenient water-works; and the blame of each +particular one had been bandied like a shuttlecock among our three +household divinities. Biddy privately assured my wife that Kate was in +the habit of emptying dust-pans of rubbish into the main drain from the +chambers, and washing any little extra bits down through the bowls; and, +in fact, when one of the bathing-room bowls had overflowed so as to +damage the frescoes below, my wife, with great delicacy and precaution, +interrogated Kate as to whether she had followed her instructions in the +care of the water-pipes. Of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_570" id="Page_570">[Pg 570]</a></span> course she protested the most immaculate +care and circumspection. 'Sure, and she knew how careful one ought to +be, and wasn't of the likes of thim as wouldn't mind what throuble they +made,—like Biddy, who would throw trash and hair in the pipes, and +niver listen to her tellin'; sure, and hadn't she broken the pipes in +the kitchen, and lost the stoppers, as it was a shame to see in a +Christian house?' Ann, the third girl, being privately questioned, +blamed Biddy on Monday and Kate on Tuesday; on Wednesday, however, she +exonerated both; but on Thursday, being in a high quarrel with both, she +departed, accusing them severally not only of all the evil practices +aforesaid, but of lying, and stealing, and all other miscellaneous +wickednesses that came to hand. Whereat the two thus accused rushed in, +bewailing themselves and cursing Ann in alternate strophes, averring +that she had given the baby laudanum, and, taking it out riding, had +stopped for hours with it in a filthy lane, where the scarlet fever was +said to be rife,—in short, made so fearful a picture, that Marianne +gave up the child's life at once, and has taken to her bed. I have +endeavored all I could to quiet her, by telling her that the +scarlet-fever story was probably an extemporaneous work of fiction, got +up to gratify the Hibernian anger at Ann, and that it wasn't in the +least worth while to believe one thing more than another from the fact +that any of the tribe said it. But she refuses to be comforted, and is +so Utopian as to lie there, crying,—'Oh, if I only could get one that I +could trust,—one that really would speak the truth to me,—one that I +might know really went where she said she went, and really did as she +said she did!' To have to live so, she says, and bring up little +children with those she can't trust out of her sight, whose word is good +for nothing,—to feel that her beautiful house and her lovely things are +all going to rack and ruin, and she can't take care of them, and can't +see where or when or how the mischief is done,——in short, the poor +child talks as women do who are violently attacked with housekeeping +fever tending to congestion of the brain. She actually yesterday told me +that she wished, on the whole, she never had got married, which I take +to be the most positive indication of mental alienation."</p> + +<p>"Here," said I, "we behold at this moment two women dying for the want +of what they can mutually give one another,—each having a supply of +what the other needs, but held back by certain invisible cobwebs, +slight, but strong, from coming to each other's assistance. Marianne has +money enough, but she wants a helper in her family, such as all her +money has been hitherto unable to buy; and here close at hand is a woman +who wants home-shelter, healthy, varied, active, cheerful labor, with +nourishing food, kind care, and good wages. What hinders these women +from rushing to the help of one another, just as two drops of water on a +leaf rush together and make one? Nothing but a miserable prejudice,—but +a prejudice so strong that women will starve in any other mode of life, +rather than accept competency and comfort in this."</p> + +<p>"You don't mean," said my wife, "to propose that our <i>protégée</i> should +go to Marianne as a servant?"</p> + +<p>"I do say it would be the best thing for her to do, the only opening +that I see,—and a very good one, too, it is. Just look at it. Her bare +living at this moment cannot cost her less than five or six dollars a +week,—everything at the present time is so very dear in the city. Now +by what possible calling open to her capacity can she pay her board and +washing, fuel and lights, and clear a hundred and some odd dollars a +year? She could not do it as a district school-teacher; she certainly +cannot, with her feeble health, do it by plain sewing; she could not do +it as a copyist. A robust woman might go into a factory and earn more; +but factory-work is unintermitted, twelve hours daily, week in and out, +in the same movement, in close air, amid the clatter of machinery; and a +person delicately organized<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_571" id="Page_571">[Pg 571]</a></span> soon sinks under it. It takes a stolid, +enduring temperament to bear factory-labor. Now look at Marianne's house +and family, and see what is insured to your <i>protégée</i> there.</p> + +<p>"In the first place, a home,—a neat, quiet chamber, quite as good as +she has probably been accustomed to,—the very best of food, served in a +pleasant, light, airy kitchen, which is one of the most agreeable rooms +in the house, and the table and table-service quite equal to those of +most farmers and mechanics. Then her daily tasks would be light and +varied,—some sweeping, some dusting, the washing and dressing of +children, the care of their rooms and the nursery,—all of it the most +healthful, the most natural work of a woman,—work alternating with +rest, and diverting thought from painful subjects by its variety,—and +what is more, a kind of work in which a good Christian woman might have +satisfaction, as feeling herself useful in the highest and best way: for +the child's nurse, if she be a pious, well-educated woman, may make the +whole course of nursery-life an education in goodness. Then, what is far +different from many other modes of gaining a livelihood, a woman in this +capacity can make and feel herself really and truly beloved. The hearts +of little children are easily gained, and their love is real and warm, +and no true woman can become the object of it without feeling her own +life made brighter. Again, she would have in Marianne a sincere, +warm-hearted friend, who would care for her tenderly, respect her +sorrows, shelter her feelings, be considerate of her wants, and in every +way aid her in the cause she has most at heart, the succor of her +family. There are many ways besides her wages in which she would +infallibly be assisted by Marianne, so that the probability would be +that she could send her little salary almost untouched to those for +whose support she was toiling,—all this on her part."</p> + +<p>"But," added my wife, "on the other hand, she would be obliged to +associate and be ranked with common Irish servants."</p> + +<p>"Well," I answered, "is there any occupation, by which any of us gain +our living, which has not its disagreeable side? Does not the lawyer +spend all his days either in a dusty office or in the foul air of a +court-room? Is he not brought into much disagreeable contact with the +lowest class of society? Are not his labors dry and hard and exhausting? +Does not the blacksmith spend half his life in soot and grime, that he +may gain a competence for the other half? If this woman were to work in +a factory, would she not often be brought into associations distasteful +to her? Might it not be the same in any of the arts and trades in which +a living is to be got? There must be unpleasant circumstances about +earning a living in any way; only I maintain that those which a woman +would be likely to meet with as a servant in a refined, well-bred, +Christian family would be less than in almost any other calling. Are +there no trials to a woman, I beg to know, in teaching a district +school, where all the boys, big and little, of a neighborhood +congregate? For my part, were it my daughter or sister who was in +necessitous circumstances, I would choose for her a position such as I +name, in a kind, intelligent, Christian family, before many of those to +which women do devote themselves."</p> + +<p>"Well," said Bob, "all this has a good sound enough, but it's quite +impossible. It's true, I verily believe, that such a kind of servant in +our family would really prolong Marianne's life years,—that it would +improve her health, and be an unspeakable blessing to her, to me, and +the children,—and I would almost go down on my knees to a really +well-educated, good, American woman who would come into our family, and +take that place; but I know it's perfectly vain and useless to expect +it. You know we have tried the experiment two or three times of having a +person in our family who should be on the footing of a friend, yet do +the duties of a servant, and that we <i>never</i> could make it work well. +These half-and-half people are so sensitive, so exacting in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_572" id="Page_572">[Pg 572]</a></span> their +demands, so hard to please, that we have come to the firm determination +that we will have no sliding-scale in our family, and that whoever we +are to depend on must come with <i>bona-fide</i> willingness to take the +position of a servant, such as that position is in our house; and +<i>that</i>, I suppose, your <i>protégée</i> would never do, even if she could +thereby live easier, have less hard work, better health, and quite as +much money as she could earn in any other way."</p> + +<p>"She would consider it a personal degradation, I suppose," said my wife.</p> + +<p>"And yet, if she only knew it," said Bob, "I should respect her far more +profoundly for her willingness to take that position, when adverse +fortune has shut other doors."</p> + +<p>"Well, now," said I, "this woman is, as I understand, the daughter of a +respectable stone-mason; and the domestic habits of her early life have +probably been economical and simple. Like most of our mechanics' +daughters, she has received in one of our high schools an education +which has cultivated and developed her mind far beyond those of her +parents and the associates of her childhood. This is a common fact in +our American life. By our high schools the daughters of plain workingmen +are raised to a state of intellectual culture which seems to make the +disposition of them in any kind of industrial calling a difficult one. +They all want to teach school,—and school-teaching, consequently, is an +overcrowded profession,—and, failing that, there is only millinery and +dress-making. Of late, it is true; efforts have been made in various +directions to widen their sphere. Type-setting and book-keeping are in +some instances beginning to be open to them.</p> + +<p>"All this time there is lying, neglected and despised, a calling to +which womanly talents and instincts are peculiarly fitted,—a calling +full of opportunities of the most lasting usefulness,—a calling which +insures a settled home, respectable protection, healthful exercise, good +air, good food, and good wages,—a calling in which a woman may make +real friends, and secure to herself warm affection: and yet this calling +is the one always refused, shunned, contemned, left to the alien and the +stranger, and that simply and solely because it bears the name of +<i>servant</i>. A Christian woman, who holds the name of Christ in her heart +in true devotion, would think it the greatest possible misfortune and +degradation to become like him in taking upon her 'the form of a +servant.' The founder of Christianity says, 'Whether is greater, he that +sitteth at meat or he that serveth? But <i>I</i> am among you as he that +serveth.' But notwithstanding these so plain declarations of Jesus, we +find that scarce any one in a Christian land will accept real advantages +of position and employment that come with that name and condition."</p> + +<p>"I suppose," said my wife, "I could prevail upon this woman to do all +the duties of the situation, if she could be, as they phrase it, +'treated as one of the family.'"</p> + +<p>"That is to say," said Bob, "if she could sit with us at the same table, +be introduced to our friends, and be in all respects as one of us. Now +as to this, I am free to say that I have no false aristocratic scruples. +I consider every well-educated woman as fully my equal, not to say my +superior; but it does not follow from this that she would be one whom I +should wish to make a third party with me and my wife at mealtimes. Our +meals are often our seasons of privacy,—the times when we wish in +perfect unreserve to speak of matters that concern ourselves and our +family alone. Even invited guests and family friends would not be always +welcome, however agreeable at times. Now a woman may be perfectly worthy +of respect, and we may be perfectly respectful to her, whom nevertheless +we do not wish to take into the circle of intimate friendship. I regard +the position of a woman who comes to perform domestic service as I do +any other business relation. We have a very respectable young lady in +our employ who does legal copying for us, and all is perfectly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_573" id="Page_573">[Pg 573]</a></span> pleasant +and agreeable in our mutual relations; but the case would be far +otherwise, were she to take it into her head that we treated her with +contempt, because my wife did not call on her, and because she was not +occasionally invited to tea. Besides, I apprehend that a woman of quick +sensibilities, employed in domestic service, and who was so far treated +as a member of the family as to share our table, would find her position +even more painful and embarrassing than if she took once for all the +position of a servant. We could not control the feelings of our friends; +we could not always insure that they would be free from aristocratic +prejudice, even were we so ourselves. We could not force her upon their +acquaintance, and she might feel far more slighted than she would in a +position where no attentions of any kind were to be expected. Besides +which, I have always noticed that persons standing in this uncertain +position are objects of peculiar antipathy to the servants in full; that +they are the cause of constant and secret cabals and discontents; and +that a family where the two orders exist has always raked up in it the +smouldering embers of a quarrel ready at any time to burst out into open +feud."</p> + +<p>"Well," said I, "here lies the problem of American life. Half our women, +like Marianne, are being faded and made old before their time by +exhausting endeavors to lead a life of high civilization and refinement +with only such untrained help as is washed up on our shores by the tide +of emigration. Our houses are built upon a plan that precludes the +necessity of much hard labor, but requires rather careful and nice +handling. A well-trained, intelligent woman, who had vitalized her +finger-ends by means of a well-developed brain, could do all the work of +such a house with comparatively little physical fatigue. So stands the +case as regards our houses. Now over against the women that are +perishing in them from too much care, there is another class of American +women that are wandering up and down, perishing for lack of some +remunerative employment. That class of women, whose developed brains and +less developed muscles mark them as peculiarly fitted for the +performance of the labors of a high civilization, stand utterly aloof +from paid domestic service. Sooner beg, sooner starve, sooner marry for +money, sooner hang on as dependents in families where they know they are +not wanted, than accept of a quiet home, easy, healthful work, and +certain wages, in these refined and pleasant modern dwellings of ours."</p> + +<p>"What is the reason of this?" said Bob.</p> + +<p>"The reason is, that we have not yet come to the full development of +Christian democracy. The taint of old aristocracies is yet pervading all +parts of our society. We have not yet realized fully the true dignity of +labor, and the surpassing dignity of domestic labor. And I must say that +the valuable and courageous women who have agitated the doctrines of +Woman's Rights among us have not in all things seen their way clear in +this matter."</p> + +<p>"Don't talk to me of those creatures," said Bob, "those men-women, those +anomalies, neither flesh nor fish, with their conventions, and their +cracked woman-voices strained in what they call public speaking, but +which I call public squeaking! No man reverences true women more than I +do. I hold a real, true, thoroughly good <i>woman</i>, whether in my parlor +or my kitchen, as my superior. She can always teach me something that I +need to know. She has always in her somewhat of the divine gift of +prophecy; but in order to keep it, she must remain a woman. When she +crops her hair, puts on pantaloons, and strides about in conventions, +she is an abortion, and not a woman."</p> + +<p>"Come! come!" said I, "after all, speak with deference. We that choose +to wear soft clothing and dwell in kings' houses must respect the +Baptists, who wear leathern girdles and eat locusts and wild honey. They +are the voices crying in the wilderness, preparing the way for a coming +good. They go down on their knees in the mire of life to lift<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_574" id="Page_574">[Pg 574]</a></span> up and +brighten and restore a neglected truth; and we that have not the energy +to share their struggle should at least refrain from criticizing their +soiled garments and ungraceful action. There have been excrescences, +eccentricities, peculiarities about the camp of these reformers; but the +body of them have been true and noble women, and worthy of all the +reverence due to such. They have already in many of our States reformed +the laws relating to woman's position, and placed her on a more just and +Christian basis. It is through their movements that in many of our +States a woman can hold the fruits of her own earnings, if it be her ill +luck to have a worthless, drunken spendthrift for a husband. It is owing +to their exertions that new trades and professions are opening to woman; +and all that I have to say of them is, that in the suddenness of their +zeal for opening new paths for her feet, they have not sufficiently +considered the propriety of straightening, widening, and mending the one +broad, good old path of domestic labor, established by God Himself. It +does appear to me, that, if at least a portion of their zeal could be +spent in removing the stones out of this highway of domestic life, and +making it pleasant and honorable, they would effect even more. I would +not have them leave undone what they are doing; but I would, were I +worthy to be considered, humbly suggest to their prophetic wisdom and +enthusiasm, whether, in this new future of woman which they wish to +introduce, woman's natural, God-given employment of <i>domestic service</i> +is not to receive a new character and rise in a new form.</p> + +<p>"'To love and serve' is a motto worn with pride on some aristocratic +family shields in England. It ought to be graven on the Christian +shield. <i>Servant</i> is the name which Christ gives to the <i>Christian</i>; and +in speaking of his kingdom as distinguished from earthly kingdoms, he +distinctly said, that rank there should be conditioned, not upon desire +to command, but on willingness to serve.</p> + +<p>"'Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, +and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not +be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your +minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your +<i>servant</i>.'</p> + +<p>"Why is it, that this name of servant, which Christ says is the highest +in the kingdom of heaven, is so dishonored among us professing +Christians, that good women will beg or starve, will suffer almost any +extreme of poverty and privation, rather than accept home, competence, +security, with this honored name?"</p> + +<p>"The fault with many of our friends of the Woman's Rights order," said +my wife, "is the depreciatory tone in which they have spoken of the +domestic labors of a family as being altogether below the scope of the +faculties of woman. '<i>Domestic drudgery</i>' they call it: an expression +that has done more harm than any two words that ever were put together.</p> + +<p>"Think of a woman's calling clear-starching and ironing domestic +drudgery, and to better the matter turning to type-setting in a grimy +printing-office! Call the care of china and silver, the sweeping of +carpets, the arrangement of parlors and sitting rooms, drudgery; and go +into a factory and spend the day amid the whir and clatter and thunder +of machinery, inhaling an atmosphere loaded with wool and +machine-grease, and keeping on the feet for twelve hours, nearly +continuously! Think of its being called drudgery to take care of a +clean, light, airy nursery, to wash and dress and care for two or three +children, to mend their clothes, tell them stories, make them +playthings, take them out walking or driving; and rather than this, to +wear out the whole livelong day, extending often deep into the night, in +endless sewing, in a close room of a dressmaking establishment! Is it +any less drudgery to stand all day behind a counter, serving customers, +than to tend a door-bell and wait on a table? For my part," said my +wife, "I have often<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_575" id="Page_575">[Pg 575]</a></span> thought the matter over, and concluded, that, if I +were left in straitened circumstances, as many are in a great city, I +would seek a position as a servant in one of our good families."</p> + +<p>"I envy the family that you even think of in that connection," said I. +"I fancy the amazement which would take possession of them as you began +to develop among them."</p> + +<p>"I have always held," said my wife, "that family work, in many of its +branches, can be better performed by an educated woman than an +uneducated one. Just as an army where even the bayonets think is +superior to one of mere brute force and mechanical training, so, I have +heard it said, some of our distinguished modern female reformers show an +equal superiority in the domestic sphere,—and I do not doubt it. Family +work was never meant to be the special province of untaught brains, I +have sometimes thought I should like to show what I could do as a +servant."</p> + +<p>"Well," said Bob, "to return from all this to the question, What's to be +done with her? Are you going to <i>my</i> distressed woman? If you are, +suppose you take <i>your</i> distressed woman along, and ask her to try it. I +can promise her a pleasant house, a quiet room by herself, healthful and +not too hard work, a kind friend, and some leisure for reading, writing, +or whatever other pursuit of her own she may choose for her recreation. +We are always quite willing to lend books to any who appreciate them. +Our house is surrounded by pleasant grounds, which are open to our +servants as to ourselves. So, let her come and try us. I am quite sure +that country air, quiet security, and moderate exercise in a good home +will bring up her health; and if she is willing to take the one or two +disagreeables which may come with all this, let her try us."</p> + +<p>"Well," said I, "so be it; and would that all the women seeking homes +and employment could thus fall in with women who have homes and are +perishing in them for want of educated helpers!"</p> + +<p>On this question of woman's work I have yet more to say, but must defer +it to another month.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="JEREMY_BENTHAM" id="JEREMY_BENTHAM"></a>JEREMY BENTHAM.</h2> + + +<p>When I first knew this great and good man, he was in his seventy-ninth +year, and quite as remarkable for strength of constitution, (though he +had been always ailing up to the age of threescore,) and for +cheerfulness of temper, as for the oddities which made him a +laughing-stock for Professor Wilson and the reprobates of "Blackwood," a +prodigious myth for the "Edinburgh" and "Quarterly," and a sort of +Cocklane ghost for Sydney Smith, Hazlitt, Captain Parry, Tom Moore, and +Lord Byron.</p> + +<p>His "Benthamee" was believed to be a language he had invented for +himself, and quite incapable of being understood, or even deciphered, by +any but a thorough-going disciple, such as Dr., now Sir John, Bowring, +James Mill, the author of "British India," John Stuart Mill, the two +Austins, or George Grote, the banker and historian of Greece.</p> + +<p>"Ah," said Mrs. Wheeler, a strong-minded, clever woman, the Mary +Wollstonecraft of her day, on hearing that I had been asked to the +"Hermitage" of Queen-Square Place by Mr. Bentham,—"Ah, you have no idea +of what is before you! I wonder you are not afraid."</p> + +<p>"Afraid, my dear Madam! Of what should I be afraid?"</p> + +<p>"Afraid of being left alone with him after dinner. He cannot bear +contradiction. The queerest old man alive. One of his most intimate +friends told<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_576" id="Page_576">[Pg 576]</a></span> me that he was undoubtedly deranged, mad as a March hare +upon some subjects, and a monomaniac upon others. Do you know that he +keeps a relay of young men, thoroughly trained for the work, to follow +him round all day and pick up his droppings,—or what his followers call +'sibylline leaves,'—bits of paper, that is, written all over with +cabalistic signs, which no mortal could ever hope to decipher without a +long apprenticeship? These 'leaves' he scatters round him right and +left, while on the trot through his large, beautiful garden, or, if in +the house, while taking his 'post-prandial' vibration,—the after-dinner +walk through a narrow passageway running between a raised platform in +what he calls his 'workshop,' and the outer partition. Here he labors +day after day, and year after year, at codification, without stopping to +draw a long breath, or even to look up, so afraid is he of what may +happen to the world, if he should be taken away before it is all +finished. And here, on this platform, the table for one guest, two +secretaries, and himself is always set, and he never has more than one +guest at a time."</p> + +<p>Extravagant and laughable as all this appeared to me at the time, I +found truth enough at the bottom, before six months were over, to +justify many of the drollest caricatures.</p> + +<p>That Mr. Bentham's minutes were drops of gold about this time, and his +half-hours ingots, in the estimation of others, I had reason to +know,—of others, too, among the foremost celebrities of the age. Hence, +though he gave capital dinners, it was one of the rarest things in the +world for a stranger to be seen at his table. The curious and the +inquisitive stood no chance; and men of the highest rank were constantly +refused the introductions they sought.</p> + +<p>"Anne, if the Duke of Sussex calls, I am not at home," said he one day +to his housekeeper: nobody ever knew why.</p> + +<p>And there were hundreds of distinguished men, otherwise well-informed, +who believed in Jeremy Bentham, afar off, somewhat as others do in the +heroes of Ossian, or in their great Scandinavian prototypes, Woden and +Thor. If to be met with at all, it was only along the tops of mountains, +where "mist and moonlight mingle fitfully."</p> + +<p>For myself, I can truly say, that, of those I met with, who talked most +freely about him, and who wrote as if well acquainted, not only with his +works, but with the man himself, there was not one in fifty who had ever +set eyes on him or knew where to look for the "Hermitage," while the +fiftieth could not tell me whether he was an Englishman or Frenchman by +birth, (most of his writings on jurisprudence being written by him in +French,) nor whether he was living or dead.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, they were full of anecdotes. They went with the scoffers, +and quoted Sydney Smith and "Blackwood," while "the world's dread laugh" +made them shy of committing themselves to any decided opinion. But if +Bentham was a myth, surely Dumont was not, and the shadow might well be +allowed to prove the substance; and yet they persisted in believing the +most extravagant inventions, and the drollest, without investigation or +misgiving.</p> + +<p>And even I,—I, myself,—though familiar with his works, both in French +and English, was so much influenced by the mystery about him, and by the +stories I heard of him, and by the flings I saw in the leading journals, +that I was betrayed into writing as follows in "Blackwood," about a year +before I first met Mr. Bentham, notwithstanding my profound convictions +of his worth and greatness, and my fixed belief that he was cruelly +misunderstood and shamefully misrepresented, and that his "Morals and +Legislation" and his "Theory of Rewards and Punishments" would change +the jurisprudence of the world, as they certainly have done:—</p> + +<p>"Setting aside John Locke's Constitution for North Carolina, and Jeremy +Bentham's conundrums on Legislation, to speak reverently of what we +cannot speak irreverently of, <i>a truly great and incomprehensible mind, +whose thoughts are problems, and whose words—when they are +English—miracles</i>," etc.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_577" id="Page_577">[Pg 577]</a></span></p> + +<p>This paragraph occurs <i>incidentally</i>. I durst not go farther at the +time; for Bentham had never been mentioned but with a sneer in that +journal. I was writing a review of another "British Traveller in +America," whose blundering misrepresentations had greatly disturbed me. +The book was entitled, "A Summary View of America ... By an Englishman." +My review was the longest paper, I believe, that ever appeared in +"Blackwood." It was the leader for December, 1824; and on the back of +the title-page is a note by Christopher North himself, (Professor +Wilson,) from which I extract the following rather significant passages.</p> + +<p>"Our readers will perceive that this number opens with an article much +longer than any that ever appeared in our journal before. As a general +rule, we hate and detest articles of anything like this length; but we +found, on perusing this, (and so will our readers, when they follow our +example,) that in reality every paragraph of it is an article by itself; +in fact, that the paper is not an article, but a collection of many +articles upon subjects, all full of interest, and most of them not less +important than interesting."</p> + +<p>"In short, this <i>review</i> of a single book on America contains more new +facts, more new reasonings, more new speculations of and concerning the +United States of America, than have as yet appeared in any ten books (by +themselves, books) upon that subject. This is enough for us, and this +will be enough for our readers.</p> + +<p>"We do not know personally the author of this article; nor do we pledge +ourselves for the justice of many of his views. From internal evidence +we believe that he says nothing but what he believes to be true."</p> + +<p>On the whole, perhaps, I had better add another paragraph from +Christopher North's note. It may serve to disabuse not a few of my +countrymen who have hitherto misunderstood the purpose of my "mission" +abroad, and especially the nature of my connection with the "Blackwood" +freebooters.</p> + +<p>"It is certain that he does know America well," continues the Professor; +"and it is equally certain that we fully participate in his feelings, as +to the folly or knavery of every writer, English or American, who libels +either of these countries for the amusement of the other; and we have +not the smallest doubt that the appearance of such a writer as we have +had the good fortune to introduce will henceforth operate as a salutary +check both on the chatterers of the 'Westminster Review' and the +growlers of the 'Quarterly.'"</p> + +<p>Entertaining the opinions I have stated with regard to Mr. Bentham and +his labors, and being well aware that his early writings in English (the +"Fragment on Government," for example, wherein, at the age of +twenty-eight, he enters the lists with Blackstone so successfully, and +the "Defence of Usury," an argument not only unanswered, but +unanswerable, to this day) were such models of clearness, strength, and +precision, and so remarkable for a transparent beauty of style, that the +first was attributed to Lord Mansfield, and the last to others of like +reputation; while some of his earlier pamphlets (like that which is +entitled "Emancipate your Colonies," being an address to the National +Assembly of France, whose predecessors had made him a French citizen, or +the "Draught of a Code for the Organization of the Judicial +Establishment of France," written at the age of two-and-forty) were +quite as remarkable for genius, warmth, manly strength, and a lofty +eloquence, as the earlier writings mentioned were for clearness and +logical precision,—how could I be guilty of such irreverence, not to +say impertinence?</p> + +<p>My answer is, that the believers in "Blackwood," having been pampered so +long on highly seasoned, fiery pap, to which the lines of M. G. Lewis +might often be applied,—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">"And this juice of hell,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Wherever it fell,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To a cinder burned the floor,"—<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>were not ready for the whole truth, for the strong meat, much less for +the lion's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_578" id="Page_578">[Pg 578]</a></span> meat I should have been delighted to serve them with; and +so, as in the case of Leigh Hunt and some others eminently obnoxious to +that journal, I slipped in the few words I have quoted <i>incidentally</i>, +as a sort of entering wedge: and the result in both cases, I must +acknowledge, fully justified my expectations; for neither Mr. Bentham +nor Leigh Hunt was ever unhandsomely treated or in any way disparaged by +that journal from that time forward, so far as I know.</p> + +<p>Let me add, that I did this for the same reason that I began writing +about our country, and about the institutions, the people, the +literature, and the fine arts of America, as if I were an +Englishman,—for otherwise what hope had I of being admitted into the +"Field of the Cloth of Gold," or of being allowed to break a lance in +the tournament which was always open there?—and that I continued +writing as an Englishman long after it was known by Blackwood himself, +and by Wilson, that I was not only an American, but a Yankee, and a +Yankee to the backbone, and that the signature I had adopted—"Carter +Holmes"—was not so much a <i>nom de plume</i> as a <i>nom de guerre</i>, till I +had got possession of the enemy's battery, and turned the guns upon his +camp.</p> + +<p>In personal appearance, in features, and in the habitual expression of +countenance, Mr. Bentham bore an astonishing resemblance to our Dr. +Franklin. He was, to be sure, of a somewhat heavier build, though +shorter by two or three inches, I should say, judging by the bronze +full-length you have in Boston. The prevailing expression was much alike +in both; but there was not so much of constitutional benignity in the +looks of Bentham, nor was he ever so grave and thoughtful as Franklin is +generally represented in his portraitures; but he was fuller of +shrewdness and playfulness,—of downright drollery, indeed,—of boyish +fun,—and, above all, of a warm-hearted, unquestioning sympathy for +everything alive, man or beast, that he called "virtuous," like the +"virtuous deer" and the "affectionate swan": and all this you could see +plainly in the man's countenance, whether at play or in repose.</p> + +<p>So great, indeed, was the outward resemblance between these two +extraordinary men,—so much alike in appearance were they, though so +utterly unlike in reality,—that, after Mr. Bentham had passed the age +of threescore-and-five, a bust of Dr. Franklin, by a celebrated French +artist, was bought by Ricardo, at the suggestion of La Fayette, I +believe, and sent to Mr. James Mill for a likeness of Bentham.</p> + +<p>"Do you know," said the philosopher to me one day, while talking upon +this very subject, "that Ricardo was my grand-disciple?"</p> + +<p>"Your grand-disciple? How so?"</p> + +<p>"Why, you see, Mill was my disciple, and Ricardo was his; <i>ergo</i>, +Ricardo was my grand-disciple: hey?"</p> + +<p>But perhaps you would like to see for yourself the "white-haired Sage of +Queen-Square Place," as Dr. Bowring, now Sir John Bowring, used to call +him,—the "Philosopher,"—the "Hermit,"—the "High Priest of Reform," as +others, like Mr. Canning, the Premier, Sir Samuel Romilly, Sir Francis +Burdett, the two Mills, father and son, Dr. Southwood Smith, the +Austins, and Frank Place, the great radical tailor, used to call him.</p> + +<p>If so, have the goodness to follow me step by step for a few minutes, +forgetting all the long years that have interposed, and you shall see +him, with your eyes shut, as I saw him first, and as I continued to see +him almost every day for eighteen months or so, face to face.</p> + +<p>Picture to yourself a man "fourscore and upwards," like Lear, and like +Lear, too, "mightily abused," about five feet seven, a little stooping, +but still vigorous and alert; with a pleasant, fresh countenance, and +the complexion of a middle-aged, plump, healthy woman, such as Rubens or +Gilbert Stuart would gloat over in portraiture, and love to paint for a +wager; with a low, cheerful, trembling voice in conversation, though +loud and ringing in the open<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_579" id="Page_579">[Pg 579]</a></span> air; large, clear, bluish-gray eyes,—I +think I cannot be mistaken about the color, though Hazlitt, who was a +tenant of Bentham's at one time, and got snubbed for some little +impertinence, which of course he never forgave, calls them "lack-lustre +eyes"; very soft, plentiful white hair, slightly tinged with gold, like +flossed silk in the sunshine,—pushed back from a broad, but rather low +forehead, and flowing down to the shoulders. This white hair, when the +wind blows it about his face in the open air, or he is talking earnestly +at his own table,—and he never goes to any other,—he has a strange +habit of throwing off with a sudden crook and spring of the left elbow, +and a sort of impatient jerk of the left forefinger, which has come to +be so characteristic of the man himself, that, if Mathews (Charles +Mathews) were to do that, and that only, before you, after you had been +with Bentham for five minutes, you would have, not, perhaps, a +photograph or a portrait, but a "charcoal sketch" of the philosopher, +which you would instantly acknowledge. And, by the way, this reminds me +that I wanted to call these "Charcoal Sketches,"—that title being mine +long before the late Joseph C. Neal borrowed it of me without leave, and +used it for his "Loafer" and a variety of capital sketches, which have +been attributed to me, and still are, notwithstanding my denials. I +wrote one number only,—the first. It was a Yankee sketch; while his +were street sketches, and among the best in our language.</p> + +<p>But let us return to the living Bentham. The stoop, you see, is not so +much on account of his great age as from a long habit of bending over +his abominable manuscript,—the worst you ever saw, perhaps, not +excepting Rufus Choate's or Napoleon Bonaparte's,—day after day, and +year after year, while adding his marginal annotations in "Benthamee" to +what has been corrected over and over again, and rewritten more than +once by the secretary.</p> + +<p>He wears a plain, single-breasted coat, of the Quaker type, with a +narrow, straight collar, and a waistcoat of thin, striped calico, all +open to the weather, and trousers,—not small-clothes, nor breeches, +never being able to look at himself in breeches without laughing, he +says; thick woollen stockings rolled up over his knees, and shoes with +ties instead of buckles,—in short, the every-day costume of our +Revolutionary fathers, barring the breeches, the shoe-buckles, and the +ruffles, which he never could endure.</p> + +<p>In the warmest weather he wears thick leather gloves, and in the coldest +a straw hat, bound and edged with the brightest green ribbon, and +carries a stout stick of buckthorn, which he has named Dapple, after the +ass of Sancho Panza, for whom he professes the greatest admiration.</p> + +<p>While thus equipped, and while you are in conversation with him perhaps, +or answering one of his hurried questions, he starts off ahead in a slow +trot, up one alley and down another, or to and fro in the large garden +of Queen-Square Place,—the largest but one of all that open into the +Green Park; and this trot he will continue for a whole hour +sometimes, without losing his breath or evincing any signs of +weariness,—occasionally shouting at the top of his lungs, to show that +his wind is untouched, till the whole neighborhood rings with the echo, +and the blank walls of the Knightsbridge Barracks "answer from their +misty shroud."</p> + +<p>On the whole, therefore, that extravagant story told by Captain Parry +has a pretty good foundation, though he never saw with his own eyes what +he describes with so much drollery, but took the whole upon trust; for +Mr. Bentham was in the habit of going after his annuity every year, +trotting all the way down and back through Fleet Street, with his white +hair flying loose, and followed by one or both of his two secretaries. +He was the last survivor—the very last—of the beneficiaries, and +seemed to take a pleasure in astonishing the managers once a year with +his "wind and bottom." Parry<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_580" id="Page_580">[Pg 580]</a></span> represents him as being taken for a +lunatic running away from his keepers.</p> + +<p>Having now the man himself before you, let me give you some idea of his +habits and characteristics, his temper,—and I never saw him out of +temper in my life, though he had enough to try him almost every day in +his household arrangements,—his kindness of heart, his drollery, and +his wonderful powers of endurance, while working out the great problem +of his life.</p> + +<p>At the time I knew him, he used to sleep in a bag, and sometimes with +most of his clothes on. This he did for economy. "It took less of +sheeting," he said. Then, too, there was not so much likelihood of his +getting the clothes off, should he get restless or fidgety. He was read +to sleep every night by one of his secretaries, who told me that he +often amused himself with reading the same paragraph or the same page +over and over again, without turning a leaf, the philosopher declaring +that he had never lost a word of the whole, and that he not only +understood, but remembered, the drift of the author. In this way my +"Brother Jonathan," then just published by Blackwood in three large +volumes, was read to him every night for weeks, and greatly to his +satisfaction, as I then understood; though it seems by what Dr. +Bowring—I beg his pardon, Sir John Bowring—says on the subject, that +the "white-haired sage" was wide enough awake, on the whole, to form a +pretty fair estimate of its unnaturalness and extravagance: being +himself a great admirer of Richardson's ten-volume stories, like +"Pamela" and "Clarissa Harlowe," and always looking upon them as the +standard for novel-writers.</p> + +<p>Mr. Bentham was very "regular" in his habits, <i>very</i>,—and timed most of +his doings, whether asleep or awake, by a watch lying on the table. But +then he <i>always</i> breakfasted between twelve and three, or a little later +on special occasions, and always dined at half past six, or thereabouts, +taking two cups of strong coffee in bed every morning, though he never +allowed himself but one, and died in the belief that he had never broken +the pledge.</p> + +<p>And yet, notwithstanding all this, he maintained that there is no +getting along in this world—or the other—without "regularity," or what +he called "system." And that "system" he carried into all the business +of life, as well as into legislation and government; going back, after +years of uninterrupted labor and the severest analysis, to invent a +panopticon, a self-sustaining penitentiary, or rather to apply that +invention of his brother, General Sir Samuel Bentham, to the bettering +of our prison-houses and to the restoration of the lost,—or perhaps a +ballot-box, that nothing might be wanted, when that "system" he valued +himself so much upon should be adopted throughout the world, as the +outlines already are.</p> + +<p>Scores of anecdotes are crowding upon my recollection, as I call to mind +his affectionate manner, his habitual good temper, and his amiable, +almost childish, kindness of heart. While yet a boy, for example,—and +this he told me himself, with a singular mixture of self-complacency and +self-depreciation, as if more than half ashamed of his weakness,—while +yet a boy, he was on a visit, where two different persons undertook to +help him to the goodies, among which was a magnificent gooseberry-pie, +one of his favorite dishes to the last. He ate until he could eat no +more. A third person offered him another piece; but, notwithstanding his +capacity, being "full up to here," he was obliged to refuse. He couldn't +swallow another mouthful, and the idea of <i>ingratitude</i> was so strong +with him that he fell a-crying. I have no doubt of his entire +truthfulness; but I could not help thinking of the poor boy at his +grandfather's table on Christmas-day, who began at last to take things +rather seriously. "What's the matter, Georgie? what are you crying for?" +said the grandfather. "I can't eat another mouthful, grandpa," said +Georgie, still blubbering. "Never mind, my boy, never mind, fill your +pockets." "They're all full now, grandpa."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_581" id="Page_581">[Pg 581]</a></span></p> + +<p>One of the cleverest women I ever knew, Mrs. Sarah Austin, the +magnificent mother of Lady Duff Gordon, and the author of a capital and +safe book on Germany, which seems to be little known here, though +greatly esteemed there, once wrote me as follows. She was a great +favorite of Mr. Bentham, a pet indeed; and her husband, the elder +Austin, John, was a disciple of the philosopher, a briefless barrister, +though one of the clearest reasoners and profoundest thinkers of the +age, as a paper on Jurisprudence, in the "Encyclopædia Britannica," will +show. He wrote very little, but his pages were worth volumes; and he +gave Benthamism unadulterated and undiluted, though made intelligible to +the "meanest capacity," in or out of the "Edinburgh" and the +"Quarterly,"—grasping every subject he handled with fingers of steel.</p> + +<p>"God bless you," she says, after we had been talking about the +philosopher and his vagaries and whimsicalities,—"God bless you for +exalting me in my beloved grandpa's good graces. You can't think how +dearly I do love him, legislation and <i>all that</i> apart; and yet, if +there ever was a woman peculiarly prone to love and admire a man for his +public affections and public usefulness, I do say I am that she, and +that I could not love a paragon of beauty, wit, and private kindness, if +he looked on the good or ill being of mankind with indifference or +scorn, or with anti-social feelings. Think of the divine old man growing +a sort of vetch in his garden to cram his pockets with for the deer in +Kensington Garden. I remember his pointing it out to me, and telling me +the '<i>virtuous deer</i>' were fond of it, and ate it out of his hand. I +could have kissed his feet; it was the feeling of a kind, +tender-hearted, loving child."</p> + +<p>He had another pet, almost a rival on some special occasions for Mrs. +Austin. It was a large sleepy-looking tomcat, very black, and of a most +uncommon seriousness of deportment. The philosopher treated him with +great consideration, I might almost say reverence, and called him +Doctor,—but whether an LL. D., a D. D., or only an M. D., I never +clearly understood, though I have a faint recollection, that, on the +happening of some event in which Tom bore a part, he accounted for the +deference he showed, by calling him the Reverend Doctor somebody. Like +Byron, too, he once had a pet bear; but he was in Russia at the time, +and the wolves got into the poor creature's box, on a terrible winter's +night, and carried off a part of his face, a depredation which the +philosopher never forgot nor forgave to his dying day. He always kept a +supply of stale bread in the drawer of his dining-table for the +"mousies."</p> + +<p>When he introduced me to Mr. Joseph Hume, the great penny-wise and +pound-foolish reformer, he begged me to bear in mind that he was <i>only</i> +a Scotchman, or "no better than a Scotchman"; and he once gave me an +open letter to the celebrated philanthropist, Dr. Southwood Smith, which +he asked me to read before it was delivered. I did so, and found that he +wished the Doctor to know that I had been at Queen-Square Place a long +while, and that, so far as he knew I had neither told lies nor stolen +spoons. Of course I delivered the letter, leaving Dr. Smith to take the +consequences, if any silver should be missed after I left him.</p> + +<p>And, by the way, this reminds me that this very Dr. Smith was the +individual to whom he bequeathed his body, with certain directions, +which appear to have been carried out to the very letter, according to +Miss Margaret Fuller, who describes what she herself saw with her own +eyes not long after Mr. Bentham's death.</p> + +<p>"I became acquainted with Dr. Southwood Smith," she says. "On visiting +him, we saw an object which I have often heard celebrated, and had +thought would be revolting, but found, on the contrary, an agreeable +sight; this is the skeleton of Jeremy Bentham. It was at Bentham's +request, that the skeleton, dressed in the same dress he habitually +wore, stuffed out to an exact resemblance of life, and with a +portrait-mask<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_582" id="Page_582">[Pg 582]</a></span> in wax,—the best I ever saw,—sits there as assistant to +Dr. Smith in the entertainment of his guests, and companion of his +studies. The figure leans a little forward, resting the hands on a stout +stick which Bentham always carried, and had named 'Dapple'; the attitude +is quite easy, the expression on the whole mild, winning, yet highly +individual."—In Westminster Abbey there was at this time, and probably +is now, a wax figure of Lord Nelson in the very dress he wore at +Trafalgar. It is set up in a show-case, just as Barnum would do it.</p> + +<p>One other incident, showing his imperturbable good temper, and I have +done. A Frenchman had somehow got access to him,—through Dr. Bowring, I +believe. No sooner was he seated than he pulled out Mr. Bentham's +pamphlet, already mentioned, and entitled, "Emancipate your Colonies," +which opens in this way:—</p> + +<p>"You have made me a Frenchman. Hear me speak like one."</p> + +<p>This the poor Frenchman read, in an ecstasy of admiration, as if +written, "You have make me a Frainchman. Hear me speak like <i>own</i>." Yet +Mr. Bentham kept his countenance, gave the poor fellow a good dinner, +and gossiped with him till the time had run out.</p> + +<p>But Mr. Bentham could be "terribly in earnest," when the proper occasion +arose. Aaron Burr had been a guest of his for a long while, after being +driven abroad by the outburst of indignation here,—and, while with him, +made such revelations of character, that Mr. Bentham, who acknowledged +his talents, actually shuddered when he mentioned his name. Burr +declared, in so many words, that he meant to kill Hamilton, because he +had threatened to do so long before. He told Mr. Bentham, while boasting +of his great success with our finest women, that Mrs. Madison herself +was his mistress before marriage; and seriously proposed—in accordance +with what may be found in his Life by Matthew L. Davis, about educating +daughters and sons alike, and exposing them in the same way—that he +would send for his daughter Theodosia, and Mr. Bentham should take her +for his mistress; and in a marginal note, now before me, by the Reverend +John Pierpont, I find abundant confirmation of what Mr. Bentham told me, +though Mr. Davis undertook to say that the stories of Aaron Burr's +<i>bonnes fortunes</i> were true, and that he had a trunkful of letters from +the leading women of his day to prove it, and that Mr. Bentham was +<i>untrustworthy</i>. Upon this point I challenged him to the proof; but he +shrunk from the issue.</p> + +<p>"This reminds me," says Mr. Pierpont, in the note referred to, "that +Colonel William Alston, the father of Joseph, who married Miss Burr, +once told me, at his own table, that, soon after the marriage of his son +to Miss Burr, her father, Colonel Burr, had told him, (Colonel Alston,) +that, rather than have had his daughter marry otherwise than to his +mind, he would have made her the mistress of some gentleman of rank or +fortune, who would have placed her in the station in society for which +he had educated her.</p> + +<p>"I believe, however," he adds, in a postscript, "that not even parental +authority or influence could ever have brought the beautiful and +accomplished Miss Theodosia Burr thus to prostitute herself to her +father's ambitious purposes."</p> + +<p>In speaking of Burr, one day, and of his wonderful strength of character +and keenness of observation, he broke away suddenly, called him an +"atrocious scoundrel," and then asked me about his life and history. +Then it was that the kind-hearted, benevolent old man underwent a sudden +transfiguration. He trembled all over; his clear eyes lighted up; his +white hair was like a glory about his face; and he seemed like one of +the Hebrew Prophets, in his terrible denunciations of the heartless +manslayer, and the shameless, boastful profligate.</p> + +<p>Our very pleasant, and, to me, most profitable intercourse for a year +and a half was brought to an end by the happening of two or three +incidents. His fat housekeeper, who ruled him with a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_583" id="Page_583">[Pg 583]</a></span> rod of iron, and +insulted Mrs. Austin and others, undertook to manage me in the same way, +and got packed off in consequence, though I did all I could to keep the +secret, and prevent the catastrophe; but he insisted on knowing why I +left him, and he applied to the secretaries, who were witnesses of the +whole transaction. The philosopher was indignant, and insisted on her +making me a suitable apology. I said I wanted no apology, having made up +my mind to go on my journey. She refused, and he cut her adrift, after +having been so dependent upon her, I know not how many years, that he +would allow her to say, "The pan is put away," when he asked for more of +a favorite dish,—fried parsley,—which he had prepared for Dr. +Macculloch, the geologist, who at one time could eat nothing else. She +was reinstated, however, within two or three years after I left him.</p> + +<p>The other incident was this. Mr. Bentham had urged me to write a paper +for the "Westminster Review," of which Dr. Bowring and Mr. Henry +Southern were the editors. I did so, and took for my text four or five +orations by Webster, Everett, and Sprague, and then launched out upon +the subject of Jurisprudence, of the Militia System, as it prevailed +here at the time,—a monstrous folly, and a monstrous outrage upon the +rights of man,—and of Slavery. The proof came without a word of +alteration or amendment. Of course I had nothing to do but correct any +verbal errors. But, lo! when the article appeared, not only had changes +been made, passages struck out, and various emendations worked in, but I +was made to say the very reverse of what I did say, and to utter +opinions which I never entertained, and for which I have had to suffer +from that day to this among my countrymen.</p> + +<p>For example. The editor, who had never seen the pamphlets, as he proves +by calling them "books," interpolates the following, which, as I have +said before, I have had to answer for:—</p> + +<p>"Violent exaggeration is the character of American literature at the +present day, and, compared with the chaster and more rational style of +<i>our</i> best writers, the style of the North American authors <i>is usually +the rant and unmeaning vehemence of a strolling Thespian</i>, when placed +beside the <i>calm, appropriate, and expressive delivery of an +accomplished actor</i>." Bear in mind that the samples I gave were from +Webster, and Everett, and Sprague!—three of our coldest and clearest +crystals, and among the least impassioned, and certainly the least +extravagant, of our orators. "Sometimes," the editor adds, with a show +of relenting at last, "sometimes the reader will find these remarkable +parts the worst, and sometimes the best of the paragraph, and often +composed in a spirit worthy of a less vitiated expression."<a name="FNanchor_D_4" id="FNanchor_D_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_D_4" class="fnanchor">[D]</a></p> + +<p>This was a little too much; but, owing to the expostulations of Mr. +Bentham, who had wasted about twenty or twenty-five thousand dollars on +the "Westminster Review," without a hope of getting a sixpence in +return, I consented to overlook the outrage. But my confidence in the +amiable Dr. Bowring was ended forever. We had a short interview, but no +intimacy after this, and I had begun to think of Northern Europe more +seriously than ever, when at last the tiff with the housekeeper settled +the question,—the Doctor declaring, though he knew from Mr. Bentham's +own lips how much he desired me to stay, and how unwilling he was to +part with me, that he, Mr. Bentham, said that he would as lief have a +rattlesnake under his roof!</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_D_4" id="Footnote_D_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_D_4"><span class="label">[D]</span></a> See "Westminster Review" for January, 1826.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_584" id="Page_584">[Pg 584]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="A_FAREWELL_TO_AGASSIZ" id="A_FAREWELL_TO_AGASSIZ"></a>A FAREWELL TO AGASSIZ.</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">How the mountains talked together,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Looking down upon the weather,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When they heard our friend had planned his<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Little trip among the Andes!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How they'll bare their snowy scalps<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To the climber of the Alps,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When the cry goes through their passes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Here comes the great Agassiz!"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Yes, I'm tall," says Chimborazo,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"But I wait for him to say so,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That's the only thing that lacks,—he<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Must see me, Cotopaxi!"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Ay! ay!" the fire-peak thunders,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"And he must view my wonders!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I'm but a lonely crater,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till I have him for spectator!"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The mountain hearts are yearning,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The lava-torches burning,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The rivers bend to meet him,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The forests bow to greet him,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It thrills the spinal column<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of fossil fishes solemn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And glaciers crawl the faster<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To the feet of their old master!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Heaven keep him well and hearty,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Both him and all his party!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the sun that broils and smites,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the centipede that bites,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the hail-storm and the thunder,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the vampire and the condor,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the gust upon the river,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the sudden earthquake shiver,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the trip of mule or donkey,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the midnight howling monkey,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the stroke of knife or dagger,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the puma and the jaguar,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the horrid boa-constrictor<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That has scared us in the pictur',<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the Indians of the Pampas,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who would dine upon their grampas,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From every beast and vermin<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That to think of sets us squirming,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From every snake that tries on<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The traveller his p'ison,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From every pest of Natur',<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Likewise the alligator,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And from two things left behind him,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(Be sure they'll try to find him,)—<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_585" id="Page_585">[Pg 585]</a></span> +<span class="i0">The tax-bill and assessor,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Heaven keep the great Professor!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">May he find, with his apostles,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That the land is full of fossils,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That the waters swarm with fishes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shaped according to his wishes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That every pool is fertile<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In fancy kinds of turtle,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">New birds around him singing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">New insects, never stinging,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With a million novel data<br /></span> +<span class="i0">About the articulata,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And facts that strip off all husks<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the history of mollusks.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And when, with loud Te Deum,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He returns to his Museum,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">May he find the monstrous reptile<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That so long the land has kept ill<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By Grant and Sherman throttled,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And by Father Abraham bottled,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(All specked and streaked and mottled<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With the scars of murderous battles,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where he clashed the iron rattles<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That gods and men he shook at,)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For all the world to look at!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">God bless the great Professor!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Madam too, God bless her!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bless him and all his band,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On the sea and on the land,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As they sail, ride, walk, and stand,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bless them head and heart and hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till their glorious raid is o'er,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And they touch our ransomed shore!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then the welcome of a nation,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With its shout of exultation,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall awake the dumb creation,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the shapes of buried æons<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Join the living creatures' pæans,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While the mighty megalosaurus<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Leads the palæozoic chorus,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">God bless the great Professor,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the land his proud possessor,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bless them now and evermore!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_586" id="Page_586">[Pg 586]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="THE_FORGE" id="THE_FORGE"></a>THE FORGE.</h2> + + +<h3>CHAPTER I.</h3> + +<p>"One more horse to shoe, Sandy. The man's late, but he's come a matter +of ten mile, perhaps, over the cross road by Derby, yonder. Lead the +critter up, boy, and give a look at the furnace."</p> + +<p>I stooped to replenish the glowing fire, then turned toward the door, +made broad and high for entrance of man and beast, and giving a coarse +frame to the winter landscape without. The trees fluttered their +snow-plumed wings in the chill wind; on the opposite hill a red light +glared a response to our glowing smithy. It was the eye of elegant +luxury confronting the eye of toil; for it shone from the windows of the +only really fine mansion for miles around. I had always felt grateful to +those stone walls for standing there, surrounded by old trees on lawn +and woodland, an embodiment to my imagination of all I had heard or read +of stately homes, and a style of life remote from my own, and +fascinating from its very mystery.</p> + +<p>But I anticipate. My glance travelled over the intervening stretch of +level country, wrapped in its winding-sheet of snow, and stopped at a +tall figure confronting me, leading by the bridle the finest horse I had +ever seen.</p> + +<p>"Well, young man, shall you or I lead in the horse?" he asked, +haughtily; "that light on the hill must be reached before an hour goes +by, if I would keep an engagement"; and tossing me the bridle, as he +spoke, he drew carelessly toward the forge.</p> + +<p>The few villagers whose day's work was ended, or whose business called +them to the smithy, suddenly remembered waiting wives and children at +home, the bit of supper spread for their return, or the evening gossip +at the tavern; and thinking the matter they came for could wait the +morning, since the smith was busy, gave way, and left only the stranger, +my master, myself, and the noble horse grouped around the forge.</p> + +<p>"Look alive, Sandy! you'd better keep at it steady, if you want to git +to your schoolin' to-night," growled the blacksmith, in an undertone; +for he, too, had a memory for the smoking dish at home, and would gladly +stop work to eat of it.</p> + +<p>So I busied myself at once collecting the needed materials, while the +smith proceeded to lift the horse's leg and examine the foot. The animal +resisted the attempt, however, by plunging in the most violent manner.</p> + +<p>"Confound the beast!" muttered the blacksmith, as he dodged to escape a +kick.</p> + +<p>"I thought as much," said the stranger, quietly. "The horse is very +particular as to who handles him. I shall have to hold his foot, I +suppose"; and with rather a scornful smile, as if the dislike of his +horse to my master confirmed his own, he stepped up and held out a +slender brown hand.</p> + +<p>The horse lifted his foot, and gently dropped it on the outstretched +palm. No bird ever settled more trustfully on its nest.</p> + +<p>My master swore an oath or two by way of astonishment, and then, seizing +his shoe, approached again. But the scene was repeated with even more +violence on the part of the horse: he pranced, reared, shook his head, +and snorted at the smith, who again drew off.</p> + +<p>"I sha'n't get off to-night," murmured the stranger, impatiently.</p> + +<p>"Let me try," I said. "Horses have their fancies, as well as people. +He'll like me, may-be."</p> + +<p>"May-be he will," laughed my master, hoarsely; "but you're not a boss at +puttin' a shoe on. A dumb critter might take a shine to you, who's one +of their kind." And again he laughed at his own wit.</p> + +<p>"Step up and try," exclaimed the stranger, impatiently.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_587" id="Page_587">[Pg 587]</a></span></p> + +<p>I grasped the leg firmly in my hand; the horse made no resistance, and I +began my work.</p> + +<p>"Well, seein' as you've made friends with the critter, I'll be the +gainer and take a bit of supper," said my master, after a dogged stare. +"Be sure you put it on strong, Sandy. I don't say as I'll charge any +more, though I'd make a man pay for showin' he'd a spite agin me, let +alone a dumb critter." And taking his hat from a peg, he walked off, +leaving me, with the sparks flying from the forge, busy at the shoe, and +the stranger, with one arm across the neck of the horse, watching me.</p> + +<p>Ten minutes of silent work, and, as I loosened my grasp on the leg for a +moment, I met the eye of the gentleman, who, I was conscious, had been +watching me narrowly.</p> + +<p>"The horse likes you," he said, pleasantly, here again as though he +shared the feeling.</p> + +<p>"Yes," I replied. "Is he in the habit of doing as he did to-night with +strangers?"</p> + +<p>"He is fastidious, if you know what that means,—as fond of gentlemen as +his master," he returned, so pleasantly, that, when I looked up, +reddening at the cool assumption of the speech, blacksmith's apprentice +though I was, my eye fell beneath the amused glance of his.</p> + +<p>"I'm not a gentleman," I said, after a pause,—a little resentfully, I +fear; "but I'm not a clown, like my master."</p> + +<p>"No, that one can see at a glance," he replied. "You may be a gentleman +for aught I see to the contrary; but it requires a great deal to make +one.—What school was that the blacksmith spoke of?"</p> + +<p>"It is a village class kept by a young lady who rides over from the +hillside twice a week to teach us poor fellows something. I'm learning +to draw," I added,—the frankness coaxed out of me by a sympathy implied +rather than expressed.</p> + +<p>"And you are sorry enough to lose any of this lesson," he said, kindly, +as I put the horse's foot, firmly shod, upon the ground. "There is the +regular pay which goes to the smith, I suppose; and here is a ten-dollar +bill for you, if you have the sense to take it. I don't know what kind +of a youth you may be; but you have a good head and face, and evidently +are superior to the people about you. You don't feel obliged to use +their language or lead their life because you are thrown with them, I +suppose; but neither are you obliged to leave this work because you are +better than the man who calls himself your master. Learn all you can and +get a smithy of your own. A good blacksmith is as respectable as a good +artist," he said, looking at me keenly, as he mounted his horse, and +then rode rapidly through the village street.</p> + + +<h3>CHAPTER II.</h3> + +<p>I was no proud-spirited hero to work my way independently in the world, +but a poor blacksmith's apprentice, glad of every penny honestly earned +or kindly given; so I handled my bill over and over again with real +pleasure. Amos Bray, my master, was about as well to do as any man in +the village, its doctor excepted; but I doubted if Amos ever had a +ten-dollar bill over and above the quarter's expenses to spend as he +liked.</p> + +<p>The smithy often glowed with the double fire of its forge and my fancy. +I walked about with a picture-gallery in my brain, and was usually led +into its rather meagre display whenever the past was recalled or the +future portrayed. The smithy hung there, in warmth and brightness, a +genuine Rembrandt of light and shadow, filled with many an odd, +picturesque group on winter evenings, or just at twilight, when the fire +had died away to its embers. My master had gone home, and work was over; +the village children in gay woollen garments and with ruddy faces +crowded round the door, fringing brightly the canopy of darkness within.</p> + +<p>Again, when, after days of monotonous work, I felt a benumbing sense of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_588" id="Page_588">[Pg 588]</a></span> +being but a part of the world's giant machinery, chosen because the +mobility and suppleness of human material worked by the steam-power of +the brain were more than a match even for the durability and unwearied +stroke of steel or iron, the warm blood rushed back, life throbbed again +with its endless ebbs and flows of desire and disappointment, as my +master's daughter, with her golden hair and innocent eyes, summoned us +to dinner, breaking like blue sky and sunshine through the cloud-rifts +of our toil.</p> + +<p>But now the smithy was not merely idealized, it was transformed. The +stranger, whose haughty bearing and address had changed to kindly and +appreciative words, had filled it with a new presence and excited new +hopes.</p> + +<p>Pleased as I was with the unexpected gift of money, the stranger's hint +of my superiority to those around me was a more generous bounty still. I +had been jeered at for years by the village boys, because I never +followed my master to the tavern in the evenings to listen to the gossip +there and learn to drink my mug of beer, and because I rarely talked +with any one except a few of the village children more modest than the +rest.</p> + +<p>The alphabet of my mind, like that of the race, was first found in the +hieroglyphics of the pencil; and by its aid I communicated with my +little friends more frequently than by word, drawing pictures for them +with chalk on the rude walls of the smithy, and carving images of the +various devices my experience or imagination suggested out of wood with +my master's jack-knife.</p> + +<p>From this group of children had arisen a constant companion and +sympathizer in my master's daughter. In leisure hours we explored the +woods together, or she sat beside me while I pored over the few old +books which were my father's sole legacy to me.</p> + +<p>During the last winter and this, however, my evenings had been almost +constantly occupied in study and sketching at the class to which I have +alluded. What an endless store of drawing-materials now loomed before +me! And what a swelling of heart I experienced at the thought that the +aims for which I had been taunted by the villagers were acknowledged by +my new friend as a ground of superiority!</p> + +<p>I was startled from these pleasing dreams by my master's voice.</p> + +<p>"Hullo there, Sandy! where's the money for that job? He's a mean one, if +he a'n't made it double."</p> + +<p>Instinctively I thrust my ten-dollar bill into one pocket, as I drew the +pay for the horseshoeing from the other. He swore a little as I handed +it to him, but he knew me well enough never to doubt my honesty; and, as +I was leaving, he called, with a gruff kindness,—the only approach to +courtesy of which he was capable,—</p> + +<p>"Hurry up, Sandy; Miss Bray can't git Sary Ann to bed till she sees you, +and you're late for your schoolin' besides."</p> + +<p>So I ground my way quickly through the snow, choosing the middle of the +street, because it was less worn, and helped me better to work off my +unusual excitement.</p> + +<p>My master's cottage stood on the same street with his smithy. In fact, +this Main Street was, as its name indicated, the principal thoroughfare +of Warren; the real village life all centred here; and it contained, +besides the stores and the church, the dwellings of the more prosperous +inhabitants. The smithy being at one end, on the outskirts, as it were, +of the social and gay life, Mr. Bray had been able to rent it for a low +sum, although more pleasantly situated than any other building on the +street. Here the land made a slight ascent, giving a more extended view +of the valley and distant hills than at any other point. The business +character of this street mingled oddly in summer with the rural life +around it. At several right-angles, green and mossy lanes, arched by +venerable elms, seemed to be offering their crooked elbows to lead it +back to the simple pastoral life from which it sprang.</p> + +<p>Bordering these sequestered paths,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_589" id="Page_589">[Pg 589]</a></span> which were dignified by the title of +streets, were cottages surrounded by small inclosures, whose proprietors +cultivated vegetables, hens, pigs, and cows,—these last being, quite +unconsciously, the true surveyors of Warren; for, in direct obedience to +pathways they had worn when traversing the fields to and from their +homes, chewing the quiet cud of meditation, had the buildings been +erected. Outside these lanes, again, were the larger land-owners, whose +farms formed the outer circle of our life.</p> + +<p>Annie Bray was fond of penetrating beyond these various circles of +social existence, and wandering far off to the woods and hills, whose +ring of emerald, studded now and then with the turquoise of some +forest-lake, inclosed us as in a basin.</p> + +<p>As I entered the kitchen of the cottage, Mrs. Bray, a stout woman of +forty, the oracle of her sex in the village as to matters of domestic +economy and dress,—which last was of a more costly and varied material +than the others could afford, abounding in many-colored prints, and a +stuff gown for Sunday wear,—made her appearance, her apron covered with +flour, an incrustation of dough on each particular finger, which it +always destroyed my appetite to see.</p> + +<p>"Well, Sandy, I'm glad you've come. You've jest sp'iled Sary Ann. There +she sets a-nid-nid-noddin' on that stool, and won't stir to bed till she +sees Sandy."</p> + +<p>There, by the stove, sat the blacksmith's blue-eyed daughter, a proof +that God sometimes interferes with hereditary botch-work, and makes a +child fresh and fair, letting her, like a delicate flower in noisome +marsh or stagnant water, draw pure, nourishing juices out of elements +poisonous to anything less impregnated with Himself.</p> + +<p>To be sure, through ignorance of the nature of the child intrusted to +them, the blacksmith and his wife blundered with her tender soul and +beautiful body. One of their most heinous crimes against her, in my +estimation, had been in the bestowal of the name of Sary Ann,—a filial +compliment paid by Mrs. Bray to the mother who bore her. Then they +dressed her in the brightest of red or orange, so that Nature, which had +tinted her complexion brightly, though delicately, seemed forever to be +put to shame by the brazen garments which infolded her. They called her +'sp'iled,' when her innocent eyes filled with tears at her father's +oaths or her mother's coarse scolding; and though her tender beauty +touched the rough smith with a kind of awe, he often said, "Such pootty +gals a'n't of much use. I mistrust if Sary Ann will ever 'arn her +livin'."</p> + +<p>Anxious as I was to get to my class this evening, I could not neglect my +little friend; so, going hurriedly to her, I said, as I bent over the +head which at every breath of sleep waved like a pale golden flower on +its stalk,—</p> + +<p>"Good night, Annie. To-morrow evening I'll be home earlier, and then we +can have our lesson together."</p> + +<p>And she, quite satisfied, held up her face for a kiss, and rose to leave +the room.</p> + +<p>"Your supper is a-warmin' in the stove, Sandy," said Mrs. Bray; but I +did not wait either to eat it or to chat with her about the stranger +whose horse I had shod, and who interested her because she thought he +might have given "Amos" extra pay. Reminding her of my lesson, I pushed +up the rickety stairs to my attic, and began as quickly as possible to +make those preparations for meeting the teacher which the young men of +the class, impelled by a rude kind of gallantry, never failed to +observe, and which they described by the expressive term of "smartenin' +up."</p> + + +<h3>CHAPTER III.</h3> + +<p>The class met in the village school-house; and when I entered, Miss +Darry, our teacher, was seated at her desk, talking to about a dozen +rough country youths, of ages ranging from fourteen to twenty-five, and +of occupations as diverse<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_590" id="Page_590">[Pg 590]</a></span> as the trades of the village afforded.</p> + +<p>She was of medium height, rather full than slim, with clear, +intelligent, dark eyes, a broad, open forehead, a nose somewhat +delicately cut, a wide mouth, with thin lips, and teeth of dazzling +whiteness. Her whole aspect was that of physical and mental health,—not +only removed from morbid sensitiveness, but as far from sentiment even +as a breezy spring wind, and yet as prompt to fathom it in others as the +wind to search out violets.</p> + +<p>One would think that even an ordinary nature might have so revealed +itself through such a face as to give an impression of unusual beauty; +yet such was not the case,—and this, it seemed to me, because she had +no feminine consciousness of personal beauty or attractiveness. I know +that unconsciousness is regarded as the first element of fascination; +and it may be, when it pervades the entire character: but Miss Darry +<i>was</i> conscious of mental power, of the ability to wrest from the world +many of its choicest gifts, to taste the delights of scholarship, of +self-supporting independence and charity to range freely over the whole +domain where man is usually sole victor; and thus one felt the shock of +a vigorous nature before recognizing the fact that it was clad in the +butterfly robes of a woman's loveliness.</p> + +<p>Her evening teaching of us was purely a labor of love. Fortunately, she +was not of that shrinking nature which dreads contact with persons less +refined than itself. There was a world of sympathy in her frank, +good-natured smile, which placed her at once more in harmony with her +scholars than I, who had passed my life among them. There was, too, a +dash and spirit about this young woman, in which I, as a man, was +entirely lacking; and it was this element which held her rough pupils in +subordination.</p> + +<p>I was the only one of them who had not been communicative with her. My +lessons were always better prepared and understood than those of the +others, yet I talked less with her about them; and in the half-hour +after recitation, which she devoted to my drawing, I rarely uttered a +word not called forth by my occupation at the moment.</p> + +<p>To-night, however, I must have betrayed my new mood to the first glance +of her keen eye; for, after the other scholars had stumbled noisily out +of the room, she turned to me, saying,—</p> + +<p>"Well, Sandy, often as you have been here, I have never seen your visor +of reserve or diffidence lifted until to-night. Do you mean to let me +share your happiness? Bob Tims has been telling me that the rosy-faced +girl up by Fresh Pond has smiled upon him; and Tracy Waters says he's +'going to hoe his own row next year, and not spend his strength for Dad +any longer': they are both happy in their way, but, mind, I don't expect +such confidences from you, Sandy."</p> + +<p>Miss Darry spoke without satire. She sympathized with these rough +natures far more than with many of the more polished whom she met in +society, and I could not withhold my confidence from the cordial smile +and ready ear which waited to receive it.</p> + +<p>So I related the incident of the afternoon, revealing unconsciously, I +suppose, many a budding hope, which waited only the warm sun of +opportunity and encouragement to burst into blossom.</p> + +<p>"I am very glad for you, Sandy," she said, giving me her hand, as I +concluded. "Your village friends would probably advise you to hoard the +money as so much towards a forge; while others, less judicious than your +new friend, would say, 'Give up your trade, and support yourself by your +brain'; but I say, support yourself by your forge, and let what surplus +power you have be expended on your mind."</p> + +<p>And here let me hold the thread of my story a moment, to express my +sense of the wisdom of Miss Darry's advice. It would be well, perhaps, +if more men, when striving to elevate their condition, should still rely +upon the occupation to which they have been trained, as a stepping-stone +to something better. Now and then comes an exceptional<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_591" id="Page_591">[Pg 591]</a></span> character, a +David Grey, who must follow the bent of his genius, and listen so +intently to the melody to which his soul is set that the coarser sounds +of daily toil are dumb for him; but usually the Elihu Burritt who +strikes hard blows with hands and brain alike is the man to achieve +success.</p> + +<p>"Your friend may be worth far more to you than his money," continued +Miss Darry, thoughtfully. "He can do much more for you than I, if he +only will."</p> + +<p>"Do you know him?" I exclaimed. "Tell me who he is."</p> + +<p>"A tall, dark-eyed gentleman, on a magnificent horse," she replied, +playfully. "I shall know him, Sandy, from your description, if I meet +him."</p> + +<p>And she placed my crayon-study before me, changing so entirely from +confidential friend to teacher, that I had no resource but to relapse +into my customary shyness.</p> + +<p>After the lesson, we consulted as to the purchases to which my money had +best be applied. She offered to buy the books I needed in the city, to +which she was going soon for a visit, but she insisted on supplying me +with drawing-materials as before. Our good-bye was said more cordially +than usual, and I drew on my overcoat and closed the door with the +comfortable feeling that my welfare was becoming a matter of interest to +others besides myself.</p> + + +<h3>CHAPTER IV.</h3> + +<p>The man who drove over from the hillside with Miss Darry was always +waiting in the sleigh when I went out from my lesson. To-night, however, +he was not to be seen. Supposing he had merely stopped for one more +glass than usual at the tavern, I walked down the street, but, finding +that he did not appear, and disliking to leave Miss Darry alone in the +school-house, so late in the evening, I resolved, as I approached the +turn which led into Main Street, to go back and investigate the matter. +The tavern was beyond the school-house, at a little distance from the +village,—as, indeed, it should have been, to insure sleep to its +quiet-loving inhabitants. As I approached the school-house again, I saw +Miss Darry, warmly muffled for the drive home, walking also in the +direction of the tavern. "She surely cannot know what rough men go +there," I thought, and, conquering my awkwardness, I ran after her.</p> + +<p>"Miss Darry!" I cried, when within a few steps of her. She turned, and I +strode to her side. "I am going to the tavern to look after your driver; +it will never do for you to go there alone. Hadn't you better go back to +the school-house and wait for me?" I said.</p> + +<p>"You must have a great deal of native gallantry, Sandy. One would +imagine, from your lot in life, you had not been used to seeing women +shielded from disagreeable duties. I will go on with you, and wait +outside," she answered, smiling. So we walked on together.</p> + +<p>The sleigh stood before the tavern-door. A warm buffalo was thrown over +the horse, who was, nevertheless, pawing impatiently in the snow, as if +aware that it was time to go home. Asking Miss Darry to get into the +sleigh, for I would not have taken the liberty of assisting her for the +world, I hastened up the low wooden steps, and, pushing open the door, +stood inside the bar-room. I had heard snatches of song, as we drew +near, and, afraid lest they should reach Miss Darry's ear also, I closed +it after me. A few of the village loafers were there, with the addition +of one or two less harmless characters, who, strolling through the +country, had tarried here for refreshment and a frolic: among the latter +was the man for whom Miss Darry was waiting, stretched in a state of +intoxication on the floor. I made my exit as soon as by a glance I +comprehended matters, yet not soon enough to escape the recognition of +the villagers, who cried out, "Come on, Sandy Allen!—don't slink off +that way!—let's have a drink!"</p> + +<p>As I stood by the sleigh, explaining to Miss Darry the condition of her +driver, a crowd of the half-drunken fellows came out of the tavern, and +staggered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_592" id="Page_592">[Pg 592]</a></span> down the path toward us. I had not the courage to offer to +drive her home, but she did not wait for me to grow bolder.</p> + +<p>"Jump in, Sandy,—no, not on the front seat,—here by me. I am afraid of +those men. Besides, I want to talk with you."</p> + +<p>So I seated myself next her, drew the warm robe over us both, and just +as one of the men attempted to seize the reins, declaring he had himself +promised to carry the lady home, I caught them from him, and we drove +rapidly up the street.</p> + +<p>Somehow Miss Darry's confession of a little feminine timidity put me +more at ease with her than I had ever been before. I was a strong, +muscular fellow of nineteen, perfectly able to defend myself in +circumstances of ordinary danger, and proud that a woman so superior to +me should trust in my readiness to protect her. Life and vigor tingled +in every nerve of my body; the clear, stinging winter air, exhilarating +to healthy, as wine is to enfeebled bodies, thrilled me with enjoyment; +and I was seated beside the most intelligent and appreciative companion +I had ever known.</p> + +<p>How much of my life, with its restless desires and unsatisfied tastes, +must have revealed itself in that ride, which seemed only too short, as +she asked me to drive up the avenue leading to the stone house, whose +beacon I had looked at that same evening from the forge!</p> + +<p>"Do you live here?" I asked, in surprise, as we drove swiftly along.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I teach Miss Merton's little sisters."</p> + +<p>We had no time for further words. The horse stopped before the house, +whose great hall-door swung open, letting a flood of light stream over +the stone steps. A young girl, wrapped in an ermine cape, ran down to +us, followed by the stranger whose appearance in the forge that +afternoon had created such a tumult in my mind.</p> + +<p>The scene was a beautiful one. Every shrub and tree on the lawn was +enveloped in a garment of more dazzling purity than the ermine before +me. The moonlight was radiant, the stars sparkled lustrously in the +steel cold sky, the earth was carpeted and canopied with a beauty more +resplendent than the graceful luxuriance of summer. Miss Darry probably +ascribed my immovable position to artistic enjoyment of the landscape, +for I remained perfectly quiet while she explained the cause of her +detention to Miss Merton.</p> + +<p>"We have been quite anxious about you," said the gentleman, as she +concluded; and turning to me, "Why, we are indebted for your safe return +to the young man by whom my horse was shod this evening!"</p> + +<p>And before I could stammer a reply, Miss Darry exclaimed,—</p> + +<p>"Jump out, if you please, Sandy. I should like to do the same."</p> + +<p>I did so, mechanically, and was about to stand aside for the gentleman +to offer his hand, but she extended hers to me, and sprang lightly +beside me.</p> + +<p>"You will surely take cold, Alice," said the gentleman, drawing Miss +Merton's hand within his arm, and turning to ascend the steps. Then, +first, I awoke from mingled surprise and admiration sufficiently to say +quietly,—</p> + +<p>"I must go home. Good evening."</p> + +<p>"Not at all," exclaimed the gentleman, turning round; "it is nearly +twelve o'clock, and I verily believe you think of walking back to Warren +to-night. You must take the horse and sleigh, if you go. Shall he not, +Alice?"</p> + +<p>Miss Merton, thus appealed to, replied by saying to me,—</p> + +<p>"Come in with us, Mr. Allen, and get warmed at least. I have heard Miss +Darry speak of you as the one of her class in whom she is especially +interested; so you see we are not strangers, after all."</p> + +<p>There was no condescension in the gentle voice and smile for even my +sensitiveness to detect. I had never been addressed as Mr. Allen before; +and this of itself would have confused me sometimes, but now I forgot +myself in admiration of her.</p> + +<p>That face was of perfect contour. Small and delicately fair, soft bands +of light-brown hair shaded the low, smooth<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_593" id="Page_593">[Pg 593]</a></span> brow and large gray eyes, +and the full red lips were tremulous with varying expression. Her hands +and figure were of the same delicate outline as her face. And as her +cape blew aside, I noticed the violet silk she wore, of that blended +blue and purple so becoming to blondes.</p> + +<p>It were surely a narrow view, to ascribe this grace of expression and +manner, so peculiarly womanly, this evident desire to please even, +betrayed in careful attention to the artistic finish and details of +dress, to vanity or coquetry merely,—it is so often the outgrowth of a +beauty-loving nature, to be found in some of the most sensitive and +refined of the other sex.</p> + +<p>Looking at Miss Merton, therefore, I seemed to have a vision of what +Annie Bray might become, if she were developed from within and +surrounded from without by that halo of refinement which crowned the +lady before me. Already I was developing an Epicurean taste for that +spirit of beauty which flooded Annie Bray's humble life as well as her +own.</p> + +<p>Miss Darry spoke to me, as we went up the steps; but to what I assented +I do not know. I listened to the low tones in front of me. I have always +possessed a preternaturally quick ear; but I confess I might have used +it to better purpose on that occasion.</p> + +<p>"Now, Hamilton, of course he must stay all night," she whispered, as she +leaned on the gentleman's arm; "and I want you to make him feel +perfectly comfortable in doing so."</p> + +<p>"Certainly, if he will; but pray don't spoil him, Alice, darling. +Because he is a youth of some scholarship, a good deal of refinement, +and develops a talent for drawing, it is no reason he should be made to +forget he's a blacksmith."</p> + +<p>"It is too late for theories to-night, Hamilton," she replied, +playfully. "I have none, you know, like you and Frank Darry. I only wish +to treat him considerately. <i>We</i> can afford to forget distinctions which +undoubtedly seem a great barrier to him. If he stays, he shares our +hospitality like any other guest."</p> + +<p>The answer I did not catch. I had heard enough, however, to feel both +grateful and irritated.</p> + +<p>I went in and warmed myself by the coal-fire in the library. I looked +covertly at books and Miss Merton while toasting my hands, and answered +intelligently, I believe, Mr. Hamilton Lang's questions as to the +village and my pursuits there. I did not neglect to speak a few cordial, +yet respectful, words to Miss Darry, at parting; but all I clearly +recall is the fact that I insisted upon going home that night, and that +Miss Merton, kindly offering to lend me any books I could find time to +read, laid her little hand in my rough palm at parting.</p> + + +<h3>CHAPTER V.</h3> + +<p>There was a variety-store on Main Street, with "<span class="smcap">Jane Dinsmore</span>" painted +in letters of mingled blue and orange on the sign above its door. Miss +Dinsmore boarded in one of those green lanes whose inhabitants formed +the second circle of Warren society. To this fact it may have been +partly due that she was less appealed to than Mrs. Bray on all questions +of social etiquette; but undoubtedly a more sufficient reason was to be +found in Miss Dinsmore herself, who, though more beloved than any other +woman in the village, had a suppressed, quiet manner, not at all adapted +for leadership. Her reputation was that of having been a pretty, giddy +young girl, a farmer's daughter; but some great crisis had swept over +her life, muffling all the tinkling melodies, the ringing laugh, the +merry coquettings of the village belle. It was rumored that the old +story of disappointed love had changed the current of her life. Jenny +Dinsmore, though humbly born and bred, had been fastidious; the uncouth +advances of her rustic admirers were not agreeable to her; and so the +romance of the fresh young heart was expended on a college youth, who +found his way to Warren from classic halls for the renovation<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_594" id="Page_594">[Pg 594]</a></span> of +physical and moral health, and who, attracted by her pretty face and +figure, made his rustication less burdensome by devotion to her.</p> + +<p>Jenny had not one of those weak natures whose influence dies away in +absence. She had inherited some of the old farmer's sturdy traits of +character, and her affections had a clinging tenacity of hold which +would not suffer the young scholar to throw her off so easily. When he +returned to college, he walked the grounds more than once, summoning +through the avenues of embowering elms the slender figure, the smiling +face, with the glow of the setting sun upon it, which had so often +awaited his coming at the stile of the old orchard.</p> + +<p>However, parental authority, and the prospect of an ample fortune on +good behavior, soon convinced the young man of his folly. Let us be +thankful, who note this brief sketch of their mingled fortunes, that he +had a tender care for Jenny's trusting nature, and removed the sting +from the sorrow he inflicted by making her believe it inevitable. Thus +this little wellspring of romance forever watered and kept fresh her +otherwise withered life; if subdued, she was not bitter; and no one can +tell how the thin, wan face renewed its youth, and the wrinkled cheeks +their pinkish bloom, caught in that far-off spring-time in her father's +orchards, as, sitting in her solitary room, she remembered the man, now +occupying a prominent position in life, who said, as he bade her +tenderly good-bye, that he would never forget her, no matter what woman +reigned by his fireside, or what children played on his hearth. Perhaps, +in his stately library, no book was so welcome on a winter's evening as +an idyl of rural life, no picture so pleasing as that of some Maud +Muller raking hay or receiving the dumb caresses of the cows she milked.</p> + +<p>What would the elegant woman, with her costly jewels, India shawls, and +splendid equipage, have thought of this whilom rival, who issued every +summer morning from the lane, in her hand a bunch of those simple +flowers, occupying, as she did, the border-ground between the wild +hemlock and honeysuckle of the wilderness and the exotic of the +parterre, the bachelor's-button, mulberry-pink, southernwood, and +bee-larkspur, destined to fill a tumbler on an end of the counter where +she displayed her most attractive goods?</p> + +<p>She prided herself upon the tastefulness and variety of her selections: +ribbons and gowns, pins, needles, soap, and matches for all; jars of +striped candy for well, and hoarhound for sick children; and a little +fragrant Old Hyson and San Domingo for venerable customers. She walked +about gently; was never betrayed into any bustle by the excitement of +traffic; liked all sweet, shy, woodland natures, from Annie Bray to +squirrels; and contracted an affection for me because of my diffidence +and devotion to the former.</p> + +<p>Whenever she came to the cottage, she poured oil upon the turbulent +waters of its domestic life; coaxed up Amos as daintily and charily as a +child would proffer crumbs to a bear in a menagerie; pleased Mrs. Bray +by accounts of her city shopping; and petted Annie, giving her +occasionally, in a shy way, some bow or bit of silk, of an especially +brilliant hue, which had caught her eye in town. She was a very useful +member of the Methodist Society, for she had always innumerable odds and +ends for pin-cushions and needle-books; and although her religious +experiences did not seek those stormy channels which the Reverend Mr. +Purdo believed to have been elected for the saints, yet her sympathies +were so ready, her heart so kind, that, when he saw her after a day of +activity collect her bunch of flowers again in her hand, and start, as +she often did, for one of the lanes or outlying farms, to watch through +the night with some sick woman or child, he was fain to remember that +"faith without works is dead."</p> + +<p>Miss Dinsmore's store was exceedingly attractive to the young people of +the village. She lent a cordial ear to every matrimonial scheme; was +quite willing that all preliminaries for such arrangements should be +settled within<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_595" id="Page_595">[Pg 595]</a></span> her precincts; and many a tender word and glance, +doubtless, received its inspiration from a conspicuous stand for +bonnets, whose four pegs were kept supplied with those of Miss +Dinsmore's own manufacture, originally white, but so seldom demanded for +village wear that the honey-moon in Warren shed its pale yellow beams on +this crowning article of bridal attire long before it was donned by the +happy wearer. These bonnets were severally labelled on modest slips of +paper, after city nomenclature, "Bridal Hat"; and Miss Dinsmore would on +no account have parted with them for any less occasion, however festive; +so that one consulting her stand had as accurate a knowledge of +impending marriages as could have been obtained from the +"publishing-list" of the "meeting-house."</p> + +<p>Moreover, Miss Dinsmore herself was laboring under that hallucination, +not infrequent with maiden ladies rather advanced, that her own +spring-time was perennial; and though by no means disposed to displace +the hero of her youth from his supremacy in her heart, she yet accepted, +with the ordinary feminine serenity, gallant attentions from youths over +whose infant slumbers she had, in times of domestic disturbance, often +presided. Hence it happened that the "Variety Store" often afforded the +first introduction to Warren society; indeed, so sharp was the rivalry +between it, as a lounging-place, and the tavern, that, when a youth was +won over from the bar-room to its counter fascinations, his work of +regeneration was regarded by Mr. Purdo as begun; and the walk round the +corner to the parsonage (which Miss Dinsmore's hats suggested) made his +calling and election sure.</p> + +<p>Entering the store, therefore, on one of my leisure evenings, I was not +surprised to find there a number of Miss Darry's class, and the Reverend +Mr. Purdo himself, who had evidently walked in to discover what young +men had sowed their wild oats and were seeking the "strait and narrer +path" between Miss Dinsmore's counter and the wall. Mr. Purdo was of +middle height, and portly; and there was such a sombre hue about the +entire man,—black suit of clothes, jet-black hair, eyebrows, and +eyes,—that it was a relief to find that Nature had relented in her +mourning over making him, and bestowed a sallow complexion, which strove +to enliven his aspect by an infusion of orange. He greeted me with a +mild and forgiving manner, which at once reminded me of the quiet +strolls I occasionally preferred, on a pleasant Sunday, to a prolonged +sitting and homily in the church; but I was glad of his presence, since +it would be likely to restrain the boisterous mirth of the young men, +when I should make known my errand.</p> + +<p>Since seeing Miss Merton, my imagination had been so filled with the +idea of how complete a transformation Annie Bray would undergo, if only +the ugly garments she wore could be pulled away like weeds from her +sweet, flower-like beauty, that I resolved to expend a part of my money +in buying her a dress. With diffidence, therefore, I made known my wish +to Miss Dinsmore, who responded at once with a ready comprehension of +the whole matter.</p> + +<p>"I know jest what'll suit you, Sandy. Nothin' like vi'let for blue eyes +and yeller hair; my own was like June butter once, but of course it's +been darker since I've grown up" (Miss Dinsmore's gold was fast becoming +silver); "Sary Ann's is changin', too, I see. Miss Bray says she isn't +over-fond of stirrin' round; and I shouldn't wonder if 't was so. Sary +Ann don't look no more like workin' than a buttercup; but then, as I +tell Miss Bray, corn is made for usin' and flowers for starin' at, and I +don't know as any special sign is set on either of 'em to show which is +the best. Don't mind them youngsters, Sandy; they're always pretty +chipper of an evenin'. You see, I've measured off this piece of +calico,—nine yard and a finger; if you like it, seein' it's for you and +Annie, and a remnant, I'd want it to go cheap."</p> + +<p>It was as near the shade of Miss Merton's dress as the coarser material +could copy it; and with all the embarrassment<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_596" id="Page_596">[Pg 596]</a></span> of a novice in such +matters, I signified my wish to take it, when the door swung open to +admit Annie Bray herself, who had come to make some trifling purchase +for her mother.</p> + +<p>"All right, Sandy; we'll settle some other time," whispered Miss +Dinsmore, quite aware that I should scarcely like to make so public a +presentation of my gift, and quietly concealing it in a sheet of +wrapping-paper, while Annie, surprised and pleased at seeing me, +approached the counter.</p> + +<p>"Bless your sweet face, it isn't often I see it of an evenin'," was Miss +Dinsmore's welcome to her favorite.</p> + +<p>"Beauty's but a witherin' flower," said Mr. Purdo, by way of +professional improvement of the occasion, and pointing the remark by a +glance at Miss Dinsmore, whose early bloom he undoubtedly remembered. +"Still it's cause for great gratitude, Sary, that your cheeks are so +rosy,"—here a general laugh warned him of the dangerous admission, and +he added,—"it shows you're healthy, and that's a most aboundin' +blessin'."</p> + +<p>"That's so!" exclaimed Tracy Waters. "You're mighty pretty now, Sary +Ann; and it a'n't no use to look ahead to the time when you won't be, is +it?"</p> + +<p>Annie's cheeks glowed more deeply still now. She was accomplishing her +errand as quickly as possible; and while Miss Dinsmore tied up her +parcel, Tracy Waters bent over her, whispering. It may have been only +that "innate gallantry" alluded to by Miss Darry that made me reprove +his evidently unwelcome admiration.</p> + +<p>"Annie is a shy little thing. Don't you see, Tracy, that she doesn't +like flattery?" I exclaimed, angrily approaching them.</p> + +<p>"I see pretty plain that you don't want her to have it from any other +fellow than yourself," he answered, roughly. "Miss Annie," he added, in +imitation of my manner, "supposin' I see you home?"</p> + +<p>But I pushed past him and went out of the store with her.</p> + +<p>"He says I am to be his little wife by-and-by," said Annie, a most +unusual expression of disgust and alarm ruffling the quiet serenity of +her face; "but that can never be, unless I wish it, can it, Sandy?"</p> + +<p>"I should think not, indeed," I answered, smiling at her earnestness. +"When he speaks of it again, tell him I want you myself."</p> + +<p>"That would be a good way to stop him," she replied, accepting +graciously this solution of her present difficulty.</p> + + +<h3>CHAPTER VI.</h3> + +<p>Miss Darry, knowing I could borrow books at Hillside, and that those +which I already possessed were the old English classics, bought for me +in the city only a Greek Grammar, through whose intricacies she proposed +to be my guide, and a box of water-colors, and brought to me some lives +of the old painters from Miss Merton's library.</p> + +<p>She bewildered my mind by telling me of all there was in store for it in +the way of work and study. Her interest in my progress seemed to have +received a new impetus from her visit in town. She described the rooms +where were casts of legs and arms, heads and groups of figures, to which +I might one day have access, with the privilege of copying; and in +return I showed her two crayon sketches I had made in her absence. +Michel Angelo might have relished the knotty, muscular development of +the arm I showed her first. If there is beauty and satisfaction in +coarse brute strength, this member of my master's body was worthy of all +praise. On another sheet I had drawn, by way of contrast, Annie's +delicately small and fair, but round, arm and hand, which might have +served in her infancy as models for those of one of Raphael's cherubs. +She liked them both, and said that I should do as well, perhaps, in the +school of Nature as anywhere, for the present.</p> + +<p>She desired me to become a sculptor, for form appealed more strongly to +her nature than color; and it seemed to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_597" id="Page_597">[Pg 597]</a></span> tacitly decided between us +that Art was to be my vocation. She thought that my strong hands, +accustomed to labor, could hew my own idea out of the marble for the +present, and save the expense of workmen. And then she described to me +the beautiful marbles she had seen abroad, where the artist's +inspiration was so chastely uttered by the purity of his material, +declaring that a subject which coloring would debase might be worthily +treated by the chisel. And when I exclaimed, that Autumn, with her +glowing palette, was as pure an artist as the old sculptor Winter, +chiselling in unvaried white, she reminded me that Nature was infinite, +handling all themes with equal power and purity; but that man, in +copying, became, as she thought some of the Preraphaelites had done, a +caricaturist, in attempting to follow her too closely. I was unconvinced +by her arguments, but held my newly bought color-box as a means of +proving to her the wisdom of my choice.</p> + +<p>When I was about to leave, she said,—</p> + +<p>"Sandy, pray don't make an enemy of Tracy Waters on account of any words +you had the other evening about the blacksmith's little girl. He's a +rough, but kind fellow, and your superiority and desire to rise in life +will stir up envy enough of themselves. Why not let him show his +admiration of the child, if he wanted to?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, have they been telling you about that, Miss Darry?" I answered, +awkwardly. "If you knew Annie Bray, you would not ask me why I didn't +let him bend his great rough face over hers. She's only a child in +years, to be sure; but she has a woman's modesty."</p> + +<p>"Oh, well, if she shrank from it, of course, as a gentleman, you were +bound to take her part; but don't spoil your chances in life, Sandy, I +beg, by any entanglement with these villagers of which you may repent. A +pretty country lassie to smile when you look at her would doubtless be a +comforting companion in your struggles. But once attain what you long +for in other ways, and you will crave an intelligent friend, whose +gaucheries shall not forever put you to the blush."</p> + +<p>Miss Darry, in her appreciation of my abilities, sometimes forgot my +lack of attainment. I was not always familiar with her quotations, but +now I was more disturbed by her regarding so seriously my brotherly +devotion to Annie Bray, and by the depreciating estimate which she held +of her.</p> + +<p>"I did not know you looked down so entirely upon our villagers. The only +way in which I could expect to differ from them is through my talent for +painting, if I prove to have any. My mother was a good woman, gentle and +quiet in her ways, but only a farmer's daughter; and though my father +was the village doctor, he studied his profession without any regular +training, and I suppose knew less of chemistry and anatomy than you, +Miss Darry. Annie Bray is as much a lady, in her childish way, as Miss +Merton; only she is the stone in its native soil, and Miss Merton has +been set by the jeweller."</p> + +<p>I was irritated and had spoken warmly, but the bright smile did not +leave Miss Darry's face, as she answered,—</p> + +<p>"Sandy, you have unmistakably the poetic temperament; but use your brush +on the canvas, and don't color every human being you see. I never could +comprehend why the practical affairs of life should not be ruled by +judgment and reason,—why the mental mansion should not have every +needful arrangement for comfort, though a hundred illusions may fresco +its ceilings. Every child is charming because it is a child, as every +bud is charming because it is a bud, though it may open a poppy or a +rose. I haven't a doubt but this little friend of yours will develop +some qualities of her ignorant ancestors to remove her in a few years +far from your ideal of womanhood. The rare gift of genius is as often +bestowed on the child of common parentage as on any other; but the +refinement which makes a woman a congenial companion is a mingling of +birth, education, and associations, in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_598" id="Page_598">[Pg 598]</a></span> my opinion. It seems from your +own account, that poverty, not choice, apprenticed you to Amos Bray."</p> + +<p>Her good-nature shamed me, and her unselfish labor for my improvement +touched me more deeply. So, though we did not agree about my profession +or friendship, I said no more.</p> + + +<h3>CHAPTER VII.</h3> + +<p>As I have said, Miss Darry and I differed about Annie Bray. Yet her +words, having the weight of her greater knowledge of the world, and +really strong, though prejudiced mind, made their impression upon me. +Instead of regarding Annie with the old brotherly interest, I looked +critically now to see if any sign of rude origin betrayed itself in look +or speech. I found only the wayside bloom and sweetness quite peculiar +to herself, and many a quaint, rare fancy born of lonely rambles in +field and wood; but at fourteen, with no outward stimulus to act upon +her life, she was an undeveloped being, a child to be loved and petted, +but no friend for my growing and restless manhood.</p> + +<p>In the evenings I worked hard, endeavoring both to improve myself +intellectually and to progress in my art. I was supplied with constant +reading from the Hillside library; but I had never been there since the +evening when I had driven Miss Darry home. The impression made upon me +at that time by Mr. Lang had not been wholly pleasant. Notwithstanding +his words at the forge, I felt as though he had in some way contended +for making me feel the drawbacks of my position.</p> + +<p>One mild day in April, the Spring sun lay warm upon the earth, and the +wind brought from the woods the delicious scent of early flowers. I had +worked very steadily for several days in sole charge of the smithy; for +Mr. Bray had been away to visit a sister who lived some thirty miles +off. I had handed him quite large profits that morning; so I ventured to +ask for a half-holiday. It was granted, and after dinner I went up to my +room to prepare for it. I had practised in water-colors for the last few +weeks, and intended to surprise Miss Darry with a picture from Nature as +the result of the afternoon's work. So I thrust my paint-box into the +pocket of my portfolio, took a tin cup for water, and ran down stairs.</p> + +<p>Annie was sitting on the door-step studying Gray's Botany, which at odd +moments in the winter I had attended to with her. My heart smote me for +that egotistic contemplation of myself and my prospects which had led me +to neglect her.</p> + +<p>"Come, Annie," I said, "bring your Botany into the woods. We will find +plenty of wild-flowers there, and you shall help me, besides, to paint +my first picture."</p> + +<p>The little face which had looked so dull a moment before brightened at +once. She gained her mother's permission, and was soon walking by my +side.</p> + +<p>On the slope of the hill which led to the stone house where so many of +my dreams centred, we found innumerable bloodroot and anemone blossoms, +with a few buds of trailing arbutus just blushing at their edges.</p> + +<p>Annie had a wonderful fellowship with Nature, liking even its wildest, +most uncouth forms. The snakes, with shining skin and sinuous movement, +glistening like streams of water, or lying coiled like stagnant pools +amid the rank luxuriance of grass and flowers, were as eagerly watched +by her as the most brilliant butterfly that ever fanned a blossom. She +had a faculty for tracing resemblances in the material creation, akin to +that, perhaps, which causes many to see points of likeness in faces, so +that they, as it were, carry their home about with them, and see their +friends in the new costume of every land.</p> + +<p>Childhood and genius alike look through and over the lattice-work which +separates the regions of the natural and the supernatural. She had firm +faith in midnight revels in the woods, held by those elves, fairies, and +satyrs who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_599" id="Page_599">[Pg 599]</a></span> come down to us from the dim and shaded life of earlier +ages, and whose existence she had eagerly accepted when I hinted its +possibility. Her theory of the mutability of species exceeded Darwin's; +for she fancied that the vegetable world was occasionally endowed with +animal life, and that the luxuriant and often poisonous vines, which +choked by their rude embrace so many tenderer forms of life, waked up, +under some unknown influence, into the snakes, of which she felt as +little fear.</p> + +<p>As for me, I encouraged this tangle of woodland dreams across her brain, +and liked to think she dwelt apart, blind and deaf to all contamination +through its simple power.</p> + +<p>Annie was to-day, therefore, most happy that Spring was reorganizing her +dreamland again; and while I seated myself on a stone to arrange my +materials, she ran to fill the tin cup with water from the brook below. +Then she helped me with my paints, and watched curiously all my +preparations. When these were completed, I said,—</p> + +<p>"Now, Annie, prepare a little scene for me, and I will paint it."</p> + +<p>At first she was reluctant to make the attempt; but I insisted, and she +did so.</p> + +<p>The tiny thread which fed the stream below trickled over a stone beside +us, making rich with its silver beads of moisture a cushion of moss +beneath. On this Annie heaped bloodroots and anemones, a few early +violets, and one or two arbutus-sprays, and then looked up to see if I +was satisfied.</p> + +<p>"Yes," I said, "if you will sit on that tree-stump, and leave your hand +there."</p> + +<p>She laughed merrily, pleased to be in my first painting. I drew out my +paper, and rapidly sketched the outlines. Then I took my brush; the pale +spring beauties grew beneath its touch, and lay with careless grace on +the soft, damp moss.</p> + +<p>Annie had resumed her Botany as the afternoon wore on, reaching forward +occasionally to note my progress; and her hand lay relaxed, the fingers +loosely clasping the last violets laid down.</p> + +<p>I was giving most affectionate pats of my camel's-hair to the last +little pink nail, feeling more elated at this first attempt than at many +a better picture since, when I heard the tramp of horses' feet in the +road to the left of the meadow where we sat. I was too intent upon my +work to raise my eyes, and Annie sat with her face turned toward the +woods, so that I thought nothing more of it until we were startled by a +voice at a little distance.</p> + +<p>"Well, my young friend, I suppose this studio is open to visitors?"</p> + +<p>I looked up, and saw Miss Merton and Mr. Lang.</p> + +<p>"We were riding, and called at the forge," said Miss Merton, with a +wondering glance at Annie, whose astonishment had not admitted of a +change of position; "and as Mr. Lang heard there you were off on an +excursion, we have been expecting to see you, and caught our first +glimpse as the horses walked up the hill. Won't you introduce us to your +young friend, Mr. Allen?"</p> + +<p>"This is Annie Bray, my master's daughter," I stammered, with a keen and +very unpleasant remembrance of Miss Darry's remarks.</p> + +<p>Annie rose, and returned with natural ease Miss Merton's smile and +kindly greeting, while Mr. Lang bent over to look at my painting.</p> + +<p>"Alice, look here. This is as pretty a bit of water-color as I've ever +seen. A young girl's hand is a gratifying possession, but I am not sure +that I should have stopped with it in the present instance." And he +looked admiringly at Annie's modest beauty.</p> + +<p>Miss Merton walked round the stump, and stood behind me.</p> + +<p>"It is indeed pretty. Miss Annie's hand suggests the idea that these +blossoms at least were not 'born to blush unseen.' It reminds me of our +object in seeking you, Mr. Allen. A friend," she added, with an arch +look at Mr. Lang, "has been audacious enough to give me a costly +picture. I am to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_600" id="Page_600">[Pg 600]</a></span> have a few friends to admire it to-morrow evening. I +know you will enjoy it; so I want you to come, too."</p> + +<p>"You are very kind, but"——I hesitated.</p> + +<p>"But what?" inquired Mr. Lang. "Speak out boldly, Sandy."</p> + +<p>"I should not think you would care to have a poor blacksmith with your +friends. Let me come another evening."</p> + +<p>"I am sorry, that, judging by your own feelings, you have arrived at +this conclusion," answered Mr. Lang, dryly. "I might have thought, under +similar circumstances, you would have treated us in the same way. Do as +you choose, of course; but remember, blacksmith or artist, no one will +respect you, unless you so thoroughly respect yourself as to hold your +manhood above your profession, and accept every courtesy in the spirit +in which it is offered."</p> + +<p>I began to understand that he would guard me from the vanity and +over-sensitiveness which were the natural outgrowth of my position; yet +I reddened at the implied weakness.</p> + +<p>"Pray don't mind Mr. Lang's criticisms," said Miss Merton, noticing my +confusion. "You certainly do not doubt the sincerity of our invitation?"</p> + +<p>"Not at all," I exclaimed, warmly.</p> + +<p>"Then will you not come to-morrow evening?"</p> + +<p>Yielding to the fascinating persuasiveness of her manner, I now +consented so readily, that Mr. Lang, laughing, asked, in the old +friendly tone,—</p> + +<p>"Did you paint this picture, Sandy, for any special purpose?"</p> + +<p>"Only that I might show it to Miss Darry."</p> + +<p>"Ah, well, let us take it to her. I have another use for it besides. Are +there any further touches to be given it?"</p> + +<p>I looked; it might have been improved by more work, but I had not the +courage to undertake it before them. So I said I thought it would do.</p> + +<p>He lingered a moment, while Miss Merton spoke a few words to Annie, who +only waited until they reached the stile to express warmly her +admiration of the lovely lady, who had invited her also to come some day +to Hillside, to see the air-plants in her conservatory.</p> + + +<h3>CHAPTER VIII.</h3> + +<p>When I descended from my room to the kitchen, the next evening, arrayed +for my visit, with all the elegance of which my simple wardrobe +admitted, Mrs. Bray exclaimed,—</p> + +<p>"Well, Sandy, I protest, you do look smart! But don't be set up, 'cause +you keep high company. I s'pose, knowin Amos was a family man, and +couldn't go visitin' round, they took a notion to you."</p> + +<p>Annie followed me to the door, saying,—</p> + +<p>"You must remember to tell me about the picture, Sandy, and what they +say of yours; and do look at the plants Miss Merton promised to show me, +and see just how she looks herself."</p> + +<p>"And anything more?" I asked, laughing.</p> + +<p>"Yes,—what they say to you. You look as handsome to-night, Sandy, as +the tall gentleman with Miss Merton,—only such a very different +handsome!"</p> + +<p>"Then you admired his appearance?" I asked, lingering. "I fancied you +were too busy looking at Miss Merton to think of him."</p> + +<p>But Annie continued to unfold her opinion without noticing my remark.</p> + +<p>"I should be afraid he wouldn't care for me, if I didn't look and act +just as he wanted me to. I don't like his way of being handsome, Sandy, +so well as yours."</p> + +<p>Unconsciously, Annie was making her first experiment in analysis; and as +I did not quite relish the basis upon which my beauty rested, I bade her +good-night, and hurried away.</p> + +<p>I knew I was not handsome, yet Annie's naïve admiration undoubtedly +braced me to face the evening. In my gray eye there was nothing of the +soft, dreamy expression usually supposed to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_601" id="Page_601">[Pg 601]</a></span> accompany the æsthetic +temperament. On the contrary, it had the earnest, scrutinizing glance +peculiar to a more restless intellect than mine. The intent gaze of some +ancestor, perhaps, looked out from these "windows of my soul." If so, +and his spirit was occasionally permitted to view the world through me, +the "fancy gardening" in which I so extensively indulged could scarcely +have been congenial to his tastes. The eye was the salient point, +however, of a countenance not otherwise noticeable, except from a +girlish habit I had of coloring whenever I was suddenly addressed.</p> + +<p>When I reached Hillside, I rang the bell with some trepidation, which +was increased by the announcement of the servant that the ladies were at +the tea-table. This trifling annoyance of presenting myself at the +tea-hour, when expected to pass the evening, was sufficiently serious to +my awkwardness to threaten my enjoyment of the visit; but I had scarcely +seated myself in the library when Miss Darry appeared.</p> + +<p>"I hoped you would be in doubt as to the hour of coming, Sandy, and get +here early," she said, smiling brightly. "You must let me thank you for +painting that picture for me to look at; I even admired the little white +hand of your plebeian friend, it was so charmingly done."</p> + +<p>I could not be annoyed at this mingling of praise and badinage, +especially when she relieved me from all sense of intrusion. Moreover, +she looked so brilliant, so sparkling and happy, that I watched her, +amazed at the metamorphosis from her ordinarily calm, intellectual +conversation and plain appearance.</p> + +<p>"I thought perhaps you would keep the picture to please me, Miss Darry," +I faltered, feeling that I was presenting it to an entirely new +character.</p> + +<p>She accepted it, however, most graciously, and led me into the +conservatory, that I might assist her in arranging some baskets of +flowers for the parlor-tables.</p> + +<p>"I never did believe in conservatories," she exclaimed, as I expressed +my admiration of the many rare plants. "It is as unnatural a life for +flowers to be crowded together, each in its little pot of earth, as for +human beings in their separate beds in a hospital. The idea of shutting +up plants and pictures in a room by themselves, to be visited on state +occasions, or when some member of the family in a vagrant mood chances +unexpectedly among them, seems to me preposterous."</p> + +<p>Meanwhile she ran in and out among the flower-stands, breaking off +branches of flame-colored azalea, creamy, voluptuous-looking callas, and +a variety of drooping blossoms and sprays of green, with a reckless +handling of their proud beauty, which I involuntarily contrasted with +Annie Bray's timid, half-caressing touch of the wild-flowers.</p> + +<p>The umber-colored silk she wore toned down what I, who fancied the +delicate sea-shell hue of blondes, should have termed her rather strong +colors; and now, bent on my enjoyment rather than improvement, she +looked much younger, and certainly far handsomer, than I had supposed +she could. Her entire self-possession, the familiarity with which she +approached human beings, Nature, and Art, were to me so many indications +of her power, and because of my own awe in the presence of any +revelation of beauty or intellect, seemed the more wonderful. In +admiration of her ease, I became at ease myself, and was thoroughly +enjoying her gay mood, which puzzled while it charmed me, when the glass +door opening into the drawing-room was pushed aside, and Mr. Lang +entered.</p> + +<p>"Good evening, Sandy. Alice and Mr. Leopold have been inquiring for you, +Miss Darry; but don't run away with those baskets so quickly. I want a +few blossoms for Alice's hair. Yours is gorgeous, tropical. Sandy's here +has as much of a wild-wood appearance as exotics will admit of. One +would think Nature was in league with Darley in making these ferns; they +are outlines merely; but this rich red japonica in the centre, on its +cushion of white flowers,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_602" id="Page_602">[Pg 602]</a></span> shows you a genuine colorist, Sandy."</p> + +<p>Miss Darry, making some gay reply, gave me a basket, which, designedly +or not, made me less awkwardly conscious of my hands, and we entered the +drawing-room. Unaccustomed to gayeties of any kind, I was quite dazzled +by the sudden and brilliant blaze of light, the few guests already +assembled, and by Miss Merton's beauty enveloped in soft floating folds +of gossamer, looking as though the mist itself had woven her a garment. +No time, however, was given in which I could relapse into +self-consciousness. Miss Darry occupied me with various statuettes and +engravings, until Mr. Lang rejoined us, accompanied by a gentleman whom +he introduced to me as Mr. Leopold, the painter of the picture which I +was to see in the course of the evening. Although my reading had +necessarily been limited, Miss Darry's persistent training, and my own +voracious appetite for information in everything relating to the arts, +had given me a somewhat superficial knowledge of the pictures, style, +and personal appearance of the best old and modern painters. In spite of +some obstinate facts tending to a different conclusion, I had imbibed +the conventional idea of a genius, that he must dwell in an etherealized +body,—and Mr. Leopold's stalwart frame, full, florid face, and +well-rounded features were a surprise and disappointment. I expected the +Raphaelesque,—tender grace and melancholy; but about these frank blue +eyes and full red lips lurked the good-nature of a healthy school-boy, +the quaint, unchecked humor of a man upon whose life had fallen the +sunshine of prosperity.</p> + +<p>"So, you are the young man, Mr. Allen, who painted the Spring Flowers +and the Maiden's Hand," he said, in a full, rich voice, and with a +genial smile. "It is evident, you, too, are in your spring-time, while +I, near my autumn, can afford to refer to the peculiarities of that +period. I cannot regret that you have a life of struggle before you; for +it is not merely the pleasing fancy which paints fine pictures. You +would have let a sunbeam play over that little hand, had you possessed +the technical knowledge to manage it: now, wouldn't you?"</p> + +<p>I crimsoned, assenting as though to a crime.</p> + +<p>"Effects of sunlight on bright colors are sometimes very striking," he +continued. "A crimson flower wet with dew and nodding in sunshine is a +kind of tremulous rainbow, which a man might well like to copy. We must +make a compact to help each other, Mr. Allen, I want to study human +nature, and would like an introduction to all the oddities of the +village."</p> + +<p>I promised to make him acquainted with them, wondering meanwhile that he +craved for his culture what I regarded as the chief obstacle to mine.</p> + +<p>"You shall meet Sandy at the forge some day, when work is over, and +visit the villagers," said Mr. Lang. "Miss Darry, shall you or I take +Mr. Allen to see the picture? He may like a longer inspection of it than +some of us."</p> + +<p>I looked imploringly at Miss Darry, who, slipping her hand within my +arm, led me into a room corresponding to the conservatory in size and +position. The walls were mostly covered with cabinet-pictures, and among +several larger ones was the recent addition by Mr. Leopold. At my first +glance, I was conscious of that sense of disappointment which comes to +us when our imagination devises an ideal beauty, which human hands rob +of delicacy by the very act of embodiment: moreover, how could I, in my +dreamy, undeveloped boy-life, with a fancy just awakened, and revelling +in its own tropical creations, appreciate the simple strength, the grand +repose of the picture before me? What appeared barren to me in the man +and his works was born of the very depth of a nature which, in copying +the Infinite, had learned not only the tender beauty of flowers, the +consolations of the clouds, the grandeur of mountains, seas, and rocks, +but the beauty of common scenes, the grass and herbage of daily +intercourse and use. Touching the world at all points, he had something +to give and receive from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_603" id="Page_603">[Pg 603]</a></span> nearly every one he met; and, as Sydney Smith +has said Dr. Chalmers was a thousand men in one, I can say that he had +the versatility and power of ten ordinary artists. At the time, however, +nothing of all this was in my mind; only a certain sense of satisfaction +took the place of disappointment, as I looked at the picture. He had +given clearly the impression of magnitude in the gigantic mass of gray +limestone which juts out of the deep blue Spanish sea. Misty flakes of +dispersing cloud above suggested the recent rain which had clothed its +frequently barren sides with a mantle of verdure. A few bell-shaped +blossoms hung over crevices of rock, fearless in the frail foothold of +their thread-like stems, as innocent child-faces above a precipice. It +was in this simple way, and by the isthmus of sand connecting it to the +continent, long and level, like the dash Nature made after so grand a +work, before descending to the commonplaces of ordinary creation, that +he had toned down the grandeur of stern old Gibraltar.</p> + +<p>Miss Darry Indulged me long in my desire to look at the first fine +picture I had ever seen; but when other guests entered, we withdrew to +the farther side of the room, where I was not left in undisturbed +possession of her society, though conscious that she never, for a +moment, lost sight of me or my manner of acquitting myself. Miss Merton, +Miss Darry, Mr. Lang, Mr. Leopold, and a few others, formed the group of +talkers; and I stood within the circle, a listener, until Miss Darry and +Mr. Leopold obliged me to participate. They had an admirable power of +drawing each other out, and he seemed greatly attracted by her brilliant +criticisms of life and Art. Had I known of the theory which, robbed of +its metaphysical subtilties, is advanced in some of our fashionable +romances, I should have been convinced that evening that Miss Darry was, +intellectually at least, my counterpart. If I faltered in my vocabulary, +when expressing an opinion or replying to a question, she supplied the +missing word, or by glance and approving smile reassured me to recall +it; if my thought lacked shape and completeness, she gave it a few sharp +cuts with the chisel of her keen wit and clear intellect, handing it +back for me to color as I chose. Miss Merton, lovely as she was, shone +with a lesser light that evening in Miss Darry's presence; yet Mr. Lang, +tempted away for a moment, always rejoined her with an admiring smile, +well pleased at fascinations less indiscriminately exercised.</p> + +<p>A little later, as I again approached Mr. Leopold's picture, not +venturing to return to the parlors, now that Miss Darry was engrossed by +other gentlemen, I became an unwilling listener to a few words of +conversation between Miss Merton and Mr. Lang, who stood just outside +the door.</p> + +<p>"What a girl Frank Darry is for accomplishing everything she +undertakes!" said Miss Merton, admiringly; "how she has improved her +<i>protégé</i>! he can talk on subjects where I have to be silent, though I +have had what dear mamma used to call a 'finished education.'"</p> + +<p>"Yes, darling. She has made his mental growth very rapid; but, in the +process of cultivation, he is gaining a little false pride, which I hope +is not of her planting. He blushes, whenever his trade is alluded to: +foolish fellow! not to see that the very fact of being a blacksmith is +his claim to superiority. A thoroughly trained youth might have done far +more than he without any special ability."</p> + +<p>"But, Hamilton, you may misconstrue blushes which are so frequent; he is +in a new world, too; do give him a chance to make himself at home, +before you criticize him. You must admit I was right about his not +annoying one by any decided awkwardness of behavior."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, dear. A certain sense of fitness goes with the artistic +temperament. I suppose old Dr. Johnson, devouring his food and drinking +innumerable cups of tea, might be a far more shocking social companion +than this blacksmith's apprentice. You are always drawing out the +lovable traits of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_604" id="Page_604">[Pg 604]</a></span> people, dear Alice," he added, in a lower tone; "and +that is a thousand times better than Frank Darry's intellectual +developments."</p> + +<p>They turned away then; and I, angry at being forced to listen at all to +what was not meant for my ear, and the more so that Mr. Lang had spoken +of me so depreciatingly, stood burning with shame and indignation. Annie +Bray's undoubting faith and love would have comforted me without a word +of spoken confidence; but she was not here to give it; and, longing for +the reassurance of Miss Darry's presence, I entered the +drawing-room,—but would gladly have withdrawn again, for Mr. Lang came +quickly toward me.</p> + +<p>"Sandy," he said, "this may not be exactly the time to discuss business +matters with you; but your friends seem to feel that you deserve a +better chance in the world. Mr. Bray, to whom I spoke yesterday, says +you were not bound to serve him after your eighteenth birthday, but that +you have never expressed a wish to leave. Don't you see what a foolish +fellow you are to work for him, when you might be earning for yourself?"</p> + +<p>"But I have had no money to start with. I have had time for study, too," +I stammered.</p> + +<p>"Two reasons sufficient for an abstracted youth like you, but utterly +unpractical. I want you to hire a forge this side of Warren. I will +insure you custom enough to warrant the step."</p> + +<p>He looked at me keenly as he spoke, while I colored with the pride and +indignation which, since his words to Miss Merton a few moments before, +I had been trying to control. Was this to be the end of all my hopes, +the object of Miss Darry's instructions, her flattering encouragements +and exaggerated estimate of my "genius," as she had termed it, that I +might have a forge of my own, to which I should be compelled to give +undivided attention, and shoe Mr. Lang's horses, and possibly some +others belonging to Miss Merton's visitors? Yet, remembering how much +had been already, if unwisely, done for me, I held down these thoughts, +and, after a momentary pause, professed my willingness to think the +matter over, if I could reserve time for other pursuits. His face +lighted up, then, with the smile which had charmed me at the forge.</p> + +<p>"You are not spoiled yet, Sandy, I see. If you will only keep to your +trade, I will keep you to your art. You must have a boy at the forge, +and in the afternoons you can come here and paint under Mr. Leopold's +direction: he makes his home here during the summer, and he says you +have a talent worth cultivation."</p> + +<p>The revulsion of feeling was as complete as he could have desired; and I +had not fully expressed my gratitude when Miss Darry appeared. I went +with her to bid Miss Merton good-evening, and she stood in the moonlight +beside me on the step, as Annie Bray had done a few hours before; but +now I also was a changed character.</p> + +<p>"I am proud of my pupil, Sandy," she said, with more of her ordinary +manner than I had observed during the evening. "If I can place you in +better hands than mine, I shall be willing to give you up."</p> + +<p>"Give me up? never!" I cried, "Why, Miss Darry, this evening has proved +to me that I could not sustain myself in any untried position without +some help from you."</p> + +<p>She smiled, saying I was ridiculously unconscious of my own ability, and +yet looking gratified, I fancied, at the confession.</p> + +<p>(<i>To be continued.</i>)</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_605" id="Page_605">[Pg 605]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="THE_PROGRESS_OF_THE_ELECTRIC_TELEGRAPH" id="THE_PROGRESS_OF_THE_ELECTRIC_TELEGRAPH"></a>THE PROGRESS OF THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.</h2> + + +<p>In the spring of 1860 an article was published in this magazine with the +above title, giving an account of the extension of the telegraph up to +that time. Its progress since has been very great in every quarter of +the globe. Upon this continent the electric wire extends from the Gulf +of St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico, and from the Atlantic to the +Pacific Ocean, connecting upwards of six thousand cities and villages; +while upon the Eastern Continent unbroken telegraphic communication +exists from London to all parts of Europe,—to Tripoli and Algiers, in +Africa,—Cairo, in Egypt,—Teheran, in Persia,—Jerusalem, in +Syria,—Bagdad and Nineveh, in Asiatic Turkey,—Bombay, Calcutta, and +other important cities, in India,—Irkoutsk, the capital of Eastern +Siberia,—and to Kiakhta, on the borders of China.</p> + +<p>But however rapid the extension of the telegraph has been in the past, +it is destined to show still greater advancement in the future. Neither +the American nor the European system has yet attained to its ultimate +development. Transient wars now delay the establishment of lines in San +Juan, Panama, Quito, Lima, Valparaiso, Buenos Ayres, Montevideo, Rio +Janeiro, Surinam, Caraccas, and Mexico, and the incorporating of them, +with all their local ramifications, into one American telegraph system. +The Atlantic cable, although its recent attempted submergence has proved +a failure, will yet be successfully laid; while the equally important +enterprise of establishing overland telegraphic communication with +Europe <i>viâ</i> the Pacific coast and the Amoor River is now being +vigorously pushed forward towards its successful completion.</p> + +<p>The latter project, which is being carried out by the Western Union +Extension Telegraph Company, with a capital of ten million dollars, +embraces the construction of a line of telegraph from New Westminster, +British Columbia, the northern terminus of the California State +Telegraph Company, through British Columbia and Russian America to Cape +Prince of Wales, and thence across Behring's Strait to East Cape; or, if +found more practicable, from Cape Romanzoff to St. Lawrence Island, +thence to Cape Tchuktchi, and thence by an inland route around the Sea +of Okhotsk to the mouth of the Amoor River. At this point it is to be +joined by the line now being constructed by the Russian Government to +connect with Irkoutsk, where a line of telegraph begins, which stretches +through Tomsk and Omsk, in Western Siberia, Katharinburg, on the +Asiatic-European frontier, Perm, Kasan, Nijni-Novogorod, and Moscow, to +St. Petersburg.</p> + +<p>This line, which was projected by Perry McDonough Collins, Esq., United +States Commercial Agent for the Amoor River, with its extension by the +Russian Government to Irkoutsk, is the link now wanted to supply direct +and unbroken telegraphic communication from Cape Race, in Newfoundland, +on the eastern coast of America, across the Western Continent, the +Pacific Ocean, and the Eastern Continent, to Cape Clear, in Ireland, the +westernmost projection of Europe; and when a submarine cable shall be +successfully laid between Cape Clear and Cape Race, will complete a +telegraphic circuit around the earth between the parallels of forty-two +and sixty-five degrees of north latitude.</p> + +<p>The chief difficulties to be anticipated in Mr. Collins's enterprise are +the extent of the territory to be traversed, its wild and rugged surface +formation, and the uncivilized character of its inhabitants.</p> + +<p>The distance to be traversed through British America is six hundred +miles; through Russian America, nineteen hundred miles; the length of +the submarine cable across Behring's Strait, four hundred miles; and the +distance from East<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_606" id="Page_606">[Pg 606]</a></span> Cape, by an inland passage around the Sea of +Okhotsk, and through the settlements of Okhotsk, Ayan, and Shanter's +Bay, which are well-known stations of the whale-fishery, to the mouth of +the Amoor River, is about twenty-five hundred miles. The entire length +of the line would thus be about five thousand four hundred miles.</p> + +<p>That portion of the route which lies through British Columbia is chiefly +mountainous, but divided into three ranges, whose courses are from north +to south, while intervening valleys invite the introduction of +telegraphs and roads. The Pacific coast of Russian America is mainly +level. The portion of Siberia which lies between East Cape and the head +of the Sea of Okhotsk is, for a large extent, a steppe or plain, with +gentle elevations occasionally rising into mountainous ridges. At the +head of the Sea of Okhotsk a range of mountains must be crossed; and the +region lying between that range and the mouth of the Amoor River is of +the same character as that before mentioned, which extends from the same +range northward to East Cape. The electric telegraph has already been +carried over steppes, in both continents, similar to those above +described; and the Pacific telegraph line, in crossing the Sierra +Nevada, rises to an elevation greater than that which is to be +surmounted on this line.</p> + +<p>Suitable timber for setting up the line can be found on those portions +of the route lying within British Columbia and the Russian dominions on +each continent, with the exception of an unwooded steppe five hundred +miles wide on each side of Behring's Strait. Here the needful timber can +be brought near to the line, either by sea or from the forest-covered +shores of navigable rivers.</p> + +<p>The temperature of the region through which the northern part of the +line would pass is very low; but the winter is less severe than between +the same parallels of latitude on the Atlantic coast. The telegraphic +line which connects St. Petersburg with Archangel, on the White Sea, and +that also which passes around the Gulf of Bothnia and connects St. +Petersburg with Tornea, are maintained in operation without difficulty, +although they cross as high parallels of latitude as those which lie in +the way of this overland line to Europe. The waters of Behring's Strait +are about one hundred and eighty feet deep, and they are frozen through +one half of the year; but the congealed mass, when broken, generally +takes the form of anchor ice, and not that of iceberg. Thus climate +seems to offer no serious obstacle to the enterprise; while it is worthy +of consideration that in high latitudes timber is far less perishable +than in low, and less insulating material is required in cold regions +than in more genial climates.</p> + +<p>Indian tribes are found along the American part of the route, but they +have been so well subjected to the influences of society and government, +through the operations of the fur-trade, that no serious resistance from +them is apprehended. The inhabitants of Asiatic Russia, who dwell +inland, are nomadic Tartars, affecting much independence, but they are, +nevertheless, not savages, like the American natives. After centuries of +internal war, they have now settled into a state of semi-civilization, +in which they are accustomed to barter with whalers, with exploring +parties, and with the Government agents of Russia, and they are +hospitably inclined by that intercourse. Thus it is seen that there are +no insuperable obstacles, either physical or social, in the way of this +projected line of intercontinental telegraph.</p> + +<p>From New Westminster, the capital of British Columbia, situated on +Frazer River, about fifteen miles from its mouth, and the terminus of +the California State Telegraph, the line of the Collins Overland +Telegraph has already been commenced. A letter from Mr. F. L. Pope, +Assistant-Engineer of the Overland Company, dated June 13th, 1865, +states that the work on this portion of the line is proceeding with +great energy. Scarcely two months had elapsed since<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_607" id="Page_607">[Pg 607]</a></span> active operations +were commenced; and yet during that time nearly three hundred miles of +poles had been cut and prepared for use, a large number had been set, +and the remainder had been already distributed along the line. The poles +are nearly all of cedar, and of good size, and will form one of the most +durable lines on the American continent. When the extremely mountainous +and difficult nature of the country along the Frazer River is taken into +consideration, the rapidity with which this large amount of work has +been done is extraordinary. It seems quite probable that the line will +be finished the present season from New Westminster to Quesnell River, +the terminus of the wagon-road to the mines.</p> + +<p>The Colonial Government are now engaged in cutting a road from New +Westminster to Yale, a distance of about ninety miles, along which the +wire will be carried. There has heretofore been no communication between +these points except by water. The river is bordered on both sides by +high mountains and dense forests of heavy timber, with an almost +impenetrable undergrowth. Notwithstanding these difficulties, Mr. +Conway, one of the telegraph engineers, made an exploration of the +entire route, during the latter part of last winter, on snow-shoes, +being at one time three days in the woods without food or blankets.</p> + +<p>From Yale to the Quesnell River, a distance of some three hundred miles, +the line will follow the wagon-road, which has been built at an enormous +expense by the Colonial Government, as a means of communication with the +gold-mining regions of Carriboo. It will be a matter of considerable +difficulty to set up a line of telegraph over that portion of this road +which passes through the great canon, as in many places the road has a +perpendicular wall of rock upon one side and a perpendicular precipice +on the other, and in one place is carried around the face of a cliff in +this manner, at an elevation of some two thousand feet, directly over +the river, being in some places blasted out of the solid rock, and in +others supported by a sort of staging.</p> + +<p>Two exploring parties have been dispatched from San Francisco: one to +examine the route through Eastern Siberia, between Behring's Strait and +the Amoor; and the other to follow the proposed route up the Frazer +River in British Columbia, and thence along the valley supposed to exist +between the Rocky Mountains and the Coast Range, to the head-waters of +Pelly River, following down the valley of this river and the Yerkin, +into which it empties, to a point near the mouth of the latter, or in +the neighborhood of Behring's Strait.</p> + +<p>The Pacific Telegraph Line, which will form an important link in the +overland line to Europe, was projected in 1859, when the measure was +first brought to the attention of Congress. A bill in aid of the project +was passed after some opposition, and proposals for the construction of +the line were invited by Secretary Cobb. Mr. Hiram Sibley, President of +the Western Union Telegraph Company, who was really the originator of +the whole enterprise, submitted to the directors of the Company the +question of authorizing him to send in proposals; but so formidable did +the undertaking appear, that the proposition was carried only by a +single vote.</p> + +<p>After long and tedious delays on the part of Secretary Cobb, the +contract for building the line was awarded, on the 20th of September, +1860, to Mr. Sibley, on behalf of the Western Union Telegraph Company. +The Company at once assumed the contract, and furnished all the money +required for the line east of Salt Lake.</p> + +<p>Mr. J. H. Wade, of Cleveland, one of the officers of the Company, now +visited California to confer with parties familiar with the various +routes, to determine where and how to build the line, and to arrange +with the telegraph companies in the Pacific States to extend their lines +eastward and form a business connection. The California Company agreed +to assume the construction of the line to Salt Lake City, and, if +possible, to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_608" id="Page_608">[Pg 608]</a></span> have it completed to that point as soon as the line from +the eastward reached there. The route selected was <i>viâ</i> Forts Kearney, +Laramie, and Bridger, crossing the Rocky Mountains at the South Pass, +and thence to Salt Lake City; and from this point, <i>viâ</i> Forts +Crittenden and Churchill, across the Sierra Nevada Mountains to +Placerville and San Francisco. Mr. Edward Creighton, who had already +surveyed the proposed route, and was convinced of the feasibility of +maintaining a line over it, was appointed superintendent of +construction.</p> + +<p>The Company was organized April 17th, 1862, after which time nearly all +the wire, insulators, and other material had to be manufactured before +the construction of the line could be proceeded with. The reader can +judge of the extent of the preparations required for setting up two +thousand miles of telegraph through a wilderness inhabited only by +Indians and wild beasts, and a part of which was a desert. The materials +and tools were taken to Omaha, Kansas, at which point everything +necessary for the enterprise was gathered in readiness to start +westward.</p> + +<p>Of the force employed on the Pacific side we have no knowledge; but for +the line from Omaha to Salt Lake City, Mr. Creighton had four hundred +men, fitted out for a hard campaign, with a rifle and navy-revolver for +each man, and with the necessary provisions, including one hundred head +of cattle for beef, to be driven with the train and killed as needed. +For the transportation of the material and the supplies for this army of +workmen, five hundred oxen and mules and over one hundred wagons were +purchased by the Company; and these not proving sufficient, other +transportation was hired, making the total number of beasts of burden +seven hundred oxen and one hundred pair of mules.</p> + +<p>The first pole was set up on the 4th of July, 1862, and the line was +completed to Salt Lake on the 18th of October following,—the California +party reaching the same point six days later. The work proceeded at the +rate of about ten miles per day.</p> + +<p>The whole line is upon poles,—it being thought best to cross the rivers +in this manner rather than by means of submarine cables. The country is +for the most part bare of wood; the longest distance, however, that +timber had to be drawn in one stretch was two hundred and forty miles. +The poles are of large size, and stand eighty to the mile, more than +half of red cedar, the remainder mostly pine. On the highest mountains, +where the snow accumulates to a great depth during the winter, they are +of extra size, and sufficiently tall to keep the wires above the deepest +snow; they are also placed close enough together to prevent the wire +being broken by an accumulation of snow and sleet.</p> + +<p>The wire used in this line is No. 9 iron, zinc-coated, weighing three +hundred and fifty pounds to the mile, and the total weight used between +Omaha and San Francisco amounts to seven hundred thousand pounds. The +insulators are of glass, protected by a wooden shield, of the pattern +known as the Wade insulator.</p> + +<p>The line is worked by Morse instruments, usually direct from Chicago to +Salt Lake, Hicks's self-acting repeaters being kept in the circuit at +Omaha and Fort Laramie. At Salt Lake the messages are rewritten, and +thence sent direct to San Francisco. The stations average about one for +each fifty miles, and the whole length of the line is inspected twice a +week by persons employed for the purpose. The cost of construction was +about two hundred and fifty dollars per mile.</p> + +<p>No trouble was experienced from Indian depredations until the last +winter. Up to that time the line had worked almost uninterruptedly. Even +during the Indian difficulties of the previous summer and autumn, which +compelled the suspension of the overland mail, the telegraph was not in +any manner molested by the savages. This was supposed to be owing in a +great measure to the influence of superstitious fear<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_609" id="Page_609">[Pg 609]</a></span> among them in +regard to the wire, which they supposed to be under the especial care of +the Great Spirit; but it was probably largely due also to the many kind +offices done them by the telegraph-operators, who frequently ascertained +where the buffalo were in force, and informed their red-skinned +neighbors, who were thus enabled to find their favorite game. The charm +is now, however, unfortunately, dispelled; and the savages take every +opportunity to break and carry off the wire and destroy the poles. +Government is dispatching a large force of cavalry to punish the +marauders and protect the line, which it is to be hoped may prove +effectual.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>It has already been mentioned that the Russian Government has undertaken +to extend the main eastern and western line from Irkoutsk to the mouth +of the Amoor River. This extension is now rapidly progressing. But this +is only a single and not very prominent part of the work which the +Emperor of Russia has begun. His design embraces nothing less than the +following stupendous works, namely:—</p> + +<p>A line, with the necessary submarine cables, from the mouth of the Amoor +River, across the Straits of Tartary, over the island of Sakhalien, +across the Straits of La Pérouse, over the Island of Jesso, through +Hakodadi, and across the Straits of Sangar, to Jeddo, the capital of +Japan.</p> + +<p>A line from the confluence of the Usuri with the Amoor, seven hundred +miles above the mouth of the latter, thence southward, on the bank of +the Usuri, to Lake Kingka, and thence to the port of Vladi Vastok, on +the coast of Tartary, opposite the port of Hakodadi, on the eastern +coast of the Japanese Sea. Vladi Vastok is selected by the Emperor for +his naval station on the Pacific coast.</p> + +<p>A line from Irkoutsk, the capital of Eastern Siberia, through Kiakhta, +now the entrepôt of European and Chinese overland commerce, through the +vast territory of the Mongols, to the gate in the Chinese wall at Yahol, +and thence to Pekin, the capital of the Chinese Empire.<a name="FNanchor_E_5" id="FNanchor_E_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_E_5" class="fnanchor">[E]</a></p> + +<p>A line from a station on the main continental line at Omsk, near the +southern boundary of Asiatic Russia, passing through Mongolia, and +entering China at Hirck, sometimes called Illy, thence crossing +Turkistan, Bokhara, and Balk, to Cabool, in Afghanistan, thence to +capital places in the Punjaub, where it will meet the telegraphic system +of India, and thus become a medium of communication between London and +the colonial dependencies of Great Britain, Holland, Spain, and +Portugal, on the shores and islands of the great Indian Ocean.</p> + +<p>A line from Kasan, on the main central Russian line, through Georgia and +Circassia, along the western shore of the Caspian Sea, to Teheran, the +capital of Persia, thence to the Tigris, at Bagdad, thence descending +along the banks of that river to the head of the Persian Gulf, there to +be connected with the Oriental telegraph system of India.</p> + +<p>The line from Irkoutsk to Pekin American citizens residing in China are +now soliciting, with good prospect of success, permission from the +Chinese Government to extend through the Empire, with the needful +branches, connecting the principal ports along the Pacific coast, +opposite California. A company to carry out this project has been +organized under the laws of the State of New York. The wires of this +company are first to be put up from Canton to Macao and Hong Kong, a +distance of 140 miles,—Canton having a population of 1,000,000, +Hong-Kong of 40,000, and the trade of both cities world-famous. Lying +245 miles north is Amoy, with 250,000 inhabitants; and 120 miles farther +in the same direction is Foochow, a city with a population of 600,000, +and within 70 miles of the black-tea districts, with large commerce, and +with numerous manufactures<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_610" id="Page_610">[Pg 610]</a></span> of great value. Beyond it 250 miles is +Ningpo, with 300,000 inhabitants, and thriving manufactures of silks. +Eighty miles north is Shanghai, a city of not less than 200,000 +inhabitants, and possessing a larger inland or native trade than any +other in China. Yet between these great marts there is no telegraphic +communication whatever,—nor, indeed, is there a line in any part of the +whole Chinese Empire. The company proposes, therefore, to connect these +great commercial cities, and, having done that, to carry on its line to +Nankin, with its 400,000 inhabitants, and thence to Pekin, which has a +population of 2,000,000, and is the capital of an empire spread over an +area of 5,000,000 square miles, and containing more than 420,000,000 +souls, who pay to the Government an annual revenue of $120,000,000. It +may well be understood, that, for Government purposes alone, a line of +telegraph thus extending between the chief cities of China will prove of +incalculable value, alike in its use, and in its profits to those who +erect it and receive its income. The enterprise is a great one, but its +reward will be great. Its successful accomplishment seems to be well +assured; and New York may expect presently to claim the honor of first +giving to the oldest of existing empires the beneficent invention which +the newest of nations created, and at the same time of taking the final +step for the completion of the one great line which is to put all the +countries of the earth in instant communication.</p> + +<p>A line from Calcutta to Canton is already undertaken by an English +company, with due authority from the British Government.</p> + +<p>In Australia there are now in operation twelve thousand miles of +telegraph-wire. This Australian system, which is at present so purely +local and isolated, is nevertheless expected to be brought into +combination, by alternating submarine and island wires, with the Chinese +and Russian line above described.</p> + +<p>The statistics of the telegraph-lines in Great Britain show not only an +increase in the number of lines, but a great augmentation in the amount +of business transacted. In 1861 there were 11,528 miles of line open for +public use; in 1862, 12,711 miles; and in 1863, 13,892 miles, comprising +65,012 miles of wire. Last year, the number of stations was augmented in +like proportion; and facilities were offered for the transmission of +telegraphic dispatches at no fewer than 1,755 stations, containing 6,196 +instruments, through which about 3,400,000 telegrams were sent. In +addition to the lines on British soil, the Submarine Telegraph Company +has cables stretching to Calais, Boulogne, Dieppe, Jersey, Ostend, +Hanover, and Denmark, with which the other lines are more or less in +connection, covering 887 miles with 2,683 miles of wire. This company +has upwards of 3,000 stations on the Continent. The messages sent by it +to and from foreign countries were, in 1861, 230,000; in 1862, 310,595; +and in 1863, 345,784.</p> + +<p>France possesses a system comprising 71,034 miles of wire and 1,301 +stations, which transmit about 1,500,000 private dispatches annually, +and nearly 175,000 official ones. Russia has 36,663 miles of wire; +Austria, 22,230; Italy, 20,120; Prussia, 24,149; Spain, 17,743; Belgium, +3,773; Switzerland, 3,720; Turkey, 6,571; Persia, 2,500; Greece, 3,000; +India, 10,994, and 136 stations; Australia, 12,000; South Australia, +2,000; the United States, 120,000; the British Provinces in America, +20,000;—making a total of upwards of 440,000 miles of aërial wire in +operation in all parts of the world.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The following tables give the details of the principal cables hitherto +laid by all makers. They are divided into three heads: 1st, Those which +have been wholly successful, and are now working (September, 1865); 2d, +Those which were partially successful, having worked for a time; 3d, +Those which wholly failed, or never worked after their submergence.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_611" id="Page_611">[Pg 611]</a></span></p> + +<h3><span class="smcap">Table I.</span></h3> + +<h3><i>Submarine Telegraph Cables which are now in Successful Working Order.</i></h3> + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="1" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='left'> No.</td><td align='left'>Date when laid.</td><td align='left'>From</td><td align='left'>To</td><td align='left'>Number of conducting wires.</td><td align='left'>Length of cable in statute miles.</td><td align='left'>Length of insulated wire in statute miles.</td><td align='left'>Maximum depth of water in fathoms.</td><td align='left'>Weight in tons per statute mile.</td><td align='left'>Length of time the cables have worked. Years.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>1851</td><td align='left'>Dover</td><td align='left'>Calais</td><td align='left'>4</td><td align='left'>27</td><td align='left'>108</td><td align='left'>30</td><td align='left'>6.00</td><td align='left'>14</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>2</td><td align='left'>1852</td><td align='left'>Keyhaven</td><td align='left'>Hurst Castle</td><td align='left'>4</td><td align='left'>3</td><td align='left'>12</td><td align='left'>..</td><td align='left'>..</td><td align='left'>13</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>3</td><td align='left'>1853</td><td align='left'>Denmark</td><td align='left'>Across the Belt</td><td align='left'>3</td><td align='left'>18</td><td align='left'>54</td><td align='left'>15</td><td align='left'>4.00</td><td align='left'>12</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>4</td><td align='left'>1853</td><td align='left'>Dover</td><td align='left'>Ostend</td><td align='left'>6</td><td align='left'>80-1/2</td><td align='left'>483</td><td align='left'>30</td><td align='left'>5.75</td><td align='left'>12</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>5</td><td align='left'>1853</td><td align='left'>Firth of Forth</td><td align='left'>...</td><td align='left'>4</td><td align='left'>5</td><td align='left'>20</td><td align='left'>..</td><td align='left'>7.00</td><td align='left'>12</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>6</td><td align='left'>1853</td><td align='left'>England</td><td align='left'>Holland</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>120</td><td align='left'>120</td><td align='left'>30</td><td align='left'>1.75</td><td align='left'>12</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>7</td><td align='left'>1853</td><td align='left'>Portpatrick</td><td align='left'>Donaghadee</td><td align='left'>6</td><td align='left'>25</td><td align='left'>150</td><td align='left'>160</td><td align='left'>6.00</td><td align='left'>12</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>8</td><td align='left'>1854</td><td align='left'>Portpatrick</td><td align='left'>Whitehead</td><td align='left'>6</td><td align='left'>27</td><td align='left'>162</td><td align='left'>150</td><td align='left'>6.00</td><td align='left'>11</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>9</td><td align='left'>1854</td><td align='left'>Sweden</td><td align='left'>Denmark</td><td align='left'>3</td><td align='left'>12</td><td align='left'>36</td><td align='left'>14</td><td align='left'>6.00</td><td align='left'>11</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>10</td><td align='left'>1854</td><td align='left'>Italy</td><td align='left'>Corsica</td><td align='left'>6</td><td align='left'>120</td><td align='left'>660</td><td align='left'>325</td><td align='left'>8.00</td><td align='left'>11</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>11</td><td align='left'>1854</td><td align='left'>Corsica</td><td align='left'>Sardinia</td><td align='left'>6</td><td align='left'>10</td><td align='left'>60</td><td align='left'>20</td><td align='left'>8.00</td><td align='left'>11</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>12</td><td align='left'>1855</td><td align='left'>Egypt</td><td align='left'>...</td><td align='left'>4</td><td align='left'>10</td><td align='left'>40</td><td align='left'>..</td><td align='left'>6.00</td><td align='left'>10</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>13</td><td align='left'>1855</td><td align='left'>Italy</td><td align='left'>Sicily</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>5</td><td align='left'>5</td><td align='left'>27</td><td align='left'>6.00</td><td align='left'>10</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>14</td><td align='left'>1856</td><td align='left'>Prince Edward Island</td><td align='left'>Cape Breton</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>12</td><td align='left'>12</td><td align='left'>14</td><td align='left'>2.50</td><td align='left'>9</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>15</td><td align='left'>1857</td><td align='left'>Norway across Fiords</td><td align='left'>...</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>49</td><td align='left'>49</td><td align='left'>300</td><td align='left'>2.75</td><td align='left'>8</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>16</td><td align='left'>1857</td><td align='left'>Across mouth of Danube</td><td align='left'>...</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>3</td><td align='left'>3</td><td align='left'>..</td><td align='left'>1.75</td><td align='left'>8</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>17</td><td align='left'>1857</td><td align='left'>Ceylon</td><td align='left'>India</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>60</td><td align='left'>60</td><td align='left'>45</td><td align='left'>2.75</td><td align='left'>8</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>18</td><td align='left'>1858</td><td align='left'>Italy</td><td align='left'>Sicily</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>8</td><td align='left'>8</td><td align='left'>60</td><td align='left'>5.25</td><td align='left'>7</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>19</td><td align='left'>1858</td><td align='left'>England</td><td align='left'>Holland</td><td align='left'>4</td><td align='left'>140</td><td align='left'>560</td><td align='left'>30</td><td align='left'>9.75</td><td align='left'>7</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>20</td><td align='left'>1858</td><td align='left'>England</td><td align='left'>Hanover</td><td align='left'>2</td><td align='left'>280</td><td align='left'>560</td><td align='left'>30</td><td align='left'>3.00</td><td align='left'>7</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>21</td><td align='left'>1858</td><td align='left'>Norway across Fiords</td><td align='left'>...</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>16</td><td align='left'>16</td><td align='left'>300</td><td align='left'>2.75</td><td align='left'>7</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>22</td><td align='left'>1858</td><td align='left'>Dardanelles</td><td align='left'>Scio</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>115</td><td align='left'>115</td><td align='left'>200</td><td align='left'>1.00</td><td align='left'>7</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>23</td><td align='left'>1858</td><td align='left'>Scio</td><td align='left'>Syra</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>85</td><td align='left'>85</td><td align='left'>200</td><td align='left'>1.00</td><td align='left'>7</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>24</td><td align='left'>1859</td><td align='left'>Alexandria</td><td align='left'>...</td><td align='left'>4</td><td align='left'>2</td><td align='left'>8</td><td align='left'>..</td><td align='left'>5.25</td><td align='left'>6</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>25</td><td align='left'>1859</td><td align='left'>England</td><td align='left'>Denmark</td><td align='left'>3</td><td align='left'>360</td><td align='left'>1,104</td><td align='left'>30</td><td align='left'>4.00</td><td align='left'>6</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>26</td><td align='left'>1859</td><td align='left'>Scio</td><td align='left'>Smyrna</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>40</td><td align='left'>40</td><td align='left'>40</td><td align='left'>1.00</td><td align='left'>6</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>27</td><td align='left'>1859</td><td align='left'>Syra</td><td align='left'>Athens</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>105</td><td align='left'>105</td><td align='left'>150</td><td align='left'>1.00</td><td align='left'>6</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>28</td><td align='left'>1859</td><td align='left'>Sweden</td><td align='left'>Gottland</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>64</td><td align='left'>64</td><td align='left'>80</td><td align='left'>2.50</td><td align='left'>6</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>29</td><td align='left'>1859</td><td align='left'>Folkestone</td><td align='left'>Boulogne</td><td align='left'>6</td><td align='left'>24</td><td align='left'>144</td><td align='left'>32</td><td align='left'>9.50</td><td align='left'>6</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>30</td><td align='left'>1859</td><td align='left'>Across rivers in India</td><td align='left'>...</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>10</td><td align='left'>10</td><td align='left'>..</td><td align='left'>4.50</td><td align='left'>6</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>31</td><td align='left'>1859</td><td align='left'>Otranto</td><td align='left'>Avlona</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>50</td><td align='left'>50</td><td align='left'>400</td><td align='left'>1.00</td><td align='left'>6</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>32</td><td align='left'>1859</td><td align='left'>Malta</td><td align='left'>Sicily</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>60</td><td align='left'>60</td><td align='left'>79</td><td align='left'>3.25</td><td align='left'>6</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>33</td><td align='left'>1859</td><td align='left'>Jersey</td><td align='left'>Pirou in France</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>21</td><td align='left'>21</td><td align='left'>15</td><td align='left'>3.75</td><td align='left'>6</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>34</td><td align='left'>1859</td><td align='left'>South Australia</td><td align='left'>Tasmania</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>140</td><td align='left'>140</td><td align='left'>60</td><td align='left'>2.00</td><td align='left'>6</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>35</td><td align='left'>1860</td><td align='left'>France</td><td align='left'>Algiers</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>520</td><td align='left'>520</td><td align='left'>1,585</td><td align='left'>1.14</td><td align='left'>5</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>36</td><td align='left'>1860</td><td align='left'>Denmark</td><td align='left'>(Great Belt)</td><td align='left'>6</td><td align='left'>14</td><td align='left'>84</td><td align='left'>18</td><td align='left'>8.00</td><td align='left'>5</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>37</td><td align='left'>1860</td><td align='left'>Denmark</td><td align='left'>(Great Belt)</td><td align='left'>3</td><td align='left'>14</td><td align='left'>42</td><td align='left'>18</td><td align='left'>6.00</td><td align='left'>5</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>38</td><td align='left'>1860</td><td align='left'>In Arracan</td><td align='left'>...</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>116</td><td align='left'>116</td><td align='left'>50</td><td align='left'>1.00</td><td align='left'>5</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>39</td><td align='left'>1860</td><td align='left'>Barcelona</td><td align='left'>Port Mahon</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>198</td><td align='left'>198</td><td align='left'>1,400</td><td align='left'>1.25</td><td align='left'>5</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>40</td><td align='left'>1860</td><td align='left'>Minorca</td><td align='left'>Majorca</td><td align='left'>2</td><td align='left'>35</td><td align='left'>70</td><td align='left'>250</td><td align='left'>2.00</td><td align='left'>5</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>41</td><td align='left'>1860</td><td align='left'>Iviza</td><td align='left'>Majorca</td><td align='left'>2</td><td align='left'>74</td><td align='left'>148</td><td align='left'>500</td><td align='left'>2.00</td><td align='left'>5</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>42</td><td align='left'>1860</td><td align='left'>San Antonio</td><td align='left'>Iviza</td><td align='left'>2</td><td align='left'>76</td><td align='left'>152</td><td align='left'>450</td><td align='left'>2.00</td><td align='left'>5</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>43</td><td align='left'>1861</td><td align='left'>Corfu</td><td align='left'>Otranto</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>90</td><td align='left'>90</td><td align='left'>1,000</td><td align='left'>2.75</td><td align='left'>4</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>44</td><td align='left'>1861</td><td align='left'>Norway across Fiords</td><td align='left'>...</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>16</td><td align='left'>16</td><td align='left'>300</td><td align='left'>2.75</td><td align='left'>4</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>45</td><td align='left'>1861</td><td align='left'>Toulon</td><td align='left'>Corsica</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>195</td><td align='left'>195</td><td align='left'>1,550</td><td align='left'>1.14</td><td align='left'>4</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>46</td><td align='left'>1861</td><td align='left'>Malta</td><td align='left'>Alexandria</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>1,535</td><td align='left'>1,535</td><td align='left'>420</td><td align='left'>1.85</td><td align='left'>4</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>47</td><td align='left'>1861</td><td align='left'>Beachy Head</td><td align='left'>Dieppe</td><td align='left'>6</td><td align='left'>80</td><td align='left'>320</td><td align='left'>30</td><td align='left'>8.00</td><td align='left'>4</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>48</td><td align='left'>1862</td><td align='left'>Abermawr</td><td align='left'>Grenore</td><td align='left'>4</td><td align='left'>63</td><td align='left'>252</td><td align='left'>58</td><td align='left'>5.25</td><td align='left'>3</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>49</td><td align='left'>1862</td><td align='left'>England</td><td align='left'>Holland</td><td align='left'>4</td><td align='left'>130</td><td align='left'>520</td><td align='left'>30</td><td align='left'>9.00</td><td align='left'>3</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>50</td><td align='left'>1862</td><td align='left'>Across rivers in Ireland</td><td align='left'>...</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>2</td><td align='left'>2</td><td align='left'>..</td><td align='left'>..</td><td align='left'>3</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>51</td><td align='left'>1862</td><td align='left'>Firth of Forth</td><td align='left'>...</td><td align='left'>4</td><td align='left'>6</td><td align='left'>24</td><td align='left'>7</td><td align='left'>..</td><td align='left'>3</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>52</td><td align='left'>1862</td><td align='left'>Fortress Monroe</td><td align='left'>Cherrystone</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>23</td><td align='left'>23</td><td align='left'>..</td><td align='left'>..</td><td align='left'>3</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>53</td><td align='left'>1862</td><td align='left'>Fortress Monroe</td><td align='left'>Newport News</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>3</td><td align='left'>3</td><td align='left'>..</td><td align='left'>..</td><td align='left'>3</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>54</td><td align='left'>1863</td><td align='left'>Sardinia</td><td align='left'>Sicily</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>243</td><td align='left'>243</td><td align='left'>1,200</td><td align='left'>..</td><td align='left'>2</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>55</td><td align='left'>1864</td><td align='left'>Gwadur (Persian Gulf)</td><td align='left'>Fao</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>1,450</td><td align='left'>1,450</td><td align='left'>..</td><td align='left'>..</td><td align='left'>1</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'></td><td align='left'></td><td align='left'></td><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>_____</td><td align='left'>______</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'></td><td align='left'></td><td align='left'></td><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>6,979</td><td align='left'>11,127</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<p>In addition to the above, there have been laid across American rivers, +since 1854, 95 lines, in lengths of from 120 feet to two miles, and +comprising from 120 feet to 6 miles of insulated wire each,—making an +aggregate of 250 miles of subaqueous wire in operation on this +continent, and a total of 6,979 miles of cable, and 11,127 miles of +submarine wire in operation in all parts of the world.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_612" id="Page_612">[Pg 612]</a></span></p> + +<h3><span class="smcap">Table II.</span></h3> + +<h3><i>Submarine Telegraph Cables which have been successful for some Time, but are not now working.</i></h3> + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="1" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='left'> No.</td><td align='left'>Date when laid.</td><td align='left'>From</td><td align='left'>To</td><td align='left'>Number of conducting wires.</td><td align='left'>Length of cable in statute miles.</td><td align='left'>Length insulated wire in statute miles.</td><td align='left'>Maximum depth of water in fathoms.</td><td align='left'>Weight in tons per statute mile.</td><td align='left'>Length of time the cables have worked.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>1850</td><td align='left'>Dover</td><td align='left'>Calais</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>25</td><td align='left'>25</td><td align='left'>30</td><td align='left'>..</td><td align='left'>1 day.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>2</td><td align='left'>1853</td><td align='left'>England (Three Cables)</td><td align='left'>Holland</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>360</td><td align='left'>360</td><td align='left'>30</td><td align='left'>2.00</td><td align='left'>5 yrs.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>3</td><td align='left'>1854</td><td align='left'>Holyhead</td><td align='left'>Howth</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>75</td><td align='left'>75</td><td align='left'>70</td><td align='left'>2.00</td><td align='left'>5 "</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>4</td><td align='left'>1854</td><td align='left'>Nantucket</td><td align='left'>Cape Cod</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>25</td><td align='left'>25</td><td align='left'>16</td><td align='left'>..</td><td align='left'>....</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>5</td><td align='left'>1855</td><td align='left'>Varna</td><td align='left'>Balaklava</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>355</td><td align='left'>355</td><td align='left'>300</td><td align='left'>0.10</td><td align='left'>9 mos.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>6</td><td align='left'>1855</td><td align='left'>Balaklava</td><td align='left'>Eupatoria</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>..</td><td align='left'>..</td><td align='left'>9 "</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>7</td><td align='left'>1856</td><td align='left'>Martha's Vineyard</td><td align='left'>Cape Cod</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>5</td><td align='left'>5</td><td align='left'>15</td><td align='left'>..</td><td align='left'>2 wks.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>8</td><td align='left'>1856</td><td align='left'>Newfoundland</td><td align='left'>Cape Breton</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>85</td><td align='left'>85</td><td align='left'>360</td><td align='left'>2.50</td><td align='left'>9 yrs.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>9</td><td align='left'>1857</td><td align='left'>Sardinia</td><td align='left'>Bona</td><td align='left'>4</td><td align='left'>150</td><td align='left'>600</td><td align='left'>1,500</td><td align='left'>..</td><td align='left'>3 "</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>10</td><td align='left'>1857</td><td align='left'>Varna</td><td align='left'>Constantinople</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>170</td><td align='left'>170</td><td align='left'>..</td><td align='left'>0.75</td><td align='left'>5 "</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>11</td><td align='left'>1857</td><td align='left'>Cape Cod</td><td align='left'>Naushon</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>..</td><td align='left'>..</td><td align='left'>..</td><td align='left'>2 "</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>12</td><td align='left'>1857</td><td align='left'>Martha's Vineyard</td><td align='left'>Nantucket</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>30</td><td align='left'>30</td><td align='left'>16</td><td align='left'>..</td><td align='left'>4 "</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>13</td><td align='left'>1857</td><td align='left'>Sardinia</td><td align='left'>Corfu</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>700</td><td align='left'>700</td><td align='left'>1,000</td><td align='left'>0.90</td><td align='left'>1 "</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>14</td><td align='left'>1858</td><td align='left'>England</td><td align='left'>Channel Islands</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>102</td><td align='left'>102</td><td align='left'>60</td><td align='left'>2.50</td><td align='left'>3 "</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>15</td><td align='left'>1858</td><td align='left'>Ireland(Atlantic)</td><td align='left'>Newfoundland</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>2,500</td><td align='left'>2,500</td><td align='left'>2,400</td><td align='left'>1.00</td><td align='left'>23 ds.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>16</td><td align='left'>1859</td><td align='left'>Singapore</td><td align='left'>Batavia</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>630</td><td align='left'>630</td><td align='left'>20</td><td align='left'>0.04</td><td align='left'>2 yrs.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>17</td><td align='left'>1859</td><td align='left'>Suez (Red Sea & India)</td><td align='left'>Kurrachee</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>3,500</td><td align='left'>3,500</td><td align='left'>1,910</td><td align='left'>0.94</td><td align='left'>6 mos.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>18</td><td align='left'>1859</td><td align='left'>Spain</td><td align='left'>Africa (Centa)</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>25</td><td align='left'>25</td><td align='left'>..</td><td align='left'>1.00</td><td align='left'>1 yr.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>19</td><td align='left'>1859</td><td align='left'>England</td><td align='left'>Isle of Man</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>36</td><td align='left'>36</td><td align='left'>30</td><td align='left'>2.50</td><td align='left'>3 yrs.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>20</td><td align='left'>1859</td><td align='left'>South Australia</td><td align='left'>Tasmania</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>100</td><td align='left'>100</td><td align='left'>60</td><td align='left'>2.00</td><td align='left'>1 yr.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>21</td><td align='left'>1859</td><td align='left'>Liverpool</td><td align='left'>Holyhead</td><td align='left'>2</td><td align='left'>25</td><td align='left'>50</td><td align='left'>14</td><td align='left'>3.10</td><td align='left'>1 "</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>22</td><td align='left'>1859</td><td align='left'>Syra</td><td align='left'>Candia</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>150</td><td align='left'>150</td><td align='left'>..</td><td align='left'>0.89</td><td align='left'>3 yrs.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>23</td><td align='left'>1860</td><td align='left'>Across the Mersey</td><td align='left'>..</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>3</td><td align='left'>3</td><td align='left'>..</td><td align='left'>..</td><td align='left'>1 yr.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'></td><td align='left'></td><td align='left'></td><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>_____</td><td align='left'>_____</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'></td><td align='left'></td><td align='left'></td><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>9,053</td><td align='left'>9,527</td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<h3><span class="smcap">Table III.</span></h3> + +<h3><i>Submarine Telegraph Cables Which Are Total Failures.</i></h3> + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="1" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='left'>No.</td><td align='left'>Date when laid.</td><td align='left'>From</td><td align='left'>To</td><td align='left'>Number of conducting wires.</td><td align='left'>Length of cable in statute miles.</td><td align='left'>Length of insulated wire in statute miles.</td><td align='left'>Maximum depth of water in fathoms.</td><td align='left'>Weight in tons per statute mile.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>1852</td><td align='left'>Holyhead</td><td align='left'>Howth</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>75</td><td align='left'>75</td><td align='left'>70</td><td align='left'>0.45</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>2</td><td align='left'>1852</td><td align='left'>Portpatrick</td><td align='left'>Donaghadee</td><td align='left'>2</td><td align='left'>17</td><td align='left'>34</td><td align='left'>160</td><td align='left'>..</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>3</td><td align='left'>1852</td><td align='left'>Portpatrick</td><td align='left'>Donaghadee</td><td align='left'>5</td><td align='left'>15</td><td align='left'>75</td><td align='left'>160</td><td align='left'>4.80</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>4</td><td align='left'>1854</td><td align='left'>Holyhead</td><td align='left'>Howth</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>65</td><td align='left'>65</td><td align='left'>70</td><td align='left'>2.00</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>5</td><td align='left'>1855</td><td align='left'>Sardinia</td><td align='left'>Africa</td><td align='left'>6</td><td align='left'>50</td><td align='left'>300</td><td align='left'>800</td><td align='left'>8.00</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>6</td><td align='left'>1855</td><td align='left'>Cape Ray</td><td align='left'>Cape North</td><td align='left'>3</td><td align='left'>30</td><td align='left'>90</td><td align='left'>360</td><td align='left'>..</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>7</td><td align='left'>1855</td><td align='left'>Sardinia</td><td align='left'>Africa</td><td align='left'>3</td><td align='left'>160</td><td align='left'>480</td><td align='left'>1,500</td><td align='left'>3.70</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>8</td><td align='left'>1857</td><td align='left'>Ireland (Lost in laying)</td><td align='left'>Newfoundland</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>300</td><td align='left'>300</td><td align='left'>2,400</td><td align='left'>..</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>9</td><td align='left'>1859</td><td align='left'>Candia</td><td align='left'>Alexandria</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>150</td><td align='left'>150</td><td align='left'>1,600</td><td align='left'>0.89</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>10</td><td align='left'>1865</td><td align='left'>Ireland</td><td align='left'>Newfoundland</td><td align='left'>1</td><td align='left'>1,300</td><td align='left'>1,300</td><td align='left'>2,400</td><td align='left'>1.75</td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<p>It will be seen from the above list of failures, that the great +extension and success of submarine cables has been attained through many +great failure,—among the most prominent being the old and new Atlantic, +the Red Sea and India, (which was laid in five sections, that worked +from six to nine months each, but was never in working order from end to +end,) the Singapore and Batavia, and Sardinia and Corfu. None of these +cable, with the exception of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_613" id="Page_613">[Pg 613]</a></span> the new Atlantic, were tested under water +after manufacture, and every one of them was covered with a sheathing of +light iron wire, weighing in the aggregate only about fifteen hundred +pounds per mile.</p> + +<p>These two peculiarities are sufficient to account for every failure +which has occurred, with the exception of the new Atlantic. No +electrical test will show the presence of flaws in the insulating cover +of a wire, unless water, or some other conductor, enters the flaws and +establishes an electrical connection between the outside and inside of +the cable. All cables now manufactured are tested under water before +being laid.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Communication between the Ottoman capital and Western Europe passes +through Vienna. From this city to Constantinople there are two distinct +lines,—one passing by Semlin and Belgrade to Adrianople, the other by +Toultcha, Kustendji, and Varna. There is a third line to Adrianople by +Bucharest; and by the opening of the submarine line between Avlona and +Otranto, in Italy, the Turkish telegraph service will be in direct +communication with the West, without going through Servia or the +Moldo-Wallachian Principalities.</p> + +<p>Communication between Constantinople and India is maintained over the +following route:—To Ismid, 55 miles; thence to Mudurli, 104 miles; +thence to Angora, 111 miles; thence to Guzgat, 113 miles; thence to +Sivas, 140 miles; Kharpoot, 178 miles; Diarbekir, 77 miles; Mardeen, 61 +miles; Djezireh, 104 miles; Mosul, (Nineveh,) 91 miles; Kerkook, 114 +miles; Bagdad, 189 miles. From Bagdad to Fao, at the mouth of the +Shat-el-Arab, on the Persian Gulf, is 400 miles. From Fao to Kurrachee +the submarine cable stretches along the bottom of the Persian Gulf for +1,450 miles; and thence are 500 miles of aërial line across a portion of +British India to Bombay.</p> + +<p>The accounts of the successful opening of this line tell of the +astonishment of the savage Beloochees and Arabs along the Mekran coast +at the marvel of a blue spark flashing for the Sahib to the Indus and +back again in less time than it takes to smoke a hookah. At Gwadur, no +sooner was the cable landed than the people of the surrounding country +flocked down to hear and talk of the Feringhee witchcraft. Chiefs of the +Beloochees, Muscatees, and Heratees, with their retainers, trod upon +each other's toes in their eagerness to see it work. Gwadur has given up +the idea that Mahomet taught everything that could be known, and now +sits upon the carpet of astonishment and chews the betel-nut of +meditation.</p> + +<p>The establishment of the electric telegraph in India presented some +curious as well as difficult problems. In the first place, it was +discovered that the air of India is in a state of constant electrical +perturbation of the strongest kind, so that the instruments there +mounted went into a high fever and refused to work. Along the north and +south lines a current of electricity was constantly passing, which threw +the needles out of gear and baffled the signallers. Moreover, the +tremendous thunder-storms ran up and down the wires and melted the +conductors; the monsoon winds tore the teak-posts out of the sodden +ground; the elephants and buffaloes trampled the fallen lines into kinks +and tangles; the Delta aborigines carried off the timber supports for +fuel, and the wires or iron rods upon them to make bracelets and to +supply the Hindoo smitheries; the cotton- and rice-boats, kedging up and +down the river, dragged the subaqueous wires to the surface. In addition +to these graver difficulties were many of an amusing character. Wild +pigs and tigers scratched their skins against the posts in the jungle, +and porcupines and bandicoots burrowed them out of the ground. Kites, +fishing-eagles, and hooded-crows came in hundreds and perched upon the +line to see what on earth it could mean, and sometimes after a +thunder-storm, when the wires were wet, were found dead by dozens, the +victims of their curiosity, Monkeys climbed the posts and ran along the +lines, chattering, and dropping<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_614" id="Page_614">[Pg 614]</a></span> an interfering tail from one wire to +another, which tended to confound the conversations of Calcutta. +Parrots, with the same contempt for electrical insulation, fastened upon +one string by the beak and another by the leg; and in one village, the +complacent natives hung their fishing-lines to dry upon them.</p> + +<p>In 1856 there were four thousand miles of telegraph-wire stretched over +India: some upon bamboo posts, which bent to the storms and thus defied +them; some, as in the Madras Presidency, upon monoliths of +granite,—these, during the Mutiny, proving worth ten times their cost.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Whilst the telegraph has been thus rapidly encircling the globe with its +iron threads, great improvement has been made in the apparatus for +transmitting the electrical signals over them. Instruments called +translators, or repeaters, have been devised, by which aërial lines may +be operated, without repetition, over distances of many thousands of +miles. Through the use of this valuable invention upon the California +line, operators in New York and San Francisco are able to converse as +readily and rapidly as those situated at the extremities of a line only +a hundred miles in length.</p> + +<p>The enormous increase in the amount of matter to be transmitted over the +wires has stimulated the inventive genius of our own country and Europe +to produce an apparatus by which the capacity of a wire may be greatly +increased. Mr. M. G. Farmer of Boston, Mr. J. G. Smith of Portland, +Maine, Dr. Gintl of Germany, and one or two other persons, have solved +the problem of the simultaneous transmission of messages over a single +wire in opposite directions. But while their apparatus, with the proper +arrangement of batteries, will unquestionably permit the accomplishment +of this apparent paradox, the natural disturbances upon a wire of any +considerable length, together with the inequalities of the current +caused by escape in wet weather, have precluded its practical use.</p> + +<p>In this country, General Lefferts of New York, and in Europe, Professor +Bonelli, have devoted much time and expense to the perfection of +apparatus for securing greater rapidity of transmission over the aërial +lines.</p> + +<p>General Lefferts owns several patents covering inventions of great +ingenuity and value, which are now being perfected and will shortly be +brought into operation. The apparatus consists of an instrument, +operated by keys similar to those of a piano-forte, for punching +characters, composed of dots and lines, upon a narrow strip of paper. +The paper, when thus prepared, is passed rapidly through an instrument +attached to a telegraph-wire, at the other end of which is a similar +instrument which runs in unison. The first instrument is provided with a +flexible metallic comb, which presses through the perforations in the +paper and thus closes the circuit at each dot and line, while the second +instrument is provided with a metallic stylus, or pointer, which rests +upon a fillet of paper prepared with chemicals, and produces, whenever +the circuit is closed, dots and lines of a dark blue color upon the +prepared paper. When the paper is prepared by the perforating apparatus, +it can be run through the instrument at any rate of speed that is +desirable, and it is estimated that with this apparatus one wire may +easily perform as much work in a day as ten can under the ordinary +arrangement.</p> + +<p>In Professor Bonelli's system the dispatch is set up in printing-type, +and placed on a little carriage, which is made to pass beneath a comb +with five teeth, which are in communication with five aërial wires of +the line, at the extremity of which these same wires are joined to the +five teeth of a second comb, under which passes a chemically prepared +paper, carried along on a little carriage similar to the one at the +other end on which the printing-type is placed. If under this +arrangement the electric circuit of a battery composed of a sufficient +number of elements, and distributed in a certain order, be completed, +then, at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_615" id="Page_615">[Pg 615]</a></span> the same time that the first comb is passing over the +printing-type at the one end, the second comb at the other end will +trace the dispatch on the prepared paper in beautiful Roman letters, and +with so great a rapidity that it may be expected that five hundred +messages of twenty words each will be transmitted hourly.</p> + +<p>On Wednesday, April 19th, the day of Mr. Lincoln's funeral, eighty-five +thousand words of reports were transmitted between Washington and New +York, between the hours of 7, <span class="smcap">p. m.</span>, and 1, <span class="smcap">a. m.</span>, being at the rate of +over fourteen thousand words per hour. Nine wires were employed for the +purpose. Thirteen thousand six hundred words were transmitted by the +House printing instruments on a single wire after half past seven +o'clock.</p> + +<p>A telegraphic message was recently received in London from India in +eight hours and a half. This message was forwarded by the Indo-European +Telegraph Company, <i>viâ</i> Kurrachee and the Persian Gulf, crossing one +half of Asia and the whole of Europe.</p> + +<p>During the late Rebellion in this country the telegraph was extensively +employed both by the Government and the Insurgents. In the course of the +past year, there have been in the service of the Government thirty +field-trains, distributed as follows:—In the Army of the Potomac, five; +in the Department of the Cumberland, five; in the Department of the +Gulf, three; in the Department of North Carolina and Virginia, three; in +the Department of the South, two; in the Department of the Tennessee, +six; in the Department of the Ohio, two; at the Signal Camp of +Instruction, Georgetown, D. C., three; at the United States Military +Academy, West Point, New York, one. Of these trains, some were equipped +with five, and others with ten miles of insulated wire. There were +carried in the trains lances for setting up the wire, when +necessary,—reels, portable by hand, carrying wire made purposely +flexible for this particular use,—and various minor appliances, which +experience has proved useful. A military organization was directed for +each train.</p> + +<p>In duty of this kind, the construction of the trains, the equipment to +be carried by them, and the military organization to be provided for +their use, to enable them to be most rapidly and anywhere brought into +action, are the subjects for study: the particular instrument to be +equipped is a secondary consideration. The soldiers drilled to the duty +of construction acquire in a short time a remarkable skill in the rapid +extension of these lines. As was anticipated, they have proved valuable +auxiliaries to the services of the corps, and have sometimes rendered +them available when they would have been otherwise useless. The greatest +distance at which the instruments are reported to have worked is twenty +miles. The average distances at which they are used are from five to +eight miles. The average speed of the most rapid construction is +reported to be at the rate of a slow walk.</p> + +<p>At the first Battle of Fredericksburg field-trains were for the first +time in the history of the war used on the battle-field, under the fire +of the enemy's batteries. The movements to be made on the day of that +battle were of the first magnitude. The movements of the retreat were +perilous to the whole army. The trains in use contributed something to +the success of those movements.</p> + +<p>Many incidents are recorded of operators accompanying raiding parties +into the enemy's territory and tapping the telegraph-lines, sometimes +obtaining valuable information. One is related by the "Selma Rebel." The +operator at that place was called to his instrument by some one up the +Tennessee and Alabama Road, who desired information as to the number of +the forces and supplies at Coosa Bridge. After getting all the +information he could, regarding the location and strength of the Rebel +forces, he informed the Selma operator that he was attached to the +expedition under General Wilson, and that, at that particular time, he +was stationed with his instruments up<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_616" id="Page_616">[Pg 616]</a></span> a tree near Monticello, in the +hardest rain he ever saw! Permission being given, he sent a dispatch to +a young lady in Mobile, and another to a telegraph-operator in the Rebel +lines, telling him he loved him as much as before the war. After some +other conversation, the Yankee operator clambered down from the tree, +mounted his horse, and rode away.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_E_5" id="Footnote_E_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_E_5"><span class="label">[E]</span></a> The Chinese Government has been informed by the Russian +Ambassador that the Russian portion of this line to Pekin will be +completed by the first of January, 1868.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_FIELD_OF_GETTYSBURG" id="THE_FIELD_OF_GETTYSBURG"></a>THE FIELD OF GETTYSBURG.</h2> + + +<p>In the month of August, 1865, I set out to visit some of the scenes of +the great conflict through which the country has lately passed.</p> + +<p>On the twelfth, I reached Harrisburg,—a plain, prosaic town of brick +and wood, with nothing especially attractive about it, except its +broad-sheeted, shining river, flowing down from the Blue Ridge, around +wooded islands, and between pleasant shores.</p> + +<p>It is in this region that the traveller from the North first meets with +indications of recent actual war. The Susquehanna, on the eastern shore +of which the city stands, forms the northern limit of Rebel military +operations. The "highwater mark of the Rebellion" is here: along these +banks its uttermost ripples died. The bluffs opposite the town are still +crested with the hastily constructed breastworks, on which the citizens +worked night and day in the pleasant month of June, 1863, throwing up, +as it were, a dike against the tide of invasion. These defences were of +no practical value. They were unfinished when the Rebels appeared in +force in the vicinity. Harrisburg might easily have been taken, and a +way opened into the heart of the North. But a Power greater than man's +ruled the event. The Power that lifted these azure hills, and spread out +the green valleys, and hollowed a passage for the stream, appointed to +treason also a limit and a term. "Thus far, and no farther."</p> + +<p>The surrounding country is full of lively reminiscences of those +terrible times. Panic-stricken populations flying at the approach of the +enemy; whole families fugitive from homes none thought of defending; +flocks and herds, horses, wagon-loads of promiscuously heaped household +stuffs and farm produce; men, women, children, riding, walking, running, +driving or leading their bewildered four-footed chattels,—all rushing +forward with clamor and alarm under clouds of dust, crowding every road +to the river, and thundering across the long bridges regardless of the +"five-dollars-fine" notice (though it is to be hoped that the +toll-takers did their duty):—such were the scenes which occurred to +render the Rebel invasion memorable. The thrifty German farmers of the +lower counties did not gain much credit either for courage or patriotism +at that time. It was a panic, however, to which almost any community +would have been liable. Stuart's famous raid of the previous year was +well remembered. If a small cavalry force had swept from their track +through a circuit of about sixty miles over two thousand horses, what +was to be expected from Lee's whole army? Resistance to the formidable +advance of one hundred thousand disciplined troops was of course out of +the question. The slowness, however, with which the people responded to +the State's almost frantic calls for volunteers was in singular contrast +with the alacrity each man showed to run off his horses and get his +goods out of Rebel reach.</p> + +<p>From Harrisburg, I went, by the way of York and Hanover, to Gettysburg. +Having hastily secured a room at a hotel in the Square, (the citizens +call it the "Di'mond,") I inquired the way to the battle-ground.</p> + +<p>"You are on it now," said the landlord,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_617" id="Page_617">[Pg 617]</a></span> with proud satisfaction,—for +it is not every man that lives, much less keeps a tavern, on the field +of a world-famous fight. "I tell you the truth," said he; and, in proof +of his words, (as if the fact were too wonderful to be believed without +proof,) he showed me a Rebel shell imbedded in the brick wall of a house +close by. (N. B. The battle-field was put into the bill.)</p> + +<p>Gettysburg is the capital of Adams County: a town of about three +thousand souls,—or fifteen hundred, according to John Burns, who +assured me that half the population were Copperheads, and that they had +no souls. It is pleasantly situated on the swells of a fine undulating +country, drained by the headwaters of the Monocacy. It has no special +natural advantages,—owing its existence, probably, to the mere fact +that several important roads found it convenient to meet at this point, +to which accident also is due its historical renown. The circumstance +which made it a burg made it likewise a battle-field.</p> + +<p>About the town itself there is nothing very interesting. It consists +chiefly of two-story houses of wood and brick, in dull rows, with +thresholds but little elevated above the street. Rarely a front yard or +blooming garden-plot relieves the dreary monotony. Occasionally there is +a three-story house, comfortable, no doubt and sufficiently expensive, +about which the one thing remarkable is the total absence of taste in +its construction. In this respect Gettysburg is but a fair sample of a +large class of American towns, the builders of which seem never once to +have been conscious that there exists such a thing as beauty.</p> + +<p>John Burns, known as "the hero of Gettysburg," was almost the first +person whose acquaintance I made. He was sitting under the thick shade +of an English elm in front of the tavern. The landlord introduced him as +"the old man who took his gun and went into the first day's fight." He +rose to his feet and received me with sturdy politeness,—his evident +delight in the celebrity he enjoys twinkling through the veil of a +naturally modest demeanor.</p> + +<p>"John will go with you and show you the different parts of the +battle-ground," said the landlord. "Will you, John?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, I'll go," said John, quite readily; and we set out at once.</p> + +<p>A mile south of the town is Cemetery Hill, the head and front of an +important ridge, running two miles farther south to Round Top,—the +ridge held by General Meade's army during the great battles. The Rebels +attacked on three sides,—on the west, on the north, and on the east; +breaking their forces in vain upon this tremendous wedge, of which +Cemetery Hill may be considered the point. A portion of Ewell's Corps +had passed through the town several days before, and neglected to secure +that very commanding position. Was it mere accident, or something more, +which thus gave the key to the country into our hands, and led the +invaders, alarmed by Meade's vigorous pursuit, to fall back and fight +the decisive battle here?</p> + +<p>With the old "hero" at my side pointing out the various points of +interest, I ascended Cemetery Hill. The view from the top is beautiful +and striking. On the north and east is spread a finely variegated farm +country; on the west, with woods and valleys and sunny slopes between, +rise the summits of the Blue Ridge.</p> + +<p>It was a soft and peaceful summer day. There was scarce a sound to break +the stillness, save the shrill note of the locust, and the perpetual +click-click of the stone-cutters, at work upon the granite headstones of +the soldiers' cemetery. There was nothing to indicate to a stranger that +so tranquil a spot had ever been a scene of strife. We were walking in +the time-hallowed place of the dead, by whose side the martyr-soldiers, +who fought so bravely and so well on those terrible first days of July, +slept as sweetly and securely as they.</p> + +<p>"It don't look here as it did after the battle," said John Burns. "Sad +work was made with the tombstones. The ground was all covered with dead +horses, and broken wagons, and pieces of shells, and battered muskets, +and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_618" id="Page_618">[Pg 618]</a></span> everything of that kind, not to speak of the heaps of dead." But +now the tombstones have been replaced, the neat iron fences have been +mostly repaired, and scarcely a vestige of the fight remains. Only the +burial-places of the slain are there. <i>Thirty-five hundred and sixty +slaughtered Union soldiers lie on the field of Gettysburg.</i> This number +does not include those whose bodies have been claimed by friends and +removed.</p> + +<p>The new cemetery, devoted to the patriot slain, and dedicated with +fitting ceremonies on the 19th of November, 1863, adjoins the old one. +In the centre is the spot reserved for the monument, the corner-stone of +which was laid on the 4th of July, 1865. The cemetery is semicircular, +in the form of an amphitheatre, except that the slope is reversed, the +monument occupying the highest place. The granite headstones resemble +rows of semicircular seats. Side by side, with two feet of ground +allotted to each, and with their heads towards the monument, rest the +three thousand five hundred and sixty. The name of each, when it could +be ascertained, together with the number of the company and regiment in +which he served, is lettered on the granite at his head. But the +barbarous practice of stripping such of our dead as fell into their +hands, in which the Rebels indulged here as elsewhere, rendered it +impossible to identify large numbers. The headstones of these are +lettered, "Unknown." At the time when I visited the cemetery, the +sections containing most of the unknown had not yet received their +headstones, and their resting-places were indicated by a forest of +stakes. I have seen few sadder sights.</p> + +<p>The spectacle of so large a field crowded with the graves of the slain +brings home to the heart an overpowering sense of the horror and +wickedness of war. Yet, as I have said, not all our dead are here. None +of the Rebel dead are here. Not one of those who fell on other fields, +or died in hospitals and prisons in those States where the war was +chiefly waged,—not one out of those innumerable martyred hosts lies on +this pleasant hill. The bodies of once living and brave men, slowly +mouldering to dust in this sanctified soil, form but a small, a single +sheaf from that great recent harvest reaped by Death with the sickle of +war.</p> + +<p>Once living and brave! How full of life, how full of unflinching courage +and fiery zeal, they marched up hither to fight the great fight, and to +give their lives! And each man had his history; each soldier resting +here had his interests, his loves, his darling hopes, the same as you or +I. All were laid down with his life. It was no trifle to him, it was as +great a thing to him as it would be to you, thus to be cut off from all +things dear in this world, and to drop at once into a vague eternity. +Grown accustomed to the waste of life through years of war, we learn to +think too lightly of such sacrifices. "So many killed,"—with that brief +sentence we glide over the unimaginably fearful fact, and pass on to +other details. We indulge in pious commonplaces,—"They have gone to a +better world, they have their reward," and the like. No doubt this is +true; if not, then life is a mockery, and hope a lie. But the future, +with all our faith, is vague and uncertain. It lies before us like one +of those unidentified heroes, hidden from sight, deep-buried, +mysterious, its headstone lettered "Unknown." Will it ever rise? Through +trouble, toils, and privations,—not insensible to danger, but braving +it,—these men—and not these only, but the uncounted thousands +represented by these—confronted, for their country's sake, that awful +uncertainty. Did they believe in your better world? Whether they did or +not, this world was a reality, and dear to them.</p> + +<p>I looked into one of the trenches in which workmen were laying +foundations for the headstones, and saw the ends of the coffins +protruding. It was silent and dark down there. Side by side the soldiers +slept, as side by side they fought. I chose out one coffin from among +the rest, and thought of him whose dust it contained,—your<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_619" id="Page_619">[Pg 619]</a></span> brother and +mine, although we never knew him. I thought of him as a child, tenderly +reared—for this. I thought of his home, his heart-life:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Had he a father?<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Had he a mother?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Had he a sister?<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Had he a brother?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or was there a nearer one<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Still, and a dearer one<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Yet, than all other?"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>I could not know: in this world, none will ever know. He sleeps with the +undistinguishable multitude, and his headstone is lettered, "Unknown."</p> + +<p>Eighteen loyal States are represented by the tenants of these graves. +New York has the greatest number,—upwards of eight hundred; +Pennsylvania comes next in order, having upwards of five hundred. Tall +men from Maine, young braves from Wisconsin, heroes from every state +between, met here to defend their country and their homes. Sons of +Massachusetts fought for Massachusetts on Pennsylvania soil. If they had +not fought, or if our armies had been annihilated there, the whole North +would have been at the mercy of Lee's victorious legions. As Cemetery +Hill was the pivot on which turned the fortunes of the battle, so +Gettysburg itself was the pivot on which turned the destiny of the +nation. Here the power of aggressive treason culminated; and from that +memorable Fourth of July when the Rebel invaders, beaten in the three +days' previous fight, stole away down the valleys and behind the +mountains on their ignominious retreat,—from that day, signalized also +by the fall of Vicksburg in the West, it waned and waned, until it was +swept from the earth.</p> + +<p>Cemetery Hill should be the first visited by the tourist of the +battle-ground. Here a view of the entire field, and a clear +understanding of the military operations of the three days, are best +obtained. Looking north, away on your left lies Seminary Ridge, the +scene of the first day's fight, in which the gallant Reynolds fell, and +from which our troops were driven back in confusion through the town by +overwhelming numbers, in the afternoon. Farther south spread the +beautiful woods and vales that swarmed with Rebels on the second and +third day, and from which they made such desperate charges upon our +lines. On the right as you stand is Culp's Hill, the scene of Ewell's +furious, but futile, attempts to flank us there. You are in the focus of +a half-circle, from all points of which was poured in upon this now +silent hill such an artillery fire as has seldom been concentrated upon +one point of an open field in any of the great battles upon this planet. +From this spot extend your observations as you please.</p> + +<p>Guided by the sturdy old man, I proceeded first to Culp's Hill, +following a line of breastworks into the woods. Here are seen some of +the soldiers' devices hastily adopted for defence. A rude embankment of +stakes and logs and stones, covered with earth, forms the principal +work; aside from which you meet with little private breastworks, as it +were, consisting of rocks heaped up by the trunk of a tree, or beside a +larger rock, or across a cleft in the rocks, where some sharpshooter +stood and exercised his skill at his ease.</p> + +<p>The woods are of oak chiefly, but with a liberal sprinkling of chestnut, +black-walnut, hickory, and other common forest-trees. Very beautiful +they were that day, with their great, silent trunks, all so friendly, +their clear vistas and sun-spotted spaces. Beneath reposed huge, sleepy +ledges and boulders, their broad backs covered with lichens and old +moss. A more fitting spot for a picnic, one would say, than for a +battle.</p> + +<p>Yet here remain more astonishing evidences of fierce fighting than +anywhere else about Gettysburg. The trees in certain localities are all +seamed, disfigured, and literally dying or dead from their wounds. The +marks of balls in some of the trunks are countless. Here are limbs, and +yonder are whole tree-tops, cut off by shells. Many of these trees have +been hacked for lead, and chips containing bullets have been carried +away for relics.</p> + +<p>Past the foot of the hill runs Rock Creek, a muddy, sluggish stream, +"great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_620" id="Page_620">[Pg 620]</a></span> for eels," said John Burns. Big boulders and blocks of stone lie +scattered along its bed. Its low shores are covered with thin grass, +shaded by the forest-trees. Plenty of Rebel knapsacks and haversacks lie +rotting upon the ground; and there are Rebel graves in the woods near +by. By these I was inclined to pause longer than John Burns thought it +worth the while. I felt a pity for these unhappy men which he could not +understand. To him they were dead Rebels, and nothing more; and he spoke +with great disgust of an effort which had been made by certain +"Copperheads" of the town to have all the buried Rebels, now scattered +about in the woods and fields, gathered together in a cemetery near that +dedicated to our own dead.</p> + +<p>"Yet consider, my friend," I said, "though they were altogether in the +wrong, and their cause was infernal, these, too, were brave men; and +under different circumstances, with no better hearts than they had, they +might have been lying in honored graves up yonder, instead of being +buried in heaps, like dead cattle, down here."</p> + +<p>Is there not a better future for these men also? The time will come when +we shall at least cease to hate them.</p> + +<p>The cicada was singing, insects were humming in the air, crows were +cawing in the tree-tops, the sunshine slept on the boughs or nestled in +the beds of brown leaves on the ground,—all so pleasant and so pensive, +I could have passed the day there. But John reminded me that night was +approaching, and we returned to Gettysburg.</p> + +<p>That evening I walked alone to Cemetery Hill to see the sun set behind +the Blue Ridge. A quiet prevailed there still more profound than during +the day. The stonecutters had finished their day's work and gone home. +The katydids were singing, and the shrill, sad chirp of the crickets +welcomed the cool shades. The sun went down, and the stars came out and +shone upon the graves,—the same stars which were no doubt shining even +then upon many a vacant home and mourning heart left lonely by the +husbands, the fathers, the dear brothers and sons, who fell at +Gettysburg.</p> + +<p>The next morning, according to agreement, I went to call on the old +hero. I found him living in the upper part of a little whitewashed +two-story house, on the corner of two streets, west of the town. A +flight of wooden steps outside took me to his door. He was there to +welcome me. John Burns is a stoutish, slightly bent, hale old man, with +a light blue eye, a long, aggressive nose, a firm-set mouth, expressive +of determination of character, and a choleric temperament. His hair, +originally dark brown, is considerably bleached with age; and his beard, +once sandy, covers his face (shaved once or twice a week) with a fine +crop of silver stubble. A short, massy kind of man; about five feet four +or five inches in height, I should judge. He was never measured but once +in his life. That was when he enlisted in the War of 1812. He was then +nineteen years old, and stood five feet in his shoes. "But I've growed a +heap since," said the old hero.</p> + +<p>He introduced me to his wife, a slow, somewhat melancholy old lady, in +ill health. "She has been poorly now for a good many years." They have +no children.</p> + +<p>At my request he told me his story. He is of Scotch parentage; and who +knows but he may be akin to the ploughman-poet whose "arrowy songs still +sing in our morning air"? He was born and bred in Burlington, New +Jersey. A shoemaker by trade, he became a soldier by choice, and fought +the British in what used to be the "last war." I am afraid he contracted +bad habits in the army. For some years after the war he led a wandering +and dissipated life. Forty years ago he chanced to find himself in +Gettysburg, where he married and settled down. But his unfortunate +habits still adhered to him, and he was long looked upon as a man of +little worth. At last, however, when there seemed to be no hope of his +ever being anything but a despised old man, he took a sudden resolution +to reform. The fact that he kept that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_621" id="Page_621">[Pg 621]</a></span> resolution, and still keeps it so +strictly that it is impossible to prevail upon him to taste a drop of +intoxicating liquor, attests a truly heroic will. He was afterwards a +constable in Gettysburg, in which capacity he served some six years.</p> + +<p>On the morning of the first day's fight he sent his wife away, telling +her that he would take care of the house. The firing was near by, over +Seminary Ridge. Soon a wounded soldier came into the town and stopped at +an old house on the opposite corner. Burns saw the poor fellow lay down +his musket, and the inspiration to go into the battle seems then first +to have seized him. He went over and demanded the gun.</p> + +<p>"What are you going to do with it?" asked the soldier.</p> + +<p>"I'm going to shoot some of the damned Rebels!" replied John.</p> + +<p>He is not a swearing man, and the strong adjective is to be taken in a +strictly literal, not a profane, sense.</p> + +<p>Having obtained the gun, he pushed out on the Chambersburg Pike, and was +soon in the thick of the skirmish.</p> + +<p>"I wore a high-crowned hat, and a long-tailed blue; and I was seventy +years old."</p> + +<p>The sight of so old a man, in such costume, rushing fearlessly forward +to get a shot in the very front of the battle, of course attracted +attention. He fought with the Seventh Wisconsin Regiment, the Colonel of +which ordered him back, and questioned him, and finally, seeing the old +man's patriotic determination, gave him a good rifle in place of the +musket he had brought with him.</p> + +<p>"Are you a good shot?"</p> + +<p>"Tolerable good," said John, who is an old fox-hunter.</p> + +<p>"Do you see that Rebel riding yonder?"</p> + +<p>"I do."</p> + +<p>"Can you fetch him?"</p> + +<p>"I can try."</p> + +<p>The old man took deliberate aim and fired. He does not say he killed the +Rebel, but simply that his shot was cheered by the Wisconsin boys, and +that afterwards the horse the Rebel rode was seen galloping with an +empty saddle. "That's all I know about it."</p> + +<p>He fought until our forces were driven back in the afternoon. He had +already received two slight wounds, and a third one through the arm, to +which he paid little attention: "only the blood running down my hand +bothered me a heap." Then, as he was slowly falling back with the rest, +he received a final shot through the leg. "Down I went, and the whole +Rebel army ran over me." Helpless, nearly bleeding to death from his +wounds, he lay upon the field all night. "About sun-up, next morning, I +crawled to a neighbor's house, and found it full of wounded Rebels." The +neighbor afterwards took him to his own house, which had also been +turned into a Rebel hospital. A Rebel surgeon dressed his wounds; and he +says he received decent treatment at the hands of the enemy, until a +Copperhead woman living opposite "told on him."</p> + +<p>"That's the old man who said he was going out to shoot some of the +damned Rebels!"</p> + +<p>Some officers came and questioned him, endeavoring to convict him of +"bushwhacking"; but the old man gave them little satisfaction. This was +on Friday, the third day of the battle; and he was alone with his wife +in the upper part of the house. The Rebels left, and soon after two +shots were fired. One bullet entered the window, passed over Burns's +head, and struck the wall behind the lounge on which he was lying. The +other shot fell lower, passing through a door. Burns is certain that the +design was to assassinate him. That the shots were fired by the Rebels +there can be no doubt; and as they were fired from their own side, +towards the town, of which they held possession at the time, John's +theory was plainly the true one. The hole in the window, and the +bullet-marks in the door and wall remain.</p> + +<p>Burns went with me over the ground where the first day's fight took +place. He showed me the scene of his hot day's work,—pointed out two +trees, behind which he and one of the Wisconsin boys stood and "picked +off every Rebel<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_622" id="Page_622">[Pg 622]</a></span> that showed his head," and the spot where he fell and +lay all night under the stars and dew.</p> + +<p>This act of daring on the part of so aged a citizen, and his subsequent +sufferings from wounds, naturally called out a great deal of sympathy, +and caused him to be looked upon as a hero. But a hero, like a prophet, +has not all honor in his own country. There's a wide-spread, violent +prejudice against Burns among that class of the townspeople termed +"Copperheads." The young men, especially, who did <i>not</i> take their guns +and go into the fight as this old man did, but who ran, when running was +possible, in the opposite direction, dislike Burns. Some aver that he +did not have a gun in his hand that day, and that he was wounded by +accident, happening to get between the two lines. Others admit the fact +of his carrying a gun into the fight, but tell you, with a sardonic +smile, that his "motives were questionable." Some, who are eager enough +to make money on his picture, sold against his will, and without profit +to him, will tell you in confidence, after you have purchased it, that +"Burns is a perfect humbug."</p> + +<p>After studying the old man's character, conversing both with his friends +and enemies, and sifting evidence, during four days spent in Gettysburg, +I formed my conclusions. Of his going into the fight, and <i>fighting</i>, +there is no doubt whatever. Of his bravery, amounting even to rashness, +there can be no reasonable question. He is a patriot of the most zealous +sort; a hot, impulsive man, who meant what he said, when he started with +the gun to go and shoot some of the Rebels qualified with the strong +adjective. A thoroughly honest man, too, I think; although some of his +remarks are to be taken with considerable allowance. His temper causes +him to form immoderate opinions and to make strong statements. "<i>He +always goes beyant</i>," said my landlord, a firm friend of his, speaking +of this tendency to overstep the bounds of calm judgment.</p> + +<p>Burns is a sagacious observer of men and things, and makes occasionally +such shrewd remarks as this:—</p> + +<p>"Whenever you see the marks of shells and bullets on a house all covered +up, and painted and plastered over, that's the house of a Rebel +sympathizer; but when you see them all preserved and kept in sight, as +something to be proud of, that's the house of a true Union man."</p> + +<p>Well, whatever is said or thought of the old hero, he is <i>what he is</i>, +and has satisfaction in that, and not in other people's opinions; for so +it must finally be with all. <i>Character</i> is the one thing valuable. +<i>Reputation</i>, which is a mere shadow of the man, what his character is +<i>reputed</i> to be, is, in the long run, of infinitely less importance.</p> + +<p>I am happy to add that the old man has been awarded a pension.</p> + +<p>The next day I mounted a hard-trotting horse and rode to Round Top. On +the way I stopped at the historical peach-orchard, known as Sherfy's, +where Sickles's Corps was repulsed, after a terrific conflict, on +Thursday, the second day of the battle. The peaches were green on the +trees then; but they were ripe now, and the trees were breaking down +with them. One of Mr. Sherfy's girls—the youngest, she told me—was in +the orchard. She had in her basket rareripes to sell. They were large +and juicy and sweet,—all the redder, no doubt, for the blood of the +brave that had drenched the sod. So calm and impassive is Nature, +silently turning all things to use! The carcass of a mule, or the +godlike shape of a warrior cut down in the hour of glory,—she knows no +difference between them, but straightway proceeds to convert both alike +into new forms of life and beauty.</p> + +<p>Between fields made memorable by hard fighting I rode eastward, and, +entering a pleasant wood, ascended Little Round Top. The eastern slope +of this rugged knob is covered with timber. The western side is steep, +and wild with rocks and bushes. Near by is the Devil's Den, a dark +cavity in the rocks, interesting henceforth on account of the fight that +took place here for the possession of these heights. A photographic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_623" id="Page_623">[Pg 623]</a></span> +view, taken the Sunday morning after the battle, shows eight dead Rebels +tumbled headlong, with their guns, among the rocks below the Den.</p> + +<p>A little farther on is Round Top itself, a craggy tusk of the rock-jawed +earth pushed up there towards the azure. It is covered all over with +broken ledges, boulders, and fields of stones. Among these the +forest-trees have taken root,—thrifty Nature making the most of things +even here. The serene leafy tops of ancient oaks tower aloft in the +bluish-golden air. It is a natural fortress, which our boys strengthened +still further by throwing up the loose stones into handy breastworks.</p> + +<p>Returning, I rode the whole length of the ridge held by our troops, +realizing more and more the importance of that extraordinary position. +It is like a shoe, of which Round Top represents the heel, and Cemetery +Hill the toe. Here all our forces were concentrated on Thursday and +Friday, within a space of three miles. Movements from one part to +another of this compact field could be made with celerity. Lee's forces, +on the other hand, extended over a circle of seven miles or more around, +in a country where all their movements could be watched by us and +anticipated.</p> + +<p>At a point well forward on the foot of this shoe, Meade had his +head-quarters. I tied my horse at the gate, and entered the little +square box of a house which enjoys that historical celebrity. It is +scarcely more than a hut, having but two little rooms on the +ground-floor, and I know not what narrow, low-roofed chambers above. Two +small girls, with brown, German faces, were paring wormy apples under +the porch; and a round-shouldered, bareheaded, and barefooted woman, +also with a German face and a strong German accent, was drawing water at +the well. I asked her for a drink, which she kindly gave me, and invited +me into the house.</p> + +<p>The little box was whitewashed outside and in, except the floor and +ceilings and inside doors, which were neatly scoured. The woman sat down +to some mending, and entered freely into conversation. She was a widow, +and the mother of six children. The two girls cutting wormy apples at +the door were the youngest, and the only ones that were left to her. A +son in the army was expected home in a few days. She did not know how +old her children were,—she did not know how old she herself was, "she +was so forgetful."</p> + +<p>She ran away at the time of the fight, but was sorry afterwards she did +not stay at home. "She lost a heap." The house was robbed of almost +everything; "coverlids and sheets and some of our own clo'es, all +carried away. They got about two ton of hay from me. I owed a little on +my land yit, and thought I'd put in two lots of wheat that year, and it +was all trampled down, and I didn't get nothing from it. I had seven +pieces of meat yit, and them was all took. All I had when I got back was +jest a little bit of flour yit. The fences was all tore down, so that +there wa'n't one standing, and the rails was burnt up. One shell come +into the house and knocked a bedstead all to pieces for me. One come in +under the roof and knocked out a rafter for me. The porch was all +knocked down. There was seventeen dead horses on my land. They burnt +five of 'em around my best peach-tree, and killed it; so I ha'n't no +peaches this year. They broke down all my young apple-trees for me. The +dead horses sp'iled my spring, so I had to have my well dug."</p> + +<p>I inquired if she had ever got anything for the damage.</p> + +<p>"Not much. I jest sold the bones of the dead horses. I couldn't do it +till this year, for the meat hadn't rotted off yit. I got fifty cents a +hundred. There was seven hundred and fifty pounds. You can reckon up +what they come to. That's all I got."</p> + +<p>Not much, indeed!</p> + +<p>This poor woman's entire interest in the great battle was, I found, +centred in her own losses. That the country lost or gained she did not +know nor care, never having once thought of that side of the question.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_624" id="Page_624">[Pg 624]</a></span></p> + +<p>The town is full of similar reminiscences; and it is a subject which +everybody except the "Copperheads" likes to talk with you about. There +were heroic women here, too. On the evening of Wednesday, as our forces +were retreating, an exhausted Union soldier came to Mr. Culp's house, +near Culp's Hill, and said, as he sank down,—</p> + +<p>"If I can't have a drink of water, I must die."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Culp, who had taken refuge in the cellar,—for the house was now +between the two fires,—said,—</p> + +<p>"I will go to the spring and get you some water."</p> + +<p>It was then nearly dark. As she was returning with the water, a bullet +whizzed past her. It was fired by a sharpshooter on our own side, who +had mistaken her for one of the advancing Rebels. Greatly frightened, +she hurried home, bringing the water safely. One poor soldier was made +eternally grateful by this courageous womanly deed. A few days later the +sharpshooter came to the house and learned that it was a ministering +angel in the guise of a woman he had shot at. Great, also, must have +been his gratitude for the veil of darkness which caused him to miss his +aim.</p> + +<p>Shortly after the battle, sad tales were told of the cruel inhospitality +shown to the wounded Union troops by the people of Gettysburg. Many of +these stories were doubtless true; but they were true only of the more +brutal of the Rebel sympathizers. The Union men threw open their hearts +and their houses to the wounded.</p> + +<p>One day I met a soldier on Cemetery Hill, who was in the battle, and +who, being at Harrisburg for a few days, had taken advantage of an +excursion-train to come over and revisit the scene of that terrible +experience. Getting into conversation, we walked down the hill together. +As we were approaching a double house with high wooden steps, he pointed +out the farther one, and said,—</p> + +<p>"Saturday morning, after the fight, I got a piece of bread at that +house. A man stood on the steps and gave each of our fellows a piece. We +were hungry as bears, and it was a godsend. I should like to see that +man and thank him."</p> + +<p>Just then the man himself appeared at the door. We went over, and I +introduced the soldier, who, with tears in his eyes, expressed his +gratitude for that act of Christian charity.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the man, when reminded of the circumstance, "we did what we +could. We baked bread here night and day to give to every hungry soldier +who wanted it. We sent away our own children, to make room for the +wounded soldiers, and for days our house was a hospital."</p> + +<p>Instances of this kind are not few. Let them be remembered to the honor +of Gettysburg.</p> + +<p>Of the magnitude of a battle fought so desperately during three days by +armies numbering not far from two hundred thousand men no adequate +conception can be formed. One or two facts may help to give a faint idea +of it. Mr. Culp's meadow, below Cemetery Hill,—a lot of near twenty +acres,—was so thickly strown with Rebel dead, that Mr. Culp declared he +"could have walked across it without putting foot upon the ground." +Upwards of three hundred Confederates were buried in that fair field in +one hole. On Mr. Gwynn's farm, below Round Top, near five hundred sons +of the South lie promiscuously heaped in one huge sepulchre. Of the +quantities of iron, of the wagon-loads of arms, knapsacks, haversacks, +and clothing, which strewed the country, no estimate can be made. +Government set a guard over these, and for weeks officials were busy in +gathering together all the more valuable spoils. The harvest of bullets +was left for the citizens to glean. Many of the poorer people did a +thriving business, picking up these missiles of death, and selling them +to dealers; two of whom alone sent to Baltimore fifty tons of lead +collected in this way from this battle-field.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_625" id="Page_625">[Pg 625]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="ALEXANDER_HAMILTON" id="ALEXANDER_HAMILTON"></a>ALEXANDER HAMILTON.</h2> + + +<p>The greatest name in American history is that of <span class="smcap">Alexander Hamilton</span>, if +we consider the versatility of the man who bore it, the early age at +which he began a great public career, the success which attended all his +labors, the impression which he made on his country and its government, +and the rare foresight by which he was enabled to understand that our +political system would encounter that very danger through which it has +just passed,—and passed not without receiving severe wounds, which have +left it scarcely recognizable even by its warmest admirers. Talleyrand, +who had a just appreciation of Hamilton's talents and character, said +that he had divined Europe. An American need not be possessed of high +powers or position to venture the assertion that Hamilton divined +American history, and foresaw all that we have suffered because our +predecessors would build the national edifice on sand, so that it could +not stand against the political storm which it was in the breath of +selfish partisans to send against it, but has, as it were, to be +buttressed by mighty fleets and armies. A system, which, had it been +rightly formed in the first place, would have been self-sustaining, was +saved from destruction solely by the uprising of the people, who had to +operate with bullets and bayonets, when it had been fondly hoped that +the ballot would ever be a sufficiently formidable weapon in the hand of +the American citizen, and that he never would have to become the +citizen-soldier in a civil contest. Had Hamilton been allowed to shape +our national polity, it would have worked as successfully for ages as +that financial system which he formed has ever worked, and which has +never been departed from without the result being most injurious to the +country. At this day, when events have so signally justified the views +of Alexander Hamilton, and are daily justifying them,<a name="FNanchor_F_6" id="FNanchor_F_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_F_6" class="fnanchor">[F]</a> it may not be +unprofitable to glance over the career of one whose virtues, services, +and genius are constantly rising in the estimation of his countrymen and +of the world, "the dead growing visible from the shades of time."</p> + +<p>To be born at all is to be well born is the general belief in this very +liberal-minded age: but even the most determined of democrats is not +averse to a good descent; and Hamilton, who was a democrat in no sense, +had one of the noblest ancestries in Europe, though himself of American +birth. His family was of Scotland, a country which, the smallness of its +population considered, has produced more able and useful men than any +other. The Hamiltons of Scotland, and we may add of France, were one of +the noblest of patrician houses, and they had a great part in the stormy +history of their country. Walter de Hamilton, of Cambuskeith, in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_626" id="Page_626">[Pg 626]</a></span> +County of Ayr,—Burns's county,—second son of Sir David de Hamilton, +Dominus de Cadyow, was the founder of that branch of the Hamilton family +to which the American statesman belonged. He flourished <i>temp.</i> Robert +III., second of the Stuart kings, almost five hundred years ago. Many +noble Scotch names are very common, because it was the custom of the +families to which they belonged to extend them to all their retainers; +but Alexander Hamilton obtained his name in no such way as that. His +descent from the Lord of Cadyow is made up with the nicest precision. +The family became of Grange in the sixteenth century. The names of the +ladies married by the heads of the Hamiltons of Cambuskeith and Grange +all belong to those of the ingenuous classes. The same Christian names +are continued in the line, that of Alexander appearing as early as the +latter part of the fifteenth century, and reappearing frequently for +three hundred years. Alexander Hamilton of Grange, fourteenth in descent +from Sir David de Hamilton, had three sons, the third bearing his +father's name; and that son's fifth child was James Hamilton, who +emigrated to the West Indies, settling in the Island of Nevis. Mr. James +Hamilton married a French lady, whose maiden name was Faucette, and +whose father was one of many persons of worth who were forced to leave +France because of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, through the +bigotry of that little man who is commonly called the Grand Monarch, and +whose bigotry was made active by the promptings of Madame de Maintenon, +who was descended from a fierce Huguenot, as was the monarch himself.</p> + +<p>Alexander Hamilton was born on the 11th of January, 1757. His mother +died in his early childhood, a more than usually severe loss, for she +was a superior woman. He was the only one of her children who survived +her. His father soon became poor, and the child was dependent upon the +relatives of his mother for support and education. They resided at Santa +Cruz, where he was brought up. Just before completing his thirteenth +year he entered the counting-house of Mr. Cruger, a merchant of Santa +Cruz. Young as he was, his employer left him in charge of his business +while he made a visit to New York, and had every reason to be satisfied +with the arrangement. He read all the books he could obtain, and read +them understandingly. Even at that early age he was remarkable for the +manliness of his mind. He wrote, too; and an account of the hurricane of +1772, which he contributed to a public journal, attracted so much +attention that he was sought out, and it was determined to send him to +New York to be regularly educated. He left Santa Cruz, and sailed for +Boston, which port he reached in October, 1772. Proceeding to New York, +he was sent to school at Elizabethtown, New Jersey; and in 1773 entered +King's College, in the city of New York, where he pursued his studies +with signal success. But events were happening that were to place him in +a very different school from that in which he was preparing to become a +physician. He was to be the physician of the State, and to that end he +was thrown among men, and appointed to do the work of men of the highest +intellect, at an age when most persons have not half completed the +ordinary training which is to fit them to begin the common routine of +common life.</p> + +<p>Hamilton's connection with the history of his country, as one of those +who were making material for it, began at the age of seventeen. The +American Revolution was moving steadily onward when he arrived at New +York, and by the summer of 1774 it had assumed large proportions. He +first spoke at "the Great Meeting in the Fields," July 6th, and +astonished those who heard him by the fervor of his eloquence and the +closeness of his logic. His fame dates from that day. He sided with the +people of his new home from the time that he came among them, and never +had any doubt or hesitation as to the course which duty required him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_627" id="Page_627">[Pg 627]</a></span> to +adopt and pursue. As a writer he was even more successful than as a +speaker. A pamphlet which he wrote in December, 1774, vindicating the +Continental Congress, attracted much attention, and that and another +from his pen were attributed to veteran Whigs, particularly to John Jay; +but the evidence of Hamilton's authorship is perfect, or we might well +agree with the Tories, and believe that works so able could not have +been written by a youth of eighteen. Other writings of his subsequently +appeared, and were most serviceable to the patriots. Young as he was, he +was already regarded by the country as one of its foremost champions +with the pen. The time was fast coming when it was to be made known that +the holder of the pen could also hold the sword, and hold it to +effective purpose.</p> + +<p>He had joined a volunteer corps while in college, and was forward in all +its doings. The first time he was under fire was when this corps was +engaged in removing guns from the Battery. The fire of a man-of-war was +opened on it, doing some injury. This was the first act of war in New +York, and it is interesting to know that Hamilton had part in it. In the +commotion that followed, he was zealous in his efforts to prevent the +triumph of a mob, and not more zealous than successful. From the very +beginning of his career, he never thought of liberty, save as the +closest associate of law. Diligently devoting himself to the study of +the military art, and particularly to gunnery, he asked for the command +of an artillery company, and obtained it after a thorough examination, +being made captain on the 14th of March, 1776, when but two months +beyond his nineteenth year. He completed his company, and expended the +very last money he received from his relatives in making it fit for the +field. Even at that time he advocated promotion from the ranks, and +succeeded in having his first sergeant made a commissioned officer: a +fact worthy of mention, when it is recollected that his enemies have +always represented him as an aristocrat, there being nothing less +aristocratical than the placing of the sword of command in the hands of +men who have carried the musket. While pursuing his military duties, he +did not neglect the study of politics; and his notes show that before +the Declaration of Independence he had thought out a plan of government +for the nation that was so soon to come into existence. Among them is +this inquiry: "<i>Quære</i>, would it not be advisable to let all taxes, even +those imposed by the States, be collected by persons of Congressional +appointment? and would it not be advisable to pay the collectors so much +per cent on the sums collected?" This, as his son says, "is the +intuitive idea of a general government, truly such, which he first +proposed to Congress, and earnestly advocated." He was in his twentieth +year when he showed himself capable of understanding the nature of the +situation, and the wants of the country. Probably no other person had +got so far at that time, and it required years for the people to reach +the point at which Hamilton had arrived intuitively. With them it was a +conclusion reached through bitter experience. The lesson has not been +perfectly acquired even at this time.</p> + +<p>Hamilton's company belonged to that army which Washington commanded, in +1776, in New England and New Jersey; and it was while the army was on +the heights of Haerlem, in the autumn of 1776, that he attracted the +notice of Washington. The General inspected an earthwork which the +Captain was constructing, conversed with him, and invited him to his +tent. This was the beginning of an acquaintance that was destined to +have memorable consequences and lasting effects on the American nation. +On the 1st of March, 1777, Hamilton was appointed to a place on +Washington's staff, becoming one of his aides, with the rank of +lieutenant-colonel,—his "principal and most confidential aide," to use +Washington's language. It was not without much hesitation that Hamilton +accepted this post. He had already made a name, and his promotion in the +line of the army was secured; and had he remained to take<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_628" id="Page_628">[Pg 628]</a></span> that +promotion, he would have won the highest distinction, supposing him to +have escaped the casualties of war. His military genius was +unquestioned; and what Washington required of him was service that would +not secure promotion or opportunity to show that he deserved it. He +required the mind and the pen of Hamilton. These he obtained; and the +amount of labor performed by the youthful aide-de-camp with his pen was +enormous. He was something more than an aide and a private secretary. He +was the commander's trusted friend, and he proved that he deserved the +trust reposed in him, not less by his high-minded conduct than by the +talent which he brought to the discharge of the duties of a most +difficult post,—duties which were of an arduous and highly responsible +character. The limits of a sketch like the present do not admit of more +than the general mention of his great services. Those who would know +them in full should consult the work in which Mr. John C. Hamilton has +done justice to the part which his father had, first in the +Revolutionary contest, and then in the creation of the American +Republic, and the settlement of its policy.<a name="FNanchor_G_7" id="FNanchor_G_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_G_7" class="fnanchor">[G]</a> There was no event with +which Washington was concerned for more than four years with which +Hamilton was not also concerned. The range of his business and his +labors was equal to his talents, and it is not possible to say more of +them. He was but twenty years old when Washington thus really placed him +next to himself in the work of conducting the American cause. In what +estimation his services were held by the commander-in-chief may be +inferred from the fact that he was selected by him, in 1780, being then +in his twenty-fourth year, as a special minister to France, to induce +the French Government to grant more aid to this country. Hamilton did +not take the office, because it was desired by his friend, Colonel +Laurens, whose father was then a prisoner in England.</p> + +<p>Colonel Hamilton was married on the 14th of December, 1780, to Miss +Elizabeth Schuyler, second daughter of General Philip Schuyler, one of +the most distinguished soldiers of the Revolution, to whom was due the +defeat of General Burgoyne, and head of one of those old families of +which New York possessed so many. This lady was destined to survive her +husband half a century, and to be associated with two ages of the +country,—her death occurring in 1854, in her ninety-eighth year. She +was a woman of exalted character, and worthy to be the wife of Alexander +Hamilton.</p> + +<p>The relations between Washington and Hamilton were briefly interrupted +early in 1781, and Hamilton left the commander's military family. He had +a command in that allied army which Washington and Rochambeau led to +Yorktown, the success of which put an end to the "great war" of the +Revolution on this continent. When the British redoubts were stormed, +Hamilton commanded the American column, and carried the redoubt he +assailed before the French had taken that which it fell to their lot to +attack. Shortly afterward he retired from the service, and, taking up +his residence in Albany, devoted himself to the study of the law. In +1782 he was elected a member of the Continental Congress by the +Legislature of New York, and took his seat on the 25th of November. He +proved an energetic member, his attention being largely directed to the +financial state of the country, than which nothing could be more dreary. +At an early day he had been convinced that something sound must be +attempted in relation to our finances; and in 1780 he had addressed a +letter on the subject to Robert Morris, which showed that his ideas +regarding money and credit were those of a great statesman. But the time +had not come in which he was to mould the country to his will, and make +it rich in spite of itself, and against<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_629" id="Page_629">[Pg 629]</a></span> its own exertions. More +suffering was necessary before the people could be made to listen to the +words of truth, though uttered by genius. Military matters also +commanded the attention of the young member, as was natural, he having +been so distinguished as a soldier, and retaining that interest in the +army which he had acquired from six years' connection with it. His +Congressional career was brilliant, and added much to his reputation. It +seemed that he was destined to succeed in everything he attempted. Yet +at that time he thought of retiring altogether from public life, and of +devoting himself entirely to his profession, in which he had already +become eminent. In November, 1783, he removed to the city of New York, +which then had entered on that astonishing growth which has since been +so steadily maintained.</p> + +<p>The first of the law labors of this great man were in support of those +<i>national</i> principles which are more closely identified with his name +than with that of any other individual. In advocating the cause of his +client, he had to argue that the terms of the treaty of peace with +England and the law of nations were of more force than a statute passed +by the Legislature of the State of New York. He carried the court as +decidedly with him as public opinion was against him; and he had to +defend himself in several pamphlets, which he did with his usual +success. As time went on, it became every day more apparent that the +country's great need was a strong central government, and that, until +such a government should be adopted, prosperity could not be looked for, +nor order, nor anything like national life; and had not something been +done, North America would doubtless have presented very much the same +spectacle that has long been afforded by South America, and from which +that rich land is but now slowly recovering. Of those who most earnestly +and effectively advocated the action necessary to save the country from +anarchy, Hamilton was among the foremost. As we have seen, he had +thought soundly on this subject as early as 1776, and years and events +had confirmed and strengthened the impression formed before independence +had been resolved upon.</p> + +<p>Appointed a delegate from New York to the commercial convention held at +Annapolis in 1786, Colonel Hamilton wrote the address put forth by that +body to the States, out of which grew the Convention of 1787, which made +the Federal Constitution. To that Convention he was sent by the New York +Legislature, and his part in the work done was of the first order, +though the Constitution formed was far from commanding his entire +approbation. Like a wise statesman, who does not insist that means of +action shall be perfect, but makes the best use he can of those that are +available, Hamilton accepted the Constitution, and became the strongest +advocate for its adoption, and its firmest supporter after its adoption. +This part of his life—a part as honorable to him as it was useful to +his country—has been systematically misrepresented, so that many +Americans have been taught to believe that he was an enemy of freedom, +and would have established an arbitrary government. He was accused of +being opposed to any republican polity, and of seeking the annihilation +of the State Governments. He was called a monarchist and a +consolidationist. These misrepresentations of his opinions and acts were +forever dispelled, according to the views of honest and unprejudiced +men, by the publication of a letter which he wrote to Timothy Pickering, +in 1803. In that letter he said,—"The highest-toned propositions which +I made to the Convention were for a President, Senate, and Judges, +during good behavior, and a House of Representatives for three years. +Though I would have enlarged the legislative power of the General +Government, yet I never contemplated the abolition of the State +Governments; but, on the contrary, they were, in some particulars, +constituent parts of my plan. This plan was, in my conception, +conformable with the strict theory of a government purely republican; +the essential<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_630" id="Page_630">[Pg 630]</a></span> criteria of which are, that the principal organs of the +executive and legislative departments be elected by the people, and hold +the office by a responsible and temporary or defeasible nature.... I may +truly, then, say that I never proposed either a President or Senate for +life, and that I neither recommended nor meditated the annihilation of +State Governments.... It is a fact that my final opinion was against an +executive during good behavior, on account of the increased danger to +the public tranquillity incident to the election of a magistrate of his +degree of permanency. In the plan of a constitution which I drew up +while the Convention was sitting, and which I communicated to Mr. +Madison about the close of it, perhaps a day or two after, the office of +President has no longer duration than for three years. This plan was +predicated upon these bases: 1. That the political principles of the +people of this country would endure nothing but a republican government; +2. That, in the actual situation of the country, it was itself right and +proper that the republican theory should have a full and fair trial; 3. +That to such a trial it was essential that the government should be so +constructed as to give it all the energy and the stability reconcilable +with the principles of that theory. These were the genuine sentiments of +my heart; and upon them I then acted. I sincerely hope that it may not +hereafter be discovered, that, through want of sufficient attention to +the last idea, the experiment of republican government, even in this +country, has not been as complete, as satisfactory, and as decisive as +could be wished."</p> + +<p>Such were the views of Hamilton in 1787, and which had undergone no +change in the sixteen years that elapsed between that time and the date +of his letter to Colonel Pickering. Yet this man, so true a republican +that his only desire was to have the republican polity that he knew must +here exist so framed and constituted as to become permanent, has been +drawn as a bigoted monarchist and as the enemy of freedom! In the eyes +of good democrats he was the Evil Principle incarnate; and even to this +day, in the more retired portions of the country, they believe, that, if +he had lived a few years longer, he would have made himself king, and +married one of the daughters of George III. They had, and some of them +yet have, about as clear conceptions of Hamilton's career and conduct as +Squire Western and his class had of the intentions of the English Whigs +of George II.'s time, whom they suspected of the intention of seizing +and selling their estates, with the purpose of sending the proceeds to +Hanover, to be invested in the funds.</p> + +<p>The leaders of the great party which triumphed in 1801, and who had +libelled Hamilton while they were in opposition, found it for their +interest to continue their misrepresentations long after the fall of the +Federalists, and when the ablest of all the Federalists had been for +years in his grave. Many of them could overlook Burr's party treachery, +as well as his supposed treason, because he had been the rival of +Hamilton; though probably it would be unjust to them to suppose that +they approved of his conduct in murdering the man whose talents and +influence caused them so much alarm. So far was Hamilton from pursuing a +course in the Convention of 1787 that would have embarrassed that body, +because it did not adopt all his plans, that Dr. W. S. Johnson, one of +Connecticut's delegates, said, that, if "the Constitution did not +succeed on trial, Mr. Hamilton was less responsible for that result than +any other member, for he fully and frankly pointed out to the Convention +what he apprehended were the infirmities to which it was liable,—and +that, if it answered the fond expectations of the public, the community +would be more indebted to Mr. Hamilton than to any other member, for, +after its essential outlines were agreed to, he labored most +indefatigably to heal those infirmities, and to guard against the evils +to which they might expose it." M. Guizot, who understands our +politics,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_631" id="Page_631">[Pg 631]</a></span> who knows our history, and whose practical statesmanship and +lofty talents render his opinion most valuable, when he declared that +"there is not in the Constitution of the United States an element of +order, of force, of duration, which Hamilton has not powerfully +contributed to introduce into it and to give it a predominance," stated +but the simplest truth. Equally correct is his remark, that "Hamilton +must be classed among the men who have best known the vital principles +and fundamental conditions of a government." Alone of all the New York +delegates Hamilton subscribed the Constitution.</p> + +<p>In the discussions that followed the labors of the Convention, Hamilton +had the principal part in urging the adoption of the Constitution. "The +Federalist," that first of all American political works, and the +excellence of which was quickly recognized by foreign statesmen, was his +production. Not only did he write most of it, but the least of what he +wrote for it excels the best that was contributed to it by men so able +as Jay and Madison. Every attempt that has been made to take from him +any portion of the honor of this masterly work has failed, and it is now +admitted that it can fairly be associated only with his name. "The total +number of these essays," says Mr. John C. Hamilton, "by Hamilton's +enumeration, approved by Madison, is seen to be eighty-five. Of this +enumeration, an abbreviated copy by Hamilton from his original minute, +both in Hamilton's autograph, ascribes to himself the sole authorship of +sixty-three numbers, and the joint authorship with Madison of three +numbers, leaving to the latter the sole authorship of fourteen numbers, +and to Jay of five numbers."<a name="FNanchor_H_8" id="FNanchor_H_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_H_8" class="fnanchor">[H]</a> "The Federalist" had a powerful +influence on the public mind, and contributed vastly to the success of +the Constitutionalists; and other writings of Hamilton had scarcely less +effect. Had he not been a friend of the Constitution, and had he sought +only the creation of a powerful central government, he never would have +labored for the success of the Constitutional party; for the surest road +to despotism would have been through that anarchy which must have +followed a refusal by the people to ratify the action of the Convention +of 1787. As a member of the Convention of the State of New York, +Hamilton most ably supported the ratification of the Constitution made +at Philadelphia.</p> + +<p>The Constitution was adopted, and the new government was organized on +the 30th of April, 1789, on which day General Washington became +President of the United States. It was not until the 2d of September +that the Treasury Department was created; and on the 11th Alexander +Hamilton was made Secretary of the Treasury. Writing to Robert Morris, +Washington had asked, "What are we to do with this heavy debt?" To which +Morris answered, "There is but one man in the United States who can tell +you: that is Alexander Hamilton. I am glad you have given me this +opportunity to declare to you the extent of the obligations I am under +to him." Hamilton had thought of the station for himself, but his +warmest personal friends objected to his taking it Robert Troup +says,—"I remonstrated with him: he admitted that his acceptance of it +would be likely to injure his family, but said there was a strong +impression on his mind that in the financial department he would +essentially promote the welfare of the country; and this impression, +united with Washington's request, forbade his refusal of the +appointment." Having said, in conversing with Gouverneur Morris, that he +was confident he could restore public credit, "Morris remonstrated with +him for thinking of so perilous a position, on which calumny and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_632" id="Page_632">[Pg 632]</a></span> +persecution were the inevitable attendants. 'Of that,' Hamilton +answered, 'I am aware; but I am convinced it is the situation in which I +can do most good.'" He had the same just self-confidence that Cromwell +felt, when he said to John Hampden that he would effect something for +the Parliamentary cause, and that William Pitt felt in 1757, when he +said to the Duke of Devonshire, "My Lord, I am sure that I can save this +country, and that nobody else can." As with Cromwell and with Pitt, +Hamilton's self-confidence was to be conclusively justified by the +event.</p> + +<p>Hamilton's career as the first finance minister of the United States is +the greatest evidence of statesmanship in American history; nor is it +likely ever to be surpassed, so complete is the change in the country's +condition,—a change due in great measure to his policy and conduct. The +world's annals show no more striking example of the right man in the +right place than is afforded by Hamilton's Secretaryship of the +Treasury. "The discerning eye of Washington," said Mr. Webster in 1831, +"immediately called him to that post which was far the most important in +the administration of the new system. He was made Secretary of the +Treasury; and how he fulfilled the duties of such a place, at such a +time, the whole country perceived with delight, and the whole world saw +with admiration. He smote the rock of the National Resources, and +abundant streams of revenue gushed forth. He touched the dead corpse of +the Public Credit, and it sprung upon its feet. The fabled birth of +Minerva, from the brain of Jove, was hardly more sudden or more perfect +than the financial system of the United States, as it burst forth from +the conceptions of Alexander Hamilton." Lofty as this praise is, it is +literally true. American Public Credit was a dead corpse in 1789; and in +1790 it was living and erect, as it has ever since remained, in spite of +the utmost exertions of all political parties to reduce it to the state +in which Hamilton found it, in the hope of injuring their rivals. All +that has been good in our financial history for three quarters of a +century is due to Alexander Hamilton; and all that has been evil in it +can be traced directly to violation of his principles or disregard of +his modes of action. That we were enabled to preserve the Union against +the attacks of the Secessionists must be attributed to Hamilton's genius +and exertions. He is one of those "dead, but sceptred sovereigns, who +still rule our spirits from their urns."</p> + +<p>Ten days after his appointment to office, Secretary Hamilton was +required by Congress to report a plan for the support of the public +credit. His report is admitted, even by those who do not agree with its +views, to be an able state paper. Besides upholding the payment of the +foreign debt, on which all parties were of one mind, he recommended that +the domestic debt should be treated in the same spirit. As the revival +and maintenance of the public credit was the object which the Secretary +had in view, he advocated the fulfilment of original contracts, no +matter by whom claims might be held. His recommendations were adopted; +and the famous "funding system" dates from that time, and with it the +prosperity of the United States. He had recommended the assumption of +the State debts; but in this he was only partially successful. The +measures suggested for the carrying out of his system were adopted. +Among these was the creation of a national bank, at the beginning of +1791. Other measures concerned the raising of revenue, and were +extraordinarily successful. And yet others for the advancement of trade, +both foreign and domestic, were not less successful: there being no +subject that came properly within his department to which he did not +give his entire attention; and as he was laboring for a new nation, it +necessarily happened that all the machinery had to be improvised, To the +demands made on his intellect, his time, and his industry, the Secretary +was found to be more than equal. His triumphs astonished and gratified +the friends of good government throughout<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_633" id="Page_633">[Pg 633]</a></span> the world, and carried his +name to all nations. In only eighteen months, a change had been effected +such as it well might have taken as many years to accomplish, and which +thoroughly justified the new polity, and the measures which had been +adopted under it. Foreign commerce flourished, and also the domestic +trade. The agricultural interest prospered, and manufactures steadily +increased. "The waste lands in the interior were being rapidly settled; +towns were springing up in every direction; the seaports were increasing +in wealth and population; and that great career of internal improvement, +by numerous highways, with which the United States have amazed the +world, was begun." Fisher Ames wrote to the Secretary of the Treasury +that the national bank and the Federal Government possessed more +popularity than any institution or government could long maintain. "The +success of the government, and especially of the measures proceeding +from your department," he said, "has astonished the multitude; and while +it has shut the mouths, it has stung the envious hearts, of the State +leaders." American credit was raised so high in Europe, that, at the +opening of 1791, a great loan was taken in Holland in two hours, on +better terms than any European government but one could have obtained. +The subscriptions to the national bank were filled in a day, and could +easily have been doubled. Such another instance of successful +statesmanship it would be difficult, if not impossible, to find.</p> + +<p>It is sometimes said that the success of the Hamiltonian system was due +to European events,—that the great wars which grew out of the French +Revolution created so extensive demands for our productions that we must +have prospered, no matter what should have been the course of American +political life. What might have been, had the Constitution failed of +adoption, it is not necessary to discuss; but this we know, that the +success of Secretary Hamilton's plans was pronounced and complete before +the European wars alluded to began. That success was seen in the early +days of 1791, and war did not commence until 1792; and then it was not +waged on that grand scale to which it subsequently reached. The war +between France and England, which affected this country most, broke out +in 1793, two years after Ames had written so encouragingly to Hamilton, +and yet warning him to prepare for the inevitable Nemesis, that "envy of +the gods," which, according to the Hellenic superstition, but fairly +justifiable by innumerable historical facts, waits on all prosperity and +rebukes human wisdom. To us it seems that the most that can be said of +the effect of the wide-spread and long-continued European quarrel on our +business was this,—that it gave to it much of its peculiar character, +but did not create it, and was not necessary to its creation or its +continuance. What Hamilton did was to remove depressing influences from +American life and the American mind,—to substitute order for disorder, +hope for fear, and confidence and security for dread and distrust. This +was what was done by Hamilton and his associates; and this done, the +native energies of the people did all the rest. It is all but certain +that the extraordinary career of material prosperity that began +immediately after it was seen what was to be our policy under the new +polity, would have been essentially the same, as to the general result, +had Europe remained quiet for twenty years longer, and had there been no +downfall of the old French monarchy. The details of American business +life would have been different, but the result would have been pretty +much the same as what we have seen.</p> + +<p>Events soon justified the apprehensions of the sensitive, but sagacious +Ames. Hamilton's prosperity bred its natural consequences, and he became +the target at which many aspiring men directed their attacks,—Thomas +Jefferson standing at their head. The cause of this, which has been +sought in the French Revolution, in opposition to the supposed +centralizing tendencies of the Hamiltonian policy, and so forth, really<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_634" id="Page_634">[Pg 634]</a></span> +lies on the surface. It grew out of men's ambition, and their desire for +power. It was plain to Southern men, that, if Hamilton were permitted to +accomplish his purpose entire, he must become the man of men, and that +his influence would become equal to that of Washington, whose influence +they bowed to most unwillingly. Not less plain was it that power would +be with the North. Hence their determination to "break him down," which +they would have pursued with all their might, had the French Revolution +been postponed, though its occurrence furnished them with means of +attack,—the larger part of the American people sympathizing with the +French, while Hamilton shared with Edmund Burke opinions which time has +done much to show were sound; and he was a strenuous supporter of that +policy of neutrality which Washington wisely adopted. The Secretary of +the Treasury was assailed by those who envied and hated him, in various +ways. His official integrity was called in question, but the +investigations which he courted led to the confounding of his enemies, +while his personal character stood brighter than ever. So bitter became +the opposition that some of their number wished for the success of the +Whiskey Insurrection in Pennsylvania, as Mr. Jefferson's correspondence +shows; and the part which Hamilton had in suppressing that outbreak did +not increase their regard for him. The presence of two such men in +Washington's Cabinet as Hamilton and Jefferson made it the scene of +dissension until Jefferson retired.</p> + +<p>Hamilton remained in office some time longer; and when he left it, he +did so only for personal reasons. He was poor. He had expended, not only +his salary, but almost all the property he possessed when he took +office. The man who had made his country rich had made himself poor by +his devotion to her interests, and had received nothing but vindictive +abuse in requital of his unrivalled labors. He resolved to return to the +practice of his profession, which he never would have left, had he +consulted merely his individual interests and those of his family. Some +weeks before he retired, he addressed a letter to the Speaker of the +House of Representatives, announcing his purpose, in order that inquiry +might be made into the state of his department, should Congress see fit +to make it; but his foes had been so humiliated by the results of the +two inquiries undertaken at their instance, that they would not venture +upon a third. In January, 1795, he sent a letter to Congress on the +subject of the public credit, which is one of his ablest productions, +full of sound financial doctrine, and showing that he was in advance of +most men on those economical questions the proper settlement of which so +closely concerns the welfare of nations. This letter affords a complete +view of the financial history of the government, and may be considered +as Secretary Hamilton's statement of his case to the world. The debt +exceeded $76,000,000, a sum that bore as great a proportion to the +revenues of the country seventy years since as the debt of to-day bears +to our present resources. As Hamilton was no believer in the absurd +doctrine that "a national debt is a national blessing," we need say no +more than that he dwelt with emphasis on the necessity of providing for +the debt's payment. It is important to mention that he declared +government could not rightfully tax its promises to pay.</p> + +<p>Though Hamilton, as Madison wrote to Jefferson, went to New York "with +the word Poverty as his label," his great reputation rapidly secured for +him abundant professional employment. But he was too important a +personage to be able to refrain altogether from political pursuits, and +was forced to defend some of the measures of government, though no +longer responsible for them. He advocated Jay's Treaty, one of the most +unpopular measures that ever were carried through by an honest +government in face of the most vehement opposition. Had the treaty been +rejected, war with England would probably have followed, which would +have been a profound calamity. While living in retirement,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_635" id="Page_635">[Pg 635]</a></span> Hamilton was +assailed by his Southern enemies, who were supported by their Northern +allies, their object being to show that he had acted corruptly while at +the head of the Treasury. His reply was as complete a refutation as +their earlier calumnies had encountered. He wrote the celebrated +Farewell Address of President Washington. On all occasions he was ready +with pen and tongue to defend and uphold those political principles in +the triumph of which he had that interest which a statesman must ever +have in the advancement of truth.</p> + +<p>When it was supposed that the French might attempt the invasion of this +country, in 1798, preparations were made to meet them. Washington was +made Commander-in-Chief, with the rank of Lieutenant-General; but he +stipulated that he should not be required to take the field save for +active service, and that Hamilton should have the post next to his own, +which made the latter actually commander of the army. He was +indefatigable in discharging the duties of this station; but, +fortunately, hostilities with France were confined to the ocean, and the +seizure of power in that country by Bonaparte led to a settlement of the +points in dispute. Hamilton again returned to private life. He could +not, however, altogether give up politics, but was forced to take some +part in the exciting political contests of those days. When the +Presidential election of 1801 devolved upon the House of +Representatives, he exerted his influence against Burr, whom the +Federalists were inclined to support, preferring him to Jefferson. In +1804 he again labored to defeat Burr's political aspirations, and +prevented his being chosen Governor of New York. Burr was then on the +verge of ruin, and he resolved upon being revenged, and on the +destruction of so powerful a political foe. He required from Hamilton +the disavowal of language which there was no evidence that he +ever had used, and so managed the dispute that a duel became +inevitable,—reference being had to the state of public sentiment then +prevalent on the subject of honor, and to the circumstance that duelling +was almost as common in New York at that time as it was in any Southern +State just before the Secession War.</p> + +<p>The death of Alexander Hamilton was as much the work of assassination as +was that of Abraham Lincoln, in all save the forms that were observed on +the occasion. Aaron Burr, of whose actions he had sometimes spoken with +severity,—but not with more severity than is common in all high party +times,<a name="FNanchor_I_9" id="FNanchor_I_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_I_9" class="fnanchor">[I]</a>—was determined that so bold and able an enemy should be +removed from his political path; and to that end he fastened a duel upon +him, and in the meeting that ensued deliberately shot him. It has been +said, that Burr, who was "a good shot" from his youth, and whose nerves +were as brazen as his brow, practised with the pistol for some days +before the fatal encounter took place; and the story is perfectly in +character, and helps sustain the position<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_636" id="Page_636">[Pg 636]</a></span> that Hamilton was +assassinated. That Hamilton should have consented to meet such a man, +knowing as he did what was his purpose, and that he was capable of any +crime, has often been remarked upon; and probably his decision will +serve to point many a moral for ages, and all the more emphatically when +the force of that opinion in regard to duelling which once was so strong +shall not only have utterly passed away, but have been forgotten, and +have become quite incomprehensible to men who shall live in the light of +sounder opinion than prevailed at the beginning of this century. A +soldier, it was reasonable that Hamilton should feel very differently on +the point of honor from a mere civilian, and that he should not have +felt himself at liberty to decline Burr's challenge. He believed that +his ability to be useful thereafter in public life would be greatly +lessened, should he not fight. In the paper he drew up, giving his +reasons for the course he pursued, he says,—"The ability to be in +future useful, whether in resisting mischief or in effecting good, in +those crises of our public affairs which seem likely to happen, would +probably be inseparable from a conformity with public prejudice in this +particular." He was particularly thinking of his power to contend +against a scheme for a dissolution of the Union which had been formed in +the North, the existence of which he knew, and also that it was known to +Burr, who, had he not committed suicide by the same act which made him a +murderer, would soon have been seen at the head of a rebellion. The +result of the duel was to deprive Burr of all power and influence. He +killed Hamilton, but he fell himself by the same shot that carried death +to his opponent; and so complete was his fall that he never could rise +again, though he continued to cumber the earth for more than thirty-two +years. Hamilton's quarrel with Burr, as his son and biographer truly +observes, "was the quarrel of his country. It was the last act in the +great drama of his life. It was the deliberate sacrifice of that life +for his country's welfare,—a sacrifice which, by overwhelming his +antagonist with the execrations of the American people, prevented a +civil war, and saved from 'dismemberment' this great republic."</p> + +<p>What strikes us most forcibly, in considering Hamilton's career, is the +remarkably, early development of his powers. At thirteen, he was found +competent to take charge of a mercantile establishment. At fifteen, his +writings win for him public applause and the aid of friends. At +seventeen, he addresses with success a great public meeting. At +eighteen, his anonymous productions are attributed to some of the +leading men of America. At nineteen, he has thought out that principle +of government which is indelibly associated with his name. At twenty, he +has not only approved himself a skilful and courageous soldier, but he +has won the esteem of the grave and reserved Washington, and is placed +by that great man in a post of the closest confidence, and which really +makes him the second man in the American service. At twenty-three, he +has shown that he is master of the intricate subject of finance. At +twenty-five, after an active military life that had allowed no time for +study, he is known as a lawyer of the first order. At twenty-six, he is +distinguished as a member of Congress. At thirty, he takes a leading +part in framing the Constitution of the United States. And in his +thirty-third year, he becomes the most extraordinary finance minister +the world has ever seen. He was statesman, soldier, writer, and orator, +and first in each department; and he was as ready for all the parts +which he filled as if he had been long and studiously trained for each +of them by the best of instructors. When Mr. Webster so happily compared +the instantaneousness and perfection of his financial system to "the +fabled birth of Minerva," he did but allude to what is to be remarked of +all Hamilton's works. All that he did was perfect, and no one seems to +have been aware of his power until he had established the fact of its +existence. Such a combination of precocity<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_637" id="Page_637">[Pg 637]</a></span> and versatility stands quite +unparalleled. Octavius, William the Third, Henry St. John, Charles James +Fox, and William Pitt the younger, all showed various powers at early +periods of their lives; but not one of them was the equal of Hamilton in +respect to early maturity of intellect, or in ability to command success +in every department to which he turned his attention. The historical +character of whom he most reminds us is the elder Africanus. In the +early development of his faculties, in his self-reliant spirit, in his +patriotism, in his kingliness of mind, in his personal purity, in his +generosity of thought and of action, and in the fear and envy that he +excited in inferior minds, he was a repetition of the most majestic of +all the Romans. But, unlike the Roman soldier-statesman, he did not +desert the land he had saved, but which had proved ungrateful; and the +grave only was to be his Liternum. He died at not far from the same age +as that to which Africanus reached. In comparing him with certain other +men who achieved fame early, it should be remembered that they all were +regularly prepared for public life, and were born to it as to an +inheritance; whereas he, though of patrician blood, was possessed of no +advantages of fortune, and had to fight the battle of life while +fighting the battles of the nation.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_F_6" id="Footnote_F_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_F_6"><span class="label">[F]</span></a> Mr. Riethmüller, in his volume on "Hamilton and his +Contemporaries," coolly assumes that Hamilton would have opposed the +late war for the maintenance of the Union, had he been living! Anything +more absurd than such a view of Hamilton's probable course, under +circumstances like those which occurred in 1861, it would be impossible +to imagine. Hamilton would have been the firmest supporter of the war, +had he lived to see it, or had such a war broken out in his time. His +principles would have led him to be for extreme measures. It is easy to +see why Mr. Riethmüller thus misrepresents Hamilton's opinions. Living +in London, where it is thought that every foreign nation should submit +to destruction, if that be desirable to England, he wrote under the +influence of the place. The English do not take the same view of +Secession, when it comes home to them. They think as unfavorably of that +repeal of the Union which the Irish demand as we thought of that +dissolution of our Union which South Carolinians demanded; and they +moved against the Fenians much earlier than we moved against the +Carolinians. Mr. Riethmüller's assumption is pointedly disclaimed by +General Hamilton's representatives, who declare that it is a palpable +misrepresentation of their father's views: and no one who is familiar +with Hamilton's writings and history can honestly say that they are +wrong. To say that Andrew Jackson, who crushed Nullification, would have +been a Secessionist, had he been living in 1861, would be a moderate +assertion, compared to that which places Alexander Hamilton in the list +of possible Secessionists, had he survived to Secession times.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_G_7" id="Footnote_G_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_G_7"><span class="label">[G]</span></a> <i>History of the Republic of the United States of America, +as traced in the Writings of Alexander Hamilton and his Contemporaries.</i> +By John C. Hamilton. Seven Volumes. 8vo. New York: D. Appleton & Co. A +work in every respect deserving of the closest and most attentive study, +replete as it is with valuable and well-arranged matter and able +writing.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_H_8" id="Footnote_H_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_H_8"><span class="label">[H]</span></a> <i>The Federalist: a Commentary on the Constitution of the +United States.</i> A Collection of Essays, by Alexander Hamilton, Jay, and +Madison. Also, <i>The Continentalist</i> and other Papers, by Hamilton. +Edited by John C. Hamilton, Author of "The Republic of the United +States." 1 vol. 8vo. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co.—This is by +far the best edition of "The Federalist" that has appeared, and should +alone be consulted and read by Hamilton's admirers. The Historical +Notice with which Mr. Hamilton has prefaced it is a noble production, +and worthy of the subject and of his name.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I_9" id="Footnote_I_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I_9"><span class="label">[I]</span></a> Burr, in his correspondence with Hamilton just before the +challenge that led to the duel, said,—"Political opposition can never +absolve gentlemen from the necessity of a rigid adherence to the laws of +honor and the rules of decorum. I neither claim such privilege, nor +indulge it in others." This has been called affectation; but we have no +doubt that Burr uttered the truth in the sentences quoted. He was +exactly the man to observe the rules of decorum, and those of honor, as +he understood them, in political warfare. The strong language that is so +common in political disputes is proof as much of the abundance of men's +sincerity as it is of their want of good breeding. They are honestly +moved by the evil words or deeds, or both, or what they consider such, +of their opponents, and speak of them coarsely. The man who is +indifferent to all opinions, principles, and actions, but who is +nevertheless ambitious, is never tempted to the utterance of disparaging +language concerning his political foes. He may laugh at their zeal, but +he cannot be offended by it. Burr was utterly indifferent to all +political principle. He never really belonged to any party, and was as +ready to act with Federalists as with Democrats; and it was only through +the force of circumstances that he did act generally with the latter. A +party man never would have done as Burr saw fit to do when the +Presidential election of 1801 devolved on the House of Representatives. +The party to which he professed to belong intended, as everybody knew, +that Jefferson should be President; and yet Burr allowed himself to be +used against Jefferson. That "all is fair in politics" was his creed. He +may have been "a man of honor," but what Lord Macaulay says of Avaux is +strictly applicable to him, namely,—"that of the difference between +right and wrong he had no more notion than a brute."</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="REVIEWS_AND_LITERARY_NOTICES" id="REVIEWS_AND_LITERARY_NOTICES"></a>REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES.</h2> + + +<p><i>Memoirs of the Life of William Shakespeare, with an Essay toward the +Expression of his Genius, and an Account of the Rise and Progress of the +English Drama to the Time of Shakespeare.</i> By <span class="smcap">Richard Grant White</span>. +Boston: Little, Brown, & Co.</p> + +<p>Mr. White's closing-up of his Shakespeare labors has been long in +coming, but comes good and acceptable at last. The volume now in hand, +however, does not form a part of his edition of the poet; it stands by +itself; though a portion of its contents is repeated in the first volume +(the last published) of this edition. It is rich in matter, and the +workmanship, for the most part, capital. All Shakespearians are bound to +relish it; and if any general reader does not find it delectable, he may +well suspect some fault in himself.</p> + +<p>The contents of the volume are, first, "Memoirs of the Life of William +Shakespeare"; second, "An Essay toward the Expression of Shakespeare's +Genius"; third, "An Account of the Rise and Progress of the English +Drama to the Time of Shakespeare."</p> + +<p>In his "Memoirs," the author of course adds nothing to what was already +known of the poet's life. But his presentation of the matter is +eminently readable, and, in parts, decidedly interesting; which is as +much as can fairly be looked for in any writing on that subject. Some +readers may think, we <i>do</i> think, that the author is a little at fault +on one or two points. For instance, he overworks certain questions +touching the poet's wife, worrying up the matter against her to the +utmost, and, in fact, tormenting the poor woman's memory in such a way +as to indicate something very like spite. Now this is not fair; and Mr. +White's general fairness on other subjects makes his proceeding the less +excusable in this case.</p> + +<p>Of course everybody knows that Mrs. Anne Shakespeare was some eight +years older than her husband; that the circumstances of the marriage +were not altogether what they should have been; and that the oldest +daughter was born a little too soon for the credit of either parent. +This is all, all, there is known about the matter. And if conjecture or +inference must be at work on these facts, surely it had better run in +the direction of charity, especially of charity towards the weaker +vessel. We say weaker vessel, because in this case the man must, in all +fairness, be supposed to have had the advantage, at least as much in +strength of natural understanding as the woman had in years. And as +Shakespeare was, by all accounts, a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_638" id="Page_638">[Pg 638]</a></span> very attractive person, it does not +well appear but that the woman had as good a right to lose her heart in +his company as he had to lose his head in hers. Yet our author +insinuates, perhaps we should say more than insinuates, that the lady +immodestly angled for and seduced the youthful lover, and entangled his +honor in an obligation of marriage; and he seems quite positive that the +poet afterwards hated her, and took refuge in London partly to escape +from her society. Moreover, he presumes her to have been a coarse, low, +vulgar creature, such as, the fascination of the honeymoon once worn +off, the poet could not choose but loathe and detest. Now all this is +sheer conjecture; it has no basis of fact or of fair likelihood to stand +upon; there is not so much as a particle even of tradition to support +it. Rowe hints nothing of the sort; and surely his candor would not have +spared the parties, if he had found anything: it was the very point of +all others on which scandal would have been most apt to fasten and feed; +and yet even Aubrey, arrant old gossip as he was, supplies nothing to +justify it.</p> + +<p>In default of other grounds, resort has been had to certain passages in +the poet's dramas. And Mr. White, though knowing, none better, the +poet's wonderful self-aloofness from his representations, thinks it +worth the while to make an exception in this particular case. Presuming +such and such things to be true in his own experience, the poet, our +author observes, must have thought of them while writing certain +passages. Our answer is, To be sure, he must have thought of them, and +he must have known that others would think of them too; and a reasonable +delicacy on his part would have counselled the withholding of anything +that he was conscious might be applied to his own domestic affairs. Does +not Mr. White see that his inferences in this are just the reverse of +what they should be? Sensible men do not write in their public pages +such things as would be almost sure to breed or to foster scandal about +their own names or their own homes. The man that has a secret cancer on +his person will be the last to speak of cancers in reference to others; +and if the truth of his own case be suspected at all, it will rather be +from his silence than from his speech. We can hardly think Shakespeare +was so wanting in a sense of propriety as to have written the passages +in question, but that he knew no man could say he was exposing the +foulness of his own nest.</p> + +<p>But we are dwelling too long on this point; and we confess something of +impatience at Mr. White's treatment of it. His <i>animus</i> in the thing is +shown, perhaps, in one slight mistake he has made. Speaking of the +lady's haste to "provide herself with a husband," he says, "In less than +five months after she obtained one she was delivered of a daughter." The +bishop's license for the marriage was dated November 28th, 1582, and +Susannah Shakespeare was baptized May 26th, 1583; thus leaving an +interval of but two days short of <i>six</i> months between the marriage and +the birth. As Sir Hugh observes, "I like not when a 'oman has a great +peard."</p> + +<p>We are moved to add one more item of dissent.—Mr. White thinks, and it +appears that the German critic, Gervinus, coincides with him, that +Shakespeare must have acquired all his best ideas of womanhood after he +went to London, and conversed with the ladies of the city. And in +support of this notion he cites the fact—for such it is—that the women +of the poet's later plays are much superior to those of his earlier +ones. But are not the <i>men</i> of his later plays quite as much superior to +the men of his first? Unquestionably they are. Are not his later plays +as much better <i>every way</i>, as in respect of the female characters? Mr. +White is too wise and too ripe in the theme to question it. The truth +seems to be, that Shakespeare saw more of great and good in both man and +woman as he became older and knew them better; for he was full of +intellectual righteousness in this as in other things. But if there must +be any conjecturing about it, we prefer to conjecture that the poet +caught his ideas of womanhood, or at least the rudiments of them, from +his mother, and other specimens of the sex in his native town. For in +this matter it may with something of special fitness be said that a man +finds what he brings with him the faculty of finding; and he who does +not learn respect for woman in the nursery and at the fireside will +hardly learn it at all. The poet's mind did not stay on the surface of +things. He had the head to know, and the heart to feel, the claims of +humble, modest worth; for, as he was the wisest, so was he also the most +human-hearted of men. And to his keen, yet kindly eye, the +plain-thoughted women of Stratford may well have been as pure, as sweet, +as lovely, as rich in all the inward graces which he delighted to unfold +in his female characters, as anything he afterwards<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_639" id="Page_639">[Pg 639]</a></span> found among the +fine ladies of the metropolis: though far be it from us to disrepute +these latter; for he was, by the best of all rights, a thorough +gentleman; and the ladies who pleased him in London had womanhood +enough, no doubt, to recognize him as such, without the flourishes of +rank. At all events, it is reasonable to infer that the foundations of +his mind were laid before he left Stratford, and that the gatherings of +the boy's eye and heart were the germs of the man's thoughts. And, +indeed, if his great social heart had found all the best delights of +society in London, how should he have been so desirous, as Mr. White +allows he was, to escape from the city, and set up his rest in his +Stratford home?</p> + +<p>Mr. White's history of the Drama, though far from copious, supplies +enough, perhaps, to put the reader right as regards Shakespeare's +historical relations to that great branch of English literature. From +what is there given, any one can, with reasonable attention, learn that +the English drama, as we have it in Shakespeare, was the well-ripened +fruit of centuries of preparation: the form, structure, and order of the +thing being settled long before his time. The attentive reader will also +see, though this point is not emphasized so much as it might be, that +the national mind and taste were ready and eager to welcome the right +man as soon as the right man came; so that, in catering wisely for the +public taste, the poet could hardly fail of the supremacy due to his +transcendent genius; which infers, of course, that the public taste had +nearly as much to do in forming him as he had in forming it. On one or +two points, as, for instance, in the matter of Shakespeare's senior +contemporaries, we should have preferred a somewhat larger outlay of the +author's learned and well-practised strength; while, again, in reference +to the old plays of "Jeronimo" and "The Spanish Tragedy," he might well +have used more economy of strength, as the matter is neither interesting +in itself nor helpful to his purpose. Here is a specimen of his +felicity, referring to the plays of old John Lily, the euphuist.</p> + +<p>"They are in all respects opposed to the genius of the English drama. +They do not even pretend to be representations of human life and human +character, but are pure fantasy pieces, in which the personages are a +heterogeneous medley of Grecian gods and goddesses, and impassible, +colorless creatures, with sublunary names, all thinking with one brain, +and speaking with one tongue,—the conceitful, crotchety brain, and the +dainty, well-trained tongue of clever, witty John Lily."</p> + +<p>This is, indeed, the exact truth of the matter, and it could hardly be +better said. On divers points, however, the little that he gives us just +sets the reader on fire for more: that is, he does not satisfy the +desire quite enough in proportion as he stimulates it. But he probably +goes on the safe principle, that in such cases an intelligent reader is +apt to crave more than he will justify a writer in giving; or, in other +words, that he does not seem to have enough, until he has too much.</p> + +<p>But the "Essay" is most decidedly the jewel of the volume: not, however, +to disparage the other parts; for it is worthy to be the jewel of +anybody's volume. A single reading of the "Essay," as it ought to be +read, will suffice to make any one glad to own the book, and will almost +certainly induce him to mark it down for a second reading, as the second +also will for a third. The work, indeed, is a positive, and we think it +will prove a permanent addition to our already opulent inheritance of +Shakespearian criticism. It is weighty throughout with fresh, yet sober +and well-considered thought, expressed in tight and sinewy +English,—every part being highly elaborate, but nothing over-labored. +The author discusses a large number of topics, all in "a manly style, +fitted to manly ears," but is particularly full and instructive in +regard to the poet's language and style: a rich field, indeed, which has +not been proportionably cultivated by the poet's later critics, who have +put their force mainly on what may be called his dramatic architecture, +and on his development of character, where there is more room to be +philosophical, but less chance of determinate results. Over this field +Mr. White walks with the firm, yet graceful step of a master: his +current of thought running deep, strong, and clear, and carrying us +through page after page full of nice and subtile discrimination, without +over-refinement, and of illustrations apt and luminous, yet without a +touch of false brilliancy or mere smartness; which is saying a good +deal, in these days of high-pressure rhetoric.</p> + +<p>We commend the "Essay" to all lovers of solid and well-proportioned +critical discourse.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_640" id="Page_640">[Pg 640]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="RECENT_AMERICAN_PUBLICATIONS" id="RECENT_AMERICAN_PUBLICATIONS"></a>RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS.</h2> + + +<p>The Ideal Attained: being the Story of Two Steadfast Souls, and how they +won their Happiness and lost it not. By Eliza Farnham, Author of "Woman +and her Era," etc. New York. C. W. Plumb & Co. 12mo. pp. 510. $2.00.</p> + +<p>At Anchor. A Story of Our Civil War. By an American. New York. D. +Appleton & Co. 12mo. pp. 311. $1.50.</p> + +<p>Methods of Instruction. That Part of the Philosophy of Education which +treats of the Nature of the several Branches of Knowledge, and the +Methods of teaching them according to that Nature. By James Pyle +Wickersham, A. M., Author of "School Economy." Philadelphia. J. B. +Lippincott & Co. 12mo. pp. 496. $2.00.</p> + +<p>Love and Money. By J. B. Jones, Author of "Wild Western Scenes," etc. +Philadelphia. T. B. Peterson & Brother. 12mo. pp. 407. $2.00.</p> + +<p>Histoire de Jules César. Par S. M. I. Napoléon III. Tome Premier. New +York. D. Appleton & Cie. 12mo. pp. 396. $2.50.</p> + +<p>Beatrice. By Julia Kavanagh, Author of "Nathalie," etc. New York. D. +Appleton & Co. 12mo. pp. 520. $2.00.</p> + +<p>Lessons from the World of Matter and the World of Man. By Theodore +Parker. Selected from Notes of Unpublished Sermons. By Rufus Leighton. +Boston. C. W. Slack. 12mo. pp. 430. $2.50.</p> + +<p>Sibyl. A Tragedy in Five Acts. By John Savage. New York. James B. +Kirker. 16mo. pp. 105. 75 cts.</p> + +<p>Life of Marcus Tullius Cicero. By William Forsyth, M. A., Q. C., Author +of "Hortensius," etc., and late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. In +Two Volumes. With Illustrations. New York. Charles Scribner & Co. 12mo. +pp. 304, 341. $5.00.</p> + +<p>Know the Truth. A Critique on the Hamiltonian Theory of Limitation, +including some Strictures upon the Theories of Rev. Henry L. Mansel and +Mr. Herbert Spencer. By Jesse H. Jones. New York. Hurd & Houghton. 12mo. +pp. x., 225. $1.25.</p> + +<p>Janet Strong. By Virginia F. Townsend. Philadelphia. J. B. Lippincott & +Co. 12mo. pp. 314. $1.50</p> + +<p>Voices of the Morning. By Belle Bush. Philadelphia. J. B. Lippincott & +Co. 18mo. pp. 270. $1.25.</p> + +<p>A View at the Foundations: or, First Causes of Character, as Operative +before Birth, from Hereditary and Spiritual Sources. Being a Treatise on +the Organic Structure and Quality of the Human Soul, as determined by +Pre-Natal Conditions in the Parentage and Ancestry, and how far we can +direct and control them. By Woodbury M. Fernald. Boston. W. V. Spencer. +16mo. pp. 210. $1.25.</p> + +<p>The Iliad of Homer, rendered in English Blank Verse. By Edward, Earl of +Derby. In Two Volumes. New York. C. Scribner & Co. 12mo. pp. xiv., 430; +viii., 457. $5.00.</p> + +<p>History of England, from the Fall of Wolsey to the Death of Elizabeth. +By James Anthony Froude, M. A., late Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford. +Vols. I. & II. New York. C. Scribner & Co. 12mo. pp. 447, 501. Per vol., +$2.50.</p> + +<p>Fairy Fingers. A Novel. By Anna Cora Ritchie, Author of "Autobiography +of an Actress," &c. New York. G. W. Carleton. 12mo. pp. 460. $2.00.</p> + +<p>The Graver Thoughts of a Country Parson. By the Author of "Recreations +of a Country Parson." Boston. Ticknor & Fields. 16mo. pp. iv., 332. +$2.00.</p> + +<p>Hugh Worthington. A Novel. By Mrs. Mary J. Holmes. New York. G. W. +Carleton. 12mo. pp. 370. $1.75.</p> + +<p>Essays. By R. W. Emerson. First and Second Series. Boston. Ticknor & +Fields. 32mo. Blue and gold. pp. viii., 515. $1.50.</p> + +<p>Superior Fishing; or, The Striped Bass, Trout, and Black Bass of the +Northern States. Embracing full Directions for Dressing Artificial Flies +with the Feathers of American Birds; an Account of a Sporting Visit to +Lake Superior, etc. By Robert B. Roosevelt, Author of "The Game Fish of +North America," etc. New York. G. W. Carleton. 12mo. pp. 304. $2.00.</p> + +<p>Hypodermic Injections in the Treatment of Neuralgia, Rheumatism, Gout, +and other Diseases. By Antoine Ruppaner, M. D., Fellow of the Mass. Med. +Soc. Boston. T. O. H. P. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 16, No. 97, November, 1865 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: December 11, 2006 [EBook #20088] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY *** + + + + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net. +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by Cornell University Digital Collections). + + + + + + + + + +THE + +ATLANTIC MONTHLY. + +_A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics._ + +VOL. XVI.--NOVEMBER, 1865.--NO. XCVII. + +Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by TICKNOR AND +FIELDS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of +Massachusetts. + +Transcriber's Note: Minor typos have been corrected and footnotes moved +to the end of the article. Headings in large tables converted to letters +with a legend. + + + + +WHY THE PUTKAMMER CASTLE WAS DESTROYED. + + +There is a test of truth in popular creeds and in human opinions +generally which is prominently put forward by Herbert Spencer, and has +been more or less distinctly stated by other writers, long before our +time,--a very searching and trustworthy test. + +It is, in substance, this:--Whatever doctrine or opinion has received, +throughout a long succession of centuries, the common assent of mankind, +may be properly set down as being, if not absolutely true in its usually +received form, yet founded on truth, and having, at least, a great, +undeniable verity that underlies it. + +If, however, there be conflicting details as to any doctrine, varying in +form according to the sect or the nation that entertains it, then the +test is to be received as affirming the grand underlying truth, but not +as proving any of the conflicting varieties of investment in which +particular sects or nations may have chosen to clothe it. + +Thus of the world's belief in the reality of another life, and in the +doctrine of future reward and punishment. + +In some form or other, such a faith has existed in every age and among +almost every people. Charon and his boat might be the means of +conveyance. Or the believer, dying in battle for the creed of the +Faithful, might expect to wake up in a celestial harem peopled with +Houris. Or the belief might embody the matchless horrors painted by +Dante; his dolorous city with the terrible inscription over its +entrance-gate: "_Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch'entrate_." + +Again, the conception might be of a long unconscious interval after +death, succeeded at last by a resuscitation; or it might be of another +world, the supplement and immediate continuation of this, into which +Death, herald, not destroyer, ushers us even while human friends are yet +closing our eyes and composing our limbs. It might be of the Paradise in +which, on the very day of the crucifixion, the penitent thief was to +meet the Saviour of mankind; or it might be of that Heaven, yet increate +or unpeopled, seen by some in long, distant perspective, shadowed forth +in such lines as these:-- + + "That man, when laid in lonesome grave, + Shall sleep in Death's dark gloom, + Until the eternal morning wake + The slumbers of the tomb." + +Yet again, the idea may be of a Future of which the denizens shall be, +on some Great Day, tried as before an earthly court, doomed as by an +earthly tribunal, and sentence pronounced against them by a presiding +God, who, of his own omnipotent will, decides to inflict upon sinners +condign punishment, in measure far beyond all earthly severity,--torment +in quenchless flames, with no drop of water to cool the parched tongue, +for ever and ever. + +In other words, we may conceive, as to human destiny in another world, +either of punishments optional and arbitrary, growing out of the +indignation of an offended Judge who hates and requites sin, or of +punishments natural and inherent, growing out of the very nature of sin +itself, as _delirium tremens_ requites a long career of intemperance. We +may conceive of punishments which are the awards of judicial vengeance; +or we may believe in those only which are the inevitable results of +eternal and immutable law, a necessary sequence in the next life to the +bad passions and evil deeds of this. + +Those who incline to this latter aspect of the Great Future, as the +scene of reward or punishment supervening in the natural order of +things, may chance to find interest, beyond mere curiosity, in the +following strange narrative. + + * * * * * + +There is not, perhaps, a country more rife in legends of haunted houses +than Germany. No province but has its store of them. Many, drawn by +tradition from the obscurity of the past, have lost, if they ever +possessed, any claim to be regarded except as apocryphal. But others, of +a recent date and better attested, cannot be disposed of in so summary a +manner. + +In furnishing a specimen of this latter class, I depart from a rule +which I think it well to observe in regard to original narratives of +character so marvellous: to record such, namely, only when they can be +procured direct from the lips of the witnesses themselves. This comes to +me at second hand. I had no opportunity of cross-questioning the actors +in the scenes narrated. Yet I had the story from a gentleman of high +respectability: the principal Secretary of the ---- Legation at Naples: +and his sources of information were direct and authentic. + + * * * * * + +In the southeastern portion of Pomerania, at no great distance from the +frontier of the province of West Prussia, and in the vicinity of the +small town of Buetow, there stood, not many years since, an ancient +chateau. It was the ancestral residence of an old Pomeranian family of +baronial rank; and the narrative of its destruction, with the causes +which led thereto, is curious and remarkable. + +Its former owner, the Baron von Putkammer, after leading a wild and +dissolute life, had expired within its walls. For years previously, many +a mysterious story, fraught with dark hints of seduction and +infanticide, had been whispered over the surrounding country; and when +at last death arrested the Baron's profligate career, some reported that +he had been strangled in requital of outrage committed,--others, that +the Devil had taken home his own, as they had long expected. + +His estate went to a relative of the same name, who granted the +enjoyment of it to his eldest son, heir to the title. This young man, +after a time, arrived to take possession. He found in the chateau the +administrator of the deceased Baron's estate. + +It was late, the first night, before he went to bed. Yet he was scarcely +undressed, when he heard, through the stillness of the night, the +approach of a carriage, at first rolling over the sharp gravel of the +avenue, then entering the paved court-yard. This was succeeded by the +noise of the front door opening, and the distinct sound of steps on the +principal staircase. + +Young Putkammer, surprised at this unseasonable visit, yet supposing it +some friend who had been benighted, hastily donned his dressing-gown, +and, with light in hand, stepped to the landing. Nothing to be seen +there! But he heard behind him the opening of a door leading into the +principal gallery of the chateau,--a long hall which for some time had +been out of use. It had been employed by the former owner of the castle +as a banqueting-room, was hung with old family portraits, and, as the +young man had noticed during the day, was so completely incumbered with +furniture, which had been temporarily stored there, that no one could +pass through it. + +He returned in great surprise, which was much increased when he found +the door of the gallery in question closed and locked. He listened, and +heard quite distinctly, within the room, the noise of plates and dishes +and the clatter of knives and forks. To this, after a time, succeeded +the sound of shuffling cards and the rattle of money, as if thrown on +the table in the course of the game. + +More and more astonished, he awoke his servant, and bade him listen at +the door and tell him what he heard. The terrified valet reported the +same sounds that had reached his master's ears, Thereupon the latter +told him to arouse the administrator and request his presence. + +When this gentleman appeared, the young nobleman eagerly asked if he +could furnish any explanation of this strange disturbance. + +"I was unwilling," said he, in reply, "to anticipate what you now +witness, lest you might imagine I had some interested motive to prevent +your coming hither. We are all familiar with these sounds. They occur +every night at about the same hour. And we have sought in vain any +natural explanation of their constant recurrence." + +"Have you the key of the gallery?" + +"Here it is." + +The door was unlocked and thrown open. Silence and darkness! And when +the lights were introduced, not an object to be seen through the gloom, +but the old furniture confusedly piled up over the floor. + +They closed and locked the door. Again the same sounds commenced: the +clatter of dishes, the noise of revelling, the clink of the gamblers' +gold. A second time they opened the door, this time quickly and +suddenly; and a second time the sounds instantly ceased, and the hall, +untenanted except by the silent portraits on its walls, appeared before +them, the same still and gloomy lumber-room as before. + +Baffled for the time, young Putkammer dismissed his attendants and +retired to his chamber. Erelong he heard the door of the gallery open, +the heavy footsteps sound on the stairway, the front door creak on its +hinges,--and then the roll of the carriage, first over the stone +pavement, then along the gravelled avenue, till the sounds gradually +died away in the distance. + +The next night he was ready dressed and prepared with lights. When, +about the same hour, the noise of the approaching carriage was heard, he +had the lights immediately carried to the top of the stairway, and he +himself half descended the stairs. Up the stairs and past his very side +came the footsteps; but neither living being nor spectral form could his +eyes perceive. + +The same noises in the old banqueting-hall. The same fruitless attempts +to witness the revel, or to get at the secret, if any, of the +imposition. + +The young man was brave and devoid of superstition. Yet, in spite of +himself, these mysterious sounds, renewed night after night, irritated +his nerves, and preyed upon his quiet. He thought to break through the +spell by inviting a party of living guests. They came, to the number of +thirty or forty; but not for their presence did the invisible revellers +intermit their nocturnal visit. All heard the approach of the carriage, +the steps ascending the staircase, the sounds of revelry in the hall. +And all, when the opened door disclosed, as wont, but darkness and +silence, turned away with a shudder,--and to the subsequent invitation +of their host to favor him again with their company replied by some +shallow apology, which he perfectly understood. + +Thus deserted by his friends, and subjected, night after night, to the +same ghastly annoyance, the young man found his health beginning to +suffer, and decided to endure it no longer. + +Returning to his father, he informed him that he would receive with +gratitude the rents of the property, but only on condition that he was +not required to reside in its haunted chateau. + +The father, ridiculing what he termed his son's superstitious weakness, +declared that he would himself take up his residence there for a time, +assured that he could not fail to discover the true cause of the sounds +that had driven off its former occupants. + +But the result belied his expectations. Like his son, he never could +_see_ anything. But the selfsame sounds nightly assailed his ears. He +caused the hall to be cleared out and occupied daily. So long as it was +lighted, and there was any one within it, no sounds were heard; and by +thus occupying it all night, the disturbance could be averted. But as +often as it was closed or left in darkness, the invisible revel +recommenced at the wonted hour, preceded by the same preliminaries, +terminating in the same manner. + +Nothing was left untried to penetrate the mystery, and to detect the +trick, if to trickery the disturbances were due. But every effort to +obtain an explanation of the phenomena utterly failed. And the father, +like the son, after a few weeks' struggle against the nightly annoyance, +found his nervous system unable to cope with this constant strain upon +it, and left the chateau, determined never again to enter its walls. + +The next expedient was to rent it to those whom the fame of its ghostly +reputation had not reached. But this was unavailing, except for a brief +season. No tenant would remain beyond a week or ten days. This plan, +therefore, was abandoned in despair; the principal rooms were closed; +and the building remained for years untenanted, except by one or two +unwilling dependants. + +Finally the proprietor, deeming all change hopeless, and finding that +the keeping up of the chateau was a mere useless expense, resolved to +destroy it. The dead had fairly driven out the living. He had it pulled +down; and a few low, ruined walls alone remained to mark the place where +it stood. + +Still, even within these deserted ruins, the same sounds of nightly +revelry were declared to have been heard by those who were bold enough +to approach them at the midnight hour. When this was reported to the +proprietor, he determined, if possible, to outroot this last remnant of +disturbance. Accordingly, he caused to be erected, out of the remaining +materials of the chateau and on the spot where it had stood, a small +chapel, now to be found there, a mute witness of the story I have here +told. + +The chapel was completed and consecrated in the year 1844. Even while +the rites attending its consecration were in progress, strange and +unwonted noises disturbed the congregation; but from that time on they +ceased; and the chapel has since been entirely free from any such. + +A relative of the proprietor, a young officer in the Prussian army, was +present at the consecration, himself witnessed the noises in question, +and had previously heard, from the parties themselves, all the former +occurrences. He it was who related the circumstances to my informant, +the Baron von P----, a gentleman of a grave and earnest character, whose +manner, in repeating them to me, evinced sincerity and conviction. But +it is not merely upon his authority that the details of the narrative +rest. They are, it would seem, of public notoriety in Pomerania; and +hundreds of persons in the neighborhood, as my informant declared, can +yet be found to testify, from personal observation, to the general +accuracy of the above narration.[A] + +The most salient point in this story is the practical and business part +of it,--the actual pulling down of the chateau, as a last resort, to get +rid of the disturbance. Mere fancy is not wont to lead to such a result +as that. The owner of a piece of valuable property is not likely to +destroy it for imaginary cause. Interest is a marvellous quickener of +the wits, and may be supposed to have left no stone unturned, before +assenting to such a sacrifice. + +I inquired of the gentleman to whom I am indebted for the above +narrative if there were no skeptical surmises in regard to the origin of +the disturbance. He replied, that he had heard but one,--namely, that +the administrator of the deceased Baron's estate might, from motives of +interest and to have the field to himself, have resorted to a trick to +scare the owners from the premises. + +It is beyond a doubt that such devices have been successfully employed +ere now for similar purpose. An example may be found in the story of the +monks of St. Bruno, and the shrewd device they employed to obtain from +King Louis the Saint the grant of one of his ancestral palaces. It was +in this wise. + +Having heard his confessor speak in high terms of the goodness and +learning of the monks of St. Bruno, the King expressed a desire to found +a community of them near Paris. Bernard de la Tour, the superior, sent +six of the brethren; and Louis assigned to them, as residence, a +handsome dwelling in the village of Chantilly. It so happened, that from +their windows they had a fine view of the old palace of Vauvert, +originally erected for a royal residence by King Robert, but which had +been deserted for years. The worthy monks, oblivious of the Tenth +Commandment, may have thought the place would suit them; but ashamed, +probably, to make a formal demand of it from the King, they seem to have +set their wits to work to procure it by stratagem. + +At all events, the palace of Vauvert, which had never labored under any +imputation against its character until they became its neighbors, began +almost immediately afterwards to acquire a bad name. Frightful shrieks +were heard to proceed thence at night. Blue, red, and green lights were +seen to glimmer from its casements, and then suddenly disappear. The +clanking of chains succeeded, together with the howlings of persons as +in great pain. Then a ghastly spectre, in pea-green, with long, white +beard and serpent's tail, appeared at the principal windows, shaking his +fist at the passers-by. This went on for months. + +The King, to whom all these wonders were duly reported, deplored the +scandal, and sent commissioners to look into the affair. To these the +six monks of Chantilly, indignant that the Devil should play such pranks +before their very faces, suggested, that, if they could but have the +palace as a residence, they would undertake speedily to cure it of all +ghostly intrusion. A deed, with the royal sign-manual, conveyed Vauvert +to the monks of St Bruno. It bears the date of 1259. From that time all +disturbances ceased,--the green ghost, according to the creed of the +pious, being laid to rest forever under the waters of the Red Sea.[B] + +Some will surmise that the story of the castle of Putkammer is but a +modified version of that of the palace of Vauvert. It may be so. One who +was not on the spot, to witness the phenomena and personally to verify +all the details, cannot rationally deny the possibility of such an +hypothesis. Yet I find little parallel between the cases, and +difficulties, apparently insuperable, in the way of accepting such a +solution of the mystery. + +The French palace was deserted, and nothing was easier than to play off +there, unchallenged, such commonplace tricks as the showing of colored +lights, the clanking of chains, shrieks, groans, and a howling spectre +with beard and tail,--all in accordance with the prejudices of that +age; nor do we read that any one was bold enough to penetrate, during +the night, into the scene of the disturbance; nor had the King's +commissioners any personal motive to urge a thorough research; nor had a +pious sovereign, the owner of a dozen palaces, any strong inducement to +refuse the cession of one of these, already untenanted and useless, to +certain holy men, the objects of his veneration. + +Very different, in every respect, is the affair of the Pomeranian +castle. It is a narrative of the skeptical nineteenth century, that sets +down all ghost-stories as nursery-tales. The owner, and his son, the +future possessor, each at separate times and for weeks, reside in the +castle, and occupy themselves in repeated attempts to discover whether +they have been imposed on. The selfsame trick, if trick it was, is +repeated night after night, without variation. The roll of the +approaching carriage-wheels, first along the gravelled avenue, then over +the paved court-yard, while no carriage was visible,--how were such +sounds to be imitated? The fall of footsteps, unaccompanied by aught in +bodily form, up the lighted stairway, and past the very side of the bold +youth who stepped down to meet them,--what human device could +successfully simulate these? The sound of the opening gallery-door and +the noises of the midnight orgies, with full opportunity to examine +every nook and corner of the scene whence, to every ear, the same +identical indications came,--how, in producing and reproducing these, +could trickery, time after time, escape detection? Both father and son, +it is evident, had their suspicions aroused; and both, as evidently, +were men of courage, not to be blinded by superstitious panic. Is it a +probable thing that they would destroy an old and valued family mansion, +without having exhausted every conceivable expedient to detect +imposture? + +Nor was this imposture, if as such we are to regard it, conducted in +approved form, after the orthodox fashion. It assumed a shape contrary +to all usually received ideas. No spectre clanking its chains; no lights +burning blue; no groans of the tormented; no ordinary getting-up of a +ghostly disturbance. But a mere succession of sounds, indicating, if we +are to receive and interpret them literally, the periodical return from +the world of spirits of some of its tenants, restless and unblest. Was +this the machinery a mystifier was likely to select? + +Such are the difficulties which attend the hypothesis of a concerted +plan of deception. They will be overlooked by those who have made up +their minds that communications between this world and the next are +impossible, and who will content themselves with pronouncing, that, +though they cannot detect the mode of the imposture, yet imposture of +some kind or other it plainly must have been. + +And such skeptics will very properly remind us of other difficulties in +the way of accepting as a reality the alleged phenomena. What have the +spirits of the departed to do with conveyances resembling those of +earthly structure? Are there incorporeal carriages and horses? Can grave +men admit such fancies as these?[C] Or is all this, even if genuine, +only symbolical,--sounds without objective counterpart? Then what +becomes of the positive character of this narrative, as a lesson, as a +warning to us? The whole degenerates into an acted parable. It fades +into the idle pageantry of a dream. Thus we lose ourselves in shadowy +conjecture. + +But, none the less, the facts, if facts they be, remain to be dealt +with. And if at last we concede the ultramundane origin of these +manifestations, whether as objective reality or only as truth-teaching +allegory, what a field is opened to our speculations regarding the +realms of spirit and the possible punishments there in store for those +who, by degrading their natures in this world, may have rendered +themselves unfit for happiness in the next,--and who, perhaps, still +attracted to earth by the debasing excesses they once mistook for +pleasure, may be doomed, in the phantom repetition of their sins, to +detect their naked reality, to have stamped on their consciousness the +vileness of these without the brutal gratifications that veiled it, the +essence of vice shorn of its sensual halo, the grossness without the +glitter: if so, a terrible expiation! + +I beg it may not be imagined, that, because I see grave difficulties in +the way of regarding this case as one of imposture, I therefore set it +up as proof of a novel theory regarding future punishments. A structure +so great cannot be erected on foundation so slender. I but furnish it as +a chance contribution towards the probabilities of ultramundane +intercourse,--as material for thought,--as one of those hints which +future facts may render valueless, but which, on the other hand, other +observed phenomena may possibly serve to work out and corroborate and +explain. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[A] I find in my journal the following:--"_August 17, 1857._ Read over +to the Baron von P---- the Putkammer narrative; and he assented to its +accuracy in every particular." + +[B] This story is given in Garinet's _Histoire de la Magie en France_, +p. 75. + +[C] Yet in a recent case, occurring in England, and authenticated in the +strongest manner, the "sound of carriages driving in the park when none +were there" is one of the incidents given on the authority of the lady +who had witnessed the disturbances, and who furnishes a detailed account +of them. See "Facts and Fantasies," a sequel to "Lights and Sounds, the +Mystery of the Day," by Henry Spicer, London, 1853, pp. 76-101. + + + + +THE RHYME OF THE MASTER'S MATE. + +FORT HENRY. + + + None who saw it can forget + How they went into the fight, + Four abreast,-- + Thereby was the foe perplexed,-- + With the Essex on the right, + That is nearest to the Fort, + And the Cincinnati next, + The St. Louis on her left, + All so gallant and so deft, + And the brave Carondelet. + + Boom, boom, from every bow! + (They'll have to answer that!) + From the Rebel bastions, now, + There's a flash. + Cool, keep cool, boys, don't be rash! + Mind your eyes, as the old Boss said; + Keep together and go ahead,-- + Not too high and not too low, + Fire slow! + + Paff! + Now we have it from the Fort, + And the Rebels all a-crowing; + While the devils'-echoes laugh, + With a loonish thunder-lowing, + After every gun's report: + 'Tisn't bird-shot they are throwing,-- + 'Tisn't chaff! + Ping! Ping! + If you've ever seen the thing + That can fly without a wing + Swifter than the Thunder's bird, + Lightning-clenching, lightning-spurred,-- + If you've ever heard it sing, + You will understand the word, + And look out; + For, beyond a mortal doubt, + It can sting! + + Thump! + 'D y' ever hear anything like it? + Sounded very much like a ten-strike,--it + Appears they're after a spare! + Bet it made the old Boss jump, + Or at any rate awfully screw up his brows,-- + Hit the pilot-house, + And he's up there,-- + Must 'a' been a hundred-pounder,-- + Had the twang of a conical ball,-- + Would 'a' gone plumb through a ten-foot wall. + Isn't the old _Cinc._ a trump? + + They meant that for a damper! + Square it off with an eighty shell + And a fifteen-second fuse, + (With all the latest news!)-- + Pretty well done, boys, pretty well! + Guess that'll be apt to tell + 'Em all about where it came from, + And where it's a-going to, + What it took its name from, + And all it's a-knowing to! + See 'em scamper! + + The Conestoga, the Tyler, + And the Lexington, you know, + Are in line a half a mile, or + A little less, below,-- + Just this side of the Panther + (Little woody island), + They've their orders----Oh, + But, after all, how _can_ their + Wooden-heads keep silent? + Wonder 'f it don't make 'em feel bad, + Even if they ain't all _steel_-clad, + At being slighted so! + + 'Tisn't so bad a day, + Although it's a little cloudy,-- + Or rather, as one might say, + _Smoky_, perhaps,-- + A little hazy, a little dubious, + A little too sulphury to be salubrious. + D' ye mind those thunder-claps? + Do you feel now and then the least little bit + Of an incipient earthquake fit, + Accompanied with awful raps? + But give 'em gowdy, give 'em gowdy, + And it'll soon clear away! + + Old Boss ain't to be balked.-- + All this, you know, + Was only the way (or nearly so) + The boys talked, + And felt and thought, + (And acted, too,) + The harder they fought + And the hotter it grew.-- + + But there was a Hand at the reel + That nobody saw,-- + Old Hickory there at every keel, + In every timber, from stem to stern,-- + A _something_ in every crank and wheel, + That made 'em answer their turn; + And everywhere, + On earth and water, in fire and air, + As it were to see it all well done, + The Wraith of the murdered Law,-- + Old John Brown at every gun! + + But the Fort was all in a roar: + No use to talk, they had the range,-- + Which wasn't strange, + Guess they'd tried it before,-- + And the pounding was not soft, + But might well appall + The boldest heart. + Cool and calm, + Trumpet in hand, + Up in the cock-loft, + Where 't was the hottest of all, + Our brave old Commodore + Took his stand, + And played his part, + Humming over some old psalm! + + Tut! did ye hear the hiss and scream + Of that hot steam? + It's the Essex that's struck,-- + She never had any luck: + Ah, 'twas a wicked shot, + And, whether they know it or not, + It doesn't give us joy! + + Thorough an open port it flew, + As with some special permit to destroy; + And first, for sport, + Struck the soul from that beautiful boy; + Then through the bulkhead lunged, + And into the boiler plunged, + Scalding the whole crew! + + We know that the brave must fall,-- + But that was a sight to see: + Twenty-three, + All in an instant scalded and scathed, + All at once in the white shroud swathed! + A low moan came from the deck + Of the drifting wreck,-- + And that was all. + + How the traitors'll boast, + As soon as they come to see her + All adrift and aghast!-- + Hark! d' ye hear? d' ye hear? + D' ye hear 'em shout? + They see it already, no doubt. + We shall have to count her out,-- + That white breath was her last,-- + She has given up the ghost! + + What does the old Boss think? + Will he shrink? + Will he waver or falter now?-- + A little shadow flits over his brow, + For the sharp pang in his heart,-- + Flits over--and is gone,-- + And a light looms up in his old gray eye, + Whether you see it or not, + That is like a sudden dawn + In a stormy sky! + + What does he _think_? + What will he _do_?-- + Well! he don't say! + But I'll tell you what, + You can bet your life, + As you would your knife, + And your wife, too, + He'll do + (And put 'em up at once!)-- + He'll run these boats right up to their guns, + And take that Fort, or sink! + + But, oh--oh, it was hot! + So thick and fast the solid shot + Upon our iron armor played, + It kept, like thunder, a kind of time-- + Devil's tattoo or gallopade-- + That, like an awful, awful rhyme, + Rang in the ear; + And they sent us cheer after cheer. + + But the boys had been to _school_, + And _their_ guns were not cool; + For they knew what Cause they served, + And not a man of 'em swerved! + But on, right on, they swept, + And from every grim bow-port + Their nutmegs and shell-barks leaped + Into the jaws of the Fort! + And (to give her, perhaps, a chance to breathe) + Knocked out some of her big, black teeth! + And (to raise a better crop, no doubt, + Than was ever raised there before) + Ploughed her up into awful creases, + Inside and out!-- + For now they were up and doing the chore + At only four hundred yards, + And the death-dealing shreds and shards + Of our shell were tearing 'em all to pieces! + + Hurrah for the brave old Flag! + To triumph see her ride!-- + Ha, ha! they dodge and duck,-- + The Snake's expiring! + Their gunners run and hide,-- + By heaven, they've struck! + Down comes the rattlesnake rag + By the run,-- + Stop the firing! + The work is done!-- + + Anyhow, she'll do for batter!-- + You see now, Butternuts, you were plucky; + But that ain't "what's the matter,"-- + Not by a long shot! + No, no,--no! I'll tell you what-- + And you mustn't take it at all amiss-- + I'll tell you what the _matter_ is: + 'Tain't because you were born unlucky, + (Bear in mind,) + Nor that you've good eyes and we are blind,-- + Nothing of the kind,-- + But it's something else, if it isn't more: + The reason--pardon!--you had to cotton + Was simply this: Your _Cause_ was rotten,-- + Rotten to the very core: + That's what's the matter! + + But you ought to 'a' heard our water-dogs yelp!-- + Just an hour and fifteen minutes!-- + (Twitter away, you English linnets!) + Horizontal and perpendicular, + Fair and square, without any help,-- + That is, any in particular,-- + The old ferry wash-tubs of the West, + With some new-fashioned _hoops_, for a little test, + And a few old _pounders_ from--Kingdom Come, + And nothing for suds but the "Nawth'n scum," + Made these "gen'l'men" turn as white + As a head o' hair in a single night! + Cleaned their army completely out, + (We're going to give _that_ another wipe!) + On the double-quick, by the shortest route,-- + Wrung their stronghold from their gripe,-- + Brought their garrison right to taw, + And made 'em get down to the "higher law"! + + So that when Grant and his boys came up, + (There's places enough for a man to die!) + Swearing that we had "spoiled" their "sport," + With a quiet twinkle in his eye, + Old Boss asked 'em to come in and sup, + And set 'em to _house-keeping_ in the Fort!-- + But all the old fellow could say or do, + They'd still keep a-going it: "Bully for _you_!" + + "Bully" for Grant and for Foote!-- + E'en if the voice must tremble,-- + And "bully" for all who helped 'em to do 't! + Bully for Porter and Stemble! + For Paulding and for Walke,-- + For Phelps, for Gwin, and for Shirk!-- + But what's the use to talk? + They were all of 'em up to the work! + Bully for each brave tub + That bore the Union Blue! + And for every mother's son + Of every gallant crew, + Whatever his color or name, + Who, when it came to the rub, + Shall be found to have been _game_! + + * * * * * + + Such was the Rhyme of the Master's Mate, + Just as they found it in the locker, + With this at the foot:-- + "It's getting late, + And I hear a pretty loud Knock at the knocker! + Captain, if I should chance to fall, + Try to send me home. Good bye!" That's all,-- + Excepting the date, the name, and rank:-- + "Feb. 12th, '62, ---- ----, + Master's Mate." + + All next day a great black Cloud + Hung over the land from coast to coast; + And the next, the Knocking was "pretty loud,"-- + With a sudden Eclipse, as it were, of the sun,-- + And the earth, all day, quaked--"Donelson!" + But the next was the deadliest day of all, + And the Master's Mate was not at Call! + Yet nobody seemed to wonder why,-- + There was something, perhaps, the Master knew + Far better than we, for his Mate to do,-- + And the Day went down with a bloody sky! + + But when the long, long Night was past, + And our Eagle, sweeping the traitor's crag, + Circled to victory up the dome, + The great Reveille was heard at last!-- + They wrapped the Mate in his country's flag, + And sent him in glory home! + + + + +THE VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE IN LIBRARIES. + + +A visible library is a goodly sight. We do not underrate the external +value of books, when we say it is the invisible which forms their chief +charm. Sometimes rather too much is said about "tall copies," and +"large-paper copies," and "first editions," the binding, paper, type, +and all the rest of the outside attraction, or the fancy price, which go +to make up the collector's trade. The books themselves feel a little +degraded, when this sort of conversation is carried on in their +presence: some of them know well enough that occasionally they fall into +hands which think more "of the coat than of the man who is under it." We +must, however, be honest enough to confess that we are ourself a +bibliomaniac, and few possessions are more valued than an old +manuscript, written on vellum some five hundred years ago, of which we +cannot read one word. Nor do we prize less the modern extreme of +external attraction,--volumes exquisitely printed and adorned, bound by +Riviere, in full tree-marbled calf, with delicate tooling on the back, +which looks as if the frost-work from the window-pane on a cold January +morning had been transmuted into gold, and laid on the leather. Ah, +these are sights fit for the gods! + +Nevertheless, we come back to our starting-point, that what is unseen +forms the real value of the library. The type, the paper, the binding, +the age, are all visible; but the soul that conceived it, the mind that +arranged it, the hand that wrote it, the associations which cling to it, +are the invisible links in a long chain of thought, effort, and history, +which make the book what it is. + +In wandering through the great libraries of Europe, how often has this +truth been impressed upon the mind!--such a library as that in the old +city of Nuremberg, housed in what was once a monastery, and looking so +ancient, quaint, and black-lettered, visibly and invisibly, that, if the +old monk in the legend who slipped over a thousand years while the +little bird sang to him in the wood, and was thereby taught, what he +could not understand in the written Word, that a thousand years in +God's sight are but as a day,--if that old monk had walked out of the +Nuremberg monastery and now walked back again, he might almost take up +the selfsame manuscript he had laid down a thousand years ago. + +What invisible heads have ached, and hands become weary, over those +vellum volumes, with their bright initial letters! What hearts have +throbbed over the early printed book! How triumphantly was the first +copy, now worm-eaten and forgotten, contemplated by the author! How was +that invisible world which surrounded him to be stirred by that new +book! + +We remember looking into one of the cell-like alcoves arranged for +students in a college library at Oxford, and watching a fellow of the +college (a type of scholars, grown old among books, rarely found in our +busy land) crooning over a strange black-letter folio, and laughing to +himself with a sort of invisible chuckle. The unseen in that volume was +revealed to us through that laugh of the old bookworm, and quite unseen +we partook of his amusement. Another alcove was vacant; a crabbed +manuscript, just laid down by the writer, was on the desk. He was +invisible; but the watchful guardian at the head of the room saw us +peering in, and warned us with a loud voice not to enter. Safely might +we have been permitted to do so, for we could hardly have deciphered at +a glance all the wisdom that lurked in the open page; yet that hidden +meaning, invisible to us, was of real value to the unseen writer. + +There are many incidents connected with the visible and invisible of +libraries existing in the great houses of England, which could point a +moral in sketches of this subject. One, concerning a pamphlet found at +Woburn Abbey, has a peculiar interest. + +Lord William Russell, eldest son of Francis, fourth Earl of Bedford, +after completing his education at Oxford, and travelling abroad for two +years, returned home in the winter of 1634. Young, handsome, +accomplished, and the eldest son of the House of Russell, the +fashionable world of London marked him as a prize in the matrimonial +speculations of the times, and was quite in a flutter to know which of +the reigning beauties, would captivate the young Lord Russell. Lady +Elizabeth Cecil, Lady Dorothy Sidney, Lady Anne Carr were the rival +belles upon whom the eyes of the world were fixed. It was with no small +consternation that the Earl of Bedford soon found that the affections of +his son had been attracted by Lady Anne Carr, the daughter of the Earl +and Countess of Somerset, more widely known as Robert Carr and Lady +Essex. The Earl of Bedford had taken a prominent part in the Countess's +trial, and participated in the general abhorrence of her character. In +vain his son pleaded the innocence of the daughter, who, early separated +from her parents, knew nothing of their history or their crimes. The +Earl of Bedford shrunk with a feeling of all but insurmountable aversion +to such an alliance; and not until the king interceded for the youthful +lovers, did the father yield a reluctant consent, and their marriage was +celebrated. The undisturbed happiness and harmony in which the parties +lived reconciled the Earl to the connection; he became much attached to +his beautiful daughter-in-law; and in the sweetness and domestic purity +of her character he could sometimes forget her parents. Lady Anne's life +passed quietly in the discharge of the duties of a wife and mother, and +of those which devolved upon her when her husband became fifth Earl of +Bedford in 1641. In 1683, their eldest son, Lord William Russell, died +on the scaffold. + +"There is a life in the principles of freedom," says the historian of +the House of Russell, "which the axe of the executioner does not, for it +cannot, touch." This great thought must have strengthened the souls of +the parents under so terrible a trial. The mother's health, however, +sunk under the blow, which, in the sympathy of her celebrated +daughter-in-law, the heroic Lady Rachel Russell, she endeavored to +sustain. One day, seeking, perhaps, some book to cheer her thoughts, +Lady Bedford entered the library, and in an anteroom seldom visited +chanced to take a pamphlet from the shelves. She opened its pages, and +read there, for the first time, the record of her mother's guilt. The +visible in that page rent aside the invisible veil which those who loved +Lady Bedford had silently woven over her whole life, as a shield from a +terrible truth. She was found by her attendants senseless, with the +fatal book open in her hand. The revelations of the past, the sorrows of +the present, were too much for her to bear, and she died. Lady Rachel +Russell, writing from Woburn Abbey at the time, states her conviction +that Lady Bedford's reason would not have sustained the shock received +from the contents of the pamphlet, even had her physical powers rallied. + +Turning aside one moment from our subject, we stand in awe before the +striking contrast presented by the characters of two women, each so +closely linked with Lady Bedford's life,--the one who heard her first +breath, and the other who received her last sigh. If Lady Somerset +causes us to shrink with horror from the depth of depravity of which +woman's nature is capable, let us thank God that in Lady Rachel Russell +we have a witness of the purity, self-sacrifice, and holiness a true +woman's soul can attain. + +In the library at Wilton House, the seat of the Sidneys, we were shown a +lock of Queen Elizabeth's hair, hidden for more than a hundred years in +one of the books. A day came when some member of the family took down an +old volume to see what treasures of wisdom lurked therein. "She builded +better than she knew," for between the leaves lay folded a paper which +contained a faded lock of the once proud Queen Bess. How it came there, +and by whose hand it was placed in the book, is one of the invisible +things of the library, but the writing within the paper authenticated +the relic beyond doubt; and it is now shown as one of the visible +treasures of the library of Wilton House. + +Magdalen College, Cambridge, contains the Pepysian Library,--placed +there by the will of Pepys, under stringent conditions, in default of +whose fulfilment the bequest falls to Trinity. One of the fellows of +Magdalen is always obliged to mount guard over visitors to the library. +Such an escort being provided, we ascended the stairs, and found +ourselves in the presence of the bookcases which once adorned Pepys's +house in London, containing the "three thousand bookes" of which he was +so proud. The bookcases are handsome, with small mirrors let into them, +in which, doubtless, Mrs. Pepys often surveyed the effect of those +"newegownes" which pleased her husband's vanity so well, although he +rather reluctantly paid the cost. There, too, is the original manuscript +of that entertaining Diary, wherein Pepys daguerrotyped the age in which +he lived, and himself with all his sense and nonsense. That Diary would +have remained one of the invisible treasures of libraries, for it was +written in a cipher of his own invention, but, by a very curious chance, +the key to that cipher was unintentionally betrayed through comparison +with another paper, and the journal was brought to light, and many +things made visible which the writer dreamed not of confiding to future +ages. Pepys was an indefatigable, and, we cannot but half suspect, an +unscrupulous collector. Volumes of autographs, great scrap-books filled +with prints, tickets, invitations, ballads, let us into the visible and +invisible of the reign of Charles II. A manuscript music-book, elegantly +bound, and labelled, "Songs altered to suit my Voice," carried us back +to the days when, after going to the play in the afternoon, Pepys and +some of his companions "came back to my house and had musique." + +Pepys certainly never meant to be one of the invisible things in his own +library, for every book contains an engraving from his own portrait. +Should he ever come back to look after the possessions he so much +valued, he can surely be at no loss to find the likeness of the form he +once wore. If a spirit can retain any human vanity and self-importance, +his must certainly be unpleasantly surprised that the great collection +looks small in these days, and attracts but little attention. To +antiquaries and lovers of the odd and curious it must ever be valuable; +but the obligation of having a fellow of Magdalen at one's elbow much +interferes with that quiet, cozy "mousing" so dear to the soul of a +bibliomaniac. We heartily wished that we could have made an appointment +with the shade of old Pepys, and, returning to the library in the +stillness of midnight, have found him ready to show off his collections. +That would have been, indeed, the visible and the invisible of the +Pepysian Library. The Cambridge men of to-day are too busy about their +own affairs to look much into Pepys's collections, which remain quietly +ensconced under the guardianship of Old Magdalen, one of the visible +links between the seen and unseen in libraries. + +Nestled quietly in an old Elizabethan house, among the great trees at +Wotton, is the library of John Evelyn. Belonging to the same age as that +of Pepys, but collected by a man of widely different tastes and +character, there is much outwardly to charm as well as to elevate the +mind in the influences shed around it. Here are tall copies and folios +of grave works, classic and historical, the solid literary food of a man +who kept his soul pure amid a corrupt age, books as harmonious with the +reflective mind of Evelyn as were the grand old woods of Wotton with the +refined tastes of the author of "Sylva." Here is preserved the original +manuscript of Evelyn's Journal, the paper yellow with the mellow tints +of two hundred autumns, yet the thought as fresh as if written +yesterday. Near the manuscript is seen the prayer-book which Charles I. +held in his hand when he mounted the scaffold at Whitehall. There is +much of the visible and invisible in that quaint old library at Wotton. + +The internal treasures of Christian faith opened a wide field for the +outward decoration of religious books. "The Hours" (meaning devotional +hours) of kings and queens are magnificent specimens of chirography, +showing also the skill of artists in the earliest centuries. The art of +preparing these volumes was divided into two branches: that of the +_Miniatori_, or illuminators, who furnished the paintings, the borders, +and arabesques, and also laid on the gold; and that of the _Miniatori +calligrafi_, who wrote the whole of the book, and drew the initial +letters of blue and red with their fanciful ornaments. Many of the great +libraries of Europe contain these splendid manuscripts, and although but +one page is open to the passing visitor, which he sees "through a glass +darkly," yet that page is written over and illuminated with associations +and memories. Could a glance reveal thoughts which have looked out of +eyes bending over these pages, when they were held in the hand of their +first owner, what messages from the invisible would be received! Some of +these rare and regal possessions have gone a little astray, and wandered +about in the wilderness of the world, as is confirmed by an anecdote we +recently received from good authority. A magnificent volume, illustrated +by views of French chateaux of the Middle Ages, presented to a princess +of the House of Bourbon, was known to have existed. This manuscript had +disappeared, and for more than a hundred years it could not be traced. +The Duc d'Aumale, son of Louis Philippe, while in Genoa, was informed +(by a person who called upon him for that purpose) that there was for +sale in that city a valuable illuminated manuscript, and, as the Duke +was known to be a collector of rare books, it would be shown to him. He +accordingly followed his informant to an obscure part of the city, and +into an old house, where the manuscript was produced. What was his +astonishment, when he beheld before him the lost Bourbon manuscript, so +long sought for in vain! He immediately became its purchaser; and +whatever secret history belongs to the volume, connected with the time +when it was invisible, it is now one of the most treasured realities in +the magnificent library at Orleans House. + +In the illuminated pages of many of these old manuscripts there lurks +much more, doubtless, than meets the eye. Thus, that famous poem of the +Middle Ages, the "Romance of the Rose," has passed for a mere fanciful +allegory, or love-story. Splendidly illuminated copies of this Romance +are well known. The British Museum possesses one, which Dibdin calls +"the cream of the Harleian Collection": it is in folio, and replete with +embellishments. He also mentions another copy, at that time belonging to +Mr. North, the frontispiece of which represents Francis I. surrounded by +his courtiers, receiving a copy from the author. Only the visible of the +illuminated volume was probably opened to the eyes of Francis, or even +of Dibdin. A later student pronounces the Romance to be a complete +specimen of Hermetic Philosophy, concealing great truths under its +allegory,--the Rose being the symbol of philosophic gold. + +Such is the view taken of this Romance by our distinguished +fellow-countryman, Major-General Hitchcock, who found time, in the +interval between two wars, to collect and study three hundred volumes of +Hermetic Philosophy, coming forth therefrom as a champion in defence of +a much misunderstood class. This ingenious work, entitled "Alchemy and +the Alchemists," published in 1857, was written to prove that the +alchemists were not foolish seekers for sordid gold, nor vain believers +in the elixir of life, but philosophers of deep thought and high aims, +who, in days when a man dared not say his soul was his own, veiled in +mystic language, perfectly understood by each other, theological and +philosophical truths, theories, and discoveries, which would have +brought them to the stake or the rack, had they been produced openly. +"Man was the subject of alchemy, and the object of the art was the +perfection, or at least the improvement, of man." These were the _real_ +Hermetic Philosophers. After them came men who, not knowing the meaning +of the symbolic language which concealed the spiritual truths, took the +written word in a literal sense, and went to work with crucibles and +retorts, seeking the philosopher's stone and the elixir of life, not +knowing, indeed, the Scripture, that "the letter killeth, but the spirit +maketh alive." + +Such a theory as that advanced in "Alchemy and the Alchemists" opens a +new chapter in the visible and invisible of a library of Hermetic +Philosophy. + +The most ancient specimens of calligraphy extant are probably the +Terence of the fourth century and the Virgil of the fifth century, in +the Vatican Library. Alas for those who have no open sesame to that +collection! We shall never forget our disappointment upon entering the +Vatican. We could not gaze even on the mouldy vellum or faded leather of +old bindings, and saw nothing but stupid modern painted cases, bodies +quite unworthy of the souls they hid. Gladly would we have laid aside +our theory concerning unseen treasures, and looked that great collection +face to face. + +"The taste for the external decoration of manuscripts," says Labarte, +(whose interesting "Hand-Book on the Arts of the Middle Ages" has been +admirably translated by Mrs. Palliser,) "already existed among the +ancients. Marcus Varro called forth the praises of Cicero for having +traced in his book the portraits of more than seven hundred celebrated +persons; Seneca, in his treatise 'De Tranquillitate Animi,' speaks of +books ornamented with figures; and Martial addresses his thanks to +Stertinius, who had placed his portrait in his library." + +These ancient works of Art have vanished, none have survived the stormy +passage of ages, yet this casual mention of them carries us into the +otherwise invisible past. We see the seven hundred portraits in Marcus +Varro's book, and walk into the library of Stertinius to give our +opinion of the portrait of Martial. + +"The miniatures of manuscripts were long considered," says Labarte, +"only as ornaments. Montfaucon was the first to recognize their +usefulness as historical documents. To possess manuscripts of the Middle +Ages with miniatures is in fact to possess a gallery of contemporaneous +pictures." + +The most beautiful specimen of ancient illuminated manuscript we have +seen in this country belongs to the Honorable Charles Sumner. It is a +missal of the fifteenth century, of finest quality. Several of the +miniatures might well be claimed as the work of Van Eyck. The +frontispiece consists of the portrait of the lady for whose devotions +the book was prepared. She kneels before the Madonna, while her patron +saint stands beside her. Beneath this celestial vision is the heraldic +shield of the lady's family, thus throwing in a glimpse of visible +worldly grandeur. The borders and arabesques of this manuscript are +equal in execution to the miniatures, and the missal is one of rare +beauty. + +Can we forbear alluding to that other treasure of Senator Sumner's +collection,--the Album which belonged to Camillus Cordoyn, who, more +than two centuries ago, entertained guests at his house as they +journeyed into Italy? One of these, Thomas Wentworth, afterwards Lord +Strafford, then a young man gayly travelling about the world, wrote his +name in the volume, little thinking of the block and the axe which were +to illustrate the closing chapter of his book of life. The immortal +Milton, on his return from Italy, was the guest of the same nobleman. +What would we not give for a look into that house at Geneva, and see +this little volume laid before the visitor! The glorious eyes of John +Milton looked over its pages, and perhaps he listened to the story of +some of the distinguished personages, now all forgotten, whose names and +heraldic shields are there. Then he turned to a blank leaf, and wrote +two lines from his own "Comus,"-- + + "If Virtue feeble were, + Heaven itself would stoop to her." + +He signed his name on that 20th of June, 1639, and the host took back +the book. And now, more than two hundred years after, that page is held +as priceless in this great republic beyond the sea. + +We should speak gratefully of the externals of books, because for two +long years our oculist did not allow us to open them. We dared not go +farther than their titles, yet even these were talismans which revealed +wide regions, and carried us from Indus to the Pole. We went with Arthur +Penrhyn Stanley to the Holy Land, discovered Nineveh with Layard, +explored Art treasures with Mrs. Jameson, plunged among icebergs with +Parry. A volume of Belzoni bore us not only to pyramids and mummies in +Egypt, but away to a strange old hall "in Padua, beyond the sea." +Cabalistic paintings cover the walls, misty with age; lurking in one +corner of the vast apartment is a gigantic wooden horse, that figured at +some public festival four hundred years ago, and now pauses, ready to +prance out of the mouldy past into the affrighted present; opposite +stand two Egyptian statues, cat-headed human figures, resting their +hands on their stone knees. These were gifts from Belzoni to his native +city of Padua; and his handsome head in the Eastern turban, turned into +white marble, stands above the entrance-door. + +Coming back from the Paduan hall, so weird and ghostly, we glance along +the shelves at a long row of volumes which bear De Quincey's name, and +we need not open a page to feel the mysterious spell of the opium-eater. +Like one of those strange dreams of his seems a remembrance which comes +back to us with his name. A quaint, tall house in the old part of +Edinburgh has admitted us into a quiet apartment, where, as the twilight +is creeping in through the windows, a small gray man receives us, with +graceful and tender courtesy. He converses with a felicity of language +like that of his printed pages, but in a voice so sweet, so low, so +exquisitely modulated, that the magical tone vibrates on the ear like +music. It was De Quincey, who held us entranced until darkness gathered +around us, then bade us farewell, his kind words lingering on the air, +as, with a flickering candle in his hand, he flitted up the winding +stair, and vanished away. + +Another volume bears the name of William Wordsworth, and beneath his +autograph he writes that it was purchased at Bath from a +circulating-library. It is that strange journal of the Margravine of +Bareith, sister of Frederic the Great, a sad story of those who dwell in +kings' houses; but we think only of Wordsworth, and of the viewless +history of the book carried by the poet from circulating in Bath to +quiet rural Rydal Mount, and now having wandered over to New England. + +A dainty volume near by bears the autograph of Rogers, and though the +association is not so purely imaginative, perhaps, as a poet should call +up, yet it always brings to our mind the breakfasts at his house, of +which many of our friends have partaken, and related divers stories +concerning those morning refections. They are invisible feasts to us, +for we never even picked up the crumbs from them, except at second hand; +yet this elegant little book knew all about them, and heard what was +said before, and also behind--the table-cloth. + +Singular experiences connected with books are sometimes known to their +owners, quite invisible to others. In yonder corner are two volumes. +Book-collectors know that they are rare, and the uninitiated think they +contain queer old wood-cuts. To us that corner is haunted; an invisible +lady hovers about those volumes. Once upon a time an order was given for +those books, but the answer came back from over the sea, that they were +not to be had, or to be had only at rare intervals on the breaking up of +a library. To our no small surprise, very soon after this quietus had +been given to bibliomaniacal hopes, the books in question appeared +before us in excellent condition. We could hardly suppose that any one +had been benevolent enough to break up a library on purpose to oblige +us, and we waited to hear a very odd story. + +Soon after the letter had been sent, announcing the ill success of our +commission, the writer of it was in a bookshop in London, when a lady +entered and desired an interview with the master. After some private +conversation, the lady returned to her carriage and drove away. The +bookseller remarked to his friend, that the lady had brought with her +some books, which she desired to part with. Our informant asked to see +them, and, lo! the very volumes for which in our behalf he had searched +in vain: he immediately secured the prize, which was forwarded by the +next steamer. + +Can any one ask why the figure of the lady who brought those books to us +three thousand miles over the sea "haunts us like a shadow"? We see her +ascend her invisible carriage, we go with her to her invisible home, we +meet her viewless husband;--here we shudder, but we recover ourselves; +we are convinced that he could not have been a book-collector, or she +had not dared such a deed. Then we puzzle ourselves about her unseen +motives for selling the books. Had she gambled? Had she bet on the +losing horse at the Derby? Had she bought an expensive bonnet? Or was it +the impulse of some strong benevolent purpose? Why _did_ she sell those +books? Since she did thus part with them, we thank her, and are content +that by very strange combinations of circumstances, blending the visible +and invisible together, those books, viewless in her library, are now +apparent in our own. + +Here is another volume which has also something mystical about it in its +visible and invisible effect. It is a copy of Dibdin's "Bibliomania," +which belonged to Dawson Turner. A note in his handwriting states that +the tools required for the binding were used exclusively for Lord +Spencer, and that a view of Strawberry Hill will be found on its edges. +Gilt edges, however, are all that meet the eye; but turned by a skilful +hand to the right light, the gilding vanishes, and a picture of +Strawberry Hill appears, painted with velvety softness. Such a nice +bibliomaniacal fancy must have delighted Dibdin; and as he was at one +time librarian at Althorpe, he doubtless was the medium of bestowing +this charm upon the binding of his own work for his friend. + +The invisible in libraries has ever seemed to us linked with those who +have written or read the books. If souls are allowed to return to their +earthly haunts, a library would surely be the place to meet them. For +this reason we have cherished a firm belief in the apparition which the +distinguished librarian of the Astor Library beheld, and never desire to +hear any commonplace explanations concerning it; and on visiting the +Astor collection, we were more desirous to see the spot where the +reading phantom appeared than all the rest of the building. Who shall +say that authors and students do not come back to the books which +contain their invisible souls, or spirits like themselves? Without +venturing to invoke the sceptred sovereigns of literature, or to call up +the shades of the prophets and sibyls of elder time, yet at midnight +what a circle might come forth and visit the library! Scott and Burns +and Byron, Burke and Fox and Sheridan, all in one evening; clever, +pretty Mrs. Thrale comes bringing Fanny Burney to meet Jane Austen and +Maria Edgeworth; Horace Walpole, patronizing Gray, Rogers, Wordsworth, +Coleridge, Keats, and Charles Lamb,--what a social club that would be! +Ah, the librarian of the Astor is more fortunate than we; these spirits +are all invisible, and we catch not even at midnight the rustle of the +leaf they turn or the passing murmur of their voices. Yet within the +library, ever ready to meet us, their souls still linger; and when we +open the visible book which enshrines it, we find the hidden spirit. + +A number of gentlemen once went together to a friend's house. While they +awaited his entrance, one of the party, being a lover of books, +naturally turned to the shelves of the library. Without any particular +attraction to the title, he chanced to take down one of the volumes. As +he opened it, a sealed letter fell from between the leaves on the floor. +He took it up, and, to his no small astonishment, perceived that it was +addressed to himself. + +He called the attention of his companions to this strange circumstance. +As it could be no breach of decorum to break the seal of a letter +addressed to one's self, he did so. The surprise was increased by +finding a bank-note within. The letter came from a well-known gentleman, +and bore the date of a year past. When the owner of the house entered, +he found his guests in quite a tumult of surprise and puzzle. At first +he was quite as much at a loss as themselves to account for this +discovery. It was, however, remembered by the gentleman to whom the +letter was addressed, that about a year before he had applied to the +writer for aid in some charity, but, having many demands of the same +kind to supply, he declined. Afterwards, as it appeared, he regretted +having done so, and had accordingly inclosed the money. Probably, soon +after, he met the gentleman in whose book it was found, (with whom he +was on intimate terms,) and asked him to give the letter as addressed. +The receiver brought it home, laid it on his table, and forgot it. The +book lying open, it may be that the letter slipped between the leaves +and the volume was returned to the shelf. And there it had waited for +more than a year, holding the invisible letter quite safe, until the +person to whom it was addressed took down, for the first time in his +life, a volume from those shelves, and received into his own hand the +communication intended for him. No one can wonder that the invisible in +libraries has a strong hold on the faith of our friend. + +Although few may be so fortunate as to find bank-notes in letters +addressed to themselves between the leaves of books in libraries, yet +we all have felt the sensation of discoverers of hidden treasures. After +carelessly looking at a volume which has stood on the shelves for years, +we open it and find within thoughts which appeal to our deepest +experiences, high incentives to our nobler energies, deep sympathy in +our sorrows, sustaining words to help us on with our life-work. How +differently do we ever after regard the visible of that book! The +invisible has been revealed to us, and we almost wonder whether, if we +had looked into it two or three years before, we should have found there +what now we prize so much. Perhaps not; for after different experiences +in life come different revelations from books. The pages which a few +years ago we might have glanced over with indifference now speak to us +as if uttering the emotions of our own souls. + +Sometimes it is a work of fiction which, we open for the first time, the +title of which has been familiar to our eyes. Out of it invisible +spirits walk. We are introduced to charming people who never existed, +and yet who become our daily companions. We go with them through many +trials, we rejoice with them, we know all their secrets, and share with +them many of our own. Is it possible, that, shut up between those +covers, long unknown, all these existed which have since made life +brighter and better to us? + +In Sterling's "Onyx Ring," Walsingham, the poet, takes down a volume +from Sir Charles Harcourt's library, and reads a charming romance, +apparently from its pages. A lady of the company afterwards turned to +the same book, which proved to be a work of Jeremy Bentham's, and +searched in vain for the graceful narrative. Walsingham smiled at her +perplexity, and said, "Those only find who know where to look." + +The invisible world of thought, and the invisible representation of it +in books, have known many changes since Cicero looked at the volume +which Marcus Varro had illustrated; and from an earlier civilization +than Cicero's comes the exclamation of the soul-wearied Job, "Oh that +mine adversary had written a book!" Solomon also exclaims, "Of making +many books there is no end." He dreamed not of the extent to which the +manufacture would be carried in these days. On the other hand, how +little we know of the literary world existing in the days of Job or +Solomon! and may we not be led by these exclamations to suspect not only +a large supply of books, but even the existence of an Arabian Review or +a Dead-Sea Magazine? + +The increase of wealth, and the restless activity of intellect in the +new world which surrounds us, lead naturally to the accumulation of +libraries, both public and private. In our daily walks we often pass +dwellings which we know hold literary treasures. Sometimes the beauties +of Nature can be combined with those of Art, even in a city, around the +library. We recall one from the windows of which we look forth, not on +crowded streets, but on the wide river as it bends to the sea. Behind +the distant hills the heavens are resplendent with the autumnal hues of +sunset, the water is aglow with reflected glories, while swooping and +sailing over the waves come the white sea-gulls. It is a leaf from the +illuminated prayer-missal for all eyes and hearts. The literary +treasures of that friend's library have been elsewhere described, some +of them gifts from wise men, earnest women, world-worshipped poets, +bearing on their leaves the signatures of their authors' friendship. +Other treasures are there, visible and invisible, among which we would +fain linger, but we must pass on. We enter another library, once filled +with rare and costly works, which taught of the wonderful structure of +plants, from the hyssop on the wall to the cedar of Lebanon. Gone now +are these volumes, and vanished, too, is their collector, whose wide and +generous culture was veiled by the curtain of modesty and quietness. His +collections he bestowed upon a public institution, where the wonders of +God's universe will be a subject of study for all coming time. These he +gave, and then went peacefully away from our sight to learn yet wider +and grander lessons at the feet of that Teacher who, when he was on +earth, bade his followers "consider the lilies of the field." Is not +that library as real to us as when the books filled its shelves, and we +were welcomed by the gentle voice of its master? + +The crowds which form the living stream that surges through Washington +Street and eddies around the Old South Church seldom, perhaps, pause to +think of that edifice as one of the links uniting the memorable past of +our country's history with the momentous present. Still less do they who +raise their eyes to the tower to learn the hour of the day imagine that +there is an invisible library connected with the familiar form of the +belfry. Yet a romance of literary and historic interest encircles it. At +the time of the Revolution, Dr. Prince was pastor of the Old South +Church, and in the tower he kept his historical treasures along with the +New England Library. Among these volumes were Governor Bradford's +letter-book and the manuscript of his "History of the Plantation of +Plymouth." During the siege of Boston, the British turned the Old South +into a riding-school, and the troopers had free scope to do what +mischief they pleased. After the evacuation of the town the library was +found in a disordered condition, and the valued manuscripts of Bradford +were missing. Some time after, a person observed that the article he had +bought from a grocer in Halifax was wrapped in paper written over in a +peculiar hand. He deciphered enough to make him earnest to obtain what +remained of the manuscript in the grocer's possession. It proved to be +fragments of the missing letter-book of Governor Bradford. Years passed +on until 1856, when the attention of an historical writer was attracted +by a quotation, in a note to an English work, from "a manuscript history +of the Plantation of Plymouth, in the Fulham Library." As the extract +contained passages not found in any part of that history known in +America, it immediately occurred to those interested that this might be +the missing volume from the Prince Library. A correspondence was +thereupon opened with the Bishop of London. The handwriting of Bradford +being authenticated, as well as that of Dr. Prince, which was found in a +memorandum, dated "June 28th, showing how he obtained it from Major John +Bradford," there could no longer remain a doubt that this was indeed the +lost historical treasure. Part of the manuscripts of Bradford had been +carried by the British soldiers to Halifax, and sold at last as +waste-paper to a grocer; and the rest, after some history unknown, +reached England and found protection under the care of the Bishop of +London. A copy of this manuscript is now in the possession of the Boston +Historical Society. + +In the rooms of that society is preserved the Dowse Library. A rare +collection of books, formed by a man daily engaged in the mechanic craft +of a leather-dresser, is a singular illustration of the visible and +invisible of libraries. We recall past days in Cambridge, when, beneath +the sign of a white wooden sheep, we entered the unpretending house +which contained not only the leather-dresser's shop, but a small gallery +of pictures and this valuable library. We remember, also, with grateful +interest, the modest, but manly, welcome of the master of both the +mechanic craft and the treasures of art and literature, and how quietly +he would give us a few words about his books. The Dowse Library we visit +is always _there_, and although much is visible in the beautiful room +where the bequest of the owner has been fittingly enshrined, yet its +distinctive charm is invisible. + +The City Library of Boston has one feature entirely new in the visible +of a great public collection. A large portion of the books, under +certain regulations, are circulated among the inhabitants of the city, +and thousands avail themselves of this privilege. Here, then, is opened +a great fountain of knowledge in the midst of a wide population: all may +come, without money and without price. The visible pages of learning, +wisdom, science, truth, imagination, ingenious theory, or deep +conviction lie open not only to the eyes, but to the hearts and homes of +a great people. It is like the overflowing Nile, carrying sweet waters +to irrigate many waste places, and clothing the dry dust of common life +with the flowers, the fruit, and the sustaining grain, springing from +invisible seeds cast by unseen hands into the wide field of the world. + +"If," says Lord Bacon, "the invention of ships was thought so noble, +which carrieth riches and commodities from place to place, how much more +are letters to be magnified, which, as ships, pass through the vast seas +of time, and make ages so distant to participate of the wisdom, +illuminations, and inventions, the one of the other!" + + NOTE.--Since these pages were written, one who knew how to + prize the visible and invisible of books has passed away. The + silent library of George Livermore speaks eloquently of him. + That collection, gathered with a love which increased as years + advanced, includes ancient copies of the Bible of rarest + values. His life was a book, written over with good deeds and + pure thoughts, illuminated by holy aspirations. That volume is + closed, but the spirit which rendered it precious is not + withdrawn; living in many hearts, it will continue to be a + cherished presence in the world, the home, and the library. + + + + +LETTER TO A YOUNG HOUSEKEEPER. + + +You know, dear M., it is said that in times of bankruptcy men go home to +get acquainted with their wives; perhaps it should be added that wives +then go to get introduced to their kitchens. But your sensible letter is +an omen, little friend, that to you and H. this does not apply. You will +not wait for poverty to teach you economy, but will learn economy to +ward off poverty. So herewith I send a few of the culinary notes of the +last two years; but neither of us is to be taken for a bankrupt's wife, +for all that. It is simply recognizing that you are alone in new duties, +and that cookery is an art which may not be gained even from that +fountain of knowledge, named by the Apostle Paul as one's husband. The +successes of the art no one knows better than he; but of the processes +he will be found sublimely ignorant. There are but two points in which +you can defer to him,--punch and lobster-salad. These, like swearing and +smoking, are strictly masculine accomplishments. + +If you had the thrifty maiden aunt kept in reserve by most families for +an emergency, you would kindly offer her a home at your house for a +while. But since you have not, I will be as disagreeable to you as she. +So turn your glowing Spanish eyes toward me, instead of looking demurely +about, as people do when they are having old letters read to them. + +Byron said he hated to see a woman eat; and there is a class of +housekeepers who certainly return the compliment upon men. These +ethereal beings are forever sighing for life with appetite left out. +Like Lord Dundreary's lady-love, they are "_so_ delicate," unless caught +in the pantry hastily devouring onions and beefsteak. To be hungry is so +vulgar! One should live by nothing grosser than inhalation, and should +never have an appetite greater than that of a healthy bumble-bee. But, +thanks to the robust, latter-day theory, that the best saints have the +best bodies, this puerile class is diminishing. For who can doubt that +the senses are entitled to their full blossom? Gustation was meant to be +delightful; and cooking is certainly half as good as tasting. At times +one may have longed for the old Roman custom of two meals a day, and +going to bed at chicken-time, bringing the hour of roast near the hour +of roost; but this was probably in families where there were three +repasts, with lunch all the way between, and an incessant buying of +cookies from the baker, lest the children should go hungry. After this +surfeit one pardons a recoil. Or, in an enervating day of July, one may +have longed to dine upon humming-bird, with rose-leaves for dessert. But +these are exceptional times; the abiding hope is, that we shall continue +to eat, drink, and be merry. For the practical is in the imperative. It +is cumulative, and reinforces itself,--a real John Brown power that is +always marching on, and we must march beside it with patient, cheery +hearts. Is it strange that even the moss-covered Carlisle town, of which +the Last Minstrel sang, and where the Scottish Mary tarried in her +flight from the cousin queen, is now chiefly remarkable for its +cotton-factory and biscuit-bakery? + +Indeed, the enthusiasm over biscuits has its place, as well as that over +books; and it is not always that there is as much genuine joy in a novel +as one may get out of bread-making. This is quite too scientific and +interesting to be left to a domestic. It is really among the most +exciting experiments. Try it every week for two years, and it seems just +as new an enterprise as at the beginning,--but a thousand times more +successful, we observe. Working up the light drifts of flour, leaving +them at night a heavy pat and nothing more,--waking to find a dish +flowing-full of snowy foam. The first thing on rising one's self is, to +see if the dough be risen, too; and that is always sure to be early, for +every batch of bread sets an alarm in one's brain. After breakfast one +will be as expectant as if going to a ball in lieu of a baking. Then to +see the difference a little more or less flour will make, and out of +what quantity comes perfection! To feminine vision, more precious than +"apples of gold in pictures of silver" are loaves of bread in dishes of +tin. If one were ever penurious, might it not be of these handsome +loaves of hers? The little housewife will be very gentle to the +persecuted man of Scripture who was so reluctant to get up at midnight +and give away his bread. She will even be charitable to the stingy +merchant scorned by Saadi, of whom it was written, that, "if, instead of +his loaf of bread, the orb of the sun had been in his wallet, nobody had +seen daylight in the world till the Day of Judgment." + +Dr. Kane says, he knows how bread can be raised in three hours without +salt, saleratus, or shortening,--knows, but sha'n't tell. This must be +another mystery of the Arctic regions. Certainly that bread could not +have been raised in the sun. But how one quantity was managed the Doctor +is free to say. He kneaded a whole barrel of flour in a pickled-cabbage +cask, and baked it at once by firing several volumes of the "Penny +Cyclopaedia of Useful Knowledge." + +After compliments, however, to come in with the cash down of the +practical, here is a veritable bread-making recipe, well-tested and +voted superior. Take a quart of milk; heat one third and scald with it a +half-pint of flour; if skimmed milk, use a small piece of butter. When +the batter is cool, add the remainder of the milk, a teacup of +hop-yeast, a half-tablespoon of salt, with flour to make it quite stiff. +Knead it on the board till it is very fine and smooth; raise over night. +It will make two small loaves and a half-dozen biscuits. + +This recipe ought to give good bread week in and week out, so saving you +from the frequent calamity of soda-biscuits. These may be used for +dumplings, or as a sudden extempore, but do not let them be habitual. +True, you will occasionally meet people who say that they can eat these, +when raised ones are fatal. But some persons find cheese good for +dyspepsia, many advocate ice-cream, others can eat only beans, while +some are cured by popped corn. Yet these articles are not likely to +become staples of diet. They would hardly answer a normal appetite; and +any stomach that can steadily withstand the searchingness of soda and +tartaric acid seems ready to go out to pasture and eat the fences. +Chemists will say, if bread must be improvised, use soda and muriatic +acid. These combined in precise proportions are supposed to evaporate in +the baking, and leave common salt. But this acid is such furious stuff! +It will come to you from the druggists in a bottle marked "Poison," and +it is not pleasant to put into one's mouth a substance that will burn a +hole in her apron. It is too much of the Roland for an Oliver,--You eat +me and I will eat you. For it is quite difficult to perfectly combine +the acid and alkali, and then the bread is streaked with muriatic fire; +then one might easily take into the system a thousand streaks a year, +and then one would become a fire-eater. + +But probably the greatest of all bread wonders are the unleavened Graham +cakes. These are worth a special mail and large postage to tell of. I +was about to beg that you surprise H. with them at your next breakfast. +But no, he won't like them; besides, according to the theory of "Woman +and her Era," they're a deal too good for men, they are fit only for +women and angels. So just salt and scald some Graham meal into a dough +as soft as can be and be handled. Roll it an inch thick, cutting in +diamonds, which place on a tin sheet and thrust into the hottest of +ovens. (Note this last direction, or the diamonds will be flat leather.) +Strange to say, they will rise, and keep rising, till in ten minutes you +take them out quite puffed. One would never guess them innocent of +yeast. An inch thick is the rule; but there is nothing like an +adventurous courage. It is at once suggested, if they are so good at an +inch, will they not be twice as good at two inches. And certainly they +are. The meal will not be outwitted. It is the liveliest and most +buoyant material. Its lightness keeps up with the utmost experiment. +Finally, it may be turned into a massive loaf, and with a brisk heat it +will refuse to be depressed. + +The morning when were produced these charming little miracles remains a +red-letter day in our household. Who ever tasted anything, save a nut, +half so sweet, or who ever anything so pure? We ate, lingered, and +revelled in them, thus becoming epicures at once. It seemed as if all +our lives we had been seeking something really _recherche_, and had just +found it. They were as great a revelation to the palate as Bettine or +Thoreau might be to the mind. Now all was _couleur de rose_. Here was +found, if not the philosopher's stone, the philosopher's bread, that +should turn everything into health. Henceforth the strong heroes +celebrated by Emerson, who "at rich men's tables eat but bread and +pulse," might sit at ours, arising refreshed and glorified. And was not +this also coming very near Nature? but two removes from the field, wheat +cracked, then ground. (I have since come a degree nearer on cracked +wheat at a water-cure!) It sounded altogether wholesome and primitive. I +hastened with a sample to my best friend. She, too, tasted, exulted, and +passed on the tidings to others. Now, indeed, was the golden age in +dawn. Already we saw a community purified and rejuvenated. Before our +philosopher-cakes sin and bad blood would disappear, and already the +crowns of grateful generations were pressing on our brows. But something +went wrong with all the cooks. Either they didn't scald the meal or they +didn't heat the oven,--what in one hand was light beaten gold in another +became lead. For a while it seemed that I could not go to my friend's +without meeting some one who cast scorn on our reformation cakes. All +tried them and failed; so sin remains in the world. + +But now hope plumes itself anew. You at least will attempt the little +wheatens. You have a deft hand, and will succeed. The buoyancy of the +meal revives in my blood. Now the world rights itself again, and once +more we are all bounding sunward. + +But to be honest. For a few weeks I and the radical cakes were as +satisfied as young lovers, but soon came temptations to progress from +the primitive,--first to add a little sugar. But I vetoed as resolutely +as Andrew Jackson himself, thus putting up the bars between the +wheat-field and cane-field, or probably by this time I should have been +pouring in spice, eggs, and milk, and at last should have committed the +crime of doing just as other people do. + +If you would confess it, you have probably found in your new +captain-general a susceptibility not only to your charms, but to those +of good cooking. Always count these among the young wife's fascinations. +Remember how Miss Bremer's Fannie, of "The Neighbors," in a matrimonial +quarrel with her Bear, conquered him with fresh-baked patties aimed at +his mouth. But be not too conciliatory,--especially towards coffee. If +you could be hard-hearted enough to win H. from this bilious beverage, +would it not be worth the perils? Entertain him for a few mornings so +brilliantly that he won't know what he is drinking, then----But I'll +tell you how we will cheat him admirably; and it isn't very cruel +either, for merely to gratify the taste make-believes are as good as +realities. First, every one knows Taraxacum or dandelion; invalids know +crust-coffee, and many with indignation know burnt peas. Also Miss +Beecher, whose estimable cook-book you certainly must get, mentions that +ochra seeds or gumbo cannot be told from Java; an army correspondent has +since reported coffee made at the South from oker seeds, doubtless the +same; another found in use the sweet potato, roasted, and flavored with +coffee; while a friend has just described the most enticing beverage +made from chickory,--the root being stripped and dried under the stove. +This is said to be so rich that sometimes it has to be diluted with a +trifle of coffee. And still further, there is simple rye, which is +cheaper found than either. Jeff. Davis drank it for four years and wrote +all _her_ grand proclamations out of it. But probably the wholesomer +article is wheat coffee. I have lately prepared some by boiling a cup of +well-scorched wheat-bran in a pint of water; and although I don't quite +know how good coffee tastes, no doubt this was very like the true Java. +It poured clear and rich as wine. Now try this in full strength with +your spouse, being very witty when he drinks. And as the mornings pass, +oh, weaken it more and more. That is, cheat him pleasantly at first, +then worse and worse, till he is glad to take milk or pure water with +you. Conspiracies are usually contemptible; but this is one of the very +"best water," you see. + +Perhaps we who never drink coffee can hardly understand the affection +its votaries have for it. To their minds, water seems to be given only +for steeping that delicious mud. Said one extravagant Madame Follet, +"When I see a coffee-pot, 'tis exactly the same as if I saw an angel +from heaven." And the Biloxi people, whom General Butler surprised of a +morning, were found to be in a very tragic state. One boy exclaimed, +"Oh, give me just a handful of coffee, master, an' I'll give you +'lasses, sugar, anything!" while a strong man ejaculated, "My God, we're +short of everything! I haven't tasted tea or coffee for four +months!"--as grievous as if he hadn't seen a human face for a year. +According to the "Herald" correspondent, the chief reason that the South +rejoices in peace is that "Now we'll be able to get some real +coffee!"--perhaps, he adds, in the next breath inquiring, "What are you +going to do with our niggers?" + +No, we could not, with Ward Beecher, "bless the man who discovered the +immortal berry." Nor could we, with De Quincey, apostrophize to a +certain other excitant, "O just, subtle, and mighty opium! thou boldest +the keys of Paradise!" Yet one must concede the possible uses of a +stimulant. Coffee has been priceless to our army, on its cold, wet +marches; and benedictions should be ordered in the churches, if need be, +to the man who made it into that wondrous pemmican, so that the coffee +of a regiment may be carried in a few tin cans. Then, too, it seems good +for men who go driving up and down the world on stage-coaches and +locomotives; but for stay-at-home, counting-house mortals, is it not a +mere delicious superfluity? Quite as much of one as a cigar, I think. + +But henceforth, when Rio is high, drink rye. If one must have either, +better the simulant than the stimulant. + +Among other things, you have doubtless discovered that one admirable +breakfast dish is eggs. If you serve them in the shell, it is quite +worth while to follow the English way, keeping them close covered for +ten minutes in very hot water without boiling. The yolks are thus left +running, and the whites are beautifully jellied. These are convenient to +get when relations arrive at night, and there is no meat in the house. +Relations always expect meat for breakfast. + +In fact, it is just at this point that one's genius is to come in,--when +a nice meal must be gotten at short notice, and the larder is empty. +None but the woman of resources can do it; and she knows her realm is as +full of strategies as was ever the Department of the Potomac. Under her +hand, when there was supposed to be nothing for breakfast, I have seen +bits of meat snatched from cold soup, and wrought up into the most +savory morsels,--one would never guess that the goodness was all boiled +out of them; while a cup of yesterday's griddle-cake batter went +suddenly into the oven, and came out a breakfast-cake finer than +waffles. + +One who had the knack of the heroine Fleda, in "Queechy," would be +friendly to omelets, and tell of them too. But you must be self-reliant, +and put them on the list of experiments. It will probably be some time +before you come to that refinement of egg-eating which Mrs. Stowe found +at the mansion of the Duke of Sutherland, where she was honored with +lunch. Her sylvan spirit was somewhat startled, when a servant brought +five little speckled plover eggs, all lying in the nest just as taken +from the tree. How they were cooked is unknown; but one would certainly +need a recipe to eat them by. + +But an American woman can outdo the Duchess of Sutherland. She will find +an egg daintier than the plover's, and not stir from her own door; for +awhile since, some one, fumbling among the secrets of Nature, +discovered, not that stones were sermons, but that snow was eggs, and +straight made a cook-book to tell it, as we will do on discovering that +rain is milk. Of course all things have their limitations; and these new +eggs are not just the article for custards, will not do to poach for +breakfast, or would hardly keep in brine; but they may be used in any +compound that requires lightness without richness. Even our grandmothers +made snow pancakes; but, in the present age, to be distinguished is to +be venturesome, and in this experiment one need not stop short of +veritable loaf-cake. The volatile element in snow makes two table-spoons +of it equal to one egg; therefore to a small loaf I should allow ten +table-spoons. Cooks always put in as many eggs as they can afford, you +know. + +Thus, when snow falls every day for four months, as it does in New +England, eggs get exceedingly cheap in the prudent household. Then one +can smile to think how she circumvents the grocer, and pray the clouds +to lay a good nestful every week. + +A friend the other day improvised a list of edibles headed, "Poisonous +_P_s,"--pastry, pickles, pork, and preserves. She was pleased to leave +out puddings, and hereto we shall say, Amen. Not that one is to indorse +such odiously rich ones as cocoa-nut, suet, and English plum; but, +bating these, there are enough both nice and wholesome to change the +dessert every day for a fortnight, at least. At another time I may give +you some recipes, with various items by this writing omitted. + +Pastry the physiologists have been shaking their heads about for some +time,--especially as many persons use soda with the lard, not being +aware that they are making soft soap. This sort of paste one often sees +in the country. But it is easy to omit the soap. On the next +bread-making day, simply reserve a piece of the well-raised dough, and +roll in butter. This gives a palatable and harmless crust. I have also +experimented with a shortening of hot, fine-mashed potato and milk, +which, if it may not be recommended to an epicure, is really better than +it sounds, And does it not sound better than Dr. Trall's proposal of +sweet oil? Will not some of these ways satisfy our ardent reformers and +physiologists? But about chicken-pie, remember the tradition, that, +unless the top crust is punctured, it will make one very ill. (Who knows +but this was the secret of the National Hotel sickness?) At least, it is +truer than some other traditions, such as that eating burnt crusts will +make the cheeks red, or that fried turnip will make the hair curl. + +Pickles do not seem so good that they must be eaten, nor so bad that +they must not be. But with them comes evermore the vision that Trollope +has prepared of all our smart little five-year-old men and women perched +at hotel-tables, pale-faced and sedate, with waiters behind their +chairs, and ordering chowders and chops with an inevitable "Please don't +forget the pickles." + +Preserves, aside from the recent luxury of canned fruit, have the +happiest substitutes, if we will take what the seasons bring to our +hands. Not a month in the year is left wholly barren of these relishes +for the tea-table. There are berries all the summer, apples and +cranberries in the winter, when, just as the last russet disappears, and +with it every one's appetite, up springs the pungent and luxuriant +rhubarb. Somewhat curious is it concerning this last article. Forty +years ago it was such a pure experiment in England, that a Mr. Myatt, +who took seven bundles of it to London, succeeded in selling but three. +Still he persisted in keeping it before the people, although he seemed +only to lose rhubarb and to gain ridicule, being designated as the man +who sold "physic pies." + +And besides our own zone, with its fruits fresh or dried, there are the +abounding tropics always at the door: Pine-apples, which, if +unwholesome, are yet charmingly convenient to help a luckless +housekeeper, and which, by the way, made a better _entree_ in London +than pie-plant, being so popular that their salesmen floated flags from +the top of their stalls; bananas, those foreign muskmelons of spring; +oranges, gilding every street-corner; dates, which do not go meanly with +bread and butter, though one is a little fearful of finding a whole +straw bed therein; and prunes, which, if soaked several hours and stewed +slowly, are luscious enough for a prince. + +But pork it appears to be the common impression that man cannot do +without. Certainly he must have partaken somewhat of its nature to make +him so greedy; and there would seem to be animals enough on land and +sea, without devouring the swine. If pork be important anywhere, it is +so in the old Puritan dish of baked beans; yet those who have tasted +baked beans prepared with fine rich beef instead have voted them quite +sumptuous, and possibly rich enough for people who live at restaurants. +But so long as fish, bird, and fowl remain, and men even eat turtles and +frogs,--so long as sheep do not die of wolves, nor cattle of the county +commissioners,--may not the pig be left to his wallowing in the mire? + +Thus much for the poisonous _p_s. We do not place among them that +popular plant, the potato, though it has the blood of the nightshade in +its veins. But these may be made moderately poisonous by putting them +into soup. Once taste clear potato-water, and you will not aspire to +drink a strong broth from it. And even potatoes one may eat at a dozen +tables, and not find nicely served at any. With domestics generally they +figure as the article that in cooking takes care of itself,--the +convenient vegetable, that may be thrown into the kettle, and taken up +when nothing else needs to be. In the end they are either half done and +hard, or when done, being left soaking, are watery and soggy; whereas +they should be pared, kept boiling in salted water till they break, then +drained and shaken over the coals till powdery dry. They need tossing +up with as light a hand as an omelet, you see. If they are not of the +nicest variety, they should be mashed with milk, butter, and salt, and +placed in the oven to brown. This is a kind of medication which usually +makes the poorest article quite palatable, and is resorted to in the +early summer, when potatoes are become decidedly an "aged _p_." I was +once amused to hear a man complaining of a certain potato, because it +was "too dry." It is doubtful what he would do in Maine, the land of the +famous Jackson whites, which boil to a creamy powder. One must be +grateful that our Massachusetts Dovers cannot be dampened by this +original potato-taster. He probably would like juicy potatoes and mealy +oranges. + +But of course none can have studied diet and its varied effects on +various persons, without seeing it to be impossible to make up two lists +of dishes, one of which shall be voted hurtful and the other harmless. +Nor does the healthfulness of food seem to consist wholly in its +simplicity, according to old Grahamite theories. There is probably some +truth in the saying of Hippocrates, "Whatever pleases the palate +nourishes"; but one cannot fail to recognize the wisdom of M. Soyer, +that prince of the _cuisine_, who maintains that the digestibility of +food depends, not on the number of articles used in its manufacture, but +in their proper combination. Says M. Soyer, "I would wager that I could +give a first-class indigestion to the greatest _gourmet_, even while +using the most _recherche_ provisions, without his being able to detect +any fault in the preparation of the dishes of which he had +partaken,--and this simply by improperly classifying the condiments used +in the preparation." This gives a hint of the nicety of the culinary +art, the genius required to practise it, and the fine physical effects +that hinge upon it. It is no wonder that Vatel committed suicide before +the great banquet which he had prepared for his master, the Prince of +Conde, because he feared it was to fail. It is certainly enough to alarm +ordinary amateurs,--and such are the most of us; for, while Americans +place all due stress upon the table, they neglect to emphasize the +_cuisine_. Instead of this _nonchalance_, we have yet to discover that +cookery belongs to the fine arts; that it is exhaustive alike of +chemistry and physiology, and touches upon laws as sure as those which +mingle the atmospheric elements, hourly adjusting them to man's nicest +needs. And we should count it among the best of the progressive plans of +our country, if to the new Industrial College under subscription at +Worcester were to be added an elaborate culinary department, with the +most accomplished professor that could be obtained. Perhaps, as M. Soyer +was philanthropic enough to go to the Crimea, and teach the English to +make hospital soup, he would even come here and give our nation a +glimpse of those marvellous morsels that have made Paris the envy of +epicures the world over. + +And if there is a proper harmony to be attained in the combining of +various ingredients, making every perfect dish a poem, there is no less +harmony in combining the various dishes for a repast, making a poem in +every perfect meal. For every leading dish has its kindred and +antagonistic ones: as, at dinner, one would not serve cauliflower with +fricasseed chicken, nor turnips with boiled salmon, nor, at tea, +currants with cream-toast, nor currants with custard. But this is +something that cannot be fully taught or learned. It is almost wholly at +the mercy of one's instinct, and may be ruled by a tact as delicate as +that which conducts a drawing-room. + +But we are quite curious to learn, M., if your excellent companion has +yet been away from home so long that you have had to go to market. And +can you wisely discern roasts, steaks, and fowl? Says one, "The way to +select fowl is first to select your butcher"; and away he swings out of +intelligence and responsibility with a magnificent air. A lady friend +has this charming fashion of frankness: "Now, Mr. ----, I don't know one +piece of meat from another, and shall expect you to give me the best"; +thus throwing herself directly on her faith and fascinations. But these +might grow jejune, nor is it safe to trust the tender mercies of a +butcher. Better know what you want, and know if you get it. Therefore +you will study the anatomy of animals, as laid down in all modern +cook-books. But really it is a little perplexing. I confess I am near +concluding that every beef creature is a special creation; for one never +finds the same joint twice, and apparently the only things common to all +are tongue and liver. + +Not long since, having a discussion at the market with an elderly +gentleman, he said something pleasant which must be written for the +husband of a young housekeeper. We agreed that a rump steak was of more +uniform richness than a sirloin, the best of the latter being only that +luscious strip underlying the bone. "But," added the kindly man, "I +always buy the sirloin, because I give that juicy scrap to my wife." It +is worth while, M., to be wedded to the thoughtful heart, who, after +forty years, yet wills to give one the single choice bit from the table. + +Aside from the ordinary beef-routine, there is another dish which is +usually popular. Select a cheap, lean piece of beef, weighing two or +three pounds, put it on the stove in cold water soon after breakfast, +boiling gently. Half an hour before dinner add a small onion, a sliced +parsnip and carrot, a few bits of turnip, and a half-dozen dumplings. +When these are done, remove them; season and thicken, serving a dumpling +with meat and vegetables to each plate of stew. This may be rather +plebeian, but is certainly palatable,--unless there be choice company to +dine. We might call it Rainy-Day Stew. + +But the toothsome time for beef-eaters was undoubtedly in the days of +pleuro-pneumonia. Then the frightened public fled from beef as from the +plague, and all the best cuts were left for the bold. One was tempted to +pray that such pleuro might last for the season, save that the +Commissioners were so costly, and the dear cattle were having an +unusually sanguinary Bull Run. I know what our vegetarian friend, Mr. +Alcott, will say; but he must indulge me in a very small mania, even if +it seem to him a kind of cannibalism; therefore, whatever rhapsodies are +left from bread and potato, let them all be given to good beef. While +the quarrel of round, rump, and sirloin goes on, this let us buy and eat +and reinforce ourselves. In it are poems, powers, and possessions +ineffable. Twenty-five cents a pound, and the strength of the gods in +one's veins! Broil it carefully and rare, then go and toss quoits with +Hercules. In this, ye disconsolate, behold lands, lovers, and virtues in +plenty. It fills and steadies the pulse, and plants the planet plump +under one's feet. "My friend, is he who makes me do what I can," says +the sage. Only beefsteak can come to the rescue. If one were going to a +martyr's fire, of this should he eat, lest he die, not sublimely, with a +fainting body. He would try this steak, and then that stake. + +But there is one event that comes alike to all, and that is a holiday +dinner. Even the poor have their plum-pudding days, and all seem to +think that on a Christmas or Thanksgiving Nature suspends her laws and +lets one eat as much as he can. It is quite in the spirit of the +Scottish Lord Cockburn, who, ending a long walk, used to say, "We will +eat a profligate supper,--a supper without regard to discretion or +digestion." Or after the theory of one who ate whatever he pleased, +whenever he pleased, and as much as he pleased, saying, "Oh, if it makes +me sick, I can take medicine. What are the doctors for, if 'tisn't to +cure people?" He did not know how small hope can be gotten from the +doctors, and how those who know best get more and more courage to travel +into places where they are not. There must have been a poor chance for +the Egyptians, who, Herodotus says, had a physician for each part of the +body; so that the human frame would seem to have been a sort of +university, and each of the organs a vacant professorship. In case of +malady, every officer worked away on his own member without regard to +what his medical neighbors were doing. Michelet mentions a fish that has +the power of multiplying stomachs to the number of one hundred and +twenty. Fortunately that power is not man's. Think of dyspepsia with a +hundred and twenty stomachs, and a different doctor for each! + +Do not imagine this a plea for the transcendental diet that drove Sydney +Smith to that pathetic sigh, "Ah, I wish they would allow me even the +wing of a roasted butterfly!" But perhaps it would not be amiss to +conjure up a terror-demon from these bodies of ours, so that we should +fear to violate laws with such merciless penalties,--should have none +but well-cooked food, at sensible and systematic hours. Is it strange +that little Miss Bremer, who thought herself of soundest digestion, +after three months of American night-dinners with oysters and preserve, +is at last seen to grasp Dr. Osgood with both hands, exclaiming, in +tears, "Oh, help me!" I want to save you from resembling the great +people of the world after the manner of Dr. Beattie, whose title to +genius was, "Have I not headaches like Pope, vertigo like Swift, gray +hairs like Homer? Do I not wear large shoes for fear of corns like +Virgil, and sometimes complain of sore eyes like Horace?" + +Therefore I hope that your H. will make the counting-room conform to +regular mid-day dinner and early tea-time. And let us trust that it will +not have the same fatal result as with King Louis XII., who is said to +have died earlier from changing his dinner-hour in compliment to his +foreign bride. + +One can hardly think of late suppers without turning quite away to those +ideal tea-takings of the Wordsworths at Grasmere. "Plain living and high +thinking," was the motto of the philosopher-poet, and that table was +never crowded with viands. One can well believe, that, as De Quincey +said, in the quiet walks after tea the face of the poet "grew solemn and +spiritual as any saint's." But he probably was thinking very high when +he drew a knife from the buttered toast and cut the leaves of a new book +just lent to him! + +Quite sombre are the memories of Rydal Mount; but since we are really +alive, let us be lively. Behold me, then, dear M., well turbaned and +aproned, and know that this is our churning-day. You give one of your +gleeful little shrieks, perhaps; but yes, it is true; we live in the +city, take a pint of milk per day, and make butter. + +And where is the churn? you suggest. Oh, I extemporize that. It is out +of the question to buy every convenient thing, or purse will run dry and +house overflow. Dr. Kane hints how few dishes it is possible to use; and +the plan is admirable; so one need not buy a churn, but make one out of +a bowl and spoon. Into the bowl goes the cream, into the cream the +spoon, and then I beat, beat, beat, not as one who beateth the air. This +often lasts for two hours or more; it might be said that the cream +remains in chrysalis, and refuses to butterfly! Indeed, there is no +reason why a small bowl of cream shouldn't be as refractory as a wooden +churnful. But when it "won't come," my distress is not at all +proportioned to the size of the bowl. + +Still I beat, beat, beat, perspiringly, but resolutely, while it whisks +about, spattering over face, bib, and turban. At length there appear +within it greasy-looking flecks. These increase till the mass thickens, +beats solidly, separates from the milk, and declares itself butter. A +limited quantity, certainly, but I will none the less press it dry, +salt, and make it into cakes as large as a full-blown tea-rose. Each of +these I will stamp, lay on a dapper glass cup-plate, and at tea-time +several dear ones in various households will find these astonishing +little pats beside them. Think you not they are genuine love-pats? + +This would be a pretty way to serve butter always, did it not remind one +of cheap hotels kept on the European plan, where those small, slushy, +yellow cakes come in with the rolls. A choicer way is to form it into +acorns or strawberries,--though I don't in the least know how it is +done,--placing them all together on a plate and serving one to each at +the table. This dainty way, however, would hardly make a bad article +good, and no one would crave a berry of ancient firkin butter. For, as +trivial a matter as it seems, this single condiment of food, one has +only to encounter it in a strong, cheesy state to feel it among the most +important things in the _cuisine_. Then one suddenly discovers that +butter is in everything. Eating becomes intolerable, living dwindles +into dyspepsia, and finally one is tempted to exclaim with a certain +epicure, "I wish I were under the sod! There's no lump butter in the +market!" + +It is related of Apicius, who lived at Rome, that he ate very large +shrimps; but hearing that those of Greece were larger, he straightway +sailed for that coast without losing a day. He met a great storm and +much danger; but on arriving, the fishermen brought him of their best. +Apicius shook his head. + +"Have you never any larger shrimps?" + +"No, Seignior, never!" + +At which, rubbing his hands with delight, he ordered the captain to sail +back at once, saying,-- + +"I have left some at home larger than these, and they will be spoiled, +if the wind is not in our favor." + +We will not carry our dilletantism so far as this, nor let it carry us +so far; still we are glad not to be driven to the expedient of the +Syrians, whose only butter is the fat procured from the tails of their +sheep,--which is literally being reduced to extremities. + +By the way, something quite remarkable occurred in my first churning. I +began with one cup of cream and ended with a cup of butter and a full +cup of buttermilk! This law of expansion is paralleled only by that of +contraction, as shown to the farmer who took a brimming pail of dinner +to the sty; and after the little pig had eaten it all, the farmer put +him into the pail, and had room for another half of a pig beside. + + * * * * * + +But, dear M., it is hardly two moons since the bridal trunks were taken +from our hall, and you went away with the friend. You have scarcely been +domesticated long enough to see that bright tins bake badly, and that +one must crucify her pride by allowing them to blacken; yet so soon do I +overwhelm you with culinary suggestions. I am distressed to remember +them. But you must forgive and smile me into peacefulness again. And be +not discouraged, little housewife! It may take years of attention to +excel in bread-making, some skill even for boiling potatoes, and +common-sense for everything; but stand steadily beside your servants, +and watch their processes patiently. Take notes, experiment, amend, and +if there be failure, discover the reason; then it need not happen again. + +And despite the difficulties of the practical, you and H. will not +slight the ideal. Love the work you are doing and must do; but when it +is done, oh, train the rose-vines over your door! + + + + +THE PEACE AUTUMN. + + + Thank God for rest, where none molest, + And none can make afraid,-- + For Peace that sits as Plenty's guest, + Beneath the homestead shade! + + Bring pike and gun, the sword's red scourge, + The negro's broken chains, + And beat them at the blacksmith's forge + To ploughshares for our plains. + + Alike henceforth our hills of snow, + And vales where cotton flowers; + All streams that flow, all winds that blow, + Are Freedom's motive-powers. + + Henceforth to Labor's chivalry + Be knightly honors paid; + For nobler than the sword's shall be + The sickle's accolade. + + Build up an altar to the Lord, + O grateful hearts of ours! + And shape it of the greenest sward + That ever drank the showers. + + Lay all the bloom of gardens there, + And there the orchard fruits; + Bring golden grain from sun and air, + From earth her goodly roots. + + There let our banners droop and flow, + The stars uprise and fall; + Our roll of martyrs, sad and slow, + Let sighing breezes call. + + Their names let hands of horn and tan + And rough-shod feet applaud, + Who died to make the slave a man, + And link with toil reward. + + There let the common heart keep time + To such an anthem sung, + As never swelled on poet's rhyme, + Or thrilled on singer's tongue. + + Song of our burden and relief + Of peace and long annoy; + The passion of our mighty grief + And our exceeding joy! + + A song of praise to Him who filled + The harvests sown in tears, + And gave each field a double yield + To feed our battle-years! + + A song of faith that trusts the end + To match the good begun, + Nor doubts the power of Love to blend + The hearts of men as one! + + + + +DOCTOR JOHNS. + + +XXXVII. + +Meantime Reuben was gaining, month by month, in a knowledge of the +world,--at least of such portion of it as came within the range of his +vision in New York. He imagined it, indeed, a very large portion, and +took airs upon himself in consequence. He thought with due commiseration +of the humble people of Ashfield. He wonders how he could have tolerated +so long their simple ways. The Eagle Tavern, with its creaking +sign-board, does not loom so largely as it once did upon the horizon of +his thought. That he should ever have trembled as a lad at walking up to +the little corner bar, in company with Phil! And as for Nat Boody, whose +stories he once listened to admiringly, what a scrubby personage he has +become in his eye! Fighting-dogs, indeed! "Scamp" would be nothing to +what he has seen a score of times in the city! + +He has put Phil through some of the "sights": for that great lout of a +country lad (as Reuben could not help counting him, though he liked his +big, honest heart for all that) had found him out, when he came to New +York to take ship for the West Indies. + +"I say, Phil," Reuben had said, as he marched his old schoolmate up +Broadway, "it's rather a touch beyond Ashfield, this, isn't it? How do +you think Old Boody's tavern and sign-board would look along here?" + +And Phil laughed, quietly. + +"I should like to see old Deacon Tourtelot," continued Reuben, "with +Huldy on his arm, sloping down Broadway. Wouldn't the old people stare?" + +"I guess they would," Phil said, demurely. + +"I wonder if they'd knock off at sundown Saturday night," continued +Reuben, mockingly. + +And his tone somehow hurt Phil, who had the memories of the old home--a +very dear one to him--fresh upon him. + +"And I suppose Miss Almiry keeps at her singing?" + +"Yes," said Phil, straining a point in favor of his townswoman; "and I +think she sings pretty well." + +"Pretty well! By Jove, Phil, you should have been at the Old Park night +before last; you would have heard what _I_ call singing. It would have +stirred up the old folks of Ashfield." + +And Phil met it all very seriously. It seemed to him, in his honesty, +that Reuben was wantonly cutting asunder all the ties that once bound +him to the old home. It pained him, moreover, to think--as he did, with +a good deal of restiveness--that his blessed mother, and Rose perhaps, +and the old Squire, his father, were among the Ashfield people at whom +Reuben sneered so glibly. And when he parted with him upon the +dock,--for Reuben had gone down to see him off,--it was with a secret +conviction that their old friendship had come to an end, and that +thenceforth they two could have no sympathies in common. + +But in this Phil was by no means wholly right. The talk of Reuben was, +after all, but the ebullition of a city conceit,--a conceit which is apt +to belong to all young men at some period of their novitiate in city +life. He was mainly anxious to impress upon Phil the great gain which he +had made in knowledge of the world in the last few years, and to astound +him with the great difference between his present standpoint and the old +one, when they were boys together on the benches of the Ashfield +meeting-house. We never make such gains, or apparent gains, at any +period of life, it is to be feared, without wishing to demonstrate their +magnitude to the slow coaches we have left behind. + +And on the very night after Reuben had parted from Phil, when he came +late to his chamber, dazed with some new scene at the theatre, and his +brain flighty with a cup too much, it may well have happened, that, in +his fevered restlessness, as the clock near by chimed midnight, his +thoughts ran back to that other chamber where once sweet sleep always +greeted him,--to the overhanging boughs that rustled in the evening air +at the window,--to the shaded street that stretched away between the +silent houses,--to the song of the katydids, chattering their noisy +chorus,--to the golden noons when light feet tripped along the village +walks,--to the sunny smiles of Rose,--to the kindly entreaty of good +Mrs. Elderkin,--and more faintly, yet more tenderly, than elsewhere, to +a figure and face far remote, and so glorified by distance that they +seem almost divine, a figure and a face that are somehow associated with +the utterance of his first prayer,--and with the tender vision before +him, he mumbles the same prayer and falls asleep with it upon his lip. + +Only on his lip, however,--and the next day, when he steals a half-hour +for a stroll upon Broadway with that dashing girl, Miss Sophie Bowrigg, +(she is really a stylish creature,) he has very little thought of the +dreamy sentiments of the night before, which seemed for the time to keep +his wilder vagaries in subjection, and to kindle aspirations toward a +better life. It is doubtful, even, if he did not indulge in an artful +compliment or two to the dashing Miss Sophie, the point of which lay in +a cleverly covered contrast of herself with the humdrum manners of the +fair ones of Ashfield. Yet, to tell truth, he is not wholly untouched by +certain little rallying, coquettish speeches of Miss Sophie in respect +to Adele, who, in her open, girl-like way, has very likely told the full +story of Reuben's city attentions. + +Reuben had, indeed, been piqued by the French girl's reception of his +patronage, and he had been fairly carried off his feet in view of her +easy adaptation to the ways of the city, and of her graceful carriage +under all the toilet equipments which had been lavished upon her, under +the advice of Mrs. Brindlock. A raw boy comes only by long aptitude into +the freedom of a worldly manner; but a girl--most of all a French girl, +in whom the instincts of her race are strong--leaps to such conquest in +a day. Of course he had intimated to Adele no wonder at the change; but +he had thrust a stray glove of hers into his pocket, counting it only a +gallant theft; and there had been days when he had drawn out that little +relic of her visit from its hidden receptacle, and smoothed it upon his +table, and pressed it, very likely, to his lips, in the same way in +which youth of nineteen or twenty are used to treat such feminine tokens +of grace. + +It was a dainty glove, to be sure. It conjured up her presence in its +most alluring aspect. The rustle of her silk, the glow of her cheek, the +coyness of her touch, whenever she had dropped that delicate hand on +his, came with the sight of it. He ventures, in a moment of gallant +exuberance, to purchase a half-dozen of the same number, of very +charming tints, (to his eye,) and sends them as a gift to Adele, +saying,-- + +"I found your stray glove we had a search for in the carriage, but did +not tell of it. I hope these will fit." + +"They fit nicely," said Adele, writing back to him,--"so nicely, I may +be tempted to throw another old glove of mine some time in your way." + +Miss Eliza Johns was of course delighted with this attention of +Reuben's, and made it the occasion of writing him a long letter, (and +her letters were very rare, by reason of the elaboration she counted +necessary,) in which she set forth the excellence of Adele's character, +her "propriety of speech," her "lady-like deportment," her "cheerful +observance of duty," and her "eminent moral worth," in such terms as +stripped all romance from Reuben's recollection of her, and made him +more than half regret his gallant generosity. + +The Doctor writes to him regularly once a fortnight; of which missives +Reuben reads as regularly the last third, containing, as it does +usually, a little home news or casual mention of Miss Rose Elderkin or +of the family circle. The other two thirds, mainly expostulatory, he +skips, only allowing his eye to glance over them, and catch such +scattered admonitions as these:--"Be steadfast in the truth.... Let your +light shine before men.... Be not tempted of the Devil; for if you +resist him, he will flee from you.... The wisdom of this world is +foolishness.... Trust not, my son, in any arm of flesh." + +Ah, how much of such good advice had been twisted into tapers for the +lighting of Reuben's cigars! Not because it was absolutely scorned; not +because it was held in contempt, or its giver held in contempt; but +because there was so much of it. If the old gentleman had been in any +imminent bodily peril, it is certain that Reuben would have rushed far +and wide to aid him. It is certain that he loved him; it is certain that +he venerated him; and yet, and yet, (he said to himself,) "I do wish he +would keep this solemn stuff for his sermons. Who cares to read it? Who +cares to hear it, except on Sundays?" + +Our good reader will exclaim,--A bad young man! And yet we think our +good readers--nay, our best of readers--have shirked godly counsel over +and over, with very much the same promptitude. We all grow so weary with +the iteration of even the best of truths! we all love youth so much! we +all love the world so much! we all trust to an arm of flesh so much! + +Not for a moment did the Doctor believe that his recreant son pondered +wisely and deeply these successive epistles of his. He knew him too well +for that. But for him duty was always duty. "Here a little, and there a +little." It would have pained the old gentleman grievously to know the +full extent of the wickedness of his boy,--to have looked for a moment +into the haunts to which he was beguiled by his companions of the +city,--to have seen his flushed and swollen face after some of those +revels to which Reuben was a party. But the good Doctor was too ignorant +of the world to conceive, even, of larger latitude than an occasional +cigar or a stolen sight at the orgies of the theatre. And when Mr. +Brindlock wrote, as he took occasion to do about this period, regretting +the extravagance of Reuben and the bad associations into which he had +fallen, and urging the Doctor to impress upon him the advantages of +regularity and of promptitude, and to warn him that a very advantageous +business career which was opening upon him would be blighted by his +present habits, the poor gentleman was fairly taken aback. + +That even this worldly gentleman, Mr. Brindlock, should take exception +to the courses of his son was a most startling fact. What admonition +could the Doctor add to those which he had addressed to his poor son +fortnightly for years past? Had he not warned him over and over that he +was standing upon slippery places? Had he not unfolded the terrors of +God's wrath upon sinners? Had he not set before him in "line upon line" +the awful truth that his immortal career was at stake? And should he +descend from this ground to plead with him upon the score of his +short-lived worldly career? What were all business prospects, however +they might wane, compared with that dreadful prospect which lies before +him who refuseth godly counsel and hardeneth his heart? Was it not a +fearful confirmation of Satan's reign upon earth, that peril to a +temporal career should serve for warning against criminal excesses, when +the soul's everlasting peril was urged vainly? The Doctor wrote to +Reuben with even more than his usual unction. But he could not bring +himself to warn his boy of the mere blight to his worldly career,--that +was so small a matter! Yet he laid before him in graver terms than he +had ever done before the weight of the judgment of an offended God, and +the fearful retribution that would certainly overtake the ungodly. +Reuben lighted his cigar with the letter, not unfeelingly, but +indifferently, and ventured even upon a blasphemous joke with his +companions. + +"It ought to burn," he says, "There's plenty of brimstone in it!" + +It would have crazed the minister of Ashfield to have heard the speech. +In his agony of mind he went to consult Squire Elderkin, and laid before +him the dire accounts he had heard. + +"Ah, young men will be young men, Doctor. There's time for him to come +out right yet. It's the blood of the old Major; it must have vent." + +As the Doctor recalled what he counted his father's godless death, he +shuddered. Presently he talked of summoning his boy home immediately. + +"Well, Doctor," said the Squire, meditatively, "there are two sides to +that matter. There are great temptations in the city, to be sure; but if +God puts a man in the way of great temptations, I suppose He gives him +strength to resist them. Isn't that good theology?" + +The parson nodded assent. + +"We can always resist, if we will, Squire," said he. + +"Very good, Doctor. Suppose, now, you bring your boy home; he'll fret +desperately under your long lectures, and with Miss Eliza, and perhaps +run off into deviltries that will make him worse than those of the city. +You must humor him a little, Doctor; touch his pride; there's a fine, +frank spirit at the bottom; give him a good word now and then." + +"I know no word so good as prayer," said the Doctor, gravely. + +"That's very well, Doctor, very well. Mrs. Elderkin gives him help that +way; and between you and me, Doctor, if any woman's prayers can call +down blessings, I think that little woman's can,"--and the Squire's eyes +fairly flashed with the dew that came into them. + +"An estimable lady,--most estimable!" said the Doctor. + +"Pray, if you will, Doctor; it's all right; and for my part, I'll drop +him a line, telling him the town feels an ownership in him, and hopes +he'll do us all credit. I think we can bring him out all right." + +"Thank you,--thank you, Squire," said the Doctor, with an unusual +warmth. + +And he wrought fervently in prayer that night; may-be, too, the hearty +invocation of that good woman, Mrs. Elderkin, joined with his in the +Celestial Presence; and if the kindly letter of the Squire did not rank +with the prayers, we may believe, without hardihood, that the recording +angel took note of it, and gave credit on the account current of human +charities. + + +XXXVIII. + +Mr. Brindlock had, may-be, exaggerated somewhat the story of Reuben's +extravagances, but he was anxious that a word of caution should be +dropped in his ear from some other lips than his own. The allowance from +the Doctor, notwithstanding all the economies of Miss Eliza's frugal +administration, would have been, indeed, somewhat narrow, and could by +no means have kept Reuben upon his feet in the ambitious city-career +upon which he had entered. But Mr. Brindlock had taken a great fancy to +the lad, and, besides the stipend granted for his duties about the +counting-room, had given him certain shares in a few private ventures +which had resulted very prosperously,--so prosperously, indeed, that the +prudent merchant had determined to hold the full knowledge of the +success in reserve. The prospects of Reuben, however, he being the +favorite nephew of a well-established merchant, were regarded by the +most indifferent observers as extremely flattering; and Mr. Bowrigg was +not disposed to look unfavorably upon the young man's occasional +attentions to the dashing Sophie. + +But the Brindlocks, though winking at a great deal which the Doctor +would have counted grievous sin, still were uneasy at the lad's growing +dissoluteness of habit. Would the prayers of the good people of Ashfield +help him? + +It was some time in the month of September, of the same autumn in which +poor Adele lay sick at the parsonage, that Reuben came in one night, at +twelve or thereabout, to his home at the Brindlocks', (living at this +time in the neighborhood of Washington Square,) with his head cruelly +battered, and altogether in a very piteous plight. Mrs. Brindlock, +terribly frightened,--in her woman's way,--was for summoning the Doctor +at once; but Reuben pleaded against it; he had been in a row, that was +all, and had caught a big knock or two. The truth was, he had been upon +one of his frolics with his old boon companions; and it so happened that +one had spoken sneeringly of the parson's son, in a way which to the +fiery young fellow seemed to cast ridicule upon the old gentleman. And +thereupon Reuben, though somewhat maudlin with wine, yet with the +generous spirit not wholly quenched in him, had entered upon a glowing +little speech in praise of the old gentleman and of his profession,--a +speech which, if it were garnished with here and there an objectionable +expletive, was very earnest and did him credit. + +"Good for Reuben!" the party had cried out. "Get him a pulpit!" + +"Hang me, if he wouldn't preach better now than the old man!" said one. + +"And a deused sight livelier," said another. + +"Hold your tongue, you blackguard!" burst out Reuben. + +And from this the matter came very shortly to blows, in the course of +which poor Reuben was severely punished, though he must have hit some +hard blows, for he was wondrously active, and not a few boxing-lessons +had gone to make up the tale of his city accomplishments. + +Howbeit, he was housed now, in view of his black eye, for many days, and +had ample time for reflection. In aid of this came a full sheet of +serious expostulations from the Doctor, and that letter of advice which +Squire Elderkin had promised, with a little warm-hearted postscript from +good Mrs. Elderkin,--so unlike to the carefully modulated letters of +Aunt Eliza! The Doctor's missive, very likely, did not impress him more +than the scores that had gone before it; but there was a practical tact, +and good-natured, common-sense homeliness, in the urgence of the Squire, +which engaged all Reuben's attention; and the words of the good woman, +his wife, were worth more than a sermon to him. "We all want," she +writes, "to think well of you, Reuben; we _do_ think well of you. Don't +disappoint us. I can't think of the cheery, bright face, that for so +many an evening shone amid our household, as anything but bright and +cheery now. We all pray for your well-being and happiness, Reuben; and I +_do_ hope you have not forgotten to pray for it yourself." + +And with the memory of the kindly woman which this letter called up came +a pleasant vision of the winsome face of Rose, as she used to sit, with +downcast eyes, beside her mother in the old house of Ashfield,--of Rose, +as she used to lower upon him in their frolic, with those great hazel +eyes sparkling with indignation. And if the vision did not quicken any +lingering sentiment, it at the least gave a mellow tint to his +thought,--a mellowness which even the hardness of Aunt Eliza could not +wholly do away. + +"I feel it my duty to write you, Reuben," she says, "and to inform you +how very much we have all been shocked and astonished by the accounts +which reach us of your continued indifference to religious duties, and +your reckless extravagance. Let me implore you to be frugal and +virtuous. If you learn to save now, the habit will be of very great +service when you come to take your stand on the arena of life. I am +aware that the temptations of a great city are almost innumerable; but I +need hardly inform you that you will greatly consult your own interests +and mitigate our harassment of feeling by practising a strict economy +with your funds, and by attending regularly at church. You will excuse +all errors in my writing, since I indite this by the sick-bed of Adele." + +Adele, then, is sick; and upon that point alone in the Aunt's letter the +thought of Reuben fastens. Adele is sick! He knows where she must be +lying,--in that little room at the parsonage looking out upon the +orchard; there are white hangings to the bed; careful steps go up and +down the stairway. There had never been much illness in the parson's +home, indeed, but certain early awful days Reuben just remembers; there +were white bed-curtains, (he recalls those,) and a face as white lying +beneath; the nurse, too, lifting a warning finger at him with a low +"hist!" the knocker tied over thickly with a great muffler of cloth, +lest the sound might come into the chamber; and then, awful stillness. +On a morning later, all the windows are suddenly thrown open, and +strange men bring a red coffin into the house, which, after a day or +two, goes out borne by different people, who tread uneasily and +awkwardly under the weight, but very softly; and after this a weary, +weary loneliness. All which drifting over the mind of Reuben, and +stirring his sensibilities with a quick rush of vague, boyish griefs, +induces a train of melancholy religious musings, which, if they do no +good, can hardly, it would seem, work harm. Under their influence, +indeed, (which lasted for several days,) he astonished his Aunt Mabel, +on the next Sunday, by declaring his intention to attend church. + +It is not the ponderous Dr. Mowry, fortunately or unfortunately, that he +is called upon to listen to; but a younger man, of ripe age, indeed, but +full of fervor and earnestness, and with a piercing magnetic quality of +voice that electrifies from the beginning. And Reuben listens to his +reading of the hymn, + + "Return, O wanderer! now return!" + +with parted lips, and with an exaltation of feeling that is wholly +strange to him. With the prayer it seems to him that all the religious +influences to which he has ever been subject are slowly and surely +converging their forces upon his mind; and, rapt as he is in the +preacher's utterance, there come to him shadowy recollections of some +tender admonition addressed to him by dear womanly lips in boyhood, +which now, on a sudden, flames into the semblance of a Divine summons. +Then comes the sermon, from the text, "My son, give me thine heart." +There is no repulsive formality, no array of logical presentment to +arouse antagonism of thought, but only inglowing enthusiasm, that +transfuses the Scriptural appeal, and illuminates it with winning +illustration. Reuben sees that the evangelist feels in his inmost soul +what he utters; the thrill of his voice and the touching earnestness of +his manner declare it. It is as if our eager listener were, by every +successive appeal, placed in full _rapport_ with a great battery of +religious emotions, and at every touch were growing into fuller and +fuller entertainment of the truths which so fired and sublimed the +speaker's utterance. + +Do we use too gross a figure to represent what many people would call +the influences of the Spirit? Heaven forgive us, if we do; but nothing +can more definitely describe the seemingly electrical influences which +were working upon the mind of Reuben, as he caught, ever and again, +breaking through the torrent of the speaker's language, the tender, +appealing refrain, _"My son, give me thine heart!"_ + +All thought of God the Avenger and of God the Judge, which had been so +linked with most of his boyish instructions, seemed now to melt away in +an aureole of golden light, through which he saw only God the Father! +And the first prayer he ever learned comes to his mind with a grace and +a meaning and a power that he never felt before. + +"Whether we obey Him," (it is the preacher we quote,) "or distrust Him, +or revile Him, or forget Him, or struggle to ignore Him, always, always +He is our Father. And whatever we may do, however we may sin, however +recreant we may be to early faith or early teaching, however unmoved by +the voice of conscience,--which is smiting on your hearts, as it is on +mine to-day,--whatever we are, or whatever we may be, yet, ever while +life is in us, that great, serene voice of the All-Merciful is sounding +in our ears, 'My son, give me thine heart!' Ay, the flowers repeat it in +their bloom, the birds in their summer carol, the rejoicing brooks, and +the seasons in their courses, all, all repeat it, 'My son, give me thine +heart!' + +"Oh, my hearers, this is real, this is true! It is our Father who says +it; and we, unworthy ministers of His word and messengers to declare His +beneficence, repeat it for Him, 'My son, give me thine heart!' Not to +crush, not to spurn, not for a toy. The great God asks your hearts +because He wishes your gratitude and your love. Do you believe He asks +it? Yes, you do. Do you believe He asks it idly? No, you do not. What, +then, does this appeal mean? It means, that God is love,--that you are +His children,--straying, outcast, wretched, may-be, but still His +children,--and by the abounding love which is in Him, He asks your love +in return. Will you give it?" + +And Reuben says to himself, yet almost audibly, "I will." + +The sermon was altogether such a one as to act with prodigious force +upon so emotional a nature as that of Reuben. Yet we dare say there were +gray-haired men in the church, and sallow-faced young men, who nodded +their heads wisely and coolly, as they went out, and said, "An eloquent +sermon, quite; but not much argument in it." As if all men were to plod +to heaven on the vertebrae of an inexorable logic, and not--God +willing--to be rapt away thitherward by the clinging force of a glowing +and confiding heart! Alas, how the intellect droops in its attempt to +measure or comprehend the infinite! How the heart leaps and grows large +in its reach toward the altitude of Boundless Love, if only it be buoyed +with faith! + +"Is this religion?" Reuben asked himself, as he went out of the church, +with his pride all subdued. And the very atmosphere seemed to wear a new +glory, and a new lien of brotherhood to tie him to every creature he met +upon the thronged streets. All the time, too, was sounding in his ears +(as if he had yielded full assent) the mellow and grateful cadence of +the hymn, + + "Return, O wanderer! now return!" + + +XXXIX. + +Reuben wrote to the Doctor, under the influence of this new glow of +feeling, in a way that at once amazed and delighted the good old +gentleman. And yet there were ill-defined, but very decided, terrors and +doubts in his delight Dr. Johns, by nature as well as by education, was +disposed to look distrustfully upon any sudden conviction of duty which +had its spring in any extraordinary exaltation of feeling, rather than +in that full intellectual seizure of the Divine Word, which it seemed to +him could come only after a determined wrestling with those dogmas that +to his mind were the aptest and compactest expression of the truth +toward which we must agonize. The day of Pentecost showed a great +miracle, indeed; but was not the day of miracles past? + +The Doctor, however, did not allow his entertainment of a secret fear to +color in any way his letters of earnest gratulation to his son. If God +has miraculously snatched him from the ways that lead to destruction, +(such was his thought,) let us rejoice. + +"Be steadfast, my dear Reuben," he writes. "You have now a cross to +bear. Do not dishonor its holy character; do not faint upon the way. Our +beloved Adele, as you have been told, is trembling upon the verge of the +grave. May God in His mercy spare her, until, at least, she gain some +more fitting sense of the great mission of His Son, and of the divine +scheme of atonement! I fear greatly that she has but loose ideas upon +these all-important subjects. It pains me beyond belief to find her +indifferent to the godly counsels of your pious aunt, which she does not +fail to urge upon her, 'in season and out of season'; and she has shown +a tenacity in guarding that wretched relic of her early life, the rosary +and crucifix, which, I fear, augurs the worst. Pray for her, my son; +pray that all the vanities and idolatries of this world may be swept +from her thoughts." + +And Reuben, still living in that roseate atmosphere of religious +meditation, is shocked by this story of the danger of Adele. Is he not +himself in some measure accountable? In those days when they raced +through the Catechism together, did he never provoke her mocking smiles +by his sneers at the ponderous language? Did he not tempt her to some +mischievous sally of mirth, on many a day when they were kneeling in +couple about the family altar? + +And in the flush of his exalted feeling he writes her how bitterly he +deplores all this, and, borrowing his language from the sermons he now +listens to with greed, he urges Adele "to plant her feet upon the Rock +of Ages, to eschew all vanities, and to trust to those blessed promises +which were given from the foundation of the world." + +Indeed, there is a fervor in his feeling which pushes him into such +extravagances of expression as the Doctor would have found it necessary +to qualify, if Adele, poor child, had not been by far too weak for their +comprehension. + +The Brindlocks were, of course, utterly amazed at this new aspect in the +character of their pet young nephew from the country. Mr. Brindlock +said, consolingly, to his wife, when the truth became only too apparent, +"My dear, it's atmospheric, I think. It's a 'revival' season; there was +such a one, I remember, in my young days." + +(Mrs. Brindlock laughed at this quite merrily.) + +"To be sure there was, my dear, and I was really quite deeply affected. +Reuben will come out all right; we shall see him settling down soon to +good merchant habits again." + +But the _animus_ of the new tendency was far stronger than Brindlock had +supposed; and within a month Reuben had come to a quiet rupture with his +city patron. The smack of worldliness was too strong for him. He felt +that he must go back to his old home, and place himself again under the +instructions of the father whose counsels he had once so spurned. + +"You don't say you mean to become a parson?" said Mr. Brindlock, more +than ever astounded. + +"It is very likely," said Reuben; "or possibly a missionary." + +"Well, Reuben, if you must, you must. But I don't see things in that +light. However, my boy, we'll keep our little private ventures astir; +you may need them some day." + +And so they parted; and Reuben went home to Ashfield, taking an +affectionate leave of his Aunt Mabel, who had been over-kind to him, and +praying in his heart that that good, but exceedingly worldly woman, +might some day look on serious things as he looked on them. + +He had thought in his wild days, that, when he should go back to +Ashfield for any lengthened stay, (for thus far his visits had been few +and flying ones,) he should considerably astonish the old people there +by his air and city cultivation. It is quite possible that he had laid +by certain flaming cravats which he thought would have a killing effect +in the country church, and anticipated a very handsome triumph by the +easy swagger with which he would greet old Deacon Tourtelot and ask +after the health of Miss Almira. But the hope of all such triumphs was +now dropped utterly. Such things clearly belonged to the lusts of the +eye and the pride of life. He even left behind him some of the most +flashy articles of his attire, with the request to Aunt Mabel that she +would bestow them upon some needy person, or, in default of this, make +them over to the Missionary Society for distribution among the +heathen,--a purpose for which some of them, by reason of their brilliant +colors, were certainly most admirably adapted. Under his changed view of +life, it appeared to Reuben that every unnecessary indulgence, whether +of dress or food, was a sin. With the glowing enthusiasm of youth, he +put such beautiful construction upon the rules of Christian faith as +would hardly survive the rough every-day wear of the world. Even the +stiff dignity of Dr. Mowry he was inclined to count only an accidental +incrustation of manner, beneath which the heart of the parson was all +aglow with the tenderest benevolence. We hope he may have been right in +this; it is certain, that, if he could carry forward the same loving +charity to the end of his days, he would have won the best third of the +elements of a Christian career, without respect to dogmas. + +So Reuben goes back to Ashfield with a very modest and quiet bearing. He +is to look with other eyes now upon the life there, and to judge how far +it will sustain his new-found religious sympathies. All meet him kindly. +Old Squire Elderkin, who chances to be the first to greet him as he +alights from the coach, shakes him warmly by the hand, and taps him +patronizingly upon the shoulder. + +"Welcome home again, Reuben! Well, well, they thought you were given +over to bad courses; but it's all right now, I hear; quite upon the +other tack, eh, Reuben? That's well, my good fellow, that's well." + +And Reuben thanked him, thinking perhaps how odd it was that this +worldly old gentleman, of whom he had thought, since his late revulsion +of feeling, with a good deal of quiet pity, should commend what was so +foreign to his own habit. There were, then, some streaks of good-natured +worldliness which tallied with Christian duty. The serene, kindly look +of Mrs. Elderkin was in itself the tenderest welcome; and it was an +ennobling thought to Reuben, that he had at last placed himself (or +fancied he had) upon the same moral plane with that good woman. As for +Rose, the joyous, frolicsome, charming Rose, whom he had thought at one +time to electrify by his elegant city accomplishments,--was not even the +graceful Rose a veteran in the Christian army in which he had but now +enlisted? Why, then, should she show timidity and shyness at this +meeting with him? Yet her little fingers had a quick tremor in them as +she took his hand, and a swift change of color (he knew it of old) ran +over her face like a rosy cloud. + +"It is delightful to think that Reuben is safe at last," said Mrs. +Elderkin, after he had gone. + +"Yes, mamma," said Rose. + +"It must be a great delight to them all at the parsonage." + +"I suppose so, mamma. I wish Phil were here," said Rose again, in a +plaintive little tone. + +"I wish he were, my child; it might have a good influence upon him: and +poor Adele, too; she must surely listen to Reuben, he is so earnest and +impassioned. Don't you think so, Rose?" + +Rose is working with nervous rapidity. + +"But, my child," says the mother; "are you not sewing that breadth upon +the wrong side?" + +True enough, upon the wrong side,--so many weary stitches to undo! + +Miss Eliza had shown a well-considered approval of Reuben's change of +opinions; but this had not forbidden a certain reserve of worldly regret +that he should give up so promising a business career. She had half +hinted as much to the Doctor. + +"I do not see, brother," she had said, "that his piety will involve the +abandonment of mercantile life." + +"His piety," said the Doctor, "if it be of the right stamp, will involve +an obedience to conscience." + +And there the discussion had rested. The spinster received Reuben with +much warmth, in which her stately proprieties of manner, however, were +never for one moment forgotten. + +Adele, who was now fortunately in a fair way of recovery, but who was +still very weak, and who looked charmingly in her white chamber-dress +with its simple black belt, received him with a tender-heartedness of +manner which he had never met in her before. The letter of Reuben had +been given her, and, with all its rawness of appeal, had somehow touched +her religious sentiment in a way it had never been touched before. He +had put so much of his youthful enthusiasm into his language, it showed +such an elasticity of hope and joy, as impressed her very strangely. It +made the formal homilies of Miss Eliza seem more harsh than ever. She +had listened, in those fatiguing and terrible days of illness, to psalms +long drawn out, and wearily; but here was some wild bird that chanted a +glorious carol in her ear,--a carol that seemed touched with Heaven's +own joy. And under its influence--exaggerated as it was by extreme +youthful emotion--she seemed to see the celestial gates of jasper and +pearl swing open before her, and the beckonings of the great crowd of +celestial inhabitants to enter and enjoy. + +For a long time she had been hovering (how nearly she did not know) upon +the confines of the other world; but with a vague sense that its +mysteries might open upon her in any hour, she had, in her sane +intervals, ranked together the promises and penalties that had been set +before her by the good Doctor: now worrying her spirit, as it confronted +some awful catechismal dogma, that it sought vainly to solve; and then, +from sheer weakness and disappointment, seizing upon the symbol of the +cross, (of which the effigy was always near at hand,) and by a kiss and +a tear seeking to ally her fainting heart with the mystic company of the +elect who would find admission to the joys of paradise. But the dogmas +were vain, because she could not grapple them to her heart; the cross +was vain, because it was an empty symbol; the kisses and the tears left +her groping blindly for the key that would surely unlock for her the +wealth of the celestial kingdom. In this attitude of mind, wearied by +struggle and by fantasies, came to her the letter of Reuben,--the joyous +outburst of a pioneer who had found the way. She never once doubted that +the good Doctor had found it, too,--but so long ago, and by so hard a +road, that she despaired of following in his steps. But Reuben had +leaped to the conquest, and carried a blithe heart with him. Surely, +then, there must be a joy in believing. + +"I thank you very much for your letter, Reuben," said Adele, and she +looked eagerly into his face for traces of that triumph which so +glittered throughout his letter. + +And she did not look in vain; for, whether it were from the warm, +electric touch of those white, thin fingers of hers, or the eager +welcome in her eyes, or from more sacred cause, a great joy shone in his +face,--a joy that from thenceforward they began to share in common. At +last--at last, a bright illumination was spread over the dreary +teachings of these last years. Not a doubt, not a penalty, not a mystic, +blind utterance of the Catechism, but the glowing enthusiasm of Reuben +invested it with cheery promise, or covered it with the wonderful +glamour of his hope. Between these two young hearts--the one, till then, +all doubt and weariness, and the other, just now, all impassioned +exuberance--there came a grafting, by virtue of which the religious +sentiment, in Adele shot away from all the severities around her into an +atmosphere of peace and joy. + +The Doctor saw it, and wondered at the abounding mercies of God. The +spinster saw it, and rejoiced at the welding of this new link in the +chain of her purposes. The village people all saw it, and said among +themselves, "If he has won her from the iniquities of the world, he can +win her for a wife, if he will." + +And the echoes of such speeches come, as they needs must, to the ear of +Rose, without surprising her, so much do they seem the echo of her own +thought; and if her heart may droop a little under it, she conceals it +bravely, and abates no jot in her abounding love for Adele. + +"I wish Phil were here," she says in the privacy of her home. + +"So do I, darling," says the mother, and looks at her with a tender +inquisitiveness that makes the sweet girl flinch, and affect for a +moment a noisy gayety, which is not in her heart. + +Rose! Rose! are you not taking wrong stitches again? + + + + +RODOLPHE TOePFFER, + +THE GENEVESE CARICATURIST. + + +In 1842 there appeared in New York a little _brochure_ with scarcely any +letter-press, which contained many pages of the most humorous and +spirited sketches. Its title told the whole story, namely:-- + +_"The Adventures of Mr. Obadiah Oldbuck: wherein are duly set forth the +Crosses, Chagrins, Calamities, Checks, Chills, Changes, and +Circumgyrations by which his Courtship was attended. Showing also the +Issue of his Suit, and his Espousal to his Ladye-Love."_ + +Thousands laughed themselves to tears, when looking at these grotesque, +yet lifelike pictures; but scarcely one knew the name of their author, +M. Rodolphe Toepffer, of Geneva, Switzerland. + +Long before Mr. Oldbuck made his appearance in America, he had been the +means of uniting in fast friendship the great poetic giant of Germany, +Goethe, and the modest Genevese caricaturist. The least of M. Toepffer's +merit, however, was his ability to handle the pencil. As a humoristic, +satiric, pathetic, and aesthetic writer, he is unique in the French +language. His wonderful genius was so pliable, that, while he excelled +in the power of catching the warmest glow of Nature in those exquisite +descriptions with which his writings are filled, and while, with +picture-words, he could reproduce all the tender beauty of a sunset in +the Alps, or the soft, singing gurgle of the mountain-brook, no one +better than he could also portray every subtile shade and feature of the +human mind. He excelled in analyzing character. His mental perception +was sympathetic and ready. His mind-eye was so keen and so piercing, +that nothing could escape its searching glance. The most insignificant +attitude of the heart was not only seen, but at once noted down and +studied by him; and in its delicately skilful dissection, Toepffer +comprehended the whole of the individual. Hence his universality. In +manner of thought, and in style, his writings have traits which remind +one of Sterne, Addison, Charles Lamb, Montaigne, Xavier de Maistre, (the +author of the famous "Voyage autour de ma Chambre,") and our own +Hawthorne. + +It is just twenty-three years ago, that Xavier de Maistre, being +besieged by publishers for another of his charming stories, answered, +"Before all, take Toepffer, not me." Previously to this, a Swiss +gentleman, while visiting Weimar, introduced to Goethe the comic series +already referred to, which Toepffer had merely thrown off in his hours of +leisure. Goethe at once sent over the Alps for "Mr. Jabot," "Mr. +Pencil," "Mr. Crepin," and "Dr. Festus"; and, in the "Kunst und +Alterthum," the great poet expressed to his admiring circle of friends +his full appreciation, of the unequalled ability and charming humor of +Toepffer. He went still farther; for, in his favorite literary journal, +he drew the attention of all Germany to the merit of the Genevese +author. + +In 1839, M. de Sainte-Beuve introduced, with the highest eulogium, M. +Toepffer to the wide and fastidious world of French letters. Thus did the +greatest genius of Germany, the most celebrated modern romancer of +Northern Italy, and one of the first writers of France stand godfathers +to M. Toepffer. Their judgment did not misguide them; for, though Toepffer +was not a _litterateur_ by profession, his few volumes stand out in +French literature like those gigantic Alpine summits whose snow-white +purity is never dimmed by cloud-shadows. + +But I anticipate. Personal recollections become more interesting in +proportion to the distance of time which intervenes between us and the +death of the loved and admired. Violets are not gathered on a fresh-made +grave; and the soil of Memory must have been moistened with tears, +before we can expect it to yield its most cherished flowers. + +As some of our author's works, "Les Nouvelles Genevoises," and "Les +Voyages en Zig-Zag," have attracted considerable attention in the United +States, a sketch of his life and a mention of his various writings will +be acceptable to American readers. + +I was but a child when the name of Toepffer already had for me a +significance and a meaning which no other possessed. I had a feeling of +deepest regard and veneration for him, as I would meet him in the narrow +streets of Geneva, or in some of the shaded walks, which clasp, like +loving arms of Beauty, that bright little city of Central Europe. His +tall, commanding figure gave him an air of dignity and patrician +distinction; which latter was his by right. When he looked at you from +under the shadow of his broad-brimmed hat, you felt in that gaze there +was power,--a something which dropped from his eye into your very heart, +and made its home there. + +But allow me to make a _detour_, and call attention to that city where +Toepffer was born, and where society had such an influence upon his +creative mind. + +No spot in all Europe has more intrinsic importance than Switzerland. +Perched, as it is, amid inaccessible summits of intellectual and of +geographical elevation, it remains the magnetic centre, towards which, +from every part of the world, the sympathies of people most naturally +converge. And Geneva--the proud, miniature Republic--is to-day what she +has been for three long centuries, the Mecca of Switzerland, a luminous +altar of freedom of thought and of intellectual independence, from which +bold opinions have sprung and radiated, and around which every son of +Liberty has rallied. The Republic of Geneva stands alone in her +celebrity. So small a country that one morning's drive embraces the +whole of its territory, it can yet boast of a nationality so deeply +rooted, and of an individuality so strongly marked, that no foreign +invasion and no foreign contact have ever been able to impair them. + +It is impossible, even for the most superficial reader of history, to +overlook that great array of names which made the last years of the +eighteenth century so illustrious in Europe. Among them it is equally +impossible not to recognize those which Geneva so proudly furnished. +Theology, Natural Science, Philology, Morals, Intellectual Philosophy, +and Belles-Lettres,--all these branches are admirably represented, and +bend down with their luxuriant weight of fruit. The native land of such +men as Bonnet, De Saussure, De Candolle, Calandrini, Hubert, Rousseau, +Sismondi, Necker, has nothing to covet from other countries. Still +Geneva became the foster-mother of many great men. Calvin she took from +his own Picardy. Theodore Agrippa d'Aubigne, the grandfather of Madame +de Maintenon, and ancestor of Merle d'Aubigne, the truest friend of +Henry IV., Geneva honored as if her own son. Voltaire so loved Geneva +that there he had a residence as well as at Ferney, and sang with +enthusiasm of blue Lake Leman, "Mon lac est le premier." Madame de Stael +was born of Swiss parents in Paris, but her childhood and many of her +mature years were spent in charming Coppet, where the waters of the lake +lave the shores within the boundary of the Canton of Geneva. Sismondi +was a native of Geneva, and under the influence of Madame de Stael, and +inspired by his visits to Italy, resolved to devote himself to the past +glories of the land of his ancestors. It was in the city of Geneva that +he first delivered those lectures on "The Literature of Southern +Europe," which, in book-form, are so well known to every civilized +nation. Benjamin Constant, another Genevese, was a kindred spirit, who +shared with Madame de Stael a delightful and profitable intimacy. +Dumont; (so highly eulogized by Lord Macaulay,) the friend of Mirabeau +and of Jeremy Bentham, was also of Geneva. De Candolle and his son gave +to science their arduous labors. De la Rive in Chemistry, Pictet in +Electrology, and Merle d'Aubigne in History, Gaussen and Malan in +Theology, and many others, not unknown to fame, might be mentioned as +continuing the list of distinguished names that testify to the +intellectual supremacy of Geneva. + +Here, in our own day, what sons of Fame have gone to linger near a +society so congenial! Byron tells us that his life was purer at Geneva +than that which he led elsewhere. Here, amidst the scenes consecrated by +Milton nearly two centuries before, Shelley delighted to dream away his +summer hours. He loved to go forth on the pellucid surface of "clear, +placid Leman," there to drink in the soft beauties of the shores, or to +gaze upon the distant sublimities of Mont Blanc. Here Sir Humphry Davy +came, after his Southern tour, and "laid him down to die." Wordsworth +found here the graces of his Westmoreland home wedded to a grandeur +which realized the loftiest conception of his mind. At Geneva, to-day, +is found that noble son of France and devoted friend of America, the +Count Agenor de Gasparin. + +Here, too, have members of the royal and noble houses of Europe come to +be wooed by those waters whose "crystal face" Byron calls + + "The mirror where the stars and mountains view + The stillness of their aspect." + +The late Charles Albert, the hero King of Sardinia, was educated at +Geneva. More than once did the future benefactor and monarch of Northern +Italy stray along the road to Lausanne, or float in his little shallop +on the side of Bellevue, whence he could look upon that prettiest of +summer residences, Pregny, and at night could listen to the trills of +the nightingales, which sing with a tenderness peculiar to the Valley of +Geneva. At Pregny lived Josephine, whose Imperial spouse had driven away +from Sardinia the members of the House of Savoy. But Time is a wonderful +magician, and to-day near beautiful Pregny the nephew of Europe's great +conqueror and conquered and the grand-daughter of Charles Albert have +their own villa. The favorite residence of the late Grand Duchess +Constantine of Russia was La Boissiere, in the Canton of Geneva, and on +the road to Chamouny, not far from the house of Sismondi. The late +Duchess de Broglie, the daughter of Madame de Stael, lived during the +winter in the street St. Antoine; near where M. Toepffer had his house, +and in the summer at Coppet. Not far from her, at Genthod, resided that +gentle daughter of America, the Baroness Rumpf, still remembered in New +York as the daughter of John Jacob Astor. The Duchess de Broglie and the +Baroness Rumpf are rare instances of the truest Christian womanhood in +exalted stations.--But a whole magazine article would not suffice to +give a list of the great, the noble, and the gifted who have sojourned +for a time in the city of Geneva. + +Yet, if Geneva has borrowed some of the great of other countries, she +has amply repaid the debt. She sent her Casaubon to the court of James +I. of England, to be the defender of the faith. Later, she lent to +England her De Lolme, who added to his distinguished political acumen +such affluent philological knowledge, that he wrote one of the best +works ever written on the British Constitution in the English and the +French languages. She lent to Russia Le Fort, the famous general and +admiral, the counsellor of Peter the Great, the originator of the +Russian navy, and the founder of that army out of which grew the forces +that defeated Charles XII. at Pultowa. During the tempestuous days which +signalized the downfall of a monarchy, and while France was rent asunder +by the mad upheavings of an infuriated populace, Necker was called to +the head of the finances. After five years of indefatigable probity, and +when his services had enlisted the profound gratitude of the doomed +king, he was compelled to quit Paris. Recalled again, and again +dismissed, his final departure was the signal for a general outbreak, +which resulted in the taking of the Bastille and the overthrow of the +House of Capet. Albert Gallatin she gave to the United States. How +curious it is to trace the life of this son of Geneva! Graduating with +honors at his native university, he came to America in 1780, was +commander of a small fort at Machias while Maine was still +Massachusetts, was teacher in Harvard University, filled high places +under the government of Pennsylvania; elected Senator to Congress from +that State, (but vacating his seat because his residence had not been +sufficiently long to qualify him,) Secretary of the Treasury under +Jefferson, Envoy Extraordinary to sign the Treaty of Ghent, and for +seven years Minister Plenipotentiary to France. He was offered the +Secretaryship of State by Madison, a place in the Cabinet by Monroe, and +was selected by the dominant party as a candidate for the second office +in the gift of the American people. All of these last three proffered +honors he refused, and passed the remainder of his long life in the +genial pursuits of literature. + +If Geneva has been the fireside of learning and of belles-lettres, it +has not been less the home of the fine arts. Petitot, the celebrated +painter on enamel, has handsomely paid his share to the +_chefs-d'oeuvres_ of the seventeenth century. While enjoying the +capricious favors of Charles I. at Whitehall, where he had his lodgings, +he worked on some of those perfect portraits which to-day have their +place in the Louvre, and which for ages must remain the triumphs of +minutely finished, expressive Art. Nor is the little Republic poor in +contemporaneous artistic talent. Pradier was born and grew up in +presence of Mont Blanc, whose sublime grandeur may well inspire the +dreams of the sculptor and ennoble him. Calame, Diday, and Hubert in +landscape painting, and Hornung in historical painting, (widely known by +his "Death of John Calvin,") are all sons of Geneva. Thalberg, the +musician, is a native of Geneva. + +The habitual companionship of master minds must necessarily exert an +immediate and irresistible influence upon the rapid growth of thoughts +and ideas in the young. And it is not to be wondered at that those who +from their earliest infancy have had the readiest access to such a +companionship, and who have most fully imbibed that influence, retain +through the after-years of life a strength and a boldness of originality +essentially opposed to the hesitating timidity of less favored +individuals. In a society like that of Geneva, where family traditions +are jealously cherished as a part of the national history, and where +every family has its importance and its well-defined place, the memory +of distinguished men cannot perish, but is handed down from father to +son, as a portion of the state patrimony. Every little boy, as he plays +in the street, feels that he has reason to be proud that he is a +Genevese. It was with such sentiments and under such auspices that +Toepffer glided through the years of childhood. He drank deep at the +fountain of inspiration unawares, and manhood found him ready to follow +those who beckoned to him from the pages of history. + +Rodolphe Toepffer was born at Geneva on the seventeenth day of February, +1799. As his name indicates, he was of German descent; but his family +had resided so many years in French Switzerland that he could no longer +be claimed by the land of Schiller and Goethe, though it was said that +one of his most distinctive literary characteristics was like that of +Mozart in music,--that he blended the deep, warm feeling of Germany with +the light and elegant graces of Southern Europe. + +Americans who have visited the public Gallery of Art, known in Geneva as +the Musee Rath, will perhaps recall a small, but very spirited, +winter-scene, painted in oil, and which bears the name of Toepffer. This +picture is by the father of Rodolphe. M. Toepffer _le pere_ was the first +of that long list of Swiss painters who became devoted students of +Nature. The names of Calame, Diday, (Calame's master,) and Hubert are +now known throughout the world; and that of Calame stands among the +first in the rank of eminent living landscape painters. They are worthy +successors of the father of Rodolphe Toepffer, who was peculiarly happy +in rendering the mountain-scenes of Savoy, and in portraying those +picturesque and attractive episodes of peasant-life entitled "The +Village Wedding," "The Fair in Winter," etc., etc. + +There are but few incidents to record of Toepffer _fils_. It is in his +writings mostly that he is to be found. Elsewhere he is only passing by; +but _there_ he dwells and shines in full radiance. His life was so +quietly modest, so tranquil and far removed from the tumultuous +preoccupations which belong to a fashionable society, it was so simple +and pure, that the biographer is at a loss to find any striking event +that may give it an outward coloring. When only a child, as he so +charmingly tells us in his inimitable pages of the "Presbytere," he +devoured books, all sorts of books,--indeed, all the books he could get +hold of in his uncle's well-stocked library. And many an hour of his +sunny boyhood did he pass at the window in the house where he was born, +gazing dreamily at the mullions, arches, and fretted work of the old +Cathedral, or at the distant flight of the swallows, while in his mind +he dwelt upon some brilliant _saillie_ of Montaigne or Rabelais. His +marked fondness for sketching showed itself in numerous and picturesque +outlines, all of which bore the unmistakable stamp of talent, and +foretold in the exuberance of the boy-fancy what the man would be. +Happily for him, happily for us who are allowed to gather up the crumbs +of art and authorship which fell from his ample store, Toepffer enjoyed +the very best and most propitious advantages which in any country can +bless childhood. He was born in the lap of a society daintily +intellectual and fastidiously cultivated. His very first impressions +were those of refinement. His very first steps were directed towards +culture. There was no arid waste around him, and he had not to cut his +way through the newly broken furrows of a young civilization. He was +taken by the hand of Genius at the very outset of his career, and was +never allowed to falter; for in the successive creations of his pencil +and of his pen there is the same fulness of imagination, the same +delicacy of observation, the same exquisite perfection of analysis. He +seems to have understood so well the power of his mind, that he never +ventured beyond his depth, but sustained himself through all his years +of authorship with the same grace and elegance. + +And nowhere could he have better artistic encouragement and emulation +than in his native city. We do not remember who said that "in Geneva +every child is born an artist," but the statement would bear +investigation. Talent as well as taste for drawing and painting is +almost universal, and belongs as well to the poor as to the rich. It +may not be well known that De Candolle, the celebrated and untiring +Genevese botanist, made use, in a course of lectures, of a valuable +collection of tropical American plants, intrusted to his care by a +Spanish botanist. Unfortunately, the herbarium was needed by its owner +sooner than expected, and Professor De Candolle was requested to send it +back. This he stated to his audience, with many a regret for so +irreparable a loss. But some of the ladies present at once offered to +copy the whole collection in one week, This was done. The drawings, +"filling thirteen folio volumes, and amounting in number to eight +hundred and sixty, were accurately executed by one hundred and fourteen +women-artists in the time specified." In most cases the principal parts +of the plants alone were colored; the rest was only pencilled with great +accuracy. Where is the other city of the same size in which such a +number of amateur lady-artists could be found? One of these very +drawings, having been accidentally dropped in the street, was picked up +by a little girl ten years old, and was returned to De Candolle, copied +by the child; and it is no blemish to the collection. + +The son of an artist, Toepffer found his own career ready made, and +stepped into it with all the instincts of his Art-loving nature. His few +early paintings are full of promise. But the young artist was not +destined to distinguish himself in his chosen career. A disease of the +eyes compelled him to give up his favorite pursuit. His brush, still +warm from the passionate ardor with which it had been grasped, was +broken and thrown away. Toepffer lamented all his life long the privation +that was thus forced upon him. Art, as a profession, was closed against +his eager ambition; yet he loved Art, and lived for it. Happily for him, +he was still in the complete possession of all his hopes and illusions. +Happily for him, he was young; and, without being discouraged by his +great disappointment, he turned the bent of his mind study-ward. Toepffer +became a close student of human nature. He took to analyzing it +instinctively, as the bird takes to the air. He was more than a dreamer, +though the charming dreams which we have from him make us half regret, +perhaps, that he did something else besides dreaming. He says, in his +story, "La Bibliotheque de mon Oncle,"--"The man who does not enjoy +dreaming his time away is but an automaton, who travels from life to +death like a locomotive rushing from Manchester to Liverpool. A whole +summer spent in this listless manner does not seem _de trop_ in a +refined education. It is even probable that one such summer would not +prove enough to produce a great man. Socrates dreamed his time away for +years. Rousseau did the same till he was forty years old; La +Fontaine--his whole life. And what a charming mode of working is that +science of losing time!" + +But, either dreaming or working, Toepffer knew well what he was capable +of; and without impatience, without restlessness, he awaited the future, +consoling himself with the sentiment he expresses so well in the +following sentence:--"What can be said of those beardless poets who dare +to sing at that age, when, if they were true poets, they would not have +too much in their whole being with which to _feel_, and to inhale +silently, those perfumes which later only they may know how to diffuse +in their verse? There are precocious mathematicians; but precocious +poets--_never_." + +Toepffer was right. Life is the true poet. Its teachings drop in tears, +and the heart receives them kneeling, and is in no hurry to babble to +the world all their silent beauty. + +If Toepffer studied, it was not alone. He had devoted himself to the +serious task of education. His pupils, mostly the sons of wealthy +Englishmen and Russians, together with a few lads from France, Italy, +and America, served only to widen his family circle. His relation to +them was charming. As an authority, he used the most winning persuasion. +He respected the mental individuality even of a child, and would use +his admirable tact in kindly encouraging every indication of talent, +which, from want of a sufficient self-reliance or of a timely care, was +hiding itself. Year after year, in vacation-time, Toepffer left the +city with his thirty or forty young companions, and with them he +travelled on foot through the mountains and around the lakes of +Switzerland,--sometimes pushing in the track of Agassiz over glacier +billows, sometimes wandering far down upon the fertile plains of +Lombardy and Venetia. These were always most delightful excursions, when +the ordinary halt became a common enjoyment, not only from the +fun-loving spirit of the master, but also for the promise of future +illustrations. After the return home, during the long winter evenings, +Toepffer took either his pen or his pencil, and, with his pupils, +re-gathered from their memoranda and drawings their summer impressions +and adventures. Then he made his paper laugh with the spirited and +piquant sketches which all know who have peeped into the "Voyages en +Zig-Zag." Thus his fireside amusements have become those of the world. +The "Voyages en Zig-Zag," before his death, were already classic in +France. The richest luxury of type, paper, and illustration has not been +spared, and edition after edition is scattered in Europe from the Neva +to the Tagus. In the "Voyages" we find the most correct delineation, in +words and sketches, of the peculiarities and glories of Alp-land. The +exquisite French of this work has never yet found a translator. + +His early style had something so fresh and so quaint that it can be +accounted for only by going to the books which Toepffer studied. His _dii +majores_ were Montaigne and Amyot, and Paul Louis Courier, a learned +Hellenistic scholar, as well as vivacious writer of the French +Revolution and of the first Empire. For Montaigne Toepffer cherished the +highest admiration. In his "Reflections and Short Disquisitions upon +Art," (_Reflexions et Menus Propos_,) he thus tersely sums up the +excellency of the French philosopher:--"Thinker full of probity and +grace; philosopher so much the greater by that which he said he did not +know than by that which he thought he knew." In our own language, +Shakspeare was his favorite author. M. de Sainte-Beuve says, "Toepffer +was sworn to Shakspeare," and adds that the works of Hogarth first +taught the Genevese writer to appreciate Shakspeare, Richardson, and +Fielding. + +Besides possessing the ability to convey instruction to others, Toepffer +was a fine classical scholar. With two other literary gentlemen, he +published some excellent editions of the Greek classics, which he +enriched with notes. All these qualifications marked him as the man for +a still higher position. Accordingly, in 1832, when only thirty-three, +he was appointed Professor of Belles-Lettres in the College of Geneva. +At the same time, while discharging faithfully his duties in the +College, he conducted, aided by tutors, his little _pension_, now so +well known by the "Voyages en Zig-Zag." + +It was in the midst of these various occupations that Toepffer took his +recreation in contributing to the literary periodicals of Geneva +superior essays on Art, and many of those charming stories which to-day +delight us in the collection entitled "Les Nouvelles Genevoises." He +also wrote for political journals. But what made him first known outside +those communities where the French tongue is spoken were his humoristic +sketches. They were not thrown off from his fertile and genial hand for +gain or for renown. From childhood, under the influence of artistic +example at home, and of his admiration of Hogarth, he had acquired a +remarkable skill in graphically delineating whatever his close +observation of men prompted. Like Hogarth, his artist-wit, his fun, and +his moral teachings took the shape of series. These were handed around +the circle of his intimate friends; yet he had thoughts only of his own +amusement and of that of his companions, and did not contemplate +offering them to the public. It was at the urgency of Goethe that he +gave them to the world. + +In 1842, as we stated before, "M. Vieux Bois" (Mr. Oldbuck) appeared in +the United States; and the following year, 1843, "M. Cryptogame," under +the name of "Bachelor Butterfly," (by no means so amusing or so full of +hits for America as some other sketches,) delighted the Transatlantic +reader. + +Visitors to Geneva had their attention drawn to the "Voyages en Zig-Zag" +as soon as it was published; and in 1841 "Les Nouvelles Genevoises" took +the literary and artistic world of Paris by surprise. These simple +graphic stories gained the hearts of thousands. French tourists and +French artists sought the basin of Lake Leman, the wild passes of the +Vallee de Trient, the Lac de Gers, the Col d'Anterne, and the Deux +Scheidegg, wooed thither by the picturesque pages of Toepffer. The +"Presbytere," a fresh story in the epistolary form, not long after +crossed the Jura, and amidst the artificial, heated literature of Paris, +appeared as reviving as a bracing morning in the Alps. + +In this modest way M. Toepffer was unconsciously building up his European +reputation. The warp of his talent is the richest of humor blended with +woman-like sensibility and tenderness. Fanciful, but never exaggerated, +he stands before us an amiable philosopher, whose heart is large enough +to comprehend and to pity the frailties of human nature, yet whose +spotless purity serves as a beacon--light on the wreck-strewn shore of +human passions. He has not the exaltation nor the ardent vehemence of +Rousseau, neither has he the sentimental morbidity of Xavier de Maistre. +On the contrary, he is always true and always simple, and he remains +within the bounds of emotion which the family circle allows. This must +be accounted for by the peaceful life which he led, (a life so different +from that of his French literary brothers,) as well as by the beneficial +influence of the society in which he resided. That society, though +cultivated and liberal, has, in contrast with that of France, remained +pure. It retains as its birthright a certain nameless innocence, unknown +in the polished French circles a few leagues beyond. M. de Sainte-Beuve +wonders at this, and asks,--"Is it that man is kept pure and good by the +magnificent beauties in which Nature rocks him there from his babyhood? +Is it that the heart becomes awed in presence of that sublime calm of +Nature, and, before he is aware of it, the passions have transformed +themselves into a religious adoration?" + +But the true source of the Genevese author's purity was apart from, +though deeply influenced by Nature. He was a man of principle and of +religious faith. Toepffer had but to gaze into his own heart to find all +the sweet, the graceful, and the fresh poetry of his country. His +untiring and patient observation of Nature is the secret of his power as +a writer. He disdained nothing, for nothing seemed too small for him. +Nature, in none of its phases, could appear insignificant to his fertile +and mellow soul. When he could not soar in the high regions of +contemplative philosophy, he stooped as low as the little child whose +rosy cheek he patted, and who then became to him a teacher and a study. +An insect crawling on a leaf,--a bit of grass bringing the joy of its +short life around the stones of the pavement,--a cloud floating over the +meadows,--a murmur of voices in the air,--the wings of a butterfly, or +the thundering of the storm above the lake,--all and everything was the +domain where his genial disposition reaped so plentiful a harvest of +rare graces and smiles. + +When Toepffer abandoned his brushes for his pen, it seems that the vision +of his mind became intensified, and he began to study man as minutely as +he had studied Nature. He became a moral portrait-painter, in the same +way as his illustrious townsmen, Calame and Diday, were landscape +painters. To analyze and to describe became the occupation he most +delighted in; and the more minute the analysis and the more subtile the +description, the more also was he pleased with it. + +Toepffer's writings are eminently moral. There are few works in French +literature in which the moral aspiration is so alive and the worship of +duty so eloquently advocated. In reading them one feels that the writer +did not step beyond his own sentiments, that he did not borrow +convictions, that he did not affect the austerity of a stolen creed. He +writes as he feels, and he feels rightly,--never forgetting to remain +indulgent, even when he appears most unbendingly severe. Then to it all +he adds an inexhaustible cheerfulness. His mind wears no dark-colored +glasses; it is strong and healthy enough to bear the dazzling effulgence +of the sun. Toepffer was a joyous man. If he so rapidly seized the +ridiculous, it was through his love of fun; but while he laughed at +others, so kind and genial was he ever that he made others join and +laugh with him also. + +We said that his genius was universal. He is eminently so in his +artistic creations. Take, for instance, his unique comic sketches and +compare them with those of other leading caricaturists. Our impression +must be that none are like his. Leech, Doyle, and Gavarni have attained +a reputation which the world acknowledged long ago, and which no one +would dare dispute; yet they differ entirely from the Genevese +caricaturist. "Oldbuck" (_M. Vieux Bois_) is as universal as music or +Shakspeare, and belongs to no one country in particular. All of Leech's +pretty women, his "Mr. Briggs" and his "Frederick Augustus," with his +"_Haw_" and other swell words and airs, are all unmistakably English. +They could have been born on no other soil than England. It requires an +Englishman, or an American familiar with English fashions and foibles, +to appreciate them. The German, the Frenchman, the Spaniard, the +Italian, or the Russian, could no more understand them without a +previous initiation, or study and experience of English manners, than +they could speak English without long application and practice. The same +may be said of Richard Doyle's famous "Foreign Tour of Messrs. Brown, +Jones, and Robinson." Here we have an irresistible series of sketches, +depicting what the famous trio saw, what they said, and what they did, +in Belgium, Switzerland, and Italy. The interest of that work lies in an +intense expression of English nationality, carried everywhere by the +three Englishmen. Their mishaps and adventures are exactly such as every +American has witnessed a thousand times, when some of his cousins from +the fast-anchored isle have visited him. Gavarni, though freer with his +pencil than either Doyle or Leech, is still as much of a Parisian as +Albert Smith was a Londoner. Every one of his spirited sketches is +intensely French, and, above all, Parisian. To a person who knew nothing +of Paris, who had never been in Paris, and who was not somewhat _au +fait_ with the gay and triste, the splendid and squalid, the brilliant +and unequal society there, these sketches would be meaningless. Again, +Gavarni's pictures are not series. He does not develop his heroes and +heroines. He does not make us feel for them in their mishaps. We do not +laugh _with_ them, as we would with friends or acquaintances, but we +laugh _at_ them. We do not once recognize _ourselves_ in them. His +portraits stand before us, but we gaze at them as we would at some +half-civilized creatures, with curiosity more than with mirth; and while +we admire and acknowledge the truthfulness of the sketch, we do not +desire to have any familiarity or contact with the individuals +represented. Furthermore, Gavarni is more limited than Doyle, by making +the "Sweep," the "Rag-Picker," the "Grisette," tell his or her own +story; and what each one says is necessary to the comprehension of the +person before you. But very different is Toepffer. He possesses, with the +funny conception of Leech and Doyle, a freer pictorial conception than +either, and holds a pencil that is more at command than Gavarni's. In +his single outlines, often of the rudest kind, there is the very +rollicking of freedom, the exact hitting of traits and character. He +dashes down his creation with the quickness of thought, and with as +much confidence that Messrs. Oldbuck, Crepin, and Jabot will leap into +the very existence he wishes them to assume, as Giotto had, when, with a +single sweep of his arm, he drew his magic circle. It may be objected, +that the comparison between the two Englishmen and the two Continentals +is hardly equal. Doyle and Leech lost, doubtless, much of their freedom +by drawing with hard pencils upon box for the wood-engraver. Toepffer and +Gavarni swept the soft, yielding crayon over the lithographer's stone, +and hence we have the very conception of the artists in their sketches. + +The whole Continent roared over "M. Vieux Bois," then England began to +laugh, and finally America. Yet "M. Vieux Bois" was only the portrait of +a foolish old bachelor in love. Though born in Geneva, he was neither +Swiss nor French, neither English nor American; he was simply human. He +exemplifies Toepffer's universality. + +I have already mentioned the "Nouvelles Genevoises," the "Voyages en +Zig-Zag," and the "Presbytere." But it is not possible to quote from +them. Before pages so lively and so picturesquely effective, one feels +embarrassed in selecting any particular portion, lest another should be +left unnoticed,--like the child, who, being told that he may help +himself to choice flowers, feels afraid that he will not take those he +most wants, and, in his hesitation, dares not so much as untie the +bouquet. The reader must choose for himself. He can accompany the +amiable philosopher in his summer excursions, take the Alpine-stock, and +with him visit the mountain solitudes, or linger around the blue +lakes--those air-hung forget-me-nots--which gem the highest valleys of +Switzerland. + +His remaining works, published in book-form, are "Rosa et Gertrude," and +the "Reflexions et Menus Propos d'un Peintre Genevois, ou Essai sur le +Beau dans les Arts." + +"Rosa et Gertrude," given to the public a short time before his death, +is considered by some as holding the first place in Toepffer's works of +imagination. It is a touching story of two orphan girls, deeply attached +to each other, one of whom, deceived and maltreated by the world, +receives that kind and Christian charity "which thinketh no evil" from +M. Bernier, the good old clergyman, who is the guardian of Rosa and +Gertrude, as well as the narrator of their simple history. In this book +Toepffer has abandoned the humoristic, his ordinary vein in his short +stones, and in taking up the more serious mode of treating his +characters has succeeded so well that Albert Aubert of Paris, in his +criticism, says, "In 'Rosa and Gertrude' M. Toepffer has surpassed +himself"; and yet it is not so characteristic as his other writings. + +However, that one of M. Toepffer's works which, it seems to me, is +destined to live longest in the future, is his "Reflexions et Menus +Propos," etc.,--"Reflections and Short Disquisitions on Art." Here are +the results of twelve years' meditations on Art, by one who _felt_ Art +in his inmost soul, and who understood its practice as well as its +theory. In this work we find a Ruskin without dogmatism, uncertainty, or +man-worship. If Toepffer had written several volumes on his favorite +subject, we should not find him, in each succeeding tome, taking back +what he had said in the first. He studied, reflected, rewrote, and then +waited patiently for years before he committed his mature judgment to +the perpetuity of print. Long before Ruskin's first volume appeared, +Toepffer's "Reflexions et Menus Propos" had commanded the admiration of +the best writers and artists of the Continent. As an aesthetic and +philosophic work, it is of the highest value. Pearls of thought and +beauty are dropped on every side. It is relieved by fanciful episodes; +and yet the whole book starts from and plays around a stick of India +ink! It is not merely a volume in which the professional artist can gain +great advantage, but one by which the general reader is fascinated as +well as instructed. The former may discern its scope and its importance +in the felicity with which Toepffer illustrates the true aim of Art, as +being the expression, the idealization, and not the rigid copy of +Nature. He maintains that Nature should be the only teacher, and that we +are to be wedded to no man's mannerism. + +It is to be hoped that some day the "Reflexions et Menus Propos" may be +rendered into English by one fully acquainted, not only with French, but +with the philosophic and the aesthetic writings of France. If the late +Bayle St. John (whose knowledge of the French language and manner of +thought was so thorough) had possessed the finished style of the author +of "Six Months in Italy," he would have been the very man to have +introduced M. Toepffer's works to English readers. + +Whoever reads the works which I have thus briefly mentioned will regret +that so genial and gifted a man as M. Toepffer should have been so soon +snatched away from earth. It is rare to find in any author's or artist's +life such calm happiness as that which smiled over his existence. Fame +did not spoil him; and if he lived long enough to win it, he died too +soon to enjoy it. + +The last two years of M. Toepffer's life were years of continual +suffering, through which his amiable cheerfulness never faltered. When +he was told by his physicians that he could not recover, as if he +thought only of alleviating the sorrow of those who loved him, he did +not give way for one hour to impressions of sadness, and his private +journal alone received the confidence of the keen regret he felt in +taking farewell of his young wife and his lovely children. To the very +last day of his life his friends found him in the evening surrounded by +his family, and even then handling the pencil for their amusement and +his own. + +On Sundays, Calame dined with him; and we may imagine what a brilliant +coloring of thought must have characterized the conversation of these +two sympathetic men. + +In 1844, when M. Toepffer had just concluded his romance of "Rosa et +Gertrude," his disease took an alarming turn, and he became aware that +he was fast drawing to the close of his earthly voyage. After two +repeated visits to the French watering-place of Vichy, he returned to +Geneva. Towards the end of the following winter he was obliged to +abandon those duties which hitherto had been to him so pure an +enjoyment. Unable now to write, he tried painting, which, it will be +remembered, he had given up in early manhood. Leaning heavily forward in +his chair, his easel before him, he painted with an enthusiasm which was +the last of his life. But that diversion could not be kept up long, and +he was soon compelled to sit motionless, awaiting his release. + +On the morning of the 8th of June, 1846, consoled by the hopes of the +Christian, he expired. On the 14th he was followed to his final +resting-place by the whole city, among whom were those who in him had +lost their friend, their colleague, and their master. His remains sleep +in the cemetery of Plain-palais, which he has so graphically described +in "La Peur"; but his memory and his works still live in the minds of +his countrymen, and his fame is daily widening, wherever the good, the +true, and the beautiful are appreciated. + + + + +THE CHIMNEY-CORNER. + + +X. + +THE WOMAN QUESTION: OR, WHAT WILL YOU DO WITH HER? + +"Well, what will you do with her?" said I to my wife. + +My wife had just come down from an interview with a pale, faded-looking +young woman in rusty black attire, who had called upon me on the very +common supposition that I was an editor of the "Atlantic Monthly." + +By the bye, this is a mistake that brings me, Christopher Crowfield, +many letters that do not belong to me, and which might with equal +pertinency be addressed, "To the Man in the Moon." Yet these letters +often make my heart ache,--they speak so of people who strive and sorrow +and want help; and it is hard to be called on in plaintive tones for +help which you know it is perfectly impossible for you to give. + +For instance, you get a letter in a delicate hand, setting forth the old +distress,--She is poor, and she has looking to her for support those +that are poorer and more helpless than herself: she has tried sewing, +but can make little at it; tried teaching, but cannot now get a +school,--all places being filled, and more than filled; at last has +tried literature, and written some little things, of which she sends you +a modest specimen, and wants your opinion whether she can gain her +living by writing. You run over the articles, and perceive at a glance +that there is no kind of hope or use in her trying to do anything at +literature; and then you ask yourself, mentally, "What is to be done +with her? What can she do?" + +Such was the application that had come to me this morning,--only, +instead of by note, it came, as I have said, in the person of the +applicant, a thin, delicate, consumptive-looking being, wearing that +rusty mourning which speaks sadly at once of heart-bereavement and +material poverty. + +My usual course is to turn such cases over to Mrs. Crowfield; and it is +to be confessed that this worthy woman spends a large portion of her +time and wears out an extraordinary amount of shoe-leather in performing +the duties of a self-constituted intelligence-office. + +Talk of giving money to the poor!--what is that, compared to giving +sympathy, thought, time, taking their burdens upon you, sharing their +perplexities? They who are able to buy off every application at the door +of their heart with a five or ten dollar bill are those who free +themselves at least expense. + +My wife had communicated to our friend, in the gentlest tones and in the +blandest manner, that her poor little pieces, however interesting to her +own household circle, had nothing in them wherewith to enable her to +make her way in the thronged and crowded thoroughfare of letters,--that +they had no more strength or adaptation to win bread for her than a +broken-winged butterfly to draw a plough; and it took some resolution in +the background of her tenderness to make the poor applicant entirely +certain of this. In cases like this, absolute certainty is the very +greatest, the only true kindness. + +It was grievous, my wife said, to see the discouraged shade which passed +over her thin, tremulous features, when this certainty forced itself +upon her. It is hard, when sinking in the waves, to see the frail bush +at which the hand clutches uprooted; hard, when alone in the crowded +thoroughfare of travel, to have one's last bank-note declared a +counterfeit. I knew I should not be able to see her face, under the +shade of this disappointment; and so, coward that I was, I turned this +trouble, where I have turned so many others, upon my wife. + +"Well, what shall we do with her?" said I. + +"I really don't know," said my wife, musingly. + +"Do you think we could get that school in Taunton for her?" + +"Impossible; Mr. Herbert told me he had already twelve applicants for +it." + +"Couldn't you get her plain sewing? Is she handy with her needle?" + +"She has tried that, but it brings on a pain in her side, and cough; and +the Doctor has told her it will not do for her to confine herself." + +"How is her handwriting? Does she write a good hand?" + +"Only passable." + +"Because," said I, "I was thinking if I could get Steele and Simpson to +give her law-papers to copy." + +"They have more copyists than they need now; and, in fact, this woman +does not write the sort of hand at all that would enable her to get on +as a copyist." + +"Well," said I, turning uneasily in my chair, and at last hitting on a +bright masculine expedient, "I'll tell you what must be done. She must +get married." + +"My dear," said my wife, "marrying for a living is the very hardest way +a woman can take to get it. Even marrying for love often turns out badly +enough. Witness poor Jane." + +Jane was one of the large number of people whom it seemed my wife's +fortune to carry through life on her back. She was a pretty, smiling, +pleasing daughter of Erin, who had been in our family originally as +nursery-maid. I had been greatly pleased in watching a little idyllic +affair growing up between her and a joyous, good-natured young Irishman, +to whom at last we married her. Mike soon after, however, took to +drinking and unsteady courses, and the result has been to Jane only a +yearly baby, with poor health, and no money. + +"In fact," said my wife, "if Jane had only kept single, she could have +made her own way well enough, and might have now been in good health and +had a pretty sum in the savings bank. As it is, I must carry not only +her, but her three children, on my back." + +"You ought to drop her, my dear. You really ought not to burden yourself +with other people's affairs as you do," said I, inconsistently. + +"How _can_ I drop her? Can I help knowing that she is poor and +suffering? And if I drop her, who will take her up?" + +Now there is a way of getting rid of cases of this kind, spoken of in a +quaint old book, which occurred strongly to me at this moment:-- + +"If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one +of you say unto them, 'Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled,' +notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the +body, what doth it profit?" + +I must confess, notwithstanding the strong point of the closing +question, I looked with an evil eye of longing on this very easy way of +disposing of such cases: a few sympathizing words, a few expressions of +hope that I did not feel, a line written to turn the case into somebody +else's hands,--any expedient, in fact, to hide the longing eyes and +imploring hands from my sight was what my carnal nature at this moment +greatly craved. + +"Besides," said my wife, resuming the thread of her thoughts in regard +to the subject just now before us,--"as to marriage, it's out of the +question at present for this poor child; for the man she loved and would +have married lies low in one of the graves before Richmond. It's a sad +story;--one of a thousand like it. She brightened for a few moments, and +looked almost handsome, when she spoke of his bravery and goodness. Her +father and lover have both died in this war. Her only brother has +returned from it a broken-down cripple, and she has him and her poor old +mother to care for, and so she seeks work. I told her to come again +to-morrow, and I would look about for her a little to-day." + +"Let me see, how many are now down on your list to be looked about for, +Mrs. Crowfield?--some twelve or thirteen, are there not? You've got +Tom's sister disposed of finally, I hope,--that's a comfort!" + +"Well, I'm sorry to say she came back on my hands yesterday," said my +wife, patiently. "She is a foolish young thing, and said she didn't like +living out in the country. I'm sorry, because the Morrises are an +excellent family, and she might have had a life-home there, if she had +only been steady and chosen to behave herself properly. But yesterday I +found her back on her mother's hands again; and the poor woman told me +that the dear child never could bear to be separated from her, and that +she hadn't the heart to send her back." + +"And, in short," said I, "she gave you notice that you must provide for +Miss O'Connor in some more agreeable way. Cross that name off your list, +at any rate. That woman and girl need a few hard raps in the school of +experience before you can do anything for them." + +"I think I shall," said my long-suffering wife; "but it's a pity to see +a young thing put in the direct road to ruin." + +"It is one of the inevitables," said I, "and we must save our strength +for those that are willing to help themselves." + +"What's all this talk about?" said Bob, coming in upon us rather +brusquely. + +"Oh, as usual, the old question," said I,--"'What's to be done with +her?'" + +"Well," said Bob, "it's exactly what I've come to talk with mother +about. Since she keeps a distressed-women's agency-office, I've come to +consult her about Marianne. That woman will die before six months are +out, a victim to high civilization and the Paddies. There we are, twelve +miles out from Boston, in a country villa so convenient that every part +of it might almost do its own work,--everything arranged in the most +convenient, contiguous, self-adjusting, self-acting, patent-right, +perfective manner,--and yet, I tell you, Marianne will die of that +house. It will yet be recorded on her tombstone, 'Died of conveniences.' +For myself, what I languish for is a log cabin, with a bed in one +corner, a trundle-bed underneath for the children, a fire-place only six +feet off, a table, four chairs, one kettle, a coffee-pot, and a tin +baker,--that's all. I lived deliciously in an establishment of this kind +last summer, when I was up at Lake Superior; and I am convinced, if I +could move Marianne into it at once, that she would become a healthy and +a happy woman. Her life is smothered out of her with comforts: we have +too many rooms, too many carpets, too many vases and knickknacks, too +much china and silver; she has too many laces and dresses and bonnets; +the children all have too many clothes;--in fact, to put it +Scripturally, our riches are corrupted, our garments are moth-eaten, our +gold and our silver is cankered,--and, in short, Marianne is sick in +bed, and I have come to the agency-office for-distressed-women to take +you out to attend to her. + +"The fact is," continued Bob, "that, since our cook married and Alice +went to California, there seems to be no possibility of putting our +domestic cabinet upon any permanent basis. The number of female persons +that have been through our house, and the ravages they have wrought on +it for the last six months, pass belief. I had yesterday a bill of sixty +dollars' plumbing to pay for damages of various kinds which had had to +be repaired in our very convenient water-works; and the blame of each +particular one had been bandied like a shuttlecock among our three +household divinities. Biddy privately assured my wife that Kate was in +the habit of emptying dust-pans of rubbish into the main drain from the +chambers, and washing any little extra bits down through the bowls; and, +in fact, when one of the bathing-room bowls had overflowed so as to +damage the frescoes below, my wife, with great delicacy and precaution, +interrogated Kate as to whether she had followed her instructions in the +care of the water-pipes. Of course she protested the most immaculate +care and circumspection. 'Sure, and she knew how careful one ought to +be, and wasn't of the likes of thim as wouldn't mind what throuble they +made,--like Biddy, who would throw trash and hair in the pipes, and +niver listen to her tellin'; sure, and hadn't she broken the pipes in +the kitchen, and lost the stoppers, as it was a shame to see in a +Christian house?' Ann, the third girl, being privately questioned, +blamed Biddy on Monday and Kate on Tuesday; on Wednesday, however, she +exonerated both; but on Thursday, being in a high quarrel with both, she +departed, accusing them severally not only of all the evil practices +aforesaid, but of lying, and stealing, and all other miscellaneous +wickednesses that came to hand. Whereat the two thus accused rushed in, +bewailing themselves and cursing Ann in alternate strophes, averring +that she had given the baby laudanum, and, taking it out riding, had +stopped for hours with it in a filthy lane, where the scarlet fever was +said to be rife,--in short, made so fearful a picture, that Marianne +gave up the child's life at once, and has taken to her bed. I have +endeavored all I could to quiet her, by telling her that the +scarlet-fever story was probably an extemporaneous work of fiction, got +up to gratify the Hibernian anger at Ann, and that it wasn't in the +least worth while to believe one thing more than another from the fact +that any of the tribe said it. But she refuses to be comforted, and is +so Utopian as to lie there, crying,--'Oh, if I only could get one that I +could trust,--one that really would speak the truth to me,--one that I +might know really went where she said she went, and really did as she +said she did!' To have to live so, she says, and bring up little +children with those she can't trust out of her sight, whose word is good +for nothing,--to feel that her beautiful house and her lovely things are +all going to rack and ruin, and she can't take care of them, and can't +see where or when or how the mischief is done,----in short, the poor +child talks as women do who are violently attacked with housekeeping +fever tending to congestion of the brain. She actually yesterday told me +that she wished, on the whole, she never had got married, which I take +to be the most positive indication of mental alienation." + +"Here," said I, "we behold at this moment two women dying for the want +of what they can mutually give one another,--each having a supply of +what the other needs, but held back by certain invisible cobwebs, +slight, but strong, from coming to each other's assistance. Marianne has +money enough, but she wants a helper in her family, such as all her +money has been hitherto unable to buy; and here close at hand is a woman +who wants home-shelter, healthy, varied, active, cheerful labor, with +nourishing food, kind care, and good wages. What hinders these women +from rushing to the help of one another, just as two drops of water on a +leaf rush together and make one? Nothing but a miserable prejudice,--but +a prejudice so strong that women will starve in any other mode of life, +rather than accept competency and comfort in this." + +"You don't mean," said my wife, "to propose that our _protegee_ should +go to Marianne as a servant?" + +"I do say it would be the best thing for her to do, the only opening +that I see,--and a very good one, too, it is. Just look at it. Her bare +living at this moment cannot cost her less than five or six dollars a +week,--everything at the present time is so very dear in the city. Now +by what possible calling open to her capacity can she pay her board and +washing, fuel and lights, and clear a hundred and some odd dollars a +year? She could not do it as a district school-teacher; she certainly +cannot, with her feeble health, do it by plain sewing; she could not do +it as a copyist. A robust woman might go into a factory and earn more; +but factory-work is unintermitted, twelve hours daily, week in and out, +in the same movement, in close air, amid the clatter of machinery; and a +person delicately organized soon sinks under it. It takes a stolid, +enduring temperament to bear factory-labor. Now look at Marianne's house +and family, and see what is insured to your _protegee_ there. + +"In the first place, a home,--a neat, quiet chamber, quite as good as +she has probably been accustomed to,--the very best of food, served in a +pleasant, light, airy kitchen, which is one of the most agreeable rooms +in the house, and the table and table-service quite equal to those of +most farmers and mechanics. Then her daily tasks would be light and +varied,--some sweeping, some dusting, the washing and dressing of +children, the care of their rooms and the nursery,--all of it the most +healthful, the most natural work of a woman,--work alternating with +rest, and diverting thought from painful subjects by its variety,--and +what is more, a kind of work in which a good Christian woman might have +satisfaction, as feeling herself useful in the highest and best way: for +the child's nurse, if she be a pious, well-educated woman, may make the +whole course of nursery-life an education in goodness. Then, what is far +different from many other modes of gaining a livelihood, a woman in this +capacity can make and feel herself really and truly beloved. The hearts +of little children are easily gained, and their love is real and warm, +and no true woman can become the object of it without feeling her own +life made brighter. Again, she would have in Marianne a sincere, +warm-hearted friend, who would care for her tenderly, respect her +sorrows, shelter her feelings, be considerate of her wants, and in every +way aid her in the cause she has most at heart, the succor of her +family. There are many ways besides her wages in which she would +infallibly be assisted by Marianne, so that the probability would be +that she could send her little salary almost untouched to those for +whose support she was toiling,--all this on her part." + +"But," added my wife, "on the other hand, she would be obliged to +associate and be ranked with common Irish servants." + +"Well," I answered, "is there any occupation, by which any of us gain +our living, which has not its disagreeable side? Does not the lawyer +spend all his days either in a dusty office or in the foul air of a +court-room? Is he not brought into much disagreeable contact with the +lowest class of society? Are not his labors dry and hard and exhausting? +Does not the blacksmith spend half his life in soot and grime, that he +may gain a competence for the other half? If this woman were to work in +a factory, would she not often be brought into associations distasteful +to her? Might it not be the same in any of the arts and trades in which +a living is to be got? There must be unpleasant circumstances about +earning a living in any way; only I maintain that those which a woman +would be likely to meet with as a servant in a refined, well-bred, +Christian family would be less than in almost any other calling. Are +there no trials to a woman, I beg to know, in teaching a district +school, where all the boys, big and little, of a neighborhood +congregate? For my part, were it my daughter or sister who was in +necessitous circumstances, I would choose for her a position such as I +name, in a kind, intelligent, Christian family, before many of those to +which women do devote themselves." + +"Well," said Bob, "all this has a good sound enough, but it's quite +impossible. It's true, I verily believe, that such a kind of servant in +our family would really prolong Marianne's life years,--that it would +improve her health, and be an unspeakable blessing to her, to me, and +the children,--and I would almost go down on my knees to a really +well-educated, good, American woman who would come into our family, and +take that place; but I know it's perfectly vain and useless to expect +it. You know we have tried the experiment two or three times of having a +person in our family who should be on the footing of a friend, yet do +the duties of a servant, and that we _never_ could make it work well. +These half-and-half people are so sensitive, so exacting in their +demands, so hard to please, that we have come to the firm determination +that we will have no sliding-scale in our family, and that whoever we +are to depend on must come with _bona-fide_ willingness to take the +position of a servant, such as that position is in our house; and +_that_, I suppose, your _protegee_ would never do, even if she could +thereby live easier, have less hard work, better health, and quite as +much money as she could earn in any other way." + +"She would consider it a personal degradation, I suppose," said my wife. + +"And yet, if she only knew it," said Bob, "I should respect her far more +profoundly for her willingness to take that position, when adverse +fortune has shut other doors." + +"Well, now," said I, "this woman is, as I understand, the daughter of a +respectable stone-mason; and the domestic habits of her early life have +probably been economical and simple. Like most of our mechanics' +daughters, she has received in one of our high schools an education +which has cultivated and developed her mind far beyond those of her +parents and the associates of her childhood. This is a common fact in +our American life. By our high schools the daughters of plain workingmen +are raised to a state of intellectual culture which seems to make the +disposition of them in any kind of industrial calling a difficult one. +They all want to teach school,--and school-teaching, consequently, is an +overcrowded profession,--and, failing that, there is only millinery and +dress-making. Of late, it is true; efforts have been made in various +directions to widen their sphere. Type-setting and book-keeping are in +some instances beginning to be open to them. + +"All this time there is lying, neglected and despised, a calling to +which womanly talents and instincts are peculiarly fitted,--a calling +full of opportunities of the most lasting usefulness,--a calling which +insures a settled home, respectable protection, healthful exercise, good +air, good food, and good wages,--a calling in which a woman may make +real friends, and secure to herself warm affection: and yet this calling +is the one always refused, shunned, contemned, left to the alien and the +stranger, and that simply and solely because it bears the name of +_servant_. A Christian woman, who holds the name of Christ in her heart +in true devotion, would think it the greatest possible misfortune and +degradation to become like him in taking upon her 'the form of a +servant.' The founder of Christianity says, 'Whether is greater, he that +sitteth at meat or he that serveth? But _I_ am among you as he that +serveth.' But notwithstanding these so plain declarations of Jesus, we +find that scarce any one in a Christian land will accept real advantages +of position and employment that come with that name and condition." + +"I suppose," said my wife, "I could prevail upon this woman to do all +the duties of the situation, if she could be, as they phrase it, +'treated as one of the family.'" + +"That is to say," said Bob, "if she could sit with us at the same table, +be introduced to our friends, and be in all respects as one of us. Now +as to this, I am free to say that I have no false aristocratic scruples. +I consider every well-educated woman as fully my equal, not to say my +superior; but it does not follow from this that she would be one whom I +should wish to make a third party with me and my wife at mealtimes. Our +meals are often our seasons of privacy,--the times when we wish in +perfect unreserve to speak of matters that concern ourselves and our +family alone. Even invited guests and family friends would not be always +welcome, however agreeable at times. Now a woman may be perfectly worthy +of respect, and we may be perfectly respectful to her, whom nevertheless +we do not wish to take into the circle of intimate friendship. I regard +the position of a woman who comes to perform domestic service as I do +any other business relation. We have a very respectable young lady in +our employ who does legal copying for us, and all is perfectly pleasant +and agreeable in our mutual relations; but the case would be far +otherwise, were she to take it into her head that we treated her with +contempt, because my wife did not call on her, and because she was not +occasionally invited to tea. Besides, I apprehend that a woman of quick +sensibilities, employed in domestic service, and who was so far treated +as a member of the family as to share our table, would find her position +even more painful and embarrassing than if she took once for all the +position of a servant. We could not control the feelings of our friends; +we could not always insure that they would be free from aristocratic +prejudice, even were we so ourselves. We could not force her upon their +acquaintance, and she might feel far more slighted than she would in a +position where no attentions of any kind were to be expected. Besides +which, I have always noticed that persons standing in this uncertain +position are objects of peculiar antipathy to the servants in full; that +they are the cause of constant and secret cabals and discontents; and +that a family where the two orders exist has always raked up in it the +smouldering embers of a quarrel ready at any time to burst out into open +feud." + +"Well," said I, "here lies the problem of American life. Half our women, +like Marianne, are being faded and made old before their time by +exhausting endeavors to lead a life of high civilization and refinement +with only such untrained help as is washed up on our shores by the tide +of emigration. Our houses are built upon a plan that precludes the +necessity of much hard labor, but requires rather careful and nice +handling. A well-trained, intelligent woman, who had vitalized her +finger-ends by means of a well-developed brain, could do all the work of +such a house with comparatively little physical fatigue. So stands the +case as regards our houses. Now over against the women that are +perishing in them from too much care, there is another class of American +women that are wandering up and down, perishing for lack of some +remunerative employment. That class of women, whose developed brains and +less developed muscles mark them as peculiarly fitted for the +performance of the labors of a high civilization, stand utterly aloof +from paid domestic service. Sooner beg, sooner starve, sooner marry for +money, sooner hang on as dependents in families where they know they are +not wanted, than accept of a quiet home, easy, healthful work, and +certain wages, in these refined and pleasant modern dwellings of ours." + +"What is the reason of this?" said Bob. + +"The reason is, that we have not yet come to the full development of +Christian democracy. The taint of old aristocracies is yet pervading all +parts of our society. We have not yet realized fully the true dignity of +labor, and the surpassing dignity of domestic labor. And I must say that +the valuable and courageous women who have agitated the doctrines of +Woman's Rights among us have not in all things seen their way clear in +this matter." + +"Don't talk to me of those creatures," said Bob, "those men-women, those +anomalies, neither flesh nor fish, with their conventions, and their +cracked woman-voices strained in what they call public speaking, but +which I call public squeaking! No man reverences true women more than I +do. I hold a real, true, thoroughly good _woman_, whether in my parlor +or my kitchen, as my superior. She can always teach me something that I +need to know. She has always in her somewhat of the divine gift of +prophecy; but in order to keep it, she must remain a woman. When she +crops her hair, puts on pantaloons, and strides about in conventions, +she is an abortion, and not a woman." + +"Come! come!" said I, "after all, speak with deference. We that choose +to wear soft clothing and dwell in kings' houses must respect the +Baptists, who wear leathern girdles and eat locusts and wild honey. They +are the voices crying in the wilderness, preparing the way for a coming +good. They go down on their knees in the mire of life to lift up and +brighten and restore a neglected truth; and we that have not the energy +to share their struggle should at least refrain from criticizing their +soiled garments and ungraceful action. There have been excrescences, +eccentricities, peculiarities about the camp of these reformers; but the +body of them have been true and noble women, and worthy of all the +reverence due to such. They have already in many of our States reformed +the laws relating to woman's position, and placed her on a more just and +Christian basis. It is through their movements that in many of our +States a woman can hold the fruits of her own earnings, if it be her ill +luck to have a worthless, drunken spendthrift for a husband. It is owing +to their exertions that new trades and professions are opening to woman; +and all that I have to say of them is, that in the suddenness of their +zeal for opening new paths for her feet, they have not sufficiently +considered the propriety of straightening, widening, and mending the one +broad, good old path of domestic labor, established by God Himself. It +does appear to me, that, if at least a portion of their zeal could be +spent in removing the stones out of this highway of domestic life, and +making it pleasant and honorable, they would effect even more. I would +not have them leave undone what they are doing; but I would, were I +worthy to be considered, humbly suggest to their prophetic wisdom and +enthusiasm, whether, in this new future of woman which they wish to +introduce, woman's natural, God-given employment of _domestic service_ +is not to receive a new character and rise in a new form. + +"'To love and serve' is a motto worn with pride on some aristocratic +family shields in England. It ought to be graven on the Christian +shield. _Servant_ is the name which Christ gives to the _Christian_; and +in speaking of his kingdom as distinguished from earthly kingdoms, he +distinctly said, that rank there should be conditioned, not upon desire +to command, but on willingness to serve. + +"'Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, +and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not +be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your +minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your +_servant_.' + +"Why is it, that this name of servant, which Christ says is the highest +in the kingdom of heaven, is so dishonored among us professing +Christians, that good women will beg or starve, will suffer almost any +extreme of poverty and privation, rather than accept home, competence, +security, with this honored name?" + +"The fault with many of our friends of the Woman's Rights order," said +my wife, "is the depreciatory tone in which they have spoken of the +domestic labors of a family as being altogether below the scope of the +faculties of woman. '_Domestic drudgery_' they call it: an expression +that has done more harm than any two words that ever were put together. + +"Think of a woman's calling clear-starching and ironing domestic +drudgery, and to better the matter turning to type-setting in a grimy +printing-office! Call the care of china and silver, the sweeping of +carpets, the arrangement of parlors and sitting rooms, drudgery; and go +into a factory and spend the day amid the whir and clatter and thunder +of machinery, inhaling an atmosphere loaded with wool and +machine-grease, and keeping on the feet for twelve hours, nearly +continuously! Think of its being called drudgery to take care of a +clean, light, airy nursery, to wash and dress and care for two or three +children, to mend their clothes, tell them stories, make them +playthings, take them out walking or driving; and rather than this, to +wear out the whole livelong day, extending often deep into the night, in +endless sewing, in a close room of a dressmaking establishment! Is it +any less drudgery to stand all day behind a counter, serving customers, +than to tend a door-bell and wait on a table? For my part," said my +wife, "I have often thought the matter over, and concluded, that, if I +were left in straitened circumstances, as many are in a great city, I +would seek a position as a servant in one of our good families." + +"I envy the family that you even think of in that connection," said I. +"I fancy the amazement which would take possession of them as you began +to develop among them." + +"I have always held," said my wife, "that family work, in many of its +branches, can be better performed by an educated woman than an +uneducated one. Just as an army where even the bayonets think is +superior to one of mere brute force and mechanical training, so, I have +heard it said, some of our distinguished modern female reformers show an +equal superiority in the domestic sphere,--and I do not doubt it. Family +work was never meant to be the special province of untaught brains, I +have sometimes thought I should like to show what I could do as a +servant." + +"Well," said Bob, "to return from all this to the question, What's to be +done with her? Are you going to _my_ distressed woman? If you are, +suppose you take _your_ distressed woman along, and ask her to try it. I +can promise her a pleasant house, a quiet room by herself, healthful and +not too hard work, a kind friend, and some leisure for reading, writing, +or whatever other pursuit of her own she may choose for her recreation. +We are always quite willing to lend books to any who appreciate them. +Our house is surrounded by pleasant grounds, which are open to our +servants as to ourselves. So, let her come and try us. I am quite sure +that country air, quiet security, and moderate exercise in a good home +will bring up her health; and if she is willing to take the one or two +disagreeables which may come with all this, let her try us." + +"Well," said I, "so be it; and would that all the women seeking homes +and employment could thus fall in with women who have homes and are +perishing in them for want of educated helpers!" + +On this question of woman's work I have yet more to say, but must defer +it to another month. + + + + +JEREMY BENTHAM. + + +When I first knew this great and good man, he was in his seventy-ninth +year, and quite as remarkable for strength of constitution, (though he +had been always ailing up to the age of threescore,) and for +cheerfulness of temper, as for the oddities which made him a +laughing-stock for Professor Wilson and the reprobates of "Blackwood," a +prodigious myth for the "Edinburgh" and "Quarterly," and a sort of +Cocklane ghost for Sydney Smith, Hazlitt, Captain Parry, Tom Moore, and +Lord Byron. + +His "Benthamee" was believed to be a language he had invented for +himself, and quite incapable of being understood, or even deciphered, by +any but a thorough-going disciple, such as Dr., now Sir John, Bowring, +James Mill, the author of "British India," John Stuart Mill, the two +Austins, or George Grote, the banker and historian of Greece. + +"Ah," said Mrs. Wheeler, a strong-minded, clever woman, the Mary +Wollstonecraft of her day, on hearing that I had been asked to the +"Hermitage" of Queen-Square Place by Mr. Bentham,--"Ah, you have no idea +of what is before you! I wonder you are not afraid." + +"Afraid, my dear Madam! Of what should I be afraid?" + +"Afraid of being left alone with him after dinner. He cannot bear +contradiction. The queerest old man alive. One of his most intimate +friends told me that he was undoubtedly deranged, mad as a March hare +upon some subjects, and a monomaniac upon others. Do you know that he +keeps a relay of young men, thoroughly trained for the work, to follow +him round all day and pick up his droppings,--or what his followers call +'sibylline leaves,'--bits of paper, that is, written all over with +cabalistic signs, which no mortal could ever hope to decipher without a +long apprenticeship? These 'leaves' he scatters round him right and +left, while on the trot through his large, beautiful garden, or, if in +the house, while taking his 'post-prandial' vibration,--the after-dinner +walk through a narrow passageway running between a raised platform in +what he calls his 'workshop,' and the outer partition. Here he labors +day after day, and year after year, at codification, without stopping to +draw a long breath, or even to look up, so afraid is he of what may +happen to the world, if he should be taken away before it is all +finished. And here, on this platform, the table for one guest, two +secretaries, and himself is always set, and he never has more than one +guest at a time." + +Extravagant and laughable as all this appeared to me at the time, I +found truth enough at the bottom, before six months were over, to +justify many of the drollest caricatures. + +That Mr. Bentham's minutes were drops of gold about this time, and his +half-hours ingots, in the estimation of others, I had reason to +know,--of others, too, among the foremost celebrities of the age. Hence, +though he gave capital dinners, it was one of the rarest things in the +world for a stranger to be seen at his table. The curious and the +inquisitive stood no chance; and men of the highest rank were constantly +refused the introductions they sought. + +"Anne, if the Duke of Sussex calls, I am not at home," said he one day +to his housekeeper: nobody ever knew why. + +And there were hundreds of distinguished men, otherwise well-informed, +who believed in Jeremy Bentham, afar off, somewhat as others do in the +heroes of Ossian, or in their great Scandinavian prototypes, Woden and +Thor. If to be met with at all, it was only along the tops of mountains, +where "mist and moonlight mingle fitfully." + +For myself, I can truly say, that, of those I met with, who talked most +freely about him, and who wrote as if well acquainted, not only with his +works, but with the man himself, there was not one in fifty who had ever +set eyes on him or knew where to look for the "Hermitage," while the +fiftieth could not tell me whether he was an Englishman or Frenchman by +birth, (most of his writings on jurisprudence being written by him in +French,) nor whether he was living or dead. + +Nevertheless, they were full of anecdotes. They went with the scoffers, +and quoted Sydney Smith and "Blackwood," while "the world's dread laugh" +made them shy of committing themselves to any decided opinion. But if +Bentham was a myth, surely Dumont was not, and the shadow might well be +allowed to prove the substance; and yet they persisted in believing the +most extravagant inventions, and the drollest, without investigation or +misgiving. + +And even I,--I, myself,--though familiar with his works, both in French +and English, was so much influenced by the mystery about him, and by the +stories I heard of him, and by the flings I saw in the leading journals, +that I was betrayed into writing as follows in "Blackwood," about a year +before I first met Mr. Bentham, notwithstanding my profound convictions +of his worth and greatness, and my fixed belief that he was cruelly +misunderstood and shamefully misrepresented, and that his "Morals and +Legislation" and his "Theory of Rewards and Punishments" would change +the jurisprudence of the world, as they certainly have done:-- + +"Setting aside John Locke's Constitution for North Carolina, and Jeremy +Bentham's conundrums on Legislation, to speak reverently of what we +cannot speak irreverently of, _a truly great and incomprehensible mind, +whose thoughts are problems, and whose words--when they are +English--miracles_," etc. + +This paragraph occurs _incidentally_. I durst not go farther at the +time; for Bentham had never been mentioned but with a sneer in that +journal. I was writing a review of another "British Traveller in +America," whose blundering misrepresentations had greatly disturbed me. +The book was entitled, "A Summary View of America ... By an Englishman." +My review was the longest paper, I believe, that ever appeared in +"Blackwood." It was the leader for December, 1824; and on the back of +the title-page is a note by Christopher North himself, (Professor +Wilson,) from which I extract the following rather significant passages. + +"Our readers will perceive that this number opens with an article much +longer than any that ever appeared in our journal before. As a general +rule, we hate and detest articles of anything like this length; but we +found, on perusing this, (and so will our readers, when they follow our +example,) that in reality every paragraph of it is an article by itself; +in fact, that the paper is not an article, but a collection of many +articles upon subjects, all full of interest, and most of them not less +important than interesting." + +"In short, this _review_ of a single book on America contains more new +facts, more new reasonings, more new speculations of and concerning the +United States of America, than have as yet appeared in any ten books (by +themselves, books) upon that subject. This is enough for us, and this +will be enough for our readers. + +"We do not know personally the author of this article; nor do we pledge +ourselves for the justice of many of his views. From internal evidence +we believe that he says nothing but what he believes to be true." + +On the whole, perhaps, I had better add another paragraph from +Christopher North's note. It may serve to disabuse not a few of my +countrymen who have hitherto misunderstood the purpose of my "mission" +abroad, and especially the nature of my connection with the "Blackwood" +freebooters. + +"It is certain that he does know America well," continues the Professor; +"and it is equally certain that we fully participate in his feelings, as +to the folly or knavery of every writer, English or American, who libels +either of these countries for the amusement of the other; and we have +not the smallest doubt that the appearance of such a writer as we have +had the good fortune to introduce will henceforth operate as a salutary +check both on the chatterers of the 'Westminster Review' and the +growlers of the 'Quarterly.'" + +Entertaining the opinions I have stated with regard to Mr. Bentham and +his labors, and being well aware that his early writings in English (the +"Fragment on Government," for example, wherein, at the age of +twenty-eight, he enters the lists with Blackstone so successfully, and +the "Defence of Usury," an argument not only unanswered, but +unanswerable, to this day) were such models of clearness, strength, and +precision, and so remarkable for a transparent beauty of style, that the +first was attributed to Lord Mansfield, and the last to others of like +reputation; while some of his earlier pamphlets (like that which is +entitled "Emancipate your Colonies," being an address to the National +Assembly of France, whose predecessors had made him a French citizen, or +the "Draught of a Code for the Organization of the Judicial +Establishment of France," written at the age of two-and-forty) were +quite as remarkable for genius, warmth, manly strength, and a lofty +eloquence, as the earlier writings mentioned were for clearness and +logical precision,--how could I be guilty of such irreverence, not to +say impertinence? + +My answer is, that the believers in "Blackwood," having been pampered so +long on highly seasoned, fiery pap, to which the lines of M. G. Lewis +might often be applied,-- + + "And this juice of hell, + Wherever it fell, + To a cinder burned the floor,"-- + +were not ready for the whole truth, for the strong meat, much less for +the lion's meat I should have been delighted to serve them with; and +so, as in the case of Leigh Hunt and some others eminently obnoxious to +that journal, I slipped in the few words I have quoted _incidentally_, +as a sort of entering wedge: and the result in both cases, I must +acknowledge, fully justified my expectations; for neither Mr. Bentham +nor Leigh Hunt was ever unhandsomely treated or in any way disparaged by +that journal from that time forward, so far as I know. + +Let me add, that I did this for the same reason that I began writing +about our country, and about the institutions, the people, the +literature, and the fine arts of America, as if I were an +Englishman,--for otherwise what hope had I of being admitted into the +"Field of the Cloth of Gold," or of being allowed to break a lance in +the tournament which was always open there?--and that I continued +writing as an Englishman long after it was known by Blackwood himself, +and by Wilson, that I was not only an American, but a Yankee, and a +Yankee to the backbone, and that the signature I had adopted--"Carter +Holmes"--was not so much a _nom de plume_ as a _nom de guerre_, till I +had got possession of the enemy's battery, and turned the guns upon his +camp. + +In personal appearance, in features, and in the habitual expression of +countenance, Mr. Bentham bore an astonishing resemblance to our Dr. +Franklin. He was, to be sure, of a somewhat heavier build, though +shorter by two or three inches, I should say, judging by the bronze +full-length you have in Boston. The prevailing expression was much alike +in both; but there was not so much of constitutional benignity in the +looks of Bentham, nor was he ever so grave and thoughtful as Franklin is +generally represented in his portraitures; but he was fuller of +shrewdness and playfulness,--of downright drollery, indeed,--of boyish +fun,--and, above all, of a warm-hearted, unquestioning sympathy for +everything alive, man or beast, that he called "virtuous," like the +"virtuous deer" and the "affectionate swan": and all this you could see +plainly in the man's countenance, whether at play or in repose. + +So great, indeed, was the outward resemblance between these two +extraordinary men,--so much alike in appearance were they, though so +utterly unlike in reality,--that, after Mr. Bentham had passed the age +of threescore-and-five, a bust of Dr. Franklin, by a celebrated French +artist, was bought by Ricardo, at the suggestion of La Fayette, I +believe, and sent to Mr. James Mill for a likeness of Bentham. + +"Do you know," said the philosopher to me one day, while talking upon +this very subject, "that Ricardo was my grand-disciple?" + +"Your grand-disciple? How so?" + +"Why, you see, Mill was my disciple, and Ricardo was his; _ergo_, +Ricardo was my grand-disciple: hey?" + +But perhaps you would like to see for yourself the "white-haired Sage of +Queen-Square Place," as Dr. Bowring, now Sir John Bowring, used to call +him,--the "Philosopher,"--the "Hermit,"--the "High Priest of Reform," as +others, like Mr. Canning, the Premier, Sir Samuel Romilly, Sir Francis +Burdett, the two Mills, father and son, Dr. Southwood Smith, the +Austins, and Frank Place, the great radical tailor, used to call him. + +If so, have the goodness to follow me step by step for a few minutes, +forgetting all the long years that have interposed, and you shall see +him, with your eyes shut, as I saw him first, and as I continued to see +him almost every day for eighteen months or so, face to face. + +Picture to yourself a man "fourscore and upwards," like Lear, and like +Lear, too, "mightily abused," about five feet seven, a little stooping, +but still vigorous and alert; with a pleasant, fresh countenance, and +the complexion of a middle-aged, plump, healthy woman, such as Rubens or +Gilbert Stuart would gloat over in portraiture, and love to paint for a +wager; with a low, cheerful, trembling voice in conversation, though +loud and ringing in the open air; large, clear, bluish-gray eyes,--I +think I cannot be mistaken about the color, though Hazlitt, who was a +tenant of Bentham's at one time, and got snubbed for some little +impertinence, which of course he never forgave, calls them "lack-lustre +eyes"; very soft, plentiful white hair, slightly tinged with gold, like +flossed silk in the sunshine,--pushed back from a broad, but rather low +forehead, and flowing down to the shoulders. This white hair, when the +wind blows it about his face in the open air, or he is talking earnestly +at his own table,--and he never goes to any other,--he has a strange +habit of throwing off with a sudden crook and spring of the left elbow, +and a sort of impatient jerk of the left forefinger, which has come to +be so characteristic of the man himself, that, if Mathews (Charles +Mathews) were to do that, and that only, before you, after you had been +with Bentham for five minutes, you would have, not, perhaps, a +photograph or a portrait, but a "charcoal sketch" of the philosopher, +which you would instantly acknowledge. And, by the way, this reminds me +that I wanted to call these "Charcoal Sketches,"--that title being mine +long before the late Joseph C. Neal borrowed it of me without leave, and +used it for his "Loafer" and a variety of capital sketches, which have +been attributed to me, and still are, notwithstanding my denials. I +wrote one number only,--the first. It was a Yankee sketch; while his +were street sketches, and among the best in our language. + +But let us return to the living Bentham. The stoop, you see, is not so +much on account of his great age as from a long habit of bending over +his abominable manuscript,--the worst you ever saw, perhaps, not +excepting Rufus Choate's or Napoleon Bonaparte's,--day after day, and +year after year, while adding his marginal annotations in "Benthamee" to +what has been corrected over and over again, and rewritten more than +once by the secretary. + +He wears a plain, single-breasted coat, of the Quaker type, with a +narrow, straight collar, and a waistcoat of thin, striped calico, all +open to the weather, and trousers,--not small-clothes, nor breeches, +never being able to look at himself in breeches without laughing, he +says; thick woollen stockings rolled up over his knees, and shoes with +ties instead of buckles,--in short, the every-day costume of our +Revolutionary fathers, barring the breeches, the shoe-buckles, and the +ruffles, which he never could endure. + +In the warmest weather he wears thick leather gloves, and in the coldest +a straw hat, bound and edged with the brightest green ribbon, and +carries a stout stick of buckthorn, which he has named Dapple, after the +ass of Sancho Panza, for whom he professes the greatest admiration. + +While thus equipped, and while you are in conversation with him perhaps, +or answering one of his hurried questions, he starts off ahead in a slow +trot, up one alley and down another, or to and fro in the large garden +of Queen-Square Place,--the largest but one of all that open into the +Green Park; and this trot he will continue for a whole hour +sometimes, without losing his breath or evincing any signs of +weariness,--occasionally shouting at the top of his lungs, to show that +his wind is untouched, till the whole neighborhood rings with the echo, +and the blank walls of the Knightsbridge Barracks "answer from their +misty shroud." + +On the whole, therefore, that extravagant story told by Captain Parry +has a pretty good foundation, though he never saw with his own eyes what +he describes with so much drollery, but took the whole upon trust; for +Mr. Bentham was in the habit of going after his annuity every year, +trotting all the way down and back through Fleet Street, with his white +hair flying loose, and followed by one or both of his two secretaries. +He was the last survivor--the very last--of the beneficiaries, and +seemed to take a pleasure in astonishing the managers once a year with +his "wind and bottom." Parry represents him as being taken for a +lunatic running away from his keepers. + +Having now the man himself before you, let me give you some idea of his +habits and characteristics, his temper,--and I never saw him out of +temper in my life, though he had enough to try him almost every day in +his household arrangements,--his kindness of heart, his drollery, and +his wonderful powers of endurance, while working out the great problem +of his life. + +At the time I knew him, he used to sleep in a bag, and sometimes with +most of his clothes on. This he did for economy. "It took less of +sheeting," he said. Then, too, there was not so much likelihood of his +getting the clothes off, should he get restless or fidgety. He was read +to sleep every night by one of his secretaries, who told me that he +often amused himself with reading the same paragraph or the same page +over and over again, without turning a leaf, the philosopher declaring +that he had never lost a word of the whole, and that he not only +understood, but remembered, the drift of the author. In this way my +"Brother Jonathan," then just published by Blackwood in three large +volumes, was read to him every night for weeks, and greatly to his +satisfaction, as I then understood; though it seems by what Dr. +Bowring--I beg his pardon, Sir John Bowring--says on the subject, that +the "white-haired sage" was wide enough awake, on the whole, to form a +pretty fair estimate of its unnaturalness and extravagance: being +himself a great admirer of Richardson's ten-volume stories, like +"Pamela" and "Clarissa Harlowe," and always looking upon them as the +standard for novel-writers. + +Mr. Bentham was very "regular" in his habits, _very_,--and timed most of +his doings, whether asleep or awake, by a watch lying on the table. But +then he _always_ breakfasted between twelve and three, or a little later +on special occasions, and always dined at half past six, or thereabouts, +taking two cups of strong coffee in bed every morning, though he never +allowed himself but one, and died in the belief that he had never broken +the pledge. + +And yet, notwithstanding all this, he maintained that there is no +getting along in this world--or the other--without "regularity," or what +he called "system." And that "system" he carried into all the business +of life, as well as into legislation and government; going back, after +years of uninterrupted labor and the severest analysis, to invent a +panopticon, a self-sustaining penitentiary, or rather to apply that +invention of his brother, General Sir Samuel Bentham, to the bettering +of our prison-houses and to the restoration of the lost,--or perhaps a +ballot-box, that nothing might be wanted, when that "system" he valued +himself so much upon should be adopted throughout the world, as the +outlines already are. + +Scores of anecdotes are crowding upon my recollection, as I call to mind +his affectionate manner, his habitual good temper, and his amiable, +almost childish, kindness of heart. While yet a boy, for example,--and +this he told me himself, with a singular mixture of self-complacency and +self-depreciation, as if more than half ashamed of his weakness,--while +yet a boy, he was on a visit, where two different persons undertook to +help him to the goodies, among which was a magnificent gooseberry-pie, +one of his favorite dishes to the last. He ate until he could eat no +more. A third person offered him another piece; but, notwithstanding his +capacity, being "full up to here," he was obliged to refuse. He couldn't +swallow another mouthful, and the idea of _ingratitude_ was so strong +with him that he fell a-crying. I have no doubt of his entire +truthfulness; but I could not help thinking of the poor boy at his +grandfather's table on Christmas-day, who began at last to take things +rather seriously. "What's the matter, Georgie? what are you crying for?" +said the grandfather. "I can't eat another mouthful, grandpa," said +Georgie, still blubbering. "Never mind, my boy, never mind, fill your +pockets." "They're all full now, grandpa." + +One of the cleverest women I ever knew, Mrs. Sarah Austin, the +magnificent mother of Lady Duff Gordon, and the author of a capital and +safe book on Germany, which seems to be little known here, though +greatly esteemed there, once wrote me as follows. She was a great +favorite of Mr. Bentham, a pet indeed; and her husband, the elder +Austin, John, was a disciple of the philosopher, a briefless barrister, +though one of the clearest reasoners and profoundest thinkers of the +age, as a paper on Jurisprudence, in the "Encyclopaedia Britannica," will +show. He wrote very little, but his pages were worth volumes; and he +gave Benthamism unadulterated and undiluted, though made intelligible to +the "meanest capacity," in or out of the "Edinburgh" and the +"Quarterly,"--grasping every subject he handled with fingers of steel. + +"God bless you," she says, after we had been talking about the +philosopher and his vagaries and whimsicalities,--"God bless you for +exalting me in my beloved grandpa's good graces. You can't think how +dearly I do love him, legislation and _all that_ apart; and yet, if +there ever was a woman peculiarly prone to love and admire a man for his +public affections and public usefulness, I do say I am that she, and +that I could not love a paragon of beauty, wit, and private kindness, if +he looked on the good or ill being of mankind with indifference or +scorn, or with anti-social feelings. Think of the divine old man growing +a sort of vetch in his garden to cram his pockets with for the deer in +Kensington Garden. I remember his pointing it out to me, and telling me +the '_virtuous deer_' were fond of it, and ate it out of his hand. I +could have kissed his feet; it was the feeling of a kind, +tender-hearted, loving child." + +He had another pet, almost a rival on some special occasions for Mrs. +Austin. It was a large sleepy-looking tomcat, very black, and of a most +uncommon seriousness of deportment. The philosopher treated him with +great consideration, I might almost say reverence, and called him +Doctor,--but whether an LL. D., a D. D., or only an M. D., I never +clearly understood, though I have a faint recollection, that, on the +happening of some event in which Tom bore a part, he accounted for the +deference he showed, by calling him the Reverend Doctor somebody. Like +Byron, too, he once had a pet bear; but he was in Russia at the time, +and the wolves got into the poor creature's box, on a terrible winter's +night, and carried off a part of his face, a depredation which the +philosopher never forgot nor forgave to his dying day. He always kept a +supply of stale bread in the drawer of his dining-table for the +"mousies." + +When he introduced me to Mr. Joseph Hume, the great penny-wise and +pound-foolish reformer, he begged me to bear in mind that he was _only_ +a Scotchman, or "no better than a Scotchman"; and he once gave me an +open letter to the celebrated philanthropist, Dr. Southwood Smith, which +he asked me to read before it was delivered. I did so, and found that he +wished the Doctor to know that I had been at Queen-Square Place a long +while, and that, so far as he knew I had neither told lies nor stolen +spoons. Of course I delivered the letter, leaving Dr. Smith to take the +consequences, if any silver should be missed after I left him. + +And, by the way, this reminds me that this very Dr. Smith was the +individual to whom he bequeathed his body, with certain directions, +which appear to have been carried out to the very letter, according to +Miss Margaret Fuller, who describes what she herself saw with her own +eyes not long after Mr. Bentham's death. + +"I became acquainted with Dr. Southwood Smith," she says. "On visiting +him, we saw an object which I have often heard celebrated, and had +thought would be revolting, but found, on the contrary, an agreeable +sight; this is the skeleton of Jeremy Bentham. It was at Bentham's +request, that the skeleton, dressed in the same dress he habitually +wore, stuffed out to an exact resemblance of life, and with a +portrait-mask in wax,--the best I ever saw,--sits there as assistant to +Dr. Smith in the entertainment of his guests, and companion of his +studies. The figure leans a little forward, resting the hands on a stout +stick which Bentham always carried, and had named 'Dapple'; the attitude +is quite easy, the expression on the whole mild, winning, yet highly +individual."--In Westminster Abbey there was at this time, and probably +is now, a wax figure of Lord Nelson in the very dress he wore at +Trafalgar. It is set up in a show-case, just as Barnum would do it. + +One other incident, showing his imperturbable good temper, and I have +done. A Frenchman had somehow got access to him,--through Dr. Bowring, I +believe. No sooner was he seated than he pulled out Mr. Bentham's +pamphlet, already mentioned, and entitled, "Emancipate your Colonies," +which opens in this way:-- + +"You have made me a Frenchman. Hear me speak like one." + +This the poor Frenchman read, in an ecstasy of admiration, as if +written, "You have make me a Frainchman. Hear me speak like _own_." Yet +Mr. Bentham kept his countenance, gave the poor fellow a good dinner, +and gossiped with him till the time had run out. + +But Mr. Bentham could be "terribly in earnest," when the proper occasion +arose. Aaron Burr had been a guest of his for a long while, after being +driven abroad by the outburst of indignation here,--and, while with him, +made such revelations of character, that Mr. Bentham, who acknowledged +his talents, actually shuddered when he mentioned his name. Burr +declared, in so many words, that he meant to kill Hamilton, because he +had threatened to do so long before. He told Mr. Bentham, while boasting +of his great success with our finest women, that Mrs. Madison herself +was his mistress before marriage; and seriously proposed--in accordance +with what may be found in his Life by Matthew L. Davis, about educating +daughters and sons alike, and exposing them in the same way--that he +would send for his daughter Theodosia, and Mr. Bentham should take her +for his mistress; and in a marginal note, now before me, by the Reverend +John Pierpont, I find abundant confirmation of what Mr. Bentham told me, +though Mr. Davis undertook to say that the stories of Aaron Burr's +_bonnes fortunes_ were true, and that he had a trunkful of letters from +the leading women of his day to prove it, and that Mr. Bentham was +_untrustworthy_. Upon this point I challenged him to the proof; but he +shrunk from the issue. + +"This reminds me," says Mr. Pierpont, in the note referred to, "that +Colonel William Alston, the father of Joseph, who married Miss Burr, +once told me, at his own table, that, soon after the marriage of his son +to Miss Burr, her father, Colonel Burr, had told him, (Colonel Alston,) +that, rather than have had his daughter marry otherwise than to his +mind, he would have made her the mistress of some gentleman of rank or +fortune, who would have placed her in the station in society for which +he had educated her. + +"I believe, however," he adds, in a postscript, "that not even parental +authority or influence could ever have brought the beautiful and +accomplished Miss Theodosia Burr thus to prostitute herself to her +father's ambitious purposes." + +In speaking of Burr, one day, and of his wonderful strength of character +and keenness of observation, he broke away suddenly, called him an +"atrocious scoundrel," and then asked me about his life and history. +Then it was that the kind-hearted, benevolent old man underwent a sudden +transfiguration. He trembled all over; his clear eyes lighted up; his +white hair was like a glory about his face; and he seemed like one of +the Hebrew Prophets, in his terrible denunciations of the heartless +manslayer, and the shameless, boastful profligate. + +Our very pleasant, and, to me, most profitable intercourse for a year +and a half was brought to an end by the happening of two or three +incidents. His fat housekeeper, who ruled him with a rod of iron, and +insulted Mrs. Austin and others, undertook to manage me in the same way, +and got packed off in consequence, though I did all I could to keep the +secret, and prevent the catastrophe; but he insisted on knowing why I +left him, and he applied to the secretaries, who were witnesses of the +whole transaction. The philosopher was indignant, and insisted on her +making me a suitable apology. I said I wanted no apology, having made up +my mind to go on my journey. She refused, and he cut her adrift, after +having been so dependent upon her, I know not how many years, that he +would allow her to say, "The pan is put away," when he asked for more of +a favorite dish,--fried parsley,--which he had prepared for Dr. +Macculloch, the geologist, who at one time could eat nothing else. She +was reinstated, however, within two or three years after I left him. + +The other incident was this. Mr. Bentham had urged me to write a paper +for the "Westminster Review," of which Dr. Bowring and Mr. Henry +Southern were the editors. I did so, and took for my text four or five +orations by Webster, Everett, and Sprague, and then launched out upon +the subject of Jurisprudence, of the Militia System, as it prevailed +here at the time,--a monstrous folly, and a monstrous outrage upon the +rights of man,--and of Slavery. The proof came without a word of +alteration or amendment. Of course I had nothing to do but correct any +verbal errors. But, lo! when the article appeared, not only had changes +been made, passages struck out, and various emendations worked in, but I +was made to say the very reverse of what I did say, and to utter +opinions which I never entertained, and for which I have had to suffer +from that day to this among my countrymen. + +For example. The editor, who had never seen the pamphlets, as he proves +by calling them "books," interpolates the following, which, as I have +said before, I have had to answer for:-- + +"Violent exaggeration is the character of American literature at the +present day, and, compared with the chaster and more rational style of +_our_ best writers, the style of the North American authors _is usually +the rant and unmeaning vehemence of a strolling Thespian_, when placed +beside the _calm, appropriate, and expressive delivery of an +accomplished actor_." Bear in mind that the samples I gave were from +Webster, and Everett, and Sprague!--three of our coldest and clearest +crystals, and among the least impassioned, and certainly the least +extravagant, of our orators. "Sometimes," the editor adds, with a show +of relenting at last, "sometimes the reader will find these remarkable +parts the worst, and sometimes the best of the paragraph, and often +composed in a spirit worthy of a less vitiated expression."[D] + +This was a little too much; but, owing to the expostulations of Mr. +Bentham, who had wasted about twenty or twenty-five thousand dollars on +the "Westminster Review," without a hope of getting a sixpence in +return, I consented to overlook the outrage. But my confidence in the +amiable Dr. Bowring was ended forever. We had a short interview, but no +intimacy after this, and I had begun to think of Northern Europe more +seriously than ever, when at last the tiff with the housekeeper settled +the question,--the Doctor declaring, though he knew from Mr. Bentham's +own lips how much he desired me to stay, and how unwilling he was to +part with me, that he, Mr. Bentham, said that he would as lief have a +rattlesnake under his roof! + +FOOTNOTES: + +[D] See "Westminster Review" for January, 1826. + + + + +A FAREWELL TO AGASSIZ. + + + How the mountains talked together, + Looking down upon the weather, + When they heard our friend had planned his + Little trip among the Andes! + How they'll bare their snowy scalps + To the climber of the Alps, + When the cry goes through their passes, + "Here comes the great Agassiz!" + "Yes, I'm tall," says Chimborazo, + "But I wait for him to say so,-- + That's the only thing that lacks,--he + Must see me, Cotopaxi!" + "Ay! ay!" the fire-peak thunders, + "And he must view my wonders! + I'm but a lonely crater, + Till I have him for spectator!" + The mountain hearts are yearning, + The lava-torches burning, + The rivers bend to meet him, + The forests bow to greet him, + It thrills the spinal column + Of fossil fishes solemn, + And glaciers crawl the faster + To the feet of their old master! + + Heaven keep him well and hearty, + Both him and all his party! + From the sun that broils and smites, + From the centipede that bites, + From the hail-storm and the thunder, + From the vampire and the condor, + From the gust upon the river, + From the sudden earthquake shiver, + From the trip of mule or donkey, + From the midnight howling monkey, + From the stroke of knife or dagger, + From the puma and the jaguar, + From the horrid boa-constrictor + That has scared us in the pictur', + From the Indians of the Pampas, + Who would dine upon their grampas, + From every beast and vermin + That to think of sets us squirming, + From every snake that tries on + The traveller his p'ison, + From every pest of Natur', + Likewise the alligator, + And from two things left behind him, + (Be sure they'll try to find him,)-- + The tax-bill and assessor,-- + Heaven keep the great Professor! + + May he find, with his apostles, + That the land is full of fossils, + That the waters swarm with fishes + Shaped according to his wishes, + That every pool is fertile + In fancy kinds of turtle, + New birds around him singing, + New insects, never stinging, + With a million novel data + About the articulata, + And facts that strip off all husks + From the history of mollusks. + + And when, with loud Te Deum, + He returns to his Museum, + May he find the monstrous reptile + That so long the land has kept ill + By Grant and Sherman throttled, + And by Father Abraham bottled, + (All specked and streaked and mottled + With the scars of murderous battles, + Where he clashed the iron rattles + That gods and men he shook at,) + For all the world to look at! + + God bless the great Professor! + And Madam too, God bless her! + Bless him and all his band, + On the sea and on the land, + As they sail, ride, walk, and stand,-- + Bless them head and heart and hand, + Till their glorious raid is o'er, + And they touch our ransomed shore! + Then the welcome of a nation, + With its shout of exultation, + Shall awake the dumb creation, + And the shapes of buried aeons + Join the living creatures' paeans, + While the mighty megalosaurus + Leads the palaeozoic chorus,-- + God bless the great Professor, + And the land his proud possessor,-- + Bless them now and evermore! + + + + +THE FORGE. + + +CHAPTER I. + +"One more horse to shoe, Sandy. The man's late, but he's come a matter +of ten mile, perhaps, over the cross road by Derby, yonder. Lead the +critter up, boy, and give a look at the furnace." + +I stooped to replenish the glowing fire, then turned toward the door, +made broad and high for entrance of man and beast, and giving a coarse +frame to the winter landscape without. The trees fluttered their +snow-plumed wings in the chill wind; on the opposite hill a red light +glared a response to our glowing smithy. It was the eye of elegant +luxury confronting the eye of toil; for it shone from the windows of the +only really fine mansion for miles around. I had always felt grateful to +those stone walls for standing there, surrounded by old trees on lawn +and woodland, an embodiment to my imagination of all I had heard or read +of stately homes, and a style of life remote from my own, and +fascinating from its very mystery. + +But I anticipate. My glance travelled over the intervening stretch of +level country, wrapped in its winding-sheet of snow, and stopped at a +tall figure confronting me, leading by the bridle the finest horse I had +ever seen. + +"Well, young man, shall you or I lead in the horse?" he asked, +haughtily; "that light on the hill must be reached before an hour goes +by, if I would keep an engagement"; and tossing me the bridle, as he +spoke, he drew carelessly toward the forge. + +The few villagers whose day's work was ended, or whose business called +them to the smithy, suddenly remembered waiting wives and children at +home, the bit of supper spread for their return, or the evening gossip +at the tavern; and thinking the matter they came for could wait the +morning, since the smith was busy, gave way, and left only the stranger, +my master, myself, and the noble horse grouped around the forge. + +"Look alive, Sandy! you'd better keep at it steady, if you want to git +to your schoolin' to-night," growled the blacksmith, in an undertone; +for he, too, had a memory for the smoking dish at home, and would gladly +stop work to eat of it. + +So I busied myself at once collecting the needed materials, while the +smith proceeded to lift the horse's leg and examine the foot. The animal +resisted the attempt, however, by plunging in the most violent manner. + +"Confound the beast!" muttered the blacksmith, as he dodged to escape a +kick. + +"I thought as much," said the stranger, quietly. "The horse is very +particular as to who handles him. I shall have to hold his foot, I +suppose"; and with rather a scornful smile, as if the dislike of his +horse to my master confirmed his own, he stepped up and held out a +slender brown hand. + +The horse lifted his foot, and gently dropped it on the outstretched +palm. No bird ever settled more trustfully on its nest. + +My master swore an oath or two by way of astonishment, and then, seizing +his shoe, approached again. But the scene was repeated with even more +violence on the part of the horse: he pranced, reared, shook his head, +and snorted at the smith, who again drew off. + +"I sha'n't get off to-night," murmured the stranger, impatiently. + +"Let me try," I said. "Horses have their fancies, as well as people. +He'll like me, may-be." + +"May-be he will," laughed my master, hoarsely; "but you're not a boss at +puttin' a shoe on. A dumb critter might take a shine to you, who's one +of their kind." And again he laughed at his own wit. + +"Step up and try," exclaimed the stranger, impatiently. + +I grasped the leg firmly in my hand; the horse made no resistance, and I +began my work. + +"Well, seein' as you've made friends with the critter, I'll be the +gainer and take a bit of supper," said my master, after a dogged stare. +"Be sure you put it on strong, Sandy. I don't say as I'll charge any +more, though I'd make a man pay for showin' he'd a spite agin me, let +alone a dumb critter." And taking his hat from a peg, he walked off, +leaving me, with the sparks flying from the forge, busy at the shoe, and +the stranger, with one arm across the neck of the horse, watching me. + +Ten minutes of silent work, and, as I loosened my grasp on the leg for a +moment, I met the eye of the gentleman, who, I was conscious, had been +watching me narrowly. + +"The horse likes you," he said, pleasantly, here again as though he +shared the feeling. + +"Yes," I replied. "Is he in the habit of doing as he did to-night with +strangers?" + +"He is fastidious, if you know what that means,--as fond of gentlemen as +his master," he returned, so pleasantly, that, when I looked up, +reddening at the cool assumption of the speech, blacksmith's apprentice +though I was, my eye fell beneath the amused glance of his. + +"I'm not a gentleman," I said, after a pause,--a little resentfully, I +fear; "but I'm not a clown, like my master." + +"No, that one can see at a glance," he replied. "You may be a gentleman +for aught I see to the contrary; but it requires a great deal to make +one.--What school was that the blacksmith spoke of?" + +"It is a village class kept by a young lady who rides over from the +hillside twice a week to teach us poor fellows something. I'm learning +to draw," I added,--the frankness coaxed out of me by a sympathy implied +rather than expressed. + +"And you are sorry enough to lose any of this lesson," he said, kindly, +as I put the horse's foot, firmly shod, upon the ground. "There is the +regular pay which goes to the smith, I suppose; and here is a ten-dollar +bill for you, if you have the sense to take it. I don't know what kind +of a youth you may be; but you have a good head and face, and evidently +are superior to the people about you. You don't feel obliged to use +their language or lead their life because you are thrown with them, I +suppose; but neither are you obliged to leave this work because you are +better than the man who calls himself your master. Learn all you can and +get a smithy of your own. A good blacksmith is as respectable as a good +artist," he said, looking at me keenly, as he mounted his horse, and +then rode rapidly through the village street. + + +CHAPTER II. + +I was no proud-spirited hero to work my way independently in the world, +but a poor blacksmith's apprentice, glad of every penny honestly earned +or kindly given; so I handled my bill over and over again with real +pleasure. Amos Bray, my master, was about as well to do as any man in +the village, its doctor excepted; but I doubted if Amos ever had a +ten-dollar bill over and above the quarter's expenses to spend as he +liked. + +The smithy often glowed with the double fire of its forge and my fancy. +I walked about with a picture-gallery in my brain, and was usually led +into its rather meagre display whenever the past was recalled or the +future portrayed. The smithy hung there, in warmth and brightness, a +genuine Rembrandt of light and shadow, filled with many an odd, +picturesque group on winter evenings, or just at twilight, when the fire +had died away to its embers. My master had gone home, and work was over; +the village children in gay woollen garments and with ruddy faces +crowded round the door, fringing brightly the canopy of darkness within. + +Again, when, after days of monotonous work, I felt a benumbing sense of +being but a part of the world's giant machinery, chosen because the +mobility and suppleness of human material worked by the steam-power of +the brain were more than a match even for the durability and unwearied +stroke of steel or iron, the warm blood rushed back, life throbbed again +with its endless ebbs and flows of desire and disappointment, as my +master's daughter, with her golden hair and innocent eyes, summoned us +to dinner, breaking like blue sky and sunshine through the cloud-rifts +of our toil. + +But now the smithy was not merely idealized, it was transformed. The +stranger, whose haughty bearing and address had changed to kindly and +appreciative words, had filled it with a new presence and excited new +hopes. + +Pleased as I was with the unexpected gift of money, the stranger's hint +of my superiority to those around me was a more generous bounty still. I +had been jeered at for years by the village boys, because I never +followed my master to the tavern in the evenings to listen to the gossip +there and learn to drink my mug of beer, and because I rarely talked +with any one except a few of the village children more modest than the +rest. + +The alphabet of my mind, like that of the race, was first found in the +hieroglyphics of the pencil; and by its aid I communicated with my +little friends more frequently than by word, drawing pictures for them +with chalk on the rude walls of the smithy, and carving images of the +various devices my experience or imagination suggested out of wood with +my master's jack-knife. + +From this group of children had arisen a constant companion and +sympathizer in my master's daughter. In leisure hours we explored the +woods together, or she sat beside me while I pored over the few old +books which were my father's sole legacy to me. + +During the last winter and this, however, my evenings had been almost +constantly occupied in study and sketching at the class to which I have +alluded. What an endless store of drawing-materials now loomed before +me! And what a swelling of heart I experienced at the thought that the +aims for which I had been taunted by the villagers were acknowledged by +my new friend as a ground of superiority! + +I was startled from these pleasing dreams by my master's voice. + +"Hullo there, Sandy! where's the money for that job? He's a mean one, if +he a'n't made it double." + +Instinctively I thrust my ten-dollar bill into one pocket, as I drew the +pay for the horseshoeing from the other. He swore a little as I handed +it to him, but he knew me well enough never to doubt my honesty; and, as +I was leaving, he called, with a gruff kindness,--the only approach to +courtesy of which he was capable,-- + +"Hurry up, Sandy; Miss Bray can't git Sary Ann to bed till she sees you, +and you're late for your schoolin' besides." + +So I ground my way quickly through the snow, choosing the middle of the +street, because it was less worn, and helped me better to work off my +unusual excitement. + +My master's cottage stood on the same street with his smithy. In fact, +this Main Street was, as its name indicated, the principal thoroughfare +of Warren; the real village life all centred here; and it contained, +besides the stores and the church, the dwellings of the more prosperous +inhabitants. The smithy being at one end, on the outskirts, as it were, +of the social and gay life, Mr. Bray had been able to rent it for a low +sum, although more pleasantly situated than any other building on the +street. Here the land made a slight ascent, giving a more extended view +of the valley and distant hills than at any other point. The business +character of this street mingled oddly in summer with the rural life +around it. At several right-angles, green and mossy lanes, arched by +venerable elms, seemed to be offering their crooked elbows to lead it +back to the simple pastoral life from which it sprang. + +Bordering these sequestered paths, which were dignified by the title of +streets, were cottages surrounded by small inclosures, whose proprietors +cultivated vegetables, hens, pigs, and cows,--these last being, quite +unconsciously, the true surveyors of Warren; for, in direct obedience to +pathways they had worn when traversing the fields to and from their +homes, chewing the quiet cud of meditation, had the buildings been +erected. Outside these lanes, again, were the larger land-owners, whose +farms formed the outer circle of our life. + +Annie Bray was fond of penetrating beyond these various circles of +social existence, and wandering far off to the woods and hills, whose +ring of emerald, studded now and then with the turquoise of some +forest-lake, inclosed us as in a basin. + +As I entered the kitchen of the cottage, Mrs. Bray, a stout woman of +forty, the oracle of her sex in the village as to matters of domestic +economy and dress,--which last was of a more costly and varied material +than the others could afford, abounding in many-colored prints, and a +stuff gown for Sunday wear,--made her appearance, her apron covered with +flour, an incrustation of dough on each particular finger, which it +always destroyed my appetite to see. + +"Well, Sandy, I'm glad you've come. You've jest sp'iled Sary Ann. There +she sets a-nid-nid-noddin' on that stool, and won't stir to bed till she +sees Sandy." + +There, by the stove, sat the blacksmith's blue-eyed daughter, a proof +that God sometimes interferes with hereditary botch-work, and makes a +child fresh and fair, letting her, like a delicate flower in noisome +marsh or stagnant water, draw pure, nourishing juices out of elements +poisonous to anything less impregnated with Himself. + +To be sure, through ignorance of the nature of the child intrusted to +them, the blacksmith and his wife blundered with her tender soul and +beautiful body. One of their most heinous crimes against her, in my +estimation, had been in the bestowal of the name of Sary Ann,--a filial +compliment paid by Mrs. Bray to the mother who bore her. Then they +dressed her in the brightest of red or orange, so that Nature, which had +tinted her complexion brightly, though delicately, seemed forever to be +put to shame by the brazen garments which infolded her. They called her +'sp'iled,' when her innocent eyes filled with tears at her father's +oaths or her mother's coarse scolding; and though her tender beauty +touched the rough smith with a kind of awe, he often said, "Such pootty +gals a'n't of much use. I mistrust if Sary Ann will ever 'arn her +livin'." + +Anxious as I was to get to my class this evening, I could not neglect my +little friend; so, going hurriedly to her, I said, as I bent over the +head which at every breath of sleep waved like a pale golden flower on +its stalk,-- + +"Good night, Annie. To-morrow evening I'll be home earlier, and then we +can have our lesson together." + +And she, quite satisfied, held up her face for a kiss, and rose to leave +the room. + +"Your supper is a-warmin' in the stove, Sandy," said Mrs. Bray; but I +did not wait either to eat it or to chat with her about the stranger +whose horse I had shod, and who interested her because she thought he +might have given "Amos" extra pay. Reminding her of my lesson, I pushed +up the rickety stairs to my attic, and began as quickly as possible to +make those preparations for meeting the teacher which the young men of +the class, impelled by a rude kind of gallantry, never failed to +observe, and which they described by the expressive term of "smartenin' +up." + + +CHAPTER III. + +The class met in the village school-house; and when I entered, Miss +Darry, our teacher, was seated at her desk, talking to about a dozen +rough country youths, of ages ranging from fourteen to twenty-five, and +of occupations as diverse as the trades of the village afforded. + +She was of medium height, rather full than slim, with clear, +intelligent, dark eyes, a broad, open forehead, a nose somewhat +delicately cut, a wide mouth, with thin lips, and teeth of dazzling +whiteness. Her whole aspect was that of physical and mental health,--not +only removed from morbid sensitiveness, but as far from sentiment even +as a breezy spring wind, and yet as prompt to fathom it in others as the +wind to search out violets. + +One would think that even an ordinary nature might have so revealed +itself through such a face as to give an impression of unusual beauty; +yet such was not the case,--and this, it seemed to me, because she had +no feminine consciousness of personal beauty or attractiveness. I know +that unconsciousness is regarded as the first element of fascination; +and it may be, when it pervades the entire character: but Miss Darry +_was_ conscious of mental power, of the ability to wrest from the world +many of its choicest gifts, to taste the delights of scholarship, of +self-supporting independence and charity to range freely over the whole +domain where man is usually sole victor; and thus one felt the shock of +a vigorous nature before recognizing the fact that it was clad in the +butterfly robes of a woman's loveliness. + +Her evening teaching of us was purely a labor of love. Fortunately, she +was not of that shrinking nature which dreads contact with persons less +refined than itself. There was a world of sympathy in her frank, +good-natured smile, which placed her at once more in harmony with her +scholars than I, who had passed my life among them. There was, too, a +dash and spirit about this young woman, in which I, as a man, was +entirely lacking; and it was this element which held her rough pupils in +subordination. + +I was the only one of them who had not been communicative with her. My +lessons were always better prepared and understood than those of the +others, yet I talked less with her about them; and in the half-hour +after recitation, which she devoted to my drawing, I rarely uttered a +word not called forth by my occupation at the moment. + +To-night, however, I must have betrayed my new mood to the first glance +of her keen eye; for, after the other scholars had stumbled noisily out +of the room, she turned to me, saying,-- + +"Well, Sandy, often as you have been here, I have never seen your visor +of reserve or diffidence lifted until to-night. Do you mean to let me +share your happiness? Bob Tims has been telling me that the rosy-faced +girl up by Fresh Pond has smiled upon him; and Tracy Waters says he's +'going to hoe his own row next year, and not spend his strength for Dad +any longer': they are both happy in their way, but, mind, I don't expect +such confidences from you, Sandy." + +Miss Darry spoke without satire. She sympathized with these rough +natures far more than with many of the more polished whom she met in +society, and I could not withhold my confidence from the cordial smile +and ready ear which waited to receive it. + +So I related the incident of the afternoon, revealing unconsciously, I +suppose, many a budding hope, which waited only the warm sun of +opportunity and encouragement to burst into blossom. + +"I am very glad for you, Sandy," she said, giving me her hand, as I +concluded. "Your village friends would probably advise you to hoard the +money as so much towards a forge; while others, less judicious than your +new friend, would say, 'Give up your trade, and support yourself by your +brain'; but I say, support yourself by your forge, and let what surplus +power you have be expended on your mind." + +And here let me hold the thread of my story a moment, to express my +sense of the wisdom of Miss Darry's advice. It would be well, perhaps, +if more men, when striving to elevate their condition, should still rely +upon the occupation to which they have been trained, as a stepping-stone +to something better. Now and then comes an exceptional character, a +David Grey, who must follow the bent of his genius, and listen so +intently to the melody to which his soul is set that the coarser sounds +of daily toil are dumb for him; but usually the Elihu Burritt who +strikes hard blows with hands and brain alike is the man to achieve +success. + +"Your friend may be worth far more to you than his money," continued +Miss Darry, thoughtfully. "He can do much more for you than I, if he +only will." + +"Do you know him?" I exclaimed. "Tell me who he is." + +"A tall, dark-eyed gentleman, on a magnificent horse," she replied, +playfully. "I shall know him, Sandy, from your description, if I meet +him." + +And she placed my crayon-study before me, changing so entirely from +confidential friend to teacher, that I had no resource but to relapse +into my customary shyness. + +After the lesson, we consulted as to the purchases to which my money had +best be applied. She offered to buy the books I needed in the city, to +which she was going soon for a visit, but she insisted on supplying me +with drawing-materials as before. Our good-bye was said more cordially +than usual, and I drew on my overcoat and closed the door with the +comfortable feeling that my welfare was becoming a matter of interest to +others besides myself. + + +CHAPTER IV. + +The man who drove over from the hillside with Miss Darry was always +waiting in the sleigh when I went out from my lesson. To-night, however, +he was not to be seen. Supposing he had merely stopped for one more +glass than usual at the tavern, I walked down the street, but, finding +that he did not appear, and disliking to leave Miss Darry alone in the +school-house, so late in the evening, I resolved, as I approached the +turn which led into Main Street, to go back and investigate the matter. +The tavern was beyond the school-house, at a little distance from the +village,--as, indeed, it should have been, to insure sleep to its +quiet-loving inhabitants. As I approached the school-house again, I saw +Miss Darry, warmly muffled for the drive home, walking also in the +direction of the tavern. "She surely cannot know what rough men go +there," I thought, and, conquering my awkwardness, I ran after her. + +"Miss Darry!" I cried, when within a few steps of her. She turned, and I +strode to her side. "I am going to the tavern to look after your driver; +it will never do for you to go there alone. Hadn't you better go back to +the school-house and wait for me?" I said. + +"You must have a great deal of native gallantry, Sandy. One would +imagine, from your lot in life, you had not been used to seeing women +shielded from disagreeable duties. I will go on with you, and wait +outside," she answered, smiling. So we walked on together. + +The sleigh stood before the tavern-door. A warm buffalo was thrown over +the horse, who was, nevertheless, pawing impatiently in the snow, as if +aware that it was time to go home. Asking Miss Darry to get into the +sleigh, for I would not have taken the liberty of assisting her for the +world, I hastened up the low wooden steps, and, pushing open the door, +stood inside the bar-room. I had heard snatches of song, as we drew +near, and, afraid lest they should reach Miss Darry's ear also, I closed +it after me. A few of the village loafers were there, with the addition +of one or two less harmless characters, who, strolling through the +country, had tarried here for refreshment and a frolic: among the latter +was the man for whom Miss Darry was waiting, stretched in a state of +intoxication on the floor. I made my exit as soon as by a glance I +comprehended matters, yet not soon enough to escape the recognition of +the villagers, who cried out, "Come on, Sandy Allen!--don't slink off +that way!--let's have a drink!" + +As I stood by the sleigh, explaining to Miss Darry the condition of her +driver, a crowd of the half-drunken fellows came out of the tavern, and +staggered down the path toward us. I had not the courage to offer to +drive her home, but she did not wait for me to grow bolder. + +"Jump in, Sandy,--no, not on the front seat,--here by me. I am afraid of +those men. Besides, I want to talk with you." + +So I seated myself next her, drew the warm robe over us both, and just +as one of the men attempted to seize the reins, declaring he had himself +promised to carry the lady home, I caught them from him, and we drove +rapidly up the street. + +Somehow Miss Darry's confession of a little feminine timidity put me +more at ease with her than I had ever been before. I was a strong, +muscular fellow of nineteen, perfectly able to defend myself in +circumstances of ordinary danger, and proud that a woman so superior to +me should trust in my readiness to protect her. Life and vigor tingled +in every nerve of my body; the clear, stinging winter air, exhilarating +to healthy, as wine is to enfeebled bodies, thrilled me with enjoyment; +and I was seated beside the most intelligent and appreciative companion +I had ever known. + +How much of my life, with its restless desires and unsatisfied tastes, +must have revealed itself in that ride, which seemed only too short, as +she asked me to drive up the avenue leading to the stone house, whose +beacon I had looked at that same evening from the forge! + +"Do you live here?" I asked, in surprise, as we drove swiftly along. + +"Yes, I teach Miss Merton's little sisters." + +We had no time for further words. The horse stopped before the house, +whose great hall-door swung open, letting a flood of light stream over +the stone steps. A young girl, wrapped in an ermine cape, ran down to +us, followed by the stranger whose appearance in the forge that +afternoon had created such a tumult in my mind. + +The scene was a beautiful one. Every shrub and tree on the lawn was +enveloped in a garment of more dazzling purity than the ermine before +me. The moonlight was radiant, the stars sparkled lustrously in the +steel cold sky, the earth was carpeted and canopied with a beauty more +resplendent than the graceful luxuriance of summer. Miss Darry probably +ascribed my immovable position to artistic enjoyment of the landscape, +for I remained perfectly quiet while she explained the cause of her +detention to Miss Merton. + +"We have been quite anxious about you," said the gentleman, as she +concluded; and turning to me, "Why, we are indebted for your safe return +to the young man by whom my horse was shod this evening!" + +And before I could stammer a reply, Miss Darry exclaimed,-- + +"Jump out, if you please, Sandy. I should like to do the same." + +I did so, mechanically, and was about to stand aside for the gentleman +to offer his hand, but she extended hers to me, and sprang lightly +beside me. + +"You will surely take cold, Alice," said the gentleman, drawing Miss +Merton's hand within his arm, and turning to ascend the steps. Then, +first, I awoke from mingled surprise and admiration sufficiently to say +quietly,-- + +"I must go home. Good evening." + +"Not at all," exclaimed the gentleman, turning round; "it is nearly +twelve o'clock, and I verily believe you think of walking back to Warren +to-night. You must take the horse and sleigh, if you go. Shall he not, +Alice?" + +Miss Merton, thus appealed to, replied by saying to me,-- + +"Come in with us, Mr. Allen, and get warmed at least. I have heard Miss +Darry speak of you as the one of her class in whom she is especially +interested; so you see we are not strangers, after all." + +There was no condescension in the gentle voice and smile for even my +sensitiveness to detect. I had never been addressed as Mr. Allen before; +and this of itself would have confused me sometimes, but now I forgot +myself in admiration of her. + +That face was of perfect contour. Small and delicately fair, soft bands +of light-brown hair shaded the low, smooth brow and large gray eyes, +and the full red lips were tremulous with varying expression. Her hands +and figure were of the same delicate outline as her face. And as her +cape blew aside, I noticed the violet silk she wore, of that blended +blue and purple so becoming to blondes. + +It were surely a narrow view, to ascribe this grace of expression and +manner, so peculiarly womanly, this evident desire to please even, +betrayed in careful attention to the artistic finish and details of +dress, to vanity or coquetry merely,--it is so often the outgrowth of a +beauty-loving nature, to be found in some of the most sensitive and +refined of the other sex. + +Looking at Miss Merton, therefore, I seemed to have a vision of what +Annie Bray might become, if she were developed from within and +surrounded from without by that halo of refinement which crowned the +lady before me. Already I was developing an Epicurean taste for that +spirit of beauty which flooded Annie Bray's humble life as well as her +own. + +Miss Darry spoke to me, as we went up the steps; but to what I assented +I do not know. I listened to the low tones in front of me. I have always +possessed a preternaturally quick ear; but I confess I might have used +it to better purpose on that occasion. + +"Now, Hamilton, of course he must stay all night," she whispered, as she +leaned on the gentleman's arm; "and I want you to make him feel +perfectly comfortable in doing so." + +"Certainly, if he will; but pray don't spoil him, Alice, darling. +Because he is a youth of some scholarship, a good deal of refinement, +and develops a talent for drawing, it is no reason he should be made to +forget he's a blacksmith." + +"It is too late for theories to-night, Hamilton," she replied, +playfully. "I have none, you know, like you and Frank Darry. I only wish +to treat him considerately. _We_ can afford to forget distinctions which +undoubtedly seem a great barrier to him. If he stays, he shares our +hospitality like any other guest." + +The answer I did not catch. I had heard enough, however, to feel both +grateful and irritated. + +I went in and warmed myself by the coal-fire in the library. I looked +covertly at books and Miss Merton while toasting my hands, and answered +intelligently, I believe, Mr. Hamilton Lang's questions as to the +village and my pursuits there. I did not neglect to speak a few cordial, +yet respectful, words to Miss Darry, at parting; but all I clearly +recall is the fact that I insisted upon going home that night, and that +Miss Merton, kindly offering to lend me any books I could find time to +read, laid her little hand in my rough palm at parting. + + +CHAPTER V. + +There was a variety-store on Main Street, with "JANE DINSMORE" painted +in letters of mingled blue and orange on the sign above its door. Miss +Dinsmore boarded in one of those green lanes whose inhabitants formed +the second circle of Warren society. To this fact it may have been +partly due that she was less appealed to than Mrs. Bray on all questions +of social etiquette; but undoubtedly a more sufficient reason was to be +found in Miss Dinsmore herself, who, though more beloved than any other +woman in the village, had a suppressed, quiet manner, not at all adapted +for leadership. Her reputation was that of having been a pretty, giddy +young girl, a farmer's daughter; but some great crisis had swept over +her life, muffling all the tinkling melodies, the ringing laugh, the +merry coquettings of the village belle. It was rumored that the old +story of disappointed love had changed the current of her life. Jenny +Dinsmore, though humbly born and bred, had been fastidious; the uncouth +advances of her rustic admirers were not agreeable to her; and so the +romance of the fresh young heart was expended on a college youth, who +found his way to Warren from classic halls for the renovation of +physical and moral health, and who, attracted by her pretty face and +figure, made his rustication less burdensome by devotion to her. + +Jenny had not one of those weak natures whose influence dies away in +absence. She had inherited some of the old farmer's sturdy traits of +character, and her affections had a clinging tenacity of hold which +would not suffer the young scholar to throw her off so easily. When he +returned to college, he walked the grounds more than once, summoning +through the avenues of embowering elms the slender figure, the smiling +face, with the glow of the setting sun upon it, which had so often +awaited his coming at the stile of the old orchard. + +However, parental authority, and the prospect of an ample fortune on +good behavior, soon convinced the young man of his folly. Let us be +thankful, who note this brief sketch of their mingled fortunes, that he +had a tender care for Jenny's trusting nature, and removed the sting +from the sorrow he inflicted by making her believe it inevitable. Thus +this little wellspring of romance forever watered and kept fresh her +otherwise withered life; if subdued, she was not bitter; and no one can +tell how the thin, wan face renewed its youth, and the wrinkled cheeks +their pinkish bloom, caught in that far-off spring-time in her father's +orchards, as, sitting in her solitary room, she remembered the man, now +occupying a prominent position in life, who said, as he bade her +tenderly good-bye, that he would never forget her, no matter what woman +reigned by his fireside, or what children played on his hearth. Perhaps, +in his stately library, no book was so welcome on a winter's evening as +an idyl of rural life, no picture so pleasing as that of some Maud +Muller raking hay or receiving the dumb caresses of the cows she milked. + +What would the elegant woman, with her costly jewels, India shawls, and +splendid equipage, have thought of this whilom rival, who issued every +summer morning from the lane, in her hand a bunch of those simple +flowers, occupying, as she did, the border-ground between the wild +hemlock and honeysuckle of the wilderness and the exotic of the +parterre, the bachelor's-button, mulberry-pink, southernwood, and +bee-larkspur, destined to fill a tumbler on an end of the counter where +she displayed her most attractive goods? + +She prided herself upon the tastefulness and variety of her selections: +ribbons and gowns, pins, needles, soap, and matches for all; jars of +striped candy for well, and hoarhound for sick children; and a little +fragrant Old Hyson and San Domingo for venerable customers. She walked +about gently; was never betrayed into any bustle by the excitement of +traffic; liked all sweet, shy, woodland natures, from Annie Bray to +squirrels; and contracted an affection for me because of my diffidence +and devotion to the former. + +Whenever she came to the cottage, she poured oil upon the turbulent +waters of its domestic life; coaxed up Amos as daintily and charily as a +child would proffer crumbs to a bear in a menagerie; pleased Mrs. Bray +by accounts of her city shopping; and petted Annie, giving her +occasionally, in a shy way, some bow or bit of silk, of an especially +brilliant hue, which had caught her eye in town. She was a very useful +member of the Methodist Society, for she had always innumerable odds and +ends for pin-cushions and needle-books; and although her religious +experiences did not seek those stormy channels which the Reverend Mr. +Purdo believed to have been elected for the saints, yet her sympathies +were so ready, her heart so kind, that, when he saw her after a day of +activity collect her bunch of flowers again in her hand, and start, as +she often did, for one of the lanes or outlying farms, to watch through +the night with some sick woman or child, he was fain to remember that +"faith without works is dead." + +Miss Dinsmore's store was exceedingly attractive to the young people of +the village. She lent a cordial ear to every matrimonial scheme; was +quite willing that all preliminaries for such arrangements should be +settled within her precincts; and many a tender word and glance, +doubtless, received its inspiration from a conspicuous stand for +bonnets, whose four pegs were kept supplied with those of Miss +Dinsmore's own manufacture, originally white, but so seldom demanded for +village wear that the honey-moon in Warren shed its pale yellow beams on +this crowning article of bridal attire long before it was donned by the +happy wearer. These bonnets were severally labelled on modest slips of +paper, after city nomenclature, "Bridal Hat"; and Miss Dinsmore would on +no account have parted with them for any less occasion, however festive; +so that one consulting her stand had as accurate a knowledge of +impending marriages as could have been obtained from the +"publishing-list" of the "meeting-house." + +Moreover, Miss Dinsmore herself was laboring under that hallucination, +not infrequent with maiden ladies rather advanced, that her own +spring-time was perennial; and though by no means disposed to displace +the hero of her youth from his supremacy in her heart, she yet accepted, +with the ordinary feminine serenity, gallant attentions from youths over +whose infant slumbers she had, in times of domestic disturbance, often +presided. Hence it happened that the "Variety Store" often afforded the +first introduction to Warren society; indeed, so sharp was the rivalry +between it, as a lounging-place, and the tavern, that, when a youth was +won over from the bar-room to its counter fascinations, his work of +regeneration was regarded by Mr. Purdo as begun; and the walk round the +corner to the parsonage (which Miss Dinsmore's hats suggested) made his +calling and election sure. + +Entering the store, therefore, on one of my leisure evenings, I was not +surprised to find there a number of Miss Darry's class, and the Reverend +Mr. Purdo himself, who had evidently walked in to discover what young +men had sowed their wild oats and were seeking the "strait and narrer +path" between Miss Dinsmore's counter and the wall. Mr. Purdo was of +middle height, and portly; and there was such a sombre hue about the +entire man,--black suit of clothes, jet-black hair, eyebrows, and +eyes,--that it was a relief to find that Nature had relented in her +mourning over making him, and bestowed a sallow complexion, which strove +to enliven his aspect by an infusion of orange. He greeted me with a +mild and forgiving manner, which at once reminded me of the quiet +strolls I occasionally preferred, on a pleasant Sunday, to a prolonged +sitting and homily in the church; but I was glad of his presence, since +it would be likely to restrain the boisterous mirth of the young men, +when I should make known my errand. + +Since seeing Miss Merton, my imagination had been so filled with the +idea of how complete a transformation Annie Bray would undergo, if only +the ugly garments she wore could be pulled away like weeds from her +sweet, flower-like beauty, that I resolved to expend a part of my money +in buying her a dress. With diffidence, therefore, I made known my wish +to Miss Dinsmore, who responded at once with a ready comprehension of +the whole matter. + +"I know jest what'll suit you, Sandy. Nothin' like vi'let for blue eyes +and yeller hair; my own was like June butter once, but of course it's +been darker since I've grown up" (Miss Dinsmore's gold was fast becoming +silver); "Sary Ann's is changin', too, I see. Miss Bray says she isn't +over-fond of stirrin' round; and I shouldn't wonder if 't was so. Sary +Ann don't look no more like workin' than a buttercup; but then, as I +tell Miss Bray, corn is made for usin' and flowers for starin' at, and I +don't know as any special sign is set on either of 'em to show which is +the best. Don't mind them youngsters, Sandy; they're always pretty +chipper of an evenin'. You see, I've measured off this piece of +calico,--nine yard and a finger; if you like it, seein' it's for you and +Annie, and a remnant, I'd want it to go cheap." + +It was as near the shade of Miss Merton's dress as the coarser material +could copy it; and with all the embarrassment of a novice in such +matters, I signified my wish to take it, when the door swung open to +admit Annie Bray herself, who had come to make some trifling purchase +for her mother. + +"All right, Sandy; we'll settle some other time," whispered Miss +Dinsmore, quite aware that I should scarcely like to make so public a +presentation of my gift, and quietly concealing it in a sheet of +wrapping-paper, while Annie, surprised and pleased at seeing me, +approached the counter. + +"Bless your sweet face, it isn't often I see it of an evenin'," was Miss +Dinsmore's welcome to her favorite. + +"Beauty's but a witherin' flower," said Mr. Purdo, by way of +professional improvement of the occasion, and pointing the remark by a +glance at Miss Dinsmore, whose early bloom he undoubtedly remembered. +"Still it's cause for great gratitude, Sary, that your cheeks are so +rosy,"--here a general laugh warned him of the dangerous admission, and +he added,--"it shows you're healthy, and that's a most aboundin' +blessin'." + +"That's so!" exclaimed Tracy Waters. "You're mighty pretty now, Sary +Ann; and it a'n't no use to look ahead to the time when you won't be, is +it?" + +Annie's cheeks glowed more deeply still now. She was accomplishing her +errand as quickly as possible; and while Miss Dinsmore tied up her +parcel, Tracy Waters bent over her, whispering. It may have been only +that "innate gallantry" alluded to by Miss Darry that made me reprove +his evidently unwelcome admiration. + +"Annie is a shy little thing. Don't you see, Tracy, that she doesn't +like flattery?" I exclaimed, angrily approaching them. + +"I see pretty plain that you don't want her to have it from any other +fellow than yourself," he answered, roughly. "Miss Annie," he added, in +imitation of my manner, "supposin' I see you home?" + +But I pushed past him and went out of the store with her. + +"He says I am to be his little wife by-and-by," said Annie, a most +unusual expression of disgust and alarm ruffling the quiet serenity of +her face; "but that can never be, unless I wish it, can it, Sandy?" + +"I should think not, indeed," I answered, smiling at her earnestness. +"When he speaks of it again, tell him I want you myself." + +"That would be a good way to stop him," she replied, accepting +graciously this solution of her present difficulty. + + +CHAPTER VI. + +Miss Darry, knowing I could borrow books at Hillside, and that those +which I already possessed were the old English classics, bought for me +in the city only a Greek Grammar, through whose intricacies she proposed +to be my guide, and a box of water-colors, and brought to me some lives +of the old painters from Miss Merton's library. + +She bewildered my mind by telling me of all there was in store for it in +the way of work and study. Her interest in my progress seemed to have +received a new impetus from her visit in town. She described the rooms +where were casts of legs and arms, heads and groups of figures, to which +I might one day have access, with the privilege of copying; and in +return I showed her two crayon sketches I had made in her absence. +Michel Angelo might have relished the knotty, muscular development of +the arm I showed her first. If there is beauty and satisfaction in +coarse brute strength, this member of my master's body was worthy of all +praise. On another sheet I had drawn, by way of contrast, Annie's +delicately small and fair, but round, arm and hand, which might have +served in her infancy as models for those of one of Raphael's cherubs. +She liked them both, and said that I should do as well, perhaps, in the +school of Nature as anywhere, for the present. + +She desired me to become a sculptor, for form appealed more strongly to +her nature than color; and it seemed to be tacitly decided between us +that Art was to be my vocation. She thought that my strong hands, +accustomed to labor, could hew my own idea out of the marble for the +present, and save the expense of workmen. And then she described to me +the beautiful marbles she had seen abroad, where the artist's +inspiration was so chastely uttered by the purity of his material, +declaring that a subject which coloring would debase might be worthily +treated by the chisel. And when I exclaimed, that Autumn, with her +glowing palette, was as pure an artist as the old sculptor Winter, +chiselling in unvaried white, she reminded me that Nature was infinite, +handling all themes with equal power and purity; but that man, in +copying, became, as she thought some of the Preraphaelites had done, a +caricaturist, in attempting to follow her too closely. I was unconvinced +by her arguments, but held my newly bought color-box as a means of +proving to her the wisdom of my choice. + +When I was about to leave, she said,-- + +"Sandy, pray don't make an enemy of Tracy Waters on account of any words +you had the other evening about the blacksmith's little girl. He's a +rough, but kind fellow, and your superiority and desire to rise in life +will stir up envy enough of themselves. Why not let him show his +admiration of the child, if he wanted to?" + +"Oh, have they been telling you about that, Miss Darry?" I answered, +awkwardly. "If you knew Annie Bray, you would not ask me why I didn't +let him bend his great rough face over hers. She's only a child in +years, to be sure; but she has a woman's modesty." + +"Oh, well, if she shrank from it, of course, as a gentleman, you were +bound to take her part; but don't spoil your chances in life, Sandy, I +beg, by any entanglement with these villagers of which you may repent. A +pretty country lassie to smile when you look at her would doubtless be a +comforting companion in your struggles. But once attain what you long +for in other ways, and you will crave an intelligent friend, whose +gaucheries shall not forever put you to the blush." + +Miss Darry, in her appreciation of my abilities, sometimes forgot my +lack of attainment. I was not always familiar with her quotations, but +now I was more disturbed by her regarding so seriously my brotherly +devotion to Annie Bray, and by the depreciating estimate which she held +of her. + +"I did not know you looked down so entirely upon our villagers. The only +way in which I could expect to differ from them is through my talent for +painting, if I prove to have any. My mother was a good woman, gentle and +quiet in her ways, but only a farmer's daughter; and though my father +was the village doctor, he studied his profession without any regular +training, and I suppose knew less of chemistry and anatomy than you, +Miss Darry. Annie Bray is as much a lady, in her childish way, as Miss +Merton; only she is the stone in its native soil, and Miss Merton has +been set by the jeweller." + +I was irritated and had spoken warmly, but the bright smile did not +leave Miss Darry's face, as she answered,-- + +"Sandy, you have unmistakably the poetic temperament; but use your brush +on the canvas, and don't color every human being you see. I never could +comprehend why the practical affairs of life should not be ruled by +judgment and reason,--why the mental mansion should not have every +needful arrangement for comfort, though a hundred illusions may fresco +its ceilings. Every child is charming because it is a child, as every +bud is charming because it is a bud, though it may open a poppy or a +rose. I haven't a doubt but this little friend of yours will develop +some qualities of her ignorant ancestors to remove her in a few years +far from your ideal of womanhood. The rare gift of genius is as often +bestowed on the child of common parentage as on any other; but the +refinement which makes a woman a congenial companion is a mingling of +birth, education, and associations, in my opinion. It seems from your +own account, that poverty, not choice, apprenticed you to Amos Bray." + +Her good-nature shamed me, and her unselfish labor for my improvement +touched me more deeply. So, though we did not agree about my profession +or friendship, I said no more. + + +CHAPTER VII. + +As I have said, Miss Darry and I differed about Annie Bray. Yet her +words, having the weight of her greater knowledge of the world, and +really strong, though prejudiced mind, made their impression upon me. +Instead of regarding Annie with the old brotherly interest, I looked +critically now to see if any sign of rude origin betrayed itself in look +or speech. I found only the wayside bloom and sweetness quite peculiar +to herself, and many a quaint, rare fancy born of lonely rambles in +field and wood; but at fourteen, with no outward stimulus to act upon +her life, she was an undeveloped being, a child to be loved and petted, +but no friend for my growing and restless manhood. + +In the evenings I worked hard, endeavoring both to improve myself +intellectually and to progress in my art. I was supplied with constant +reading from the Hillside library; but I had never been there since the +evening when I had driven Miss Darry home. The impression made upon me +at that time by Mr. Lang had not been wholly pleasant. Notwithstanding +his words at the forge, I felt as though he had in some way contended +for making me feel the drawbacks of my position. + +One mild day in April, the Spring sun lay warm upon the earth, and the +wind brought from the woods the delicious scent of early flowers. I had +worked very steadily for several days in sole charge of the smithy; for +Mr. Bray had been away to visit a sister who lived some thirty miles +off. I had handed him quite large profits that morning; so I ventured to +ask for a half-holiday. It was granted, and after dinner I went up to my +room to prepare for it. I had practised in water-colors for the last few +weeks, and intended to surprise Miss Darry with a picture from Nature as +the result of the afternoon's work. So I thrust my paint-box into the +pocket of my portfolio, took a tin cup for water, and ran down stairs. + +Annie was sitting on the door-step studying Gray's Botany, which at odd +moments in the winter I had attended to with her. My heart smote me for +that egotistic contemplation of myself and my prospects which had led me +to neglect her. + +"Come, Annie," I said, "bring your Botany into the woods. We will find +plenty of wild-flowers there, and you shall help me, besides, to paint +my first picture." + +The little face which had looked so dull a moment before brightened at +once. She gained her mother's permission, and was soon walking by my +side. + +On the slope of the hill which led to the stone house where so many of +my dreams centred, we found innumerable bloodroot and anemone blossoms, +with a few buds of trailing arbutus just blushing at their edges. + +Annie had a wonderful fellowship with Nature, liking even its wildest, +most uncouth forms. The snakes, with shining skin and sinuous movement, +glistening like streams of water, or lying coiled like stagnant pools +amid the rank luxuriance of grass and flowers, were as eagerly watched +by her as the most brilliant butterfly that ever fanned a blossom. She +had a faculty for tracing resemblances in the material creation, akin to +that, perhaps, which causes many to see points of likeness in faces, so +that they, as it were, carry their home about with them, and see their +friends in the new costume of every land. + +Childhood and genius alike look through and over the lattice-work which +separates the regions of the natural and the supernatural. She had firm +faith in midnight revels in the woods, held by those elves, fairies, and +satyrs who come down to us from the dim and shaded life of earlier +ages, and whose existence she had eagerly accepted when I hinted its +possibility. Her theory of the mutability of species exceeded Darwin's; +for she fancied that the vegetable world was occasionally endowed with +animal life, and that the luxuriant and often poisonous vines, which +choked by their rude embrace so many tenderer forms of life, waked up, +under some unknown influence, into the snakes, of which she felt as +little fear. + +As for me, I encouraged this tangle of woodland dreams across her brain, +and liked to think she dwelt apart, blind and deaf to all contamination +through its simple power. + +Annie was to-day, therefore, most happy that Spring was reorganizing her +dreamland again; and while I seated myself on a stone to arrange my +materials, she ran to fill the tin cup with water from the brook below. +Then she helped me with my paints, and watched curiously all my +preparations. When these were completed, I said,-- + +"Now, Annie, prepare a little scene for me, and I will paint it." + +At first she was reluctant to make the attempt; but I insisted, and she +did so. + +The tiny thread which fed the stream below trickled over a stone beside +us, making rich with its silver beads of moisture a cushion of moss +beneath. On this Annie heaped bloodroots and anemones, a few early +violets, and one or two arbutus-sprays, and then looked up to see if I +was satisfied. + +"Yes," I said, "if you will sit on that tree-stump, and leave your hand +there." + +She laughed merrily, pleased to be in my first painting. I drew out my +paper, and rapidly sketched the outlines. Then I took my brush; the pale +spring beauties grew beneath its touch, and lay with careless grace on +the soft, damp moss. + +Annie had resumed her Botany as the afternoon wore on, reaching forward +occasionally to note my progress; and her hand lay relaxed, the fingers +loosely clasping the last violets laid down. + +I was giving most affectionate pats of my camel's-hair to the last +little pink nail, feeling more elated at this first attempt than at many +a better picture since, when I heard the tramp of horses' feet in the +road to the left of the meadow where we sat. I was too intent upon my +work to raise my eyes, and Annie sat with her face turned toward the +woods, so that I thought nothing more of it until we were startled by a +voice at a little distance. + +"Well, my young friend, I suppose this studio is open to visitors?" + +I looked up, and saw Miss Merton and Mr. Lang. + +"We were riding, and called at the forge," said Miss Merton, with a +wondering glance at Annie, whose astonishment had not admitted of a +change of position; "and as Mr. Lang heard there you were off on an +excursion, we have been expecting to see you, and caught our first +glimpse as the horses walked up the hill. Won't you introduce us to your +young friend, Mr. Allen?" + +"This is Annie Bray, my master's daughter," I stammered, with a keen and +very unpleasant remembrance of Miss Darry's remarks. + +Annie rose, and returned with natural ease Miss Merton's smile and +kindly greeting, while Mr. Lang bent over to look at my painting. + +"Alice, look here. This is as pretty a bit of water-color as I've ever +seen. A young girl's hand is a gratifying possession, but I am not sure +that I should have stopped with it in the present instance." And he +looked admiringly at Annie's modest beauty. + +Miss Merton walked round the stump, and stood behind me. + +"It is indeed pretty. Miss Annie's hand suggests the idea that these +blossoms at least were not 'born to blush unseen.' It reminds me of our +object in seeking you, Mr. Allen. A friend," she added, with an arch +look at Mr. Lang, "has been audacious enough to give me a costly +picture. I am to have a few friends to admire it to-morrow evening. I +know you will enjoy it; so I want you to come, too." + +"You are very kind, but"----I hesitated. + +"But what?" inquired Mr. Lang. "Speak out boldly, Sandy." + +"I should not think you would care to have a poor blacksmith with your +friends. Let me come another evening." + +"I am sorry, that, judging by your own feelings, you have arrived at +this conclusion," answered Mr. Lang, dryly. "I might have thought, under +similar circumstances, you would have treated us in the same way. Do as +you choose, of course; but remember, blacksmith or artist, no one will +respect you, unless you so thoroughly respect yourself as to hold your +manhood above your profession, and accept every courtesy in the spirit +in which it is offered." + +I began to understand that he would guard me from the vanity and +over-sensitiveness which were the natural outgrowth of my position; yet +I reddened at the implied weakness. + +"Pray don't mind Mr. Lang's criticisms," said Miss Merton, noticing my +confusion. "You certainly do not doubt the sincerity of our invitation?" + +"Not at all," I exclaimed, warmly. + +"Then will you not come to-morrow evening?" + +Yielding to the fascinating persuasiveness of her manner, I now +consented so readily, that Mr. Lang, laughing, asked, in the old +friendly tone,-- + +"Did you paint this picture, Sandy, for any special purpose?" + +"Only that I might show it to Miss Darry." + +"Ah, well, let us take it to her. I have another use for it besides. Are +there any further touches to be given it?" + +I looked; it might have been improved by more work, but I had not the +courage to undertake it before them. So I said I thought it would do. + +He lingered a moment, while Miss Merton spoke a few words to Annie, who +only waited until they reached the stile to express warmly her +admiration of the lovely lady, who had invited her also to come some day +to Hillside, to see the air-plants in her conservatory. + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +When I descended from my room to the kitchen, the next evening, arrayed +for my visit, with all the elegance of which my simple wardrobe +admitted, Mrs. Bray exclaimed,-- + +"Well, Sandy, I protest, you do look smart! But don't be set up, 'cause +you keep high company. I s'pose, knowin Amos was a family man, and +couldn't go visitin' round, they took a notion to you." + +Annie followed me to the door, saying,-- + +"You must remember to tell me about the picture, Sandy, and what they +say of yours; and do look at the plants Miss Merton promised to show me, +and see just how she looks herself." + +"And anything more?" I asked, laughing. + +"Yes,--what they say to you. You look as handsome to-night, Sandy, as +the tall gentleman with Miss Merton,--only such a very different +handsome!" + +"Then you admired his appearance?" I asked, lingering. "I fancied you +were too busy looking at Miss Merton to think of him." + +But Annie continued to unfold her opinion without noticing my remark. + +"I should be afraid he wouldn't care for me, if I didn't look and act +just as he wanted me to. I don't like his way of being handsome, Sandy, +so well as yours." + +Unconsciously, Annie was making her first experiment in analysis; and as +I did not quite relish the basis upon which my beauty rested, I bade her +good-night, and hurried away. + +I knew I was not handsome, yet Annie's naive admiration undoubtedly +braced me to face the evening. In my gray eye there was nothing of the +soft, dreamy expression usually supposed to accompany the aesthetic +temperament. On the contrary, it had the earnest, scrutinizing glance +peculiar to a more restless intellect than mine. The intent gaze of some +ancestor, perhaps, looked out from these "windows of my soul." If so, +and his spirit was occasionally permitted to view the world through me, +the "fancy gardening" in which I so extensively indulged could scarcely +have been congenial to his tastes. The eye was the salient point, +however, of a countenance not otherwise noticeable, except from a +girlish habit I had of coloring whenever I was suddenly addressed. + +When I reached Hillside, I rang the bell with some trepidation, which +was increased by the announcement of the servant that the ladies were at +the tea-table. This trifling annoyance of presenting myself at the +tea-hour, when expected to pass the evening, was sufficiently serious to +my awkwardness to threaten my enjoyment of the visit; but I had scarcely +seated myself in the library when Miss Darry appeared. + +"I hoped you would be in doubt as to the hour of coming, Sandy, and get +here early," she said, smiling brightly. "You must let me thank you for +painting that picture for me to look at; I even admired the little white +hand of your plebeian friend, it was so charmingly done." + +I could not be annoyed at this mingling of praise and badinage, +especially when she relieved me from all sense of intrusion. Moreover, +she looked so brilliant, so sparkling and happy, that I watched her, +amazed at the metamorphosis from her ordinarily calm, intellectual +conversation and plain appearance. + +"I thought perhaps you would keep the picture to please me, Miss Darry," +I faltered, feeling that I was presenting it to an entirely new +character. + +She accepted it, however, most graciously, and led me into the +conservatory, that I might assist her in arranging some baskets of +flowers for the parlor-tables. + +"I never did believe in conservatories," she exclaimed, as I expressed +my admiration of the many rare plants. "It is as unnatural a life for +flowers to be crowded together, each in its little pot of earth, as for +human beings in their separate beds in a hospital. The idea of shutting +up plants and pictures in a room by themselves, to be visited on state +occasions, or when some member of the family in a vagrant mood chances +unexpectedly among them, seems to me preposterous." + +Meanwhile she ran in and out among the flower-stands, breaking off +branches of flame-colored azalea, creamy, voluptuous-looking callas, and +a variety of drooping blossoms and sprays of green, with a reckless +handling of their proud beauty, which I involuntarily contrasted with +Annie Bray's timid, half-caressing touch of the wild-flowers. + +The umber-colored silk she wore toned down what I, who fancied the +delicate sea-shell hue of blondes, should have termed her rather strong +colors; and now, bent on my enjoyment rather than improvement, she +looked much younger, and certainly far handsomer, than I had supposed +she could. Her entire self-possession, the familiarity with which she +approached human beings, Nature, and Art, were to me so many indications +of her power, and because of my own awe in the presence of any +revelation of beauty or intellect, seemed the more wonderful. In +admiration of her ease, I became at ease myself, and was thoroughly +enjoying her gay mood, which puzzled while it charmed me, when the glass +door opening into the drawing-room was pushed aside, and Mr. Lang +entered. + +"Good evening, Sandy. Alice and Mr. Leopold have been inquiring for you, +Miss Darry; but don't run away with those baskets so quickly. I want a +few blossoms for Alice's hair. Yours is gorgeous, tropical. Sandy's here +has as much of a wild-wood appearance as exotics will admit of. One +would think Nature was in league with Darley in making these ferns; they +are outlines merely; but this rich red japonica in the centre, on its +cushion of white flowers, shows you a genuine colorist, Sandy." + +Miss Darry, making some gay reply, gave me a basket, which, designedly +or not, made me less awkwardly conscious of my hands, and we entered the +drawing-room. Unaccustomed to gayeties of any kind, I was quite dazzled +by the sudden and brilliant blaze of light, the few guests already +assembled, and by Miss Merton's beauty enveloped in soft floating folds +of gossamer, looking as though the mist itself had woven her a garment. +No time, however, was given in which I could relapse into +self-consciousness. Miss Darry occupied me with various statuettes and +engravings, until Mr. Lang rejoined us, accompanied by a gentleman whom +he introduced to me as Mr. Leopold, the painter of the picture which I +was to see in the course of the evening. Although my reading had +necessarily been limited, Miss Darry's persistent training, and my own +voracious appetite for information in everything relating to the arts, +had given me a somewhat superficial knowledge of the pictures, style, +and personal appearance of the best old and modern painters. In spite of +some obstinate facts tending to a different conclusion, I had imbibed +the conventional idea of a genius, that he must dwell in an etherealized +body,--and Mr. Leopold's stalwart frame, full, florid face, and +well-rounded features were a surprise and disappointment. I expected the +Raphaelesque,--tender grace and melancholy; but about these frank blue +eyes and full red lips lurked the good-nature of a healthy school-boy, +the quaint, unchecked humor of a man upon whose life had fallen the +sunshine of prosperity. + +"So, you are the young man, Mr. Allen, who painted the Spring Flowers +and the Maiden's Hand," he said, in a full, rich voice, and with a +genial smile. "It is evident, you, too, are in your spring-time, while +I, near my autumn, can afford to refer to the peculiarities of that +period. I cannot regret that you have a life of struggle before you; for +it is not merely the pleasing fancy which paints fine pictures. You +would have let a sunbeam play over that little hand, had you possessed +the technical knowledge to manage it: now, wouldn't you?" + +I crimsoned, assenting as though to a crime. + +"Effects of sunlight on bright colors are sometimes very striking," he +continued. "A crimson flower wet with dew and nodding in sunshine is a +kind of tremulous rainbow, which a man might well like to copy. We must +make a compact to help each other, Mr. Allen, I want to study human +nature, and would like an introduction to all the oddities of the +village." + +I promised to make him acquainted with them, wondering meanwhile that he +craved for his culture what I regarded as the chief obstacle to mine. + +"You shall meet Sandy at the forge some day, when work is over, and +visit the villagers," said Mr. Lang. "Miss Darry, shall you or I take +Mr. Allen to see the picture? He may like a longer inspection of it than +some of us." + +I looked imploringly at Miss Darry, who, slipping her hand within my +arm, led me into a room corresponding to the conservatory in size and +position. The walls were mostly covered with cabinet-pictures, and among +several larger ones was the recent addition by Mr. Leopold. At my first +glance, I was conscious of that sense of disappointment which comes to +us when our imagination devises an ideal beauty, which human hands rob +of delicacy by the very act of embodiment: moreover, how could I, in my +dreamy, undeveloped boy-life, with a fancy just awakened, and revelling +in its own tropical creations, appreciate the simple strength, the grand +repose of the picture before me? What appeared barren to me in the man +and his works was born of the very depth of a nature which, in copying +the Infinite, had learned not only the tender beauty of flowers, the +consolations of the clouds, the grandeur of mountains, seas, and rocks, +but the beauty of common scenes, the grass and herbage of daily +intercourse and use. Touching the world at all points, he had something +to give and receive from nearly every one he met; and, as Sydney Smith +has said Dr. Chalmers was a thousand men in one, I can say that he had +the versatility and power of ten ordinary artists. At the time, however, +nothing of all this was in my mind; only a certain sense of satisfaction +took the place of disappointment, as I looked at the picture. He had +given clearly the impression of magnitude in the gigantic mass of gray +limestone which juts out of the deep blue Spanish sea. Misty flakes of +dispersing cloud above suggested the recent rain which had clothed its +frequently barren sides with a mantle of verdure. A few bell-shaped +blossoms hung over crevices of rock, fearless in the frail foothold of +their thread-like stems, as innocent child-faces above a precipice. It +was in this simple way, and by the isthmus of sand connecting it to the +continent, long and level, like the dash Nature made after so grand a +work, before descending to the commonplaces of ordinary creation, that +he had toned down the grandeur of stern old Gibraltar. + +Miss Darry Indulged me long in my desire to look at the first fine +picture I had ever seen; but when other guests entered, we withdrew to +the farther side of the room, where I was not left in undisturbed +possession of her society, though conscious that she never, for a +moment, lost sight of me or my manner of acquitting myself. Miss Merton, +Miss Darry, Mr. Lang, Mr. Leopold, and a few others, formed the group of +talkers; and I stood within the circle, a listener, until Miss Darry and +Mr. Leopold obliged me to participate. They had an admirable power of +drawing each other out, and he seemed greatly attracted by her brilliant +criticisms of life and Art. Had I known of the theory which, robbed of +its metaphysical subtilties, is advanced in some of our fashionable +romances, I should have been convinced that evening that Miss Darry was, +intellectually at least, my counterpart. If I faltered in my vocabulary, +when expressing an opinion or replying to a question, she supplied the +missing word, or by glance and approving smile reassured me to recall +it; if my thought lacked shape and completeness, she gave it a few sharp +cuts with the chisel of her keen wit and clear intellect, handing it +back for me to color as I chose. Miss Merton, lovely as she was, shone +with a lesser light that evening in Miss Darry's presence; yet Mr. Lang, +tempted away for a moment, always rejoined her with an admiring smile, +well pleased at fascinations less indiscriminately exercised. + +A little later, as I again approached Mr. Leopold's picture, not +venturing to return to the parlors, now that Miss Darry was engrossed by +other gentlemen, I became an unwilling listener to a few words of +conversation between Miss Merton and Mr. Lang, who stood just outside +the door. + +"What a girl Frank Darry is for accomplishing everything she +undertakes!" said Miss Merton, admiringly; "how she has improved her +_protege_! he can talk on subjects where I have to be silent, though I +have had what dear mamma used to call a 'finished education.'" + +"Yes, darling. She has made his mental growth very rapid; but, in the +process of cultivation, he is gaining a little false pride, which I hope +is not of her planting. He blushes, whenever his trade is alluded to: +foolish fellow! not to see that the very fact of being a blacksmith is +his claim to superiority. A thoroughly trained youth might have done far +more than he without any special ability." + +"But, Hamilton, you may misconstrue blushes which are so frequent; he is +in a new world, too; do give him a chance to make himself at home, +before you criticize him. You must admit I was right about his not +annoying one by any decided awkwardness of behavior." + +"Oh, yes, dear. A certain sense of fitness goes with the artistic +temperament. I suppose old Dr. Johnson, devouring his food and drinking +innumerable cups of tea, might be a far more shocking social companion +than this blacksmith's apprentice. You are always drawing out the +lovable traits of people, dear Alice," he added, in a lower tone; "and +that is a thousand times better than Frank Darry's intellectual +developments." + +They turned away then; and I, angry at being forced to listen at all to +what was not meant for my ear, and the more so that Mr. Lang had spoken +of me so depreciatingly, stood burning with shame and indignation. Annie +Bray's undoubting faith and love would have comforted me without a word +of spoken confidence; but she was not here to give it; and, longing for +the reassurance of Miss Darry's presence, I entered the +drawing-room,--but would gladly have withdrawn again, for Mr. Lang came +quickly toward me. + +"Sandy," he said, "this may not be exactly the time to discuss business +matters with you; but your friends seem to feel that you deserve a +better chance in the world. Mr. Bray, to whom I spoke yesterday, says +you were not bound to serve him after your eighteenth birthday, but that +you have never expressed a wish to leave. Don't you see what a foolish +fellow you are to work for him, when you might be earning for yourself?" + +"But I have had no money to start with. I have had time for study, too," +I stammered. + +"Two reasons sufficient for an abstracted youth like you, but utterly +unpractical. I want you to hire a forge this side of Warren. I will +insure you custom enough to warrant the step." + +He looked at me keenly as he spoke, while I colored with the pride and +indignation which, since his words to Miss Merton a few moments before, +I had been trying to control. Was this to be the end of all my hopes, +the object of Miss Darry's instructions, her flattering encouragements +and exaggerated estimate of my "genius," as she had termed it, that I +might have a forge of my own, to which I should be compelled to give +undivided attention, and shoe Mr. Lang's horses, and possibly some +others belonging to Miss Merton's visitors? Yet, remembering how much +had been already, if unwisely, done for me, I held down these thoughts, +and, after a momentary pause, professed my willingness to think the +matter over, if I could reserve time for other pursuits. His face +lighted up, then, with the smile which had charmed me at the forge. + +"You are not spoiled yet, Sandy, I see. If you will only keep to your +trade, I will keep you to your art. You must have a boy at the forge, +and in the afternoons you can come here and paint under Mr. Leopold's +direction: he makes his home here during the summer, and he says you +have a talent worth cultivation." + +The revulsion of feeling was as complete as he could have desired; and I +had not fully expressed my gratitude when Miss Darry appeared. I went +with her to bid Miss Merton good-evening, and she stood in the moonlight +beside me on the step, as Annie Bray had done a few hours before; but +now I also was a changed character. + +"I am proud of my pupil, Sandy," she said, with more of her ordinary +manner than I had observed during the evening. "If I can place you in +better hands than mine, I shall be willing to give you up." + +"Give me up? never!" I cried, "Why, Miss Darry, this evening has proved +to me that I could not sustain myself in any untried position without +some help from you." + +She smiled, saying I was ridiculously unconscious of my own ability, and +yet looking gratified, I fancied, at the confession. + +(_To be continued._) + + + + +THE PROGRESS OF THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. + + +In the spring of 1860 an article was published in this magazine with the +above title, giving an account of the extension of the telegraph up to +that time. Its progress since has been very great in every quarter of +the globe. Upon this continent the electric wire extends from the Gulf +of St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico, and from the Atlantic to the +Pacific Ocean, connecting upwards of six thousand cities and villages; +while upon the Eastern Continent unbroken telegraphic communication +exists from London to all parts of Europe,--to Tripoli and Algiers, in +Africa,--Cairo, in Egypt,--Teheran, in Persia,--Jerusalem, in +Syria,--Bagdad and Nineveh, in Asiatic Turkey,--Bombay, Calcutta, and +other important cities, in India,--Irkoutsk, the capital of Eastern +Siberia,--and to Kiakhta, on the borders of China. + +But however rapid the extension of the telegraph has been in the past, +it is destined to show still greater advancement in the future. Neither +the American nor the European system has yet attained to its ultimate +development. Transient wars now delay the establishment of lines in San +Juan, Panama, Quito, Lima, Valparaiso, Buenos Ayres, Montevideo, Rio +Janeiro, Surinam, Caraccas, and Mexico, and the incorporating of them, +with all their local ramifications, into one American telegraph system. +The Atlantic cable, although its recent attempted submergence has proved +a failure, will yet be successfully laid; while the equally important +enterprise of establishing overland telegraphic communication with +Europe _via_ the Pacific coast and the Amoor River is now being +vigorously pushed forward towards its successful completion. + +The latter project, which is being carried out by the Western Union +Extension Telegraph Company, with a capital of ten million dollars, +embraces the construction of a line of telegraph from New Westminster, +British Columbia, the northern terminus of the California State +Telegraph Company, through British Columbia and Russian America to Cape +Prince of Wales, and thence across Behring's Strait to East Cape; or, if +found more practicable, from Cape Romanzoff to St. Lawrence Island, +thence to Cape Tchuktchi, and thence by an inland route around the Sea +of Okhotsk to the mouth of the Amoor River. At this point it is to be +joined by the line now being constructed by the Russian Government to +connect with Irkoutsk, where a line of telegraph begins, which stretches +through Tomsk and Omsk, in Western Siberia, Katharinburg, on the +Asiatic-European frontier, Perm, Kasan, Nijni-Novogorod, and Moscow, to +St. Petersburg. + +This line, which was projected by Perry McDonough Collins, Esq., United +States Commercial Agent for the Amoor River, with its extension by the +Russian Government to Irkoutsk, is the link now wanted to supply direct +and unbroken telegraphic communication from Cape Race, in Newfoundland, +on the eastern coast of America, across the Western Continent, the +Pacific Ocean, and the Eastern Continent, to Cape Clear, in Ireland, the +westernmost projection of Europe; and when a submarine cable shall be +successfully laid between Cape Clear and Cape Race, will complete a +telegraphic circuit around the earth between the parallels of forty-two +and sixty-five degrees of north latitude. + +The chief difficulties to be anticipated in Mr. Collins's enterprise are +the extent of the territory to be traversed, its wild and rugged surface +formation, and the uncivilized character of its inhabitants. + +The distance to be traversed through British America is six hundred +miles; through Russian America, nineteen hundred miles; the length of +the submarine cable across Behring's Strait, four hundred miles; and the +distance from East Cape, by an inland passage around the Sea of +Okhotsk, and through the settlements of Okhotsk, Ayan, and Shanter's +Bay, which are well-known stations of the whale-fishery, to the mouth of +the Amoor River, is about twenty-five hundred miles. The entire length +of the line would thus be about five thousand four hundred miles. + +That portion of the route which lies through British Columbia is chiefly +mountainous, but divided into three ranges, whose courses are from north +to south, while intervening valleys invite the introduction of +telegraphs and roads. The Pacific coast of Russian America is mainly +level. The portion of Siberia which lies between East Cape and the head +of the Sea of Okhotsk is, for a large extent, a steppe or plain, with +gentle elevations occasionally rising into mountainous ridges. At the +head of the Sea of Okhotsk a range of mountains must be crossed; and the +region lying between that range and the mouth of the Amoor River is of +the same character as that before mentioned, which extends from the same +range northward to East Cape. The electric telegraph has already been +carried over steppes, in both continents, similar to those above +described; and the Pacific telegraph line, in crossing the Sierra +Nevada, rises to an elevation greater than that which is to be +surmounted on this line. + +Suitable timber for setting up the line can be found on those portions +of the route lying within British Columbia and the Russian dominions on +each continent, with the exception of an unwooded steppe five hundred +miles wide on each side of Behring's Strait. Here the needful timber can +be brought near to the line, either by sea or from the forest-covered +shores of navigable rivers. + +The temperature of the region through which the northern part of the +line would pass is very low; but the winter is less severe than between +the same parallels of latitude on the Atlantic coast. The telegraphic +line which connects St. Petersburg with Archangel, on the White Sea, and +that also which passes around the Gulf of Bothnia and connects St. +Petersburg with Tornea, are maintained in operation without difficulty, +although they cross as high parallels of latitude as those which lie in +the way of this overland line to Europe. The waters of Behring's Strait +are about one hundred and eighty feet deep, and they are frozen through +one half of the year; but the congealed mass, when broken, generally +takes the form of anchor ice, and not that of iceberg. Thus climate +seems to offer no serious obstacle to the enterprise; while it is worthy +of consideration that in high latitudes timber is far less perishable +than in low, and less insulating material is required in cold regions +than in more genial climates. + +Indian tribes are found along the American part of the route, but they +have been so well subjected to the influences of society and government, +through the operations of the fur-trade, that no serious resistance from +them is apprehended. The inhabitants of Asiatic Russia, who dwell +inland, are nomadic Tartars, affecting much independence, but they are, +nevertheless, not savages, like the American natives. After centuries of +internal war, they have now settled into a state of semi-civilization, +in which they are accustomed to barter with whalers, with exploring +parties, and with the Government agents of Russia, and they are +hospitably inclined by that intercourse. Thus it is seen that there are +no insuperable obstacles, either physical or social, in the way of this +projected line of intercontinental telegraph. + +From New Westminster, the capital of British Columbia, situated on +Frazer River, about fifteen miles from its mouth, and the terminus of +the California State Telegraph, the line of the Collins Overland +Telegraph has already been commenced. A letter from Mr. F. L. Pope, +Assistant-Engineer of the Overland Company, dated June 13th, 1865, +states that the work on this portion of the line is proceeding with +great energy. Scarcely two months had elapsed since active operations +were commenced; and yet during that time nearly three hundred miles of +poles had been cut and prepared for use, a large number had been set, +and the remainder had been already distributed along the line. The poles +are nearly all of cedar, and of good size, and will form one of the most +durable lines on the American continent. When the extremely mountainous +and difficult nature of the country along the Frazer River is taken into +consideration, the rapidity with which this large amount of work has +been done is extraordinary. It seems quite probable that the line will +be finished the present season from New Westminster to Quesnell River, +the terminus of the wagon-road to the mines. + +The Colonial Government are now engaged in cutting a road from New +Westminster to Yale, a distance of about ninety miles, along which the +wire will be carried. There has heretofore been no communication between +these points except by water. The river is bordered on both sides by +high mountains and dense forests of heavy timber, with an almost +impenetrable undergrowth. Notwithstanding these difficulties, Mr. +Conway, one of the telegraph engineers, made an exploration of the +entire route, during the latter part of last winter, on snow-shoes, +being at one time three days in the woods without food or blankets. + +From Yale to the Quesnell River, a distance of some three hundred miles, +the line will follow the wagon-road, which has been built at an enormous +expense by the Colonial Government, as a means of communication with the +gold-mining regions of Carriboo. It will be a matter of considerable +difficulty to set up a line of telegraph over that portion of this road +which passes through the great canon, as in many places the road has a +perpendicular wall of rock upon one side and a perpendicular precipice +on the other, and in one place is carried around the face of a cliff in +this manner, at an elevation of some two thousand feet, directly over +the river, being in some places blasted out of the solid rock, and in +others supported by a sort of staging. + +Two exploring parties have been dispatched from San Francisco: one to +examine the route through Eastern Siberia, between Behring's Strait and +the Amoor; and the other to follow the proposed route up the Frazer +River in British Columbia, and thence along the valley supposed to exist +between the Rocky Mountains and the Coast Range, to the head-waters of +Pelly River, following down the valley of this river and the Yerkin, +into which it empties, to a point near the mouth of the latter, or in +the neighborhood of Behring's Strait. + +The Pacific Telegraph Line, which will form an important link in the +overland line to Europe, was projected in 1859, when the measure was +first brought to the attention of Congress. A bill in aid of the project +was passed after some opposition, and proposals for the construction of +the line were invited by Secretary Cobb. Mr. Hiram Sibley, President of +the Western Union Telegraph Company, who was really the originator of +the whole enterprise, submitted to the directors of the Company the +question of authorizing him to send in proposals; but so formidable did +the undertaking appear, that the proposition was carried only by a +single vote. + +After long and tedious delays on the part of Secretary Cobb, the +contract for building the line was awarded, on the 20th of September, +1860, to Mr. Sibley, on behalf of the Western Union Telegraph Company. +The Company at once assumed the contract, and furnished all the money +required for the line east of Salt Lake. + +Mr. J. H. Wade, of Cleveland, one of the officers of the Company, now +visited California to confer with parties familiar with the various +routes, to determine where and how to build the line, and to arrange +with the telegraph companies in the Pacific States to extend their lines +eastward and form a business connection. The California Company agreed +to assume the construction of the line to Salt Lake City, and, if +possible, to have it completed to that point as soon as the line from +the eastward reached there. The route selected was _via_ Forts Kearney, +Laramie, and Bridger, crossing the Rocky Mountains at the South Pass, +and thence to Salt Lake City; and from this point, _via_ Forts +Crittenden and Churchill, across the Sierra Nevada Mountains to +Placerville and San Francisco. Mr. Edward Creighton, who had already +surveyed the proposed route, and was convinced of the feasibility of +maintaining a line over it, was appointed superintendent of +construction. + +The Company was organized April 17th, 1862, after which time nearly all +the wire, insulators, and other material had to be manufactured before +the construction of the line could be proceeded with. The reader can +judge of the extent of the preparations required for setting up two +thousand miles of telegraph through a wilderness inhabited only by +Indians and wild beasts, and a part of which was a desert. The materials +and tools were taken to Omaha, Kansas, at which point everything +necessary for the enterprise was gathered in readiness to start +westward. + +Of the force employed on the Pacific side we have no knowledge; but for +the line from Omaha to Salt Lake City, Mr. Creighton had four hundred +men, fitted out for a hard campaign, with a rifle and navy-revolver for +each man, and with the necessary provisions, including one hundred head +of cattle for beef, to be driven with the train and killed as needed. +For the transportation of the material and the supplies for this army of +workmen, five hundred oxen and mules and over one hundred wagons were +purchased by the Company; and these not proving sufficient, other +transportation was hired, making the total number of beasts of burden +seven hundred oxen and one hundred pair of mules. + +The first pole was set up on the 4th of July, 1862, and the line was +completed to Salt Lake on the 18th of October following,--the California +party reaching the same point six days later. The work proceeded at the +rate of about ten miles per day. + +The whole line is upon poles,--it being thought best to cross the rivers +in this manner rather than by means of submarine cables. The country is +for the most part bare of wood; the longest distance, however, that +timber had to be drawn in one stretch was two hundred and forty miles. +The poles are of large size, and stand eighty to the mile, more than +half of red cedar, the remainder mostly pine. On the highest mountains, +where the snow accumulates to a great depth during the winter, they are +of extra size, and sufficiently tall to keep the wires above the deepest +snow; they are also placed close enough together to prevent the wire +being broken by an accumulation of snow and sleet. + +The wire used in this line is No. 9 iron, zinc-coated, weighing three +hundred and fifty pounds to the mile, and the total weight used between +Omaha and San Francisco amounts to seven hundred thousand pounds. The +insulators are of glass, protected by a wooden shield, of the pattern +known as the Wade insulator. + +The line is worked by Morse instruments, usually direct from Chicago to +Salt Lake, Hicks's self-acting repeaters being kept in the circuit at +Omaha and Fort Laramie. At Salt Lake the messages are rewritten, and +thence sent direct to San Francisco. The stations average about one for +each fifty miles, and the whole length of the line is inspected twice a +week by persons employed for the purpose. The cost of construction was +about two hundred and fifty dollars per mile. + +No trouble was experienced from Indian depredations until the last +winter. Up to that time the line had worked almost uninterruptedly. Even +during the Indian difficulties of the previous summer and autumn, which +compelled the suspension of the overland mail, the telegraph was not in +any manner molested by the savages. This was supposed to be owing in a +great measure to the influence of superstitious fear among them in +regard to the wire, which they supposed to be under the especial care of +the Great Spirit; but it was probably largely due also to the many kind +offices done them by the telegraph-operators, who frequently ascertained +where the buffalo were in force, and informed their red-skinned +neighbors, who were thus enabled to find their favorite game. The charm +is now, however, unfortunately, dispelled; and the savages take every +opportunity to break and carry off the wire and destroy the poles. +Government is dispatching a large force of cavalry to punish the +marauders and protect the line, which it is to be hoped may prove +effectual. + + * * * * * + +It has already been mentioned that the Russian Government has undertaken +to extend the main eastern and western line from Irkoutsk to the mouth +of the Amoor River. This extension is now rapidly progressing. But this +is only a single and not very prominent part of the work which the +Emperor of Russia has begun. His design embraces nothing less than the +following stupendous works, namely:-- + +A line, with the necessary submarine cables, from the mouth of the Amoor +River, across the Straits of Tartary, over the island of Sakhalien, +across the Straits of La Perouse, over the Island of Jesso, through +Hakodadi, and across the Straits of Sangar, to Jeddo, the capital of +Japan. + +A line from the confluence of the Usuri with the Amoor, seven hundred +miles above the mouth of the latter, thence southward, on the bank of +the Usuri, to Lake Kingka, and thence to the port of Vladi Vastok, on +the coast of Tartary, opposite the port of Hakodadi, on the eastern +coast of the Japanese Sea. Vladi Vastok is selected by the Emperor for +his naval station on the Pacific coast. + +A line from Irkoutsk, the capital of Eastern Siberia, through Kiakhta, +now the entrepot of European and Chinese overland commerce, through the +vast territory of the Mongols, to the gate in the Chinese wall at Yahol, +and thence to Pekin, the capital of the Chinese Empire.[E] + +A line from a station on the main continental line at Omsk, near the +southern boundary of Asiatic Russia, passing through Mongolia, and +entering China at Hirck, sometimes called Illy, thence crossing +Turkistan, Bokhara, and Balk, to Cabool, in Afghanistan, thence to +capital places in the Punjaub, where it will meet the telegraphic system +of India, and thus become a medium of communication between London and +the colonial dependencies of Great Britain, Holland, Spain, and +Portugal, on the shores and islands of the great Indian Ocean. + +A line from Kasan, on the main central Russian line, through Georgia and +Circassia, along the western shore of the Caspian Sea, to Teheran, the +capital of Persia, thence to the Tigris, at Bagdad, thence descending +along the banks of that river to the head of the Persian Gulf, there to +be connected with the Oriental telegraph system of India. + +The line from Irkoutsk to Pekin American citizens residing in China are +now soliciting, with good prospect of success, permission from the +Chinese Government to extend through the Empire, with the needful +branches, connecting the principal ports along the Pacific coast, +opposite California. A company to carry out this project has been +organized under the laws of the State of New York. The wires of this +company are first to be put up from Canton to Macao and Hong Kong, a +distance of 140 miles,--Canton having a population of 1,000,000, +Hong-Kong of 40,000, and the trade of both cities world-famous. Lying +245 miles north is Amoy, with 250,000 inhabitants; and 120 miles farther +in the same direction is Foochow, a city with a population of 600,000, +and within 70 miles of the black-tea districts, with large commerce, and +with numerous manufactures of great value. Beyond it 250 miles is +Ningpo, with 300,000 inhabitants, and thriving manufactures of silks. +Eighty miles north is Shanghai, a city of not less than 200,000 +inhabitants, and possessing a larger inland or native trade than any +other in China. Yet between these great marts there is no telegraphic +communication whatever,--nor, indeed, is there a line in any part of the +whole Chinese Empire. The company proposes, therefore, to connect these +great commercial cities, and, having done that, to carry on its line to +Nankin, with its 400,000 inhabitants, and thence to Pekin, which has a +population of 2,000,000, and is the capital of an empire spread over an +area of 5,000,000 square miles, and containing more than 420,000,000 +souls, who pay to the Government an annual revenue of $120,000,000. It +may well be understood, that, for Government purposes alone, a line of +telegraph thus extending between the chief cities of China will prove of +incalculable value, alike in its use, and in its profits to those who +erect it and receive its income. The enterprise is a great one, but its +reward will be great. Its successful accomplishment seems to be well +assured; and New York may expect presently to claim the honor of first +giving to the oldest of existing empires the beneficent invention which +the newest of nations created, and at the same time of taking the final +step for the completion of the one great line which is to put all the +countries of the earth in instant communication. + +A line from Calcutta to Canton is already undertaken by an English +company, with due authority from the British Government. + +In Australia there are now in operation twelve thousand miles of +telegraph-wire. This Australian system, which is at present so purely +local and isolated, is nevertheless expected to be brought into +combination, by alternating submarine and island wires, with the Chinese +and Russian line above described. + +The statistics of the telegraph-lines in Great Britain show not only an +increase in the number of lines, but a great augmentation in the amount +of business transacted. In 1861 there were 11,528 miles of line open for +public use; in 1862, 12,711 miles; and in 1863, 13,892 miles, comprising +65,012 miles of wire. Last year, the number of stations was augmented in +like proportion; and facilities were offered for the transmission of +telegraphic dispatches at no fewer than 1,755 stations, containing 6,196 +instruments, through which about 3,400,000 telegrams were sent. In +addition to the lines on British soil, the Submarine Telegraph Company +has cables stretching to Calais, Boulogne, Dieppe, Jersey, Ostend, +Hanover, and Denmark, with which the other lines are more or less in +connection, covering 887 miles with 2,683 miles of wire. This company +has upwards of 3,000 stations on the Continent. The messages sent by it +to and from foreign countries were, in 1861, 230,000; in 1862, 310,595; +and in 1863, 345,784. + +France possesses a system comprising 71,034 miles of wire and 1,301 +stations, which transmit about 1,500,000 private dispatches annually, +and nearly 175,000 official ones. Russia has 36,663 miles of wire; +Austria, 22,230; Italy, 20,120; Prussia, 24,149; Spain, 17,743; Belgium, +3,773; Switzerland, 3,720; Turkey, 6,571; Persia, 2,500; Greece, 3,000; +India, 10,994, and 136 stations; Australia, 12,000; South Australia, +2,000; the United States, 120,000; the British Provinces in America, +20,000;--making a total of upwards of 440,000 miles of aerial wire in +operation in all parts of the world. + + * * * * * + +The following tables give the details of the principal cables hitherto +laid by all makers. They are divided into three heads: 1st, Those which +have been wholly successful, and are now working (September, 1865); 2d, +Those which were partially successful, having worked for a time; 3d, +Those which wholly failed, or never worked after their submergence. + +TABLE I. + +_Submarine Telegraph Cables which are now in Successful Working Order._ + +Column A: No. +Column B: Date when laid. +Column C: From +Column D: To +Column E: Number of conducting wires. +Column F: Length of cable in statute miles. +Column G: Length of insulated wire in statute miles. +Column H: Maximum depth of water in fathoms. +Column I: Weight in tons per statute mile. +Column J: Length of time the cables have worked. Years. + +A B C D E F G H I J + +1 1851 Dover Calais 4 27 108 30 6.00 14 +2 1852 Keyhaven Hurst Castle 4 3 12 .. .. 13 +3 1853 Denmark Across the Belt 3 18 54 15 4.00 12 +4 1853 Dover Ostend 6 80-1/2 483 30 5.75 12 +5 1853 Firth of Forth ... 4 5 20 .. 7.00 12 +6 1853 England Holland 1 120 120 30 1.75 12 +7 1853 Portpatrick Donaghadee 6 25 150 160 6.00 12 +8 1854 Portpatrick Whitehead 6 27 162 150 6.00 11 +9 1854 Sweden Denmark 3 12 36 14 6.00 11 +10 1854 Italy Corsica 6 120 660 325 8.00 11 +11 1854 Corsica Sardinia 6 10 60 20 8.00 11 +12 1855 Egypt ... 4 10 40 .. 6.00 10 +13 1855 Italy Sicily 1 5 5 27 6.00 10 +14 1856 Prince Edward Cape Breton 1 12 12 14 2.50 9 + Island +15 1857 Norway across ... 1 49 49 300 2.75 8 + Fiords +16 1857 Across mouth of ... 1 3 3 .. 1.75 8 + Danube +17 1857 Ceylon India 1 60 60 45 2.75 8 +18 1858 Italy Sicily 1 8 8 60 5.25 7 +19 1858 England Holland 4 140 560 30 9.75 7 +20 1858 England Hanover 2 280 560 30 3.00 7 +21 1858 Norway across ... 1 16 16 300 2.75 7 + Fiords +22 1858 Dardanelles Scio 1 115 115 200 1.00 7 +23 1858 Scio Syra 1 85 85 200 1.00 7 +24 1859 Alexandria ... 4 2 8 .. 5.25 6 +25 1859 England Denmark 3 360 1,104 30 4.00 6 +26 1859 Scio Smyrna 1 40 40 40 1.00 6 +27 1859 Syra Athens 1 105 105 150 1.00 6 +28 1859 Sweden Gottland 1 64 64 80 2.50 6 +29 1859 Folkestone Boulogne 6 24 144 32 9.50 6 +30 1859 Across rivers ... 1 10 10 .. 4.50 6 + in India +31 1859 Otranto Avlona 1 50 50 400 1.00 6 +32 1859 Malta Sicily 1 60 60 79 3.25 6 +33 1859 Jersey Pirou in France 1 21 21 15 3.75 6 +34 1859 South Australia Tasmania 1 140 140 60 2.00 6 +35 1860 France Algiers 1 520 520 1,585 1.14 5 +36 1860 Denmark (Great Belt) 6 14 84 18 8.00 5 +37 1860 Denmark (Great Belt) 3 14 42 18 6.00 5 +38 1860 In Arracan ... 1 116 116 50 1.00 5 +39 1860 Barcelona Port Mahon 1 198 198 1,400 1.25 5 +40 1860 Minorca Majorca 2 35 70 250 2.00 5 +41 1860 Iviza Majorca 2 74 148 500 2.00 5 +42 1860 San Antonio Iviza 2 76 152 450 2.00 5 +43 1861 Corfu Otranto 1 90 90 1,000 2.75 4 +44 1861 Norway across ... 1 16 16 300 2.75 4 + Fiords +45 1861 Toulon Corsica 1 195 195 1,550 1.14 4 +46 1861 Malta Alexandria 1 1,535 1,535 420 1.85 4 +47 1861 Beachy Head Dieppe 6 80 320 30 8.00 4 +48 1862 Abermawr Grenore 4 63 252 58 5.25 3 +49 1862 England Holland 4 130 520 30 9.00 3 +50 1862 Across rivers ... 1 2 2 .. .. 3 + in Ireland +51 1862 Firth of Forth ... 4 6 24 7 .. 3 +52 1862 Fortress Monroe Cherrystone 1 23 23 .. .. 3 +53 1862 Fortress Monroe Newport News 1 3 3 .. .. 3 +54 1863 Sardinia Sicily 1 243 243 1,200 .. 2 +55 1864 Gwadur Fao 1 1,450 1,450 .. .. 1 + (Persian Gulf) + _____ ______ + 6,979 11,127 + +In addition to the above, there have been laid across American rivers, +since 1854, 95 lines, in lengths of from 120 feet to two miles, and +comprising from 120 feet to 6 miles of insulated wire each,--making an +aggregate of 250 miles of subaqueous wire in operation on this +continent, and a total of 6,979 miles of cable, and 11,127 miles of +submarine wire in operation in all parts of the world. + +TABLE II. + +_Submarine Telegraph Cables which have been successful for some Time, +but are not now working._ + +Column A: No. +Column B: Date when laid. +Column C: From +Column D: To +Column E: Number of conducting wires. +Column F: Length of cable in statute miles. +Column G: Length insulated wire in statute miles. +Column H: Maximum depth of water in fathoms. +Column I: Weight in tons per statute mile. +Column J: Length of time the cables have worked. + + A B C D E F G H I J + + 1 1850 Dover Calais 1 25 25 30 .. 1 day. + 2 1853 England Holland 1 360 360 30 2.00 5 yrs. + (Three Cables) + 3 1854 Holyhead Howth 1 75 75 70 2.00 5 " + 4 1854 Nantucket Cape Cod 1 25 25 16 .. .... + 5 1855 Varna Balaklava 1 355 355 300 0.10 9 mos. + 6 1855 Balaklava Eupatoria 1 1 1 .. .. 9 " + 7 1856 Martha's Vineyard Cape Cod 1 5 5 15 .. 2 wks. + 8 1856 Newfoundland Cape Breton 1 85 85 360 2.50 9 yrs. + 9 1857 Sardinia Bona 4 150 600 1,500 .. 3 " +10 1857 Varna Constantinople 1 170 170 .. 0.75 5 " +11 1857 Cape Cod Naushon 1 1 .. .. .. 2 " +12 1857 Martha's Vineyard Nantucket 1 30 30 16 .. 4 " +13 1857 Sardinia Corfu 1 700 700 1,000 0.90 1 " +14 1858 England Channel Islands 1 102 102 60 2.50 3 " +15 1858 Ireland(Atlantic) Newfoundland 1 2,500 2,500 2,400 1.00 23 ds. +16 1859 Singapore Batavia 1 630 630 20 0.04 2 yrs. +17 1859 Suez Kurrachee 1 3,500 3,500 1,910 0.94 6 mos. + (Red Sea & India) +18 1859 Spain Africa (Centa) 1 25 25 .. 1.00 1 yr. +19 1859 England Isle of Man 1 36 36 30 2.50 3 yrs. +20 1859 South Australia Tasmania 1 100 100 60 2.00 1 yr. +21 1859 Liverpool Holyhead 2 25 50 14 3.10 1 " +22 1859 Syra Candia 1 150 150 .. 0.89 3 yrs. +23 1860 Across the Mersey .. 1 3 3 .. .. 1 yr. + _____ _____ + 9,053 9,527 + +TABLE III. + +_Submarine Telegraph Cables Which Are Total Failures._ + +Column A: No. +Column B: Date when laid. +Column C: From +Column D: To +Column E: Number of conducting wires. +Column F: Length of cable in statute miles. +Column G: Length of insulated wire in statute miles. +Column H: Maximum depth of water in fathoms. +Column I: Weight in tons per statute mile. + + A B C D E F G H I + + 1 1852 Holyhead Howth 1 75 75 70 0.45 + 2 1852 Portpatrick Donaghadee 2 17 34 160 .. + 3 1852 Portpatrick Donaghadee 5 15 75 160 4.80 + 4 1854 Holyhead Howth 1 65 65 70 2.00 + 5 1855 Sardinia Africa 6 50 300 800 8.00 + 6 1855 Cape Ray Cape North 3 30 90 360 .. + 7 1855 Sardinia Africa 3 160 480 1,500 3.70 + 8 1857 Ireland Newfoundland 1 300 300 2,400 .. + (Lost in laying) + 9 1859 Candia Alexandria 1 150 150 1,600 0.89 +10 1865 Ireland Newfoundland 1 1,300 1,300 2,400 1.75 + +It will be seen from the above list of failures, that the great +extension and success of submarine cables has been attained through many +great failure,--among the most prominent being the old and new Atlantic, +the Red Sea and India, (which was laid in five sections, that worked +from six to nine months each, but was never in working order from end to +end,) the Singapore and Batavia, and Sardinia and Corfu. None of these +cable, with the exception of the new Atlantic, were tested under water +after manufacture, and every one of them was covered with a sheathing of +light iron wire, weighing in the aggregate only about fifteen hundred +pounds per mile. + +These two peculiarities are sufficient to account for every failure +which has occurred, with the exception of the new Atlantic. No +electrical test will show the presence of flaws in the insulating cover +of a wire, unless water, or some other conductor, enters the flaws and +establishes an electrical connection between the outside and inside of +the cable. All cables now manufactured are tested under water before +being laid. + + * * * * * + +Communication between the Ottoman capital and Western Europe passes +through Vienna. From this city to Constantinople there are two distinct +lines,--one passing by Semlin and Belgrade to Adrianople, the other by +Toultcha, Kustendji, and Varna. There is a third line to Adrianople by +Bucharest; and by the opening of the submarine line between Avlona and +Otranto, in Italy, the Turkish telegraph service will be in direct +communication with the West, without going through Servia or the +Moldo-Wallachian Principalities. + +Communication between Constantinople and India is maintained over the +following route:--To Ismid, 55 miles; thence to Mudurli, 104 miles; +thence to Angora, 111 miles; thence to Guzgat, 113 miles; thence to +Sivas, 140 miles; Kharpoot, 178 miles; Diarbekir, 77 miles; Mardeen, 61 +miles; Djezireh, 104 miles; Mosul, (Nineveh,) 91 miles; Kerkook, 114 +miles; Bagdad, 189 miles. From Bagdad to Fao, at the mouth of the +Shat-el-Arab, on the Persian Gulf, is 400 miles. From Fao to Kurrachee +the submarine cable stretches along the bottom of the Persian Gulf for +1,450 miles; and thence are 500 miles of aerial line across a portion of +British India to Bombay. + +The accounts of the successful opening of this line tell of the +astonishment of the savage Beloochees and Arabs along the Mekran coast +at the marvel of a blue spark flashing for the Sahib to the Indus and +back again in less time than it takes to smoke a hookah. At Gwadur, no +sooner was the cable landed than the people of the surrounding country +flocked down to hear and talk of the Feringhee witchcraft. Chiefs of the +Beloochees, Muscatees, and Heratees, with their retainers, trod upon +each other's toes in their eagerness to see it work. Gwadur has given up +the idea that Mahomet taught everything that could be known, and now +sits upon the carpet of astonishment and chews the betel-nut of +meditation. + +The establishment of the electric telegraph in India presented some +curious as well as difficult problems. In the first place, it was +discovered that the air of India is in a state of constant electrical +perturbation of the strongest kind, so that the instruments there +mounted went into a high fever and refused to work. Along the north and +south lines a current of electricity was constantly passing, which threw +the needles out of gear and baffled the signallers. Moreover, the +tremendous thunder-storms ran up and down the wires and melted the +conductors; the monsoon winds tore the teak-posts out of the sodden +ground; the elephants and buffaloes trampled the fallen lines into kinks +and tangles; the Delta aborigines carried off the timber supports for +fuel, and the wires or iron rods upon them to make bracelets and to +supply the Hindoo smitheries; the cotton- and rice-boats, kedging up and +down the river, dragged the subaqueous wires to the surface. In addition +to these graver difficulties were many of an amusing character. Wild +pigs and tigers scratched their skins against the posts in the jungle, +and porcupines and bandicoots burrowed them out of the ground. Kites, +fishing-eagles, and hooded-crows came in hundreds and perched upon the +line to see what on earth it could mean, and sometimes after a +thunder-storm, when the wires were wet, were found dead by dozens, the +victims of their curiosity, Monkeys climbed the posts and ran along the +lines, chattering, and dropping an interfering tail from one wire to +another, which tended to confound the conversations of Calcutta. +Parrots, with the same contempt for electrical insulation, fastened upon +one string by the beak and another by the leg; and in one village, the +complacent natives hung their fishing-lines to dry upon them. + +In 1856 there were four thousand miles of telegraph-wire stretched over +India: some upon bamboo posts, which bent to the storms and thus defied +them; some, as in the Madras Presidency, upon monoliths of +granite,--these, during the Mutiny, proving worth ten times their cost. + + * * * * * + +Whilst the telegraph has been thus rapidly encircling the globe with its +iron threads, great improvement has been made in the apparatus for +transmitting the electrical signals over them. Instruments called +translators, or repeaters, have been devised, by which aerial lines may +be operated, without repetition, over distances of many thousands of +miles. Through the use of this valuable invention upon the California +line, operators in New York and San Francisco are able to converse as +readily and rapidly as those situated at the extremities of a line only +a hundred miles in length. + +The enormous increase in the amount of matter to be transmitted over the +wires has stimulated the inventive genius of our own country and Europe +to produce an apparatus by which the capacity of a wire may be greatly +increased. Mr. M. G. Farmer of Boston, Mr. J. G. Smith of Portland, +Maine, Dr. Gintl of Germany, and one or two other persons, have solved +the problem of the simultaneous transmission of messages over a single +wire in opposite directions. But while their apparatus, with the proper +arrangement of batteries, will unquestionably permit the accomplishment +of this apparent paradox, the natural disturbances upon a wire of any +considerable length, together with the inequalities of the current +caused by escape in wet weather, have precluded its practical use. + +In this country, General Lefferts of New York, and in Europe, Professor +Bonelli, have devoted much time and expense to the perfection of +apparatus for securing greater rapidity of transmission over the aerial +lines. + +General Lefferts owns several patents covering inventions of great +ingenuity and value, which are now being perfected and will shortly be +brought into operation. The apparatus consists of an instrument, +operated by keys similar to those of a piano-forte, for punching +characters, composed of dots and lines, upon a narrow strip of paper. +The paper, when thus prepared, is passed rapidly through an instrument +attached to a telegraph-wire, at the other end of which is a similar +instrument which runs in unison. The first instrument is provided with a +flexible metallic comb, which presses through the perforations in the +paper and thus closes the circuit at each dot and line, while the second +instrument is provided with a metallic stylus, or pointer, which rests +upon a fillet of paper prepared with chemicals, and produces, whenever +the circuit is closed, dots and lines of a dark blue color upon the +prepared paper. When the paper is prepared by the perforating apparatus, +it can be run through the instrument at any rate of speed that is +desirable, and it is estimated that with this apparatus one wire may +easily perform as much work in a day as ten can under the ordinary +arrangement. + +In Professor Bonelli's system the dispatch is set up in printing-type, +and placed on a little carriage, which is made to pass beneath a comb +with five teeth, which are in communication with five aerial wires of +the line, at the extremity of which these same wires are joined to the +five teeth of a second comb, under which passes a chemically prepared +paper, carried along on a little carriage similar to the one at the +other end on which the printing-type is placed. If under this +arrangement the electric circuit of a battery composed of a sufficient +number of elements, and distributed in a certain order, be completed, +then, at the same time that the first comb is passing over the +printing-type at the one end, the second comb at the other end will +trace the dispatch on the prepared paper in beautiful Roman letters, and +with so great a rapidity that it may be expected that five hundred +messages of twenty words each will be transmitted hourly. + +On Wednesday, April 19th, the day of Mr. Lincoln's funeral, eighty-five +thousand words of reports were transmitted between Washington and New +York, between the hours of 7, P. M., and 1, A. M., being at the rate of +over fourteen thousand words per hour. Nine wires were employed for the +purpose. Thirteen thousand six hundred words were transmitted by the +House printing instruments on a single wire after half past seven +o'clock. + +A telegraphic message was recently received in London from India in +eight hours and a half. This message was forwarded by the Indo-European +Telegraph Company, _via_ Kurrachee and the Persian Gulf, crossing one +half of Asia and the whole of Europe. + +During the late Rebellion in this country the telegraph was extensively +employed both by the Government and the Insurgents. In the course of the +past year, there have been in the service of the Government thirty +field-trains, distributed as follows:--In the Army of the Potomac, five; +in the Department of the Cumberland, five; in the Department of the +Gulf, three; in the Department of North Carolina and Virginia, three; in +the Department of the South, two; in the Department of the Tennessee, +six; in the Department of the Ohio, two; at the Signal Camp of +Instruction, Georgetown, D. C., three; at the United States Military +Academy, West Point, New York, one. Of these trains, some were equipped +with five, and others with ten miles of insulated wire. There were +carried in the trains lances for setting up the wire, when +necessary,--reels, portable by hand, carrying wire made purposely +flexible for this particular use,--and various minor appliances, which +experience has proved useful. A military organization was directed for +each train. + +In duty of this kind, the construction of the trains, the equipment to +be carried by them, and the military organization to be provided for +their use, to enable them to be most rapidly and anywhere brought into +action, are the subjects for study: the particular instrument to be +equipped is a secondary consideration. The soldiers drilled to the duty +of construction acquire in a short time a remarkable skill in the rapid +extension of these lines. As was anticipated, they have proved valuable +auxiliaries to the services of the corps, and have sometimes rendered +them available when they would have been otherwise useless. The greatest +distance at which the instruments are reported to have worked is twenty +miles. The average distances at which they are used are from five to +eight miles. The average speed of the most rapid construction is +reported to be at the rate of a slow walk. + +At the first Battle of Fredericksburg field-trains were for the first +time in the history of the war used on the battle-field, under the fire +of the enemy's batteries. The movements to be made on the day of that +battle were of the first magnitude. The movements of the retreat were +perilous to the whole army. The trains in use contributed something to +the success of those movements. + +Many incidents are recorded of operators accompanying raiding parties +into the enemy's territory and tapping the telegraph-lines, sometimes +obtaining valuable information. One is related by the "Selma Rebel." The +operator at that place was called to his instrument by some one up the +Tennessee and Alabama Road, who desired information as to the number of +the forces and supplies at Coosa Bridge. After getting all the +information he could, regarding the location and strength of the Rebel +forces, he informed the Selma operator that he was attached to the +expedition under General Wilson, and that, at that particular time, he +was stationed with his instruments up a tree near Monticello, in the +hardest rain he ever saw! Permission being given, he sent a dispatch to +a young lady in Mobile, and another to a telegraph-operator in the Rebel +lines, telling him he loved him as much as before the war. After some +other conversation, the Yankee operator clambered down from the tree, +mounted his horse, and rode away. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[E] The Chinese Government has been informed by the Russian Ambassador +that the Russian portion of this line to Pekin will be completed by the +first of January, 1868. + + + + +THE FIELD OF GETTYSBURG. + + +In the month of August, 1865, I set out to visit some of the scenes of +the great conflict through which the country has lately passed. + +On the twelfth, I reached Harrisburg,--a plain, prosaic town of brick +and wood, with nothing especially attractive about it, except its +broad-sheeted, shining river, flowing down from the Blue Ridge, around +wooded islands, and between pleasant shores. + +It is in this region that the traveller from the North first meets with +indications of recent actual war. The Susquehanna, on the eastern shore +of which the city stands, forms the northern limit of Rebel military +operations. The "highwater mark of the Rebellion" is here: along these +banks its uttermost ripples died. The bluffs opposite the town are still +crested with the hastily constructed breastworks, on which the citizens +worked night and day in the pleasant month of June, 1863, throwing up, +as it were, a dike against the tide of invasion. These defences were of +no practical value. They were unfinished when the Rebels appeared in +force in the vicinity. Harrisburg might easily have been taken, and a +way opened into the heart of the North. But a Power greater than man's +ruled the event. The Power that lifted these azure hills, and spread out +the green valleys, and hollowed a passage for the stream, appointed to +treason also a limit and a term. "Thus far, and no farther." + +The surrounding country is full of lively reminiscences of those +terrible times. Panic-stricken populations flying at the approach of the +enemy; whole families fugitive from homes none thought of defending; +flocks and herds, horses, wagon-loads of promiscuously heaped household +stuffs and farm produce; men, women, children, riding, walking, running, +driving or leading their bewildered four-footed chattels,--all rushing +forward with clamor and alarm under clouds of dust, crowding every road +to the river, and thundering across the long bridges regardless of the +"five-dollars-fine" notice (though it is to be hoped that the +toll-takers did their duty):--such were the scenes which occurred to +render the Rebel invasion memorable. The thrifty German farmers of the +lower counties did not gain much credit either for courage or patriotism +at that time. It was a panic, however, to which almost any community +would have been liable. Stuart's famous raid of the previous year was +well remembered. If a small cavalry force had swept from their track +through a circuit of about sixty miles over two thousand horses, what +was to be expected from Lee's whole army? Resistance to the formidable +advance of one hundred thousand disciplined troops was of course out of +the question. The slowness, however, with which the people responded to +the State's almost frantic calls for volunteers was in singular contrast +with the alacrity each man showed to run off his horses and get his +goods out of Rebel reach. + +From Harrisburg, I went, by the way of York and Hanover, to Gettysburg. +Having hastily secured a room at a hotel in the Square, (the citizens +call it the "Di'mond,") I inquired the way to the battle-ground. + +"You are on it now," said the landlord, with proud satisfaction,--for +it is not every man that lives, much less keeps a tavern, on the field +of a world-famous fight. "I tell you the truth," said he; and, in proof +of his words, (as if the fact were too wonderful to be believed without +proof,) he showed me a Rebel shell imbedded in the brick wall of a house +close by. (N. B. The battle-field was put into the bill.) + +Gettysburg is the capital of Adams County: a town of about three +thousand souls,--or fifteen hundred, according to John Burns, who +assured me that half the population were Copperheads, and that they had +no souls. It is pleasantly situated on the swells of a fine undulating +country, drained by the headwaters of the Monocacy. It has no special +natural advantages,--owing its existence, probably, to the mere fact +that several important roads found it convenient to meet at this point, +to which accident also is due its historical renown. The circumstance +which made it a burg made it likewise a battle-field. + +About the town itself there is nothing very interesting. It consists +chiefly of two-story houses of wood and brick, in dull rows, with +thresholds but little elevated above the street. Rarely a front yard or +blooming garden-plot relieves the dreary monotony. Occasionally there is +a three-story house, comfortable, no doubt and sufficiently expensive, +about which the one thing remarkable is the total absence of taste in +its construction. In this respect Gettysburg is but a fair sample of a +large class of American towns, the builders of which seem never once to +have been conscious that there exists such a thing as beauty. + +John Burns, known as "the hero of Gettysburg," was almost the first +person whose acquaintance I made. He was sitting under the thick shade +of an English elm in front of the tavern. The landlord introduced him as +"the old man who took his gun and went into the first day's fight." He +rose to his feet and received me with sturdy politeness,--his evident +delight in the celebrity he enjoys twinkling through the veil of a +naturally modest demeanor. + +"John will go with you and show you the different parts of the +battle-ground," said the landlord. "Will you, John?" + +"Oh, yes, I'll go," said John, quite readily; and we set out at once. + +A mile south of the town is Cemetery Hill, the head and front of an +important ridge, running two miles farther south to Round Top,--the +ridge held by General Meade's army during the great battles. The Rebels +attacked on three sides,--on the west, on the north, and on the east; +breaking their forces in vain upon this tremendous wedge, of which +Cemetery Hill may be considered the point. A portion of Ewell's Corps +had passed through the town several days before, and neglected to secure +that very commanding position. Was it mere accident, or something more, +which thus gave the key to the country into our hands, and led the +invaders, alarmed by Meade's vigorous pursuit, to fall back and fight +the decisive battle here? + +With the old "hero" at my side pointing out the various points of +interest, I ascended Cemetery Hill. The view from the top is beautiful +and striking. On the north and east is spread a finely variegated farm +country; on the west, with woods and valleys and sunny slopes between, +rise the summits of the Blue Ridge. + +It was a soft and peaceful summer day. There was scarce a sound to break +the stillness, save the shrill note of the locust, and the perpetual +click-click of the stone-cutters, at work upon the granite headstones of +the soldiers' cemetery. There was nothing to indicate to a stranger that +so tranquil a spot had ever been a scene of strife. We were walking in +the time-hallowed place of the dead, by whose side the martyr-soldiers, +who fought so bravely and so well on those terrible first days of July, +slept as sweetly and securely as they. + +"It don't look here as it did after the battle," said John Burns. "Sad +work was made with the tombstones. The ground was all covered with dead +horses, and broken wagons, and pieces of shells, and battered muskets, +and everything of that kind, not to speak of the heaps of dead." But +now the tombstones have been replaced, the neat iron fences have been +mostly repaired, and scarcely a vestige of the fight remains. Only the +burial-places of the slain are there. _Thirty-five hundred and sixty +slaughtered Union soldiers lie on the field of Gettysburg._ This number +does not include those whose bodies have been claimed by friends and +removed. + +The new cemetery, devoted to the patriot slain, and dedicated with +fitting ceremonies on the 19th of November, 1863, adjoins the old one. +In the centre is the spot reserved for the monument, the corner-stone of +which was laid on the 4th of July, 1865. The cemetery is semicircular, +in the form of an amphitheatre, except that the slope is reversed, the +monument occupying the highest place. The granite headstones resemble +rows of semicircular seats. Side by side, with two feet of ground +allotted to each, and with their heads towards the monument, rest the +three thousand five hundred and sixty. The name of each, when it could +be ascertained, together with the number of the company and regiment in +which he served, is lettered on the granite at his head. But the +barbarous practice of stripping such of our dead as fell into their +hands, in which the Rebels indulged here as elsewhere, rendered it +impossible to identify large numbers. The headstones of these are +lettered, "Unknown." At the time when I visited the cemetery, the +sections containing most of the unknown had not yet received their +headstones, and their resting-places were indicated by a forest of +stakes. I have seen few sadder sights. + +The spectacle of so large a field crowded with the graves of the slain +brings home to the heart an overpowering sense of the horror and +wickedness of war. Yet, as I have said, not all our dead are here. None +of the Rebel dead are here. Not one of those who fell on other fields, +or died in hospitals and prisons in those States where the war was +chiefly waged,--not one out of those innumerable martyred hosts lies on +this pleasant hill. The bodies of once living and brave men, slowly +mouldering to dust in this sanctified soil, form but a small, a single +sheaf from that great recent harvest reaped by Death with the sickle of +war. + +Once living and brave! How full of life, how full of unflinching courage +and fiery zeal, they marched up hither to fight the great fight, and to +give their lives! And each man had his history; each soldier resting +here had his interests, his loves, his darling hopes, the same as you or +I. All were laid down with his life. It was no trifle to him, it was as +great a thing to him as it would be to you, thus to be cut off from all +things dear in this world, and to drop at once into a vague eternity. +Grown accustomed to the waste of life through years of war, we learn to +think too lightly of such sacrifices. "So many killed,"--with that brief +sentence we glide over the unimaginably fearful fact, and pass on to +other details. We indulge in pious commonplaces,--"They have gone to a +better world, they have their reward," and the like. No doubt this is +true; if not, then life is a mockery, and hope a lie. But the future, +with all our faith, is vague and uncertain. It lies before us like one +of those unidentified heroes, hidden from sight, deep-buried, +mysterious, its headstone lettered "Unknown." Will it ever rise? Through +trouble, toils, and privations,--not insensible to danger, but braving +it,--these men--and not these only, but the uncounted thousands +represented by these--confronted, for their country's sake, that awful +uncertainty. Did they believe in your better world? Whether they did or +not, this world was a reality, and dear to them. + +I looked into one of the trenches in which workmen were laying +foundations for the headstones, and saw the ends of the coffins +protruding. It was silent and dark down there. Side by side the soldiers +slept, as side by side they fought. I chose out one coffin from among +the rest, and thought of him whose dust it contained,--your brother and +mine, although we never knew him. I thought of him as a child, tenderly +reared--for this. I thought of his home, his heart-life:-- + + "Had he a father? + Had he a mother? + Had he a sister? + Had he a brother? + Or was there a nearer one + Still, and a dearer one + Yet, than all other?" + +I could not know: in this world, none will ever know. He sleeps with the +undistinguishable multitude, and his headstone is lettered, "Unknown." + +Eighteen loyal States are represented by the tenants of these graves. +New York has the greatest number,--upwards of eight hundred; +Pennsylvania comes next in order, having upwards of five hundred. Tall +men from Maine, young braves from Wisconsin, heroes from every state +between, met here to defend their country and their homes. Sons of +Massachusetts fought for Massachusetts on Pennsylvania soil. If they had +not fought, or if our armies had been annihilated there, the whole North +would have been at the mercy of Lee's victorious legions. As Cemetery +Hill was the pivot on which turned the fortunes of the battle, so +Gettysburg itself was the pivot on which turned the destiny of the +nation. Here the power of aggressive treason culminated; and from that +memorable Fourth of July when the Rebel invaders, beaten in the three +days' previous fight, stole away down the valleys and behind the +mountains on their ignominious retreat,--from that day, signalized also +by the fall of Vicksburg in the West, it waned and waned, until it was +swept from the earth. + +Cemetery Hill should be the first visited by the tourist of the +battle-ground. Here a view of the entire field, and a clear +understanding of the military operations of the three days, are best +obtained. Looking north, away on your left lies Seminary Ridge, the +scene of the first day's fight, in which the gallant Reynolds fell, and +from which our troops were driven back in confusion through the town by +overwhelming numbers, in the afternoon. Farther south spread the +beautiful woods and vales that swarmed with Rebels on the second and +third day, and from which they made such desperate charges upon our +lines. On the right as you stand is Culp's Hill, the scene of Ewell's +furious, but futile, attempts to flank us there. You are in the focus of +a half-circle, from all points of which was poured in upon this now +silent hill such an artillery fire as has seldom been concentrated upon +one point of an open field in any of the great battles upon this planet. +From this spot extend your observations as you please. + +Guided by the sturdy old man, I proceeded first to Culp's Hill, +following a line of breastworks into the woods. Here are seen some of +the soldiers' devices hastily adopted for defence. A rude embankment of +stakes and logs and stones, covered with earth, forms the principal +work; aside from which you meet with little private breastworks, as it +were, consisting of rocks heaped up by the trunk of a tree, or beside a +larger rock, or across a cleft in the rocks, where some sharpshooter +stood and exercised his skill at his ease. + +The woods are of oak chiefly, but with a liberal sprinkling of chestnut, +black-walnut, hickory, and other common forest-trees. Very beautiful +they were that day, with their great, silent trunks, all so friendly, +their clear vistas and sun-spotted spaces. Beneath reposed huge, sleepy +ledges and boulders, their broad backs covered with lichens and old +moss. A more fitting spot for a picnic, one would say, than for a +battle. + +Yet here remain more astonishing evidences of fierce fighting than +anywhere else about Gettysburg. The trees in certain localities are all +seamed, disfigured, and literally dying or dead from their wounds. The +marks of balls in some of the trunks are countless. Here are limbs, and +yonder are whole tree-tops, cut off by shells. Many of these trees have +been hacked for lead, and chips containing bullets have been carried +away for relics. + +Past the foot of the hill runs Rock Creek, a muddy, sluggish stream, +"great for eels," said John Burns. Big boulders and blocks of stone lie +scattered along its bed. Its low shores are covered with thin grass, +shaded by the forest-trees. Plenty of Rebel knapsacks and haversacks lie +rotting upon the ground; and there are Rebel graves in the woods near +by. By these I was inclined to pause longer than John Burns thought it +worth the while. I felt a pity for these unhappy men which he could not +understand. To him they were dead Rebels, and nothing more; and he spoke +with great disgust of an effort which had been made by certain +"Copperheads" of the town to have all the buried Rebels, now scattered +about in the woods and fields, gathered together in a cemetery near that +dedicated to our own dead. + +"Yet consider, my friend," I said, "though they were altogether in the +wrong, and their cause was infernal, these, too, were brave men; and +under different circumstances, with no better hearts than they had, they +might have been lying in honored graves up yonder, instead of being +buried in heaps, like dead cattle, down here." + +Is there not a better future for these men also? The time will come when +we shall at least cease to hate them. + +The cicada was singing, insects were humming in the air, crows were +cawing in the tree-tops, the sunshine slept on the boughs or nestled in +the beds of brown leaves on the ground,--all so pleasant and so pensive, +I could have passed the day there. But John reminded me that night was +approaching, and we returned to Gettysburg. + +That evening I walked alone to Cemetery Hill to see the sun set behind +the Blue Ridge. A quiet prevailed there still more profound than during +the day. The stonecutters had finished their day's work and gone home. +The katydids were singing, and the shrill, sad chirp of the crickets +welcomed the cool shades. The sun went down, and the stars came out and +shone upon the graves,--the same stars which were no doubt shining even +then upon many a vacant home and mourning heart left lonely by the +husbands, the fathers, the dear brothers and sons, who fell at +Gettysburg. + +The next morning, according to agreement, I went to call on the old +hero. I found him living in the upper part of a little whitewashed +two-story house, on the corner of two streets, west of the town. A +flight of wooden steps outside took me to his door. He was there to +welcome me. John Burns is a stoutish, slightly bent, hale old man, with +a light blue eye, a long, aggressive nose, a firm-set mouth, expressive +of determination of character, and a choleric temperament. His hair, +originally dark brown, is considerably bleached with age; and his beard, +once sandy, covers his face (shaved once or twice a week) with a fine +crop of silver stubble. A short, massy kind of man; about five feet four +or five inches in height, I should judge. He was never measured but once +in his life. That was when he enlisted in the War of 1812. He was then +nineteen years old, and stood five feet in his shoes. "But I've growed a +heap since," said the old hero. + +He introduced me to his wife, a slow, somewhat melancholy old lady, in +ill health. "She has been poorly now for a good many years." They have +no children. + +At my request he told me his story. He is of Scotch parentage; and who +knows but he may be akin to the ploughman-poet whose "arrowy songs still +sing in our morning air"? He was born and bred in Burlington, New +Jersey. A shoemaker by trade, he became a soldier by choice, and fought +the British in what used to be the "last war." I am afraid he contracted +bad habits in the army. For some years after the war he led a wandering +and dissipated life. Forty years ago he chanced to find himself in +Gettysburg, where he married and settled down. But his unfortunate +habits still adhered to him, and he was long looked upon as a man of +little worth. At last, however, when there seemed to be no hope of his +ever being anything but a despised old man, he took a sudden resolution +to reform. The fact that he kept that resolution, and still keeps it so +strictly that it is impossible to prevail upon him to taste a drop of +intoxicating liquor, attests a truly heroic will. He was afterwards a +constable in Gettysburg, in which capacity he served some six years. + +On the morning of the first day's fight he sent his wife away, telling +her that he would take care of the house. The firing was near by, over +Seminary Ridge. Soon a wounded soldier came into the town and stopped at +an old house on the opposite corner. Burns saw the poor fellow lay down +his musket, and the inspiration to go into the battle seems then first +to have seized him. He went over and demanded the gun. + +"What are you going to do with it?" asked the soldier. + +"I'm going to shoot some of the damned Rebels!" replied John. + +He is not a swearing man, and the strong adjective is to be taken in a +strictly literal, not a profane, sense. + +Having obtained the gun, he pushed out on the Chambersburg Pike, and was +soon in the thick of the skirmish. + +"I wore a high-crowned hat, and a long-tailed blue; and I was seventy +years old." + +The sight of so old a man, in such costume, rushing fearlessly forward +to get a shot in the very front of the battle, of course attracted +attention. He fought with the Seventh Wisconsin Regiment, the Colonel of +which ordered him back, and questioned him, and finally, seeing the old +man's patriotic determination, gave him a good rifle in place of the +musket he had brought with him. + +"Are you a good shot?" + +"Tolerable good," said John, who is an old fox-hunter. + +"Do you see that Rebel riding yonder?" + +"I do." + +"Can you fetch him?" + +"I can try." + +The old man took deliberate aim and fired. He does not say he killed the +Rebel, but simply that his shot was cheered by the Wisconsin boys, and +that afterwards the horse the Rebel rode was seen galloping with an +empty saddle. "That's all I know about it." + +He fought until our forces were driven back in the afternoon. He had +already received two slight wounds, and a third one through the arm, to +which he paid little attention: "only the blood running down my hand +bothered me a heap." Then, as he was slowly falling back with the rest, +he received a final shot through the leg. "Down I went, and the whole +Rebel army ran over me." Helpless, nearly bleeding to death from his +wounds, he lay upon the field all night. "About sun-up, next morning, I +crawled to a neighbor's house, and found it full of wounded Rebels." The +neighbor afterwards took him to his own house, which had also been +turned into a Rebel hospital. A Rebel surgeon dressed his wounds; and he +says he received decent treatment at the hands of the enemy, until a +Copperhead woman living opposite "told on him." + +"That's the old man who said he was going out to shoot some of the +damned Rebels!" + +Some officers came and questioned him, endeavoring to convict him of +"bushwhacking"; but the old man gave them little satisfaction. This was +on Friday, the third day of the battle; and he was alone with his wife +in the upper part of the house. The Rebels left, and soon after two +shots were fired. One bullet entered the window, passed over Burns's +head, and struck the wall behind the lounge on which he was lying. The +other shot fell lower, passing through a door. Burns is certain that the +design was to assassinate him. That the shots were fired by the Rebels +there can be no doubt; and as they were fired from their own side, +towards the town, of which they held possession at the time, John's +theory was plainly the true one. The hole in the window, and the +bullet-marks in the door and wall remain. + +Burns went with me over the ground where the first day's fight took +place. He showed me the scene of his hot day's work,--pointed out two +trees, behind which he and one of the Wisconsin boys stood and "picked +off every Rebel that showed his head," and the spot where he fell and +lay all night under the stars and dew. + +This act of daring on the part of so aged a citizen, and his subsequent +sufferings from wounds, naturally called out a great deal of sympathy, +and caused him to be looked upon as a hero. But a hero, like a prophet, +has not all honor in his own country. There's a wide-spread, violent +prejudice against Burns among that class of the townspeople termed +"Copperheads." The young men, especially, who did _not_ take their guns +and go into the fight as this old man did, but who ran, when running was +possible, in the opposite direction, dislike Burns. Some aver that he +did not have a gun in his hand that day, and that he was wounded by +accident, happening to get between the two lines. Others admit the fact +of his carrying a gun into the fight, but tell you, with a sardonic +smile, that his "motives were questionable." Some, who are eager enough +to make money on his picture, sold against his will, and without profit +to him, will tell you in confidence, after you have purchased it, that +"Burns is a perfect humbug." + +After studying the old man's character, conversing both with his friends +and enemies, and sifting evidence, during four days spent in Gettysburg, +I formed my conclusions. Of his going into the fight, and _fighting_, +there is no doubt whatever. Of his bravery, amounting even to rashness, +there can be no reasonable question. He is a patriot of the most zealous +sort; a hot, impulsive man, who meant what he said, when he started with +the gun to go and shoot some of the Rebels qualified with the strong +adjective. A thoroughly honest man, too, I think; although some of his +remarks are to be taken with considerable allowance. His temper causes +him to form immoderate opinions and to make strong statements. "_He +always goes beyant_," said my landlord, a firm friend of his, speaking +of this tendency to overstep the bounds of calm judgment. + +Burns is a sagacious observer of men and things, and makes occasionally +such shrewd remarks as this:-- + +"Whenever you see the marks of shells and bullets on a house all covered +up, and painted and plastered over, that's the house of a Rebel +sympathizer; but when you see them all preserved and kept in sight, as +something to be proud of, that's the house of a true Union man." + +Well, whatever is said or thought of the old hero, he is _what he is_, +and has satisfaction in that, and not in other people's opinions; for so +it must finally be with all. _Character_ is the one thing valuable. +_Reputation_, which is a mere shadow of the man, what his character is +_reputed_ to be, is, in the long run, of infinitely less importance. + +I am happy to add that the old man has been awarded a pension. + +The next day I mounted a hard-trotting horse and rode to Round Top. On +the way I stopped at the historical peach-orchard, known as Sherfy's, +where Sickles's Corps was repulsed, after a terrific conflict, on +Thursday, the second day of the battle. The peaches were green on the +trees then; but they were ripe now, and the trees were breaking down +with them. One of Mr. Sherfy's girls--the youngest, she told me--was in +the orchard. She had in her basket rareripes to sell. They were large +and juicy and sweet,--all the redder, no doubt, for the blood of the +brave that had drenched the sod. So calm and impassive is Nature, +silently turning all things to use! The carcass of a mule, or the +godlike shape of a warrior cut down in the hour of glory,--she knows no +difference between them, but straightway proceeds to convert both alike +into new forms of life and beauty. + +Between fields made memorable by hard fighting I rode eastward, and, +entering a pleasant wood, ascended Little Round Top. The eastern slope +of this rugged knob is covered with timber. The western side is steep, +and wild with rocks and bushes. Near by is the Devil's Den, a dark +cavity in the rocks, interesting henceforth on account of the fight that +took place here for the possession of these heights. A photographic +view, taken the Sunday morning after the battle, shows eight dead Rebels +tumbled headlong, with their guns, among the rocks below the Den. + +A little farther on is Round Top itself, a craggy tusk of the rock-jawed +earth pushed up there towards the azure. It is covered all over with +broken ledges, boulders, and fields of stones. Among these the +forest-trees have taken root,--thrifty Nature making the most of things +even here. The serene leafy tops of ancient oaks tower aloft in the +bluish-golden air. It is a natural fortress, which our boys strengthened +still further by throwing up the loose stones into handy breastworks. + +Returning, I rode the whole length of the ridge held by our troops, +realizing more and more the importance of that extraordinary position. +It is like a shoe, of which Round Top represents the heel, and Cemetery +Hill the toe. Here all our forces were concentrated on Thursday and +Friday, within a space of three miles. Movements from one part to +another of this compact field could be made with celerity. Lee's forces, +on the other hand, extended over a circle of seven miles or more around, +in a country where all their movements could be watched by us and +anticipated. + +At a point well forward on the foot of this shoe, Meade had his +head-quarters. I tied my horse at the gate, and entered the little +square box of a house which enjoys that historical celebrity. It is +scarcely more than a hut, having but two little rooms on the +ground-floor, and I know not what narrow, low-roofed chambers above. Two +small girls, with brown, German faces, were paring wormy apples under +the porch; and a round-shouldered, bareheaded, and barefooted woman, +also with a German face and a strong German accent, was drawing water at +the well. I asked her for a drink, which she kindly gave me, and invited +me into the house. + +The little box was whitewashed outside and in, except the floor and +ceilings and inside doors, which were neatly scoured. The woman sat down +to some mending, and entered freely into conversation. She was a widow, +and the mother of six children. The two girls cutting wormy apples at +the door were the youngest, and the only ones that were left to her. A +son in the army was expected home in a few days. She did not know how +old her children were,--she did not know how old she herself was, "she +was so forgetful." + +She ran away at the time of the fight, but was sorry afterwards she did +not stay at home. "She lost a heap." The house was robbed of almost +everything; "coverlids and sheets and some of our own clo'es, all +carried away. They got about two ton of hay from me. I owed a little on +my land yit, and thought I'd put in two lots of wheat that year, and it +was all trampled down, and I didn't get nothing from it. I had seven +pieces of meat yit, and them was all took. All I had when I got back was +jest a little bit of flour yit. The fences was all tore down, so that +there wa'n't one standing, and the rails was burnt up. One shell come +into the house and knocked a bedstead all to pieces for me. One come in +under the roof and knocked out a rafter for me. The porch was all +knocked down. There was seventeen dead horses on my land. They burnt +five of 'em around my best peach-tree, and killed it; so I ha'n't no +peaches this year. They broke down all my young apple-trees for me. The +dead horses sp'iled my spring, so I had to have my well dug." + +I inquired if she had ever got anything for the damage. + +"Not much. I jest sold the bones of the dead horses. I couldn't do it +till this year, for the meat hadn't rotted off yit. I got fifty cents a +hundred. There was seven hundred and fifty pounds. You can reckon up +what they come to. That's all I got." + +Not much, indeed! + +This poor woman's entire interest in the great battle was, I found, +centred in her own losses. That the country lost or gained she did not +know nor care, never having once thought of that side of the question. + +The town is full of similar reminiscences; and it is a subject which +everybody except the "Copperheads" likes to talk with you about. There +were heroic women here, too. On the evening of Wednesday, as our forces +were retreating, an exhausted Union soldier came to Mr. Culp's house, +near Culp's Hill, and said, as he sank down,-- + +"If I can't have a drink of water, I must die." + +Mrs. Culp, who had taken refuge in the cellar,--for the house was now +between the two fires,--said,-- + +"I will go to the spring and get you some water." + +It was then nearly dark. As she was returning with the water, a bullet +whizzed past her. It was fired by a sharpshooter on our own side, who +had mistaken her for one of the advancing Rebels. Greatly frightened, +she hurried home, bringing the water safely. One poor soldier was made +eternally grateful by this courageous womanly deed. A few days later the +sharpshooter came to the house and learned that it was a ministering +angel in the guise of a woman he had shot at. Great, also, must have +been his gratitude for the veil of darkness which caused him to miss his +aim. + +Shortly after the battle, sad tales were told of the cruel inhospitality +shown to the wounded Union troops by the people of Gettysburg. Many of +these stories were doubtless true; but they were true only of the more +brutal of the Rebel sympathizers. The Union men threw open their hearts +and their houses to the wounded. + +One day I met a soldier on Cemetery Hill, who was in the battle, and +who, being at Harrisburg for a few days, had taken advantage of an +excursion-train to come over and revisit the scene of that terrible +experience. Getting into conversation, we walked down the hill together. +As we were approaching a double house with high wooden steps, he pointed +out the farther one, and said,-- + +"Saturday morning, after the fight, I got a piece of bread at that +house. A man stood on the steps and gave each of our fellows a piece. We +were hungry as bears, and it was a godsend. I should like to see that +man and thank him." + +Just then the man himself appeared at the door. We went over, and I +introduced the soldier, who, with tears in his eyes, expressed his +gratitude for that act of Christian charity. + +"Yes," said the man, when reminded of the circumstance, "we did what we +could. We baked bread here night and day to give to every hungry soldier +who wanted it. We sent away our own children, to make room for the +wounded soldiers, and for days our house was a hospital." + +Instances of this kind are not few. Let them be remembered to the honor +of Gettysburg. + +Of the magnitude of a battle fought so desperately during three days by +armies numbering not far from two hundred thousand men no adequate +conception can be formed. One or two facts may help to give a faint idea +of it. Mr. Culp's meadow, below Cemetery Hill,--a lot of near twenty +acres,--was so thickly strown with Rebel dead, that Mr. Culp declared he +"could have walked across it without putting foot upon the ground." +Upwards of three hundred Confederates were buried in that fair field in +one hole. On Mr. Gwynn's farm, below Round Top, near five hundred sons +of the South lie promiscuously heaped in one huge sepulchre. Of the +quantities of iron, of the wagon-loads of arms, knapsacks, haversacks, +and clothing, which strewed the country, no estimate can be made. +Government set a guard over these, and for weeks officials were busy in +gathering together all the more valuable spoils. The harvest of bullets +was left for the citizens to glean. Many of the poorer people did a +thriving business, picking up these missiles of death, and selling them +to dealers; two of whom alone sent to Baltimore fifty tons of lead +collected in this way from this battle-field. + + + + +ALEXANDER HAMILTON. + + +The greatest name in American history is that of ALEXANDER HAMILTON, if +we consider the versatility of the man who bore it, the early age at +which he began a great public career, the success which attended all his +labors, the impression which he made on his country and its government, +and the rare foresight by which he was enabled to understand that our +political system would encounter that very danger through which it has +just passed,--and passed not without receiving severe wounds, which have +left it scarcely recognizable even by its warmest admirers. Talleyrand, +who had a just appreciation of Hamilton's talents and character, said +that he had divined Europe. An American need not be possessed of high +powers or position to venture the assertion that Hamilton divined +American history, and foresaw all that we have suffered because our +predecessors would build the national edifice on sand, so that it could +not stand against the political storm which it was in the breath of +selfish partisans to send against it, but has, as it were, to be +buttressed by mighty fleets and armies. A system, which, had it been +rightly formed in the first place, would have been self-sustaining, was +saved from destruction solely by the uprising of the people, who had to +operate with bullets and bayonets, when it had been fondly hoped that +the ballot would ever be a sufficiently formidable weapon in the hand of +the American citizen, and that he never would have to become the +citizen-soldier in a civil contest. Had Hamilton been allowed to shape +our national polity, it would have worked as successfully for ages as +that financial system which he formed has ever worked, and which has +never been departed from without the result being most injurious to the +country. At this day, when events have so signally justified the views +of Alexander Hamilton, and are daily justifying them,[F] it may not be +unprofitable to glance over the career of one whose virtues, services, +and genius are constantly rising in the estimation of his countrymen and +of the world, "the dead growing visible from the shades of time." + +To be born at all is to be well born is the general belief in this very +liberal-minded age: but even the most determined of democrats is not +averse to a good descent; and Hamilton, who was a democrat in no sense, +had one of the noblest ancestries in Europe, though himself of American +birth. His family was of Scotland, a country which, the smallness of its +population considered, has produced more able and useful men than any +other. The Hamiltons of Scotland, and we may add of France, were one of +the noblest of patrician houses, and they had a great part in the stormy +history of their country. Walter de Hamilton, of Cambuskeith, in the +County of Ayr,--Burns's county,--second son of Sir David de Hamilton, +Dominus de Cadyow, was the founder of that branch of the Hamilton family +to which the American statesman belonged. He flourished _temp._ Robert +III., second of the Stuart kings, almost five hundred years ago. Many +noble Scotch names are very common, because it was the custom of the +families to which they belonged to extend them to all their retainers; +but Alexander Hamilton obtained his name in no such way as that. His +descent from the Lord of Cadyow is made up with the nicest precision. +The family became of Grange in the sixteenth century. The names of the +ladies married by the heads of the Hamiltons of Cambuskeith and Grange +all belong to those of the ingenuous classes. The same Christian names +are continued in the line, that of Alexander appearing as early as the +latter part of the fifteenth century, and reappearing frequently for +three hundred years. Alexander Hamilton of Grange, fourteenth in descent +from Sir David de Hamilton, had three sons, the third bearing his +father's name; and that son's fifth child was James Hamilton, who +emigrated to the West Indies, settling in the Island of Nevis. Mr. James +Hamilton married a French lady, whose maiden name was Faucette, and +whose father was one of many persons of worth who were forced to leave +France because of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, through the +bigotry of that little man who is commonly called the Grand Monarch, and +whose bigotry was made active by the promptings of Madame de Maintenon, +who was descended from a fierce Huguenot, as was the monarch himself. + +Alexander Hamilton was born on the 11th of January, 1757. His mother +died in his early childhood, a more than usually severe loss, for she +was a superior woman. He was the only one of her children who survived +her. His father soon became poor, and the child was dependent upon the +relatives of his mother for support and education. They resided at Santa +Cruz, where he was brought up. Just before completing his thirteenth +year he entered the counting-house of Mr. Cruger, a merchant of Santa +Cruz. Young as he was, his employer left him in charge of his business +while he made a visit to New York, and had every reason to be satisfied +with the arrangement. He read all the books he could obtain, and read +them understandingly. Even at that early age he was remarkable for the +manliness of his mind. He wrote, too; and an account of the hurricane of +1772, which he contributed to a public journal, attracted so much +attention that he was sought out, and it was determined to send him to +New York to be regularly educated. He left Santa Cruz, and sailed for +Boston, which port he reached in October, 1772. Proceeding to New York, +he was sent to school at Elizabethtown, New Jersey; and in 1773 entered +King's College, in the city of New York, where he pursued his studies +with signal success. But events were happening that were to place him in +a very different school from that in which he was preparing to become a +physician. He was to be the physician of the State, and to that end he +was thrown among men, and appointed to do the work of men of the highest +intellect, at an age when most persons have not half completed the +ordinary training which is to fit them to begin the common routine of +common life. + +Hamilton's connection with the history of his country, as one of those +who were making material for it, began at the age of seventeen. The +American Revolution was moving steadily onward when he arrived at New +York, and by the summer of 1774 it had assumed large proportions. He +first spoke at "the Great Meeting in the Fields," July 6th, and +astonished those who heard him by the fervor of his eloquence and the +closeness of his logic. His fame dates from that day. He sided with the +people of his new home from the time that he came among them, and never +had any doubt or hesitation as to the course which duty required him to +adopt and pursue. As a writer he was even more successful than as a +speaker. A pamphlet which he wrote in December, 1774, vindicating the +Continental Congress, attracted much attention, and that and another +from his pen were attributed to veteran Whigs, particularly to John Jay; +but the evidence of Hamilton's authorship is perfect, or we might well +agree with the Tories, and believe that works so able could not have +been written by a youth of eighteen. Other writings of his subsequently +appeared, and were most serviceable to the patriots. Young as he was, he +was already regarded by the country as one of its foremost champions +with the pen. The time was fast coming when it was to be made known that +the holder of the pen could also hold the sword, and hold it to +effective purpose. + +He had joined a volunteer corps while in college, and was forward in all +its doings. The first time he was under fire was when this corps was +engaged in removing guns from the Battery. The fire of a man-of-war was +opened on it, doing some injury. This was the first act of war in New +York, and it is interesting to know that Hamilton had part in it. In the +commotion that followed, he was zealous in his efforts to prevent the +triumph of a mob, and not more zealous than successful. From the very +beginning of his career, he never thought of liberty, save as the +closest associate of law. Diligently devoting himself to the study of +the military art, and particularly to gunnery, he asked for the command +of an artillery company, and obtained it after a thorough examination, +being made captain on the 14th of March, 1776, when but two months +beyond his nineteenth year. He completed his company, and expended the +very last money he received from his relatives in making it fit for the +field. Even at that time he advocated promotion from the ranks, and +succeeded in having his first sergeant made a commissioned officer: a +fact worthy of mention, when it is recollected that his enemies have +always represented him as an aristocrat, there being nothing less +aristocratical than the placing of the sword of command in the hands of +men who have carried the musket. While pursuing his military duties, he +did not neglect the study of politics; and his notes show that before +the Declaration of Independence he had thought out a plan of government +for the nation that was so soon to come into existence. Among them is +this inquiry: "_Quaere_, would it not be advisable to let all taxes, even +those imposed by the States, be collected by persons of Congressional +appointment? and would it not be advisable to pay the collectors so much +per cent on the sums collected?" This, as his son says, "is the +intuitive idea of a general government, truly such, which he first +proposed to Congress, and earnestly advocated." He was in his twentieth +year when he showed himself capable of understanding the nature of the +situation, and the wants of the country. Probably no other person had +got so far at that time, and it required years for the people to reach +the point at which Hamilton had arrived intuitively. With them it was a +conclusion reached through bitter experience. The lesson has not been +perfectly acquired even at this time. + +Hamilton's company belonged to that army which Washington commanded, in +1776, in New England and New Jersey; and it was while the army was on +the heights of Haerlem, in the autumn of 1776, that he attracted the +notice of Washington. The General inspected an earthwork which the +Captain was constructing, conversed with him, and invited him to his +tent. This was the beginning of an acquaintance that was destined to +have memorable consequences and lasting effects on the American nation. +On the 1st of March, 1777, Hamilton was appointed to a place on +Washington's staff, becoming one of his aides, with the rank of +lieutenant-colonel,--his "principal and most confidential aide," to use +Washington's language. It was not without much hesitation that Hamilton +accepted this post. He had already made a name, and his promotion in the +line of the army was secured; and had he remained to take that +promotion, he would have won the highest distinction, supposing him to +have escaped the casualties of war. His military genius was +unquestioned; and what Washington required of him was service that would +not secure promotion or opportunity to show that he deserved it. He +required the mind and the pen of Hamilton. These he obtained; and the +amount of labor performed by the youthful aide-de-camp with his pen was +enormous. He was something more than an aide and a private secretary. He +was the commander's trusted friend, and he proved that he deserved the +trust reposed in him, not less by his high-minded conduct than by the +talent which he brought to the discharge of the duties of a most +difficult post,--duties which were of an arduous and highly responsible +character. The limits of a sketch like the present do not admit of more +than the general mention of his great services. Those who would know +them in full should consult the work in which Mr. John C. Hamilton has +done justice to the part which his father had, first in the +Revolutionary contest, and then in the creation of the American +Republic, and the settlement of its policy.[G] There was no event with +which Washington was concerned for more than four years with which +Hamilton was not also concerned. The range of his business and his +labors was equal to his talents, and it is not possible to say more of +them. He was but twenty years old when Washington thus really placed him +next to himself in the work of conducting the American cause. In what +estimation his services were held by the commander-in-chief may be +inferred from the fact that he was selected by him, in 1780, being then +in his twenty-fourth year, as a special minister to France, to induce +the French Government to grant more aid to this country. Hamilton did +not take the office, because it was desired by his friend, Colonel +Laurens, whose father was then a prisoner in England. + +Colonel Hamilton was married on the 14th of December, 1780, to Miss +Elizabeth Schuyler, second daughter of General Philip Schuyler, one of +the most distinguished soldiers of the Revolution, to whom was due the +defeat of General Burgoyne, and head of one of those old families of +which New York possessed so many. This lady was destined to survive her +husband half a century, and to be associated with two ages of the +country,--her death occurring in 1854, in her ninety-eighth year. She +was a woman of exalted character, and worthy to be the wife of Alexander +Hamilton. + +The relations between Washington and Hamilton were briefly interrupted +early in 1781, and Hamilton left the commander's military family. He had +a command in that allied army which Washington and Rochambeau led to +Yorktown, the success of which put an end to the "great war" of the +Revolution on this continent. When the British redoubts were stormed, +Hamilton commanded the American column, and carried the redoubt he +assailed before the French had taken that which it fell to their lot to +attack. Shortly afterward he retired from the service, and, taking up +his residence in Albany, devoted himself to the study of the law. In +1782 he was elected a member of the Continental Congress by the +Legislature of New York, and took his seat on the 25th of November. He +proved an energetic member, his attention being largely directed to the +financial state of the country, than which nothing could be more dreary. +At an early day he had been convinced that something sound must be +attempted in relation to our finances; and in 1780 he had addressed a +letter on the subject to Robert Morris, which showed that his ideas +regarding money and credit were those of a great statesman. But the time +had not come in which he was to mould the country to his will, and make +it rich in spite of itself, and against its own exertions. More +suffering was necessary before the people could be made to listen to the +words of truth, though uttered by genius. Military matters also +commanded the attention of the young member, as was natural, he having +been so distinguished as a soldier, and retaining that interest in the +army which he had acquired from six years' connection with it. His +Congressional career was brilliant, and added much to his reputation. It +seemed that he was destined to succeed in everything he attempted. Yet +at that time he thought of retiring altogether from public life, and of +devoting himself entirely to his profession, in which he had already +become eminent. In November, 1783, he removed to the city of New York, +which then had entered on that astonishing growth which has since been +so steadily maintained. + +The first of the law labors of this great man were in support of those +_national_ principles which are more closely identified with his name +than with that of any other individual. In advocating the cause of his +client, he had to argue that the terms of the treaty of peace with +England and the law of nations were of more force than a statute passed +by the Legislature of the State of New York. He carried the court as +decidedly with him as public opinion was against him; and he had to +defend himself in several pamphlets, which he did with his usual +success. As time went on, it became every day more apparent that the +country's great need was a strong central government, and that, until +such a government should be adopted, prosperity could not be looked for, +nor order, nor anything like national life; and had not something been +done, North America would doubtless have presented very much the same +spectacle that has long been afforded by South America, and from which +that rich land is but now slowly recovering. Of those who most earnestly +and effectively advocated the action necessary to save the country from +anarchy, Hamilton was among the foremost. As we have seen, he had +thought soundly on this subject as early as 1776, and years and events +had confirmed and strengthened the impression formed before independence +had been resolved upon. + +Appointed a delegate from New York to the commercial convention held at +Annapolis in 1786, Colonel Hamilton wrote the address put forth by that +body to the States, out of which grew the Convention of 1787, which made +the Federal Constitution. To that Convention he was sent by the New York +Legislature, and his part in the work done was of the first order, +though the Constitution formed was far from commanding his entire +approbation. Like a wise statesman, who does not insist that means of +action shall be perfect, but makes the best use he can of those that are +available, Hamilton accepted the Constitution, and became the strongest +advocate for its adoption, and its firmest supporter after its adoption. +This part of his life--a part as honorable to him as it was useful to +his country--has been systematically misrepresented, so that many +Americans have been taught to believe that he was an enemy of freedom, +and would have established an arbitrary government. He was accused of +being opposed to any republican polity, and of seeking the annihilation +of the State Governments. He was called a monarchist and a +consolidationist. These misrepresentations of his opinions and acts were +forever dispelled, according to the views of honest and unprejudiced +men, by the publication of a letter which he wrote to Timothy Pickering, +in 1803. In that letter he said,--"The highest-toned propositions which +I made to the Convention were for a President, Senate, and Judges, +during good behavior, and a House of Representatives for three years. +Though I would have enlarged the legislative power of the General +Government, yet I never contemplated the abolition of the State +Governments; but, on the contrary, they were, in some particulars, +constituent parts of my plan. This plan was, in my conception, +conformable with the strict theory of a government purely republican; +the essential criteria of which are, that the principal organs of the +executive and legislative departments be elected by the people, and hold +the office by a responsible and temporary or defeasible nature.... I may +truly, then, say that I never proposed either a President or Senate for +life, and that I neither recommended nor meditated the annihilation of +State Governments.... It is a fact that my final opinion was against an +executive during good behavior, on account of the increased danger to +the public tranquillity incident to the election of a magistrate of his +degree of permanency. In the plan of a constitution which I drew up +while the Convention was sitting, and which I communicated to Mr. +Madison about the close of it, perhaps a day or two after, the office of +President has no longer duration than for three years. This plan was +predicated upon these bases: 1. That the political principles of the +people of this country would endure nothing but a republican government; +2. That, in the actual situation of the country, it was itself right and +proper that the republican theory should have a full and fair trial; 3. +That to such a trial it was essential that the government should be so +constructed as to give it all the energy and the stability reconcilable +with the principles of that theory. These were the genuine sentiments of +my heart; and upon them I then acted. I sincerely hope that it may not +hereafter be discovered, that, through want of sufficient attention to +the last idea, the experiment of republican government, even in this +country, has not been as complete, as satisfactory, and as decisive as +could be wished." + +Such were the views of Hamilton in 1787, and which had undergone no +change in the sixteen years that elapsed between that time and the date +of his letter to Colonel Pickering. Yet this man, so true a republican +that his only desire was to have the republican polity that he knew must +here exist so framed and constituted as to become permanent, has been +drawn as a bigoted monarchist and as the enemy of freedom! In the eyes +of good democrats he was the Evil Principle incarnate; and even to this +day, in the more retired portions of the country, they believe, that, if +he had lived a few years longer, he would have made himself king, and +married one of the daughters of George III. They had, and some of them +yet have, about as clear conceptions of Hamilton's career and conduct as +Squire Western and his class had of the intentions of the English Whigs +of George II.'s time, whom they suspected of the intention of seizing +and selling their estates, with the purpose of sending the proceeds to +Hanover, to be invested in the funds. + +The leaders of the great party which triumphed in 1801, and who had +libelled Hamilton while they were in opposition, found it for their +interest to continue their misrepresentations long after the fall of the +Federalists, and when the ablest of all the Federalists had been for +years in his grave. Many of them could overlook Burr's party treachery, +as well as his supposed treason, because he had been the rival of +Hamilton; though probably it would be unjust to them to suppose that +they approved of his conduct in murdering the man whose talents and +influence caused them so much alarm. So far was Hamilton from pursuing a +course in the Convention of 1787 that would have embarrassed that body, +because it did not adopt all his plans, that Dr. W. S. Johnson, one of +Connecticut's delegates, said, that, if "the Constitution did not +succeed on trial, Mr. Hamilton was less responsible for that result than +any other member, for he fully and frankly pointed out to the Convention +what he apprehended were the infirmities to which it was liable,--and +that, if it answered the fond expectations of the public, the community +would be more indebted to Mr. Hamilton than to any other member, for, +after its essential outlines were agreed to, he labored most +indefatigably to heal those infirmities, and to guard against the evils +to which they might expose it." M. Guizot, who understands our +politics, who knows our history, and whose practical statesmanship and +lofty talents render his opinion most valuable, when he declared that +"there is not in the Constitution of the United States an element of +order, of force, of duration, which Hamilton has not powerfully +contributed to introduce into it and to give it a predominance," stated +but the simplest truth. Equally correct is his remark, that "Hamilton +must be classed among the men who have best known the vital principles +and fundamental conditions of a government." Alone of all the New York +delegates Hamilton subscribed the Constitution. + +In the discussions that followed the labors of the Convention, Hamilton +had the principal part in urging the adoption of the Constitution. "The +Federalist," that first of all American political works, and the +excellence of which was quickly recognized by foreign statesmen, was his +production. Not only did he write most of it, but the least of what he +wrote for it excels the best that was contributed to it by men so able +as Jay and Madison. Every attempt that has been made to take from him +any portion of the honor of this masterly work has failed, and it is now +admitted that it can fairly be associated only with his name. "The total +number of these essays," says Mr. John C. Hamilton, "by Hamilton's +enumeration, approved by Madison, is seen to be eighty-five. Of this +enumeration, an abbreviated copy by Hamilton from his original minute, +both in Hamilton's autograph, ascribes to himself the sole authorship of +sixty-three numbers, and the joint authorship with Madison of three +numbers, leaving to the latter the sole authorship of fourteen numbers, +and to Jay of five numbers."[H] "The Federalist" had a powerful +influence on the public mind, and contributed vastly to the success of +the Constitutionalists; and other writings of Hamilton had scarcely less +effect. Had he not been a friend of the Constitution, and had he sought +only the creation of a powerful central government, he never would have +labored for the success of the Constitutional party; for the surest road +to despotism would have been through that anarchy which must have +followed a refusal by the people to ratify the action of the Convention +of 1787. As a member of the Convention of the State of New York, +Hamilton most ably supported the ratification of the Constitution made +at Philadelphia. + +The Constitution was adopted, and the new government was organized on +the 30th of April, 1789, on which day General Washington became +President of the United States. It was not until the 2d of September +that the Treasury Department was created; and on the 11th Alexander +Hamilton was made Secretary of the Treasury. Writing to Robert Morris, +Washington had asked, "What are we to do with this heavy debt?" To which +Morris answered, "There is but one man in the United States who can tell +you: that is Alexander Hamilton. I am glad you have given me this +opportunity to declare to you the extent of the obligations I am under +to him." Hamilton had thought of the station for himself, but his +warmest personal friends objected to his taking it Robert Troup +says,--"I remonstrated with him: he admitted that his acceptance of it +would be likely to injure his family, but said there was a strong +impression on his mind that in the financial department he would +essentially promote the welfare of the country; and this impression, +united with Washington's request, forbade his refusal of the +appointment." Having said, in conversing with Gouverneur Morris, that he +was confident he could restore public credit, "Morris remonstrated with +him for thinking of so perilous a position, on which calumny and +persecution were the inevitable attendants. 'Of that,' Hamilton +answered, 'I am aware; but I am convinced it is the situation in which I +can do most good.'" He had the same just self-confidence that Cromwell +felt, when he said to John Hampden that he would effect something for +the Parliamentary cause, and that William Pitt felt in 1757, when he +said to the Duke of Devonshire, "My Lord, I am sure that I can save this +country, and that nobody else can." As with Cromwell and with Pitt, +Hamilton's self-confidence was to be conclusively justified by the +event. + +Hamilton's career as the first finance minister of the United States is +the greatest evidence of statesmanship in American history; nor is it +likely ever to be surpassed, so complete is the change in the country's +condition,--a change due in great measure to his policy and conduct. The +world's annals show no more striking example of the right man in the +right place than is afforded by Hamilton's Secretaryship of the +Treasury. "The discerning eye of Washington," said Mr. Webster in 1831, +"immediately called him to that post which was far the most important in +the administration of the new system. He was made Secretary of the +Treasury; and how he fulfilled the duties of such a place, at such a +time, the whole country perceived with delight, and the whole world saw +with admiration. He smote the rock of the National Resources, and +abundant streams of revenue gushed forth. He touched the dead corpse of +the Public Credit, and it sprung upon its feet. The fabled birth of +Minerva, from the brain of Jove, was hardly more sudden or more perfect +than the financial system of the United States, as it burst forth from +the conceptions of Alexander Hamilton." Lofty as this praise is, it is +literally true. American Public Credit was a dead corpse in 1789; and in +1790 it was living and erect, as it has ever since remained, in spite of +the utmost exertions of all political parties to reduce it to the state +in which Hamilton found it, in the hope of injuring their rivals. All +that has been good in our financial history for three quarters of a +century is due to Alexander Hamilton; and all that has been evil in it +can be traced directly to violation of his principles or disregard of +his modes of action. That we were enabled to preserve the Union against +the attacks of the Secessionists must be attributed to Hamilton's genius +and exertions. He is one of those "dead, but sceptred sovereigns, who +still rule our spirits from their urns." + +Ten days after his appointment to office, Secretary Hamilton was +required by Congress to report a plan for the support of the public +credit. His report is admitted, even by those who do not agree with its +views, to be an able state paper. Besides upholding the payment of the +foreign debt, on which all parties were of one mind, he recommended that +the domestic debt should be treated in the same spirit. As the revival +and maintenance of the public credit was the object which the Secretary +had in view, he advocated the fulfilment of original contracts, no +matter by whom claims might be held. His recommendations were adopted; +and the famous "funding system" dates from that time, and with it the +prosperity of the United States. He had recommended the assumption of +the State debts; but in this he was only partially successful. The +measures suggested for the carrying out of his system were adopted. +Among these was the creation of a national bank, at the beginning of +1791. Other measures concerned the raising of revenue, and were +extraordinarily successful. And yet others for the advancement of trade, +both foreign and domestic, were not less successful: there being no +subject that came properly within his department to which he did not +give his entire attention; and as he was laboring for a new nation, it +necessarily happened that all the machinery had to be improvised, To the +demands made on his intellect, his time, and his industry, the Secretary +was found to be more than equal. His triumphs astonished and gratified +the friends of good government throughout the world, and carried his +name to all nations. In only eighteen months, a change had been effected +such as it well might have taken as many years to accomplish, and which +thoroughly justified the new polity, and the measures which had been +adopted under it. Foreign commerce flourished, and also the domestic +trade. The agricultural interest prospered, and manufactures steadily +increased. "The waste lands in the interior were being rapidly settled; +towns were springing up in every direction; the seaports were increasing +in wealth and population; and that great career of internal improvement, +by numerous highways, with which the United States have amazed the +world, was begun." Fisher Ames wrote to the Secretary of the Treasury +that the national bank and the Federal Government possessed more +popularity than any institution or government could long maintain. "The +success of the government, and especially of the measures proceeding +from your department," he said, "has astonished the multitude; and while +it has shut the mouths, it has stung the envious hearts, of the State +leaders." American credit was raised so high in Europe, that, at the +opening of 1791, a great loan was taken in Holland in two hours, on +better terms than any European government but one could have obtained. +The subscriptions to the national bank were filled in a day, and could +easily have been doubled. Such another instance of successful +statesmanship it would be difficult, if not impossible, to find. + +It is sometimes said that the success of the Hamiltonian system was due +to European events,--that the great wars which grew out of the French +Revolution created so extensive demands for our productions that we must +have prospered, no matter what should have been the course of American +political life. What might have been, had the Constitution failed of +adoption, it is not necessary to discuss; but this we know, that the +success of Secretary Hamilton's plans was pronounced and complete before +the European wars alluded to began. That success was seen in the early +days of 1791, and war did not commence until 1792; and then it was not +waged on that grand scale to which it subsequently reached. The war +between France and England, which affected this country most, broke out +in 1793, two years after Ames had written so encouragingly to Hamilton, +and yet warning him to prepare for the inevitable Nemesis, that "envy of +the gods," which, according to the Hellenic superstition, but fairly +justifiable by innumerable historical facts, waits on all prosperity and +rebukes human wisdom. To us it seems that the most that can be said of +the effect of the wide-spread and long-continued European quarrel on our +business was this,--that it gave to it much of its peculiar character, +but did not create it, and was not necessary to its creation or its +continuance. What Hamilton did was to remove depressing influences from +American life and the American mind,--to substitute order for disorder, +hope for fear, and confidence and security for dread and distrust. This +was what was done by Hamilton and his associates; and this done, the +native energies of the people did all the rest. It is all but certain +that the extraordinary career of material prosperity that began +immediately after it was seen what was to be our policy under the new +polity, would have been essentially the same, as to the general result, +had Europe remained quiet for twenty years longer, and had there been no +downfall of the old French monarchy. The details of American business +life would have been different, but the result would have been pretty +much the same as what we have seen. + +Events soon justified the apprehensions of the sensitive, but sagacious +Ames. Hamilton's prosperity bred its natural consequences, and he became +the target at which many aspiring men directed their attacks,--Thomas +Jefferson standing at their head. The cause of this, which has been +sought in the French Revolution, in opposition to the supposed +centralizing tendencies of the Hamiltonian policy, and so forth, really +lies on the surface. It grew out of men's ambition, and their desire for +power. It was plain to Southern men, that, if Hamilton were permitted to +accomplish his purpose entire, he must become the man of men, and that +his influence would become equal to that of Washington, whose influence +they bowed to most unwillingly. Not less plain was it that power would +be with the North. Hence their determination to "break him down," which +they would have pursued with all their might, had the French Revolution +been postponed, though its occurrence furnished them with means of +attack,--the larger part of the American people sympathizing with the +French, while Hamilton shared with Edmund Burke opinions which time has +done much to show were sound; and he was a strenuous supporter of that +policy of neutrality which Washington wisely adopted. The Secretary of +the Treasury was assailed by those who envied and hated him, in various +ways. His official integrity was called in question, but the +investigations which he courted led to the confounding of his enemies, +while his personal character stood brighter than ever. So bitter became +the opposition that some of their number wished for the success of the +Whiskey Insurrection in Pennsylvania, as Mr. Jefferson's correspondence +shows; and the part which Hamilton had in suppressing that outbreak did +not increase their regard for him. The presence of two such men in +Washington's Cabinet as Hamilton and Jefferson made it the scene of +dissension until Jefferson retired. + +Hamilton remained in office some time longer; and when he left it, he +did so only for personal reasons. He was poor. He had expended, not only +his salary, but almost all the property he possessed when he took +office. The man who had made his country rich had made himself poor by +his devotion to her interests, and had received nothing but vindictive +abuse in requital of his unrivalled labors. He resolved to return to the +practice of his profession, which he never would have left, had he +consulted merely his individual interests and those of his family. Some +weeks before he retired, he addressed a letter to the Speaker of the +House of Representatives, announcing his purpose, in order that inquiry +might be made into the state of his department, should Congress see fit +to make it; but his foes had been so humiliated by the results of the +two inquiries undertaken at their instance, that they would not venture +upon a third. In January, 1795, he sent a letter to Congress on the +subject of the public credit, which is one of his ablest productions, +full of sound financial doctrine, and showing that he was in advance of +most men on those economical questions the proper settlement of which so +closely concerns the welfare of nations. This letter affords a complete +view of the financial history of the government, and may be considered +as Secretary Hamilton's statement of his case to the world. The debt +exceeded $76,000,000, a sum that bore as great a proportion to the +revenues of the country seventy years since as the debt of to-day bears +to our present resources. As Hamilton was no believer in the absurd +doctrine that "a national debt is a national blessing," we need say no +more than that he dwelt with emphasis on the necessity of providing for +the debt's payment. It is important to mention that he declared +government could not rightfully tax its promises to pay. + +Though Hamilton, as Madison wrote to Jefferson, went to New York "with +the word Poverty as his label," his great reputation rapidly secured for +him abundant professional employment. But he was too important a +personage to be able to refrain altogether from political pursuits, and +was forced to defend some of the measures of government, though no +longer responsible for them. He advocated Jay's Treaty, one of the most +unpopular measures that ever were carried through by an honest +government in face of the most vehement opposition. Had the treaty been +rejected, war with England would probably have followed, which would +have been a profound calamity. While living in retirement, Hamilton was +assailed by his Southern enemies, who were supported by their Northern +allies, their object being to show that he had acted corruptly while at +the head of the Treasury. His reply was as complete a refutation as +their earlier calumnies had encountered. He wrote the celebrated +Farewell Address of President Washington. On all occasions he was ready +with pen and tongue to defend and uphold those political principles in +the triumph of which he had that interest which a statesman must ever +have in the advancement of truth. + +When it was supposed that the French might attempt the invasion of this +country, in 1798, preparations were made to meet them. Washington was +made Commander-in-Chief, with the rank of Lieutenant-General; but he +stipulated that he should not be required to take the field save for +active service, and that Hamilton should have the post next to his own, +which made the latter actually commander of the army. He was +indefatigable in discharging the duties of this station; but, +fortunately, hostilities with France were confined to the ocean, and the +seizure of power in that country by Bonaparte led to a settlement of the +points in dispute. Hamilton again returned to private life. He could +not, however, altogether give up politics, but was forced to take some +part in the exciting political contests of those days. When the +Presidential election of 1801 devolved upon the House of +Representatives, he exerted his influence against Burr, whom the +Federalists were inclined to support, preferring him to Jefferson. In +1804 he again labored to defeat Burr's political aspirations, and +prevented his being chosen Governor of New York. Burr was then on the +verge of ruin, and he resolved upon being revenged, and on the +destruction of so powerful a political foe. He required from Hamilton +the disavowal of language which there was no evidence that he +ever had used, and so managed the dispute that a duel became +inevitable,--reference being had to the state of public sentiment then +prevalent on the subject of honor, and to the circumstance that duelling +was almost as common in New York at that time as it was in any Southern +State just before the Secession War. + +The death of Alexander Hamilton was as much the work of assassination as +was that of Abraham Lincoln, in all save the forms that were observed on +the occasion. Aaron Burr, of whose actions he had sometimes spoken with +severity,--but not with more severity than is common in all high party +times,[I]--was determined that so bold and able an enemy should be +removed from his political path; and to that end he fastened a duel upon +him, and in the meeting that ensued deliberately shot him. It has been +said, that Burr, who was "a good shot" from his youth, and whose nerves +were as brazen as his brow, practised with the pistol for some days +before the fatal encounter took place; and the story is perfectly in +character, and helps sustain the position that Hamilton was +assassinated. That Hamilton should have consented to meet such a man, +knowing as he did what was his purpose, and that he was capable of any +crime, has often been remarked upon; and probably his decision will +serve to point many a moral for ages, and all the more emphatically when +the force of that opinion in regard to duelling which once was so strong +shall not only have utterly passed away, but have been forgotten, and +have become quite incomprehensible to men who shall live in the light of +sounder opinion than prevailed at the beginning of this century. A +soldier, it was reasonable that Hamilton should feel very differently on +the point of honor from a mere civilian, and that he should not have +felt himself at liberty to decline Burr's challenge. He believed that +his ability to be useful thereafter in public life would be greatly +lessened, should he not fight. In the paper he drew up, giving his +reasons for the course he pursued, he says,--"The ability to be in +future useful, whether in resisting mischief or in effecting good, in +those crises of our public affairs which seem likely to happen, would +probably be inseparable from a conformity with public prejudice in this +particular." He was particularly thinking of his power to contend +against a scheme for a dissolution of the Union which had been formed in +the North, the existence of which he knew, and also that it was known to +Burr, who, had he not committed suicide by the same act which made him a +murderer, would soon have been seen at the head of a rebellion. The +result of the duel was to deprive Burr of all power and influence. He +killed Hamilton, but he fell himself by the same shot that carried death +to his opponent; and so complete was his fall that he never could rise +again, though he continued to cumber the earth for more than thirty-two +years. Hamilton's quarrel with Burr, as his son and biographer truly +observes, "was the quarrel of his country. It was the last act in the +great drama of his life. It was the deliberate sacrifice of that life +for his country's welfare,--a sacrifice which, by overwhelming his +antagonist with the execrations of the American people, prevented a +civil war, and saved from 'dismemberment' this great republic." + +What strikes us most forcibly, in considering Hamilton's career, is the +remarkably, early development of his powers. At thirteen, he was found +competent to take charge of a mercantile establishment. At fifteen, his +writings win for him public applause and the aid of friends. At +seventeen, he addresses with success a great public meeting. At +eighteen, his anonymous productions are attributed to some of the +leading men of America. At nineteen, he has thought out that principle +of government which is indelibly associated with his name. At twenty, he +has not only approved himself a skilful and courageous soldier, but he +has won the esteem of the grave and reserved Washington, and is placed +by that great man in a post of the closest confidence, and which really +makes him the second man in the American service. At twenty-three, he +has shown that he is master of the intricate subject of finance. At +twenty-five, after an active military life that had allowed no time for +study, he is known as a lawyer of the first order. At twenty-six, he is +distinguished as a member of Congress. At thirty, he takes a leading +part in framing the Constitution of the United States. And in his +thirty-third year, he becomes the most extraordinary finance minister +the world has ever seen. He was statesman, soldier, writer, and orator, +and first in each department; and he was as ready for all the parts +which he filled as if he had been long and studiously trained for each +of them by the best of instructors. When Mr. Webster so happily compared +the instantaneousness and perfection of his financial system to "the +fabled birth of Minerva," he did but allude to what is to be remarked of +all Hamilton's works. All that he did was perfect, and no one seems to +have been aware of his power until he had established the fact of its +existence. Such a combination of precocity and versatility stands quite +unparalleled. Octavius, William the Third, Henry St. John, Charles James +Fox, and William Pitt the younger, all showed various powers at early +periods of their lives; but not one of them was the equal of Hamilton in +respect to early maturity of intellect, or in ability to command success +in every department to which he turned his attention. The historical +character of whom he most reminds us is the elder Africanus. In the +early development of his faculties, in his self-reliant spirit, in his +patriotism, in his kingliness of mind, in his personal purity, in his +generosity of thought and of action, and in the fear and envy that he +excited in inferior minds, he was a repetition of the most majestic of +all the Romans. But, unlike the Roman soldier-statesman, he did not +desert the land he had saved, but which had proved ungrateful; and the +grave only was to be his Liternum. He died at not far from the same age +as that to which Africanus reached. In comparing him with certain other +men who achieved fame early, it should be remembered that they all were +regularly prepared for public life, and were born to it as to an +inheritance; whereas he, though of patrician blood, was possessed of no +advantages of fortune, and had to fight the battle of life while +fighting the battles of the nation. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[F] Mr. Riethmueller, in his volume on "Hamilton and his Contemporaries," +coolly assumes that Hamilton would have opposed the late war for the +maintenance of the Union, had he been living! Anything more absurd than +such a view of Hamilton's probable course, under circumstances like +those which occurred in 1861, it would be impossible to imagine. +Hamilton would have been the firmest supporter of the war, had he lived +to see it, or had such a war broken out in his time. His principles +would have led him to be for extreme measures. It is easy to see why Mr. +Riethmueller thus misrepresents Hamilton's opinions. Living in London, +where it is thought that every foreign nation should submit to +destruction, if that be desirable to England, he wrote under the +influence of the place. The English do not take the same view of +Secession, when it comes home to them. They think as unfavorably of that +repeal of the Union which the Irish demand as we thought of that +dissolution of our Union which South Carolinians demanded; and they +moved against the Fenians much earlier than we moved against the +Carolinians. Mr. Riethmueller's assumption is pointedly disclaimed by +General Hamilton's representatives, who declare that it is a palpable +misrepresentation of their father's views: and no one who is familiar +with Hamilton's writings and history can honestly say that they are +wrong. To say that Andrew Jackson, who crushed Nullification, would have +been a Secessionist, had he been living in 1861, would be a moderate +assertion, compared to that which places Alexander Hamilton in the list +of possible Secessionists, had he survived to Secession times. + +[G] _History of the Republic of the United States of America, as traced +in the Writings of Alexander Hamilton and his Contemporaries._ By John +C. Hamilton. Seven Volumes. 8vo. New York: D. Appleton & Co. A work in +every respect deserving of the closest and most attentive study, replete +as it is with valuable and well-arranged matter and able writing. + +[H] _The Federalist: a Commentary on the Constitution of the United +States._ A Collection of Essays, by Alexander Hamilton, Jay, and +Madison. Also, _The Continentalist_ and other Papers, by Hamilton. +Edited by John C. Hamilton, Author of "The Republic of the United +States." 1 vol. 8vo. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co.--This is by +far the best edition of "The Federalist" that has appeared, and should +alone be consulted and read by Hamilton's admirers. The Historical +Notice with which Mr. Hamilton has prefaced it is a noble production, +and worthy of the subject and of his name. + +[I] Burr, in his correspondence with Hamilton just before the challenge +that led to the duel, said,--"Political opposition can never absolve +gentlemen from the necessity of a rigid adherence to the laws of honor +and the rules of decorum. I neither claim such privilege, nor indulge it +in others." This has been called affectation; but we have no doubt that +Burr uttered the truth in the sentences quoted. He was exactly the man +to observe the rules of decorum, and those of honor, as he understood +them, in political warfare. The strong language that is so common in +political disputes is proof as much of the abundance of men's sincerity +as it is of their want of good breeding. They are honestly moved by the +evil words or deeds, or both, or what they consider such, of their +opponents, and speak of them coarsely. The man who is indifferent to all +opinions, principles, and actions, but who is nevertheless ambitious, is +never tempted to the utterance of disparaging language concerning his +political foes. He may laugh at their zeal, but he cannot be offended by +it. Burr was utterly indifferent to all political principle. He never +really belonged to any party, and was as ready to act with Federalists +as with Democrats; and it was only through the force of circumstances +that he did act generally with the latter. A party man never would have +done as Burr saw fit to do when the Presidential election of 1801 +devolved on the House of Representatives. The party to which he +professed to belong intended, as everybody knew, that Jefferson should +be President; and yet Burr allowed himself to be used against Jefferson. +That "all is fair in politics" was his creed. He may have been "a man of +honor," but what Lord Macaulay says of Avaux is strictly applicable to +him, namely,--"that of the difference between right and wrong he had no +more notion than a brute." + + + + +REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES. + + +_Memoirs of the Life of William Shakespeare, with an Essay toward the +Expression of his Genius, and an Account of the Rise and Progress of the +English Drama to the Time of Shakespeare._ By RICHARD GRANT WHITE. +Boston: Little, Brown, & Co. + +Mr. White's closing-up of his Shakespeare labors has been long in +coming, but comes good and acceptable at last. The volume now in hand, +however, does not form a part of his edition of the poet; it stands by +itself; though a portion of its contents is repeated in the first volume +(the last published) of this edition. It is rich in matter, and the +workmanship, for the most part, capital. All Shakespearians are bound to +relish it; and if any general reader does not find it delectable, he may +well suspect some fault in himself. + +The contents of the volume are, first, "Memoirs of the Life of William +Shakespeare"; second, "An Essay toward the Expression of Shakespeare's +Genius"; third, "An Account of the Rise and Progress of the English +Drama to the Time of Shakespeare." + +In his "Memoirs," the author of course adds nothing to what was already +known of the poet's life. But his presentation of the matter is +eminently readable, and, in parts, decidedly interesting; which is as +much as can fairly be looked for in any writing on that subject. Some +readers may think, we _do_ think, that the author is a little at fault +on one or two points. For instance, he overworks certain questions +touching the poet's wife, worrying up the matter against her to the +utmost, and, in fact, tormenting the poor woman's memory in such a way +as to indicate something very like spite. Now this is not fair; and Mr. +White's general fairness on other subjects makes his proceeding the less +excusable in this case. + +Of course everybody knows that Mrs. Anne Shakespeare was some eight +years older than her husband; that the circumstances of the marriage +were not altogether what they should have been; and that the oldest +daughter was born a little too soon for the credit of either parent. +This is all, all, there is known about the matter. And if conjecture or +inference must be at work on these facts, surely it had better run in +the direction of charity, especially of charity towards the weaker +vessel. We say weaker vessel, because in this case the man must, in all +fairness, be supposed to have had the advantage, at least as much in +strength of natural understanding as the woman had in years. And as +Shakespeare was, by all accounts, a very attractive person, it does not +well appear but that the woman had as good a right to lose her heart in +his company as he had to lose his head in hers. Yet our author +insinuates, perhaps we should say more than insinuates, that the lady +immodestly angled for and seduced the youthful lover, and entangled his +honor in an obligation of marriage; and he seems quite positive that the +poet afterwards hated her, and took refuge in London partly to escape +from her society. Moreover, he presumes her to have been a coarse, low, +vulgar creature, such as, the fascination of the honeymoon once worn +off, the poet could not choose but loathe and detest. Now all this is +sheer conjecture; it has no basis of fact or of fair likelihood to stand +upon; there is not so much as a particle even of tradition to support +it. Rowe hints nothing of the sort; and surely his candor would not have +spared the parties, if he had found anything: it was the very point of +all others on which scandal would have been most apt to fasten and feed; +and yet even Aubrey, arrant old gossip as he was, supplies nothing to +justify it. + +In default of other grounds, resort has been had to certain passages in +the poet's dramas. And Mr. White, though knowing, none better, the +poet's wonderful self-aloofness from his representations, thinks it +worth the while to make an exception in this particular case. Presuming +such and such things to be true in his own experience, the poet, our +author observes, must have thought of them while writing certain +passages. Our answer is, To be sure, he must have thought of them, and +he must have known that others would think of them too; and a reasonable +delicacy on his part would have counselled the withholding of anything +that he was conscious might be applied to his own domestic affairs. Does +not Mr. White see that his inferences in this are just the reverse of +what they should be? Sensible men do not write in their public pages +such things as would be almost sure to breed or to foster scandal about +their own names or their own homes. The man that has a secret cancer on +his person will be the last to speak of cancers in reference to others; +and if the truth of his own case be suspected at all, it will rather be +from his silence than from his speech. We can hardly think Shakespeare +was so wanting in a sense of propriety as to have written the passages +in question, but that he knew no man could say he was exposing the +foulness of his own nest. + +But we are dwelling too long on this point; and we confess something of +impatience at Mr. White's treatment of it. His _animus_ in the thing is +shown, perhaps, in one slight mistake he has made. Speaking of the +lady's haste to "provide herself with a husband," he says, "In less than +five months after she obtained one she was delivered of a daughter." The +bishop's license for the marriage was dated November 28th, 1582, and +Susannah Shakespeare was baptized May 26th, 1583; thus leaving an +interval of but two days short of _six_ months between the marriage and +the birth. As Sir Hugh observes, "I like not when a 'oman has a great +peard." + +We are moved to add one more item of dissent.--Mr. White thinks, and it +appears that the German critic, Gervinus, coincides with him, that +Shakespeare must have acquired all his best ideas of womanhood after he +went to London, and conversed with the ladies of the city. And in +support of this notion he cites the fact--for such it is--that the women +of the poet's later plays are much superior to those of his earlier +ones. But are not the _men_ of his later plays quite as much superior to +the men of his first? Unquestionably they are. Are not his later plays +as much better _every way_, as in respect of the female characters? Mr. +White is too wise and too ripe in the theme to question it. The truth +seems to be, that Shakespeare saw more of great and good in both man and +woman as he became older and knew them better; for he was full of +intellectual righteousness in this as in other things. But if there must +be any conjecturing about it, we prefer to conjecture that the poet +caught his ideas of womanhood, or at least the rudiments of them, from +his mother, and other specimens of the sex in his native town. For in +this matter it may with something of special fitness be said that a man +finds what he brings with him the faculty of finding; and he who does +not learn respect for woman in the nursery and at the fireside will +hardly learn it at all. The poet's mind did not stay on the surface of +things. He had the head to know, and the heart to feel, the claims of +humble, modest worth; for, as he was the wisest, so was he also the most +human-hearted of men. And to his keen, yet kindly eye, the +plain-thoughted women of Stratford may well have been as pure, as sweet, +as lovely, as rich in all the inward graces which he delighted to unfold +in his female characters, as anything he afterwards found among the +fine ladies of the metropolis: though far be it from us to disrepute +these latter; for he was, by the best of all rights, a thorough +gentleman; and the ladies who pleased him in London had womanhood +enough, no doubt, to recognize him as such, without the flourishes of +rank. At all events, it is reasonable to infer that the foundations of +his mind were laid before he left Stratford, and that the gatherings of +the boy's eye and heart were the germs of the man's thoughts. And, +indeed, if his great social heart had found all the best delights of +society in London, how should he have been so desirous, as Mr. White +allows he was, to escape from the city, and set up his rest in his +Stratford home? + +Mr. White's history of the Drama, though far from copious, supplies +enough, perhaps, to put the reader right as regards Shakespeare's +historical relations to that great branch of English literature. From +what is there given, any one can, with reasonable attention, learn that +the English drama, as we have it in Shakespeare, was the well-ripened +fruit of centuries of preparation: the form, structure, and order of the +thing being settled long before his time. The attentive reader will also +see, though this point is not emphasized so much as it might be, that +the national mind and taste were ready and eager to welcome the right +man as soon as the right man came; so that, in catering wisely for the +public taste, the poet could hardly fail of the supremacy due to his +transcendent genius; which infers, of course, that the public taste had +nearly as much to do in forming him as he had in forming it. On one or +two points, as, for instance, in the matter of Shakespeare's senior +contemporaries, we should have preferred a somewhat larger outlay of the +author's learned and well-practised strength; while, again, in reference +to the old plays of "Jeronimo" and "The Spanish Tragedy," he might well +have used more economy of strength, as the matter is neither interesting +in itself nor helpful to his purpose. Here is a specimen of his +felicity, referring to the plays of old John Lily, the euphuist. + +"They are in all respects opposed to the genius of the English drama. +They do not even pretend to be representations of human life and human +character, but are pure fantasy pieces, in which the personages are a +heterogeneous medley of Grecian gods and goddesses, and impassible, +colorless creatures, with sublunary names, all thinking with one brain, +and speaking with one tongue,--the conceitful, crotchety brain, and the +dainty, well-trained tongue of clever, witty John Lily." + +This is, indeed, the exact truth of the matter, and it could hardly be +better said. On divers points, however, the little that he gives us just +sets the reader on fire for more: that is, he does not satisfy the +desire quite enough in proportion as he stimulates it. But he probably +goes on the safe principle, that in such cases an intelligent reader is +apt to crave more than he will justify a writer in giving; or, in other +words, that he does not seem to have enough, until he has too much. + +But the "Essay" is most decidedly the jewel of the volume: not, however, +to disparage the other parts; for it is worthy to be the jewel of +anybody's volume. A single reading of the "Essay," as it ought to be +read, will suffice to make any one glad to own the book, and will almost +certainly induce him to mark it down for a second reading, as the second +also will for a third. The work, indeed, is a positive, and we think it +will prove a permanent addition to our already opulent inheritance of +Shakespearian criticism. It is weighty throughout with fresh, yet sober +and well-considered thought, expressed in tight and sinewy +English,--every part being highly elaborate, but nothing over-labored. +The author discusses a large number of topics, all in "a manly style, +fitted to manly ears," but is particularly full and instructive in +regard to the poet's language and style: a rich field, indeed, which has +not been proportionably cultivated by the poet's later critics, who have +put their force mainly on what may be called his dramatic architecture, +and on his development of character, where there is more room to be +philosophical, but less chance of determinate results. Over this field +Mr. White walks with the firm, yet graceful step of a master: his +current of thought running deep, strong, and clear, and carrying us +through page after page full of nice and subtile discrimination, without +over-refinement, and of illustrations apt and luminous, yet without a +touch of false brilliancy or mere smartness; which is saying a good +deal, in these days of high-pressure rhetoric. + +We commend the "Essay" to all lovers of solid and well-proportioned +critical discourse. + + + + +RECENT AMERICAN PUBLICATIONS. + + +The Ideal Attained: being the Story of Two Steadfast Souls, and how they +won their Happiness and lost it not. By Eliza Farnham, Author of "Woman +and her Era," etc. New York. C. W. Plumb & Co. 12mo. pp. 510. $2.00. + +At Anchor. A Story of Our Civil War. By an American. New York. D. +Appleton & Co. 12mo. pp. 311. $1.50. + +Methods of Instruction. That Part of the Philosophy of Education which +treats of the Nature of the several Branches of Knowledge, and the +Methods of teaching them according to that Nature. By James Pyle +Wickersham, A. M., Author of "School Economy." Philadelphia. J. B. +Lippincott & Co. 12mo. pp. 496. $2.00. + +Love and Money. By J. B. Jones, Author of "Wild Western Scenes," etc. +Philadelphia. T. B. Peterson & Brother. 12mo. pp. 407. $2.00. + +Histoire de Jules Cesar. Par S. M. I. Napoleon III. Tome Premier. New +York. D. Appleton & Cie. 12mo. pp. 396. $2.50. + +Beatrice. By Julia Kavanagh, Author of "Nathalie," etc. New York. D. +Appleton & Co. 12mo. pp. 520. $2.00. + +Lessons from the World of Matter and the World of Man. By Theodore +Parker. Selected from Notes of Unpublished Sermons. By Rufus Leighton. +Boston. C. W. Slack. 12mo. pp. 430. $2.50. + +Sibyl. A Tragedy in Five Acts. By John Savage. New York. James B. +Kirker. 16mo. pp. 105. 75 cts. + +Life of Marcus Tullius Cicero. By William Forsyth, M. A., Q. C., Author +of "Hortensius," etc., and late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. In +Two Volumes. With Illustrations. New York. Charles Scribner & Co. 12mo. +pp. 304, 341. $5.00. + +Know the Truth. A Critique on the Hamiltonian Theory of Limitation, +including some Strictures upon the Theories of Rev. Henry L. Mansel and +Mr. Herbert Spencer. By Jesse H. Jones. New York. Hurd & Houghton. 12mo. +pp. x., 225. $1.25. + +Janet Strong. By Virginia F. Townsend. Philadelphia. J. B. Lippincott & +Co. 12mo. pp. 314. $1.50 + +Voices of the Morning. By Belle Bush. Philadelphia. J. B. Lippincott & +Co. 18mo. pp. 270. $1.25. + +A View at the Foundations: or, First Causes of Character, as Operative +before Birth, from Hereditary and Spiritual Sources. Being a Treatise on +the Organic Structure and Quality of the Human Soul, as determined by +Pre-Natal Conditions in the Parentage and Ancestry, and how far we can +direct and control them. By Woodbury M. Fernald. Boston. W. V. Spencer. +16mo. pp. 210. $1.25. + +The Iliad of Homer, rendered in English Blank Verse. By Edward, Earl of +Derby. In Two Volumes. New York. C. Scribner & Co. 12mo. pp. xiv., 430; +viii., 457. $5.00. + +History of England, from the Fall of Wolsey to the Death of Elizabeth. +By James Anthony Froude, M. A., late Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford. +Vols. I. & II. New York. C. Scribner & Co. 12mo. pp. 447, 501. Per vol., +$2.50. + +Fairy Fingers. A Novel. By Anna Cora Ritchie, Author of "Autobiography +of an Actress," &c. New York. G. W. Carleton. 12mo. pp. 460. $2.00. + +The Graver Thoughts of a Country Parson. By the Author of "Recreations +of a Country Parson." Boston. Ticknor & Fields. 16mo. pp. iv., 332. +$2.00. + +Hugh Worthington. A Novel. By Mrs. Mary J. Holmes. New York. G. W. +Carleton. 12mo. pp. 370. $1.75. + +Essays. By R. W. Emerson. First and Second Series. Boston. Ticknor & +Fields. 32mo. Blue and gold. pp. viii., 515. $1.50. + +Superior Fishing; or, The Striped Bass, Trout, and Black Bass of the +Northern States. Embracing full Directions for Dressing Artificial Flies +with the Feathers of American Birds; an Account of a Sporting Visit to +Lake Superior, etc. By Robert B. Roosevelt, Author of "The Game Fish of +North America," etc. New York. G. W. Carleton. 12mo. pp. 304. $2.00. + +Hypodermic Injections in the Treatment of Neuralgia, Rheumatism, Gout, +and other Diseases. By Antoine Ruppaner, M. D., Fellow of the Mass. Med. +Soc. Boston. T. O. H. P. 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