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diff --git a/old/eduha10.txt b/old/eduha10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..83684a5 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/eduha10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,18084 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Etext The Education of Henry Adams, by Adams +We also have an HTML version of this book called: eduha10h.htm + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. 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If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Association/Carnegie-Mellon + University" within the 60 days following each + date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare) + your annual (or equivalent periodic) tax return. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time, +scanning machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty +free copyright licenses, and every other sort of contribution +you can think of. Money should be paid to "Project Gutenberg +Association / Carnegie-Mellon University". + +*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +The Education of Henry Adams + +by Henry Adams + + + + + +THE EDUCATION OF HENRY ADAMS + + CONTENTS + EDITOR'S PREFACE + PREFACE + I. QUINCY (1838-1848) + II. BOSTON (1848-1854) + III. WASHINGTON (1850-1854) + IV. HARVARD COLLEGE (1854-1858) + V. BERLIN (1858-1859) + VI. ROME (1859-1860) + VII. TREASON (1860-1861) + VIII. DIPLOMACY (1861) + IX. FOES OR FRIENDS (1862) + X. POLITICAL MORALITY (1862) + XI. THE BATTLE OF THE RAMS (1863) + XII. ECCENTRICITY (1863) + XIII. THE PERFECTION OF HUMAN SOCIETY (1864) + XIV. DILETTANTISM (1865-1866) + XV. DARWINISM (1867-1868) + XVI. THE PRESS (1868) + XVII. PRESIDENT GRANT (1869) + XVIII. FREE FIGHT (1869-1870) + XIX. CHAOS (1870) + XX. FAILURE (1871) + XXI. TWENTY YEARS AFTER (1892) + XXII. CHICAGO (1893) + XXIII. SILENCE (1894-1898) + XXIV. INDIAN SUMMER (1898-1899) + XXV. THE DYNAMO AND THE VIRGIN (1900) + XXVI. TWILIGHT (1901) + XXVII. TEUFELSDROCKH (1901) +XXVIII. THE HEIGHT OF KNOWLEDGE (1902) + XXIX. THE ABYSS OF IGNORANCE (1902) + XXX. VIS INERTIAE (1903) + XXXI. THE GRAMMAR OF SCIENCE (1903) + XXXII. VIS NOVA (1903-1904) +XXXIII. A DYNAMIC THEORY OF HISTORY (1904) + XXXIV. A LAW OF ACCELERATION (1904) + XXXV. NUNC AGE (1905) + + +EDITOR'S PREFACE + + THIS volume, written in 1905 as a sequel to the same author's +"Mont Saint Michel and Chartres," was privately printed, to the +number of one hundred copies, in 1906, and sent to the persons +interested, for their assent, correction, or suggestion. The idea +of the two books was thus explained at the end of Chapter XXIX: +-- + + "Any schoolboy could see that man as a force must be measured +by motion from a fixed point. Psychology helped here by +suggesting a unit -- the point of history when man held the +highest idea of himself as a unit in a unified universe. Eight or +ten years of study had led Adams to think he might use the +century 1150-1250, expressed in Amiens Cathedral and the Works of +Thomas Aquinas, as the unit from which he might measure motion +down to his own time, without assuming anything as true or +untrue, except relation. The movement might be studied at once in +philosophy and mechanics. Setting himself to the task, he began a +volume which he mentally knew as 'Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres: +a Study of Thirteenth-Century Unity.' From that point he proposed +to fix a position for himself, which he could label: 'The +Education of Henry Adams: a Study of Twentieth-Century +Multiplicity.' With the help of these two points of relation, he +hoped to project his lines forward and backward indefinitely, +subject to correction from any one who should know better." + + The "Chartres" was finished and privately printed in 1904. The +"Education" proved to be more difficult. The point on which the +author failed to please himself, and could get no light from +readers or friends, was the usual one of literary form. Probably +he saw it in advance, for he used to say, half in jest, that his +great ambition was to complete St. Augustine's "Confessions," but +that St. Augustine, like a great artist, had worked from +multiplicity to unity, while he, like a small one, had to reverse +the method and work back from unity to multiplicity. The scheme +became unmanageable as he approached his end. + + Probably he was, in fact, trying only to work into it his +favorite theory of history, which now fills the last three or +four chapters of the "Education," and he could not satisfy +himself with his workmanship. At all events, he was still +pondering over the problem in 1910, when he tried to deal with it +in another way which might be more intelligible to students. He +printed a small volume called "A Letter to American Teachers," +which he sent to his associates in the American Historical +Association, hoping to provoke some response. Before he could +satisfy himself even on this minor point, a severe illness in the +spring of 1912 put an end to his literary activity forever. + + The matter soon passed beyond his control. In 1913 the +Institute of Architects published the "Mont-Saint-Michel and +Chartres." Already the "Education" had become almost as well +known as the "Chartres," and was freely quoted by every book +whose author requested it. The author could no longer withdraw +either volume; he could no longer rewrite either, and he could +not publish that which he thought unprepared and unfinished, +although in his opinion the other was historically purposeless +without its sequel. In the end, he preferred to leave the +"Education" unpublished, avowedly incomplete, trusting that it +might quietly fade from memory. According to his theory of +history as explained in Chapters XXXIII and XXXIV, the teacher +was at best helpless, and, in the immediate future, silence next +to good-temper was the mark of sense. After midsummer, 1914, the +rule was made absolute. + + The Massachusetts Historical Society now publishes the +"Education" as it was printed in 1907, with only such marginal +corrections as the author made, and it does this, not in +opposition to the author's judgment, but only to put both volumes +equally within reach of students who have occasion to consult +them. + +HENRY CABOT LODGE + +September, 1918 + + + +PREFACE + + JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU began his famous Confessions by a +vehement appeal to the Deity: "I have shown myself as I was; +contemptible and vile when I was so; good, generous, sublime when +I was so; I have unveiled my interior such as Thou thyself hast +seen it, Eternal Father! Collect about me the innumerable swarm +of my fellows; let them hear my confessions; let them groan at my +unworthiness; let them blush at my meannesses! Let each of them +discover his heart in his turn at the foot of thy throne with the +same sincerity; and then let any one of them tell thee if he +dares: 'I was a better man!' " + + Jean Jacques was a very great educator in the manner of the +eighteenth century, and has been commonly thought to have had +more influence than any other teacher of his time; but his +peculiar method of improving human nature has not been +universally admired. Most educators of the nineteenth century +have declined to show themselves before their scholars as objects +more vile or contemptible than necessary, and even the humblest +teacher hides, if possible, the faults with which nature has +generously embellished us all, as it did Jean Jacques, thinking, +as most religious minds are apt to do, that the Eternal Father +himself may not feel unmixed pleasure at our thrusting under his +eyes chiefly the least agreeable details of his creation. + + As an unfortunate result the twentieth century finds few recent +guides to avoid, or to follow. American literature offers +scarcely one working model for high education. The student must +go back, beyond Jean Jacques, to Benjamin Franklin, to find a +model even of self-teaching. Except in the abandoned sphere of +the dead languages, no one has discussed what part of education +has, in his personal experience, turned out to be useful, and +what not. This volume attempts to discuss it. + + As educator, Jean Jacques was, in one respect, easily first; he +erected a monument of warning against the Ego. Since his time, +and largely thanks to him, the Ego has steadily tended to efface +itself, and, for purposes of model, to become a manikin on which +the toilet of education is to be draped in order to show the fit +or misfit of the clothes. The object of study is the garment, not +the figure. The tailor adapts the manikin as well as the clothes +to his patron's wants. The tailor's object, in this volume, is to +fit young men, in universities or elsewhere, to be men of the +world, equipped for any emergency; and the garment offered to +them is meant to show the faults of the patchwork fitted on their +fathers. + + At the utmost, the active-minded young man should ask of his +teacher only mastery of his tools. The young man himself, the +subject of education, is a certain form of energy; the object to +be gained is economy of his force; the training is partly the +clearing away of obstacles, partly the direct application of +effort. Once acquired, the tools and models may be thrown away. + + The manikin, therefore, has the same value as any other +geometrical figure of three or more dimensions, which is used for +the study of relation. For that purpose it cannot be spared; it +is the only measure of motion, of proportion, of human condition; +it must have the air of reality; must be taken for real; must be +treated as though it had life. Who knows? Possibly it had! + +February 16, 1907 + + +THE EDUCATION +OF HENRY ADAMS + + +CHAPTER I + +QUINCY (1838-1848) + + UNDER the shadow of Boston State House, turning its back on the +house of John Hancock, the little passage called Hancock Avenue +runs, or ran, from Beacon Street, skirting the State House +grounds, to Mount Vernon Street, on the summit of Beacon Hill; +and there, in the third house below Mount Vernon Place, February +16, 1838, a child was born, and christened later by his uncle, +the minister of the First Church after the tenets of Boston +Unitarianism, as Henry Brooks Adams. + + Had he been born in Jerusalem under the shadow of the Temple +and circumcised in the Synagogue by his uncle the high priest, +under the name of Israel Cohen, he would scarcely have been more +distinctly branded, and not much more heavily handicapped in the +races of the coming century, in running for such stakes as the +century was to offer; but, on the other hand, the ordinary +traveller, who does not enter the field of racing, finds +advantage in being, so to speak, ticketed through life, with the +safeguards of an old, established traffic. Safeguards are often +irksome, but sometimes convenient, and if one needs them at all, +one is apt to need them badly. A hundred years earlier, such +safeguards as his would have secured any young man's success; and +although in 1838 their value was not very great compared with +what they would have had in 1738, yet the mere accident of +starting a twentieth-century career from a nest of associations +so colonial, -- so troglodytic -- as the First Church, the Boston +State House, Beacon Hill, John Hancock and John Adams, Mount +Vernon Street and Quincy, all crowding on ten pounds of +unconscious babyhood, was so queer as to offer a subject of +curious speculation to the baby long after he had witnessed the +solution. What could become of such a child of the seventeenth +and eighteenth centuries, when he should wake up to find himself +required to play the game of the twentieth? Had he been +consulted, would he have cared to play the game at all, holding +such cards as he held, and suspecting that the game was to be one +of which neither he nor any one else back to the beginning of +time knew the rules or the risks or the stakes? He was not +consulted and was not responsible, but had he been taken into the +confidence of his parents, he would certainly have told them to +change nothing as far as concerned him. He would have been +astounded by his own luck. Probably no child, born in the year, +held better cards than he. Whether life was an honest game of +chance, or whether the cards were marked and forced, he could not +refuse to play his excellent hand. He could never make the usual +plea of irresponsibility. He accepted the situation as though he +had been a party to it, and under the same circumstances would do +it again, the more readily for knowing the exact values. To his +life as a whole he was a consenting, contracting party and +partner from the moment he was born to the moment he died. Only +with that understanding -- as a consciously assenting member in +full partnership with the society of his age -- had his education +an interest to himself or to others. + + As it happened, he never got to the point of playing the game +at all; he lost himself in the study of it, watching the errors +of the players; but this is the only interest in the story, which +otherwise has no moral and little incident. A story of education +-- seventy years of it -- the practical value remains to the end +in doubt, like other values about which men have disputed since +the birth of Cain and Abel; but the practical value of the +universe has never been stated in dollars. Although every one +cannot be a Gargantua-Napoleon-Bismarck and walk off with the +great bells of Notre Dame, every one must bear his own universe, +and most persons are moderately interested in learning how their +neighbors have managed to carry theirs. + + This problem of education, started in 1838, went on for three +years, while the baby grew, like other babies, unconsciously, as +a vegetable, the outside world working as it never had worked +before, to get his new universe ready for him. Often in old age +he puzzled over the question whether, on the doctrine of chances, +he was at liberty to accept himself or his world as an accident. +No such accident had ever happened before in human experience. +For him, alone, the old universe was thrown into the ash-heap and +a new one created. He and his eighteenth-century, troglodytic +Boston were suddenly cut apart -- separated forever -- in act if +not in sentiment, by the opening of the Boston and Albany +Railroad; the appearance of the first Cunard steamers in the bay; +and the telegraphic messages which carried from Baltimore to +Washington the news that Henry Clay and James K. Polk were +nominated for the Presidency. This was in May, 1844; he was six +years old ; his new world was ready for use, and only fragments +of the old met his eyes. + + Of all this that was being done to complicate his education, he +knew only the color of yellow. He first found himself sitting on +a yellow kitchen floor in strong sunlight. He was three years old +when he took this earliest step in education; a lesson of color. +The second followed soon; a lesson of taste. On December 3, 1841, +he developed scarlet fever. For several days he was as good as +dead, reviving only under the careful nursing of his family. When +he began to recover strength, about January 1, 1842, his hunger +must have been stronger than any other pleasure or pain, for +while in after life he retained not the faintest recollection of +his illness, he remembered quite clearly his aunt entering the +sickroom bearing in her hand a saucer with a baked apple. + + The order of impressions retained by memory might naturally be +that of color and taste, although one would rather suppose that +the sense of pain would be first to educate. In fact, the third +recollection of the child was that of discomfort. The moment he +could be removed, he was bundled up in blankets and carried from +the little house in Hancock Avenue to a larger one which his +parents were to occupy for the rest of their lives in the +neighboring Mount Vernon Street. The season was midwinter, +January 10, 1842, and he never forgot his acute distress for want +of air under his blankets, or the noises of moving furniture. + + As a means of variation from a normal type, sickness in +childhood ought to have a certain value not to be classed under +any fitness or unfitness of natural selection; and especially +scarlet fever affected boys seriously, both physically and in +character, though they might through life puzzle themselves to +decide whether it had fitted or unfitted them for success; but +this fever of Henry Adams took greater and greater importance in +his eyes, from the point of view of education, the longer he +lived. At first, the effect was physical. He fell behind his +brothers two or three inches in height, and proportionally in +bone and weight. His character and processes of mind seemed to +share in this fining-down process of scale. He was not good in a +fight, and his nerves were more delicate than boys' nerves ought +to be. He exaggerated these weaknesses as he grew older. The +habit of doubt; of distrusting his own judgment and of totally +rejecting the judgment of the world; the tendency to regard every +question as open; the hesitation to act except as a choice of +evils; the shirking of responsibility; the love of line, form, +quality; the horror of ennui; the passion for companionship and +the antipathy to society -- all these are well-known qualities of +New England character in no way peculiar to individuals but in +this instance they seemed to be stimulated by the fever, and +Henry Adams could never make up his mind whether, on the whole, +the change of character was morbid or healthy, good or bad for +his purpose. His brothers were the type; he was the variation. + + As far as the boy knew, the sickness did not affect him at all, +and he grew up in excellent health, bodily and mental, taking +life as it was given; accepting its local standards without a +dificulty, and enjoying much of it as keenly as any other boy of +his age. He seemed to himself quite normal, and his companions +seemed always to think him so. Whatever was peculiar about him +was education, not character, and came to him, directly and +indirectly, as the result of that eighteenth-century inheritance +which he took with his name. + + The atmosphere of education in which he lived was colonial, +revolutionary, almost Cromwellian, as though he were steeped, +from his greatest grandmother's birth, in the odor of political +crime. Resistance to something was the law of New England nature; +the boy looked out on the world with the instinct of resistance; +for numberless generations his predecessors had viewed the world +chiefly as a thing to be reformed, filled with evil forces to be +abolished, and they saw no reason to suppose that they had wholly +succeeded in the abolition; the duty was unchanged. That duty +implied not only resistance to evil, but hatred of it. Boys +naturally look on all force as an enemy, and generally find it +so, but the New Englander, whether boy or man, in his long +struggle with a stingy or hostile universe, had learned also to +love the pleasure of hating; his joys were few. + + Politics, as a practice, whatever its professions, had always +been the systematic organization of hatreds, and Massachusetts +politics had been as harsh as the climate. The chief charm of New +England was harshness of contrasts and extremes of sensibility -- +a cold that froze the blood, and a heat that boiled it -- so that +the pleasure of hating -- one's self if no better victim offered +-- was not its rarest amusement; but the charm was a true and +natural child of the soil, not a cultivated weed of the ancients. +The violence of the contrast was real and made the strongest +motive of education. The double exterior nature gave life its +relative values. Winter and summer, cold and heat, town and +country, force and freedom, marked two modes of life and thought, +balanced like lobes of the brain. Town was winter confinement, +school, rule, discipline; straight, gloomy streets, piled with +six feet of snow in the middle; frosts that made the snow sing +under wheels or runners; thaws when the streets became dangerous +to cross; society of uncles, aunts, and cousins who expected +children to behave themselves, and who were not always gratified; +above all else, winter represented the desire to escape and go +free. Town was restraint, law, unity. Country, only seven miles +away, was liberty, diversity, outlawry, the endless delight of +mere sense impressions given by nature for nothing, and breathed +by boys without knowing it. + + Boys are wild animals, rich in the treasures of sense, but the +New England boy had a wider range of emotions than boys of more +equable climates. He felt his nature crudely, as it was meant. To +the boy Henry Adams, summer was drunken. Among senses, smell was +the strongest -- smell of hot pine-woods and sweet-fern in the +scorching summer noon; of new-mown hay; of ploughed earth; of box +hedges; of peaches, lilacs, syringas; of stables, barns, +cow-yards; of salt water and low tide on the marshes; nothing +came amiss. Next to smell came taste, and the children knew the +taste of everything they saw or touched, from pennyroyal and +flagroot to the shell of a pignut and the letters of a +spelling-book -- the taste of A-B, AB, suddenly revived on the +boy's tongue sixty years afterwards. Light, line, and color as +sensual pleasures, came later and were as crude as the rest. The +New England light is glare, and the atmosphere harshens color. +The boy was a full man before he ever knew what was meant by +atmosphere; his idea of pleasure in light was the blaze of a New +England sun. His idea of color was a peony, with the dew of early +morning on its petals. The intense blue of the sea, as he saw it +a mile or two away, from the Quincy hills; the cumuli in a June +afternoon sky; the strong reds and greens and purples of colored +prints and children's picture-books, as the American colors then +ran; these were ideals. The opposites or antipathies, were the +cold grays of November evenings, and the thick, muddy thaws of +Boston winter. With such standards, the Bostonian could not but +develop a double nature. Life was a double thing. After a January +blizzard, the boy who could look with pleasure into the violent +snow-glare of the cold white sunshine, with its intense light and +shade, scarcely knew what was meant by tone. He could reach it +only by education. + + Winter and summer, then, were two hostile lives, and bred two +separate natures. Winter was always the effort to live; summer +was tropical license. Whether the children rolled in the grass, +or waded in the brook, or swam in the salt ocean, or sailed in +the bay, or fished for smelts in the creeks, or netted minnows in +the salt-marshes, or took to the pine-woods and the granite +quarries, or chased muskrats and hunted snapping-turtles in the +swamps, or mushrooms or nuts on the autumn hills, summer and +country were always sensual living, while winter was always +compulsory learning. Summer was the multiplicity of nature; +winter was school. + + The bearing of the two seasons on the education of Henry Adams +was no fancy; it was the most decisive force he ever knew; it ran +though life, and made the division between its perplexing, +warring, irreconcilable problems, irreducible opposites, with +growing emphasis to the last year of study. From earliest +childhood the boy was accustomed to feel that, for him, life was +double. Winter and summer, town and country, law and liberty, +were hostile, and the man who pretended they were not, was in his +eyes a schoolmaster -- that is, a man employed to tell lies to +little boys. Though Quincy was but two hours' walk from Beacon +Hill, it belonged in a different world. For two hundred years, +every Adams, from father to son, had lived within sight of State +Street, and sometimes had lived in it, yet none had ever taken +kindly to the town, or been taken kindly by it. The boy inherited +his double nature. He knew as yet nothing about his +great-grandfather, who had died a dozen years before his own +birth: he took for granted that any great-grandfather of his must +have always been good, and his enemies wicked; but he divined his +great-grandfather's character from his own. Never for a moment +did he connect the two ideas of Boston and John Adams; they were +separate and antagonistic; the idea of John Adams went with +Quincy. He knew his grandfather John Quincy Adams only as an old +man of seventy-five or eighty who was friendly and gentle with +him, but except that he heard his grandfather always called "the +President," and his grandmother "the Madam," he had no reason to +suppose that his Adams grandfather differed in character from his +Brooks grandfather who was equally kind and benevolent. He liked +the Adams side best, but for no other reason than that it +reminded him of the country, the summer, and the absence of +restraint. Yet he felt also that Quincy was in a way inferior to +Boston, and that socially Boston looked down on Quincy. The +reason was clear enough even to a five-year old child. Quincy had +no Boston style. Little enough style had either; a simpler manner +of life and thought could hardly exist, short of cave-dwelling. +The flint-and-steel with which his grandfather Adams used to +light his own fires in the early morning was still on the +mantelpiece of his study. The idea of a livery or even a dress +for servants, or of an evening toilette, was next to blasphemy. +Bathrooms, water-supplies, lighting, heating, and the whole array +of domestic comforts, were unknown at Quincy. Boston had already +a bathroom, a water-supply, a furnace, and gas. The superiority +of Boston was evident, but a child liked it no better for that. + + The magnificence of his grandfather Brooks's house in Pearl +Street or South Street has long ago disappeared, but perhaps his +country house at Medford may still remain to show what impressed +the mind of a boy in 1845 with the idea of city splendor. The +President's place at Quincy was the larger and older and far the +more interesting of the two; but a boy felt at once its +inferiority in fashion. It showed plainly enough its want of +wealth. It smacked of colonial age, but not of Boston style or +plush curtains. To the end of his life he never quite overcame +the prejudice thus drawn in with his childish breath. He never +could compel himself to care for nineteenth-century style. He was +never able to adopt it, any more than his father or grandfather +or great-grandfather had done. Not that he felt it as +particularly hostile, for he reconciled himself to much that was +worse; but because, for some remote reason, he was born an +eighteenth-century child. The old house at Quincy was eighteenth +century. What style it had was in its Queen Anne mahogany panels +and its Louis Seize chairs and sofas. The panels belonged to an +old colonial Vassall who built the house; the furniture had been +brought back from Paris in 1789 or 1801 or 1817, along with +porcelain and books and much else of old diplomatic remnants; and +neither of the two eighteenth-century styles -- neither English +Queen Anne nor French Louis Seize -- was cofortable for a boy, or +for any one else. The dark mahogany had been painted white to +suit daily life in winter gloom. Nothing seemed to favor, for a +child's objects, the older forms. On the contrary, most boys, as +well as grown-up people, preferred the new, with good reason, and +the child felt himself distinctly at a disadvantage for the +taste. + + Nor had personal preference any share in his bias. The Brooks +grandfather was as amiable and as sympathetic as the Adams +grandfather. Both were born in 1767, and both died in 1848. Both +were kind to children, and both belonged rather to the eighteenth +than to the nineteenth centuries. The child knew no difference +between them except that one was associated with winter and the +other with summer; one with Boston, the other with Quincy. Even +with Medford, the association was hardly easier. Once as a very +young boy he was taken to pass a few days with his grandfather +Brooks under charge of his aunt, but became so violently homesick +that within twenty-four hours he was brought back in disgrace. +Yet he could not remember ever being seriously homesick again. + + The attachment to Quincy was not altogether sentimental or +wholly sympathetic. Quincy was not a bed of thornless roses. Even +there the curse of Cain set its mark. There as elsewhere a cruel +universe combined to crush a child. As though three or four +vigorous brothers and sisters, with the best will, were not +enough to crush any child, every one else conspired towards an +education which he hated. From cradle to grave this problem of +running order through chaos, direction through space, discipline +through freedom, unity through multiplicity, has always been, and +must always be, the task of education, as it is the moral of +religion, philosophy, science, art, politics, and economy; but a +boy's will is his life, and he dies when it is broken, as the +colt dies in harness, taking a new nature in becoming tame. +Rarely has the boy felt kindly towards his tamers. Between him +and his master has always been war. Henry Adams never knew a boy +of his generation to like a master, and the task of remaining on +friendly terms with one's own family, in such a relation, was +never easy. + + All the more singular it seemed afterwards to him that his +first serious contact with the President should have been a +struggle of will, in which the old man almost necessarily +defeated the boy, but instead of leaving, as usual in such +defeats, a lifelong sting, left rather an impression of as fair +treatment as could be expected from a natural enemy. The boy met +seldom with such restraint. He could not have been much more than +six years old at the time -- seven at the utmost -- and his +mother had taken him to Quincy for a long stay with the President +during the summer. What became of the rest of the family he quite +forgot; but he distinctly remembered standing at the house door +one summer morning in a passionate outburst of rebellion against +going to school. Naturally his mother was the immediate victim of +his rage; that is what mothers are for, and boys also; but in +this case the boy had his mother at unfair disadvantage, for she +was a guest, and had no means of enforcing obedience. Henry +showed a certain tactical ability by refusing to start, and he +met all efforts at compulsion by successful, though too vehement +protest. He was in fair way to win, and was holding his own, with +sufficient energy, at the bottom of the long staircase which led +up to the door of the President's library, when the door opened, +and the old man slowly came down. Putting on his hat, he took the +boy's hand without a word, and walked with him, paralyzed by awe, +up the road to the town. After the first moments of consternation +at this interference in a domestic dispute, the boy reflected +that an old gentleman close on eighty would never trouble himself +to walk near a mile on a hot summer morning over a shadeless road +to take a boy to school, and that it would be strange if a lad +imbued with the passion of freedom could not find a corner to +dodge around, somewhere before reaching the school door. Then and +always, the boy insisted that this reasoning justified his +apparent submission; but the old man did not stop, and the boy +saw all his strategical points turned, one after another, until +he found himself seated inside the school, and obviously the +centre of curious if not malevolent criticism. Not till then did +the President release his hand and depart. + + The point was that this act, contrary to the inalienable rights +of boys, and nullifying the social compact, ought to have made +him dislike his grandfather for life. He could not recall that it +had this effect even for a moment. With a certain maturity of +mind, the child must have recognized that the President, though a +tool of tyranny, had done his disreputable work with a certain +intelligence. He had shown no temper, no irritation, no personal +feeling, and had made no display of force. Above all, he had held +his tongue. During their long walk he had said nothing; he had +uttered no syllable of revolting cant about the duty of obedience +and the wickedness of resistance to law; he had shown no concern +in the matter; hardly even a consciousness of the boy's +existence. Probably his mind at that moment was actually +troubling itself little about his grandson's iniquities, and much +about the iniquities of President Polk, but the boy could +scarcely at that age feel the whole satisfaction of thinking that +President Polk was to be the vicarious victim of his own sins, +and he gave his grandfather credit for intelligent silence. For +this forbearance he felt instinctive respect. He admitted force +as a form of right; he admitted even temper, under protest; but +the seeds of a moral education would at that moment have fallen +on the stoniest soil in Quincy, which is, as every one knows, the +stoniest glacial and tidal drift known in any Puritan land. + + Neither party to this momentary disagreement can have felt +rancor, for during these three or four summers the old +President's relations with the boy were friendly and almost +intimate. Whether his older brothers and sisters were still more +favored he failed to remember, but he was himself admitted to a +sort of familiarity which, when in his turn he had reached old +age, rather shocked him, for it must have sometimes tried the +President's patience. He hung about the library; handled the +books; deranged the papers; ransacked the drawers; searched the +old purses and pocket-books for foreign coins; drew the +sword-cane; snapped the travelling-pistols; upset everything in +the corners, and penetrated the President's dressing-closet where +a row of tumblers, inverted on the shelf, covered caterpillars +which were supposed to become moths or butterflies, but never +did. The Madam bore with fortitude the loss of the tumblers which +her husband purloined for these hatcheries; but she made protest +when he carried off her best cut-glass bowls to plant with acorns +or peachstones that he might see the roots grow, but which, she +said, he commonly forgot like the caterpillars. + + At that time the President rode the hobby of tree-culture, and +some fine old trees should still remain to witness it, unless +they have been improved off the ground; but his was a restless +mind, and although he took his hobbies seriously and would have +been annoyed had his grandchild asked whether he was bored like +an English duke, he probably cared more for the processes than +for the results, so that his grandson was saddened by the sight +and smell of peaches and pears, the best of their kind, which he +brought up from the garden to rot on his shelves for seed. With +the inherited virtues of his Puritan ancestors, the little boy +Henry conscientiously brought up to him in his study the finest +peaches he found in the garden, and ate only the less perfect. +Naturally he ate more by way of compensation, but the act showed +that he bore no grudge. As for his grandfather, it is even +possible that he may have felt a certain self-reproach for his +temporary role of schoolmaster -- seeing that his own career did +not offer proof of the worldly advantages of docile obedience -- +for there still exists somewhere a little volume of critically +edited Nursery Rhymes with the boy's name in full written in the +President's trembling hand on the fly-leaf. Of course there was +also the Bible, given to each child at birth, with the proper +inscription in the President's hand on the fly-leaf; while their +grandfather Brooks supplied the silver mugs. + + So many Bibles and silver mugs had to be supplied, that a new +house, or cottage, was built to hold them. It was "on the hill," +five minutes' walk above "the old house," with a far view +eastward over Quincy Bay, and northward over Boston. Till his +twelfth year, the child passed his summers there, and his +pleasures of childhood mostly centred in it. Of education he had +as yet little to complain. Country schools were not very serious. +Nothing stuck to the mind except home impressions, and the +sharpest were those of kindred children; but as influences that +warped a mind, none compared with the mere effect of the back of +the President's bald head, as he sat in his pew on Sundays, in +line with that of President Quincy, who, though some ten years +younger, seemed to children about the same age. Before railways +entered the New England town, every parish church showed +half-a-dozen of these leading citizens, with gray hair, who sat +on the main aisle in the best pews, and had sat there, or in some +equivalent dignity, since the time of St. Augustine, if not since +the glacial epoch. It was unusual for boys to sit behind a +President grandfather, and to read over his head the tablet in +memory of a President great-grandfather, who had "pledged his +life, his fortune, and his sacred honor" to secure the +independence of his country and so forth; but boys naturally +supposed, without much reasoning, that other boys had the +equivalent of President grandfathers, and that churches would +always go on, with the bald-headed leading citizens on the main +aisle, and Presidents or their equivalents on the walls. The +Irish gardener once said to the child: "You'll be thinkin' you'll +be President too!" The casuality of the remark made so strong an +impression on his mind that he never forgot it. He could not +remember ever to have thought on the subject; to him, that there +should be a doubt of his being President was a new idea. What had +been would continue to be. He doubted neither about Presidents +nor about Churches, and no one suggested at that time a doubt +whether a system of society which had lasted since Adam would +outlast one Adams more. + + The Madam was a little more remote than the President, but more +decorative. She stayed much in her own room with the Dutch tiles, +looking out on her garden with the box walks, and seemed a +fragile creature to a boy who sometimes brought her a note or a +message, and took distinct pleasure in looking at her delicate +face under what seemed to him very becoming caps. He liked her +refined figure ; her gentle voice and manner; her vague effect of +not belonging there, but to Washington or to Europe, like her +furniture, and writing-desk with little glass doors above and +little eighteenth-century volumes in old binding, labelled +"Peregrine Pickle" or "Tom Jones" or "Hannah More." Try as she +might, the Madam could never be Bostonian, and it was her cross +in life, but to the boy it was her charm. Even at that age, he +felt drawn to it. The Madam's life had been in truth far from +Boston. She was born in London in 1775, daughter of Joshua +Johnson, an American merchant, brother of Governor Thomas Johnson +of Maryland; and Catherine Nuth, of an English family in London. +Driven from England by the Revolutionary War, Joshua Johnson took +his family to Nantes, where they remained till the peace. The +girl Louisa Catherine was nearly ten years old when brought back +to London, and her sense of nationality must have been confused; +but the influence of the Johnsons and the services of Joshua +obtained for him from President Washington the appointment of +Consul in London on the organization of the Government in 1790. +In 1794 President Washington appointed John Quincy Adams Minister +to The Hague. He was twenty-seven years old when he returned to +London, and found the Consul's house a very agreeable haunt. +Louisa was then twenty. + + At that time, and long afterwards, the Consul's house, far more +than the Minister's, was the centre of contact for travelling +Americans, either official or other. The Legation was a shifting +point, between 1785 and 1815; but the Consulate, far down in the +City, near the Tower, was convenient and inviting; so inviting +that it proved fatal to young Adams. Louisa was charming, like a +Romney portrait, but among her many charms that of being a New +England woman was not one. The defect was serious. Her future +mother-in-law, Abigail, a famous New England woman whose +authority over her turbulent husband, the second President, was +hardly so great as that which she exercised over her son, the +sixth to be, was troubled by the fear that Louisa might not be +made of stuff stern enough, or brought up in conditions severe +enough, to suit a New England climate, or to make an efficient +wife for her paragon son, and Abigail was right on that point, as +on most others where sound judgment was involved; but sound +judgment is sometimes a source of weakness rather than of force, +and John Quincy already had reason to think that his mother held +sound judgments on the subject of daughters-in-law which human +nature, since the fall of Eve, made Adams helpless to realize. +Being three thousand miles away from his mother, and equally far +in love, he married Louisa in London, July 26, 1797, and took her +to Berlin to be the head of the United States Legation. During +three or four exciting years, the young bride lived in Berlin; +whether she was happy or not, whether she was content or not, +whether she was socially successful or not, her descendants did +not surely know; but in any case she could by no chance have +become educated there for a life in Quincy or Boston. In 1801 the +overthrow of the Federalist Party drove her and her husband to +America, and she became at last a member of the Quincy household, +but by that time her children needed all her attention, and she +remained there with occasional winters in Boston and Washington, +till 1809. Her husband was made Senator in 1803, and in 1809 was +appointed Minister to Russia. She went with him to St. +Petersburg, taking her baby, Charles Francis, born in 1807; but +broken-hearted at having to leave her two older boys behind. The +life at St. Petersburg was hardly gay for her; they were far too +poor to shine in that extravagant society; but she survived it, +though her little girl baby did not, and in the winter of +1814-15, alone with the boy of seven years old, crossed Europe +from St. Petersburg to Paris, in her travelling-carriage, passing +through the armies, and reaching Paris in the Cent Jours after +Napoleon's return from Elba. Her husband next went to England as +Minister, and she was for two years at the Court of the Regent. +In 1817 her husband came home to be Secretary of State, and she +lived for eight years in F Street, doing her work of entertainer +for President Monroe's administration. Next she lived four +miserable years in the White House. When that chapter was closed +in 1829, she had earned the right to be tired and delicate, but +she still had fifteen years to serve as wife of a Member of the +House, after her husband went back to Congress in 1833. Then it +was that the little Henry, her grandson, first remembered her, +from 1843 to 1848, sitting in her panelled room, at breakfast, +with her heavy silver teapot and sugar-bowl and cream-jug, which +still exist somewhere as an heirloom of the modern safety-vault. +By that time she was seventy years old or more, and thoroughly +weary of being beaten about a stormy world. To the boy she seemed +singularly peaceful, a vision of silver gray, presiding over her +old President and her Queen Anne mahogany; an exotic, like her +Sevres china; an object of deference to every one, and of great +affection to her son Charles; but hardly more Bostonian than she +had been fifty years before, on her wedding-day, in the shadow of +the Tower of London. + + Such a figure was even less fitted than that of her old +husband, the President, to impress on a boy's mind, the standards +of the coming century. She was Louis Seize, like the furniture. +The boy knew nothing of her interior life, which had been, as the +venerable Abigail, long since at peace, foresaw, one of severe +stress and little pure satisfaction. He never dreamed that from +her might come some of those doubts and self-questionings, those +hesitations, those rebellions against law and discipline, which +marked more than one of her descendants; but he might even then +have felt some vague instinctive suspicion that he was to inherit +from her the seeds of the primal sin, the fall from grace, the +curse of Abel, that he was not of pure New England stock, but +half exotic. As a child of Quincy he was not a true Bostonian, +but even as a child of Quincy he inherited a quarter taint of +Maryland blood. Charles Francis, half Marylander by birth, had +hardly seen Boston till he was ten years old, when his parents +left him there at school in 1817, and he never forgot the +experience. He was to be nearly as old as his mother had been in +1845, before he quite accepted Boston, or Boston quite accepted +him. + + A boy who began his education in these surroundings, with +physical strength inferior to that of his brothers, and with a +certain delicacy of mind and bone, ought rightly to have felt at +home in the eighteenth century and should, in proper +self-respect, have rebelled against the standards of the +nineteenth. The atmosphere of his first ten years must have been +very like that of his grandfather at the same age, from 1767 till +1776, barring the battle of Bunker Hill, and even as late as +1846, the battle of Bunker Hill remained actual. The tone of +Boston society was colonial. The true Bostonian always knelt in +self-abasement before the majesty of English standards; far from +concealing it as a weakness, he was proud of it as his strength. +The eighteenth century ruled society long after 1850. Perhaps the +boy began to shake it off rather earlier than most of his mates. + + Indeed this prehistoric stage of education ended rather +abruptly with his tenth year. One winter morning he was conscious +of a certain confusion in the house in Mount Vernon Street, and +gathered, from such words as he could catch, that the President, +who happened to be then staying there, on his way to Washington, +had fallen and hurt himself. Then he heard the word paralysis. +After that day he came to associate the word with the figure of +his grandfather, in a tall-backed, invalid armchair, on one side +of the spare bedroom fireplace, and one of his old friends, Dr. +Parkman or P. P. F. Degrand, on the other side, both dozing. + + The end of this first, or ancestral and Revolutionary, chapter +came on February 21, 1848 -- and the month of February brought +life and death as a family habit -- when the eighteenth century, +as an actual and living companion, vanished. If the scene on the +floor of the House, when the old President fell, struck the still +simple-minded American public with a sensation unusually +dramatic, its effect on a ten-year-old boy, whose boy-life was +fading away with the life of his grandfather, could not be +slight. One had to pay for Revolutionary patriots; grandfathers +and grandmothers; Presidents; diplomats; Queen Anne mahogany and +Louis Seize chairs, as well as for Stuart portraits. Such things +warp young life. Americans commonly believed that they ruined it, +and perhaps the practical common-sense of the American mind +judged right. Many a boy might be ruined by much less than the +emotions of the funeral service in the Quincy church, with its +surroundings of national respect and family pride. By another +dramatic chance it happened that the clergyman of the parish, Dr. +Lunt, was an unusual pulpit orator, the ideal of a somewhat +austere intellectual type, such as the school of Buckminster and +Channing inherited from the old Congregational clergy. His +extraordinarily refined appearance, his dignity of manner, his +deeply cadenced voice, his remarkable English and his fine +appreciation, gave to the funeral service a character that left +an overwhelming impression on the boy's mind. He was to see many +great functions -- funerals and festival -- in after-life, till +his only thought was to see no more, but he never again witnessed +anything nearly so impressive to him as the last services at +Quincy over the body of one President and the ashes of another. + + The effect of the Quincy service was deepened by the official +ceremony which afterwards took place in Faneuil Hall, when the +boy was taken to hear his uncle, Edward Everett, deliver a +Eulogy. Like all Mr. Everett's orations, it was an admirable +piece of oratory, such as only an admirable orator and scholar +could create; too good for a ten-year-old boy to appreciate at +its value; but already the boy knew that the dead President could +not be in it, and had even learned why he would have been out of +place there; for knowledge was beginning to come fast. The shadow +of the War of 1812 still hung over State Street; the shadow of +the Civil War to come had already begun to darken Faneuil Hall. +No rhetoric could have reconciled Mr. Everett's audience to his +subject. How could he say there, to an assemblage of Bostonians +in the heart of mercantile Boston, that the only distinctive mark +of all the Adamses, since old Sam Adams's father a hundred and +fifty years before, had been their inherited quarrel with State +Street, which had again and again broken out into riot, +bloodshed, personal feuds, foreign and civil war, wholesale +banishments and confiscations, until the history of Florence was +hardly more turbulent than that of Boston? How could he whisper +the word Hartford Convention before the men who had made it? What +would have been said had he suggested the chance of Secession and +Civil War? + + Thus already, at ten years old, the boy found himself standing +face to face with a dilemma that might have puzzled an early +Christian. What was he? -- where was he going? Even then he felt +that something was wrong, but he concluded that it must be +Boston. Quincy had always been right, for Quincy represented a +moral principle -- the principle of resistance to Boston. His +Adams ancestors must have been right, since they were always +hostile to State Street. If State Street was wrong, Quincy must +be right! Turn the dilemma as he pleased, he still came back on +the eighteenth century and the law of Resistance; of Truth; of +Duty, and of Freedom. He was a ten-year-old priest and +politician. He could under no circumstances have guessed what the +next fifty years had in store, and no one could teach him; but +sometimes, in his old age, he wondered -- and could never decide +-- whether the most clear and certain knowledge would have helped +him. Supposing he had seen a New York stock-list of 1900, and had +studied the statistics of railways, telegraphs, coal, and steel +-- would he have quitted his eighteenth-century, his ancestral +prejudices, his abstract ideals, his semi-clerical training, and +the rest, in order to perform an expiatory pilgrimage to State +Street, and ask for the fatted calf of his grandfather Brooks and +a clerkship in the Suffolk Bank? + + Sixty years afterwards he was still unable to make up his mind. +Each course had its advantages, but the material advantages, +looking back, seemed to lie wholly in State Street. + + +CHAPTER II + +BOSTON (1848-1854) + + PETER CHARDON BROOKS, the other grandfather, died January 1, +1849, bequeathing what was supposed to be the largest estate in +Boston, about two million dollars, to his seven surviving +children: four sons -- Edward, Peter Chardon, Gorham, and Sydney; +three daughters -- Charlotte, married to Edward Everett; Ann, +married to Nathaniel Frothingham, minister of the First Church; +and Abigail Brown, born April 25, 1808, married September 3, +1829, to Charles Francis Adams, hardly a year older than herself. +Their first child, born in 1830, was a daughter, named Louisa +Catherine, after her Johnson grandmother; the second was a son, +named John Quincy, after his President grandfather; the third +took his father's name, Charles Francis; while the fourth, being +of less account, was in a way given to his mother, who named him +Henry Brooks, after a favorite brother just lost. More followed, +but these, being younger, had nothing to do with the arduous +process of educating. + + The Adams connection was singularly small in Boston, but the +family of Brooks was singularly large and even brilliant, and +almost wholly of clerical New England stock. One might have +sought long in much larger and older societies for three +brothers-in-law more distinguished or more scholarly than Edward +Everett, Dr. Frothingham, and Mr. Adams. One might have sought +equally long for seven brothers-in-law more unlike. No doubt they +all bore more or less the stamp of Boston, or at least of +Massachusetts Bay, but the shades of difference amounted to +contrasts. Mr. Everett belonged to Boston hardly more than Mr. +Adams. One of the most ambitious of Bostonians, he had broken +bounds early in life by leaving the Unitarian pulpit to take a +seat in Congress where he had given valuable support to J. Q. +Adams's administration; support which, as a social consequence, +led to the marriage of the President's son, Charles Francis, with +Mr. Everett's youngest sister-in-law, Abigail Brooks. The wreck +of parties which marked the reign of Andrew Jackson had +interfered with many promising careers, that of Edward Everett +among the rest, but he had risen with the Whig Party to power, +had gone as Minister to England, and had returned to America with +the halo of a European reputation, and undisputed rank second +only to Daniel Webster as the orator and representative figure of +Boston. The other brother-in-law, Dr. Frothingham, belonged to +the same clerical school, though in manner rather the less +clerical of the two. Neither of them had much in common with Mr. +Adams, who was a younger man, greatly biassed by his father, and +by the inherited feud between Quincy and State Street; but +personal relations were friendly as far as a boy could see, and +the innumerable cousins went regularly to the First Church every +Sunday in winter, and slept through their uncle's sermons, +without once thinking to ask what the sermons were supposed to +mean for them. For two hundred years the First Church had seen +the same little boys, sleeping more or less soundly under the +same or similar conditions, and dimly conscious of the same +feuds; but the feuds had never ceased, and the boys had always +grown up to inherit them. Those of the generation of 1812 had +mostly disappeared in 1850; death had cleared that score; the +quarrels of John Adams, and those of John Quincy Adams were no +longer acutely personal; the game was considered as drawn; and +Charles Francis Adams might then have taken his inherited rights +of political leadership in succession to Mr. Webster and Mr. +Everett, his seniors. Between him and State Street the relation +was more natural than between Edward Everett and State Street; +but instead of doing so, Charles Francis Adams drew himself aloof +and renewed the old war which had already lasted since 1700. He +could not help it. With the record of J. Q. Adams fresh in the +popular memory, his son and his only representative could not +make terms with the slave-power, and the slave-power overshadowed +all the great Boston interests. No doubt Mr. Adams had principles +of his own, as well as inherited, but even his children, who as +yet had no principles, could equally little follow the lead of +Mr. Webster or even of Mr. Seward. They would have lost in +consideration more than they would have gained in patronage. They +were anti-slavery by birth, as their name was Adams and their +home was Quincy. No matter how much they had wished to enter +State Street, they felt that State Street never would trust them, +or they it. Had State Street been Paradise, they must hunger for +it in vain, and it hardly needed Daniel Webster to act as +archangel with the flaming sword, to order them away from the +door. + + Time and experience, which alter all perspectives, altered this +among the rest, and taught the boy gentler judgment, but even +when only ten years old, his face was already fixed, and his +heart was stone, against State Street; his education was warped +beyond recovery in the direction of Puritan politics. Between him +and his patriot grandfather at the same age, the conditions had +changed little. The year 1848 was like enough to the year 1776 to +make a fair parallel. The parallel, as concerned bias of +education, was complete when, a few months after the death of +John Quincy Adams, a convention of anti-slavery delegates met at +Buffalo to organize a new party and named candidates for the +general election in November: for President, Martin Van Buren; +for Vice-President, Charles Francis Adams. + + For any American boy the fact that his father was running for +office would have dwarfed for the time every other excitement, +but even apart from personal bias, the year 1848, for a boy's +road through life, was decisive for twenty years to come. There +was never a side-path of escape. The stamp of 1848 was almost as +indelible as the stamp of 1776, but in the eighteenth or any +earlier century, the stamp mattered less because it was standard, +and every one bore it; while men whose lives were to fall in the +generation between 1865 and 1900 had, first of all, to get rid of +it, and take the stamp that belonged to their time. This was +their education. To outsiders, immigrants, adventurers, it was +easy, but the old Puritan nature rebelled against change. The +reason it gave was forcible. The Puritan thought his thought +higher and his moral standards better than those of his +successors. So they were. He could not be convinced that moral +standards had nothing to do with it, and that utilitarian +morality was good enough for him, as it was for the graceless. +Nature had given to the boy Henry a character that, in any +previous century, would have led him into the Church; he +inherited dogma and a priori thought from the beginning of time; +and he scarcely needed a violent reaction like anti-slavery +politics to sweep him back into Puritanism with a violence as +great as that of a religious war. + + Thus far he had nothing to do with it; his education was +chiefly inheritance, and during the next five or six years, his +father alone counted for much. If he were to worry successfully +through life's quicksands, he must depend chiefly on his father's +pilotage; but, for his father, the channel lay clear, while for +himself an unknown ocean lay beyond. His father's business in +life was to get past the dangers of the slave-power, or to fix +its bounds at least. The task done, he might be content to let +his sons pay for the pilotage; and it mattered little to his +success whether they paid it with their lives wasted on +battle-fields or in misdirected energies and lost opportunity. +The generation that lived from 1840 to 1870 could do very well +with the old forms of education; that which had its work to do +between 1870 and 1900 needed something quite new. + + His father's character was therefore the larger part of his +education, as far as any single person affected it, and for that +reason, if for no other, the son was always a much interested +critic of his father's mind and temper. Long after his death as +an old man of eighty, his sons continued to discuss this subject +with a good deal of difference in their points of view. To his +son Henry, the quality that distinguished his father from all the +other figures in the family group, was that, in his opinion, +Charles Francis Adams possessed the only perfectly balanced mind +that ever existed in the name. For a hundred years, every +newspaper scribbler had, with more or less obvious excuse, +derided or abused the older Adamses for want of judgment. They +abused Charles Francis for his judgment. Naturally they never +attempted to assign values to either; that was the children's +affair; but the traits were real. Charles Francis Adams was +singular for mental poise -- absence of self-assertion or +self-consciousness -- the faculty of standing apart without +seeming aware that he was alone -- a balance of mind and temper +that neither challenged nor avoided notice, nor admitted question +of superiority or inferiority, of jealousy, of personal motives, +from any source, even under great pressure. This unusual poise of +judgment and temper, ripened by age, became the more striking to +his son Henry as he learned to measure the mental faculties +themselves, which were in no way exceptional either for depth or +range. Charles Francis Adams's memory was hardly above the +average; his mind was not bold like his grandfather's or restless +like his father's, or imaginative or oratorical -- still less +mathematical; but it worked with singular perfection, admirable +self-restraint, and instinctive mastery of form. Within its range +it was a model. + + The standards of Boston were high, much affected by the old +clerical self-respect which gave the Unitarian clergy unusual +social charm. Dr. Channing, Mr. Everett, Dr. Frothingham. Dr. +Palfrey, President Walker, R. W. Emerson, and other Boston +ministers of the same school, would have commanded distinction in +any society; but the Adamses had little or no affinity with the +pulpit, and still less with its eccentric offshoots, like +Theodore Parker, or Brook Farm, or the philosophy of Concord. +Besides its clergy, Boston showed a literary group, led by +Ticknor, Prescott, Longfellow, Motley, O. W. Holmes; but Mr. +Adams was not one of them; as a rule they were much too +Websterian. Even in science Boston could claim a certain +eminence, especially in medicine, but Mr. Adams cared very little +for science. He stood alone. He had no master -- hardly even his +father. He had no scholars -- hardly even his sons. + + Almost alone among his Boston contemporaries, he was not +English in feeling or in sympathies. Perhaps a hundred years of +acute hostility to England had something to do with this family +trait; but in his case it went further and became indifference to +social distinction. Never once in forty years of intimacy did his +son notice in him a trace of snobbishness. He was one of the +exceedingly small number of Americans to whom an English duke or +duchess seemed to be indifferent, and royalty itself nothing more +than a slightly inconvenient presence. This was, it is true, +rather the tone of English society in his time, but Americans +were largely responsible for changing it, and Mr. Adams had every +possible reason for affecting the manner of a courtier even if he +did not feel the sentiment. Never did his son see him flatter or +vilify, or show a sign of envy or jealousy; never a shade of +vanity or self-conceit. Never a tone of arrogance! Never a +gesture of pride! + + The same thing might perhaps have been said of John Quincy +Adams, but in him his associates averred that it was accompanied +by mental restlessness and often by lamentable want of judgment. +No one ever charged Charles Francis Adams with this fault. The +critics charged him with just the opposite defect. They called +him cold. No doubt, such perfect poise -- such intuitive +self-adjustment -- was not maintained by nature without a +sacrifice of the qualities which would have upset it. No doubt, +too, that even his restless-minded, introspective, self-conscious +children who knew him best were much too ignorant of the world +and of human nature to suspect how rare and complete was the +model before their eyes. A coarser instrument would have +impressed them more. Average human nature is very coarse, and its +ideals must necessarily be average. The world never loved perfect +poise. What the world does love is commonly absence of poise, for +it has to be amused. Napoleons and Andrew Jacksons amuse it, but +it is not amused by perfect balance. Had Mr. Adams's nature been +cold, he would have followed Mr. Webster, Mr. Everett, Mr. +Seward, and Mr. Winthrop in the lines of party discipline and +self-interest. Had it been less balanced than it was, he would +have gone with Mr. Garrison, Mr. Wendell Phillips, Mr. Edmund +Quincy, and Theodore Parker, into secession. Between the two +paths he found an intermediate one, distinctive and +characteristic -- he set up a party of his own. + + This political party became a chief influence in the education +of the boy Henry in the six years 1848 to 1854, and violently +affected his character at the moment when character is plastic. +The group of men with whom Mr. Adams associated himself, and +whose social centre was the house in Mount Vernon Street, +numbered only three: Dr. John G. Palfrey, Richard H. Dana, and +Charles Sumner. Dr. Palfrey was the oldest, and in spite of his +clerical education, was to a boy often the most agreeable, for +his talk was lighter and his range wider than that of the others; +he had wit, or humor, and the give-and-take of dinner-table +exchange. Born to be a man of the world, he forced himself to be +clergyman, professor, or statesman, while, like every other true +Bostonian, he yearned for the ease of the Athenaeum Club in Pall +Mall or the Combination Room at Trinity. Dana at first suggested +the opposite; he affected to be still before the mast, a direct, +rather bluff, vigorous seaman, and only as one got to know him +better one found the man of rather excessive refinement trying +with success to work like a day-laborer, deliberately hardening +his skin to the burden, as though he were still carrying hides at +Monterey. Undoubtedly he succeeded, for his mind and will were +robust, but he might have said what his lifelong friend William +M. Evarts used to say: "I pride myself on my success in doing not +the things I like to do, but the things I don't like to do." +Dana's ideal of life was to be a great Englishman, with a seat on +the front benches of the House of Commons until he should be +promoted to the woolsack; beyond all, with a social status that +should place him above the scuffle of provincial and +unprofessional annoyances; but he forced himself to take life as +it came, and he suffocated his longings with grim +self-discipline, by mere force of will. Of the four men, Dana was +the most marked. Without dogmatism or self-assertion, he seemed +always to be fully in sight, a figure that completely filled a +well-defined space. He, too, talked well, and his mind worked +close to its subject, as a lawyer's should; but disguise and +silence it as he liked, it was aristocratic to the tenth +generation. + + In that respect, and in that only, Charles Sumner was like him, +but Sumner, in almost every other quality, was quite different +from his three associates -- altogether out of line. He, too, +adored English standards, but his ambition led him to rival the +career of Edmund Burke. No young Bostonian of his time had made +so brilliant a start, but rather in the steps of Edward Everett +than of Daniel Webster. As an orator he had achieved a triumph by +his oration against war; but Boston admired him chiefly for his +social success in England and on the Continent; success that gave +to every Bostonian who enjoyed it a halo never acquired by +domestic sanctity. Mr. Sumner, both by interest and instinct, +felt the value of his English connection, and cultivated it the +more as he became socially an outcast from Boston society by the +passions of politics. He was rarely without a pocket-full of +letters from duchesses or noblemen in England. Having sacrificed +to principle his social position in America, he clung the more +closely to his foreign attachments. The Free Soil Party fared ill +in Beacon Street. The social arbiters of Boston -- George Ticknor +and the rest -- had to admit, however unwillingly, that the Free +Soil leaders could not mingle with the friends and followers of +Mr. Webster. Sumner was socially ostracized, and so, for that +matter, were Palfrey, Dana, Russell, Adams, and all the other +avowed anti-slavery leaders, but for them it mattered less, +because they had houses and families of their own; while Sumner +had neither wife nor household, and, though the most socially +ambitious of all, and the most hungry for what used to be called +polite society, he could enter hardly half-a-dozen houses in +Boston. Longfellow stood by him in Cambridge, and even in Beacon +Street he could always take refuge in the house of Mr. Lodge, but +few days passed when he did not pass some time in Mount Vernon +Street. Even with that, his solitude was glacial, and reacted on +his character. He had nothing but himself to think about. His +superiority was, indeed, real and incontestable; he was the +classical ornament of the anti-slavery party; their pride in him +was unbounded, and their admiration outspoken. + + The boy Henry worshipped him, and if he ever regarded any older +man as a personal friend, it was Mr. Sumner. The relation of Mr. +Sumner in the household was far closer than any relation of +blood. None of the uncles approached such intimacy. Sumner was +the boy's ideal of greatness; the highest product of nature and +art. The only fault of such a model was its superiority which +defied imitation. To the twelve-year-old boy, his father, Dr. +Palfrey, Mr. Dana, were men, more or less like what he himself +might become; but Mr. Sumner was a different order -- heroic. + + As the boy grew up to be ten or twelve years old, his father +gave him a writing-table in one of the alcoves of his Boston +library, and there, winter after winter, Henry worked over his +Latin Grammar and listened to these four gentlemen discussing the +course of anti-slavery politics. The discussions were always +serious; the Free Soil Party took itself quite seriously; and +they were habitual because Mr. Adams had undertaken to edit a +newspaper as the organ of these gentlemen, who came to discuss +its policy and expression. At the same time Mr. Adams was editing +the "Works" of his grandfather John Adams, and made the boy +read texts for proof-correction. In after years his father +sometimes complained that, as a reader of Novanglus and +Massachusettensis, Henry had shown very little consciousness of +punctuation; but the boy regarded this part of school life only +as a warning, if he ever grew up to write dull discussions in the +newspapers, to try to be dull in some different way from that of +his great-grandfather. Yet the discussions in the Boston Whig +were carried on in much the same style as those of John Adams and +his opponent, and appealed to much the same society and the same +habit of mind. The boy got as little education, fitting him for +his own time, from the one as from the other, and he got no more +from his contact with the gentlemen themselves who were all types +of the past. + + Down to 1850, and even later, New England society was still +directed by the professions. Lawyers, physicians, professors, +merchants were classes, and acted not as individuals, but as +though they were clergymen and each profession were a church. In +politics the system required competent expression; it was the old +Ciceronian idea of government by the best that produced the long +line of New England statesmen. They chose men to represent them +because they wanted to be well represented, and they chose the +best they had. Thus Boston chose Daniel Webster, and Webster +took, not as pay, but as honorarium, the cheques raised for him +by Peter Harvey from the Appletons, Perkinses, Amorys, Searses, +Brookses, Lawrences, and so on, who begged him to represent them. +Edward Everett held the rank in regular succession to Webster. +Robert C. Winthrop claimed succession to Everett. Charles Sumner +aspired to break the succession, but not the system. The Adamses +had never been, for any length of time, a part of this State +succession; they had preferred the national service, and had won +all their distinction outside the State, but they too had +required State support and had commonly received it. The little +group of men in Mount Vernon Street were an offshoot of this +system; they were statesmen, not politicians; they guided public +opinion, but were little guided by it. + + The boy naturally learned only one lesson from his saturation +in such air. He took for granted that this sort of world, more or +less the same that had always existed in Boston and Massachusetts +Bay, was the world which he was to fit. Had he known Europe he +would have learned no better. The Paris of Louis Philippe, +Guizot, and de Tocqueville, as well as the London of Robert Peel, +Macaulay, and John Stuart Mill, were but varieties of the same +upper-class bourgeoisie that felt instinctive cousinship with the +Boston of Ticknor, Prescott, and Motley. Even the typical +grumbler Carlyle, who cast doubts on the real capacity of the +middle class, and who at times thought himself eccentric, found +friendship and alliances in Boston -- still more in Concord. The +system had proved so successful that even Germany wanted to try +it, and Italy yearned for it. England's middle-class government +was the ideal of human progress. + + Even the violent reaction after 1848, and the return of all +Europe to military practices, never for a moment shook the true +faith. No one, except Karl Marx, foresaw radical change. What +announced it? The world was producing sixty or seventy million +tons of coal, and might be using nearly a million +steam-horsepower, just beginning to make itself felt. All +experience since the creation of man, all divine revelation or +human science, conspired to deceive and betray a twelve-year-old +boy who took for granted that his ideas, which were alone +respectable, would be alone respected. + + Viewed from Mount Vernon Street, the problem of life was as +simple as it was classic. Politics offered no difficulties, for +there the moral law was a sure guide. Social perfection was also +sure, because human nature worked for Good, and three instruments +were all she asked -- Suffrage, Common Schools, and Press. On +these points doubt was forbidden. Education was divine, and man +needed only a correct knowledge of facts to reach perfection: + + "Were half the power that fills the world with terror, + Were half the wealth bestowed on camps and courts, + Given to redeem the human mind from error, + There were no need of arsenals nor forts." + +Nothing quieted doubt so completely as the mental calm of the +Unitarian clergy. In uniform excellence of life and character, +moral and intellectual, the score of Unitarian clergymen about +Boston, who controlled society and Harvard College, were never +excelled. They proclaimed as their merit that they insisted on no +doctrine, but taught, or tried to teach, the means of leading a +virtuous, useful, unselfish life, which they held to be +sufficient for salvation. For them, difficulties might be +ignored; doubts were waste of thought; nothing exacted solution. +Boston had solved the universe; or had offered and realized the +best solution yet tried. The problem was worked out. + + Of all the conditions of his youth which afterwards puzzled the +grown-up man, this disappearance of religion puzzled him most. +The boy went to church twice every Sunday; he was taught to read +his Bible, and he learned religious poetry by heart; he believed +in a mild deism; he prayed; he went through all the forms; but +neither to him nor to his brothers or sisters was religion real. +Even the mild discipline of the Unitarian Church was so irksome +that they all threw it off at the first possible moment, and +never afterwards entered a church. The religious instinct had +vanished, and could not be revived, although one made in later +life many efforts to recover it. That the most powerful emotion +of man, next to the sexual, should disappear, might be a personal +defect of his own; but that the most intelligent society, led by +the most intelligent clergy, in the most moral conditions he ever +knew, should have solved all the problems of the universe so +thoroughly as to have quite ceased making itself anxious about +past or future, and should have persuaded itself that all the +problems which had convulsed human thought from earliest recorded +time, were not worth discussing, seemed to him the most curious +social phenomenon he had to account for in a long life. The +faculty of turning away one's eyes as one approaches a chasm is +not unusual, and Boston showed, under the lead of Mr. Webster, +how successfully it could be done in politics; but in politics a +certain number of men did at least protest. In religion and +philosophy no one protested. Such protest as was made took forms +more simple than the silence, like the deism of Theodore Parker, +and of the boy's own cousin Octavius Frothingham, who distressed +his father and scandalized Beacon Street by avowing scepticism +that seemed to solve no old problems, and to raise many new ones. +The less aggressive protest of Ralph Waldo Emerson, was, from an +old-world point of view, less serious. It was naif. + + The children reached manhood without knowing religion, and with +the certainty that dogma, metaphysics, and abstract philosophy +were not worth knowing. So one-sided an education could have been +possible in no other country or time, but it became, almost of +necessity, the more literary and political. As the children grew +up, they exaggerated the literary and the political interests. +They joined in the dinner-table discussions and from childhood +the boys were accustomed to hear, almost every day, table-talk as +good as they were ever likely to hear again. The eldest child, +Louisa, was one of the most sparkling creatures her brother met +in a long and varied experience of bright women. The oldest son, +John, was afterwards regarded as one of the best talkers in +Boston society, and perhaps the most popular man in the State, +though apt to be on the unpopular side. Palfrey and Dana could be +entertaining when they pleased, and though Charles Sumner could +hardly be called light in hand, he was willing to be amused, and +smiled grandly from time to time; while Mr. Adams, who talked +relatively little, was always a good listener, and laughed over a +witticism till he choked. + + By way of educating and amusing the children, Mr. Adams read +much aloud, and was sure to read political literature, especially +when it was satirical, like the speeches of Horace Mann and the +"Epistles" of "Hosea Biglow," with great delight to the youth. So +he read Longfellow and Tennyson as their poems appeared, but the +children took possession of Dickens and Thackeray for themselves. +Both were too modern for tastes founded on Pope and Dr. Johnson. +The boy Henry soon became a desultory reader of every book he +found readable, but these were commonly eighteenth-century +historians because his father's library was full of them. In the +want of positive instincts, he drifted into the mental indolence +of history. So too, he read shelves of eighteenth-century poetry, +but when his father offered his own set of Wordsworth as a gift +on condition of reading it through, he declined. Pope and Gray +called for no mental effort; they were easy reading; but the boy +was thirty years old before his education reached Wordsworth. + + This is the story of an education, and the person or persons +who figure in it are supposed to have values only as educators or +educated. The surroundings concern it only so far as they affect +education. Sumner, Dana, Palfrey, had values of their own, like +Hume, Pope, and Wordsworth, which any one may study in their +works; here all appear only as influences on the mind of a boy +very nearly the average of most boys in physical and mental +stature. The influence was wholly political and literary. His +father made no effort to force his mind, but left him free play, +and this was perhaps best. Only in one way his father rendered +him a great service by trying to teach him French and giving him +some idea of a French accent. Otherwise the family was rather an +atmosphere than an influence. The boy had a large and +overpowering set of brothers and sisters, who were modes or +replicas of the same type, getting the same education, struggling +with the same problems, and solving the question, or leaving it +unsolved much in the same way. They knew no more than he what +they wanted or what to do for it, but all were conscious that +they would like to control power in some form; and the same thing +could be said of an ant or an elephant. Their form was tied to +politics or literature. They amounted to one individual with +half-a-dozen sides or facets; their temperaments reacted on each +other and made each child more like the other. This was also +education, but in the type, and the Boston or New England type +was well enough known. What no one knew was whether the +individual who thought himself a representative of this type, was +fit to deal with life. + + As far as outward bearing went, such a family of turbulent +children, given free rein by their parents, or indifferent to +check, should have come to more or less grief. Certainly no one +was strong enough to control them, least of all their mother, the +queen-bee of the hive, on whom nine-tenths of the burden fell, on +whose strength they all depended, but whose children were much +too self-willed and self-confident to take guidance from her, or +from any one else, unless in the direction they fancied. Father +and mother were about equally helpless. Almost every large family +in those days produced at least one black sheep, and if this +generation of Adamses escaped, it was as much a matter of +surprise to them as to their neighbors. By some happy chance they +grew up to be decent citizens, but Henry Adams, as a brand +escaped from the burning, always looked back with astonishment at +their luck. The fact seemed to prove that they were born, like +birds, with a certain innate balance. Home influences alone never +saved the New England boy from ruin, though sometimes they may +have helped to ruin him; and the influences outside of home were +negative. If school helped, it was only by reaction. The dislike +of school was so strong as to be a positive gain. The passionate +hatred of school methods was almost a method in itself. Yet the +day-school of that time was respectable, and the boy had nothing +to complain of. In fact, he never complained. He hated it because +he was here with a crowd of other boys and compelled to learn by +memory a quantity of things that did not amuse him. His memory +was slow, and the effort painful. For him to conceive that his +memory could compete for school prizes with machines of two or +three times its power, was to prove himself wanting not only in +memory, but flagrantly in mind. He thought his mind a good enough +machine, if it were given time to act, but it acted wrong if +hurried. Schoolmasters never gave time. + + In any and all its forms, the boy detested school, and the +prejudice became deeper with years. He always reckoned his +school-days, from ten to sixteen years old, as time thrown away. +Perhaps his needs turned out to be exceptional, but his existence +was exceptional. Between 1850 and 1900 nearly every one's +existence was exceptional. For success in the life imposed on him +he needed, as afterwards appeared, the facile use of only four +tools: Mathematics, French, German, and Spanish. With these, he +could master in very short time any special branch of inquiry, +and feel at home in any society. Latin and Greek, he could, with +the help of the modern languages, learn more completely by the +intelligent work of six weeks than in the six years he spent on +them at school. These four tools were necessary to his success in +life, but he never controlled any one of them. + + Thus, at the outset, he was condemned to failure more or less +complete in the life awaiting him, but not more so than his +companions. Indeed, had his father kept the boy at home, and +given him half an hour's direction every day, he would have done +more for him than school ever could do for them. Of course, +school-taught men and boys looked down on home-bred boys, and +rather prided themselves on their own ignorance, but the man of +sixty can generally see what he needed in life, and in Henry +Adams's opinion it was not school. + + Most school experience was bad. Boy associations at fifteen +were worse than none. Boston at that time offered few healthy +resources for boys or men. The bar-room and billiard-room were +more familiar than parents knew. As a rule boys could skate and +swim and were sent to dancing-school; they played a rudimentary +game of baseball, football, and hockey; a few could sail a boat; +still fewer had been out with a gun to shoot yellow-legs or a +stray wild duck; one or two may have learned something of natural +history if they came from the neighborhood of Concord; none could +ride across country, or knew what shooting with dogs meant. Sport +as a pursuit was unknown. Boat-racing came after 1850. For +horse-racing, only the trotting-course existed. Of all pleasures, +winter sleighing was still the gayest and most popular. From none +of these amusements could the boy learn anything likely to be of +use to him in the world. Books remained as in the eighteenth +century, the source of life, and as they came out -- Thackeray, +Dickens, Bulwer, Tennyson, Macaulay, Carlyle, and the rest -- +they were devoured; but as far as happiness went, the happiest +hours of the boy's education were passed in summer lying on a +musty heap of Congressional Documents in the old farmhouse at +Quincy, reading "Quentin Durward," "Ivanhoe," and " The +Talisman," and raiding the garden at intervals for peaches and +pears. On the whole he learned most then. + + +CHAPTER III + +WASHINGTON (1850-1854) + + EXCEPT for politics, Mount Vernon Street had the merit of +leaving the boy-mind supple, free to turn with the world, and if +one learned next to nothing, the little one did learn needed not +to be unlearned. The surface was ready to take any form that +education should cut into it, though Boston, with singular +foresight, rejected the old designs. What sort of education was +stamped elsewhere, a Bostonian had no idea, but he escaped the +evils of other standards by having no standard at all; and what +was true of school was true of society. Boston offered none that +could help outside. Every one now smiles at the bad taste of +Queen Victoria and Louis Philippe -- the society of the forties +-- but the taste was only a reflection of the social slack-water +between a tide passed, and a tide to come. Boston belonged to +neither, and hardly even to America. Neither aristocratic nor +industrial nor social, Boston girls and boys were not nearly as +unformed as English boys and girls, but had less means of +acquiring form as they grew older. Women counted for little as +models. Every boy, from the age of seven, fell in love at +frequent intervals with some girl -- always more or less the same +little girl -- who had nothing to teach him, or he to teach her, +except rather familiar and provincial manners, until they married +and bore children to repeat the habit. The idea of attaching +one's self to a married woman, or of polishing one's manners to +suit the standards of women of thirty, could hardly have entered +the mind of a young Bostonian, and would have scandalized his +parents. From women the boy got the domestic virtues and nothing +else. He might not even catch the idea that women had more to +give. The garden of Eden was hardly more primitive. + + To balance this virtue, the Puritan city had always hidden a +darker side. Blackguard Boston was only too educational, and to +most boys much the more interesting. A successful blackguard must +enjoy great physical advantages besides a true vocation, and +Henry Adams had neither; but no boy escaped some contact with +vice of a very low form. Blackguardism came constantly under +boys' eyes, and had the charm of force and freedom and +superiority to culture or decency. One might fear it, but no one +honestly despised it. Now and then it asserted itself as +education more roughly than school ever did. One of the commonest +boy-games of winter, inherited directly from the +eighteenth-century, was a game of war on Boston Common. In old +days the two hostile forces were called North-Enders and +South-Enders. In 1850 the North-Enders still survived as a +legend, but in practice it was a battle of the Latin School +against all comers, and the Latin School, for snowball, included +all the boys of the West End. Whenever, on a half-holiday, the +weather was soft enough to soften the snow, the Common was apt to +be the scene of a fight, which began in daylight with the Latin +School in force, rushing their opponents down to Tremont Street, +and which generally ended at dark by the Latin School dwindling +in numbers and disappearing. As the Latin School grew weak, the +roughs and young blackguards grew strong. As long as snowballs +were the only weapon, no one was much hurt, but a stone may be +put in a snowball, and in the dark a stick or a slungshot in the +hands of a boy is as effective as a knife. One afternoon the +fight had been long and exhausting. The boy Henry, following, as +his habit was, his bigger brother Charles, had taken part in the +battle, and had felt his courage much depressed by seeing one of +his trustiest leaders, Henry Higginson -- "Bully Hig," his school +name -- struck by a stone over the eye, and led off the field +bleeding in rather a ghastly manner. As night came on, the Latin +School was steadily forced back to the Beacon Street Mall where +they could retreat no further without disbanding, and by that +time only a small band was left, headed by two heroes, Savage and +Marvin. A dark mass of figures could be seen below, making ready +for the last rush, and rumor said that a swarm of blackguards +from the slums, led by a grisly terror called Conky Daniels, with +a club and a hideous reputation, was going to put an end to the +Beacon Street cowards forever. Henry wanted to run away with the +others, but his brother was too big to run away, so they stood +still and waited immolation. The dark mass set up a shout, and +rushed forward. The Beacon Street boys turned and fled up the +steps, except Savage and Marvin and the few champions who would +not run. The terrible Conky Daniels swaggered up, stopped a +moment with his body-guard to swear a few oaths at Marvin, and +then swept on and chased the flyers, leaving the few boys +untouched who stood their ground. The obvious moral taught that +blackguards were not so black as they were painted; but the boy +Henry had passed through as much terror as though he were Turenne +or Henri IV, and ten or twelve years afterwards when these same +boys were fighting and falling on all the battle-fields of +Virginia and Maryland, he wondered whether their education on +Boston Common had taught Savage and Marvin how to die. + + If violence were a part of complete education, Boston was not +incomplete. The idea of violence was familiar to the anti-slavery +leaders as well as to their followers. Most of them suffered from +it. Mobs were always possible. Henry never happened to be +actually concerned in a mob, but he, like every other boy, was +sure to be on hand wherever a mob was expected, and whenever he +heard Garrison or Wendell Phillips speak, he looked for trouble. +Wendell Phillips on a platform was a model dangerous for youth. +Theodore Parker in his pulpit was not much safer. Worst of all, +the execution of the Fugitive Slave Law in Boston -- the sight of +Court Square packed with bayonets, and his own friends obliged to +line the streets under arms as State militia, in order to return +a negro to slavery -- wrought frenzy in the brain of a +fifteen-year-old, eighteenth-century boy from Quincy, who wanted +to miss no reasonable chance of mischief. + + One lived in the atmosphere of the Stamp Act, the Tea Tax, and +the Boston Massacre. Within Boston, a boy was first an +eighteenth-century politician, and afterwards only a possibility; +beyond Boston the first step led only further into politics. +After February, 1848, but one slight tie remained of all those +that, since 1776, had connected Quincy with the outer world. The +Madam stayed in Washington, after her husband's death, and in her +turn was struck by paralysis and bedridden. From time to time her +son Charles, whose affection and sympathy for his mother in her +many tribulations were always pronounced, went on to see her, and +in May, 1850, he took with him his twelve-year-old son. The +journey was meant as education, and as education it served the +purpose of fixing in memory the stage of a boy's thought in 1850. +He could not remember taking special interest in the railroad +journey or in New York; with railways and cities he was familiar +enough. His first impression was the novelty of crossing New York +Bay and finding an English railway carriage on the Camden and +Amboy Railroad. This was a new world; a suggestion of corruption +in the simple habits of American life; a step to exclusiveness +never approached in Boston; but it was amusing. The boy rather +liked it. At Trenton the train set him on board a steamer which +took him to Philadelphia where he smelt other varieties of town +life; then again by boat to Chester, and by train to Havre de +Grace; by boat to Baltimore and thence by rail to Washington. +This was the journey he remembered. The actual journey may have +been quite different, but the actual journey has no interest for +education. The memory was all that mattered; and what struck him +most, to remain fresh in his mind all his lifetime, was the +sudden change that came over the world on entering a slave State. +He took education politically. The mere raggedness of outline +could not have seemed wholly new, for even Boston had its ragged +edges, and the town of Quincy was far from being a vision of +neatness or good-repair; in truth, he had never seen a finished +landscape; but Maryland was raggedness of a new kind. The +railway, about the size and character of a modern tram, rambled +through unfenced fields and woods, or through village streets, +among a haphazard variety of pigs, cows, and negro babies, who +might all have used the cabins for pens and styes, had the +Southern pig required styes, but who never showed a sign of care. +This was the boy's impression of what slavery caused, and, for +him, was all it taught. Coming down in the early morning from his +bedroom in his grandmother's house -- still called the Adams +Building in -- F Street and venturing outside into the air +reeking with the thick odor of the catalpa trees, he found +himself on an earth-road, or village street, with wheel-tracks +meandering from the colonnade of the Treasury hard by, to the +white marble columns and fronts of the Post Office and Patent +Office which faced each other in the distance, like white Greek +temples in the abandoned gravel-pits of a deserted Syrian city. +Here and there low wooden houses were scattered along the +streets, as in other Southern villages, but he was chiefly +attracted by an unfinished square marble shaft, half-a-mile +below, and he walked down to inspect it before breakfast. His +aunt drily remarked that, at this rate, he would soon get through +all the sights; but she could not guess -- having lived always in +Washington -- how little the sights of Washington had to do with +its interest. + + The boy could not have told her; he was nowhere near an +understanding of himself. The more he was educated, the less he +understood. Slavery struck him in the face; it was a nightmare; a +horror; a crime; the sum of all wickedness! Contact made it only +more repulsive. He wanted to escape, like the negroes, to free +soil. Slave States were dirty, unkempt, poverty-stricken, +ignorant, vicious! He had not a thought but repulsion for it; and +yet the picture had another side. The May sunshine and shadow had +something to do with it; the thickness of foliage and the heavy +smells had more; the sense of atmosphere, almost new, had perhaps +as much again; and the brooding indolence of a warm climate and a +negro population hung in the atmosphere heavier than the +catalpas. The impression was not simple, but the boy liked it: +distinctly it remained on his mind as an attraction, almost +obscuring Quincy itself. The want of barriers, of pavements, of +forms; the looseness, the laziness; the indolent Southern drawl; +the pigs in the streets; the negro babies and their mothers with +bandanas; the freedom, openness, swagger, of nature and man, +soothed his Johnson blood. Most boys would have felt it in the +same way, but with him the feeling caught on to an inheritance. +The softness of his gentle old grandmother as she lay in bed and +chatted with him, did not come from Boston. His aunt was anything +rather than Bostonian. He did not wholly come from Boston +himself. Though Washington belonged to a different world, and the +two worlds could not live together, he was not sure that he +enjoyed the Boston world most. Even at twelve years old he could +see his own nature no more clearly than he would at twelve +hundred, if by accident he should happen to live so long. + + His father took him to the Capitol and on the floor of the +Senate, which then, and long afterwards, until the era of +tourists, was freely open to visitors. The old Senate Chamber +resembled a pleasant political club. Standing behind the +Vice-President's chair, which is now the Chief Justice's, the boy +was presented to some of the men whose names were great in their +day, and as familiar to him as his own. Clay and Webster and +Calhoun were there still, but with them a Free Soil candidate for +the Vice-Presidency had little to do; what struck boys most was +their type. Senators were a species; they all wore an air, as +they wore a blue dress coat or brass buttons; they were Roman. +The type of Senator in 1850 was rather charming at its best, and +the Senate, when in good temper, was an agreeable body, numbering +only some sixty members, and affecting the airs of courtesy. Its +vice was not so much a vice of manners or temper as of attitude. +The statesman of all periods was apt to be pompous, but even +pomposity was less offensive than familiarity -- on the platform +as in the pulpit -- and Southern pomposity, when not arrogant, +was genial and sympathetic, almost quaint and childlike in its +simple-mindedness; quite a different thing from the Websterian or +Conklinian pomposity of the North. The boy felt at ease there, +more at home than he had ever felt in Boston State House, though +his acquaintance with the codfish in the House of Representatives +went back beyond distinct recollection. Senators spoke kindly to +him, and seemed to feel so, for they had known his family +socially; and, in spite of slavery, even J. Q. Adams in his later +years, after he ceased to stand in the way of rivals, had few +personal enemies. Decidedly the Senate, pro-slavery though it +were, seemed a friendly world. + + This first step in national politics was a little like the walk +before breakfast; an easy, careless, genial, enlarging stride +into a fresh and amusing world, where nothing was finished, but +where even the weeds grew rank. The second step was like the +first, except that it led to the White House. He was taken to see +President Taylor. Outside, in a paddock in front, "Old Whitey," +the President's charger, was grazing, as they entered; and +inside, the President was receiving callers as simply as if he +were in the paddock too. The President was friendly, and the boy +felt no sense of strangeness that he could ever recall. In fact, +what strangeness should he feel? The families were intimate; so +intimate that their friendliness outlived generations, civil war, +and all sorts of rupture. President Taylor owed his election to +Martin Van Buren and the Free Soil Party. To him, the Adamses +might still be of use. As for the White House, all the boy's +family had lived there, and, barring the eight years of Andrew +Jackson's reign, had been more or less at home there ever since +it was built. The boy half thought he owned it, and took for +granted that he should some day live in it. He felt no sensation +whatever before Presidents. A President was a matter of course in +every respectable family; he had two in his own; three, if he +counted old Nathaniel Gorham, who, was the oldest and first in +distinction. Revolutionary patriots, or perhaps a Colonial +Governor, might be worth talking about, but any one could be +President, and some very shady characters were likely to be. +Presidents, Senators, Congressmen, and such things were swarming +in every street. + + Every one thought alike whether they had ancestors or not. No +sort of glory hedged Presidents as such, and, in the whole +country, one could hardly have met with an admission of respect +for any office or name, unless it were George Washington. That +was -- to all appearance sincerely -- respected. People made +pilgrimages to Mount Vernon and made even an effort to build +Washington a monument. The effort had failed, but one still went +to Mount Vernon, although it was no easy trip. Mr. Adams took the +boy there in a carriage and pair, over a road that gave him a +complete Virginia education for use ten years afterwards. To the +New England mind, roads, schools, clothes, and a clean face were +connected as part of the law of order or divine system. Bad roads +meant bad morals. The moral of this Virginia road was clear, and +the boy fully learned it. Slavery was wicked, and slavery was the +cause of this road's badness which amounted to social crime -- +and yet, at the end of the road and product of the crime stood +Mount Vernon and George Washington. + + Luckily boys accept contradictions as readily as their elders +do, or this boy might have become prematurely wise. He had only +to repeat what he was told -- that George Washington stood alone. +Otherwise this third step in his Washington education would have +been his last. On that line, the problem of progress was not +soluble, whatever the optimists and orators might say -- or, for +that matter, whatever they might think. George Washington could +not be reached on Boston lines. George Washington was a primary, +or, if Virginians liked it better, an ultimate relation, like the +Pole Star, and amid the endless restless motion of every other +visible point in space, he alone remained steady, in the mind of +Henry Adams, to the end. All the other points shifted their +bearings; John Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Franklin, even John +Marshall, took varied lights, and assumed new relations, but +Mount Vernon always remained where it was, with no practicable +road to reach it; and yet, when he got there, Mount Vernon was +only Quincy in a Southern setting. No doubt it was much more +charming, but it was the same eighteenth-century, the same old +furniture, the same old patriot, and the same old President. + + The boy took to it instinctively. The broad Potomac and the +coons in the trees, the bandanas and the box-hedges, the bedrooms +upstairs and the porch outside, even Martha Washington herself in +memory, were as natural as the tides and the May sunshine; he had +only enlarged his horizon a little; but he never thought to ask +himself or his father how to deal with the moral problem that +deduced George Washington from the sum of all wickedness. In +practice, such trifles as contradictions in principle are easily +set aside; the faculty of ignoring them makes the practical man; +but any attempt to deal with them seriously as education is +fatal. Luckily Charles Francis Adams never preached and was +singularly free from cant. He may have had views of his own, but +he let his son Henry satisfy himself with the simple elementary +fact that George Washington stood alone. + + Life was not yet complicated. Every problem had a solution, +even the negro. The boy went back to Boston more political than +ever, and his politics were no longer so modern as the eighteenth +century, but took a strong tone of the seventeenth. Slavery drove +the whole Puritan community back on its Puritanism. The boy +thought as dogmatically as though he were one of his own +ancestors. The Slave power took the place of Stuart kings and +Roman popes. Education could go no further in that course, and +ran off into emotion; but, as the boy gradually found his +surroundings change, and felt himself no longer an isolated atom +in a hostile universe, but a sort of herring-fry in a shoal of +moving fish, he began to learn the first and easier lessons of +practical politics. Thus far he had seen nothing but +eighteenth-century statesmanship. America and he began, at the +same time, to become aware of a new force under the innocent +surface of party machinery. Even at that early moment, a rather +slow boy felt dimly conscious that he might meet some personal +difficulties in trying to reconcile sixteenth-century principles +and eighteenth-century statesmanship with late nineteenth-century +party organization. The first vague sense of feeling an unknown +living obstacle in the dark came in 185l. + + The Free Soil conclave in Mount Vernon Street belonged, as +already said, to the statesman class, and, like Daniel Webster, +had nothing to do with machinery. Websters or Sewards depended on +others for machine work and money -- on Peter Harveys and Thurlow +Weeds, who spent their lives in it, took most of the abuse, and +asked no reward. Almost without knowing it, the subordinates +ousted their employers and created a machine which no one but +themselves could run. In 1850 things had not quite reached that +point. The men who ran the small Free Soil machine were still +modest, though they became famous enough in their own right. +Henry Wilson, John B. Alley, Anson Burlingame, and the other +managers, negotiated a bargain with the Massachusetts Democrats +giving the State to the Democrats and a seat in the Senate to the +Free Soilers. With this bargain Mr. Adams and his statesman +friends would have nothing to do, for such a coalition was in +their eyes much like jockeys selling a race. They did not care to +take office as pay for votes sold to pro-slavery Democrats. +Theirs was a correct, not to say noble, position; but, as a +matter of fact, they took the benefit of the sale, for the +coalition chose Charles Sumner as its candidate for the Senate, +while George S. Boutwell was made Governor for the Democrats. +This was the boy's first lesson in practical politics, and a +sharp one; not that he troubled himself with moral doubts, but +that he learned the nature of a flagrantly corrupt political +bargain in which he was too good to take part, but not too good +to take profit. Charles Sumner happened to be the partner to +receive these stolen goods, but between his friend and his father +the boy felt no distinction, and, for him, there was none. He +entered into no casuistry on the matter. His friend was right +because his friend, and the boy shared the glory. The question of +education did not rise while the conflict lasted. Yet every one +saw as clearly then as afterwards that a lesson of some sort must +be learned and understood, once for all. The boy might ignore, as +a mere historical puzzle, the question how to deduce George +Washington from the sum of all wickedness, but he had himself +helped to deduce Charles Sumner from the sum of political +corruption. On that line, too, education could go no further. +Tammany Hall stood at the end of the vista. + + Mr. Alley, one of the strictest of moralists, held that his +object in making the bargain was to convert the Democratic Party +to anti-slavery principles, and that he did it. Henry Adams could +rise to no such moral elevation. He was only a boy, and his +object in supporting the coalition was that of making his friend +a Senator. It was as personal as though he had helped to make his +friend a millionaire. He could never find a way of escaping +immoral conclusions, except by admitting that he and his father +and Sumner were wrong, and this he was never willing to do, for +the consequences of this admission were worse than those of the +other. Thus, before he was fifteen years old, he had managed to +get himself into a state of moral confusion from which he never +escaped. As a politician, he was already corrupt, and he never +could see how any practical politician could be less corrupt than +himself. + + Apology, as he understood himself, was cant or cowardice. At +the time he never even dreamed that he needed to apologize, +though the press shouted it at him from every corner, and though +the Mount Vernon Street conclave agreed with the press; yet he +could not plead ignorance, and even in the heat of the conflict, +he never cared to defend the coalition. Boy as he was, he knew +enough to know that something was wrong, but his only interest +was the election. Day after day, the General Court balloted; and +the boy haunted the gallery, following the roll-call, and +wondered what Caleb Cushing meant by calling Mr. Sumner a +"one-eyed abolitionist." Truly the difference in meaning with the +phrase "one-ideaed abolitionist," which was Mr. Cushing's actual +expression, is not very great, but neither the one nor the other +seemed to describe Mr. Sumner to the boy, who never could have +made the error of classing Garrison and Sumner together, or +mistaking Caleb Cushing's relation to either. Temper ran high at +that moment, while Sumner every day missed his election by only +one or two votes. At last, April 24, 1851, standing among the +silent crowd in the gallery, Henry heard the vote announced which +gave Sumner the needed number. Slipping under the arms of the +bystanders, he ran home as hard as he could, and burst into the +dining-room where Mr. Sumner was seated at table with the family. +He enjoyed the glory of telling Sumner that he was elected; it +was probably the proudest moment in the life of either. + + The next day, when the boy went to school, he noticed numbers +of boys and men in the streets wearing black crepe on their arm. +He knew few Free Soil boys in Boston; his acquaintances were what +he called pro-slavery; so he thought proper to tie a bit of white +silk ribbon round his own arm by way of showing that his friend +Mr. Sumner was not wholly alone. This little piece of bravado +passed unnoticed; no one even cuffed his ears; but in later life +he was a little puzzled to decide which symbol was the more +correct. No one then dreamed of four years' war, but every one +dreamed of secession. The symbol for either might well be matter +of doubt. + + This triumph of the Mount Vernon Street conclave capped the +political climax. The boy, like a million other American boys, +was a politician, and what was worse, fit as yet to be nothing +else. He should have been, like his grandfather, a protege of +George Washington, a statesman designated by destiny, with +nothing to do but look directly ahead, follow orders, and march. +On the contrary, he was not even a Bostonian; he felt himself +shut out of Boston as though he were an exile; he never thought +of himself as a Bostonian; he never looked about him in Boston, +as boys commonly do wherever they are, to select the street they +like best, the house they want to live in, the profession they +mean to practise. Always he felt himself somewhere else; perhaps +in Washington with its social ease; perhaps in Europe; and he +watched with vague unrest from the Quincy hills the smoke of the +Cunard steamers stretching in a long line to the horizon, and +disappearing every other Saturday or whatever the day might be, +as though the steamers were offering to take him away, which was +precisely what they were doing. + + Had these ideas been unreasonable, influences enough were at +hand to correct them; but the point of the whole story, when +Henry Adams came to look back on it, seemed to be that the ideas +were more than reasonable; they were the logical, necessary, +mathematical result of conditions old as history and fixed as +fate -- invariable sequence in man's experience. The only idea +which would have been quite unreasonable scarcely entered his +mind. This was the thought of going westward and growing up with +the country. That he was not in the least fitted for going West +made no objection whatever, since he was much better fitted than +most of the persons that went. The convincing reason for staying +in the East was that he had there every advantage over the West. +He could not go wrong. The West must inevitably pay an enormous +tribute to Boston and New York. One's position in the East was +the best in the world for every purpose that could offer an +object for going westward. If ever in history men had been able +to calculate on a certainty for a lifetime in advance, the +citizens of the great Eastern seaports could do it in 1850 when +their railway systems were already laid out. Neither to a +politician nor to a business-man nor to any of the learned +professions did the West promise any certain advantage, while it +offered uncertainties in plenty. + + At any other moment in human history, this education, including +its political and literary bias, would have been not only good, +but quite the best. Society had always welcomed and flattered men +so endowed. Henry Adams had every reason to be well pleased with +it, and not ill-pleased with himself. He had all he wanted. He +saw no reason for thinking that any one else had more. He +finished with school, not very brilliantly, but without finding +fault with the sum of his knowledge. Probably he knew more than +his father, or his grandfather, or his great-grandfather had +known at sixteen years old. Only on looking back, fifty years +later, at his own figure in 1854, and pondering on the needs of +the twentieth century, he wondered whether, on the whole the boy +of 1854 stood nearer to the thought of 1904, or to that of the +year 1. He found himself unable to give a sure answer. The +calculation was clouded by the undetermined values of +twentieth-century thought, but the story will show his reasons +for thinking that, in essentials like religion, ethics, +philosophy; in history, literature, art; in the concepts of all +science, except perhaps mathematics, the American boy of 1854 +stood nearer the year 1 than to the year 1900. The education he +had received bore little relation to the education he needed. +Speaking as an American of 1900, he had as yet no education at +all. He knew not even where or how to begin. + + +CHAPTER IV + +HARVARD COLLEGE (1854-1858) + + ONE day in June, 1854, young Adams walked for the last time +down the steps of Mr. Dixwell's school in Boylston Place, and +felt no sensation but one of unqualified joy that this experience +was ended. Never before or afterwards in his life did he close a +period so long as four years without some sensation of loss -- +some sentiment of habit -- but school was what in after life he +commonly heard his friends denounce as an intolerable bore. He +was born too old for it. The same thing could be said of most New +England boys. Mentally they never were boys. Their education as +men should have begun at ten years old. They were fully five +years more mature than the English or European boy for whom +schools were made. For the purposes of future advancement, as +afterwards appeared, these first six years of a possible +education were wasted in doing imperfectly what might have been +done perfectly in one, and in any case would have had small +value. The next regular step was Harvard College. He was more +than glad to go. For generation after generation, Adamses and +Brookses and Boylstons and Gorhams had gone to Harvard College, +and although none of them, as far as known, had ever done any +good there, or thought himself the better for it, custom, social +ties, convenience, and, above all, economy, kept each generation +in the track. Any other education would have required a serious +effort, but no one took Harvard College seriously. All went there +because their friends went there, and the College was their ideal +of social self-respect. + + Harvard College, as far as it educated at all, was a mild and +liberal school, which sent young men into the world with all they +needed to make respectable citizens, and something of what they +wanted to make useful ones. Leaders of men it never tried to +make. Its ideals were altogether different. The Unitarian clergy +had given to the College a character of moderation, balance, +judgment, restraint, what the French called mesure; excellent +traits, which the College attained with singular success, so that +its graduates could commonly be recognized by the stamp, but such +a type of character rarely lent itself to autobiography. In +effect, the school created a type but not a will. Four years of +Harvard College, if successful, resulted in an autobiographical +blank, a mind on which only a water-mark had been stamped. + + The stamp, as such things went, was a good one. The chief +wonder of education is that it does not ruin everybody concerned +in it, teachers and taught. Sometimes in after life, Adams +debated whether in fact it had not ruined him and most of his +companions, but, disappointment apart, Harvard College was +probably less hurtful than any other university then in +existence. It taught little, and that little ill, but it left the +mind open, free from bias, ignorant of facts, but docile. The +graduate had few strong prejudices. He knew little, but his mind +remained supple, ready to receive knowledge. + + What caused the boy most disappointment was the little he got +from his mates. Speaking exactly, he got less than nothing, a +result common enough in education. Yet the College Catalogue for +the years 1854 to 1861 shows a list of names rather distinguished +in their time. Alexander Agassiz and Phillips Brooks led it; H. +H. Richardson and O. W. Holmes helped to close it. As a rule the +most promising of all die early, and never get their names into a +Dictionary of Contemporaries, which seems to be the only popular +standard of success. Many died in the war. Adams knew them all, +more or less; he felt as much regard, and quite as much respect +for them then, as he did after they won great names and were +objects of a vastly wider respect; but, as help towards +education, he got nothing whatever from them or they from him +until long after they had left college. Possibly the fault was +his, but one would like to know how many others shared it. +Accident counts for much in companionship as in marriage. Life +offers perhaps only a score of possible companions, and it is +mere chance whether they meet as early as school or college, but +it is more than a chance that boys brought up together under like +conditions have nothing to give each other. The Class of 1858, to +which Henry Adams belonged, was a typical collection of young New +Englanders, quietly penetrating and aggressively commonplace; +free from meannesses, jealousies, intrigues, enthusiasms, and +passions; not exceptionally quick; not consciously skeptical; +singularly indifferent to display, artifice, florid expression, +but not hostile to it when it amused them; distrustful of +themselves, but little disposed to trust any one else; with not +much humor of their own, but full of readiness to enjoy the humor +of others; negative to a degree that in the long run became +positive and triumphant. Not harsh in manners or judgment, rather +liberal and open-minded, they were still as a body the most +formidable critics one would care to meet, in a long life exposed +to criticism. They never flattered, seldom praised; free from +vanity, they were not intolerant of it; but they were +objectiveness itself; their attitude was a law of nature; their +judgment beyond appeal, not an act either of intellect or emotion +or of will, but a sort of gravitation. + + This was Harvard College incarnate, but even for Harvard +College, the Class of 1858 was somewhat extreme. Of unity this +band of nearly one hundred young men had no keen sense, but they +had equally little energy of repulsion. They were pleasant to +live with, and above the average of students -- German, French, +English, or what not -- but chiefly because each individual +appeared satisfied to stand alone. It seemed a sign of force; yet +to stand alone is quite natural when one has no passions; still +easier when one has no pains. + + Into this unusually dissolvent medium, chance insisted on +enlarging Henry Adams's education by tossing a trio of Virginians +as little fitted for it as Sioux Indians to a treadmill. By some +further affinity, these three outsiders fell into relation with +the Bostonians among whom Adams as a schoolboy belonged, and in +the end with Adams himself, although they and he knew well how +thin an edge of friendship separated them in 1856 from mortal +enmity. One of the Virginians was the son of Colonel Robert E. +Lee, of the Second United States Cavalry; the two others who +seemed instinctively to form a staff for Lee, were +town-Virginians from Petersburg. A fourth outsider came from +Cincinnati and was half Kentuckian, N. L. Anderson, Longworth on +the mother's side. For the first time Adams's education brought +him in contact with new types and taught him their values. He saw +the New England type measure itself with another, and he was part +of the process. + + Lee, known through life as "Roony," was a Virginian of the +eighteenth century, much as Henry Adams was a Bostonian of the +same age. Roony Lee had changed little from the type of his +grandfather, Light Horse Harry. Tall, largely built, handsome, +genial, with liberal Virginian openness towards all he liked, he +had also the Virginian habit of command and took leadership as +his natural habit. No one cared to contest it. None of the New +Englanders wanted command. For a year, at least, Lee was the most +popular and prominent young man in his class, but then seemed +slowly to drop into the background. The habit of command was not +enough, and the Virginian had little else. He was simple beyond +analysis; so simple that even the simple New England student +could not realize him. No one knew enough to know how ignorant he +was; how childlike; how helpless before the relative complexity +of a school. As an animal, the Southerner seemed to have every +advantage, but even as an animal he steadily lost ground. + + The lesson in education was vital to these young men, who, +within ten years, killed each other by scores in the act of +testing their college conclusions. Strictly, the Southerner had +no mind; he had temperament He was not a scholar; he had no +intellectual training; he could not analyze an idea, and he could +not even conceive of admitting two; but in life one could get +along very well without ideas, if one had only the social +instinct. Dozens of eminent statesmen were men of Lee's type, and +maintained themselves well enough in the legislature, but college +was a sharper test. The Virginian was weak in vice itself, though +the Bostonian was hardly a master of crime. The habits of neither +were good; both were apt to drink hard and to live low lives; but +the Bostonian suffered less than the Virginian. Commonly the +Bostonian could take some care of himself even in his worst +stages, while the Virginian became quarrelsome and dangerous. +When a Virginian had brooded a few days over an imaginary grief +and substantial whiskey, none of his Northern friends could be +sure that he might not be waiting, round the corner, with a knife +or pistol, to revenge insult by the dry light of delirium +tremens; and when things reached this condition, Lee had to +exhaust his authority over his own staff. Lee was a gentleman of +the old school, and, as every one knows, gentlemen of the old +school drank almost as much as gentlemen of the new school; but +this was not his trouble. He was sober even in the excessive +violence of political feeling in those years; he kept his temper +and his friends under control. + + Adams liked the Virginians. No one was more obnoxious to them, +by name and prejudice; yet their friendship was unbroken and even +warm. At a moment when the immediate future posed no problem in +education so vital as the relative energy and endurance of North +and South, this momentary contact with Southern character was a +sort of education for its own sake; but this was not all. No +doubt the self-esteem of the Yankee, which tended naturally to +self-distrust, was flattered by gaining the slow conviction that +the Southerner, with his slave-owning limitations, was as little +fit to succeed in the struggle of modern life as though he were +still a maker of stone axes, living in caves, and hunting the bos +primigenius, and that every quality in which he was strong, made +him weaker; but Adams had begun to fear that even in this respect +one eighteenth-century type might not differ deeply from another. +Roony Lee had changed little from the Virginian of a century +before; but Adams was himself a good deal nearer the type of his +great-grandfather than to that of a railway superintendent. He +was little more fit than the Virginians to deal with a future +America which showed no fancy for the past. Already Northern +society betrayed a preference for economists over diplomats or +soldiers -- one might even call it a jealousy -- against which +two eighteenth-century types had little chance to live, and which +they had in common to fear. + + Nothing short of this curious sympathy could have brought into +close relations two young men so hostile as Roony Lee and Henry +Adams, but the chief difference between them as collegians +consisted only in their difference of scholarship: Lee was a +total failure; Adams a partial one. Both failed, but Lee felt his +failure more sensibly, so that he gladly seized the chance of +escape by accepting a commission offered him by General Winfield +Scott in the force then being organized against the Mormons. He +asked Adams to write his letter of acceptance, which flattered +Adams's vanity more than any Northern compliment could do, +because, in days of violent political bitterness, it showed a +certain amount of good temper. The diplomat felt his profession. + + If the student got little from his mates, he got little more +from his masters. The four years passed at college were, for his +purposes, wasted. Harvard College was a good school, but at +bottom what the boy disliked most was any school at all. He did +not want to be one in a hundred -- one per cent of an education. +He regarded himself as the only person for whom his education had +value, and he wanted the whole of it. He got barely half of an +average. Long afterwards, when the devious path of life led him +back to teach in his turn what no student naturally cared or +needed to know, he diverted some dreary hours of faculty-meetings +by looking up his record in the class-lists, and found himself +graded precisely in the middle. In the one branch he most needed +-- mathematics -- barring the few first scholars, failure was so +nearly universal that no attempt at grading could have had value, +and whether he stood fortieth or ninetieth must have been an +accident or the personal favor of the professor. Here his +education failed lamentably. At best he could never have been a +mathematician; at worst he would never have cared to be one; but +he needed to read mathematics, like any other universal language, +and he never reached the alphabet. + + Beyond two or three Greek plays, the student got nothing from +the ancient languages. Beyond some incoherent theories of +free-trade and protection, he got little from Political Economy. +He could not afterwards remember to have heard the name of Karl +Marx mentioned, or the title of "Capital." He was equally +ignorant of Auguste Comte. These were the two writers of his time +who most influenced its thought. The bit of practical teaching he +afterwards reviewed with most curiosity was the course in +Chemistry, which taught him a number of theories that befogged +his mind for a lifetime. The only teaching that appealed to his +imagination was a course of lectures by Louis Agassiz on the +Glacial Period and Paleontology, which had more influence on his +curiosity than the rest of the college instruction altogether. +The entire work of the four years could have been easily put into +the work of any four months in after life. + + Harvard College was a negative force, and negative forces have +value. Slowly it weakened the violent political bias of +childhood, not by putting interests in its place, but by mental +habits which had no bias at all. It would also have weakened the +literary bias, if Adams had been capable of finding other +amusement, but the climate kept him steady to desultory and +useless reading, till he had run through libraries of volumes +which he forgot even to their title-pages. Rather by instinct +than by guidance, he turned to writing, and his professors or +tutors occasionally gave his English composition a hesitating +approval; but in that branch, as in all the rest, even when he +made a long struggle for recognition, he never convinced his +teachers that his abilities, at their best, warranted placing him +on the rank-list, among the first third of his class. Instructors +generally reach a fairly accurate gauge of their scholars' +powers. Henry Adams himself held the opinion that his instructors +were very nearly right, and when he became a professor in his +turn, and made mortifying mistakes in ranking his scholars, he +still obstinately insisted that on the whole, he was not far +wrong. Student or professor, he accepted the negative standard +because it was the standard of the school. + + He never knew what other students thought of it, or what they +thought they gained from it; nor would their opinion have much +affected his. From the first, he wanted to be done with it, and +stood watching vaguely for a path and a direction. The world +outside seemed large, but the paths that led into it were not +many and lay mostly through Boston, where he did not want to go. +As it happened, by pure chance, the first door of escape that +seemed to offer a hope led into Germany, and James Russell Lowell +opened it. + + Lowell, on succeeding Longfellow as Professor of +Belles-Lettres, had duly gone to Germany, and had brought back +whatever he found to bring. The literary world then agreed that +truth survived in Germany alone, and Carlyle, Matthew Arnold, +Renan, Emerson, with scores of popular followers, taught the +German faith. The literary world had revolted against the yoke of +coming capitalism -- its money-lenders, its bank directors, and +its railway magnates. Thackeray and Dickens followed Balzac in +scratching and biting the unfortunate middle class with savage +ill-temper, much as the middle class had scratched and bitten the +Church and Court for a hundred years before. The middle class had +the power, and held its coal and iron well in hand, but the +satirists and idealists seized the press, and as they were agreed +that the Second Empire was a disgrace to France and a danger to +England, they turned to Germany because at that moment Germany +was neither economical nor military, and a hundred years behind +western Europe in the simplicity of its standard. German thought, +method, honesty, and even taste, became the standards of +scholarship. Goethe was raised to the rank of Shakespeare -- Kant +ranked as a law-giver above Plato. All serious scholars were +obliged to become German, for German thought was revolutionizing +criticism. Lowell had followed the rest, not very +enthusiastically, but with sufficient conviction, and invited his +scholars to join him. Adams was glad to accept the invitation, +rather for the sake of cultivating Lowell than Germany, but still +in perfect good faith. It was the first serious attempt he had +made to direct his own education, and he was sure of getting some +education out of it; not perhaps anything that he expected, but +at least a path. + + Singularly circuitous and excessively wasteful of energy the +path proved to be, but the student could never see what other was +open to him. He could have done no better had he foreseen every +stage of his coming life, and he would probably have done worse. +The preliminary step was pure gain. James Russell Lowell had +brought back from Germany the only new and valuable part of its +universities, the habit of allowing students to read with him +privately in his study. Adams asked the privilege, and used it to +read a little, and to talk a great deal, for the personal contact +pleased and flattered him, as that of older men ought to flatter +and please the young even when they altogether exaggerate its +value. Lowell was a new element in the boy's life. As practical a +New Englander as any, he leaned towards the Concord faith rather +than towards Boston where he properly belonged; for Concord, in +the dark days of 1856, glowed with pure light. Adams approached +it in much the same spirit as he would have entered a Gothic +Cathedral, for he well knew that the priests regarded him as only +a worm. To the Concord Church all Adamses were minds of dust and +emptiness, devoid of feeling, poetry or imagination; little +higher than the common scourings of State Street; politicians of +doubtful honesty; natures of narrow scope; and already, at +eighteen years old, Henry had begun to feel uncertainty about so +many matters more important than Adamses that his mind rebelled +against no discipline merely personal, and he was ready to admit +his unworthiness if only he might penetrate the shrine. The +influence of Harvard College was beginning to have its effect. He +was slipping away from fixed principles; from Mount Vernon +Street; from Quincy; from the eighteenth century; and his first +steps led toward Concord. + + He never reached Concord, and to Concord Church he, like the +rest of mankind who accepted a material universe, remained always +an insect, or something much lower -- a man. It was surely no +fault of his that the universe seemed to him real; perhaps -- as +Mr. Emerson justly said -- it was so; in spite of the +long-continued effort of a lifetime, he perpetually fell back +into the heresy that if anything universal was unreal, it was +himself and not the appearances; it was the poet and not the +banker; it was his own thought, not the thing that moved it. He +did not lack the wish to be transcendental. Concord seemed to +him, at one time, more real than Quincy; yet in truth Russell +Lowell was as little transcendental as Beacon Street. From him +the boy got no revolutionary thought whatever -- objective or +subjective as they used to call it -- but he got good-humored +encouragement to do what amused him, which consisted in passing +two years in Europe after finishing the four years of Cambridge + + The result seemed small in proportion to the effort, but it was +the only positive result he could ever trace to the influence of +Harvard College, and he had grave doubts whether Harvard College +influenced even that. Negative results in plenty he could trace, +but he tended towards negation on his own account, as one side of +the New England mind had always done, and even there he could +never feel sure that Harvard College had more than reflected a +weakness. In his opinion the education was not serious, but in +truth hardly any Boston student took it seriously, and none of +them seemed sure that President Walker himself, or President +Felton after him, took it more seriously than the students. For +them all, the college offered chiefly advantages vulgarly called +social, rather than mental. + + Unluckily for this particular boy, social advantages were his +only capital in life. Of money he had not much, of mind not more, +but he could be quite certain that, barring his own faults, his +social position would never be questioned. What he needed was a +career in which social position had value. Never in his life +would he have to explain who he was; never would he have need of +acquaintance to strengthen his social standing; but he needed +greatly some one to show him how to use the acquaintance he cared +to make. He made no acquaintance in college which proved to have +the smallest use in after life. All his Boston friends he knew +before, or would have known in any case, and contact of Bostonian +with Bostonian was the last education these young men needed. +Cordial and intimate as their college relations were, they all +flew off in different directions the moment they took their +degrees. Harvard College remained a tie, indeed, but a tie little +stronger than Beacon Street and not so strong as State Street. +Strangers might perhaps gain something from the college if they +were hard pressed for social connections. A student like H. H. +Richardson, who came from far away New Orleans, and had his +career before him to chase rather than to guide, might make +valuable friendships at college. Certainly Adams made no +acquaintance there that he valued in after life so much as +Richardson, but still more certainly the college relation had +little to do with the later friendship. Life is a narrow valley, +and the roads run close together. Adams would have attached +himself to Richardson in any case, as he attached himself to John +LaFarge or Augustus St. Gaudens or Clarence King or John Hay, +none of whom were at Harvard College. The valley of life grew +more and more narrow with years, and certain men with common +tastes were bound to come together. Adams knew only that he would +have felt himself on a more equal footing with them had he been +less ignorant, and had he not thrown away ten years of early life +in acquiring what he might have acquired in one. + + Socially or intellectually, the college was for him negative +and in some ways mischievous. The most tolerant man of the world +could not see good in the lower habits of the students, but the +vices were less harmful than the virtues. The habit of drinking +-- though the mere recollection of it made him doubt his own +veracity, so fantastic it seemed in later life -- may have done +no great or permanent harm; but the habit of looking at life as a +social relation -- an affair of society -- did no good. It +cultivated a weakness which needed no cultivation. If it had +helped to make men of the world, or give the manners and +instincts of any profession -- such as temper, patience, +courtesy, or a faculty of profiting by the social defects of +opponents -- it would have been education better worth having +than mathematics or languages; but so far as it helped to make +anything, it helped only to make the college standard permanent +through life. The Bostonian educated at Harvard College remained +a collegian, if he stuck only to what the college gave him. If +parents went on generation after generation, sending their +children to Harvard College for the sake of its social +advantages, they perpetuated an inferior social type, quite as +ill-fitted as the Oxford type for success in the next generation. + + Luckily the old social standard of the college, as President +Walker or James Russell Lowell still showed it, was admirable, +and if it had little practical value or personal influence on the +mass of students, at least it preserved the tradition for those +who liked it. The Harvard graduate was neither American nor +European, nor even wholly Yankee; his admirers were few, and his +many; perhaps his worst weakness was his self-criticism and +self-consciousness; but his ambitions, social or intellectual, +were necessarily cheap even though they might be negative. Afraid +of such serious risks, and still more afraid of personal +ridicule, he seldom made a great failure of life, and nearly +always led a life more or less worth living. So Henry Adams, well +aware that he could not succeed as a scholar, and finding his +social position beyond improvement or need of effort, betook +himself to the single ambition which otherwise would scarcely +have seemed a true outcome of the college, though it was the last +remnant of the old Unitarian supremacy. He took to the pen. He +wrote. + + The College Magazine printed his work, and the College +Societies listened to his addresses. Lavish of praise the readers +were not; the audiences, too, listened in silence; but this was +all the encouragement any Harvard collegian had a reasonable hope +to receive; grave silence was a form of patience that meant +possible future acceptance; and Henry Adams went on writing. No +one cared enough to criticise, except himself who soon began to +suffer from reaching his own limits. He found that he could not +be this -- or that -- or the other; always precisely the things +he wanted to be. He had not wit or scope or force. Judges always +ranked him beneath a rival, if he had any; and he believed the +judges were right. His work seemed to him thin, commonplace, +feeble. At times he felt his own weakness so fatally that he +could not go on; when he had nothing to say, he could not say it, +and he found that he had very little to say at best. Much that he +then wrote must be still in existence in print or manuscript, +though he never cared to see it again, for he felt no doubt that +it was in reality just what he thought it. At best it showed only +a feeling for form; an instinct of exclusion. Nothing +shocked--not even its weakness. + + Inevitably an effort leads to an ambition -- creates it -- and +at that time the ambition of the literary student, which almost +took place of the regular prizes of scholarship, was that of +being chosen as the representative of his class -- Class Orator +-- at the close of their course. This was political as well as +literary success, and precisely the sort of eighteenth-century +combination that fascinated an eighteenth century boy. The idea +lurked in his mind, at first as a dream, in no way serious or +even possible, for he stood outside the number of what were known +as popular men. Year by year, his position seemed to improve, or +perhaps his rivals disappeared, until at last, to his own great +astonishment, he found himself a candidate. The habits of the +college permitted no active candidacy; he and his rivals had not +a word to say for or against themselves, and he was never even +consulted on the subject; he was not present at any of the +proceedings, and how it happened he never could quite divine, but +it did happen, that one evening on returning from Boston he +received notice of his election, after a very close contest, as +Class Orator over the head of the first scholar, who was +undoubtedly a better orator and a more popular man. In politics +the success of the poorer candidate is common enough, and Henry +Adams was a fairly trained politician, but he never understood +how he managed to defeat not only a more capable but a more +popular rival. + + To him the election seemed a miracle. This was no mock-modesty; +his head was as clear as ever it was in an indifferent canvass, +and he knew his rivals and their following as well as he knew +himself. What he did not know, even after four years of +education, was Harvard College. What he could never measure was +the bewildering impersonality of the men, who, at twenty years +old, seemed to set no value either on official or personal +standards. Here were nearly a hundred young men who had lived +together intimately during four of the most impressionable years +of life, and who, not only once but again and again, in different +ways, deliberately, seriously, dispassionately, chose as their +representatives precisely those of their companions who seemed +least to represent them. As far as these Orators and Marshals had +any position at all in a collegiate sense, it was that of +indifference to the college. Henry Adams never professed the +smallest faith in universities of any kind, either as boy or man, +nor had he the faintest admiration for the university graduate, +either in Europe or in America; as a collegian he was only known +apart from his fellows by his habit of standing outside the +college; and yet the singular fact remained that this commonplace +body of young men chose him repeatedly to express his and their +commonplaces. Secretly, of course, the successful candidate +flattered himself -- and them -- with the hope that they might +perhaps not be so commonplace as they thought themselves; but +this was only another proof that all were identical. They saw in +him a representative -- the kind of representative they wanted -- +and he saw in them the most formidable array of judges he could +ever meet, like so many mirrors of himself, an infinite +reflection of his own shortcomings. + + All the same, the choice was flattering; so flattering that it +actually shocked his vanity; and would have shocked it more, if +possible, had he known that it was to be the only flattery of the +sort he was ever to receive. The function of Class Day was, in +the eyes of nine-tenths of the students, altogether the most +important of the college, and the figure of the Orator was the +most conspicuous in the function. Unlike the Orators at regular +Commencements, the Class Day Orator stood alone, or had only the +Poet for rival. Crowded into the large church, the students, +their families, friends, aunts, uncles and chaperones, attended +all the girls of sixteen or twenty who wanted to show their +summer dresses or fresh complexions, and there, for an hour or +two, in a heat that might have melted bronze, they listened to an +Orator and a Poet in clergyman's gowns, reciting such platitudes +as their own experience and their mild censors permitted them to +utter. What Henry Adams said in his Class Oration of 1858 he soon +forgot to the last word, nor had it the least value for +education; but he naturally remembered what was said of it. He +remembered especially one of his eminent uncles or relations +remarking that, as the work of so young a man, the oration was +singularly wanting in enthusiasm. The young man -- always in +search of education -- asked himself whether, setting rhetoric +aside, this absence of enthusiasm was a defect or a merit, since, +in either case, it was all that Harvard College taught, and all +that the hundred young men, whom he was trying to represent, +expressed. Another comment threw more light on the effect of the +college education. One of the elderly gentlemen noticed the +orator's "perfect self-possession." Self-possession indeed! If +Harvard College gave nothing else, it gave calm. For four years +each student had been obliged to figure daily before dozens of +young men who knew each other to the last fibre. One had done +little but read papers to Societies, or act comedy in the Hasty +Pudding, not to speak of regular exercises, and no audience in +future life would ever be so intimately and terribly intelligent +as these. Three-fourths of the graduates would rather have +addressed the Council of Trent or the British Parliament than +have acted Sir Anthony Absolute or Dr. Ollapod before a gala +audience of the Hasty Pudding. Self-possession was the strongest +part of Harvard College, which certainly taught men to stand +alone, so that nothing seemed stranger to its graduates than the +paroxysms of terror before the public which often overcame the +graduates of European universities. Whether this was, or was not, +education, Henry Adams never knew. He was ready to stand up +before any audience in America or Europe, with nerves rather +steadier for the excitement, but whether he should ever have +anything to say, remained to be proved. As yet he knew nothing +Education had not begun. + + +CHAPTER V + +BERLIN (1858-1859) + + A FOURTH child has the strength of his weakness. Being of no +great value, he may throw himself away if he likes, and never be +missed. Charles Francis Adams, the father, felt no love for +Europe, which, as he and all the world agreed, unfitted Americans +for America. A captious critic might have replied that all the +success he or his father or his grandfather achieved was chiefly +due to the field that Europe gave them, and it was more than +likely that without the help of Europe they would have all +remained local politicians or lawyers, like their neighbors, to +the end. Strictly followed, the rule would have obliged them +never to quit Quincy; and, in fact, so much more timid are +parents for their children than for themselves, that Mr. and Mrs. +Adams would have been content to see their children remain +forever in Mount Vernon Street, unexposed to the temptations of +Europe, could they have relied on the moral influences of Boston +itself. Although the parents little knew what took place under +their eyes, even the mothers saw enough to make them uneasy. +Perhaps their dread of vice, haunting past and present, worried +them less than their dread of daughters-in-law or sons-in-law who +might not fit into the somewhat narrow quarters of home. On all +sides were risks. Every year some young person alarmed the +parental heart even in Boston, and although the temptations of +Europe were irresistible, removal from the temptations of Boston +might be imperative. The boy Henry wanted to go to Europe; he +seemed well behaved, when any one was looking at him; he observed +conventions, when he could not escape them; he was never +quarrelsome, towards a superior; his morals were apparently good, +and his moral principles, if he had any, were not known to be +bad. Above all, he was timid and showed a certain sense of +self-respect, when in public view. What he was at heart, no one +could say; least of all himself; but he was probably human, and +no worse than some others. Therefore, when he presented to an +exceedingly indulgent father and mother his request to begin at a +German university the study of the Civil Law -- although neither +he nor they knew what the Civil Law was, or any reason for his +studying it -- the parents dutifully consented, and walked with +him down to the railway-station at Quincy to bid him good-bye, +with a smile which he almost thought a tear. + + Whether the boy deserved such indulgence, or was worth it, he +knew no more than they, or than a professor at Harvard College; +but whether worthy or not, he began his third or fourth attempt +at education in November, 1858, by sailing on the steamer Persia, +the pride of Captain Judkins and the Cunard Line; the newest, +largest and fastest steamship afloat. He was not alone. Several +of his college companions sailed with him, and the world looked +cheerful enough until, on the third day, the world -- as far as +concerned the young man -- ran into a heavy storm. He learned +then a lesson that stood by him better than any university +teaching ever did -- the meaning of a November gale on the +mid-Atlantic -- which, for mere physical misery, passed +endurance. The subject offered him material for none but serious +treatment; he could never see the humor of sea-sickness; but it +united itself with a great variety of other impressions which +made the first month of travel altogether the rapidest school of +education he had yet found. The stride in knowledge seemed +gigantic. One began a to see that a great many impressions were +needed to make very little education, but how many could be +crowded into one day without making any education at all, became +the pons asinorum of tourist mathematics. How many would turn out +to be wrong whether any could turn out right, was ultimate +wisdom. + + The ocean, the Persia, Captain Judkins, and Mr. G. P. R. James, +the most distinguished passenger, vanished one Sunday morning in +a furious gale in the Mersey, to make place for the drearier +picture of a Liverpool street as seen from the Adelphi +coffee-room in November murk, followed instantly by the +passionate delights of Chester and the romance of red-sandstone +architecture. Millions of Americans have felt this succession of +emotions. Possibly very young and ingenuous tourists feel them +still, but in days before tourists, when the romance was a +reality, not a picture, they were overwhelming. When the boys +went out to Eaton Hall, they were awed, as Thackeray or Dickens +would have felt in the presence of a Duke. The very name of +Grosvenor struck a note of grandeur. The long suite of lofty, +gilded rooms with their gilded furniture; the portraits; the +terraces; the gardens, the landscape; the sense of superiority in +the England of the fifties, actually set the rich nobleman apart, +above Americans and shopkeepers. Aristocracy was real. So was the +England of Dickens. Oliver Twist and Little Nell lurked in every +churchyard shadow, not as shadow but alive. Even Charles the +First was not very shadowy, standing on the tower to see his army +defeated. Nothing thereabouts had very much changed since he lost +his battle and his head. An eighteenth-century American boy fresh +from Boston naturally took it all for education, and was amused +at this sort of lesson. At least he thought he felt it. + + Then came the journey up to London through Birmingham and the +Black District, another lesson, which needed much more to be +rightly felt. The plunge into darkness lurid with flames; the +sense of unknown horror in this weird gloom which then existed +nowhere else, and never had existed before, except in volcanic +craters; the violent contrast between this dense, smoky, +impenetrable darkness, and the soft green charm that one glided +into, as one emerged -- the revelation of an unknown society of +the pit -- made a boy uncomfortable, though he had no idea that +Karl Marx was standing there waiting for him, and that sooner or +later the process of education would have to deal with Karl Marx +much more than with Professor Bowen of Harvard College or his +Satanic free-trade majesty John Stuart Mill. The Black District +was a practical education, but it was infinitely far in the +distance. The boy ran away from it, as he ran away from +everything he disliked. + + Had he known enough to know where to begin he would have seen +something to study, more vital than the Civil Law, in the long, +muddy, dirty, sordid, gas-lit dreariness of Oxford Street as his +dingy four-wheeler dragged its weary way to Charing Cross. He did +notice one peculiarity about it worth remembering. London was +still London. A certain style dignified its grime; heavy, clumsy, +arrogant, purse-proud, but not cheap; insular but large; barely +tolerant of an outside world, and absolutely self-confident. The +boys in the streets made such free comments on the American +clothes and figures, that the travellers hurried to put on tall +hats and long overcoats to escape criticism. No stranger had +rights even in the Strand. The eighteenth century held its own. +History muttered down Fleet Street, like Dr. Johnson, in Adams's +ear; Vanity Fair was alive on Piccadilly in yellow chariots with +coachmen in wigs, on hammer-cloths; footmen with canes, on the +footboard, and a shrivelled old woman inside; half the great +houses, black with London smoke, bore large funereal hatchments; +every one seemed insolent, and the most insolent structures in +the world were the Royal Exchange and the Bank of England. In +November, 1858, London was still vast, but it was the London of +the eighteenth century that an American felt and hated. + + Education went backward. Adams, still a boy, could not guess +how intensely intimate this London grime was to become to him as +a man, but he could still less conceive himself returning to it +fifty years afterwards, noting at each turn how the great city +grew smaller as it doubled in size; cheaper as it quadrupled its +wealth; less imperial as its empire widened; less dignified as it +tried to be civil. He liked it best when he hated it. Education +began at the end, or perhaps would end at the beginning. Thus far +it had remained in the eighteenth century, and the next step took +it back to the sixteenth. He crossed to Antwerp. As the Baron Osy +steamed up the Scheldt in the morning mists, a travelling band on +deck began to play, and groups of peasants, working along the +fields, dropped their tools to join in dancing. Ostade and +Teniers were as much alive as they ever were, and even the Duke +of Alva was still at home. The thirteenth-century cathedral +towered above a sixteenth-century mass of tiled roofs, ending +abruptly in walls and a landscape that had not changed. The taste +of the town was thick, rich, ripe, like a sweet wine; it was +mediaeval, so that Rubens seemed modern; it was one of the +strongest and fullest flavors that ever touched the young man's +palate; but he might as well have drunk out his excitement in old +Malmsey, for all the education he got from it. Even in art, one +can hardly begin with Antwerp Cathedral and the Descent from the +Cross. He merely got drunk on his emotions, and had then to get +sober as he best could. He was terribly sober when he saw Antwerp +half a century afterwards. One lesson he did learn without +suspecting that he must immediately lose it. He felt his middle +ages and the sixteenth century alive. He was young enough, and +the towns were dirty enough -- unimproved, unrestored, +untouristed -- to retain the sense of reality. As a taste or a +smell, it was education, especially because it lasted barely ten +years longer; but it was education only sensual. He never dreamed +of trying to educate himself to the Descent from the Cross. He +was only too happy to feel himself kneeling at the foot of the +Cross; he learned only to loathe the sordid necessity of getting +up again, and going about his stupid business. + + This was one of the foreseen dangers of Europe, but it vanished +rapidly enough to reassure the most anxious of parents. Dropped +into Berlin one morning without guide or direction, the young man +in search of education floundered in a mere mess of +misunderstandings. He could never recall what he expected to +find, but whatever he expected, it had no relation with what it +turned out to be. A student at twenty takes easily to anything, +even to Berlin, and he would have accepted the thirteenth century +pure and simple since his guides assured him that this was his +right path; but a week's experience left him dazed and dull. +Faith held out, but the paths grew dim. Berlin astonished him, +but he had no lack of friends to show him all the amusement it +had to offer. Within a day or two he was running about with the +rest to beer-cellars and music-halls and dance-rooms, smoking bad +tobacco, drinking poor beer, and eating sauerkraut and sausages +as though he knew no better. This was easy. One can always +descend the social ladder. The trouble came when he asked for the +education he was promised. His friends took him to be registered +as a student of the university; they selected his professors and +courses; they showed him where to buy the Institutes of Gaius and +several German works on the Civil Law in numerous volumes; and +they led him to his first lecture. + + His first lecture was his last. The young man was not very +quick, and he had almost religious respect for his guides and +advisers; but he needed no more than one hour to satisfy him that +he had made another failure in education, and this time a fatal +one. That the language would require at least three months' hard +work before he could touch the Law was an annoying discovery; but +the shock that upset him was the discovery of the university +itself. He had thought Harvard College a torpid school, but it +was instinct with life compared with all that he could see of the +University of Berlin. The German students were strange animals, +but their professors were beyond pay. The mental attitude of the +university was not of an American world. What sort of instruction +prevailed in other branches, or in science, Adams had no occasion +to ask, but in the Civil Law he found only the lecture system in +its deadliest form as it flourished in the thirteenth century. +The professor mumbled his comments; the students made, or seemed +to make, notes; they could have learned from books or discussion +in a day more than they could learn from him in a month, but they +must pay his fees, follow his course, and be his scholars, if +they wanted a degree. To an American the result was worthless. He +could make no use of the Civil Law without some previous notion +of the Common Law; but the student who knew enough of the Common +Law to understand what he wanted, had only to read the Pandects +or the commentators at his ease in America, and be his own +professor. Neither the method nor the matter nor the manner could +profit an American education. + + This discovery seemed to shock none of the students. They went +to the lectures, made notes, and read textbooks, but never +pretended to take their professor seriously. They were much more +serious in reading Heine. They knew no more than Heine what good +they were getting, beyond the Berlin accent -- which was bad; and +the beer -- which was not to compare with Munich; and the dancing +-- which was better at Vienna. They enjoyed the beer and music, +but they refused to be responsible for the education. Anyway, as +they defended themselves, they were learning the language. + + So the young man fell back on the language, and being slow at +languages, he found himself falling behind all his friends, which +depressed his spirits, the more because the gloom of a Berlin +winter and of Berlin architecture seemed to him a particular sort +of gloom never attained elsewhere. One day on the Linden he +caught sight of Charles Sumner in a cab, and ran after him. +Sumner was then recovering from the blows of the South Carolinian +cane or club, and he was pleased to find a young worshipper in +the remote Prussian wilderness. They dined together and went to +hear "William Tell" at the Opera. Sumner tried to encourage his +friend about his difficulties of language: "I came to Berlin," or +Rome, or whatever place it was, as he said with his grand air of +mastery, "I came to Berlin, unable to say a word in the language; +and three months later when I went away, I talked it to my +cabman." Adams felt himself quite unable to attain in so short a +time such social advantages, and one day complained of his trials +to Mr. Robert Apthorp, of Boston, who was passing the winter in +Berlin for the sake of its music. Mr. Apthorp told of his own +similar struggle, and how he had entered a public school and sat +for months with ten-year-old-boys, reciting their lessons and +catching their phrases. The idea suited Adams's desperate frame +of mind. At least it ridded him of the university and the Civil +Law and American associations in beer-cellars. Mr. Apthorp took +the trouble to negotiate with the head-master of the +Friedrichs-Wilhelm-Werdersches Gymnasium for permission to Henry +Adams to attend the school as a member of the Ober-tertia, a +class of boys twelve or thirteen years old, and there Adams went +for three months as though he had not always avoided high schools +with singular antipathy. He never did anything else so foolish +but he was given a bit of education which served him some purpose +in life. + + It was not merely the language, though three months passed in +such fashion would teach a poodle enough to talk with a cabman, +and this was all that foreign students could expect to do, for +they never by any chance would come in contact with German +society, if German society existed, about which they knew +nothing. Adams never learned to talk German well, but the same +might be said of his English, if he could believe Englishmen. He +learned not to annoy himself on this account. His difficulties +with the language gradually ceased. He thought himself quite +Germanized in 1859. He even deluded himself with the idea that he +read it as though it were English, which proved that he knew +little about it; but whatever success he had in his own +experiment interested him less than his contact with German +education. + + He had revolted at the American school and university; he had +instantly rejected the German university; and as his last +experience of education he tried the German high school. The +experiment was hazardous. In 1858 Berlin was a poor, keen-witted, +provincial town, simple, dirty, uncivilized, and in most respects +disgusting. Life was primitive beyond what an American boy could +have imagined. Overridden by military methods and bureaucratic +pettiness, Prussia was only beginning to free her hands from +internal bonds. Apart from discipline, activity scarcely existed. +The future Kaiser Wilhelm I, regent for his insane brother King +Friedrich Wilhelm IV, seemed to pass his time looking at the +passers-by from the window of his modest palace on the Linden. +German manners, even at Court, were sometimes brutal, and German +thoroughness at school was apt to be routine. Bismarck himself +was then struggling to begin a career against the inertia of the +German system. The condition of Germany was a scandal and +nuisance to every earnest German, all whose energies were turned +to reforming it from top to bottom; and Adams walked into a great +public school to get educated, at precisely the time when the +Germans wanted most to get rid of the education they were forced +to follow. As an episode in the search for education, this +adventure smacked of Heine. + + The school system has doubtless changed, and at all events the +schoolmasters are probably long ago dead; the story has no longer +a practical value, and had very little even at the time; one +could at least say in defence of the German school that it was +neither very brutal nor very immoral. The head-master was +excellent in his Prussian way, and the other instructors were not +worse than in other schools; it was their system that struck the +systemless American with horror. The arbitrary training given to +the memory was stupefying; the strain that the memory endured was +a form of torture; and the feats that the boys performed, without +complaint, were pitiable. No other faculty than the memory seemed +to be recognized. Least of all was any use made of reason, either +analytic, synthetic, or dogmatic. The German government did not +encourage reasoning. + + All State education is a sort of dynamo machine for polarizing +the popular mind; for turning and holding its lines of force in +the direction supposed to be most effective for State purposes. +The German machine was terribly efficient. Its effect on the +children was pathetic. The Friedrichs-Wilhelm-Werdersches +Gymnasium was an old building in the heart of Berlin which served +the educational needs of the small tradesmen or bourgeoisie of +the neighborhood; the children were Berliner-kinder if ever there +were such, and of a class suspected of sympathy and concern in +the troubles of 1848. None was noble or connected with good +society. Personally they were rather sympathetic than not, but as +the objects of education they were proofs of nearly all the evils +that a bad system could give. Apparently Adams, in his rigidly +illogical pursuit, had at last reached his ideal of a viciously +logical education. The boys' physique showed it first, but their +physique could not be wholly charged to the school. German food +was bad at best, and a diet of sauerkraut, sausage, and beer +could never be good; but it was not the food alone that made +their faces white and their flesh flabby. They never breathed +fresh air; they had never heard of a playground; in all Berlin +not a cubic inch of oxygen was admitted in winter into an +inhabited building; in the school every room was tightly closed +and had no ventilation; the air was foul beyond all decency; but +when the American opened a window in the five minutes between +hours, he violated the rules and was invariably rebuked. As long +as cold weather lasted, the windows were shut. If the boys had a +holiday, they were apt to be taken on long tramps in the +Thiergarten or elsewhere, always ending in over-fatigue, +tobacco-smoke, sausages, and beer. With this, they were required +to prepare daily lessons that would have quickly broken down +strong men of a healthy habit, and which they could learn only +because their minds were morbid. The German university had seemed +a failure, but the German high school was something very near an +indictable nuisance. + + Before the month of April arrived, the experiment of German +education had reached this point. Nothing was left of it except +the ghost of the Civil Law shut up in the darkest of closets, +never to gibber again before any one who could repeat the story. +The derisive Jew laughter of Heine ran through the university and +everything else in Berlin. Of course, when one is twenty years +old, life is bound to be full, if only of Berlin beer, although +German student life was on the whole the thinnest of beer, as an +American looked on it, but though nothing except small fragments +remained of the education that had been so promising -- or +promised -- this is only what most often happens in life, when +by-products turn out to be more valuable than staples. The German +university and German law were failures; German society, in an +American sense, did not exist, or if it existed, never showed +itself to an American; the German theatre, on the other hand, was +excellent, and German opera, with the ballet, was almost worth a +journey to Berlin; but the curious and perplexing result of the +total failure of German education was that the student's only +clear gain -- his single step to a higher life -- came from time +wasted; studies neglected; vices indulged; education reversed; -- +it came from the despised beer-garden and music-hall; and it was +accidental, unintended, unforeseen. + + When his companions insisted on passing two or three afternoons +in the week at music-halls, drinking beer, smoking German +tobacco, and looking at fat German women knitting, while an +orchestra played dull music, Adams went with them for the sake of +the company, but with no presence of enjoyment; and when Mr. +Apthorp gently protested that he exaggerated his indifference, +for of course he enjoyed Beethoven, Adams replied simply that he +loathed Beethoven; and felt a slight surprise when Mr. Apthorp +and the others laughed as though they thought it humor. He saw no +humor in it. He supposed that, except musicians, every one +thought Beethoven a bore, as every one except mathematicians +thought mathematics a bore. Sitting thus at his beer-table, +mentally impassive, he was one day surprised to notice that his +mind followed the movement of a Sinfonie. He could not have been +more astonished had he suddenly read a new language. Among the +marvels of education, this was the most marvellous. A prison-wall +that barred his senses on one great side of life, suddenly fell, +of its own accord, without so much as his knowing when it +happened. Amid the fumes of coarse tobacco and poor beer, +surrounded by the commonest of German Haus-frauen, a new sense +burst out like a flower in his life, so superior to the old +senses, so bewildering, so astonished at its own existence, that +he could not credit it, and watched it as something apart, +accidental, and not to be trusted. He slowly came to admit that +Beethoven had partly become intelligible to him, but he was the +more inclined to think that Beethoven must be much overrated as a +musician, to be so easily followed. This could not be called +education, for he had never so much as listened to the music. He +had been thinking of other things. Mere mechanical repetition of +certain sounds had stuck to his unconscious mind. Beethoven might +have this power, but not Wagner, or at all events not the Wagner +later than "Tannhauser." Near forty years passed before he +reached the "Gotterdammerung." + + One might talk of the revival of an atrophied sense -- the +mechanical reaction of a sleeping consciousness -- but no other +sense awoke. His sense of line and color remained as dull as +ever, and as far as ever below the level of an artist. His +metaphysical sense did not spring into life, so that his mind +could leap the bars of German expression into sympathy with the +idealities of Kant and Hegel. Although he insisted that his faith +in German thought and literature was exalted, he failed to +approach German thought, and he shed never a tear of emotion over +the pages of Goethe and Schiller. When his father rashly ventured +from time to time to write him a word of common sense, the young +man would listen to no sense at all, but insisted that Berlin was +the best of educations in the best of Germanies; yet, when, at +last, April came, and some genius suggested a tramp in Thuringen, +his heart sang like a bird; he realized what a nightmare he had +suffered, and he made up his mind that, wherever else he might, +in the infinities of space and time, seek for education, it +should not be again in Berlin. + + +CHAPTER VI + +ROME (1859-1860) + + THE tramp in Thuringen lasted four-and-twenty hours. By the end +of the first walk, his three companions -- John Bancroft, James +J. Higginson, and B. W. Crowninshield, all Boston and Harvard +College like himself -- were satisfied with what they had seen, +and when they sat down to rest on the spot where Goethe had +written -- + + "Warte nur! balde + Rubest du auch!" -- + +the profoundness of the thought and the wisdom of the advice +affected them so strongly that they hired a wagon and drove to +Weimar the same night. They were all quite happy and lighthearted +in the first fresh breath of leafless spring, and the beer was +better than at Berlin, but they were all equally in doubt why +they had come to Germany, and not one of them could say why they +stayed. Adams stayed because he did not want to go home, and he +had fears that his father's patience might be exhausted if he +asked to waste time elsewhere. + + They could not think that their education required a return to +Berlin. A few days at Dresden in the spring weather satisfied +them that Dresden was a better spot for general education than +Berlin, and equally good for reading Civil Law. They were +possibly right. There was nothing to study in Dresden, and no +education to be gained, but the Sistine Madonna and the +Correggios were famous; the theatre and opera were sometimes +excellent, and the Elbe was prettier than the Spree. They could +always fall back on the language. So he took a room in the +household of the usual small government clerk with the usual +plain daughters, and continued the study of the language. +Possibly one might learn something more by accident, as one had +learned something of Beethoven. For the next eighteen months the +young man pursued accidental education, since he could pursue no +other; and by great good fortune, Europe and America were too +busy with their own affairs to give much attention to his. +Accidental education had every chance in its favor, especially +because nothing came amiss. + + Perhaps the chief obstacle to the youth's education, now that +he had come of age, was his honesty; his simple-minded faith in +his intentions. Even after Berlin had become a nightmare, he +still persuaded himself that his German education was a success. +He loved, or thought he loved the people, but the Germany he +loved was the eighteenth-century which the Germans were ashamed +of, and were destroying as fast as they could. Of the Germany to +come, he knew nothing. Military Germany was his abhorrence. What +he liked was the simple character; the good-natured sentiment; +the musical and metaphysical abstraction; the blundering +incapacity of the German for practical affairs. At that time +everyone looked on Germany as incapable of competing with France, +England or America in any sort of organized energy. Germany had +no confidence in herself, and no reason to feel it. She had no +unity, and no reason to want it. She never had unity. Her +religious and social history, her economical interests, her +military geography, her political convenience, had always tended +to eccentric rather than concentric motion. Until coal-power and +railways were created, she was mediaeval by nature and geography, +and this was what Adams, under the teachings of Carlyle and +Lowell, liked. + + He was in a fair way to do himself lasting harm, floundering +between worlds passed and worlds coming, which had a habit of +crushing men who stayed too long at the points of contact. +Suddenly the Emperor Napoleon declared war on Austria and raised +a confused point of morals in the mind of Europe. France was the +nightmare of Germany, and even at Dresden one looked on the +return of Napoleon to Leipsic as the most likely thing in the +world. One morning the government clerk, in whose family Adams +was staying, rushed into his room to consult a map in order that +he might measure the distance from Milan to Dresden. The third +Napoleon had reached Lombardy, and only fifty or sixty years had +passed since the first Napoleon had begun his military successes +from an Italian base. + + An enlightened young American, with eighteenth-century tastes +capped by fragments of a German education and the most excellent +intentions, had to make up his mind about the moral value of +these conflicting forces. France was the wicked spirit of moral +politics, and whatever helped France must be so far evil. At that +time Austria was another evil spirit. Italy was the prize they +disputed, and for at least fifteen hundred years had been the +chief object of their greed. The question of sympathy had +disturbed a number of persons during that period. The question of +morals had been put in a number of cross-lights. Should one be +Guelph or Ghibelline? No doubt, one was wiser than one's +neighbors who had found no way of settling this question since +the days of the cave-dwellers, but ignorance did better to +discard the attempt to be wise, for wisdom had been singularly +baffled by the problem. Better take sides first, and reason about +it for the rest of life. + + Not that Adams felt any real doubt about his sympathies or +wishes. He had not been German long enough for befogging his mind +to that point, but the moment was decisive for much to come, +especially for political morals. His morals were the highest, and +he clung to them to preserve his self-respect; but steam and +electricity had brought about new political and social +concentrations, or were making them necessary in the line of his +moral principles -- freedom, education, economic development and +so forth -- which required association with allies as doubtful as +Napoleon III, and robberies with violence on a very extensive +scale. As long as he could argue that his opponents were wicked, +he could join in robbing and killing them without a qualm; but it +might happen that the good were robbed. Education insisted on +finding a moral foundation for robbery. He could hope to begin +life in the character of no animal more moral than a monkey +unless he could satisfy himself when and why robbery and murder +were a virtue and duty. Education founded on mere self-interest +was merely Guelph and Ghibelline over again -- Machiavelli +translated into American. + + Luckily for him he had a sister much brighter than he ever was +-- though he thought himself a rather superior person -- who +after marrying Charles Kuhn, of Philadelphia, had come to Italy, +and, like all good Americans and English, was hotly Italian. In +July, 1859, she was at Thun in Switzerland, and there Henry Adams +joined them. Women have, commonly, a very positive moral sense; +that which they will, is right; that which they reject, is wrong; +and their will, in most cases, ends by settling the moral. Mrs. +Kuhn had a double superiority. She not only adored Italy, but she +cordially disliked Germany in all its varieties. She saw no gain +in helping her brother to be Germanized, and she wanted him much +to be civilized. She was the first young woman he was ever +intimate with -- quick, sensitive, wilful, or full of will, +energetic, sympathetic and intelligent enough to supply a score +of men with ideas -- and he was delighted to give her the reins +-- to let her drive him where she would. It was his first +experiment in giving the reins to a woman, and he was so much +pleased with the results that he never wanted to take them back. +In after life he made a general law of experience -- no woman had +ever driven him wrong; no man had ever driven him right. + + Nothing would satisfy Mrs. Kuhn but to go to the seat of war as +soon as the armistice was declared. Wild as the idea seemed, +nothing was easier. The party crossed the St. Gothard and reached +Milan, picturesque with every sort of uniform and every sign of +war. To young Adams this first plunge into Italy passed Beethoven +as a piece of accidental education. Like music, it differed from +other education in being, not a means of pursuing life, but one +of the ends attained. Further, on these lines, one could not go. +It had but one defect -- that of attainment. Life had no richer +impression to give; it offers barely half-a-dozen such, and the +intervals seem long. Exactly what they teach would puzzle a +Berlin jurist; yet they seem to have an economic value, since +most people would decline to part with even their faded memories +except at a valuation ridiculously extravagant. They were also +what men pay most for; but one's ideas become hopelessly mixed in +trying to reduce such forms of education to a standard of +exchangeable value, and, as in political economy, one had best +disregard altogether what cannot be stated in equivalents. The +proper equivalent of pleasure is pain, which is also a form of +education. + + Not satisfied with Milan, Mrs. Kuhn insisted on invading the +enemy's country, and the carriage was chartered for Innsbruck by +way of the Stelvio Pass. The Valtellina, as the carriage drove up +it, showed war. Garibaldi's Cacciatori were the only visible +inhabitants. No one could say whether the pass was open, but in +any case no carriage had yet crossed. At the inns the handsome +young officers in command of the detachments were delighted to +accept invitations to dinner and to talk all the evening of their +battles to the charming patriot who sparkled with interest and +flattery, but not one of them knew whether their enemies, the +abhorred Austrian Jagers, would let the travellers through their +lines. As a rule, gaiety was not the character failing in any +party that Mrs. Kuhn belonged to, but when at last, after +climbing what was said to be the finest carriage-pass in Europe, +the carriage turned the last shoulder, where the glacier of the +Ortler Spitze tumbled its huge mass down upon the road, even Mrs. +Kuhn gasped when she was driven directly up to the barricade and +stopped by the double line of sentries stretching on either side +up the mountains, till the flash of the gun barrels was lost in +the flash of the snow. For accidental education the picture had +its value. The earliest of these pictures count for most, as +first impressions must, and Adams never afterwards cared much for +landscape education, except perhaps in the tropics for the sake +of the contrast. As education, that chapter, too, was read, and +set aside. + + The handsome blond officers of the Jagers were not to be beaten +in courtesy by the handsome young olive-toned officers of the +Cacciatori. The eternal woman as usual, when she is young, +pretty, and engaging, had her way, and the barricade offered no +resistance. In fifteen minutes the carriage was rolling down to +Mals, swarming with German soldiers and German fleas, worse than +the Italian; and German language, thought, and atmosphere, of +which young Adams, thanks to his glimpse of Italy, never again +felt quite the old confident charm. + + Yet he could talk to his cabman and conscientiously did his +cathedrals, his Rhine, and whatever his companions suggested. +Faithful to his self-contracted scheme of passing two winters in +study of the Civil Law, he went back to Dresden with a letter to +the Frau Hofrathin von Reichenbach, in whose house Lowell and +other Americans had pursued studies more or less serious. In +those days, "The Initials" was a new book. The charm which its +clever author had laboriously woven over Munich gave also a +certain reflected light to Dresden. Young Adams had nothing to do +but take fencing-lessons, visit the galleries and go to the +theatre; but his social failure in the line of "The Initials," +was humiliating and he succumbed to it. The Frau Hofrathin +herself was sometimes roused to huge laughter at the total +discomfiture and helplessness of the young American in the face +of her society. Possibly an education may be the wider and the +richer for a large experience of the world; Raphael Pumpelly and +Clarence King, at about the same time, were enriching their +education by a picturesque intimacy with the manners of the +Apaches and Digger Indians. All experience is an arch, to build +upon. Yet Adams admitted himself unable to guess what use his +second winter in Germany was to him, or what he expected it to +be. Even the doctrine of accidental education broke down. There +were no accidents in Dresden. As soon as the winter was over, he +closed and locked the German door with a long breath of relief, +and took the road to Italy. He had then pursued his education, as +it pleased him, for eighteen months, and in spite of the infinite +variety of new impressions which had packed themselves into his +mind, he knew no more, for his practical purposes, than the day +he graduated. He had made no step towards a profession. He was as +ignorant as a schoolboy of society. He was unfit for any career +in Europe, and unfitted for any career in America, and he had not +natural intelligence enough to see what a mess he had thus far +made of his education. + + By twisting life to follow accidental and devious paths, one +might perhaps find some use for accidental and devious knowledge, +but this had been no part of Henry Adams's plan when he chose the +path most admired by the best judges, and followed it till he +found it led nowhere. Nothing had been further from his mind when +he started in November, 1858, than to become a tourist, but a +mere tourist, and nothing else, he had become in April, 1860, +when he joined his sister in Florence. His father had been in the +right. The young man felt a little sore about it. Supposing his +father asked him, on his return, what equivalent he had brought +back for the time and money put into his experiment! The only +possible answer would be: "Sir, I am a tourist! " + + The answer was not what he had meant it to be, and he was not +likely to better it by asking his father, in turn, what +equivalent his brothers or cousins or friends at home had got out +of the same time and money spent in Boston. All they had put into +the law was certainly thrown away, but were they happier in +science? In theory one might say, with some show of proof, that a +pure, scientific education was alone correct; yet many of his +friends who took it, found reason to complain that it was +anything but a pure, scientific world in which they lived. + + Meanwhile his father had quite enough perplexities of his own, +without seeking more in his son's errors. His Quincy district had +sent him to Congress, and in the spring of 1860 he was in the +full confusion of nominating candidates for the Presidential +election in November. He supported Mr. Seward. The Republican +Party was an unknown force, and the Democratic Party was torn to +pieces. No one could see far into the future. Fathers could +blunder as well as sons, and, in 1860, every one was conscious of +being dragged along paths much less secure than those of the +European tourist. For the time, the young man was safe from +interference, and went on his way with a light heart to take +whatever chance fragments of education God or the devil was +pleased to give him, for he knew no longer the good from the bad. + + He had of both sorts more than he knew how to use. Perhaps the +most useful purpose he set himself to serve was that of his pen, +for he wrote long letters, during the next three months, to his +brother Charles, which his brother caused to be printed in the +Boston Courier; and the exercise was good for him. He had little +to say, and said it not very well, but that mattered less. The +habit of expression leads to the search for something to express. +Something remains as a residuum of the commonplace itself, if one +strikes out every commonplace in the expression. Young men as a +rule saw little in Italy, or anywhere else, and in after life +when Adams began to learn what some men could see, he shrank into +corners of shame at the thought that he should have betrayed his +own inferiority as though it were his pride, while he invited his +neighbors to measure and admire; but it was still the nearest +approach he had yet made to an intelligent act. + + For the rest, Italy was mostly an emotion and the emotion +naturally centred in Rome. The American parent, curiously enough, +while bitterly hostile to Paris, seemed rather disposed to accept +Rome as legitimate education, though abused; but to young men +seeking education in a serious spirit, taking for granted that +everything had a cause, and that nature tended to an end, Rome +was altogether the most violent vice in the world, and Rome +before 1870 was seductive beyond resistance. The month of May, +1860, was divine. No doubt other young men, and occasionally +young women, have passed the month of May in Rome since then, and +conceive that the charm continues to exist. Possibly it does -- +in them -- but in 1860 the lights and shadows were still +mediaeval, and mediaeval Rome was alive; the shadows breathed and +glowed, full of soft forms felt by lost senses. No sand-blast of +science had yet skinned off the epidermis of history, thought, +and feeling. The pictures were uncleaned, the churches +unrestored, the ruins unexcavated. Mediaeval Rome was sorcery. +Rome was the worst spot on earth to teach nineteenth-century +youth what to do with a twentieth-century world. One's emotions +in Rome were one's private affair, like one's glass of absinthe +before dinner in the Palais Royal; they must be hurtful, else +they could not have been so intense; and they were surely +immoral, for no one, priest or politician, could honestly read in +the ruins of Rome any other certain lesson than that they were +evidence of the just judgments of an outraged God against all the +doings of man. This moral unfitted young men for every sort of +useful activity; it made Rome a gospel of anarchy and vice; the +last place under the sun for educating the young; yet it was, by +common consent, the only spot that the young -- of either sex and +every race -- passionately, perversely, wickedly loved. + + Boys never see a conclusion; only on the edge of the grave can +man conclude anything; but the first impulse given to the boy is +apt to lead or drive him for the rest of his life into conclusion +after conclusion that he never dreamed of reaching. One looked +idly enough at the Forum or at St. Peter's, but one never forgot +the look, and it never ceased reacting. To a young Bostonian, +fresh from Germany, Rome seemed a pure emotion, quite free from +economic or actual values, and he could not in reason or common +sense foresee that it was mechanically piling up conundrum after +conundrum in his educational path, which seemed unconnected but +that he had got to connect; that seemed insoluble but had got to +be somehow solved. Rome was not a beetle to be dissected and +dropped; not a bad French novel to be read in a railway train and +thrown out of the window after other bad French novels, the +morals of which could never approach the immorality of Roman +history. Rome was actual; it was England; it was going to be +America. Rome could not be fitted into an orderly, middle-class, +Bostonian, systematic scheme of evolution. No law of progress +applied to it. Not even time-sequences -- the last refuge of +helpless historians -- had value for it. The Forum no more led to +the Vatican than the Vatican to the Forum. Rienzi, Garibaldi, +Tiberius Gracchus, Aurelian might be mixed up in any relation of +time, along with a thousand more, and never lead to a sequence. +The great word Evolution had not yet, in 1860, made a new +religion of history, but the old religion had preached the same +doctrine for a thousand years without finding in the entire +history of Rome anything but flat contradiction. + + Of course both priests and evolutionists bitterly denied this +heresy, but what they affirmed or denied in 1860 had very little +importance indeed for 1960. Anarchy lost no ground meanwhile. The +problem became only the more fascinating. Probably it was more +vital in May, 1860, than it had been in October, 1764, when the +idea of writing the Decline and Fall of the city first started to +the mind of Gibbon, "in the close of the evening, as I sat musing +in the Church of the Zoccolanti or Franciscan Friars, while they +were singing Vespers in the Temple of Jupiter, on the ruins of +the Capitol." Murray's Handbook had the grace to quote this +passage from Gibbon's "Autobiography," which led Adams more than +once to sit at sunset on the steps of the Church of Santa Maria +di Ara Coeli, curiously wondering that not an inch had been +gained by Gibbon -- or all the historians since -- towards +explaining the Fall. The mystery remained unsolved; the charm +remained intact. Two great experiments of Western civilization +had left there the chief monuments of their failure, and nothing +proved that the city might not still survive to express the +failure of a third. + + The young man had no idea what he was doing. The thought of +posing for a Gibbon never entered his mind. He was a tourist, +even to the depths of his sub-consciousness, and it was well for +him that he should be nothing else, for even the greatest of men +cannot sit with dignity, "in the close of evening, among the +ruins of the Capitol," unless they have something quite original +to say about it. Tacitus could do it; so could Michael Angelo; +and so, at a pinch, could Gibbon, though in figure hardly heroic; +but, in sum, none of them could say very much more than the +tourist, who went on repeating to himself the eternal question: +-- Why! Why!! Why!!! -- as his neighbor, the blind beggar, might +do, sitting next him, on the church steps. No one ever had +answered the question to the satisfaction of any one else; yet +every one who had either head or heart, felt that sooner or later +he must make up his mind what answer to accept. Substitute the +word America for the word Rome, and the question became personal. + + Perhaps Henry learned something in Rome, though he never knew +it, and never sought it. Rome dwarfs teachers. The greatest men +of the age scarcely bore the test of posing with Rome for a +background. Perhaps Garibaldi -- possibly even Cavour -- could +have sat "in the close of the evening, among the ruins of the +Capitol," but one hardly saw Napoleon III there, or Palmerston or +Tennyson or Longfellow. One morning, Adams happened to be +chatting in the studio of Hamilton Wilde, when a middle-aged +Englishman came in, evidently excited, and told of the shock he +had just received, when riding near the Circus Maximus, at coming +unexpectedly on the guillotine, where some criminal had been put +to death an hour or two before. The sudden surprise had quite +overcome him; and Adams, who seldom saw the point of a story till +time had blunted it, listened sympathetically to learn what new +form of grim horror had for the moment wiped out the memory of +two thousand years of Roman bloodshed, or the consolation, +derived from history and statistics, that most citizens of Rome +seemed to be the better for guillotining. Only by slow degrees, +he grappled the conviction that the victim of the shock was +Robert Browning; and, on the background of the Circus Maximus, +the Christian martyrs flaming as torches, and the morning's +murderer on the block, Browning seemed rather in place, as a +middle-aged gentlemanly English Pippa Passes; while afterwards, +in the light of Belgravia dinner-tables, he never made part of +his background except by effacement. Browning might have sat with +Gibbon, among the ruins, and few Romans would have smiled. + + Yet Browning never revealed the poetic depths of Saint Francis; +William Story could not touch the secret of Michael Angelo, and +Mommsen hardly said all that one felt by instinct in the lives of +Cicero and Caesar. They taught what, as a rule, needed no +teaching, the lessons of a rather cheap imagination and cheaper +politics. Rome was a bewildering complex of ideas, experiments, +ambitions, energies; without her, the Western world was pointless +and fragmentary; she gave heart and unity to it all; yet Gibbon +might have gone on for the whole century, sitting among the ruins +of the Capitol, and no one would have passed, capable of telling +him what it meant. Perhaps it meant nothing. + + So it ended; the happiest month of May that life had yet +offered, fading behind the present, and probably beyond the past, +somewhere into abstract time, grotesquely out of place with the +Berlin scheme or a Boston future. Adams explained to himself that +he was absorbing knowledge. He would have put it better had he +said that knowledge was absorbing him. He was passive. In spite +of swarming impressions he knew no more when he left Rome than he +did when he entered it. As a marketable object, his value was +less. His next step went far to convince him that accidental +education, whatever its economical return might be, was +prodigiously successful as an object in itself. Everything +conspired to ruin his sound scheme of life, and to make him a +vagrant as well as pauper. He went on to Naples, and there, in +the hot June, heard rumors that Garibaldi and his thousand were +about to attack Palermo. Calling on the American Minister, +Chandler of Pennsylvania, he was kindly treated, not for his +merit, but for his name, and Mr. Chandler amiably consented to +send him to the seat of war as bearer of despatches to Captain +Palmer of the American sloop of war Iroquois. Young Adams seized +the chance, and went to Palermo in a government transport filled +with fleas, commanded by a charming Prince Caracciolo. + + He told all about it to the Boston Courier; where the narrative +probably exists to this day, unless the files of the Courier have +wholly perished; but of its bearing on education the Courier did +not speak. He himself would have much liked to know whether it +had any bearing whatever, and what was its value as a +post-graduate course. Quite apart from its value as life +attained, realized, capitalized, it had also a certain value as a +lesson in something, though Adams could never classify the branch +of study. Loosely, the tourist called it knowledge of men, but it +was just the reverse; it was knowledge of one's ignorance of men. +Captain Palmer of the Iroquois, who was a friend of the young +man's uncle, Sydney Brooks, took him with the officers of the +ship to make an evening call on Garibaldi, whom they found in the +Senate House towards sunset, at supper with his picturesque and +piratic staff, in the full noise and color of the Palermo +revolution. As a spectacle, it belonged to Rossini and the +Italian opera, or to Alexandre Dumas at the least, but the +spectacle was not its educational side. Garibaldi left the table, +and, sitting down at the window, had a few words of talk with +Captain Palmer and young Adams. At that moment, in the summer of +1860, Garibaldi was certainly the most serious of the doubtful +energies in the world; the most essential to gauge rightly. Even +then society was dividing between banker and anarchist. One or +the other, Garibaldi must serve. Himself a typical anarchist, +sure to overshadow Europe and alarm empires bigger than Naples, +his success depended on his mind; his energy was beyond doubt. + + Adams had the chance to look this sphinx in the eyes, and, for +five minutes, to watch him like a wild animal, at the moment of +his greatest achievement and most splendid action. One saw a +quiet-featured, quiet-voiced man in a red flannel shirt; +absolutely impervious; a type of which Adams knew nothing. +Sympathetic it was, and one felt that it was simple; one +suspected even that it might be childlike, but could form no +guess of its intelligence. In his own eyes Garibaldi might be a +Napoleon or a Spartacus; in the hands of Cavour he might become a +Condottiere; in the eyes of history he might, like the rest of +the world, be only the vigorous player in the game he did not +understand. The student was none the wiser. + + This compound nature of patriot and pirate had illumined +Italian history from the beginning, and was no more intelligible +to itself than to a young American who had no experience in +double natures. In the end, if the "Autobiography" tells truth, +Garibaldi saw and said that he had not understood his own acts; +that he had been an instrument; that he had served the purposes +of the class he least wanted to help; yet in 1860 he thought +himself the revolution anarchic, Napoleonic, and his ambition was +unbounded. What should a young Bostonian have made of a character +like this, internally alive with childlike fancies, and +externally quiet, simple, almost innocent; uttering with apparent +conviction the usual commonplaces of popular politics that all +politicians use as the small change of their intercourse with the +public; but never betraying a thought? + + Precisely this class of mind was to be the toughest problem of +Adams's practical life, but he could never make anything of it. +The lesson of Garibaldi, as education, seemed to teach the +extreme complexity of extreme simplicity; but one could have +learned this from a glow-worm. One did not need the vivid +recollection of the low-voiced, simple-mannered, seafaring +captain of Genoese adventurers and Sicilian brigands, supping in +the July heat and Sicilian dirt and revolutionary clamor, among +the barricaded streets of insurgent Palermo, merely in order to +remember that simplicity is complex. + + Adams left the problem as he found it, and came north to +stumble over others, less picturesque but nearer. He squandered +two or three months on Paris. From the first he had avoided +Paris, and had wanted no French influence in his education. He +disapproved of France in the lump. A certain knowledge of the +language one must have; enough to order dinner and buy a theatre +ticket; but more he did not seek. He disliked the Empire and the +Emperor particularly, but this was a trifle; he disliked most the +French mind. To save himself the trouble of drawing up a long +list of all that he disliked, he disapproved of the whole, once +for all, and shut them figuratively out of his life. France was +not serious, and he was not serious in going there. + + He did this in good faith, obeying the lessons his teachers had +taught him; but the curious result followed that, being in no way +responsible for the French and sincerely disapproving them, he +felt quite at liberty to enjoy to the full everything he +disapproved. Stated thus crudely, the idea sounds derisive; but, +as a matter of fact, several thousand Americans passed much of +their time there on this understanding. They sought to take share +in every function that was open to approach, as they sought +tickets to the opera, because they were not a part of it. Adams +did like the rest. All thought of serious education had long +vanished. He tried to acquire a few French idioms, without even +aspiring to master a subjunctive, but he succeeded better in +acquiring a modest taste for Bordeaux and Burgundy and one or two +sauces; for the Trois Freres Provencaux and Voisin's and +Philippe's and the Cafe Anglais; for the Palais Royal Theatre, +and the Varietes and the Gymnase; for the Brohans and Bressant, +Rose Cheri and Gil Perez, and other lights of the stage. His +friends were good to him. Life was amusing. Paris rapidly became +familiar. In a month or six weeks he forgot even to disapprove of +it; but he studied nothing, entered no society, and made no +acquaintance. Accidental education went far in Paris, and one +picked up a deal of knowledge that might become useful; perhaps, +after all, the three months passed there might serve better +purpose than the twenty-one months passed elsewhere; but he did +not intend it -- did not think it -- and looked at it as a +momentary and frivolous vacation before going home to fit himself +for life. Therewith, after staying as long as he could and +spending all the money he dared, he started with mixed emotions +but no education, for home. + + +CHAPTER VII + +TREASON (1860-1861) + + WHEN, forty years afterwards, Henry Adams looked back over his +adventures in search of knowledge, he asked himself whether +fortune or fate had ever dealt its cards quite so wildly to any +of his known antecessors as when it led him to begin the study of +law and to vote for Abraham Lincoln on the same day. + + He dropped back on Quincy like a lump of lead; he rebounded +like a football, tossed into space by an unknown energy which +played with all his generation as a cat plays with mice. The +simile is none too strong. Not one man in America wanted the +Civil War, or expected or intended it. A small minority wanted +secession. The vast majority wanted to go on with their +occupations in peace. Not one, however clever or learned, guessed +what happened. Possibly a few Southern loyalists in despair might +dream it as an impossible chance; but none planned it. + + As for Henry Adams, fresh from Europe and chaos of another +sort, he plunged at once into a lurid atmosphere of politics, +quite heedless of any education or forethought. His past melted +away. The prodigal was welcomed home, but not even his father +asked a malicious question about the Pandects. At the utmost, he +hinted at some shade of prodigality by quietly inviting his son +to act as private secretary during the winter in Washington, as +though any young man who could afford to throw away two winters +on the Civil Law could afford to read Blackstone for another +winter without a master. The young man was beyond satire, and +asked only a pretext for throwing all education to the east wind. +November at best is sad, and November at Quincy had been from +earliest childhood the least gay of seasons. Nowhere else does +the uncharitable autumn wreak its spite so harshly on the frail +wreck of the grasshopper summer; yet even a Quincy November +seemed temperate before the chill of a Boston January. + + This was saying much, for the November of 1860 at Quincy stood +apart from other memories as lurid beyond description. Although +no one believed in civil war, the air reeked of it, and the +Republicans organized their clubs and parades as Wide-Awakes in a +form military in all things except weapons. Henry reached home in +time to see the last of these processions, stretching in ranks of +torches along the hillside, file down through the November night; +to the Old House, where Mr. Adams, their Member of Congress, +received them, and, let them pretend what they liked, their air +was not that of innocence. + + Profoundly ignorant, anxious, and curious, the young man packed +his modest trunk again, which had not yet time to be unpacked, +and started for Washington with his family. Ten years had passed +since his last visit, but very little had changed. As in 1800 and +1850, so in 1860, the same rude colony was camped in the same +forest, with the same unfinished Greek temples for work rooms, +and sloughs for roads. The Government had an air of social +instability and incompleteness that went far to support the right +of secession in theory as in fact; but right or wrong, secession +was likely to be easy where there was so little to secede from. +The Union was a sentiment, but not much more, and in December, +1860, the sentiment about the Capitol was chiefly hostile, so far +as it made itself felt. John Adams was better off in Philadelphia +in 1776 than his great-grandson Henry in 1860 in Washington. + + Patriotism ended by throwing a halo over the Continental +Congress, but over the close of the Thirty-sixth Congress in +1860-61, no halo could be thrown by any one who saw it. Of all +the crowd swarming in Washington that winter, young Adams was +surely among the most ignorant and helpless, but he saw plainly +that the knowledge possessed by everybody about him was hardly +greater than his own. Never in a long life did he seek to master +a lesson so obscure. Mr. Sumner was given to saying after +Oxenstiern: "Quantula sapientia mundus regitur!" Oxenstiern +talked of a world that wanted wisdom; but Adams found himself +seeking education in a world that seemed to him both unwise and +ignorant. The Southern secessionists were certainly unbalanced in +mind -- fit for medical treatment, like other victims of +hallucination -- haunted by suspicion, by idees fixes, by violent +morbid excitement; but this was not all. They were stupendously +ignorant of the world. As a class, the cotton-planters were +mentally one-sided, ill-balanced, and provincial to a degree +rarely known. They were a close society on whom the new fountains +of power had poured a stream of wealth and slaves that acted like +oil on flame. They showed a young student his first object-lesson +of the way in which excess of power worked when held by +inadequate hands. + + This might be a commonplace of 1900, but in 1860 it was +paradox. The Southern statesmen were regarded as standards of +statesmanship, and such standards barred education. Charles +Sumner's chief offence was his insistence on Southern ignorance, +and he stood a living proof of it. To this school, Henry Adams +had come for a new education, and the school was seriously, +honestly, taken by most of the world, including Europe, as proper +for the purpose, although the Sioux Indians would have taught +less mischief. From such contradictions among intelligent people, +what was a young man to learn? + + He could learn nothing but cross-purpose. The old and typical +Southern gentleman developed as cotton-planter had nothing to +teach or to give, except warning. Even as example to be avoided, +he was too glaring in his defiance of reason, to help the +education of a reasonable being. No one learned a useful lesson +from the Confederate school except to keep away from it. Thus, at +one sweep, the whole field of instruction south of the Potomac +was shut off; it was overshadowed by the cotton planters, from +whom one could learn nothing but bad temper, bad manners, poker, +and treason. + + Perforce, the student was thrown back on Northern precept and +example; first of all, on his New England surroundings. +Republican houses were few in Washington, and Mr. and Mrs. Adams +aimed to create a social centre for New Englanders. They took a +house on I Street, looking over Pennsylvania Avenue, well out +towards Georgetown -- the Markoe house -- and there the private +secretary began to learn his social duties, for the political +were confined to committee-rooms and lobbies of the Capitol. He +had little to do, and knew not how to do it rightly, but he knew +of no one who knew more. + + The Southern type was one to be avoided; the New England type +was one's self. It had nothing to show except one's own features. +Setting aside Charles Sumner, who stood quite alone and was the +boy's oldest friend, all the New Englanders were sane and steady +men, well-balanced, educated, and free from meanness or intrigue +-- men whom one liked to act with, and who, whether graduates or +not, bore the stamp of Harvard College. Anson Burlingame was one +exception, and perhaps Israel Washburn another; but as a rule the +New Englander's strength was his poise which almost amounted to a +defect. He offered no more target for love than for hate; he +attracted as little as he repelled; even as a machine, his motion +seemed never accelerated. The character, with its force or +feebleness, was familiar; one knew it to the core; one was it -- +had been run in the same mould. + + There remained the Central and Western States, but there the +choice of teachers was not large and in the end narrowed itself +to Preston King, Henry Winter Davis, Owen Lovejoy, and a few +other men born with social faculty. Adams took most kindly to +Henry J. Raymond, who came to view the field for the New York +Times, and who was a man of the world. The average Congressman +was civil enough, but had nothing to ask except offices, and +nothing to offer but the views of his district. The average +Senator was more reserved, but had not much more to say, being +always excepting one or two genial natures, handicapped by his +own importance. + + Study it as one might, the hope of education, till the arrival +of the President-elect, narrowed itself to the possible influence +of only two men -- Sumner and Seward. + + Sumner was then fifty years old. Since his election as Senator +in 1851 he had passed beyond the reach of his boy friend, and, +after his Brooks injuries, his nervous system never quite +recovered its tone; but perhaps eight or ten years of solitary +existence as Senator had most to do with his development. No man, +however strong, can serve ten years as schoolmaster, priest, or +Senator, and remain fit for anything else. All the dogmatic +stations in life have the effect of fixing a certain stiffness of +attitude forever, as though they mesmerized the subject. Yet even +among Senators there were degrees in dogmatism, from the frank +South Carolinian brutality, to that of Webster, Benton, Clay, or +Sumner himself, until in extreme cases, like Conkling, it became +Shakespearian and bouffe -- as Godkin used to call it -- like +Malvolio. Sumner had become dogmatic like the rest, but he had at +least the merit of qualities that warranted dogmatism. He justly +thought, as Webster had thought before him, that his great +services and sacrifices, his superiority in education, his +oratorical power, his political experience, his representative +character at the head of the whole New England contingent, and, +above all, his knowledge of the world, made him the most +important member of the Senate; and no Senator had ever saturated +himself more thoroughly with the spirit and temper of the body. + + Although the Senate is much given to admiring in its members a +superiority less obvious or quite invisible to outsiders, one +Senator seldom proclaims his own inferiority to another, and +still more seldom likes to be told of it. Even the greatest +Senators seemed to inspire little personal affection in each +other, and betrayed none at all. Sumner had a number of rivals +who held his judgment in no high esteem, and one of these was +Senator Seward. The two men would have disliked each other by +instinct had they lived in different planets. Each was created +only for exasperating the other; the virtues of one were the +faults of his rival, until no good quality seemed to remain of +either. That the public service must suffer was certain, but what +were the sufferings of the public service compared with the risks +run by a young mosquito -- a private secretary -- trying to buzz +admiration in the ears of each, and unaware that each would +impatiently slap at him for belonging to the other? Innocent and +unsuspicious beyond what was permitted even in a nursery, the +private secretary courted both. + + Private secretaries are servants of a rather low order, whose +business is to serve sources of power. The first news of a +professional kind, imparted to private secretary Adams on +reaching Washington, was that the President-elect, Abraham +Lincoln, had selected Mr. Seward for his Secretary of State, and +that Seward was to be the medium for communicating his wishes to +his followers. Every young man naturally accepted the wishes of +Mr. Lincoln as orders, the more because he could see that the new +President was likely to need all the help that several million +young men would be able to give, if they counted on having any +President at all to serve. Naturally one waited impatiently for +the first meeting with the new Secretary of State. + + Governor Seward was an old friend of the family. He professed +to be a disciple and follower of John Quincy Adams. He had been +Senator since 1849, when his responsibilities as leader had +separated him from the Free Soil contingent, for, in the dry +light of the first Free Soil faith, the ways of New York politics +Thurlow Weed had not won favor; but the fierce heat which welded +the Republican Party in 1856 melted many such barriers, and when +Mr. Adams came to Congress in December, 1859, Governor Seward +instantly renewed his attitude of family friend, became a daily +intimate in the household, and lost no chance of forcing his +fresh ally to the front. + + A few days after their arrival in December, 1860, the Governor, +as he was always called, came to dinner, alone, as one of the +family, and the private secretary had the chance he wanted to +watch him as carefully as one generally watches men who dispose +of one's future. A slouching, slender figure; a head like a wise +macaw; a beaked nose; shaggy eyebrows; unorderly hair and +clothes; hoarse voice; offhand manner; free talk, and perpetual +cigar, offered a new type -- of western New York -- to fathom; a +type in one way simple because it was only double -- political +and personal; but complex because the political had become +nature, and no one could tell which was the mask and which the +features. At table, among friends, Mr. Seward threw off +restraint, or seemed to throw it off, in reality, while in the +world he threw it off, like a politician, for effect. In both +cases he chose to appear as a free talker, who loathed pomposity +and enjoyed a joke; but how much was nature and how much was +mask, he was himself too simple a nature to know. Underneath the +surface he was conventional after the conventions of western New +York and Albany. Politicians thought it unconventionality. +Bostonians thought it provincial. Henry Adams thought it +charming. From the first sight, he loved the Governor, who, +though sixty years old, had the youth of his sympathies. He +noticed that Mr. Seward was never petty or personal; his talk was +large; he generalized; he never seemed to pose for statesmanship; +he did not require an attitude of prayer. What was more unusual +-- almost singular and quite eccentric -- he had some means, +unknown to other Senators, of producing the effect of +unselfishness. + + Superficially Mr. Seward and Mr. Adams were contrasts; +essentially they were much alike. Mr. Adams was taken to be +rigid, but the Puritan character in all its forms could be supple +enough when it chose; and in Massachusetts all the Adamses had +been attacked in succession as no better than political +mercenaries. Mr. Hildreth, in his standard history, went so far +as to echo with approval the charge that treachery was hereditary +in the family. Any Adams had at least to be thick-skinned, +hardened to every contradictory epithet that virtue could supply, +and, on the whole, armed to return such attentions; but all must +have admitted that they had invariably subordinated local to +national interests, and would continue to do so, whenever forced +to choose. C. F. Adams was sure to do what his father had done, +as his father had followed the steps of John Adams, and no doubt +thereby earned his epithets. + + The inevitable followed, as a child fresh from the nursery +should have had the instinct to foresee, but the young man on the +edge of life never dreamed. What motives or emotions drove his +masters on their various paths he made no pretence of guessing; +even at that age he preferred to admit his dislike for guessing +motives; he knew only his own infantile ignorance, before which +he stood amazed, and his innocent good-faith, always matter of +simple-minded surprise. Critics who know ultimate truth will +pronounce judgment on history; all that Henry Adams ever saw in +man was a reflection of his own ignorance, and he never saw quite +so much of it as in the winter of 1860-61. Every one knows the +story; every one draws what conclusion suits his temper, and the +conclusion matters now less than though it concerned the merits +of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden; but in 1861 the conclusion +made the sharpest lesson of life; it was condensed and +concentrated education. + + Rightly or wrongly the new President and his chief advisers in +Washington decided that, before they could administer the +Government, they must make sure of a government to administer, +and that this chance depended on the action of Virginia. The +whole ascendancy of the winter wavered between the effort of the +cotton States to drag Virginia out, and the effort of the new +President to keep Virginia in. Governor Seward representing the +Administration in the Senate took the lead; Mr. Adams took the +lead in the House; and as far as a private secretary knew, the +party united on its tactics. In offering concessions to the +border States, they had to run the risk, or incur the certainty, +of dividing their own party, and they took this risk with open +eyes. As Seward himself, in his gruff way, said at dinner, after +Mr. Adams and he had made their speeches: "If there's no +secession now, you and I are ruined." + + They won their game; this was their affair and the affair of +the historians who tell their story; their private secretaries +had nothing to do with it except to follow their orders. On that +side a secretary learned nothing and had nothing to learn. The +sudden arrival of Mr. Lincoln in Washington on February 23, and +the language of his inaugural address, were the final term of the +winter's tactics, and closed the private secretary's interest in +the matter forever. Perhaps he felt, even then, a good deal more +interest in the appearance of another private secretary, of his +own age, a young man named John Hay, who lighted on LaFayette +Square at the same moment. Friends are born, not made, and Henry +never mistook a friend except when in power. From the first +slight meeting in February and March, 1861, he recognized Hay as +a friend, and never lost sight of him at the future crossing of +their paths; but, for the moment, his own task ended on March 4 +when Hay's began. The winter's anxieties were shifted upon new +shoulders, and Henry gladly turned back to Blackstone. He had +tried to make himself useful, and had exerted energy that seemed +to him portentous, acting in secret as newspaper correspondent, +cultivating a large acquaintance and even haunting ballrooms +where the simple, old-fashioned, Southern tone was pleasant even +in the atmosphere of conspiracy and treason. The sum was next to +nothing for education, because no one could teach; all were as +ignorant as himself; none knew what should be done, or how to do +it; all were trying to learn and were more bent on asking than on +answering questions. The mass of ignorance in Washington was +lighted up by no ray of knowledge. Society, from top to bottom, +broke down. + + From this law there was no exception, unless, perhaps, that of +old General Winfield Scott, who happened to be the only military +figure that looked equal to the crisis. No one else either looked +it, or was it, or could be it, by nature or training. Had young +Adams been told that his life was to hang on the correctness of +his estimate of the new President, he would have lost. He saw Mr. +Lincoln but once; at the melancholy function called an Inaugural +Ball. Of course he looked anxiously for a sign of character. He +saw a long, awkward figure; a plain, ploughed face; a mind, +absent in part, and in part evidently worried by white kid +gloves; features that expressed neither self-satisfaction nor any +other familiar Americanism, but rather the same painful sense of +becoming educated and of needing education that tormented a +private secretary; above all a lack of apparent force. Any +private secretary in the least fit for his business would have +thought, as Adams did, that no man living needed so much +education as the new President but that all the education he +could get would not be enough. + + As far as a young man of anxious temperament could see, no one +in Washington was fitted for his duties; or rather, no duties in +March were fitted for the duties in April. The few people who +thought they knew something were more in error than those who +knew nothing. Education was matter of life and death, but all the +education in the world would have helped nothing. Only one man in +Adams's reach seemed to him supremely fitted by knowledge and +experience to be an adviser and friend. This was Senator Sumner; +and there, in fact, the young man's education began; there it +ended. + + Going over the experience again, long after all the great +actors were dead, he struggled to see where he had blundered. In +the effort to make acquaintances, he lost friends, but he would +have liked much to know whether he could have helped it. He had +necessarily followed Seward and his father; he took for granted +that his business was obedience, discipline, and silence; he +supposed the party to require it, and that the crisis overruled +all personal doubts. He was thunderstruck to learn that Senator +Sumner privately denounced the course, regarded Mr. Adams as +betraying the principles of his life, and broke off relations +with his family. + + Many a shock was Henry Adams to meet in the course of a long +life passed chiefly near politics and politicians, but the +profoundest lessons are not the lessons of reason; they are +sudden strains that permanently warp the mind. He cared little or +nothing about the point in discussion; he was even willing to +admit that Sumner might be right, though in all great emergencies +he commonly found that every one was more or less wrong; he liked +lofty moral principle and cared little for political tactics; he +felt a profound respect for Sumner himself; but the shock opened +a chasm in life that never closed, and as long as life lasted, he +found himself invariably taking for granted, as a political +instinct, with out waiting further experiment -- as he took for +granted that arsenic poisoned -- the rule that a friend in power +is a friend lost. + + On his own score, he never admitted the rupture, and never +exchanged a word with Mr. Sumner on the subject, then or +afterwards, but his education -- for good or bad -- made an +enormous stride. One has to deal with all sorts of unexpected +morals in life, and, at this moment, he was looking at hundreds +of Southern gentlemen who believed themselves singularly honest, +but who seemed to him engaged in the plainest breach of faith and +the blackest secret conspiracy, yet they did not disturb his +education. History told of little else; and not one rebel +defection -- not even Robert E. Lee's -- cost young Adams a +personal pang; but Sumner's struck home. + + This, then, was the result of the new attempt at education, +down to March 4, 1861; this was all; and frankly, it seemed to +him hardly what he wanted. The picture of Washington in March, +1861, offered education, but not the kind of education that led +to good. The process that Matthew Arnold described as wandering +between two worlds, one dead, the other powerless to be born, +helps nothing. Washington was a dismal school. Even before the +traitors had flown, the vultures descended on it in swarms that +darkened the ground, and tore the carrion of political patronage +into fragments and gobbets of fat and lean, on the very steps of +the White House. Not a man there knew what his task was to be, or +was fitted for it; every one without exception, Northern or +Southern, was to learn his business at the cost of the public. +Lincoln, Seward, Sumner, and the rest, could give no help to the +young man seeking education; they knew less than he; within six +weeks they were all to be taught their duties by the uprising of +such as he, and their education was to cost a million lives and +ten thousand million dollars, more or less, North and South, +before the country could recover its balance and movement. Henry +was a helpless victim, and, like all the rest, he could only wait +for he knew not what, to send him he knew not where. + + With the close of the session, his own functions ended. Ceasing +to be private secretary he knew not what else to do but return +with his father and mother to Boston in the middle of March, and, +with childlike docility, sit down at a desk in the law-office of +Horace Gray in Court Street, to begin again: "My Lords and +Gentlemen"; dozing after a two o'clock dinner, or waking to +discuss politics with the future Justice. There, in ordinary +times, he would have remained for life, his attempt at education +in treason having, like all the rest, disastrously failed. + + +CHAPTER VIII + +DIPLOMACY (1861) + + HARDLY a week passed when the newspapers announced that +President Lincoln had selected Charles Francis Adams as his +Minister to England. Once more, silently, Henry put Blackstone +back on its shelf. As Friar Bacon's head sententiously announced +many centuries before: Time had passed! The Civil Law lasted a +brief day; the Common Law prolonged its shadowy existence for a +week. The law, altogether, as path of education, vanished in +April, 1861, leaving a million young men planted in the mud of a +lawless world, to begin a new life without education at all. They +asked few questions, but if they had asked millions they would +have got no answers. No one could help. Looking back on this +moment of crisis, nearly fifty years afterwards, one could only +shake one's white beard in silent horror. Mr. Adams once more +intimated that he thought himself entitled to the services of one +of his sons, and he indicated Henry as the only one who could be +spared from more serious duties. Henry packed his trunk again +without a word. He could offer no protest. Ridiculous as he knew +himself about to be in his new role, he was less ridiculous than +his betters. He was at least no public official, like the +thousands of improvised secretaries and generals who crowded +their jealousies and intrigues on the President. He was not a +vulture of carrion -- patronage. He knew that his father's +appointment was the result of Governor Seward's personal +friendship; he did not then know that Senator Sumner had opposed +it, or the reasons which Sumner alleged for thinking it unfit; +but he could have supplied proofs enough had Sumner asked for +them, the strongest and most decisive being that, in his opinion, +Mr. Adams had chosen a private secretary far more unfit than his +chief. That Mr. Adams was unfit might well be, since it was hard +to find a fit appointment in the list of possible candidates, +except Mr. Sumner himself; and no one knew so well as this +experienced Senator that the weakest of all Mr. Adams's proofs of +fitness was his consent to quit a safe seat in Congress for an +exceedingly unsafe seat in London with no better support than +Senator Sumner, at the head of the Foreign Relations Committee, +was likely to give him. In the family history, its members had +taken many a dangerous risk, but never before had they taken one +so desperate. + + The private secretary troubled himself not at all about the +unfitness of any one; he knew too little; and, in fact, no one, +except perhaps Mr. Sumner, knew more. The President and Secretary +of State knew least of all. As Secretary of Legation the +Executive appointed the editor of a Chicago newspaper who had +applied for the Chicago Post-Office; a good fellow, universally +known as Charley Wilson, who had not a thought of staying in the +post, or of helping the Minister. The Assistant Secretary was +inherited from Buchanan's time, a hard worker, but socially +useless. Mr. Adams made no effort to find efficient help; perhaps +he knew no name to suggest; perhaps he knew too much of +Washington, but he could hardly have hoped to find a staff of +strength in his son. + + The private secretary was more passive than his father, for he +knew not where to turn. Sumner alone could have smoothed his path +by giving him letters of introduction, but if Sumner wrote +letters, it was not with the effect of smoothing paths. No one, +at that moment, was engaged in smoothing either paths or people. +The private secretary was no worse off than his neighbors except +in being called earlier into service. On April 13 the storm burst +and rolled several hundred thousand young men like Henry Adams +into the surf of a wild ocean, all helpless like himself, to be +beaten about for four years by the waves of war. Adams still had +time to watch the regiments form ranks before Boston State House +in the April evenings and march southward, quietly enough, with +the air of business they wore from their cradles, but with few +signs or sounds of excitement. He had time also to go down the +harbor to see his brother Charles quartered in Fort Independence +before being thrown, with a hundred thousand more, into the +furnace of the Army of the Potomac to get educated in a fury of +fire. Few things were for the moment so trivial in importance as +the solitary private secretary crawling down to the wretched old +Cunard steamer Niagara at East Boston to start again for +Liverpool. This time the pitcher of education had gone to the +fountain once too often; it was fairly broken; and the young man +had got to meet a hostile world without defence -- or arms. + + The situation did not seem even comic, so ignorant was the +world of its humors; yet Minister Adams sailed for England, May +1, 1861, with much the same outfit as Admiral Dupont would have +enjoyed if the Government had sent him to attack Port Royal with +one cabin-boy in a rowboat. Luckily for the cabin-boy, he was +alone. Had Secretary Seward and Senator Sumner given to Mr. Adams +the rank of Ambassador and four times his salary, a palace in +London, a staff of trained secretaries, and personal letters of +introduction to the royal family and the whole peerage, the +private secretary would have been cabin-boy still, with the extra +burden of many masters; he was the most fortunate person in the +party, having for master only his father who never fretted, never +dictated, never disciplined, and whose idea of American diplomacy +was that of the eighteenth century. Minister Adams remembered how +his grandfather had sailed from Mount Wollaston in midwinter, +1778, on the little frigate Boston, taking his eleven-year-old +son John Quincy with him, for secretary, on a diplomacy of +adventure that had hardly a parallel for success. He remembered +how John Quincy, in 1809, had sailed for Russia, with himself, a +baby of two years old, to cope with Napoleon and the Czar +Alexander single-handed, almost as much of an adventurer as John +Adams before him, and almost as successful. He thought it natural +that the Government should send him out as an adventurer also, +with a twenty-three-year-old son, and he did not even notice that +he left not a friend behind him. No doubt he could depend on +Seward, but on whom could Seward depend? Certainly not on the +Chairman of the Committee of Foreign Relations. Minister Adams +had no friend in the Senate; he could hope for no favors, and he +asked none. He thought it right to play the adventurer as his +father and grandfather had done before him, without a murmur. +This was a lofty view, and for him answered his objects, but it +bore hard on cabin-boys, and when, in time, the young man +realized what had happened, he felt it as a betrayal. He modestly +thought himself unfit for the career of adventurer, and judged +his father to be less fit than himself. For the first time +America was posing as the champion of legitimacy and order. Her +representatives should know how to play their role; they should +wear the costume; but, in the mission attached to Mr. Adams in +1861, the only rag of legitimacy or order was the private +secretary, whose stature was not sufficient to impose awe on the +Court and Parliament of Great Britain. + + One inevitable effect of this lesson was to make a victim of +the scholar and to turn him into a harsh judge of his masters. If +they overlooked him, he could hardly overlook them, since they +stood with their whole weight on his body. By way of teaching him +quickly, they sent out their new Minister to Russia in the same +ship. Secretary Seward had occasion to learn the merits of +Cassius M. Clay in the diplomatic service, but Mr. Seward's +education profited less than the private secretary's, Cassius +Clay as a teacher having no equal though possibly some rivals. No +young man, not in Government pay, could be asked to draw, from +such lessons, any confidence in himself, and it was notorious +that, for the next two years, the persons were few indeed who +felt, or had reason to feel, any sort of confidence in the +Government; fewest of all among those who were in it. At home, +for the most part, young men went to the war, grumbled and died; +in England they might grumble or not; no one listened. + + Above all, the private secretary could not grumble to his +chief. He knew surprisingly little, but that much he did know. He +never labored so hard to learn a language as he did to hold his +tongue, and it affected him for life. The habit of reticence -- +of talking without meaning -- is never effaced. He had to begin +it at once. He was already an adept when the party landed at +Liverpool, May 13, 1861, and went instantly up to London: a +family of early Christian martyrs about to be flung into an arena +of lions, under the glad eyes of Tiberius Palmerston. Though Lord +Palmerston would have laughed his peculiar Palmerston laugh at +figuring as Tiberius, he would have seen only evident resemblance +in the Christian martyrs, for he had already arranged the +ceremony. + + Of what they had to expect, the Minister knew no more than his +son. What he or Mr. Seward or Mr. Sumner may have thought is the +affair of history and their errors concern historians. The errors +of a private secretary concerned no one but himself, and were a +large part of his education. He thought on May 12 that he was +going to a friendly Government and people, true to the +anti-slavery principles which had been their steadiest +profession. For a hundred years the chief effort of his family +had aimed at bringing the Government of England into intelligent +cooperation with the objects and interests of America. His father +was about to make a new effort, and this time the chance of +success was promising. The slave States had been the chief +apparent obstacle to good understanding. As for the private +secretary himself, he was, like all Bostonians, instinctively +English. He could not conceive the idea of a hostile England. He +supposed himself, as one of the members of a famous anti-slavery +family, to be welcome everywhere in the British Islands. + + On May 13, he met the official announcement that England +recognized the belligerency of the Confederacy. This beginning of +a new education tore up by the roots nearly all that was left of +Harvard College and Germany. He had to learn -- the sooner the +better -- that his ideas were the reverse of truth; that in May, +1861, no one in England -- literally no one -- doubted that +Jefferson Davis had made or would make a nation, and nearly all +were glad of it, though not often saying so. They mostly imitated +Palmerston who, according to Mr. Gladstone, "desired the +severance as a diminution of a dangerous power, but prudently +held his tongue." The sentiment of anti-slavery had disappeared. +Lord John Russell, as Foreign Secretary, had received the rebel +emissaries, and had decided to recognize their belligerency +before the arrival of Mr. Adams in order to fix the position of +the British Government in advance. The recognition of +independence would then become an understood policy; a matter of +time and occasion. + + Whatever Minister Adams may have felt, the first effect of this +shock upon his son produced only a dullness of comprehension -- a +sort of hazy inability to grasp the missile or realize the blow. +Yet he realized that to his father it was likely to be fatal. The +chances were great that the whole family would turn round and go +home within a few weeks. The horizon widened out in endless waves +of confusion. When he thought over the subject in the long +leisure of later life, he grew cold at the idea of his situation +had his father then shown himself what Sumner thought him to be +-- unfit for his post. That the private secretary was unfit for +his -- trifling though it were -- was proved by his unreflecting +confidence in his father. It never entered his mind that his +father might lose his nerve or his temper, and yet in a +subsequent knowledge of statesmen and diplomats extending over +several generations, he could not certainly point out another who +could have stood such a shock without showing it. He passed this +long day, and tedious journey to London, without once thinking of +the possibility that his father might make a mistake. Whatever +the Minister thought, and certainly his thought was not less +active than his son's, he showed no trace of excitement. His +manner was the same as ever; his mind and temper were as +perfectly balanced; not a word escaped; not a nerve twitched. + + The test was final, for no other shock so violent and sudden +could possibly recur. The worst was in full sight. For once the +private secretary knew his own business, which was to imitate his +father as closely as possible and hold his tongue. Dumped thus +into Maurigy's Hotel at the foot of Regent Street, in the midst +of a London season, without a friend or even an acquaintance, he +preferred to laugh at his father's bewilderment before the +waiter's "'amhandheggsir" for breakfast, rather than ask a +question or express a doubt. His situation, if taken seriously, +was too appalling to face. Had he known it better, he would only +have thought it worse. + + Politically or socially, the outlook was desperate, beyond +retrieving or contesting. Socially, under the best of +circumstances, a newcomer in London society needs years to +establish a position, and Minister Adams had not a week or an +hour to spare, while his son had not even a remote chance of +beginning. Politically the prospect looked even worse, and for +Secretary Seward and Senator Sumner it was so; but for the +Minister, on the spot, as he came to realize exactly where he +stood, the danger was not so imminent. Mr. Adams was always one +of the luckiest of men, both in what he achieved and in what he +escaped. The blow, which prostrated Seward and Sumner, passed +over him. Lord John Russell had acted -- had probably intended to +act -- kindly by him in forestalling his arrival. The blow must +have fallen within three months, and would then have broken him +down. The British Ministers were a little in doubt still -- a +little ashamed of themselves -- and certain to wait the longer +for their next step in proportion to the haste of their first. + + This is not a story of the diplomatic adventures of Charles +Francis Adams, but of his son Henry's adventures in search of an +education, which, if not taken too seriously, tended to humor. +The father's position in London was not altogether bad; the son's +was absurd. Thanks to certain family associations, Charles +Francis Adams naturally looked on all British Ministers as +enemies; the only public occupation of all Adamses for a hundred +and fifty years at least, in their brief intervals of quarrelling +with State Street, had been to quarrel with Downing Street; and +the British Government, well used to a liberal unpopularity +abroad, even when officially rude liked to be personally civil. +All diplomatic agents are liable to be put, so to speak, in a +corner, and are none the worse for it. Minister Adams had nothing +in especial to complain of; his position was good while it +lasted, and he had only the chances of war to fear. The son had +no such compensations. Brought over in order to help his father, +he could conceive no way of rendering his father help, but he was +clear that his father had got to help him. To him, the Legation +was social ostracism, terrible beyond anything he had known. +Entire solitude in the great society of London was doubly +desperate because his duties as private secretary required him to +know everybody and go with his father and mother everywhere they +needed escort. He had no friend, or even enemy, to tell him to be +patient. Had any one done it, he would surely have broken out +with the reply that patience was the last resource of fools as +well as of sages; if he was to help his father at all, he must do +it at once, for his father would never so much need help again. +In fact he never gave his father the smallest help, unless it +were as a footman, clerk, or a companion for the younger +children. + + He found himself in a singular situation for one who was to be +useful. As he came to see the situation closer, he began to doubt +whether secretaries were meant to be useful. Wars were too common +in diplomacy to disturb the habits of the diplomat. Most +secretaries detested their chiefs, and wished to be anything but +useful. At the St. James's Club, to which the Minister's son +could go only as an invited guest, the most instructive +conversation he ever heard among the young men of his own age who +hung about the tables, more helpless than himself, was: "Quel +chien de pays!" or, "Que tu es beau aujourd'hui, mon cher!" No +one wanted to discuss affairs; still less to give or get +information. That was the affair of their chiefs, who were also +slow to assume work not specially ordered from their Courts. If +the American Minister was in trouble to-day, the Russian +Ambassador was in trouble yesterday, and the Frenchman would be +in trouble to-morrow. It would all come in the day's work. There +was nothing professional in worry. Empires were always tumbling +to pieces and diplomats were always picking them up. + + This was his whole diplomatic education, except that he found +rich veins of jealousy running between every chief and his staff. +His social education was more barren still, and more trying to +his vanity. His little mistakes in etiquette or address made him +writhe with torture. He never forgot the first two or three +social functions he attended: one an afternoon at Miss Burdett +Coutts's in Stratton Place, where he hid himself in the embrasure +of a window and hoped that no one noticed him; another was a +garden-party given by the old anti-slavery Duchess Dowager of +Sutherland at Chiswick, where the American Minister and Mrs. +Adams were kept in conversation by the old Duchess till every one +else went away except the young Duke and his cousins, who set to +playing leap-frog on the lawn. At intervals during the next +thirty years Henry Adams continued to happen upon the Duke, who, +singularly enough, was always playing leap-frog. Still another +nightmare he suffered at a dance given by the old Duchess Dowager +of Somerset, a terrible vision in castanets, who seized him and +forced him to perform a Highland fling before the assembled +nobility and gentry, with the daughter of the Turkish Ambassador +for partner. This might seem humorous to some, but to him the +world turned to ashes. + + When the end of the season came, the private secretary had not +yet won a private acquaintance, and he hugged himself in his +solitude when the story of the battle of Bull Run appeared in the +Times. He felt only the wish to be more private than ever, for +Bull Run was a worse diplomatic than military disaster. All this +is history and can be read by public schools if they choose; but +the curious and unexpected happened to the Legation, for the +effect of Bull Run on them was almost strengthening. They no +longer felt doubt. For the next year they went on only from week +to week, ready to leave England at once, and never assuming more +than three months for their limit. Europe was waiting to see them +go. So certain was the end that no one cared to hurry it. + + So far as a private secretary could see, this was all that saved +his father. For many months he looked on himself as lost or +finished in the character of private secretary; and as about to +begin, without further experiment, a final education in the ranks +of the Army of the Potomac where he would find most of his +friends enjoying a much pleasanter life than his own. With this +idea uppermost in his mind, he passed the summer and the autumn, +and began the winter. Any winter in London is a severe trial; +one's first winter is the most trying; but the month of December, +1861, in Mansfield Street, Portland Place, would have gorged a +glutton of gloom. + + One afternoon when he was struggling to resist complete nervous +depression in the solitude of Mansfield Street, during the +absence of the Minister and Mrs. Adams on a country visit, +Reuter's telegram announcing the seizure of Mason and Slidell +from a British mail-steamer was brought to the office. All three +secretaries, public and private were there -- nervous as wild +beasts under the long strain on their endurance -- and all three, +though they knew it to be not merely their order of departure -- +not merely diplomatic rupture -- but a declaration of war -- +broke into shouts of delight. They were glad to face the end. +They saw it and cheered it! Since England was waiting only for +its own moment to strike, they were eager to strike first. + + They telegraphed the news to the Minister, who was staying with +Monckton Milnes at Fryston in Yorkshire. How Mr. Adams took it, +is told in the "Lives" of Lord Houghton and William E. Forster +who was one of the Fryston party. The moment was for him the +crisis of his diplomatic career; for the secretaries it was +merely the beginning of another intolerable delay, as though they +were a military outpost waiting orders to quit an abandoned +position. At the moment of sharpest suspense, the Prince Consort +sickened and died. Portland Place at Christmas in a black fog was +never a rosy landscape, but in 1861 the most hardened Londoner +lost his ruddiness. The private secretary had one source of +comfort denied to them -- he should not be private secretary +long. + + He was mistaken -- of course! He had been mistaken at every +point of his education, and, on this point, he kept up the same +mistake for nearly seven years longer, always deluded by the +notion that the end was near. To him the Trent Affair was nothing +but one of many affairs which he had to copy in a delicate round +hand into his books, yet it had one or two results personal to +him which left no trace on the Legation records. One of these, +and to him the most important, was to put an end forever to the +idea of being "useful." Hitherto, as an independent and free +citizen, not in the employ of the Government, he had kept up his +relations with the American press. He had written pretty +frequently to Henry J. Raymond, and Raymond had used his letters +in the New York Times. He had also become fairly intimate with +the two or three friendly newspapers in London, the Daily News, +the Star, the weekly Spectator; and he had tried to give them +news and views that should have a certain common character, and +prevent clash. He had even gone down to Manchester to study the +cotton famine, and wrote a long account of his visit which his +brother Charles had published in the Boston Courier. +Unfortunately it was printed with his name, and instantly came +back upon him in the most crushing shape possible -- that of a +long, satirical leader in the London Times. Luckily the Times did +not know its victim to be a part, though not an official, of the +Legation, and lost the chance to make its satire fatal; but he +instantly learned the narrowness of his escape from old Joe +Parkes, one of the traditional busy-bodies of politics, who had +haunted London since 1830, and who, after rushing to the Times +office, to tell them all they did not know about Henry Adams, +rushed to the Legation to tell Adams all he did not want to know +about the Times. For a moment Adams thought his "usefulness" at +an end in other respects than in the press, but a day or two more +taught him the value of obscurity. He was totally unknown; he had +not even a club; London was empty; no one thought twice about the +Times article; no one except Joe Parkes ever spoke of it; and the +world had other persons -- such as President Lincoln, Secretary +Seward, and Commodore Wilkes -- for constant and favorite objects +of ridicule. Henry Adams escaped, but he never tried to be useful +again. The Trent Affair dwarfed individual effort. His education +at least had reached the point of seeing its own proportions. +"Surtout point de zele!" Zeal was too hazardous a profession for +a Minister's son to pursue, as a volunteer manipulator, among +Trent Affairs and rebel cruisers. He wrote no more letters and +meddled with no more newspapers, but he was still young, and felt +unkindly towards the editor of the London Times. + + Mr. Delane lost few opportunities of embittering him, and he +felt little or no hope of repaying these attentions; but the +Trent Affair passed like a snowstorm, leaving the Legation, to +its surprise, still in place. Although the private secretary saw +in this delay -- which he attributed to Mr. Seward's good sense +-- no reason for changing his opinion about the views of the +British Government, he had no choice but to sit down again at his +table, and go on copying papers, filing letters, and reading +newspaper accounts of the incapacity of Mr. Lincoln and the +brutality of Mr. Seward -- or vice versa. The heavy months +dragged on and winter slowly turned to spring without improving +his position or spirits. Socially he had but one relief; and, to +the end of life, he never forgot the keen gratitude he owed for +it. During this tedious winter and for many months afterwards, +the only gleams of sunshine were on the days he passed at +Walton-on-Thames as the guest of Mr. and Mrs. Russell Sturgis at +Mount Felix. + + His education had unfortunately little to do with bankers, +although old George Peabody and his partner, Junius Morgan, were +strong allies. Joshua Bates was devoted, and no one could be +kinder than Thomas Baring, whose little dinners in Upper +Grosvenor Street were certainly the best in London; but none +offered a refuge to compare with Mount Felix, and, for the first +time, the refuge was a liberal education. Mrs. Russell Sturgis +was one of the women to whom an intelligent boy attaches himself +as closely as he can. Henry Adams was not a very intelligent boy, +and he had no knowledge of the world, but he knew enough to +understand that a cub needed shape. The kind of education he most +required was that of a charming woman, and Mrs. Russell Sturgis, +a dozen years older than himself, could have good-naturedly +trained a school of such, without an effort, and with infinite +advantage to them. Near her he half forgot the anxieties of +Portland Place. During two years of miserable solitude, she was +in this social polar winter, the single source of warmth and +light. + + Of course the Legation itself was home, and, under such +pressure, life in it could be nothing but united. All the inmates +made common cause, but this was no education. One lived, but was +merely flayed alive. Yet, while this might be exactly true of the +younger members of the household, it was not quite so with the +Minister and Mrs. Adams. Very slowly, but quite steadily, they +gained foothold. For some reason partly connected with American +sources, British society had begun with violent social prejudice +against Lincoln, Seward, and all the Republican leaders except +Sumner. Familiar as the whole tribe of Adamses had been for three +generations with the impenetrable stupidity of the British mind, +and weary of the long struggle to teach it its own interests, the +fourth generation could still not quite persuade itself that this +new British prejudice was natural. The private secretary +suspected that Americans in New York and Boston had something to +do with it. The Copperhead was at home in Pall Mall. Naturally +the Englishman was a coarse animal and liked coarseness. Had +Lincoln and Seward been the ruffians supposed, the average +Englishman would have liked them the better. The exceedingly +quiet manner and the unassailable social position of Minister +Adams in no way conciliated them. They chose to ignore him, since +they could not ridicule him. Lord John Russell set the example. +Personally the Minister was to be kindly treated; politically he +was negligible; he was there to be put aside. London and Paris +imitated Lord John. Every one waited to see Lincoln and his +hirelings disappear in one vast debacle. All conceived that the +Washington Government would soon crumble, and that Minister Adams +would vanish with the rest. + + This situation made Minister Adams an exception among +diplomats. European rulers for the most part fought and treated +as members of one family, and rarely had in view the possibility +of total extinction; but the Governments and society of Europe, +for a year at least, regarded the Washington Government as dead, +and its Ministers as nullities. Minister Adams was better +received than most nullities because he made no noise. Little by +little, in private, society took the habit of accepting him, not +so much as a diplomat, but rather as a member of opposition, or +an eminent counsel retained for a foreign Government. He was to +be received and considered; to be cordially treated as, by birth +and manners, one of themselves. This curiously English way of +getting behind a stupidity gave the Minister every possible +advantage over a European diplomat. Barriers of race, language, +birth, habit, ceased to exist. Diplomacy held diplomats apart in +order to save Governments, but Earl Russell could not hold Mr. +Adams apart. He was undistinguishable from a Londoner. In society +few Londoners were so widely at home. None had such double +personality and corresponding double weight. + + The singular luck that took him to Fryston to meet the shock of +the Trent Affair under the sympathetic eyes of Monckton Milnes +and William E. Forster never afterwards deserted him. Both Milnes +and Forster needed support and were greatly relieved to be +supported. They saw what the private secretary in May had +overlooked, the hopeless position they were in if the American +Minister made a mistake, and, since his strength was theirs, they +lost no time in expressing to all the world their estimate of the +Minister's character. Between them the Minister was almost safe. + + One might discuss long whether, at that moment, Milnes or +Forster were the more valuable ally, since they were influences +of different kinds. Monckton Milnes was a social power in London, +possibly greater than Londoners themselves quite understood, for +in London society as elsewhere, the dull and the ignorant made a +large majority, and dull men always laughed at Monckton Milnes. +Every bore was used to talk familiarly about "Dicky Milnes," the +"cool of the evening"; and of course he himself affected social +eccentricity, challenging ridicule with the indifference of one +who knew himself to be the first wit in London, and a maker of +men -- of a great many men. A word from him went far. An +invitation to his breakfast-table went farther. Behind his almost +Falstaffian mask and laugh of Silenus, he carried a fine, broad, +and high intelligence which no one questioned. As a young man he +had written verses, which some readers thought poetry, and which +were certainly not altogether prose. Later, in Parliament he made +speeches, chiefly criticised as too good for the place and too +high for the audience. Socially, he was one of two or three men +who went everywhere, knew everybody, talked of everything, and +had the ear of Ministers; but unlike most wits, he held a social +position of his own that ended in a peerage, and he had a house +in Upper Brook Street to which most clever people were +exceedingly glad of admission. His breakfasts were famous, and no +one liked to decline his invitations, for it was more dangerous +to show timidity than to risk a fray. He was a voracious reader, +a strong critic, an art connoisseur in certain directions, a +collector of books, but above all he was a man of the world by +profession, and loved the contacts -- perhaps the collisions -- +of society. Not even Henry Brougham dared do the things he did, +yet Brougham defied rebuff. Milnes was the good-nature of London; +the Gargantuan type of its refinement and coarseness; the most +universal figure of May Fair. + + Compared with him, figures like Hayward, or Delane, or +Venables, or Henry Reeve were quite secondary, but William E. +Forster stood in a different class. Forster had nothing whatever +to do with May Fair. Except in being a Yorkshireman he was quite +the opposite of Milnes. He had at that time no social or +political position; he never had a vestige of Milnes's wit or +variety; he was a tall, rough, ungainly figure, affecting the +singular form of self-defense which the Yorkshiremen and +Lancashiremen seem to hold dear -- the exterior roughness assumed +to cover an internal, emotional, almost sentimental nature. +Kindly he had to be, if only by his inheritance from a Quaker +ancestry, but he was a Friend one degree removed. Sentimental and +emotional he must have been, or he could never have persuaded a +daughter of Dr. Arnold to marry him. Pure gold, without a trace +of base metal; honest, unselfish, practical; he took up the Union +cause and made himself its champion, as a true Yorkshireman was +sure to do, partly because of his Quaker anti-slavery +convictions, and partly because it gave him a practical opening +in the House. As a new member, he needed a field. + + Diffidence was not one of Forster's weaknesses. His practical +sense and his personal energy soon established him in leadership, +and made him a powerful champion, not so much for ornament as for +work. With such a manager, the friends of the Union in England +began to take heart. Minister Adams had only to look on as his +true champions, the heavy-weights, came into action, and even the +private secretary caught now and then a stray gleam of +encouragement as he saw the ring begin to clear for these burly +Yorkshiremen to stand up in a prize-fight likely to be as brutal +as ever England had known. Milnes and Forster were not exactly +light-weights, but Bright and Cobden were the hardest hitters in +England, and with them for champions the Minister could tackle +even Lord Palmerston without much fear of foul play. + + In society John Bright and Richard Cobden were never seen, and +even in Parliament they had no large following. They were classed +as enemies of order, -- anarchists, -- and anarchists they were +if hatred of the so-called established orders made them so. About +them was no sort of political timidity. They took bluntly the +side of the Union against Palmerston whom they hated. Strangers +to London society, they were at home in the American Legation, +delightful dinner-company, talking always with reckless freedom. +Cobden was the milder and more persuasive; Bright was the more +dangerous to approach; but the private secretary delighted in +both, and nourished an ardent wish to see them talk the same +language to Lord John Russell from the gangway of the House. + + With four such allies as these, Minister Adams stood no longer +quite helpless. For the second time the British Ministry felt a +little ashamed of itself after the Trent Affair, as well it +might, and disposed to wait before moving again. Little by +little, friends gathered about the Legation who were no +fair-weather companions. The old anti-slavery, Exeter Hall, +Shaftesbury clique turned out to be an annoying and troublesome +enemy, but the Duke of Argyll was one of the most valuable +friends the Minister found, both politically and socially, and +the Duchess was as true as her mother. Even the private secretary +shared faintly in the social profit of this relation, and never +forgot dining one night at the Lodge, and finding himself after +dinner engaged in instructing John Stuart Mill about the peculiar +merits of an American protective system. In spite of all the +probabilities, he convinced himself that it was not the Duke's +claret which led him to this singular form of loquacity; he +insisted that it was the fault of Mr. Mill himself who led him on +by assenting to his point of view. Mr. Mill took no apparent +pleasure in dispute, and in that respect the Duke would perhaps +have done better; but the secretary had to admit that though at +other periods of life he was sufficiently and even amply snubbed +by Englishmen, he could never recall a single occasion during +this trying year, when he had to complain of rudeness. + + Friendliness he found here and there, but chiefly among his +elders; not among fashionable or socially powerful people, either +men or women; although not even this rule was quite exact, for +Frederick Cavendish's kindness and intimate relations made +Devonshire House almost familiar, and Lyulph Stanley's ardent +Americanism created a certain cordiality with the Stanleys of +Alderley whose house was one of the most frequented in London. +Lorne, too, the future Argyll, was always a friend. Yet the +regular course of society led to more literary intimacies. Sir +Charles Trevelyan's house was one of the first to which young +Adams was asked, and with which his friendly relations never +ceased for near half a century, and then only when death stopped +them. Sir Charles and Lady Lyell were intimates. Tom Hughes came +into close alliance. By the time society began to reopen its +doors after the death of the Prince Consort, even the private +secretary occasionally saw a face he knew, although he made no +more effort of any kind, but silently waited the end. Whatever +might be the advantages of social relations to his father and +mother, to him the whole business of diplomacy and society was +futile. He meant to go home. + + +CHAPTER IX + +FOES OR FRIENDS (1862) + + OF the year 1862 Henry Adams could never think without a +shudder. The war alone did not greatly distress him; already in +his short life he was used to seeing people wade in blood, and he +could plainly discern in history, that man from the beginning had +found his chief amusement in bloodshed; but the ferocious joy of +destruction at its best requires that one should kill what one +hates, and young Adams neither hated nor wanted to kill his +friends the rebels, while he wanted nothing so much as to wipe +England off the earth. Never could any good come from that +besotted race! He was feebly trying to save his own life. Every +day the British Government deliberately crowded him one step +further into the grave. He could see it; the Legation knew it; no +one doubted it; no one thought of questioning it. The Trent +Affair showed where Palmerston and Russell stood. The escape of +the rebel cruisers from Liverpool was not, in a young man's eyes, +the sign of hesitation, but the proof of their fixed intention to +intervene. Lord Russell's replies to Mr. Adams's notes were +discourteous in their indifference, and, to an irritable young +private secretary of twenty-four, were insolent in their +disregard of truth. Whatever forms of phrase were usual in public +to modify the harshness of invective, in private no political +opponent in England, and few political friends, hesitated to say +brutally of Lord John Russell that he lied. This was no great +reproach, for, more or less, every statesman lied, but the +intensity of the private secretary's rage sprang from his belief +that Russell's form of defence covered intent to kill. Not for an +instant did the Legation draw a free breath. The suspense was +hideous and unendurable. + + The Minister, no doubt, endured it, but he had support and +consideration, while his son had nothing to think about but his +friends who were mostly dying under McClellan in the swamps about +Richmond, or his enemies who were exulting in Pall Mall. He bore +it as well as he could till midsummer, but, when the story of the +second Bull Run appeared, he could bear it no longer, and after a +sleepless night, walking up and down his room without reflecting +that his father was beneath him, he announced at breakfast his +intention to go home into the army. His mother seemed to be less +impressed by the announcement than by the walking over her head, +which was so unlike her as to surprise her son. His father, too, +received the announcement quietly. No doubt they expected it, and +had taken their measures in advance. In those days, parents got +used to all sorts of announcements from their children. Mr. Adams +took his son's defection as quietly as he took Bull Run; but his +son never got the chance to go. He found obstacles constantly +rising in his path. The remonstrances of his brother Charles, who +was himself in the Army of the Potomac, and whose opinion had +always the greatest weight with Henry, had much to do with +delaying action; but he felt, of his own accord, that if he +deserted his post in London, and found the Capuan comforts he +expected in Virginia where he would have only bullets to wound +him, he would never forgive himself for leaving his father and +mother alone to be devoured by the wild beasts of the British +amphitheatre. This reflection might not have stopped him, but his +father's suggestion was decisive. The Minister pointed out that +it was too late for him to take part in the actual campaign, and +that long before next spring they would all go home together. + + + The young man had copied too many affidavits about rebel +cruisers to miss the point of this argument, so he sat down again +to copy some more. Consul Dudley at Liverpool provided a +continuous supply. Properly, the affidavits were no business of +the private secretary, but practically the private secretary did +a second secretary's work, and was glad to do it, if it would +save Mr. Seward the trouble of sending more secretaries of his +own selection to help the Minister. The work was nothing, and no +one ever complained of it; not even Moran, the Secretary of +Legation after the departure of Charley Wilson, though he might +sit up all night to copy. Not the work, but the play exhausted. +The effort of facing a hostile society was bad enough, but that +of facing friends was worse. After terrific disasters like the +seven days before Richmond and the second Bull Run, friends +needed support; a tone of bluff would have been fatal, for the +average mind sees quickest through a bluff; nothing answers but +candor; yet private secretaries never feel candid, however much +they feel the reverse, and therefore they must affect candor; not +always a simple act when one is exasperated, furious, bitter, and +choking with tears over the blunders and incapacity of one's +Government. If one shed tears, they must be shed on one's pillow. +Least of all, must one throw extra strain on the Minister, who +had all he could carry without being fretted in his family. One +must read one's Times every morning over one's muffin without +reading aloud -- "Another disastrous Federal Defeat"; and one +might not even indulge in harmless profanity. Self-restraint +among friends required much more effort than keeping a quiet face +before enemies. Great men were the worst blunderers. One day the +private secretary smiled, when standing with the crowd in the +throne-room while the endless procession made bows to the royal +family, at hearing, behind his shoulder, one Cabinet Minister +remark gaily to another: "So the Federals have got another +licking!" The point of the remark was its truth. Even a private +secretary had learned to control his tones and guard his features +and betray no joy over the "lickings" of an enemy -- in the +enemy's presence. + + London was altogether beside itself on one point, in especial; +it created a nightmare of its own, and gave it the shape of +Abraham Lincoln. Behind this it placed another demon, if possible +more devilish, and called it Mr. Seward. In regard to these two +men, English society seemed demented. Defence was useless; +explanation was vain; one could only let the passion exhaust +itself. One's best friends were as unreasonable as enemies, for +the belief in poor Mr. Lincoln's brutality and Seward's ferocity +became a dogma of popular faith. The last time Henry Adams saw +Thackeray, before his sudden death at Christmas in 1863, was in +entering the house of Sir Henry Holland for an evening reception. +Thackeray was pulling on his coat downstairs, laughing because, +in his usual blind way, he had stumbled into the wrong house and +not found it out till he shook hands with old Sir Henry, whom he +knew very well, but who was not the host he expected. Then his +tone changed as he spoke of his -- and Adams's -- friend, Mrs. +Frank Hampton, of South Carolina, whom he had loved as Sally +Baxter and painted as Ethel Newcome. Though he had never quite +forgiven her marriage, his warmth of feeling revived when he +heard that she had died of consumption at Columbia while her +parents and sister were refused permission to pass through the +lines to see her. In speaking of it, Thackeray's voice trembled +and his eyes filled with tears. The coarse cruelty of Lincoln and +his hirelings was notorious. He never doubted that the Federals +made a business of harrowing the tenderest feelings of women -- +particularly of women -- in order to punish their opponents. On +quite insufficient evidence he burst into violent reproach. Had +Adams carried in his pocket the proofs that the reproach was +unjust, he would have gained nothing by showing them. At that +moment Thackeray, and all London society with him, needed the +nervous relief of expressing emotion; for if Mr. Lincoln was not +what they said he -- was what were they? + + For like reason, the members of the Legation kept silence, even +in private, under the boorish Scotch jibes of Carlyle. If Carlyle +was wrong, his diatribes would give his true measure, and this +measure would be a low one, for Carlyle was not likely to be more +sincere or more sound in one thought than in another. The proof +that a philosopher does not know what he is talking about is apt +to sadden his followers before it reacts on himself. Demolition +of one's idols is painful, and Carlyle had been an idol. Doubts +cast on his stature spread far into general darkness like shadows +of a setting sun. Not merely the idols fell, but also the habit +of faith. If Carlyle, too, was a fraud, what were his scholars +and school? + + Society as a rule was civil, and one had no more reason to +complain than every other diplomatist has had, in like +conditions, but one's few friends in society were mere ornament. +The Legation could not dream of contesting social control. The +best they could do was to escape mortification, and by this time +their relations were good enough to save the Minister's family +from that annoyance. Now and then, the fact could not be wholly +disguised that some one had refused to meet -- or to receive -- +the Minister; but never an open insult, or any expression of +which the Minister had to take notice. Diplomacy served as a +buffer in times of irritation, and no diplomat who knew his +business fretted at what every diplomat -- and none more commonly +than the English -- had to expect; therefore Henry Adams, though +not a diplomat and wholly unprotected, went his way peacefully +enough, seeing clearly that society cared little to make his +acquaintance, but seeing also no reason why society should +discover charms in him of which he was himself unconscious. He +went where he was asked; he was always courteously received; he +was, on the whole, better treated than at Washington; and he held +his tongue. + + For a thousand reasons, the best diplomatic house in London was +Lord Palmerston's, while Lord John Russell's was one of the +worst. Of neither host could a private secretary expect to know +anything. He might as well have expected to know the Grand Lama. +Personally Lord Palmerston was the last man in London that a +cautious private secretary wanted to know. Other Prime Ministers +may perhaps have lived who inspired among diplomatists as much +distrust as Palmerston, and yet between Palmerston's word and +Russell's word, one hesitated to decide, and gave years of +education to deciding, whether either could be trusted, or how +far. The Queen herself in her famous memorandum of August 12, +1850, gave her opinion of Palmerston in words that differed +little from words used by Lord John Russell, and both the Queen +and Russell said in substance only what Cobden and Bright said in +private. Every diplomatist agreed with them, yet the diplomatic +standard of trust seemed to be other than the parliamentarian No +professional diplomatists worried about falsehoods. Words were +with them forms of expression which varied with individuals, but +falsehood was more or less necessary to all. The worst liars were +the candid. What diplomatists wanted to know was the motive that +lay beyond the expression. In the case of Palmerston they were +unanimous in warning new colleagues that they might expect to be +sacrificed by him to any momentary personal object. Every new +Minister or Ambassador at the Court of St. James received this +preliminary lesson that he must, if possible, keep out of +Palmerston's reach. The rule was not secret or merely diplomatic. +The Queen herself had emphatically expressed the same opinion +officially. If Palmerston had an object to gain, he would go down +to the House of Commons and betray or misrepresent a foreign +Minister, without concern for his victim. No one got back on him +with a blow equally mischievous -- not even the Queen -- for, as +old Baron Brunnow described him: "C'est une peau de rhinocere!" +Having gained his point, he laughed, and his public laughed with +him, for the usual British -- or American -- public likes to be +amused, and thought it very amusing to see these beribboned and +bestarred foreigners caught and tossed and gored on the horns of +this jovial, slashing, devil-may-care British bull. + + Diplomatists have no right to complain of mere lies; it is +their own fault, if, educated as they are, the lies deceive them; +but they complain bitterly of traps. Palmerston was believed to +lay traps. He was the enfant terrible of the British Government. +On the other hand, Lady Palmerston was believed to be good and +loyal. All the diplomats and their wives seemed to think so, and +took their troubles to her, believing that she would try to help +them. For this reason among others, her evenings at home -- +Saturday Reviews, they were called -- had great vogue. An +ignorant young American could not be expected to explain it. +Cambridge House was no better for entertaining than a score of +others. Lady Palmerston was no longer young or handsome, and +could hardly at any age have been vivacious. The people one met +there were never smart and seldom young; they were largely +diplomatic, and diplomats are commonly dull; they were largely +political, and politicians rarely decorate or beautify an evening +party; they were sprinkled with literary people, who are +notoriously unfashionable; the women were of course ill-dressed +and middle-aged; the men looked mostly bored or out of place; +yet, beyond a doubt, Cambridge House was the best, and perhaps +the only political house in London, and its success was due to +Lady Palmerston, who never seemed to make an effort beyond a +friendly recognition. As a lesson in social education, Cambridge +House gave much subject for thought. First or last, one was to +know dozens of statesmen more powerful and more agreeable than +Lord Palmerston; dozens of ladies more beautiful and more +painstaking than Lady Palmerston; but no political house so +successful as Cambridge House. The world never explains such +riddles. The foreigners said only that Lady Palmerston was " +sympathique." + + The small fry of the Legations were admitted there, or +tolerated, without a further effort to recognize their existence, +but they were pleased because rarely tolerated anywhere else, and +there they could at least stand in a corner and look at a bishop +or even a duke. This was the social diversion of young Adams. No +one knew him -- not even the lackeys. The last Saturday evening +he ever attended, he gave his name as usual at the foot of the +staircase, and was rather disturbed to hear it shouted up as "Mr. +Handrew Hadams!" He tried to correct it, and the footman shouted +more loudly: "Mr. Hanthony Hadams!" With some temper he repeated +the correction, and was finally announced as "Mr. Halexander +Hadams," and under this name made his bow for the last time to +Lord Palmerston who certainly knew no better. + + Far down the staircase one heard Lord Palmerston's laugh as he +stood at the door receiving his guests, talking probably to one +of his henchmen, Delane, Borthwick, or Hayward, who were sure to +be near. The laugh was singular, mechanical, wooden, and did not +seem to disturb his features. "Ha! . . . Ha! . . . Ha!" Each was +a slow, deliberate ejaculation, and all were in the same tone, as +though he meant to say: "Yes! . . . Yes! . . . Yes!" by way of +assurance. It was a laugh of 1810 and the Congress of Vienna. +Adams would have much liked to stop a moment and ask whether +William Pitt and the Duke of Wellington had laughed so; but young +men attached to foreign Ministers asked no questions at all of +Palmerston and their chiefs asked as few as possible. One made +the usual bow and received the usual glance of civility; then +passed on to Lady Palmerston, who was always kind in manner, but +who wasted no remarks; and so to Lady Jocelyn with her daughter, +who commonly had something friendly to say; then went through the +diplomatic corps, Brunnow, Musurus, Azeglio, Apponyi, Van de +Weyer, Bille, Tricoupi, and the rest, finally dropping into the +hands of some literary accident as strange there as one's self. +The routine varied little. There was no attempt at entertainment. +Except for the desperate isolation of these two first seasons, +even secretaries would have found the effort almost as mechanical +as a levee at St. James's Palace. + + Lord Palmerston was not Foreign Secretary; he was Prime +Minister, but he loved foreign affairs and could no more resist +scoring a point in diplomacy than in whist. Ministers of foreign +powers, knowing his habits, tried to hold him at arms'-length, +and, to do this, were obliged to court the actual Foreign +Secretary, Lord John Russell, who, on July 30, 1861, was called +up to the House of Lords as an earl. By some process of personal +affiliation, Minister Adams succeeded in persuading himself that +he could trust Lord Russell more safely than Lord Palmerston. His +son, being young and ill-balanced in temper, thought there was +nothing to choose. Englishmen saw little difference between them, +and Americans were bound to follow English experience in English +character. Minister Adams had much to learn, although with him as +well as with his son, the months of education began to count as +aeons. + + Just as Brunnow predicted, Lord Palmerston made his rush at +last, as unexpected as always, and more furiously than though +still a private secretary of twenty-four. Only a man who had been +young with the battle of Trafalgar could be fresh and jaunty to +that point, but Minister Adams was not in a position to +sympathize with octogenarian youth and found himself in a danger +as critical as that of his numerous predecessors. It was late one +after noon in June, 1862, as the private secretary returned, with +the Minister, from some social function, that he saw his father +pick up a note from his desk and read it in silence. Then he said +curtly: "Palmerston wants a quarrel!" This was the point of the +incident as he felt it. Palmerston wanted a quarrel; he must not +be gratified; he must be stopped. The matter of quarrel was +General Butler's famous woman-order at New Orleans, but the +motive was the belief in President Lincoln's brutality that had +taken such deep root in the British mind. Knowing Palmerston's +habits, the Minister took for granted that he meant to score a +diplomatic point by producing this note in the House of Commons. +If he did this at once, the Minister was lost; the quarrel was +made; and one new victim to Palmerston's passion for popularity +was sacrificed. + + The moment was nervous -- as far as the private secretary knew, +quite the most critical moment in the records of American +diplomacy -- but the story belongs to history, not to education, +and can be read there by any one who cares to read it. As a part +of Henry Adams's education it had a value distinct from history. +That his father succeeded in muzzling Palmerston without a public +scandal, was well enough for the Minister, but was not enough for +a private secretary who liked going to Cambridge House, and was +puzzled to reconcile contradictions. That Palmerston had wanted a +quarrel was obvious; why, then, did he submit so tamely to being +made the victim of the quarrel? The correspondence that followed +his note was conducted feebly on his side, and he allowed the +United States Minister to close it by a refusal to receive +further communications from him except through Lord Russell. The +step was excessively strong, for it broke off private relations +as well as public, and cost even the private secretary his +invitations to Cambridge House. Lady Palmerston tried her best, +but the two ladies found no resource except tears. They had to do +with American Minister perplexed in the extreme. Not that Mr. +Adams lost his temper, for he never felt such a weight of +responsibility, and was never more cool; but he could conceive no +other way of protecting his Government, not to speak of himself, +than to force Lord Russell to interpose. He believed that +Palmerston's submission and silence were due to Russell. Perhaps +he was right; at the time, his son had no doubt of it, though +afterwards he felt less sure. Palmerston wanted a quarrel; the +motive seemed evident; yet when the quarrel was made, he backed +out of it; for some reason it seemed that he did not want it -- +at least, not then. He never showed resentment against Mr. Adams +at the time or afterwards. He never began another quarrel. +Incredible as it seemed, he behaved like a well-bred gentleman +who felt himself in the wrong. Possibly this change may have been +due to Lord Russell's remonstrances, but the private secretary +would have felt his education in politics more complete had he +ever finally made up his mind whether Palmerston was more angry +with General Butler, or more annoyed at himself, for committing +what was in both cases an unpardonable betise. + + At the time, the question was hardly raised, for no one doubted +Palmerston's attitude or his plans. The season was near its end, +and Cambridge House was soon closed. The Legation had troubles +enough without caring to publish more. The tide of English +feeling ran so violently against it that one could only wait to +see whether General McClellan would bring it relief. The year +1862 was a dark spot in Henry Adams's life, and the education it +gave was mostly one that he gladly forgot. As far as he was +aware, he made no friends; he could hardly make enemies; yet +towards the close of the year he was flattered by an invitation +from Monckton Milnes to Fryston, and it was one of many acts of +charity towards the young that gave Milnes immortality. Milnes +made it his business to be kind. Other people criticised him for +his manner of doing it, but never imitated him. Naturally, a +dispirited, disheartened private secretary was exceedingly +grateful, and never forgot the kindness, but it was chiefly as +education that this first country visit had value. Commonly, +country visits are much alike, but Monckton Milnes was never like +anybody, and his country parties served his purpose of mixing +strange elements. Fryston was one of a class of houses that no +one sought for its natural beauties, and the winter mists of +Yorkshire were rather more evident for the absence of the hostess +on account of them, so that the singular guests whom Milnes +collected to enliven his December had nothing to do but astonish +each other, if anything could astonish such men. Of the five, +Adams alone was tame; he alone added nothing to the wit or humor, +except as a listener; but they needed a listener and he was +useful. Of the remaining four, Milnes was the oldest, and perhaps +the sanest in spite of his superficial eccentricities, for +Yorkshire sanity was true to a standard of its own, if not to +other conventions; yet even Milnes startled a young American +whose Boston and Washington mind was still fresh. He would not +have been startled by the hard-drinking, horse-racing +Yorkshireman of whom he had read in books; but Milnes required a +knowledge of society and literature that only himself possessed, +if one were to try to keep pace with him. He had sought contact +with everybody and everything that Europe could offer. He knew it +all from several points of view, and chiefly as humorous. + + The second of the party was also of a certain age; a quiet, +well-mannered, singularly agreeable gentleman of the literary +class. When Milnes showed Adams to his room to dress for dinner, +he stayed a moment to say a word about this guest, whom he called +Stirling of Keir. His sketch closed with the hint that Stirling +was violent only on one point -- hatred of Napoleon III. On that +point, Adams was himself sensitive, which led him to wonder how +bad the Scotch gentleman might be. The third was a man of thirty +or thereabouts, whom Adams had already met at Lady Palmerston's +carrying his arm in a sling. His figure and bearing were +sympathetic -- almost pathetic -- with a certain grave and gentle +charm, a pleasant smile, and an interesting story. He was +Lawrence Oliphant, just from Japan, where he had been wounded in +the fanatics' attack on the British Legation. He seemed +exceptionally sane and peculiarly suited for country houses, +where every man would enjoy his company, and every woman would +adore him. He had not then published "Piccadilly"; perhaps he was +writing it; while, like all the young men about the Foreign +Office, he contributed to The Owl. + + The fourth was a boy, or had the look of one, though in fact a +year older than Adams himself. He resembled in action -- and in +this trait, was remotely followed, a generation later, by another +famous young man, Robert Louis Stevenson -- a tropical bird, +high-crested, long-beaked, quick-moving, with rapid utterance and +screams of humor, quite unlike any English lark or nightingale. +One could hardly call him a crimson macaw among owls, and yet no +ordinary contrast availed. Milnes introduced him as Mr. Algernon +Swinburne. The name suggested nothing. Milnes was always +unearthing new coins and trying to give them currency. He had +unearthed Henry Adams who knew himself to be worthless and not +current. When Milnes lingered a moment in Adams's room to add +that Swinburne had written some poetry, not yet published, of +really extraordinary merit, Adams only wondered what more Milnes +would discover, and whether by chance he could discover merit in +a private secretary. He was capable of it. + + In due course this party of five men sat down to dinner with +the usual club manners of ladyless dinner-tables, easy and formal +at the same time. Conversation ran first to Oliphant who told his +dramatic story simply, and from him the talk drifted off into +other channels, until Milnes thought it time to bring Swinburne +out. Then, at last, if never before, Adams acquired education. +What he had sought so long, he found; but he was none the wiser; +only the more astonished. For once, too, he felt at ease, for the +others were no less astonished than himself, and their +astonishment grew apace. For the rest of the evening Swinburne +figured alone; the end of dinner made the monologue only freer, +for in 1862, even when ladies were not in the house, smoking was +forbidden, and guests usually smoked in the stables or the +kitchen; but Monckton Milnes was a licensed libertine who let his +guests smoke in Adams's bedroom, since Adams was an +American-German barbarian ignorant of manners; and there after +dinner all sat -- or lay -- till far into the night, listening to +the rush of Swinburne's talk. In a long experience, before or +after, no one ever approached it; yet one had heard accounts of +the best talking of the time, and read accounts of talkers in all +time, among the rest, of Voltaire, who seemed to approach nearest +the pattern. + + That Swinburne was altogether new to the three types of +men-of-the-world before him; that he seemed to them quite +original, wildly eccentric, astonishingly gifted, and +convulsingly droll, Adams could see; but what more he was, even +Milnes hardly dared say. They could not believe his incredible +memory and knowledge of literature, classic, mediaeval, and +modern; his faculty of reciting a play of Sophocles or a play of +Shakespeare, forward or backward, from end to beginning; or +Dante, or Villon, or Victor Hugo. They knew not what to make of +his rhetorical recitation of his own unpublished ballads -- +"Faustine"; the "Four Boards of the Coffin Lid"; the "Ballad of +Burdens" -- which he declaimed as though they were books of the +Iliad. It was singular that his most appreciative listener should +have been the author only of pretty verses like "We wandered by +the brook-side," and "She seemed to those that saw them meet"; +and who never cared to write in any other tone; but Milnes took +everything into his sympathies, including Americans like young +Adams whose standards were stiffest of all, while Swinburne, +though millions of ages far from them, united them by his humor +even more than by his poetry. The story of his first day as a +member of Professor Stubbs's household was professionally clever +farce, if not high comedy, in a young man who could write a Greek +ode or a Proven‡al chanson as easily as an English quatrain. + + Late at night when the symposium broke up, Stirling of Keir +wanted to take with him to his chamber a copy of "Queen +Rosamund," the only volume Swinburne had then published, which +was on the library table, and Adams offered to light him down +with his solitary bedroom candle. All the way, Stirling was +ejaculating explosions of wonder, until at length, at the foot of +the stairs and at the climax of his imagination, he paused, and +burst out: "He's a cross between the devil and the Duke of +Argyll!" + + To appreciate the full merit of this description, a judicious +critic should have known both, and Henry Adams knew only one -- +at least in person -- but he understood that to a Scotchman the +likeness meant something quite portentous, beyond English +experience, supernatural, and what the French call moyenageux, or +mediaeval with a grotesque turn. That Stirling as well as Milnes +should regard Swinburne as a prodigy greatly comforted Adams, who +lost his balance of mind at first in trying to imagine that +Swinburne was a natural product of Oxford, as muffins and +pork-pies of London, at once the cause and effect of dyspepsia. +The idea that one has actually met a real genius dawns slowly on +a Boston mind, but it made entry at last. + + Then came the sad reaction, not from Swinburne whose genius +never was in doubt, but from the Boston mind which, in its +uttermost flights, was never moyenageux. One felt the horror of +Longfellow and Emerson, the doubts of Lowell and the humor of +Holmes, at the wild Walpurgis-night of Swinburne's talk. What +could a shy young private secretary do about it? Perhaps, in his +good nature, Milnes thought that Swinburne might find a friend in +Stirling or Oliphant, but he could hardly have fancied Henry +Adams rousing in him even an interest. Adams could no more +interest Algernon Swinburne than he could interest Encke's comet. +To Swinburne he could be no more than a worm. The quality of +genius was an education almost ultimate, for one touched there +the limits of the human mind on that side; but one could only +receive; one had nothing to give -- nothing even to offer. + + Swinburne tested him then and there by one of his favorite +tests -- Victor Hugo for to him the test of Victor Hugo was the +surest and quickest of standards. French poetry is at best a +severe exercise for foreigners; it requires extraordinary +knowledge of the language and rare refinement of ear to +appreciate even the recitation of French verse; but unless a poet +has both, he lacks something of poetry. Adams had neither. To the +end of his life he never listened to a French recitation with +pleasure, or felt a sense of majesty in French verse; but he did +not care to proclaim his weakness, and he tried to evade +Swinburne's vehement insistence by parading an affection for +Alfred de Musset. Swinburne would have none of it; de Musset was +unequal; he did not sustain himself on the wing. + + Adams would have given a world or two, if he owned one, to +sustain himself on the wing like de Musset, or even like Hugo; +but his education as well as his ear was at fault, and he +succumbed. Swinburne tried him again on Walter Savage Landor. In +truth the test was the same, for Swinburne admired in Landor's +English the qualities that he felt in Hugo's French; and Adams's +failure was equally gross, for, when forced to despair, he had to +admit that both Hugo and Landor bored him. Nothing more was +needed. One who could feel neither Hugo nor Landor was lost. + + The sentence was just and Adams never appealed from it. He knew +his inferiority in taste as he might know it in smell. Keenly +mortified by the dullness of his senses and instincts, he knew he +was no companion for Swinburne; probably he could be only an +annoyance; no number of centuries could ever educate him to +Swinburne's level, even in technical appreciation; yet he often +wondered whether there was nothing he had to offer that was worth +the poet's acceptance. Certainly such mild homage as the American +insect would have been only too happy to bring, had he known how, +was hardly worth the acceptance of any one. Only in France is the +attitude of prayer possible; in England it became absurd. Even +Monckton Milnes, who felt the splendors of Hugo and Landor, was +almost as helpless as an American private secretary in personal +contact with them. Ten years afterwards Adams met him at the +Geneva Conference, fresh from Paris, bubbling with delight at a +call he had made on Hugo: "I was shown into a large room," he +said, "with women and men seated in chairs against the walls, and +Hugo at one end throned. No one spoke. At last Hugo raised his +voice solemnly, and uttered the words: 'Quant a moi, je crois en +Dieu!' Silence followed. Then a woman responded as if in deep +meditation: 'Chose sublime! un Dieu qui croft en Dieu!"' + + With the best of will, one could not do this in London; the +actors had not the instinct of the drama; and yet even a private +secretary was not wholly wanting in instinct. As soon as he +reached town he hurried to Pickering's for a copy of "Queen +Rosamund," and at that time, if Swinburne was not joking, +Pickering had sold seven copies. When the "Poems and Ballads" +came out, and met their great success and scandal, he sought one +of the first copies from Moxon. If he had sinned and doubted at +all, he wholly repented and did penance before "Atalanta in +Calydon," and would have offered Swinburne a solemn worship as +Milnes's female offered Hugo, if it would have pleased the poet. +Unfortunately it was worthless. + + The three young men returned to London, and each went his own +way. Adams's interest in making friends was something desperate, +but "the London season," Milnes used to say, "is a season for +making acquaintances and losing friends"; there was no intimate +life. Of Swinburne he saw no more till Monckton Milnes summoned +his whole array of Frystonians to support him in presiding at the +dinner of the Authors' Fund, when Adams found himself seated next +to Swinburne, famous then, but no nearer. They never met again. +Oliphant he met oftener; all the world knew and loved him; but he +too disappeared in the way that all the world knows. Stirling of +Keir, after one or two efforts, passed also from Adams's vision +into Sir William Stirling-Maxwell. The only record of his +wonderful visit to Fryston may perhaps exist still in the +registers of the St. James's Club, for immediately afterwards +Milnes proposed Henry Adams for membership, and unless his memory +erred, the nomination was seconded by Tricoupi and endorsed by +Laurence Oliphant and Evelyn Ashley. The list was a little +singular for variety, but on the whole it suggested that the +private secretary was getting on. + + +CHAPTER X + +POLITICAL MORALITY (1862) + + ON Moran's promotion to be Secretary, Mr. Seward inquired +whether Minister Adams would like the place of Assistant +Secretary for his son. It was the first -- and last -- office +ever offered him, if indeed he could claim what was offered in +fact to his father. To them both, the change seemed useless. Any +young man could make some sort of Assistant Secretary; only one, +just at that moment, could make an Assistant Son. More than half +his duties were domestic; they sometimes required long absences; +they always required independence of the Government service. His +position was abnormal. The British Government by courtesy allowed +the son to go to Court as Attache, though he was never attached, +and after five or six years' toleration, the decision was +declared irregular. In the Legation, as private secretary, he was +liable to do Secretary's work. In society, when official, he was +attached to the Minister; when unofficial, he was a young man +without any position at all. As the years went on, he began to +find advantages in having no position at all except that of young +man. Gradually he aspired to become a gentleman; just a member of +society like the rest. The position was irregular; at that time +many positions were irregular; yet it lent itself to a sort of +irregular education that seemed to be the only sort of education +the young man was ever to get. + + Such as it was, few young men had more. The spring and summer +of 1863 saw a great change in Secretary Seward's management of +foreign affairs. Under the stimulus of danger, he too got +education. He felt, at last, that his official representatives +abroad needed support. Officially he could give them nothing but +despatches, which were of no great value to any one; and at best +the mere weight of an office had little to do with the public. +Governments were made to deal with Governments, not with private +individuals or with the opinions of foreign society. In order to +affect European opinion, the weight of American opinion had to be +brought to bear personally, and had to be backed by the weight of +American interests. Mr. Seward set vigorously to work and sent +over every important American on whom he could lay his hands. All +came to the Legation more or less intimately, and Henry Adams had +a chance to see them all, bankers or bishops, who did their work +quietly and well, though, to the outsider, the work seemed wasted +and the "influential classes" more indurated with prejudice than +ever. The waste was only apparent; the work all told in the end, +and meanwhile it helped education. + + Two or three of these gentlemen were sent over to aid the +Minister and to cooperate with him. The most interesting of these +was Thurlow Weed, who came to do what the private secretary +himself had attempted two years before, with boyish ignorance of +his own powers. Mr. Weed took charge of the press, and began, to +the amused astonishment of the secretaries, by making what the +Legation had learned to accept as the invariable mistake of every +amateur diplomat; he wrote letters to the London Times. Mistake +or not, Mr. Weed soon got into his hands the threads of +management, and did quietly and smoothly all that was to be done. +With his work the private secretary had no connection; it was he +that interested. Thurlow Weed was a complete American education +in himself. His mind was naturally strong and beautifully +balanced; his temper never seemed ruffled; his manners were +carefully perfect in the style of benevolent simplicity, the +tradition of Benjamin Franklin. He was the model of political +management and patient address; but the trait that excited +enthusiasm in a private secretary was his faculty of irresistibly +conquering confidence. Of all flowers in the garden of education, +confidence was becoming the rarest; but before Mr. Weed went +away, young Adams followed him about not only obediently -- for +obedience had long since become a blind instinct -- but rather +with sympathy and affection, much like a little dog. + + The sympathy was not due only to Mr. Weed's skill of +management, although Adams never met another such master, or any +one who approached him; nor was the confidence due to any display +of professions, either moral or social, by Mr. Weed. The trait +that astounded and confounded cynicism was his apparent +unselfishness. Never, in any man who wielded such power, did +Adams meet anything like it. The effect of power and publicity on +all men is the aggravation of self, a sort of tumor that ends by +killing the victim's sympathies; a diseased appetite, like a +passion for drink or perverted tastes; one can scarcely use +expressions too strong to describe the violence of egotism it +stimulates; and Thurlow Weed was one of the exceptions; a rare +immune. He thought apparently not of himself, but of the person +he was talking with. He held himself naturally in the background. +He was not jealous. He grasped power, but not office. He +distributed offices by handfuls without caring to take them. He +had the instinct of empire: he gave, but he did not receive. This +rare superiority to the politicians he controlled, a trait that +private secretaries never met in the politicians themselves, +excited Adams's wonder and curiosity, but when he tried to get +behind it, and to educate himself from the stores of Mr. Weed's +experience, he found the study still more fascinating. Management +was an instinct with Mr. Weed; an object to be pursued for its +own sake, as one plays cards; but he appeared to play with men as +though they were only cards; he seemed incapable of feeling +himself one of them. He took them and played them for their +face-value; but once, when he had told, with his usual humor, +some stories of his political experience which were strong even +for the Albany lobby, the private secretary made bold to ask him +outright: "Then, Mr. Weed, do you think that no politician can be +trusted? " Mr. Weed hesitated for a moment; then said in his mild +manner: "I never advise a young man to begin by thinking so." + + This lesson, at the time, translated itself to Adams in a moral +sense, as though Mr. Weed had said: "Youth needs illusions !" As +he grew older he rather thought that Mr. Weed looked on it as a +question of how the game should be played. Young men most needed +experience. They could not play well if they trusted to a general +rule. Every card had a relative value. Principles had better be +left aside; values were enough. Adams knew that he could never +learn to play politics in so masterly a fashion as this: his +education and his nervous system equally forbade it, although he +admired all the more the impersonal faculty of the political +master who could thus efface himself and his temper in the game. +He noticed that most of the greatest politicians in history had +seemed to regard men as counters. The lesson was the more +interesting because another famous New Yorker came over at the +same time who liked to discuss the same problem. Secretary Seward +sent William M. Evarts to London as law counsel, and Henry began +an acquaintance with Mr. Evarts that soon became intimate. Evarts +was as individual as Weed was impersonal; like most men, he cared +little for the game, or how it was played, and much for the +stakes, but he played it in a large and liberal way, like Daniel +Webster, "a great advocate employed in politics." Evarts was also +an economist of morals, but with him the question was rather how +much morality one could afford. "The world can absorb only doses +of truth," he said; "too much would kill it." One sought +education in order to adjust the dose. + + The teachings of Weed and Evarts were practical, and the +private secretary's life turned on their value. England's power +of absorbing truth was small. Englishmen, such as Palmerston, +Russell, Bethell, and the society represented by the Times and +Morning Post, as well as the Tories represented by Disraeli, Lord +Robert Cecil, and the Standard, offered a study in education that +sickened a young student with anxiety. He had begun -- contrary +to Mr. Weed's advice -- by taking their bad faith for granted. +Was he wrong? To settle this point became the main object of the +diplomatic education so laboriously pursued, at a cost already +stupendous, and promising to become ruinous. Life changed front, +according as one thought one's self dealing with honest men or +with rogues. + + Thus far, the private secretary felt officially sure of +dishonesty. The reasons that satisfied him had not altogether +satisfied his father, and of course his father's doubts gravely +shook his own convictions, but, in practice, if only for safety, +the Legation put little or no confidence in Ministers, and there +the private secretary's diplomatic education began. The +recognition of belligerency, the management of the Declaration of +Paris, the Trent Affair, all strengthened the belief that Lord +Russell had started in May, 1861, with the assumption that the +Confederacy was established; every step he had taken proved his +persistence in the same idea; he never would consent to put +obstacles in the way of recognition; and he was waiting only for +the proper moment to interpose. All these points seemed so fixed +-- so self-evident -- that no one in the Legation would have +doubted or even discussed them except that Lord Russell +obstinately denied the whole charge, and persisted in assuring + + Minister Adams of his honest and impartial neutrality. +With the insolence of youth and zeal, Henry Adams jumped at once +to the conclusion that Earl Russell -- like other statesmen -- +lied; and, although the Minister thought differently, he had to +act as though Russell were false. Month by month the +demonstration followed its mathematical stages; one of the most +perfect educational courses in politics and diplomacy that a +young man ever had a chance to pursue. The most costly tutors in +the world were provided for him at public expense -- Lord +Palmerston, Lord Russell, Lord Westbury, Lord Selborne, Mr. +Gladstone, Lord Granville, and their associates, paid by the +British Government; William H. Seward, Charles Francis Adams, +William Maxwell Evarts, Thurlow Weed, and other considerable +professors employed by the American Government; but there was +only one student to profit by this immense staff of teachers. The +private secretary alone sought education. + + To the end of his life he labored over the lessons then taught. +Never was demonstration more tangled. Hegel's metaphysical +doctrine of the identity of opposites was simpler and easier to +understand. Yet the stages of demonstration were clear. They +began in June, 1862, after the escape of one rebel cruiser, by +the remonstrances of the Minister against the escape of "No. +290," which was imminent. Lord Russell declined to act on the +evidence. New evidence was sent in every few days, and with it, +on July 24, was included Collier's legal opinion: "It appears +difficult to make out a stronger case of infringement of the +Foreign Enlistment Act, which, if not enforced on this occasion, +is little better than a dead letter." Such language implied +almost a charge of collusion with the rebel agents -- an intent +to aid the Confederacy. In spite of the warning, Earl Russell let +the ship, four days afterwards, escape. + + Young Adams had nothing to do with law; that was business of +his betters. His opinion of law hung on his opinion of lawyers. +In spite of Thurlow Weed's advice, could one afford to trust +human nature in politics ? History said not. Sir Robert Collier +seemed to hold that Law agreed with History. For education the +point was vital. If one could not trust a dozen of the most +respected private characters in the world, composing the Queen's +Ministry, one could trust no mortal man. + + Lord Russell felt the force of this inference, and undertook to +disprove it. His effort lasted till his death. At first he +excused himself by throwing the blame on the law officers. This +was a politician's practice, and the lawyers overruled it. Then +he pleaded guilty to criminal negligence, and said in his +"Recollections":-- "I assent entirely to the opinion of the Lord +Chief Justice of England that the Alabama ought to have been +detained during the four days I was waiting for the opinion of +the law officers. But I think that the fault was not that of the +commissioners of customs, it was my fault as Secretary of State +for Foreign Affairs." This concession brought all parties on +common ground. Of course it was his fault! The true issue lay not +in the question of his fault, but of his intent. To a young man, +getting an education in politics, there could be no sense in +history unless a constant course of faults implied a constant +motive. + + For his father the question was not so abstruse; it was a +practical matter of business to be handled as Weed or Evarts +handled their bargains and jobs. Minister Adams held the +convenient belief that, in the main, Russell was true, and the +theory answered his purposes so well that he died still holding +it. His son was seeking education, and wanted to know whether he +could, in politics, risk trusting any one. Unfortunately no one +could then decide; no one knew the facts. Minister Adams died +without knowing them. Henry Adams was an older man than his +father in 1862, before he learned a part of them. The most +curious fact, even then, was that Russell believed in his own +good faith and that Argyll believed in it also. + + Argyll betrayed a taste for throwing the blame on Bethell, Lord +Westbury, then Lord Chancellor, but this escape helped Adams not +at all. On the contrary, it complicated the case of Russell. In +England, one half of society enjoyed throwing stones at Lord +Palmerston, while the other half delighted in flinging mud at +Earl Russell, but every one of every party united in pelting +Westbury with every missile at hand. The private secretary had no +doubts about him, for he never professed to be moral. He was the +head and heart of the whole rebel contention, and his opinions on +neutrality were as clear as they were on morality. The private +secretary had nothing to do with him, and regretted it, for Lord +Westbury's wit and wisdom were great; but as far as his authority +went he affirmed the law that in politics no man should be +trusted. + + Russell alone insisted on his honesty of intention and +persuaded both the Duke and the Minister to believe him. Every +one in the Legation accepted his assurances as the only +assertions they could venture to trust. They knew he expected the +rebels to win in the end, but they believed he would not actively +interpose to decide it. On that -- on nothing else -- they rested +their frail hopes of remaining a day longer in England. Minister +Adams remained six years longer in England; then returned to +America to lead a busy life till he died in 1886 still holding +the same faith in Earl Russell, who had died in 1878. In 1889, +Spencer Walpole published the official life of Earl Russell, and +told a part of the story which had never been known to the +Minister and which astounded his son, who burned with curiosity +to know what his father would have said of it. + + The story was this: The Alabama escaped, by Russell's confessed +negligence, on July 28, 1862. In America the Union armies had +suffered great disasters before Richmond and at the second Bull +Run, August 29-30, followed by Lee's invasion of Maryland, +September 7, the news of which, arriving in England on September +14, roused the natural idea that the crisis was at hand. The next +news was expected by the Confederates to announce the fall of +Washington or Baltimore. Palmerston instantly, September 14, +wrote to Russell: "If this should happen, would it not be time +for us to consider whether in such a state of things England and +France might not address the contending parties and recommend an +arrangement on the basis of separation?" + + This letter, quite in the line of Palmerston's supposed +opinions, would have surprised no one, if it had been +communicated to the Legation; and indeed, if Lee had captured +Washington, no one could have blamed Palmerston for offering +intervention. Not Palmerston's letter but Russell's reply, +merited the painful attention of a young man seeking a moral +standard for judging politicians: -- + +GOTHA, September, 17, 1862 + + MY DEAR PALMERSTON:-- + + Whether the Federal army is destroyed or not, it is clear + that it is driven back to Washington and has made no progress + in subduing the insurgent States. Such being the case, I agree + with you that the time is come for offering mediation to the + United States Government with a view to the recognition of the + independence of the Confederates. I agree further that in case + of failure, we ought ourselves to recognize the Southern States + as an independent State. For the purpose of taking so important + a step, I think we must have a meeting of the Cabinet. The 23d + or 30th would suit me for the meeting. + + We ought then, if we agree on such a step, to propose it + first to France, and then on the part of England and France, to + Russia and other powers, as a measure decided upon by us. + + We ought to make ourselves safe in Canada, not by sending + more troops there, but by concentrating those we have in a few + defensible posts before the winter sets in. . . . + + Here, then, appeared in its fullest force, the practical +difficulty in education which a mere student could never +overcome; a difficulty not in theory, or knowledge, or even want +of experience, but in the sheer chaos of human nature. Lord +Russell's course had been consistent from the first, and had all +the look of rigid determination to recognize the Southern +Confederacy "with a view" to breaking up the Union. His letter of +September 17 hung directly on his encouragement of the Alabama +and his protection of the rebel navy; while the whole of his plan +had its root in the Proclamation of Belligerency, May 13, 1861. +The policy had every look of persistent forethought, but it took +for granted the deliberate dishonesty of three famous men: +Palmerston, Russell, and Gladstone. This dishonesty, as concerned +Russell, was denied by Russell himself, and disbelieved by +Argyll, Forster, and most of America's friends in England, as +well as by Minister Adams. What the Minister would have thought +had he seen this letter of September 17, his son would have +greatly liked to know, but he would have liked still more to know +what the Minister would have thought of Palmerston's answer, +dated September 23: -- + + . . . It is evident that a great conflict is taking place to + the northwest of Washington, and its issue must have a great + effect on the state of affairs. If the Federals sustain a great + defeat, they may be at once ready for mediation, and the iron + should be struck while it is hot. If, on the other hand, they + should have the best of it, we may wait a while and see what + may follow. . . + + The roles were reversed. Russell wrote what was expected from +Palmerston, or even more violently; while Palmerston wrote what +was expected from Russell, or even more temperately. The private +secretary's view had been altogether wrong, which would not have +much surprised even him, but he would have been greatly +astonished to learn that the most confidential associates of +these men knew little more about their intentions than was known +in the Legation. The most trusted member of the Cabinet was Lord +Granville, and to him Russell next wrote. Granville replied at +once decidedly opposing recognition of the Confederacy, and +Russell sent the reply to Palmerston, who returned it October 2, +with the mere suggestion of waiting for further news from +America. At the same time Granville wrote to another member of +the Cabinet, Lord Stanley of Alderley, a letter published forty +years afterwards in Granville's "Life" (I, 442) to the private +secretary altogether the most curious and instructive relic of +the whole lesson in politics: + + . . . I have written to Johnny my reasons for thinking it + decidedly premature. I, however, suspect you will settle to do + so. Pam., Johnny, and Gladstone would be in favor of it, and + probably Newcastle. I do not know about the others. It appears + to me a great mistake. . . . + + Out of a Cabinet of a dozen members, Granville, the best +informed of them all, could pick only three who would favor +recognition. Even a private secretary thought he knew as much as +this, or more. Ignorance was not confined to the young and +insignificant, nor were they the only victims of blindness. +Granville's letter made only one point clear. He knew of no fixed +policy or conspiracy. If any existed, it was confined to +Palmerston, Russell, Gladstone, and perhaps Newcastle. In truth, +the Legation knew, then, all that was to be known, and the true +fault of education was to suspect too much. + + By that time, October 3, news of Antietam and of Lee's retreat +into Virginia had reached London. The Emancipation Proclamation +arrived. Had the private secretary known all that Granville or +Palmerston knew, he would surely have thought the danger past, at +least for a time, and any man of common sense would have told him +to stop worrying over phantoms. This healthy lesson would have +been worth much for practical education, but it was quite upset +by the sudden rush of a new actor upon the stage with a rhapsody +that made Russell seem sane, and all education superfluous. + + This new actor, as every one knows, was William Ewart +Gladstone, then Chancellor of the Exchequer. If, in the domain of +the world's politics, one point was fixed, one value ascertained, +one element serious, it was the British Exchequer; and if one man +lived who could be certainly counted as sane by overwhelming +interest, it was the man who had in charge the finances of +England. If education had the smallest value, it should have +shown its force in Gladstone, who was educated beyond all record +of English training. From him, if from no one else, the poor +student could safely learn. + + Here is what he learned! Palmerston notified Gladstone, +September 24, of the proposed intervention: "If I am not +mistaken, you would be inclined to approve such a course." +Gladstone replied the next day: "He was glad to learn what the +Prime Minister had told him; and for two reasons especially he +desired that the proceedings should be prompt: the first was the +rapid progress of the Southern arms and the extension of the area +of Southern feeling; the second was the risk of violent +impatience in the cotton-towns of Lancashire such as would +prejudice the dignity and disinterestedness of the proffered +mediation." + + Had the puzzled student seen this letter, he must have +concluded from it that the best educated statesman England ever +produced did not know what he was talking about, an assumption +which all the world would think quite inadmissible from a private +secretary -- but this was a trifle. Gladstone having thus +arranged, with Palmerston and Russell, for intervention in the +American war, reflected on the subject for a fortnight from +September 25 to October 7, when he was to speak on the occasion +of a great dinner at Newcastle. He decided to announce the +Government's policy with all the force his personal and official +authority could give it. This decision was no sudden impulse; it +was the result of deep reflection pursued to the last moment. On +the morning of October 7, he entered in his diary: "Reflected +further on what I should say about Lancashire and America, for +both these subjects are critical." That evening at dinner, as the +mature fruit of his long study, he deliberately pronounced the +famous phrase:-- + + . . . We know quite well that the people of the Northern States + have not yet drunk of the cup -- they are still trying to hold + it far from their lips -- which all the rest of the world see + they nevertheless must drink of. We may have our own opinions + about slavery; we may be for or against the South; but there is + no doubt that Jefferson Davis and other leaders of the South + have made an army; they are making, it appears, a navy; and + they have made, what is more than either, they have made a + nation. . . . + + Looking back, forty years afterwards, on this episode, one +asked one's self painfully whet sort of a lesson a young man +should have drawn, for the purposes of his education, from this +world-famous teaching of a very great master. In the heat of +passion at the moment, one drew some harsh moral conclusions: +Were they incorrect? Posed bluntly as rules of conduct, they led +to the worst possible practices. As morals, one could detect no +shade of difference between Gladstone and Napoleon except to the +advantage of Napoleon. The private secretary saw none; he +accepted the teacher in that sense; he took his lesson of +political morality as learned, his notice to quit as duly served, +and supposed his education to be finished. + + Every one thought so, and the whole City was in a turmoil. Any +intelligent education ought to end when it is complete. One would +then feel fewer hesitations and would handle a surer world. The +old-fashioned logical drama required unity and sense; the actual +drama is a pointless puzzle, without even an intrigue. When the +curtain fell on Gladstone's speech, any student had the right to +suppose the drama ended; none could have affirmed that it was +about to begin; that one's painful lesson was thrown away. + + Even after forty years, most people would refuse to believe it; +they would still insist that Gladstone, Russell, and Palmerston +were true villains of melodrama. The evidence against Gladstone +in special seemed overwhelming. The word "must" can never be used +by a responsible Minister of one Government towards another, as +Gladstone used it. No one knew so well as he that he and his own +officials and friends at Liverpool were alone "making" a rebel +navy, and that Jefferson Davis had next to nothing to do with it. +As Chancellor of the Exchequer he was the Minister most +interested in knowing that Palmerston, Russell, and himself were +banded together by mutual pledge to make the Confederacy a nation +the next week, and that the Southern leaders had as yet no hope +of "making a nation" but in them. Such thoughts occurred to every +one at the moment and time only added to their force. Never in +the history of political turpitude had any brigand of modern +civilization offered a worse example. The proof of it was that it +outraged even Palmerston, who immediately put up Sir George +Cornewall Lewis to repudiate the Chancellor of the Exchequer, +against whom he turned his press at the same time. Palmerston had +no notion of letting his hand be forced by Gladstone. + + Russell did nothing of the kind; if he agreed with Palmerston, +he followed Gladstone. Although he had just created a new evangel +of non-intervention for Italy, and preached it like an apostle, +he preached the gospel of intervention in America as though he +were a mouthpiece of the Congress of Vienna. On October 13, he +issued his call for the Cabinet to meet, on October 23, for +discussion of the "duty of Europe to ask both parties, in the +most friendly and conciliatory terms, to agree to a suspension of +arms." Meanwhile Minister Adams, deeply perturbed and profoundly +anxious, would betray no sign of alarm, and purposely delayed to +ask explanation. The howl of anger against Gladstone became +louder every day, for every one knew that the Cabinet was called +for October 23, and then could not fail to decide its policy +about the United States. Lord Lyons put off his departure for +America till October 25 expressly to share in the conclusions to +be discussed on October 23. When Minister Adams at last requested +an interview, Russell named October 23 as the day. To the last +moment every act of Russell showed that, in his mind, the +intervention was still in doubt. + + When Minister Adams, at the interview, suggested that an +explanation was due him, he watched Russell with natural +interest, and reported thus: + + . . . His lordship took my allusion at once, though not + without a slight indication of embarrassment. He said that Mr. + Gladstone had been evidently much misunderstood. I must have + seen in the newspapers the letters which contained his later + explanations. That he had certain opinions in regard to the + nature of the struggle in America, as on all public questions, + just as other Englishmen had, was natural enough. And it was + the fashion here for public men to express such as they held in + their public addresses. Of course it was not for him to disavow + anything on the part of Mr. Gladstone; but he had no idea that + in saying what he had, there was a serious intention to justify + any of the inferences that had been drawn from it of a + disposition in the Government now to adopt a new policy. . . . + + A student trying to learn the processes of politics in a free +government could not but ponder long on the moral to be drawn +from this "explanation" of Mr. Gladstone by Earl Russell. The +point set for study as the first condition of political life, was +whether any politician could be believed or trusted. The question +which a private secretary asked himself, in copying this despatch +of October 24, 1862, was whether his father believed, or should +believe, one word of Lord Russell's "embarrassment." The "truth" +was not known for thirty years, but when published, seemed to be +the reverse of Earl Russell's statement. Mr. Gladstone's speech +had been drawn out by Russell's own policy of intervention and +had no sense except to declare the "disposition in the Government +now to adopt" that new policy. Earl Russell never disavowed +Gladstone, although Lord Palmerston and Sir George Cornewall +Lewis instantly did so. As far as the curious student could +penetrate the mystery, Gladstone exactly expressed Earl Russell's +intent. + + As political education, this lesson was to be crucial; it would +decide the law of life. All these gentlemen were superlatively +honorable; if one could not believe them, Truth in politics might +be ignored as a delusion. Therefore the student felt compelled to +reach some sort of idea that should serve to bring the case +within a general law. Minister Adams felt the same compulsion. He +bluntly told Russell that while he was "willing to acquit" +Gladstone of "any deliberate intention to bring on the worst +effects," he was bound to say that Gladstone was doing it quite +as certainly as if he had one; and to this charge, which struck +more sharply at Russell's secret policy than at Gladstone's +public defence of it, Russell replied as well as he could: -- + + . . . His lordship intimated as guardedly as possible that Lord + Palmerston and other members of the Government regretted the + speech, and`Mr. Gladstone himself was not disinclined to + correct, as far as he could, the misinterpretation which had + been made of it. It was still their intention to adhere to the + rule of perfect neutrality in the struggle, and to let it come + to its natural end without the smallest interference, direct or + otherwise. But he could not say what circumstances might happen + from month to month in the future. I observed that the policy + he mentioned was satisfactory to us, and asked if I was to + understand him as saying that no change of it was now proposed. + To which he gave his assent. . . . + +Minister Adams never knew more. He retained his belief that +Russell could be trusted, but that Palmerston could not. This was +the diplomatic tradition, especially held by the Russian +diplomats. Possibly it was sound, but it helped in no way the +education of a private secretary. The cat's-paw theory offered no +safer clue, than the frank, old-fashioned, honest theory of +villainy. Neither the one nor the other was reasonable. + + No one ever told the Minister that Earl Russell, only a few +hours before, had asked the Cabinet to intervene, and that the +Cabinet had refused. The Minister was led to believe that the +Cabinet meeting was not held, and that its decision was informal. +Russell's biographer said that, "with this memorandum [of +Russell's, dated October 13] the Cabinet assembled from all parts +of the country on October 23; but . . . members of the Cabinet +doubted the policy of moving, or moving at that time." The Duke +of Newcastle and Sir George Grey joined Granville in opposition. +As far as known, Russell and Gladstone stood alone. +"Considerations such as these prevented the matter being pursued +any further." + + Still no one has distinctly said that this decision was formal; +perhaps the unanimity of opposition made the formal Cabinet +unnecessary; but it is certain that, within an hour or two before +or after this decision, "his lordship said [to the United States +Minister] that the policy of the Government was to adhere to a +strict neutrality and to leave this struggle to settle itself." +When Mr. Adams, not satisfied even with this positive assurance, +pressed for a categorical answer: "I asked him if I was to +understand that policy as not now to be changed; he said: Yes!" + + John Morley's comment on this matter, in the "Life of +Gladstone," forty years afterwards, would have interested the +Minister, as well as his private secretary: "If this relation be +accurate," said Morley of a relation officially published at the +time, and never questioned, "then the Foreign Secretary did not +construe strict neutrality as excluding what diplomatists call +good offices." For a vital lesson in politics, Earl Russell's +construction of neutrality mattered little to the student, who +asked only Russell's intent, and cared only to know whether his +construction had any other object than to deceive the Minister. + + In the grave one can afford to be lavish of charity, and +possibly Earl Russell may have been honestly glad to reassure his +personal friend Mr. Adams; but to one who is still in the world +even if not of it, doubts are as plenty as days. Earl Russell +totally deceived the private secretary, whatever he may have done +to the Minister. The policy of abstention was not settled on +October 23. Only the next day, October 24, Gladstone circulated a +rejoinder to G. C. Lewis, insisting on the duty of England, +France, and Russia to intervene by representing, "with moral +authority and force, the opinion of the civilized world upon the +conditions of the case." Nothing had been decided. By some means, +scarcely accidental, the French Emperor was led to think that his +influence might turn the scale, and only ten days after Russell's +categorical "Yes!" Napoleon officially invited him to say "No!" +He was more than ready to do so. Another Cabinet meeting was +called for November 11, and this time Gladstone himself reports +the debate: + + Nov. 11. We have had our Cabinet to-day and meet again + tomorrow. I am afraid we shall do little or nothing in the + business of America. But I will send you definite intelligence. + Both Lords Palmerston and Russell are right. + + Nov. 12. The United States affair has ended and not well. Lord + Russell rather turned tail. He gave way without resolutely + fighting out his battle. However, though we decline for the + moment, the answer is put upon grounds and in terms which leave + the matter very open for the future. + + Nov. 13. I think the French will make our answer about America + public; at least it is very possible. But I hope they may not + take it as a positive refusal, or at any rate that they may + themselves act in the matter. It will be clear that we concur + with them, that the war should cease. Palmerston gave to + Russell's proposal a feeble and half-hearted support. + + Forty years afterwards, when every one except himself, who +looked on at this scene, was dead, the private secretary of 1862 +read these lines with stupor, and hurried to discuss them with +John Hay, who was more astounded than himself. All the world had +been at cross-purposes, had misunderstood themselves and the +situation, had followed wrong paths, drawn wrong conclusions, had +known none of the facts. One would have done better to draw no +conclusions at all. One's diplomatic education was a long +mistake. + + These were the terms of this singular problem as they presented +themselves to the student of diplomacy in 1862: Palmerston, on +September 14, under the impression that the President was about +to be driven from Washington and the Army of the Potomac +dispersed, suggested to Russell that in such a case, intervention +might be feasible. Russell instantly answered that, in any case, +he wanted to intervene and should call a Cabinet for the purpose. +Palmerston hesitated; Russell insisted; Granville protested. +Meanwhile the rebel army was defeated at Antietam, September 17, +and driven out of Maryland. Then Gladstone, October 7, tried to +force Palmerston's hand by treating the intervention as a fait +accompli. Russell assented, but Palmerston put up Sir George +Cornewall Lewis to contradict Gladstone and treated him sharply +in the press, at the very moment when Russell was calling a +Cabinet to make Gladstone's words good. On October 23, Russell +assured Adams that no change in policy was now proposed. On the +same day he had proposed it, and was voted down. Instantly +Napoleon III appeared as the ally of Russell and Gladstone with a +proposition which had no sense except as a bribe to Palmerston to +replace America, from pole to pole, in her old dependence on +Europe, and to replace England in her old sovereignty of the +seas, if Palmerston would support France in Mexico. The young +student of diplomacy, knowing Palmerston, must have taken for +granted that Palmerston inspired this motion and would support +it; knowing Russell and his Whig antecedents, he would conceive +that Russell must oppose it; knowing Gladstone and his lofty +principles, he would not doubt that Gladstone violently denounced +the scheme. If education was worth a straw, this was the only +arrangement of persons that a trained student would imagine +possible, and it was the arrangement actually assumed by nine men +out of ten, as history. In truth, each valuation was false. +Palmerston never showed favor to the scheme and gave it only "a +feeble and half-hearted support." Russell gave way without +resolutely fighting out "his battle." The only resolute, +vehement, conscientious champion of Russell, Napoleon, and +Jefferson Davis was Gladstone. + + Other people could afford to laugh at a young man's blunders, +but to him the best part of life was thrown away if he learned +such a lesson wrong. Henry James had not yet taught the world to +read a volume for the pleasure of seeing the lights of his +burning-glass turned on alternate sides of the same figure. +Psychological study was still simple, and at worst -- or at best +-- English character was never subtile. Surely no one would +believe that complexity was the trait that confused the student +of Palmerston, Russell, and Gladstone. Under a very strong light +human nature will always appear complex and full of +contradictions, but the British statesman would appear, on the +whole, among the least complex of men. + + Complex these gentlemen were not. Disraeli alone might, by +contrast, be called complex, but Palmerston, Russell, and +Gladstone deceived only by their simplicity. Russell was the most +interesting to a young man because his conduct seemed most +statesmanlike. Every act of Russell, from April, 1861, to +November, 1862, showed the clearest determination to break up the +Union. The only point in Russell's character about which the +student thought no doubt to be possible was its want of good +faith. It was thoroughly dishonest, but strong. Habitually +Russell said one thing and did another. He seemed unconscious of +his own contradictions even when his opponents pointed them out, +as they were much in the habit of doing, in the strongest +language. As the student watched him deal with the Civil War in +America, Russell alone showed persistence, even obstinacy, in a +definite determination, which he supported, as was necessary, by +the usual definite falsehoods. The young man did not complain of +the falsehoods; on the contrary, he was vain of his own insight +in detecting them; but he was wholly upset by the idea that +Russell should think himself true. + + Young Adams thought Earl Russell a statesman of the old school, +clear about his objects and unscrupulous in his methods -- +dishonest but strong. Russell ardently asserted that he had no +objects, and that though he might be weak he was above all else +honest. Minister Adams leaned to Russell personally and thought +him true, but officially, in practice, treated him as false. +Punch, before 1862, commonly drew Russell as a schoolboy telling +lies, and afterwards as prematurely senile, at seventy. Education +stopped there. No one, either in or out of England, ever offered +a rational explanation of Earl Russell. + + Palmerston was simple -- so simple as to mislead the student +altogether -- but scarcely more consistent. The world thought him +positive, decided, reckless; the record proved him to be +cautious, careful, vacillating. Minister Adams took him for +pugnacious and quarrelsome; the "Lives" of Russell, Gladstone, +and Granville show him to have been good-tempered, conciliatory, +avoiding quarrels. He surprised the Minister by refusing to +pursue his attack on General Butler. He tried to check Russell. +He scolded Gladstone. He discouraged Napoleon. Except Disraeli +none of the English statesmen were so cautious as he in talking +of America. Palmerston told no falsehoods; made no professions; +concealed no opinions; was detected in no double-dealing. The +most mortifying failure in Henry Adams's long education was that, +after forty years of confirmed dislike, distrust, and detraction +of Lord Palmerston, he was obliged at last to admit himself in +error, and to consent in spirit -- for by that time he was nearly +as dead as any of them -- to beg his pardon. + + Gladstone was quite another story, but with him a student's +difficulties were less because they were shared by all the world +including Gladstone himself. He was the sum of contradictions. +The highest education could reach, in this analysis, only a +reduction to the absurd, but no absurdity that a young man could +reach in 1862 would have approached the level that Mr. Gladstone +admitted, avowed, proclaimed, in his confessions of 1896, which +brought all reason and all hope of education to a still-stand: -- + + I have yet to record an undoubted error, the most singular and + palpable, I may add the least excusable of them all, especially + since it was committed so late as in the year 1862 when I had + outlived half a century . . . I declared in the heat of the + American struggle that Jefferson Davis had made a nation. . . . + Strange to say, this declaration, most unwarrantable to be made + by a Minister of the Crown with no authority other than his + own, was not due to any feeling of partisanship for the South + or hostility to the North. . . . I really, though most + strangely, believed that it was an act of friendliness to all + America to recognize that the struggle was virtually at an end. + . . . That my opinion was founded upon a false estimate of the + facts was the very least part of my fault. I did not perceive + the gross impropriety of such an utterance from a Cabinet + Minister of a power allied in blood and language, and bound to + loyal neutrality; the case being further exaggerated by the + fact that we were already, so to speak, under indictment before + the world for not (as was alleged) having strictly enforced the + laws of neutrality in the matter of the cruisers. My offence + was indeed only a mistake, but one of incredible grossness, and + with such consequences of offence and alarm attached to it, + that my failing to perceive them justly exposed me to very + severe blame. It illustrates vividly that incapacity which my + mind so long retained, and perhaps still exhibits, an + incapacity of viewing subjects all round. . . . + + Long and patiently -- more than patiently -- sympathetically, +did the private secretary, forty years afterwards in the twilight +of a life of study, read and re-read and reflect upon this +confession. Then, it seemed, he had seen nothing correctly at the +time. His whole theory of conspiracy -- of policy -- of logic and +connection in the affairs of man, resolved itself into +"incredible grossness." He felt no rancor, for he had won the +game; he forgave, since he must admit, the "incapacity of viewing +subjects all round" which had so nearly cost him life and +fortune; he was willing even to believe. He noted, without +irritation, that Mr. Gladstone, in his confession, had not +alluded to the understanding between Russell, Palmerston, and +himself; had even wholly left out his most "incredible" act, his +ardent support of Napoleon's policy, a policy which even +Palmerston and Russell had supported feebly, with only half a +heart. All this was indifferent. Granting, in spite of evidence, +that Gladstone had no set plan of breaking up the Union; that he +was party to no conspiracy; that he saw none of the results of +his acts which were clear to every one else; granting in short +what the English themselves seemed at last to conclude -- that +Gladstone was not quite sane; that Russell was verging on +senility; and that Palmerston had lost his nerve -- what sort of +education should have been the result of it? How should it have +affected one's future opinions and acts? + + Politics cannot stop to study psychology. Its methods are +rough; its judgments rougher still. All this knowledge would not +have affected either the Minister or his son in 1862. The sum of +the individuals would still have seemed, to the young man, one +individual -- a single will or intention -- bent on breaking up +the Union "as a diminution of a dangerous power." The Minister +would still have found his interest in thinking Russell friendly +and Palmerston hostile. The individual would still have been +identical with the mass. The problem would have been the same; +the answer equally obscure. Every student would, like the private +secretary, answer for himself alone. + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE BATTLE OF THE RAMS (1863) + + MINISTER ADAMS troubled himself little about what he did not +see of an enemy. His son, a nervous animal, made life a terror by +seeing too much. Minister Adams played his hand as it came, and +seldom credited his opponents with greater intelligence than his +own. Earl Russell suited him; perhaps a certain personal sympathy +united them; and indeed Henry Adams never saw Russell without +being amused by his droll likeness to John Quincy Adams. Apart +from this shadowy personal relation, no doubt the Minister was +diplomatically right; he had nothing to lose and everything to +gain by making a friend of the Foreign Secretary, and whether +Russell were true or false mattered less, because, in either +case, the American Legation could act only as though he were +false. Had the Minister known Russell's determined effort to +betray and ruin him in October, 1862, he could have scarcely used +stronger expressions than he did in 1863. Russell must have been +greatly annoyed by Sir Robert Collier's hint of collusion with +the rebel agents in the Alabama Case, but he hardened himself to +hear the same innuendo repeated in nearly every note from the +Legation. As time went on, Russell was compelled, though slowly, +to treat the American Minister as serious. He admitted nothing so +unwillingly, for the nullity or fatuity of the Washington +Government was his idee fixe; but after the failure of his last +effort for joint intervention on November 12, 1862, only one week +elapsed before he received a note from Minister Adams repeating +his charges about the Alabama, and asking in very plain language +for redress. Perhaps Russell's mind was naturally slow to +understand the force of sudden attack, or perhaps age had +affected it; this was one of the points that greatly interested a +student, but young men have a passion for regarding their elders +as senile, which was only in part warranted in this instance by +observing that Russell's generation were mostly senile from +youth. They had never got beyond 1815 Both Palmerston and Russell +were in this case. Their senility was congenital, like +Gladstone's Oxford training and High Church illusions, which +caused wild eccentricities in his judgment. Russell could not +conceive that he had misunderstood and mismanaged Minister Adams +from the start, and when after November 12 he found himself on +the defensive, with Mr Adams taking daily a stronger tone, he +showed mere confusion and helplessness. + + Thus, whatever the theory, the action of diplomacy had to be +the same. Minister Adams was obliged to imply collusion between +Russell and the rebels. He could not even stop at criminal +negligence. If, by an access of courtesy, the Minister were civil +enough to admit that the escape of the Alabama had been due to +criminal negligence, he could make no such concession in regard +to the ironclad rams which the Lairds were building; for no one +could be so simple as to believe that two armored ships-of-war +could be built publicly, under the eyes of the Government, and go +to sea like the Alabama, without active and incessant collusion. +The longer Earl Russell kept on his mask of assumed ignorance, +the more violently in the end, the Minister would have to tear it +off. Whatever Mr. Adams might personally think of Earl Russell, +he must take the greatest possible diplomatic liberties with him +if this crisis were allowed to arrive. + + As the spring of 1863 drew on, the vast field cleared itself +for action. A campaign more beautiful -- better suited for +training the mind of a youth eager for training -- has not often +unrolled itself for study, from the beginning, before a young man +perched in so commanding a position. Very slowly, indeed, after +two years of solitude, one began to feel the first faint flush of +new and imperial life. One was twenty-five years old, and quite +ready to assert it; some of one's friends were wearing stars on +their collars; some had won stars of a more enduring kind. At +moments one's breath came quick. One began to dream the sensation +of wielding unmeasured power. The sense came, like vertigo, for +an instant, and passed, leaving the brain a little dazed, +doubtful, shy. With an intensity more painful than that of any +Shakespearean drama, men's eyes were fastened on the armies in +the field. Little by little, at first only as a shadowy chance of +what might be, if things could be rightly done, one began to feel +that, somewhere behind the chaos in Washington power was taking +shape; that it was massed and guided as it had not been before. +Men seemed to have learned their business -- at a cost that +ruined -- and perhaps too late. A private secretary knew better +than most people how much of the new power was to be swung in +London, and almost exactly when; but the diplomatic campaign had +to wait for the military campaign to lead. The student could only +study. + + Life never could know more than a single such climax. In that +form, education reached its limits. As the first great blows +began to fall, one curled up in bed in the silence of night, to +listen with incredulous hope. As the huge masses struck, one +after another, with the precision of machinery, the opposing +mass, the world shivered. Such development of power was unknown. +The magnificent resistance and the return shocks heightened the +suspense. During the July days Londoners were stupid with +unbelief. They were learning from the Yankees how to fight. + + An American saw in a flash what all this meant to England, for +one's mind was working with the acceleration of the machine at +home; but Englishmen were not quick to see their blunders. One +had ample time to watch the process, and had even a little time +to gloat over the repayment of old scores. News of Vicksburg and +Gettysburg reached London one Sunday afternoon, and it happened +that Henry Adams was asked for that evening to some small +reception at the house of Monckton Milnes. He went early in order +to exchange a word or two of congratulation before the rooms +should fill, and on arriving he found only the ladies in the +drawing-room; the gentlemen were still sitting over their wine. +Presently they came in, and, as luck would have it, Delane of the +Times came first. When Milnes caught sight of his young American +friend, with a whoop of triumph he rushed to throw both arms +about his neck and kiss him on both cheeks. Men of later birth +who knew too little to realize the passions of 1863 -- backed by +those of 1813 -- and reenforced by those of 1763 -- might +conceive that such publicity embarrassed a private secretary who +came from Boston and called himself shy; but that evening, for +the first time in his life, he happened not to be thinking of +himself. He was thinking of Delane, whose eye caught his, at the +moment of Milnes's embrace. Delane probably regarded it as a +piece of Milnes's foolery; he had never heard of young Adams, and +never dreamed of his resentment at being ridiculed in the Times; +he had no suspicion of the thought floating in the mind of the +American Minister's son, for the British mind is the slowest of +all minds, as the files of the Times proved, and the capture of +Vicksburg had not yet penetrated Delane's thick cortex of fixed +ideas. Even if he had read Adams's thought, he would have felt +for it only the usual amused British contempt for all that he had +not been taught at school. It needed a whole generation for the +Times to reach Milnes's standpoint. + + Had the Minister's son carried out the thought, he would surely +have sought an introduction to Delane on the spot, and assured +him that he regarded his own personal score as cleared off -- +sufficiently settled, then and there -- because his father had +assumed the debt, and was going to deal with Mr. Delane himself. +"You come next!" would have been the friendly warning. For nearly +a year the private secretary had watched the board arranging +itself for the collision between the Legation and Delane who +stood behind the Palmerston Ministry. Mr. Adams had been steadily +strengthened and reenforced from Washington in view of the final +struggle. The situation had changed since the Trent Affair. The +work was efficiently done; the organization was fairly complete. +No doubt, the Legation itself was still as weakly manned and had +as poor an outfit as the Legations of Guatemala or Portugal. +Congress was always jealous of its diplomatic service, and the +Chairman of the Committee of Foreign Relations was not likely to +press assistance on the Minister to England. For the Legation not +an additional clerk was offered or asked. The Secretary, the +Assistant Secretary, and the private secretary did all the work +that the Minister did not do. A clerk at five dollars a week +would have done the work as well or better, but the Minister +could trust no clerk; without express authority he could admit no +one into the Legation; he strained a point already by admitting +his son. Congress and its committees were the proper judges of +what was best for the public service, and if the arrangement +seemed good to them, it was satisfactory to a private secretary +who profited by it more than they did. A great staff would have +suppressed him. The whole Legation was a sort of improvised, +volunteer service, and he was a volunteer with the rest. He was +rather better off than the rest, because he was invisible and +unknown. Better or worse, he did his work with the others, and if +the secretaries made any remarks about Congress, they made no +complaints, and knew that none would have received a moment's +attention. + + If they were not satisfied with Congress, they were satisfied +with Secretary Seward. Without appropriations for the regular +service, he had done great things for its support. If the +Minister had no secretaries, he had a staff of active consuls; he +had a well-organized press; efficient legal support; and a swarm +of social allies permeating all classes. All he needed was a +victory in the field, and Secretary Stanton undertook that part +of diplomacy. Vicksburg and Gettysburg cleared the board, and, at +the end of July, 1863, Minister Adams was ready to deal with Earl +Russell or Lord Palmerston or Mr. Gladstone or Mr. Delane, or any +one else who stood in his way; and by the necessity of the case, +was obliged to deal with all of them shortly. + + Even before the military climax at Vicksburg and Gettysburg, +the Minister had been compelled to begin his attack; but this was +history, and had nothing to do with education. The private +secretary copied the notes into his private books, and that was +all the share he had in the matter, except to talk in private. + + No more volunteer services were needed; the volunteers were in +a manner sent to the rear; the movement was too serious for +skirmishing. All that a secretary could hope to gain from the +affair was experience and knowledge of politics. He had a chance +to measure the motive forces of men; their qualities of +character; their foresight; their tenacity of purpose. + + In the Legation no great confidence was felt in stopping the +rams. Whatever the reason, Russell seemed immovable. Had his +efforts for intervention in September, 1862, been known to the +Legation in September, 1863 the Minister must surely have +admitted that Russell had, from the first, meant to force his +plan of intervention on his colleagues. Every separate step since +April, 1861, led to this final coercion. Although Russell's +hostile activity of 1862 was still secret -- and remained secret +for some five-and-twenty years -- his animus seemed to be made +clear by his steady refusal to stop the rebel armaments. Little +by little, Minister Adams lost hope. With loss of hope came the +raising of tone, until at last, after stripping Russell of every +rag of defence and excuse, he closed by leaving him loaded with +connivance in the rebel armaments, and ended by the famous +sentence: "It would be superfluous in me to point out to your +lordship that this is war!" + +What the Minister meant by this remark was his own affair; what +the private secretary understood by it, was a part of his +education. Had his father ordered him to draft an explanatory +paragraph to expand the idea as he grasped it, he would have +continued thus:-- + + "It would be superfluous: 1st. Because Earl Russell not only +knows it already, but has meant it from the start. 2nd Because it +is the only logical and necessary consequence of his unvarying +action. 3d. Because Mr. Adams is not pointing out to him that +'this is war,' but is pointing it out to the world, to complete +the record." + + This would have been the matter-of-fact sense in which the +private secretary copied into his books the matter-of-fact +statement with which, without passion or excitement, the Minister +announced that a state of war existed. To his copying eye, as +clerk, the words, though on the extreme verge of diplomatic +propriety, merely stated a fact, without novelty, fancy, or +rhetoric. The fact had to be stated in order to make clear the +issue. The war was Russell's war--Adams only accepted it. + + Russell's reply to this note of September 5 reached the +Legation on September 8, announcing at last to the anxious +secretaries that "instructions have been issued which will +prevent the departure of the two ironclad vessels from +Liverpool." The members of the modest Legation in Portland Place +accepted it as Grant had accepted the capitulation of Vicksburg. +The private secretary conceived that, as Secretary Stanton had +struck and crushed by superior weight the rebel left on the +Mississippi, so Secretary Seward had struck and crushed the rebel +right in England, and he never felt a doubt as to the nature of +the battle. Though Minister Adams should stay in office till he +were ninety, he would never fight another campaign of life and +death like this; and though the private secretary should covet +and attain every office in the gift of President or people, he +would never again find education to compare with the +life-and-death alternative of this two-year-and-a-half struggle +in London, as it had racked and thumb-screwed him in its shifting +phases; but its practical value as education turned on his +correctness of judgment in measuring the men and their forces. He +felt respect for Russell as for Palmerston because they +represented traditional England and an English policy, +respectable enough in itself, but which, for four generations, +every Adams had fought and exploited as the chief source of his +political fortunes. As he understood it, Russell had followed +this policy steadily, ably, even vigorously, and had brought it +to the moment of execution. Then he had met wills stronger than +his own, and, after persevering to the last possible instant, had +been beaten. Lord North and George Canning had a like experience. +This was only the idea of a boy, but, as far as he ever knew, it +was also the idea of his Government. For once, the volunteer +secretary was satisfied with his Government. Commonly the +self-respect of a secretary, private or public, depends on, and +is proportional to, the severity of his criticism, but in this +case the English campaign seemed to him as creditable to the +State Department as the Vicksburg campaign to the War Department, +and more decisive. It was well planned, well prepared, and well +executed. He could never discover a mistake in it. Possibly he +was biassed by personal interest, but his chief reason for +trusting his own judgment was that he thought himself to be one +of only half a dozen persons who knew something about it. When +others criticised Mr. Seward, he was rather indifferent to their +opinions because he thought they hardly knew what they were +talking about, and could not be taught without living over again +the London life of 1862. To him Secretary Seward seemed immensely +strong and steady in leadership; but this was no discredit to +Russell or Palmerston or Gladstone. They, too, had shown power, +patience and steadiness of purpose. They had persisted for two +years and a half in their plan for breaking up the Union, and had +yielded at last only in the jaws of war. After a long and +desperate struggle, the American Minister had trumped their best +card and won the game. + + Again and again, in after life, he went back over the ground to +see whether he could detect error on either side. He found none. +At every stage the steps were both probable and proved. All the +more he was disconcerted that Russell should indignantly and with +growing energy, to his dying day, deny and resent the axiom of +Adams's whole contention, that from the first he meant to break +up the Union. Russell affirmed that he meant nothing of the sort; +that he had meant nothing at all; that he meant to do right; that +he did not know what he meant. Driven from one defence after +another, he pleaded at last, like Gladstone, that he had no +defence. Concealing all he could conceal -- burying in profound +secrecy his attempt to break up the Union in the autumn of 1862 +-- he affirmed the louder his scrupulous good faith. What was +worse for the private secretary, to the total derision and +despair of the lifelong effort for education, as the final result +of combined practice, experience, and theory -- he proved it. + + Henry Adams had, as he thought, suffered too much from Russell +to admit any plea in his favor; but he came to doubt whether this +admission really favored him. Not until long after Earl Russell's +death was the question reopened. Russell had quitted office in +1866; he died in 1878; the biography was published in 1889. +During the Alabama controversy and the Geneva Conference in 1872, +his course as Foreign Secretary had been sharply criticised, and +he had been compelled to see England pay more than L3,000,000 +penalty for his errors. On the other hand, he brought forward -- +or his biographer for him -- evidence tending to prove that he +was not consciously dishonest, and that he had, in spite of +appearances, acted without collusion, agreement, plan, or policy, +as far as concerned the rebels. He had stood alone, as was his +nature. Like Gladstone, he had thought himself right. + + In the end, Russell entangled himself in a hopeless ball of +admissions, denials, contradictions, and resentments which led +even his old colleagues to drop his defence, as they dropped +Gladstone's; but this was not enough for the student of diplomacy +who had made a certain theory his law of life, and wanted to hold +Russell up against himself; to show that he had foresight and +persistence of which he was unaware. The effort became hopeless +when the biography in 1889 published papers which upset all that +Henry Adams had taken for diplomatic education; yet he sat down +once more, when past sixty years old, to see whether he could +unravel the skein. + + Of the obstinate effort to bring about an armed intervention, +on the lines marked out by Russell's letter to Palmerston from +Gotha, 17 September, 1862, nothing could be said beyond +Gladstone's plea in excuse for his speech in pursuance of the +same effort, that it was "the most singular and palpable error," +"the least excusable," "a mistake of incredible grossness," which +passed defence; but while Gladstone threw himself on the mercy of +the public for his speech, he attempted no excuse for Lord +Russell who led him into the "incredible grossness" of announcing +the Foreign Secretary's intent. Gladstone's offence, "singular +and palpable," was not the speech alone, but its cause -- the +policy that inspired the speech. "I weakly supposed . . . I +really, though most strangely, believed that it was an act of +friendliness." Whatever absurdity Gladstone supposed, Russell +supposed nothing of the sort. Neither he nor Palmerston "most +strangely believed" in any proposition so obviously and palpably +absurd, nor did Napoleon delude himself with philanthropy. +Gladstone, even in his confession, mixed up policy, speech, +motives, and persons, as though he were trying to confuse chiefly +himself. + + There Gladstone's activity seems to have stopped. He did not +reappear in the matter of the rams. The rebel influence shrank in +1863, as far as is known, to Lord Russell alone, who wrote on +September 1 that he could not interfere in any way with those +vessels, and thereby brought on himself Mr. Adams's declaration +of war on September 5. A student held that, in this refusal, he +was merely following his policy of September, 1862, and of every +step he had taken since 1861. + + The student was wrong. Russell proved that he had been feeble, +timid, mistaken, senile, but not dishonest. The evidence is +convincing. The Lairds had built these ships in reliance on the +known opinion of the law-officers that the statute did not apply, +and a jury would not convict. Minister Adams replied that, in +this case, the statute should be amended, or the ships stopped by +exercise of the political power. Bethell rejoined that this would +be a violation of neutrality; one must preserve the status quo. +Tacitly Russell connived with Laird, and, had he meant to +interfere, he was bound to warn Laird that the defect of the +statute would no longer protect him, but he allowed the builders +to go on till the ships were ready for sea. Then, on September 3, +two days before Mr. Adams's "superfluous" letter, he wrote to +Lord Palmerston begging for help; "The conduct of the gentlemen +who have contracted for the two ironclads at Birkenhead is so +very suspicious," -- he began, and this he actually wrote in good +faith and deep confidence to Lord Palmerston, his chief, calling +"the conduct" of the rebel agents "suspicious" when no one else +in Europe or America felt any suspicion about it, because the +whole question turned not on the rams, but on the technical scope +of the Foreign Enlistment Act, -- "that I have thought it +necessary to direct that they should be detained," not, of +course, under the statute, but on the ground urged by the +American Minister, of international obligation above the statute. +"The Solicitor General has been consulted and concurs in the +measure as one of policy though not of strict law. We shall thus +test the law, and, if we have to pay damages, we have satisfied +the opinion which prevails here as well as in America that that +kind of neutral hostility should not be allowed to go on without +some attempt to stop it." + + For naivete that would be unusual in an unpaid attache of +Legation, this sudden leap from his own to his opponent's ground, +after two years and a half of dogged resistance, might have +roused Palmerston to inhuman scorn, but instead of derision, well +earned by Russell's old attacks on himself, Palmerston met the +appeal with wonderful loyalty. "On consulting the law officers he +found that there was no lawful ground for meddling with the +ironclads," or, in unprofessional language, that he could trust +neither his law officers nor a Liverpool jury; and therefore he +suggested buying the ships for the British Navy. As proof of +"criminal negligence" in the past, this suggestion seemed +decisive, but Russell, by this time, was floundering in other +troubles of negligence, for he had neglected to notify the +American Minister. He should have done so at once, on September +3. Instead he waited till September 4, and then merely said that +the matter was under "serious and anxious consideration." This +note did not reach the Legation till three o'clock on the +afternoon of September 5 -- after the "superfluous" declaration +of war had been sent. Thus, Lord Russell had sacrificed the +Lairds: had cost his Ministry the price of two ironclads, besides +the Alabama Claims -- say, in round numbers, twenty million +dollars -- and had put himself in the position of appearing to +yield only to a threat of war. Finally he wrote to the Admiralty +a letter which, from the American point of view, would have +sounded youthful from an Eton schoolboy: -- + +September 14, 1863. + MY DEAR DUKE: -- + + It is of the utmost importance and urgency that the ironclads + building at Birkenhead should not go to America to break the + blockade. They belong to Monsieur Bravay of Paris. If you will + offer to buy them on the part of the Admiralty you will get + money's worth if he accepts your offer; and if he does not, it + will be presumptive proof that they are already bought by the + Confederates. I should state that we have suggested to the + Turkish Government to buy them; but you can easily settle that + matter with the Turks. . . . + + The hilarity of the secretaries in Portland Place would have +been loud had they seen this letter and realized the muddle of +difficulties into which Earl Russell had at last thrown himself +under the impulse of the American Minister; but, nevertheless, +these letters upset from top to bottom the results of the private +secretary's diplomatic education forty years after he had +supposed it complete. They made a picture different from anything +he had conceived and rendered worthless his whole painful +diplomatic experience. + + To reconstruct, when past sixty, an education useful for any +practical purpose, is no practical problem, and Adams saw no use +in attacking it as only theoretical. He no longer cared whether +he understood human nature or not; he understood quite as much of +it as he wanted; but he found in the "Life of Gladstone" (II, +464) a remark several times repeated that gave him matter for +curious thought. "I always hold," said Mr. Gladstone, "that +politicians are the men whom, as a rule, it is most difficult to +comprehend"; and he added, by way of strengthening it: "For my +own part, I never have thus understood, or thought I understood, +above one or two." + + Earl Russell was certainly not one of the two. + + Henry Adams thought he also had understood one or two; but the +American type was more familiar. Perhaps this was the sufficient +result of his diplomatic education; it seemed to be the whole. + + +CHAPTER XII + +ECCENTRICITY (1863) + + KNOWLEDGE of human nature is the beginning and end of political +education, but several years of arduous study in the neighborhood +of Westminster led Henry Adams to think that knowledge of English +human nature had little or no value outside of England. In Paris, +such a habit stood in one's way; in America, it roused all the +instincts of native jealousy. The English mind was one-sided, +eccentric, systematically unsystematic, and logically illogical. +The less one knew of it, the better. + + This heresy, which scarcely would have been allowed to +penetrate a Boston mind -- it would, indeed, have been shut out +by instinct as a rather foolish exaggeration -- rested on an +experience which Henry Adams gravely thought he had a right to +think conclusive -- for him. That it should be conclusive for any +one else never occurred to him, since he had no thought of +educating anybody else. For him -- alone -- the less English +education he got, the better! + + For several years, under the keenest incitement to +watchfulness, he observed the English mind in contact with itself +and other minds. Especially with the American the contact was +interesting because the limits and defects of the American mind +were one of the favorite topics of the European. From the +old-world point of view, the American had no mind; he had an +economic thinking-machine which could work only on a fixed line. +The American mind exasperated the European as a buzz-saw might +exasperate a pine forest. The English mind disliked the French +mind because it was antagonistic, unreasonable, perhaps hostile, +but recognized it as at least a thought. The American mind was +not a thought at all; it was a convention, superficial, narrow, +and ignorant; a mere cutting instrument, practical, economical, +sharp, and direct. + + The English themselves hardly conceived that their mind was +either economical, sharp, or direct; but the defect that most +struck an American was its enormous waste in eccentricity. +Americans needed and used their whole energy, and applied it with +close economy; but English society was eccentric by law and for +sake of the eccentricity itself. + + The commonest phrase overheard at an English club or +dinner-table was that So-and-So "is quite mad." It was no offence +to So-and-So; it hardly distinguished him from his fellows; and +when applied to a public man, like Gladstone, it was qualified by +epithets much more forcible. Eccentricity was so general as to +become hereditary distinction. It made the chief charm of English +society as well as its chief terror. + + The American delighted in Thackeray as a satirist, but +Thackeray quite justly maintained that he was not a satirist at +all, and that his pictures of English society were exact and +good-natured. The American, who could not believe it, fell back +on Dickens, who, at all events, had the vice of exaggeration to +extravagance, but Dickens's English audience thought the +exaggeration rather in manner or style, than in types. Mr. +Gladstone himself went to see Sothern act Dundreary, and laughed +till his face was distorted -- not because Dundreary was +exaggerated, but because he was ridiculously like the types that +Gladstone had seen -- or might have seen -- in any club in Pall +Mall. Society swarmed with exaggerated characters; it contained +little else. + + Often this eccentricity bore all the marks of strength; perhaps +it was actual exuberance of force, a birthmark of genius. Boston +thought so. The Bostonian called it national character -- native +vigor -- robustness -- honesty -- courage. He respected and +feared it. British self-assertion, bluff, brutal, blunt as it +was, seemed to him a better and nobler thing than the acuteness +of the Yankee or the polish of the Parisian. Perhaps he was +right. + + These questions of taste, of feeling, of inheritance, need no +settlement. Every one carries his own inch-rule of taste, and +amuses himself by applying it, triumphantly, wherever he travels. +Whatever others thought, the cleverest Englishmen held that the +national eccentricity needed correction, and were beginning to +correct it. The savage satires of Dickens and the gentler +ridicule of Matthew Arnold against the British middle class were +but a part of the rebellion, for the middle class were no worse +than their neighbors in the eyes of an American in 1863; they +were even a very little better in the sense that one could appeal +to their interests, while a university man, like Gladstone, stood +outside of argument. From none of them could a young American +afford to borrow ideas. + + The private secretary, like every other Bostonian, began by +regarding British eccentricity as a force. Contact with it, in +the shape of Palmerston, Russell, and Gladstone, made him +hesitate; he saw his own national type -- his father, Weed, +Evarts, for instance -- deal with the British, and show itself +certainly not the weaker; certainly sometimes the stronger. +Biassed though he were, he could hardly be biassed to such a +degree as to mistake the effects of force on others, and while -- +labor as he might -- Earl Russell and his state papers seemed +weak to a secretary, he could not see that they seemed strong to +Russell's own followers. Russell might be dishonest or he might +be merely obtuse -- the English type might be brutal or might be +only stupid -- but strong, in either case, it was not, nor did it +seem strong to Englishmen. + +Eccentricity was not always a force; Americans were deeply +interested in deciding whether it was always a weakness. +Evidently, on the hustings or in Parliament, among +eccentricities, eccentricity was at home; but in private society +the question was not easy to answer. That English society was +infinitely more amusing because of its eccentricities, no one +denied. Barring the atrocious insolence and brutality which +Englishmen and especially Englishwomen showed to each other -- +very rarely, indeed, to foreigners -- English society was much +more easy and tolerant than American. One must expect to be +treated with exquisite courtesy this week and be totally forgotten +the next, but this was the way of the world, and education +consisted in learning to turn one's back on others with the same +unconscious indifference that others showed among themselves. The +smart of wounded vanity lasted no long time with a young man about +town who had little vanity to smart, and who, in his own country, +would have found himself in no better position. He had nothing to +complain of. No one was ever brutal to him. On the contrary, he +was much better treated than ever he was likely to be in Boston -- +let alone New York or Washington -- and if his reception varied +inconceivably between extreme courtesy and extreme neglect, it +merely proved that he had become, or was becoming, at home. Not +from a sense of personal griefs or disappointments did he labor +over this part of the social problem, but only because his +education was becoming English, and the further it went, the less +it promised. + + By natural affinity the social eccentrics commonly sympathized +with political eccentricity. The English mind took naturally to +rebellion -- when foreign -- and it felt particular confidence in +the Southern Confederacy because of its combined attributes -- +foreign rebellion of English blood -- which came nearer ideal +eccentricity than could be reached by Poles, Hungarians, Italians +or Frenchmen. All the English eccentrics rushed into the ranks of +rebel sympathizers, leaving few but well-balanced minds to attach +themselves to the cause of the Union. None of the English leaders +on the Northern side were marked eccentrics. William E. Forster +was a practical, hard-headed Yorkshireman, whose chief ideals in +politics took shape as working arrangements on an economical +base. Cobden, considering the one-sided conditions of his life, +was remarkably well balanced. John Bright was stronger in his +expressions than either of them, but with all his self-assertion +he stuck to his point, and his point was practical. He did not, +like Gladstone, box the compass of thought; "furiously earnest," +as Monckton Milnes said, "on both sides of every question"; he +was rather, on the whole, a consistent conservative of the old +Commonwealth type, and seldom had to defend inconsistencies. +Monckton Milnes himself was regarded as an eccentric, chiefly by +those who did not know him, but his fancies and hobbies were only +ideas a little in advance of the time; his manner was eccentric, +but not his mind, as any one could see who read a page of his +poetry. None of them, except Milnes, was a university man. As a +rule, the Legation was troubled very little, if at all, by +indiscretions, extravagances, or contradictions among its English +friends. Their work was largely judicious, practical, well +considered, and almost too cautious. The "cranks" were all +rebels, and the list was portentous. Perhaps it might be headed +by old Lord Brougham, who had the audacity to appear at a July +4th reception at the Legation, led by Joe Parkes, and claim his +old credit as "Attorney General to Mr. Madison." The Church was +rebel, but the dissenters were mostly with the Union. The +universities were rebel, but the university men who enjoyed most +public confidence -- like Lord Granville, Sir George Cornewall +Lewis, Lord Stanley, Sir George Grey -- took infinite pains to be +neutral for fear of being thought eccentric. To most observers, +as well as to the Times, the Morning Post, and the Standard, a +vast majority of the English people seemed to follow the +professional eccentrics; even the emotional philanthropists took +that direction; Lord Shaftesbury and Carlyle, Fowell Buxton, and +Gladstone, threw their sympathies on the side which they should +naturally have opposed, and did so for no reason except their +eccentricity; but the "canny" Scots and Yorkshiremen were +cautious. + + This eccentricity did not mean strength. The proof of it was +the mismanagement of the rebel interests. No doubt the first +cause of this trouble lay in the Richmond Government itself. No +one understood why Jefferson Davis chose Mr. Mason as his agent +for London at the same time that he made so good a choice as Mr. +Slidell for Paris. The Confederacy had plenty of excellent men to +send to London, but few who were less fitted than Mason. Possibly +Mason had a certain amount of common sense, but he seemed to have +nothing else, and in London society he counted merely as one +eccentric more. He enjoyed a great opportunity; he might even +have figured as a new Benjamin Franklin with all society at his +feet; he might have roared as lion of the season and made the +social path of the American Minister almost impassable; but Mr. +Adams had his usual luck in enemies, who were always his most +valuable allies if his friends only let them alone. Mason was his +greatest diplomatic triumph. He had his collision with +Palmerston; he drove Russell off the field; he swept the board +before Cockburn; he overbore Slidell; but he never lifted a +finger against Mason, who became his bulwark of defence. + + Possibly Jefferson Davis and Mr. Mason shared two defects in +common which might have led them into this serious mistake. +Neither could have had much knowledge of the world, and both must +have been unconscious of humor. Yet at the same time with Mason, +President Davis sent out Slidell to France and Mr. Lamar to +Russia. Some twenty years later, in the shifting search for the +education he never found, Adams became closely intimate at +Washington with Lamar, then Senator from Mississippi, who had +grown to be one of the calmest, most reasonable and most amiable +Union men in the United States, and quite unusual in social +charm. In 1860 he passed for the worst of Southern fire-eaters, +but he was an eccentric by environment, not by nature; above all +his Southern eccentricities, he had tact and humor; and perhaps +this was a reason why Mr. Davis sent him abroad with the others, +on a futile mission to St. Petersburg. He would have done better +in London, in place of Mason. London society would have delighted +in him; his stories would have won success; his manners would +have made him loved; his oratory would have swept every audience; +even Monckton Milnes could never have resisted the temptation of +having him to breakfast between Lord Shaftesbury and the Bishop +of Oxford. + + Lamar liked to talk of his brief career in diplomacy, but he +never spoke of Mason. He never alluded to Confederate management +or criticised Jefferson Davis's administration. The subject that +amused him was his English allies. At that moment -- the early +summer of 1863 -- the rebel party in England were full of +confidence, and felt strong enough to challenge the American +Legation to a show of power. They knew better than the Legation +what they could depend upon: that the law officers and +commissioners of customs at Liverpool dared not prosecute the +ironclad ships; that Palmerston, Russell, and Gladstone were +ready to recognize the Confederacy; that the Emperor Napoleon +would offer them every inducement to do it. In a manner they +owned Liverpool and especially the firm of Laird who were +building their ships. The political member of the Laird firm was +Lindsay, about whom the whole web of rebel interests clung -- +rams, cruisers, munitions, and Confederate loan; social +introductions and parliamentary tactics. The firm of Laird, with +a certain dignity, claimed to be champion of England's navy; and +public opinion, in the summer of 1863, still inclined towards +them. + + Never was there a moment when eccentricity, if it were a force, +should have had more value to the rebel interest; and the +managers must have thought so, for they adopted or accepted as +their champion an eccentric of eccentrics; a type of 1820; a sort +of Brougham of Sheffield, notorious for poor judgment and worse +temper. Mr. Roebuck had been a tribune of the people, and, like +tribunes of most other peoples, in growing old, had grown +fatuous. He was regarded by the friends of the Union as rather a +comical personage -- a favorite subject for Punch to laugh at -- +with a bitter tongue and a mind enfeebled even more than common +by the political epidemic of egotism. In all England they could +have found no opponent better fitted to give away his own case. +No American man of business would have paid him attention; yet. +the Lairds, who certainly knew their own affairs best, let +Roebuck represent them and take charge of their interests. + + With Roebuck's doings, the private secretary had no concern +except that the Minister sent him down to the House of Commons on +June 30, 1863, to report the result of Roebuck's motion to +recognize the Southern Confederacy. The Legation felt no anxiety, +having Vicksburg already in its pocket, and Bright and Forster to +say so; but the private secretary went down and was admitted +under the gallery on the left, to listen, with great content, +while John Bright, with astonishing force, caught and shook and +tossed Roebuck, as a big mastiff shakes a wiry, ill-conditioned, +toothless, bad-tempered Yorkshire terrier. The private secretary +felt an artistic sympathy with Roebuck, for, from time to time, +by way of practice, Bright in a friendly way was apt to shake him +too, and he knew how it was done. The manner counted for more +than the words. The scene was interesting, but the result was not +in doubt. + + All the more sharply he was excited, near the year 1879, in +Washington, by hearing Lamar begin a story after dinner, which, +little by little, became dramatic, recalling the scene in the +House of Commons. The story, as well as one remembered, began +with Lamar's failure to reach St. Petersburg at all, and his +consequent detention in Paris waiting instructions. The motion to +recognize the Confederacy was about to be made, and, in prospect +of the debate, Mr. Lindsay collected a party at his villa on the +Thames to bring the rebel agents into relations with Roebuck. +Lamar was sent for, and came. After much conversation of a +general sort, such as is the usual object or resource of the +English Sunday, finding himself alone with Roebuck, Lamar, by way +of showing interest, bethought himself of John Bright and asked +Roebuck whether he expected Bright to take part in the debate: +"No, sir!" said Roebuck sententiously; "Bright and I have met +before. It was the old story -- the story of the sword-fish and +the whale! NO, sir! Mr. Bright will not cross swords with me +again!" + + Thus assured, Lamar went with the more confidence to the House +on the appointed evening, and was placed under the gallery, on +the right, where he listened to Roebuck and followed the debate +with such enjoyment as an experienced debater feels in these +contests, until, as he said, he became aware that a man, with a +singularly rich voice and imposing manner, had taken the floor, +and was giving Roebuck the most deliberate and tremendous +pounding he ever witnessed, "until at last," concluded Lamar, "it +dawned on my mind that the sword-fish was getting the worst of +it." + + Lamar told the story in the spirit of a joke against himself +rather than against Roebuck; but such jokes must have been +unpleasantly common in the experience of the rebel agents. They +were surrounded by cranks of the worst English species, who +distorted their natural eccentricities and perverted their +judgment. Roebuck may have been an extreme case, since he was +actually in his dotage, yet this did not prevent the Lairds from +accepting his lead, or the House from taking him seriously. +Extreme eccentricity was no bar, in England, to extreme +confidence; sometimes it seemed a recommendation; and unless it +caused financial loss, it rather helped popularity. + + The question whether British eccentricity was ever strength +weighed heavily in the balance of education. That Roebuck should +mislead the rebel agents on so strange a point as that of +Bright's courage was doubly characteristic because the Southern +people themselves had this same barbaric weakness of attributing +want of courage to opponents, and owed their ruin chiefly to such +ignorance of the world. Bright's courage was almost as irrational +as that of the rebels themselves. Every one knew that he had the +courage of a prize-fighter. He struck, in succession, pretty +nearly every man in England that could be reached by a blow, and +when he could not reach the individual he struck the class, or +when the class was too small for him, the whole people of +England. At times he had the whole country on his back. He could +not act on the defensive; his mind required attack. Even among +friends at the dinner-table he talked as though he were +denouncing them, or someone else, on a platform; he measured his +phrases, built his sentences, cumulated his effects, and pounded +his opponents, real or imagined. His humor was glow, like iron at +dull heat; his blow was elementary, like the thrash of a whale. + + One day in early spring, March 26, 1863, the Minister requested +his private secretary to attend a Trades-Union Meeting at St. +James's Hall, which was the result of Professor Beesly's patient +efforts to unite Bright and the Trades-Unions on an American +platform. The secretary went to the meeting and made a report +which reposes somewhere on file in the State Department to this +day, as harmless as such reports should be; but it contained no +mention of what interested young Adams most -- Bright's +psychology. With singular skill and oratorical power, Bright +managed at the outset, in his opening paragraph, to insult or +outrage every class of Englishman commonly considered +respectable, and, for fear of any escaping, he insulted them +repeatedly under consecutive heads. The rhetorical effect was +tremendous:-- + + "Privilege thinks it has a great interest in the American +contest," he began in his massive, deliberate tones; "and every +morning with blatant voice, it comes into our streets and curses +the American Republic. Privilege has beheld an afflicting +spectacle for many years past. It has beheld thirty million of +men happy and prosperous, without emperors -- without king +(cheers) -- without the surroundings of a court (renewed +cheers)--without nobles, except such as are made by eminence in +intellect and virtue -- without State bishops and State priests, +those vendors of the love that works salvation (cheers) -- +without great armies and great navies -- without a great debt and +great taxes -- and Privilege has shuddered at what might happen +to old Europe if this great experiment should succeed." + + An ingenious man, with an inventive mind, might have managed, +in the same number of lines, to offend more Englishmen than +Bright struck in this sentence; but he must have betrayed +artifice and hurt his oratory. The audience cheered furiously, +and the private secretary felt peace in his much troubled mind, +for he knew how careful the Ministry would be, once they saw +Bright talk republican principles before Trades-Unions; but, +while he did not, like Roebuck, see reason to doubt the courage +of a man who, after quarrelling with the Trades-Unions, quarreled +with all the world outside the Trades-Unions, he did feel a doubt +whether to class Bright as eccentric or conventional. Every one +called Bright "un-English," from Lord Palmerston to William E. +Forster; but to an American he seemed more English than any of +his critics. He was a liberal hater, and what he hated he reviled +after the manner of Milton, but he was afraid of no one. He was +almost the only man in England, or, for that matter, in Europe, +who hated Palmerston and was not afraid of him, or of the press +or the pulpit, the clubs or the bench, that stood behind him. He +loathed the whole fabric of sham religion, sham loyalty, sham +aristocracy, and sham socialism. He had the British weakness of +believing only in himself and his own conventions. In all this, +an American saw, if one may make the distinction, much racial +eccentricity, but little that was personal. Bright was singularly +well poised; but he used singularly strong language. + + Long afterwards, in 1880, Adams happened to be living again in +London for a season, when James Russell Lowell was transferred +there as Minister; and as Adams's relations with Lowell had +become closer and more intimate with years, he wanted the new +Minister to know some of his old friends. Bright was then in the +Cabinet, and no longer the most radical member even there, but he +was still a rare figure in society. He came to dinner, along with +Sir Francis Doyle and Sir Robert Cunliffe, and as usual did most +of the talking. As usual also, he talked of the things most on +his mind. Apparently it must have been some reform of the +criminal law which the Judges opposed, that excited him, for at +the end of dinner, over the wine, he took possession of the table +in his old way, and ended with a superb denunciation of the +Bench, spoken in his massive manner, as though every word were a +hammer, smashing what it struck:-- + + "For two hundred years, the Judges of England sat on the Bench, +condemning to the penalty of death every man, woman, and child +who stole property to the value of five shillings; and, during +all that time, not one Judge ever remonstrated against the law. +We English are a nation of brutes, and ought to be exterminated +to the last man." + + As the party rose from table and passed into the drawing-room, +Adams said to Lowell that Bright was very fine. "Yes!" replied +Lowell, " but too violent! " + + Precisely this was the point that Adams doubted. Bright knew +his Englishmen better than Lowell did -- better than England did. +He knew what amount of violence in language was necessary to +drive an idea into a Lancashire or Yorkshire head. He knew that +no violence was enough to affect a Somersetshire or Wiltshire +peasant. Bright kept his own head cool and clear. He was not +excited; he never betrayed excitement. As for his denunciation of +the English Bench, it was a very old story, not original with +him. That the English were a nation of brutes was a commonplace +generally admitted by Englishmen and universally accepted by +foreigners; while the matter of their extermination could be +treated only as unpractical, on their deserts, because they were +probably not very much worse than their neighbors. Had Bright +said that the French, Spaniards, Germans, or Russians were a +nation of brutes and ought to be exterminated, no one would have +found fault; the whole human race, according to the highest +authority, has been exterminated once already for the same +reason, and only the rainbow protects them from a repetition of +it. What shocked Lowell was that he denounced his own people. + + Adams felt no moral obligation to defend Judges, who, as far as +he knew, were the only class of society specially adapted to +defend themselves; but he was curious -- even anxious -- as a +point of education, to decide for himself whether Bright's +language was violent for its purpose. He thought not. Perhaps +Cobden did better by persuasion, but that was another matter. Of +course, even Englishmen sometimes complained of being so +constantly told that they were brutes and hypocrites, although +they were told little else by their censors, and bore it, on the +whole, meekly; but the fact that it was true in the main troubled +the ten-pound voter much less than it troubled Newman, Gladstone, +Ruskin, Carlyle, and Matthew Arnold. Bright was personally +disliked by his victims, but not distrusted. They never doubted +what he would do next, as they did with John Russell, Gladstone, +and Disraeli. He betrayed no one, and he never advanced an +opinion in practical matters which did not prove to be practical. + + The class of Englishmen who set out to be the intellectual +opposites of Bright, seemed to an American bystander the weakest +and most eccentric of all. These were the trimmers, the political +economists, the anti-slavery and doctrinaire class, the followers +of de Tocqueville, and of John Stuart Mill. As a class, they were +timid -- with good reason -- and timidity, which is high wisdom +in philosophy, sicklies the whole cast of thought in action. +Numbers of these men haunted London society, all tending to +free-thinking, but never venturing much freedom of thought. Like +the anti-slavery doctrinaires of the forties and fifties, they +became mute and useless when slavery struck them in the face. For +type of these eccentrics, literature seems to have chosen Henry +Reeve, at least to the extent of biography. He was a bulky figure +in society, always friendly, good-natured, obliging, and useful; +almost as universal as Milnes and more busy. As editor of the +Edinburgh Review he had authority and even power, although the +Review and the whole Whig doctrinaire school had begun -- as the +French say -- to date; and of course the literary and artistic +sharpshooters of 1867 -- like Frank Palgrave -- frothed and +foamed at the mere mention of Reeve's name. Three-fourths of +their fury was due only to his ponderous manner. London society +abused its rights of personal criticism by fixing on every too +conspicuous figure some word or phrase that stuck to it. Every +one had heard of Mrs. Grote as "the origin of the word +grotesque." Every one had laughed at the story of Reeve +approaching Mrs. Grote, with his usual somewhat florid manner, +asking in his literary dialect how her husband the historian was: +"And how is the learned Grotius?" "Pretty well, thank you, +Puffendorf! " One winced at the word, as though it were a drawing +of Forain. + + No one would have been more shocked than Reeve had he been +charged with want of moral courage. He proved his courage +afterwards by publishing the "Greville Memoirs," braving the +displeasure of the Queen. Yet the Edinburgh Review and its editor +avoided taking sides except where sides were already fixed. +Americanism would have been bad form in the liberal Edinburgh +Review; it would have seemed eccentric even for a Scotchman, and +Reeve was a Saxon of Saxons. To an American this attitude of +oscillating reserve seemed more eccentric than the reckless +hostility of Brougham or Carlyle, and more mischievous, for he +never could be sure what preposterous commonplace it might +encourage. + + The sum of these experiences in 1863 left the conviction that +eccentricity was weakness. The young American who should adopt +English thought was lost. From the facts, the conclusion was +correct, yet, as usual, the conclusion was wrong. The years of +Palmerston's last Cabinet, 1859 to 1865, were avowedly years of +truce -- of arrested development. The British system like the +French, was in its last stage of decomposition. Never had the +British mind shown itself so decousu -- so unravelled, at sea, +floundering in every sort of historical shipwreck. Eccentricities +had a free field. Contradictions swarmed in State and Church. +England devoted thirty years of arduous labor to clearing away +only a part of the debris. A young American in 1863 could see +little or nothing of the future. He might dream, but he could not +foretell, the suddenness with which the old Europe, with England +in its wake, was to vanish in 1870. He was in dead-water, and the +parti-colored, fantastic cranks swam about his boat, as though he +were the ancient mariner, and they saurians of the prime. + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE PERFECTION OF HUMAN SOCIETY (1864) + + MINISTER ADAMS'S success in stopping the rebel rams fixed his +position once for all in English society. From that moment he +could afford to drop the character of diplomatist, and assume +what, for an American Minister in London, was an exclusive +diplomatic advantage, the character of a kind of American Peer of +the Realm. The British never did things by halves. Once they +recognized a man's right to social privileges, they accepted him +as one of themselves. Much as Lord Derby and Mr. Disraeli were +accepted as leaders of Her Majesty's domestic Opposition, +Minister Adams had a rank of his own as a kind of leader of Her +Majesty's American Opposition. Even the Times conceded it. The +years of struggle were over, and Minister Adams rapidly gained a +position which would have caused his father or grandfather to +stare with incredulous envy. + + This Anglo-American form of diplomacy was chiefly undiplomatic, +and had the peculiar effect of teaching a habit of diplomacy +useless or mischievous everywhere but in London. Nowhere else in +the world could one expect to figure in a role so unprofessional. +The young man knew no longer what character he bore. Private +secretary in the morning, son in the afternoon, young man about +town in the evening, the only character he never bore was that of +diplomatist, except when he wanted a card to some great function. +His diplomatic education was at an end; he seldom met a diplomat, +and never had business with one; he could be of no use to them, +or they to him; but he drifted inevitably into society, and, do +what he might, his next education must be one of English social +life. Tossed between the horns of successive dilemmas, he reached +his twenty-sixth birthday without the power of earning five +dollars in any occupation. His friends in the army were almost as +badly off, but even army life ruined a young man less fatally +than London society. Had he been rich, this form of ruin would +have mattered nothing; but the young men of 1865 were none of +them rich; all had to earn a living; yet they had reached high +positions of responsibility and power in camps and Courts, +without a dollar of their own and with no tenure of office. + + Henry Adams had failed to acquire any useful education; he +should at least have acquired social experience. Curiously +enough, he failed here also. From the European or English point +of view, he had no social experience, and never got it. Minister +Adams happened on a political interregnum owing to Lord +Palmerston's personal influence from 1860 to 1865; but this +political interregnum was less marked than the social still-stand +during the same years. The Prince Consort was dead; the Queen had +retired; the Prince of Wales was still a boy. In its best days, +Victorian society had never been "smart." During the forties, +under the influence of Louis Philippe, Courts affected to be +simple, serious and middle class; and they succeeded. The taste +of Louis Philippe was bourgeois beyond any taste except that of +Queen Victoria. Style lingered in the background with the +powdered footman behind the yellow chariot, but speaking socially +the Queen had no style save what she inherited. Balmoral was a +startling revelation of royal taste. Nothing could be worse than +the toilettes at Court unless it were the way they were worn. +One's eyes might be dazzled by jewels, but they were heirlooms, +and if any lady appeared well dressed, she was either a foreigner +or "fast." Fashion was not fashionable in London until the +Americans and the Jews were let loose. The style of London +toilette universal in 1864 was grotesque, like Monckton Milnes on +horseback in Rotten Row. + + Society of this sort might fit a young man in some degree for +editing Shakespeare or Swift, but had little relation with the +society of 1870, and none with that of 1900. Owing to other +causes, young Adams never got the full training of such style as +still existed. The embarrassments of his first few seasons +socially ruined him. His own want of experience prevented his +asking introductions to the ladies who ruled society; his want of +friends prevented his knowing who these ladies were; and he had +every reason to expect snubbing if he put himself in evidence. +This sensitiveness was thrown away on English society, where men +and women treated each others' advances much more brutally than +those of strangers, but young Adams was son and private secretary +too; he could not be as thick-skinned as an Englishman. He was +not alone. Every young diplomat, and most of the old ones, felt +awkward in an English house from a certainty that they were not +precisely wanted there, and a possibility that they might be told +so. + + If there was in those days a country house in England which had +a right to call itself broad in views and large in tastes, it was +Bretton in Yorkshire; and if there was a hostess who had a right +to consider herself fashionable as well as charming, it was Lady +Margaret Beaumont; yet one morning at breakfast there, sitting by +her side -- not for his own merits -- Henry Adams heard her say +to herself in her languid and liberal way, with her rich voice +and musing manner, looking into her tea-cup: "I don't think I +care for foreigners!" Horror-stricken, not so much on his own +account as on hers, the young man could only execute himself as +gaily as he might: "But Lady Margaret, please make one small +exception for me!" Of course she replied what was evident, that +she did not call him a foreigner, and her genial Irish charm made +the slip of tongue a happy courtesy; but none the less she knew +that, except for his momentary personal introduction, he was in +fact a foreigner, and there was no imaginable reason why she +should like him, or any other foreigner, unless it were because +she was bored by natives. She seemed to feel that her +indifference needed a reason to excuse itself in her own eyes, +and she showed the subconscious sympathy of the Irish nature +which never feels itself perfectly at home even in England. She, +too, was some shadowy shade un-English. + + Always conscious of this barrier, while the war lasted the +private secretary hid himself among the herd of foreigners till +he found his relations fixed and unchangeable. He never felt +himself in society, and he never knew definitely what was meant +as society by those who were in it. He saw far enough to note a +score of societies which seemed quite independent of each other. +The smartest was the smallest, and to him almost wholly strange. +The largest was the sporting world, also unknown to him except +through the talk of his acquaintances. Between or beyond these +lay groups of nebulous societies. His lawyer friends, like +Evarts, frequented legal circles where one still sat over the +wine and told anecdotes of the bench and bar; but he himself +never set eyes on a judge except when his father took him to call +on old Lord Lyndhurst, where they found old Lord Campbell, both +abusing old Lord Brougham. The Church and the Bishops formed +several societies which no secretary ever saw except as an +interloper. The Army; the Navy; the Indian Service; the medical +and surgical professions; City people; artists; county families; +the Scotch, and indefinite other subdivisions of society existed, +which were as strange to each other as they were to Adams. At the +end of eight or ten seasons in London society he professed to +know less about it, or how to enter it, than he did when he made +his first appearance at Miss Burdett Coutts's in May, 1861. + + Sooner or later every young man dropped into a set or circle, +and frequented the few houses that were willing to harbor him. An +American who neither hunted nor raced, neither shot nor fished +nor gambled, and was not marriageable, had no need to think of +society at large. Ninety-nine houses in every hundred were +useless to him, a greater bore to him than he to them. Thus the +question of getting into -- or getting out of -- society which +troubled young foreigners greatly, settled itself after three or +four years of painful speculation. Society had no unity; one +wandered about in it like a maggot in cheese; it was not a hansom +cab, to be got into, or out of, at dinner-time. + + Therefore he always professed himself ignorant of society; he +never knew whether he had been in it or not, but from the +accounts of his future friends, like General Dick Taylor or +George Smalley, and of various ladies who reigned in the +seventies, he inclined to think that he knew very little about +it. Certain great houses and certain great functions of course he +attended, like every one else who could get cards, but even of +these the number was small that kept an interest or helped +education. In seven years he could remember only two that seemed +to have any meaning for him, and he never knew what that meaning +was. Neither of the two was official; neither was English in +interest; and both were scandals to the philosopher while they +scarcely enlightened men of the world. + + One was at Devonshire House, an ordinary, unpremeditated +evening reception. Naturally every one went to Devonshire House +if asked, and the rooms that night were fairly full of the usual +people. The private secretary was standing among the rest, when +Mme. de Castiglione entered, the famous beauty of the Second +Empire. How beautiful she may have been, or indeed what sort of +beauty she was, Adams never knew, because the company, consisting +of the most refined and aristocratic society in the world, +instantly formed a lane, and stood in ranks to stare at her, +while those behind mounted on chairs to look over their +neighbors' heads; so that the lady walked through this polite +mob, stared completely out of countenance, and fled the house at +once. This was all! + + The other strange spectacle was at Stafford House, April 13, +1864, when, in a palace gallery that recalled Paolo Veronese's +pictures of Christ in his scenes of miracle, Garibaldi, in his +gray capote over his red shirt, received all London, and three +duchesses literally worshipped at his feet. Here, at all events, +a private secretary had surely caught the last and highest touch +of social experience; but what it meant -- what social, moral, or +mental development it pointed out to the searcher of truth -- was +not a matter to be treated fully by a leader in the Morning Post +or even by a sermon in Westminster Abbey. Mme. de Castiglione and +Garibaldi covered, between them, too much space for simple +measurement; their curves were too complex for mere arithmetic. +The task of bringing the two into any common relation with an +ordered social system tending to orderly development -- in London +or elsewhere -- was well fitted for Algernon Swinburne or Victor +Hugo, but was beyond any process yet reached by the education of +Henry Adams, who would probably, even then, have rejected, as +superficial or supernatural, all the views taken by any of the +company who looked on with him at these two interesting and +perplexing sights. + + From the Court, or Court society, a mere private secretary got +nothing at all, or next to nothing, that could help him on his +road through life. Royalty was in abeyance. One was tempted to +think in these years, 1860-65, that the nicest distinction +between the very best society and the second-best, was their +attitude towards royalty. The one regarded royalty as a bore, and +avoided it, or quietly said that the Queen had never been in +society. The same thing might have been said of fully half the +peerage. Adams never knew even the names of half the rest; he +never exchanged ten words with any member of the royal family; he +never knew any one in those years who showed interest in any +member of the royal family, or who would have given five +shillings for the opinion of any royal person on any subject; or +cared to enter any royal or noble presence, unless the house was +made attractive by as much social effort as would have been +necessary in other countries where no rank existed. No doubt, as +one of a swarm, young Adams slightly knew various gilded youth +who frequented balls and led such dancing as was most in vogue, +but they seemed to set no value on rank; their anxiety was only +to know where to find the best partners before midnight, and the +best supper after midnight. To the American, as to Arthur +Pendennis or Barnes Newcome, the value of social position and +knowledge was evident enough; he valued it at rather more than it +was worth to him; but it was a shadowy thing which seemed to vary +with every street corner; a thing which had shifting standards, +and which no one could catch outright. The half-dozen leaders and +beauties of his time, with great names and of the utmost fashion, +made some of the poorest marriages, and the least showy careers. + + Tired of looking on at society from the outside, Adams grew to +loathe the sight of his Court dress; to groan at every +announcement of a Court ball; and to dread every invitation to a +formal dinner. The greatest social event gave not half the +pleasure that one could buy for ten shillings at the opera when +Patti sang Cherubino or Gretchen, and not a fourth of the +education. Yet this was not the opinion of the best judges. +Lothrop Motley, who stood among the very best, said to him early +in his apprenticeship that the London dinner and the English +country house were the perfection of human society. The young man +meditated over it, uncertain of its meaning. Motley could not +have thought the dinner itself perfect, since there was not then +-- outside of a few bankers or foreigners -- a good cook or a +good table in London, and nine out of ten of the dinners that +Motley ate came from Gunter's, and all were alike. Every one, +especially in young society, complained bitterly that Englishmen +did not know a good dinner when they ate it, and could not order +one if they were given carte blanche. Henry Adams was not a +judge, and knew no more than they, but he heard the complaints, +and he could not think that Motley meant to praise the English +cuisine. + + Equally little could Motley have meant that dinners were good +to look at. Nothing could be worse than the toilettes; nothing +less artistic than the appearance of the company. One's eyes +might be dazzled by family diamonds, but, if an American woman +were present, she was sure to make comments about the way the +jewels were worn. If there was a well-dressed lady at table, she +was either an American or "fast." She attracted as much notice as +though she were on the stage. No one could possibly admire an +English dinner-table. + + Least of all did Motley mean that the taste or the manners were +perfect. The manners of English society were notorious, and the +taste was worse. Without exception every American woman rose in +rebellion against English manners. In fact, the charm of London +which made most impression on Americans was the violence of its +contrasts; the extreme badness of the worst, making background +for the distinction, refinement, or wit of a few, just as the +extreme beauty of a few superb women was more effective against +the plainness of the crowd. The result was mediaeval, and +amusing; sometimes coarse to a degree that might have startled a +roustabout, and sometimes courteous and considerate to a degree +that suggested King Arthur's Round Table; but this artistic +contrast was surely not the perfection that Motley had in his +mind. He meant something scholarly, worldly, and modern; he was +thinking of his own tastes. + + Probably he meant that, in his favorite houses, the tone was +easy, the talk was good, and the standard of scholarship was +high. Even there he would have been forced to qualify his +adjectives. No German would have admitted that English +scholarship was high, or that it was scholarship at all, or that +any wish for scholarship existed in England. Nothing that seemed +to smell of the shop or of the lecture-room was wanted. One might +as well have talked of Renan's Christ at the table of the Bishop +of London, as talk of German philology at the table of an Oxford +don. Society, if a small literary class could be called society, +wanted to be amused in its old way. Sydney Smith, who had amused, +was dead; so was Macaulay, who instructed if he did not amuse; +Thackeray died at Christmas, 1863; Dickens never felt at home, +and seldom appeared, in society; Bulwer Lytton was not sprightly; +Tennyson detested strangers; Carlyle was mostly detested by them; +Darwin never came to town; the men of whom Motley must have been +thinking were such as he might meet at Lord Houghton's +breakfasts: Grote, Jowett, Milman, or Froude; Browning, Matthew +Arnold, or Swinburne; Bishop Wilberforce, Venables, or Hayward; +or perhaps Gladstone, Robert Lowe, or Lord Granville. A +relatively small class, commonly isolated, suppressed, and lost +at the usual London dinner, such society as this was fairly +familiar even to a private secretary, but to the literary +American it might well seem perfection since he could find +nothing of the sort in America. Within the narrow limits of this +class, the American Legation was fairly at home; possibly a score +of houses, all liberal, and all literary, but perfect only in the +eyes of a Harvard College historian. They could teach little +worth learning, for their tastes were antiquated and their +knowledge was ignorance to the next generation. What was +altogether fatal for future purposes, they were only English. + + A social education in such a medium was bound to be useless in +any other, yet Adams had to learn it to the bottom. The one thing +needful for a private secretary, was that he should not only +seem, but should actually be, at home. He studied carefully, and +practised painfully, what seemed to be the favorite +accomplishments of society. Perhaps his nervousness deceived him; +perhaps he took for an ideal of others what was only his +reflected image; but he conceived that the perfection of human +society required that a man should enter a drawing-room where he +was a total stranger, and place himself on the hearth-rug, his +back to the fire, with an air of expectant benevolence, without +curiosity, much as though he had dropped in at a charity concert, +kindly disposed to applaud the performers and to overlook +mistakes. This ideal rarely succeeded in youth, and towards +thirty it took a form of modified insolence and offensive +patronage; but about sixty it mellowed into courtesy, kindliness, +and even deference to the young which had extraordinary charm +both in women and in men. Unfortunately Adams could not wait till +sixty for education; he had his living to earn; and the English +air of patronage would earn no income for him anywhere else. + + After five or six years of constant practice, any one can +acquire the habit of going from one strange company to another +without thinking much of one's self or of them, as though +silently reflecting that "in a world where we are all insects, no +insect is alien; perhaps they are human in parts"; but the dreamy +habit of mind which comes from solitude in crowds is not fitness +for social success except in London. Everywhere else it is +injury. England was a social kingdom whose social coinage had no +currency elsewhere. + + Englishwomen, from the educational point of view, could give +nothing until they approached forty years old. Then they become +very interesting -- very charming -- to the man of fifty. The +young American was not worth the young Englishwoman's notice, and +never received it. Neither understood the other. Only in the +domestic relation, in the country -- never in society at large -- +a young American might accidentally make friends with an +Englishwoman of his own age, but it never happened to Henry +Adams. His susceptible nature was left to the mercy of American +girls, which was professional duty rather than education as long +as diplomacy held its own. + + Thus he found himself launched on waters where he had never +meant to sail, and floating along a stream which carried him far +from his port. His third season in London society saw the end of +his diplomatic education, and began for him the social life of a +young man who felt at home in England -- more at home there than +anywhere else. With this feeling, the mere habit of going to +garden-parties, dinners, receptions, and balls had nothing to do. +One might go to scores without a sensation of home. One might +stay in no end of country houses without forgetting that one was +a total stranger and could never be anything else. One might bow +to half the dukes and duchesses in England, and feel only the +more strange. Hundreds of persons might pass with a nod and never +come nearer. Close relation in a place like London is a personal +mystery as profound as chemical affinity. Thousands pass, and one +separates himself from the mass to attach himself to another, and +so make, little by little, a group. + + One morning, April 27, 1863, he was asked to breakfast with Sir +Henry Holland, the old Court physician who had been acquainted +with every American Minister since Edward Everett, and was a +valuable social ally, who had the courage to try to be of use to +everybody, and who, while asking the private secretary to +breakfast one day, was too discreet to betray what he might have +learned about rebel doings at his breakfast-table the day before. +He had been friendly with the Legation, in the teeth of society, +and was still bearing up against the weight of opinion, so that +young Adams could not decline his invitations, although they +obliged him to breakfast in Brook Street at nine o'clock in the +morning, alternately with Mr. James M. Mason. Old Dr. Holland was +himself as hale as a hawk, driving all day bare-headed about +London, and eating Welsh rarebit every night before bed; he +thought that any young man should be pleased to take his early +muffin in Brook Street, and supply a few crumbs of war news for +the daily peckings of eminent patients. Meekly, when summoned, +the private secretary went, and on reaching the front door, this +particular morning, he found there another young man in the act +of rapping the knocker. They entered the breakfastroom together, +where they were introduced to each other, and Adams learned that +the other guest was a Cambridge undergraduate, Charles Milnes +Gaskell, son of James Milnes Gaskell, the Member for Wenlock; +another of the Yorkshire Milneses, from Thornes near Wakefield. +Fate had fixed Adams to Yorkshire. By another chance it happened +that young Milnes Gaskell was intimate at Cambridge with William +Everett who was also about to take his degree. A third chance +inspired Mr. Evarts with a fancy for visiting Cambridge, and led +William Everett to offer his services as host. Adams acted as +courier to Mr. Evarts, and at the end of May they went down for a +few days, when William Everett did the honors as host with a +kindness and attention that made his cousin sorely conscious of +his own social shortcomings. Cambridge was pretty, and the dons +were kind. Mr. Evarts enjoyed his visit but this was merely a +part of the private secretary's day's work. What affected his +whole life was the intimacy then begun with Milnes Gaskell and +his circle of undergraduate friends, just about to enter the +world. + + Intimates are predestined. Adams met in England a thousand +people, great and small; jostled against every one, from royal +princes to gin-shop loafers; attended endless official functions +and private parties; visited every part of the United Kingdom and +was not quite a stranger at the Legations in Paris and Rome; he +knew the societies of certain country houses, and acquired habits +of Sunday-afternoon calls; but all this gave him nothing to do, +and was life wasted. For him nothing whatever could be gained by +escorting American ladies to drawing-rooms or American gentlemen +to levees at St. James's Palace, or bowing solemnly to people +with great titles, at Court balls, or even by awkwardly jostling +royalty at garden-parties; all this was done for the Government, +and neither President Lincoln nor Secretary Seward would ever +know enough of their business to thank him for doing what they +did not know how to get properly done by their own servants; but +for Henry Adams -- not private secretary -- all the time taken up +by such duties was wasted. On the other hand, his few personal +intimacies concerned him alone, and the chance that made him +almost a Yorkshireman was one that must have started under the +Heptarchy. + + More than any other county in England, Yorkshire retained a +sort of social independence of London. Scotland itself was hardly +more distinct. The Yorkshire type had always been the strongest +of the British strains; the Norwegian and the Dane were a +different race from the Saxon. Even Lancashire had not the mass +and the cultivation of the West Riding. London could never quite +absorb Yorkshire, which, in its turn had no great love for London +and freely showed it. To a certain degree, evident enough to +Yorkshiremen, Yorkshire was not English -- or was all England, as +they might choose to express it. This must have been the reason +why young Adams was drawn there rather than elsewhere. Monckton +Milnes alone took the trouble to draw him, and possibly Milnes +was the only man in England with whom Henry Adams, at that +moment, had a chance of calling out such an un-English effort. +Neither Oxford nor Cambridge nor any region south of the Humber +contained a considerable house where a young American would have +been sought as a friend. Eccentricity alone did not account for +it. Monckton Milnes was a singular type, but his distant cousin, +James Milnes Gaskell, was another, quite as marked, in an +opposite sense. Milnes never seemed willing to rest; Milnes +Gaskell never seemed willing to move. In his youth one of a very +famous group -- Arthur Hallam, Tennyson, Manning, Gladstone, +Francis Doyle -- and regarded as one of the most promising; an +adorer of George Canning; in Parliament since coming of age; +married into the powerful connection of the Wynns of Wynstay; +rich according to Yorkshire standards; intimate with his +political leaders; he was one of the numerous Englishmen who +refuse office rather than make the effort of carrying it, and +want power only to make it a source of indolence. He was a +voracious reader and an admirable critic; he had forty years of +parliamentary tradition on his memory; he liked to talk and to +listen; he liked his dinner and, in spite of George Canning, his +dry champagne; he liked wit and anecdote; but he belonged to the +generation of 1830, a generation which could not survive the +telegraph and railway, and which even Yorkshire could hardly +produce again. To an American he was a character even more +unusual and more fascinating than his distant cousin Lord +Houghton. + + Mr. Milnes Gaskell was kind to the young American whom his son +brought to the house, and Mrs. Milnes Gaskell was kinder, for she +thought the American perhaps a less dangerous friend than some +Englishman might be, for her son, and she was probably right. The +American had the sense to see that she was herself one of the +most intelligent and sympathetic women in England; her sister, +Miss Charlotte Wynn, was another; and both were of an age and a +position in society that made their friendship a complirnent as +well as a pleasure. Their consent and approval settled the +matter. In England, the family is a serious fact; once admitted +to it, one is there for life. London might utterly vanish from +one's horizon, but as long as life lasted, Yorkshire lived for +its friends. + + In the year 1857, Mr. James Milnes Gaskell, who had sat for +thirty years in Parliament as one of the Members for the borough +of Wenlock in Shropshire, bought Wenlock Abbey and the estate +that included the old monastic buildings. This new, or old, +plaything amused Mrs. Milnes Gaskell. The Prior's house, a +charming specimen of fifteenth-century architecture, had been +long left to decay as a farmhouse. She put it in order, and went +there to spend a part of the autumn of 1864. Young Adams was one +of her first guests, and drove about Wenlock Edge and the Wrekin +with her, learning the loveliness of this exquisite country, and +its stores of curious antiquity. It was a new and charming +existence; an experience greatly to be envied -- ideal repose and +rural Shakespearian peace -- but a few years of it were likely to +complete his education, and fit him to act a fairly useful part +in life as an Englishman, an ecclesiastic, and a contemporary of +Chaucer. + + +CHAPTER XIV + +DILETTANTISM (1865-1866) + + THE campaign of 1864 and the reelection of Mr. Lincoln in +November set the American Minister on so firm a footing that he +could safely regard his own anxieties as over, and the anxieties +of Earl Russell and the Emperor Napoleon as begun. With a few +months more his own term of four years would come to an end, and +even though the questions still under discussion with England +should somewhat prolong his stay, he might look forward with some +confidence to his return home in 1865. His son no longer fretted. +The time for going into the army had passed. If he were to be +useful at all, it must be as a son, and as a son he was treated +with the widest indulgence and trust. He knew that he was doing +himself no good by staying in London, but thus far in life he had +done himself no good anywhere, and reached his twenty-seventh +birthday without having advanced a step, that he could see, +beyond his twenty-first. For the most part, his friends were +worse off than he. The war was about to end and they were to be +set adrift in a world they would find altogether strange. + + At this point, as though to cut the last thread of relation, +six months were suddenly dropped out of his life in England. The +London climate had told on some of the family; the physicians +prescribed a winter in Italy. Of course the private secretary was +detached as their escort, since this was one of his professional +functions; and he passed six months, gaining an education as +Italian courier, while the Civil War came to its end. As far as +other education went, he got none, but he was amused. Travelling +in all possible luxury, at some one else's expense, with +diplomatic privileges and position, was a form of travel hitherto +untried. The Cornice in vettura was delightful; Sorrento in +winter offered hills to climb and grottoes to explore, and Naples +near by to visit; Rome at Easter was an experience necessary for +the education of every properly trained private secretary; the +journey north by vettura through Perugia and Sienna was a dream; +the Splugen Pass, if not equal to the Stelvio, was worth seeing; +Paris had always something to show. The chances of accidental +education were not so great as they had been, since one's field +of experience had grown large; but perhaps a season at Baden +Baden in these later days of its brilliancy offered some chances +of instruction, if it were only the sight of fashionable Europe +and America on the race-course watching the Duke of Hamilton, in +the middle, improving his social advantages by the conversation +of Cora Pearl. + + The assassination of President Lincoln fell on the party while +they were at Rome, where it seemed singularly fitting to that +nursery of murderers and murdered, as though America were also +getting educated. Again one went to meditate on the steps of the +Santa Maria in Ara Coeli, but the lesson seemed as shallow as +before. Nothing happened. The travellers changed no plan or +movement. The Minister did not recall them to London. The season +was over before they returned; and when the private secretary sat +down again at his desk in Portland Place before a mass of copy in +arrears, he saw before him a world so changed as to be beyond +connection with the past. His identity, if one could call a +bundle of disconnected memories an identity, seemed to remain; +but his life was once more broken into separate pieces; he was a +spider and had to spin a new web in some new place with a new +attachment. + + All his American friends and contemporaries who were still +alive looked singularly commonplace without uniforms, and +hastened to get married and retire into back streets and suburbs +until they could find employment. Minister Adams, too, was going +home "next fall," and when the fall came, he was going home "next +spring," and when the spring came, President Andrew Johnson was +at loggerheads with the Senate, and found it best to keep things +unchanged. After the usual manner of public servants who had +acquired the habit of office and lost the faculty of will, the +members of the Legation in London continued the daily routine of +English society, which, after becoming a habit, threatened to +become a vice. Had Henry Adams shared a single taste with the +young Englishmen of his time, he would have been lost; but the +custom of pounding up and down Rotten Row every day, on a hack, +was not a taste, and yet was all the sport he shared. Evidently +he must set to work; he must get a new education he must begin a +career of his own. + + Nothing was easier to say, but even his father admitted two +careers to be closed. For the law, diplomacy had unfitted him; +for diplomacy he already knew too much. Any one who had held, +during the four most difficult years of American diplomacy, a +position at the centre of action, with his hands actually +touching the lever of power, could not beg a post of Secretary at +Vienna or Madrid in order to bore himself doing nothing until the +next President should do him the honor to turn him out. For once +all his advisers agreed that diplomacy was not possible. + + In any ordinary system he would have been called back to serve +in the State Department, but, between the President and the +Senate, service of any sort became a delusion. The choice of +career was more difficult than the education which had proved +impracticable. Adams saw no road; in fact there was none. All his +friends were trying one path or another, but none went a way that +he could have taken. John Hay passed through London in order to +bury himself in second-rate Legations for years, before he +drifted home again to join Whitelaw Reid and George Smalley on +the Tribune. Frank Barlow and Frank Bartlett carried +Major-Generals' commissions into small law business. Miles stayed +in the army. Henry Higginson, after a desperate struggle, was +forced into State Street; Charles Adams wandered about, with +brevet-brigadier rank, trying to find employment. Scores of +others tried experiments more or less unsuccessful. Henry Adams +could see easy ways of making a hundred blunders; he could see no +likely way of making a legitimate success. Such as it was, his +so-called education was wanted nowhere. + + One profession alone seemed possible -- the press. In 1860 he +would have said that he was born to be an editor, like at least a +thousand other young graduates from American colleges who entered +the world every year enjoying the same conviction; but in 1866 +the situation was altered; the possession of money had become +doubly needful for success, and double energy was essential to +get money. America had more than doubled her scale. Yet the press +was still the last resource of the educated poor who could not be +artists and would not be tutors. Any man who was fit for nothing +else could write an editorial or a criticism. The enormous mass +of misinformation accumulated in ten years of nomad life could +always be worked off on a helpless public, in diluted doses, if +one could but secure a table in the corner of a newspaper office. +The press was an inferior pulpit; an anonymous schoolmaster; a +cheap boarding-school but it was still the nearest approach to a +career for the literary survivor of a wrecked education. For the +press, then, Henry Adams decided to fit himself, and since he +could not go home to get practical training, he set to work to do +what he could in London. + + He knew, as well as any reporter on the New York Herald, that +this was not an American way of beginning, and he knew a certain +number of other drawbacks which the reporter could not see so +clearly. Do what he might, he drew breath only in the atmosphere +of English methods and thoughts; he could breathe none other. His +mother -- who should have been a competent judge, since her +success and popularity in England exceeded that of her husband -- +averred that every woman who lived a certain time in England came +to look and dress like an Englishwoman, no matter how she +struggled. Henry Adams felt himself catching an English tone of +mind and processes of thought, though at heart more hostile to +them than ever. As though to make him more helpless and wholly +distort his life, England grew more and more agreeable and +amusing. Minister Adams became, in 1866, almost a historical +monument in London; he held a position altogether his own. His +old opponents disappeared. Lord Palmerston died in October, 1865; +Lord Russell tottered on six months longer, but then vanished +from power; and in July, 1866, the conservatives came into +office. Traditionally the Tories were easier to deal with than +the Whigs, and Minister Adams had no reason to regret the change. +His personal relations were excellent and his personal weight +increased year by year. On that score the private secretary had +no cares, and not much copy. His own position was modest, but it +was enough; the life he led was agreeable; his friends were all +he wanted, and, except that he was at the mercy of politics, he +felt much at ease. Of his daily life he had only to reckon so +many breakfasts; so many dinners; so many receptions, balls, +theatres, and country-parties; so many cards to be left; so many +Americans to be escorted -- the usual routine of every young +American in a Legation; all counting for nothing in sum, because, +even if it had been his official duty -- which it was not -- it +was mere routine, a single, continuous, unbroken act, which led +to nothing and nowhere except Portland Place and the grave. + + The path that led somewhere was the English habit of mind which +deepened its ruts every day. The English mind was like the London +drawing-room, a comfortable and easy spot, filled with bits and +fragments of incoherent furnitures, which were never meant to go +together, and could be arranged in any relation without making a +whole, except by the square room. Philosophy might dispute about +innate ideas till the stars died out in the sky, but about innate +tastes no one, except perhaps a collie dog, has the right to +doubt; least of all, the Englishman, for his tastes are his +being; he drifts after them as unconsciously as a honey-bee +drifts after his flowers, and, in England, every one must drift +with him. Most young Englishmen drifted to the race-course or the +moors or the hunting-field; a few towards books; one or two +followed some form of science; and a number took to what, for +want of a better name, they called Art. Young Adams inherited a +certain taste for the same pursuit from his father who insisted +that he had it not, because he could not see what his son thought +he saw in Turner. The Minister, on the other hand, carried a sort +of aesthetic rag-bag of his own, which he regarded as amusement, +and never called art. So he would wander off on a Sunday to +attend service successively in all the city churches built by Sir +Christopher Wren; or he would disappear from the Legation day +after day to attend coin sales at Sotheby's, where his son +attended alternate sales of drawings, engravings, or +water-colors. Neither knew enough to talk much about the other's +tastes, but the only difference between them was a slight +difference of direction. The Minister's mind like his writings +showed a correctness of form and line that his son would have +been well pleased had he inherited. + + Of all supposed English tastes, that of art was the most +alluring and treacherous. Once drawn into it, one had small +chance of escape, for it had no centre or circumference, no +beginning, middle, or end, no origin, no object, and no +conceivable result as education. In London one met no corrective. +The only American who came by, capable of teaching, was William +Hunt, who stopped to paint the portrait of the Minister which now +completes the family series at Harvard College. Hunt talked +constantly, and was, or afterwards became, a famous teacher, but +Henry Adams did not know enough to learn. Perhaps, too, he had +inherited or acquired a stock of tastes, as young men must, which +he was slow to outgrow. Hunt had no time to sweep out the rubbish +of Adams's mind. The portrait finished, he went. + + As often as he could, Adams ran over to Paris, for sunshine, +and there always sought out Richardson in his attic in the Rue du +Bac, or wherever he lived, and they went off to dine at the +Palais Royal, and talk of whatever interested the students of the +Beaux Arts. Richardson, too, had much to say, but had not yet +seized his style. Adams caught very little of what lay in his +mind, and the less, because, to Adams, everything French was bad +except the restaurants, while the continuous life in England made +French art seem worst of all. This did not prove that English +art, in 1866, was good; far from it; but it helped to make +bric-a-brac of all art, after the manner of England. + + Not in the Legation, or in London, but in Yorkshire at Thornes, +Adams met the man that pushed him furthest in this English garden +of innate disorder called taste. The older daughter of the Milnes +Gaskells had married Francis Turner Palgrave. Few Americans will +ever ask whether any one has described the Palgraves, but the +family was one of the most describable in all England at that +day. Old Sir Francis, the father, had been much the greatest of +all the historians of early England, the only one who was +un-English; and the reason of his superiority lay in his name, +which was Cohen, and his mind which was Cohen also, or at least +not English. He changed his name to Palgrave in order to please +his wife. They had a band of remarkable sons: Francis Turner, +Gifford, Reginald, Inglis; all of whom made their mark. Gifford +was perhaps the most eccentric, but his "Travels" in Arabia were +famous, even among the famous travels of that generation. Francis +Turner -- or, as he was commonly called, Frank Palgrave -- unable +to work off his restlessness in travel like Gifford, and stifled +in the atmosphere of the Board of Education, became a critic. His +art criticisms helped to make the Saturday Review a terror to the +British artist. His literary taste, condensed into the "Golden +Treasury," helped Adams to more literary education than he ever +got from any taste of his own. Palgrave himself held rank as one +of the minor poets; his hymns had vogue. As an art-critic he was +too ferocious to be liked; even Holman Hunt found his temper +humorous; among many rivals, he may perhaps have had a right to +claim the much-disputed rank of being the most unpopular man in +London; but he liked to teach, and asked only for a docile pupil. +Adams was docile enough, for he knew nothing and liked to listen. +Indeed, he had to listen, whether he liked or not, for Palgrave's +voice was strident, and nothing could stop him. Literature, +painting, sculpture, architecture were open fields for his +attacks, which were always intelligent if not always kind, and +when these failed, he readily descended to meaner levels. John +Richard Green, who was Palgrave's precise opposite, and whose +Irish charm of touch and humor defended him from most assaults, +used to tell with delight of Palgrave's call on him just after he +had moved into his new Queen Anne house in Kensington Square: +"Palgrave called yesterday, and the first thing he said was, +'I've counted three anachronisms on your front doorstep.' " + + Another savage critic, also a poet, was Thomas Woolner, a type +almost more emphatic than Palgrave in a society which resounded +with emphasis. Woolner's sculpture showed none of the rough +assertion that Woolner himself showed, when he was not making +supernatural effort to be courteous, but his busts were +remarkable, and his work altogether was, in Palgrave's clamorous +opinion, the best of his day. He took the matter of British art +-- or want of art -- seriously, almost ferociously, as a personal +grievance and torture; at times he was rather terrifying in the +anarchistic wrath of his denunciation. as Henry Adams felt no +responsibility for English art, and had no American art to offer +for sacrifice, he listened with enjoyment to language much like +Carlyle's, and accepted it without a qualm. On the other hand, as +a third member of this critical group, he fell in with Stopford +Brooke whose tastes lay in the same direction, and whose +expression was modified by clerical propriety. Among these men, +one wandered off into paths of education much too devious and +slippery for an American foot to follow. He would have done +better to go on the race-track, as far as concerned a career. + + Fortunately for him he knew too little ever to be an +art-critic, still less an artist. For some things ignorance is +good, and art is one of them. He knew he knew nothing, and had +not the trained eye or the keen instinct that trusted itself; but +he was curious, as he went on, to find out how much others knew. +He took Palgrave's word as final about a drawing of Rembrandt or +Michael Angelo, and he trusted Woolner implicitly about a Turner; +but when he quoted their authority to any dealer, the dealer +pooh-poohed it, and declared that it had no weight in the trade. +If he went to a sale of drawings or paintings, at Sotheby's or +Christie's, an hour afterwards, he saw these same dealers +watching Palgrave or Woolner for a point, and bidding over them. +He rarely found two dealers agree in judgment. He once bought a +water-color from the artist himself out of his studio, and had it +doubted an hour afterwards by the dealer to whose place he took +it for framing He was reduced to admit that he could not prove +its authenticity; internal evidence was against it. + + One morning in early July, 1867, Palgrave stopped at the +Legation in Portland Place on his way downtown, and offered to +take Adams to Sotheby's, where a small collection of old drawings +was on show. The collection was rather a curious one, said to be +that of Sir Anthony Westcomb, from Liverpool, with an undisturbed +record of a century, but with nothing to attract notice. Probably +none but collectors or experts examined the portfolios. Some +dozens of these were always on hand, following every sale, and +especially on the lookout for old drawings, which became rarer +every year. Turning rapidly over the numbers, Palgrave stopped at +one containing several small drawings, one marked as Rembrandt, +one as Rafael; and putting his finger on the Rafael, after +careful examination; "I should buy this," he said; "it looks to +me like one of those things that sell for five shillings one day, +and fifty pounds the next." Adams marked it for a bid, and the +next morning came down to the auction. The numbers sold slowly, +and at noon he thought he might safely go to lunch. When he came +back, half an hour afterwards, the drawing was gone. Much annoyed +at his own stupidity, since Palgrave had expressly said he wanted +the drawing for himself if he had not in a manner given it to +Adams, the culprit waited for the sale to close, and then asked +the clerk for the name of the buyer. It was Holloway, the +art-dealer, near Covent Garden, whom he slightly knew. Going at +once to the shop he waited till young Holloway came in, with his +purchases under his arm, and without attempt at preface, he said: +"You bought to-day, Mr. Holloway, a number that I wanted. Do you +mind letting me have it?" Holloway took out the parcel, looked +over the drawings, and said that he had bought the number for the +sake of the Rembrandt, which he thought possibly genuine; taking +that out, Adams might have the rest for the price he paid for the +lot -- twelve shillings. + + Thus, down to that moment, every expert in London had probably +seen these drawings. Two of them -- only two -- had thought them +worth buying at any price, and of these two, Palgrave chose the +Rafael, Holloway the one marked as Rembrandt. Adams, the +purchaser of the Rafael, knew nothing whatever on the subject, +but thought he might credit himself with education to the value +of twelve shillings, and call the drawing nothing. Such items of +education commonly came higher. + + He took the drawing to Palgrave. It was closely pasted to an +old, rather thin, cardboard mount, and, on holding it up to the +window, one could see lines on the reverse. "Take it down to Reed +at the British Museum," said Palgrave; "he is Curator of the +drawings, and, if you ask him, he will have it taken off the +mount." Adams amused himself for a day or two by searching +Rafael's works for the figure, which he found at last in the +Parnasso, the figure of Horace, of which, as it happened -- +though Adams did not know it -- the British Museum owned a much +finer drawing. At last he took the dirty, little, unfinished +red-chalk sketch to Reed whom he found in the Curator's room, +with some of the finest Rafael drawings in existence, hanging on +the walls. "Yes!" said Mr Reed; "I noticed this at the sale; but +it's not Rafael!" Adams, feeling himself incompetent to discuss +this subject, reported the result to Palgrave, who said that Reed +knew nothing about it. Also this point lay beyond Adams's +competence; but he noted that Reed was in the employ of the +British Museum as Curator of the best -- or nearly the best -- +collection in the world, especially of Rafaels, and that he +bought for the Museum. As expert he had rejected both the Rafael +and the Rembrandt at first-sight, and after his attention was +recalled to the Rafael for a further opinion he rejected it +again. + + A week later, Adams returned for the drawing, which Mr. Reed +took out of his drawer and gave him, saying with what seemed a +little doubt or hesitation: "I should tell you that the paper +shows a water-mark, which I kind the same as that of paper used +by Marc Antonio." A little taken back by this method of studying +art, a method which even a poor and ignorant American might use +as well as Rafael himself, Adams asked stupidly: "Then you think +it genuine?" "Possibly!" replied Reed; "but much overdrawn." + + Here was expert opinion after a second revise, with help of +water-marks! In Adams's opinion it was alone worth another twelve +shillings as education; but this was not all. Reed continued: +"The lines on the back seem to be writing, which I cannot read, +but if you will take it down to the manuscript-room, they will +read it for you." + + Adams took the sheet down to the keeper of the manuscripts and +begged him to read the lines. The keeper, after a few minutes' +study, very obligingly said he could not: "It is scratched with +an artist's crayon, very rapidly, with many unusual abbreviations +and old forms. If any one in Europe can read it, it is the old +man at the table yonder, Libri! Take it to him!" + + This expert broke down on the alphabet! He could not even judge +a manuscript; but Adams had no right to complain, for he had +nothing to pay, not even twelve shillings, though he thought +these experts worth more, at least for his education. Accordingly +he carried his paper to Libri, a total stranger to him, and asked +the old man, as deferentially as possible, to tell him whether +the lines had any meaning. Had Adams not been an ignorant person +he would have known all about Libri, but his ignorance was vast, +and perhaps was for the best. Libri looked at the paper, and then +looked again, and at last bade him sit down and wait. Half an +hour passed before he called Adams back and showed him these +lines:-- + "Or questo credo ben che una elleria + Te offende tanto che te offese il core. + Perche sei grande nol sei in tua volia; + Tu vedi e gia non credi il tuo valore; + Passate gia son tutte gelosie; + Tu sei di sasso; non hai piu dolore." + + As far as Adams could afterwards recall it, this was Libri's +reading, but he added that the abbreviations were many and +unusual; that the writing was very ancient; and that the word he +read as "elleria" in the first line was not Italian at all. + + By this time, one had got too far beyond one's depth to ask +questions. If Libri could not read Italian, very clearly Adams +had better not offer to help him. He took the drawing, thanked +everybody, and having exhausted the experts of the British +Museum, took a cab to Woolner's studio, where he showed the +figure and repeated Reed's opinion. Woolner snorted: "Reed's a +fool!" he said; "he knows nothing about it; there maybe a rotten +line or two, but the drawing's all right." + + For forty years Adams kept this drawing on his mantelpiece, +partly for its own interest, but largely for curiosity to see +whether any critic or artist would ever stop to look at it. None +ever did, unless he knew the story. Adams himself never wanted to +know more about it. He refused to seek further light. He never +cared to learn whether the drawing was Rafael's, or whether the +verse were Rafael's, or whether even the water-mark was Rafael's. +The experts -- some scores of them including the British Museum, +-- had affirmed that the drawing was worth a certain moiety of +twelve shillings. On that point, also, Adams could offer no +opinion, but he was clear that his education had profited by it +to that extent -- his amusement even more. + + Art was a superb field for education, but at every turn he met +the same old figure, like a battered and illegible signpost that +ought to direct him to the next station but never did. There was +no next station. All the art of a thousand -- or ten thousand -- +years had brought England to stuff which Palgrave and Woolner +brayed in their mortars; derided, tore in tatters, growled at, +and howled at, and treated in terms beyond literary usage. +Whistler had not yet made his appearance in London, but the +others did quite as well. What result could a student reach from +it? Once, on returning to London, dining with Stopford Brooke, +some one asked Adams what impression the Royal Academy Exhibition +made on him. With a little hesitation, he suggested that it was +rather a chaos, which he meant for civility; but Stopford Brooke +abruptly met it by asking whether chaos were not better than +death. Truly the question was worth discussion. For his own part, +Adams inclined to think that neither chaos nor death was an +object to him as a searcher of knowledge -- neither would have +vogue in America -- neither would help him to a career. Both of +them led him away from his objects, into an English dilettante +museum of scraps, with nothing but a wall-paper to unite them in +any relation of sequence. Possibly English taste was one degree +more fatal than English scholarship, but even this question was +open to argument. Adams went to the sales and bought what he was +told to buy; now a classical drawing by Rafael or Rubens; now a +water-color by Girtin or Cotman, if possible unfinished because +it was more likely to be a sketch from nature; and he bought them +not because they went together -- on the contrary, they made +rather awkward spots on the wall as they did on the mind -- but +because he could afford to buy those, and not others. Ten pounds +did not go far to buy a Michael Angelo, but was a great deal of +money to a private secretary. The effect was spotty, fragmentary, +feeble; and the more so because the British mind was constructed +in that way -- boasted of it, and held it to be true philosophy +as well as sound method. + + What was worse, no one had a right to denounce the English as +wrong. Artistically their mind was scrappy, and every one knew +it, but perhaps thought itself, history, and nature, were +scrappy, and ought to be studied so. Turning from British art to +British literature, one met the same dangers. The historical +school was a playground of traps and pitfalls. Fatally one fell +into the sink of history -- antiquarianism. For one who nourished +a natural weakness for what was called history, the whole of +British literature in the nineteenth century was antiquarianism +or anecdotage, for no one except Buckle had tried to link it with +ideas, and commonly Buckle was regarded as having failed. +Macaulay was the English historian. Adams had the greatest +admiration for Macaulay, but he felt that any one who should even +distantly imitate Macaulay would perish in self-contempt. One +might as well imitate Shakespeare. Yet evidently something was +wrong here, for the poet and the historian ought to have +different methods, and Macaulay's method ought to be imitable if +it were sound; yet the method was more doubtful than the style. +He was a dramatist; a painter; a poet, like Carlyle. This was the +English mind, method, genius, or whatever one might call it; but +one never could quite admit that the method which ended in Froude +and Kinglake could be sound for America where passion and poetry +were eccentricities. Both Froude and Kinglake, when one met them +at dinner, were very agreeable, very intelligent; and perhaps the +English method was right, and art fragmentary by essence. +History, like everything else, might be a field of scraps, like +the refuse about a Staffordshire iron-furnace. One felt a little +natural reluctance to decline and fall like Silas Wegg on the +golden dust-heap of British refuse; but if one must, one could at +least expect a degree from Oxford and the respect of the +Athenaeum Club. + + While drifting, after the war ended, many old American friends +came abroad for a holiday, and among the rest, Dr. Palfrey, busy +with his "History of New England." Of all the relics of +childhood, Dr. Palfrey was the most sympathetic, and perhaps the +more so because he, too, had wandered into the pleasant meadows +of antiquarianism, and had forgotten the world in his pursuit of +the New England Puritan. Although America seemed becoming more +and more indifferent to the Puritan except as a slightly rococo +ornament, he was only the more amusing as a study for the +Monkbarns of Boston Bay, and Dr. Palfrey took him seriously, as +his clerical education required. His work was rather an Apologia +in the Greek sense; a justification of the ways of God to Man, +or, what was much the same thing, of Puritans to other men; and +the task of justification was onerous enough to require the +occasional relief of a contrast or scapegoat. When Dr. Palfrey +happened on the picturesque but unpuritanic figure of Captain +John Smith, he felt no call to beautify Smith's picture or to +defend his moral character; he became impartial and penetrating. +The famous story of Pocahontas roused his latent New England +scepticism. He suggested to Adams, who wanted to make a position +for himself, that an article in the North American Review on +Captain John Smith's relations with Pocahontas would attract as +much attention, and probably break as much glass, as any other +stone that could be thrown by a beginner. Adams could suggest +nothing better. The task seemed likely to be amusing. So he +planted himself in the British Museum and patiently worked over +all the material he could find, until, at last, after three or +four months of labor, he got it in shape and sent it to Charles +Norton, who was then editing the North American. Mr. Norton very +civilly and even kindly accepted it. The article appeared in +January, 1867. + + Surely, here was something to ponder over, as a step in +education; something that tended to stagger a sceptic! In spite +of personal wishes, intentions, and prejudices; in spite of civil +wars and diplomatic education; in spite of determination to be +actual, daily, and practical, Henry Adams found himself, at +twenty-eight, still in English society, dragged on one side into +English dilettantism, which of all dilettantism he held the most +futile; and, on the other, into American antiquarianism, which of +all antiquarianism he held the most foolish. This was the result +of five years in London. Even then he knew it to be a false +start. He had wholly lost his way. If he were ever to amount to +anything, he must begin a new education, in a new place, with a +new purpose. + + +CHAPTER XV + +DARWINISM (1867-1868) + + POLITICS, diplomacy, law, art, and history had opened no outlet +for future energy or effort, but a man must do something, even in +Portland Place, when winter is dark and winter evenings are +exceedingly long. At that moment Darwin was convulsing society. +The geological champion of Darwin was Sir Charles Lyell, and the +Lyells were intimate at the Legation. Sir Charles constantly said +of Darwin, what Palgrave said of Tennyson, that the first time he +came to town, Adams should be asked to meet him, but neither of +them ever came to town, or ever cared to meet a young American, +and one could not go to them because they were known to dislike +intrusion. The only Americans who were not allowed to intrude +were the half-dozen in the Legation. Adams was content to read +Darwin, especially his "Origin of Species" and his "Voyage of the +Beagle." He was a Darwinist before the letter; a predestined +follower of the tide; but he was hardly trained to follow +Darwin's evidences. Fragmentary the British mind might be, but in +those days it was doing a great deal of work in a very un-English +way, building up so many and such vast theories on such narrow +foundations as to shock the conservative, and delight the +frivolous. The atomic theory; the correlation and conservation of +energy; the mechanical theory of the universe; the kinetic theory +of gases, and Darwin's Law of Natural Selection, were examples of +what a young man had to take on trust. Neither he nor any one +else knew enough to verify them; in his ignorance of mathematics, +he was particularly helpless; but this never stood in his way. +The ideas were new and seemed to lead somewhere -- to some great +generalization which would finish one's clamor to be educated. +That a beginner should understand them all, or believe them all, +no one could expect, still less exact. Henry Adams was Darwinist +because it was easier than not, for his ignorance exceeded +belief, and one must know something in order to contradict even +such triflers as Tyndall and Huxley. + + By rights, he should have been also a Marxist but some narrow +trait of the New England nature seemed to blight socialism, and +he tried in vain to make himself a convert. He did the next best +thing; he became a Comteist, within the limits of evolution. He +was ready to become anything but quiet. As though the world had +not been enough upset in his time, he was eager to see it upset +more. He had his wish, but he lost his hold on the results by +trying to understand them. + + He never tried to understand Darwin; but he still fancied he +might get the best part of Darwinism from the easier study of +geology; a science which suited idle minds as well as though it +were history. Every curate in England dabbled in geology and +hunted for vestiges of Creation. Darwin hunted only for vestiges +of Natural Selection, and Adams followed him, although he cared +nothing about Selection, unless perhaps for the indirect +amusement of upsetting curates. He felt, like nine men in ten, an +instinctive belief in Evolution, but he felt no more concern in +Natural than in unnatural Selection, though he seized with +greediness the new volume on the "Antiquity of Man" which Sir +Charles Lyell published in 1863 in order to support Darwin by +wrecking the Garden of Eden. Sir Charles next brought out, in +1866, a new edition of his "Principles," then the highest +text-book of geology; but here the Darwinian doctrine grew in +stature. Natural Selection led back to Natural Evolution, and at +last to Natural Uniformity. This was a vast stride. Unbroken +Evolution under uniform conditions pleased every one -- except +curates and bishops; it was the very best substitute for +religion; a safe, conservative practical, thoroughly Common-Law +deity. Such a working system for the universe suited a young man +who had just helped to waste five or ten thousand million dollars +and a million lives, more or less, to enforce unity and +uniformity on people who objected to it; the idea was only too +seductive in its perfection; it had the charm of art. Unity and +Uniformity were the whole motive of philosophy, and if Darwin, +like a true Englishman, preferred to back into it -- to reach God +a posteriori -- rather than start from it, like Spinoza, the +difference of method taught only the moral that the best way of +reaching unity was to unite. Any road was good that arrived. +Life depended on it. One had been, from the first, dragged hither +and thither like a French poodle on a string, following always +the strongest pull, between one form of unity or centralization +and another. The proof that one had acted wisely because of +obeying the primordial habit of nature flattered one's +self-esteem. Steady, uniform, unbroken evolution from lower to +higher seemed easy. So, one day when Sir Charles came to the +Legation to inquire about getting his "Principles" properly +noticed in America, young Adams found nothing simpler than to +suggest that he could do it himself if Sir Charles would tell him +what to say. Youth risks such encounters with the universe before +one succumbs to it, yet even he was surprised at Sir Charles's +ready assent, and still more so at finding himself, after half an +hour's conversation, sitting down to clear the minds of American +geologists about the principles of their profession. This was +getting on fast; Arthur Pendennis had never gone so far. + + The geologists were a hardy class, not likely to be much hurt +by Adams's learning, nor did he throw away much concern on their +account. He undertook the task chiefly to educate, not them, but +himself, and if Sir Isaac Newton had, like Sir Charles Lyell, +asked him to explain for Americans his last edition of the +"Principia," Adams would have jumped at the chance. Unfortunately +the mere reading such works for amusement is quite a different +matter from studying them for criticism. Ignorance must always +begin at the beginning. Adams must inevitably have begun by +asking Sir Isaac for an intelligible reason why the apple fell to +the ground. He did not know enough to be satisfied with the fact. +The Law of Gravitation was so-and-so, but what was Gravitation? +and he would have been thrown quite off his base if Sir Isaac had +answered that he did not know. + + At the very outset Adams struck on Sir Charles's Glacial Theory +or theories. He was ignorant enough to think that the glacial +epoch looked like a chasm between him and a uniformitarian world. +If the glacial period were uniformity, what was catastrophe? To +him the two or three labored guesses that Sir Charles suggested +or borrowed to explain glaciation were proof of nothing, and were +quite unsolid as support for so immense a superstructure as +geological uniformity. If one were at liberty to be as lax in +science as in theology, and to assume unity from the start, one +might better say so, as the Church did, and not invite attack by +appearing weak in evidence. Naturally a young man, altogether +ignorant, could not say this to Sir Charles Lyell or Sir Isaac +Newton; but he was forced to state Sir Charles's views, which he +thought weak as hypotheses and worthless as proofs. Sir Charles +himself seemed shy of them. Adams hinted his heresies in vain. At +last he resorted to what he thought the bold experiment of +inserting a sentence in the text, intended to provoke correction. +"The introduction [by Louis Agassiz] of this new geological agent +seemed at first sight inconsistent with Sir Charles's argument, +obliging him to allow that causes had in fact existed on the +earth capable of producing more violent geological changes than +would be possible in our own day." The hint produced no effect. +Sir Charles said not a word; he let the paragraph stand; and +Adams never knew whether the great Uniformitarian was strict or +lax in his uniformitarian creed; but he doubted. + + Objections fatal to one mind are futile to another, and as far +as concerned the article, the matter ended there, although the +glacial epoch remained a misty region in the young man's +Darwinism. Had it been the only one, he would not have fretted +about it; but uniformity often worked queerly and sometimes did +not work as Natural Selection at all. Finding himself at a loss +for some single figure to illustrate the Law of Natural +Selection, Adams asked Sir Charles for the simplest case of +uniformity on record. Much to his surprise Sir Charles told him +that certain forms, like Terebratula, appeared to be identical +from the beginning to the end of geological time. Since this was +altogether too much uniformity and much too little selection, +Adams gave up the attempt to begin at the beginning, and tried +starting at the end -- himself. Taking for granted that the +vertebrates would serve his purpose, he asked Sir Charles to +introduce him to the first vertebrate. Infinitely to his +bewilderment, Sir Charles informed him that the first vertebrate +was a very respectable fish, among the earliest of all fossils, +which had lived, and whose bones were still reposing, under +Adams's own favorite Abbey on Wenlock Edge. + + By this time, in 1867 Adams had learned to know Shropshire +familiarly, and it was the part of his diplomatic education which +he loved best. Like Catherine Olney in "Northanger Abbey," he +yearned for nothing so keenly as to feel at home in a +thirteenth-century Abbey, unless it were to haunt a +fifteenth-century Prior's House, and both these joys were his at +Wenlock. With companions or without, he never tired of it. +Whether he rode about the Wrekin, or visited all the historical +haunts from Ludlow Castle and Stokesay to Boscobel and Uriconium; +or followed the Roman road or scratched in the Abbey ruins, all +was amusing and carried a flavor of its own like that of the +Roman Campagna; but perhaps he liked best to ramble over the Edge +on a summer afternoon and look across the Marches to the +mountains of Wales. The peculiar flavor of the scenery has +something to do with absence of evolution; it was better marked +in Egypt: it was felt wherever time-sequences became +interchangeable. One's instinct abhors time. As one lay on the +slope of the Edge, looking sleepily through the summer haze +towards Shrewsbury or Cader Idris or Caer Caradoc or Uriconium, +nothing suggested sequence. The Roman road was twin to the +railroad; Uriconium was well worth Shrewsbury; Wenlock and +Buildwas were far superior to Bridgnorth. The shepherds of +Caractacus or Offa, or the monks of Buildwas, had they approached +where he lay in the grass, would have taken him only for another +and tamer variety of Welsh thief. They would have seen little to +surprise them in the modern landscape unless it were the steam of +a distant railway. One might mix up the terms of time as one +liked, or stuff the present anywhere into the past, measuring +time by Falstaff's Shrewsbury clock, without violent sense of +wrong, as one could do it on the Pacific Ocean; but the triumph +of all was to look south along the Edge to the abode of one's +earliest ancestor and nearest relative, the ganoid fish, whose +name, according to Professor Huxley, was Pteraspis, a cousin of +the sturgeon, and whose kingdom, according to Sir Roderick +Murchison, was called Siluria. Life began and ended there. Behind +that horizon lay only the Cambrian, without vertebrates or any +other organism except a few shell-fish. On the further verge of +the Cambrian rose the crystalline rocks from which every trace of +organic existence had been erased. + + That here, on the Wenlock Edge of time, a young American, +seeking only frivolous amusement, should find a legitimate +parentage as modern as though just caught in the Severn below, +astonished him as much as though he had found Darwin himself. In +the scale of evolution, one vertebrate was as good as another. +For anything he, or any one else, knew, nine hundred and ninety +nine parts of evolution out of a thousand lay behind or below the +Pteraspis . To an American in search of a father, it mattered +nothing whether the father breathed through lungs, or walked on +fins, or on feet. Evolution of mind was altogether another matter +and belonged to another science, but whether one traced descent +from the shark or the wolf was immaterial even in morals. This +matter had been discussed for ages without scientific result. La +Fontaine and other fabulists maintained that the wolf, even in +morals, stood higher than man; and in view of the late civil war, +Adams had doubts of his own on the facts of moral evolution:-- + + "Tout bien considere, je te soutiens en somme, + Que scelerat pour scelerat, + Il vaut mieux etre un loup qu'un homme." + + It might well be! At all events, it did not enter into the +problem of Pteraspis, for it was quite certain that no complete +proof of Natural Selection had occurred back to the time of +Pteraspis, and that before Pteraspis was eternal void. No trace +of any vertebrate had been found there; only starfish, +shell-fish, polyps, or trilobites whose kindly descendants he had +often bathed with, as a child on the shores of Quincy Bay. + + That Pteraspis and shark were his cousins, great-uncles, or +grandfathers, in no way troubled him, but that either or both of +them should be older than evolution itself seemed to him +perplexing; nor could he at all simplify the problem by taking +the sudden back-somersault into Quincy Bay in search of the +fascinating creature he had called a horseshoe, whose huge dome +of shell and sharp spur of tail had so alarmed him as a child. In +Siluria, he understood, Sir Roderick Murchison called the +horseshoe a Limulus , which helped nothing. Neither in the +Limulus nor in the Terebratula , nor in the Cestracion Philippi +,any more than in the Pteraspis, could one conceive an ancestor, +but, if one must, the choice mattered little. Cousinship had +limits but no one knew enough to fix them. When the vertebrate +vanished in Siluria, it disappeared instantly and forever. +Neither vertebra nor scale nor print reappeared, nor any trace of +ascent or descent to a lower type. The vertebrate began in the +Ludlow shale, as complete as Adams himself -- in some respects +more so -- at the top of the column of organic evolution: and +geology offered no sort of proof that he had ever been anything +else. Ponder over it as he might, Adams could see nothing in the +theory of Sir Charles but pure inference, precisely like the +inference of Paley, that, if one found a watch, one inferred a +maker. He could detect no more evolution in life since the +Pteraspis than he could detect it in architecture since the +Abbey. All he could prove was change. Coal-power alone asserted +evolution -- of power -- and only by violence could be forced to +assert selection of type. + + All this seemed trivial to the true Darwinian, and to Sir +Charles it was mere defect in the geological record. Sir Charles +labored only to heap up the evidences of evolution; to cumulate +them till the mass became irresistible. With that purpose, Adams +gladly studied and tried to help Sir Charles, but, behind the +lesson of the day, he was conscious that, in geology as in +theology, he could prove only Evolution that did not evolve; +Uniformity that was not uniform; and Selection that did not +select. To other Darwinians -- except Darwin -- Natural Selection +seemed a dogma to be put in the place of the Athanasian creed; it +was a form of religious hope; a promise of ultimate perfection. +Adams wished no better; he warmly sympathized in the object; but +when he came to ask himself what he truly thought, he felt that +he had no Faith; that whenever the next new hobby should be +brought out, he should surely drop off from Darwinism like a +monkey from a perch; that the idea of one Form, Law, Order, or +Sequence had no more value for him than the idea of none; that +what he valued most was Motion, and that what attracted his mind +was Change. + + Psychology was to him a new study, and a dark corner of +education. As he lay on Wenlock Edge, with the sheep nibbling the +grass close about him as they or their betters had nibbled the +grass -- or whatever there was to nibble -- in the Silurian +kingdom of Pteraspis, he seemed to have fallen on an evolution +far more wonderful than that of fishes. He did not like it; he +could not account for it; and he determined to stop it. Never +since the days of his Limulus ancestry had any of his ascendants +thought thus. Their modes of thought might be many, but their +thought was one. Out of his millions of millions of ancestors, +back to the Cambrian mollusks, every one had probably lived and +died in the illusion of Truths which did not amuse him, and which +had never changed. Henry Adams was the first in an infinite +series to discover and admit to himself that he really did not +care whether truth was, or was not, true. He did not even care +that it should be proved true, unless the process were new and +amusing. He was a Darwinian for fun. + + From the beginning of history, this attitude had been branded +as criminal -- worse than crime -- sacrilege! Society punished it +ferociously and justly, in self-defence. Mr. Adams, the father, +looked on it as moral weakness; it annoyed him; but it did not +annoy him nearly so much as it annoyed his son, who had no need +to learn from Hamlet the fatal effect of the pale cast of thought +on enterprises great or small. He had no notion of letting the +currents of his action be turned awry by this form of conscience. +To him, the current of his time was to be his current, lead where +it might. He put psychology under lock and key; he insisted on +maintaining his absolute standards; on aiming at ultimate Unity. +The mania for handling all the sides of every question, looking +into every window, and opening every door, was, as Bluebeard +judiciously pointed out to his wives, fatal to their practical +usefulness in society. One could not stop to chase doubts as +though they were rabbits. One had no time to paint and putty the +surface of Law, even though it were cracked and rotten. For the +young men whose lives were cast in the generation between 1867 +and 1900, Law should be Evolution from lower to higher, +aggregation of the atom in the mass, concentration of +multiplicity in unity, compulsion of anarchy in order; and he +would force himself to follow wherever it led, though he should +sacrifice five thousand millions more in money, and a million +more lives. + + As the path ultimately led, it sacrificed much more than this; +but at the time, he thought the price he named a high one, and he +could not foresee that science and society would desert him in +paying it. He, at least, took his education as a Darwinian in +good faith. The Church was gone, and Duty was dim, but Will +should take its place, founded deeply in interest and law. This +was the result of five or six years in England; a result so +British as to be almost the equivalent of an Oxford degree. + + Quite serious about it, he set to work at once. While confusing +his ideas about geology to the apparent satisfaction of Sir +Charles who left him his field-compass in token of it, Adams +turned resolutely to business, and attacked the burning question +of specie payments. His principles assured him that the honest +way to resume payments was to restrict currency. He thought he +might win a name among financiers and statesmen at home by +showing how this task had been done by England, after the +classical suspension of 1797-1821. Setting himself to the study +of this perplexed period, he waded as well as he could through a +morass of volumes, pamphlets, and debates, until he learned to +his confusion that the Bank of England itself and all the best +British financial writers held that restriction was a fatal +mistake, and that the best treatment of a debased currency was to +let it alone, as the Bank had in fact done. Time and patience +were the remedies. + + The shock of this discovery to his financial principles was +serious; much more serious than the shock of the Terebratula and +Pteraspis to his principles of geology. A mistake about +Evolution was not fatal; a mistake about specie payments would +destroy forever the last hope of employment in State Street. Six +months of patient labor would be thrown away if he did not +publish, and with it his whole scheme of making himself a +position as a practical man-of-business. If he did publish, how +could he tell virtuous bankers in State Street that moral and +absolute principles of abstract truth, such as theirs, had +nothing to do with the matter, and that they had better let it +alone? Geologists, naturally a humble and helpless class, might +not revenge impertinences offered to their science; but +capitalists never forgot or forgave. + + With labor and caution he made one long article on British +Finance in 1816, and another on the Bank Restriction of +1797-1821, and, doing both up in one package, he sent it to the +North American for choice. He knew that two heavy, technical, +financial studies thus thrown at an editor's head, would probably +return to crush the author; but the audacity of youth is more +sympathetic -- when successful -- than his ignorance. The editor +accepted both. + + When the post brought his letter, Adams looked at it as though +he were a debtor who had begged for an extension. He read it with +as much relief as the debtor, if it had brought him the loan. The +letter gave the new writer literary rank. Henceforward he had the +freedom of the press. These articles, following those on +Pocahontas and Lyell, enrolled him on the permanent staff of the +North American Review . Precisely what this rank was worth, no +one could say; but, for fifty years the North American Review +had been the stage coach which carried literary Bostonians to +such distinction as they had achieved. Few writers had ideas +which warranted thirty pages of development, but for such as +thought they had, the Review alone offered space. An article was +a small volume which required at least three months' work, and +was paid, at best, five dollars a page. Not many men even in +England or France could write a good thirty-page article, and +practically no one in America read them; but a few score of +people, mostly in search of items to steal, ran over the pages to +extract an idea or a fact, which was a sort of wild game -- a +bluefish or a teal -- worth anywhere from fifty cents to five +dollars. Newspaper writers had their eye on quarterly pickings. +The circulation of the Review had never exceeded three or four +hundred copies, and the Review had never paid its reasonable +expenses. Yet it stood at the head of American literary +periodicals; it was a source of suggestion to cheaper workers; it +reached far into societies that never knew its existence; it was +an organ worth playing on; and, in the fancy of Henry Adams, it +led, in some indistinct future, to playing on a New York daily +newspaper. + + With the editor's letter under his eyes, Adams asked himself +what better he could have done. On the whole, considering his +helplessness, he thought he had done as well as his neighbors. No +one could yet guess which of his contemporaries was most likely +to play a part in the great world. A shrewd prophet in Wall +Street might perhaps have set a mark on Pierpont Morgan, but +hardly on the Rockefellers or William C. Whitney or Whitelaw +Reid. No one would have picked out William McKinley or John Hay +or Mark Hanna for great statesmen. Boston was ignorant of the +careers in store for Alexander Agassiz and Henry Higginson. +Phillips Brooks was unknown; Henry James was unheard; Howells was +new; Richardson and LaFarge were struggling for a start. Out of +any score of names and reputations that should reach beyond the +century, the thirty-years-old who were starting in the year 1867 +could show none that was so far in advance as to warrant odds in +its favor. The army men had for the most part fallen to the +ranks. Had Adams foreseen the future exactly as it came, he would +have been no wiser, and could have chosen no better path. + + Thus it turned out that the last year in England was the +pleasantest. He was already old in society, and belonged to the +Silurian horizon. The Prince of Wales had come. Mr. Disraeli, +Lord Stanley, and the future Lord Salisbury had thrown into the +background the memories of Palmerston and Russell. Europe was +moving rapidly, and the conduct of England during the American +Civil War was the last thing that London liked to recall. The +revolution since 1861 was nearly complete, and, for the first +time in history, the American felt himself almost as strong as an +Englishman. He had thirty years to wait before he should feel +himself stronger. Meanwhile even a private secretary could afford +to be happy. His old education was finished; his new one was not +begun; he still loitered a year, feeling himself near the end of +a very long, anxious, tempestuous, successful voyage, with +another to follow, and a summer sea between. + + He made what use he could of it. In February, 1868, he was back +in Rome with his friend Milnes Gaskell. For another season he +wandered on horseback over the campagna or on foot through the +Rome of the middle ages, and sat once more on the steps of Ara +Coeli, as had become with him almost a superstition, like the +waters of the fountain of Trevi. Rome was still tragic and solemn +as ever, with its mediaeval society, artistic, literary, and +clerical, taking itself as seriously as in the days of Byron and +Shelley. The long ten years of accidental education had changed +nothing for him there. He knew no more in 1868 than in 1858. He +had learned nothing whatever that made Rome more intelligible to +him, or made life easier to handle. The case was no better when +he got back to London and went through his last season. London +had become his vice. He loved his haunts, his houses, his habits, +and even his hansom cabs. He loved growling like an Englishman, +and going into society where he knew not a face, and cared not a +straw. He lived deep into the lives and loves and disappointments +of his friends. When at last he found himself back again at +Liverpool, his heart wrenched by the act of parting, he moved +mechanically, unstrung, but he had no more acquired education +than when he first trod the steps of the Adelphi Hotel in +November, 1858. He could see only one great change, and this was +wholly in years. Eaton Hall no longer impressed his imagination; +even the architecture of Chester roused but a sleepy interest; he +felt no sensation whatever in the atmosphere of the British +peerage, but mainly an habitual dislike to most of the people who +frequented their country houses; he had become English to the +point of sharing their petty social divisions, their dislikes and +prejudices against each other; he took England no longer with the +awe of American youth, but with the habit of an old and rather +worn suit of clothes. As far as he knew, this was all that +Englishmen meant by social education, but in any case it was all +the education he had gained from seven years in London. + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE PRESS (1868) + + AT ten o'clock of a July night, in heat that made the tropical +rain-shower simmer, the Adams family and the Motley family +clambered down the side of their Cunard steamer into the +government tugboat, which set them ashore in black darkness at +the end of some North River pier. Had they been Tyrian traders of +the year B.C. 1000 landing from a galley fresh from Gibraltar, +they could hardly have been stranger on the shore of a world, so +changed from what it had been ten years before. The historian of +the Dutch, no longer historian but diplomatist, started up an +unknown street, in company with the private secretary who had +become private citizen, in search of carriages to convey the two +parties to the Brevoort House. The pursuit was arduous but +successful. Towards midnight they found shelter once more in +their native land. + + How much its character had changed or was changing, they could +not wholly know, and they could but partly feel. For that matter, +the land itself knew no more than they. Society in America was +always trying, almost as blindly as an earthworm, to realize and +understand itself; to catch up with its own head, and to twist +about in search of its tail. Society offered the profile of a +long, straggling caravan, stretching loosely towards the +prairies, its few score of leaders far in advance and its +millions of immigrants, negroes, and Indians far in the rear, +somewhere in archaic time. It enjoyed the vast advantage over +Europe that all seemed, for the moment, to move in one direction, +while Europe wasted most of its energy in trying several +contradictory movements at once; but whenever Europe or Asia +should be polarized or oriented towards the same point, America +might easily lose her lead. Meanwhile each newcomer needed to +slip into a place as near the head of the caravan as possible, +and needed most to know where the leaders could be found. +One could divine pretty nearly where the force lay, since the +last ten years had given to the great mechanical energies -- +coal, iron, steam -- a distinct superiority in power over the old +industrial elements -- agriculture, handwork, and learning; but +the result of this revolution on a survivor from the fifties +resembled the action of the earthworm; he twisted about, in vain, +to recover his starting-point; he could no longer see his own +trail; he had become an estray; a flotsam or jetsam of wreckage; +a belated reveller, or a scholar-gipsy like Matthew Arnold's. His +world was dead. Not a Polish Jew fresh from Warsaw or Cracow -- +not a furtive Yacoob or Ysaac still reeking of the Ghetto, +snarling a weird Yiddish to the officers of the customs -- but +had a keener instinct, an intenser energy, and a freer hand than +he -- American of Americans, with Heaven knew how many Puritans +and Patriots behind him, and an education that had cost a civil +war. He made no complaint and found no fault with his time; he +was no worse off than the Indians or the buffalo who had been +ejected from their heritage by his own people; but he vehemently +insisted that he was not himself at fault. The defeat was not due +to him, nor yet to any superiority of his rivals. He had been +unfairly forced out of the track, and must get back into it as +best he could. + + One comfort he could enjoy to the full. Little as he might be +fitted for the work that was before him, he had only to look at +his father and Motley to see figures less fitted for it than he. +All were equally survivals from the forties -- bric-a-brac from +the time of Louis Philippe; stylists; doctrinaires; ornaments +that had been more or less suited to the colonial architecture, +but which never had much value in Desbrosses Street or Fifth +Avenue. They could scarcely have earned five dollars a day in any +modern industry. The men who commanded high pay were as a rule +not ornamental. Even Commodore Vanderbilt and Jay Gould lacked +social charm. Doubtless the country needed ornament -- needed it +very badly indeed -- but it needed energy still more, and capital +most of all, for its supply was ridiculously out of proportion to +its wants. On the new scale of power, merely to make the +continent habitable for civilized people would require an +immediate outlay that would have bankrupted the world. As yet, no +portion of the world except a few narrow stretches of western +Europe had ever been tolerably provided with the essentials of +comfort and convenience; to fit out an entire continent with +roads and the decencies of life would exhaust the credit of the +entire planet. Such an estimate seemed outrageous to a Texan +member of Congress who loved the simplicity of nature's noblemen; +but the mere suggestion that a sun existed above him would +outrage the self-respect of a deep-sea fish that carried a +lantern on the end of its nose. From the moment that railways +were introduced, life took on extravagance. + + Thus the belated reveller who landed in the dark at the +Desbrosses Street ferry, found his energies exhausted in the +effort to see his own length. The new Americans, of whom he was +to be one, must, whether they were fit or unfit, create a world +of their own, a science, a society, a philosophy, a universe, +where they had not yet created a road or even learned to dig +their own iron. They had no time for thought; they saw, and could +see, nothing beyond their day's work; their attitude to the +universe outside them was that of the deep-sea fish. Above all, +they naturally and intensely disliked to be told what to do, and +how to do it, by men who took their ideas and their methods from +the abstract theories of history, philosophy, or theology. They +knew enough to know that their world was one of energies quite +new. + + All this, the newcomer understood and accepted, since he could +not help himself and saw that the American could help himself as +little as the newcomer; but the fact remained that the more he +knew, the less he was educated. Society knew as much as this, and +seemed rather inclined to boast of it, at least on the stump; but +the leaders of industry betrayed no sentiment, popular or other. +They used, without qualm, whatever instruments they found at +hand. They had been obliged, in 1861, to turn aside and waste +immense energy in settling what had been settled a thousand years +before, and should never have been revived. At prodigious +expense, by sheer force, they broke resistance down, leaving +everything but the mere fact of power untouched, since nothing +else had a solution. Race and thought were beyond reach. Having +cleared its path so far, society went back to its work, and threw +itself on that which stood first -- its roads. The field was +vast; altogether beyond its power to control offhand; and society +dropped every thought of dealing with anything more than the +single fraction called a railway system. This relatively small +part of its task was still so big as to need the energies of a +generation, for it required all the new machinery to be created +-- capital, banks, mines, furnaces, shops, power-houses, +technical knowledge, mechanical population, together with a +steady remodelling of social and political habits, ideas, and +institutions to fit the new scale and suit the new conditions. +The generation between 1865 and 1895 was already mortgaged to the +railways, and no one knew it better than the generation itself. + + Whether Henry Adams knew it or not, he knew enough to act as +though he did. He reached Quincy once more, ready for the new +start. His brother Charles had determined to strike for the +railroads; Henry was to strike for the press; and they hoped to +play into each other's hands. They had great need, for they found +no one else to play with. After discovering the worthlessness of +a so-called education, they had still to discover the +worthlessness of so-called social connection. No young man had a +larger acquaintance and relationship than Henry Adams, yet he +knew no one who could help him. He was for sale, in the open +market. So were many of his friends. All the world knew it, and +knew too that they were cheap; to be bought at the price of a +mechanic. There was no concealment, no delicacy, and no illusion +about it. Neither he nor his friends complained; but he felt +sometimes a little surprised that, as far as he knew, no one, +seeking in the labor market, ever so much as inquired about their +fitness. The want of solidarity between old and young seemed +American. The young man was required to impose himself, by the +usual business methods, as a necessity on his elders, in order to +compel them to buy him as an investment. As Adams felt it, he was +in a manner expected to blackmail. Many a young man complained to +him in after life of the same experience, which became a matter +of curious reflection as he grew old. The labor market of good +society was ill-organized. + + Boston seemed to offer no market for educated labor. A peculiar +and perplexing amalgam Boston always was, and although it had +changed much in ten years, it was not less perplexing. One no +longer dined at two o'clock; one could no longer skate on Back +Bay; one heard talk of Bostonians worth five millions or more as +something not incredible. Yet the place seemed still simple, and +less restless-minded than ever before. In the line that Adams had +chosen to follow, he needed more than all else the help of the +press, but any shadow of hope on that side vanished instantly. +The less one meddled with the Boston press, the better. All the +newspapermen were clear on that point. The same was true of +politics. Boston meant business. The Bostonians were building +railways. Adams would have liked to help in building railways, +but had no education. He was not fit. + + He passed three or four months thus, visiting relations, +renewing friendships, and studying the situation. At thirty years +old, the man who has not yet got further than to study the +situation, is lost, or near it. He could see nothing in the +situation that could be of use to him. His friends had won no +more from it than he. His brother Charles, after three years of +civil life, was no better off than himself, except for being +married and in greater need of income. His brother John had +become a brilliant political leader on the wrong side. No one had +yet regained the lost ground of the war. + + He went to Newport and tried to be fashionable, but even in the +simple life of 1868, he failed as fashion. All the style he had +learned so painfully in London was worse than useless in America +where every standard was different. Newport was charming, but it +asked for no education and gave none. What it gave was much gayer +and pleasanter, and one enjoyed it amazingly; but friendships in +that society were a kind of social partnership, like the classes +at college; not education but the subjects of education. All were +doing the same thing, and asking the same question of the future. +None could help. Society seemed founded on the law that all was +for the best New Yorkers in the best of Newports, and that all +young people were rich if they could waltz. It was a new version +of the Ant and Grasshopper. + + At the end of three months, the only person, among the hundreds +he had met, who had offered him a word of encouragement or had +shown a sign of acquaintance with his doings, was Edward +Atkinson. Boston was cool towards sons, whether prodigals or +other, and needed much time to make up its mind what to do for +them -- time which Adams, at thirty years old, could hardly +spare. He had not the courage or self-confidence to hire an +office in State Street, as so many of his friends did, and doze +there alone, vacuity within and a snowstorm outside, waiting for +Fortune to knock at the door, or hoping to find her asleep in the +elevator; or on the staircase, since elevators were not yet in +use. Whether this course would have offered his best chance he +never knew; it was one of the points in practical education which +most needed a clear understanding, and he could never reach it. +His father and mother would have been glad to see him stay with +them and begin reading Blackstone again, and he showed no very +filial tenderness by abruptly breaking the tie that had lasted so +long. After all, perhaps Beacon Street was as good as any other +street for his objects in life; possibly his easiest and surest +path was from Beacon Street to State Street and back again, all +the days of his years. Who could tell? Even after life was over, +the doubt could not be determined. + + In thus sacrificing his heritage, he only followed the path +that had led him from the beginning. Boston was full of his +brothers. He had reckoned from childhood on outlawry as his +peculiar birthright. The mere thought of beginning life again in +Mount Vernon Street lowered the pulsations of his heart. This is +a story of education -- not a mere lesson of life -- and, with +education, temperament has in strictness nothing to do, although +in practice they run close together. Neither by temperament nor +by education was he fitted for Boston. He had drifted far away +and behind his companions there; no one trusted his temperament +or education; he had to go. + + Since no other path seemed to offer itself, he stuck to his +plan of joining the press, and selected Washington as the +shortest road to New York, but, in 1868, Washington stood outside +the social pale. No Bostonian had ever gone there. One announced +one's self as an adventurer and an office-seeker, a person of +deplorably bad judgment, and the charges were true. The chances +of ending in the gutter were, at best, even. The risk was the +greater in Adams's case, because he had no very clear idea what +to do when he got there. That he must educate himself over again, +for objects quite new, in an air altogether hostile to his old +educations, was the only certainty; but how he was to do it -- +how he was to convert the idler in Rotten Row into the lobbyist +of the Capital -- he had not an idea, and no one to teach him. +The question of money is rarely serious for a young American +unless he is married, and money never troubled Adams more than +others; not because he had it, but because he could do without +it, like most people in Washington who all lived on the income of +bricklayers; but with or without money he met the difficulty +that, after getting to Washington in order to go on the press, it +was necessary to seek a press to go on. For large work he could +count on the North American Review, but this was scarcely a +press. For current discussion and correspondence, he could depend +on the New York Nation; but what he needed was a New York daily, +and no New York daily needed him. He lost his one chance by the +death of Henry J. Raymond. The Tribune under Horace Greeley was +out of the question both for political and personal reasons, and +because Whitelaw Reid had already undertaken that singularly +venturesome position, amid difficulties that would have swamped +Adams in four-and-twenty hours. Charles A. Dana had made the Sun +a very successful as well as a very amusing paper, but had hurt +his own social position in doing it; and Adams knew himself well +enough to know that he could never please himself and Dana too; +with the best intentions, he must always fail as a blackguard, +and at that time a strong dash of blackguardism was life to the +Sun. As for the New York Herald, it was a despotic empire +admitting no personality but that of Bennett. Thus, for the +moment, the New York daily press offered no field except the +free-trade Holy Land of the Evening Post under William Cullen +Bryant, while beside it lay only the elevated plateau of the New +Jerusalem occupied by Godkin and the Nation. Much as Adams liked +Godkin, and glad as he was to creep under the shelter of the +Evening Post and the Nation, he was well aware that he should +find there only the same circle of readers that he reached in the +North American Review. + + The outlook was dim, but it was all he had, and at Washington, +except for the personal friendship of Mr. Evarts who was then +Attorney General and living there, he would stand in solitude +much like that of London in 1861. Evarts did what no one in +Boston seemed to care for doing; he held out a hand to the young +man. Whether Boston, like Salem, really shunned strangers, or +whether Evarts was an exception even in New York, he had the +social instinct which Boston had not. Generous by nature, +prodigal in hospitality, fond of young people, and a born +man-of-the-world, Evarts gave and took liberally, without +scruple, and accepted the world without fearing or abusing it. +His wit was the least part of his social attraction. His talk was +broad and free. He laughed where he could; he joked if a joke was +possible; he was true to his friends, and never lost his temper +or became ill-natured. Like all New Yorkers he was decidedly not +a Bostonian; but he was what one might call a transplanted New +Englander, like General Sherman; a variety, grown in ranker soil. +In the course of life, and in widely different countries, Adams +incurred heavy debts of gratitude to persons on whom he had no +claim and to whom he could seldom make return; perhaps +half-a-dozen such debts remained unpaid at last, although six is +a large number as lives go; but kindness seldom came more happily +than when Mr. Evarts took him to Washington in October, 1868. + + Adams accepted the hospitality of the sleeper, with deep +gratitude, the more because his first struggle with a +sleeping-car made him doubt the value -- to him -- of a Pullman +civilization; but he was even more grateful for the shelter of +Mr. Evarts's house in H Street at the corner of Fourteenth, where +he abode in safety and content till he found rooms in the +roomless village. To him the village seemed unchanged. Had he not +known that a great war and eight years of astonishing movement +had passed over it, he would have noticed nothing that betrayed +growth. As of old, houses were few; rooms fewer; even the men +were the same. No one seemed to miss the usual comforts of +civilization, and Adams was glad to get rid of them, for his best +chance lay in the eighteenth century. + + The first step, of course, was the making of acquaintance, and +the first acquaintance was naturally the President, to whom an +aspirant to the press officially paid respect. Evarts immediately +took him to the White House and presented him to President Andrew +Johnson. The interview was brief and consisted in the stock +remark common to monarchs and valets, that the young man looked +even younger than he was. The younger man felt even younger than +he looked. He never saw the President again, and never felt a +wish to see him, for Andrew Johnson was not the sort of man whom +a young reformer of thirty, with two or three foreign educations, +was likely to see with enthusiasm; yet, musing over the interview +as a matter of education, long years afterwards, he could not +help recalling the President's figure with a distinctness that +surprised him. The old-fashioned Southern Senator and statesman +sat in his chair at his desk with a look of self-esteem that had +its value. None doubted. All were great men; some, no doubt, were +greater than others; but all were statesmen and all were +supported, lifted, inspired by the moral certainty of rightness. +To them the universe was serious, even solemn, but it was their +universe, a Southern conception of right. Lamar used to say that +he never entertained a doubt of the soundness of the Southern +system until he found that slavery could not stand a war. Slavery +was only a part of the Southern system, and the life of it all -- +the vigor -- the poetry -- was its moral certainty of self. The +Southerner could not doubt; and this self-assurance not only gave +Andrew Johnson the look of a true President, but actually made +him one. When Adams came to look back on it afterwards, he was +surprised to realize how strong the Executive was in 1868 -- +perhaps the strongest he was ever to see. Certainly he never +again found himself so well satisfied, or so much at home. + + Seward was still Secretary of State. Hardly yet an old man, +though showing marks of time and violence, Mr. Seward seemed +little changed in these eight years. He was the same -- with a +difference. Perhaps he -- unlike Henry Adams -- had at last got +an education, and all he wanted. Perhaps he had resigned himself +to doing without it. Whatever the reason, although his manner was +as roughly kind as ever, and his talk as free, he appeared to +have closed his account with the public; he no longer seemed to +care; he asked nothing, gave nothing, and invited no support; he +talked little of himself or of others, and waited only for his +discharge. Adams was well pleased to be near him in these last +days of his power and fame, and went much to his house in the +evenings when he was sure to be at his whist. At last, as the end +drew near, wanting to feel that the great man -- the only chief +he ever served even as a volunteer -- recognized some personal +relation, he asked Mr. Seward to dine with him one evening in his +rooms, and play his game of whist there, as he did every night in +his own house. Mr. Seward came and had his whist, and Adams +remembered his rough parting speech: "A very sensible +entertainment!" It was the only favor he ever asked of Mr. +Seward, and the only one he ever accepted. + + Thus, as a teacher of wisdom, after twenty years of example, +Governor Seward passed out of one's life, and Adams lost what +should have been his firmest ally; but in truth the State +Department had ceased to be the centre of his interest, and the +Treasury had taken its place. The Secretary of the Treasury was a +man new to politics -- Hugh McCulloch -- not a person of much +importance in the eyes of practical politicians such as young +members of the press meant themselves to become, but they all +liked Mr. McCulloch, though they thought him a stop-gap rather +than a force. Had they known what sort of forces the Treasury was +to offer them for support in the generation to come, they might +have reflected a long while on their estimate of McCulloch. Adams +was fated to watch the flittings of many more Secretaries than he +ever cared to know, and he rather came back in the end to the +idea that McCulloch was the best of them, although he seemed to +represent everything that one liked least. He was no politician, +he had no party, and no power. He was not fashionable or +decorative. He was a banker, and towards bankers Adams felt the +narrow prejudice which the serf feels to his overerseer; for he +knew he must obey, and he knew that the helpless showed only +their helplessness when they tempered obedience by mockery. The +world, after 1865, became a bankers' world, and no banker would +ever trust one who had deserted State Street, and had gone to +Washington with purposes of doubtful credit, or of no credit at +all, for he could not have put up enough collateral to borrow +five thousand dollars of any bank in America. The banker never +would trust him, and he would never trust the banker. To him, the +banking mind was obnoxious; and this antipathy caused him the +more surprise at finding McCulloch the broadest, most liberal, +most genial, and most practical public man in Washington. + + There could be no doubt of it. The burden of the Treasury at +that time was very great. The whole financial system was in +chaos; every part of it required reform; the utmost experience, +tact, and skill could not make the machine work smoothly. No one +knew how well McCulloch did it until his successor took it in +charge, and tried to correct his methods. Adams did not know +enough to appreciate McCulloch's technical skill, but he was +struck at his open and generous treatment of young men. Of all +rare qualities, this was, in Adams's experience, the rarest. As a +rule, officials dread interference. The strongest often resent it +most. Any official who admits equality in discussion of his +official course, feels it to be an act of virtue; after a few +months or years he tires of the effort. Every friend in power is +a friend lost. This rule is so nearly absolute that it may be +taken in practice as admitting no exception. Apparent exceptions +exist, and McCulloch was one of them. + + McCulloch had been spared the gluttonous selfishness and +infantile jealousy which are the commoner results of early +political education. He had neither past nor future, and could +afford to be careless of his company. Adams found him surrounded +by all the active and intelligent young men in the country. Full +of faith, greedy for work, eager for reform, energetic, +confident, capable, quick of study, charmed with a fight, equally +ready to defend or attack, they were unselfish, and even -- as +young men went -- honest. They came mostly from the army, with +the spirit of the volunteers. Frank Walker, Frank Barlow, Frank +Bartlett were types of the generation. Most of the press, and +much of the public, especially in the West, shared their ideas. +No one denied the need for reform. The whole government, from top +to bottom, was rotten with the senility of what was antiquated +and the instability of what was improvised. The currency was only +one example; the tariff was another; but the whole fabric +required reconstruction as much as in 1789, for the Constitution +had become as antiquated as the Confederation. Sooner or later a +shock must come, the more dangerous the longer postponed. The +Civil War had made a new system in fact; the country would have +to reorganize the machinery in practice and theory. + + One might discuss indefinitely the question which branch of +government needed reform most urgently; all needed it enough, but +no one denied that the finances were a scandal, and a constant, +universal nuisance. The tariff was worse, though more interests +upheld it. McCulloch had the singular merit of facing reform with +large good-nature and willing sympathy -- outside of parties, +jobs, bargains, corporations or intrigues -- which Adams never +was to meet again. + + Chaos often breeds life, when order breeds habit. The Civil War +had bred life. The army bred courage. Young men of the volunteer +type were not always docile under control, but they were handy in +a fight. Adams was greatly pleased to be admitted as one of them. +He found himself much at home with them -- more at home than he +ever had been before, or was ever to be again -- in the +atmosphere of the Treasury. He had no strong party passion, and +he felt as though he and his friends owned this administration, +which, in its dying days, had neither friends nor future except +in them. + + These were not the only allies; the whole government in all its +branches was alive with them. Just at that moment the Supreme +Court was about to take up the Legal Tender cases where Judge +Curtis had been employed to argue against the constitutional +power of the Government to make an artificial standard of value +in time of peace. Evarts was anxious to fix on a line of argument +that should have a chance of standing up against that of Judge +Curtis, and was puzzled to do it. He did not know which foot to +put forward. About to deal with Judge Curtis, the last of the +strong jurists of Marshall's school, he could risk no chances. In +doubt, the quickest way to clear one's mind is to discuss, and +Evarts deliberately forced discussion. Day after day, driving, +dining, walking he provoked Adams to dispute his positions. He +needed an anvil, he said, to hammer his ideas on. + + Adams was flattered at being an anvil, which is, after all, +more solid than the hammer; and he did not feel called on to +treat Mr. Evarts's arguments with more respect than Mr. Evarts +himself expressed for them; so he contradicted with freedom. Like +most young men, he was much of a doctrinaire, and the question +was, in any event, rather historical or political than legal. He +could easily maintain, by way of argument, that the required +power had never been given, and that no sound constitutional +reason could possibly exist for authorizing the Government to +overthrow the standard of value without necessity, in time of +peace. The dispute itself had not much value for him, even as +education, but it led to his seeking light from the Chief Justice +himself. Following up the subject for his letters to the Nation +and his articles in the North American Review, Adams grew to be +intimate with the Chief Justice, who, as one of the oldest and +strongest leaders of the Free Soil Party, had claims to his +personal regard; for the old Free Soilers were becoming few. Like +all strong-willed and self-asserting men, Mr. Chase had the +faults of his qualities. He was never easy to drive in harness, +or light in hand. He saw vividly what was wrong, and did not +always allow for what was relatively right. He loved power as +though he were still a Senator. His position towards Legal Tender +was awkward. As Secretary of the Treasury he had been its author; +as Chief Justice he became its enemy. Legal Tender caused no +great pleasure or pain in the sum of life to a newspaper +correspondent, but it served as a subject for letters, and the +Chief Justice was very willing to win an ally in the press who +would tell his story as he wished it to be read. The intimacy in +Mr. Chase's house grew rapidly, and the alliance was no small +help to the comforts of a struggling newspaper adventurer in +Washington. No matter what one might think of his politics or +temper, Mr. Chase was a dramatic figure, of high senatorial rank, +if also of certain senatorial faults; a valuable ally. + + As was sure, sooner or later, to happen, Adams one day met +Charles Sumner on the street, and instantly stopped to greet him. +As though eight years of broken ties were the natural course of +friendship, Sumner at once, after an exclamation of surprise, +dropped back into the relation of hero to the school boy. Adams +enjoyed accepting it. He was then thirty years old and Sumner was +fifty-seven; he had seen more of the world than Sumner ever +dreamed of, and he felt a sort of amused curiosity to be treated +once more as a child. At best, the renewal of broken relations is +a nervous matter, and in this case it bristled with thorns, for +Sumner's quarrel with Mr. Adams had not been the most delicate of +his ruptured relations, and he was liable to be sensitive in many +ways that even Bostonians could hardly keep in constant mind; yet +it interested and fascinated Henry Adams as a new study of +political humanity. The younger man knew that the meeting would +have to come, and was ready for it, if only as a newspaper need; +but to Sumner it came as a surprise and a disagreeable one, as +Adams conceived. He learned something -- a piece of practical +education worth the effort -- by watching Sumner's behavior. He +could see that many thoughts -- mostly unpleasant -- were passing +through his mind, since he made no inquiry about any of Adams's +family, or allusion to any of his friends or his residence +abroad. He talked only of the present. To him, Adams in +Washington should have seemed more or less of a critic, perhaps a +spy, certainly an intriguer or adventurer, like scores of others; +a politician without party; a writer without principles; an +office-seeker certain to beg for support. All this was, for his +purposes, true. Adams could do him no good, and would be likely +to do him all the harm in his power. Adams accepted it all; +expected to be kept at arm's length; admitted that the reasons +were just. He was the more surprised to see that Sumner invited a +renewal of old relations. He found himself treated almost +confidentially. Not only was he asked to make a fourth at +Sumner's pleasant little dinners in the house on La Fayette +Square, but he found himself admitted to the Senator's study and +informed of his views, policy and purposes, which were sometimes +even more astounding than his curious gaps or lapses of +omniscience. + + On the whole, the relation was the queerest that Henry Adams +ever kept up. He liked and admired Sumner, but thought his mind a +pathological study. At times he inclined to think that Sumner +felt his solitude, and, in the political wilderness, craved +educated society; but this hardly told the whole story. Sumner's +mind had reached the calm of water which receives and reflects +images without absorbing them; it contained nothing but itself. +The images from without, the objects mechanically perceived by +the senses, existed by courtesy until the mental surface was +ruffled, but never became part of the thought. Henry Adams roused +no emotion; if he had roused a disagreeable one, he would have +ceased to exist. The mind would have mechanically rejected, as it +had mechanically admitted him. Not that Sumner was more +aggressively egoistic than other Senators -- Conkling, for +instance -- but that with him the disease had affected the whole +mind; it was chronic and absolute; while, with other Senators for +the most part, it was still acute. + + Perhaps for this very reason, Sumner was the more valuable +acquaintance for a newspaper-man. Adams found him most useful; +perhaps quite the most useful of all these great authorities who +were the stock-in-trade of the newspaper business; the +accumulated capital of a Silurian age. A few months or years +more, and they were gone. In 1868, they were like the town +itself, changing but not changed. La Fayette Square was society. +Within a few hundred yards of Mr. Clark Mills's nursery monument +to the equestrian seat of Andrew Jackson, one found all one's +acquaintance as well as hotels, banks, markets and national +government. Beyond the Square the country began. No rich or +fashionable stranger had yet discovered the town. No literary or +scientific man, no artist, no gentleman without office or +employment, had ever lived there. It was rural, and its society +was primitive. Scarcely a person in it had ever known life in a +great city. Mr. Evarts, Mr. Sam Hooper, of Boston, and perhaps +one or two of the diplomatists had alone mixed in that sort of +world. The happy village was innocent of a club. The one-horse +tram on F Street to the Capitol was ample for traffic. Every +pleasant spring morning at the Pennsylvania Station, society met +to bid good-bye to its friends going off on the single express. +The State Department was lodged in an infant asylum far out on +Fourteenth Street while Mr. Mullett was constructing his +architectural infant asylum next the White House. The value of +real estate had not increased since 1800, and the pavements were +more impassable than the mud. All this favored a young man who +had come to make a name. In four-and-twenty hours he could know +everybody; in two days everybody knew him. + + After seven years' arduous and unsuccessful effort to explore +the outskirts of London society, the Washington world offered an +easy and delightful repose. When he looked round him, from the +safe shelter of Mr. Evarts's roof, on the men he was to work with +-- or against -- he had to admit that nine-tenths of his acquired +education was useless, and the other tenth harmful. He would have +to begin again from the beginning. He must learn to talk to the +Western Congressman, and to hide his own antecedents. The task +was amusing. He could see nothing to prevent him from enjoying +it, with immoral unconcern for all that had gone before and for +anything that might follow. The lobby offered a spectacle almost +picturesque. Few figures on the Paris stage were more +entertaining and dramatic than old Sam Ward, who knew more of +life than all the departments of the Government together, +including the Senate and the Smithsonian. Society had not much to +give, but what it had, it gave with an open hand. For the moment, +politics had ceased to disturb social relations. All parties were +mixed up and jumbled together in a sort of tidal slack-water. The +Government resembled Adams himself in the matter of education. +All that had gone before was useless, and some of it was worse. + + +CHAPTER XVII + +PRESIDENT GRANT (1869) + + THE first effect of this leap into the unknown was a fit of low +spirits new to the young man's education; due in part to the +overpowering beauty and sweetness of the Maryland autumn, almost +unendurable for its strain on one who had toned his life down to +the November grays and browns of northern Europe. Life could not +go on so beautiful and so sad. Luckily, no one else felt it or +knew it. He bore it as well as he could, and when he picked +himself up, winter had come, and he was settled in bachelor's +quarters, as modest as those of a clerk in the Departments, far +out on G Street, towards Georgetown, where an old Finn named +Dohna, who had come out with the Russian Minister Stoeckel long +before, had bought or built a new house. Congress had met. Two or +three months remained to the old administration, but all interest +centred in the new one. The town began to swarm with +office-seekers, among whom a young writer was lost. He drifted +among them, unnoticed, glad to learn his work under cover of the +confusion. He never aspired to become a regular reporter; he knew +he should fail in trying a career so ambitious and energetic; but +he picked up friends on the press -- Nordhoff, Murat Halstead, +Henry Watterson, Sam Bowles -- all reformers, and all mixed and +jumbled together in a tidal wave of expectation, waiting for +General Grant to give orders. No one seemed to know much about +it. Even Senators had nothing to say. One could only make notes +and study finance. + + In waiting, he amused himself as he could. In the amusements of +Washington, education had no part, but the simplicity of the +amusements proved the simplicity of everything else, ambitions, +interests, thoughts, and knowledge. Proverbially Washington was a +poor place for education, and of course young diplomats avoided +or disliked it, but, as a rule, diplomats disliked every place +except Paris, and the world contained only one Paris. They abused +London more violently than Washington; they praised no post under +the sun; and they were merely describing three-fourths of their +stations when they complained that there were no theatres, no +restaurants, no monde, no demi-monde, no drives, no splendor, +and, as Mme. de Struve used to say, no grandezza. This was all +true; Washington was a mere political camp, as transient and +temporary as a camp-meeting for religious revival, but the +diplomats had least reason to complain, since they were more +sought for there than they would ever be elsewhere. For young men +Washington was in one way paradise, since they were few, and +greatly in demand. After watching the abject unimportance of the +young diplomat in London society, Adams found himself a young +duke in Washington. He had ten years of youth to make up, and a +ravenous appetite. Washington was the easiest society he had ever +seen, and even the Bostonian became simple, good-natured, almost +genial, in the softness of a Washington spring. Society went on +excellently well without houses, or carriages, or jewels, or +toilettes, or pavements, or shops, or grandezza of any sort; and +the market was excellent as well as cheap. One could not stay +there a month without loving the shabby town. Even the Washington +girl, who was neither rich nor well-dressed nor well-educated nor +clever, had singular charm, and used it. According to Mr. Adams +the father, this charm dated back as far as Monroe's +administration, to his personal knowledge. + + Therefore, behind all the processes of political or financial +or newspaper training, the social side of Washington was to be +taken for granted as three-fourths of existence. Its details +matter nothing. Life ceased to be strenuous, and the victim +thanked God for it. Politics and reform became the detail, and +waltzing the profession. Adams was not alone. Senator Sumner had +as private secretary a young man named Moorfield Storey, who +became a dangerous example of frivolity. The new +Attorney-General, E. R. Hoar, brought with him from Concord a +son, Sam Hoar, whose example rivalled that of Storey. Another +impenitent was named Dewey, a young naval officer. Adams came far +down in the list. He wished he had been higher. He could have +spared a world of superannuated history, science, or politics, to +have reversed better in waltzing. + + He had no adequate notion how little he knew, especially of +women, and Washington offered no standard of comparison. All were +profoundly ignorant together, and as indifferent as children to +education. No one needed knowledge. Washington was happier +without style. Certainly Adams was happier without it; happier +than he had ever been before; happier than any one in the harsh +world of strenuousness could dream of. This must be taken as +background for such little education as he gained; but the life +belonged to the eighteenth century, and in no way concerned +education for the twentieth. + + In such an atmosphere, one made no great presence of hard work. +If the world wants hard work, the world must pay for it; and, if +it will not pay, it has no fault to find with the worker. Thus +far, no one had made a suggestion of pay for any work that Adams +had done or could do; if he worked at all, it was for social +consideration, and social pleasure was his pay. For this he was +willing to go on working, as an artist goes on painting when no +one buys his pictures. Artists have done it from the beginning of +time, and will do it after time has expired, since they cannot +help themselves, and they find their return in the pride of their +social superiority as they feel it. Society commonly abets them +and encourages their attitude of contempt. The society of +Washington was too simple and Southern as yet, to feel +anarchistic longings, and it never read or saw what artists +produced elsewhere, but it good-naturedly abetted them when it +had the chance, and respected itself the more for the frailty. +Adams found even the Government at his service, and every one +willing to answer his questions. He worked, after a fashion; not +very hard, but as much as the Government would have required of +him for nine hundred dollars a year; and his work defied +frivolity. He got more pleasure from writing than the world ever +got from reading him, for his work was not amusing, nor was he. +One must not try to amuse moneylenders or investors, and this was +the class to which he began by appealing. He gave three months to +an article on the finances of the United States, just then a +subject greatly needing treatment; and when he had finished it, +he sent it to London to his friend Henry Reeve, the ponderous +editor of the Edinburgh Review. Reeve probably thought it good; +at all events, he said so; and he printed it in April. Of course +it was reprinted in America, but in England such articles were +still anonymous, and the author remained unknown. + + The author was not then asking for advertisement, and made no +claim for credit. His object was literary. He wanted to win a +place on the staff of the Edinburgh Review, under the vast shadow +of Lord Macaulay; and, to a young American in 1868, such rank +seemed colossal -- the highest in the literary world -- as it had +been only five-and-twenty years before. Time and tide had flowed +since then, but the position still flattered vanity, though it +brought no other flattery or reward except the regular thirty +pounds of pay -- fifty dollars a month, measured in time and +labor. + + The Edinburgh article finished, he set himself to work on a +scheme for the North American Review. In England, Lord Robert +Cecil had invented for the London Quarterly an annual review of +politics which he called the "Session." Adams stole the idea and +the name -- he thought he had been enough in Lord Robert's house, +in days of his struggle with adversity, to excuse the theft -- +and began what he meant for a permanent series of annual +political reviews which he hoped to make, in time, a political +authority. With his sources of information, and his social +intimacies at Washington, he could not help saying something that +would command attention. He had the field to himself, and he +meant to give himself a free hand, as he went on. Whether the +newspapers liked it or not, they would have to reckon with him; +for such a power, once established, was more effective than all +the speeches in Congress or reports to the President that could +be crammed into the Government presses. + + The first of these "Sessions" appeared in April, but it could +not be condensed into a single article, and had to be +supplemented in October by another which bore the title of "Civil +Service Reform," and was really a part of the same review. A good +deal of authentic history slipped into these papers. Whether any +one except his press associates ever read them, he never knew and +never greatly cared. The difference is slight, to the influence +of an author, whether he is read by five hundred readers, or by +five hundred thousand; if he can select the five hundred, he +reaches the five hundred thousand. The fateful year 1870 was near +at hand, which was to mark the close of the literary epoch, when +quarterlies gave way to monthlies; letter-press to illustration; +volumes to pages. The outburst was brilliant. Bret Harte led, and +Robert Louis Stevenson followed. Guy de Maupassant and Rudyard +Kipling brought up the rear, and dazzled the world. As usual, +Adams found himself fifty years behind his time, but a number of +belated wanderers kept him company, and they produced on each +other the effect or illusion of a public opinion. They straggled +apart, at longer and longer intervals, through the procession, +but they were still within hearing distance of each other. The +drift was still superficially conservative. Just as the Church +spoke with apparent authority, of the quarterlies laid down an +apparent law, and no one could surely say where the real +authority, or the real law, lay. Science lid not know. Truths a +priori held their own against truths surely relative. According +to Lowell, Right was forever on the scaffold, Wrong was forever +on the Throne; and most people still thought they believed it. +Adams was not the only relic of the eighteenth century, and he +could still depend on a certain number of listeners -- mostly +respectable, and some rich. + + Want of audience did not trouble him; he was well enough off in +that respect, and would have succeeded in all his calculations if +this had been his only hazard. Where he broke down was at a point +where he always suffered wreck and where nine adventurers out of +ten make their errors. One may be more or less certain of +organized forces; one can never be certain of men. He belonged to +the eighteenth century, and the eighteenth century upset all his +plans. For the moment, America was more eighteenth century than +himself; it reverted to the stone age. + + As education -- of a certain sort -- the story had probably a +certain value, though he could never see it. One seldom can see +much education in the buck of a broncho; even less in the kick of +a mule. The lesson it teaches is only that of getting out of the +animal's way. This was the lesson that Henry Adams had learned +over and over again in politics since 1860. + + At least four-fifths of the American people -- Adams among the +rest -- had united in the election of General Grant to the +Presidency, and probably had been more or less affected in their +choice by the parallel they felt between Grant and Washington. +Nothing could be more obvious. Grant represented order. He was a +great soldier, and the soldier always represented order. He might +be as partisan as he pleased, but a general who had organized and +commanded half a million or a million men in the field, must know +how to administer. Even Washington, who was, in education and +experience, a mere cave-dweller, had known how to organize a +government, and had found Jeffersons and Hamiltons to organize +his departments. The task of bringing the Government back to +regular practices, and of restoring moral and mechanical order to +administration, was not very difficult; it was ready to do it +itself, with a little encouragement. No doubt the confusion, +especially in the old slave States and in the currency, was +considerable, but, the general disposition was good, and every +one had echoed that famous phrase: "Let us have peace." + + Adams was young and easily deceived, in spite of his diplomatic +adventures, but even at twice his age he could not see that this +reliance on Grant was unreasonable. Had Grant been a Congressman +one would have been on one's guard, for one knew the type. One +never expected from a Congressman more than good intentions and +public spirit. Newspaper-men as a rule had no great respect for +the lower House; Senators had less; and Cabinet officers had none +at all. Indeed, one day when Adams was pleading with a Cabinet +officer for patience and tact in dealing with Representatives, +the Secretary impatiently broke out: "You can't use tact with a +Congressman! A Congressman is a hog! You must take a stick and +hit him on the snout!" Adams knew far too little, compared with +the Secretary, to contradict him, though he thought the phrase +somewhat harsh even as applied to the average Congressman of 1869 +-- he saw little or nothing of later ones -- but he knew a +shorter way of silencing criticism. He had but to ask: "If a +Congressman is a hog, what is a Senator?" This innocent question, +put in a candid spirit, petrified any executive officer that ever +sat a week in his office. Even Adams admitted that Senators +passed belief. The comic side of their egotism partly disguised +its extravagance, but faction had gone so far under Andrew +Johnson that at times the whole Senate seemed to catch hysterics +of nervous bucking without apparent reason. Great leaders, like +Sumner and Conkling, could not be burlesqued; they were more +grotesque than ridicule could make them; even Grant, who rarely +sparkled in epigram, became witty on their account; but their +egotism and factiousness were no laughing matter. They did +permanent and terrible mischief, as Garfield and Blaine, and even +McKinley and John Hay, were to feel. The most troublesome task of +a reform President was that of bringing the Senate back to +decency. + + Therefore no one, and Henry Adams less than most, felt hope +that any President chosen from the ranks of politics or +politicians would raise the character of government; and by +instinct if not by reason, all the world united on Grant. The +Senate understood what the world expected, and waited in silence +for a struggle with Grant more serious than that with Andrew +Johnson. Newspaper-men were alive with eagerness to support the +President against the Senate. The newspaper-man is, more than +most men, a double personality; and his person feels best +satisfied in its double instincts when writing in one sense and +thinking in another. All newspaper-men, whatever they wrote, felt +alike about the Senate. Adams floated with the stream. He was +eager to join in the fight which he foresaw as sooner or later +inevitable. He meant to support the Executive in attacking the +Senate and taking away its two-thirds vote and power of +confirmation, nor did he much care how it should be done, for he +thought it safer to effect the revolution in 1870 than to wait +till 1920.. + + With this thought in his mind, he went to the Capitol to hear +the names announced which should reveal the carefully guarded +secret of Grant's Cabinet. To the end of his life, he wondered at +the suddenness of the revolution which actually, within five +minutes, changed his intended future into an absurdity so +laughable as to make him ashamed of it. He was to hear a long +list of Cabinet announcements not much weaker or more futile than +that of Grant, and none of them made him blush, while Grant's +nominations had the singular effect of making the hearer ashamed, +not so much of Grant, as of himself. He had made another total +misconception of life -- another inconceivable false start. Yet, +unlikely as it seemed, he had missed his motive narrowly, and his +intention had been more than sound, for the Senators made no +secret of saying with senatorial frankness that Grant's +nominations betrayed his intent as plainly as they betrayed his +incompetence. A great soldier might be a baby politician. + + Adams left the Capitol, much in the same misty mental condition +that he recalled as marking his railway journey to London on May +13, 1861; he felt in himself what Gladstone bewailed so sadly, +"the incapacity of viewing things all round." He knew, without +absolutely saying it, that Grant had cut short the life which +Adams had laid out for himself in the future. After such a +miscarriage, no thought of effectual reform could revive for at +least one generation, and he had no fancy for ineffectual +politics. What course could he sail next? He had tried so many, +and society had barred them all! For the moment, he saw no hope +but in following the stream on which he had launched himself. The +new Cabinet, as individuals, were not hostile. Subsequently Grant +made changes in the list which were mostly welcome to a Bostonian +-- or should have been -- although fatal to Adams. The name of +Hamilton Fish, as Secretary of State, suggested extreme +conservatism and probable deference to Sumner. The name of George +S. Boutwell, as Secretary of the Treasury, suggested only a +somewhat lugubrious joke; Mr. Boutwell could be described only as +the opposite of Mr. McCulloch, and meant inertia; or, in plain +words, total extinction for any one resembling Henry Adams. On +the other hand, the name of Jacob D. Cox, as Secretary of the +Interior, suggested help and comfort; while that of Judge Hoar, +as Attorney-General, promised friendship. On the whole, the +personal outlook, merely for literary purposes, seemed fairly +cheerful, and the political outlook, though hazy, still depended +on Grant himself. No one doubted that Grant's intention had been +one of reform; that his aim had been to place his administration +above politics; and until he should actually drive his supporters +away, one might hope to support him. One's little lantern must +therefore be turned on Grant. One seemed to know him so well, and +really knew so little. + + By chance it happened that Adam Badeau took the lower suite of +rooms at Dohna's, and, as it was convenient to have one table, +the two men dined together and became intimate. Badeau was +exceedingly social, though not in appearance imposing. He was +stout; his face was red, and his habits were regularly irregular; +but he was very intelligent, a good newspaper-man, and an +excellent military historian. His life of Grant was no ordinary +book. Unlike most newspaper-men, he was a friendly critic of +Grant, as suited an officer who had been on the General's staff. +As a rule, the newspaper correspondents in Washington were +unfriendly, and the lobby sceptical. From that side one heard +tales that made one's hair stand on end, and the old West Point +army officers were no more flattering. All described him as +vicious, narrow, dull, and vindictive. Badeau, who had come to +Washington for a consulate which was slow to reach him, resorted +more or less to whiskey for encouragement, and became irritable, +besides being loquacious. He talked much about Grant, and showed +a certain artistic feeling for analysis of character, as a true +literary critic would naturally do. Loyal to Grant, and still +more so to Mrs. Grant, who acted as his patroness, he said +nothing, even when far gone, that was offensive about either, but +he held that no one except himself and Rawlins understood the +General. To him, Grant appeared as an intermittent energy, +immensely powerful when awake, but passive and plastic in repose. +He said that neither he nor the rest of the staff knew why Grant +succeeded; they believed in him because of his success. For +stretches of time, his mind seemed torpid. Rawlins and the others +would systematically talk their ideas into it, for weeks, not +directly, but by discussion among themselves, in his presence. In +the end, he would announce the idea as his own, without seeming +conscious of the discussion; and would give the orders to carry +it out with all the energy that belonged to his nature. They +could never measure his character or be sure when he would act. +They could never follow a mental process in his thought. They +were not sure that he did think. + + In all this, Adams took deep interest, for although he was not, +like Badeau, waiting for Mrs. Grant's power of suggestion to act +on the General's mind in order to germinate in a consulate or a +legation, his portrait gallery of great men was becoming large, +and it amused him to add an authentic likeness of the greatest +general the world had seen since Napoleon. Badeau's analysis was +rather delicate; infinitely superior to that of Sam Ward or +Charles Nordhoff. + + Badeau took Adams to the White House one evening and introduced +him to the President and Mrs. Grant. First and last, he saw a +dozen Presidents at the White House, and the most famous were by +no means the most agreeable, but he found Grant the most curious +object of study among them all. About no one did opinions differ +so widely. Adams had no opinion, or occasion to make one. A +single word with Grant satisfied him that, for his own good, the +fewer words he risked, the better. Thus far in life he had met +with but one man of the same intellectual or unintellectual type +-- Garibaldi. Of the two, Garibaldi seemed to him a trifle the +more intellectual, but, in both, the intellect counted for +nothing; only the energy counted. The type was pre-intellectual, +archaic, and would have seemed so even to the cave-dwellers. +Adam, according to legend, was such a man. + + In time one came to recognize the type in other men, with +differences and variations, as normal; men whose energies were +the greater, the less they wasted on thought; men who sprang from +the soil to power; apt to be distrustful of themselves and of +others; shy; jealous; sometimes vindictive; more or less dull in +outward appearance; always needing stimulants, but for whom +action was the highest stimulant -- the instinct of fight. Such +men were forces of nature, energies of the prime, like the +Pteraspis , but they made short work of scholars. They had +commanded thousands of such and saw no more in them than in +others. The fact was certain; it crushed argument and intellect +at once. + + Adams did not feel Grant as a hostile force; like Badeau he saw +only an uncertain one. When in action he was superb and safe to +follow; only when torpid he was dangerous. To deal with him one +must stand near, like Rawlins, and practice more or less +sympathetic habits. Simple-minded beyond the experience of Wall +Street or State Street, he resorted, like most men of the same +intellectual calibre, to commonplaces when at a loss for +expression: "Let us have peace!" or, "The best way to treat a bad +law is to execute it"; or a score of such reversible sentences +generally to be gauged by their sententiousness; but sometimes he +made one doubt his good faith; as when he seriously remarked to a +particularly bright young woman that Venice would be a fine city +if it were drained. In Mark Twain, this suggestion would have +taken rank among his best witticisms; in Grant it was a measure +of simplicity not singular. Robert E. Lee betrayed the same +intellectual commonplace, in a Virginian form, not to the same +degree, but quite distinctly enough for one who knew the +American. What worried Adams was not the commonplace; it was, as +usual, his own education. Grant fretted and irritated him, like +the Terebratula, as a defiance of first principles. He had no +right to exist. He should have been extinct for ages. The idea +that, as society grew older, it grew one-sided, upset evolution, +and made of education a fraud. That, two thousand years after +Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar, a man like Grant should be +called -- and should actually and truly be -- the highest product +of the most advanced evolution, made evolution ludicrous. One +must be as commonplace as Grant's own commonplaces to maintain +such an absurdity. The progress of evolution from President +Washington to President Grant, was alone evidence enough to upset +Darwin. + + Education became more perplexing at every phase. No theory was +worth the pen that wrote it. America had no use for Adams because +he was eighteenth-century, and yet it worshipped Grant because he +was archaic and should have lived in a cave and worn skins. +Darwinists ought to conclude that America was reverting to the +stone age, but the theory of reversion was more absurd than that +of evolution. Grant's administration reverted to nothing. One +could not catch a trait of the past, still less of the future. It +was not even sensibly American. Not an official in it, except +perhaps Rawlins whom Adams never met, and who died in September, +suggested an American idea. + + Yet this administration, which upset Adams's whole life, was +not unfriendly; it was made up largely of friends. Secretary Fish +was almost kind; he kept the tradition of New York social values; +he was human and took no pleasure in giving pain. Adams felt no +prejudice whatever in his favor, and he had nothing in mind or +person to attract regard; his social gifts were not remarkable; +he was not in the least magnetic; he was far from young; but he +won confidence from the start and remained a friend to the +finish. As far as concerned Mr. Fish, one felt rather happily +suited, and one was still better off in the Interior Department +with J. D. Cox. Indeed, if Cox had been in the Treasury and +Boutwell in the Interior, one would have been quite satisfied as +far as personal relations went, while, in the Attorney-General's +Office, Judge Hoar seemed to fill every possible ideal, both +personal and political. + + The difficulty was not the want of friends, and had the whole +government been filled with them, it would have helped little +without the President and the Treasury. Grant avowed from the +start a policy of drift; and a policy of drift attaches only +barnacles. At thirty, one has no interest in becoming a barnacle, +but even in that character Henry Adams would have been ill-seen. +His friends were reformers, critics, doubtful in party +allegiance, and he was himself an object of suspicion. Grant had +no objects, wanted no help, wished for no champions. The +Executive asked only to be let alone. This was his meaning when +he said: "Let us have peace! " + + No one wanted to go into opposition. As for Adams, all his +hopes of success in life turned on his finding an administration +to support. He knew well enough the rules of self-interest. He +was for sale. He wanted to be bought. His price was excessively +cheap, for he did not even ask an office, and had his eye, not on +the Government, but on New York. All he wanted was something to +support; something that would let itself be supported. Luck went +dead against him. For once, he was fifty years in advance of his +time. + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +FREE FIGHT (1869-1870) + + THE old New Englander was apt to be a solitary animal, but the +young New Englander was sometimes human. Judge Hoar brought his +son Sam to Washington, and Sam Hoar loved largely and well. He +taught Adams the charm of Washington spring. Education for +education, none ever compared with the delight of this. The +Potomac and its tributaries squandered beauty. Rock Creek was as +wild as the Rocky Mountains. Here and there a negro log cabin +alone disturbed the dogwood and the judas-tree, the azalea and +the laurel. The tulip and the chestnut gave no sense of struggle +against a stingy nature. The soft, full outlines of the landscape +carried no hidden horror of glaciers in its bosom. The brooding +heat of the profligate vegetation; the cool charm of the running +water; the terrific splendor of the June thunder-gust in the deep +and solitary woods, were all sensual, animal, elemental. No +European spring had shown him the same intermixture of delicate +grace and passionate depravity that marked the Maryland May. He +loved it too much, as though it were Greek and half human. He +could not leave it, but loitered on into July, falling into the +Southern ways of the summer village about La Fayette Square, as +one whose rights of inheritance could not be questioned. Few +Americans were so poor as to question them. + + In spite of the fatal deception -- or undeception -- about +Grant's political character, Adams's first winter in Washington +had so much amused him that he had not a thought of change. He +loved it too much to question its value. What did he know about +its value, or what did any one know? His father knew more about +it than any one else in Boston, and he was amused to find that +his father, whose recollections went back to 1820, betrayed for +Washington much the same sentimental weakness, and described the +society about President Monroe much as his son felt the society +about President Johnson. He feared its effect on young men, with +some justice, since it had been fatal to two of his brothers; but +he understood the charm, and he knew that a life in Quincy or +Boston was not likely to deaden it. + + Henry was in a savage humor on the subject of Boston. He saw +Boutwells at every counter. He found a personal grief in every +tree. Fifteen or twenty years afterwards, Clarence King used to +amuse him by mourning over the narrow escape that nature had made +in attaining perfection. Except for two mistakes, the earth would +have been a success. One of these errors was the inclination of +the ecliptic; the other was the differentiation of the sexes, and +the saddest thought about the last was that it should have been +so modern. Adams, in his splenetic temper, held that both these +unnecessary evils had wreaked their worst on Boston. The climate +made eternal war on society, and sex was a species of crime. The +ecliptic had inclined itself beyond recovery till life was as +thin as the elm trees. Of course he was in the wrong. The +thinness was in himself, not in Boston; but this is a story of +education, and Adams was struggling to shape himself to his time. +Boston was trying to do the same thing. Everywhere, except in +Washington, Americans were toiling for the same object. Every one +complained of surroundings, except where, as at Washington, there +were no surroundings to complain of. Boston kept its head better +than its neighbors did, and very little time was needed to prove +it, even to Adams's confusion. + + Before he got back to Quincy, the summer was already half over, +and in another six weeks the effects of President Grant's +character showed themselves. They were startling -- astounding -- +terrifying. The mystery that shrouded the famous, classical +attempt of Jay Gould to corner gold in September, 1869, has never +been cleared up -- at least so far as to make it intelligible to +Adams. Gould was led, by the change at Washington, into the +belief that he could safely corner gold without interference from +the Government. He took a number of precautions, which he +admitted; and he spent a large sum of money, as he also +testified, to obtain assurances which were not sufficient to have +satisfied so astute a gambler; yet he made the venture. Any +criminal lawyer must have begun investigation by insisting, +rigorously, that no such man, in such a position, could be +permitted to plead that he had taken, and pursued, such a course, +without assurances which did satisfy him. The plea was +professionally inadmissible. + + This meant that any criminal lawyer would have been bound to +start an investigation by insisting that Gould had assurances +from the White House or the Treasury, since none other could have +satisfied him. To young men wasting their summer at Quincy for +want of some one to hire their services at three dollars a day, +such a dramatic scandal was Heaven-sent. Charles and Henry Adams +jumped at it like salmon at a fly, with as much voracity as Jay +Gould, or his ame damnee Jim Fisk, had ever shown for Erie; and +with as little fear of consequences. They risked something; no +one could say what; but the people about the Erie office were not +regarded as lambs. + + The unravelling a skein so tangled as that of the Erie Railway +was a task that might have given months of labor to the most +efficient District Attorney, with all his official tools to work +with. Charles took the railway history; Henry took the so-called +Gold Conspiracy; and they went to New York to work it up. The +surface was in full view. They had no trouble in Wall Street, and +they paid their respects in person to the famous Jim Fisk in his +Opera-House Palace; but the New York side of the story helped +Henry little. He needed to penetrate the political mystery, and +for this purpose he had to wait for Congress to meet. At first he +feared that Congress would suppress the scandal, but the +Congressional Investigation was ordered and took place. He soon +knew all that was to be known; the material for his essay was +furnished by the Government. + + Material furnished by a government seldom satisfies critics or +historians, for it lies always under suspicion. Here was a +mystery, and as usual, the chief mystery was the means of making +sure that any mystery existed. All Adams's great friends -- Fish, +Cox, Hoar, Evarts, Sumner, and their surroundings -- were +precisely the persons most mystified. They knew less than Adams +did; they sought information, and frankly admitted that their +relations with the White House and the Treasury were not +confidential. No one volunteered advice. No one offered +suggestion. One got no light, even from the press, although press +agents expressed in private the most damning convictions with +their usual cynical frankness. The Congressional Committee took a +quantity of evidence which it dared not probe, and refused to +analyze. Although the fault lay somewhere on the Administration, +and could lie nowhere else, the trail always faded and died out +at the point where any member of the Administration became +visible. Every one dreaded to press inquiry. Adams himself feared +finding out too much. He found out too much already, when he saw +in evidence that Jay Gould had actually succeeded in stretching +his net over Grant's closest surroundings, and that Boutwell's +incompetence was the bottom of Gould's calculation. With the +conventional air of assumed confidence, every one in public +assured every one else that the President himself was the savior +of the situation, and in private assured each other that if the +President had not been caught this time, he was sure to be +trapped the next, for the ways of Wall Street were dark and +double. All this was wildly exciting to Adams. That Grant should +have fallen, within six months, into such a morass -- or should +have let Boutwell drop him into it -- rendered the outlook for +the next four years -- probably eight -- possibly twelve -- +mysterious, or frankly opaque, to a young man who had hitched his +wagon, as Emerson told him, to the star of reform. The country +might outlive it, but not he. The worst scandals of the +eighteenth century were relatively harmless by the side of this, +which smirched executive, judiciary, banks, corporate systems, +professions, and people, all the great active forces of society, +in one dirty cesspool of vulgar corruption. Only six months +before, this innocent young man, fresh from the cynicism of +European diplomacy, had expected to enter an honorable career in +the press as the champion and confidant of a new Washington, and +already he foresaw a life of wasted energy, sweeping the stables +of American society clear of the endless corruption which his +second Washington was quite certain to breed. + + By vigorously shutting one's eyes, as though one were an +Assistant Secretary, a writer for the press might ignore the Erie +scandal, and still help his friends or allies in the Government +who were doing their best to give it an air of decency; but a few +weeks showed that the Erie scandal was a mere incident, a rather +vulgar Wall Street trap, into which, according to one's point of +view Grant had been drawn by Jay Gould, or Jay Gould had been +misled by Grant. One could hardly doubt that both of them were +astonished and disgusted by the result; but neither Jay Gould nor +any other astute American mind -- still less the complex Jew -- +could ever have accustomed itself to the incredible and +inexplicable lapses of Grant's intelligence; and perhaps, on the +whole, Gould was the less mischievous victim, if victims they +both were. The same laxity that led Gould into a trap which might +easily have become the penitentiary, led the United States +Senate, the Executive departments and the Judiciary into +confusion, cross-purposes, and ill-temper that would have been +scandalous in a boarding-school of girls. For satirists or +comedians, the study was rich and endless, and they exploited its +corners with happy results, but a young man fresh from the rustic +simplicity of London noticed with horror that the grossest +satires on the American Senator and politician never failed to +excite the laughter and applause of every audience. Rich and poor +joined in throwing contempt on their own representatives. Society +laughed a vacant and meaningless derision over its own failure. +Nothing remained for a young man without position or power except +to laugh too. + + Yet the spectacle was no laughing matter to him, whatever it +might be to the public. Society is immoral and immortal; it can +afford to commit any kind of folly, and indulge in any sort of +vice; it cannot be killed, and the fragments that survive can +always laugh at the dead; but a young man has only one chance, +and brief time to seize it. Any one in power above him can +extinguish the chance. He is horribly at the mercy of fools and +cowards. One dull administration can rapidly drive out every +active subordinate. At Washington, in 1869-70, every intelligent +man about the Government prepared to go. The people would have +liked to go too, for they stood helpless before the chaos; some +laughed and some raved; all were disgusted; but they had to +content themselves by turning their backs and going to work +harder than ever on their railroads and foundries. They were +strong enough to carry even their politics. Only the helpless +remained stranded in Washington. + + The shrewdest statesman of all was Mr. Boutwell, who showed how +he understood the situation by turning out of the Treasury every +one who could interfere with his repose, and then locking himself +up in it, alone. What he did there, no one knew. His colleagues +asked him in vain. Not a word could they get from him, either in +the Cabinet or out of it, of suggestion or information on matters +even of vital interest. The Treasury as an active influence +ceased to exist. Mr. Boutwell waited with confidence for society +to drag his department out of the mire, as it was sure to do if +he waited long enough. + + Warned by his friends in the Cabinet as well as in the Treasury +that Mr. Boutwell meant to invite no support, and cared to +receive none, Adams had only the State and Interior Departments +left to serve. He wanted no better than to serve them. Opposition +was his horror; pure waste of energy; a union with Northern +Democrats and Southern rebels who never had much in common with +any Adams, and had never shown any warm interest about them +except to drive them from public life. If Mr. Boutwell turned him +out of the Treasury with the indifference or contempt that made +even a beetle helpless, Mr. Fish opened the State Department +freely, and seemed to talk with as much openness as any +newspaper-man could ask. At all events, Adams could cling to this +last plank of salvation, and make himself perhaps the recognized +champion of Mr. Fish in the New York press. He never once thought +of his disaster between Seward and Sumner in 1861. Such an +accident could not occur again. Fish and Sumner were inseparable, +and their policy was sure to be safe enough for support. No +mosquito could be so unlucky as to be caught a second time +between a Secretary and a Senator who were both his friends. + + This dream of security lasted hardly longer than that of 1861. +Adams saw Sumner take possession of the Department, and he +approved; he saw Sumner seize the British mission for Motley, and +he was delighted; but when he renewed his relations with Sumner +in the winter of 1869-70, he began slowly to grasp the idea that +Sumner had a foreign policy of his own which he proposed also to +force on the Department. This was not all. Secretary Fish seemed +to have vanished. Besides the Department of State over which he +nominally presided in the Infant Asylum on Fourteenth Street, +there had risen a Department of Foreign Relations over which +Senator Sumner ruled with a high hand at the Capitol; and, +finally, one clearly made out a third Foreign Office in the War +Department, with President Grant himself for chief, pressing a +policy of extension in the West Indies which no Northeastern man +ever approved. For his life, Adams could not learn where to place +himself among all these forces. Officially he would have followed +the responsible Secretary of State, but he could not find the +Secretary. Fish seemed to be friendly towards Sumner, and docile +towards Grant, but he asserted as yet no policy of his own. As +for Grant's policy, Adams never had a chance to know fully what +it was, but, as far as he did know, he was ready to give it +ardent support. The difficulty came only when he heard Sumner's +views, which, as he had reason to know, were always commands, to +be disregarded only by traitors. + + Little by little, Sumner unfolded his foreign policy, and Adams +gasped with fresh astonishment at every new article of the creed. +To his profound regret he heard Sumner begin by imposing his veto +on all extension within the tropics; which cost the island of St. +Thomas to the United States, besides the Bay of Samana as an +alternative, and ruined Grant's policy. Then he listened with +incredulous stupor while Sumner unfolded his plan for +concentrating and pressing every possible American claim against +England, with a view of compelling the cession of Canada to the +United States. + + Adams did not then know -- in fact, he never knew, or could +find any one to tell him -- what was going on behind the doors of +the White House. He doubted whether Mr. Fish or Bancroft Davis +knew much more than he. The game of cross-purposes was as +impenetrable in Foreign Affairs as in the Gold Conspiracy. +President Grant let every one go on, but whom he supported, Adams +could not be expected to divine. One point alone seemed clear to +a man -- no longer so very young -- who had lately come from a +seven years' residence in London. He thought he knew as much as +any one in Washington about England, and he listened with the +more perplexity to Mr. Sumner's talk, because it opened the +gravest doubts of Sumner's sanity. If war was his object, and +Canada were worth it, Sumner's scheme showed genius, and Adams +was ready to treat it seriously; but if he thought he could +obtain Canada from England as a voluntary set-off to the Alabama +Claims, he drivelled. On the point of fact, Adams was as +peremptory as Sumner on the point of policy, but he could only +wonder whether Mr. Fish would dare say it. When at last Mr. Fish +did say it, a year later, Sumner publicly cut his acquaintance. +Adams was the more puzzled because he could not believe Sumner so +mad as to quarrel both with Fish and with Grant. A quarrel with +Seward and Andrew Johnson was bad enough, and had profited no +one; but a quarrel with General Grant was lunacy. Grant might be +whatever one liked, as far as morals or temper or intellect were +concerned, but he was not a man whom a light-weight cared to +challenge for a fight; and Sumner, whether he knew it or not, was +a very light weight in the Republican Party, if separated from +his Committee of Foreign Relations. As a party manager he had not +the weight of half-a-dozen men whose very names were unknown to +him. + + Between these great forces, where was the Administration and +how was one to support it? One must first find it, and even then +it was not easily caught. Grant's simplicity was more +disconcerting than the complexity of a Talleyrand. Mr. Fish +afterwards told Adams, with the rather grim humor he sometimes +indulged in, that Grant took a dislike to Motley because he +parted his hair in the middle. Adams repeated the story to +Godkin, who made much play with it in the Nation, till it was +denied. Adams saw no reason why it should be denied. Grant had as +good a right to dislike the hair as the head, if the hair seemed +to him a part of it. Very shrewd men have formed very sound +judgments on less material than hair -- on clothes, for example, +according to Mr. Carlyle, or on a pen, according to Cardinal de +Retz -- and nine men in ten could hardly give as good a reason as +hair for their likes or dislikes. In truth, Grant disliked Motley +at sight, because they had nothing in common; and for the same +reason he disliked Sumner. For the same reason he would be sure +to dislike Adams if Adams gave him a chance. Even Fish could not +be quite sure of Grant, except for the powerful effect which +wealth had, or appeared to have, on Grant's imagination. + + The quarrel that lowered over the State Department did not +break in storm till July, 1870, after Adams had vanished, but +another quarrel, almost as fatal to Adams as that between Fish +and Sumner, worried him even more. Of all members of the Cabinet, +the one whom he had most personal interest in cultivating was +Attorney General Hoar. The Legal Tender decision, which had been +the first stumbling-block to Adams at Washington, grew in +interest till it threatened to become something more serious than +a block; it fell on one's head like a plaster ceiling, and could +not be escaped. The impending battle between Fish and Sumner was +nothing like so serious as the outbreak between Hoar and Chief +Justice Chase. Adams had come to Washington hoping to support the +Executive in a policy of breaking down the Senate, but he never +dreamed that he would be required to help in breaking down the +Supreme Court. Although, step by step, he had been driven, like +the rest of the world, to admit that American society had +outgrown most of its institutions, he still clung to the Supreme +Court, much as a churchman clings to his bishops, because they +are his only symbol of unity; his last rag of Right. Between the +Executive and the Legislature, citizens could have no Rights; +they were at the mercy of Power. They had created the Court to +protect them from unlimited Power, and it was little enough +protection at best. Adams wanted to save the independence of the +Court at least for his lifetime, and could not conceive that the +Executive should wish to overthrow it. + + Frank Walker shared this feeling, and, by way of helping the +Court, he had promised Adams for the North American Review an +article on the history of the Legal Tender Act, founded on a +volume just then published by Spaulding, the putative father of +the legal-tender clause in 1861. Secretary Jacob D. Cox, who +alone sympathized with reform, saved from Boutwell's decree of +banishment such reformers as he could find place for, and he +saved Walker for a time by giving him the Census of 1870. Walker +was obliged to abandon his article for the North American in +order to devote himself to the Census. He gave Adams his notes, +and Adams completed the article. + + He had not toiled in vain over the Bank of England Restriction. +He knew enough about Legal Tender to leave it alone. If the banks +and bankers wanted fiat money, fiat money was good enough for a +newspaper-man; and if they changed about and wanted "intrinsic" +value, gold and silver came equally welcome to a writer who was +paid half the wages of an ordinary mechanic. He had no notion of +attacking or defending Legal Tender; his object was to defend the +Chief Justice and the Court. Walker argued that, whatever might +afterwards have been the necessity for legal tender, there was no +necessity for it at the time the Act was passed. With the help of +the Chief Justice's recollections, Adams completed the article, +which appeared in the April number of the North American. Its +ferocity was Walker's, for Adams never cared to abandon the knife +for the hatchet, but Walker reeked of the army and the +Springfield Republican, and his energy ran away with Adams's +restraint. The unfortunate Spaulding complained loudly of this +treatment, not without justice, but the article itself had +serious historical value, for Walker demolished every shred of +Spaulding's contention that legal tender was necessary at the +time; and the Chief Justice told his part of the story with +conviction. The Chief Justice seemed to be pleased. The Attorney +General, pleased or not, made no sign. The article had enough +historical interest to induce Adams to reprint it in a volume of +Essays twenty years afterwards; but its historical value was not +its point in education. The point was that, in spite of the best +intentions, the plainest self-interest, and the strongest wish to +escape further trouble, the article threw Adams into opposition. +Judge Hoar, like Boutwell, was implacable. + + Hoar went on to demolish the Chief Justice; while Henry Adams +went on, drifting further and further from the Administration. He +did this in common with all the world, including Hoar himself. +Scarcely a newspaper in the country kept discipline. The New York +Tribune was one of the most criminal. Dissolution of ties in +every direction marked the dissolution of temper, and the Senate +Chamber became again a scene of irritated egotism that passed +ridicule. Senators quarrelled with each other, and no one +objected, but they picked quarrels also with the Executive and +threw every Department into confusion. Among others they +quarrelled with Hoar, and drove him from office. + + That Sumner and Hoar, the two New Englanders in great position +who happened to be the two persons most necessary for his success +at Washington, should be the first victims of Grant's lax rule, +must have had some meaning for Adams's education, if Adams could +only have understood what it was. He studied, but failed. +Sympathy with him was not their weakness. Directly, in the form +of help, he knew he could hope as little from them as from +Boutwell. So far from inviting attachment they, like other New +Englanders, blushed to own a friend. Not one of the whole +delegation would ever, of his own accord, try to help Adams or +any other young man who did not beg for it, although they would +always accept whatever services they had not to pay for. The +lesson of education was not there. The selfishness of politics +was the earliest of all political education, and Adams had +nothing to learn from its study; but the situation struck him as +curious -- so curious that he devoted years to reflecting upon +it. His four most powerful friends had matched themselves, two +and two, and were fighting in pairs to a finish; Sumner-Fish; +Chase-Hoar; with foreign affairs and the judiciary as prizes! +What value had the fight in education? + + Adams was puzzled, and was not the only puzzled bystander. The +stage-type of statesman was amusing, whether as Roscoe Conkling +or Colonel Mulberry Sellers, but what was his value? The +statesmen of the old type, whether Sumners or Conklings or Hoars +or Lamars, were personally as honest as human nature could +produce. They trod with lofty contempt on other people's jobs, +especially when there was good in them. Yet the public thought +that Sumner and Conkling cost the country a hundred times more +than all the jobs they ever trod on; just as Lamar and the old +Southern statesmen, who were also honest in money-matters, cost +the country a civil war. This painful moral doubt worried Adams +less than it worried his friends and the public, but it affected +the whole field of politics for twenty years. The newspapers +discussed little else than the alleged moral laxity of Grant, +Garfield, and Blaine. If the press were taken seriously, politics +turned on jobs, and some of Adams's best friends, like Godkin, +ruined their influence by their insistence on points of morals. +Society hesitated, wavered, oscillated between harshness and +laxity, pitilessly sacrificing the weak, and deferentially +following the strong. In spite of all such criticism, the public +nominated Grant, Garfield, and Blaine for the Presidency, and +voted for them afterwards, not seeming to care for the question; +until young men were forced to see that either some new standard +must be created, or none could be upheld. The moral law had +expired -- like the Constitution. + + Grant's administration outraged every rule of ordinary decency, +but scores of promising men, whom the country could not well +spare, were ruined in saying so. The world cared little for +decency. What it wanted, it did not know; probably a system that +would work, and men who could work it; but it found neither. +Adams had tried his own little hands on it, and had failed. His +friends had been driven out of Washington or had taken to +fisticuffs. He himself sat down and stared helplessly into the +future. + + The result was a review of the Session for the July North +American into which he crammed and condensed everything he +thought he had observed and all he had been told. He thought it +good history then, and he thought it better twenty years +afterwards; he thought it even good enough to reprint. As it +happened, in the process of his devious education, this "Session" +of 1869-70 proved to be his last study in current politics, and +his last dying testament as a humble member of the press. As +such, he stood by it. He could have said no more, had he gone on +reviewing every session in the rest of the century. The political +dilemma was as clear in 1870 as it was likely to be in 1970 The +system of 1789 had broken down, and with it the +eighteenth-century fabric of a priori, or moral, principles. +Politicians had tacitly given it up. Grant's administration +marked the avowal. Nine-tenths of men's political energies must +henceforth be wasted on expedients to piece out -- to patch -- +or, in vulgar language, to tinker -- the political machine as +often as it broke down. Such a system, or want of system, might +last centuries, if tempered by an occasional revolution or civil +war; but as a machine, it was, or soon would be, the poorest in +the world -- the clumsiest -- the most inefficient + + Here again was an education, but what it was worth he could not +guess. Indeed, when he raised his eyes to the loftiest and most +triumphant results of politics -- to Mr. Boutwell, Mr. Conkling +or even Mr. Sumner -- he could not honestly say that such an +education, even when it carried one up to these unattainable +heights, was worth anything. There were men, as yet standing on +lower levels -- clever and amusing men like Garfield and Blaine +-- who took no little pleasure in making fun of the senatorial +demi-gods, and who used language about Grant himself which the +North American Review would not have admitted. One asked +doubtfully what was likely to become of these men in their turn. +What kind of political ambition was to result from this +destructive political education? + + Yet the sum of political life was, or should have been, the +attainment of a working political system. Society needed to reach +it. If moral standards broke down, and machinery stopped working, +new morals and machinery of some sort had to be invented. An +eternity of Grants, or even of Garfields or of Conklings or of +Jay Goulds, refused to be conceived as possible. Practical +Americans laughed, and went their way. Society paid them to be +practical. Whenever society cared to pay Adams, he too would be +practical, take his pay, and hold his tongue; but meanwhile he +was driven to associate with Democratic Congressmen and educate +them. He served David Wells as an active assistant professor of +revenue reform, and turned his rooms into a college. The +Administration drove him, and thousands of other young men, into +active enmity, not only to Grant, but to the system or want of +system, which took possession of the President. Every hope or +thought which had brought Adams to Washington proved to be +absurd. No one wanted him; no one wanted any of his friends in +reform; the blackmailer alone was the normal product of politics +as of business. + + All this was excessively amusing. Adams never had been so busy, +so interested, so much in the thick of the crowd. He knew +Congressmen by scores and newspaper-men by the dozen. He wrote +for his various organs all sorts of attacks and defences. He +enjoyed the life enormously, and found himself as happy as Sam +Ward or Sunset Cox; much happier than his friends Fish or J. D. +Cox, or Chief Justice Chase or Attorney General Hoar or Charles +Sumner. When spring came, he took to the woods, which were best +of all, for after the first of April, what Maurice de Guerin +called "the vast maternity" of nature showed charms more +voluptuous than the vast paternity of the United States Senate. +Senators were less ornamental than the dogwood or even the +judas-tree. They were, as a rule, less good company. Adams +astonished himself by remarking what a purified charm was lent to +the Capitol by the greatest possible distance, as one caught +glimpses of the dome over miles of forest foliage. At such +moments he pondered on the distant beauty of St. Peter's and the +steps of Ara Coeli. + + Yet he shortened his spring, for he needed to get back to +London for the season. He had finished his New York "Gold +Conspiracy," which he meant for his friend Henry Reeve and the +Edinburgh Review. It was the best piece of work he had done, but +this was not his reason for publishing it in England. The Erie +scandal had provoked a sort of revolt among respectable New +Yorkers, as well as among some who were not so respectable; and +the attack on Erie was beginning to promise success. London was a +sensitive spot for the Erie management, and it was thought well +to strike them there, where they were socially and financially +exposed. The tactics suited him in another way, for any +expression about America in an English review attracted ten times +the attention in America that the same article would attract in +the North American. Habitually the American dailies reprinted +such articles in full. Adams wanted to escape the terrors of +copyright, his highest ambition was to be pirated and advertised +free of charge, since in any case, his pay was nothing. Under the +excitement of chase he was becoming a pirate himself, and liked +it. + + +CHAPTER XIX + +CHAOS (1870) + + ONE fine May afternoon in 1870 Adams drove again up St. James's +Street wondering more than ever at the marvels of life. Nine +years had passed since the historic entrance of May, 1861. +Outwardly London was the same. Outwardly Europe showed no great +change. Palmerston and Russell were forgotten; but Disraeli and +Gladstone were still much alive. One's friends were more than +ever prominent. John Bright was in the Cabinet; W. E. Forster was +about to enter it; reform ran riot. Never had the sun of progress +shone so fair. Evolution from lower to higher raged like an +epidemic. Darwin was the greatest of prophets in the most +evolutionary of worlds. Gladstone had overthrown the Irish +Church; was overthrowing the Irish landlords; was trying to pass +an Education Act. Improvement, prosperity, power, were leaping +and bounding over every country road. Even America, with her Erie +scandals and Alabama Claims, hardly made a discordant note. + + At the Legation, Motley ruled; the long Adams reign was +forgotten; the rebellion had passed into history. In society no +one cared to recall the years before the Prince of Wales. The +smart set had come to their own. Half the houses that Adams had +frequented, from 1861 to 1865, were closed or closing in 1870. +Death had ravaged one's circle of friends. Mrs. Milnes Gaskell +and her sister Miss Charlotte Wynn were both dead, and Mr. James +Milnes Gaskell was no longer in Parliament. That field of +education seemed closed too. + + One found one's self in a singular frame of mind -- more +eighteenth-century than ever -- almost rococo -- and unable to +catch anywhere the cog-wheels of evolution. Experience ceased to +educate. London taught less freely than of old. That one bad +style was leading to another -- that the older men were more +amusing than the younger -- that Lord Houghton's breakfast-table +showed gaps hard to fill -- that there were fewer men one wanted +to meet -- these, and a hundred more such remarks, helped little +towards a quicker and more intelligent activity. For English +reforms Adams cared nothing. The reforms were themselves +mediaeval. The Education Bill of his friend W. E. Forster seemed +to him a guaranty against all education he had use for. He +resented change. He would have kept the Pope in the Vatican and +the Queen at Windsor Castle as historical monuments. He did not +care to Americanize Europe. The Bastille or the Ghetto was a +curiosity worth a great deal of money, if preserved; and so was a +Bishop; so was Napoleon III. The tourist was the great +conservative who hated novelty and adored dirt. Adams came back +to London without a thought of revolution or restlessness or +reform. He wanted amusement, quiet, and gaiety. + + Had he not been born in 1838 under the shadow of Boston State +House, and been brought up in the Early Victorian epoch, he would +have cast off his old skin, and made his court to Marlborough +House, in partnership with the American woman and the Jew banker. +Common-sense dictated it; but Adams and his friends were +unfashionable by some law of Anglo-Saxon custom -- some innate +atrophy of mind. Figuring himself as already a man of action, and +rather far up towards the front, he had no idea of making a new +effort or catching up with a new world. He saw nothing ahead of +him. The world was never more calm. He wanted to talk with +Ministers about the Alabama Claims, because he looked on the +Claims as his own special creation, discussed between him and his +father long before they had been discussed by Government; he +wanted to make notes for his next year's articles; but he had not +a thought that, within three months, his world was to be upset, +and he under it. Frank Palgrave came one day, more contentious, +contemptuous, and paradoxical than ever, because Napoleon III +seemed to be threatening war with Germany. Palgrave said that +"Germany would beat France into scraps" if there was war. Adams +thought not. The chances were always against catastrophes. No one +else expected great changes in Europe. Palgrave was always +extreme; his language was incautious -- violent! + + In this year of all years, Adams lost sight of education. +Things began smoothly, and London glowed with the pleasant sense +of familiarity and dinners. He sniffed with voluptuous delight +the coal-smoke of Cheapside and revelled in the architecture of +Oxford Street. May Fair never shone so fair to Arthur Pendennis +as it did to the returned American. The country never smiled its +velvet smile of trained and easy hostess as it did when he was so +lucky as to be asked on a country visit. He loved it all -- +everything -- had always loved it! He felt almost attached to the +Royal Exchange. He thought he owned the St. James's Club. He +patronized the Legation. + + The first shock came lightly, as though Nature were playing +tricks on her spoiled child, though she had thus far not exerted +herself to spoil him. Reeve refused the Gold Conspiracy. Adams +had become used to the idea that he was free of the Quarterlies, +and that his writing would be printed of course; but he was +stunned by the reason of refusal. Reeve said it would bring +half-a-dozen libel suits on him. One knew that the power of Erie +was almost as great in England as in America, but one was hardly +prepared to find it controlling the Quarterlies. The English +press professed to be shocked in 1870 by the Erie scandal, as it +had professed in 1860 to be shocked by the scandal of slavery, +but when invited to support those who were trying to abate these +scandals, the English press said it was afraid. To Adams, Reeve's +refusal seemed portentous. He and his brother and the North +American Review were running greater risks every day, and no one +thought of fear. That a notorious story, taken bodily from an +official document, should scare the Endinburgh Review into +silence for fear of Jay Gould and Jim Fisk, passed even Adams's +experience of English eccentricity, though it was large. + + He gladly set down Reeve's refusal of the Gold Conspiracy to +respectability and editorial law, but when he sent the manuscript +on to the Quarterly, the editor of the Quarterly also refused it. +The literary standard of the two Quarterlies was not so high as +to suggest that the article was illiterate beyond the power of an +active and willing editor to redeem it. Adams had no choice but +to realize that he had to deal in 1870 with the same old English +character of 1860, and the same inability in himself to +understand it. As usual, when an ally was needed, the American +was driven into the arms of the radicals. Respectability, +everywhere and always, turned its back the moment one asked to do +it a favor. Called suddenly away from England, he despatched the +article, at the last moment, to the Westminster Review and heard +no more about it for nearly six months. + + He had been some weeks in London when he received a telegram +from his brother-in-law at the Bagni di Lucca telling him that +his sister had been thrown from a cab and injured, and that he +had better come on. He started that night, and reached the Bagni +di Lucca on the second day. Tetanus had already set in. + + The last lesson -- the sum and term of education -- began then. +He had passed through thirty years of rather varied experience +without having once felt the shell of custom broken. He had never +seen Nature -- only her surface -- the sugar-coating that she +shows to youth. Flung suddenly in his face, with the harsh +brutality of chance, the terror of the blow stayed by him +thenceforth for life, until repetition made it more than the will +could struggle with; more than he could call on himself to bear. +He found his sister, a woman of forty, as gay and brilliant in +the terrors of lockjaw as she had been in the careless fun of +1859, lying in bed in consequence of a miserable cab-accident +that had bruised her foot. Hour by hour the muscles grew rigid, +while the mind remained bright, until after ten days of fiendish +torture she died in convulsion. + + One had heard and read a great deal about death, and even seen +a little of it, and knew by heart the thousand commonplaces of +religion and poetry which seemed to deaden one's senses and veil +the horror. Society being immortal, could put on immortality at +will. Adams being mortal, felt only the mortality. Death took +features altogether new to him, in these rich and sensuous +surroundings. Nature enjoyed it, played with it, the horror added +to her charm, she liked the torture, and smothered her victim +with caresses. Never had one seen her so winning. The hot Italian +summer brooded outside, over the market-place and the picturesque +peasants, and, in the singular color of the Tuscan atmosphere, +the hills and vineyards of the Apennines seemed bursting with +mid-summer blood. The sick-room itself glowed with the Italian +joy of life; friends filled it; no harsh northern lights pierced +the soft shadows; even the dying women shared the sense of the +Italian summer, the soft, velvet air, the humor, the courage, the +sensual fulness of Nature and man. She faced death, as women +mostly do, bravely and even gaily, racked slowly to +unconsciousness, but yielding only to violence, as a soldier +sabred in battle. For many thousands of years, on these hills and +plains, Nature had gone on sabring men and women with the same +air of sensual pleasure. + + Impressions like these are not reasoned or catalogued in the +mind; they are felt as part of violent emotion; and the mind that +feels them is a different one from that which reasons; it is +thought of a different power and a different person. The first +serious consciousness of Nature's gesture -- her attitude towards +life -- took form then as a phantasm, a nightmare, an insanity of +force. For the first time, the stage-scenery of the senses +collapsed; the human mind felt itself stripped naked, vibrating +in a void of shapeless energies, with resistless mass, colliding, +crushing, wasting, and destroying what these same energies had +created and labored from eternity to perfect. Society became +fantastic, a vision of pantomime with a mechanical motion; and +its so-called thought merged in the mere sense of life, and +pleasure in the sense. The usual anodynes of social medicine +became evident artifice. Stoicism was perhaps the best; religion +was the most human; but the idea that any personal deity could +find pleasure or profit in torturing a poor woman, by accident, +with a fiendish cruelty known to man only in perverted and insane +temperaments, could not be held for a moment. For pure blasphemy, +it made pure atheism a comfort. God might be, as the Church said, +a Substance, but He could not be a Person. + + With nerves strained for the first time beyond their power of +tension, he slowly travelled northwards with his friends, and +stopped for a few days at Ouchy to recover his balance in a new +world; for the fantastic mystery of coincidences had made the +world, which he thought real, mimic and reproduce the distorted +nightmare of his personal horror. He did not yet know it, and he +was twenty years in finding it out; but he had need of all the +beauty of the Lake below and of the Alps above, to restore the +finite to its place. For the first time in his life, Mont Blanc +for a moment looked to him what it was -- a chaos of anarchic and +purposeless forces -- and he needed days of repose to see it +clothe itself again with the illusions of his senses, the white +purity of its snows, the splendor of its light, and the infinity +of its heavenly peace. Nature was kind; Lake Geneva was beautiful +beyond itself, and the Alps put on charms real as terrors; but +man became chaotic, and before the illusions of Nature were +wholly restored, the illusions of Europe suddenly vanished, +leaving a new world to learn. + + On July 4, all Europe had been in peace; on July 14, Europe was +in full chaos of war. One felt helpless and ignorant, but one +might have been king or kaiser without feeling stronger to deal +with the chaos. Mr. Gladstone was as much astounded as Adams; the +Emperor Napoleon was nearly as stupefied as either, and Bismarck: +himself hardly knew how he did it. As education, the out-break of +the war was wholly lost on a man dealing with death hand-to-hand, +who could not throw it aside to look at it across the Rhine. Only +when he got up to Paris, he began to feel the approach of +catastrophe. Providence set up no affiches to announce the +tragedy. Under one's eyes France cut herself adrift, and floated +off, on an unknown stream, towards a less known ocean. Standing +on the curb of the Boulevard, one could see as much as though one +stood by the side of the Emperor or in command of an army corps. +The effect was lurid. The public seemed to look on the war, as it +had looked on the wars of Louis XIV and Francis I, as a branch of +decorative art. The French, like true artists, always regarded +war as one of the fine arts. Louis XIV practiced it; Napoleon I +perfected it; and Napoleon III had till then pursued it in the +same spirit with singular success. In Paris, in July, 1870, the +war was brought out like an opera of Meyerbeer. One felt one's +self a supernumerary hired to fill the scene. Every evening at +the theatre the comedy was interrupted by order, and one stood up +by order, to join in singing the Marseillaise to order. For +nearly twenty years one had been forbidden to sing the +Marseillaise under any circumstances, but at last regiment after +regiment marched through the streets shouting "Marchons!" while +the bystanders cared not enough to join. Patriotism seemed to +have been brought out of the Government stores, and distributed +by grammes per capita. One had seen one's own people dragged +unwillingly into a war, and had watched one's own regiments march +to the front without sign of enthusiasm; on the contrary, most +serious, anxious, and conscious of the whole weight of the +crisis; but in Paris every one conspired to ignore the crisis, +which every one felt at hand. Here was education for the million, +but the lesson was intricate. Superficially Napoleon and his +Ministers and marshals were playing a game against Thiers and +Gambetta. A bystander knew almost as little as they did about the +result. How could Adams prophesy that in another year or two, +when he spoke of his Paris and its tastes, people would smile at +his dotage? + + As soon as he could, he fled to England and once more took +refuge in the profound peace of Wenlock Abbey. Only the few +remaining monks, undisturbed by the brutalities of Henry VIII -- +three or four young Englishmen -- survived there, with Milnes +Gaskell acting as Prior. The August sun was warm; the calm of the +Abbey was ten times secular; not a discordant sound -- hardly a +sound of any sort except the cawing of the ancient rookery at +sunset -- broke the stillness; and, after the excitement of the +last month, one felt a palpable haze of peace brooding over the +Edge and the Welsh Marches. Since the reign of Pterspis, nothing +had greatly changed; nothing except the monks. Lying on the turf +the ground littered with newspapers, the monks studied the war +correspondence. In one respect Adams had succeeded in educating +himself; he had learned to follow a campaign. + + While at Wenlock, he received a letter from President Eliot +inviting him to take an Assistant Professorship of History, to be +created shortly at Harvard College. After waiting ten or a dozen +years for some one to show consciousness of his existence, even a +Terabratula would be pleased and grateful for a compliment which +implied that the new President of Harvard College wanted his +help; but Adams knew nothing about history, and much less about +teaching, while he knew more than enough about Harvard College; +and wrote at once to thank President Eliot, with much regret that +the honor should be above his powers. His mind was full of other +matters. The summer, from which he had expected only amusement +and social relations with new people, had ended in the most +intimate personal tragedy, and the most terrific political +convulsion he had ever known or was likely to know. He had failed +in every object of his trip. The Quarterlies had refused his best +essay. He had made no acquaintances and hardly picked up the old +ones. He sailed from Liverpool, on September 1, to begin again +where he had started two years before, but with no longer a hope +of attaching himself to a President or a party or a press. He was +a free lance and no other career stood in sight or mind. To that +point education had brought him. + + Yet he found, on reaching home, that he had not done quite so +badly as he feared. His article on the Session in the July North +American had made a success. Though he could not quite see what +partisan object it served, he heard with flattered astonishment +that it had been reprinted by the Democratic National Committee +and circulated as a campaign document by the hundred thousand +copies. He was henceforth in opposition, do what he might; and a +Massachusetts Democrat, say what he pleased; while his only +reward or return for this partisan service consisted in being +formally answered by Senator Timothy Howe, of Wisconsin, in a +Republican campaign document, presumed to be also freely +circulated, in which the Senator, besides refuting his opinions, +did him the honor -- most unusual and picturesque in a Senator's +rhetoric -- of likening him to a begonia. + + The begonia is, or then was, a plant of such senatorial +qualities as to make the simile, in intention, most flattering. +Far from charming in its refinement, the begonia was remarkable +for curious and showy foliage; it was conspicuous; it seemed to +have no useful purpose; and it insisted on standing always in the +most prominent positions. Adams would have greatly liked to be a +begonia in Washington, for this was rather his ideal of the +successful statesman, and he thought about it still more when the +Westminster Review for October brought him his article on the +Gold Conspiracy, which was also instantly pirated on a great +scale. Piratical he was himself henceforth driven to be, and he +asked only to be pirated, for he was sure not to be paid; but the +honors of piracy resemble the colors of the begonia; they are +showy but not useful. Here was a tour de force he had never +dreamed himself equal to performing: two long, dry, quarterly, +thirty or forty page articles, appearing in quick succession, and +pirated for audiences running well into the hundred thousands; +and not one person, man or woman, offering him so much as a +congratulation, except to call him a begonia. + + Had this been all, life might have gone on very happily as +before, but the ways of America to a young person of literary and +political tastes were such as the so-called evolution of +civilized man had not before evolved. No sooner had Adams made at +Washington what he modestly hoped was a sufficient success, than +his whole family set on him to drag him away. For the first time +since 1861 his father interposed; his mother entreated; and his +brother Charles argued and urged that he should come to Harvard +College. Charles had views of further joint operations in a new +field. He said that Henry had done at Washington all he could +possibly do; that his position there wanted solidity; that he +was, after all, an adventurer; that a few years in Cambridge +would give him personal weight; that his chief function was not +to be that of teacher, but that of editing the North American +Review which was to be coupled with the professorship, and would +lead to the daily press. In short, that he needed the university +more than the university needed him. + + Henry knew the university well enough to know that the +department of history was controlled by one of the most astute +and ideal administrators in the world -- Professor Gurney -- and +that it was Gurney who had established the new professorship, and +had cast his net over Adams to carry the double load of mediaeval +history and the Review. He could see no relation whatever between +himself and a professorship. He sought education; he did not sell +it. He knew no history; he knew only a few historians; his +ignorance was mischievous because it was literary, accidental, +indifferent. On the other hand he knew Gurney, and felt much +influenced by his advice. One cannot take one's self quite +seriously in such matters; it could not much affect the sum of +solar energies whether one went on dancing with girls in +Washington, or began talking to boys at Cambridge. The good +people who thought it did matter had a sort of right to guide. +One could not reject their advice; still less disregard their +wishes. + + The sum of the matter was that Henry went out to Cambridge and +had a few words with President Eliot which seemed to him almost +as American as the talk about diplomacy with his father ten years +before. "But, Mr. President," urged Adams, "I know nothing about +Mediaeval History." With the courteous manner and bland smile so +familiar for the next generation of Americans Mr. Eliot mildly +but firmly replied, "If you will point out to me any one who +knows more, Mr. Adams, I will appoint him." The answer was +neither logical nor convincing, but Adams could not meet it +without overstepping his privileges. He could not say that, under +the circumstances, the appointment of any professor at all seemed +to him unnecessary. + + So, at twenty-four hours' notice, he broke his life in halves +again in order to begin a new education, on lines he had not +chosen, in subjects for which he cared less than nothing; in a +place he did not love, and before a future which repelled. +Thousands of men have to do the same thing, but his case was +peculiar because he had no need to do it. He did it because his +best and wisest friends urged it, and he never could make up his +mind whether they were right or not. To him this kind of +education was always false. For himself he had no doubts. He +thought it a mistake; but his opinion did not prove that it was +one, since, in all probability, whatever he did would be more or +less a mistake. He had reached cross-roads of education which all +led astray. What he could gain at Harvard College he did not +know, but in any case it was nothing he wanted. What he lost at +Washington he could partly see, but in any case it was not +fortune. Grant's administration wrecked men by thousands, but +profited few. Perhaps Mr. Fish was the solitary exception. One +might search the whole list of Congress, Judiciary, and Executive +during the twenty-five years 1870 to 1895, and find little but +damaged reputation. The period was poor in purpose and barren in +results. + + Henry Adams, if not the rose, lived as near it as any +politician, and knew, more or less, all the men in any way +prominent at Washington, or knew all about them. Among them, in +his opinion, the best equipped, the most active-minded, and most +industrious was Abram Hewitt, who sat in Congress for a dozen +years, between 1874 and 1886, sometimes leading the House and +always wielding influence second to none. With nobody did Adams +form closer or longer relations than with Mr. Hewitt, whom he +regarded as the most useful public man in Washington; and he was +the more struck by Hewitt's saying, at the end of his laborious +career as legislator, that he left behind him no permanent result +except the Act consolidating the Surveys. Adams knew no other man +who had done so much, unless Mr. Sherman's legislation is +accepted as an instance of success. Hewitt's nearest rival would +probably have been Senator Pendleton who stood father to civil +service reform in 1882, an attempt to correct a vice that should +never have been allowed to be born. These were the men who +succeeded. + + The press stood in much the same light. No editor, no political +writer, and no public administrator achieved enough good +reputation to preserve his memory for twenty years. A number of +them achieved bad reputations, or damaged good ones that had been +gained in the Civil War. On the whole, even for Senators, +diplomats, and Cabinet officers, the period was wearisome and +stale. + + None of Adams's generation profited by public activity unless +it were William C. Whitney, and even he could not be induced to +return to it. Such ambitions as these were out of one's reach, +but supposing one tried for what was feasible, attached one's +self closely to the Garfields, Arthurs, Frelinghuysens, Blaines, +Bayards, or Whitneys, who happened to hold office; and supposing +one asked for the mission to Belgium or Portugal, and obtained +it; supposing one served a term as Assistant Secretary or Chief +of Bureau; or, finally, supposing one had gone as sub-editor on +the New York Tribune or Times -- how much more education would +one have gained than by going to Harvard College? These questions +seemed better worth an answer than most of the questions on +examination papers at college or in the civil service; all the +more because one never found an answer to them, then or +afterwards, and because, to his mind, the value of American +society altogether was mixed up with the value of Washington. + + At first, the simple beginner, struggling with principles, +wanted throw off responsibility on the American people, whose +bare and toiling shoulders had to carry the load of every social +or political stupidity; but the American people had no more to do +with it than with the customs of Peking. American character might +perhaps account for it, but what accounted for American +character? All Boston, all New England, and all respectable New +York, including Charles Francis Adams the father and Charles +Francis Adams the son, agreed that Washington was no place for a +respectable young man. All Washington, including Presidents, +Cabinet officers, Judiciary, Senators, Congressmen, and clerks, +expressed the same opinion, and conspired to drive away every +young man who happened to be there or tried to approach. Not one +young man of promise remained in the Government service. All +drifted into opposition. The Government did not want them in +Washington. Adams's case was perhaps the strongest because he +thought he had done well. He was forced to guess it, since he +knew no one who would have risked so extravagant a step as that +of encouraging a young man in a literary career, or even in a +political one; society forbade it, as well as residence in a +political capital; but Harvard College must have seen some hope +for him, since it made him professor against his will; even the +publishers and editors of the North American Review must have +felt a certain amount of confidence in him, since they put the +Review in his hands. After all, the Review was the first literary +power in America, even though it paid almost as little in gold as +the United States Treasury. The degree of Harvard College might +bear a value as ephemeral as the commission of a President of the +United States; but the government of the college, measured by +money alone, and patronage, was a matter of more importance than +that of some branches of the national service. In social +position, the college was the superior of them all put together. +In knowledge, she could assert no superiority, since the +Government made no claims, and prided itself on ignorance. The +service of Harvard College was distinctly honorable; perhaps the +most honorable in America; and if Harvard College thought Henry +Adams worth employing at four dollars a day, why should +Washington decline his services when he asked nothing? Why should +he be dragged from a career he liked in a place he loved, into a +career he detested, in a place and climate he shunned? Was it +enough to satisfy him, that all America should call Washington +barren and dangerous? What made Washington more dangerous than +New York? + + The American character showed singular limitations which +sometimes drove the student of civilized man to despair. Crushed +by his own ignorance -- lost in the darkness of his own gropings +-- the scholar finds himself jostled of a sudden by a crowd of +men who seem to him ignorant that there is a thing called +ignorance; who have forgotten how to amuse themselves; who cannot +even understand that they are bored. The American thought of +himself as a restless, pushing, energetic, ingenious person, +always awake and trying to get ahead of his neighbors. Perhaps +this idea of the national character might be correct for New York +or Chicago; it was not correct for Washington. There the American +showed himself, four times in five, as a quiet, peaceful, shy +figure, rather in the mould of Abraham Lincoln, somewhat sad, +sometimes pathetic, once tragic; or like Grant, inarticulate, +uncertain, distrustful of himself, still more distrustful of +others, and awed by money. That the American, by temperament, +worked to excess, was true; work and whiskey were his stimulants; +work was a form of vice; but he never cared much for money or +power after he earned them. The amusement of the pursuit was all +the amusement he got from it; he had no use for wealth. Jim Fisk +alone seemed to know what he wanted; Jay Gould never did. At +Washington one met mostly such true Americans, but if one wanted +to know them better, one went to study them in Europe. Bored, +patient, helpless; pathetically dependent on his wife and +daughters; indulgent to excess; mostly a modest, decent, +excellent, valuable citizen; the American was to be met at every +railway station in Europe, carefully explaining to every listener +that the happiest day of his life would be the day he should land +on the pier at New York. He was ashamed to be amused; his mind no +longer answered to the stimulus of variety; he could not face a +new thought. All his immense strength his intense nervous energy, +his keen analytic perceptions, were oriented in one direction, +and he could not change it. Congress was full of such men; in the +Senate, Sumner was almost the only exception; in the Executive, +Grant and Boutwell were varieties of the type -- political +specimens -- pathetic in their helplessness to do anything with +power when it came to them. They knew not how to amuse +themselves; they could not conceive how other people were amused. +Work, whiskey, and cards were life. The atmosphere of political +Washington was theirs -- or was supposed by the outside world to +be in their control -- and this was the reason why the outside +world judged that Washington was fatal even for a young man of +thirty-two, who had passed through the whole variety of +temptations, in every capital of Europe, for a dozen years; who +never played cards, and who loathed whiskey. + + +CHAPTER XX + +FAILURE (1871) + +FAR back in childhood, among its earliest memories, Henry Adams +could recall his first visit to Harvard College. He must have +been nine years old when on one of the singularly gloomy winter +afternoons which beguiled Cambridgeport, his mother drove him out +to visit his aunt, Mrs. Everett. Edward Everett was then +President of the college and lived in the old President's House +on Harvard Square. The boy remembered the drawing-room, on the +left of the hall door, in which Mrs. Everett received them. He +remembered a marble greyhound in the corner. The house had an air +of colonial self-respect that impressed even a nine-year-old +child. + + When Adams closed his interview with President Eliot, he asked +the Bursar about his aunt's old drawing-room, for the house had +been turned to base uses. The room and the deserted kitchen +adjacent to it were to let. He took them. Above him, his brother +Brooks, then a law student, had rooms, with a private staircase. +Opposite was J. R. Dennett, a young instructor almost as literary +as Adams himself, and more rebellious to conventions. Inquiry +revealed a boarding-table, somewhere in the neighborhood, also +supposed to be superior in its class. Chauncey Wright, Francis +Wharton, Dennett, John Fiske, or their equivalents in learning +and lecture, were seen there, among three or four law students +like Brooks Adams. With these primitive arrangements, all of them +had to be satisfied. The standard was below that of Washington, +but it was, for the moment, the best. + + For the next nine months the Assistant Professor had no time to +waste on comforts or amusements. He exhausted all his strength in +trying to keep one day ahead of his duties. Often the stint ran +on, till night and sleep ran short. He could not stop to think +whether he were doing the work rightly. He could not get it done +to please him, rightly or wrongly, for he never could satisfy +himself what to do. + + The fault he had found with Harvard College as an undergraduate +must have been more or less just, for the college was making a +great effort to meet these self-criticisms, and had elected +President Eliot in 1869 to carry out its reforms. Professor +Gurney was one of the leading reformers, and had tried his hand +on his own department of History. The two full Professors of +History -- Torrey and Gurney, charming men both -- could not +cover the ground. Between Gurney's classical courses and Torrey's +modern ones, lay a gap of a thousand years, which Adams was +expected to fill. The students had already elected courses +numbered 1, 2, and 3, without knowing what was to be taught or +who was to teach. If their new professor had asked what idea was +in their minds, they must have replied that nothing at all was in +their minds, since their professor had nothing in his, and down +to the moment he took his chair and looked his scholars in the +face, he had given, as far as he could remember, an hour, more or +less, to the Middle Ages. + + Not that his ignorance troubled him! He knew enough to be +ignorant. His course had led him through oceans of ignorance; he +had tumbled from one ocean into another till he had learned to +swim; but even to him education was a serious thing. A parent +gives life, but as parent, gives no more. A murderer takes life, +but his deed stops there. A teacher affects eternity; he can +never tell where his influence stops. A teacher is expected to +teach truth, and may perhaps flatter himself that he does so, if +he stops with the alphabet or the multiplication table, as a +mother teaches truth by making her child eat with a spoon; but +morals are quite another truth and philosophy is more complex +still. A teacher must either treat history as a catalogue, a +record, a romance, or as an evolution; and whether he affirms or +denies evolution, he falls into all the burning faggots of the +pit. He makes of his scholars either priests or atheists, +plutocrats or socialists, judges or anarchists, almost in spite +of himself. In essence incoherent and immoral, history had either +to be taught as such -- or falsified. + + Adams wanted to do neither. He had no theory of evolution to +teach, and could not make the facts fit one. He had no fancy for +telling agreeable tales to amuse sluggish-minded boys, in order +to publish them afterwards as lectures. He could still less +compel his students to learn the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the +Venerable Bede by heart. He saw no relation whatever between his +students and the Middle Ages unless it were the Church, and there +the ground was particularly dangerous. He knew better than though +he were a professional historian that the man who should solve +the riddle of the Middle Ages and bring them into the line of +evolution from past to present, would be a greater man than +Lamarck or Linnaeus; but history had nowhere broken down so +pitiably, or avowed itself so hopelessly bankrupt, as there. +Since Gibbon, the spectacle was almost a scandal. History had +lost even the sense of shame. It was a hundred years behind the +experimental sciences. For all serious purpose, it was less +instructive than Walter Scott and Alexandre Dumas. + + All this was without offence to Sir Henry Maine, Tyler, +McLennan, Buckle, Auguste Comte, and the various philosophers +who, from time to time, stirred the scandal, and made it more +scandalous. No doubt, a teacher might make some use of these +writers or their theories; but Adams could fit them into no +theory of his own. The college expected him to pass at least half +his time teaching the boys a few elementary dates and relations, +that they might not be a disgrace to the university. This was +formal; and he could frankly tell the boys that, provided they +passed their examinations, they might get their facts where they +liked, and use the teacher only for questions. The only privilege +a student had that was worth his claiming, was that of talking to +the professor, and the professor was bound to encourage it. His +only difficulty on that side was to get them to talk at all. He +had to devise schemes to find what they were thinking about, and +induce them to risk criticism from their fellows. Any large body +of students stifles the student. No man can instruct more than +half-a-dozen students at once. The whole problem of education is +one of its cost in money. + + The lecture system to classes of hundreds, which was very much +that of the twelfth century, suited Adams not at all. Barred from +philosophy and bored by facts, he wanted to teach his students +something not wholly useless. The number of students whose minds +were of an order above the average was, in his experience, barely +one in ten; the rest could not be much stimulated by any +inducements a teacher could suggest. All were respectable, and in +seven years of contact, Adams never had cause to complain of one; +but nine minds in ten take polish passively, like a hard surface; +only the tenth sensibly reacts. + + Adams thought that, as no one seemed to care what he did, he +would try to cultivate this tenth mind, though necessarily at the +expense of the other nine. He frankly acted on the rule that a +teacher, who knew nothing of his subject, should not pretend to +teach his scholars what he did not know, but should join them in +trying to find the best way of learning it. The rather +pretentious name of historical method was sometimes given to this +process of instruction, but the name smacked of German pedagogy, +and a young professor who respected neither history nor method, +and whose sole object of interest was his students' minds, fell +into trouble enough without adding to it a German parentage. + + The task was doomed to failure for a reason which he could not +control. Nothing is easier than to teach historical method, but, +when learned, it has little use. History is a tangled skein that +one may take up at any point, and break when one has unravelled +enough; but complexity precedes evolution. The Pteraspis grins +horribly from the closed entrance. One may not begin at the +beginning, and one has but the loosest relative truths to follow +up. Adams found himself obliged to force his material into some +shape to which a method could be applied. He could think only of +law as subject; the Law School as end; and he took, as victims of +his experiment, half-a-dozen highly intelligent young men who +seemed willing to work. The course began with the beginning, as +far as the books showed a beginning in primitive man, and came +down through the Salic Franks to the Norman English. Since no +textbooks existed, the professor refused to profess, knowing no +more than his students, and the students read what they pleased +and compared their results. As pedagogy, nothing could be more +triumphant. The boys worked like rabbits, and dug holes all over +the field of archaic society; no difficulty stopped them; unknown +languages yielded before their attack, and customary law became +familiar as the police court; undoubtedly they learned, after a +fashion, to chase an idea, like a hare, through as dense a +thicket of obscure facts as they were likely to meet at the bar; +but their teacher knew from his own experience that his wonderful +method led nowhere, and they would have to exert themselves to +get rid of it in the Law School even more than they exerted +themselves to acquire it in the college. Their science had no +system, and could have none, since its subject was merely +antiquarian. Try as hard as he might, the professor could not +make it actual. + + What was the use of training an active mind to waste its +energy? The experiments might in time train Adams as a professor, +but this result was still less to his taste. He wanted to help +the boys to a career, but not one of his many devices to +stimulate the intellectual reaction of the student's mind +satisfied either him or the students. For himself he was clear +that the fault lay in the system, which could lead only to +inertia. Such little knowledge of himself as he possessed +warranted him in affirming that his mind required conflict, +competition, contradiction even more than that of the student. He +too wanted a rank-list to set his name upon. His reform of the +system would have begun in the lecture-room at his own desk. He +would have seated a rival assistant professor opposite him, whose +business should be strictly limited to expressing opposite views. +Nothing short of this would ever interest either the professor or +the student; but of all university freaks, no irregularity +shocked the intellectual atmosphere so much as contradiction or +competition between teachers. In that respect the +thirteenth-century university system was worth the whole teaching +of the modern school. + + All his pretty efforts to create conflicts of thought among his +students failed for want of system. None met the needs of +instruction. In spite of President Eliot's reforms and his +steady, generous, liberal support, the system remained costly, +clumsy and futile. The university -- as far as it was represented +by Henry Adams -- produced at great waste of time and money +results not worth reaching. + + He made use of his lost two years of German schooling to +inflict their results on his students, and by a happy chance he +was in the full tide of fashion. The Germans were crowning their +new emperor at Versailles, and surrounding his head with a halo +of Pepins and Merwigs, Othos and Barbarossas. James Bryce had +even discovered the Holy Roman Empire. Germany was never so +powerful, and the Assistant Professor of History had nothing else +as his stock in trade. He imposed Germany on his scholars with a +heavy hand. He was rejoiced; but he sometimes doubted whether +they should be grateful. On the whole, he was content neither +with what he had taught nor with the way he had taught it. The +seven years he passed in teaching seemed to him lost. + + The uses of adversity are beyond measure strange. As a +professor, he regarded himself as a failure. Without false +modesty he thought he knew what he meant. He had tried a great +many experiments, and wholly succeeded in none. He had succumbed +to the weight of the system. He had accomplished nothing that he +tried to do. He regarded the system as wrong; more mischievous to +the teachers than to the students; fallacious from the beginning +to end. He quitted the university at last, in 1877, with a +feeling. that, if it had not been for the invariable courtesy and +kindness shown by every one in it, from the President to the +injured students, he should be sore at his failure. + + These were his own feelings, but they seemed not to be felt in +the college. With the same perplexing impartiality that had so +much disconcerted him in his undergraduate days, the college +insisted on expressing an opposite view. John Fiske went so far +in his notice of the family in "Appleton's Cyclopedia," as to say +that Henry had left a great reputation at Harvard College; which +was a proof of John Fiske's personal regard that Adams heartily +returned; and set the kind expression down to camaraderie. The +case was different when President Eliot himself hinted that +Adams's services merited recognition. Adams could have wept on +his shoulder in hysterics, so grateful was he for the rare +good-will that inspired the compliment; but he could not allow +the college to think that he esteemed himself entitled to +distinction. He knew better, and his was among the failures which +were respectable enough to deserve self-respect. Yet nothing in +the vanity of life struck him as more humiliating than that +Harvard College, which he had persistently criticised, abused, +abandoned, and neglected, should alone have offered him a dollar, +an office, an encouragement, or a kindness. Harvard College might +have its faults, but at least it redeemed America, since it was +true to its own. + + The only part of education that the professor thought a success +was the students. He found them excellent company. Cast more or +less in the same mould, without violent emotions or sentiment, +and, except for the veneer of American habits, ignorant of all +that man had ever thought or hoped, their minds burst open like +flowers at the sunlight of a suggestion. They were quick to +respond; plastic to a mould; and incapable of fatigue. Their +faith in education was so full of pathos that one dared not ask +them what they thought they could do with education when they got +it. Adams did put the question to one of them, and was surprised +at the answer: "The degree of Harvard College is worth money to +me in Chicago." This reply upset his experience; for the degree +of Harvard College had been rather a drawback to a young man in +Boston and Washington. So far as it went, the answer was good, +and settled one's doubts. Adams knew no better, although he had +given twenty years to pursuing the same education, and was no +nearer a result than they. He still had to take for granted many +things that they need not -- among the rest, that his teaching +did them more good than harm. In his own opinion the greatest +good he could do them was to hold his tongue. They needed much +faith then; they were likely to need more if they lived long. + + He never knew whether his colleagues shared his doubts about +their own utility. Unlike himself, they knew more or less their +business. He could not tell his scholars that history glowed with +social virtue; the Professor of Chemistry cared not a chemical +atom whether society was virtuous or not. Adams could not pretend +that mediaeval society proved evolution; the Professor of Physics +smiled at evolution. Adams was glad to dwell on the virtues of +the Church and the triumphs of its art: the Professor of +Political Economy had to treat them as waste of force. They knew +what they had to teach; he did not. They might perhaps be frauds +without knowing it; but he knew certainly nothing else of +himself. He could teach his students nothing; he was only +educating himself at their cost. + + Education, like politics, is a rough affair, and every +instructor has to shut his eyes and hold his tongue as though he +were a priest. The students alone satisfied. They thought they +gained something. Perhaps they did, for even in America and in +the twentieth century, life could not be wholly industrial. Adams +fervently hoped that they might remain content; but supposing +twenty years more to pass, and they should turn on him as +fiercely as he had turned on his old instructors -- what answer +could he make? The college had pleaded guilty, and tried to +reform. He had pleaded guilty from the start, and his reforms had +failed before those of the college. + + The lecture-room was futile enough, but the faculty-room was +worse. American society feared total wreck in the maelstrom of +political and corporate administration, but it could not look for +help to college dons. Adams knew, in that capacity, both +Congressmen and professors, and he preferred Congressmen. The +same failure marked the society of a college. Several score of +the best- educated, most agreeable, and personally the most +sociable people in America united in Cambridge to make a social +desert that would have starved a polar bear. The liveliest and +most agreeable of men -- James Russell Lowell, Francis J. Child, +Louis Agassiz, his son Alexander, Gurney, John Fiske, William +James and a dozen others, who would have made the joy of London +or Paris -- tried their best to break out and be like other men +in Cambridge and Boston, but society called them professors, and +professors they had to be. While all these brilliant men were +greedy for companionship, all were famished for want of it. +Society was a faculty-meeting without business. The elements were +there; but society cannot be made up of elements -- people who +are expected to be silent unless they have observations to make +-- and all the elements are bound to remain apart if required to +make observations. + + Thus it turned out that of all his many educations, Adams +thought that of school-teacher the thinnest. Yet he was forced to +admit that the education of an editor, in some ways, was thinner +still. The editor had barely time to edit; he had none to write. +If copy fell short, he was obliged to scribble a book-review on +the virtues of the Anglo-Saxons or the vices of the Popes; for he +knew more about Edward the Confessor or Boniface VIII than he did +about President Grant. For seven years he wrote nothing; the +Review lived on his brother Charles's railway articles. The +editor could help others, but could do nothing for himself. As a +writer, he was totally forgotten by the time he had been an +editor for twelve months. As editor he could find no writer to +take his place for politics and affairs of current concern. The +Review became chiefly historical. Russell Lowell and Frank +Palgrave helped him to keep it literary. The editor was a +helpless drudge whose successes, if he made any, belonged to his +writers; but whose failures might easily bankrupt himself. Such a +Review may be made a sink of money with captivating ease. The +secrets of success as an editor were easily learned; the highest +was that of getting advertisements. Ten pages of advertising made +an editor a success; five marked him as a failure. The merits or +demerits of his literature had little to do with his results +except when they led to adversity. + + A year or two of education as editor satiated most of his +appetite for that career as a profession. After a very slight +experience, he said no more on the subject. He felt willing to +let any one edit, if he himself might write. Vulgarly speaking, +it was a dog's life when it did not succeed, and little better +when it did. A professor had at least the pleasure of associating +with his students; an editor lived the life of an owl. A +professor commonly became a pedagogue or a pedant; an editor +became an authority on advertising. On the whole, Adams preferred +his attic in Washington. He was educated enough. Ignorance paid +better, for at least it earned fifty dollars a month. + + With this result Henry Adams's education, at his entry into +life, stopped, and his life began. He had to take that life as he +best could, with such accidental education as luck had given him; +but he held that it was wrong, and that, if he were to begin +again, he would do it on a better system. He thought he knew +nearly what system to pursue. At that time Alexander Agassiz had +not yet got his head above water so far as to serve for a model, +as he did twenty or thirty years afterwards; but the editorship +of the North American Review had one solitary merit; it made the +editor acquainted at a distance with almost every one in the +country who could write or who could be the cause of writing. +Adams was vastly pleased to be received among these clever people +as one of themselves, and felt always a little surprised at their +treating him as an equal, for they all had education; but among +them, only one stood out in extraordinary prominence as the type +and model of what Adams would have liked to be, and of what the +American, as he conceived, should have been and was not. + + Thanks to the article on Sir Charles Lyell, Adams passed for a +friend of geologists, and the extent of his knowledge mattered +much less to them than the extent of his friendship, for +geologists were as a class not much better off than himself, and +friends were sorely few. One of his friends from earliest +childhood, and nearest neighbor in Quincy, Frank Emmons, had +become a geologist and joined the Fortieth Parallel Survey under +Government. At Washington in the winter of 1869-70, Emmons had +invited Adams to go out with him on one of the field-parties in +summer. Of course when Adams took the Review he put it at the +service of the Survey, and regretted only that he could not do +more. When the first year of professing and editing was at last +over, and his July North American appeared, he drew a long breath +of relief, and took the next train for the West. Of his year's +work he was no judge. He had become a small spring in a large +mechanism, and his work counted only in the sum; but he had been +treated civilly by everybody, and he felt at home even in Boston. +Putting in his pocket the July number of the North American, with +a notice of the Fortieth Parallel Survey by Professor J. D. +Whitney, he started for the plains and the Rocky Mountains. + + In the year 1871, the West was still fresh, and the Union +Pacific was young. Beyond the Missouri River, one felt the +atmosphere of Indians and buffaloes. One saw the last vestiges of +an old education, worth studying if one would; but it was not +that which Adams sought; rather, he came out to spy upon the land +of the future. The Survey occasionally borrowed troopers from the +nearest station in case of happening on hostile Indians, but +otherwise the topographers and geologists thought more about +minerals than about Sioux. They held under their hammers a +thousand miles of mineral country with all its riddles to solve, +and its stores of possible wealth to mark. They felt the future +in their hands. + + Emmons's party was out of reach in the Uintahs, but Arnold +Hague's had come in to Laramie for supplies, and they took charge +of Adams for a time. Their wanderings or adventures matter +nothing to the story of education. They were all hardened +mountaineers and surveyors who took everything for granted, and +spared each other the most wearisome bore of English and Scotch +life, the stories of the big game they killed. A bear was an +occasional amusement; a wapiti was a constant necessity; but the +only wild animal dangerous to man was a rattlesnake or a skunk. +One shot for amusement, but one had other matters to talk about. + + Adams enjoyed killing big game, but loathed the labor of +cutting it up; so that he rarely unslung the little carbine he +was in a manner required to carry. On the other hand, he liked to +wander off alone on his mule, and pass the day fishing a mountain +stream or exploring a valley. One morning when the party was +camped high above Estes Park, on the flank of Long's Peak, he +borrowed a rod, and rode down over a rough trail into Estes Park, +for some trout. The day was fine, and hazy with the smoke of +forest fires a thousand miles away; the park stretched its +English beauties off to the base of its bordering mountains in +natural landscape and archaic peace; the stream was just fishy +enough to tempt lingering along its banks. Hour after hour the +sun moved westward and the fish moved eastward, or disappeared +altogether, until at last when the fisherman cinched his mule, +sunset was nearer than he thought. Darkness caught him before he +could catch his trail. Not caring to tumble into some fifty-foot +hole, he "allowed" he was lost, and turned back. In half-an-hour +he was out of the hills, and under the stars of Estes Park, but +he saw no prospect of supper or of bed. + + Estes Park was large enough to serve for a bed on a summer +night for an army of professors, but the supper question offered +difficulties. There was but one cabin in the Park, near its +entrance, and he felt no great confidence in finding it, but he +thought his mule cleverer than himself, and the dim lines of +mountain crest against the stars fenced his range of error. The +patient mule plodded on without other road than the gentle slope +of the ground, and some two hours must have passed before a light +showed in the distance. As the mule came up to the cabin door, +two or three men came out to see the stranger. + + One of these men was Clarence King on his way up to the camp. +Adams fell into his arms. As with most friendships, it was never +a matter of growth or doubt. Friends are born in archaic +horizons; they were shaped with the Pteraspis in Siluria; they +have nothing to do with the accident of space. King had come up +that day from Greeley in a light four-wheeled buggy, over a trail +hardly fit for a commissariat mule, as Adams had reason to know +since he went back in the buggy. In the cabin, luxury provided a +room and one bed for guests. They shared the room and the bed, +and talked till far towards dawn. + + King had everything to interest and delight Adams. He knew more +than Adams did of art and poetry; he knew America, especially +west of the hundredth meridian, better than any one; he knew the +professor by heart, and he knew the Congressman better than he +did the professor. He knew even women; even the American woman; +even the New York woman, which is saying much. Incidentally he +knew more practical geology than was good for him, and saw ahead +at least one generation further than the text-books. That he saw +right was a different matter. Since the beginning of time no man +has lived who is known to have seen right; the charm of King was +that he saw what others did and a great deal more. His wit and +humor; his bubbling energy which swept every one into the current +of his interest; his personal charm of youth and manners; his +faculty of giving and taking, profusely, lavishly, whether in +thought or in money as though he were Nature herself, marked him +almost alone among Americans. He had in him something of the +Greek -- a touch of Alcibiades or Alexander. One Clarence King +only existed in the world. + + A new friend is always a miracle, but at thirty-three years +old, such a bird of paradise rising in the sage-brush was an +avatar. One friend in a lifetime is much; two are many; three are +hardly possible. Friendship needs a certain parallelism of life, +a community of thought, a rivalry of aim. King, like Adams, and +all their generation, was at that moment passing the critical +point of his career. The one, coming from the west, saturated +with the sunshine of the Sierras, met the other, drifting from +the east, drenched in the fogs of London, and both had the same +problems to handle -- the same stock of implements -- the same +field to work in; above all, the same obstacles to overcome. + +As a companion, King's charm was great, but this was not the +quality that so much attracted Adams, nor could he affect even +distant rivalry on this ground. Adams could never tell a story, +chiefly because he always forgot it; and he was never guilty of a +witticism, unless by accident. King and the Fortieth Parallel +influenced him in a way far more vital. The lines of their lives +converged, but King had moulded and directed his life logically, +scientifically, as Adams thought American life should be +directed. He had given himself education all of a piece, yet +broad. Standing in the middle of his career, where their paths at +last came together, he could look back and look forward on a +straight line, with scientific knowledge for its base. Adams's +life, past or future, was a succession of violent breaks or +waves, with no base at all. King's abnormal energy had already +won him great success. None of his contemporaries had done so +much, single-handed, or were likely to leave so deep a trail. He +had managed to induce Congress to adopt almost its first modern +act of legislation. He had organized, as a civil -- not military +-- measure, a Government Survey. He had paralleled the +Continental Railway in Geology; a feat as yet unequalled by other +governments which had as a rule no continents to survey. He was +creating one of the classic scientific works of the century. The +chances were great that he could, whenever he chose to quit the +Government service, take the pick of the gold and silver, copper +or coal, and build up his fortune as he pleased. Whatever prize +he wanted lay ready for him -- scientific social, literary, +political -- and he knew how to take them in turn. With ordinary +luck he would die at eighty the richest and most many-sided +genius of his day. + + So little egoistic he was that none of his friends felt envy of +his extraordinary superiority, but rather grovelled before it, so +that women were jealous of the power he had over men; but women +were many and Kings were one. The men worshipped not so much +their friend, as the ideal American they all wanted to be. The +women were jealous because, at heart, King had no faith in the +American woman; he loved types more robust. + + The young men of the Fortieth Parallel had Californian +instincts; they were brothers of Bret Harte. They felt no +leanings towards the simple uniformities of Lyell and Darwin; +they saw little proof of slight and imperceptible changes; to +them, catastrophe was the law of change; they cared little for +simplicity and much for complexity; but it was the complexity of +Nature, not of New York or even of the Mississippi Valley. King +loved paradox; he started them like rabbits, and cared for them +no longer, when caught or lost; but they delighted Adams, for +they helped, among other things, to persuade him that history was +more amusing than science. The only question left open to doubt +was their relative money value. + + In Emmons's camp, far up in the Uintahs, these talks were +continued till the frosts became sharp in the mountains. History +and science spread out in personal horizons towards goals no +longer far away. No more education was possible for either man. +Such as they were, they had got to stand the chances of the world +they lived in; and when Adams started back to Cambridge, to take +up again the humble tasks of schoolmaster and editor he was +harnessed to his cart. Education, systematic or accidental, had +done its worst. Henceforth, he went on, submissive. + + +CHAPTER XXI + +TWENTY YEARS AFTER (1892) + + ONCE more! this is a story of education, not of adventure! It +is meant to help young men -- or such as have intelligence enough +to seek help -- but it is not meant to amuse them. What one did +-- or did not do -- with one's education, after getting it, need +trouble the inquirer in no way; it is a personal matter only +which would confuse him. Perhaps Henry Adams was not worth +educating; most keen judges incline to think that barely one man +in a hundred owns a mind capable of reacting to any purpose on +the forces that surround him, and fully half of these react +wrongly. The object of education for that mind should be the +teaching itself how to react with vigor and economy. No doubt the +world at large will always lag so far behind the active mind as +to make a soft cushion of inertia to drop upon, as it did for +Henry Adams; but education should try to lessen the obstacles, +diminish the friction, invigorate the energy, and should train +minds to react, not at haphazard, but by choice, on the lines of +force that attract their world. What one knows is, in youth, of +little moment; they know enough who know how to learn. Throughout +human history the waste of mind has been appalling, and, as this +story is meant to show, society has conspired to promote it. No +doubt the teacher is the worst criminal, but the world stands +behind him and drags the student from his course. The moral is +stentorian. Only the most energetic, the most highly fitted, and +the most favored have overcome the friction or the viscosity of +inertia, and these were compelled to waste three-fourths of their +energy in doing it. + + Fit or unfit, Henry Adams stopped his own education in 1871, +and began to apply it for practical uses, like his neighbors. At +the end of twenty years, he found that he had finished, and could +sum up the result. He had no complaint to make against man or +woman. They had all treated him kindly; he had never met with +ill-will, ill-temper, or even ill-manners, or known a quarrel. He +had never seen serious dishonesty or ingratitude. He had found a +readiness in the young to respond to suggestion that seemed to +him far beyond all he had reason to expect. Considering the stock +complaints against the world, he could not understand why he had +nothing to complain of. + + During these twenty years he had done as much work, in +quantity, as his neighbors wanted; more than they would ever stop +to look at, and more than his share. Merely in print, he thought +altogether ridiculous the number of volumes he counted on the +shelves of public libraries. He had no notion whether they served +a useful purpose; he had worked in the dark; but so had most of +his friends, even the artists, none of whom held any lofty +opinion of their success in raising the standards of society, or +felt profound respect for the methods or manners of their time, +at home or abroad, but all of whom had tried, in a way, to hold +the standard up. The effort had been, for the older generation, +exhausting, as one could see in the Hunts; but the generation +after 1870 made more figure, not in proportion to public wealth +or in the census, but in their own self-assertion. A fair number +of the men who were born in the thirties had won names -- +Phillips Brooks; Bret Harte; Henry James; H. H. Richardson; John +La Farge; and the list might be made fairly long if it were worth +while; but from their school had sprung others, like Augustus St. +Gaudens, McKim, Stanford White, and scores born in the forties, +who counted as force even in the mental inertia of sixty or +eighty million people. Among all these Clarence King, John Hay, +and Henry Adams had led modest existences, trying to fill in the +social gaps of a class which, as yet, showed but thin ranks and +little cohesion. The combination offered no very glittering +prizes, but they pursued it for twenty years with as much +patience and effort as though it led to fame or power, until, at +last, Henry Adams thought his own duties sufficiently performed +and his account with society settled. He had enjoyed his life +amazingly, and would not have exchanged it for any other that +came in his way; he was, or thought he was, perfectly satisfied +with it; but for reasons that had nothing to do with education, +he was tired; his nervous energy ran low; and, like a horse that +wears out, he quitted the race-course, left the stable, and +sought pastures as far as possible from the old. Education had +ended in 1871; life was complete in 1890; the rest mattered so +little! + + As had happened so often, he found himself in London when the +question of return imposed its verdict on him after much +fruitless effort to rest elsewhere. The time was the month of +January, 1892; he was alone, in hospital, in the gloom of +midwinter. He was close on his fifty-fourth birthday, and Pall +Mall had forgotten him as completely as it had forgotten his +elders. He had not seen London for a dozen years, and was rather +amused to have only a bed for a world and a familiar black fog +for horizon. The coal-fire smelt homelike; the fog had a fruity +taste of youth; anything was better than being turned out into +the wastes of Wigmore Street. He could always amuse himself by +living over his youth, and driving once more down Oxford Street +in 1858, with life before him to imagine far less amusing than it +had turned out to be. + + The future attracted him less. Lying there for a week he +reflected on what he could do next. He had just come up from the +South Seas with John La Farge, who had reluctantly crawled away +towards New York to resume the grinding routine of studio-work at +an age when life runs low. Adams would rather, as choice, have +gone back to the east, if it were only to sleep forever in the +trade-winds under the southern stars, wandering over the dark +purple ocean, with its purple sense of solitude and void. Not +that he liked the sensation, but that it was the most unearthly +he had felt. He had not yet happened on Rudyard Kipling's +"Mandalay," but he knew the poetry before he knew the poem, like +millions of wanderers, who have perhaps alone felt the world +exactly as it is. Nothing attracted him less than the idea of +beginning a new education. The old one had been poor enough; any +new one could only add to its faults. Life had been cut in +halves, and the old half had passed away, education and all, +leaving no stock to graft on. + + The new world he faced in Paris and London seemed to him +fantastic Willing to admit it real in the sense of having some +kind of existence outside his own mind, he could not admit it +reasonable. In Paris, his heart sank to mere pulp before the +dismal ballets at the Grand Opera and the eternal vaudeville at +the old Palais Royal; but, except for them, his own Paris of the +Second Empire was as extinct as that of the first Napoleon. At +the galleries and exhibitions, he was racked by the effort of art +to be original, and when one day, after much reflection, John La +Farge asked whether there might not still be room for something +simple in art, Adams shook his head. As he saw the world, it was +no longer simple and could not express itself simply. It should +express what it was; and this was something that neither Adams +nor La Farge understood. + + Under the first blast of this furnace-heat, the lights seemed +fairly to go out. He felt nothing in common with the world as it +promised to be. He was ready to quit it, and the easiest path led +back to the east; but he could not venture alone, and the rarest +of animals is a companion. He must return to America to get one. +Perhaps, while waiting, he might write more history, and on the +chance as a last resource, he gave orders for copying everything +he could reach in archives, but this was mere habit. He went home +as a horse goes back to his stable, because he knew nowhere else +to go. + + Home was Washington. As soon as Grant's administration ended, +in 1877, and Evarts became Secretary of State, Adams went back +there, partly to write history, but chiefly because his seven +years of laborious banishment, in Boston, convinced him that, as +far as he had a function in life, it was as stable-companion to +statesmen, whether they liked it or not. At about the same time, +old George Bancroft did the same thing, and presently John Hay +came on to be Assistant Secretary of State for Mr. Evarts, and +stayed there to write the "Life" of Lincoln. In 1884 Adams joined +him in employing Richardson to build them adjoining houses on La +Fayette Square. As far as Adams had a home this was it. To the +house on La Fayette Square he must turn, for he had no other +status -- no position in the world. + + Never did he make a decision more reluctantly than this of +going back to his manger. His father and mother were dead. All +his family led settled lives of their own. Except for two or +three friends in Washington, who were themselves uncertain of +stay, no one cared whether he came or went, and he cared least. +There was nothing to care about. Every one was busy; nearly every +one seemed contented. Since 1871 nothing had ruffled the surface +of the American world, and even the progress of Europe in her +side-way track to dis-Europeaning herself had ceased to be +violent. +After a dreary January in Paris, at last when no excuse could be +persuaded to offer itself for further delay, he crossed the +channel and passed a week with his old friend, Milnes Gaskell, at +Thornes, in Yorkshire, while the westerly gales raved a warning +against going home. Yorkshire in January is not an island in the +South Seas. It has few points of resemblance to Tahiti; not many +to Fiji or Samoa; but, as so often before, it was a rest between +past and future, and Adams was grateful for it. + + At last, on February 3, he drove, after a fashion, down the +Irish Channel, on board the Teutonic. He had not crossed the +Atlantic for a dozen years, and had never seen an ocean steamer +of the new type. He had seen nothing new of any sort, or much +changed in France or England. The railways made quicker time, but +were no more comfortable. The scale was the same. The Channel +service was hardly improved since 1858, or so little as to make +no impression. Europe seemed to have been stationary for twenty +years. To a man who had been stationary like Europe, the Teutonic +was a marvel. That he should be able to eat his dinner through a +week of howling winter gales was a miracle. That he should have a +deck stateroom, with fresh air, and read all night, if he chose, +by electric light, was matter for more wonder than life had yet +supplied, in its old forms. Wonder may be double -- even treble. +Adams's wonder ran off into figures. As the Niagara was to the +Teutonic -- as 1860 was to 1890 -- so the Teutonic and 1890 must +be to the next term -- and then? Apparently the question +concerned only America. Western Europe offered no such conundrum. +There one might double scale and speed indefinitely without +passing bounds. + + Fate was kind on that voyage. Rudyard Kipling, on his wedding +trip to America, thanks to the mediation of Henry James, dashed +over the passenger his exuberant fountain of gaiety and wit -- as +though playing a garden hose on a thirsty and faded begonia. +Kipling could never know what peace of mind he gave, for he could +hardly ever need it himself so much; and yet, in the full delight +of his endless fun and variety; one felt the old conundrum repeat +itself. Somehow, somewhere, Kipling and the American were not +one, but two, and could not be glued together. The American felt +that the defect, if defect it were, was in himself; he had felt +it when he was with Swinburne, and, again, with Robert Louis +Stevenson, even under the palms of Vailima; but he did not carry +self-abasement to the point of thinking himself singular. +Whatever the defect might be, it was American; it belonged to the +type; it lived in the blood. Whatever the quality might be that +held him apart, it was English; it lived also in the blood; one +felt it little if at all, with Celts, and one yearned +reciprocally among Fiji cannibals. Clarence King used to say that +it was due to discord between the wave-lengths of the man-atoms; +but the theory offered difficulties in measurement. Perhaps, +after all, it was only that genius soars; but this theory, too, +had its dark corners. All through life, one had seen the American +on his literary knees to the European; and all through many lives +back for some two centuries, one had seen the European snub or +patronize the American; not always intentionally, but +effectually. It was in the nature of things. Kipling neither +snubbed nor patronized; he was all gaiety and good-nature; but he +would have been first to feel what one meant. Genius has to pay +itself that unwilling self-respect. + + Towards the middle of February, 1892, Adams found himself again +in Washington. In Paris and London he had seen nothing to make a +return to life worth while; in Washington he saw plenty of +reasons for staying dead. Changes had taken place there; +improvements had been made; with time -- much time -- the city +might become habitable according to some fashionable standard; +but all one's friends had died or disappeared several times over, +leaving one almost as strange as in Boston or London. Slowly, a +certain society had built itself up about the Government; houses +had been opened and there was much dining; much calling; much +leaving of cards; but a solitary man counted for less than in +1868. Society seemed hardly more at home than he. Both Executive +and Congress held it aloof. No one in society seemed to have the +ear of anybody in Government. No one in Government knew any +reason for consulting any one in society. The world had ceased to +be wholly political, but politics had become less social. A +survivor of the Civil War -- like George Bancroft, or John Hay -- +tried to keep footing, but without brilliant success. They were +free to say or do what they liked; but no one took much notice of +anything said or done. + + A presidential election was to take place in November, and no +one showed much interest in the result. The two candidates were +singular persons, of whom it was the common saying that one of +them had no friends; the other, only enemies. Calvin Brice, who +was at that time altogether the wittiest and cleverest member of +the Senate, was in the habit of describing Mr. Cleveland in +glowing terms and at great length, as one of the loftiest natures +and noblest characters of ancient or modern time; "but," he +concluded, "in future I prefer to look on at his proceedings from +the safe summit of some neighboring hill." The same remark +applied to Mr. Harrison. In this respect, they were the greatest +of Presidents, for, whatever harm they might do their enemies, +was as nothing when compared to the mortality they inflicted on +their friends. Men fled them as though they had the evil eye. To +the American people, the two candidates and the two parties were +so evenly balanced that the scales showed hardly a perceptible +difference. Mr. Harrison was an excellent President, a man of +ability and force; perhaps the best President the Republican +Party had put forward since Lincoln's death; yet, on the whole, +Adams felt a shade of preference for President Cleveland, not so +much personally as because the Democrats represented to him the +last remnants of the eighteenth century; the survivors of Hosea +Biglow's Cornwallis; the sole remaining protestants against a +banker's Olympus which had become, for five-and-twenty years, +more and more despotic over Esop's frog-empire. One might no +longer croak except to vote for King Log, or -- failing storks -- +for Grover Cleveland; and even then could not be sure where King +Banker lurked behind. The costly education in politics had led to +political torpor. Every one did not share it. Clarence King and +John Hay were loyal Republicans who never for a moment conceived +that there could be merit in other ideals. With King, the feeling +was chiefly love of archaic races; sympathy with the negro and +Indian and corresponding dislike of their enemies; but with Hay, +party loyalty became a phase of being, a little like the loyalty +of a highly cultivated churchman to his Church. He saw all the +failings of the party, and still more keenly those of the +partisans; but he could not live outside. To Adams a Western +Democrat or a Western Republican, a city Democrat or a city +Republican, a W. C. Whitney or a J. G. Blaine, were actually the +same man, as far as their usefulness to the objects of King, Hay, +or Adams was concerned. They graded themselves as friends or +enemies not as Republicans or Democrats. To Hay, the difference +was that of being respectable or not. + + Since 1879, King, Hay, and Adams had been inseparable. Step by +step, they had gone on in the closest sympathy, rather shunning +than inviting public position, until, in 1892, none of them held +any post at all. With great effort, in Hayes's administration, +all King's friends, including Abram Hewitt and Carl Schurz, had +carried the bill for uniting the Surveys and had placed King at +the head of the Bureau; but King waited only to organize the +service, and then resigned, in order to seek his private fortune +in the West. Hay, after serving as Assistant Secretary of State +under Secretary Evarts during a part of Hayes's administration, +then also insisted on going out, in order to write with Nicolay +the "Life" of Lincoln. Adams had held no office, and when his +friends asked the reason, he could not go into long explanations, +but preferred to answer simply that no President had ever invited +him to fill one. The reason was good, and was also conveniently +true, but left open an awkward doubt of his morals or capacity. +Why had no President ever cared to employ him? The question +needed a volume of intricate explanation. There never was a day +when he would have refused to perform any duty that the +Government imposed on him, but the American Government never to +his knowledge imposed duties. The point was never raised with +regard to him, or to any one else. The Government required +candidates to offer; the business of the Executive began and +ended with the consent or refusal to confer. The social formula +carried this passive attitude a shade further. Any public man who +may for years have used some other man's house as his own, when +promoted to a position of patronage commonly feels himself +obliged to inquire, directly or indirectly, whether his friend +wants anything; which is equivalent to a civil act of divorce, +since he feels awkward in the old relation. The handsomest +formula, in an impartial choice, was the grandly courteous +Southern phrase of Lamar: "Of course Mr. Adams knows that +anything in my power is at his service." A la disposicion de +Usted! The form must have been correct since it released both +parties. He was right; Mr. Adams did know all about it; a bow and +a conventional smile closed the subject forever, and every one +felt flattered. + + Such an intimate, promoted to power, was always lost. His +duties and cares absorbed him and affected his balance of mind. +Unless his friend served some political purpose, friendship was +an effort. Men who neither wrote for newspapers nor made campaign +speeches, who rarely subscribed to the campaign fund, and who +entered the White House as seldom as possible, placed themselves +outside the sphere of usefulness, and did so with entirely +adequate knowledge of what they were doing. They never expected +the President to ask for their services, and saw no reason why he +should do so. As for Henry Adams, in fifty years that he knew +Washington, no one would have been more surprised than himself +had any President ever asked him to perform so much of a service +as to cross the square. Only Texan Congressmen imagined that the +President needed their services in some remote consulate after +worrying him for months to find one. + + In Washington this law or custom is universally understood, and +no one's character necessarily suffered because he held no +office. No one took office unless he wanted it; and in turn the +outsider was never asked to do work or subscribe money. Adams saw +no office that he wanted, and he gravely thought that, from his +point of view, in the long run, he was likely to be a more useful +citizen without office. He could at least act as audience, and, +in those days, a Washington audience seldom filled even a small +theatre. He felt quite well satisfied to look on, and from time +to time he thought he might risk a criticism of the players; but +though he found his own position regular, he never quite +understood that of John Hay. The Republican leaders treated Hay +as one of themselves; they asked his services and took his money +with a freedom that staggered even a hardened observer; but they +never needed him in equivalent office. In Washington Hay was the +only competent man in the party for diplomatic work. He +corresponded in his powers of usefulness exactly with Lord +Granville in London, who had been for forty years the saving +grace of every Liberal administration in turn. Had usefulness to +the public service been ever a question, Hay should have had a +first-class mission under Hayes; should have been placed in the +Cabinet by Garfield, and should have been restored to it by +Harrison. These gentlemen were always using him; always invited +his services, and always took his money. + + Adams's opinion of politics and politicians, as he frankly +admitted, lacked enthusiasm, although never, in his severest +temper, did he apply to them the terms they freely applied to +each other; and he explained everything by his old explanation of +Grant's character as more or less a general type; but what roused +in his mind more rebellion was the patience and good-nature with +which Hay allowed himself to be used. The trait was not confined +to politics. Hay seemed to like to be used, and this was one of +his many charms; but in politics this sort of good-nature demands +supernatural patience. Whatever astonishing lapses of social +convention the politicians betrayed, Hay laughed equally +heartily, and told the stories with constant amusement, at his +own expense. Like most Americans, he liked to play at making +Presidents, but, unlike most, he laughed not only at the +Presidents he helped to make, but also at himself for laughing. + + One must be rich, and come from Ohio or New York, to gratify an +expensive taste like this. Other men, on both political flanks, +did the same thing, and did it well, less for selfish objects +than for the amusement of the game; but Hay alone lived in +Washington and in the centre of the Ohio influences that ruled +the Republican Party during thirty years. On the whole, these +influences were respectable, and although Adams could not, under +any circumstances, have had any value, even financially, for Ohio +politicians, Hay might have much, as he showed, if they only knew +enough to appreciate him. The American politician was +occasionally an amusing object; Hay laughed, and, for want of +other resource, Adams laughed too; but perhaps it was partly +irritation at seeing how President Harrison dealt his cards that +made Adams welcome President Cleveland back to the White House. + + At all events, neither Hay nor King nor Adams had much to gain +by reelecting Mr. Harrison in 1892, or by defeating him, as far +as he was concerned; and as far as concerned Mr. Cleveland, they +seemed to have even less personal concern. The whole country, to +outward appearance, stood in much the same frame of mind. +Everywhere was slack-water. Hay himself was almost as languid and +indifferent as Adams. Neither had occupation. Both had finished +their literary work. The "Life" of Lincoln had been begun, +completed, and published hand in hand with the "History" of +Jefferson and Madison, so that between them they had written +nearly all the American history there was to write. The +intermediate period needed intermediate treatment; the gap +between James Madison and Abraham Lincoln could not be judicially +filled by either of them. Both were heartily tired of the +subject, and America seemed as tired as they. What was worse, the +redeeming energy of Americans which had generally served as the +resource of minds otherwise vacant, the creation of new force, +the application of expanding power, showed signs of check. Even +the year before, in 1891, far off in the Pacific, one had met +everywhere in the East a sort of stagnation -- a creeping +paralysis -- complaints of shipping and producers -- that spread +throughout the whole southern hemisphere. Questions of exchange +and silver-production loomed large. Credit was shaken, and a +change of party government might shake it even in Washington. The +matter did not concern Adams, who had no credit, and was always +richest when the rich were poor; but it helped to dull the +vibration of society. + + However they studied it, the balance of profit and loss, on the +last twenty years, for the three friends, King, Hay, and Adams, +was exceedingly obscure in 1892. They had lost twenty years, but +what had they gained? They often discussed the question. Hay had +a singular faculty for remembering faces, and would break off +suddenly the thread of his talk, as he looked out of the window +on La Fayette Square, to notice an old corps commander or admiral +of the Civil War, tottering along to the club for his cards or +his cocktail: "There is old Dash who broke the rebel lines at +Blankburg! Think of his having been a thunderbolt of war!" Or +what drew Adams's closer attention: "There goes old Boutwell +gambolling like the gambolling kid!" There they went! Men who had +swayed the course of empire as well as the course of Hay, King, +and Adams, less valued than the ephemeral Congressman behind +them, who could not have told whether the general was a Boutwell +or Boutwell a general. Theirs was the highest known success, and +one asked what it was worth to them. Apart from personal vanity, +what would they sell it for? Would any one of them, from +President downwards, refuse ten thousand a year in place of all +the consideration he received from the world on account of his +success? + + Yet consideration had value, and at that time Adams enjoyed +lecturing Augustus St. Gaudens, in hours of depression, on its +economics: "Honestly you must admit that even if you don't pay +your expenses you get a certain amount of advantage from doing +the best work. Very likely some of the really successful +Americans would be willing you should come to dinner sometimes, +if you did not come too often, while they would think twice about +Hay, and would never stand me." The forgotten statesman had no +value at all; the general and admiral not much; the historian but +little; on the whole, the artist stood best, and of course, +wealth rested outside the question, since it was acting as judge; +but, in the last resort, the judge certainly admitted that +consideration had some value as an asset, though hardly as much +as ten -- or five -- thousand a year. + + Hay and Adams had the advantage of looking out of their windows +on the antiquities of La Fayette Square, with the sense of having +all that any one had; all that the world had to offer; all that +they wanted in life, including their names on scores of +title-pages and in one or two biographical dictionaries; but this +had nothing to do with consideration, and they knew no more than +Boutwell or St. Gaudens whether to call it success. Hay had +passed ten years in writing the "Life" of Lincoln, and perhaps +President Lincoln was the better for it, but what Hay got from it +was not so easy to see, except the privilege of seeing popular +book-makers steal from his book and cover the theft by abusing +the author. Adams had given ten or a dozen years to Jefferson and +Madison, with expenses which, in any mercantile business, could +hardly have been reckoned at less than a hundred thousand +dollars, on a salary of five thousand a year; and when he asked +what return he got from this expenditure, rather more extravagant +in proportion to his means than a racing-stable, he could see +none whatever. Such works never return money. Even Frank Parkman +never printed a first edition of his relatively cheap and popular +volumes, numbering more than seven hundred copies, until quite at +the end of his life. A thousand copies of a book that cost twenty +dollars or more was as much as any author could expect; two +thousand copies was a visionary estimate unless it were canvassed +for subscription. As far as Adams knew, he had but three serious +readers -- Abram Hewitt, Wayne McVeagh, and Hay himself. He was +amply satisfied with their consideration, and could dispense with +that of the other fifty-nine million, nine hundred and +ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-seven; but neither +he nor Hay was better off in any other respect, and their chief +title to consideration was their right to look out of their +windows on great men, alive or dead, in La Fayette Square, a +privilege which had nothing to do with their writings. + + The world was always good-natured; civil; glad to be amused; +open-armed to any one who amused it; patient with every one who +did not insist on putting himself in its way, or costing it +money; but this was not consideration, still less power in any of +its concrete forms, and applied as well or better to a comic +actor. Certainly a rare soprano or tenor voice earned infinitely +more applause as it gave infinitely more pleasure, even in +America; but one does what one can with one's means, and casting +up one's balance sheet, one expects only a reasonable return on +one's capital. Hay and Adams had risked nothing and never played +for high stakes. King had followed the ambitious course. He had +played for many millions. He had more than once come close to a +great success, but the result was still in doubt, and meanwhile +he was passing the best years of his life underground. For +companionship he was mostly lost. + + Thus, in 1892, neither Hay, King, nor Adams knew whether they +had attained success, or how to estimate it, or what to call it; +and the American people seemed to have no clearer idea than they. +Indeed, the American people had no idea at all; they were +wandering in a wilderness much more sandy than the Hebrews had +ever trodden about Sinai; they had neither serpents nor golden +calves to worship. They had lost the sense of worship; for the +idea that they worshipped money seemed a delusion. Worship of +money was an old-world trait; a healthy appetite akin to worship +of the Gods, or to worship of power in any concrete shape; but +the American wasted money more recklessly than any one ever did +before; he spent more to less purpose than any extravagant court +aristocracy; he had no sense of relative values, and knew not +what to do with his money when he got it, except use it to make +more, or throw it away. Probably, since human society began, it +had seen no such curious spectacle as the houses of the San +Francisco millionaires on Nob Hill. Except for the railway +system, the enormous wealth taken out of the ground since 1840, +had disappeared. West of the Alleghenies, the whole country might +have been swept clean, and could have been replaced in better +form within one or two years. The American mind had less respect +for money than the European or Asiatic mind, and bore its loss +more easily; but it had been deflected by its pursuit till it +could turn in no other direction. It shunned, distrusted, +disliked, the dangerous attraction of ideals, and stood alone in +history for its ignorance of the past. + + Personal contact brought this American trait close to Adams's +notice. His first step, on returning to Washington, took him out +to the cemetery known as Rock Creek, to see the bronze figure +which St. Gaudens had made for him in his absence. Naturally +every detail interested him; every line; every touch of the +artist; every change of light and shade; every point of relation; +every possible doubt of St. Gaudens's correctness of taste or +feeling; so that, as the spring approached, he was apt to stop +there often to see what the figure had to tell him that was new; +but, in all that it had to say, he never once thought of +questioning what it meant. He supposed its meaning to be the one +commonplace about it -- the oldest idea known to human thought. +He knew that if he asked an Asiatic its meaning, not a man, +woman, or child from Cairo to Kamtchatka would have needed more +than a glance to reply. From the Egyptian Sphinx to the Kamakura +Daibuts; from Prometheus to Christ; from Michael Angelo to +Shelley, art had wrought on this eternal figure almost as though +it had nothing else to say. The interest of the figure was not in +its meaning, but in the response of the observer. As Adams sat +there, numbers of people came, for the figure seemed to have +become a tourist fashion, and all wanted to know its meaning. +Most took it for a portrait-statue, and the remnant were +vacant-minded in the absence of a personal guide. None felt what +would have been a nursery-instinct to a Hindu baby or a Japanese +jinricksha-runner. The only exceptions were the clergy, who +taught a lesson even deeper. One after another brought companions +there, and, apparently fascinated by their own reflection, broke +out passionately against the expression they felt in the figure +of despair, of atheism, of denial. Like the others, the priest +saw only what he brought. Like all great artists, St. Gaudens +held up the mirror and no more. The American layman had lost +sight of ideals; the American priest had lost sight of faith. +Both were more American than the old, half-witted soldiers who +denounced the wasting, on a mere grave, of money which should +have been given for drink. + + Landed, lost, and forgotten, in the centre of this vast plain +of self-content, Adams could see but one active interest, to +which all others were subservient, and which absorbed the +energies of some sixty million people to the exclusion of every +other force, real or imaginary. The power of the railway system +had enormously increased since 1870. Already the coal output of +160,000,000 tons closely approached the 180,000,000 of the +British Empire, and one held one's breath at the nearness of what +one had never expected to see, the crossing of courses, and the +lead of American energies. The moment was deeply exciting to a +historian, but the railway system itself interested one less than +in 1868, since it offered less chance for future profit. Adams +had been born with the railway system; had grown up with it; had +been over pretty nearly every mile of it with curious eyes, and +knew as much about it as his neighbors; but not there could he +look for a new education. Incomplete though it was, the system +seemed on the whole to satisfy the wants of society better than +any other part of the social machine, and society was content +with its creation, for the time, and with itself for creating it. +Nothing new was to be done or learned there, and the world +hurried on to its telephones, bicycles, and electric trams. At +past fifty, Adams solemnly and painfully learned to ride the +bicycle. + + Nothing else occurred to him as a means of new life. Nothing +else offered itself, however carefully he sought. He looked for +no change. He lingered in Washington till near July without +noticing a new idea. Then he went back to England to pass his +summer on the Deeside. In October he returned to Washington and +there awaited the reelection of Mr. Cleveland, which led to no +deeper thought than that of taking up some small notes that +happened to be outstanding. He had seen enough of the world to be +a coward, and above all he had an uneasy distrust of bankers. +Even dead men allow themselves a few narrow prejudices. + + +CHAPTER XXII + +CHICAGO (1893) + + DRIFTING in the dead-water of the fin-de-siecle -- and during +this last decade every one talked, and seemed to feel +fin-de-siecle -- where not a breath stirred the idle air of +education or fretted the mental torpor of self-content, one lived +alone. Adams had long ceased going into society. For years he had +not dined out of his own house, and in public his face was as +unknown as that of an extinct statesman. He had often noticed +that six months' oblivion amounts to newspaper-death, and that +resurrection is rare. Nothing is easier, if a man wants it, than +rest, profound as the grave. + + His friends sometimes took pity on him, and came to share a +meal or pass a night on their passage south or northwards, but +existence was, on the whole, exceedingly solitary, or seemed so +to him. Of the society favorites who made the life of every +dinner- table and of the halls of Congress -- Tom Reed, Bourke +Cockran, Edward Wolcott -- he knew not one. Although Calvin Brice +was his next neighbor for six years, entertaining lavishly as no +one had ever entertained before in Washington, Adams never +entered his house. W. C. Whitney rivalled Senator Brice in +hospitality, and was besides an old acquaintance of the reforming +era, but Adams saw him as little as he saw his chief, President +Cleveland, or President Harrison or Secretary Bayard or Blaine or +Olney. One has no choice but to go everywhere or nowhere. No one +may pick and choose between houses, or accept hospitality without +returning it. He loved solitude as little as others did; but he +was unfit for social work, and he sank under the surface. + + Luckily for such helpless animals as solitary men, the world is +not only good-natured but even friendly and generous; it loves to +pardon if pardon is not demanded as a right. Adams's social +offences were many, and no one was more sensitive to it than +himself; but a few houses always remained which he could enter +without being asked, and quit without being noticed. One was John +Hay's; another was Cabot Lodge's; a third led to an intimacy +which had the singular effect of educating him in knowledge of +the very class of American politician who had done most to block +his intended path in life. Senator Cameron of Pennsylvania had +married in 1880 a young niece of Senator John Sherman of Ohio, +thus making an alliance of dynastic importance in politics, and +in society a reign of sixteen years, during which Mrs. Cameron +and Mrs. Lodge led a career, without precedent and without +succession, as the dispensers of sunshine over Washington. Both +of them had been kind to Adams, and a dozen years of this +intimacy had made him one of their habitual household, as he was +of Hay's. In a small society, such ties between houses become +political and social force. Without intention or consciousness, +they fix one's status in the world. Whatever one's preferences in +politics might be, one's house was bound to the Republican +interest when sandwiched between Senator Cameron, John Hay, and +Cabot Lodge, with Theodore Roosevelt equally at home in them all, +and Cecil Spring-Rice to unite them by impartial variety. The +relation was daily, and the alliance undisturbed by power or +patronage, since Mr. Harrison, in those respects, showed little +more taste than Mr. Cleveland for the society and interests of +this particular band of followers, whose relations with the White +House were sometimes comic, but never intimate. + + In February, 1893, Senator Cameron took his family to South +Carolina, where he had bought an old plantation at Coffin's Point +on St. Helena Island, and Adams, as one of the family, was taken, +with the rest, to open the new experience. From there he went on +to Havana, and came back to Coffin's Point to linger till near +April. In May the Senator took his family to Chicago to see the +Exposition, and Adams went with them. Early in June, all sailed +for England together, and at last, in the middle of July, all +found themselves in Switzerland, at Prangins, Chamounix, and +Zermatt. On July 22 they drove across the Furka Pass and went +down by rail to Lucerne. + + Months of close contact teach character, if character has +interest; and to Adams the Cameron type had keen interest, ever +since it had shipwrecked his career in the person of President +Grant. Perhaps it owed life to Scotch blood; perhaps to the blood +of Adam and Eve, the primitive strain of man; perhaps only to the +blood of the cottager working against the blood of the townsman; +but whatever it was, one liked it for its simplicity. The +Pennsylvania mind, as minds go, was not complex; it reasoned +little and never talked; but in practical matters it was the +steadiest of all American types; perhaps the most efficient; +certainly the safest. + + Adams had printed as much as this in his books, but had never +been able to find a type to describe, the two great historical +Pennsylvanians having been, as every one had so often heard, +Benjamin Franklin of Boston and Albert Gallatin of Geneva. Of +Albert Gallatin, indeed, he had made a voluminous study and an +elaborate picture, only to show that he was, if American at all, +a New Yorker, with a Calvinistic strain -- rather Connecticut +than Pennsylvanian. The true Pennsylvanian was a narrower type; +as narrow as the kirk; as shy of other people's narrowness as a +Yankee; as self-limited as a Puritan farmer. To him, none but +Pennsylvanians were white. Chinaman, negro, Dago, Italian, +Englishman, Yankee -- all was one in the depths of Pennsylvanian +consciousness. The mental machine could run only on what it took +for American lines. This was familiar, ever since one's study of +President Grant in 1869; but in 1893, as then, the type was +admirably strong and useful if one wanted only to run on the same +lines. Practically the Pennsylvanian forgot his prejudices when +he allied his interests. He then became supple in action and +large in motive, whatever he thought of his colleagues. When he +happened to be right -- which was, of course, whenever one agreed +with him -- he was the strongest American in America. As an ally +he was worth all the rest, because he understood his own class, +who were always a majority; and knew how to deal with them as no +New Englander could. If one wanted work done in Congress, one did +wisely to avoid asking a New Englander to do it. A Pennsylvanian +not only could do it, but did it willingly, practically, and +intelligently. + + Never in the range of human possibilities had a Cameron +believed in an Adams -- or an Adams in a Cameron -- but they had +curiously enough, almost always worked together. The Camerons had +what the Adamses thought the political vice of reaching their +objects without much regard to their methods. The loftiest virtue +of the Pennsylvania machine had never been its scrupulous purity +or sparkling professions. The machine worked by coarse means on +coarse interests, but its practical success had been the most +curious subject of study in American history. When one summed up +the results of Pennsylvanian influence, one inclined to think +that Pennsylvania set up the Government in 1789; saved it in +1861; created the American system; developed its iron and coal +power; and invented its great railways. Following up the same +line, in his studies of American character, Adams reached the +result -- to him altogether paradoxical -- that Cameron's +qualities and defects united in equal share to make him the most +useful member of the Senate. + + In the interest of studying, at last, a perfect and favorable +specimen of this American type which had so persistently +suppressed his own, Adams was slow to notice that Cameron +strongly influenced him, but he could not see a trace of any +influence which he exercised on Cameron. Not an opinion or a view +of his on any subject was ever reflected back on him from +Cameron's mind; not even an expression or a fact. Yet the +difference in age was trifling, and in education slight. On the +other hand, Cameron made deep impression on Adams, and in nothing +so much as on the great subject of discussion that year -- the +question of silver. + + Adams had taken no interest in the matter, and knew nothing +about it, except as a very tedious hobby of his friend Dana +Horton; but inevitably, from the moment he was forced to choose +sides, he was sure to choose silver. Every political idea and +personal prejudice he ever dallied with held him to the silver +standard, and made a barrier between him and gold. He knew well +enough all that was to be said for the gold standard as economy, +but he had never in his life taken politics for a pursuit of +economy. One might have a political or an economical policy; one +could not have both at the same time. This was heresy in the +English school, but it had always been law in the American. +Equally he knew all that was to be said on the moral side of the +question, and he admitted that his interests were, as Boston +maintained, wholly on the side of gold; but, had they been ten +times as great as they were, he could not have helped his bankers +or croupiers to load the dice and pack the cards to make sure his +winning the stakes. At least he was bound to profess disapproval +-- or thought he was. From early childhood his moral principles +had struggled blindly with his interests, but he was certain of +one law that ruled all others -- masses of men invariably follow +interests in deciding morals. Morality is a private and costly +luxury. The morality of the silver or gold standards was to be +decided by popular vote, and the popular vote would be decided by +interests; but on which side lay the larger interest? To him the +interest was political; he thought it probably his last chance of +standing up for his eighteenth-century principles, strict +construction, limited powers, George Washington, John Adams, and +the rest. He had, in a half-hearted way, struggled all his life +against State Street, banks, capitalism altogether, as he knew it +in old England or new England, and he was fated to make his last +resistance behind the silver standard. + + For him this result was clear, and if he erred, he erred in +company with nine men out of ten in Washington, for there was +little difference on the merits. Adams was sure to learn +backwards, but the case seemed entirely different with Cameron, a +typical Pennsylvanian, a practical politician, whom all the +reformers, including all the Adamses. had abused for a lifetime +for subservience to moneyed interests and political jobbery. He +was sure to go with the banks and corporations which had made and +sustained him. On the contrary, he stood out obstinately as the +leading champion of silver in the East. The reformers, +represented by the Evening Post and Godkin, whose personal +interests lay with the gold standard, at once assumed that +Senator Cameron had a personal interest in silver, and denounced +his corruption as hotly as though he had been convicted of taking +a bribe. + + More than silver and gold, the moral standard interested Adams. +His own interests were with gold, but he supported silver; the +Evening Post's and Godkin's interests were with gold, and they +frankly said so, yet they avowedly pursued their interests even +into politics; Cameron's interests had always been with the +corporations, yet he supported silver. Thus morality required +that Adams should be condemned for going against his interests; +that Godkin was virtuous in following his interests; and that +Cameron was a scoundrel whatever he did. + + Granting that one of the three was a moral idiot, which was it: +-- Adams or Godkin or Cameron? Until a Council or a Pope or a +Congress or the newspapers or a popular election has decided a +question of doubtful morality, individuals are apt to err, +especially when putting money into their own pockets; but in +democracies, the majority alone gives law. To any one who knew +the relative popularity of Cameron and Godkin, the idea of a +popular vote between them seemed excessively humorous; yet the +popular vote in the end did decide against Cameron, for Godkin. + + The Boston moralist and reformer went on, as always, like Dr. +Johnson, impatiently stamping his foot and following his +interests, or his antipathies; but the true American, slow to +grasp new and complicated ideas, groped in the dark to discover +where his greater interest lay. As usual, the banks taught him. +In the course of fifty years the banks taught one many wise +lessons for which an insect had to be grateful whether it liked +them or not; but of all the lessons Adams learned from them, none +compared in dramatic effect with that of July 22, 1893, when, +after talking silver all the morning with Senator Cameron on the +top of their travelling-carriage crossing the Furka Pass, they +reached Lucerne in the afternoon, where Adams found letters from +his brothers requesting his immediate return to Boston because +the community was bankrupt and he was probably a beggar. + + If he wanted education, he knew no quicker mode of learning a +lesson than that of being struck on the head by it; and yet he +was himself surprised at his own slowness to understand what had +struck him. For several years a sufferer from insomnia, his first +thought was of beggary of nerves, and he made ready to face a +sleepless night, but although his mind tried to wrestle with the +problem how any man could be ruined who had, months before, paid +off every dollar of debt he knew himself to owe, he gave up that +insoluble riddle in order to fall back on the larger principle +that beggary could be no more for him than it was for others who +were more valuable members of society, and, with that, he went to +sleep like a good citizen, and the next day started for Quincy +where he arrived August 7. + + As a starting-point for a new education at fifty-five years +old, the shock of finding one's self suspended, for several +months, over the edge of bankruptcy, without knowing how one got +there, or how to get away, is to be strongly recommended. By slow +degrees the situation dawned on him that the banks had lent him, +among others, some money -- thousands of millions were -- as +bankruptcy -- the same -- for which he, among others, was +responsible and of which he knew no more than they. The humor of +this situation seemed to him so much more pointed than the +terror, as to make him laugh at himself with a sincerity he had +been long strange to. As far as he could comprehend, he had +nothing to lose that he cared about, but the banks stood to lose +their existence. Money mattered as little to him as to anybody, +but money was their life. For the first time he had the banks in +his power; he could afford to laugh; and the whole community was +in the same position, though few laughed. All sat down on the +banks and asked what the banks were going to do about it. To +Adams the situation seemed farcical, but the more he saw of it, +the less he understood it. He was quite sure that nobody +understood it much better. Blindly some very powerful energy was +at work, doing something that nobody wanted done. When Adams went +to his bank to draw a hundred dollars of his own money on +deposit, the cashier refused to let him have more than fifty, and +Adams accepted the fifty without complaint because he was himself +refusing to let the banks have some hundreds or thousands that +belonged to them. Each wanted to help the other, yet both refused +to pay their debts, and he could find no answer to the question +which was responsible for getting the other into the situation, +since lenders and borrowers were the same interest and socially +the same person. Evidently the force was one; its operation was +mechanical; its effect must be proportional to its power; but no +one knew what it meant, and most people dismissed it as an +emotion -- a panic -- that meant nothing. + + Men died like flies under the strain, and Boston grew suddenly +old, haggard, and thin. Adams alone waxed fat and was happy, for +at last he had got hold of his world and could finish his +education, interrupted for twenty years. He cared not whether it +were worth finishing, if only it amused; but he seemed, for the +first time since 1870, to feel that something new and curious was +about to happen to the world. Great changes had taken place since +1870 in the forces at work; the old machine ran far behind its +duty; somewhere -- somehow -- it was bound to break down, and if +it happened to break precisely over one's head, it gave the +better chance for study. + + For the first time in several years he saw much of his brother +Brooks in Quincy, and was surprised to find him absorbed in the +same perplexities. Brooks was then a man of forty-five years old; +a strong writer and a vigorous thinker who irritated too many +Boston conventions ever to suit the atmosphere; but the two +brothers could talk to each other without atmosphere and were +used to audiences of one. Brooks had discovered or developed a +law of history that civilization followed the exchanges, and +having worked it out for the Mediterranean was working it out for +the Atlantic. Everything American, as well as most things +European and Asiatic, became unstable by this law, seeking new +equilibrium and compelled to find it. Loving paradox, Brooks, +with the advantages of ten years' study, had swept away much +rubbish in the effort to build up a new line of thought for +himself, but he found that no paradox compared with that of daily +events. The facts were constantly outrunning his thoughts. The +instability was greater than he calculated; the speed of +acceleration passed bounds. Among other general rules he laid +down the paradox that, in the social disequilibrium between +capital and labor, the logical outcome was not collectivism, but +anarchism; and Henry made note of it for study. + + By the time he got back to Washington on September 19, the +storm having partly blown over, life had taken on a new face, and +one so interesting that he set off to Chicago to study the +Exposition again, and stayed there a fortnight absorbed in it. He +found matter of study to fill a hundred years, and his education +spread over chaos. Indeed, it seemed to him as though, this year, +education went mad. The silver question, thorny as it was, fell +into relations as simple as words of one syllable, compared with +the problems of credit and exchange that came to complicate it; +and when one sought rest at Chicago, educational game started +like rabbits from every building, and ran out of sight among +thousands of its kind before one could mark its burrow. The +Exposition itself defied philosophy. One might find fault till +the last gate closed, one could still explain nothing that needed +explanation. As a scenic display, Paris had never approached it, +but the inconceivable scenic display consisted in its being there +at all -- more surprising, as it was, than anything else on the +continent, Niagara Falls, the Yellowstone Geysers, and the whole +railway system thrown in, since these were all natural products +in their place; while, since Noah's Ark, no such Babel of loose +and ill joined, such vague and ill-defined and unrelated thoughts +and half-thoughts and experimental outcries as the Exposition, +had ever ruffled the surface of the Lakes. + + The first astonishment became greater every day. That the +Exposition should be a natural growth and product of the +Northwest offered a step in evolution to startle Darwin; but that +it should be anything else seemed an idea more startling still; +and even granting it were not -- admitting it to be a sort of +industrial, speculative growth and product of the Beaux Arts +artistically induced to pass the summer on the shore of Lake +Michigan -- could it be made to seem at home there? Was the +American made to seem at home in it? Honestly, he had the air of +enjoying it as though it were all his own; he felt it was good; +he was proud of it; for the most part, he acted as though he had +passed his life in landscape gardening and architectural +decoration. If he had not done it himself, he had known how to +get it done to suit him, as he knew how to get his wives and +daughters dressed at Worth's or Paquin's. Perhaps he could not do +it again; the next time he would want to do it himself and would +show his own faults; but for the moment he seemed to have leaped +directly from Corinth and Syracuse and Venice, over the heads of +London and New York, to impose classical standards on plastic +Chicago. Critics had no trouble in criticising the classicism, +but all trading cities had always shown traders' taste, and, to +the stern purist of religious faith, no art was thinner than +Venetian Gothic. All trader's taste smelt of bric-a-brac; Chicago +tried at least to give her taste a look of unity. + + One sat down to ponder on the steps beneath Richard Hunt's dome +almost as deeply as on the steps of Ara Coeli, and much to the +same purpose. Here was a breach of continuity -- a rupture in +historical sequence! Was it real, or only apparent? One's +personal universe hung on the answer, for, if the rupture was +real and the new American world could take this sharp and +conscious twist towards ideals, one's personal friends would come +in, at last, as winners in the great American chariot-race for +fame. If the people of the Northwest actually knew what was good +when they saw it, they would some day talk about Hunt and +Richardson, La Farge and St. Gaudens, Burnham and McKim, and +Stanford White when their politicians and millionaires were +otherwise forgotten. The artists and architects who had done the +work offered little encouragement to hope it; they talked freely +enough, but not in terms that one cared to quote; and to them the +Northwest refused to look artistic. They talked as though they +worked only for themselves; as though art, to the Western people, +was a stage decoration; a diamond shirt-stud; a paper collar; but +possibly the architects of Paestum and Girgenti had talked in the +same way, and the Greek had said the same thing of Semitic +Carthage two thousand years ago. + + Jostled by these hopes and doubts, one turned to the exhibits +for help, and found it. The industrial schools tried to teach so +much and so quickly that the instruction ran to waste. Some +millions of other people felt the same helplessness, but few of +them were seeking education, and to them helplessness seemed +natural and normal, for they had grown up in the habit of +thinking a steam-engine or a dynamo as natural as the sun, and +expected to understand one as little as the other. For the +historian alone the Exposition made a serious effort. Historical +exhibits were common, but they never went far enough; none were +thoroughly worked out. One of the best was that of the Cunard +steamers, but still a student hungry for results found himself +obliged to waste a pencil and several sheets of paper trying to +calculate exactly when, according to the given increase of power, +tonnage, and speed, the growth of the ocean steamer would reach +its limits. His figures brought him, he thought, to the year +1927; another generation to spare before force, space, and time +should meet. The ocean steamer ran the surest line of +triangulation into the future, because it was the nearest of +man's products to a unity; railroads taught less because they +seemed already finished except for mere increase in number; +explosives taught most, but needed a tribe of chemists, +physicists, and mathematicians to explain; the dynamo taught +least because it had barely reached infancy, and, if its progress +was to be constant at the rate of the last ten years, it would +result in infinite costless energy within a generation. One +lingered long among the dynamos, for they were new, and they gave +to history a new phase. Men of science could never understand the +ignorance and naivete; of the historian, who, when he came +suddenly on a new power, asked naturally what it was; did it pull +or did it push? Was it a screw or thrust? Did it flow or vibrate? +Was it a wire or a mathematical line? And a score of such +questions to which he expected answers and was astonished to get +none. + + Education ran riot at Chicago, at least for retarded minds +which had never faced in concrete form so many matters of which +they were ignorant. Men who knew nothing whatever -- who had +never run a steam-engine, the simplest of forces -- who had never +put their hands on a lever -- had never touched an electric +battery -- never talked through a telephone, and had not the +shadow of a notion what amount of force was meant by a watt or an +ampere or an erg, or any other term of measurement introduced +within a hundred years -- had no choice but to sit down on the +steps and brood as they had never brooded on the benches of +Harvard College, either as student or professor, aghast at what +they had said and done in all these years, and still more ashamed +of the childlike ignorance and babbling futility of the society +that let them say and do it. The historical mind can think only +in historical processes, and probably this was the first time +since historians existed, that any of them had sat down helpless +before a mechanical sequence. Before a metaphysical or a +theological or a political sequence, most historians had felt +helpless, but the single clue to which they had hitherto trusted +was the unity of natural force. + + Did he himself quite know what he meant? Certainly not! If he +had known enough to state his problem, his education would have +been complete at once. Chicago asked in 1893 for the first time +the question whether the American people knew where they were +driving. Adams answered, for one, that he did not know, but would +try to find out. On reflecting sufficiently deeply, under the +shadow of Richard Hunt's architecture, he decided that the +American people probably knew no more than he did; but that they +might still be driving or drifting unconsciously to some point in +thought, as their solar system was said to be drifting towards +some point in space; and that, possibly, if relations enough +could be observed, this point might be fixed. Chicago was the +first expression of American thought as a unity; one must start +there. + + Washington was the second. When he got back there, he fell +headlong into the extra session of Congress called to repeal the +Silver Act. The silver minority made an obstinate attempt to +prevent it, and most of the majority had little heart in the +creation of a single gold standard. The banks alone, and the +dealers in exchange, insisted upon it; the political parties +divided according to capitalistic geographical lines, Senator +Cameron offering almost the only exception; but they mixed with +unusual good-temper, and made liberal allowance for each others' +actions and motives. The struggle was rather less irritable than +such struggles generally were, and it ended like a comedy. On the +evening of the final vote, Senator Cameron came back from the +Capitol with Senator Brice, Senator Jones, Senator Lodge, and +Moreton Frewen, all in the gayest of humors as though they were +rid of a heavy responsibility. Adams, too, in a bystander's +spirit, felt light in mind. He had stood up for his eighteenth +century, his Constitution of 1789, his George Washington, his +Harvard College, his Quincy, and his Plymouth Pilgrims, as long +as any one would stand up with him. He had said it was hopeless +twenty years before, but he had kept on, in the same old +attitude, by habit and taste, until he found himself altogether +alone. He had hugged his antiquated dislike of bankers and +capitalistic society until he had become little better than a +crank. He had known for years that he must accept the regime, but +he had known a great many other disagreeable certainties -- like +age, senility, and death -- against which one made what little +resistance one could. The matter was settled at last by the +people. For a hundred years, between 1793 and 1893, the American +people had hesitated, vacillated, swayed forward and back, +between two forces, one simply industrial, the other +capitalistic, centralizing, and mechanical. In 1893, the issue +came on the single gold standard, and the majority at last +declared itself, once for all, in favor of the capitalistic +system with all its necessary machinery. All one's friends, all +one's best citizens, reformers, churches, colleges, educated +classes, had joined the banks to force submission to capitalism; +a submission long foreseen by the mere law of mass. Of all forms +of society or government, this was the one he liked least, but +his likes or dislikes were as antiquated as the rebel doctrine of +State rights. A capitalistic system had been adopted, and if it +were to be run at all, it must be run by capital and by +capitalistic methods; for nothing could surpass the nonsensity of +trying to run so complex and so concentrated a machine by +Southern and Western farmers in grotesque alliance with city +day-laborers, as had been tried in 1800 and 1828, and had failed +even under simple conditions. + + There, education in domestic politics stopped. The rest was +question of gear; of running machinery; of economy; and involved +no disputed principle. Once admitted that the machine must be +efficient, society might dispute in what social interest it +should be run, but in any case it must work concentration. Such +great revolutions commonly leave some bitterness behind, but +nothing in politics ever surprised Henry Adams more than the ease +with which he and his silver friends slipped across the chasm, +and alighted on the single gold standard and the capitalistic +system with its methods; the protective tariff; the corporations +and trusts; the trades-unions and socialistic paternalism which +necessarily made their complement; the whole mechanical +consolidation of force, which ruthlessly stamped out the life of +the class into which Adams was born, but created monopolies +capable of controlling the new energies that America adored. + + Society rested, after sweeping into the ash-heap these cinders +of a misdirected education. After this vigorous impulse, nothing +remained for a historian but to ask -- how long and how far! + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +SILENCE (1894-1898) + +The convulsion of 1893 left its victims in dead-water, and closed +much education. While the country braced itself up to an effort +such as no one had thought within its powers, the individual +crawled as he best could, through the wreck, and found many +values of life upset. But for connecting the nineteenth and +twentieth centuries, the four years, 1893 to 1897, had no value +in the drama of education, and might be left out. Much that had +made life pleasant between 1870 and 1890 perished in the ruin, +and among the earliest wreckage had been the fortunes of Clarence +King. The lesson taught whatever the bystander chose to read in +it; but to Adams it seemed singularly full of moral, if he could +but understand it. In 1871 he had thought King's education ideal, +and his personal fitness unrivalled. No other young American +approached him for the combination of chances -- physical energy, +social standing, mental scope and training, wit, geniality, and +science, that seemed superlatively American and irresistibly +strong. His nearest rival was Alexander Agassiz, and, as far as +their friends knew, no one else could be classed with them in the +running. The result of twenty years' effort proved that the +theory of scientific education failed where most theory fails -- +for want of money. Even Henry Adams, who kept himself, as he +thought, quite outside of every possible financial risk, had been +caught in the cogs, and held for months over the gulf of +bankruptcy, saved only by the chance that the whole class of +millionaires were more or less bankrupt too, and the banks were +forced to let the mice escape with the rats; but, in sum, +education without capital could always be taken by the throat and +forced to disgorge its gains, nor was it helped by the knowledge +that no one intended it, but that all alike suffered. Whether +voluntary or mechanical the result for education was the same. +The failure of the scientific scheme, without money to back it, +was flagrant. + + The scientific scheme in theory was alone sound, for science +should be equivalent to money; in practice science was helpless +without money. The weak holder was, in his own language, sure to +be frozen out. Education must fit the complex conditions of a new +society, always accelerating its movement, and its fitness could +be known only from success. One looked about for examples of +success among the educated of one's time -- the men born in the +thirties, and trained to professions. Within one's immediate +acquaintance, three were typical: John Hay, Whitelaw Reid, and +William C. Whitney; all of whom owed their free hand to marriage, +education serving only for ornament, but among whom, in 1893, +William C. Whitney was far and away the most popular type. + + Newspapers might prate about wealth till commonplace print was +exhausted, but as matter of habit, few Americans envied the very +rich for anything the most of them got out of money. New York +might occasionally fear them, but more often laughed or sneered +at them, and never showed them respect. Scarcely one of the very +rich men held any position in society by virtue of his wealth, or +could have been elected to an office, or even into a good club. +Setting aside the few, like Pierpont Morgan, whose social +position had little to do with greater or less wealth, riches +were in New York no object of envy on account of the joys they +brought in their train, and Whitney was not even one of the very +rich; yet in his case the envy was palpable. There was reason for +it. Already in 1893 Whitney had finished with politics after +having gratified every ambition, and swung the country almost at +his will; he had thrown away the usual objects of political +ambition like the ashes of smoked cigarettes; had turned to other +amusements, satiated every taste, gorged every appetite, won +every object that New York afforded, and, not yet satisfied, had +carried his field of activity abroad, until New York no longer +knew what most to envy, his horses or his houses. He had +succeeded precisely where Clarence King had failed. + + Barely forty years had passed since all these men started in a +bunch to race for power, and the results were fixed beyond +reversal; but one knew no better in 1894 than in 1854 what an +American education ought to be in order to count as success. Even +granting that it counted as money, its value could not be called +general. America contained scores of men worth five millions or +upwards, whose lives were no more worth living than those of +their cooks, and to whom the task of making money equivalent to +education offered more difficulties than to Adams the task of +making education equivalent to money. Social position seemed to +have value still, while education counted for nothing. A +mathematician, linguist, chemist, electrician, engineer, if +fortunate might average a value of ten dollars a day in the open +market. An administrator, organizer, manager, with mediaeval +qualities of energy and will, but no education beyond his special +branch, would probably be worth at least ten times as much. +Society had failed to discover what sort of education suited it +best. Wealth valued social position and classical education as +highly as either of these valued wealth, and the women still +tended to keep the scales even. For anything Adams could see he +was himself as contented as though he had been educated; while +Clarence King, whose education was exactly suited to theory, had +failed; and Whitney, who was no better educated than Adams, had +achieved phenomenal success. + + Had Adams in 1894 been starting in life as he did in 1854, he +must have repeated that all he asked of education was the facile +use of the four old tools: Mathematics, French, German, and +Spanish. With these he could still make his way to any object +within his vision, and would have a decisive advantage over nine +rivals in ten. Statesman or lawyer, chemist or electrician, +priest or professor, native or foreign, he would fear none. + + King's breakdown, physical as well as financial, brought the +indirect gain to Adams that, on recovering strength, King induced +him to go to Cuba, where, in January, 1894, they drifted into the +little town of Santiago. The picturesque Cuban society, which +King knew well, was more amusing than any other that one had yet +discovered in the whole broad world, but made no profession of +teaching anything unless it were Cuban Spanish or the danza; and +neither on his own nor on King's account did the visitor ask any +loftier study than that of the buzzards floating on the +trade-wind down the valley to Dos Bocas, or the colors of sea and +shore at sunrise from the height of the Gran Piedra; but, as +though they were still twenty years old and revolution were as +young as they, the decaying fabric, which had never been solid, +fell on their heads and drew them with it into an ocean of +mischief. In the half-century between 1850 and 1900, empires were +always falling on one's head, and, of all lessons, these constant +political convulsions taught least. Since the time of Rameses, +revolutions have raised more doubts than they solved, but they +have sometimes the merit of changing one's point of view, and the +Cuban rebellion served to sever the last tie that attached Adams +to a Democratic administration. He thought that President +Cleveland could have settled the Cuban question, without war, had +he chosen to do his duty, and this feeling, generally held by the +Democratic Party, joined with the stress of economical needs and +the gold standard to break into bits the old organization and to +leave no choice between parties. The new American, whether +consciously or not, had turned his back on the nineteenth century +before he was done with it; the gold standard, the protective +system, and the laws of mass could have no other outcome, and, as +so often before, the movement, once accelerated by attempting to +impede it, had the additional, brutal consequence of crushing +equally the good and the bad that stood in its way. + + The lesson was old -- so old that it became tedious. One had +studied nothing else since childhood, and wearied of it. For yet +another year Adams lingered on these outskirts of the vortex, +among the picturesque, primitive types of a world which had never +been fairly involved in the general motion, and were the more +amusing for their torpor. After passing the winter with King in +the West Indies, he passed the summer with Hay in the +Yellowstone, and found there little to study. The Geysers were an +old story; the Snake River posed no vital statistics except in +its fordings; even the Tetons were as calm as they were lovely; +while the wapiti and bear, innocent of strikes and corners, laid +no traps. In return the party treated them with affection. Never +did a band less bloody or bloodthirsty wander over the roof of +the continent. Hay loved as little as Adams did, the labor of +skinning and butchering big game; he had even outgrown the +sedate, middle-aged, meditative joy of duck-shooting, and found +the trout of the Yellowstone too easy a prey. Hallett Phillips +himself, who managed the party loved to play Indian hunter +without hunting so much as a fieldmouse; Iddings the geologist +was reduced to shooting only for the table, and the guileless +prattle of Billy Hofer alone taught the simple life. Compared +with the Rockies of 1871, the sense of wildness had vanished; one +saw no possible adventures except to break one's neck as in +chasing an aniseed fox. Only the more intelligent ponies scented +an occasional friendly and sociable bear. + + When the party came out of the Yellowstone, Adams went on alone +to Seattle and Vancouver to inspect the last American railway +systems yet untried. They, too, offered little new learning, and +no sooner had he finished this debauch of Northwestern geography +than with desperate thirst for exhausting the American field, he +set out for Mexico and the Gulf, making a sweep of the Caribbean +and clearing up, in these six or eight months, at least twenty +thousand miles of American land and water. + + He was beginning to think, when he got back to Washington in +April, 1895, that he knew enough about the edges of life -- +tropical islands, mountain solitudes, archaic law, and retrograde +types. Infinitely more amusing and incomparably more picturesque +than civilization, they educated only artists, and, as one's +sixtieth year approached, the artist began to die; only a certain +intense cerebral restlessness survived which no longer responded +to sensual stimulants; one was driven from beauty to beauty as +though art were a trotting-match. For this, one was in some +degree prepared, for the old man had been a stage-type since +drama began; but one felt some perplexity to account for failure +on the opposite or mechanical side, where nothing but cerebral +action was needed. + + Taking for granted that the alternative to art was arithmetic, +plunged deep into statistics, fancying that education would find +the surest bottom there; and the study proved the easiest he had +ever approached. Even the Government volunteered unlimited +statistics, endless columns of figures, bottomless averages +merely for the asking. At the Statistical Bureau, Worthington +Ford supplied any material that curiosity could imagine for +filling the vast gaps of ignorance, and methods for applying the +plasters of fact. One seemed for a while to be winning ground, +and one's averages projected themselves as laws into the future. +Perhaps the most perplexing part of the study lay in the attitude +of the statisticians, who showed no enthusiastic confidence in +their own figures. They should have reached certainty, but they +talked like other men who knew less. The method did not result +faith. Indeed, every increase of mass -- of volume and velocity +-- seemed to bring in new elements, and, at last, a scholar, +fresh in arithmetic and ignorant of algebra, fell into a +superstitious terror of complexity as the sink of facts. Nothing +came out as it should. In principle, according to figures, any +one could set up or pull down a society. One could frame no sort +of satisfactory answer to the constructive doctrines of Adam +Smith, or to the destructive criticisms of Karl Marx or to the +anarchistic imprecations of Elisee Reclus. One revelled at will +in the ruin of every society in the past, and rejoiced in proving +the prospective overthrow of every society that seemed possible +in the future; but meanwhile these societies which violated every +law, moral, arithmetical, and economical, not only propagated +each other, but produced also fresh complexities with every +propagation and developed mass with every complexity. + + The human factor was worse still. Since the stupefying +discovery of Pteraspis in 1867, nothing had so confused the +student as the conduct of mankind in the fin-de-siecle. No one +seemed very much concerned about this world or the future, unless +it might be the anarchists, and they only because they disliked +the present. Adams disliked the present as much as they did, and +his interest in future society was becoming slight, yet he was +kept alive by irritation at finding his life so thin and +fruitless. Meanwhile he watched mankind march on, like a train of +pack-horses on the Snake River, tumbling from one morass into +another, and at short intervals, for no reason but temper, +falling to butchery, like Cain. Since 1850, massacres had become +so common that society scarcely noticed them unless they summed +up hundreds of thousands, as in Armenia; wars had been almost +continuous, and were beginning again in Cuba, threatening in +South Africa, and possible in Manchuria; yet impartial judges +thought them all not merely unnecessary, but foolish -- induced +by greed of the coarsest class, as though the Pharaohs or the +Romans were still robbing their neighbors. The robbery might be +natural and inevitable, but the murder seemed altogether archaic. + + At one moment of perplexity to account for this trait of +Pteraspis, or shark, which seemed to have survived every moral +improvement of society, he took to study of the religious press. +Possibly growth m human nature might show itself there. He found +no need to speak unkindly of it; but, as an agent of motion, he +preferred on the whole the vigor of the shark, with its chances +of betterment; and he very gravely doubted, from his aching +consciousness of religious void, whether any large fraction of +society cared for a future life, or even for the present one, +thirty years hence. Not an act, or an expression, or an image, +showed depth of faith or hope. + + The object of education, therefore, was changed. For many years +it had lost itself in studying what the world had ceased to care +for; if it were to begin again, it must try to find out what the +mass of mankind did care for, and why. Religion, politics, +statistics, travel had thus far led to nothing. Even the Chicago +Fair had only confused the roads. Accidental education could go +no further, for one's mind was already littered and stuffed +beyond hope with the millions of chance images stored away +without order in the memory. One might as well try to educate a +gravel-pit. The task was futile, which disturbed a student less +than the discovery that, in pursuing it, he was becoming himself +ridiculous. Nothing is more tiresome than a superannuated +pedagogue. + + For the moment he was rescued, as often before, by a woman. +Towards midsummer, 1895, Mrs. Cabot Lodge bade him follow her to +Europe with the Senator and her two sons. The study of history is +useful to the historian by teaching him his ignorance of women; +and the mass of this ignorance crushes one who is familiar enough +with what are called historical sources to realize how few women +have ever been known. The woman who is known only through a man +is known wrong, and excepting one or two like Mme. de Sevigne, no +woman has pictured herself. The American woman of the nineteenth +century will live only as the man saw her; probably she will be +less known than the woman of the eighteenth; none of the female +descendants of Abigail Adams can ever be nearly so familiar as +her letters have made her; and all this is pure loss to history, +for the American woman of the nineteenth century was much better +company than the American man; she was probably much better +company than her grandmothers. With Mrs. Lodge and her husband, +Senator since 1893, Adams's relations had been those of elder +brother or uncle since 1871 when Cabot Lodge had left his +examination-papers on Assistant Professor Adams's desk, and +crossed the street to Christ Church in Cambridge to get married. +With Lodge himself, as scholar, fellow instructor, co-editor of +the North American Review, and political reformer from 1873 to +1878, he had worked intimately, but with him afterwards as +politician he had not much relation; and since Lodge had suffered +what Adams thought the misfortune of becoming not only a Senator +but a Senator from Massachusetts -- a singular social relation +which Adams had known only as fatal to friends -- a superstitious +student, intimate with the laws of historical fatality, would +rather have recognized him only as an enemy; but apart from this +accident he valued Lodge highly, and in the waste places of +average humanity had been greatly dependent on his house. +Senators can never be approached with safety, but a Senator who +has a very superior wife and several superior children who feel +no deference for Senators as such, may be approached at times +with relative impunity while they keep him under restraint. + +Where Mrs. Lodge summoned, one followed with gratitude, and so it +chanced that in August one found one's self for the first time at +Caen, Coutances, and Mont-Saint-Michel in Normandy. If history +had a chapter with which he thought himself familiar, it was the +twelfth and thirteenth centuries; yet so little has labor to do +with knowledge that these bare playgrounds of the lecture system +turned into green and verdurous virgin forests merely through the +medium of younger eyes and fresher minds. His German bias must +have given his youth a terrible twist, for the Lodges saw at a +glance what he had thought unessential because un-German. They +breathed native air in the Normandy of 1200, a compliment which +would have seemed to the Senator lacking in taste or even in +sense when addressed to one of a class of men who passed life in +trying to persuade themselves and the public that they breathed +nothing less American than a blizzard; but this atmosphere, in +the touch of a real emotion, betrayed the unconscious humor of +the senatorial mind. In the thirteenth century, by an unusual +chance, even a Senator became natural, simple, interested, +cultivated, artistic, liberal -- genial. + + Through the Lodge eyes the old problem became new and personal; +it threw off all association with the German lecture-room. One +could not at first see what this novelty meant; it had the air of +mere antiquarian emotion like Wenlock Abbey and Pteraspis; but it +expelled archaic law and antiquarianism once for all, without +seeming conscious of it; and Adams drifted back to Washington +with a new sense of history. Again he wandered south, and in +April returned to Mexico with the Camerons to study the charms of +pulque and Churriguerresque architecture. In May he ran through +Europe again with Hay, as far south as Ravenna. There came the +end of the passage. After thus covering once more, in 1896, many +thousand miles of the old trails, Adams went home October, with +every one else, to elect McKinley President and start the world +anew. + + For the old world of public men and measures since 1870, Adams +wept no tears. Within or without, during or after it, as partisan +or historian, he never saw anything to admire in it, or anything +he wanted to save; and in this respect he reflected only the +public mind which balanced itself so exactly between the +unpopularity of both parties as to express no sympathy with +either. Even among the most powerful men of that generation he +knew none who had a good word to say for it. No period so +thoroughly ordinary had been known in American politics since +Christopher Columbus first disturbed the balance of American +society; but the natural result of such lack of interest in +public affairs, in a small society like that of Washington, led +an idle bystander to depend abjectly on intimacy of private +relation. One dragged one's self down the long vista of +Pennsylvania Avenue, by leaning heavily on one's friends, and +avoiding to look at anything else. Thus life had grown narrow +with years, more and more concentrated on the circle of houses +round La Fayette Square, which had no direct or personal share in +power except in the case of Mr. Blaine whose tumultuous struggle +for existence held him apart. Suddenly Mr. McKinley entered the +White House and laid his hand heavily on this special group. In a +moment the whole nest so slowly constructed, was torn to pieces +and scattered over the world. Adams found himself alone. John Hay +took his orders for London. Rockhill departed to Athens. Cecil +Spring-Rice had been buried in Persia. Cameron refused to remain +in public life either at home or abroad, and broke up his house +on the Square. Only the Lodges and Roosevelts remained, but even +they were at once absorbed in the interests of power. Since 1861, +no such social convulsion had occurred. + + Even this was not quite the worst. To one whose interests lay +chiefly in foreign affairs, and who, at this moment, felt most +strongly the nightmare of Cuban, Hawaiian, and Nicaraguan chaos, +the man in the State Department seemed more important than the +man in the White House. Adams knew no one in the United States +fit to manage these matters in the face of a hostile Europe, and +had no candidate to propose; but he was shocked beyond all +restraints of expression to learn that the President meant to put +Senator John Sherman in the State Department in order to make a +place for Mr. Hanna in the Senate. Grant himself had done nothing +that seemed so bad as this to one who had lived long enough to +distinguish between the ways of presidential jobbery, if not +between the jobs. John Sherman, otherwise admirably fitted for +the place, a friendly influence for nearly forty years, was +notoriously feeble and quite senile, so that the intrigue seemed +to Adams the betrayal of an old friend as well as of the State +Department. One might have shrugged one's shoulders had the +President named Mr. Hanna his Secretary of State, for Mr. Hanna +was a man of force if not of experience, and selections much +worse than this had often turned out well enough; but John +Sherman must inevitably and tragically break down. + + The prospect for once was not less vile than the men. One can +bear coldly the jobbery of enemies, but not that of friends, and +to Adams this kind of jobbery seemed always infinitely worse than +all the petty money bribes ever exploited by the newspapers. Nor +was the matter improved by hints that the President might call +John Hay to the Department whenever John Sherman should retire. +Indeed, had Hay been even unconsciously party to such an +intrigue, he would have put an end, once for all, to further +concern in public affairs on his friend's part; but even without +this last disaster, one felt that Washington had become no longer +habitable. Nothing was left there but solitary contemplation of +Mr. McKinley's ways which were not likely to be more amusing than +the ways of his predecessors; or of senatorial ways, which +offered no novelty of what the French language expressively calls +embetement; or of poor Mr. Sherman's ways which would surely +cause anguish to his friends. Once more, one must go! + + Nothing was easier! On and off, one had done the same thing +since the year 1858, at frequent intervals, and had now reached +the month of March, 1897; yet, as the whole result of six years' +dogged effort to begin a new education, one could not recommend +it to the young. The outlook lacked hope. The object of travel +had become more and more dim, ever since the gibbering ghost of +the Civil Law had been locked in its dark closet, as far back as +1860. Noah's dove had not searched the earth for resting-places +so carefully, or with so little success. Any spot on land or +water satisfies a dove who wants and finds rest; but no perch +suits a dove of sixty years old, alone and uneducated, who has +lost his taste even for olives. To this, also, the young may be +driven, as education, end the lesson fails in humor; but it may +be worth knowing to some of them that the planet offers hardly a +dozen places where an elderly man can pass a week alone without +ennui, and none at all where he can pass a year. + + Irritated by such complaints, the world naturally answers that +no man of sixty should live, which is doubtless true, though not +original. The man of sixty, with a certain irritability proper to +his years, retorts that the world has no business to throw on him +the task of removing its carrion, and that while he remains he +has a right to require amusement -- or at least education, since +this costs nothing to any one -- and that a world which cannot +educate, will not amuse, and is ugly besides, has even less right +to exist than he. Both views seem sound; but the world wearily +objects to be called by epithets what society always admits in +practice; for no one likes to be told that he is a bore, or +ignorant, or even ugly; and having nothing to say in its defence, +it rejoins that, whatever license is pardonable in youth, the man +of sixty who wishes consideration had better hold his tongue. +This truth also has the defect of being too true. The rule holds +equally for men of half that age Only the very young have the +right to betray their ignorance or ill-breeding. Elderly people +commonly know enough not to betray themselves. + + Exceptions are plenty on both sides, as the Senate knew to its +acute suffering; but young or old, women or men, seemed agreed on +one point with singular unanimity; each praised silence in +others. Of all characteristics in human nature, this has been one +of the most abiding. Mere superficial gleaning of what, in the +long history of human expression, has been said by the fool or +unsaid by the wise, shows that, for once, no difference of +opinion has ever existed on this. "Even a fool," said the wisest +of men, "when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise," and still +more often, the wisest of men, when he spoke the highest wisdom, +has been counted a fool. They agreed only on the merits of +silence in others. Socrates made remarks in its favor, which +should have struck the Athenians as new to them; but of late the +repetition had grown tiresome. Thomas Carlyle vociferated his +admiration of it. Matthew Arnold thought it the best form of +expression; and Adams thought Matthew Arnold the best form of +expression in his time. Algernon Swinburne called it the most +noble to the end. Alfred de Vigny's dying wolf remarked: -- + + "A voir ce que l'on fut sur terre et ce qu'on laisse, + Seul le silence est grand; tout le reste est faiblesse." + "When one thinks what one leaves in the world when one dies, +Only silence is strong, -- all the rest is but lies." + +Even Byron, whom a more brilliant era of genius seemed to have +decided to be but an indifferent poet, had ventured to affirm +that -- + + "The Alp's snow summit nearer heaven is seen + Than the volcano's fierce eruptive crest;" + +with other verses, to the effect that words are but a "temporary +torturing flame"; of which no one knew more than himself. The +evidence of the poets could not be more emphatic: -- + + "Silent, while years engrave the brow! + Silent, -- the best are silent now!" + + Although none of these great geniuses had shown faith in +silence as a cure for their own ills or ignorance, all of them, +and all philosophy after them, affirmed that no man, even at +sixty, had ever been known to attain knowledge; but that a very +few were believed to have attained ignorance, which was in result +the same. More than this, in every society worth the name, the +man of sixty had been encouraged to ride this hobby -- the +Pursuit of Ignorance in Silence -- as though it were the easiest +way to get rid of him. In America the silence was more oppressive +than the ignorance; but perhaps elsewhere the world might still +hide some haunt of futilitarian silence where content reigned -- +although long search had not revealed it -- and so the pilgrimage +began anew! + + The first step led to London where John Hay was to be +established. One had seen so many American Ministers received in +London that the Lord Chamberlain himself scarcely knew more about +it; education could not be expected there; but there Adams +arrived, April 21, 1897, as though thirty-six years were so many +days, for Queen Victoria still reigned and one saw little change +in St. James's Street. True, Carlton House Terrace, like the +streets of Rome, actually squeaked and gibbered with ghosts, till +one felt like Odysseus before the press of shadows, daunted by a +"bloodless fear"; but in spring London is pleasant, and it was +more cheery than ever in May, 1897, when every one was welcoming +the return of life after the long winter since 1893. One's +fortunes, or one's friends' fortunes, were again in flood. + + This amusement could not be prolonged, for one found one's self +the oldest Englishman in England, much too familiar with family +jars better forgotten, and old traditions better unknown. No +wrinkled Tannhauser, returning to the Wartburg, needed a wrinkled +Venus to show him that he was no longer at home, and that even +penitence was a sort of impertinence. He slipped away to Paris, +and set up a household at St. Germain where he taught and learned +French history for nieces who swarmed under the venerable cedars +of the Pavillon d'Angouleme, and rode about the green +forest-alleys of St. Germain and Marly. From time to time Hay +wrote humorous laments, but nothing occurred to break the +summer-peace of the stranded Tannhauser, who slowly began to feel +at home in France as in other countries he had thought more +homelike. At length, like other dead Americans, he went to Paris +because he could go nowhere else, and lingered there till the +Hays came by, in January, 1898; and Mrs. Hay, who had been a +stanch and strong ally for twenty years, bade him go with them to +Egypt. + + Adams cared little to see Egypt again, but he was glad to see +Hay, and readily drifted after him to the Nile. What they saw and +what they said had as little to do with education as possible, +until one evening, as they were looking at the sun set across the +Nile from Assouan, Spencer Eddy brought them a telegram to +announce the sinking of the Maine in Havana Harbor. This was the +greatest stride in education since 1865, but what did it teach? +One leant on a fragment of column in the great hall at Karnak and +watched a jackal creep down the debris of ruin. The jackal's +ancestors had surely crept up the same wall when it was building. +What was his view about the value of silence? One lay in the +sands and watched the expression of the Sphinx. Brooks Adams had +taught him that the relation between civilizations was that of +trade. Henry wandered, or was storm-driven, down the coast. He +tried to trace out the ancient harbor of Ephesus. He went over to +Athens, picked up Rockhill, and searched for the harbor of +Tiryns; together they went on to Constantinople and studied the +great walls of Constantine and the greater domes of Justinian. +His hobby had turned into a camel, and he hoped, if he rode long +enough in silence, that at last he might come on a city of +thought along the great highways of exchange. + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +INDIAN SUMMER (1898-1899) + + The summer of the Spanish War began the Indian summer of life +to one who had reached sixty years of age, and cared only to reap +in peace such harvest as these sixty years had yielded. He had +reason to be more than content with it. Since 1864 he had felt no +such sense of power and momentum, and had seen no such number of +personal friends wielding it. The sense of solidarity counts for +much in one's contentment, but the sense of winning one's game +counts for more; and in London, in 1898, the scene was singularly +interesting to the last survivor of the Legation of 1861. He +thought himself perhaps the only person living who could get full +enjoyment of the drama. He carried every scene of it, in a +century and a half since the Stamp Act, quite alive in his mind +-- all the interminable disputes of his disputatious ancestors as +far back as the year 1750 -- as well as his own insignificance in +the Civil War, every step in which had the object of bringing +England into an American system. For this they had written +libraries of argument and remonstrance, and had piled war on war, +losing their tempers for life, and souring the gentle and patient +Puritan nature of their descendants, until even their private +secretaries at times used language almost intemperate; and +suddenly, by pure chance, the blessing fell on Hay. After two +hundred years of stupid and greedy blundering, which no argument +and no violence affected, the people of England learned their +lesson just at the moment when Hay would otherwise have faced a +flood of the old anxieties. Hay himself scarcely knew how +grateful he should be, for to him the change came almost of +course. He saw only the necessary stages that had led to it, and +to him they seemed natural; but to Adams, still living in the +atmosphere of Palmerston and John Russell, the sudden appearance +of Germany as the grizzly terror which, in twenty years effected +what Adamses had tried for two hundred in vain -- frightened +England into America's arms -- seemed as melodramatic as any plot +of Napoleon the Great. He could feel only the sense of +satisfaction at seeing the diplomatic triumph of all his family, +since the breed existed, at last realized under his own eyes for +the advantage of his oldest and closest ally. + + This was history, not education, yet it taught something +exceedingly serious, if not ultimate, could one trust the lesson. +For the first time in his life, he felt a sense of possible +purpose working itself out in history. Probably no one else on +this earthly planet -- not even Hay -- could have come out on +precisely such extreme personal satisfaction, but as he sat at +Hay's table, listening to any member of the British Cabinet, for +all were alike now, discuss the Philippines as a question of +balance of power in the East, he could see that the family work +of a hundred and fifty years fell at once into the grand +perspective of true empire-building, which Hay's work set off +with artistic skill. The roughness of the archaic foundations +looked stronger and larger in scale for the refinement and +certainty of the arcade. In the long list of famous American +Ministers in London, none could have given the work quite the +completeness, the harmony, the perfect ease of Hay. + + Never before had Adams been able to discern the working of law +in history, which was the reason of his failure in teaching it, +for chaos cannot be taught; but he thought he had a personal +property by inheritance in this proof of sequence and +intelligence in the affairs of man -- a property which no one +else had right to dispute; and this personal triumph left him a +little cold towards the other diplomatic results of the war. He +knew that Porto Rico must be taken, but he would have been glad +to escape the Philippines. Apart from too intimate an +acquaintance with the value of islands in the South Seas, he knew +the West Indies well enough to be assured that, whatever the +American people might think or say about it, they would sooner or +later have to police those islands, not against Europe, but for +Europe, and America too. Education on the outskirts of civilized +life teaches not very much, but it taught this; and one felt no +call to shoulder the load of archipelagoes in the antipodes when +one was trying painfully to pluck up courage to face the labor of +shouldering archipelagoes at home. The country decided otherwise, +and one acquiesced readily enough since the matter concerned only +the public willingness to carry loads; in London, the balance of +power in the East came alone into discussion; and in every point +of view one had as much reason to be gratified with the result as +though one had shared in the danger, instead of being vigorously +employed in looking on from a great distance. After all, friends +had done the work, if not one's self, and he too serves a certain +purpose who only stands and cheers. + + In June, at the crisis of interest, the Camerons came over, and +took the fine old house of Surrenden Dering in Kent which they +made a sort of country house to the Embassy. Kent has charms +rivalling those of Shropshire, and, even compared with the many +beautiful places scattered along the Welsh border, few are nobler +or more genial than Surrenden with its unbroken descent from the +Saxons, its avenues, its terraces, its deer-park, its large +repose on the Kentish hillside, and its broad outlook over whet +was once the forest of Anderida. Filled with a constant stream of +guests, the house seemed to wait for the chance to show its +charms to the American, with whose activity the whole world was +resounding; and never since the battle of Hastings could the +little telegraph office of the Kentish village have done such +work. There, on a hot July 4, 1898, to an expectant group under +the shady trees, came the telegram announcing the destruction of +the Spanish Armada, as it might have come to Queen Elizabeth in +1588; and there, later in the season, came the order summoning +Hay to the State Department. + + Hay had no wish to be Secretary of State. He much preferred to +remain Ambassador, and his friends were quite as cold about it as +he. No one knew so well what sort of strain falls on Secretaries +of State, or how little strength he had in reserve against it. +Even at Surrenden he showed none too much endurance, and he would +gladly have found a valid excuse for refusing. The discussion on +both sides was earnest, but the decided voice of the conclave was +that, though if he were a mere office-seeker he might certainly +decline promotion, if he were a member of the Government he could +not. No serious statesman could accept a favor and refuse a +service. Doubtless he might refuse, but in that case he must +resign. The amusement of making Presidents has keen fascination +for idle American hands, but these black arts have the old +drawback of all deviltry; one must serve the spirit one evokes, +even though the service were perdition to body and soul. For him, +no doubt, the service, though hard, might bring some share of +profit, but for the friends who gave this unselfish decision, all +would prove loss. For one, Adams on that subject had become a +little daft. No one in his experience had ever passed unscathed +through that malarious marsh. In his fancy, office was poison; it +killed -- body and soul -- physically and socially. Office was +more poisonous than priestcraft or pedagogy in proportion as it +held more power; but the poison he complained of was not +ambition; he shared none of Cardinal Wolsey's belated penitence +for that healthy stimulant, as he had shared none of the fruits; +his poison was that of the will -- the distortion of sight -- the +warping of mind -- the degradation of tissue -- the coarsening of +taste -- the narrowing of sympathy to the emotions of a caged +rat. Hay needed no office in order to wield influence. For him, +influence lay about the streets, waiting for him to stoop to it; +he enjoyed more than enough power without office; no one of his +position, wealth, and political experience, living at the centre +of politics in contact with the active party managers, could +escape influence. His only ambition was to escape annoyance, and +no one knew better than he that, at sixty years of age, sensitive +to physical strain, still more sensitive to brutality, +vindictiveness, or betrayal, he took office at cost of life. + + Neither he nor any of the Surrenden circle made presence of +gladness at the new dignity for, with all his gaiety of manner +and lightness of wit, he took dark views of himself, none the +lighter for their humor, and his obedience to the President's +order was the gloomiest acquiescence he had ever smiled. Adams +took dark views, too, not so much on Hay's account as on his own, +for, while Hay had at least the honors of office, his friends +would share only the ennuis of it; but, as usual with Hay, +nothing was gained by taking such matters solemnly, and old +habits of the Civil War left their mark of military drill on +every one who lived through it. He shouldered his pack and +started for home. Adams had no mind to lose his friend without a +struggle, though he had never known such sort of struggle to +avail. The chance was desperate, but he could not afford to throw +it away; so, as soon as the Surrenden establishment broke up, on +October 17, he prepared for return home, and on November 13, none +too gladly, found himself again gazing into La Fayette Square. + + He had made another false start and lost two years more of +education; nor had he excuse; for, this time, neither politics +nor society drew him away from his trail. He had nothing to do +with Hay's politics at home or abroad, and never affected +agreement with his views or his methods, nor did Hay care whether +his friends agreed or disagreed. They all united in trying to +help each other to get along the best way they could, and all +they tried to save was the personal relation. Even there, Adams +would have been beaten had he not been helped by Mrs. Hay, who +saw the necessity of distraction, and led her husband into the +habit of stopping every afternoon to take his friend off for an +hour's walk, followed by a cup of tea with Mrs. Hay afterwards, +and a chat with any one who called. + + For the moment, therefore, the situation was saved, at least in +outward appearance, and Adams could go back to his own pursuits +which were slowly taking a direction. Perhaps they had no right +to be called pursuits, for in truth one consciously pursued +nothing, but drifted as attraction offered itself. The short +session broke up the Washington circle, so that, on March 22, +Adams was able to sail with the Lodges for Europe and to pass +April in Sicily and Rome. + + With the Lodges, education always began afresh. Forty years had +left little of the Palermo that Garibaldi had shown to the boy of +1860, but Sicily in all ages seems to have taught only +catastrophe and violence, running riot on that theme ever since +Ulysses began its study on the eye of Cyclops. For a lesson in +anarchy, without a shade of sequence, Sicily stands alone and +defies evolution. Syracuse teaches more than Rome. Yet even Rome +was not mute, and the church of Ara Coeli seemed more and more to +draw all the threads of thought to a centre, for every new +journey led back to its steps -- Karnak, Ephesus, Delphi, +Mycencae, Constantinople, Syracuse -- all lying on the road to +the Capitol. What they had to bring by way of intellectual riches +could not yet be discerned, but they carried camel-loads of +moral; and New York sent most of all, for, in forty years, +America had made so vast a stride to empire that the world of +1860 stood already on a distant horizon somewhere on the same +plane with the republic of Brutus and Cato, while schoolboys read +of Abraham Lincoln as they did of Julius Caesar. Vast swarms of +Americans knew the Civil War only by school history, as they knew +the story of Cromwell or Cicero, and were as familiar with +political assassination as though they had lived under Nero. The +climax of empire could be seen approaching, year after year, as +though Sulla were a President or McKinley a Consul. + + Nothing annoyed Americans more than to be told this simple and +obvious -- in no way unpleasant -- truth; therefore one sat +silent as ever on the Capitol; but, by way of completing the +lesson, the Lodges added a pilgrimage to Assisi and an interview +with St. Francis, whose solution of historical riddles seemed the +most satisfactory -- or sufficient -- ever offered; worth fully +forty years' more study, and better worth it than Gibbon himself, +or even St. Augustine, St. Ambrose, or St. Jerome. The most +bewildering effect of all these fresh cross-lights on the old +Assistant Professor of 1874 was due to the astonishing contrast +between what he had taught then and what he found himself +confusedly trying to learn five-and-twenty years afterwards -- +between the twelfth century of his thirtieth and that of his +sixtieth years. At Harvard College, weary of spirit in the wastes +of Anglo-Saxon law, he had occasionally given way to outbursts of +derision at shedding his life-blood for the sublime truths of Sac +and Soc: -- + + HIC JACET +HOMUNCULUS SCRIPTOR + DOCTOR BARBARICUS + HENRICUS ADAMS + ADAE FILIUS ET EVAE + PRIMO EXPLICUIT + SOCNAM + + The Latin was as twelfth-century as the law, and he meant as +satire the claim that he had been first to explain the legal +meaning of Sac and Soc, although any German professor would have +scorned it as a shameless and presumptuous bid for immortality; +but the whole point of view had vanished in 1900. Not he, but Sir +Henry Maine and Rudolph Sohm, were the parents or creators of Sac +and Soc. Convinced that the clue of religion led to nothing, and +that politics led to chaos, one had turned to the law, as one's +scholars turned to the Law School, because one could see no other +path to a profession. + + The law had proved as futile as politics or religion, or any +other single thread spun by the human spider; it offered no more +continuity than architecture or coinage, and no more force of its +own. St. Francis expressed supreme contempt for them all, and +solved the whole problem by rejecting it altogether. Adams +returned to Paris with a broken and contrite spirit, prepared to +admit that his life had no meaning, and conscious that in any +case it no longer mattered. He passed a summer of solitude +contrasting sadly with the last at Surrenden; but the solitude +did what the society did not -- it forced and drove him into the +study of his ignorance in silence. Here at last he entered the +practice of his final profession. Hunted by ennui, he could no +longer escape, and, by way of a summer school, he began a +methodical survey -- a triangulation -- of the twelfth century. +The pursuit had a singular French charm which France had long +lost -- a calmness, lucidity, simplicity of expression, vigor of +action, complexity of local color, that made Paris flat. In the +long summer days one found a sort of saturated green pleasure in +the forests, and gray infinity of rest in the little +twelfth-century churches that lined them, as unassuming as their +own mosses, and as sure of their purpose as their round arches; +but churches were many and summer was short, so that he was at +last driven back to the quays and photographs. For weeks he lived +in silence. + + His solitude was broken in November by the chance arrival of +John La Farge. At that moment, contact with La Farge had a new +value. Of all the men who had deeply affected their friends since +1850 John La Farge was certainly the foremost, and for Henry +Adams, who had sat at his feet since 1872, the question how much +he owed to La Farge could be answered only by admitting that he +had no standard to measure it by. Of all his friends La Farge +alone owned a mind complex enough to contrast against the +commonplaces of American uniformity, and in the process had +vastly perplexed most Americans who came in contact with it. The +American mind -- the Bostonian as well as the Southern or Western +-- likes to walk straight up to its object, and assert or deny +something that it takes for a fact; it has a conventional +approach, a conventional analysis, and a conventional conclusion, +as well as a conventional expression, all the time loudly +asserting its unconventionality. The most disconcerting trait of +John La Farge was his reversal of the process. His approach was +quiet and indirect; he moved round an object, and never separated +it from its surroundings; he prided himself on faithfulness to +tradition and convention; he was never abrupt and abhorred +dispute. His manners and attitude towards the universe were the +same, whether tossing in the middle of the Pacific Ocean +sketching the trade-wind from a whale-boat in the blast of +sea-sickness, or drinking the cha-no-yu in the formal rites of +Japan, or sipping his cocoanut cup of kava in the ceremonial of +Samoan chiefs, or reflecting under the sacred bo-tree at +Anaradjpura. + + One was never quite sure of his whole meaning until too late to +respond, for he had no difficulty in carrying different shades of +contradiction in his mind. As he said of his friend Okakura, his +thought ran as a stream runs through grass, hidden perhaps but +always there; and one felt often uncertain in what direction it +flowed, for even a contradiction was to him only a shade of +difference, a complementary color, about which no intelligent +artist would dispute. Constantly he repulsed argument: "Adams, +you reason too much!" was one of his standing reproaches even in +the mild discussion of rice and mangoes in the warm night of +Tahiti dinners. He should have blamed Adams for being born in +Boston. The mind resorts to reason for want of training, and +Adams had never met a perfectly trained mind. + + To La Farge, eccentricity meant convention; a mind really +eccentric never betrayed it. True eccentricity was a tone -- a +shade -- a nuance -- and the finer the tone, the truer the +eccentricity. Of course all artists hold more or less the same +point of view in their art, but few carry it into daily life, and +often the contrast is excessive between their art and their talk. +One evening Humphreys Johnston, who was devoted to La Farge, +asked him to meet Whistler at dinner. La Farge was ill -- more +ill than usual even for him -- but he admired and liked Whistler, +and insisted on going. By chance, Adams was so placed as to +overhear the conversation of both, and had no choice but to hear +that of Whistler, which engrossed the table. At that moment the +Boer War was raging, and, as every one knows, on that subject +Whistler raged worse than the Boers. For two hours he declaimed +against England -- witty, declamatory, extravagant, bitter, +amusing, and noisy; but in substance what he said was not merely +commonplace -- it was true! That is to say, his hearers, +including Adams and, as far as he knew, La Farge, agreed with it +all, and mostly as a matter of course; yet La Farge was silent, +and this difference of expression was a difference of art. +Whistler in his art carried the sense of nuance and tone far +beyond any point reached by La Farge, or even attempted; but in +talk he showed, above or below his color-instinct, a willingness +to seem eccentric where no real eccentricity, unless perhaps of +temper, existed. + + This vehemence, which Whistler never betrayed in his painting, +La Farge seemed to lavish on his glass. With the relative value +of La Farge's glass in the history of glass-decoration, Adams was +too ignorant to meddle, and as a rule artists were if possible +more ignorant than he; but whatever it was, it led him back to +the twelfth century and to Chartres where La Farge not only felt +at home, but felt a sort of ownership. No other American had a +right there, unless he too were a member of the Church and worked +in glass. Adams himself was an interloper, but long habit led La +Farge to resign himself to Adams as one who meant well, though +deplorably Bostonian; while Adams, though near sixty years old +before he knew anything either of glass or of Chartres, asked no +better than to learn, and only La Farge could help him, for he +knew enough at least to see that La Farge alone could use glass +like a thirteenth-century artist. In Europe the art had been dead +for centuries, and modern glass was pitiable. Even La Farge felt +the early glass rather as a document than as a historical +emotion, and in hundreds of windows at Chartres and Bourges and +Paris, Adams knew barely one or two that were meant to hold their +own against a color-scheme so strong as his. In conversation La +Farge's mind was opaline with infinite shades and refractions of +light, and with color toned down to the finest gradations. In +glass it was insubordinate; it was renaissance; it asserted his +personal force with depth and vehemence of tone never before +seen. He seemed bent on crushing rivalry. + + Even the gloom of a Paris December at the Elysee Palace Hotel +was somewhat relieved by this companionship, and education made a +step backwards towards Chartres, but La Farge's health became +more and more alarming, and Adams was glad to get him safely back +to New York, January 15, 1900, while he himself went at once to +Washington to find out what had become of Hay. Nothing good could +be hoped, for Hay's troubles had begun, and were quite as great +as he had foreseen. Adams saw as little encouragement as Hay +himself did, though he dared not say so. He doubted Hay's +endurance, the President's firmness in supporting him, and the +loyalty of his party friends; but all this worry on Hay's account +fretted him not nearly so much as the Boer War did on his own. +Here was a problem in his political education that passed all +experience since the Treason winter of 1860-61! Much to his +astonishment, very few Americans seemed to share his point of +view; their hostility to England seemed mere temper; but to Adams +the war became almost a personal outrage. He had been taught from +childhood, even in England, that his forbears and their +associates in 1776 had settled, once for all, the liberties of +the British free colonies, and he very strongly objected to being +thrown on the defensive again, and forced to sit down, a hundred +and fifty years after John Adams had begun the task, to prove, by +appeal to law and fact, that George Washington was not a felon, +whatever might be the case with George III. For reasons still +more personal, he declined peremptorily to entertain question of +the felony of John Adams. He felt obliged to go even further, and +avow the opinion that if at any time England should take towards +Canada the position she took towards her Boer colonies, the +United States would be bound, by their record, to interpose, and +to insist on the application of the principles of 1776. To him +the attitude of Mr. Chamberlain and his colleagues seemed +exceedingly un-American, and terribly embarrassing to Hay. + + Trained early, in the stress of civil war, to hold his tongue, +and to help make the political machine run somehow, since it +could never be made to run well, he would not bother Hay with +theoretical objections which were every day fretting him in +practical forms. Hay's chance lay in patience and good-temper +till the luck should turn, and to him the only object was time; +but as political education the point seemed vital to Adams, who +never liked shutting his eyes or denying an evident fact. +Practical politics consists in ignoring facts, but education and +politics are two different and often contradictory things. In +this case, the contradiction seemed crude. + + With Hay's politics, at home or abroad, Adams had nothing +whatever to do. Hay belonged to the New York school, like Abram +Hewitt, Evarts, W. C. Whitney, Samuel J. Tilden -- men who played +the game for ambition or amusement, and played it, as a rule, +much better than the professionals, but whose aims were +considerably larger than those of the usual player, and who felt +no great love for the cheap drudgery of the work. In return, the +professionals felt no great love for them, and set them aside +when they could. Only their control of money made them +inevitable, and even this did not always carry their points. The +story of Abram Hewitt would offer one type of this statesman +series, and that of Hay another. President Cleveland set aside +the one; President Harrison set aside the other. "There is no +politics in it," was his comment on Hay's appointment to office. +Hay held a different opinion and turned to McKinley whose +judgment of men was finer than common in Presidents. Mr. McKinley +brought to the problem of American government a solution which +lay very far outside of Henry Adams's education, but which seemed +to be at least practical and American. He undertook to pool +interests in a general trust into which every interest should be +taken, more or less at its own valuation, and whose mass should, +under his management, create efficiency. He achieved very +remarkable results. How much they cost was another matter; if the +public is ever driven to its last resources and the usual +remedies of chaos, the result will probably cost more. + + Himself a marvellous manager of men, McKinley found several +manipulators to help him, almost as remarkable as himself, one of +whom was Hay; but unfortunately Hay's strength was weakest and +his task hardest. At home, interests could be easily combined by +simply paying their price; but abroad whatever helped on one +side, hurt him on another. Hay thought England must be brought +first into the combine; but at that time Germany, Russia, and +France were all combining against England, and the Boer War +helped them. For the moment Hay had no ally, abroad or at home, +except Pauncefote, and Adams always maintained that Pauncefote +alone pulled him through. + + Yet the difficulty abroad was far less troublesome than the +obstacles at home. The Senate had grown more and more +unmanageable, even since the time of Andrew Johnson, and this was +less the fault of the Senate than of the system. "A treaty of +peace, in any normal state of things," said Hay, "ought to be +ratified with unanimity in twenty-four hours. They wasted six +weeks in wrangling over this one, and ratified it with one vote +to spare. We have five or six matters now demanding settlement. I +can settle them all, honorably and advantageously to our own +side; and I am assured by leading men in the Senate that not one +of these treaties, if negotiated, will pass the Senate. I should +have a majority in every case, but a malcontent third would +certainly dish every one of them. To such monstrous shape has the +original mistake of the Constitution grown in the evolution of +our politics. You must understand, it is not merely my solution +the Senate will reject. They will reject, for instance, any +treaty, whatever, on any subject, with England. I doubt if they +would accept any treaty of consequence with Russia or Germany. +The recalcitrant third would be differently composed, but it +would be on hand. So that the real duties of a Secretary of State +seem to be three: to fight claims upon us by other States; to +press more or less fraudulent claims of our own citizens upon +other countries; to find offices for the friends of Senators when +there are none. Is it worth while -- for me -- to keep up this +useless labor?" + + To Adams, who, like Hay, had seen a dozen acquaintances +struggling with the same enemies, the question had scarcely the +interest of a new study. He had said all he had to say about it +in a dozen or more volumes relating to the politics of a hundred +years before. To him, the spectacle was so familiar as to be +humorous. The intrigue was too open to be interesting. The +interference of the German and Russian legations, and of the +Clan-na-Gael, with the press and the Senate was innocently +undisguised. The charming Russian Minister, Count Cassini, the +ideal of diplomatic manners and training, let few days pass +without appealing through the press to the public against the +government. The German Minister, Von Holleben, more cautiously +did the same thing, and of course every whisper of theirs was +brought instantly to the Department. These three forces, acting +with the regular opposition and the natural obstructionists, +could always stop action in the Senate. The fathers had intended +to neutralize the energy of government and had succeeded, but +their machine was never meant to do the work of a twenty-million +horse-power society in the twentieth century, where much work +needed to be quickly and efficiently done. The only defence of +the system was that, as Government did nothing well, it had best +do nothing; but the Government, in truth, did perfectly well all +it was given to do; and even if the charge were true, it applied +equally to human society altogether, if one chose to treat +mankind from that point of view. As a matter of mechanics, so +much work must be done; bad machinery merely added to friction. + + Always unselfish, generous, easy, patient, and loyal, Hay had +treated the world as something to be taken in block without +pulling it to pieces to get rid of its defects; he liked it all: +he laughed and accepted; he had never known unhappiness and would +have gladly lived his entire life over again exactly as it +happened. In the whole New York school, one met a similar dash of +humor and cynicism more or less pronounced but seldom bitter. Yet +even the gayest of tempers succumbs at last to constant friction +The old friend was rapidly fading. The habit remained, but the +easy intimacy, the careless gaiety, the casual humor, the +equality of indifference, were sinking into the routine of +office; the mind lingered in the Department; the thought failed +to react; the wit and humor shrank within the blank walls of +politics, and the irritations multiplied. To a head of bureau, +the result seemed ennobling. + + Although, as education, this branch of study was more familiar +and older than the twelfth century, the task of bringing the two +periods into a common relation was new. Ignorance required that +these political and social and scientific values of the twelfth +and twentieth centuries should be correlated in some relation of +movement that could be expressed in mathematics, nor did one care +in the least that all the world said it could not be done, or +that one knew not enough mathematics even to figure a formula +beyond the schoolboy s = gt^2/2. If Kepler and Newton could take +liberties with the sun and moon, an obscure person in a remote +wilderness like La Fayette Square could take liberties with +Congress, and venture to multiply half its attraction into the +square of its time. He had only to find a value, even +infinitesimal, for its attraction at any given time. A historical +formula that should satisfy the conditions of the stellar +universe weighed heavily on his mind; but a trifling matter like +this was one in which he could look for no help from anybody -- +he could look only for derision at best. + + All his associates in history condemned such an attempt as +futile and almost immoral -- certainly hostile to sound +historical system. Adams tried it only because of its hostility +to all that he had taught for history, since he started afresh +from the new point that, whatever was right, all he had ever +taught was wrong. He had pursued ignorance thus far with success, +and had swept his mind clear of knowledge. In beginning again, +from the starting-point of Sir Isaac Newton, he looked about him +in vain for a teacher. Few men in Washington cared to overstep +the school conventions, and the most distinguished of them, Simon +Newcomb, was too sound a mathematician to treat such a scheme +seriously. The greatest of Americans, judged by his rank in +science, Willard Gibbs, never came to Washington, and Adams never +enjoyed a chance to meet him. After Gibbs, one of the most +distinguished was Langley, of the Smithsonian, who was more +accessible, to whom Adams had been much in the habit of turning +whenever he wanted an outlet for his vast reservoirs of +ignorance. Langley listened with outward patience to his +disputatious questionings; but he too nourished a scientific +passion for doubt, and sentimental attachment for its avowal. He +had the physicist's heinous fault of professing to know nothing +between flashes of intense perception. Like so many other great +observers, Langley was not a mathematician, and like most +physicists, he believed in physics. Rigidly denying himself the +amusement of philosophy, which consists chiefly in suggesting +unintelligible answers to insoluble problems, he still knew the +problems, and liked to wander past them in a courteous temper, +even bowing to them distantly as though recognizing their +existence, while doubting their respectability. He generously let +others doubt what he felt obliged to affirm; and early put into +Adams's hands the "Concepts of Modern Science," a volume by Judge +Stallo, which had been treated for a dozen years by the schools +with a conspiracy of silence such as inevitably meets every +revolutionary work that upsets the stock and machinery of +instruction. Adams read and failed to understand; then he asked +questions and failed to get answers. + + Probably this was education. Perhaps it was the only scientific +education open to a student sixty-odd years old, who asked to be +as ignorant as an astronomer. For him the details of science +meant nothing: he wanted to know its mass. Solar heat was not +enough, or was too much. Kinetic atoms led only to motion; never +to direction or progress. History had no use for multiplicity; it +needed unity; it could study only motion, direction, attraction, +relation. Everything must be made to move together; one must seek +new worlds to measure; and so, like Rasselas, Adams set out once +more, and found himself on May 12 settled in rooms at the very +door of the Trocadero. + + +CHAPTER XXV + +THE DYNAMO AND THE VIRGIN (1900) + + UNTIL the Great Exposition of 1900 closed its doors in +November, Adams haunted it, aching to absorb knowledge, and +helpless to find it. He would have liked to know how much of it +could have been grasped by the best-informed man in the world. +While he was thus meditating chaos, Langley came by, and showed +it to him. At Langley's behest, the Exhibition dropped its +superfluous rags and stripped itself to the skin, for Langley +knew what to study, and why, and how; while Adams might as well +have stood outside in the night, staring at the Milky Way. Yet +Langley said nothing new, and taught nothing that one might not +have learned from Lord Bacon, three hundred years before; but +though one should have known the "Advancement of Science" as well +as one knew the "Comedy of Errors," the literary knowledge +counted for nothing until some teacher should show how to apply +it. Bacon took a vast deal of trouble in teaching King James I +and his subjects, American or other, towards the year 1620, that +true science was the development or economy of forces; yet an +elderly American in 1900 knew neither the formula nor the forces; +or even so much as to say to himself that his historical business +in the Exposition concerned only the economies or developments of +force since 1893, when he began the study at Chicago. + + Nothing in education is so astonishing as the amount of +ignorance it accumulates in the form of inert facts. Adams had +looked at most of the accumulations of art in the storehouses +called Art Museums; yet he did not know how to look at the art +exhibits of 1900. He had studied Karl Marx and his doctrines of +history with profound attention, yet he could not apply them at +Paris. Langley, with the ease of a great master of experiment, +threw out of the field every exhibit that did not reveal a new +application of force, and naturally threw out, to begin with, +almost the whole art exhibit. Equally, he ignored almost the +whole industrial exhibit. He led his pupil directly to the +forces. His chief interest was in new motors to make his airship +feasible, and he taught Adams the astonishing complexities of the +new Daimler motor, and of the automobile, which, since 1893, had +become a nightmare at a hundred kilometres an hour, almost as +destructive as the electric tram which was only ten years older; +and threatening to become as terrible as the locomotive +steam-engine itself, which was almost exactly Adams's own age. + + Then he showed his scholar the great hall of dynamos, and +explained how little he knew about electricity or force of any +kind, even of his own special sun, which spouted heat in +inconceivable volume, but which, as far as he knew, might spout +less or more, at any time, for all the certainty he felt in it. +To him, the dynamo itself was but an ingenious channel for +conveying somewhere the heat latent in a few tons of poor coal +hidden in a dirty engine-house carefully kept out of sight; but +to Adams the dynamo became a symbol of infinity. As he grew +accustomed to the great gallery of machines, he began to feel the +forty-foot dynamos as a moral force, much as the early Christians +felt the Cross. The planet itself seemed less impressive, in its +old-fashioned, deliberate, annual or daily revolution, than this +huge wheel, revolving within arm's length at some vertiginous +speed, and barely murmuring -- scarcely humming an audible +warning to stand a hair's-breadth further for respect of power -- +while it would not wake the baby lying close against its frame. +Before the end, one began to pray to it; inherited instinct +taught the natural expression of man before silent and infinite +force. Among the thousand symbols of ultimate energy the dynamo +was not so human as some, but it was the most expressive. + + Yet the dynamo, next to the steam-engine, was the most familiar +of exhibits. For Adams's objects its value lay chiefly in its +occult mechanism. Between the dynamo in the gallery of machines +and the engine-house outside, the break of continuity amounted to +abysmal fracture for a historian's objects. No more relation +could he discover between the steam and the electric current than +between the Cross and the cathedral. The forces were +interchangeable if not reversible, but he could see only an +absolute fiat in electricity as in faith. Langley could not help +him. Indeed, Langley seemed to be worried by the same trouble, +for he constantly repeated that the new forces were anarchical, +and especially that he was not responsible for the new rays, that +were little short of parricidal in their wicked spirit towards +science. His own rays, with which he had doubled the solar +spectrum, were altogether harmless and beneficent; but Radium +denied its God -- or, what was to Langley the same thing, denied +the truths of his Science. The force was wholly new. + + A historian who asked only to learn enough to be as futile as +Langley or Kelvin, made rapid progress under this teaching, and +mixed himself up in the tangle of ideas until he achieved a sort +of Paradise of ignorance vastly consoling to his fatigued senses. +He wrapped himself in vibrations and rays which were new, and he +would have hugged Marconi and Branly had he met them, as he +hugged the dynamo; while he lost his arithmetic in trying to +figure out the equation between the discoveries and the economies +of force. The economies, like the discoveries, were absolute, +supersensual, occult; incapable of expression in horse-power. +What mathematical equivalent could he suggest as the value of a +Branly coherer? Frozen air, or the electric furnace, had some +scale of measurement, no doubt, if somebody could invent a +thermometer adequate to the purpose; but X-rays had played no +part whatever in man's consciousness, and the atom itself had +figured only as a fiction of thought. In these seven years man +had translated himself into a new universe which had no common +scale of measurement with the old. He had entered a supersensual +world, in which he could measure nothing except by chance +collisions of movements imperceptible to his senses, perhaps even +imperceptible to his instruments, but perceptible to each other, +and so to some known ray at the end of the scale. Langley seemed +prepared for anything, even for an indeterminable number of +universes interfused -- physics stark mad in metaphysics. + + Historians undertake to arrange sequences, -- called stories, +or histories -- assuming in silence a relation of cause and +effect. These assumptions, hidden in the depths of dusty +libraries, have been astounding, but commonly unconscious and +childlike; so much so, that if any captious critic were to drag +them to light, historians would probably reply, with one voice, +that they had never supposed themselves required to know what +they were talking about. Adams, for one, had toiled in vain to +find out what he meant. He had even published a dozen volumes of +American history for no other purpose than to satisfy himself +whether, by severest process of stating, with the least possible +comment, such facts as seemed sure, in such order as seemed +rigorously consequent, he could fix for a familiar moment a +necessary sequence of human movement. The result had satisfied +him as little as at Harvard College. Where he saw sequence, other +men saw something quite different, and no one saw the same unit +of measure. He cared little about his experiments and less about +his statesmen, who seemed to him quite as ignorant as himself +and, as a rule, no more honest; but he insisted on a relation of +sequence, and if he could not reach it by one method, he would +try as many methods as science knew. Satisfied that the sequence +of men led to nothing and that the sequence of their society +could lead no further, while the mere sequence of time was +artificial, and the sequence of thought was chaos, he turned at +last to the sequence of force; and thus it happened that, after +ten years' pursuit, he found himself lying in the Gallery of +Machines at the Great Exposition of 1900, his historical neck +broken by the sudden irruption of forces totally new. + + Since no one else showed much concern, an elderly person +without other cares had no need to betray alarm. The year 1900 +was not the first to upset schoolmasters. Copernicus and Galileo +had broken many professorial necks about 1600; Columbus had stood +the world on its head towards 1500; but the nearest approach to +the revolution of 1900 was that of 310, when Constantine set up +the Cross. The rays that Langley disowned, as well as those which +he fathered, were occult, supersensual, irrational; they were a +revelation of mysterious energy like that of the Cross; they were +what, in terms of mediaeval science, were called immediate modes +of the divine substance. + + The historian was thus reduced to his last resources. Clearly +if he was bound to reduce all these forces to a common value, +this common value could have no measure but that of their +attraction on his own mind. He must treat them as they had been +felt; as convertible, reversible, interchangeable attractions on +thought. He made up his mind to venture it; he would risk +translating rays into faith. Such a reversible process would +vastly amuse a chemist, but the chemist could not deny that he, +or some of his fellow physicists, could feel the force of both. +When Adams was a boy in Boston, the best chemist in the place had +probably never heard of Venus except by way of scandal, or of the +Virgin except as idolatry; neither had he heard of dynamos or +automobiles or radium; yet his mind was ready to feel the force +of all, though the rays were unborn and the women were dead. + + Here opened another totally new education, which promised to be +by far the most hazardous of all. The knife-edge along which he +must crawl, like Sir Lancelot in the twelfth century, divided two +kingdoms of force which had nothing in common but attraction. +They were as different as a magnet is from gravitation, supposing +one knew what a magnet was, or gravitation, or love. The force of +the Virgin was still felt at Lourdes, and seemed to be as potent +as X-rays; but in America neither Venus nor Virgin ever had value +as force -- at most as sentiment. No American had ever been truly +afraid of either. + + This problem in dynamics gravely perplexed an American +historian. The Woman had once been supreme; in France she still +seemed potent, not merely as a sentiment, but as a force. Why was +she unknown in America? For evidently America was ashamed of her, +and she was ashamed of herself, otherwise they would not have +strewn fig-leaves so profusely all over her. When she was a true +force, she was ignorant of fig-leaves, but the +monthly-magazine-made American female had not a feature that +would have been recognized by Adam. The trait was notorious, and +often humorous, but any one brought up among Puritans knew that +sex was sin. In any previous age, sex was strength. Neither art +nor beauty was needed. Every one, even among Puritans, knew that +neither Diana of the Ephesians nor any of the Oriental goddesses +was worshipped for her beauty. She was goddess because of her +force; she was the animated dynamo; she was reproduction -- the +greatest and most mysterious of all energies; all she needed was +to be fecund. Singularly enough, not one of Adams's many schools +of education had ever drawn his attention to the opening lines of +Lucretius, though they were perhaps the finest in all Latin +literature, where the poet invoked Venus exactly as Dante invoked +the Virgin: -- + + "Quae quondam rerum naturam sola gubernas." + +The Venus of Epicurean philosophy survived in the Virgin of the +Schools: -- + + "Donna, sei tanto grande, e tanto vali, + Che qual vuol grazia, e a te non ricorre, + Sua disianza vuol volar senz' ali." + + All this was to American thought as though it had never +existed. The true American knew something of the facts, but +nothing of the feelings; he read the letter, but he never felt +the law. Before this historical chasm, a mind like that of Adams +felt itself helpless; he turned from the Virgin to the Dynamo as +though he were a Branly coherer. On one side, at the Louvre and +at Chartres, as he knew by the record of work actually done and +still before his eyes, was the highest energy ever known to man, +the creator four-fifths of his noblest art, exercising vastly +more attraction over the human mind than all the steam-engines +and dynamos ever dreamed of; and yet this energy was unknown to +the American mind. An American Virgin would never dare command; +an American Venus would never dare exist. + + The question, which to any plain American of the nineteenth +century seemed as remote as it did to Adams, drew him almost +violently to study, once it was posed; and on this point Langleys +were as useless as though they were Herbert Spencers or dynamos. +The idea survived only as art. There one turned as naturally as +though the artist were himself a woman. Adams began to ponder, +asking himself whether he knew of any American artist who had +ever insisted on the power of sex, as every classic had always +done; but he could think only of Walt Whitman; Bret Harte, as far +as the magazines would let him venture; and one or two painters, +for the flesh-tones. All the rest had used sex for sentiment, +never for force; to them, Eve was a tender flower, and Herodias +an unfeminine horror. American art, like the American language +and American education, was as far as possible sexless. Society +regarded this victory over sex as its greatest triumph, and the +historian readily admitted it, since the moral issue, for the +moment, did not concern one who was studying the relations of +unmoral force. He cared nothing for the sex of the dynamo until +he could measure its energy. + + Vaguely seeking a clue, he wandered through the art exhibit, +and, in his stroll, stopped almost every day before St. Gaudens's +General Sherman, which had been given the central post of honor. +St. Gaudens himself was in Paris, putting on the work his usual +interminable last touches, and listening to the usual +contradictory suggestions of brother sculptors. Of all the +American artists who gave to American art whatever life it +breathed in the seventies, St. Gaudens was perhaps the most +sympathetic, but certainly the most inarticulate. General Grant +or Don Cameron had scarcely less instinct of rhetoric than he. +All the others -- the Hunts, Richardson, John La Farge, Stanford +White -- were exuberant; only St. Gaudens could never discuss or +dilate on an emotion, or suggest artistic arguments for giving to +his work the forms that he felt. He never laid down the law, or +affected the despot, or became brutalized like Whistler by the +brutalities of his world. He required no incense; he was no +egoist; his simplicity of thought was excessive; he could not +imitate, or give any form but his own to the creations of his +hand. No one felt more strongly than he the strength of other +men, but the idea that they could affect him never stirred an +image in his mind. + + This summer his health was poor and his spirits were low. For +such a temper, Adams was not the best companion, since his own +gaiety was not folle; but he risked going now and then to the +studio on Mont Parnasse to draw him out for a stroll in the Bois +de Boulogne, or dinner as pleased his moods, and in return St. +Gaudens sometimes let Adams go about in his company. + + Once St. Gaudens took him down to Amiens, with a party of +Frenchmen, to see the cathedral. Not until they found themselves +actually studying the sculpture of the western portal, did it +dawn on Adams's mind that, for his purposes, St. Gaudens on that +spot had more interest to him than the cathedral itself. Great +men before great monuments express great truths, provided they +are not taken too solemnly. Adams never tired of quoting the +supreme phrase of his idol Gibbon, before the Gothic cathedrals: +"I darted a contemptuous look on the stately monuments of +supersition." Even in the footnotes of his history, Gibbon had +never inserted a bit of humor more human than this, and one would +have paid largely for a photograph of the fat little historian, +on the background of Notre Dame of Amiens, trying to persuade his +readers -- perhaps himself -- that he was darting a contemptuous +look on the stately monument, for which he felt in fact the +respect which every man of his vast study and active mind always +feels before objects worthy of it; but besides the humor, one +felt also the relation. Gibbon ignored the Virgin, because in +1789 religious monuments were out of fashion. In 1900 his remark +sounded fresh and simple as the green fields to ears that had +heard a hundred years of other remarks, mostly no more fresh and +certainly less simple. Without malice, one might find it more +instructive than a whole lecture of Ruskin. One sees what one +brings, and at that moment Gibbon brought the French Revolution. +Ruskin brought reaction against the Revolution. St. Gaudens had +passed beyond all. He liked the stately monuments much more than +he liked Gibbon or Ruskin; he loved their dignity; their unity; +their scale; their lines; their lights and shadows; their +decorative sculpture; but he was even less conscious than they of +the force that created it all -- the Virgin, the Woman -- by +whose genius "the stately monuments of superstition" were built, +through which she was expressed. He would have seen more meaning +in Isis with the cow's horns, at Edfoo, who expressed the same +thought. The art remained, but the energy was lost even upon the +artist. + + Yet in mind and person St. Gaudens was a survival of the 1500; +he bore the stamp of the Renaissance, and should have carried an +image of the Virgin round his neck, or stuck in his hat, like +Louis XI. In mere time he was a lost soul that had strayed by +chance to the twentieth century, and forgotten where it came +from. He writhed and cursed at his ignorance, much as Adams did +at his own, but in the opposite sense. St. Gaudens was a child of +Benvenuto Cellini, smothered in an American cradle. Adams was a +quintessence of Boston, devoured by curiosity to think like +Benvenuto. St. Gaudens's art was starved from birth, and Adams's +instinct was blighted from babyhood. Each had but half of a +nature, and when they came together before the Virgin of Amiens +they ought both to have felt in her the force that made them one; +but it was not so. To Adams she became more than ever a channel +of force; to St. Gaudens she remained as before a channel of +taste. + + For a symbol of power, St. Gaudens instinctively preferred the +horse, as was plain in his horse and Victory of the Sherman +monument. Doubtless Sherman also felt it so. The attitude was so +American that, for at least forty years, Adams had never realized +that any other could be in sound taste. How many years had he +taken to admit a notion of what Michael Angelo and Rubens were +driving at? He could not say; but he knew that only since 1895 +had he begun to feel the Virgin or Venus as force, and not +everywhere even so. At Chartres -- perhaps at Lourdes -- possibly +at Cnidos if one could still find there the divinely naked +Aphrodite of Praxiteles -- but otherwise one must look for force +to the goddesses of Indian mythology. The idea died out long ago +in the German and English stock. St. Gaudens at Amiens was hardly +less sensitive to the force of the female energy than Matthew +Arnold at the Grande Chartreuse. Neither of them felt goddesses +as power -- only as reflected emotion, human expression, beauty, +purity, taste, scarcely even as sympathy. They felt a railway +train as power, yet they, and all other artists, constantly +complained that the power embodied in a railway train could never +be embodied in art. All the steam in the world could not, like +the Virgin, build Chartres. + + Yet in mechanics, whatever the mechanicians might think, both +energies acted as interchangeable force on man, and by action on +man all known force may be measured. Indeed, few men of science +measured force in any other way. After once admitting that a +straight line was the shortest distance between two points, no +serious mathematician cared to deny anything that suited his +convenience, and rejected no symbol, unproved or unproveable, +that helped him to accomplish work. The symbol was force, as a +compass-needle or a triangle was force, as the mechanist might +prove by losing it, and nothing could be gained by ignoring their +value. Symbol or energy, the Virgin had acted as the greatest +force the Western world ever felt, and had drawn man's activities +to herself more strongly than any other power, natural or +supernatural, had ever done; the historian's business was to +follow the track of the energy; to find where it came from and +where it went to; its complex source and shifting channels; its +values, equivalents, conversions. It could scarcely be more +complex than radium; it could hardly be deflected, diverted, +polarized, absorbed more perplexingly than other radiant matter. +Adams knew nothing about any of them, but as a mathematical +problem of influence on human progress, though all were occult, +all reacted on his mind, and he rather inclined to think the +Virgin easiest to handle. + + The pursuit turned out to be long and tortuous, leading at last +to the vast forests of scholastic science. From Zeno to +Descartes, hand in hand with Thomas Aquinas, Montaigne, and +Pascal, one stumbled as stupidly as though one were still a +German student of 1860. Only with the instinct of despair could +one force one's self into this old thicket of ignorance after +having been repulsed a score of entrances more promising and more +popular. Thus far, no path had led anywhere, unless perhaps to an +exceedingly modest living. Forty-five years of study had proved +to be quite futile for the pursuit of power; one controlled no +more force in 1900 than in 1850, although the amount of force +controlled by society had enormously increased. The secret of +education still hid itself somewhere behind ignorance, and one +fumbled over it as feebly as ever. In such labyrinths, the staff +is a force almost more necessary than the legs; the pen becomes a +sort of blind-man's dog, to keep him from falling into the +gutters. The pen works for itself, and acts like a hand, +modelling the plastic material over and over again to the form +that suits it best. The form is never arbitrary, but is a sort of +growth like crystallization, as any artist knows too well; for +often the pencil or pen runs into side-paths and shapelessness, +loses its relations, stops or is bogged. Then it has to return on +its trail, and recover, if it can, its line of force. The result +of a year's work depends more on what is struck out than on what +is left in; on the sequence of the main lines of thought, than on +their play or variety. Compelled once more to lean heavily on +this support, Adams covered more thousands of pages with figures +as formal as though they were algebra, laboriously striking out, +altering, burning, experimenting, until the year had expired, the +Exposition had long been closed, and winter drawing to its end, +before he sailed from Cherbourg, on January 19, 1901, for home. + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +TWILIGHT (1901) + + WHILE the world that thought itself frivolous, and submitted +meekly to hearing itself decried as vain, fluttered through the +Paris Exposition, jogging the futilities of St. Gaudens, Rodin, +and Besnard, the world that thought itself serious, and showed +other infallible marks of coming mental paroxysm, was engaged in +weird doings at Peking and elsewhere such as startled even +itself. Of all branches of education, the science of gauging +people and events by their relative importance defies study most +insolently. For three or four generations, society has united in +withering with contempt and opprobrium the shameless futility of +Mme. de Pompadour and Mme. du Barry; yet, if one bid at an +auction for some object that had been approved by the taste of +either lady, one quickly found that it were better to buy +half-a-dozen Napoleons or Frederics, or Maria Theresas, or all +the philosophy and science of their time, than to bid for a +cane-bottomed chair that either of these two ladies had adorned. +The same thing might be said, in a different sense, of Voltaire; +while, as every one knows, the money-value of any hand-stroke of +Watteau or Hogarth, Nattier or Sir Joshua, is out of all +proportion to the importance of the men. Society seemed to +delight in talking with solemn conviction about serious values, +and in paying fantastic prices for nothing but the most futile. +The drama acted at Peking, in the summer of 1900, was, in the +eyes of a student, the most serious that could be offered for his +study, since it brought him suddenly to the inevitable struggle +for the control of China, which, in his view, must decide the +control of the world; yet, as a money-value, the fall of China +was chiefly studied in Paris and London as a calamity to Chinese +porcelain. The value of a Ming vase was more serious than +universal war. + + The drama of the Legations interested the public much as though +it were a novel of Alexandre Dumas, but the bearing of the drama +on future history offered an interest vastly greater. Adams knew +no more about it than though he were the best-informed statesman +in Europe. Like them all, he took for granted that the Legations +were massacred, and that John Hay, who alone championed China's +"administrative entity," would be massacred too, since he must +henceforth look on, in impotence, while Russia and Germany +dismembered China, and shut up America at home. Nine statesmen +out of ten, in Europe, accepted this result in advance, seeing no +way to prevent it. Adams saw none, and laughed at Hay for his +helplessness. + + When Hay suddenly ignored European leadership, took the lead +himself, rescued the Legations and saved China, Adams looked on, +as incredulous as Europe, though not quite so stupid, since, on +that branch of education, he knew enough for his purpose. Nothing +so meteoric had ever been done in American diplomacy. On +returning to Washington, January 30, 1901, he found most of the +world as astonished as himself, but less stupid than usual. For a +moment, indeed, the world had been struck dumb at seeing Hay put +Europe aside and set the Washington Government at the head of +civilization so quietly that civilization submitted, by mere +instinct of docility, to receive and obey his orders; but, after +the first shock of silence, society felt the force of the stroke +through its fineness, and burst into almost tumultuous applause. +Instantly the diplomacy of the nineteenth century, with all its +painful scuffles and struggles, was forgotten, and the American +blushed to be told of his submissions in the past. History broke +in halves. + + Hay was too good an artist not to feel the artistic skill of +his own work, and the success reacted on his health, giving him +fresh life, for with him as with most men, success was a tonic, +and depression a specific poison; but as usual, his troubles +nested at home. Success doubles strain. President McKinley's +diplomatic court had become the largest in the world, and the +diplomatic relations required far more work than ever before, +while the staff of the Department was little more efficient, and +the friction in the Senate had become coagulated. Hay took to +studying the "Diary" of John Quincy Adams eighty years before, +and calculated that the resistance had increased about ten times, +as measured by waste of days and increase of effort, although +Secretary of State J. Q. Adams thought himself very hardly +treated. Hay cheerfully noted that it was killing him, and proved +it, for the effort of the afternoon walk became sometimes +painful. + + For the moment, things were going fairly well, and Hay's unruly +team were less fidgety, but Pauncefote still pulled the whole +load and turned the dangerous corners safely, while Cassini and +Holleben helped the Senate to make what trouble they could, +without serious offence, and the Irish, after the genial Celtic +nature, obstructed even themselves. The fortunate Irish, thanks +to their sympathetic qualities, never made lasting enmities; but +the Germans seemed in a fair way to rouse ill-will and even ugly +temper in the spirit of politics, which was by no means a part of +Hay's plans. He had as much as he could do to overcome domestic +friction, and felt no wish to alienate foreign powers. Yet so +much could be said in favor of the foreigners that they commonly +knew why they made trouble, and were steady to a motive. Cassini +had for years pursued, in Peking as in Washington, a policy of +his own, never disguised, and as little in harmony with his chief +as with Hay; he made his opposition on fixed lines for notorious +objects; but Senators could seldom give a reason for obstruction. +In every hundred men, a certain number obstruct by instinct, and +try to invent reasons to explain it afterwards. The Senate was no +worse than the board of a university; but incorporators as a rule +have not made this class of men dictators on purpose to prevent +action. In the Senate, a single vote commonly stopped +legislation, or, in committee, stifled discussion. + + Hay's policy of removing, one after another, all irritations, +and closing all discussions with foreign countries, roused +incessant obstruction, which could be overcome only by patience +and bargaining in executive patronage, if indeed it could be +overcome at all. The price actually paid was not very great +except in the physical exhaustion of Hay and Pauncefote, Root and +McKinley. No serious bargaining of equivalents could be +attempted; Senators would not sacrifice five dollars in their own +States to gain five hundred thousand in another; but whenever a +foreign country was willing to surrender an advantage without an +equivalent, Hay had a chance to offer the Senate a treaty. In all +such cases the price paid for the treaty was paid wholly to the +Senate, and amounted to nothing very serious except in waste of +time and wear of strength. "Life is so gay and horrid!" laughed +Hay; "the Major will have promised all the consulates in the +service; the Senators will all come to me and refuse to believe +me dis-consulate; I shall see all my treaties slaughtered, one by +one, by the thirty-four per cent of kickers and strikers; the +only mitigation I can foresee is being sick a good part of the +time; I am nearing my grand climacteric, and the great culbute is +approaching." + + He was thinking of his friend Blaine, and might have thought of +all his predecessors, for all had suffered alike, and to Adams as +historian their sufferings had been a long delight -- the +solitary picturesque and tragic element in politics -- +incidentally requiring character-studies like Aaron Burr and +William B. Giles, Calhoun and Webster and Sumner, with Sir +Forcible Feebles like James M. Mason and stage exaggerations like +Roscoe Conkling. The Senate took the place of Shakespeare, and +offered real Brutuses and Bolingbrokes, Jack Cades, Falstaffs, +and Malvolios -- endless varieties of human nature nowhere else +to be studied, and none the less amusing because they killed, or +because they were like schoolboys in their simplicity. "Life is +so gay and horrid!" Hay still felt the humor, though more and +more rarely, but what he felt most was the enormous complexity +and friction of the vast mass he was trying to guide. He bitterly +complained that it had made him a bore -- of all things the most +senatorial, and to him the most obnoxious. The old friend was +lost, and only the teacher remained, driven to madness by the +complexities and multiplicities of his new world. + + To one who, at past sixty years old, is still passionately +seeking education, these small, or large, annoyances had no great +value except as measures of mass and motion. For him the +practical interest and the practical man were such as looked +forward to the next election, or perhaps, in corporations, five +or ten years. Scarcely half-a-dozen men in America could be named +who were known to have looked a dozen years ahead; while any +historian who means to keep his alignment with past and future +must cover a horizon of two generations at least. If he seeks to +align himself with the future, he must assume a condition of some +sort for a world fifty years beyond his own. Every historian -- +sometimes unconsciously, but always inevitably -- must have put +to himself the question: How long could such-or-such an outworn +system last? He can never give himself less than one generation +to show the full effects of a changed condition. His object is to +triangulate from the widest possible base to the furthest point +he thinks he can see, which is always far beyond the curvature of +the horizon. + + To the practical man, such an attempt is idiotic, and probably +the practical man is in the right to-day; but, whichever is right +-- if the question of right or wrong enters at all into the +matter -- the historian has no choice but to go on alone. Even in +his own profession few companions offer help, and his walk soon +becomes solitary, leading further and further into a wilderness +where twilight is short and the shadows are dense. Already Hay +literally staggered in his tracks for weariness. More worn than +he, Clarence King dropped. One day in the spring he stopped an +hour in Washington to bid good-bye, cheerily and simply telling +how his doctors had condemned him to Arizona for his lungs. All +three friends knew that they were nearing the end, and that if it +were not the one it would be the other; but the affectation of +readiness for death is a stage role, and stoicism is a stupid +resource, though the only one. Non doles, Paete! One is ashamed +of it even in the acting. + + The sunshine of life had not been so dazzling of late but that +a share of it flickered out for Adams and Hay when King +disappeared from their lives; but Hay had still his family and +ambition, while Adams could only blunder back alone, helplessly, +wearily, his eyes rather dim with tears, to his vague trail +across the darkening prairie of education, without a motive, big +or small, except curiosity to reach, before he too should drop, +some point that would give him a far look ahead. He was morbidly +curious to see some light at the end of the passage, as though +thirty years were a shadow, and he were again to fall into King's +arms at the door of the last and only log cabin left in life. +Time had become terribly short, and the sense of knowing so +little when others knew so much, crushed out hope. + + He knew not in what new direction to turn, and sat at his desk, +idly pulling threads out of the tangled skein of science, to see +whether or why they aligned themselves. The commonest and oldest +toy he knew was the child's magnet, with which he had played +since babyhood, the most familiar of puzzles. He covered his desk +with magnets, and mapped out their lines of force by compass. +Then he read all the books he could find, and tried in vain to +makes his lines of force agree with theirs. The books confounded +him. He could not credit his own understanding. Here was +literally the most concrete fact in nature, next to gravitation +which it defied; a force which must have radiated lines of energy +without stop, since time began, if not longer, and which might +probably go on radiating after the sun should fall into the +earth, since no one knew why -- or how -- or what it radiated -- +or even whether it radiated at all. Perhaps the earliest known of +all natural forces after the solar energies, it seemed to have +suggested no idea to any one until some mariner bethought himself +that it might serve for a pointer. Another thousand years passed +when it taught some other intelligent man to use it as a pump, +supply-pipe, sieve, or reservoir for collecting electricity, +still without knowing how it worked or what it was. For a +historian, the story of Faraday's experiments and the invention +of the dynamo passed belief; it revealed a condition of human +ignorance and helplessness before the commonest forces, such as +his mind refused to credit. He could not conceive but that some +one, somewhere, could tell him all about the magnet, if one could +but find the book -- although he had been forced to admit the +same helplessness in the face of gravitation, phosphorescence, +and odors; and he could imagine no reason why society should +treat radium as revolutionary in science when every infant, for +ages past, had seen the magnet doing what radium did; for surely +the kind of radiation mattered nothing compared with the energy +that radiated and the matter supplied for radiation. He dared not +venture into the complexities of chemistry, or microbes, so long +as this child's toy offered complexities that befogged his mind +beyond X-rays, and turned the atom into an endless variety of +pumps endlessly pumping an endless variety of ethers. He wanted +to ask Mme. Curie to invent a motor attachable to her salt of +radium, and pump its forces through it, as Faraday did with a +magnet. He figured the human mind itself as another radiating +matter through which man had always pumped a subtler fluid. + + In all this futility, it was not the magnet or the rays or the +microbes that troubled him, or even his helplessness before the +forces. To that he was used from childhood. The magnet in its new +relation staggered his new education by its evidence of growing +complexity, and multiplicity, and even contradiction, in life. He +could not escape it; politics or science, the lesson was the +same, and at every step it blocked his path whichever way he +turned. He found it in politics; he ran against it in science; he +struck it in everyday life, as though he were still Adam in the +Garden of Eden between God who was unity, and Satan who was +complexity, with no means of deciding which was truth. The +problem was the same for McKinley as for Adam, and for the Senate +as for Satan. Hay was going to wreck on it, like King and Adams. + + All one's life, one had struggled for unity, and unity had +always won. The National Government and the national unity had +overcome every resistance, and the Darwinian evolutionists were +triumphant over all the curates; yet the greater the unity and +the momentum, the worse became the complexity and the friction. +One had in vain bowed one's neck to railways, banks, +corporations, trusts, and even to the popular will as far as one +could understand it -- or even further; the multiplicity of unity +had steadily increased, was increasing, and threatened to +increase beyond reason. He had surrendered all his favorite +prejudices, and foresworn even the forms of criticism -- except +for his pet amusement, the Senate, which was a tonic or stimulant +necessary to healthy life; he had accepted uniformity and +Pteraspis and ice age and tramways and telephones; and now -- +just when he was ready to hang the crowning garland on the brow +of a completed education -- science itself warned him to begin it +again from the beginning. + + Maundering among the magnets he bethought himself that once, a +full generation earlier, he had begun active life by writing a +confession of geological faith at the bidding of Sir Charles +Lyell, and that it might be worth looking at if only to steady +his vision. He read it again, and thought it better than he could +do at sixty-three; but elderly minds always work loose. He saw +his doubts grown larger, and became curious to know what had been +said about them since 1870. The Geological Survey supplied stacks +of volumes, and reading for steady months; while, the longer he +read, the more he wondered, pondered, doubted what his delightful +old friend Sir Charles Lyell would have said about it. + + Truly the animal that is to be trained to unity must be caught +young. Unity is vision; it must have been part of the process of +learning to see. The older the mind, the older its complexities, +and the further it looks, the more it sees, until even the stars +resolve themselves into multiples; yet the child will always see +but one. Adams asked whether geology since 1867 had drifted +towards unity or multiplicity, and he felt that the drift would +depend on the age of the man who drifted. + + Seeking some impersonal point for measure, he turned to see +what had happened to his oldest friend and cousin the ganoid +fish, the Pteraspis of Ludlow and Wenlock, with whom he had +sported when geological life was young; as though they had all +remained together in time to act the Mask of Comus at Ludlow +Castle, and repeat "how charming is divine philosophy!" He felt +almost aggrieved to find Walcott so vigorously acting the part of +Comus as to have flung the ganoid all the way off to Colorado and +far back into the Lower Trenton limestone, making the Pteraspis +as modern as a Mississippi gar-pike by spawning an ancestry for +him, indefinitely more remote, in the dawn of known organic life. +A few thousand feet, more or less, of limestone were the +liveliest amusement to the ganoid, but they buried the +uniformitarian alive, under the weight of his own uniformity. Not +for all the ganoid fish that ever swam, would a discreet +historian dare to hazard even in secret an opinion about the +value of Natural Selection by Minute Changes under Uniform +Conditions, for he could know no more about it than most of his +neighbors who knew nothing; but natural selection that did not +select -- evolution finished before it began -- minute changes +that refused to change anything during the whole geological +record - survival of the highest order in a fauna which had no +origin -- uniformity under conditions which had disturbed +everything else in creation -- to an honest-meaning though +ignorant student who needed to prove Natural Selection and not +assume it, such sequence brought no peace. He wished to be shown +that changes in form caused evolution in force; that chemical or +mechanical energy had by natural selection and minute changes, +under uniform conditions, converted itself into thought. The +ganoid fish seemed to prove -- to him -- that it had selected +neither new form nor new force, but that the curates were right +in thinking that force could be increased in volume or raised in +intensity only by help of outside force. To him, the ganoid was a +huge perplexity, none the less because neither he nor the ganoid +troubled Darwinians, but the more because it helped to reveal +that Darwinism seemed to survive only in England. In vain he +asked what sort of evolution had taken its place. Almost any +doctrine seemed orthodox. Even sudden conversions due to mere +vital force acting on its own lines quite beyond mechanical +explanation, had cropped up again. A little more, and he would be +driven back on the old independence of species. + + What the ontologist thought about it was his own affair, like +the theologist's views on theology, for complexity was nothing to +them; but to the historian who sought only the direction of +thought and had begun as the confident child of Darwin and Lyell +in 1867, the matter of direction seemed vital. Then he had +entered gaily the door of the glacial epoch, and had surveyed a +universe of unities and uniformities. In 1900 he entered a far +vaster universe, where all the old roads ran about in every +direction, overrunning, dividing, subdividing, stopping abruptly, +vanishing slowly, with side-paths that led nowhere, and sequences +that could not be proved. The active geologists had mostly become +specialists dealing with complexities far too technical for an +amateur, but the old formulas still seemed to serve for +beginners, as they had served when new. + + So the cause of the glacial epoch remained at the mercy of +Lyell and Croll, although Geikie had split up the period into +half-a-dozen intermittent chills in recent geology and in the +northern hemisphere alone, while no geologist had ventured to +assert that the glaciation of the southern hemisphere could +possibly be referred to a horizon more remote. Continents still +rose wildly and wildly sank, though Professor Suess of Vienna had +written an epoch-making work, showing that continents were +anchored like crystals, and only oceans rose and sank. Lyell's +genial uniformity seemed genial still, for nothing had taken its +place, though, in the interval, granite had grown young, nothing +had been explained, and a bewildering system of huge overthrusts +had upset geological mechanics. The textbooks refused even to +discuss theories, frankly throwing up their hands and avowing +that progress depended on studying each rock as a law to itself. + + Adams had no more to do with the correctness of the science +than the gar-pike or the Port Jackson shark, for its correctness +in no way concerned him, and only impertinence could lead him to +dispute or discuss the principles of any science; but the history +of the mind concerned the historian alone, and the historian had +no vital concern in anything else, for he found no change to +record in the body. In thought the Schools, like the Church, +raised ignorance to a faith and degraded dogma to heresy. +Evolution survived like the trilobites without evolving, and yet +the evolutionists held the whole field, and had even plucked up +courage to rebel against the Cossack ukase of Lord Kelvin +forbidding them to ask more than twenty million years for their +experiments. No doubt the geologists had always submitted sadly +to this last and utmost violence inflicted on them by the Pontiff +of Physical Religion in the effort to force unification of the +universe; they had protested with mild conviction that they could +not state the geological record in terms of time; they had +murmured Ignoramus under their breath; but they had never dared +to assert the Ignorabimus that lay on the tips of their tongues. + + Yet the admission seemed close at hand. Evolution was becoming +change of form broken by freaks of force, and warped at times by +attractions affecting intelligence, twisted and tortured at other +times by sheer violence, cosmic, chemical, solar, supersensual, +electrolytic -- who knew what? -- defying science, if not denying +known law; and the wisest of men could but imitate the Church, +and invoke a "larger synthesis" to unify the anarchy again. +Historians have got into far too much trouble by following +schools of theology in their efforts to enlarge their synthesis, +that they should willingly repeat the process in science. For +human purposes a point must always be soon reached where larger +synthesis is suicide. + + Politics and geology pointed alike to the larger synthesis of +rapidly increasing complexity; but still an elderly man knew that +the change might be only in himself. The admission cost nothing. +Any student, of any age, thinking only of a thought and not of +his thought, should delight in turning about and trying the +opposite motion, as he delights in the spring which brings even +to a tired and irritated statesman the larger synthesis of +peach-blooms, cherry-blossoms, and dogwood, to prove the folly of +fret. Every schoolboy knows that this sum of all knowledge never +saved him from whipping; mere years help nothing; King and Hay +and Adams could neither of them escape floundering through the +corridors of chaos that opened as they passed to the end; but +they could at least float with the stream if they only knew which +way the current ran. Adams would have liked to begin afresh with +the Limulus and Lepidosteus in the waters of Braintree, side by +side with Adamses and Quincys and Harvard College, all unchanged +and unchangeable since archaic time; but what purpose would it +serve? A seeker of truth -- or illusion -- would be none the less +restless, though a shark! + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +TEUFELSDROCKH (1901) + + INEVITABLE Paris beckoned, and resistance became more and more +futile as the store of years grew less; for the world contains no +other spot than Paris where education can be pursued from every +side. Even more vigorously than in the twelfth century, Paris +taught in the twentieth, with no other school approaching it for +variety of direction and energy of mind. Of the teaching in +detail, a man who knew only what accident had taught him in the +nineteenth century, could know next to nothing, since science had +got quite beyond his horizon, and mathematics had become the only +necessary language of thought; but one could play with the toys +of childhood, including Ming porcelain, salons of painting, +operas and theatres, beaux-arts and Gothic architecture, theology +and anarchy, in any jumble of time; or totter about with Joe +Stickney, talking Greek philosophy or recent poetry, or studying +"Louise" at the Opera Comique, or discussing the charm of youth +and the Seine with Bay Lodge and his exquisite young wife. Paris +remained Parisian in spite of change, mistress of herself though +China fell. Scores of artists -- sculptors and painters, poets +and dramatists, workers in gems and metals, designers in stuffs +and furniture -- hundreds of chemists, physicists, even +philosophers, philologists, physicians, and historians -- were at +work, a thousand times as actively as ever before, and the mass +and originality of their product would have swamped any previous +age, as it very nearly swamped its own; but the effect was one of +chaos, and Adams stood as helpless before it as before the chaos +of New York. His single thought was to keep in front of the +movement, and, if necessary, lead it to chaos, but never fall +behind. Only the young have time to linger in the rear. + + The amusements of youth had to be abandoned, for not even +pugilism needs more staying-power than the labors of the +pale-faced student of the Latin Quarter in the haunts of +Montparnasse or Montmartre, where one must feel no fatigue at two +o'clock in the morning in a beer- garden even after four hours of +Mounet Sully at the Theatre Francais. In those branches, +education might be called closed. Fashion, too, could no longer +teach anything worth knowing to a man who, holding open the door +into the next world, regarded himself as merely looking round to +take a last glance of this. The glance was more amusing than any +he had known in his active life, but it was more -- infinitely +more -- chaotic and complex. + + Still something remained to be done for education beyond the +chaos, and as usual the woman helped. For thirty years or +there-abouts, he had been repeating that he really must go to +Baireuth. Suddenly Mrs. Lodge appeared on the horizon and bade +him come. He joined them, parents and children, alert and eager +and appreciative as ever, at the little old town of +Rothenburg-on-the Taube, and they went on to the Baireuth +festival together. + + Thirty years earlier, a Baireuth festival would have made an +immense stride in education, and the spirit of the master would +have opened a vast new world. In 1901 the effect was altogether +different from the spirit of the master. In 1876 the rococo +setting of Baireuth seemed the correct atmosphere for Siegfried +and Brunhilde, perhaps even for Parsifal. Baireuth was out of the +world, calm, contemplative, and remote. In 1901 the world had +altogether changed, and Wagner had become a part of it, as +familiar as Shakespeare or Bret Harte. The rococo element jarred. +Even the Hudson and the Susquehanna -- perhaps the Potomac itself +-- had often risen to drown out the gods of Walhalla, and one +could hardly listen to the "Gotterdammerung" in New York, among +throngs of intense young enthusiasts, without paroxysms of +nervous excitement that toned down to musical philistinism at +Baireuth, as though the gods were Bavarian composers. New York or +Paris might be whatever one pleased -- venal, sordid, vulgar -- +but society nursed there, in the rottenness of its decay, certain +anarchistic ferments, and thought them proof of art. Perhaps they +were; and at all events, Wagner was chiefly responsible for them +as artistic emotion. New York knew better than Baireuth what +Wagner meant, and the frivolities of Paris had more than once +included the rising of the Seine to drown out the Etoile or +Montmartre, as well as the sorcery of ambition that casts spells +of enchantment on the hero. Paris still felt a subtile flattery +in the thought that the last great tragedy of gods and men would +surely happen there, while no one could conceive of its happening +at Baireuth, or would care if it did. Paris coquetted with +catastrophe as though it were an old mistress -- faced it almost +gaily as she had done so often, for they were acquainted since +Rome began to ravage Europe; while New York met it with a glow of +fascinated horror, like an inevitable earthquake, and heard +Ternina announce it with conviction that made nerves quiver and +thrill as they had long ceased to do under the accents of popular +oratory proclaiming popular virtue. Flattery had lost its charm, +but the Fluch-motif went home. + + Adams had been carried with the tide till Brunhilde had become +a habit and Ternina an ally. He too had played with anarchy; +though not with socialism, which, to young men who nourished +artistic emotions under the dome of the Pantheon, seemed +hopelessly bourgeois, and lowest middle-class. Bay Lodge and Joe +Stickney had given birth to the wholly new and original party of +Conservative Christian Anarchists, to restore true poetry under +the inspiration of the "Gotterdammerung." Such a party saw no +inspiration in Baireuth, where landscape, history, and audience +were -- relatively -- stodgy, and where the only emotion was a +musical dilettantism that the master had abhorred. + + Yet Baireuth still amused even a conservative Christian +anarchist who cared as little as "Grane, mein Ross," whether the +singers sang false, and who came only to learn what Wagner had +supposed himself to mean. This end attained as pleased Frau +Wagner and the Heiliger Geist, he was ready to go on; and the +Senator, yearning for sterner study, pointed to a haven at +Moscow. For years Adams had taught American youth never to travel +without a Senator who was useful even in America at times, but +indispensable in Russia where, in 1901, anarchists, even though +conservative and Christian, were ill-seen. + + This wing of the anarchistic party consisted rigorously of but +two members, Adams and Bay Lodge. The conservative Christian +anarchist, as a party, drew life from Hegel and Schopenhauer +rightly understood. By the necessity of their philosophical +descent, each member of the fraternity denounced the other as +unequal to his lofty task and inadequate to grasp it. Of course, +no third member could be so much as considered, since the great +principle of contradiction could be expressed only by opposites; +and no agreement could be conceived, because anarchy, by +definition, must be chaos and collision, as in the kinetic theory +of a perfect gas. Doubtless this law of contradiction was itself +agreement, a restriction of personal liberty inconsistent with +freedom; but the "larger synthesis" admitted a limited agreement +provided it were strictly confined to the end of larger +contradiction. Thus the great end of all philosophy -- the +"larger synthesis" -- was attained, but the process was arduous, +and while Adams, as the older member, assumed to declare the +principle, Bay Lodge necessarily denied both the assumption and +the principle in order to assure its truth. + + Adams proclaimed that in the last synthesis, order and anarchy +were one, but that the unity was chaos. As anarchist, +conservative and Christian, he had no motive or duty but to +attain the end; and, to hasten it, he was bound to accelerate +progress; to concentrate energy; to accumulate power; to multiply +and intensify forces; to reduce friction, increase velocity and +magnify momentum, partly because this was the mechanical law of +the universe as science explained it; but partly also in order to +get done with the present which artists and some others +complained of; and finally -- and chiefly -- because a rigorous +philosophy required it, in order to penetrate the beyond, and +satisfy man's destiny by reaching the largest synthesis in its +ultimate contradiction. + + Of course the untaught critic instantly objected that this +scheme was neither conservative, Christian, nor anarchic, but +such objection meant only that the critic should begin his +education in any infant school in order to learn that anarchy +which should be logical would cease to be anarchic. To the +conservative Christian anarchist, the amiable doctrines of +Kropotkin were sentimental ideas of Russian mental inertia +covered with the name of anarchy merely to disguise their +innocence; and the outpourings of Elisee Reclus were ideals of +the French ouvrier, diluted with absinthe, resulting in a +bourgeois dream of order and inertia. Neither made a pretence of +anarchy except as a momentary stage towards order and unity. +Neither of them had formed any other conception of the universe +than what they had inherited from the priestly class to which +their minds obviously belonged. With them, as with the socialist, +communist, or collectivist, the mind that followed nature had no +relation; if anarchists needed order, they must go back to the +twelfth century where their thought had enjoyed its thousand +years of reign. The conservative Christian anarchist could have +no associate, no object, no faith except the nature of nature +itself; and his "larger synthesis" had only the fault of being so +supremely true that even the highest obligation of duty could +scarcely oblige Bay Lodge to deny it in order to prove it. Only +the self-evident truth that no philosophy of order -- except the +Church -- had ever satisfied the philosopher reconciled the +conservative Christian anarchist to prove his own. + + Naturally these ideas were so far in advance of the age that +hardly more people could understand them than understood Wagner +or Hegel; for that matter, since the time of Socrates, wise men +have been mostly shy of claiming to understand anything; but such +refinements were Greek or German, and affected the practical +American but little. He admitted that, for the moment, the +darkness was dense. He could not affirm with confidence, even to +himself, that his "largest synthesis" would certainly turn out to +be chaos, since he would be equally obliged to deny the chaos. +The poet groped blindly for an emotion. The play of thought for +thought's sake had mostly ceased. The throb of fifty or a hundred +million steam horse-power, doubling every ten years, and already +more despotic than all the horses that ever lived, and all the +riders they ever carried, drowned rhyme and reason. No one was to +blame, for all were equally servants of the power, and worked +merely to increase it; but the conservative Christian anarchist +saw light. + + Thus the student of Hegel prepared himself for a visit to +Russia in order to enlarge his "synthesis" -- and much he needed +it! In America all were conservative Christian anarchists; the +faith was national, racial, geographic. The true American had +never seen such supreme virtue in any of the innumerable shades +between social anarchy and social order as to mark it for +exclusively human and his own. He never had known a complete +union either in Church or State or thought, and had never seen +any need for it. The freedom gave him courage to meet any +contradiction, and intelligence enough to ignore it. Exactly the +opposite condition had marked Russian growth. The Czar's empire +was a phase of conservative Christian anarchy more interesting to +history than all the complex variety of American newspapers, +schools, trusts, sects, frauds, and Congressmen. These were +Nature -- pure and anarchic as the conservative Christian +anarchist saw Nature -- active, vibrating, mostly unconscious, +and quickly reacting on force; but, from the first glimpse one +caught from the sleeping-car window, in the early morning, of the +Polish Jew at the accidental railway station, in all his weird +horror, to the last vision of the Russian peasant, lighting his +candle and kissing his ikon before the railway Virgin in the +station at St. Petersburg, all was logical, conservative, +Christian and anarchic. Russia had nothing in common with any +ancient or modern world that history knew; she had been the +oldest source of all civilization in Europe, and had kept none +for herself; neither Europe nor Asia had ever known such a phase, +which seemed to fall into no line of evolution whatever, and was +as wonderful to the student of Gothic architecture in the twelfth +century, as to the student of the dynamo in the twentieth. +Studied in the dry light of conservative Christian anarchy, +Russia became luminous like the salt of radium; but with a +negative luminosity as though she were a substance whose energies +had been sucked out -- an inert residuum -- with movement of pure +inertia. From the car window one seemed to float past undulations +of nomad life -- herders deserted by their leaders and herds -- +wandering waves stopped in their wanderings -- waiting for their +winds or warriors to return and lead them westward; tribes that +had camped, like Khirgis, for the season, and had lost the means +of motion without acquiring the habit of permanence. They waited +and suffered. As they stood they were out of place, and could +never have been normal. Their country acted as a sink of energy +like the Caspian Sea, and its surface kept the uniformity of ice +and snow. One Russian peasant kissing an ikon on a saint's day, +in the Kremlin, served for a hundred million. The student had no +need to study Wallace, or re-read Tolstoy or Tourguenieff or +Dostoiewski to refresh his memory of the most poignant analysis +of human inertia ever put in words; Gorky was more than enough: +Kropotkin answered every purpose. + + The Russian people could never have changed -- could they ever +be changed? Could inertia of race, on such a scale, be broken up, +or take new form? Even in America, on an infinitely smaller +scale, the question was old and unanswered. All the so-called +primitive races, and some nearer survivals, had raised doubts +which persisted against the most obstinate convictions of +evolution. The Senator himself shook his head, and after +surveying Warsaw and Moscow to his content, went on to St. +Petersburg to ask questions of Mr. de Witte and Prince Khilkoff. +Their conversation added new doubts; for their efforts had been +immense, their expenditure enormous, and their results on the +people seemed to be uncertain as yet, even to themselves. Ten or +fifteen years of violent stimulus seemed resulting in nothing, +for, since 1898, Russia lagged. + + The tourist-student, having duly reflected, asked the Senator +whether he should allow three generations, or more, to swing the +Russian people into the Western movement. The Senator seemed +disposed to ask for more. The student had nothing to say. For +him, all opinion founded on fact must be error, because the facts +can never be complete, and their relations must be always +infinite. Very likely, Russia would instantly become the most +brilliant constellation of human progress through all the ordered +stages of good; but meanwhile one might give a value as movement +of inertia to the mass, and assume a slow acceleration that +would, at the end of a generation, leave the gap between east and +west relatively the same. +This result reached, the Lodges thought their moral improvement +required a visit to Berlin; but forty years of varied emotions +had not deadened Adams's memories of Berlin, and he preferred, at +any cost, to escape new ones. When the Lodges started for +Germany, Adams took steamer for Sweden and landed happily, in a +day or two, at Stockholm. + +Until the student is fairly sure that his problem is soluble, he +gains little by obstinately insisting on solving it. One might +doubt whether Mr. de Witte himself, or Prince Khilkoff, or any +Grand Duke, or the Emperor, knew much more about it than their +neighbors; and Adams was quite sure that, even in America, he +should listen with uncertain confidence to the views of any +Secretary of the Treasury, or railway president, or President of +the United States whom he had ever known, that should concern the +America of the next generation. The mere fact that any man should +dare to offer them would prove his incompetence to judge. Yet +Russia was too vast a force to be treated as an object of +unconcern. As inertia, if in no other way, she represented three- +fourths of the human race, and her movement might be the true +movement of the future, against the hasty and unsure acceleration +of America. No one could yet know what would best suit humanity, +and the tourist who carried his La Fontaine in mind, caught +himself talking as bear or as monkey according to the mirror he +held before him. "Am I satisfied? " he asked: -- + + "Moi? pourquoi non? + N'ai-je pas quatre pieds aussi bien que les autres? + Mon portrait jusqu'ici ne m'a rien reproche; + Mais pour mon frere l'ours, on ne l'a qu'ebauche; + Jamais, s'il me veut croire, il ne se fera peindre." + + Granting that his brother the bear lacked perfection in +details, his own figure as monkey was not necessarily ideal or +decorative, nor was he in the least sure what form it might take +even in one generation. He had himself never ventured to dream of +three. No man could guess what the Daimler motor and X-rays would +do to him; but so much was sure; the monkey and motor were +terribly afraid of the bear; how much,- only a man close to their +foreign departments knew. As the monkey looked back across the +Baltic from the safe battlements of Stockholm, Russia looked more +portentous than from the Kremlin. + + The image was that of the retreating ice-cap -- a wall of +archaic glacier, as fixed, as ancient, as eternal, as the wall of +archaic ice that blocked the ocean a few hundred miles to the +northward, and more likely to advance. Scandinavia had been ever +at its mercy. Europe had never changed. The imaginary line that +crossed the level continent from the Baltic to the Black Sea, +merely extended the northern barrier-line. The Hungarians and +Poles on one side still struggled against the Russian inertia of +race, and retained their own energies under the same conditions +that caused inertia across the frontier. Race ruled the +conditions; conditions hardly affected race; and yet no one could +tell the patient tourist what race was, or how it should be +known. History offered a feeble and delusive smile at the sound +of the word; evolutionists and ethnologists disputed its very +existence; no one knew what to make of it; yet, without the clue, +history was a nursery tale. + + The Germans, Scandinavians, Poles and Hungarians, energetic as +they were, had never held their own against the heterogeneous +mass of inertia called Russia, and trembled with terror whenever +Russia moved. From Stockholm one looked back on it as though it +were an ice-sheet, and so had Stockholm watched it for centuries. +In contrast with the dreary forests of Russia and the stern +streets of St. Petersburg, Stockholm seemed a southern vision, +and Sweden lured the tourist on. Through a cheerful New England +landscape and bright autumn, he rambled northwards till he found +himself at Trondhjem and discovered Norway. Education crowded +upon him in immense masses as he triangulated these vast surfaces +of history about which he had lectured and read for a life-time. +When the historian fully realizes his ignorance -- which +sometimes happens to Americans -- he becomes even more tiresome +to himself than to others, because his naivete is irrepressible. +Adams could not get over his astonishment, though he had preached +the Norse doctrine all his life against the stupid and +beer-swilling Saxon boors whom Freeman loved, and who, to the +despair of science, produced Shakespeare. Mere contact with +Norway started voyages of thought, and, under their illusions, he +took the mail steamer to the north, and on September 14, reached +Hammerfest. + + Frivolous amusement was hardly what one saw, through the +equinoctial twilight, peering at the flying tourist, down the +deep fiords, from dim patches of snow, where the last Laps and +reindeer were watching the mail-steamer thread the intricate +channels outside, as their ancestors had watched the first Norse +fishermen learn them in the succession of time; but it was not +the Laps, or the snow, or the arctic gloom, that impressed the +tourist, so much as the lights of an electro-magnetic +civilization and the stupefying contrast with Russia, which more +and more insisted on taking the first place in historical +interest. Nowhere had the new forces so vigorously corrected the +errors of the old, or so effectively redressed the balance of the +ecliptic. As one approached the end -- the spot where, seventy +years before, a futile Carlylean Teufelsdrockh had stopped to ask +futile questions of the silent infinite -- the infinite seemed to +have become loquacious, not to say familiar, chattering gossip in +one's ear. An installation of electric lighting and telephones +led tourists close up to the polar ice-cap, beyond the level of +the magnetic pole; and there the newer Teufelsdrockh sat dumb +with surprise, and glared at the permanent electric lights of +Hammerfest. + + He had good reason -- better than the Teufelsdrockh of 1830, in +his liveliest Scotch imagination, ever dreamed, or mortal man had +ever told. At best, a week in these dim Northern seas, without +means of speech, within the Arctic circle, at the equinox, lent +itself to gravity if not to gloom; but only a week before, +breakfasting in the restaurant at Stockholm, his eye had caught, +across, the neighboring table, a headline in a Swedish newspaper, +announcing an attempt on the life of President McKinley, and from +Stockholm to Trondhjem, and so up the coast to Hammerfest, day +after day the news came, telling of the President's condition, +and the doings and sayings of Hay and Roosevelt, until at last a +little journal was cried on reaching some dim haven, announcing +the President's death a few hours before. To Adams the death of +McKinley and the advent of Roosevelt were not wholly void of +personal emotion, but this was little in comparison with his +depth of wonder at hearing hourly reports from his most intimate +friends, sent to him far within the realm of night, not to please +him, but to correct the faults of the solar system. The +electro-dynamo-social universe worked better than the sun. + + No such strange chance had ever happened to a historian before, +and it upset for the moment his whole philosophy of conservative +anarchy. The acceleration was marvellous, and wholly in the lines +of unity. To recover his grasp of chaos, he must look back across +the gulf to Russia, and the gap seemed to have suddenly become an +abyss. Russia was infinitely distant. Yet the nightmare of the +glacial ice-cap still pressed down on him from the hills, in full +vision, and no one could look out on the dusky and oily sea that +lapped these spectral islands without consciousness that only a +day's steaming to the northward would bring him to the +ice-barrier, ready at any moment to advance, which obliged +tourists to stop where Laps and reindeer and Norse fishermen had +stopped so long ago that memory of their very origin was lost. +Adams had never before met a ne plus ultra, and knew not what to +make of it; but he felt at least the emotion of his Norwegian +fishermen ancestors, doubtless numbering hundreds of thousands, +jammed with their faces to the sea, the ice on the north, the +ice-cap of Russian inertia pressing from behind, and the ice a +trifling danger compared with the inertia. From the day they +first followed the retreating ice-cap round the North Cape, down +to the present moment, their problem was the same. + + The new Teufelsdrockh, though considerably older than the old +one, saw no clearer into past or future, but he was fully as much +perplexed. From the archaic ice-barrier to the Caspian Sea, a +long line of division, permanent since ice and inertia first took +possession, divided his lines of force, with no relation to +climate or geography or soil. + + The less a tourist knows, the fewer mistakes he need make, for +he will not expect himself to explain ignorance. A century ago he +carried letters and sought knowledge; to-day he knows that no one +knows; he needs too much and ignorance is learning. He wandered +south again, and came out at Kiel, Hamburg, Bremen, and Cologne. +A mere glance showed him that here was a Germany new to mankind. +Hamburg was almost as American as St. Louis. In forty years, the +green rusticity of Dusseldorf had taken on the sooty grime of +Birmingham. The Rhine in 1900 resembled the Rhine of 1858 much as +it resembled the Rhine of the Salic Franks. Cologne was a railway +centre that had completed its cathedral which bore an absent- +minded air of a cathedral of Chicago. The thirteenth century, +carefully strained-off, catalogued, and locked up, was visible to +tourists as a kind of Neanderthal, cave-dwelling, curiosity. The +Rhine was more modern than the Hudson, as might well be, since it +produced far more coal; but all this counted for little beside +the radical change in the lines of force. + + In 1858 the whole plain of northern Europe, as well as the +Danube in the south, bore evident marks of being still the +prehistoric highway between Asia and the ocean. The trade-route +followed the old routes of invasion, and Cologne was a +resting-place between Warsaw and Flanders. Throughout northern +Germany, Russia was felt even more powerfully than France. In +1901 Russia had vanished, and not even France was felt; hardly +England or America. Coal alone was felt -- its stamp alone +pervaded the Rhine district and persisted to Picardy -- and the +stamp was the same as that of Birmingham and Pittsburgh. The +Rhine produced the same power, and the power produced the same +people -- the same mind -- the same impulse. For a man +sixty-three years old who had no hope of earning a living, these +three months of education were the most arduous he ever +attempted, and Russia was the most indigestible morsel he ever +met; but the sum of it, viewed from Cologne, seemed reasonable. +From Hammerfest to Cherbourg on one shore of the ocean -- from +Halifax to Norfolk on the other -- one great empire was ruled by +one great emperor -- Coal. Political and human jealousies might +tear it apart or divide it, but the power and the empire were +one. Unity had gained that ground. Beyond lay Russia, and there +an older, perhaps a surer, power, resting on the eternal law of +inertia, held its own. + + As a personal matter, the relative value of the two powers +became more interesting every year; for the mass of Russian +inertia was moving irresistibly over China, and John Hay stood in +its path. As long as de Witte ruled, Hay was safe. Should de +Witte fall, Hay would totter. One could only sit down and watch +the doings of Mr. de Witte and Mr. de Plehve. + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +THE HEIGHT OF KNOWLEDGE (1902) + + AMERICA has always taken tragedy lightly. Too busy to stop the +activity of their twenty-million-horse-power society, Americans +ignore tragic motives that would have overshadowed the Middle +Ages; and the world learns to regard assassination as a form of +hysteria, and death as neurosis, to be treated by a rest-cure. +Three hideous political murders, that would have fattened the +Eumenides with horror, have thrown scarcely a shadow on the White +House. + + The year 1901 was a year of tragedy that seemed to Hay to +centre on himself. First came, in summer, the accidental death of +his son, Del Hay. Close on the tragedy of his son, followed that +of his chief, "all the more hideous that we were so sure of his +recovery." The world turned suddenly into a graveyard. "I have +acquired the funeral habit." "Nicolay is dying. I went to see him +yesterday, and he did not know me." Among the letters of +condolence showered upon him was one from Clarence King at +Pasadena, "heart-breaking in grace and tenderness -- the old King +manner"; and King himself "simply waiting till nature and the foe +have done their struggle." The tragedy of King impressed him +intensely: "There you have it in the face!" he said -- "the best +and brightest man of his generation, with talents immeasurably +beyond any of his contemporaries; with industry that has often +sickened me to witness it; with everything in his favor but blind +luck; hounded by disaster from his cradle, with none of the joy +of life to which he was entitled, dying at last, with nameless +suffering alone and uncared-for, in a California tavern. Ca vous +amuse, la vie?" + + The first summons that met Adams, before he had even landed on +the pier at New York, December 29, was to Clarence King's +funeral, and from the funeral service he had no gayer road to +travel than that which led to Washington, where a revolution had +occurred that must in any case have made the men of his age +instantly old, but which, besides hurrying to the front the +generation that till then he had regarded as boys, could not fail +to break the social ties that had till then held them all +together. + + Ca vous amuse, la vie? Honestly, the lessons of education were +becoming too trite. Hay himself, probably for the first time, +felt half glad that Roosevelt should want him to stay in office, +if only to save himself the trouble of quitting; but to Adams all +was pure loss. On that side, his education had been finished at +school. His friends in power were lost, and he knew life too well +to risk total wreck by trying to save them. + + As far as concerned Roosevelt, the chance was hopeless. To them +at sixty-three, Roosevelt at forty-three could not be taken +seriously in his old character, and could not be recovered in his +new one. Power when wielded by abnormal energy is the most +serious of facts, and all Roosevelt's friends know that his +restless and combative energy was more than abnormal. Roosevelt, +more than any other man living within the range of notoriety, +showed the singular primitive quality that belongs to ultimate +matter -- the quality that mediaeval theology assigned to God -- +he was pure act. With him wielding unmeasured power with +immeasurable energy, in the White House, the relation of age to +youth -- of teacher to pupil -- was altogether out of place; and +no other was possible. Even Hay's relation was a false one, while +Adams's ceased of itself. History's truths are little valuable +now; but human nature retains a few of its archaic, proverbial +laws, and the wisest courtier that ever lived -- Lucius Seneca +himself -- must have remained in some shade of doubt what +advantage he should get from the power of his friend and pupil +Nero Claudius, until, as a gentleman past sixty, he received +Nero's filial invitation to kill himself. Seneca closed the vast +circle of his knowledge by learning that a friend in power was a +friend lost -- a fact very much worth insisting upon -- while the +gray-headed moth that had fluttered through many +moth-administrations and had singed his wings more or less in +them all, though he now slept nine months out of the twelve, +acquired an instinct of self-preservation that kept him to the +north side of La Fayette Square, and, after a sufficient habitude +of Presidents and Senators, deterred him from hovering between +them. + + Those who seek education in the paths of duty are always +deceived by the illusion that power in the hands of friends is an +advantage to them. As far as Adams could teach experience, he was +bound to warn them that he had found it an invariable disaster. +Power is poison. Its effect on Presidents had been always tragic, +chiefly as an almost insane excitement at first, and a worse +reaction afterwards; but also because no mind is so well balanced +as to bear the strain of seizing unlimited force without habit or +knowledge of it; and finding it disputed with him by hungry packs +of wolves and hounds whose lives depend on snatching the carrion. +Roosevelt enjoyed a singularly direct nature and honest intent, +but he lived naturally in restless agitation that would have worn +out most tempers in a month, and his first year of Presidency +showed chronic excitement that made a friend tremble. The effect +of unlimited power on limited mind is worth noting in Presidents +because it must represent the same process in society, and the +power of self-control must have limit somewhere in face of the +control of the infinite. + + Here, education seemed to see its first and last lesson, but +this is a matter of psychology which lies far down in the depths +of history and of science; it will recur in other forms. The +personal lesson is different. Roosevelt was lost, but this seemed +no reason why Hay and Lodge should also be lost, yet the result +was mathematically certain. With Hay, it was only the steady +decline of strength, and the necessary economy of force; but with +Lodge it was law of politics. He could not help himself, for his +position as the President's friend and independent statesman at +once was false, and he must be unsure in both relations. + + To a student, the importance of Cabot Lodge was great -- much +greater than that of the usual Senator -- but it hung on his +position in Massachusetts rather than on his control of Executive +patronage; and his standing in Massachusetts was highly insecure. +Nowhere in America was society so complex or change so rapid. No +doubt the Bostonian had always been noted for a certain chronic +irritability -- a sort of Bostonitis -- which, in its primitive +Puritan forms, seemed due to knowing too much of his neighbors, +and thinking too much of himself. Many years earlier William M. +Evarts had pointed out to Adams the impossibility of uniting New +England behind a New England leader. The trait led to good ends +-- such as admiration of Abraham Lincoln and George Washington -- +but the virtue was exacting; for New England standards were +various, scarcely reconcilable with each other, and constantly +multiplying in number, until balance between them threatened to +become impossible. The old ones were quite difficult enough -- +State Street and the banks exacted one stamp; the old +Congregational clergy another; Harvard College, poor in votes, +but rich in social influence, a third; the foreign element, +especially the Irish, held aloof, and seldom consented to approve +any one; the new socialist class, rapidly growing, promised to +become more exclusive than the Irish. New power was +disintegrating society, and setting independent centres of force +to work, until money had all it could do to hold the machine +together. No one could represent it faithfully as a whole. + + Naturally, Adams's sympathies lay strongly with Lodge, but the +task of appreciation was much more difficult in his case than in +that of his chief friend and scholar, the President. As a type +for study, or a standard for education, Lodge was the more +interesting of the two. Roosevelts are born and never can be +taught; but Lodge was a creature of teaching -- Boston incarnate +-- the child of his local parentage; and while his ambition led +him to be more, the intent, though virtuous, was -- as Adams +admitted in his own case -- restless. An excellent talker, a +voracious reader, a ready wit, an accomplished orator, with a +clear mind and a powerful memory, he could never feel perfectly +at ease whatever leg he stood on, but shifted, sometimes with +painful strain of temper, from one sensitive muscle to another, +uncertain whether to pose as an uncompromising Yankee; or a pure +American; or a patriot in the still purer atmosphere of Irish, +Germans, or Jews; or a scholar and historian of Harvard College. +English to the last fibre of his thought -- saturated with +English literature, English tradition, English taste -- revolted +by every vice and by most virtues of Frenchmen and Germans, or +any other Continental standards, but at home and happy among the +vices and extravagances of Shakespeare -- standing first on the +social, then on the political foot; now worshipping, now banning; +shocked by the wanton display of immorality, but practicing the +license of political usage; sometimes bitter, often genial, +always intelligent -- Lodge had the singular merit of +interesting. The usual statesmen flocked in swarms like crows, +black and monotonous. Lodge's plumage was varied, and, like his +flight, harked back to race. He betrayed the consciousness that +he and his people had a past, if they dared but avow it, and +might have a future, if they could but divine it. + + Adams, too, was Bostonian, and the Bostonian's uncertainty of +attitude was as natural to him as to Lodge. Only Bostonians can +understand Bostonians and thoroughly sympathize with the +inconsequences of the Boston mind. His theory and practice were +also at variance. He professed in theory equal distrust of +English thought, and called it a huge rag-bag of bric-a-brac, +sometimes precious but never sure. For him, only the Greek, the +Italian or the French standards had claims to respect, and the +barbarism of Shakespeare was as flagrant as to Voltaire; but his +theory never affected his practice. He knew that his artistic +standard was the illusion of his own mind; that English disorder +approached nearer to truth, if truth existed, than French measure +or Italian line, or German logic; he read his Shakespeare as the +Evangel of conservative Christian anarchy, neither very +conservative nor very Christian, but stupendously anarchistic. He +loved the atrocities of English art and society, as he loved +Charles Dickens and Miss Austen, not because of their example, +but because of their humor. He made no scruple of defying +sequence and denying consistency -- but he was not a Senator. + + Double standards are inspiration to men of letters, but they +are apt to be fatal to politicians. Adams had no reason to care +whether his standards were popular or not, and no one else cared +more than he; but Roosevelt and Lodge were playing a game in +which they were always liable to find the shifty sands of +American opinion yield suddenly under their feet. With this game +an elderly friend had long before carried acquaintance as far as +he wished. There was nothing in it for him but the amusement of +the pugilist or acrobat. The larger study was lost in the +division of interests and the ambitions of fifth-rate men; but +foreign affairs dealt only with large units, and made personal +relation possible with Hay which could not be maintained with +Roosevelt or Lodge. As an affair of pure education the point is +worth notice from young men who are drawn into politics. The work +of domestic progress is done by masses of mechanical power -- +steam, electric, furnace, or other -- which have to be controlled +by a score or two of individuals who have shown capacity to +manage it. The work of internal government has become the task of +controlling these men, who are socially as remote as heathen +gods, alone worth knowing, but never known, and who could tell +nothing of political value if one skinned them alive. Most of +them have nothing to tell, but are forces as dumb as their +dynamos, absorbed in the development or economy of power. They +are trustees for the public, and whenever society assumes the +property, it must confer on them that title; but the power will +remain as before, whoever manages it, and will then control +society without appeal, as it controls its stokers and pit-men. +Modern politics is, at bottom, a struggle not of men but of +forces. The men become every year more and more creatures of +force, massed about central power-houses. The conflict is no +longer between the men, but between the motors that drive the +men, and the men tend to succumb to their own motive forces. + + This is a moral that man strongly objects to admit, especially +in mediaeval pursuits like politics and poetry, nor is it worth +while for a teacher to insist upon it. What he insists upon is +only that in domestic politics, every one works for an immediate +object, commonly for some private job, and invariably in a near +horizon, while in foreign affairs the outlook is far ahead, over +a field as wide as the world. There the merest scholar could see +what he was doing. For history, international relations are the +only sure standards of movement; the only foundation for a map. +For this reason, Adams had always insisted that international +relation was the only sure base for a chart of history. + + He cared little to convince any one of the correctness of his +view, but as teacher he was bound to explain it, and as friend he +found it convenient. The Secretary of State has always stood as +much alone as the historian. Required to look far ahead and round +hm, he measures forces unknown to party managers, and has found +Congress more or less hostile ever since Congress first sat. The +Secretary of State exists only to recognize the existence of a +world which Congress would rather ignore; of obligations which +Congress repudiates whenever it can; of bargains which Congress +distrusts and tries to turn to its advantage or to reject. Since +the first day the Senate existed, it has always intrigued against +the Secretary of State whenever the Secretary has been obliged to +extend his functions beyond the appointment of Consuls in +Senators' service. + + This is a matter of history which any one may approve or +dispute as he will; but as education it gave new resources to an +old scholar, for it made of Hay the best schoolmaster since 1865. +Hay had become the most imposing figure ever known in the office. +He had an influence that no other Secretary of State ever +possessed, as he had a nation behind him such as history had +never imagined. He needed to write no state papers; he wanted no +help, and he stood far above counsel or advice; but he could +instruct an attentive scholar as no other teacher in the world +could do; and Adams sought only instruction -- wanted only to +chart the international channel for fifty years to come; to +triangulate the future; to obtain his dimension, and fix the +acceleration of movement in politics since the year 1200, as he +was trying to fix it in philosophy and physics; in finance and +force. + + Hay had been so long at the head of foreign affairs that at +last the stream of events favored him. With infinite effort he +had achieved the astonishing diplomatic feat of inducing the +Senate, with only six negative votes, to permit Great Britain to +renounce, without equivalent, treaty rights which she had for +fifty years defended tooth and nail. This unprecedented triumph +in his negotiations with the Senate enabled him to carry one step +further his measures for general peace. About England the Senate +could make no further effective opposition, for England was won, +and Canada alone could give trouble. The next difficulty was with +France, and there the Senate blocked advance, but England assumed +the task, and, owing to political changes in France, effected the +object -- a combination which, as late as 1901, had been +visionary. The next, and far more difficult step, was to bring +Germany into the combine; while, at the end of the vista, most +unmanageable of all, Russia remained to be satisfied and +disarmed. This was the instinct of what might be named +McKinleyism; the system of combinations, consolidations, trusts, +realized at home, and realizable abroad. + + With the system, a student nurtured in ideas of the eighteenth +century, had nothing to do, and made not the least presence of +meddling; but nothing forbade him to study, and he noticed to his +astonishment that this capitalistic scheme of combining +governments, like railways or furnaces, was in effect precisely +the socialist scheme of Jaures and Bebel. That John Hay, of all +men, should adopt a socialist policy seemed an idea more absurd +than conservative Christian anarchy, but paradox had become the +only orthodoxy in politics as in science. When one saw the field, +one realized that Hay could not help himself, nor could Bebel. +Either Germany must destroy England and France to create the next +inevitable unification as a system of continent against continent +-- or she must pool interests. Both schemes in turn were +attributed to the Kaiser; one or the other he would have to +choose; opinion was balanced doubtfully on their merits; but, +granting both to be feasible, Hay's and McKinley's statesmanship +turned on the point of persuading the Kaiser to join what might +be called the Coal-power combination, rather than build up the +only possible alternative, a Gun-power combination by merging +Germany in Russia. Thus Bebel and Jaures, McKinley and Hay, were +partners. + + The problem was pretty -- even fascinating -- and, to an old +Civil-War private soldier in diplomacy, as rigorous as a +geometrical demonstration. As the last possible lesson in life, +it had all sorts of ultimate values. Unless education marches on +both feet -- theory and practice -- it risks going astray; and +Hay was probably the most accomplished master of both then +living. He knew not only the forces but also the men, and he had +no other thought than his policy. + + Probably this was the moment of highest knowledge that a +scholar could ever reach. He had under his eyes the whole +educational staff of the Government at a time when the Government +had just reached the heights of highest activity and influence. +Since 1860, education had done its worst, under the greatest +masters and at enormous expense to the world, to train these two +minds to catch and comprehend every spring of international +action, not to speak of personal influence; and the entire +machinery of politics in several great countries had little to do +but supply the last and best information. Education could be +carried no further. + + With its effects on Hay, Adams had nothing to do; but its +effects on himself were grotesque. Never had the proportions of +his ignorance looked so appalling. He seemed to know nothing -- +to be groping in darkness -- to be falling forever in space; and +the worst depth consisted in the assurance, incredible as it +seemed, that no one knew more. He had, at least, the mechanical +assurance of certain values to guide him -- like the relative +intensities of his Coal-powers, and relative inertia of his +Gun-powers -- but he conceived that had he known, besides the +mechanics, every relative value of persons, as well as he knew +the inmost thoughts of his own Government -- had the Czar and the +Kaiser and the Mikado turned schoolmasters, like Hay, and taught +him all they knew, he would still have known nothing. They knew +nothing themselves. Only by comparison of their ignorance could +the student measure his own. + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +THE ABYSS OF IGNORANCE (1902) + + THE years hurried past, and gave hardly time to note their +work. Three or four months, though big with change, come to an +end before the mind can catch up with it. Winter vanished; spring +burst into flower; and again Paris opened its arms, though not +for long. Mr. Cameron came over, and took the castle of +Inverlochy for three months, which he summoned his friends to +garrison. Lochaber seldom laughs, except for its children, such +as Camerons, McDonalds, Campbells and other products of the mist; +but in the summer of 1902 Scotland put on fewer airs of coquetry +than usual. Since the terrible harvest of 1879 which one had +watched sprouting on its stalks on the Shropshire hillsides, +nothing had equalled the gloom. Even when the victims fled to +Switzerland, they found the Lake of Geneva and the Rhine not much +gayer, and Carlsruhe no more restful than Paris; until at last, +in desperation, one drifted back to the Avenue of the Bois de +Boulogne, and, like the Cuckoo, dropped into the nest of a better +citizen. Diplomacy has its uses. Reynolds Hitt, transferred to +Berlin, abandoned his attic to Adams, and there, for long summers +to come, he hid in ignorance and silence. + + Life at last managed of its own accord to settle itself into a +working arrangement. After so many years of effort to find one's +drift, the drift found the seeker, and slowly swept him forward +and back, with a steady progress oceanwards. Such lessons as +summer taught, winter tested, and one had only to watch the +apparent movement of the stars in order to guess one's +declination. The process is possible only for men who have +exhausted auto-motion. Adams never knew why, knowing nothing of +Faraday, he began to mimic Faraday's trick of seeing lines of +force all about him, where he had always seen lines of will. +Perhaps the effect of knowing no mathematics is to leave the mind +to imagine figures -- images -- phantoms; one's mind is a watery +mirror at best; but, once conceived, the image became rapidly +simple, and the lines of force presented themselves as lines of +attraction. Repulsions counted only as battle of attractions. By +this path, the mind stepped into the mechanical theory of the +universe before knowing it, and entered a distinct new phase of +education. + + This was the work of the dynamo and the Virgin of Chartres. +Like his masters, since thought began, he was handicapped by the +eternal mystery of Force -- the sink of all science. For +thousands of years in history, he found that Force had been felt +as occult attraction -- love of God and lust for power in a +future life. After 1500, when this attraction began to decline, +philosophers fell back on some vis a tergo -- instinct of danger +from behind, like Darwin's survival of the fittest; and one of +the greatest minds, between Descartes and Newton -- Pascal -- saw +the master-motor of man in ennui, which was also scientific: "I +have often said that all the troubles of man come from his not +knowing how to sit still." Mere restlessness forces action. "So +passes the whole of life. We combat obstacles in order to get +repose, and, when got, the repose is insupportable; for we think +either of the troubles we have, or of those that threaten us; and +even if we felt safe on every side, ennui would of its own accord +spring up from the depths of the heart where it is rooted by +nature, and would fill the mind with its venom." + + "If goodness lead him not, yet weariness + May toss him to My breast." + + Ennui, like Natural Selection, accounted for change, but failed +to account for direction of change. For that, an attractive force +was essential; a force from outside; a shaping influence. Pascal +and all the old philosophies called this outside force God or +Gods. Caring but little for the name, and fixed only on tracing +the Force, Adams had gone straight to the Virgin at Chartres, and +asked her to show him God, face to face, as she did for St. +Bernard. She replied, kindly as ever, as though she were still +the young mother of to-day, with a sort of patient pity for +masculine dulness: "My dear outcast, what is it you seek? This is +the Church of Christ! If you seek him through me, you are +welcome, sinner or saint; but he and I are one. We are Love! We +have little or nothing to do with God's other energies which are +infinite, and concern us the less because our interest is only in +man, and the infinite is not knowable to man. Yet if you are +troubled by your ignorance, you see how I am surrounded by the +masters of the schools! Ask them!" + + The answer sounded singularly like the usual answer of British +science which had repeated since Bacon that one must not try to +know the unknowable, though one was quite powerless to ignore it; +but the Virgin carried more conviction, for her feminine lack of +interest in all perfections except her own was honester than the +formal phrase of science; since nothing was easier than to follow +her advice, and turn to Thomas Aquinas, who, unlike modern +physicists, answered at once and plainly: "To me," said St. +Thomas, "Christ and the Mother are one Force -- Love -- simple, +single, and sufficient for all human wants; but Love is a human +interest which acts even on man so partially that you and I, as +philosophers, need expect no share in it. Therefore we turn to +Christ and the Schools who represent all other Force. We deal +with Multiplicity and call it God. After the Virgin has redeemed +by her personal Force as Love all that is redeemable in man, the +Schools embrace the rest, and give it Form, Unity, and Motive." + + This chart of Force was more easily studied than any other +possible scheme, for one had but to do what the Church was always +promising to do -- abolish in one flash of lightning not only +man, but also the Church itself, the earth, the other planets, +and the sun, in order to clear the air; without affecting +mediaeval science. The student felt warranted in doing what the +Church threatened -- abolishing his solar system altogether -- in +order to look at God as actual; continuous movement, universal +cause, and interchangeable force. This was pantheism, but the +Schools were pantheist; at least as pantheistic as the Energetik +of the Germans; and their deity was the ultimate energy, whose +thought and act were one. + + Rid of man and his mind, the universe of Thomas Aquinas seemed +rather more scientific than that of Haeckel or Ernst Mach. +Contradiction for contradiction, Attraction for attraction, +Energy for energy, St. Thomas's idea of God had merits. Modern +science offered not a vestige of proof, or a theory of connection +between its forces, or any scheme of reconciliation between +thought and mechanics; while St. Thomas at least linked together +the joints of his machine. As far as a superficial student could +follow, the thirteenth century supposed mind to be a mode of +force directly derived from the intelligent prime motor, and the +cause of all form and sequence in the universe -- therefore the +only proof of unity. Without thought in the unit, there could be +no unity; without unity no orderly sequence or ordered society. +Thought alone was Form. Mind and Unity flourished or perished +together. + + This education startled even a man who had dabbled in fifty +educations all over the world; for, if he were obliged to insist +on a Universe, he seemed driven to the Church. Modern science +guaranteed no unity. The student seemed to feel himself, like all +his predecessors, caught, trapped, meshed in this eternal +drag-net of religion. + + In practice the student escapes this dilemma in two ways: the +first is that of ignoring it, as one escapes most dilemmas; the +second is that the Church rejects pantheism as worse than +atheism, and will have nothing to do with the pantheist at any +price. In wandering through the forests of ignorance, one +necessarily fell upon the famous old bear that scared children at +play; but, even had the animal shown more logic than its victim, +one had learned from Socrates to distrust, above all other traps, +the trap of logic -- the mirror of the mind. Yet the search for a +unit of force led into catacombs of thought where hundreds of +thousands of educations had found their end. Generation after +generation of painful and honest-minded scholars had been content +to stay in these labyrinths forever, pursuing ignorance in +silence, in company with the most famous teachers of all time. +Not one of them had ever found a logical highroad of escape. + + Adams cared little whether he escaped or not, but he felt clear +that he could not stop there, even to enjoy the society of +Spinoza and Thomas Aquinas. True, the Church alone had asserted +unity with any conviction, and the historian alone knew what +oceans of blood and treasure the assertion had cost; but the only +honest alternative to affirming unity was to deny it; and the +denial would require a new education. At sixty-five years old a +new education promised hardly more than the old. +Possibly the modern legislator or magistrate might no longer know +enough to treat as the Church did the man who denied unity, +unless the denial took the form of a bomb; but no teacher would +know how to explain what he thought he meant by denying unity. +Society would certainly punish the denial if ever any one learned +enough to understand it. Philosophers, as a rule, cared little +what principles society affirmed or denied, since the philosopher +commonly held that though he might sometimes be right by good +luck on some one point, no complex of individual opinions could +possibly be anything but wrong; yet, supposing society to be +ignored, the philosopher was no further forward. Nihilism had no +bottom. For thousands of years every philosopher had stood on the +shore of this sunless sea, diving for pearls and never finding +them. All had seen that, since they could not find bottom, they +must assume it. The Church claimed to have found it, but, since +1450, motives for agreeing on some new assumption of Unity, +broader and deeper than that of the Church, had doubled in force +until even the universities and schools, like the Church and +State, seemed about to be driven into an attempt to educate, +though specially forbidden to do it. + + Like most of his generation, Adams had taken the word of +science that the new unit was as good as found. It would not be +an intelligence -- probably not even a consciousness -- but it +would serve. He passed sixty years waiting for it, and at the end +of that time, on reviewing the ground, he was led to think that +the final synthesis of science and its ultimate triumph was the +kinetic theory of gases; which seemed to cover all motion in +space, and to furnish the measure of time. So far as he +understood it, the theory asserted that any portion of space is +occupied by molecules of gas, flying in right lines at velocities +varying up to a mile in a second, and colliding with each other +at intervals varying up to 17,750,000 times in a second. To this +analysis -- if one understood it right -- all matter whatever was +reducible, and the only difference of opinion in science regarded +the doubt whether a still deeper analysis would reduce the atom +of gas to pure motion. + + Thus, unless one mistook the meaning of motion, which might +well be, the scientific synthesis commonly called Unity was the +scientific analysis commonly called Multiplicity. The two things +were the same, all forms being shifting phases of motion. +Granting this ocean of colliding atoms, the last hope of +humanity, what happened if one dropped the sounder into the abyss +-- let it go -- frankly gave up Unity altogether? What was Unity? +Why was one to be forced to affirm it? + + Here everybody flatly refused help. Science seemed content with +its old phrase of "larger synthesis," which was well enough for +science, but meant chaos for man. One would have been glad to +stop and ask no more, but the anarchist bomb bade one go on, and +the bomb is a powerful persuader. One could not stop, even to +enjoy the charms of a perfect gas colliding seventeen million +times in a second, much like an automobile in Paris. Science +itself had been crowded so close to the edge of the abyss that +its attempts to escape were as metaphysical as the leap, while an +ignorant old man felt no motive for trying to escape, seeing that +the only escape possible lay in the form of vis a tergo commonly +called Death. He got out his Descartes again; dipped into his +Hume and Berkeley; wrestled anew with his Kant; pondered solemnly +over his Hegel and Schopenhauer and Hartmann; strayed gaily away +with his Greeks -- all merely to ask what Unity meant, and what +happened when one denied it. + + Apparently one never denied it. Every philosopher, whether sane +or insane, naturally affirmed it. The utmost flight of anarchy +seemed to have stopped with the assertion of two principles, and +even these fitted into each other, like good and evil, light and +darkness. Pessimism itself, black as it might be painted, had +been content to turn the universe of contradictions into the +human thought as one Will, and treat it as representation. +Metaphysics insisted on treating the universe as one thought or +treating thought as one universe; and philosophers agreed, like a +kinetic gas, that the universe could be known only as motion of +mind, and therefore as unity. One could know it only as one's +self; it was psychology. + + Of all forms of pessimism, the metaphysical form was, for a +historian, the least enticing. Of all studies, the one he would +rather have avoided was that of his own mind. He knew no tragedy +so heartrending as introspection, and the more, because -- as +Mephistopheles said of Marguerite -- he was not the first. Nearly +all the highest intelligence known to history had drowned itself +in the reflection of its own thought, and the bovine survivors +had rudely told the truth about it, without affecting the +intelligent. One's own time had not been exempt. Even since 1870 +friends by scores had fallen victims to it. Within +five-and-twenty years, a new library had grown out of it. Harvard +College was a focus of the study; France supported hospitals for +it; England published magazines of it. Nothing was easier than to +take one's mind in one's hand, and ask one's psychological +friends what they made of it, and the more because it mattered so +little to either party, since their minds, whatever they were, +had pretty nearly ceased to reflect, and let them do what they +liked with the small remnant, they could scarcely do anything +very new with it. All one asked was to learn what they hoped to +do. + + Unfortunately the pursuit of ignorance in silence had, by this +time, led the weary pilgrim into such mountains of ignorance that +he could no longer see any path whatever, and could not even +understand a signpost. He failed to fathom the depths of the new +psychology, which proved to him that, on that side as on the +mathematical side, his power of thought was atrophied, if, +indeed, it ever existed. Since he could not fathom the science, +he could only ask the simplest of questions: Did the new +psychology hold that the IvXn -- soul or mind -- was or was not a +unit? He gathered from the books that the psychologists had, in a +few cases, distinguished several personalities in the same mind, +each conscious and constant, individual and exclusive. The fact +seemed scarcely surprising, since it had been a habit of mind +from earliest recorded time, and equally familiar to the last +acquaintance who had taken a drug or caught a fever, or eaten a +Welsh rarebit before bed; for surely no one could follow the +action of a vivid dream, and still need to be told that the +actors evoked by his mind were not himself, but quite unknown to +all he had ever recognized as self. The new psychology went +further, and seemed convinced that it had actually split +personality not only into dualism, but also into complex groups, +like telephonic centres and systems, that might be isolated and +called up at will, and whose physical action might be occult in +the sense of strangeness to any known form of force. Dualism +seemed to have become as common as binary stars. Alternating +personalities turned up constantly, even among one's friends. The +facts seemed certain, or at least as certain as other facts; all +they needed was explanation. + + This was not the business of the searcher of ignorance, who +felt himself in no way responsible for causes. To his mind, the +compound IvXn took at once the form of a bicycle-rider, +mechanically balancing himself by inhibiting all his inferior +personalities, and sure to fall into the sub-conscious chaos +below, if one of his inferior personalities got on top. The only +absolute truth was the sub-conscious chaos below. which every one +could feel when he sought it. + + Whether the psychologists admitted it or not, mattered little +to the student who, by the law of his profession, was engaged in +studying his own mind. On him, the effect was surprising. He woke +up with a shudder as though he had himself fallen off his +bicycle. If his mind were really this sort of magnet, +mechanically dispersing its lines of force when it went to sleep, +and mechanically orienting them when it woke up -- which was +normal, the dispersion or orientation? The mind, like the body, +kept its unity unless it happened to lose balance, but the +professor of physics, who slipped on a pavement and hurt himself, +knew no more than an idiot what knocked him down, though he did +know -- what the idiot could hardly do -- that his normal +condition was idiocy, or want of balance, and that his sanity was +unstable artifice. His normal thought was dispersion, sleep, +dream, inconsequence; the simultaneous action of different +thought-centres without central control. His artificial balance +was acquired habit. He was an acrobat, with a dwarf on his back, +crossing a chasm on a slack-rope, and commonly breaking his neck. + + By that path of newest science, one saw no unity ahead -- +nothing but a dissolving mind -- and the historian felt himself +driven back on thought as one continuous Force, without Race, +Sex, School, Country, or Church. This has been always the fate of +rigorous thinkers, and has always succeeded in making them +famous, as it did Gibbon, Buckle, and Auguste Comte. Their method +made what progress the science of history knew, which was little +enough, but they did at last fix the law that, if history ever +meant to correct the errors she made in detail, she must agree on +a scale for the whole. Every local historian might defy this law +till history ended, but its necessity would be the same for man +as for space or time or force, and without it the historian would +always remain a child in science. + + Any schoolboy could see that man as a force must be measured by +motion, from a fixed point. Psychology helped here by suggesting +a unit -- the point of history when man held the highest idea of +himself as a unit in a unified universe. Eight or ten years of +study had led Adams to think he might use the century 1150-1250, +expressed in Amiens Cathedral and the Works of Thomas Aquinas, as +the unit from which he might measure motion down to his own time, +without assuming anything as true or untrue, except relation. The +movement might be studied at once in philosophy and mechanics. +Setting himself to the task, he began a volume which he mentally +knew as "Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres: a Study of +Thirteenth-Century Unity." From that point he proposed to fix a +position for himself, which he could label: "The Education of +Henry Adams: a Study of Twentieth-Century Multiplicity." With the +help of these two points of relation, he hoped to project his +lines forward and backward indefinitely, subject to correction +from any one who should know better. Thereupon, he sailed for +home. + + +CHAPTER XXX + +VIS INERTIAE (1903) + + WASHINGTON was always amusing, but in 1900, as in 1800, its +chief interest lay in its distance from New York. The movement of +New York had become planetary -- beyond control -- while the task +of Washington, in 1900 as in 1800, was to control it. The success +of Washington in the past century promised ill for its success in +the next. + + To a student who had passed the best years of his life in +pondering over the political philosophy of Jefferson, Gallatin, +and Madison, the problem that Roosevelt took in hand seemed alive +with historical interest, but it would need at least another +half-century to show its results. As yet, one could not measure +the forces or their arrangement; the forces had not even aligned +themselves except in foreign affairs; and there one turned to +seek the channel of wisdom as naturally as though Washington did +not exist. The President could do nothing effectual in foreign +affairs, but at least he could see something of the field. + + Hay had reached the summit of his career, and saw himself on +the edge of wreck. Committed to the task of keeping China "open," +he saw China about to be shut. Almost alone in the world, he +represented the "open door," and could not escape being crushed +by it. Yet luck had been with him in full tide. Though Sir Julian +Pauncefote had died in May, 1902, after carrying out tasks that +filled an ex-private secretary of 1861 with open-mouthed +astonishment, Hay had been helped by the appointment of Michael +Herbert as his successor, who counted for double the value of an +ordinary diplomat. To reduce friction is the chief use of +friendship, and in politics the loss by friction is outrageous. +To Herbert and his wife, the small knot of houses that seemed to +give a vague unity to foreign affairs opened their doors and +their hearts, for the Herberts were already at home there; and +this personal sympathy prolonged Hay's life, for it not only +eased the effort of endurance, but it also led directly to a +revolution in Germany. Down to that moment, the Kaiser, rightly +or wrongly, had counted as the ally of the Czar in all matters +relating to the East. Holleben and Cassini were taken to be a +single force in Eastern affairs, and this supposed alliance gave +Hay no little anxiety and some trouble. Suddenly Holleben, who +seemed to have had no thought but to obey with almost agonized +anxiety the least hint of the Kaiser's will, received a telegram +ordering him to pretext illness and come home, which he obeyed +within four-and-twenty hours. The ways of the German Foreign +Office had been always abrupt, not to say ruthless, towards its +agents, and yet commonly some discontent had been shown as +excuse; but, in this case, no cause was guessed for Holleben's +disgrace except the Kaiser's wish to have a personal +representative at Washington. Breaking down all precedent, he +sent Speck von Sternburg to counterbalance Herbert. + + Welcome as Speck was in the same social intimacy, and valuable +as his presence was to Hay, the personal gain was trifling +compared with the political. Of Hay's official tasks, one knew no +more than any newspaper reporter did, but of one's own diplomatic +education the successive steps had become strides. The scholar +was studying, not on Hay's account, but on his own. He had seen +Hay, in 1898, bring England into his combine; he had seen the +steady movement which was to bring France back into an Atlantic +system; and now he saw suddenly the dramatic swing of Germany +towards the west -- the movement of all others nearest +mathematical certainty. Whether the Kaiser meant it or not, he +gave the effect of meaning to assert his independence of Russia, +and to Hay this change of front had enormous value. The least was +that it seemed to isolate Cassini, and unmask the Russian +movement which became more threatening every month as the +Manchurian scheme had to be revealed. + + Of course the student saw whole continents of study opened to +him by the Kaiser's coup d'etat. Carefully as he had tried to +follow the Kaiser's career, he had never suspected such +refinement of policy, which raised his opinion of the Kaiser's +ability to the highest point, and altogether upset the centre of +statesmanship. That Germany could be so quickly detached from +separate objects and brought into an Atlantic system seemed a +paradox more paradoxical than any that one's education had yet +offered, though it had offered little but paradox. If Germany +could be held there, a century of friction would be saved. No +price would be too great for such an object; although no price +could probably be wrung out of Congress as equivalent for it. The +Kaiser, by one personal act of energy, freed Hay's hands so +completely that he saw his problems simplified to Russia alone. + + Naturally Russia was a problem ten times as difficult. The +history of Europe for two hundred years had accomplished little +but to state one or two sides of the Russian problem. One's year +of Berlin in youth, though it taught no Civil Law, had opened +one's eyes to the Russian enigma, and both German and French +historians had labored over its proportions with a sort of +fascinated horror. Germany, of all countries, was most vitally +concerned in it; but even a cave-dweller in La Fayette Square, +seeking only a measure of motion since the Crusades, saw before +his eyes, in the spring of 1903, a survey of future order or +anarchy that would exhaust the power of his telescopes and defy +the accuracy of his theodolites. + + The drama had become passionately interesting and grew every +day more Byzantine; for the Russian Government itself showed +clear signs of dislocation, and the orders of Lamsdorf and de +Witte were reversed when applied in Manchuria. Historians and +students should have no sympathies or antipathies, but Adams had +private reasons for wishing well to the Czar and his people. At +much length, in several labored chapters of history, he had told +how the personal friendliness of the Czar Alexander I, in 1810, +saved the fortunes of J. Q. Adams. and opened to him the +brilliant diplomatic career that ended in the White House. Even +in his own effaced existence he had reasons, not altogether +trivial, for gratitude to the Czar Alexander II, whose firm +neutrality had saved him some terribly anxious days and nights in +1862; while he had seen enough of Russia to sympathize warmly +with Prince Khilkoff's railways and de Witte's industries. The +last and highest triumph of history would, to his mind, be the +bringing of Russia into the Atlantic combine, and the just and +fair allotment of the whole world among the regulated activities +of the universe. At the rate of unification since 1840, this end +should be possible within another sixty years; and, in foresight +of that point, Adams could already finish -- provisionally -- his +chart of international unity; but, for the moment, the gravest +doubts and ignorance covered the whole field. No one -- Czar or +diplomat, Kaiser or Mikado -- seemed to know anything. Through +individual Russians one could always see with ease, for their +diplomacy never suggested depth; and perhaps Hay protected +Cassini for the very reason that Cassini could not disguise an +emotion, and never failed to betray that, in setting the enormous +bulk of Russian inertia to roll over China, he regretted +infinitely that he should have to roll it over Hay too. He would +almost rather have rolled it over de Witte and Lamsdorf. His +political philosophy, like that of all Russians, seemed fixed in +the single idea that Russia must fatally roll -- must, by her +irresistible inertia, crush whatever stood in her way. + + For Hay and his pooling policy, inherited from McKinley, the +fatalism of Russian inertia meant the failure of American +intensity. When Russia rolled over a neighboring people, she +absorbed their energies in her own movement of custom and race +which neither Czar nor peasant could convert, or wished to +convert, into any Western equivalent. In 1903 Hay saw Russia +knocking away the last blocks that held back the launch of this +huge mass into the China Sea. The vast force of inertia known as +China was to be united with the huge bulk of Russia in a single +mass which no amount of new force could henceforward deflect. Had +the Russian Government, with the sharpest sense of enlightenment, +employed scores of de Wittes and Khilkoffs, and borrowed all the +resources of Europe, it could not have lifted such a weight; and +had no idea of trying. + + These were the positions charted on the map of political unity +by an insect in Washington in the spring of 1903; and they seemed +to him fixed. Russia held Europe and America in her grasp, and +Cassini held Hay in his. The Siberian Railway offered checkmate +to all possible opposition. Japan must make the best terms she +could; England must go on receding; America and Germany would +look on at the avalanche. The wall of Russian inertia that barred +Europe across the Baltic, would bar America across the Pacific; +and Hay's policy of the open door would infallibly fail. + + Thus the game seemed lost, in spite of the Kaiser's brilliant +stroke, and the movement of Russia eastward must drag Germany +after it by its mere mass. To the humble student, the loss of +Hay's game affected only Hay; for himself, the game -- not the +stakes -- was the chief interest; and though want of habit made +him object to read his newspapers blackened -- since he liked to +blacken them himself -- he was in any case condemned to pass but +a short space of time either in Siberia or in Paris, and could +balance his endless columns of calculation equally in either +place. The figures, not the facts, concerned his chart, and he +mused deeply over his next equation. The Atlantic would have to +deal with a vast continental mass of inert motion, like a +glacier, which moved, and consciously moved, by mechanical +gravitation alone. Russia saw herself so, and so must an American +see her; he had no more to do than measure, if he could, the +mass. Was volume or intensity the stronger? What and where was +the vis nova that could hold its own before this prodigious +ice-cap of vis inertiae? What was movement of inertia, and what +its laws? + + Naturally a student knew nothing about mechanical laws, but he +took for granted that he could learn, and went to his books to +ask. He found that the force of inertia had troubled wiser men +than he. The dictionary said that inertia was a property of +matter, by which matter tends, when at rest, to remain so, and, +when in motion, to move on in a straight line. Finding that his +mind refused to imagine itself at rest or in a straight line, he +was forced, as usual, to let it imagine something else; and since +the question concerned the mind, and not matter, he decided from +personal experience that his mind was never at rest, but moved -- +when normal -- about something it called a motive, and never +moved without motives to move it. So long as these motives were +habitual, and their attraction regular, the consequent result +might, for convenience, be called movement of inertia, to +distinguish it from movement caused by newer or higher +attraction; but the greater the bulk to move, the greater must be +the force to accelerate or deflect it. + + This seemed simple as running water; but simplicity is the most +deceitful mistress that ever betrayed man. For years the student +and the professor had gone on complaining that minds were +unequally inert. The inequalities amounted to contrasts. One +class of minds responded only to habit; another only to novelty. +Race classified thought. Class-lists classified mind. No two men +thought alike, and no woman thought like a man. + + Race-inertia seemed to be fairly constant, and made the chief +trouble in the Russian future. History looked doubtful when asked +whether race-inertia had ever been overcome without destroying +the race in order to reconstruct it; but surely sex-inertia had +never been overcome at all. Of all movements of inertia, +maternity and reproduction are the most typical, and women's +property of moving in a constant line forever is ultimate, +uniting history in its only unbroken and unbreakable sequence. +Whatever else stops, the woman must go on reproducing, as she did +in the Siluria of Pteraspis; sex is a vital condition, and race +only a local one. If the laws of inertia are to be sought +anywhere with certainty, it is in the feminine mind. The American +always ostentatiously ignored sex, and American history mentioned +hardly the name of a woman, while English history handled them as +timidly as though they were a new and undescribed species; but if +the problem of inertia summed up the difficulties of the race +question, it involved that of sex far more deeply, and to +Americans vitally. The task of accelerating or deflecting the +movement of the American woman had interest infinitely greater +than that of any race whatever, Russian or Chinese, Asiatic or +African. + + On this subject, as on the Senate and the banks, Adams was +conscious of having been born an eighteenth-century remainder. As +he grew older, he found that Early Institutions lost their +interest, but that Early Women became a passion. Without +understanding movement of sex, history seemed to him mere +pedantry. So insistent had he become on this side of his subject +that with women he talked of little else, and -- because women's +thought is mostly subconscious and particularly sensitive to +suggestion -- he tried tricks and devices to disclose it. The +woman seldom knows her own thought; she is as curious to +understand herself as the man to understand her, and responds far +more quickly than the man to a sudden idea. Sometimes, at dinner, +one might wait till talk flagged, and then, as mildly as +possible, ask one's liveliest neighbor whether she could explain +why the American woman was a failure. Without an instant's +hesitation, she was sure to answer: "Because the American man is +a failure!" She meant it. + + Adams owed more to the American woman than to all the American +men he ever heard of, and felt not the smallest call to defend +his sex who seemed able to take care of themselves; but from the +point of view of sex he felt much curiosity to know how far the +woman was right, and, in pursuing this inquiry, he caught the +trick of affirming that the woman was the superior. Apart from +truth, he owed her at least that compliment. The habit led +sometimes to perilous personalities in the sudden give-and-take +of table-talk. This spring, just before sailing for Europe in +May, 1903, he had a message from his sister-in-law, Mrs. Brooks +Adams, to say that she and her sister. Mrs. Lodge, and the +Senator were coming to dinner by way of farewell; Bay Lodge and +his lovely young wife sent word to the same effect; Mrs. +Roosevelt joined the party; and Michael Herbert shyly slipped +down to escape the solitude of his wife's absence. The party were +too intimate for reserve, and they soon fell on Adams's hobby +with derision which stung him to pungent rejoinder: "The American +man is a failure! You are all failures!" he said. "Has not my +sister here more sense than my brother Brooks? Is not Bessie +worth two of Bay? Wouldn't we all elect Mrs. Lodge Senator +against Cabot? Would the President have a ghost of a chance if +Mrs. Roosevelt ran against him? Do you want to stop at the +Embassy, on your way home, and ask which would run it best -- +Herbert or his wife?" The men laughed a little -- not much! Each +probably made allowance for his own wife as an unusually superior +woman. Some one afterwards remarked that these half-dozen women +were not a fair average. Adams replied that the half-dozen men +were above all possible average; he could not lay his hands on +another half-dozen their equals. + + Gay or serious, the question never failed to stir feeling. The +cleverer the woman, the less she denied the failure. She was +bitter at heart about it. She had failed even to hold the family +together, and her children ran away like chickens with their +first feathers; the family was extinct like chivalry. She had +failed not only to create a new society that satisfied her, but +even to hold her own in the old society of Church or State; and +was left, for the most part, with no place but the theatre or +streets to decorate. She might glitter with historical diamonds +and sparkle with wit as brilliant as the gems, in rooms as +splendid as any in Rome at its best; but she saw no one except +her own sex who knew enough to be worth dazzling, or was +competent to pay her intelligent homage. She might have her own +way, without restraint or limit, but she knew not what to do with +herself when free. Never had the world known a more capable or +devoted mother, but at forty her task was over, and she was left +with no stage except that of her old duties, or of Washington +society where she had enjoyed for a hundred years every +advantage, but had created only a medley where nine men out of +ten refused her request to be civilized, and the tenth bored her. + + On most subjects, one's opinions must defer to science, but on +this, the opinion of a Senator or a Professor, a chairman of a +State Central Committee or a Railway President, is worth less +than that of any woman on Fifth Avenue. The inferiority of man on +this, the most important of all social subjects, is manifest. +Adams had here no occasion to deprecate scientific opinion, since +no woman in the world would have paid the smallest respect to the +opinions of all professors since the serpent. His own object had +little to do with theirs. He was studying the laws of motion, and +had struck two large questions of vital importance to America -- +inertia of race and inertia of sex. He had seen Mr. de Witte and +Prince Khilkoff turn artificial energy to the value of three +thousand million dollars, more or less, upon Russian inertia, in +the last twenty years, and he needed to get some idea of the +effects. He had seen artificial energy to the amount of twenty or +five-and-twenty million steam horse-power created in America +since 1840, and as much more economized, which had been socially +turned over to the American woman, she being the chief object of +social expenditure, and the household the only considerable +object of American extravagance. According to scientific notions +of inertia and force, what ought to be the result? + + In Russia, because of race and bulk, no result had yet shown +itself, but in America the results were evident and undisputed. +The woman had been set free -- volatilized like Clerk Maxwell's +perfect gas; almost brought to the point of explosion, like +steam. One had but to pass a week in Florida, or on any of a +hundred huge ocean steamers, or walk through the Place Vendome, +or join a party of Cook's tourists to Jerusalem, to see that the +woman had been set free; but these swarms were ephemeral like +clouds of butterflies in season, blown away and lost, while the +reproductive sources lay hidden. At Washington, one saw other +swarms as grave gatherings of Dames or Daughters, taking +themselves seriously, or brides fluttering fresh pinions; but all +these shifting visions, unknown before 1840, touched the true +problem slightly and superficially. Behind them, in every city, +town, and farmhouse, were myriads of new types -- or type-writers +-- telephone and telegraph-girls, shop-clerks, factory-hands, +running into millions of millions, and, as classes, unknown to +themselves as to historians. Even the schoolmistresses were +inarticulate. All these new women had been created since 1840; +all were to show their meaning before 1940. + + Whatever they were, they were not content, as the ephemera +proved; and they were hungry for illusions as ever in the fourth +century of the Church; but this was probably survival, and gave +no hint of the future. The problem remained -- to find out +whether movement of inertia, inherent in function, could take +direction except in lines of inertia. This problem needed to be +solved in one generation of American women, and was the most +vital of all problems of force. + + The American woman at her best -- like most other women -- +exerted great charm on the man, but not the charm of a primitive +type. She appeared as the result of a long series of discards, +and her chief interest lay in what she had discarded. When +closely watched, she seemed making a violent effort to follow the +man, who had turned his mind and hand to mechanics. The typical +American man had his hand on a lever and his eye on a curve in +his road; his living depended on keeping up an average speed of +forty miles an hour, tending always to become sixty, eighty, or a +hundred, and he could not admit emotions or anxieties or +subconscious distractions, more than he could admit whiskey or +drugs, without breaking his neck. He could not run his machine +and a woman too; he must leave her; even though his wife, to find +her own way, and all the world saw her trying to find her way by +imitating him. + + The result was often tragic, but that was no new thing in +feminine history. Tragedy had been woman's lot since Eve. Her +problem had been always one of physical strength and it was as +physical perfection of force that her Venus had governed nature. +The woman's force had counted as inertia of rotation, and her +axis of rotation had been the cradle and the family. The idea +that she was weak revolted all history; it was a palaeontological +falsehood that even an Eocene female monkey would have laughed +at; but it was surely true that, if her force were to be diverted +from its axis, it must find a new field, and the family must pay +for it. So far as she succeeded, she must become sexless like the +bees, and must leave the old energy of inertia to carry on the +race. + + The story was not new. For thousands of years women had +rebelled. They had made a fortress of religion -- had buried +themselves in the cloister, in self-sacrifice, in good works -- +or even in bad. One's studies in the twelfth century, like one's +studies in the fourth, as in Homeric and archaic time, showed her +always busy in the illusions of heaven or of hell -- ambition, +intrigue, jealousy, magic -- but the American woman had no +illusions or ambitions or new resources, and nothing to rebel +against, except her own maternity; yet the rebels increased by +millions from year to year till they blocked the path of +rebellion. Even her field of good works was narrower than in the +twelfth century. Socialism, communism, collectivism, +philosophical anarchism, which promised paradise on earth for +every male, cut off the few avenues of escape which capitalism +had opened to the woman, and she saw before her only the future +reserved for machine-made, collectivist females. + + From the male, she could look for no help; his instinct of +power was blind. The Church had known more about women than +science will ever know, and the historian who studied the sources +of Christianity felt sometimes convinced that the Church had been +made by the woman chiefly as her protest against man. At times, +the historian would have been almost willing to maintain that the +man had overthrown the Church chiefly because it was feminine. +After the overthrow of the Church, the woman had no refuge except +such as the man created for himself. She was free; she had no +illusions; she was sexless; she had discarded all that the male +disliked; and although she secretly regretted the discard, she +knew that she could not go backward. She must, like the man, +marry machinery. Already the American man sometimes felt surprise +at finding himself regarded as sexless; the American woman was +oftener surprised at finding herself regarded as sexual. + + No honest historian can take part with -- or against -- the +forces he has to study. To him even the extinction of the human +race should be merely a fact to be grouped with other vital +statistics. No doubt every one in society discussed the subject, +impelled by President Roosevelt if by nothing else, and the +surface current of social opinion seemed set as strongly in one +direction as the silent undercurrent of social action ran in the +other; but the truth lay somewhere unconscious in the woman's +breast. An elderly man, trying only to learn the law of social +inertia and the limits of social divergence could not compel the +Superintendent of the Census to ask every young woman whether she +wanted children, and how many; he could not even require of an +octogenarian Senate the passage of a law obliging every woman, +married or not, to bear one baby -- at the expense of the +Treasury -- before she was thirty years old, under penalty of +solitary confinement for life; yet these were vital statistics in +more senses than all that bore the name, and tended more directly +to the foundation of a serious society in the future. He could +draw no conclusions whatever except from the birth-rate. He could +not frankly discuss the matter with the young women themselves, +although they would have gladly discussed it, because Faust was +helpless in the tragedy of woman. He could suggest nothing. The +Marguerite of the future could alone decide whether she were +better off than the Marguerite of the past; whether she would +rather be victim to a man, a church, or a machine. + + Between these various forms of inevitable inertia -- sex and +race -- the student of multiplicity felt inclined to admit that +-- ignorance against ignorance -- the Russian problem seemed to +him somewhat easier of treatment than the American. Inertia of +race and bulk would require an immense force to overcome it, but +in time it might perhaps be partially overcome. Inertia of sex +could not be overcome without extinguishing the race, yet an +immense force, doubling every few years, was working irresistibly +to overcome it. One gazed mute before this ocean of darkest +ignorance that had already engulfed society. Few centres of great +energy lived in illusion more complete or archaic than Washington +with its simple-minded standards of the field and farm, its +Southern and Western habits of life and manners, its assumptions +of ethics and history; but even in Washington, society was uneasy +enough to need no further fretting. One was almost glad to act +the part of horseshoe crab in Quincy Bay, and admit that all was +uniform -- that nothing ever changed -- and that the woman would +swim about the ocean of future time, as she had swum in the past, +with the gar-fish and the shark, unable to change. + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +THE GRAMMAR OF SCIENCE (1903) + + OF all the travels made by man since the voyages of Dante, this +new exploration along the shores of Multiplicity and Complexity +promised to be the longest, though as yet it had barely touched +two familiar regions -- race and sex. Even within these narrow +seas the navigator lost his bearings and followed the winds as +they blew. By chance it happened that Raphael Pumpelly helped the +winds; for, being in Washington on his way to Central Asia he +fell to talking with Adams about these matters, and said that +Willard Gibbs thought he got most help from a book called the +"Grammar of Science," by Karl Pearson. To Adams's vision, Willard +Gibbs stood on the same plane with the three or four greatest +minds of his century, and the idea that a man so incomparably +superior should find help anywhere filled him with wonder. He +sent for the volume and read it. From the time he sailed for +Europe and reached his den on the Avenue du Bois until he took +his return steamer at Cherbourg on December 26, he did little but +try to kind out what Karl Pearson could have taught Willard +Gibbs. + + Here came in, more than ever, the fatal handicap of ignorance +in mathematics. Not so much the actual tool was needed, as the +right to judge the product of the tool. Ignorant as one was of +the finer values of French or German, and often deceived by the +intricacies of thought hidden in the muddiness of the medium, one +could sometimes catch a tendency to intelligible meaning even in +Kant or Hegel; but one had not the right to a suspicion of error +where the tool of thought was algebra. Adams could see in such +parts of the "Grammar" as he could understand, little more than +an enlargement of Stallo's book already twenty years old. He +never found out what it could have taught a master like Willard +Gibbs. Yet the book had a historical value out of all proportion +to its science. No such stride had any Englishman before taken in +the lines of English thought. The progress of science was +measured by the success of the "Grammar," when, for twenty years +past, Stallo had been deliberately ignored under the usual +conspiracy of silence inevitable to all thought which demands new +thought-machinery. Science needs time to reconstruct its +instruments, to follow a revolution in space; a certain lag is +inevitable; the most active mind cannot instantly swerve from its +path; but such revolutions are portentous, and the fall or rise +of half-a-dozen empires interested a student of history less than +the rise of the "Grammar of Science," the more pressingly +because, under the silent influence of Langley, he was prepared +to expect it. + + For a number of years Langley had published in his Smithsonian +Reports the revolutionary papers that foretold the overthrow of +nineteenth-century dogma, and among the first was the famous +address of Sir William Crookes on psychical research, followed by +a series of papers on Roentgen and Curie, which had steadily +driven the scientific lawgivers of Unity into the open; but Karl +Pearson was the first to pen them up for slaughter in the +schools. The phrase is not stronger than that with which the +"Grammar of Science" challenged the fight: "Anything more +hopelessly illogical than the statements with regard to Force and +Matter current in elementary textbooks of science, it is +difficult to imagine," opened Mr. Pearson, and the responsible +author of the "elementary textbook," as he went on to explain, +was Lord Kelvin himself. Pearson shut out of science everything +which the nineteenth century had brought into it. He told his +scholars that they must put up with a fraction of the universe, +and a very small fraction at that -- the circle reached by the +senses, where sequence could be taken for granted -- much as the +deep-sea fish takes for granted the circle of light which he +generates. "Order and reason, beauty and benevolence, are +characteristics and conceptions which we find solely associated +with the mind of man." The assertion, as a broad truth, left +one's mind in some doubt of its bearing, for order and beauty +seemed to be associated also in the mind of a crystal, if one's +senses were to be admitted as judge; but the historian had no +interest in the universal truth of Pearson's or Kelvin's or +Newton's laws; he sought only their relative drift or direction, +and Pearson went on to say that these conceptions must stop: +"Into the chaos beyond sense-impressions we cannot scientifically +project them." We cannot even infer them: "In the chaos behind +sensations, in the 'beyond' of sense-impressions, we cannot infer +necessity, order or routine, for these are concepts formed by the +mind of man on this side of sense-impressions"; but we must infer +chaos: "Briefly chaos is all that science can logically assert of +the supersensuous." The kinetic theory of gas is an assertion of +ultimate chaos. In plain words, Chaos was the law of nature; +Order was the dream of man. + + No one means all he says, and yet very few say all they mean, +for words are slippery and thought is viscous; but since Bacon +and Newton, English thought had gone on impatiently protesting +that no one must try to know the unknowable at the same time that +every one went on thinking about it. The result was as chaotic as +kinetic gas; but with the thought a historian had nothing to do. +He sought only its direction. For himself he knew, that, in spite +of all the Englishmen that ever lived, he would be forced to +enter supersensual chaos if he meant to find out what became of +British science -- or indeed of any other science. From +Pythagoras to Herbert Spencer, every one had done it, although +commonly science had explored an ocean which it preferred to +regard as Unity or a Universe, and called Order. Even Hegel, who +taught that every notion included its own negation, used the +negation only to reach a "larger synthesis," till he reached the +universal which thinks itself, contradiction and all. The Church +alone had constantly protested that anarchy was not order, that +Satan was not God, that pantheism was worse than atheism, and +that Unity could not be proved as a contradiction. Karl Pearson +seemed to agree with the Church, but every one else, including +Newton, Darwin and Clerk Maxwell, had sailed gaily into the +supersensual, calling it: -- + + "One God, one Law, one Element, + And one far-off, divine event, + To which the whole creation moves." + + Suddenly, in 1900, science raised its head and denied. + + Yet, perhaps, after all, the change had not been so sudden as +it seemed. Real and actual, it certainly was, and every newspaper +betrayed it, but sequence could scarcely be denied by one who had +watched its steady approach, thinking the change far more +interesting to history than the thought. When he reflected about +it, he recalled that the flow of tide had shown itself at least +twenty years before; that it had become marked as early as 1893; +and that the man of science must have been sleepy indeed who did +not jump from his chair like a scared dog when, in 1898, Mme. +Curie threw on his desk the metaphysical bomb she called radium. +There remained no hole to hide in. Even metaphysics swept back +over science with the green water of the deep-sea ocean and no +one could longer hope to bar out the unknowable, for the +unknowable was known. + + The fact was admitted that the uniformitarians of one's youth +had wound about their universe a tangle of contradictions meant +only for temporary support to be merged in "larger synthesis," +and had waited for the larger synthesis in silence and in vain. +They had refused to hear Stallo. They had betrayed little +interest in Crookes. At last their universe had been wrecked by +rays, and Karl Pearson undertook to cut the wreck loose with an +axe, leaving science adrift on a sensual raft in the midst of a +supersensual chaos. The confusion seemed, to a mere passenger, +worse than that of 1600 when the astronomers upset the world; it +resembled rather the convulsion of 310 when the Civitas Dei cut +itself loose from the Civitas Romae, and the Cross took the place +of the legions; but the historian accepted it all alike; he knew +that his opinion was worthless; only, in this case, he found +himself on the raft, personally and economically concerned in its +drift. + + English thought had always been chaos and multiplicity itself, +in which the new step of Karl Pearson marked only a consistent +progress; but German thought had affected system, unity, and +abstract truth, to a point that fretted the most patient +foreigner, and to Germany the voyager in strange seas of thought +alone might resort with confident hope of renewing his youth. +Turning his back on Karl Pearson and England, he plunged into +Germany, and had scarcely crossed the Rhine when he fell into +libraries of new works bearing the names of Ostwald, Ernst Mach, +Ernst Haeckel, and others less familiar, among whom Haeckel was +easiest to approach, not only because of being the oldest and +clearest and steadiest spokesman of nineteenth-century mechanical +convictions, but also because in 1902 he had published a vehement +renewal of his faith. The volume contained only one paragraph +that concerned a historian; it was that in which Haeckel sank his +voice almost to a religious whisper in avowing with evident +effort, that the "proper essence of substance appeared to him +more and more marvellous and enigmatic as he penetrated further +into the knowledge of its attributes -- matter and energy -- and +as he learned to know their innumerable phenomena and their +evolution." Since Haeckel seemed to have begun the voyage into +multiplicity that Pearson had forbidden to Englishmen, he should +have been a safe pilot to the point, at least, of a "proper +essence of substance" in its attributes of matter and energy: but +Ernst Mach seemed to go yet one step further, for he rejected +matter altogether, and admitted but two processes in nature -- +change of place and interconversion of forms. Matter was Motion +-- Motion was Matter -- the thing moved. + + A student of history had no need to understand these scientific +ideas of very great men; he sought only the relation with the +ideas of their grandfathers, and their common direction towards +the ideas of their grandsons. He had long ago reached, with +Hegel, the limits of contradiction; and Ernst Mach scarcely added +a shade of variety to the identity of opposites; but both of them +seemed to be in agreement with Karl Pearson on the facts of the +supersensual universe which could be known only as unknowable. + + With a deep sigh of relief, the traveller turned back to +France. There he felt safe. No Frenchman except Rabelais and +Montaigne had ever taught anarchy other than as path to order. +Chaos would be unity in Paris even if child of the guillotine. To +make this assurance mathematically sure, the highest scientific +authority in France was a great mathematician, M. Poincare of the +Institut, who published in 1902 a small volume called "La Science +et l'Hypothese," which purported to be relatively readable. +Trusting to its external appearance, the traveller timidly bought +it, and greedily devoured it, without understanding a single +consecutive page, but catching here and there a period that +startled him to the depths of his ignorance, for they seemed to +show that M. Poincare was troubled by the same historical +landmarks which guided or deluded Adams himself: "[In science] we +are led," said M. Poincare, " to act as though a simple law, when +other things were equal, must be more probable than a complicated +law. Half a century ago one frankly confessed it, and proclaimed +that nature loves simplicity. She has since given us too often +the lie. To-day this tendency is no longer avowed, and only as +much of it is preserved as is indispensable so that science shall +not become impossible." + + Here at last was a fixed point beyond the chance of confusion +with self-suggestion. History and mathematics agreed. Had M. +Poincare shown anarchistic tastes, his evidence would have +weighed less heavily; but he seemed to be the only authority in +science who felt what a historian felt so strongly -- the need of +unity in a universe. "Considering everything we have made some +approach towards unity. We have not gone as fast as we hoped +fifty years ago; we have not always taken the intended road; but +definitely we have gained much ground." This was the most clear +and convincing evidence of progress yet offered to the navigator +of ignorance; but suddenly he fell on another view which seemed +to him quite irreconcilable with the first: "Doubtless if our +means of investigation should become more and more penetrating, +we should discover the simple under the complex; then the complex +under the simple; then anew the simple under the complex; and so +on without ever being able to foresee the last term." + + A mathematical paradise of endless displacement promised +eternal bliss to the mathematician, but turned the historian +green with horror. Made miserable by the thought that he knew no +mathematics, he burned to ask whether M. Poincare knew any +history, since he began by begging the historical question +altogether, and assuming that the past showed alternating phases +of simple and complex -- the precise point that Adams, after +fifty years of effort, found himself forced to surrender; and +then going on to assume alternating phases for the future which, +for the weary Titan of Unity, differed in nothing essential from +the kinetic theory of a perfect gas. + + Since monkeys first began to chatter in trees, neither man nor +beast had ever denied or doubted Multiplicity, Diversity, +Complexity, Anarchy, Chaos. Always and everywhere the Complex had +been true and the Contradiction had been certain. Thought started +by it. Mathematics itself began by counting one -- two -- three; +then imagining their continuity, which M. Poincare was still +exhausting his wits to explain or defend; and this was his +explanation: "In short, the mind has the faculty of creating +symbols, and it is thus that it has constructed mathematical +continuity which is only a particular system of symbols." With +the same light touch, more destructive in its artistic measure +than the heaviest-handed brutality of Englishmen or Germans, he +went on to upset relative truth itself: "How should I answer the +question whether Euclidian Geometry is true? It has no sense! . . +. Euclidian Geometry is, and will remain, the most convenient." + + Chaos was a primary fact even in Paris -- especially in Paris +-- as it was in the Book of Genesis; but every thinking being in +Paris or out of it had exhausted thought in the effort to prove +Unity, Continuity, Purpose, Order, Law, Truth, the Universe, God, +after having begun by taking it for granted, and discovering, to +their profound dismay, that some minds denied it. The direction +of mind, as a single force of nature, had been constant since +history began. Its own unity had created a universe the essence +of which was abstract Truth; the Absolute; God! To Thomas +Aquinas, the universe was still a person; to Spinoza, a +substance; to Kant, Truth was the essence of the "I"; an innate +conviction; a categorical imperative; to Poincare, it was a +convenience; and to Karl Pearson, a medium of exchange. + + The historian never stopped repeating to himself that he knew +nothing about it; that he was a mere instrument of measure, a +barometer, pedometer, radiometer; and that his whole share in the +matter was restricted to the measurement of thought-motion as +marked by the accepted thinkers. He took their facts for granted. +He knew no more than a firefly about rays -- or about race -- or +sex -- or ennui -- or a bar of music -- or a pang of love -- or a +grain of musk -- or of phosphorus -- or conscience -- or duty -- +or the force of Euclidian geometry -- or non-Euclidian -- or heat +-- or light -- or osmosis -- or electrolysis -- or the magnet -- +or ether -- or vis inertiae -- or gravitation -- or cohesion -- +or elasticity -- or surface tension -- or capillary attraction -- +or Brownian motion -- or of some scores, or thousands, or +millions of chemical attractions, repulsions or indifferences +which were busy within and without him; or, in brief, of Force +itself, which, he was credibly informed, bore some dozen +definitions in the textbooks, mostly contradictory, and all, as +he was assured, beyond his intelligence; but summed up in the +dictum of the last and highest science, that Motion seems to be +Matter and Matter seems to be Motion, yet "we are probably +incapable of discovering" what either is. History had no need to +ask what either might be; all it needed to know was the admission +of ignorance; the mere fact of multiplicity baffling science. +Even as to the fact, science disputed, but radium happened to +radiate something that seemed to explode the scientific magazine, +bringing thought, for the time, to a standstill; though, in the +line of thought-movement in history, radium was merely the next +position, familiar and inexplicable since Zeno and his arrow: +continuous from the beginning of time, and discontinuous at each +successive point. History set it down on the record -- pricked +its position on the chart -- and waited to be led, or misled, +once more. + + The historian must not try to know what is truth, if he values +his honesty; for, if he cares for his truths, he is certain to +falsify his facts. The laws of history only repeat the lines of +force or thought. Yet though his will be iron, he cannot help now +and then resuming his humanity or simianity in face of a fear. +The motion of thought had the same value as the motion of a +cannon-ball seen approaching the observer on a direct line +through the air. One could watch its curve for five thousand +years. Its first violent acceleration in historical times had +ended in the catastrophe of 310. The next swerve of direction +occurred towards 1500. Galileo and Bacon gave a still newer curve +to it, which altered its values; but all these changes had never +altered the continuity. Only in 1900, the continuity snapped. + + Vaguely conscious of the cataclysm, the world sometimes dated +it from 1893, by the Roentgen rays, or from 1898, by the Curie's +radium; but in 1904, Arthur Balfour announced on the part of +British science that the human race without exception had lived +and died in a world of illusion until the last year of the +century. The date was convenient, and convenience was truth. + + The child born in 1900 would, then, be born into a new world +which would not be a unity but a multiple. Adams tried to imagine +it, and an education that would fit it. He found himself in a +land where no one had ever penetrated before; where order was an +accidental relation obnoxious to nature; artificial compulsion +imposed on motion; against which every free energy of the +universe revolted; and which, being merely occasional, resolved +itself back into anarchy at last. He could not deny that the law +of the new multiverse explained much that had been most obscure, +especially the persistently fiendish treatment of man by man; the +perpetual effort of society to establish law, and the perpetual +revolt of society against the law it had established; the +perpetual building up of authority by force, and the perpetual +appeal to force to overthrow it; the perpetual symbolism of a +higher law, and the perpetual relapse to a lower one; the +perpetual victory of the principles of freedom, and their +perpetual conversion into principles of power; but the staggering +problem was the outlook ahead into the despotism of artificial +order which nature abhorred. The physicists had a phrase for it, +unintelligible to the vulgar: "All that we win is a battle -- +lost in advance -- with the irreversible phenomena in the +background of nature." + + All that a historian won was a vehement wish to escape. He saw +his education complete; and was sorry he ever began it. As a +matter of taste, he greatly preferred his eighteenth-century +education when God was a father and nature a mother, and all was +for the best in a scientific universe. He repudiated all share in +the world as it was to be, and yet he could not detect the point +where his responsibility began or ended. + + As history unveiled itself in the new order, man's mind had +behaved like a young pearl oyster, secreting its universe to suit +its conditions until it had built up a shell of nacre that +embodied all its notions of the perfect. Man knew it was true +because he made it, and he loved it for the same reason. He +sacrificed millions of lives to acquire his unity, but he +achieved it, and justly thought it a work of art. The woman +especially did great things, creating her deities on a higher +level than the male, and, in the end, compelling the man to +accept the Virgin as guardian of the man's God. The man's part in +his Universe was secondary, but the woman was at home there, and +sacrificed herself without limit to make it habitable, when man +permitted it, as sometimes happened for brief intervals of war +and famine; but she could not provide protection against forces +of nature. She did not think of her universe as a raft to which +the limpets stuck for life in the surge of a supersensual chaos; +she conceived herself and her family as the centre and flower of +an ordered universe which she knew to be unity because she had +made it after the image of her own fecundity; and this creation +of hers was surrounded by beauties and perfections which she knew +to be real because she herself had imagined them. + + Even the masculine philosopher admired and loved and celebrated +her triumph, and the greatest of them sang it in the noblest of +his verses: -- + + "Alma Venus, coeli subter labentia signa + Quae mare navigerum, quae terras frugiferenteis + Concelebras . . . . . . . + Quae quondam rerum naturam sola gubernas, + Nec sine te quidquam dias in luminis oras + Exoritur, neque fit laetum neque amabile quidquam; + Te sociam studeo!" + + Neither man nor woman ever wanted to quit this Eden of their +own invention, and could no more have done it of their own accord +than the pearl oyster could quit its shell; but although the +oyster might perhaps assimilate or embalm a grain of sand forced +into its aperture, it could only perish in face of the cyclonic +hurricane or the volcanic upheaval of its bed. Her supersensual +chaos killed her. + + Such seemed the theory of history to be imposed by science on +the generation born after 1900. For this theory, Adams felt +himself in no way responsible. Even as historian he had made it +his duty always to speak with respect of everything that had ever +been thought respectable -- except an occasional statesman; but +he had submitted to force all his life, and he meant to accept it +for the future as for the past. All his efforts had been turned +only to the search for its channel. He never invented his facts; +they were furnished him by the only authorities he could find. As +for himself, according to Helmholz, Ernst Mach, and Arthur +Balfour, he was henceforth to be a conscious ball of vibrating +motions, traversed in every direction by infinite lines of +rotation or vibration, rolling at the feet of the Virgin at +Chartres or of M. Poincare in an attic at Paris, a centre of +supersensual chaos. The discovery did not distress him. A +solitary man of sixty-five years or more, alone in a Gothic +cathedral or a Paris apartment, need fret himself little about a +few illusions more or less. He should have learned his lesson +fifty years earlier; the times had long passed when a student +could stop before chaos or order; he had no choice but to march +with his world. + + Nevertheless, he could not pretend that his mind felt flattered +by this scientific outlook. Every fabulist has told how the human +mind has always struggled like a frightened bird to escape the +chaos which caged it; how -- appearing suddenly and inexplicably +out of some unknown and unimaginable void; passing half its known +life in the mental chaos of sleep; victim even when awake, to its +own ill-adjustment, to disease, to age, to external suggestion, +to nature's compulsion; doubting its sensations, and, in the last +resort, trusting only to instruments and averages -- after sixty +or seventy years of growing astonishment, the mind wakes to find +itself looking blankly into the void of death. That it should +profess itself pleased by this performance was all that the +highest rules of good breeding could ask; but that it should +actually be satisfied would prove that it existed only as idiocy. + + Satisfied, the future generation could scarcely think itself, +for even when the mind existed in a universe of its own creation, +it had never been quite at ease. As far as one ventured to +interpret actual science, the mind had thus far adjusted itself +by an infinite series of infinitely delicate adjustments forced +on it by the infinite motion of an infinite chaos of motion; +dragged at one moment into the unknowable and unthinkable, then +trying to scramble back within its senses and to bar the chaos +out, but always assimilating bits of it, until at last, in 1900, +a new avalanche of unknown forces had fallen on it, which +required new mental powers to control. If this view was correct, +the mind could gain nothing by flight or by fight; it must merge +in its supersensual multiverse, or succumb to it. + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +VIS NOVA (1903-1904) + +PARIS after midsummer is a place where only the industrious poor +remain, unless they can get away; but Adams knew no spot where +history would be better off, and the calm of the Champs Elysees +was so deep that when Mr. de Witte was promoted to a powerless +dignity, no one whispered that the promotion was disgrace, while +one might have supposed, from the silence, that the Viceroy +Alexeieff had reoccupied Manchuria as a fulfilment of +treaty-obligation. For once, the conspiracy of silence became +crime. Never had so modern and so vital a riddle been put before +Western society, but society shut its eyes. Manchuria knew every +step into war; Japan had completed every preparation; Alexeieff +had collected his army and fleet at Port Arthur, mounting his +siege guns and laying in enormous stores, ready for the expected +attack; from Yokohama to Irkutsk, the whole East was under war +conditions; but Europe knew nothing. The banks would allow no +disturbance; the press said not a word, and even the embassies +were silent. Every anarchist in Europe buzzed excitement and +began to collect in groups, but the Hotel Ritz was calm, and the +Grand Dukes who swarmed there professed to know directly from the +Winter Palace that there would be no war. + + As usual, Adams felt as ignorant as the best-informed +statesman, and though the sense was familiar, for once he could +see that the ignorance was assumed. After nearly fifty years of +experience, he could not understand how the comedy could be so +well acted. Even as late as November, diplomats were gravely +asking every passer-by for his opinion, and avowed none of their +own except what was directly authorized at St. Petersburg. He +could make nothing of it. He found himself in face of his new +problem -- the workings of Russian inertia -- and he could +conceive no way of forming an opinion how much was real and how +much was comedy had he been in the Winter Palace himself. At +times he doubted whether the Grand Dukes or the Czar knew, but +old diplomatic training forbade him to admit such innocence. + + This was the situation at Christmas when he left Paris. On +January 6, 1904, he reached Washington, where the contrast of +atmosphere astonished him, for he had never before seen his +country think as a world-power. No doubt, Japanese diplomacy had +much to do with this alertness, but the immense superiority of +Japanese diplomacy should have been more evident in Europe than +in America, and in any case, could not account for the total +disappearance of Russian diplomacy. A government by inertia +greatly disconcerted study. One was led to suspect that Cassini +never heard from his Government, and that Lamsdorf knew nothing +of his own department; yet no such suspicion could be admitted. +Cassini resorted to transparent blague: "Japan seemed infatuated +even to the point of war! But what can the Japanese do? As usual, +sit on their heels and pray to Buddha!" One of the oldest and +most accomplished diplomatists in the service could never show +his hand so empty as this if he held a card to play; but he never +betrayed stronger resource behind. "If any Japanese succeed in +entering Manchuria, they will never get out of it alive." The +inertia of Cassini, who was naturally the most energetic of +diplomatists, deeply interested a student of race-inertia, whose +mind had lost itself in the attempt to invent scales of force. + + The air of official Russia seemed most dramatic in the air of +the White House, by contrast with the outspoken candor of the +President. Reticence had no place there. Every one in America saw +that, whether Russia or Japan were victim, one of the decisive +struggles in American history was pending, and any presence of +secrecy or indifference was absurd. Interest was acute, and +curiosity intense, for no one knew what the Russian Government +meant or wanted, while war had become a question of days. To an +impartial student who gravely doubted whether the Czar himself +acted as a conscious force or an inert weight, the +straight-forward avowals of Roosevelt had singular value as a +standard of measure. By chance it happened that Adams was obliged +to take the place of his brother Brooks at the Diplomatic +Reception immediately after his return home, and the part of +proxy included his supping at the President's table, with +Secretary Root on one side, the President opposite, and Miss +Chamberlain between them. Naturally the President talked and the +guests listened; which seemed, to one who had just escaped from +the European conspiracy of silence, like drawing a free breath +after stifling. Roosevelt, as every one knew, was always an +amusing talker, and had the reputation of being indiscreet beyond +any other man of great importance in the world, except the Kaiser +Wilhelm and Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, the father of his guest at +table; and this evening he spared none. With the usual abuse of +the quos ego, common to vigorous statesmen, he said all that he +thought about Russians and Japanese, as well as about Boers and +British, without restraint, in full hearing of twenty people, to +the entire satisfaction of his listener; and concluded by +declaring that war was imminent; that it ought to be stopped; +that it could be stopped: " I could do it myself; I could stop it +to-morrow!" and he went on to explain his reasons for restraint. + + That he was right, and that, within another generation, his +successor would do what he would have liked to do, made no shadow +of doubt in the mind of his hearer, though it would have been +folly when he last supped at the White House in the dynasty of +President Hayes; but the listener cared less for the assertion of +power, than for the vigor of view. The truth was evident enough, +ordinary, even commonplace if one liked, but it was not a truth +of inertia, nor was the method to be mistaken for inert. + + Nor could the force of Japan be mistaken for a moment as a +force of inertia, although its aggressive was taken as +methodically -- as mathematically -- as a demonstration of +Euclid, and Adams thought that as against any but Russians it +would have lost its opening. Each day counted as a measure of +relative energy on the historical scale, and the whole story made +a Grammar of new Science quite as instructive as that of Pearson. + + The forces thus launched were bound to reach some new +equilibrium which would prove the problem in one sense or +another, and the war had no personal value for Adams except that +it gave Hay his last great triumph. He had carried on his long +contest with Cassini so skillfully that no one knew enough to +understand the diplomatic perfection of his work, which contained +no error; but such success is complete only when it is invisible, +and his victory at last was victory of judgment, not of act. He +could do nothing, and the whole country would have sprung on him +had he tried. Japan and England saved his "open door" and fought +his battle. All that remained for him was to make the peace, and +Adams set his heart on getting the peace quickly in hand, for +Hay's sake as well as for that of Russia. He thought then that it +could be done in one campaign, for he knew that, in a military +sense, the fall of Port Arthur must lead to negotiation, and +every one felt that Hay would inevitably direct it; but the race +was close, and while the war grew every day in proportions, Hay's +strength every day declined. + + St. Gaudens came on to model his head, and Sargent painted his +portrait, two steps essential to immortality which he bore with a +certain degree of resignation, but he grumbled when the President +made him go to St. Louis to address some gathering at the +Exposition; and Mrs. Hay bade Adams go with them, for whatever +use he could suppose himself to serve. He professed the religion +of World's Fairs, without which he held education to be a blind +impossibility; and obeyed Mrs. Hay's bidding the more readily +because it united his two educations in one; but theory and +practice were put to equally severe test at St. Louis. Ten years +had passed since he last crossed the Mississippi, and he found +everything new. In this great region from Pittsburgh through Ohio +and Indiana, agriculture had made way for steam; tall chimneys +reeked smoke on every horizon, and dirty suburbs filled with +scrap-iron, scrap-paper and cinders, formed the setting of every +town. Evidently, cleanliness was not to be the birthmark of the +new American, but this matter of discards concerned the measure +of force little, while the chimneys and cinders concerned it so +much that Adams thought the Secretary of State should have rushed +to the platform at every station to ask who were the people; for +the American of the prime seemed to be extinct with the Shawnee +and the buffalo. + + The subject grew quickly delicate. History told little about +these millions of Germans and Slavs, or whatever their +race-names, who had overflowed these regions as though the Rhine +and the Danube had turned their floods into the Ohio. John Hay +was as strange to the Mississippi River as though he had not been +bred on its shores, and the city of St. Louis had turned its back +on the noblest work of nature, leaving it bankrupt between its +own banks. The new American showed his parentage proudly; he was +the child of steam and the brother of the dynamo, and already, +within less than thirty years, this mass of mixed humanities, +brought together by steam, was squeezed and welded into approach +to shape; a product of so much mechanical power, and bearing no +distinctive marks but that of its pressure. The new American, +like the new European, was the servant of the powerhouse, as the +European of the twelfth century was the servant of the Church, +and the features would follow the parentage. + + The St. Louis Exposition was its first creation in the +twentieth century, and, for that reason, acutely interesting. One +saw here a third-rate town of half-a-million people without +history, education, unity, or art, and with little capital -- +without even an element of natural interest except the river +which it studiously ignored -- but doing what London, Paris, or +New York would have shrunk from attempting. This new social +conglomerate, with no tie but its steam-power and not much of +that, threw away thirty or forty million dollars on a pageant as +ephemeral as a stage flat. The world had never witnessed so +marvellous a phantasm by night Arabia's crimson sands had never +returned a glow half so astonishing, as one wandered among long +lines of white palaces, exquisitely lighted by thousands on +thousands of electric candles, soft, rich, shadowy, palpable in +their sensuous depths; all in deep silence, profound solitude, +listening for a voice or a foot-fall or the plash of an oar, as +though the Emir Mirza were displaying the beauties of this City +of Brass, which could show nothing half so beautiful as this +illumination, with its vast, white, monumental solitude, bathed +in the pure light of setting suns. One enjoyed it with iniquitous +rapture, not because of exhibits but rather because of their +want. Here was a paradox like the stellar universe that fitted +one's mental faults. Had there been no exhibits at all, and no +visitors, one would have enjoyed it only the more. + + Here education found new forage. That the power was wasted, the +art indiflerent, the economic failure complete, added just so +much to the interest. The chaos of education approached a dream. +One asked one's self whether this extravagance reflected the past +or imaged the future; whether it was a creation of the old +American or a promise of the new one. No prophet could be +believed, but a pilgrim of power, without constituency to +flatter, might allow himself to hope. The prospect from the +Exposition was pleasant; one seemed to see almost an adequate +motive for power; almost a scheme for progress. In another +half-century, the people of the central valleys should have +hundreds of millions to throw away more easily than in 1900 they +could throw away tens; and by that time they might know what they +wanted. Possibly they might even have learned how to reach it. + + This was an optimist's hope, shared by few except pilgrims of +World's Fairs, and frankly dropped by the multitude, for, east of +the Mississippi, the St. Louis Exposition met a deliberate +conspiracy of silence, discouraging, beyond measure, to an +optimistic dream of future strength in American expression. The +party got back to Washington on May 24, and before sailing for +Europe, Adams went over, one warm evening, to bid good-bye on the +garden-porch of the White House. He found himself the first +person who urged Mrs. Roosevelt to visit the Exposition for its +beauty, and, as far as he ever knew, the last. + + He left St. Louis May 22, 1904, and on Sunday, June 5, found +himself again in the town of Coutances, where the people of +Normandy had built, towards the year 1250, an Exposition which +architects still admired and tourists visited, for it was thought +singularly expressive of force as well as of grace in the Virgin. +On this Sunday, the Norman world was celebrating a pretty +church-feast -- the Fete Dieu -- and the streets were filled with +altars to the Virgin, covered with flowers and foliage; the +pavements strewn with paths of leaves and the spring handiwork of +nature; the cathedral densely thronged at mass. The scene was +graceful. The Virgin did not shut her costly Exposition on +Sunday, or any other day, even to American senators who had shut +the St. Louis Exposition to her -- or for her; and a historical +tramp would gladly have offered a candle, or even a candle-stick +in her honor, if she would have taught him her relation with the +deity of the Senators. The power of the Virgin had been plainly +One, embracing all human activity; while the power of the Senate, +or its deity, seemed -- might one say -- to be more or less +ashamed of man and his work. The matter had no great interest as +far as it concerned the somewhat obscure mental processes of +Senators who could probably have given no clearer idea than +priests of the deity they supposed themselves to honor -- if that +was indeed their purpose; but it interested a student of force, +curious to measure its manifestations. Apparently the Virgin -- +or her Son -- had no longer the force to build expositions that +one cared to visit, but had the force to close them. The force +was still real, serious, and, at St. Louis, had been anxiously +measured in actual money-value. + + That it was actual and serious in France as in the Senate +Chamber at Washington, proved itself at once by forcing Adams to +buy an automobile, which was a supreme demonstration because this +was the form of force which Adams most abominated. He had set +aside the summer for study of the Virgin, not as a sentiment but +as a motive power, which had left monuments widely scattered and +not easily reached. The automobile alone could unite them in any +reasonable sequence, and although the force of the automobile, +for the purposes of a commercial traveller, seemed to have no +relation whatever to the force that inspired a Gothic cathedral, +the Virgin in the twelfth century would have guided and +controlled both bag-man and architect, as she controlled the +seeker of history. In his mind the problem offered itself as to +Newton; it was a matter of mutual attraction, and he knew it, in +his own case, to be a formula as precise as s = gt^2/2, if he +could but experimentally prove it. Of the attraction he needed no +proof on his own account; the costs of his automobile were more +than sufficient: but as teacher he needed to speak for others +than himself. For him, the Virgin was an adorable mistress, who +led the automobile and its owner where she would, to her +wonderful palaces and chateaux, from Chartres to Rouen, and +thence to Amiens and Laon, and a score of others, kindly +receiving, amusing, charming and dazzling her lover, as though +she were Aphrodite herself, worth all else that man ever dreamed. +He never doubted her force, since he felt it to the last fibre of +his being, and could not more dispute its mastery than he could +dispute the force of gravitation of which he knew nothing but the +formula. He was only too glad to yield himself entirely, not to +her charm or to any sentimentality of religion, but to her mental +and physical energy of creation which had built up these World's +Fairs of thirteenth-century force that turned Chicago and St. +Louis pale. + + "Both were faiths and both are gone," said Matthew Arnold of +the Greek and Norse divinities; but the business of a student was +to ask where they had gone. The Virgin had not even altogether +gone; her fading away had been excessively slow. Her adorer had +pursued her too long, too far, and into too many manifestations +of her power, to admit that she had any equivalent either of +quantity or kind, in the actual world, but he could still less +admit her annihilation as energy. + + So he went on wooing, happy in the thought that at last he had +found a mistress who could see no difference in the age of her +lovers. Her own age had no time-measure. For years past, incited +by John La Farge, Adams had devoted his summer schooling to the +study of her glass at Chartres and elsewhere, and if the +automobile had one vitesse more useful than another, it was that +of a century a minute; that of passing from one century to +another without break. The centuries dropped like autumn leaves +in one's road, and one was not fined for running over them too +fast. When the thirteenth lost breath, the fourteenth caught on, +and the sixteenth ran close ahead. The hunt for the Virgin's +glass opened rich preserves. Especially the sixteenth century ran +riot in sensuous worship. Then the ocean of religion, which had +flooded France, broke into Shelley's light dissolved in +star-showers thrown, which had left every remote village strewn +with fragments that flashed like jewels, and were tossed into +hidden clefts of peace and forgetfulness. One dared not pass a +parish church in Champagne or Touraine without stopping to look +for its window of fragments, where one's glass discovered the +Christ-child in his manger, nursed by the head of a fragmentary +donkey, with a Cupid playing into its long ears from the +balustrade of a Venetian palace, guarded by a legless Flemish +leibwache, standing on his head with a broken halbert; all +invoked in prayer by remnants of the donors and their children +that might have been drawn by Fouquet or Pinturicchio, in colors +as fresh and living as the day they were burned in, and with +feeling that still consoled the faithful for the paradise they +had paid for and lost. France abounds in sixteenth-century glass. +Paris alone contains acres of it, and the neighborhood within +fifty miles contains scores of churches where the student may +still imagine himself three hundred years old, kneeling before +the Virgin's window in the silent solitude of an empty faith, +crying his culp, beating his breast, confessing his historical +sins, weighed down by the rubbish of sixty-six years' education, +and still desperately hoping to understand. + + He understood a little, though not much. The sixteenth century +had a value of its own, as though the ONE had become several, and +Unity had counted more than Three, though the Multiple still +showed modest numbers. The glass had gone back to the Roman +Empire and forward to the American continent; it betrayed +sympathy with Montaigne and Shakespeare; but the Virgin was still +supreme. At Beauvais in the Church of St. Stephen was a superb +tree of Jesse, famous as the work of Engrand le Prince, about +1570 or 1580, in whose branches, among the fourteen ancestors of +the Virgin, three-fourths bore features of the Kings of France, +among them Francis I and Henry II, who were hardly more edifying +than Kings of Israel, and at least unusual as sources of divine +purity. Compared with the still more famous Tree of Jesse at +Chartres, dating from 1150 or thereabouts, must one declare that +Engrand le Prince proved progress? and in what direction? +Complexity, Multiplicity, even a step towards Anarchy, it might +suggest, but what step towards perfection? + + One late afternoon, at midsummer, the Virgin's pilgrim was +wandering through the streets of Troyes in close and intimate +conversation with Thibaut of Champagne and his highly intelligent +seneschal, the Sieur de Joinville, when he noticed one or two men +looking at a bit of paper stuck in a window. Approaching, he read +that M. de Plehve had been assassinated at St. Petersburg. The +mad mixture of Russia and the Crusades, of the Hippodrome and the +Renaissance, drove him for refuge into the fascinating Church of +St. Pantaleon near by. Martyrs, murderers, Caesars, saints and +assassins -- half in glass and half in telegram; chaos of time, +place, morals, forces and motive -- gave him vertigo. Had one sat +all one's life on the steps of Ara Coeli for this? Was +assassination forever to be the last word of Progress? No one in +the street had shown a sign of protest; he himself felt none; the +charming Church with its delightful windows, in its exquisite +absence of other tourists, took a keener expression of celestial +peace than could have been given it by any contrast short of +explosive murder; the conservative Christian anarchist had come +to his own, but which was he -- the murderer or the murdered ? + + The Virgin herself never looked so winning -- so One -- as in +this scandalous failure of her Grace. To what purpose had she +existed, if, after nineteen hundred years, the world was bloodier +than when she was born? The stupendous failure of Christianity +tortured history. The effort for Unity could not be a partial +success; even alternating Unity resolved itself into meaningless +motion at last. To the tired student, the idea that he must give +it up seemed sheer senility. As long as he could whisper, he +would go on as he had begun, bluntly refusing to meet his creator +with the admission that the creation had taught him nothing +except that the square of the hypothenuse of a right-angled +triangle might for convenience be taken as equal to something +else. Every man with self-respect enough to become effective, if +only as a machine, has had to account to himself for himself +somehow, and to invent a formula of his own for his universe, if +the standard formulas failed. There, whether finished or not, +education stopped. The formula, once made, could be but verified. + + The effort must begin at once, for time pressed. The old +formulas had failed, and a new one had to be made, but, after +all, the object was not extravagant or eccentric. One sought no +absolute truth. One sought only a spool on which to wind the +thread of history without breaking it. Among indefinite possible +orbits, one sought the orbit which would best satisfy the +observed movement of the runaway star Groombridge, 1838, commonly +called Henry Adams. As term of a nineteenth-century education, +one sought a common factor for certain definite historical +fractions. Any schoolboy could work out the problem if he were +given the right to state it in his own terms. + + Therefore, when the fogs and frosts stopped his slaughter of +the centuries, and shut him up again in his garret, he sat down +as though he were again a boy at school to shape after his own +needs the values of a Dynamic Theory of History. + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +A DYNAMIC THEORY OF HISTORY (1904) + + A DYNAMIC theory, like most theories, begins by begging the +question: it defines Progress as the development and economy of +Forces. Further, it defines force as anything that does, or helps +to do work. Man is a force; so is the sun; so is a mathematical +point, though without dimensions or known existence. + + Man commonly begs the question again taking for granted that he +captures the forces. A dynamic theory, assigning attractive force +to opposing bodies in proportion to the law of mass, takes for +granted that the forces of nature capture man. The sum of force +attracts; the feeble atom or molecule called man is attracted; he +suffers education or growth; he is the sum of the forces that +attract him; his body and his thought are alike their product; +the movement of the forces controls the progress of his mind, +since he can know nothing but the motions which impinge on his +senses, whose sum makes education. + + For convenience as an image, the theory may liken man to a +spider in its web, watching for chance prey. Forces of nature +dance like flies before the net, and the spider pounces on them +when it can; but it makes many fatal mistakes, though its theory +of force is sound. The spider-mind acquires a faculty of memory, +and, with it, a singular skill of analysis and synthesis, taking +apart and putting together in different relations the meshes of +its trap. Man had in the beginning no power of analysis or +synthesis approaching that of the spider, or even of the +honey-bee; he had acute sensibility to the higher forces. Fire +taught him secrets that no other animal could learn; running +water probably taught him even more, especially in his first +lessons of mechanics; the animals helped to educate him, trusting +themselves into his hands merely for the sake of their food, and +carrying his burdens or supplying his clothing; the grasses and +grains were academies of study. With little or no effort on his +part, all these forces formed his thought, induced his action, +and even shaped his figure. + + Long before history began, his education was complete, for the +record could not have been started until he had been taught to +record. The universe that had formed him took shape in his mind +as a reflection of his own unity, containing all forces except +himself. Either separately, or in groups, or as a whole, these +forces never ceased to act on him, enlarging his mind as they +enlarged the surface foliage of a vegetable, and the mind needed +only to respond, as the forests did, to these attractions. +Susceptibility to the highest forces is the highest genius; +selection between them is the highest science; their mass is the +highest educator. Man always made, and still makes, grotesque +blunders in selecting and measuring forces, taken at random from +the heap, but he never made a mistake in the value he set on the +whole, which he symbolized as unity and worshipped as God. To +this day, his attitude towards it has never changed, though +science can no longer give to force a name. + + Man's function as a force of nature was to assimilate other +forces as he assimilated food. He called it the love of power. He +felt his own feebleness, and he sought for an ass or a camel, a +bow or a sling, to widen his range of power, as he sough fetish +or a planet in the world beyond. He cared little to know its +immediate use, but he could afford to throw nothing away which he +could conceive to have possible value in this or any other +existence. He waited for the object to teach him its use, or want +of use, and the process was slow. He may have gone on for +hundreds of thousands of years, waiting for Nature to tell him +her secrets; and, to his rivals among the monkeys, Nature has +taught no more than at their start; but certain lines of force +were capable of acting on individual apes, and mechanically +selecting types of race or sources of variation. The individual +that responded or reacted to lines of new force then was possibly +the same individual that reacts on it now, and his conception of +the unity seems never to have changed in spite of the increasing +diversity of forces; but the theory of variation is an affair of +other science than history, and matters nothing to dynamics. The +individual or the race would be educated on the same lines of +illusion, which, according to Arthur Balfour, had not essentially +varied down to the year 1900. + + To the highest attractive energy, man gave the name of divine, +and for its control he invented the science called Religion, a +word which meant, and still means, cultivation of occult force +whether in detail or mass. Unable to define Force as a unity, man +symbolized it and pursued it, both in himself, and in the +infinite, as philosophy and theology; the mind is itself the +subtlest of all known forces, and its self-introspection +necessarily created a science which had the singular value of +lifting his education, at the start, to the finest, subtlest, and +broadest training both in analysis and synthesis, so that, if +language is a test, he must have reached his highest powers early +in his history; while the mere motive remained as simple an +appetite for power as the tribal greed which led him to trap an +elephant. Hunger, whether for food or for the infinite, sets in +motion multiplicity and infinity of thought, and the sure hope of +gaining a share of infinite power in eternal life would lift most +minds to effort. + + He had reached this completeness five thousand years ago, and +added nothing to his stock of known forces for a very long time. +The mass of nature exercised on him so feeble an attraction that +one can scarcely account for his apparent motion. Only a +historian of very exceptional knowledge would venture to say at +what date between 3000 B.C. and 1000 A.D., the momentum of Europe +was greatest; but such progress as the world made consisted in +economies of energy rather than in its development; it was proved +in mathematics, measured by names like Archimedes, Aristarchus, +Ptolemy, and Euclid; or in Civil Law, measured by a number of +names which Adams had begun life by failing to learn; or in +coinage, which was most beautiful near its beginning, and most +barbarous at its close; or it was shown in roads, or the size of +ships, or harbors; or by the use of metals, instruments, and +writing; all of them economies of force, sometimes more forceful +than the forces they helped; but the roads were still travelled +by the horse, the ass, the camel, or the slave; the ships were +still propelled by sails or oars; the lever, the spring, and the +screw bounded the region of applied mechanics. Even the metals +were old. + + Much the same thing could be said of religious or supernatural +forces. Down to the year 300 of the Christian era they were +little changed, and in spite of Plato and the sceptics were more +apparently chaotic than ever. The experience of three thousand +years had educated society to feel the vastness of Nature, and +the infinity of her resources of power, but even this increase of +attraction had not yet caused economies in its methods of +pursuit. + + There the Western world stood till the year A.D. 305, when the +Emperor Diocletian abdicated; and there it was that Adams broke +down on the steps of Ara Coeli, his path blocked by the +scandalous failure of civilization at the moment it had achieved +complete success. In the year 305 the empire had solved the +problems of Europe more completely than they have ever been +solved since. The Pax Romana, the Civil Law, and Free Trade +should, in four hundred years, have put Europe far in advance of +the point reached by modern society in the four hundred years +since 1500, when conditions were less simple. + + The efforts to explain, or explain away, this scandal had been +incessant, but none suited Adams unless it were the economic +theory of adverse exchanges and exhaustion of minerals; but +nations are not ruined beyond a certain point by adverse +exchanges, and Rome had by no means exhausted her resources. On +the contrary, the empire developed resources and energies quite +astounding. No other four hundred years of history before A.D. +1800 knew anything like it; and although some of these +developments, like the Civil Law, the roads, aqueducts, and +harbors, were rather economies than force, yet in northwestern +Europe alone the empire had developed three energies -- France, +England, and Germany -- competent to master the world. The +trouble seemed rather to be that the empire developed too much +energy, and too fast. + + A dynamic law requires that two masses -- nature and man -- +must go on, reacting upon each other, without stop, as the sun +and a comet react on each other, and that any appearance of +stoppage is illusive. The theory seems to exact excess, rather +than deficiency, of action and reaction to account for the +dissolution of the Roman Empire, which should, as a problem of +mechanics, have been torn to pieces by acceleration. If the +student means to try the experiment of framing a dynamic law, he +must assign values to the forces of attraction that caused the +trouble; and in this case he has them in plain evidence. With the +relentless logic that stamped Roman thought, the empire, which +had established unity on earth, could not help establishing unity +in heaven. It was induced by its dynamic necessities to economize +the gods. + + The Church has never ceased to protest against the charge that +Christianity ruined the empire, and, with its usual force, has +pointed out that its reforms alone saved the State. Any dynamic +theory gladly admits it. All it asks is to find and follow the +force that attracts. The Church points out this force in the +Cross, and history needs only to follow it. The empire loudly +asserted its motive. Good taste forbids saying that Constantine +the Great speculated as audaciously as a modern stock-broker on +values of which he knew at the utmost only the volume; or that he +merged all uncertain forces into a single trust, which he +enormously overcapitalized, and forced on the market; but this is +the substance of what Constantine himself said in his Edict of +Milan in the year 313, which admitted Christianity into the Trust +of State Religions. Regarded as an Act of Congress, it runs: "We +have resolved to grant to Christians as well as all others the +liberty to practice the religion they prefer, in order that +whatever exists of divinity or celestial power may help and favor +us and all who are under our government." The empire pursued +power -- not merely spiritual but physical -- in the sense in +which Constantine issued his army order the year before, at the +battle of the Milvian Bridge: In hoc signo vinces! using the +Cross as a train of artillery, which, to his mind, it was. +Society accepted it in the same character. Eighty years +afterwards, Theodosius marched against his rival Eugene with the +Cross for physical champion; and Eugene raised the image of +Hercules to fight for the pagans; while society on both sides +looked on, as though it were a boxing-match, to decide a final +test of force between the divine powers. The Church was powerless +to raise the ideal. What is now known as religion affected the +mind of old society but little. The laity, the people, the +million, almost to a man, bet on the gods as they bet on a horse. + + No doubt the Church did all it could to purify the process, but +society was almost wholly pagan in its point of view, and was +drawn to the Cross because, in its system of physics, the Cross +had absorbed all the old occult or fetish-power. The symbol +represented the sum of nature - the Energy of modern science - +and society believed it to be as real as X-rays; perhaps it was! +The emperors used it like gunpowder in politics; the physicians +used it like rays in medicine; the dying clung to it as the +quintessence of force, to protect them from the forces of evil on +their road to the next life. + + Throughout these four centuries the empire knew that religion +disturbed economy, for even the cost of heathen incense affected +the exchanges; but no one could afford to buy or construct a +costly and complicated machine when he could hire an occult force +at trifling expense. Fetish-power was cheap and satisfactory, +down to a certain point. Turgot and Auguste Comte long ago fixed +this stage of economy as a necessary phase of social education, +and historians seem now to accept it as the only gain yet made +towards scientific history. Great numbers of educated people -- +perhaps a majority -- cling to the method still, and practice it +more or less strictly; but, until quite recently, no other was +known. The only occult power at man's disposal was fetish. +Against it, no mechanical force could compete except within +narrow limits. + + Outside of occult or fetish-power, the Roman world was +incredibly poor. It knew but one productive energy resembling a +modern machine -- the slave. No artificial force of serious value +was applied to production or transportation, and when society +developed itself so rapidly in political and social lines, it had +no other means of keeping its economy on the same level than to +extend its slave-system and its fetish-system to the utmost. + +The result might have been stated in a mathematical formula as +early as the time of Archimedes, six hundred years before Rome +fell. The economic needs of a violently centralizing society +forced the empire to enlarge its slave-system until the +slave-system consumed itself and the empire too, leaving society +no resource but further enlargement of its religious system in +order to compensate for the losses and horrors of the failure. +For a vicious circle, its mathematical completeness approached +perfection. The dynamic law of attraction and reaction needed +only a Newton to fix it in algebraic form. + + At last, in 410, Alaric sacked Rome, and the slave-ridden, +agricultural, uncommercial Western Empire -- the poorer and less +Christianized half -- went to pieces. Society, though terribly +shocked by the horrors of Alaric's storm, felt still more deeply +the disappointment in its new power, the Cross, which had failed +to protect its Church. The outcry against the Cross became so +loud among Christians that its literary champion, Bishop +Augustine of Hippo -- a town between Algiers and Tunis -- was led +to write a famous treatise in defence of the Cross, familiar +still to every scholar, in which he defended feebly the +mechanical value of the symbol -- arguing only that pagan symbols +equally failed -- but insisted on its spiritual value in the +Civitas Dei which had taken the place of the Civitas Romae in +human interest. "Granted that we have lost all we had! Have we +lost faith? Have we lost piety? Have we lost the wealth of the +inner man who is rich before God? These are the wealth of +Christians!" The Civitas Dei, in its turn, became the sum of +attraction for the Western world, though it also showed the same +weakness in mechanics that had wrecked the Civitas Romae. St. +Augustine and his people perished at Hippo towards 430, leaving +society in appearance dull to new attraction. + + Yet the attraction remained constant. The delight of +experimenting on occult force of every kind is such as to absorb +all the free thought of the human race. The gods did their work; +history has no quarrel with them; they led, educated, enlarged +the mind; taught knowledge; betrayed ignorance; stimulated +effort. So little is known about the mind -- whether social, +racial, sexual or heritable; whether material or spiritual; +whether animal, vegetable or mineral -- that history is inclined +to avoid it altogether; but nothing forbids one to admit, for +convenience, that it may assimilate food like the body, storing +new force and growing, like a forest, with the storage. The brain +has not yet revealed its mysterious mechanism of gray matter. +Never has Nature offered it so violent a stimulant as when she +opened to it the possibility of sharing infinite power in eternal +life, and it might well need a thousand years of prolonged and +intense experiment to prove the value of the motive. During these +so-called Middle Ages, the Western mind reacted in many forms, on +many sides, expressing its motives in modes, such as Romanesque +and Gothic architecture, glass windows and mosaic walls, +sculpture and poetry, war and love, which still affect some +people as the noblest work of man, so that, even to-day, great +masses of idle and ignorant tourists travel from far countries to +look at Ravenna and San Marco, Palermo and Pisa, Assisi, Cordova, +Chartres, with vague notions about the force that created them, +but with a certain surprise that a social mind of such singular +energy and unity should still lurk in their shadows. + + The tourist more rarely visits Constantinople or studies the +architecture of Sancta Sofia, but when he does, he is distinctly +conscious of forces not quite the same. Justinian has not the +simplicity of Charlemagne. The Eastern Empire showed an activity +and variety of forces that classical Europe had never possessed. +The navy of Nicephoras Phocas in the tenth century would have +annihilated in half an hour any navy that Carthage or Athens or +Rome ever set afloat. The dynamic scheme began by asserting +rather recklessly that between the Pyramids (B.C. 3000), and the +Cross (A.D. 300), no new force affected Western progress, and +antiquarians may easily dispute the fact; but in any case the +motive influence, old or new, which raised both Pyramids and +Cross was the same attraction of power in a future life that +raised the dome of Sancta Sofia and the Cathedral at Amiens, +however much it was altered, enlarged, or removed to distance in +space. Therefore, no single event has more puzzled historians +than the sudden, unexplained appearance of at least two new +natural forces of the highest educational value in mechanics, for +the first time within record of history. Literally, these two +forces seemed to drop from the sky at the precise moment when the +Cross on one side and the Crescent on the other, proclaimed the +complete triumph of the Civitas Dei. Had the Manichean doctrine +of Good and Evil as rival deities been orthodox, it would alone +have accounted for this simultaneous victory of hostile powers. + + Of the compass, as a step towards demonstration of the dynamic +law, one may confidently say that it proved, better than any +other force, the widening scope of the mind, since it widened +immensely the range of contact between nature and thought. The +compass educated. This must prove itself as needing no proof. + + Of Greek fire and gunpowder, the same thing cannot certainly be +said, for they have the air of accidents due to the attraction of +religious motives. They belong to the spiritual world; or to the +doubtful ground of Magic which lay between Good and Evil. They +were chemical forces, mostly explosives, which acted and still +act as the most violent educators ever known to man, but they +were justly feared as diabolic, and whatever insolence man may +have risked towards the milder teachers of his infancy, he was an +abject pupil towards explosives. The Sieur de Joinville left a +record of the energy with which the relatively harmless Greek +fire educated and enlarged the French mind in a single night in +the year 1249, when the crusaders were trying to advance on +Cairo. The good king St. Louis and all his staff dropped on their +knees at every fiery flame that flew by, praying -- "God have +pity on us!" and never had man more reason to call on his gods +than they, for the battle of religion between Christian and +Saracen was trifling compared with that of education between +gunpowder and the Cross. + + The fiction that society educated itself, or aimed at a +conscious purpose, was upset by the compass and gunpowder which +dragged and drove Europe at will through frightful bogs of +learning. At first, the apparent lag for want of volume in the +new energies lasted one or two centuries, which closed the great +epochs of emotion by the Gothic cathedrals and scholastic +theology. The moment had Greek beauty and more than Greek unity, +but it was brief; and for another century or two, Western society +seemed to float in space without apparent motion. Yet the +attractive mass of nature's energy continued to attract, and +education became more rapid than ever before. Society began to +resist, but the individual showed greater and greater insistence, +without realizing what he was doing. When the Crescent drove the +Cross in ignominy from Constantinople in 1453, Gutenberg and Fust +were printing their first Bible at Mainz under the impression +that they were helping the Cross. When Columbus discovered the +West Indies in 1492, the Church looked on it as a victory of the +Cross. When Luther and Calvin upset Europe half a century later, +they were trying, like St. Augustine, to substitute the Civitas +Dei for the Civitas Romae. When the Puritans set out for New +England in 1620, they too were looking to found a Civitas Dei in +State Street; and when Bunyan made his Pilgrimage in 1678, he +repeated St. Jerome. Even when, after centuries of license, the +Church reformed its discipline, and, to prove it, burned Giordano +Bruno in 1600, besides condemning Galileo in 1630 -- as science +goes on repeating to us every day -- it condemned anarchists, not +atheists. None of the astronomers were irreligious men; all of +them made a point of magnifying God through his works; a form of +science which did their religion no credit. Neither Galileo nor +Kepler, neither Spinoza nor Descartes, neither Leibnitz nor +Newton, any more than Constantine the Great -- if so much -- +doubted Unity. The utmost range of their heresies reached only +its personality. + + This persistence of thought-inertia is the leading idea of +modern history. Except as reflected in himself, man has no reason +for assuming unity in the universe, or an ultimate substance, or +a prime-motor. The a priori insistence on this unity ended by +fatiguing the more active -- or reactive -- minds; and Lord Bacon +tried to stop it. He urged society to lay aside the idea of +evolving the universe from a thought, and to try evolving thought +from the universe. The mind should observe and register forces -- +take them apart and put them together -- without assuming unity +at all. "Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed." "The +imagination must be given not wings but weights." As Galileo +reversed the action of earth and sun, Bacon reversed the relation +of thought to force. The mind was thenceforth to follow the +movement of matter, and unity must be left to shift for itself. + + The revolution in attitude seemed voluntary, but in fact was as +mechanical as the fall of a feather. Man created nothing. After +1500, the speed of progress so rapidly surpassed man's gait as to +alarm every one, as though it were the acceleration of a falling +body which the dynamic theory takes it to be. Lord Bacon was as +much astonished by it as the Church was, and with reason. +Suddenly society felt itself dragged into situations altogether +new and anarchic -- situations which it could not affect, but +which painfully affected it. Instinct taught it that the universe +in its thought must be in danger when its reflection lost itself +in space. The danger was all the greater because men of science +covered it with "larger synthesis," and poets called the undevout +astronomer mad. Society knew better. Yet the telescope held it +rigidly standing on its head; the microscope revealed a universe +that defied the senses; gunpowder killed whole races that lagged +behind; the compass coerced the most imbruted mariner to act on +the impossible idea that the earth was round; the press drenched +Europe with anarchism. Europe saw itself, violently resisting, +wrenched into false positions, drawn along new lines as a fish +that is caught on a hook; but unable to understand by what force +it was controlled. The resistance was often bloody, sometimes +humorous, always constant. Its contortions in the eighteenth +century are best studied in the wit of Voltaire, but all history +and all philosophy from Montaigne and Pascal to Schopenhauer and +Nietzsche deal with nothing else; and still, throughout it all, +the Baconian law held good; thought did not evolve nature, but +nature evolved thought. Not one considerable man of science dared +face the stream of thought; and the whole number of those who +acted, like Franklin, as electric conductors of the new forces +from nature to man, down to the year 1800, did not exceed a few +score, confined to a few towns in western Europe. Asia refused to +be touched by the stream, and America, except for Franklin, stood +outside. + + Very slowly the accretion of these new forces, chemical and +mechanical, grew in volume until they acquired sufficient mass to +take the place of the old religious science, substituting their +attraction for the attractions of the Civitas Dei, but the +process remained the same. Nature, not mind, did the work that +the sun does on the planets. Man depended more and more +absolutely on forces other than his own, and on instruments which +superseded his senses. Bacon foretold it: "Neither the naked hand +nor the understanding, left to itself, can effect much. It is by +instruments and helps that the work is done." Once done, the mind +resumed its illusion, and society forgot its impotence; but no +one better than Bacon knew its tricks, and for his true followers +science always meant self-restraint, obedience, sensitiveness to +impulse from without. "Non fingendum aut excogitandum sed +inveniendum quid Natura faciat aut ferat." + + The success of this method staggers belief, and even to-day can +be treated by history only as a miracle of growth, like the +sports of nature. Evidently a new variety of mind had appeared. +Certain men merely held out their hands -- like Newton, watched +an apple; like Franklin, flew a kite; like Watt, played with a +tea-kettle -- and great forces of nature stuck to them as though +she were playing ball. Governments did almost nothing but resist. +Even gunpowder and ordnance, the great weapon of government, +showed little development between 1400 and 1800. Society was +hostile or indifferent, as Priestley and Jenner, and even Fulton, +with reason complained in the most advanced societies in the +world, while its resistance became acute wherever the Church held +control; until all mankind seemed to draw itself out in a long +series of groups, dragged on by an attractive power in advance, +which even the leaders obeyed without understanding, as the +planets obeyed gravity, or the trees obeyed heat and light. + + The influx of new force was nearly spontaneous. The reaction of +mind on the mass of nature seemed not greater than that of a +comet on the sun; and had the spontaneous influx of force stopped +in Europe, society must have stood still, or gone backward, as in +Asia or Africa. Then only economies of process would have counted +as new force, and society would have been better pleased; for the +idea that new force must be in itself a good is only an animal or +vegetable instinct. As Nature developed her hidden energies, they +tended to become destructive. Thought itself became tortured, +suffering reluctantly, impatiently, painfully, the coercion of +new method. Easy thought had always been movement of inertia, and +mostly mere sentiment; but even the processes of mathematics +measured feebly the needs of force. + + The stupendous acceleration after 1800 ended in 1900 with the +appearance of the new class of supersensual forces, before which +the man of science stood at first as bewildered and helpless as, +in the fourth century, a priest of Isis before the Cross of +Christ. + + This, then, or something like this, would be a dynamic formula +of history. Any schoolboy knows enough to object at once that it +is the oldest and most universal of all theories. Church and +State, theology and philosophy, have always preached it, +differing only in the allotment of energy between nature and man. +Whether the attractive energy has been called God or Nature, the +mechanism has been always the same, and history is not obliged to +decide whether the Ultimate tends to a purpose or not, or whether +ultimate energy is one or many. Every one admits that the will is +a free force, habitually decided by motives. No one denies that +motives exist adequate to decide the will; even though it may not +always be conscious of them. Science has proved that forces, +sensible and occult, physical and metaphysical, simple and +complex, surround, traverse, vibrate, rotate, repel, attract, +without stop; that man's senses are conscious of few, and only in +a partial degree; but that, from the beginning of organic +existence, his consciousness has been induced, expanded, trained +in the lines of his sensitiveness; and that the rise of his +faculties from a lower power to a higher, or from a narrower to a +wider field, may be due to the function of assimilating and +storing outside force or forces. There is nothing unscientific in +the idea that, beyond the lines of force felt by the senses, the +universe may be -- as it has always been -- either a +supersensuous chaos or a divine unity, which irresistibly +attracts, and is either life or death to penetrate. Thus far, +religion, philosophy, and science seem to go hand in hand. The +schools begin their vital battle only there. In the earlier +stages of progress, the forces to be assimilated were simple and +easy to absorb, but, as the mind of man enlarged its range, it +enlarged the field of complexity, and must continue to do so, +even into chaos, until the reservoirs of sensuous or +supersensuous energies are exhausted, or cease to affect him, or +until he succumbs to their excess. + + For past history, this way of grouping its sequences may answer +for a chart of relations, although any serious student would need +to invent another, to compare or correct its errors; but past +history is only a value of relation to the future, and this value +is wholly one of convenience, which can be tested only by +experiment. Any law of movement must include, to make it a +convenience, some mechanical formula of acceleration. + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +A LAW OF ACCELERATION (1904) + + IMAGES are not arguments, rarely even lead to proof, but the +mind craves them, and, of late more than ever, the keenest +experimenters find twenty images better than one, especially if +contradictory; since the human mind has already learned to deal +in contradictions. + + The image needed here is that of a new centre, or +preponderating mass, artificially introduced on earth in the +midst of a system of attractive forces that previously made their +own equilibrium, and constantly induced to accelerate its motion +till it shall establish a new equilibrium. A dynamic theory would +begin by assuming that all history, terrestrial or cosmic, +mechanical or intellectual, would be reducible to this formula if +we knew the facts. + + For convenience, the most familiar image should come first; and +this is probably that of the comet, or meteoric streams, like the +Leonids and Perseids; a complex of minute mechanical agencies, +reacting within and without, and guided by the sum of forces +attracting or deflecting it. Nothing forbids one to assume that +the man-meteorite might grow, as an acorn does, absorbing light, +heat, electricity -- or thought; for, in recent times, such +transference of energy has become a familiar idea; but the +simplest figure, at first, is that of a perfect comet -- say that +of 1843 -- which drops from space, in a straight line, at the +regular acceleration of speed, directly into the sun, and after +wheeling sharply about it, in heat that ought to dissipate any +known substance, turns back unharmed, in defiance of law, by the +path on which it came. The mind, by analogy, may figure as such a +comet, the better because it also defies law. + + Motion is the ultimate object of science, and measures of +motion are many; but with thought as with matter, the true +measure is mass in its astronomic sense -- the sum or difference +of attractive forces. Science has quite enough trouble in +measuring its material motions without volunteering help to the +historian, but the historian needs not much help to measure some +kinds of social movement; and especially in the nineteenth +century, society by common accord agreed in measuring its +progress by the coal-output. The ratio of increase in the volume +of coal-power may serve as dynamometer. + + The coal-output of the world, speaking roughly, doubled every +ten years between 1840 and 1900, in the form of utilized power, +for the ton of coal yielded three or four times as much power in +1900 as in 1840. Rapid as this rate of acceleration in volume +seems, it may be tested in a thousand ways without greatly +reducing it. Perhaps the ocean steamer is nearest unity and +easiest to measure, for any one might hire, in 1905, for a small +sum of money, the use of 30,000 steam-horse-power to cross the +ocean, and by halving this figure every ten years, he got back to +234 horse-power for 1835, which was accuracy enough for his +purposes. In truth, his chief trouble came not from the ratio in +volume of heat, but from the intensity, since he could get no +basis for a ratio there. All ages of history have known high +intensities, like the iron-furnace, the burning-glass, the +blow-pipe; but no society has ever used high intensities on any +large scale till now, nor can a mere bystander decide what range +of temperature is now in common use. Loosely guessing that +science controls habitually the whole range from absolute zero to +3000 degrees Centigrade, one might assume, for convenience, that +the ten-year ratio for volume could be used temporarily for +intensity; and still there remained a ratio to be guessed for +other forces than heat. Since 1800 scores of new forces had been +discovered; old forces had been raised to higher powers, as could +be measured in the navy-gun; great regions of chemistry had been +opened up, and connected with other regions of physics. Within +ten years a new universe of force had been revealed in radiation. +Complexity had extended itself on immense horizons, and +arithmetical ratios were useless for any attempt at accuracy. The +force evolved seemed more like explosion than gravitation, and +followed closely the curve of steam; but, at all events, the +ten-year ratio seemed carefully conservative. Unless the +calculator was prepared to be instantly overwhelmed by physical +force and mental complexity, he must stop there. + + Thus, taking the year 1900 as the starting point for carrying +back the series, nothing was easier than to assume a ten-year +period of retardation as far back as 1820, but beyond that point +the statistician failed, and only the mathematician could help. +Laplace would have found it child's-play to fix a ratio of +progression in mathematical science between Descartes, Leibnitz, +Newton, and himself. Watt could have given in pounds the increase +of power between Newcomen's engines and his own. Volta and +Benjamin Franklin would have stated their progress as absolute +creation of power. Dalton could have measured minutely his +advance on Boerhaave. Napoleon I must have had a distinct notion +of his own numerical relation to Louis XIV. No one in 1789 +doubted the progress of force, least of all those who were to +lose their heads by it. + + Pending agreement between these authorities, theory may assume +what it likes -- say a fifty, or even a five-and-twenty-year +period of reduplication for the eighteenth century, for the +period matters little until the acceleration itself is admitted. +The subject is even more amusing in the seventeenth than in the +eighteenth century, because Galileo and Kepler, Descartes, +Huygens, and Isaac Newton took vast pains to fix the laws of +acceleration for moving bodies, while Lord Bacon and William +Harvey were content with showing experimentally the fact of +acceleration in knowledge; but from their combined results a +historian might be tempted to maintain a similar rate of movement +back to 1600, subject to correction from the historians of +mathematics. + + The mathematicians might carry their calculations back as far +as the fourteenth century when algebra seems to have become for +the first time the standard measure of mechanical progress in +western Europe; for not only Copernicus and Tycho Brahe, but even +artists like Leonardo, Michael Angelo, and Albert Durer worked by +mathematical processes, and their testimony would probably give +results more exact than that of Montaigne or Shakespeare; but, to +save trouble, one might tentatively carry back the same ratio of +acceleration, or retardation, to the year 1400, with the help of +Columbus and Gutenberg, so taking a uniform rate during the whole +four centuries (1400-1800), and leaving to statisticians the task +of correcting it. + + Or better, one might, for convenience, use the formula of +squares to serve for a law of mind. Any other formula would do as +well, either of chemical explosion, or electrolysis, or vegetable +growth, or of expansion or contraction in innumerable forms; but +this happens to be simple and convenient. Its force increases in +the direct ratio of its squares. As the human meteoroid +approached the sun or centre of attractive force, the attraction +of one century squared itself to give the measure of attraction +in the next. + + Behind the year 1400, the process certainly went on, but the +progress became so slight as to be hardly measurable. What was +gained in the east or elsewhere, cannot be known; but forces, +called loosely Greek fire and gunpowder, came into use in the +west in the thirteenth century, as well as instruments like the +compass, the blow-pipe, clocks and spectacles, and materials like +paper; Arabic notation and algebra were introduced, while +metaphysics and theology acted as violent stimulants to mind. An +architect might detect a sequence between the Church of St. +Peter's at Rome, the Amiens Cathedral, the Duomo at Pisa, San +Marco at Venice, Sancta Sofia at Constantinople and the churches +at Ravenna. All the historian dares affirm is that a sequence is +manifestly there, and he has a right to carry back his ratio, to +represent the fact, without assuming its numerical correctness. +On the human mind as a moving body, the break in acceleration in +the Middle Ages is only apparent; the attraction worked through +shifting forms of force, as the sun works by light or heat, +electricity, gravitation, or what not, on different organs with +different sensibilities, but with invariable law. + + The science of prehistoric man has no value except to prove +that the law went back into indefinite antiquity. A stone +arrowhead is as convincing as a steam-engine. The values were as +clear a hundred thousand years ago as now, and extended equally +over the whole world. The motion at last became infinitely +slight, but cannot be proved to have stopped. The motion of +Newton's comet at aphelion may be equally slight. To +evolutionists may be left the processes of evolution; to +historians the single interest is the law of reaction between +force and force -- between mind and nature -- the law of +progress. + + The great division of history into phases by Turgot and Comte +first affirmed this law in its outlines by asserting the unity of +progress, for a mere phase interrupts no growth, and nature shows +innumerable such phases. The development of coal-power in the +nineteenth century furnished the first means of assigning closer +values to the elements; and the appearance of supersensual forces +towards 1900 made this calculation a pressing necessity; since +the next step became infinitely serious. + + A law of acceleration, definite and constant as any law of +mechanics, cannot be supposed to relax its energy to suit the +convenience of man. No one is likely to suggest a theory that +man's convenience had been consulted by Nature at any time, or +that Nature has consulted the convenience of any of her +creations, except perhaps the Terebratula. In every age man has +bitterly and justly complained that Nature hurried and hustled +him, for inertia almost invariably has ended in tragedy. +Resistance is its law, and resistance to superior mass is futile +and fatal. + + Fifty years ago, science took for granted that the rate of +acceleration could not last. The world forgets quickly, but even +today the habit remains of founding statistics on the faith that +consumption will continue nearly stationary. Two generations, +with John Stuart Mill, talked of this stationary period, which +was to follow the explosion of new power. All the men who were +elderly in the forties died in this faith, and other men grew old +nursing the same conviction, and happy in it; while science, for +fifty years, permitted, or encouraged, society to think that +force would prove to be limited in supply. This mental inertia of +science lasted through the eighties before showing signs of +breaking up; and nothing short of radium fairly wakened men to +the fact, long since evident, that force was inexhaustible. Even +then the scientific authorities vehemently resisted. + + Nothing so revolutionary had happened since the year 300. +Thought had more than once been upset, but never caught and +whirled about in the vortex of infinite forces. Power leaped from +every atom, and enough of it to supply the stellar universe +showed itself running to waste at every pore of matter. Man could +no longer hold it off. Forces grasped his wrists and flung him +about as though he had hold of a live wire or a runaway +automobile; which was very nearly the exact truth for the +purposes of an elderly and timid single gentleman in Paris, who +never drove down the Champs Elysees without expecting an +accident, and commonly witnessing one; or found himself in the +neighborhood of an official without calculating the chances of a +bomb. So long as the rates of progress held good, these bombs +would double in force and number every ten years. + + Impossibilities no longer stood in the way. One's life had +fattened on impossibilities. Before the boy was six years old, he +had seen four impossibilities made actual -- the ocean-steamer, +the railway, the electric telegraph, and the Daguerreotype; nor +could he ever learn which of the four had most hurried others to +come. He had seen the coal-output of the United States grow from +nothing to three hundred million tons or more. What was far more +serious, he had seen the number of minds, engaged in pursuing +force -- the truest measure of its attraction -- increase from a +few scores or hundreds, in 1838, to many thousands in 1905, +trained to sharpness never before reached, and armed with +instruments amounting to new senses of indefinite power and +accuracy, while they chased force into hiding-places where Nature +herself had never known it to be, making analyses that +contradicted being, and syntheses that endangered the elements. +No one could say that the social mind now failed to respond to +new force, even when the new force annoyed it horribly. Every day +Nature violently revolted, causing so-called accidents with +enormous destruction of property and life, while plainly laughing +at man, who helplessly groaned and shrieked and shuddered, but +never for a single instant could stop. The railways alone +approached the carnage of war; automobiles and fire-arms ravaged +society, until an earthquake became almost a nervous relaxation. +An immense volume of force had detached itself from the unknown +universe of energy, while still vaster reservoirs, supposed to be +infinite, steadily revealed themselves, attracting mankind with +more compulsive course than all the Pontic Seas or Gods or Gold +that ever existed, and feeling still less of retiring ebb. + + In 1850, science would have smiled at such a romance as this, +but, in 1900, as far as history could learn, few men of science +thought it a laughing matter. If a perplexed but laborious +follower could venture to guess their drift, it seemed in their +minds a toss-up between anarchy and order. Unless they should be +more honest with themselves in the future than ever they were in +the past, they would be more astonished than their followers when +they reached the end. If Karl Pearson's notions of the universe +were sound, men like Galileo, Descartes, Leibnitz, and Newton +should have stopped the progress of science before 1700, +supposing them to have been honest in the religious convictions +they expressed. In 1900 they were plainly forced back; on faith +in a unity unproved and an order they had themselves disproved. +They had reduced their universe to a series of relations to +themselves. They had reduced themselves to motion in a universe +of motions, with an acceleration, in their own case of +vertiginous violence. With the correctness of their science, +history had no right to meddle, since their science now lay in a +plane where scarcely one or two hundred minds in the world could +follow its mathematical processes; but bombs educate vigorously, +and even wireless telegraphy or airships might require the +reconstruction of society. If any analogy whatever existed +between the human mind, on one side, and the laws of motion, on +the other, the mind had already entered a field of attraction so +violent that it must immediately pass beyond, into new +equilibrium, like the Comet of Newton, to suffer dissipation +altogether, like meteoroids in the earth's atmosphere. If it +behaved like an explosive, it must rapidly recover equilibrium; +if it behaved like a vegetable, it must reach its limits of +growth; and even if it acted like the earlier creations of energy +-- the saurians and sharks -- it must have nearly reached the +limits of its expansion. If science were to go on doubling or +quadrupling its complexities every ten years, even mathematics +would soon succumb. An average mind had succumbed already in +1850; it could no longer understand the problem in 1900. + + Fortunately, a student of history had no responsibility for the +problem; he took it as science gave it, and waited only to be +taught. With science or with society, he had no quarrel and +claimed no share of authority. He had never been able to acquire +knowledge, still less to impart it; and if he had, at times, felt +serious differences with the American of the nineteenth century, +he felt none with the American of the twentieth. For this new +creation, born since 1900, a historian asked no longer to be +teacher or even friend; he asked only to be a pupil, and promised +to be docile, for once, even though trodden under foot; for he +could see that the new American -- the child of incalculable +coal-power, chemical power, electric power, and radiating energy, +as well as of new forces yet undetermined -- must be a sort of +God compared with any former creation of nature. At the rate of +progress since 1800, every American who lived into the year 2000 +would know how to control unlimited power. He would think in +complexities unimaginable to an earlier mind. He would deal with +problems altogether beyond the range of earlier society. To him +the nineteenth century would stand on the same plane with the +fourth -- equally childlike -- and he would only wonder how both +of them, knowing so little, and so weak in force, should have +done so much. Perhaps even he might go back, in 1964, to sit with +Gibbon on the steps of Ara Coeli. + + Meanwhile he was getting education. With that, a teacher who +had failed to educate even the generation of 1870, dared not +interfere. The new forces would educate. History saw few lessons +in the past that would be useful in the future; but one, at +least, it did see. The attempt of the American of 1800 to educate +the American of 1900 had not often been surpassed for folly; and +since 1800 the forces and their complications had increased a +thousand times or more. The attempt of the American of 1900 to +educate the American of 2000, must be even blinder than that of +the Congressman of 1800, except so far as he had learned his +ignorance. During a million or two of years, every generation in +turn had toiled with endless agony to attain and apply power, all +the while betraying the deepest alarm and horror at the power +they created. The teacher of 1900, if foolhardy, might stimulate; +if foolish, might resist; if intelligent, might balance, as wise +and foolish have often tried to do from the beginning; but the +forces would continue to educate, and the mind would continue to +react. All the teacher could hope was to teach it reaction. + + Even there his difficulty was extreme. The most elementary +books of science betrayed the inadequacy of old implements of +thought. Chapter after chapter closed with phrases such as one +never met in older literature: "The cause of this phenomenon is +not understood"; "science no longer ventures to explain causes"; +"the first step towards a causal explanation still remains to be +taken"; "opinions are very much divided"; "in spite of the +contradictions involved"; "science gets on only by adopting +different theories, sometimes contradictory." Evidently the new +American would need to think in contradictions, and instead of +Kant's famous four antinomies, the new universe would know no law +that could not be proved by its anti-law. + + To educate -- one's self to begin with -- had been the effort +of one's life for sixty years; and the difficulties of education +had gone on doubling with the coal-output, until the prospect of +waiting another ten years, in order to face a seventh doubling of +complexities, allured one's imagination but slightly. The law of +acceleration was definite, and did not require ten years more +study except to show whether it held good. No scheme could be +suggested to the new American, and no fault needed to be found, +or complaint made; but the next great influx of new forces seemed +near at hand, and its style of education promised to be violently +coercive. The movement from unity into multiplicity, between 1200 +and 1900, was unbroken in sequence, and rapid in acceleration. +Prolonged one generation longer, it would require a new social +mind. As though thought were common salt in indefinite solution +it must enter a new phase subject to new laws. Thus far, since +five or ten thousand years, the mind had successfully reacted, +and nothing yet proved that it would fail to react -- but it +would need to jump. + + +CHAPTER XXXV + +NUNC AGE (1905) + + NEARLY forty years had passed since the ex-private secretary +landed at New York with the ex-Ministers Adams and Motley, when +they saw American society as a long caravan stretching out +towards the plains. As he came up the bay again, November 5, +1904, an older man than either his father or Motley in 1868, he +found the approach more striking than ever -- wonderful -- unlike +anything man had ever seen -- and like nothing he had ever much +cared to see. The outline of the city became frantic in its +effort to explain something that defied meaning. Power seemed to +have outgrown its servitude and to have asserted its freedom. The +cylinder had exploded, and thrown great masses of stone and steam +against the sky. The city had the air and movement of hysteria, +and the citizens were crying, in every accent of anger and alarm, +that the new forces must at any cost be brought under control. +Prosperity never before imagined, power never yet wielded by man, +speed never reached by anything but a meteor, had made the world +irritable, nervous, querulous, unreasonable and afraid. All New +York was demanding new men, and all the new forces, condensed +into corporations, were demanding a new type of man -- a man with +ten times the endurance, energy, will and mind of the old type -- +for whom they were ready to pay millions at sight. As one jolted +over the pavements or read the last week's newspapers, the new +man seemed close at hand, for the old one had plainly reached the +end of his strength, and his failure had become catastrophic. +Every one saw it, and every municipal election shrieked chaos. A +traveller in the highways of history looked out of the club +window on the turmoil of Fifth Avenue, and felt himself in Rome, +under Diocletian, witnessing the anarchy, conscious of the +compulsion, eager for the solution, but unable to conceive whence +the next impulse was to come or how it was to act. The +two-thousand-years failure of Christianity roared upward from +Broadway, and no Constantine the Great was in sight. + + Having nothing else to do, the traveller went on to Washington +to wait the end. There Roosevelt was training Constantines and +battling Trusts. With the Battle of Trusts, a student of +mechanics felt entire sympathy, not merely as a matter of +politics or society, but also as a measure of motion. The Trusts +and Corporations stood for the larger part of the new power that +had been created since 1840, and were obnoxious because of their +vigorous and unscrupulous energy. They were revolutionary, +troubling all the old conventions and values, as the screws of +ocean steamers must trouble a school of herring. They tore +society to pieces and trampled it under foot. As one of their +earliest victims, a citizen of Quincy, born in 1838, had learned +submission and silence, for he knew that, under the laws of +mechanics, any change, within the range of the forces, must make +his situation only worse; but he was beyond measure curious to +see whether the conflict of forces would produce the new man, +since no other energies seemed left on earth to breed. The new +man could be only a child born of contact between the new and the +old energies. + + Both had been familiar since childhood, as the story has shown, +and neither had warped the umpire's judgment by its favors. If +ever judge had reason to be impartial, it was he. The sole object +of his interest and sympathy was the new man, and the longer one +watched, the less could be seen of him. Of the forces behind the +Trusts, one could see something; they owned a complete +organization, with schools, training, wealth and purpose; but of +the forces behind Roosevelt one knew little; their cohesion was +slight; their training irregular; their objects vague. The public +had no idea what practical system it could aim at, or what sort +of men could manage it. The single problem before it was not so +much to control the Trusts as to create the society that could +manage the Trusts. The new American must be either the child of +the new forces or a chance sport of nature. The attraction of +mechanical power had already wrenched the American mind into a +crab-like process which Roosevelt was making heroic efforts to +restore to even action, and he had every right to active support +and sympathy from all the world, especially from the Trusts +themselves so far as they were human; but the doubt persisted +whether the force that educated was really man or nature -- mind +or motion. The mechanical theory, mostly accepted by science, +seemed to require that the law of mass should rule. In that case, +progress would continue as before. + + In that, or any other case, a nineteenth-century education was +as useless or misleading as an eighteenth-century education had +been to the child of 1838; but Adams had a better reason for +holding his tongue. For his dynamic theory of history he cared no +more than for the kinetic theory of gas; but, if it were an +approach to measurement of motion, it would verify or disprove +itself within thirty years. At the calculated acceleration, the +head of the meteor-stream must very soon pass perihelion. +Therefore, dispute was idle, discussion was futile, and silence, +next to good-temper, was the mark of sense. If the acceleration, +measured by the development and economy of forces, were to +continue at its rate since 1800, the mathematician of 1950 should +be able to plot the past and future orbit of the human race as +accurately as that of the November meteoroids. + + Naturally such an attitude annoyed the players in the game, as +the attitude of the umpire is apt to infuriate the spectators. +Above all, it was profoundly unmoral, and tended to discourage +effort. On the other hand, it tended to encourage foresight and +to economize waste of mind. If it was not itself education, it +pointed out the economies necessary for the education of the new +American. There, the duty stopped. + + There, too, life stopped. Nature has educated herself to a +singular sympathy for death. On the antarctic glacier, nearly +five thousand feet above sea-level, Captain Scott found carcasses +of seals, where the animals had laboriously flopped up, to die in +peace. "Unless we had actually found these remains, it would have +been past believing that a dying seal could have transported +itself over fifty miles of rough, steep, glacier-surface," but +"the seal seems often to crawl to the shore or the ice to die, +probably from its instinctive dread of its marine enemies." In +India, Purun Dass, at the end of statesmanship, sought solitude, +and died in sanctity among the deer and monkeys, rather than +remain with man. Even in America, the Indian Summer of life +should be a little sunny and a little sad, like the season, and +infinite in wealth and depth of tone -- but never hustled. For +that reason, one's own passive obscurity seemed sometimes nearer +nature than John Hay's exposure. To the normal animal the +instinct of sport is innate, and historians themselves were not +exempt from the passion of baiting their bears; but in its turn +even the seal dislikes to be worried to death in age by creatures +that have not the strength or the teeth to kill him outright. + + On reaching Washington, November 14, 1904, Adams saw at a +glance that Hay must have rest. Already Mrs. Hay had bade him +prepare to help in taking her husband to Europe as soon as the +Session should be over, and although Hay protested that the idea +could not even be discussed, his strength failed so rapidly that +he could not effectually discuss it, and ended by yielding +without struggle. He would equally have resigned office and +retired, like Purun Dass, had not the President and the press +protested; but he often debated the subject, and his friends +could throw no light on it. Adams himself, who had set his heart +on seeing Hay close his career by making peace in the East, could +only urge that vanity for vanity, the crown of peacemaker was +worth the cross of martyrdom; but the cross was full in sight, +while the crown was still uncertain. Adams found his formula for +Russian inertia exasperatingly correct. He thought that Russia +should have negotiated instantly on the fall of Port Arthur, +January 1, 1905; he found that she had not the energy, but meant +to wait till her navy should be destroyed. The delay measured +precisely the time that Hay had to spare. + + The close of the Session on March 4 left him barely the +strength to crawl on board ship, March 18, and before his steamer +had reached half her course, he had revived, almost as gay as +when he first lighted on the Markoe house in I Street forty-four +years earlier. The clouds that gather round the setting sun do +not always take a sober coloring from eyes that have kept watch +on mortality; or, at least, the sobriety is sometimes scarcely +sad. One walks with one's friends squarely up to the portal of +life, and bids good-bye with a smile. One has done it so often! +Hay could scarcely pace the deck; he nourished no illusions; he +was convinced that he should never return to his work, and he +talked lightly of the death sentence that he might any day +expect, but he threw off the coloring of office and mortality +together, and the malaria of power left its only trace in the +sense of tasks incomplete. + + One could honestly help him there. Laughing frankly at his +dozen treaties hung up in the Senate Committee-room like lambs in +a butcher's shop, one could still remind him of what was solidly +completed. In his eight years of office he had solved nearly +every old problem of American statesmanship, and had left little +or nothing to annoy his successor. He had brought the great +Atlantic powers into a working system, and even Russia seemed +about to be dragged into a combine of intelligent equilibrium +based on an intelligent allotment of activities. For the first +time in fifteen hundred years a true Roman pax was in sight, and +would, if it succeeded, owe its virtues to him. Except for making +peace in Manchuria, he could do no more; and if the worst should +happen, setting continent against continent in arms -- the only +apparent alternative to his scheme -- he need not repine at +missing the catastrophe. + + This rosy view served to soothe disgusts which every parting +statesman feels, and commonly with reason. One had no need to get +out one's notebook in order to jot down the exact figures on +either side. Why add up the elements of resistance and anarchy? +The Kaiser supplied him with these figures, just as the Cretic +approached Morocco. Every one was doing it, and seemed in a panic +about it. The chaos waited only for his landing. + + Arrived at Genoa, the party hid itself for a fortnight at +Nervi, and he gained strength rapidly as long as he made no +effort and heard no call for action. Then they all went on to +Nanheim without relapse. There, after a few days, Adams left him +for the regular treatment, and came up to Paris. The medical +reports promised well, and Hay's letters were as humorous and +light-handed as ever. To the last he wrote cheerfully of his +progress, and amusingly with his usual light scepticism, of his +various doctors; but when the treatment ended, three weeks later, +and he came on to Paris, he showed, at the first glance, that he +had lost strength, and the return to affairs and interviews wore +him rapidly out. He was conscious of it, and in his last talk +before starting for London and Liverpool he took the end of his +activity for granted. "You must hold out for the peace +negotiations," was the remonstrance. "I've not time!" he replied. +"You'll need little time!" was the rejoinder. Each was correct. + + There it ended! Shakespeare himself could use no more than the +commonplace to express what is incapable of expression. "The rest +is silence!" The few familiar words, among the simplest in the +language, conveying an idea trite beyond rivalry, served +Shakespeare, and, as yet, no one has said more. A few weeks +afterwards, one warm evening in early July, as Adams was +strolling down to dine under the trees at Armenonville, he +learned that Hay was dead. He expected it; on Hay's account, he +was even satisfied to have his friend die, as we would all die if +we could, in full fame, at home and abroad, universally +regretted, and wielding his power to the last. One had seen +scores of emperors and heroes fade into cheap obscurity even when +alive; and now, at least, one had not that to fear for one's +friend. It was not even the suddenness of the shock, or the sense +of void, that threw Adams into the depths of Hamlet's +Shakespearean silence in the full flare of Paris frivolity in its +favorite haunt where worldly vanity reached its most futile +climax in human history; it was only the quiet summons to follow +-- the assent to dismissal. It was time to go. The three friends +had begun life together; and the last of the three had no motive +-- no attraction -- to carry it on after the others had gone. +Education had ended for all three, and only beyond some remoter +horizon could its values be fixed or renewed. Perhaps some day -- +say 1938, their centenary -- they might be allowed to return +together for a holiday, to see the mistakes of their own lives +made clear in the light of the mistakes of their successors; and +perhaps then, for the first time since man began his education +among the carnivores, they would find a world that sensitive and +timid natures could regard without a shudder. + +THE END |