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diff --git a/24982-8.txt b/24982-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dc4a7db --- /dev/null +++ b/24982-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9270 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Continental Monthly, Vol. 3, No. 1 +January 1863, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Continental Monthly, Vol. 3, No. 1 January 1863 + Devoted To Literature And National Policy + +Author: Various + +Release Date: April 3, 2008 [EBook #24982] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CONTINENTAL MONTHLY *** + + + + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by Cornell +University Digital Collections) + + + + + + + + + + THE + + CONTINENTAL MONTHLY. + + DEVOTED TO + + Literature and National Policy. + + + VOL. III. + + JANUARY-JUNE, 1863. + + + New York: + JOHN F. TROW, 50 GREENE STREET, + (FOR THE PROPRIETORS.) + 1863. + + + ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1863, by + JOHN F. TROW, + In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for + the Southern District of New York. + + + JOHN F. TROW, + PRINTER, STEREOTYPER, AND ELECTROTYPER, + 48 & 50 Greene Street, + New York. + + + * * * * * + + + THE CONTINENTAL MONTHLY. DEVOTED TO Literature and National Policy. + + + JANUARY, 1863. + + + NEW YORK: JOHN F. TROW 50 GREENE STREET (FOR THE PROPRIETORS). + + HENRY DEXTER AND SINCLAIR TOUSEY. WASHINGTON, D. C.: FRANCK TAYLOR. + + + * * * * * + + + CONTENTS.--No. XIII. + + + Huguenots of New Rochelle. Hon. G. P. Disosway, 1 + + Maccaroni and Canvas. No. 10. Henry P. Leland, 7 + + Thought, 23 + + Consequences of the Rebellion. Hon. F. P. Stanton, 26 + + "I;" or, Summer in the City, 40 + + The Ivy. Charles Godfrey Leland, 47 + + The Mishaps of Miss Hobbs. William L. Williams, 54 + + The Union. No. 4. New York and Virginia Compared, + &c. Hon. Robert J. Walker, 68 + + Promise. Edward S. Rand, Jr., 78 + + American Destiny. John Stahl Patterson, 79 + + Was He Successful? Richard B. Kimball, 98 + + The Physical Survey of New York Harbor and its + Approaches. Henry Mitchell, Assistant U. S. Coast + Survey, 105 + + An Englishman in South Carolina. (Concluded), 110 + + Pen, Pallet, and Piano, 117 + + Literary Notices, 122 + + Editor's Table, 126 + + * * * * * + +The article in the present number entitled "American Destiny," will be +found worthy of very attentive perusal. It is the production of a +Private attached to the 20th Battery of Ohio Volunteer Artillery. What +country but ours supplies _such_ material to the ranks of its common +soldiery? + + * * * * * + +The continuation of "A Merchant's Story," by the author of "Among the +Pines," is unavoidably delayed till the succeeding number. + +Our February Number will contain a Review of our Finances and Mr. +Chase's Report. By Hon. R. J. Walker. + + * * * * * + +ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1862, by JAMES R. +GILMORE, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United +States for the Southern District of New York. + +John F. Trow, Printer + + + * * * * * + + +THE CONTINENTAL MONTHLY: DEVOTED TO LITERATURE AND NATIONAL POLICY. + +VOL. III.-JANUARY, 1863.--No. I. + + + + +THE HUGUENOTS OF NEW ROCHELLE. + + +It is worthy of record that Westchester County, New York, was settled by +emigrants from New England and France, and both seeking homes from +religious persecutions. As early as 1642, John Throcmorton, with +thirty-five associates, made the first settlement in this section, with +the approbation of the Dutch authorities. With Roger Williams, driven +away from New England by the violence of Hugh Peters, they came here, +and called the region _Viedeland or Land of Peace_--a beautiful name for +the region of those seeking rest of conscience from wicked and violent +men. But even here the Puritan did not find the desired quiet and +safety; for several of his band perished in the Indian massacre that +sorely visited New Netherland on the 6th of October, 1643. + +The next settlement of Westchester was commenced in the year 1654, also +by some Puritans from Connecticut, who adopted its present name, and the +Rev. Ezekiel Fogge was their first 'independent minister;' and in 1684 a +Mr. Warham Mather was called 'for one whole year, and that he shall have +sixty pounds, in country produce, at money price, for his salary, and +that he shall be paid every quarter.' Governor Fletcher, however, +declined inducting the Presbyterian into that living, 'as it was +altogether impossible,' he said, 'it being wholly repugnant to the laws +of England to compel the subject to pay for the maintenance of any +minister who was not of the national Church.' The Episcopal Governor, +however, proposes 'a medium in that matter.' Some French emigrants had +already found their way to this region, and M. Boudet, a French +Protestant minister of Boston, who was in orders from the Bishop of +London, could preach in French and English, and the people called him to +the living, the parish being large enough for two clergymen. M. Boudet +was accordingly sent for, hoping, as the English Governor writes, 'to +bring the congregation over to the Church;' but, 'when he came, they +refused to call him.' The Yankee Puritans were evidently not to be +outmanaged by the English churchman. Westchester then numbered 'two or +three hundred English and Dissenters; a few Dutch.' + +On the 20th September, 1689, Jacob Leisler, of New York, purchased of +Mr. Pell 6,000 acres of land in Westchester, a portion of the manor of +Pelham, obtained from the Indians in 1640-'49. The grantor, heirs, and +assigns, as an acknowledgment, were to pay Mr. Pell 'one fatted calf on +every fourth and twentieth day of June, yearly, and every year, forever, +if demanded.' It is a well known fact that every Huguenot, on the +festival of St. John, pays his proportion toward the purchase of the fat +calf whenever claimed. + +During the year 1690, Leisler leased to the banished Huguenots these +lands, purchased for them, as they came directly here from England, and +were a portion of the 50,000 who found safety in that glorious +Protestant kingdom four years before the revocation of the Edict of +Nantes. At the revocation itself, not less than half a million escaped +from bigoted France to Holland, Germany, and England; and to those in +the latter country, Charles II., then on the British throne, granted +letters of denization under the great seal, and Parliament relieved them +from 'importation duties and passport fees.' During this same year, +many, flying from France, were aided in their escape by English vessels +off the island of Rhé, opposite brave _La Rochelle_. According to +tradition, some of these were transported to this region, naming their +new settlement in honor of their + + 'Own Rochelle, the fair Rochelle, + Proud city of the waters.' + +In the Documentary History of New York, vol. iii., p. 926, we find a +petition to Colonel Fletcher, Governor of the colony, signed by Thanet, +and Elei Cothouneau, in behalf of above twenty of these French refugees. +'Your petitioners,' they state, 'having been forced, by the late +persecutions in France, to forsake their country and estates, and flye +to ye Protestant princes * * *, wherefore they were invited to come and +buy lands in this province, and they might by their labour help the +necessityes of their families, and did spend all their small store with +the aid of their friends, whereof they did borrow great sums of money +[MS. torn]. They had lost their country and their estates, but saved +their good principles and a pure faith; and, in a strange land, +petitioned his Excellency 'to take their case in serious consideration, +and out of charity and pity to grant them for some years what help and +privileges your Excellency shall think convenient.' This is one of the +earliest authentic records (1681) we have met with concerning the New +Rochelle French refugees. + +Pell, the lord of the manor, besides the 6,000 acres already obtained, +also granted 100 additional, 'for the sake of the French church, erected +or about to be erected, by the inhabitants of the said tract of land.' +This Huguenot church in New Rochelle was built about 1692-'93, of wood, +and stood in the rear of the present mansion house. It was destroyed +soon after the Revolutionary war. Louis Bougeaud, about the same time, +donated a piece of land forty paces square, for a churchyard to bury +their dead; and, subsequently, a house with three acres of land was +given by the town to the Huguenot church forever. + +The Rev. DAVID BOUREPOS was the first minister of the New Rochelle +Huguenots; he had likewise served his French brethren on Staten Island. +The Governor requesting him to nominate 'some persons for the vacant +offices of justices of the peace,' he replies that 'he could not comply, +as none of his colonists at New Rochelle had a knowledge of the English +tongue.' Nothing now is known of Bourepos' ministry or history. From his +title of D.D., he must have been a man of learning; and we can learn +something about the time when he died from the date of his will. +'Letters of administration were granted to Martha Bourepos, wife of +David Bourepos, 25th of October, 1711' (New York Surrogates' Office). He +probably resigned his pastoral charge in 1694. + +Rev. DANIEL BOUDET, A. M., was the next minister of the French +Protestant church at New Rochelle, a native of France; and he +accompanied the French refugees, who reached Boston in the summer of +1686. About the year 1695, M. Boudet came to New Rochelle, and at first +used the French prayers, according to the Protestant churches of France, +and subsequently, every third Sunday, the Liturgy of the English Church. +In 1709 the French church at New Rochelle determined to follow the +example of some of their Reformed brethren in England, and conform to +the English Church. All the members except _two_ agreed to adopt the +Liturgy and Rites of the Church of England, as established by law. Some +thirty names appear on the document, requesting this important +ecclesiastical change; and for the information especially of the +genealogical reader, we note some of them: Michael Houdin, Jacob +Bleecker, David Lispenard, Isaac Guion, Peter Bertain, John Soulice, +Paul Lecord, Jean Abby, Jos. Antuny, Peter Bonnet, Peter Parquot, Benj. +Seacord, Judith Leconet, Allida Guion, Josiah Le Conte, Elizabeth +Lispenard, Moses de St. Croix, Deborah Foulon, Marie Neufville, Mary +Stouppe, Jean Nicolle, John Bryan, Oliver Besley, Frederick King, +Susanna Landrin, Anne Danielson, Rutger Bleecker, Mary Rodman, Agnes +Donaldson, Esther Angeoine, Thomas Steel, Jane Contine, Jane Maraux, +James Pine. 'The petitioners are members of the French Church at New +Rochelle' (1793), and 'principally descendants from French Protestants, +who fled from the religious persecutions in France, in the year one +thousand six hundred and eighty-one.' Their fathers settled at New +Rochelle, 1689, nearly a century before the date of this document. Few +lists of family names are more imposing than this; and to this day, +their descendants in Westchester County, increased to thousands, rank +with our most useful and respectable citizens in wealth, good works, and +piety. We are no great sticklers for genealogical _trees_ or _Doomsday +Books_, yet we believe in pride of family to a proper extent. There was +a time once, in this republican land of ours, when many gloried in +ignoring the fact that they came from distinguished stocks, as the +spirit of our democratic institutions opposed the notion of family +histories. We were all born of an honest, industrious race, for several +generations back, and that is enough; and so it may be. Still, a man, +when asked if he had a grandfather, would logically infer he had one, +but he could not historically, unless there was some record of the fact. +This indifference is happily passing way, and an interest of late is +manifesting itself in such researches. No American, in whose veins runs +Huguenot blood, need be ashamed of his origin. His ancestral history is +most honorable, brave, and proud. + +In 1705, Colonel Heathcote thus speaks of M. Boudet, the Huguenot +preacher at New Rochelle: 'A good man, and preaches very intelligibly in +English, which he does every third Sunday in his French congregation, +when he uses the Liturgy of the Church. He has done a great deal of +service since his first coming into this country. * * * He has thirty +pounds a year settled on him out of the public revenue here, as the +French minister in York hath; but that is paid with so much uncertainty +that he starves, for the use of it.' During the year 1710, Governor +Hunter permitted his congregation to build a new church of England, as +by law established, and the 'Venerable Propagation Society' presented +the new church with 'one hundred French prayer books of the small sort, +and twenty of a larger impression; and in consideration of the great +learning and piety of Monsieur Boudet, and his long and faithful +discharge of his office, they augmented his salary from £30 to £50 per +annum.' At this period we find the following excellent record of this +excellent French minister: 'M. Boudet is a good old man, near sixty +years of age, sober, just, and religious.' One hundred more French +prayer books were sent to his church, 'for the edification of the French +youth who have learned so much of that language as to join with him +therein.' During the year 1714, M. Boudet took the spiritual charge of +the Mohegan or River Indians, at which period he is called 'minister of +the French colonistic congregation at New Rochelle.' In 1714 he reports +fifty communicants in his church, and asks for an English Bible, with a +small quantity of English Common Prayers, because 'our young people, or +some of them, have sufficiently learned to read English for to join in +the public service, when read in English.' + +M. Boudet died in September, 1722, aged sixty-nine years, nearly +twenty-seven of which he had been the minister of the New Rochelle +church. He was eminently useful in keeping his congregation together +amidst its adverse circumstances, and was greatly beloved. He was +interred beneath the chancel floor of the old church; and for whose use +he bequeathed his library. + +The Rev. PIERRE STOUPPE, A. M., succeeded M. Boudet. He was also a +native of France, and said to be a son or nearly related to the Rev. M. +Stouppe, pastor of the French Protestant church in London, who was sent +to Geneva, in 1654, by Oliver Cromwell, to negotiate there in the +affairs of the French Protestants. He was born 1690, studied divinity at +Geneva, and accepted a call to the Huguenot church at Charleston, S. C. +Here he continued to preach until 1723, when, resigning the charge, he +conformed to the Church of England, crossing the Atlantic for +ordination. He was admitted to holy orders in 1723, and licensed to +officiate as a missionary in the colony of New York, and to the French +Protestants of New Rochelle, with a salary of £50 per annum. To this +latter flock he proved very acceptable, from his ability to preach in +French, the only language which most of them understood. His elders, or +_anciens_, as sometimes called, were then Isaac Quantein and Isaac +Guion. The new Huguenot pastor soon found trouble, as his predecessor +had, with the dissatisfied M. Moulinais and his followers. Still he was +useful: in 1726 he writes that he 'baptized six grown negroes and seven +negro children, fitted eight young people for the sacrament of the +Lord's Supper, to which they have been accordingly admitted,' and 'the +number of communicants at Easter was thirty-three.' + +In a letter of December 11, 1727, he presents some important information +concerning the early settlement of New Rochelle: 'The present number of +inhabitants amounts to very near four hundred persons. There is a dozen +of houses near the church, standing pretty close to one another, which +makes the place a sort of a town; the remainder of the houses and +settlements are dispersed up and down, as far as the above 6,000 acres +of land could bear. Nay, besides these, there were several other French +families, members of New Rochelle, settled without its bounds.' Such was +the commencement of the present picturesque and beautiful village of New +Rochelle. More than a century and a half has passed away since its +founders, the French refugees, emigrated to the spot; but their noble +and holy principles have left good, undying influences, now seen in the +refinement, morals, and religion of their descendants, in this entire +region. + +M. Stouppe further states that there were in the settlement two Quaker +families, three Dutch ones, four Lutherans. 'The first never assist on +assemblies; the Dutch and Lutheran, on the contrary, constantly assist +when divine service is performed in English, so that they may understand +it; and their children, likewise, have all been baptized by ministers of +the church. Only the French Dissenters have deserted it, upon M. +Moulinais, formerly one of the French ministers of New York, coming and +settling, now a year ago, among us; and it is also by his means and +inducement that they have built a wooden meeting-house within the time +they were unprovided for, that is, from my predecessor's death to my +arrival here. * * * + +'There is no schoolmaster as yet in New Rochelle: the parents take care +to instruct their own children, and that they do generally pretty well, +besides what instructions are given them in the church during summer by +the minister. * * * The number of slaves within New Rochelle is +seventy-eight: part of them constantly attend divine service, and have +had some instruction in the Christian faith by the care and assistance +of their respective masters and mistresses, so that my predecessor did +not scruple to baptize some, and even admit them to the communion of the +Lord's Supper; and I myself have, for the same consideration, baptized +fifteen of them within these three years, some children and some grown +persons, without the least prejudice to the rest of my flock.' It would +be well, in our boasted day of zeal and philanthropy, if all ministers +of the blessed gospel manifested the same commendable interest for the +spiritual welfare of the negroes, as this Huguenot pastor. + +About the period of the French war, he writes, June 5, 1758, 'that since +the war broke out, there have been great alterations in his +congregations, which have lost many of their members by removals, and by +enlisting in the king's service, and by death; nevertheless, the number +of his communicants is seventy-four, and he has baptized, within the +present half year, fifteen white and five black children.' + +The ministry of this faithful Huguenot terminated on the earth, by his +death in July, 1760. His biographer esteemed him a 'simple-minded, +conscientious man, who for thirty-seven years continued faithfully to +discharge the duties of his mission.' His communicants had increased +from thirty-eight to eighty, and he was greatly beloved by his +congregation. His remains were interred under the chancel of the old +French church at New Rochelle, where so long he had watched over the +little flock of his Master. M. Stouppe was succeeded by the + +Rev. MICHAEL HOUDIN, A.M. He was born in France, 1705, educated a +Franciscan friar, and, on Easter day, 1730, ordained a priest by the +Archbishop of Trêves, and subsequently preferred to the post of superior +in the convent of the Recollects at Montreal. But, disgusted with +monastic life, M. Houdin, at the commencement of the French war, left +Canada and retired to the city of New York. Here, on Easter day, 1747, +he made a public renunciation of Popery, and joined the Church of +England. Attaining great proficiency in the English language, in June, +1750, he was invited by the people of Trenton, N.J., to officiate as a +missionary in that State. + +When he first reached New York with his wife, in June, 1744, Governor +Clinton, suspicious of all Frenchmen at that moment, confined them to +their lodgings, guarded by two sentinels. The following day he was +examined by his Excellency, and learned that 'the French intended to +attack Oswego with eight hundred men, the French having a great desire +of being masters of that place.' Then M. Houdin was ordered to reside at +Jamaica, Long Island, where he complained that his circumstances were +'very low,' and 'can do nothing to get a living;' that 'his wife and +himself must soon come to want, unless his Excellency will be pleased to +take him into consideration.' After this appeal, the authorities advised +his return to the city, on his taking the oath of allegiance. + +For some years, M. Houdin officiated at Trenton and the neighboring +places as an 'itinerant missionary;' and in 1759 his services were +required, as a guide, for General Wolfe, in his well-known expedition +against Quebec. Before marching, he preached to the Provincial troops +destined for Canada, in St. Peter's church, Westchester, from St. +Matthew, ch. x. 28: 'Fear not them which kill the body.' And the French +chaplain escaped the dangers of the war; but his brave General, at the +very moment of victory, fell mortally wounded, on the Heights of +Abraham, September 13, 1759. After the reduction of Quebec, he asked +leave to join his mission again; but General Murray would not consent, +as there was no other person who could be depended on for intelligence +of the French movements. While M. Houdin was stationed at Quebec, an +attempt was made by the Vicar-General of all Canada to seduce him from +English allegiance, with an offer of great preferment in the Romish +Church. This pressing invitation found its way into the hands of +Generals Murray and Gage, when they sent a guard to arrest the +Vicar-General. + +M. Houdin, returning to New York, in 1761, was appointed 'itinerant +missionary' to New Rochelle, by the 'Venerable Society' of England, 'he +being a Frenchman by birth, and capable of doing his duty to them, both +in the French and English languages.' During his incumbency, Trinity +church, New Rochelle, received its first charter from George III., which +the present corporation still enjoys with all its trusts and powers. It +is dated in 1762, and was exemplified by his Excellency George Clinton +in 1793. In 1763 he writes, complaining that the Calvinists used +unlawful methods to obtain possession of the church glebe. These were +the few old French Protestant families who had not conformed to the +Church of England; and Houdin says of them: 'Seeing the Calvinists will +not agree upon any terms of peace proposed to them by our church, * * * +we are in hopes the strong bleeding of their purse will bring them to an +agreement after New York court.' + +The French Protestant preacher continued his pious labors at New +Rochelle until October, 1766, when he departed this life. He was a man +of considerable learning, irreproachable character, and esteemed a +worthy Christian missionary. His remains, which were the last of the +Huguenot pastors, were interred beneath the chancel of the old French +church at New Rochelle, and by the side of his predecessors, Boudet and +Stouppe. Since the removal of this sacred edifice, the ashes of these +earliest Protestant French missionaries to our land repose beneath the +public highway, and not a stone tells where they lie, or commemorates +their usefulness, excellences, or piety. Their silent graves ought not +thus to remain neglected and unhonored: some monumental record should +mark the spot where these early Huguenot preachers in America were +entombed. + +Boudet, Stouppe, and Houdin were the last of the Huguenot preachers in +our land of whose histories we can find anything, and as they never can +be fully written, we have made a more full record of these fragments +concerning their memories, than otherwise would have been written. +Especially let the children of the French Protestants in Westchester +venerate these men, who were consecrated to sacred offices in the days +of their pious ancestors, and, like Moses, led them from oppression and +bondage to the land of Canaan in this Western World. + +We might mention many who deserve the honor, among the descendants of +the New Rochelle Huguenots; but the name of one will suit our +purpose--JOHN JAY. He was born in New York, from a family originally of +La Guienne, France; and he was sent, by his fellow citizens to the +General Congress which assembled at the commencement of the conflict +between the colonies and England. In 1774 he signed the act of +association to suspend the importation of British merchandise; in 1779 +he was honored with the presidency of Congress. At the expiration of +this important post, Mr. Jay was commissioned to represent his country +at the court of Louis XVI., and he was one of the four commissioners +who signed, on the 30th November, 1782, the treaty of Versailles, by +which Great Britain recognized our NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE. A Huguenot, +ELIAS BOUDINOT, was the first president of the great national +institution, the American Bible Society; and at his death, bequeathed to +it a noble benefaction. The French Protestants were always ardent lovers +of the BIBLE, and John Jay succeeded Mr. Boudinot in his important +office of president to that noble institution. 'No one in America,' says +the eminent Dr. Baird, 'need blush at having one of these respectable +Huguenots among his ancestors;' and Bancroft, the historian of our land, +recognizes in them that moral elevation of which they gave so many +proofs in every country where they settled; and he adds: 'The children +of the French Calvinists have certainly good reason to hold the memory +of their fathers in great honor.' (Vol. ii, p. 183.) So think we. + + + + +MACCARONI AND CANVAS. + +X. + +A WALK AROUND SEGNI. + + +There are three quiet old places on the Continent that Caper always +remembers with solemn pleasure--Breda in Holland, Segni in Italy, +Neufchâtel in Switzerland. He reposed in Breda, rested in Segni, was +severely tranquil in Neufchâtel: the real charm of travelling is best +appreciated when one is able to pause in one's headlong career in some +such place and meditate over it. Caper paused for many months at Segni. + +SEGNI, or Signia, a Latium city of the Volscians, was, after its +colonization by the Romans, always faithful to the Republic. Strabo, +Pliny, Plautus, Martial, Juvenal, Silius, Italicus, Dionysius +Halicarnassus, and Livy, all make mention, in one way or another, of +this city. Little is known of its history, from the fact that it was +burned to the ground by the order of the Duke of Alva, viceroy of +Naples, on the 14th of August, 1557; and in the fire all records of the +city were destroyed. Its polygonal or Cyclopean walls, of Pelasgic +origin, still remain in many parts as perfect as they ever were: +consisting of gigantic blocks of hewn limestone, they are fitted one +into another with admirable precision; no mortar was used in laying +them, and there they stand, these well-named Cyclopean walls, for some +of the stones are 12 feet long by 5 feet wide, firmly as if centuries on +centuries had not sent a myriad of storms to try their strength. There +are several gates in these walls, noted among which is one called the +Saracen's Gate; it is known in architecture from its indicating by its +form one of the first attempts toward the pointed arch. + +In walking through the town, you find here and there bits of middle-age +architecture, which have escaped ruin; here a door, there a window, of +graceful design, built around with the rough masonwork for which Segni +is noted in later days; but the greater number of the houses are +constructed in the rudest manner, indicating the poverty and ignorance +of the majority of the inhabitants. It is, however, a decent poverty, +for, to the credit of the town be it spoken, there was not, when Caper +was there, a professional beggar, excepting the friars, in or around it. + +Taking the first street--if a rough road winding around the top of the +mountain, and but four or five feet wide, may be called so--Caper saw at +the doors of the houses, standing chatting to each other, many old +women, their white hair flying in every direction, who, as they talked, +knitted stockings; or, with distaff in hand, twirled the spindle, making +flax into thread for spinning, or wool into woof and web for weaving. +Hearing a shuttle, he looked in at an open door, and found a young girl +busily weaving a heavy blue cloth at a queer old loom; not far from her, +an elderly woman was weaving flax thread into coarse, heavy linen goods. +Passing along, he heard the whir of millstones, and, entering a house, +saw a girl working one of the handmills of the country; on a stand, +where there was a stone basin, the girl turned in the wheat; another +stone, fitting exactly in the basin, was attached to the ceiling by a +long pole; catching hold of this, she gave the stone a rotary motion, +grinding the wheat very fairly. + +Suddenly Caper saw in the back part of the room a woman, holding what +seemed a large, red-headed caterpillar, without any fuzz on it; she was +evidently nourishing it in the way represented in that famous painting +'The Roman Daughter,' thus proving that it was a baby. Its resemblance +to the caterpillar arose from the way it was swathed: around all the +Segnian infants they wind a strip of knit or woven cloth, about eight +feet long and four inches wide, fairly mummifying them; then, to crown +the work, they put on their little bullet heads, a scarlet cap with +brilliant flowers and ribbons, making the poor babies resemble anything +but Christian productions. In a neighboring town they hang their babies +up in a wicker basket, resembling the birch-bark contrivances for our +Indian papooses. + +Continuing his walk, our artist next came to where they were building a +house; and its future occupant, who was a man of some enterprise and +action, told Caper, with a long face, that he almost despaired of seeing +it completed: the harvest came, and almost every workman went off to the +wheat fields, leaving the house unfinished until they were ready to +recommence work on it, well knowing that there were no other ones in the +town able to do their labor; however, those who mixed mortar, carried +tiles, and stone, and plaster, were hard at work. These laborers were +girls of from twelve to sixteen years old, and one or two of them, spite +of dirt and hard labor, were really handsome, with bright, intelligent +countenances. They earned one paul (ten cents) each a day, and seemed +contented and happy, joking with each other and laughing heartily nearly +all the time. Probably our Chippewa Indians would think twice before +they set the young women of their tribe to hod-carrying as a livelihood; +but then the Chippewas are savages. The hods carried by these girls on +their heads were flat, wooden trays, square at each end: once poised on +the head, they balanced themselves, and were carried around without a +fall. This carrying on the head, by the women, from an eight-gallon +barrel of wine down to a sickle or pocket handkerchief, helps to give +them their straight forms and fine carriage of head, neck, and +shoulders. + +Napoleon the First, in breaking down most of the feudal customs of the +Papal States, should be regarded by the poor inhabitants as one of their +greatest benefactors; still, many a remnant of the middle ages remains +firmly marked in the habits of the country people. Even now the +inhabitants of the Campagna live, not in isolated houses, but in small +towns built around the once protecting castle or powerful monastery, +where, in times past, they fled, when attacked in the fields by the +followers of some house inimical to the one under whose protection they +lived. Follow the entire Campagna, from Rome to Naples, by way of +Frosinone, and you will see the ruins of watch towers, built to warn the +workmen in the fields of the approaching enemy. Thus, in Segni, although +the fields cultured by the inhabitants, lay miles away at the foot of +the mountain, yet every day seven eighths of the 5,000 inhabitants +walked from four to six miles or more down the mountains to the scene of +their daily labors, returning the same distance at sunset. Often and +often Caper saw the mother, unable to leave the infant at home, carry it +in a basket on her head to the far-away fields, bringing it back at +night with the additional burden of corn shelled or wheat garnered in +the field. Trotting along gayly at her side, you may be sure, was the +ever-present black pig, with a long string wound around his body, by +which he is attached to some tree or stone as soon as he reaches the +fields, and thus prevented from rooting where he should not root. The +day's labor of his mistress finished, she unties him, wraps the string +around his body, and he follows her up to the town with the docility of +a well-trained dog. + +It is the women, too, who daily walk four or five miles up the mountain +for their supply of firewood. Arriving at the forest of the commune, +they collect split wood and fagots, tying them into round bundles, a +yard long, and two or three feet in diameter, and return to Segni, +carrying this small woodpile all the way on their heads. It is the +women, too, who bring water from the fountains for their household use, +in A copper vessels (_conche_) holding from two to three gallons: these +are placed on the head, and carried self-balancing sometimes for long +distances. At a fair held at Frosinone, Caper once saw several women, +each one carrying on her head two of these conche filled with water, one +balanced on the other; and this for half a mile up a steep road, from +the fountain at the foot of the mountain, to the town above. + +The women, too, do their fair share of harvesting; they cut the wheat +with sickles; then, after it is cut, separate the grains from the stalk +by rubbing a handful of stalks with a small piece of wood in which a +series of iron rings are placed, making a rude rasp; collecting the +grains, they then carry them from the fields, sifting them at their +leisure in a large round sieve, suspended from a triangle of long poles; +then, on a breezy day, you may see them standing over a large cloth, +holding a double handful of wheat high above their heads, and letting it +fall: the wind blows away the chaff, and the clean grain falls on the +outspread cloth. + +In the autumn, when the men are employed in the vintage, comes the +chestnut season; and then the women, who are not busy in the vineyard, +and who regard it as a frolic, go for miles up in the mountains, +collecting the nuts, large as our horse chestnuts. They form no small +part of the winter stock of food for the mountaineers, while the refuse +nuts are used to fatten the pet pig. We can have but small conception of +the primeval look these chestnut woods wear, the trees growing to an +enormous size, many a one being ten to twelve feet in diameter. The +weather is glorious during this season: clear, bright, and buoyantly +refreshing, blow the autumn winds; and as Caper, day after day, wandered +among the old trees, now helping an old woman to fill a sack with the +brown nuts, now clubbing the chestnuts from the trees for a young girl, +he, too, voted chestnut gathering a rare good time. Far off, and now +near, the girls were singing their quaint wild songs. Thus heard, the +_rondinella_ sounds well: it is of the woods and deserts; strange, +barbaric, oriental, bacchantic, what you please, save dawdling +drawing-room and piano-ic. + +To resume the walk around the town: Caper, after leaving the man who was +employing the sylphide hod-carriers, called in at the shop were cigars +were sold, and outside of which was a tin sign, on which was painted the +papal coat-of-arms, and the usual words, indicating that the government +monopolies, salt and tobacco, were for sale. Having bought some cigars, +he entered into conversation with the man who kept the store. He +learned, what he already knew, that everything in the town was done by +hand, weaving, spinning, thrashing, grinding wheat and corn, &c. + +'Do you know,' said Caper, 'that in some countries all these labors are +done by steam?' + +It is dangerous to tell great truths; and after our artist had spoken, +he saw, by the expression of the man's face, that he had placed himself +in danger; but suddenly the cigar-seller's face was illuminated with +intelligence, as he exclaimed: + +'Oh, you mean that infernal thing that goes _boo-hoo-hoo_? I saw it when +I was in Rome, last week: it's going to drag cars to Civita Vecchia on +the iron road.' + +'That's it,' answered Caper, greatly relieved. + +'_Benissimo!_ we never had anything of the kind; and what is more, WE +DON'T WANT ONE!' + +Caper walked out, determined to write to New York, and beg some of the +good people there to save a few missionaries from death among the +Fejees, and send them to Segni, where there was a wide field open for +the dissemination of knowledge. + +Passing along, he next came to the small square in front of the church, +where once every week a market was held: here he found a man, who had +just arrived with fresh fish from Terracina--the Terracina of the opera +of 'Fra Diavolo.' Among the small fish, sardines, &c., which were +brought to town that day, in time for Friday's dinner, when every one +kept _vigilia_, was one large fish, which our artist determined to buy +and present to his landlord at the inn. He asked its price. + +'That fish,' said the fishman, 'is for the dinner of the Illustrissimo +and Reverendissimo Monsignore the Bishop; and if you were to turn every +scale in its body into baioccho, _and give them all to me_, you couldn't +have it.' + +Caper was sorely tempted to turn the scales in his own favor, for he +knew, if he were to pay well, he could bear off the fish triumphantly, +spite of the seller's declaration; but a thought of the sore affliction +he would bring into the mind of the fat old gentleman in purple, with a +gold chain around his neck, who rejoiced in the name of bishop, deterred +him from his heretical proceeding, and he walked away in deep +meditation. + +The patron saint of Segni is San Bruno; and, to do him honor, every +other male baby born in the town is called Bruno; so our artist, in his +walks around town, heard this name howled, cried, screamed, shrieked, +called, and appealed to, on an average once in five minutes, through the +hours when the male inhabitants were about and awake. This similarity in +names was, by no means, accompanied by similarity in appearance, for +there were more light-haired and blue-eyed men by this name in the place +than any one, having the popular idea of what an Italian looks like, +would believe could be found in a town of the same size in America. +Trying to account for the Norse look of many of the Segnians, and the +Oriental look of many others, Caper climbed up to the top of the +mountain above the town, and seating himself in the shadow of the old +Cyclopean wall, looked down the mountain side to the broad valley below +him. + +'As all roads lead to Rome,'soliloquized he, 'it's no wonder that those +two famous old ways down there in the valley, the Via Trajana and the +Via Latina, should have once been passed over by white-haired, blue-eyed +Goths, and, seeing the old town perched up here, they should have +climbed up, having strong legs. Once here, they put all the men to the +sword, made love to the girls, plundered all that was plunderable; drank +up all the liquor, Sambuca, Rosoglio, 'Rhum di Giamaica,' and Acqua +viva, they could put their paws on; then, having a call further on, left +the girls, small babes, and other _impedimenta_ (baggage!), rushing onto +Rome to settle accounts with their bankers there, like hon-o-rable men. +_So_ you find many flaxen-haired, sky-eyed people up here, and they are +rough and bold and independent. + +Years and years after them, clambering over the mountains from the +seacoast, came the Saracens--oh, you were the boys!--and they, being a +refined and elegantly educated circle, compared with the Goths, of +course did the same amount of slaughtering and love-making, only more +refinedly and elegantly; cutting off heads instead of knocking them in; +and with the gold spoons and other instruments that they found in the +church, instead of making sword hilts and helmets, they at once worked +them into graceful, crescent-shaped earrings, and curious rings, chains, +and brooches, giving them to the girls and winning their hearts in the +old-fashioned style. The girls, for their part, declared to each other +that when these odious Moors went away, they would give all the earrings +and brooches back to the church. But they forgot to; which accounts for +their wearing them, or those of similar pattern, to this day. + +The gentle Saracens, moreover, wishing to introduce their own school of +music, taught the girls to sing; proof of which is the horrible songs +the contadini still have, resembling in no wise pious Christian hymns, +but rather a cross between a growl to Odin and a yell to Allah! A growl +to Odin, for the girls could not forget the Goths, albeit they only knew +them through reports of their foremothers. + +Then the Saracens turned their attention to crockery ware, pots, pans, +and water jars; forming like fruits and flowers the yielding clay, and +establishing models that are every hour to be seen around one in this +old nest. Clothes, too, they thought, should be made as they saw 'fit;' +and, accordingly, head-dresses and dresses, under garments, &c., _à la +Saracenesca_, were all the rage; and as the colors were in no wise +sombre or melancholy to behold, the girls took kindly to them, and, +slightly modified, wear them still. When you see the _pane_, the white +cloth worn on the women's heads, remember it was once an Oriental +_yashmak_, falling around and concealing the face of the Italian lady +love of a Saracen; but when the Saracens departed, they rolled up the +veil and disclosed to delighted Christians the features of Rita or +Maria, who figured for a time as Zoe or Fatima. + +With their religion, the Saracens were not so successful--they could not +make it popular; so they waived this point, contented with having set +the fashions, and introduced their own style of music, crockery, and +jewelry. + +Thus reflecting, Caper stopped short, regarded his watch, found it was +near dinner time--the pastoral hour of noon-day--and then turned to walk +down to the inn. On his way he passed a store having French calicoes in +the window, and mourned in his heart to think how short a time it would +be before these became popular, and the homemade picturesque dresses of +the female Segnians would be discarded. The time, too, was fast +coming--with the railroad from Rome to Naples--when travellers will +overrun these mountain towns, and the price of board shoot up from forty +cents to a dollar or two: then the inhabitants will learn geography and +become mercenary, and will learn arithmetic and blaspheme (in their way) +at _forestieri Inglese_, _Americani_, _Francese_, or _Tedeschi_, and +cheat them. Then the peace of the Volscians will have departed, never, +oh, never more to return. + +Then the women will wear--bonnets! and cheap French goods; will no +longer look like moving woodyards, bringing fagots on their heads down +mountain sides; no longer bear aloft the graceful _conche_ filled with +sweet water from the fountain, for hydraulic rams will do their +business; no longer lead the sportive pig to pastures new, but pen him +up, and feed him when the neighbors are not looking on! These days will +sorely try the men: now they labor in the fields in shirts and drawers, +never thinking of putting on their pantaloons until they return to the +very gates of the town, where, at sunset, you may see them, ten or +twelve deep, thus employed before entering the city; but in the future +they will have to observe _les convenances_ and make their toilette in +the fields. This they will do with great grumbling, returning homeward, +and they will sing _rondinelle_ bearing severely on the _forestieri_ who +have ruined the good old pod-augur days when they made _vendetta_ +without trouble: thus reflecting, the donkeys they ride, while their +wives walk and carry a load, will receive many virulent punches intended +for other objects. + +'Signor Giacomo, dinner is served,' said the landlord, as Caper entered +the old inn. + +Cool wine, roast lamb, wild pigeons, crisp salad, with a broiled +partridge; great bunches of luscious grapes, figs freshly picked, _and_ +maccaroni à la Milanese. Such was our artist's dinner that day. +Patriarchally simple of a necessity; but, then, what can you expect in a +town where the British Lion has never yet growled for a bushel of raw +beef when he is fed, or swore at the landlord for not having a pint of +hay boiled in hot water (tea?) for breakfast, when he is nervous? + + +FIVE FAIRS AND FESTIVALS. + +Do not believe, in spite of all you hear about the benighted Papal +States, that the people spend their holidays groaning and begging to +depart from this vale of tears: on the contrary, the ignorant wretches +believe in enjoying every moment of life; and, to judge by the Segnians, +who are by no means dyspeptical, they do so with all their might. They +know, if they fall sick, good Doctor Matteucci attends them carefully +and well, without any charge, for he receives a salary from the commune. +They know, if they have good health and do their work, they will be +rewarded every now and then with a holiday, in which religion is so +tempered with lottery tickets, wine drinking, fireworks, horse races, +and trading, that, shorn lambs as they are, paying to the church three +cents for every twenty-five pounds of corn they may grind, and as large +a portion of their crops for the rent of the lands they till, they still +have jolly good times at the fairs and festivals in their own and +neighboring towns. + +Every town has its patron saint, and it is in honor of his day that they +hold one grand festival each year. To accommodate temporal affairs, a +fair is also held on the same day, so that the country people of the +neighborhood may purchase not only the necessaries, but the simple +luxuries they need or long for. + +Besides the only principal festival and fair in Segni to San Bruno, +already described, they had three minor celebrations of minor saints, +substitutes, as Rocjean declared, for Pomona, Bacchus, and Ceres: +certainly, the saints' days fell very curiously about the same time +their predecessors were worshipped. + +It is, however, of five festivals and fairs held in five neighboring +towns, that the present chapter treats; so let the drums beat while our +three artists proceed to enjoy on paper the days they celebrated. + +One evening, the vetturino, Francesco, came to the trio and told them +that on the next day but one, Sunday, there would be a fair and _festa_ +at Frosinone, a town about twenty-three miles from Segni, and that if +they wished to go, he had three seats to hire in his _vettura_. Having +heard that the costumes to be seen there were highly picturesque, and +anxious to study the habits of the people in holiday guise, our artists +determined to go. At daybreak on the appointed morning, having +breakfasted and filled their flasks with wine, they started with a guide +to walk down to Casa Bianca, a small _osteria_, distant, as the guide +assured them, about two miles; three miles, as Francesco swore to; four +miles, as Gaetano, the landlord declared; and six miles as Caper and +Rocjean were ready to affirm to. Down the mountain road they scrambled, +only losing their patience when they found they had to wade a small +marsh, where their tempers and polished boots were sorely tried. Once +over, they reached Casa Bianca, and found the vettura there, having +arrived an hour before from Rome, thirty odd (and peculiar) miles +distant; and now with the same horses they had to make twenty-three +miles more before ten A. M., according to agreement. Rocjean and Caper +sat outside the carriage, while Dexter sat inside, and conversed with +two other passengers, cheerful and good-natured people, who did all in +their power to make everybody around them contented and jolly. + +The road went through the fertile Sacco valley; right and left rich +pasture grounds, or wheat and corn fields; the mountains on either side +rising in grandeur in the early sunlight, their tops wreathed with veils +of rising mist. They soon passed Castelaccio (the termination _accio_ is +one, according to Don Boschi, of vilification; consequently, the name +may be translated Bigbad Castle): this castle belongs to Prince +Torlonia, apropos of which prince it is rather singular that all his +money cannot buy good Latin; for any one may read at Frascati, staring +you in the face as it does, as you wind up the villa, engraved on a +large marble tablet, an inscription touching + + TORLONIA ET UXSOR EJUS, ETC. + +UXSOR may be Latin, but it is the kind that is paid for, and not the +spontaneous gift of classic Italy. + +The carriage next passed through Ferentino, _Ferentinum_ of the +Volscians, where it stopped for a time to let Rocjean see the stone +called _La Fata_, whereon is inscribed the noble generosity of +Quintilius Priscus, who gave _crustula_ and _mulsum_ (cakes and mead) to +the old people; _sportulæ_ (cold victuals?) to the decurions, and _nucum +sparsiones_ (a sprinkling of nuts) for the small children. + +After which antiquarian research, and a drink of wine at the _Hotel des +Étrangères_, the trio called loudly on Francesco to drive on; for the +name of the inn suggested similar signboards, Hotel d'Angleterre, Hotel +Vitoria, Hotel des Isles Brittaniques, at all of which one or other of +our travellers had been savagely fleeced. + +The carriage at last arrived at the tavern, at the foot of the mountain +on which Frosinone stands, and our artists found that the ascent must be +made on foot: this, in the face of the broiling sun, was equal to two +hot baths at least. However, they determined to take it easily, and +accordingly tarried for a while by an old bridge crossing a small +stream, running bright and clear, where cattle were drinking; then they +stopped at the neighboring fountain, where the girls were filling copper +water jars, and dusty contadini were washing themselves in order to +present a clean face at the fair; and listened with pleasure to the +hearty laughter and holiday jests bandied about with profusion. Thus in +refreshed spirits they commenced the ascent. + +On the brow of the mountain, in front rank of the houses of the city, +arose the walls of what they thought at first glance was a very large +factory; they subsequently learned it was a male-factory or prison; +this, with the governor's palace and other lofty buildings, gives +Frosinone a stately air, only lost on entering the place and finding +the streets narrow, steep, and not particularly clean. On entering the +street leading to the main gate of entrance, their ears were saluted by +the squealing and grunting of many hogs collected together in small +droves, on both sides the way, for sale or barter. Here stood a bronzed +peasant, dressed only in shirt and drawers, with boots up to his knees; +a steeple crowned straw hat, with a large carnation pink in it, shading +his closely shaved face, on which no hair was seen save two long curls +pendent in front of his ears, while the back part of his head was shaved +nearly as smooth as his face. This man held in his arms a small pig in a +violent state of squeals. Mixed up among the pigs were many women +dressed in lively colored costumes, looking graceful and pretty, and +gaining added effect from the dark tones of the old gray houses around +them. Advancing upward, at times at angles of forty-five degrees and +more, through narrow streets crowded with picturesque houses (if they +did threaten to tumble down), they at last reached the Piazza: here the +squeeze commenced, crockery, garlic, hardware, clothing, rosaries and +pictures of the saints, flowers; while donkeys, gensdarmes, jackasses, +and shovel hats, strangers, and pretty girls were all pressing with +might and main--they did not seem to know where--probably to the nearest +wine shops, which were driving a brisk trade. + +Reaching an inn, our artists ordered dinner, and amused themselves, +while it was being prepared, looking out of the window at the crowds in +the street beneath. On the opposite side of the way were two open +windows, evidently 'behind the scenes' of the main church, since many of +the principal actors in the ceremonies were here attiring themselves in +curious robes prior to their appearing in public. A tallow-faced looking +youth, with no hair on the extreme crown of his head, while swinging a +long wax candle around, struck a fat old gentleman, with a black silk +gown and white lace bertha over it, in the back; whereupon, I regret to +write it, the fat old gentleman struck the tallow-faced youth the +severest kind of a blow below the belt, entirely contrary to the rules +of the P. R. Dexter, having watched the performance, at its conclusion +shouted for very joy; whereupon the stout man, raising his eyes, saw in +the opposite windows the three _forestieri_, and I do assure you that +such a look of malevolence as crossed his face for a moment contained +all the Borgias ever knew of poisons and assassinations. Luckily, the +artists did not have to go to confession to that man. + +Dinner finished, Rocjean proposed a walk. They first went to the old +church, but found its interior ruined with whitewash and tawdry +decorations. The music, however, was excellent, but the crowd of +worshippers intense; so they repaired to the cattle market, in the +piazza in front of the prison. They had been there but a short time, +before the procession in honor of the patron saint of Frosinone, whose +full-length seated effigy was carried by bearers, passed them. Along +with other emblems borne by priests or laymen was a cross, apparently of +solid wood, the upright piece fully twelve feet long, and as large round +at the base as your thigh; the transverse piece of the cross was +proportionately large; this was borne with ease by a moderate-sized man. +Caper was at a loss to account for the facility with which the bearer +handled pieces of timber as large as small joists of a house; so he +asked a good-natured looking citizen standing near him, if that wooden +cross was not very heavy? + +'Eh! that heavy? Why, it's not wood; it's made of stove-pipes!' + +The citizen also told Caper that the seated effigy of the patron saint +had had a hard time of it some years ago, for the country around +Frosinone suffering from a long drought, the inhabitants had in vain +prayed, begged, and supplicated the aforementioned saint to send them +rain; but he remained obdurate, until at last, seeing him so stubborn, +they seized him, in spite of the priests, carried him down to the +bridge, neck and heels, and threatened him, by all his brother and +sister saints, to put him to bed--bed of the stream (it was nearly +dry)--unless he speedily gave them a good supply of rain. In a couple of +days, sure enough, the rain came down, and in such torrents, that there +was a grand rush of the country people from the vicinity, begging the +saint to hold up. Since that time he has behaved very decently, and just +now is in high favor. + +There were some fine cattle at the fair; and Dexter, noticing a peculiar +and becoming headdress to several of the long-horned oxen, made of the +skin of some animal, ornamented with bright-colored strips of woollen +with tassels at the end, tried to purchase a pair, but found the owners +generally unwilling to sell them: however, one man at last agreed to +sell a pair made of wolf-skin, with bright red, yellow, and green strips +and tassels, for a fair price, and Dexter at once bought them--as a +study, and also as an ornament for his studio. + +The tombola in the Piazza Tosti drew together a large crowd; and then it +was that Rocjean was in his element, Caper delighted, and Dexter +rejoiced in the study of costumes and motives for paintings. The straw +hats worn here looked more picturesque than the black felt conical hats +of the other end of the valley, but the 'soaplocks' of the men were +villanous. The women were brilliant in holiday attire, among their +dresses showing that half-modern Greek, half Neapolitan style, uniting +the classic with the middle age. The _ciociare_, as those who wear +_ciocie_ or sandals are called, were there in full force: one of these +men, with whom Rocjean had a long conversation, told our artist that the +price paid for enough leather for a pair was forty cents. Each sandal is +made of a square piece of sole leather, about twelve inches long by five +inches wide, and is attached to the foot by strings crossing from one +side to the other, and bending the leather into the rough resemblance of +a shoe. The leather is sold by weight, and the _ciociara_ declared that +sandals were far better than shoes. + +'But, when it rains, your feet are wet,' suggested Rocjean. + +'_Seguro_' (certainly), answered _ciociara_. + +'And when it snows, they are wet; and when it is muddy, they won't keep +the mud out; and when it's dusty, where is the dust?' + +'Down there in the Campagna!' answered the man. 'But you seem to forget +that we wrap cloths over our feet and legs, as high as the knee, and tie +them all on with strings; or else our women knit brown woollen leggings, +which cover our feet and legs. Well, good or bad, they are better for +_us_ (_noi oltri_) than shoes.' + +Fireworks and a ball at the Governor's palace closed that saint's day; +and the next afternoon our artists left the town to return to Segni; but +as toward midnight they began to ascend the long, steep road leading to +the town, they were overtaken by a thunderstorm, which for grandeur +equalled anything that Caper at least had ever seen. The lightning was +nearly incessant, at one flash revealing the valley below them, and +distant mountain peaks after peaks trembling in white light, then all +black as black could be; patches of road in front of the old carriage, +silver one second, sable another; while the thunder cracked and roared, +echoing and reechoing from rock to rock, ringing away up the wild gorge +around which the road wound. The rain fell in torrents, and pebbles and +stones loosened from the mountain sides came falling around them. +Francesco, the driver, on foot, urged the tired horses onward with +blows and the most powerful language he could bring to bear; he accused +the off-horse of being a pickpocket and an _arciprete_, and a robber of +a small family, of which Francesco assured him he knew he was the +father. Then the mare Filomena came in for her share of vilifications, +being called a '_giovinastra_ (naughty girl), a _vecchierellaccia_ (vile +old hag), a--' Here the rain, pebbles, lightning, and thunder +interrupted the driver, and Rocjean told him to take breath and a pull +at his flask, which was filled with _Sambuca_. Thus refreshed, although +soaked to the skin, Francesco livened up, and from despondency passed to +hope, then to joy, finally landing the old carriage near the gate of +Segni, in time for the artists to see far below them the clouds rolling +rapidly away, and hear the thunder grumbling far off, over some other +town, some other benighted travellers. + +VALMONTONE was the next town visited, and the festival in honor of its +patron saint, Luigi Gonzago, was a decided success; the singing in the +church operatically excellent; a good-sized tombola; a funny dinner in +the back room of a grocery store, one half of the floor of which was +covered with shelled corn, while the other half was occupied by the +united legs of two tables, a dozen chairs, four dogs, one cat, six male +and three female country people. There was a lamb roasted whole, a small +barrel of wine, plenty of bread, find-your-own-knives-and-be-happy +dinner. Coming out of this small den, and passing a fine large house, +opposite the grand palace of the Prince of Valmontone, behold an Italian +acquaintance of Caper's standing in a balcony with a very handsome +woman; another moment, and Caper was invited in, and passed from poverty +to wealth in the twinkling of an eye. Rooms full of guests, tables +covered with damask linen, silver, flowers, crystal glasses, delicate +food (too late!), good wine (just in time!), charming ladies. + +'_Condessa_, permit me to present Signor' Cahpeer, Americano.' + +A rich, full, musical voice, lovely eyes, a brilliant toilette--is it +any wonder the heart of our artist beat _con animo_, when the beautiful +woman welcomed him to Valmontone, and hoped it would not be his last +visit. Other introductions, other glasses of sparkling wine--then off +for the street, excitement, music, coffee, and a cigar; pretty girls +with tender eyes; the prince's stables, with hawks nailed to the doors, +and blood horses in their stalls; contadini, cowbells, jackasses; ride +home on horseback by moonlight; head swimming, love coming in, fun +coming out. Exit festival the second. + +GAVIGNANO was the scene of the third festival; it is a small town, lying +at the foot of Segni. Caper went there on horseback, and, after a +regular break-neck ride down the mountain, the path winding round like a +string on an apple, arrived there in time to escape a pouring rain, and +find himself in a large hall with three beautiful sisters, the Roses of +Montelanico, numerous contadini friends, and the wine bottles going +round in a very lively and exhilarating manner. The rain ceasing, Caper +walked out to see the town, when his arm was suddenly seized, and, +turning round, who should it be but Pepe the rash, Pepe the +personification of Figaro: a character impossible for northern people to +place outside of a madhouse, yet daily to be found in southern Europe. +Rash, headstrong, full of deviltry, splendid appetite, and not much +conscience--volatile, mocking, irrepressible. + +Pepe seized Caper by the arm with a loud laugh, and, only saying, +'_Evviva_, Signor' Giacomo, come along!' without giving him breathing +time, rushed him up narrow streets, down dirty alleys, through a crowd +of mules, mud, and mankind, until they both caught a glimpse of a small +church with green garlands over the door. Hauling Caper inside, he +dragged him through a long aisle crowded with kneeling worshippers, +smashed him down on a bench in front of the main altar, tearing half a +yard of crimson damask and nearly upsetting the priest officiating; and +then, while Caper (red in the face, and totally unfit to hear the fine +chorus of voices, among which Mustafa's, the soprano, came ringing out) +was composing himself to listen, Pepe grabbed him with a 'Music's over; +_andiamo_ (let's go). Did you hear Mustafa? _Bella voce_, tra-la-leeeee! +Mustafa's a contadino; I know his pa and ma; they changed him when only +five years old. Thought he was a Turk, didn't you? He sings in the +Sistine chapel. Pretty man, fat; positively not a sign of a beard.' + +Struggling to escape, Caper was rushed out of church, and into a _caffe_ +to have a tumblerful of boiling coffee poured down his throat, and again +be expressed up hill at a break-neck rate, catching sights of +tumble-down old houses, mud, water, flowers, peasants, costumes, +donkeys, until he was landed in the Gran' Piazza. Whew! + +'Must see the hall where the concert is to-night. Beautiful girl, +_bellisima, pfisp!_ (imitating kiss) girl from Rome; sings three pieces, +Ernani, Norma, _pfisp!_ Come along! + +Smack, bang! into the hall, where the silence and presence of a select +few, including Monsignore and the Governatore in council assembled, +commanded silence: Pepe wouldn't hear of it anywheres, so again they +were in the open air; the band was playing good music in the square, the +tombola was about to commence, and contadini were busy with pencils and +tickets, ready to win the eighty scudi put up. + +Tombola commenced, and Pepe at once supervised all the tickets within +reach. 'Bravo, twenty-seven! you've got it, Tonio; scratch it, my +lamb.--You haven't, Santi, _poverino mio_.--It's _non c'é_, +Angeluccio.--Ah, Bruno, always lucky.--Fifty-four, _Santa Maria_, who +would have thought it?--_Caro_ Bernardo, _only_ one more number to win +the terno!' + +Somebody won the tombola at last, and Pepe told Caper he should wait for +the fireworks and the concert. 'Beautiful girl, ah, _bella_, sings three +pieces;' here he burst out with that song + + _'Ninella mia di zucchero, + Prende 'sto core, ed abbraccialo;_' + +not waiting for the end of which, Caper interrupted him by saying that +he should not wait for the evening, as he intended returning to Segni at +once. + +'Will you?' asked Pepe. 'Oh, _bravo!_ good idea. Concert room will be +crowded to suffocation; get hot, perspire, catch cold. Fireworks +nothing. I'll go with you; great fools to wait. Here is a wine-shop; let +us refresh!' + +In they went, and finished a quart, after which Pepe proposed visiting +another wine-shop, where they had some frascati, good and sweet. So he +hurried Caper along so fast through mud and narrow streets, all the way +down hill, that his feet could not begin to hold on the slippery stones, +and both went ahead on the plan of not being able to stop; at last they +reached a landing place, where the wine was sold; hastening in, they +nearly fell over a tall, splendid-looking girl, who was standing in the +hall. + +'_Iddio!_ it's my _cara_ Giulia, lovely as ever. Come with us and finish +a bottle; this is our friend Giacomo, Americano, brave youth, +_allegro_!' + +'It pleases me well to make the acquaintance of the Signor; I have often +seen him in Segni--' + +'And _now_ you'll fall in love with him, + + _E tu non pienz' a mi_,'' + +sang Pepe. 'This comes of my headlong hurry introducing pretty girls to +interesting strangers. Ah, _bella_, Giulia! + +'_Zitto!_ Pepe, and pour me out a glass of wine.' + +Pepe poured out the wine, one glass after another. Suddenly springing +from his seat, he said, 'Wait here a minute. I see Gaetano: will be back +again _prestissimo!_' + +He went, and Caper and Giulia were left seated, talking merrily over the +wine. There were stars shining when Giulia bid good night to Caper, yet +Pepe did not return; he had seized some new idea, may-be the pretty +Roman who sang at the concert. Then Caper saddled his horse and rode out +into the night--glad that he had met black-eyed Giulia. + +The night rides up the mountain! Here's romance, real and beautiful. Are +you not treading an old Roman road, over which the legions have marched +to victory, war chariots rattled? Up the mountains, on the old road once +leading over the mountains to Terracina, the _Tarracina_ of the Romans, +who made it one of their naval stations; up that road you go, trusting +solely to your horse, one slip of whose foot would send you into +eternity _via_ a ravine some hundred feet sheer down. Here, bright light +from a _casina_ where the contadini are loading mules with grapes to be +pressed in the city up there near the stars! High above you, nothing but +a wall of black rock, up, up, so high! Stars gleaming down, the comet +tailing from side to side of the ravine, while the path in the ragged, +jagged, storm-gullied rock is so dark you see nothing: your horse stops, +his hind feet slip--no! he clings, his hoofs are planted firm; up he +goes, and there, in the hands of Providence, you are tossed and pitched, +as he winds up and plunges down. The merry ringing, jingling bells of +mules ahead, and the voices of their drivers: turn a corner, and the +bright light of torches flashes in your eyes. Look again and earnestly +at the beautiful scene: mules, drivers, black rocks, olive trees above, +all flamboyant in the ruddy light, appearing and disappearing; a weird, +wild scene. Up, up, long is the way; past the fountain where the stars +are flashing in the splashing waters; past gardens; past the mountain +path at last. _Ecco_, the inn of Gaetano. + +ANAGNI held its festival in honor of San Magno (_Prottetore della +Città_) on the 19th day of August. Gaetano, the landlord, invited Caper +to attend it, putting his famous white horse at the disposal of the +artist, accompanying him on a small bay beast that was extremely fond of +showing his heels to the surrounding objects. Leaving Segni about ten +o'clock in the morning, they had hardly reached a bridle path down the +mountain, nothing more in fact than a gully, when they were joined by a +cavalcade of four other Segnians. One of them, the 'funny fellow' of the +party, was mounted on a very meek-looking donkey, and enlivened the hot +ride across the valley of the Sacco by spasmodic attempts to lead the +cavalcade and come in ahead of the others. He had a lively time as they +approached the city, and a joke with every foot passenger on the way; +but Gaetano, whose reserve was one of his strong points, and who was +anxious to enter Anagni under favorable auspices, gave the word to +Caper, and in a few minutes they left cavalcade and donkey-rider far +behind. + +Anagni, the ancient _Anagnia_, was the capital of the Hernici. The +favorite residence, in the middle ages, of several of the popes, it +still shows in its building marks of the wealth it once enjoyed. Having +stabled their horses with a friend of Gaetano's, who insisted on their +finishing the best part of a _bottiglia_ of red wine with him, the +artist, under the landlord's guidance, set out to see the town. They +climbed up street to the cathedral, a fine old pile trembling with music +and filled with worshippers, paintings of saints in extremis, flowers, +wax candles, votary offerings, and heat; then coming out, and feeling +wolfish, looked round for a place where they could find dinner! Here it +was! a scene that would have cheered Teniers: a very large room, its +walls brown with smoke; long wooden tables, destitute of cloth, but +crowded with country people eating, drinking, talking, enjoying +themselves to the utmost extent. Forks were invisible, but every man had +his own knife, and Caper, similarly provided, whipped out his long +pocket weapon and commenced an attack on roast lamb and bread, as if +time were indeed precious. Wine was provided at Fair price; and, with +fruit, he managed to cry at last, 'Hold, enough!' + +Gaetano, having a message for a young priest in the seminary there, +asked Caper how he would like to see the interior of the building, and +the way the _prete_ lived? Caper assenting, they entered a fine large +establishment with broad walls and high ceilings, and mounting to the +second story and knocking at the door of a chamber, they were admitted +by a tall, thin, sallow young man, about eighteen years old, evidently +the worse for want of exercise, and none the stronger minded for his +narrow course of education and instruction. + +Gaetano introduced Caper to the young priest, and the artist, who, a +moment before entering the room, was as lively as the Infant Bacchus, at +once became melancholy as the Infant Samuel, and a feeling of such pity +seized him, that, endeavoring not to show it, he turned it into a +sentiment of interest in the young priest and his surroundings, admiring +the beautiful view from the window, and, turning inward to a poor wreath +of paper flowers hanging over a holy-water fount attached to the wall, +praised for their resemblance to natural flowers. (Was that untruth +unforgiven?) + +'I made them,' said the young priest; 'but they are nothing to the ones +I have made for our church in Montelanico. I will show those to you.' +Opening a large paper box, he showed Caper wreaths and festoons of paper +flowers. 'I have spent weeks on weeks over them,' he continued, 'and +they will decorate the church at the next _festa_. I spend all my +leisure hours making artificial flowers.' + +In answer to a question from Caper of the dress he then wore was the +usual one worn by the seminarists on important occasions, the young +priest answered him that it was not, and at once produced the full +dress, putting on the upper garment, a species of cassock, in order to +show him how it looked. He next called his attention to a curious old +work, full of engravings illustrating the different costumes of the +different orders of priests, and was in full discourse to describe them +all, when Gaetano told him that he was sorry, but that he had to go, as +he had some matters to attend to at the fair. So Caper bid the young +priest good-by, saying he regretted that he had not time to further +study the ecclesiastical costumes. A feeling of relief seized him when +he was once more in the open air--thoughts of gunning, fishing, +fighting, anything, so long as it was not the making paper flowers by +that poor, pale-faced boy: it was terrible! + +There are several resident families in Anagni having titles; these are +known as the _stelle d'Anagni_ (stars of Anagni), and number among the +ladies many beautiful faces, if those pointed out to him were the true +stars. But it was, while smoking a cigar over a cup of coffee, that he +saw enter the café without exception one of the loveliest and most +attractive women he met in Italy. The word _simpatica_, so often used by +Italians, expressing, as it does, so much in so short a space, exactly +applied to the charming woman who passed him, as she entered the room +where he was seated. She was accompanied by several gentlemen, one of +whom, on whose arm she leaned, having the most character of all the +others in his face, and the finest-looking man in figure and carriage, +Caper selected as her husband--and he was right. + +Gaetano, having finished his business, soon entered the café in company +with a dashing, handsome-looking man, in half ecclesiastical costume; +for though he wore a shovel hat and long-tailed black frock coat, yet +his other clothes, though black, had the air of being made by an _à la +mode_ tailor. His manner was cordial, frank, hearty. He proposed a walk +around the town, to see what was going on among the _villani_. Caper +calling his attention to the lady mentioned above, the ecclesiastic, +making his excuses for his sudden leave, at once hurried over to salute +her, and was evidently very cordially received. He returned in a few +minutes to Caper. + +'It is the _Principessa ----_, and she insists on having an introduction +to the American. She is making the _villegiatura_ among these mountain +towns for a frolic. She will be in Segni, with her husband, the Signor +----, and it will be pleasant for you to know them while there.' + +'Introduce me by all means. She is the most beautiful woman I have seen +in Italy.' + +The introduction was made, and our artist surpassed himself in +conversing intelligibly, much to the delight of the fair Italian and her +friends, who declared they were prepared to converse with him solely by +signs. Promising that when they came to Segni he should not fail to call +upon them, and give them a long account of the savage life he lived +among his Indian brethren in America, he laughingly bid them good day. + +The dashing priest now went with Caper and Gaetano through the crowded +streets, pointing out objects of interest, architectural and human; past +booths where all kinds of merchandise was exposed for sale, out to see +the ancient massive walls of travertine, where divers stunning objects +were carved, inscriptions, &c. Then they found a wine shop, where it was +cool and tolerably quiet, and smoked and drank until sunset, having much +sport conversing with the amiable _villane_, who were as comfortably +tipsy as their circumstances would permit. At sunset, the Piazza Grande +was brilliant with hangings, crimson and gold, and colored tapestry hung +from the windows of the surrounding houses. Here the tombola was held, +and here the crowd was excited as usual; the lucky ones bearing off the +prizes were in such rapturous state of bliss--'one might have stuck pins +into them without their feeling it.' + +About sunset, Gaetano and Caper saddled their horses, and left the city, +striking over the valley to Segni, passing on the road country people +mounted on donkeys, or travelling along on foot, nine tenths of whom +were vigorously canvassing--the life of Saint Magno?--no, indeed, but +the chances of the lottery! + +There was to have been the next day, at Anagni, a curious chase of +buffaloes, in accordance with some passage in the life of San Magno, as +the people said; but, according to Rocjean, more probably some neglected +ceremony of the ancient heathens, which the party in power, finding they +could not abolish, gracefully tacked on to the back of the protector of +the city. These kind of things are done to an alarming extent around +Rome; and the Sieur de Rocjean, when he lost his calendar containing the +dates of all the festivals, said it was of no importance--he had and +excellent Lempriere! + +The fifth festival--if you have patience to read about it--was held at +GENAZZANO, and was decidedly the most celebrated one of the season. It +came off on the 8th of September, and for costumes, picturesqueness, and +general effect, might have been called, to copy from piano literature, +_Le Songe d'un Artiste_. + +The town itself looks as if it had just been kicked out of a theatre. +Round towers at entrance gates, streets narrow and all up hill, the +tiles on the houses running down to see what is going on in the gutter, +quaint old houses, gray with time, with latticed windows, queer old +doors, a grand old castle in ruins. It is one of the scenes you long so +much to see before you come abroad, and which you so seldom find along +the Grande Route. Spend a summer in the mountain towns of Italy! among +the Volscian mountains or hills--and have your eyes opened. + +As Caper entered the gate, the first objects meeting his sight were: a +procession of genuine pilgrims, dressed precisely as you see them in +Robert le Diable, or Linda di Chamouni, or on the stage generally--long +gray robes down to their feet, cocked hats with cockle shells, long +wands; some barefoot, some with sandals: on they passed, singing +religious songs. Then came the peasantry, all in perfect theatrical +harmony, costumes rigidly correct _à la Sonnambula_. German artists +dressed in Sunday clothes _à la Der Freyschutz_. A café with festoons of +lemon-peel hung from window to window--they are not up to this idea in +_Fra Diavolo_. Pretty girls in latticed windows, with red boddices, +white sleeves, flowers in their hair--_legitimate Italian drama_. +Crockery-ware in piles--_low comedy_. A man with a table, Sambuca and +Acqua-vita bottles on it, and wee glasses, one cent a drink: +_melodrama_. Fresh oranges and figs, pumpkin-seed and pine cones; a +house with mushrooms strung on thread, hanging from window to +window--this was not for festival display, but is the common way of the +country. Notices of the _festa_, containing programme of the day, +including amusements, ecclesiastical and secular, hung up alongside the +stands where they were selling lottery tickets--_tragedy_. Fountains, +with groups of peasantry drinking, or watering horses and +donkeys--_pantomime_. Priests, in crow-black raiment, and canal-boat or +shovel hats--_mystery_. Strangers from Rome, in the negro-minstrel style +of costume, if young men; or in the rotund-paunch and black-raiment +dress, if elderly men; or in the _chiffonée_ style, if Roman women +attempting the last Parisian fashion--_farce_. + +Here are the booths with rosaries, crucifixes, Virgin Mary's holy-water +holders, medals of Pio Nono, or jewelry; gold crescent earrings, +_spadine_ (long silver hair pins); silver hearts, legs, arms, for votive +offerings, and crosses without number. + +Caper entered the church; it was filled, and stifling with heat and +frankincense, and contadini, and wax lights burning before the shrine, +on which the sun shone. There were beautiful faces among the _pajine_ +(people in fine raiment), showing what can be made from the _contadine_ +(people in coarse clothes) by not overworking them. + +Once more our artist was in the pure air, and, walking up the main +street, came to a house with a beautifully carved stone window, half +Byzantine, half Gothic, while a house on the opposite side of the street +boasted of two other windows finely carved. While looking at them, Caper +was hailed by name, and a stout, fresh-colored English artist, named +Wardor, whom he had known in Rome, came over and welcomed him to +Genazzano. Wardor, it turned out, was spending the summer there, as he +had done the year before; consequently, there was not a nook or corner +in the old town he did not know; and if he had not been so lazy, he +could have filled his sketch book with a hundred picturesque studies. +But no; with the keenest appreciation of every bit of color, every +graceful pose of a human figure, every beautiful face, every fine effect +of light or shadow--he made no sign. _His_ legitimate function was +friendly guide to the stranger, and in this office he carried Caper all +over the old castle, out to the long shady walk on the esplanade behind +it, pointed out beautiful views over the valley; finally, showing Caper +his studio, which, as it was a large room, and his _padrona_ could +impose on his good nature, was fairly glittering with copper pans, hung +on the walls when not in use in the kitchen. On an easel was a painting, +to be called The King of the Campagna; all that was apparent was the +head and horns of the king. Wardor had thus actually spent three mouths +painting on a space not so large as your fist, while the canvas was at +least three feet by two feet and a half. But the king, a buffalo, would +be a regal figure, for the head was life itself. + +Caper proposed finishing a bottle of wine with Wardor, in honor of the +day; so the latter piloted him up street and then down a flight of steps +to a quiet wine-shop, where, sitting on a shady terrace, they could +calmly enjoy the lovely landscape spread below them, and look over the +town, over the valley, to far-away Segni high up in the Volscians. The +landlord's wife, a buxom, comely woman, in full holiday costume, brought +them a flask of cool wine and glasses, presenting them at the same time +with a couple of very large sweet apples, the largest of which was +thirteen inches in circumference by actual measurement. So you see they +have apples as well as oranges in Italy; only, apples are practical, so +they are generally omitted in the poetical descriptions of the +blue-skyed land. + +Caper and Wardor dined together in a very crowded inn, where the +maccaroni must have been cooked by the ton, to judge of the sized dish +the two artists were presented with--and which they finished! Chickens, +lamb chops, salad, and two flasks of wine at last satisfied them. When +they left the table, Wardor proposed their calling on a Roman family, +who were spending the summer in the town. They found the house they +occupied crowded with guests, who, having finished dinner, were busily +employed dancing to the music of two guitars and a flute; that is, the +younger part of them, while the elders applauded vociferously, entering +into the amusement with a reckless spirit of fun and good nature, which +people who have to keep shady nine tenths of the year for fear of their +rulers, are very apt to indulge in the remaining tenth. + +Elisa, the daughter of the Roman family, received Caper with hearty +welcome, chiding him for having been all summer at Segni, and yet not +coming near them, and entreating him to come to Genazzano and make them +a long visit. She introduced him at once to her affianced husband, a +handsome young doctor of the town, a man of sterling ability and sound +common sense, who very soon made Caper at home, insisted on his dancing +the _Tarantella_ and _Saltarella Napolitana_ with a lively, lithe young +lady, who cut our artist's heart to fiddlestrings before they had danced +five minutes together a polka--for let the truth be told, Caper never +could dance the Tarantella. + +Wardor, in the meantime, had been led off in triumph to a side-table, +and was making a very hearty second dinner; he not having force of mind +enough to do like Caper and refuse a good offer! Caper had to drink a +few tumblers (not wine-glasses) of wine, and found it beneficial in +dancing. It may be as well to repeat here, in order to calm all +apprehensions of our artist being a hard drinker, that all these wines +around Rome, with few exceptions, are little stronger than mild sweet +cider, and that satiety will generally arrive before inebriety. Ask any +sober and rigorously correct traveller, who has ever been there, if this +is not so. If he speaks from experience, he will say: 'Certainly!' 'Of +course!' 'To be sure!' And again: 'Why not?' + +It is not asserted here that the Romans of the city or surrounding +country never get tipsy; but that it is only occasionally they have +change enough to do so; consequently, a beautiful state of sobriety is +observed by those travellers who--never observe anything. + +The moon was shining over the old gate-towers of Genazzano when Caper +mounted his horse, and, in company with two Segnians, rode forth from +the fifth _festa_, and over the hills through Cavi, and over the valley +past Valmontone, and then up the steep road to his summer home; +wondering if in far-away America they were dreaming of a man who was +going through a course of weekly Fourth-of-July's, and how long it would +be before the world came to an end if such a state of things existed in +any country where people had liberty to study geography, and were ruled +by politicians instead of priests? + + * * * * * + +'May I ask your candid opinion of the great moral effect of so many +holidays on an uneducated population?' inquired Caper one day of +Rocjean, while speaking of the festivals of the Papal States. + +'Certainly you may! My opinion is that the head of the state, carrying +out the gigantic policy of his predecessors, believes: 'That that +government governs best that gives the greatest amount of fiddling to +the greatest amount of its children.'' + +'But,' objected Caper, 'I don't see where the fiddling comes in.' + +'In the churches!' sententiously remarked the Sieur de Rocjean. + +'Oh,' quoth Caper, 'I was thinking of festivals.' + +Reader, do you think likewise, when you are with the Romans. + + + + +THOUGHT. + + Life is but an outer wall + Round the realm of thought unseen; + Ah! to let the drawbridge fall + Leading to that magic hall! + Ah! to let creation in. + + Kings that with the world contended, + What remains of all the splendid + Misery their hands have wrought? + Hushed and silent now the thunder + They have made the world rock under; + But the ages bow in wonder + To a thought. + + Ah! the many tragic parts + That are played by human hearts + In that golden drama, fame. + These are minor actors truly, + That should not be seen unduly, + Letting idle recollection + Trifle with the play's perfection, + Letting an unwritten anguish + Make the brilliant pageant languish. + Alas for every hero's story, + That the woes which chiefly make it + Must surge from the heart, or break it, + And show the stuff that fashions glory. + + Pyramids and templed wonders + At the best are wise men's blunders; + The subtle spell of thought and fancy, + It is Nature's necromancy. + In that land where all things real + Blossom into the ideal, + In that realm of hidden powers + Moving this gross world of ours, + He that would inherit fame, + Let him on the magic wall + Of some bright, ideal hall + Write his name; + He and glory then shall be + Comrades through eternity. + + While the deeds of mighty kings + Sleep the sleep of meaner things, + Thoughts enclosed in words of granite + Revolutionize our planet. + And, itself a new creation, + Many an enchanted tune, + As of nightingale's in June, + Comes floating down in long vibration, + To the chorus of the hours + Lending its harmonial powers, + Or through Time's resounding arches + Playing Nature's solemn marches, + To whose beat the marshalled nations + Pass in steady generations. + + But deem not the thoughts unspoken, + Silent despots of the brain, + Build their airy halls in vain, + Die and leave behind no token. + As the stars upon the ether + Play their golden monody, + Flashing on dusk-featured night + The soft miracle of light; + So upon a finer ether, + A spiritual emanation + From the whole mind of creation, + Plays the brain incessantly; + And each thought is a vibration, + Running like a poet's rhyme + Down the endless chords of time, + And on each responsive brain + Dropping in a silver rain + Of divinest inspiration. + + When the whirlwind rush of war + Passes, and is heard no more, + Voices crushed beneath its din + Rise and their long reign begin; + Thoughts like burning arrows hurled + At the tyrants of the world, + Thoughts that rend like battle axes + Till wrong's giant hand relaxes, + Thoughts that open prison gates + And strike the chains of prostrate limb, + That turn the current of the fates, + Like God's commissioned cherubim + With divine authority + To proclaim creation free, + And plant in human hearts the seeds + That shall grow to noble deeds. + Ha! when genius climbs the throne + Sacred to oppression grown, + And from his seat plucks tyranny; + When, with thoughts that pierce like flame, + Songs, and every word a fame, + She crowns imperial Liberty, + Then shall the usurper, glory, + End his foul and brutal story, + And manhood evermore shall be + A synonym of liberty. + + + + +'IT STILL MOVES.' + + + It still goes on. The driving rain + May chill, but light will gleam again, + It still goes on. Truth's enemy + Wins a defeat with victory. + It still goes on. Cold winter's snow + Comes that the grass may greener grow; + And Freedom's sun, whate'er befall, + Shines warm and bright behind it all. + + + + +THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE REBELLION. + + +Among all the subjects of human cognizance, the least understood, and +therefore the most difficult of anticipation, are those which concern +the acts of men, as individuals or in society. Presumptuous, indeed, +would be that man who should undertake to foretell the exact results of +pending political or military operations, complicated as they must be by +innumerable unknown and undiscoverable contingencies, which lie hidden +in the circumstances of the actual situation. The difficulty of this +investigation does not arise, however, from the absence of fixed laws +controlling such events, but solely from our ignorance of those laws, +and the extreme complexity of the conditions in which they act. The +issue of existing causes is as certain as this moment, as it will be +after it shall have become unalterable in history. No accident can +disturb or thwart it; for, in truth, there can be no such thing as +accident, except in our imaginations, and by reason of our incapacity to +trace the continuous thread of inevitable sequence, or causation, which +connects together all events whatever, in their inception, through their +continuance, and to their end. All enlightened thinkers of the present +age have recognized this great truth; and yet none have been able to +apply to social and political affairs the sole admitted test of genuine +philosophy, the prediction of future results from known antecedents. +Indeed, the wisest and most competent of political observers have always +been the most cautious in their indulgence of the prophetic spirit, and +the most ready to acknowledge their ignorance of what the future will +bring forth in the great field of political and social affairs. +Gasparin, in his late admirable book, 'America before Europe' (according +to his American translator), has this very modest passage on this +subject: + + 'Not feeling any vocation for the character of prophet, I shall + take care not to recount here, in advance, events that are about to + happen. I marvel at people who are so sure of their facts. The + future has not the least obscurity for them; it has much for me. I + confine myself to protesting against the positive assertions which + have contributed but too greatly to mislead the opinion of Europe. + My humbles theory is this: the defeat of the South is _probable_; + the return of the conquered South to the Union is _possible_.' + +But while 'political or military vaticination' is proverbially unsafe, +and therefore to be carefully avoided by all judicious inquirers, and +especially by practical statesmen, it must at the same time be admitted +that some of the general laws controlling such events are well +understood; and whenever all the facts of a case are known and +appreciated, and the laws applicable fully comprehended, then it is +possible to anticipate the results of that particular combination with +absolute certainty. Other causes may interfere, and modify these +results--may accelerate of postpone them, or entirely absorb and conceal +them in the general issue of complicated affairs. Yet the particular +results themselves are not, and cannot be defeated or annulled. They are +merely transformed by a sort of 'composition and resolution' of social +and political causes, exactly similar to that which takes place in +mechanics, when two or more forces not concurrent in direction, impel a +body in a line altogether different from that in which either of the +forces may have acted. Every physical impulse, it is said, which is +initiated anywhere on the earth, is felt to the extremities of our solar +system--every motion of the smallest particle of matter communicating +its effect, however inappreciable, to the most distant planet, and as +far beyond as the power of gravitation may extend. It is precisely so +with all social events, even those of the most insignificant character. +Every one of them has its appropriate influence, which is +indestructible; and they all combine to make up the great whole of human +action, the results of which at any specific period are only the +necessary and inevitable consequences of all antecedent facts. + +It was the opinion of that most accomplished political philosopher, +Burke, that 'politics ought to be adjusted not to human reasonings, but +to human nature, of which reason is but a part, and by no means the +greatest part,'--the meaning of which is, simply, that the reasonings do +not comprehend, as premises, all the complicated facts which enter into +any important political problem, and hence the conclusion in such cases +cannot be absolutely certain, and ought not to be implicitly received. +It would be extremely difficult to explain how politics could be +adjusted to human nature without the exercise of reason, which alone can +regulate the process of adjustment. But we may certainly claim that, in +the lapse of nearly a century since Burke wrote, the reason has been +considerably enlightened, and something more has been learned of human +nature itself, its apparently capricious and irregular phenomena having +been ascertained to be the subjects of systematic order, as complete as +that which prevails in all other departments of nature. The laws of +social existence and development have been to some extent discovered, +and recognized as being uniform in their operation, so that the natural +and necessary course of human events may be anticipated, though as yet +in a dim and imperfect way. The present age is fruitful of many wonders; +but the greatest of them all is this important truth, which has just +begun fairly to dawn upon mankind. It is already so firmly established, +that no intelligent man who is fully up with the knowledge of his epoch, +can admit the least doubt that all events, however complicated, whether +social, political, military, or of any other kind, are controlled by +general laws, as uniform and certain in their operation as the laws of +astronomy, of physics, or of chemistry. The complexity of conditions +under which they operate, makes these laws extremely difficult of +discovery and of application. But the infinite combinations of +influences which press on minds of individual members of society, and +make the acts of each one of them apparently uncertain and arbitrary, +exhibit a truly wonderful degree of uniformity, when considered in their +operation on the whole mass of a nation. It is by the investigation of +these wide and general effects, that the great laws of human action and +development are ascertained. Their actual existence is absolutely +certain. But after all, in the present state of our knowledge, with all +the light afforded by such history as we have of the past, and with all +the experience of the present generation, the sum and substance of what +we can claim is no more than this: that some influences of a social and +political nature may be traced to their certain results, though, from +the intricacy of all social facts, their vast extent in a great nation, +and especially when international interests are concerned, and from our +necessarily imperfect acquaintance with all these varied, multiplex, and +powerful conditions, we cannot always foresee what conflicting causes +will intervene to counteract, modify, and control the actual issue. It +is therefore only in the most general way that anything can be said with +reference to the future in social or political affairs. + +In two former articles contributed to THE CONTINENTAL, we have +endeavored to point out 'the causes of the rebellion,' finding them in +events and conditions contemporaneous with the birth of our +institutions, and in the necessary antagonism of social and political +principles naturally developed in the progress of our country, and +embodied in appropriate but conflicting forms. If we have been +successful in designating the real causes, and tracing their operation +through successive stages, down to the tremendous and calamitous events +of the present day, we may hope to follow these causes, to some extent, +in their further development, and in their necessary action on the +destiny of the nation. We can at least mark the direction of the stream +of affairs as it rolls grandly before us; and while we may not know +precisely through what regions it will take its course, or by what +rapids and over what cataracts it will be hurried and precipitated with +furious and destructive force, we can nevertheless pronounce with +confidence that it will finally make its way, in spite of all +obstructions, to the broad and peaceful ocean of amelioration, into +which all the currents of human action, however turbid, and filled with +wrecks of human work and genius, eventually pour their inevitable +tribute. We can even look through the mists of time which limit mortal +vision, and catch some glimpses of the bloody current, observing where +it disappears in gloom and shadow, only to come forth again in the +distance as a shining river, glistening in the sunlight of peace and +prosperity, and bearing on its bosom the full-freighted ark of a mighty +nation, resting from war, reunited, and reawakened to the animating +sense of a glorious destiny. Though the present generation should be +compelled to struggle and labor, through its whole term of existence, +with immense sacrifice and suffering, such are the elements involved in +the contest, that nothing but good to the nation, which is surely +destined to survive, can come out of it in the end. + +The whole history of our country, its origin, the peculiar organization +of our institutions, and their gradual growth and development down to +the present day, seem to have been arranged and ordered for the very +purpose of engendering this contest between slavery and freedom. If this +statement be too strong, we may at least assert that no better +conditions for that purpose could have been devised, by human wisdom at +all events, than those which existed at every stage of our progress, +from the beginning of our existence as a people, to the culmination of +this long-smouldering strife. The germs of freedom and slavery, which we +know were planted in the infancy of our republic, found in the +circumstances surrounding them the most favorable conditions for their +respective growth and expansion. Each found ample opportunity to +flourish according to its nature and necessities, modified, it may be, +but not destroyed, by the unfavorable institutions which coexisted with +it. The organization of separate colonies, and afterward of separate +States, measurably independent, afforded these two irreconcilable +systems full opportunity for complete development, and rendered it +possible for them to maintain, each, a distinct existence in different +localities, and to unfold their respective natures and tendencies, with +comparatively little interference of the one with the other. Thus +slavery soon became extinct in Massachusetts, and died out rather more +slowly in the other Free States of the original thirteen. It flourished +in Maryland and Virginia, and later, from peculiar circumstances, it +grew rank, with unexampled fecundity, in the Carolinas and Georgia. Had +the Government of the United States been consolidated, the conditions of +slavery and free labor would have been wholly different; and it is +reasonable to infer that the course of development of the respective +systems would have been materially modified, if not altogether changed. +We may pronounce with certainty that the institution would not have +become extinct in the whole country as soon as it did in Massachusetts, +or, indeed, in any one of the present Free States; but we cannot assert +that the converse of this proposition would have been true, and that the +Government, as a centralized power, would have abolished slavery more +certainly, and sooner, than the most backward of the separate States may +now be expected to do, under the complex forms of our present +Constitution. In a consolidated government, the power of the majority +would have been competent to effect fundamental and universal changes, +even to the extent of abolishing slavery; but without the existence of +separate States, with their independent local legislation and +administrations, the gradual undermining and destruction of the old +system would have been a process of extreme procrastination and +difficulty. It would have been a gigantic undertaking, convulsing the +whole nation whenever attempted, and yet demanding the exercise of its +united authority for its accomplishment. We should not have had the +effective antagonism of the Free against the Slave States, nor the +demonstration which results from the striking contrasts between the two +systems in their effects on civilization, in all its forms of +intelligence, enterprise, wealth, and improvement. Contiguous States, +with separate jurisdictions, admitted a divergence of customs, laws, and +institutions, remarkable in its character, and fraught with momentous +consequences to the whole sisterhood. Nothing like this could have +occurred under the consolidated form. It is true, according to the +principles we have heretofore enounced as having been established by +universal history and experience, slavery must have disappeared +eventually, alike in a consolidated or a federal form of government; for +it is now well understood by all enlightened thinkers, that different +forms of polity may either facilitate or embarrass the natural +development of society, but cannot actually create or altogether destroy +the tendency to improvement. This tendency is innate in man, and +independent of all forms of government, though not wholly unaffected by +them. But in our vast country, under a centralized system, however +democratic, it would have been far more difficult to initiate the work +of emancipation, on account of the magnitude and unity of the power to +be moved, and for want of those _points d'appui_ afforded by the local +organization and independent authority of the states in a confederacy. +Our own experience, and the recent example of Russia, may serve to +convince us that a consolidated representative republic would probably +have been less favorable to the abolition of slavery than an imperial +and despotic government. The serf-owners of Russia, had the question +been submitted to them, would have been as little disposed to vote for +the destruction of their system, as the slave-holders of America have +shown themselves inclined to submit to the voice of the majority under +our republican institutions. + +Thus, it was characteristic of our peculiar political forms, that they +gave opportunity for the complete trial of each of the two plans of +social organization which grew out of the early introduction of African +slaves into the colonies. For while it seems to be clear that the +federal system was most favorable to the disappearance of slavery from +those localities where circumstances made emancipation easy and +advantageous, it is equally plain that it afforded full scope to the +growth and influence of the system of servile labor, wherever, from +climatic conditions, it was peculiarly profitable, and otherwise adapted +to the productions of the region, and to the prevailing sentiments of +the people. The confederated form of government, therefore, almost of +necessity originated the antagonism of Free States against Slave States; +while, at the same time, and from the same cause, it enabled the +opposite sections to give infinitely greater force and effect to this +antagonism, than would have been possible under any other +constitutional conditions. Rebellion might possibly have been initiated +within the bosom of a consolidated republic, and such a government might +well have been broken into two or more fragments; but this would have +been far less likely to happen in that case than in existing +circumstances. At all events, there would have been no room for the +dangerous doctrine of secession, and that plausible pretext would have +been wanting to the incipient rebellion; nor would there have been +anything equivalent to the State organizations which unfortunately +afforded the ready means of immediate and most effective combination. +The inestimable advantages of our complex political system in avoiding +the necessary despotism of consolidated government, by establishing +local legislation and administration in a number of partially +independent States, were in some measure counterbalanced by a natural +tendency to discord among the parts, and a capacity for independent +action in support and perpetuation of dangerous divergencies of opinion +and policy. If some States could repudiate slave labor, and gradually +build the fabric of their prosperity on the safer basis of universal +education, others could, with equal disregard of everything but their +own will and fancied interests, cherish and encourage the original +system of servile subordination and compulsory ignorance of the laboring +class, with which all the States started into their career of +independence at the commencement of the Revolution. And, unhappily, both +parties to this discordant social action were unrestrained by any +constitutional obligation, or by any common authority whatever, in the +indulgence, within their respective limits, of mutual hatred and +vituperation, with all those numberless and exasperating injuries which +no law can either notice or redress. These conflicting capabilities, +with their attendant dangers, lurked in the body of our political +organization from the very beginning. They were born with it; they grew +with its growth, and strengthened with its strength, until the fatal +hour when rebellion undertook the wicked work of its destruction. +Whatever may be the actual issue of the struggle--whether the attempted +dismemberment shall prove a success or a disastrous failure--the effect +of the civil war on the character of our institutions must be +commensurate with the organic character of the causes out of which it +arose. So profound a disturbance of the existing social order, so vast +an upheaval of the very foundations of the whole political fabric, must +either rend it into fragments, and make necessary a complete +reconstruction, or must cause it to settle down upon a basis firmer and +more lasting than that on which it has hitherto rested. We think it +almost absolutely certain that the latter result will be brought out in +the end. It cannot be possible that our system will be utterly +destroyed; and if, against all human probabilities, it should be +momentarily overthrown, it will rise again hereafter in greater splendor +and power, by reason of the very calamity through which it will have +passed. + +The federative system, on this continent, will never be abandoned; it +will be far more likely to be extended much beyond its present limits, +even including that immense territory which has been the theatre of its +origin and glorious progress down to the present day. Its superiority +over any system of consolidated power on a large scale, is beyond all +doubt, inasmuch as it provides effectually for the perfect freedom of +local legislation and administration, and for the full participation of +all the parts in the government of the whole, as to those questions +which concern the general interests. But in this very distribution of +powers always consisted the greatest difficulty and the most threatening +peril; for nothing but actual experience, long continued, could adjust +to each other with perfect accuracy the nicely balanced parts of this +complicated political machinery. The principle of local independence is +naturally liable to exaggeration and abuse. The State authorities have +ever shown a tendency to claim absolute sovereignty, and to array their +will against the authority of the Federal Government. This troublesome +question, forever recurring in the important exigencies of our national +life, has never been definitely settled, and perhaps it could not be, +except under the pressure of a great and critical emergency like the +present. One of the most important consequences of the rebellion will +therefore be to dispose of this question forever--to settle the +boundaries of the local and general authorities, and to fix them +permanently and unalterably. This might possibly have been accomplished +in the appointed way, by conventions and explanatory amendments to the +Constitution. But such proceedings would have been subject to all the +uncertain contingencies and delays involved in partisan struggles and +popular elections, and to all the imperfections of halfway measures and +expedients of compromise, born amid angry contentions, and bartered for +by ambitious aspirants to place and power. By no other means could a +complete and adequate arrangement of the difficulty be brought about so +effectually as by the terrible lessons of this lamentable civil war. +Nothing else would have been so well calculated to clear the eyes of the +people of all illusions, and to give them an accurate insight into the +character and demands of the crisis. Great disasters, which destroy the +fortunes of men, and disturb the prosperity of nations, never fail to +awaken the human soul, and impart to it some new and important truths. +The sufferings and calamities of the war are indeed great and +overwhelming; yet there will be some compensation for them all, in the +sad experience we shall gain, and in the stability which will result to +our sorely tried institutions in the future. Even if, against all +apparent possibilities, the rebellious States should finally conquer +their independence, not only the old Government, but even the new one +itself, or the batch of new ones that will spring up, will have learned +the most salutary lessons from the whole course of this sanguinary +struggle. No sundering of such ties as have always heretofore existed +among these States can ever take place peaceably. Both we and our +enemies will have been taught the never-to-be-forgotten truth that +secession is civil war. And we should probably have reason thereafter to +add to this sad lesson the still more solemn and portentous one, that +permanent separation of these States is nothing more or less than +perpetual war, with the accompaniments of large standing armies, vast +public debts, oppressive taxes, loss of liberty, and progressive decline +of civilization. This state of things would, however, eventually cure +itself. What is called the balance of power in Europe has been brought +to its present condition of imperfect stability only through centuries +of war. What bloody commotions should we experience before the +conditions of stable equilibrium could be attained by the warring States +of our broken Union? Each petty fragment of the discordant mass would +contain within itself the germs of precisely such a struggle as we are +now passing through. For though the Confederate Government may have +ostensibly recognized the actual sovereignty of the separate States +composing it, and thereby pretended to establish the principle of +secession as a right, the war will not have reached its termination +before that doctrine will be practically and effectually destroyed in +the very contest for its assertion. At the moment of its apparent +triumph, secession itself would expire; for so strong a government will +be indispensable to this achievement, and to the maintenance of the new +power, that the very principle which presided at its birth will be +suspended and destroyed by the paramount necessities of its existence +and condition. Any one of the deluded States which might in that case +attempt to assert this right, would soon find, in renewed calamities, +the folly and danger of the theory on which it is founded. + +Nothing but the hope of foreign intervention has sustained the cause of +the rebellion until the present time; and the realization of that hope +can alone keep up its vitality, and give it success in the future. The +disparity of strength and numbers in the two sections is decisive of the +whole case, if they be left to conclude the fight themselves. The +question is one of means and men, of resources and endurance; and when +we consider the effects of the blockade, and of the probably action of +the slaves under the policy of the President, or even under the ordinary +progress of the war, no great length of time can be required to bring +the contest to an issue, even if the armies of the Union should not at +once succeed in overwhelming the enemy and taking possession of his +country. In spite of discouraging delays and military blunders, and of +all the waste of life and means which have hitherto marked the conduct +of the war, the great struggle is still progressing rapidly, though +silently, in other fields than those of battle, and with other weapons +than bayonets and artillery. The sinews of war are gradually becoming +shrivelled in the arm of the rebellion. Every bale of cotton locked up +in the ports of the South, or hidden in its thickets and ravines, or +given to the flames by ruthless hands of the guerillas, is so much +strength withheld from the enemy, and, in the vast aggregate, will +eventually be equivalent to the overthrow of his armies and the capture +of his cities. The large number of slaves rushing to our lines, and the +still greater number rendered restless under restraint, and preparing to +escape, may be expected, in any other year, to make even his supply of +bread precarious, and still further to paralyze his strength and destroy +his means of resistance. But in addition to these accumulating +difficulties and misfortunes, our armies are everywhere moving down upon +him apparently with irresistible force, and threaten to anticipate the +slower, but not less certain work of physical exhaustion. He is hard +pressed in Virginia, where his pretended capital is again menaced; he is +driven out of Kentucky and Missouri, and is fast receding before our +victorious forces in Tennessee. We have penetrated into Mississippi, and +await only the swelling of the waters to capture its last stronghold, +Vicksburg, when the great valley from Cairo to New Orleans will be in +our possession, and the rebel confederacy will be sundered through its +very spine. We hold important points on the Atlantic coast and in the +Gulf, including the great metropolis of the South, New Orleans, and the +whole coast of Texas. + +By her own energies alone, these losses can never be recovered by the +South. Without aid from abroad, there is not the remotest possibility of +prolonging the contest for another year, much less of establishing the +Confederate Government on any permanent basis. And even with such +interference, supposing it to be successful, the career of the new power +would be brief, and full of trouble. It would merely exchange its +position of equality in the old Union, for one of degrading dependence +and subserviency to some one of the great European Governments. The +system of slavery could not be preserved. The demoralization has already +gone too far; and no French sovereign or English administration could +safely venture to interfere in our quarrel for the purpose of upholding +that institution. In the midst of a dissolving social organization, this +exhausted and fragmentary American power, galvanized into temporary +vitality by the sinister aid of foreign arms, would be compelled to +undertake the task of determining its boundaries, defending its +frontiers, and reorganizing its chaotic society. All this would have to +be accomplished in the presence of a still powerful adversary, jealous +of her own rights, and ever ready to assert them, as opportunity would +permit, in the face of all opposition. European affairs are not yet so +thoroughly adjusted, and the peace of that continent established on so +firm a basis, that complications may not be anticipated at almost any +moment, which would at once free America from the disgraceful trammels +of foreign intervention. It is doubtful whether such a movement from +Europe could be successful, even under all the deplorable difficulties +which now beset our country. Let any one of those Governments lay its +hand on the United States, and revolution would probably hasten to rear +its awful head, and so arouse the people of the continent as to shake +and endanger the very thrones which now seem to be most firmly +established. The unfriendly blow aimed at us might possibly react upon +its authors, and transfer to them the misfortunes and disorders which +now afflict this country. So just a retribution is not beyond the +probabilities of the present situation in Europe, whether intervention +should come from the English aristocracy or from the French emperor. The +instincts of the people, everywhere, are on our side; their strong arms +may not be slow to vindicate the judgment they pronounce, and to follow +the sentiments and sympathies which animate their generous hearts. + +But in spite of all difficulties and discouragements, at home or abroad, +we firmly believe our righteous cause will eventually prevail, and the +Union be restored to even more than its former glory. The overthrow of +the power of the rebellion, the utter exhaustion of all its resources, +and the frightful derangement of its entire social economy, will leave +the people of the South in a condition of helplessness which will render +further resistance impracticable. An immediate resumption of hostilities +will be effectually prevented by the military force which will +necessarily be maintained for some time after the close of the final +campaign of the war; and before the strength of the rebellious States +can be recruited for another similar contest, new ideas will be +engendered, and new sentiments of attachment to the Union may be +expected to grow up and take the place of that unnatural bitterness +which has exasperated the war and prolonged its horrors. An inevitable +change of institutions in the South, with moderate and conciliatory +measures on the part of the North, will serve gradually to heal the +dangerous wound, self-inflicted, which has so nearly destroyed the very +existence of the fairest and most favored part of our country. In the +end, a homogeneous society will extend over the whole Union, and new +vigor will be infused into our political organization, by reason of its +recovery from the terrible disease by which it has been attacked and for +a time utterly prostrated. The alterative effects of this critical +danger overcome, and of the treatment rendered necessary, will doubtless +be one of the most important consequences of the rebellion. + +The dogma of secession, as applied to our complex government, is +inconsistent with reason, and has often been effectually refuted by +argument. But sophistry, stimulated by ambition, was ever ready to renew +the controversy, and to perpetuate it in all the forms of vicious logic +and plausible ratiocination. The appeal to force, however, has done +something more than refute an argument; it has already discomfited the +whole theory, and it will not end short of the utter annihilation of the +very idea of secession as a right, and as a remedy for any evils, +fancied or real, which may be suffered or imagined under our Government. +After the close of the war, when men look back to its bloody fields and +its awful sacrifices, they will be amazed at the insane folly which +permitted them to consider the great American Union, with its honorable +history, its wonderful progress, its immense power, and its proud +standing among the nations, as a mere league among petty states, to be +dissolved at pleasure--as a thing to be broken into fragments, and to be +divided among ambitious aspirants, to be made the sport of domestic +faction, or of foreign rapacity and domination, changing its form and +proportions with every change of popular feeling and every restless +movement of popular discontent. These fatal delusions will be made to +disappear forever, and in their place there will remain in the minds of +men the image of a majestic Government, tried in the furnace of civil +war, made solid and immovable by its grand and successful efforts to +resist the threatened overthrow of its power, and becoming paternal by +the recovery of its wonted strength, which will permit and require the +exercise of magnanimous forbearance even toward those misguided citizens +who have raised their traitorous hands against it. Thus, with the awe +and fear which will be inspired by the tremendous energy put forth to +conquer the rebellion--an energy which will appear only so much the +greater and more imposing in proportion to the difficulties and dangers +met and overcome--there will be mingled the better sentiments of love +and veneration for a Government which re-establishes order, secures +protection to all civil rights, and restores, unimpaired, the liberties +which have been disregarded for a time, in order that they might be +permanently saved. To the people of the United States, the Union will be +what it never was before, and what it never could have been without the +sad experience it is undergoing now. Not that any change of form need be +effected, or any violence done to the principles on which our system is +founded. The change will be solely in the spirit in which our +institutions will be administered, arising from the altered sentiments +and feelings of the whole people. They will see their Government in a +new light--a light thrown on it by the grand events of the rebellion, +revealing capabilities and powers not hitherto known to exist, and +exhibiting it as the sole refuge in times of commotion and danger, +standing unmoved amidst the storm, impregnable to all its violence. In +the public recognition, by universal acquiescence, it will be considered +stronger than before; and this transformation will be as much a change +in the minds of the people as in the character and functions of the +Government itself. + +There is, however, no good reason why the central power should acquire +inordinate strength, and absorb any part of the legitimate functions of +the local governments. A more liberal interpretation of the Constitution +will somewhat extend the federal powers, and there will necessarily be +greater intensity in the exercise of acknowledged authority; +nevertheless, consolidation need not be the subject of serious +apprehension. At the beginning of the war, when the Union was sorely +beset with the most imminent dangers, the executive power was extended +far beyond its ordinary limits; and perhaps this excess of action has +been in some cases too long continued, and has been made to embrace +objects not legitimately within the emergency which originally justified +the departure. But even under present circumstances, there can be no +just cause for alarm. There can be no real danger, until the people +shall have become either overawed and silenced by terror, or careless +and indifferent to the encroachments on liberty. Such is evidently very +far from being the case now. The recent elections have shown how +entirely free is the expression of opinion, and how completely +untrammelled the political action of the people, who, in this instance, +have been charged with following their leaders even beyond the bounds +of just opposition, into the dangerous position of giving encouragement +to the enemy. Both parties, however, place their own peculiar +construction on these popular decisions, and it is difficult to +determine, with any accuracy, what is their actual import. We only know +that so extensive a change, affecting the position of many of the +largest States, indicates a serious dissatisfaction of some kind; though +it is by no means probable that the people have intended to sanction the +extreme and mischievous views of some of the candidates, who, here and +there, have secured their election. Factious divisions in the loyal +States, at this critical period, would be ruinous to the cause of the +Union. They would distract the public mind and weaken the arm of the +Government, so as to endanger its success in the war. There is no +indication of any such intention on the part of the people, whatever may +be the designs of some of those who have been successful leaders of this +threatening opposition. And the only effect which ought to follow the +recent popular demonstration is to admonish the Government, and check it +in those errors which are only too natural in the mighty contest in +which it is now engaged. The necessity for decision, vigor, and courage, +is indeed apparent; and the temptation to go beyond the limits even of +proper martial energy, is perhaps a sufficient excuse for those in +power, whose deep sense of responsibility and honest zeal in a holy +cause may sometimes lead them astray. It is not always given to men in +high position to remain cool and calm in great emergencies, and to take +comprehensive views of the requirements of so tremendous a contest, as +its aspects vary from time to time. The necessary exercise of military +authority for the preservation of the Government, however harsh and +severe it may be, will be everywhere justified, and even applauded. But +there are limits which even military license ought to respect; and when +the executive authorities go beyond the bounds of reason and necessity, +they ought themselves to be grateful to those who may have the courage +to throw themselves into the breach and sternly resist the violation of +right. The men in power ought to reflect that they are always liable to +be surrounded by subservient partisans, whose fears or selfish purposes +may induce them to applaud, when they ought to condemn and reprove. +Unfortunately, when such parasites are listened to and rewarded, there +is little hope of just and patriotic action; and this state of things +leaves no channel of escape, through which the public discontent can be +manifested, except that of partisan opposition, which, in the existing +crisis, is perhaps more dangerous even than the evil it pretends to +condemn and cure. While party divisions, in the midst of dangers such as +now threaten us, are greatly to be deplored, we can, nevertheless, +derive some satisfaction from results which otherwise we cannot +altogether approve. All the essential principles of freedom still +remain, through this great trial, undestroyed and unsuppressed by +terrorism; and the popular patriotism and sound common sense, though +liable to be misled at first, will eventually pronounce a just and +enlightened judgment. Parasites and flatterers may shrink from the task +of dissent; but the great heart of the people will find some means of +expression; and happy will be our country if their honest warnings, +given upon 'the sober second thought,' shall be noticed and duly heeded. +There will then be no danger of any serious invasions of liberty, or of +any permanent absorption of the proper constitutional functions of the +States by the Federal Government. Doubtless the central power will be, +and ought to be strengthened. Its standing army will necessarily be +larger than before the rebellion; the public debt will be greatly +increased; the taxes will be heavier; and the revenue and disbursements +larger. Though its functions will remain essentially the same in nature, +they will have a broader sweep and a greater power. This enlargement of +its ordinary action will naturally invest it with all the means and +capacities necessary for its own protection, and without any change of +the Constitution, it will be recognized as the true embodiment of our +permanent nationality, forever paramount in its appointed sphere and +appropriate functions to those of the individual States composing it. +The sum and substance of the change will be merely that the centripetal +and centrifugal forces of the system will have become so completely +adjusted to each other, that from this time forward the eternal +equilibrium of the whole will be secured. The States will not be shorn +of any power rightfully theirs, and necessary for their safety and +progress; but they will be fixed in definite orbits, with the limits of +their authority distinctly circumscribed and established. + +All social changes, sooner or later, produce their appropriate effects +on political institutions; and no results of the rebellion will be more +prominent and important than those which will follow the inevitable +disappearance of slavery. A new system of labor will be inaugurated in +the border States, as well as in those now in rebellion. The great act +of emancipation may not be immediate; nor is it by any means desirable +it should be. So radical a change in the condition of millions of +uneducated men would be quite as inconvenient, and, indeed, disastrous +to themselves, for the time being, as to their present owners. Society +itself would be thrown into the utmost confusion, and all the resources +of both parties would be temporarily much diminished, if not nearly +destroyed. But, whether suddenly or gradually, this fundamental change +must take place; for it is self-evident that slavery cannot survive the +present struggle. The proclamation of the President, which is to take +effect on the 1st of January next, will make emancipation more complete +and speedy; but the same result would have followed the stubborn +resistance of the rebels, even without that momentous act. It would be a +mischievous error to believe that emancipation was originally the aim +and object of the war on the part of the Union, and that the liberation +of slaves, which was sure to follow its progress, is the direct act of +our authorities, and not the proper consequence of the rebellion itself. +A war waged for and on account of slavery--for its increase and +perpetuation--necessarily, by its own nature, puts that institution at +stake, and risks it on the contingency of failure. Compelled, in defence +of the national unity, to carry the war into the heart of the Southern +States, the world acquiesces in that sound and necessary policy, which +releases the slaves, and sets them free forever, as fast as they come +within the protection of our armies. The proclamation is a measure of +the same nature, intended to destroy the resources of the enemy, and to +wound him in his most vulnerable point. But it can accomplish little +more than the previous policy; for the slumbering hopes of the slaves +were aroused by the first gun fired at Charleston in the beginning of +the struggle. Every movement of armies, and every bloody battle, which +has since taken place, has only served to inflame their desire for +freedom, and to fix their determination to obtain it. They have received +and gladly welcomed the obscure idea, that, in some way, this sanguinary +conflict was initiated for their benefit, and will not end without their +complete emancipation. In this they are not mistaken. The final +suppression of the rebellion by military force will be the perfect +consummation of that end, accomplished through the treason and wicked +folly of the South herself. If she persevere in her stubborn resistance +to the authority of the Union, the great measure of liberation will be +the result of her own blind and wilful acts of madness, and this as well +through their natural and necessary consequences as by the terms and +import of the President's proclamation. Let slavery destroy itself. It +is a just and righteous judgment that, in its atrocious effort to +destroy the nation, it should accomplish chiefly, if not solely, its own +violent and bloody death. Such retribution often attends the commission +of great crimes; but it seldom happens that effects so momentous for +good flow from the infliction which seems intended only for punishment. + +Under all circumstances, with or without the proclamation, slavery must +disappear soon after the suppression of the rebellion. From that time, +the States will become more and more homogeneous in their social +organization. This will tend to promote unanimity among them all, and +therefore, by an obvious process, to strengthen the rightful power of +the Federal Government. The vast extent of our country, comprising so +many varieties of condition and climate, and such diversities of +production, rising through every grade of elevation, from the Atlantic +seacoast to the central mountains, and thence again descending to the +shores of the Pacific, with mighty rivers running through nearly twenty +parallels of latitude--this magnificent seat of republican power affords +the most unbounded resources for industry in all its employments, and +for commercial interchange of productions on the most gigantic scale. +With free labor prevailing everywhere throughout this vast and splendid +region of the temperate zone, no limits can be assigned to the national +progress. The population, wealth, activity, and intelligence of the most +favored among the Free States at the present day, can alone offer the +measure and example of what the whole will be in the full maturity of +the new system. No European complexities of inter-state relations, no +oppressive restrictions on domestic commerce, no fatal divergencies of +opinion and feeling, no important differences of language and +literature--none of these obstructions to harmony and progress will +interfere with the continental development and glorious destiny of our +Federal Union. All that the earth yields from her teeming surface, or +from her deep-embowelled mines; all that enterprise can accomplish with +exhaustless means, the best facilities, and the most stupendous objects; +and all that genius can create, when stimulated by the richest rewards +and the freest opportunities for untrammelled exertion, will supply us +with the means and materials for an almost infinite variety of pursuits +and occupations; but, at the same time, the essential unity of our +complex institutions will be maintained, and their power extended and +exalted by the homogeneity and uniformity of social conditions which +will prevail more and more with the lapse of years and the succession of +generations. The blood of all kindred races will be mingled with +advantage in the veins of the cosmopolitan American; religions will be +harmonized and unified by the most fraternal liberality and unbounded +toleration; and the common enlightenment of the whole people by means of +universal education will exalt them to a condition of unexampled power +and prosperity. Just as dissensions among the States tend to weaken the +central power, their uniform and cordial coöperation will give immense +strength to the whole. Nor will this increase of power be at all +dangerous, because it will be only the legitimate consequence of the +greater progress and prosperity of the States themselves. To whatever +height the greatness of the Union may attain, it will be determined +exactly by that of the States which compose it--the pyramid of its power +being made up of theirs, which are but the enduring blocks of which the +mighty structure is built. + +If social unity and political strength will be promoted by the +suppression of the rebellion and the disappearance of slavery, the ties +of our Union will be made stronger also by other causes. Emerging from +the war victorious, not only without being seriously injured, but with +eventual and speedy increase of power, the Union will command the +respect of foreign nations in a higher degree than ever before. Those +European nations, or rather their rulers and nobles, who now in their +malignant envy hope for the permanent dismemberment of America, will +then hail her resuscitation with a zeal which will be none the less +advantageous to us for being forced from them in spite of their present +hate and detraction. If the division of our country would destroy its +influence abroad, and subject the parts to constant intrigues and +interference from foreign powers, the restoration of the Union with even +more than its former glory will give us unexampled weight in the +counsels of mankind. Our unexpected and astounding exhibition of +military power, our thorough command of the American continent, and its +immense resources, hardly yet begun to be developed, and the unlimited +prosperity which the future will assuredly bring us, cannot fail to +strike the minds of European thinkers, and to awaken deep interest among +the European people. The stream of immigration, interrupted by the war, +will be renewed with at least its former fulness, and will keep pace +with the demands of our country for labor and population. The South may +then be expected to receive her full share of this increase by people +from abroad, and will then commence that process of condensing and +permanently fixing her population, without which she can never attain +any high position in the scale of civilization. + +The large public debt destined to be incurred, may be expected to have +some influence in preventing immigration and improvement; but unless the +war shall unfortunately linger far beyond the period at which its end is +now anticipated, the liabilities of the Government will not be so great +as to prevent the speedy return of our usual prosperity. A different and +far better system of taxation will be required--one more favorable to +commerce and at the same time equally productive, or at least +sufficiently so to meet all our liabilities and provide for the +extinguishment of the debt within a reasonable time. One of the +advantages attending this great debt and modifying its certain evils and +burdens, will be the necessity of devising a stable revenue system, +intended solely to provide means for sustaining the Government and +meeting the public obligations. Periodical changes, often depending on +party ascendency and popular elections, have hitherto marked the +financial policy of our Government. So long as the sources of revenue +were superabundant and the demands of the Treasury very moderate, we +could well afford to make experiments, and even to depart from the true +principles of taxation, or at least to do so without any very serious or +ruinous consequences. Now, however, when the public expenditure is about +to be vastly increased, and when it will be for the first time really +felt by the people, it will become the first duty of our rulers to study +the extent and true character of our resources, and to adjust the +burdens of taxation, with all practicable fairness, to the respective +capacities of all classes and interests. We may expect to have a system +stable and permanent in its principles, if not in its details; and the +basis of this system will be a wise arrangement of duties on imports, +which must, from various reasons, ever form the great bulk of our taxes. + +It is not an American maxim that a great public debt is a public +blessing; nor is it likely that an educated and eminently practical +people like ours will ever accept that mischievous paradox. Yet if it +be desirable that our large public debt should be widely scattered among +the people, so that every man may be directly interested in maintaining +the public credit and the stability of the Government, the present +system, now but imperfectly adapted to that object, might easily be made +to accomplish it fully. If the Treasury notes recently issued were the +only paper circulation in the country--that is to say, if the banks were +prohibited, by taxation or otherwise, from making any issues of their +own--the Government might increase their amount to at least five hundred +millions, with even less than the present depreciation, and would thus +enjoy the benefit of a loan to that amount without the payment of any +interest. As it is now, the banks get the advantage of a great part of +this extensive loan, and at the same time perform a function which +properly belongs to the Government--that of furnishing a currency for +the people. By the proposed system, the entire community would be +interested in this part of the public debt, and would doubtless find the +circulating medium much safer and better than that now manufactured by +the numberless banks chartered by the States. The issue of these notes +by State institutions was always an evasion of that clause of the +Constitution which prohibits the States from issuing bills of credit, +and is plainly against the spirit and intention of the instrument. If +our public debt should, in this way, eventually drive all bank notes out +of circulation and banish them forever, it will have accomplished a +valuable work in restoring the true construction of the Constitution, +and, in this particular at least, will have proved a public blessing. It +will be very easy, in the course of time, to redeem the Treasury notes, +and gradually to substitute for them a species of national paper based +on actual deposits, which will afford all the conveniences with none of +the dangers of the present system, by which the local banks virtually +establish the currency of the country, flooding it with all varieties of +paper, without uniformity of value, with no adequate control or +regulation of its quantity, thus producing periodical convulsions and +robbing the people of their hard-earned savings. + +If the rebellion, by the burdens which it leaves behind, shall bring +about these two results--the adoption of a wise and permanent system of +revenue, and the establishment of a sound currency by the prohibition of +all bank circulation--it will have accomplished ends only inferior in +importance to the two primary consequences, the overthrow of the +principle of secession and the destruction of slavery. Thus, this +tremendous convulsion would bring out of the chaos a new order in the +political world, by annihilating secession, and by perpetuating the +Union and banishing all fear of its dissolution; in the social, by +substituting free men for slaves; in the financial, by a permanent +adjustment of tariffs and taxation; and in the commercial, by the +prohibition of bank paper and the substitution of a safe and uniform +currency. + + + + +'I;' OR, SUMMER IN THE CITY.' + + 'I love the sweet security of streets.'--CHARLES LAMB. + + +'I,' my charming friend, do not fully sympathize with the late Mr. +Lamb's statement, as quoted above; which statement I always have +believed partially owed its origin to its very tempting alliterative +robe. + +For myself, I do _not_ particularly like the 'sweet security of +streets,' but vastly prefer 'a boundless contiguity of shade,' +especially during the present month--August--or + + 'A life on the ocean wave.' + +I do not mean a permanent residence there--that would be liable to be +damp and unhealthy, and altogether too insecure to be 'sweet;'--but when +I say a 'life on the ocean wave,' it is merely my poetical license for a +cottage at Newport. (I wish, indeed, that I had any _but_ a poetical one +for such a possession!) + +But what folly for me to talk of a cottage there! when my limited income +does not even admit of a cot in the cheapest of seaside inns. + +Gentle reader! shrink not from me when, in addition to this melancholy +confidence, I also announce to you that I live in town--in 'Boston +town,' to be accurate--during August! I belong to the 'lower orders of +society;' and my only Newport is the Public Garden, or a walk to +Longwood, and, when I am _very_ affluent, a horse-car drive to Savin +hill, where a teaspoonful of sea view is administered to the humble +wayfarer. + +Yes! I positively did exist in the city, not only through the month of +August, but all the summer days of all the summer months. I mention +_August_ in the city, because I know that has a peculiarly God-forgotten +and forsaken sound. + +I should soon cease to exist anywhere, I fancy, if I did _not_ stay in +town, for (horror No. 2!) I work at a trade in order to earn my daily +bread and coffee! What my particular trade is, I am not going to +divulge--that shall remain a delicious mystery (the only delicious thing +about it); only this much I will confide: I do not, _à la_ Mr. Frederick +Altamont, 'sweep the crossing.' Unhappy Altamont! he did not appreciate +the sweet security of streets. + +'Poor thing!' you exclaim, 'work at a trade?' + +Rest tranquil, fair one; the phrase doubtless sounds harshly to your +delicate, aristocratic ears. (Oh, what lovely earrings!) Be tranquil! I +do not work _very_ hard; my hands are perhaps so audacious as to be as +small, as white, and as soft as your own. + +But I have to 'work reg'lar,' every week day of all the months of every +year; and when the time arrives for me to go into the country, I shall +not return again to Boston; for I shall go to a land from whence no +traveller returns. _Apropos_ of this rather dismal topic: A queer cousin +of mine, 'Sans Souci,' who has a taste for 'morbid anatomy,' was the +other day enjoying himself with Mr. Smith, the cheerful sexton of the +King's Chapel. These two were 'down among the dead men,' under the +church, when Mr. Smith apologized for leaving my cousin, on the plea +that he had a previous engagement to take a young gentleman into the +country--a delicate way of stating that he was about to convey a body +out to Mount Auburn! + +Some fine day, I too shall take a drive with some Mr. Smith--not, of +course, _the_ S. C. Smith, for, as I have mentioned, 'I' belong to the +'lower orders.' + +Now let me tell you of _my_ Newport, and of what mitigations there are +for the poor wretches who pass their summer in the city, to whom the +joys of Sharon, Saratoga, the Hudson, and of Lake George are as +impossible as though these delightful resorts were in other planets. +Perhaps, like Mr. T. A.'s 'good Americans,' they have a vague hope that +when they die they can visit these famous places! For myself, I long ago +made out my 'visiting list.' Oh, bless you! as soon as I shall be 'out +of the body,' I shall start on the most delightful tour (no bother about +the luggage, checks, or couriers!); it will be years and years before I +fairly 'settle down' in that + + 'bright particular star' + +I have selected for my permanent residence. Yes! you horrible madame! +oh, you horrible madame, who express your fears that I shall 'never be +settled,' speaking of me as if I were the coffee in your +coffee-pot--(only, of course, such a well-regulated dame's coffee is +never anything but _quite_ clear and settled)--yes, to relieve your +poor, narrow mind, I can bid you hope that in another and pleasanter +world I fully expect to be--'settled.' I tell you this beforehand, for I +am very sure that you won't go to the same planet, and therefore will +never have the satisfaction of knowing the fact from personal +observation. + +But what am I about? Building castles in the skies! Mr. Editor Leland, +as usual, protests against my sad lack of con-cen-tra-tion! Let us +concentrate, therefore, my beloved hearers! With or without sugar? Oh, I +was beginning to tell you about Newport--_my_ Newport, the Public Garden +of Boston, _alias_ Hub-opolis--which you, poor things! belonging to the +'higher orders' and living on Arlington, Berkely, Clarendon, and the +Duke of Devonshire streets, never have a chance to see in its Augustan +pomp and glory. In fact, till this summer, its 'pomp and glory' were +quite concealed by dust and ashes; but now, thanks to the 'City +Fathers,' it is + + 'Ye land of flowers.' + +Let me describe it to you; for though your dwellings are directly +opposite, yet, custom compelling you to leave them before the flower +season begins, you in reality know less of it than I do, living in a +street whose name must not be mentioned to ears polite. 'Tis far from +the Beacon 'haunts of men,' far from the Garden, and uncommonly far from +the Common. I rise betimes on these summer mornings, and, before I go to +my work, shaking off the dust of my obscure street, I enter your sacred +precincts, oh, F. F. B.'s! Bless you, it can do you no harm, for even +your boudoirs do not look out at me; their eyes are shuttered to all +such vulgar sights. It was impertinent, but this morning I pitied you +(_you!_) that you could not see the wondrous beauty of the--_city in +August!_ + +The morning was gloriously beautiful: it might have been the sister to +that one born so long ago, on which its Creator looked, and said that it +was 'good.' I actually forgot that I had no position; I imagined I had, +for the very brightest beauty filled my soul--I saw angels ascending and +descending (not Beacon street, as in the winter season) the charmed air +around me. 'Ye land of flowers,' indeed! All of them mine--mine, though +I must not pluck the humblest one. In truth, I had no desire to do so. +Why should I take the lovely creatures from their beautiful home, to the +close, dull room where I must sit all the bright day? Let me rather +think of them fresh, free, and happy there, as I often think of a +golden-haired child in heaven; one so dear to my heart of hearts, I +bless God that I _can_ think of her there with the angels who stand +nearest the Throne--and far, far away the weary paths that I must tread +to the end. But if heaven had not wanted another cherub, and she had +been left to be the flower of my life, think you I could have seen her +beauty wither in the dull room to which I must hasten in an hour? No! a +thousand times no! I should leave her with her sisters in the garden +here, with her cousins, the birds and butterflies, while I worked for +both. Lilies must neither 'toil nor spin.' How idly I am dreaming! She +is far away from this worky-day world; I shall never see her again, but +in dreams, as now! Little sister! with starry eyes, and soft curls +clustering around the sweet infant face; so many nights the same bright +vision--with the same wreath which I myself placed on her head, of May's +pale flowers, and she the palest. Only lilies of the valley, I remember, +seemed fitting for my darling's brow, or to grow on + + +ANNIE'S GRAVE. + + Bright Roses, wither on the spray! + Your sweetness mocks the doom + Of her whose cheeks, so pale to-day, + Were rivals of your bloom. + + Sweet Violets, I charge ye, fade! + Wear not those robes of blue, + For eyes are closed which Nature made + Of a more lovely hue. + + Pale Lilies, sad and drooping low, + With perfume like her breath, + On Annie's grave alone shall grow, + _Fair flower, plucked by Death_. + + * * * * * + + Call it an affectation, if you will, but I + never take a flower from its home without + a slight twinge of pain. I _know_ it + suffers! However, I have no scruples in + accepting flowers after they are plucked + by others. So pray do not hesitate + about sending me that superb bouquet, + which you intended to send me _to-morrow_! + Have you never observed the + brutal habit which 'some persons' + have, of recklessly attacking shrubs + and flowers, as though they were rank + weeds (or secessionists), and, without + in the least enjoying their spoils, tossing + their quivering, trembling victims + aside, before they are dead or even + withered? Such are not worthy of + flowers, excepting French flowers, + which are not supposed to suffer. Oh, + my countrywomen! would that they + _did_ suffer a little from our neglect. + + Do you know who Lacoontolâ is? + I have made her acquaintance this + summer, and find it one of the compensations + for passing the summer in + town. + + She is to be found at the City + Library--'Lacoontolâ, or, The Fatal + Ring,' translated from the Sanscrit. + Go there for her, I pray you, and you + will admire with me the exquisite description + of her tenderness to these + 'flower people,' as Mrs. Mann calls them. + + But, pardon! You who belong to the + 'highest orders' must be already intimate + with Mlle. Lacoontolâ, for she is + highly connected: her papa was a king + (quite equal in position to Mr. Abe + Lincoln); her mamma, I regret to + state, though a very charming person, + was an actress or goddess, or something + in that line. Lacoontolâ, however, in + spite of her papa's indiscretion, married + a prince, and was, in fact, perfectly + genteel and quite religious. Before + her marriage, she appears to have + 'lived in the woods' the year round; + her wardrobe being 'turu-lural.' She + used to wear the 'dearest' little zouave + of the 'tender bark' of the 'Aurora + tree.' + + 'Rich and rare were the gems she wore,' + +for her bracelets were the 'long perfumed stems of the waterlilies!' and +in her hair the lotus flower, in place of a lace _barbe_! + +There is a very beautiful description of Lacoontolâ's love and tender +treatment of all the flowers and shrubs--her companions--and of all +_dumb_ animals. (_On dit_ that the prince was henpecked by _Mrs._ L.!) + +This wild girl had a human love for the forest flowers; she says to +thee, Madhari Creeper: 'Oh, most radiant of twining plants, receive my +embraces, and return them with thy flexible arms: from this day, though +at a distance, I shall forever be thine.' How unconventional! I fancy +Mlle. L. must have inherited this style of conversation from her mamma; +all very well, when confined to flowers and 'creeping' things; but one +day, as she was out walking, she met 'by chance--the usual way,' Prince +Dashuranti, and our young lady said pretty much the same sort of thing +to him as to the 'Creeper,' falling violently in love with him at first +sight. It struck H. R. H. as a little peculiar--rather extraordinary in +a well-bred miss; but as it was leap year, and learning that she was the +only child, and would inherit all of papa's immense fortune, he married +her 'off-hand;'--well, that very afternoon at four o'clock--by the +sundial. You see it didn't take so long 'in those days,' to get the +trousseau, and all 'the things' in readiness. Papa raised his +sceptre-wand, and mumbled some infernal gibberish--and, lo! all the +trees and shrubs blossomed instanter, with the 'sweetest loves' of +things trimmed with 'real point;'--well, with something just as +delicious to the soul of a young (or middle-aged) maiden on the eve of +matrimony. There was no necessity, either, for an order to Bigelow +Bros., Boston--since, if Dushuranti wished to present her with a pair of +bracelets on her wedding day, he had but to 'push out' on the pond, and +get some waterlilies! + +The 'gibberish' in which the old gentleman is said to have invoked the +backwoods 'Chandlers' and 'Hoveys,' I will obligingly translate for you, +as possibly you may not be able to read it in the original Sanscrit! Oh! +don't tell _me_ that you 'won't trouble me,' and all that. I _will_ bore +you, and nobody can save you! + +'Hear, O ye trees of this hallowed forest, hear and proclaim that +Lacoontolâ is going to the palace of her wedded lord. She who drank not, +though thirsty, before you were watered; she who cropped not, through +affection for you, one of your fresh leaves, though she would have been +pleased with such an ornament for her locks; she whose chief delight was +in the season when your branches are sprayed with flowers,' &c., &c. +Should you like a photograph of this charming person, Lacoontolâ, taken +by Black & Batchelder, at the time of her marriage, 'Williams & Everett' +can oblige you. You will perceive, from her picture, that she is not too +fond of dress, or a 'slave to fashion.' + +'Rappacini's daughter' (one of Hawthorne's Mosses) was a morbid +'Lacoontolâ.' She loved her flowers,--'not wisely, but too well!' She +became a sort of exterminatrix--a strychninus young person! From the +poisonous _arsenic_ embraces of her garden loves, she acquired, you +remember, her fatal, glowing beauty--beauty altogether 'too rich for +use, for earth too dear,' since it consigned the 'party' ensnared by it +to the silent tomb! + +'Rappacini's daughter,' indeed! Lovely girl-woman, seated at yonder bay +window (to be accurate, the 'Back Bay window'!), playing with your ten +cherub children; your tropical 'midsummer-night's-dream' beauty recalls +Beatrice (Hawthorne's Beatrice I mean). How many have _you_ slain, my +love? And Madame Grundy echoes: 'Their name is legion!' 'A quick +brunette, well moulded, falcon-eyed'! As in the description of Beatrice, +one is reminded 'of all rich and intense colors'--the purple-black hair, +the crimson cheek, the scarlet lips. And the eyes? ah! gazing into those +wonderful eyes, one forgets the color they wear, in trying to interpret +their language! 'Cleopatra!' who would not be an Antony for thee? _I +would not!_ + +I have unconsciously interrupted a lady in her morning bath!--the 'stone +lady' of the fountain. She seems to be looking for her Turkish towel, +judging from her anxious expression! Rather a good-looking person--quite +pretty, if only she would go to Summer street and purchase a black silk. +Dress, I fancy, would improve 'her style of beauty.' Poor thing! it's +rather a long walk to take, _à la_ 'Lacoontolâ'! I must lend her my +waterproof, only she appears already to be water-proved! How she _must_ +envy the coloring and the clothes of my beautiful dame of the window! + +But my hour is passing away! '_Resurgam_'--as the sun incorrectly +remarked this morning--and go on my way, rejoicing to say 'bon jour' to +all my dear flower friends. And first, the 'Asters'--they always were +rich, you know, from 'John Jacob' down; but this summer, _malgrè_ taxes +and curtailment of incomes and go-comes, the family appear in +unprecedented splendor. What gorgeous Organdies! all quilled in the +fashion--but not by Madame Peinot: her cunning right hand, with all its +cunning, ne'er quilled so exquisitely. Those graceful, fragile Petunias +(what a family of sisters!), in their delicate _glaze_ silks (ratherish +_décolleté!_), and the Superbia, Empress 'Gladiolus,' in brocade of such +daring hues, may call the Asters 'stiff and prudish' in their quilled +muslins; but, what say the Asters in return? Ah! what do they _not_ say? + +The Verbenas seem fairly delirious this morning, as though the +consciousness of their own beauty made them run wildly from their beds +into the paths, to say to the passers-by, with their bright little +faces: + +'See! am I not charming?' + +Well, you _are_ pretty--_very_ pretty; but I care not for you as for +your plainer stepsister, the 'sweet-scented Verbena.' She has a pale, +sad face; but she has a _soul_, which you have not, poor things! for +perfume is the soul of 'flower people.' + +But, who wants gold? Lives there a man with purse so full who does _not_ +want it? Well, then, snatch that heap of sunshine, that dazzling +Coreopsis, and be off before the policeman turns into this path. Ah, ye +Daylilies! You break my heart with your moonlight faces. Standing apart +from the world-flowers, like novices in their white veils, who offer the +incense of their beauty to Heaven--oh! give a little of your perfume to +a poor un-otto-of-rosed mortal--breathe on me, and I can laugh at the +costly 'Wood Violet,' 'Eglantine,' and 'Rose,' with which Harris & +Chapman scent their patronesses--to be dollared in return! + +Daylilies, your perfume is too subtle, too vague, to be coined or +'cabined, cribbed, confined' in scent bottles. + +Ah! the flowering Mosses; they seem to be having one eternal picnic with +the Myrtles and Verbenas, playing forever that dear-to-children game of +'Tag'! Some are arrayed in Solferino velvets, rather heavy for this warm +day! Prettier these, in soft rose-colored robes, and this, in a + + 'Oh! call me fair, not pale'-- + +well, _almost_ pale robe, the very climax of delicacy: the faintest +thought of rose color alone prevents one from calling it lily-white. I +am reminded of you, O flower-named friend! Vision of loveliness! which +has in a few never-to-be-forgotten days oasised my Sahara life. Now I +have reached the pond--_my_ Lake George! It is fresh and breezy this +morning, after last night's thunder-shower, and the mimic waves are +impatiently breaking over the thus-far-shalt-thou-go stone. I cannot +blame them for rushing over that green sward to give a morning kiss to +the blushing 'Forget-me-nots,' and just say to them, 'Remember _me_!' + +Yes; I have a few crumbs of time left to sit in the rustic arbor and +give one lingering look behind, that I may carry a picture with me when +I go to my work. + +How fortunate it is for one that these flowers are Londoners in their +habits, and pass August in the city! I can go to their receptions daily, +if I choose; they are always at home to the poorest, the most +unfashionable; they keep no 'visiting book' in their hall. + +Hark! the bell rings seven o'clock. There is a 'knocking at the gate' +of my fairy land; it warns me that I must be on my Washington-street +way, to earn my bread. + +_Bien!_ my first meal of to-day has been satisfactory. Heaven hath sent +me all manner of manna for breakfast--and for lunch? a banana. Yes; on +my way 'down town' I shall pass the Studio Building, where the B.'s +live; I will buy one of them, but shall also steal--many glances at the +Hamburg grapes, those peachiest of peaches, bombastic blackberries, and, +O Pomona! _such_ pears. + +I escape! purse uninjured, only bananared. I reach Winter street, where +I must turn my back on the Common pleasures of Boston life--but yet, one +glance at that seductive window of the corner store, which, indeed, is +nearly all window. Flowers are there, of course,--flowers from January +to January; any poor devil can have a temporary conservatory at that +window, 'all for nothing;' I ought to pay a yearly tax for the pleasure +I steal in that way. The woman who carries my portmonnaie, only permits +me to open it for the 'necessaries' of life: the luxuries of hot-house +grapes and flowers ever wear for me that fatal label: 'Touch not, taste +not.' Bread and cologne are, of course, the first necessities of life; +in rolls and religion I am a Parkerite; in cologne, I swear by 'Mrs. +Taylor'! Beacon street, I beg that you won't faint at this horrible +disclosure! + +Who _is_ 'Mrs. Taylor'? and echo answers, 'We haven't the faintest odor +of an idea!' None know her but to praise, wherever she may be. With +Sancho Panza we say, 'Blessings on the man who invented Mrs. Taylor at +seventy-five cents _per_--the hock bottle. I catch a glimpse of her long +neck, stretching up among the roses and Geraniums: my cologne nature +can't resist that sight! I obey the syren's call, though it will leave +me a beggar, but with Mrs. T. in my chaste-embrace. + +'The man I work for' treats me, for some reason, with 'distinguished +consideration.' Though I may sometimes be a little after the required +hour, it's all right; and though he's a Yankee, no questions are asked! +I still have a precious quarter remaining--not of a dollar, but of time. +I have in my purse one postage stamp; but that will warrant a visit to +Loring's! One must have books as well as bread and cologne. O LORING! +what an institution art thou! Name dear to all classes, from Madame +----, who steps from her carriage, to the pretty shop-girl, who always +wants Mrs. Southworth's last--and worst--novel. + +Who, indeed, 'so poor' as not 'to do _him_ reverence,' and find two +cents _per_ day, when for that sublimely small sum one can get a +companion for any and every mood, + + 'Grave to gay, from lively to severe?' + +But will 'LORING'S' be open at this early dawn? 'Open,' indeed! one does +not catch _him_ napping; yes, open and so inviting! A literary public +garden so fresh and clean, as + + 'Just washed in a shower.' + +In the rear, behind the desk, one is always sure of finding at least +_two roses_, and _on_ the desk a vase of flowers is certainly to be +seen--the offering of some one of the hundreds of admirers who go to +Loring's, nominally for some entertaining book--and they always find +one! + +'What book did you say, miss?' asks Fleur de Marie. ('Where _does_ she +get those lilies and roses? I saw none like them in the garden this +morning. Ah! many of the dames who enter here from their carriages would +also like to ask my question--since they do not seem to find them even +at Newport!) 'If you please, _what_ book?' again inquire the Roses. + +'Oh!' I answer, 'I was looking, and forgot what I came for; is 'Out of +his Head' _in_ yet?' + +The fair librarian evidently thinks I am out of mine. Ah! would that I +were, and out of my whole body; but no! ingrate that I am, to-day I +should be content--simply _to be_; even a cabbage ought to be happy in +such perfect summer weather. T. B. Aldrich _is_ in--as much as he ever +is supposed to be; but I recall now that I read his sketchy book the +other night, while I was brushing my hair, giving it a sort of 'good +time generally,' letting it run wild a little before going to sleep. I +read 'Pierre Antoine's Date Tree' quite through, and liked--the _last +part_ very much indeed. There are some people whom I am always very glad +to have visit me, because I feel so 'dreadful glad' when they go away. +So, also, it compensates one to read certain books for the sake of the +delicious sensation one experiences on finishing them! What a pile of +'_Les Misérables_,' Fantine? _C'est assez misérable._ The 'Hunchback' is +the least deformed of Hugo's offspring; but I read _that_ last Sunday +morn--no; I mean last Saturday evening; for I went to church on Tremont +street, last Sunday. What's this? it looks as tempting as a banana, and +is not unlike one in color. 'Melibæus in London,' in the summer, too: +good! I'll take that, it shall 'assist' the banana at my lunch. I hurry +out of this 'little heaven,' murmuring, as I depart: 'LORING, live +forever!' + +Lady Macbeth undoubtedly alluded to you when she says: + + 'We _fail_? there's no such word as fail!' + +I believe the Macbeths, and, in fact, everybody but Loring, has failed +during the war times. McClellan certainly has--not succeeded. + +The police (those gentlemen of elegant leisure) do not even suspect how +much I have stolen, and what treasures I am carrying off before nine +o'clock A. M.! All the splendors of the early morning are mine; they +will gild the dull grey of my working hours. What a stock of perfumes +stolen from the garden! they will sweeten the 'business air' of +Washington street. The fountain's glistening spray will sprinkle the +dusty walk to 'the shop.' + +I have not yet told you of the kisses taken--not from Féra's, but from +the cherry-ripe lips of two lovely children, with whom I formed an +intimacy in the garden by the pond; they were 'sailing' their mimic +boats there. I almost wished + + 'I were a boy again,' + +and had a boat to sail! These children had such a brave and haughty +beauty, and their dress being of purple and fine linen, I supposed their +name must be Berkeley or Clarendon, but was grieved to learn from the +artless darlings that it was Muggins! However, their kisses were +unexceptionable, whatever their origin may have been. + +But what a 'heap' of Beauty I stole in my return walk through +Beaconstreet mall! No wonder those magnificent elms are in love with +each other, and embrace over the people's heads! When I come into my +fortune, I intend, early the next morning, before breakfast, to make the +first use of my 'funds' in purchasing Mr. George Ticknor's house. (Of +course, he will not object.) I shall then laugh at the mill-dam +principalities and powers when I look from my library windows down that +long vista of noble trees. Come and see me when I am settled there! You +shall have a warm welcome in winter, and a cool one in summer. And now, +fare thee well, whoever thou art, who hast kindly walked with me to the +door of--my 'place of business.' I will not ask you to enter there. I +can worry through the day: unseen companions go with me to soothe and +cheer; so do not pity me that I am what I am--'nobody,' living +'nowhere.' You have seen that the Angel of Beauty disdains not to appear +in my humble path--and sometimes hovers so near, I can almost touch her +wings! + +And so God be w'ye! Little joys to you are great joys to me. There be +those above you, 'kinges and princes and greate emperours,' to whom your +luxuries and badges would seem as little as mine are to you. When you +are beautiful, you adorn my street; when you are unlovely, I--pass you +by. _Bon jour la compagnie!_ + + + + +THE IVY. + + 'Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms. + Fairies, begone, and be all ways away. + So doth the woodbine the sweet honeysuckle + Gently entwist,--the female Ivy so + Enrings the barky fingers of the elm. + Oh, how I love thee; how I dote on thee!' + + _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act iv., scene 1. + + 'The bearers of the thyrsus (bound with Ivy) are many, but the + Bacchantæ are few.'--_Orphic saying._ + + +If, among plants, the Rose is unmistakably feminine, from the delicate +complexion of its flower, the Ivy is not less so from the tender +sentiment of attachment expressed by its whole form and life. In her +infinite array of poetic symbols, Nature has given us nothing so +exquisitely typical of all that is best in woman, as that which may be +found in the graceful curves and in the firm strength of this vine. In +youth and beauty, she clings to the husband tree or parental wall for +support, and, like a wife or daughter, conceals defects, and imparts a +softer shadowing and contour to the support, without which she herself +had never risen to light and life. Time passes on. The oak grows old, +the wall is shattered by lightning; but the Ivy, now strong and firm, +shelters the limbs or binds together the tottering walls with greater +care than before, and covers decay and rifts with fresh care--aided by +the younger daughter-vines. + +This simile has occurred to poets in all lands, in all ages. In an old +Chinese poem (JOLOWICZ, _der Poetische Orient_, s. 7) we are told that +'in the south there lives a tree, the Ivy _Ko_ clings and winds around +it, bringing the most excellent of joys and happiness in excess.' Owing +to this natural and most palpable resemblance, the ancient Greeks caused +the officiating priest in the temple to present to a bridal pair, on +entering, a twig of Ivy, 'as a symbolical wish that their love, like it, +might ever continue fresh.' It was a beautiful thought, and one which +was not lost sight of in the ecclesiastical and architectural symbolism +of the middle ages. 'It is,' says FRIEDREICH (_Symbolik und Mythologie +der Natur_, § 103), 'as an ever-greening plant, a type of life, of love, +and of marriage.' It is, therefore, with both truth and propriety that +the modern floral lexicons give the _vitis hedera_, or Ivy, as +expressing 'Female affection--I have found one true heart.' + +As with all plants, or, indeed, with all natural objects known to the +ancients, the Ivy was the subject of a myth or religious allegory, and +in investigating this myth, we find ourselves in a labyrinth of strange +mystery. The ordinary works on mythology, indeed, inform the reader that +it was the plant sacred to Bacchus, the god of wine, because, as Loudon +states, 'this wine is found at Nyssa, the reputed birthplace of Bacchus, +and in no other part of India.' 'It is related,' he continues, 'that +when Alexander's army, after their conquest of Babylon, arrived at this +mountain, and found it covered with laurel and Ivy, they were so +transported with joy (especially when they recognized the latter plant, +which is a native of Thebes), that they tore up the Ivy by the roots, +and, twining it around their heads, burst forth into hymns to Bacchus, +and prayers for their native country.' + +But there is a deeper significance to the Ivy, even as there is a deeper +and more solemn mystery and might around the primeval Bacchus. To us he +is merely the wine-god, but to the ancient Initiated in the orgies and +mysteries he was--as were each of the gods in their turn--the central +divinity, the lord of light, and the giver of life. For, as it was +concisely said in the spirit of pantheistic abstraction: 'Nothing can be +imagined which is not an image of God;' so it was not possible to +conceive a divinity who was not in himself all the other divinities. +Thus we find that Bacchus was male, female, and at the same time an +absolute ONE without regard to sex; or, in other words, he was the +ancient trinity. + + 'Tibi enim inconsumpta juventus. + Tu puer æternus, tu formosissimus alto + Conspiceris coelo, tibi, cum sine cornibus adstas + Virgineum caput est.' + + OVID, _Met._ l. 4. + +For, as the great mystery of all religion, or of all being, is _life_, +and as life, like blood, is most aptly typified by reviving and +inspiring wine, it was not wonderful that renewed strength, generation, +and birth should gather around the incarnation of the vine, and that the +_cup_ should become the holiest of symbols. Like the ark, the chest or +coffer, the egg, and a thousand other receptive or _containing_ objects, +the cup appeared to the ancient Initiated as a womb, or as the earth, +taking in and giving forth life. It was in this spirit that NONNUS, in +the fifth century, wrote The Dyonisiacs, a vast poem on Bacchus, in +forty-eight books; 'a magnificent assemblage of the emblematical legends +of Egypt,' and in which modern criticism has discovered a creative +grandeur, a beautiful wildness of fancy, and a romantic spirit, such as +were combined in no other one poem of antiquity. + +Bacchus was thus the lord of life, and that in a vividly _real_ +sense--the sense of intoxication, of keenly thrilling pleasure, of wild +delight, and headlong rushing joy. He was fabled to have given men the +grape and wine--but to the Initiated of the mystery and orgie there was +higher and more intoxicating wine than that of the grape--the wine of +wild inspiration, drawn from the keenest relish of beauty, of nature, of +knowledge, and of love. Drunk with this wine of the soul, the Moenad +and Bacchante rushed forth into lonely forests, amid rocks, by silent +lake, and streamlet lone, and cried in frantic joy, bewildered with +passion, to the Great Parent, or shouted in praise: 'Bacche, Evoe, +Bacche!' + + 'Then chaunted rose + The song of Bacchic women: all the band + Of shaggy Satyrs howled with mystic voice, + Preluding to the Phrygian minstrelsy + Of nightly orgies. Earth around them laughed; + The rocks reëchoed; shouts of revelling joy + Shrilled from the Naiads, and the river nymphs + Sent echoes from their whirlpool-circled tides, + Flowing in silence; and beneath the rocks + Chanted Sicilian songs, like preludes sweet, + That through the warbling throats of Syren nymphs, + Most musical drop of honey from their tongues.' + + NONNUS. + +For all this wild joy, all this exquisite union of all the pleasures +known to man, whether in the mad embraces of passionate nymphs, in +draining wine, in tasting the fresh honeycomb, in wild dances under +green leaves, in feasting, or in song, Bacchus was the centre, and the +Cup the symbol. And this cup--the absolutely _feminine_ type--the _Iona_ +which forms the nucleus of so great and so curious a family of words in +the Indo-Germanic and Shemitic languages--was fabled to have been formed +from the wood of Ivy. Let the reader hear this double sex of Bacchus in +mind; he will find it recurring again in the myth of Ivy. 'We must,' +says CREUZER (_Symbolik und Mythologie der Alten Völker_), 'think of ALL +things, if we would not see the Bacchic genii in their mysterious rites, +from a one-sided point of view. Not only Bacchus himself, but his male +and female companions must each, like their lord on earth, appear in +_different_ forms. For the mysteries loved the antique, the +pregnant-with-meaning, _i. e._ that which has a really symbolical +fulness, and supplies full food for thought.' And again: 'It would have +been very strange if the Man-Woman had not also appeared in this +mysterious array of forms. In his origin, Bacchus is an Indian god, and +to the Hindus the world was bi-sexed.' Thus we find in the Ivy, as his +sacred plant, a curious and beautiful symbol, in whose trailing embraces +the ancient East and West are bound together. + +If the Ivy cup was held to typify female nature, so too were the leaves +of that plant emblematical of the receptive sex. The thyrsus, the +distinctive object borne by the worshippers of Bacchus, was a phallic or +male symbol, the characteristic portion of which was wreathed and buried +in Ivy leaves; signifying the union of the sexes. It is curious to +observe that this regarding the Ivy as characteristic of the feminine +principle, found its way among the Druids, and was transmitted from them +to the Christian and Christmas ceremonies of the middle ages. In these +we always find that the thorned holly is spoken of as male, and the Ivy +as female. In the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for 1779, a correspondent +relates a ceremony, which is still preserved in some parts of England. +'The girls, from five or six to eighteen years old, were assembled in a +crowd, burning an uncouth effigy, which they called a _holly-boy_, and +which they had stolen from the boys; while in another part of the +village, the boys were burning what they called an _Ivy-girl_, which +they had stolen from the girls. The ceremony of each burning was +attended with huzzas and other acclamations, according to the receipt of +custom in all such cases.'[1] + +There is but one legend in all the legends of the gods; but one +solution, though the enigmas be thousandfold; and the myth of the Ivy is +only a repetition of that of Bacchus and of all the immortals--the +endless allegory of birth and death, male and female, winter and spring. +_Kissos_--the Greek word for Ivy--was a young faun beloved by Bacchus, +who accompanied the god of the Cup and of life, in all his strange +adventures. Mad with wine, Kissos once at an orgie danced until he fell +dead. Then his lord, grieving bitterly, raised the beloved form in his +arms, and, changing it to Ivy, wreathed it around his brow. It is the +old story of death and revival. + +But we may expect to find of course a feminine goddess, or demi-goddess, +whose name includes the same root as Kissos--and she appears in +_Kiseis_, one of the nymphs to whom Bacchus gave the infant Bacchus to +be brought up. For her reward, she was placed by Bacchus among the +stars--in the constellation of the weeping Hyades--that she might have a +place in heaven. Apropos of which we may quote the words of the quaint +old Jesuit GALTRUCHIUS, saying that 'Bacchus was brought up with the +Nymphs, which teacheth us that we must mix Water with our Wine.'[2] + +We also find that _Kisæa_, was, at Epidaurus, one of the names of +Minerva. Notwithstanding the apparent dissimilarity between the wild god +of wine and the goddess of calm wisdom, it was still taught in the +mysteries that they had an affinity in more than one lower form, and, of +course, an _identity_ in their highest. 'The temple of Bacchus,' says +Galtruchius, 'was next to _Minerva's_, to express how useful Wine is to +revive the Spirits, and enable our Fancy to Invent.'[3] In the older +worship, Minerva was one with Venus, Diana, Proserpine--the generating +female principle of love and of beauty being of course predominant. 'In +this _unity_ or identity of barbarian divinities,' says Creuzer +(_Symbolik_, IV. _Theil_), ('to speak like the Greeks') 'we must, +however, seek for the source of that _variety_ which made the Greeks so +rich in gods; and what had in Hellas been separated into so many, +remained by the 'barbarians' single and undivided. Therefore the older a +Greek local worship might be, so much the more did it in this resemble +the barbarian. * * So we have truly learned in Argos, Laconia, Dodona, +and Sicily, * * that Proserpine was one and the same with Venus and +Diana, and the identity with Minerva may also be proved.' For the proof +I refer the reader to his work. With Venus, however, Bacchus had amours, +begetting Priapus. Certain it is that the Ivy _Kissos_ appears in both +male and female names. + +But as the Ivy formed the cup--_kissubion_--into which life entered, and +from which it was drained as wine; so, too, from its wood was made the +sacred _chest_ (_kisté_) in which, in the Dyonisiac mysteries, the same +secret was preserved under the form of a serpent, while in the +Eleusinian it hid the dread pomegranate which Persephone had tasted. For +they were all one and the same, this wine and serpent and +pomegranate--the type of life and of knowledge--of human birth, and +human intellect--of the world's generation and of eternal wisdom. The +fruit of which Adam ate, the bread and wine of the holy supper of the +mysteries of all lands in all ages, the pomegranate, whose seeds, once +eaten, kept the soul in another life beyond death, all have _one_ +meaning--and this meaning was that of infinite revival, endless +begetting, the renewal of nature--and with this the _knowledge_ of the +great mystery which sets the soul free. '_Eritis sicut Deus._' + +It was no small honor for a single plant to have furnished the wreath of +Bacchus, the wood of his cup, emblematic of the human body containing +his life-blood, and the material for the chest of the great +mysteries--meaning also the body and the world. I think, however, that +its philological root may also be possibly found in the Greek noun +_kissa_, and the verb _kissáo_, implying strange and excessive +passionate longing. Such yearning would well become the Bacchantæ, the +wild children of desire and of Nature. It is longing or _desire_ which +leads to renewing life, which constitutes love, which flashes like fire +and light through the beautiful, and pours forth the wine, and breaks +the bread, and causes the rose-blush to bloom, and the nymphs to cry +amid the mountains, _Evoé Bacche!_ + +Coming down from the pagan mysteries into lower and more literal forms, +the Ivy preserved two meanings. It was already the vine of life, and the +early Christians laid it in the coffins of their departed, as the emblem +of a new life in Christ.[4] It had hung upon the limbs of naked nymphs, +convulsed in passionate orgies, as a type of vitality renewed by +pleasure--it was now wreathed at Christmas-tide over quaint columns and +tracery-laden Gothic windows and arches, as a sign--they knew not +exactly of what--but guessed, naturally enough, and rightly, that it +typified as an undying winter-plant the resurrection. And they sang its +praises in many a brave carol: + + IVY, chief of trees it is, + _Veni coronaberis_. + + The most worthy she is in town,-- + He who says other says amiss; + Worthy is she to bear the crown; + _Veni coronaberis_. + + IVY is soft and meek of speech, + Against all woe she bringeth bliss; + Happy is he that may her reach: + _Veni coronaberis_. + + IVY is green, of color bright, + Of all trees the chief she is; + And that I prove will now be right: + _Veni coronaberis_. + + IVY, she beareth berries black; + God grant to all of us his bliss, + For then we shall nothing lack: + _Veni coronaberis_. + +Very quaint is the following fragment: + + Holly and Ivy made a great party, + Who should have the mastery + In lands where they go. + + Then spake Holly, 'I am fierce and jolly, + I will have the mastery + In lands where we go.' + + Then spake Ivy, 'I am loud and proud, + And I will have the mastery + In lands where we go.' + + Then spake Holly, and bent him down on his knee, + 'I pray thee, gentle Ivy, + Essay me no villany + In lands where we go.' + +_Old Christmas Carol._ + +'Good wine needs no bush,' says an old proverb; but is it generally +known that the 'bush' in question, used as a sign for wine, was a bunch +of Ivy? The custom went from Greece to Italy, from Italy to Germany, and +so on westward. Very different is this use of the evergreen vine in +taverns, from that of adorning churches--the one meaning a mere +invitation to drink, while the other reminds the believer that, as the +Ivy lives through the bitter winter, so shall our souls endure through +cold death and live again in Christ, even as He passed through the grave +to live in 'eternal bloom.' Yet to those who have mastered the legend of +Bacchus, there is no absolute difference between the two, when studied +with regard to their origin. It is worth remarking that among the +ancients the impression prevailed that the Ivy was the plant of +joyousness, of triumphant strength, and of _life_, even as Bacchus was +the lord of joy. And at a later day, long after the association with +genial Bacchus was forgotten, the Ivy in popular lay and legend, and +quaint custom and holiday rite, still by some inexplicable association +always seemed to the multitude to be sweet and gentle, noble and dear. +It is such a feeling of love, derived from old traditions and old +worships, long forgotten, which makes the stork and the house-cricket +and the robin and dragon-fly and swallow so dear to children and grown +people in many parts of Europe. The rose is gone, but the perfume still +lingers in the old leaves of the manuscript. And the reader who +comprehends this may also comprehend the tender affection for the Ivy +expressed in the old Christmas carols which I have quoted, and which, +without such comprehension, seem absurd enough; while _with_ it, they +appear truly beautiful and touching. + +As the symbol of a joyous faith, the Ivy seems to have been especially +repugnant to the Hebrews, whose stern monotheism admitted few attributes +to the Deity save those of tremendous power, vengeance, and gloom. So we +find (_Maccabees_, book ii., c. 6., v. 7) that it was regarded by them +as most horrible that, 'in the day of the king's birth, every month, +they were brought, by bitter constraint, to eat of the sacrifices; and, +when the feast of Bacchus was kept, the Jews were compelled to go in +procession to Bacchus, carrying Ivy.' A dislike to this emblem of +heathen joy seems, however, to have clung to them through all changes of +faith--a fact apparently well known to Ptolemy Philopater, king of +Egypt, who ordered that all the Jewish renegades who had abjured their +religion should be branded with an Ivy-leaf. + +When the reader who may be interested in the architecture of the middle +ages meets in its tracery, as he often must, the Ivy-leaf, let him +recall that here is a symbol which was not used unthinkingly by the Free +Masons, who seldom lost an opportunity to bring forward their orientally +derived Nature-lore. In fact, the whole mass and body of mediæval +architectural emblems presents nothing less than a protest of Nature and +life, independence and intelligence, knowledge and joyousness, against +the gloomy prison of form and tyranny which held Truth in chains. The +stone Ivy-leaf carved on the capitals of old cathedrals was as reviving +a symbol to the heart of the Initiated as was the living Ivy on the +walls without, green and beautiful among mid-winter's snow. It has been +well conjectured by a German writer (STIEGLITZ, _Archæologie der +Baukunst der Griechen und Römer_, Weimar, 1801, I _Theil_, § 268), that +the relation of the Ivy to Bacchus was probably the cause why it was so +frequently introduced by the Greeks among the architectural ornaments of +their temples; a very natural conjecture, when we remember that it was a +firm conviction in the early faith, even of India, that where the Ivy +was found, the god had literally been. The same bold spirit of tradition +which brought into the very bosom of the church so much genial, latent +heresy and heathen daring, kept the Ivy alive--for Nature and Truth +_will_ live, and man will have his guardian angels, who will hope for +him and for the dawn, though buried in the deepest night and lost among +horrible dreams and ghastly incubi. A French writer on mediæval art[5] +has declared that an excellent work might be written on the foliage of +Christian architecture, but regrets that the relations of the leaves as +employed--or, in fact, the law guiding their employment--should be +unintelligible. Let them be studied according to their symbolical and +antique meaning, and they will seem clear as legible letters; and to +those who can read them, the gloomy Gothic piles will ray forth a +strange and beautiful light--the sympathetic light of congenial minds +long passed away, yet who did not vanish ere they had breathed out to +those who were to come after them, in leaf or other character, their +hatred of _the tyrant_, and their unfailing conviction of the Great +Truth. GOD bless them all! I have studied for hours their solemn +symbols--each a cry for freedom and a prayer for light; and when I +thought of the gloom and cruelty and devilishness of the foul age which +pressed around them, I wondered that they, knowing what they did, could +have lived--ay, lived and sung and given a soul to art. And, +understanding them in spirit and in truth, every Ivy-leaf carved by them +seemed the whole Prometheus bound and unbound--yes, all poems of truth, +all myths, all religion. + +And as it is the leaf of life, so is it by that very fact the leaf of +_death_; for death is only the water of life. And in this sense we find +a rare beauty in the poem by Mrs. Hemans, though she saw its truth, not +through the dim glass of tradition, but by direct communion with Nature. + + + TO THE IVY. + + OCCASIONED BY RECEIVING A LEAF GATHERED + IN THE CASTLE OF RHEINFELS. + + + Oh! how could fancy crown with thee, + In ancient days, the god of wine, + And bid thee at the banquet be, + Companion of the vine? + Thy home, wild plant, is where each sound + Of revelry hath long been o'er; + Where song's full notes once peal'd around, + But now are heard no more. + + The Roman, on his battle plains, + Where kings before his eagles bent, + Entwined thee, with exulting strains, + Around the victor's tent; + Yet there, though fresh in glossy green, + Triumphantly thy boughs might wave-- + Better thou lov'st the silent scene + Around the victor's grave. + + Where sleep the sons of ages flown, + The bards and heroes of the past, + Where through the halls of glory gone, + Murmurs the wintry blast; + Where years are hastening to efface + Each record of the grand and fair-- + Thou, in thy solitary grace, + Wreath of the tomb! art there. + + Oh! many a temple, once sublime + Beneath a blue Italian sky, + Hath nought of beauty left by time, + Save thy wild tapestry. + And, reared 'midst crags and clouds, 'tis thine + To wave where banners waved of yore, + O'er towers that crest the noble Rhine, + Along his rocky shore. + + High from the fields of air look down + Those eyries of a vanished race, + Homes of the mighty, whose renown + Hath passed and left no trace. + But thou art there--thy foliage bright, + Unchanged, the mountain storm can brave-- + Thou that wilt climb the loftiest height, + And deck the humblest grave. + + The breathing forms of Parian stone, + That rise round grandeur's marble halls; + The vivid hues by painting thrown + Rich o'er the glowing walls; + Th' acanthus on Corinthian fanes, + In sculptured beauty waving fair-- + These perished all--and what remains? + --Thou, thou alone art there. + + 'Tis still the same--where'er we tread, + The wrecks of human power we see, + The marvel of all ages fled, + Left to decay and thee. + And still let man his fabrics rear, + August in beauty, grace, and strength,-- + Days pass, thou 'Ivy never sere,'[6] + And all is thine at length. + +There was a strange old belief that Ivy leaves worn as a garland +prevented intoxication, that wine was less exciting when drunk from a +cup of its wood, and that these cups had finally the singular property +of separating water from wine by filtration, when the two were +mingled--or, as it is expressed by MIZALDUS MONLUCIANUS in his +delightfully absurd 'Centuries,'[7] 'a cup of Ivy, called _cissybius_, +is especially fitted for two reasons, for feasts: firstly, because Ivy +is said to banish drunkenness; and secondly, because by it the frauds of +tavern keepers, who mix wine with water, are detected.' It is worth +remarking, in connection with this, that, according to LOUDON(_Arboretum +et Fruticetum Brittanicum_, c. 59), the wood of the Ivy is, when newly +cut, really useful as a filter, though it is highly improbable that +anything like a complete analysis of mingled water and wine can be +effected by it. + +It may interest the literary critic, should he be ignorant of the fact, +to know that the golden-berried Ivy--worn by Apollo ere he adopted the +Daphnean laurel--is the plant consecrated to his calling. Witness Pope: + + 'Immortal Vida, on whose honored brow + The poet's bays and critic's Ivy grow.' + +Perhaps it is given to the critics to remind them that they should be +kindly sheltering and warmly protecting to poor poets and others, who +may be greatly cheered by a little kindness. For there is an old legend +that the Druids decorated dwelling places with Ivy and holly during the +winter, 'that the sylvan spirits might repair to them, and remain +unnipped with frost and cold winds, until a milder season had renewed +the foliage of their darling abodes. (DR. CHANDLER, _Travels in +Greece_.) Think of this when ye ink your pens for the onslaught! + +It is worth noting that in two or three 'Dream Books' the Ivy is set +down as indicating 'long-continued health, and new friendships'--an +explanation quite in keeping with its ancient symbolism, and still more +with its most literal and apparent meaning of _attachment_. This latter +sense has given poet and artist many a fine figure and image. 'Nothing,' +says ST. PIERRE in his _Studies of Nature_, 'can separate the Ivy from +the tree which it has once embraced: it clothes it with its own leaves +in that inclement season when its dark boughs are covered with hoar +frost. The faithful companion of its destiny, it falls when the tree is +cut down: death itself does not relax its grasp; and it continues to +adorn with its verdure the dry trunk that once supported it.' + +And of the golden-berried Ivy, Spenser sings: + + 'Emongst the rest, the clamb'ring Ivy grew, + Knitting his wanton arms with grasping hold, + Lest that the poplar happely should rew + Her brother's strokes, whose boughs she doth enfold + With her lythe twigs, till they the top survew + And paint with pallid green her buds of gold.' + +Madame DE GENLIS tells us of a true-hearted friend, who clung to a +fallen minister of state, through good and ill fortune, and followed him +into exile, that he adopted for a 'device' a fallen oak tree thickly +wound with Ivy, and with the motto: 'His fall cannot free me from him.' +An 'emblem' of the later middle age expresses undying conjugal love in a +like manner, by a fallen tree wound around with Ivy, beneath which, is +the inscription in Spanish: '_Se no la vida porque la muerte._' +(RADOWITZ, _Gesammelte Schriften_.) A not uncommon seal gives us the Ivy +with the motto; 'I die where I attach myself;' while yet another of the +ivied fallen trees declares that 'Even ruin cannot separate us.' + +Ivy is the badge of the clan Gordon, and of all who bear that name. In +conclusion, lest my readers should object that the subject, though +eminently suggestive, has been treated entirely without a jest, I will +cite a quaint repartee, shockingly destructive of the sentiment just +cited: + +'Woman,' said a lovelorn youth, 'is like Ivy--the more you are ruined, +the closer she clings to you.' + +'And the closer she clings to you, the sooner you are ruined,' replied +an old cynic of a bachelor. + +Poor man! He had never realized the truth of the French saying, that to +enjoy life, there is nothing like being ruined a little. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] _New Curiosities of Literature, and Book of the Months._ BY GEORGE +SOANE, B.A. London, 1849, Vol. i., p. 57. + +[2] _The Poetical History._ By P. GALTRUCHIUS. London 1678. + +[3] Galtruchuis, c. 7. + +[4] 'Hedera quo que vel laurus et hujusmodi, quæ semper servant virorem, +in sarcophago corpori substernantur, ad significandum, quod qui +moriuntur in Christo, vivere non desinant; nam licet mundo moriantur +secundum corpus, tamen secundum animam vivunt et reviviscunt in +Deo.'--DURANDUS, _Ration. Div. Offic._, lib. vii., cap 35. + +[5] BERTY, _Dictionnaire de l'Architecture du Moyen Age_. Paris, 1845. + +[6] 'Ye myrtles brown, and ivy never sere.' MILTON'S _Lycidas_. + +[7] 'Poculum ex hedera, cissybium dictum, ratione duplici conviviis +summè est accomodum: imprimis, quod hedera vini temulantiam, arcere +fertur: deinde quod cauponum fraudes, qui vinum aqua miscent, eo poculo +deprehenduntur.'--_Memorabilium, Utilium ac Jucundorum Centuriæ Novem, +&c._ Paris, 1566. + + + + +THE MISHAPS OF MISS HOBBS. + + 'New beauties push her from the stage; + She trembles at the approach of age; + And starts, to view the altered face + That wrinkles at her in her glass.' + + TRUMBULL'S _Progress of Dulness_. + + +CHAPTER I. + +Ann Harriet Hobbs was getting cured of her youth. 'She was going +backward,' as the French say of people when Time is running forward, and +they themselves are being forwarded a little too rapidly by his Express. +All the ladies said so of her; all the gentlemen said so; and, worse +than all, even the mirror made similar reflections a little--the only +difference being that the ladies and gentlemen said so behind her back, +but the mirror expressed it before her face. One by one her sisters and +companions ripened and were plucked by the admiring crowd, but Ann +Harriet remained untouched. No one even pinched her to see if she were +good. And finally, as the throng were rapidly passing on, it became her +settled conviction that she must shake herself into some one's hands, or +she would be left to wither forsaken on the ancestral tree. + +Ann Harriet, like some patent medicines, was not bad to take. True, +children did not cry for her as they did for the famous cough lozenges +of old; but the fact was, that in Peonytown most of the people were +homoeopathists, and preferred small doses; therefore Ann Harriet, who +was popularly reported to weigh three hundred and one pounds--_vires +acquirit eundo_--was altogether too large a dose for any gentleman of +the homoeopathic persuasion. Possibly, if Ann Harriet could have been +divided into twin sisters of about one hundred and fifty pounds each, +her matrimonial chances would have greatly increased; for however it may +have been in years past, this putting two volumes into one is not at all +popular at the present _duo_-decimal time. + +Business, too, was dull in Peonytown, and the men could not afford to +marry a wife who would require twenty-five yards for a dress, when they +could get one that ten yards would cover up. + +Miss Hobbs's twenty-sixth birthday was approaching. She could see it in +the dim distance, and she knew too well that the twenty-seventh was +ready to follow it up; and that Time stepped heavier than he used +to--the clumsy fellow; for, 'handsome' as she was, she could see the +marks of his feet on her face. + +Ann Harriet had an uncle residing in Boston, whom she had never seen, +but had often heard him favorably spoken of by her mother, whose only +brother he was. Ann therefore determined that she would write to her +Uncle Farnsworth, and ask him if it would be agreeable should she visit +him for a few weeks. + +Her letter met with a cordial response from the old gentleman, who +expressed himself 'highly gratified at the prospect' of seeing his +sister's daughter; named the day for her to come, and said that Gregory, +his son, would meet her at the railroad station in Boston, when the +train arrived. + +Ann Harriet had never been in Boston, and the thoughts of a journey +thither animated her 'to a degree.' Her wardrobe was renovated; a +bran-new bonnet was purchased; and as all Peonytown was informed that it +was to be deprived of her presence for several weeks, the +'meeting-house' was of course filled on the following Sunday to hear +Parson Bulger preach about it; for he was one of the new-fashioned +ministers, who considered the Bible as a wornout book, and generally +preached from a newspaper text, or the last exciting piece of news. +Alas! they were disappointed; for the sermon was on Barnum's Baby Show. + +The appointed day came, and Ann Harriet paid Seth Bullard, the butcher's +boy, a quarter of a dollar to 'carry' her and her luggage over to the +Yellowfield depot, where she was to take the cars for Boston. She bore +in her hand a rhubarb pie, nicely tied up in a copy of the _Peonytown +Clarion_, which was intended as a gift for her Aunt Farnsworth. It was a +pie she made with her own hands, and would have taken a prize for size +at any cattle show. + +After asking engineer, brakeman, and conductor which they thought the +safest car, and getting a different answer from each, she finally +ensconced herself in the third car from the engine. Opening the window, +her attention was attracted by a neat tin sign, on which was painted, +'_Look out for Pickpockets!_' + +'Now, that is kind,' said she, 'to give people notice. I forgot all +about pickpockets. I would really like to see some, and will certainly +look out for them.'' + +She accordingly thrust her head and neck out of the car window, and +looked sharply at the bystanders. While engaged in this detective +service, the signal was given, and the cars started, when Miss Hobbs, +thinking it was needless to keep up a longer lookout, reëntered, and was +surprised to find a nice-looking young man by her side. He wore a heavy +yellow watchguard, yellow kid gloves, and a moustache to match, +patent-leather boots, a poll-parrot scarf, and a brilliant breast-pin. +Ann Harriet was delighted to have such a companion; and her wish that he +would enter into conversation was soon gratified. + +'Travelling far?' asked the 'city-looking chap.' + +'Yes, sir; I am going to my uncle's, in Boston,' replied Ann Harriet. + +'Taking a vacation, I suppose?' continued he of the yellow kids. + +['How delightful!' thought Miss Hobbs; 'he takes me for a +boarding-school girl.'] + +'For a few weeks,' replied she, with a bland smile; and dropping her +black lace veil to improve her really fine complexion, knowing, as well +as Shakspeare, that + + 'Beauty, blemished once, is ever lost, + In spite of physic, painting, pains, and cost.' + +'Is not this Miss Hobbs, of Peonytown?' suddenly asked the proprietor of +the patent leathers, after a few minutes' conversation. + +'Why! yes; how _did_ you know?' was Ann Harriet's reply. + +'Oh, I had a friend as went to the academy in Peonytown, and he always +kept me posted up on the pretty girls; and he talked about you so often, +I knew it _must_ be Miss Hobbs,' was the flattering answer. + +'How strange!' thought Ann Harriet. 'Well, it proves that I am not +wholly overlooked by the young men of my native village.' She did not +remember that she carried a little satchel, on which the stranger had +read, 'ANN HARRIET HOBBS, _Peonytown_.' + +At this time a boy entered the car with a supply of ice water for +thirsty passengers. In handing a glassful to Miss Hobbs, he spilled a +part on the floor. + +'What a waste!' remarked he. + +Ann Harriet blushed deep crimson--fat folks are always sensitive--and, +with a grave, fat, solemn air, she said: + +'I think you are quite rude, sir.' + +'I'd like to know how?' inquired he, with a look of surprise. + +'By making remarks on my waist, sir. No gentleman would be guilty of +such an offence,' replied the indignant lady. + +Fortunately, the train at this juncture stopped at a way station, and +the yellow moustache, poll-parrot scarf, and kid gloves got out, first +bowing very politely to their late companion. Ann Harriet was a little +sorry to have their inmate go, but consoled herself with the thought +that he was altogether too familiar. + +About fifteen miles farther on, an orange boy made his appearance; and +Ann, thinking an orange would moisten her throat, felt for her +portemonnaie, and found it not; for, while she was so intently looking +_out_ for pickpockets at Yellowfield, her agreeable companion had +appropriated her cash, by looking _in_ her pocket. + +'_There!_ that dandy villain has robbed me of my wallet, with fifteen +dollars in it, and the receipt for Sally Lunn cake I was going to give +Aunt Farnsworth!' exclaimed she, placidly. Stout folks bear disasters +calmly. Luckily, she had two or three dollars in her satchel, which she +had received from the ticket master when she purchased her ticket, so +she was not entirely bankrupt. Some of the passengers attempted to +sympathize with her, but they found it a thankless task, and soon +desisted. + +Ann Harriet, her griefs digested, drew herself into as compact a compass +as possible, and in a few minutes was fast asleep. + +The cars rolled, in due time, into the noisy station at Boston, and our +traveller, after much exertion and trepidation, safely reached the +platform, with her rhubarb pie unharmed. She looked anxiously around for +her cousin Gregory, whom she had never seen, save in his _carte de +visite_, and by that she found him in a few minutes. Gregory was a +handsome man, quite young, and dressed in a neat suit of light clothes, +donned that afternoon for the first time. He had never seen his cousin, +and was therefore not a little surprised when the corpulent beauty +introduced herself as Miss Ann Harriet Hobbs, of Peonytown. Gregory had +come down to the station with a light buggy, in which he intended to +convey his fair relative home, but at the first glance saw that it would +be disastrous both to the buggy and Ann Harriet to attempt any such +feat. He therefore escorted her to a hack, and left her a moment. While +he was gone, Ann Harriet, who had forgotten all her troubles in the +contemplation of riding home with her handsome cousin, laid the rhubarb +pie on the opposite seat of the carriage, reserving the place by her +side for Gregory. But this gentleman, not feeling sure that he would +find room by the side of his massive cousin, when he entered the +carriage, sat hastily down opposite her. _Crash_ went the _Peonytown +Clarion_, and 'sqush' went the juicy rhubarb, completely saturating +Gregory's new garments. Ann Harriet gave a loud shriek, exclaiming: 'Oh! +you have spoilt that nice pie that I made for Aunt Priscilla, from Mrs. +Wilkins's receipt.' + +'Hang Mrs. Wilkins's receipt!' exclaimed Gregory, who was imperturbable. +'I think I shall have to get some one to reseat my pantaloons.' + +There was nothing to be done but to drive home as quickly as possible. +The hackman was paid for the damage to his vehicle, and Gregory hastened +up stairs to resume the old suit which only a few hours before he had +thrown aside disdainfully. + +Ann Harriet found her uncle's family all that she expected. They found +her a little more than they expected. Everything was done to make her +comfortable. Aunt Farnsworth condoled with her niece on the loss of her +money, and the receipt for Sally Lunn cake. They brought a fan to cool +her, and placed a footstool for her feet. Her cousin Miranda exhibited a +photograph album containing all the family likenesses, besides a number +they had purchased to fill up the book, such as the Prince of Wales, +McClellan, Stonewall Jackson, Beauregard, and Butler. All this comforted +her greatly, and Ann Harriet was much interested, but was obliged to +inquire which were fighting for the North, and which for the South--'she +had heard something about it, but was not thoroughly informed,'--for, to +tell the truth, the only medium for news in Peonytown was the _Clarion_, +and the only portion of even that which Ann Harriet attended to was the +deaths, marriages, and dry goods. + +The remainder of the day passed quietly, and the hour for retiring +approached. Before Ann Harriet's arrival, it had been arranged that she +should share Miranda's bed; but it was now very evident that Ann would +get very much more than her share, and it was therefore decided to give +her a bed to herself. A lamp was brought, and Aunt Farnsworth escorted +her to her room, and bade her good night. Ann Harriet had the usual +share of curiosity which all females--even plump ones--possess; and +wishing to know how a Boston street appeared in the evening, she hoisted +the curtain with a vigorous jerk, and looked forth: it was not a very +beautiful scene; long rows of brick houses stretched away on either +side, relieved at intervals by the street lamps and loafers, which, as +they appeared at a distance, reminded her of a torchlight procession she +had witnessed once in Peonytown, when the Hickory Club turned out with +twenty torches and a colored lantern. Having satisfied her eyes with the +view, she attempted to draw down the curtain, and found that it would +not move. She had pulled it up so vigorously that the cord had slipped +from the wheel, and rendered the curtain immovable. By stepping on a +chair she could, indeed, reach and adjust it; but the only chairs in the +room were cane-seated, and seemed altogether too fragile for such a +weighty lady as Ann Harriet. To add to her perplexity, the dwelling +directly opposite was a boarding house, full of young men; and she +noticed that one or two of them had already discovered her, and that the +news was probably being communicated to all their fellow boarders, for +in a very few minutes every window had two or more spectators at it, +armed with opera or eye glasses, while one saucy fellow had a telescope +three feet long. What to do she did not know: there was but one window +in the room, and no recess into which her portly beauty could retreat. +Once more she tried the curtain, giving it a forcible twitch, and this +time it came down--but the whole fixture came with it, and, after +striking her on the head, slid out of the window into the street, much +to the amusement of the spectators opposite. + +Here was a dilemma--and what would her aunt say? She had to give up all +hope of excluding the gaze of her impudent neighbors. Poor damsel! She +would have asked assistance of some of the family, but they had all been +asleep some time, and she disliked to disturb them. Finally, she decided +to extinguish her light and undress in bed--a difficult undertaking, +which was, however, accomplished, with the loss of sundry strings and +buttons; and Ann Harriet laid her wearied head on the pillow, and +thought her troubles for that day were over. But Sleep forsakes the +wretched, and her eyes would not 'stay shut.' While coaxing them to +'stay down,' she was startled by a flash of light on the wall and an +explosion, then another, and then a third, accompanied by a shower of +gravelly substance in her face and eyes. Miss Hobbs, as we have seen, +was + + 'A woman naturally born to fears,' + +and this sudden and inexplicable exhibition of fireworks in her chamber +almost burst the strings of her night cap, by causing her curly black +hair to stand on end. + +The mischievous young men opposite had procured a _sarbacane_--vulgarly +known as a 'bean-blower,'--and were shooting torpedoes into Ann +Harriet's chamber. Not daring to rise to shut the window, she was wholly +at their mercy; but fortunately their stock of ammunition was limited to +half a dozen pellets, and in a few minutes the bombardment ceased. + +About midnight Ann Harriet fell into a deep slumber, and when she awoke +the broad sunshine was illuminating her chamber, while the rattling of +teams along the paved streets reminded her that she was in the great +metropolis of New England. She missed the green foliage and healthy +perfume and bird songs of her pleasant country home: all she could see +was a combination of bricks, slate, and stone; and not a green thing was +visible in the street, save a few Irish servants, who were washing off +the doorsteps and sidewalks. In the middle of the cobble stones lay the +curtain which had fallen during the scene of the previous evening, muddy +and torn, its sticks broken by the heavy wagons which had passed over +it. A glance at the hostile boarding-house assured her that all was +quiet there; so, after arranging her dress with studied nicety, and +disposing her hair in the most enchanting style--and Ann Harriet was +really neat and winsome--she descended to the breakfast room. Her cousin +Gregory was the only person present--he sat by the window, reading. +After the customary greeting, Ann Harriet inquired what interested him. + +'I have been glancing over an article called 'Ludicrous Exaggerations,' +in Leigh Hunt's _Indicator_,' replied Gregory, with a mischievous +twinkle in his eyes. + +Ann Harriet did not notice any point to this remark, but said: 'I do not +remember having seen that book.' + +'What have _you_ been reading lately?' pursued Gregory. + +'Oh! I have begun a splendid book that Mrs. Orrin Pendergast lent me; I +have forgotten who wrote it, but its name is 'The Bloody Butcher's +Bride; or, The Demon of Dandelion Dell.' + +Here Gregory was so impolite as to burst into a loud laugh, much to the +discomfiture of Ann Harriet, who was on the point of describing a +thrilling scene in the story. + +'I see nothing to laugh at,' remarked she, solemnly; 'it is a _very_ +nice book, Cousin Gregory. Why, some parts of it were so powerful that +it made me tremble all over.' + +'It _must_ have been powerful,' said Gregory, drily. + +'You're a saucy fellow,' said his cousin. 'But, by the way, where is +that new suit that was damaged yesterday? You do not look so stylish +this morning.' + +'Stylish? I hope not. I hate that word; it is only fit to be applied to +pigs; they always look sty-lish,' replied Gregory. + +The door opened, and the rest of the family appeared, much to Ann +Harriet's discomfort, for she liked her cousin, and was just thinking +how she could make an impression upon him. The surest way would have +been to sit in his lap. + +They seated themselves at the table, when the customary question came +from Aunt Farnsworth: + +'How did you rest last night, Ann Harriet?' + +This, of course, called forth the history of the mishaps she had +experienced, and the indignation of her uncle and aunt was great when +they heard how the occupants of the boarding house had behaved. + +'Those young men over there are Boarder Ruffians,' remarked Gregory. + +'Mercy!' exclaimed his fat cousin; 'if I had known that, I shouldn't +have slept a wink all night. I have heard Miss Pendergast tell about +those awful men: she had a sister out in Kansas, and a parcel of Border +Ruffians came to her house one Sabbath day and ate up everything she +had, and then carried off her cow and five pullets.' + +'What cow-ardly and chicken-hearted fellows, to rob a poor woman in that +manner!' remarked Gregory, grimly. + +'Oh yes,' said Ann Harriet; 'and they spit tobacco juice all over her +clean floor, and whittled all over the hearth, and told her it was lucky +for her that she was a widow, for if she hadn't been, they would have +made her one. I should think you would feel dreadfully to have a whole +houseful right opposite.' + +'We do feel pretty dreadfully,' replied Gregory; 'often.' + +'Miranda, you must have a little company while your cousin is here, and +make her acquainted with some of the ladies and gentlemen of the city,' +said Aunt Farnsworth. + +'I should like to, very much, mother; and if you are willing, I will set +about it immediately after breakfast; and perhaps I can arrange things +so as to have it to-morrow night,' was Miranda's reply. + +This suggestion was eagerly seconded by Gregory, who always enjoyed the +social parties that his sister had a peculiar knack in getting up at +short notice. + +Their pleasant anticipations of the _soirée_ were suddenly checked by +quite a melancholy mishap to the solid Ann Harriet. In reaching forward +to receive a cup of coffee from her aunt, she was obliged to rise a +little from her seat. Now, the chair in which she was sitting had been +broken the day before and was glued together, strong enough for any +ordinary usage, but wholly inadequate to sustain such a weight as now +taxed it; so when Ann 'set back' into the furniture, the already +strained joints came apart, and she felt herself descending to the +floor; to save herself, she clung to the edge of the table, but, of +course, that was no support; on the contrary, it tilted up and launched +its whole contents over the prostrate form of the unfortunate Ann +Harriet. There she lay, pinned to the floor by the heavy table, while +her face and neck and dress were covered with butter, gooseberry pie, +hot coffee, broken eggs, and slices of fried ham. The carpet was in a +similar condition, and the Old Dominion coffee-pot was found expiring +under the sofa. + +Mr. Farnsworth, in an attempt to save the table from going over, lost +his own balance, and fell flounder-flat on the floor, where he lay +shuddering, with his hair in a dish of Shaker apple-sauce: the rest of +the family escaped unscathed, but were sadly astonished at the sudden +turn things had taken. + +Mr. Farnsworth and Gregory raised the fallen table to its former +position, and Miranda set about collecting the scattered dishes. + +'I knew that we were going to breakfast, but I did not think we should +break so fast as that,' remarked Gregory, ruefully. + +Ann Harriet, up to this time, had retained her consciousness, when it +suddenly occurred to her that, in the stories she had read, the heroines +always fainted when anything unusual happened; so she shut up her eyes +and began to gasp, just as her uncle and cousin were about to assist her +to her feet. + +'She is faint; get some water, quick!' exclaimed Miranda. + +Gregory seized the 'Old Dominion,' and dashed what coffee there was left +in it on Ann's face, then threw on all the cream in the pitcher, and +wound up his frightful orgie by emptying over her locks a lot of brown +sugar from a bowl which stood near. The effect was that the faint damsel +'came to' very fast, and requested to be helped up. Her aspect was +remarkably ludicrous; the moistened sugar, clinging to her hair and +plastering up her eyes, caused so much mirth on Gregory's part that he +could hardly restrain it within the bounds of politeness. + +'Oh, _do_ help me up!' implored Ann Harriet. + +Easier said than done. Mr. Farnsworth took hold of one arm, and Gregory +the other, but their united effort was not sufficient. Mr. Farnsworth +had but recently recovered from an attack of the rheumatism--and apple +sauce--and was by no means strong enough for such work; while Gregory +was so full of laughter that it deprived him of half his strength. After +one or two futile attempts, Miranda had a happy thought: she ran into +the parlor and brought out half a dozen thick volumes of music; then +Gregory and his father lifted Ann Harriet as far as they could at one +effort, while Miranda pushed a book under; at the next lift, a second +book was inserted, and this movement was repeated until Ann was +seated--_alto_ and _allegro_--on a pile of six large music books. Aunt +Farnsworth then brought a basin of water, and carefully bathed her +niece's face, removing all traces of the catastrophe, in which she was +assisted by a copious flood of tears from Ann's eyes--so copious, +indeed, that Gregory guessed there would be a rainbow when she ceased. + +In about twenty minutes 'things were put as near to rights as possible,' +but their appetites, like the breakfast, were thoroughly spoilt; so +Miranda and her cousin went up stairs to make their plans for the +entertainment, which was to be given in honor of the fair Peonytowner. +This kept them busy all day; for there was shopping to be done, pastry +and cake to be made, dresses to be 'fixed,' and other arrangements, 'too +numerous to mention.' + +Ann Harriet's thoughts dwelt incessantly on the appointed evening; the +iron would then be hot, and she knew that she must strike, or lose a +golden opportunity for exchanging the desolate monotony of a heavy +single life for the sparkling, honorable, enviable title of wedded wife. + +Surely, Ann Harriet, he who leads thee to the altar will possess a brave +and stout heart--one on whom you, although fat, can lean, and of whose +home you, though heavy, will be the light. You will so fill his heart +that there will be no room for discontent, melancholy, or any evil or +mischievous visitor. Whoever the fortunate man may be, you can rest +assured that you will exceed his greatest expectations, and he will not +attempt to exaggerate your charms and attractions. + + +CHAPTER II. + + 'There was music and mirth in the lighted saloon; + The measure was merry--our hearts were in tune; + While hand linked with hand in the graceful quadrille, + Bright joy crowned the dance, like the sun on the rill, + And beamed in the dark eyes of coquettes and snobs; + But the belle of the hall was Ann Harriet Hobbs.' + + MRS. OSGOOD (with slight variation). + + +Bright shone the gas at Mr. Farnsworth's on the evening of the grand +_soirée_ given for the gratification of Ann Harriet, who was anxious to +see some of the beaux of Boston. Both of the parlor chandeliers were in +full blaze, much to the delight of Miss Hobbs, who, after gazing at them +in admiration, expressed the wish that her friend surnamed Pendergast +might see such a sight. + +'That takes the shine all off of Miss Pendergasses' double back-action, +self-adjusting, anti-corrosive, herring-bone, powerloom lamp, don't it, +my dear cousin?' asked Gregory, who had been regaled several times with +an account of a wonderful lamp that burnt one hour at a cost of only ten +cents, or ten hours at a cost of one cent--Gregory never could remember +which. + +'Now, Gregory, if you bother me so, I sha'n't tell you anything more; +please hand me that fan on the table, and tell me who that man is by the +corner of the mantelpiece.' + +'That is Captain Dobbs; he is very fond of poetry, and has written some, +too; but it was never published, for the editors charged too much for +putting it into their papers. Shall I introduce him to you?' said +Gregory. + +'A captain and a poet, too? Oh, certainly, I should be delighted to know +him,' replied Ann Harriet, who began to cool down her countenance by a +vigorous application of the fan, while Gregory went after the poetical +captain. He was soon back again, and presented him, as follows: + +'Captain Dobbs, Miss Hobbs; Miss Hobbs, Captain Dobbs.' + +The Captain bowed so low that Ann Harriet could see the brass buttons on +the back of his coat, and then, taking her hand, he said, earnestly: + +'I rejoice exceedingly that our acquaintance with each other should have +commenced under such charming auspices!' + +Now, they were standing directly under one of the beautiful chandeliers, +which glistened with brilliant pendants; and Ann, supposing that the +gallant Captain alluded to them, accordingly replied: + +'Yes, they are very charming auspices, and make a beautiful jingle.' + +What the Captain really alluded to was the rhyming of their names when +Gregory introduced them; the jingle of the rhyme pleased him much, and +he regarded it as propitious to their future acquaintance: Ann Harriet's +reply happened to suit the case precisely, and placed her in high +estimation with the Captain. + +Drummond Dobbs was about thirty-two years of age, a gentleman, and a +right good fellow, but so _very_ sentimental that few ladies could +endure his company. Yet was he anxious to please the fair sex and be +popular with them: unfortunately, he supposed that the way to be so was +to shower on them love-sick poetry and sentimental speeches; 'he wore +his heart upon his sleeve,' fell in love with every new face, and had +been rejected a score of times; he comforted himself, however, with the +very scaly proverb, 'there is as good fish in the sea as ever was +caught,' and--cast in his line for another chance. He had tried poor +women and rich women, young school-girls and elastic old maids, +brunettes and blondes, but all in vain; and the moment he saw Ann +Harriet he determined to make one more attempt to secure a heart that +should beat for him alone, an ear that should be ever on the alert for +his footstep, and eyes that should sparkle only when he was near. + +Ann Harriet, on her part, saw all in Captain Dobbs that she could wish +for; and she thought that if she could return to Peonytown with a live +captain as her affianced lover, she should be the happiest of fat girls. +What a sensation she would create on Sunday, when she went to meeting +arm in arm with him, and _how_ the folks would stare at his bright +buttons and shoulder straps! She wondered if he would wear a 'trainer +hat,' with feathers in it. + +To Captain Dobbs, Ann Harriet Hobbs was 'a devilish fine-looking woman;' +there was something tangible in a woman like that, sir; _she_ was not +one of your flimsy, languid girls, with waist like the stem of a goblet. +Somebody had said,'the nearer the bone the sweeter the meat,' but he did +not believe in that; he wanted a _wife_, and if he could get one twice +the size of any one else's, so much the better, by Jove! + +Gregory, with the tact of Young America, saw instantly what the result +of an evening's interview would be; so, telling Dobbs that he would find +his cousin from Peonytown very in-_fat_-uating, he left them to their +own enjoyment. + +'It is very singular,' remarked the Captain, promptly, 'how much alike +our names are: Hobbs and Dobbs!' + +'Yes; but I think that yours is much the prettiest; I always hated the +name of Hobbs,' remarked Ann Harriet. + +'Hate Hobbs? Well, I detest Dobbs; but you have the advantage of me, for +you can change yours without much trouble,' replied the Captain. + +He did not know that Ann Harriet had been longer, and at more trouble, +in trying to get her name changed, than if she had applied to seven +legislatures. She blushed deeply, and raised her fan to hide the rosy +hue--but it was a small, round fan, and only partially concealed her +face, leaving a crimson disk of two inches around it. Captain Dobbs was +delighted; a blush to him was a certain proof of maiden coyness, and +bespoke a heart so full of love that every emotion sent it mantling to +the face. + +Gregory here returned, to say that they were getting up a dance, and +Captain Dobbs and his cousin must certainly join in it. + +'But I never danced in my life!' said Ann Harriet, innocently. + +'Oh, never mind _that_; it is a very simple dance--the Virginia Reel; +every one can dance that; only do as others do,' replied Gregory. + +Ann Harriet, accepting Captain Dobbs's proffered arm, proceeded to the +room where the arrangements for the dance were progressing. + +'I understand that Miss Hobbs is the star of this business,' remarked +Mr. Pickett to Gregory, as he crammed himself behind a bookcase, to +allow the lady and her escort to go by. + +'Star? ' repeated Gregory. 'Yes; the full moon of the concern.' + +'You mean of the firm,' quoth Pickett. + +'Yes,' replied Gregory, 'the full moon of the firm, I meant.' + +The dancers took their places, and a merry tune soon set them in motion. +Ann Harriet watched the others carefully, and soon understood the +figure. At length her turn came to advance. She performed her part very +well until she came to that step known as _dos à dos_, and here her good +luck forsook her; for, in stepping back, she struck with full force her +companion, a slim young man with shell eyeglasses, and sent him forward +with an impetus which was only checked by his coming in collision with a +plaster-of-Paris pedestal, on which stood a bust of General Zachary +Taylor; his head penetrated the column, and the bust came down on his +back with a thump that nearly knocked the breath out of his body. His +eyeglasses were shattered, his soul rent, and his shirt bosom torn +asunder. The unfortunate youth gathered himself up and retreated to an +anteroom, where he rearranged his disordered clothing; but was not seen +again, having disappeared through a side door and hastened home. + +Ann Harriet came out of the collision like a second 'Monitor,' unscathed +and undaunted; indeed, she was not aware that anything unusual had +happened till she heard the crash, and then was surprised to learn that +she was the cause of the catastrophe. + +When our heroine heard how serious the collision had been, she felt much +disturbed, until Gregory observed that, although she had been backward +in causing the mishap, she should not be backward in making what +reparation she could. + +On this suggestion, Ann Harriet inquired the whereabouts of Mr. Google, +and learning that he was in an anteroom, started in search of him. She +found herself in the supper room, hurrying across which, she pulled open +a door on the other side with such a vigorous effort of elephantine +strength, as to precipitate a waiter, who had just caught hold of the +handle, headlong into the room. The unfortunate servitor, who was +dressed in white cravat and black coat, landed under the supper table, +where he lay motionless. Ann Harriet made her way back to the parlor as +quickly as possible, where she startled the visitors by exclaiming: + +'Oh dear, come here, quick! I have killed a minister!' + +Miss Helen Bumpus, who was playing a quickstep on the pianoforte, +uttered a sharp shriek, which was echoed from various parts of the room, +and the whole company, headed by Captain Dobbs, followed Ann Harriet to +the scene of the disaster. + +When they reached the dining room they found her 'minister' sitting on +the floor, rubbing his head, and using language more appropriate to one +of Captain Kidd's profession than to an expounder of the gospel. When +the damaged waiter saw the immense crowd entering the room, he vanished +into the kitchen amid shouts of laughter from the assembly, who +comprehended at once Miss Hobbs's error. Ann Harriet felt much relieved +to find that the accident was no worse, and explained the mishap to her +friends, ending by inquiring what denomination he belonged to. Gregory +informed her that the individual was not a clergyman, but a lay-man and +a waiter. + +Soon after, the guests were requested to repair to the supper room, and +each gentleman chose his partner for the occasion. Unfortunately for Ann +Harriet, Captain Dobbs chanced to be at the farther end of the room, and +before he reached the object of his adoration she had already accepted +the arm of an exquisite youth with patent eyeglass, pink necktie, and +tomato-colored moustache. The disappointment nearly destroyed Dobbs's +appetite. He had intended to be irresistibly attentive to Miss Hobbs; to +furnish her with every little delicacy the table afforded; and _now_, +she must depend upon the languid movements of a 'snob:' it was too bad, +by Jove! + +The table was elegantly decorated with flowers, and the neatly prepared +dishes and ministerial waiters presented a scene which to Ann Harriet's +vision was enchanting. + +'What shall I have the pleasure of obtaining for you?' asked Mr. +Struttles of Ann Harriet. + +'Let me see,' replied Ann. 'It's some time since I eat anything, and I +feel pretty hungry: if you will get me a plateful of pandowdy[8] and +some ginger snaps, I shall feel thankful.' + +Mr. Struttles was a very polite man, and would not laugh in a lady's +face for a farm; but his tomato-hued moustache quivered, and he had to +frown fiercely to conceal the laughter which threatened to burst him +asunder. + +'What amuses you so much, Strut?' asked a friend, who found him a few +moments later in the entry, giggling all by himself. + +'Oh dear! I shall die!' he replied, shaking with mirth; 'that fat girl +asked me to get her something to eat that I never heard of: I believe +she called it _slam dowdy_, or rip snap, or something like that, and, of +course, there is nothing of the kind on the table.' + +'Go and tell her it is all eaten up,' suggested the friend; 'article all +sold.' + +Struttles had not thought of that; it was a good idea, so off he went +and told Ann Harriet that the object she wished had been so fashionable +that it was all devoured before he reached it. + +'Oh, well! I had just as lief have some gingerbread and a pickle-lime,' +was her calm response. + +Struttles rushed desperately to the table, filled a plate full of +anything that came handy, brought it to his dame, and informed her that +there was not a pickled lime to be had. Ann Harriet did not care; she +was soon busy devouring the contents of the plate, while Struttles stood +by, chuckling and grinning. + +Captain Dobbs, in the mean time, was doing all he could to make hungry +and handsome Miss Helen Bumpus happy, by giving her oyster salad, ice +cream, frozen pudding, and cake, with plenty of champagne to wash it +down; but his heart was with Ann Harriet, and many an anxious glance he +bestowed on her, to see if she was well supplied with the niceties of +the festive board. He thrilled with joy at seeing her behind a plate +piled nearly as high as her chin with a variety of cakes, tarts, fruits, +and jellies. + +After a while every one was surfeited, and gradually the supper room was +deserted, leaving none but the waiters, who quickly cleared away what +there was left of the supper. + +On entering the parlor, Captain Dobbs caught a view of himself in a +large mirror, and saw to his dismay that he had not escaped the usual +fate of gallants who endeavor to make themselves agreeable to the ladies +in a crowded supper-room; lumps of blanc-mange adhered to his shirt +bosom; particles of calf's-foot jelly coruscated like gems on his +patent-leather gaiters, and quivering oysters hung tenaciously to his +coat sleeves. He looked around for some place of refuge where he could +retire and remove the remnants of the banquet, and espying a side room +apparently deserted, there being no light in it, stepped in, and, taking +off his coat, commenced the task of restoring it to its pristine +splendor. While doing this, he was startled by a sound so singular that +his coat nearly fell from his hand, so alarmed was he. Glancing at the +door, his eyes met the known form of Ann Harriet, when he instantly +hurried on his coat in horror, and, apologizing to his fair friend for +being caught without it, referred to the curious noise he had heard. + +'What did it sound like?' asked Ann Harriet. + +The Captain tried in vain to find a simile; he had never heard anything +that resembled it; and Ann Harriet's suggestions as to what it might +have been were equally fruitless. + +The truth was, that when Miss Hobbs appeared at the threshold of the +door she heaved a deep sigh, and it was this that startled her lover; +but as he had his head in a stooping position, and was busy brushing his +coat, the sound seemed to him to come from the farther end of the room, +which was obscured in darkness. He was not aware that fat ladies' sighs +were proportionate to their size. However, now that his heart's idol was +present, he cared nothing for aught else; so, taking her small hand, he +led her to the window, and they stood gazing with mutual consent at the +starry heavens. Gregory spied them there, and mischievously closed the +door. What conversation ensued is only known to the two who were engaged +in it, but every one noticed that when Ann Harriet reappeared her step +was light if not actually fantastic, and her mild countenance beamed +with a moonlike radiance, so serenely bright as to reveal a heart +buoyant with bliss. Soon after, the company dispersed, and the damsel, +retiring to her dormitory, was soon dreaming sweetly of 'her betrothed,' +and imagined that all the bells in Peonytown were rung on her wedding +day. + +Sleep on, Ann Harriet! Thou hast waited long for the happy hour; but +thou wert thyself weighty, and it was fit that thou, too, shouldst deal +deliberately in matters of _'great' weight_. + +The next day she informed her uncle of her intention to marry the +accomplished Drummond Dobbs, and received his hearty approval; for +Dobbs's character was good, and without a scar. + +The nuptials were to take place without delay, and so Ann Harriet +hastened home to make the requisite arrangements. + + +CHAPTER III. + + 'In wedlock a species of lottery lies, + Where in blanks and in prizes we deal; + But how comes it that you, such a capital prize, + Should so long have remained in the wheel?' + + MOORE. + +Ann Harriet was determined that her wedding should be a romantic one; +she said that it was by no means an every-day affair, and therefore it +should be carried out in a style proportionate to its rarity. After +consulting Mrs. Pendergast, and searching through a pile of 'New York +Dashers,' she was much inclined to a midnight wedding, especially as +Mrs. Pendergast offered to loan her patent lamp for the occasion; but +when they suddenly happened to hear of a marriage celebrated in the wild +and picturesque woods of the White Hills, it was immediately decided +that there was no better place; so sacred a ceremony should be performed +'under the broad canopy of heaven,' and the birds of the air and the +countless leaves of the trees should sing their epithalamium. + +After some search, it was decided that the happy spot should be on +'Huckleberry Hill,' a picturesque elevation about a mile from the +postoffice in Peonytown, covered with a luxurious growth of pines and +hemlocks, interspersed with huckleberry bushes, sweet fern, and +mullenstalks. A small, open place was selected, where the long moss made +a beautiful carpet, and the tall trees on every side entwined their arms +as lovingly together as if they, too, were about to take each other 'for +better for worse,' while the ripple of a brook hidden in the woods lent +a pleasant melody to the scene. + +'This is the place of all others,' remarked Ann Harriet. 'Houses may +burn down or decay, churches may be sold and turned into ice-cream +saloons and lager-beer depots--as Mr. Dunstable's was; but these lofty +pines and rugged hemlocks will stand for centuries, to mark the spot +where, in my girlhood, I plighted my troth to that _dear_ Dobbs.' + +Preparations for the bridal went gloriously on. The Peonytown dressmaker +was busy day and evening in making up the trousseau of the expectant +bride. The wedding dress was to be of fine white muslin, and no +ornaments to detract from its spotless purity. + +The important day at length arrived. The sun rose warm, brilliant, calm, +and cloudless--and so did Ann Harriet. Her heart beat quick and +tumultuously as the coming event of the day suddenly occurred to her, +and she rejoiced to think that she was now to have _one_ to shield her +from the chilling blasts of a cold, relentless world--a husband on whose +breast her weary head could rest and feel secure. + +These thoughts made her footsteps light, and she hastened to array +herself for the bridal, which, was appointed at ten o'clock. The barber +of Peonytown was sent for, and, although dressing a bride's hair was +something as yet unknown to him, yet, after much perseverance and more +ox marrow, he succeeded in twisting and braiding her luxuriant black +locks into a kind of triumphal-arched basketwork, that resembled a +miniature summer-house. The white muslin dress was then put on, and a +pair of white kid gloves drawn over her small fingers (plump people have +little hands), and Ann Harriet awaited her husband elect. + +All Peonytown had been apprized of the hour of the wedding, and, in +consequence, the grove was at an early period filled with spectators. +Boys climbed into the trees; camp stools were provided; and one +enterprising Peonytowner brought a long wooden settee, and let the weary +rest on it for the slight consideration of half a dime each. The Rev. +Derby Sifter was there too. He was to perform the ceremony, and, as it +was the first wedding in Peonytown for six months, he was in unusual +humor, rubbing his hands together, and laughing at every remark that was +made. + +At the appointed time Ann Harriet appeared, hanging lovingly on the arm +of the gallant Captain. The bride attracted universal attention. At +first, indeed, many were impressed with the idea that a crowd of girls +were coming, dressed in unsullied white; but as she approached nearer, +they saw that it was the fair Ann Harriet in her white muslin, leaning +on the arm of Captain Dobbs, who was dressed in full uniform, and had a +carnation pink in his mouth. The Rev. Derby Sifter now stepped forward, +and the parties took their places. No bridesmaids were needed, the bride +'answering' for several. After a few preliminary remarks, the reverend +gentleman pronounced them--under green leaves--_husband and wife!_ Ann +Harriet heaved a sigh of relief: the H had vanished forever from her +name, and D now reigned in its stead. A short prayer then followed. + +Meanwhile, a boy in a tree directly over their heads spied a +caterpillar's nest near him, and, breaking a twig from a branch, he +probed the nest, causing a tremendous stampede among the inmates. Down +they dropped, silently and softly, upon the elaborate head of the bride, +who stood wholly unconscious of the additional ornaments so profusely +decorating her hair; the company noticed it, and very soon every one was +in a broad grin. Ann Harriet became conscious of some merriment in that +portion of the party immediately under her observation, and a succession +of blushes suffused her face as she felt that something ridiculous to +herself must have caused it. At that instant a caterpillar, that had +been swinging to and fro on his attenuated web, landed plump on Ann's +nose as she raised her face (he had been waiting for something to turn +up), causing her to give utterance to a scream that made the clerical +gentleman open his eyes, and a couple of catbirds to fly frightened and +squealing from their nests. + +At the same time an angry cow, rendered furious by the sting of some +insect, plunged frantically into the wedding circle, bellowing, tossing +her head, and flourishing her tail in a terrific and antinuptial manner. +The Rev. Mr. Sifter was the first one to leave, and, being very spare, +he passed swiftly through the trees and bushes, never looking behind him +till he had reached the meeting house, where he stopped and in his +unconscious delirium caught at the bell rope and rang the bell with a +vigor that started every one from his work, so that in a few minutes +'Extinguisher No. 1' was hurried along the roads by an extempore company +of about fifty men and boys. + +Meanwhile, the witnesses of the rural wedding had all skedaddled--to +borrow a Greek word--into the woods, in dire confusion, tearing +dresses, pulling down 'back hair,' hitching hoop skirts, and tumbling +over blackberry vines--but each intent on increasing the distance from +the mad cow. Ann Harriet was not so fortunate; her size prevented her +running, and a fiery peony on her bosom attracted the animal's +attention, so that, with a loud roar, the beast rushed directly upon +her. Had Ann Harriet been--as she was a few weeks before--an unprotected +female, the undertaker of Peonytown would have had a 'big job' that day; +but luckily, he who had just sworn to love and protect her saw that now +was his time and chance to begin; so, drawing his sword, he stepped in +front of his trembling bride, and, as the cow approached with head down +and eyeballs glaring wildly, he aimed a blow with his weapon, which +inflicted a severe cut on her nose. + +The cow paused. + +'Step backward gradually, my Ann Harriet,' said the valiant Dobbs, 'and +I will see that she does not touch you.' + +Ann Harriet stepped backward, but not 'gradually,' for she trod on a +loose stone, which upset her, and she rolled over and over down a +sloping rock, ruining, on the way, any quantity of huckleberry bushes +and pennyroyal. This started the cow, who made another furious charge at +the soldier, who this time, by a well-directed blow, cut one horn sheer +off. + +'That's good!' exclaimed he; 'next time I'll take t'other horn, and then +commence on her legs.' + +The cow made another retreat, but appeared by no means vanquished. The +Captain stood his ground manfully. Ann Harriet sat on the moss at the +foot of the rock, disentangling from her hair the bruised and mangled +caterpillars which still remained there. + +Just as the cow was about to make her third charge, shouts were heard in +the path which led to the village, and in a moment 'Extinguisher No. 1,' +with its brave volunteers, was on the ground. They had followed the +directions of the parson and arrived at an opportune moment. + +The boys at once decided that, as there was no fire to put out, they +would 'put out' the cow; so, unreeling the hose, they drew the water +from the brook, and in a very little while a stream of water from a +two-inch pipe struck the astonished cow full in the face, when she +turned and scampered off into the forest, jumping over Ann Harriet at a +single bound, and was seen no more. + +Captain Dobbs wiped his gory weapon on the greensward, and returned it +to the sheath. He then sprang to the side of his wife, and, with the +help of the foreman and two brakemen, raised her. She said her nerves +were all unstrung, and she 'never could walk home in the world;' so she +was placed on the box of the hose carriage and carried to the village. + +The Peonytowners turned out _en masse_ to meet them, and were anxious +that the heroic Captain should make a speech from the town pump; but he +declined. + +In a short time the happy couple were comfortably seated on the sofa in +the parlor of the old homestead, and his arm was as far round her waist +as it would go. Here we will bid them adieu. Ann Harriet being married, +she will have no more _miss_-haps--albeit at some future time something +may be heard of Captain and Mrs. Dobbs--and all the little Dobbses. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[8] Broken-up apple pie. + + + + +THE UNION. + +IV. + + +The census tables of the North and the South, and especially of +Massachusetts, Maryland, and South Carolina, heretofore presented, have +proved that slavery greatly retarded the progress of population, wealth, +science, education, and religion. The comparison now instituted between +New York and Virginia demonstrates the same law. + +By the census, the population of Virginia in 1790 was 748,308, and in +1860, 1,596,318, making the ratio of increase 113.32 percent. In 1790, +New York numbered 340,120, and in 1860, 3,880,735, the ratio of increase +being 1,040.99. (Table 1, Prelim. Census Rep., p. 132.) Thus, the rate +of increase in New York exceeded that of Virginia more than nine to one. + +In 1790, the population of Virginia was largely more than double that of +New York. In 1860, the population of New York was very largely more than +double that of Virginia. In 1790, Virginia, in population, ranked first +of all the States, and New York the fifth. In 1860, they had reversed +their positions, and New York was the first, and Virginia the fifth. +(Rep., p. 120.) At the same rate of progress, from 1860 to 1900, as from +1790 to 1860, Virginia, retaining slavery, would have sunk from the +first to the twenty-first State, and would still continue, at each +succeeding decade, descending the inclined plane toward the lowest +position of all the States. Such has been, and still continues to be, +the effect of slavery, in dragging down that once great State from the +first toward the last in rank in the Union. But if, as in the absence of +slavery must have been the case, Virginia had increased from 1790 to +1860 in the same ratio as New York, her population in 1860 would have +been 7,789,141, and she must always have remained the first in rank of +all the States. + +AREA.--The natural advantages of Virginia far exceed those of New York. +The area of Virginia is 61,352 square miles, and that of New York, +47,000. The population of Virginia per square mile in 1790 was 12.19, +and in 1860, 26.02. That of New York, in 1790, was 7.83, and in 1860, +84.36. Now, if New York, with her present numbers per square mile, had +the area of Virginia, her population, in 1860, would have been +5,175,654, and that of Virginia, reduced to the area of New York, on the +basis of her present numbers per square mile, would have been 1,320,000. +This illustrates the immense effect of area, as one of the great +elements influencing the progress of population. But, wonderful as are +these results, the great fact is omitted in this calculation, that +Virginia, in 1790, had largely more than double the population of New +York. Thus, if we reverse the numbers of New York and Virginia in 1790, +and take the actual ratio of increase of each for the succeeding seventy +years, the population of Virginia, in 1860, would have been 728,875, and +that of New York, as we have seen, would have been 7,789,141, making the +difference exceed seven millions, or very largely more than ten to one. +Reverse the areas also, and the difference would exceed eight millions. + +SHORE LINE.--As furnishing cheap and easy access for imports and +exports, creating marts for commerce with great cities, and affecting +the interior most beneficially, the shore line, with adequate harbors, +constitutes a vast element in the progress of states and empires. Now, +by the last tables of the United States coast survey, the shore line of +Virginia was 1,571 miles, and of New York 725 miles. The five great +parallel tide-water rivers of Virginia, the Potomac, the Rappahannock, +the York river, James river, and Roanoke (partly in North Carolina), +with their tributaries, furnish easy access for hundreds of miles into +the interior, with both shores of the noble Chesapeake bay for many +miles, as well as its magnificent outlet and the main ocean for a +considerable distance, all within the limits of Virginia. We have seen +that the coast line of Virginia is largely more than double that of New +York, and the harbors of Virginia are more numerous, deeper, and much +nearer the great valley of the Ohio and Mississippi. By the coast-survey +tables, the mean low water into the harbor of New York by Gedney's +channel is 20 feet, and at high-water spring tides is 24.2; north +channel, 24, mean low water, and 29.1 spring tides, high water; south +channel, 22 and 27.1; main ship channel, after passing S.W. spit buoy, +on N.E. course, one mile up the bay, for New York, 22.5-27.06. By the +same tables, from capes at entrance of Chesapeake bay to Hampton, at +mean low water, 30 feet; spring tides, high water, 32.8. Anchorage in +Hampton roads, 59-61.8. From Hampton roads to Sewell's point, 25-27.8. +South of Sewell's point (one mile and a half), 21-23.8; up to Norfolk, +23-25.8. From Hampton roads to James river, entering to the northward of +Newport News, middle ground, 22-24.8. From Hampton roads to James river, +entering to the southward of Newport News, middle ground, 27-29.8. From +abreast the tail of York spit, up to Yorktown, 33-35.8. Elizabeth river, +between Norfolk and navy yard, 25.5-28.3. + +When we leave the tide-water rivers for the interior navigable streams, +Virginia has a vast advantage. New York has no such rivers above tide, +but Virginia has the Ohio for hundreds of miles, with its tributaries, +the Kanawha, Guyandotte, and Big Sandy. It is true, New York has several +of the great lakes, and the vast advantage of connection with them +through her great canal. But, in the absence of slavery, the canal +projected by Washington (preceding that of New York) would have +connected, through Virginia, the Chesapeake bay with the Ohio river. The +James river, flowing into the Chesapeake, cuts the Blue Mountains, and +the Kanawha, a confluent of the Ohio, cuts the Alleghany; thus opening +an easy and practicable route for a great canal from the eastern to the +western waters. The valley of the lakes, with which New York is +connected by her canal, has an area of 335,515 square miles. The valley +of the Mississippi, with which the Chesapeake would long since, in the +absence of slavery, have been connected by the Virginia canal, has an +area of 1,226,600 square miles. The shore line of the Mississippi and +its tributaries, above tide water, is 35,644 miles. (Page 35 Compend. +Census of 1850.) Our shore line of the lakes is 3,620 miles, including +bays, sounds, and islands; and that of the British, 2,629. (Ib. 35.) The +connection of the lakes with the Ohio and Mississippi would be the same +for both States, the one being from the lakes to these rivers, and the +other from the rivers to the lakes. The location of Virginia is more +central than that of New York, and Virginia runs farther west by several +hundred miles. We are so accustomed to look at the connection of New +York with the West by her canal, and Virginia with no such union, that +it is difficult to realize the great change if Virginia had been +connected by her progressing work with the Ohio and Mississippi, and +thence, by the present canals, with the lakes. + +It is apparent, then, that, as regards easy access to the West, the +natural advantages of Virginia surpass New York, and with greater +facilities for artificial works. How many decades would be required, +after emancipation, to bring the superior natural advantages of Virginia +into practical operation, is not the question; nor do I believe that +the city of New York will ever cease to be the centre of our own trade, +and ultimately of the commerce of the world. But although Virginia, in +adhering to slavery, has lost her supremacy in the Union, it is quite +certain that, as a Free State, she would commence a new career of +wonderful prosperity, that capital and population from the North and +from Europe would flow there with a mighty current, her lands be doubled +in value, and her town and city property far more than quadrupled. + +MINES.--Virginia has vast mines of coal, the great element of modern +progress. New York has none. It is coal that has made Great Britain a +mighty empire, giving her power, by land and sea, equal to the manual +force of all mankind. It is stated by the Commissioner of the General +Land Office, in his report before referred to, of November, 1860, 'that +an acre of coal, three feet thick, is equal to the product of 1,940 +acres of forest trees; and each acre of a coal seam four feet in +thickness, and yielding one yard of pure coal, is equivalent to 5,000 +tons, and possesses, therefore, a reserve of mechanical strength in its +fuel, equal to the life labor of more than 1,600 men.' + +This statement of the Commissioner is made on the highest authority, and +proves the vast natural advantages of Virginia over New York. Virginia, +also, has far more abundant mines of iron, more widely diffused over the +State, reaching from tide water to the Ohio. She has also these iron +mines in juxtaposition with coal and all the fluxes. Virginia, also, has +valuable mines of gold, lead, and copper. New York has no gold or copper +mines, and produced in 1860 but $800 worth of lead. (Table 14.) + +HYDRAULIC POWER.--Omitting Niagara, which thus far scorns the control of +man, the hydraulic power of Virginia very far exceeds that of New York. +It is to be found on the Potomac and its tributaries, and upon nearly +every stream that flows into the Chesapeake or Ohio. The superior +mildness of the climate of Virginia makes this power available there for +a much greater portion of the year. The great falls of the Potomac, +where Washington constructed the largest locks of the continent, has a +water power unsurpassed, and is but twelve miles from tide water, at +Washington. This point is a most healthy and beautiful location, +surrounded by lands whose natural fertility was very great, and, in the +absence of slavery, must have been a vast manufacturing city. This water +power could move more spindles than are now worked on all this +continent. + +AGRICULTURE AND MANUFACTURES.--The natural fertility of the soil of +Virginia far exceeded that of New York, with a more genial sun, and much +more favorable seasons for agricultural products, as well as for stock. +The number of acres of land in Virginia susceptible of profitable +culture, is nearly double that of New York, but much of it has been +impoverished by slave labor, scratching and exhausting the soil, without +manure or rotation of crops. The census shows that Virginia has all the +products of New York, and cotton in addition. Virginia produced, in +1860, 12,727 bales of cotton (table 36), worth, at present prices, +nearly $3,000,000. She also adjoins the States of North Carolina and +Tennessee, producing, in 1860, 372,964 bales, worth, at present prices, +nearly $90,000,000. Virginia is also much nearer than New York to all +the other cotton States. With these vast advantages, with her larger +area, more fertile soil, cheaper subsistence, her coal and iron and +great hydraulic power, with so much cotton raised by herself and in +adjacent States, Virginia should have manufactured much more cotton than +New York. But, by the census (table 22), the value of the cotton +manufacture of Virginia in 1850 was $1,446,109, and in 1860, +$1,063,611--a decrease of one third. In New York, the value of the +cotton manufacture in 1850 was $5,019,323, and in 1860, $7,471,961, an +increase of over 48 per cent. So, if we look at the tables of mines, +manufactures, and the fisheries, with the vastly superior advantages of +Virginia, the whole product in 1860 was of the value of $51,300,000, and +of agriculture $68,700,000; whilst in New York these values were +respectively $379,623,560 and $226,376,440. (Tables of Census, 33 and +36.) + +CLIMATE AND MORTALITY.--By table 6, page 22, of the Census, there were +for the year ending June 1st, 1860, 46,881 deaths in New York, being 1 +in every 82 of the population, and 1.22 per cent. The number of deaths +in Virginia, in the same year, was 22,472, being 1 in every 70 of the +population, or 1.43 per cent. There was, then, a slight difference in +favor of New York. But Virginia is divided into four geographical +sections: the tide-water, the Piedmont (running from the tide-water +region to the Blue Mountains), the valley between these mountains and +the Alleghanies, and the trans-Alleghany to the Ohio. These three last +sections, containing three fourths of the area and white population of +the State, surpass New York in salubrity, with the most bracing and +delightful climate. The climate of Virginia is far more favorable for +stock and agricultural products than New York, with longer and better +seasons, and is more salubrious than the climate of Europe. (Comp. +1850.) + +PROGRESS OF WEALTH.--We have seen how great was the advance in +population of New York over Virginia, from 1790 to 1860, being in the +ratio of more than 9 to 1. Now let us compare the relative progress of +wealth. It is contended by the advocates of slavery, that it accumulates +wealth more rapidly, and thus enriches the nation, although it may +depress its moral and intellectual development, its increase of numbers +and of power, and tarnish its reputation throughout the world. As +population and its labor create wealth, it must be retarded by a system +which, as we have seen in this case, diminishes the relative advance of +numbers in the ratio of more than 9 to 1. But the census proves that +slavery greatly retards the increase of wealth. By tables 33 and 36 of +the census of 1860, it appears, omitting commerce, that the products of +industry, as given, viz., of agriculture, manufactures, mines, and +fisheries, were that year in New York $604,000,000, or $155 _per +capita_; and in Virginia $120,000,000, or $75 _per capita_. This shows a +total value of product in New York more than five times greater than in +Virginia, and _per capita_, more than 2 to 1. If we include the earnings +of commerce, and all business not given in the census, I think it will +be shown hereafter, that the value of the products and earnings of New +York, in 1860, exceeded those of Virginia at least 7 to 1. As to the +rate of increase, the value of the products of agriculture, +manufactures, mines, and fisheries of Virginia, in 1850, was $84,480,428 +(table 9), and in New York $356,736,603, showing an increase in Virginia +from 1850 to 1860 of $35,519,572, being 41 per cent., and in New York +$247,263,397, being 69 per cent., exhibiting a difference of 28 per +cent. Now the increase of population in Virginia from 1850 to 1860 was +12.29 per cent., and in New York 25.29 per cent., the difference being +only 13 per cent. (Table 1, p. 131.) Thus, it appears, the increase of +wealth in New York, exclusive of the gains of commerce, as compared with +Virginia, was more than double the ratio of the augmentation of +population. By the census table of 1860, No. 35, p. 195, 'The true value +of the real and personal property, according to the eighth census was, +New York, $1,843,338,517, and of Virginia $793,249,681.' Now we have +seen the value of the products of New York in 1860 by the census was +$604,000,000, and in Virginia $120,000,000. Thus, as a question of the +annual yield of capital, that of New York was 32.82 per cent., and +Virginia 15.13 per cent.; the annual product of capital being more than +double in New York what it was in Virginia. The problem then is solved +in Virginia, as it was in Maryland and South Carolina, and all the South +compared with all the North, that slavery retards the progress of wealth +and accumulation of capital, in the ratio of 2 to 1. Our war taxes may +be very great, but the tax of slavery is far greater, and the relief +from it, in a few years, will add much more to the national wealth than +the whole deduction made by the war debt. Our total wealth, by the +census of 1860, being, by table 35, $16,159,616,068, one per cent. taken +annually to pay the interest and gradually extinguish the war debt, +would be $161,596,160; whereas, judging by Virginia and New York, the +diminished increase of the annual product of capital, as the result of +slavery, is 2.8 per cent., or $452,469,250 per annum, equal in a decade, +without compounding the annual results, to $4,524,692,500. + +That our population would have reached in 1860 nearly 40,000,000, and +our wealth have been more than doubled, if slavery had been extinguished +in 1790, is one of the revelations made by the census; whilst in +science, in education, and national power, the advance would have been +still more rapid, and the moral force of our example and success would +have controlled for the benefit of mankind the institutions of the +world. + +By table 36, p. 196, of the census of 1860, the _cash_ value of the +farms of Virginia was $371,096,211, being $11.91 per acre, and of New +York $803,343,593, being $38.26 per acre. Now, by the table, the number +of acres embraced in these farms of New York was 20,992,950, and in +Virginia 31,014,950, the difference of value per acre being $26.36, or +much more than 3 to 1 in favor of New York. Now, if we multiply this +number of acres of farm lands of Virginia by the New York value, it +would make the total value of the farm lands of New York $1,186,942,136, +and the _additional_ value caused by emancipation $815,845,925. Now the +whole number of slaves in Virginia in 1860, was 490,865; multiplying +which by $300 as their average value, would be $147,259,500, leaving +$668,586,425 as the sum by which Virginia would be richer in farms +alone, if slavery were abolished. But, stupendous as is this result in +regard to lands, it is far below the reality. We have seen that the farm +lands of Virginia, improved and unimproved, constituted 31,014,950 +acres. By the census and the land-office tables, the area of Virginia is +39,265,280 acres. Deduct the farm lands, and there remain unoccupied +8,250,330 acres. Now, Virginia's population to the square mile being +26.02, and that of New York 84.36, with an equal density in Virginia, +more than two thirds of these Virginia lands, as in New York, must have +been occupied as farms. This would have been equivalent, at two thirds, +to 5,500,000 acres, which, at their present average value of $2 per +acre, would be worth $11,000,000; but, at the value per acre of the New +York lands, these 5,500,000 acres would be worth $206,430,000. Deduct +from this their present value, $11,000,000, and the remainder, +$195,430,000, is the sum by which the unoccupied lands of Virginia, +converted into farms, would have been increased in value by +emancipation. Add this to the enhanced value of their present farms, +$815,845,925, and the result would be $1,011,275,925, as the gain of +Virginia in the value of lands by emancipation. To these we should add, +from the same cause, the enhancement of the town and city property in +Virginia to the extent of several hundred millions of dollars. In order +to realize the truth, we must behold Virginia as she would have been, +with New York railroads and canals, farms, manufactures, commerce, +towns, and cities. Then we must consider the superior natural advantages +of Virginia, her far greater area, her richer soil, her more genial sun, +her greater variety of products, her mines of coal, iron, gold, copper, +and lead, her petroleum, her superior hydraulic power, her much larger +coast line, with more numerous and deeper harbors--and reflect what +Virginia would have been in the absence of slavery. Her early statesmen, +Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Mason, Tucker, and Marshall, all +realized this great truth, and all desired to promote emancipation in +Virginia. But their advice was disregarded by her present leaders--the +new, false, and fatal dogmas of Calhoun were substituted; and, as a +consequence, Virginia, from the first rank (_longo intervallo_) of all +the States, has fallen to the fifth, and, with slavery continued, will +descend still more rapidly in the future than in the past. Let her +abolish slavery, and she will commence a new career of progress. Freedom +and its associates, education and energy, will occupy her waste lands, +restore her exhausted fields, decaying cities, and prostrate industry, +employ her vast hydraulic power, develop her mines, unite by her grand +canals the waters of the Chesapeake and Ohio, and, placing her feet upon +slavery, hear her proclaim, in the proud language of her own State +motto, '_Sic semper tyrannis._' + +By census table 36, p. 197, the value, in 1860, of the farm lands of all +the Slave States, was $2,570,466,935, and the number of acres +245,721,062, worth $10.46 per acre. In the Free States, the value of the +farm lands was $4,067,947,286, and the number of acres 161,462,008, +worth $25.19 per acre. Now if, as certainly in the absence of slavery +would have been the case, the farm lands of the South had been worth as +much per acre as those of the North, their total value would have been +$6,189,713,551, and, deducting the present price, the _additional_ cash +value would have been $3,619,346,616. Now the whole number of slaves in +all the States, in 1860, was 3,950,531, multiplying which by $300, as +their average value, would make all the slaves in the Union worth +$1,185,159,300. Deduct this from the enhanced value of the farm lands of +the South as above, and the result would be $2,434,087,316 as the gain +in the price of farms by emancipation. This is independent of the +increased value of their unoccupied lands, and of their town and city +property. + +By census tables of 1860, 33 and 36, the total value of the products of +agriculture, mines, and fisheries in the Free States was $4,100,000,000, +and of the Slave States $1,150,000,000, making the products of the Free +States in 1860 nearly 4 to 1 of the Slave States, and $216 _per capita_ +for the Free States, and for the Slave States $94 _per capita_. This is +exclusive of commerce, which would greatly increase the ratio in favor +of the North, that of New York alone being nearly equal to that of all +the Slave States. Now, multiply the population of the Slave States by +the value of the products _per capita_ of the Free States, and the +result is $2,641,631,032, making, by emancipation, the increased annual +product of the Slave States $1,491,631,032, and in ten years, exclusive +of the yearly accumulations, $14,916,310,320. + +By the table 35, census of 1860, the total value of all the property, +real and personal, of the Free States, was $10,852,081,681, and of the +Slave States, $5,225,307,034. Now, the product, in 1860, of the Free +States, being $4,100,000,000, the annual yield on the capital was 38 per +cent.; and, the product of the Slave States being $1,150,000,000, the +yield on the capital was 22 per cent. This was the gross product in both +cases. I have worked out these amazing results from the census tables, +to illustrate the fact, that the same law, by which slavery retarded the +progress of wealth in Virginia, as compared with New York, and of +Maryland and South Carolina, as compared with Massachusetts, rules the +relative advance in wealth of all the Slave States, as compared with +that of all the Free States. I have stated that the statistics of +commerce, omitted in these tables, would vastly increase the difference +in favor of the Free States, as compared with the Slave States, and of +New York as contrasted with Virginia. I shall now resume the latter +inquiry, so as to complete the comparison between New York and Virginia. +By commerce is embraced, in this examination, all earning not included +under the heads of agriculture, manufactures, the mines, or fisheries. + +RAILROADS.--The number of miles of railroads in operation in New York, +in 1860, including city roads, was 2,842 miles, costing $138,395,055; +and in Virginia, 1,771 miles, costing $64,958,807. (Census table of +1860, No. 38, pp. 230 and 233.) Now, by the same census report, p. 105, +the value of the freights of the New York roads for 1860 was as follows: +Product of the forest--tons carried, 373,424; value per ton, $20; total +value, $7,468,480. Of animals--895,519 tons; value per ton, $200; total +value, $179,103,800. Vegetable food--1,103,640 tons; value per ton, $50; +total value, $55,182,000. Other agricultural products--143,219 tons; +value per ton, $15; total value, $2,148,055. Manufactures--511,916 tons; +value per ton, $500; total value, $391,905,500. Other articles--930,244 +tons; value, $10 per ton; total value, $9,302,440. Grand total, +4,741,773 tons carried; value per ton, $163. Total values, $773,089,275. +Deducting one quarter for duplication, makes 3,556,330 tons carried on +the New York roads in 1860; and the value, $579,681,790. The values of +the freights on the Virginia roads, as estimated, is $60,000,000, giving +an excess to those of New York of $519,681,790, on the value of railroad +freights in 1860. The passenger account, not given, would largely +increase the disparity in favor of New York. + +CANALS.--The number of miles of canals in New York is 1,038, and their +cost $67,567,972. In Virginia, the number of miles is 178, and the cost +$7,817,000. (Census table 39, p. 238.) The estimated value of the +freight on the New York canals is 19 times that of the freight on the +Virginia canals. (Census.) + +TONNAGE.--The tonnage of vessels built in New York in 1860 was 31,936 +tons, and in Virginia 4,372. (Census, p. 107.) + +BANKS.--The number of banks in New York in 1860 was 303; capital +$111,441,320, loans $200,351,332, specie $20,921,545, circulation +$29,959,506, deposits $101,070,273; and in Virginia the number was 65; +capital $16,005,156, loans $24,975,792, specie $2,943,652, circulation +$9,812,197, deposits $7,729,652. (Table 34, p. 193, Census.) + +INSURANCE COMPANIES.--The risks taken in New York were $916,474,956, or +nearly one third of those in the whole Union. Virginia, estimated at +$100,000,000; difference in favor of New York $816,474,956. (Census, p. +79.) + +EXPORTS AND IMPORTS, ETC.--Our exports abroad from New York for the +fiscal year ending 30th June, 1860, were $145,555,449, and the foreign +imports $248,489,877; total of both, $394,045,326. The clearances same +year from New York were 4,574,285 tons, and the entries 4,836,448 tons; +total of both, 9,410,733 tons. In Virginia, the exports the same year +were $5,858,024, and the imports $1,326,249; total of both, $7,184,273; +clearances, 80,381 tons, entries, 97,762 tons; total of both, 178,143 +tons. (Table 14, Register of United States Treasury.) Revenue collected +from customs same year in New York, $37,788,969, and in Virginia +$189,816, or 200 to 1 in favor of New York. (Tables, U.S. Com. of +Customs.) No returns are given for the coastwise and internal trade of +either State, but the tables of the railway and canal transportation of +both States show nearly the same proportion in favor of New York as in +the foreign trade. Thus the _domestic_ exports from New York for the +above year abroad were $126,060,967, and from Virginia $5,833,371. +(Same table, 14.) And yet Virginia, as we have seen, had much greater +natural advantages than New York for commerce, as well as for mines, +manufactures, and agriculture. But slavery has almost expelled commerce +from Virginia, and nearly paralyzed all other pursuits. + +These tables, taken from the census and the Treasury records, prove +incontestably, that slavery retards the progress of wealth and +population throughout the South, but especially in Virginia. Nor can the +Tariff account for the results; for Virginia, as we have seen, possesses +far greater advantages than New York for manufactures. Besides, the +commerce of New York far surpasses that of Virginia, and this is the +branch of industry supposed to be affected most injuriously by high +tariffs, and New York has generally voted against them with as much +unanimity as Virginia. But there is a still more conclusive proof. The +year 1824 was the commencement of the era of high tariffs, and yet, from +1790 to 1820, as proved by the census, the percentage of increase of New +York over Virginia was greater than from 1820 to 1860. Thus, by table I +of the census, p. 124, the increase of population in Virginia was as +follows: + + From 1790 to 1800 17.63 per cent. + " 1800 " 1810 10.73 " + " 1810 " 1820 9.31 " + " 1820 " 1830 13.71 " + " 1830 " 1840 2.34 " + " 1840 " 1850 14.60 " + " 1850 " 1860 12.29 " + +The increase of population in New York was: + + From 1790 to 1800 72.51 per cent. + " 1800 " 1810 63.45 " + " 1810 " 1820 43.14 " + " 1820 " 1830 39.76 " + " 1830 " 1840 26.60 " + " 1840 " 1850 27.52 " + " 1850 " 1860 25.29 " + +In 1790 the population of Virginia was 748,318, in 1820, 1,065,129, and +in 1860, 1,596,318. In 1790 the population of New York was 340,120, in +1820, 1,372,111, and in 1860, 3,880,735. Thus, from 1790 to 1820, before +the inauguration of the protective policy, the relative increase of the +population of New York, as compared with Virginia, was very far greater +than from 1820 to 1860. It is quite clear, then, that the Tariff had no +influence whatever in depressing the progress of Virginia as compared +with New York. + +We have heretofore proved by the census the same position as regards the +relative progress of Maryland and Massachusetts, and the same principle +applies as between all the Free, as compared with all the Slave States. +In New York, we have seen that her progress from 1790 to 1820, in the +absence of high tariffs, and, even before the completion of her great +canal, her advance in population was much more rapid than from 1820 to +1860. Indeed, it is quite clear that, so far as the Tariff had any +influence, it was far more unfavorable to New York than to Virginia, New +York being a much greater agricultural as well as commercial State. + +Having shown how much the material progress of Virginia has been +retarded by slavery, let us now consider its effect upon her moral and +intellectual development. + + +NEWSPAPERS AND PERIODICALS.--The number of newspapers and periodicals in +New York in 1860 was 542, of which 365 were political, 56 religious, 63 +literary, 58 miscellaneous; and the number of copies circulated in 1860 +was 320,930,884. (Census tables, Nos. 15, 37.) The number in Virginia +was 139; of which 117 were political, 13 religious, 3 literary, 6 +miscellaneous; and the number of copies circulated in 1860 was +26,772,568. Thus, the annual circulation of the press in New York was +twelve times as great as that of Virginia. As to periodicals: New York +had 69 monthlies, of which 2 were political, 25 religious, 24 literary, +and 18 miscellaneous; 10 quarterlies, of which 5 were religious, and 5 +literary; 6 annuals, of which 2 were political, 2 religious, and 2 +miscellaneous. Virginia had 5 monthlies, of which 1 was political, 2 +religious, 1 literary, and 1 miscellaneous; and no quarterlies or +annuals. The annual circulation of the New York monthlies was 2,045,000; +that of Virginia was 43,900; or more than 43 to 1 in favor of New York. + +As regards schools, colleges, academies, libraries, and churches, I must +take the census of 1850, those tables for 1860 not being yet arranged +and printed. The number of public schools in New York in 1850 was +11,580, teachers 13,965, pupils 675,221; colleges, academies, etc., +pupils 52,001; attending school during the year, as returned by +families, 693,329; native adults of the State who cannot read or write, +23,341. Public libraries, 11,013; volumes, 1,760,820. Value of churches, +$21,539,561. (Comp. Census, 1850.) + +The number of public schools in Virginia in 1850 was 2,937, teachers +3,005, pupils 67,438; colleges, academies, etc., pupils 10,326; +attending school during the year, as returned by families, 109,775; +native white adults of the State who cannot read or write, 75,868. +Public libraries, 54; volumes, 88,462. Value of churches, $2,902,220. +(Compend. of Census of 1850.) By table 155, same compend, the percentage +of native free population in Virginia over 20 years of age who cannot +read or write is 19.90, and in New York 1.87, in North Carolina 30.34, +in Maryland 11.10, in Massachusetts 0.32, or less than one third of one +per cent. In New England, the percentage of native whites who cannot +read or write is 0.42, or less than one half of one per cent.; and in +the Southern States 20.30, or 50 to 1 in favor of New England. +(Compend., table 157.) But, if we take the whole adult population of +Virginia, including whites, free blacks, and slaves, 42.05 per cent., or +nearly one half, cannot read or write; and in North Carolina, more than +one half cannot read or write. We have seen, by the above official +tables of the census of 1850, that New York, compared with Virginia, had +nearly ten times as many pupils at schools, colleges, and academies, +twenty times as many books in libraries, and largely more than seven +times the value of churches; while the ratio of native white adults who +cannot read or write was more than 10 to 1 in Virginia, compared with +New York. We have seen, also, that in North Carolina nearly one third of +the native white adults, and in Virginia nearly one fifth, cannot read +or write, and in New England 1 in every 400, in New York 1 in every 131, +in the South and Southwest 1 in every 12 of the native white adults. +(Comp. p. 153.) + +These official statistics enable me, then, again to say that slavery is +hostile to the progress of wealth and education, to science and +literature, to schools, colleges, and universities, to books and +libraries, to churches and religion, to the press, and therefore to free +government; hostile to the poor, keeping them in want and ignorance; +hostile to labor, reducing it to servitude, and decreasing two thirds +the value of its products; hostile to morals, repudiating among slaves +the marital and parental condition, classifying them by law as chattels, +darkening the immortal soul, and making it a crime to teach millions of +human beings to read or write. Surely such a system is hostile to +civilization, which consists in the education of the masses of the +people of a country, and not of the few only. A State, one third of +whose population are slaves, classified by law as chattels, and +forbidden all instruction, and nearly one fifth of whose adult whites +cannot read or write, is semi-civilized, however enlightened may be the +ruling classes. If a highly educated chief or parliament governed China +or Dahomey, they would still be semi-civilized or barbarous countries, +however enlightened their rulers might be. The real discord between the +North and the South, is not only the difference between freedom and +slavery, but between civilization and barbarism caused by slavery. When +we speak of a civilized _nation_, we mean the masses of the people, and +not the government or rulers only. The enlightenment of the _people_ is +the true criterion of civilization, and any community that falls below +this standard, is barbarous or semi-civilized. In countries where kings +or oligarchies rule, the government may be maintained, (however +unjustly,) without educating the masses; but, in a republic, or popular +government, this is impossible; and the deluded masses of the South +never could have been driven into this rebellion, but for the ignorance +into which they had been plunged by slavery; nor is there any remedy for +the evil but emancipation. If, then, we would give stability and wisdom +to the government, and perpetuity to the Union, we must abolish slavery, +which withholds education and enlightenment from the masses of the +people, who, with us, control the policy of the nation. + +With our only cause of ignorance and poverty among the people, and only +element of discord among the States, extirpated by the gradual removal +of slavery and negroism, we would bound forward in a new and wonderful +career of power and prosperity. Our noble vessel of state, the great +Republic, freighted with the hopes of humanity, and the liberties of our +country and of mankind, still bearing aloft the flag of our mighty +Union, indissoluble by domestic traitors or conspiring oligarchs, will, +under Divine guidance, pass over the troubled waters, reassuring a +desponding world, as she glides into the blessed haven of safety and +repose. All the miracles of our past career would be eclipsed by the +glories of the future. We might then laugh to scorn the impotent malice +of foreign foes. Without force or fraud, without sceptre or bayonet, our +moral influence and example, for their own good, and by their own free +choice, would control the institutions and destiny of nations. The wise +men of the East may then journey westward again, to see the rising star +of a regenerated humanity, the fall of thrones and dynasties, the +lifting up of the downtrodden masses, and the political redemption of +our race, not by a new dispensation, but by the fulfilment thus of the +glorious prophecies and blessed promises of Holy Writ. And can we not +lift ourselves into that serene atmosphere of love of country and of our +race, above all selfish schemes or mere party devices, and contemplate +the grandeur of these results, if now, _now_, NOW we will only do our +duty? Now, indeed, is the 'accepted time,' now is the day of the +'salvation' of our country. And now, as in former days of trouble, let +us remember the mighty dead, as, when living, silencing the voice of +treason, and calming the tempest of revolution, he uttered those +electric words: 'UNION AND LIBERTY, NOW AND FOREVER, ONE AND +INSEPARABLE!' + +If we could rise to the height of prophetic vision, behold the +procession of coming events, and, unrolling the scroll of advancing +years and centuries, contemplate our Union securing by its example the +rights and liberties of man, would we not welcome any sacrifice, even +death itself, if we could thus aid in accomplishing results so god-like +and sublime? But, whether in gloom or glory, chastened for national sins +or rewarded for good deeds, let us realize the _great truth_, that the +Almighty directs nations as well as planets in their course, governs the +moral as well as the material world, never abdicating for a moment the +control of either; and that persevering opposition to his laws must +meet, in the end, retributive justice. + + + + +PROMISE. + + + O watcher for the dawn of day, + As o'er the mountain peaks afar + Hangs in the twilight cold and gray, + Like a bright lamp, the morning star! + Though slow the daybeams creep along + The serried pines which top the hills, + And gloomy shadows brood among + The silent valleys, and the rills + + Seem almost hushed--patience awhile! + Though slowly night to day gives birth, + Soon the young babe with radiant smile + Shall gladden all the waiting earth. + By fair gradation changes come, + No harsh transitions mar God's plan, + But slowly works from sun to sun + His perfect rule of love to man. + + And patience, too, my countrymen, + In this our nation's fierce ordeal! + Bright burns the searching flame, and then, + The dross consumed, shall shine the real. + Wake, watcher! see the mountain peaks + Already catch a golden ray, + Light on the far horizon speaks + The dawning of a glorious day. + + Murky the shadows still that cling + In the deep valleys, but the mist + Is soaring up on silver wing + To where the sun the clouds has kissed. + Hard-fought and long the strife may be, + The powers of wrong be slow to yield, + But Right shall gain the victory, + And Freedom hold the battle field. + + + + +AMERICAN DESTINY. + + +We would study the question of American Destiny in the light of common +sense, of history, and of science. + +It may be unusual to illustrate from science a principle which is to +have a political application; but we shall endeavor to do so, believing +it to be unexceptionably legitimate. The different departments of +science, science and history, science and politics, have been, +heretofore, kept quite distinct as to the provinces of inquiry to which +it was presumed they severally belonged. Each has been cultivated as if +it had no relation external to itself, and was not one of a family of +cognate truths. This, however, is undergoing a gradual but certain +change, in which it is becoming constantly more manifest that between +the different departments of human inquiry there are mutual dependences +and complicated interrelations, which enable us, by the truths of one +science, to thread the mazes of another. + +There are certain general laws which pertain with equal validity to many +departments of activity in the natural world; there are parallel lines +of development as the result of the inherent correlation of forces. +Thus, if we have found a great general law in physiology, that same law +may apply with equal aptness to astronomy, geology, chemistry, and even +to social and political evolution. + +One of these general laws, and perhaps the most comprehensive in its +character and universal in its application of any yet known, we will +announce in the language of Guyot, the comparative geographer: 'We have +recognized in the life of all that develops itself, three successive +states, three grand phases, three evolutions, identically repeated in +every order of existence; a _chaos_, where all is confounded together; a +_development_, where all is separating; a _unity_, where all is binding +itself together and organizing. We have observed that here is the law of +_phenomenal life_, the _formula_ of development, whether in inorganic +nature or in organized nature.' + +This answers for the department of physics and physiology. We will let +Guizot, the historian, speak for the political and social realm: 'All +things, at their origin, are nearly confounded in one and the same +physiognomy; it is only in their aftergrowth that their variety shows +itself. Then begins a new development which urges forward societies +toward that free and lofty unity, the glorious object of the efforts and +wishes of mankind.' + +We find an illustration of this law in the simplest of the sciences, if +the nebular hypothesis be true, as most astronomers believe. We have +first the chaotic, nebulous matter, then the formation of worlds +therefrom, by a continuous process of unfolding. Each world is a unit +within itself, but part of a still greater unit composed of a system of +worlds revolving around the same sun; and this greater unit, part of one +which is still greater--a star cluster, composed of many planetary +systems, and subject to the same great cosmical laws. If the theory be +correct, we find, in this example, the heterogeneous derived from the +simple, and far more completely an organized unit, with all its +complexity, than was the chaotic mass from which development originally +proceeded. + +We find additional illustration in coming to our own world. Its primeval +geography was simple and uniform; there was little diversity of coast +line, soil, or surface. But the cooling process of the earth went on, +the surface contracted and ridged up, the exposed rocks were +disintegrated by the action of the atmosphere and the waters; the +sediment deposited in the bottom of the seas was thrown to the surface; +continents were enlarged, higher mountain ranges upheaved, the coasts +worn into greater irregularity of outline; and everywhere the soil +became more composite, the surface more uneven, the landscape more +variegated. + +Corresponding changes have taken place in the climate. At first the +temperature of the earth was much warmer than now, and uniform in all +parallels of latitude, as is shown by the fossil remains. Now we have a +great diversity of climate, whether we contrast the polar with the +torrid regions, or the different seasons of the temperate zone with each +other. + +The same law of increasing diversity obtains in the fauna and flora of +the various periods of geological history. The earliest fossil record of +animal life is witness to the simplicity of organic structure. Among +vertebrated animals, fishes first appear, next reptiles, then birds; +still higher, the lower type of animals which suckle their young; and as +the strata become more recent, still higher forms of mammalia, till we +reach the upper tertiary, in which geologists have discovered the +remains of many animals of complex structure nearly allied to those +which are now in existence. In the historic period appear many organic +forms of still greater complexity, with man at the head of the +zoological series. + +In this glance of zoological progress, we discover increasing +complication of two kinds; for while the individual structure has been +constantly becoming more complex, there are now in existence the +analogues of the lowest fossil types, which, with the highest, and with +all the intermediate, present a maze and vastness of complication, +which, in comparison with the homogeneity of the aggregate of early +structure, is sufficiently obvious and impressive. + +There is in this view, still another outline of increasing complexity. +At first the same types prevailed all over the earth's surface; but as +the soil, atmosphere, and climate changed, and the animal structure +became more complex and varied, the limits of particular species became +more and more localized, till the earth's surface presented zoological +districts, with the fauna of each peculiar to itself. + +But, what of unitization? Here, there appears to be divergence only, and +that continually increasing. + +Guyot says that 'the unity reappears with the creation of man, who +combines in his physical nature all the perfections of the animal, and +who is the end of all this long progression of organized beings.' +Agassiz recognizes man alone as cosmopolite; and Comte regards him as +the supreme head of the economy of nature, and representative of the +fundamental unity of the anatomical scale. + +But another and more obvious example of unitization in complexity, is +derivable from the consideration of the animal organism, and will soon +be given. + +We will merely mention in passing, that the most complex animals, in the +various stages of fetal development through which they pass, correspond +to the types of structure which are permanent in the lower forms of +animal life. Thus, in the zoological chain, there are beings of all +grades, from the most simple in structure to the most complex; and the +most complex animal, in its development from the ovum or egg, passes +through all these grades of structure, ending in that which is above +all, and distinctively its own. 'Without going into tedious details, man +presents, as regards the most important of his constituent structures, +his nervous system, the successive characteristics of an avertebrated +animal, a fish, a turtle, a bird, a quadruped, a quadrumanous animal, +before he assumes the special human characteristics.' (Draper.) + +Our purpose being to show that while complexity of structure is +constantly increasing, unitization, or the organized dependence of one +part on another, is, at the same time, becoming more complete, we shall +refer briefly to the comparative anatomy and physiology of animals. +There is in this connection such wealth of material--a long chain of +animal beings with all grades of structure from very simple to very +complex; each complex animal, in its development from the ovum, passing +through all the lower types of structure in succession; so many new +organs and functions arising in the course of this development; each +organ so arising, becoming, in its turn, more complex in structure, more +specialized in function, and more dependent on the office of other +organs;--in the midst, I say, of all this wealth of material, indicated +here in a great general and imperfect manner, the difficulty, in so +brief an exposition as this, is to know what facts to seize upon as +calculated to illustrate most aptly the principle under consideration. + +The development of the senses, with reference to their organs, nerves, +and functions, presents a striking illustration of increasing +complexity. + +In the lowest forms of animal life, we find general sensibility only, +and it is claimed that this exists in the lowest forms, without even the +presence of nerves. But as we rise higher in the scale, the special +organs of sense gradually become developed--one new sense after another +appears; but this is not the only line of increasing complexity. When an +organ of sense first appears, its function is of the simplest character; +and it is only when we reach the highest types of animal life that it +performs the greatest variety of offices peculiar thereto. That of touch +is, at first, but crude and simple, becoming delicate and complicated +only in the highest types. The sense of pain is a differentiated +function, possessed only in a slight degree by reptiles and fishes, and +probably not at all by animals still lower in the scale. + +The eye-spots of star fishes and jelly fishes simply distinguish light +from darkness, much as we do with our eyes closed. There are many +degrees of development from this condition of the inferior organism to +that of the human eye, which distinguishes the nicest shades of color, +distance, form, and size of objects, and the play of passion on the +human countenance. + +The same variety of function is acquired by the ear in its development +from its simplest to its most complex form. In the higher animals, the +organ of hearing is formed of three parts, an external, middle, and +internal portion; but in birds the external ear is wanting; in fishes +both the external and middle parts are wanting; in mollusks it is +reduced to a simple sack of microscopic dimensions, filled with a liquid +in which there are otolithes, or pebbly substances. Such an organ can +distinguish noises only; it can recognize nothing of the infinite +variety of articulations, notes, tones, melodies, harmonies of the human +voice and of musical instruments. There is even a great difference +between the disciplined, and therefore differentiated ear of a cultured +person, and the undisciplined, and therefore less differentiated ear of +a boor. Similar specializations of structure and function pertain to the +other senses; but we may pass them. + +The digestive, circulatory, and respiratory systems, and all the other +systems of the animal structure, evince the same law. + +The lowest form of the circulating fluid, as in sponges, is simply water +containing gases and organic particles; and this can scarcely be spoken +of as circulating, for it is merely drawn in and then expelled. A little +higher in the scale naturalists find a 'chylaqueous fluid,' which +oscillates in the general cavity of the sack-like animal. The true blood +is another step in development; and even this organized fluid changes +its character as the scale advances. Most animals have no heart; and +when the organ does first appear, it is but a simple, rudimentary +structure, very unlike the complex machine which plays at the centre of +circulation in the higher types. + +Though fishes breathe through their gills, receiving all the oxygen they +require from the small amount of air in the water, the swimming bladder +is in them the rudimentary lung--a very simple structure, indeed, when +compared with the more complex arrangement for respiration in the higher +animals. + +Some animals of gelatinous, and therefore flexible structure, perform +digestion by folding their bodies over the food, and pressing the +nutritious matter out of it: they extemporize a stomach for the +occasion. And even in some of their higher types, in such as have a +permanent mouth and stomach, the digestive process is simply a squeezing +out of the elements of nutrition. The digestive apparatus, from being a +simple sack in the polype and similar organisms, becomes, by a +continuous unfolding, the complicated structure which we find in the +higher animals, with various organs effecting various parts of the +digestive change, and even different parts of the same organ having +specialized functions to perform. + +The most complex animal proceeds originally from a simple cell; and 'at +the two extremes we may contemplate the single germinal membrane of the +ovum, which is discharging contemporaneously every function--digesting, +absorbing, respiring, etc.; and the complete organic apparatus of man, +the stomach, the lungs, the skin, the kidneys, and the liver--mechanisms +set apart each for the discharge of a special duty, yet each having +arisen, as we know positively from watching the order of their +development, from that simple germinal membrane.' (Draper.) This is what +one physiologist says of the ovum which is being developed into a +complex being. Here is what another says of animals at the lower end of +the zoological scale: 'The simplest organisms breathe, exhale, secrete, +absorb, and reproduce, by their envelopes alone.' (Lewes.) Here we +perceive the resemblance between the ovum of the higher animals and the +permanent structure of the lower animals. Indeed, some of the lower +forms of animal life are simply cells. How vast the difference between +the organism of man, with all its complexity of structure, and that of +the Ameba or Actinophrys, which, being merely a homogeneous mass of +organic matter, performs all the functions of its simple life without +any special organ whatever! Yet, is man any less a unit than the Ameba, +or any other simple organism? Does his multiplicity of organs impair the +integrity of his anatomical and physiological oneness? Is the +circulation independent of respiration? Is digestion independent of the +circulation? Can any one organ act independently of the others? Is not +the entire series of parts, organs, and functions bound up in complete +and inseparable unity? The vicarious action of one organ for another has +been a question among physiologists; and if admitted, as in the case of +the salivary glands acting for the kidneys in profuse spitting, and the +skin for the liver, the vicarious function can only obtain to a slight +degree and in a temporary manner. The destruction of any considerable +organ involves the destruction of all the rest. I repeat that the +integrity of the physiological unity at the top of the scale, is far +more complete, with all its complexity, than is the integrity of the +physiological unity at the bottom of the scale, with its marked +simplicity of structure. By no sort of legerdemain or surgical skill can +we make an individual mammal become two. If we divide it, the whole +dies. Not so, however, with some of the lower grades of animal +existence. Cut a hydra into thirty or forty pieces, and each piece will +become a distinct animal--a facsimile of the original one. In quite an +analogous way do a large number of animals at the lower end of the scale +propagate, by segmentation and division; one individual becoming two, +two four, and so on. + +Many examples might be adduced to show the absence of organized unity in +the lower orders of the animal creation. Thus, in the annelid, which is +composed of a great many similar rings, and is regarded as quite a +complex creature, there is so little dependence of one part on another, +that a number of the rings may be destroyed without any injury to the +rest. The Synapta, when in want of food, will amputate its own body to +procure the necessary supply; and it has been observed to repeat the +operation, until it 'had by degrees eaten away the whole of its body to +keep life in the head.' (Quatrefages.) Such a phenomenon as this is very +unlike that presented by the higher animals, which, together with their +multiplied individuality of part and function, and their infinite +variety of physiognomic expression, present, at the same time, a unity +of organization so complete, that an injury to one part is +instantaneously telegraphed to all parts of the system, and sympathized +in by all to a greater or less extent. + +As in physiology, the development of the individual corresponds to the +development of the entire zoological series; so, when we rise into the +psychological realm, do we ascertain that the development of the +individual mind corresponds to the development of the mental series from +the savage to the civilized. In the physiognomy of the savage there is +little variety of expression; he has not differentiated that +multiplicity of thought and feeling which moulds the face and plays upon +its lineaments in the cultivated Teuton. The same is true of the latter +while an infant. But who will say that the cultured man of this age is +less a balanced, unitized creature than the child of the cradle, or of +the forest? The latter is but a creature of impulse, moved by every +appetite, and swayed by every gust of passion. He has no fixed +principles for the regulation of his life. There is no presiding power +to rule and subordinate the tumultuous and refractory elements of his +character, and thus unitize the mental organism and its manifestations. +This is what culture gives. Here then we also perceive that with the +development of variety and complexity, the element of unity becomes more +active and manifest. This view of the progressive unitization of the +individual man in a psychological aspect, is very suggestive when taken +in connection with the wane of despotism and the growth of liberty, as +society and government advance, and it becomes ever less the province of +law to govern, and also to regulate. + +We have adduced some of the illustrations which physical and +physiological science affords of the Law of Universal Development: let +us close this part of our subject with the illustrations afforded by the +rise and progress of Science as a whole. The first germs of science were +very simple, existing in connection with Art, and subserving the +purposes of priestcraft. For a long time the range of scientific inquiry +was so limited that the same individual was able to grasp it entire. But +one branch after another has sprung up, diverging more and more into the +realms of the unknown, until no one mind can hope to obtain even a +general knowledge of them all. + +But this has not been the only tendency of scientific growth. Divergence +and differentiation had not proceeded far till the combining and +organizing movement began. The more individuality and complexity have +threatened to outreach the mental powers and become unmanageable, the +more have order and organization shown their ability to subordinate and +unitize the seeming diversity of elements. While the sciences continued +to increase in number and complexity, they began to overlap and +interlace, the principles of one running into the domain of another, +and even coördinating and binding together its seemingly incongruous +parts. + +A simple scientific generalization is based on certain facts which, +taken in their collective capacity, mean the truth which is expressed in +the formula. A higher generalization embraces those which are simpler, +and unites by its expression the truths which they contain into the +formula of one great truth. This process goes on, rising constantly +higher and higher, the generalizations of the ascending series becoming +more comprehensive, and the convergence of all the diversified elements +into great general laws more striking and complete. Thus advances the +unitizing movement of science; and it is now progressing with a +steadiness and certainty unknown in former periods of research. Great +minds are at this moment occupied in the discovery and verification of +these great unitizing laws. Thus we perceive, that while science has +developed a bewildering mass of individual facts and minor principles, +it has also developed the germs of a unity which is destined to unfold +with a richness and magnificence of result heretofore unknown in the +annals of human inquiry. + +As the special departments of science have testified, so also does the +general view of all science testify to this Law of Universal +Development. + +But, what has all this to do with American Destiny? Very much, as may +yet appear. It is by the Past only that we can read the Future; and if +in history and in all development, there is revealed by the inductive +process a great general law, that law becomes the Oracle of Destiny. + +A fitting transition from science to history would be ethnology, the +science of races, connected as it is with physics, chemistry, and +physiology, on the one hand, and with history on the other. + +There are different theories in vogue to account for the diversity of +human races now in existence. Some refer human origin to an original +pair, whose descendants have changed through the action of physical +causes, as food, soil, climate, and scenery, and also through the +operation of moral ones as dependent on the physical, and therefore +secondary thereto, such as manners, customs, and government. Others +deduce it from different lines of development, coming up through the +zoological scale, and thence passing from the lower to the higher races +of men. Others still speak of mankind as originating 'in nations,' each +race being fixed in its physical and mental characteristics, and having +an origin independent and distinct from all others. + +It matters little to our purpose which of these theories may be true, +the difference as to aptness of illustration being only one of degree. +We prefer, however, to deal with facts in regard to which there is +little or no difference of opinion among the theorists themselves. + +There are simple and complex peoples or races, as there are simple and +complex organisms. Take any primitive race, whether described in history +or by some contemporaneous traveller: in a physical point of view, the +men are all very nearly alike, and the women likewise. Describe one +individual, and you have the description for all other individuals of +the same sex belonging to the race. And there is not usually as much +difference in the physical appearance of the sexes in primitive races as +among those who stand higher in the scale. What is true of their +physique, is also true of their minds. As one thinks and feels, so all +think and feel--and that, too, without concert; it is the simple +expression of an undiversified mental organism. Their faculties are rude +and uncultivated; they act chiefly on the perceptive plane, reflecting +but little. They are predominantly sensual, not having developed the +higher mental activities which pertain to an advanced state of society +and result in those great diversities of attainment and expression among +individuals of the same people. There are reasons for believing that +there was a time when this planet had no human inhabitants but races of +this simple type. Great changes have taken place since that day; changes +which, by the law of their accomplishment, correspond precisely with the +changes which have taken place in the zoological scale. Owing to causes +which we may not fully understand, races have been developed which +present, each within its own limits, great contrarieties of physical +appearance and mental characteristics. Among 'Anglo-Saxons' there is +often greater diversity in members of the same family, than you would +find in a million individuals of a primitive race. The complex appears, +somehow or other, to have been developed from the simple. + +The simple fact of a population becoming more numerous, necessitates +certain changes--from hunting to pasturage, for example, from pastoral +life to agricultural and fixed habitation--and these would affect the +habits, modes of thought, and, to some extent, personal appearance. The +modification of climate by clearing, draining, and cultivation, and the +removal of a people from one climate to another, would effect still +other changes. But the intermixture of races by war and immigration has, +perhaps, done more than any other cause to produce the great physical +diversities which we now find in the higher races. Having traced the +stream of warlike immigration from Eastern Asia westward, and thence to +Central Europe, and still westward and southward to the shores of the +Atlantic, and even across the Mediterranean into Africa, overwhelming +the Roman Empire of the West in its course,--observe this tide of human +movement, as wave followed wave for centuries, rolling peoples against +and over one another, confounding them together, and leaving them upon +the same soil, or in close proximity to each other; and, even admitting +that they were simple and primitive to begin with, we shall not wonder +at the diversified aspect of the people of Europe and their descendants +in America. But this is only one series of movements from which has +resulted the intermixture of races; there are others, and some, no +doubt, beyond the farthest reach of history. The process of intermixture +is still going on, especially in the Western World, though by methods +usually more peaceful than formerly. The result multiplies itself, and +the leading races of mankind are becoming constantly more composite. + +The contact and intermixture of races have had a moral result, which, in +its turn, acts upon the physical. Mental development has been one of the +results of war and immigration; one people learning from another, and +striking out new modes of thought from the sheer necessity of new +circumstances; and this mental development changing the physiognomic +expression and general bearing of the man. This result has been +increasing in geometrical progression since history, printing, and the +facilities of intercommunication have made the culture of one people +contagious to other peoples, and the attainments of one generation +available to all the generations that follow. Thus does every movement +among the nations conspire to change the simple types into those which +are more complex. + +The ethnological unity may be less apparent; and before we clearly +perceive it, we may have to rise into the consideration of social and +political relations, not divorcing these from physiology, without which +no question relative to man can be rightly judged. And it may be that +after greater development in this direction, the unity of races may +become more distinctly pronounced and more readily recognized. + +We may observe, in passing, that the same causes which have contributed +to this ethnological complexity, have, at the same time, aided in the +development of the cosmical idea--the idea of the unity of the universe. +At first, tribes had little communication with each other, and knew +nothing of geography beyond the limits of their own hunting grounds. +They knew as little of the vastness of the earth outside of their domain +as of that of the universe. This could only be conjectured from the +vantage ground of some degree of intellectual culture, and the idea must +remain vague and indefinite till after long ages of real experience and +intellectual unfolding. It was not till after Alexander's conquests in +the East, the extension of the Roman Empire, the invention of the +mariner's compass, the discovery of America, and the circumnavigation of +the globe, together with the perfection of optical instruments by the +use of which the true character of the celestial bodies was +demonstrated, that the cosmical idea became truly a scientific one. +(Humboldt.) Thus were the partial and fragmentary notions of early +peoples at length corrected, enlarged, unitized. + +Closely akin to this is the development of the god-idea. Fetich-worship +is that of the rudest people. They see a god in every individual object, +in every stream, in every tree, in every stone. All they see is, +however, shrouded in mystery, and they have a blind veneration for every +object. A step farther, and the developing mind generalizes these +objects. The individual trees, for example, are taken collectively, and +their divine representative worshipped as the god of the groves. There +are, at the same time, other unitizing conceptions of the god-idea. +There is a god of the hills, a god of the streams, of the seas, and so +on. New classes of divinities may be evolved in the mythological system; +the strong and salient passions of our nature may come to have their +deities--to be unitized, at length, with all other gods. Meantime, +mankind are forming into states, with some degree of regular government; +and apparently in accordance with this fact, the gods are subjected to +the partial control of one who is greater than all the rest, and who is +their father and king, but himself subject to the decrees of Fate. +Another grand step, and seemingly in correspondence with the more +centralized government of a vast and powerful empire, we hear of one God +only, who is all-powerful, and master of Fate itself, with a hierarchy +of angels, powers, and principalities, reaching from God to man, and +subordinate to the Central Will, which rules all things, whether 'in the +armies of heaven or among the inhabitants of the earth.' Thus did the +idea of one God eventually swallow up all the others; and the god-idea +was completely unitized. + +We now come to consider the political and social evolution of mankind, +as it appears to be revealed by the comparison of various stages of +national growth. + +The primitive condition of all races, so far as history and travel +reveal it, correspond with what is characterized as homogeneous or +unorganized. Socially and politically, individuals of the same sex are +all alike. There are no classes in society, no rulers, no +aristocrats--no society even--nothing but individuals; and it is here +that we find individuality in its purest form. There is no law +originating with a sovereign, or with the people, for the adjustment of +difficulties; every individual avenges his own wrongs in his own way. +Coöperation is scarcely known; there is nothing in their habits, nothing +in their social and political relations to bind society together; there +are no specialized parts or functions--no dependence of one part on +another; it is marked by a homogeneity of structure, if structure it can +be called, which is unimpeachable. The only coöperation which obtains +beyond the limits of the family, is that of hunting and war; and these +exercises develop the need of a chief or leader. The strongest and most +daring are self-elected by virtue of individual prowess. But still the +chief is very like all the rest of the tribe, lives in the same style, +provides for his own wants in the same way, has no special +privileges--is merely a chief or leader, and nothing more. And +afterward, when he may have acquired some degree of authority, that +authority is purely of a military character--civil government is not yet +born. Usage comes at length to confirm the chief's right, and human +selfishness works out its legitimate results: smaller men are dwarfed, +as occasion permits, in order that the one who is greatest may be +magnified. His office becomes hereditary, and his family is, at length, +fabled to have descended from the gods. This is the tendency of +primitive ignorance and superstition: there must be a sensual object for +the blind veneration of sensual minds; and the imagination readily +provides this, by attributing to the progenitors of their chiefs vast +corporeal forms, great strength and skill, undaunted courage, and +success in amorous intrigue--the perfection of those qualities which +they themselves most covet. Their chiefs or petty kings are now such by +divine origin; and when civil relations become developed, one man +combines within himself all the prerogatives of civil, military, and +religious government. + +The ambition and turbulence of the chief or petty king and of his people +bring them into hostile conflict with other tribes or petty states; and +when victorious, they appropriate the conquered territory, and +annihilate, enslave, or extend their rule over the vanquished people. +This warlike encroachment and increase of power alarm other states, and +they form confederacies or leagues more or less intimate and permanent +for resistance and mutual protection. Thus does the unitizing element of +government gather strength with the progress of political movement. + +The ambitious chieftain, having acquired greater power than his +neighbors, conceives of further aggrandizement, undertakes new +conquests, attacks the weak, and adds other states to his own, till in +time he may have made himself a great sovereign and won a great kingdom. +These new conquests impose additional cares on the ruler; but he uses +the tools of his power to execute his will; he governs his kingdoms with +absolute sway, as a general governs his army; it is a military despotism +of the simplest structure, and all prerogatives and interests are merged +in and subservient to this one. The civil function is not yet developed +as distinct from the military. Only one idea pervades the government, +and that is the idea of absolute rule by brute force. Society has as yet +developed few elements, has but few interests and little functional +diversity; there are only two classes, the ruler and the ruled, the +masters and the slaves. There being but few political and social +interests to play among each other, there cannot be development for want +of activity; there can be little progress of any kind. Such are the +simple, unprogressive, one-idea governments which prevailed in the +earliest times of which we have any tolerably authentic record, and +which still prevail among half-civilized peoples. + +Government is simply a growth, a development, and it must correspond to +the character of the people out of whose mental status it has sprung. If +the people are homogeneous in their mental structure, their social and +political interests must be correspondingly homogeneous and simple. The +more rude and primitive the minds of any people, the fewer are the +relations external to the individual which obtain among them. But when a +people, or a mixture of peoples, have developed great versatility of +mind, a great variety of tastes, propensities, aspirations, and +interests, their social and political institutions become +correspondingly heterogeneous and complex. Such are the social and +political systems of Middle and Western Europe. There was nothing of the +kind in the ancient world. Then the people were more simple and less +versatile in their mental habitudes; and a simple, though despotic +government was the inevitable outgrowth. Rome was but a military +despotism, and it conquered and ruled with military stringency. It was +not till the reign of Diocletian that the civil functions were divorced +from the military, and then only to a partial extent. It remained for +Constantine to carry out more fully what Diocletian had begun, and to +divide, or, if you please, to differentiate the governmental functions +to an extent which had been altogether unknown before. + +The people of the provinces subject to Roman dominion had no recognized +rights, no voice in their own government, but were dominated by the +central power at Rome. The right of representation, so sacred in modern +times as an element of confederate policy, they did not desire nor +appreciate; for, when seven provinces of the south of Gaul were +commanded by the emperor Honorius to send a representation of their +chief men to the city of Arles for the supervision of interests which +concerned themselves, they disregarded the mandate. A central despotism +maintained Roman unity; and, whenever its iron arm should by any means +become weakened, the empire must fall into fragments. + +The dissolution of the Roman Empire in the West was the end of one +cycle; thence began another--that in which we now are, and which should +be of absorbing interest to us. A state of affairs quite unlike anything +known before was then inaugurated. Hundreds of years have been required +to develop results so as to enable the human mind to divine at all +definitely the law of its movement; and hundreds more may be required to +develop the full fruition of what was then so inauspiciously begun. + +As we are all aware, the Roman Empire of the West was overrun by hordes +of barbarians from the North, who annihilated a great portion of the old +population, and changed the character of society. But Rome did not die +without bequeathing a legacy to be enjoyed by the descendants at least +of those by whose hands she had fallen. There was still some remembrance +of what Rome was. Guizot says that 'the two elements which passed from +the Roman civilization into ours were, first, the system of municipal +corporations--its habits, its regulations, its principle of liberty, a +general civil legislation common to all; secondly, the idea of absolute +power--the principle of order and the principle of servitude.' These +elements, though almost latent for a time, were destined to make up and +play a conspicuous part in the war of diversified interests and the +adjustment of political relations, hundreds of years afterward. + +Another element of society at the time of the Fall, was the Church. The +barbarians conquered the empire, but the Church conquered them; without +gaining much, however, to show for her victory; for, while the +barbarians embraced Christianity, they reduced it to barbarism, and were +much the same rude, cruel people, after their conversion, that they were +before. The Church, however, in its origin and growth, illustrates the +law under consideration, in the gradual development of the distinct +specialities of organization; and we are now regarding it at a time when +it was one element among others, and destined with them, by the +interaction of their various forces, to evolve a still higher unity. + +Another element in society, at this time, was that which was brought by +the conquerors from their native wilds in the free North. They were a +rude, and even savage people, with no fixed ideas of property, but +living by hunting and pasturage, and driving their herds from one region +to another as necessity required. The most marked and distinctive +feature in their character, and that which played the most conspicuous +part in the social and political drama of the following centuries of +development, was their personal independence--their almost absolute +individuality, as the result, we believe, of their superior native +physical constitution. + +They had little or no coöperation in their own country; no combination +of civil interests; no settled government. They were apt for adventure, +and readily formed into bands of roving warriors; and when pressed +forward by the tide of warlike immigration from the East, they conquered +the Roman Empire, and divided the lands among themselves. German +magnates courted followers in their own country by hospitality, by +presents of horses and arms; but in the conquered countries, by grants +of land for military service. These grants were at first made during +pleasure, then for life, and at length they became hereditary. +(Robertson.) In this manner it appears that the feudal system +originated--a system which grew into such magnificent proportions in +Middle and Western Europe. It was, however, a growth which was five +centuries in maturing. (Hallam.) + +A curious circumstance, connected with its development, deserves to be +noticed, as showing that certain rights, however desirable, and even +sacred they may seem to be, must succumb to the prevailing order, +however undesirable that system or order might, under other +circumstances, appear to be. Allodial lands, or those held in the right +of the individual, and for which there was no obligation of service, +except in the general defence, were at length swallowed up by the feudal +system. In those days of universal anarchy, rapine, and oppression, the +rule of might and unrestrained selfishness prevailed to such an extent, +that small proprietors, having no means of defence against the strong, +were compelled to surrender their allodial title for a feudal one, and +do homage to the neighboring lord for the sake of protection. And to +such an extent did the abasement of allodial privileges prevail, that it +came at length to be recognized as a principle that the feudal +arrangement was the only legitimate one; whereupon allodial lands were +seized with impunity, and appropriated by the feudal barons. Even the +Church was subordinated by the prevailing system. Bishops became feudal +lords. The incomes of religious service were, in some cases, seized upon +by the irresponsible barons, and disposed of according to the feudal +policy. This, however, is but one example of the struggle of a system or +movement to subordinate what stands in its way, and become universal; it +is a law of history. + +The feudal system was a very complete embodiment of despotism. It grew +out of the political circumstances and mental status of the times, and +could only exist by the warrant of these conditions. It had its +redeeming qualities, however, and, no doubt, promoted the conditions and +the spirit which prepared the way for its own overthrow and the +inauguration of a better system. The isolated and pent-up condition of +all classes, together with such culture as was afforded by their mode of +life to the inmates of the baronial castle, made the occasion for that +general restlessness in society from which proceeded such ready response +to the fanatical appeals of Peter the Hermit. The Crusades lasted two +hundred years, and contributed to the overthrow of feudalism by the +increase of general intelligence and the diminution of the baronial +estates. + +After the fall of the empire, the cities began to decline, and their +government fell, in a great measure, into the hands of the clergy; and +thence supervened a kind of ecclesiastical municipal system. Commerce, +which some centuries later began to develop, gave renewed importance to +the cities; and the activities developed within them were antagonistic +to the feudal spirit, and destined to contribute their part, and an +important one, to the process of ultimate organization and its +accompanying phenomena. The cities at length became free, not without a +struggle; for it is not to be supposed that the great barons would +passively allow the enfranchisement of a rival power within their own +domains. In those rude times, the cities had little intercourse with +each other; yet they became independent nearly at the same time, showing +that this political phenomenon was also a growth arising out of the +condition of the times--the result of political and social causes acting +in concert over more than half a continent. + +The cities accomplished their political mission by doing something +toward establishing law and order, and fostering the germs of freedom. +Their example could not but tell upon their immediate neighbors. In some +cases they even attacked the nearest feudal lords, and afterward those +more remote, compelling them to become citizens. Thus was feudalism +overthrown in Italy in the thirteenth century. Elsewhere, commerce had +as yet done less for the cities, and their progress was less rapid. But, +whenever they appeared, they had the great barons to contend with. The +free cities or communities gradually extended intercourse with each +other; and for objects of commerce and mutual defence against their +enemies, they formed into leagues. Coalitions of the feudal barons also +sprung up, and wars between the two systems were frequent and bloody. +Feudal France made war on municipal France. The Hanseatic league, +embracing at one time eighty-five German cities, maintained successful +wars against the monarchs themselves. There was a confederacy of cities +in Italy of great power and influence. These movements show that the +former isolated condition of European society was no longer compatible +with the change which was being gradually brought about in the social +elements. We perceive a manifest tendency toward more extensive union; +larger combinations were becoming a demand of the times. + +But, along with the progress of this tendency to unity, we perceive that +society was constantly becoming more diversified in character, and its +elements more distinctly defined. The institution of chivalry, the +troubadours, and minnesingers had played their part. Besides those great +political and social powers, the Church, the barons, the kings, and the +free cities, new classes were rising in society, giving it greater +complexity, and, by their diversified activities and needs, urging it +forward to a more comprehensive and centralized organization. At first, +in the twelfth century, the inhabitants of the cities or free +communities were composed only of 'small traders and small landed or +house proprietors.' 'Three centuries afterward there were added to +these, lawyers, physicians, men of letters, and local magistrates.' +(Guizot.) + +In the rude and chaotic society which succeeded the fall of the empire, +there was no occupation honorable but that of arms; but in the course of +time, the meed of honor assumed new branches, and fell upon various +classes. + +The discovery of the Pandects of Justinian in the twelfth century, gave +the study of the law a new impulse, and, together with accompanying +developments, complicated the administration of justice. Rude and +ignorant warriors were no longer adequate to this function; civil +processes required a distinct organ; the profession of law arose, and +commanded its share of public attention and respect. With the rise of +commerce, there was developed a commercial class, which acquired wealth, +power, distinction, and a demand for rights. With the revival of +learning and philosophy, however unpromising at first, there arose a +literary class, which attracted notice and acquired influence. + +In the view given of the earlier stages of modern civilization, we +perceive, first, a social chaos which obtained for some time after the +fall of the empire in the West; secondly, the development out of this +chaos, in the course of centuries, of various political and social +powers, classes, and interests, which were differentiated from the +unorganized mass; thirdly, all these diversified elements, classes, and +interests, gradually tending to the formation of more comprehensive +relations with each other. There was no general organization of these +several elements, in the early periods of the modern cycle. There were +what were called kings and kingdoms, but it was not till a comparatively +recent period that the government became an integer, a complete +organism, with a sensorium and will-power, and a mutual interrelation +and dependence of parts and functions. During the prevalence of the +feudal system and the rise of the independent communities, European +society was composed of innumerable fragments, isolated from each other, +and each caring for itself only, looking to no centre as the source of +political order and vitality, without organization or head. The king did +not rule the barons any more than the barons ruled the king--they were +rival powers; the barons and the cities were rival powers; the kings and +barons played off the cities against each other. The Church, by the +peculiarity of its constitution and character, was related to them all. +The clergy were the subjects of the king, the vassals of the baron, and +yet the spiritual lords of both, as well as of their feudal peers. And +when the Church effected the separation of her own from the political +power, she sought, in turn, to subordinate the latter; and secular +rulers were obliged to resist her encroachments to save themselves. The +kings had no fixed revenue adequate to government, and were the sport of +the capricious elements within their own realms. But the Crusades +brought all these fragments into closer relations, and broke the power +of the feudal lords. The king gained what the barons lost; and with +these powerful, turbulent, and refractory subjects out of the way, the +cities were easily subordinated. The sovereign acquired at length an +adequate revenue and a standing army; he was now enabled to command the +resources of his kingdom, and play a king's part in the drama of +nations. Thus was consummated the movement of national centralization. + +Progress advances by action and reaction; extremes develop each other. +It was so in governmental affairs. The movement of unitization ended in +the absolute power of the sovereign, who became not only the head of the +executive function, but the source of legislation as well. In France, +Louis XIV. knew no will but his own; the States General and Parliament +were little more than empty names; and in England, Parliament stood in +awe of Queen Elizabeth, and the courts did her behests. The sovereigns +were absolute. But with the culmination of royal prerogative and +centralized government, there were also an increase of intelligence, +greater facilities for intercommunication, and, as we have seen, a +diversity of social and political forces interrelated, and acting and +reacting upon each other in a manner quite unprecedented. The inquiry +and criticism of plebeian minds were becoming more daring, and there was +a stir and a restlessness in society, which made bad subjects for an +absolute monarch. The religious Reformation, which began in Germany and +spread to the westward, was but the legitimate result of the +intellectual agitation which preceded it; and the political absolutism +of kings could no more expect exemption from searching criticism and +final revolution than the religious absolutism of the Pope. The German +Reformation was blind to the magnitude and significance of its own +mission; for while its leaders denounced reason, it was in its essential +nature a protest against priestly domination over intellect, and a plea +for the right of free inquiry. Agitation, of whatever kind, is +contagious; and the energetic play of this diversity of plebeian forces +must needs result in the recognition of a popular element in the +government, more or less formal in its character. The government of an +intelligent people must emanate from the popular will, to a very great +extent, whatever the form of government may be. If Queen Elizabeth and +Louis XIV. were more absolute than the sovereigns of our day, it was +because the French and English people had not then developed that +versatility of genius, that intelligence and freedom of inquiry, that +self-appreciation and dignity of character for which they have since +become so conspicuous. With the increase of intelligence and +self-respect among the people, there originated a popular branch of +government to look after their interests, and it grew with their growth. +Through this channel there came a pressure upon the throne, which must +needs yield, or be overturned by the surges of revolution. The examples +of Charles I. and Louis XVI. were extreme. The popular element has since +then usually accomplished its ends with less turbulence and commotion. +It has been less violent, but none the less effective. Since the +Restoration in England, the popular will has been making itself felt in +national affairs more and more. And in France, even a Napoleon, mighty +and original as he was, had to consult popular tastes, and, in a great +measure, conform thereto. We have heard a great deal about the tyranny +and usurpation of Louis Napoleon; but he, too, must conform to the +predominance of public feeling in France, or that public +feeling--'public opinion'--would burst out in a torrent of revolution +which would overwhelm him. This introduction of the popular element into +government is a result of the developing process, which has made +government an organism of almost infinite complexity. + +As we have seen, while primitive peoples remained in an isolated and +exclusively individualistic condition, there were few civil interests; +and these few the sovereign was not concerned with, so that he could +discharge in person all the functions of his simple government. But, +when the civil interests had grown into greater magnitude and diversity, +and the pressure of their administration was upon the throne, the +affairs of government became too burdensome for one man. A division of +labor became necessary. The order of priests originated at an early day, +and took charge of religion. The king, in time, ceased to march at the +head of his army, and sent his generals instead. Not being able to hear +and decide all causes, he named judges to administer justice; and thus +the process of functional differentiation began, and kept on without +abatement as the needs of the government required. There was a time when +an Englishman had no conception of a prime minister. (Hume.) In this age +we cannot conceive of government without such a functionary, whether +administered in the name of king or president. With the development of +new interests arose new branches in the administration of government. +The constant rise of new industrial elements; the increasing demand for +the facilities of intercommunication; the development of trade and +commerce; the interrelation of interests within, and the complication of +affairs without, have given rise to new departments in the government, +with a hierarchy of subordinate bureaus; while the interests of towns, +counties, and states have necessitated an analogous scale of +functionaries, making, on the whole, an amazing complication of +governmental machinery. This increase of complexity is precisely +analogous to the order of development in every department of nature; it +is perfectly in accordance with the second feature of the law which we +have recognized as a Law of Universal Development. + +Some of our economists may object on principle to so much complexity, +and attempt to simplify government by eliminating certain terms of the +series. Let them try it; GOD is mightier than they! There may be +governmental abuse in regard to the complexity of its functions; but the +thing itself is simply in the order of destiny. Man develops it, because +he _must_; it is the historical result of the accumulation of all human +activities. + +There is one kind of simplification, however, which should be closely +observed; and that is to accomplish the object of any governmental +function in the most _direct_ and economical manner. There is great room +for improvement in this respect. Nature, in the midst of all her growing +complexities, exemplifies the principle of the greatest possible result +with the greatest possible economy of means, considering in all cases +the obstacles to be overcome. Let government do the same, and see that +every channel of official activity be thoroughly purged of corruption +and abuse. + +This development of organic complexity is just as necessary and +inevitable in the political as in the animal economy; and the +performance of any function, in the one case as in the other, depends +for the degree of its completeness on the extent to which 'the division +of labor' is carried through the complexity of the organic structure. +There are no grounds of apprehension from this source whatever. In +regard to government, this increase of complexity is most strikingly +observable in the executive department; and it is worthy of notice that +while this department of government is in general becoming less +tyrannical and relatively weaker with reference to the legislative +department, it is also becoming more complex: as tyranny recedes, +complexity advances. There is no point better sustained in history than +the general fact that, as government increases the multiplicity of its +machinery, it gradually relaxes its interference with the private rights +of individuals. + +After man has laid aside his primitive habits of selfish isolation, and, +though still rude and untutored, has come, through the mere increase of +numbers, into a more compact form of society, the government, however +circumscribed as to territorial limits, assumes a despotic and +intermeddling character. Such was the government of the feudal lords +during the middle ages, and of the kings at a still later day. Laws were +made for the regulation of dress, as to quality and cut for particular +classes, and the number of garments which any person might have in a +year. Citizens were not allowed to keep certain kinds of furniture; and +the dishes they might have for dinner and supper respectively were +definitely and rigidly prescribed. The wages of the laborer were fixed +by law to the great advantage of the lordly employer: this, however, was +a very natural sequence to the abolition of villanage or vassal +servitude. The law made service at particular trades compulsory; and +decided where certain kinds of manufacturing should be carried on; and +how an article should be made, and how sold when made. This interference +affected every department of the individual's private life. Religious +interference need only be mentioned; it is well known. As Buckle +declares, in speaking of the interference of governments, 'It may be +emphatically said that they have taxed the human mind. They have made +the very thoughts of men pay toll.' Queen Elizabeth was a very great +sovereign, but she meddled with very small matters. She disliked the +smell of woad, a plant used for blue dye, and thereupon prohibited its +cultivation. She was displeased with long swords and high ruffs, and +commissioned her officers to break the swords and abate the ruffs. None +of the nobility dared marry without her consent; no one could travel +without her permission. Foreign commerce was subject to her capricious +will. The star chamber, the court of high commission, the court martial, +the warrants of the secretary of state and privy council, were +instruments of terror to the subject, who had no remedy by law. There +was no safety but for harmless stupidity or slavish conformity. +Individual independence was impossible. Every noble, manly head that +appeared above the servile mass, was unceremoniously hid away in a +dungeon, or struck off on a scaffold. + +Such annoying and insolent meddling on the part of governments no longer +exists. There can be no such thing among an enlightened people. As the +mass of mankind, or we will say their leaders or representatives, become +more cultured, they demand a larger field of individual freedom, and +organize a pressure upon government, which in time effects its object, +and the oppression is removed, or gradually becomes relaxed and +obsolete. + +Observing that the differentiation of function obtains chiefly in the +administrative department of government, and putting the two general +facts of history together,--first, that while the subject is enlarging +the domain of individual liberty, and secondly, the government becoming +more complex in structure and activity,--we infer that, through the +advance of general intelligence and the multiplication of interests, +government is changing its character from an instrument of compulsion +and force to an instrument of management and direction, wielded by the +governed themselves for the benefit of their own diversified and +interrelated interests. + +In following the course of individuality, we find it simple and almost +absolute in savage life; then it is overpowered and disappears under the +despotic and one-idea governments of ancient times, and of Asia still; +at length it reappears, and gathers strength with every advancing age, +with every discovery, with every improvement, with every flash of +intelligence, till it has accumulated, in its course, all the +diversified means of expression and gratification afforded by art, +literature, and all the social appliances of a complex and exalted form +of society;--and the end is not yet: there will be more freedom, other +methods of expression, new facilities for enjoyment and happiness. Its +destiny is a glorious one! + +It may be well in this connection to recall to mind the principle that, +with the rise of new functions and the increase of complexity, _unity +obtains its completest form and fullest expression_. These two elements +are by no means antagonistic; they belong together, and one necessitates +the other. + +It is a general fact of history that there is a relation between the +culture of a people and the geographical extent of their voluntary +combinations. Whilst rude and uncultivated, with no facilities for +intercommunication, they form no permanent associations of any +considerable magnitude; but with the advance of general intelligence, +the rise of distinct classes and industrial and commercial interests, +together with the improvement of facilities for travel and trade, and +for the intercommunication of thought and feeling, there is developed a +general bond of sympathy between larger masses of mankind, and the +natural result is more extensive combination. The unity becomes more +comprehensive. We have observed this in our glance at European +development. + +Let us trace the course of one of the lines of political movement. In a +primitive society, as among the ancient Germans, each individual has +the right of avenging himself, of taking justice into his own hands, +and determining what the measure of satisfaction shall be. The right of +private war, derived from rude society, remained for a long time in +Western Europe, and pertained to the clergy as well as to laymen--a +custom which was withal not very Christian-like. A step beyond this, and +there was recognized a regular method of determining the amount of +satisfaction due for an injury: composition for crime became fixed. We +observe here a development from absolute individuality in the matter of +determining justice to the recognition of a conventionalism--a law which +was the product of the sense of many individuals acting, it may have +been, in some cases, without conscious concert, yet in a social and +coöperative way. As mankind grew out of their original rude conditions, +they relinquished the individual prerogative of taking justice into +their own hands, and appealed therefore to a tribunal which was +recognized as adequate to this end, and the jurisdiction of which seems +to have had a constant tendency to enlarge its territorial limits. Thus, +for a time, the feudal barons claimed the final adjudication of all +difficulties among their own vassals; but, gradually, dissatisfied +clients appealed to the king, who encouraged them to do so, and at +length the throne became the universally recognized centre and source of +all formal justice. + +This was a movement occupying centuries for its consummation, a movement +which extended the jurisdiction of the tribunal of justice from the +territory of a private individual to the territory of an entire kingdom, +collecting the isolated jurisdictions of every individual in barbarian +society, and uniting them all together in the recognized sovereign of a +consolidated nation. + +Now, while it is true that 'the history of progress is the history of +successful struggles against coercion and authoritative direction, and +in favor of human spontaneity and free motion' (Slack); it is also true, +as we have seen in tracing the course of the administration of justice, +that 'the progress of civilization consists in the substitution of the +general for the individual will, of legal for individual resistance.' +(Guizot.) + +The development of law, or of a general method, is the necessary result +of social interchange, through which thoughts and feelings become +contagious and mould a general will. In primitive society, individuals +are isolated, and it matters little to others what any individual does; +hence he is allowed to settle his own difficulties in his own way. He is +let alone in a way so terrible, that similar treatment would be social +death to a man of culture. We repeat, there is nothing like absolute +individuality, except among isolated and unsocial savages. In an +advanced state of society, human interests become interrelated--a +complete network of complexity; and what any particular individual does +becomes a matter of interest to many, since the many are, to a certain +extent, affected thereby. The individual of civilization has developed +relations external to himself, and his rights can only be secured and +his tastes and wants gratified by mutual understanding, coöperation, and +combination. His individuality is of a far higher order than that of the +uncultivated man; and precisely because it is higher, does it develop +law as the embodiment of the general will, and require organization for +its expression. 'It is through association that the highest form of +individuation becomes possible; and nationality wisely developed will +terminate in a cosmopolitan identity of interests, and a general unity +founded upon a reciprocity of services among all the divisions of +mankind.' (Slack.) + +It is owing to this same fact of the interrelation and dependence of +interests, that the movement of unitization has not stopped in Europe +with the organization of a distinct government for each nation. We have +observed that when primitive individuals develop relations with each +other, they form into small societies, and that when these develop +relations with like societies, they unite and form larger associations; +and further, that these states, cities, baronies, come at length to +develop relations with each other, and the result is their union into +kingdoms. But this tendency of growth does not cease here. One nation +cannot long remain isolated and distinct from other nations. The +interests of one kingdom become, in many ways, interrelated with the +interests of other kingdoms; and there must be new governmental +appliances to meet the case. Diplomacy, a new function of government, +arose from this necessity. This is a political activity of quite recent +development: it originated in the fifteenth century. Like all +progressive developments, it was at first immature; 'it was not till the +seventeenth century that it became really systematic; before then it had +not brought about long alliances, great combinations, and especially +combinations of a durable nature, directed by fixed principles, with a +steady object, and with that spirit of consistency which forms the true +character of established government.' (Guizot.) + +Who can say that we have yet seen the end of this process of national +development? Centuries have been required for all great changes +affecting the destiny of man: the centuries of the great Future may yet +develop a unity among the nations themselves--a distinct political +organism for the regulation of national interests, which are constantly +becoming more interrelated and complex. As cities, states, and baronies +were developed from individuals and tribes, and as kingdoms were +developed from cities, states, and baronies, so may a mightier political +fabric than has yet been known be developed from the family of nations! + +The law, we repeat, is, that with the advance of social dependence and +complexity, the principle of unitization becomes practically more +intimate and comprehensive. _It is to this law that nations owe that +vitality_ of which diplomatists and constitutional lawyers take +cognizance. By virtue of this law, a nation is a living organism, +resisting with all its vital force whatever may threaten it with +dissolution. Hence the utter folly of cherishing the idea of a +'peaceable separation' of confederated states. There can be no such +thing in the order of nature. The rupture and division of a nation is a +reaction against the spirit of social progress, a backward movement +against the current of civilization, a terrible outrage to the +organizing forces of the political realm, and can only be effected +through violence and bloodshed. The more mature civilization becomes, +the more difficult to effect disunion, the more terrible the penalty, +and the more enduring, discordant, and wretched the consequences. + +The law of unitization is a universal one, being an accompaniment of all +unfolding, and man worse than wastes his energy in fighting against it. +It is a great law of Universal Progress; and in lifting our hands +against it, we are presuming to measure arms with a Power which will be +sure to overwhelm us with confusion and defeat. We must consent to go +with the grand movements of the Universe, and to march to the step of +Destiny, or be crushed under the resistless tread of advancing peoples! + +The course of industrial, mechanical, and commercial progress from +savage to civilized life, goes to illustrate and confirm the view which +we have taken of the course of political development. + +Among the least cultivated tribes of mankind, the family is wholly +adequate to itself, there being no dissimilarity of industrial function, +except between the husband and wife. The family builds its own hut, +makes its own weapons, kills its own game--in short, provides for all +its own needs. What is industrially true of one family is true of all +others; there is no division of labor, no exchange of products. They +have no accumulated property, no fixed habitation, but wander from place +to place, as the attractions of their simple life may lead them. But +when population becomes more numerous, and neither hunting nor pasturage +is sufficient for their support, the cultivation of the soil is resorted +to, and new wants are developed. The division of labor, the +differentiation of the industrial function begins. One man cultivates +the soil, another works in iron, another in wood, and so on; and these +specialities, in their turn, assume new branches. Take agriculture for +example: At first every husbandman grows all that he needs for himself +and family; after a while he observes that his soil is better adapted to +one kind of crop than another, and he devotes himself more exclusively +to its cultivation. A similar result with a different crop obtains on a +different soil and in a different locality; and thus do the specialities +of soil and climate result in the specialization of agriculture. These +diversities of occupation with reference to the soil, wood, metals, +imply the exchange of products; but this must obtain to a very limited +extent while neighbors are remote, and the means of travel and +transportation defective. With few roads, and commerce undeveloped, +there is little intercommunication, little culture, little civilization. +This was the condition of Scotland as late as the middle of the +eighteenth century. (Buckle.) England had some external commerce as +early as the thirteenth century (Hallam), but did not send a ship of her +own into the Mediterranean till the fifteenth. (Robertson.) Think of the +difference between then and now! + +The making of tools, implements, and fabrics is at first carried on +solely by individuals working alone, but at length, machinery comes into +use, the elements are used as driving power, and manufacturing +establishments arise having a complicated organization. The division of +labor has been all the time becoming more complete, till now a single +workman manages but a part of the process of making an implement or a +fabric, which must pass through many hands in succession before it is +completed. All are familiar with this fact. It is exactly analogous to +that which we observe in the animal economy. Low in the zoological +scale, one membrane performs all the organic functions; higher in the +scale, there are different organs to perform the distinct functions. +When the stomach and liver first appear, they are very simple in +structure, and as simple in function; it is just so with the +manufactories in the industrial organism. But the stomach and liver +become more complicated as the scale rises; it is just so with the +manufactories as civilization advances. Animals lowest in the scale have +no heart--no circulation. It is just so with society--if society it may +be called--which is lowest in the scale; it has no exchange of +products--no commercial circulation. The parallelism is complete. + +Further, as already specified, we find in the animal organism, that the +dependence of parts and functions upon each other becomes greater with +the increase of complexity; that unitization at the top of the scale, in +the midst of an almost infinite complication of organic structures and +functions, has a completeness and significance which it cannot have in +the simple organism at the bottom of the scale. The same precisely is +true of the social organism. At the bottom of the scale, there is no +dependence of one part on another--no coöperation--no proper +unity--nothing but simple individual life. Higher in the scale, there is +dependence of one element of society on another; there must be +coöperation, combination, organization, a tendency, at least, toward +unity. + +This is well exemplified by industrial and commercial development. With +regard to manufacturing, there is specialization, not only in the +handiwork, but also in the locality of production. Thus, in Great +Britain, where this development has most fully matured itself, 'the +calico manufacture locates itself in this county, the woollen-cloth +manufacture in that; silks are produced here, lace there, stockings in +one place, shoes in another; pottery, hardware, cutlery, come to have +their special towns; and ultimately, every locality becomes more or less +distinguished from the rest by the leading occupation carried on in it. +Nay, more, this subdivision of functions shows itself, not only among +the different parts of the same nation, but among different nations.' +(Westminster Review.) Some of our economists object to this process, and +would bring all kinds of productive labor into the same district; but a +law higher than their theories brings artisans of the same kind into the +neighborhood of each other;--it is the coöperative action of the +principles of differentiation and unitization. + +The effect of this process is to make one locality dependent on another +locality. Once, as we have seen, the family was adequate to its own +needs; now, we perceive the industrial producers of one district have +become dependent on each other, and on the products of other districts +and nations, for the supply of their needs. This industrial division and +concentration gives increased importance to commerce, without which +there could be no industrial development. It is thus that these two +activities are separating the elements of society in order to bind them +the more firmly together. + +The improvement of roads, rivers, harbors, the construction of canals, +railroads, and telegraphs, the development of industry, the extension of +commerce, the advance of general culture, and the consequent increase of +human wants, is making society a very complicated structure;--indeed, it +has nerve and tissue, and is becoming very sensitive. The loss of a crop +in one country affects all other countries. The burning of a city, or +even of a great manufacturing establishment, is really felt to the +remotest ends of civilization. A commercial crisis on either shore of +the Atlantic shocks the whole civilized world. A rebellion in the United +States is affecting the agriculture of the whole country, the production +of a staple on three continents, manufacturing in France and New and Old +England, commerce everywhere. Every partisan clique, every political +court and cabinet, even political destiny itself, throughout the whole +world, reels with every surge of a distant revolution! How different +from the condition even of Europe in the twelfth century, when a whole +city or barony, an entire kingdom, or half the continent even, might +have sunk beneath, the ocean, and the rest of the world have known +nothing of it by its social results! + +Thus, as in the undeveloped organism there is a want of dependence and +sensitiveness, so is there the same want in undeveloped society. As in +the higher organic structures there is a high degree of unity and +sensitiveness, an injury to the remotest part affecting instantaneously +the whole organism; so, precisely, is the same true of society in its +higher stages of development. The law is universal; it governs the +organic as well as the inanimate, the social as well as the organic +world. Hence the reason why the rupture of Europe, on the death of +Charlemagne, into provinces and kingdoms loosely united, could not +prevent the ultimate organization of national government, and the rise +of relations external to the individual nation, out of which diplomacy +grew, for the consummation of a policy above the nations themselves. +Obstructions may be thrown in the way of unitization, but it will +express itself in some form or other. If, on account of the viciousness +of primitive conditions from which it has been developed, modern Europe +cannot yet exist as a union of states under one great and glorious +government, it will, nevertheless, approximate that union, as best it +can, and consummate vast national leagues, which are becoming constantly +more comprehensive and permanent as civilization advances. + + + + +WAS HE SUCCESSFUL? + + 'Do but grasp into the thick of human life! Every one _lives_ + it--to not many is it _known_; and seize it where you will, it is + interesting.'--_Goethe._ + + 'SUCCESSFUL.--Terminating in accomplishing what is wished or + intended.'--_Webster's Dictionary._ + + +CHAPTER XV. + +Our hero starts once more with a new field before him--the field where +all his hopes and aspirations have been centred since he first was +capable of comprehending the shrewd advice of Hiram Bennett, of the firm +of H. Bennett & Co. + +Yes, he starts with a new field in view, unencumbered by any love +affair, and free from all entanglements of that nature--indeed, of any +nature. + +I have endeavored to be so minute in this history as to give the reader +a proper idea of young Meeker at the time he was ready to launch upon +New-York life. He was now nearly twenty-three years old, and fully +competent, by his previous education and experience, to undertake any +kind of business. + +Mr. Bennett, with whom Hiram had become a great favorite, looked +confidently to securing him in his establishment. It is true, he had +attempted to make no positive engagement with his namesake in advance, +but for the last year he always spoke to him as if, in due time, he was +to enter his service as a matter of course. Hiram did not assent nor +dissent to such observations; but, really, he had not the slightest idea +of taking a situation with his cousin. He did not like 'dry goods' to +begin with. He thought the trade offered too little scope for +enterprise, unless, indeed, one had good foreign connections, and even +then he had his objections to it. The competition was more active, the +credits longer, and the risks were greater, than in other commercial or +mercantile pursuits. The question, as you may naturally suppose, had +occupied his serious attention for years; but he kept his counsel, and +never spoke of his designs. + +The first that was known of Hiram's whereabouts, he was established as +the junior clerk in a first-class ship chandler's store in South street. +It was rather difficult to obtain such a situation; but the reader well +knows that, once in it, Hiram will not fail to merit the approbation of +his employers. + +Singular to say, he was indebted for the place to that scapegrace Hill. +The head clerk was Hill's cousin, himself utterly unlike his relation, +yet a good deal attached to him. Hiram, who made it a rule never to lose +sight of anybody, always managed to fall in with Hill (who had quit +Joslin) whenever he came to the city, and on one occasion Hill +introduced him to this cousin. He managed to make himself very +agreeable, and an intimacy commenced, which ended in Hiram's obtaining +the place of the junior clerk, who was about leaving. Of course, Hiram +came backed with the highest recommendations, so that his friend had +really to assume no responsibility on his behalf. Thus he secured the +place. + +A 'ship chandler!' Reader, have you any idea of his occupation? You have +doubtless some business notion of commerce, or at least a romantic idea +of ships on the ocean, their sails spread to favorable breezes, or +closehauled, braving adverse gales--joyous in fine weather, defiant in +the tempest--yes, you know or feel something about this. But to enable +the good ship to pursue her way, she must be 'provided.' She must not +only have wherewithal to feed crew and passengers, but every special +notion which can be conceived of in the ship's 'husbandry.' From out a +ship chandler's establishment comes everything, directly or indirectly, +which shall furnish the vessel. + +Step in, and look through such a store. Taking the interest I hope you +do in Hiram, pray devote a few moments to visiting the place where he +has resolved to _begin_ his New-York life. You won't find it an +agreeable spot. Nothing to compare with the neat, well-arranged office +at Burnsville--pleasant Burnsville!--nor even as attractive as the +country store of Benjamin Jessup, at Hampton. It is dark and +disagreeable. It smells of tar, bacon, cheese, and cordage, blended with +a suspicious odor of bilge water. This last does not really belong to +the store, but comes from the docks, which are in close proximity. The +place is ample. It has a large front, runs back deep, and you will find, +if you walk far enough, a respectable counting-room, where the gas is +kept all the time burning. This establishment is managed by three +partners, careful, economical men, who divide a large sum each year in +profits. They have, it is true, the cream of the trade, for they are +reliable, straightforward people, and can be trusted to fit out a ship +without fear that advantage will be taken if they are not closely +watched. No danger that the pork, when opened ninety days out, will +prove to be rusty, or the beef a little tainted. Hendly, Layton & Gibb +are old-fashioned, respectable people. They have been already twenty +years together. Hendly keeps the books, Layton makes all the purchases, +Gibb fits out the vessels. Levi Eastman (Hill's cousin, Hiram's friend), +now over ten years in the place, is head man under the firm, having a +general supervision of whatever is going on. He is forty years old at +least, has a wife, and, some say, in addition to a good salary, enjoys a +percentage on all profits over a certain amount. Hiram Meeker ranks next +to Eastman, though it will take him a few weeks to get familiar with his +duties. + +I will tell you presently what decided Hiram to become clerk to a ship +chandler, I do not intend, after being so communicative, to hide his +motives on this occasion. I say I will explain presently: meantime, do +not fear that Hiram has any desire to supplant his friend Eastman, or +get the control of the business of the firm; not at all. Other views, +far more important, engage his mind--views which he thinks, in this ship +chandler's store, to study and develop to advantage. + +Hiram seemed to have altered his tactics on leaving Burnsville. There +his style of living was considered expensive. His salary was very +liberal, and although he did not spend it all (it was much increased +after the Joslin affair), he appeared far from calculating in his +disbursements. Now, this was all changed. Eastman, who had no children, +and with two spare rooms in his house, consented, after consulting his +wife, to take Hiram as a boarder, on more moderate terms than he could +possibly get elsewhere for comfortable accommodations. + +In this arrangement, Hiram had unquestionably decided to forego the +luxury of pleasant female society. Mrs. Eastman had a sour-looking +countenance, which did not in the least belie her disposition. In fact, +her husband had a hard time of it, and doubtless thought Hiram's +presence might prove a distraction for him--or for his wife. In either +case, he would be the gainer, even if Hiram suffered somewhat. The +latter did not appear to be apprehensive, but made himself at home in +short order. + +Then, and not before, he called on Mr. Bennett, and told him, ere the +latter had time to inquire, that he had quit Burnsville, and was now +clerk for Hendly, Layton & Gibb, ship chandlers. + +'Well, that's a move, I declare! Did you suppose I was so full I could +not make room for you?' + +'Not that; but, you see, I am not going into your line,' said Hiram, +blandly. + +Till that moment Mr. Bennett had himself no idea how much he was +calculating on Hiram's assistance in his largely increasing business. He +was greatly disappointed. He was too shrewd, however, to express much +regret. He only said, 'I should have been glad to have had you with me, +but you know your own business best, I dare say. You will _do_ anywhere, +I guess. Now you are here, come and see us often, and let me know when I +can be of use to you.' + +Keen men sympathize with keen; knaves with knaves; the good with the +good. + + +CHAPTER XVI + +When Sarah Burns, after Hiram's departure, sat down, quietly to think +over the events of the past few days--for during the week he remained in +the house she had no opportunity for reflection--she was sensible of a +species of relief that she was no longer bound to him. + +It was not permitted in nature nor in God's providence that this fellow +should have lasting power over one so true hearted. With such, his +influence was not to become absolute or controlling. + +This was Sarah's first love affair, and she had no experience as to her +own emotions, and possessed, therefore, no test by which to judge of +their intensity. Now she could look back and see that her heart had not +been satisfied. + +'_Not satisfied!_' How many a young girl has been forced bitterly to +take up this burden--when too late. '_Disappointed!_' How many, when it +is past help, whisper the terrible word in secret to their souls! How +many are now dragging out a despairing existence, chained to some Hiram +Meeker, with heart-wants never to be filled; with sympathies never to be +responded to; with rich capacities for loving, which find in return +neither tenderness nor appreciation; with affections, and no lawful +object;--glowing, earnest natures companioned with calculation and +selfishness and a remorseless subtlety; full, fresh, joyous vitality, +yoked to a living corpse. + +Thank God! for Sarah Burns it was not too late. + +It is true, she persuaded herself she loved Hiram, and that she enjoyed +every delight which flows from affections mutually pledged. But, really, +it was entirely on one side. He, as we know, utterly selfish, had no +genuine affection to impart; so all was made up by her. Out of her full +imagination she brought rich treasures, and bestowed them on her lover, +and then, valued him for possessing them. + +Still, for Sarah Burns it was not too late. + +That afternoon, when she came and threw her arms around her father's +neck, and pleaded to come back again to his confidence, she was fully +convinced of Hiram's real character. From that moment everything was +settled. She permitted no explanations; for Hiram, when he saw how +summarily he was to be disposed of, felt not only piqued, but roused, I +may say, to a certain degree of appreciation of the object he was to +lose so unexpectedly. He believed Sarah was so strongly attached to him +that she would become reconciled to his going to New York, and then he +could permit the affair to drag along to suit his convenience, to be +revived or die out at his pleasure. So all his attempts at a private +interview, his injured looks, and woful countenance went for nothing. + +Sarah treated him precisely as she would treat an ordinary acquaintance, +while Mr. Burns was careful to make no allusion to the subject, or +permit the slightest difference in his conduct toward his confidential +clerk. Hiram, therefore, was the one to feel uncomfortable; but the week +was soon brought to a close, and he departed. + +He went first to Hampton to visit his home. When the wagon drove to Mr. +Burns's house to receive his luggage, Sarah was entertaining two or +three young ladies who were paying her a morning visit. I dare say there +was an object in the call not altogether amiable: namely, to see how +Sarah would 'appear' in respect to Hiram's departure, and to find out, +if possible, by the way she bore it, whether or not there was anything +in the rumor of an engagement between them. Hiram had already taken a +most affectionate leave of each of these young ladies the day before, +and they thought he was to depart early in the morning. Much to their +disappointment, Sarah Burns never appeared more natural or more at ease. +She spoke of Hiram's going to New York as a settled plan, determined on +even before he came to Burnsville; and (the trunks were now all in the +carriage) at length exclaimed, 'Come, girls; I think Hiram must be +waiting to bid us good-by.' + +Thereupon, all went on the piazza, and thus frustrated a design of +Hiram of taking a brief but most pathetic and impressive and +never-to-be-forgotten farewell of his cruel betrothed. He had prepared a +short speech for the occasion, which he believed would plant a dagger in +her heart. He intended, just as soon as everything was ready, to find +Sarah, deliver his speech, then rush to the carriage, and be almost +instantly lost sight of. + +As it was, he saw with intense mortification a bevy of girls come +running out, each with something to say, and all at once--for, to +conceal any little private feeling of her own, each one was as gay as +possible. At last Hiram was forced to mount the wagon (the trunks filled +all the vacant space, and, besides, were provokingly placed so that his +seat was a most awkward one) and to drive away very unromantically, amid +the adieus and railleries of the commingled voices. + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +Freed from Hiram's disagreeable presence, Sarah Burns, as soon as her +visitors had left, sat down to _think_; and she experienced, as I have +already remarked, a species of relief. By degrees her spirits rose to +their old, natural level, and then the fact struck her that they had not +of late been so elastic and joyous as formerly. Presently she jumped up, +and, snatching her hat, she resolved to run into the office, as she used +to do in 'old times,' and surprise her father by a little visit. She +tripped cheerfully out, and was soon at the office door. Here she +paused. Her heart beat loudly, but it was with pleasure. Then she +quietly opened the door and stepped in. + +'Good morning, sir,' she exclaimed. 'Here is your old clerk back again.' + +She rushed up and gave him a kiss, and received a dozen in return. + +Mr. Burns used afterward to say it was the most blissful moment of his +life. + +After that, how they enjoyed themselves!--like school children let +loose. Sarah ran up, and down, and around the office, through the front +room and the little room back, then in the closets, her father +following, as much of a child as she--his heart also freed of a load, +and his soul filled with sunshine--no Hiram Meeker to cast a baleful +shadow over it. + +There were not any explanations between those two. Explanations were not +in the least necessary. Each felt that all _was_ explained, and all was +right and happy again. That was enough. + +After a while, some one came in to see Mr. Burns on business, and Sarah +took her departure. With a light heart she retraced her steps toward +home. She had reached the memorable corner where she once encountered +Hiram--it was on his first visit to Burnsville--when, quite abruptly, as +it seemed, a tall, handsome young man stood directly in her way. + +She stopped, of course; she could not do otherwise, unless she chose to +run into the arms of the stranger. A pair of bright, dark eyes were +turned inquiringly on her. + +'I have found you at last,' said the young man, in a pleasant tone. 'I +have just left your house. I did not think you would be out so early. +And now that we do meet,' he continued, 'I perceive you don't know me: +that is too bad!' + +Sarah stood like one in a trance. At first she thought the man was +deranged; but he looked so handsome and so intelligent, she quickly +abandoned that hypothesis. Then she began to think she was a little out +of her wits herself. That seemed to her more probable. + +Meanwhile, there he stood, directly and squarely in her path. He +appeared rather to enjoy Sarah's perplexity. + +'Yes, it is unkind in you to forget an old friend--one you promised to +remember always.' + +Sarah was beginning to recover herself. It was evident, from the whole +appearance of the stranger, that he would not adopt this singular mode +of addressing her, unless he had some claim to her acquaintance. So she +reasoned. Resolving she would no longer play the part of a bashful miss, +she said: 'I am very sorry to be obliged to confess it; but, really, I +have not the slightest recollection of you.' + +'Ah, that is the way with the sex!' continued the other, in the same +tone. 'Who would have thought it? After bestowing on me such a precious +token (here he presented a locket, in which he exhibited a curl of +hair), you now propose to ignore me altogether.' + +'I am inclined to think you are the one in error. I am quite sure you +mistake me for some other person,' retorted Sarah, quietly. + +'Possibly. Therefore, permit me to inquire whether or not I have the +honor of addressing Miss Sarah Burns?' + +'Yes.' + +'Yet you have no recollection of presenting me with this?' + +'You must have shown me the wrong locket,' said Sarah, dryly. 'The hair +is several shades lighter than mine.' + +'True, I did not think of that,' said the mysterious young gentleman.' I +ought to have known it would be so; but it never occurred to me. +Good-by!' + +He bowed courteously and passed on his way, leaving Sarah in complete +bewilderment. She walked slowly toward home. She roused her memory. She +went through the list of her acquaintances. She endeavored to recall +those she had encountered when taking some little trips with her +father--but the stranger was not any of these. + +A faint outline was, nevertheless, before her. A shadowy image, the +same, yet not the same, with the young man who had stood in her path. + +'Who? where? when?' + +In vain she asked herself the questions. + +Over the past hangs a dim uncertainty, like that which veils the future, +and, young as Sarah was, she could already realize it. At length she +stopped her efforts, and recurred to the more pleasing task of thinking +about the young gentleman as he now appeared, without respect to any +other circumstance. She recalled his manly form. He was nearly six feet +in height. How bright his eyes were, and how mischievously they were +turned on her, yet how kindly--she was almost ready to think +lovingly--when the locket was produced! What about that locket? She +never gave anybody a locket, never--not even Hiram Meeker. Faugh! It +sickened her to think of _him_ now, and in this connection. Only imagine +it! A lock of her hair. How ridiculous! No living being had a lock of +_her_ hair. She knew that well enough. Besides, this was so much +lighter--as light as hers was when she was a child. A sudden thought +struck her. Strange; how very, _very_ strange! Yet, it was true. Once in +her life she _had_ given a single curl! Was this it? Had she promised +anything with the curl? And was this young man he? Sarah's heart beat +tumultuously as she entered the house. She reflected on the words of the +stranger as he turned to leave her. Should she see him again? * * * + +A message came from her father. He would bring a gentleman to dine with +him--that was all. + +Who would it be? the one she had lately parted with? Not a doubt of it. +_That_ she felt instinctively. + +On a certain occasion, as the reader may remember, Sarah had +imperceptibly prepared herself to receive Hiram Meeker. It was the first +time he took tea at the house. This day she did the very same thing to +receive somebody else. There is no use to deny it, for such is the fact. +Yet it was but a short week since she was the betrothed of Hiram, and +believed she loved him. That very morning they had separated forever! + +It often happens that a young girl is deceived by or disappointed in her +admirer. They may prove to be incompatible, or, what is worse, he may +prove unworthy; and she discards him, but with reluctance, after a +struggle, leaving a pang in her heart, while she mourns over her lost +_love_--not lover. _Him_ she no longer regards with any feeling; but the +memory of the old attachment is dear to her, though it be sad, and time +is required before the heart will be attracted by new objects, or seek +to be engrossed by a fresh passion. + +The bond between Hiram and Sarah was of no such nature. He exercised a +species of magnetism over her, in consequence of her lively and +sympathetic nature; but it was of a kind that, when broken, neither +pleasing nor mournful reminiscences remained--no recollection of past +joys, no thought of former happiness and bliss. The fountains of the +heart had not been reached, and when Hiram Meeker quitted her presence, +she was as though she had never known him. + +Thus it was, when she received her father's message, her pulses thrilled +at the idea of meeting the one he was to bring with him. + +Already she guessed who it was. + + + + +VATES. + + + Poets are never in the wrong, + Whate'er the present age may say: + The future only, in their song, + Will see the truth of this our day; + And what a BRYANT says and sings + May well outweigh all false-born things. + + + + +THE PHYSICAL SURVEY OF NEW YORK HARBOR AND ITS APPROACHES. + + +No coast offers more admirable opportunities for the study, on a large +scale, of the effects of winds, waves, and currents, tidal and others, +on the movable matters which line the ocean shores, than that from New +York southward. Besides the peculiar local actions, there are general +ones, which are changing, slowly or rapidly, the whole of the sandy +coast line. While here the pebbles of the ancient drift are being +assorted by size and shape, and rolled into ridges and heaps, by the +action of the waves, there heaps and ridges of wet sand are formed by +the waves and travel under their motion, and the dry sand is forced +along by the winds, covering up meadows and woods, and changing the +ocean shore line; and in other or the same localities, sub-currents, +setting in a nearly constant general direction, roll onward the movable +materials of the bottom of the sea, or tidal currents roll them forward +and backward, giving the general direction of the resulting motion. + +The reports of the Government and State engineers and commissioners, +public and private, who have studied the improvements of different +localities, have given us glimpses of the local, and even of the general +actions; but most commonly there has been a want of means or such +preliminary experiments as were necessary fully to develop the actions, +and which, like the stitch which saves nine, would often have saved the +costly experiment on the full scale of construction. Remarkable +instances of complete modes of investigation occur in the examination of +the Mississippi River by Captain A.A. Humphreys and Lieutenant Abbot, of +the Topographical Engineers, and by the commission of which General +Totten, Prof. Bache, and Admiral Davis were members. As most familiar to +me, from having taken an official part in the experiments and +observations made, I propose to notice the Physical Surveys of New York +and Boston, indicating the chief agents which are at work in destroying +and building up, so as to produce the present condition of these +important ports. + + * * * * * + +In connection with the surveys made a few years since by direction of +the Commissioners on Harbor Encroachments, there was undertaken, as an +incidental inquiry, an investigation into the physical conditions under +which the shoals and beaches in and about New York harbor had submitted +to those changes of position and area which the repeated surveys +revealed. It was at the request of these Commissioners that Professor +Bache, the Superintendent of the Coast Survey, gave his personal +attention to this subject. He drew up a comprehensive scheme for a +series of observations upon all the natural agencies at work, and, for +the execution of the project, selected one of his assistants, whose +experience had already been considerable in similar studies. + +The investigation was commenced in the lower harbor early in the spring +of 1856. Records were kept of tides, currents, winds, and waves, and the +most careful notes were made on the immediate effects of these working +agents as observable in the movements of the sands. + +A glance at a general coast chart discovers at once a marked contrast +between two different sections of our seaboard: to the eastward of us, +the principal harbors of New England are rockbound, with elevated back +countries; while to the southward, in the region of alluvial drift, +which extends all along the coast of the Middle and Southern States, the +harbors have flat and sandy shores. The harbor and neighborhood of New +York, holding an intermediate position between these diverse sections, +exhibit a singular combination of the leading physical features of both, +and present to the hydrographer a field for research that is quite +without a parallel. + +We recognize in the Bar of New York simply a submerged portion of that +_sandy cordon_ which skirts the coast from Montauk Point to Florida; and +although, in the ordinary sense, the lower entrance to the harbor is not +an _inlet_, it may nevertheless be regarded as belonging to the same +class. + +This _sandy cordon_, which may be said to be the principal +characteristic of our coast, is an exceedingly interesting feature; it +appears to have been formed by the action of the sea, which has +disintegrated the borders of shallow flats, bearing away the light +vegetable moulds, but suffering the coarse quartz sand to remain rolled +up into ridges. In many places the dry winds have caught up these sands, +when laid bare at low water, and elevated them into dunes or galls. + +The distance of the sand ridge from the mainland is observed to vary +with the slope of the adjacent country. It is the _motion of +translation_ which a wave acquires on reaching shallow water, that gives +it such great capacity for the transportation of material. + +This _translative action_, as it is technically called, commences +ordinarily in about three fathoms water, and is most violent in six or +eight feet depths, within which the sea breaks. It is just within the +breaker that the windrows of sand are observed to form on exposed flats. + +This disposition of the sea to cast up well defined boundaries of sand +along its margin, is so great and persistent, that the inland waters are +dammed up and suffered only to escape into the ocean by narrow avenues, +where their rapid currents maintain a supremacy of power--albeit with +unceasing contest. + +Wherever, along our coast, the waves drive _obliquely_ upon the beach, a +movement of the sand takes place, and the inlets are consequently +continually shifting. + +The Long Island inlets are moving _westward_, and Sandy Hook advances to +the _northward_, because the sea rolls in along the axis of the great +bay between Long Island and New Jersey, and necessarily sweeps along the +beaches, instead of taking the direction of a _normal_ to the shore +line. + +The movement of Sandy Hook to the northward is, however, a problem not +so easily disposed of as we might conceive from the above +considerations; for although, in the most general sense, its existence +must be regarded as the work of the waves, there are other agents +influencing materially its form and its rate of progress. The currents +control, to a very great extent, the final disposition of the sands worn +away or kept in motion by the waves. + +Professor Bache's investigations in the neighborhood of Sandy Hook have +been published, and we should not especially refer to them here, except +that the recent physical changes reported by Colonel Delafield to the +Engineer Department, have reawakened an interest in the matter. + +The measurements of the Coast Survey, made in 1856 and 1857, showed that +the Hook was being washed away on the east and west shores, but was +extending slowly to the northwest, where it already encroached on the +main ship channel. This order of things has continued up to the present +time, and is now in progress. + +The able Superintendent of the fortifications at Sandy Hook has evinced +considerable alarm lest the new fort shall fall a prey to the +encroachments, or be separated from the main body of the beach by +slue-ways. The Coast Surrey has been notified of the matter, and the +assistant to whom I have already referred has visited the Hook, and made +an informal report, which agrees essentially with the statements of +Colonel Delafield. A complete and reliable report can only be made upon +_actual surveys_; and we trust these will be executed, and the +Government placed in possession of the whole truth. + +We understand that Colonel Delafield has already, upon a small scale, +made some very successful experiments of curvilineal dikes, constructed +with caissons of concrete; and we have no doubt that, with adequate +means at his disposal, this ingenious engineer could avert the dangers +which threaten, not only the fort, but the noble harbor of New York. + +To return to the Physical Survey, and to speak as briefly as we may upon +so extended a subject, we hold that it is possible, by a patient +collection of facts and figures, to determine the natural _scheme_ of +the harbor--we had almost said the _formula of its development_. + +It is ascertained that the group of shoals which form the Bar--composed, +as they are, for the most part, of loose and shifting sands--are not +accidental accumulations, modified by violent storms and freshets, but +that they are orderly arrangements, made by the currents, to whose +unceasing activities are due the form and preservation of each bank and +channel. The peculiar contours of the shoals given by our most ancient +charts are still developed by recent surveys, although alterations in +magnitude have taken place. _The order of the physical forces is +unchanged, but their work is still progressing._ + +Now, since these currents have determinable laws, regulating their +periods, durations, velocities, and directions, it was only necessary to +compile observations, in order to reduce this study to a simple +consideration of the _composition of forces_. + +'The process by which sand is swept along by currents upon the bottom of +the sea, is not unlike the motion of dunes upon the land; a ridge of +sand is propagated in the direction of the current by the continual +rolling of the particles from the rear to the front. This movement is +exceedingly slow when compared with that of the current which induces +it, and for this reason a shoal, though traversed by violent tidal +currents, may, as a whole, remain stationary when the alternate drifts +are equal and opposite; for in this case, though the sand upon the +surface is drifted to and fro, it undergoes no more ultimate change of +position than it would if the forces which acted upon it were +simultaneous and in equilibrium.'[9] + +Of course, so simple a case as that in which the ebb and flood forces +are equal and opposite, is rarely presented; for at most of the stations +on the Bar the direction of the flow varies from hour to hour, going +quite round the circle in a half-tidal day: the velocities and +directions also vary with the depth. These circumstances complicate the +computation a little, but the problem is still simple and direct. +Everything depends upon the faithfulness of the observations. + +The physical diagrams which have been plotted from the results of these +studies may be regarded as decided successes, for they show in most +cases that the shoals lie in the foci or in the equilibrium points of +the observed forces. + +The current stations occupied cover a district embracing not only the +immediate vicinity of the shoals, but extending many miles from them in +different directions; for it was deemed necessary that each elementary +force should be separately studied before it reached its working point. +It has been ascertained that among the causes of the different shoal +formations there exists a mutual relation and dependence, so that they +may be regarded as a single physical system. _It will be seen from this +consideration, that any artificial disturbance of the conditions, at a +single point, may interrupt the operations of nature in other localities +more or less remote, or cause general changes in the hydrogaphy of the +harbor._ + +It is not simply the superficial drift of the tidal and other currents +that these observations comprehend; but, with the use of apparatus +suitably arranged, the movements at all depths have been determined, +with the exact amount of power exerted by streams coursing along the bed +of the sea. The necessity for this minuteness of examination has been +fully shown in some of the curious discoveries that have been made. + +In several parts of our harbor, systems of counter-currents have been +detected, occupying strata of water at different depths, and these +present, in their motions, striking contrasts of directions, velocities, +and epochs. The most remarkable exhibition of these sub-currents was +observed in the neighborhood of the city, in the channel between +Governor's and Bedloe's Islands. In this locality, during the last +quarter of the ebb, floating objects drift southward toward the sea, +while the heavier material upon the bottom is borne northward toward the +city piers. While, upon the surface, the ebb exceeds the flood both in +velocity and duration, the motions of the lowest water-stratum are +subject to the reverse conditions: it therefore follows that _the +heavier deposits from the city drainage cannot be swept away through +this the main avenue to the sea_. This contrast of motion between the +upper and lower drifts was observed in greater or less degree throughout +the entire distance from the Bar to a point in the Hudson River off Fort +Washington. These results appear to us of the highest importance, since +they would seem to indicate that the scouring action of the currents +will not be sufficient to prevent the accumulation of certain classes of +deposits in the upper harbor--as the ashes from the steamers, and the +like. + +The course of the land waters in their progress seaward was followed +nearly sixty miles beyond the Bar, where currents of considerable +velocity were still observed. At the station farthest seaward, where the +sounding is thirty fathoms, the observations at different depths +disclosed some very remarkable peculiarities. It was perceived that the +moving stratum was not always of the same depth; the whole body of the +sea moving steadily forward at one time, while at another no motion +could be detected below a superficial stream. + +The land waters, to which allusion has been made, augment the ebb +current to such a degree, that a general eastwardly preponderance was +observed in the drift along the south shore of Long Island; and this +preponderance, increasing steadily from station to station at each +remove, was found, at a point twenty-five miles east of Fire Island +Light, to outlive the tidal currents and maintain itself as a constant +coastwise stream. + +One very curious discovery was made with regard to this stream along +shore. It was ascertained that during easterly gales a portion of the +water, crowded up into the bight of the coast, escapes seaward by a +sub-current. Shells, carefully marked, were deposited in the sea during +fine weather, and, after an easterly gale, were picked up on the shore +of Fire Island, _four miles eastward_ of the place of deposit. There was +no evidence that these shells travelled any distance during still +weather. + +We do not despair of the possibility of artificial improvements at the +Long Island inlets. + +At present the great inland basins on the southern portion of Long +Island communicate with the sea only by narrow passes obstructed by bars +and shoals; yet, in spite of the dangers which are always presented, +large fleets of market vessels pass out daily through the inlets, laden +with farm produce and shell fish. It requires no thought to perceive +that if these inlets were made safe and permanent by suitable marine +constructions, and were furnished with the proper buoys and beacons, +there would spring up in their neighborhood great commercial +enterprises. + +While, in the case of the lower harbor and its approaches, it was the +design of the observations to detect in the movement of the waters the +causes of alterations in the physical geography, the same kind of +studies, undertaken afterward in Hell Gate, had for their object the +reverse inquiry, viz., to ascertain to what degree and in what manner +the form of the rocky channel influenced the tides and currents, in +order that some prediction might be made of the consequences likely to +follow the removal of obstructions from the waterways. The propagations +of the tide wave meet at Hell Gate, so that here the observations, when +plotted, exhibit compound curves, in which the portion due to the wave +from Sandy Hook is easily distinguishable from that due to the wave from +Long Island Sound. The Sandy Hook tide wave differs so widely in height +and time from that of Long Island Sound, that there is over three feet +difference of level between the harbor and the Sound at certain stages +of the tides; and at these times the currents rush through the Gate, +vainly endeavoring to restore the inequalities. + +The problem of referring a current to a _tidal head_ is a very difficult +one. The current, for instance, which renders Hell Gate so dangerous, is +not at any time so great as a _permanent head_, equal to the difference +of the tides observed, would engender. The currents are so very slow in +their movements, compared with the undulations of the tide wave, that it +cannot be ascertained as yet, what are the magnitudes of such elements +as _inertia_ and _friction_, and how they are to be corrected for, so as +to predict the time and velocity of the current from observations of the +vertical rise and fall. + +It is due to the officers of the Coast Survey to state that their +services to the Harbor Commissioners were rendered gratuitously; the +work offered to them only an opportunity for research. + +This Physical Survey must, at the outset, have held out small +inducements to patient labor--the field was so large and ill defined, +and had been so long the region of mere speculation; but the few simple +and useful generalizations it has now grasped should, hereafter, prove +the stepping stones to larger inductions, valuable alike to physical +science and commercial interests. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[9] Report of the Observations for the Completion of the Physical Survey +of New York Bar and Harbor, in pursuance of the Act of the Legislature +of New York, April 17, 1857, and of the authority of the Commissioners +on Harbor Encroachments. By A. D. BACHE, Supt. U.S. Coast Survey. + + + + +AN ENGLISHMAN IN SOUTH CAROLINA. + +DECEMBER, 1860, AND JULY, 1862. + + +II. + +'Mornin', sa! De Cunnel send dis with his compliments. Merry Christmas, +sa!' Such was the salutation arousing me on the anniversary of the birth +of Him who came on earth to preach the Gospel of love and fraternity to +all men--or the date which pious tradition has arbitrarily assigned to +it. And Pomp appeared by the bedside of the ponderous, old-fashioned +four-poster, in which I had slept, bearing a tumbler containing that +very favorite Southern 'eye-opener,' a mixture of peach brandy and +honey. I sipped, rose, and began dressing. The slave regarded me +wistfully, and repeated his Christmas salutation. + +I knew what the poor fellow meant, well enough, and responded with a +gratuity sufficient to make his black face lustrous with pleasure. All +through the South the system of _backsheesh_ is as prevalent as in +Turkey, and with more justification. At the hotels its adoption is +compulsory, if the traveller would shun eyeservice and the most +provoking inattention or neglect. His coffee appears unaccompanied by +milk or sugar, his steak without bread, condiments are inaccessible, and +his sable attendant does the least possible toward deserving that name, +until a semi-weekly quarter or half dollar transforms him from a miracle +of stupidity and awkwardness into your enthusiastic and ever-zealous +retainer. This, however, by the way. + +My present had the usual effect; Pompey became approbative and +talkative: + +'You come from England, sa?' he asked, looking up from the hearth and +temporarily desisting in his vigorous puffing at the fire he had already +kindled for me to dress by. + +'Yes,' I answered. + +'Dat a long ways off, sa?' + +'Over three thousand miles of salt water, Pompey.' + +'Golly! I 'fraid o' dem! didn't tink dere was so much water in de +world!' adding a compliment on the supposed courage involved in crossing +the Atlantic. Negroes have almost no relative ideas of distance or +number beyond a very limited extent; they will say 'a tousan'd,' fifty +or a hundred 'tousand,' with equal inexactitude and fluency. Presently +Pompey began again: + +'Many colored people in England, sa?' + +'Very few. You might live there a year without meeting one.' + +'I'se hear dey's all free--dem what is dar? dat so?' he asked, +curiously. + +'Yes; just as they are at the North; only I think they're a little +better treated in England. We don't make any difference between men on +account of their skin. You might marry a white woman there, Pompey, if +you could get her to have you.' + +Pompey honored this remark with as much ready negro laughter as he +seemed to think it demanded. + +'I'se got a wife already, sa,' he answered. 'But 'pears to me England +must be good country to lib in.' + +'Why so?' + +'All free dar, sa!' + +'Why you'd have to work harder than you do here, and have nobody to take +care of you. The climate wouldn't suit you, either, there's not enough +sunshine. You couldn't have a kinder or a better master than Colonel +----, I'm sure.' + +'No, _sa!_' with a good deal of earnestness; 'he fust-rate man, sa, dat +a fac; and Mass' Philip and de young ladies, dey berry good to us. +But--' and the slave hesitated. + +'What is it, Pompey? Speak out!' + +'Well, den, some day de Cunnel he die, and den trouble come, _suah!_ De +ole plantation be sold, and de hands sold too, or we be divide 'tween +Mass' Phil, Miss Jule, and Miss Emmy. Dey get married, ob course. Some +go one way, some toder, we wid dem--nebber lib together no more. Dat's +what I keep t'inkin ob, sa!' + +What answer could be made to this simple statement of one of the dire +contingencies inevitable to slave life? perhaps that most dreaded by the +limited class of well cared-for house servants, of which Pompey was a +good representative. He knew, as well as I, that his poor average of +happiness was fortuitous--that it hinged on the life of his master. At +his death he might become the chattel of any human brute with a white +epidermis and money enough to buy him; might be separated from wife, +children, companions and past associations. Suggesting the practical +wisdom involved in the biblical axiom that sufficient for the day is the +evil thereof, I turned the conversation and presently dismissed him. I +experienced some little difficulty in accomplishing the latter, for he +was both zealous and familiar in my service: indeed, this is one of the +nuisances appertaining to the institution; a pet slave seems hardly to +understand the desire for privacy, and is prone to consider himself +ill-used if you presume to dispense with his attendance. His ideal of a +master is one who needs a great deal of waiting on in trivial, +unlaborious ways, who tolerates all shortcomings and slovenliness, and +bestows liberal gratuities. + +Descending to the breakfast parlor, I received and responded to the +appropriate salutations for the day from my host and his family, who had +already recognized it, English fashion, by the interchange of mutual +presents, those of the Colonel to his daughters being jewelry of a +handsome and expensive character. The trinkets were submitted to my +inspection and duly admired. + +'I must tell you something about these knick-knacks, Mr. ----,' said the +evidently gratified father. 'You wouldn't suppose, now, that these +mercenary girls actually asked me to give them money instead of +trinkets?' + +His tone and looks involved some latent compliment to the young ladies, +and I said as much. + +'They wanted to give it to the State, to help arm and equip some of the +military companies. I couldn't let 'em suffer for their patriotism, you +know; so I had to advance the money and buy the trinkets, too; though +I'll do them the justice to say they didn't expect it. Never mind! the +Southern Confederacy and free trade will reimburse me. And now let's +have breakfast.' + +The Southern Confederacy and Free Trade! During secession time in +Charleston, there was displayed in front of the closed theatre, a +foolish daub on canvas, depicting crowded wharves, cotton bales, +arriving and departing vessels, and other indications of maritime and +commercial prosperity, surmounted by seven stars, that being the +expected number of seceding States, all presented as a representation of +the good time coming. It remained there for over a month, when one of +those violent storms of wind and rain variegating the humidity of a +South-Carolinian winter tore it to pieces, leaving only the skeleton +framework on which it had been supported. May not this picture and its +end prove symbolical? + +'Did you observe that our Charleston ladies dress very plainly, this +season?' continued the Colonel, as we sat at breakfast. 'There are no +silks and satins this Christmas, no balls, no concerts, no marriages. We +are generally economizing for whatever may happen.' + +'Why, I thought you didn't expect war?' I answered. + +'No more we do; but it's well to be prepared.' + +'There's to be no race ball, I understand,' said the lazy gentleman, who +had appeared later than the rest of us, and was having a couple of eggs +'opened' for him into a tumbler, by Pompey. 'The girls will miss that. +Can you tell me how the betting stood between _Albine_ and _Planet_?' + +I could not, and observed that the Colonel changed the subject with some +marks of irritation. I learned afterward that his indolent relative had +an incurable passion for betting, and, when carried away by it, was +capable of giving unauthorized notes upon his opulent relative, who paid +them in honor of the family name, but objected to the practice. He +himself affected to discourage betting, though his State pride actually +induced him to risk money on the 'little mare' _Albine_, a +South-Carolina horse, who subsequently and very unexpectedly triumphed +over her Virginian opponent. But this by the way. + +Breakfast over and cigars lighted (the Colonel imported his own from +Havana, each one enwrapped in a separate leaf, and especially excellent +in quality), we strolled abroad. The negroes were not at work, of +course; and, early as it was, we found their quarters all alive with +merriment and expectation. Some of the younger men, dressed in their +best clothes--generally suits of plain, substantial homespun, white or +check shirts, and felt hats--went from house to house, wishing the +inmates the compliments of the season, blended with obstreperous, +broad-mouthed laughter; in some instances carrying nosegays, received, +in common with the givers, with immense delight and coquetry on the part +of the females. These wore neatly-made, clean cotton dresses, with +gaily-colored handkerchiefs arranged turban fashion upon their heads. +Many of the old men and not a few of the old women were smoking clay or +corncob pipes; the children laughed, cried, played with each other, +rolled upon the ground, and disported themselves as children, white, +black, or particolored, do all the world over; the occasional twang of a +banjo and a fiddle was heard, and everything looked like enjoyment and +anticipation. Of course, the huts of the future brides constituted the +centre of attraction: from the chattering of tongues within we inferred +that the wedding dresses were exposed for the admiring inspection of the +negro population. + +The Colonel had just arrived at the peroration of an eloquent eulogium +of the scene, when the overseer appeared at the end of the avenue of +orange trees, and presently drew rein beside us, his countenance +exhibiting marks of dissatisfaction. + +'I've had trouble with them boys over to my place, Colonel,' he said, +briefly, and looking loweringly around, as though he would be disposed +to resent any listening to his report on the part of the negroes. + +'Why, what's the matter with them?' asked his employer, hastily. + +'Well, it 'pears they got some rotgut--two gallon of it--from somewheres +last night, and of course, all got as drunk as h----, down to the old +shanty behind the gin--they went thar so's I shouldn't suspicion +nothin'. They played cards, and quarrelled and fit, and Hurry's John he +cut Timberlake bad--cut Wilkie, too, 'cross the hand, but ain't hurt him +much!' + +'Hurry's John! I always knew that nigger had a d----d ugly temper!' I'll +sell him, by ---- ! I won't have him on the place a week longer. Is +Timberlake badly hurt?' + +'He's nigh killed, I reckon. Got a bad stick in the ribs, and a cut in +the shoulder, and one in the face--bled like a hog, he did! Reckon he +may get over it. I've done what I could for him.' + +The Colonel's handsome face was inflamed with passion; he strode up and +down, venting imprecations of an intensity only to be achieved by an +enraged Southerner. Presently he stopped and asked abruptly: + +'Where did they get the liquor from?' + +'I don't know. Most likely from old Whalley, down to the landing. He's +mean enough for anything.' + +'If I can prove it on him, I'll run him out of the country! +I'll--I'll--d----n it! I'll shoot him!' And the Colonel continued his +imprecations, this time directing them toward the supposed vender of the +whiskey. + +'These men are the curse of the country! the curse of the country!' he +repeated, excitedly; 'these d----d mean, low, thieving, sneaking, +pilfering, poor whites! They teach our negroes to steal, they sell them +liquor, they do everything to corrupt and demoralize them. That's how +they _live_, by ----! The slaves are respectable, compared to them. By +----, they ought to be slaves themselves--only no amount of paddling[10] +would get any work out of their d----d lazy hides! I almost wish we +might have a war with the Yankees: we should get some of 'em killed off, +then!' + +How little Colonel ---- thought, as he uttered these words, 'so wicked +and uncivic' (as Gellius says of a similar wish on the part of a Roman +lady, for which she was fined the sum of twenty-five thousand pounds +brass), that in the future lay such dire fulfilment of them! Apropos of +the subject, what fitting tools for the purposes of rebellion have these +hated 'poor whites' proved themselves!--their ignorance, their vices, +their brutality rendering them all the more appropriate instruments for +the work in hand. It would seem, almost, as if a diabolic providence had +prepared them for this very result. + +'I must ride over and see about this business at once,' resumed the +Colonel. 'Mr. ----, I can very well suppose you'd rather be spared +accompanying me, so make yourself at home for an hour or two. I won't be +a minute longer than I can help. Perhaps you'd better not mention this +unfortunate affair up at the house until I return; it'll shock the +girls, and I'm very careful to keep all unpleasant things out of their +way. It's the first time such an atrocity has occurred on this +plantation, believe me.' + +And, ordering his horse, he rode off with the overseer. I should really +have preferred visiting the scene of the recent tragedy, but my host's +wish to the contrary was evident, and I knew enough of Southern +sensitiveness with respect to the ugly side of their 'institution' to +comply. (I had been advised by a fellow countryman not to attend a slave +sale in Charleston, lest my curiosity might be looked upon as +impertinent, and get me into trouble; but I did it, and, I am bound to +say, without any evil consequences.) So I retraced my steps toward the +house, presently encountering the lazy gentleman, and one in black, who +was introduced to me as the Reverend Mr. ----, an Episcopal clergyman of +Beaufort, also a resident on an adjacent island. + +The lazy gentleman inquired after Colonel ----. Judging that my host's +caution, as to secrecy, was only intended to apply to his daughters, I +made no scruple of relating what I had heard. My auditors were at once +more than interested--anxious. Whenever a negro breaks bounds in the +South, everybody is on the alert, a self-constituted detective, judge, +inquisitor, and possible executioner. Eternal vigilance is the price +of--slavery! + +'That boy born on the plantation?' asked the clergyman, when the affair +had been discussed at considerable length. + +'Yes! He's a valuable hand, too; I've known him pick seven hundred and +fifty pounds of cotton in a day--of course, for a wager.' + +'The Colonel will have to sell him, I suppose? he can't keep him after +this.' + +'Reckon so, though he hates to part with any of his hands. This trouble +wouldn't have happened, if it hadn't been for the whiskey, I've no +doubt. The rascal who sold it ought to be responsible.' + +'Are crimes originating in drunkenness common among the negroes?' I +asked. + +'Well, no!' answered the clergyman, deliberately; 'I can't say that. But +most of them will drink, if they get an opportunity--the field hands +especially; and then they're apt to be quarrelsome, and if there's a +knife handy, they'll use it.' + +'That's so,' assented the lazy gentleman, nodding. 'You Englishmen and +Yankees--excuse me for coupling you together!--know very little of negro +character; and, because the darkies have a habit of indulging in +unmeaning laughter on all occasions, you think them the best-tempered +people in existence. In reality their tempers are often +execrable--infernal!' And he compacently blew a ring of tobacco-smoke +into the mild, humid morning. The clergyman looked on assentingly. + +'They can never be trusted with any responsibility involving the +exercise of authority without abusing it. They ill use animals on all +occasions--treat them with positive brutality, and sometimes whip their +children so unmercifully that we have to interfere. I don't know what +would become of them without us, I'm sure!' + +'What do you think of their religious convictions?' I asked of the +clergyman, when the speaker had arrived at his comfortable, +characteristically Southern conclusion. + +'Our best negroes are unquestionably pious,' he answered; 'and some of +them have a very earnest sense of their duties as to this life and the +next; but I regret to say that a good deal of what passes for religion +among them is mere exitement, often of a mischievous and sensual +character.' + +'Heathenish! quite heathenish!' added the lazy gentleman. 'Did you ever +see a _shout_, Mr. ----?' + +I responded in the negative, and inquired what it was. + +'Oh, a dance of negro men and women to the accompaniment of their own +voices. It's of no particular figure, and they sing to no particular +tune, improvising both at pleasure, and keeping it up for an hour +together. I'll defy you to look at it without thinking of Ashantee or +Dahomey; it's so suggestive of aboriginal Africa.' + +I had an opportunity, subsequently, of witnessing the performance in +question, and can indorse the lazy gentleman's assertion. Inheriting the +saltatory traditions of their barbarous ancestry, the slaves have also a +current fund of superstition, of a simple and curious character. But +further ethical disquisitions were here cut short by the appearance of +the Colonel's daughters, when the conversation was at once changed, as +by tacit consent of all three of us. What their father had told me, +relative to his solicitude to keep them in ignorance of all 'unpleasant +things' accruing from the fundamental institution, was in perfect +accordance with Southern instincts. I had observed similar instances of +habitual caution before, reminding me of the eulogized tendency toward +'Orientalism' alluded to in the previous chapter. And, of all people, +South-Carolinians possess the equally rare and admirable faculty of +holding their tongues, when there is occasion for it. + +We joined the ladies in a walk. As the elder had much to say to the +clergyman about mutual acquaintances, while her fat relative strolled +carelessly by her side, her sister naturally fell to my companionship. +With a rather handsome and intelligent girl I should have preferred to +converse on general topics than the one with which I had been already +nauseated at Charleston--secession; but she was full of it, and would +not be evaded. Very soon she asked me what I supposed would be the +sentiment in England toward the seceding States, in the assumed event of +their forming a confederacy. + +I told her, as I then believed, that it would be adverse, in consequence +of the national hostility to slavery, appealing to her own British +experience for confirmation. + +'Yes,' she said, 'they were all abolitionists in England, and could +hardly credit us when we told them that _we_ owned negroes. They thought +all Southerners must be like Legree in _Uncle Tom's Cabin_! But papa, +who went to the club houses, and mixed with the aristocracy, says that +_they_ are much better informed about us; that they were opposed to +emancipation in the West Indies, and have always regarded it as a great +mistake. And England must have cotton, you know.' + +'If there's a war between the North and South, won't you find it very +difficult to retain your negroes?' I asked, waiving the immediate +question. + +Miss ---- responded by the usual assertion of the fidelity of the slaves +to their owners. + +'What if the new Government resorts to emancipation as a weapon against +you?' I made this inquiry, thinking it possible that this might be done +_at the outset_. Like other foreigners, though familiar with the North, +I had not supposed that nearly two years of civil war, with its +inevitable expenditure of blood and treasure, would be needed to induce +this direct and obvious means of subduing a rebellion. Englishmen, it is +known, have ferocious ideas on the subject, as witness India. + +'If the slaves rose, we should kill them like so many snakes!' was the +answer. And the young lady's voice and flashing eyes showed that she was +in earnest. + + * * * * * + +Our promenade lasted until the return of the Colonel, who presently took +a private opportunity of informing me that the wounded slave would +probably survive, and that he had sent for a surgeon from an adjoining +plantation, expressing some apprehension that delay or indifference on +his part might involve fatal consequences. + +'It's Christmas time, you see, and perhaps he won't care about coming,' +said my host. I may add that his anticipation was in part verified by +the result, 'the doctor' not appearing till the following morning. +Thanks, however, to a rough knowledge of surgery on the part of the +overseer, aided by the excellence of his constitution, 'Timberlake' +recovered. I will mention here, in dismissing the subject, that 'Hurry's +John' was subsequently sold to a Louisiana sugar-planter, a fate only +less terrible to a negro than his exportation to Texas. + +Within an hour of our return to the house, we partook of an excellent +and luxurious Christmas dinner, to which birds of the air, beasts of the +earth, and fish of the sea had afforded tribute, and the best of +European wines served as an appropriate accompaniment. The meal was, I +think, served earlier than usual, that we might attend the event of the +day, the negro weddings. + +These were solemnized at a little private church, in the rear of which +was absolutely the most enormous live-oak I had ever seen, its branches, +fringed with pendent moss, literally covering the small churchyard, +where, perhaps, a dozen of the ---- family lie buried--a few tombstones, +half hidden by the refuse of the luxuriant vegetation, marking their +places of sepulture. The plain interior of the building had been +decorated with evergreens in honor of the time and the occasion, under +the tasteful direction of the young ladies, who had also contrived to +furnish white dresses and bouquets for the brides. These, duly escorted +by their future husbands, clad in their best, and looking alternate +happiness and sheepishness, had preceded us by a few minutes, and were +waiting our arrival, while all around beamed black faces full of +expectation and interest. + +We walked through a lane of sable humanity--for the church was too small +to contain a fourth of the assembled negroes--to the little altar, +before which the six couples were presently posed by the clergyman, in +front of us and himself. That done to everybody's satisfaction, the +Colonel stationed to give away the brides--an arrangement that caused a +visible flutter of delight among them--and as many lookers-on +accommodated within the building as could crowd in, the ceremony was +proceeded with, the clergyman using an abbreviated form of the Episcopal +service, reading it but once, but demanding separate responses. I +noticed that he omitted the words 'until death do ye part,' and I +thought that omission suggestive. + +The persons directly concerned behaved with as much propriety as if they +had possessed the whitest of cuticles, being quiet, serious, and +attentive; nor did I detect anything indecorous on the part of the +spectators, beyond an occasional smile or whisper by the younger +negroes, whose soft-skinned, dusky faces and white eyeballs glanced +upward at the six couples with admiring curiosity, and at us, visitors, +with that appealing glance peculiar to the negro--always, to my +thinking, irresistibly touching, and suggestive of dependence on, +humility toward, and entreaty for merciful consideration at the hands of +a superior race. Perhaps, however, the old folks enjoyed the occasion +most, particularly the negresses: one wrinkled crone, of at least +fourscore years, her head bound in, the usual gaudy handkerchief, and +her hands resting on a staff or crutch, went off into a downright +chuckle of irrepressible exultation after the closing benediction, +echoed more openly by the crowd of colored people peeping in at the +doors and windows. + +The ceremony over, the concourse adjourned to a large frame building, +part shed, part cotton-house, ordinarily used for storing the staple +plant of South Carolina, before ginning and pressing. The Colonel had +sent his year's crop to Charleston, and the vacant space was now +occupied by a triple row of tables, set out with plates, knives and +forks, and drinking utensils. Here, the newly married couples being +inducted into the uppermost seats, as places of honor, and the rest of +the company accommodated as well as could be effected, a substantial +dinner was served, and partaken of with a gusto and appreciation only +conceivable in those to whom such an indulgence is exceptional, coming, +like the occasion, but once in a year. Upward of a hundred and fifty +persons sat down to it, exclusive of those temporarily detailed as +waiters, who presently found leisure to minister to their own appetites. +Their owner surveyed the scene with an air of gratification, in which I +could not detect a trace of his recent serious discomposure. I am well +persuaded, however, that he had not forgotten it, as that the cause of +it was known among the negroes; I thought I observed evidences of it in +their looks and deportment, even amid the general hilarity. + +The ladies had returned to the house, and we were about following them, +when the clatter of a horse's hoofs was heard without, and the officious +voices of the negroes announced the arrival of a visitor or messenger +for the Colonel, who stepped forward to meet him. A young man, clad in a +coarse homespun gray uniform, scantily trimmed with red worsted, and a +French military cap, alighted, and addressed our friend in a faltering, +hesitating manner, as though communicating some disastrous intelligence. +I saw the Colonel turn pale, and put his hand to his head as if he had +received a stunning blow. Instinctively the three of us rushed toward +him. + +'My God! what's the matter? what has happened, ----?' inquired the +clergyman. + +'Philip! Philip! my boy's dead--shot himself by accident!' was the +answer. + +A very few words explained all, The young volunteer had fallen a victim +to one of those common instances of carelessness in playing with loaded +firearms. While frolicking with a comrade, at his barracks, he had taken +up his revolver, jestingly threatening to shoot. The other, grasping the +barrel of the cocked pistol, in turning it round, had caused its +discharge, the bullet penetrating the breast of the unfortunate owner of +the weapon. Conveyed to the hospital, he had died within an hour after +his arrival. + + * * * * * + +Our holiday-making, of course, came to a sudden termination. Next day I +accompanied the Colonel to Charleston, to claim the body of his deceased +son, and not long afterward parted with him, on my return to the North. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[10] The paddle has superseded the cowhide in all jails, workhouses, and +places of punishment in South Carolina, as being more effective--that is +painful. In some instances it is used on the plantations. It consists of +a wooden instrument, shaped like a baker's peel, with a blade from three +to five inches wide, and from eight to ten long. There are commonly +holes in the blade, which give the application a percussive effect. In +Charleston this punishment is generally administered at the guardhouse +by the police, who are all Irishmen. Any offended master or mistress +sends a slave to the place of chastisement with a note, stating the +desired amount, which is duly honored. Like institutions breed like +results all over the world: in Sala's 'Journey Due North' we find the +same system in operation in Russia. + + + + + +PEN, PALLET, AND PIANO. + + +With the roar of cannon and tramp of armed men resounding through the +land, and the fair young face of the Republic disfigured to our eyes by +the deep furrows of war, it is pleasant to know that in certain nooks +and corners, gentler sounds of harmony still linger, and that ateliers +exist where men's fancies grow on canvas from day to day into soothing +visions of loveliness. + +The scarlet-and-gold and general paraphernalia of war are too tempting +to pallet and brush, not to be seized on with avidity and reproduced +with marvellous truth; but it is more agreeable to pass over accurate +representations of the Irish zouave, with Celtic features, not purely +classical in outline, glowing defiantly under the red cap of the Arab, +and Teutonic cavalrymen, clinging clumsily to their steeds, and turn for +solace to the grand, solemn Shores of Niagara, to wander amid the +tangled luxuriance of the Heart of the Andes, or to bask in the sweet +silence of Twilight in the Wilderness. There are Icebergs too, floating +in the Arctic Sea, frozen white and mute with horror at the dread +secrets of ages; but, responsive to the versatile talent of the hand +that creates them, they glow with prismatic light of many colors. Mr. +Church irradiates the frozen regions with the coruscations of his own +genius, bringing to these lonely, despairing masses of ice the +revivifying hope and promise of warmer climates. + +In pondering over the sad mystery of these Icebergs, we float down again +to Tropical Seas and Islands; and as we linger under the shade of palm +and banana tree, the rude chant of the negro strikes the ear in the +grotesque and characteristic framework of the '_Bananier_,' the +plaintive melody of '_La Savane_' sighs past on the evening breeze, +Spanish eyes flash out temptingly from the enticing cadence of the +'_Ojos Criollos_,' and Spanish guitars tinkle in the soft moonlight of +the '_Minuit à Seville,_' and Tropical life awakes to melody under the +touch of the Creole poet of the piano, Mr. Gottschalk. + +There are many beings, otherwise estimable, to whom the Tropical sense +is wanting; who are ever suspicious of malaria lurking under the rich, +glossy leaves of the orange groves; who look with disgust and loathing +at the exaggerated proportions and venomous nature of all creeping +things; who find the succulence of the fruit unpleasant to the taste, +and the flowers, though fair to the eye, deadly as the upas tree to all +other sense;--for whom it is no compensation to feel, with the first +breath of morning air, the dull, leaden weight of life lifted, or no +happiness to watch the sea heaving and palpitating with delight under +the rays of the noon-day sun, and to know that the stars at night droop +down lovingly and confidingly to the embrace of warm Tropical earth. +With an insensibility to these influences, there can be but little +sympathy or appreciation of the works of Mr. Gottschalk; for all that is +born of the Tropics partakes of its beauties and its defects, its +passionate languor, its useless profusion and its poetic tenderness. And +where else in the United States, can we look for a spontaneous gush of +melody? Plymouth Rock and its surroundings have not hitherto seemed +favorable to the growth and manifestation of musical genius; for the old +Puritan element, in its savage intent to annihilate the æsthetic part of +man's nature, under the deadening dominion of its own Blue Laws, and to +crush out whatever of noble inspiration had been vouchsafed to man by +his Creator, rarely sought relief in outbursts of song. + +Psalmody appears to have been the chief source of musical indulgence, +and for many a long, weary year, hymns of praise, nasal in tone and +dismal in tendency, have ascended from our prim forefathers to the +throne of grace on high. + +Such depressing musical antecedents have not prepared New England for +greater efforts of melody than are to be found in the simple ballads +supposed to originate with the plantation negro, who, in addition to his +other burdens, is thus chosen to assume the onerous one of Northern +song, as being the only creature frivolous enough to indulge in vain +carolling. If we can scarcely affirm that the Americans are yet a +musical people, that they would be is an undeniable fact, and one +constantly evinced in their lavish support of artists, from the highest +to the lowest grade. Among the musical aspirants to popular favor, none +has of late enjoyed so large a share of notice and admiration as Mr. +Gottschalk; and to return from our recent digression, we will proceed to +the consideration of his compositions. Fragmentary and suggestive as are +his ideas, there is infinite method and system in their treatment. +Avoiding thus far what is termed '_sustained effort_,' and which +frequently implies the same demands on the patience of the listener as +on the creative power of the composer, Mr. Gottschalk's compositions +contain just so much of the true poetic vein as can be successfully +digested and enjoyed in a piano piece of moderate length. With the power +to conceive, and the will and discipline of mind to execute, there is no +reason why, with perhaps a diminished tendency to fritter away positive +excellence at the shrine of effect, enduring proofs of the genius of our +American pianist should not be given to the world. + +As a mere player, the popularity of Mr. Gottschalk with the uninitiated +masses is due, in a great measure, to his tact in discerning the +American craving for novelty and sensation, and to his native +originality and brilliancy, which allow him to respond so fully to these +exigencies of public taste, as to possess on all occasions the keynote +to applause. The faculty of never degenerating into dulness, the rock on +which most pianists are wrecked in early youth, is another just cause +for insuring to our compatriot the preëminence which he enjoys. Viewed +from a critical point, the mechanical endowments and acquirements of +Gottschalk are such as to enable him to subject his playing to the test +of keenest analysis without detriment to his reputation. For clearness +and limpidity of touch and unerring precision, for impetuosity of style, +combined with dreamy delicacy, he has few rivals. The evenness and +brilliancy of his trill are unequalled, the mechanical process required +to produce it being lost to sight in the wonderful birdlike nature of +the effect. In the playing of classical music, Mr. Gottschalk has to +contend against his own individuality. This individuality, naturally +intense and of a kind calculated to meet with public favor, has been +cultivated and indulged in to such an extent as to prove an occasional +obstacle to the exclusive absorption and utter identification with the +ideas of another composer that classical music demands. In the mere +matter of execution there is no difficulty which the fingers of this +skilful pianist cannot overcome, and his intellectual grasp of a subject +enables him to discern and interpret the beauties of all musical themes; +but where an earnest, passionate interest in the music of the old +masters is not felt by the performer, it is rarely communicated to his +hearers. + +The world of letters, however, has not seemingly regretted the inability +of Byron to trammel his muse with the uncongenial fetters of Pope's +metre, and has certainly never quarrelled with Tom Moore for not +assuming the manners and diction of the revered Samuel Johnson, LL.D. + +With due allowance for difference of latitude, and wide difference of +aim and pursuit, the contemplation of the Master of Creole Melody +recalls to us a genius which found utterance in song none the less +melodious that it was written, not sung. The 'ashen sky' and 'crisped, +sere leaves of the lonesome October,' so thrillingly pictured by Edgar +Poe in his 'Ulalume,' find echo in the foreboding sadness of the opening +bars to Gottschalk's 'Last Hope;' and as both poems grow in vague, +dreamy sound, they culminate in a cry of smothered despair at the tomb +where all hopes lie buried with the lost Ulalume. The same weird +conception and eccentricity of design, with knowledge of rhythmical +effect and extreme carefulness of finish, are prominent traits of both +artists; and the American disregard of tradition, as evinced in all +enterprises, whether literary, artistic, or commercial, and which +readily infects the simple sojourner among us as well as the happy being +born to republican privileges, marks alike the nationality of poet and +pianist. + +Edgar Poe's literary reputation undoubtedly gains additional lustre as +the lapse of years permits the veil of obscurity to fall over the +personal vices and irregularities which so tarnished the living fame of +this great artist. Genius draws around itself a magical circle, +attracting and keeping by the force of its own magnetism those whom it +values, but at the same time exercising an equally repellent effect on +the envious and ignorant wandering beyond the pale of its charmed +precincts. Hence the difficulty of judging it by contemporaneous +standards. The Hyperion head of Poe was lost to the view of many by a +too persistent search for the satyr's cloven foot. In considering the +poet's eccentricities, in common with other extraordinary and anomalous +beings, it must be deeply deplored that one so endowed with wealth of +intellect beyond his fellow men, should be still so poor in moral store +that the dullest of them could dare look with disdain on this heir to +gifts regal and sacred. + +He could forget his deep, earnest love of order in things intellectual, +in every excess of disorder in things material, and his passionate love +of the beautiful could be profaned by frequent grovelling amid the +hideous deformities of vice. Poe, in his reverence for Art (his only +reverence), seemed generally to set greater store on the elaborate and +artistic perfection of his works, than in the spontaneity of genius +therein displayed. So it would seem, at least, in his voluntarily +exposing the skeleton design of his greatest poem, 'The Raven,' and the +various processes by which this grand shadow attained its final +harmonious and terrible proportions. This may be a noble sacrifice to +the principles of Art, intended as a warning to rash novices against the +sin of slovenliness in composition; but the poem must be of solid fibre +to resist this disenchanting test. The unveiling of hidden mysteries, +the disclosure of trap doors, ropes, and pulleys, may assist in the +general dissemination of knowledge; but in behalf of those who prefer to +be ignorant that they may be happy, we protest against the innovation. +In this dangerous experiment of Poe's, however, we are forced to do what +he would have us do--admire the ingenuity of the poet, together with his +knowledge of effect, rhythmical and dramatic, his flexibility and +strength of versification, and marvellous faculty of word painting. This +propensity to make all things subservient to the advancement of Art is +not always productive of present good to one's fellow beings, whatever +may be the results to posterity, as the luckless women who cross the +path of such men cannot unfrequently testify--oftentimes assiduously +wooed, won, and lightly discarded, to furnish an artistic study of the +female capacity for suffering, as well as to supply renewed inspiration +for further poetic bemoanings. In the prose narrations of Edgar Poe, the +same skilful handling of mystery, and the turning to account of any +incident susceptible of dramatic effect, are always apparent as in his +poems. But the want of extended sympathy with mankind, the artist +egotism, which looks inwardly for all material, and in truth scorns the +approval of the masses, must naturally fail to secure the interest of a +large class of readers. His compositions, on the contrary, which give +full scope to his keen, subtle powers of analysis, and vigorous handling +of the subject in question, are more widely understood and appreciated. +Since the days when Poe dealt with contemporaneous literature, and +literary men, in not the most temperate mood of criticism, poetic fire +in America, with few exceptions, seems to have sunk into a dead, +smouldering condition, and to have yielded to its sister art of painting +the task of grappling with the New-World monster of utilitarianism and +practical reform. The demands for indigenous painters in America being +constantly greater, the result is necessarily a vast increase and +improvement in this branch of Art. + +New England, on whose barren musical soil we have already descanted, and +who has not hitherto disputed to the Old World her privilege of pouring +out on our untutored continent the accumulated wealth of years of +musical study and training, has at last gone far to redeem her +reputation of artistic nullity, by producing the greatest landscape +painter of which the country can boast. With us, the superiority of +atmospheric effects over most countries, and the great variety and +originality of American scenery, have united in bringing the landscape +painter into existence, and the public have assured this existence by +fostering applause and pecuniary compensation. Nature, thus prodigal of +gifts to America, has, in a crowning act of munificence, conferred also +a painter, capable of interpreting her own most recondite mysteries, and +of faithfully transcribing the beauties revealed to all eyes in their +simple majesty. + +Immensity of theme possesses no terrors for Mr. Church's essentially +American genius; his facile brush recoils not before the gigantic +natural elements of his own land, but deals as readily and composedly +with the unapproachable sublimity of Niagara and the terrible beauty of +icebergs as with the peace of simple woodland scenes and the glowing +sentiment of the tropics. To tread the beaten path of landscape +painting, and offer to the public a tame transcript of the glories he +has beheld, is repugnant to the creative power of this true artist; but +when form, color, and the legitimate means at his command fail to embody +all he would express, his suggestive faculty is generally of force +sufficient to reach all beholders, even those of feeblest imagination. + +In standing before the _Falls of Niagara_, one can, in fancy, feel the +cool moisture of spray, rising, incense-like, through a rainbow of +promise, from the inspired canvas, together with the earth's tremor at +the roar of mad waters rushing headlong to a desperate death. This +inestimable quality of suggestiveness is preserved in Mr. Church's +pictures when deprived of the aid of color and reduced to mere black and +white in engraving, a fact bearing equally conclusive testimony to their +inherent correctness of lines and elegance of composition. + +Mr. Church's prominent characteristics of hardy vigor and adventurous +treatment of a subject, seem to have monopolized his artistic nature, to +the frequent exclusion of tenderness, either in idea or in the handling +of color. The painting, in our eyes, least open to this objection, is +_Twilight in the Wilderness_--a dreamy picture of inexpressible sadness, +of a tearful silence that is felt, and of a loneliness too sacred to be +profaned by human intrusion. The gorgeous panorama of the _Heart of the +Andes_, its snowy mountain peaks, and plains glowing with tropical +verdure, is too bewildering in its complicated grandeur to excite dreams +of beauty so tender and sadness so touching. + +In contemplating this last-named picture, the demands on the attention +are so numerous and weighty,--in the first place, to comprehend the +situation, and exchange at a moment's notice the stagnation of the +temperate zone for the emotional excitement of the tropics; then to +separate and classify the many points of beauty, to rise to the summits +of distant mountains, sublime in their snowy crests, and sink again to +earth at the foot of the rustic cross, by whose aid we may one day rise +to sink no more,--to follow the painter successfully through this maze +of thoughts, without the guiding light of his own matchless color, would +seem a difficult and displeasing task. But the task has been +accomplished with complete success, in an English line engraving of the +_Heart of the Andes_, recently arrived in this country; which indication +of popularity abroad conduces materially to the ever-growing fame of the +artist. The same test, we believe, is in store for the _Icebergs_--with +what result, time will show. Meanwhile, the picture itself will, on +foreign soil, plead the cause of American civilization, and tend to +assure those who look with dismay at the tumultuous upheavings of +freedom's home, that imperishable Art still maintains her placid sway in +this distracted land, and that her votaries falter not in their +allegiance. + +Volcanoes pour out fiery lava under the red glare of the setting sun, +obedient to Church's magic touch--delicate fancies are weaved into +poetic life by the fingers of Gottschalk--but the voice of Poe, alas! is +mute forever. The 'Lost Lénore,' found too late, may have inspired a +song far beyond the dull range of human comprehension, but poor mortals +left below, can only echo, with the grim and ghastly raven: _Nevermore! +Nevermore!_ + + + + +LITERARY NOTICES + + + THE SLAVE POWER; ITS CHARACTER, CAREER, AND PROBABLE DESIGNS: BEING + AN ATTEMPT TO EXPLAIN THE REAL ISSUES INVOLVED IN THE AMERICAN + CONTEST. By J. E. CAIRNES, M.A., Professor of Jurisprudence and + Political Economy in Queen's College, Galway, and late Whately + Professor in the University of Dublin. Second edition. New York: + Carleton, 413 Broadway. London: Parker and Son & Co. + +It is to be sincerely hoped that the American public, in its detestation +of the ungenerous, narrow-minded, and inconsistent conduct of the +majority of Englishmen toward the Federal Union since the present war +began, will not lose sight of the fact that, here and there in Great +Britain, men of superior intelligence and information have labored +strenuously to make the truth known, and to vindicate our cause. Amid a +mob of ignorant and furious foes of freedom, France has seen a Gasparin +rise calm and great in superior knowledge, declaring incontrovertible +truths; and in like manner, the English press has given the views of +Stewart Mill and Professor Cairnes to their public, at a time when it +seemed as if falsehood had completely triumphed. In 'The Slave Power,' +the latest work by this last-named writer, we have indeed such a +searching analysis of the present American crisis, and find the history +of the entire difficulty set forth so fully, yet with such remarkable +conciseness, that we cannot suppress a feeling of astonishment that a +country which has slandered us so cruelly should, at the same time, have +given to the world by far the best vindication of our cause which has as +yet appeared. For it is no undue praise to say, that in this book we +have the completest defence of the Federal cause and the most effective +onslaught on the Slave Power which any writer has thus far placed on +record; and we cordially agree with the vigorous reviewer of the +_Westminster_, in believing that a work more needed could scarcely have +been produced at the present time, 'since,' as he adds, 'it contains +more than enough to give a new turn to English feeling on the subject, +if those who guide and sway public opinion were ever likely to +reconsider a question on which they have so deeply committed +themselves.' + +'The Slave Power,' it is true, contains little which has not, at one +time or another, been brought before the mind of the well-informed +American republican; yet it is precisely in this that its chief merit +consists, since it is not by idle oratory and fine writing, but by +_facts_ and the plain truth, that we can be best vindicated. Englishmen +are grossly ignorant of the true causes of this struggle, or of the +principles involved--a matter little to be marvelled at, when we find +almost a majority of professed Federal Americans, under the name of +Democrats, cheerfully admitting that their confederate foes are quite in +the right as far as the _main_ cause of the difficulty is concerned. For +all such men, a clear exposition of facts, logically set forth, cannot +be other than a real blessing; since their amiability to the South, when +not based on traitorous and selfish interests, means simply nothing more +nor less than ignorance--and that of a kind which is little less than +criminal, let the guilt rest where it may. + +Professor Cairnes begins judiciously by showing that in the beginning it +was believed, not without very apparent cause, in England, that our war +'sprang from narrow and selfish views of sectional interests,' in which +the free-trading South was in the right, and that the abolition of +slavery was a mere pretence by which the North sought, without a color +of truth, to attract foreign sympathy. And when we remember for how long +a time slaves were returned by Federal officers to their owners, and how +persistently anything like abolition, or even the most moderate +emancipation, was earnestly and practically disowned by the Federal +power, it is not wonderful, as Mr. Cairnes declares, that England should +have regarded our claim to be fighting for the cause of free labor as a +shallow deceit. Even as we write, we have before us a journal containing +an allusion to an officer who attempted to return to slavery a +contraband who had brought to him information of the greatest +importance. Yet, despite the frightful appearances against us, our +writer saw, through all, the truth, and declared that, as regarded the +popular British abuse of this country, 'never was an explanation of a +political catastrophe propounded, in more daring defiance of all the +great and cardinal realities of the case with which it professed to +deal.' + +Slavery is the cause and core of our national difficulty. Secession and +Southern Rights have flourished in strength in exact ratio to the number +of slaves in the States--nay, in the very counties in which slaves +abounded. Slavery early developed a sectional class of politicians +devoted to one object, who, by the sheer force of intense, unscrupulous +application, from the year 1819 down to 1860, swayed our councils, gave +an infamous character to American diplomacy, and stained our national +character. They are called the Free Trade Party: why was it, then, that +they never employed their power to accomplish that object, 'or how does +it happen that, having submitted to the tariffs of 1832, 1842, and 1846, +it should have resorted to the extreme measure of secession while under +the tariff of 1857--a comparatively Free Trade law'? 'From 1842 down to +1860, the tendency of Federal legislation was distinctly in the +direction of Free Trade.' 'If Free Trade was their main object, why did +the Southern senators withdraw from their posts precisely at the time +when their presence was most required to secure their cherished +principle?' Or why did they not apply to their supple and infamous tool, +Buchanan, to veto the bill? _Because they wished it to pass_--to make +political capital against the North in England; and they accordingly +aided its passage, Mr. Toombs being in the Senate, and actually voting +for it! Or if it was a Free Trade question, why was it that the Western +States did not take part with them? + +The North, however, did not take up arms to destroy slavery, but the +Right of Secession, since that was the irritating _point d'honneur_, +and, what was more, the real first cause of injury which at first +presented itself. Mr. Lincoln had cause to know that in the beginning, +even in the South itself, secession was only the work of a turbulent +minority. 'To have yielded would have been to have written himself down +before the world as incompetent--nay, as a traitor to the cause which he +had just sworn to defend.' In short, we were misunderstood--painfully +so--and it is not a matter of indifference to learn that at last there +is a reaction of intelligence in our favor, and that light is breaking +through the bewildering mists which once veiled the truth. + +In discussing 'the economic basis of slavery,' Professor Cairnes deals +out truths with a prompt vigor which is truly admirable. From Stirling, +Olmsted, Sewell, and others, he disposes of the old falsehood that only +the negro can endure the Southern climate--a fact but recently +_generally_ made known at the North--that isothermal lines do not follow +the parallels of latitude--and that it is a gross error to believe the +black incapable of improvement as a freeman. He admits that slave labor +has its advantages, in being absolutely controllable, and in returning +the whole fruit of its labor to the owner. It may, therefore, be +combined on an extensive scale, and its cost is trifling. But, on the +other hand, slave labor is given reluctantly, and is consequently a +losing means, unless much of it can be concentrated under the eye of one +overseer. It is unskillful, because the slave cannot be educated; and, +therefore, having once learned one thing, he must be kept at that for +life. + +The result of this is that, as the slave, unlike the free farm-laborer, +cannot (with rare exceptions) be profitably employed at aught save +agriculture, and indeed only at one branch of that, he soon exhausts the +soil. If all the blacks in the South were capable of laboring at +rotation of crops, they would soon be free. Slavery has always of itself +died out in the wheat and corn regions--because, in raising cereals, +labor is more widely dispersed than in cotton or tobacco planting, and +the workers are more difficult to oversee. Hence the constant +immigration from the wornout to the new plantation, and the cry for new +land; and hence the admission, by the most intelligent men of the South, +that to prevent the extension of slavery would be to destroy it. Free +labor flourishes even on barren soils--ingenuity is stimulated and +science developed. But slave labor requires abundance of fertile soil +and a branch of culture demanding combination and organization of large +masses of labor and its _concentration_. + +Yet, in spite of these facts, a writer in the London _Saturday Review_ +informs the English public that the rapid deterioration of the soil +under slave labor is a popular fallacy! Could the gentleman who gives +this information so glibly, examine, we do not say Virginia, but simply +that lower county of Delaware which has adhered somewhat to the old +Southern slave system, in contradistinction to its two sisters, he might +have distinctly ascertained if the exhaustion of soil by slave labor be +a fallacy. Again, if the profits of slavery be only for the master, it +may be true that the same process which enriches him impoverishes the +country at large; and this is really the case through all the South. +Free labor shuns slave society: a few Northern men may here and there +live in the South, but as a rule the negro makes the poor white meaner +than himself. It is true that free white labor in new lands is very +exhaustive--but in time it takes them up again and restores them: this +the negro never does, and never can do. + +The tendencies of slavery to render the white man insolent, arrogant, +and oligarchical, are well pointed out by Professor Cairnes, and with +them the evil tendencies of slave societies. It makes bad white men, and +intolerable political neighbors. In the ancient world, slaves were +constantly being educated, freed, and made equal to their masters; but +in the confederacy, everything is done to crush them lower and lower; +and in these facts lie _perdu_ the future further degradation of every +poor white in the South, the constant increase of power and capital in +the hands of a few, and the diminution in number even of these few. + +The fact that Virginians breed slaves expressly for sale is well exposed +in this book. Our author is kind enough to believe that they never raise +a single negro for the _express purpose_ of selling him or her; but we, +who live nearer the 'sacred soil,' know better. It is not many days +since a farmer in our present immediate vicinity, on the Southern +Pennsylvania line, found himself obliged to dismiss a fine six-foot +negro runaway from Virginia, whom he had hired, on account of the entire +inability of the contraband to do the simplest farm tasks. 'What _is_ +the reason you can't stand work?' inquired the amazed farmer. 'Why, +mass', to tell de trufe, I wasn't brought up to wuck (work), but to +_sell_. If I'd been wucked too hard, it ud a spiled my looks fo' de +markit.' Professor Cairnes may accept the sorrowful assurances of more +than one person, who has been taken frequently enough into the councils +of 'the enemy' in bygone times (_crede experto Ruperto_), that slaves +_are_ begotten, born, bred, and raised for the Southern market--as much +so as any pigs--and that, too, by eminently aristocratic and highly +refined scions of first families. Now that we can and dare speak the +truth, it is not amiss to do so. We recall the day when to have taken +part in the charge of the Six Hundred would have been a trifle of +bravery compared to making the above truthful statement--for any one who +valued social standing, or indeed a whole skin--on the border. Whether +their own children were sold may be imagined from an anecdote long +current in Virginia, relative to ex-Governor Wise, who, in a certain law +case where he was opposed by a Northern trader, decided of a certain +slave, that the chattel, being a mulatto, was of more value than 'a +molangeon.' 'And what, in the name of God, _is_ a molungeon?' inquired +the astonished 'Northern man.' 'A _mulatto_,' replied Wise, is the child +of a female house-servant by young master'--a molungeon is the offspring +of a field hand by a Yankee peddler.' + +Mr. Cairnes has, we doubt not, often heard of mulattoes--they constitute +the great majority of Virginia slaves. But did he ever hear of +'molungeons'? + +Mr. Cairnes justly denies the common theory that the South has +maintained paramount political sway in the Union by a superior capacity +for politics. He declares that men whose interests and ideas are +concentrated in a very narrow range, on one object, have vast advantage +over their intellectual superiors, when the latter pursue no such single +course. He might have added that the young Southern gentleman, when not +intended for a physician, almost invariably devotes to mere provincial +politics and the arts of declamation and debate, all of those +intellectual energies which the Northerner applies to business, art, +commerce, literature, and other solidly useful occupations. If the +Southerner has an inborn superior _talent_ for politics, why is it that, +as in the case of British or French statesmen, he never develops the +slightest talent for _literature_? So notoriously is this the case, that +even the first writers of the South, especially for the press, are +generally broken-down Northern literary hacks, or miserable Irish and +English refugees. Mr. Cairnes quotes De Bow's _Review_. He might be +amazed, could he examine a number of that remarkable periodical, at the +quality of the English written by some of the most eminent philosophers, +patriots, and politicians of the confederacy! + +The history of the Slave Power, as set forth in Louisiana, Missouri and +its Compromise, the Mexican war, Kansas, the rise of the Republican +Party, the Dred Scott decision, the attempt of John Brown, and +secession, are given in a masterly manner in this work, and with a +miraculous appreciation of truths. Not less vigorous and shrewd is the +chapter devoted to the designs of the Slave Power, in which the future +capacity of that power to do illimitable mischief is set forth in a +manner which will be new even to the great mass of American Republican +readers. If we differ with him in his 'Conclusion,' it is that we may be +consistent to his earlier position. We do not agree with him when he +advocates the giving permission to the South to secede with the +Mississippi as their western boundary. Penned up by North and West, and +with their ports occupied by us, the South would soon decay. But we +rather believe the North, brought to the tremendous trial of a test +between aristocracy and republicanism, will yet conquer by destroying +slavery and giving the poor whites of the South their rights. But we +cannot conclude without expressing the earnest hope that this book will +be read, and that thoroughly, by every intelligent American. There is at +present a reaction rapidly forming in England in favor of the Federal +cause, and we foresee that this extraordinary work--the best summary in +existence of our principles, and the most overwhelming stylus-stroke +which slavery has ever received--is destined to be of incalculable +service to the great cause. Let it circulate by the hundred +thousand!--and do you, dear reader, do your part by perusing it, and +making its merits known to all. In connection with it, we commend the +review in the _Westminster_ already referred to. It is pleasant to +realize that we have friends among enemies. Let us hope that when +brighter days come, our Government and our people will not be unmindful +of those who defended us in the days of darkness and dole. We owe a +great debt of gratitude to such men as Professor Cairnes, and must not +be slack in paying it. + + + LES MISERABLES. No. IV. _St. Denis._ By VICTOR HUGO. New York: + Carleton. + +A great improvement on the preceding miserable trio, yet still far from +fulfilling the extravagant assertions as to its merit with which the +press has been deluged. We see in this novel, historic pictures, not +without accuracy, details of life which are true enough, and, we might +add, familiar enough, from a thousand _feuilletons_, but we find no +PURPOSE, corresponding to the expectations excited. We have every +variety of miserable wretch imaginable paraded before us, without a hint +of any means of curing their social disease. 'There is a hammer for +tearing down, but no trowel for building up,' beyond a little empty talk +on the benefits to be derived from education. The truth is that Victor +Hugo writes, like too many of his nation, simply for sensation and +effect. The fault to be found with this series is, that, like Jack +Sheppard, it degrades the taste and blunts the feelings--in a word, it +vulgarizes, and is as improper reading for the young, so far as _effect_ +is concerned, as the most immoral production extant. Vulgarity is the +open doorway to vice, and, philosophize as we may, sketches of thieves +and vagabonds, _gamins_, prostitutes and liars are vulgar and unfit +reading for youthful minds, if not for any minds whatever. + + + ABEL DRAKE'S WIFE. By JOHN SAUNDERS. New York: Harper & Brothers. + +The reader is well aware that this work has attained a great +popularity--we may add that it has deserved it, being a work of marked +originality; one of characters and feelings which will even bear at +sundry times reperusal: as good a character as can be given to a novel, +and a far better one than we are disposed to award to the majority of +those which we meet. It is, we should say, in justice to the progressive +powers of the author, far superior to his earlier productions. + + + + +EDITOR'S TABLE. + + +In the noble Message of President LINCOLN, there are two paragraphs +which should be committed to memory and constantly recalled by every +man: + + 'Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and + this Administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No + personal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of + us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down into + honor or dishonor to the highest generation. + + 'We say 'we are for the Union!' The world will not forget that we + say this. We know how to save this Union. _The world knows we know + how to save it._ We--even we here--hold the power and bear the + responsibility!' + +'We cannot escape history.' And this is true, not only of the Congress +and of the Administration, but of all men who at the present day are +raised one fraction above the veriest obscurity and completest +nothing-ism. You, reader, and series of those whom you daily meet, may +fancy that your deeds, speeches, writings, overshadowed as they are by +the greater men and events of the day, will be forgotten. It is not so. + +The last age was more antiquarian, more given to collecting, searching, +and recording, than its predecessor. This present one is, however, a +hundredfold more seeking and more chronicling than the last, and this +tendency increases every year. As it is, scarce a hero or a traitor, +even of the Revolution, is escaping glory or infamy. Will it be less the +case with the good and bad men of the Emancipation? There is not one +among them who shall escape history. + +There is no thieving contractor, no 'helping' official, no shoddy +scoundrel, no unrighteously 'commission' gathering leech, who is not +quietly noted down here and there, to be duly exposed, some soon--some +in after years. We know that extensive researches have been undertaken, +to prepare and keep in black and white a record of the rascality of this +war, in high places as well as low. _They shall not escape history._ + +There is no cowardly, dishonest, selfish politician--be he who he +may--no trimmer and truckler to the times--who will be forgotten. The +most important war of all history--the greatest and most clearly +outlined struggle between Aristocracy and Republicanism--will not pass +away into oblivion. Men will toil away their lives that they may revive +some of the salient points of this great fight for freedom. To +commemorate the good, they must set forth the opposition of the bad--of +those who aided the foe either by approving of endless slavery, by +clogging the action of the Administration, or by turning the hardly +earned income of Government, wrung from a suffering people, to their own +profit. They shall not escape history. + +Those who had the ability to aid the great cause of truth in any way, by +brain or hand, and yet who did nothing--verily they shall not escape +history. + +The cautious, shrewd fellows, who hurrah loudly for the truth--after it +has become safe and profitable to do so--they who run with the hound and +hold with the hare--they may chuckle to themselves in their day, and +rejoice at their shrewdness-but Time and GOD sift all things, however +small--even such men as these. They shall not escape history. + +And let them cry, 'After us the Deluge,' who will. You will live again +in your children; the heritage of sin is repaid with compound interest +to your name. How do you know but there is a GOD and a future knowledge +of all this, that you act so boldly? What evil have your children or +your name done you, that you should lay a curse on them? For if you do +not put forth your hand to the great cause of truth and in the great +battle of the LORD on behalf of Freedom, be certain that you are now +shaping a malediction, and awaking the anathema maranatha, which shall +go down into the deepest ages, and even in many lands, to cover you and +yours with the dark shadow of shame forever. You shall not escape +history. + +But neither shall they escape who have fought the good fight for truth, +for man and liberty. Truly, as the German proverb hath it, _Zeit bricht +Rosen und Zeit bringt Rosen_--'Time breaks roses--but Time brings them +also.' There is an age coming which will distinguish between the battles +for conquest and idle glory and the honor of kings, and those which were +fought for holy freedom. In that age, the great and good and wise, yes! +even the smallest and weakest who chose the cause of Truth, will be +prized above the men of all battles which ever were beforetime. Stand +fast, O soldier! be firm, O friend of the good cause! let us see this +thing bravely through to the end, come what may. GOD bless you!--and he +_will_ bless you! Die on the battle field, or labor humbly at home--if +your heart and your hand have been given to the good work, you shall not +escape history. + + 'Fate for you shall sheathe her shears, + You shall live some thousand years.' + + * * * * * + +It has been nobly proposed, and we doubt not that the proposition will +be as nobly realized, that a shipload of food be sent to the relief of +the starving operatives of England. If the wealthy classes of Great +Britain were generous in proportion to the same order of men in this +country, and in proportion to their own riches, it would be simply +absurd for us to offer to relieve their paupers. But they are not so; +and it is a matter to be deeply deplored, that the manufacturers who +have made fortunes from their operatives, are, in Great Britain, the +ones who are least inclined to relieve the sufferings of their poor +dependants. And this we state entirely on the authority of the British +press, and from the comments made by it on a recent and wretchedly +abortive effort to collect from manufacturing capitalists somewhat to +feed the poor who had enriched them. To an American, accustomed to hear +of deeds of generosity and public spirit, the list of moneys subscribed +for such an object, against the names of millionaires, would seem +incredibly beggarly and pitiful. + +However this may be, some one must feed the poor; and if John Bull +cannot afford it, Jonathan must. There is a degree of suffering in which +Englishman or confederate rebel becomes simply a suffering brother, and +when he who would not act the good Samaritan becomes most truly an +outlaw to all humanity. Therefore, let there be, not one, but many +shiploads sent to the sufferers--let us cast our bread upon the waters, +literally as well as figuratively, and give no heed or thought to its +return. The London _Times_ will, we presume, impugn the motives of the +charity--call it Pecksniffian and Heep-ish--or possibly try to prove +that the Federals had no hand in the good deed. Let it rave--the +business in hand is to feed starving men, women, and children, and not +to make political capital, or gain glory, or please a party--for that we +most assuredly shall not--but to do good and act in the large-hearted +manner which gives a good conscience, and which as a national trait is +the noblest characteristic of a republican. + + * * * * * + +The South has been quicker than the North in perceiving that public +opinion in England is rapidly changing in certain quarters in favor of +the Federal cause, and it is for this reason that the press in Secessia +has of late been so unamiable toward Great Britain, while SEMMES has +shown in his pirating so little kindness to English goods. Possibly +Secessia may after all discover that she might do a more unprofitable +thing than be in alliance offensive and defensive with us, and that she +might go further and fare worse, either alone, or with foreign friends +who are, after all, only foes in disguise. + +But it is a mad and a foolish thing for England to hope to be benefited +by our dissension. Have we grown weaker or less dangerous by the +discovery that we are capable of raising the greatest armies and the +most invincible fleets in the world? While we flourish in prosperity, we +afford her an outlet for all her paupers, thieves, vagabond Bohemians, +and refuse of all sorts, to say nothing of the vast mass of the really +industrious poor who do well here, but who would have starved to death +at home. With one person in eight in Great Britain dying as a pauper and +buried at the public expense, it is hardly expedient for its people to +wish to see us ruined. Were we to exclude her vagabonds and paupers by +an alien act from entering this country, and at the same time close our +markets to her goods, of what avail would all the cotton in the world be +to her? The American public understand this thing perfectly--so +perfectly that the first movement toward intervention would be to +effectually shut out the offending party, to bear by itself the worst +results of prostrated manufactures and a turbulent starving population. + +But we trust that nothing of the kind may happen, and that England will +perceive that a great, prosperous, and united America, though it covers +the whole Western hemisphere, will be of more advantage to her than a +divided, impoverished land, full of fighting factions. It is a bad, an +inhuman, and a most un-Christian policy to set wealthy and powerful +neighbors at dissensions, to rejoice at their losses, and finally hope +to see them from prosperous citizens, turned into starved brigands. Envy +is of the devil. And it is the more wicked, because _we_ know, and every +one of our readers knows with us, that there never existed in this +country, within our recollection, any desire whatever to see England +impoverished, injured, or in any way 'set back' as a country. That +deep-seated desire, openly avowed by her orators and press, to see our +growing greatness checked, was never seriously cherished by any true +American--and it could be proved that the insulting expressions of such +a desire have in almost every instance originated with British _emigrés_ +in this country, who are notoriously the most bitter foes to their +fatherland. + +It is finally worth noting that the sympathy expressed by Americans for +Russia during the Crimean war, has been of late frequently urged in +England as a reason for withholding sympathy from the Federals. Now it +is most _undeniably true_ that, with certain rare exceptions, the +friendship for Russia _at that time_ came in a great measure from the +Democratic party, and especially from the South. It was an Irish +antipathy to England in the North, and a serf-sympathy in the South +which caused it all--naturally enough, in all conscience. If any one +doubts this, let him recall Roger Pryor's book, indorsing Russia as the +great power destined to swallow up all Europe--written at a time when +Pryor was beyond question the first and loudest exponent living of +Southern feelings and principles. This is the simplest and plainest of +facts, most easily susceptible of proof--and yet how many Englishmen are +there who would believe it? + +The truth is that the whole criticism of America by England has +presented the melancholy spectacle of prejudice and envy, made maudlin +by gross ignorance--and the worst of it all has been the making the +North responsible for the bygone evil deeds of the South. Repudiation, +protection, Russian sympathy, filibustering, and other objections--are +all heaped on the Federal head alone to bear? Will the _truth_ ever come +to light in England? + + * * * * * + +May we venture to mention to our readers that 'Among the +Pines'--originally published in these pages--is now selling its +_thirtieth_ thousand, with constantly increasing orders. And in +connection we would add that 'Americans in Rome'--originally published +in THE CONTINENTAL under the title of _Maccaroni and Canvas_ has +appeared in book form, and may be obtained from George P. Putnam. This +work is, we believe, one of the most remarkable collections of sketches +and observation ever written on Italy; combining a very great amount of +accurate personal observations of the Roman people, both in the city and +country, with that of American artists' life there. The observations are +throughout racily humorous, and those who have within a few years +visited 'the Cradle of Art' cannot fail to recognize, as hit off with no +sparing hand, more than one American notoriety. Art quackery as it +exists, is well shown up in 'Americans in Rome;' the author having +little in common with those amiable romancers who glorify every +illiterate picture-maker, though he never fails to do justice to true +genius. We believe, in short, that these sketches form a very peculiar, +piquant, and _earnest_ work, as truthful as it is amusing, and as such +commend it to our readers. + + + + +The + +CONTINENTAL MONTHLY: + +EDITORS: + + HON. ROBERT J. WALKER, + CHARLES G. LELAND, + HON. FRED. P. STANTON, + EDMUND KIRKE. + + +The readers of the CONTINENTAL are aware of the important position it +has assumed, of the influence which it exerts, and of the brilliant +array of political and literary talent of the highest order which +supports it. No publication of the kind has, in this country, so +successfully combined the energy and freedom of the daily newspaper with +the higher literary tone of the first-class monthly; and it is very +certain that no magazine has given wider range to its contributors, or +preserved itself so completely from the narrow influences of party or of +faction. In times like the present, such a journal is either a power in +the land or it is nothing. That the CONTINENTAL is not the latter is +abundantly evidenced _by what it has done_--by the reflection of its +counsels in many important public events, and in the character and power +of those who are its staunchest supporters. + +By the accession of HON. ROBERT J. WALKER and HON. F. P. STANTON to its +editorial corps, the CONTINENTAL acquires a strength and a political +significance which, to those who are aware of the ability and experience +of these gentlemen, must elevate it to a position far above any +previously occupied by any publication of the kind in America. +Preserving all "the boldness, vigor, and ability" which a thousand +journals have attributed to it, it will at once greatly enlarge its +circle of action, and discuss, fearlessly and frankly, every principle +involved in the great questions of the day. The first minds of the +country, embracing men most familiar with its diplomacy and most +distinguished for ability, are to become its contributors; and it is no +mere "flattering promise of a prospectus" to say, that this "magazine +for the times" will employ the first intellect in America, under +auspices which no publication ever enjoyed before in this country. + +CHARLES GODFREY LELAND, the accomplished scholar and author, who has +till now been the sole Editor of the Magazine, will, beside his +editorial labors, continue his brilliant contributions to its pages; and +EDMUND KIRKE, author of "AMONG THE PINES," will contribute to each +issue, having already begun a work on Southern Life and Society, which, +will be found far more widely descriptive, and, in all respects, +superior to the first. + +While the CONTINENTAL will express decided opinions on the great +questions of the day, it will not be a mere political journal: much the +larger portion of its columns will be enlivened, as heretofore, by +tales, poetry, and humor. In a word, the CONTINENTAL will be found, +under its new staff of Editors, occupying a position and presenting +attractions never before found in a magazine. + + +TERMS TO CLUBS. + + Two copies for one year, Five dollars. + Three copies for one year, Seven dollars. + Six copies for one year, Thirteen dollars. + Eleven copies for one year, Twenty-four dollars. + Twenty copies for one year, Forty-four dollars. + +PAID IN ADVANCE. + +_Postage, Thirty-six cents a year_, TO BE PAID BY THE SUBSCRIBER. + + +SINGLE COPIES. + +Three Dollars a year, IN ADVANCE.--_Postage paid by the Publisher._ + +JOHN F. TROW, 50 Greene St., N. Y. + +PUBLISHER FOR THE PROPRIETORS. + +As an Inducement to new subscribers, the Publisher offers the following +very liberal premiums: + +Any person remitting $3, in advance, will receive the Magazine from +July, 1862, to January, 1864, thus securing the whole of Mr. KIMBALL'S +and Mr. KIRKE'S new serials, which are alone worth the price of +subscription. Or, if preferred, a subscriber can take the Magazine for +1863 and a copy of "AMONG THE PINES," bound in cloth (the book to be +sent postage paid). + +Any person remitting $4.50, will receive the Magazine from its +commencement, January, 1862, to January, 1864, thus securing Mr. +KIMBALL'S "WAS HE SUCCESSFUL?" and Mr. KIRKE'S "AMONG THE PINES" and +"MERCHANT'S STORY," and nearly 3,000 octavo pages of the best literature +in the world. Premium subscribers to pay their own postage. + + +[Illustration: THE FINEST FARMING LANDS + +WHEAT CORN COTTON FRUITS & VEGETABLES] + + + + + EQUAL TO ANY IN THE WORLD!!! + MAY BE PROCURED + At FROM $8 to $12 PER ACRE, + Near Markets, Schools, Railroads, Churches, and all the blessings of + Civilization. + + 1,200,000 Acres, in Farms of 40, 80, 120, 160 Acres and upwards, in + ILLINOIS, the garden State of America. + + * * * * * + +The Illinois Central Railroad Company offer, ON LONG CREDIT, the +beautiful and fertile PRAIRIE LANDS lying along the whole line of their +Railroad, 700 MILES IN LENGTH, upon the most Favorable Terms for +enabling Farmers, Manufacturers, Mechanics and Workingmen to make for +themselves and their families a competency, and a HOME they can call +THEIR OWN, as will appear from the following statements: + + +ILLINOIS. + +Is about equal in extent to England, with a population of 1,722,666, and +a soil capable of supporting 20,000,000. No State in the Valley of the +Mississippi offers so great an inducement to the settler as the State of +Illinois. There is no part of the world where all the conditions of +climate and soil so admirably combine to produce those two great +staples, CORN and WHEAT. + + +CLIMATE. + +Nowhere can the industrious farmer secure such immediate results from +his labor as on these deep, rich, loamy soils, cultivated with so much +ease. The climate from the extreme southern part of the State to the +Terre Haute, Alton and St. Louis Railroad, a distance of nearly 200 +miles, is well adapted to Winter. + + +WHEAT, CORN, COTTON, TOBACCO. + +Peaches, Pears, Tomatoes, and every variety of fruit and vegetables is +grown in great abundance, from which Chicago and other Northern markets +are furnished from four to six weeks earlier than their immediate +vicinity. Between the Terre Haute, Alton & St. Louis Railway and the +Kankakee and Illinois Rivers, (a distance of 115 miles on the Branch, +and 136 miles on the Main Trunk,) lies the great Corn and Stock raising +portion of the State. + + +THE ORDINARY YIELD + +of Corn is from 50 to 80 bushels per acre. Cattle, Horses, Mules, Sheep +and Hogs are raised here at a small cost, and yield large profits. It is +believed that no section of country presents greater inducements for +Dairy Farming than the Prairies of Illinois, a branch of farming to +which but little attention has been paid, and which must yield sure +profitable results. Between the Kankakee and Illinois Rivers, and +Chicago and Dunleith, (a distance of 56 miles on the Branch and 147 +miles by the Main Trunk,) Timothy Hay, Spring Wheat, Corn, &c., are +produced in great abundance. + + +AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS. + +The Agricultural products of Illinois are greater than those of of any +other State. The Wheat crop of 1861 was estimated at 85,000,000 bushels, +while the Corn crop yields not less than 140,000,000 bushels besides the +crop of Oats, Barley, Rye, Buckwheat, Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, +Pumpkins, Squashes, Flax, Hemp, Peas, Clover, Cabbage, Beets, Tobacco, +Sorgheim, Grapes, Peaches, Apples, &c., which go to swell the vast +aggregate of production in this fertile region. Over Four Million tons +of produce were sent out the State of Illinois during the past year. + + +STOCK RAISING. + +In Central and Southern Illinois uncommon advantages are presented for +the extension of Stock raising. All kinds of Cattle, Horses, Mules, +Sheep, Hogs, &c., of the best breeds, yield handsome profits; large +fortunes have already been made, and the field is open for others to +enter with the fairest prospects of like results. DAIRY FARMING also +presents its inducements to many. + + +CULTIVATION OF COTTON. + +_The experiments in Cotton culture are of very great promise. Commencing +in latitude 39 deg. 30 min. (see Mattoon on the Branch, and Assumption +on the Main Line), the Company owns thousands of acres well adapted to +the perfection of this fibre. A settler having a family of young +children, can turn their youthful labor to a most profitable account in +the growth and perfection of this plant._ + + +THE ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD + +Traverses the whole length of the State, from the banks of the +Mississippi and Lake Michigan to the Ohio. As its name imports, the +Railroad runs through the centre of the State, and on either side of the +road along its whole length lie the lands offered for sale. + + +CITIES, TOWNS, MARKETS, DEPOTS, + +There are Ninety-eight Depots on the Company's Railway, giving about one +every seven miles. Cities, Towns and Villages are situated at convenient +distances throughout the whole route, where every desirable commodity +may be found as readily as in the oldest cities of the Union and where +buyers are to be met for all kinds of farm produce. + + +EDUCATION. + +Mechanics and working-men will find the free school system encouraged by +the State, and endowed with a large revenue for the support of the +schools. Children can live in sight of the school, the college, the +church, and grow up with the prosperity of the leading State in the +Great Western Empire. + + * * * * * + +PRICES AND TERMS OF PAYMENT--ON LONG CREDIT. + + 80 acres at $10 per acre. with interest at 6 per ct. annually + on the following terms: + + Cash payment $48.00 + Payments in one year 48.00 + " in two years 48.00 + " in three years 48.00 + " in four years 236.00 + " in five years 224.00 + " in six years 212.00 + " in seven years 300.00 + + 40 acres at $10 per acre; + Cash payment $24.00 + Payments in one year 24.00 + " in two years 24.00 + " in three years 24.00 + " in four years 118.00 + " in five years 112.00 + " in six years 106.00 + " in seven years 100.00 + +Address Land Commissioner, Illinois Central Railroad, Chicago, Ill. + + + * * * * * + + +Number 14 + +25 Cents + +The CONTINENTAL MONTHLY. + +DEVOTED TO Literature and National Policy. + + +FEBRUARY, 1863. + + +NEW YORK: + +JOHN F. TROW 50 GREENE STREET (FOR THE PROPRIETORS). + +HENRY DEXTER AND SINCLAIR TOUSEY. WASHINGTON, D.C.: FRANCK TAYLOR + + + * * * * * + + +CONTENTS.--No. XIV. + + Our National Finances. Robert J. Walker, 129 + + A Trip to Antietam. Charles W. Loring, 145 + + American Destiny. John Stahl Patterson, 160 + + The Birth of the Lily, 169 + + Was He Successful? Richard B. Kimball, 171 + + Nullification and Secession. Hon. Robert J. Walker, 179 + + The Sioux War. John G. Nicolay, Private Secretary + + to President Lincoln, 195 + + "Dead!" 204 + + A Merchant's Story. Edmund Kirke, 206 + + The Consequences of the Rebellion. Hon. Frederic + + P. Stanton, 223 + + Sunshine in Thought, 233 + + How they Jested in the Good Old Time. Charles G. Leland, 237 + + Literary Notices, 248 + + Editor's Table, 250 + + +The article in this number of THE CONTINENTAL, on "Our National +Finances," by Hon. ROBERT J. WALKER, will be found worthy of especial +attention at the present time. + + * * * * * + +Our next issue will contain a valuable article on "GOLD." + + * * * * * + +ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1862, by JAMES R. +GILMORE, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United +States for the Southern District of New York. + + * * * * * + +INDEX TO VOLUME III. + + + A Chapter on Wonders. Perth Granton, 461 + + A Fancy Sketch, 482 + + A Heroine of To-Day, 543 + + A Merchant's Story. Edmund Kirke, 206, 289, 451, 528, 642 + + American Destiny. John Stahl Patterson, 79, 160 + + An Englishman in South Carolina, 110 + + A Trip to Antietam. Charles W. Loring, 145 + + A Winter in Camp. E. G. Hammond, 519 + + + Cloud and Sunshine, 687 + + Consequences of the Rebellion. Hon. F. P. Stanton, 26, 223 + + Cost of a Trip to Europe, 730 + + + "Dead," 204 + + Down in Tennessee, 469 + + + Editor's Table, 126, 250, 379, 503, 747 + + Ethel. Mrs. Martha Walker Cook, 435 + + + False Estimations, 274 + + Flag of our Union. Hon. R. J. Walker, 480 + + For and Against, 334 + + + Gold. Hon. Robert A. Walker, 279 + + Great Heart, 629 + + + Henrietta and Vulcan. Delia M. Colton, 421 + + How they Jested in the Good Old Time. Charles Godfrey Leland, 237 + + How the War affects Americans. Hon. F. P. Stanton, 411 + + How Mr. Lincoln became an Abolitionist. S. B. Gookins, 727 + + Huguenots of New Rochelle. Hon. G. P. Disosway, 1 + + Huguenots of Virginia, 348 + + + 'I;' or, Summer in the City, 40 + + In Memoriam. Richard Wolcott, 527 + + 'Is there Anything in It?' 688 + + + Last Words. Ingoldsby North, 282 + + Literary Notices, 122, 248, 374, 500, 630, 744 + + + Maccaroni and Canvas. Henry P. Leland, 7 + + May Morning, 657 + + Mill on Liberty. Hon. F. P. Stanton, 674 + + Miriam's Testimony. M. A. Edwards, 589 + + Montgomery in Secession Time, 354 + + + National Ode, 554 + + Nullification and Secession. Hon. Robert J. Walker, 179 + + + Our National Finances. Hon. R. J. Walker, 129 + + Our Present Position, its Dangers and Duties, 488 + + + Parting, 288 + + Pen, Pallet, and Piano, 117 + + Pictures from the North, 398 + + Poetry and Poetical Selections, 474 + + Promise. Edward S. Rend, jr., 78 + + Promoted, 420 + + + Reason, Rhyme, and Rhythm. Mrs. Martha Walker Cook, 662, 698 + + + Shylock vs. Antonio. Carlton Edwards, 539 + + Sunshine in Thought, 233 + + + The Birth of the Lily, 169 + + The Blue Handkerchief, 279 + + The Buccaneers of America. Wm. L. Stone, 703 + + The Captain of '63 to his Men, 315 + + The Causes and Results of the War. Lieut. E. Phelps, U. S. A., 617 + + The Century of Inventions. C. G. Leland, 318 + + The Chained River. Charles G. Leland, 410 + + The Chech, 395 + + The Complaining Bore, 496 + + The Confederation and the Nation. E. Carey, 694 + + The Destiny of the African Race in the United States. + Rev. J. M. Sturtevant, D. D., 600 + + The Great Prairie State. Mrs. C. M. Kirkland, 513 + + The Ivy. Charles Godfrey Leland, 47 + + The Lady and her Slave. Mrs. Martha W. Cook, 330 + + The Mishaps of Miss Hobbs. Wm. L. Williams, 54 + + The Navy of the United States, 659 + + The New Rasselas, 404 + + The Physical Survey of New York Harbor + and its Approaches. Henry Mitchell, 105 + + The Return. E. S. Rand, jr., 464 + + The Sioux War. John G. Nicolay, 195 + + The Skeptics of the Waverley Novels. Chas. G. Leland, 439 + + The Soldier's Burial, 373 + + The Surrender of Forts Jackson and St. Philip. F. H. Gerdes, 557 + + The Union. Hon. R. J. Walker, 68, 366, 465, 615 + + The Value of the Union. W. H. Muller, 571, 633 + + The Vision of the Monk Gabriel. Eleanor C. Donnelly, 316 + + The Wonders of Words, 385 + + + Thought, 23 + + Three Modern Romances, 667 + + Touching the Soul. Lieut. Egbert Phelps, 734 + + Turkey. A. Comté, jr., 257 + + + Virginia, 714 + + Visit to the National Academy of Design, 718 + + + War Song--Earth's Last Battle. Mrs. M. W. Cook, 562 + + Was He Successful? Richard B. Kimball, 98, 171, 611, 719 + + +JOHN F. TROW, PRINTER. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Continental Monthly, Vol. 3, No. 1 +January 1863, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CONTINENTAL MONTHLY *** + +***** This file should be named 24982-8.txt or 24982-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/9/8/24982/ + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by Cornell +University Digital Collections) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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