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diff --git a/2699-h/2699-h.htm b/2699-h/2699-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ab6da41 --- /dev/null +++ b/2699-h/2699-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,5467 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + Pages from an Old Volume of Life, by Oliver Wendell Holmes + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd7; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Pages From an Old Volume of Life +by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. + +[The Physician and Poet, Not the Jurist, O. W. Holmes, Jr.] + +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: Pages From an Old Volume of Life + A Collection Of Essays + +Author: Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. + +Release Date: August 16, 2006 [EBook #2699] +Last Updated: February 18, 2018 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PAGES FROM AN OLD VOLUME OF LIFE *** + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +</pre> + + <h1> + PAGES FROM AN OLD VOLUME OF LIFE + </h1> + <h2> + A COLLECTION OF ESSAYS + </h2> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h2> + By Oliver Wendell Holmes + </h2> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <blockquote> + <p class="toc"> + <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> BREAD AND THE NEWSPAPER. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> MY HUNT AFTER “THE CAPTAIN.” </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> THE INEVITABLE TRIAL </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0004"> CINDERS FROM THE ASHES. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0005"> THE PULPIT AND THE PEW. </a> + </p> + </blockquote> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h2> + BREAD AND THE NEWSPAPER. + </h2> + <h3> + (September, 1861.) + </h3> + <p> + This is the new version of the Panem et Circenses of the Roman populace. + It is our ultimatum, as that was theirs. They must have something to eat, + and the circus-shows to look at. We must have something to eat, and the + papers to read. + </p> + <p> + Everything else we can give up. If we are rich, we can lay down our + carriages, stay away from Newport or Saratoga, and adjourn the trip to + Europe sine die. If we live in a small way, there are at least new dresses + and bonnets and every-day luxuries which we can dispense with. If the + young Zouave of the family looks smart in his new uniform, its respectable + head is content, though he himself grow seedy as a caraway-umbel late in + the season. He will cheerfully calm the perturbed nap of his old beaver by + patient brushing in place of buying a new one, if only the Lieutenant's + jaunty cap is what it should be. We all take a pride in sharing the + epidemic economy of the time. Only bread and the newspaper we must have, + whatever else we do without. + </p> + <p> + How this war is simplifying our mode of being! We live on our emotions, as + the sick man is said in the common speech to be nourished by his fever. + Our ordinary mental food has become distasteful, and what would have been + intellectual luxuries at other times, are now absolutely repulsive. + </p> + <p> + All this change in our manner of existence implies that we have + experienced some very profound impression, which will sooner or later + betray itself in permanent effects on the minds and bodies of many among + us. We cannot forget Corvisart's observation of the frequency with which + diseases of the heart were noticed as the consequence of the terrible + emotions produced by the scenes of the great French Revolution. Laennec + tells the story of a convent, of which he was the medical director, where + all the nuns were subjected to the severest penances and schooled in the + most painful doctrines. They all became consumptive soon after their + entrance, so that, in the course of his ten years' attendance, all the + inmates died out two or three times, and were replaced by new ones. He + does not hesitate to attribute the disease from which they suffered to + those depressing moral influences to which they were subjected. + </p> + <p> + So far we have noticed little more than disturbances of the nervous system + as a consequence of the war excitement in non-combatants. Take the first + trifling example which comes to our recollection. A sad disaster to the + Federal army was told the other day in the presence of two gentlemen and a + lady. Both the gentlemen complained of a sudden feeling at the + epigastrium, or, less learnedly, the pit of the stomach, changed color, + and confessed to a slight tremor about the knees. The lady had a “grande + revolution,” as French patients say,—went home, and kept her bed for + the rest of the day. Perhaps the reader may smile at the mention of such + trivial indispositions, but in more sensitive natures death itself follows + in some cases from no more serious cause. An old gentleman fell senseless + in fatal apoplexy, on hearing of Napoleon's return from Elba. One of our + early friends, who recently died of the same complaint, was thought to + have had his attack mainly in consequence of the excitements of the time. + </p> + <p> + We all know what the war fever is in our young men,—what a devouring + passion it becomes in those whom it assails. Patriotism is the fire of it, + no doubt, but this is fed with fuel of all sorts. The love of adventure, + the contagion of example, the fear of losing the chance of participating + in the great events of the time, the desire of personal distinction, all + help to produce those singular transformations which we often witness, + turning the most peaceful of our youth into the most ardent of our + soldiers. But something of the same fever in a different form reaches a + good many non-combatants, who have no thought of losing a drop of precious + blood belonging to themselves or their families. Some of the symptoms we + shall mention are almost universal; they are as plain in the people we + meet everywhere as the marks of an influenza, when that is prevailing. + </p> + <p> + The first is a nervous restlessness of a very peculiar character. Men + cannot think, or write, or attend to their ordinary business. They stroll + up and down the streets, or saunter out upon the public places. We + confessed to an illustrious author that we laid down the volume of his + work which we were reading when the war broke out. It was as interesting + as a romance, but the romance of the past grew pale before the red light + of the terrible present. Meeting the same author not long afterwards, he + confessed that he had laid down his pen at the same time that we had + closed his book. He could not write about the sixteenth century any more + than we could read about it, while the nineteenth was in the very agony + and bloody sweat of its great sacrifice. + </p> + <p> + Another most eminent scholar told us in all simplicity that he had fallen + into such a state that he would read the same telegraphic dispatches over + and over again in different papers, as if they were new, until he felt as + if he were an idiot. Who did not do just the same thing, and does not + often do it still, now that the first flush of the fever is over? Another + person always goes through the side streets on his way for the noon extra,—he + is so afraid somebody will meet him and tell the news he wishes to read, + first on the bulletin-board, and then in the great capitals and leaded + type of the newspaper. + </p> + <p> + When any startling piece of war-news comes, it keeps repeating itself in + our minds in spite of all we can do. The same trains of thought go + tramping round in circle through the brain, like the supernumeraries that + make up the grand army of a stage-show. Now, if a thought goes round + through the brain a thousand times in a day, it will have worn as deep a + track as one which has passed through it once a week for twenty years. + This accounts for the ages we seem to have lived since the twelfth of + April last, and, to state it more generally, for that ex post facto + operation of a great calamity, or any very powerful impression, which we + once illustrated by the image of a stain spreading backwards from the leaf + of life open before as through all those which we have already turned. + </p> + <p> + Blessed are those who can sleep quietly in times like these! Yet, not + wholly blessed, either; for what is more painful than the awaking from + peaceful unconsciousness to a sense that there is something wrong, we + cannot at first think what,—and then groping our way about through + the twilight of our thoughts until we come full upon the misery, which, + like some evil bird, seemed to have flown away, but which sits waiting for + us on its perch by our pillow in the gray of the morning? + </p> + <p> + The converse of this is perhaps still more painful. Many have the feeling + in their waking hours that the trouble they are aching with is, after all, + only a dream,—if they will rub their eyes briskly enough and shake + themselves, they will awake out of it, and find all their supposed grief + is unreal. This attempt to cajole ourselves out of an ugly fact always + reminds us of those unhappy flies who have been indulging in the dangerous + sweets of the paper prepared for their especial use. + </p> + <p> + Watch one of them. He does not feel quite well,—at least, he + suspects himself of indisposition. Nothing serious,—let us just rub + our fore-feet together, as the enormous creature who provides for us rubs + his hands, and all will be right. He rubs them with that peculiar twisting + movement of his, and pauses for the effect. No! all is not quite right + yet. Ah! it is our head that is not set on just as it ought to be. Let us + settle that where it should be, and then we shall certainly be in good + trim again. So he pulls his head about as an old lady adjusts her cap, and + passes his fore-paw over it like a kitten washing herself. Poor fellow! It + is not a fancy, but a fact, that he has to deal with. If he could read the + letters at the head of the sheet, he would see they were Fly-Paper.—So + with us, when, in our waking misery, we try to think we dream! Perhaps + very young persons may not understand this; as we grow older, our waking + and dreaming life run more and more into each other. + </p> + <p> + Another symptom of our excited condition is seen in the breaking up of old + habits. The newspaper is as imperious as a Russian Ukase; it will be had, + and it will be read. To this all else must give place. If we must go out + at unusual hours to get it, we shall go, in spite of after-dinner nap or + evening somnolence. If it finds us in company, it will not stand on + ceremony, but cuts short the compliment and the story by the divine right + of its telegraphic dispatches. + </p> + <p> + War is a very old story, but it is a new one to this generation of + Americans. Our own nearest relation in the ascending line remembers the + Revolution well. How should she forget it? Did she not lose her doll, + which was left behind, when she was carried out of Boston, about that time + growing uncomfortable by reason of cannon-balls dropping in from the + neighboring heights at all hours,—in token of which see the tower of + Brattle Street Church at this very day? War in her memory means '76. As + for the brush of 1812, “we did not think much about that”; and everybody + knows that the Mexican business did not concern us much, except in its + political relations. No! war is a new thing to all of us who are not in + the last quarter of their century. We are learning many strange matters + from our fresh experience. And besides, there are new conditions of + existence which make war as it is with us very different from war as it + has been. + </p> + <p> + The first and obvious difference consists in the fact that the whole + nation is now penetrated by the ramifications of a network of iron nerves + which flash sensation and volition backward and forward to and from towns + and provinces as if they were organs and limbs of a single living body. + The second is the vast system of iron muscles which, as it were, move the + limbs of the mighty organism one upon another. What was the railroad-force + which put the Sixth Regiment in Baltimore on the 19th of April but a + contraction and extension of the arm of Massachusetts with a clenched fist + full of bayonets at the end of it? + </p> + <p> + This perpetual intercommunication, joined to the power of instantaneous + action, keeps us always alive with excitement. It is not a breathless + courier who comes back with the report from an army we have lost sight of + for a month, nor a single bulletin which tells us all we are to know for a + week of some great engagement, but almost hourly paragraphs, laden with + truth or falsehood as the case may be, making us restless always for the + last fact or rumor they are telling. And so of the movements of our + armies. To-night the stout lumbermen of Maine are encamped under their own + fragrant pines. In a score or two of hours they are among the + tobacco-fields and the slave-pens of Virginia. The war passion burned like + scattered coals of fire in the households of Revolutionary times; now it + rushes all through the land like a flame over the prairie. And this + instant diffusion of every fact and feeling produces another singular + effect in the equalizing and steadying of public opinion. We may not be + able to see a month ahead of us; but as to what has passed a week + afterwards it is as thoroughly talked out and judged as it would have been + in a whole season before our national nervous system was organized. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “As the wild tempest wakes the slumbering sea, + Thou only teachest all that man can be!” + </pre> + <p> + We indulged in the above apostrophe to War in a Phi Beta Kappa poem of + long ago, which we liked better before we read Mr. Cutler's beautiful + prolonged lyric delivered at the recent anniversary of that Society. + </p> + <p> + Oftentimes, in paroxysms of peace and good-will towards all mankind, we + have felt twinges of conscience about the passage,—especially when + one of our orators showed us that a ship of war costs as much to build and + keep as a college, and that every port-hole we could stop would give us a + new professor. Now we begin to think that there was some meaning in our + poor couplet. War has taught us, as nothing else could, what we can be and + are. It has exalted our manhood and our womanhood, and driven us all back + upon our substantial human qualities, for a long time more or less kept + out of sight by the spirit of commerce, the love of art, science, or + literature, or other qualities not belonging to all of us as men and + women. + </p> + <p> + It is at this very moment doing more to melt away the petty social + distinctions which keep generous souls apart from each other, than the + preaching of the Beloved Disciple himself would do. We are finding out + that not only “patriotism is eloquence,” but that heroism is gentility. + All ranks are wonderfully equalized under the fire of a masked battery. + The plain artisan or the rough fireman, who faces the lead and iron like a + man, is the truest representative we can show of the heroes of Crecy and + Agincourt. And if one of our fine gentlemen puts off his straw-colored + kids and stands by the other, shoulder to shoulder, or leads him on to the + attack, he is as honorable in our eyes and in theirs as if he were + ill-dressed and his hands were soiled with labor. + </p> + <p> + Even our poor “Brahmins,”—whom a critic in ground-glass spectacles + (the same who grasps his statistics by the blade and strikes at his + supposed antagonist with the handle) oddly confounds with the “bloated + aristocracy;” whereas they are very commonly pallid, undervitalized, shy, + sensitive creatures, whose only birthright is an aptitude for learning,—even + these poor New England Brahmins of ours, subvirates of an organizable base + as they often are, count as full men, if their courage is big enough for + the uniform which hangs so loosely about their slender figures. + </p> + <p> + A young man was drowned not very long ago in the river running under our + windows. A few days afterwards a field piece was dragged to the water's + edge, and fired many times over the river. We asked a bystander, who + looked like a fisherman, what that was for. It was to “break the gall,” he + said, and so bring the drowned person to the surface. A strange + physiological fancy and a very odd non sequitur; but that is not our + present point. A good many extraordinary objects do really come to the + surface when the great guns of war shake the waters, as when they roared + over Charleston harbor. + </p> + <p> + Treason came up, hideous, fit only to be huddled into its dishonorable + grave. But the wrecks of precious virtues, which had been covered with the + waves of prosperity, came up also. And all sorts of unexpected and + unheard-of things, which had lain unseen during our national life of + fourscore years, came up and are coming up daily, shaken from their bed by + the concussions of the artillery bellowing around us. + </p> + <p> + It is a shame to own it, but there were persons otherwise respectable not + unwilling to say that they believed the old valor of Revolutionary times + had died out from among us. They talked about our own Northern people as + the English in the last centuries used to talk about the French,—Goldsmith's + old soldier, it may be remembered, called one Englishman good for five of + them. As Napoleon spoke of the English, again, as a nation of shopkeepers, + so these persons affected to consider the multitude of their countrymen as + unwarlike artisans,—forgetting that Paul Revere taught himself the + value of liberty in working upon gold, and Nathaniel Greene fitted himself + to shape armies in the labor of forging iron. These persons have learned + better now. The bravery of our free working-people was overlaid, but not + smothered; sunken, but not drowned. The hands which had been busy + conquering the elements had only to change their weapons and their + adversaries, and they were as ready to conquer the masses of living force + opposed to them as they had been to build towns, to dam rivers, to hunt + whales, to harvest ice, to hammer brute matter into every shape + civilization can ask for. + </p> + <p> + Another great fact came to the surface, and is coming up every day in new + shapes,—that we are one people. It is easy to say that a man is a + man in Maine or Minnesota, but not so easy to feel it, all through our + bones and marrow. The camp is deprovincializing us very fast. Brave + Winthrop, marching with the city elegants, seems to have been a little + startled to find how wonderfully human were the hard-handed men of the + Eighth Massachusetts. It takes all the nonsense out of everybody, or ought + to do it, to see how fairly the real manhood of a country is distributed + over its surface. And then, just as we are beginning to think our own soil + has a monopoly of heroes as well as of cotton, up turns a regiment of + gallant Irishmen, like the Sixty-ninth, to show us that continental + provincialism is as bad as that of Coos County, New Hampshire, or of + Broadway, New York. + </p> + <p> + Here, too, side by side in the same great camp, are half a dozen + chaplains, representing half a dozen modes of religious belief. When the + masked battery opens, does the “Baptist” Lieutenant believe in his heart + that God takes better care of him than of his “Congregationalist” Colonel? + Does any man really suppose, that, of a score of noble young fellows who + have just laid down their lives for their country, the Homoousians are + received to the mansions of bliss, and the Homoousians translated from the + battle-field to the abodes of everlasting woe? War not only teaches what + man can be, but it teaches also what he must not be. He must not be a + bigot and a fool in the presence of that day of judgment proclaimed by the + trumpet which calls to battle, and where a man should have but two + thoughts: to do his duty, and trust his Maker. Let our brave dead come + back from the fields where they have fallen for law and liberty, and if + you will follow them to their graves, you will find out what the Broad + Church means; the narrow church is sparing of its exclusive formulae over + the coffins wrapped in the flag which the fallen heroes had defended! Very + little comparatively do we hear at such times of the dogmas on which men + differ; very much of the faith and trust in which all sincere Christians + can agree. It is a noble lesson, and nothing less noisy than the voice of + cannon can teach it so that it shall be heard over all the angry cries of + theological disputants. + </p> + <p> + Now, too, we have a chance to test the sagacity of our friends, and to get + at their principles of judgment. Perhaps most, of us, will agree that our + faith in domestic prophets has been diminished by the experience of the + last six months. We had the notable predictions attributed to the + Secretary of State, which so unpleasantly refused to fulfil themselves. We + were infested at one time with a set of ominous-looking seers, who shook + their heads and muttered obscurely about some mighty preparations that + were making to substitute the rule of the minority for that of the + majority. Organizations were darkly hinted at; some thought our armories + would be seized; and there are not wanting ancient women in the + neighboring University town who consider that the country was saved by the + intrepid band of students who stood guard, night after night, over the G. + R. cannon and the pile of balls in the Cambridge Arsenal. + </p> + <p> + As a general rule, it is safe to say that the best prophecies are those + which the sages remember after the event prophesied of has come to pass, + and remind us that they have made long ago. Those who, are rash enough to + predict publicly beforehand commonly give us what they hope, or what they + fear, or some conclusion from an abstraction of their own, or some guess + founded on private information not half so good as what everybody gets who + reads the papers,—never by any possibility a word that we can depend + on, simply because there are cobwebs of contingency between every to-day + and to-morrow that no field-glass can penetrate when fifty of them lie + woven one over another. Prophesy as much as you like, but always hedge. + Say that you think the rebels are weaker than is commonly supposed, but, + on the other hand, that they may prove to be even stronger than is + anticipated. Say what you like,—only don't be too peremptory and + dogmatic; we know that wiser men than you have been notoriously deceived + in their predictions in this very matter. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Ibis et redibis nunquam in bello peribis. +</pre> + <p> + Let that be your model; and remember, on peril of your reputation as a + prophet, not to put a stop before or after the nunquam. + </p> + <p> + There are two or three facts connected with time, besides that already + referred to, which strike us very forcibly in their relation to the great + events passing around us. We spoke of the long period seeming to have + elapsed since this war began. The buds were then swelling which held the + leaves that are still green. It seems as old as Time himself. We cannot + fail to observe how the mind brings together the scenes of to-day and + those of the old Revolution. We shut up eighty years into each other like + the joints of a pocket-telescope. When the young men from Middlesex + dropped in Baltimore the other day, it seemed to bring Lexington and the + other Nineteenth of April close to us. War has always been the mint in + which the world's history has been coined, and now every day or week or + month has a new medal for us. It was Warren that the first impression bore + in the last great coinage; if it is Ellsworth now, the new face hardly + seems fresher than the old. All battle-fields are alike in their main + features. The young fellows who fell in our earlier struggle seemed like + old men to us until within these few months; now we remember they were + like these fiery youth we are cheering as they go to the fight; it seems + as if the grass of our bloody hillside was crimsoned but yesterday, and + the cannon-ball imbedded in the church-tower would feel warm, if we laid + our hand upon it. + </p> + <p> + Nay, in this our quickened life we feel that all the battles from earliest + time to our own day, where Right and Wrong have grappled, are but one + great battle, varied with brief pauses or hasty bivouacs upon the field of + conflict. The issues seem to vary, but it is always a right against a + claim, and, however the struggle of the hour may go, a movement onward of + the campaign, which uses defeat as well as victory to serve its mighty + ends. The very implements of our warfare change less than we think. Our + bullets and cannonballs have lengthened into bolts like those which + whistled out of old arbalests. Our soldiers fight with weapons, such as + are pictured on the walls of Theban tombs, wearing a newly invented + head-gear as old as the days of the Pyramids. + </p> + <p> + Whatever miseries this war brings upon us, it is making us wiser, and, we + trust, better. Wiser, for we are learning our weakness, our narrowness, + our selfishness, our ignorance, in lessons of sorrow and shame. Better, + because all that is noble in men and women is demanded by the time, and + our people are rising to the standard the time calls for. For this is the + question the hour is putting to each of us: Are you ready, if need be, to + sacrifice all that you have and hope for in this world, that the + generations to follow you may inherit a whole country whose natural + condition shall be peace, and not a broken province which must live under + the perpetual threat, if not in the constant presence, of war and all that + war brings with it? If we are all ready for this sacrifice, battles may be + lost, but the campaign and its grand object must be won. + </p> + <p> + Heaven is very kind in its way of putting questions to mortals. We are not + abruptly asked to give up all that we most care for, in view of the + momentous issues before us. Perhaps we shall never be asked to give up + all, but we have already been called upon to part with much that is dear + to us, and should be ready to yield the rest as it is called for. The time + may come when even the cheap public print shall be a burden our means + cannot support, and we can only listen in the square that was once the + marketplace to the voices of those who proclaim defeat or victory. Then + there will be only our daily food left. When we have nothing to read and + nothing to eat, it will be a favorable moment to offer a compromise. At + present we have all that nature absolutely demands,—we can live on + bread and the newspaper. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + MY HUNT AFTER “THE CAPTAIN.” + </h2> + <p> + In the dead of the night which closed upon the bloody field of Antietam, + my household was startled from its slumbers by the loud summons of a + telegraphic messenger. The air had been heavy all day with rumors of + battle, and thousands and tens of thousands had walked the streets with + throbbing hearts, in dread anticipation of the tidings any hour might + bring. + </p> + <p> + We rose hastily, and presently the messenger was admitted. I took the + envelope from his hand, opened it, and read: + </p> + <p> + HAGERSTOWN 17th + </p> + <p> + To__________ H ______ + </p> + <p> + Capt H______ wounded shot through the neck thought not mortal at + Keedysville WILLIAM G. LEDUC + </p> + <p> + Through the neck,—no bullet left in wound. Windpipe, food-pipe, + carotid, jugular, half a dozen smaller, but still formidable vessels, a + great braid of nerves, each as big as a lamp-wick, spinal cord,—ought + to kill at once, if at all. Thought not mortal, or not thought mortal,—which + was it? The first; that is better than the second would be.—“Keedysville, + a post-office, Washington Co., Maryland.” Leduc? Leduc? Don't remember + that name. The boy is waiting for his money. A dollar and thirteen cents. + Has nobody got thirteen cents? Don't keep that boy waiting,—how do + we know what messages he has got to carry? + </p> + <p> + The boy had another message to carry. It was to the father of + Lieutenant-Colonel Wilder Dwight, informing him that his son was + grievously wounded in the same battle, and was lying at Boonsborough, a + town a few miles this side of Keedysville. This I learned the next morning + from the civil and attentive officials at the Central Telegraph Office. + </p> + <p> + Calling upon this gentleman, I found that he meant to leave in the quarter + past two o'clock train, taking with him Dr. George H. Gay, an accomplished + and energetic surgeon, equal to any difficult question or pressing + emergency. I agreed to accompany them, and we met in the cars. I felt + myself peculiarly fortunate in having companions whose society would be a + pleasure, whose feelings would harmonize with my own, and whose assistance + I might, in case of need, be glad to claim. + </p> + <p> + It is of the journey which we began together, and which I finished apart, + that I mean to give my “Atlantic” readers an account. They must let me + tell my story in my own way, speaking of many little matters that + interested or amused me, and which a certain leisurely class of elderly + persons, who sit at their firesides and never travel, will, I hope, follow + with a kind of interest. For, besides the main object of my excursion, I + could not help being excited by the incidental sights and occurrences of a + trip which to a commercial traveller or a newspaper-reporter would seem + quite commonplace and undeserving of record. There are periods in which + all places and people seem to be in a conspiracy to impress us with their + individuality, in which every ordinary locality seems to assume a special + significance and to claim a particular notice, in which every person we + meet is either an old acquaintance or a character; days in which the + strangest coincidences are continually happening, so that they get to be + the rule, and not the exception. Some might naturally think that anxiety + and the weariness of a prolonged search after a near relative would have + prevented my taking any interest in or paying any regard to the little + matters around me. Perhaps it had just the contrary effect, and acted like + a diffused stimulus upon the attention. When all the faculties are + wide-awake in pursuit of a single object, or fixed in the spasm of an + absorbing emotion, they are oftentimes clairvoyant in a marvellous degree + in respect to many collateral things, as Wordsworth has so forcibly + illustrated in his sonnet on the Boy of Windermere, and as Hawthorne has + developed with such metaphysical accuracy in that chapter of his wondrous + story where Hester walks forth to meet her punishment. + </p> + <p> + Be that as it may,—though I set out with a full and heavy heart, + though many times my blood chilled with what were perhaps needless and + unwise fears, though I broke through all my habits without thinking about + them, which is almost as hard in certain circumstances as for one of our + young fellows to leave his sweetheart and go into a Peninsular campaign, + though I did not always know when I was hungry nor discover that I was + thirsting, though I had a worrying ache and inward tremor underlying all + the outward play of the senses and the mind, yet it is the simple truth + that I did look out of the car-windows with an eye for all that passed, + that I did take cognizance of strange sights and singular people, that I + did act much as persons act from the ordinary promptings of curiosity, and + from time to time even laugh very much as others do who are attacked with + a convulsive sense of the ridiculous, the epilepsy of the diaphragm. + </p> + <p> + By a mutual compact, we talked little in the cars. A communicative friend + is the greatest nuisance to have at one's side during a railroad journey, + especially if his conversation is stimulating and in itself agreeable. “A + fast train and a 'slow' neighbor,” is my motto. Many times, when I have + got upon the cars, expecting to be magnetized into an hour or two of + blissful reverie, my thoughts shaken up by the vibrations into all sorts + of new and pleasing patterns, arranging themselves in curves and nodal + points, like the grains of sand in Chladni's famous experiment,—fresh + ideas coming up to the surface, as the kernels do when a measure of corn + is jolted in a farmer's wagon,—all this without volition, the + mechanical impulse alone keeping the thoughts in motion, as the mere act + of carrying certain watches in the pocket keeps them wound up,—many + times, I say, just as my brain was beginning to creep and hum with this + delicious locomotive intoxication, some dear detestable friend, cordial, + intelligent, social, radiant, has come up and sat down by me and opened a + conversation which has broken my day-dream, unharnessed the flying horses + that were whirling along my fancies and hitched on the old weary + omnibus-team of every-day associations, fatigued my hearing and attention, + exhausted my voice, and milked the breasts of my thought dry during the + hour when they should have been filling themselves full of fresh juices. + My friends spared me this trial. + </p> + <p> + So, then, I sat by the window and enjoyed the slight tipsiness produced by + short, limited, rapid oscillations, which I take to be the exhilarating + stage of that condition which reaches hopeless inebriety in what we know + as sea-sickness. Where the horizon opened widely, it pleased me to watch + the curious effect of the rapid movement of near objects contrasted with + the slow motion of distant ones. Looking from a right-hand window, for + instance, the fences close by glide swiftly backward, or to the right, + while the distant hills not only do not appear to move backward, but look + by contrast with the fences near at hand as if they were moving forward, + or to the left; and thus the whole landscape becomes a mighty wheel + revolving about an imaginary axis somewhere in the middle-distance. + </p> + <p> + My companions proposed to stay at one of the best-known and + longest-established of the New-York caravansaries, and I accompanied them. + We were particularly well lodged, and not uncivilly treated. The traveller + who supposes that he is to repeat the melancholy experience of Shenstone, + and have to sigh over the reflection that he has found “his warmest + welcome at an inn,” has something to learn at the offices of the great + city hotels. The unheralded guest who is honored by mere indifference may + think himself blessed with singular good-fortune. If the despot of the + Patent-Annunciator is only mildly contemptuous in his manner, let the + victim look upon it as a personal favor. The coldest welcome that a + threadbare curate ever got at the door of a bishop's palace, the most icy + reception that a country cousin ever received at the city mansion of a + mushroom millionaire, is agreeably tepid, compared to that which the + Rhadamanthus who dooms you to the more or less elevated circle of his + inverted Inferno vouchsafes, as you step up to enter your name on his + dog's-eared register. I have less hesitation in unburdening myself of this + uncomfortable statement, as on this particular trip I met with more than + one exception to the rule. Officials become brutalized, I suppose, as a + matter of course. One cannot expect an office clerk to embrace tenderly + every stranger who comes in with a carpet-bag, or a telegraph operator to + burst into tears over every unpleasant message he receives for + transmission. Still, humanity is not always totally extinguished in these + persons. I discovered a youth in a telegraph office of the Continental + Hotel, in Philadelphia, who was as pleasant in conversation, and as + graciously responsive to inoffensive questions, as if I had been his + childless opulent uncle and my will not made. + </p> + <p> + On the road again the next morning, over the ferry, into the cars with + sliding panels and fixed windows, so that in summer the whole side of the + car may be made transparent. New Jersey is, to the apprehension of a + traveller, a double-headed suburb rather than a State. Its dull red dust + looks like the dried and powdered mud of a battle-field. Peach-trees are + common, and champagne-orchards. Canal-boats, drawn by mules, swim by, + feeling their way along like blind men led by dogs. I had a mighty passion + come over me to be the captain of one,—to glide back and forward + upon a sea never roughened by storms,—to float where I could not + sink,—to navigate where there is no shipwreck,—to lie + languidly on the deck and govern the huge craft by a word or the movement + of a finger: there was something of railroad intoxication in the fancy: + but who has not often envied a cobbler in his stall? + </p> + <p> + The boys cry the “N'-York Heddle,” instead of “Herald”; I remember that + years ago in Philadelphia; we must be getting near the farther end of the + dumb-bell suburb. A bridge has been swept away by a rise of the waters, so + we must approach Philadelphia by the river. Her physiognomy is not + distinguished; nez camus, as a Frenchman would say; no illustrious + steeple, no imposing tower; the water-edge of the town looking bedraggled, + like the flounce of a vulgar rich woman's dress that trails on the + sidewalk. The New Ironsides lies at one of the wharves, elephantine in + bulk and color, her sides narrowing as they rise, like the walls of a + hock-glass. + </p> + <p> + I went straight to the house in Walnut Street where the Captain would be + heard of, if anywhere in this region. His lieutenant-colonel was there, + gravely wounded; his college-friend and comrade in arms, a son of the + house, was there, injured in a similar way; another soldier, brother of + the last, was there, prostrate with fever. A fourth bed was waiting ready + for the Captain, but not one word had been heard of him, though inquiries + had been made in the towns from and through which the father had brought + his two sons and the lieutenant-colonel. And so my search is, like a + “Ledger” story, to be continued. + </p> + <p> + I rejoined my companions in time to take the noon-train for Baltimore. Our + company was gaining in number as it moved onwards. We had found upon the + train from New York a lovely, lonely lady, the wife of one of our most + spirited Massachusetts officers, the brave Colonel of the __th Regiment, + going to seek her wounded husband at Middletown, a place lying directly in + our track. She was the light of our party while we were together on our + pilgrimage, a fair, gracious woman, gentle, but courageous, + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + —“ful plesant and amiable of port, + —estatelich of manere, + And to ben holden digne of reverence.” + </pre> + <p> + On the road from Philadelphia, I found in the same car with our party Dr. + William Hunt of Philadelphia, who had most kindly and faithfully attended + the Captain, then the Lieutenant, after a wound received at Ball's Bluff, + which came very near being mortal. He was going upon an errand of mercy to + the wounded, and found he had in his memorandum-book the name of our + lady's husband, the Colonel, who had been commended to his particular + attention. + </p> + <p> + Not long after leaving Philadelphia, we passed a solitary sentry keeping + guard over a short railroad bridge. It was the first evidence that we were + approaching the perilous borders, the marches where the North and the + South mingle their angry hosts, where the extremes of our so-called + civilization meet in conflict, and the fierce slave-driver of the Lower + Mississippi stares into the stern eyes of the forest-feller from the banks + of the Aroostook. All the way along, the bridges were guarded more or less + strongly. In a vast country like ours, communications play a far more + complex part than in Europe, where the whole territory available for + strategic purposes is so comparatively limited. Belgium, for instance, has + long been the bowling-alley where kings roll cannon-balls at each other's + armies; but here we are playing the game of live ninepins without any + alley. + </p> + <p> + We were obliged to stay in Baltimore over night, as we were too late for + the train to Frederick. At the Eutaw House, where we found both comfort + and courtesy, we met a number of friends, who beguiled the evening hours + for us in the most agreeable manner. We devoted some time to procuring + surgical and other articles, such as might be useful to our friends, or to + others, if our friends should not need them. In the morning, I found + myself seated at the breakfast-table next to General Wool. It did not + surprise me to find the General very far from expansive. With Fort McHenry + on his shoulders and Baltimore in his breeches-pocket, and the weight of a + military department loading down his social safety-valves, I thought it a + great deal for an officer in his trying position to select so very + obliging and affable an aid as the gentleman who relieved him of the + burden of attending to strangers. + </p> + <p> + We left the Eutaw House, to take the cars for Frederick. As we stood + waiting on the platform, a telegraphic message was handed in silence to my + companion. Sad news: the lifeless body of the son he was hastening to see + was even now on its way to him in Baltimore. It was no time for empty + words of consolation: I knew what he had lost, and that now was not the + time to intrude upon a grief borne as men bear it, felt as women feel it. + </p> + <p> + Colonel Wilder Dwight was first made known to me as the friend of a + beloved relative of my own, who was with him during a severe illness in + Switzerland; and for whom while living, and for whose memory when dead, he + retained the warmest affection. Since that the story of his noble deeds of + daring, of his capture and escape, and a brief visit home before he was + able to rejoin his regiment, had made his name familiar to many among us, + myself among the number. His memory has been honored by those who had the + largest opportunity of knowing his rare promise, as a man of talents and + energy of nature. His abounding vitality must have produced its impression + on all who met him; there was a still fire about him which any one could + see would blaze up to melt all difficulties and recast obstacles into + implements in the mould of an heroic will. These elements of his character + many had the chance of knowing; but I shall always associate him with the + memory of that pure and noble friendship which made me feel that I knew + him before I looked upon his face, and added a personal tenderness to the + sense of loss which I share with the whole community. + </p> + <p> + Here, then, I parted, sorrowfully, from the companions with whom I set out + on my journey. + </p> + <p> + In one of the cars, at the same station, we met General Shriver of + Frederick, a most loyal Unionist, whose name is synonymous with a hearty + welcome to all whom he can aid by his counsel and his hospitality. He took + great pains to give us all the information we needed, and expressed the + hope, which was afterwards fulfilled, to the great gratification of some + of us, that we should meet again when he should return to his home. + </p> + <p> + There was nothing worthy of special note in the trip to Frederick, except + our passing a squad of Rebel prisoners, whom I missed seeing, as they + flashed by, but who were said to be a most forlorn-looking crowd of + scarecrows. Arrived at the Monocacy River, about three miles this side of + Frederick, we came to a halt, for the railroad bridge had been blown up by + the Rebels, and its iron pillars and arches were lying in the bed of the + river. The unfortunate wretch who fired the train was killed by the + explosion, and lay buried hard by, his hands sticking out of the shallow + grave into which he had been huddled. This was the story they told us, but + whether true or not I must leave to the correspondents of “Notes and + Queries” to settle. + </p> + <p> + There was a great confusion of carriages and wagons at the stopping-place + of the train, so that it was a long time before I could get anything that + would carry us. At last I was lucky enough to light on a sturdy wagon, + drawn by a pair of serviceable bays, and driven by James Grayden, with + whom I was destined to have a somewhat continued acquaintance. We took up + a little girl who had been in Baltimore during the late Rebel inroad. It + made me think of the time when my own mother, at that time six years old, + was hurried off from Boston, then occupied by the British soldiers, to + Newburyport, and heard the people saying that “the redcoats were coming, + killing and murdering everybody as they went along.” Frederick looked + cheerful for a place that had so recently been in an enemy's hands. Here + and there a house or shop was shut up, but the national colors were waving + in all directions, and the general aspect was peaceful and contented. I + saw no bullet-marks or other sign of the fighting which had gone on in the + streets. The Colonel's lady was taken in charge by a daughter of that + hospitable family to which we had been commended by its head, and I + proceeded to inquire for wounded officers at the various temporary + hospitals. + </p> + <p> + At the United States Hotel, where many were lying, I heard mention of an + officer in an upper chamber, and, going there, found Lieutenant Abbott, of + the Twentieth Massachusetts Volunteers, lying ill with what looked like + typhoid fever. While there, who should come in but the almost ubiquitous + Lieutenant Wilkins, of the same Twentieth, whom I had met repeatedly + before on errands of kindness or duty, and who was just from the + battle-ground. He was going to Boston in charge of the body of the + lamented Dr. Revere, the Assistant Surgeon of the regiment, killed on the + field. From his lips I learned something of the mishaps of the regiment. + My Captain's wound he spoke of as less grave than at first thought; but he + mentioned incidentally having heard a story recently that he was killed,—a + fiction, doubtless,—a mistake,—a palpable absurdity,—not + to be remembered or made any account of. Oh no! but what dull ache is this + in that obscurely sensitive region, somewhere below the heart, where the + nervous centre called the semilunar ganglion lies unconscious of itself + until a great grief or a mastering anxiety reaches it through all the + non-conductors which isolate it from ordinary impressions? I talked awhile + with Lieutenant Abbott, who lay prostrate, feeble, but soldier-like and + uncomplaining, carefully waited upon by a most excellent lady, a captain's + wife, New England born, loyal as the Liberty on a golden ten-dollar piece, + and of lofty bearing enough to have sat for that goddess's portrait. She + had stayed in Frederick through the Rebel inroad, and kept the + star-spangled banner where it would be safe, to unroll it as the last + Rebel hoofs clattered off from the pavement of the town. + </p> + <p> + Near by Lieutenant Abbott was an unhappy gentleman, occupying a small + chamber, and filling it with his troubles. When he gets well and plump, I + know he will forgive me if I confess that I could not help smiling in the + midst of my sympathy for him. He had been a well-favored man, he said, + sweeping his hand in a semicircle, which implied that his acute-angled + countenance had once filled the goodly curve he described. He was now a + perfect Don Quixote to look upon. Weakness had made him querulous, as it + does all of us, and he piped his grievances to me in a thin voice, with + that finish of detail which chronic invalidism alone can command. He was + starving,—he could not get what he wanted to eat. He was in need of + stimulants, and he held up a pitiful two-ounce phial containing three + thimblefuls—of brandy,—his whole stock of that encouraging + article. Him I consoled to the best of my ability, and afterwards, in some + slight measure, supplied his wants. Feed this poor gentleman up, as these + good people soon will, and I should not know him, nor he himself. We are + all egotists in sickness and debility. An animal has been defined as “a + stomach ministered to by organs;” and the greatest man comes very near + this simple formula after a month or two of fever and starvation. + </p> + <p> + James Grayden and his team pleased me well enough, and so I made a bargain + with him to take us, the lady and myself, on our further journey as far as + Middletown. As we were about starting from the front of the United States + Hotel, two gentlemen presented themselves and expressed a wish to be + allowed to share our conveyance. I looked at them and convinced myself + that they were neither Rebels in disguise, nor deserters, nor + camp-followers, nor miscreants, but plain, honest men on a proper errand. + The first of them I will pass over briefly. He was a young man of mild and + modest demeanor, chaplain to a Pennsylvania regiment, which he was going + to rejoin. He belonged to the Moravian Church, of which I had the + misfortune to know little more than what I had learned from Southey's + “Life of Wesley.” and from the exquisite hymns we have borrowed from its + rhapsodists. The other stranger was a New Englander of respectable + appearance, with a grave, hard, honest, hay-bearded face, who had come to + serve the sick and wounded on the battle-field and in its immediate + neighborhood. There is no reason why I should not mention his name, but I + shall content myself with calling him the Philanthropist. + </p> + <p> + So we set forth, the sturdy wagon, the serviceable bays, with James + Grayden their driver, the gentle lady, whose serene patience bore up + through all delays and discomforts, the Chaplain, the Philanthropist, and + myself, the teller of this story. + </p> + <p> + And now, as we emerged from Frederick, we struck at once upon the trail + from the great battle-field. The road was filled with straggling and + wounded soldiers. All who could travel on foot,—multitudes with + slight wounds of the upper limbs, the head, or face,—were told to + take up their beds,—a light burden or none at all,—and walk. + Just as the battle-field sucks everything into its red vortex for the + conflict, so does it drive everything off in long, diverging rays after + the fierce centripetal forces have met and neutralized each other. For + more than a week there had been sharp fighting all along this road. + Through the streets of Frederick, through Crampton's Gap, over South + Mountain, sweeping at last the hills and the woods that skirt the windings + of the Antietam, the long battle had travelled, like one of those + tornadoes which tear their path through our fields and villages. The slain + of higher condition, “embalmed” and iron-cased, were sliding off on the + railways to their far homes; the dead of the rank and file were being + gathered up and committed hastily to the earth; the gravely wounded were + cared for hard by the scene of conflict, or pushed a little way along to + the neighboring villages; while those who could walk were meeting us, as I + have said, at every step in the road. It was a pitiable sight, truly + pitiable, yet so vast, so far beyond the possibility of relief, that many + single sorrows of small dimensions have wrought upon my feelings more than + the sight of this great caravan of maimed pilgrims. The companionship of + so many seemed to make a joint-stock of their suffering; it was next to + impossible to individualize it, and so bring it home, as one can do with a + single broken limb or aching wound. Then they were all of the male sex, + and in the freshness or the prime of their strength. Though they tramped + so wearily along, yet there was rest and kind nursing in store for them. + These wounds they bore would be the medals they would show their children + and grandchildren by and by. Who would not rather wear his decorations + beneath his uniform than on it? + </p> + <p> + Yet among them were figures which arrested our attention and sympathy. + Delicate boys, with more spirit than strength, flushed with fever or pale + with exhaustion or haggard with suffering, dragged their weary limbs along + as if each step would exhaust their slender store of strength. At the + roadside sat or lay others, quite spent with their journey. Here and there + was a house at which the wayfarers would stop, in the hope, I fear often + vain, of getting refreshment; and in one place was a clear, cool spring, + where the little bands of the long procession halted for a few moments, as + the trains that traverse the desert rest by its fountains. My companions + had brought a few peaches along with them, which the Philanthropist + bestowed upon the tired and thirsty soldiers with a satisfaction which we + all shared. I had with me a small flask of strong waters, to be used as a + medicine in case of inward grief. From this, also, he dispensed relief, + without hesitation, to a poor fellow who looked as if he needed it. I + rather admired the simplicity with which he applied my limited means of + solace to the first-comer who wanted it more than I; a genuine benevolent + impulse does not stand on ceremony, and had I perished of colic for want + of a stimulus that night, I should not have reproached my friend the + Philanthropist, any more than I grudged my other ardent friend the two + dollars and more which it cost me to send the charitable message he left + in my hands. + </p> + <p> + It was a lovely country through which we were riding. The hillsides rolled + away into the distance, slanting up fair and broad to the sun, as one sees + them in the open parts of the Berkshire Valley, at Lanesborough, for + instance, or in the many-hued mountain chalice at the bottom of which the + Shaker houses of Lebanon have shaped themselves like a sediment of cubical + crystals. The wheat was all garnered, and the land ploughed for a new + crop. There was Indian corn standing, but I saw no pumpkins warming their + yellow carapaces in the sunshine like so many turtles; only in a single + instance did I notice some wretched little miniature specimens in form and + hue not unlike those colossal oranges of our cornfields. The rail fences + were somewhat disturbed, and the cinders of extinguished fires showed the + use to which they had been applied. The houses along the road were not for + the most part neatly kept; the garden fences were poorly built of laths or + long slats, and very rarely of trim aspect. The men of this region seemed + to ride in the saddle very generally, rather than drive. They looked sober + and stern, less curious and lively than Yankees, and I fancied that a type + of features familiar to us in the countenance of the late John Tyler, our + accidental President, was frequently met with. The women were still more + distinguishable from our New England pattern. Soft, sallow, succulent, + delicately finished about the mouth and firmly shaped about the chin, + dark-eyed, full-throated, they looked as if they had been grown in a land + of olives. There was a little toss in their movement, full of muliebrity. + I fancied there was something more of the duck and less of the chicken + about them, as compared with the daughters of our leaner soil; but these + are mere impressions caught from stray glances, and if there is any + offence in them, my fair readers may consider them all retracted. + </p> + <p> + At intervals, a dead horse lay by the roadside, or in the fields, + unburied, not grateful to gods or men. I saw no bird of prey, no + ill-omened fowl, on my way to the carnival of death, or at the place where + it had been held. The vulture of story, the crow of Talavera, the “twa + corbies” of the ghastly ballad, are all from Nature, doubtless; but no + black wing was spread over these animal ruins, and no call to the banquet + pierced through the heavy-laden and sickening air. + </p> + <p> + Full in the middle of the road, caring little for whom or what they met, + came long strings of army wagons, returning empty from the front after + supplies. James Grayden stated it as his conviction that they had a little + rather run into a fellow than not. I liked the looks of these equipages + and their drivers; they meant business. Drawn by mules mostly, six, I + think, to a wagon, powdered well with dust, wagon, beast, and driver, they + came jogging along the road, turning neither to right nor left,—some + driven by bearded, solemn white men, some by careless, saucy-looking + negroes, of a blackness like that of anthracite or obsidian. There seemed + to be nothing about them, dead or alive, that was not serviceable. + Sometimes a mule would give out on the road; then he was left where he + lay, until by and by he would think better of it, and get up, when the + first public wagon that came along would hitch him on, and restore him to + the sphere of duty. + </p> + <p> + It was evening when we got to Middletown. The gentle lady who had graced + our homely conveyance with her company here left us. She found her + husband, the gallant Colonel, in very comfortable quarters, well cared + for, very weak from the effects of the fearful operation he had been + compelled to undergo, but showing calm courage to endure as he had shown + manly energy to act. It was a meeting full of heroism and tenderness, of + which I heard more than there is need to tell. Health to the brave + soldier, and peace to the household over which so fair a spirit presides! + </p> + <p> + Dr. Thompson, the very active and intelligent surgical director of the + hospitals of the place, took me in charge. He carried me to the house of a + worthy and benevolent clergyman of the German Reformed Church, where I was + to take tea and pass the night. What became of the Moravian chaplain I did + not know; but my friend the Philanthropist had evidently made up his mind + to adhere to my fortunes. He followed me, therefore, to the house of the + “Dominie,” as a newspaper correspondent calls my kind host, and partook of + the fare there furnished me. He withdrew with me to the apartment assigned + for my slumbers, and slept sweetly on the same pillow where I waked and + tossed. Nay, I do affirm that he did, unconsciously, I believe, encroach + on that moiety of the couch which I had flattered myself was to be my own + through the watches of the night, and that I was in serious doubt at one + time whether I should not be gradually, but irresistibly, expelled from + the bed which I had supposed destined for my sole possession. As Ruth + clave unto Naomi, so my friend the Philanthropist clave unto me. “Whither + thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge.” A really + kind, good man, full of zeal, determined to help somebody, and absorbed in + his one thought, he doubted nobody's willingness to serve him, going, as + he was, on a purely benevolent errand. When he reads this, as I hope he + will, let him be assured of my esteem and respect; and if he gained any + accommodation from being in my company, let me tell him that I learned a + lesson from his active benevolence. I could, however, have wished to hear + him laugh once before we parted, perhaps forever. He did not, to the best + of my recollection, even smile during the whole period that we were in + company. I am afraid that a lightsome disposition and a relish for humor + are not so common in those whose benevolence takes an active turn as in + people of sentiment, who are always ready with their tears and abounding + in passionate expressions of sympathy. Working philanthropy is a practical + specialty, requiring not a mere impulse, but a talent, with its peculiar + sagacity for finding its objects, a tact for selecting its agencies, an + organizing and arranging faculty, a steady set of nerves, and a + constitution such as Sallust describes in Catiline, patient of cold, of + hunger, and of watching. Philanthropists are commonly grave, occasionally + grim, and not very rarely morose. Their expansive social force is + imprisoned as a working power, to show itself only through its legitimate + pistons and cranks. The tighter the boiler, the less it whistles and sings + at its work. When Dr. Waterhouse, in 1780, travelled with Howard, on his + tour among the Dutch prisons and hospitals, he found his temper and + manners very different from what would have been expected. + </p> + <p> + My benevolent companion having already made a preliminary exploration of + the hospitals of the place, before sharing my bed with him, as above + mentioned, I joined him in a second tour through them. The authorities of + Middletown are evidently leagued with the surgeons of that place, for such + a break-neck succession of pitfalls and chasms I have never seen in the + streets of a civilized town. It was getting late in the evening when we + began our rounds. The principal collections of the wounded were in the + churches. Boards were laid over the tops of the pews, on these some straw + was spread, and on this the wounded lay, with little or no covering other + than such scanty clothes as they had on. There were wounds of all degrees + of severity, but I heard no groans or murmurs. Most of the sufferers were + hurt in the limbs, some had undergone amputation, and all had, I presume, + received such attention as was required. Still, it was but a rough and + dreary kind of comfort that the extemporized hospitals suggested. I could + not help thinking the patients must be cold; but they were used to camp + life, and did not complain. The men who watched were not of the + soft-handed variety of the race. One of them was smoking his pipe as he + went from bed to bed. I saw one poor fellow who had been shot through the + breast; his breathing was labored, and he was tossing, anxious and + restless. The men were debating about the opiate he was to take, and I was + thankful that I happened there at the right moment to see that he was well + narcotized for the night. Was it possible that my Captain could be lying + on the straw in one of these places? Certainly possible, but not probable; + but as the lantern was held over each bed, it was with a kind of thrill + that I looked upon the features it illuminated. Many times as I went from + hospital to hospital in my wanderings, I started as some faint + resemblance,--the shade of a young man's hair, the outline of his + half-turned face,—recalled the presence I was in search of. The face + would turn towards me, and the momentary illusion would pass away, but + still the fancy clung to me. There was no figure huddled up on its rude + couch, none stretched at the roadside, none toiling languidly along the + dusty pike, none passing in car or in ambulance, that I did not + scrutinize, as if it might be that for which I was making my pilgrimage to + the battlefield. + </p> + <p> + “There are two wounded Secesh,” said my companion. I walked to the bedside + of the first, who was an officer, a lieutenant, if I remember right, from + North Carolina. He was of good family, son of a judge in one of the higher + courts of his State, educated, pleasant, gentle, intelligent. One moment's + intercourse with such an enemy, lying helpless and wounded among + strangers, takes away all personal bitterness towards those with whom we + or our children have been but a few hours before in deadly strife. The + basest lie which the murderous contrivers of this Rebellion have told is + that which tries to make out a difference of race in the men of the North + and South. It would be worth a year of battles to abolish this delusion, + though the great sponge of war that wiped it out were moistened with the + best blood of the land. My Rebel was of slight, scholastic habit, and + spoke as one accustomed to tread carefully among the parts of speech. It + made my heart ache to see him, a man finished in the humanities and + Christian culture, whom the sin of his forefathers and the crime of his + rulers had set in barbarous conflict against others of like training with + his own,—a man who, but for the curse which our generation is called + on to expiate, would have taken his part in the beneficent task of shaping + the intelligence and lifting the moral standard of a peaceful and united + people. + </p> + <p> + On Sunday morning, the twenty-first, having engaged James Grayden and his + team, I set out with the Chaplain and the Philanthropist for Keedysville. + Our track lay through the South Mountain Gap, and led us first to the town + of Boonsborough, where, it will be remembered, Colonel Dwight had been + brought after the battle. We saw the positions occupied in the battle of + South Mountain, and many traces of the conflict. In one situation a group + of young trees was marked with shot, hardly one having escaped. As we + walked by the side of the wagon, the Philanthropist left us for a while + and climbed a hill, where, along the line of a fence, he found traces of + the most desperate fighting. A ride of some three hours brought us to + Boonsborough, where I roused the unfortunate army surgeon who had charge + of the hospitals, and who was trying to get a little sleep after his + fatigues and watchings. He bore this cross very creditably, and helped me + to explore all places where my soldier might be lying among the crowds of + wounded. After the useless search, I resumed my journey, fortified with a + note of introduction to Dr. Letterman; also with a bale of oakum which I + was to carry to that gentleman, this substance being employed as a + substitute for lint. We were obliged also to procure a pass to Keedysville + from the Provost Marshal of Boonsborough. As we came near the place, we + learned that General McClellan's head quarters had been removed from this + village some miles farther to the front. + </p> + <p> + On entering the small settlement of Keedysville, a familiar face and + figure blocked the way, like one of Bunyan's giants. The tall form and + benevolent countenance, set off by long, flowing hair, belonged to the + excellent Mayor Frank B. Fay of Chelsea, who, like my Philanthropist, only + still more promptly, had come to succor the wounded of the great battle. + It was wonderful to see how his single personality pervaded this torpid + little village; he seemed to be the centre of all its activities. All my + questions he answered clearly and decisively, as one who knew everything + that was going on in the place. But the one question I had come five + hundred miles to ask,—Where is Captain H.?—he could not + answer. There were some thousands of wounded in the place, he told me, + scattered about everywhere. It would be a long job to hunt up my Captain; + the only way would be to go to every house and ask for him. Just then a + medical officer came up. + </p> + <p> + “Do you know anything of Captain H. of the Massachusetts Twentieth?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh yes; he is staying in that house. I saw him there, doing very well.” + </p> + <p> + A chorus of hallelujahs arose in my soul, but I kept them to myself. Now, + then, for our twice-wounded volunteer, our young centurion whose + double-barred shoulder-straps we have never yet looked upon. Let us + observe the proprieties, however; no swelling upward of the mother,—no + hysterica passio, we do not like scenes. A calm salutation,—then + swallow and hold hard. That is about the programme. + </p> + <p> + A cottage of squared logs, filled in with plaster, and whitewashed. A + little yard before it, with a gate swinging. The door of the cottage ajar,—no + one visible as yet. I push open the door and enter. An old woman, Margaret + Kitzmuller her name proves to be, is the first person I see. + </p> + <p> + “Captain H. here?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh no, sir,—left yesterday morning for Hagerstown,—in a + milk-cart.” + </p> + <p> + The Kitzmuller is a beady-eyed, cheery-looking ancient woman, answers + questions with a rising inflection, and gives a good account of the + Captain, who got into the vehicle without assistance, and was in excellent + spirits. Of course he had struck for Hagerstown as the terminus of the + Cumberland Valley Railroad, and was on his way to Philadelphia, via + Chambersburg and Harrisburg, if he were not already in the hospitable home + of Walnut Street, where his friends were expecting him. + </p> + <p> + I might follow on his track or return upon my own; the distance was the + same to Philadelphia through Harrisburg as through Baltimore. But it was + very difficult, Mr. Fay told me, to procure any kind of conveyance to + Hagerstown; and, on the other hand, I had James Grayden and his wagon to + carry me back to Frederick. It was not likely that I should overtake the + object of my pursuit with nearly thirty-six hours start, even if I could + procure a conveyance that day. In the mean time James was getting + impatient to be on his return, according to the direction of his + employers. So I decided to go back with him. + </p> + <p> + But there was the great battle-field only about three miles from + Keedysville, and it was impossible to go without seeing that. James + Grayden's directions were peremptory, but it was a case for the higher + law. I must make a good offer for an extra couple of hours, such as would + satisfy the owners of the wagon, and enforce it by a personal motive. I + did this handsomely, and succeeded without difficulty. To add brilliancy + to my enterprise, I invited the Chaplain and the Philanthropist to take a + free passage with me. + </p> + <p> + We followed the road through the village for a space, then turned off to + the right, and wandered somewhat vaguely, for want of precise directions, + over the hills. Inquiring as we went, we forded a wide creek in which + soldiers were washing their clothes, the name of which we did not then + know, but which must have been the Antietam. At one point we met a party, + women among them, bringing off various trophies they had picked up on the + battlefield. Still wandering along, we were at last pointed to a hill in + the distance, a part of the summit of which was covered with Indian corn. + There, we were told, some of the fiercest fighting of the day had been + done. The fences were taken down so as to make a passage across the + fields, and the tracks worn within the last few days looked like old + roads. We passed a fresh grave under a tree near the road. A board was + nailed to the tree, bearing the name, as well as I could make it out, of + Gardiner, of a New Hampshire regiment. + </p> + <p> + On coming near the brow of the hill, we met a party carrying picks and + spades. “How many?” “Only one.” The dead were nearly all buried, then, in + this region of the field of strife. We stopped the wagon, and, getting + out, began to look around us. Hard by was a large pile of muskets, scores, + if not hundreds, which had been picked up, and were guarded for the + Government. A long ridge of fresh gravel rose before us. A board stuck up + in front of it bore this inscription, the first part of which was, I + believe, not correct: “The Rebel General Anderson and 80 Rebels are buried + in this hole.” Other smaller ridges were marked with the number of dead + lying under them. The whole ground was strewed with fragments of clothing, + haversacks, canteens, cap-boxes, bullets, cartridge-boxes, cartridges, + scraps of paper, portions of bread and meat. I saw two soldiers' caps that + looked as though their owners had been shot through the head. In several + places I noticed dark red patches where a pool of blood had curdled and + caked, as some poor fellow poured his life out on the sod. I then wandered + about in the cornfield. It surprised me to notice, that, though there was + every mark of hard fighting having taken place here, the Indian corn was + not generally trodden down. One of our cornfields is a kind of forest, and + even when fighting, men avoid the tall stalks as if they were trees. At + the edge of this cornfield lay a gray horse, said to have belonged to a + Rebel colonel, who was killed near the same place. Not far off were two + dead artillery horses in their harness. Another had been attended to by a + burying-party, who had thrown some earth over him but his last bed-clothes + were too short, and his legs stuck out stark and stiff from beneath the + gravel coverlet. It was a great pity that we had no intelligent guide to + explain to us the position of that portion of the two armies which fought + over this ground. There was a shallow trench before we came to the + cornfield, too narrow for a road, as I should think, too elevated for a + water-course, and which seemed to have been used as a rifle-pit. At any + rate, there had been hard fighting in and about it. This and the cornfield + may serve to identify the part of the ground we visited, if any who fought + there should ever look over this paper. The opposing tides of battle must + have blended their waves at this point, for portions of gray uniform were + mingled with the “garments rolled in blood” torn from our own dead and + wounded soldiers. I picked up a Rebel canteen, and one of our own,—but + there was something repulsive about the trodden and stained relics of the + stale battle-field. It was like the table of some hideous orgy left + uncleared, and one turned away disgusted from its broken fragments and + muddy heeltaps. A bullet or two, a button, a brass plate from a soldier's + belt, served well enough for mementos of my visit, with a letter which I + picked up, directed to Richmond, Virginia, its seal unbroken. “N. C. + Cleveland County. E. Wright to J. Wright.” On the other side, “A few lines + from W. L. Vaughn.” who has just been writing for the wife to her husband, + and continues on his own account. The postscript, “tell John that nancy's + folks are all well and has a verry good Little Crop of corn a growing.” I + wonder, if, by one of those strange chances of which I have seen so many, + this number or leaf of the “Atlantic” will not sooner or later find its + way to Cleveland County, North Carolina, and E. Wright, widow of James + Wright, and Nancy's folks, get from these sentences the last glimpse of + husband and friend as he threw up his arms and fell in the bloody + cornfield of Antietam? I will keep this stained letter for them until + peace comes back, if it comes in my time, and my pleasant North Carolina + Rebel of the Middletown Hospital will, perhaps look these poor people up, + and tell them where to send for it. + </p> + <p> + On the battle-field I parted with my two companions, the Chaplain and the + Philanthropist. They were going to the front, the one to find his + regiment, the other to look for those who needed his assistance. We + exchanged cards and farewells, I mounted the wagon, the horses' heads were + turned homewards, my two companions went their way, and I saw them no + more. On my way back, I fell into talk with James Grayden. Born in + England, Lancashire; in this country since he was four years old. Had + nothing to care for but an old mother; didn't know what he should do if he + lost her. Though so long in this country, he had all the simplicity and + childlike lightheartedness which belong to the Old World's people. He + laughed at the smallest pleasantry, and showed his great white English + teeth; he took a joke without retorting by an impertinence; he had a very + limited curiosity about all that was going on; he had small store of + information; he lived chiefly in his horses, it seemed to me. His quiet + animal nature acted as a pleasing anodyne to my recurring fits of anxiety, + and I liked his frequent “'Deed I don't know, sir.” better than I have + sometimes relished the large discourse of professors and other very wise + men. + </p> + <p> + I have not much to say of the road which we were travelling for the second + time. Reaching Middletown, my first call was on the wounded Colonel and + his lady. She gave me a most touching account of all the suffering he had + gone through with his shattered limb before he succeeded in finding a + shelter; showing the terrible want of proper means of transportation of + the wounded after the battle. It occurred to me, while at this house, that + I was more or less famished, and for the first time in my life I begged + for a meal, which the kind family with whom the Colonel was staying most + graciously furnished me. + </p> + <p> + After tea, there came in a stout army surgeon, a Highlander by birth, + educated in Edinburgh, with whom I had pleasant, not unstimulating talk. + He had been brought very close to that immane and nefandous Burke-and-Hare + business which made the blood of civilization run cold in the year 1828, + and told me, in a very calm way, with an occasional pinch from the mull, + to refresh his memory, some of the details of those frightful murders, + never rivalled in horror until the wretch Dumollard, who kept a private + cemetery for his victims, was dragged into the light of day. He had a good + deal to say, too, about the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh, and + the famous preparations, mercurial and the rest, which I remember well + having seen there,—the “sudabit multum,” and others,—also of + our New York Professor Carnochan's handiwork, a specimen of which I once + admired at the New York College. But the doctor was not in a happy frame + of mind, and seemed willing to forget the present in the past: things went + wrong, somehow, and the time was out of joint with him. + </p> + <p> + Dr. Thompson, kind, cheerful, companionable, offered me half his own wide + bed, in the house of Dr. Baer, for my second night in Middletown. Here I + lay awake again another night. Close to the house stood an ambulance in + which was a wounded Rebel officer, attended by one of their own surgeons. + He was calling out in a loud voice, all night long, as it seemed to me, + “Doctor! Doctor! Driver! Water!” in loud, complaining tones, I have no + doubt of real suffering, but in strange contrast with the silent patience + which was the almost universal rule. + </p> + <p> + The courteous Dr. Thompson will let me tell here an odd coincidence, + trivial, but having its interest as one of a series. The Doctor and myself + lay in the bed, and a lieutenant, a friend of his, slept on the sofa, At + night, I placed my match-box, a Scotch one, of the Macpherson-plaid + pattern, which I bought years ago, on the bureau, just where I could put + my hand upon it. I was the last of the three to rise in the morning, and + on looking for my pretty match-box, I found it was gone. This was rather + awkward,—not on account of the loss, but of the unavoidable fact + that one of my fellow-lodgers must have taken it. I must try to find out + what it meant. + </p> + <p> + “By the way, Doctor, have you seen anything of a little plaid-pattern + match-box?” + </p> + <p> + The Doctor put his hand to his pocket, and, to his own huge surprise and + my great gratification, pulled out two match-boxes exactly alike, both + printed with the Macpherson plaid. One was his, the other mine, which he + had seen lying round, and naturally took for his own, thrusting it into + his pocket, where it found its twin-brother from the same workshop. In + memory of which event, we exchanged boxes, like two Homeric heroes. + </p> + <p> + This curious coincidence illustrates well enough some supposed cases of + plagiarism of which I will mention one where my name figured. When a + little poem called “The Two Streams” was first printed, a writer in the + New York “Evening Post” virtually accused the author of it of borrowing + the thought from a baccalaureate sermon of President Hopkins of + Williamstown, and printed a quotation from that discourse, which, as I + thought, a thief or catch-poll might well consider as establishing a fair + presumption that it was so borrowed. I was at the same time wholly + unconscious of ever having met with the discourse or the sentence which + the verses were most like, nor do I believe I ever had seen or heard + either. Some time after this, happening to meet my eloquent cousin, + Wendell Phillips, I mentioned the fact to him, and he told me that he had + once used the special image said to be borrowed, in a discourse delivered + at Williamstown. On relating this to my friend Mr. Buchanan Read, he + informed me that he too, had used the image,—perhaps referring to + his poem called “The Twins.” He thought Tennyson had used it also. The + parting of the streams on the Alps is poetically elaborated in a passage + attributed to “M. Loisne,” printed in the “Boston Evening Transcript” for + October 23, 1859. Captain, afterwards Sir Francis Head, speaks of the + showers parting on the Cordilleras, one portion going to the Atlantic, one + to the Pacific. I found the image running loose in my mind, without a + halter. It suggested itself as an illustration of the will, and I worked + the poem out by the aid of Mitchell's School Atlas.—The spores of a + great many ideas are floating about in the atmosphere. We no more know + where all the growths of our mind came from, than where the lichens which + eat the names off from the gravestones borrowed the germs that gave them + birth. The two match-boxes were just alike, but neither was a plagiarism. + </p> + <p> + In the morning I took to the same wagon once more, but, instead of James + Grayden, I was to have for my driver a young man who spelt his name + “Phillip Ottenheimer” and whose features at once showed him to be an + Israelite. I found him agreeable enough, and disposed to talk. So I asked + him many questions about his religion, and got some answers that sound + strangely in Christian ears. He was from Wittenberg, and had been educated + in strict Jewish fashion. From his childhood he had read Hebrew, but was + not much of a scholar otherwise. A young person of his race lost caste + utterly by marrying a Christian. The Founder of our religion was + considered by the Israelites to have been “a right smart man and a great + doctor.” But the horror with which the reading of the New Testament by any + young person of their faith would be regarded was as great, I judged by + his language, as that of one of our straitest sectaries would be, if he + found his son or daughter perusing the “Age of Reason.” + </p> + <p> + In approaching Frederick, the singular beauty of its clustered spires + struck me very much, so that I was not surprised to find “Fair-View” laid + down about this point on a railroad map. I wish some wandering + photographer would take a picture of the place, a stereoscopic one, if + possible, to show how gracefully, how charmingly, its group of steeples + nestles among the Maryland hills. The town had a poetical look from a + distance, as if seers and dreamers might dwell there. The first sign I + read, on entering its long street, might perhaps be considered as + confirming my remote impression. It bore these words: “Miss Ogle, Past, + Present, and Future.” On arriving, I visited Lieutenant Abbott, and the + attenuated unhappy gentleman, his neighbor, sharing between them as my + parting gift what I had left of the balsam known to the Pharmacopoeia as + Spiritus Vini Gallici. I took advantage of General Shriver's always open + door to write a letter home, but had not time to partake of his offered + hospitality. The railroad bridge over the Monocacy had been rebuilt since + I passed through Frederick, and we trundled along over the track toward + Baltimore. + </p> + <p> + It was a disappointment, on reaching the Eutaw House, where I had ordered + all communications to be addressed, to find no telegraphic message from + Philadelphia or Boston, stating that Captain H. had arrived at the former + place, “wound doing well in good spirits expects to leave soon for + Boston.” After all, it was no great matter; the Captain was, no doubt, + snugly lodged before this in the house called Beautiful, at — Walnut + Street, where that “grave and beautiful damsel named Discretion” had + already welcomed him, smiling, though “the water stood in her eyes,” and + had “called out Prudence, Piety, and Charity, who, after a little more + discourse with him, had him into the family.” + </p> + <p> + The friends I had met at the Eutaw House had all gone but one, the lady of + an officer from Boston, who was most amiable and agreeable, and whose + benevolence, as I afterwards learned, soon reached the invalids I had left + suffering at Frederick. General Wool still walked the corridors, + inexpansive, with Fort McHenry on his shoulders, and Baltimore in his + breeches-pocket, and his courteous aid again pressed upon me his kind + offices. About the doors of the hotel the news-boys cried the papers in + plaintive, wailing tones, as different from the sharp accents of their + Boston counterparts as a sigh from the southwest is from a northeastern + breeze. To understand what they said was, of course, impossible to any but + an educated ear, and if I made out “Starr” and “Clipp'rr,” it was because + I knew beforehand what must be the burden of their advertising coranach. + </p> + <p> + I set out for Philadelphia on the morrow, Tuesday the twenty-third, there + beyond question to meet my Captain, once more united to his brave wounded + companions under that roof which covers a household of as noble hearts as + ever throbbed with human sympathies. Back River, Bush River, Gunpowder + Creek,—lives there the man with soul so dead that his memory has + cerements to wrap up these senseless names in the same envelopes with + their meaningless localities? But the Susquehanna,—the broad, the + beautiful, the historical, the poetical Susquehanna,—the river of + Wyoming and of Gertrude, dividing the shores where + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “Aye those sunny mountains half-way down + Would echo flageolet from some romantic town,”— +</pre> + <p> + did not my heart renew its allegiance to the poet who has made it lovely + to the imagination as well as to the eye, and so identified his fame with + the noble stream that it “rolls mingling with his fame forever?” The + prosaic traveller perhaps remembers it better from the fact that a great + sea-monster, in the shape of a steamboat, takes him, sitting in the car, + on its back, and swims across with him like Arion's dolphin,—also + that mercenary men on board offer him canvas-backs in the season, and + ducks of lower degree at other periods. + </p> + <p> + At Philadelphia again at last! Drive fast, O colored man and brother, to + the house called Beautiful, where my Captain lies sore wounded, waiting + for the sound of the chariot wheels which bring to his bedside the face + and the voice nearer than any save one to his heart in this his hour of + pain and weakness! Up a long street with white shutters and white steps to + all the houses. Off at right angles into another long street with white + shutters and white steps to all the houses. Off again at another right + angle into still another long street with white shutters and white steps + to all the houses. The natives of this city pretend to know one street + from another by some individual differences of aspect; but the best way + for a stranger to distinguish the streets he has been in from others is to + make a cross or other mark on the white shutters. + </p> + <p> + This corner-house is the one. Ring softly,—for the + Lieutenant-Colonel lies there with a dreadfully wounded arm, and two sons + of the family, one wounded like the Colonel, one fighting with death in + the fog of a typhoid fever, will start with fresh pangs at the least sound + you can make. I entered the house, but no cheerful smile met me. The + sufferers were each of them thought to be in a critical condition. The + fourth bed, waiting its tenant day after day, was still empty. Not a word + from my Captain. + </p> + <p> + Then, foolish, fond body that I was, my heart sank within me. Had he been + taken ill on the road, perhaps been attacked with those formidable + symptoms which sometimes come on suddenly after wounds that seemed to be + doing well enough, and was his life ebbing away in some lonely cottage, + nay, in some cold barn or shed, or at the wayside, unknown, uncared for? + Somewhere between Philadelphia and Hagerstown, if not at the latter town, + he must be, at any rate. I must sweep the hundred and eighty miles between + these places as one would sweep a chamber where a precious pearl had been + dropped. I must have a companion in my search, partly to help me look + about, and partly because I was getting nervous and felt lonely. Charley + said he would go with me,—Charley, my Captain's beloved friend, + gentle, but full of spirit and liveliness, cultivated, social, + affectionate, a good talker, a most agreeable letter-writer, observing, + with large relish of life, and keen sense of humor. He was not well enough + to go, some of the timid ones said; but he answered by packing his + carpet-bag, and in an hour or two we were on the Pennsylvania Central + Railroad in full blast for Harrisburg. + </p> + <p> + I should have been a forlorn creature but for the presence of my + companion. In his delightful company I half forgot my anxieties, which, + exaggerated as they may seem now, were not unnatural after what I had seen + of the confusion and distress that had followed the great battle, nay, + which seem almost justified by the recent statement that “high officers” + were buried after that battle whose names were never ascertained. I + noticed little matters, as usual. The road was filled in between the rails + with cracked stones, such as are used for macadamizing streets. They keep + the dust down, I suppose, for I could not think of any other use for them. + By and by the glorious valley which stretches along through Chester and + Lancaster Counties opened upon us. Much as I had heard of the fertile + regions of Pennsylvania, the vast scale and the uniform luxuriance of this + region astonished me. The grazing pastures were so green, the fields were + under such perfect culture, the cattle looked so sleek, the houses were so + comfortable, the barns so ample, the fences so well kept, that I did not + wonder, when I was told that this region was called the England of + Pennsylvania. The people whom we saw were, like the cattle, well + nourished; the young women looked round and wholesome. + </p> + <p> + “Grass makes girls.” I said to my companion, and left him to work out my + Orphic saying, thinking to myself, that as guano makes grass, it was a + legitimate conclusion that Ichaboe must be a nursery of female loveliness. + </p> + <p> + As the train stopped at the different stations, I inquired at each if they + had any wounded officers. None as yet; the red rays of the battle-field + had not streamed off so far as this. Evening found us in the cars; they + lighted candles in spring-candle-sticks; odd enough I thought it in the + land of oil-wells and unmeasured floods of kerosene. Some fellows turned + up the back of a seat so as to make it horizontal, and began gambling, or + pretending to gamble; it looked as if they were trying to pluck a young + countryman; but appearances are deceptive, and no deeper stake than + “drinks for the crowd” seemed at last to be involved. But remembering that + murder has tried of late years to establish itself as an institution in + the cars, I was less tolerant of the doings of these “sportsmen” who tried + to turn our public conveyance into a travelling Frascati. They acted as if + they were used to it, and nobody seemed to pay much attention to their + manoeuvres. + </p> + <p> + We arrived at Harrisburg in the course of the evening, and attempted to + find our way to the Jones House, to which we had been commended. By some + mistake, intentional on the part of somebody, as it may have been, or + purely accidental, we went to the Herr House instead. I entered my name in + the book, with that of my companion. A plain, middle-aged man stepped up, + read it to himself in low tones, and coupled to it a literary title by + which I have been sometimes known. He proved to be a graduate of Brown + University, and had heard a certain Phi Beta Kappa poem delivered there a + good many years ago. I remembered it, too; Professor Goddard, whose sudden + and singular death left such lasting regret, was the Orator. I recollect + that while I was speaking a drum went by the church, and how I was + disgusted to see all the heads near the windows thrust out of them, as if + the building were on fire. Cedat armis toga. The clerk in the office, a + mild, pensive, unassuming young man, was very polite in his manners, and + did all he could to make us comfortable. He was of a literary turn, and + knew one of his guests in his character of author. At tea, a mild old + gentleman, with white hair and beard, sat next us. He, too, had come + hunting after his son, a lieutenant in a Pennsylvania regiment. Of these, + father and son, more presently. + </p> + <p> + After tea we went to look up Dr. Wilson, chief medical officer of the + hospitals in the place, who was staying at the Brady House. A magnificent + old toddy-mixer, Bardolphian in hue, and stern of aspect, as all + grog-dispensers must be, accustomed as they are to dive through the + features of men to the bottom of their souls and pockets to see whether + they are solvent to the amount of sixpence, answered my question by a wave + of one hand, the other being engaged in carrying a dram to his lips. His + superb indifference gratified my artistic feeling more than it wounded my + personal sensibilities. Anything really superior in its line claims my + homage, and this man was the ideal bartender, above all vulgar passions, + untouched by commonplace sympathies, himself a lover of the liquid + happiness he dispenses, and filled with a fine scorn of all those lesser + felicities conferred by love or fame or wealth or any of the roundabout + agencies for which his fiery elixir is the cheap, all-powerful substitute. + </p> + <p> + Dr. Wilson was in bed, though it was early in the evening, not having + slept for I don't know how many nights. + </p> + <p> + “Take my card up to him, if you please.” + </p> + <p> + “This way, sir.” + </p> + <p> + A man who has not slept for a fortnight or so is not expected to be as + affable, when attacked in his bed, as a French Princess of old time at her + morning receptions. Dr. Wilson turned toward me, as I entered, without + effusion, but without rudeness. His thick, dark moustache was chopped off + square at the lower edge of the upper lip, which implied a decisive, if + not a peremptory, style of character. + </p> + <p> + I am Dr. So-and-So of Hubtown, looking after my wounded son. (I gave my + name and said Boston, of course, in reality.) + </p> + <p> + Dr. Wilson leaned on his elbow and looked up in my face, his features + growing cordial. Then he put out his hand, and good-humoredly excused his + reception of me. The day before, as he told me, he had dismissed from the + service a medical man hailing from ******, Pennsylvania, bearing my last + name, preceded by the same two initials; and he supposed, when my card + came up, it was this individual who was disturbing his slumbers. The + coincidence was so unlikely a priori, unless some forlorn parent without + antecedents had named, a child after me, that I could not help + cross-questioning the Doctor, who assured me deliberately that the fact + was just as he had said, even to the somewhat unusual initials. Dr. Wilson + very kindly furnished me all the information in his power, gave me + directions for telegraphing to Chambersburg, and showed every disposition + to serve me. + </p> + <p> + On returning to the Herr House, we found the mild, white-haired old + gentleman in a very happy state. He had just discovered his son, in a + comfortable condition, at the United States Hotel. He thought that he + could probably give us some information which would prove interesting. To + the United States Hotel we repaired, then, in company with our + kind-hearted old friend, who evidently wanted to see me as happy as + himself. He went up-stairs to his son's chamber, and presently came down + to conduct us there. + </p> + <p> + Lieutenant P________, of the Pennsylvania __th, was a very fresh, + bright-looking young man, lying in bed from the effects of a recent injury + received in action. A grape-shot, after passing through a post and a + board, had struck him in the hip, bruising, but not penetrating or + breaking. He had good news for me. + </p> + <p> + That very afternoon, a party of wounded officers had passed through + Harrisburg, going East. He had conversed in the bar-room of this hotel + with one of them, who was wounded about the shoulder (it might be the + lower part of the neck), and had his arm in a sling. He belonged to the + Twentieth Massachusetts; the Lieutenant saw that he was a Captain, by the + two bars on his shoulder-strap. His name was my family-name; he was tall + and youthful, like my Captain. At four o'clock he left in the train for + Philadelphia. Closely questioned, the Lieutenant's evidence was as round, + complete, and lucid as a Japanese sphere of rock-crystal. + </p> + <p> + TE DEUM LAUDAMUS! The Lord's name be praised! The dead pain in the + semilunar ganglion (which I must remind my reader is a kind of stupid, + unreasoning brain, beneath the pit of the stomach, common to man and + beast, which aches in the supreme moments of life, as when the dam loses + her young ones, or the wild horse is lassoed) stopped short. There was a + feeling as if I had slipped off a tight boot, or cut a strangling garter,—only + it was all over my system. What more could I ask to assure me of the + Captain's safety? As soon as the telegraph office opens tomorrow morning + we will send a message to our friends in Philadelphia, and get a reply, + doubtless, which will settle the whole matter. + </p> + <p> + The hopeful morrow dawned at last, and the message was sent accordingly. + In due time, the following reply was received: “Phil Sept 24 I think the + report you have heard that W [the Captain] has gone East must be an error + we have not seen or heard of him here M L H.” + </p> + <p> + DE PROFUNDIS CLAMAVI! He could not have passed through Philadelphia + without visiting the house called Beautiful, where he had been so tenderly + cared for after his wound at Ball's Bluff, and where those whom he loved + were lying in grave peril of life or limb. Yet he did pass through + Harrisburg, going East, going to Philadelphia, on his way home. Ah, this + is it! He must have taken the late night-train from Philadelphia for New + York, in his impatience to reach home. There is such a train, not down in + the guide-book, but we were assured of the fact at the Harrisburg depot. + By and by came the reply from Dr. Wilson's telegraphic message: nothing + had been heard of the Captain at Chambersburg. Still later, another + message came from our Philadelphia friend, saying that he was seen on + Friday last at the house of Mrs. K_______, a well-known Union lady in + Hagerstown. Now this could not be true, for he did not leave Keedysville + until Saturday; but the name of the lady furnished a clew by which we + could probably track him. A telegram was at once sent to Mrs. K_______, + asking information. It was transmitted immediately, but when the answer + would be received was uncertain, as the Government almost monopolized the + line. I was, on the whole, so well satisfied that the Captain had gone + East, that, unless something were heard to the contrary, I proposed + following him in the late train leaving a little after midnight for + Philadelphia. + </p> + <p> + This same morning we visited several of the temporary hospitals, churches + and school-houses, where the wounded were lying. In one of these, after + looking round as usual, I asked aloud, “Any Massachusetts men here?” Two + bright faces lifted themselves from their pillows and welcomed me by name. + The one nearest me was private John B. Noyes of Company B, Massachusetts + Thirteenth, son of my old college class-tutor, now the reverend and + learned Professor of Hebrew, etc., in Harvard University. His neighbor was + Corporal Armstrong of the same Company. Both were slightly wounded, doing + well. I learned then and since from Mr. Noyes that they and their comrades + were completely overwhelmed by the attentions of the good people of + Harrisburg,—that the ladies brought them fruits and flowers, and + smiles, better than either,—and that the little boys of the place + were almost fighting for the privilege of doing their errands. I am afraid + there will be a good many hearts pierced in this war that will have no + bulletmark to show. + </p> + <p> + There were some heavy hours to get rid of, and we thought a visit to Camp + Curtin might lighten some of them. A rickety wagon carried us to the camp, + in company with a young woman from Troy, who had a basket of good things + with her for a sick brother. “Poor boy! he will be sure to die,” she said. + The rustic sentries uncrossed their muskets and let us in. The camp was on + a fair plain, girdled with hills, spacious, well kept apparently, but did + not present any peculiar attraction for us. The visit would have been a + dull one, had we not happened to get sight of a singular-looking set of + human beings in the distance. They were clad in stuff of different hues, + gray and brown being the leading shades, but both subdued by a neutral + tint, such as is wont to harmonize the variegated apparel of + travel-stained vagabonds. They looked slouchy, listless, torpid,—an + ill-conditioned crew, at first sight, made up of such fellows as an old + woman would drive away from her hen-roost with a broomstick. Yet these + were estrays from the fiery army which has given our generals so much + trouble,—“Secesh prisoners,” as a bystander told us. A talk with + them might be profitable and entertaining. But they were tabooed to the + common visitor, and it was necessary to get inside of the line which + separated us from them. + </p> + <p> + A solid, square captain was standing near by, to whom we were referred. + Look a man calmly through the very centre of his pupils and ask him for + anything with a tone implying entire conviction that he will grant it, and + he will very commonly consent to the thing asked, were it to commit + hari-kari. The Captain acceded to my postulate, and accepted my friend as + a corollary. As one string of my own ancestors was of Batavian origin, I + may be permitted to say that my new friend was of the Dutch type, like the + Amsterdam galiots, broad in the beam, capacious in the hold, and + calculated to carry a heavy cargo rather than to make fast time. He must + have been in politics at some time or other, for he made orations to all + the “Secesh,” in which he explained to them that the United States + considered and treated them like children, and enforced upon them the + ridiculous impossibility of the Rebels attempting to do anything against + such a power as that of the National Government. + </p> + <p> + Much as his discourse edified them and enlightened me, it interfered + somewhat with my little plans of entering into frank and friendly talk + with some of these poor fellows, for whom I could not help feeling a kind + of human sympathy, though I am as venomous a hater of the Rebellion as one + is like to find under the stars and stripes. It is fair to take a man + prisoner. It is fair to make speeches to a man. But to take a man prisoner + and then make speeches to him while in durance is not fair. + </p> + <p> + I began a few pleasant conversations, which would have come to something + but for the reason assigned. + </p> + <p> + One old fellow had a long beard, a drooping eyelid, and a black clay pipe + in his mouth. He was a Scotchman from Ayr, dour enough, and little + disposed to be communicative, though I tried him with the “Twa Briggs,” + and, like all Scotchmen, he was a reader of “Burrns.” He professed to feel + no interest in the cause for which he was fighting, and was in the army, I + judged, only from compulsion. There was a wild-haired, unsoaped boy, with + pretty, foolish features enough, who looked as if he might be about + seventeen, as he said he was. I give my questions and his answers + literally. + </p> + <p> + “What State do you come from?” + </p> + <p> + “Georgy.” + </p> + <p> + “What part of Georgia?” + </p> + <p> + “Midway.” + </p> + <p> + —[How odd that is! My father was settled for seven years as pastor + over the church at Midway, Georgia, and this youth is very probably a + grandson or great grandson of one of his parishioners.] + </p> + <p> + “Where did you go to church when you were at home?” + </p> + <p> + “Never went inside 'f a church b't once in m' life.” + </p> + <p> + “What did you do before you became a soldier?” + </p> + <p> + “Nothin'.” + </p> + <p> + “What do you mean to do when you get back?” + </p> + <p> + “Nothin'.” + </p> + <p> + Who could have any other feeling than pity for this poor human weed, this + dwarfed and etiolated soul, doomed by neglect to an existence but one + degree above that of the idiot? + </p> + <p> + With the group was a lieutenant, buttoned close in his gray coat,—one + button gone, perhaps to make a breastpin for some fair traitorous bosom. A + short, stocky man, undistinguishable from one of the “subject race” by any + obvious meanderings of the sangre azul on his exposed surfaces. He did not + say much, possibly because he was convinced by the statements and + arguments of the Dutch captain. He had on strong, iron-heeled shoes, of + English make, which he said cost him seventeen dollars in Richmond. + </p> + <p> + I put the question, in a quiet, friendly way, to several of the prisoners, + what they were fighting for. One answered, “For our homes.” Two or three + others said they did not know, and manifested great indifference to the + whole matter, at which another of their number, a sturdy fellow, took + offence, and muttered opinions strongly derogatory to those who would not + stand up for the cause they had been fighting for. A feeble; attenuated + old man, who wore the Rebel uniform, if such it could be called, stood by + without showing any sign of intelligence. It was cutting very close to the + bone to carve such a shred of humanity from the body politic to make a + soldier of. + </p> + <p> + We were just leaving, when a face attracted me, and I stopped the party. + “That is the true Southern type,” I said to my companion. A young fellow, + a little over twenty, rather tall, slight, with a perfectly smooth, boyish + cheek, delicate, somewhat high features, and a fine, almost feminine + mouth, stood at the opening of his tent, and as we turned towards him + fidgeted a little nervously with one hand at the loose canvas, while he + seemed at the same time not unwilling to talk. He was from Mississippi, he + said, had been at Georgetown College, and was so far imbued with letters + that even the name of the literary humility before him was not new to his + ears. Of course I found it easy to come into magnetic relation with him, + and to ask him without incivility what he was fighting for. “Because I + like the excitement of it,” he answered. I know those fighters with + women's mouths and boys' cheeks. One such from the circle of my own + friends, sixteen years old, slipped away from his nursery, and dashed in + under, an assumed name among the red-legged Zouaves, in whose company he + got an ornamental bullet-mark in one of the earliest conflicts of the war. + </p> + <p> + “Did you ever see a genuine Yankee?” said my Philadelphia friend to the + young Mississippian. + </p> + <p> + “I have shot at a good many of them,” he replied, modestly, his woman's + mouth stirring a little, with a pleasant, dangerous smile. + </p> + <p> + The Dutch captain here put his foot into the conversation, as his + ancestors used to put theirs into the scale, when they were buying furs of + the Indians by weight,—so much for the weight of a hand, so much for + the weight of a foot. It deranged the balance of our intercourse; there + was no use in throwing a fly where a paving-stone had just splashed into + the water, and I nodded a good-by to the boy-fighter, thinking how much + pleasanter it was for my friend the Captain to address him with + unanswerable arguments and crushing statements in his own tent than it + would be to meet him upon some remote picket station and offer his fair + proportions to the quick eye of a youngster who would draw a bead on him + before he had time to say dunder and blixum. + </p> + <p> + We drove back to the town. No message. After dinner still no message. Dr. + Cuyler, Chief Army Hospital Inspector, is in town, they say. Let us hunt + him up,—perhaps he can help us. + </p> + <p> + We found him at the Jones House. A gentleman of large proportions, but of + lively temperament, his frame knit in the North, I think, but ripened in + Georgia, incisive, prompt but good-humored, wearing his broad-brimmed, + steeple-crowned felt hat with the least possible tilt on one side,—a + sure sign of exuberant vitality in a mature and dignified person like him, + business-like in his ways, and not to be interrupted while occupied with + another, but giving himself up heartily to the claimant who held him for + the time. He was so genial, so cordial, so encouraging, that it seemed as + if the clouds, which had been thick all the morning, broke away as we came + into his presence, and the sunshine of his large nature filled the air all + around us. He took the matter in hand at once, as if it were his own + private affair. In ten minutes he had a second telegraphic message on its + way to Mrs. K at Hagerstown, sent through the Government channel from the + State Capitol,—one so direct and urgent that I should be sure of an + answer to it, whatever became of the one I had sent in the morning. + </p> + <p> + While this was going on, we hired a dilapidated barouche, driven by an odd + young native, neither boy nor man, “as a codling when 't is almost an + apple,” who said wery for very, simple and sincere, who smiled faintly at + our pleasantries, always with a certain reserve of suspicion, and a gleam + of the shrewdness that all men get who live in the atmosphere of horses. + He drove us round by the Capitol grounds, white with tents, which were + disgraced in my eyes by unsoldierly scrawls in huge letters, thus: THE + SEVEN BLOOMSBURY BROTHERS, DEVIL'S HOLE, and similar inscriptions. Then to + the Beacon Street of Harrisburg, which looks upon the Susquehanna instead + of the Common, and shows a long front of handsome houses with fair + gardens. The river is pretty nearly a mile across here, but very shallow + now. The codling told us that a Rebel spy had been caught trying its fords + a little while ago, and was now at Camp Curtin with a heavy ball chained + to his leg,—a popular story, but a lie, Dr. Wilson said. A little + farther along we came to the barkless stump of the tree to which Mr. + Harris, the Cecrops of the city named after him, was tied by the Indians + for some unpleasant operation of scalping or roasting, when he was rescued + by friendly savages, who paddled across the stream to save him. Our + youngling pointed out a very respectable-looking stone house as having + been “built by the Indians” about those times. Guides have queer notions + occasionally. + </p> + <p> + I was at Niagara just when Dr. Rae arrived there with his companions and + dogs and things from his Arctic search after the lost navigator. + </p> + <p> + “Who are those?” I said to my conductor. + </p> + <p> + “Them?” he answered. “Them's the men that's been out West, out to + Michig'n, aft' Sir Ben Franklin.” + </p> + <p> + Of the other sights of Harrisburg the Brant House or Hotel, or whatever it + is called, seems most worth notice. Its facade is imposing, with a row of + stately columns, high above which a broad sign impends, like a crag over + the brow of a lofty precipice. The lower floor only appeared to be open to + the public. Its tessellated pavement and ample courts suggested the idea + of a temple where great multitudes might kneel uncrowded at their + devotions; but from appearances about the place where the altar should be, + I judged, that, if one asked the officiating priest for the cup which + cheers and likewise inebriates, his prayer would not be unanswered. The + edifice recalled to me a similar phenomenon I had once looked upon,—the + famous Caffe Pedrocchi at Padua. It was the same thing in Italy and + America: a rich man builds himself a mausoleum, and calls it a place of + entertainment. The fragrance of innumerable libations and the smoke of + incense-breathing cigars and pipes shall ascend day and night through the + arches of his funereal monument. What are the poor dips which flare and + flicker on the crowns of spikes that stand at the corners of St. + Genevieve's filigree-cased sarcophagus to this perpetual offering of + sacrifice? + </p> + <p> + Ten o'clock in the evening was approaching. The telegraph office would + presently close, and as yet there were no tidings from Hagerstown. Let us + step over and see for ourselves. A message! A message! + </p> + <p> + “Captain H. still here leaves seven to-morrow for Harrisburg Penna Is + doing well Mrs HK—.” + </p> + <p> + A note from Dr. Cuyler to the same effect came soon afterwards to the + hotel. + </p> + <p> + We shall sleep well to-night; but let us sit awhile with nubiferous, or, + if we may coin a word, nepheligenous accompaniment, such as shall gently + narcotize the over-wearied brain and fold its convolutions for slumber + like the leaves of a lily at nightfall. For now the over-tense nerves are + all unstraining themselves, and a buzz, like that which comes over one who + stops after being long jolted upon an uneasy pavement, makes the whole + frame alive with a luxurious languid sense of all its inmost fibres. Our + cheerfulness ran over, and the mild, pensive clerk was so magnetized by it + that he came and sat down with us. He presently confided to me, with + infinite naivete and ingenuousness, that, judging from my personal + appearance, he should not have thought me the writer that he in his + generosity reckoned me to be. His conception, so far as I could reach it, + involved a huge, uplifted forehead, embossed with protuberant organs of + the intellectual faculties, such as all writers are supposed to possess in + abounding measure. While I fell short of his ideal in this respect, he was + pleased to say that he found me by no means the remote and inaccessible + personage he had imagined, and that I had nothing of the dandy about me, + which last compliment I had a modest consciousness of most abundantly + deserving. + </p> + <p> + Sweet slumbers brought us to the morning of Thursday. The train from + Hagerstown was due at 11.15 A. M: We took another ride behind the codling, + who showed us the sights of yesterday over again. Being in a gracious mood + of mind, I enlarged on the varying aspects of the town-pumps and other + striking objects which we had once inspected, as seen by the different + lights of evening and morning. After this, we visited the school-house + hospital. A fine young fellow, whose arm had been shattered, was just + falling into the spasms of lock-jaw. The beads of sweat stood large and + round on his flushed and contracted features. He was under the effect of + opiates,—why not (if his case was desperate, as it seemed to be + considered) stop his sufferings with chloroform? It was suggested that it + might shorten life. “What then?” I said. “Are a dozen additional spasms + worth living for?” + </p> + <p> + The time approached for the train to arrive from Hagerstown, and we went + to the station. I was struck, while waiting there, with what seemed to me + a great want of care for the safety of the people standing round. Just + after my companion and myself had stepped off the track, I noticed a car + coming quietly along at a walk, as one may say, without engine, without + visible conductor, without any person heralding its approach, so silently, + so insidiously, that I could not help thinking how very near it came to + flattening out me and my match-box worse than the Ravel pantomimist and + his snuff-box were flattened out in the play. The train was late,—fifteen + minutes, half an hour late, and I began to get nervous, lest something had + happened. While I was looking for it, out started a freight-train, as if + on purpose to meet the cars I was expecting, for a grand smash-up. I + shivered at the thought, and asked an employee of the road, with whom I + had formed an acquaintance a few minutes old, why there should not be a + collision of the expected train with this which was just going out. He + smiled an official smile, and answered that they arranged to prevent that, + or words to that effect. + </p> + <p> + Twenty-four hours had not passed from that moment when a collision did + occur, just out of the city, where I feared it, by which at least eleven + persons were killed, and from forty to sixty more were maimed and + crippled! + </p> + <p> + To-day there was the delay spoken of, but nothing worse. The expected + train came in so quietly that I was almost startled to see it on the + track. Let us walk calmly through the cars, and look around us. + </p> + <p> + In the first car, on the fourth seat to the right, I saw my Captain; there + saw I him, even my first-born, whom I had sought through many cities. + </p> + <p> + “How are you, Boy?” + </p> + <p> + “How are you, Dad?” + </p> + <p> + Such are the proprieties of life, as they are observed among us + Anglo-Saxons of the nineteenth century, decently disguising those natural + impulses that made Joseph, the Prime Minister of Egypt, weep aloud so that + the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard, nay, which had once overcome + his shaggy old uncle Esau so entirely that he fell on his brother's neck + and cried like a baby in the presence of all the women. But the hidden + cisterns of the soul may be filling fast with sweet tears, while the + windows through which it looks are undimmed by a drop or a film of + moisture. + </p> + <p> + These are times in which we cannot live solely for selfish joys or griefs. + I had not let fall the hand I held, when a sad, calm voice addressed me by + name. I fear that at the moment I was too much absorbed in my own + feelings; for certainly at any other time. I should have yielded myself + without stint to the sympathy which this meeting might well call forth. + </p> + <p> + “You remember my son, Cortland Saunders, whom I brought to see you once in + Boston?” + </p> + <p> + “I do remember him well.” + </p> + <p> + “He was killed on Monday, at Shepherdstown. I am carrying his body back + with me on this train. He was my only child. If you could come to my + house,—I can hardly call it my home now,—it would be a + pleasure to me.” + </p> + <p> + This young man, belonging in Philadelphia, was the author of a “New System + of Latin Paradigms,” a work showing extraordinary scholarship and + capacity. It was this book which first made me acquainted with him, and I + kept him in my memory, for there was genius in the youth. Some time + afterwards he came to me with a modest request to be introduced to + President Felton, and one or two others, who would aid him in a course of + independent study he was proposing to himself. I was most happy to smooth + the way for him, and he came repeatedly after this to see me and express + his satisfaction in the opportunities for study he enjoyed at Cambridge. + He was a dark, still, slender person, always with a trance-like + remoteness, a mystic dreaminess of manner, such as I never saw in any + other youth. Whether he heard with difficulty, or whether his mind reacted + slowly on an alien thought, I could not say; but his answer would often be + behind time, and then a vague, sweet smile, or a few words spoken under + his breath, as if he had been trained in sick men's chambers. For such a + young man, seemingly destined for the inner life of contemplation, to be a + soldier seemed almost unnatural. Yet he spoke to me of his intention to + offer himself to his country, and his blood must now be reckoned among the + precious sacrifices which will make her soil sacred forever. Had he lived, + I doubt not that he would have redeemed the rare promise of his earlier + years. He has done better, for he has died that unborn generations may + attain the hopes held out to our nation and to mankind. + </p> + <p> + So, then, I had been within ten miles of the place where my wounded + soldier was lying, and then calmly turned my back upon him to come once + more round by a journey of three or four hundred miles to the same region + I had left! No mysterious attraction warned me that the heart warm with + the same blood as mine was throbbing so near my own. I thought of that + lovely, tender passage where Gabriel glides unconsciously by Evangeline + upon the great river. Ah, me! if that railroad crash had been a few hours + earlier, we two should never have met again, after coming so close to each + other! + </p> + <p> + The source of my repeated disappointments was soon made clear enough. The + Captain had gone to Hagerstown, intending to take the cars at once for + Philadelphia, as his three friends actually did, and as I took it for + granted he certainly would. But as he walked languidly along, some ladies + saw him across the street, and seeing, were moved with pity, and pitying, + spoke such soft words that he was tempted to accept their invitation and + rest awhile beneath their hospitable roof. The mansion was old, as the + dwellings of gentlefolks should be; the ladies were some of them young, + and all were full of kindness; there were gentle cares, and unasked + luxuries, and pleasant talk, and music-sprinklings from the piano, with a + sweet voice to keep them company,—and all this after the swamps of + the Chickahominy, the mud and flies of Harrison's Landing, the dragging + marches, the desperate battles, the fretting wound, the jolting ambulance, + the log-house, and the rickety milk—cart! Thanks, uncounted thanks + to the angelic ladies whose charming attentions detained him from Saturday + to Thursday, to his great advantage and my infinite bewilderment! As for + his wound, how could it do otherwise than well under such hands? The + bullet had gone smoothly through, dodging everything but a few nervous + branches, which would come right in time and leave him as well as ever. + </p> + <p> + At ten that evening we were in Philadelphia, the Captain at the house of + the friends so often referred to, and I the guest of Charley, my kind + companion. The Quaker element gives an irresistible attraction to these + benignant Philadelphia households. Many things reminded me that I was no + longer in the land of the Pilgrims. On the table were Kool Slaa and + Schmeer Kase, but the good grandmother who dispensed with such quiet, + simple grace these and more familiar delicacies was literally ignorant of + Baked Beans, and asked if it was the Lima bean which was employed in that + marvellous dish of animalized leguminous farina! + </p> + <p> + Charley was pleased with my comparing the face of the small Ethiop known + to his household as “Tines” to a huckleberry with features. He also + approved my parallel between a certain German blonde young maiden whom we + passed in the street and the “Morris White” peach. But he was so + good-humored at times, that, if one scratched a lucifer, he accepted it as + an illumination. + </p> + <p> + A day in Philadelphia left a very agreeable impression of the outside of + that great city, which has endeared itself so much of late to all the + country by its most noble and generous care of our soldiers. Measured by + its sovereign hotel, the Continental, it would stand at the head of our + economic civilization. It provides for the comforts and conveniences, and + many of the elegances of life, more satisfactorily than any American city, + perhaps than any other city anywhere. Many of its characteristics are + accounted for to some extent by its geographical position. It is the great + neutral centre of the Continent, where the fiery enthusiasms of the South + and the keen fanaticisms of the North meet at their outer limits, and + result in a compound which neither turns litmus red nor turmeric brown. It + lives largely on its traditions, of which, leaving out Franklin and + Independence Hall, the most imposing must be considered its famous + water-works. In my younger days I visited Fairmount, and it was with a + pious reverence that I renewed my pilgrimage to that perennial fountain. + Its watery ventricles were throbbing with the same systole and diastole as + when, the blood of twenty years bounding in my own heart, I looked upon + their giant mechanism. But in the place of “Pratt's Garden” was an open + park, and the old house where Robert Morris held his court in a former + generation was changing to a public restaurant. A suspension bridge + cobwebbed itself across the Schuylkill where that audacious arch used to + leap the river at a single bound,—an arch of greater span, as they + loved to tell us, than was ever before constructed. The Upper Ferry Bridge + was to the Schuylkill what the Colossus was to the harbor of Rhodes. It + had an air of dash about it which went far towards redeeming the dead + level of respectable average which flattens the physiognomy of the + rectangular city. Philadelphia will never be herself again until another + Robert Mills and another Lewis Wernwag have shaped her a new palladium. + She must leap the Schuylkill again, or old men will sadly shake their + heads, like the Jews at the sight of the second temple, remembering the + glories of that which it replaced. + </p> + <p> + There are times when Ethiopian minstrelsy can amuse, if it does not charm, + a weary soul, and such a vacant hour there was on this same Friday + evening. The “opera-house” was spacious and admirably ventilated. As I was + listening to the merriment of the sooty buffoons, I happened to cast my + eyes up to the ceiling, and through an open semicircular window a bright + solitary star looked me calmly in the eyes. It was a strange intrusion of + the vast eternities beckoning from the infinite spaces. I called the + attention of one of my neighbors to it, but “Bones” was irresistibly + droll, and Arcturus, or Aldebaran, or whatever the blazing luminary may + have been, with all his revolving worlds, sailed uncared-for down the + firmament. + </p> + <p> + On Saturday morning we took up our line of march for New York. Mr. Felton, + President of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad, had + already called upon me, with a benevolent and sagacious look on his face + which implied that he knew how to do me a service and meant to do it. Sure + enough, when we got to the depot, we found a couch spread for the Captain, + and both of us were passed on to New York with no visits, but those of + civility, from the conductor. The best thing I saw on the route was a + rustic fence, near Elizabethtown, I think, but I am not quite sure. There + was more genius in it than in any structure of the kind I have ever seen,—each + length being of a special pattern, ramified, reticulated, contorted, as + the limbs of the trees had grown. I trust some friend will photograph or + stereograph this fence for me, to go with the view of the spires of + Frederick, already referred to, as mementos of my journey. + </p> + <p> + I had come to feeling that I knew most of the respectably dressed people + whom I met in the cars, and had been in contact with them at some time or + other. Three or four ladies and gentlemen were near us, forming a group by + themselves. Presently one addressed me by name, and, on inquiry, I found + him to be the gentleman who was with me in the pulpit as Orator on the + occasion of another Phi Beta Kappa poem, one delivered at New Haven. The + party were very courteous and friendly, and contributed in various ways to + our comfort. + </p> + <p> + It sometimes seems to me as if there were only about a thousand people in + the world, who keep going round and round behind the scenes and then + before them, like the “army” in a beggarly stage-show. Suppose that I + should really wish; some time or other, to get away from this everlasting + circle of revolving supernumeraries, where should I buy a ticket the like + of which was not in some of their pockets, or find a seat to which some + one of them was not a neighbor. + </p> + <p> + A little less than a year before, after the Ball's Bluff accident, the + Captain, then the Lieutenant, and myself had reposed for a night on our + homeward journey at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, where we were lodged on the + ground-floor, and fared sumptuously. We were not so peculiarly fortunate + this time, the house being really very full. Farther from the flowers and + nearer to the stars,—to reach the neighborhood of which last the per + ardua of three or four flights of stairs was formidable for any mortal, + wounded or well. + </p> + <p> + The “vertical railway” settled that for us, however. It is a giant + corkscrew forever pulling a mammoth cork, which, by some divine judgment, + is no sooner drawn than it is replaced in its position. This ascending and + descending stopper is hollow, carpeted, with cushioned seats, and is + watched over by two condemned souls, called conductors, one of whom is + said to be named Igion, and the other Sisyphus. + </p> + <p> + I love New York, because, as in Paris, everybody that lives in it feels + that it is his property,—at least, as much as it is anybody's. My + Broadway, in particular, I love almost as I used to love my Boulevards. I + went, therefore, with peculiar interest, on the day that we rested at our + grand hotel, to visit some new pleasure-grounds the citizens had been + arranging for us, and which I had not yet seen. The Central Park is an + expanse of wild country, well crumpled so as to form ridges which will + give views and hollows that will hold water. The hips and elbows and other + bones of Nature stick out here and there in the shape of rocks which give + character to the scenery, and an unchangeable, unpurchasable look to a + landscape that without them would have been in danger of being fattened by + art and money out of all its native features. The roads were fine, the + sheets of water beautiful, the bridges handsome, the swans elegant in + their deportment, the grass green and as short as a fast horse's winter + coat. I could not learn whether it was kept so by clipping or singeing. I + was delighted with my new property,—but it cost me four dollars to + get there, so far was it beyond the Pillars of Hercules of the fashionable + quarter. What it will be by and by depends on circumstances; but at + present it is as much central to New York as Brookline is central to + Boston. + </p> + <p> + The question is not between Mr. Olmsted's admirably arranged, but remote + pleasure-ground and our Common, with its batrachian pool, but between his + Excentric Park and our finest suburban scenery, between its artificial + reservoirs and the broad natural sheet of Jamaica Pond. I say this not + invidiously, but in justice to the beauties which surround our own + metropolis. To compare the situations of any dwellings in either of the + great cities with those which look upon the Common, the Public Garden, the + waters of the Back Bay, would be to take an unfair advantage of Fifth + Avenue and Walnut Street. St. Botolph's daughter dresses in plainer + clothes than her more stately sisters, but she wears an emerald on her + right hand and a diamond on her left that Cybele herself need not be + ashamed of. + </p> + <p> + On Monday morning, the twenty-ninth of September, we took the cars for + home. Vacant lots, with Irish and pigs; vegetable-gardens; straggling + houses; the high bridge; villages, not enchanting; then Stamford: then + NORWALK. Here, on the sixth of May, 1853, I passed close on the heels of + the great disaster. But that my lids were heavy on that morning, my + readers would probably have had no further trouble with me. Two of my + friends saw the car in which they rode break in the middle and leave them + hanging over the abyss. From Norwalk to Boston, that day's journey of two + hundred miles was a long funeral procession. + </p> + <p> + Bridgeport, waiting for Iranistan to rise from its ashes with all its + phoenix-egg domes,—bubbles of wealth that broke, ready to be blown + again; iridescent as ever, which is pleasant, for the world likes cheerful + Mr. Barnum's success; New Haven, girt with flat marshes that look like + monstrous billiard-tables, with hay-cocks lying about for balls,—romantic + with West Rock and its legends,—cursed with a detestable depot, + whose niggardly arrangements crowd the track so murderously close to the + wall that the peine forte et dare must be the frequent penalty of an + innocent walk on its platform,—with its neat carriages, metropolitan + hotels, precious old college-dormitories, its vistas of elms and its + dishevelled weeping-willows; Hartford, substantial, well-bridged, many—steepled + city,—every conical spire an extinguisher of some nineteenth-century + heresy; so onward, by and across the broad, shallow Connecticut,—dull + red road and dark river woven in like warp and woof by the shuttle of the + darting engine; then Springfield, the wide-meadowed, well-feeding, + horse-loving, hot-summered, giant-treed town,—city among villages, + village among cities; Worcester, with its Daedalian labyrinth of crossing + railroad-bars, where the snorting Minotaurs, breathing fire and smoke and + hot vapors, are stabled in their dens; Framingham, fair cup-bearer, + leaf-cinctured Hebe of the deep-bosomed Queen sitting by the seaside on + the throne of the Six Nations. And now I begin to know the road, not by + towns, but by single dwellings; not by miles, but by rods. The poles of + the great magnet that draws in all the iron tracks through the grooves of + all the mountains must be near at hand, for here are crossings, and sudden + stops, and screams of alarmed engines heard all around. The tall granite + obelisk comes into view far away on the left, its bevelled cap-stone sharp + against the sky; the lofty chimneys of Charlestown and East Cambridge + flaunt their smoky banners up in the thin air; and now one fair bosom of + the three-pilled city, with its dome-crowned summit, reveals itself, as + when many-breasted Ephesian Artemis appeared with half-open chlamys before + her worshippers. + </p> + <p> + Fling open the window-blinds of the chamber that looks out on the waters + and towards the western sun! Let the joyous light shine in upon the + pictures that hang upon its walls and the shelves thick-set with the names + of poets and philosophers and sacred teachers, in whose pages our boys + learn that life is noble only when it is held cheap by the side of honor + and of duty. Lay him in his own bed, and let him sleep off his aches and + weariness. So comes down another night over this household, unbroken by + any messenger of evil tidings,—a night of peaceful rest and grateful + thoughts; for this our son and brother was dead and is alive again, and + was lost and is found. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE INEVITABLE TRIAL + </h2> + <p> + [An Oration delivered before the City Authorities of Boston, on the 4th of + July, 1863.] + </p> + <p> + It is our first impulse, upon this returning day of our nation's birth, to + recall whatever is happiest and noblest in our past history, and to join + our voices in celebrating the statesmen and the heroes, the men of thought + and the men of action, to whom that history owes its existence. In other + years this pleasing office may have been all that was required of the + holiday speaker. But to-day, when the very life of the nation is + threatened, when clouds are thick about us, and men's hearts are throbbing + with passion, or failing with fear, it is the living question of the hour, + and not the dead story of the past, which forces itself into all minds, + and will find unrebuked debate in all assemblies. + </p> + <p> + In periods of disturbance like the present, many persons who sincerely + love their country and mean to do their duty to her disappoint the hopes + and expectations of those who are actively working in her cause. They seem + to have lost whatever moral force they may have once possessed, and to go + drifting about from one profitless discontent to another, at a time when + every citizen is called upon for cheerful, ready service. It is because + their minds are bewildered, and they are no longer truly themselves. Show + them the path of duty, inspire them with hope for the future, lead them + upwards from the turbid stream of events to the bright, translucent + springs of eternal principles, strengthen their trust in humanity and + their faith in God, and you may yet restore them to their manhood and + their country. + </p> + <p> + At all times, and especially on this anniversary of glorious recollections + and kindly enthusiasms, we should try to judge the weak and wavering souls + of our brothers fairly and generously. The conditions in which our vast + community of peace-loving citizens find themselves are new and unprovided + for. Our quiet burghers and farmers are in the position of river-boats + blown from their moorings out upon a vast ocean, where such a typhoon is + raging as no mariner who sails its waters ever before looked upon. If + their beliefs change with the veering of the blast, if their trust in + their fellow-men, and in the course of Divine Providence, seems well-nigh + shipwrecked, we must remember that they were taken unawares, and without + the preparation which could fit them to struggle with these tempestuous + elements. In times like these the faith is the man; and they to whom it is + given in larger measure owe a special duty to those who for want of it are + faint at heart, uncertain in speech, feeble in effort, and purposeless in + aim. + </p> + <p> + Assuming without argument a few simple propositions,—that + self-government is the natural condition of an adult society, as + distinguished from the immature state, in which the temporary arrangements + of monarchy and oligarchy are tolerated as conveniences; that the end of + all social compacts is, or ought to be, to give every child born into the + world the fairest chance to make the most and the best of itself that laws + can give it; that Liberty, the one of the two claimants who swears that + her babe shall not be split in halves and divided between them, is the + true mother of this blessed Union; that the contest in which we are + engaged is one of principles overlaid by circumstances; that the longer we + fight, and the more we study the movements of events and ideas, the more + clearly we find the moral nature of the cause at issue emerging in the + field and in the study; that all honest persons with average natural + sensibility, with respectable understanding, educated in the school of + northern teaching, will have eventually to range themselves in the armed + or unarmed host which fights or pleads for freedom, as against every form + of tyranny; if not in the front rank now, then in the rear rank by and by;—assuming + these propositions, as many, perhaps most of us, are ready to do, and + believing that the more they are debated before the public the more they + will gain converts, we owe it to the timid and the doubting to keep the + great questions of the time in unceasing and untiring agitation. They must + be discussed, in all ways consistent with the public welfare, by different + classes of thinkers; by priests and laymen; by statesmen and simple + voters; by moralists and lawyers; by men of science and uneducated + hand-laborers; by men of facts and figures, and by men of theories and + aspirations; in the abstract and in the concrete; discussed and + rediscussed every month, every week, every day, and almost every hour, as + the telegraph tells us of some new upheaval or subsidence of the rocky + base of our political order. + </p> + <p> + Such discussions may not be necessary to strengthen the convictions of the + great body of loyal citizens. They may do nothing toward changing the + views of those, if such there be, as some profess to believe, who follow + politics as a trade. They may have no hold upon that class of persons who + are defective in moral sensibility, just as other persons are wanting in + an ear for music. But for the honest, vacillating minds, the tender + consciences supported by the tremulous knees of an infirm intelligence, + the timid compromisers who are always trying to curve the straight lines + and round the sharp angles of eternal law, the continual debate of these + living questions is the one offered means of grace and hope of earthly + redemption. And thus a true, unhesitating patriot may be willing to listen + with patience to arguments which he does not need, to appeals which have + no special significance for him, in the hope that some less clear in mind + or less courageous in temper may profit by them. + </p> + <p> + As we look at the condition in which we find ourselves on this fourth day + of July, 1863, at the beginning of the Eighty-eighth Year of American + Independence, we may well ask ourselves what right we have to indulge in + public rejoicings. If the war in which we are engaged is an accidental + one, which might have been avoided but for our fault; if it is for any + ambitious or unworthy purpose on our part; if it is hopeless, and we are + madly persisting in it; if it is our duty and in our power to make a safe + and honorable peace, and we refuse to do it; if our free institutions are + in danger of becoming subverted, and giving place to an irresponsible + tyranny; if we are moving in the narrow circles which are to ingulf us in + national ruin,—then we had better sing a dirge, and leave this idle + assemblage, and hush the noisy cannon which are reverberating through the + air, and tear down the scaffolds which are soon to blaze with fiery + symbols; for it is mourning and not joy that should cover the land; there + should be silence, and not the echo of noisy gladness, in our streets; and + the emblems with which we tell our nation's story and prefigure its future + should be traced, not in fire, but in ashes. + </p> + <p> + If, on the other hand, this war is no accident, but an inevitable result + of long incubating causes; inevitable as the cataclysms that swept away + the monstrous births of primeval nature; if it is for no mean, unworthy + end, but for national life, for liberty everywhere, for humanity, for the + kingdom of God on earth; if it is not hopeless, but only growing to such + dimensions that the world shall remember the final triumph of right + throughout all time; if there is no safe and honorable peace for us but a + peace proclaimed from the capital of every revolted province in the name + of the sacred, inviolable Union; if the fear of tyranny is a phantasm, + conjured up by the imagination of the weak, acted on by the craft of the + cunning; if so far from circling inward to the gulf of our perdition, the + movement of past years is reversed, and every revolution carries us + farther and farther from the centre of the vortex, until, by God's + blessing, we shall soon find ourselves freed from the outermost coil of + the accursed spiral; if all these things are true; if we may hope to make + them seem true, or even probable, to the doubting soul, in an hour's + discourse, then we may join without madness in the day's exultant + festivities; the bells may ring, the cannon may roar, the incense of our + harmless saltpetre fill the air, and the children who are to inherit the + fruit of these toiling, agonizing years, go about unblamed, making day and + night vocal with their jubilant patriotism. + </p> + <p> + The struggle in which we are engaged was inevitable; it might have come a + little sooner, or a little later, but it must have come. The disease of + the nation was organic, and not functional, and the rough chirurgery of + war was its only remedy. + </p> + <p> + In opposition to this view, there are many languid thinkers who lapse into + a forlorn belief that if this or that man had never lived, or if this or + that other man had not ceased to live, the country might have gone on in + peace and prosperity, until its felicity merged in the glories of the + millennium. If Mr. Calhoun had never proclaimed his heresies; if Mr. + Garrison had never published his paper; if Mr. Phillips, the Cassandra in + masculine shape of our long prosperous Ilium, had never uttered his + melodious prophecies; if the silver tones of Mr. Clay had still sounded in + the senate-chamber to smooth the billows of contention; if the Olympian + brow of Daniel Webster had been lifted from the dust to fix its awful + frown on the darkening scowl of rebellion,—we might have been spared + this dread season of convulsion. All this is but simple Martha's faith, + without the reason she could have given: “If Thou hadst been here, my + brother had not died.” + </p> + <p> + They little know the tidal movements of national thought and feeling, who + believe that they depend for existence on a few swimmers who ride their + waves. It is not Leviathan that leads the ocean from continent to + continent, but the ocean which bears his mighty bulk as it wafts its own + bubbles. If this is true of all the narrower manifestations of human + progress, how much more must it be true of those broad movements in the + intellectual and spiritual domain which interest all mankind? But in the + more limited ranges referred to, no fact is more familiar than that there + is a simultaneous impulse acting on many individual minds at once, so that + genius comes in clusters, and shines rarely as a single star. You may + trace a common motive and force in the pyramid-builders of the earliest + recorded antiquity, in the evolution of Greek architecture, and in the + sudden springing up of those wondrous cathedrals of the twelfth and + following centuries, growing out of the soil with stem and bud and + blossom, like flowers of stone whose seeds might well have been the + flaming aerolites cast over the battlements of heaven. You may see the + same law showing itself in the brief periods of glory which make the names + of Pericles and Augustus illustrious with reflected splendors; in the + painters, the sculptors, the scholars of “Leo's golden days”; in the + authors of the Elizabethan time; in the poets of the first part of this + century following that dreary period, suffering alike from the silence of + Cowper and the song of Hayley. You may accept the fact as natural, that + Zwingli and Luther, without knowing each other, preached the same reformed + gospel; that Newton, and Hooke, and Halley, and Wren arrived independently + of each other at the great law of the diminution of gravity with the + square of the distance; that Leverrier and Adams felt their hands meeting, + as it were, as they stretched them into the outer darkness beyond the + orbit of Uranus, in search of the dim, unseen Planet; that Fulton and + Bell, that Wheatstone and Morse, that Daguerre and Niepce, were moving + almost simultaneously in parallel paths to the same end. You see why + Patrick Henry, in Richmond, and Samuel Adams, in Boston, were startling + the crown officials with the same accents of liberty, and why the + Mecklenburg Resolutions had the very ring of the Protest of the Province + of Massachusetts. This law of simultaneous intellectual movement, + recognized by all thinkers, expatiated upon by Lord Macaulay and by Mr. + Herbert Spencer among recent writers, is eminently applicable to that + change of thought and feeling which necessarily led to the present + conflict. + </p> + <p> + The antagonism of the two sections of the Union was not the work of this + or that enthusiast or fanatic. It was the consequence of a movement in + mass of two different forms of civilization in different directions, and + the men to whom it was attributed were only those who represented it most + completely, or who talked longest and loudest about it. Long before the + accents of those famous statesmen referred to ever resounded in the halls + of the Capitol, long before the “Liberator” opened its batteries, the + controversy now working itself out by trial of battle was foreseen and + predicted. Washington warned his countrymen of the danger of sectional + divisions, well knowing the line of cleavage that ran through the + seemingly solid fabric. Jefferson foreshadowed the judgment to fall upon + the land for its sins against a just God. Andrew Jackson announced a + quarter of a century beforehand that the next pretext of revolution would + be slavery. De Tocqueville recognized with that penetrating insight which + analyzed our institutions and conditions so keenly, that the Union was to + be endangered by slavery, not through its interests, but through the + change of character it was bringing about in the people of the two + sections, the same fatal change which George Mason, more than half a + century before, had declared to be the most pernicious effect of the + system, adding the solemn warning, now fearfully justifying itself in the + sight of his descendants, that “by an inevitable chain of causes and + effects, Providence punishes national sins by national calamities.” The + Virginian romancer pictured the far-off scenes of the conflict which he + saw approaching as the prophets of Israel painted the coming woes of + Jerusalem, and the strong iconoclast of Boston announced the very year + when the curtain should rise on the yet unopened drama. + </p> + <p> + The wise men of the past, and the shrewd men of our own time, who warned + us of the calamities in store for our nation, never doubted what was the + cause which was to produce first alienation and finally rupture. The + descendants of the men “daily exercised in tyranny,” the “petty tyrants” + as their own leading statesmen called them long ago, came at length to + love the institution which their fathers had condemned while they + tolerated. It is the fearful realization of that vision of the poet where + the lost angels snuff up with eager nostrils the sulphurous emanations of + the bottomless abyss,—so have their natures become changed by long + breathing the atmosphere of the realm of darkness. + </p> + <p> + At last, in the fulness of time, the fruits of sin ripened in a sudden + harvest of crime. Violence stalked into the senate-chamber, theft and + perjury wound their way into the cabinet, and, finally, openly organized + conspiracy, with force and arms, made burglarious entrance into a chief + stronghold of the Union. That the principle which underlay these acts of + fraud and violence should be irrevocably recorded with every needed + sanction, it pleased God to select a chief ruler of the false government + to be its Messiah to the listening world. As with Pharaoh, the Lord + hardened his heart, while he opened his mouth, as of old he opened that of + the unwise animal ridden by cursing Balaam. Then spake Mr. + “Vice-President” Stephens those memorable words which fixed forever the + theory of the new social order. He first lifted a degraded barbarism to + the dignity of a philosophic system. He first proclaimed the gospel of + eternal tyranny as the new revelation which Providence had reserved for + the western Palestine. Hear, O heavens! and give ear, O earth! The + corner-stone of the new-born dispensation is the recognized inequality of + races; not that the strong may protect the weak, as men protect women and + children, but that the strong may claim the authority of Nature and of God + to buy, to sell, to scourge, to hunt, to cheat out of the reward of his + labor, to keep in perpetual ignorance, to blast with hereditary curses + throughout all time, the bronzed foundling of the New World, upon whose + darkness has dawned the star of the occidental Bethlehem! + </p> + <p> + After two years of war have consolidated the opinion of the Slave States, + we read in the “Richmond Examiner”: “The establishment of the Confederacy + is verily a distinct reaction against the whole course of the mistaken + civilization of the age. For 'Liberty, Equality, Fraternity,' we have + deliberately substituted Slavery, Subordination, and Government.” + </p> + <p> + A simple diagram, within the reach of all, shows how idle it is to look + for any other cause than slavery as having any material agency in dividing + the country. Match the two broken pieces of the Union, and you will find + the fissure that separates them zigzagging itself half across the + continent like an isothermal line, shooting its splintery projections, and + opening its reentering angles, not merely according to the limitations of + particular States, but as a county or other limited section of ground + belongs to freedom or to slavery. Add to this the official statement made + in 1862, that “there is not one regiment or battalion, or even company of + men, which was organized in or derived from the Free States or + Territories, anywhere, against the Union”; throw in gratuitously Mr. + Stephens's explicit declaration in the speech referred to, and we will + consider the evidence closed for the present on this count of the + indictment. + </p> + <p> + In the face of these predictions, these declarations, this line of + fracture, this precise statement, testimony from so many sources, + extending through several generations, as to the necessary effect of + slavery, a priori, and its actual influence as shown by the facts, few + will suppose that anything we could have done would have stayed its course + or prevented it from working out its legitimate effects on the white + subjects of its corrupting dominion. Northern acquiescence or even + sympathy may have sometimes helped to make it sit more easily on the + consciences of its supporters. Many profess to think that Northern + fanaticism, as they call it, acted like a mordant in fixing the black dye + of slavery in regions which would but for that have washed themselves free + of its stain in tears of penitence. It is a delusion and a snare to trust + in any such false and flimsy reasons where there is enough and more than + enough in the institution itself to account for its growth. Slavery + gratifies at once the love of power, the love of money, and the love of + ease; it finds a victim for anger who cannot smite back his oppressor; and + it offers to all, without measure, the seductive privileges which the + Mormon gospel reserves for the true believers on earth, and the Bible of + Mahomet only dares promise to the saints in heaven. + </p> + <p> + Still it is common, common even to vulgarism, to hear the remark that the + same gallows-tree ought to bear as its fruit the arch-traitor and the + leading champion of aggressive liberty. The mob of Jerusalem was not + satisfied with its two crucified thieves; it must have a cross also for + the reforming Galilean, who interfered so rudely with its conservative + traditions! It is asserted that the fault was quite as much on our side as + on the other; that our agitators and abolishers kindled the flame for + which the combustibles were all ready on the other side of the border. If + these men could have been silenced, our brothers had not died. + </p> + <p> + Who are the persons that use this argument? They are the very ones who are + at the present moment most zealous in maintaining the right of free + discussion. At a time when every power the nation can summon is needed to + ward off the blows aimed at its life, and turn their force upon its foes,—when + a false traitor at home may lose us a battle by a word, and a lying + newspaper may demoralize an army by its daily or weekly stillicidium of + poison, they insist with loud acclaim upon the liberty of speech and of + the press; liberty, nay license, to deal with government, with leaders, + with every measure, however urgent, in any terms they choose, to traduce + the officer before his own soldiers, and assail the only men who have any + claim at all to rule over the country, as the very ones who are least + worthy to be obeyed. If these opposition members of society are to have + their way now, they cannot find fault with those persons who spoke their + minds freely in the past on that great question which, as we have agreed, + underlies all our present dissensions. + </p> + <p> + It is easy to understand the bitterness which is often shown towards + reformers. They are never general favorites. They are apt to interfere + with vested rights and time-hallowed interests. They often wear an + unlovely, forbidding aspect. Their office corresponds to that of Nature's + sanitary commission for the removal of material nuisances. It is not the + butterfly, but the beetle, which she employs for this duty. It is not the + bird of paradise and the nightingale, but the fowl of dark plumage and + unmelodious voice, to which is entrusted the sacred duty of eliminating + the substances that infect the air. And the force of obvious analogy + teaches us not to expect all the qualities which please the general taste + in those whose instincts lead them to attack the moral nuisances which + poison the atmosphere of society. But whether they please us in all their + aspects or not, is not the question. Like them or not, they must and will + perform their office, and we cannot stop them. They may be unwise, + violent, abusive, extravagant, impracticable, but they are alive, at any + rate, and it is their business to remove abuses as soon as they are dead, + and often to help them to die. To quarrel with them because they are + beetles, and not butterflies, is natural, but far from profitable. They + grow none the less vigorously for being trodden upon, like those tough + weeds that love to nestle between the stones of court-yard pavements. If + you strike at one of their heads with the bludgeon of the law, or of + violence, it flies open like the seedcapsule of a snap-weed, and fills the + whole region with seminal thoughts which will spring up in a crop just + like the original martyr. They chased one of these enthusiasts, who + attacked slavery, from St. Louis, and shot him at Alton in 1837; and on + the 23d of June just passed, the Governor of Missouri, chairman of the + Committee on Emancipation, introduced to the Convention an Ordinance for + the final extinction of Slavery! They hunted another through the streets + of a great Northern city in 1835; and within a few weeks a regiment of + colored soldiers, many of them bearing the marks of the slave-driver's + whip on their backs, marched out before a vast multitude tremulous with + newly-stirred sympathies, through the streets of the same city, to fight + our battles in the name of God and Liberty! + </p> + <p> + The same persons who abuse the reformers, and lay all our troubles at + their door, are apt to be severe also on what they contemptuously + emphasize as “sentiments” considered as motives of action. It is + charitable to believe that they do not seriously contemplate or truly + understand the meaning of the words they use, but rather play with them, + as certain so-called “learned” quadrupeds play with the printed characters + set before them. In all questions involving duty, we act from sentiments. + Religion springs from them, the family order rests upon them, and in every + community each act involving a relation between any two of its members + implies the recognition or the denial of a sentiment. It is true that men + often forget them or act against their bidding in the keen competition of + business and politics. But God has not left the hard intellect of man to + work out its devices without the constant presence of beings with gentler + and purer instincts. The breast of woman is the ever-rocking cradle of the + pure and holy sentiments which will sooner or later steal their way into + the mind of her sterner companion; which will by and by emerge in the + thoughts of the world's teachers, and at last thunder forth in the edicts + of its law-givers and masters. Woman herself borrows half her tenderness + from the sweet influences of maternity; and childhood, that weeps at the + story of suffering, that shudders at the picture of wrong, brings down its + inspiration “from God, who is our home.” To quarrel, then, with the class + of minds that instinctively attack abuses, is not only profitless but + senseless; to sneer at the sentiments which are the springs of all just + and virtuous actions, is merely a display of unthinking levity, or of want + of the natural sensibilities. + </p> + <p> + With the hereditary character of the Southern people moving in one + direction, and the awakened conscience of the North stirring in the other, + the open conflict of opinion was inevitable, and equally inevitable its + appearance in the field of national politics. For what is meant by + self-government is, that a man shall make his convictions of what is right + and expedient regulate the community so far as his fractional share of the + government extends. If one has come to the conclusion, be it right or + wrong, that any particular institution or statute is a violation of the + sovereign law of God, it is to be expected that he will choose to be + represented by those who share his belief, and who will in their wider + sphere do all they legitimately can to get rid of the wrong in which they + find themselves and their constituents involved. To prevent opinion from + organizing itself under political forms may be very desirable, but it is + not according to the theory or practice of self-government. And if at last + organized opinions become arrayed in hostile shape against each other, we + shall find that a just war is only the last inevitable link in a chain of + closely connected impulses of which the original source is in Him who gave + to tender and humble and uncorrupted souls the sense of right and wrong, + which, after passing through various forms, has found its final expression + in the use of material force. Behind the bayonet is the law-giver's + statute, behind the statute the thinker's argument, behind the argument is + the tender conscientiousness of woman, woman, the wife, the mother,—who + looks upon the face of God himself reflected in the unsullied soul of + infancy. “Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained + strength, because of thine enemies.” + </p> + <p> + The simplest course for the malcontent is to find fault with the order of + Nature and the Being who established it. Unless the law of moral progress + were changed, or the Governor of the Universe were dethroned, it would be + impossible to prevent a great uprising of the human conscience against a + system, the legislation relating to which, in the words of so calm an + observer as De Tocqueville, the Montesquieu of our laws, presents “such + unparalleled atrocities as to show that the laws of humanity have been + totally perverted.” Until the infinite selfishness of the powers that hate + and fear the principles of free government swallowed up their convenient + virtues, that system was hissed at by all the old-world civilization. + While in one section of our land the attempt has been going on to lift it + out of the category of tolerated wrongs into the sphere of the world's + beneficent agencies, it was to be expected that the protest of Northern + manhood and womanhood would grow louder and stronger until the conflict of + principles led to the conflict of forces. The moral uprising of the North + came with the logical precision of destiny; the rage of the “petty + tyrants” was inevitable; the plot to erect a slave empire followed with + fated certainty; and the only question left for us of the North was, + whether we should suffer the cause of the Nation to go by default, or + maintain its existence by the argument of cannon and musket, of bayonet + and sabre. + </p> + <p> + The war in which we are engaged is for no meanly ambitious or unworthy + purpose. It was primarily, and is to this moment, for the preservation of + our national existence. The first direct movement towards it was a civil + request on the part of certain Southern persons, that the Nation would + commit suicide, without making any unnecessary trouble about it. It was + answered, with sentiments of the highest consideration, that there were + constitutional and other objections to the Nation's laying violent hands + upon itself. It was then requested, in a somewhat peremptory tone, that + the Nation would be so obliging as to abstain from food until the natural + consequences of that proceeding should manifest themselves. All this was + done as between a single State and an isolated fortress; but it was not + South Carolina and Fort Sumter that were talking; it was a vast conspiracy + uttering its menace to a mighty nation; the whole menagerie of treason was + pacing its cages, ready to spring as soon as the doors were opened; and + all that the tigers of rebellion wanted to kindle their wild natures to + frenzy, was the sight of flowing blood. + </p> + <p> + As if to show how coldly and calmly all this had been calculated + beforehand by the conspirators, to make sure that no absence of malice + aforethought should degrade the grand malignity of settled purpose into + the trivial effervescence of transient passion, the torch which was + literally to launch the first missile, figuratively, to “fire the southern + heart” and light the flame of civil war, was given into the trembling hand + of an old white-headed man, the wretched incendiary whom history will + handcuff in eternal infamy with the temple-burner of ancient Ephesus. The + first gun that spat its iron insult at Fort Sumter, smote every loyal + American full in the face. As when the foul witch used to torture her + miniature image, the person it represented suffered all that she inflicted + on his waxen counterpart, so every buffet that fell on the smoking + fortress was felt by the sovereign nation of which that was the + representative. Robbery could go no farther, for every loyal man of the + North was despoiled in that single act as much as if a footpad had laid + hands upon him to take from him his father's staff and his mother's Bible. + Insult could go no farther, for over those battered walls waved the + precious symbol of all we most value in the past and most hope for in the + future,—the banner under which we became a nation, and which, next + to the cross of the Redeemer, is the dearest object of love and honor to + all who toil or march or sail beneath its waving folds of glory. + </p> + <p> + Let us pause for a moment to consider what might have been the course of + events if under the influence of fear, or of what some would name + humanity, or of conscientious scruples to enter upon what a few please + themselves and their rebel friends by calling a “wicked war”; if under any + or all these influences we had taken the insult and the violence of South + Carolina without accepting it as the first blow of a mortal combat, in + which we must either die or give the last and finishing stroke. + </p> + <p> + By the same title which South Carolina asserted to Fort Sumter, Florida + would have challenged as her own the Gibraltar of the Gulf, and Virginia + the Ehrenbreitstein of the Chesapeake. Half our navy would have anchored + under the guns of these suddenly alienated fortresses, with the flag of + the rebellion flying at their peaks. “Old Ironsides” herself would have + perhaps sailed out of Annapolis harbor to have a wooden Jefferson Davis + shaped for her figure-head at Norfolk,—for Andrew Jackson was a + hater of secession, and his was no fitting effigy for the battle-ship of + the red-handed conspiracy. With all the great fortresses, with half the + ships and warlike material, in addition to all that was already stolen, in + the traitors' hands, what chance would the loyal men in the Border States + have stood against the rush of the desperate fanatics of the now + triumphant faction? Where would Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee,—saved, + or looking to be saved, even as it is, as by fire,—have been in the + day of trial? Into whose hands would the Capital, the archives, the glory, + the name, the very life of the nation as a nation, have fallen, endangered + as all of them were, in spite of the volcanic outburst of the startled + North which answered the roar of the first gun at Sumter? Worse than all, + are we permitted to doubt that in the very bosom of the North itself there + was a serpent, coiled but not sleeping, which only listened for the first + word that made it safe to strike, to bury its fangs in the heart of + Freedom, and blend its golden scales in close embrace with the deadly + reptile of the cotton-fields. Who would not wish that he were wrong in + such a suspicion? yet who can forget the mysterious warnings that the + allies of the rebels were to be found far north of the fatal boundary + line; and that it was in their own streets, against their own brothers, + that the champions of liberty were to defend her sacred heritage? + </p> + <p> + Not to have fought, then, after the supreme indignity and outrage we had + suffered, would have been to provoke every further wrong, and to furnish + the means for its commission. It would have been to placard ourselves on + the walls of the shattered fort, as the spiritless race the proud + labor-thieves called us. It would have been to die as a nation of freemen, + and to have given all we had left of our rights into the hands of alien + tyrants in league with home-bred traitors. + </p> + <p> + Not to have fought would have been to be false to liberty everywhere, and + to humanity. You have only to see who are our friends and who are our + enemies in this struggle, to decide for what principles we are combating. + We know too well that the British aristocracy is not with us. We know what + the West End of London wishes may be result of this controversy. The two + halves of this Union are the two blades of the shears, threatening as + those of Atropos herself, which will sooner or later cut into shreds the + old charters of tyranny. How they would exult if they could but break the + rivet that makes of the two blades one resistless weapon! The man who of + all living Americans had the best opportunity of knowing how the fact + stood, wrote these words in March, 1862: “That Great Britain did, in the + most terrible moment of our domestic trial in struggling with a monstrous + social evil she had earnestly professed to abhor, coldly and at once + assume our inability to master it, and then become the only foreign nation + steadily contributing in every indirect way possible to verify its + pre-judgment, will probably be the verdict made up against her by + posterity, on a calm comparison of the evidence.” + </p> + <p> + So speaks the wise, tranquil statesman who represents the nation at the + Court of St. James, in the midst of embarrassments perhaps not less than + those which vexed his illustrious grandfather, when he occupied the same + position as the Envoy of the hated, newborn Republic. + </p> + <p> + “It cannot be denied,”—says another observer, placed on one of our + national watch-towers in a foreign capital,—“it cannot be denied + that the tendency of European public opinion, as delivered from high + places, is more and more unfriendly to our cause”; “but the people,” he + adds, “everywhere sympathize with us, for they know that our cause is that + of free institutions,—that our struggle is that of the people + against an oligarchy.” These are the words of the Minister to Austria, + whose generous sympathies with popular liberty no homage paid to his + genius by the class whose admiring welcome is most seductive to scholars + has ever spoiled; our fellow-citizen, the historian of a great Republic + which infused a portion of its life into our own,—John Lothrop + Motley. + </p> + <p> + It is a bitter commentary on the effects of European, and especially of + British institutions, that such men should have to speak in such terms of + the manner in which our struggle has been regarded. We had, no doubt, very + generally reckoned on the sympathy of England, at least, in a strife + which, whatever pretexts were alleged as its cause, arrayed upon one side + the supporters of an institution she was supposed to hate in earnest, and + on the other its assailants. We had forgotten what her own poet, one of + the truest and purest of her children, had said of his countrymen, in + words which might well have been spoken by the British Premier to the + American Ambassador asking for some evidence of kind feeling on the part + of his government: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “Alas I expect it not. We found no bait + To tempt us in thy country. Doing good, + Disinterested good, is not our trade.” + </pre> + <p> + We know full well by this time what truth there is in these honest lines. + We have found out, too, who our European enemies are, and why they are our + enemies. Three bending statues bear up that gilded seat, which, in spite + of the time-hallowed usurpations and consecrated wrongs so long associated + with its history, is still venerated as the throne. One of these supports + is the pensioned church; the second is the purchased army; the third is + the long-suffering people. Whenever the third caryatid comes to life and + walks from beneath its burden, the capitals of Europe will be filled with + the broken furniture of palaces. No wonder that our ministers find the + privileged orders willing to see the ominous republic split into two + antagonistic forces, each paralyzing the other, and standing in their + mighty impotence a spectacle to courts and kings; to be pointed at as + helots who drank themselves blind and giddy out of that broken chalice + which held the poisonous draught of liberty! + </p> + <p> + We know our enemies, and they are the enemies of popular rights. We know + our friends, and they are the foremost champions of political and social + progress. The eloquent voice and the busy pen of John Bright have both + been ours, heartily, nobly, from the first; the man of the people has been + true to the cause of the people. That deep and generous thinker, who, more + than any of her philosophical writers, represents the higher thought of + England, John Stuart Mill, has spoken for us in tones to which none but + her sordid hucksters and her selfish land-graspers can refuse to listen. + Count Gasparin and Laboulaye have sent us back the echo from liberal + France; France, the country of ideas, whose earlier inspirations embodied + themselves for us in the person of the youthful Lafayette. Italy,—would + you know on which side the rights of the people and the hopes of the + future are to be found in this momentous conflict, what surer test, what + ampler demonstration can you ask—than the eager sympathy of the + Italian patriot whose name is the hope of the toiling many, and the dread + of their oppressors, wherever it is spoken, the heroic Garibaldi? + </p> + <p> + But even when it is granted that the war was inevitable; when it is + granted that it is for no base end, but first for the life of the nation, + and more and more, as the quarrel deepens, for the welfare of mankind, for + knowledge as against enforced ignorance, for justice as against + oppression, for that kingdom of God on earth which neither the unrighteous + man nor the extortioner can hope to inherit, it may still be that the + strife is hopeless, and must therefore be abandoned. Is it too much to say + that whether the war is hopeless or not for the North depends chiefly on + the answer to the question, whether the North has virtue and manhood + enough to persevere in the contest so long as its resources hold out? But + how much virtue and manhood it has can never be told until they are tried, + and those who are first to doubt the prevailing existence of these + qualities are not commonly themselves patterns of either. We have a right + to trust that this people is virtuous and brave enough not to give up a + just and necessary contest before its end is attained, or shown to be + unattainable for want of material agencies. What was the end to be + attained by accepting the gage of battle? It was to get the better of our + assailants, and, having done so, to take exactly those steps which we + should then consider necessary to our present and future safety. The more + obstinate the resistance, the more completely must it be subdued. It may + not even have been desirable, as Mr. Mill suggested long since, that the + victory over the rebellion should have been easily and speedily won, and + so have failed to develop the true meaning of the conflict, to bring out + the full strength of the revolted section, and to exhaust the means which + would have served it for a still more desperate future effort. We cannot + complain that our task has proved too easy. We give our Southern army,—for + we must remember that it is our army, after all, only in a state of + mutiny,—we give our Southern army credit for excellent spirit and + perseverance in the face of many disadvantages. But we have a few plain + facts which show the probable course of events; the gradual but sure + operation of the blockade; the steady pushing back of the boundary of + rebellion, in spite of resistance at many points, or even of such + aggressive inroads as that which our armies are now meeting with their + long lines of bayonets,—may God grant them victory!—the + progress of our arms down the Mississippi; the relative value of gold and + currency at Richmond and Washington. If the index-hands of force and + credit continue to move in the ratio of the past two years, where will the + Confederacy be in twice or thrice that time? + </p> + <p> + Either all our statements of the relative numbers, power, and wealth of + the two sections of the country signify nothing, or the resources of our + opponents in men and means must be much nearer exhaustion than our own. + The running sand of the hour-glass gives no warning, but runs as freely as + ever when its last grains are about to fall. The merchant wears as bold a + face the day before he is proclaimed a bankrupt, as he wore at the height + of his fortunes. If Colonel Grierson found the Confederacy “a mere shell,” + so far as his equestrian excursion carried him, how can we say how soon + the shell will collapse? It seems impossible that our own dissensions can + produce anything more than local disturbances, like the Morristown revolt, + which Washington put down at once by the aid of his faithful Massachusetts + soldiers. But in a rebellious state dissension is ruin, and the violence + of an explosion in a strict ratio to the pressure on every inch of the + containing surface. Now we know the tremendous force which has compelled + the “unanimity” of the Southern people. There are men in the ranks of the + Southern army, if we can trust the evidence which reaches us, who have + been recruited with packs of blood-hounds, and drilled, as it were, with + halters around their necks. We know what is the bitterness of those who + have escaped this bloody harvest of the remorseless conspirators; and from + that we can judge of the elements of destruction incorporated with many of + the seemingly solid portions of the fabric of the rebellion. The facts are + necessarily few, but we can reason from the laws of human nature as to + what must be the feelings of the people of the South to their Northern + neighbors. It is impossible that the love of the life which they have had + in common, their glorious recollections, their blended histories, their + sympathies as Americans, their mingled blood, their birthright as born + under the same flag and protected by it the world over, their worship of + the same God, under the same outward form, at least, and in the folds of + the same ecclesiastical organizations, should all be forgotten, and leave + nothing but hatred and eternal alienation. Men do not change in this way, + and we may be quite sure that the pretended unanimity of the South will + some day or other prove to have been a part of the machinery of deception + which the plotters have managed with such consummate skill. It is hardly + to be doubted that in every part of the South, as in New Orleans, in + Charleston, in Richmond, there are multitudes who wait for the day of + deliverance, and for whom the coming of “our good friends, the enemies,” + as Beranger has it, will be like the advent of the angels to the + prison-cells of Paul and Silas. But there is no need of depending on the + aid of our white Southern friends, be they many or be they few; there is + material power enough in the North, if there be the will to use it, to + overrun and by degrees to recolonize the South, and it is far from + impossible that some such process may be a part of the mechanism of its + new birth, spreading from various centres of organization, on the plan + which Nature follows when she would fill a half-finished tissue with + blood-vessels or change a temporary cartilage into bone. + </p> + <p> + Suppose, however, that the prospects of the war were, we need not say + absolutely hopeless,—because that is the unfounded hypothesis of + those whose wish is father to their thought,—but full of + discouragement. Can we make a safe and honorable peace as the quarrel now + stands? As honor comes before safety, let us look at that first. We have + undertaken to resent a supreme insult, and have had to bear new insults + and aggressions, even to the direct menace of our national capital. The + blood which our best and bravest have shed will never sink into the ground + until our wrongs are righted, or the power to right them is shown to be + insufficient. If we stop now, all the loss of life has been butchery; if + we carry out the intention with which we first resented the outrage, the + earth drinks up the blood of our martyrs, and the rose of honor blooms + forever where it was shed. To accept less than indemnity for the past, so + far as the wretched kingdom of the conspirators can afford it, and + security for the future, would discredit us in our own eyes and in the + eyes of those who hate and long to be able to despise us. But to reward + the insults and the robberies we have suffered, by the surrender of our + fortresses along the coast, in the national gulf, and on the banks of the + national river,—and this and much more would surely be demanded of + us,—would place the United Fraction of America on a level with the + Peruvian guano-islands, whose ignoble but coveted soil is open to be + plundered by all comers! + </p> + <p> + If we could make a peace without dishonor, could we make one that would be + safe and lasting? We could have an armistice, no doubt, long enough for + the flesh of our wounded men to heal and their broken bones to knit + together. But could we expect a solid, substantial, enduring peace, in + which the grass would have time to grow in the war-paths, and the bruised + arms to rust, as the old G. R. cannon rusted in our State arsenal, + sleeping with their tompions in their mouths, like so many sucking lambs? + It is not the question whether the same set of soldiers would be again + summoned to the field. Let us take it for granted that we have seen enough + of the miseries of warfare to last us for a while, and keep us contented + with militia musters and sham-fights. The question is whether we could + leave our children and our children's children with any secure trust that + they would not have to go through the very trials we are enduring, + probably on a more extended scale and in a more aggravated form. + </p> + <p> + It may be well to look at the prospects before us, if a peace is + established on the basis of Southern independence, the only peace + possible, unless we choose to add ourselves to the four millions who + already call the Southern whites their masters. We know what the + prevailing—we do not mean universal—spirit and temper of those + people have been for generations, and what they are like to be after a + long and bitter warfare. We know what their tone is to the people of the + North; if we do not, De Bow and Governor Hammond are schoolmasters who + will teach us to our heart's content. We see how easily their social + organization adapts itself to a state of warfare. They breed a superior + order of men for leaders, an ignorant commonalty ready to follow them as + the vassals of feudal times followed their lords; and a race of bondsmen, + who, unless this war changes them from chattels to human beings, will + continue to add vastly to their military strength in raising their food, + in building their fortifications, in all the mechanical work of war, in + fact, except, it may be, the handling of weapons. The institution + proclaimed as the corner-stone of their government does violence not + merely to the precepts of religion, but to many of the best human + instincts, yet their fanaticism for it is as sincere as any tribe of the + desert ever manifested for the faith of the Prophet of Allah. They call + themselves by the same name as the Christians of the North, yet there is + as much difference between their Christianity and that of Wesley or of + Channing, as between creeds that in past times have vowed mutual + extermination. Still we must not call them barbarians because they cherish + an institution hostile to civilization. Their highest culture stands out + all the more brilliantly from the dark background of ignorance against + which it is seen; but it would be injustice to deny that they have always + shone in political science, or that their military capacity makes them + most formidable antagonists, and that, however inferior they may be to + their Northern fellow-countrymen in most branches of literature and + science, the social elegances and personal graces lend their outward show + to the best circles among their dominant class. + </p> + <p> + Whom have we then for our neighbors, in case of separation,—our + neighbors along a splintered line of fracture extending for thousands of + miles,—but the Saracens of the Nineteenth Century; a fierce, + intolerant, fanatical people, the males of which will be a perpetual + standing army; hating us worse than the Southern Hamilcar taught his + swarthy boy to hate the Romans; a people whose existence as a hostile + nation on our frontier is incompatible with our peaceful development? + Their wealth, the proceeds of enforced labor, multiplied by the breaking + up of new cottonfields, and in due time by the reopening of the + slave-trade, will go to purchase arms, to construct fortresses, to fit out + navies. The old Saracens, fanatics for a religion which professed to grow + by conquest, were a nation of predatory and migrating warriors. The + Southern people, fanatics for a system essentially aggressive, conquering, + wasting, which cannot remain stationary, but must grow by alternate + appropriations of labor and of land, will come to resemble their earlier + prototypes. Already, even, the insolence of their language to the people + of the North is a close imitation of the style which those proud and + arrogant Asiatics affected toward all the nations of Europe. What the + “Christian dogs” were to the followers of Mahomet, the “accursed Yankees,” + the “Northern mud-sills” are to the followers of the Southern Moloch. The + accomplishments which we find in their choicer circles were prefigured in + the court of the chivalric Saladin, and the long train of Painim knights + who rode forth to conquest under the Crescent. In all branches of culture, + their heathen predecessors went far beyond them. The schools of mediaeval + learning were filled with Arabian teachers. The heavens declare the glory + of the Oriental astronomers, as Algorab and Aldebaran repeat their Arabic + names to the students of the starry firmament. The sumptuous edifice + erected by the Art of the nineteenth century, to hold the treasures of its + Industry, could show nothing fairer than the court which copies the + Moorish palace that crowns the summit of Granada. Yet this was the power + which Charles the Hammer, striking for Christianity and civilization, had + to break like a potter's vessel; these were the people whom Spain had to + utterly extirpate from the land where they had ruled for centuries. + </p> + <p> + Prepare, then, if you unseal the vase which holds this dangerous Afrit of + Southern nationality, for a power on your borders that will be to you what + the Saracens were to Europe before the son of Pepin shattered their + armies, and flung the shards and shivers of their broken strength upon the + refuse heap of extinguished barbarisms. Prepare for the possible fate of + Christian Spain; for a slave-market in Philadelphia; for the Alhambra of a + Southern caliph on the grounds consecrated by the domestic virtues of a + long line of Presidents and their exemplary families. Remember the ages of + border warfare between England and Scotland, closed at last by the union + of the two kingdoms. Recollect the hunting of the deer on the Cheviot + hills, and all that it led to; then think of the game which the dogs will + follow open-mouthed across our Southern border, and all that is like to + follow which the child may rue that is unborn; think of these + possibilities, or probabilities, if you will, and say whether you are + ready to make a peace which will give you such a neighbor; which may + betray your civilization as that of half the Peninsula was given up to the + Moors; which may leave your fair border provinces to be crushed under the + heel of a tyrant, as Holland was left to be trodden down by the Duke of + Alva! + </p> + <p> + No! no! fellow-citizens! We must fight in this quarrel until one side or + the other is exhausted. Rather than suffer all that we have poured out of + our blood, all that we have lavished of our substance, to have been + expended in vain, and to bequeath an unsettled question, an unfinished + conflict, an unavenged insult, an unrighted wrong, a stained escutcheon, a + tarnished shield, a dishonored flag, an unheroic memory to the descendants + of those who have always claimed that their fathers were heroes; rather + than do all this, it were hardly an American exaggeration to say, better + that the last man and the last dollar should be followed by the last woman + and the last dime, the last child and the last copper! + </p> + <p> + There are those who profess to fear that our government is becoming a mere + irresponsible tyranny. If there are any who really believe that our + present Chief Magistrate means to found a dynasty for himself and family, + that a coup d'etat is in preparation by which he is to become ABRAHAM, DEI + GRATIA REX,—they cannot have duly pondered his letter of June 12th, + in which he unbosoms himself with the simplicity of a rustic lover called + upon by an anxious parent to explain his intentions. The force of his + argument is not at all injured by the homeliness of his illustrations. The + American people are not much afraid that their liberties will be usurped. + An army of legislators is not very likely to throw away its political + privileges, and the idea of a despotism resting on an open ballot-box, is + like that of Bunker Hill Monument built on the waves of Boston Harbor. We + know pretty well how much of sincerity there is in the fears so + clamorously expressed, and how far they are found in company with + uncompromising hostility to the armed enemies of the nation. We have + learned to put a true value on the services of the watch-dog who bays the + moon, but does not bite the thief! + </p> + <p> + The men who are so busy holy-stoning the quarterdeck, while all hands are + wanted to keep the ship afloat, can no doubt show spots upon it that would + be very unsightly in fair weather. No thoroughly loyal man, however, need + suffer from any arbitrary exercise of power, such as emergencies always + give rise to. If any half-loyal man forgets his code of half-decencies and + half-duties so far as to become obnoxious to the peremptory justice which + takes the place of slower forms in all centres of conflagration, there is + no sympathy for him among the soldiers who are risking their lives for us; + perhaps there is even more satisfaction than when an avowed traitor is + caught and punished. For of all men who are loathed by generous natures, + such as fill the ranks of the armies of the Union, none are so thoroughly + loathed as the men who contrive to keep just within the limits of the law, + while their whole conduct provokes others to break it; whose patriotism + consists in stopping an inch short of treason, and whose political + morality has for its safeguard a just respect for the jailer and the + hangman! The simple preventive against all possible injustice a citizen is + like to suffer at the hands of a government which in its need and haste + must of course commit many errors, is to take care to do nothing that will + directly or indirectly help the enemy, or hinder the government in + carrying on the war. When the clamor against usurpation and tyranny comes + from citizens who can claim this negative merit, it may be listened to. + When it comes from those who have done what they could to serve their + country, it will receive the attention it deserves. Doubtless there may + prove to be wrongs which demand righting, but the pretence of any plan for + changing the essential principle of our self-governing system is a figment + which its contrivers laugh over among themselves. Do the citizens of + Harrisburg or of Philadelphia quarrel to-day about the strict legality of + an executive act meant in good faith for their protection against the + invader? We are all citizens of Harrisburg, all citizens of Philadelphia, + in this hour of their peril, and with the enemy at work in our own + harbors, we begin to understand the difference between a good and bad + citizen; the man that helps and the man that hinders; the man who, while + the pirate is in sight, complains that our anchor is dragging in his mud, + and the man who violates the proprieties, like our brave Portland + brothers, when they jumped on board the first steamer they could reach, + cut her cable, and bore down on the corsair, with a habeas corpus act that + lodged twenty buccaneers in Fort Preble before sunset! + </p> + <p> + We cannot, then, we cannot be circling inward to be swallowed up in the + whirlpool of national destruction. If our borders are invaded, it is only + as the spur that is driven into the courser's flank to rouse his + slumbering mettle. If our property is taxed, it is only to teach us that + liberty is worth paying for as well as fighting for. We are pouring out + the most generous blood of our youth and manhood; alas! this is always the + price that must be paid for the redemption of a people. What have we to + complain of, whose granaries are choking with plenty, whose streets are + gay with shining robes and glittering equipages, whose industry is + abundant enough to reap all its overflowing harvest, yet sure of + employment and of its just reward, the soil of whose mighty valleys is an + inexhaustible mine of fertility, whose mountains cover up such stores of + heat and power, imprisoned in their coal measures, as would warm all the + inhabitants and work all the machinery of our planet for unnumbered ages, + whose rocks pour out rivers of oil, whose streams run yellow over beds of + golden sand,—what have we to complain of? + </p> + <p> + Have we degenerated from our English fathers, so that we cannot do and + bear for our national salvation what they have done and borne over and + over again for their form of government? Could England, in her wars with + Napoleon, bear an income-tax of ten per cent., and must we faint under the + burden of an income-tax of three per cent.? Was she content to negotiate a + loan at fifty-three for the hundred, and that paid in depreciated paper, + and can we talk about financial ruin with our national stocks ranging from + one to eight or nine above par, and the “five-twenty” war loan eagerly + taken by our own people to the amount of nearly two hundred millions, + without any check to the flow of the current pressing inwards against the + doors of the Treasury? Except in those portions of the country which are + the immediate seat of war, or liable to be made so, and which, having the + greatest interest not to become the border states of hostile nations, can + best afford to suffer now, the state of prosperity and comfort is such as + to astonish those who visit us from other countries. What are war taxes to + a nation which, as we are assured on good authority, has more men worth a + million now than it had worth ten thousand dollars at the close of the + Revolution,—whose whole property is a hundred times, and whose + commerce, inland and foreign, is five hundred times, what it was then? But + we need not study Mr. Still's pamphlet and “Thompson's Bank-Note Reporter” + to show us what we know well enough, that, so far from having occasion to + tremble in fear of our impending ruin, we must rather blush for our + material prosperity. For the multitudes who are unfortunate enough to be + taxed for a million or more, of course we must feel deeply, at the same + time suggesting that the more largely they report their incomes to the + tax-gatherer, the more consolation they will find in the feeling that they + have served their country. But,—let us say it plainly,—it will + not hurt our people to be taught that there are other things to be cared + for besides money-making and money-spending; that the time has come when + manhood must assert itself by brave deeds and noble thoughts; when + womanhood must assume its most sacred office, “to warn, to comfort,” and, + if need be, “to command,” those whose services their country calls for. + This Northern section of the land has become a great variety shop, of + which the Atlantic cities are the long-extended counter. We have grown + rich for what? To put gilt bands on coachmen's hats? To sweep the foul + sidewalks with the heaviest silks which the toiling artisans of France can + send us? To look through plate-glass windows, and pity the brown soldiers,—or + sneer at the black ones? to reduce the speed of trotting horses a second + or two below its old minimum? to color meerschaums? to flaunt in laces, + and sparkle in diamonds? to dredge our maidens' hair with gold-dust? to + float through life, the passive shuttlecocks of fashion, from the avenues + to the beaches, and back again from the beaches to the avenues? Was it for + this that the broad domain of the Western hemisphere was kept so long + unvisited by civilization?—for this, that Time, the father of + empires, unbound the virgin zone of this youngest of his daughters, and + gave her, beautiful in the long veil of her forests, to the rude embrace + of the adventurous Colonist? All this is what we see around us, now, now + while we are actually fighting this great battle, and supporting this + great load of indebtedness. Wait till the diamonds go back to the Jews of + Amsterdam; till the plate-glass window bears the fatal announcement, For + Sale or to Let; till the voice of our Miriam is obeyed, as she sings, + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “Weave no more silks, ye Lyons looms!” + </pre> + <p> + till the gold-dust is combed from the golden locks, and hoarded to buy + bread; till the fast-driving youth smokes his clay-pipe on the platform of + the horse-cars; till the music-grinders cease because none will pay them; + till there are no peaches in the windows at twenty-four dollars a dozen, + and no heaps of bananas and pine-apples selling at the street-corners; + till the ten-flounced dress has but three flounces, and it is felony to + drink champagne; wait till these changes show themselves, the signs of + deeper wants, the preludes of exhaustion and bankruptcy; then let us talk + of the Maelstrom;—but till then, let us not be cowards with our + purses, while brave men are emptying their hearts upon the earth for us; + let us not whine over our imaginary ruin, while the reversed current of + circling events is carrying us farther and farther, every hour, out of the + influence of the great failing which was born of our wealth, and of the + deadly sin which was our fatal inheritance! + </p> + <p> + Let us take a brief general glance at the wide field of discussion we are + just leaving. + </p> + <p> + On Friday, the twelfth day of the month of April, in the year of our Lord + eighteen hundred and sixty-one, at half-past four of the clock in the + morning, a cannon was aimed and fired by the authority of South Carolina + at the wall of a fortress belonging to the United States. Its ball carried + with it the hatreds, the rages of thirty years, shaped and cooled in the + mould of malignant deliberation. Its wad was the charter of our national + existence. Its muzzle was pointed at the stone which bore the symbol of + our national sovereignty. As the echoes of its thunder died away, the + telegraph clicked one word through every office of the land. That word was + WAR! + </p> + <p> + War is a child that devours its nurses one after another, until it is + claimed by its true parents. This war has eaten its way backward through + all the technicalities of lawyers learned in the infinitesimals of + ordinances and statutes; through all the casuistries of divines, experts + in the differential calculus of conscience and duty; until it stands + revealed to all men as the natural and inevitable conflict of two + incompatible forms of civilization, one or the other of which must + dominate the central zone of the continent, and eventually claim the + hemisphere for its development. + </p> + <p> + We have reached the region of those broad principles and large axioms + which the wise Romans, the world's lawgivers, always recognized as above + all special enactments. We have come to that solid substratum acknowledged + by Grotius in his great Treatise: “Necessity itself which reduces things + to the mere right of Nature.” The old rules which were enough for our + guidance in quiet times, have become as meaningless “as moonlight on the + dial of the day.” We have followed precedents as long as they could guide + us; now we must make precedents for the ages which are to succeed us. + </p> + <p> + If we are frightened from our object by the money we have spent, the + current prices of United States stocks show that we value our nationality + at only a small fraction of our wealth. If we feel that we are paying too + dearly for it in the blood of our people, let us recall those grand words + of Samuel Adams: + </p> + <p> + “I should advise persisting in our struggle for liberty, though it were + revealed from heaven that nine hundred and ninety-nine were to perish, and + only one of a thousand were to survive and retain his liberty!” + </p> + <p> + What we want now is a strong purpose; the purpose of Luther, when he said, + in repeating his Pater Noster, fiat voluntas MEA,—let my will be + done; though he considerately added, quia Tua,—because my will is + Thine. We want the virile energy of determination which made the oath of + Andrew Jackson sound so like the devotion of an ardent saint that the + recording angel might have entered it unquestioned among the prayers of + the faithful. + </p> + <p> + War is a grim business. Two years ago our women's fingers were busy making + “Havelocks.” It seemed to us then as if the Havelock made half the + soldier; and now we smile to think of those days of inexperience and + illusion. We know now what War means, and we cannot look its dull, dead + ghastliness in the face unless we feel that there is some great and noble + principle behind it. It makes little difference what we thought we were + fighting for at first; we know what we are fighting for now, and what we + are fighting against. + </p> + <p> + We are fighting for our existence. We say to those who would take back + their several contributions to that undivided unity which we call the + Nation; the bronze is cast; the statue is on its pedestal; you cannot + reclaim the brass you flung into the crucible! There are rights, + possessions, privileges, policies, relations, duties, acquired, retained, + called into existence in virtue of the principle of absolute solidarity,—belonging + to the United States as an organic whole, which cannot be divided, which + none of its constituent parties can claim as its own, which perish out of + its living frame when the wild forces of rebellion tear it limb from limb, + and which it must defend, or confess self-government itself a failure. + </p> + <p> + We are fighting for that Constitution upon which our national existence + reposes, now subjected by those who fired the scroll on which it was + written from the cannon at Fort Sumter, to all those chances which the + necessities of war entail upon every human arrangement, but still the + venerable charter of our wide Republic. + </p> + <p> + We cannot fight for these objects without attacking the one mother cause + of all the progeny of lesser antagonisms. Whether we know it or not, + whether we mean it or not, we cannot help fighting against the system that + has proved the source of all those miseries which the author of the + Declaration of Independence trembled to anticipate. And this ought to make + us willing to do and to suffer cheerfully. There were Holy Wars of old, in + which it was glory enough to die, wars in which the one aim was to rescue + the sepulchre of Christ from the hands of infidels. The sepulchre of + Christ is not in Palestine! He rose from that burial-place more than + eighteen hundred years ago. He is crucified wherever his brothers are + slain without cause; he lies buried wherever man, made in his Maker's + image, is entombed in ignorance lest he should learn the rights which his + Divine Master gave him! This is our Holy War, and we must fight it against + that great General who will bring to it all the powers with which he + fought against the Almighty before he was cast down from heaven. He has + retained many a cunning advocate to recruit for him; he has bribed many a + smooth-tongued preacher to be his chaplain; he has engaged the sordid by + their avarice, the timid by their fears, the profligate by their love of + adventure, and thousands of nobler natures by motives which we can all + understand; whose delusion we pity as we ought always to pity the error of + those who know not what they do. Against him or for him we are all called + upon to declare ourselves. There is no neutrality for any single true-born + American. If any seek such a position, the stony finger of Dante's awful + muse points them to their place in the antechamber of the Halls of + Despair,— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “—With that ill band + Of angels mixed, who nor rebellious proved, + Nor yet were true to God, but for themselves + Were only.” + + “—Fame of them the world hath none + Nor suffers; mercy and justice scorn them both. + Speak not of them, but look, and pass them by.” + </pre> + <p> + We must use all the means which God has put into our hands to serve him + against the enemies of civilization. We must make and keep the great river + free, whatever it costs us; it is strapping up the forefoot of the wild, + untamable rebellion. We must not be too nice in the choice of our agents. + Non eget Mauri jaculis,—no African bayonets wanted,—was well + enough while we did not yet know the might of that desperate giant we had + to deal with; but Tros, Tyriusve,—white or black,—is the safer + motto now; for a good soldier, like a good horse, cannot be of a bad + color. The iron-skins, as well as the iron-clads, have already done us + noble service, and many a mother will clasp the returning boy, many a wife + will welcome back the war-worn husband, whose smile would never again have + gladdened his home, but that, cold in the shallow trench of the + battle-field, lies the half-buried form of the unchained bondsman whose + dusky bosom sheathes the bullet which would else have claimed that darling + as his country's sacrifice. + </p> + <p> + We shall have success if we truly will success, not otherwise. It may be + long in coming,—Heaven only knows through what trials and humblings + we may have to pass before the full strength of the nation is duly arrayed + and led to victory. We must be patient, as our fathers were patient; even + in our worst calamities, we must remember that defeat itself may be a gain + where it costs our enemy more in relation to his strength than it costs + ourselves. But if, in the inscrutable providence of the Almighty, this + generation is disappointed in its lofty aspirations for the race, if we + have not virtue enough to ennoble our whole people, and make it a nation + of sovereigns, we shall at least hold in undying honor those who + vindicated the insulted majesty of the Republic, and struck at her + assailants so long as a drum-beat summoned them to the field of duty. + </p> + <p> + Citizens of Boston, sons and daughters of New England, men and women of + the North, brothers and sisters in the bond of the American Union, you + have among you the scarred and wasted soldiers who have shed their blood + for your temporal salvation. They bore your nation's emblems bravely + through the fire and smoke of the battle-field; nay, their own bodies are + starred with bullet-wounds and striped with sabre-cuts, as if to mark them + as belonging to their country until their dust becomes a portion of the + soil which they defended. In every Northern graveyard slumber the victims + of this destroying struggle. Many whom you remember playing as children + amidst the clover-blossoms of our Northern fields, sleep under nameless + mounds with strange Southern wild-flowers blooming over them. By those + wounds of living heroes, by those graves of fallen martyrs, by the hopes + of your children, and the claims of your children's children yet unborn, + in the name of outraged honor, in the interest of violated sovereignty, + for the life of an imperilled nation, for the sake of men everywhere and + of our common humanity, for the glory of God and the advancement of his + kingdom on earth, your country calls upon you to stand by her through good + report and through evil report, in triumph and in defeat, until she + emerges from the great war of Western civilization, Queen of the broad + continent, Arbitress in the councils of earth's emancipated peoples; until + the flag that fell from the wall of Fort Sumter floats again inviolate, + supreme, over all her ancient inheritance, every fortress, every capital, + every ship, and this warring land is once more a United Nation! + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CINDERS FROM THE ASHES. + </h2> + <p> + The personal revelations contained in my report of certain breakfast-table + conversations were so charitably listened to and so good-naturedly + interpreted, that I may be in danger of becoming over-communicative. + Still, I should never have ventured to tell the trivial experiences here + thrown together, were it not that my brief story is illuminated here and + there by a glimpse of some shining figure that trod the same path with me + for a time, or crossed it, leaving a momentary or lasting brightness in + its track. I remember that, in furnishing a chamber some years ago, I was + struck with its dull aspect as I looked round on the black-walnut chairs + and bedstead and bureau. “Make me a large and handsomely wrought gilded + handle to the key of that dark chest of drawers,” I said to the furnisher. + It was done, and that one luminous point redeemed the sombre apartment as + the evening star glorifies the dusky firmament. So, my loving reader,—and + to none other can such table-talk as this be addressed,—I hope there + will be lustre enough in one or other of the names with which I shall gild + my page to redeem the dulness of all that is merely personal in my + recollections. + </p> + <p> + After leaving the school of Dame Prentiss, best remembered by infantine + loves, those pretty preludes of more serious passions; by the great + forfeit-basket, filled with its miscellaneous waifs and deodauds, and by + the long willow stick by the aid of which the good old body, now stricken + in years and unwieldy in person could stimulate the sluggish faculties or + check the mischievous sallies of the child most distant from his ample + chair,—a school where I think my most noted schoolmate was the + present Bishop of Delaware, became the pupil of Master William Biglow. + This generation is not familiar with his title to renown, although he + fills three columns and a half in Mr. Duyckinck's “Cyclopaedia of American + Literature.” He was a humorist hardly robust enough for more than a brief + local immortality. I am afraid we were an undistinguished set, for I do + not remember anybody near a bishop in dignity graduating from our benches. + </p> + <p> + At about ten years of age I began going to what we always called the “Port + School,” because it was kept at Cambridgeport, a mile from the College. + This suburb was at that time thinly inhabited, and, being much of it + marshy and imperfectly reclaimed, had a dreary look as compared with the + thriving College settlement. The tenants of the many beautiful mansions + that have sprung up along Main Street, Harvard Street, and Broadway can + hardly recall the time when, except the “Dana House” and the “Opposition + House” and the “Clark House,” these roads were almost all the way bordered + by pastures until we reached the “stores” of Main Street, or were abreast + of that forlorn “First Row” of Harvard Street. We called the boys of that + locality “Port-chucks.” They called us “Cambridge-chucks,” but we got + along very well together in the main. + </p> + <p> + Among my schoolmates at the Port School was a young girl of singular + loveliness. I once before referred to her as “the golden blonde,” but did + not trust myself to describe her charms. The day of her appearance in the + school was almost as much a revelation to us boys as the appearance of + Miranda was to Caliban. Her abounding natural curls were so full of + sunshine, her skin was so delicately white, her smile and her voice were + so all-subduing, that half our heads were turned. Her fascinations were + everywhere confessed a few years afterwards; and when I last met her, + though she said she was a grandmother, I questioned her statement, for her + winning looks and ways would still have made her admired in any company. + </p> + <p> + Not far from the golden blonde were two small boys, one of them very + small, perhaps the youngest boy in school, both ruddy, sturdy, quiet, + reserved, sticking loyally by each other, the oldest, however, beginning + to enter into social relations with us of somewhat maturer years. One of + these two boys was destined to be widely known, first in literature, as + author of one of the most popular books of its time and which is freighted + for a long voyage; then as an eminent lawyer; a man who, if his countrymen + are wise, will yet be prominent in the national councils. Richard Henry + Dana, Junior, is the name he bore and bears; he found it famous, and will + bequeath it a fresh renown. + </p> + <p> + Sitting on the girls' benches, conspicuous among the school-girls of + unlettered origin by that look which rarely fails to betray hereditary and + congenital culture, was a young person very nearly of my own age. She came + with the reputation of being “smart,” as we should have called it, clever + as we say nowadays. This was Margaret Fuller, the only one among us who, + like “Jean Paul,” like “The Duke,” like “Bettina,” has slipped the cable + of the more distinctive name to which she was anchored, and floats on the + waves of speech as “Margaret.” Her air to her schoolmates was marked by a + certain stateliness and distance, as if she had other thoughts than theirs + and was not of them. She was a great student and a great reader of what + she used to call “naw-vels.” I remember her so well as she appeared at + school and later, that I regret that she had not been faithfully given to + canvas or marble in the day of her best looks. None know her aspect who + have not seen her living. Margaret, as I remember her at school and + afterwards, was tall, fair complexioned, with a watery, aqua-marine lustre + in her light eyes, which she used to make small, as one does who looks at + the sunshine. A remarkable point about her was that long, flexile neck, + arching and undulating in strange sinuous movements, which one who loved + her would compare to those of a swan, and one who loved her not to those + of the ophidian who tempted our common mother. Her talk was affluent, + magisterial, de haut en bas, some would say euphuistic, but surpassing the + talk of women in breadth and audacity. Her face kindled and reddened and + dilated in every feature as she spoke, and, as I once saw her in a fine + storm of indignation at the supposed ill-treatment of a relative, showed + itself capable of something resembling what Milton calls the viraginian + aspect. + </p> + <p> + Little incidents bear telling when they recall anything of such a + celebrity as Margaret. I remember being greatly awed once, in our + school-days, with the maturity of one of her expressions. Some themes were + brought home from the school for examination by my father, among them one + of hers. I took it up with a certain emulous interest (for I fancied at + that day that I too had drawn a prize, say a five-dollar one, at least, in + the great intellectual life-lottery) and read the first words. + </p> + <p> + “It is a trite remark,” she began. + </p> + <p> + I stopped. Alas! I did not know what trite meant. How could I ever judge + Margaret fairly after such a crushing discovery of her superiority? I + doubt if I ever did; yet oh, how pleasant it would have been, at about the + age, say, of threescore and ten, to rake over these ashes for cinders with + her,—she in a snowy cap, and I in a decent peruke! + </p> + <p> + After being five years at the Port School, the time drew near when I was + to enter college. It seemed advisable to give me a year of higher + training, and for that end some public school was thought to offer + advantages. Phillips Academy at Andover was well known to us. We had been + up there, my father and myself, at anniversaries. Some Boston boys of + well-known and distinguished parentage had been scholars there very + lately, Master Edmund Quincy, Master Samuel Hurd Walley, Master Nathaniel + Parker Willis,—all promising youth, who fulfilled their promise. + </p> + <p> + I do not believe there was any thought of getting a little respite of + quiet by my temporary absence, but I have wondered that there was not. + Exceptional boys of fourteen or fifteen make home a heaven, it is true; + but I have suspected, late in life, that I was not one of the exceptional + kind. I had tendencies in the direction of flageolets and octave flutes. I + had a pistol and a gun, and popped at everything that stirred, pretty + nearly, except the house-cat. Worse than this, I would buy a cigar and + smoke it by instalments, putting it meantime in the barrel of my pistol, + by a stroke of ingenuity which it gives me a grim pleasure to recall; for + no maternal or other female eyes would explore the cavity of that dread + implement in search of contraband commodities. + </p> + <p> + It was settled, then, that I should go to Phillips Academy, and + preparations were made that I might join the school at the beginning of + the autumn. + </p> + <p> + In due time I took my departure in the old carriage, a little modernized + from the pattern of my Lady Bountiful's, and we jogged soberly along,—kind + parents and slightly nostalgic boy,—towards the seat of learning, + some twenty miles away. Up the old West Cambridge road, now North Avenue; + past Davenport's tavern, with its sheltering tree and swinging sign; past + the old powder-house, looking like a colossal conical ball set on end; + past the old Tidd House, one of the finest of the ante-Revolutionary + mansions; past Miss Swan's great square boarding-school, where the music + of girlish laughter was ringing through the windy corridors; so on to + Stoneham, town of the bright lake, then darkened with the recent memory of + the barbarous murder done by its lonely shore; through pleasant Reading, + with its oddly named village centres, “Trapelo,” “Read'nwoodeend,” as + rustic speech had it, and the rest; through Wilmington, then renowned for + its hops; so at last into the hallowed borders of the academic town. + </p> + <p> + It was a shallow, two-story white house before which we stopped, just at + the entrance of the central village, the residence of a very worthy + professor in the theological seminary,—learned, amiable, exemplary, + but thought by certain experts to be a little questionable in the matter + of homoousianism, or some such doctrine. There was a great rock that + showed its round back in the narrow front yard. It looked cold and hard; + but it hinted firmness and indifference to the sentiments fast struggling + to get uppermost in my youthful bosom; for I was not too old for + home-sickness,—who is: The carriage and my fond companions had to + leave me at last. I saw it go down the declivity that sloped southward, + then climb the next ascent, then sink gradually until the window in the + back of it disappeared like an eye that shuts, and leaves the world dark + to some widowed heart. + </p> + <p> + Sea-sickness and home-sickness are hard to deal with by any remedy but + time. Mine was not a bad case, but it excited sympathy. There was an + ancient, faded old lady in the house, very kindly, but very deaf, rustling + about in dark autumnal foliage of silk or other murmurous fabric, somewhat + given to snuff, but a very worthy gentlewoman of the poor-relation + variety. She comforted me, I well remember, but not with apples, and + stayed me, but not with flagons. She went in her benevolence, and, taking + a blue and white soda-powder, mingled the same in water, and encouraged me + to drink the result. It might be a specific for seasickness, but it was + not for home-sickness. The fiz was a mockery, and the saline refrigerant + struck a colder chill to my despondent heart. I did not disgrace myself, + however, and a few days cured me, as a week on the water often cures + seasickness. + </p> + <p> + There was a sober-faced boy of minute dimensions in the house, who began + to make some advances to me, and who, in spite of all the conditions + surrounding him, turned out, on better acquaintance, to be one of the most + amusing, free-spoken, mocking little imps I ever met in my life. My + room-mate came later. He was the son of a clergyman in a neighboring town,—in + fact I may remark that I knew a good many clergymen's sons at Andover. He + and I went in harness together as well as most boys do, I suspect; and I + have no grudge against him, except that once, when I was slightly + indisposed, he administered to me,—with the best intentions, no + doubt,—a dose of Indian pills, which effectually knocked me out of + time, as Mr. Morrissey would say,—not quite into eternity, but so + near it that I perfectly remember one of the good ladies told me (after I + had come to my senses a little, and was just ready for a sip of cordial + and a word of encouragement), with that delightful plainness of speech + which so brings realities home to the imagination, that “I never should + look any whiter when I was laid out as a corpse.” After my room-mate and I + had been separated twenty-five years, fate made us fellow-townsmen and + acquaintances once more in Berkshire, and now again we are close literary + neighbors; for I have just read a very pleasant article, signed by him, in + the last number of the “Galaxy.” Does it not sometimes seem as if we were + all marching round and round in a circle, like the supernumeraries who + constitute the “army” of a theatre, and that each of us meets and is met + by the same and only the same people, or their doubles, twice, thrice, or + a little oftener, before the curtain drops and the “army” puts off its + borrowed clothes? + </p> + <p> + The old Academy building had a dreary look, with its flat face, bare and + uninteresting as our own “University Building” at Cambridge, since the + piazza which relieved its monotony was taken away, and, to balance the + ugliness thus produced, the hideous projection was added to “Harvard + Hall.” Two masters sat at the end of the great room,—the principal + and his assistant. Two others presided in separate rooms, one of them the + late Rev. Samuel Horatio Stearns, an excellent and lovable man, who looked + kindly on me, and for whom I always cherished a sincere regard, a + clergyman's son, too, which privilege I did not always find the warrant of + signal virtues; but no matter about that here, and I have promised myself + to be amiable. + </p> + <p> + On the side of the long room was a large clock-dial, bearing these words: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + YOUTH IS THE SEED-TIME OF LIFE. +</pre> + <p> + I had indulged in a prejudice, up to that hour, that youth was the budding + time of life, and this clock-dial, perpetually twitting me with its seedy + moral, always had a forbidding look to my vernal apprehension. + </p> + <p> + I was put into a seat with an older and much bigger boy, or youth, with a + fuliginous complexion, a dilating and whitening nostril, and a singularly + malignant scowl. Many years afterwards he committed an act of murderous + violence, and ended by going to finish his days in a madhouse. His delight + was to kick my shins with all his might, under the desk, not at all as an + act of hostility, but as a gratifying and harmless pastime. Finding this, + so far as I was concerned, equally devoid of pleasure and profit, I + managed to get a seat by another boy, the son of a very distinguished + divine. He was bright enough, and more select in his choice of + recreations, at least during school hours, than my late homicidal + neighbor. But the principal called me up presently, and cautioned me + against him as a dangerous companion. Could it be so? If the son of that + boy's father could not be trusted, what boy in Christendom could? It + seemed like the story of the youth doomed to be slain by a lion before + reaching a certain age, and whose fate found him out in the heart of the + tower where his father had shut him up for safety. Here was I, in the very + dove's nest of Puritan faith, and out of one of its eggs a serpent had + been hatched and was trying to nestle in my bosom! I parted from him, + however, none the worse for his companionship so far as I can remember. + </p> + <p> + Of the boys who were at school with me at Andover one has acquired great + distinction among the scholars of the land. One day I observed a new boy + in a seat not very far from my own. He was a little fellow, as I recollect + him, with black hair and very bright black eyes, when at length I got a + chance to look at them. Of all the new-comers during my whole year he was + the only one whom the first glance fixed in my memory, but there he is + now, at this moment, just as he caught my eye on the morning of his + entrance. His head was between his hands (I wonder if he does not + sometimes study in that same posture nowadays!) and his eyes were fastened + to his book as if he had been reading a will that made him heir to a + million. I feel sure that Professor Horatio Balch Hackett will not find + fault with me for writing his name under this inoffensive portrait. + Thousands of faces and forms that I have known more or less familiarly + have faded from my remembrance, but this presentment of the youthful + student, sitting there entranced over the page of his text-book,—the + child-father of the distinguished scholar that was to be,—is not a + picture framed and hung up in my mind's gallery, but a fresco on its + walls, there to remain so long as they hold together. + </p> + <p> + My especial intimate was a fine, rosy-faced boy, not quite so free of + speech as myself, perhaps, but with qualities that promised a noble + manhood, and ripened into it in due season. His name was Phinehas Barnes, + and, if he is inquired after in Portland or anywhere in the State of + Maine, something will be heard to his advantage from any honest and + intelligent citizen of that Commonwealth who answers the question. This + was one of two or three friendships that lasted. There were other friends + and classmates, one of them a natural humorist of the liveliest sort, who + would have been quarantined in any Puritan port, his laugh was so potently + contagious. + </p> + <p> + Of the noted men of Andover the one whom I remember best was Professor + Moses Stuart. His house was nearly opposite the one in which I resided and + I often met him and listened to him in the chapel of the Seminary. I have + seen few more striking figures in my life than his, as I remember it. + Tall, lean, with strong, bold features, a keen, scholarly, accipitrine + nose, thin, expressive lips, great solemnity and impressiveness of voice + and manner, he was my early model of a classic orator. His air was Roman, + his neck long and bare like Cicero's, and his toga,—that is his + broadcloth cloak,—was carried on his arm, whatever might have been + the weather, with such a statue-like rigid grace that he might have been + turned into marble as he stood, and looked noble by the side of the + antiques of the Vatican. + </p> + <p> + Dr. Porter was an invalid, with the prophetic handkerchief bundling his + throat, and his face “festooned”—as I heard Hillard say once, + speaking of one of our College professors—in folds and wrinkles. Ill + health gives a certain common character to all faces, as Nature has a + fixed course which she follows in dismantling a human countenance: the + noblest and the fairest is but a death's-head decently covered over for + the transient ceremony of life, and the drapery often falls half off + before the procession has passed. + </p> + <p> + Dr. Woods looked his creed more decidedly, perhaps, than any of the + Professors. He had the firm fibre of a theological athlete, and lived to + be old without ever mellowing, I think, into a kind of half-heterodoxy, as + old ministers of stern creed are said to do now and then,—just as + old doctors grow to be sparing of the more exasperating drugs in their + later days. He had manipulated the mysteries of the Infinite so long and + so exhaustively, that he would have seemed more at home among the + mediaeval schoolmen than amidst the working clergy of our own time. + </p> + <p> + All schools have their great men, for whose advent into life the world is + waiting in dumb expectancy. In due time the world seizes upon these + wondrous youth, opens the shell of their possibilities like the valves of + an oyster, swallows them at a gulp, and they are for the most part heard + of no more. We had two great men, grown up both of them. Which was the + more awful intellectual power to be launched upon society, we debated. + Time cut the knot in his rude fashion by taking one away early, and + padding the other with prosperity so that his course was comparatively + noiseless and ineffective. We had our societies, too; one in particular, + “The Social Fraternity,” the dread secrets of which I am under a lifelong + obligation never to reveal. The fate of William Morgan, which the + community learned not long after this time, reminds me of the danger of + the ground upon which I am treading. + </p> + <p> + There were various distractions to make the time not passed in study a + season of relief. One good lady, I was told, was in the habit of asking + students to her house on Saturday afternoons and praying with and for + them. Bodily exercise was not, however, entirely superseded by spiritual + exercises, and a rudimentary form of base-ball and the heroic sport of + football were followed with some spirit. + </p> + <p> + A slight immature boy finds his materials of though and enjoyment in very + shallow and simple sources. Yet a kind of romance gilds for me the sober + tableland of that cold New England hill where I came in contact with a + world so strange to me, and destined to leave such mingled and lasting + impressions. I looked across the valley to the hillside where Methuen hung + suspended, and dreamed of its wooded seclusion as a village paradise. I + tripped lightly down the long northern slope with facilis descensus on my + lips, and toiled up again, repeating sed revocare gradum. I wandered' in + the autumnal woods that crown the “Indian Ridge,” much wondering at that + vast embankment, which we young philosophers believed with the vulgar to + be of aboriginal workmanship, not less curious, perhaps, since we call it + an escar, and refer it to alluvial agencies. The little Shawshine was our + swimming-school, and the great Merrimack, the right arm of four toiling + cities, was within reach of a morning stroll. At home we had the small imp + to make us laugh at his enormities, for he spared nothing in his talk, and + was the drollest little living protest against the prevailing solemnities + of the locality. It did not take much to please us, I suspect, and it is a + blessing that this is apt to be so with young people. What else could have + made us think it great sport to leave our warm beds in the middle of + winter and “camp out,”—on the floor of our room,—with blankets + disposed tent-wise, except the fact that to a boy a new discomfort in + place of an old comfort is often a luxury. + </p> + <p> + More exciting occupation than any of these was to watch one of the + preceptors to see if he would not drop dead while he was praying. He had a + dream one night that he should, and looked upon it as a warning, and told + it round very seriously, and asked the boys to come and visit him in turn, + as one whom they were soon to lose. More than one boy kept his eye on him + during his public devotions, possessed by the same feeling the man had who + followed Van Amburgh about with the expectation, let us not say the hope, + of seeing the lion bite his head off sooner or later. + </p> + <p> + Let me not forget to recall the interesting visit to Haverhill with my + room-mate, and how he led me to the mighty bridge over the Merrimack which + defied the ice-rafts of the river; and to the old meetinghouse, where, in + its porch, I saw the door of the ancient parsonage, with the bullet-hole + in it through which Benjamin Rolfe, the minister, was shot by the Indians + on the 29th of August, 1708. What a vision it was when I awoke in the + morning to see the fog on the river seeming as if it wrapped the towers + and spires of a great city!—for such was my fancy, and whether it + was a mirage of youth or a fantastic natural effect I hate to inquire too + nicely. + </p> + <p> + My literary performances at Andover, if any reader who may have survived + so far cares to know, included a translation from Virgil, out of which I + remember this couplet, which had the inevitable cockney rhyme of + beginners: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “Thus by the power of Jove's imperial arm + The boiling ocean trembled into calm.” + </pre> + <p> + Also a discussion with Master Phinehas Barnes on the case of Mary, Queen + of Scots, which he treated argumentatively and I rhetorically and + sentimentally. My sentences were praised and his conclusions adopted. Also + an Essay, spoken at the great final exhibition, held in the large hall + up-stairs, which hangs oddly enough from the roof, suspended by iron rods. + Subject, Fancy. Treatment, brief but comprehensive, illustrating the magic + power of that brilliant faculty in charming life into forgetfulness of all + the ills that flesh is heir to,—the gift of Heaven to every + condition and every clime, from the captive in his dungeon to the monarch + on his throne; from the burning sands of the desert to the frozen icebergs + of the poles, from—but I forget myself. + </p> + <p> + This was the last of my coruscations at Andover. I went from the Academy + to Harvard College, and did not visit the sacred hill again for a long + time. + </p> + <p> + On the last day of August, 1867, not having been at Andover, for many + years, I took the cars at noon, and in an hour or a little more found + myself at the station,—just at the foot of the hill. My first + pilgrimage was to the old elm, which I remembered so well as standing by + the tavern, and of which they used to tell the story that it held, buried + in it by growth, the iron rings put round it in the old time to keep the + Indians from chopping it with their tomahawks. I then began the once + familiar toil of ascending the long declivity. Academic villages seem to + change very slowly. Once in a hundred years the library burns down with + all its books. A new edifice or two may be put up, and a new library begun + in the course of the same century; but these places are poor, for the most + part, and cannot afford to pull down their old barracks. + </p> + <p> + These sentimental journeys to old haunts must be made alone. The story of + them must be told succinctly. It is like the opium-smoker's showing you + the pipe from which he has just inhaled elysian bliss, empty of the + precious extract which has given him his dream. + </p> + <p> + I did not care much for the new Academy building on my right, nor for the + new library building on my left. But for these it was surprising to see + how little the scene I remembered in my boyhood had changed. The + Professors' houses looked just as they used to, and the stage-coach landed + its passengers at the Mansion House as of old. The pale brick seminary + buildings were behind me on the left, looking as if “Hollis” and + “Stoughton” had been transplanted from Cambridge,—carried there in + the night by orthodox angels, perhaps, like the Santa Casa. Away to my + left again, but abreast of me, was the bleak, bare old Academy building; + and in front of me stood unchanged the shallow oblong white house where I + lived a year in the days of James Monroe and of John Quincy Adams. + </p> + <p> + The ghost of a boy was at my side as I wandered among the places he knew + so well. I went to the front of the house. There was the great rock + showing its broad back in the front yard. I used to crack nuts on that, + whispered the small ghost. I looked in at the upper window in the farther + part of the house. I looked out of that on four long changing seasons, + said the ghost. I should have liked to explore farther, but, while I was + looking, one came into the small garden, or what used to be the garden, in + front of the house, and I desisted from my investigation and went on my + way. The apparition that put me and my little ghost to flight had a + dressing-gown on its person and a gun in its hand. I think it was the + dressing-gown, and not the gun, which drove me off. + </p> + <p> + And now here is the shop, or store, that used to be Shipman's, after + passing what I think used to be Jonathan Leavitt's bookbindery, and here + is the back road that will lead me round by the old Academy building. + </p> + <p> + Could I believe my senses when I found that it was turned into a + gymnasium, and heard the low thunder of ninepin balls, and the crash of + tumbling pins from those precincts? The little ghost said, Never! It + cannot be. But it was. “Have they a billiard-room in the upper story?” I + asked myself. “Do the theological professors take a hand at all-fours or + poker on weekdays, now and then, and read the secular columns of the + 'Boston Recorder' on Sundays?” I was demoralized for the moment, it is + plain; but now that I have recovered from the shock, I must say that the + fact mentioned seems to show a great advance in common sense from the + notions prevailing in my time. + </p> + <p> + I sauntered,—we, rather, my ghost and I,—until we came to a + broken field where there was quarrying and digging going on,—our old + base-ball ground, hard by the burial-place. There I paused; and if any + thoughtful boy who loves to tread in the footsteps that another has sown + with memories of the time when he was young shall follow my footsteps, I + need not ask him to rest here awhile, for he will be enchained by the + noble view before him. Far to the north and west the mountains of New + Hampshire lifted their summits in along encircling ridge of pale blue + waves. The day was clear, and every mound and peak traced its outline with + perfect definition against the sky. This was a sight which had more virtue + and refreshment in it than any aspect of nature that I had looked upon, I + am afraid I must say for years. I have been by the seaside now and then, + but the sea is constantly busy with its own affairs, running here and + there, listening to what the winds have to say and getting angry with + them, always indifferent, often insolent, and ready to do a mischief to + those who seek its companionship. But these still, serene, unchanging + mountains,—Monadnock, Kearsarge,—what memories that name + recalls!—and the others, the dateless Pyramids of New England, the + eternal monuments of her ancient race, around which cluster the homes of + so many of her bravest and hardiest children,—I can never look at + them without feeling that, vast and remote and awful as they are, there is + a kind of inward heat and muffled throb in their stony cores, that brings + them into a vague sort of sympathy with human hearts. It is more than a + year since I have looked on those blue mountains, and they “are to me as a + feeling” now, and have been ever since. + </p> + <p> + I had only to pass a wall and I was in the burial-ground. It was thinly + tenanted as I remember it, but now populous with the silent immigrants of + more than a whole generation. There lay the dead I had left, the two or + three students of the Seminary; the son of the worthy pair in whose house + I lived, for whom in those days hearts were still aching, and by whose + memory the house still seemed haunted. A few upright stones were all that + I recollect. But now, around them were the monuments of many of the dead + whom I remembered as living. I doubt if there has been a more faithful + reader of these graven stones than myself for many a long day. I listened + to more than one brief sermon from preachers whom I had often heard as + they thundered their doctrines down upon me from the throne-like desk. Now + they spoke humbly out of the dust, from a narrower pulpit, from an older + text than any they ever found in Cruden's Concordance, but there was an + eloquence in their voices the listening chapel had never known. There were + stately monuments and studied inscriptions, but none so beautiful, none so + touching, as that which hallows the resting-place of one of the children + of the very learned Professor Robinson: “Is it well with the child? And + she answered, It is well.” + </p> + <p> + While I was musing amidst these scenes in the mood of Hamlet, two old men, + as my little ghost called them, appeared on the scene to answer to the + gravedigger and his companion. They christened a mountain or two for me, + “Kearnsarge” among the rest, and revived some old recollections, of which + the most curious was “Basil's Cave.” The story was recent, when I was + there, of one Basil, or Bezill, or Buzzell, or whatever his name might + have been, a member of the Academy, fabulously rich, Orientally + extravagant, and of more or less lawless habits. He had commanded a cave + to be secretly dug, and furnished it sumptuously, and there with his + companions indulged in revelries such as the daylight of that consecrated + locality had never looked upon. How much truth there was in it all I will + not pretend to say, but I seem to remember stamping over every rock that + sounded hollow, to question if it were not the roof of what was once + Basil's Cave. + </p> + <p> + The sun was getting far past the meridian, and I sought a shelter under + which to partake of the hermit fare I had brought with me. Following the + slope of the hill northward behind the cemetery, I found a pleasant clump + of trees grouped about some rocks, disposed so as to give a seat, a table, + and a shade. I left my benediction on this pretty little natural + caravansera, and a brief record on one of its white birches, hoping to + visit it again on some sweet summer or autumn day. + </p> + <p> + Two scenes remained to look upon,—the Shawshine River and the Indian + Ridge. The streamlet proved to have about the width with which it flowed + through my memory. The young men and the boys were bathing in its shallow + current, or dressing and undressing upon its banks as in the days of old; + the same river, only the water changed; “The same boys, only the names and + the accidents of local memory different,” I whispered to my little ghost. + </p> + <p> + The Indian Ridge more than equalled what I expected of it. It is well + worth a long ride to visit. The lofty wooded bank is a mile and a half in + extent, with other ridges in its neighborhood, in general running nearly + parallel with it, one of them still longer. These singular formations are + supposed to have been built up by the eddies of conflicting currents + scattering sand and gravel and stones as they swept over the continent. + But I think they pleased me better when I was taught that the Indians + built them; and while I thank Professor Hitchcock, I sometimes feel as if + I should like to found a chair to teach the ignorance of what people do + not want to know. + </p> + <p> + “Two tickets to Boston.” I said to the man at the station. + </p> + <p> + But the little ghost whispered, “When you leave this place you leave me + behind you.” + </p> + <p> + “One ticket to Boston, if you please. Good by, little ghost.” + </p> + <p> + I believe the boy-shadow still lingers around the well-remembered scenes I + traversed on that day, and that, whenever I revisit them, I shall find him + again as my companion. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0005" id="link2H_4_0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + THE PULPIT AND THE PEW. + </h2> + <p> + The priest is dead for the Protestant world. Luther's inkstand did not + kill the devil, but it killed the priest, at least for us: He is a loss in + many respects to be regretted. He kept alive the spirit of reverence. He + was looked up to as possessing qualities superhuman in their nature, and + so was competent to be the stay of the weak and their defence against the + strong. If one end of religion is to make men happier in this world as + well as in the next, mankind lost a great source of happiness when the + priest was reduced to the common level of humanity, and became only a + minister. Priest, which was presbyter, corresponded to senator, and was a + title to respect and honor. Minister is but the diminutive of magister, + and implies an obligation to render service. + </p> + <p> + It was promised to the first preachers that in proof of their divine + mission they should have the power of casting out devils and talking in + strange tongues; that they should handle serpents and drink poisons with + impunity; that they should lay hands on the sick and they should recover. + The Roman Church claims some of these powers for its clergy and its sacred + objects to this day. Miracles, it is professed, are wrought by them, or + through them, as in the days of the apostles. Protestantism proclaims that + the age of such occurrences as the apostles witnessed is past. What does + it know about miracles? It knows a great many records of miracles, but + this is a different kind of knowledge. + </p> + <p> + The minister may be revered for his character, followed for his eloquence, + admired for his learning, loved for his amiable qualities, but he can + never be what the priest was in past ages, and is still, in the Roman + Church. Dr. Arnold's definition may be found fault with, but it has a very + real meaning. “The essential point in the notion of a priest is this: that + he is a person made necessary to our intercourse with God, without being + necessary or beneficial to us morally,—an unreasonable, immoral, + spiritual necessity.” He did not mean, of course, that the priest might + not have all the qualities which would recommend him as a teacher or as a + man, but that he had a special power, quite independent of his personal + character, which could act, as it were, mechanically; that out of him went + a virtue, as from the hem of his Master's raiment, to those with whom his + sacred office brought him in contact. + </p> + <p> + It was a great comfort to poor helpless human beings to have a tangible + personality of like nature with themselves as a mediator between them and + the heavenly powers. Sympathy can do much for the sorrowing, the + suffering, the dying, but to hear God himself speaking directly through + human lips, to feel the touch of a hand which is the channel of + communication with the unseen Omnipotent, this was and is the privilege of + those who looked and those who still look up to a priesthood. It has been + said, and many who have walked the hospitals or served in the dispensaries + can bear witness to the truth of the assertion, that the Roman Catholics + know how to die. The same thing is less confidently to be said of + Protestants. How frequently is the story told of the most exemplary + Protestant Christians, nay, how common is it to read in the lives of the + most exemplary Protestant ministers, that they were beset with doubts and + terrors in their last days! The blessing of the viaticum is unknown to + them. Man is essentially an idolater,—that is, in bondage to his + imagination,—for there is no more harm in the Greek word eidolon + than in the Latin word imago. He wants a visible image to fix his thought, + a scarabee or a crux ansata, or the modern symbols which are to our own + time what these were to the ancient Egyptians. He wants a vicegerent of + the Almighty to take his dying hand and bid him godspeed on his last + journey. Who but such an immediate representative of the Divinity would + have dared to say to the monarch just laying his head on the block, “Fils + de Saint Louis, monte au ciel”? + </p> + <p> + It has been a long and gradual process to thoroughly republicanize the + American Protestant descendant of the ancient priesthood. The history of + the Congregationalists in New England would show us how this change has + gone on, until we have seen the church become a hall open to all sorts of + purposes, the pulpit come down to the level of the rostrum, and the + clergyman take on the character of a popular lecturer who deals with every + kind of subject, including religion. + </p> + <p> + Whatever fault we may find with many of their beliefs, we have a right to + be proud of our Pilgrim and Puritan fathers among the clergy. They were + ready to do and to suffer anything for their faith, and a faith which + breeds heroes is better than an unbelief which leaves nothing worth being + a hero for. Only let us be fair, and not defend the creed of Mohammed + because it nurtured brave men and enlightened scholars, or refrain from + condemning polygamy in our admiration of the indomitable spirit and + perseverance of the Pilgrim Fathers of Mormonism, or justify an inhuman + belief, or a cruel or foolish superstition, because it was once held or + acquiesced in by men whose nobility of character we heartily recognize. + The New England clergy can look back to a noble record, but the pulpit has + sometimes required a homily from the pew, and may sometimes find it worth + its while to listen to one even in our own days. + </p> + <p> + From the settlement of the country to the present time, the ministers have + furnished the highest type of character to the people among whom they have + lived. They have lost to a considerable extent the position of leaders, + but if they are in our times rather to be looked upon as representatives + of their congregations, they represent what is best among those of whom + they are the speaking organs. We have a right to expect them to be models + as well as teachers of all that makes the best citizens for this world and + the next, and they have not been, and are not in these later days unworthy + of their high calling. They have worked hard for small earthly + compensation. They have been the most learned men the country had to show, + when learning was a scarce commodity. Called by their consciences to + self-denying labors, living simply, often half-supported by the toil of + their own hands, they have let the light, such light as shone for them, + into the minds of our communities as the settler's axe let the sunshine + into their log-huts and farm-houses. + </p> + <p> + Their work has not been confined to their professional duties, as a few + instances will illustrate. Often, as was just said, they toiled like + day-laborers, teasing lean harvests out of their small inclosures of land, + for the New England soil is not one that “laughs when tickled with a hoe,” + but rather one that sulks when appealed to with that persuasive implement. + The father of the eminent Boston physician whose recent loss is so deeply + regretted, the Reverend Pitt Clarke, forty-two years pastor of the small + fold in the town of Norton, Massachusetts, was a typical example of this + union of the two callings, and it would be hard to find a story of a more + wholesome and useful life, within a limited and isolated circle, than that + which the pious care of one of his children commemorated. Sometimes the + New England minister, like worthy Mr. Ward of Stratford-on-Avon, in old + England, joined the practice of medicine to the offices of his holy + profession. Michael Wigglesworth, the poet of “The Day of Doom,” and + Charles Chauncy, the second president of Harvard College, were instances + of this twofold service. In politics their influence has always been felt, + and in many cases their drums ecclesiastic have beaten the reveille as + vigorously, and to as good purpose, as it ever sounded in the slumbering + camp. Samuel Cooper sat in council with the leaders of the Revolution in + Boston. The three Northampton-born brothers Allen, Thomas, Moses, and + Solomon, lifted their voices, and, when needed, their armed hands, in the + cause of liberty. In later days, Elijah Parish and David Osgood carried + politics into their pulpits as boldly as their antislavery successors have + done in times still more recent. + </p> + <p> + The learning, the personal character, the sacredness of their office, + tended, to give the New England clergy of past generations a kind of + aristocratic dignity, a personal grandeur, much more felt in the days when + class distinctions were recognized less unwillingly than at present. Their + costume added to the effect of their bodily presence, as the old portraits + illustrate for us, as those of us who remember the last of the “fair, + white, curly” wigs, as it graced the imposing figure of the Reverend Dr. + Marsh of Wethersfield, Connecticut, can testify. They were not only + learned in the history of the past, but they were the interpreters of the + prophecy, and announced coming events with a confidence equal to that with + which the weather-bureau warns us of a coming storm. The numbers of the + book of Daniel and the visions of the Revelation were not too hard for + them. In the commonplace book of the Reverend Joel Benedict is to be found + the following record, made, as it appears, about the year 1773: + “Conversing with Dr. Bellamy upon the downfall of Antichrist, after many + things had been said upon the subject, the Doctor began to warm, and + uttered himself after this manner: 'Tell your children to tell their + children that in the year 1866 something notable will happen in the + church; tell them the old man says so.'” + </p> + <p> + The “old man” came pretty near hitting the mark, as we shall see if we + consider what took place in the decade from 1860 to 1870. In 1864 the Pope + issued the “Syllabus of Errors,” which “must be considered by Romanists—as + an infallible official document, and which arrays the papacy in open war + against modern civilization and civil and religious freedom.” The Vatican + Council in 1870 declared the Pope to be the bishop of bishops, and + immediately after this began the decisive movement of the party known as + the “Old Catholics.” In the exact year looked forward to by the New + England prophet, 1866, the evacuation of Rome by the French and the + publication of “Ecce Homo” appear to be the most remarkable events having + Special relation to the religious world. Perhaps the National Council of + the Congregationalists, held at Boston in 1865, may be reckoned as one of + the occurrences which the oracle just missed. + </p> + <p> + The confidence, if not the spirit of prophecy, lasted down to a later + period. “In half a century,” said the venerable Dr. Porter of Conway, New + Hampshire, in 1822, “there will be no Pagans, Jews, Mohammedans, + Unitarians, or Methodists.” The half-century has more than elapsed, and + the prediction seems to stand in need of an extension, like many other + prophetic utterances. + </p> + <p> + The story is told of David Osgood, the shaggy-browed old minister of + Medford, that he had expressed his belief that not more than one soul in + two thousand would be saved. Seeing a knot of his parishioners in debate, + he asked them what they were discussing, and was told that they were + questioning which of the Medford people was the elected one, the + population being just two thousand, and that opinion was divided whether + it would be the minister or one of his deacons. The story may or may not + be literally true, but it illustrates the popular belief of those days, + that the clergyman saw a good deal farther into the councils of the + Almighty than his successors could claim the power of doing. + </p> + <p> + The objects about me, as I am writing, call to mind the varied + accomplishments of some of the New England clergy. The face of the + Revolutionary preacher, Samuel Cooper, as Copley painted it, looks upon me + with the pleasantest of smiles and a liveliness of expression which makes + him seem a contemporary after a hundred years' experience of eternity. The + Plato on this lower shelf bears the inscription: “Ezroe Stiles, 1766. Olim + e libris Rev. Jaredis Eliot de Killingworth.” Both were noted scholars and + philosophers. The hand-lens before me was imported, with other + philosophical instruments, by the Reverend John Prince of Salem, an + earlier student of science in the town since distinguished by the labors + of the Essex Institute. Jeremy Belknap holds an honored place in that + unpretending row of local historians. And in the pages of his “History of + New Hampshire” may be found a chapter contributed in part by the most + remarkable man, in many respects, among all the older clergymen preacher, + lawyer, physician, astronomer, botanist, entomologist, explorer, colonist, + legislator in state and national governments, and only not seated on the + bench of the Supreme Court of a Territory because he declined the office + when Washington offered it to him. This manifold individual was the + minister of Hamilton, a pleasant little town in Essex County, + Massachusetts,—the Reverend Manasseh Cutler. These reminiscences + from surrounding objects came up unexpectedly, of themselves: and have a + right here, as showing how wide is the range of intelligence in the + clerical body thus accidentally represented in a single library making no + special pretensions. + </p> + <p> + It is not so exalted a claim to make for them, but it may be added that + they were often the wits and humorists of their localities. Mather Byles's + facetie are among the colonial classic reminiscences. But these were, for + the most part, verbal quips and quibbles. True humor is an outgrowth of + character. It is never found in greater perfection than in old clergymen + and old college professors. Dr. Sprague's “Annals of the American Pulpit” + tells many stories of our old ministers as good as Dean Ramsay's “Scottish + Reminiscences.” He has not recorded the following, which is to be found in + Miss Larned's excellent and most interesting History of Windham County, + Connecticut. The Reverend Josiah Dwight was the minister of Woodstock, + Connecticut, about the year 1700. He was not old, it is true, but he must + have caught the ways of the old ministers. The “sensational” pulpit of our + own time could hardly surpass him in the drollery of its expressions. A + specimen or two may dispose the reader to turn over the pages which follow + in a good-natured frame of mind. “If unconverted men ever got to heaven,” + he said, “they would feel as uneasy as a shad up the crotch of a + white-oak.” Some of his ministerial associates took offence at his + eccentricities, and called on a visit of admonition to the offending + clergyman. “Mr. Dwight received their reproofs with great meekness, + frankly acknowledged his faults, and promised amendment, but, in prayer at + parting, after returning thanks for the brotherly visit and admonition, + 'hoped that they might so hitch their horses on earth that they should + never kick in the stables of everlasting salvation.'” + </p> + <p> + It is a good thing to have some of the blood of one of these old ministers + in one's veins. An English bishop proclaimed the fact before an assembly + of physicians the other day that he was not ashamed to say that he had a + son who was a doctor. Very kind that was in the bishop, and very proud his + medical audience must have felt. Perhaps he was not ashamed of the Gospel + of Luke, “the beloved physician,” or even of the teachings which came from + the lips of one who was a carpenter, and the son of a carpenter. So a + New-Englander, even if he were a bishop, need not be ashamed to say that + he consented to have an ancestor who was a minister. On the contrary, he + has a right to be grateful for a probable inheritance of good instincts, a + good name, and a bringing up in a library where he bumped about among + books from the time when he was hardly taller than one of his father's or + grandfather's folios. What are the names of ministers' sons which most + readily occur to our memory as illustrating these advantages? Edward + Everett, Joseph Stevens Buckminster, Ralph Waldo Emerson, George Bancroft, + Richard Hildreth, James Russell Lowell, Francis Parkman, Charles Eliot + Norton, were all ministers' boys. John Lothrop Motley was the grandson of + the clergyman after whom he was named. George Ticknor was next door to + such a descent, for his father was a deacon. This is a group which it did + not take a long or a wide search to bring together. + </p> + <p> + Men such as the ministers who have been described could not fail to + exercise a good deal of authority in the communities to which they + belonged. The effect of the Revolution must have been to create a tendency + to rebel against spiritual dictation. Republicanism levels in religion as + in everything. It might have been expected, therefore, that soon after + civil liberty had been established there would be conflicts between the + traditional, authority of the minister and the claims of the now free and + independent congregation. So it was, in fact, as for instance in the case + which follows, for which the reader is indebted to Miss Lamed's book, + before cited. + </p> + <p> + The ministerial veto allowed by the Saybrook Platform gave rise, in the + year 1792, to a fierce conflict in the town of Pomfret, Connecticut. + Zephaniah Swift, a lawyer of Windham, came out in the Windham “Herald,” in + all the vehemence of partisan phraseology, with all the emphasis of + italics and small capitals. Was it not time, he said, for people to look + about them and see whether “such despotism was founded in Scripture, in + reason, in policy, or on the rights of man! A minister, by his vote, by + his single voice, may negative the unanimous vote of the church! Are + ministers composed of finer clay than the rest of mankind, that entitles + them to this preeminence? Does a license to preach transform a man into a + higher order of beings and endow him with a natural quality to govern? Are + the laity an inferior order of beings, fit only to be slaves and to be + governed? Is it good policy for mankind to subject themselves to such + degrading vassalage and abject submission? Reason, common sense, and the + Bible, with united voice, proclaim to all mankind that they are all born + free and equal; that every member of a church or Christian congregation + must be on the same footing in respect of church government, and that the + CONSTITUTION, which delegates to one the power to negative the vote of all + the rest, is SUBVERSIVE OF THE NATURAL RIGHT OF MANKIND AND REPUGNANT TO + THE WORD OF GOD.” + </p> + <p> + The Reverend Mr. Welch replied to the lawyer's attack, pronouncing him to + be “destitute of delicacy, decency, good manners, sound judgment, honesty, + manhood, and humanity; a poltroon, a cat's-paw, the infamous tool of a + party, a partisan, a political weathercock, and a ragamuffin.” + </p> + <p> + No Fourth-of-July orator would in our day rant like the lawyer, and no + clergyman would use such language as that of the Reverend Moses Welch. The + clergy have been pretty well republicanized within that last two or three + generations, and are not likely to provoke quarrels by assertion of their + special dignities or privileges. The public is better bred than to carry + on an ecclesiastical controversy in terms which political brawlers would + hardly think admissible. The minister of religion is generally treated + with something more than respect; he is allowed to say undisputed what + would be sharply controverted in anybody else. Bishop Gilbert Haven, of + happy memory, had been discussing a religious subject with a friend who + was not convinced by his arguments. “Wait till you hear me from the + pulpit,” he said; “there you cannot answer me.” The preacher—if I + may use an image which would hardly have suggested itself to him—has + his hearer's head in chancery, and can administer punishment ad libitum. + False facts, false reasoning, bad rhetoric, bad grammar, stale images, + borrowed passages, if not borrowed sermons, are listened to without a word + of comment or a look of disapprobation. + </p> + <p> + One of the ablest and most conscientiously laborious of our clergymen has + lately ventured to question whether all his professional brethren + invariably give utterance to their sincerest beliefs, and has been sharply + criticised for so doing. The layman, who sits silent in his pew, has his + rights when out of it, and among them is the right of questioning that + which has been addressed to him from the privileged eminence of the + pulpit, or in any way sanctioned by his religious teacher. It is nearly + two hundred years since a Boston layman wrote these words: “I am not + ignorant that the pious frauds of the ancient, and the inbred fire (I do + not call it pride) of many of our modern divines, have precipitated them + to propagate and maintain truth as well as falsehoods, in such an unfair + manner as has given advantage to the enemy to suspect the whole doctrine + these men have profest to be nothing but a mere trick.” + </p> + <p> + So wrote Robert Calef, the Boston merchant, whose book the Reverend + Increase Mather, president of Harvard College, burned publicly in the + college yard. But the pity of it is that the layman had not cried out + earlier and louder, and saved the community from the horror of those + judicial murders for witchcraft, the blame of which was so largely + attributable to the clergy. + </p> + <p> + Perhaps no, laymen have given the clergy more trouble than the doctors. + The old reproach against physicians, that where there were three of them + together there were two atheists, had a real significance, but not that + which was intended by the sharp-tongued ecclesiastic who first uttered it. + Undoubtedly there is a strong tendency in the pursuits of the medical + profession to produce disbelief in that figment of tradition and diseased + human imagination which has been installed in the seat of divinity by the + priesthood of cruel and ignorant ages. It is impossible, or at least very + difficult, for a physician who has seen the perpetual efforts of Nature—whose + diary is the book he reads oftenest—to heal wounds, to expel + poisons, to do the best that can be done under the given conditions,—it + is very difficult for him to believe in a world where wounds cannot heal, + where opiates cannot give a respite from pain, where sleep never comes + with its sweet oblivion of suffering, where the art of torture is the only + science cultivated, and the capacity for being tormented is the only + faculty which remains to the children of that same Father who cares for + the falling sparrow. The Deity has often been pictured as Moloch, and the + physician has, no doubt, frequently repudiated him as a monstrosity. + </p> + <p> + On the other hand, the physician has often been renowned for piety as well + as for his peculiarly professional virtue of charity,—led upward by + what he sees to the source of all the daily marvels wrought before his own + eyes. So it was that Galen gave utterance to that psalm of praise which + the sweet singer of Israel need not have been ashamed of; and if this + “heathen” could be lifted into such a strain of devotion, we need not be + surprised to find so many devout Christian worshippers among the crowd of + medical “atheists.” + </p> + <p> + No two professions should come into such intimate and cordial relations as + those to which belong the healers of the body and the headers of the mind. + There can be no more fatal mistake than that which brings them into + hostile attitudes with reference to each other, both having in view the + welfare of their fellow-creatures. But there is a territory always liable + to be differed about between them. There are patients who never tell their + physician the grief which lies at the bottom of their ailments. He goes + through his accustomed routine with them, and thinks he has all the + elements needed for his diagnosis. But he has seen no deeper into the + breast than the tongue, and got no nearer the heart than the wrist. A wise + and experienced clergyman, coming to the patient's bedside,—not with + the professional look on his face which suggests the undertaker and the + sexton, but with a serene countenance and a sympathetic voice, with tact, + with patience, waiting for the right moment,—will surprise the shy + spirit into a confession of the doubt, the sorrow, the shame, the remorse, + the terror which underlies all the bodily symptoms, and the unburdening of + which into a loving and pitying soul is a more potent anodyne than all the + drowsy sirups of the world. And, on the other hand, there are many nervous + and over-sensitive natures which have been wrought up by self-torturing + spiritual exercises until their best confessor would be a sagacious and + wholesome-minded physician. + </p> + <p> + Suppose a person to have become so excited by religious stimulants that he + is subject to what are known to the records of insanity as hallucinations: + that he hears voices whispering blasphemy in his ears, and sees devils + coming to meet him, and thinks he is going to be torn in pieces, or + trodden into the mire. Suppose that his mental conflicts, after plunging + him into the depths of despondency, at last reduce him to a state of + despair, so that he now contemplates taking his own life, and debates with + himself whether it shall be by knife, halter, or poison, and after much + questioning is apparently making up his mind to commit suicide. Is not + this a manifest case of insanity, in the form known as melancholia? Would + not any prudent physician keep such a person under the eye of constant + watchers, as in a dangerous state of, at least, partial mental alienation? + Yet this is an exact transcript of the mental condition of Christian in + “Pilgrim's Progress,” and its counterpart has been found in thousands of + wretched lives terminated by the act of self-destruction, which came so + near taking place in the hero of the allegory. Now the wonderful book from + which this example is taken is, next to the Bible and the Treatise of “De + Imitatione Christi,” the best-known religious work of Christendom. If + Bunyan and his contemporary, Sydenham, had met in consultation over the + case of Christian at the time when he was meditating self-murder, it is + very possible that there might have been a difference of judgment. The + physician would have one advantage in such a consultation. He would pretty + certainly have received a Christian education, while the clergyman would + probably know next to nothing of the laws or manifestations of mental or + bodily disease. It does not seem as if any theological student was really + prepared for his practical duties until he had learned something of the + effects of bodily derangements, and, above all, had become familiar with + the gamut of mental discord in the wards of an insane asylum. + </p> + <p> + It is a very thoughtless thing to say that the physician stands to the + divine in the same light as the divine stands to the physician, so far as + each may attempt to handle subjects belonging especially to the other's + profession. Many physicians know a great deal more about religious matters + than they do about medicine. They have read the Bible ten times as much as + they ever read any medical author. They have heard scores of sermons for + one medical lecture to which they have listened. They often hear much + better preaching than the average minister, for he hears himself chiefly, + and they hear abler men and a variety of them. They have now and then been + distinguished in theology as well as in their own profession. The name of + Servetus might call up unpleasant recollections, but that of another + medical practitioner may be safely mentioned. “It was not till the middle + of the last century that the question as to the authorship of the + Pentateuch was handled with anything like a discerning criticism. The + first attempt was made by a layman, whose studies we might have supposed + would scarcely have led him to such an investigation.” This layman was + “Astruc, doctor and professor of medicine in the Royal College at Paris, + and court physician to Louis XIV.” The quotation is from the article + “Pentateuch” in Smith's “Dictionary of the Bible,” which, of course, lies + on the table of the least instructed clergyman. The sacred profession has, + it is true, returned the favor by giving the practitioner of medicine + Bishop Berkeley's “Treatise on Tar-water,” and the invaluable prescription + of that “aged clergyman whose sands of life”——but let us be + fair, if not generous, and remember that Cotton Mather shares with Zabdiel + Boylston the credit of introducing the practice of inoculation into + America. The professions should be cordial allies, but the church-going, + Bible-reading physician ought to know a great deal more of the subjects + included under the general name of theology than the clergyman can be + expected to know of medicine. To say, as has been said not long since, + that a young divinity student is as competent to deal with the latter as + an old physician is to meddle with the former, suggests the idea that + wisdom is not an heirloom in the family of the one who says it. What a set + of idiots our clerical teachers must have been and be, if, after a quarter + or half a century of their instruction, a person of fair intelligence is + utterly incompetent to form any opinion about the subjects which they have + been teaching, or trying to teach him, so long! + </p> + <p> + A minister must find it very hard work to preach to hearers who do not + believe, or only half believe, what he preaches. But pews without heads in + them are a still more depressing spectacle. He may convince the doubter + and reform the profligate. But he cannot produce any change on pine and + mahogany by his discourses, and the more wood he sees as he looks along + his floor and galleries, the less his chance of being useful. It is + natural that in times like the present changes of faith and of place of + worship should be far from infrequent. It is not less natural that there + should be regrets on one side and gratification on the other, when such + changes occur. It even happens occasionally that the regrets become + aggravated into reproaches, rarely from the side which receives the new + accessions, less rarely from the one which is left. It is quite + conceivable that the Roman Church, which considers itself the only true + one, should look on those who leave its communion as guilty of a great + offence. It is equally natural that a church which considers Pope and + Pagan a pair of murderous giants, sitting at the mouths of their caves, + alike in their hatred to true Christians, should regard any of its members + who go over to Romanism as lost in fatal error. But within the Protestant + fold there are many compartments, and it would seem that it is not a + deadly defection to pass from one to another. + </p> + <p> + So far from such exchanges between sects being wrong, they ought to happen + a great deal oftener than they do. All the larger bodies of Christians + should be constantly exchanging members. All men are born with + conservative or aggressive tendencies: they belong naturally with the + idol-worshippers or the idol-breakers. Some wear their fathers' old + clothes, and some will have a new suit. One class of men must have their + faith hammered in like a nail, by authority; another class must have it + worked in like a screw, by argument. Members of one of these classes often + find themselves fixed by circumstances in the other. The late Orestes A. + Brownson used to preach at one time to a little handful of persons, in a + small upper room, where some of them got from him their first lesson about + the substitution of reverence for idolatry, in dealing with the books they + hold sacred. But after a time Mr. Brownson found he had mistaken his + church, and went over to the Roman Catholic establishment, of which he + became and remained to his dying day one of the most stalwart champions. + Nature is prolific and ambidextrous. While this strong convert was trying + to carry us back to the ancient faith, another of her sturdy children, + Theodore Parker, was trying just as hard to provide a new church for the + future. One was driving the sheep into the ancient fold, while the other + was taking down the bars that kept them out of the new pasture. Neither of + these powerful men could do the other's work, and each had to find the + task for which he was destined. + </p> + <p> + The “old gospel ship,” as the Methodist song calls it, carries many who + would steer by the wake of their vessel. But there are many others who do + not trouble themselves to look over the stern, having their eyes fixed on + the light-house in the distance before them. In less figurative language, + there are multitudes of persons who are perfectly contented with the old + formulae of the church with which they and their fathers before them have + been and are connected, for the simple reason that they fit, like old + shoes, because they have been worn so long, and mingled with these, in the + most conservative religious body, are here and there those who are + restless in the fetters of a confession of faith to which they have + pledged themselves without believing in it. This has been true of the + Athanasian creed, in the Anglican Church, for two centuries more or less, + unless the Archbishop of Canterbury, Tillotson, stood alone in wishing the + church were well rid of it. In fact, it has happened to the present writer + to hear the Thirty-nine Articles summarily disposed of by one of the most + zealous members of the American branch of that communion, in a verb of one + syllable, more familiar to the ears of the forecastle than to those of the + vestry. + </p> + <p> + But on the other hand, it is far from uncommon to meet with persons among + the so-called “liberal” denominations who are uneasy for want of a more + definite ritual and a more formal organization than they find in their own + body. Now, the rector or the minister must be well aware that there are + such cases, and each of them must be aware that there are individuals + under his guidance whom he cannot satisfy by argument, and who really + belong by all their instincts to another communion. It seems as if a + thoroughly honest, straight-collared clergyman would say frankly to his + restless parishioner: “You do not believe the central doctrines of the + church which you are in the habit of attending. You belong properly to + Brother A.'s or Brother B.'s fold, and it will be more manly and probably + more profitable for you to go there than to stay with us.” And, again, the + rolling-collared clergyman might be expected to say to this or that uneasy + listener: “You are longing for a church which will settle your beliefs for + you, and relieve you to a great extent from the task, to which you seem to + be unequal, of working out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Go + over the way to Brother C.'s or Brother D.'s; your spine is weak, and they + will furnish you a back-board which will keep you straight and make you + comfortable.” Patients are not the property of their physicians, nor + parishioners of their ministers. + </p> + <p> + As for the children of clergymen, the presumption is that they will adhere + to the general belief professed by their fathers. But they do not lose + their birthright or their individuality, and have the world all before + them to choose their creed from, like other persons. They are sometimes + called to account for attacking the dogmas they are supposed to have heard + preached from their childhood. They cannot defend themselves, for various + good reasons. If they did, one would have to say he got more preaching + than was good for him, and came at last to feel about sermons and their + doctrines as confectioners' children do about candy. Another would have to + own that he got his religious belief, not from his father, but from his + mother. That would account for a great deal, for the milk in a woman's + veins sweetens, or at least, dilutes an acrid doctrine, as the blood of + the motherly cow softens the virulence of small-pox, so that its mark + survives only as the seal of immunity. Another would plead atavism, and + say he got his religious instincts from his great-grandfather, as some do + their complexion or their temper. Others would be compelled to confess + that the belief of a wife or a sister had displaced that which they + naturally inherited. No man can be expected to go thus into the details of + his family history, and, therefore, it is an ill-bred and indecent thing + to fling a man's father's creed in his face, as if he had broken the fifth + commandment in thinking for himself in the light of a new generation. + Common delicacy would prevent him from saying that he did not get his + faith from his father, but from somebody else, perhaps from his + grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice, like the young man whom the + Apostle cautioned against total abstinence. + </p> + <p> + It is always the right, and may sometimes be the duty, of the layman to + call the attention of the clergy to the short-comings and errors, not only + of their own time, but also of the preceding generations, of which they + are the intellectual and moral product. This is especially true when the + authority of great names is fallen back upon as a defence of opinions not + in themselves deserving to be upheld. It may be very important to show + that the champions of this or that set of dogmas, some of which are + extinct or obsolete as beliefs, while others retain their vitality, held + certain general notions which vitiated their conclusions. And in + proportion to the eminence of such champions, and the frequency with which + their names are appealed to as a bulwark of any particular creed or set of + doctrines, is it urgent to show into what obliquities or extravagances or + contradictions of thought they have been betrayed. + </p> + <p> + In summing up the religious history of New England, it would be just and + proper to show the agency of the Mathers, father and son, in the + witchcraft delusion. It would be quite fair to plead in their behalf the + common beliefs of their time. It would be an extenuation of their acts + that, not many years before, the great and good magistrate, Sir Matthew + Hale, had sanctioned the conviction of prisoners accused of witchcraft. To + fall back on the errors of the time is very proper when we are trying our + predecessors in foro conscientace: The houses they dwelt in may have had + some weak or decayed beams and rafters, but they served for their shelter, + at any rate. It is quite another matter when those rotten timbers are used + in holding up the roofs over our own heads. Still more, if one of our + ancestors built on an unsafe or an unwholesome foundation, the best thing + we can do is to leave it and persuade others to leave it if we can. And if + we refer to him as a precedent, it must be as a warning and not as a + guide. + </p> + <p> + Such was the reason of the present writer's taking up the writings of + Jonathan Edwards for examination in a recent essay. The “Edwardsian” + theology is still recognized as a power in and beyond the denomination to + which he belonged. One or more churches bear his name, and it is thrown + into the scale of theological belief as if it added great strength to the + party which claims him. That he was a man of extraordinary endowments and + deep spiritual nature was not questioned, nor that he was a most acute + reasoner, who could unfold a proposition into its consequences as + patiently, as convincingly, as a palaeontologist extorts its confession + from a fossil fragment. But it was maintained that so many dehumanizing + ideas were mixed up with his conceptions of man, and so many diabolizing + attributes embodied in his imagination of the Deity, that his system of + beliefs was tainted throughout by them, and that the fact of his being so + remarkable a logician recoiled on the premises which pointed his + inexorable syllogisms to such revolting conclusions. When he presents us a + God, in whose sight children, with certain not too frequent exceptions, + “are young vipers, and are infinitely more hateful than vipers;” when he + gives the most frightful detailed description of infinite and endless + tortures which it drives men and women mad to think of prepared for “the + bulk of mankind;” when he cruelly pictures a future in which parents are + to sing hallelujahs of praise as they see their children driven into the + furnace, where they are to lie “roasting” forever,—we have a right + to say that the man who held such beliefs and indulged in such + imaginations and expressions is a burden and not a support in reference to + the creed with which his name is associated. What heathenism has ever + approached the horrors of this conception of human destiny? It is not an + abuse of language to apply to such a system of beliefs the name of + Christian pessimism. + </p> + <p> + If these and similar doctrines are so generally discredited as some appear + to think, we might expect to see the change showing itself in catechisms + and confessions of faith, to hear the joyful news of relief from its + horrors in all our churches, and no longer to read in the newspapers of + ministers rejected or put on trial for heresy because they could not + accept the most dreadful of these doctrines. Whether this be so or not, it + must be owned that the name of Jonathan Edwards does at this day carry a + certain authority with it for many persons, so that anything he believed + gains for them some degree of probability from that circumstance. It + would, therefore, be of much interest to know whether he was trustworthy + in his theological speculations, and whether he ever changed his belief + with reference to any of the great questions above alluded to. + </p> + <p> + Some of our readers may remember a story which got abroad many years ago + that a certain M. Babinet, a scientific Frenchman of note, had predicted a + serious accident soon to occur to the planet on which we live by the + collision with it of a great comet then approaching us, or some such + occurrence. There is no doubt that this prediction produced anxiety and + alarm in many timid persons. It became a very interesting question with + them who this M. Babinet might be. Was he a sound observer, who had made + other observations and predictions which had proved accurate? Or was he + one of those men who are always making blunders for other people to + correct? Is he known to have changed his opinion as to the approaching + disastrous event? + </p> + <p> + So long as there were any persons made anxious by this prediction, so long + as there was even one who believed that he, and his family, and his + nation, and his race, and the home of mankind, with all its monuments, + were very soon to be smitten in mid-heaven and instantly shivered into + fragments, it was very desirable to find any evidence that this prophet of + evil was a man who held many extravagant and even monstrous opinions. + Still more satisfactory would it be if it could be shown that he had + reconsidered his predictions, and declared that he could not abide by his + former alarming conclusions. And we should think very ill of any + astronomer who would not rejoice for the sake of his fellow-creatures, if + not for his own, to find the threatening presage invalidated in either or + both of the ways just mentioned, even though he had committed himself to + M. Babinet's dire belief. + </p> + <p> + But what is the trivial, temporal accident of the wiping out of a planet + and its inhabitants to the infinite catastrophe which shall establish a + mighty world of eternal despair? And which is it most desirable for + mankind to have disproved or weakened, the grounds of the threat of M. + Babinet, or those of the other infinitely more terrible comminations, so + far as they rest on the authority of Jonathan Edwards? + </p> + <p> + The writer of this paper had been long engaged in the study of the + writings of Edwards, with reference to the essay he had in contemplation, + when, on speaking of the subject to a very distinguished orthodox divine, + this gentleman mentioned the existence of a manuscript of Edwards which + had been held back from the public on account of some opinions or + tendencies it contained, or was suspected of containing “High Arianism” + was the exact expression he used with reference to it. On relating this + fact to an illustrious man of science, whose name is best known to + botanists, but is justly held in great honor by the orthodox body to which + he belongs, it appeared that he, too, had heard of such a manuscript, and + the questionable doctrine associated with it in his memory was + Sabellianism. It was of course proper in the writer of an essay on + Jonathan Edwards to mention the alleged existence of such a manuscript, + with reference to which the same caution seemed to have been exercised as + that which led, the editor of his collected works to suppress the language + Edwards had used about children. + </p> + <p> + This mention led to a friendly correspondence between the writer and one + of the professors in the theological school at Andover, and finally to the + publication of a brief essay, which, for some reason, had been withheld + from publication for more than a century. Its title is “Observations + concerning the Scripture OEconomy of the Trinity and Covenant of + Redemption. By Jonathan Edwards.” It contains thirty-six pages and a half, + each small page having about two hundred words. The pages before the + reader will be found to average about three hundred and twenty-five words. + An introduction and an appendix by the editor, Professor Egbert C. Smyth, + swell the contents to nearly a hundred pages, but these additions, and the + circumstance that it is bound in boards, must not lead us to overlook the + fact that the little volume is nothing more than a pamphlet in book's + clothing. + </p> + <p> + A most extraordinary performance it certainly is, dealing with the + arrangements entered into by the three persons of the Trinity, in as bald + and matter-of-fact language and as commercial a spirit as if the author + had been handling the adjustment of a limited partnership between three + retail tradesmen. But, lest a layman's judgment might be considered + insufficient, the treatise was submitted by the writer to one of the most + learned of our theological experts,—the same who once informed a + church dignitary, who had been attempting to define his theological + position, that he was a Eutychian,—a fact which he seems to have + been no more aware of than M. Jourdain was conscious that he had been + speaking prose all his life. The treatise appeared to this professor + anti-trinitarian, not in the direction of Unitarianism, however, but of + Tritheism. Its anthropomorphism affected him like blasphemy, and the paper + produced in him the sense of “great disgust,” which its whole character + might well excite in the unlearned reader. + </p> + <p> + All this is, however, of little importance, for this is not the work of + Edwards referred to by the present writer in his previous essay. The tract + recently printed as a volume may be the one referred to by Dr. Bushnell, + in 1851, but of this reference by him the writer never heard until after + his own essay was already printed. The manuscript of the “Observations” + was received by Professor Smyth, as he tells us in his introduction, about + fifteen years ago, from the late Reverend William T. Dwight, D. D., to + whom it was bequeathed by his brother, the Reverend Dr. Sereno E. Dwight. + </p> + <p> + But the reference of the present writer was to another production of the + great logician, thus spoken of in a quotation from “the accomplished + editor of the Hartford 'Courant,'” to be found in Professor Smyth's + introduction: + </p> + <p> + “It has long been a matter of private information that Professor Edwards + A. Park, of Andover, had in his possession an published manuscript of + Edwards of considerable extent, perhaps two thirds as long as his treatise + on the will. As few have ever seen the manuscript, its contents are only + known by vague reports.... It is said that it contains a departure from + his published views on the Trinity and a modification of the view of + original sin. One account of it says that the manuscript leans toward + Sabellianism, and that it even approaches Pelagianism.” + </p> + <p> + It was to this “suppressed” manuscript the present writer referred, and + not to the slender brochure recently given to the public. He is bound, + therefore, to say plainly that to satisfy inquirers who may be still in + doubt with reference to Edwards's theological views, it would be necessary + to submit this manuscript, and all manuscripts of his which have been kept + private, to their inspection, in print, if possible, so that all could + form their own opinion about it or them. + </p> + <p> + The whole matter may be briefly stated thus: Edwards believed in an + eternity of unimaginable horrors for “the bulk of mankind.” His authority + counts with many in favor of that belief, which affects great numbers as + the idea of ghosts affected Madame de Stall: “Je n'y crois pas, mais je + les crains.” This belief is one which it is infinitely desirable to the + human race should be shown to be possibly, probably, or certainly + erroneous. It is, therefore, desirable in the interest of humanity that + any force the argument in its favor may derive from Edwards's authority + should be weakened by showing that he was capable of writing most + unwisely, and if it should be proved that he changed his opinions, or ran + into any “heretical” vagaries, by using these facts against the validity + of his judgment. That he was capable of writing most unwisely has been + sufficiently shown by the recent publication of his “Observations.” + Whether he, anywhere contradicted what were generally accepted as his + theological opinions, or how far he may have lapsed into heresies, the + public will never rest satisfied until it sees and interprets for itself + everything that is open to question which may be contained in his yet + unpublished manuscripts. All this is not in the least a personal affair + with the writer, who, in the course of his studies of Edwards's works, + accidentally heard, from the unimpeachable sources sufficiently indicated, + the reports, which it seems must have been familiar to many, that there + was unpublished matter bearing on the opinions of the author through whose + voluminous works he had been toiling. And if he rejoiced even to hope that + so wise a man as Edwards has been considered, so good a man as he is + recognized to have been, had, possibly in his changes of opinion, ceased + to think of children as vipers, and of parents as shouting hallelujahs + while their lost darlings were being driven into the flames, where is the + theologian who would not rejoice to hope so with him or who would be + willing to tell his wife or his daughter that he did not? + </p> + <p> + The real, vital division of the religious part of our Protestant + communities is into Christian optimists and Christian pessimists. The + Christian optimist in his fullest development is characterized by a + cheerful countenance, a voice in the major key, an undisguised enjoyment + of earthly comforts, and a short confession of faith. His theory of the + universe is progress; his idea of God is that he is a Father with all the + true paternal attributes, of man that he is destined to come into harmony + with the key-note of divine order, of this earth that it is a training + school for a better sphere of existence. The Christian pessimist in his + most typical manifestation is apt to wear a solemn aspect, to speak, + especially from the pulpit, in the minor key, to undervalue the lesser + enjoyments of life, to insist on a more extended list of articles of + belief. His theory of the universe recognizes this corner of it as a moral + ruin; his idea of the Creator is that of a ruler whose pardoning power is + subject to the veto of what is called “justice;” his notion of man is that + he is born a natural hater of God and goodness, and that his natural + destiny is eternal misery. The line dividing these two great classes + zigzags its way through the religious community, sometimes following + denominational layers and cleavages, sometimes going, like a geological + fracture, through many different strata. The natural antagonists of the + religious pessimists are the men of science, especially the evolutionists, + and the poets. It was but a conditioned prophecy, yet we cannot doubt what + was in Milton's mind when he sang, in one of the divinest of his strains, + that + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “Hell itself will pass away, + And leave her dolorous mansions to the peering day.” + </pre> + <p> + And Nature, always fair if we will allow her time enough, after giving + mankind the inspired tinker who painted the Christian's life as that of a + hunted animal, “never long at ease,” desponding, despairing, on the verge + of self-murder,—painted it with an originality, a vividness, a power + and a sweetness, too, that rank him with the great authors of all time,—kind + Nature, after this gift, sent as his counterpoise the inspired ploughman, + whose songs have done more to humanize the hard theology of Scotland than + all the rationalistic sermons that were ever preached. Our own Whittier + has done and is doing the same thing, in a far holier spirit than Burns, + for the inherited beliefs of New England and the country to which New + England belongs. Let me sweeten these closing paragraphs of an essay not + meaning to hold a word of bitterness with a passage or two from the + lay-preacher who is listened to by a larger congregation than any man who + speaks from the pulpit. Who will not hear his words with comfort and + rejoicing when he speaks of “that larger hope which, secretly cherished + from the times of Origen and Duns Scotus to those of Foster and Maurice, + has found its fitting utterance in the noblest poem of the age?” + </p> + <p> + It is Tennyson's “In Memoriam” to which he refers, and from which he + quotes four verses, of which this is the last: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “Behold! we know not anything + I can but trust that good shall fall + At last,—far off,—at last, to all, + And every winter change to spring.” + </pre> + <p> + If some are disposed to think that the progress of civilization and the + rapidly growing change of opinion renders unnecessary any further effort + to humanize “the Gospel of dread tidings;” if any believe the doctrines of + the Longer and Shorter Catechism of the Westminster divines are so far + obsolete as to require no further handling; if there are any who thank + these subjects have lost their interest for living souls ever since they + themselves have learned to stay at home on Sundays, with their cakes and + ale instead of going to meeting,—not such is Mr. Whittier's opinion, + as we may infer from his recent beautiful poem, “The Minister's Daughter.” + It is not science alone that the old Christian pessimism has got to + struggle with, but the instincts of childhood, the affections of + maternity, the intuitions of poets, the contagious humanity of the + philanthropist,—in short, human nature and the advance of + civilization. The pulpit has long helped the world, and is still one of + the chief defences against the dangers that threaten society, and it is + worthy now, as it always has been in its best representation, of all love + and honor. But many of its professed creeds imperatively demand revision, + and the pews which call for it must be listened to, or the preacher will + by and by find himself speaking to a congregation of bodiless echoes by + and by find himself speaking to a congregation of bodiless echoes. + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Pages From an Old Volume of Life +by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PAGES FROM AN OLD VOLUME OF LIFE *** + +***** This file should be named 2699-h.htm or 2699-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/9/2699/ + +Produced by David Widger + +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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