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diff --git a/30990.txt b/30990.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..93e1b26 --- /dev/null +++ b/30990.txt @@ -0,0 +1,15172 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - +Swanston Edition Vol. 16 (of 25), by Robert Louis Stevenson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 16 (of 25) + +Author: Robert Louis Stevenson + +Other: Andrew Lang + +Release Date: January 16, 2010 [EBook #30990] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK R.L. STEVENSON - VOL 16 OF 25 *** + + + + +Produced by Marius Masi, Jonathan Ingram and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + +Transcriber's notes: + + Text following a carat character (^) was superscript in the original + (example: M^r). + + The following typographical errors were amended: + + In page 180 "his nights were for some while like other men's now + banlk ..." 'banlk' was changed to 'blank'. + + In page 343 "If was plain, thus far, that I should have to get into + India ..." 'If' was corrected to 'It'. + + + + + THE WORKS OF + + ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON + + SWANSTON EDITION + VOLUME XVI + + + + + _Of this SWANSTON EDITION in Twenty-five + Volumes of the Works of ROBERT LOUIS + STEVENSON Two Thousand and Sixty Copies + have been printed, of which only Two Thousand + Copies are for sale._ + + _This Is No._ ........... + + +[Illustration: R. L. S. IN APEMAMA ISLAND: A DEVIL-PRIEST MAKING +INCANTATIONS] + + THE WORKS OF + + ROBERT LOUIS + STEVENSON + + VOLUME SIXTEEN + + LONDON: PUBLISHED BY CHATTO AND + WINDUS: IN ASSOCIATION WITH CASSELL + AND COMPANY LIMITED: WILLIAM + HEINEMANN: AND LONGMANS GREEN + AND COMPANY MDCCCCXII + + + ALL RIGHTS RESERVED + + + + +CONTENTS + + + RECORDS OF A FAMILY OF ENGINEERS + PAGE + + INTRODUCTION: THE SURNAME OF STEVENSON 3 + + I. DOMESTIC ANNALS 12 + + II. THE SERVICE OF THE NORTHERN LIGHTS 34 + + III. THE BUILDING OF THE BELL ROCK 62 + + + ADDITIONAL MEMORIES AND PORTRAITS + + I. RANDOM MEMORIES: + + I. THE COAST OF FIFE 155 + + II. RANDOM MEMORIES: + + II. THE EDUCATION OF AN ENGINEER 167 + + III. A CHAPTER ON DREAMS 177 + + IV. BEGGARS 190 + + V. THE LANTERN-BEARERS 200 + + + LATER ESSAYS + + I. FONTAINEBLEAU: VILLAGE COMMUNITIES OF PAINTERS 215 + + II. A NOTE ON REALISM 234 + + III. ON SOME TECHNICAL ELEMENTS OF STYLE IN LITERATURE 241 + + IV. THE MORALITY OF THE PROFESSION OF LETTERS 260 + + V. BOOKS WHICH HAVE INFLUENCED ME 272 + + VI. THE DAY AFTER TO-MORROW 279 + + VII. LETTER TO A YOUNG GENTLEMAN WHO PROPOSES TO EMBRACE + THE CAREER OF ART 290 + + VIII. PULVIS ET UMBRA 299 + + IX. A CHRISTMAS SERMON 306 + + X. FATHER DAMIEN: AN OPEN LETTER TO THE REVEREND DR. + HYDE OF HONOLULU 315 + + XI. MY FIRST BOOK--"TREASURE ISLAND" 331 + + XII. THE GENESIS OF "THE MASTER OF BALLANTRAE" 341 + + XIII. RANDOM MEMORIES: _Rosa Quo Locorum_ 345 + + XIV. REFLECTIONS AND REMARKS ON HUMAN LIFE 354 + + XV. THE IDEAL HOUSE 370 + + + LAY MORALS 379 + + + PRAYERS WRITTEN FOR FAMILY USE AT VAILIMA 431 + + + + +RECORDS OF A FAMILY OF ENGINEERS + + + + +RECORDS OF A FAMILY OF ENGINEERS + +INTRODUCTION + +THE SURNAME OF STEVENSON + + +From the thirteenth century onwards, the name, under the various +disguises of Stevinstoun, Stevensoun, Stevensonne, Stenesone, and +Stewinsoune, spread across Scotland from the mouth of the Firth of Forth +to the mouth of the Firth of Clyde. Four times at least it occurs as a +place-name. There is a parish of Stevenston in Cunningham; a second +place of the name in the Barony of Bothwell in Lanark; a third on Lyne, +above Drochil Castle; the fourth on the Tyne, near Traprain Law. +Stevenson of Stevenson (co. Lanark) swore fealty to Edward I. in 1296, +and the last of that family died after the Restoration. Stevensons of +Hirdmanshiels, in Midlothian, rode in the Bishops' Raid of Aberlady, +served as jurors, stood bail for neighbours--Hunter of Polwood, for +instance--and became extinct about the same period, or possibly earlier. +A Stevenson of Luthrie and another of Pitroddie make their bows, give +their names, and vanish. And by the year 1700 it does not appear that +any acre of Scots land was vested in any Stevenson.[1] + +Here is, so far, a melancholy picture of backward progress, and a +family posting towards extinction. But the law (however administered, +and I am bound to aver that, in Scotland "it couldna weel be waur") acts +as a kind of dredge, and with dispassionate impartiality brings up into +the light of day, and shows us for a moment, in the jury-box or on the +gallows, the creeping things of the past. By these broken glimpses we +are able to trace the existence of many other and more inglorious +Stevensons, picking a private way through the brawl that makes Scots +history. They were members of Parliament for Peebles, Stirling, +Pittenweem, Kilrenny, and Inverurie. We find them burgesses of +Edinburgh; indwellers in Biggar, Perth, and Dalkeith. Thomas was the +forester of Newbattle Park, Gavin was a baker, John a maltman, Francis a +chirurgeon, and "Schir William" a priest. In the feuds of Humes and +Heatleys, Cunninghams, Montgomeries, Mures, Ogilvies, and Turnbulls, we +find them inconspicuously involved, and apparently getting rather better +than they gave. Schir William (reverend gentleman) was cruellie +slaughtered on the Links of Kincraig in 1532; James ("in the mill-town +of Roberton"), murdered in 1590; Archibald ("in Gallowfarren"), killed +with shots of pistols and hagbuts in 1608. Three violent deaths in about +seventy years, against which we can only put the case of Thomas, servant +to Hume of Cowden Knowes, who was arraigned with his two young masters +for the death of the Bastard of Mellerstanes in 1569. John ("in +Dalkeith") stood sentry without Holyrood while the banded lords were +despatching Rizzio within. William, at the ringing of Perth bell, ran +before Cowrie House "with ane sword, and, entering to the yearde, saw +George Craiggingilt with ane twa-handit sword and utheris nychtbouris; +at quilk time James Boig cryit ower ane wynds, 'Awa hame! ye will all be +hangit'"--a piece of advice which William took, and immediately +"depairtit." John got a maid with child to him in Biggar, and seemingly +deserted her; she was hanged on the Castle Hill for infanticide, June +1614; and Martin, elder in Dalkeith, eternally disgraced the name by +signing witness in a witch trial, 1661. These are two of our black +sheep.[2] Under the Restoration, one Stevenson was a bailie in +Edinburgh, and another the lessee of the Canonmills. There were at the +same period two physicians of the name in Edinburgh, one of whom, Dr. +Archibald, appears to have been a famous man in his day and generation. +The Court had continual need of him; it was he who reported, for +instance, on the state of Rumbold; and he was for some time in the +enjoyment of a pension of a thousand pounds Scots (about eighty pounds +sterling) at a time when five hundred pounds is described as "an opulent +future." I do not know if I should be glad or sorry that he failed to +keep favour; but on 6th January 1682 (rather a cheerless New Year's +present) his pension was expunged.[3] There need be no doubt, at least, +of my exultation at the fact that he was knighted and recorded arms. Not +quite so genteel, but still in public life, Hugh was Under-Clerk to the +Privy Council, and liked being so extremely. I gather this from his +conduct in September 1681, when, with all the lords and their servants, +he took the woful and soul-destroying Test, swearing it "word by word +upon his knees." And, behold! it was in vain, for Hugh was turned out of +his small post in 1684.[4] Sir Archibald and Hugh were both plainly +inclined to be trimmers; but there was one witness of the name of +Stevenson who held high the banner of the Covenant--John, +"Land-Labourer,[5] in the parish of Daily, in Carrick," that "eminently +pious man." He seems to have been a poor sickly soul, and shows himself +disabled with scrofula, and prostrate and groaning aloud with fever; but +the enthusiasm of the martyr burned high within him. + +"I was made to take joyfully the spoiling of my goods, and with pleasure +for His name's sake wandered in deserts and in mountains, in dens and +caves of the earth. I lay four months in the coldest season of the year +in a haystack in my father's garden, and a whole February in the open +fields not far from Camragen, and this I did without the least prejudice +from the night air; one night, when lying in the fields near to the +Carrick-Miln, I was all covered with snow in the morning. Many nights +have I lain with pleasure in the churchyard of Old Daily, and made a +grave my pillow; frequently have I resorted to the old walls about the +glen, near to Camragen, and there sweetly rested." The visible hand of +God protected and directed him. Dragoons were turned aside from the +bramble-bush where he lay hidden. Miracles were performed for his +behoof. "I got a horse and a woman to carry the child, and came to the +same mountain, where I wandered by the mist before; it is commonly known +by the name of Kellsrhins: when we came to go up the mountain, there +came on a great rain, which we thought was the occasion of the child's +weeping, and she wept so bitterly, that all we could do could not divert +her from it, so that she was ready to burst. When we got to the top of +the mountain, where the Lord had been formerly kind to my soul in +prayer, I looked round me for a stone, and espying one, I went and +brought it. When the woman with me saw me set down the stone, she +smiled, and asked what I was going to do with it. I told her I was going +to set it up as my Ebenezer, because hitherto, and in that place, the +Lord had formerly helped, and I hoped would yet help. The rain still +continuing, the child weeping bitterly, I went to prayer, and no sooner +did I cry to God, but the child gave over weeping, and when we got up +from prayer, the rain was pouring down on every side, but in the way +where we were to go there fell not one drop; the place not rained on was +as big as an ordinary avenue." And so great a saint was the natural butt +of Satan's persecutions. "I retired to the fields for secret prayer +about midnight. When I went to pray I was much straitened, and could not +get one request, but 'Lord pity,' 'Lord help'; this I came over +frequently; at length the terror of Satan fell on me in a high degree, +and all I could say even then was--'Lord help.' I continued in the duty +for some time, notwithstanding of this terror. At length I got up to my +feet, and the terror still increased; then the enemy took me by the +arm-pits, and seemed to lift me up by my arms. I saw a loch just before +me, and I concluded he designed to throw me there by force; and had he +got leave to do so, it might have brought a great reproach upon +religion."[6] But it was otherwise ordered, and the cause of piety +escaped that danger.[7] + +On the whole, the Stevensons may be described as decent, reputable folk, +following honest trades--millers, maltsters, and doctors, playing the +character parts in the Waverley Novels with propriety, if without +distinction; and to an orphan looking about him in the world for a +potential ancestry, offering a plain and quite unadorned refuge, equally +free from shame and glory. John, the land-labourer, is the one living +and memorable figure, and he, alas! cannot possibly be more near than a +collateral. It was on August 12, 1678, that he heard Mr. John Welsh on +the Craigdowhill, and "took the heavens, earth, and sun in the firmament +that was shining on us, as also the ambassador who made the offer, and +_the clerk who raised the psalms_, to witness that I did give myself +away to the Lord in a personal and perpetual covenant never to be +forgotten"; and already, in 1675, the birth of my direct ascendant was +registered in Glasgow. So that I have been pursuing ancestors too far +down; and John the land-labourer is debarred me, and I must relinquish +from the trophies of my house his _rare soul-strengthening and +comforting cordial_. It is the same case with the Edinburgh bailie and +the miller of the Canonmills, worthy man! and with that public +character, Hugh the Under-Clerk, and more than all, with Sir Archibald, +the physician, who recorded arms. And I am reduced to a family of +inconspicuous maltsters in what was then the clean and handsome little +city on the Clyde. + +The name has a certain air of being Norse. But the story of Scottish +nomenclature is confounded by a continual process of translation and +half-translation from the Gaelic which in olden days may have been +sometimes reversed. Roy becomes Reid; Gow, Smith. A great Highland clan +uses the name of Robertson; a sept in Appin that of Livingstone; Maclean +in Glencoe answers to Johnstone at Lockerby. And we find such hybrids as +Macalexander for Macallister. There is but one rule to be deduced: that +however uncompromisingly Saxon a name may appear, you can never be sure +it does not designate a Celt. My great-grandfather wrote the name +_Stevenson_ but pronounced it _Steenson_, after the fashion of the +immortal minstrel in "Redgauntlet"; and this elision of a medial +consonant appears a Gaelic process; and, curiously enough, I have come +across no less than two Gaelic forms: _John Macstophane cordinerius in +Crossraguel_, 1573, and _William M'Steen_ in Dunskeith (co. Ross), 1605. +Stevenson, Steenson, Macstophane, M'Steen: which is the original? which +the translation? Or were these separate creations of the patronymic, +some English, some Gaelic? The curiously compact territory in which we +find them seated--Ayr, Lanark, Peebles, Stirling, Perth, Fife, and the +Lothians--would seem to forbid the supposition.[8] + +"STEVENSON--or according to tradition of one of the proscribed of the +clan MacGregor, who was born among the willows or in a hill-side +sheep-pen--'Son of my love,' a heraldic bar sinister, but history +reveals a reason for the birth among the willows far other than the +sinister aspect of the name": these are the dark words of Mr. Cosmo +Innes; but history or tradition, being interrogated, tells a somewhat +tangled tale. The heir of Macgregor of Glenorchy, murdered about 1353 by +the Argyll Campbells, appears to have been the original "Son of my +love"; and his more loyal clansmen took the name to fight under. It may +be supposed the story of their resistance became popular, and the name +in some sort identified with the idea of opposition to the Campbells. +Twice afterwards, on some renewed aggression, in 1502 and 1552, we find +the Macgregors again banding themselves into a sept of "Sons of my +love"; and when the great disaster fell on them in 1603, the whole +original legend re-appears, and we have the heir of Alaster of Glenstrae +born "among the willows" of a fugitive mother, and the more loyal +clansmen again rallying under the name of Stevenson. A story would not +be told so often unless it had some base in fact; nor (if there were no +bond at all between the Red Macgregors and the Stevensons) would that +extraneous and somewhat uncouth name be so much repeated in the legends +of the Children of the Mist. + +But I am enabled, by my very lively and obliging correspondent, Mr. +George A. Macgregor Stevenson of New York, to give an actual instance. +His grandfather, great-grandfather, great-great-grandfather, and +great-great-great-grandfather, all used the names of Macgregor and +Stevenson as occasion served; being perhaps Macgregor by night and +Stevenson by day. The great-great-great-grandfather was a mighty man of +his hands, marched with the clan in the 'Forty-five, and returned with +_spolia opima_ in the shape of a sword, which he had wrested from an +officer in the retreat, and which is in the possession of my +correspondent to this day. His great-grandson (the grandfather of my +correspondent), being converted to Methodism by some wayside preacher, +discarded in a moment his name, his old nature, and his political +principles, and with the zeal of a proselyte sealed his adherence to the +Protestant Succession by baptising his next son George. This George +became the publisher and editor of the _Wesleyan Times_. His children +were brought up in ignorance of their Highland pedigree; and my +correspondent was puzzled to overhear his father speak of him as a true +Macgregor, and amazed to find, in rummaging about that peaceful and +pious house, the sword of the Hanoverian officer. After he was grown up +and was better informed of his descent, "I frequently asked my father," +he writes, "why he did not use the name of Macgregor; his replies were +significant, and give a picture of the man: 'It isn't a good _Methodist_ +name. You can use it, but it will do you no _good_.' Yet the old +gentleman, by way of pleasantry, used to announce himself to friends as +'Colonel Macgregor.'" + +Here, then, are certain Macgregors habitually using the name of +Stevenson, and at last, under the influence of Methodism, adopting it +entirely. Doubtless a proscribed clan could not be particular; they took +a name as a man takes an umbrella against a shower; as Rob Roy took +Campbell, and his son took Drummond. But this case is different; +Stevenson was not taken and left--it was consistently adhered to. It +does not in the least follow that all Stevensons are of the clan Alpin; +but it does follow that some may be. And I cannot conceal from myself +the possibility that James Stevenson in Glasgow, my first authentic +ancestor, may have had a Highland _alias_ upon his conscience and a +claymore in his back parlour. + +To one more tradition I may allude, that we are somehow descended from a +French barber-surgeon who came to St. Andrews in the service of one of +the Cardinal Beatons. No details were added. But the very name of +France was so detested in my family for three generations, that I am +tempted to suppose there may be something in it.[9] + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [1] An error: Stevensons owned at this date the barony of + Dolphingston in Haddingtonshire, Montgrennan in Ayrshire, and + several other lesser places. + + [2] Pitcairn's "Criminal Trials," at large.--[R. L. S.] + + [3] Fountainhall's "Decisions," vol. i. pp. 56, 132, 186, 204, + 368.--[R. L. S.] + + [4] _Ibid._ pp. 158, 299.--[R. L. S.] + + [5] Working farmer: Fr. _laboureur_. + + [6] This John Stevenson was not the only "witness" of the name; + other Stevensons were actually killed during the persecutions, in + the Glen of Trool, on Pentland, etc.; and it is very possible that + the author's own ancestor was one of the mounted party embodied by + Muir of Caldwell, only a day too late for Pentland. + + [7] Wodrow Society's "Select Biographies," vol. ii.--[R. L. S.] + + [8] Though the districts here named are those in which the name of + Stevenson is most common, it is in point of fact far more + wide-spread than the text indicates, and occurs from Dumfries and + Berwickshire to Aberdeen and Orkney. + + [9] Mr. J.H. Stevenson is satisfied that these speculations as to a + possible Norse, Highland, or French origin are vain. All we know + about the engineer family is that it was sprung from a stock of + Westland Whigs settled in the latter part of the seventeenth century + in the parish of Neilston, as mentioned at the beginning of the next + chapter. It may be noted that the Ayrshire parish of Stevenson, the + lands of which are said to have received the name in the twelfth + century, lies within thirteen miles south-west of this place. The + lands of Stevenson in Lanarkshire first mentioned in the next + century, in the Ragman Roll, lie within twenty miles east. + + + + +CHAPTER I + +DOMESTIC ANNALS + + +It is believed that in 1665, James Stevenson in Nether Carsewell, parish +of Neilston, county of Renfrew, and presumably a tenant farmer, married +one Jean Keir; and in 1675, without doubt, there was born to these two a +son Robert, possibly a maltster in Glasgow. In 1710, Robert married, for +a second time, Elizabeth Cumming, and there was born to them, in 1720, +another Robert, certainly a maltster in Glasgow. In 1742, Robert the +second married Margaret Fulton (Margret, she called herself), by whom he +had ten children, among whom were Hugh, born February 1749, and Alan, +born June 1752. + +With these two brothers my story begins. Their deaths were simultaneous; +their lives unusually brief and full. Tradition whispered me in +childhood they were the owners of an islet near St. Kitts; and it is +certain they had risen to be at the head of considerable interests in +the West Indies, which Hugh managed abroad and Alan at home, at an age +when others are still curveting a clerk's stool. My kinsman, Mr. +Stevenson of Stirling, has heard his father mention that there had been +"something romantic" about Alan's marriage: and, alas! he has forgotten +what. It was early at least. His wife was Jean, daughter of David +Lillie, a builder in Glasgow, and several times "Deacon of the Wrights": +the date of the marriage has not reached me: but on 8th June 1772, when +Robert, the only child of the union, was born, the husband and father +had scarce passed, or had not yet attained, his twentieth year. Here was +a youth making haste to give hostages to fortune. But this early scene +of prosperity in love and business was on the point of closing. + +There hung in the house of this young family, and successively in those +of my grandfather and father, an oil painting of a ship of many tons +burthen. Doubtless the brothers had an interest in the vessel; I was +told she had belonged to them outright; and the picture was preserved +through years of hardship, and remains to this day in the possession of +the family, the only memorial of my great-grandsire Alan. It was on this +ship that he sailed on his last adventure, summoned to the West Indies +by Hugh. An agent had proved unfaithful on a serious scale; and it used +to be told me in my childhood how the brothers pursued him from one +island to another in an open boat, were exposed to the pernicious dews +of the tropics, and simultaneously struck down. The dates and places of +their deaths (now before me) would seem to indicate a more scattered and +prolonged pursuit: Hugh, on the 16th April 1774, in Tobago, within sight +of Trinidad; Alan, so late as May 26th, and so far away as "Santt +Kittes," in the Leeward Islands--both, says the family Bible, "of a +fiver" (!). The death of Hugh was probably announced by Alan in a +letter, to which we may refer the details of the open boat and the dew. +Thus, at least, in something like the course of post, both were called +away, the one twenty-five, the other twenty-two; their brief generation +became extinct, their short-lived house fell with them; and "in these +lawless parts and lawless times"--the words are my grandfather's--their +property was stolen or became involved. Many years later, I understand +some small recovery to have been made; but at the moment almost the +whole means of the family seem to have perished with the young +merchants. On the 27th April, eleven days after Hugh Stevenson, +twenty-nine before Alan, died David Lillie, the Deacon of the Wrights; +so that mother and son were orphaned in one month. Thus, from a few +scraps of paper bearing little beyond dates, we construct the outlines +of the tragedy that shadowed the cradle of Robert Stevenson. + +Jean Lillie was a young woman of strong sense, well fitted to contend +with poverty, and of a pious disposition, which it is like that these +misfortunes heated. Like so many other widowed Scotswomen, she vowed her +son should wag his head in a pulpit; but her means were inadequate to +her ambition. A charity school, and some time under a Mr. M'Intyre, "a +famous linguist," were all she could afford in the way of education to +the would-be minister. He learned no Greek; in one place he mentions +that the Orations of Cicero were his highest book in Latin; in another +that he had "delighted" in Virgil and Horace; but his delight could +never have been scholarly. This appears to have been the whole of his +training previous to an event which changed his own destiny and moulded +that of his descendants--the second marriage of his mother. + +There was a Merchant-Burgess of Edinburgh of the name of Thomas Smith. +The Smith pedigree has been traced a little more particularly than the +Stevensons', with a similar dearth of illustrious names. One character +seems to have appeared, indeed, for a moment at the wings of history: a +skipper of Dundee who smuggled over some Jacobite big-wig at the time of +the 'Fifteen, and was afterwards drowned in Dundee harbour while going +on board his ship. With this exception, the generations of the Smiths +present no conceivable interest even to a descendant; and Thomas, of +Edinburgh, was the first to issue from respectable obscurity. His +father, a skipper out of Broughty Ferry, was drowned at sea while Thomas +was still young. He seems to have owned a ship or two--whalers, I +suppose, or coasters--and to have been a member of the Dundee Trinity +House, whatever that implies. On his death the widow remained in +Broughty, and the son came to push his future in Edinburgh. There is a +story told of him in the family which I repeat here because I shall +have to tell later on a similar, but more perfectly authenticated, +experience of his stepson, Robert Stevenson. Word reached Thomas that +his mother was unwell, and he prepared to leave for Broughty on the +morrow. It was between two and three in the morning, and the early +northern daylight was already clear, when he awoke and beheld the +curtains at the bed-foot drawn aside and his mother appear in the +interval, smile upon him for a moment, and then vanish. The sequel is +stereotype: he took the time by his watch, and arrived at Broughty to +learn it was the very moment of her death. The incident is at least +curious in having happened to such a person--as the tale is being told +of him. In all else, he appears as a man, ardent, passionate, practical, +designed for affairs and prospering in them far beyond the average. He +founded a solid business in lamps and oils, and was the sole proprietor +of a concern called the Greenside Company's Works--"a multifarious +concern it was," writes my cousin, Professor Swan, "of tinsmiths, +coppersmiths, brassfounders, blacksmiths, and japanners." He was also, +it seems, a shipowner and underwriter. He built himself "a land"--Nos. +1 and 2 Baxter's Place, then no such unfashionable neighbourhood--and +died, leaving his only son in easy circumstances, and giving to his +three surviving daughters portions of five thousand pounds and upwards. +There is no standard of success in life; but in one of its meanings, +this is to succeed. + +In what we know of his opinions, he makes a figure highly characteristic +of the time. A high Tory and patriot, a captain--so I find it in my +notes--of Edinburgh Spearmen, and on duty in the Castle during the Muir +and Palmer troubles, he bequeathed to his descendants a bloodless sword +and a somewhat violent tradition, both long preserved. The judge who sat +on Muir and Palmer, the famous Braxfield, let fall from the bench the +_obiter dictum_--"I never liked the French all my days, but now I hate +them." If Thomas Smith, the Edinburgh Spearman, were in court, he must +have been tempted to applaud. The people of that land were his +abhorrence; he loathed Buonaparte like Antichrist. Towards the end he +fell into a kind of dotage; his family must entertain him with games of +tin soldiers, which he took a childish pleasure to array and overset; +but those who played with him must be upon their guard, for if his side, +which was always that of the English against the French, should chance +to be defeated, there would be trouble in Baxter's Place. For these +opinions he may almost be said to have suffered. Baptised and brought up +in the Church of Scotland, he had, upon some conscientious scruple, +joined the communion of the Baptists. Like other Nonconformists, these +were inclined to the Liberal side in politics, and, at least in the +beginning, regarded Buonaparte as a deliverer. From the time of his +joining the Spearmen, Thomas Smith became in consequence a bugbear to +his brethren in the faith. "They that take the sword shall perish with +the sword," they told him; they gave him "no rest"; "his position became +intolerable"; it was plain he must choose between his political and his +religious tenets; and in the last years of his life, about 1812, he +returned to the Church of his fathers. + +August 1786 was the date of his chief advancement, when, having designed +a system of oil lights to take the place of the primitive coal fires +before in use, he was dubbed engineer to the newly-formed Board of +Northern Lighthouses. Not only were his fortunes bettered by the +appointment, but he was introduced to a new and wider field for the +exercise of his abilities, and a new way of life highly agreeable to his +active constitution. He seems to have rejoiced in the long journeys, and +to have combined them with the practice of field sports. "A tall, stout +man coming ashore with his gun over his arm"--so he was described to my +father--the only description that has come down to me--by a light-keeper +old in the service. Nor did this change come alone. On the 9th July of +the same year, Thomas Smith had been left for the second time a +widower. As he was still but thirty-three years old, prospering in his +affairs, newly advanced in the world, and encumbered at the time with a +family of children, five in number, it was natural that he should +entertain the notion of another wife. Expeditious in business, he was no +less so in his choice; and it was not later than June 1787--for my +grandfather is described as still in his fifteenth year--that he married +the widow of Alan Stevenson. + +The perilous experiment of bringing together two families for once +succeeded. Mr. Smith's two eldest daughters, Jean and Janet, fervent in +piety, unwearied in kind deeds, were well qualified both to appreciate +and to attract the stepmother; and her son, on the other hand, seems to +have found immediate favour in the eyes of Mr. Smith. It is, perhaps, +easy to exaggerate the ready-made resemblances; the tired woman must +have done much to fashion girls who were under ten; the man, lusty and +opinionated, must have stamped a strong impression on the boy of +fifteen. But the cleavage of the family was too marked, the identity of +character and interest produced between the two men on the one hand, and +the three women on the other, was too complete to have been the result +of influence alone. Particular bonds of union must have pre-existed on +each side. And there is no doubt that the man and the boy met with +common ambitions, and a common bent, to the practice of that which had +not so long before acquired the name of civil engineering. + +For the profession which is now so thronged, famous, and influential, +was then a thing of yesterday. My grandfather had an anecdote of +Smeaton, probably learned from John Clerk of Eldin, their common friend. +Smeaton was asked by the Duke of Argyll to visit the West Highland coast +for a professional purpose. He refused, appalled, it seems, by the rough +travelling. "You can recommend some other fit person?" asked the Duke. +"No," said Smeaton, "I'm sorry I can't." "What!" cried the Duke, "a +profession with only one man in it! Pray, who taught you?" "Why," said +Smeaton, "I believe I may say I was self-taught, an't please your +grace." Smeaton, at the date of Thomas Smith's third marriage, was yet +living; and as the one had grown to the new profession from his place at +the instrument-maker's, the other was beginning to enter it by the way +of his trade. The engineer of to-day is confronted with a library of +acquired results; tables and formulae to the value of folios full have +been calculated and recorded; and the student finds everywhere in front +of him the footprints of the pioneers. In the eighteenth century the +field was largely unexplored; the engineer must read with his own eyes +the face of nature; he arose a volunteer, from the workshop or the mill, +to undertake works which were at once inventions and adventures. It was +not a science then--it was a living art; and it visibly grew under the +eyes and between the hands of its practitioners. + +The charm of such an occupation was strongly felt by stepfather and +stepson. It chanced that Thomas Smith was a reformer; the superiority of +his proposed lamp and reflectors over open fires of coal secured his +appointment; and no sooner had he set his hand to the task than the +interest of that employment mastered him. The vacant stage on which he +was to act, and where all had yet to be created--the greatness of the +difficulties, the smallness of the means intrusted him--would rouse a +man of his disposition like a call to battle. The lad introduced by +marriage under his roof was of a character to sympathise; the public +usefulness of the service would appeal to his judgment, the perpetual +need for fresh expedients stimulate his ingenuity. And there was another +attraction which, in the younger man at least, appealed to, and perhaps +first aroused a profound and enduring sentiment of romance: I mean the +attraction of the life. The seas into which his labours carried the new +engineer were still scarce charted, the coasts still dark; his way on +shore was often far beyond the convenience of any road; the isles in +which he must sojourn were still partly savage. He must toss much in +boats; he must often adventure on horseback by the dubious bridle-track +through unfrequented wildernesses; he must sometimes plant his +lighthouse in the very camp of wreckers; and he was continually enforced +to the vicissitudes of outdoor life. The joy of my grandfather in this +career was strong as the love of woman. It lasted him through youth and +manhood, it burned strong in age, and at the approach of death his last +yearning was to renew these loved experiences. What he felt himself he +continued to attribute to all around him. And to this supposed sentiment +in others I find him continually, almost pathetically, appealing: often +in vain. + +Snared by these interests, the boy seems to have become almost at once +the eager confidant and adviser of his new connection; the Church, if he +had ever entertained the prospect very warmly, faded from his view; and +at the age of nineteen I find him already in a post of some authority, +superintending the construction of the lighthouse on the isle of Little +Cumbrae, in the Firth of Clyde. The change of aim seems to have caused +or been accompanied by a change of character. It sounds absurd to couple +the name of my grandfather with the word indolence; but the lad who had +been destined from the cradle to the Church, and who had attained the +age of fifteen without acquiring more than a moderate knowledge of +Latin, was at least no unusual student. And from the day of his charge +at Little Cumbrae he steps before us what he remained until the end, a +man of the most zealous industry, greedy of occupation, greedy of +knowledge, a stern husband of time, a reader, a writer, unflagging in +his task of self-improvement. Thenceforward his summers were spent +directing works and ruling workmen, now in uninhabited, now in +half-savage islands; his winters were set apart, first at the +Andersonian Institution, then at the University of Edinburgh to improve +himself in mathematics, chemistry, natural history, agriculture, moral +philosophy, and logic; a bearded student--although no doubt scrupulously +shaved. I find one reference to his years in class which will have a +meaning for all who have studied in Scottish Universities. He mentions a +recommendation made by the professor of logic. "The high-school men," he +writes, "and _bearded men like myself_, were all attention." If my +grandfather were throughout life a thought too studious of the art of +getting on, much must be forgiven to the bearded and belated student who +looked across, with a sense of difference, at "the high-school men." +Here was a gulf to be crossed; but already he could feel that he had +made a beginning, and that must have been a proud hour when he devoted +his earliest earnings to the repayment of the charitable foundation in +which he had received the rudiments of knowledge. + +In yet another way he followed the example of his father-in-law, and +from 1794 to 1807, when the affairs of the Bell Rock made it necessary +for him to resign, he served in different corps of volunteers. In the +last of these he rose to a position of distinction, no less than captain +of the Grenadier Company, and his colonel, in accepting his resignation, +entreated he would do them "the favour of continuing as an honorary +member of a corps which has been so much indebted for your zeal and +exertions." + +To very pious women the men of the house are apt to appear worldly. The +wife, as she puts on her new bonnet before church, is apt to sigh over +that assiduity which enabled her husband to pay the milliner's bill. And +in the household of the Smiths and Stevensons the women were not only +extremely pious, but the men were in reality a trifle worldly. Religious +they both were; conscious, like all Scots, of the fragility and +unreality of that scene in which we play our uncomprehended parts; like +all Scots, realising daily and hourly the sense of another will than +ours and a perpetual direction in the affairs of life. But the current +of their endeavours flowed in a more obvious channel. They had got on so +far; to get on further was their next ambition--to gather wealth, to +rise in society, to leave their descendants higher than themselves, to +be (in some sense) among the founders of families. Scott was in the same +town nourishing similar dreams. But in the eyes of the women these +dreams would be foolish and idolatrous. + +I have before me some volumes of old letters addressed to Mrs. Smith and +the two girls, her favourites, which depict in a strong light their +characters and the society in which they moved. + + "My very dear and much esteemed Friend," writes one correspondent, + "this day being the anniversary of our acquaintance, I feel inclined + to address you; but where shall I find words to express the fealings + of a graitful _Heart_, first to the Lord who graiciously inclined you + on this day last year to notice an afflicted Strainger providentially + cast in your way far from any Earthly friend?... Methinks I shall + hear him say unto you, 'Inasmuch as ye shewed kindness to my + afflicted handmaiden, ye did it unto me.'" + +This is to Jean; but the same afflicted lady wrote indifferently to +Jean, to Janet, and to Mrs. Smith, whom she calls "my Edinburgh mother." +It is plain the three were as one person, moving to acts of kindness, +like the Graces, inarmed. Too much stress must not be laid on the style +of this correspondence; Clarinda survived, not far away, and may have +met the ladies on the Calton Hill; and many of the writers appear, +underneath the conventions of the period, to be genuinely moved. But +what unpleasantly strikes a reader is that these devout unfortunates +found a revenue in their devotion. It is everywhere the same tale: on +the side of the soft-hearted ladies, substantial acts of help; on the +side of the correspondents, affection, italics, texts, ecstasies, and +imperfect spelling. When a midwife is recommended, not at all for +proficiency in her important art, but because she has "a sister whom I +[the correspondent] esteem and respect, and [who] is a spiritual +daughter of my Hon^d Father in the Gosple," the mask seems to be torn +off, and the wages of godliness appear too openly. Capacity is a +secondary matter in a midwife, temper in a servant, affection in a +daughter, and the repetition of a shibboleth fulfils the law. Common +decency is at times forgot in the same page with the most sanctified +advice and aspiration. Thus I am introduced to a correspondent who +appears to have been at the time the housekeeper at Invermay, and who +writes to condole with my grandmother in a season of distress. For +nearly half a sheet she keeps to the point with an excellent discretion +in language; then suddenly breaks out: + + "It was fully my intention to have left this at Martinmass, but the + Lord fixes the bounds of our habitation. I have had more need of + patience in my situation here than in any other, partly from the very + violent, unsteady, deceitful temper of the Mistress of the Family, + and also from the state of the house. It was in a train of repair + when I came here two years ago, and is still in Confusion. There is + above six Thousand Pounds' worth of Furniture come from London to be + put up when the rooms are completely finished; and then, woe be to + the Person who is Housekeeper at Invermay!" + +And by the tail of the document, which is torn, I see she goes on to ask +the bereaved family to seek her a new place. It is extraordinary that +people should have been so deceived in so careless an impostor; that a +few sprinkled "God willings" should have blinded them to the essence of +this venomous letter; and that they should have been at the pains to +bind it in with others (many of them highly touching) in their memorial +of harrowing days. But the good ladies were without guile and without +suspicion; they were victims marked for the axe, and the religious +impostors snuffed up the wind as they drew near. + +I have referred above to my grandmother; it was no slip of the pen: for +by an extraordinary arrangement, in which it is hard not to suspect the +managing hand of a mother, Jean Smith became the wife of Robert +Stevenson. Mrs. Smith had failed in her design to make her son a +minister, and she saw him daily more immersed in business and worldly +ambition. One thing remained that she might do: she might secure for him +a godly wife, that great means of sanctification; and she had two under +her hand, trained by herself, her dear friends and daughters both in law +and love--Jean and Janet. Jean's complexion was extremely pale, Janet's +was florid; my grandmother's nose was straight, my great-aunt's +aquiline; but by the sound of the voice, not even a son was able to +distinguish one from other. The marriage of a man of twenty-seven and a +girl of twenty who have lived for twelve years as brother and sister, is +difficult to conceive. It took place, however, and thus in 1799 the +family was still further cemented by the union of a representative of +the male or worldly element with one of the female and devout. + +This essential difference remained unbridged, yet never diminished the +strength of their relation. My grandfather pursued his design of +advancing in the world with some measure of success; rose to distinction +in his calling, grew to be the familiar of members of Parliament, judges +of the Court of Session, and "landed gentlemen"; learned a ready +address, had a flow of interesting conversation, and when he was +referred to as "a highly respectable _bourgeois_," resented the +description. My grandmother remained to the end devout and unambitious, +occupied with her Bible, her children, and her house; easily shocked, +and associating largely with a clique of godly parasites. I do not know +if she called in the midwife already referred to; but the principle on +which that lady was recommended, she accepted fully. The cook was a +godly woman, the butcher a Christian man, and the table suffered. The +scene has been often described to me of my grandfather sawing with +darkened countenance at some indissoluble joint--"Preserve me, my dear, +what kind of a reedy, stringy beast is this?"--of the joint removed, the +pudding substituted and uncovered; and of my grandmother's anxious +glance and hasty, deprecatory comment, "Just mismanaged!" Yet with the +invincible obstinacy of soft natures, she would adhere to the godly +woman and the Christian man, or find others of the same kidney to +replace them. One of her confidants had once a narrow escape; an +unwieldy old woman, she had fallen from an outside stair in a close of +the Old Town; and my grandmother rejoiced to communicate the +providential circumstance that a baker had been passing underneath with +his bread upon his head. "I would like to know what kind of providence +the baker thought it!" cried my grandfather. + +But the sally must have been unique. In all else that I have heard or +read of him, so far from criticising, he was doing his utmost to honour +and even to emulate his wife's pronounced opinions. In the only letter +which has come to my hand of Thomas Smith's, I find him informing his +wife that he was "in time for afternoon church "; similar assurances or +cognate excuses abound in the correspondence of Robert Stevenson; and it +is comical and pretty to see the two generations paying the same court +to a female piety more highly strung: Thomas Smith to the mother of +Robert Stevenson--Robert Stevenson to the daughter of Thomas Smith. And +if for once my grandfather suffered himself to be hurried, by his sense +of humour and justice, into that remark about the case of Providence and +the Baker, I should be sorry for any of his children who should have +stumbled into the same attitude of criticism. In the apocalyptic style +of the housekeeper of Invermay, woe be to that person! But there was no +fear; husband and sons all entertained for the pious, tender soul the +same chivalrous and moved affection. I have spoken with one who +remembered her, and who had been the intimate and equal of her sons, and +I found this witness had been struck, as I had been, with a sense of +disproportion between the warmth of the adoration felt and the nature of +the woman, whether as described or observed. She diligently read and +marked her Bible; she was a tender nurse; she had a sense of humour +under strong control; she talked and found some amusement at her (or +rather at her husband's) dinner-parties. It is conceivable that even my +grandmother was amenable to the seductions of dress; at least I find her +husband inquiring anxiously about "the gowns from Glasgow," and very +careful to describe the toilet of the Princess Charlotte, whom he had +seen in church "in a Pelisse and Bonnet of the same colour of cloth as +the Boys' Dress jackets, trimmed with blue satin ribbons; the hat or +Bonnet, Mr. Spittal said, was a Parisian slouch, and had a plume of +three white feathers." But all this leaves a blank impression, and it is +rather by reading backward in these old musty letters, which have moved +me now to laughter and now to impatience, that I glean occasional +glimpses of how she seemed to her contemporaries, and trace (at work in +her queer world of godly and grateful parasites) a mobile and responsive +nature. Fashion moulds us, and particularly women, deeper than we +sometimes think; but a little while ago, and, in some circles, women +stood or fell by the degree of their appreciation of old pictures; in +the early years of the century (and surely with more reason) a character +like that of my grandmother warmed, charmed, and subdued, like a strain +of music, the hearts of the men of her own household. And there is +little doubt that Mrs. Smith, as she looked on at the domestic life of +her son and her step-daughter, and numbered the heads in their +increasing nursery, must have breathed fervent thanks to her Creator. + +Yet this was to be a family unusually tried; it was not for nothing that +one of the godly women saluted Miss Janet Smith as "a veteran in +affliction"; and they were all before middle life experienced in that +form of service. By the 1st of January 1808, besides a pair of +still-born twins, five children had been born and still survived to the +young couple. By the 11th two were gone; by the 28th a third had +followed, and the two others were still in danger. In the letters of a +former nurserymaid--I give her name, Jean Mitchell, _honoris causa_--we +are enabled to feel, even at this distance of time, some of the +bitterness of that month of bereavement. + + "I have this day received," she writes to Miss Janet, "the melancholy + news of my dear babys' deaths. My heart is like to break for my dear + Mrs. Stevenson. O may she be supported on this trying occasion! I + hope her other three babys will be spared to her. O, Miss Smith, did + I think when I parted from my sweet babys that I never was to see + them more?" "I received," she begins her next, "the mournful news of + my dear Jessie's death. I also received the hair of my three sweet + babys, which I will preserve as dear to their memorys and as a token + of Mr. and Mrs. Stevenson's friendship and esteem. At my leisure + hours, when the children are in bed, they occupy all my thoughts, I + dream of them. About two weeks ago, I dreamed that my sweet little + Jessie came running to me in her usual way, and I took her in my + arms. O my dear babys, were mortal eyes permitted to see them in + heaven, we would not repine nor grieve for their loss." + +By the 29th of February, the Reverend John Campbell, a man of obvious +sense and human value, but hateful to the present biographer, because he +wrote so many letters and conveyed so little information, summed up this +first period of affliction in a letter to Miss Smith: "Your dear sister +but a little while ago had a full nursery, and the dear blooming +creatures sitting around her table filled her breast with hope that one +day they should fill active stations in society and become an ornament +in the Church below. But ah!" + +Near a hundred years ago these little creatures ceased to be, and for +not much less a period the tears have been dried. And to this day, +looking in these stitched sheaves of letters, we hear the sound of many +soft-hearted women sobbing for the lost. Never was such a massacre of +the innocents; teething and chincough and scarlet fever and small-pox +ran the round; and little Lillies, and Smiths, and Stevensons fell like +moths about a candle; and nearly all the sympathetic correspondents +deplore and recall the little losses of their own. "It is impossible to +describe the Heavnly looks of the Dear Babe the three last days of his +life," writes Mrs. Laurie to Mrs. Smith. "Never--never, my dear aunt, +could I wish to eface the rememberance of this Dear Child. Never, never, +my dear aunt!" And so soon the memory of the dead and the dust of the +survivors are buried in one grave. + +There was another death in 1812; it passes almost unremarked; a single +funeral seemed but a small event to these "veterans in affliction"; and +by 1816 the nursery was full again. Seven little hopefuls enlivened the +house; some were growing up; to the elder girl my grandfather already +wrote notes in current hand at the tail of his letters to his wife: and +to the elder boys he had begun to print, with laborious care, sheets of +childish gossip and pedantic applications. Here, for instance, under +date of May 26th, 1816, is part of a mythological account of London, +with a moral for the three gentlemen, "Messieurs Alan, Robert, and James +Stevenson," to whom the document is addressed: + + "There are many prisons here like Bridewell, for, like other large + towns, there are many bad men here as well as many good men. The + natives of London are in general not so tall and strong as the people + of Edinburgh, because they have not so much pure air, and instead of + taking porridge they eat cakes made with sugar and plums. Here you + have thousands of carts to draw timber, thousands of coaches to take + you to all parts of the town, and thousands of boats to sail on the + river Thames. But you must have money to pay, otherwise you can get + nothing. Now the way to get money is, become clever men and men of + education, by being good scholars." + +From the same absence, he writes to his wife on a Sunday: + + "It is now about eight o'clock with me, and I imagine you to be busy + with the young folks, hearing the questions [_Anglice_, catechism], + and indulging the boys with a chapter from the large Bible, with + their interrogations and your answers in the soundest doctrine. I + hope James is getting his verse as usual, and that Mary is not + forgetting her little _hymn_. While Jeannie will be reading + Wotherspoon, or some other suitable and instructive book, I presume + our friend, Aunt Mary, will have just arrived with the news of a + _throng kirk_ [a crowded church] and a great sermon. You may mention, + with my compliments to my mother, that I was at St. Paul's to-day, + and attended a very excellent service with Mr. James Lawrie. The text + was 'Examine and see that ye be in the faith.'" + +A twinkle of humour lights up this evocation of the distant scene--the +humour of happy men and happy homes. Yet it is penned upon the threshold +of fresh sorrow. James and Mary--he of the verse and she of the +hymn--did not much more than survive to welcome their returning father. +On the 25th, one of the godly women writes to Janet: + + "My dearest beloved madam, when I last parted from you, you was so + affected with your affliction [you? or I?] could think of nothing + else. But on Saturday, when I went to inquire after your health, how + was I startled to hear that dear James was gone! Ah, what is this? My + dear benefactors, doing so much good to many, to the Lord, suddenly + to be deprived of their most valued comforts? I was thrown into great + perplexity, could do nothing but murmur, why these things were done + to such a family. I could not rest, but at midnight, whether spoken + [or not] it was presented to my mind--'Those whom ye deplore are + walking with me in white.' I conclude from this the Lord saying to + sweet Mrs. Stevenson: 'I gave them to be brought up for me: well + done, good and faithful! they are fully prepared, and now I must + present them to my father and your father, to my God and your God.'" + +It would be hard to lay on flattery with a more sure and daring hand. I +quote it as a model of a letter of condolence; be sure it would console. +Very different, perhaps quite as welcome, is this from a lighthouse +inspector to my grandfather: + + "In reading your letter the trickling tear ran down my cheeks in + silent sorrow for your departed dear ones, my sweet little friends. + Well do I remember, and you will call to mind, their little innocent + and interesting stories. Often have they come round me and taken me + by the hand, but alas! I am no more destined to behold them." + +The child who is taken becomes canonised, and the looks of the homeliest +babe seem in the retrospect "heavenly the three last days of his life." +But it appears that James and Mary had indeed been children more than +usually engaging; a record was preserved a long while in the family of +their remarks and "little innocent and interesting stories," and the +blow and the blank were the more sensible. + +Early the next month Robert Stevenson must proceed upon his voyage of +inspection, part by land, part by sea. He left his wife plunged in low +spirits; the thought of his loss, and still more of her concern, was +continually present in his mind, and he draws in his letters home an +interesting picture of his family relations:-- + + + "_Windygates Inn, Monday (Postmark July 16th)._ + + "MY DEAREST JEANNIE,--While the people of the inn are getting me a + little bit of something to eat, I sit down to tell you that I had a + most excellent passage across the water, and got to Wemyss at + mid-day. I hope the children will be very good, and that Robert will + take a course with you to learn his Latin lessons daily; he may, + however, read English in company. Let them have strawberries on + Saturdays." + + + "_Westhaven, 17th July._ + + "I have been occupied to-day at the harbour of Newport, opposite + Dundee, and am this far on my way to Arbroath. You may tell the boys + that I slept last night in Mr. Steadman's tent. I found my bed rather + hard, but the lodgings were otherwise extremely comfortable. The + encampment is on the Fife side of the Tay, immediately opposite to + Dundee. From the door of the tent you command the most beautiful view + of the Firth, both up and down, to a great extent. At night all was + serene and still, the sky presented the most beautiful appearance of + bright stars, and the morning was ushered in with the song of many + little birds." + + + "_Aberdeen, July 19th._ + + "I hope, my dear, that you are going out of doors regularly and + taking much exercise. I would have you to _make the markets + daily_--and by all means to take a seat in the coach once or twice in + the week and see what is going on in town. [The family were at the + sea-side.] It will be good not to be too great a stranger to the + house. It will be rather painful at first, but as it is to be done, I + would have you not to be too strange to the house in town. + + "Tell the boys that I fell in with a soldier--his name is + Henderson--who was twelve years with Lord Wellington and other + commanders. He returned very lately with only eightpence-halfpenny in + his pocket, and found his father and mother both in life, though they + had never heard from him, nor he from them. He carried my great-coat + and umbrella a few miles." + + + "_Fraserburgh, July 20th._ + + "Fraserburgh is the same dull place which [Auntie] Mary and Jeannie + found it. As I am travelling along the coast which they are + acquainted with, you had better cause Robert bring down the map from + Edinburgh: and it will be a good exercise in geography for the young + folks to trace my course. I hope they have entered upon the writing. + The library will afford abundance of excellent books, which I wish + you would employ a little. I hope you are doing me the favour to go + much out with the boys, which will do you much good and prevent them + from getting so very much over-heated." + + + [_To the Boys--Printed._] + + "When I had last the pleasure of writing to you, your dear little + brother James and your sweet little sister Mary were still with us. + But it has pleased God to remove them to another and a better world, + and we must submit to the will of Providence. I must, however, + request of you to think sometimes upon them, and to be very careful + not to do anything that will displease or vex your mother. It is + therefore proper that you do not roamp [Scottish indeed] too much + about, and that you learn your lessons. + + "I went to Fraserburgh and visited Kinnaird Head Lighthouse, which I + found in good order. All this time I travelled upon good roads, and + paid many a toll-man by the way; but from Fraserburgh to Banff there + is no toll-bars, and the road is so bad that I had to walk up and + down many a hill, and for want of bridges the horses had to drag the + chaise up to the middle of the wheels in water. At Banff I saw a + large ship of 300 tons lying on the sands upon her beam-ends, and a + wreck for want of a good harbour. Captain Wilson--to whom I beg my + compliments---will show you a ship of 300 tons. At the towns of + Macduff, Banff, and Portsoy, many of the houses are built of marble, + and the rocks on this part of the coast or sea-side are marble. But, + my dear Boys, unless marble be polished and dressed, it is a very + coarse-looking stone, and has no more beauty than common rock. As a + proof of this, ask the favour of your mother to take you to Thomson's + Marble Works in South Leith, and you will see marble in all its + stages, and perhaps you may there find Portsoy marble! The use I wish + to make of this is to tell you that, without education, a man is just + like a block of rough, unpolished marble. Notice, in proof of this, + how much Mr. Neill and Mr. M'Gregor [the tutor] know, and observe how + little a man knows who is not a good scholar. On my way to Fochabers + I passed through many thousand acres of Fir timber, and saw many deer + running in these woods." + + + [_To Mrs. Stevenson._] + + "_Inverness, July 21st._ + + "I propose going to church in the afternoon, and as I have + breakfasted late, I shall afterwards take a walk, and dine about six + o'clock. I do not know who is the clergyman here, but I shall think + of you all. I travelled in the mail-coach [from Banff] almost alone. + While it was daylight I kept the top, and the passing along a country + I had never before seen was a considerable amusement. But, my dear, + you are all much in my thoughts, and many are the objects which + recall the recollection of our tender and engaging children we have + so recently lost. We must not, however, repine. I could not for a + moment wish any change of circumstances in their case; and in every + comparative view of their state, I see the Lord's goodness in + removing them from an evil world to an abode of bliss; and I must + earnestly hope that you may be enabled to take such a view of this + affliction as to live in the happy prospect of our all meeting again + to part no more--and that under such considerations you are getting + up your spirits. I wish you would walk about, and by all means go to + town, and do not sit much at home." + + + "_Inverness, July 23rd._ + + "I am duly favoured with your much-valued letter, and I am happy to + find that you are so much with my mother, because that sort of + variety has a tendency to occupy the mind, and to keep it from + brooding too much upon one subject. Sensibility and tenderness are + certainly two of the most interesting and pleasing qualities of the + mind. These qualities are also none of the least of the many + endearingments of the female character. But if that kind of sympathy + and pleasing melancholy, which is familiar to us under distress, be + much indulged, it becomes habitual, and takes such a hold of the mind + as to absorb all the other affections, and unfit us for the duties + and proper enjoyments of life. Resignation sinks into a kind of + peevish discontent. I am far, however, from thinking there is the + least danger of this in your case, my dear; for you have been on all + occasions enabled to look upon the fortunes of this life as under the + direction of a higher power, and have always preserved that propriety + and consistency of conduct in all circumstances which endears your + example to your family in particular, and to your friends. I am + therefore, my dear, for you to go out much, and to go to the house + up-stairs [he means to go up-stairs in the house, to visit the place + of the dead children], and to put yourself in the way of the visits + of your friends. I wish you would call on the Miss Grays, and it + would be a good thing upon a Saturday to dine with my mother, and + take Meggy and all the family with you, and let them have their + strawberries in town. The tickets of one of the _old-fashioned + coaches_ would take you all up, and if the evening were good, they + could all walk down, excepting Meggy and little David." + + + "_Inverness, July 25th, 11 p.m._ + + "Captain Wemyss, of Wemyss, has come to Inverness to go the voyage + with me, and as we are sleeping in a double-bedded room, I must no + longer transgress. You must remember me the best way you can to the + children." + + + "_On board of the Lighthouse Yacht, July 29th._ + + "I got to Cromarty yesterday about mid-day, and went to church. It + happened to be the sacrament there, and I heard a Mr. Smith at that + place conclude the service with a very suitable exhortation. There + seemed a great concourse of people, but they had rather an + unfortunate day for them at the tent, as it rained a good deal. After + drinking tea at the inn, Captain Wemyss accompanied me on board, and + we sailed about eight last night. The wind at present being rather a + beating one, I think I shall have an opportunity of standing into the + bay of Wick, and leaving this letter to let you know my progress and + that I am well." + + + "_Lighthouse Yacht, Stornoway, August 4th_ + + "To-day we had prayers on deck as usual when at sea. I read the 14th + chapter, I think, of Job. Captain Wemyss has been in the habit of + doing this on board his own ship, agreeably to the Articles of War. + Our passage round the Cape [Cape Wrath] was rather a cross one, and + as the wind was northerly, we had a pretty heavy sea, but upon the + whole have made a good passage, leaving many vessels behind us in + Orkney. I am quite well, my dear; and Captain Wemyss, who has much + spirit, and who is much given to observation, and a perfect + enthusiast in his profession, enlivens the voyage greatly. Let me + entreat you to move about much, and take a walk with the boys to + Leith. I think they have still many places to see there, and I wish + you would indulge them in this respect. Mr. Scales is the best person + I know for showing them the sailcloth-weaving, etc., and he would + have great pleasure in undertaking this. My dear, I trust soon to be + with you, and that through the goodness of God we shall meet all + well. + + "There are two vessels lying here with emigrants for America, each + with eighty people on board, at all ages, from a few days to upwards + of sixty! Their prospects must be very forlorn to go with a slender + purse for distant and unknown countries." + + + "_Lighthouse Yacht, off Greenock, Aug. 18th._ + + "It was after _church-time_ before we got here, but we had prayers + upon deck on the way up the Clyde. This has, upon the whole, been a + very good voyage, and Captain Wemyss, who enjoys it much, has been an + excellent companion; we met with pleasure, and shall part with + regret." + +Strange that, after his long experience, my grandfather should have +learned so little of the attitude and even the dialect of the +spiritually-minded; that after forty-four years in a most religious +circle, he could drop without sense of incongruity from a period of +accepted phrases to "trust his wife was _getting up her spirits_," or +think to reassure her as to the character of Captain Wemyss by +mentioning that he had read prayers on the deck of his frigate +"_agreeably to the Articles of War"_! Yet there is no doubt--and it is +one of the most agreeable features of the kindly series--that he was +doing his best to please, and there is little doubt that he succeeded. +Almost all my grandfather's private letters have been destroyed. This +correspondence has not only been preserved entire, but stitched up in +the same covers with the works of the godly women, the Reverend John +Campbell, and the painful Mrs. Ogle. I did not think to mention the good +dame, but she comes in usefully as an example. Amongst the treasures of +the ladies of my family, her letters have been honoured with a volume to +themselves. I read about a half of them myself; then handed over the +task to one of stauncher resolution, with orders to communicate any fact +that should be found to illuminate these pages. Not one was found; it +was her only art to communicate by post second-rate sermons at +second-hand; and such, I take it, was the correspondence in which my +grandmother delighted. If I am right, that of Robert Stevenson, with his +quaint smack of the contemporary "Sandford and Merton," his interest in +the whole page of experience, his perpetual quest, and fine scent of all +that seems romantic to a boy, his needless pomp of language, his +excellent good sense, his unfeigned, unstained, unwearied human +kindliness, would seem to her, in a comparison, dry and trivial and +worldly. And if these letters were by an exception cherished and +preserved, it would be for one or both of two reasons--because they +dealt with and were bitter-sweet reminders of a time of sorrow; or +because she was pleased, perhaps touched, by the writer's guileless +efforts to seem spiritually-minded. + +After this date there were two more births and two more deaths, so that +the number of the family remained unchanged; in all five children +survived to reach maturity and to outlive their parents. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE SERVICE OF THE NORTHERN LIGHTS + + + I + +It were hard to imagine a contrast more sharply defined than that +between the lives of the men and women of this family: the one so +chambered, so centred in the affections and the sensibilities; the other +so active, healthy, and expeditious. From May to November, Thomas Smith +and Robert Stevenson were on the mail, in the saddle, or at sea; and my +grandfather, in particular, seems to have been possessed with a demon of +activity in travel. In 1802, by direction of the Northern Lighthouse +Board, he had visited the coast of England from St. Bees, in Cumberland, +and round by the Scilly Islands to some place undecipherable by me; in +all a distance of 2500 miles. In 1806 I find him starting "on a tour +round the south coast of England, from the Humber to the Severn." Peace +was not long declared ere he found means to visit Holland, where he was +in time to see, in the navy-yard at Helvoetsluys, "about twenty of +Bonaparte's _English flotilla_ lying in a state of decay, the object of +curiosity to Englishmen." By 1834 he seems to have been acquainted with +the coast of France from Dieppe to Bordeaux; and a main part of his duty +as Engineer to the Board of Northern Lights was one round of dangerous +and laborious travel. + +In 1786, when Thomas Smith first received the appointment, the extended +and formidable coast of Scotland was lighted at a single point--the Isle +of May, in the jaws of the Firth of Forth, where, on a tower already a +hundred and fifty years old, an open coal-fire blazed in an iron +chauffer. The whole archipelago, thus nightly plunged in darkness, was +shunned by sea-going vessels, and the favourite courses were north about +Shetland and west about St. Kilda. When the Board met, four new lights +formed the extent of their intentions--Kinnaird Head, in Aberdeenshire, +at the eastern elbow of the coast; North Ronaldsay, in Orkney, to keep +the north and guide ships passing to the south'ard of Shetland; Island +Glass, on Harris, to mark the inner shore of the Hebrides and illuminate +the navigation of the Minch; and the Mull of Kintyre. These works were +to be attempted against obstacles, material and financial, that might +have staggered the most bold. Smith had no ship at his command till +1791; the roads in those outlandish quarters where his business lay were +scarce passable when they existed, and the tower on the Mull of Kintyre +stood eleven months unlighted while the apparatus toiled and foundered +by the way among rocks and mosses. Not only had towers to be built and +apparatus transplanted, the supply of oil must be maintained, and the +men fed, in the same inaccessible and distant scenes; a whole service, +with its routine and hierarchy, had to be called out of nothing; and a +new trade (that of lightkeeper) to be taught, recruited, and organised. +The funds of the Board were at the first laughably inadequate. They +embarked on their career on a loan of twelve hundred pounds, and their +income in 1789, after relief by a fresh Act of Parliament, amounted to +less than three hundred. It must be supposed that the thoughts of Thomas +Smith, in these early years, were sometimes coloured with despair; and +since he built and lighted one tower after another, and created and +bequeathed to his successors the elements of an excellent +administration, it may be conceded that he was not after all an +unfortunate choice for a first engineer. + +War added fresh complications. In 1794 Smith came "very near to be +taken" by a French squadron. In 1813 Robert Stevenson was cruising about +the neighbourhood of Cape Wrath in the immediate fear of Commodore +Rogers. The men, and especially the sailors, of the lighthouse service +must be protected by a medal and ticket from the brutal activity of the +press-gang. And the zeal of volunteer patriots was at times +embarrassing. + + "I set off on foot," writes my grandfather, "for Marazion, a town at + the head of Mount's Bay, where I was in hopes of getting a boat to + freight. I had just got that length, and was making the necessary + inquiry, when a young man, accompanied by several idle-looking + fellows, came up to me, and in a hasty tone said, 'Sir, in the king's + name I seize your person and papers.' To which I replied that I + should be glad to see his authority, and know the reason of an + address so abrupt. He told me the want of time prevented his taking + regular steps, but that it would be necessary for me to return to + Penzance, as I was suspected of being a French spy. I proposed to + submit my papers to the nearest Justice of Peace, who was immediately + applied to, and came to the inn where I was. He seemed to be greatly + agitated, and quite at a loss how to proceed. The complaint preferred + against me was 'that I had examined the Longships Lighthouse with the + most minute attention, and was no less particular in my inquiries at + the keepers of the lighthouse regarding the sunk rocks lying off the + Land's End, with the sets of the currents and tides along the coast: + that I seemed particularly to regret the situation of the rocks + called the Seven Stones, and the loss of a beacon which the Trinity + Board had caused to be fixed on the Wolf Rock; that I had taken notes + of the bearings of several sunk rocks, and a drawing of the + lighthouse, and of Cape Cornwall. Further, that I had refused the + honour of Lord Edgecombe's invitation to dinner, offering as an + apology that I had some particular business on hand.'" + +My grandfather produced in answer his credentials and letter of credit; +but the justice, after perusing them, "very gravely observed that they +were 'musty bits of paper,'" and proposed to maintain the arrest. Some +more enlightened magistrates at Penzance relieved him of suspicion and +left him at liberty to pursue his journey,--"which I did with so much +eagerness," he adds, "that I gave the two coal lights on the Lizard only +a very transient look." + +Lighthouse operations in Scotland differed essentially in character from +those in England. The English coast is in comparison a habitable, homely +place, well supplied with towns; the Scottish presents hundreds of +miles of savage islands and desolate moors. The Parliamentary committee +of 1834, profoundly ignorant of this distinction, insisted with my +grandfather that the work at the various stations should be let out on +contract "in the neighbourhood," where sheep and deer, and gulls and +cormorants, and a few ragged gillies, perhaps crouching in a bee-hive +house, made up the only neighbours. In such situations repairs and +improvements could only be overtaken by collecting (as my grandfather +expressed it) a few "lads," placing them under charge of a foreman, and +despatching them about the coast as occasion served. The particular +danger of these seas increased the difficulty. The course of the +lighthouse tender lies amid iron-bound coasts, among tide-races, the +whirlpools of the Pentland Firth, flocks of islands, flocks of reefs, +many of them uncharted. The aid of steam was not yet. At first in random +coasting sloop, and afterwards in the cutter belonging to the service, +the engineer must ply and run amongst these multiplied dangers, and +sometimes late into the stormy autumn. For pages together my +grandfather's diary preserves a record of these rude experiences; of +hard winds and rough seas; and of "the try-sail and storm-jib, those old +friends which I never like to see." They do not tempt to quotation, but +it was the man's element, in which he lived, and delighted to live, and +some specimen must be presented. On Friday, September 10th, 1830, the +_Regent_ lying in Lerwick Bay, we have this entry: "The gale increases, +with continued rain." On the morrow, Saturday, 11th, the weather +appeared to moderate, and they put to sea, only to be driven by evening +into Levenswick. There they lay, "rolling much," with both anchors ahead +and the square yard on deck, till the morning of Saturday, 18th. +Saturday and Sunday they were plying to the southward with a "strong +breeze and a heavy sea," and on Sunday evening anchored in Otterswick. +"Monday, 20th, it blows so fresh that we have no communication with the +shore. We see Mr. Rome on the beach, but we cannot communicate with +him. It blows 'mere fire,' as the sailors express it." And for three +days more the diary goes on with tales of davits unshipped, high seas, +strong gales from the southward, and the ship driven to refuge in +Kirkwall or Deer Sound. I have many a passage before me to transcribe, +in which my grandfather draws himself as a man of minute and anxious +exactitude about details. It must not be forgotten that these voyages in +the tender were the particular pleasure and reward of his existence; +that he had in him a reserve of romance which carried him delightedly +over these hardships and perils; that to him it was "great gain" to be +eight nights and seven days in the savage bay of Levenswick--to read a +book in the much agitated cabin--to go on deck and hear the gale scream +in his ears, and see the landscape dark with rain, and the ship plunge +at her two anchors--and to turn in at night and wake again at morning, +in his narrow berth, to the clamorous and continued voices of the gale. + +His perils and escapes were beyond counting. I shall only refer to two: +the first, because of the impression made upon himself; the second, from +the incidental picture it presents of the north islanders. On the 9th +October 1794 he took passage from Orkney in the sloop _Elizabeth_ of +Stromness. She made a fair passage till within view of Kinnaird Head, +where, as she was becalmed some three miles in the offing, and wind +seemed to threaten from the south-east, the captain landed him, to +continue his journey more expeditiously ashore. A gale immediately +followed, and the _Elizabeth_ was driven back to Orkney and lost with +all hands. The second escape I have been in the habit of hearing related +by an eye-witness, my own father, from the earliest days of childhood. +On a September night, the _Regent_ lay in the Pentland Firth in a fog +and a violent and windless swell. It was still dark, when they were +alarmed by the sound of breakers, and an anchor was immediately let go. +The peep of dawn discovered them swinging in desperate proximity to the +Isle of Swona[10] and the surf bursting close under their stern. There +was in this place a hamlet of the inhabitants, fisher-folk and wreckers; +their huts stood close about the head of the beach. All slept; the doors +were closed, and there was no smoke, and the anxious watchers on board +ship seemed to contemplate a village of the dead. It was thought +possible to launch a boat and tow the _Regent_ from her place of danger; +and with this view a signal of distress was made and a gun fired with a +red-hot poker from the galley. Its detonation awoke the sleepers. Door +after door was opened, and in the grey light of the morning fisher after +fisher was seen to come forth, yawning and stretching himself, nightcap +on head. Fisher after fisher, I wrote, and my pen tripped; for it should +rather stand wrecker after wrecker. There was no emotion, no animation, +it scarce seemed any interest; not a hand was raised; but all callously +awaited the harvest of the sea, and their children stood by their side +and waited also. To the end of his life, my father remembered that +amphitheatre of placid spectators on the beach, and with a special and +natural animosity, the boys of his own age. But presently a light air +sprang up, and filled the sails, and fainted, and filled them again; and +little by little the _Regent_ fetched way against the swell, and clawed +off shore into the turbulent firth. + +The purpose of these voyages was to effect a landing on open beaches or +among shelving rocks, not for persons only, but for coals and food, and +the fragile furniture of light-rooms. It was often impossible. In 1831 I +find my grandfather "hovering for a week" about the Pentland Skerries +for a chance to land; and it was almost always difficult. Much knack and +enterprise were early developed among the seamen of the service; their +management of boats is to this day a matter of admiration; and I find my +grandfather in his diary depicting the nature of their excellence in +one happily descriptive phrase, when he remarks that Captain Soutar had +landed "the small stores and nine casks of oil _with all the activity of +a smuggler_." And it was one thing to land, another to get on board +again. I have here a passage from the diary, where it seems to have been +touch-and-go. "I landed at Tarbetness, on the eastern side of the point, +in _a mere gale or blast of wind_ from west-south-west, at 2 p.m. It +blew so fresh that the captain, in a kind of despair, went off to the +ship, leaving myself and the steward ashore. While I was in the +lightroom, I felt it shaking and waving, not with the tremor of the Bell +Rock, but with the _waving of a tree_! This the lightkeepers seemed to +be quite familiar to, the principal keeper remarking that 'it was very +pleasant,' perhaps meaning interesting or curious. The captain worked +the vessel into smooth water with admirable dexterity, and I got on +board again about 6 p.m. from the other side of the point." But not even +the dexterity of Soutar could prevail always; and my grandfather must at +times have been left in strange berths and with but rude provision. I +may instance the case of my father, who was storm-bound three days upon +an islet, sleeping in the uncemented and unchimneyed houses of the +islanders, and subsisting on a diet of nettlesoup and lobsters. + +The name of Soutar has twice escaped my pen, and I feel I owe him a +vignette. Soutar first attracted notice as mate of a praam at the Bell +Rock, and rose gradually to be captain of the _Regent_. He was active, +admirably skilled in his trade, and a man incapable of fear. Once, in +London, he fell among a gang of confidence-men, naturally deceived by +his rusticity and his prodigious accent. They plied him with drink--a +hopeless enterprise, for Soutar could not be made drunk; they proposed +cards, and Soutar would not play. At last, one of them, regarding him +with a formidable countenance, inquired if he were not frightened? "I'm +no' very easy fleyed," replied the captain. And the rooks withdrew +after some easier pigeon. So many perils shared, and the partial +familiarity of so many voyages, had given this man a stronghold in my +grandfather's estimation; and there is no doubt but he had the art to +court and please him with much hypocritical skill. He usually dined on +Sundays in the cabin. He used to come down daily after dinner for a +glass of port or whisky, often in his full rig of sou'-wester, oilskins, +and long boots; and I have often heard it described how insinuatingly he +carried himself on these appearances, artfully combining the extreme of +deference with a blunt and seamanlike demeanour. My father and uncles, +with the devilish penetration of the boy, were far from being deceived; +and my father, indeed, was favoured with an object-lesson not to be +mistaken. He had crept one rainy night into an apple-barrel on deck, and +from this place of ambush overheard Soutar and a comrade conversing in +their oilskins. The smooth sycophant of the cabin had wholly +disappeared, and the boy listened with wonder to a vulgar and truculent +ruffian. Of Soutar, I may say _tantum vidi_, having met him in the Leith +docks now more than thirty years ago, when he abounded in the praises of +my grandfather, encouraged me (in the most admirable manner) to pursue +his footprints, and left impressed for ever on my memory the image of +his own Bardolphian nose. He died not long after. + +The engineer was not only exposed to the hazards of the sea; he must +often ford his way by land to remote and scarce accessible places, +beyond reach of the mail or the post-chaise, beyond even the tracery of +the bridle-path, and guided by natives across bog and heather. Up to +1807 my grandfather seems to have travelled much on horseback; but he +then gave up the idea--"such," he writes with characteristic emphasis +and capital letters, "is the Plague of Baiting." He was a good +pedestrian; at the age of fifty-eight I find him covering seventeen +miles over the moors of the Mackay country in less than seven hours, and +that is not bad travelling for a scramble. The piece of country +traversed was already a familiar track, being that between Loch Eriboll +and Cape Wrath; and I think I can scarce do better than reproduce from +the diary some traits of his first visit. The tender lay in Loch +Eriboll; by five in the morning they sat down to breakfast on board; by +six they were ashore--my grandfather, Mr. Slight an assistant, and +Soutar of the jolly nose, and had been taken in charge by two young +gentlemen of the neighbourhood and a pair of gillies. About noon they +reached the Kyle of Durness and passed the ferry. By half-past three +they were at Cape Wrath--not yet known by the emphatic abbreviation of +"The Cape"--and beheld upon all sides of them unfrequented shores, an +expanse of desert moor, and the high-piled Western Ocean. The site of +the tower was chosen. Perhaps it is by inheritance of blood, but I know +few things more inspiriting than this location of a lighthouse in a +designated space of heather and air, through which the sea-birds are +still flying. By 9 p.m. the return journey had brought them again to the +shores of the Kyle. The night was dirty, and as the sea was high and the +ferry-boat small, Soutar and Mr. Stevenson were left on the far side, +while the rest of the party embarked and were received into the +darkness. They made, in fact, a safe though an alarming passage; but the +ferryman refused to repeat the adventure; and my grandfather and the +captain long paced the beach, impatient for their turn to pass, and +tormented with rising anxiety as to the fate of their companions. At +length they sought the shelter of a shepherd's house. "We had miserable +up-putting," the diary continues, "and on both sides of the ferry much +anxiety of mind. Our beds were clean straw, and but for the circumstance +of the boat, I should have slept as soundly as ever I did after a walk +through moss and mire of sixteen hours." + +To go round the lights, even to-day, is to visit past centuries. The +tide of tourists that flows yearly in Scotland, vulgarising all where it +approaches, is still defined by certain barriers. It will be long ere +there is a hotel at Sumburgh or a hydropathic at Cape Wrath; it will be +long ere any _char-a-banc_, laden with tourists, shall drive up to Barra +Head or Monach, the Island of the Monks. They are farther from London +than St. Petersburg, and except for the towers, sounding and shining all +night with fog-bells and the radiance of the light-room, glittering by +day with the trivial brightness of white paint, these island and +moorland stations seem inaccessible to the civilisation of to-day, and +even to the end of my grandfather's career the isolation was far +greater. There ran no post at all in the Long Island; from the +lighthouse on Barra Head a boat must be sent for letters as far as +Tobermory, between sixty and seventy miles of open sea; and the posts of +Shetland, which had surprised Sir Walter Scott in 1814, were still +unimproved in 1833, when my grandfather reported on the subject. The +group contained at the time a population of 30,000 souls, and enjoyed a +trade which had increased in twenty years sevenfold, to between three +and four thousand tons. Yet the mails were despatched and received by +chance coasting vessels at the rate of a penny a letter; six and eight +weeks often elapsed between opportunities, and when a mail was to be +made up, sometimes at a moment's notice, the bellman was sent hastily +through the streets of Lerwick. Between Shetland and Orkney, only +seventy miles apart, there was "no trade communication whatever." + +Such was the state of affairs, only sixty years ago, with the three +largest clusters of the Scottish Archipelago; and forty-seven years +earlier, when Thomas Smith began his rounds, or forty-two, when Robert +Stevenson became conjoined with him in these excursions, the barbarism +was deep, the people sunk in superstition, the circumstances of their +life perhaps unique in history. Lerwick and Kirkwall, like Guam or the +Bay of Islands, were but barbarous ports where whalers called to take up +and to return experienced seamen. On the outlying islands the clergy +lived isolated, thinking other thoughts, dwelling in a different +country from their parishioners, like missionaries in the South Seas. +My grandfather's unrivalled treasury of anecdote was never written down; +it embellished his talk while he yet was, and died with him when he +died; and such as have been preserved relate principally to the islands +of Ronaldsay and Sanday, two of the Orkney group. These bordered on one +of the water-highways of civilisation; a great fleet passed annually in +their view, and of the shipwrecks of the world they were the scene and +cause of a proportion wholly incommensurable to their size. In one year, +1798, my grandfather found the remains of no fewer than five vessels on +the isle of Sanday, which is scarcely twelve miles long. + + "Hardly a year passed," he writes, "without instances of this kind; + for, owing to the projecting points of this strangely formed island, + the lowness and whiteness of its eastern shores, and the wonderful + manner in which the scanty patches of land are intersected with lakes + and pools of water, it becomes, even in daylight, a deception, and + has often been fatally mistaken for an open sea. It had even become + proverbial with some of the inhabitants to observe that 'if wrecks + were to happen, they might as well be sent to the poor isle of Sanday + as anywhere else.' On this and the neighbouring islands the + inhabitants had certainly had their share of wrecked goods, for the + eye is presented with these melancholy remains in almost every form. + For example, although quarries are to be met with generally in these + islands, and the stones are very suitable for building dykes + (_Anglice_, walls), yet instances occur of the land being enclosed, + even to a considerable extent, with ship-timbers. The author has + actually seen a park (_Anglice_, meadow) paled round chiefly with + cedar-wood and mahogany from the wreck of a Honduras-built ship; and + in one island, after the wreck of a ship laden with wine, the + inhabitants have been known to take claret to their barley-meal + porridge. On complaining to one of the pilots of the badness of his + boat's sails, he replied to the author with some degree of + pleasantry, 'Had it been His will that you camena' here wi' your + lights, we might a' had better sails to our boats, and more o' other + things.' It may further be mentioned that when some of Lord Dundas's + farms are to be let in these islands a competition takes place for + the lease, and it is _bona fide_ understood that a much higher rent + is paid than the lands would otherwise give were it not for the + chance of making considerably by the agency and advantages attending + shipwrecks on the shores of the respective farms." + +The people of North Ronaldsay still spoke Norse, or, rather, mixed it +with their English. The walls of their huts were built to a great +thickness of rounded stones from the sea-beach; the roof flagged, loaded +with earth, and perforated by a single hole for the escape of smoke. The +grass grew beautifully green on the flat house-top, where the family +would assemble with their dogs and cats, as on a pastoral lawn; there +were no windows, and in my grandfather's expression, "there was really +no demonstration of a house unless it were the diminutive door." He once +landed on Ronaldsay with two friends. "The inhabitants crowded and +pressed so much upon the strangers that the bailiff, or resident factor +of the island, blew with his ox-horn, calling out to the natives to +stand off and let the gentlemen come forward to the laird; upon which +one of the islanders, as spokesman, called out, 'God ha'e us, man! thou +needsna mak' sic a noise. It's no' every day we ha'e _three hatted men_ +on our isle.'" When the Surveyor of Taxes came (for the first time, +perhaps) to Sanday, and began in the King's name to complain of the +unconscionable swarms of dogs, and to menace the inhabitants with +taxation, it chanced that my grandfather and his friend, Dr. Patrick +Neill, were received by an old lady in a Ronaldsay hut. Her hut, which +was similar to the model described, stood on a Ness, or point of land +jutting into the sea. They were made welcome in the firelit cellar, +placed "in _casey_ or straw-worked chairs, after the Norwegian fashion, +with arms, and a canopy overhead," and given milk in a wooden dish. +These hospitalities attended to, the old lady turned at once to Dr. +Neill, whom she took for the Surveyor of Taxes. "Sir," said she, "gin +ye'll tell the King that I canna keep the Ness free o' the Bangers +(sheep) without twa hun's, and twa guid hun's too, he'll pass me threa +the tax on dugs." + +This familiar confidence, these traits of engaging simplicity, are +characters of a secluded people. Mankind--and, above all, +islanders--come very swiftly to a bearing, and find very readily, upon +one convention or another, a tolerable corporate life. The danger is to +those from without, who have not grown up from childhood in the +islands, but appear suddenly in that narrow horizon, life-sized +apparitions. For these no bond of humanity exists, no feeling of kinship +is awakened by their peril; they will assist at a shipwreck, like the +fisher-folk of Lunga, as spectators, and when the fatal scene is over, +and the beach strewn with dead bodies, they will fence their fields with +mahogany, and, after a decent grace, sup claret to their porridge. It is +not wickedness: it is scarce evil; it is only, in its highest power, the +sense of isolation and the wise disinterestedness of feeble and poor +races. Think how many viking ships had sailed by these islands in the +past, how many vikings had landed, and raised turmoil, and broken up the +barrows of the dead, and carried off the wines of the living; and blame +them, if you are able, for that belief (which may be called one of the +parables of the devil's gospel) that a man rescued from the sea will +prove the bane of his deliverer. It might be thought that my +grandfather, coming there unknown, and upon an employment so hateful to +the inhabitants, must have run the hazard of his life. But this were to +misunderstand. He came franked by the laird and the clergyman; he was +the King's officer; the work was "opened with prayer by the Rev. Walter +Trail, minister of the parish"; God and the King had decided it, and the +people of these pious islands bowed their heads. There landed, indeed, +in North Ronaldsay, during the last decade of the eighteenth century, a +traveller whose life seems really to have been imperilled. A very little +man of a swarthy complexion, he came ashore, exhausted and unshaved, +from a long boat passage, and lay down to sleep in the home of the +parish schoolmaster. But he had been seen landing. The inhabitants had +identified him for a Pict, as, by some singular confusion of name, they +called the dark and dwarfish aboriginal people of the land. Immediately +the obscure ferment of a race-hatred, grown into a superstition, began +to work in their bosoms, and they crowded about the house and the +room-door with fearful whisperings. For some time the schoolmaster held +them at bay, and at last despatched a messenger to call my grandfather. +He came: he found the islanders beside themselves at this unwelcome +resurrection of the dead and the detested; he was shown, as adminicular +of testimony, the traveller's uncouth and thick-soled boots; he argued, +and finding argument unavailing, consented to enter the room and examine +with his own eyes the sleeping Pict. One glance was sufficient: the man +was now a missionary, but he had been before that an Edinburgh +shopkeeper with whom my grandfather had dealt. He came forth again with +this report, and the folk of the island, wholly relieved, dispersed to +their own houses. They were timid as sheep and ignorant as limpets; that +was all. But the Lord deliver us from the tender mercies of a frightened +flock! + +I will give two more instances of their superstition. When Sir Walter +Scott visited the Stones of Stennis, my grandfather put in his pocket a +hundred-foot line, which he unfortunately lost. + + "Some years afterwards," he writes, "one of my assistants on a visit + to the Stones of Stennis took shelter from a storm in a cottage close + by the lake; and seeing a box-measuring-line in the bole or sole of + the cottage window, he asked the woman where she got this well-known + professional appendage. She said: 'O sir, ane of the bairns fand it + lang syne at the Stanes; and when drawing it out we took fright, and + thinking it had belanged to the fairies, we threw it into the bole, + and it has layen there ever since.'" + +This is for the one; the last shall be a sketch by the master hand of +Scott himself:-- + + "At the village of Stromness, on the Orkney main island, called + Pomona, lived, in 1814, an aged dame called Bessie Millie, who helped + out her subsistence by selling favourable winds to mariners. He was a + venturous master of a vessel who left the roadstead of Stromness + without paying his offering to propitiate Bessie Millie! Her fee was + extremely moderate, being exactly sixpence, for which she boiled her + kettle and gave the bark the advantage of her prayers, for she + disclaimed all unlawful acts. The wind thus petitioned for was sure, + she said, to arrive, though occasionally the mariners had to wait + some time for it. The woman's dwelling and appearance were not + unbecoming her pretensions. Her house, which was on the brow of the + steep hill on which Stromness is founded, was only accessible by a + series of dirty and precipitous lanes, and for exposure might have + been the abode of Eolus himself, in whose commodities the inhabitant + dealt. She herself was, as she told us, nearly one hundred years old, + withered and dried up like a mummy. A clay-coloured kerchief, folded + round her neck, corresponded in colour to her corpse-like complexion. + Two light blue eyes that gleamed with a lustre like that of insanity, + an utterance of astonishing rapidity, a nose and chin that almost met + together, and a ghastly expression of cunning, gave her the effect of + Hecate. Such was Bessie Millie, to whom the mariners paid a sort of + tribute with a feeling between jest and earnest." + + + II + +From about the beginning of the century up to 1807 Robert Stevenson was +in partnership with Thomas Smith. In the last-named year the partnership +was dissolved; Thomas Smith returning to his business, and my +grandfather becoming sole engineer to the Board of Northern Lights. + +I must try, by excerpts from his diary and correspondence, to convey to +the reader some idea of the ardency and thoroughness with which he threw +himself into the largest and least of his multifarious engagements in +this service. But first I must say a word or two upon the life of +lightkeepers, and the temptations to which they are more particularly +exposed. The lightkeeper occupies a position apart among men. In +sea-towers the complement has always been three since the deplorable +business in the Eddystone, when one keeper died, and the survivor, +signalling in vain for relief, was compelled to live for days with the +dead body. These usually pass their time by the pleasant human expedient +of quarrelling; and sometimes, I am assured, not one of the three is on +speaking terms with any other. On shore stations, which on the Scottish +coast are sometimes hardly less isolated, the usual number is two, a +principal and an assistant. The principal is dissatisfied with the +assistant, or perhaps the assistant keeps pigeons, and the principal +wants the water from the roof. Their wives and families are with them, +living cheek by jowl. The children quarrel; Jockie hits Jimsie in the +eye, and the mothers make haste to mingle in the dissension. Perhaps +there is trouble about a broken dish; perhaps Mrs. Assistant is more +highly born than Mrs. Principal and gives herself airs; and the men are +drawn in and the servants presently follow. "Church privileges have been +denied the keeper's and the assistant's servants," I read in one case, +and the eminently Scots periphrasis means neither more nor less than +excommunication, "on account of the discordant and quarrelsome state of +the families. The cause, when inquired into, proves to be +_tittle-tattle_ on both sides." The tender comes round; the foremen and +artificers go from station to station; the gossip flies through the +whole system of the service, and the stories, disfigured and +exaggerated, return to their own birthplace with the returning tender. +The English Board was apparently shocked by the picture of these +dissensions. "When the Trinity House can," I find my grandfather writing +at Beachy Head, in 1834, "they do not appoint two keepers, they disagree +so ill. A man who has a family is assisted by his family; and in this +way, to my experience and present observation, the business is very much +neglected. One keeper is, in my view, a bad system. This day's visit to +an English lighthouse convinces me of this, as the lightkeeper was +walking on a staff with the gout, and the business performed by one of +his daughters, a girl of thirteen or fourteen years of age." This man +received a hundred a year! It shows a different reading of human nature, +perhaps typical of Scotland and England, that I find in my grandfather's +diary the following pregnant entry: _"The lightkeepers, agreeing ill, +keep one another to their duty."_ But the Scottish system was not alone +founded on this cynical opinion. The dignity and the comfort of the +northern lightkeeper were both attended to. He had a uniform to "raise +him in his own estimation, and in that of his neighbour, which is of +consequence to a person of trust. The keepers," my grandfather goes on, +in another place, "are attended to in all the detail of accommodation in +the best style as shipmasters; and this is believed to have a sensible +effect upon their conduct, and to regulate their general habits as +members of society." He notes, with the same dip of ink, that "the +brasses were not clean, and the persons of the keepers not _trig_"; and +thus we find him writing to a culprit: "I have to complain that you are +not cleanly in your person, and that your manner of speech is ungentle, +and rather inclines to rudeness. You must therefore take a different +view of your duties as a lightkeeper." A high ideal for the service +appears in these expressions, and will be more amply illustrated further +on. But even the Scottish lightkeeper was frail. During the unbroken +solitude of the winter months, when inspection is scarce possible, it +must seem a vain toil to polish the brass hand-rail of the stair, or to +keep an unrewarded vigil in the lightroom; and the keepers are +habitually tempted to the beginnings of sloth, and must unremittingly +resist. He who temporises with his conscience is already lost. I must +tell here an anecdote that illustrates the difficulties of inspection. +In the days of my uncle David and my father there was a station which +they regarded with jealousy. The two engineers compared notes and were +agreed. The tower was always clean, but seemed always to bear traces of +a hasty cleansing, as though the keepers had been suddenly forewarned. +On inquiry, it proved that such was the case, and that a wandering +fiddler was the unfailing harbinger of the engineer. At last my father +was storm-stayed one Sunday in a port at the other side of the island. +The visit was quite overdue, and as he walked across upon the Monday +morning he promised himself that he should at last take the keepers +unprepared. They were both waiting for him in uniform at the gate; the +fiddler had been there on Saturday! + +My grandfather, as will appear from the following extracts, was much a +martinet, and had a habit of expressing himself on paper with an almost +startling emphasis. Personally, with his powerful voice, sanguine +countenance, and eccentric and original locutions, he was well qualified +to inspire a salutary terror in the service. + + "I find that the keepers have, by some means or another, got into the + way of cleaning too much with rotten-stone and oil. I take the + principal keeper to _task_ on this subject, and make him bring a + clean towel and clean one of the brazen frames, which leaves the + towel in an odious state. This towel I put up in a sheet of paper, + seal, and take with me to confront Mr. Murdoch, who has just left the + station." "This letter"--a stern enumeration of complaints--"to lie a + week on the lightroom book-place, and to be put in the Inspector's + hands when he comes round." "It is the most painful thing that can + occur for me to have a correspondence of this kind with any of the + keepers; and when I come to the Lighthouse, instead of having the + satisfaction to meet them with approbation, it is distressing when + one is obliged to put on a most angry countenance and demeanour; but + from such culpable negligence as you have shown there is no avoiding + it. I hold it as a fixed maxim that, when a man or a family put on a + slovenly appearance in their houses, stairs, and lanterns, I always + find their reflectors, burners, windows, and light in general, ill + attended to; and, therefore, I must insist on cleanliness + throughout." "I find you very deficient in the duty of the high + tower. You thus place your appointment as Principal Keeper in + jeopardy; and I think it necessary, as an old servant of the Board, + to put you upon your guard once for all at this time. I call upon you + to recollect what was formerly and is now said to you. The state of + the backs of the reflectors at the high tower was disgraceful, as I + pointed out to you on the spot. They were as if spitten upon, and + greasy finger-marks upon the back straps. I demand an explanation of + this state of things." "The cause of the Commissioners dismissing you + is expressed in the minute; and it must be a matter of regret to you + that you have been so much engaged in smuggling, and also that the + Reports relative to the cleanliness of the Lighthouse, upon being + referred to, rather added to their unfavourable opinion." "I do not + go into the dwelling-house, but severely chide the lightkeepers for + the disagreement that seems to subsist among them." "The families of + the two lightkeepers here agree very ill. I have effected a + reconciliation for the present." "Things are in a very _humdrum_ + state here. There is no painting, and in and out of doors no taste or + tidiness displayed. Robert's wife _greets_ and M'Gregor's scolds; and + Robert is so down-hearted that he says he is unfit for duty. I told + him that if he was to mind wives' quarrels, and to take them up, the + only way was for him and M'Gregor to go down to the point like Sir G. + Grant and Lord Somerset." "I cannot say that I have experienced a + more unpleasant meeting than that of the lighthouse folks this + morning, or ever saw a stronger example of unfeeling barbarity than + the conduct which the ----s exhibited. These two cold-hearted + persons, not contented with having driven the daughter of the poor + nervous woman from her father's house, _both_ kept _pouncing_ at her, + lest she should forget her great misfortune. Write me of their + conduct. Do not make any communication of the state of these families + at Kinnaird Head, as this would be like _Tale-bearing_." + +There is the great word out. Tales and Tale-bearing, always with the +emphatic capitals, run continually in his correspondence. I will give +but two instances:-- + + "Write to David [one of the lightkeepers] and caution him to be more + prudent how he expresses himself. Let him attend his duty to the + Lighthouse and his family concerns, and give less heed to + Tale-bearers." "I have not your last letter at hand to quote its + date; but, if I recollect, it contains some kind of tales, which + nonsense I wish you would lay aside, and notice only the concerns of + your family and the important charge committed to you." + +Apparently, however, my grandfather was not himself inaccessible to the +Tale-bearer, as the following indicates:-- + + "In-walking along with Mr. ----, I explain to him that I should be + under the necessity of looking more closely into the business here + from his conduct at Buddonness, which had given an instance of + weakness in the Moral principle which had staggered my opinion of + him. His answer was, 'That will be with regard to the lass?' I told + him I was to enter no farther with him upon the subject." "Mr. Miller + appears to be master and man. I am sorry about this foolish fellow. + Had I known his train, I should not, as I did, have rather forced him + into the service. Upon finding the windows in the state they were, I + turned upon Mr. Watt, and especially upon Mr. Stewart. The latter did + not appear for a length of time to have visited the lightroom. On + asking the cause--did Mr. Watt and him (_sic_) disagree; he said no; + but he had got very bad usage from the assistant, 'who was a very + obstreperous man.' I could not bring Mr. Watt to put in language his + objections to Miller; all I could get was that, he being your friend, + and saying he was unwell, he did not like to complain or to push the + man; that the man seemed to have no liking to anything like work; + that he was unruly; that, being an educated man, he despised them. I + was, however, determined to have out of these _unwilling_ witnesses + the language alluded to. I fixed upon Mr. Stewart as chief; he + hedged. My curiosity increased, and I urged. Then he said, 'What + would I think, just exactly, of Mr. Watt being called an Old B----?' + You may judge of my surprise. There was not another word uttered. + This was quite enough, as coming from a person I should have + calculated upon quite different behaviour from. It spoke a volume of + the man's mind and want of principle." "Object to the keeper keeping + a Bull-Terrier dog of ferocious appearance. It is dangerous, as we + land at all times of the night." "Have only to complain of the + storehouse floor being spotted with oil. Give orders for this being + instantly rectified, so that on my return to-morrow I may see things + in good order." "The furniture of both houses wants much rubbing. + Mrs. ----'s carpets are absurd beyond anything I have seen. I want + her to turn the fenders up with the bottom to the fireplace: the + carpets, when not likely to be in use, folded up and laid as a + hearthrug partly under the fender." + +My grandfather was king in the service to his fingertips. All should go +in his way, from the principal lightkeeper's coat to the assistant's +fender, from the gravel in the garden-walks to the bad smell in the +kitchen, or the oil-spots on the store-room floor. It might be thought +there was nothing more calculated to awake men's resentment, and yet his +rule was not more thorough than it was beneficent. His thought for the +keepers was continual, and it did not end with their lives. He tried to +manage their successions; he thought no pains too great to arrange +between a widow and a son who had succeeded his father; he was often +harassed and perplexed by tales of hardship; and I find him writing, +almost in despair, of their improvident habits and the destitution that +awaited their families upon a death. "The house being completely +furnished, they come into possession without necessaries, and they go +out NAKED. The insurance seems to have failed, and what next is to be +tried?" While they lived he wrote behind their backs to arrange for the +education of their children, or to get them other situations if they +seemed unsuitable for the Northern Lights. When he was at a lighthouse +on a Sunday he held prayers and heard the children read. When a keeper +was sick, he lent him his horse and sent him mutton and brandy from the +ship. "The assistant's wife having been this morning confined, there was +sent ashore a bottle of sherry and a few rusks--a practice which I have +always observed in this service," he writes. They dwelt, many of them, +in uninhabited isles or desert forelands, totally cut off from shops. +Many of them were, besides, fallen into a rustic dishabitude of life, +so that even when they visited a city they could scarce be trusted with +their own affairs, as (for example) he who carried home to his children, +thinking they were oranges, a bag of lemons. And my grandfather seems to +have acted, at least in his early years, as a kind of gratuitous agent +for the service. Thus I find him writing to a keeper in 1806, when his +mind was already pre-occupied with arrangements for the Bell Rock: "I am +much afraid I stand very unfavourably with you as a man of promise, as I +was to send several things of which I believe I have more than once got +the memorandum. All I can say is that in this respect you are not +singular. This makes me no better; but really I have been driven about +beyond all example in my past experience, and have been essentially +obliged to neglect my own urgent affairs." No servant of the Northern +Lights came to Edinburgh but he was entertained at Baxter's Place to +breakfast. There, at his own table, my grandfather sat down delightedly +with his broad-spoken, homespun officers. His whole relation to the +service was, in fact, patriarchal; and I believe I may say that +throughout its ranks he was adored. I have spoken with many who knew +him; I was his grandson, and their words may have very well been words +of flattery; but there was one thing that could not be affected, and +that was the look and light that came into their faces at the name of +Robert Stevenson. + +In the early part of the century the foreman builder was a young man of +the name of George Peebles, a native of Anstruther. My grandfather had +placed in him a very high degree of confidence, and he was already +designated to be foreman at the Bell Rock, when, on Christmas-day 1806, +on his way home from Orkney, he was lost in the schooner _Traveller_. +The tale of the loss of the _Traveller_ is almost a replica of that of +the _Elizabeth_ of Stromness; like the _Elizabeth_ she came as far as +Kinnaird Head, was then surprised by a storm, driven back to Orkney, and +bilged and sank on the island of Flotta. It seems it was about the dusk +of the day when the ship struck, and many of the crew and passengers +were drowned. About the same hour, my grandfather was in his office at +the writing-table; and the room beginning to darken, he laid down his +pen and fell asleep. In a dream he saw the door open and George Peebles +come in, "reeling to and fro, and staggering like a drunken man," with +water streaming from his head and body to the floor. There it gathered +into a wave which, sweeping forward, submerged my grandfather. Well, no +matter how deep; versions vary; and at last he awoke, and behold it was +a dream! But it may be conceived how profoundly the impression was +written even on the mind of a man averse from such ideas, when the news +came of the wreck on Flotta and the death of George. + +George's vouchers and accounts had perished with himself; and it +appeared he was in debt to the Commissioners. But my grandfather wrote +to Orkney twice, collected evidence of his disbursements, and proved him +to be seventy pounds ahead. With this sum, he applied to George's +brothers, and had it apportioned between their mother and themselves. He +approached the Board and got an annuity of L5 bestowed on the widow +Peebles; and we find him writing her a long letter of explanation and +advice, and pressing on her the duty of making a will. That he should +thus act executor was no singular instance. But besides this we are able +to assist at some of the stages of a rather touching experiment: no less +than an attempt to secure Charles Peebles heir to George's favour. He is +despatched, under the character of "a fine young man"; recommended to +gentlemen for "advice, as he's a stranger in your place, and indeed to +this kind of charge, this being his first outset as Foreman"; and for a +long while after, the letter-book, in the midst of that thrilling first +year of the Bell Rock, is encumbered with pages of instruction and +encouragement. The nature of a bill, and the precautions that are to be +observed about discounting it, are expounded at length and with +clearness. "You are not, I hope, neglecting, Charles, to work the +harbour at spring-tides; and see that you pay the greatest attention to +get the well so as to supply the keeper with water, for he is a very +helpless fellow, and so unfond of hard work that I fear he could do ill +to keep himself in water by going to the other side for it."--"With +regard to spirits, Charles, I see very little occasion for it." These +abrupt apostrophes sound to me like the voice of an awakened conscience; +but they would seem to have reverberated in vain in the ears of Charles. +There was trouble in Pladda, his scene of operations; his men ran away +from him, there was at least a talk of calling in the Sheriff. "I fear," +writes my grandfather, "you have been too indulgent, and I am sorry to +add that men do not answer to be too well treated, a circumstance which +I have experienced, and which you will learn as you go on in business." +I wonder, was not Charles Peebles himself a case in point? Either death, +at least, or disappointment and discharge, must have ended his service +in the Northern Lights; and in later correspondence I look in vain for +any mention of his name--Charles, I mean, not Peebles: for as late as +1839 my grandfather is patiently writing to another of the family: "I am +sorry you took the trouble of applying to me about your son, as it lies +quite out of my way to forward his views in the line of his profession +as a Draper." + + + III + +A professional life of Robert Stevenson has been already given to the +world by his son David, and to that I would refer those interested in +such matters. But my own design, which is to represent the man, would be +very ill carried out if I suffered myself or my reader to forget that he +was, first of all and last of all, an engineer. His chief claim to the +style of a mechanical inventor is on account of the Jib or Balance Crane +of the Bell Rock, which are beautiful contrivances. But the great merit +of this engineer was not in the field of engines. He was above all +things a projector of works in the face of nature, and a modifier of +nature itself. A road to be made, a tower to be built, a harbour to be +constructed, a river to be trained and guided in its channel--these were +the problems with which his mind was continually occupied; and for these +and similar ends he travelled the world for more than half a century, +like an artist, note-book in hand. + +He once stood and looked on at the emptying of a certain oil-tube; he +did so watch in hand, and accurately timed the operation; and in so +doing offered the perfect type of his profession. The fact acquired +might never be of use: it was acquired: another link in the world's huge +chain of processes was brought down to figures and placed at the service +of the engineer. "The very term mensuration sounds _engineer-like_," I +find him writing; and in truth what the engineer most properly deals +with is that which can be measured, weighed, and numbered. The time of +any operation in hours and minutes, its cost in pounds, shillings, and +pence, the strain upon a given point in foot-pounds--these are his +conquests, with which he must continually furnish his mind, and which, +after he has acquired them, he must continually apply and exercise. They +must be not only entries in note-books, to be hurriedly consulted; in +the actor's phrase, he must be _stale_ in them; in a word of my +grandfather's, they must be "fixed in the mind like the ten fingers and +ten toes." + +These are the certainties of the engineer; so far he finds a solid +footing and clear views. But the province of formulas and constants is +restricted. Even the mechanical engineer comes at last to an end of his +figures, and must stand up, a practical man, face to face with the +discrepancies of nature and the hiatuses of theory. After the machine is +finished, and the steam turned on, the next is to drive it; and +experience and an exquisite sympathy must teach him where a weight +should be applied or a nut loosened. With the civil engineer, more +properly so called (if anything can be proper with this awkward +coinage), the obligation starts with the beginning. He is always the +practical man. The rains, the winds and the waves, the complexity and +the fitfulness of nature, are always before him. He has to deal with the +unpredictable, with those forces (in Smeaton's phrase) that "are subject +to no calculation"; and still he must predict, still calculate them, at +his peril. His work is not yet in being, and he must foresee its +influence: how it shall deflect the tide, exaggerate the waves, dam back +the rain-water, or attract the thunderbolt. He visits a piece of +sea-board: and from the inclination and soil of the beach, from the +weeds and shell-fish, from the configuration of the coast and the depth +of soundings outside, he must deduce what magnitude of waves is to be +looked for. He visits a river, its summer water babbling on shallows; +and he must not only read, in a thousand indications, the measure of +winter freshets, but be able to predict the violence of occasional great +floods. Nay, and more: he must not only consider that which is, but that +which may be. Thus I find my grandfather writing, in a report on the +North Esk Bridge: "A less waterway might have sufficed, but _the valleys +may come to be meliorated by drainage_." One field drained after another +through all that confluence of vales, and we come to a time when they +shall precipitate, by so much a more copious and transient flood, as the +gush of the flowing drain-pipe is superior to the leakage of a peat. + +It is plain there is here but a restricted use for formulas. In this +sort of practice, the engineer has need of some transcendental sense. +Smeaton, the pioneer, bade him obey his "feelings"; my father, that +"power of estimating obscure forces which supplies a coefficient of its +own to every rule." The rules must be everywhere indeed; but they must +everywhere be modified by this transcendental coefficient, everywhere +bent to the impression of the trained eye and the _feelings_ of the +engineer. A sentiment of physical laws and of the scale of nature, +which shall have been strong in the beginning and progressively +fortified by observation, must be his guide in the last recourse. I had +the most opportunity to observe my father. He would pass hours on the +beach, brooding over the waves, counting them, noting their least +deflection, noting when they broke. On Tweedside, or by Lyne or Manor, +we have spent together whole afternoons; to me, at the time, extremely +wearisome; to him, as I am now sorry to think, bitterly mortifying. The +river was to me a pretty and various spectacle; I could not see--I could +not be made to see--it otherwise. To my father it was a chequer-board of +lively forces, which he traced from pool to shallow with minute +appreciation and enduring interest. "That bank was being undercut," he +might say; "why? Suppose you were to put a groin out here, would not the +_filum fluminis_ be cast abruptly off across the channel? and where +would it impinge upon the other shore? and what would be the result? Or +suppose you were to blast that boulder, what would happen? Follow +it--use the eyes God has given you--can you not see that a great deal of +land would be reclaimed upon this side?" It was to me like school in +holidays; but to him, until I had worn him out with my invincible +triviality, a delight. Thus he pored over the engineer's voluminous +handy-book of nature; thus must, too, have pored my grandfather and +uncles. + +But it is of the essence of this knowledge, or this knack of mind, to be +largely incommunicable. "It cannot be imparted to another," says my +father. The verbal casting-net is thrown in vain over these evanescent, +inferential relations. Hence the insignificance of much engineering +literature. So far as the science can be reduced to formulas or +diagrams, the book is to the point; so far as the art depends on +intimate study of the ways of nature, the author's words will too often +be found vapid. This fact--engineering looks one way, and literature +another--was what my grandfather overlooked. All his life long, his pen +was in his hand, piling up a treasury of knowledge, preparing himself +against all possible contingencies. Scarce anything fell under his +notice but he perceived in it some relation to his work, and chronicled +it in the pages of his journal in his always lucid, but sometimes +inexact and wordy, style. The Travelling Diary (so he called it) was +kept in fascicles of ruled paper, which were at last bound up, rudely +indexed, and put by for future reference. Such volumes as have reached +me contain a surprising medley: the whole details of his employment in +the Northern Lights and his general practice; the whole biography of an +enthusiastic engineer. Much of it is useful and curious; much merely +otiose; and much can only be described as an attempt to impart that +which cannot be imparted in words. Of such are his repeated and heroic +descriptions of reefs; monuments of misdirected literary energy, which +leave upon the mind of the reader no effect but that of a multiplicity +of words and the suggested vignette of a lusty old gentleman scrambling +among tangle. It is to be remembered that he came to engineering while +yet it was in the egg and without a library, and that he saw the bounds +of that profession widen daily. He saw iron ships, steamers, and the +locomotive engine, introduced. He lived to travel from Glasgow to +Edinburgh in the inside of a forenoon, and to remember that he himself +had "often been twelve hours upon the journey, and his grandfather +(Lillie) two days"! The profession was still but in its second +generation, and had already broken down the barriers of time and space. +Who should set a limit to its future encroachments? And hence, with a +kind of sanguine pedantry, he pursued his design of "keeping up with the +day" and posting himself and his family on every mortal subject. Of this +unpractical idealism we shall meet with many instances; there was not a +trade, and scarce an accomplishment, but he thought it should form part +of the outfit of an engineer; and not content with keeping an +encyclopaedic diary himself, he would fain have set all his sons to work +continuing and extending it. They were more happily inspired. My +father's engineering pocket-book was not a bulky volume; with its store +of pregnant notes and vital formulas, it served him through life, and +was not yet filled when he came to die. As for Robert Stevenson and the +Travelling Diary, I should be ungrateful to complain, for it has +supplied me with many lively traits for this and subsequent chapters; +but I must still remember much of the period of my study there as a +sojourn in the Valley of the Shadow. + +The duty of the engineer is twofold--to design the work, and to see the +work done. We have seen already something of the vociferous thoroughness +of the man, upon the cleaning of lamps and the polishing of reflectors. +In building, in road-making, in the construction of bridges, in every +detail and byway of his employments, he pursued the same ideal. +Perfection (with a capital P and violently underscored) was his design. +A crack for a penknife, the waste of "six-and-thirty shillings," "the +loss of a day or a tide," in each of these he saw and was revolted by +the finger of the sloven; and to spirits intense as his, and immersed in +vital undertakings, the slovenly is the dishonest, and wasted time is +instantly translated into lives endangered. On this consistent idealism +there is but one thing that now and then trenches with a touch of +incongruity, and that is his love of the picturesque. As when he laid +out a road on Hogarth's line of beauty; bade a foreman be careful, in +quarrying, not "to disfigure the island"; or regretted in a report that +"the great stone, called the _Devil in the Hole_, was blasted or broken +down to make road-metal, and for other purposes of the work." + + +FOOTNOTE: + + [10] This is only a probable hypothesis; I have tried to identify my + father's anecdote in my grandfather's diary, and may very well have + been deceived.--R. L. S. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE BUILDING OF THE BELL ROCK + + +Off the mouths of the Tay and the Forth, thirteen miles from Fifeness, +eleven from Arbroath, and fourteen from the Red Head of Angus, lies the +Inchcape or Bell Rock. It extends to a length of about fourteen hundred +feet, but the part of it discovered at low water to not more than four +hundred and twenty-seven. At a little more than half-flood in fine +weather the seamless ocean joins over the reef, and at high-water +springs it is buried sixteen feet. As the tide goes down, the higher +reaches of the rock are seen to be clothed by _Conferva rupestris_ as by +a sward of grass; upon the more exposed edges, where the currents are +most swift and the breach of the sea heaviest, Baderlock or Henware +flourishes; and the great Tangle grows at the depth of several fathoms +with luxuriance. Before man arrived, and introduced into the silence of +the sea the smoke and clangour of a blacksmith's shop, it was a +favourite resting-place of seals. The crab and lobster haunt in the +crevices; and limpets, mussels, and the white buckie abound. + +According to a tradition, a bell had been once hung upon this rock by an +abbot of Arbroath,[11] "and being taken down by a sea-pirate, a year +thereafter he perished upon the same rock, with ship and goods, in the +righteous judgment of God." From the days of the abbot and the +sea-pirate no man had set foot upon the Inchcape, save fishers from the +neighbouring coast, or perhaps--for a moment, before the surges +swallowed them--the unfortunate victims of shipwreck. The fishers +approached the rock with an extreme timidity; but their harvest appears +to have been great, and the adventure no more perilous than lucrative. +In 1800, on the occasion of my grandfather's first landing, and during +the two or three hours which the ebb-tide and the smooth water allowed +them to pass upon its shelves, his crew collected upwards of two +hundredweight of old metal: pieces of a kedge anchor and a cabin stove, +crow-bars, a hinge and lock of a door, a ship's marking-iron, a piece of +a ship's caboose, a soldier's bayonet, a cannon ball, several pieces of +money, a shoe-buckle, and the like. Such were the spoils of the Bell +Rock. But the number of vessels actually lost upon the reef was as +nothing to those that were cast away in fruitless efforts to avoid it. +Placed right in the fairway of two navigations, and one of these the +entrance to the only harbour of refuge between the Downs and the Moray +Firth, it breathed abroad along the whole coast an atmosphere of terror +and perplexity; and no ship sailed that part of the North Sea at night, +but what the ears of those on board would be strained to catch the +roaring of the seas on the Bell Rock. + +From 1794 onward, the mind of my grandfather had been exercised with the +idea of a light upon this formidable danger. To build a tower on a sea +rock, eleven miles from shore, and barely uncovered at low water of +neaps, appeared a fascinating enterprise. It was something yet +unattempted, unessayed; and even now, after it has been lighted for more +than eighty years, it is still an exploit that has never been +repeated.[12] My grandfather was, besides, but a young man, of an +experience comparatively restricted, and a reputation confined to +Scotland; and when he prepared his first models, and exhibited them in +Merchants' Hall, he can hardly be acquitted of audacity. John Clerk of +Eldin stood his friend from the beginning, kept the key of the model +room, to which he carried "eminent strangers," and found words of +counsel and encouragement beyond price. "Mr. Clerk had been personally +known to Smeaton, and used occasionally to speak of him to me," says my +grandfather; and again: "I felt regret that I had not the opportunity of +a greater range of practice to fit me for such an undertaking; but I was +fortified by an expression of my friend Mr. Clerk in one of our +conversations. 'This work,' said he, 'is unique, and can be little +forwarded by experience of ordinary masonic operations. In this case +Smeaton's "Narrative" must be the text-book, and energy and perseverance +the pratique.'" + +A Bill for the work was introduced into Parliament and lost in the Lords +in 1802-3. John Rennie was afterwards, at my grandfather's suggestion, +called in council, with the style of chief engineer. The precise meaning +attached to these words by any of the parties appears irrecoverable. +Chief engineer should have full authority, full responsibility, and a +proper share of the emoluments; and there were none of these for Rennie. +I find in an appendix a paper which resumes the controversy on this +subject; and it will be enough to say here that Rennie did not design +the Bell Rock, that he did not execute it, and that he was not paid for +it.[13] From so much of the correspondence as has come down to me, the +acquaintance of this man, eleven years his senior, and already famous, +appears to have been both useful and agreeable to Robert Stevenson. It +is amusing to find my grandfather seeking high and low for a brace of +pistols which his colleague had lost by the way between Aberdeen and +Edinburgh; and writing to Messrs. Dollond, "I have not thought it +necessary to trouble Mr. Rennie with this order, but _I beg you will see +to get two minutes of him as he passes your door_"--a proposal +calculated rather from the latitude of Edinburgh than from London, even +in 1807. It is pretty, too, to observe with what affectionate regard +Smeaton was held in mind by his immediate successors. "Poor old fellow," +writes Rennie to Stevenson, "I hope he will now and then take a peep at +us, and inspire you with fortitude and courage to brave all difficulties +and dangers to accomplish a work which will, if successful, immortalise +you in the annals of fame." The style might be bettered, but the +sentiment is charming. + +Smeaton was, indeed, the patron saint of the Bell Rock. Undeterred by +the sinister fate of Winstanley, he had tackled and solved the problem +of the Eddystone; but his solution had not been in all respects perfect. +It remained for my grandfather to outdo him in daring, by applying to a +tidal rock those principles which had been already justified by the +success of the Eddystone, and to perfect the model by more than one +exemplary departure. Smeaton had adopted in his floors the principle of +the arch; each therefore exercised an outward thrust upon the walls, +which must be met and combated by embedded chains. My grandfather's +flooring-stones, on the other hand, were flat, made part of the outer +wall, and were keyed and dovetailed into a central stone, so as to bind +the work together and be positive elements of strength. In 1703 +Winstanley still thought it possible to erect his strange pagoda, with +its open gallery, its florid scrolls and candlesticks: like a rich man's +folly for an ornamental water in a park. Smeaton followed; then +Stevenson in his turn corrected such flaws as were left in Smeaton's +design; and with his improvements, it is not too much to say the model +was made perfect. Smeaton and Stevenson had between them evolved and +finished the sea-tower. No subsequent builder has departed in anything +essential from the principles of their design. It remains, and it seems +to us as though it must remain for ever, an ideal attained. Every stone +in the building, it may interest the reader to know, my grandfather had +himself cut out in the model; and the manner in which the courses were +fitted, joggled, trenailed, wedged, and the bond broken, is intricate as +a puzzle and beautiful by ingenuity. + +In 1806 a second Bill passed both Houses, and the preliminary works were +at once begun. The same year the Navy had taken a great harvest of +prizes in the North Sea, one of which, a Prussian fishing dogger, +flat-bottomed and rounded at the stem and stern, was purchased to be a +floating lightship, and re-named the _Pharos_. By July 1807 she was +overhauled, rigged for her new purpose, and turned into the lee of the +Isle of May. "It was proposed that the whole party should meet in her +and pass the night; but she rolled from side to side in so extraordinary +a manner, that even the most seahardy fled. It was humorously observed +of this vessel that she was in danger of making a round turn and +appearing with her keel uppermost; and that she would even turn a +halfpenny if laid upon deck." By two o'clock on the morning of the 15th +July this purgatorial vessel was moored by the Bell Rock. + +A sloop of forty tons had been in the meantime built at Leith, and named +the _Smeaton_: by the 7th of August my grandfather set sail in her-- + + "carrying with him Mr. Peter Logan, foreman builder, and five + artificers selected from their having been somewhat accustomed to the + sea, the writer being aware of the distressing trial which the + floating light would necessarily inflict upon landsmen from her + rolling motion. Here he remained till the 10th, and, as the weather + was favourable, a landing was effected daily, when the workmen were + employed in cutting the large seaweed from the sites of the + lighthouse and beacon, which were respectively traced with pickaxes + upon the rock. In the meantime the crew of the _Smeaton_ was employed + in laying down the several sets of moorings within about half a mile + of the rock for the convenience of vessels. The artificers, having, + fortunately, experienced moderate weather, returned to the workyard + of Arbroath with a good report of their treatment afloat; when their + comrades ashore began to feel some anxiety to see a place of which + they had heard so much, and to change the constant operations with + the iron and mallet in the process of hewing for an occasional tide's + work on the rock, which they figured to themselves as a state of + comparative ease and comfort." + +I am now for many pages to let my grandfather speak for himself, and +tell in his own words the story of his capital achievement. The tall +quarto of 533 pages from which the following narrative has been dug out +is practically unknown to the general reader, yet good judges have +perceived its merit, and it has been named (with flattering wit) "The +Romance of Stone and Lime" and "The Robinson Crusoe of Civil +Engineering." The tower was but four years in the building; it took +Robert Stevenson, in the midst of his many avocations, no less than +fourteen to prepare the _Account_. The title-page is a solid piece of +literature of upwards of a hundred words; the table of contents runs to +thirteen pages; and the dedication (to that revered monarch, George IV) +must have cost him no little study and correspondence. Walter Scott was +called in council, and offered one miscorrection which still blots the +page. In spite of all this pondering and filing, there remain pages not +easy to construe, and inconsistencies not easy to explain away. I have +sought to make these disappear, and to lighten a little the baggage with +which my grandfather marches; here and there I have rejointed and +rearranged a sentence, always with his own words, and all with a +reverent and faithful hand; and I offer here to the reader the true +Monument of Robert Stevenson with a little of the moss removed from the +inscription, and the Portrait of the artist with some superfluous canvas +cut away. + + + I + + OPERATIONS OF 1807 + + 1807 Sunday, 16th Aug. + +Everything being arranged for sailing to the rock on Saturday the 15th, +the vessel might have proceeded on the Sunday; but understanding that +this would not be so agreeable to the artificers it was deferred until +Monday. Here we cannot help observing that the men allotted for the +operations at the rock seemed to enter upon the undertaking with a +degree of consideration which fully marked their opinion as to the +hazardous nature of the undertaking on which they were about to enter. +They went in a body to church on Sunday, and whether it was in the +ordinary course, or designed for the occasion, the writer is not +certain, but the service was, in many respects, suitable to their +circumstances. + + Monday, 17th Aug. + +The tide happening to fall late in the evening of Monday the 17th, the +party, counting twenty-four in number, embarked on board of the +_Smeaton_ about ten o'clock p.m., and sailed from Arbroath with a gentle +breeze at west. Our ship's colours having been flying all day in +compliment to the commencement of the work, the other vessels in the +harbour also saluted, which made a very gay appearance. A number of the +friends and acquaintances of those on board having been thus collected, +the piers, though at a late hour, were perfectly crowded, and just as +the _Smeaton_ cleared the harbour, all on board united in giving three +hearty cheers, which were returned by those on shore in such good +earnest, that, in the still of the evening, the sound must have been +heard in all parts of the town, reechoing from the walls and lofty +turrets of the venerable Abbey of Aberbrothwick. The writer felt much +satisfaction at the manner of this parting scene, though he must own +that the present rejoicing was, on his part, mingled with occasional +reflections upon the responsibility of his situation, which extended to +the safety of all who should be engaged in this perilous work. With such +sensations he retired to his cabin; but as the artificers were rather +inclined to move about the deck than to remain in their confined berths +below, his repose was transient, and the vessel being small every motion +was necessarily heard. Some who were musically inclined occasionally +sung; but he listened with peculiar pleasure to the sailor at the helm, +who hummed over Dibdin's characteristic air:-- + + "They say there's a Providence sits up aloft, + To keep watch for the life of poor Jack." + + Tuesday, 18th Aug. + +The weather had been very gentle all night, and, about four in the +morning of the 18th, the _Smeaton_ anchored. Agreeably to an arranged +plan of operations, all hands were called at five o'clock a.m., just as +the highest part of the Bell Rock began to show its sable head among the +light breakers, which occasionally whitened with the foaming sea. The +two boats belonging to the floating light attended the _Smeaton_, to +carry the artificers to the rock, as her boat could only accommodate +about six or eight sitters. Every one was more eager than his neighbour +to leap into the boats, and it required a good deal of management on the +part of the coxswains to get men unaccustomed to a boat to take their +places for rowing and at the same time trimming her properly. The +landing-master and foreman went into one boat, while the writer took +charge of another, and steered it to and from the rock. This became the +more necessary in the early stages of the work, as places could not be +spared for more than two, or at most three, seamen to each boat, who +were always stationed, one at the bow, to use the boat-hook in fending +or pushing off, and the other at the aftermost oar, to give the proper +time in rowing, while the middle oars were double-banked, and rowed by +the artificers. + +As the weather was extremely fine, with light airs of wind from the +east, we landed without difficulty upon the central part of the rock at +half-past five, but the water had not yet sufficiently left it for +commencing the work. This interval, however, did not pass unoccupied. +The first and last of all the principal operations at the Bell Rock were +accompanied by three hearty cheers from all hands, and, on occasions +like the present, the steward of the ship attended, when each man was +regaled with a glass of rum. As the water left the rock about six, some +began to bore the holes for the great bats or holdfasts, for fixing the +beams of the Beacon-house, while the smith was fully attended in laying +out the site of his forge, upon a somewhat sheltered spot of the rock, +which also recommended itself from the vicinity of a pool of water for +tempering his irons. These preliminary steps occupied about an hour, and +as nothing further could be done during this tide towards fixing the +forge, the workmen gratified their curiosity by roaming about the rock, +which they investigated with great eagerness till the tide overflowed +it. Those who had been sick picked dulse (_Fucus palmatus_), which they +ate with much seeming appetite; others were more intent upon collecting +limpets for bait, to enjoy the amusement of fishing when they returned +on board of the vessel. Indeed, none came away empty-handed, as +everything found upon the Bell Rock was considered valuable, being +connected with some interesting association. Several coins and numerous +bits of shipwrecked iron, were picked up, of almost every description; +and, in particular, a marking-iron lettered JAMES--a circumstance of +which it was thought proper to give notice to the public, as it might +lead to the knowledge of some unfortunate shipwreck, perhaps unheard of +till this simple occurrence led to the discovery. When the rock began to +be overflowed, the landing-master arranged the crews of the respective +boats, appointing twelve persons to each. According to a rule which the +writer had laid down to himself, he was always the last person who left +the rock. + +In a short time the Bell Rock was laid completely under water, and the +weather being extremely fine, the sea was so smooth that its place could +not be pointed out from the appearance of the surface--a circumstance +which sufficiently demonstrates the dangerous nature of this rock, even +during the day, and in the smoothest and calmest state of the sea. +During the interval between the morning and the evening tides, the +artificers were variously employed in fishing and reading; others were +busy in drying and adjusting their wet clothes, and one or two amused +their companions with the violin and German flute. + +About seven in the evening the signal bell for landing on the rock was +again rung, when every man was at his quarters. In this service it was +thought more appropriate to use the bell than to _pipe_ to quarters, as +the use of this instrument is less known to the mechanic than the sound +of the bell. The landing, as in the morning, was at the eastern harbour. +During this tide the seaweed was pretty well cleared from the site of +the operations, and also from the tracks leading to the different +landing-places; for walking upon the rugged surface of the Bell Rock, +when covered with seaweed, was found to be extremely difficult and even +dangerous. Every hand that could possibly be occupied was now employed +in assisting the smith to fit up the apparatus for his forge. At 9 p.m. +the boats returned to the tender, after other two hours' work, in the +same order as formerly--perhaps as much gratified with the success that +attended the work of this day as with any other in the whole course of +the operations. Although it could not be said that the fatigues of this +day had been great, yet all on board retired early to rest. The sea +being calm, and no movement on deck, it was pretty generally remarked in +the morning that the bell awakened the greater number on board from +their first sleep; and though this observation was not altogether +applicable to the writer himself, yet he was not a little pleased to +find that thirty people could all at once become so reconciled to a +night's quarters within a few hundred paces of the Bell Rock. + + Wednesday, 19th Aug. + +Being extremely anxious at this time to get forward with fixing the +smith's forge, on which the progress of the work at present depended, +the writer requested that he might be called at daybreak to learn the +landing-master's opinion of the weather from the appearance of the +rising sun, a criterion by which experienced seamen can generally judge +pretty accurately of the state of the weather for the following day. +About five o'clock, on coming upon deck, the sun's upper limb or disc +had just begun to appear as if rising from the ocean, and in less than a +minute he was seen in the fullest splendour; but after a short interval +he was enveloped in a soft cloudy sky, which was considered emblematical +of fine weather. His rays had not yet sufficiently dispelled the clouds +which hid the land from view, and the Bell Rock being still overflowed, +the whole was one expanse of water. This scene in itself was highly +gratifying; and, when the morning bell was tolled, we were gratified +with the happy forebodings of good weather and the expectation of having +both a morning and an evening tide's work on the rock. + +The boat which the writer steered happened to be the last which +approached the rock at this tide; and, in standing up in the stern, +while at some distance, to see how the leading boat entered the creek, +he was astonished to observe something in the form of a human figure, in +a reclining posture, upon one of the ledges of the rock. He immediately +steered the boat through a narrow entrance to the eastern harbour, with +a thousand unpleasant sensations in his mind. He thought a vessel or +boat must have been wrecked upon the rock during the night; and it +seemed probable that the rock might be strewed with dead bodies, a +spectacle which could not fail to deter the artificers from returning so +freely to their work. In the midst of these reveries the boat took the +ground at an improper landing-place but, without waiting to push her +off, he leapt upon the rock, and making his way hastily to the spot +which had privately given him alarm, he had the satisfaction to +ascertain that he had only been deceived by the peculiar situation and +aspect of the smith's anvil and block, which very completely represented +the appearance of a lifeless body upon the rock. The writer carefully +suppressed his feelings, the simple mention of which might have had a +bad effect upon the artificers, and his haste passed for an anxiety to +examine the apparatus of the smith's forge, left in an unfinished state +at evening tide. + +In the course of this morning's work two or three apparently distant +peals of thunder were heard, and the atmosphere suddenly became thick +and foggy. But as the _Smeaton_, our present tender, was moored at no +great distance from the rock, the crew on board continued blowing with +a horn, and occasionally fired a musket, so that the boats got to the +ship without difficulty. + + Thursday, 20th Aug. + +The wind this morning inclined from the north-east, and the sky had a +heavy and cloudy appearance, but the sea was smooth, though there was an +undulating motion on the surface, which indicated easterly winds, and +occasioned a slight surf upon the rock. But the boats found no +difficulty in landing at the western creek at half-past seven, and, +after a good tide's work, left it again about a quarter from eleven. In +the evening the artificers landed at half-past seven, and continued till +half-past eight, having completed the fixing of the smith's forge, his +vice, and a wooden board or bench, which were also batted to a ledge of +the rock, to the great joy of all, under a salute of three hearty +cheers. From an oversight on the part of the smith, who had neglected to +bring his tinder-box and matches from the vessel, the work was prevented +from being continued for at least an hour longer. + +The smith's shop was, of course, in _open space_: the large bellows were +carried to and from the rock every tide, for the serviceable condition +of which, together with the tinder-box, fuel, and embers of the former +fire, the smith was held responsible. Those who have been placed in +situations to feel the inconveniency and want of this useful artisan, +will be able to appreciate his value in a case like the present. It +often happened, to our annoyance and disappointment, in the early state +of the work, when the smith was in the middle of a _favourite heat_ in +making some useful article, or in sharpening the tools, after the +flood-tide had obliged the pickmen to strike work, a sea would come +rolling over the rocks, dash out the fire, and endanger his +indispensable implement, the bellows. If the sea was smooth, while the +smith often stood at work knee-deep in water, the tide rose by +imperceptible degrees, first cooling the exterior of the fireplace, or +hearth, and then quietly blackening and extinguishing the fire from +below. The writer has frequently been amused at the perplexing anxiety +of the blacksmith when coaxing his fire and endeavouring to avert the +effects of the rising tide. + + Friday, 21st Aug. + +Everything connected with the forge being now completed, the artificers +found no want of sharp tools, and the work went forward with great +alacrity and spirit. It was also alleged that the rock had a more +habitable appearance from the volumes of smoke which ascended from the +smith's shop and the busy noise of his anvil, the operations of the +masons, the movements of the boats, and shipping at a distance--all +contributed to give life and activity to the scene. This noise and +traffic had, however, the effect of almost completely banishing the herd +of seals which had hitherto frequented the rock as a resting-place +during the period of low water. The rock seemed to be peculiarly adapted +to their habits, for, excepting two or three days at neap-tides, a part +of it always dries at low water--at least, during the summer season--and +as there was good fishing-ground in the neighbourhood, without a human +being to disturb or molest them, it had become a very favourite +residence of these amphibious animals, the writer having occasionally +counted from fifty to sixty playing about the rock at a time. But when +they came to be disturbed every tide, and their seclusion was broken in +upon by the kindling of great fires, together with the beating of +hammers and picks during low water, after hovering about for a time, +they changed their place, and seldom more than one or two were to be +seen about the rock upon the more detached outlayers which dry +partially, whence they seemed to look with that sort of curiosity which +is observable in these animals when following a boat. + + Saturday, 22nd Aug. + +Hitherto the artificers had remained on board the _Smeaton_, which was +made fast to one of the mooring buoys at a distance only of about a +quarter of a mile from the rock, and, of course, a very great +conveniency to the work. Being so near, the seamen could never be +mistaken as to the progress of the tide, or state of the sea upon the +rock, nor could the boats be much at a loss to pull on board of the +vessel during fog, or even in very rough weather; as she could be cast +loose from her moorings at pleasure, and brought to the lee side of the +rock. But the _Smeaton_ being only about forty register tons, her +accommodations were extremely limited. It may, therefore, be easily +imagined that an addition of twenty-four persons to her own crew must +have rendered the situation of those on board rather uncomfortable. The +only place for the men's hammocks on board being in the hold, they were +unavoidably much crowded: and if the weather had required the hatches to +be fastened down, so great a number of men could not possibly have been +accommodated. To add to this evil, the _co-boose_ or cooking-place being +upon deck, it would not have been possible to have cooked for so large a +company in the event of bad weather. + +The stock of water was now getting short, and some necessaries being +also wanted for the floating light, the _Smeaton_ was despatched for +Arbroath; and the writer, with the artificers, at the same time shifted +their quarters from her to the floating light. + +Although the rock barely made its appearance at this period of the tides +till eight o'clock, yet, having now a full mile to row from the floating +light to the rock, instead of about a quarter of a mile from the +moorings of the _Smeaton_, it was necessary to be earlier astir, and to +form different arrangements; breakfast was accordingly served up at +seven o'clock this morning. From the excessive motion of the floating +light, the writer had looked forward rather with anxiety to the removal +of the workmen to this ship. Some among them, who had been +congratulating themselves upon having become sea-hardy while on board +the _Smeaton_, had a complete relapse upon returning to the floating +light. This was the case with the writer. From the spacious and +convenient berthage of the floating light, the exchange to the +artificers was, in this respect, much for the better. The boats were +also commodious, measuring sixteen feet in length on the keel, so that, +in fine weather, their complement of sitters was sixteen persons for +each, with which, however, they were rather crowded, but she could not +stow two boats of larger dimensions. When there was what is called a +breeze of wind, and a swell in the sea, the proper number for each boat +could not, with propriety, be rated at more than twelve persons. + +When the tide-bell rung the boats were hoisted out, and two active +seamen were employed to keep them from receiving damage alongside. The +floating light being very buoyant, was so quick in her motions that when +those who were about to step from her gunwale into a boat, placed +themselves upon a cleat or step on the ship's side, with the man or rail +ropes in their hands, they had often to wait for some time till a +favourable opportunity occurred for stepping into the boat. While in +this situation, with the vessel rolling from side to side, watching the +proper time for letting go the man-ropes, it required the greatest +dexterity and presence of mind to leap into the boats. One who was +rather awkward would often wait a considerable period in this position: +at one time his side of the ship would be so depressed that he would +touch the boat to which he belonged, while the next sea would elevate +him so much that he would see his comrades in the boat on the opposite +side of the ship, his friends in the one boat calling to him to "Jump," +while those in the boat on the other side, as he came again and again +into their view, would jocosely say, "Are you there yet? You seem to +enjoy a swing." In this situation it was common to see a person upon +each side of the ship for a length of time, waiting to quit his hold. + +On leaving the rock to-day a trial of seamanship was proposed amongst +the rowers, for by this time the artificers had become tolerably expert +in this exercise. By inadvertency some of the oars provided had been +made of fir instead of ash, and although a considerable stock had been +laid in, the workmen, being at first awkward in the art, were constantly +breaking their oars; indeed it was no uncommon thing to see the broken +blades of a pair of oars floating astern, in the course of a passage +from the rock to the vessel. The men, upon the whole, had but little +work to perform in the course of a day; for though they exerted +themselves extremely hard while on the rock, yet, in the early state of +the operations, this could not be continued for more than three or four +hours at a time, and as their rations were large--consisting of one +pound and a half of beef, one pound of ship biscuit, eight ounces +oatmeal, two ounces barley, two ounces butter, three quarts of small +beer, with vegetables and salt--they got into excellent spirits when +free of sea-sickness. The rowing of the boats against each other became +a favourite amusement, which was rather a fortunate circumstance, as it +must have been attended with much inconvenience had it been found +necessary to employ a sufficient number of sailors for this purpose. The +writer, therefore, encouraged this spirit of emulation, and the speed of +their respective boats became a favourite topic. Premiums for boat-races +were instituted, which were contended for with great eagerness, and the +respective crews kept their stations in the boats with as much precision +as they kept their beds on board of the ship. With these and other +pastimes, when the weather was favourable, the time passed away among +the inmates of the forecastle and waist of the ship. The writer looks +back with interest upon the hours of solitude which he spent in this +lonely ship with his small library. + +This being the first Saturday that the artificers were afloat, all hands +were served with a glass of rum and water at night, to drink the +sailors' favourite toast of "Wives and Sweethearts." It was customary, +upon these occasions, for the seamen and artificers to collect in the +galley, when the musical instruments were put in requisition: for, +according to invariable practice, every man must play a tune, sing a +song, or tell a story. + + Sunday, 23rd Aug. + +Having, on the previous evening, arranged matters with the +landing-master as to the business of the day, the signal was rung for +all hands at half-past seven this morning. In the early state of the +spring-tides the artificers went to the rock before breakfast, but as +the tides fell later in the day, it became necessary to take this meal +before leaving the ship. At eight o'clock all hands were assembled on +the quarter-deck for prayers, a solemnity which was gone through in as +orderly a manner as circumstances would admit. When the weather +permitted, the flags of the ship were hung up as an awning or screen, +forming the quarter-deck into a distinct compartment; the pendant was +also hoisted at the mainmast, and a large ensign flag was displayed over +the stern; and lastly, the ship's companion, or top of the staircase, +was covered with the _flag proper_ of the Lighthouse Service, on which +the Bible was laid. A particular toll of the bell called all hands to +the quarter-deck, when the writer read a chapter of the Bible, and, the +whole ship's company being uncovered, he also read the impressive prayer +composed by the Reverend Dr. Brunton, one of the ministers of Edinburgh. + +Upon concluding this service, which was attended with becoming reverence +and attention, all on board retired to their respective berths to +breakfast, and, at half-past nine, the bell again rung for the +artificers to take their stations in their respective boats. Some demur +having been evinced on board about the propriety of working on Sunday, +which had hitherto been touched upon as delicately as possible, all +hands being called aft, the writer, from the quarter-deck, stated +generally the nature of the service, expressing his hopes that every man +would feel himself called upon to consider the erection of a lighthouse +on the Bell Rock, in every point of view, as a work of necessity and +mercy. He knew that scruples had existed with some, and these had, +indeed, been fairly and candidly urged before leaving the shore; but it +was expected that, after having seen the critical nature of the rock, +and the necessity of the measure, every man would now be satisfied of +the propriety of embracing all opportunities of landing on the rock when +the state of the weather would permit. The writer further took them to +witness that it did not proceed from want of respect for the +appointments and established forms of religion that he had himself +adopted the resolution of attending the Bell Rock works on the Sunday; +but, as he hoped, from a conviction that it was his bounden duty, on the +strictest principles of morality. At the same time it was intimated +that, if any were of a different opinion, they should be perfectly at +liberty to hold their sentiments without the imputation of contumacy or +disobedience; the only difference would be in regard to the pay. + +Upon stating this much, he stepped into his boat, requesting all who +were so disposed to follow him. The sailors, from their habits, found no +scruple on this subject, and all of the artificers, though a little +tardy, also embarked, excepting four of the masons, who, from the +beginning, mentioned that they would decline working on Sundays. It may +here be noticed that throughout the whole of the operations it was +observable that the men wrought, if possible, with more keenness upon +the Sundays than at other times, from an impression that they were +engaged in a work of imperious necessity, which required every possible +exertion. On returning to the floating light, after finishing the tide's +work, the boats were received by the part of the ship's crew left on +board with the usual attention of handing ropes to the boats and helping +the artificers on board; but the four masons who had absented themselves +from the work did not appear upon deck. + + Monday, 24th Aug. + +The boats left the floating light at a quarter-past nine o'clock this +morning, and the work began at three-quarters past nine; but as the +neap-tides were approaching the working time at the rock became +gradually shorter, and it was now with difficulty that two and a half +hours' work could be got. But so keenly had the workmen entered into the +spirit of the Beacon-house operations, that they continued to bore the +holes in the rock till some of them were knee-deep in water. + +The operations at this time were entirely directed to the erection of +the beacon, in which every man felt an equal interest, as at this +critical period the slightest casualty to any of the boats at the rock +might have been fatal to himself individually, while it was perhaps +peculiar to the writer more immediately to feel for the safety of the +whole. Each log or upright beam of the beacon was to be fixed to the +rock by two strong and massive bats or stanchions of iron. These bats, +for the fixture of the principal and diagonal beams and bracing chains, +required fifty-four holes, each measuring two inches in diameter and +eighteen inches in depth. There had already been so considerable a +progress made in boring and excavating the holes that the writer's hopes +of getting the beacon erected this year began to be more and more +confirmed, although it was now advancing towards what was considered the +latter end of the proper working season at the Bell Rock. The foreman +joiner, Mr. Francis Watt, was accordingly appointed to attend at the +rock to-day, when the necessary levels were taken for the step or seat +of each particular beam of the beacon, that they might be cut to their +respective lengths, to suit the inequalities of the rock; several of the +stanchions were also tried into their places, and other necessary +observations made, to prevent mistakes on the application of the +apparatus, and to facilitate the operations when the beams came to be +set up, which would require to be done in the course of a single tide. + + Tuesday, 25th Aug. + +We had now experienced an almost unvaried tract of light airs of +easterly wind, with clear weather in the fore-part of the day and fog in +the evenings. To-day, however, it sensibly changed; when the wind came +to the south-west, and blew a fresh breeze. At nine a.m. the bell rung, +and the boats were hoisted out, and though the artificers were now +pretty well accustomed to tripping up and down the sides of the floating +light, yet it required more seamanship this morning than usual. It +therefore afforded some merriment to those who had got fairly seated in +their respective boats to see the difficulties which attended their +companions, and the hesitating manner in which they quitted hold of the +man-ropes in leaving the ship. The passage to the rock was tedious, and +the boats did not reach it till half-past ten. + +It being now the period of neap-tides, the water only partially left the +rock, and some of the men who were boring on the lower ledges of the +site of the beacon stood knee-deep in water. The situation of the smith +to-day was particularly disagreeable, but his services were at all times +indispensable. As the tide did not leave the site of the forge, he stood +in the water, and as there was some roughness on the surface it was with +considerable difficulty that, with the assistance of the sailors, he was +enabled to preserve alive his fire; and, while his feet were immersed in +water, his face was not only scorched but continually exposed to volumes +of smoke, accompanied with sparks from the fire, which were occasionally +set up owing to the strength and direction of the wind. + + Wednesday, 26th Aug + +The wind had shifted this morning to N.N.W., with rain, and was blowing +what sailors call a fresh breeze. To speak, perhaps, somewhat more +intelligibly to the general reader, the wind was such that a +fishing-boat could just carry full sail. But as it was of importance, +specially in the outset of the business, to keep up the spirit of +enterprise for landing on all practicable occasions, the writer, after +consulting with the landing-master, ordered the bell to be rung for +embarking, and at half-past eleven the boats reached the rock, and left +it again at a quarter-past twelve, without, however, being able to do +much work, as the smith could not be set to work from the smallness of +the ebb and the strong breach of sea, which lashed with great force +among the bars of the forge. + +Just as we were about to leave the rock the wind shifted to the S.W., +and, from a fresh gale, it became what seamen term a hard gale, or such +as would have required the fisherman to take in two or three reefs in +his sail. It is a curious fact that the respective tides of ebb and +flood are apparent upon the shore about an hour and a half sooner than +at the distance of three or four miles in the offing. But what seems +chiefly interesting here is that the tides around this small sunken rock +should follow exactly the same laws as on the extensive shores of the +mainland. When the boats left the Bell Rock to-day it was overflowed by +the flood-tide, but the floating light did not swing round to the +flood-tide for more than an hour afterwards. Under this disadvantage the +boats had to struggle with the ebb-tide and a hard gale of wind, so that +it was with the greatest difficulty they reached the floating light. Had +this gale happened in spring-tides when the current was strong we must +have been driven to sea in a very helpless condition. + +The boat which the writer steered was considerably behind the other, +one of the masons having unluckily broken his oar. Our prospect of +getting on board, of course, became doubtful, and our situation was +rather perilous, as the boat shipped so much sea that it occupied two of +the artificers to bale and clear her of water. When the oar gave way we +were about half a mile from the ship, but, being fortunately to +windward, we got into the wake of the floating light, at about 250 +fathoms astern, just as the landing-master's boat reached the vessel. He +immediately streamed or floated a life-buoy astern, with a line which +was always in readiness, and by means of this useful implement the boat +was towed alongside of the floating light, where, from her rolling +motion, it required no small management to get safely on board, as the +men were worn out with their exertions in pulling from the rock. On the +present occasion the crews of both boats were completely drenched with +spray, and those who sat upon the bottom of the boats to bale them were +sometimes pretty deep in the water before it could be cleared out. After +getting on board, all hands were allowed an extra dram, and, having +shifted and got a warm and comfortable dinner, the affair, it is +believed, was little more thought of. + + Thursday, 27th Aug. + +The tides were now in that state which sailors term the dead of the +neap, and it was not expected that any part of the rock would be seen +above water to-day; at any rate, it was obvious, from the experience of +yesterday, that no work could be done upon it, and therefore the +artificers were not required to land. The wind was at west, with light +breezes, and fine clear weather; and as it was an object with the writer +to know the actual state of the Bell Rock at neap-tides, he got one of +the boats manned, and, being accompanied by the landing-master, went to +it at a quarter-past twelve. The parts of the rock that appeared above +water being very trifling, were covered by every wave, so that no +landing was made. Upon trying the depth of water with a boat-hook, +particularly on the sites of the lighthouse and beacon, on the former, +at low water, the depth was found to be three feet, and on the central +parts of the latter it was ascertained to be two feet eight inches. +Having made these remarks, the boat returned to the ship at two p.m., +and the weather being good, the artificers were found amusing themselves +with fishing. The _Smeaton_ came from Arbroath this afternoon, and made +fast to her moorings, having brought letters and newspapers, with +parcels of clean linen, etc., for the workmen, who were also made happy +by the arrival of three of their comrades from the workyard ashore. From +these men they not only received all the news of the workyard, but +seemed themselves to enjoy great pleasure in communicating whatever they +considered to be interesting with regard to the rock. Some also got +letters from their friends at a distance, the postage of which for the +men afloat was always free, so that they corresponded the more readily. + +The site of the building having already been carefully traced out with +the pick-axe, the artificers this day commenced the excavation of the +rock for the foundation or first course of the lighthouse. Four men only +were employed at this work, while twelve continued at the site of the +beacon-house, at which every possible opportunity was embraced, till +this essential part of the operations should be completed. + + Wednesday 2nd Sept. + +The floating light's bell rung this morning at half-past four o'clock, +as a signal for the boats to be got ready, and the landing took place at +half-past five. In passing the _Smeaton_ at her moorings near the rock, +her boat followed with eight additional artificers who had come from +Arbroath with her at last trip, but there being no room for them in the +floating light's boats, they had continued on board. The weather did not +look very promising in the morning, the wind blowing pretty fresh from +W.S.W.: and had it not been that the writer calculated upon having a +vessel so much at command, in all probability he would not have ventured +to land. The _Smeaton_ rode at what sailors call a _salvagee_, with a +cross-head made fast to the floating buoy. This kind of attachment was +found to be more convenient than the mode of passing the hawser through +the ring of the buoy when the vessel was to be made fast. She had then +only to be steered very close to the buoy, when the salvagee was laid +hold of with a boat-hook, and the _bite_ of the hawser thrown over the +cross-head. But the salvagee, by this method, was always left at the +buoy, and was, of course, more liable to chafe and wear than a hawser +passed through the ring, which could be wattled with canvas, and shifted +at pleasure. The salvagee and cross method is, however, much practised; +but the experience of this morning showed it to be very unsuitable for +vessels riding in an exposed situation for any length of time. + +Soon after the artificers landed they commenced work; but the Wind +coming to blow hard, the _Smeaton's_ boat and crew, who had brought +their complement of eight men to the rock, went off to examine her +riding ropes, and see that they were in proper order. The boat had no +sooner reached the vessel than she went adrift, carrying the boat along +with her. By the time that she was got round to make a tack towards the +rock, she had drifted at least three miles to leeward, with the praam +boat astern; and, having both the Wind and a tide against her, the +writer perceived, with no little anxiety, that she could not possibly +return to the rock till long after its being overflowed; for, owing to +the anomaly of the tides formerly noticed, the Bell Rock is completely +under water when the ebb abates to the offing. + +In this perilous predicament, indeed, he found himself placed between +hope and despair--but certainly the latter was by much the most +predominant feeling of his mind--situate upon a sunken rock in the +middle of the ocean, which, in the progress of the flood-tide, was to be +laid under water to the depth of at least twelve feet in a stormy sea. +There were this morning thirty-two persons in all upon the rock, with +only two boats, whose complement, even in good weather, did not exceed +twenty-four sitters; but to row to the floating light with so much wind, +and in so heavy a sea, a complement of eight men for each boat was as +much as could, with propriety, be attempted, so that, in this way, about +one-half of our number was unprovided for. Under these circumstances, +had the writer ventured to despatch one of the boats in expectation of +either working the _Smeaton_ sooner up towards the rock, or in hopes of +getting her boat brought to our assistance, this must have given an +immediate alarm to the artificers, each of whom would have insisted upon +taking to his own boat, and leaving the eight artificers belonging to +the _Smeaton_ to their chance. Of course a scuffle might have ensued, +and it is hard to say, in the ardour of men contending for life, where +it might have ended. It has even been hinted to the writer that a party +of the _pickmen_ were determined to keep exclusively to their own boat +against all hazards. + +The unfortunate circumstance of the _Smeaton_ and her boat having +drifted was, for a considerable time, only known to the writer and to +the landing-master, who removed to the farther point of the rock, where +he kept his eye steadily upon the progress of the vessel. While the +artificers were at work, chiefly in sitting or kneeling postures, +excavating the rock, or boring with the jumpers, and while their +numerous hammers, with the sound of the smith's anvil, continued, the +situation of things did not appear so awful. In this state of suspense, +with almost certain destruction at hand, the water began to rise upon +those who were at work on the lower parts of the sites of the beacon and +lighthouse. From the run of sea upon the rock, the forge fire was also +sooner extinguished this morning than usual, and the volumes of smoke +having ceased, objects in every direction became visible from all parts +of the rock. After having had about three hours' work, the men began, +pretty generally, to make towards their respective boats for their +jackets and stockings, when, to their astonishment, instead of three, +they found only two boats, the third being adrift with the _Smeaton_. +Not a word was uttered by any one, but all appeared to be silently +calculating their numbers, and looking to each other with evident marks +of perplexity depicted in their countenances. The landing-master, +conceiving that blame might be attached to him for allowing the boat to +leave the rock, still kept at a distance. At this critical moment the +author was standing upon an elevated part of Smith's Ledge, where he +endeavoured to mark the progress of the _Smeaton_, not a little +surprised that her crew did not cut the praam adrift, which greatly +retarded her way, and amazed that some effort was not making to bring at +least the boat, and attempt our relief. The workmen looked steadfastly +upon the writer, and turned occasionally towards the vessel, still far +to leeward.[14] All this passed in the most perfect silence, and the +melancholy solemnity of the group made an impression never to be effaced +from his mind. + +The writer had all along been considering of various schemes--providing +the men could be kept under command--which might be put in practice for +the general safety, in hopes that the _Smeaton_ might be able to pick up +the boats to leeward, when they were obliged to leave the rock. He was, +accordingly, about to address the artificers on the perilous nature of +their circumstances, and to propose that all hands should unstrip their +upper clothing when the higher parts of the rock were laid under water; +that the seamen should remove every unnecessary weight and encumbrance +from the boats; that a specified number of men should go into each boat, +and that the remainder should hang by the gunwales, while the boats were +to be rowed gently towards the _Smeaton_, as the course to the _Pharos_, +or floating light, lay rather to windward of the rock. But when he +attempted to speak his mouth was so parched that his tongue refused +utterance, and he now learned by experience that the saliva is as +necessary as the tongue itself for speech. He turned to one of the pools +on the rock and lapped a little water, which produced immediate relief. +But what was his happiness, when on rising from this unpleasant +beverage, some one called out, "A boat! a boat!" and, on looking around, +at no great distance, a large boat was seen through the haze making +towards the rock. This at once enlivened and rejoiced every heart. The +timeous visitor proved to be James Spink, the Bell Rock pilot, who had +come express from Arbroath with letters. Spink had for some time seen +the _Smeaton_, and had even supposed, from the state of the weather, +that all hands were on board of her till he approached more nearly and +observed people upon the rock; but not supposing that the assistance of +his boat was necessary to carry the artificers off the rock, he anchored +on the lee-side and began to fish, waiting, as usual, till the letters +were sent for, as the pilot-boat was too large and unwieldy for +approaching the rock when there was any roughness or run of the sea at +the entrance of the landing creeks. + +Upon this fortunate change of circumstances, sixteen of the artificers +were sent, at two trips, in one of the boats, with instructions for +Spink to proceed with them to the floating light. This being +accomplished, the remaining sixteen followed in the two boats belonging +to the service of the rock. Every one felt the most perfect happiness at +leaving the Bell Rock this morning, though a very hard and dangerous +passage to the floating light still awaited us, as the wind by this time +had increased to a pretty hard gale, accompanied with a considerable +swell of sea. Every one was as completely drenched in water as if he had +been dragged astern of the boats. The writer, in particular, being at +the helm, found, on getting on board, that his face and ears were +completely coated with a thin film of salt from the sea spray, which +broke constantly over the bows of the boat. After much baling of water +and severe work at the oars, the three boats reached the floating light, +where some new difficulties occurred in getting on board in safety, +owing partly to the exhausted state of the men, and partly to the +violent rolling of the vessel. + +As the tide flowed, it was expected that the _Smeaton_ would have got to +windward; but, seeing that all was safe, after tacking for several hours +and making little progress, she bore away for Arbroath, with the +praam-boat. As there was now too much wind for the pilot-boat to return +to Arbroath, she was made fast astern of the floating light, and the +crew remained on board till next day, when the weather moderated. There +can be very little doubt that the appearance of James Spink with his +boat on this critical occasion was the means of preventing the loss of +lives at the rock this morning. When these circumstances, some years +afterwards, came to the knowledge of the Board, a small pension was +ordered to our faithful pilot, then in his seventieth year; and he still +continues to wear the uniform clothes and badge of the Lighthouse +service. Spink is a remarkably strong man, whose _tout ensemble_ is +highly characteristic of a North-country fisherman. He usually dresses +in a _pe-jacket_, cut after a particular fashion, and wears a large, +flat, blue bonnet. A striking likeness of Spink in his pilot-dress, with +the badge or insignia on his left arm which is characteristic of the +boatmen in the service of the Northern Lights, has been taken by Howe, +and is in the writer's possession. + + Thursday, 3rd. Sept. + +The bell rung this morning at five o'clock, but the writer must +acknowledge, from the circumstances of yesterday, that its sound was +extremely unwelcome. This appears also to have been the feelings of the +artificers, for when they came to be mustered, out of twenty-six, only +eight, besides the foreman and seamen, appeared upon deck to accompany +the writer to the rock. Such are the baneful effects of anything like +misfortune or accident connected with a work of this description. The +use of argument to persuade the men to embark in cases of this kind +would have been out of place, as it is not only discomfort, or even the +risk of the loss of a limb, but life itself that becomes the question. +The boats, notwithstanding the thinness of our ranks, left the vessel at +half-past five. The rough weather of yesterday having proved but a +summer's gale, the wind came to-day in gentle breezes; yet, the +atmosphere being cloudy, it had not a very favourable appearance. The +boats reached the rock at six a.m., and the eight artificers who landed +were employed in clearing out the bat-holes for the beacon-house, and +had a very prosperous tide of four hours' work, being the longest yet +experienced by half an hour. + +The boats left the rock again at ten o'clock, and the weather having +cleared up as we drew near the vessel, the eighteen artificers who had +remained on board were observed upon deck, but as the boats approached +they sought their way below, being quite ashamed of their conduct. This +was the only instance of refusal to go to the rock which occurred during +the whole progress of the work, excepting that of the four men who +declined working upon Sunday, a case which the writer did not conceive +to be at all analogous to the present. It may here be mentioned, much to +the credit of these four men, that they stood foremost in embarking for +the rock this morning. + + Saturday, 5th Sept. + +It was fortunate that a landing was not attempted this evening, for at +eight o'clock the wind shifted to E.S.E., and at ten it had become a +hard gale, when fifty fathoms of the floating light's hempen cable were +veered out. The gale still increasing, the ship rolled and laboured +excessively, and at midnight eighty fathoms of cable were veered out; +while the sea continued to strike the vessel with a degree of force +which had not before been experienced. + + Sunday, 6th Sept. + +During the last night there was little rest on board of the _Pharos_, +and daylight, though anxiously wished for, brought no relief, as the +gale continued with unabated violence. The sea struck so hard upon the +vessel's bows that it rose in great quantities, or in "green seas," as +the sailors termed it, which were carried by the wind as far aft as the +quarter-deck, and not unfrequently over the stern of the ship +altogether. It fell occasionally so heavily on the skylight of the +writer's cabin, though so far aft as to be within five feet of the helm, +that the glass was broken to pieces before the dead-light could be got +into its place, so that the water poured down in great quantities. In +shutting out the water, the admission of light was prevented, and in the +morning all continued in the most comfortless state of darkness. About +ten o'clock a.m. the wind shifted to N.E., and blew, if possible, harder +than before, and it was accompanied by a much heavier swell of sea. In +the course of the gale, the part of the cable in the hause-hole had been +so often shifted that nearly the whole length of one of her hempen +cables, of 120 fathoms, had been veered out, besides the chain-moorings. +The cable, for its preservation, was also carefully served or wattled +with pieces of canvas round the windlass, and with leather well greased +in the hause-hole. In this state things remained during the whole day, +every sea which struck the vessel--and the seas followed each other in +close succession--causing her to shake, and all on board occasionally to +tremble. At each of these strokes of the sea the rolling and pitching of +the vessel ceased for a time, and her motion was felt as if she had +either broke adrift before the wind or were in the act of sinking; but, +when another sea came, she ranged up against it with great force, and +this became the regular intimation of our being still riding at anchor. + +About eleven o'clock, the writer with some difficulty got out of bed, +but, in attempting to dress, he was thrown twice upon the floor at the +opposite end of the cabin. In an undressed state he made shift to get +about half-way up the companion-stairs, with an intention to observe the +state of the sea and of the ship upon deck; but he no sooner looked over +the companion than a heavy sea struck the vessel, which fell on the +quarter-deck, and rushed downstairs in the officers' cabin in so +considerable a quantity that it was found necessary to lift one of the +scuttles in the floor, to let the water into the limbers of the ship, as +it dashed from side to side in such a manner as to run into the lower +tier of beds. Having been foiled in this attempt, and being completely +wetted, he again got below and went to bed. In this state of the weather +the seamen had to move about the necessary or indispensable duties of +the ship with the most cautious use both of hands and feet, while it +required all the art of the landsman to keep within the precincts of his +bed. The writer even found himself so much tossed about that it became +necessary, in some measure, to shut himself in bed, in order to avoid +being thrown upon the floor. Indeed, such was the motion of the ship +that it seemed wholly impracticable to remain in any other than a lying +posture. On deck the most stormy aspect presented itself, while below +all was wet and comfortless. + +About two o'clock p.m. a great alarm was given throughout the ship from +the effects of a very heavy sea which struck her, and almost filled the +waist, pouring down into the berths below, through every chink and +crevice of the hatches and skylights. From the motion of the vessel +being thus suddenly deadened or checked, and from the flowing in of the +water above, it is believed there was not an individual on board who did +not think, at the moment, that the vessel had foundered, and was in the +act of sinking. The writer could withstand this no longer, and as soon +as she again began to range to the sea he determined to make another +effort to get upon deck. In the first instance, however, he groped his +way in darkness from his own cabin through the berths of the officers, +where all was quietness. He next entered the galley and other +compartments occupied by the artificers. Here also all was shut up in +darkness, the fire having been drowned out in the early part of the +gale. Several of the artificers were employed in prayer, repeating +psalms and other devotional exercises in a full tone of voice; others +protesting that, if they should fortunately get once more on shore, no +one should ever see them afloat again. With the assistance of the +landing-master, the writer made his way, holding on step by step, among +the numerous impediments which lay in the way. Such was the creaking +noise of the bulkheads or partitions, the dashing of the water, and the +whistling noise of the winds, that it was hardly possible to break in +upon such a confusion of sounds. In one or two instances, anxious and +repeated inquiries were made by the artificers as to the state of things +upon deck, to which the captain made the usual answer, that it could not +blow long in this way, and that we must soon have better weather. The +next berth in succession, moving forward in the ship, was that allotted +for the seamen. Here the scene was considerably different. Having +reached the middle of this darksome berth without its inmates being +aware of any intrusion, the writer had the consolation of remarking +that, although they talked of bad weather and the cross accidents of the +sea, yet the conversation was carried on in that sort of tone and manner +which bespoke an ease and composure of mind highly creditable to them +and pleasing to him. The writer immediately accosted the seamen about +the state of the ship. To these inquiries they replied that the vessel +being light, and having but little hold of the water, no top-rigging, +with excellent ground-tackle, and everything being fresh and new, they +felt perfect confidence in their situation. + +It being impossible to open any of the hatches in the fore part of the +ship in communicating with the deck, the watch was changed by passing +through the several berths to the companion-stair leading to the +quarter-deck. The writer, therefore, made the best of his way aft, and, +on a second attempt to look out, he succeeded, and saw indeed an +astonishing sight. The sea or waves appeared to be ten or fifteen feet +in height of unbroken water, and every approaching billow seemed as if +it would overwhelm our vessel, but she continued to rise upon the waves +and to fall between the seas in a very wonderful manner. It seemed to be +only those seas which caught her in the act of rising which struck her +with so much violence and threw such quantities of water aft. On deck +there was only one solitary individual looking out, to give the alarm in +the event of the ship breaking from her moorings. The seaman on watch +continued only two hours; he who kept watch at this time was a tall, +slender man of a black complexion; he had no greatcoat nor over-all of +any kind, but was simply dressed in his ordinary jacket and trousers; +his hat was tied under his chin with a napkin, and he stood aft the +foremast, to which he had lashed himself with a gasket or small rope +round his waist, to prevent his falling upon deck or being washed +overboard. When the writer looked up, he appeared to smile, which +afforded a further symptom of the confidence of the crew in their ship. +This person on watch was as completely wetted as if he had been drawn +through the sea, which was given as a reason for his not putting on a +greatcoat, that he might wet as few of his clothes as possible, and have +a dry shift when he went below. Upon deck everything that was movable +was out of sight, having either been stowed below, previous to the gale, +or been washed overboard. Some trifling parts of the quarter boards were +damaged by the breach of the sea; and one of the boats upon deck was +about one-third full of water, the oyle-hole or drain having been +accidentally stopped up, and part of her gunwale had received +considerable injury. These observations were hastily made, and not +without occasionally shutting the companion, to avoid being wetted by +the successive seas which broke over the bows and fell upon different +parts of the deck according to the impetus with which the waves struck +the vessel. By this time it was about three o'clock in the afternoon, +and the gale, which had now continued with unabated force for +twenty-seven hours, had not the least appearance of going off. + +In the dismal prospect of undergoing another night like the last, and +being in imminent hazard of parting from our cable, the writer thought +it necessary to advise with the master and officers of the ship as to +the probable event of the vessel's drifting from her moorings. They +severally gave it as their opinion that we had now every chance of +riding out the gale, which, in all probability, could not continue with +the same fury many hours longer; and that even if she should part from +her anchor, the storm-sails had been laid to hand, and could be bent in +a very short time. They further stated that from the direction of the +wind being N.E., she would sail up the Firth of Forth to Leith Roads. +But if this should appear doubtful, after passing the Island and Light +of May, it might be advisable at once to steer for Tyningham Sands, on +the western side of Dunbar, and there run the vessel ashore. If this +should happen at the time of high-water, or during the ebbing of the +tide, they were of opinion, from the flatness and strength of the +floating light, that no danger would attend her taking the ground, even +with a very heavy sea. The writer, seeing the confidence which these +gentlemen possessed with regard to the situation of things, found +himself as much relieved with this conversation as he had previously +been with the seeming indifference of the forecastle-men, and the smile +of the watch upon deck, though literally lashed to the foremast. From +this time he felt himself almost perfectly at ease; at any rate, he was +entirely resigned to the ultimate result. + +About six o'clock in the evening the ship's company was heard moving +upon deck, which on the present occasion was rather the cause of alarm. +The writer accordingly rang his bell to know what was the matter, when +he was informed by the steward that the weather looked considerably +better, and that the men upon deck were endeavouring to ship the +smoke-funnel of the galley that the people might get some meat. This was +a more favourable account than had been anticipated. During the last +twenty-one hours he himself had not only had nothing to eat, but he had +almost never passed a thought on the subject. Upon the mention of a +change of weather, he sent the steward to learn how the artificers felt, +and on his return he stated that they now seemed to be all very happy, +since the cook had begun to light the galley-fire and make preparations +for the suet-pudding of Sunday, which was the only dish to be attempted +for the mess, from the ease with which it could both be cooked and +served up. + +The principal change felt upon the ship as the wind abated was her +increased rolling motion, but the pitching was much diminished, and now +hardly any sea came farther aft than the foremast: but she rolled so +extremely hard as frequently to dip and take in water over the gunwales +and rails in the waist. By nine o'clock all hands had been refreshed by +the exertions of the cook and steward, and were happy in the prospect of +the worst of the gale being over. The usual complement of men was also +now set on watch, and more quietness was experienced throughout the +ship. Although the previous night had been a very restless one, it had +not the effect of inducing repose in the writer's berth on the +succeeding night; for having been so much tossed about in bed during the +last thirty hours, he found no easy spot to turn to, and his body was +all sore to the touch, which ill accorded with the unyielding materials +with which his bed-place was surrounded. + + Monday, 7th Sept. + +This morning, about eight o'clock, the writer was agreeably surprised to +see the scuttle of his cabin skylight removed, and the bright rays of +the sun admitted. Although the ship continued to roll excessively, and +the sea was still running very high, yet the ordinary business on board +seemed to be going forward on deck. It was impossible to steady a +telescope, so as to look minutely at the progress of the waves and trace +their breach upon the Bell Rock; but the height to which the +cross-running waves rose in sprays when they met each other was truly +grand, and the continued roar and noise of the sea was very perceptible +to the ear. To estimate the height of the sprays at forty or fifty feet +would surely be within the mark. Those of the workmen who were not much +afflicted with sea-sickness came upon deck, and the wetness below being +dried up, the cabins were again brought into a habitable state. Every +one seemed to meet as if after a long absence, congratulating his +neighbour upon the return of good weather. Little could be said as to +the comfort of the vessel, but after riding out such a gale, no one felt +the least doubt or hesitation as to the safety and good condition of her +moorings. The master and mate were extremely anxious, however, to heave +in the hempen cable, and see the state of the clinch or iron ring of the +chain-cable. But the vessel rolled at such a rate that the seamen could +not possibly keep their feet at the windlass nor work the handspikes, +though it had been several times attempted since the gale took off. + +About twelve noon, however, the vessel's motion was observed to be +considerably less, and the sailors were enabled to walk upon deck with +some degree of freedom. But, to the astonishment of every one, it was +soon discovered that the floating light was adrift! The windlass was +instantly manned, and the men soon gave out that there was no strain +upon the cable. The mizzen sail, which was bent for the occasional +purpose of making the vessel ride more easily to the tide, was +immediately set, and the other sails were also hoisted in a short time, +when, in no small consternation, we bore away about one mile to the +south-westward of the former station, and there let go the best bower +anchor and cable in twenty fathoms water, to ride until the swell of the +sea should fall, when it might be practicable to grapple for the +moorings, and find a better anchorage for the ship. + + Tuesday, 15th Sept. + +This morning, at five a.m., the bell rung as a signal for landing upon +the rock, a sound which, after a lapse of ten days, it is believed was +welcomed by every one on board. There being a heavy breach of sea at +the eastern creek, we landed, though not without difficulty, on the +western side, every one seeming more eager than another to get upon the +rock; and never did hungry men sit down to a hearty meal with more +appetite than the artificers began to pick the dulse from the rocks. +This marine plant had the effect of reviving the sickly, and seemed to +be no less relished by those who were more hardy. + +While the water was ebbing, and the men were roaming in quest of their +favourite morsel, the writer was examining the effects of the storm upon +the forge and loose apparatus left upon the rock. Six large blocks of +granite which had been landed, by way of experiment, on the 1st instant, +were now removed from their places and, by the force of the sea, thrown +over a rising ledge into a hole at the distance of twelve or fifteen +paces from the place on which they had been landed. This was a pretty +good evidence both of the violence of the storm and the agitation of the +sea upon the rock. The safety of the smith's forge was always an object +of essential regard. The ash-pan of the hearth or fireplace, with its +weighty cast-iron back, had been washed from their places of supposed +security; the chains of attachment had been broken, and these ponderous +articles were found at a very considerable distance in a hole on the +western side of the rock; while the tools and picks of the Aberdeen +masons were scattered about in every direction. It is, however, +remarkable that not a single article was ultimately lost. + +This being the night on which the floating light was advertised to be +lighted, it was accordingly exhibited, to the great joy of every one. + + Wednesday, 16th Sept. + +The writer was made happy to-day by the return of the Lighthouse yacht +from a voyage to the Northern Lighthouses. Having immediately removed on +board of this fine vessel of eighty-one tons register, the artificers +gladly followed; for, though they found themselves more pinched for +accommodation on board of the yacht, and still more so in the _Smeaton_, +yet they greatly preferred either of these to the _Pharos_, or floating +light, on account of her rolling motion, though in all respects fitted +up for their conveniency. + +The writer called them to the quarter-deck and informed them that, +having been one month afloat, in terms of their agreement they were now +at liberty to return to the workyard at Arbroath if they preferred this +to continuing at the Bell Rock. But they replied that, in the prospect +of soon getting the beacon erected upon the rock, and having made a +change from the floating light, they were now perfectly reconciled to +their situation, and would remain afloat till the end of the working +season. + + Thursday, 17th Sept. + +The wind was at N.E. this morning, and though there were only light +airs, yet there was a pretty heavy swell coming ashore upon the rock. +The boats landed at half-past seven o'clock a.m., at the creek on the +southern side of the rock, marked Port Hamilton. But as one of the boats +was in the act of entering this creek, the seaman at the bow-oar, who +had just entered the service, having inadvertently expressed some fear +from a heavy sea which came rolling towards the boat, and one of the +artificers having at the same time looked round and missed a stroke with +his oar, such a preponderance was thus given to the rowers upon the +opposite side that when the wave struck the boat it threw her upon a +ledge of shelving rocks, where the water left her, and she having +_kanted_ to seaward, the next wave completely filled her with water. +After making considerable efforts the boat was again got afloat in the +proper track of the creek, so that we landed without any other accident +than a complete ducking. There being no possibility of getting a shift +of clothes, the artificers began with all speed to work, so as to bring +themselves into heat, while the writer and his assistants kept as much +as possible in motion. Having remained more than an hour upon the rock, +the boats left it at half-past nine; and, after getting on board, the +writer recommended to the artificers, as the best mode of getting into a +state of comfort, to strip off their wet clothes and go to bed for an +hour or two. No further inconveniency was felt, and no one seemed to +complain of the affection called "catching cold." + + Friday, 18th Sept. + +An important occurrence connected with the operations of this season was +the arrival of the _Smeaton_ at four p.m., having in tow the six +principal beams of the beacon-house, together with all the stanchions +and other work on board for fixing it on the rock. The mooring of the +floating light was a great point gained, but in the erection of the +beacon at this late period of the season new difficulties presented +themselves. The success of such an undertaking at any season was +precarious, because a single day of bad weather occurring before the +necessary fixtures could be made might sweep the whole apparatus from +the rock. Notwithstanding these difficulties, the writer had determined +to make the trial, although he could almost have wished, upon looking at +the state of the clouds and the direction of the wind, that the +apparatus for the beacon had been still in the workyard. + + Saturday, 19th Sept. + +The main beams of the beacon were made up in two separate rafts, fixed +with bars and bolts of iron. One of these rafts, not being immediately +wanted, was left astern of the floating light, and the other was kept in +tow by the _Smeaton_, at the buoy nearest to the rock. The Lighthouse +yacht rode at another buoy with all hands on board that could possibly +be spared out of the floating light. The party of artificers and seamen +which landed on the rock counted altogether forty in number. At +half-past eight o'clock a derrick, or mast of thirty feet in height, was +erected and properly supported with guy-ropes, for suspending the block +for raising the first principal beam of the beacon; and a winch machine +was also bolted down to the rock for working the purchase-tackle. + +Upon raising the derrick, all hands on the rock spontaneously gave three +hearty cheers, as a favourable omen of our future exertions in pointing +out more permanently the position of the rock. Even to this single spar +of timber, could it be preserved, a drowning man might lay hold. When +the _Smeaton_ drifted on the 2nd of this month such a spar would have +been sufficient to save us till she could have come to our relief. + + Sunday, 20th Sept. + +The wind this morning was variable, but the weather continued extremely +favourable for the operations throughout the whole day. At six a.m. the +boats were in motion, and the raft, consisting of four of the six +principal beams of the beacon-house, each measuring about sixteen inches +square, and fifty feet in length, was towed to the rock, where it was +anchored, that it might _ground_ upon it as the water ebbed. The sailors +and artificers, including all hands, to-day counted no fewer than +fifty-two, being perhaps the greatest number of persons ever collected +upon the Bell Rock. It was early in the tide when the boats reached the +rock, and the men worked a considerable time up to their middle in +water, every one being more eager than his neighbour to be useful. Even +the four artificers who had hitherto declined working on Sunday were +to-day most zealous in their exertions. They had indeed become so +convinced of the precarious nature and necessity of the work that they +never afterwards absented themselves from the rock on Sunday when a +landing was practicable. + +Having made fast a piece of very good new line, at about two-thirds from +the lower end of one of the beams, the purchase-tackle of the derrick +was hooked into the turns of the line, and it was speedily raised by the +number of men on the rock and the power of the winch tackle. When this +log was lifted to a sufficient height, its foot, or lower end, was +_stepped_ into the spot which had been previously prepared for it. Two +of the great iron stanchions were then set in their respective holes on +each side of the beam, when a rope was passed round them and the beam, +to prevent it from slipping till it could be more permanently fixed. The +derrick, or upright spar used for carrying the tackle to raise the first +beam, was placed in such a position as to become useful for supporting +the upper end of it, which now became, in its turn, the prop of the +tackle for raising the second beam. The whole difficulty of this +operation was in the raising and propping of the first beam, which +became a convenient derrick for raising the second, these again a pair +of shears for lifting the third, and the shears a triangle for raising +the fourth. Having thus got four of the six principal beams set on end, +it required a considerable degree of trouble to get their upper ends to +fit. Here they formed the apex of a cone, and were all together mortised +into a large piece of beechwood, and secured, for the present, with +ropes, in a temporary manner. During the short period of one tide all +that could further be done for their security was to put a single +screw-bolt through the great kneed bats or stanchions on each side of +the beams, and screw the nut home. + +In this manner these four principal beams were erected, and left in a +pretty secure state. The men had commenced while there was about two or +three feet of water upon the side of the beacon, and as the sea was +smooth they continued the work equally long during flood-tide. Two of +the boats being left at the rock to take off the joiners, who were +busily employed on the upper parts till two o'clock p.m., this tide's +work may be said to have continued for about seven hours, which was the +longest that had hitherto been got upon the rock by at least three +hours. + +When the first boats left the rock with the artificers employed on the +lower part of the work during the flood-tide, the beacon had quite a +novel appearance. The beams erected formed a common base of about +thirty-three feet, meeting at the top, which was about forty-five feet +above the rock, and here half a dozen of the artificers were still at +work. After clearing the rock the boats made a stop, when three hearty +cheers were given, which were returned with equal goodwill by those upon +the beacon, from the personal interest which every one felt in the +prosperity of this work, so intimately connected with his safety. + +All hands having returned to their respective ships, they got a shift of +dry clothes and some refreshment. Being Sunday, they were afterwards +convened by signal on board of the Lighthouse yacht, when prayers were +read; for every heart upon this occasion felt gladness, and every mind +was disposed to be thankful for the happy and successful termination of +the operations of this day. + + Monday, 21st Sept. + + +The remaining two principal beams were erected in the course of this +tide, which, with the assistance of those set up yesterday, was found to +be a very simple operation. + + Tuesday, 22nd Sept. + +The six principal beams of the beacon were thus secured, at least in a +temporary manner, in the course of two tides, or in the short space of +about eleven hours and a half. Such is the progress that may be made +when active hands and willing minds set properly to work in operations +of this kind. Having now got the weighty part of this work over, and +being thereby relieved of the difficulty both of landing and victualling +such a number of men, the _Smeaton_ could now be spared, and she was +accordingly despatched to Arbroath for a supply of water and provisions, +and carried with her six of the artificers who could best be spared. + + Wednesday, 23rd Sept. + +In going out of the eastern harbour, the boat which the writer steered +shipped a sea, that filled her about one-third with water. She had also +been hid for a short time, by the waves breaking upon the rock, from the +sight of the crew of the preceding boat, who were much alarmed for our +safety, imagining for a time that she had gone down. + +The _Smeaton_ returned from Arbroath this afternoon, but there was so +much sea that she could not be made fast to her moorings, and the vessel +was obliged to return to Arbroath without being able either to deliver +the provisions or take the artificers on board. The Lighthouse yacht was +also soon obliged to follow her example, as the sea was breaking heavily +over her bows. After getting two reefs in the mainsail, and the third or +storm-jib set, the wind being S.W., she bent to windward, though blowing +a hard gale, and got into St. Andrews Bay, where we passed the night +under the lee of Fifeness. + + Thursday, 24th Sept. + +At two o'clock this morning we were in St. Andrews Bay, standing off and +on shore, with strong gales of wind at S.W.; at seven we were off the +entrance of the Tay; at eight stood towards the rock, and at ten passed +to leeward of it, but could not attempt a landing. The beacon, however, +appeared to remain in good order, and by six p.m. the vessel had again +beaten up to St. Andrews Bay, and got into somewhat smoother water for +the night. + + Friday, 25th Sept. + +At seven o'clock bore away for the Bell Rock, but finding a heavy sea +running on it were unable to land. The writer, however, had the +satisfaction to observe, with his telescope, that everything about the +beacon appeared entire; and although the sea had a most frightful +appearance, yet it was the opinion of every one that, since the erection +of the beacon, the Bell Rock was divested of many of its terrors, and +had it been possible to have got the boats hoisted out and manned, it +might have even been found practicable to land. At six it blew so hard +that it was found necessary to strike the topmast and take in a third +reef of the mainsail, and under this low canvas we soon reached St. +Andrews Bay, and got again under the lee of the land for the night. The +artificers, being sea-hardy, were quite reconciled to their quarters on +board of the Lighthouse yacht; but it is believed that hardly any +consideration would have induced them again to take up their abode in +the floating light. + + Saturday, 26th Sept. + +At daylight the yacht steered towards the Bell Rock, and at eight a.m. +made fast to her moorings; at ten, all hands, to the amount of thirty, +landed, when the writer had the happiness to find that the beacon had +withstood the violence of the gale and the heavy breach of sea, +everything being found in the same state in which it had been left on +the 21st. The artificers were now enabled to work upon the rock +throughout the whole day, both at low and high water, but it required +the strictest attention to the state of the weather, in case of their +being overtaken with a gale, which might prevent the possibility of +getting them off the rock. + +Two somewhat memorable circumstances in the annals of the Bell Rock +attended the operations of this day: one was the removal of Mr. James +Dove, the foreman smith, with his apparatus, from the rock to the upper +part of the beacon, where the forge was now erected on a temporary +platform, laid on the cross beams or upper framing. The other was the +artificers having dined for the first time upon the rock, their dinner +being cooked on board of the yacht, and sent to them by one of the +boats. But what afforded the greatest happiness and relief was the +removal of the large bellows, which had all along been a source of much +trouble and perplexity, by their hampering and incommoding the boat +which carried the smiths and their apparatus. + + Saturday, 3rd Oct. + +The wind being west to-day, the weather was very favourable for +operations at the rock, and during the morning and evening tides, with +the aid of torchlight, the masons had seven hours' work upon the site of +the building. The smiths and joiners, who landed at half-past six a.m., +did not leave the rock till a quarter-past eleven p.m., having been at +work, with little intermission, for sixteen hours and three-quarters. +When the water left the rock, they were employed at the lower parts of +the beacon, and as the tide rose or fell, they shifted the place of +their operations. From these exertions, the fixing and securing of the +beacon made rapid advancement, as the men were now landed in the +morning, and remained throughout the day. But, as a sudden change of +weather might have prevented their being taken off at the proper time of +tide, a quantity of bread and water was always kept on the beacon. + +During this period of working at the beacon all the day, and often a +great part of the night, the writer was much on board of the tender; +but, while the masons could work on the rock, and frequently also while +it was covered by the tide, he remained on the beacon; especially during +the night, as he made a point of being on the rock to the latest hour, +and was generally the last person who stepped into the boat. He had laid +this down as part of his plan of procedure; and in this way had +acquired, in the course of the first season, a pretty complete knowledge +and experience of what could actually be done at the Bell Rock, under +all circumstances of the weather. By this means also his assistants, and +the artificers and mariners, got into a systematic habit of proceeding +at the commencement of the work, which, it is believed, continued +throughout the whole of the operations. + + Sunday, 4th Oct. + +The external part of the beacon was now finished, with its supports and +bracing-chains, and whatever else was considered necessary for its +stability, in so far as the season would permit; and although much was +still wanting to complete this fabric, yet it was in such a state that +it could be left without much fear of the consequences of a storm. The +painting of the upper part was nearly finished this afternoon and the +_Smeaton_ had brought off a quantity of brushwood and other articles, +for the purpose of heating or charring the lower part of the principal +beams, before being laid over with successive coats of boiling pitch, to +the height of from eight to twelve feet, or as high as the rise of +spring-tides. A small flagstaff having also been erected to-day, a flag +was displayed for the first time from the beacon, by which its +perspective effect was greatly improved. On this, as on all like +occasions at the Bell Rock, three hearty cheers were given; and the +steward served out a dram of rum to all hands, while the Lighthouse +yacht, _Smeaton_, and floating light, hoisted their colours in +compliment to the erection. + + Monday, 5th Oct. + +In the afternoon, and just as the tide's work was over, Mr. John Rennie, +engineer, accompanied by his son Mr. George, on their way to the harbour +works of Fraserburgh, in Aberdeenshire, paid a visit to the Bell Rock, +in a boat from Arbroath. It being then too late in the tide for landing, +they remained on board of the Lighthouse yacht all night, when the +writer, who had now been secluded from society for several weeks, +enjoyed much of Mr. Rennie's interesting conversation, both on general +topics, and professionally upon the progress of the Bell Rock works, on +which he was consulted as chief engineer. + + Tuesday, 6th Oct. + +The artificers landed this morning at nine, after which one of the boats +returned to the ship for the writer and Messrs. Rennie, who, upon +landing, were saluted with a display of the colours from the beacon and +by three cheers from the workmen. Everything was now in a prepared state +for leaving the rock, and giving up the works afloat for this season, +excepting some small articles, which would still occupy the smiths and +joiners for a few days longer. They accordingly shifted on board of the +_Smealon_, while the yacht left the rock for Arbroath, with Messrs. +Rennie, the writer, and the remainder of the artificers. But, before +taking leave, the steward served out a farewell glass, when three hearty +cheers were given, and an earnest wish expressed that everything, in the +spring of 1808, might be found in the same state of good order as it was +now about to be left. + + + II + + OPERATIONS OF 1808 + + Monday, 29th Feb. + +The writer sailed from Arbroath at one a.m. in the Lighthouse yacht. At +seven the floating light was hailed, and all on board found to be well. +The crew were observed to have a very healthy-like appearance, and +looked better than at the close of the works upon the rock. They seemed +only to regret one thing, which was the secession of their cook, Thomas +Elliot--not on account of his professional skill, but for his facetious +and curious manner. Elliot had something peculiar in his history, and +was reported by his comrades to have seen better days. He was, however, +happy with his situation on board of the floating light, and having a +taste for music, dancing, and acting plays, he contributed much to the +amusement of the ship's company in their dreary abode during the winter +months. He had also recommended himself to their notice as a good +shipkeeper for as it did not answer Elliot to go often ashore, he had +always given up his turn of leave to his neighbours. At his own desire +he was at length paid off, when he had a considerable balance of wages +to receive, which he said would be sufficient to carry him to the West +Indies, and he accordingly took leave of the Lighthouse service. + + Tuesday, 1st March. + +At daybreak the Lighthouse yacht, attended by a boat from the floating +light, again stood towards the Bell Rock. The weather felt extremely +cold this morning, the thermometer being at 34 degrees, with the wind at +east, accompanied by occasional showers of snow, and the marine +barometer indicated 29.80. At half-past seven the sea ran with such +force upon the rock that it seemed doubtful if a landing could be +effected. At half-past eight, when it was fairly above water, the writer +took his place in the floating light's boat with the artificers, while +the yacht's boat followed, according to the general rule of having two +boats afloat in landing expeditions of this kind, that, in case of +accident to one boat, the other might assist. In several unsuccessful +attempts the boats were beat back by the breach of the sea upon the +rock. On the eastern side it separated into two distinct waves, which +came with a sweep round to the western side, where they met; and at the +instance of their confluence the water rose in spray to a considerable +height. Watching what the sailors term a _smooth_, we caught a +favourable opportunity, and in a very dexterous manner the boats were +rowed between the two seas, and made a favourable landing at the western +creek. + +At the latter end of last season, as was formerly noticed, the beacon +was painted white, and from the bleaching of the weather and the sprays +of the sea the upper parts were kept clean; but within the range of the +tide the principal beams were observed to be thickly coated with a green +stuff, the _conferva_ of botanists. Notwithstanding the intrusion of +these works, which had formerly banished the numerous seals that played +about the rock, they were now seen in great numbers, having been in an +almost undisturbed state for six months. It had now also, for the first +time, got some inhabitants of the feathered tribe: in particular the +scarth or cormorant, and the large herring-gull, had made the beacon a +resting-place, from its vicinity to their fishing-grounds. About a dozen +of these birds had rested upon the cross-beams, which, in some places, +were coated with their dung; and their flight, as the boats approached, +was a very unlooked-for indication of life and habitation on the Bell +Rock, conveying the momentary idea of the conversion of this fatal rock, +from being a terror to the mariner, into a residence of man and a +safeguard to shipping. + +Upon narrowly examining the great iron stanchions with which the beams +were fixed to the rock, the writer had the satisfaction of finding that +there was not the least appearance of working or shifting at any of the +joints or places of connection; and, excepting the loosening of the +bracing-chains, everything was found in the same entire state in which +it had been left in the month of October. This, in the estimation of the +writer, was a matter of no small importance to the future success of the +work. He from that moment saw the practicability and propriety of +fitting up the beacon, not only as a place of refuge in case of accident +to the boats in landing, but as a residence for the artificers during +the working months. + +While upon the top of the beacon the writer was reminded by the +landing-master that the sea was running high, and that it would be +necessary to set off while the rock afforded anything like shelter to +the boats, which by this time had been made fast by a long line to the +beacon, and rode with much agitation, each requiring two men with +boat-hooks to keep them from striking each other, or from ranging up +against the beacon. But even under these circumstances the greatest +confidence was felt by every one, from the security afforded by this +temporary erection. For, supposing the wind had suddenly increased to a +gale, and that it had been found unadvisable to go into the boats; or, +supposing they had drifted or sprung a leak from striking upon the +rocks; in any of these possible and not at all improbable cases, those +who might thus have been left upon the rock had now something to lay +hold of, and, though occupying this dreary habitation of the sea-gull +and the cormorant, affording only bread and water, yet _life_ would be +preserved, and the mind would still be supported by the hope of being +ultimately relieved. + + Wednesday, 25th May. + +On the 25th of May the writer embarked at Arbroath, on board of the _Sir +Joseph Banks_, for the Bell Rock, accompanied by Mr. Logan senior, +foreman builder, with twelve masons, and two smiths, together with +thirteen seamen, including the master, mate, and steward. + + Thursday, 26th May. + +Mr. James Wilson, now commander of the _Pharos_, floating light, and +landing-master, in the room of Mr. Sinclair, who had left the service, +came into the writer's cabin this morning at six o'clock, and intimated +that there was a good appearance of landing on the rock. Everything +being arranged, both boats proceeded in company, and at eight a.m. they +reached the rock. The lighthouse colours were immediately hoisted upon +the flag-staff of the beacon, a compliment which was duly returned by +the tender and floating light, when three hearty cheers were given, and +a glass of rum was served out to all hands to drink success to the +operations of 1808. + + Friday, 27th May. + +This morning the wind was at east, blowing a fresh gale, the weather +being hazy, with a considerable breach of sea setting in upon the rock. +The morning bell was therefore rung, in some doubt as to the +practicability of making a landing. After allowing the rock to get fully +up, or to be sufficiently left by the tide, that the boats might have +some shelter from the range of the sea, they proceeded at eight a.m., +and upon the whole made a pretty good landing; and after two hours and +three-quarters' work returned to the ship in safety. + +In the afternoon the wind considerably increased, and, as a pretty heavy +sea was still running, the tender rode very hard, when Mr. Taylor, the +commander, found it necessary to take in the bowsprit, and strike the +fore and main topmasts, that she might ride more easily. After +consulting about the state of the weather, it was resolved to leave the +artificers on board this evening, and carry only the smiths to the rock, +as the sharpening of the irons was rather behind, from their being so +much broken and blunted by the hard and tough nature of the rock, which +became much more compact and hard as the depth of excavation was +increased. Besides avoiding the risk of encumbering the boats with a +number of men who had not yet got the full command of the oar in a +breach of sea, the writer had another motive for leaving them behind. He +wanted to examine the site of the building without interruption, and to +take the comparative levels of the different inequalities of its area; +and as it would have been painful to have seen men standing idle upon +the Bell Rock, where all moved with activity, it was judged better to +leave them on board. The boats landed at half-past seven p.m., and the +landing-master, with the seamen, was employed during this tide in +cutting the seaweeds from the several paths leading to the +landing-places, to render walking more safe, for, from the slippery +state of the surface of the rock, many severe tumbles had taken place. +In the meantime the writer took the necessary levels, and having +carefully examined the site of the building and considered all its +parts, it still appeared to be necessary to excavate to the average +depth of fourteen inches over the whole area of the foundation. + + Saturday, 28th May. + +The wind still continued from the eastward with a heavy swell; and +to-day it was accompanied with foggy weather and occasional showers of +rain. Notwithstanding this, such was the confidence which the erection +of the beacon had inspired that the boats landed the artificers on the +rock under very unpromising circumstances, at half-past eight, and they +continued at work till half-past eleven, being a period of three hours, +which was considered a great tide's work in the present low state of the +foundation. Three of the masons on board were so afflicted with +sea-sickness that they had not been able to take any food for almost +three days, and they were literally assisted into the boats this morning +by their companions. It was, however, not a little surprising to see how +speedily these men revived upon landing on the rock and eating a little +dulse. Two of them afterwards assisted the sailors in collecting the +chips of stone and carrying them out of the way of the pickmen; but the +third complained of a pain in his head, and was still unable to do +anything. Instead of returning to the tender with the boats, these three +men remained on the beacon all day, and had their victuals sent to them +along with the smiths'. From Mr. Dove, the foreman smith, they had much +sympathy, for he preferred remaining on the beacon at all hazards, to be +himself relieved from the malady of sea-sickness. The wind continuing +high, with a heavy sea, and the tide falling late, it was not judged +proper to land the artificers this evening, but in the twilight the +boats were sent to fetch the people on board who had been left on the +rock. + + Sunday, 29th May. + +The wind was from the S.W. to-day, and the signal-bell rung, as usual, +about an hour before the period for landing on the rock. The writer was +rather surprised, however, to hear the landing-master repeatedly call, +"All hands for the rock!" and, coming on deck, he was disappointed to +find the seamen only in the boats. Upon inquiry, it appeared that some +misunderstanding had taken place about the wages of the artificers for +Sundays. They had preferred wages for seven days statedly to the former +mode of allowing a day for each tide's work on Sunday, as they did not +like the appearance of working for double or even treble wages on +Sunday, and would rather have it understood that their work on that day +arose more from the urgency of the case than with a view to emolument. +This having been judged creditable to their religious feelings, and +readily adjusted to their wish, the boats proceeded to the rock, and the +work commenced at nine a.m. + + Monday, 30th May. + +Mr. Francis Watt commenced, with five joiners, to fit up a temporary +platform upon the beacon, about twenty-five feet above the highest part +of the rock. This platform was to be used as the site of the smith's +forge, after the beacon should be fitted up as a barrack; and here also +the mortar was to be mixed and prepared for the building, and it was +accordingly termed the Mortar Gallery. + +The landing-master's crew completed the discharging from the _Smeaton_ +of her cargo of the cast-iron rails and timber. It must not here be +omitted to notice that the _Smeaton_ took in ballast from the Bell Rock, +consisting of the shivers or chips of stone produced by the workmen in +preparing the site of the building, which were now accumulating in great +quantities on the rock. These the boats loaded, after discharging the +iron. The object in carrying off these chips, besides ballasting the +vessel, was to get them permanently out of the way, as they were apt to +shift about from place to place with every gale of wind; and it often +required a considerable time to clear the foundation a second time of +this rubbish. The circumstance of ballasting a ship at the Bell Rock +afforded great entertainment, especially to the sailors; and it was +perhaps with truth remarked that the _Smeaton_ was the first vessel that +had ever taken on board ballast at the Bell Rock. Mr. Pool, the +commander of this vessel, afterwards acquainted the writer that, when +the ballast was landed upon the quay at Leith, many persons carried away +specimens of it, as part of a cargo from the Bell Rock; when he added, +that such was the interest excited, from the number of specimens carried +away, that some of his friends suggested that he should have sent the +whole to the Cross of Edinburgh, where each piece might have sold for a +penny. + + Tuesday, 31st May. + +In the evening the boats went to the rock, and brought the joiners and +smiths, and their sickly companions, on board of the tender. These also +brought with them two baskets full of fish, which they had caught at +high-water from the beacon, reporting, at the same time, to their +comrades, that the fish were swimming in such numbers over the rock at +high-water that it was completely hid from their sight, and nothing seen +but the movement of thousands of fish. They were almost exclusively of +the species called the podlie, or young coal-fish. This discovery, made +for the first time to-day by the workmen, was considered fortunate, as +an additional circumstance likely to produce an inclination among the +artificers to take up their residence in the beacon, when it came to be +fitted up as a barrack. + + Tuesday, 7th June. + +At three o'clock in the morning the ship's bell was rung as the signal +for landing at the rock. When the landing was to be made before +breakfast, it was customary to give each of the artificers and seamen a +dram and a biscuit, and coffee was prepared by the steward for the +cabins. Exactly at four o'clock the whole party landed from three boats, +including one of those belonging to the floating light, with a part of +that ship's crew, which always attended the works in moderate weather. +The landing-master's boat, called the _Seaman_, but more commonly called +the _Lifeboat_, took the lead. The next boat, called the _Mason_, was +generally steered by the writer; while the floating light's boat, +_Pharos_, was under the management of the boatswain of that ship. + +Having now so considerable a party of workmen and sailors on the rock, +it may be proper here to notice how their labours were directed. +Preparations having been made last month for the erection of a second +forge upon the beacon, the smiths commenced their operations both upon +the lower and higher platforms. They were employed in sharpening the +picks and irons for the masons, and making bats and other apparatus of +various descriptions connected with the fitting of the railways. The +landing-master's crew were occupied in assisting the millwrights in +laying the railways to hand. Sailors, of all other descriptions of men, +are the most accommodating in the use of their hands. They worked freely +with the boring-irons, and assisted in all the operations of the +railways, acting by turns as boatmen, seamen, and artificers. We had no +such character on the Bell Rock as the common labourer. All the +operations of this department were cheerfully undertaken by the seamen, +who, both on the rock and on shipboard, were the inseparable companions +of every work connected with the erection of the Bell Rock Lighthouse. +It will naturally be supposed that about twenty-five masons, occupied +with their picks in executing and preparing the foundation of the +lighthouse, in the course of a tide of about three hours, would make a +considerable impression upon an area even of forty-two feet in diameter. +But in proportion as the foundation was deepened, the rock was found to +be much more hard and difficult to work, while the baling and pumping of +water became much more troublesome. A joiner was kept almost constantly +employed in fitting the picks to their handles, which, as well as the +points to the irons, were very frequently broken. + +The Bell Rock this morning presented by far the most busy and active +appearance it had exhibited since the erection of the principal beams of +the beacon. The surface of the rock was crowded with men, the two forges +flaming, the one above the other, upon the beacon, while the anvils +thundered with the rebounding noise of their wooden supports, and formed +a curious contrast with the occasional clamour of the surges. The wind +was westerly, and the weather being extremely agreeable, so soon after +breakfast as the tide had sufficiently overflowed the rock to float the +boats over it, the smiths, with a number of the artificers, returned to +the beacon, carrying their fishing-tackle along with them. In the course +of the forenoon, the beacon exhibited a still more extraordinary +appearance than the rock had done in the morning. The sea being smooth, +it seemed to be afloat upon the water, with a number of men supporting +themselves in all the variety of attitude and position: while, from the +upper part of this wooden house, the volumes of smoke which ascended +from the forges gave the whole a very curious and fanciful appearance. + +In the course of this tide it was observed that a heavy swell was +setting in from the eastward, and the appearance of the sky indicated a +change of weather, while the wind was shifting about. The barometer also +had fallen from 30 in. to 29.6. It was, therefore, judged prudent to +shift the vessel to the S.W. or more distant buoy. Her bowsprit was also +soon afterwards taken in, the topmasts struck, and everything made +_snug_, as seamen term it, for a gale. During the course of the night +the wind increased and shifted to the eastward, when the vessel rolled +very hard, and the sea often broke over her bows with great force. + + Wednesday, 8th June. + +Although the motion of the tender was much less than that of the +floating light--at least, in regard to the rolling motion--yet she +_sended_, or pitched, much. Being also of a very handsome build, and +what seamen term very _clean aft_, the sea often struck her counter with +such force that the writer, who possessed the aftermost cabin, being +unaccustomed to this new vessel, could not divest himself of uneasiness; +for when her stern fell into the sea, it struck with so much violence as +to be more like the resistance of a rock than the sea. The water, at +the same time, often rushed with great force up the rudder-case, and, +forcing up the valve of the water-closet, the floor of his cabin was at +times laid under water. The gale continued to increase, and the vessel +rolled and pitched in such a manner that the hawser by which the tender +was made fast to the buoy snapped, and she went adrift. In the act of +swinging round to the wind she shipped a very heavy sea, which greatly +alarmed the artificers, who imagined that we had got upon the rock; but +this, from the direction of the wind, was impossible. The writer, +however, sprung upon deck, where he found the sailors busily employed in +rigging out the bowsprit and in setting sail. From the easterly +direction of the wind, it was considered most advisable to steer for the +Firth of Forth, and there wait a change of weather. At two p.m. we +accordingly passed the Isle of May, at six anchored in Leith Roads, and +at eight the writer landed, when he came in upon his friends, who were +not a little surprised at his unexpected appearance, which gave an +instantaneous alarm for the safety of things at the Bell Rock. + + Thursday, 9th June. + +The wind still continued to blow very hard at E. by N., and the _Sir +Joseph Banks_ rode heavily, and even drifted with both anchors ahead, in +Leith Roads. The artificers did not attempt to leave the ship last +night; but there being upwards of fifty people on board, and the decks +greatly lumbered with the two large boats, they were in a very crowded +and impatient state on board. But to-day they got ashore, and amused +themselves by walking about the streets of Edinburgh, some in very +humble apparel, from having only the worst of their jackets with them, +which, though quite suitable for their work, were hardly fit for public +inspection, being not only tattered, but greatly stained with the red +colour of the rock. + + Friday, 10th June. + +To-day the wind was at S.E., with light breezes and foggy weather. At +six a.m. the writer again embarked for the Bell Rock, when the vessel +immediately sailed. At eleven p.m., there being no wind, the +kedge-anchor was _let go_ off Anstruther, one of the numerous towns on +the coast of Fife, where we waited the return of the tide. + + Saturday, 11th June. + +At six a.m. the _Sir Joseph_ got under weigh, and at eleven was again +made fast to the southern buoy at the Bell Rock. Though it was now late +in the tide, the writer, being anxious to ascertain the state of things +after the gale, landed with the artificers to the number of forty-four. +Everything was found in an entire state; but, as the tide was nearly +gone, only half an hour's work had been got when the site of the +building was overflowed. In the evening the boats again landed at nine, +and, after a good tide's work of three hours with torchlight, the work +was left off at midnight. To the distant shipping the appearance of +things under night on the Bell Rock, when the work was going forward, +must have been very remarkable, especially to those who were strangers +to the operations. Mr. John Reid, principal lightkeeper, who also acted +as master of the floating light during the working months at the rock, +described the appearance of the numerous lights situated so low in the +water, when seen at the distance of two or three miles, as putting him +in mind of Milton's description of the fiends in the lower regions, +adding, "for it seems greatly to surpass Will-o'-the-wisp, or any of +those earthly spectres of which we have so often heard." + + Monday 13th June. + +From the difficulties attending the landing on the rock, owing to the +breach of sea which had for days past been around it, the artificers +showed some backwardness at getting into the boats this morning; but +after a little explanation this was got over. It was always observable +that for some time after anything like danger had occurred at the rock, +the workmen became much more cautious, and on some occasions their +timidity was rather troublesome. It fortunately happened, however, that +along with the writer's assistants and the sailors there were also some +of the artificers themselves who felt no such scruples, and in this way +these difficulties were the more easily surmounted. In matters where +life is in danger it becomes necessary to treat even unfounded +prejudices with tenderness, as an accident, under certain circumstances, +would not only have been particularly painful to those giving +directions, but have proved highly detrimental to the work, especially +in the early stages of its advancement. + +At four o'clock fifty-eight persons landed; but the tides being +extremely languid, the water only left the higher parts of the rock, and +no work could be done at the site of the building. A third forge was, +however, put in operation during a short time, for the greater +conveniency of sharpening the picks and irons, and for purposes +connected with the preparations for fixing the railways on the rock. The +weather towards the evening became thick and foggy, and there was hardly +a breath of wind to ruffle the surface of the water. Had it not, +therefore, been for the noise from the anvils of the smiths who had been +left on the beacon throughout the day, which afforded a guide for the +boats, a landing could not have been attempted this evening, especially +with such a company of artificers. This circumstance confirmed the +writer's opinion with regard to the propriety of connecting large bells +to be rung with machinery in the lighthouse, to be tolled day and night +during the continuance of foggy weather. + + Thursday, 23rd June. + +The boats landed this evening, when the artificers had again two hours' +work. The weather still continuing very thick and foggy, more +difficulty was experienced in getting on board of the vessels to-night +than had occurred on any previous occasion, owing to a light breeze of +wind which carried the sound of the bell, and the other signals made on +board of the vessels, away from the rock. Having fortunately made out +the position of the sloop _Smeaton_ at the N.E. buoy--to which we were +much assisted by the barking of the ship's dog,--we parted with the +_Smeaton's_ boat, when the boats of the tender took a fresh departure +for that vessel, which lay about half a mile to the south-westward. Yet +such is the very deceiving state of the tides, that, although there was +a small binnacle and compass in the landing-master's boat, we had, +nevertheless, passed the _Sir Joseph_ a good way, when, fortunately, one +of the sailors catched the sound of a blowing-horn. The only firearms on +board were a pair of swivels of one-inch calibre; but it is quite +surprising how much the sound is lost in foggy weather, as the report +was heard but at a very short distance. The sound from the explosion of +gunpowder is so instantaneous that the effect of the small guns was not +so good as either the blowing of a horn or the tolling of a bell, which +afforded a more constant and steady direction for the pilot. + + Wednesday, 6th July. + +Landed on the rock with the three boats belonging to the tender at five +p.m., and began immediately to bale the water out of the foundation-pit +with a number of buckets, while the pumps were also kept in action with +relays of artificers and seamen. The work commenced upon the higher +parts of the foundation as the water left them, but it was now pretty +generally reduced to a level. About twenty men could be conveniently +employed at each pump, and it is quite astonishing in how short a time +so great a body of water could be drawn off. The water in the +foundation-pit at this time measured about two feet in depth, on an area +of forty-two feet in diameter, and yet it was drawn off in the course of +about half an hour. After this the artificers commenced with their picks +and continued at work for two hours and a half, some of the sailors +being at the same time busily employed in clearing the foundation of +chips and in conveying the irons to and from the smiths on the beacon, +where they were sharped. At eight o'clock the sea broke in upon us and +overflowed the foundation-pit, when the boats returned to the tender. + + Thursday, 7th July. + +The landing-master's bell rung this morning about four o'clock, and at +half-past five, the foundation being cleared, the work commenced on the +site of the building. But from the moment of landing, the squad of +joiners and millwrights was at work upon the higher parts of the rock in +laying the railways, while the anvils of the smith resounded on the +beacon, and such columns of smoke ascended from the forges that they +were often mistaken by strangers at a distance for a ship on fire. After +continuing three hours at work the foundation of the building was again +overflowed, and the boats returned to the ship at half-past eight +o'clock. The masons and pickmen had, at this period, a pretty long day +on board of the tender, but the smiths and joiners were kept constantly +at work upon the beacon, the stability and great conveniency of which +had now been so fully shown that no doubt remained as to the propriety +of fitting it up as a barrack. The workmen were accordingly employed, +during the period of high-water, in making preparations for this +purpose. + +The foundation-pit now assumed the appearance of a great platform, and +the late tides had been so favourable that it became apparent that the +first course, consisting of a few irregular and detached stones for +making up certain inequalities in the interior parts of the site of the +building, might be laid in the course of the present spring-tides. +Having been enabled to-day to get the dimensions of the foundation, or +first stone, accurately taken, a mould was made of its figure, when the +writer left the rock, after the tide's work of this morning, in a fast +rowing-boat for Arbroath; and, upon landing, two men were immediately +set to work upon one of the blocks from Mylnefield quarry, which was +prepared in the course of the following day, as the stone-cutters +relieved each other, and worked both night and day, so that it was sent +off in one of the stone-lighters without delay. + + Saturday, 9th July. + +The site of the foundation-stone was very difficult to work, from its +depth in the rock; but being now nearly prepared, it formed a very +agreeable kind of pastime at high-water for all hands to land the stone +itself upon the rock. The landing-master's crew and artificers +accordingly entered with great spirit into this operation. The stone was +placed upon the deck of the _Hedderwick_ praam-boat, which had just been +brought from Leith, and was decorated with colours for the occasion. +Flags were also displayed from the shipping in the offing, and upon the +beacon. Here the writer took his station with the greater part of the +artificers, who supported themselves in every possible position while +the boats towed the praam from her moorings and brought her immediately +over the site of the building, where her grappling anchors were let go. +The stone was then lifted off the deck by a tackle hooked into a Lewis +bat inserted into it, when it was gently lowered into the water and +grounded on the site of the building, amidst the cheering acclamations +of about sixty persons. + + Sunday, 10th July. + +At eleven o'clock the foundation-stone was laid to hand. It was of a +square form, containing about twenty cubic feet, and had the figures, +or date, of 1808 simply cut upon it with a chisel. A derrick, or spar of +timber, having been erected at the edge of the hole and guyed with +ropes, the stone was then hooked to the tackle and lowered into its +place, when the writer, attended by his assistants--Mr. Peter Logan, Mr. +Francis Watt, and Mr. James Wilson,--applied the square, the level, and +the mallet, and pronounced the following benediction: "May the Great +Architect of the Universe complete and bless this building," on which +three hearty cheers were given, and success to the future operations was +drunk with the greatest enthusiasm. + + Tuesday, 26th July. + +The wind being at S.E. this evening, we had a pretty heavy swell of sea +upon the rock, and some difficulty attended our getting off in safety, +as the boats got aground in the creek and were in danger of being upset. +Upon extinguishing the torch-lights, about twelve in number, the +darkness of the night seemed quite horrible; the water being also much +charged with the phosphorescent appearance which is familiar to every +one on shipboard, the waves, as they dashed upon the rock, were in some +degree like so much liquid flame. The scene, upon the whole, was truly +awful! + + Wednesday, 27th July. + +In leaving the rock this evening everything, after the torches were +extinguished, had the same dismal appearance as last night, but so +perfectly acquainted were the landing-master and his crew with the +position of things at the rock, that comparatively little inconveniency +was experienced on these occasions when the weather was moderate; such +is the effect of habit, even in the most unpleasant situations. If, for +example, it had been proposed to a person accustomed to a city life, at +once to take up his quarters off a sunken reef and land upon it in boats +at all hours of the night, the proposition must have appeared quite +impracticable and extravagant; but this practice coming progressively +upon the artificers, it was ultimately undertaken with the greatest +alacrity. Notwithstanding this, however, it must be acknowledged that it +was not till after much labour and peril, and many an anxious hour, that +the writer is enabled to state that the site of the Bell Rock Lighthouse +is fully prepared for the first entire course of the building. + + Friday, 12th Aug. + +The artificers landed this morning at half-past ten, and after an hour +and a half's work eight stones were laid, which completed the first +entire course of the building, consisting of 123 blocks, the last of +which was laid with three hearty cheers. + + Saturday, 10th Sept. + +Landed at nine a.m., and by a quarter-past twelve noon twenty-three +stones had been laid. The works being now somewhat elevated by the lower +courses, we got quit of the very serious inconvenience of pumping water +to clear the foundation-pit. This gave much facility to the operations, +and was noticed with expressions of as much happiness by the artificers +as the seamen had shown when relieved of the continual trouble of +carrying the smith's bellows off the rock prior to the erection of the +beacon. + + Wednesday, 21st Sept. + +Mr. Thomas Macurich, mate of the _Smeaton_, and James Scott, one of the +crew, a young man about eighteen years of age, immediately went into +their boat to make fast a hawser to the ring in the top of the floating +buoy of the moorings, and were forthwith to proceed to land their cargo, +so much wanted, at the rock. The tides at this period were very strong, +and the mooring-chain, when sweeping the ground, had caught hold of a +rock or piece of wreck by which the chain was so shortened that when the +tide flowed the buoy got almost under water, and little more than the +ring appeared at the surface. When Macurich and Scott were in the act of +making the hawser fast to the ring, the chain got suddenly disentangled +at the bottom, and this large buoy, measuring about seven feet in height +and three feet in diameter at the middle, tapering to both ends, being +what seamen term a _Nun-buoy_, vaulted or sprung up with such force that +it upset the boat, which instantly filled with water. Mr. Macurich, with +much exertion, succeeded in getting hold of the boat's gunwale, still +above the surface of the water, and by this means was saved; but the +young man Scott was unfortunately drowned. He had in all probability +been struck about the head by the ring of the buoy, for although +surrounded with the oars and the thwarts of the boat which floated near +him, yet he seemed entirely to want the power of availing himself of +such assistance, and appeared to be quite insensible, while Pool, the +master of the _Smeaton_. called loudly to him; and before assistance +could be got from the tender, he was carried away by the strength of the +current and disappeared. + +The young man Scott was a great favourite in the service, having had +something uncommonly mild and complaisant in his manner; and his loss +was therefore universally regretted. The circumstances of his case were +also peculiarly distressing to his mother, as her husband, who was a +seaman, had for three years past been confined to a French prison, and +the deceased was the chief support of the family. In order in some +measure to make up the loss to the poor woman for the monthly aliment +regularly allowed her by her late son, it was suggested that a younger +boy, a brother of the deceased, might be taken into the service. This +appeared to be rather a delicate proposition, but it was left to the +landing-master to arrange according to circumstances; such was the +resignation, and at the same time the spirit, of the poor woman, that +she readily accepted the proposal, and in a few days the younger Scott +was actually afloat in the place of his brother. On representing this +distressing case to the Board, the Commissioners were pleased to grant +an annuity of L5 to Scott's mother. + +The _Smeaton_, not having been made fast to the buoy, had, with the +ebb-tide, drifted to leeward a considerable way eastward of the rock, +and could not, till the return of the flood-tide, be worked up to her +moorings, so that the present tide was lost, notwithstanding all +exertions which had been made both ashore and afloat with this cargo. +The artificers landed at six a.m.; but, as no materials could be got +upon the rock this morning, they were employed in boring trenail holes +and in various other operations, and after four hours' work they +returned on board the tender. When the _Smeaton_ got up to her moorings, +the landing-master's crew immediately began to unload her. There being +too much wind for towing the praams in the usual way, they were warped +to the rock in the most laborious manner by their windlasses, with +successive grapplings and hawsers laid out for this purpose. At six p.m. +the artificers landed, and continued at work till half-past ten, when +the remaining seventeen stones were laid which completed the third +entire course, or fourth of the lighthouse, with which the building +operations were closed for the season. + + + III + + OPERATIONS OF 1809 + + Wednesday, 24th May. + +The last night was the first that the writer had passed in his old +quarters on board of the floating light for about twelve months, when +the weather was so fine and the sea so smooth that even here he felt but +little or no motion, excepting at the turn of the tide, when the vessel +gets into what the seamen term the _trough of the sea_. At six a.m. Mr. +Watt, who conducted the operations of the railways and beacon-house, had +landed with nine artificers. At half-past one p.m. Mr. Peter Logan had +also landed with fifteen masons, and immediately proceeded to set up the +crane. The sheer-crane or apparatus for lifting the stones out of the +praam-boats at the eastern creek had been already erected, and the +railways now formed about two-thirds of an entire circle round the +building: some progress had likewise been made with the reach towards +the western landing-place. The floors being laid, the beacon now assumed +the appearance of a habitation. The _Smeaton_ was at her moorings, with +the _Fernie_ praam-boat astern, for which she was laying down moorings, +and the tender being also at her station, the Bell Rock had again put +on its former busy aspect. + + Wednesday, 31st May. + +The landing-master's bell, often no very favourite sound, rung at six +this morning; but on this occasion, it is believed, it was gladly +received by all on board, as the welcome signal of the return of better +weather. The masons laid thirteen stones to-day, which the seamen had +landed, together with other building materials. During these twenty-four +hours the wind was from the south, blowing fresh breezes, accompanied +with showers of snow. In the morning the snow showers were so thick that +it was with difficulty the landing-master, who always steered the +leading boat, could make his way to the rock through the drift. But at +the Bell Rock neither snow nor rain, nor fog nor wind, retarded the +progress of the work, if unaccompanied by a heavy swell or breach of the +sea. + +The weather during the months of April and May had been uncommonly +boisterous, and so cold that the thermometer seldom exceeded 40 deg., while +the barometer was generally about 29.50. We had not only hail and sleet, +but the snow on the last day of May lay on the decks and rigging of the +ship to the depth of about three inches; and, although now entering upon +the month of June, the length of the day was the chief indication of +summer. Yet such is the effect of habit, and such was the expertness of +the landing-master's crew, that, even in this description of weather, +seldom a tide's work was lost. Such was the ardour and zeal of the heads +of the several departments at the rock, including Mr. Peter Logan, +foreman builder, Mr. Francis Watt, foreman millwright, and Captain +Wilson, landing-master, that it was on no occasion necessary to address +them, excepting in the way of precaution or restraint. Under these +circumstances, however, the writer not unfrequently felt considerable +anxiety, of which this day's experience will afford an example. + + Thursday, 1st June. + +This morning, at a quarter-past eight, the artificers were landed as +usual, and, after three hours and three-quarters' work, five stones were +laid, the greater part of this tide having been taken up in completing +the boring and trenailing of the stones formerly laid. At noon the +writer, with the seamen and artificers, proceeded to the tender, leaving +on the beacon the joiners, and several of those who were troubled with +sea-sickness--among whom was Mr. Logan, who remained with Mr. +Watt--counting altogether eleven persons. During the first and middle +parts of these twenty-four hours the wind was from the east, blowing +what the seamen term "fresh breezes"; but in the afternoon it shifted to +E.N.E., accompanied with so heavy a swell of sea that the _Smeaton_ and +tender struck their topmasts, launched in their bolt-sprits, and "made +all snug" for a gale. At four p.m. the _Smeaton_ was obliged to slip +her moorings, and passed the tender, drifting before the wind, with only +the foresail set. In passing, Mr. Pool hailed that he must run for the +Firth of Forth to prevent the vessel from "riding under." + +On board of the tender the writer's chief concern was about the eleven +men left upon the beacon. Directions were accordingly given that +everything about the vessel should be put in the best possible state, to +present as little resistance to the wind as possible, that she might +have the better chance of riding out the gale. Among these preparations +the best bower cable was bent, so as to have a second anchor in +readiness in case the mooring-hawser should give way, that every means +might be used for keeping the vessel within sight of the prisoners on +the beacon, and thereby keep them in as good spirits as possible. From +the same motive the boats were kept afloat that they might be less in +fear of the vessel leaving her station. The landing-master had, however, +repeatedly expressed his anxiety for the safety of the boats, and wished +much to have them hoisted on board. At seven p.m. one of the boats, as +he feared, was unluckily filled with sea from a wave breaking into her, +and it was with great difficulty that she could be baled out and got on +board, with the loss of her oars, rudder, and loose thwarts. Such was +the motion of the ship that in taking this boat on board her gunwale was +stove in, and she otherwise received considerable damage. Night +approached, but it was still found quite impossible to go near the rock. +Consulting, therefore, the safety of the second boat, she also was +hoisted on board of the tender. + +At this time the cabins of the beacon were only partially covered, and +had neither been provided with bedding nor a proper fireplace, while the +stock of provisions was but slender. In these uncomfortable +circumstances the people on the beacon were left for the night, nor was +the situation of those on board of the tender much better. The rolling +and pitching motion of the ship was excessive; and, excepting to those +who had been accustomed to a residence in the floating light, it seemed +quite intolerable. Nothing was heard but the hissing of the winds and +the creaking of the bulkheads or partitions of the ship; the night was, +therefore, spent in the most unpleasant reflections upon the condition +of the people on the beacon, especially in the prospect of the tender +being driven from her moorings. But, even in such a case, it afforded +some consolation that the stability of the fabric was never doubted, and +that the boats of the floating light were at no great distance, and +ready to render the people on the rock the earliest assistance which the +weather would permit. The writer's cabin being in the sternmost part of +the ship, which had what sailors term a good entry, or was sharp built, +the sea, as before noticed, struck her counter with so much violence +that the water, with a rushing noise, continually forced its way up the +rudder-case, lifted the valve of the water-closet, and overran the cabin +floor. In these circumstances daylight was eagerly looked for, and +hailed with delight, as well by those afloat as by the artificers upon +the rock. + + Friday, 2nd June. + +In the course of the night the writer held repeated conversations with +the officer on watch, who reported that the weather continued much in +the same state, and that the barometer still indicated 29.20 inches. At +six a.m. the landing-master considered the weather to have somewhat +moderated; and, from certain appearances of the sky, he was of opinion +that a change for the better would soon take place. He accordingly +proposed to attempt a landing at low-water, and either get the people +off the rock, or at least ascertain what state they were in. At nine +a.m. he left the vessel with a boat well manned, carrying with him a +supply of cooked provisions and a tea-kettle full of mulled port wine +for the people on the beacon, who had not had any regular diet for about +thirty hours, while they were exposed during that period, in a great +measure, both to the winds and the sprays of the sea. The boat having +succeeded in landing, she returned at eleven a.m. with the artificers, +who had got off with considerable difficulty, and who were heartily +welcomed by all on board. + +Upon inquiry it appeared that three of the stones last laid upon the +building had been partially lifted from their beds by the force of the +sea, and were now held only by the trenails, and that the cast-iron +sheer-crane had again been thrown down and completely broken. With +regard to the beacon, the sea at high-water had lifted part of the +mortar gallery or lowest floor, and washed away all the lime-casks and +other movable articles from it; but the principal parts of this fabric +had sustained no damage. On pressing Messrs. Logan and Watt on the +situation of things in the course of the night, Mr. Logan emphatically +said; "That the beacon had an _ill-faured[15] twist_ when the sea broke +upon it at high-water, but that they were not very apprehensive of +danger." On inquiring as to how they spent the night, it appeared that +they had made shift to keep a small fire burning, and by means of some +old sails defended themselves pretty well from the sea sprays. + +It was particularly mentioned that by the exertions of James Glen, one +of the joiners, a number of articles were saved from being washed off +the mortar gallery. Glen was also very useful in keeping up the spirits +of the forlorn party. In the early part of life he had undergone many +curious adventures at sea, which he now recounted somewhat after the +manner of the tales of the "Arabian Nights." When one observed that the +beacon was a most comfortless lodging, Glen would presently introduce +some of his exploits and hardships, in comparison with which the state +of things at the beacon bore an aspect of comfort and happiness. Looking +to their slender stock of provisions, and their perilous and uncertain +chance of speedy relief, he would launch out into an account of one of +his expeditions in the North Sea, when the vessel, being much disabled +in a storm, was driven before the wind with the loss of almost all their +provisions; and the ship being much infested with rats, the crew hunted +these vermin with great eagerness to help their scanty allowance. By +such means Glen had the address to make his companions, in some measure, +satisfied, or at least passive, with regard to their miserable prospects +upon this half-tide rock in the middle of the ocean. This incident is +noticed, more particularly, to show the effects of such a happy turn of +mind, even under the most distressing and ill-fated circumstances. + + Saturday, 17th June. + +At eight a.m. the artificers and sailors, forty-five in number, landed +on the rock, and after four hours' work seven stones were laid. The +remainder of this tide, from the threatening appearance of the weather, +was occupied in trenailing and making all things as secure as possible. +At twelve noon the rock and building were again overflowed, when the +masons and seamen went on board of the tender, but Mr. Watt, with his +squad of ten men, remained on the beacon throughout the day. As it blew +fresh from the N.W. in the evening, it was found impracticable either to +land the building artificers or to take the artificers off the beacon, +and they were accordingly left there all night, but in circumstances +very different from those of the 1st of this month. The house, being now +in a more complete state, was provided with bedding, and they spent the +night pretty well, though they complained of having been much disturbed +at the time of high-water by the shaking and tremulous motion of their +house and by the plashing noise of the sea upon the mortar gallery. Here +James Glen's versatile powers were again at work in cheering up those +who seemed to be alarmed, and in securing everything as far as possible. +On this occasion he had only to recall to the recollections of some of +them the former night which they had spent on the beacon, the wind and +sea being then much higher, and their habitation in a far less +comfortable state. + +The wind still continuing to blow fresh from the N.W., at five p.m. the +writer caused a signal to be made from the tender for the _Smeaton_ and +_Patriot_ to slip their moorings, when they ran for Lunan Bay, an +anchorage on the east side of the Redhead. Those on board of the tender +spent but a very rough night, and perhaps slept less soundly than their +companions on the beacon, especially as the wind was at N.W., which +caused the vessel to ride with her stern towards the Bell Rock; so that, +in the event of anything giving way, she could hardly have escaped being +stranded upon it. + + Sunday, 18th June. + +The weather having moderated to-day, the wind shifted to the westward. +At a quarter-past nine a.m. the artificers landed from the tender and +had the pleasure to find their friends who had been left on the rock +quite hearty, alleging that the beacon was the preferable quarters of +the two. + + Saturday, 24th June. + +Mr. Peter Logan, the foreman builder, and his squad, twenty-one in +number, landed this morning at three o'clock, and continued at work four +hours and a quarter, and after laying seventeen stones returned to the +tender. At six a.m. Mr. Francis Watt and his squad of twelve men landed, +and proceeded with their respective operations at the beacon and +railways, and were left on the rock during the whole day without the +necessity of having any communication with the tender, the kitchen of +the beacon-house being now fitted up. It was to-day, also, that Peter +Fortune--a most obliging and well-known character in the Lighthouse +service--was removed from the tender to the beacon as cook and steward, +with a stock of provisions as ample as his limited storeroom would +admit. + +When as many stones were built as comprised this day's work, the demand +for mortar was proportionally increased, and the task of the +mortar-makers on these occasions was both laborious and severe. This +operation was chiefly performed by John Watt--a strong, active quarrier +by profession,--who was a perfect character in his way, and extremely +zealous in his department. While the operations of the mortar-makers +continued, the forge upon their gallery was not generally in use; but, +as the working hours of the builders extended with the height of the +building, the forge could not be so long wanted, and then a sad +confusion often ensued upon the circumscribed floor of the mortar +gallery, as the operations of Watt and his assistants trenched greatly +upon those of the smiths. Under these circumstances the boundary of the +smiths was much circumscribed, and they were personally annoyed, +especially in blowy weather, with the dust of the lime in its powdered +state. The mortar-makers, on the other hand, were often not a little +distressed with the heat of the fire and the sparks elicited on the +anvil, and not unaptly complained that they were placed between "the +devil and the deep sea." + + Sunday, 25th June. + +The work being now about ten feet in height, admitted of a rope-ladder +being distended[16] between the beacon and the building. By this +"Jacob's Ladder," as the seamen termed it, a communication was kept up +with the beacon while the rock was considerably under water. One end of +it being furnished with tackle-blocks, was fixed to the beams of the +beacon, at the level of the mortar gallery, while the further end was +connected with the upper course of the building by means of two Lewis +bats which were lifted from course to course as the work advanced. In +the same manner a rope furnished with a travelling pulley was distended +for the purpose of transporting the mortar-buckets, and other light +articles between the beacon and the building, which also proved a great +conveniency to the work. At this period the rope-ladder and tackle for +the mortar had a descent from the beacon to the building; by and by they +were on a level, and towards the end of the season, when the solid part +had attained its full height, the ascent was from the mortar gallery to +the building. + + Friday, 30th June. + +The artificers landed on the rock this morning at a quarter-past six, +and remained at work five hours. The cooking apparatus being now in full +operation, all hands had breakfast on the beacon at the usual hour, and +remained there throughout the day. The crane upon the building had to be +raised to-day from the eighth to the ninth course, an operation which +now required all the strength that could be mustered for working the +guy-tackles; for as the top of the crane was at this time about +thirty-five feet above the rock, it became much more unmanageable. While +the beam was in the act of swinging round from one guy to another, a +great strain was suddenly brought upon the opposite tackle, with the end +of which the artificers had very improperly neglected to take a turn +round some stationary object, which would have given them the complete +command of the tackle. Owing to this simple omission, the crane got a +preponderancy to one side, and fell upon the building with a terrible +crash. The surrounding artificers immediately flew in every direction to +get out of its way; but Michael Wishart, the principal builder, having +unluckily stumbled upon one of the uncut trenails, fell upon his back. +His body fortunately got between the movable beam and the upright shaft +of the crane, and was thus saved; but his feet got entangled with the +wheels of the crane and were severely injured. Wishart, being a robust +young man, endured his misfortune with wonderful firmness; he was laid +upon one of the narrow framed beds of the beacon and despatched in a +boat to the tender, where the writer was when this accident happened, +not a little alarmed on missing the crane from the top of the building, +and at the same time seeing a boat rowing towards the vessel with great +speed. When the boat came alongside with poor Wishart, stretched upon a +bed covered with blankets, a moment of great anxiety followed, which +was, however, much relieved when, on stepping into the boat, he was +accosted by Wishart, though in a feeble voice, and with an aspect pale +as death from excessive bleeding. Directions having been immediately +given to the coxswain to apply to Mr. Kennedy at the workyard to procure +the best surgical aid, the boat was sent off without delay to Arbroath. +The writer then landed at the rock, when the crane was in a very short +time got into its place and again put in a working state. + + Monday, 3rd July. + +The writer having come to Arbroath with the yacht, had an opportunity of +visiting Michael Wishart, the artificer who had met with so severe an +accident at the rock on the 30th ult., and had the pleasure to find him +in a state of recovery. From Dr. Stevenson's account, under whose charge +he had been placed, hopes were entertained that amputation would not be +necessary, as his patient still kept free of fever or any appearance of +mortification; and Wishart expressed a hope that he might, at least, be +ultimately capable of keeping the light at the Bell Rock, as it was not +now likely that he would assist further in building the house. + + Saturday, 8th July. + +It was remarked to-day, with no small demonstration of joy, that the +tide, being neap, did not, for the first time, overflow the building at +high-water. Flags were accordingly hoisted on the beacon-house and crane +on the top of the building, which were repeated from the floating light, +Lighthouse yacht, tender, _Smeaton, Patriot_, and the two praams. A +salute of three guns was also fired from the yacht at high-water, when, +all the artificers being collected on the top of the building, three +cheers were given in testimony of this important circumstance. A glass +of rum was then served out to all hands on the rock and on board of the +respective ships. + + Sunday, 16th July. + +Besides laying, boring, trenailing, wedging, and grouting thirty-two +stones, several other operations were proceeded with on the rock at +low-water, when some of the artificers were employed at the railways and +at high-water at the beacon-house. The seamen having prepared a quantity +of tarpaulin or cloth laid over with successive coats of hot tar, the +joiners had just completed the covering of the roof with it. This sort +of covering was lighter and more easily managed than sheet-lead in such +a situation. As a further defence against the weather the whole exterior +of this temporary residence was painted with three coats of white-lead +paint. Between the timber framing of the habitable part of the beacon +the interstices were to be stuffed with moss as a light substance that +would resist dampness and check sifting winds; the whole interior was +then to be lined with green baize cloth, so that both without and within +the cabins were to have a very comfortable appearance. + +Although the building artificers generally remained on the rock +throughout the day, and the millwrights, joiners, and smiths, while +their number was considerable, remained also during the night, yet the +tender had hitherto been considered as their night quarters. But the +wind having in the course of the day shifted to the N.W., and as the +passage to the tender, in the boats, was likely to be attended with +difficulty, the whole of the artificers, with Mr. Logan, the foreman, +preferred remaining all night on the beacon, which had of late become +the solitary abode of George Forsyth, a jobbing upholsterer, who had +been employed in lining the beacon-house with cloth and in fitting up +the bedding. Forsyth was a tall, thin, and rather loose-made man, who +had an utter aversion at climbing upon the trap-ladders of the beacon, +but especially at the process of boating, and the motion of the ship, +which he said "was death itself." He therefore pertinaciously insisted +with the landing-master in being left upon the beacon, with a small +black dog as his only companion. The writer, however, felt some delicacy +in leaving a single individual upon the rock, who must have been so very +helpless in case of accident. This fabric had, from the beginning, been +rather intended by the writer to guard against accident from the loss or +damage of a boat, and as a place for making mortar, a smith's shop, and +a store for tools during the working months, than as permanent quarters; +nor was it at all meant to be possessed until the joiner-work was +completely finished, and his own cabin, and that for the foreman, in +readiness, when it was still to be left to the choice of the artificers +to occupy the tender or the beacon. He, however, considered Forsyth's +partiality and confidence in the latter as rather a fortunate +occurrence. + + Wednesday, 19th July. + +The whole of the artificers, twenty-three in number, now removed of +their own accord from the tender, to lodge in the beacon, together with +Peter Fortune, a person singularly adapted for a residence of this kind, +both from the urbanity of his manners and the versatility of his +talents. Fortune, in his person, was of small stature, and rather +corpulent. Besides being a good Scots cook, he had acted both as groom +and house-servant; he had been a soldier, a sutler, a writer's clerk, +and an apothecary, from which he possessed the art of writing and +suggesting recipes, and had hence, also, perhaps, acquired a turn for +making collections in natural history. But in his practice in surgery on +the Bell Rock, for which he received an annual fee of three guineas, he +is supposed to have been rather partial to the use of the lancet. In +short, Peter was the _factotum_ of the beacon-house, where he ostensibly +acted in the several capacities of cook, steward, surgeon, and barber, +and kept a statement of the rations or expenditure of the provisions +with the strictest integrity. + +In the present important state of the building, when it had just +attained the height of sixteen feet, and the upper courses, and +especially the imperfect one, were in the wash of the heaviest seas, an +express boat arrived at the rock with a letter from Mr. Kennedy, of the +workyard, stating that in consequence of the intended expedition to +Walcheren, an embargo had been laid on shipping at all the ports of +Great Britain: that both the _Smeaton_ and _Patriot_ were detained at +Arbroath, and that but for the proper view which Mr. Ramsey, the port +officer, had taken of his orders, neither the express boat nor one which +had been sent with provisions and necessaries for the floating light +would have been permitted to leave the harbour. The writer set off +without delay for Arbroath, and on landing used every possible means +with the official people, but their orders were deemed so peremptory +that even boats were not permitted to sail from any port upon the coast. +In the meantime, the collector of the Customs at Montrose applied to the +Board at Edinburgh, but could, of himself, grant no relief to the Bell +Rock shipping. + +At this critical period Mr. Adam Duff, then Sheriff of Forfarshire, now +of the county of Edinburgh, and _ex officio_ one of the Commissioners of +the Northern Lighthouses, happened to be at Arbroath. Mr. Duff took an +immediate interest in representing the circumstances of the case to the +Board of Customs at Edinburgh. But such were the doubts entertained on +the subject that, on having previously received the appeal from the +collector at Montrose, the case had been submitted to the consideration +of the Lords of the Treasury, whose decision was now waited for. + +In this state of things the writer felt particularly desirous to get the +thirteenth course finished, that the building might be in a more secure +state in the event of bad weather. An opportunity was therefore embraced +on the 25th, in sailing with provisions for the floating light, to carry +the necessary stones to the rock for this purpose, which were landed and +built on the 26th and 27th. But so closely was the watch kept up that a +Custom-house officer was always placed on board of the _Smeaton_ and +_Patriot_ while they were afloat, till the embargo was especially +removed from the lighthouse vessels. The artificers at the Bell Rock had +been reduced to fifteen, who were regularly supplied with provisions, +along with the crew of the floating light, mainly through the port +officer's liberal interpretation of his orders. + + Tuesday, 1st Aug. + +There being a considerable swell and breach of sea upon the rock +yesterday, the stones could not be got landed till the day following, +when the wind shifted to the southward and the weather improved. But +to-day no less than seventy-eight blocks of stone were landed, of which +forty were built, which completed the fourteenth and part of the +fifteenth courses. The number of workmen now resident in the +beacon-house were augmented to twenty-four, including the +landing-master's crew from the tender and the boat's crew from the +floating light, who assisted at landing the stones. Those daily at work +upon the rock at this period amounted to forty-six. A cabin had been +laid out for the writer on the beacon, but his apartment had been the +last which was finished, and he had not yet taken possession of it; for +though he generally spent the greater part of the day, at this time, +upon the rock, yet he always slept on board of the tender. + + Friday, 11th Aug. + +The wind was at S.E. on the 11th, and there was so very heavy a swell of +sea upon the rock that no boat could approach it. + + Saturday, 12th Aug. + +The gale still continuing from the S.E., the sea broke with great +violence both upon the building and the beacon. The former being +twenty-three feet in height, the upper part of the crane erected on it +having been lifted from course to course as the building advanced, was +now about thirty-six feet above the rock. From observations made on the +rise of the sea by this crane, the artificers were enabled to estimate +its height to be about fifty feet above the rock, while the sprays fell +with a most alarming noise upon their cabins. At low-water, in the +evening, a signal was made from the beacon, at the earnest desire of +some of the artificers, for the boats to come to the rock; and although +this could not be effected without considerable hazard, it was, however, +accomplished, when twelve of their number, being much afraid, applied to +the foreman to be relieved, and went on board of the tender. But the +remaining fourteen continued on the rock, with Mr. Peter Logan, the +foreman builder. Although this rule of allowing an option to every man +either to remain on the rock or return to the tender was strictly +adhered to, yet, as it would have been extremely inconvenient to have +had the men parcelled out in this manner, it became necessary to embrace +the first opportunity of sending those who had left the beacon to the +workyard, with as little appearance of intention as possible, lest it +should hurt their feelings, or prevent others from acting according to +their wishes, either in landing on the rock or remaining on the beacon. + + Tuesday, 15th Aug. + +The wind had fortunately shifted to the S.W. this morning, and though a +considerable breach was still upon the rock, yet the landing-master's +crew were enabled to get one praam-boat, lightly loaded with five +stones, brought in safety to the western creek; these stones were +immediately laid by the artificers, who gladly embraced the return of +good weather to proceed with their operations. The writer had this day +taken possession of his cabin in the beacon-house. It was small, but +commodious, and was found particularly convenient in coarse and blowing +weather, instead of being obliged to make a passage to the tender in an +open boat at all times, both during the day and the night, which was +often attended with much difficulty and danger. + + Saturday, 19th Aug. + +For some days past the weather had been occasionally so thick and foggy +that no small difficulty was experienced in going even between the rock +and the tender, though quite at hand. But the floating light's boat lost +her way so far in returning on board that the first land she made, after +rowing all night, was Fifeness, a distance of about fourteen miles. The +weather having cleared in the morning, the crew stood off again for the +floating light, and got on board in a half-famished and much exhausted +state, having been constantly rowing for about sixteen hours. + + Sunday, 20th Aug. + +The weather being very favourable to-day, fifty-three stones were +landed, and the builders were not a little gratified in having built the +twenty-second course, consisting of fifty-one stones, being the first +course which had been completed in one day. This, as a matter of course, +produced three hearty cheers. At twelve noon prayers were read for the +first time on the Bell Rock; those present, counting thirty, were +crowded into the upper apartment of the beacon, where the writer took a +central position, while two of the artificers, joining hands, supported +the Bible. + + Friday, 25th Aug. + +To-day the artificers laid forty-five stones, which completed the +twenty-fourth course, reckoning above the first entire one, and the +twenty-sixth above the rock. This finished the solid part of the +building, and terminated the height of the outward casing of granite, +which is thirty-one feet six inches above the rock or site of the +foundation-stone, and about seventeen feet above high water of +spring-tides. Being a particular crisis in the progress of the +lighthouse, the landing and laying of the last stone for the season was +observed with the usual ceremonies. + +From observations often made by the writer, in so far as such can be +ascertained, it appears that no wave in the open seas, in an unbroken +state, rises more than from seven to nine feet above the general surface +of the ocean. The Bell Rock Lighthouse may therefore now be considered +at from eight to ten feet above the height of the waves; and, although +the sprays and heavy seas have often been observed, in the present +state of the building, to rise to the height of fifty feet, and fall +with a tremendous noise on the beacon-house, yet such seas were not +likely to make any impression on a mass of solid masonry, containing +about 1400 tons. + + Wednesday, 30th Aug. + +The whole of the artificers left the rock at mid-day, when the tender +made sail for Arbroath, which she reached about six p.m. The vessel +being decorated with colours, and having fired a salute of three guns on +approaching the harbour, the workyard artificers, with a multitude of +people, assembled at the harbour, when mutual cheering and +congratulations took place between those afloat and those on the quays. +The tender had now, with little exception, been six months on the +station at the Bell Rock, and during the last four months few of the +squad of builders had been ashore. In particular, Mr. Peter Logan, the +foreman, and Mr. Robert Selkirk, principal builder, had never once left +the rock. The artificers, having made good wages during their stay, like +seamen upon a return voyage, were extremely happy, and spent the evening +with much innocent mirth and jollity. + +In reflecting upon the state of the matters at the Bell Rock during the +working months, when the writer was much with the artificers, nothing +can equal the happy manner in which these excellent workmen spent their +time. They always went from Arbroath to their arduous task cheering, and +they generally returned in the same hearty state. While at the rock, +between the tides, they amused themselves in reading, fishing, music, +playing cards, draughts, etc., or in sporting with one another. In the +workyard at Arbroath the young men were almost, without exception, +employed in the evening at school, in writing and arithmetic, and not a +few were learning architectural drawing, for which they had every +convenience and facility, and were, in a very obliging manner, assisted +in their studies by Mr. David Logan, clerk of the works. It therefore +affords the most pleasing reflections to look back upon the pursuits of +about sixty individuals who for years conducted themselves, on all +occasions, in a sober and rational manner. + + + IV + + OPERATIONS OF 1810 + + Thursday, 10th May. + +The wind had shifted to-day to W.N.W., when the writer, with +considerable difficulty, was enabled to land upon the rock for the first +time this season, at ten a.m. Upon examining the state of the building, +and apparatus in general, he had the satisfaction to find everything in +good order. The mortar in all the joints was perfectly entire. The +building, now thirty feet in height, was thickly coated with _fuci_ to +the height of about fifteen feet, calculating from the rock; on the +eastern side, indeed, the growth of seaweed was observable to the full +height of thirty feet, and even on the top or upper bed of the last-laid +course, especially towards the eastern side, it had germinated, so as to +render walking upon it somewhat difficult. + +The beacon-house was in a perfectly sound state, and apparently just as +it had been left in the month of November. But the tides being neap, the +lower parts, particularly where the beams rested on the rock, could not +now be seen. The floor of the mortar gallery having been already laid +down by Mr. Watt and his men on a former visit, was merely soaked with +the sprays; but the joisting-beams which supported it had, in the course +of the winter, been covered with a fine downy conferva produced by the +range of the sea. They were also a good deal whitened with the mute of +the cormorant and other sea-fowls, which had roosted upon the beacon in +winter. Upon ascending to the apartments, it was found that the motion +of the sea had thrown open the door of the cook-house: this was only +shut with a single latch, that in case of shipwreck at the Bell Rock the +mariner might find ready access to the shelter of this forlorn +habitation, where a supply of provisions was kept; and being within two +miles and a half of the floating light, a signal could readily be +observed, when a boat might be sent to his relief as soon as the weather +permitted. An arrangement for this purpose formed one of the +instructions on board of the floating light, but happily no instance +occurred for putting it in practice. The hearth or fireplace of the +cook-house was built of brick in as secure a manner as possible to +prevent accident from fire; but some of the plaster-work had shaken +loose, from its damp state and the tremulous motion of the beacon in +stormy weather. The writer next ascended to the floor which was occupied +by the cabins of himself and his assistants, which were in tolerably +good order, having only a damp and musty smell. The barrack for the +artificers, over all, was next visited; it had now a very dreary and +deserted appearance when its former thronged state was recollected. In +some parts the water had come through the boarding, and had discoloured +the lining of green cloth, but it was, nevertheless, in a good habitable +condition. While the seamen were employed in landing a stock of +provisions, a few of the artificers set to work with great eagerness to +sweep and clean the several apartments. The exterior of the beacon was, +in the meantime, examined, and found in perfect order. The painting, +though it had a somewhat blanched appearance, adhered firmly both on the +sides and roof, and only two or three panes of glass were broken in the +cupola, which had either been blown out by the force of the wind or +perhaps broken by sea-fowl. + +Having on this occasion continued upon the building and beacon a +considerable time after the tide had begun to flow, the artificers were +occupied in removing the forge from the top of the building, to which +the gangway or wooden bridge gave great facility; and, although it +stretched or had a span of forty-two feet, its construction was +extremely simple, while the roadway was perfectly firm and steady. In +returning from this visit to the rock every one was pretty well soused +in spray before reaching the tender at two o'clock p.m., where things +awaited the landing party in as comfortable a way as such a situation +would admit. + + Friday, 11th May. + +The wind was still easterly, accompanied with rather a heavy swell of +sea for the operations in hand. A landing was, however, made this +morning, when the artificers were immediately employed in scraping the +seaweed off the upper course of the building, in order to apply the +moulds of the first course of the staircase, that the joggle-holes might +be marked off in the upper course of the solid. This was also necessary +previously to the writer's fixing the position of the entrance door, +which was regulated chiefly by the appearance of the growth of the +seaweed on the building, indicating the direction of the heaviest seas, +on the opposite side of which the door was placed. The landing-master's +crew succeeded in towing into the creek on the western side of the rock +the praam-boat with the balance-crane, which had now been on board of +the praam for five days. The several pieces of this machine, having been +conveyed along the railways upon the waggons to a position immediately +under the bridge, were elevated to its level, or thirty feet above the +rock, in the following manner. A chain-tackle was suspended over a +pulley from the cross-beam connecting the tops of the kingposts of the +bridge, which was worked by a winch-machine with wheel, pinion, and +barrel, round which last the chain was wound. This apparatus was placed +on the beacon side of the bridge, at the distance of about twelve feet +from the cross-beam and pulley in the middle of the bridge. Immediately +under the cross-beam a hatch was formed in the roadway of the bridge, +measuring seven feet in length and five feet in breadth, made to shut +with folding boards like a double door, through which stones and other +articles were raised; the folding doors were then let down, and the +stone or load was gently lowered upon a waggon which was wheeled on +railway trucks towards the lighthouse. In this manner the several +castings of the balance-crane were got up to the top of the solid of the +building. + +The several apartments of the beacon-house having been cleaned out and +supplied with bedding, a sufficient stock of provisions was put into the +store, when Peter Fortune, formerly noticed, lighted his fire in the +beacon for the first time this season. Sixteen artificers at the same +time mounted to their barrack-room, and all the foremen of the works +also took possession of their cabin, all heartily rejoiced at getting +rid of the trouble of boating and the sickly motion of the tender. + + Saturday, 12th May. + +The wind was at E.N.E., blowing so fresh, and accompanied with so much +sea, that no stones could be landed to-day. The people on the rock, +however, were busily employed in screwing together the balance-crane, +cutting out the joggle-holes in the upper course, and preparing all +things for commencing the building operations. + + Sunday, 13th May. + +The weather still continues boisterous, although the barometer has all +the while stood at about 30 inches. Towards evening the wind blew so +fresh at E. by S. that the boats both of the _Smeaton_ and tender were +obliged to be hoisted in, and it was feared that the _Smeaton_ would +have to slip her moorings. The people on the rock were seen busily +employed, and had the balance-crane apparently ready for use, but no +communication could be had with them to-day. + + Monday, 14th May. + +The wind continued to blow so fresh, and the _Smeaton_ rode so heavily +with her cargo, that at noon a signal was made for her getting under +weigh, when she stood towards Arbroath; and on board of the tender we +are still without any communication with the people on the rock, where +the sea was seen breaking over the top of the building in great sprays, +and raging with much agitation among the beams of the beacon. + + Thursday, 17th May. + +The wind, in the course of the day, had shifted from north to west; the +sea being also considerably less, a boat landed on the rock at six p.m., +for the first time since the 11th, with the provisions and water brought +off by the _Patriot_. The inhabitants of the beacon were all well, but +tired above measure for want of employment, as the balance-crane and +apparatus was all in readiness. Under these circumstances they felt no +less desirous of the return of good weather than those afloat, who were +continually tossed with the agitation of the sea. The writer, in +particular, felt himself almost as much fatigued and worn-out as he had +been at any period since the commencement of the work. The very backward +state of the weather at so advanced a period of the season unavoidably +created some alarm, lest he should be overtaken with bad weather at a +late period of the season, with the building operations in an unfinished +state. These apprehensions were, no doubt, rather increased by the +inconveniences of his situation afloat, as the tender rolled and pitched +excessively at times. This being also his first off-set for the season, +every bone of his body felt sore with preserving a sitting posture while +he endeavoured to pass away the time in reading; as for writing, it was +wholly impracticable. He had several times entertained thoughts of +leaving the station for a few days and going into Arbroath with the +tender till the weather should improve; but as the artificers had been +landed on the rock he was averse to this at the commencement of the +season, knowing also that he would be equally uneasy in every situation +till the first cargo was landed: and he therefore resolved to continue +at his post until this should be effected. + + Friday, 18th May. + +The wind being now N.W., the sea was considerably run down, and this +morning at five o'clock the landing-master's crew, thirteen in number, +left the tender; and having now no detention with the landing of +artificers, they proceeded to unmoor the _Hedderwick_ praam-boat, and +towed her alongside of the _Smeaton_: and in the course of the day +twenty-three blocks of stone, three casks of pozzolano, three of sand, +three of lime, and one of Roman cement, together with three bundles of +trenails and three of wedges, were all landed on the rock and raised to +the top of the building by means of the tackle suspended from the +cross-beam on the middle of the bridge. The stones were then moved along +the bridge on the waggon to the building within reach of the +balance-crane, with which they were laid in their respective places on +the building. The masons immediately thereafter proceeded to bore the +trenail-holes into the course below, and otherwise to complete the one +in hand. When the first stone was to be suspended by the balance-crane, +the bell on the beacon was rung, and all the artificers and seamen were +collected on the building. Three hearty cheers were given while it was +lowered into its place, and the steward served round a glass of rum, +when success was drunk to the further progress of the building. + + Sunday, 20th May. + +The wind was southerly to-day, but there was much less sea than +yesterday, and the landing-master's crew were enabled to discharge and +land twenty-three pieces of stone and other articles for the work. The +artificers had completed the laying of the twenty-seventh or first +course of the staircase this morning, and in the evening they finished +the boring, trenailing, wedging, and grouting it with mortar. At twelve +o'clock noon the beacon-house bell was rung, and all hands were +collected on the top of the building, where prayers were read for the +first time on the lighthouse, which forcibly struck every one, and had, +upon the whole, a very impressive effect. + +From the hazardous situation of the beacon-house with regard to fire, +being composed wholly of timber, there was no small risk from accident: +and on this account one of the most steady of the artificers was +appointed to see that the fire of the cooking-house, and the lights in +general, were carefully extinguished at stated hours. + + Monday, 4th June. + +This being the birthday of our much-revered Sovereign King George III, +now in the fiftieth year of his reign, the shipping of the Lighthouse +service were this morning decorated with colours according to the taste +of their respective captains. Flags were also hoisted upon the +beacon-house and balance-crane on the top of the building. At twelve +noon a salute was fired from the tender, when the King's health was +drunk, with all the honours, both on the rock and on board of the +shipping. + + Tuesday, 5th June. + +As the lighthouse advanced in height, the cubical contents of the stones +were less, but they had to be raised to a greater height; and the walls, +being thinner, were less commodious for the necessary machinery and the +artificers employed, which considerably retarded the work. Inconvenience +was also occasionally experienced from the men dropping their coats, +hats, mallets, and other tools, at high-water, which were carried away +by the tide; and the danger to the people themselves was now greatly +increased. Had any of them fallen from the beacon or building at +high-water, while the landing-master's crew were generally engaged with +the craft at a distance, it must have rendered the accident doubly +painful to those on the rock, who at this time had no boat, and +consequently no means of rendering immediate and prompt assistance. In +such cases it would have been too late to have got a boat by signal from +the tender. A small boat, which could be lowered at pleasure, was +therefore suspended by a pair of davits projected from the cook-house, +the keel being about thirty feet from the rock. This boat, with its +tackle, was put under the charge of James Glen, of whose exertions on +the beacon mention has already been made, and who, having in early life +been a seaman, was also very expert in the management of a boat. A +life-buoy was likewise suspended from the bridge, to which a coil of +line two hundred fathoms in length was attached, which could be let out +to a person falling into the water, or to the people in the boat, should +they not be able to work her with the oars. + + Thursday, 7th June. + +To-day twelve stones were landed on the rock, being the remainder of the +_Patriot's_ cargo; and the artificers built the thirty-ninth course, +consisting of fourteen stones. The Bell Rock works had now a very busy +appearance, as the lighthouse was daily getting more into form. Besides +the artificers and their cook, the writer and his servant were also +lodged on the beacon, counting in all twenty-nine; and at low-water the +landing-master's crew, consisting of from twelve to fifteen seamen, +were employed in transporting the building materials, working the +landing apparatus on the rock, and dragging the stone waggons along the +railways. + + Friday, 8th June. + +In the course of this day the weather varied much. In the morning it was +calm, in the middle part of the day there were light airs of wind from +the south, and in the evening fresh breezes from the east. The barometer +in the writer's cabin in the beacon-house oscillated from 30 inches to +30.42, and the weather was extremely pleasant. This, in any situation, +forms one of the chief comforts of life; but, as may easily be +conceived, it was doubly so to people stuck, as it were, upon a pinnacle +in the middle of the ocean. + + Sunday, 10th June. + +One of the praam-boats had been brought to the rock with eleven stones, +notwithstanding the perplexity which attended the getting of those +formerly landed taken up to the building. Mr. Peter Logan, the foreman +builder, interposed and prevented this cargo from being delivered; but +the landing-master's crew were exceedingly averse to this arrangement, +from an idea that "ill luck" would in future attend the praam, her +cargo, and those who navigated her, from thus reversing her voyage. It +may be noticed that this was the first instance of a praam-boat having +been sent from the Bell Rock with any part of her cargo on board, and +was considered so uncommon an occurrence that it became a topic of +conversation among the seamen and artificers. + + Tuesday, 12th June. + +To-day the stones formerly sent from the rock were safely landed, +notwithstanding the augury of the seamen in consequence of their being +sent away two days before. + + Thursday, 14th June. + +To-day twenty-seven stones and eleven joggle-pieces were landed, part of +which consisted of the forty-seventh course, forming the storeroom +floor. The builders were at work this morning by four o'clock, in the +hopes of being able to accomplish the laying of the eighteen stones of +this course. But at eight o'clock in the evening they had still two to +lay, and as the stones of this course were very unwieldy, being six feet +in length, they required much precaution and care both in lifting and +laying them. It was only on the writer's suggestion to Mr. Logan that +the artificers were induced to leave off, as they had intended to +complete this floor before going to bed. The two remaining stones were, +however, laid in their places without mortar when the bell on the beacon +was rung, and, all hands being collected on the top of the building, +three hearty cheers were given on covering the first apartment. The +steward then served out a dram to each, when the whole retired to their +barrack much fatigued, but with the anticipation of the most perfect +repose even in the "hurricane-house," amidst the dashing seas on the +Bell Rock. + +While the workmen were at breakfast and dinner it was the writer's usual +practice to spend his time on the walls of the building, which, +notwithstanding the narrowness of the track, nevertheless formed his +principal walk when the rock was under water. But this afternoon he had +his writing-desk set upon the storeroom floor, when he wrote to Mrs. +Stevenson--certainly the first letter dated from the Bell Rock +_Lighthouse_--giving a detail of the fortunate progress of the work, +with an assurance that the lighthouse would soon be completed at the +rate at which it now proceeded; and, the _Patriot_ having sailed for +Arbroath in the evening, he felt no small degree of pleasure in +despatching this communication to his family. + +The weather still continuing favourable for the operations at the rock, +the work proceeded with much energy, through the exertions both of the +seamen and artificers. For the more speedy and effectual working of the +several tackles in raising the materials as the building advanced in +height, and there being a great extent of railway to attend to, which +required constant repairs, two additional millwrights were added to the +complement on the rock, which, including the writer, now counted +thirty-one in all. So crowded was the men's barrack that the beds were +ranged five tier in height, allowing only about one foot eight inches +for each bed. The artificers commenced this morning at five o'clock, +and, in the course of the day, they laid the forty-eighth and +forty-ninth courses, consisting each of sixteen blocks. From the +favourable state of the weather, and the regular manner in which the +work now proceeded, the artificers had generally from four to seven +extra hours' work, which, including their stated wages of 3s. 4d., +yielded them from 5s. 4d. to about 6s. 10d. per day besides their board; +even the postage of their letters was paid while they were at the Bell +Rock. In these advantages the foremen also shared, having about double +the pay and amount of premiums of the artificers. The seamen being less +out of their element in the Bell Rock operations than the landsmen, +their premiums consisted in a slump sum payable at the end of the +season, which extended from three to ten guineas. + +As the laying of the floors was somewhat tedious, the landing-master and +his crew had got considerably beforehand with the building artificers in +bringing materials faster to the rock than they could be built. The +seamen having, therefore, some spare time, were occasionally employed +during fine weather in dredging or grappling for the several mushroom +anchors and mooring-chains which had been lost in the vicinity of the +Bell Rock during the progress of the work by the breaking loose and +drifting of the floating buoys. To encourage their exertions in this +search, five guineas were offered as a premium for each set they should +find; and, after much patient application, they succeeded to-day in +hooking one of these lost anchors with its chain. + +It was a general remark at the Bell Rock, as before noticed, that fish +were never plenty in its neighbourhood excepting in good weather. +Indeed, the seamen used to speculate about the state of the weather from +their success in fishing. When the fish disappeared at the rock, it was +considered a sure indication that a gale was not far off, as the fish +seemed to seek shelter in deeper water from the roughness of the sea +during these changes in the weather. At this time the rock, at +high-water, was completely covered with podlies, or the fry of the +coal-fish, about six or eight inches in length. The artificers sometimes +occupied half an hour after breakfast and dinner in catching these +little fishes, but were more frequently supplied from the boats of the +tender. + + Saturday, 16th June. + +The landing-master having this day discharged the _Smeaton_ and loaded +the _Hedderwick_ and _Dickie_ praam-boats with nineteen stones, they +were towed to their respective moorings, when Captain Wilson, in +consequence of the heavy swell of sea, came in his boat to the +beacon-house to consult with the writer as to the propriety of venturing +the loaded praam-boats with their cargoes to the rock while so much sea +was running. After some dubiety expressed on the subject, in which the +ardent mind of the landing-master suggested many arguments in favour of +his being able to convey the praams in perfect safety, it was acceded +to. In bad weather, and especially on occasions of difficulty like the +present, Mr. Wilson, who was an extremely active seaman, measuring about +five feet three inches in height, of a robust habit, generally dressed +himself in what he called a _monkey jacket_, made of thick duffle cloth, +with a pair of Dutchman's petticoat trousers, reaching only to his +knees, where they were met with a pair of long water-tight boots; with +this dress, his glazed hat, and his small brass speaking-trumpet in his +hand, he bade defiance to the weather. When he made his appearance in +this most suitable attire for the service, his crew seemed to possess +additional life, never failing to use their utmost exertions when the +captain put on his _storm rigging._ They had this morning commenced +loading the praam-boats at four o'clock, and proceeded to tow them into +the eastern landing-place, which was accomplished with much dexterity, +though not without the risk of being thrown, by the force of the sea, on +certain projecting ledges of the rock. In such a case the loss even of a +single stone would have greatly retarded the work. For the greater +safety in entering the creek it was necessary to put out several warps +and guy-ropes to guide the boats into its narrow and intricate entrance; +and it frequently happened that the sea made a clean breach over the +praams, which not only washed their decks, but completely drenched the +crew in water. + + Sunday, 17th June. + +It was fortunate, in the present state of the weather, that the fiftieth +course was in a sheltered spot, within the reach of the tackle of the +winch-machine upon the bridge; a few stones were stowed upon the bridge +itself, and the remainder upon the building, which kept the artificers +at work. The stowing of the materials upon the rock was the department +of Alexander Brebner, mason, who spared no pains in attending to the +safety of the stones, and who, in the present state of the work, when +the stones were landed faster than could be built, generally worked till +the water rose to his middle. At one o'clock to-day the bell rung for +prayers, and all hands were collected into the upper barrack-room of the +beacon-house, when the usual service was performed. + +The wind blew very hard in the course of last night from N.E., and +to-day the sea ran so high that no boat could approach the rock. During +the dinner-hour, when the writer was going to the top of the building as +usual, but just as he had entered the door and was about to ascend the +ladder, a great noise was heard overhead, and in an instant he was +soused in water from a sea which had most unexpectedly come over the +walls, though now about fifty-eight feet in height. On making his +retreat he found himself completely whitened by the lime, which had +mixed with the water while dashing down through the different floors; +and, as nearly as he could guess, a quantity equal to about a hogshead +had come over the walls, and now streamed out at the door. After having +shifted himself, he again sat down in his cabin, the sea continuing to +run so high that the builders did not resume their operations on the +walls this afternoon. The incident just noticed did not create more +surprise in the mind of the writer than the sublime appearance of the +waves as they rolled majestically over the rock. This scene he greatly +enjoyed while sitting at his cabin window; each wave approached the +beacon like a vast scroll unfolding; and in passing discharged a +quantity of air, which he not only distinctly felt, but was even +sufficient to lift the leaves of a book which lay before him. These +waves might be ten or twelve feet in height, and about 250 feet in +length, their smaller end being towards the north, where the water was +deep, and they were opened or cut through by the interposition of the +building and beacon. The gradual manner in which the sea, upon these +occasions, is observed to become calm or to subside, is a very +remarkable feature of this phenomenon. For example, when a gale is +succeeded by a calm, every third or fourth wave forms one of these great +seas, which occur in spaces of from three to five minutes, as noted by +the writer's watch; but in the course of the next tide they become less +frequent, and take off so as to occur only in ten or fifteen minutes; +and, singular enough, at the third tide after such gales, the writer has +remarked that only one or two of these great waves appear in the course +of the whole tide. + + Tuesday, 19th June. + +The 19th was a very unpleasant and disagreeable day, both for the seamen +and artificers, as it rained throughout with little intermission from +four a.m. till eleven p.m., accompanied with thunder and lightning, +during which period the work nevertheless continued unremittingly and +the builders laid the fifty-first and fifty-second courses. This state +of weather was no less severe upon the mortar-makers, who required to +temper or prepare the mortar of a thicker or thinner consistency, in +some measure, according to the state of the weather. From the elevated +position of the building, the mortar gallery on the beacon was now much +lower, and the lime-buckets were made to traverse upon a rope distended +between it and the building. On occasions like the present, however, +there was often a difference of opinion between the builders and the +mortar-makers. John Watt, who had the principal charge of the mortar, +was a most active worker, but, being somewhat of an irascible temper, +the builders occasionally amused themselves at his expense: for while he +was eagerly at work with his large iron-shod pestle in the mortar-tub, +they often sent down contradictory orders, some crying, "Make it a +little stiffer, or thicker, John," while others called out to make it +"thinner," to which he generally returned very speedy and sharp replies, +so that these conversations at times were rather amusing. + +During wet weather the situation of the artificers on the top of the +building was extremely disagreeable; for although their work did not +require great exertion, yet, as each man had his particular part to +perform, either in working the crane or in laying the stones, it +required the closest application and attention, not only on the part of +Mr. Peter Logan, the foreman, who was constantly on the walls, but also +of the chief workmen. Robert Selkirk, the principal builder, for +example, had every stone to lay in its place. David Cumming, a mason, +had the charge of working the tackle of the balance-weight, and James +Scott, also a mason, took charge of the purchase with which the stones +were laid; while the pointing the joints of the walls with cement was +intrusted to William Reid and William Kennedy, who stood upon a scaffold +suspended over the walls in rather a frightful manner. The least act of +carelessness or inattention on the part of any of these men might have +been fatal, not only to themselves, but also to the surrounding workmen, +especially if any accident had happened to the crane itself, while the +material damage or loss of a single stone would have put an entire stop +to the operations until another could have been brought from Arbroath. +The artificers, having wrought seven and a half hours of extra time +to-day, had 3s. 9d. of extra pay, while the foremen had 7s. 6d. over and +above their stated pay and board. Although, therefore, the work was both +hazardous and fatiguing, yet, the encouragement being considerable, they +were always very cheerful, and perfectly reconciled to the confinement +and other disadvantages of the place. + +During fine weather, and while the nights were short, the duty on board +of the floating light was literally nothing but a waiting on, and +therefore one of her boats, with a crew of five men, daily attended the +rock, but always returned to the vessel at night. The carpenter, +however, was one of those who was left on board of the ship, as he also +acted in the capacity of assistant lightkeeper, being, besides, a person +who was apt to feel discontent and to be averse to changing his +quarters, especially to work with the millwrights and joiners at the +rock, who often, for hours together, wrought knee-deep, and not +unfrequently up to the middle, in water. Mr. Watt having about this time +made a requisition for another hand, the carpenter was ordered to attend +the rock in the floating light's boat. This he did with great +reluctance, and found so much fault that he soon got into discredit with +his messmates. On this occasion he left the Lighthouse service, and went +as a sailor in a vessel bound for America--a step which, it is believed, +he soon regretted, as, in the course of things, he would, in all +probability, have accompanied Mr John Reid, the principal lightkeeper of +the floating light, to the Bell Rock Lighthouse as his principal +assistant. The writer had a wish to be of service to this man, as he was +one of those who came off to the floating light in the month of +September 1807, while she was riding at single anchor after the severe +gale of the 7th, at a time when it was hardly possible to make up this +vessel's crew; but the crossness of his manner prevented his reaping the +benefit of such intentions. + + Friday, 22nd June. + +The building operations had for some time proceeded more slowly, from +the higher parts of the lighthouse requiring much longer time than an +equal tonnage of the lower courses. The duty of the landing-master's +crew had, upon the whole, been easy of late; for though the work was +occasionally irregular, yet the stones being lighter, they were more +speedily lifted from the hold of the stone vessel to the deck of the +praam-boat, and again to the waggons on the railway, after which they +came properly under the charge of the foreman builder. It is, however, a +strange, though not an uncommon, feature in the human character, that, +when people have least to complain of they are most apt to become +dissatisfied, as was now the case with the seamen employed in the Bell +Rock service about their rations of beer. Indeed, ever since the +carpenter of the floating light, formerly noticed, had been brought to +the rock, expressions of discontent had been manifested upon various +occasions. This being represented to the writer, he sent for Captain +Wilson, the landing-master, and Mr. Taylor, commander of the tender, +with whom he talked over the subject. They stated that they considered +the daily allowance of the seamen in every respect ample, and that, the +work being now much lighter than formerly, they had no just ground for +complaint; Mr. Taylor adding that, if those who now complained "were +even to be fed upon soft bread and turkeys, they would not think +themselves right." At twelve noon the work of the landing-master's crew +was completed for the day; but at four o'clock, while the rock was under +water, those on the beacon were surprised by the arrival of a boat from +the tender without any signal having been made from the beacon. It +brought the following note to the writer from the landing-master's +crew:-- + + + _Sir Joseph Banks Tender_ + + "SIR,--We are informed by our masters that our allowance is to be as + before, and it is not sufficient to serve us, for we have been at + work since four o'clock this morning, and we have come on board to + dinner, and there is no beer for us before to-morrow morning, to + which a sufficient answer is required before we go from the beacon; + and we are, Sir, your most obedient servants." + + On reading this, the writer returned a verbal message, intimating + that an answer would be sent on board of the tender, at the same time + ordering the boat instantly to quit the beacon. He then addressed the + following note to the landing-master:-- + + + "_Beacon-house, 22nd June 1810, Five o'clock p.m._ + + "SIR,--I have just now received a letter purporting to be from the + landing-master's crew and seamen on board of the _Sir Joseph Banks_, + though without either date or signature; in answer to which I enclose + a statement of the daily allowance of provisions for the seamen in + this service, which you will post up in the ship's galley, and at + seven o'clock this evening I will come on board to inquire into this + unexpected and most unnecessary demand for an additional allowance + of beer. In the enclosed you will not find any alteration from the + original statement, fixed in the galley at the beginning of the + season. I have, however, judged this mode of giving your people an + answer preferable to that of conversing with them on the beacon.--I + am, Sir, your most obedient servant, + + "ROBERT STEVENSON. + + + "To CAPTAIN WILSON." + + "_Beacon House_, 22_nd June_ 1810.--Schedule of the daily allowance + of provisions to be served out on board of the _Sir Joseph Banks_ + tender: '1-1/2 lb. beef; 1 lb. bread; 8 oz. oatmeal; 2 oz. barley; 2 + oz. butter; 3 quarts beer; vegetables and salt no stated allowance. + When the seamen are employed in unloading the _Smeaton_ and + _Patriot_, a draught of beer is, as formerly, to be allowed from the + stock of these vessels. Further, in wet and stormy weather, or when + the work commences very early in the morning, or continues till a + late hour at night, a glass of spirits will also be served out to the + crew as heretofore, on the requisition of the landing-master.' + + "ROBERT STEVENSON." + +On writing this letter and schedule, a signal was made on the beacon for +the landing-master's boat, which immediately came to the rock, and the +schedule was afterwards stuck up in the tender's galley. When sufficient +time had been allowed to the crew to consider of their conduct, a second +signal was made for a boat, and at seven o'clock the writer left the +Bell Rock, after a residence of four successive weeks in the +beacon-house. The first thing which occupied his attention on board of +the tender was to look round upon the lighthouse, which he saw, with +some degree of emotion and surprise, now vying in height with the +beacon-house; for although he had often viewed it from the extremity of +the western railway on the rock, yet the scene, upon the whole, seemed +far more interesting from the tender's moorings at the distance of about +half a mile. + +The _Smeaton_ having just arrived at her moorings with a cargo, a signal +was made for Captain Pool to come on board of the tender, that he might +be at hand to remove from the service any of those who might persist in +their discontented conduct. One of the two principal leaders in this +affair, the master of one of the praam-boats, who had also steered the +boat which brought the letter to the beacon, was first called upon deck, +and asked if he had read the statement fixed up in the galley this +afternoon, and whether he was satisfied with it. He replied that he had +read the paper, but was not satisfied, as it held out no alteration on +the allowance, on which he was immediately ordered into the _Smeaton's_ +boat. The next man called had but lately entered the service, and, being +also interrogated as to his resolution, he declared himself to be of the +same mind with the praam-master, and was also forthwith ordered into the +boat. The writer, without calling any more of the seamen, went forward +to the gangway, where they were collected and listening to what was +passing upon deck. He addressed them at the hatchway, and stated that +two of their companions had just been dismissed the service and sent on +board of the _Smeaton_ to be conveyed to Arbroath. He therefore wished +each man to consider for himself how far it would be proper, by any +unreasonableness of conduct, to place themselves in a similar situation, +especially as they were aware that it was optional in him either to +dismiss them or send them on board a man-of-war. It might appear that +much inconveniency would be felt at the rock by a change of hands at +this critical period, by checking for a time the progress of a building +so intimately connected with the best interests of navigation; yet this +would be but of a temporary nature, while the injury to themselves might +be irreparable. It was now, therefore, required of any man who, in this +disgraceful manner, chose to leave the service, that he should instantly +make his appearance on deck while the _Smeaton's_ boat was alongside. +But those below having expressed themselves satisfied with their +situation--viz., William Brown, George Gibb, Alexander Scott, John Dick, +Robert Couper, Alexander Shephard, James Grieve, David Carey, William +Pearson, Stuart Eaton, Alexander Lawrence, and John Spink--were +accordingly considered as having returned to their duty. This +disposition to mutiny, which had so strongly manifested itself, being +now happily suppressed, Captain Pool got orders to proceed for Arbroath +Bay, and land the two men he had on board, and to deliver the following +letter at the office of the workyard:-- + + "_On board of the Tender off the Bell Rock_, + 22_nd June_ 1810, _eight o'clock p.m._ + + "DEAR SIR,--A discontented and mutinous spirit having manifested + itself of late among the landing-master's crew, they struck work + to-day and demanded an additional allowance of beer, and I have found + it necessary to dismiss D----d and M----e, who are now sent on shore + with the _Smeaton_. You will therefore be so good as to pay them + their wages, including this day only. Nothing can be more + unreasonable than the conduct of the seamen on this occasion, as the + landing-master's crew not only had their allowance on board of the + tender, but, in the course of this day, they had drawn no fewer than + twenty-four quart pots of beer from the stock of the _Patriot_ while + unloading her.--I remain, yours truly, + + "ROBERT STEVENSON. + + "To Mr. LACHLAN KENNEDY, + Bell Rock Office, Arbroath." + +On despatching this letter to Mr. Kennedy, the writer returned to the +beacon about nine o'clock, where this afternoon's business had produced +many conjectures, especially when the _Smeaton_ got under weigh, instead +of proceeding to land her cargo. The bell on the beacon being rung, the +artificers were assembled on the bridge, when the affair was explained +to them. He, at the same time, congratulated them upon the first +appearance of mutiny being happily set at rest by the dismissal of its +two principal abettors. + + Sunday, 24th June. + +At the rock, the landing of the materials and the building operations of +the light-room store went on successfully, and in a way similar to those +of the provision store. To-day it blew fresh breezes; but the seamen +nevertheless landed twenty-eight stones, and the artificers built the +fifty-eighth and fifty-ninth courses. The works were visited by Mr. +Murdoch, junior, from Messrs. Boulton and Watt's works of Soho. He +landed just as the bell rung for prayers, after which the writer enjoyed +much pleasure from his very intelligent conversation; and, having been +almost the only stranger he had seen for some weeks, he parted with him, +after a short interview, with much regret. + + Thursday, 28th June. + +Last night the wind had shifted to north-east, and, blowing fresh, was +accompanied with a heavy surf upon the rock. Towards high-water it had a +very grand and wonderful appearance. Waves of considerable magnitude +rose as high as the solid or level of the entrance-door, which, being +open to the south-west, was fortunately to the leeward; but on the +windward side the sprays flew like lightning up the sloping sides of the +building; and although the walls were now elevated sixty-four feet above +the rock, and about fifty-two feet from high-water mark, yet the +artificers were nevertheless wetted, and occasionally interrupted, in +their operations on the top of the walls. These appearances were, in a +great measure, new at the Bell Rock, there having till of late been no +building to conduct the seas, or object to compare with them. Although, +from the description of the Eddystone Lighthouse, the mind was prepared +for such effects, yet they were not expected to the present extent in +the summer season; the sea being most awful to-day, whether observed +from the beacon or the building. To windward, the sprays fell from the +height above noticed in the most wonderful cascades, and streamed down +the walls of the building in froth as white as snow. To leeward of the +lighthouse the collision or meeting of the waves produced a pure white +kind of _drift_: it rose about thirty feet in height, like a fine downy +mist, which, in its fall, fell upon the face and hands more like a dry +powder than a liquid substance. The effect of these seas, as they raged +among the beams and dashed upon the higher parts of the beacon, produced +a temporary tremulous motion throughout the whole fabric, which to a +stranger must have been frightful. + + Sunday, 1st July. + +The writer had now been at the Bell Rock since the latter end of May, or +about six weeks, during four of which he had been a constant inhabitant +of the beacon without having been once off the rock. After witnessing +the laying of the sixty-seventh or second course of the bedroom +apartment, he left the rock with the tender and went ashore, as some +arrangements were to be made for the future conduct of the works at +Arbroath, which were soon to be brought to a close; the landing-master's +crew having, in the meantime, shifted on board of the _Patriot_. In +leaving the rock, the writer kept his eyes fixed upon the lighthouse, +which had recently got into the form of a house, having several tiers or +stories of windows. Nor was he unmindful of his habitation in the +beacon--now far overtopped by the masonry,--where he had spent several +weeks in a kind of active retirement, making practical experiment of the +fewness of the positive wants of man. His cabin measured not more than +four feet three inches in breadth on the floor; and though, from the +oblique direction of the beams of the beacon, it widened towards the +top, yet it did not admit of the full extension of his arms when he +stood on the floor; while its length was little more than sufficient for +suspending a cot-bed during the night, calculated for being triced up to +the roof through the day, which left free room for the admission of +occasional visitants. His folding table was attached with hinges, +immediately under the small window of the apartment, and his books, +barometer, thermometer, portmanteau, and two or three camp-stools, +formed the bulk of his movables. His diet being plain, the paraphernalia +of the table were proportionally simple; though everything had the +appearance of comfort, and even of neatness, the walls being covered +with green cloth formed into panels with red tape, and his bed festooned +with curtains of yellow cotton-stuff. If, in speculating upon the +abstract wants of man in such a state of exclusion, one were reduced to +a single book, the Sacred Volume--whether considered for the striking +diversity of its story, the morality of its doctrine, or the important +truths of its gospel--would have proved by far the greatest treasure. + + Monday, 2nd July. + +In walking over the workyard at Arbroath this morning, the writer found +that the stones of the course immediately under the cornice were all in +hand, and that a week's work would now finish the whole, while the +intermediate courses lay ready numbered and marked for shipping to the +rock. Among other subjects which had occupied his attention to-day was a +visit from some of the relations of George Dall, a young man who had +been impressed near Dundee in the month of February last; a dispute had +arisen between the magistrates of that burgh and the Regulating Officer +as to his right of impressing Dall, who was _bona fide_ one of the +protected seamen in the Bell Rock service. In the meantime, the poor lad +was detained, and ultimately committed to the prison of Dundee, to +remain until the question should be tried before the Court of Session. +His friends were naturally very desirous to have him relieved upon bail. +But, as this was only to be done by the judgment of the Court, all that +could be said was that his pay and allowances should be continued in the +same manner as if he had been upon the sick-list. The circumstances of +Dall's case were briefly these:--He had gone to see some of his friends +in the neighbourhood of Dundee, in winter, while the works were +suspended, having got leave of absence from Mr. Taylor, who commanded +the Bell Rock tender, and had in his possession one of the Protection +Medals. Unfortunately, however, for Dall, the Regulating Officer thought +proper to disregard these documents, as, according to the strict and +literal interpretation of the Admiralty regulations, a seaman does not +stand protected unless he is actually on board of his ship, or in a boat +belonging to her, or has the Admiralty protection in his possession. +This order of the Board, however, cannot be rigidly followed in +practice; and therefore, when the matter is satisfactorily stated to the +Regulating Officer, the impressed man is generally liberated. But in +Dall's case this was peremptorily refused, and he was retained at the +instance of the magistrates. The writer having brought the matter under +the consideration of the Commissioners of the Northern Lighthouses, they +authorised it to be tried on the part of the Lighthouse Board, as one of +extreme hardship. The Court, upon the first hearing, ordered Dall to be +liberated from prison; and the proceedings never went further. + + Wednesday, 4th July. + +Being now within twelve courses of being ready for building the cornice, +measures were taken for getting the stones of it and the parapet-wall of +the light-room brought from Edinburgh, where, as before noticed, they +had been prepared and were in readiness for shipping. The honour of +conveying the upper part of the lighthouse, and of landing the last +stone of the building on the rock, was considered to belong to Captain +Pool of the _Smeaton_, who had been longer in the service than the +master of the _Patriot_. The _Smeaton_ was, therefore, now partly loaded +with old iron, consisting of broken railways and other lumber which had +been lying about the rock. After landing these at Arbroath, she took on +board James Craw, with his horse and cart, which could now be spared at +the workyard, to be employed in carting the stones from Edinburgh to +Leith. Alexander Davidson and William Kennedy, two careful masons, were +also sent to take charge of the loading of the stones at Greenside, and +stowing them on board of the vessel at Leith. The writer also went on +board, with a view to call at the Bell Rock and to take his passage up +the Firth of Forth. The wind, however, coming to blow very fresh from +the eastward, with thick and foggy weather, it became necessary to reef +the mainsail and set the second jib. When in the act of making a tack +towards the tender, the sailors who worked the head-sheets were, all of +a sudden, alarmed with the sound of the smith's hammer and anvil on the +beacon, and had just time to put the ship about to save her from running +ashore on the north-western point of the rock, marked "James Craw's +Horse." On looking towards the direction from whence the sound came, the +building and beacon-house were seen, with consternation, while the ship +was hailed by those on the rock, who were no less confounded at seeing +the near approach of the _Smeaton_; and, just as the vessel cleared the +danger, the smith and those in the mortar gallery made signs in token of +their happiness at our fortunate escape. From this occurrence the writer +had an experimental proof of the utility of the large bells which were +in preparation to be rung by the machinery of the revolving light; for, +had it not been for the sound of the smith's anvil, the _Smeaton_, in +all probability, would have been wrecked upon the rock. In case the +vessel had struck, those on board might have been safe, having now the +beacon-house as a place of refuge; but the vessel, which was going at a +great velocity, must have suffered severely, and it was more than +probable that the horse would have been drowned, there being no means of +getting him out of the vessel. Of this valuable animal and his master we +shall take an opportunity of saying more in another place. + + Thursday, 5th July. + +The weather cleared up in the course of the night, but the wind shifted +to the N.E. and blew very fresh. From the force of the wind, being now +the period of spring-tides, a very heavy swell was experienced at the +rock. At two o'clock on the following morning the people on the beacon +were in a state of great alarm about their safety, as the sea had broke +up part of the floor of the mortar gallery, Which was thus cleared of +the lime-casks and other buoyant articles; and, the alarm-bell being +rung, all hands were called to render what assistance was in their +power for the safety of themselves and the materials. At this time some +would willingly have left the beacon and gone into the building; the +sea, however, ran so high that there was no passage along the bridge of +communication, and, when the interior of the lighthouse came to be +examined in the morning, it appeared that great quantities of water had +come over the walls--now eighty feet in height--and had run down through +the several apartments and out at the entrance door. + +The upper course of the lighthouse at the workyard of Arbroath was +completed on the 6th, and the whole of the stones were, therefore, now +ready for being shipped to the rock. From the present state of the works +it was impossible that the two squads of artificers at Arbroath and the +Bell Rock could meet together at this period; and as in public works of +this kind, which had continued for a series of years, it is not +customary to allow the men to separate without what is termed a +"finishing-pint," five guineas were for this purpose placed at the +disposal of Mr. David Logan, clerk of works. With this sum the +stone-cutters at Arbroath had a merry meeting in their barrack, +collected their sweethearts and friends, and concluded their labours +with a dance. It was remarked, however, that their happiness on this +occasion was not without alloy. The consideration of parting and leaving +a steady and regular employment, to go in quest of work and mix with +other society, after having been harmoniously lodged for years together +in one large "guildhall or barrack," was rather painful. + + Friday, 6th July. + +While the writer was at Edinburgh he was fortunate enough to meet with +Mrs. Dickson, only daughter of the late celebrated Mr. Smeaton, whose +works at the Eddystone Lighthouse had been of such essential consequence +to the operations at the Bell Rock. Even her own elegant accomplishments +are identified with her father's work, she having herself made the +drawing of the vignette on the title-page of the "Narrative of the +Eddystone Lighthouse." Every admirer of the works of that singularly +eminent man must also feel an obligation to her for the very +comprehensive and distinct account given of his life, which is attached +to his reports, published, in three volumes quarto, by the Society of +Civil Engineers. Mrs. Dickson, being at this time returning from a tour +to the Hebrides and Western Highlands of Scotland, had heard of the Bell +Rock works, and from their similarity to those of the Eddystone, was +strongly impressed with a desire of visiting the spot. But on inquiring +for the writer at Edinburgh, and finding from him that the upper part of +the lighthouse, consisting of nine courses, might be seen in the +immediate vicinity, and also that one of the vessels, which, in +compliment to her father's memory, had been named the _Smeaton_, might +also now be seen in Leith, she considered herself extremely fortunate; +and having first visited the works at Greenside, she afterwards went to +Leith to see the _Smeaton_, then loading for the Bell Rock. On stepping +on board, Mrs. Dickson seemed to be quite overcome with so many +concurrent circumstances, tending in a peculiar manner to revive and +enliven the memory of her departed father, and, on leaving the vessel, +she would not be restrained from presenting the crew with a piece of +money. The _Smeaton_ had been named spontaneously, from a sense of the +obligation which a public work of the description of the Bell Rock owed +to the labours and abilities of Mr. Smeaton. The writer certainly never +could have anticipated the satisfaction which he this day felt in +witnessing the pleasure it afforded to the only representative of this +great man's family. + + Friday, 20th July. + +The gale from the N.E. still continued so strong, accompanied with a +heavy sea, that the _Patriot_ could not approach her moorings; although +the tender still kept her station, no landing was made to-day at the +rock. At high-water it was remarked that the spray rose to the height of +about sixty feet upon the building. The _Smeaton_ now lay in Leith +loaded, but, the wind and weather being so unfavourable for her getting +down the Firth, she did not sail till this afternoon. It may be here +proper to notice that the loading of the centre of the light-room floor, +or last principal stone of the building, did not fail, when put on +board, to excite an interest among those connected with the work. When +the stone was laid upon the cart to be conveyed to Leith, the seamen +fixed an ensign-staff and flag into the circular hole in the centre of +the stone, and decorated their own hats, and that of James Craw, the +Bell Rock carter, with ribbons; even his faithful and trusty horse +Brassey was ornamented with bows and streamers of various colours. The +masons also provided themselves with new aprons, and in this manner the +cart was attended in its progress to the ship. When the cart came +opposite the Trinity House of Leith, the officer of that corporation +made his appearance dressed in his uniform, with his staff of office; +and when it reached the harbour, the shipping in the different tiers +where the _Smeaton_ lay hoisted their colours, manifesting by these +trifling ceremonies the interest with which the progress of this work +was regarded by the public, as ultimately tending to afford safety and +protection to the mariner. The wind had fortunately shifted to the S.W., +and about five o'clock this afternoon the Smeaton reached the Bell Rock. + + Friday, 27th July. + +The artificers had finished the laying of the balcony course, excepting +the centre-stone of the light-room floor, which, like the centres of the +other floors, could not be laid in its place till after the removal of +the foot and shaft of the balance-crane. During the dinner-hour, when +the men were off work, the writer generally took some exercise by +walking round the walls when the rock was under water; but to-day his +boundary was greatly enlarged, for, instead of the narrow wall as a +path, he felt no small degree of pleasure in walking round the balcony +and passing out and in at the space allotted for the light-room door. In +the labours of this day both the artificers and seamen felt their work +to be extremely easy compared with what it had been for some days past. + + Sunday, 29th July. + +Captain Wilson and his crew had made preparations for landing the last +stone, and, as may well be supposed, this was a day of great interest at +the Bell Rock. "That it might lose none of its honours," as he expressed +himself, the _Hedderwick_ praam-boat, with which the first stone of the +building had been landed, was appointed also to carry the last. At seven +o'clock this evening the seamen hoisted three flags upon the +_Hedderwick_, when the colours of the _Dickie_ praam-boat, tender, +_Smeaton_, floating light, beacon-house, and lighthouse were also +displayed; and, the weather being remarkably fine, the whole presented a +very gay appearance, and, in connection with the associations excited, +the effect was very pleasing. The praam which carried the stone was +towed by the seamen in gallant style to the rock, and, on its arrival, +cheers were given as a finale to the landing department. + + Monday, 30th July. + +The ninetieth or last course of the building having been laid to-day, +which brought the masonry to the height of one hundred and two feet six +inches, the lintel of the light-room door, being the finishing-stone of +the exterior walls, was laid with due formality by the writer, who, at +the same time, pronounced the following benediction: "May the Great +Architect of the Universe, under whose blessing this perilous work has +prospered, preserve it as a guide to the mariner." + + Friday, 3rd Aug. + +At three p.m., the necessary preparations having been made, the +artificers commenced the completing of the floors of the several +apartments, and at seven o'clock the centre-stone of the light-room +floor was laid, which may be held as finishing the masonry of this +important national edifice. After going through the usual ceremonies +observed by the brotherhood on occasions of this kind, the writer, +addressing himself to the artificers and seamen who were present, +briefly alluded to the utility of the undertaking as a monument of the +wealth of British commerce, erected through the spirited measures of the +Commissioners of the Northern Lighthouses by means of the able +assistance of those who now surrounded him. He then took an opportunity +of stating that toward those connected with this arduous work he would +ever retain the most heartfelt regard in all their interests. + + Saturday, 4th Aug. + +When the bell was rung as usual on the beacon this morning, every one +seemed as if he were at a loss what to make of himself. At this period +the artificers at the rock consisted of eighteen masons, two joiners, +one millwright, one smith, and one mortar-maker, besides Messrs. Peter +Logan and Francis Watt, foremen, counting in all twenty-five; and +matters were arranged for proceeding to Arbroath this afternoon with all +hands. The _Sir Joseph Banks_ tender had by this time been afloat, with +little intermission, for six months, during greater part of which the +artificers had been almost constantly off at the rock, and were now much +in want of necessaries of almost every description. Not a few had lost +different articles of clothing, which had dropped into the sea from the +beacon and building. Some wanted jackets; others, from want of hats, +wore nightcaps; each was, in fact, more or less curtailed in his +wardrobe, and it must be confessed that at best the party were but in a +very tattered condition. This morning was occupied in removing the +artificers and their bedding on board of the tender; and, although their +personal luggage was easily shifted, the boats had, nevertheless, many +articles to remove from the beacon-house, and were consequently employed +in this service till eleven a.m. All hands being collected, and just +ready to embark, as the water had nearly overflowed the rock, the +writer, in taking leave, after alluding to the harmony which had ever +marked the conduct of those employed on the Bell Rock, took occasion to +compliment the great zeal, attention, and abilities of Mr. Peter Logan +and Mr. Francis Watt, foremen; Captain James Wilson, landing-master; and +Captain David Taylor, commander of the tender, who, in their several +departments, had so faithfully discharged the duties assigned to them, +often under circumstances the most difficult and trying. The health of +these gentlemen was drunk with much warmth of feeling by the artificers +and seamen, who severally expressed the satisfaction they had +experienced in acting under them; after which the whole party left the +rock. + +In sailing past the floating light, mutual compliments were made by a +display of flags between that vessel and the tender; and at five p.m. +the latter vessel entered the harbour of Arbroath, where the party were +heartily welcomed by a numerous company of spectators, who had collected +to see the artificers arrive after so long an absence from the port. In +the evening the writer invited the foremen and captains of the service, +together with Mr. David Logan, clerk of works at Arbroath, and Mr. +Lachlan Kennedy, engineer's clerk and bookkeeper, and some of their +friends, to the principal inn, where the evening was spent very happily; +and after "His Majesty's Health" and "The Commissioners of the Northern +Lighthouses" had been given, "Stability to the Bell Rock Lighthouse" was +hailed as a standing toast in the Lighthouse service. + + Sunday, 5th Aug. + +The author has formerly noticed the uniformly decent and orderly +deportment of the artificers who were employed at the Bell Rock +Lighthouse, and to-day, it is believed, they very generally attended +church, no doubt with grateful hearts for the narrow escapes from +personal danger which all of them had more or less experienced during +their residence at the rock. + + Tuesday, 14th Aug. + +The _Smeaton_ sailed to-day at one p.m., having on board sixteen +artificers, with Mr. Peter Logan, together with a supply of provisions +and necessaries, who left the harbour pleased and happy to find +themselves once more afloat in the Bell Rock service. At seven o'clock +the tender was made fast to her moorings, when the artificers landed on +the rock and took possession of their old quarters in the beacon-house, +with feelings very different from those of 1807, when the works +commenced. + +The barometer for some days past had been falling from 29.90, and to-day +it was 29.50, with the wind at N.E., which, in the course of this day, +increased to a strong gale accompanied with a sea which broke with great +violence upon the rock. At twelve noon the tender rode very heavily at +her moorings, when her chain broke at about ten fathoms from the ship's +bows. The kedge-anchor was immediately let go, to hold her till the +floating buoy and broken chain should be got on board. But while this +was in operation the hawser of the kedge was chafed through on the rocky +bottom and parted, when the vessel was again adrift. Most fortunately, +however, she cast off with her head from the rock, and narrowly cleared +it, when she sailed up the Firth of Forth to wait the return of better +weather. The artificers were thus left upon the rock with so heavy a sea +running that it was ascertained to have risen to the height of eighty +feet on the building. Under such perilous circumstances it would be +difficult to describe the feelings of those who, at this time, were +cooped up in the beacon in so forlorn a situation, with the sea not only +raging under them, but occasionally falling from a great height upon the +roof of their temporary lodging, without even the attending vessel in +view to afford the least gleam of hope in the event of any accident. It +is true that they had now the masonry of the lighthouse to resort to, +which, no doubt, lessened the actual danger of their situation; but the +building was still without a roof, and the deadlights, or +storm-shutters, not being yet fitted, the windows of the lower story +were stove in and broken, and at high-water the sea ran in considerable +quantities out at the entrance door. + + Thursday, 16th Aug. + +The gale continues with unabated violence to-day, and the sprays rise to +a still greater height, having been carried over the masonry the +building, or about ninety feet above the level of the sea. At four +o'clock this morning it was breaking into the cook's berth, when he rang +the alarm-bell, and all hands turned out to attend to their personal +safety. The floor of the smith's, or mortar gallery, was now completely +burst up by the force of the sea, when the whole of the deals and the +remaining articles upon the floor were swept away, such as the cast-iron +mortar-tubs, the iron hearth of the forge, the smith's bellows, and even +his anvil were thrown down upon the rock. Before the tide rose to its +full height to-day some of the artificers passed along the bridge into +the lighthouse, to observe the effects of the sea upon it, and they +reported that they had felt a slight tremulous motion in the building +when great seas struck it in a certain direction, about high-water mark. +On this occasion the sprays were again observed to wet the balcony, and +even to come over the parapet wall into the interior of the light-room. + + Thursday, 23rd Aug. + +The wind being at W.S.W., and the weather more moderate, both the tender +and the _Smeaton_ got to their moorings on the 23rd, when hands were +employed in transporting the sash-frames from on board of the _Smeaton_ +to the rock. In the act of setting up one of these frames upon the +bridge, it was unguardedly suffered to lose its balance, and in saving +it from damage, Captain Wilson met with a severe bruise in the groin, on +the seat of a gun-shot wound received in the early part of his life. +This accident laid him aside for several days. + + Monday, 27th Aug. + +The sash-frames of the light-room, eight in number, and weighing each +254 pounds, having been got safely up to the top of the building were +ranged on the balcony in the order in which they were numbered for their +places on the top of the parapet-wall; and the balance-crane, that +useful machine having now lifted all the heavier articles, was unscrewed +and lowered, to use the landing-master's phrase, "in mournful silence." + + Sunday, 2nd Sept. + +The steps of the stair being landed, and all the weightier articles of +the light-room got up to the balcony, the wooden bridge was now to be +removed, as it had a very powerful effect upon the beacon when a heavy +sea struck it, and could not possibly have withstood the storms of a +winter. Everything having been cleared from the bridge, and nothing left +but the two principal beams with their horizontal braces, James Glen, at +high-water, proceeded with a saw to cut through the beams at the end +next the beacon, which likewise disengaged their opposite extremity, +inserted a few inches into the building. The frame was then gently +lowered into the water, and floated off to the _Smeaton_ to be towed to +Arbroath, to be applied as part of the materials in the erection of the +lightkeepers' houses. After the removal of the bridge, the aspect of +things at the rock was much altered. The beacon-house and building had +both a naked look to those accustomed to their former appearance; a +curious optical deception was also remarked, by which the lighthouse +seemed to incline from the perpendicular towards the beacon. The +horizontal rope-ladder before noticed was again stretched to preserve +the communication, and the artificers were once more obliged to practise +the awkward and straddling manner of their passage between them during +1809. + +At twelve noon the bell rung for prayers, after which the artificers +went to dinner, when the writer passed along the rope-ladder to the +lighthouse, and went through the several apartments, which were now +cleared of lumber. In the afternoon all hands were summoned to the +interior of the house, when he had the satisfaction of laying the upper +step of the stair, or last stone of the building. This ceremony +concluded with three cheers, the sound of which had a very loud and +strange effect within the walls of the lighthouse. At six o'clock Mr. +Peter Logan and eleven of the artificers embarked with the writer for +Arbroath, leaving Mr. James Glen with the special charge of the beacon +and railways, Mr. Robert Selkirk with the building, with a few +artificers to fit the temporary windows to render the house habitable. + + Sunday, 14th Oct. + +On returning from his voyage to the Northern Lighthouses, the writer +landed at the Bell Rock on Sunday, the 14th of October, and had the +pleasure to find, from the very favourable state of the weather, that +the artificers had been enabled to make great progress with the +fitting-up of the light-room. + + Friday, 19th Oct. + +The light-room work had proceeded, as usual, to-day under the direction +of Mr. Dove, assisted in the plumber-work by Mr. John Gibson, and in the +brazier-work by Mr. Joseph Fraser; while Mr. James Slight, with the +joiners, were fitting up the storm-shutters of the windows. In these +several departments the artificers were at work till seven o'clock p.m., +and it being then dark, Mr. Dove gave orders to drop work in the +light-room; and all hands proceeded from thence to the beacon-house, +when Charles Henderson, smith, and Henry Dickson, brazier, left the work +together. Being both young men, who had been for several weeks upon the +rock, they had become familiar, and even playful, on the most difficult +parts about the beacon and building. This evening they were trying to +outrun each other in descending from the light-room, when Henderson led +the way; but they were in conversation with each other till they came to +the rope-ladder distended between the entrance-door of the lighthouse +and the beacon. Dickson, on reaching the cook-room, was surprised at not +seeing his companion, and inquired hastily for Henderson. Upon which the +cook replied, "Was he before you upon the rope-ladder?" Dickson +answered, "Yes; and I thought I heard something fall." Upon this the +alarm was given, and links were immediately lighted, with which the +artificers descended on the legs of the beacon, as near the surface of +the water as possible, it being then about full tide, and the sea +breaking to a considerable height upon the building, with the wind at +S.S.E. But, after watching till low-water, and searching in every +direction upon the rock, it appeared that poor Henderson must have +unfortunately fallen through the rope-ladder and been washed into the +deep water. + +The deceased had passed along this rope-ladder many hundred times, both +by day and night, and the operations in which he was employed being +nearly finished, he was about to leave the rock when this melancholy +catastrophe took place. The unfortunate loss of Henderson cast a deep +gloom upon the minds of all who were at the rock, and it required some +management on the part of those who had charge to induce the people to +remain patiently at their work; as the weather now became more +boisterous, and the nights long, they found their habitation extremely +cheerless, while the winds were howling about their ears, and the waves +lashing with fury against the beams of their insulated habitation. + + Tuesday, 23rd Oct. + +The wind had shifted in the night to N.W., and blew a fresh gale, while +the sea broke with violence upon the rock. It was found impossible to +land, but the writer, from the boat, hailed Mr. Dove, and directed the +ball to be immediately fixed. The necessary preparations were +accordingly made, while the vessel made short tacks on the southern side +of the rock, in comparatively smooth water. At noon Mr. Dove, assisted +by Mr. James Slight, Mr. Robert Selkirk, Mr. James Glen, and Mr. John +Gibson, plumber, with considerable difficulty, from the boisterous state +of the weather, got the gilded ball screwed on, measuring two feet in +diameter, and forming the principal ventilator at the upper extremity of +the cupola of the lightroom. At Mr. Hamilton's desire, a salute of seven +guns was fired on this occasion, and, all hands being called to the +quarter-deck, "Stability to the Bell Rock Lighthouse" was not forgotten. + + Tuesday, 30th Oct. + +On reaching the rock it was found that a very heavy sea still ran upon +it; but the writer having been disappointed on two former occasions, +and, as the erection of the house might now be considered complete, +there being nothing wanted externally, excepting some of the +storm-shutters for the defence of the windows, he was the more anxious +at this time to inspect it. Two well-manned boats were therefore ordered +to be in attendance; and, after some difficulty, the wind being at +N.N.E., they got safely into the western creek, though not without +encountering plentiful sprays. It would have been impossible to have +attempted a landing to-day, under any other circumstances than with +boats perfectly adapted to the purpose, and with seamen who knew every +ledge of the rock, and even the length of the sea-weeds at each +particular spot, so as to dip their oars into the water accordingly, and +thereby prevent them from getting entangled. But what was of no less +consequence to the safety of the party, Captain Wilson, who always +steered the boat, had a perfect knowledge of the set of the different +waves, while the crew never shifted their eyes from observing his +motions, and the strictest silence was preserved by every individual +except himself. + +On entering the house, the writer had the pleasure to find it in a +somewhat habitable condition, the lower apartments being closed in with +temporary windows, and fitted with proper storm-shutters. The lowest +apartment at the head of the staircase was occupied with water, fuel, +and provisions, put up in a temporary way until the house could be +furnished with proper utensils. The second, or light-room store, was at +present much encumbered with various tools and apparatus for the use of +the workmen. The kitchen immediately over this had, as yet, been +supplied only with a common ship's caboose and plate-iron funnel, while +the necessary cooking utensils had been taken from the beacon. The +bedroom was for the present used as the joiners' workshop, and the +strangers' room, immediately under the light-room, was occupied by the +artificers, the beds being ranged in tiers, as was done in the barrack +of the beacon. The lightroom, though unprovided with its machinery, +being now covered over with the cupola, glazed and painted, had a very +complete and cleanly appearance. The balcony was only as yet fitted with +a temporary rail, consisting of a few iron stanchions, connected with +ropes; and in this state it was necessary to leave it during the winter. + +Having gone over the whole of the low-water works on the rock, the +beacon, and lighthouse, and being satisfied that only the most untoward +accident in the landing of the machinery could prevent the exhibition of +the light in the course of the winter, Mr. John Reid, formerly of the +floating light, was now put in charge of the lighthouse as principal +keeper; Mr. James Slight had charge of the operations of the +artificers, while Mr. James Dove and the smiths, having finished the +frame of the light-room, left the rock for the present. With these +arrangements the writer bade adieu to the works for the season. At +eleven a.m. the tide was far advanced; and there being now little or no +shelter for the boats at the rock, they had to be pulled through the +breach of sea, which came on board in great quantities, and it was with +extreme difficulty that they could be kept in the proper direction of +the landing-creek. On this occasion he may be permitted to look back +with gratitude on the many escapes made in the course of this arduous +undertaking, now brought so near to a successful conclusion. + + Monday, 5th Nov. + +On Monday, the 5th, the yacht again visited the rock, when Mr. Slight +and the artificers returned with her to the workyard, where a number of +things were still to prepare connected with the temporary fitting up of +the accommodation for the lightkeepers. Mr. John Reid and Peter Fortune +were now the only inmates of the house. This was the smallest number of +persons hitherto left in the lighthouse. As four lightkeepers were to be +the complement, it was intended that three should always be at the rock. +Its present inmates, however, could hardly have been better selected for +such a situation; Mr. Reid being a person possessed of the strictest +notions of duty and habits of regularity from long service on board of a +man-of-war, while Mr. Fortune had one of the most happy and contented +dispositions imaginable. + + Tuesday, 13th Nov. + +From Saturday the 10th till Tuesday the 13th, the wind had been from +N.E. blowing a heavy gale; but to-day, the weather having greatly +moderated, Captain Taylor, who now commanded the _Smeaton_, sailed at +two o'clock a.m. for the Bell Rock. At five the floating light was +hailed and found to be all well. Being a fine moonlight morning, the +seamen were changed from the one ship to the other. At eight, the +_Smeaton_ being off the rock, the boats were manned, and taking a supply +of water, fuel, and other necessaries, landed at the western side, when +Mr. Reid and Mr. Fortune were found in good health and spirits. + +Mr. Reid stated that during the late gales, particularly on Friday, the +30th, the wind veering from S.E. to N.E., both he and Mr. Fortune +sensibly felt the house tremble when particular seas struck, about the +time of high-water; the former observing that it was a tremor of that +sort which rather tended to convince him that everything about the +building was sound, and reminded him of the effect produced when a good +log of timber is struck sharply with a mallet; but, with every +confidence in the stability of the building, he nevertheless confessed +that, in so forlorn a situation, they were not insensible to those +emotions which, he emphatically observed, "made a man look back upon his +former life." + + Friday, 1st Feb. + +The day, long wished for, on which the mariner was to see a light +exhibited on the Bell Rock at length arrived. Captain Wilson, as usual, +hoisted the float's lanterns to the topmast on the evening of the 1st of +February; but the moment that the light appeared on the rock, the crew, +giving three cheers, lowered them, and finally extinguished the lights. + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [11] This is, of course, the tradition commemorated by Southey in + his ballad of "The Inchcape Bell." Whether true or not, it points to + the fact that from the infancy of Scottish navigation, the seafaring + mind had been fully alive to the perils of this reef. Repeated + attempts had been made to mark the place with beacons, but all + efforts were unavailing (one such beacon having been carried away + within eight days of its erection) until Robert Stevenson conceived + and carried out the idea of the stone tower. + + [12] The particular event which concentrated Mr. Stevenson's + attention on the problem of the Bell Rock was the memorable gale of + December 1799, when, among many other vessels, H.M.S. _York,_ a + seventy-four-gun ship, went down with all hands on board. Shortly + after this disaster Mr. Stevenson made a careful survey, and + prepared his models for a stone tower, the idea of which was at + first received with pretty general scepticism. Smeaton's Eddystone + tower could not be cited as affording a parallel, for there the rock + is not submerged even at high-water, while the problem of the Bell + Rock was to build a tower of masonry on a sunken reef far distant + from land, covered at every tide to a depth of twelve feet or more, + and having thirty-two fathoms' depth of water within a mile of its + eastern edge. + + [13] The grounds for the rejection of the Bill by the House of Lords + in 1802-3 had been that the extent of coast over which dues were + proposed to be levied would be too great. Before going to Parliament + again, the Board of Northern Lights, desiring to obtain support and + corroboration for Mr. Stevenson's views, consulted first Telford, + who was unable to give the matter his attention, and then (on + Stevenson's suggestion) Rennie, who concurred in affirming the + practicability of a stone tower, and supported the Bill when it came + again before Parliament in 1806. Rennie was afterwards appointed by + the Commissioners as advising engineer, whom Stevenson might consult + in cases of emergency. It seems certain that the title of chief + engineer had in this instance no more meaning than the above. + Rennie, in point of fact, proposed certain modifications in + Stevenson's plans, which the latter did not accept; nevertheless + Rennie continued to take a kindly interest in the work, and the two + engineers remained in friendly correspondence during its progress. + The official view taken by the Board as to the quarter in which lay + both the merit and the responsibility of the work may be gathered + from a minute of the Commissioners at their first meeting held after + Stevenson died; in which they record their regret "at the death of + this zealous, faithful, and able officer, _to whom is due the honour + of conceiving and executing the Bell Rock Lighthouse_." The matter + is briefly summed up in the "Life" of Robert Stevenson by his son + David Stevenson (A. & C. Black, 1878), and fully discussed, on the + basis of official facts and figures, by the same writer in a letter + to the _Civil Engineers' and Architects' Journal_, 1862. + + [14] "Nothing was said, but I was _looked out of countenance_," he + says in a letter. + + [15] Ill-formed--ugly.--[R. L. S.] + + [16] This is an incurable illusion of my grandfather's; he always + writes "distended" for "extended." [R. L. S.] + + + + +ADDITIONAL MEMORIES AND PORTRAITS + + + + +ADDITIONAL MEMORIES AND PORTRAITS + +I + +RANDOM MEMORIES + + I. THE COAST OF FIFE + + +Many writers have vigorously described the pains of the first day or the +first night at school; to a boy of any enterprise, I believe, they are +more often agreeably exciting. Misery--or at least misery unrelieved--is +confined to another period, to the days of suspense and the "dreadful +looking-for" of departure; when the old life is running to an end, and +the new life, with its new interests, not yet begun; and to the pain of +an imminent parting, there is added the unrest of a state of conscious +pre-existence. The area railings, the beloved shop-window, the smell of +semi-suburban tanpits, the song of the church-bells upon a Sunday, the +thin, high voices of compatriot children in a playing-field--what a +sudden, what an overpowering pathos breathes to him from each familiar +circumstance! The assaults of sorrow come not from within, as it seems +to him, but from without. I was proud and glad to go to school; had I +been let alone, I could have borne up like any hero; but there was +around me, in all my native town, a conspiracy of lamentation: "Poor +little boy, he is going away--unkind little boy, he is going to leave +us"; so the unspoken burthen followed me as I went, with yearning and +reproach. And at length, one melancholy afternoon in the early autumn, +and at a place where it seems to me, looking back, it must be always +autumn and generally Sunday, there came suddenly upon the face of all I +saw--the long empty road, the lines of the tall houses, the church upon +the hill, the woody hillside garden--a look of such a piercing sadness +that my heart died; and seating myself on a door-step, I shed tears of +miserable sympathy. A benevolent cat cumbered me the while with +consolations--we two were alone in all that was visible of the London +Road: two poor waifs who had each tasted sorrow--and she fawned upon the +weeper, and gambolled for his entertainment, watching the effect, it +seemed, with motherly eyes. + +For the sake of the cat, God bless her! I confessed at home the story of +my weakness; and so it comes about that I owed a certain journey, and +the reader owes the present paper, to a cat in the London Road. It was +judged, if I had thus brimmed over on the public highway, some change of +scene was (in the medical sense) indicated; my father at the time was +visiting the harbour lights of Scotland; and it was decided that he +should take me along with him around a portion of the shores of Fife; my +first professional tour, my first journey in the complete character of +man, without the help of petticoats. + +The Kingdom of Fife (that royal province) may be observed by the curious +on the map, occupying a tongue of land between the firths of Forth and +Tay. It may be continually seen from many parts of Edinburgh (among the +rest, from the windows of my father's house) dying away into the +distance and the easterly _haar_ with one smoky seaside town beyond +another, or in winter printing on the grey heaven some glittering +hill-tops. It has no beauty to recommend it, being a low, sea-salted, +wind-vexed promontory; trees very rare, except (as common on the east +coast) along the dens of rivers; the fields well cultivated, I +understand, but not lovely to the eye. It is of the coast I speak: the +interior may be the garden of Eden. History broods over that part of the +world like the easterly haar. Even on the map, its long row of Gaelic +place-names bear testimony to an old and settled race. Of these little +towns, posted along the shore as close as sedges, each with its bit of +harbour, its old weather-beaten church or public building, its flavour +of decayed prosperity and decaying fish, not one but has its legend, +quaint or tragic: Dunfermline, in whose royal towers the king may be +still observed (in the ballad) drinking the blood-red wine; somnolent +Inverkeithing, once the quarantine of Leith; Aberdour, hard by the +monastic islet of Inchcolm, hard by Donibristle where the "bonny face +was spoiled": Burntisland, where, when Paul Jones was off the coast, the +Reverend Mr. Shirra had a table carried between tide-marks, and publicly +prayed against the rover at the pitch of his voice and his broad lowland +dialect; Kinghorn, where Alexander "brak's neck-bane" and left Scotland +to the English wars; Kirkcaldy, where the witches once prevailed +extremely and sank tall ships and honest mariners in the North Sea; +Dysart, famous--well, famous at least to me for the Dutch ships that lay +in its harbour, painted like toys and with pots of flowers and cages of +song-birds in the cabin-windows, and for one particular Dutch skipper +who would sit all day in slippers on the break of the poop, smoking a +long German pipe; Wemyss (pronounced Weems) with its bat-haunted caves, +where the Chevalier Johnstone, on his flight from Culloden, passed a +night of superstitious terrors; Leven, a bald, quite modern place, +sacred to summer visitors, whence there has gone but yesterday the tall +figure and the white locks of the last Englishman in Delhi, my uncle Dr. +Balfour, who was still walking his hospital rounds, while the troopers +from Meerut clattered and cried "Deen Deen" along the streets of the +imperial city, and Willoughby mustered his handful of heroes at the +magazine, and the nameless brave one in the telegraph office was perhaps +already fingering his last despatch; and just a little beyond Leven, +Largo Law and the smoke of Largo town mounting about its feet, the town +of Alexander Selkirk, better known under the name of Robinson Crusoe. +So on the list might be pursued (only for private reasons, which the +reader will shortly have an opportunity to guess) by St. Monans, and +Pittenweem, and the two Anstruthers, and Cellardyke, and Crail, where +Primate Sharpe was once a humble and innocent country minister: on to +the heel of the land, to Fife Ness, overlooked by a sea-wood of matted +elders and the quaint old mansion of Balcomie, itself overlooking but +the breach or the quiescence of the deep--the Carr Rock beacon rising +close in front, and as night draws in, the star of the Inchcape reef +springing up on the one hand, and the star of the May Island on the +other, and farther off yet a third and a greater on the craggy foreland +of St. Abb's. And but a little way round the corner of the land, +imminent itself above the sea, stands the gem of the province and the +light of mediaeval Scotland, St. Andrews, where the great Cardinal Beaton +held garrison against the world, and the second of the name and title +perished (as you may read in Knox's jeering narrative) under the knives +of true-blue Protestants, and to this day (after so many centuries) the +current voice of the professor is not hushed. + +Here it was that my first tour of inspection began, early on a bleak +easterly morning. There was a crashing run of sea upon the shore, I +recollect, and my father and the man of the harbour light must sometimes +raise their voices to be audible. Perhaps it is from this circumstance, +that I always imagine St. Andrews to be an ineffectual seat of learning, +and the sound of the east wind and the bursting surf to linger in its +drowsy class-rooms and confound the utterance of the professor, until +teacher and taught are alike drowned in oblivion, and only the sea-gull +beats on the windows and the draught of the sea-air rustles in the pages +of the open lecture. But upon all this, and the romance of St. Andrews +in general, the reader must consult the works of Mr. Andrew Lang; who +has written of it but the other day in his dainty prose and with his +incommunicable humour, and long ago, in one of his best poems, with +grace and local truth and a note of unaffected pathos. Mr. Lang knows +all about the romance, I say, and the educational advantages, but I +doubt if he had turned his attention to the harbour lights; and it may +be news even to him, that in the year 1863 their case was pitiable. +Hanging about with the east wind humming in my teeth, and my hands (I +make no doubt) in my pockets, I looked for the first time upon that +tragi-comedy of the visiting engineer which I have seen so often +re-enacted on a more important stage. Eighty years ago, I find my +grandfather writing: "It is the most painful thing that can occur to me +to have a correspondence of this kind with any of the keepers, and when +I come to the Light House, instead of having the satisfaction to meet +them with approbation and welcome their Family, it is distressing when +one is obliged to put on a most angry countenance and demeanour." This +painful obligation has been hereditary in my race. I have myself, on a +perfectly amateur and unauthorised inspection of Turnberry Point, bent +my brows upon the keeper on the question of storm-panes; and felt a keen +pang of self-reproach, when we went downstairs again and I found he was +making a coffin for his infant child; and then regained my equanimity +with the thought that I had done the man a service, and when the proper +inspector came, he would be readier with his panes. The human race is +perhaps credited with more duplicity than it deserves. The visitation of +a lighthouse at least is a business of the most transparent nature. As +soon as the boat grates on the shore, and the keepers step forward in +their uniformed coats, the very slouch of the fellows' shoulders tells +their story, and the engineer may begin at once to assume his "angry +countenance." Certainly the brass of the handrail will be clouded; and +if the brass be not immaculate, certainly all will be to match--the +reflectors scratched, the spare lamp unready, the storm-panes in the +storehouse. If a light is not rather more than middling good, it will be +radically bad. Mediocrity (except in literature) appears to be +unattainable by man. But of course the unfortunate of St. Andrews was +only an amateur, he was not in the Service, he had no uniform coat, he +was, I believe, a plumber by his trade, and stood (in the mediaeval +phrase) quite out of the danger of my father; but he had a painful +interview for all that, and perspired extremely. + +From St. Andrews we drove over Magus Muir. My father had announced we +were "to post," and the phrase called up in my hopeful mind visions of +top-boots and the pictures in Rowlandson's "Dance of Death"; but it was +only a jingling cab that came to the inn door, such as I had driven in a +thousand times at the low price of one shilling on the streets of +Edinburgh. Beyond this disappointment, I remember nothing of that drive. +It is a road I have often travelled, and of not one of these journeys do +I remember any single trait. The fact has not been suffered to encroach +on the truth of the imagination. I still see Magus Muir two hundred +years ago: a desert place, quite unenclosed; in the midst, the primate's +carriage fleeing at the gallop; the assassins loose-reined in pursuit, +Burley Balfour, pistol in hand, among the first. No scene of history has +ever written itself so deeply on my mind; not because Balfour, that +questionable zealot, was an ancestral cousin of my own; not because of +the pleadings of the victim and his daughter; not even because of the +live bum-bee that flew out of Sharpe's 'bacco-box, thus clearly +indicating his complicity with Satan; nor merely because, as it was +after all a crime of a fine religious flavour, it figured in Sunday +books and afforded a grateful relief from "Ministering Children" or the +"Memoirs of Mrs. Katherine Winslowe." The figure that always fixed my +attention is that of Hackston of Rathillet, sitting in the saddle with +his cloak about his mouth, and through all that long, bungling, +vociferous hurly-burly, revolving privately a case of conscience. He +would take no hand in the deed, because he had a private spite against +the victim, and "that action" must be sullied with no suggestion of a +worldly motive; on the other hand, "that action" in itself was highly +justified, he had cast in his lot with "the actors," and he must stay +there, inactive, but publicly sharing the responsibility. "You are a +gentleman--you will protect me!" cried the wounded old man, crawling +towards him. "I will never lay a hand on you," said Hackston, and put +his cloak about his mouth. It is an old temptation with me to pluck away +that cloak and see the face--to open that bosom and to read the heart. +With incomplete romances about Hackston, the drawers of my youth were +lumbered. I read him up in every printed book that I could lay my hands +on. I even dug among the Wodrow manuscripts, sitting shame-faced in the +very room where my hero had been tortured two centuries before, and +keenly conscious of my youth in the midst of other and (as I fondly +thought) more gifted students. All was vain: that he had passed a +riotous nonage, that he was a zealot, that he twice displayed (compared +with his grotesque companions) some tincture of soldierly resolution and +even of military common sense, and that he figured memorably in the +scene on Magus Muir, so much and no more could I make out. But whenever +I cast my eyes backward, it is to see him like a landmark on the plains +of history, sitting with his cloak about his mouth, inscrutable. How +small a thing creates an immortality! I do not think he can have been a +man entirely commonplace; but had he not thrown his cloak about his +mouth, or had the witnesses forgot to chronicle the action, he would not +thus have haunted the imagination of my boyhood, and to-day he would +scarce delay me for a paragraph. An incident, at once romantic and +dramatic, which at once awakes the judgment and makes a picture for the +eye, how little do we realise its perdurable power! Perhaps no one does +so but the author, just as none but he appreciates the influence of +jingling words; so that he looks on upon life, with something of a +covert smile, seeing people led by what they fancy to be thoughts and +what are really the accustomed artifices of his own trade, or roused by +what they take to be principles and are really picturesque effects. In a +pleasant book about a school-class club, Colonel Fergusson has recently +told a little anecdote. A "Philosophical Society" was formed by some +Academy boys--among them, Colonel Fergusson himself, Fleeming Jenkin, +and Andrew Wilson, the Christian Buddhist and author of "The Abode of +Snow." Before these learned pundits, one member laid the following +ingenious problem: "What would be the result of putting a pound of +potassium in a pot of porter?" "I should think there would be a number +of interesting bi-products," said a smatterer at my elbow; but for me +the tale itself has a bi-product, and stands as a type of much that is +most human. For this inquirer, who conceived himself to burn with a zeal +entirely chemical, was really immersed in a design of a quite different +nature: unconsciously to his own recently breeched intelligence, he was +engaged in literature. Putting, pound, potassium, pot, porter; initial +p, mediant t--that was his idea, poor little boy! So with politics and +that which excites men in the present, so with history and that which +rouses them in the past: there lie, at the root of what appears, most +serious unsuspected elements. + +The triple town of Anstruther Wester, Anstruther Easter, and Cellardyke, +all three Royal Burghs--or two Royal Burghs and a less distinguished +suburb, I forget which--lies continuously along the seaside, and boasts +of either two or three separate parish churches, and either two or three +separate harbours. These ambiguities are painful; but the fact is +(although it argues me uncultured), I am but poorly posted up on +Cellardyke. My business lay in the two Anstruthers. A tricklet of a +stream divides them, spanned by a bridge; and over the bridge at the +time of my knowledge, the celebrated Shell House stood outpost on the +west. This had been the residence of an agreeable eccentric; during his +fond tenancy he had illustrated the outer walls, as high (if I remember +rightly) as the roof, with elaborate patterns and pictures, and +snatches of verse in the vein of _exegi monumentum_; shells and pebbles, +artfully contrasted and conjoined, had been his medium; and I like to +think of him standing back upon the bridge, when all was finished, +drinking in the general effect, and (like Gibbon) already lamenting his +employment. + +The same bridge saw another sight in the seventeenth century. Mr. +Thomson, the "curat" of Anstruther Easter, was a man highly obnoxious to +the devout: in the first place, because he was a "curat"; in the second +place, because he was a person of irregular and scandalous life; and in +the third place, because he was generally suspected of dealings with the +Enemy of Man. These three disqualifications, in the popular literature +of the time, go hand in hand; but the end of Mr. Thomson was a thing +quite by itself, and, in the proper phrase, a manifest judgment. He had +been at a friend's house in Anstruther Wester, where (and elsewhere, I +suspect) he had partaken of the bottle; indeed, to put the thing in our +cold modern way, the reverend gentleman was on the brink of _delirium +tremens_. It was a dark night, it seems; a little lassie came carrying a +lantern to fetch the curate home; and away they went down the street of +Anstruther Wester, the lantern swinging a bit in the child's hand, the +barred lustre tossing up and down along the front of slumbering houses, +and Mr. Thomson not altogether steady on his legs nor (to all +appearance) easy in his mind. The pair had reached the middle of the +bridge when (as I conceive the scene) the poor tippler started in some +baseless fear and looked behind him; the child, already shaken by the +minister's strange behaviour, started also; in so doing she would jerk +the lantern; and for the space of a moment the lights and the shadows +would be all confounded. Then it was that to the unhinged toper and the +twittering child, a huge bulk of blackness seemed to sweep down, to pass +them close by as they stood upon the bridge, and to vanish on the +farther side in the general darkness of the night. "Plainly the devil +come for Mr. Thomson!" thought the child. What Mr. Thomson thought +himself, we have no ground of knowledge; but he fell upon his knees in +the midst of the bridge like a man praying. On the rest of the journey +to the manse, history is silent; but when they came to the door, the +poor caitiff, taking the lantern from the child, looked upon her with so +lost a countenance that her little courage died within her, and she fled +home screaming to her parents. Not a soul would venture out; all that +night the minister dwelt alone with his terrors in the manse; and when +the day dawned, and men made bold to go about the streets, they found +the devil had come indeed for Mr. Thomson. + +This manse of Anstruther Easter has another and a more cheerful +association. It was early in the morning, about a century before the +days of Mr. Thomson, that his predecessor was called out of bed to +welcome a Grandee of Spain, the Duke of Medina Sidonia, just landed in +the harbour underneath. But sure there was never seen a more decayed +grandee; sure there was never a duke welcomed from a stranger place of +exile. Half-way between Orkney and Shetland there lies a certain isle; +on the one hand the Atlantic, on the other the North Sea, bombard its +pillared cliffs; sore-eyed, short-living, inbred fishers and their +families herd in its few huts; in the graveyard pieces of wreck-wood +stand for monuments; there is nowhere a more inhospitable spot. +_Belle-Isle-en-Mer_--Fair-Isle-at-Sea--that is a name that has always +rung in my mind's ear like music; but the only "Fair Isle" on which I +ever set my foot was this unhomely, rugged turret-top of submarine +sierras. Here, when his ship was broken, my lord Duke joyfully got +ashore; here for long months he and certain of his men were harboured; +and it was from this durance that he landed at last to be welcomed (as +well as such a papist deserved, no doubt) by the godly incumbent of +Anstruther Easter; and after the Fair Isle, what a fine city must that +have appeared! and after the island diet, what a hospitable spot the +minister's table! And yet he must have lived on friendly terms with his +outlandish hosts. For to this day there still survives a relic of the +long winter evenings when the sailors of the great Armada crouched about +the hearths of the Fair-Islanders, the planks of their own lost galleon +perhaps lighting up the scene, and the gale and the surf that beat about +the coast contributing their melancholy voices. All the folk of the +north isles are great artificers of knitting: the Fair-Islanders alone +dye their fabrics in the Spanish manner. To this day, gloves and +nightcaps, innocently decorated, may be seen for sale in the Shetland +warehouse at Edinburgh, or on the Fair Isle itself in the catechist's +house; and to this day, they tell the story of the Duke of Medina +Sidonia's adventure. + +It would seem as if the Fair Isle had some attraction for "persons of +quality." When I landed there myself, an elderly gentleman, unshaved, +poorly attired, his shoulders wrapped in a plaid, was seen walking to +and fro, with a book in his hand, upon the beach. He paid no heed to our +arrival, which we thought a strange thing in itself; but when one of the +officers of the _Pharos_, passing narrowly by him, observed his book to +be a Greek Testament, our wonder and interest took a higher flight. The +catechist was cross-examined; he said the gentleman had been put across +some time before in Mr. Bruce of Sumburgh's schooner, the only link +between the Fair Isle and the rest of the world; and that he held +services and was doing "good." So much came glibly enough; but when +pressed a little further, the catechist displayed embarrassment. A +singular diffidence appeared upon his face: "They tell me," said he, in +low tones, "that he's a lord." And a lord he was; a peer of the realm +pacing that inhospitable beach with his Greek Testament, and his plaid +about his shoulders, set upon doing good, as he understood it, worthy +man! And his grandson, a good-looking little boy, much better dressed +than the lordly evangelist, and speaking with a silken English accent +very foreign to the scene, accompanied me for a while in my exploration +of the island. I suppose this little fellow is now my lord, and wonder +how much he remembers of the Fair Isle. Perhaps not much; for he seemed +to accept very quietly his savage situation; and under such guidance, it +is like that this was not his first nor yet his last adventure. + + + + +II + +RANDOM MEMORIES + + II. THE EDUCATION OF AN ENGINEER + + +Anstruther is a place sacred to the Muse; she inspired (really to a +considerable extent) Tennant's vernacular poem "Anster Fair"; and I have +there waited upon her myself with much devotion. This was when I came as +a young man to glean engineering experience from the building of the +breakwater. What I gleaned, I am sure I do not know; but indeed I had +already my own private determination to be an author; I loved the art of +words and the appearances of life; and _travellers_, and _headers_, and +_rubble_, and _polished ashlar_, and _pierres perdues_, and even the +thrilling question of the _string-course_, interested me only (if they +interested me at all) as properties for some possible romance or as +words to add to my vocabulary. To grow a little catholic is the +compensation of years; youth is one-eyed; and in those days, though I +haunted the breakwater by day, and even loved the place for the sake of +the sunshine, the thrilling seaside air, the wash of waves on the +sea-face, the green glimmer of the divers' helmets far below, and the +musical chinking of the masons, my one genuine pre-occupation lay +elsewhere, and my only industry was in the hours when I was not on duty. +I lodged with a certain Bailie Brown, a carpenter by trade; and there, +as soon as dinner was despatched, in a chamber scented with dry +rose-leaves, drew in my chair to the table and proceeded to pour forth +literature, at such a speed, and with such intimations of early death +and immortality, as I now look back upon with wonder. Then it was that +I wrote "Voces Fidelium," a series of dramatic monologues in verse; then +that I indited the bulk of a covenanting novel--like so many others, +never finished. Late I sat into the night, toiling (as I thought) under +the very dart of death, toiling to leave a memory behind me. I feel +moved to thrust aside the curtain of the years, to hail that poor +feverish idiot, to bid him go to bed and clap "Voces Fidelium" on the +fire before he goes; so clear does he appear before me, sitting there +between his candles in the rose-scented room and the late night; so +ridiculous a picture (to my elderly wisdom) does the fool present! But +he was driven to his bed at last without miraculous intervention; and +the manner of his driving sets the last touch upon this eminently +youthful business. The weather was then so warm that I must keep the +windows open; the night without was populous with moths. As the late +darkness deepened, my literary tapers beaconed forth more brightly; +thicker and thicker came the dusty night-fliers, to gyrate for one +brilliant instant round the flame and fall in agonies upon my paper. +Flesh and blood could not endure the spectacle; to capture immortality +was doubtless a noble enterprise, but not to capture it at such a cost +of suffering; and out would go the candles, and off would I go to bed in +the darkness, raging to think that the blow might fall on the morrow, +and there was "Voces Fidelium" still incomplete. Well, the moths are all +gone, and "Voces Fidelium" along with them; only the fool is still on +hand and practises new follies. + +Only one thing in connection with the harbour tempted me, and that was +the diving, an experience I burned to taste of. But this was not to be, +at least in Anstruther; and the subject involves a change of scene to +the sub-arctic town of Wick. You can never have dwelt in a country more +unsightly than that part of Caithness, the land faintly swelling, +faintly falling, not a tree, not a hedgerow, the fields divided by +single slate stones set upon their edge, the wind always singing in your +ears and (down the long road that led nowhere) thrumming in the +telegraph wires. Only as you approached the coast was there anything to +stir the heart. The plateau broke down to the North Sea in formidable +cliffs, the tall out-stacks rose like pillars ringed about with surf, +the coves were over-brimmed with clamorous froth, the sea-birds +screamed, the wind sang in the thyme on the cliff's edge; here and +there, small ancient castles toppled on the brim; here and there, it was +possible to dip into a dell of shelter, where you might lie and tell +yourself you were a little warm, and hear (near at hand) the whin-pods +bursting in the afternoon sun, and (farther off) the rumour of the +turbulent sea. As for Wick itself, it is one of the meanest of man's +towns, and situate certainly on the baldest of God's bays. It lives for +herring, and a strange sight it is to see (of an afternoon) the heights +of Pulteney blackened by seaward-looking fishers, as when a city crowds +to a review--or, as when bees have swarmed, the ground is horrible with +lumps and clusters; and a strange sight, and a beautiful, to see the +fleet put silently out against a rising moon, the sea-line rough as a +wood with sails, and ever and again and one after another, a boat +flitting swiftly by the silver disk. This mass of fishers, this great +fleet of boats, is out of all proportion to the town itself; and the +oars are manned and the nets hauled by immigrants from the Long Island +(as we call the outer Hebrides), who come for that season only, and +depart again, if "the take" be poor, leaving debts behind them. In a bad +year, the end of the herring-fishery is therefore an exciting time; +fights are common, riots often possible; an apple knocked from a child's +hand was once the signal for something like a war; and even when I was +there, a gunboat lay in the bay to assist the authorities. To contrary +interests, it should be observed, the curse of Babel is here added; the +Lews men are Gaelic speakers, those of Caithness have adopted English; +an odd circumstance, if you reflect that both must be largely Norsemen +by descent. I remember seeing one of the strongest instances of this +division: a thing like a Punch-and-Judy box erected on the flat +gravestones of the churchyard; from the hutch or proscenium--I know not +what to call it--an eldritch-looking preacher laying down the law in +Gaelic about some one of the name of _Powl_, whom I at last divined to +be the apostle to the Gentiles; a large congregation of the Lews men +very devoutly listening; and on the outskirts of the crowd, some of the +town's children (to whom the whole affair was Greek and Hebrew) +profanely playing tigg. The same descent, the same country, the same +narrow sect of the same religion, and all these bonds made very largely +nugatory by an accidental difference of dialect! + +Into the bay of Wick stretched the dark length of the unfinished +breakwater, in its cage of open staging; the travellers (like frames of +churches) over-plumbing all; and away at the extreme end, the divers +toiling unseen on the foundation. On a platform of loose planks, the +assistants turned their air-mills; a stone might be swinging between +wind and water; underneath the swell ran gaily; and from time to time, a +mailed dragon with a window-glass snout came dripping up the ladder. +Youth is a blessed season after all; my stay at Wick was in the year of +"Voces Fidelium" and the rose-leaf room at Bailie Brown's; and already I +did not care two straws for literary glory. Posthumous ambition perhaps +requires an atmosphere of roses; and the more rugged excitant of Wick +east winds had made another boy of me. To go down in the diving-dress, +that was my absorbing fancy; and with the countenance of a certain +handsome scamp of a diver, Bob Bain by name, I gratified the whim. + +It was grey, harsh, easterly weather, the swell ran pretty high, and out +in the open there were "skipper's daughters," when I found myself at +last on the diver's platform, twenty pounds of lead upon each foot and +my whole person swollen with ply and ply of woollen underclothing. One +moment, the salt wind was whistling round my night-capped head; the +next, I was crushed almost double under the weight of the helmet. As +that intolerable burthen was laid upon me, I could have found it in my +heart (only for shame's sake) to cry off from the whole enterprise. But +it was too late. The attendants began to turn the hurdy-gurdy, and the +air to whistle through the tube; some one screwed in the barred window +of the vizor; and I was cut off in a moment from my fellow-men; standing +there in their midst, but quite divorced from intercourse: a creature +deaf and dumb, pathetically looking forth upon them from a climate of +his own. Except that I could move and feel, I was like a man fallen in a +catalepsy. But time was scarce given me to realise my isolation; the +weights were hung upon my back and breast, the signal-rope was thrust +into my unresisting hand; and setting a twenty-pound foot upon the +ladder, I began ponderously to descend. + +Some twenty rounds below the platform, twilight fell. Looking up, I saw +a low green heaven mottled with vanishing bells of white; looking +around, except for the weedy spokes and shafts of the ladder, nothing +but a green gloaming, somewhat opaque but very restful and delicious. +Thirty rounds lower, I stepped off on the _pierres perdues_ of the +foundation; a dumb helmeted figure took me by the hand, and made a +gesture (as I read it) of encouragement; and looking in at the +creature's window, I beheld the face of Bain. There we were, hand to +hand and (when it pleased us) eye to eye; and either might have burst +himself with shouting, and not a whisper come to his companion's +hearing. Each, in his own little world of air, stood incommunicably +separate. + +Bob had told me ere this a little tale, a five minutes' drama at the +bottom of the sea, which at that moment possibly shot across my mind. He +was down with another, settling a stone of the sea-wall. They had it +well adjusted, Bob gave the signal, the scissors were slipped, the stone +set home; and it was time to turn to something else. But still his +companion remained bowed over the block like a mourner on a tomb, or +only raised himself to make absurd contortions and mysterious signs +unknown to the vocabulary of the diver. There, then, these two stood for +a while, like the dead and the living; till there flashed a fortunate +thought into Bob's mind, and he stooped, peered through the window of +that other world, and beheld the face of its inhabitant wet with +streaming tears. Ah! the man was in pain! And Bob, glancing downward, +saw what was the trouble: the block had been lowered on the foot of that +unfortunate--he was caught alive at the bottom of the sea under fifteen +tons of rock. + +That two men should handle a stone so heavy, even swinging in the +scissors, may appear strange to the inexpert. These must bear in mind +the great density of the water of the sea, and the surprising results of +transplantation to that medium. To understand a little what these are, +and how a man's weight, so far from being an encumbrance, is the very +ground of his agility, was the chief lesson of my submarine experience. +The knowledge came upon me by degrees. As I began to go forward with the +hand of my estranged companion, a world of tumbled stones was visible, +pillared with the weedy uprights of the staging: overhead, a flat roof +of green: a little in front, the sea-wall, like an unfinished rampart. +And presently in our upward progress, Bob motioned me to leap upon a +stone; I looked to see if he were possibly in earnest, and he only +signed to me the more imperiously. Now the block stood six feet high; it +would have been quite a leap to me unencumbered; with the breast and +back weights, and the twenty pounds upon each foot, and the staggering +load of the helmet, the thing was out of reason. I laughed aloud in my +tomb; and to prove to Bob how far he was astray, I gave a little impulse +from my toes. Up I soared like a bird, my companion soaring at my side. +As high as to the stone, and then higher, I pursued my impotent and +empty flight. Even when the strong arm of Bob had checked my shoulders, +my heels continued their ascent; so that I blew out side-ways like an +autumn leaf, and must be hauled in, hand over hand, as sailors haul in +the slack of a sail, and propped upon my feet again like an intoxicated +sparrow. Yet a little higher on the foundation, and we began to be +affected by the bottom of the swell, running there like a strong breeze +of wind. Or so I must suppose; for, safe in my cushion of air, I was +conscious of no impact; only swayed idly like a weed, and was now borne +helplessly abroad, and now swiftly--and yet with dream-like +gentleness--impelled against my guide. So does a child's balloon +divagate upon the currents of the air, and touch and slide off again +from every obstacle. So must have ineffectually swung, so resented their +inefficiency, those light crowds that followed the Star of Hades, and +uttered exiguous voices in the land beyond Cocytus. + +There was something strangely exasperating, as well as strangely +wearying, in these uncommanded evolutions. It is bitter to return to +infancy, to be supported, and directed, and perpetually set upon your +feet, by the hand of some one else. The air besides, as it is supplied to +you by the busy millers on the platform, closes the eustachian tubes and +keeps the neophyte perpetually swallowing, till his throat is grown so +dry that he can swallow no longer. And for all these reasons--although I +had a fine, dizzy, muddle-headed joy in my surroundings, and longed, and +tried, and always failed, to lay hands on the fish that darted here and +there about me, swift as humming-birds--yet I fancy I was rather relieved +than otherwise when Bain brought me back to the ladder and signed to me +to mount. And there was one more experience before me even then. Of a +sudden, my ascending head passed into the trough of a swell. Out of the +green, I shot at once into a glory of rosy, almost of sanguine light--the +multitudinous seas incarnadined, the heaven above a vault of crimson. And +then the glory faded into the hard, ugly daylight of a Caithness autumn, +with a low sky, a grey sea, and a whistling wind. + +Bob Bain had five shillings for his trouble, and I had done what I +desired. It was one of the best things I got from my education as an +engineer: of which, however, as a way of life, I wish to speak with +sympathy. It takes a man into the open air; it keeps him hanging about +harbour-sides, which is the richest form of idling; it carries him to +wild islands; it gives him a taste of the genial dangers of the sea; it +supplies him with dexterities to exercise; it makes demands upon his +ingenuity; it will go far to cure him of any taste (if ever he had one) +for the miserable life of cities. And when it has done so, it carries +him back and shuts him in an office! From the roaring skerry and the wet +thwart of the tossing boat, he passes to the stool and desk, and with a +memory full of ships, and seas, and perilous headlands, and the shining +pharos, he must apply his long-sighted eyes to the pretty niceties of +drawing, or measure his inaccurate mind with several pages of +consecutive figures. He is a wise youth, to be sure, who can balance one +part of genuine life against two parts of drudgery between four walls, +and for the sake of the one, manfully accept the other. + +Wick was scarce an eligible place of stay. But how much better it was to +hang in the cold wind upon the pier, to go down with Bob Bain among the +roots of the staging, to be all day in a boat coiling a wet rope and +shouting orders--not always very wise--than to be warm and dry, and +dull, and dead-alive, in the most comfortable office. And Wick itself +had in those days a note of originality. It may have still, but I +misdoubt it much. The old minister of Keiss would not preach, in these +degenerate times, for an hour and a half upon the clock. The gipsies +must be gone from their cavern; where you might see, from the mouth, the +women tending their fire, like Meg Merrilies, and the men sleeping off +their coarse potations; and where in winter gales, the surf would +beleaguer them closely, bursting in their very door. A traveller to-day +upon the Thurso coach would scarce observe a little cloud of smoke among +the moorlands, and be told, quite openly, it marked a private still. He +would not indeed make that journey, for there is now no Thurso coach. +And even if he could, one little thing that happened to me could never +happen to him, or not with the same trenchancy of contrast. + +We had been upon the road all evening; the coach-top was crowded with +Lews fishers going home, scarce anything but Gaelic had sounded in my +ears; and our way had lain throughout over a moorish country very +northern to behold. Latish at night, though it was still broad day in +our sub-arctic latitude, we came down upon the shores of the roaring +Pentland Firth, that grave of mariners; on one hand, the cliffs of +Dunnet Head ran seaward; in front was the little bare white town of +Castleton, its streets full of blowing sand; nothing beyond, but the +North Islands, the great deep, and the perennial ice-fields of the Pole. +And here, in the last imaginable place, there sprang up young outlandish +voices and a chatter of some foreign speech; and I saw, pursuing the +coach with its load of Hebridean fishers--as they had pursued +_vetturini_ up the passes of the Apennines or perhaps along the grotto +under Virgil's tomb--two little dark-eyed, white-toothed Italian +vagabonds, of twelve to fourteen years of age, one with a hurdy-gurdy, +the other with a cage of white mice. The coach passed on, and their +small Italian chatter died in the distance; and I was left to marvel how +they had wandered into that country, and how they fared in it, and what +they thought of it, and when (if ever) they should see again the silver +wind-breaks run among the olives, and the stone-pine stand guard upon +Etruscan sepulchres. + +Upon any American, the strangeness of this incident is somewhat lost. +For as far back as he goes in his own land, he will find some alien +camping there; the Cornish miner, the French or Mexican half-blood, the +negro in the South, these are deep in the woods and far among the +mountains. But in an old, cold, and rugged country such as mine, the +days of immigration are long at an end; and away up there, which was at +that time far beyond the northernmost extreme of railways, hard upon the +shore of that ill-omened strait of whirlpools, in a land of moors where +no stranger came, unless it should be a sportsman to shoot grouse or an +antiquary to decipher runes, the presence of these small pedestrians +struck the mind as though a bird-of-paradise had risen from the heather +or an albatross come fishing in the bay of Wick. They were as strange to +their surroundings as my lordly evangelist or the old Spanish grandee on +the Fair Isle. + + + + +III + +A CHAPTER ON DREAMS + + +The past is all of one texture--whether feigned or suffered--whether +acted out in three dimensions, or only witnessed in that small theatre +of the brain which we keep brightly lighted all night long, after the +jets are down, and darkness and sleep reign undisturbed in the remainder +of the body. There is no distinction on the face of our experiences; one +is vivid indeed, and one dull, and one pleasant, and another agonising +to remember; but which of them is what we call true, and which a dream, +there is not one hair to prove. The past stands on a precarious footing; +another straw split in the field of metaphysic, and behold us robbed of +it. There is scarce a family that can count four generations but lays a +claim to some dormant title or some castle and estate: a claim not +prosecutable in any court of law, but flattering to the fancy and a +great alleviation of idle hours. A man's claim to his own past is yet +less valid. A paper might turn up (in proper story-book fashion) in the +secret drawer of an old ebony secretary, and restore your family to its +ancient honours and reinstate mine in a certain West Indian islet (not +far from St. Kitt's, as beloved tradition hummed in my young ears) which +was once ours, and is now unjustly some one else's, and for that matter +(in the state of the sugar trade) is not worth anything to anybody. I do +not say that these revolutions are likely; only no man can deny that +they are possible; and the past, on the other hand, is lost for ever: +our old days and deeds, our old selves, too, and the very world in which +these scenes were acted, all brought down to the same faint residuum as +a last night's dream, to some incontinuous images, and an echo in the +chambers of the brain. Not an hour, not a mood, not a glance of the eye, +can we revoke; it is all gone, past conjuring. And yet conceive us +robbed of it, conceive that little thread of memory that we trail behind +us broken at the pocket's edge; and in what naked nullity should we be +left! for we only guide ourselves, and only know ourselves, by these +air-painted pictures of the past. + +Upon these grounds, there are some among us who claim to have lived +longer and more richly than their neighbours; when they lay asleep they +claim they were still active; and among the treasures of memory that all +men review for their amusement, these count in no second place the +harvests of their dreams. There is one of this kind whom I have in my +eye, and whose case is perhaps unusual enough to be described. He was +from a child an ardent and uncomfortable dreamer. When he had a touch of +fever at night, and the room swelled and shrank, and his clothes, +hanging on a nail, now loomed up instant to the bigness of a church, and +now drew away into a horror of infinite distance and infinite +littleness, the poor soul was very well aware of what must follow, and +struggled hard against the approaches of that slumber which was the +beginning of sorrows. But his struggles were in vain; sooner or later +the night-hag would have him by the throat, and pluck him, strangling +and screaming, from his sleep. His dreams were at times commonplace +enough, at times very strange: at times they were almost formless, he +would be haunted, for instance, by nothing more definite than a certain +hue of brown, which he did not mind in the least while he was awake, but +feared and loathed while he was dreaming; at times, again, they took on +every detail of circumstance, as when once he supposed he must swallow +the populous world, and awoke screaming with the horror of the thought. +The two chief troubles of his very narrow existence--the practical and +everyday trouble of school tasks and the ultimate and airy one of hell +and judgment--were often confounded together into one appalling +nightmare. He seemed to himself to stand before the Great White Throne; +he was called on, poor little devil, to recite some form of words, on +which his destiny depended; his tongue stuck, his memory was blank, hell +gaped for him; and he would awake, clinging to the curtain-rod with his +knees to his chin. + +These were extremely poor experiences, on the whole; and at that time of +life my dreamer would have very willingly parted with his power of +dreams. But presently, in the course of his growth, the cries and +physical contortions passed away, seemingly for ever; his visions were +still for the most part miserable, but they were more constantly +supported; and he would awake with no more extreme symptom than a flying +heart, a freezing scalp, cold sweats, and the speechless midnight fear. +His dreams, too, as befitted a mind better stocked with particulars, +became more circumstantial, and had more the air and continuity of life. +The look of the world beginning to take hold on his attention, scenery +came to play a part in his sleeping as well as in his waking thoughts, +so that he would take long, uneventful journeys and see strange towns +and beautiful places as he lay in bed. And, what is more significant, an +odd taste that he had for the Georgian costume and for stories laid in +that period of English history, began to rule the features of his +dreams; so that he masqueraded there in a three-cornered hat, and was +much engaged with Jacobite conspiracy between the hour for bed and that +for breakfast. About the same time, he began to read in his +dreams--tales, for the most part, and for the most part after the manner +of G. P. R. James, but so incredibly more vivid and moving than any +printed book, that he has ever since been malcontent with literature. + +And then, while he was yet a student, there came to him a +dream-adventure which he has no anxiety to repeat; he began, that is to +say, to dream in sequence and thus to lead a double life--one of the +day, one of the night--one that he had every reason to believe was the +true one, another that he had no means of proving to be false. I should +have said he studied, or was by way of studying, at Edinburgh College, +which (it may be supposed) was how I came to know him. Well, in his +dream-life he passed a long day in the surgical theatre, his heart in +his mouth, his teeth on edge, seeing monstrous malformations and the +abhorred dexterity of surgeons. In a heavy, rainy, foggy evening he came +forth into the South Bridge, turned up the High Street, and entered the +door of a tall _land_, at the top of which he supposed himself to lodge. +All night long, in his wet clothes, he climbed the stairs, stair after +stair in endless series, and at every second flight a flaring lamp with +a reflector. All night long he brushed by single persons passing +downward--beggarly women of the street, great, weary, muddy labourers, +poor scarecrows of men, pale parodies of women--but all drowsy and weary +like himself, and all single, and all brushing against him as they +passed. In the end, out of a northern window, he would see day beginning +to whiten over the Firth, give up the ascent, turn to descend, and in a +breath be back again upon the streets, in his wet clothes, in the wet, +haggard dawn, trudging to another day of monstrosities and operations. +Time went, quicker in the life of dreams, some seven hours (as near as +he can guess) to one; and it went, besides, more intensely, so that the +gloom of these fancied experiences clouded the day, and he had not +shaken off their shadow ere it was time to lie down and to renew them. I +cannot tell how long it was that he endured this discipline; but it was +long enough to leave a great black blot upon his memory, long enough to +send him, trembling for his reason, to the doors of a certain doctor; +whereupon with a simple draught he was restored to the common lot of +man. + +The poor gentleman has since been troubled by nothing of the sort; +indeed, his nights were for some while like other men's, now blank, now +chequered with dreams, and these sometimes charming, sometimes +appalling, but except for an occasional vividness, of no extraordinary +kind. I will just note one of these occasions, ere I pass on to what +makes my dreamer truly interesting. It seemed to him that he was in the +first floor of a rough hill-farm. The room showed some poor efforts at +gentility, a carpet on the floor, a piano, I think, against the wall; +but, for all these refinements, there was no mistaking he was in a +moorland place, among hillside people, and set in miles of heather. He +looked down from the window upon a bare farmyard, that seemed to have +been long disused. A great, uneasy stillness lay upon the world. There +was no sign of the farm-folk or of any live stock, save for an old, +brown, curly dog of the retriever breed, who sat close in against the +wall of the house and seemed to be dozing. Something about this dog +disquieted the dreamer; it was quite a nameless feeling, for the beast +looked right enough--indeed, he was so old and dull and dusty and +broken-down, that he should rather have awakened pity; and yet the +conviction came and grew upon the dreamer that this was no proper dog at +all, but something hellish. A great many dozing summer flies hummed +about the yard; and presently the dog thrust forth his paw, caught a fly +in his open palm, carried it to his mouth like an ape, and looking +suddenly up at the dreamer in the window, winked to him with one eye. +The dream went on, it matters not how it went; it was a good dream as +dreams go; but there was nothing in the sequel worthy of that devilish +brown dog. And the point of interest for me lies partly in that very +fact: that having found so singular an incident, my imperfect dreamer +should prove unable to carry the tale to a fit end and fall back on +indescribable noises and indiscriminate horrors. It would be different +now; he knows his business better! + +For, to approach at last the point: This honest fellow had long been in +the custom of setting himself to sleep with tales, and so had his father +before him; but these were irresponsible inventions, told for the +teller's pleasure, with no eye to the crass public or the thwart +reviewer: tales where a thread might be dropped, or one adventure +quitted for another, on fancy's least suggestion. So that the little +people who manage man's internal theatre had not as yet received a very +rigorous training; and played upon their stage like children who should +have slipped into the house and found it empty, rather than like drilled +actors performing a set piece to a huge hall of faces. But presently my +dreamer began to turn his former amusement of story-telling to (what is +called) account; by which I mean that he began to write and sell his +tales. Here was he, and here were the little people who did that part of +his business, in quite new conditions. The stories must now be trimmed +and pared and set upon all-fours, they must run from a beginning to an +end and fit (after a manner) with the laws of life; the pleasure, in one +word, had become a business; and that not only for the dreamer, but for +the little people of his theatre. These understood the change as well as +he. When he lay down to prepare himself for sleep, he no longer sought +amusement, but printable and profitable tales; and after he had dozed +off in his box-seat, his little people continued their evolutions with +the same mercantile designs. All other forms of dream deserted him but +two: he still occasionally reads the most delightful books, he still +visits at times the most delightful places; and it is perhaps worthy of +note that to these same places, and to one in particular, he returns at +intervals of months and years, finding new field-paths, visiting new +neighbours, beholding that happy valley under new effects of noon and +dawn and sunset. But all the rest of the family of visions is quite lost +to him: the common, mangled version of yesterday's affairs, the +raw-head-and-bloody-bones nightmare, rumoured to be the child of toasted +cheese--these and their like are gone; and, for the most part, whether +awake or asleep, he is simply occupied--he or his little people--in +consciously making stories for the market. This dreamer (like many +other persons) has encountered some trifling vicissitudes of fortune. +When the bank begins to send letters and the butcher to linger at the +back gate, he sets to belabouring his brains after a story, for that is +his readiest money-winner; and, behold! at once the little people begin +to bestir themselves in the same quest, and labour all night long, and +all night long set before him truncheons of tales upon their lighted +theatre. No fear of his being frightened now; the flying heart and the +frozen scalp are things bygone; applause, growing applause, growing +interest, growing exultation in his own cleverness (for he takes all the +credit), and at last a jubilant leap to wakefulness, with the cry, "I +have it, that'll do!" upon his lips: with such and similar emotions he +sits at these nocturnal dramas, with such outbreaks, like Claudius in +the play, he scatters the performance in the midst. Often enough the +waking is a disappointment: he has been too deep asleep, as I explain +the thing; drowsiness has gained his little people, they have gone +stumbling and maundering through their parts; and the play, to the +awakened mind, is seen to be a tissue of absurdities. And yet how often +have these sleepless Brownies done him honest service, and given him, as +he sat idly taking his pleasure in the boxes, better tales than he could +fashion for himself. + +Here is one, exactly as it came to him. It seemed he was the son of a +very rich and wicked man, the owner of broad acres and a most damnable +temper. The dreamer (and that was the son) had lived much abroad, on +purpose to avoid his parent; and when at length he returned to England, +it was to find him married again to a young wife, who was supposed to +suffer cruelly and to loathe her yoke. Because of this marriage (as the +dreamer indistinctly understood) it was desirable for father and son to +have a meeting; and yet both being proud and both angry, neither would +condescend upon a visit. Meet they did accordingly, in a desolate, sandy +country by the sea; and there they quarrelled, and the son, stung by +some intolerable insult, struck down the father dead. No suspicion was +aroused; the dead man was found and buried, and the dreamer succeeded to +the broad estates, and found himself installed under the same roof with +his father's widow, for whom no provision had been made. These two lived +very much alone, as people may after a bereavement, sat down to table +together, shared the long evenings, and grew daily better friends; until +it seemed to him of a sudden that she was prying about dangerous +matters, that she had conceived a notion of his guilt, that she watched +him and tried him with questions. He drew back from her company as men +draw back from a precipice suddenly discovered; and yet so strong was +the attraction that he would drift again and again into the old +intimacy, and again and again be startled back by some suggestive +question or some inexplicable meaning in her eye. So they lived at cross +purposes, a life full of broken dialogue, challenging glances, and +suppressed passion; until, one day, he saw the woman slipping from the +house in a veil, followed her to the station, followed her in the train +to the seaside country, and out over the sandhills to the very place +where the murder was done. There she began to grope among the bents, he +watching her, flat upon his face; and presently she had something in her +hand--I cannot remember what it was, but it was deadly evidence against +the dreamer--and as she held it up to look at it, perhaps from the shock +of the discovery, her foot slipped, and she hung at some peril on the +brink of the tall sand-wreaths. He had no thought but to spring up and +rescue her; and there they stood face to face, she with that deadly +matter openly in her hand--his very presence on the spot another link of +proof. It was plain she was about to speak, but this was more than he +could bear--he could bear to be lost, but not to talk of it with his +destroyer; and he cut her short with trivial conversation. Arm in arm, +they returned together to the train, talking he knew not what, made the +journey back in the same carriage, sat down to dinner, and passed the +evening in the drawing-room as in the past. But suspense and fear +drummed in the dreamer's bosom. "She has not denounced me yet"--so his +thoughts ran: "when will she denounce me? Will it be to-morrow?" And it +was not to-morrow, nor the next day, nor the next; and their life +settled back on the old terms, only that she seemed kinder than before, +and that, as for him, the burthen of his suspense and wonder grew daily +more unbearable, so that he wasted away like a man with a disease. Once, +indeed, he broke all bounds of decency, seized an occasion when she was +abroad, ransacked her room, and at last, hidden away among her jewels, +found the damning evidence. There he stood, holding this thing, which +was his life, in the hollow of his hand, and marvelling at her +inconsequent behaviour, that she should seek, and keep, and yet not use +it; and then the door opened, and behold herself. So, once more, they +stood, eye to eye, with the evidence between them; and once more she +raised to him a face brimming with some communication; and once more he +shied away from speech and cut her off. But before he left the room, +which he had turned upside down, he laid back his death-warrant where he +had found it; and at that, her face lighted up. The next thing he heard, +she was explaining to her maid, with some ingenious falsehood, the +disorder of her things. Flesh and blood could bear the strain no longer; +and I think it was the next morning (though chronology is always hazy in +the theatre of the mind) that he burst from his reserve. They had been +breakfasting together in one corner of a great, parqueted, +sparely-furnished room of many windows; all the time of the meal she had +tortured him with sly allusions; and no sooner were the servants gone, +and these two protagonists alone together, than he leaped to his feet. +She too sprang up, with a pale face; with a pale face, she heard him as +he raved out his complaint: Why did she torture him so? she knew all, +she knew he was no enemy to her; why did she not denounce him at once? +what signified her whole behaviour? why did she torture him? and yet +again, why did she torture him? And when he had done, she fell upon her +knees, and with outstretched hands: "Do you not understand?" she cried. +"I love you!" + +Hereupon, with a pang of wonder and mercantile delight the dreamer +awoke. His mercantile delight was not of long endurance; for it soon +became plain that in this spirited tale there were unmarketable +elements; which is just the reason why you have it here so briefly told. +But his wonder has still kept growing; and I think the reader's will +also, if he consider it ripely. For now he sees why I speak of the +little people as of substantive inventors and performers. To the end +they had kept their secret. I will go bail for the dreamer (having +excellent grounds for valuing his candour) that he had no guess whatever +at the motive of the woman--the hinge of the whole well-invented +plot--until the instant of that highly dramatic declaration. It was not +his tale; it was the little people's! And observe: not only was the +secret kept, the story was told with really guileful craftsmanship. The +conduct of both actors is (in the cant phrase) psychologically correct, +and the emotion aptly graduated up to the surprising climax. I am awake +now, and I know this trade; and yet I cannot better it. I am awake, and +I live by this business; and yet I could not outdo--could not perhaps +equal--that crafty artifice (as of some old, experienced carpenter of +plays, some Dennery or Sardou) by which the same situation is twice +presented and the two actors twice brought face to face over the +evidence, only once it is in her hand, once in his--and these in their +due order, the least dramatic first. The more I think of it, the more I +am moved to press upon the world my question: Who are the Little People? +They are near connections of the dreamer's, beyond doubt; they share in +his financial worries and have an eye to the bank-book; they share +plainly in his training; they have plainly learned like him to build the +scheme of a considerate story and to arrange emotion in progressive +order; only I think they have more talent; and one thing is beyond +doubt, they can tell him a story piece by piece, like a serial, and keep +him all the while in ignorance of where they aim. Who are they, then? +and who is the dreamer? + +Well, as regards the dreamer, I can answer that, for he is no less a +person than myself;--as I might have told you from the beginning, only +that the critics murmur over my consistent egotism;--and as I am +positively forced to tell you now, or I could advance but little further +with my story. And for the Little People, what shall I say they are but +just my Brownies, God bless them! who do one-half my work for me while I +am fast asleep, and in all human likelihood, do the rest for me as well, +when I am wide awake and fondly suppose I do it for myself. That part +which is done while I am sleeping is the Brownies' part beyond +contention; but that which is done when I am up and about is by no means +necessarily mine, since all goes to show the Brownies have a hand in it +even then. Here is a doubt that much concerns my conscience. For +myself--what I call I, my conscious ego, the denizen of the pineal gland +unless he has changed his residence since Descartes, the man with the +conscience and the variable bank-account, the man with the hat and the +boots, and the privilege of voting and not carrying his candidate at the +general elections--I am sometimes tempted to suppose is no story-teller +at all, but a creature as matter of fact as any cheesemonger or any +cheese, and a realist bemired up to the ears in actuality; so that, by +that account, the whole of my published fiction should be the +single-handed product of some Brownie, some Familiar, some unseen +collaborator, whom I keep locked in a back garret, while I get all the +praise and he but a share (which I cannot prevent him getting) of the +pudding. I am an excellent adviser, something like Moliere's servant. I +pull back and I cut down; and I dress the whole in the best words and +sentences that I can find and make; I hold the pen, too; and I do the +sitting at the table, which is about the worst of it; and when all is +done, I make up the manuscript and pay for the registration; so that, on +the whole, I have some claim to share, though not so largely as I do, in +the profits of our common enterprise. + +I can but give an instance or so of what part is done sleeping and what +part awake, and leave the reader to share what laurels there are, at his +own nod, between myself and my collaborators; and to do this I will +first take a book that a number of persons have been polite enough to +read, "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." I had long been +trying to write a story on this subject, to find a body, a vehicle, for +that strong sense of man's double being which must at times come in upon +and overwhelm the mind of every thinking creature. I had even written +one, "The Travelling Companion," which was returned by an editor on the +plea that it was a work of genius and indecent, and which I burned the +other day on the ground that it was not a work of genius, and that +"Jekyll" had supplanted it. Then came one of those financial +fluctuations to which (with an elegant modesty) I have hitherto referred +in the third person. For two days I went about racking my brains for a +plot of any sort; and on the second night I dreamed the scene at the +window, and a scene afterward split in two, in which Hyde, pursued for +some crime, took the powder and underwent the change in the presence of +his pursuers. All the rest was made awake, and consciously, although I +think I can trace in much of it the manner of my Brownies. The meaning +of the tale is therefore mine, and had long pre-existed in my garden of +Adonis, and tried one body after another in vain; indeed, I do most of +the morality, worse luck! and my Brownies have not a rudiment of what we +call a conscience. Mine, too, is the setting, mine the characters. All +that was given me was the matter of three scenes, and the central idea +of a voluntary change becoming involuntary. Will it be thought +ungenerous, after I have been so liberally ladling out praise to my +unseen collaborators, if I here toss them over, bound hand and foot, +into the arena of the critics? For the business of the powders, which so +many have censured, is, I am relieved to say, not mine at all, but the +Brownies'. Of another tale, in case the reader should have glanced at +it, I may say a word: the not very defensible story of "Olalla." Here +the court, the mother, the mother's niche, Olalla, Olalla's chamber, the +meetings on the stair, the broken window, the ugly scene of the bite, +were all given me in bulk and detail as I have tried to write them; to +this I added only the external scenery (for in my dream I never was +beyond the court), the portrait, the characters of Felipe and the +priest, the moral, such as it is, and the last pages, such as, alas! +they are. And I may even say that in this case the moral itself was +given me; for it arose immediately on a comparison of the mother and the +daughter, and from the hideous trick of atavism in the first. Sometimes +a parabolic sense is still more undeniably present in a dream; sometimes +I cannot but suppose my Brownies have been aping Bunyan, and yet in no +case with what would possibly be called a moral in a tract; never with +the ethical narrowness; conveying hints instead of life's larger +limitations and that sort of sense which we seem to perceive in the +arabesque of time and space. + +For the most part, it will be seen, my Brownies are somewhat fantastic, +like their stories hot and hot, full of passion and the picturesque, +alive with animating incident; and they have no prejudice against the +supernatural. But the other day they gave me a surprise, entertaining me +with a love-story, a little April comedy, which I ought certainly to +hand over to the author of "A Chance Acquaintance," for he could write +it as it should be written, and I am sure (although I mean to try) that +I cannot.--But who would have supposed that a Brownie of mine should +invent a tale for Mr. Howells? + + + + +IV + +BEGGARS + + I + + +In a pleasant, airy, up-hill country, it was my fortune when I was young +to make the acquaintance of a certain beggar. I call him beggar, though +he usually allowed his coat and his shoes (which were open-mouthed, +indeed) to beg for him. He was the wreck of an athletic man, tall, +gaunt, and bronzed; far gone in consumption, with that disquieting smile +of the mortally stricken on his face; but still active afoot, still with +the brisk military carriage, the ready military salute. Three ways led +through this piece of country; and as I was inconstant in my choice, I +believe he must often have awaited me in vain. But often enough, he +caught me; often enough, from some place of ambush by the roadside, he +would spring suddenly forth in the regulation attitude, and launching at +once into his inconsequential talk, fall into step with me upon my +farther course. "A fine morning, sir, though perhaps a trifle inclining +to rain. I hope I see you well, sir. Why, no, sir, I don't feel as +hearty myself as I could wish, but I am keeping about my ordinary. I am +pleased to meet you on the road, sir. I assure you I quite look forward +to one of our little conversations." He loved the sound of his own voice +inordinately, and though (with something too off-hand to call servility) +he would always hasten to agree with anything you said, yet he could +never suffer you to say it to an end. By what transition he slid to his +favourite subject I have no memory; but we had never been long together +on the way before he was dealing, in a very military manner, with the +English poets. "Shelley was a fine poet, sir, though a trifle +atheistical in his opinions. His 'Queen Mab,' sir, is quite an +atheistical work. Scott, sir, is not so poetical a writer. With the +works of Shakespeare I am not so well acquainted, but he was a fine +poet. Keats--John Keats, sir--he was a very fine poet." With such +references, such trivial criticism, such loving parade of his own +knowledge, he would beguile the road, striding forward up-hill, his +staff now clapped to the ribs of his deep, resonant chest, now swinging +in the air with the remembered jauntiness of the private soldier; and +all the while his toes looking out of his boots, and his shirt looking +out of his elbows, and death looking out of his smile, and his big, +crazy frame shaken by accesses of cough. + +He would often go the whole way home with me: often to borrow a book, +and that book always a poet. Off he would march, to continue his +mendicant rounds, with the volume slipped into the pocket of his ragged +coat; and although he would sometimes keep it quite a while, yet it came +always back again at last, not much the worse for its travels into +beggardom. And in this way, doubtless, his knowledge grew and his glib, +random criticism took a wider range. But my library was not the first he +had drawn upon: at our first encounter, he was already brimful of +Shelley and the atheistical "Queen Mab," and "Keats--John Keats, sir." +And I have often wondered how he came by these acquirements, just as I +often wondered how he fell to be a beggar. He had served through the +Mutiny--of which (like so many people) he could tell practically nothing +beyond the names of places, and that it was "difficult work, sir," and +very hot, or that so-and-so was "a very fine commander, sir." He was far +too smart a man to have remained a private; in the nature of things, he +must have won his stripes. And yet here he was, without a pension. When +I touched on this problem, he would content himself with diffidently +offering me advice. "A man should be very careful when he is young, +sir. If you'll excuse me saying so, a spirited young gentleman like +yourself, sir, should be very careful. I was perhaps a trifle inclined +to atheistical opinions myself." For (perhaps with a deeper wisdom than +we are inclined in these days to admit) he plainly bracketed agnosticism +with beer and skittles. + +Keats--John Keats, sir--and Shelley were his favourite bards. I cannot +remember if I tried him with Rossetti; but I know his taste to a hair, +and if ever I did, he must have doted on that author. What took him was +a richness in the speech; he loved the exotic, the unexpected word; the +moving cadence of a phrase; a vague sense of emotion (about nothing) in +the very letters of the alphabet: the romance of language. His honest +head was very nearly empty, his intellect like a child's; and when he +read his favourite authors, he can almost never have understood what he +was reading. Yet the taste was not only genuine, it was exclusive; I +tried in vain to offer him novels; he would none of them, he cared for +nothing but romantic language that he could not understand. The case may +be commoner than we suppose. I am reminded of a lad who was laid in the +next cot to a friend of mine in a public hospital, and who was no sooner +installed than he sent out (perhaps with his last pence) for a cheap +Shakespeare. My friend pricked up his ears; fell at once in talk with +his new neighbour, and was ready, when the book arrived, to make a +singular discovery. For this lover of great literature understood not +one sentence out of twelve, and his favourite part was that of which he +understood the least--the inimitable, mouth-filling rodomontade of the +ghost in _Hamlet_. It was a bright day in hospital when my friend +expounded the sense of this beloved jargon: a task for which I am +willing to believe my friend was very fit, though I can never regard it +as an easy one. I know indeed a point or two, on which I would gladly +question Mr. Shakespeare, that lover of big words, could he revisit the +glimpses of the moon, or could I myself climb backward to the spacious +days of Elizabeth. But, in the second case, I should most likely +pretermit these questionings, and take my place instead in the pit at +the Blackfriars, to hear the actor in his favourite part, playing up to +Mr. Burbage, and rolling out--as I seem to hear him--with a ponderous +gusto-- + + "Unhousel'd, disappointed, unanel'd." + +What a pleasant chance, if we could go there in a party! and what a +surprise for Mr. Burbage, when the ghost received the honours of the +evening! + +As for my old soldier, like Mr. Burbage and Mr. Shakespeare, he is long +since dead; and now lies buried, I suppose, and nameless and quite +forgotten, in some poor city graveyard.--But not for me, you brave +heart, have you been buried! For me, you are still afoot, tasting the +sun and air, and striding southward. By the groves of Comiston and +beside the Hermitage of Braid, by the Hunters' Tryst, and where the +curlews and plovers cry around Fairmilehead, I see and hear you, +stalwartly carrying your deadly sickness, cheerfully discoursing of +uncomprehended poets. + + + II + +The thought of the old soldier recalls that of another tramp, his +counterpart. This was a little, lean, and fiery man, with the eyes of a +dog and the face of a gipsy; whom I found one morning encamped with his +wife and children and his grinder's wheel, beside the burn of Kinnaird. +To this beloved dell I went, at that time, daily; and daily the +knife-grinder and I (for as long as his tent continued pleasantly to +interrupt my little wilderness) sat on two stones, and smoked, and +plucked grass and talked to the tune of the brown water. His children +were mere whelps, they fought and bit among the fern like vermin. His +wife was a mere squaw; I saw her gather brush and tend the kettle, but +she never ventured to address her lord while I was present. The tent +was a mere gipsy hovel, like a sty for pigs. But the grinder himself had +the fine self-sufficiency and grave politeness of the hunter and the +savage; he did me the honours of this dell, which had been mine but the +day before, took me far into the secrets of his life, and used me (I am +proud to remember) as a friend. + +Like my old soldier, he was far gone in the national complaint. Unlike +him, he had a vulgar taste in letters; scarce flying higher than the +story papers; probably finding no difference, certainly seeking none, +between Tannahill and Burns; his noblest thoughts, whether of poetry or +music, adequately embodied in that somewhat obvious ditty, + + "Will ye gang, lassie, gang + To the braes o' Balquhidder": + +--which is indeed apt to echo in the ears of Scottish children, and to +him, in view of his experience, must have found a special directness of +address. But if he had no fine sense of poetry in letters, he felt with +a deep joy the poetry of life. You should have heard him speak of what +he loved; of the tent pitched beside the talking water; of the stars +overhead at night; of the blest return of morning, the peep of day over +the moors, the awaking birds among the birches; how he abhorred the long +winter shut in cities; and with what delight, at the return of the +spring, he once more pitched his camp in the living out-of-doors. But we +were a pair of tramps; and to you, who are doubtless sedentary and a +consistent first-class passenger in life, he would scarce have laid +himself so open;--to you, he might have been content to tell his story +of a ghost--that of a buccaneer with his pistols as he lived--whom he +had once encountered in a seaside cave near Buckie; and that would have +been enough, for that would have shown you the mettle of the man. Here +was a piece of experience solidly and livingly built up in words, here +was a story created, _teres atque rotundus_. + +And to think of the old soldier, that lover of the literary bards! He +had visited stranger spots than any seaside cave; encountered men more +terrible than any spirit; done and dared and suffered in that +incredible, unsung epic of the Mutiny War; played his part with the +field force of Delhi, beleaguering and beleaguered; shared in that +enduring, savage anger and contempt of death and decency that, for long +months together, bedevil'd and inspired the army; was hurled to and fro +in the battle-smoke of the assault; was there, perhaps, where Nicholson +fell; was there when the attacking column, with hell upon every side, +found the soldier's enemy--strong drink, and the lives of tens of +thousands trembled in the scale, and the fate of the flag of England +staggered. And of all this he had no more to say than "hot work, sir," +or "the army suffered a great deal, sir," or, "I believe General Wilson, +sir, was not very highly thought of in the papers." His life was naught +to him, the vivid pages of experience quite blank: in words his pleasure +lay--melodious, agitated words--printed words, about that which he had +never seen and was connatally incapable of comprehending. We have here +two temperaments face to face; both untrained, unsophisticated, +surprised (we may say) in the egg; both boldly charactered:--that of the +artist, the lover and artificer of words; that of the maker, the seeer, +the lover and forger of experience. If the one had a daughter and the +other had a son, and these married, might not some illustrious writer +count descent from the beggar-soldier and the needy knife-grinder? + + + III + +Every one lives by selling something, whatever be his right to it. The +burglar sells at the same time his own skill and courage and my silver +plate (the whole at the most moderate figure) to a Jew receiver. The +bandit sells the traveller an article of prime necessity: that +traveller's life. And as for the old soldier, who stands for central +mark to my capricious figures of eight, he dealt in a specialty; for he +was the only beggar in the world who ever gave me pleasure for my money. +He had learned a school of manners in the barracks and had the sense to +cling to it, accosting strangers with a regimental freedom, thanking +patrons with a merely regimental difference, sparing you at once the +tragedy of his position and the embarrassment of yours. There was not +one hint about him of the beggar's emphasis, the outburst of revolting +gratitude, the rant and cant, the "God bless you, Kind, Kind gentleman," +which insults the smallness of your alms by disproportionate vehemence, +which is so notably false, which would be so unbearable if it were true. +I am sometimes tempted to suppose this reading of the beggar's part a +survival of the old days when Shakespeare was intoned upon the stage and +mourners keened beside the death-bed; to think that we cannot now accept +these strong emotions unless they be uttered in the just note of life; +nor (save in the pulpit) endure these gross conventions. They wound us, +I am tempted to say, like mockery; the high voice of keening (as it yet +lingers on) strikes in the face of sorrow like a buffet; and the rant +and cant of the staled beggar stirs in us a shudder of disgust. But the +fact disproves these amateur opinions. The beggar lives by his knowledge +of the average man. He knows what he is about when he bandages his head, +and hires and drugs a babe, and poisons life with "Poor Mary Ann" or +"Long, long ago"; he knows what he is about when he loads the critical +ear and sickens the nice conscience with intolerable thanks; they know +what they are about, he and his crew, when they pervade the slums of +cities, ghastly parodies of suffering, hateful parodies of gratitude. +This trade can scarce be called an imposition; it has been so blown upon +with exposures; it flaunts its fraudulence so nakedly. We pay them as we +pay those who show us, in huge exaggeration, the monsters of our +drinking-water; or those who daily predict the fall of Britain. We pay +them for the pain they inflict, pay them, and wince, and hurry on. And +truly there is nothing that can shake the conscience like a beggar's +thanks; and that polity in which such protestations can be purchased for +a shilling, seems no scene for an honest man. + +Are there, then, we may be asked, no genuine beggars? And the answer is, +Not one. My old soldier was a humbug like the rest; his ragged boots +were, in the stage phrase, properties; whole boots were given him again +and again, and always gladly accepted; and the next day, there he was on +the road as usual, with toes exposed. His boots were his method; they +were the man's trade; without his boots he would have starved; he did +not live by charity, but by appealing to a gross taste in the public, +which loves the limelight on the actor's face, and the toes out of the +beggar's boots. There is a true poverty, which no one sees: a false and +merely mimetic poverty, which usurps its place and dress, and lives, and +above all drinks, on the fruits of the usurpation. The true poverty does +not go into the streets; the banker may rest assured, he has never put a +penny in its hand. The self-respecting poor beg from each other; never +from the rich. To live in the frock-coated ranks of life, to hear +canting scenes of gratitude rehearsed for twopence, a man might suppose +that giving was a thing gone out of fashion; yet it goes forward on a +scale so great as to fill me with surprise. In the houses of the working +classes, all day long there will be a foot upon the stair; all day long +there will be a knocking at the doors; beggars come, beggars go, without +stint, hardly with intermission, from morning till night; and meanwhile, +in the same city and but a few streets off, the castles of the rich +stand unsummoned. Get the tale of any honest tramp, you will find it was +always the poor who helped him; get the truth from any workman who has +met misfortunes, it was always next door that he would go for help, or +only with such exceptions as are said to prove a rule; look at the +course of the mimetic beggar, it is through the poor quarters that he +trails his passage, showing his bandages to every window, piercing even +to the attics with his nasal song. Here is a remarkable state of things +in our Christian commonwealths, that the poor only should be asked to +give. + + + IV + +There is a pleasant tale of some worthless, phrasing Frenchman, who was +taxed with ingratitude: "_Il faut savoir garder l'independance du +coeur_," cried he. I own I feel with him. Gratitude without familiarity, +gratitude otherwise than as a nameless element in a friendship, is a +thing so near to hatred that I do not care to split the difference. +Until I find a man who is pleased to receive obligations, I shall +continue to question the tact of those who are eager to confer them. +What an art it is, to give, even to our nearest friends! and what a test +of manners, to receive! How, upon either side, we smuggle away the +obligation, blushing for each other; how bluff and dull we make the +giver; how hasty, how falsely cheerful, the receiver! And yet an act of +such difficulty and distress between near friends, it is supposed we can +perform to a total stranger and leave the man transfixed with grateful +emotions. The last thing you can do to a man is to burthen him with an +obligation, and it is what we propose to begin with! But let us not be +deceived: unless he is totally degraded to his trade, anger jars in his +inside, and he grates his teeth at our gratuity. + +We should wipe two words from our vocabulary: gratitude and charity. In +real life, help is given out of friendship, or it is not valued; it is +received from the hand of friendship, or it is resented. We are all too +proud to take a naked gift: we must seem to pay it, if in nothing else, +then with the delights of our society. Here, then, is the pitiful fix of +the rich man; here is that needle's eye in which he stuck already in the +days of Christ, and still sticks to-day, firmer, if possible, than ever: +that he has the money and lacks the love which should make his money +acceptable. Here and now, just as of old in Palestine, he has the rich +to dinner, it is with the rich that he takes his pleasure: and when his +turn comes to be charitable, he looks in vain for a recipient. His +friends are not poor, they do not want; the poor are not his friends, +they will not take. To whom is he to give? Where to find--note this +phrase--the Deserving Poor? Charity is (what they call) centralised; +offices are hired; societies founded, with secretaries paid or unpaid: +the hunt of the Deserving Poor goes merrily forward. I think it will +take more than a merely human secretary to disinter that character. +What! a class that is to be in want from no fault of its own, and yet +greedily eager to receive from strangers; and to be quite respectable, +and at the same time quite devoid of self-respect; and play the most +delicate part of friendship, and yet never be seen; and wear the form of +man, and yet fly in the face of all the laws of human nature:--and all +this, in the hope of getting a belly-god Burgess through a needle's eye! +Oh, let him stick, by all means: and let his polity tumble in the dust; +and let his epitaph and all his literature (of which my own works begin +to form no inconsiderable part) be abolished even from the history of +man! For a fool of this monstrosity of dulness, there can be no +salvation: and the fool who looked for the elixir of life was an angel +of reason to the fool who looks for the Deserving Poor! + + + V + +And yet there is one course which the unfortunate gentleman may take. He +may subscribe to pay the taxes. There were the true charity, impartial +and impersonal, cumbering none with obligation, helping all. There were +a destination for loveless gifts; there were the way to reach the pocket +of the deserving poor, and yet save the time of secretaries! But, alas! +there is no colour of romance in such a course; and people nowhere +demand the picturesque so much as in their virtues. + + + + +V + +THE LANTERN-BEARERS + + I + + +These boys congregated every autumn about a certain easterly +fisher-village, where they tasted in a high degree the glory of +existence. The place was created seemingly on purpose for the diversion +of young gentlemen. A street or two of houses, mostly red and many of +them tiled; a number of fine trees clustered about the manse and the +kirkyard, and turning the chief street into a shady alley; many little +gardens more than usually bright with flowers; nets a-drying, and +fisher-wives scolding in the backward parts; a smell of fish, a genial +smell of seaweed; whiffs of blowing sand at the street-corners; shops +with golf-balls and bottled lollipops; another shop with penny pickwicks +(that remarkable cigar) and the _London Journal_, dear to me for its +startling pictures, and a few novels, dear for their suggestive names: +such, as well as memory serves me, were the ingredients of the town. +These, you are to conceive posted on a spit between two sandy bays, and +sparsely flanked with villas--enough for the boys to lodge in with their +subsidiary parents, not enough (not yet enough) to cocknify the scene: a +haven in the rocks in front: in front of that, a file of grey islets: to +the left, endless links and sand wreaths, a wilderness of hiding-holes, +alive with popping rabbits and soaring gulls: to the right, a range of +seaward crags, one rugged brow beyond another; the ruins of a mighty and +ancient fortress on the brink of one; coves between--now charmed into +sunshine quiet, now whistling with wind and clamorous with bursting +surges; the dens and sheltered hollows redolent of thyme and +southernwood, the air at the cliff's edge brisk and clean and pungent of +the sea--in front of all, the Bass Rock, tilted seaward like a doubtful +bather, the surf ringing it with white, the solan-geese hanging round +its summit like a great and glittering smoke. This choice piece of +seaboard was sacred, besides, to the wrecker; and the Bass, in the eye +of fancy, still flew the colours of King James; and in the ear of fancy +the arches of Tantallon still rang with horse-shoe iron, and echoed to +the commands of Bell-the-Cat. + +There was nothing to mar your days, if you were a boy summering in that +part, but the embarrassment of pleasure. You might golf if you wanted; +but I seem to have been better employed. You might secrete yourself in +the Lady's Walk, a certain sunless dingle of elders, all mossed over by +the damp as green as grass, and dotted here and there by the stream-side +with roofless walls, the cold homes of anchorites. To fit themselves for +life, and with a special eye to acquire the art of smoking, it was even +common for the boys to harbour there; and you might have seen a single +penny pickwick, honestly shared in lengths with a blunt knife, bestrew +the glen with these apprentices. Again, you might join our fishing +parties, where we sat perched as thick as solan-geese, a covey of little +anglers, boy and girl, angling over each other's heads, to the much +entanglement of lines and loss of podleys and consequent shrill +recrimination--shrill as the geese themselves. Indeed, had that been +all, you might have done this often; but though fishing be a fine +pastime, the podley is scarce to be regarded as a dainty for the table; +and it was a point of honour that a boy should eat all that he had +taken. Or again, you might climb the Law, where the whale's jawbone +stood landmark in the buzzing wind, and behold the face of many +counties, and the smoke and spires of many towns, and the sails of +distant ships. You might bathe, now in the flaws of fine weather, that +we pathetically call our summer, now in a gale of wind, with the sand +scourging your bare hide, your clothes thrashing abroad from underneath +their guardian stone, the froth of the great breakers casting you +headlong ere it had drowned your knees. Or you might explore the tidal +rocks, above all in the ebb of springs, when the very roots of the hills +were for the nonce discovered; following my leader from one group to +another, groping in slippery tangle for the wreck of ships, wading in +pools after the abominable creatures of the sea, and ever with an eye +cast backward on the march of the tide and the menaced line of your +retreat. And then you might go Crusoeing, a word that covers all +extempore eating in the open air: digging perhaps a house under the +margin of the links, kindling a fire of the sea-ware, and cooking apples +there--if they were truly apples, for I sometimes suppose the merchant +must have played us off with some inferior and quite local fruit, +capable of resolving, in the neighbourhood of fire, into mere sand and +smoke and iodine; or perhaps pushing to Tantallon, you might lunch on +sandwiches and visions in the grassy court, while the wind hummed in the +crumbling turrets; or clambering along the coast, eat geans[17] (the +worst, I must suppose, in Christendom) from an adventurous gean tree +that had taken root under a cliff, where it was shaken with an ague of +east wind, and silvered after gales with salt, and grew so foreign among +its bleak surroundings that to eat of its produce was an adventure in +itself. + +There are mingled some dismal memories with so many that were joyous. Of +the fisher-wife, for instance, who had cut her throat at Canty Bay; and +of how I ran with the other children to the top of the Quadrant, and +beheld a posse of silent people escorting a cart, and on the cart, bound +in a chair, her throat bandaged, and the bandage all bloody--horror!--the +fisher-wife herself, who continued thenceforth to hag-ride my thoughts, +and even to-day (as I recall the scene) darkens daylight. She was lodged +in the little old gaol in the chief street; but whether or no she died +there, with a wise terror of the worst, I never inquired. She had been +tippling; it was but a dingy tragedy; and it seems strange and hard that, +after all these years, the poor crazy sinner should be still pilloried on +her cart in the scrap-book of my memory. Nor shall I readily forget a +certain house in the Quadrant where a visitor died, and a dark old woman +continued to dwell alone with the dead body; nor how this old woman +conceived a hatred to myself and one of my cousins, and in the dread hour +of the dusk, as we were clambering on the garden-walls, opened a window +in that house of mortality and cursed us in a shrill voice and with a +marrowy choice of language. It was a pair of very colourless urchins that +fled down the lane from this remarkable experience! But I recall with a +more doubtful sentiment, compounded out of fear and exultation, the coil +of equinoctial tempests; trumpeting squalls, scouring flaws of rain; the +boats with their reefed lugsails scudding for the harbour mouth, where +danger lay, for it was hard to make when the wind had any east in it; the +wives clustered with blowing shawls at the pier-head, where (if fate was +against them) they might see boat and husband and sons--their whole +wealth and their whole family--engulfed under their eyes; and (what I saw +but once) a troop of neighbours forcing such an unfortunate homeward, and +she squalling and battling in their midst, a figure scarcely human, a +tragic Maenad. + +These are things that I recall with interest; but what my memory dwells +upon the most, I have been all this while withholding. It was a sport +peculiar to the place, and indeed to a week or so of our two months' +holiday there. Maybe it still flourishes in its native spot; for boys +and their pastimes are swayed by periodic forces inscrutable to man; so +that tops and marbles reappear in their due season, regular like the sun +and moon; and the harmless art of knucklebones has seen the fall of the +Roman empire and the rise of the United States. It may still flourish in +its native spot, but nowhere else, I am persuaded; for I tried myself +to introduce it on Tweedside, and was defeated lamentably; its charm +being quite local, like a country wine that cannot be exported. + +The idle manner of it was this:-- + +Toward the end of September, when school-time was drawing near and the +nights were already black, we would begin to sally from our respective +villas, each equipped with a tin bull's-eye lantern. The thing was so +well known that it had worn a rut in the commerce of Great Britain; and +the grocers, about the due time, began to garnish their windows with our +particular brand of luminary. We wore them buckled to the waist upon a +cricket belt, and over them, such was the rigour of the game, a buttoned +top-coat. They smelled noisomely of blistered tin; they never burned +aright, though they would always burn our fingers; their use was naught; +the pleasure of them merely fanciful; and yet a boy with a bull's-eye +under his top-coat asked for nothing more. The fishermen used lanterns +about their boats, and it was from them, I suppose, that we had got the +hint; but theirs were not bull's-eyes, nor did we ever play at being +fishermen. The police carried them at their belts, and we had plainly +copied them in that; yet we did not pretend to be policemen. Burglars, +indeed, we may have had some haunting thoughts of; and we had certainly +an eye to past ages when lanterns were more common, and to certain +story-books in which we had found them to figure very largely. But take +it for all in all, the pleasure of the thing was substantive; and to be +a boy with a bull's-eye under his top-coat was good enough for us. + +When two of these asses met, there would be an anxious "Have you got +your lantern?" and a gratified "Yes!" That was the shibboleth, and very +needful too; for, as it was the rule to keep our glory contained, none +could recognise a lantern-bearer, unless (like the polecat) by the +smell. Four or five would sometimes climb into the belly of a ten-man +lugger, with nothing but the thwarts above them--for the cabin was +usually locked--or choose out some hollow of the links where the wind +might whistle overhead. There the coats would be unbuttoned and the +bull's-eyes discovered; and in the chequering glimmer, under the huge +windy hall of the night, and cheered by a rich steam of toasting +tinware, these fortunate young gentlemen would crouch together in the +cold sand of the links or on the scaly bilges of the fishing-boat, and +delight themselves with inappropriate talk. Woe is me that I may not +give some specimens--some of their foresights of life, or deep inquiries +into the rudiments of man and nature, these were so fiery and so +innocent, they were so richly silly, so romantically young. But the +talk, at any rate, was but a condiment; and these gatherings themselves +only accidents in the career of the lantern-bearer. The essence of this +bliss was to walk by yourself in the black night; the slide shut; the +top-coat buttoned; not a ray escaping, whether to conduct your footsteps +or to make your glory public: a mere pillar of darkness in the dark; and +all the while, deep down in the privacy of your fool's heart, to know +you had a bull's-eye at your belt, and to exult and sing over the +knowledge. + + + II + +It is said that a poet has died young in the breast of the most stolid. +It may be contended, rather, that this (somewhat minor) bard in almost +every case survives, and is the spice of life to his possessor. Justice +is not done to the versatility and the unplumbed childishness of man's +imagination. His life from without may seem but a rude mound of mud; +there will be some golden chamber at the heart of it, in which he dwells +delighted; and for as dark as his pathway seems to the observer, he will +have some kind of a bull's-eye at his belt. + +It would be hard to pick out a career more cheerless than that of +Dancer, the miser, as he figures in the "Old Bailey Reports," a prey to +the most sordid persecutions, the butt of his neighbourhood, betrayed by +his hired man, his house beleaguered by the impish school-boy, and he +himself grinding and fuming and impotently fleeing to the law against +these pin-pricks. You marvel at first that any one should willingly +prolong a life so destitute of charm and dignity; and then you call to +memory that had he chosen, had he ceased to be a miser, he could have +been freed at once from these trials, and might have built himself a +castle and gone escorted by a squadron. For the love of more recondite +joys, which we cannot estimate, which, it may be, we should envy, the +man had willingly forgone both comfort and consideration. "His mind to +him a kingdom was"; and sure enough, digging into that mind, which seems +at first a dust-heap, we unearth some priceless jewels. For Dancer must +have had the love of power and the disdain of using it, a noble +character in itself; disdain of many pleasures, a chief part of what is +commonly called wisdom; disdain of the inevitable end, that finest trait +of mankind; scorn of men's opinions, another element of virtue; and at +the back of all, a conscience just like yours and mine, whining like a +cur, swindling like a thimble-rigger, but still pointing (there or +thereabout) to some conventional standard. Here were a cabinet portrait +to which Hawthorne perhaps had done justice; and yet not Hawthorne +either, for he was mildly minded, and it lay not in him to create for us +that throb of the miser's pulse, his fretful energy of gusto, his vast +arms of ambition clutching in he knows not what: insatiable, insane, a +god with a muck-rake. Thus, at least, looking in the bosom of the miser, +consideration detects the poet in the full tide of life, with more, +indeed, of the poetic fire than usually goes to epics; and tracing that +mean man about his cold hearth, and to and fro in his discomfortable +house, spies within him a blazing bonfire of delight. And so with +others, who do not live by bread alone, but by some cherished and +perhaps fantastic pleasure; who are meat salesmen to the external eye, +and possibly to themselves are Shakespeares, Napoleons, or Beethovens; +who have not one virtue to rub against another in the field of active +life, and yet perhaps, in the life of contemplation, sit with the +saints. We see them on the street, and we can count their buttons; but +heaven knows in what they pride themselves! heaven knows where they have +set their treasure! + +There is one fable that touches very near the quick of life: the fable +of the monk who passed into the woods, heard a bird break into song, +hearkened for a trill or two, and found himself on his return a stranger +at his convent gates; for he had been absent fifty years, and of all his +comrades there survived but one to recognise him. It is not only in the +woods that this enchanter carols, though perhaps he is native there. He +sings in the most doleful places. The miser hears him and chuckles, and +the days are moments. With no more apparatus than an ill-smelling +lantern I have evoked him on the naked links. All life that is not +merely mechanical is spun out of two strands: seeking for that bird and +hearing him. And it is just this that makes life so hard to value, and +the delight of each so incommunicable; and just a knowledge of this, and +a remembrance of those fortunate hours in which the bird has sung to us, +that fills us with such wonder when we turn the pages of the realist. +There, to be sure, we find a picture of life in so far as it consists of +mud and of old iron, cheap desires and cheap fears, that which we are +ashamed to remember and that which we are careless whether we forget; +but of the note of that time-devouring nightingale we hear no news. + +The case of these writers of romance is most obscure. They have been +boys and youths; they have lingered outside the window of the beloved, +who was then most probably writing to some one else; they have sat +before a sheet of paper, and felt themselves mere continents of +congested poetry, not one line of which would flow; they have walked +alone in the woods, they have walked in cities under the countless +lamps; they have been to sea, they have hated, they have feared, they +have longed to knife a man, and maybe done it; the wild taste of life +has stung their palate. Or, if you deny them all the rest, one pleasure +at least they have tasted to the full--their books are there to prove +it--the keen pleasure of successful literary composition. And yet they +fill the globe with volumes, whose cleverness inspires me with +despairing admiration, and whose consistent falsity to all I care to +call existence, with despairing wrath. If I had no better hope than to +continue to revolve among the dreary and petty businesses, and to be +moved by the paltry hopes and fears with which they surround and animate +their heroes, I declare I would die now. But there has never an hour of +mine gone quite so dully yet; if it were spent waiting at a railway +junction, I would have some scattering thoughts, I could count some +grains of memory, compared to which the whole of one of these romances +seems but dross. + +These writers would retort (if I take them properly) that this was very +true; that it was the same with themselves and other persons of (what +they call) the artistic temperament that in this we were exceptional, +and should apparently be ashamed of ourselves; but that our works must +deal exclusively with (what they call) the average man, who was a +prodigious dull fellow, and quite dead to all but the paltriest +considerations. I accept the issue. We can only know others by +ourselves. The artistic temperament (a plague on the expression!) does +not make us different from our fellow-men, or it would make us incapable +of writing novels; and the average man (a murrain on the word!) is just +like you and me, or he would not be average. It was Whitman who stamped +a kind of Birmingham sacredness upon the latter phrase; but Whitman knew +very well, and showed very nobly, that the average man was full of joys +and full of poetry of his own. And this harping on life's dulness and +man's meanness is a loud profession of incompetence; it is one of two +things: the cry of the blind eye, _I cannot see_, or the complaint of +the dumb tongue, _I cannot utter_. To draw a life without delights is to +prove I have not realised it. To picture a man without some sort of +poetry--well, it goes near to prove my case, for it shows an author may +have little enough. To see Dancer only as a dirty, old, small-minded, +impotently fuming man, in a dirty house, besieged by Harrow boys, and +probably beset by small attorneys, is to show myself as keen an observer +as ... the Harrow boys. But these young gentlemen (with a more becoming +modesty) were content to pluck Dancer by the coat-tails; they did not +suppose they had surprised his secret or could put him living in a book: +and it is there my error would have lain. Or say that in the same +romance--I continue to call these books romances, in the hope of giving +pain--say that in the same romance, which now begins really to take +shape, I should leave to speak of Dancer, and follow instead the Harrow +boys; and say that I came on some such business as that of my +lantern-bearers on the links; and described the boys as very cold, spat +upon by flurries of rain, and drearily surrounded, all of which they +were; and their talk as silly and indecent, which it certainly was. I +might upon these lines, and had I Zola's genius, turn out, in a page or +so, a gem of literary art, render the lantern-light with the touches of +a master, and lay on the indecency with the ungrudging hand of love; and +when all was done, what a triumph would my picture be of shallowness and +dulness! how it would have missed the point! how it would have belied +the boys! To the ear of the stenographer, the talk is merely silly and +indecent; but ask the boys themselves, and they are discussing (as it is +highly proper they should) the possibilities of existence. To the eye of +the observer they are wet and cold and drearily surrounded; but ask +themselves, and they are in the heaven of a recondite pleasure, the +ground of which is an ill-smelling lantern. + + + III + +For, to repeat, the ground of a man's joy is often hard to hit. It may +hinge at times upon a mere accessory, like the lantern; it may reside, +like Dancer's, in the mysterious inwards of psychology. It may consist +with perpetual failure, and find exercise in the continued chase. It has +so little bond with externals (such as the observer scribbles in his +note-book) that it may even touch them not; and the man's true life, for +which he consents to live, lie altogether in the field of fancy. The +clergyman, in his spare hours, may be winning battles, the farmer +sailing ships, the banker reaping triumph in the arts: all leading +another life, plying another trade from that they chose; like the poet's +housebuilder, who, after all, is cased in stone, + + "By his fireside, as impotent fancy prompts, + Rebuilds it to his liking." + +In such a case the poetry runs underground. The observer (poor soul, +with his documents!) is all abroad. For to look at the man is but to +court deception. We shall see the trunk from which he draws his +nourishment; but he himself is above and abroad in the green dome of +foliage, hummed through by winds and nested in by nightingales. And the +true realism were that of the poets, to climb up after him like a +squirrel, and catch some glimpse of the heaven for which he lives. And +the true realism, always and everywhere, is that of the poets: to find +out where joy resides, and give it a voice far beyond singing. + +For to miss the joy is to miss all. In the joy of the actors lies the +sense of any action. That is the explanation, that the excuse. To one +who has not the secret of the lanterns, the scene upon the links is +meaningless. And hence the haunting and truly spectral unreality of +realistic books. Hence, when we read the English realists, the +incredulous wonder with which we observe the hero's constancy under the +submerging tide of dulness, and how he bears up with his jibbing +sweetheart, and endures the chatter of idiot girls, and stands by his +whole unfeatured wilderness of an existence, instead of seeking relief +in drink or foreign travel. Hence in the French, in that meat-market of +middle-aged sensuality, the disgusted surprise with which we see the +hero drift sidelong, and practically quite untempted, into every +description of misconduct and dishonour. In each, we miss the personal +poetry, the enchanted atmosphere, that rainbow work of fancy that +clothes what is naked and seems to ennoble what is base; in each, life +falls dead like dough, instead of soaring away like a balloon into the +colours of the sunset; each is true, each inconceivable; for no man +lives in external truth, among salts and acids, but in the warm, +phantasmagoric chamber of his brain, with the painted windows and the +storied walls. + +Of this falsity we have had a recent example from a man who knows far +better--Tolstoi's "Powers of Darkness." Here is a piece full of force +and truth, yet quite untrue. For before Mikita was led into so dire a +situation he was tempted, and temptations are beautiful at least in +part; and a work which dwells on the ugliness of crime and gives no hint +of any loveliness in the temptation, sins against the modesty of life, +and, even when Tolstoi writes it, sinks to melodrama. The peasants are +not understood; they saw their life in fairer colours; even the deaf +girl was clothed in poetry for Mikita, or he had never fallen. And so, +once again, even an Old Bailey melodrama, without some brightness of +poetry and lustre of existence, falls into the inconceivable and ranks +with fairy tales. + + + IV + +In nobler books we are moved with something like the emotions of life; +and this emotion is very variously provoked. We are so moved when Levine +labours on the field, when Andre sinks beyond emotion, when Richard +Feverel and Lucy Desborough meet beside the river, when Antony, "not +cowardly, puts off his helmet," when Kent has infinite pity on the dying +Lear, when, in Dostoieffsky's "Despised and Rejected," the uncomplaining +hero drains his cup of suffering and virtue. These are notes that please +the great heart of man. Not only love, and the fields, and the bright +face of danger, but sacrifice and death and unmerited suffering humbly +supported, touch in us the vein of the poetic. We love to think of them, +we long to try them, we are humbly hopeful that we may prove heroes +also. + +We have heard, perhaps, too much of lesser matters. Here is the door, +here is the open air. + + _Itur in antiquam silvam._ + + +FOOTNOTE: + + [17] Wild cherries. + + + + +LATER ESSAYS + + + + +LATER ESSAYS + +I + +FONTAINEBLEAU + +VILLAGE COMMUNITIES OF PAINTERS + + I + + +The charm of Fontainebleau is a thing apart. It is a place that people +love even more than they admire. The vigorous forest air, the silence, +the majestic avenues of highway, the wilderness of tumbled boulders, the +great age and dignity of certain groves--these are but ingredients, they +are not the secret of the philtre. The place is sanative; the air, the +light, the perfumes, and the shapes of things concord in happy harmony. +The artist may be idle and not fear the "blues." He may dally with his +life. Mirth, lyric mirth, and a vivacious classical contentment are of +the very essence of the better kind of art; and these, in that most +smiling forest, he has the chance to learn or to remember. Even on the +plain of Biere, where the Angelus of Millet still tolls upon the ear of +fancy, a larger air, a higher heaven, something ancient and healthy in +the face of nature, purify the mind alike from dulness and hysteria. +There is no place where the young are more gladly conscious of their +youth, or the old better contented with their age. + +The fact of its great and special beauty further recommends this country +to the artist. The field was chosen by men in whose blood there still +raced some of the gleeful or solemn exultation of great art--Millet who +loved dignity like Michelangelo, Rousseau whose modern brush was dipped +in the glamour of the ancients. It was chosen before the day of that +strange turn in the history of art, of which we now perceive the +culmination in impressionistic tales and pictures--that voluntary +aversion of the eye from all speciously strong and beautiful +effects--that disinterested love of dulness which has set so many Peter +Bells to paint the river-side primrose. It was then chosen for its +proximity to Paris. And for the same cause, and by the force of +tradition, the painter of to-day continues to inhabit and to paint it. +There is in France scenery incomparable for romance and harmony. +Provence, and the valley of the Rhone from Vienne to Tarascon, are one +succession of masterpieces waiting for the brush. The beauty is not +merely beauty; it tells, besides, a tale to the imagination, and +surprises while it charms. Here you shall see castellated towns that +would befit the scenery of dreamland; streets that glow with colour like +cathedral windows; hills of the most exquisite proportions; flowers of +every precious colour, growing thick like grass. All these, by the grace +of railway travel, are brought to the very door of the modern painter; +yet he does not seek them; he remains faithful to Fontainebleau, to the +eternal bridge of Grez, to the watering-pot cascade in Cernay valley. +Even Fontainebleau was chosen for him; even in Fontainebleau he shrinks +from what is sharply charactered. But one thing, at least, is certain: +whatever he may choose to paint and in whatever manner, it is good for +the artist to dwell among graceful shapes. Fontainebleau, if it be but +quiet scenery, is classically graceful; and though the student may look +for different qualities, this quality, silently present, will educate +his hand and eye. + +But, before all its other advantages--charm, loveliness, or proximity to +Paris--comes the great fact that it is already colonised. The +institution of a painters' colony is a work of time and tact. The +population must be conquered. The innkeeper has to be taught, and he +soon learns, the lesson of unlimited credit; he must be taught to +welcome as a favoured guest a young gentleman in a very greasy coat, and +with little baggage beyond a box of colours and a canvas; and he must +learn to preserve his faith in customers who will eat heartily and drink +of the best, borrow money to buy tobacco, and perhaps not pay a stiver +for a year. A colour merchant has next to be attracted. A certain vogue +must be given to the place, lest the painter, most gregarious of +animals, should find himself alone. And no sooner are these first +difficulties overcome than fresh perils spring up upon the other side; +and the bourgeois and the tourist are knocking at the gate. This is the +crucial moment for the colony. If these intruders gain a footing, they +not only banish freedom and amenity; pretty soon, by means of their long +purses, they will have undone the education of the innkeeper; prices +will rise and credit shorten; and the poor painter must fare farther on +and find another hamlet. "Not here, O Apollo!" will become his song. +Thus Trouville and, the other day, St. Raphael were lost to the arts. +Curious and not always edifying are the shifts that the French student +uses to defend his lair; like the cuttlefish, he must sometimes blacken +the waters of his chosen pool; but at such a time and for so practical a +purpose Mrs. Grundy must allow him licence. Where his own purse and +credit are not threatened, he will do the honours of his village +generously. Any artist is made welcome, through whatever medium he may +seek expression; science is respected; even the idler, if he prove, as +he so rarely does, a gentleman, will soon begin to find himself at home. +And when that essentially modern creature, the English or American +girl-student, began to walk calmly into his favourite inns as if into a +drawing-room at home, the French painter owned himself defenceless; he +submitted or he fled. His French respectability, quite as precise as +ours, though covering different provinces of life, recoiled aghast +before the innovation. But the girls were painters; there was nothing to +be done; and Barbizon, when I last saw it and for the time at least, +was practically ceded to the fair invader. Paterfamilias, on the other +hand, the common tourist, the holiday shopman, and the cheap young +gentleman upon the spree, he hounded from his villages with every +circumstance of contumely. + +This purely artistic society is excellent for the young artist. The lads +are mostly fools; they hold the latest orthodoxy in its crudeness; they +are at that stage of education, for the most part, when a man is too +much occupied with style to be aware of the necessity for any matter; +and this, above all for the Englishman, is excellent. To work grossly at +the trade, to forget sentiment, to think of his material and nothing +else, is, for a while at least, the king's highway of progress. Here, in +England, too many painters and writers dwell dispersed, unshielded, +among the intelligent bourgeois. These, when they are not merely +indifferent, prate to him about the lofty aims and moral influence of +art. And this is the lad's ruin. For art is, first of all and last of +all, a trade. The love of words and not a desire to publish new +discoveries, the love of form and not a novel reading of historical +events, mark the vocation of the writer and the painter. The arabesque, +properly speaking, and even in literature, is the first fancy of the +artist; he first plays with his material as a child plays with a +kaleidoscope; and he is already in a second stage when he begins to use +his pretty counters for the end of representation. In that, he must +pause long and toil faithfully; that is his apprenticeship; and it is +only the few who will really grow beyond it, and go forward, fully +equipped, to do the business of real art--to give life to abstractions +and significance and charm to facts. In the meanwhile, let him dwell +much among his fellow-craftsmen. They alone can take a serious interest +in the childish tasks and pitiful successes of these years. They alone +can behold with equanimity this fingering of the dumb keyboard, this +polishing of empty sentences, this dull and literal painting of dull and +insignificant subjects. Outsiders will spur him on. They will say, "Why +do you not write a great book? paint a great picture?" If his guardian +angel fail him, they may even persuade him to the attempt, and, ten to +one, his hand is coarsened and his style falsified for life. + +And this brings me to a warning. The life of the apprentice to any art +is both unstrained and pleasing; it is strewn with small successes in +the midst of a career of failure, patiently supported; the heaviest +scholar is conscious of a certain progress; and if he come not +appreciably nearer to the art of Shakespeare, grows letter-perfect in +the domain of A-B, ab. But the time comes when a man should cease +prelusory gymnastic, stand up, put a violence upon his will, and, for +better or worse, begin the business of creation. This evil day there is +a tendency continually to postpone: above all with painters. They have +made so many studies that it has become a habit; they make more, the +walls of exhibitions blush with them; and death finds these aged +students still busy with their horn-book. This class of man finds a +congenial home in artist villages; in the slang of the English colony at +Barbizon we used to call them "Snoozers." Continual returns to the city, +the society of men further advanced, the study of great works, a sense +of humour or, if such a thing is to be had, a little religion or +philosophy, are the means of treatment. It will be time enough to think +of curing the malady after it has been caught; for to catch it is the +very thing for which you seek that dream-land of the painters' village. +"Snoozing" is a part of the artistic education; and the rudiments must +be learned stupidly, all else being forgotten, as if they were an object +in themselves. + +Lastly, there is something, or there seems to be something, in the very +air of France that communicates the love of style. Precision, clarity, +the cleanly and crafty employment of material, a grace in the handling, +apart from any value in the thought, seem to be acquired by the mere +residence; or, if not acquired, become at least the more appreciated. +The air of Paris is alive with this technical inspiration. And to leave +that airy city and awake next day upon the borders of the forest is but +to change externals. The same spirit of dexterity and finish breathes +from the long alleys and the lofty groves, from the wildernesses that +are still pretty in their confusion, and the great plain that contrives +to be decorative in its emptiness. + + + II + +In spite of its really considerable extent, the forest of Fontainebleau +is hardly anywhere tedious. I know the whole western side of it with +what, I suppose, I may call thoroughness; well enough at least to +testify that there is no square mile without some special character and +charm. Such quarters, for instance, as the Long Rocher, the Bas-Breau, +and the Reine Blanche might be a hundred miles apart; they have scarce a +point in common beyond the silence of the birds. The two last are really +conterminous; and in both are tall and ancient trees that have outlived +a thousand political vicissitudes. But in the one the great oaks prosper +placidly upon an even floor; they beshadow a great field; and the air +and the light are very free below their stretching boughs. In the other +the trees find difficult footing; castles of white rock lie tumbled one +upon another, the foot slips, the crooked viper slumbers, the moss +clings in the crevice; and above it all the great beech goes spiring and +casting forth her arms, and, with a grace beyond church architecture, +canopies this rugged chaos. Meanwhile, dividing the two cantons, the +broad white causeway of the Paris road runs in an avenue; a road +conceived for pageantry and for triumphal marches, an avenue for an +army; but, its days of glory over, it now lies grilling in the sun +between cool groves, and only at intervals the vehicle of the cruising +tourist is seen far away and faintly audible along its ample sweep. A +little upon one side, and you find a district of sand and birch and +boulder; a little upon the other lies the valley of Apremont, all +juniper and heather; and close beyond that you may walk into a zone of +pine trees. So artfully are the ingredients mingled. Nor must it be +forgotten that, in all this part, you come continually forth upon a +hill-top, and behold the plain, northward and westward, like an +unrefulgent sea; nor that all day long the shadows keep changing; and at +last, to the red fires of sunset, night succeeds, and with the night a +new forest, full of whisper, gloom, and fragrance. There are few things +more renovating than to leave Paris, the lamplit arches of the +Carrousel, and the long alignment of the glittering streets, and to +bathe the senses in this fragrant darkness of the wood. + +In this continual variety the mind is kept vividly alive. It is a +changeful place to paint, a stirring place to live in. As fast as your +foot carries you, you pass from scene to scene, each vigorously painted +in the colours of the sun, each endeared by that hereditary spell of +forests on the mind of man, who still remembers and salutes the ancient +refuge of his race. + +And yet the forest has been civilised throughout. The most savage +corners bear a name, and have been cherished like antiquities; in the +most remote, Nature has prepared and balanced her effects as if with +conscious art; and man, with his guiding arrows of blue paint, has +countersigned the picture. After your farthest wandering, you are never +surprised to come forth upon the vast avenue of highway, to strike the +centre point of branching alleys, or to find the aqueduct trailing, +thousand-footed, through the brush. It is not a wilderness; it is rather +a preserve. And, fitly enough, the centre of the maze is not a hermit's +cavern. In the midst, a little mirthful town lies sunlit, humming with +the business of pleasure; and the palace, breathing distinction and +peopled by historic names, stands smokeless among gardens. + +Perhaps the last attempt at savage life was that of the harmless humbug +who called himself the hermit. In a great tree, close by the highroad, +he had built himself a little cabin after the manner of the Swiss Family +Robinson; thither he mounted at night, by the romantic aid of a rope +ladder; and if dirt be any proof of sincerity, the man was savage as a +Sioux. I had the pleasure of his acquaintance; he appeared grossly +stupid, not in his perfect wits, and interested in nothing but small +change; for that he had a great avidity. In the course of time he proved +to be a chicken-stealer, and vanished from his perch; and perhaps from +the first he was no true votary of forest freedom, but an ingenious, +theatrically-minded beggar, and his cabin in the tree was only +stock-in-trade to beg withal. The choice of his position would seem to +indicate so much; for if in the forest there are no places still to be +discovered, there are many that have been forgotten, and that lie +unvisited. There, to be sure, are the blue arrows waiting to reconduct +you, now blazed upon a tree, now posted in the corner of a rock. But +your security from interruption is complete; you might camp for weeks, +if there were only water, and not a soul suspect your presence; and if I +may suppose the reader to have committed some great crime and come to me +for aid, I think I could still find my way to a small cavern, fitted +with a hearth and chimney, where he might lie perfectly concealed. A +confederate landscape-painter might daily supply him with food; for +water, he would have to make a nightly tramp as far as to the nearest +pond; and at last, when the hue and cry began to blow over, he might get +gently on the train at some side station, work round by a series of +junctions, and be quietly captured at the frontier. + +Thus Fontainebleau, although it is truly but a pleasure-ground, and +although, in favourable weather, and in the more celebrated quarters, it +literally buzzes with the tourist, yet has some of the immunities and +offers some of the repose of natural forests. And the solitary, although +he must return at night to his frequented inn, may yet pass the day with +his own thoughts in the companionable silence of the trees. The demands +of the imagination vary; some can be alone in a back garden looked upon +by windows; others, like the ostrich, are content with a solitude that +meets the eye; and others, again, expand in fancy to the very borders of +their desert, and are irritably conscious of a hunter's camp in an +adjacent county. To these last, of course, Fontainebleau will seem but +an extended tea-garden: a Rosherville on a by-day. But to the plain man +it offers solitude: an excellent thing in itself, and a good whet for +company. + + + III + +I was for some time a consistent Barbizonian; _et ego in Arcadia vixi_; +it was a pleasant season; and that noiseless hamlet lying close among +the borders of the wood is for me, as for so many others, a green spot +in memory. The great Millet was just dead, the green shutters of his +modest house were closed; his daughters were in mourning. The date of my +first visit was thus an epoch in the history of art: in a lesser way, it +was an epoch in the history of the Latin Quarter. The _Petit Cenacle_ +was dead and buried; Murger and his crew of sponging vagabonds were all +at rest from their expedients; the tradition of their real life was +nearly lost; and the petrified legend of the _Vie de Boheme_ had become +a sort of gospel, and still gave the cue to zealous imitators. But if +the book be written in rose-water, the imitation was still further +expurgated; honesty was the rule; the innkeepers gave, as I have said, +almost unlimited credit; they suffered the seediest painter to depart, +to take all his belongings, and to leave his bill unpaid; and if they +sometimes lost, it was by English and Americans alone. At the same time, +the great influx of Anglo-Saxons had begun to affect the life of the +studious. There had been disputes; and, in one instance at least, the +English and the Americans had made common cause to prevent a cruel +pleasantry. It would be well if nations and races could communicate +their qualities; but in practice when they look upon each other, they +have an eye to nothing but defects. The Anglo-Saxon is essentially +dishonest; the French is devoid by nature of the principle that we call +"Fair Play." The Frenchman marvelled at the scruples of his guest, and, +when that defender of innocence retired overseas and left his bills +unpaid, he marvelled once again; the good and evil were, in his eyes, +part and parcel of the same eccentricity; a shrug expressed his judgment +upon both. + +At Barbizon there was no master, no pontiff in the arts. Palizzi bore +rule at Grez--urbane, superior rule--his memory rich in anecdotes of the +great men of yore, his mind fertile in theories; sceptical, composed, +and venerable to the eye; and yet beneath these outworks, all twittering +with Italian superstition, his eye scouting for omens, and the whole +fabric of his manners giving way on the appearance of a hunchback. +Cernay had Pelouse, the admirable, placid Pelouse, smilingly critical of +youth, who, when a full-blown commercial traveller suddenly threw down +his samples, bought a colour-box, and became the master whom we have all +admired. Marlotte, for a central figure, boasted Olivier de Penne. Only +Barbizon, since the death of Millet, was a headless commonwealth. Even +its secondary lights, and those who in my day made the stranger welcome, +have since deserted it. The good Lachevre has departed, carrying his +household gods; and long before that Gaston Lafenestre was taken from +our midst by an untimely death. He died before he had deserved success; +it may be, he would never have deserved it; but his kind, comely, modest +countenance still haunts the memory of all who knew him. Another--whom I +will not name--has moved farther on, pursuing the strange Odyssey of his +decadence. His days of royal favour had departed even then; but he still +retained, in his narrower life at Barbizon, a certain stamp of conscious +importance, hearty, friendly, filling the room, the occupant of several +chairs; nor had he yet ceased his losing battle, still labouring upon +great canvases that none would buy, still waiting the return of fortune. +But these days also were too good to last; and the former favourite of +two sovereigns fled, if I heard the truth, by night. There was a time +when he was counted a great man, and Millet but a dauber; behold, how +the whirligig of time brings in his revenges! To pity Millet is a piece +of arrogance; if life be hard for such resolute and pious spirits, it is +harder still for us, had we the wit to understand it; but we may pity +his unhappier rival, who, for no apparent merit, was raised to opulence +and momentary fame, and, through no apparent fault, was suffered step by +step to sink again to nothing. No misfortune can exceed the bitterness +of such back-foremost progress, even bravely supported as it was; but to +those also who were taken early from the easel, a regret is due. From +all the young men of this period, one stood out by the vigour of his +promise; he was in the age of fermentation, enamoured of eccentricities. +"_Il faut faire de la peinture nouvelle_," was his watchword; but if +time and experience had continued his education, if he had been granted +health to return from these excursions to the steady and the central, I +must believe that the name of Hills had become famous. + +Siron's inn, that excellent artists' barrack, was managed upon easy +principles. At any hour of the night, when you returned from wandering +in the forest, you went to the billiard-room and helped yourself to +liquors, or descended to the cellar and returned laden with beer or +wine. The Sirons were all locked in slumber; there was none to check +your inroads; only at the week's end a computation was made, the gross +sum was divided, and a varying share set down to every lodger's name +under the rubric: _estrats_. Upon the more long-suffering the larger tax +was levied; and your bill lengthened in a direct proportion to the +easiness of your disposition. At any hour of the morning, again, you +could get your coffee or cold milk, and set forth into the forest. The +doves had perhaps wakened you, fluttering into your chamber; and on the +threshold of the inn you were met by the aroma of the forest. Close by +were the great aisles, the mossy boulders, the interminable field of +forest shadow. There you were free to dream and wander. And at noon, and +again at six o'clock, a good meal awaited you on Siron's table. The +whole of your accommodation, set aside that varying item of the +_estrats_, cost you five francs a day; your bill was never offered you +until you asked it; and if you were out of luck's way, you might depart +for where you pleased and leave it pending. + + + IV + +Theoretically, the house was open to all comers; practically, it was a +kind of club. The guests protected themselves, and, in so doing, they +protected Siron. Formal manners being laid aside, essential courtesy was +the more rigidly exacted; the new arrival had to feel the pulse of the +society; and a breach of its undefined observances was promptly +punished. A man might be as plain, as dull, as slovenly, as free of +speech as he desired; but to a touch of presumption or a word of +hectoring these free Barbizonians were as sensitive as a tea-party of +maiden ladies. I have seen people driven forth from Barbizon; it would +be difficult to say in words what they had done, but they deserved their +fate. They had shown themselves unworthy to enjoy these corporate +freedoms; they had pushed themselves; they had "made their head"; they +wanted tact to appreciate the "fine shades" of Barbizonian etiquette. +And, once they were condemned, the process of extrusion was ruthless in +its cruelty; after one evening with the formidable Bodmer, the Bailly of +our commonwealth, the erring stranger was beheld no more; he rose +exceeding early the next day, and the first coach conveyed him from the +scene of his discomfiture. These sentences of banishment were never, in +my knowledge, delivered against an artist; such would, I believe, have +been illegal; but the odd and pleasant fact is this, that they were +never needed. Painters, sculptors, writers, singers, I have seen all of +these in Barbizon; and some were sulky, and some blatant and inane; but +one and all entered at once into the spirit of the association. This +singular society is purely French, a creature of French virtues, and +possibly of French defects. It cannot be imitated by the English. The +roughness, the impatience, the more obvious selfishness, and even the +more ardent friendships of the Anglo-Saxon, speedily dismember such a +commonwealth. But this random gathering of young French painters, with +neither apparatus nor parade of government, yet kept the life of the +place upon a certain footing, insensibly imposed their etiquette upon +the docile, and by caustic speech enforced their edicts against the +unwelcome. To think of it is to wonder the more at the strange failure +of their race upon the larger theatre. This inbred civility--to use the +word in its completest meaning--this natural and facile adjustment of +contending liberties, seems all that is required to make a governable +nation and a just and prosperous country. + +Our society, thus purged and guarded, was full of high spirits, of +laughter, and of the initiative of youth. The few elder men who joined +us were still young at heart, and took the key from their companions. We +returned from long stations in the fortifying air, our blood renewed by +the sunshine, our spirits refreshed by the silence of the forest; the +Babel of loud voices sounded good; we fell to eat and play like the +natural man; and in the high inn chamber, panelled with indifferent +pictures and lit by candles guttering in the night air, the talk and +laughter sounded far into the night. It was a good place and a good life +for any naturally-minded youth; better yet for the student of painting, +and perhaps best of all for the student of letters. He, too, was +saturated in this atmosphere of style; he was shut out from the +disturbing currents of the world, he might forget that there existed +other and more pressing interests than that of art. But, in such a +place, it was hardly possible to write; he could not drug his +conscience, like the painter, by the production of listless studies; he +saw himself idle among many who were apparently, and some who were +really, employed; and what with the impulse of increasing health and the +continual provocation of romantic scenes, he became tormented with the +desire to work. He enjoyed a strenuous idleness, full of visions, hearty +meals, long, sweltering walks, mirth among companions; and, still +floating like music through his brain, foresights of great works that +Shakespeare might be proud to have conceived, headless epics, glorious +torsos of dramas, and words that were alive with import. So in youth, +like Moses from the mountain, we have sights of that House Beautiful of +art which we shall never enter. They are dreams and unsubstantial; +visions of style that repose upon no base of human meaning; the last +heart-throbs of that excited amateur who has to die in all of us before +the artist can be born. But they come to us in such a rainbow of glory +that all subsequent achievement appears dull and earthly in comparison. +We were all artists; almost all in the age of illusion, cultivating an +imaginary genius, and walking to the strains of some deceiving Ariel; +small wonder, indeed, if we were happy! But art, of whatever nature, is +a kind mistress; and though these dreams of youth fall by their own +baselessness, others succeed, graver and more substantial; the symptoms +change, the amiable malady endures; and still, at an equal distance, the +House Beautiful shines upon its hill-top. + + + V + +Grez lies out of the forest, down by the bright river. It boasts a mill, +an ancient church, a castle, and a bridge of many sterlings. And the +bridge is a piece of public property; anonymously famous; beaming on the +incurious dilettante from the walls of a hundred exhibitions. I have +seen it in the Salon; I have seen it in the Academy; I have seen it in +the last French Exposition, excellently done by Bloomer; in a +black-and-white by Mr. A. Henley, it once adorned this essay in the +pages of the _Magazine of Art_. Long-suffering bridge! And if you visit +Grez to-morrow, you shall find another generation, camped at the bottom +of Chevillon's garden under their white umbrellas, and doggedly painting +it again. + +The bridge taken for granted, Grez is a less inspiring place than +Barbizon. I give it the palm over Cernay. There is something ghastly in +the great empty village square of Cernay, with the inn tables standing +in one corner, as though the stage were set for rustic opera, and in the +early morning all the painters breaking their fast upon white wine under +the windows of the villagers. It is vastly different to awake in Grez, +to go down the green inn-garden, to find the river streaming through the +bridge, and to see the dawn begin across the poplared level. The meals +are laid in the cool arbour, under fluttering leaves. The splash of oars +and bathers, the bathing costumes out to dry, the trim canoes beside the +jetty, tell of a society that has an eye to pleasure. There is +"something to do" at Grez. Perhaps, for that very reason, I can recall +no such enduring ardours, no such glories of exhilaration, as among the +solemn groves and uneventful hours of Barbizon. This "something to do" +is a great enemy to joy; it is a way out of it; you wreak your high +spirits on some cut-and-dry employment, and behold them gone! But Grez +is a merry place after its kind: pretty to see, merry to inhabit. The +course of its pellucid river, whether up or down, is full of gentle +attractions for the navigator: islanded reed-mazes where, in autumn, the +red berries cluster; the mirrored and inverted images of trees; lilies, +and mills, and the foam and thunder of weirs. And of all noble sweeps of +roadway, none is nobler, on a windy dusk, than the highroad to Nemours +between its lines of talking poplar. + +But even Grez is changed. The old inn, long shored and trussed and +buttressed, fell at length under the mere weight of years, and the place +as it was is but a fading image in the memory of former guests. They, +indeed, recall the ancient wooden stair; they recall the rainy evening, +the wide hearth, the blaze of the twig fire, and the company that +gathered round the pillar in the kitchen. But the material fabric is now +dust; soon, with the last of its inhabitants, its very memory shall +follow; and they, in their turn, shall suffer the same law, and, both in +name and lineament, vanish from the world of men. "For remembrance of +the old house' sake," as Pepys once quaintly put it, let me tell one +story. When the tide of invasion swept over France, two foreign painters +were left stranded and penniless in Grez; and there, until the war was +over, the Chevillons ungrudgingly harboured them. It was difficult to +obtain supplies; but the two waifs were still welcome to the best, sat +down daily with the family to table, and at the due intervals were +supplied with clean napkins, which they scrupled to employ. Madame +Chevillon observed the fact and reprimanded them. But they stood firm; +eat they must, but having no money they would soil no napkins. + + + VI + +Nemours and Moret, for all they are so picturesque, have been little +visited by painters. They are, indeed, too populous; they have manners +of their own, and might resist the drastic process of colonisation. +Montigny has been somewhat strangely neglected; I never knew it +inhabited but once, when Will H. Low installed himself there with a +barrel of _piquette_, and entertained his friends in a leafy trellis +above the weir, in sight of the green country and to the music of the +falling water. It was a most airy, quaint, and pleasant place of +residence, just too rustic to be stagey; and from my memories of the +place in general, and that garden trellis in particular--at morning, +visited by birds, or at night, when the dew fell and the stars were of +the party--I am inclined to think perhaps too favourably of the future +of Montigny. Chailly-en-Biere has outlived all things, and lies dustily +slumbering in the plain--the cemetery of itself. The great road remains +to testify of its former bustle of postilions and carriage bells; and, +like memorial tablets, there still hang in the inn room the paintings of +a former generation, dead or decorated long ago. In my time, one man +only, greatly daring, dwelt there. From time to time he would walk over +to Barbizon, like a shade revisiting the glimpses of the moon, and after +some communication with flesh and blood return to his austere hermitage. +But even he, when I last revisited the forest, had come to Barbizon for +good, and closed the roll of the Chaillyites. It may revive--but I much +doubt it. Acheres and Recloses still wait a pioneer; Bourron is out of +the question, being merely Grez over again, without the river, the +bridge, or the beauty; and of all the possible places on the western +side, Marlotte alone remains to be discussed. I scarcely know Marlotte, +and, very likely for that reason, am not much in love with it. It seems +a glaring and unsightly hamlet. The inn of Mother Antonie is +unattractive; and its more reputable rival, though comfortable enough, +is commonplace. Marlotte has a name; it is famous; if I were the young +painter I would leave it alone in its glory. + + + VII + +These are the words of an old stager; and though time is a good +conservative in forest places, much may be untrue to-day. Many of us +have passed Arcadian days there and moved on, but yet left a portion of +our souls behind us buried in the woods. I would not dig for these +reliquiae; they are incommunicable treasures that will not enrich the +finder; and yet there may lie, interred below great oaks or scattered +along forest paths, stores of youth's dynamite and dear remembrances. +And as one generation passes on and renovates the field of tillage for +the next, I entertain a fancy that when the young men of to-day go forth +into the forest they shall find the air still vitalised by the spirits +of their predecessors, and, like those "unheard melodies" that are the +sweetest of all, the memory of our laughter shall still haunt the field +of trees. Those merry voices that in woods call the wanderer farther, +those thrilling silences and whispers of the groves, surely in +Fontainebleau they must be vocal of me and my companions? We are not +content to pass away entirely from the scenes of our delight; we would +leave, if but in gratitude, a pillar and a legend. + +One generation after another fall like honey-bees upon this memorable +forest, rifle its sweets, pack themselves with vital memories, and when +the theft is consummated depart again into life richer, but poorer also. +The forest, indeed, they have possessed, from that day forward it is +theirs indissolubly, and they will return to walk in it at night in the +fondest of their dreams, and use it for ever in their books and +pictures. Yet when they made their packets, and put up their notes and +sketches, something, it should seem, had been forgotten. A projection of +themselves shall appear to haunt unfriended these scenes of happiness, a +natural child of fancy, begotten and forgotten unawares. Over the whole +field of our wanderings such fetches are still travelling like +indefatigable bagmen; but the imps of Fontainebleau, as of all beloved +spots, are very long of life, and memory is piously unwilling to forget +their orphanage. If anywhere about that wood you meet my airy bantling, +greet him with tenderness. He was a pleasant lad, though now abandoned. +And when it comes to your own turn to quit the forest, may you leave +behind you such another; no Antony or Werther, let us hope, no tearful +whipster, but, as becomes this not uncheerful and most active age in +which we figure, the child of happy hours. + +No art, it may be said, was ever perfect, and not many noble, that has +not been mirthfully conceived. And no man, it may be added, was ever +anything but a wet blanket and a cross to his companions who boasted not +a copious spirit of enjoyment. Whether as man or artist, let the youth +make haste to Fontainebleau, and once there let him address himself to +the spirit of the place; he will learn more from exercise than from +studies, although both are necessary; and if he can get into his heart +the gaiety and inspiration of the woods he will have gone far to undo +the evil of his sketches. A spirit once well strung up to the +concert-pitch of the primeval out-of-doors will hardly dare to finish a +study and magniloquently ticket it a picture. The incommunicable thrill +of things, that is the tuning-fork by which we test the flatness of our +art. Here it is that Nature teaches and condemns, and still spurs up to +further effort and new failure. Thus it is that she sets us blushing at +our ignorant and tepid works; and the more we find of these inspiring +shocks the less shall we be apt to love the literal in our productions. +In all sciences and senses the letter kills; and to-day, when cackling +human geese express their ignorant condemnation of all studio pictures, +it is a lesson most useful to be learnt. Let the young painter go to +Fontainebleau, and while he stupefies himself with studies that teach +him the mechanical side of his trade, let him walk in the great air, and +be a servant of mirth, and not pick and botanise, but wait upon the +moods of Nature. So he will learn--or learn not to forget--the poetry of +life and earth, which, when he has acquired his track, will save him +from joyless reproduction. + + + + +II + +A NOTE ON REALISM + + +Style is the invariable mark of any master; and for the student who does +not aspire so high as to be numbered with the giants, it is still the +one quality in which he may improve himself at will. Passion, wisdom, +creative force, the power of mystery or colour, are allotted in the hour +of birth, and can be neither learned nor simulated. But the just and +dexterous use of what qualities we have, the proportion of one part to +another and to the whole, the elision of the useless, the accentuation +of the important, and the preservation of a uniform character from end +to end--these, which taken together constitute technical perfection, are +to some degree within the reach of industry and intellectual courage. +What to put in and what to leave out; whether some particular fact be +organically necessary or purely ornamental; whether, if it be purely +ornamental, it may not weaken or obscure the general design; and +finally, whether, if we decide to use it, we should do so grossly and +notably, or in some conventional disguise: are questions of plastic +style continually re-arising. And the sphinx that patrols the highways +of executive art has no more unanswerable riddle to propound. + +In literature (from which I must draw my instances) the great change of +the past century has been effected by the admission of detail. It was +inaugurated by the romantic Scott; and at length, by the semi-romantic +Balzac and his more or less wholly unromantic followers, bound like a +duty on the novelist. For some time it signified and expressed a more +ample contemplation of the conditions of man's life; but it has +recently (at least in France) fallen into a merely technical and +decorative stage, which it is, perhaps, still too harsh to call +survival. With a movement of alarm, the wiser or more timid begin to +fall a little back from these extremities; they begin to aspire after a +more naked, narrative articulation; after the succinct, the dignified, +and the poetic; and as a means to this, after a general lightening of +this baggage of detail. After Scott we beheld the starveling +story--once, in the hands of Voltaire, as abstract as a parable--begin +to be pampered upon facts. The introduction of these details developed a +particular ability of hand; and that ability, childishly indulged, has +led to the works that now amaze us on a railway journey. A man of the +unquestionable force of M. Zola spends himself on technical successes. +To afford a popular flavour and attract the mob, he adds a steady +current of what I may be allowed to call the rancid. That is exciting to +the moralist; but what more particularly interests the artist is this +tendency of the extreme of detail, when followed as a principle, to +degenerate into mere _feux-de-joie_ of literary tricking. The other day +even M. Daudet was to be heard babbling of audible colours and visible +sounds. + +This odd suicide of one branch of the realists may serve to remind us of +the fact which underlies a very dusty conflict of the critics. All +representative art, which can be said to live, is both realistic and +ideal; and the realism about which we quarrel is a matter purely of +externals. It is no especial cultus of nature and veracity, but a mere +whim of veering fashion, that has made us turn our back upon the larger, +more various, and more romantic art of yore. A photographic exactitude +in dialogue is now the exclusive fashion; but even in the ablest hands +it tells us no more--I think it even tells us less--than Moliere, +wielding his artificial medium, has told to us and to all time of +Alceste or Orgon, Dorine or Chrysale. The historical novel is forgotten. +Yet truth to the conditions of man's nature and the conditions of man's +life, the truth of literary art, is free of the ages. It may be told us +in a carpet comedy, in a novel of adventure, or a fairy tale. The scene +may be pitched in London, on the sea-coast of Bohemia, or away on the +mountains of Beulah. And by an odd and luminous accident, if there is +any page of literature calculated to awake the envy of M. Zola, it must +be that "Troilus and Cressida" which Shakespeare, in a spasm of unmanly +anger with the world, grafted on the heroic story of the siege of Troy. + +This question of realism, let it then be clearly understood, regards not +in the least degree the fundamental truth, but only the technical +method, of a work of art. Be as ideal or as abstract as you please, you +will be none the less veracious; but if you be weak, you run the risk of +being tedious and inexpressive; and if you be very strong and honest, +you may chance upon a masterpiece. + +A work of art is first cloudily conceived in the mind; during the period +of gestation it stands more clearly forward from these swaddling mists, +puts on expressive lineaments, and becomes at length that most +faultless, but also, alas! that incommunicable product of the human +mind, a perfected design. On the approach to execution all is changed. +The artist must now step down, don his working clothes, and become the +artisan. He now resolutely commits his airy conception, his delicate +Ariel, to the touch of matter; he must decide, almost in a breath, the +scale, the style, the spirit, and the particularity of execution of his +whole design. + +The engendering idea of some works is stylistic; a technical +pre-occupation stands them instead of some robuster principle of life. +And with these the execution is but play; for the stylistic problem is +resolved beforehand, and all large originality of treatment wilfully +foregone. Such are the verses, intricately designed, which we have +learnt to admire, with a certain smiling admiration, at the hands of Mr. +Lang and Mr. Dobson; such, too, are those canvases where dexterity or +even breadth of plastic style takes the place of pictorial nobility of +design. So, it may be remarked, it was easier to begin to write "Esmond" +than "Vanity Fair," since, in the first, the style was dictated by the +nature of the plan; and Thackeray, a man probably of some indolence of +mind, enjoyed and got good profit of this economy of effort. But the +case is exceptional. Usually in all works of art that have been +conceived from within outwards, and generously nourished from the +author's mind, the moment in which he begins to execute is one of +extreme perplexity and strain. Artists of indifferent energy and an +imperfect devotion to their own ideal make this ungrateful effort once +for all; and, having formed a style, adhere to it through life. But +those of a higher order cannot rest content with a process which, as +they continue to employ it, must infallibly degenerate towards the +academic and the cut-and-dried. Every fresh work in which they embark is +the signal for a fresh engagement of the whole forces of their mind; and +the changing views which accompany the growth of their experience are +marked by still more sweeping alterations in the manner of their art. So +that criticism loves to dwell upon and distinguish the varying periods +of a Raphael, a Shakespeare, or a Beethoven. + +It is, then, first of all, at this initial and decisive moment when +execution is begun, and thenceforth only in a less degree, that the +ideal and the real do indeed, like good and evil angels, contend for the +direction of the work. Marble, paint, and language, the pen, the needle, +and the brush, all have their grossnesses, their ineffable impotences, +their hours, if I may so express myself, of insubordination. It is the +work and it is a great part of the delight of any artist to contend with +these unruly tools, and now by brute energy, now by witty expedient, to +drive and coax them to effect his will. Given these means, so laughably +inadequate, and given the interest, the intensity, and the multiplicity +of the actual sensation whose effect he is to render with their aid, the +artist has one main and necessary resource which he must, in every case +and upon any theory, employ. He must, that is, suppress much and omit +more. He must omit what is tedious or irrelevant, and suppress what is +tedious and necessary. But such facts as, in regard to the main design, +subserve a variety of purposes, he will perforce and eagerly retain. And +it is the mark of the very highest order of creative art to be woven +exclusively of such. There, any fact that is registered is contrived a +double or a treble debt to pay, and is at once an ornament in its place +and a pillar in the main design. Nothing would find room in such a +picture that did not serve, at once, to complete the composition, to +accentuate the scheme of colour, to distinguish the planes of distance, +and to strike the note of the selected sentiment; nothing would be +allowed in such a story that did not, at the same time, expedite the +progress of the fable, build up the characters, and strike home the +moral or the philosophical design. But this is unattainable. As a rule, +so far from building the fabric of our works exclusively with these, we +are thrown into a rapture if we think we can muster a dozen or a score +of them, to be the plums of our confection. And hence, in order that the +canvas may be filled or the story proceed from point to point, other +details must be admitted. They must be admitted, alas! upon a doubtful +title; many without marriage robes. Thus any work of art, as it proceeds +towards completion, too often--I had almost written always--loses in +force and poignancy of main design. Our little air is swamped and +dwarfed among hardly relevant orchestration; our little passionate story +drowns in a deep sea of descriptive eloquence or slipshod talk. + +But again, we are rather more tempted to admit those particulars which +we know we can describe; and hence those most of all which, having been +described very often, have grown to be conventionally treated in the +practice of our art. These we choose, as the mason chooses the acanthus +to adorn his capital, because they come naturally to the accustomed +hand. The old stock incidents and accessories, tricks of workmanship +and schemes of composition (all being admirably good, or they would long +have been forgotten) haunt and tempt our fancy; offer us ready-made but +not perfectly appropriate solutions for any problem that arises; and +wean us from the study of nature and the uncompromising practice of art. +To struggle, to face nature, to find fresh solutions, and give +expression to facts which have not yet been adequately or not yet +elegantly expressed, is to run a little upon the danger of extreme +self-love. Difficulty sets a high price upon achievement; and the artist +may easily fall into the error of the French naturalists, and consider +any fact as welcome to admission if it be the ground of brilliant +handiwork; or, again, into the error of the modern landscape-painter, +who is apt to think that difficulty overcome and science well displayed +can take the place of what is, after all, the one excuse and breath of +art--charm. A little further, and he will regard charm in the light of +an unworthy sacrifice to prettiness, and the omission of a tedious +passage as an infidelity to art. + +We have now the matter of this difference before us. The idealist, his +eye singly fixed upon the greater outlines, loves rather to fill up the +interval with detail of the conventional order, briefly touched, soberly +suppressed in tone, courting neglect. But the realist, with a fine +intemperance, will not suffer the presence of anything so dead as a +convention; he shall have all fiery, all hot-pressed from nature, all +charactered and notable, seizing the eye. The style that befits either +of these extremes, once chosen, brings with it its necessary +disabilities and dangers. The immediate danger of the realist is to +sacrifice the beauty and significance of the whole to local dexterity, +or, in the insane pursuit of completion, to immolate his readers under +facts; but he comes in the last resort, and as his energy declines, to +discard all design, abjure all choice, and, with scientific +thoroughness, steadily to communicate matter which is not worth +learning. The danger of the idealist is, of course, to become merely +null and lose all grip of fact, particularity, or passion. + +We talk of bad and good. Everything, indeed, is good which is conceived +with honesty and executed with communicative ardour. But though on +neither side is dogmatism fitting, and though in every case the artist +must decide for himself, and decide afresh and yet afresh for each +succeeding work and new creation; yet one thing may be generally said, +that we of the last quarter of the nineteenth century, breathing as we +do the intellectual atmosphere of our age, are more apt to err upon the +side of realism than to sin in quest of the ideal. Upon that theory it +may be well to watch and correct our own decisions, always holding back +the hand from the least appearance of irrelevant dexterity, and +resolutely fixed to begin no work that is not philosophical, passionate, +dignified, happily mirthful, or at the last and least, romantic in +design. + + + + +III + +ON SOME TECHNICAL ELEMENTS OF STYLE IN LITERATURE + + +There is nothing more disenchanting to man than to be shown the springs +and mechanism of any art. All our arts and occupations lie wholly on the +surface; it is on the surface that we perceive their beauty, fitness, +and significance; and to pry below is to be appalled by their emptiness +and shocked by the coarseness of the strings and pulleys. In a similar +way, psychology itself, when pushed to any nicety, discovers an +abhorrent baldness, but rather from the fault of our analysis than from +any poverty native to the mind. And perhaps in aesthetics the reason is +the same: those disclosures which seem fatal to the dignity of art seem +so perhaps only in the proportion of our ignorance; and those conscious +and unconscious artifices which it seems unworthy of the serious artist +to employ were yet, if we had the power to trace them to their springs, +indications of a delicacy of the sense finer than we conceive, and hints +of ancient harmonies in nature. This ignorance at least is largely +irremediable. We shall never learn the affinities of beauty, for they +lie too deep in nature and too far back in the mysterious history of +man. The amateur, in consequence, will always grudgingly receive details +of method, which can be stated but can never wholly be explained; nay, +on the principle laid down in Hudibras, that + + "Still the less they understand, + The more they admire the sleight-of-hand," + +many are conscious at each new disclosure of a diminution in the ardour +of their pleasure. I must therefore warn that well-known character, the +general reader, that I am here embarked upon a most distasteful +business: taking down the picture from the wall and looking on the back; +and, like the inquiring child, pulling the musical cart to pieces. + +1. _Choice of Words_.--The art of literature stands apart from among its +sisters, because the material in which the literary artist works is the +dialect of life; hence, on the one hand, a strange freshness and +immediacy of address to the public mind, which is ready prepared to +understand it; but hence, on the other, a singular limitation. The +sister arts enjoy the use of a plastic and ductile material, like the +modeller's clay; literature alone is condemned to work in mosaic with +finite and quite rigid words. You have seen these blocks, dear to the +nursery: this one a pillar, that a pediment, a third a window or a vase. +It is with blocks of just such arbitrary size and figure that the +literary architect is condemned to design the palace of his art. Nor is +this all; for since these blocks, or words, are the acknowledged +currency of our daily affairs, there are here possible none of those +suppressions by which other arts obtain relief, continuity and vigour; +no hieroglyphic touch, no smoothed impasto, no inscrutable shadow, as in +painting; no blank wall, as in architecture; but every word, phrase, +sentence, and paragraph must move in a logical progression, and convey a +definite conventional import. + +Now, the first merit which attracts in the pages of a good writer, or +the talk of a brilliant conversationalist, is the apt choice and +contrast of the words employed. It is, indeed, a strange art to take +these blocks, rudely conceived for the purpose of the market or the bar, +and by tact of application touch them to the finest meanings and +distinctions, restore to them their primal energy, wittily shift them to +another issue, or make of them a drum to rouse the passions. But though +this form of merit is without doubt the most sensible and seizing, it is +far from being equally present in all writers. The effect of words in +Shakespeare, their singular justice, significance, and poetic charm, is +different, indeed, from the effect of words in Addison or Fielding. Or, +to take an example nearer home, the words in Carlyle seem electrified +into an energy of lineament, like the faces of men furiously moved; +whilst the words in Macaulay, apt enough to convey his meaning, +harmonious enough in sound, yet glide from the memory like +undistinguished elements in a general effect. But the first class of +writers have no monopoly of literary merit. There is a sense in which +Addison is superior to Carlyle; a sense in which Cicero is better than +Tacitus, in which Voltaire excels Montaigne: it certainly lies not in +the choice of words; it lies not in the interest or value of the matter; +it lies not in force of intellect, of poetry, or of humour. The three +first are but infants to the three second; and yet each, in a particular +point of literary art, excels his superior in the whole. What is that +point? + +2. _The Web_.--Literature, although it stands apart by reason of the +great destiny and general use of its medium in the affairs of men, is +yet an art like other arts. Of these we may distinguish two great +classes: those arts, like sculpture, painting, acting, which are +representative, or, as used to be said very clumsily, imitative; and +those, like architecture, music, and the dance, which are +self-sufficient, and merely presentative. Each class, in right of this +distinction, obeys principles apart; yet both may claim a common ground +of existence, and it may be said with sufficient justice that the motive +and end of any art whatever is to make a pattern; a pattern, it may be, +of colours, of sounds, of changing attitudes, geometrical figures, or +imitative lines; but still a pattern. That is the plane on which these +sisters meet; it is by this that they are arts; and if it be well they +should at times forget their childish origin, addressing their +intelligence to virile tasks, and performing unconsciously that +necessary function of their life, to make a pattern, it is still +imperative that the pattern shall be made. + +Music and literature, the two temporal arts, contrive their pattern of +sounds in time; or, in other words, of sounds and pauses. Communication +may be made in broken words, the business of life be carried on with +substantives alone; but that is not what we call literature; and the +true business of the literary artist is to plait or weave his meaning, +involving it around itself; so that each sentence, by successive +phrases, shall first come into a kind of knot, and then, after a moment +of suspended meaning, solve and clear itself. In every properly +constructed sentence there should be observed this knot or hitch; so +that (however delicately) we are led to foresee, to expect, and then to +welcome the successive phrases. The pleasure may be heightened by an +element of surprise, as, very grossly, in the common figure of the +antithesis, or, with much greater subtlety, where an antithesis is first +suggested and then deftly evaded. Each phrase, besides, is to be comely +in itself; and between the implication and the evolution of the sentence +there should be a satisfying equipoise of sound; for nothing more often +disappoints the ear than a sentence solemnly and sonorously prepared, +and hastily and weakly finished. Nor should the balance be too striking +and exact, for the one rule is to be infinitely various; to interest, to +disappoint, to surprise, and yet still to gratify; to be ever changing, +as it were, the stitch, and yet still to give the effect of an ingenious +neatness. + +The conjurer juggles with two oranges, and our pleasure in beholding him +springs from this, that neither is for an instant overlooked or +sacrificed. So with the writer. His pattern, which is to please the +supersensual ear, is yet addressed, throughout and first of all, to the +demands of logic. Whatever be the obscurities, whatever the intricacies +of the argument, the neatness of the fabric must not suffer, or the +artist has been proved unequal to his design. And, on the other hand, no +form of words must be selected, no knot must be tied among the phrases, +unless knot and word be precisely what is wanted to forward and +illuminate the argument; for to fail in this is to swindle in the game. +The genius of prose rejects the _cheville_ no less emphatically than the +laws of verse; and the _cheville_, I should perhaps explain to some of +my readers, is any meaningless or very watered phrase employed to strike +a balance in the sound. Pattern and argument live in each other; and it +is by the brevity, clearness, charm, or emphasis of the second, that we +judge the strength and fitness of the first. + +Style is synthetic; and the artist, seeking, so to speak, a peg to plait +about, takes up at once two or more elements or two or more views of the +subject in hand; combines, implicates, and contrasts them; and while, in +one sense, he was merely seeking an occasion for the necessary knot, he +will be found, in the other, to have greatly enriched the meaning, or to +have transacted the work of two sentences in the space of one. In the +change from the successive shallow statements of the old chronicler to +the dense and luminous flow of highly synthetic narrative, there is +implied a vast amount of both philosophy and wit. The philosophy we +clearly see, recognising in the synthetic writer a far more deep and +stimulating view of life, and a far keener sense of the generation and +affinity of events. The wit we might imagine to be lost; but it is not +so, for it is just that wit, these perpetual nice contrivances, these +difficulties overcome, this double purpose attained, these two oranges +kept simultaneously dancing in the air, that, consciously or not, afford +the reader his delight. Nay, and this wit, so little recognised, is the +necessary organ of that philosophy which we so much admire. That style +is therefore the most perfect, not, as fools say, which is the most +natural, for the most natural is the disjointed babble of the +chronicler; but which attains the highest degree of elegant and pregnant +implication unobtrusively; or if obtrusively, then with the greatest +gain to sense and vigour. Even the derangement of the phrases from their +(so-called) natural order is luminous for the mind; and it is by the +means of such designed reversal that the elements of a judgment may be +most pertinently marshalled, or the stages of a complicated action most +perspicuously bound into one. + +The web, then, or the pattern: a web at once sensuous and logical, an +elegant and pregnant texture: that is style, that is the foundation of +the art of literature. Books indeed continue to be read, for the +interest of the fact or fable, in which this quality is poorly +represented, but still it will be there. And, on the other hand, how +many do we continue to peruse and reperuse with pleasure whose only +merit is the elegance of texture? I am tempted to mention Cicero; and +since Mr. Anthony Trollope is dead, I will. It is a poor diet for the +mind, a very colourless and toothless "criticism of life"; but we enjoy +the pleasure of a most intricate and dexterous pattern, every stitch a +model at once of elegance and of good sense; and the two oranges, even +if one of them be rotten, kept dancing with inimitable grace. + +Up to this moment I have had my eye mainly upon prose; for though in +verse also the implication of the logical texture is a crowning beauty, +yet in verse it may be dispensed with. You would think that here was a +death-blow to all I have been saying; and far from that, it is but a new +illustration of the principle involved. For if the versifier is not +bound to weave a pattern of his own, it is because another pattern has +been formally imposed upon him by the laws of verse. For that is the +essence of a prosody. Verse may be rhythmical; it may be merely +alliterative; it may, like the French, depend wholly on the (quasi) +regular recurrence of the rhyme; or, like the Hebrew, it may consist in +the strangely fanciful device of repeating the same idea. It does not +matter on what principle the law is based, so it be a law. It may be +pure convention; it may have no inherent beauty; all that we have a +right to ask of any prosody is, that it shall lay down a pattern for the +writer, and that what it lays down shall be neither too easy nor too +hard. Hence it comes that it is much easier for men of equal facility to +write fairly pleasing verse than reasonably interesting prose; for in +prose the pattern itself has to be invented, and the difficulties first +created before they can be solved. Hence, again, there follows the +peculiar greatness of the true versifier: such as Shakespeare, Milton, +and Victor Hugo, whom I place beside them as versifier merely, not as +poet. These not only knit and knot the logical texture of the style with +all the dexterity and strength of prose; they not only fill up the +pattern of the verse with infinite variety and sober wit; but they give +us, besides, a rare and special pleasure, by the art, comparable to that +of counterpoint, with which they follow at the same time, and now +contrast, and now combine, the double pattern of the texture and the +verse. Here the sounding line concludes; a little further on, the +well-knit sentence; and yet a little further, and both will reach their +solution on the same ringing syllable. The best that can be offered by +the best writer of prose is to show us the development of the idea and +the stylistic pattern proceed hand in hand, sometimes by an obvious and +triumphant effort, sometimes with a great air of ease and nature. The +writer of verse, by virtue of conquering another difficulty, delights us +with a new series of triumphs. He follows three purposes where his rival +followed only two; and the change is of precisely the same nature as +that from melody to harmony. Or if you prefer to return to the juggler, +behold him now, to the vastly increased enthusiasm of the spectators, +juggling with three oranges instead of two. Thus it is: added +difficulty, added beauty; and the pattern, with every fresh element, +becoming more interesting in itself. + +Yet it must not be thought that verse is simply an addition; something +is lost as well as something gained; and there remains plainly +traceable, in comparing the best prose with the best verse, a certain +broad distinction of method in the web. Tight as the versifier may draw +the knot of logic, yet for the ear he still leaves the tissue of the +sentence floating somewhat loose. In prose, the sentence turns upon a +pivot, nicely balanced, and fits into itself with an obtrusive neatness +like a puzzle. The ear remarks and is singly gratified by this return +and balance; while in verse it is all diverted to the measure. To find +comparable passages is hard; for either the versifier is hugely the +superior of the rival, or, if he be not, and still persist in his more +delicate enterprise, he falls to be as widely his inferior. But let us +select them from the pages of the same writer, one who was ambidexter; +let us take, for instance, Rumour's Prologue to the Second Part of +_Henry IV._, a fine flourish of eloquence in Shakespeare's second +manner, and set it side by side with Falstaff's praise of sherris, act +iv., scene 1; or let us compare the beautiful prose spoken throughout by +Rosalind and Orlando, compare, for example, the first speech of all, +Orlando's speech to Adam, with what passage it shall please you to +select--the Seven Ages from the same play, or even such a stave of +nobility as Othello's farewell to war; and still you will be able to +perceive, if you have any ear for that class of music, a certain +superior degree of organisation in the prose; a compacter fitting of the +parts; a balance in the swing and the return as of a throbbing pendulum. +We must not, in things temporal, take from those who have little, the +little that they have; the merits of prose are inferior, but they are +not the same; it is a little kingdom, but an independent. + +3. _Rhythm of the Phrase._--Some way back, I used a word which still +awaits an application. Each phrase, I said, was to be comely; but what +is a comely phrase? In all ideal and material points, literature, being +a representative art, must look for analogies to painting and the like; +but in what is technical and executive, being a temporal art, it must +seek for them in music. Each phrase of each sentence, like an air or a +recitative in music, should be so artfully compounded out of long and +short, out of accented and unaccented, as to gratify the sensual ear. +And of this the ear is the sole judge. It is impossible to lay down +laws. Even in our accentual and rhythmic language no analysis can find +the secret of the beauty of a verse; how much less, then, of those +phrases, such as prose is built of, which obey no law but to be lawless +and yet to please? The little that we know of verse (and for my part I +owe it all to my friend Professor Fleeming Jenkin) is, however, +particularly interesting in the present connection. We have been +accustomed to describe the heroic line as five iambic feet, and to be +filled with pain and confusion whenever, as by the conscientious +schoolboy, we have heard our own description put in practice. + + "All night | the dread | less an | gel un | pursued,"[18] + +goes the schoolboy; but though we close our ears, we cling to our +definition, in spite of its proved and naked insufficiency. Mr. Jenkin +was not so easily pleased, and readily discovered that the heroic line +consists of four groups, or, if you prefer the phrase, contains four +pauses: + + "All night | the dreadless | angel | unpursued." + +Four groups, each practically uttered as one word: the first, in this +case, an iamb; the second, an amphibrachys; the third, a trochee; and +the fourth an amphimacer; and yet our schoolboy, with no other liberty +but that of inflicting pain, had triumphantly scanned it as five iambs. +Perceive, now, this fresh richness of intricacy in the web; this fourth +orange, hitherto unremarked, but still kept flying with the others. What +had seemed to be one thing it now appears is two; and, like some puzzle +in arithmetic, the verse is made at the same time to read in fives and +to read in fours. + +But again, four is not necessary. We do not, indeed, find verses in six +groups, because there is not room for six in the ten syllables; and we +do not find verses of two, because one of the main distinctions of verse +from prose resides in the comparative shortness of the group; but it is +even common to find verses of three. Five is the one forbidden number; +because five is the number of the feet; and if five were chosen, the two +patterns would coincide, and that opposition which is the life of verse +would instantly be lost. We have here a clue to the effect of +polysyllables, above all in Latin, where they are so common and make so +brave an architecture in the verse; for the polysyllable is a group of +Nature's making. If but some Roman would return from Hades (Martial, for +choice), and tell me by what conduct of the voice these thundering +verses should be uttered--"_Aut Lacedaemonium Tarentum_," for a case in +point--I feel as if I should enter at last into the full enjoyment of +the best of human verses. + +But, again, the five feet are all iambic, or supposed to be; by the mere +count of syllables the four groups cannot be all iambic; as a question +of elegance, I doubt if any one of them requires to be so; and I am +certain that for choice no two of them should scan the same. The +singular beauty of the verse analysed above is due, so far as analysis +can carry us, part, indeed, to the clever repetition of L, D and N, but +part to this variety of scansion in the groups. The groups which, like +the bar in music, break up the verse for utterance, fall uniambically; +and in declaiming a so-called iambic verse, it may so happen that we +never utter one iambic foot. And yet to this neglect of the original +beat there is a limit. + + "Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts,"[19] + +is, with all its eccentricities, a good heroic line; for though it +scarcely can be said to indicate the beat of the iamb, it certainly +suggests no other measure to the ear. But begin + + "Mother Athens, eye of Greece," + +or merely "Mother Athens," and the game is up, for the trochaic beat has +been suggested. The eccentric scansion of the groups is an adornment; +but as soon as the original beat has been forgotten, they cease +implicitly to be eccentric. Variety is what is sought; but if we destroy +the original mould, one of the terms of this variety is lost, and we +fall back on sameness. Thus, both as to the arithmetical measure of the +verse, and the degree of regularity in scansion, we see the laws of +prosody to have one common purpose: to keep alive the opposition of two +schemes simultaneously followed; to keep them notably apart, though +still coincident; and to balance them with such judicial nicety before +the reader, that neither shall be unperceived and neither signally +prevail. + +The rule of rhythm in prose is not so intricate. Here, too, we write in +groups, or phrases, as I prefer to call them, for the prose phrase is +greatly longer and is much more nonchalantly uttered than the group in +verse; so that not only is there a greater interval of continuous sound +between the pauses, but, for that very reason, word is linked more +readily to word by a more summary enunciation. Still, the phrase is the +strict analogue of the group, and successive phrases, like successive +groups, must differ openly in length and rhythm. The rule of scansion in +verse is to suggest no measure but the one in hand; in prose, to suggest +no measure at all. Prose must be rhythmical, and it may be as much so as +you will; but it must not be metrical. It may be anything, but it must +not be verse. A single heroic line may very well pass and not disturb +the somewhat larger stride of the prose style; but one following another +will produce an instant impression of poverty, flatness, and +disenchantment. The same lines delivered with the measured utterance of +verse would perhaps seem rich in variety. By the more summary +enunciation proper to prose, as to a more distant vision, these niceties +of difference are lost. A whole verse is uttered as one phrase; and the +ear is soon wearied by a succession of groups identical in length. The +prose writer, in fact, since he is allowed to be so much less +harmonious, is condemned to a perpetually fresh variety of movement on a +larger scale, and must never disappoint the ear by the trot of an +accepted metre. And this obligation is the third orange with which he +has to juggle, the third quality which the prose writer must work into +his pattern of words. It may be thought perhaps that this is a quality +of ease rather than a fresh difficulty; but such is the inherently +rhythmical strain of the English language, that the bad writer--and must +I take for example that admired friend of my boyhood, Captain Reid?--the +inexperienced writer, as Dickens in his earlier attempts to be +impressive, and the jaded writer, as any one may see for himself, all +tend to fall at once into the production of bad blank verse. And here it +may be pertinently asked, Why bad? And I suppose it might be enough to +answer that no man ever made good verse by accident, and that no verse +can ever sound otherwise than trivial when uttered with the delivery of +prose. But we can go beyond such answers. The weak side of verse is the +regularity of the beat, which in itself is decidedly less impressive +than the movement of the nobler prose; and it is just into this weak +side, and this alone, that our careless writer falls. A peculiar density +and mass, consequent on the nearness of the pauses, is one of the chief +good qualities of verse; but this our accidental versifier, still +following after the swift gait and large gestures of prose, does not so +much as aspire to imitate. Lastly, since he remains unconscious that he +is making verse at all, it can never occur to him to extract those +effects of counterpoint and opposition which I have referred to as the +final grace and justification of verse, and, I may add, of blank verse +in particular. + +4. _Contents of the Phrase._--Here is a great deal of talk about +rhythm--and naturally; for in our canorous language rhythm is always at +the door. But it must not be forgotten that in some languages this +element is almost, if not quite, extinct, and that in our own it is +probably decaying. The even speech of many educated Americans sounds the +note of danger. I should see it go with something as bitter as despair, +but I should not be desperate. As in verse no element, not even rhythm, +is necessary; so, in prose also, other sorts of beauty will arise and +take the place and play the part of those that we outlive. The beauty of +the expected beat in verse, the beauty in prose of its larger and more +lawless melody, patent as they are to English hearing, are already +silent in the ears of our next neighbours; for in France the oratorical +accent and the pattern of the web have almost or altogether succeeded to +their places; and the French prose writer would be astounded at the +labours of his brother across the Channel, and how a good quarter of his +toil, above all _invita Minerva_, is to avoid writing verse. So +wonderfully far apart have races wandered in spirit, and so hard it is +to understand the literature next door! + +Yet French prose is distinctly better than English; and French verse, +above all while Hugo lives, it will not do to place upon one side. What +is more to our purpose, a phrase or a verse in French is easily +distinguishable as comely or uncomely. There is then another element of +comeliness hitherto overlooked in this analysis: the contents of the +phrase. Each phrase in literature is built of sounds, as each phrase in +music consists of notes. One sound suggests, echoes, demands, and +harmonises with another; and the art of rightly using these concordances +is the final art in literature. It used to be a piece of good advice to +all young writers to avoid alliteration; and the advice was sound, in so +far as it prevented daubing. None the less for that, was it abominable +nonsense, and the mere raving of those blindest of the blind who will +not see? The beauty of the contents of a phrase, or of a sentence, +depends implicitly upon alliteration and upon assonance. The vowel +demands to be repeated; the consonant demands to be repeated; and both +cry aloud to be perpetually varied. You may follow the adventures of a +letter through any passage that has particularly pleased you; find it, +perhaps, denied a while, to tantalise the ear; find it fired again at +you in a whole broadside; or find it pass into congenerous sounds, one +liquid or labial melting away into another. And you will find another +and much stranger circumstance. Literature is written by and for two +senses: a sort of internal ear, quick to perceive "unheard melodies"; +and the eye, which directs the pen and deciphers the printed phrase. +Well, even as there are rhymes for the eye, so you will find that there +are assonances and alliterations; that where an author is running the +open A, deceived by the eye and our strange English spelling, he will +often show a tenderness for the flat A; and that where he is running a +particular consonant, he will not improbably rejoice to write it down +even when it is mute or bears a different value. + +Here, then, we have a fresh pattern--a pattern, to speak grossly, of +letters--which makes the fourth preoccupation of the prose writer, and +the fifth of the versifier. At times it is very delicate and hard to +perceive, and then perhaps most excellent and winning (I say perhaps); +but at times again the elements of this literal melody stand more boldly +forward and usurp the ear. It becomes, therefore, somewhat a matter of +conscience to select examples; and as I cannot very well ask the reader +to help me, I shall do the next best by giving him the reason or the +history of each selection. The two first, one in prose, one in verse, I +chose without previous analysis, simply as engaging passages that had +long re-echoed in my ear. + +"I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and +unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks +out of the race where that immortal garland is to be run for, not +without dust and heat."[20] Down to "virtue," the current S and R are +both announced and repeated unobtrusively, and by way of a grace-note +that almost inseparable group PVF is given entire.[21] The next phrase +is a period of repose, almost ugly in itself, both S and R still +audible, and B given as the last fulfilment of PVF. In the next four +phrases, from "that never" down to "run for," the mask is thrown off, +and, but for a slight repetition of the F and V, the whole matter turns, +almost too obtrusively, on S and R; first S coming to the front, and +then R. In the concluding phrase all these favourite letters, and even +the flat A, a timid preference for which is just perceptible, are +discarded at a blow and in a bundle; and to make the break more obvious, +every word ends with a dental, and all but one with T, for which we have +been cautiously prepared since the beginning. The singular dignity of +the first clause, and this hammer-stroke of the last, go far to make the +charm of this exquisite sentence. But it is fair to own that S and R are +used a little coarsely. + + "In Xanadu did Kubla Khan (KANDL) + A stately pleasure dome decree, (KDLSR) + Where Alph the sacred river ran, (KANDLSR) + Through caverns measureless to man, (KANLSR) + Down to a sunless sea."[22] (NDLS) + +Here I have put the analysis of the main group alongside the lines; and +the more it is looked at, the more interesting it will seem. But there +are further niceties. In lines two and four, the current S is most +delicately varied with Z. In line three, the current flat A is twice +varied with the open A, already suggested in line two, and both times +("where" and "sacred") in conjunction with the current R. In the same +line F and V (a harmony in themselves, even when shorn of their comrade +P) are admirably contrasted. And in line four there is a marked +subsidiary M, which again was announced in line two. I stop from +weariness, for more might yet be said. + +My next example was recently quoted from Shakespeare as an example of the +poet's colour sense. Now, I do not think literature has anything to do +with colour, or poets anyway the better of such a sense; and I instantly +attacked this passage, since "purple" was the word that had so pleased +the writer of the article, to see if there might not be some literary +reason for its use. It will be seen that I succeeded amply; and I am +bound to say I think the passage exceptional in Shakespeare--exceptional, +indeed, in literature; but it was not I who chose it. + + "The BaRge she sat iN, like a BURNished throNe + BURNt ON the water: the POOP was BeateN gold, + PURPle the sails and so PUR*Fumed that *per + The wiNds were lovesick with them."[23] + +It may be asked why I have put the F of perfumed in capitals; and I +reply, because this change from P to F is the completion of that from B +to P, already so adroitly carried out. Indeed, the whole passage is a +monument of curious ingenuity; and it seems scarce worth while to +indicate the subsidiary S, L and W. In the same article, a second +passage from Shakespeare was quoted, once again as an example of his +colour sense: + + "A mole cinque-spotted like the crimson drops + I' the bottom of a cowslip."[24] + +It is very curious, very artificial, and not worth while to analyse at +length: I leave it to the reader. But before I turn my back on +Shakespeare, I should like to quote a passage, for my own pleasure, and +for a very model of every technical art:-- + + "But in the wind and tempest of her frown, W. P. V. F. (st) (OW)[25] + Distinction with a loud and powerful fan, W. P. F. (st) (OW) L + Puffing at all, winnowes the light away; W. P. F. L + And what hath mass and matter by itself W. F. L. M. A. + Lies rich in virtue and unmingled."[26] V. L. M. + +From these delicate and choice writers I turned with some curiosity to a +player of the big drum--Macaulay. I had in hand the two-volume edition, +and I opened at the beginning of the second volume. Here was what I +read:-- + + "The violence of revolutions is generally proportioned to the degree + of the maladministration which has produced them. It is therefore + not strange that the government of Scotland, having been during many + years greatly more corrupt than the government of England, should + have fallen with a far heavier ruin. The movement against the last + king of the house of Stuart was in England conservative, in Scotland + destructive. The English complained not of the law, but of the + violation of the law." + +This was plain-sailing enough; it was our old friend PVF, floated by the +liquids in a body; but as I read on, and turned the page, and still +found PVF with his attendant liquids, I confess my mind misgave me +utterly. This could be no trick of Macaulay's; it must be the nature of +the English tongue. In a kind of despair, I turned half-way through the +volume; and coming upon his lordship dealing with General Cannon, and +fresh from Claverhouse and Killiekrankie, here, with elucidative +spelling, was my reward:-- + + "Meanwhile the disorders of Kannon's Kamp went on inKreasing. He + Kalled a KOUNCIL of war to Konsider what Kourse it would be advisable + to taKe. But as soon as the Kouncil had met a preliminary Kuestion + was raised. The army was almost eKsKlusively a Highland army. The + recent viKtory had been won eKsKlusively by Highland warriors. Great + chie_f_s who had brought siKs or se_v_en hundred _f_ighting men into + the _f_ield, did not think it _f_air that they should be out_v_oted + by gentlemen _f_rom Ireland and _f_rom the Low Kountries, who bore + indeed King James's Kommission, and were Kalled Kolonels and + Kaptains, but who were Kolonels without regiments and Kaptains + without Kompanies." + +A moment of FV in all this world of K's! It was not the English +language, then, that was an instrument of one string, but Macaulay that +was an incomparable dauber. + +It was probably from this barbaric love of repeating the same sound, +rather than from any design of clearness, that he acquired his +irritating habit of repeating words; I say the one rather than the +other, because such a trick of the ear is deeper seated and more +original in man than any logical consideration. Few writers, indeed, are +probably conscious of the length to which they push this melody of +letters. One, writing very diligently, and only concerned about the +meaning of his words and the rhythm of his phrases, was struck into +amazement by the eager triumph with which he cancelled one expression +to substitute another. Neither changed the sense; both being +mono-syllables, neither could affect the scansion; and it was only by +looking back on what he had already written that the mystery was solved: +the second word contained an open A, and for nearly half a page he had +been riding that vowel to the death. + +In practice, I should add, the ear is not always so exacting; and +ordinary writers, in ordinary moments, content themselves with avoiding +what is harsh, and here and there, upon a rare occasion, buttressing a +phrase, or linking two together, with a patch of assonance or a +momentary jingle of alliteration. To understand how constant is this +preoccupation of good writers, even where its results are least +obtrusive, it is only necessary to turn to the bad. There, indeed, you +will find cacophony supreme, the rattle of incongruous consonants only +relieved by the jaw-breaking hiatus, and whole phrases not to be +articulated by the powers of man. + +_Conclusion_.--We may now briefly enumerate the elements of style. We +have, peculiar to the prose writer, the task of keeping his phrases +large, rhythmical and pleasing to the ear, without ever allowing them to +fall into the strictly metrical: peculiar to the versifier, the task of +combining and contrasting his double, treble, and quadruple pattern, +feet and groups, logic and metre--harmonious in diversity: common to +both, the task of artfully combining the prime elements of language into +phrases that shall be musical in the mouth; the task of weaving their +argument into a texture of committed phrases and of rounded periods--but +this particularly binding in the case of prose: and, again common to +both, the task of choosing apt, explicit, and communicative words. We +begin to see now what an intricate affair is any perfect passage; how +many faculties, whether of taste or pure reason, must be held upon the +stretch to make it; and why, when it is made, it should afford us so +complete a pleasure. From the arrangement of according letters, which +is altogether arabesque and sensual, up to the architecture of the +elegant and pregnant sentence, which is a vigorous act of the pure +intellect, there is scarce a faculty in man but has been exercised. We +need not wonder, then, if perfect sentences are rare, and perfect pages +rarer. + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [18] Milton. + + [19] Milton. + + [20] Milton. + + [21] As PVF will continue to haunt us through our English examples, + take, by way of comparison, this Latin verse, of which it forms a + chief adornment, and do not hold me answerable for the all too Roman + freedom of the sense: "Hanc volo, quae facilis, quae palliolata + vagatur." + + [22] Coleridge. + + [23] Antony and Cleopatra. + + [24] Cymbeline. + + [25] The V is in "of." + + [26] Troilus and Cressida. + + + + +IV + +THE MORALITY OF THE PROFESSION OF LETTERS + + +The profession of letters has been lately debated in the public prints; +and it has been debated, to put the matter mildly, from a point of view +that was calculated to surprise high-minded men, and bring a general +contempt on books and reading. Some time ago, in particular, a lively, +pleasant, popular writer[27] devoted an essay, lively and pleasant like +himself, to a very encouraging view of the profession. We may be glad +that his experience is so cheering, and we may hope that all others, who +deserve it, shall be as handsomely rewarded; but I do not think we need +be at all glad to have this question, so important to the public and +ourselves, debated solely on the ground of money. The salary in any +business under heaven is not the only, nor indeed the first, question. +That you should continue to exist is a matter for your own +consideration; but that your business should be first honest, and second +useful, are points in which honour and morality are concerned. If the +writer to whom I refer succeeds in persuading a number of young persons +to adopt this way of life with an eye set singly on the livelihood, we +must expect them in their works to follow profit only, and we must +expect in consequence, if he will pardon me the epithets, a slovenly, +base, untrue, and empty literature. Of that writer himself I am not +speaking: he is diligent, clean, and pleasing; we all owe him periods of +entertainment, and he has achieved an amiable popularity which he has +adequately deserved. But the truth is, he does not, or did not when he +first embraced it, regard his profession from this purely mercenary +side. He went into it, I shall venture to say, if not with any noble +design, at least in the ardour of a first love; and he enjoyed its +practice long before he paused to calculate the wage. The other day an +author was complimented on a piece of work, good in itself and +exceptionally good for him, and replied in terms unworthy of a +commercial traveller, that as the book was not briskly selling he did +not give a copper farthing for its merit. It must not be supposed that +the person to whom this answer was addressed received it as a profession +of faith; he knew, on the other hand, that it was only a whiff of +irritation; just as we know, when a respectable writer talks of +literature as a way of life, like shoemaking, but not so useful, that he +is only debating one aspect of a question, and is still clearly +conscious of a dozen others more important in themselves and more +central to the matter in hand. But while those who treat literature in +this penny-wise and virtue-foolish spirit are themselves truly in +possession of a better light, it does not follow that the treatment is +decent or improving, whether for themselves or others. To treat all +subjects in the highest, the most honourable, and the pluckiest spirit, +consistent with the fact, is the first duty of a writer. If he be well +paid, as I am glad to hear he is, this duty becomes the more urgent, the +neglect of it the more disgraceful. And perhaps there is no subject on +which a man should speak so gravely as that industry, whatever it may +be, which is the occupation or delight of his life; which is his tool to +earn or serve with; and which, if it be unworthy, stamps himself as a +mere incubus of dumb and greedy bowels on the shoulders of labouring +humanity. On that subject alone even to force the note might lean to +virtue's side. It is to be hoped that a numerous and enterprising +generation of writers will follow and surpass the present one; but it +would be better if the stream were stayed, and the roll of our old, +honest English books were closed, than that esurient bookmakers should +continue and debase a brave tradition, and lower, in their own eyes, a +famous race. Better that our serene temples were deserted than filled +with trafficking and juggling priests. + +There are two just reasons for the choice of any way of life: the first +is inbred taste in the chooser; the second some high utility in the +industry selected. Literature, like any other art, is singularly +interesting to the artist; and, in a degree peculiar to itself among the +arts, it is useful to mankind. These are the sufficient justifications +for any young man or woman who adopts it as the business of his life. I +shall not say much about the wages. A writer can live by his writing. If +not so luxuriously as by other trades, then less luxuriously. The nature +of the work he does all day will more affect his happiness than the +quality of his dinner at night. Whatever be your calling, and however +much it brings you in the year, you could still, you know, get more by +cheating. We all suffer ourselves to be too much concerned about a +little poverty; but such considerations should not move us in the choice +of that which is to be the business and justification of so great a +portion of our lives; and like the missionary, the patriot, or the +philosopher, we should all choose that poor and brave career in which we +can do the most and best for mankind. Now Nature, faithfully followed, +proves herself a careful mother. A lad, for some liking to the jingle of +words, betakes himself to letters for his life; by-and-by, when he +learns more gravity, he finds that he has chosen better than he knew; +that if he earns little, he is earning it amply; that if he receives a +small wage, he is in a position to do considerable services; that it is +in his power, in some small measure, to protect the oppressed and to +defend the truth. So kindly is the world arranged, such great profit may +arise from a small degree of human reliance on oneself, and such, in +particular, is the happy star of this trade of writing, that it should +combine pleasure and profit to both parties, and be at once agreeable, +like fiddling, and useful, like good preaching. + +This is to speak of literature at its highest; and with the four great +elders who are still spared to our respect and admiration, with Carlyle, +Ruskin, Browning, and Tennyson before us, it would be cowardly to +consider it at first in any lesser aspect. But while we cannot follow +these athletes, while we may none of us, perhaps, be very vigorous, very +original, or very wise, I still contend that, in the humblest sort of +literary work, we have it in our power either to do great harm or great +good. We may seek merely to please; we may seek, having no higher gift, +merely to gratify the idle nine-days' curiosity of our contemporaries; +or we may essay, however feebly, to instruct. In each of these we shall +have to deal with that remarkable art of words which, because it is the +dialect of life, comes home so easily and powerfully to the minds of +men; and since that is so, we contribute, in each of these branches, to +build up the sum of sentiments and appreciations which goes by the name +of Public Opinion or Public Feeling. The total of a nation's reading, in +these days of daily papers, greatly modifies the total of the nation's +speech; and the speech and reading, taken together, form the efficient +educational medium of youth. A good man or woman may keep a youth some +little while in clearer air; but the contemporary atmosphere is +all-powerful in the end on the average of mediocre characters. The +copious Corinthian baseness of the American reporter or the Parisian +_chroniqueur_, both so lightly readable, must exercise an incalculable +influence for ill; they touch upon all subjects, and on all with the +same ungenerous hand; they begin the consideration of all, in young and +unprepared minds, in an unworthy spirit; on all, they supply some +pungency for dull people to quote. The mere body of this ugly matter +overwhelms the rarer utterances of good men; the sneering, the selfish, +and the cowardly are scattered in broad sheets on every table, while the +antidote, in small volumes, lies unread upon the shelf. I have spoken +of the American and the French, not because they are so much baser, but +so much more readable, than the English; their evil is done more +effectively, in America for the masses, in French for the few that care +to read; but with us as with them, the duties of literature are daily +neglected, truth daily perverted and suppressed, and grave subjects +daily degraded in the treatment. The journalist is not reckoned an +important officer; yet judge of the good he might do, the harm he does; +judge of it by one instance only: that when we find two journals on the +reverse sides of politics each, on the same day, openly garbling a piece +of news for the interest of its own party, we smile at the discovery (no +discovery now!) as over a good joke and pardonable stratagem. Lying so +open is scarce lying, it is true; but one of the things that we profess +to teach our young is a respect for truth; and I cannot think this piece +of education will be crowned with any great success, so long as some of +us practise and the rest openly approve of public falsehood. + +There are two duties incumbent upon any man who enters on the business +of writing: truth to the fact and a good spirit in the treatment. In +every department of literature, though so low as hardly to deserve the +name, truth to the fact is of importance to the education and comfort of +mankind, and so hard to preserve, that the faithful trying to do so will +lend some dignity to the man who tries it. Our judgments are based upon +two things, first, upon the original preferences of our soul; but, +second, upon the mass of testimony to the nature of God, man, and the +universe which reaches us, in divers manners, from without. For the most +part these divers manners are reducible to one, all that we learn of +past times and much that we learn of our own reaching us through the +medium of books or papers, and even he who cannot read learning from the +same source at second-hand and by the report of him who can. Thus the +sum of the contemporary knowledge or ignorance of good and evil is, in +large measure, the handiwork of those who write. Those who write have to +see that each man's knowledge is, as near as they can make it, +answerable to the facts of life; that he shall not suppose himself an +angel or a monster; nor take this world for a hell; nor be suffered to +imagine that all rights are concentred in his own caste or country, or +all veracities in his own parochial creed. Each man should learn what is +within him, that he may strive to mend; he must be taught what is +without him, that he may be kind to others. It can never be wrong to +tell him the truth; for, in his disputable state, weaving as he goes his +theory of life, steering himself, cheering or reproving others, all +facts are of the first importance to his conduct; and even if a fact +shall discourage or corrupt him, it is still best that he should know +it; for it is in this world as it is, and not in a world made easy by +educational suppressions, that he must win his way to shame or glory. In +one word, it must always be foul to tell what is false; and it can never +be safe to suppress what is true. The very fact that you omit may be the +fact which somebody was wanting, for one man's meat is another man's +poison, and I have known a person who was cheered by the perusal of +"Candide." Every fact is a part of that great puzzle we must set +together; and none that comes directly in a writer's path but has some +nice relations, unperceivable by him, to the totality and bearing of the +subject under hand. Yet there are certain classes of fact eternally more +necessary than others, and it is with these that literature must first +bestir itself. They are not hard to distinguish, nature once more easily +leading us; for the necessary, because the efficacious, facts are those +which are most interesting to the natural mind of man. Those which are +coloured, picturesque, human, and rooted in morality, and those, on the +other hand, which are clear, indisputable, and a part of science, are +alone vital in importance, seizing by their interest, or useful to +communicate. So far as the writer merely narrates, he should +principally tell of these. He should tell of the kind and wholesome and +beautiful elements of our life; he should tell unsparingly of the evil +and sorrow of the present, to move us with instances; he should tell of +wise and good people in the past, to excite us by example; and of these +he should tell soberly and truthfully, not glossing faults, that we may +neither grow discouraged with ourselves nor exacting to our neighbours. +So the body of contemporary literature, ephemeral and feeble in itself, +touches in the minds of men the springs of thought and kindness, and +supports them (for those who will go at all are easily supported) on +their way to what is true and right. And if, in any degree, it does so +now, how much more might it do so if the writers chose! There is not a +life in all the records of the past but, properly studied, might lend a +hint and a help to some contemporary. There is not a juncture in +to-day's affairs but some useful word may yet be said of it. Even the +reporter has an office, and, with clear eyes and honest language, may +unveil injustices and point the way to progress. And for a last word: in +all narration there is only one way to be clever, and that is to be +exact. To be vivid is a secondary quality which must presuppose the +first; for vividly to convey a wrong impression is only to make failure +conspicuous. + +But a fact may be viewed on many sides; it may be chronicled with rage, +tears, laughter, indifference, or admiration, and by each of these the +story will be transformed to something else. The newspapers that told of +the return of our representatives from Berlin, even if they had not +differed as to the facts, would have sufficiently differed by their +spirit; so that the one description would have been a second ovation, +and the other a prolonged insult. The subject makes but a trifling part +of any piece of literature, and the view of the writer is itself a fact +more important because less disputable than the others. Now this spirit +in which a subject is regarded, important in all kinds of literary work, +becomes all-important in works of fiction, meditation, or rhapsody; for +there it not only colours but itself chooses the facts; not only +modifies but shapes the work. And hence, over the far larger proportion +of the field of literature, the health or disease of the writer's mind +or momentary humour forms not only the leading feature of his work, but +is, at bottom, the only thing he can communicate to others. In all works +of art, widely speaking, it is first of all the author's attitude that +is narrated, though in the attitude there be implied a whole experience +and a theory of life. An author who has begged the question and reposes +in some narrow faith cannot, if he would, express the whole or even many +of the sides of this various existence; for, his own life being maim, +some of them are not admitted in his theory, and were only dimly and +unwillingly recognised in his experience. Hence the smallness, the +triteness, and the inhumanity in works of merely sectarian religion; and +hence we find equal although unsimilar limitations in works inspired by +the spirit of the flesh or the despicable taste for high society. So +that the first duty of any man who is to write is intellectual. +Designedly or not, he has so far set himself up for a leader of the +minds of men; and he must see that his own mind is kept supple, +charitable, and bright. Everything but prejudice should find a voice +through him; he should see the good in all things; where he has even a +fear that he does not wholly understand, there he should be wholly +silent; and he should recognise from the first that he has only one tool +in his workshop and that tool is sympathy.[28] + +The second duty, far harder to define, is moral. There are a thousand +different humours in the mind, and about each of them, when it is +uppermost, some literature tends to be deposited. Is this to be +allowed? Not certainly in every case, and yet perhaps in more than +rigorists would fancy. It were to be desired that all literary work, and +chiefly works of art, issued from sound, human, healthy, and potent +impulses, whether grave or laughing, humorous, romantic, or religious. +Yet it cannot be denied that some valuable books are partially insane; +some, mostly religious, partially inhuman; and very many tainted with +morbidity and impotence. We do not loathe a masterpiece although we gird +against its blemishes. We are not, above all, to look for faults but +merits. There is no book perfect, even in design; but there are many +that will delight, improve, or encourage the reader. On the one hand, +the Hebrew Psalms are the only religious poetry on earth; yet they +contain sallies that savour rankly of the man of blood. On the other +hand, Alfred de Musset had a poisoned and a contorted nature; I am only +quoting that generous and frivolous giant, old Dumas, when I accuse him +of a bad heart; yet, when the impulse under which he wrote was purely +creative, he could give us works like "Carmosine" or "Fantasio," in +which the last note of the romantic comedy seems to have been found +again to touch and please us. When Flaubert wrote "Madame Bovary," I +believe he thought chiefly of a somewhat morbid realism; and behold! the +book turned in his hands into a masterpiece of appalling morality. But +the truth is, when books are conceived under a great stress, with a soul +of nine-fold power nine times heated and electrified by effort, the +conditions of our being are seized with such an ample grasp, that, even +should the main design be trivial or base, some truth and beauty cannot +fail to be expressed. Out of the strong comes forth sweetness; but an +ill thing poorly done is an ill thing top and bottom. And so this can be +no encouragement to knock-knee'd, feeble-wristed scribes, who must take +their business conscientiously or be ashamed to practise it. + +Man is imperfect; yet, in his literature, he must express himself and +his own views and preferences; for to do anything else is to do a far +more perilous thing than to risk being immoral: it is to be sure of +being untrue. To ape a sentiment, even a good one, is to travesty a +sentiment; that will not be helpful. To conceal a sentiment, if you are +sure you hold it, is to take a liberty with truth. There is probably no +point of view possible to a sane man but contains some truth and, in the +true connection, might be profitable to the race. I am not afraid of the +truth, if any one could tell it me, but I am afraid of parts of it +impertinently uttered. There is a time to dance and a time to mourn; to +be harsh as well as to be sentimental; to be ascetic as well as to +glorify the appetites; and if a man were to combine all these extremes +into his work, each in its place and proportion, that work would be the +world's masterpiece of morality as well as of art. Partiality is +immorality; for any book is wrong that gives a misleading picture of the +world and life. The trouble is that the weakling must be partial; the +work of one proving dank and depressing; of another, cheap and vulgar; +of a third, epileptically sensual; of a fourth, sourly ascetic. In +literature as in conduct, you can never hope to do exactly right. All +you can do is to make as sure as possible; and for that there is but one +rule. Nothing should be done in a hurry that can be done slowly. It is +no use to write a book and put it by for nine or even ninety years; for +in the writing you will have partly convinced yourself; the delay must +precede any beginning; and if you meditate a work of art, you should +first long roll the subject under the tongue to make sure you like the +flavour, before you brew a volume that shall taste of it from end to +end; or if you propose to enter on the field of controversy, you should +first have thought upon the question under all conditions, in health as +well as in sickness, in sorrow as well as in joy. It is this nearness of +examination necessary for any true and kind writing, that makes the +practice of the art a prolonged and noble education for the writer. + +There is plenty to do, plenty to say, or to say over again, in the +meantime. Any literary work which conveys faithful facts or pleasing +impressions is a service to the public. It is even a service to be +thankfully proud of having rendered. The slightest novels are a blessing +to those in distress, not chloroform itself a greater. Our fine old +sea-captain's life was justified when Carlyle soothed his mind with "The +King's Own" or "Newton Forster." To please is to serve; and so far from +its being difficult to instruct while you amuse, it is difficult to do +the one thoroughly without the other. Some part of the writer or his +life will crop out in even a vapid book; and to read a novel that was +conceived with any force is to multiply experience and to exercise the +sympathies. Every article, every piece of verse, every essay, every +_entrefilet_, is destined to pass, however swiftly, through the minds of +some portion of the public, and to colour, however transiently, their +thoughts. When any subject falls to be discussed, some scribbler on a +paper has the invaluable opportunity of beginning its discussion in a +dignified and human spirit; and if there were enough who did so in our +public press neither the public nor the parliament would find it in +their minds to drop to meaner thoughts. The writer has the chance to +stumble, by the way, on something pleasing, something interesting, +something encouraging, were it only to a single reader. He will be +unfortunate, indeed, if he suit no one. He has the chance, besides, to +stumble on something that a dull person shall be able to comprehend; and +for a dull person to have read anything and, for that once, comprehended +it, makes a marking epoch in his education. + +Here then is work worth doing and worth trying to do well. And so, if I +were minded to welcome any great accession to our trade, it should not +be from any reason of a higher wage, but because it was a trade which +was useful in a very great and in a very high degree; which every honest +tradesman could make more serviceable to mankind in his single +strength; which was difficult to do well and possible to do better every +year; which called for scrupulous thought on the part of all who +practised it, and hence became a perpetual education to their nobler +natures; and which, pay it as you please, in the large majority of the +best cases will still be underpaid. For surely, at this time of day in +the nineteenth century, there is nothing that an honest man should fear +more timorously than getting and spending more than he deserves. + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [27] Mr. James Payn. + + [28] A footnote, at least, is due to the admirable example set before + all young writers in the width of literary sympathy displayed by Mr. + Swinburne. He runs forth to welcome merit, whether in Dickens or + Trollope, whether in Villon, Milton, or Pope. This is, in criticism, + the attitude we should all seek to preserve, not only in that, but + in every branch of literary work. + + + + +V + +BOOKS WHICH HAVE INFLUENCED ME + + +The Editor[29] has somewhat insidiously laid a trap for his +correspondents, the question put appearing at first so innocent, truly +cutting so deep. It is not, indeed, until after some reconnaissance and +review that the writer awakes to find himself engaged upon something in +the nature of autobiography, or, perhaps worse, upon a chapter in the +life of that little, beautiful brother whom we once all had, and whom we +have all lost and mourned, the man we ought to have been, the man we +hoped to be. But when word has been passed (even to an editor), it +should, if possible, be kept; and if sometimes I am wise and say too +little, and sometimes weak and say too much, the blame must lie at the +door of the person who entrapped me. + +The most influential books, and the truest in their influence, are works +of fiction. They do not pin the reader to a dogma, which he must +afterwards discover to be inexact; they do not teach him a lesson, which +he must afterwards unlearn. They repeat, they rearrange, they clarify +the lessons of life; they disengage us from ourselves, they constrain us +to the acquaintance of others; and they show us the web of experience, +not as we can see it for ourselves, but with a singular change--that +monstrous, consuming _ego_ of ours being, for the nonce, struck out. To +be so, they must be reasonably true to the human comedy; and any work +that is so serves the turn of instruction. But the course of our +education is answered best by those poems and romances where we breathe +a magnanimous atmosphere of thought and meet generous and pious +characters. Shakespeare has served me best. Few living friends have had +upon me an influence so strong for good as Hamlet or Rosalind. The last +character, already well beloved in the reading, I had the good fortune +to see, I must think, in an impressionable hour, played by Mrs. Scott +Siddons. Nothing has ever more moved, more delighted, more refreshed me; +nor has the influence quite passed away. Kent's brief speech over the +dying Lear had a great effect upon my mind, and was the burthen of my +reflections for long, so profoundly, so touchingly generous did it +appear in sense, so overpowering in expression. Perhaps my dearest and +best friend outside of Shakespeare is D'Artagnan--the elderly D'Artagnan +of the "Vicomte de Bragelonne." I know not a more human soul, nor, in +his way, a finer; I shall be very sorry for the man who is so much of a +pedant in morals that he cannot learn from the Captain of Musketeers. +Lastly, I must name the "Pilgrim's Progress," a book that breathes of +every beautiful and valuable emotion. + +But of works of art little can be said; their influence is profound and +silent, like the influence of nature; they mould by contact; we drink +them up like water, and are bettered, yet know not how. It is in books +more specifically didactic that we can follow out the effect, and +distinguish and weigh and compare. A book which has been very +influential upon me fell early into my hands, and so may stand first, +though I think its influence was only sensible later on, and perhaps +still keeps growing, for it is a book not easily outlived: the "Essais" +of Montaigne. That temperate and genial picture of life is a great gift +to place in the hands of persons of to-day; they will find in these +smiling pages a magazine of heroism and wisdom, all of an antique +strain; they will have their "linen decencies" and excited orthodoxies +fluttered, and will (if they have any gift of reading) perceive that +these have not been fluttered without some excuse and ground of reason; +and (again if they have any gift of reading) they will end by seeing +that this old gentleman was in a dozen ways a finer fellow, and held in +a dozen ways a nobler view of life, than they or their contemporaries. + +The next book, in order of time, to influence me was the New Testament, +and in particular the Gospel according to St. Matthew. I believe it +would startle and move any one if they could make a certain effort of +imagination and read it freshly like a book, not droningly and dully +like a portion of the Bible. Any one would then be able to see in it +those truths which we are all courteously supposed to know and all +modestly refrain from applying. But upon this subject it is perhaps +better to be silent. + +I come next to Whitman's "Leaves of Grass," a book of singular service, +a book which tumbled the world upside down for me, blew into space a +thousand cobwebs of genteel and ethical illusion, and, having thus +shaken my tabernacle of lies, set me back again upon a strong foundation +of all the original and manly virtues. But it is, once more, only a book +for those who have the gift of reading. I will be very frank--I believe +it is so with all good books, except, perhaps, fiction. The average man +lives, and must live, so wholly in convention, that gunpowder charges of +the truth are more apt to discompose than to invigorate his creed. +Either he cries out upon blasphemy and indecency, and crouches the +closer round that little idol of part-truths and part-conveniences which +is the contemporary deity, or he is convinced by what is new, forgets +what is old, and becomes truly blasphemous and indecent himself. New +truth is only useful to supplement the old; rough truth is only wanted +to expand, not to destroy, our civil and often elegant conventions. He +who cannot judge had better stick to fiction and the daily papers. There +he will get little harm, and, in the first at least, some good. + +Close upon the back of my discovery of Whitman, I came under the +influence of Herbert Spencer. No more persuasive rabbi exists, and few +better. How much of his vast structure will bear the touch of time, how +much is clay and how much brass, it were too curious to inquire. But his +words, if dry, are always manly and honest; there dwells in his pages a +spirit of highly abstract joy, plucked naked like an algebraic symbol, +but still joyful; and the reader will find there a _caput-mortuum_ of +piety, with little indeed of its loveliness, but with most of its +essentials; and these two qualities make him a wholesome, as his +intellectual vigour makes him a bracing, writer. I should be much of a +hound if I lost my gratitude to Herbert Spencer. + +"Goethe's Life," by Lewes, had a great importance for me when it first +fell into my hands--a strange instance of the partiality of man's good +and man's evil. I know no one whom I less admire than Goethe; he seems a +very epitome of the sins of genius, breaking open the doors of private +life, and wantonly wounding friends, in that crowning offence of +"Werther," and in his own character a mere pen-and-ink Napoleon, +conscious of the rights and duties of superior talents as a Spanish +inquisitor was conscious of the rights and duties of his office. And yet +in his fine devotion to his art, in his honest and serviceable +friendship for Schiller, what lessons are contained! Biography, usually +so false to its office, does here for once perform for us some of the +work of fiction, reminding us, that is, of the truly mingled tissue of +man's nature, and how huge faults and shining virtues cohabit and +persevere in the same character. History serves us well to this effect, +but in the originals, not in the pages of the popular epitomiser, who is +bound, by the very nature of his task, to make us feel the difference of +epochs instead of the essential identity of man, and even in the +originals only to those who can recognise their own human virtues and +defects in strange forms, often inverted and under strange names, often +interchanged. Martial is a poet of no good repute, and it gives a man +new thoughts to read his works dispassionately, and find in this +unseemly jester's serious passages the image of a kind, wise, and +self-respecting gentleman. It is customary, I suppose, in reading +Martial, to leave out these pleasant verses; I never heard of them, at +least, until I found them for myself; and this partiality is one among a +thousand things that help to build up our distorted and hysterical +conception of the great Roman empire. + +This brings us by a natural transition to a very noble book--the +"Meditations" of Marcus Aurelius. The dispassionate gravity, the noble +forgetfulness of self, the tenderness of others, that are there +expressed and were practised on so great a scale in the life of its +writer, make this book a book quite by itself. No one can read it and +not be moved. Yet it scarcely or rarely appeals to the feelings--those +very mobile, those not very trusty parts of man. Its address lies +further back: its lesson comes more deeply home; when you have read, you +carry away with you a memory of the man himself; it is as though you had +touched a loyal hand, looked into brave eyes, and made a noble friend; +there is another bond on you thenceforward, binding you to life and to +the love of virtue. + +Wordsworth should perhaps come next. Every one has been influenced by +Wordsworth, and it is hard to tell precisely how. A certain innocence, a +rugged austerity of joy, a sight of the stars, "the silence that is in +the lonely hills," something of the cold thrill of dawn, cling to his +work and give it a particular address to what is best in us. I do not +know that you learn a lesson; you need not--Mill did not--agree with any +one of his beliefs; and yet the spell is cast. Such are the best +teachers; a dogma learned is only a new error--the old one was perhaps +as good; but a spirit communicated is a perpetual possession. These best +teachers climb beyond teaching to the plane of art; it is themselves, +and what is best in themselves, that they communicate. + +I should never forgive myself if I forgot "The Egoist." It is art, if +you like, but it belongs purely to didactic art, and from all the novels +I have read (and I have read thousands) stands in a place by itself. +Here is a Nathan for the modern David; here is a book to send the blood +into men's faces. Satire, the angry picture of human faults, is not +great art; we can all be angry with our neighbour; what we want is to be +shown, not his defects, of which we are too conscious, but his merits, +to which we are too blind. And "The Egoist" is a satire; so much must be +allowed; but it is a satire of a singular quality, which tells you +nothing of that obvious mote, which is engaged from first to last with +that invisible beam. It is yourself that is hunted down; these are your +own faults that are dragged into the day and numbered, with lingering +relish, with cruel cunning and precision. A young friend of Mr. +Meredith's (as I have the story) came to him in an agony. "This is too +bad of you," he cried. "Willoughby is me!" "No, my dear fellow," said +the author, "he is all of us." I have read "The Egoist" five or six +times myself, and I mean to read it again; for I am like the young +friend of the anecdote--I think Willoughby an unmanly but a very +serviceable exposure of myself. + +I suppose, when I am done, I shall find that I have forgotten much that +was most influential, as I see already I have forgotten Thoreau, and +Hazlitt, whose paper "On the Spirit of Obligations" was a turning-point +in my life, and Penn, whose little book of aphorisms had a brief but +strong effect on me, and Mitford's "Tales of Old Japan," wherein I +learned for the first time the proper attitude of any rational man to +his country's laws--a secret found, and kept, in the Asiatic islands. +That I should commemorate all is more than I can hope or the editor +could ask. It will be more to the point, after having said so much upon +improving books, to say a word or two about the improvable reader. The +gift of reading, as I have called it, is not very common, nor very +generally understood. It consists, first of all, in a vast intellectual +endowment--a free grace, I find I must call it--by which a man rises to +understand that he is not punctually right, nor those from whom he +differs absolutely wrong. He may hold dogmas; he may hold them +passionately; and he may know that others hold them but coldly, or hold +them differently, or hold them not at all. Well, if he has the gift of +reading, these others will be full of meat for him. They will see the +other side of propositions and the other side of virtues. He need not +change his dogma for that, but he may change his reading of that dogma, +and he must supplement and correct his deductions from it. A human +truth, which is always very much a lie, hides as much of life as it +displays. It is men who hold another truth, or, as it seems to us, +perhaps, a dangerous lie, who can extend our restricted field of +knowledge, and rouse our drowsy consciences. Something that seems quite +new, or that seems insolently false or very dangerous, is the test of a +reader. If he tries to see what it means, what truth excuses it, he has +the gift, and let him read. If he is merely hurt, or offended, or +exclaims upon his author's folly, he had better take to the daily +papers; he will never be a reader. + +And here, with the aptest illustrative force, after I have laid down my +part-truth, I must step in with its opposite. For, after all, we are +vessels of a very limited content. Not all men can read all books; it is +only in a chosen few that any man will find his appointed food; and the +fittest lessons are the most palatable, and make themselves welcome to +the mind. A writer learns this early, and it is his chief support; he +goes on unafraid, laying down the law; and he is sure at heart that most +of what he says is demonstrably false, and much of a mingled strain, and +some hurtful, and very little good for service; but he is sure besides +that when his words fall into the hands of any genuine reader, they will +be weighed and winnowed, and only that which suits will be assimilated; +and when they fall into the hands of one who cannot intelligently read, +they come there quite silent and inarticulate, falling upon deaf ears, +and his secret is kept as if he had not written. + + +FOOTNOTE: + + [29] Of _The British Weekly_. + + + + +VI + +THE DAY AFTER TO-MORROW + + +History is much decried; it is a tissue of errors, we are told, no doubt +correctly; and rival historians expose each other's blunders with +gratification. Yet the worst historian has a clearer view of the period +he studies than the best of us can hope to form of that in which we +live. The obscurest epoch is to-day; and that for a thousand reasons of +inchoate tendency, conflicting report, and sheer mass and multiplicity +of experience; but chiefly, perhaps, by reason of an insidious shifting +of landmarks. Parties and ideas continually move, but not by measurable +marches on a stable course; the political soil itself steals forth by +imperceptible degrees, like a travelling glacier, carrying on its bosom +not only political parties but their flag-posts and cantonments; so that +what appears to be an eternal city founded on hills is but a flying +island of Laputa. It is for this reason in particular that we are all +becoming Socialists without knowing it; by which I would not in the +least refer to the acute case of Mr. Hyndman and his horn-blowing +supporters, sounding their trumps of a Sunday within the walls of our +individualist Jericho--but to the stealthy change that has come over the +spirit of Englishmen and English legislation. A little while ago, and we +were still for liberty; "crowd a few more thousands on the bench of +Government," we seemed to cry; "keep her head direct on liberty, and we +cannot help but come to port." This is over; _laisser faire_ declines in +favour; our legislation grows authoritative, grows philanthropical, +bristles with new duties and new penalties, and casts a spawn of +inspectors, who now begin, note-book in hand, to darken the face of +England. It may be right or wrong, we are not trying that; but one thing +it is beyond doubt: it is Socialism in action, and the strange thing is +that we scarcely know it. + +Liberty has served us a long while, and it may be time to seek new +altars. Like all other principles, she has been proved to be +self-exclusive in the long run. She has taken wages besides (like all +other virtues) and dutifully served Mammon; so that many things we were +accustomed to admire as the benefits of freedom and common to all were +truly benefits of wealth, and took their value from our neighbours' +poverty. A few shocks of logic, a few disclosures (in the journalistic +phrase) of what the freedom of manufacturers, landlords, or shipowners +may imply for operatives, tenants or seamen, and we not unnaturally +begin to turn to that other pole of hope, beneficent tyranny. Freedom, +to be desirable, involves kindness, wisdom, and all the virtues of the +free; but the free man as we have seen him in action has been, as of +yore, only the master of many helots; and the slaves are still ill-fed, +ill-clad, ill-taught, ill-housed, insolently treated, and driven to +their mines and workshops by the lash of famine. So much, in other men's +affairs, we have begun to see clearly; we have begun to despair of +virtue in these other men, and from our seat in Parliament begin to +discharge upon them, thick as arrows, the host of our inspectors. The +landlord has long shaken his head over the manufacturer; those who do +business on land have lost all trust in the virtues of the shipowner; +the professions look askance upon the retail traders and have even +started their co-operative stores to ruin them; and from out the +smoke-wreaths of Birmingham a finger has begun to write upon the wall +the condemnation of the landlord. Thus, piece by piece, do we condemn +each other, and yet not perceive the conclusion, that our whole estate +is somewhat damnable. Thus, piece by piece, each acting against his +neighbour, each sawing away the branch on which some other interest is +seated, do we apply in detail our Socialistic remedies, and yet not +perceive that we are all labouring together to bring in Socialism at +large. A tendency so stupid and so selfish is like to prove invincible; +and if Socialism be at all a practicable rule of life, there is every +chance that our grandchildren will see the day and taste the pleasures +of existence in something far liker an ant-heap than any previous human +polity. And this not in the least because of the voice of Mr. Hyndman or +the horns of his followers; but by the mere glacier movement of the +political soil, bearing forward on its bosom, apparently undisturbed, +the proud camps of Whig and Tory. If Mr. Hyndman were a man of keen +humour, which is far from my conception of his character, he might rest +from his troubling and look on: the walls of Jericho begin already to +crumble and dissolve. That great servile war, the Armageddon of money +and numbers, to which we looked forward when young, becomes more and +more unlikely; and we may rather look to see a peaceable and blindfold +evolution, the work of dull men immersed in political tactics and dead +to political results. + +The principal scene of this comedy lies, of course, in the House of +Commons; it is there, besides, that the details of this new evolution +(if it proceed) will fall to be decided; so that the state of Parliament +is not only diagnostic of the present but fatefully prophetic of the +future. Well, we all know what Parliament is, and we are all ashamed of +it. We may pardon it some faults, indeed, on the ground of Irish +obstruction--a bitter trial, which it supports with notable good humour. +But the excuse is merely local; it cannot apply to similar bodies in +America and France; and what are we to say of these? President +Cleveland's letter may serve as a picture of the one; a glance at almost +any paper will convince us of the weakness of the other. Decay appears +to have seized on the organ of popular government in every land; and +this just at the moment when we begin to bring to it, as to an oracle of +justice, the whole skein of our private affairs to be unravelled, and +ask it, like a new Messiah, to take upon itself our frailties and play +for us the part that should be played by our own virtues. For that, in +few words, is the case. We cannot trust ourselves to behave with +decency; we cannot trust our consciences; and the remedy proposed is to +elect a round number of our neighbours, pretty much at random, and say +to these: "Be ye our conscience; make laws so wise, and continue from +year to year to administer them so wisely, that they shall save us from +ourselves and make us righteous and happy, world without end. Amen." And +who can look twice at the British Parliament and then seriously bring it +such a task? I am not advancing this as an argument against Socialism; +once again, nothing is further from my mind. There are great truths in +Socialism, or no one, not even Mr. Hyndman, would be found to hold it; +and if it came, and did one-tenth part of what it offers, I for one +should make it welcome. But if it is to come, we may as well have some +notion of what it will be like; and the first thing to grasp is that our +new polity will be designed and administered (to put it courteously) +with something short of inspiration. It will be made, or will grow, in a +human parliament; and the one thing that will not very hugely change is +human nature. The Anarchists think otherwise, from which it is only +plain that they have not carried to the study of history the lamp of +human sympathy. + +Given, then, our new polity, with its new waggon-load of laws, what +headmarks must we look for in the life? We chafe a good deal at that +excellent thing, the income-tax, because it brings into our affairs the +prying fingers, and exposes us to the tart words, of the official. The +official, in all degrees, is already something of a terror to many of +us. I would not willingly have to do with even a police-constable in any +other spirit than that of kindness. I still remember in my dreams the +eye-glass of a certain _attache_ at a certain embassy--an eye-glass that +was a standing indignity to all on whom it looked; and my next most +disagreeable remembrance is of a bracing, Republican postman in the +city of San Francisco. I lived in that city among working folk, and what +my neighbours accepted at the postman's hands--nay, what I took from him +myself--it is still distasteful to recall. The bourgeois, residing in +the upper parts of society, has but few opportunities of tasting this +peculiar bowl; but about the income-tax, as I have said, or perhaps +about a patent, or in the halls of an embassy at the hands of my friend +of the eye-glass, he occasionally sets his lips to it; and he may thus +imagine (if he has that faculty of imagination, without which most +faculties are void) how it tastes to his poorer neighbours who must +drain it to the dregs. In every contact with authority, with their +employer, with the police, with the School Board officer, in the +hospital, or in the workhouse, they have equally the occasion to +appreciate the light-hearted civility of the man in office; and as an +experimentalist in several out-of-the-way provinces of life, I may say +it has but to be felt to be appreciated. Well, this golden age of which +we are speaking will be the golden age of officials. In all our concerns +it will be their beloved duty to meddle, with what tact, with what +obliging words, analogy will aid us to imagine. It is likely these +gentlemen will be periodically elected; they will therefore have their +turn of being underneath, which does not always sweeten men's +conditions. The laws they will have to administer will be no clearer +than those we know to-day, and the body which is to regulate their +administration no wiser than the British Parliament. So that upon all +hands we may look for a form of servitude most galling to the +blood--servitude to many and changing masters, and for all the slights +that accompany the rule of jack-in-office. And if the Socialistic +programme be carried out with the least fulness, we shall have lost a +thing, in most respects not much to be regretted, but as a moderator of +oppression, a thing nearly invaluable--the newspaper. For the +independent journal is a creature of capital and competition; it stands +and falls with millionaires and railway bonds and all the abuses and +glories of to-day; and as soon as the State has fairly taken its bent +to authority and philanthropy, and laid the least touch on private +property, the days of the independent journal are numbered. State +railways may be good things and so may State bakeries; but a State +newspaper will never be a very trenchant critic of the State officials. + +But again, these officials would have no sinecure. Crime would perhaps +be less, for some of the motives of crime we may suppose would pass +away. But if Socialism were carried out with any fulness, there would be +more contraventions. We see already new sins springing up like +mustard--School Board sins, factory sins, Merchant Shipping Act +sins--none of which I would be thought to except against in particular, +but all of which, taken together, show us that Socialism can be a hard +master even in the beginning. If it go on to such heights as we hear +proposed and lauded, if it come actually to its ideal of the ant-heap, +ruled with iron justice, the number of new contraventions will be out of +all proportion multiplied. Take the case of work alone. Man is an idle +animal. He is at least as intelligent as the ant; but generations of +advisers have in vain recommended him the ant's example. Of those who +are found truly indefatigable in business, some are misers; some are the +practisers of delightful industries, like gardening; some are students, +artists, inventors, or discoverers, men lured forward by successive +hopes; and the rest are those who live by games of skill or +hazard--financiers, billiard-players, gamblers, and the like. But in +unloved toils, even under the prick of necessity, no man is continually +sedulous. Once eliminate the fear of starvation, once eliminate or bound +the hope of riches, and we shall see plenty of skulking and malingering. +Society will then be something not wholly unlike a cotton plantation in +the old days; with cheerful, careless, demoralised slaves, with elected +overseers, and, instead of the planter, a chaotic popular assembly. If +the blood be purposeful and the soil strong, such a plantation may +succeed, and be, indeed, a busy ant-heap, with full granaries and long +hours of leisure. But even then I think the whip will be in the +overseer's hands, and not in vain. For, when it comes to be a question +of each man doing his own share or the rest doing more, prettiness of +sentiment will be forgotten. To dock the skulker's food is not enough; +many will rather eat haws and starve on petty pilferings than put their +shoulder to the wheel for one hour daily. For such as these, then, the +whip will be in the overseer's hand; and his own sense of justice and +the superintendence of a chaotic popular assembly will be the only +checks on its employment. Now, you may be an industrious man and a good +citizen, and yet not love, nor yet be loved by, Dr. Fell the inspector. +It is admitted by private soldiers that the disfavour of a sergeant is +an evil not to be combated; offend the sergeant, they say, and in a +brief while you will either be disgraced or have deserted. And the +sergeant can no longer appeal to the lash. But if these things go on, we +shall see, or our sons shall see, what it is to have offended an +inspector. + +This for the unfortunate. But with the fortunate also, even those whom +the inspector loves, it may not be altogether well. It is concluded that +in such a state of society, supposing it to be financially sound, the +level of comfort will be high. It does not follow: there are strange +depths of idleness in man, a too-easily-got sufficiency, as in the case +of the sago-eaters, often quenching the desire for all besides; and it +is possible that the men of the richest ant-heaps may sink even into +squalor. But suppose they do not; suppose our tricksy instrument of +human nature, when we play upon it this new tune, should respond kindly; +suppose no one to be damped and none exasperated by the new conditions, +the whole enterprise to be financially sound--a vaulting +supposition--and all the inhabitants to dwell together in a golden mean +of comfort: we have yet to ask ourselves if this be what man desire, or +if it be what man will even deign to accept for a continuance. It is +certain that man loves to eat, it is not certain that he loves that only +or that best. He is supposed to love comfort; it is not a love, at +least, that he is faithful to. He is supposed to love happiness; it is +my contention that he rather loves excitement. Danger, enterprise, hope, +the novel, the aleatory, are dearer to man than regular meals. He does +not think so when he is hungry, but he thinks so again as soon as he is +fed; and on the hypothesis of a successful ant-heap, he would never go +hungry. It would be always after dinner in that society, as, in the land +of the Lotos-eaters, it was always afternoon; and food, which, when we +have it not, seems all-important, drops in our esteem, as soon as we +have it, to a mere pre-requisite of living. + +That for which man lives is not the same thing for all individuals nor +in all ages; yet it has a common base; what he seeks and what he must +have is that which will seize and hold his attention. Regular meals and +weather-proof lodgings will not do this long. Play in its wide sense, as +the artificial induction of sensation, including all games and all arts, +will, indeed, go far to keep him conscious of himself; but in the end he +wearies for realities. Study or experiment, to some rare natures, is the +unbroken pastime of a life. These are enviable natures; people shut in +the house by sickness often bitterly envy them; but the commoner man +cannot continue to exist upon such altitudes: his feet itch for physical +adventure; his blood boils for physical dangers, pleasures, and +triumphs; his fancy, the looker after new things, cannot continue to +look for them in books and crucibles, but must seek them on the +breathing stage of life. Pinches, buffets, the glow of hope, the shock +of disappointment, furious contention with obstacles: these are the true +elixir for all vital spirits, these are what they seek alike in their +romantic enterprises and their unromantic dissipations. When they are +taken in some pinch closer than the common, they cry, "Catch me here +again!" and sure enough you catch them there again--perhaps before the +week is out. It is as old as "Robinson Crusoe"; as old as man. Our race +has not been strained for all these ages through that sieve of dangers +that we call Natural Selection, to sit down with patience in the tedium +of safety; the voices of its fathers call it forth. Already in our +society as it exists, the bourgeois is too much cottoned about for any +zest in living; he sits in his parlour out of reach of any danger, often +out of reach of any vicissitude but one of health; and there he yawns. +If the people in the next villa took pot-shots at him, he might be +killed indeed, but so long as he escaped he would find his blood +oxygenated and his views of the world brighter. If Mr. Mallock, on his +way to the publishers, should have his skirts pinned to a wall by a +javelin, it would not occur to him--at least for several hours--to ask +if life were worth living; and if such peril were a daily matter, he +would ask it never more; he would have other things to think about, he +would be living indeed--not lying in a box with cotton, safe, but +immeasurably dull. The aleatory, whether it touch life, or fortune, or +renown--whether we explore Africa or only toss for halfpence--that is +what I conceive men to love best, and that is what we are seeking to +exclude from men's existences. Of all forms of the aleatory, that which +most commonly attends our working men--the danger of misery from want of +work--is the least inspiriting: it does not whip the blood, it does not +evoke the glory of contest; it is tragic, but it is passive; and yet, in +so far as it is aleatory, and a peril sensibly touching them, it does +truly season the men's lives. Of those who fail, I do not speak--despair +should be sacred; but to those who even modestly succeed, the changes of +their life bring interest: a job found, a shilling saved, a dainty +earned, all these are wells of pleasure springing afresh for the +successful poor; and it is not from these but from the villa-dweller +that we hear complaints of the unworthiness of life. Much, then, as the +average of the proletariat would gain in this new state of life, they +would also lose a certain something, which would not be missed in the +beginning, but would be missed progressively and progressively lamented. +Soon there would be a looking back: there would be tales of the old +world humming in young men's ears, tales of the tramp and the pedlar, +and the hopeful emigrant. And in the stall-fed life of the successful +ant-heap--with its regular meals, regular duties, regular pleasures, an +even course of life, and fear excluded--the vicissitudes, delights, and +havens of to-day will seem of epic breadth. This may seem a shallow +observation; but the springs by which men are moved lie much on the +surface. Bread, I believe, has always been considered first, but the +circus comes close upon its heels. Bread we suppose to be given amply; +the cry for circuses will be the louder, and if the life of our +descendants be such as we have conceived, there are two beloved +pleasures on which they will be likely to fall back: the pleasures of +intrigue and of sedition. + +In all this I have supposed the ant-heap to be financially sound. I am +no economist, only a writer of fiction; but even as such, I know one +thing that bears on the economic question--I know the imperfection of +man's faculty for business. The Anarchists, who count some rugged +elements of common-sense among what seem to me their tragic errors, have +said upon this matter all that I could wish to say, and condemned +beforehand great economical polities. So far it is obvious that they are +right; they may be right also in predicting a period of communal +independence, and they may even be right in thinking that desirable. But +the rise of communes is none the less the end of economic equality, just +when we were told it was beginning. Communes will not be all equal in +extent, nor in quality of soil, nor in growth of population; nor will +the surplus produce of all be equally marketable. It will be the old +story of competing interests, only with a new unit; and, as it appears +to me, a new, inevitable danger. For the merchant and the manufacturer, +in this new world, will be a sovereign commune; it is a sovereign power +that will see its crops undersold, and its manufactures worsted in the +market. And all the more dangerous that the sovereign power should be +small. Great powers are slow to stir; national affronts, even with the +aid of newspapers, filter slowly into popular consciousness; national +losses are so unequally shared, that one part of the population will be +counting its gains while another sits by a cold hearth. But in the +sovereign commune all will be centralised and sensitive. When jealousy +springs up, when (let us say) the commune of Poole has overreached the +commune of Dorchester, irritation will run like quicksilver throughout +the body politic; each man in Dorchester will have to suffer directly in +his diet and his dress; even the secretary, who drafts the official +correspondence, will sit down to his task embittered, as a man who has +dined ill and may expect to dine worse; and thus a business difference +between communes will take on much the same colour as a dispute between +diggers in the lawless West, and will lead as directly to the +arbitrament of blows. So that the establishment of the communal system +will not only reintroduce all the injustices and heart-burnings of +economic inequality, but will, in all human likelihood, inaugurate a +world of hedgerow warfare. Dorchester will march on Poole, Sherborne on +Dorchester, Wimborne on both; the waggons will be fired on as they +follow the highway, the trains wrecked on the lines, the ploughman will +go armed into the field of tillage; and if we have not a return of +ballad literature, the local press at least will celebrate in a high +vein the victory of Cerne Abbas or the reverse of Toller Porcorum. At +least this will not be dull; when I was younger, I could have welcomed +such a world with relief; but it is the New-Old with a vengeance, and +irresistibly suggests the growth of military powers and the foundation +of new empires. + + + + +VII + +LETTER TO A YOUNG GENTLEMAN WHO PROPOSES TO EMBRACE THE CAREER OF ART + + +With the agreeable frankness of youth, you address me on a point of some +practical importance to yourself and (it is even conceivable) of some +gravity to the world: Should you or should you not become an artist? It +is one which you must decide entirely for yourself; all that I can do is +to bring under your notice some of the materials of that decision; and I +will begin, as I shall probably conclude also, by assuring you that all +depends on the vocation. + +To know what you like is the beginning of wisdom and of old age. Youth +is wholly experimental. The essence and charm of that unquiet and +delightful epoch is ignorance of self as well as ignorance of life. +These two unknowns the young man brings together again and again, now in +the airiest touch, now with a bitter hug; now with exquisite pleasure, +now with cutting pain; but never with indifference, to which he is a +total stranger, and never with that near kinsman of indifference, +contentment. If he be a youth of dainty senses or a brain easily heated, +the interest of this series of experiments grows upon him out of all +proportion to the pleasure he receives. It is not beauty that he loves, +nor pleasure that he seeks, though he may think so; his design and his +sufficient reward is to verify his own existence and taste the variety +of human fate. To him, before the razor-edge of curiosity is dulled, all +that is not actual living and the hot chase of experience wears a face +of a disgusting dryness difficult to recall in later days; or if there +be any exception--and here destiny steps in--it is in those moments +when, wearied or surfeited of the primary activity of the senses, he +calls up before memory the image of transacted pains and pleasures. Thus +it is that such an one shies from all cut-and-dry professions, and +inclines insensibly toward that career of art which consists only in the +tasting and recording of experience. + +This, which is not so much a vocation for art as an impatience of all +other honest trades, frequently exists alone; and, so existing, it will +pass gently away in the course of years. Emphatically, it is not to be +regarded; it is not a vocation, but a temptation; and when your father +the other day so fiercely and (in my view) so properly discouraged your +ambition, he was recalling not improbably some similar passage in his +own experience. For the temptation is perhaps nearly as common as the +vocation is rare. But again we have vocations which are imperfect; we +have men whose minds are bound up, not so much in any art, as in the +general _ars artium_ and common base of all creative work; who will now +dip into painting, and now study counterpoint, and anon will be inditing +a sonnet: all these with equal interest, all often with genuine +knowledge. And of this temper, when it stands alone, I find it difficult +to speak; but I should counsel such an one to take to letters, for in +literature (which drags with so wide a net) all his information may be +found some day useful, and if he should go on as he has begun, and turn +at last into the critic, he will have learned to use the necessary +tools. Lastly we come to those vocations which are at once decisive and +precise; to the men who are born with the love of pigments, the passion +of drawing, the gift of music, or the impulse to create with words, just +as other and perhaps the same men are born with the love of hunting, or +the sea, or horses, or the turning-lathe. These are predestined; if a +man love the labour of any trade, apart from any question of success or +fame, the gods have called him. He may have the general vocation too: +he may have a taste for all the arts, and I think he often has; but the +mark of his calling is this laborious partiality for one, this +inextinguishable zest in its technical successes, and (perhaps above +all) a certain candour of mind, to take his very trifling enterprise +with a gravity that would befit the cares of empire, and to think the +smallest improvement worth accomplishing at any expense of time and +industry. The book, the statue, the sonata, must be gone upon with the +unreasoning good faith and the unflagging spirit of children at their +play. _Is it worth doing?_--when it shall have occurred to any artist to +ask himself that question, it is implicitly answered in the negative. It +does not occur to the child as he plays at being a pirate on the +dining-room sofa, nor to the hunter as he pursues his quarry; and the +candour of the one and the ardour of the other should be united in the +bosom of the artist. + +If you recognise in yourself some such decisive taste, there is no room +for hesitation: follow your bent. And observe (lest I should too much +discourage you) that the disposition does not usually burn so brightly +at the first, or rather not so constantly. Habit and practice sharpen +gifts; the necessity of toil grows less disgusting, grows even welcome, +in the course of years; a small taste (if it be only genuine) waxes with +indulgence into an exclusive passion. Enough, just now, if you can look +back over a fair interval, and see that your chosen art has a little +more than held its own among the thronging interests of youth. Time will +do the rest, if devotion help it; and soon your every thought will be +engrossed in that beloved occupation. + +But even with devotion, you may remind me, even with unfaltering and +delighted industry, many thousand artists spend their lives, if the +result be regarded, utterly in vain: a thousand artists, and never one +work of art. But the vast mass of mankind are incapable of doing +anything reasonably well, art among the rest. The worthless artist +would not improbably have been a quite incompetent baker. And the +artist, even if he does not amuse the public, amuses himself; so that +there will always be one man the happier for his vigils. This is the +practical side of art: its inexpugnable fortress for the true +practitioner. The direct returns--the wages of the trade--are small, but +the indirect--the wages of the life--are incalculably great. No other +business offers a man his daily bread upon such joyful terms. The +soldier and the explorer have moments of a worthier excitement, but they +are purchased by cruel hardships and periods of tedium that beggar +language. In the life of the artist there need be no hour without its +pleasure. I take the author, with whose career I am best acquainted; and +it is true he works in a rebellious material, and that the act of +writing is cramped and trying both to the eyes and the temper; but +remark him in his study when matter crowds upon him and words are not +wanting--in what a continual series of small successes time flows by; +with what a sense of power, as of one moving mountains, he marshals his +petty characters; with what pleasures, both of the ear and eye, he sees +his airy structure growing on the page; and how he labours in a craft to +which the whole material of his life is tributary, and which opens a +door to all his tastes, his loves, his hatreds, and his convictions, so +that what he writes is only what he longed to utter. He may have enjoyed +many things in this big, tragic playground of the world; but what shall +he have enjoyed more fully than a morning of successful work? Suppose it +ill-paid: the wonder is it should be paid at all. Other men pay, and pay +dearly, for pleasures less desirable. + +Nor will the practice of art afford you pleasure only; it affords +besides an admirable training. For the artist works entirely upon +honour. The public knows little or nothing of those merits in the quest +of which you are condemned to spend the bulk of your endeavours. Merits +of design, the merit of first-hand energy, the merit of a certain cheap +accomplishment which a man of the artistic temper easily acquires--these +they can recognise, and these they value. But to those more exquisite +refinements of proficiency and finish, which the artist so ardently +desires and so keenly feels, for which (in the vigorous words of Balzac) +he must toil "like a miner buried in a landslip," for which, day after +day, he recasts and revises and rejects--the gross mass of the public +must be ever blind. To those lost pains, suppose you attain the highest +pitch of merit, posterity may possibly do justice; suppose, as is so +probable, you fail by even a hair's breadth of the highest, rest certain +they shall never be observed. Under the shadow of this cold thought, +alone in his studio, the artist must preserve from day to day his +constancy to the ideal. It is this which makes his life noble; it is by +this that the practice of his craft strengthens and matures his +character; it is for this that even the serious countenance of the great +emperor was turned approvingly (if only for a moment) on the followers +of Apollo, and that sternly gentle voice bade the artist cherish his +art. + +And here there fall two warnings to be made. First, if you are to +continue to be a law to yourself, you must beware of the first signs of +laziness. This idealism in honesty can only be supported by perpetual +effort; the standard is easily lowered, the artist who says "_It will +do_," is on the downward path; three or four pot-boilers are enough at +times (above all at wrong times) to falsify a talent, and by the +practice of journalism a man runs the risk of becoming wedded to cheap +finish. This is the danger on the one side; there is not less upon the +other. The consciousness of how much the artist is (and must be) a law +to himself debauches the small heads. Perceiving recondite merits very +hard to attain, making or swallowing artistic formulae, or perhaps +falling in love with some particular proficiency of his own, many +artists forget the end of all art: to please. It is doubtless tempting +to exclaim against the ignorant bourgeois; yet it should not be +forgotten, it is he who is to pay us, and that (surely on the face of +it) for services that he shall desire to have performed. Here also, if +properly considered, there is a question of transcendental honesty. To +give the public what they do not want, and yet expect to be supported: +we have there a strange pretension, and yet not uncommon, above all with +painters. The first duty in this world is for a man to pay his way; when +that is quite accomplished, he may plunge into what eccentricity he +likes; but emphatically not till then. Till then, he must pay assiduous +court to the bourgeois who carries the purse. And if in the course of +these capitulations he shall falsify his talent, it can never have been +a strong one, and he will have preserved a better thing than +talent--character. Or if he be of a mind so independent that he cannot +stoop to this necessity, one course is yet open: he can desist from art, +and follow some more manly way of life. + +I speak of a more manly way of life; it is a point on which I must be +frank. To live by a pleasure is not a high calling; it involves +patronage, however veiled; it numbers the artist, however ambitious, +along with dancing girls and billiard-markers. The French have a +romantic evasion for one employment, and call its practitioners the +Daughters of Joy. The artist is of the same family, he is of the Sons of +Joy, chose his trade to please himself, gains his livelihood by pleasing +others, and has parted with something of the sterner dignity of man. +Journals but a little while ago declaimed against the Tennyson peerage; +and this Son of Joy was blamed for condescension when he followed the +example of Lord Lawrence and Lord Cairns and Lord Clyde. The poet was +more happily inspired; with a better modesty he accepted the honour; and +anonymous journalists have not yet (if I am to believe them) recovered +the vicarious disgrace to their profession. When it comes to their turn, +these gentlemen can do themselves more justice; and I shall be glad to +think of it; for to my barbarian eyesight, even Lord Tennyson looks +somewhat out of place in that assembly. There should be no honours for +the artist; he has already, in the practice of his art, more than his +share of the rewards of life; the honours are pre-empted for other +trades, less agreeable and perhaps more useful. + +But the devil in these trades of pleasing is to fail to please. In +ordinary occupations, a man offers to do a certain thing or to produce a +certain article with a merely conventional accomplishment, a design in +which (we may almost say) it is difficult to fail. But the artist steps +forth out of the crowd and proposes to delight: an impudent design, in +which it is impossible to fail without odious circumstances. The poor +Daughter of Joy, carrying her smiles and finery quite unregarded through +the crowd, makes a figure which it is impossible to recall without a +wounding pity. She is the type of the unsuccessful artist. The actor, +the dancer, and the singer must appear like her in person, and drain +publicly the cup of failure. But though the rest of us escape this +crowning bitterness of the pillory, we all court in essence the same +humiliation. We all profess to be able to delight. And how few of us +are! We all pledge ourselves to be able to continue to delight. And the +day will come to each, and even to the most admired, when the ardour +shall have declined and the cunning shall be lost, and he shall sit by +his deserted booth ashamed. Then shall he see himself condemned to do +work for which he blushes to take payment. Then (as if his lot were not +already cruel) he must lie exposed to the gibes of the wreckers of the +press, who earn a little bitter bread by the condemnation of trash which +they have not read, and the praise of excellence which they cannot +understand. + +And observe that this seems almost the necessary end at least of +writers. "Les Blancs et les Bleus" (for instance) is of an order of +merit very different from "Le Vicomte de Bragelonne"; and if any +gentleman can bear to spy upon the nakedness of "Castle Dangerous," his +name I think is Ham: let it be enough for the rest of us to read of it +(not without tears) in the pages of Lockhart. Thus in old age, when +occupation and comfort are most needful, the writer must lay aside at +once his pastime and his breadwinner. The painter indeed, if he succeed +at all in engaging the attention of the public, gains great sums and can +stand to his easel until a great age without dishonourable failure. The +writer has the double misfortune to be ill-paid while he can work, and +to be incapable of working when he is old. It is thus a way of life +which conducts directly to a false position. + +For the writer (in spite of notorious examples to the contrary) must +look to be ill-paid. Tennyson and Montepin make handsome livelihoods; +but we cannot all hope to be Tennyson, and we do not all perhaps desire +to be Montepin. If you adopt an art to be your trade, weed your mind at +the outset of all desire of money. What you may decently expect, if you +have some talent and much industry, is such an income as a clerk will +earn with a tenth or perhaps a twentieth of your nervous output. Nor +have you the right to look for more; in the wages of the life, not in +the wages of the trade, lies your reward; the work is here the wages. It +will be seen I have little sympathy with the common lamentations of the +artist class. Perhaps they do not remember the hire of the field +labourer; or do they think no parallel will lie? Perhaps they have never +observed what is the retiring allowance of a field officer; or do they +suppose their contributions to the arts of pleasing more important than +the services of a colonel? Perhaps they forget on how little Millet was +content to live; or do they think, because they have less genius, they +stand excused from the display of equal virtues? But upon one point +there should be no dubiety: if a man be not frugal, he has no business +in the arts. If he be not frugal, he steers directly for that last +tragic scene of _le vieux saltimbanque_; if he be not frugal, he will +find it hard to continue to be honest. Some day, when the butcher is +knocking at the door, he may be tempted, he may be obliged, to turn out +and sell a slovenly piece of work. If the obligation shall have arisen +through no wantonness of his own, he is even to be commended; for words +cannot describe how far more necessary it is that a man should support +his family, than that he should attain to--or preserve--distinction in +the arts. But if the pressure comes through his own fault, he has +stolen, and stolen under trust, and stolen (which is the worst of all) +in such a way that no law can reach him. + +And now you may perhaps ask me whether--if the debutant artist is to +have no thought of money, and if (as is implied) he is to expect no +honours from the State--he may not at least look forward to the delights +of popularity? Praise, you will tell me, is a savoury dish. And in so +far as you may mean the countenance of other artists, you would put your +finger on one of the most essential and enduring pleasures of the career +of art. But in so far as you should have an eye to the commendations of +the public or the notice of the newspapers, be sure you would but be +cherishing a dream. It is true that in certain esoteric journals the +author (for instance) is duly criticised, and that he is often praised a +great deal more than he deserves, sometimes for qualities which he +prided himself on eschewing, and sometimes by ladies and gentlemen who +have denied themselves the privilege of reading his work. But if a man +be sensitive to this wild praise, we must suppose him equally alive to +that which often accompanies and always follows it--wild ridicule. A man +may have done well for years, and then he may fail; he will hear of his +failure. Or he may have done well for years, and still do well, but the +critics may have tired of praising him, or there may have sprung up some +new idol of the instant, some "dust a little gilt," to whom they now +prefer to offer sacrifice. Here is the obverse and the reverse of that +empty and ugly thing called popularity. Will any man suppose it worth +the gaining? + + + + +VIII + +PULVIS ET UMBRA + + +We look for some reward of our endeavours and are disappointed; not +success, not happiness, not even peace of conscience, crowns our +ineffectual efforts to do well. Our frailties are invincible, our +virtues barren; the battle goes sore against us to the going down of the +sun. The canting moralist tells us of right and wrong; and we look +abroad, even on the face of our small earth, and find them change with +every climate, and no country where some action is not honoured for a +virtue and none where it is not branded for a vice; and we look in our +experience, and find no vital congruity in the wisest rules, but at the +best a municipal fitness. It is not strange if we are tempted to despair +of good. We ask too much. Our religions and moralities have been trimmed +to flatter us, till they are all emasculate and sentimentalised, and +only please and weaken. Truth is of a rougher strain. In the harsh face +of life, faith can read a bracing gospel. The human race is a thing more +ancient than the ten commandments; and the bones and revolutions of the +Kosmos, in whose joints we are but moss and fungus, more ancient still. + + + I + +Of the Kosmos in the last resort, science reports many doubtful things, +and all of them appalling. There seems no substance to this solid globe +on which we stamp: nothing but symbols and ratios. Symbols and ratios +carry us and bring us forth and beat us down; gravity, that swings the +incommensurable suns and worlds through space, is but a figment varying +inversely as the squares of distances; and the suns and worlds +themselves, imponderable figures of abstraction, NH_{3} and H_{2}O. +Consideration dares not dwell upon this view; that way madness lies; +science carries us into zones of speculation, where there is no +habitable city for the mind of man. + +But take the Kosmos with a grosser faith, as our senses give it us. We +behold space sown with rotatory islands, suns and worlds and the shards +and wrecks of systems: some, like the sun, still blazing; some rotting, +like the earth; others, like the moon, stable in desolation. All of +these we take to be made of something we call matter: a thing which no +analysis can help us to conceive; to whose incredible properties no +familiarity can reconcile our minds. This stuff, when not purified by +the lustration of fire, rots uncleanly into something we call life; +seized through all its atoms with a pediculous malady; swelling in +tumours that become independent, sometimes even (by an abhorrent +prodigy) locomotory; one splitting into millions, millions cohering into +one, as the malady proceeds through varying stages. This vital +putrescence of the dust, used as we are to it, yet strikes us with +occasional disgust, and the profusion of worms in a piece of ancient +turf, or the air of a marsh darkened with insects, will sometimes check +our breathing so that we aspire for cleaner places. But none is clean: +the moving sand is infected with lice; the pure spring, where it bursts +out of the mountain, is a mere issue of worms; even in the hard rock the +crystal is forming. + +In two main shapes this eruption covers the countenance of the earth: +the animal and the vegetable: one in some degree the inversion of the +other: the second rooted to the spot; the first coming detached out of +its natal mud, and scurrying abroad with the myriad feet of insects or +towering into the heavens on the wings of birds: a thing so +inconceivable that, if it be well considered, the heart stops. To what +passes with the anchored vermin, we have little clue: doubtless they +have their joys and sorrows, their delights and killing agonies: it +appears not how. But of the locomotory, to which we ourselves belong, we +can tell more. These share with us a thousand miracles: the miracles of +sight, of hearing, of the projection of sound, things that bridge space; +the miracles of memory and reason, by which the present is conceived, +and, when it is gone, its image kept living in the brains of man and +brute; the miracle of reproduction, with its imperious desires and +staggering consequences. And to put the last touch upon this mountain +mass of the revolting and the inconceivable, all these prey upon each +other, lives tearing other lives in pieces, cramming them inside +themselves, and by that summary process, growing fat: the vegetarian, +the whale, perhaps the tree, not less than the lion of the desert; for +the vegetarian is only the eater of the dumb. + +Meanwhile our rotary island loaded with predatory life, and more +drenched with blood, both animal and vegetable, than ever mutinied ship, +scuds through space with unimaginable speed, and turns alternate cheeks +to the reverberation of a blazing world, ninety million miles away. + + + II + +What a monstrous spectre is this man, the disease of the agglutinated +dust, lifting alternate feet or lying drugged with slumber; killing, +feeding, growing, bringing forth small copies of himself; grown upon +with hair like grass, fitted with eyes that move and glitter in his +face; a thing to set children screaming;--and yet looked at nearlier, +known as his fellows know him, how surprising are his attributes! Poor +soul, here for so little, cast among so many hardships, filled with +desires so incommensurate and so inconsistent, savagely surrounded, +savagely descended, irremediably condemned to prey upon his fellow +lives: who should have blamed him had he been of a piece with his +destiny and a being merely barbarous? And we look and behold him instead +filled with imperfect virtues: infinitely childish, often admirably +valiant, often touchingly kind; sitting down, amidst his momentary life, +to debate of right and wrong and the attributes of the Deity; rising up +to do battle for an egg or die for an idea; singling out his friends and +his mate with cordial affection; bringing forth in pain, rearing with +long-suffering solicitude, his young. To touch the heart of his mystery, +we find in him one thought, strange to the point of lunacy: the thought +of duty; the thought of something owing to himself, to his neighbour, to +his God: an ideal of decency, to which he would rise if it were +possible; a limit of shame, below which, if it be possible, he will not +stoop. The design in most men is one of conformity; here and there, in +picked natures, it transcends itself and soars on the other side, arming +martyrs with independence; but in all, in their degrees, it is a bosom +thought:--Not in man alone, for we trace it in dogs and cats whom we +know fairly well, and doubtless some similar point of honour sways the +elephant, the oyster, and the louse, of whom we know so little:--But in +man, at least, it sways with so complete an empire that merely selfish +things come second, even with the selfish: that appetites are starved, +fears are conquered, pains supported; that almost the dullest shrinks +from the reproof of a glance, although it were a child's; and all but +the most cowardly stand amid the risks of war; and the more noble, +having strongly conceived an act as due to their ideal, affront and +embrace death. Strange enough if, with their singular origin and +perverted practice, they think they are to be rewarded in some future +life: stranger still, if they are persuaded of the contrary, and think +this blow, which they solicit, will strike them senseless for eternity. +I shall be reminded what a tragedy of misconception and misconduct man +at large presents: of organised injustice, cowardly violence and +treacherous crime; and of the damning imperfections of the best. They +cannot be too darkly drawn. Man is indeed marked for failure in his +efforts to do right. But where the best consistently miscarry, how +tenfold more remarkable that all should continue to strive: and surely +we should find it both touching and inspiriting, that in a field from +which success is banished, our race should not cease to labour. + +If the first view of this creature, stalking in his rotatory isle, be a +thing to shake the courage of the stoutest, on this nearer sight he +startles us with an admiring wonder. It matters not where we look, under +what climate we observe him, in what stage of society, in what depth of +ignorance, burthened with what erroneous morality; by camp-fires in +Assiniboia, the snow powdering his shoulders, the wind plucking his +blanket, as he sits, passing the ceremonial calumet and uttering his +grave opinions like a Roman senator; in ships at sea, a man inured to +hardship and vile pleasures, his brightest hope a fiddle in a tavern and +a bedizened trull who sells herself to rob him, and he, for all that, +simple, innocent, cheerful, kindly like a child, constant to toil, brave +to drown, for others; in the slums of cities, moving among indifferent +millions to mechanical employments, without hope of change in the +future, with scarce a pleasure in the present, and yet true to his +virtues, honest up to his lights, kind to his neighbours, tempted +perhaps in vain by the bright gin-palace, perhaps long-suffering with +the drunken wife that ruins him; in India (a woman this time) kneeling +with broken cries and streaming tears, as she drowns her child in the +sacred river; in the brothel, the discard of society, living mainly on +strong drink, fed with affronts, a fool, a thief, the comrade of +thieves, and even here keeping the point of honour and the touch of +pity, often repaying the world's scorn with service, often standing firm +upon a scruple, and at a certain cost, rejecting riches:--everywhere +some virtue cherished or affected, everywhere some decency of thought +and carriage, everywhere the ensign of man's ineffectual goodness:--ah! +if I could show you this! if I could show you these men and women, all +the world over, in every stage of history, under every abuse of error, +under every circumstance of failure, without hope, without help, without +thanks, still obscurely fighting the lost fight of virtue, still +clinging, in the brothel or on the scaffold, to some rag of honour, the +poor jewel of their souls! They may seek to escape, and yet they cannot; +it is not alone their privilege and glory, but their doom; they are +condemned to some nobility; all their lives long, the desire of good is +at their heels, the implacable hunter. + +Of all earth's meteors, here at least is the most strange and consoling: +that this ennobled lemur, this hair-crowned bubble of the dust, this +inheritor of a few years and sorrows, should yet deny himself his rare +delights, and add to his frequent pains, and live for an ideal, however +misconceived. Nor can we stop with man. A new doctrine, received with +screams a little while ago by canting moralists, and still not properly +worked into the body of our thoughts, lights us a step farther into the +heart of this rough but noble universe. For nowadays the pride of man +denies in vain his kinship with the original dust. He stands no longer +like a thing apart. Close at his heels we see the dog, prince of another +genus: and in him, too, we see dumbly testified the same cultus of an +unattainable ideal, the same constancy in failure. Does it stop with the +dog? We look at our feet where the ground is blackened with the swarming +ant; a creature so small, so far from us in the hierarchy of brutes, +that we can scarce trace and scarce comprehend his doings; and here +also, in his ordered polities and rigorous justice, we see confessed the +law of duty and the fact of individual sin. Does it stop, then, with the +ant? Rather this desire of welldoing and this doom of frailty run +through all the grades of life: rather is this earth, from the frosty +top of Everest to the next margin of the internal fire, one stage of +ineffectual virtues and one temple of pious tears and perseverance. The +whole creation groaneth and travaileth together. It is the common and +the god-like law of life. The browsers, the biters, the barkers, the +hairy coats of field and forest, the squirrel in the oak, the +thousand-footed creeper in the dust, as they share with us the gift of +life, share with us the love of an ideal: strive like us--like us are +tempted to grow weary of the struggle--to do well; like us receive at +times unmerited refreshment, visitings of support, returns of courage; +and are condemned like us to be crucified between that double law of the +members and the will. Are they like us, I wonder, in the timid hope of +some reward, some sugar with the drug? do they, too, stand aghast at +unrewarded virtues, at the sufferings of those whom, in our partiality, +we take to be just, and the prosperity of such as, in our blindness, we +call wicked? It may be, and yet God knows what they should look for. +Even while they look, even while they repent, the foot of man treads +them by thousands in the dust, the yelping hounds burst upon their +trail, the bullet speeds, the knives are heating in the den of the +vivisectionist; or the dew falls, and the generation of a day is blotted +out. For these are creatures, compared with whom our weakness is +strength, our ignorance wisdom, our brief span eternity. + +And as we dwell, we living things, in our isle of terror and under the +imminent hand of death, God forbid it should be man the erected, the +reasoner, the wise in his own eyes--God forbid it should be man that +wearies in welldoing, that despairs of unrewarded effort, or utters the +language of complaint. Let it be enough for faith, that the whole +creation groans in mortal frailty, strives with unconquerable constancy: +Surely not all in vain. + + + + +IX + +A CHRISTMAS SERMON + + +By the time this paper appears, I shall have been talking for twelve +months;[30] and it is thought I should take my leave in a formal and +seasonable manner. Valedictory eloquence is rare, and death-bed sayings +have not often hit the mark of the occasion. Charles Second, wit and +sceptic, a man whose life had been one long lesson in human incredulity, +an easy-going comrade, a manoeuvring king--remembered and embodied all +his wit and scepticism along with more than his usual good humour in the +famous "I am afraid, gentlemen, I am an unconscionable time a-dying." + + + I + +An unconscionable time a-dying--there is the picture ("I am afraid, +gentlemen,") of your life and of mine. The sands run out, and the hours +are "numbered and imputed," and the days go by; and when the last of +these finds us, we have been a long time dying, and what else? The very +length is something, if we reach that hour of separation undishonoured; +and to have lived at all is doubtless (in the soldierly expression) to +have served. There is a tale in Tacitus of how the veterans mutinied in +the German wilderness; of how they mobbed Germanicus, clamouring to go +home; and of how, seizing their general's hand, these old, war-worn +exiles passed his finger along their toothless gums. _Sunt lacrymae +rerum_: this was the most eloquent of the songs of Simeon. And when a +man has lived to a fair age, he bears his marks of service. He may have +never been remarked upon the breach at the head of the army; at least he +shall have lost his teeth on the camp bread. + +The idealism of serious people in this age of ours is of a noble +character. It never seems to them that they have served enough; they +have a fine impatience of their virtues. It were perhaps more modest to +be singly thankful that we are no worse. It is not only our enemies, +those desperate characters--it is we ourselves who know not what we +do;--thence springs the glimmering hope that perhaps we do better than +we think: that to scramble through this random business with hands +reasonably clean, to have played the part of a man or woman with some +reasonable fulness, to have often resisted the diabolic, and at the end +to be still resisting it, is for the poor human soldier to have done +right well. To ask to see some fruit of our endeavour is but a +transcendental way of serving for reward; and what we take to be +contempt of self is only greed of hire. + +And again if we require so much of ourselves, shall we not require much +of others? If we do not genially judge our own deficiencies, is it not +to be feared we shall be even stern to the trespasses of others? And he +who (looking back upon his own life) can see no more than that he has +been unconscionably long a-dying, will he not be tempted to think his +neighbour unconscionably long of getting hanged? It is probable that +nearly all who think of conduct at all, think of it too much; it is +certain we all think too much of sin. We are not damned for doing wrong, +but for not doing right; Christ would never hear of negative morality; +_thou shall_ was ever His word, with which He superseded _thou shall +not_. To make our idea of morality centre on forbidden acts is to defile +the imagination and to introduce into our judgments of our fellow-men a +secret element of gusto. If a thing is wrong for us, we should not dwell +upon the thought of it; or we shall soon dwell upon it with inverted +pleasure. If we cannot drive it from our minds--one thing of two: +either our creed is in the wrong and we must more indulgently remodel +it; or else, if our morality be in the right, we are criminal lunatics +and should place our persons in restraint. A mark of such unwholesomely +divided minds is the passion for interference with others: the Fox +without the Tail was of this breed, but had (if his biographer is to be +trusted) a certain antique civility now out of date. A man may have a +flaw, a weakness, that unfits him for the duties of life, that spoils +his temper, that threatens his integrity, or that betrays him into +cruelty. It has to be conquered; but it must never be suffered to +engross his thoughts. The true duties lie all upon the further side, and +must be attended to with a whole mind so soon as this preliminary +clearing of the decks has been effected. In order that he may be kind +and honest, it may be needful he should become a total abstainer; let +him become so then, and the next day let him forget the circumstance. +Trying to be kind and honest will require all his thoughts; a mortified +appetite is never a wise companion; in so far as he has had to mortify +an appetite, he will still be the worse man; and of such an one a great +deal of cheerfulness will be required in judging life, and a great deal +of humility in judging others. + +It may be argued again that dissatisfaction with our life's endeavour +springs in some degree from dulness. We require higher tasks, because we +do not recognise the height of those we have. Trying to be kind and +honest seems an affair too simple and too inconsequential for gentlemen +of our heroic mould; we had rather set ourselves to something bold, +arduous, and conclusive; we had rather found a schism or suppress a +heresy, cut off a hand or mortify an appetite. But the task before us, +which is to co-endure with our existence, is rather one of microscopic +fineness, and the heroism required is that of patience. There is no +cutting of the Gordian knots of life; each must be smilingly unravelled. + +To be honest, to be kind--to earn a little and to spend a little less, +to make upon the whole a family happier for his presence, to renounce +when that shall be necessary and not be embittered, to keep a few +friends, but these without capitulation--above all, on the same grim +condition, to keep friends with himself--here is a task for all that a +man has of fortitude and delicacy. He has an ambitious soul who would +ask more; he has a hopeful spirit who should look in such an enterprise +to be successful. There is indeed one element in human destiny that not +blindness itself can controvert: whatever else we are intended to do, we +are not intended to succeed; failure is the fate allotted. It is so in +every art and study; it is so above all in the continent art of living +well. Here is a pleasant thought for the year's end or for the end of +life: Only self-deception will be satisfied, and there need be no +despair for the despairer. + + + II + +But Christmas is not only the mile-mark of another year, moving us to +thoughts of self-examination: it is a season, from all its associations, +whether domestic or religious, suggesting thoughts of joy. A man +dissatisfied with his endeavours is a man tempted to sadness. And in the +midst of the winter, when his life runs lowest and he is reminded of the +empty chairs of his beloved, it is well he should be condemned to this +fashion of the smiling face. Noble disappointment, noble self-denial, +are not to be admired, not even to be pardoned, if they bring +bitterness. It is one thing to enter the kingdom of heaven maim; another +to maim yourself and stay without. And the kingdom of heaven is of the +childlike, of those who are easy to please, who love and who give +pleasure. Mighty men of their hands, the smiters and the builders and +the judges, have lived long and done sternly and yet preserved this +lovely character; and among our carpet interests and twopenny concerns, +the shame were indelible if _we_ should lose it. Gentleness and +cheerfulness, these come before all morality; they are the perfect +duties. And it is the trouble with moral men that they have neither one +nor other. It was the moral man, the Pharisee, whom Christ could not +away with. If your morals make you dreary, depend upon it they are +wrong. I do not say "give them up," for they may be all you have; but +conceal them like a vice, lest they should spoil the lives of better and +simpler people. + +A strange temptation attends upon man: to keep his eye on pleasures, +even when he will not share in them; to aim all his morals against them. +This very year a lady (singular iconoclast!) proclaimed a crusade +against dolls; and the racy sermon against lust is a feature of the age. +I venture to call such moralists insincere. At any excess or perversion +of a natural appetite, their lyre sounds of itself with relishing +denunciations; but for all displays of the truly diabolic--envy, malice, +the mean lie, the mean silence, the calumnious truth, the backbiter, the +petty tyrant, the peevish poisoner of family life--their standard is +quite different. These are wrong, they will admit, yet somehow not so +wrong; there is no zeal in their assault on them, no secret element of +gusto warms up the sermon; it is for things not wrong in themselves that +they reserve the choicest of their indignation. A man may naturally +disclaim all moral kinship with the Reverend Mr. Zola or the hobgoblin +old lady of the dolls; for these are gross and naked instances. And yet +in each of us some similar element resides. The sight of a pleasure in +which we cannot or else will not share moves us to a particular +impatience. It may be because we are envious, or because we are sad, or +because we dislike noise and romping--being so refined, or +because--being so philosophic--we have an overweighing sense of life's +gravity: at least, as we go on in years, we are all tempted to frown +upon our neighbour's pleasures. People are nowadays so fond of resisting +temptations; here is one to be resisted. They are fond of self-denial; +here is a propensity that cannot be too peremptorily denied. There is an +idea abroad among moral people that they should make their neighbours +good. One person I have to make good: myself. But my duty to my +neighbour is much more nearly expressed by saying that I have to make +him happy--if I may. + + + III + +Happiness and goodness, according to canting moralists, stand in the +relation of effect and cause. There was never anything less proved or +less probable: our happiness is never in our own hands; we inherit our +constitution; we stand buffet among friend and enemies; we may be so +built as to feel a sneer or an aspersion with unusual keenness, and so +circumstanced as to be unusually exposed to them; we may have nerves +very sensitive to pain, and be afflicted with a disease very painful. +Virtue will not help us, and it is not meant to help us. It is not even +its own reward, except for the self-centred and--I had almost said--the +unamiable. No man can pacify his conscience; if quiet be what he want, +he shall do better to let that organ perish from disuse. And to avoid +the penalties of the law, and the minor _capitis diminutio_ of social +ostracism, is an affair of wisdom--of cunning, if you will--and not of +virtue. + +In his own life, then, a man is not to expect happiness, only to profit +by it gladly when it shall arise; he is on duty here; he knows not how +or why, and does not need to know; he knows not for what hire, and must +not ask. Somehow or other, though he does not know what goodness is, he +must try to be good; somehow or other, though he cannot tell what will +do it, he must try to give happiness to others. And no doubt there comes +in here a frequent clash of duties. How far is he to make his neighbour +happy? How far must he respect that smiling face, so easy to cloud, so +hard to brighten again? And how far, on the other side, is he bound to +be his brother's keeper and the prophet of his own morality? How far +must he resent evil? + +The difficulty is that we have little guidance; Christ's sayings on the +point being hard to reconcile with each other, and (the most of them) +hard to accept. But the truth of His teaching would seem to be this: in +our own person and fortune, we should be ready to accept and to pardon +all; it is _our_ cheek we are to turn, _our_ coat that we are to give +away to the man who has taken _our_ cloak. But when another's face is +buffeted, perhaps a little of the lion will become us best. That we are +to suffer others to be injured, and stand by, is not conceivable, and +surely not desirable. Revenge, says Bacon, is a kind of wild justice; +its judgments at least are delivered by an insane judge; and in our own +quarrel we can see nothing truly and do nothing wisely. But in the +quarrel of our neighbour, let us be more bold. One person's happiness is +as sacred as another's; when we cannot defend both, let us defend one +with a stout heart. It is only in so far as we are doing this, that we +have any right to interfere: the defence of B is our only ground of +action against A. A has as good a right to go to the devil as we to go +to glory; and neither knows what he does. + +The truth is that all these interventions and denunciations and militant +mongerings of moral half-truths, though they be sometimes needful, +though they are often enjoyable, do yet belong to an inferior grade of +duties. Ill-temper and envy and revenge find here an arsenal of pious +disguises; this is the playground of inverted lusts. With a little more +patience and a little less temper, a gentler and wiser method might be +found in almost every case; and the knot that we cut by some fine heady +quarrel-scene in private life, or, in public affairs, by some +denunciatory act against what we are pleased to call our neighbour's +vices, might yet have been unwoven by the hand of sympathy. + + + IV + +To look back upon the past year, and see how little we have striven, and +to what small purpose; and how often we have been cowardly and hung +back, or temerarious and rushed unwisely in; and how every day and all +day long we have transgressed the law of kindness;--it may seem a +paradox, but in the bitterness of these discoveries a certain +consolation resides. Life is not designed to minister to a man's vanity. +He goes upon his long business most of the time with a hanging head, and +all the time like a blind child. Full of rewards and pleasures as it +is--so that to see the day break or the moon rise, or to meet a friend, +or to hear the dinner-call when he is hungry, fills him with surprising +joys--this world is yet for him no abiding city. Friendships fall +through, health fails, weariness assails him; year after year he must +thumb the hardly varying record of his own weakness and folly. It is a +friendly process of detachment. When the time comes that he should go, +there need be few illusions left about himself. _Here lies one who meant +well, tried a little, failed much:_--surely that may be his epitaph, of +which he need not be ashamed. Nor will he complain at the summons which +calls a defeated soldier from the field: defeated, ay, if he were Paul +or Marcus Aurelius!--but if there is still one inch of fight in his old +spirit, undishonoured. The faith which sustained him in his lifelong +blindness and lifelong disappointment will scarce even be required in +this last formality of laying down his arms. Give him a march with his +old bones; there, out of the glorious sun-coloured earth, out of the day +and the dust and the ecstasy--there goes another Faithful Failure! + +From a recent book of verse, where there is more than one such beautiful +and manly poem, I take this memorial piece: it says better than I can, +what I love to think; let it be our parting word:-- + + "A late lark twitters from the quiet skies; + And from the west, + Where the sun, his day's work ended, + Lingers as in content, + There falls on the old, grey city + An influence luminous and serene, + A shining peace. + + "The smoke ascends + In a rosy-and-golden haze. The spires + Shine, and are changed. In the valley + Shadows rise. The lark sings on. The sun, + Closing his benediction, + Sinks, and the darkening air + Thrills with a sense of the triumphing night-- + Night, with her train of stars + And her great gift of sleep. + + "So be my passing! + My task accomplished and the long day done, + My wages taken, and in my heart + Some late lark singing, + Let me be gathered to the quiet west, + The sundown splendid and serene, + Death."[31] + + +FOOTNOTES: + + [30] _i.e._ in the pages of _Scribner's Magazine_ (1888). + + [31] From "A Book of Verses," by William Ernest Henley. D. Nutt, 1888. + + + + +X + +FATHER DAMIEN + +AN OPEN LETTER TO THE REVEREND DR. HYDE OF HONOLULU + + + SYDNEY, _February_ 25, 1890. + +Sir,--It may probably occur to you that we have met, and visited, and +conversed; on my side, with interest. You may remember that you have +done me several courtesies, for which I was prepared to be grateful. But +there are duties which come before gratitude, and offences which justly +divide friends, far more acquaintances. Your letter to the Reverend H. +B. Gage is a document which, in my sight, if you had filled me with +bread when I was starving, if you had sat up to nurse my father when he +lay a-dying, would yet absolve me from the bonds of gratitude. You know +enough, doubtless, of the process of canonisation to be aware that, a +hundred years after the death of Damien, there will appear a man charged +with the painful office of the _devil's advocate_. After that noble +brother of mine, and of all frail clay, shall have lain a century at +rest, one shall accuse, one defend him. The circumstance is unusual that +the devil's advocate should be a volunteer, should be a member of a sect +immediately rival, and should make haste to take upon himself his ugly +office ere the bones are cold; unusual, and of a taste which I shall +leave my readers free to qualify; unusual, and to me inspiring. If I +have at all learned the trade of using words to convey truth and to +arouse emotion, you have at last furnished me with a subject. For it is +in the interest of all mankind, and the cause of public decency in +every quarter of the world, not only that Damien should be righted, but +that you and your letter should be displayed at length, in their true +colours, to the public eye. + +To do this properly, I must begin by quoting you at large: I shall then +proceed to criticise your utterance from several points of view, divine +and human, in the course of which I shall attempt to draw again, and +with more specification, the character of the dead saint whom it has +pleased you to vilify: so much being done, I shall say farewell to you +for ever. + + "HONOLULU, _August_ 2, 1889. + + "Rev. H. B. GAGE. + + "Dear Brother,--In answer to your inquiries about Father Damien, I + can only reply that we who knew the man are surprised at the + extravagant newspaper laudations, as if he was a most saintly + philanthropist. The simple truth is, he was a coarse, dirty man, + headstrong and bigoted. He was not sent to Molokai, but went there + without orders; did not stay at the leper settlement (before he + became one himself), but circulated freely over the whole island + (less than half the island is devoted to the lepers), and he came + often to Honolulu. He had no hand in the reforms and improvements + inaugurated, which were the work of our Board of Health, as occasion + required and means were provided. He was not a pure man in his + relations with women, and the leprosy of which he died should be + attributed to his vices and carelessness. Others have done much for + the lepers, our own ministers, the government physicians, and so + forth, but never with the Catholic idea of meriting eternal + life.--Yours, etc., + + "C. M. HYDE."[32] + +To deal fitly with a letter so extraordinary, I must draw at the outset +on my private knowledge of the signatory and his sect. It may offend +others; scarcely you, who have been so busy to collect, so bold to +publish, gossip on your rivals. And this is perhaps the moment when I +may best explain to you the character of what you are to read: I +conceive you as a man quite beyond and below the reticences of civility: +with what measure you mete, with that shall it be measured you again; +with you, at last, I rejoice to feel the button off the foil and to +plunge home. And if in aught that I shall say I should offend others, +your colleagues, whom I respect and remember with affection, I can but +offer them my regret; I am not free, I am inspired by the consideration +of interests far more large; and such pain as can be inflicted by +anything from me must be indeed trifling when compared with the pain +with which they read your letter. It is not the hangman, but the +criminal, that brings dishonour on the house. + +You belong, sir, to a sect--I believe my sect, and that in which my +ancestors laboured--which has enjoyed, and partly failed to utilise, an +exceptional advantage in the islands of Hawaii. The first missionaries +came; they found the land already self-purged of its old and bloody +faith; they were embraced, almost on their arrival, with enthusiasm; +what troubles they supported came far more from whites than from +Hawaiians; and to these last they stood (in a rough figure) in the shoes +of God. This is not the place to enter into the degree or causes of +their failure, such as it is. One element alone is pertinent, and must +here be plainly dealt with. In the course of their evangelical calling, +they--or too many of them--grew rich. It may be news to you that the +houses of missionaries are a cause of mocking on the streets of +Honolulu. It will at least be news to you, that when I returned your +civil visit, the driver of my cab commented on the size, the taste, and +the comfort of your home. It would have been news certainly to myself, +had any one told me that afternoon that I should live to drag such +matter into print. But you see, sir, how you degrade better men to your +own level; and it is needful that those who are to judge betwixt you and +me, betwixt Damien and the devil's advocate, should understand your +letter to have been penned in a house which could raise, and that very +justly, the envy and the comments of the passers-by. I think (to employ +a phrase of yours which I admire) it "should be attributed" to you that +you have never visited the scene of Damien's life and death. If you +had, and had recalled it, and looked about your pleasant rooms, even +your pen perhaps would have been stayed. + +Your sect (and remember, as far as any sect avows me, it is mine) has +not done ill in a worldly sense in the Hawaiian Kingdom. When calamity +befell their innocent parishioners, when leprosy descended and took root +in the Eight Islands, a _quid pro quo_ was to be looked for. To that +prosperous mission, and to you, as one of its adornments, God had sent +at last an opportunity. I know I am touching here upon a nerve acutely +sensitive. I know that others of your colleagues look back on the +inertia of your Church, and the intrusive and decisive heroism of +Damien, with something almost to be called remorse. I am sure it is so +with yourself; I am persuaded your letter was inspired by a certain +envy, not essentially ignoble, and the one human trait to be espied in +that performance. You were thinking of the lost chance, the past day; of +that which should have been conceived and was not; of the service due +and not rendered. _Time was_, said the voice in your ear, in your +pleasant room, as you sat raging and writing; and if the words written +were base beyond parallel, the rage, I am happy to repeat--it is the +only compliment I shall pay you--the rage was almost virtuous. But, sir, +when we have failed, and another has succeeded; when we have stood by, +and another has stepped in; when we sit and grow bulky in our charming +mansions, and a plain, uncouth peasant steps into the battle, under the +eyes of God, and succours the afflicted, and consoles the dying, and is +himself afflicted in his turn, and dies upon the field of honour--the +battle cannot be retrieved as your unhappy irritation has suggested. It +is a lost battle, and lost for ever. One thing remained to you in your +defeat--some rags of common honour; and these you have made haste to +cast away. + +Common honour; not the honour of having done anything right, but the +honour of not having done aught conspicuously foul; the honour of the +inert: that was what remained to you. We are not all expected to be +Damiens; a man may conceive his duty more narrowly, he may love his +comforts better; and none will cast a stone at him for that. But will a +gentleman of your reverend profession allow me an example from the +fields of gallantry? When two gentlemen compete for the favour of a +lady, and the one succeeds and the other is rejected, and (as will +sometimes happen) matter damaging to the successful rival's credit +reaches the ear of the defeated, it is held by plain men of no +pretensions that his mouth is, in the circumstance, almost necessarily +closed. Your Church and Damien's were in Hawaii upon a rivalry to do +well: to help, to edify, to set divine examples. You having (in one huge +instance) failed, and Damien succeeded, I marvel it should not have +occurred to you that you were doomed to silence; that when you had been +outstripped in that high rivalry, and sat inglorious in the midst of +your well-being, in your pleasant room--and Damien, crowned with glories +and horrors, toiled and rotted in that pigsty of his under the cliffs of +Kalawao--you, the elect who would not, were the last man on earth to +collect and propagate gossip on the volunteer who would and did. + +I think I see you--for I try to see you in the flesh as I write these +sentences--I think I see you leap at the word pigsty, a hyperbolical +expression at the best. "He had no hand in the reforms," he was "a +coarse, dirty man"; these were your own words; and you may think it +possible that I am come to support you with fresh evidence. In a sense, +it is even so. Damien has been too much depicted with a conventional +halo and conventional features; so drawn by men who perhaps had not the +eye to remark or the pen to express the individual; or who perhaps were +only blinded and silenced by generous admiration, such as I partly envy +for myself--such as you, if your soul were enlightened, would envy on +your bended knees. It is the least defect of such a method of +portraiture that it makes the path easy for the devil's advocate, and +leaves for the misuse of the slanderer a considerable field of truth. +For the truth that is suppressed by friends is the readiest weapon of +the enemy. The world, in your despite, may perhaps owe you something, if +your letter be the means of substituting once for all a credible +likeness for a wax abstraction. For, if that world at all remember you, +on the day when Damien of Molokai shall be named Saint, it will be in +virtue of one work: your letter to the Reverend H. B. Gage. + +You may ask on what authority I speak. It was my inclement destiny to +become acquainted, not with Damien, but with Dr. Hyde. When I visited +the lazaretto Damien was already in his resting grave. But such +information as I have, I gathered on the spot in conversation with those +who knew him well and long: some indeed who revered his memory; but +others who had sparred and wrangled with him, who beheld him with no +halo, who perhaps regarded him with small respect, and through whose +unprepared and scarcely partial communications the plain, human features +of the man shone on me convincingly. These gave me what knowledge I +possess; and I learnt it in that scene where it could be most completely +and sensitively understood--Kalawao, which you have never visited, about +which you have never so much as endeavoured to inform yourself; for, +brief as your letter is, you have found the means to stumble into that +confession. "_Less than one-half_ of the island," you say, "is devoted +to the lepers." Molokai--"_Molokai ahina_," the "grey," lofty, and most +desolate island--along all its northern side plunges a front of +precipice into a sea of unusual profundity. This range of cliff is, from +east to west, the true end and frontier of the island. Only in one spot +there projects into the ocean a certain triangular and rugged down, +grassy, stony, windy, and rising in the midst into a hill with a dead +crater: the whole bearing to the cliff that overhangs it somewhat the +same relation as a bracket to a wall. With this hint you will now be +able to pick out the leper station on a map; you will be able to judge +how much of Molokai is thus cut off between the surf and precipice, +whether less than a half, or less than a quarter, or a fifth, or a +tenth--or say, a twentieth; and the next time you burst into print you +will be in a position to share with us the issue of your calculations. + +I imagine you to be one of those persons who talk with cheerfulness of +that place which oxen and wain-ropes could not drag you to behold. You, +who do not even know its situation on the map, probably denounce +sensational descriptions, stretching your limbs the while in your +pleasant parlour on Beretania Street. When I was pulled ashore there one +early morning, there sat with me in the boat two sisters, bidding +farewell (in humble imitation of Damien) to the lights and joys of human +life. One of these wept silently; I could not withhold myself from +joining her. Had you been there, it is my belief that nature would have +triumphed even in you; and as the boat drew but a little nearer, and you +beheld the stairs crowded with abominable deformations of our common +manhood, and saw yourself landing in the midst of such a population as +only now and then surrounds us in the horror of a nightmare--what a +haggard eye you would have rolled over your reluctant shoulder towards +the house on Beretania Street! Had you gone on; had you found every +fourth face a blot upon the landscape; had you visited the hospital and +seen the butt-ends of human beings lying there almost unrecognisable, +but still breathing, still thinking, still remembering; you would have +understood that life in the lazaretto is an ordeal from which the nerves +of a man's spirit shrink, even as his eye quails under the brightness of +the sun; you would have felt it was (even to-day) a pitiful place to +visit and a hell to dwell in. It is not the fear of possible infection. +That seems a little thing when compared with the pain, the pity, and the +disgust of the visitor's surroundings, and the atmosphere of affliction, +disease, and physical disgrace in which he breathes. I do not think I am +a man more than usually timid; but I never recall the days and nights I +spent upon that island promontory (eight days and seven nights), without +heartfelt thankfulness that I am somewhere else. I find in my diary that +I speak of my stay as a "grinding experience": I have once jotted in the +margin, "_Harrowing_ is the word"; and when the _Mokolii_ bore me at +last towards the outer world, I kept repeating to myself, with a new +conception of their pregnancy, those simple words of the song-- + + "'Tis the most distressful country that ever yet was seen." + +And observe: that which I saw and suffered from was a settlement purged, +bettered, beautified; the new village built, the hospital and the +Bishop-Home excellently arranged; the sisters, the doctor, and the +missionaries, all indefatigable in their noble tasks. It was a different +place when Damien came there, and made his great renunciation, and slept +that first night under a tree amidst his rotting brethren: alone with +pestilence; and looking forward (with what courage, with what pitiful +sinkings of dread, God only knows) to a lifetime of dressing sores and +stumps. + +You will say, perhaps, I am too sensitive, that sights as painful abound +in cancer hospitals and are confronted daily by doctors and nurses. I +have long learned to admire and envy the doctors and the nurses. But +there is no cancer hospital so large and populous as Kalawao and +Kalaupapa; and in such a matter every fresh case, like every inch of +length in the pipe of an organ, deepens the note of the impression; for +what daunts the onlooker is that monstrous sum of human suffering by +which he stands surrounded. Lastly, no doctor or nurse is called upon to +enter once for all the doors of that gehenna; they do not say farewell, +they need not abandon hope, on its sad threshold; they but go for a time +to their high calling, and can look forward as they go to relief, to +recreation, and to rest. But Damien shut-to with his own hand the doors +of his own sepulchre. + +I shall now extract three passages from my diary at Kalawao. + +_A_. "Damien is dead and already somewhat ungratefully remembered in the +field of his labours and sufferings. 'He was a good man, but very +officious,' says one. Another tells me he had fallen (as other priests +so easily do) into something of the ways and habits of thought of a +Kanaka; but he had the wit to recognise the fact, and the good sense to +laugh at" [over] "it. A plain man it seems he was; I cannot find he was +a popular." + +_B_. "After Ragsdale's death" [Ragsdale was a famous Luna, or overseer, +of the unruly settlement] "there followed a brief term of office by +Father Damien which served only to publish the weakness of that noble +man. He was rough in his ways, and he had no control. Authority was +relaxed; Damien's life was threatened, and he was soon eager to resign." + +_C_. "Of Damien I begin to have an idea. He seems to have been a man of +the peasant class, certainly of the peasant type: shrewd; ignorant and +bigoted, yet with an open mind, and capable of receiving and digesting a +reproof if it were bluntly administered; superbly generous in the least +thing as well as in the greatest, and as ready to give his last shirt +(although not without human grumbling) as he had been to sacrifice his +life; essentially indiscreet and officious, which made him a troublesome +colleague; domineering in all his ways, which made him incurably +unpopular with the Kanakas, but yet destitute of real authority, so that +his boys laughed at him and he must carry out his wishes by the means of +bribes. He learned to have a mania for doctoring; and set up the Kanakas +against the remedies of his regular rivals: perhaps (if anything matter +at all in the treatment of such a disease) the worst thing that he did, +and certainly the easiest. The best and worst of the man appear very +plainly in his dealings with Mr. Chapman's money; he had originally laid +it out" [intended to lay it out] "entirely for the benefit of Catholics, +and even so not wisely; but after a long, plain talk, he admitted his +error fully and revised the list. The sad state of the boys' home is in +part the result of his lack of control; in part, of his own slovenly +ways and false ideas of hygiene. Brother officials used to call it +'Damien's Chinatown.' 'Well,' they would say, 'your Chinatown keeps +growing.' And he would laugh with perfect good-nature, and adhere to his +errors with perfect obstinacy. So much I have gathered of truth about +this plain, noble human brother and father of ours; his imperfections +are the traits of his face, by which we know him for our fellow; his +martyrdom and his example nothing can lessen or annul; and only a person +here on the spot can properly appreciate their greatness." + +I have set down these private passages, as you perceive, without +correction; thanks to you, the public has them in their bluntness. They +are almost a list of the man's faults, for it is rather these that I was +seeking: with his virtues, with the heroic profile of his life, I and +the world were already sufficiently acquainted. I was besides a little +suspicious of Catholic testimony; in no ill sense, but merely because +Damien's admirers and disciples were the least likely to be critical. I +know you will be more suspicious still; and the facts set down above +were one and all collected from the lips of Protestants who had opposed +the father in his life. Yet I am strangely deceived, or they build up +the image of a man, with all his weaknesses, essentially heroic, and +alive with rugged honesty, generosity, and mirth. + +Take it for what it is, rough private jottings of the worst sides of +Damien's character, collected from the lips of those who had laboured +with and (in your own phrase) "knew the man";--though I question whether +Damien would have said that he knew you. Take it, and observe with +wonder how well you were served by your gossips, how ill by your +intelligence and sympathy; in how many points of fact we are at one, and +how widely our appreciations vary. There is something wrong here; +either with you or me. It is possible, for instance, that you, who seem +to have so many ears in Kalawao, had heard of the affair of Mr. +Chapman's money, and were singly struck by Damien's intended +wrong-doing. I was struck with that also, and set it fairly down; but I +was struck much more by the fact that he had the honesty of mind to be +convinced. I may here tell you that it was a long business; that one of +his colleagues sat with him late into the night, multiplying arguments +and accusations; that the father listened as usual with "perfect +good-nature and perfect obstinacy"; but at the last, when he was +persuaded--"Yes," said he, "I am very much obliged to you; you have done +me a service; it would have been a theft." There are many (not Catholics +merely) who require their heroes and saints to be infallible; to these +the story will be painful; not to the true lovers, patrons, and servants +of mankind. + +And I take it, this is a type of our division; that you are one of those +who have an eye for faults and failures; that you take a pleasure to +find and publish them; and that, having found them, you make haste to +forget the overvailing virtues and the real success which had alone +introduced them to your knowledge. It is a dangerous frame of mind. That +you may understand how dangerous, and into what a situation it has +already brought you, we will (if you please) go hand-in-hand through the +different phrases of your letter, and candidly examine each from the +point of view of its truth, its appositeness, and its charity. + + +Damien was _coarse_. + +It is very possible. You make us sorry for the lepers who had only a +coarse old peasant for their friend and father. But you, who were so +refined, why were you not there, to cheer them with the lights of +culture? Or may I remind you that we have some reason to doubt if John +the Baptist were genteel; and in the case of Peter, on whose career you +doubtless dwell approvingly in the pulpit, no doubt at all he was a +"coarse, headstrong" fisherman! Yet even in our Protestant Bibles Peter +is called Saint. + + +Damien was _dirty_. + +He was. Think of the poor lepers annoyed with this dirty comrade! But +the clean Dr. Hyde was at his food in a fine house. + + +Damien was _headstrong_. + +I believe you are right again; and I thank God for his strong head and +heart. + + +Damien was _bigoted_. + +I am not fond of bigots myself, because they are not fond of me. But +what is meant by bigotry, that we should regard it as a blemish in a +priest? Damien believed his own religion with the simplicity of a +peasant or a child; as I would I could suppose that you do. For this, I +wonder at him some way off; and had that been his only character, should +have avoided him in life. But the point of interest in Damien, which has +caused him to be so much talked about and made him at last the subject +of your pen and mine, was that, in him, his bigotry, his intense and +narrow faith, wrought potently for good, and strengthened him to be one +of the world's heroes and exemplars. + + +Damien _was not sent to Molokai, but went there without orders_. + +Is this a misreading? or do you really mean the words for blame? I have +heard Christ, in the pulpits of our Church, held up for imitation on the +ground that His sacrifice was voluntary. Does Dr. Hyde think otherwise? + + +Damien _did not stay at the settlement, etc_. + +It is true he was allowed many indulgences. Am I to understand that you +blame the father for profiting by these, or the officers for granting +them? In either case, it is a mighty Spartan standard to issue from the +house on Beretania Street; and I am convinced you will find yourself +with few supporters. + + +Damien _had no hand in the reforms, etc_. + +I think even you will admit that I have already been frank in my +description of the man I am defending; but before I take you up upon +this head, I will be franker still, and tell you that perhaps nowhere in +the world can a man taste a more pleasurable sense of contrast than when +he passes from Damien's "Chinatown" at Kalawao to the beautiful +Bishop-Home at Kalaupapa. At this point, in my desire to make all fair +for you, I will break my rule and adduce Catholic testimony. Here is a +passage from my diary about my visit to the Chinatown, from which you +will see how it is (even now) regarded by its own officials: "We went +round all the dormitories, refectories, etc.--dark and dingy enough, +with a superficial cleanliness, which he" [Mr. Dutton, the lay brother] +"did not seek to defend. 'It is almost decent,' said he; 'the sisters +will make that all right when we get them here.'" And yet I gathered it +was already better since Damien was dead, and far better than when he +was there alone and had his own (not always excellent) way. I have now +come far enough to meet you on a common ground of fact; and I tell you +that, to a mind not prejudiced by jealousy, all the reforms of the +lazaretto, and even those which he most vigorously opposed, are properly +the work of Damien. They are the evidence of his success; they are what +his heroism provoked from the reluctant and the careless. Many were +before him in the field; Mr. Meyer, for instance, of whose faithful work +we hear too little: there have been many since; and some had more +worldly wisdom, though none had more devotion, than our saint. Before +his day, even you will confess, they had effected little. It was his +part, by one striking act of martyrdom, to direct all men's eyes on that +distressful country. At a blow, and with the price of his life, he made +the place illustrious and public. And that, if you will consider +largely, was the one reform needful; pregnant of all that should +succeed. It brought money; it brought (best individual addition of them +all) the sisters; it brought supervision, for public opinion and public +interest landed with the man at Kalawao. If ever any man brought +reforms, and died to bring them, it was he. There is not a clean cup or +towel in the Bishop-Home, but dirty Damien washed it. + + +Damien _was not a pure man in his relations with women, etc_. + +How do you know that? Is this the nature of the conversation in that +house on Beretania Street which the cabman envied, driving past?--racy +details of the misconduct of the poor peasant priest, toiling under the +cliffs of Molokai? + +Many have visited the station before me; they seem not to have heard the +rumour. When I was there I heard many shocking tales, for my informants +were men speaking with the plainness of the laity; and I heard plenty of +complaints of Damien. Why was this never mentioned? and how came it to +you in the retirement of your clerical parlour? + +But I must not even seem to deceive you. This scandal, when I read it in +your letter, was not new to me. I had heard it once before; and I must +tell you how. There came to Samoa a man from Honolulu; he in a +public-house on the beach volunteered the statement that Damien had +"contracted the disease from having connection with the female lepers"; +and I find a joy in telling you how the report was welcomed in a +public-house. A man sprang to his feet; I am not at liberty to give his +name, but from what I heard I doubt if you would care to have him to +dinner in Beretania Street. "You miserable little ----" (here is a word I +dare not print, it would so shock your ears). "You miserable little ----," +he cried, "if the story were a thousand times true, can't you see you are +a million times a lower ---- for daring to repeat it?" I wish it could be +told of you that when the report reached you in your house, perhaps after +family worship, you had found in your soul enough holy anger to receive it +with the same expressions; ay, even with that one which I dare not print; +it would not need to have been blotted away, like Uncle Toby's oath, by +the tears of the recording angel; it would have been counted to you for +your brightest righteousness. But you have deliberately chosen the part of +the man from Honolulu, and you have played it with improvements of your +own. The man from Honolulu--miserable, leering creature--communicated the +tale to a rude knot of beach-combing drinkers in a public-house, where (I +will so far agree with your temperance opinions) man is not always at his +noblest; and the man from Honolulu had himself been drinking--drinking, we +may charitably fancy, to excess. It was to your "Dear Brother, the +Reverend H. B. Gage," that you chose to communicate the sickening story; +and the blue ribbon which adorns your portly bosom forbids me to allow you +the extenuating plea that you were drunk when it was done. Your "dear +brother"--a brother indeed--made haste to deliver up your letter (as a +means of grace, perhaps) to the religious papers; where, after many +months, I found and read and wondered at it; and whence I have now +reproduced it for the wonder of others. And you and your dear brother +have, by this cycle of operations, built up a contrast very edifying to +examine in detail. The man whom you would not care to have to dinner, on +the one side; on the other, the Reverend Dr. Hyde and the Reverend H. B. +Gage: the Apia bar-room, the Honolulu manse. + +But I fear you scarce appreciate how you appear to your fellow-men; and +to bring it home to you, I will suppose your story to be true. I will +suppose--and God forgive me for supposing it--that Damien faltered and +stumbled in his narrow path of duty; I will suppose that, in the horror +of his isolation, perhaps in the fever of incipient disease, he, who +was doing so much more than he had sworn, failed in the letter of his +priestly oath--he, who was so much a better man than either you or me, +who did what we have never dreamed of daring--he too tasted of our +common frailty. "O, Iago, the pity of it!" The least tender should be +moved to tears; the most incredulous to prayer. And all that you could +do was to pen your letter to the Reverend H. B. Gage! + +Is it growing at all clear to you what a picture you have drawn of your +own heart? I will try yet once again to make it clearer. You had a +father: suppose this tale were about him, and some informant brought it +to you, proof in hand: I am not making too high an estimate of your +emotional nature when I suppose you would regret the circumstance? that +you would feel the tale of frailty the more keenly since it shamed the +author of your days? and that the last thing you would do would be to +publish it in the religious press? Well, the man who tried to do what +Damien did is my father, and the father of the man in the Apia bar, and +the father of all who love goodness; and he was your father too, if God +had given you grace to see it. + + +FOOTNOTE: + + [32] From the Sydney _Presbyterian_, October 26, 1889. + + + + +XI + +MY FIRST BOOK--"TREASURE ISLAND" + + +It was far indeed from being my first book, for I am not a novelist +alone. But I am well aware that my paymaster, the Great Public, regards +what else I have written with indifference, if not aversion; if it call +upon me at all, it calls on me in the familiar and indelible character; +and when I am asked to talk of my first book, no question in the world +but what is meant is my first novel. + +Sooner or later, somehow, anyhow, I was bound to write a novel. It seems +vain to ask why. Men are born with various manias: from my earliest +childhood it was mine to make a plaything of imaginary series of events; +and as soon as I was able to write, I became a good friend to the +papermakers. Reams upon reams must have gone to the making of +"Rathillet," "The Pentland Rising,"[33] "The King's Pardon" (otherwise +"Park Whitehead"), "Edward Daven," "A Country Dance," and "A Vendetta in +the West"; and it is consolatory to remember that these reams are now all +ashes, and have been received again into the soil. I have named but a few +of my ill-fated efforts, only such indeed as came to a fair bulk ere they +were desisted from; and even so they cover a long vista of years. +"Rathillet" was attempted before fifteen, "The Vendetta" at twenty-nine, +and the succession of defeats lasted unbroken till I was thirty-one. By +that time I had written little books and little essays and short stories; +and had got patted on the back and paid for them--though not enough to +live upon. I had quite a reputation, I was the successful man; I passed +my days in toil, the futility of which would sometimes make my cheek to +burn--that I should spend a man's energy upon this business, and yet +could not earn a livelihood: and still there shone ahead of me an +unattained ideal: although I had attempted the thing with vigour not less +than ten or twelve times, I had not yet written a novel. All--all my +pretty ones--had gone for a little, and then stopped inexorably like a +schoolboy's watch. I might be compared to a cricketer of many years' +standing who should never have made a run. Anybody can write a short +story--a bad one, I mean--who has industry and paper and time enough; but +not every one may hope to write even a bad novel. It is the length that +kills. The accepted novelist may take his novel up and put it down, spend +days upon it in vain, and write not any more than he makes haste to blot. +Not so the beginner. Human nature has certain rights; instinct--the +instinct of self-preservation--forbids that any man (cheered and +supported by the consciousness of no previous victory) should endure the +miseries of unsuccessful literary toil beyond a period to be measured in +weeks. There must be something for hope to feed upon. The beginner must +have a slant of wind, a lucky vein must be running, he must be in one of +those hours when the words come and the phrases balance of +themselves--_even to begin_. And having begun, what a dread looking +forward is that until the book shall be accomplished! For so long a time +the slant is to continue unchanged, the vein to keep running, for so long +a time you must keep at command the same quality of style: for so long a +time your puppets are to be always vital, always consistent, always +vigorous! I remember I used to look, in those days, upon every +three-volume novel with a sort of veneration, as a feat--not, possibly, +of literature--but at least of physical and moral endurance and the +courage of Ajax. + +In the fated year I came to live with my father and mother at Kinnaird, +above Pitlochry. Then I walked on the red moors and by the side of the +golden burn; the rude, pure air of our mountains inspirited, if it did +not inspire, us, and my wife and I projected a joint volume of bogey +stories, for which she wrote "The Shadow on the Bed," and I turned out +"Thrawn Janet" and a first draft of "The Merry Men." I love my native +air, but it does not love me; and the end of this delightful period was +a cold, a fly-blister and a migration by Strathardle and Glenshee to the +Castleton of Braemar. There it blew a good deal and rained in a +proportion; my native air was more unkind than man's ingratitude, and I +must consent to pass a good deal of my time between four walls in a +house lugubriously known as the Late Miss M^cGregor's Cottage. And now +admire the finger of predestination. There was a schoolboy in the Late +Miss M^cGregor's Cottage, home from the holidays, and much in want of +"something craggy to break his mind upon." He had no thought of +literature; it was the art of Raphael that received his fleeting +suffrages; and with the aid of pen and ink and a shilling box of +watercolours, he had soon turned one of the rooms into a +picture-gallery. My more immediate duty towards the gallery was to be +showman; but I would sometimes unbend a little, join the artist (so to +speak) at the easel, and pass the afternoon with him in a generous +emulation, making coloured drawings. On one of these occasions, I made +the map of an island; it was elaborately and (I thought) beautifully +coloured; the shape of it took my fancy beyond expression; it contained +harbours that pleased me like sonnets; and, with the unconsciousness of +the predestined, I ticketed my performance "Treasure Island." I am told +there are people who do not care for maps, and find it hard to believe. +The names, the shapes of the woodlands, the courses of the roads and +rivers, the prehistoric footsteps of man still distinctly traceable up +hill and down dale, the mills and the ruins, the ponds and the ferries, +perhaps the _Standing Stone_ or the _Druidic Circle_ on the heath; here +is an inexhaustible fund of interest for any man with eyes to see or +twopence-worth of imagination to understand with! No child but must +remember laying his head in the grass, staring into the infinitesimal +forest and seeing it grow populous with fairy armies. Somewhat in this +way, as I paused upon my map of "Treasure Island," the future character +of the book began to appear there visibly among imaginary woods; and +their brown faces and bright weapons peeped out upon me from unexpected +quarters, as they passed to and fro, fighting and hunting treasure, on +these few square inches of a flat projection. The next thing I knew I +had some papers before me and was writing out a list of chapters. How +often have I done so, and the thing gone on further! But there seemed +elements of success about this enterprise. It was to be a story for +boys: no need of psychology or fine writing; and I had a boy at hand to +be a touchstone. Women were excluded. I was unable to handle a brig +(which the _Hispaniola_ should have been), but I thought I could make +shift to sail her as a schooner without public shame. And then I had an +idea for John Silver from which I promised myself funds of +entertainment: to take an admired friend of mine (whom the reader very +likely knows and admires as much as I do), to deprive him of all his +finer qualities and higher graces of temperament, to leave him with +nothing but his strength, his courage, his quickness, and his +magnificent geniality, and to try to express these in terms of the +culture of a raw tarpaulin. Such psychical surgery is, I think, a common +way of "making character"; perhaps it is, indeed, the only way. We can +put in the quaint figure that spoke a hundred words with us yesterday by +the wayside; but do we know him? Our friend with his infinite variety +and flexibility, we know--but can we put him in? Upon the first, we must +engraft secondary and imaginary qualities, possibly all wrong; from the +second, knife in hand, we must cut away and deduct the needless +arborescence of his nature, but the trunk and the few branches that +remain we may at least be fairly sure of. + +On a chill September morning, by the cheek of a brisk fire, and the rain +drumming on the window, I began "The Sea Cook," for that was the +original title. I have begun (and finished) a number of other books, but +I cannot remember to have sat down to one of them with more complacency. +It is not to be wondered at, for stolen waters are proverbially sweet. I +am now upon a painful chapter. No doubt the parrot once belonged to +Robinson Crusoe. No doubt the skeleton is conveyed from Poe. I think +little of these, they are trifles and details; and no man can hope to +have a monopoly of skeletons or make a corner in talking birds. The +stockade, I am told, is from "Masterman Ready." It may be, I care not a +jot. These useful writers had fulfilled the poet's saying: departing, +they had left behind them Footprints on the sands of time, Footprints +which perhaps another--and I was the other! It is my debt to Washington +Irving that exercises my conscience, and justly so, for I believe +plagiarism was rarely carried further. I chanced to pick up the "Tales +of a Traveller" some years ago with a view to an anthology of prose +narrative, and the book flew up and struck me: Billy Bones, his chest, +the company in the parlour, the whole inner spirit, and a good deal of +the material detail of my first chapters--all were there, all were the +property of Washington Irving. But I had no guess of it then as I sat +writing by the fireside, in what seemed the spring-tides of a somewhat +pedestrian inspiration; nor yet day by day, after lunch, as I read aloud +my morning's work to the family. It seemed to me original as sin; it +seemed to belong to me like my right eye. I had counted on one boy, I +found I had two in my audience. My father caught fire at once with all +the romance and childishness of his original nature. His own stories, +that every night of his life he put himself to sleep with, dealt +perpetually with ships, roadside inns, robbers, old sailors, and +commercial travellers before the era of steam. He never finished one of +these romances; the lucky man did not require to finish them! But in +"Treasure Island" he recognised something kindred to his own +imagination; it was _his_ kind of picturesque; and he not only heard +with delight the daily chapter, but set himself acting to collaborate. +When the time came for Billy Bones's chest to be ransacked, he must have +passed the better part of a day preparing, on the back of a legal +envelope, an inventory of its contents, which I exactly followed; and +the name of "Flint's old ship"--the _Walrus_--was given at his +particular request. And now who should come dropping in, _ex machina_, +but Dr. Japp, like the disguised prince who is to bring down the curtain +upon peace and happiness in the last act; for he carried in his pocket, +not a horn or a talisman, but a publisher. Even the ruthlessness of a +united family recoiled before the extreme measure of inflicting on our +guest the mutilated members of "The Sea Cook"; at the same time, we +would by no means stop our readings; and accordingly the tale was begun +again at the beginning, and solemnly re-delivered for the benefit of Dr. +Japp. From that moment on, I have thought highly of his critical +faculty; for when he left us he carried away the manuscript in his +portmanteau to submit to his friend (since then my own) Mr. Henderson, +who accepted it for his periodical, _Young Folks_. + +Here, then, was everything to keep me up, sympathy, help, and now a +positive engagement. I had chosen besides a very easy style. Compare it +with the almost contemporary "Merry Men"; one reader may prefer the one +style, one the other--'tis an affair of character, perhaps of mood; but +no expert can fail to see that the one is much more difficult, and the +other much easier to maintain. It seems as though a full-grown +experienced man of letters might engage to turn out "Treasure Island" at +so many pages a day, and keep his pipe alight. But alas! this was not +my case. Fifteen days I stuck to it, and turned out fifteen chapters; +and then, in the early paragraphs of the sixteenth, ignominiously lost +hold. My mouth was empty; there was not one word of "Treasure Island" in +my bosom; and here were the proofs of the beginning already waiting me +at the "Hand and Spear"! Then I corrected them, living for the most part +alone, walking on the heath at Weybridge in dewy autumn mornings, a good +deal pleased with what I had done, and more appalled than I can depict +to you in words at what remained for me to do. I was thirty-one; I was +the head of a family; I had lost my health; I had never yet paid my way, +never yet made L200 a year; my father had quite recently bought back and +cancelled a book that was judged a failure: was this to be another and +last fiasco? I was indeed very close on despair; but I shut my mouth +hard, and during the journey to Davos, where I was to pass the winter, +had the resolution to think of other things and bury myself in the +novels of M. du Boisgobey. Arrived at my destination, down I sat one +morning to the unfinished tale; and behold! it flowed from me like +small-talk; and in a second tide of delighted industry, and again at the +rate of a chapter a day, I finished "Treasure Island." It had to be +transcribed almost exactly; my wife was ill; the schoolboy remained +alone of the faithful; and John Addington Symonds (to whom I timidly +mentioned what I was engaged on) looked on me askance. He was at that +time very eager I should write on the characters of Theophrastus: so far +out may be the judgments of the wisest men. But Symonds (to be sure) was +scarce the confidant to go to for sympathy on a boy's story. He was +large-minded; "a full man," if there was one; but the very name of my +enterprise would suggest to him only capitulations of sincerity and +solecisms of style. Well! he was not far wrong. + +"Treasure Island"--it was Mr. Henderson who deleted the first title, +"The Sea Cook"--appeared duly in the story paper, where it figured in +the ignoble midst, without woodcuts, and attracted not the least +attention. I did not care. I liked the tale myself, for much the same +reason as my father liked the beginning; it was my kind of picturesque. +I was not a little proud of John Silver, also; and to this day rather +admire that smooth and formidable adventurer. What was infinitely more +exhilarating, I had passed a landmark; I had finished a tale, and +written "The End" upon my manuscript, as I had not done since "The +Pentland Rising," when I was a boy of sixteen not yet at college. In +truth it was so by a set of lucky accidents; had not Dr. Japp come on +his visit, had not the tale flowed from me with singular ease, it must +have been laid aside like its predecessors, and found a circuitous and +unlamented way to the fire. Purists may suggest it would have been +better so. I am not of that mind. The tale seems to have given much +pleasure, and it brought (or was the means of bringing) fire and food +and wine to a deserving family in which I took an interest. I need +scarcely say I mean my own. + +But the adventures of "Treasure Island" are not yet quite at an end. I +had written it up to the map. The map was the chief part of my plot. For +instance, I had called an islet "Skeleton Island," not knowing what I +meant, seeking only for the immediate picturesque, and it was to justify +this name that I broke into the gallery of Mr. Poe and stole Flint's +pointer. And in the same way, it was because I had made two harbours +that the _Hispaniola_ was sent on her wanderings with Israel Hands. The +time came when it was decided to republish, and I sent in my manuscript, +and the map along with it, to Messrs. Cassell. The proofs came, they +were corrected, but I heard nothing of the map. I wrote and asked; was +told it had never been received, and sat aghast. It is one thing to draw +a map at random, set a scale in one corner of it at a venture, and write +up a story to the measurements. It is quite another to have to examine a +whole book, make an inventory of all the allusions contained in it, and +with a pair of compasses, painfully design a map to suit the data. I did +it; and the map was drawn again in my father's office, with +embellishments of blowing whales and sailing ships, and my father +himself brought into service a knack he had of various writing, and +elaborately _forged_ the signature of Captain Flint, and the sailing +directions of Billy Bones. But somehow it was never _Treasure Island_ to +me. + +I have said the map was the most of the plot. I might almost say it was +the whole. A few reminiscences of Poe, Defoe, and Washington Irving, a +copy of Johnson's "Buccaneers," the name of the Dead Man's Chest from +Kingsley's "At Last," some recollections of canoeing on the high seas, +and the map itself, with its infinite, eloquent suggestion, made up the +whole of my materials. It is, perhaps, not often that a map figures so +largely in a tale, yet it is always important. The author must know his +countryside, whether real or imaginary, like his hand; the distances, +the points of the compass, the place of the sun's rising, the behaviour +of the moon, should all be beyond cavil. And how troublesome the moon +is! I have come to grief over the moon in "Prince Otto," and, so soon as +that was pointed out to me, adopted a precaution which I recommend to +other men--I never write now without an almanac. With an almanac and the +map of the country, and the plan of every house, either actually plotted +on paper or already and immediately apprehended in the mind, a man may +hope to avoid some of the grossest possible blunders. With the map +before him, he will scarce allow the sun to set in the east, as it does +in "The Antiquary." With the almanac at hand, he will scarce allow two +horsemen, journeying on the most urgent affair, to employ six days, from +three of the Monday morning till late in the Saturday night, upon a +journey of, say, ninety or a hundred miles, and before the week is out, +and still on the same nags, to cover fifty in one day, as may be read at +length in the inimitable novel of "Rob Roy." And it is certainly well, +though far from necessary, to avoid such "croppers." But it is my +contention--my superstition, if you like--that who is faithful to his +map, and consults it, and draws from it his inspiration, daily and +hourly, gains positive support, and not mere negative immunity from +accident. The tale has a root there; it grows in that soil; it has a +spine of its own behind the words. Better if the country be real, and he +has walked every foot of it and knows every milestone. But even with +imaginary places, he will do well in the beginning to provide a map; as +he studies it, relations will appear that he had not thought upon; he +will discover obvious, though unsuspected, shortcuts and footprints for +his messengers; and even when a map is not all the plot, as it was in +"Treasure Island," it will be found to be a mine of suggestion. + + +FOOTNOTE: + + [33] _Ne pas confondre_. Not the slim green pamphlet with the imprint + of Andrew Elliot, for which (as I see with amazement from the + book-lists) the gentlemen of England are willing to pay fancy + prices; but its predecessor, a bulky historical romance without a + spark of merit and now deleted from the world.--[R. L. S.] + + + + +XII + +THE GENESIS OF "THE MASTER OF BALLANTRAE" + + +I was walking one night in the verandah of a small house in which I +lived, outside the hamlet of Saranac. It was winter; the night was very +dark; the air extraordinary clear and cold, and sweet with the purity of +forests. From a good way below, the river was to be heard contending +with ice and boulders: a few lights appeared, scattered unevenly among +the darkness, but so far away as not to lessen the sense of isolation. +For the making of a story here were fine conditions. I was besides moved +with the spirit of emulation, for I had just finished my third or fourth +perusal of "The Phantom Ship." "Come," said I to my engine, "let us make +a tale, a story of many years and countries, of the sea and the land, +savagery, and civilisation; a story that shall have the same large +features, and may be treated in the same summary elliptic method as the +book you have been reading and admiring." I was here brought up with a +reflection exceedingly just in itself, but which, as the sequel shows, I +failed to profit by. I saw that Marryat, not less than Homer, Milton, +and Virgil, profited by the choice of a familiar and legendary subject; +so that he prepared his readers on the very title-page; and this set me +cudgelling my brains, if by any chance I could hit upon some similar +belief to be the centre-piece of my own meditated fiction. In the course +of this vain search there cropped up in my memory a singular case of a +buried and resuscitated fakir, which I had been often told by an uncle +of mine, then lately dead, Inspector-General John Balfour. + +On such a fine frosty night, with no wind and the thermometer below +zero, the brain works with much vivacity; and the next moment I had seen +the circumstance transplanted from India and the tropics to the +Adirondack wilderness and the stringent cold of the Canadian border. +Here then, almost before I had begun my story, I had two countries, two +of the ends of the earth involved: and thus though the notion of the +resuscitated man failed entirely on the score of general acceptation, or +even (as I have since found) acceptability, it fitted at once with my +design of a tale of many lands; and this decided me to consider further +of its possibilities. The man who should thus be buried was the first +question: a good man, whose return to life would be hailed by the reader +and the other characters with gladness? This trenched upon the Christian +picture and was dismissed. If the idea, then, was to be of any use at +all for me, I had to create a kind of evil genius to his friends and +family, take him through many disappearances, and make this final +restoration from the pit of death, in the icy American wilderness, the +last and the grimmest of the series. I need not tell my brothers of the +craft that I was now in the most interesting moment of an author's life; +the hours that followed that night upon the balcony, and the following +nights and days, whether walking abroad or lying wakeful in my bed, were +hours of unadulterated joy. My mother, who was then living with me +alone, perhaps had less enjoyment; for, in the absence of my wife, who +is my usual helper in these times of parturition, I must spur her up at +all seasons to hear me relate and try to clarify my unformed fancies. + +And while I was groping for the fable and the character required, behold +I found them lying ready and nine years old in my memory. Pease porridge +hot, pease porridge cold, pease porridge in the pot, nine years old. Was +there ever a more complete justification of the rule of Horace? Here, +thinking of quite other things, I had stumbled on the solution or +perhaps I should rather say (in stagewright phrase) the Curtain or final +Tableau of a story conceived long before on the moors between Pitlochry +and Strathardle, conceived in Highland rain, in the blend of the smell +of heather and bog-plants, and with a mind full of the Athole +correspondence and the memories of the dumlicide Justice. So long ago, +so far away it was, that I had first evoked the faces and the mutual +tragic situation of the men of Durrisdeer. + +My story was now world-wide enough: Scotland, India, and America being +all obligatory scenes. But of these India was strange to me except in +books; I had never known any living Indian save a Parsee, a member of my +club in London, equally civilised, and (to all seeing) equally +Occidental with myself. It was plain, thus far, that I should have to +get into India and out of it again upon a foot of fairy lightness; and I +believe this first suggested to me the idea of the Chevalier Burke for a +narrator. It was at first intended that he should be Scottish, and I was +then filled with fears that he might prove only the degraded shadow of +my own Alan Breck. Presently, however, it began to occur to me it would +be like my Master to curry favour with the Prince's Irishmen; and that +an Irish refugee would have a particular reason to find himself in India +with his countryman, the unfortunate Lally. Irish, therefore, I decided +he should be, and then, all of a sudden, I was aware of a tall shadow +across my path, the shadow of Barry Lyndon. No man (in Lord Foppington's +phrase) of a nice morality could go very deep with my Master: in the +original idea of this story conceived in Scotland, this companion had +been besides intended to be worse than the bad elder son with whom (as +it was then meant) he was to visit Scotland; if I took an Irishman, and +a very bad Irishman, in the midst of the eighteenth century, how was I +to evade Barry Lyndon? The wretch besieged me, offering his services; he +gave me excellent references; he proved that he was highly fitted for +the work I had to do; he, or my own evil heart, suggested it was easy to +disguise his ancient livery with a little lace and a few frogs and +buttons, so that Thackeray himself should hardly recognise him. And then +of a sudden there came to me memories of a young Irishman, with whom I +was once intimate, and had spent long nights walking and talking with, +upon a very desolate coast in a bleak autumn: I recalled him as a youth +of an extraordinary moral simplicity--almost vacancy; plastic to any +influence, the creature of his admirations: and putting such a youth in +fancy into the career of a soldier of fortune, it occurred to me that he +would serve my turn as well as Mr. Lyndon, and, in place of entering +into competition with the Master, would afford a slight though a +distinct relief. I know not if I have done him well, though his moral +dissertations always highly entertained me: but I own I have been +surprised to find that he reminded some critics of Barry Lyndon after +all.... + + + + +XIII + +RANDOM MEMORIES: _ROSA QUO LOCORUM_ + + I + + +Through what little channels, by what hints and premonitions, the +consciousness of the man's art dawns first upon the child, it should be +not only interesting but instructive to inquire. A matter of curiosity +to-day, it will become the ground of science to-morrow. From the mind of +childhood there is more history and more philosophy to be fished up than +from all the printed volumes in a library. The child is conscious of an +interest, not in literature but in life. A taste for the precise, the +adroit or the comely in the use of words, comes late; but long before +that he has enjoyed in books a delightful dress rehearsal of experience. +He is first conscious of this material--I had almost said this +practical--pre-occupation; it does not follow that it really came the +first. I have some old fogged negatives in my collection that would seem +to imply a prior stage. "The Lord is gone up with a shout, and God with +the sound of a trumpet"--memorial version, I know not where to find the +text--rings still in my ear from my first childhood, and perhaps with +something of my nurse's accent. There was possibly some sort of image +written in my mind by these loud words, but I believe the words +themselves were what I cherished. I had about the same time, and under +the same influence--that of my dear nurse--a favourite author: it is +possible the reader has not heard of him--the Rev. Robert Murray +M'Cheyne. My nurse and I admired his name exceedingly, so that I must +have been taught the love of beautiful sounds before I was breeched; and +I remember two specimens of his muse until this day:-- + + "Behind the hills of Naphtali + The sun went slowly down, + Leaving on mountain, tower, and tree, + A tinge of golden brown." + +There is imagery here, and I set it on one side. The other--it is but a +verse--not only contains no image, but is quite unintelligible even to +my comparatively instructed mind, and I know not even how to spell the +outlandish vocable that charmed me in my childhood: + + "Jehovah Tschidkenu is nothing to her ";[34] + +I may say, without flippancy, that he was nothing to me either, since I +had no ray of a guess of what he was about; yet the verse, from then to +now, a longer interval than the life of a generation, has continued to +haunt me. + +I have said that I should set a passage distinguished by obvious and +pleasing imagery, however faint; for the child thinks much in images, +words are very live to him, phrases that imply a picture eloquent beyond +their value. Rummaging in the dusty pigeon-holes of memory, I came once +upon a graphic version of the famous Psalm, "The Lord is my Shepherd": +and from the places employed in its illustration, which are all in the +immediate neighbourhood of a house then occupied by my father, I am able +to date it before the seventh year of my age, although it was probably +earlier in fact. The "pastures green" were represented by a certain +suburban stubble-field, where I had once walked with my nurse, under an +autumnal sunset, on the banks of the Water of Leith: the place is long +ago built up; no pastures now, no stubble-fields; only a maze of little +streets and smoking chimneys and shrill children. Here, in the fleecy +person of a sheep, I seemed to myself to follow something unseen, +unrealised, and yet benignant; and close by the sheep in which I was +incarnated--as if for greater security--rustled the skirts of my nurse. +"Death's dark vale" was a certain archway in the Warriston Cemetery: a +formidable yet beloved spot, for children love to be afraid,--in measure +as they love all experience of vitality. Here I beheld myself some paces +ahead (seeing myself, I mean, from behind) utterly alone in that uncanny +passage: on the one side of me a rude, knobby shepherd's staff, such as +cheers the heart of the cockney tourist, on the other a rod like a +billiard cue, appeared to accompany my progress: the staff sturdily +upright, the billiard cue inclined confidentially, like one whispering, +towards my ear. I was aware--I will never tell you how--that the +presence of these articles afforded me encouragement. The third and last +of my pictures illustrated the words:-- + + "My table Thou hast furnished + In presence of my foes: + My head Thou dost with oil anoint, + And my cup overflows": + +and this was perhaps the most interesting of the series. I saw myself +seated in a kind of open stone summer-house at table; over my shoulder a +hairy, bearded, and robed presence anointed me from an authentic +shoe-horn; the summer-house was part of the green court of a ruin, and +from the far side of the court black and white imps discharged against +me ineffectual arrows. The picture appears arbitrary, but I can trace +every detail to its source, as Mr. Brock analysed the dream of Alan +Armadale. The summer-house and court were muddled together out of +Billings' "Antiquities of Scotland"; the imps conveyed from Bagster's +"Pilgrim's Progress"; the bearded and robed figure from any one of a +thousand Bible pictures; and the shoe-horn was plagiarised from an old +illustrated Bible, where it figured in the hand of Samuel anointing +Saul, and had been pointed out to me as a jest by my father. It was +shown me for a jest, remark; but the serious spirit of infancy adopted +it in earnest. Children are all classics; a bottle would have seemed an +intermediary too trivial--that divine refreshment of whose meaning I had +no guess; and I seized on the idea of that mystic shoe-horn with +delight, even as, a little later, I should have written flagon, chalice, +hanaper, beaker, or any word that might have appealed to me at the +moment as least contaminate with mean associations. In this string of +pictures I believe the gist of the psalm to have consisted; I believe it +had no more to say to me; and the result was consolatory. I would go to +sleep dwelling with restfulness upon these images; they passed before +me, besides, to an appropriate music; for I had already singled out from +that rude psalm the one lovely verse which dwells in the minds of all, +not growing old, not disgraced by its association with long Sunday +tasks, a scarce conscious joy in childhood, in age a companion +thought:-- + + "In pastures green Thou leadest me, + The quiet waters by." + +The remainder of my childish recollections are all of the matter of what +was read to me, and not of any manner in the words. If these pleased me, +it was unconsciously; I listened for news of the great vacant world upon +whose edge I stood; I listened for delightful plots that I might +re-enact in play, and romantic scenes and circumstances that I might +call up before me, with closed eyes, when I was tired of Scotland, and +home and that weary prison of the sick-chamber in which I lay so long in +durance. "Robinson Crusoe"; some of the books of that cheerful, +ingenious, romantic soul, Mayne Reid; and a work rather gruesome and +bloody for a child, but very picturesque, called "Paul Blake"; these are +the three strongest impressions I remember: "The Swiss Family Robinson" +came next, _longo intervallo_. At these I played, conjured up their +scenes, and delighted to hear them rehearsed unto seventy times seven. I +am not sure but what "Paul Blake" came after I could read. It seems +connected with a visit to the country, and an experience unforgettable. +The day had been warm; H---- and I had played together charmingly all +day in a sandy wilderness across the road; then came the evening with a +great flash of colour and a heavenly sweetness in the air. Somehow my +playmate had vanished, or is out of the story, as the sagas say, but I +was sent into the village on an errand; and, taking a book of fairy +tales, went down alone through a fir-wood, reading as I walked. How +often since then has it befallen me to be happy even so; but that was +the first time: the shock of that pleasure I have never since forgot, +and if my mind serves me to the last, I never shall, for it was then +that I knew I loved reading. + + + II + +To pass from hearing literature to reading it is to take a great and +dangerous step. With not a few, I think a large proportion of their +pleasure then comes to an end; "the malady of not marking" overtakes +them; they read thenceforward by the eye alone and hear never again the +chime of fair words or the march of the stately period. _Non ragioniam_ +of these. But to all the step is dangerous; it involves coming of age; +it is even a kind of second weaning. In the past all was at the choice +of others; they chose, they digested, they read aloud for us and sang to +their own tune the books of childhood. In the future we are to approach +the silent, inexpressive type alone, like pioneers; and the choice of +what we are to read is in our own hands thenceforward. For instance, in +the passages already adduced, I detect and applaud the ear of my old +nurse; they were of her choice, and she imposed them on my infancy, +reading the works of others as a poet would scarce dare to read his +own; gloating on the rhythm, dwelling with delight on assonances and +alliterations. I know very well my mother must have been all the while +trying to educate my taste upon more secular authors; but the vigour and +the continual opportunities of my nurse triumphed, and after a long +search, I can find in these earliest volumes of my autobiography no +mention of anything but nursery rhymes, the Bible, and Mr. M'Cheyne. + +I suppose all children agree in looking back with delight on their +school Readers. We might not now find so much pathos in "Bingen on the +Rhine," "A soldier of the Legion lay dying in Algiers," or in "The +Soldier's Funeral," in the declamation of which I was held to have +surpassed myself. "Robert's voice," said the master on this memorable +occasion, "is not strong, but impressive": an opinion which I was fool +enough to carry home to my father; who roasted me for years in +consequence. I am sure one should not be so deliciously tickled by the +humorous pieces:-- + + "What, crusty? cries Will in a taking, + Who would not be crusty with half a year's baking?" + +I think this quip would leave us cold. The "Isles of Greece" seem rather +tawdry too; but on the "Address to the Ocean," or on "The Dying +Gladiator," "time has writ no wrinkle." + + "'Tis the morn, but dim and dark, + Whither flies the silent lark?"-- + +does the reader recall the moment when his eye first fell upon these +lines in the Fourth Reader; and "surprised with joy, impatient as the +wind," he plunged into the sequel? And there was another piece, this +time in prose, which none can have forgotten; many like me must have +searched Dickens with zeal to find it again, and in its proper context, +and have perhaps been conscious of some inconsiderable measure of +disappointment, that it was only Tom Pinch who drove, in such a pomp of +poetry, to London. + +But in the Reader we are still under guides. What a boy turns out for +himself, as he rummages the bookshelves, is the real test and pleasure. My +father's library was a spot of some austerity: the proceedings of learned +societies, some Latin divinity, cyclopaedias, physical science, and, above +all, optics, held the chief place upon the shelves, and it was only in +holes and corners that anything really legible existed as by accident. The +"Parent's Assistant," "Rob Roy," "Waverley," and "Guy Mannering," the +"Voyages of Captain Woods Rogers," Fuller's and Bunyan's "Holy Wars," "The +Reflections of Robinson Crusoe," "The Female Bluebeard," G. Sand's "Mare +au Diable"--(how came it in that grave assembly!), Ainsworth's "Tower of +London," and four old volumes of _Punch_--these were the chief exceptions. +In these latter, which made for years the chief of my diet, I very early +fell in love (almost as soon as I could spell) with the Snob Papers. I +knew them almost by heart, particularly the visit to the Pontos; and I +remember my surprise when I found, long afterwards, that they were famous, +and signed with a famous name; to me, as I read and admired them, they +were the works of Mr. Punch. Time and again I tried to read "Rob Roy," +with whom of course I was acquainted from the "Tales of a Grandfather"; +time and again the early part, with Rashleigh and (think of it!) the +adorable Diana, choked me off; and I shall never forget the pleasure and +surprise with which, lying on the floor one summer evening, I struck of a +sudden into the first scene with Andrew Fairservice. "The worthy Dr. +Lightfoot"--"mistrysted with a bogle"--"a wheen green trash"--"Jenny, +lass, I think I ha'e her": from that day to this the phrases have been +unforgotten. I read on, I need scarce say; I came to Glasgow, I bided +tryst on Glasgow Bridge, I met Rob Roy and the Bailie in the Tolbooth, all +with transporting pleasure; and then the clouds gathered once more about +my path; and I dozed and skipped until I stumbled half asleep into the +clachan of Aberfoyle, and the voices of Iverach and Galbraith recalled me +to myself. With that scene and the defeat of Captain Thornton the book +concluded; Helen and her sons shocked even the little schoolboy of nine or +ten with their unreality; I read no more, or I did not grasp what I was +reading; and years elapsed before I consciously met Diana and her father +among the hills, or saw Rashleigh dying in the chair. When I think of that +novel and that evening, I am impatient with all others; they seem but +shadows and impostors; they cannot satisfy the appetite which this +awakened; and I dare be known to think it the best of Sir Walter's by +nearly as much as Sir Walter is the best of novelists. Perhaps Mr. Lang is +right, and our first friends in the land of fiction are always the most +real. And yet I had read before this "Guy Mannering," and some of +"Waverley," with no such delighted sense of truth and humour, and I read +immediately after the greater part of the Waverley Novels, and was never +moved again in the same way or to the same degree. One circumstance is +suspicious: my critical estimate of the Waverley Novels has scarce changed +at all since I was ten. "Rob Roy," "Guy Mannering," and "Redgauntlet" +first; then, a little lower, "The Fortunes of Nigel"; then, after a huge +gulf, "Ivanhoe" and "Anne of Geierstein": the rest nowhere; such was the +verdict of the boy. Since then "The Antiquary," "St. Ronan's Well," +"Kenilworth," and "The Heart of Midlothian" have gone up in the scale; +perhaps "Ivanhoe" and "Anne of Geierstein" have gone a trifle down; Diana +Vernon has been added to my admirations in that enchanted world of "Rob +Roy"; I think more of the letters in "Redgauntlet" and Peter Peebles, that +dreadful piece of realism, I can now read about with equanimity, interest, +and I had almost said pleasure, while to the childish critic he often +caused unmixed distress. But the rest is the same; I could not finish "The +Pirate" when I was a child, I have never finished it yet; "Peveril of the +Peak" dropped half way through from my schoolboy hands, and though I have +since waded to an end in a kind of wager with myself, the exercise was +quite without enjoyment. There is something disquieting in these +considerations. I still think the visit to Ponto's the best part of the +"Book of Snobs": does that mean that I was right when I was a child, or +does it mean that I have never grown since then, that the child is not the +man's father, but the man? and that I came into the world with all my +faculties complete, and have only learned sinsyne to be more tolerant of +boredom?... + + +FOOTNOTE: + + [34] "Jehovah Tsidkenu," translated in the Authorised Version as "The + Lord our Righteousness" (Jeremiah xxiii. 6 and xxxiii. 16). + + + + +XIV + +REFLECTIONS AND REMARKS ON HUMAN LIFE + + +I. JUSTICE AND JUSTIFICATION.--(1) It is the business of this life to +make excuses for others, but none for ourselves. We should be clearly +persuaded of our own misconduct, for that is the part of knowledge in +which we are most apt to be defective. (2) Even justice is no right of a +man's own, but a thing, like the king's tribute, which shall never be +his, but which he should strive to see rendered to another. None was +ever just to me; none ever will be. You may reasonably aspire to be +chief minister or sovereign pontiff: but not to be justly regarded in +your own character and acts. You know too much to be satisfied. For +justice is but an earthly currency, paid to appearances; you may see +another superficially righted; but be sure he has got too little or too +much; and in your own case rest content with what is paid you. It is +more just than you suppose; that your virtues are misunderstood is a +price you pay to keep your meannesses concealed. (3) When you seek to +justify yourself to others, you may be sure you will plead falsely. If +you fail, you have the shame of the failure; if you succeed, you will +have made too much of it, and be unjustly esteemed upon the other side. +(4) You have perhaps only one friend in the world, in whose esteem it is +worth while for you to right yourself. Justification to indifferent +persons is, at best, an impertinent intrusion. Let them think what they +please; they will be the more likely to forgive you in the end. (5) It +is a question hard to be resolved, whether you should at any time +criminate another to defend yourself. I have done it many times, and +always had a troubled conscience for my pains. + + +II. PARENT AND CHILD.--(1) The love of parents for their children is, of +all natural affections, the most ill-starred. It is not a love for the +person, since it begins before the person has come into the world, and +founds on an imaginary character and looks. Thus it is foredoomed to +disappointment; and because the parent either looks for too much, or at +least for something inappropriate, at his offspring's hands, it is too +often insufficiently repaid. The natural bond, besides, is stronger from +parent to child than from child to parent; and it is the side which +confers benefits, not which receives them, that thinks most of a +relation. (2) What do we owe our parents? No man can _owe_ love; none +can _owe_ obedience. We owe, I think, chiefly pity; for we are the +pledge of their dear and joyful union, we have been the solicitude of +their days and the anxiety of their nights, we have made them, though by +no will of ours, to carry the burthen of our sins, sorrows, and physical +infirmities; and too many of us grow up at length to disappoint the +purpose of their lives and requite their care and piety with cruel +pangs. (3) _Mater Dolorosa_. It is the particular cross of parents that +when the child grows up and becomes himself instead of that pale ideal +they had preconceived, they must accuse their own harshness or +indulgence for this natural result. They have all been like the duck and +hatched swan's eggs, or the other way about; yet they tell themselves +with miserable penitence that the blame lies with them; and had they sat +more closely, the swan would have been a duck, and home-keeping, in +spite of all. (4) A good son, who can fulfil what is expected of him, +has done his work in life. He has to redeem the sins of many, and +restore the world's confidence in children. + + +III. DIALOGUE ON CHARACTER AND DESTINY BETWEEN TWO PUPPETS.--At the end +of Chapter XXXIII. Count Spada and the General of the Jesuits were left +alone in the pavilion, while the course of the story was turned upon the +doings of the virtuous hero. Profiting by this moment of privacy, the +Jesuit turned with a very warning countenance upon the peer. + +"Have a care, my lord," said he, raising a finger. "You are already no +favourite with the author; and for my part, I begin to perceive from a +thousand evidences that the narrative is drawing near a close. Yet a +chapter or two at most, and you will be overtaken by some sudden and +appalling judgment." + +"I despise your womanish presentiments," replied Spada, "and count +firmly upon another volume; I see a variety of reasons why my life +should be prolonged to within a few pages of the end; indeed, I permit +myself to expect resurrection in a sequel, or second part. You will +scarce suggest that there can be any end to the newspaper; and you will +certainly never convince me that the author, who cannot be entirely +without sense, would have been at so great pains with my intelligence, +gallant exterior, and happy and natural speech, merely to kick me hither +and thither for two or three paltry chapters and then drop me at the end +like a dumb personage. I know you priests are often infidels in secret. +Pray, do you believe in an author at all?" + +"Many do not, I am aware," replied the General softly; "even in the last +chapter we encountered one, the self-righteous David Hume, who goes so +far as to doubt the existence of the newspaper in which our adventures +are now appearing; but it would neither become my cloth, nor do credit +to my great experience, were I to meddle with these dangerous opinions. +My alarm for you is not metaphysical, it is moral in its origin: You +must be aware, my poor friend, that you are a very bad character--the +worst indeed that I have met with in these pages. The author hates you, +Count; and difficult as it may be to connect the idea of +immortality--or, in plain terms, of a sequel--with the paper and +printer's ink of which your humanity is made, it is yet more difficult +to foresee anything but punishment and pain for one who is justly +hateful in the eyes of his creator." + +"You take for granted many things that I shall not easily be persuaded +to allow," replied the villain. "Do you really so far deceive yourself +in your imagination as to fancy that the author is a friend to good? +Read; read the book in which you figure; and you will soon disown such +crude vulgarities. Lelio is a good character; yet only two chapters ago +we left him in a fine predicament. His old servant was a model of the +virtues, yet did he not miserably perish in that ambuscade upon the road +to Poitiers? And as for the family of the bankrupt merchant, how is it +possible for greater moral qualities to be alive with more irremediable +misfortunes? And yet you continue to misrepresent an author to yourself, +as a deity devoted to virtue and inimical to vice? Pray, if you have no +pride in your own intellectual credit for yourself, spare at least the +sensibilities of your associates." + +"The purposes of the serial story," answered the Priest, "are, doubtless +for some wise reason, hidden from those who act in it. To this +limitation we must bow. But I ask every character to observe narrowly +his own personal relations to the author. There, if nowhere else, we may +glean some hint of his superior designs. Now I am myself a mingled +personage, liable to doubts, to scruples, and to sudden revulsions of +feeling; I reason continually about life, and frequently the result of +my reasoning is to condemn or even to change my action. I am now +convinced, for example, that I did wrong in joining in your plot against +the innocent and most unfortunate Lelio. I told you so, you will +remember, in the chapter which has just been concluded and though I do +not know whether you perceived the ardour and fluency with which I +expressed myself, I am still confident in my own heart that I spoke at +that moment not only with the warm approval, but under the direct +inspiration, of the author of the tale. I know, Spada, I tell you I +_know_, that he loved me as I uttered these words; and yet at other +periods of my career I have been conscious of his indifference and +dislike. You must not seek to reason me from this conviction; for it is +supplied me from higher authority than that of reason, and is indeed a +part of my experience. It may be an illusion that I drove last night +from Saumur; it may be an illusion that we are now in the garden chamber +of the chateau; it may be an illusion that I am conversing with Count +Spada; you may be an illusion, Count, yourself; but of three things I +will remain eternally persuaded, that the author exists not only in the +newspaper but in my own heart, that he loves me when I do well, and that +he hates and despises me when I do otherwise." + +"I too believe in the author," returned the Count. "I believe likewise +in a sequel, written in finer style and probably cast in a still higher +rank of society than the present story; although I am not convinced that +we shall then be conscious of our pre-existence here. So much of your +argument is, therefore, beside the mark; for to a certain point I am as +orthodox as yourself. But where you begin to draw general conclusions +from your own private experience, I must beg pointedly and finally to +differ. You will not have forgotten, I believe, my daring and +single-handed butchery of the five secret witnesses? Nor the sleight of +mind and dexterity of language with which I separated Lelio from the +merchant's family? These were not virtuous actions; and yet, how am I to +tell you? I was conscious of a troubled joy, a glee, a hellish gusto in +my author's bosom, which seemed to renew my vigour with every sentence, +and which has indeed made the first of these passages accepted for a +model of spirited narrative description, and the second for a +masterpiece of wickedness and wit. What result, then, can be drawn from +two experiences so contrary as yours and mine? For my part, I lay it +down as a principle, no author can be moral in a merely human sense. +And, to pursue the argument higher, how can you, for one instant, +suppose the existence of free-will in puppets situated as we are in the +thick of a novel which we do not even understand? And how, without +free-will upon our parts, can you justify blame or approval on that of +the author? We are in his hands; by a stroke of the pen, to speak +reverently, he made us what we are; by a stroke of the pen he can +utterly undo and transmute what he has made. In the very next chapter, +my dear General, you may be shown up for an impostor, or I be stricken +down in the tears of penitence and hurried into the retirement of a +monastery!" + +"You use an argument old as mankind, and difficult of answer," said the +Priest. "I cannot justify the free-will of which I am usually conscious; +nor will I ever seek to deny that this consciousness is interrupted. +Sometimes events mount upon me with such swiftness and pressure that my +choice is overwhelmed, and even to myself I seem to obey a will external +to my own; and again I am sometimes so paralysed and impotent between +alternatives that I am tempted to imagine a hesitation on the part of my +author. But I contend, upon the other hand, for a limited free-will in +the sphere of consciousness; and as it is in and by my consciousness +that I exist to myself, I will not go on to inquire whether that +free-will is valid as against the author, the newspaper, or even the +readers of the story. And I contend, further, for a sort of empire or +independence of our own characters when once created, which the author +cannot or at least does not choose to violate. Hence Lelio was conceived +upright, honest, courageous, and headlong; to that first idea all his +acts and speeches must of necessity continue to answer; and the same, +though with such different defects and qualities, applies to you, Count +Spada, and to myself. We must act up to our characters; it is these +characters that the author loves or despises; it is on account of them +that we must suffer or triumph, whether in this work or in a sequel. +Such is my belief." + +"It is pure Calvinistic election, my dear sir, and, by your leave, a +very heretical position for a churchman to support," replied the Count. +"Nor can I see how it removes the difficulty. I was not consulted as to +my character; I might have chosen to be Lelio; I might have chosen to be +yourself; I might even have preferred to figure in a different romance, +or not to enter into the world of literature at all. And am I to be +blamed or hated, because some one else wilfully and inhumanely made me +what I am, and has continued ever since to encourage me in what are +called my vices? You may say what you please, my dear sir, but if that +is the case, I had rather be a telegram from the seat of war than a +reasonable and conscious character in a romance; nay, and I have a +perfect right to repudiate, loathe, curse, and utterly condemn the +ruffian who calls himself the author." + +"You have, as you say, a perfect right," replied the Jesuit; "and I am +convinced that it will not affect him in the least." + +"He shall have one slave the fewer for me," added the Count. "I discard +my allegiance once for all." + +"As you please," concluded the other; "but at least be ready, for I +perceive we are about to enter on the scene." + +And, indeed, just at that moment, Chapter XXXIV. being completed, +Chapter XXXV., "The Count's Chastisement," began to appear in the +columns of the newspaper. + + +IV. SOLITUDE AND SOCIETY.--(1) A little society is needful to show a man +his failings; for if he lives entirely by himself, he has no occasion to +fall, and like a soldier in time of peace, becomes both weak and vain. +But a little solitude must be used, or we grow content with current +virtues and forget the ideal. In society we lose scrupulous brightness +of honour; in solitude we lose the courage necessary to face our own +imperfections. (2) As a question of pleasure, after a man has reached a +certain age, I can hardly perceive much room to choose between them: +each is in a way delightful, and each will please best after an +experience of the other. (3) But solitude for its own sake should surely +never be preferred. We are bound by the strongest obligations to busy +ourselves amid the world of men, if it be only to crack jokes. The +finest trait in the character of St. Paul was his readiness to be damned +for the salvation of anybody else. And surely we should all endure a +little weariness to make one face look brighter or one hour go more +pleasantly in this mixed world. (4) It is our business here to speak, +for it is by the tongue that we multiply ourselves most influentially. +To speak kindly, wisely, and pleasantly is the first of duties, the +easiest of duties, and the duty that is most blessed in its performance. +For it is natural, it whiles away life, it spreads intelligence; and it +increases the acquaintance of man with man. (5) It is, besides, a good +investment, for while all other pleasures decay, and even the delight in +nature, Grandfather William is still bent to gossip. (6) Solitude is the +climax of the negative virtues. When we go to bed after a solitary day +we can tell ourselves that we have not been unkind nor dishonest nor +untruthful; and the negative virtues are agreeable to that dangerous +faculty we call the conscience. That they should ever be admitted for a +part of virtue is what I cannot explain. I do not care two straws for +all the _nots_. (7) The positive virtues are imperfect; they are even +ugly in their imperfection: for man's acts, by the necessity of his +being, are coarse and mingled. The kindest, in the course of a day of +active kindnesses, will say some things rudely, and do some things +cruelly; the most honourable, perhaps, trembles at his nearness to a +doubtful act. (8) Hence the solitary recoils from the practice of life, +shocked by its unsightlinesses. But if I could only retain that +superfine and guiding delicacy of the sense that grows in solitude, and +still combine with it that courage of performance which is never abashed +by any failure, but steadily pursues its right and human design in a +scene of imperfection, I might hope to strike in the long-run a conduct +more tender to others and less humiliating to myself. + + +V. SELFISHNESS AND EGOISM.--An unconscious, easy, selfish person shocks +less, and is more easily loved, than one who is laboriously and +egotistically unselfish. There is at least no fuss about the first; but +the other parades his sacrifices, and so sells his favours too dear. +Selfishness is calm, a force of nature: you might say the trees were +selfish. But egoism is a piece of vanity; it must always take you into +its confidence; it is uneasy, troublesome, seeking; it can do good, but +not handsomely; it is uglier, because less dignified, than selfishness +itself. But here I perhaps exaggerate to myself, because I am the one +more than the other, and feel it like a hook in my mouth, at every step +I take. Do what I will, this seems to spoil all. + + +VI. RIGHT AND WRONG.--It is the mark of a good action that it appears +inevitable in the retrospect. We should have been cut-throats to do +otherwise. And there's an end. We ought to know distinctly that we are +damned for what we do wrong; but when we have done right, we have only +been gentlemen, after all. There is nothing to make a work about. + + +VII. DISCIPLINE OF CONSCIENCE.--(1) Never allow your mind to dwell on +your own misconduct: that is ruin. The conscience has morbid +sensibilities; it must be employed but not indulged, like the +imagination or the stomach. (2) Let each stab suffice for the occasion; +to play with this spiritual pain turns to penance; and a person easily +learns to feel good by dallying with the consciousness of having done +wrong. (3) Shut your eyes hard against the recollection of your sins. Do +not be afraid, you will not be able to forget them. (4) You will always +do wrong: you must try to get used to that, my son. It is a small matter +to make a work about, when all the world is in the same case. I meant +when I was a young man to write a great poem; and now I am cobbling +little prose articles and in excellent good spirits, I thank you. So, +too, I meant to lead a life that should keep mounting from the first; +and though I have been repeatedly down again below sea-level, and am +scarce higher than when I started, I am as keen as ever for that +enterprise. Our business in this world is not to succeed, but to +continue to fail, in good spirits. (5) There is but one test of a good +life: that the man shall continue to grow more difficult about his own +behaviour. That is to be good: there is no other virtue attainable. The +virtues we admire in the saint and the hero are the fruits of a happy +constitution. You, for your part, must not think you will ever be a good +man, for these are born and not made. You will have your own reward, if +you keep on growing better than you were--how do I say? if you do not +keep on growing worse. (6) A man is one thing, and must be exercised in +all his faculties. Whatever side of you is neglected, whether it is the +muscles, or the taste for art, or the desire for virtue, that which is +cultivated will suffer in proportion. ---- was greatly tempted, I +remember, to do a very dishonest act, in order that he might pursue his +studies in art. When he consulted me, I advised him not (putting it that +way for once), because his art would suffer. (7) It might be fancied +that if we could only study all sides of our being in an exact +proportion, we should attain wisdom. But in truth a chief part of +education is to exercise one set of faculties _a outrance_--one, since +we have not the time so to practise all; thus the dilettante misses the +kernel of the matter; and the man who has wrung forth the secret of one +part of life knows more about the others than he who has tepidly +circumnavigated all. (8) Thus, one must be your profession, the rest can +only be your delights; and virtue had better be kept for the latter, for +it enters into all, but none enters by necessity into it. You will learn +a great deal of virtue by studying any art; but nothing of any art in +the study of virtue. (9) The study of conduct has to do with grave +problems; not every action should be higgled over; one of the leading +virtues therein is to let oneself alone. But if you make it your chief +employment, you are sure to meddle too much. This is the great error of +those who are called pious. Although the war of virtue be unending +except with life, hostilities are frequently suspended, and the troops +go into winter quarters; but the pious will not profit by these times of +truce; where their conscience can perceive no sin, they will find a sin +in that very innocency; and so they pervert, to their annoyance, those +seasons which God gives to us for repose and a reward. (10) The nearest +approximation to sense in all this matter lies with the Quakers. There +must be no _will_-worship; how much more, no _will_-repentance! The +damnable consequence of set seasons, even for prayer, is to have a man +continually posturing to himself, till his conscience is taught as many +tricks as a pet monkey, and the gravest expressions are left with a +perverted meaning. (11) For my part, I should try to secure some part of +every day for meditation, above all in the early morning and the open +air; but how that time was to be improved I should leave to circumstance +and the inspiration of the hour. Nor if I spent it in whistling or +numbering my footsteps, should I consider it misspent for that. I should +have given my conscience a fair field; when it has anything to say, I +know too well it can speak daggers; therefore, for this time, my hard +taskmaster has given me a holyday, and I may go in again rejoicing to my +breakfast and the human business of the day. + + +VIII. GRATITUDE TO GOD.--(1) To the gratitude that becomes us in this +life, I can set no limit. Though we steer after a fashion, yet we must +sail according to the winds and currents. After what I have done, what +might I not have done? That I have still the courage to attempt my life, +that I am not now overladen with dishonours, to whom do I owe it but to +the gentle ordering of circumstances in the great design? More has not +been done to me than I can bear; I have been marvellously restrained and +helped; not unto us, O Lord! (2) I cannot forgive God for the suffering +of others; when I look abroad upon His world and behold its cruel +destinies, I turn from Him with disaffection; nor do I conceive that He +will blame me for the impulse. But when I consider my own fates, I grow +conscious of His gentle dealing: I see Him chastise with helpful blows, +I feel His stripes to be caresses; and this knowledge is my comfort that +reconciles me to the world. (3) All those whom I now pity with +indignation, are perhaps not less fatherly dealt with than myself. I do +right to be angry: yet they, perhaps, if they lay aside heat and temper, +and reflect with patience on their lot, may find everywhere, in their +worst trials, the same proofs of a divine affection. (4) While we have +little to try us, we are angry with little; small annoyances do not bear +their justification on their faces; but when we are overtaken by a great +sorrow or perplexity, the greatness of our concern sobers us so that we +see more clearly and think with more consideration. I speak for myself; +nothing grave has yet befallen me but I have been able to reconcile my +mind to its occurrence, and see in it, from my own little and partial +point of view, an evidence of a tender and protecting God. Even the +misconduct into which I have been led has been blessed to my +improvement. If I did not sin, and that so glaringly that my conscience +is convicted on the spot, I do not know what I should become, but I feel +sure I should grow worse. The man of very regular conduct is too often a +prig, if he be not worse--a rabbi. I, for my part, want to be startled +out of my conceits; I want to be put to shame in my own eyes; I want to +feel the bridle in my mouth, and be continually reminded of my own +weakness and the omnipotence of circumstances. (5) If I from my +spy-hole, looking with purblind eyes upon the least part of a fraction +of the universe, yet perceive in my own destiny some broken evidences +of a plan and some signals of an overruling goodness; shall I then be so +mad as to complain that all cannot be deciphered? Shall I not rather +wonder, with infinite and grateful surprise, that in so vast a scheme I +seem to have been able to read, however little, and that that little was +encouraging to faith? + + +IX. BLAME.--What comes from without and what from within, how much of +conduct proceeds from the spirit or how much from circumstances, what is +the part of choice and what the part of the selection offered, where +personal character begins or where, if anywhere, it escapes at all from +the authority of nature, these are questions of curiosity and eternally +indifferent to right and wrong. Our theory of blame is utterly +sophisticated and untrue to man's experience. We are as much ashamed of +a pimpled face that came to us by natural descent as by one that we have +earned by our excesses, and rightly so; since the two cases, in so much +as they unfit us for the easier sort of pleasing and put an obstacle in +the path of love, are exactly equal in their consequence. We look aside +from the true question. We cannot blame others at all; we can only +punish them; and ourselves we blame indifferently for a deliberate +crime, a thoughtless brusquerie, or an act done without volition in an +ecstasy of madness. We blame ourselves from two considerations: first, +because another has suffered; and second, because, in so far as we have +again done wrong, we can look forward with the less confidence to what +remains of our career. Shall we repent this failure? It is there that +the consciousness of sin most cruelly affects us; it is in view of this +that a man cries out, in exaggeration, that his heart is desperately +wicked and deceitful above all things. We all tacitly subscribe this +judgment: Woe unto him by whom offences shall come! We accept +palliations for our neighbours; we dare not, in sight of our own soul, +accept them for ourselves. We may not be to blame; we may be conscious +of no free will in the matter, of a possession, on the other hand, or +an irresistible tyranny of circumstance,--yet we know, in another sense, +we are to blame for all. Our right to live, to eat, to share in +mankind's pleasures, lies precisely in this: that we must be persuaded +we can on the whole live rather beneficially than hurtfully to others. +Remove this persuasion, and the man has lost his right. That persuasion +is our dearest jewel, to which we must sacrifice the life itself to +which it entitles us. For it is better to be dead than degraded. + + +X. MARRIAGE.--(1) No considerate man can approach marriage without deep +concern. I, he will think, who have made hitherto so poor a business of +my own life, am now about to embrace the responsibility of another's. +Henceforth, there shall be two to suffer from my faults; and that other +is the one whom I most desire to shield from suffering. In view of our +impotence and folly, it seems an act of presumption to involve another's +destiny with ours. We should hesitate to assume command of an army or a +trading-smack; shall we not hesitate to become surety for the life and +happiness, now and henceforward, of our dearest friend? To be nobody's +enemy but one's own, although it is never possible to any, can least of +all be possible to one who is married. (2) I would not so much fear to +give hostages to fortune, if fortune ruled only in material things; but +fortune, as we call those minor and more inscrutable workings of +providence, rules also in the sphere of conduct. I am not so blind but +that I know I might be a murderer or even a traitor to-morrow; and now, +as if I were not already too feelingly alive to my misdeeds, I must +choose out the one person whom I most desire to please, and make her the +daily witness of my failures, I must give a part in all my dishonours to +the one person who can feel them more keenly than myself. (3) In all our +daring, magnanimous human way of life, I find nothing more bold than +this. To go into battle is but a small thing by comparison. It is the +last act of committal. After that, there is no way left, not even +suicide, but to be a good man. (4) She will help you, let us pray. And +yet she is in the same case; she, too, has daily made shipwreck of her +own happiness and worth; it is with a courage no less irrational than +yours, that she also ventures on this new experiment of life. Two who +have failed severally, now join their fortunes with a wavering hope. (5) +But it is from the boldness of the enterprise that help springs. To take +home to your hearth that living witness whose blame will most affect +you, to eat, to sleep, to live with your most admiring and thence most +exacting judge, is not this to domesticate the living God? Each becomes +a conscience to the other, legible like a clock upon the chimney-piece. +Each offers to his mate a figure of the consequence of human acts. And +while I may still continue by my inconsiderate or violent life to spread +far-reaching havoc throughout man's confederacy, I can do so no more, at +least, in ignorance and levity; one face shall wince before me in the +flesh; I have taken home the sorrows I create to my own hearth and bed; +and though I continue to sin, it must be now with open eyes. + + +XI. IDLENESS AND INDUSTRY.--I remember a time when I was very idle; and +lived and profited by that humour. I have no idea why I ceased to be so, +yet I scarce believe I have the power to return to it; it is a change of +age. I made consciously a thousand little efforts, but the determination +from which these arose came to me while I slept and in the way of +growth. I have had a thousand skirmishes to keep myself at work upon +particular mornings, and sometimes the affair was hot; but of that great +change of campaign, which decided all this part of my life, and turned +me from one whose business was to shirk into one whose business was to +strive and persevere,--it seems as though all that had been done by some +one else. The life of Goethe affected me; so did that of Balzac; and +some very noble remarks by the latter in a pretty bad book, the +"Cousine Bette." I daresay I could trace some other influences in the +change. All I mean is, I was never conscious of a struggle, nor +registered a vow, nor seemingly had anything personally to do with the +matter. I came about like a well-handled ship. There stood at the wheel +that unknown steersman whom we call God. + + +XII. COURAGE.--Courage is the principal virtue, for all the others +presuppose it. If you are afraid, you may do anything. Courage is to be +cultivated, and some of the negative virtues may be sacrificed in the +cultivation. + + +XIII. RESULTS OF ACTION.--The result is the reward of actions, not the +test. The result is a child born; if it be beautiful and healthy, well: +if club-footed or crook-back, perhaps well also. We cannot direct ... + + [1878?] + + + + +XV + +THE IDEAL HOUSE + + +Two things are necessary in any neighbourhood where we propose to spend +a life: a desert and some living water. + +There are many parts of the earth's face which offer the necessary +combination of a certain wildness with a kindly variety. A great +prospect is desirable, but the want may be otherwise supplied; even +greatness can be found on the small scale; for the mind and the eye +measure differently. Bold rocks near hand are more inspiriting than +distant Alps, and the thick fern upon a Surrey heath makes a fine forest +for the imagination, and the dotted yew trees noble mountains. A +Scottish moor with birches and firs grouped here and there upon a knoll, +or one of those rocky sea-side deserts of Provence overgrown with +rosemary and thyme and smoking with aroma, are places where the mind is +never weary. Forests, being more enclosed, are not at first sight so +attractive, but they exercise a spell; they must, however, be +diversified with either heath or rock, and are hardly to be considered +perfect without conifers. Even sand-hills, with their intricate plan, +and their gulls and rabbits, will stand well for the necessary desert. + +The house must be within hail of either a little river or the sea. A +great river is more fit for poetry than to adorn a neighbourhood; its +sweep of waters increases the scale of the scenery and the distance of +one notable object from another; and a lively burn gives us, in the +space of a few yards, a greater variety of promontory and islet, of +cascade, shallow goil, and boiling pool, with answerable changes both +of song and colour, than a navigable stream in many hundred miles. The +fish, too, make a more considerable feature of the brook-side, and the +trout plumping in the shadow takes the ear. A stream should, besides, be +narrow enough to cross, or the burn hard by a bridge, or we are at once +shut out of Eden. The quantity of water need be of no concern, for the +mind sets the scale, and can enjoy a Niagara Fall of thirty inches. Let +us approve the singer of + + "Shallow rivers, by whose falls + Melodious birds sing madrigals." + +If the sea is to be our ornamental water, choose an open seaboard with a +heavy beat of surf; one much broken in outline, with small havens and +dwarf headlands; if possible a few islets; and as a first necessity, +rocks reaching out into deep water. Such a rock on a calm day is a +better station than the top of Teneriffe or Chimborazo. In short, both +for the desert and the water, the conjunction of many near and bold +details is bold scenery for the imagination and keeps the mind alive. + +Given these two prime luxuries, the nature of the country where we are +to live is, I had almost said, indifferent; after that, inside the +garden, we can construct a country of our own. Several old trees, a +considerable variety of level, several well-grown hedges to divide our +garden into provinces, a good extent of old well-set turf, and thickets +of shrubs and evergreens to be cut into and cleared at the new owner's +pleasure, are the qualities to be sought for in your chosen land. +Nothing is more delightful than a succession of small lawns, opening one +out of the other through tall hedges; these have all the charm of the +old bowling-green repeated, do not require the labour of many trimmers, +and afford a series of changes. You must have much lawn against the +early summer, so as to have a great field of daisies, the year's morning +frost; as you must have a wood of lilacs, to enjoy to the full the +period of their blossoming. Hawthorn is another of the spring's +ingredients; but it is even best to have a rough public lane at one side +of your enclosure which, at the right season, shall become an avenue of +bloom and odour. The old flowers are the best and should grow carelessly +in corners. Indeed, the ideal fortune is to find an old garden, once +very richly cared for, since sunk into neglect, and to tend, not repair, +that neglect; it will thus have a smack of nature and wildness which +skilful dispositions cannot overtake. The gardener should be an idler, +and have a gross partiality to the kitchen plots: an eager or toilful +gardener mis-becomes the garden landscape; a tasteful gardener will be +ever meddling, will keep the borders raw, and take the bloom off nature. +Close adjoining, if you are in the south, an olive-yard, if in the +north, a swarded apple-orchard reaching to the stream, completes your +miniature domain; but this is perhaps best entered through a door in the +high fruit-wall; so that you close the door behind you on your sunny +plots, your hedges and evergreen jungle, when you go down to watch the +apples falling in the pool. It is a golden maxim to cultivate the garden +for the nose, and the eyes will take care of themselves. Nor must the +ear be forgotten: without birds, a garden is a prison-yard. There is a +garden near Marseilles on a steep hill-side, walking by which, upon a +sunny morning, your ear will suddenly be ravished with a burst of small +and very cheerful singing: some score of cages being set out there to +sun the occupants. This is a heavenly surprise to any passer-by; but the +price paid, to keep so many ardent and winged creatures from their +liberty, will make the luxury too dear for any thoughtful +pleasure-lover. There is only one sort of bird that I can tolerate +caged, though even then I think it hard, and that is what is called in +France the Bec-d'Argent. I once had two of these pigmies in captivity; +and in the quiet, bare house upon a silent street where I was then +living, their song, which was not much louder than a bee's, but airily +musical, kept me in a perpetual good humour. I put the cage upon my +table when I worked, carried it with me when I went for meals, and kept +it by my head at night: the first thing in the morning, these +_maestrini_ would pipe up. But these, even if you can pardon their +imprisonment, are for the house. In the garden the wild birds must plant +a colony, a chorus of the lesser warblers that should be almost +deafening, a blackbird in the lilacs, a nightingale down the lane, so +that you must stroll to hear it, and yet a little farther, tree-tops +populous with rooks. + +Your house should not command much outlook; it should be set deep and +green, though upon rising ground, or, if possible, crowning a knoll, for +the sake of drainage. Yet it must be open to the east, or you will miss +the sunrise; sunset occurring so much later, you can go up a few steps +and look the other way. A house of more than two stories is a mere +barrack; indeed the ideal is of one story, raised upon cellars. If the +rooms are large, the house may be small: a single room, lofty, spacious, +and lightsome, is more palatial than a castleful of cabinets and +cupboards. Yet size in a house, and some extent and intricacy of +corridor, is certainly delightful to the flesh. The reception room +should be, if possible, a place of many recesses, which are "petty +retiring places for conference"; but it must have one long wall with a +divan: for a day spent upon a divan, among a world of cushions, is as +full of diversion as to travel. The eating-room, in the French mode, +should be _ad hoc_: unfurnished, but with a buffet, the table, necessary +chairs, one or two of Canaletto's etchings, and a tile fire-place for +the winter. In neither of these public places should there be anything +beyond a shelf or two of books; but the passages may be one library from +end to end, and the stair, if there be one, lined with volumes in old +leather, very brightly carpeted, and leading half-way up, and by way of +landing, to a windowed recess with a fire-place; this window, almost +alone in the house, should command a handsome prospect. Husband and wife +must each possess a studio; on the woman's sanctuary I hesitate to +dwell, and turn to the man's. The walls are shelved waist-high for +books, and the top thus forms a continuous table running round the wall. +Above are prints, a large map of the neighbourhood, a Corot and a Claude +or two. The room is very spacious, and the five tables and two chairs +are but as islands. One table is for actual work, one close by for +references in use; one, very large, for MSS. or proofs that wait their +turn; one kept clear for an occasion; and the fifth is the map table, +groaning under a collection of large-scale maps and charts. Of all books +these are the least wearisome to read and the richest in matter; the +course of roads and rivers, the contour lines and the forests in the +maps--the reefs, soundings, anchors, sailing marks and little +pilot-pictures in the charts--and, in both, the bead-roll of names, make +them of all printed matter the most fit to stimulate and satisfy the +fancy. The chair in which you write is very low and easy, and backed +into a corner; at one elbow the fire twinkles; close at the other, if +you are a little inhumane, your cage of silver-bills are twittering into +song. + +Joined along by a passage, you may reach the great sunny, glass-roofed, +and tiled gymnasium, at the far end of which, lined with bright marble, +is your plunge and swimming bath, fitted with a capacious boiler. + +The whole loft of the house from end to end makes one undivided chamber; +here are set forth tables on which to model imaginary or actual +countries in putty or plaster, with tools and hardy pigments; a +carpenter's bench; and a spared corner for photography, while at the far +end a space is kept clear for playing soldiers. Two boxes contain the +two armies of some five hundred horse and foot; two others the +ammunition of each side, and a fifth the foot-rules and the three +colours of chalk, with which you lay down, or, after a day's play, +refresh the outlines of the country; red or white for the two kinds of +road (according as they are suitable or not for the passage of +ordnance), and blue for the course of the obstructing rivers. Here I +foresee that you may pass much happy time; against a good adversary a +game may well continue for a month; for with armies so considerable +three moves will occupy an hour. It will be found to set an excellent +edge on this diversion if one of the players shall, every day or so, +write a report of the operations in the character of army correspondent. + +I have left to the last the little room for winter evenings. This should +be furnished in warm positive colours, and sofas and floor thick with +rich furs. The hearth, where you burn wood of aromatic quality on silver +dogs, tiled round about with Bible pictures; the seats deep and easy; a +single Titian in a gold frame; a white bust or so upon a bracket; a rack +for the journals of the week; a table for the books of the year; and +close in a corner the three shelves full of eternal books that never +weary: Shakespeare, Moliere, Montaigne, Lamb, Sterne, De Musset's +comedies (the one volume open at _Carmosine_ and the other at +_Fantasio_); the "Arabian Nights," and kindred stories, in Weber's +solemn volumes; Borrow's "Bible in Spain," the "Pilgrim's Progress," +"Guy Mannering," and "Rob Roy," "Monte Cristo," and the "Vicomte de +Bragelonne," immortal Boswell sole among biographers, Chaucer, Herrick, +and the "State Trials." + +The bedrooms are large, airy, with almost no furniture, floors of +varnished wood, and at the bed-head, in case of insomnia, one shelf of +books of a particular and dippable order, such as "Pepys," the "Paston +Letters," Burt's "Letters from the Highlands," or the "Newgate +Calendar." ... + + [1884?] + + + + +LAY MORALS + + + _The following chapters of a projected treatise on Ethics were + drafted at Edinburgh in the spring of 1879. They are unrevised, and + must not be taken as representing, either as to matter or form, their + author's final thoughts; but they contain much that is essentially + characteristic of his mind._ + + + + +LAY MORALS + +CHAPTER I + + +The problem of education is twofold: first to know, and then to utter. +Every one who lives any semblance of an inner life thinks more nobly and +profoundly than he speaks; and the best of teachers can impart only +broken images of the truth which they perceive. Speech which goes from +one to another between two natures, and, what is worse, between two +experiences, is doubly relative. The speaker buries his meaning; it is +for the hearer to dig it up again; and all speech, written or spoken, is +in a dead language until it finds a willing and prepared hearer. Such, +moreover, is the complexity of life, that when we condescend upon +details in our advice, we may be sure we condescend on error; and the +best of education is to throw out some magnanimous hints. No man was +ever so poor that he could express all he has in him by words, looks, or +actions; his true knowledge is eternally incommunicable, for it is a +knowledge of himself; and his best wisdom comes to him by no process of +the mind, but in a supreme self-dictation, which keeps varying from hour +to hour in its dictates with the variation of events and circumstances. + +A few men of picked nature, full of faith, courage, and contempt for +others, try earnestly to set forth as much as they can grasp of this +inner law; but the vast majority, when they come to advise the young, +must be content to retail certain doctrines which have been already +retailed to them in their own youth. Every generation has to educate +another which it has brought upon the stage. People who readily accept +the responsibility of parentship, having very different matters in their +eye, are apt to feel rueful when their responsibility falls due. What +are they to tell the child about life and conduct, subjects on which +they have themselves so few and such confused opinions? Indeed, I do not +know; the least said, perhaps, the soonest mended; and yet the child +keeps asking, and the parent must find some words to say in his own +defence. Where does he find them? and what are they when found? + +As a matter of experience, and in nine hundred and ninety-nine cases out +of a thousand, he will instil into his wide-eyed brat three bad things; +the terror of public opinion, and, flowing from that as a fountain, the +desire of wealth and applause. Besides these, or what might be deduced +as corollaries from these, he will teach not much else of any effective +value: some dim notions of divinity, perhaps, and book-keeping, and how +to walk through a quadrille. + +But, you may tell me, the young people are taught to be Christians. It +may be want of penetration, but I have not yet been able to perceive it. +As an honest man, whatever we teach, and be it good or evil, it is not +the doctrine of Christ. What He taught (and in this He is like all other +teachers worthy of the name) was not a code of rules, but a ruling +spirit; not truths, but a spirit of truth; not views, but a view. What +He showed us was an attitude of mind. Towards the many considerations on +which conduct is built, each man stands in a certain relation. He takes +life on a certain principle. He has a compass in his spirit which points +in a certain direction. It is the attitude, the relation, the point of +the compass, that is the whole body and gist of what he has to teach us; +in this, the details are comprehended; out of this the specific precepts +issue, and by this, and this only, can they be explained and applied. +And thus, to learn aright from any teacher, we must first of all, like a +historical artist, think ourselves into sympathy with his position and, +in the technical phrase, create his character. A historian confronted +with some ambiguous politician, or an actor charged with a part, have +but one pre-occupation; they must search all round and upon every side, +and grope for some central conception which is to explain and justify +the most extreme details; until that is found, the politician is an +enigma, or perhaps a quack, and the part a tissue of fustian sentiment +and big words; but once that is found, all enters into a plan, a human +nature appears, the politician or the stage-king is understood from +point to point, from end to end. This is a degree of trouble which will +be gladly taken by a very humble artist; but not even the terror of +eternal fire can teach a business man to bend his imagination to such +athletic efforts. Yet without this, all is vain; until we understand the +whole, we shall understand none of the parts; and otherwise we have no +more than broken images and scattered words; the meaning remains buried; +and the language in which our prophet speaks to us is a dead language in +our ears. + +Take a few of Christ's sayings and compare them with our current +doctrines. + +"_Ye cannot_," He says, "_serve God and Mammon_." Cannot? And our whole +system is to teach us how we can! + +"_The children of this world are wiser in their generation than the +children of light._" Are they? I had been led to understand the reverse: +that the Christian merchant, for example, prospered exceedingly in his +affairs; that honesty was the best policy; that an author of repute had +written a conclusive treatise "How to make the best of both worlds." Of +both worlds indeed! Which am I to believe then--Christ or the author of +repute? + +"_Take no thought for the morrow._" Ask the Successful Merchant; +interrogate your own heart; and you will have to admit that this is not +only a silly but an immoral position. All we believe, all we hope, all +we honour in ourselves or our contemporaries, stands condemned in this +one sentence, or, if you take the other view, condemns the sentence as +unwise and inhumane. We are not then of the "same mind that was in +Christ." We disagree with Christ. Either Christ meant nothing, or else +He or we must be in the wrong. Well says Thoreau, speaking of some texts +from the New Testament, and finding a strange echo of another style +which the reader may recognise: "Let but one of these sentences be +rightly read from any pulpit in the land, and there would not be left +one stone of that meeting-house upon another." + +It may be objected that these are what are called "hard sayings"; and +that a man, or an education, may be very sufficiently Christian although +it leave some of these sayings upon one side. But this is a very gross +delusion. Although truth is difficult to state, it is both easy and +agreeable to receive, and the mind runs out to meet it ere the phrase be +done. The universe, in relation to what any man can say of it, is plain, +patent, and staringly comprehensible. In itself, it is a great and +travailing ocean, unsounded, unvoyageable, an eternal mystery to man; +or, let us say, it is a monstrous and impassable mountain, one side of +which, and a few near slopes and foothills, we can dimly study with +these mortal eyes. But what any man can say of it, even in his highest +utterance, must have relation to this little and plain corner, which is +no less visible to us than to him. We are looking on the same map; it +will go hard if we cannot follow the demonstration. The longest and most +abstruse flight of a philosopher becomes clear and shallow, in the flash +of a moment, when we suddenly perceive the aspect and drift of his +intention. The longest argument is but a finger pointed; once we get our +own finger rightly parallel, and we see what the man meant, whether it +be a new star or an old street-lamp. And briefly, if a saying is hard to +understand, it is because we are thinking of something else. + +But to be a true disciple is to think of the same things as our +prophet, and to think of different things in the same order. To be of +the same mind with another is to see all things in the same perspective; +it is not to agree in a few indifferent matters near at hand and not +much debated; it is to follow him in his farthest flights, to see the +force of his hyperboles, to stand so exactly in the centre of his vision +that whatever he may express, your eyes will light at once on the +original, that whatever he may see to declare, your mind will at once +accept. You do not belong to the school of any philosopher, because you +agree with him that theft is, on the whole, objectionable, or that the +sun is overhead at noon. It is by the hard sayings that discipleship is +tested. We are all agreed about the middling and indifferent parts of +knowledge and morality; even the most soaring spirits too often take +them tamely upon trust. But the man, the philosopher or the moralist, +does not stand upon these chance adhesions; and the purpose of any +system looks towards those extreme points where it steps valiantly +beyond tradition and returns with some covert hint of things outside. +Then only can you be certain that the words are not words of course, nor +mere echoes of the past; then only are you sure that if he be indicating +anything at all, it is a star and not a street-lamp; then only do you +touch the heart of the mystery; since it was for these that the author +wrote his book. + +Now, every now and then, and indeed surprisingly often, Christ finds a +word that transcends all commonplace morality; every now and then He +quits the beaten track to pioneer the unexpressed, and throws out a +pregnant and magnanimous hyperbole; for it is only by some bold poetry +of thought that men can be strung up above the level of everyday +conceptions to take a broader look upon experience or accept some higher +principle of conduct. To a man who is of the same mind that was in +Christ, who stands at some centre not too far from His, and looks at the +world and conduct from some not dissimilar or, at least, not opposing +attitude--or, shortly, to a man who is of Christ's philosophy--every +such saying should come home with a thrill of joy and corroboration; he +should feel each one below his feet as another sure foundation in the +flux of time and chance; each should be another proof that in the +torrent of the years and generations, where doctrines and great +armaments and empires are swept away and swallowed, he stands immovable, +holding by the eternal stars. But, alas! at this juncture of the ages it +is not so with us; on each and every such occasion our whole fellowship +of Christians falls back in disapproving wonder and implicitly denies +the saying. Christians! the farce is impudently broad. Let us stand up +in the sight of heaven and confess. The ethics that we hold are those of +Benjamin Franklin. _Honesty is the best policy_, is perhaps a hard +saying; it is certainly one by which a wise man of these days will not +too curiously direct his steps; but I think it shows a glimmer of +meaning to even our most dimmed intelligences; I think we perceive a +principle behind it; I think, without hyperbole, we are of the same mind +that was in Benjamin Franklin. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +But, I may be told, we teach the ten commandments, where a world of +morals lies condensed, the very pith and epitome of all ethics and +religion; and a young man with these precepts engraved upon his mind +must follow after profit with some conscience and Christianity of +method. A man cannot go very far astray who neither dishonours his +parents, nor kills, nor commits adultery, nor steals, nor bears false +witness; for these things, rightly thought out, cover a vast field of +duty. + +Alas! what is a precept? It is at best an illustration; it is case law +at the best which can be learned by precept. The letter is not only +dead, but killing; the spirit which underlies, and cannot be uttered, +alone is true and helpful. This is trite to sickness; but familiarity +has a cunning disenchantment; in a day or two she can steal all beauty +from the mountain tops; and the most startling words begin to fall dead +upon the ear after several repetitions. If you see a thing too often, +you no longer see it; if you hear a thing too often, you no longer hear +it. Our attention requires to be surprised; and to carry a fort by +assault, or to gain a thoughtful hearing from the ruck of mankind, are +feats of about equal difficulty and must be tried by not dissimilar +means. The whole Bible has thus lost its message for the common run of +hearers; it has become mere words of course; and the parson may bawl +himself scarlet and beat the pulpit like a thing possessed, but his +hearers will continue to nod; they are strangely at peace; they know all +he has to say; ring the old bell as you choose, it is still the old bell +and it cannot startle their composure. And so with this byword about +the letter and the spirit. It is quite true, no doubt; but it has no +meaning in the world to any man of us. Alas! it has just this meaning, +and neither more nor less: that while the spirit is true, the letter is +eternally false. + +The shadow of a great oak lies abroad upon the ground at noon, perfect, +clear, and stable like the earth. But let a man set himself to mark out +the boundary with cords and pegs, and were he never so nimble and never +so exact, what with the multiplicity of the leaves and the progression +of the shadow as it flees before the travelling sun, long ere he has +made the circuit the whole figure will have changed. Life may be +compared, not to a single tree, but to a great and complicated forest; +circumstance is more swiftly changing than a shadow, language much more +inexact than the tools of a surveyor; from day to day the trees fall and +are renewed; the very essences are fleeting as we look; and the whole +world of leaves is swinging tempest-tossed among the winds of time. Look +now for your shadows. O man of formulae, is this a place for you? Have +you fitted the spirit to a single case? Alas, in the cycle of the ages +when shall such another be proposed for the judgment of man? Now when +the sun shines and the winds blow, the wood is filled with an +innumerable multitude of shadows, tumultuously tossed and changing; and +at every gust the whole carpet leaps and becomes new. Can you or your +heart say more? + +Look back now, for a moment, on your own brief experience of life; and +although you lived it feelingly in your own person, and had every step +of conduct burned in by pains and joys upon your memory, tell me what +definite lesson does experience hand on from youth to manhood, or from +both to age? The settled tenor which first strikes the eye is but the +shadow of a delusion. This is gone; that never truly was; and you +yourself are altered beyond recognition. Times and men and circumstances +change about your changing character, with a speed of which no earthly +hurricane affords an image. What was the best yesterday, is it still the +best in this changed theatre of a to-morrow? Will your own Past truly +guide you in your own violent and unexpected Future? And if this be +questionable, with what humble, with what hopeless eyes, should we not +watch other men driving beside us on their unknown careers, seeing with +unlike eyes, impelled by different gales, doing and suffering in another +sphere of things? + +And as the authentic clue to such a labyrinth and change of scene, do +you offer me these two score words? these five bald prohibitions? For +the moral precepts are no more than five; the first four deal rather +with matters of observance than of conduct; the tenth, _Thou shall not +covet_, stands upon another basis, and shall be spoken of ere long. The +Jews, to whom they were first given, in the course of years began to +find these precepts insufficient; and made an addition of no less than +six hundred and fifty others! They hoped to make a pocket-book of +reference on morals, which should stand to life in some such relation, +say, as Hoyle stands in to the scientific game of whist. The comparison +is just, and condemns the design; for those who play by rule will never +be more than tolerable players; and you and I would like to play our +game in life to the noblest and the most divine advantage. Yet if the +Jews took a petty and huckstering view of conduct, what view do we take +ourselves, who callously leave youth to go forth into the enchanted +forest, full of spells and dire chimeras, with no guidance more complete +than is afforded by these five precepts? + +_Honour thy father and thy mother_. Yes, but does that mean to obey? and +if so, how long and how far? _Thou shall not kill_. Yet the very +intention and purport of the prohibition may be best fulfilled by +killing. _Thou shall not commit adultery_. But some of the ugliest +adulteries are committed in the bed of marriage and under the sanction +of religion and law. _Thou shalt not bear false witness_. How? by +speech or by silence also? or even by a smile? _Thou shalt not steal._ +Ah, that indeed! But what is _to steal_? + +To steal? It is another word to be construed; and who is to be our +guide? The police will give us one construction, leaving the world only +that least minimum of meaning without which society would fall in +pieces; but surely we must take some higher sense than this; surely we +hope more than a bare subsistence for mankind; surely we wish mankind to +prosper and go on from strength to strength, and ourselves to live +rightly in the eye of some more exacting potentate than a policeman. The +approval or the disapproval of the police must be eternally indifferent +to a man who is both valorous and good. There is extreme discomfort, but +no shame, in the condemnation of the law. The law represents that +modicum of morality which can be squeezed out of the ruck of mankind; +but what is that to me, who aim higher and seek to be my own more +stringent judge? I observe with pleasure that no brave man has ever +given a rush for such considerations. The Japanese have a nobler and +more sentimental feeling for this social bond into which we all are born +when we come into the world, and whose comforts and protection we all +indifferently share throughout our lives:--but even to them, no more +than to our Western saints and heroes, does the law of the state +supersede the higher law of duty. Without hesitation and without +remorse, they transgress the stiffest enactments rather than abstain +from doing right. But the accidental superior duty being thus fulfilled, +they at once return in allegiance to the common duty of all citizens; +and hasten to denounce themselves; and value at an equal rate their just +crime and their equally just submission to its punishment. + +The evading of the police will not long satisfy an active conscience or +a thoughtful head. But to show you how one or the other may trouble a +man, and what a vast extent of frontier is left unridden by this +invaluable eighth commandment, let me tell you a few pages out of a +young man's life. + +He was a friend of mine; a young man like others; generous, flighty, as +variable as youth itself, but always with some high motives and on the +search for higher thoughts of life. I should tell you at once that he +thoroughly agrees with the eighth commandment. But he got hold of some +unsettling works, the New Testament among others, and this loosened his +views of life and led him into many perplexities. As he was the son of a +man in a certain position, and well off, my friend had enjoyed from the +first the advantages of education, nay, he had been kept alive through a +sickly childhood by constant watchfulness, comforts, and change of air; +for all of which he was indebted to his father's wealth. + +At college he met other lads more diligent than himself, who followed +the plough in summer-time to pay their college fees in winter; and this +inequality struck him with some force. He was at that age of a +conversible temper, and insatiably curious in the aspects of life; and +he spent much of his time scraping acquaintance with all classes of man- +and woman-kind. In this way he came upon many depressed ambitions, and +many intelligences stunted for want of opportunity; and this also struck +him. He began to perceive that life was a handicap upon strange, +wrong-sided principles; and not, as he had been told, a fair and equal +race. He began to tremble that he himself had been unjustly favoured, +when he saw all the avenues of wealth, and power, and comfort closed +against so many of his superiors and equals, and held unwearyingly open +before so idle, so desultory, and so dissolute a being as himself. There +sat a youth beside him on the college benches who had only one shirt to +his back, and, at intervals sufficiently far apart, must stay at home to +have it washed. It was my friend's principle to stay away as often as he +dared; for I fear he was no friend to learning. But there was something +that came home to him sharply, in this fellow who had to give over +study till his shirt was washed, and the scores of others who had never +an opportunity at all. _If one of these could take his place_, he +thought; and the thought tore away a bandage from his eyes. He was eaten +by the shame of his discoveries, and despised himself as an unworthy +favourite and a creature of the back-stairs of Fortune. He could no +longer see without confusion one of these brave young fellows battling +up-hill against adversity. Had he not filched that fellow's birthright? +At best was he not coldly profiting by the injustice of society, and +greedily devouring stolen goods? The money, indeed, belonged to his +father, who had worked, and thought, and given up his liberty to earn +it; but by what justice could the money belong to my friend, who had, as +yet, done nothing but help to squander it? A more sturdy honesty, joined +to a more even and impartial temperament, would have drawn from these +considerations a new force of industry, that this equivocal position +might be brought as swiftly as possible to an end, and some good +services to mankind justify the appropriation of expense. It was not so +with my friend, who was only unsettled and discouraged, and filled full +of that trumpeting anger with which young men regard injustices in the +first blush of youth; although in a few years they will tamely acquiesce +in their existence, and knowingly profit by their complications. Yet all +this while he suffered many indignant pangs. And once, when he put on +his boots, like any other unripe donkey, to run away from home, it was +his best consolation that he was now, at a single plunge, to free +himself from the responsibility of this wealth that was not his, and to +battle equally against his fellows in the warfare of life. + +Some time after this, falling into ill-health, he was sent at great +expense to a more favourable climate; and then I think his perplexities +were thickest. When he thought of all the other young men of singular +promise, upright, good, the prop of families, who must remain at home to +die, and with all their possibilities be lost to life and mankind; and +how he, by one more unmerited favour, was chosen out from all these +others to survive; he felt as if there were no life, no labour, no +devotion of soul and body, that could repay and justify these +partialities. A religious lady, to whom he communicated these +reflections, could see no force in them whatever. "It was God's will," +said she. But he knew it was by God's will that Joan of Arc was burnt at +Rouen, which cleared neither Bedford nor Bishop Cauchon; and again, by +God's will that Christ was crucified outside Jerusalem, which excused +neither the rancour of the priests nor the timidity of Pilate. He knew, +moreover, that although the possibility of this favour he was now +enjoying issued from his circumstances, its acceptance was the act of +his own will; and he had accepted it greedily, longing for rest and +sunshine. And hence this allegation of God's providence did little to +relieve his scruples. I promise you he had a very troubled mind. And I +would not laugh if I were you, though while he was thus making mountains +out of what you think molehills, he were still (as perhaps he was) +contentedly practising many other things that to you seem black as hell. +Every man is his own judge and mountain-guide through life. There is an +old story of a mote and a beam, apparently not true, but worthy perhaps +of some consideration. I should, if I were you, give some consideration +to these scruples of his, and if I were he, I should do the like by +yours; for it is not unlikely that there may be something under both. In +the meantime you must hear how my invalid acted. Like many invalids, he +supposed that he would die. Now should he die, he saw no means of +repaying this huge loan which, by the hands of his father, mankind had +advanced him for his sickness. In that case it would be lost money. So +he determined that the advance should be as small as possible; and, so +long as he continued to doubt his recovery, lived in an upper room, and +grudged himself all but necessaries. But so soon as he began to perceive +a change for the better, he felt justified in spending more freely, to +speed and brighten his return to health, and trusted in the future to +lend a help to mankind, as mankind, out of its treasury, had lent a help +to him. + +I do not say but that my friend was a little too curious and partial in +his view; nor thought too much of himself and too little of his parents; +but I do say that here are some scruples which tormented my friend in +his youth, and still, perhaps, at odd times give him a prick in the +midst of his enjoyments, and which after all have some foundation in +justice, and point, in their confused way, to some honourable honesty +within the reach of man. And at least, is not this an unusual gloss upon +the eighth commandment? And what sort of comfort, guidance, or +illumination did that precept afford my friend throughout these +contentions? "Thou shall not steal." With all my heart! But _am_ I +stealing? + +The truly quaint materialism of our view of life disables us from +pursuing any transaction to an end. You can make no one understand that +his bargain is anything more than a bargain, whereas in point of fact it +is a link in the policy of mankind, and either a good or an evil to the +world. We have a sort of blindness which prevents us from seeing +anything but sovereigns. If one man agrees to give another so many +shillings for so many hours' work, and then wilfully gives him a certain +proportion of the price in bad money and only the remainder in good, we +can see with half an eye that this man is a thief. But if the other +spends a certain proportion of the hours in smoking a pipe of tobacco, +and a certain other proportion in looking at the sky, or the clock, or +trying to recall an air, or in meditation on his own past adventures, +and only the remainder in downright work such as he is paid to do, is +he, because the theft is one of time and not of money,--is he any the +less a thief? The one gave a bad shilling, the other an imperfect hour; +but both broke the bargain, and each is a thief. In piecework, which is +what most of us do, the case is none the less plain for being even less +material. If you forge a bad knife, you have wasted some of mankind's +iron, and then, with unrivalled cynicism, you pocket some of mankind's +money for your trouble. Is there any man so blind who cannot see that +this is theft? Again, if you carelessly cultivate a farm, you have been +playing fast and loose with mankind's resources against hunger; there +will be less bread in consequence, and for lack of that bread somebody +will die next winter: a grim consideration. And you must not hope to +shuffle out of blame because you got less money for your less quantity +of bread; for although a theft be partly punished, it is none the less a +theft for that. You took the farm against competitors; there were others +ready to shoulder the responsibility and be answerable for the tale of +loaves; but it was you who took it. By the act you came under a tacit +bargain with mankind to cultivate that farm with your best endeavour; +you were under no superintendence, you were on parole; and you have +broke your bargain, and to all who look closely, and yourself among the +rest if you have moral eyesight, you are a thief. Or take the case of +men of letters. Every piece of work which is not as good as you can make +it, which you have palmed off imperfect, meagrely thought, niggardly in +execution, upon mankind who is your paymaster on parole and in a sense +your pupil, every hasty or slovenly or untrue performance, should rise +up against you in the court of your own heart and condemn you for a +thief. Have you a salary? If you trifle with your health, and so render +yourself less capable for duty, and still touch, and still greedily +pocket the emolument--what are you but a thief? Have you double +accounts? do you by any time-honoured juggle, deceit, or ambiguous +process, gain more from those who deal with you than if you were +bargaining and dealing face to face in front of God?--What are you but a +thief? Lastly, if you fill an office, or produce an article, which, in +your heart of hearts, you think a delusion and a fraud upon mankind, +and still draw your salary and go through the sham manoeuvres of this +office, or still book your profits and keep on flooding the world with +these injurious goods?--though you were old, and bald, and the first at +church, and a baronet, what are you but a thief? These may seem hard +words and mere curiosities of the intellect, in an age when the spirit +of honesty is so sparingly cultivated that all business is conducted +upon lies and so-called customs of the trade, that not a man bestows two +thoughts on the utility or honourableness of his pursuit. I would say +less if I thought less. But looking to my own reason and the right of +things, I can only avow that I am a thief myself, and that I +passionately suspect my neighbours of the same guilt. + +Where did you hear that it was easy to be honest? Do you find that in +your Bible? Easy? It is easy to be an ass and follow the multitude like +a blind, besotted bull in a stampede; and that, I am well aware, is what +you and Mrs. Grundy mean by being honest. But it will not bear the +stress of time nor the scrutiny of conscience. Even before the lowest of +all tribunals,--before a court of law, whose business it is, not to keep +men right, or within a thousand miles of right, but to withhold them +from going so tragically wrong that they will pull down the whole +jointed fabric of society by their misdeeds--even before a court of law, +as we begin to see in these last days, our easy view of following at +each other's tails, alike to good and evil, is beginning to be reproved +and punished, and declared no honesty at all, but open theft and +swindling; and simpletons who have gone on through life with a quiet +conscience may learn suddenly, from the lips of a judge, that the custom +of the trade may be a custom of the devil. You thought it was easy to be +honest. Did you think it was easy to be just and kind and truthful? Did +you think the whole duty of aspiring man was as simple as a hornpipe? +and you could walk through life like a gentleman and a hero, with no +more concern than it takes to go to church or to address a circular? +And yet all this time you had the eighth commandment! and, what makes it +richer, you would not have broken it for the world! + +The truth is, that these commandments by themselves are of little use in +private judgment. If compression is what you want, you have their whole +spirit compressed into the golden rule; and yet there expressed with +more significance, since the law is there spiritually and not materially +stated. And in truth, four out of these ten commands, from the sixth to +the ninth, are rather legal than ethical. The police-court is their +proper home. A magistrate cannot tell whether you love your neighbour as +yourself, but he can tell more or less whether you have murdered, or +stolen, or committed adultery, or held up your hand and testified to +that which was not; and these things, for rough practical tests, are as +good as can be found. And perhaps, therefore, the best condensation of +the Jewish moral law is in the maxims of the priests, "neminem laedere" +and "suum cuique tribunere." But all this granted, it becomes only the +more plain that they are inadequate in the sphere of personal morality; +that while they tell the magistrate roughly when to punish, they can +never direct an anxious sinner what to do. + +Only Polonius, or the like solemn sort of ass, can offer us a succinct +proverb by way of advice, and not burst out blushing in our faces. We +grant them one and all and for all that they are worth; it is something +above and beyond that we desire. Christ was in general a great enemy to +such a way of teaching; we rarely find Him meddling with any of these +plump commands but it was to open them out, and lift His hearers from +the letter to the spirit. For morals are a personal affair; in the war +of righteousness every man fights for his own hand; all the six hundred +precepts of the Mishna cannot shake my private judgment; my magistracy +of myself is an indefeasible charge, and my decisions absolute for the +time and case. The moralist is not a judge of appeal, but an advocate +who pleads at my tribunal. He has to show not the law, but that the law +applies. Can he convince me? then he gains the cause. And thus you find +Christ giving various counsels to varying people, and often jealously +careful to avoid definite precept. Is He asked, for example, to divide a +heritage? He refuses: and the best advice that He will offer is but a +paraphrase of that tenth commandment which figures so strangely among +the rest. _Take heed, and beware of covetousness._ If you complain that +this is vague, I have failed to carry you along with me in my argument. +For no definite precept can be more than an illustration, though its +truth were resplendent like the sun, and it was announced from heaven by +the voice of God. And life is so intricate and changing, that perhaps +not twenty times, or perhaps not twice in the ages, shall we find that +nice consent of circumstances to which alone it can apply. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +Although the world and life have in a sense become commonplace to our +experience, it is but in an external torpor; the true sentiment slumbers +within us; and we have but to reflect on ourselves or our surroundings +to rekindle our astonishment. No length of habit can blunt our first +surprise. Of the world I have but little to say in this connection; a +few strokes shall suffice. We inhabit a dead ember swimming wide in the +blank of space, dizzily spinning as it swims, and lighted up from +several million miles away by a more horrible hell-fire than was ever +conceived by the theological imagination. Yet the dead ember is a green, +commodious dwelling-place; and the reverberation of this hell-fire +ripens flower and fruit and mildly warms us on summer eves upon the +lawn. Far off on all hands other dead embers, other flaming suns, wheel +and race in the apparent void; the nearest is out of call, the farthest +so far that the heart sickens in the effort to conceive the distance. +Shipwrecked seamen on the deep, though they bestride but the truncheon +of a boom, are safe and near at home compared with mankind on its +bullet. Even to us who have known no other, it seems a strange, if not +an appalling, place of residence. + +But far stranger is the resident, man, a creature compact of wonders +that, after centuries of custom, is still wonderful to himself. He +inhabits a body which he is continually outliving, discarding, and +renewing. Food and sleep, by an unknown alchemy, restore his spirits and +the freshness of his countenance. Hair grows on him like grass; his +eyes, his brain, his sinews, thirst for action; he joys to see and touch +and hear, to partake the sun and wind, to sit down and intently ponder +on his astonishing attributes and situation, to rise up and run, to +perform the strange and revolting round of physical functions. The sight +of a flower, the note of a bird, will often move him deeply; yet he +looks unconcerned on the impassable distances and portentous bonfires of +the universe. He comprehends, he designs, he tames nature, rides the +sea, ploughs, climbs the air in a balloon, makes vast inquiries, begins +interminable labours, joins himself into federations and populous +cities, spends his days to deliver the ends of the earth or to benefit +unborn posterity; and yet knows himself for a piece of unsurpassed +fragility and the creature of a few days. His sight, which conducts him, +which takes notice of the farthest stars, which is miraculous in every +way and a thing defying explanation or belief, is yet lodged in a piece +of jelly, and can be extinguished with a touch. His heart, which all +through life so indomitably, so athletically labours, is but a capsule, +and may be stopped with a pin. His whole body, for all its savage +energies, its leaping and its winged desires, may yet be tamed and +conquered by a draught of air or a sprinkling of cold dew. What he calls +death, which is the seeming arrest of everything, and the ruin and +hateful transformation of the visible body, lies in wait for him +outwardly in a thousand accidents, and grows up in secret diseases from +within. He is still learning to be a man when his faculties are already +beginning to decline; he has not yet understood himself or his position +before he inevitably dies. And yet this mad, chimerical creature can +take no thought of his last end, lives as though he were eternal, +plunges with his vulnerable body into the shock of war, and daily +affronts death with unconcern. He cannot take a step without pain or +pleasure. His life is a tissue of sensations, which he distinguishes as +they seem to come more directly from himself or his surroundings. He is +conscious of himself as a joyer or a sufferer, as that which craves, +chooses, and is satisfied; conscious of his surroundings as it were of +an inexhaustible purveyor, the source of aspects, inspirations, +wonders, cruel knocks and transporting caresses. Thus he goes on his +way, stumbling among delights and agonies. + +Matter is a far-fetched theory, and materialism is without a root in +man. To him everything is important in the degree to which it moves him. +The telegraph wires and posts, the electricity speeding from clerk to +clerk, the clerks, the glad or sorrowful import of the message, and the +paper on which it is finally brought to him at home, are all equally +facts, all equally exist for man. A word or a thought can wound him as +acutely as a knife of steel. If he thinks he is loved, he will rise up +and glory to himself, although he be in a distant land and short of +necessary bread. Does he think he is not loved?--he may have the woman +at his beck, and there is not a joy for him in all the world. Indeed, if +we are to make any account of this figment of reason, the distinction +between material and immaterial, we shall conclude that the life of each +man as an individual is immaterial, although the continuation and +prospects of mankind as a race turn upon material conditions. The +physical business of each man's body is transacted for him; like a +sybarite, he has attentive valets in his own viscera; he breathes, he +sweats, he digests without an effort, or so much as a consenting +volition; for the most part he even eats, not with a wakeful +consciousness, but as it were between two thoughts. His life is centred +among other and more important considerations; touch him in his honour +or his love, creatures of the imagination which attach him to mankind or +to an individual man or woman; cross him in his piety which connects his +soul with heaven; and he turns from his food, he loathes his breath, and +with a magnanimous emotion cuts the knots of his existence and frees +himself at a blow from the web of pains and pleasures. + +It follows that man is twofold at least; that he is not a rounded and +autonomous empire; but that in the same body with him there dwell other +powers, tributary but independent. If I now behold one walking in a +garden curiously coloured and illuminated by the sun, digesting his +food, with elaborate chemistry, breathing, circulating blood, directing +himself by the sight of his eyes, accommodating his body by a thousand +delicate balancings to the wind and the uneven surface of the path, and +all the time, perhaps, with his mind engaged about America, or the +dog-star, or the attributes of God--what am I to say, or how am I to +describe the thing I see? Is that truly a man, in the rigorous meaning +of the word? or is it not a man and something else? What, then, are we +to count the centre-bit and axle of a being so variously compounded? It +is a question much debated. Some read his history in a certain intricacy +of nerve and the success of successive digestions; others find him an +exiled piece of heaven blown upon and determined by the breath of God; +and both schools of theorists will scream like scalded children at a +word of doubt. Yet either of these views, however plausible, is beside +the question; either may be right; and I care not; I ask a more +particular answer, and to a more immediate point. What is the man? There +is Something that was before hunger and that remains behind after a +meal. It may or may not be engaged in any given act or passion, but when +it is, it changes, heightens, and sanctifies. Thus it is not engaged in +lust, where satisfaction ends the chapter; and it is engaged in love, +where no satisfaction can blunt the edge of the desire, and where age, +sickness, or alienation may deface what was desirable without +diminishing the sentiment. This something, which is the man, is a +permanence which abides through the vicissitudes of passion, now +overwhelmed and now triumphant, now unconscious of itself in the +immediate distress of appetite or pain, now rising unclouded above all. +So, to the man, his own central self fades and grows clear again amid +the tumult of the senses, like a revolving Pharos in the night. It is +forgotten; it is hid, it seems, for ever; and yet in the next calm hour +he shall behold himself once more, shining and unmoved among changes +and storm. + +Mankind, in the sense of the creeping mass that is born and eats, that +generates and dies, is but the aggregate of the outer and lower sides of +man. This inner consciousness, this lantern alternately obscured and +shining, to and by which the individual exists and must order his +conduct, is something special to himself and not common to the race. His +joys delight, his sorrows wound him, according as _this_ is interested +or indifferent in the affair: according as they arise in an imperial war +or in a broil conducted by the tributary chieftains of the mind. He may +lose all, and _this_ not suffer; he may lose what is materially a +trifle, and _this_ leap in his bosom with a cruel pang. I do not speak +of it to hardened theorists: the living man knows keenly what it is I +mean. + +"Perceive at last that thou hast in thee something better and more +divine than the things which cause the various effects, and, as it were, +pull thee by the strings. What is that now in thy mind? is it fear, or +suspicion, or desire, or anything of that kind?" Thus far Marcus +Aurelius, in one of the most notable passages in any book. Here is a +question worthy to be answered. What is in thy mind? What is the +utterance of your inmost self when, in a quiet hour, it can be heard +intelligibly? It is something beyond the compass of your thinking, +inasmuch as it is yourself; but is it not of a higher spirit than you +had dreamed betweenwhiles, and erect above all base considerations? This +soul seems hardly touched with our infirmities; we can find in it +certainly no fear, suspicion, or desire; we are only conscious--and that +as though we read it in the eyes of some one else--of a great and +unqualified readiness. A readiness to what? to pass over and look beyond +the objects of desire and fear, for something else. And this something +else? this something which is apart from desire and fear, to which all +the kingdoms of the world and the immediate death of the body are alike +indifferent and beside the point, and which yet regards conduct--by +what name are we to call it? It may be the love of God; or it may be an +inherited (and certainly well concealed) instinct to preserve self and +propagate the race; I am not, for the moment, averse to either theory; +but it will save time to call it righteousness. By so doing I intend no +subterfuge to beg a question; I am indeed ready, and more than willing, +to accept the rigid consequence, and lay aside, as far as the treachery +of the reason will permit, all former meanings attached to the word +righteousness. What is right is that for which a man's central self is +ever ready to sacrifice immediate or distant interests; what is wrong is +what the central self discards or rejects as incompatible with the fixed +design of righteousness. + +To make this admission is to lay aside all hope of definition. That +which is right upon this theory is intimately dictated to each man by +himself, but can never be rigorously set forth in language, and never, +above all, imposed upon another. The conscience has, then, a vision like +that of the eyes, which is incommunicable, and for the most part +illuminates none but its possessor. When many people perceive the same +or any cognate facts, they agree upon a word as symbol; and hence we +have such words as _tree_, _star_, _love_, _honour_, or _death_; hence +also we have this word _right_, which, like the others, we all +understand, most of us understand differently, and none can express +succinctly otherwise. Yet even on the straitest view, we can make some +steps towards comprehension of our own superior thoughts. For it is an +incredible and most bewildering fact that a man, through life, is on +variable terms with himself; he is aware of tiffs and reconciliations; +the intimacy is at times almost suspended, at times it is renewed again +with joy. As we said before, his inner self or soul appears to him by +successive revelations, and is frequently obscured. It is from a study +of these alternations that we can alone hope to discover, even dimly, +what seems right and what seems wrong to this veiled prophet of ourself. + + +All that is in the man in the larger sense, what we call impression as +well as what we call intuition, so far as my argument looks, we must +accept. It is not wrong to desire food, or exercise, or beautiful +surroundings, or the love of sex, or interest which is the food of the +mind. All these are craved; all these should be craved; to none of these +in itself does the soul demur; where there comes an undeniable want, we +recognise a demand of nature. Yet we know that these natural demands may +be superseded, for the demands which are common to mankind make but a +shadowy consideration in comparison to the demands of the individual +soul. Food is almost the first pre-requisite; and yet a high character +will go without food to the ruin and death of the body rather than gain +it in a manner which the spirit disavows. Pascal laid aside mathematics; +Origen doctored his body with a knife; every day some one is thus +mortifying his dearest interests and desires, and, in Christ's words, +entering maim into the Kingdom of Heaven. This is to supersede the +lesser and less harmonious affections by renunciation; and though by +this ascetic path we may get to heaven, we cannot get thither a whole +and perfect man. But there is another way, to supersede them by +reconciliation, in which the soul and all the faculties and senses +pursue a common route and share in one desire. Thus, man is tormented by +a very imperious physical desire; it spoils his rest, it is not to be +denied; the doctors will tell you, not I, how it is a physical need, +like the want of food or slumber. In the satisfaction of this desire, as +it first appears, the soul sparingly takes part; nay, it oft unsparingly +regrets and disapproves the satisfaction. But let the man learn to love +a woman as far as he is capable of love; and for this random affection +of the body there is substituted a steady determination, a consent of +all his powers and faculties, which supersedes, adopts, and commands the +other. The desire survives, strengthened, perhaps, but taught obedience, +and changed in scope and character. Life is no longer a tale of +betrayals and regrets; for the man now lives as a whole; his +consciousness now moves on uninterrupted like a river; through all the +extremes and ups and downs of passion, he remains approvingly conscious +of himself. + +Now to me this seems a type of that rightness which the soul demands. It +demands that we shall not live alternately with our opposing tendencies +in continual see-saw of passion and disgust, but seek some path on which +the tendencies shall no longer oppose, but serve each other to a common +end. It demands that we shall not pursue broken ends, but great and +comprehensive purposes, in which soul and body may unite like notes in a +harmonious chord. That were indeed a way of peace and pleasure, that +were indeed a heaven upon earth. It does not demand, however, or, to +speak in measure, it does not demand of me, that I should starve my +appetites for no purpose under heaven but as a purpose in itself; or, in +a weak despair, pluck out the eye that I have not yet learned to guide +and enjoy with wisdom. The soul demands unity of purpose, not the +dismemberment of man; it seeks to roll up all his strength and +sweetness, all his passion and wisdom, into one, and make of him a +perfect man exulting in perfection. To conclude ascetically is to give +up, and not to solve, the problem. The ascetic and the creeping hog, +although they are at different poles, have equally failed in life. The +one has sacrificed his crew; the other brings back his seamen in a +cock-boat, and has lost the ship. I believe there are not many +sea-captains who would plume themselves on either result as a success. + +But if it is righteousness thus to fuse together our divisive impulses +and march with one mind through life, there is plainly one thing more +unrighteous than all others, and one declension which is irretrievable +and draws on the rest. And this is to lose consciousness of oneself. In +the best of times, it is but by flashes, when our whole nature is clear, +strong and conscious, and events conspire to leave us free, that we +enjoy communion with our soul. At the worst, we are so fallen and +passive that we may say shortly we have none. An arctic torpor seizes +upon men. Although built of nerves, and set adrift in a stimulating +world, they develop a tendency to go bodily to sleep; consciousness +becomes engrossed among the reflex and mechanical parts of life; and +soon loses both the will and power to look higher considerations in the +face. This is ruin; this is the last failure in life; this is temporal +damnation; damnation on the spot and without the form of judgment. "What +shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and _lose himself_?" + +It is to keep a man awake, to keep him alive to his own soul and its +fixed design of righteousness, that the better part of moral and +religious education is directed; not only that of words and doctors, but +the sharp ferule of calamity under which we are all God's scholars till +we die. If, as teachers, we are to say anything to the purpose, we must +say what will remind the pupil of his soul; we must speak that soul's +dialect; we must talk of life and conduct as his soul would have him +think of them. If, from some conformity between us and the pupil, or +perhaps among all men, we do in truth speak in such a dialect and +express such views, beyond question we shall touch in him a spring; +beyond question he will recognise the dialect as one that he himself has +spoken in his better hours; beyond question he will cry, "I had +forgotten, but now I remember; I too have eyes, and I had forgot to use +them! I too have a soul of my own, arrogantly upright, and to that I +will listen and conform." In short, say to him anything that he has once +thought, or been upon the point of thinking, or show him any view of +life that he has once clearly seen, or been upon the point of clearly +seeing; and you have done your part and may leave him to complete the +education for himself. + +Now the view taught at the present time seems to me to want greatness; +and the dialect in which alone it can be intelligibly uttered is not the +dialect of my soul. It is a sort of postponement of life; nothing quite +is, but something different is to be; we are to keep our eyes upon the +indirect from the cradle to the grave. We are to regulate our conduct +not by desire, but by a politic eye upon the future; and to value acts +as they will bring us money or good opinion; as they will bring us, in +one word, _profit_. We must be what is called respectable, and offend no +one by our carriage; it will not do to make oneself conspicuous--who +knows? even in virtue? says the Christian parent! And we must be what is +called prudent and make money; not only because it is pleasant to have +money, but because that also is a part of respectability, and we cannot +hope to be received in society without decent possessions. Received in +society! as if that were the kingdom of heaven! There is dear Mr. +So-and-so;--look at him!--so much respected--so much looked up to--quite +the Christian merchant! And we must cut our conduct as strictly as +possible after the pattern of Mr. So-and-so; and lay our whole lives to +make money and be strictly decent. Besides these holy injunctions, which +form by far the greater part of a youth's training in our Christian +homes, there are at least two other doctrines. We are to live just now +as well as we can, but scrape at last into heaven, where we shall be +good. We are to worry through the week in a lay, disreputable way, but, +to make matters square, live a different life on Sunday. + +The train of thought we have been following gives us a key to all these +positions, without stepping aside to justify them on their own ground. +It is because we have been disgusted fifty times with physical squalls +and fifty times torn between conflicting impulses, that we teach people +this indirect and tactical procedure in life, and to judge by remote +consequences instead of the immediate face of things. The very desire to +act as our own souls would have us, coupled with a pathetic disbelief in +ourselves, moves us to follow the example of others; perhaps, who knows? +they may be on the right track; and the more our patterns are in number, +the better seems the chance; until, if we be acting in concert with a +whole civilised nation, there are surely a majority of chances that we +must be acting right. And again, how true it is that we can never behave +as we wish in this tormented sphere, and can only aspire to different +and more favourable circumstances, in order to stand out and be +ourselves wholly and rightly! And yet once more, if in the hurry and +pressure of affairs and passions you tend to nod and become drowsy, here +are twenty-four hours of Sunday set apart for you to hold counsel with +your soul and look around you on the possibilities of life. + +This is not, of course, all that is to be, or even should be, said for +these doctrines. Only, in the course of this chapter, the reader and I +have agreed upon a few catchwords, and been looking at morals on a +certain system; it was a pity to lose an opportunity of testing the +catchwords, and seeing whether, by this system as well as by others, +current doctrines could show any probable justification. If the +doctrines had come too badly out of the trial, it would have condemned +the system. Our sight of the world is very narrow; the mind but a +pedestrian instrument; there's nothing new under the sun, as Solomon +says, except the man himself; and though that changes the aspect of +everything else, yet he must see the same things as other people, only +from a different side. + +And now, having admitted so much, let us turn to criticism. + +If you teach a man to keep his eyes upon what others think of him, +unthinkingly to lead the life and hold the principles of the majority of +his contemporaries, you must discredit in his eyes the one authoritative +voice of his own soul. He may be a docile citizen; he will never be a +man. It is ours, on the other hand, to disregard this babble and +chattering of other men better and worse than we are, and to walk +straight before us by what light we have. They may be right; but so, +before heaven, are we. They may know; but we know also, and by that +knowledge we must stand or fall. There is such a thing as loyalty to a +man's own better self; and from those who have not that, God help me, +how am I to look for loyalty to others? The most dull, the most +imbecile, at a certain moment turn round, at a certain point will hear +no further argument, but stand unflinching by their own dumb, irrational +sense of right. It is not only by steel or fire, but through contempt +and blame, that the martyr fulfils the calling of his dear soul. Be glad +if you are not tried by such extremities. But although all the world +ranged themselves in one line to tell you "This is wrong," be you your +own faithful vassal and the ambassador of God--throw down the glove and +answer "This is right." Do you think you are only declaring yourself? +Perhaps in some dim way, like a child who delivers a message not fully +understood, you are opening wider the straits of prejudice and preparing +mankind for some truer and more spiritual grasp of truth; perhaps, as +you stand forth for your own judgment, you are covering a thousand weak +ones with your body; perhaps, by this declaration alone, you have +avoided the guilt of false witness against humanity and the little ones +unborn. It is good, I believe, to be respectable, but much nobler to +respect oneself and utter the voice of God. God, if there be any God, +speaks daily in a new language by the tongues of men; the thoughts and +habits of each fresh generation and each new-coined spirit throw another +light upon the universe and contain another commentary on the printed +Bibles; every scruple, every true dissent, every glimpse of something +new, is a letter of God's alphabet; and though there is a grave +responsibility for all who speak, is there none for those who +unrighteously keep silence and conform? Is not that also to conceal and +cloak God's counsel? And how should we regard the man of science who +suppressed all facts that would not tally with the orthodoxy of the +hour? + +Wrong? You are as surely wrong as the sun rose this morning round the +revolving shoulder of the world. Not truth, but truthfulness, is the +good of your endeavour. For when will men receive that first part and +prerequisite of truth, that, by the order of things, by the greatness of +the universe, by the darkness and partiality of man's experience, by the +inviolate secrecy of God, kept close in His most open revelations, every +man is, and to the end of the ages must be, wrong? Wrong to the +universe; wrong to mankind; wrong to God. And yet in another sense, and +that plainer and nearer, every man of men, who wishes truly, must be +right. He is right to himself, and in the measure of his sagacity and +candour. That let him do in all sincerity and zeal, not sparing a +thought for contrary opinions; that, for what it is worth, let him +proclaim. Be not afraid; although he be wrong, so also is the dead, +stuffed Dagon he insults. For the voice of God, whatever it is, is not +that stammering, inept tradition which the people holds. These truths +survive in travesty, swamped in a world of spiritual darkness and +confusion; and what a few comprehend and faithfully hold, the many, in +their dead jargon, repeat, degrade, and misinterpret. + +So far of Respectability: what the Covenanters used to call "rank +conformity": the deadliest gag and wet blanket that can be laid on men. +And now of Profit. And this doctrine is perhaps the more redoubtable, +because it harms all sorts of men; not only the heroic and self-reliant, +but the obedient, cowlike squadrons. A man, by this doctrine, looks to +consequences at the second, or third, or fiftieth turn. He chooses his +end, and for that, with wily turns and through a great sea of tedium, +steers this mortal bark. There may be political wisdom in such a view; +but I am persuaded there can spring no great moral zeal. To look thus +obliquely upon life is the very recipe for moral slumber. Our intention +and endeavour should be directed, not on some vague end of money or +applause, which shall come to us by a ricochet in a month or a year, or +twenty years, but on the act itself; not on the approval of others, but +on the rightness of that act. At every instant, at every step in life, +the point has to be decided, our soul has to be saved, heaven has to be +gained or lost. At every step our spirits must applaud, at every step we +must set down the foot and sound the trumpet. "This have I done," we +must say; "right or wrong, this have I done, in unfeigned honour of +intention, as to myself and God." The profit of every act should be +this, that it was right for us to do it. Any other profit than that, if +it involved a kingdom or the woman I love, ought, if I were God's +upright soldier, to leave me untempted. + +It is the mark of what we call a righteous decision, that it is made +directly and for its own sake. The whole man, mind and body, having come +to an agreement, tyrannically dictates conduct. There are two +dispositions eternally opposed: that in which we recognise that one +thing is wrong and another right, and that in which, not seeing any +clear distinction, we fall back on the consideration of consequences. +The truth is, by the scope of our present teaching, nothing is thought +very wrong and nothing very right, except a few actions which have the +disadvantage of being disrespectable when found out; the more serious +part of men inclining to think all things _rather wrong_, the more +jovial to suppose them _right enough for practical purposes_. I will +engage my head, they do not find that view in their own hearts; they +have taken it up in a dark despair; they are but troubled sleepers +talking in their sleep. The soul, or my soul at least, thinks very +distinctly upon many points of right and wrong, and often differs flatly +with what is held out as the thought of corporate humanity in the code +of society or the code of law. Am I to suppose myself a monster? I have +only to read books, the Christian Gospels for example, to think myself a +monster no longer; and instead I think the mass of people are merely +speaking in their sleep. + +It is a commonplace, enshrined, if I mistake not, even in school +copy-books, that honour is to be sought and not fame. I ask no other +admission; we are to seek honour, upright walking with our own +conscience every hour of the day, and not fame, the consequence, the +far-off reverberation of our footsteps. The walk, not the rumour of the +walk, is what concerns righteousness. Better disrespectable honour than +dishonourable fame. Better useless or seemingly hurtful honour, than +dishonour ruling empires and filling the mouths of thousands. For the +man must walk by what he sees, and leave the issue with God who made him +and taught him by the fortune of his life. You would not dishonour +yourself for money; which is at least tangible; would you do it, then, +for a doubtful forecast in politics, or another person's theory in +morals? + +So intricate is the scheme of our affairs, that no man can calculate the +bearing of his own behaviour even on those immediately around him, how +much less upon the world at large or on succeeding generations! To walk +by external prudence and the rule of consequences would require, not a +man, but God. All that we know to guide us in this changing labyrinth is +our soul with its fixed design of righteousness, and a few old precepts +which commend themselves to that. The precepts are vague when we +endeavour to apply them; consequences are more entangled than a wisp of +string, and their confusion is unrestingly in change; we must hold to +what we know and walk by it. We must walk by faith, indeed, and not by +knowledge. + +You do not love another because he is wealthy or wise or eminently +respectable: you love him because you love him; that is love, and any +other only a derision and grimace. It should be the same with all our +actions. If we were to conceive a perfect man, it should be one who was +never torn between conflicting impulses, but who, on the absolute +consent of all his parts and faculties, submitted in every action of his +life to a self-dictation as absolute and unreasoned as that which bids +him love one woman and be true to her till death. But we should not +conceive him as sagacious, ascetical, playing off his appetites against +each other, turning the wing of public respectable immorality instead +of riding it directly down, or advancing toward his end through a +thousand sinister compromises and considerations. The one man might be +wily, might be adroit, might be wise, might be respectable, might be +gloriously useful; it is the other man who would be good. + +The soul asks honour and not fame; to be upright, not to be successful; +to be good, not prosperous; to be essentially, not outwardly, +respectable. Does your soul ask profit? Does it ask money? Does it ask +the approval of the indifferent herd? I believe not. For my own part, I +want but little money, I hope; and I do not want to be decent at all, +but to be good. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +We have spoken of that supreme self-dictation which keeps varying from +hour to hour in its dictates with the variation of events and +circumstances. Now, for us, that is ultimate. It may be founded on some +reasonable process, but it is not a process which we can follow or +comprehend. And moreover the dictation is not continuous, or not +continuous except in very lively and well-living natures; and +betweenwhiles we must brush along without it. Practice is a more +intricate and desperate business than the toughest theorising; life is +an affair of cavalry, where rapid judgment and prompt action are alone +possible and right. As a matter of fact, there is no one so upright but +he is influenced by the world's chatter; and no one so headlong but he +requires to consider consequences and to keep an eye on profit. For the +soul adopts all affections and appetites without exception, and cares +only to combine them for some common purpose which shall interest all. +Now respect for the opinion of others, the study of consequences and the +desire of power and comfort, are all undeniably factors in the nature of +man; and the more undeniably since we find that, in our current +doctrines, they have swallowed up the others and are thought to conclude +in themselves all the worthy parts of man. These, then, must also be +suffered to affect conduct in the practical domain, much or little +according as they are forcibly or feebly present to the mind of each. + +Now a man's view of the universe is mostly a view of the civilised +society in which he lives. Other men and women are so much more grossly +and so much more intimately palpable to his perceptions, that they stand +between him and all the rest; they are larger to his eye than the sun, +he hears them more plainly than thunder; with them, by them, and for +them, he must live and die. And hence the laws that affect his +intercourse with his fellow-men, although merely customary and the +creatures of a generation, are more clearly and continually before his +mind than those which bind him into the eternal system of things, +support him in his upright progress on this whirling ball, or keep up +the fire of his bodily life. And hence it is that money stands in the +first rank of considerations and so powerfully affects the choice. For +our society is built with money for mortar; money is present in every +joint of circumstance; it might be named the social atmosphere, since, +in society, it is by that alone men continue to live, and only through +that or chance that they can reach or affect one another. Money gives us +food, shelter, and privacy; it permits us to be clean in person, opens +for us the doors of the theatre, gains us books for study or pleasure, +enables us to help the distresses of others, and puts us above necessity +so that we can choose the best in life. If we love, it enables us to +meet and live with the loved one, or even to prolong her health and +life; if we have scruples, it gives us an opportunity to be honest; if +we have any bright designs, here is what will smooth the way to their +accomplishment. Penury is the worst slavery, and will soon lead to +death. + +But money is only a means; it presupposes a man to use it. The rich can +go where he pleases, but perhaps please himself nowhere. He can buy a +library or visit the whole world, but perhaps has neither patience to +read nor intelligence to see. The table may be loaded and the appetite +wanting; the purse may be full and the heart empty. He may have gained +the world and lost himself; and with all his wealth around him, in a +great house and spacious and beautiful demesne, he may live as blank a +life as any tattered ditcher. Without an appetite, without an +aspiration, void of appreciation, bankrupt of desire and hope, there, in +his great house, let him sit and look upon his fingers. It is perhaps a +more fortunate destiny to have a taste for collecting shells than to be +born a millionaire. Although neither is to be despised, it is always +better policy to learn an interest than to make a thousand pounds; for +the money will soon be spent, or perhaps you may feel no joy in spending +it; but the interest remains imperishable and ever new. To become a +botanist, a geologist, a social philosopher, an antiquary, or an artist, +is to enlarge one's possessions in the universe by an incalculably +higher degree, and by a far surer sort of property, than to purchase a +farm of many acres. You had perhaps two thousand a year before the +transaction; perhaps you have two thousand five hundred after it. That +represents your gain in the one case. But in the other, you have thrown +down a barrier which concealed significance and beauty. The blind man +has learned to see. The prisoner has opened up a window in his cell and +beholds enchanting prospects; he will never again be a prisoner as he +was; he can watch clouds and changing seasons, ships on the river, +travellers on the road, and the stars at night; happy prisoner! his eyes +have broken gaol! And again he who has learned to love an art or science +has wisely laid up riches against the day of riches; if prosperity come, +he will not enter poor into his inheritance; he will not slumber and +forget himself in the lap of money, or spend his hours in counting idle +treasures, but be up and briskly doing; he will have the true alchemic +touch, which is not that of Midas, but which transmutes dead money into +living delight and satisfaction. _Etre et pas avoir_--to be, not to +possess--that is the problem of life. To be wealthy, a rich nature is +the first requisite and money but the second. To be of a quick and +healthy blood, to share in all honourable curiosities, to be rich in +admiration and free from envy, to rejoice greatly in the good of others, +to love with such generosity of heart that your love is still a dear +possession in absence or unkindness--these are the gifts of fortune +which money cannot buy and without which money can buy nothing. For what +can a man possess, or what can he enjoy, except himself? If he enlarge +his nature, it is then that he enlarges his estates. If his nature be +happy and valiant, he will enjoy the universe as if it were his park and +orchard. + +But money is not only to be spent; it has also to be earned. It is not +merely a convenience or a necessary in social life; but it is the coin +in which mankind pays his wages to the individual man. And from this +side, the question of money has a very different scope and application. +For no man can be honest who does not work. Service for service. If the +farmer buys corn, and the labourer ploughs and reaps, and the baker +sweats in his hot bakery, plainly you who eat must do something in your +turn. It is not enough to take off your hat, or to thank God upon your +knees for the admirable constitution of society and your own convenient +situation in its upper and more ornamental stories. Neither is it enough +to buy the loaf with a sixpence; for then you are only changing the +point of the inquiry; and you must first have _bought the sixpence_. +Service for service: how have you bought your sixpences? A man of spirit +desires certainty in a thing of such a nature; he must see to it that +there is some reciprocity between him and mankind; that he pays his +expenditure in service; that he has not a lion's share in profit and a +drone's in labour; and is not a sleeping partner and mere costly incubus +on the great mercantile concern of mankind. + +Services differ so widely with different gifts, and some are so +inappreciable to external tests, that this is not only a matter for the +private conscience, but one which even there must be leniently and +trustfully considered. For remember how many serve mankind who do no +more than meditate; and how many are precious to their friends for no +more than a sweet and joyous temper. To perform the function of a man +of letters it is not necessary to write; nay, it is perhaps better to be +a living book. So long as we love we serve; so long as we are loved by +others, I would almost say that we are indispensable; and no man is +useless while he has a friend. The true services of life are inestimable +in money, and are never paid. Kind words and caresses, high and wise +thoughts, humane designs, tender behaviour to the weak and suffering, +and all the charities of man's existence, are neither bought nor sold. + +Yet the dearest and readiest, if not the most just, criterion of a man's +services, is the wage that mankind pays him, or, briefly, what he earns. +There at least there can be no ambiguity. St. Paul is fully and freely +entitled to his earnings as a tentmaker, and Socrates fully and freely +entitled to his earnings as a sculptor, although the true business of +each was not only something different, but something which remained +unpaid. A man cannot forget that he is not superintended, and serves +mankind on parole. He would like, when challenged by his own conscience, +to reply: "I have done so much work, and no less, with my own hands and +brain, and taken so much profit, and no more, for my own personal +delight." And though St. Paul, if he had possessed a private fortune, +would probably have scorned to waste his time in making tents, yet of +all sacrifices to public opinion none can be more easily pardoned than +that by which a man, already spiritually useful to the world, should +restrict the field of his chief usefulness to perform services more +apparent, and possess a livelihood that neither stupidity nor malice +could call in question. Like all sacrifices to public opinion and mere +external decency, this would certainly be wrong; for the soul should +rest contented with its own approval and indissuadably pursue its own +calling. Yet, so grave and delicate is the question, that a man may well +hesitate before he decides it for himself; he may well fear that he sets +too high a valuation on his own endeavours after good; he may well +condescend upon a humbler duty, where others than himself shall judge +the service and proportion the wage. + +And yet it is to this very responsibility that the rich are born. They +can shuffle off the duty on no other; they are their own paymasters on +parole; and must pay themselves fair wages and no more. For I suppose +that in the course of ages, and through reform and civil war and +invasion, mankind was pursuing some other and more general design than +to set one or two Englishmen of the nineteenth century beyond the reach +of needs and duties. Society was scarce put together, and defended with +so much eloquence and blood, for the convenience of two or three +millionaires and a few hundred other persons of wealth and position. It +is plain that if mankind thus acted and suffered during all these +generations, they hoped some benefit, some ease, some well-being, for +themselves and their descendants; that if they supported law and order, +it was to secure fair-play for all; that if they denied themselves in +the present, they must have had some designs upon the future. Now a +great hereditary fortune is a miracle of man's wisdom and mankind's +forbearance; it has not only been amassed and handed down, it has been +suffered to be amassed and handed down; and surely in such a +consideration as this, its possessor should find only a new spur to +activity and honour, that with all this power of service he should not +prove unserviceable, and that this mass of treasure should return in +benefits upon the race. If he had twenty, or thirty, or a hundred +thousand at his banker's, or if all Yorkshire or all California were his +to manage or to sell, he would still be morally penniless, and have the +world to begin like Whittington, until he had found some way of serving +mankind. His wage is physically in his own hand; but, in honour, that +wage must still be earned. He is only steward on parole of what is +called his fortune. He must honourably perform his stewardship. He must +estimate his own services and allow himself a salary in proportion, for +that will be one among his functions. And while he will then be free to +spend that salary, great or little, on his own private pleasures, the +rest of his fortune he but holds and disposes under trust for mankind; +it is not his, because he has not earned it; it cannot be his, because +his services have already been paid; but year by year it is his to +distribute, whether to help individuals whose birthright and outfit have +been swallowed up in his, or to further public works and institutions. + +At this rate, short of inspiration, it seems hardly possible to be both +rich and honest; and the millionaire is under a far more continuous +temptation to thieve than the labourer who gets his shilling daily for +despicable toils. Are you surprised? It is even so. And you repeat it +every Sunday in your churches. "It is easier for a camel to pass through +the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." I +have heard this and similar texts ingeniously explained away and brushed +from the path of the aspiring Christian by the tender Greatheart of the +parish. One excellent clergyman told us that the "eye of a needle" meant +a low, Oriental postern through which camels could not pass till they +were unloaded--which is very likely just; and then went on, bravely +confounding the "kingdom of God" with heaven, the future paradise, to +show that of course no rich person could expect to carry his riches +beyond the grave--which, of course, he could not and never did. Various +greedy sinners of the congregation drank in the comfortable doctrine +with relief. It was worth the while having come to church that Sunday +morning! All was plain. The Bible, as usual, meant nothing in +particular; it was merely an obscure and figurative school-copybook; and +if a man were only respectable, he was a man after God's own heart. + +Alas! I fear not. And though this matter of a man's services is one for +his own conscience, there are some cases in which it is difficult to +restrain the mind from judging. Thus I shall be very easily persuaded +that a man has earned his daily bread; and if he has but a friend or two +to whom his company is delightful at heart, I am more than persuaded at +once. But it will be very hard to persuade me that any one has earned an +income of a hundred thousand. What he is to his friends, he still would +be if he were made penniless to-morrow; for as to the courtiers of +luxury and power, I will neither consider them friends, nor indeed +consider them at all. What he does for mankind there are most likely +hundreds who would do the same, as effectually for the race and as +pleasurably to themselves, for the merest fraction of this monstrous +wage. Why it is paid, I am, therefore, unable to conceive, and as the +man pays it himself, out of funds in his detention, I have a certain +backwardness to think him honest. + +At least, we have gained a very obvious point: that _what a man spends +upon himself he shall have earned by services to the race_. Thence flows +a principle for the outset of life, which is a little different from +that taught in the present day. I am addressing the middle and the upper +classes; those who have already been fostered and prepared for life at +some expense; those who have some choice before them, and can pick +professions; and above all, those who are what is called independent, +and need do nothing unless pushed by honour or ambition. In this +particular the poor are happy; among them, when a lad comes to his +strength, he must take the work that offers, and can take it with an +easy conscience. But in the richer classes the question is complicated +by the number of opportunities and a variety of considerations. Here, +then, this principle of ours comes in helpfully. The young man has to +seek, not a road to wealth, but an opportunity of service; not money, +but honest work. If he has some strong propensity, some calling of +nature, some overweening interest in any special field of industry, +inquiry, or art, he will do right to obey the impulse; and that for two +reasons: the first external, because there he will render the best +services; the second personal, because a demand of his own nature is to +him without appeal whenever it can be satisfied with the consent of his +other faculties and appetites. If he has no such elective taste, by the +very principle on which he chooses any pursuit at all he must choose the +most honest and serviceable, and not the most highly remunerated. We +have here an external problem, not from or to ourself, but flowing from +the constitution of society; and we have our own soul with its fixed +design of righteousness. All that can be done is to present the problem +in proper terms and leave it to the soul of the individual. Now the +problem to the poor is one of necessity: to earn wherewithal to live, +they must find remunerative labour. But the problem to the rich is one +of honour: having the wherewithal, they must find serviceable labour. +Each has to earn his daily bread: the one, because he has not yet got it +to eat; the other, who has already eaten it, because he has not yet +earned it. + +Of course, what is true of bread is true of luxuries and comforts, +whether for the body or the mind. But the consideration of luxuries +leads us to a new aspect of the whole question, and to a second +proposition no less true, and maybe no less startling, than the last. + +At the present day, we, of the easier classes, are in a state of surfeit +and disgrace after meat. Plethora has filled us with indifference; and +we are covered from head to foot with the callosities of habitual +opulence. Born into what is called a certain rank, we live, as the +saying is, up to our station. We squander without enjoyment, because our +fathers squandered. We eat of the best, not from delicacy, but from +brazen habit. We do not keenly enjoy or eagerly desire the presence of a +luxury; we are unaccustomed to its absence. And not only do we squander +money from habit, but still more pitifully waste it in ostentation. I +can think of no more melancholy disgrace for a creature who professes +either reason or pleasure for his guide, than to spend the smallest +fraction of his income upon that which he does not desire; and to keep a +carriage in which you do not wish to drive, or a butler of whom you are +afraid, is a pathetic kind of folly. Money, being a means of happiness, +should make both parties happy when it changes hands; rightly disposed, +it should be twice blessed in its employment; and buyer and seller +should alike have their twenty shillings' worth of profit out of every +pound. Benjamin Franklin went through life an altered man, because he +once paid too dearly for a penny whistle. My concern springs usually +from a deeper source, to wit, from having bought a whistle when I did +not want one. I find I regret this, or would regret it if I gave myself +the time, not only on personal but on moral and philanthropical +considerations. For, first, in a world where money is wanting to buy +books for eager students and food and medicine for pining children, and +where a large majority are starved in their most immediate desires, it +is surely base, stupid, and cruel to squander money when I am pushed by +no appetite and enjoy no return of genuine satisfaction. My philanthropy +is wide enough in scope to include myself; and when I have made myself +happy, I have at least one good argument that I have acted rightly; but +where that is not so, and I have bought and not enjoyed, my mouth is +closed, and I conceive that I have robbed the poor. And, second, +anything I buy or use which I do not sincerely want or cannot vividly +enjoy, disturbs the balance of supply and demand, and contributes to +remove industrious hands from the production of what is useful or +pleasurable and to keep them busy upon ropes of sand and things that are +a weariness to the flesh. That extravagance is truly sinful, and a very +silly sin to boot, in which we impoverish mankind and ourselves. It is +another question for each man's heart. He knows if he can enjoy what he +buys and uses; if he cannot, he is a dog in the manger; nay, if he +cannot, I contend he is a thief, for nothing really belongs to a man +which he cannot use. Proprietor is connected with propriety; and that +only is the man's which is proper to his wants and faculties. + +A youth, in choosing a career, must not be alarmed by poverty. Want is +a sore thing, but poverty does not imply want. It remains to be seen +whether with half his present income, or a third, he cannot, in the most +generous sense, live as fully as at present. He is a fool who objects to +luxuries; but he is also a fool who does not protest against the waste +of luxuries on those who do not desire and cannot enjoy them. It remains +to be seen, by each man who would live a true life to himself and not a +merely specious life to society, how many luxuries he truly wants and to +how many he merely submits as to a social propriety; and all these last +he will immediately forswear. Let him do this, and he will be surprised +to find how little money it requires to keep him in complete contentment +and activity of mind and senses. Life at any level among the easy +classes is conceived upon a principle of rivalry, where each man and +each household must ape the tastes and emulate the display of others. +One is delicate in eating, another in wine, a third in furniture or +works of art or dress; and I, who care nothing for any of these +refinements, who am perhaps a plain athletic creature and love exercise, +beef, beer, flannel shirts and a camp bed, am yet called upon to +assimilate all these other tastes and make these foreign occasions of +expenditure my own. It may be cynical: I am sure I shall be told it is +selfish; but I will spend my money as I please and for my own intimate +personal gratification, and should count myself a nincompoop indeed to +lay out the colour of a halfpenny on any fancied social decency or duty. +I shall not wear gloves unless my hands are cold, or unless I am born +with a delight in them. Dress is my own affair, and that of one other in +the world; that, in fact, and for an obvious reason, of any woman who +shall chance to be in love with me. I shall lodge where I have a mind. +If I do not ask society to live with me, they must be silent; and even +if I do, they have no further right but to refuse the invitation. + +There is a kind of idea abroad that a man must live up to his station, +that his house, his table, and his toilette, shall be in a ratio of +equivalence, and equally imposing to the world. If this is in the Bible, +the passage has eluded my inquiries. If it is not in the Bible, it is +nowhere but in the heart of the fool. Throw aside this fancy. See what +you want, and spend upon that; distinguish what you do not care about, +and spend nothing upon that. There are not many people who can +differentiate wines above a certain and that not at all a high price. +Are you sure you are one of these? Are you sure you prefer cigars at +sixpence each to pipes at some fraction of a farthing? Are you sure you +wish to keep a gig? Do you care about where you sleep, or are you not as +much at your ease in a cheap lodging as in an Elizabethan manor-house? +Do you enjoy fine clothes? It is not possible to answer these questions +without a trial; and there is nothing more obvious to my mind, than that +a man who has not experienced some ups and downs, and been forced to +live more cheaply than in his father's house, has still his education to +begin. Let the experiment be made, and he will find to his surprise that +he has been eating beyond his appetite up to that hour; that the cheap +lodging, the cheap tobacco, the rough country clothes, the plain table, +have not only no power to damp his spirits, but perhaps give him as keen +pleasure in the using as the dainties that he took, betwixt sleep and +waking, in his former callous and somnambulous submission to wealth. + +The true Bohemian, a creature lost to view under the imaginary Bohemians +of literature, is exactly described by such a principle of life. The +Bohemian of the novel, who drinks more than is good for him and prefers +anything to work, and wears strange clothes, is for the most part a +respectable Bohemian, respectable in disrespectability, living for the +outside, and an adventurer. But the man I mean lives wholly to himself, +does what he wishes, and not what is thought proper, buys what he wants +for himself and not what is thought proper, works at what he believes he +can do well and not what will bring him in money or favour. You may be +the most respectable of men, and yet a true Bohemian. And the test is +this: a Bohemian, for as poor as he may be, is always open-handed to his +friends; he knows what he can do with money and how he can do without +it, a far rarer and more useful knowledge; he has had less, and +continued to live in some contentment; and hence he cares not to keep +more, and shares his sovereign or his shilling with a friend. The poor, +if they are generous, are Bohemian in virtue of their birth. Do you know +where beggars go? Not to the great houses where people sit dazed among +their thousands, but to the doors of poor men who have seen the world; +and it was the widow who had only two mites, who cast half her fortune +into the treasury. + +But a young man who elects to save on dress or on lodging, or who in any +way falls out of the level of expenditure which is common to his level +in society, falls out of society altogether. I suppose the young man to +have chosen his career on honourable principles; he finds his talents +and instincts can be best contented in a certain pursuit; in a certain +industry, he is sure that he is serving mankind with a healthy and +becoming service; and he is not sure that he would be doing so, or doing +so equally well, in any other industry within his reach. Then that is +his true sphere in life; not the one in which he was born to his father, +but the one which is proper to his talents and instincts. And suppose he +does fall out of society, is that a cause of sorrow? Is your heart so +dead that you prefer the recognition of many to the love of a few? Do +you think society loves you? Put it to the proof. Decline in material +expenditure, and you will find they care no more for you than for the +Khan of Tartary. You will lose no friends. If you had any, you will keep +them. Only those who were friends to your coat and equipage will +disappear; the smiling faces will disappear as by enchantment; but the +kind hearts will remain steadfastly kind. Are you so lost, are you so +dead, are you so little sure of your own soul and your own footing upon +solid fact, that you prefer before goodness and happiness the +countenance of sundry diners-out, who will flee from you at a report of +ruin, who will drop you with insult at a shadow of disgrace, who do not +know you and do not care to know you but by sight, and whom you in your +turn neither know nor care to know in a more human manner? Is it not the +principle of society, openly avowed, that friendship must not interfere +with business; which being paraphrased, means simply that a +consideration of money goes before any consideration of affection known +to this cold-blooded gang, that they have not even the honour of +thieves, and will rook their nearest and dearest as readily as a +stranger? I hope I would go as far as most to serve a friend; but I +declare openly I would not put on my hat to do a pleasure to society. I +may starve my appetites and control my temper for the sake of those I +love; but society shall take me as I choose to be, or go without me. +Neither they nor I will lose; for where there is no love, it is both +laborious and unprofitable to associate. + +But it is obvious that if it is only right for a man to spend money on +that which he can truly and thoroughly enjoy, the doctrine applies with +equal force to the rich and to the poor, to the man who has amassed many +thousands as well as to the youth precariously beginning life. And it +may be asked, Is not this merely preparing misers, who are not the best +of company? But the principle was this: that which a man has not fairly +earned, and, further, that which he cannot fully enjoy, does not belong +to him, but is a part of mankind's treasure which he holds as steward on +parole. To mankind, then, it must be made profitable; and how this +should be done is, once more, a problem which each man must solve for +himself, and about which none has a right to judge him. Yet there are a +few considerations which are very obvious and may here be stated. +Mankind is not only the whole in general, but every one in particular. +Every man or woman is one of mankind's dear possessions; to his or her +just brain, and kind heart, and active hands, mankind intrusts some of +its hopes for the future; he or she is a possible wellspring of good +acts and source of blessings to the race. This money which you do not +need, which, in a rigid sense, you do not want, may therefore be +returned not only in public benefactions to the race, but in private +kindnesses. Your wife, your children, your friends stand nearest to you, +and should be helped the first. There at least there can be little +imposture, for you know their necessities of your own knowledge. And +consider, if all the world did as you did, and according to their means +extended help in the circle of their affections, there would be no more +crying want in times of plenty and no more cold, mechanical charity +given with a doubt and received with confusion. Would not this simple +rule make a new world out of the old and cruel one which we inhabit? + + [_After two more sentences the fragment breaks off._] + + + + +PRAYERS + +WRITTEN FOR FAMILY USE AT VAILIMA + + + + +PRAYERS + +WRITTEN FOR FAMILY USE AT VAILIMA + + + _For Success_ + +Lord, behold our family here assembled. We thank Thee for this place in +which we dwell; for the love that unites us; for the peace accorded us +this day; for the hope with which we expect the morrow; for the health, +the work, the food, and the bright skies, that make our lives +delightful; for our friends in all parts of the earth, and our friendly +helpers in this foreign isle. Let peace abound in our small company. +Purge out of every heart the lurking grudge. Give us grace and strength +to forbear and to persevere. Offenders, give us the grace to accept and +to forgive offenders. Forgetful ourselves, help us to bear cheerfully +the forgetfulness of others. Give us courage and gaiety and the quiet +mind. Spare to us our friends, soften to us our enemies. Bless us, if it +may be, in all our innocent endeavours. If it may not, give us the +strength to encounter that which is to come, that we be brave in peril, +constant in tribulation, temperate in wrath, and in all changes of +fortune, and down to the gates of death, loyal and loving one to +another. As the clay to the potter, as the windmill to the wind, as +children of their sire, we beseech of Thee this help and mercy for +Christ's sake. + + + _For Grace_ + +Grant that we here before Thee may be set free from the fear of +vicissitude and the fear of death, may finish what remains before us of +our course without dishonour to ourselves or hurt to others, and, when +the day comes, may die in peace. Deliver us from fear and favour: from +mean hopes and cheap pleasures. Have mercy on each in his deficiency; +let him be not cast down; support the stumbling on the way, and give at +last rest to the weary. + + + _At Morning_ + +The day returns and brings us the petty round of irritating concerns and +duties. Help us to play the man, help us to perform them with laughter +and kind faces, let cheerfulness abound with industry. Give us to go +blithely on our business all this day, bring us to our resting beds +weary and content and undishonoured, and grant us in the end the gift of +sleep. + + + _Evening_ + +We come before Thee, O Lord, in the end of Thy day with thanksgiving. + +Our beloved in the far parts of the earth, those who are now beginning +the labours of the day what time we end them, and those with whom the +sun now stands at the point of noon, bless, help, console, and prosper +them. + +Our guard is relieved, the service of the day is over, and the hour come +to rest. We resign into Thy hands our sleeping bodies, our cold hearths +and open doors. Give us to awake with smiles, give us to labour smiling. +As the sun returns in the east, so let our patience be renewed with +dawn; as the sun lightens the world, so let our loving-kindness make +bright this house of our habitation. + + + _Another for Evening_ + +Lord, receive our supplications for this house, family, and country. +Protect the innocent, restrain the greedy and the treacherous, lead us +out of our tribulation into a quiet land. + +Look down upon ourselves and upon our absent dear ones. Help us and +them; prolong our days in peace and honour. Give us health, food, bright +weather, and light hearts. In what we meditate of evil, frustrate our +will; in what of good, further our endeavours. Cause injuries to be +forgot and benefits to be remembered. + +Let us lie down without fear and awake and arise with exultation. For +His sake, in whose words we now conclude. + + + _In Time of Rain_ + +We thank Thee, Lord, for the glory of the late days and the excellent +face of Thy sun. We thank Thee for good news received. We thank Thee for +the pleasures we have enjoyed and for those we have been able to confer. +And now, when the clouds gather and the rain impends over the forest and +our house, permit us not to be cast down; let us not lose the savour of +past mercies and past pleasures; but, like the voice of a bird singing +in the rain, let grateful memory survive in the hour of darkness. If +there be in front of us any painful duty, strengthen us with the grace +of courage; if any act of mercy, teach us tenderness and patience. + + + _Another in Time of Rain_ + +Lord, Thou sendest down rain upon the uncounted millions of the forest, +and givest the trees to drink exceedingly. We are here upon this isle a +few handfuls of men, and how many myriads upon myriads of stalwart +trees! Teach us the lesson of the trees. The sea around us, which this +rain recruits, teems with the race of fish; teach us, Lord, the meaning +of the fishes. Let us see ourselves for what we are, one out of the +countless number of the clans of Thy handiwork. When we would despair, +let us remember that these also please and serve Thee. + + + _Before a Temporary Separation_ + +To-day we go forth separate, some of us to pleasure, some of us to +worship, some upon duty. Go with us, our guide and angel; hold Thou +before us in our divided paths the mark of our low calling, still to be +true to what small best we can attain to. Help us in that, our maker, +the dispenser of events--Thou, of the vast designs, in which we blindly +labour, suffer us to be so far constant to ourselves and our beloved. + + + _For Friends_ + +For our absent loved ones we implore Thy loving-kindness. Keep them in +life, keep them in growing honour; and for us, grant that we remain +worthy of their love. For Christ's sake, let not our beloved blush for +us, nor we for them. Grant us but that, and grant us courage to endure +lesser ills unshaken, and to accept death, loss, and disappointment as +it were straws upon the tide of life. + + + _For the Family_ + +Aid us, if it be Thy will, in our concerns. Have mercy on this land and +innocent people. Help them who this day contend in disappointment with +their frailties. Bless our family, bless our forest house, bless our +island helpers. Thou who hast made for us this place of ease and hope, +accept and inflame our gratitude; help us to repay, in service one to +another, the debt of Thine unmerited benefits and mercies, so that when +the period of our stewardship draws to a conclusion, when the windows +begin to be darkened, when the bond of the family is to be loosed, there +shall be no bitterness of remorse in our farewells. + +Help us to look back on the long way that Thou hast brought us, on the +long days in which we have been served not according to our deserts but +our desires; on the pit and the miry clay, the blackness of despair, the +horror of misconduct, from which our feet have been plucked out. For +our sins forgiven or prevented, for our shame unpublished, we bless and +thank Thee, O God. Help us yet again and ever. So order events, so +strengthen our frailty, as that day by day we shall come before Thee +with this song of gratitude, and in the end we be dismissed with honour. +In their weakness and their fear, the vessels of Thy handiwork so pray +to Thee, so praise Thee. Amen. + + + _Sunday_ + +We beseech Thee, Lord, to behold us with favour, folk of many families +and nations gathered together in the peace of this roof, weak men and +women subsisting under the covert of Thy patience. Be patient still; +suffer us yet a while longer;--with our broken purposes of good, with +our idle endeavours against evil, suffer us a while longer to endure, +and (if it may be) help us to do better. Bless to us our extraordinary +mercies; if the day come when these must be taken, brace us to play the +man under affliction. Be with our friends, be with ourselves. Go with +each of us to rest; if any awake, temper to them the dark hours of +watching; and when the day returns, return to us, our sun and comforter, +and call us up with morning faces and with morning hearts--eager to +labour--eager to be happy, if happiness shall be our portion--and if the +day be marked for sorrow, strong to endure it. + +We thank Thee and praise Thee; and in the words of Him to whom this day +is sacred, close our oblation. + + + _For Self-blame_ + +Lord, enlighten us to see the beam that is in our own eye, and blind us +to the mote that is in our brother's. Let us feel our offences with our +hands, make them great and bright before us like the sun, make us eat +them and drink them for our diet. Blind us to the offences of our +beloved, cleanse them from our memories, take them out of our mouths for +ever. Let all here before Thee carry and measure with the false +balances of love, and be in their own eyes and in all conjunctures the +most guilty. Help us at the same time with the grace of courage, that we +be none of us cast down when we sit lamenting amid the ruins of our +happiness or our integrity: touch us with fire from the altar, that we +may be up and doing to rebuild our city: in the name and by the method +of Him in whose words of prayer we now conclude. + + + _For Self-forgetfulness_ + +Lord, the creatures of Thy hand, Thy disinherited children, come before +Thee with their incoherent wishes and regrets: Children we are, children +we shall be, till our mother the earth hath fed upon our bones. Accept +us, correct us, guide us, Thy guilty innocents. Dry our vain tears, wipe +out our vain resentments, help our yet vainer efforts. If there be any +here, sulking as children will, deal with and enlighten him. Make it day +about that person, so that he shall see himself and be ashamed. Make it +heaven about him, Lord, by the only way to heaven, forgetfulness of +self, and make it day about his neighbours, so that they shall help, not +hinder him. + + + _For Renewal of Joy_ + +We are evil, O God, and help us to see it and amend. We are good, and +help us to be better. Look down upon Thy servants with a patient eye, +even as Thou sendest sun and rain; look down, call upon the dry bones, +quicken, enliven; re-create in us the soul of service, the spirit of +peace; renew in us the sense of joy. + + + + +END OF VOL. XVI + + +PRINTED BY CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED, LA BELLE SAUVAGE, LONDON, E.C. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - +Swanston Edition Vol. 16 (of 25), by Robert Louis Stevenson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK R.L. 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